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http://googlecommerce.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/building-better-shopping-experience.html

Why not just give away the TV series for free to everyone, then sell physical goods to the biggest fans?

Because there is no equivalent of concert tickets for TV shows. DVDs would be the closest comparison, but they are just the same show people have already seen. One of the big reason people pay for expensive concert tickets is because a live concert is a very different experience from listening to a CD.

Funding a show like Game of Thrones with DVD and tshirt sales would be an incredibly risky venture, if not completely impossible. DVD sales are a long tail revenue stream so you would have to fund the whole first season speculatively and then potentially wait years to recoup those costs. Then 12 months later people are expecting a second season, where does the money for that come from? The percentage of people who will run out and buy the DVDs for a show that just finished on TV is pretty low.

I think a lot of the people posting these 'alternative business models' vastly underestimate how much a show like Game of Thrones costs to make. The estimated budget for the first season was about $45 million

There's a checklist for network/server admins over at the 360 blog, but it doesn't mention "have ear plugs handy" :-)

AG.

Theres a nice little checklist over at the 360 blog for systems and network administrators ahead of the London Olympics. Stuff you need to plan for, what will probably go wrong, how to keep your computers and networks running etc, see: Olympic Preparedness Checklist.

I decided to post this after I did so. WOW!

But I think you now convincingly have an answer for this:

UNLESS-- Marty 1's actions in the second movie (retrieving the sports almanac and burning it) insured that Marty 2 never saw that dystopian 1985 because by the time he went back there, Marty had already fixed everything. Thus Marty 2 can continue to exist happily ever after in the happy Marty 2 loop.

What's also weird to wonder is which set of memories and experiences does the Marty of 2015 have. He of course is a bitter, failed man because he drag raced with Needles (Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers!), and hurt his hand, thus ruining his very promising music career playing instrumental versions of Huey Lewis hits. But which set of time travelling experiences does he have?

You write the C# -> native compiler first ;)

And how do you think C# code is executed?

The "Native Image Generator" is

the Ahead-of-time compilation service of the .NET Framework. It allows a .NET assembly to be pre-compiled instead of letting the Common Language Runtime do a Just-in-time compilation at runtime

Not an ordinary .exe, granted, but the native code is there even in normal C# use. Ordinary native binaries can be generated from C# if necessary though - this is how Mono targets platforms like the Wii. The reason you can't write (normal) Windows drivers in C# is because Windows isn't written in C#.

That said, bindings exist for libusb, so that's a start.

(There seem to be a number of similar bindings for Java, and a standard API spec that no-one's implemented.)

Google tells me two operating systems have been written in C#: Cosmos and Singularity.

This isn't to say C# is more suited than C to OS/driver work, but it can be done.

This field is so screwed up that we don't even know if the drugs work for anyone. Long term studies are non-existent.

Clearly, the drugs work short-term for some and make others worse. We don't know what the curve looks like.

This guy's blog is excellent:
http://neuroskeptic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/do-antidepressants-make-some-people.html

A scientific cul-de-sac, in my opinion, like phlostigen, a faulty scientific theory ...

it's quite a news story here in Scotland because it looks like Scotland is to at long last get .scot after a long campaign -- unfortunately, when the treaty of the union of the parliaments between the kingdom of England and the kingdom of Scotland (this is what UK actually means) was produced in 1706, they forgot to add a clause in the articles of union about internet TLD rights for the country. I wonder why.

UK isn't really a country you see; it's just an agreement to unify the political structure of two kingdoms and work as one. It's an artefact that could well change when Scotland goes to the vote to decide whether to remove that union and operate as a self-governed country, or operate as a more devolved parliament with greater powers than currently (not unlike a state in the USA), or indeed stay as-is.

  funnily enough,. the nerds here in Scotland weren't too happy about getting .sco and have requested .scot instead!

It's Verizon Math! €0.2 per GB would be €1 for every 5GB (€200 TB). Not that we ever check submissions here on /.

How many things actually happened in the entire history of commercial flights before the TSA existed? And why do they still exist in light of that? Sheesh.

Highjackings became a significant problem in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, although they still occur from time to time. Various militant groups, including Palestinian and Communist terrorist organizations, we commonly involved. The rate slowly considerably as airports put in metal detectors, started searching bags, sky marshals took to the air, and police forces with automatic weapons started patrolling the airports. (Sound familiar?) The occasional commando force storming a plane and killing the hijackers also helped dampen the enthusiasm for it, not the mention the famous Operation Thunderbolt - the raid on Entebbe.

That is why you don't keep seeing headlines like these so often:

Mexico Police Storm Hijacked Airplane, Free Crew

17 Killed in Airport Raids by Terrorists at Rome, Vienna : 116 Wounded in Attacks Apparently Aimed at El Al; Palestinians Blamed
December 28, 1985

ROME — Two terrorist teams firing assault rifles and throwing grenades struck minutes apart at the international airports in Rome and Vienna early Friday, leaving 17 dead, including an 11-year-old American girl and three other Americans. At least 116 people were wounded in the bloody attacks.

Officials and eyewitnesses said the attacks appeared aimed at facilities of El Al, the Israeli national airline. Meir Rosenne, Israel's ambassador to the United States, blamed the Palestine Liberation Organization for the slaughter. PLO officials in Vienna, Rome and at PLO headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia, denied responsibility and condemned the attacks.

In Spain, a caller claiming to belong to the "Abu Nidal group," a breakaway faction of the PLO blamed for many earlier terrorist assaults in Europe, telephoned a radio station in Malaga, claiming responsibility for the attacks in the name of his group. There was no way to confirm the claim.

Abu Nidal has been described as a bitter opponent of PLO leader Yasser Arafat, who he is said to consider to be overly moderate in the Arab-Israeli conflict. . . . more

The terrorist I knew - Christopher Hitchens sheds no tears for Abu Nidal, but admits to a small twinge of nostalgia.

The official story - that he had shot himself several times in the head . . .

Abu Nidal Organization (ANO), aka Fatah Revolutionary Council, the Arab Revolutionary Brigades, or the Revolutionary Organization of Socialist Muslims

Belgium: Murders committed for Abu Nidal

You could do with dropping a few pounds if you;re going to run around naked, Daniel Phillips.

http://pearleegates.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/college-group-plans-naked-5k-run-to.html

They stopped innovating years ago - copying Google is about the only thing they can do these days. And what's with the word "mobile" in this me too effort - it's not like they've ever had any relevance there, or ever will.

That's just sophistry to try to deny your backsliding. There's a whole science of how precisely the Genesis creation and flood occurred.

NASA anonymous reporting system.... "So what would you think if you were the B777 pilot who's radio communication with air traffic control was interrupted by a passenger's cell phone call? Or if you were the captain in command of a B747 that unexpectedly lost autopilot after takeoff and did not get it back until 4, count 'em four passengers turned off their portable electronic devices?" http://christinenegroni.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/handhelds-on-airplanes-bigger-problem.html

"In 2007, one pilot recounted an instance when the navigational equipment on his Boeing 737 had failed after takeoff. A flight attendant told a passenger to turn off a hand-held GPS device and the problem on the flight deck went away." http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/business/18devices.html

"Earlier this year, aviation journalist Christine Negroni obtained a copy of a confidential report from the International Air Transport Association that indicated the use of personal electronics on commercial aircraft had interfered with flight deck operations in 75 instances over the past seven years.

What kind of problems? I’m not sure you want to know. All cockpit systems were affected, flight controls, communication, navigation and emergency warnings. . . .

And

The use of PEDs [Personal Electronic Devices. –DS] on board will not – I repeat – will not cause a plane to go tumbling through the sky like something in a made-for-TV-disaster movie. What PEDs can and in fact have already done, is create a distraction for the flight crew. When that distraction comes at the wrong time it can lead to pants-wetting episodes and maybe even disaster. And that is why boys and girls, devices are supposed to be turned off as in OFF, below 10 thousand feet. The concept is that with sufficient altitude below us there is time to address any pesky error messages that might wind up being transmitted to the cockpit. Only now we know that those messages are pretty darn common."

Handhelds on Airplanes a Bigger Problem Than You Think

Troll ? http://coppersblog.blogspot.co.uk/ although it doesn't say so on his site but read the book. It's amusing and depressing.