[mindwaves]

I am constantly amazed at how well some companies are doing and growing away from their base into new ideas which are well beyond what the company was initially focused on.

1) Facebook just reported huge revenues. FB was just a website to connected to college students but has blossomed into a gigantic company with fingers in my cookie jars, such as hot air balloon internet drones, etc

2) Google is everyone's lives as they are in internet searches, advertising, internet drones, Google Fiber, Android, military dog robots, Go (game) champions

3) Amazon was just a book company who I thought was going to die because who reads books nowadays? Evidentially far more than I had ever thought and AMZN is now into data servers, Kindle, TV, drone delivery, groceries

What other companies still amaze you?

sidenote: I still hate FB and don't use any of their products (except Whatsapp, but was a user before, and only occasionally), and I'm not a huge Google fan, but do use some of their products (mainly search on one of my 3 devices,a nd Google Maps)

[starman]

Apple, considering the years and years of them getting put down...plus this...

[P]

Apple is the obvious answer for those of us who followed the company through the nineties. I would also have expected some automotive brands to have died by now, but governments have intervened to save them.

Perhaps not the answer you're looking for, but I'm also constantly surprised that all of the record companies stay around, and that the big game publishers (in particular EA and Ubisoft) move along as if nothing is wrong when they keep treating their customers the way they do.

[osiris]

the banks that should've failed but were bailed out. but now there's a bank on every god damn corner, so yeah.
*the banks on every corner displaced long-standing private businesses that fell victim to inflated real estate market rates manipulated by scumbag landlords and banks.

but on a more positive note:

I can't believe that Microsoft is still around. Really.

[P]

Heh. MS still makes money. They make less money than they used to, and they're spending it on stupid acquisitions, but the running business still shows a profit.

[osiris]

Originally Posted by P 

Heh. MS still makes money. They make less money than they used to, and they're spending it on stupid acquisitions, but the running business still shows a profit.

I think they're still around because they are so engrained in most businesses.

[P]

Oh, certainly. They exist because of Office. Google Docs is an option for the regular user, but I could not do my job without Excel or something 100% compatible with it. The corporate world is full of crazy complex Excel sheets that need to be filled in and sent on.

[Hawkeye_a]

Originally Posted by osiris 

I think they're still around because they are so engrained in most businesses.

I think they do "enterprise" well (or at least better than the alternatives), especially for the small and medium business sectors.

I'm not a fan of Windows (after all, i am a Mac user), but as a software engineer, i think they have a great development stack for developers to 'hit the ground running' and building applications. IMHO

[osiris]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a 

I think they do "enterprise" well (or at least better than the alternatives), especially for the small and medium business sectors.

I'm not a fan of Windows (after all, i am a Mac user), but as a software engineer, i think they have a great development stack for developers to 'hit the ground running' and building applications. IMHO

I'm thinking more along the lines of true Active Directory support with Windows in an enterprise environment with 2000+ users. I've been dealing with Apple on this for 12 or so years now, there are only third party solutions not native.
Also, Apple killed Xserve.

In terms of software development Apple is amazing - free tools! Plenty of documentation and training too, I have no argument here and I'm with you on this.

EDIT: whooosh! I've been sidetracked every two minutes, so I think I confused the subject at hand lol sorry!

[Cap'n Tightpants]

Uber, I never thought they'd become what they are now.

[subego]

They seem determined to kill themselves, though... I hear they're starting with tipping.

I'm happy I live a block away from an intersection where I can just catch a cab the old-fashioned way.

[Hawkeye_a]

At least in Australia and Texas, Uber was a long time coming. The taxi services in said places are absolutely awful. I'm not familiar with Uber's policies, but i think the "idea" was be around in some form or another.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by subego 

They seem determined to kill themselves, though... I hear they're starting with tipping.

I'm happy I live a block away from an intersection where I can just catch a cab the old-fashioned way.

They started out with rates that decently undercut the taxi companies and paid drivers well enough to get lots of them on board. Now they're cutting rates and slashing what drivers get paid in an attempt to bankrupt the competition and see how little they can pay drivers and get away with it.

They also have deals where they offer bonuses to drivers in certain busy areas during high volume times, but getting the bonus requires a minimum number of trips that isn't possible once everyone comes looking for the bonus.

It's some shady shit but it's still better than the local taxis here. Uber at least has a rating system and recourse for terrible drivers, unlike the taxi companies.

[subego]

That's not entirely true. You can choose not to tip a cabbie.

Someone needs to let all the Über/Lyft/Taxi drivers in on the secret they're acting as placeholders until they get replaced with self-driving cars.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by subego 

That's not entirely true. You can choose not to tip a cabbie.

But that doesn't help other people in knowing the cabbie's bad, and that doesn't help me weed out bad cabbies before getting in the car.

[subego]

This may seem like an odd question, but what kind of bad cab ride experiences have you had?

I've had mildly annoying cab rides, but never anything truly bad. I'm a fairly large dude, so I don't get hassled. I've never had someone be flat-out insulting to me, and I've never had someone refuse to take the route I've specified.

I'm not so foolish as to think these things don't happen, they just haven't happened to me, so I haven't been chased away yet.

There was an intolerable phase where you needed to get up in their grille to get them to take your credit card, and start making threats when they try and skim with a Square reader. That was a big problem, but even cabbies were able to figure out that was a losing proposition. Hasn't happened in the last year.

[subego]

Added bit...

I don't really travel, so I'm talking about dealing with a singular "cab culture", which I've been immersed in my whole life, so I'm familiar with it, and I know how you're supposed to get places around the city.

If I was stranger in a strange land, the Über would be more appealing.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by subego 

This may seem like an odd question, but what kind of bad cab ride experiences have you had?

Mild ones include the cabbie on his phone the whole ride arguing with his wife over who had to go pick up their kid early from school because he got kicked out again. Worse would be the guy on his phone for the first 10 minutes of the ride, driving the wrong direction and brushing off my attempts to point him the right way. Then after finally hanging up, refusing to accept my turn-by-turn directions, and instead insisting on plugging the address into his GPS, but then not knowing the name of one of the largest suburbs of Des Moines - I said, "Urbandale," and he tried typing, "Irwindale," which is a city in California.

Or cabbies that get lost trying to find my house and don't call for directions; they just show up 20 minutes late, really pushing my ability to catch my flight.

Or how the local cab company introduced an app letting you schedule cab rides in advance, but as a rule they call 1 hour before pickup to confirm. Which sucks if I scheduled pickup for 4:45am and planned on sleeping until 4:35am until they call me at 3:45am and I can't fall back to sleep.

With Uber my $48 rides to/from the airport became $25. The broke-ass ex-police Crown Vics and should-be-in-the-junkyard Chevy Ventures became late model Mazdas and Hyundais, with my choice of satellite radio stations and front seat comfort.

[subego]

A bunch of these have to do with a use case I don't fall into. I never have to call a cab. I live someplace where flagging one down is virtually guaranteed.

I'm completely inured to obnoxious talking on the phone. I actually prefer it, because it means they aren't trying to make conversation.

I guess I've been lucky with cabbies following my directions. That isn't a passive-aggressive challenge. I know what you're talking about happens.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by subego 

I'm completely inured to obnoxious talking on the phone. I actually prefer it, because it means they aren't trying to make conversation.

Now that you mention it, I remember an Uber driver taking a call on speakerphone with me in the front seat. That was weird. I think he got four stars.

[Cuulio]

I believe esports will grow rapidly for the next decade atleast. Twitch is one of services that's definitely going to benefit from this. Amazon also must have faith in the industry as they acquired Twitch for almost billion dollars.