Well, this was my first encounter with "the long tail", so all I know about it is what I read in the article. It seems this particular article is defining "the long tail" as an ability for retailers to sell a lot more different items, so some of the peak demand for the most popular items (blockbusters) gets spread out to the extra selection that wouldn't normally be available in a B&M store. Also, it briefly mentions a small possibility of an unexpected blockbuster arising from that extra selection.
Without parties, there could be a lot more sides. And without parties, you might actually have to get the general public involved to settle on a law to be passed (or not), which means the general public might actually have some real influence over their government. The horror!
Ah, so it's more options you want to make good use of your hard-earned cash? Well, you're in luck! Besides setting it on fire or flushing it down the toilet, we are also prepared to allow you to choose from any of the following:
-Run it through your shredder -Feed it to a goat -Use it for cigarette paper -Eat it yourself -Any combination of the above
Oh, you wanted to get some actual value from it? Sorry that's not an option.
Yes yes, we've heard those arguments a billion trillion times. And they still mean nothing. Because Copyright is suppose to be a time-limited period for the creator to make a profit before it hits public domain for others to profit from it. Life +75 years is not time-limited. "Time-limited" means you get a reasonable but short duration to recoup your investment and make a reasonable profit. That usually happens within the first year from release or publication. In any case, for copyright to be relevant and serve the intended purpose, it needs to end while there is still profit to be made from the work. Not once it's obsolete, not after every possible cent has been sucked from it.
It's not that Joe Public doesn't realize that work goes into making these things - it's that Joe Public realizes that he constantly has earn his pay, and it's only fair that others should too. The other thing that Joe Public realizes is that it's not possible for everyone to be a performer/writer/artist of some sort - someone has to do the real work to provide the things we actually need. And since Joe Public is doing that work and isn't making that great of a wage doing it, guess where his money is going to go. Yep, for the things he actually needs, and things that actually took real work to produce.
So in the end, it's probably you who doesn't see and understand the whole picture. Have you ever gotten your hands dirty doing real work that pays just enough to keep you going, at a job you didn't really like, for 40+ hours a week? You should try it some time, instead of sitting there complaining about people downloading music. When you actually work (note: practicing with a band != work, sorry) for your money, it puts a whole different perspective on things.
The thing is, the problem doesn't even begin with clueless voters. The problem begins with the fact that all the choices you have to vote on are bad. I mean really, a choice between 2 candidates that are both going to take the country even further into the crapper? It's like your financial advisor giving you a choice between setting your cash on fire or flushing it down the toilet.
Give me a government system where literally anyone who is competent has a real chance to get elected, and I'll agree that my vote matters.
I'm fairly certain you're wrong in your reasoning, but I also am not an expert on the subject so I could be wrong as well.
However, first thing is the material that has to be removed as they drill. They would probably need some kind of rotary drill for this. Also, I can tell you from experience drilling other types of things (such as wood and concrete) that a rotary drill will never entirely occupy the volume of the borehole - there's always some slop that happens as you drill, and some space beside the drill bit. The other thing you may not have considered is that the magma could have forced a rotary drill up the borehole.
I have to agree. I'm not much for bashing MS any more (heck, I'm almost starting to like Vista even!) but "reorienting" a console while it is in use is certainly not beyond what you would and should expect from a normal user.
On the other hand though, this really is not "news". Seriously, who wouldn't have expected this (Microsoft knowing about the potential problem before release) to be the case, if they'd actually given it a moment's thought? It was just a (potentially bad) business decision.
Microsoft obviously new the Xbox 360 is not a machine that, if it fails, would potentially cause serious injury or death (such as an automobile, for example). Thus, any decisions about not dealing with defects that potentially could cause excessively high failure rates were based exclusively on the financial ramifications. They gambled that the benefit of getting a head-start on Sony and Nintendo would out-weigh the negative impact of excessively high failure rates. Unfortunately for them, it seems like that benefit may have been only for the short-term, and in the long term the bad will out-weigh the good.
Waaaay back when I used I.E all anti-spyware apps used to find a ton of spyware.
And since then, they've also learned how to make anti-spyware apps that distinguish between real spyware and cookies that just track what websites you go to for advertising purposes.
You can always swap the MMO wheel for something completely different at the drop of a hat if you choose, with no adverse effects. Trading your life for a different one is a bit more difficult.
I gave the trial a shot. It lasted about 15 minutes. That's about how long it took for me to realize that my "character" was an entity I would never actually see, and I would be using a "pod" that was always stuck in some kind of ship. Space games have never had a big appeal for me anyway, and to spend all that time as a "pod" I cared nothing about just wasn't going to happen. And then a long time later I found out that the game is strictly about PvP that is heavily influenced by politics and corruption at the highest levels and I was even more happy that I decided instantly Eve was not worth my time.
I think you missed the point I was trying to make. One simple step to help hide your tracks is running your "illegal activity" programs from a flash drive instead of the hard drive. Flash drives are much easier to effectively dispose of than hard drives.
Hey asshole, aren't search warrants supposed to explicitly specify what you're looking for? You seized the computer, it should've been for a specific reason, not to conduct a fishing expedition.
Duh! They're looking for Illegal Activity, which is the specific reason they seized the computer!
Red Alert 2 was pretty good too. But EA for the most part screwed over the franchise. Even Generals was mediocre compared to the Westwood games. Red Alert 3, I have no idea - not even worth my time playing the demo.
No, they were protesting against a tea monopoly run by the East India Company that the British Government was trying to force on them. They only lowered taxes to force their competition out of business so they could raise them again later.
This music tax is remarkably similar to what the Boston Tea Party was in protest against.
"Anywhere in the house" does not replace batteries. The real purpose for batteries is so you can take your gear where there is no power. Battery-powered devices in places where there are power outlets available is generally just a minor convenience.
Umm... not really. Wireless != portable. Wireless can make something more mobile than if it was wired, but that depends entirely on the range of the wireless. Five meters is nowhere near enough to make it any kind of replacement for batteries. And I'd say we're a long long way from having wireless power with any kind of range sufficient to replace batteries. It may not even be possible, period. Batteries are going to be around for a while.
Connection Interrupted The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading. The network link was interrupted while negotiating a connection. Please try again.
I would assume it's considered "theoretical" as in the scientific definition of the word (ie. gravity is theoretical) as opposed to the layman's definition (that's "just a theory").
I didn't say there was a huge difference, but the point is if you're comparing, MMOs are not where you find the "mediocre and superficial" gamers.
As far as thinking capacity goes, just for example the theorycrafting done by players of virtually every MMO I've played is amazing. Not to mention that you have a lot more players that understand teamwork than in any given FPS.
Or maybe, just maybe, the people playing MMOs are people who like playing computer games with other people. That includes people who never played computer games before because it wasn't social enough, and people like myself who have just gotten bored of playing with AI for so many years. I've played many many first-person-shooters over the years, as well as games from any genre you care to mention. Once you've played so many in any particular genre, there's really not much they can do to make it interesting enough to stick around for. Sure, $NEXTHOTFPS has nicer graphics than $LASTHOTFPS, and it may even introduce some "new" feature (OMG look, I have a flamethrower, NOW I can shoot cool flame effects from the crosshairs!!!). At the end of the day, it still ends up being exactly the same thing: move your view with your mouse to "aim" the crosshairs and shoot the bad guys. As a bonus, you get to play online with a bunch of douchebags you've never met before, of which 5% will be cheaters and 50% will be assholes who make sure you know it. Hate to break it to you, but on average the players in MMOs are more mature, more intelligent, and more friendly than players in FPS's. You want to see the mediocre and superficial, go play Counterstrike and BF2142. You'll find more in a day than you wanted to run into all year.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, this was my first encounter with "the long tail", so all I know about it is what I read in the article. It seems this particular article is defining "the long tail" as an ability for retailers to sell a lot more different items, so some of the peak demand for the most popular items (blockbusters) gets spread out to the extra selection that wouldn't normally be available in a B&M store. Also, it briefly mentions a small possibility of an unexpected blockbuster arising from that extra selection.
Without parties, there could be a lot more sides. And without parties, you might actually have to get the general public involved to settle on a law to be passed (or not), which means the general public might actually have some real influence over their government. The horror!
Ah, so it's more options you want to make good use of your hard-earned cash? Well, you're in luck! Besides setting it on fire or flushing it down the toilet, we are also prepared to allow you to choose from any of the following:
-Run it through your shredder
-Feed it to a goat
-Use it for cigarette paper
-Eat it yourself
-Any combination of the above
Oh, you wanted to get some actual value from it? Sorry that's not an option.
Yes yes, we've heard those arguments a billion trillion times. And they still mean nothing. Because Copyright is suppose to be a time-limited period for the creator to make a profit before it hits public domain for others to profit from it. Life +75 years is not time-limited. "Time-limited" means you get a reasonable but short duration to recoup your investment and make a reasonable profit. That usually happens within the first year from release or publication. In any case, for copyright to be relevant and serve the intended purpose, it needs to end while there is still profit to be made from the work. Not once it's obsolete, not after every possible cent has been sucked from it.
It's not that Joe Public doesn't realize that work goes into making these things - it's that Joe Public realizes that he constantly has earn his pay, and it's only fair that others should too. The other thing that Joe Public realizes is that it's not possible for everyone to be a performer/writer/artist of some sort - someone has to do the real work to provide the things we actually need. And since Joe Public is doing that work and isn't making that great of a wage doing it, guess where his money is going to go. Yep, for the things he actually needs, and things that actually took real work to produce.
So in the end, it's probably you who doesn't see and understand the whole picture. Have you ever gotten your hands dirty doing real work that pays just enough to keep you going, at a job you didn't really like, for 40+ hours a week? You should try it some time, instead of sitting there complaining about people downloading music. When you actually work (note: practicing with a band != work, sorry) for your money, it puts a whole different perspective on things.
The thing is, the problem doesn't even begin with clueless voters. The problem begins with the fact that all the choices you have to vote on are bad. I mean really, a choice between 2 candidates that are both going to take the country even further into the crapper? It's like your financial advisor giving you a choice between setting your cash on fire or flushing it down the toilet.
Give me a government system where literally anyone who is competent has a real chance to get elected, and I'll agree that my vote matters.
You're an old hand here at Slashdot, aren't you. ;-)
*points other direction*
Look, ponies!!
I'm fairly certain you're wrong in your reasoning, but I also am not an expert on the subject so I could be wrong as well.
However, first thing is the material that has to be removed as they drill. They would probably need some kind of rotary drill for this. Also, I can tell you from experience drilling other types of things (such as wood and concrete) that a rotary drill will never entirely occupy the volume of the borehole - there's always some slop that happens as you drill, and some space beside the drill bit. The other thing you may not have considered is that the magma could have forced a rotary drill up the borehole.
I have to agree. I'm not much for bashing MS any more (heck, I'm almost starting to like Vista even!) but "reorienting" a console while it is in use is certainly not beyond what you would and should expect from a normal user.
On the other hand though, this really is not "news". Seriously, who wouldn't have expected this (Microsoft knowing about the potential problem before release) to be the case, if they'd actually given it a moment's thought? It was just a (potentially bad) business decision.
Microsoft obviously new the Xbox 360 is not a machine that, if it fails, would potentially cause serious injury or death (such as an automobile, for example). Thus, any decisions about not dealing with defects that potentially could cause excessively high failure rates were based exclusively on the financial ramifications. They gambled that the benefit of getting a head-start on Sony and Nintendo would out-weigh the negative impact of excessively high failure rates. Unfortunately for them, it seems like that benefit may have been only for the short-term, and in the long term the bad will out-weigh the good.
Waaaay back when I used I.E all anti-spyware apps used to find a ton of spyware.
And since then, they've also learned how to make anti-spyware apps that distinguish between real spyware and cookies that just track what websites you go to for advertising purposes.
...if you know what I mean.
We always know what you mean.
You can always swap the MMO wheel for something completely different at the drop of a hat if you choose, with no adverse effects. Trading your life for a different one is a bit more difficult.
I gave the trial a shot. It lasted about 15 minutes. That's about how long it took for me to realize that my "character" was an entity I would never actually see, and I would be using a "pod" that was always stuck in some kind of ship. Space games have never had a big appeal for me anyway, and to spend all that time as a "pod" I cared nothing about just wasn't going to happen. And then a long time later I found out that the game is strictly about PvP that is heavily influenced by politics and corruption at the highest levels and I was even more happy that I decided instantly Eve was not worth my time.
I think you missed the point I was trying to make. One simple step to help hide your tracks is running your "illegal activity" programs from a flash drive instead of the hard drive. Flash drives are much easier to effectively dispose of than hard drives.
Not to mention running programs from a flash drive so they never touch the hard drive at all.
Hey asshole, aren't search warrants supposed to explicitly specify what you're looking for? You seized the computer, it should've been for a specific reason, not to conduct a fishing expedition.
Duh! They're looking for Illegal Activity, which is the specific reason they seized the computer!
That's pretty much like building a mind-reader to figure out if a person has ever committed a crime. Good luck with that.
Red Alert 2 was pretty good too. But EA for the most part screwed over the franchise. Even Generals was mediocre compared to the Westwood games. Red Alert 3, I have no idea - not even worth my time playing the demo.
No, they were protesting against a tea monopoly run by the East India Company that the British Government was trying to force on them. They only lowered taxes to force their competition out of business so they could raise them again later.
This music tax is remarkably similar to what the Boston Tea Party was in protest against.
... will it blend?
"Anywhere in the house" does not replace batteries. The real purpose for batteries is so you can take your gear where there is no power. Battery-powered devices in places where there are power outlets available is generally just a minor convenience.
Umm... not really. Wireless != portable. Wireless can make something more mobile than if it was wired, but that depends entirely on the range of the wireless. Five meters is nowhere near enough to make it any kind of replacement for batteries. And I'd say we're a long long way from having wireless power with any kind of range sufficient to replace batteries. It may not even be possible, period. Batteries are going to be around for a while.
Mine reads:
Connection Interrupted
The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.
The network link was interrupted while negotiating a connection. Please try again.
Fascinating stuff.
I would assume it's considered "theoretical" as in the scientific definition of the word (ie. gravity is theoretical) as opposed to the layman's definition (that's "just a theory").
I didn't say there was a huge difference, but the point is if you're comparing, MMOs are not where you find the "mediocre and superficial" gamers.
As far as thinking capacity goes, just for example the theorycrafting done by players of virtually every MMO I've played is amazing. Not to mention that you have a lot more players that understand teamwork than in any given FPS.
Or maybe, just maybe, the people playing MMOs are people who like playing computer games with other people. That includes people who never played computer games before because it wasn't social enough, and people like myself who have just gotten bored of playing with AI for so many years. I've played many many first-person-shooters over the years, as well as games from any genre you care to mention. Once you've played so many in any particular genre, there's really not much they can do to make it interesting enough to stick around for. Sure, $NEXTHOTFPS has nicer graphics than $LASTHOTFPS, and it may even introduce some "new" feature (OMG look, I have a flamethrower, NOW I can shoot cool flame effects from the crosshairs!!!). At the end of the day, it still ends up being exactly the same thing: move your view with your mouse to "aim" the crosshairs and shoot the bad guys. As a bonus, you get to play online with a bunch of douchebags you've never met before, of which 5% will be cheaters and 50% will be assholes who make sure you know it. Hate to break it to you, but on average the players in MMOs are more mature, more intelligent, and more friendly than players in FPS's. You want to see the mediocre and superficial, go play Counterstrike and BF2142. You'll find more in a day than you wanted to run into all year.