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Because the stores don't pay very much for used games.

Indeed, but you're forgetting that you can bypass used game stores and sell directly with sites such as Amazon, half.com, ebay, etc.

So, for example, when I buy a used game for $30 -- because I never buy brand new games, and I don't care to play online anyways, I can sell it again in a few weeks for approximately the same price, minus the cost of shipping.

The used games stores are bad for the industry.

I disagree. If buying new were the only option I had, I would simply do without. It's the same argument for pirates -- if they had to pay full price, they'd simply do without. This isn't something that I personally lose any sleep over. It's very easy to stop consuming (overpriced) entertainment, and there are many alternatives in the world to occupy one's time with.

Fair disclosure: I'm a software developer in the video games industry. (And I'm supposed to be writing some code right now. :-X)

As I really like the concept of wikischool and open source, seeing this being implemented at schools doesn't seem very practical for many reason. If you tried this at colleges, the bookstores would loose a lot of money which is what helps fund college to begin with. I do on the other hand see it practical for textbook publisher to start making their books available for purchase though electronic devices such as the ipod, and the amazon kindle. When it comes to textbooks, schools need to make sure that the writers of these books are reputable and not Joe Smoe from down the street writing a book on economics. Lets face it, textbooks are too expensive and that is why websites like half.com and StudentBookSearch.com help students to buy and sell textbooks from each other. Maybe if we could put a limit on how many times per year a publisher can change textbook editions and require significant changes before making old book editions obsolete. Students are tired of wasting so much money on textbooks.

Well, a couple options for you then would be Magnatune ($5/album, downloadable, no DRM, your choice of FLAC, VBR MP3, Vorbis, and/or AAC; also lets you download 128k MP3 files of all the songs gratis so you know what you're buying) or a used CD/anything store or website like Half.com (used CDs). If you know of a used CD store nearby, you could always go there to check out what they've got, and perhaps they have a way for you to sample the CDs like so many of them do.

Because of all the "copy-protection" schemes, DMCA, DRM and the outrageous fees I decided a while ago to ditch COX cable and not to sign up for an other similar service anymore. Instead I am reading books in the evening. It really makes a difference. Most of the books I get from half.com for a few bucks. Now I safe a lot of money, I am no longer annoyed about paying for religious propaganda shows, I care no longer about bogus "news", I can sleep much earlier because I am no longer exposed to the soundscape from stupid TV shows, and the best thing: I enjoy the books with someone else. So, I think I should be thankful to Cox, Microsoft, Sony, MPAA etc.. Thanks!

I mean other recent acquistions such as Shopping.com have made sense. Ebay is not a teleco. It doesn't fit with any other business lines. Ebay is about getting the best price on goods as Shopping.com, Half have proved. Why Skype?

As a hardened video game re-seller, I suggest half.com. EB will give you half of what they will sell it for if you're lucky.

Bookfinder:

1) is slow
2) has a terrible ui
3) doesn't sort results well
4) doesn't find the best prices
5) has no seller ratings
6) has no reader reviews

All in all I'm not sure who would ever use this service. On every level it seems second rate.

Half.com (owned by eBay) is a much, much better service and includes reader reviews, and seller ratings.

>[Cherry 2000] Anybody know where I could get a copy?

It's out on DVD. Try Half.com.

Is it just me or does that half.com look remarkably like Amazon? I detect a lawsuit coming...

Yes, but recently they have had brand new Xboxes on Half.com, Ebay's child company, for $105 with shipping. I'm currently saving my meager allowance up to turn one of those thing's into a Linux Server; I don't even need a monitor / keyboard / mouse, as I'm going to SSH into the thing with my Windows Laptop.

- Yolego

I need suggestions for educational games

I taught computer literacy in Ghana, West Africa (see my site), and I didn't find much use for games, educational or otherwise. For one, such software usually assumes a native-level English language ability, which I doubt any student in Uganda will have. Also, you have to keep in mind that most students there may never have even seen a computer before. They will likely be intimidated even by the most basic educational software.

You know what program my students really loved? Notepad! None of them had ever used a computer, so the chance just to type their names was a huge thrill. It helped them overcome their fear of the computer and move on to more advanced programs...such as Minesweeper. (Seriously! They loved it.) They also loved Paint for similar reasons; it was a great way for them to learn how to use the mouse. So, instead of fancy games or educational software, I recommend supplying a simple typing tutor with your laptop. The students will likely benefit from and enjoy it far more than any game.

However, I did find that certain educational titles such as The Way Things Work are helpful as visual aids for science lessons. They do not provide much benefit when used by students alone (again, because of the language barrier and intimidation), but when used by a teacher as part of a group lesson, they can be quite useful.

any great ideas on where I can acquire copies of this software?

my drive doesn't work 80% of the time

Then perhaps there is no point donating this laptop. Without a CD-ROM, it will be nearly impossible for the recipient to add new software, upgrade the OS, etc. And I doubt they will have the ability to fix or replace what is likely a proprietary part. I strongly suggest getting the drive replaced before sending it, or at least providing an external one as an alternative. (You can get second-hand ones pretty cheap.) Otherwise, the gift you are sending could be just a liability.

I order a fair number of things from eBay, and also AbeBooks.com (nice for buying used textbooks) so I don't really feel that I'm out of touch with international shipping rates. However, using BorderFree at Half.com results in absolutely outrageous shipping fees. If I spend $15US, once BorderFree's fees are added in I tend to end up with a bill of maybe $45US, versus somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 - $10 for shipping a similar item from other online retailers.

Companies like Game Stop allow people to buy/sell/trade used games. If $60 to $50 is too much, look for a slightly used version in one of their stores or on their web site. Many people buy the game new, and then cannot play it, or find it wasn't what it was advertised as, etc and then sell it. Also check Half.com for used copies of games and other things.

What follows is a pretty good list for buying books. The top ones are pretty much 'bots such that by the time you get to Amazon, BN, and Half, you'll have already seen the prices as part of the 'bot output. Also, it builds in any discounts, coupons, and shipping. It's also handy for providing retorts in the discussions when people say, "Amazon's cheaper!" or "BN is cheaper!" because they only check those two sites.

BookPool
AddAll - Compare & Shop
Best Book Buys - Compare many sites & Shop
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Half - mostly used books

God you people all act like the Internet doesn't exist! Unless the textbook is written by your professor and not used anywhere else you should be able to find an online retailer like half.com or cheapest textbooks or any of a dozen or more other sites that buy and sell textbooks that will give you money for your old books.

Used CDs are usually cheaper than $10. I've bought a bunch of them for $6 or $7. If you can find a good used CD store near you, then get over there and stock up.

I buy the few CDs I want at concerts, in the hope that I'll still get legitimate music and the RIAA will get less money.

Hypocrisy sucks, pick a stance and stick with it.

It doesn't matter where you buy it, if you buy it new in shrinkwrap, you still support the RIAA.

If you DON'T want to support the RIAA, then buy your CD's from the used market... local second-hand record shops or Half.com. The RIAA receives absolutely zero from these transactions.

Turns out that a lot of the textbooks for sale on Half.com are the international versions. I managed to get all but 1 of my textbooks there for at least $30 less than my bookstore was charging. My ELEC 305 textbook was almost half as much. They were softcover, though. So that probably contributed to the price as well.

Wish I had thought of getting multiple copies and selling them, though.

Man, just when the gf and I finished getting all the games in this collection- she just bought Majora's Mask, and I bought her Ocarina of Time for her birthday in April. Great games, OoT is probably the best- game- ever- at least as far as both of us are concerned. It'd be great to have all of them in one place, though.

And a friend of ours is going to buy a GCN this week- but probably too early to get in on this deal. Heh- we convinced him to get a GCN. Why do humans do that? It's not like it'll benefit us, and hell- we don't even have one ourselves. (roomate does, and so did former roomate) But, it's like Mac vs PC. Except in this case, the "Mac" is cheaper than the "PC" analog. We believe in the supremacy of the platform, we believe in Nintendo. Nintendo has soul, spirit, personality- MS is "M$" and Sony is Sony, just big companies who see something profitable in gaming.

Yes, we're early-mid-20s. Raised on the NES, jealous of friends whose parents got them an SNES. Bought an original GameBoy [1] with hard earned kid-money. Can you blame us for loving Nintendo, having given us so much electronic joy in our youths? What did MS give me- at that age, they gave me DOS. And that's about all I've recieved from them. And Sony? Sure, younger brother got a PSX for Xmas in 1996 or so, but it wasn't a member of the family in the way an NES is.

6 or 8 months ago, I bought a Dreamcast. It was a steal at a piddly $40 on half.com. It was a lot cheaper than getting another NES along with the games I still didn't have, were broken, or couldn't find anymore in storage over at grandma's house. So now, on one CD (with only a couple dozen MBs taken up) I have a good 400 NES games, ones I'll never play and ones I'll play over and over.

[1] And still have it- the GB itself and ~10 games for $20 to first person who emails me - revaaron {AT} hot_mail DOT com. Eh, fix that to get the email addy. Ok, maybe that's too much- make an offer. If it comes down to it, I'm willing to let it fo for free plus shipping, as long as the recipient plans on actually using it. :)

If you're paying $100 per season, you may not be looking in the right place.

Go to the nearest university book store, or even just find the web page for a universities math department and find the text book for the subjects you want and order it online.

I have to agree with this. Find out what books they are using in college classes, then go buy the book from half.com or used from Amazon. Even better if you buy an old edition because you won't spend much money at all.

Then work your way through the textbook. Don't feel you have to solve every problem. Learning is often more about knowing where to find the answer in a book than memorizing lots of facts. So just read for basic understanding and work out the problems in areas that interest you.

Don't be intimidated by working through university level texts on your own. You'll be amazed at how much more easily you learn as an adult who wants to learn instead of a child/teenager who is forced.

Of course, don't forget the library of any local university. Most of them offer free or low-cost library cards to non-students.

I travel to washington DC from time to time and like to visit the gift shops at the smithsoneon museums. The one in the basement of American History has a particularly good collection of books for sale. If the book is reasonable, I buy it. If it's overpriced, I take out the digital camera (not an unusual thing to have in a musuem) and snap a photo of the ISBN number then visit Half.com when I get back to the office and buy it, often for half of what I saw it for in the bookstore.

This is the only reason I can see for having a camera equiped phone, a different sort of notepad.

Last year sometime, our NES burnt out. We tried to replace the capacitor that blew, but it wasn't the exact one we needed and the NES will only run for a few minutes then die between reboots. So... I forget about it.

A few months ago, I was really jonsin for some NES. I tried using an emulator on my iBook and my PDA, but it just wasn't what I wanted. I was thinking about making an NES controller adapter for my iBook or PC and then outputting to the screen, but that was a huge PIA.

The other option was buying a new NES. After looking around some, I accidentally came across information about emulation on the Dreamcast. Did a little math, and found that it would likely be cheaper to get a DC than it would to get an NES that worked with some additional games!

So, I bought a DC for $30 from Half.com. I've seen them at my local Funcoland for $35 as well. Man, $30! For that $30, I have a machine that can not only play the NES games I have, but pretty much every damned NES game that has ever existed. Plus, SNES, Genesis, Sega Master System, and others! And, I don't have to deal with a super-crashy NES and all the associated mouth-wind-rituals involved.

I am not sure if it is needed, but I made sure to get a DC manufactured before Dec 2000 (or whatever the cut-off is), so that I could easily burn CDs of ROMs and emulators as well as my own and other folks' homebrew software.

I don't own one DC game though... I've been meaning to find out a couple decent ones and buy them cheap. But we've got the GameCube for that, so I've not really been motivated to look too hard.

Can anyone reccomend any really good games that can be had for the DC that I couldn't get for the GameCube? I'd love to hear some reccomendations!

It was mentioned prominently last time we discussed the RIAA, so I'll throw it out again.

Support independent music you can listen to before you buy at cdbaby.com.

The great thing about CD Baby is that most artists there have at least four streamable songs (in mp3) per disc. You get to listen to the first two minutes of each song, and I don't have a problem with this (as opposed to the full song). Why? Because the indie artist doesn't make me feel like I'm the enemy for listening to their music before paying for it.

A feature that I also like from CD Baby is that you can search for indie artists that are similar to a national artist you know. That helps get you moving in a direction you're comfortable with.

For those of us who are trying to wean themselves off the RIAA but haven't yet kicked the habit, I recommend half.com (owned by Ebay). As an example, I recently got into Tori Amos. (Regardless of how you feel about her music, you do have to admit she's talented and original.) I picked up her latest CD a few months ago because it had 70 minutes of music and it cost me $10 new. I found myself really liking it, and willing to look at her other work.

Now, I could go to Best Buy and drop over $100 picking up the major discs of her backcatalog (5 discs plus a 2 CD-set), or I could go to half.com and get the same discs (albeit used) shipped to me for a grand total less than $30. As long as I can get a decent rip off the used discs, I don't care about their condition.

Between CD Baby and half.com, I really don't see myself buying many new discs from RIAA artists.

BUt what about those of us that buy $12 CDs with 20 good tracks? (IE, Hendrix, SRV, Led Zep, etc)

First off, I don't know where you're getting the $12 number from, the average price of CD's these days seems to be from $14 to $18.

But, if you are looking for budget music, just go to Half.com. I buy almost all of my music there these days because a) I don't need a pristine copy, I'm just going to rip it to MP3, anyway, and 2) I'm buying music on the used market, so the RIAA doesn't see a penny from my transaction.

now I just go to half.com and get all my CDs for a nice low price. I barely downlaod any music unless it's something that I don't think is worth paying for (disturbed, for instance).

i modded you up b/c i completely agree. bebop is random as hell, an amazing series for those who might have a preconceived notion that they dislike anime. too bad there are only about 25 episodes, that's going to make reruns appear on CN every 5 weeks. not that bad, but definitely going to get old considering futurama has 72 episodes.

anyway, back on topic. you can own the dvds by purchasing piecemeal off half.com. bebop is dark and shadowy, with an odd conglomeration of characters that you can't help but love. there's a lot of the story you aren't told (some of which i still don't know) and you have to derive from the shows. this really draws you into the series. anyone know what a datadog is? :)

see you, space cowboy

Half and Ebay

...except that if you are going to break the licensing agreement, why pay for the songs in the first place? Legally, you don't have a leg to stand on.

I like the direction they're going, and I think 99 per song is reasonable; there's a lot of stuff out there that I'd never buy the whole album, but I'd like to buy a couple of singles.

However, it seems strange that they don't even mention the word "MP3" anywhere on the website. I realize that they are using a proprietary format, but they are trying to mislead people into thinking that this is the legit version of Napster when it's not. Until they are ready to give me complete control over the music I'm buying, I'll never subscribe. Better to buy your CD's used on Half.com (because the RIAA doesn't get a penny from it) and just rip those to MP3. All you need is a little CD polish and one good read, and then you're set.

Half.com
Amazon.com
Ebay.com
GameRankings.com
UsedGames.com
Recycle-Video-Games.com
ABC-VideoGames.com

Heck Gamestop even has their own site . You can always try on their site instead of going to the store. I am not sure if they have a fully integrated web site and brick and mortor store. If they don't they should hire me to fix that! :)

Or if you really must buy a major label CD, please support your fair use rights and goto www.half.com or a similar site and buy the CD used. Then, go see the act live when they come on tour in your area!

The only thing I regret is buying all the CDs I did before I saw the RIAA's true colours.

Well, there's always half.com, eBay's sell-it-used-at-a-fixed-price site. Beyond that, the best advice is not to bid on an item you want, until the very last minutes of the auction...because your bid will drive the price higher than it would otherwise, and at the end you'll know just what you're paying.

If this was used movies and used CD's, the various **AA's would be all over it. Can someone explain the difference between the latest book, the latest movie and the latest music CD as it pertains to property?

NO. They wouldn't be. Such things exist without harassment from the **AAs. And we aren't talking about new media anyway; we're talking about used books.

Although your post is clearly a troll, you're a little bit right. No one is contesting the sale of used stuff right now, not even the **AA...just give 'em some time. However, book publishers have attacked libraries as piracy facilitators in the past, without much luck. One thing they've found: It's a hell of a lot harder to demonize a library, paid for by the public and heralded as an educational treasure, than it is to demonize college students and the Internet.

Which makes me wonder: What if a library put together something to "check out" books, music, and videos on the Internet? Yeah, we've got a few things like it, but they're in their infancy and, to my knowledge, not a public project; they're done by one company or another. With a public library behind sharing of books/music/videos, doing what they're already doing in real life, the **AAs might have little choice but to back down.

My library (Multnomah County Library, in Portland, OR) already loans music and videos along with books. It has hookups to the Internet for anyone coming in, and people volunteer for work at the library. It's just a matter of adding these ingredients together, and we could have public filesharing...how sweet is that? I'm getting carried away...but it's nice to think about.

Maybe it's policy to use BN, but in this case it would make sense to list that The Perfect Store is available on Half.Com (an eBay company now).

Yeah, I know I saw a Sony-distributed movie recently, but I intend to be more vigilant in the future.

If you really need your corporate media, buy it USED. Half.Com is a good place to start. So is Second Spin and Powell's.

Stop buying new DVDs and CDs. Stop going to movies. Maybe even get rid of your cable service, because the cable companies pay their tribute to the MPAA and the RIAA too. Take the money you would have used on new DVDs, new CDs, movie tickets and cable bills and donate it to the EFF.

And for crissake FAX YOUR CONGRESSCRITTER! And like Zappa always reminded us, Don't forget to vote.

Why don't you pay for the DVD, instead of trying to copy it from somebody else?

If it's worth enough for you to expend the effort to make a copy, it's obviously worth enough for you to spend your allowance on it. Head over to Half.com or another retailer of used DVDs if you don't think it's worth the cover price, but by all means don't steal it. You're giving open source users a bad name.

But, on the other hand, I haven't bought a book or CD new in the past 4 years or so. This is in protest of the collaboration and price fixing between publishers. I figure if they try to screw me, I'll find a legal way that hurts them in the pockets. So the ban on direct linkage, while it may appear to be a good idea for the authors, will only hurt the effectiveness of their site. I'll just end up going to half.com or Amazon anyway, and ignore their site completely.

Anyway, if the authors want more money/any money at all from used book sales, they should publish themselves, because the large publishing houses would hardly like to share a new source of income. I'd be glad to buy a book new even if it did cost a little more from an author who publishes independently a la Edward Tufte.

So if someone wants to read it for their start-up dreams,
they can get it cheaper

Sig: What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)

Amazon: New ($16.80) | Used ($12.00)

Barnes & Noble: New ($19.20, free shipping)

Half.com: All Used (from $11.99)

Sorry if I included any unnecessary variables in the URLs. I previewed and they seem to work fine. I personally recommend getting it from B&N since it's free shipping and would probably be your best bet for a used version. However, some libraries with fair budgets might have this book too (or you could ask for it), so that's always an option.
_________________________________________ ___
Partner Site

Exactly! Give that man a cigar, or a spliff, or whatever floats his boat!

I will not buy new CDs unless the company that puts it out is NOT a member of the RIAA. I will not buy DVDs put out by signatories to the MPAA. This way, I do not have to deprive myself of the music and movies I like. It's great.

Here are some places to check out:
http://www.secondspin.com/
http://www.half.com/

And even more importantly: support indie music! Support indie movies! Create your own music/movies, then SHARE AND ENJOY!!! This is the real reason Big Media is quaking in its boots.

Just checked out half.com for some deals on Thinkpads (most Linux friendly laptops currently on the planet). A 760EL can be had for around US$215. That's a decent price for a machine for doing email and web browsing (if you're not in a hurry).

Speaking of book expenses, I've recently completely abandoned using university bookstores in favor of half.com and sometimes Amazon used books. They're such a better deal, it's unbelievable... and I sell mine on half as well. I don't care about the quality -- as long as it's the same ISBN, i'm a happy camper!

I do production work for bands (lights and sound) and recently did a private party for half.com at the New Jersey State Aquarium in Camden and the sound system that was used that night consisted of 4 18" subwoofers. The stage was directly across the dance floor from one of the large windows looking into the main ocean tank, which holds various sharks and other fish that are native to the North Atlantic. After the band began playing, I looked at the tank and noticed that some of the fish were getting more frisky instead of simply moping around the tank like they normally do. I didn't notice any intercourse, but I wasn't really looking for it.

half.com. Go to your college bookstore, look at book prices, and then go to half.com. Then go and tell me that there's no deals out there. What a way for a college student to save cash!

ebay has its half.com, pricewatch.com has its not-exactly-new section..

half.com

pricewatch.com

karma - whore it like you mean it.

A new video codec will boost performance 20 percent over current-generation video codecs, and will enable the playback of high-definition 720 x 1,280 progressive scan video at 24 frames per second, said Will Poole, vice president of the Windows Digital Media Division of Microsoft. Using Windows Media's 4-to-1 compression ratio advantage over MPEG-2, "studios could put all the Godfather movies or an entire musician's discography on a single CD," said Poole.

Ok, I might believe that windows media compresses 20% better than DVD. But I refuse to believe that using windows media format, you can fit ALL the Godfather movies on ONE CD.

Godfather 1: 175 minutes

Godfather 2: 200 minutes

Godfather 3: 170 minutes

Total = 545 minutes. Even on a 700 meg CD, that's 1.28 megabytes per minute for audio and video, or 23 KILOBYTES per second. . I wonder how good that's gonna look?

A new video codec will boost performance 20 percent over current-generation video codecs, and will enable the playback of high-definition 720 x 1,280 progressive scan video at 24 frames per second, said Will Poole, vice president of the Windows Digital Media Division of Microsoft. Using Windows Media's 4-to-1 compression ratio advantage over MPEG-2, "studios could put all the Godfather movies or an entire musician's discography on a single CD," said Poole.

Ok, I might believe that windows media compresses 20% better than DVD. But I refuse to believe that using windows media format, you can fit ALL the Godfather movies on ONE CD.

Godfather 1: 175 minutes

Godfather 2: 200 minutes

Godfather 3: 170 minutes

Total = 545 minutes. Even on a 700 meg CD, that's 1.28 megabytes per minute for audio and video, or 23 KILOBYTES per second. . I wonder how good that's gonna look?

A new video codec will boost performance 20 percent over current-generation video codecs, and will enable the playback of high-definition 720 x 1,280 progressive scan video at 24 frames per second, said Will Poole, vice president of the Windows Digital Media Division of Microsoft. Using Windows Media's 4-to-1 compression ratio advantage over MPEG-2, "studios could put all the Godfather movies or an entire musician's discography on a single CD," said Poole.

Ok, I might believe that windows media compresses 20% better than DVD. But I refuse to believe that using windows media format, you can fit ALL the Godfather movies on ONE CD.

Godfather 1: 175 minutes

Godfather 2: 200 minutes

Godfather 3: 170 minutes

Total = 545 minutes. Even on a 700 meg CD, that's 1.28 megabytes per minute for audio and video, or 23 KILOBYTES per second. . I wonder how good that's gonna look?

Half.Com also has some copies of that book listed. Most are used. Half.Com is a distributed bookstore: they act as an intermediary between buyers and many independent sellers. (Similar to eBay, but Half also handles the payments)