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Lord a'mighty, have you seen how much these fuckers are going for on ebay? Check out the listings... one even sold for over 5,000 dollars (yes, five thousand).... Wow.

Apparently some people are willing to pay over a thousand bucks for one.

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For those that haven't gone blind yet (article minus the blinding blue theme): http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/22/174625 1&tid=211

I wonder how many of these will actually go straight from the store to eBay

2734 when I checked. That might be one or two percent of the entire US supply so far.

This is where it all falls apart. Killer this, great that, awesome the other thing. Really, the only hype that matters is this:

1. It's another game console.
2. It's going to have some great games.
3. The manufacturer is irrelevent, because no matter what else the box promises, once you're tired of playing the games it'll end up in the back of the closet, covered with hardened Cheeto grease, dust, a few dents from being kicked when things didn't go quite to plan in a game and utterly forgotten until Garage Sale Season.

Microsoft is under some crazy dellusion that this is some hook into the household which will bring more fish in. Really, it'll just bring gamers who are only loyal until the next gotta-have game pops up on the next revolutionary console.

If you've guessed by now that I'm not getting one, you would be right. My Athlon64 PC with top of the line video and sound cards plays this game just fine. I see no reason to switch.

"worldwide launch of the console could mean shortages in the run-up to Christmas. The console is due to hit Europe on 2 December and Japan on 10 December and some retailers are also warning about limited supplies."

Argh, the hype! Must resist... must resist!

Oh. That wasn't so difficult.

I wonder how many of these will actually go straight from the store to eBay because money is more attractive than having one.

It must suck to live in a rural area and have to get your fix this way.

new for xbox 360: uncle steve's chair toss and monkey dance combo! limit numbers, buy today!

Buy one of these Kill-a-watt meters and find out. The things I've checked burn only a watt or two while "off".

Semtex
Looking for Semtex?
Find exactly what you want today.
www.eBay.com

WTF do they do with all the hundreds of small items that they confiscate each day?

They sell them. Ever wanted to buy a 10 lb bag of scissors? here's yer chance.

there is a tool for that...

Leo Laporte mentioned recently on the excellent podcast TWIT (This Week In Tech) in extended discussion with his old chronies from when TechTV's ScreenSavers was in its hayday (in otherwords before G4 TV bought it, moved it from the Bay area, replaced everyone who wasn't telegenic with pretty faces staring stiff and stupid into the camera - in short made it suck donkey ass) observed that Blizzzard's World of Warcraft redered one "Only _marginally_ functional as an adult"

A fact to which my level 31 Mage can readily attest. Apparently Leo has a level *blah* Paladin in that game.

Also, of note in that same podcast it was mentioned that there are "Latin American sweatshops" where US citizens pay those less of the less fortunate nations to spend the hours on end it takes to "level up" their character so that when they log in "voila"! They can stomp around the land of Azeroth as a Level 60 fill in the blank. Now, I may be an addict, but where the hell is the fun in that? Also, as in other games is the amazing fact that people are selling characters, equipment and "gold" for umtpeen _hundreds_ to a _thousand_ or more real US 'Mercian DOLLARS!

The Cyberworld never ceases to shock and amaze...

You miss the point. I said "retail". The device I just detailed can be had on eBay for even less - http://search.ebay.com/ipaq-rx3115_W0QQfromZR40.

Where are these reveiws coming from, and were are people getting the hardware already and selling it on eBay?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Xbox-360-Kameo-New-in-Box-AVAI LABLE-NOW_W0QQitemZ8234160841QQcategoryZ62054QQssP ageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Are they legal? That guy says he won it in a contest, and he's going to ship it today.

How much is this sucker going to sell for? Is it really worth paying a premium to get it a week or two earlier?

Just found this eBay listing where somebody is selling an Xbox 360 and Kameo now, a week before release:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Xbox-360-Kameo-New-in-Box-AVAI LABLE-NOW_W0QQitemZ8234160841QQcategoryZ62054QQssP ageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

In tangential news, Ebay is sponsoring a developer's challenge. Information can be found here:

Ebay Developer Challenge

The text from their release:
***eBay Developer Challenge 2006*** November 14, 2005 | 10:33AM PST/PT The eBay Developers Program, in conjunction with O'Reilly and Associates, is offering a contest for software developers. Winners will be selected in the Best Original Application and Best Open Source Collaboration categories. Prizes include $5,000 in cash, Xbox 360(TM) game consoles, iPod Nano(TM) music players, and the chance to demonstrate winning applications at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference in San Diego from March 6-9, 2006. To learn more about the eBay Developer Challenge, please see our information page. To learn about the eBay Developers Program, please visit http://developer.ebay.com./

In tangential news, Ebay is sponsoring a developer's challenge. Information can be found here:

Ebay Developer Challenge

The text from their release:
***eBay Developer Challenge 2006*** November 14, 2005 | 10:33AM PST/PT The eBay Developers Program, in conjunction with O'Reilly and Associates, is offering a contest for software developers. Winners will be selected in the Best Original Application and Best Open Source Collaboration categories. Prizes include $5,000 in cash, Xbox 360(TM) game consoles, iPod Nano(TM) music players, and the chance to demonstrate winning applications at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference in San Diego from March 6-9, 2006. To learn more about the eBay Developer Challenge, please see our information page. To learn about the eBay Developers Program, please visit http://developer.ebay.com./

I've looked through their web services API specification and there's no automated bidding possible.

FAQ
We currently don't allow bidding through the general API. Although it is possible to look into that on a case by case approach. If you are interested contact [cut address] with some background information on your company and what you want to build.

I've been using eBay since it's inception and watched it go from a site for collectors to a dumping ground for overstocked/bulk items. What they really need to do is crackdown on sellers like this prick who insists on crap flooding entire catagories with the same item instead of using the bulk option.

Since its not in the headline:

https://www.codebase.ebay.com

Lucent / Livingston PortMaster, Cisco 5200, 5300, 3600 and a T1 line or an E1 line, dependig on country. These days you can do it on a 260 as well.

Essentially, one of the sides of the connection had to be digital, if you ran two analogue signals (Two modems) back to back, you got 36K, but they found out if that one of the sides of the connection was digital, and was essentially guaranteed to be error free, they could push the speed at which that side transmitted. Hence what the other side recieved at. Whether you actually got 56K was also extremely dependent on the quality of your line. I remember being about 200m away from the exchange on the copper run (I worked at an ISP, so we had a line run for testing) and still only getting 52K.

We used to tell customers it was just the theoretical maximum as nobody in the country at the time had a chance in hell of getting those speeds.

Wow...what version of eBay are you going to?

When I did the same search, it brought me to a page that basically listed both systems. I clicked on the older Xbox picture, and it brought me to this page.

Selling working hardware with games you love to get a shinnier box that doesn't play the games you love? Who's the dumbass again?

And just who is going to be buying all these xboxes? Anyone who ever wanted an xbox has one now, and once the 360 is out, everyone will want THAT instead of the old one. Looking at ebay shows an awful lot of xboxes already for sale, and most of them seem to be selling at less than $100. You can see lots of xboxs with people asking $200 plus for 'em, and most of those aren't getting bid on. The market will only get more saturated once the 360 is out. I wouldn't bet on getting much for your old one. Just keep it and work 2 extra days to cover the $75 bucks you might get for it.

I'm glad we're "doin' it for the shorties" but from the looks of the laptop, $100 seems a little steep.

Uhh, the whole freakin' point of a small business is that they don't do business in multiple states.

Uhh, welcome to the 20th century, dude. There's this thing called "the Internet." It has lots of neat places called "sites" on it. One example of such "sites" is a place called Ebay. It lets small businesses, even little rinky dink ones that are run out of one person's basement, do business not only in multiple states but ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, and they don't even have to have a web server to do it. Seriously. I wouldn't like to you, dude. Amazing, huh? Who'd have thunk it? And there's lots of other businesses, a little bit larger, maybe, but still well within the definition of "small business," that actually put up their own, private web sites that allow people to buy stuff from them from, like, anywhere in the whole world too. It's just mind blowing, man, to think that grandma's sittin on the back porch knitting a sweater that she might sell to somebody in California or Maine or Alaska or even, like, Spain or some shit. It just rocks, you know? The Internet rules. You should check it out sometime.

and auction them off on Ebay?

That's actually against eBay's policy.

There are some sellers asking higher prices, but none of them have any bids. Sellers can ask any "reserve price" they want, but it's not a real price unless someone will pay it.

If you're a "programmer" or tech guy, why are you resorting to such sleazy business tactics as selling people a link to a site? Don't you have more honorable ways of generating revenue? You know as well as I that developers already know about this program and you're trolling for consumers and teaching them the proper way to lie to a software publisher to exploit the system. People might want to look up your eBay history and contact the people who bid on your auctions and just send them the msdn url directly.

If you're a "programmer" or tech guy, why are you resorting to such sleazy business tactics as selling people a link to a site? Don't you have more honorable ways of generating revenue? You know as well as I that developers already know about this program and you're trolling for consumers and teaching them the proper way to lie to a software publisher to exploit the system. People might want to look up your eBay history and contact the people who bid on your auctions and just send them the msdn url directly.

Seriously, I'm a Model M keyboard nut, and I'm just as comitted to my trackball. These things are like gold on eBay (no relation to seller). If you haven't used one of these (set the upper white thumb button to dounle-click), you haven't lived. This is the best pointer device I've ever used.

Done.

NES is still alive, I'm making new carts for it. :)

It's definitely not as portable as the hot glue pads above, but it does its job well on my desk and keeps the heat away from my legs on the couch.

If you want more info, there's Antec's Website, a quick Google search turned up a good review, and they're all over eBay and Froogle.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/g-dutch-auction. html

+ microphone + FM radio + auto-switching from music to phone answering ... all in wraparound stereo headphone form factor. Sounds sweet.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=ht tp%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&fkr=1&from=R8&sati tle=omiz&category0=

(Searched Ebay for "Omiz")

There are all kinds of electric devices you can make that look like they are straight out of an old horror movie. Jacob's ladders are quite simple to build. You can find all the parts on ebay. If you are more ambitious, you might want to try a tesla coil.

Cree are claiming a white (phosphor-based) LED with 50% wallplug efficiency, according to Don Klipstein's Lighting Site. The link from his site is dead, though. Cree are also claiming that lab versions of a current LED achieve 70 lumens/watt, and a total of 85 lumens at 350 mA. You'd still need about 25 of these to get the light output of a 100W incandescent, though. Probably cheaper to drop 300 5mm LEDs into a dedicated fixture - Chi Wing's eBay store will sell you 300 16,000 mcd (maybe...) white LEDs for a little over $100, shipped. However, I can't really see spending $100 for a 100W bulb, ya know?

OTGH, though, I can see a distinctly untapped market for specialty, artistic LED fixtures that simply can't be realized with incandescents or fluorescents.

You already have one!?!! Wow, you must be on the inside, somewhere!

Nah, it is not something from another world you know, you just need a paypal account ;-)

It's not on eBay. Yet.

my protection from scammers takes precedence

No, my liberty trumps your sense of security. Paraphrasing what Benjamin Franklin said, "Those who would give up a little liberty for security will neither get nor deserve either." Or as Judge Learned Hand said, again paraphrasing, "you have the right to punch someone but your right ends where their nose begins." There are already laws on the books to protect from scammers.

As for the cost of the license - maybe initially it is a burdeon, but in the end it isn't because the cost to the gov't is mini

Do you really think the amount a person has to pay for a license will really cover the costs of administering the program? You may but I don't, nor will it stop there. Once a bureacracy is established and gets a little power it always wants more, even when the reason for it is gone. They don't want to die.

. I would rather have pre-emptive protection

Then you must be against nuclear power plant, chemical plants, and oil refineries amoung other facilities that could potentially cause great harm such as oil tankers.

because some of these lower class families who you know asked someone to sell something for them got scammed.

That I know of nobody I know has been scammed by internet auctions though I've known a few who got scammed in real life.

rrelevant, your nephew should not be purchasing or selling ANYTHING on ebay, not even for one penny - he is not allowed to enter into legal contracts.

I guess you missed where I stated my nephew had the permission of his parents to buy and sale on eBay, and parents do have the right to grant to their child the ability to buy and sale. eBay's user agreement specifically states minors can use the service with their parents authority:

eBay User Agreement and Privacy Policy
Membership Eligibility.
Our services are available only to, and may only be used by individuals who can form legally binding contracts under applicable law. Without limiting the foregoing, our services are not available to children (persons under the age of 18) or to temporarily or indefinitely suspended eBay members. If you are a under the age of 18, you can use this service only in conjunction with, and under the supervision of your parents or guardians.

I guess from reading what you say later that eBay is also breaking the law when they allow children of parents who agree the allow them the buy and sale as well.

This is a seriously insane museum collection of computer history. Apparently $45K wouldn't do it, but I certainly think getting saving all these old machines for posterity would be worth it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Classic-Vintage-PC-Collection_ W0QQitemZ8706273723QQcategoryZ4193QQrdZ1QQcmdZView Item

(And no I'm not the seller, or related to him/her in any way)

good idea, but perhaps something tailored a bit more for online transactions vs livestock sales.

BUT NO ONE should have to be licensed until these folks are, including the chick that runs the joint:
http://pages.ebay.com/aboutebay/thecompany/executi veteam.html

AND they should have to be licensed in EVERY state, province, parish, county, country or other jurisdiction that requires it, anywhere and everywhere in the world that they accept members from.

From a legal standpoint, E-bay is not an auction. In their FAQ they have a reply to the questions about why the closing time doesn't change to last-bid + 5 minutes or similar. Basically, if they did that they would be regulated like an auction which would add much complexity and legal red tape to their service.

That's a paraphrase. Their FAQ is so big that it's hard to find answers to specific questions.

Seems a perfectly reasonable ad to me.

I've seen offers for your own satalite, fighter jets, underground lairs and even weapons grade plutonium so a space shuttle wouldn't seem unreasonable!

Seems a perfectly reasonable ad to me.

I've seen offers for your own satalite, fighter jets, underground lairs and even weapons grade plutonium so a space shuttle wouldn't seem unreasonable!

Have a looksee

I am going to take a stab at this and suggest that he most likely lives in the US, based on his report of ordering a CD off of half.com. I can order something from there in Canada, but that's a stretch, and a hassle because of the border. Here's a link...

I agree that he shoudl seek damages, however. That software is crap.

I tried to post this before... You can hit up ebay for HTPCs Waffle Iron HTPC

Here's a very cool one on ebay!!

what about doing it yourself? build your own system, mini-ITX http://www.mini-itx.com/, use your own custom enclosures http://www.protocase.com/, what else, ... for silence http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/mega-itx/, plus the harware from ebay http://ebay.com/ will do fine.

Check out Cessnas on ebay :

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1980-Cessna-152_W0Q QcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ63677QQitemZ4578509394QQrd Z1

Now try acessing (...) http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=b s&sbrftog=1&catref=C6&fstype=1&from=R10&satitle=na zi+hitler&sacat=-1%26catref%3DC6&bs=Search&sargn=- 1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=ZIP%2FPostal&ftrt=1&f trv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction =compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search&fgtp= from Germany or France.

Works fine from Germany.

Oh really?