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Comment Re:Take the nickel with it (Score 1) 245

The issue is that people are chucking the small coins (pennies, nickels, dimes) into jars and drawers and whatnot, figuring "I'll get around to taking them to the bank someday", but their value is so small that said getting around to it is never a very high priority. Jar's full? Start another. So the quantity of out-of-circulation coins keeps growing, and the treasury has to keep minting more of the things, and it's not worth it.

Pennies also get used in those penny-masher things at tourist attractions, stamping them with the name of the site to make cheap souvenirs. (Not one-cent cheap; the masher machine takes multiple quarters. But it's still cheaper than anything in the gift shop.) If the penny is discontinued, the tourist sites can "solve" this "problem" by adding a vending machine that sells blanks, perhaps for fifty cents apiece or, if they're really smart, three for a dollar (which would encourage people to put more quarters into the masher machine, because it's probably not worth it to save the extra blanks for next year's vacation, for most people).

Comment Re:can't do it (Score 1) 245

The European coin set has its own problems. Not least, needing a larger number of register drawers, which means the drawers either have to be abnormally large (and thus incompatible with every model of cash register on the market), or else the drawer slots are uncomfortably small for reaching into with an adult human hand. (American cash register drawers generally have either five or six full-length slots for bills and/or checks and/or coupons, and the same number of shorter bins, in front of them, for coins, only four of which actually get used regularly in practice, because the fifty-cent and one-dollar coins are treated like collector's items; hardly anybody circulates them.)

Comment Re:can't do it (Score 1) 245

Honestly, at this point, I would be on board with discontinuing production of all coins except the quarter.

You can argue about the $1 coin, but if you're arguing that it's better (as an actual circulating piece of currency) than the $1 bill, you're getting massively outvoted in America. People pretty consistently chuck the one-dollar coins in drawers rather than carrying them around and spending them, because they're not as convenient as bills. If quarter-dollar notes existed, people would probably prefer those over the corresponding coins, as well.

Comment Re:It really depends (Score 1) 187

Perhaps, but my point was more that the models are overly simplistic and Apple (and everyone else) will have to do their own calculations to figure out the best approach for their specific products. In nearly every case, due to the supply chain logistics and costs/timescales involved to change it, that is going to be "pay some (or all) of the component / assembled device tariffs and pass on the costs to the consumer". In the short term - until they can at least spin up final assembly in the US - they have zero choice in this; it *has* to be pay the cost of the whole device import tariffs and deal with that as they may. Whether they pass those tariff costs on to the local market impacted by the tariffs or globalise it is another part of that calculation, the math of which also changes every time Trump changes his mind.

Sure, Trump can - and probably will - keep increasing the tariffs. So what? See point above about "until they can at least spin up final assembly in the US"; all they can do about the tariffs until them is eat them or pass them down to the consumer, and in 3.5 years (1.5 if the GOP lose control of Congress who are supposed to be the part of US government that actually sets tariffs), Trump is gone and less tariff-happy heads might prevail. Why spend billions spinning up factories in the US just so you can manufacture $3,500 iPhones, or whatever the estimate is, when you might be able to go back to BAU when that happens and import the things for some acceptable level of fees from somewhere you've already established a huge amount of manufacturing capacity like India or China?

Frankly, it should be painfully obvious that the strategy is "blow smoke up Trump's ass while waiting out the storm and hope for calmer seas", but apparently no one is prepared to tell Trump this (yet), or call his bluff and actually give him what he's asking for - stick the whole 25% (or whatever) directly on the price for US customers and add that mooted Amazon line item - "Tariffs - 25%: $$$". For bonus points, if you can spin up the factory quick enough (probably not an option for Apple), sell the "Made in US" version alongside the "Made in wherever" version, the former with the increased costs from manufacturing *and* cost recovery of building the US factory in the first place, and the latter with tariffs, and let the market decide. I'm guessing not many consumers are going pay the US-made uplift...

Comment Re:It is a worldwide company and a world market (Score 1) 187

Ah, but the de minimis rule in the US has been scrapped also. The average Joe USian looking to import on the grey market and save a few bucks now has to go through customs clearances and handling fees, even if they've used the old loophole of $900 handling & shipping fees on a "$100 product" with an actual sticker price of $950 and $50 profit for the grey marketeer. Different vendors vary, but most take a dim view on supporting warranties of grey imports, so Joe may also have to forego his warranty (I have no idea on Apple's specific stance on this).

That's not to say that the grey market will go away completely - probably the opposite once those tariffs make their way to the consumer - but Apple's pricing calculations are going to be a lot more complex than the simplistic models being pitched as to how things may need to change to best absorb the hit.

Comment Re:It really depends (Score 1) 187

Too much oversimplication here. Even if they're doing all the assembly in the US, Apple (along with everyone else) still need to import components they don't / can't manufacture themselves (e.g. the screens in iPhones), and unless the vendors of those components also move manufacturing to the US, they're probably going to be subject to tariffs. It won't be a flat 25% (or whatever it is todayt) tariffs on the whole street cost of the phone, but it will add up, and some - or all - of those component tariff costs will almost certainly be passed down the supply chain to the end user.

Similarly, "just raise prices by 4-6% globally". Sure. Make your phones 4-6% less financially appealing to maybe ~6 billion potential buyers[*] instead of 25% less appealing to 255m potential US buyers, many of whom voted for this shit and claimed to know exactly what they were voting for. All things being equal, I think Apple may well find losing 25% of its share of the US market much less financially painful that 4-6% of its share of the global market, and the majority of those who expressed a preference *did* want this bed, so it's own right they lie in it too.

[*] Omitting 25% for those who are too young or otherwise DGAF about owning a phone.

Comment Re: Why isn't Russia 'throttled' by the world ? (Score 2) 93

Dropping all the packets means that Russia doesnâ(TM)t have any contact with the outside world. Which is a boon to despotic regimes because alternative views aka âoethe truthâ gets throttled which only works to help keep whatever autocrat thatâ(TM)s there in power.

If you really want to kick Russia where it hurts donâ(TM)t buy any of their energy resources and work to bring down the price of what there is.

Comment Re:Is there any real uses for it? (Score 1) 107

I think BSD administration is easier, and much more UNIX like.

For example, If you want to use a static IP instead of dynamic, it is a very simple one or lines to change. And it stays the for years, if not decades.

With Linux, first you have to consider which distro you are using. Then there is a systemd way of doing things, and a UNIX way of doing things.

I find BSD more straight forward and consistent.

Submission + - Century Old Submarine discovered 'remarkably intact' (ground.news)

walterbyrd writes: > A deep-sea dive off San Diego revealed the first-ever images of the USS F-1 submarine wreck, lost since December 17, 1917, after an accident that killed 19 crew members.
> The imaging team at WHOI used photogrammetry to create detailed 3D models of the F-1 submarine from the new data.
> Researchers from WHOI and the U.S. Navy located and surveyed the wreck for the first time since it sank over 100 years ago.
> The USS F-1 lies on its starboard side and was found to be 'remarkably intact' after over 100 years underwater.
> WHOI and the U.S. Navy decided not to contact the wreck to 'preserve its condition and be respectful of its legacy.

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