I think they should charge per section while offering a discount if you want access to everything. While I don't read the Times, if I did I know that I would likely be ignoring half of it (style sections, etc.) That way, they can truly see how much revenue each section brings in and I don't have to pay for something I won't read.
Siebel does work with IE 7+8...just not the version that we have in use. As I said in another post, our database has over 200,000 contacts and over 300,000 service requests, amongst other data...it's not as easy as installing a couple of new hardware racks and pressing "intsall":-) They are planning on using the time spent upgrading Siebel as an excuse to update our network infastructure as well (which hasn't been touched since essentially 2003)...Gigabit ethernet soup to nuts, etc.
Besides, for our needs, Siebel has been perfect. The database just grew WAY faster than anyone expected it to because of a few contracts no one could have forseen. Corporate has been funding the upgrades and infastructure updates in each business unit for the past 6 months, and our turn is up sometime in the middle of this year. It sucks now, but the wait will be well worth it.
In the spirit of making it without a major label and needing a little exposure for my own work, here are four free tracks off the ambient album I'm working on: http://www.livingwithanerd.com/music. These are 100% DRM and cost free. Enjoy!
Besides, don't forget about the HUGE amount of classic literature that is legally freely available. http://www.literaturecollection.com/ has just a small sampling of what is out there.
Yeah...they know how big of a risk it is, but we have a massive database with 200,000+ contacts, 300,000+ service requests, and lord knows how many accounts. Not exactly easy to upgrade:-) Their rollout plans are ahead of schedule and they have a small phalanx of techs solely doing network security, so it should be fine. I'm looking forward to the new system, it will be interesting to see how smoothly it all goes down.
I gotta say, for all the little things that could be addressed where I work, the business unit as a whole runs quite smoothly. Each department is a puzzle piece, and the whole place is one neatly finished puzzle. I consider myself quite lucky to work there:-)
Same. We are stuck with IE6 due to some technicality involving Siebel. We are set to get a major overhaul to the entire network in the middle of this year (with all 550+ of us getting computer upgrades around the same time), but in the meantime our IT staff have been...busy.
Sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like he was insubordinate...he's playing by their rules and using their solution. Obviously, he has his own opinions about their decision, but he isn't going to jeopardize his job over something so trivial.
I brought it up merely because it seemed relevant to the thread, that's all. Still, under any other circumstance, I would agree with you completely. While I personally have never had to manage a large network, I know a number of people who have. I would imagine everyone wanting their own custom config would get very frustrating very quickly.
You don't understand...he is the only person who is going to be recording phone calls. He was tapped to be directly involved with creating the process to record these phonecalls...yet his suggestion of using a legally free and stable piece of software over an expensive, unstable piece of software is ignored. His other responsibilities are the same as mine where I work...mail merge programming. The guy isn't a technomoron, he knows his shit. If anything, it's the place he is working at that is the problem.
This is a company (which, obviously, will continue to go unnamed) that uses almost nothing but Cisco to run their network...yet contracts the sysadmin to IBM.
They're morons. The only reason he stays is because the pay is awesome.
Yes, but you are assuming software isn't considered a method. It SHOULD be a method, because it doesn't inherintly change anything within a computer, and if I'm not mistaken there are fights going on right now to define it as such...it is a method by which a computer is told to operate, but doesn't actually modify the computer in any way.
Analogy: making a choose your own adventure book doesn't change the fact that it is a book...it merely changes the way you obtain and utilize the data (words) on its pages. You wouldn't expect to get a patent on reading every other page in a book, would you?
I don't have any links handy on me with this subject but Bilski vs. Kappos could have a major ripple effect on software patents depending on what happens with their definition.
This occurred in the call center where a friend of mine works. Their clients only required a handful of calls to be recorded each month, so rather than invest in an expensive system to record everything, they do it by hand (they use Cisco Softphone, so it isn't as difficult as it sounds). They were going to purchase him a Creative sound card along with some crap Creative recording software. He asked if he could just use Audacity instead, since it is rock solid, he knows how to use it, and since it is under the GNU there aren't any legal issues. Their answer? Nope. Because it is open source, their IT department "determined" its use could lead to a security risk.
Yeah, but they can't deny patents due to a pending lawsuit that could potentially outlaw them...
I'm telling you though, read through the arguments. It will only take you 15-20 minutes. The justices, all of them, continuously ripped these people new orifices. It was a beatdown quite unlike anything I've seen (read?) in the Supreme Court for a long time.
There is a library behind our house, but it leaves a lot to be desired. We drive to one about 15 minutes from us instead, because it is MUCH bigger and there is a killer sushi restaurant across the street.
Most of what I listen to is produced and released by people working out of their bedroom or home studio (such as myself). I LOVE supporting people like that, because they get a large chunk of the money.
You might want to check out http://magnatune.com/...plenty to find on there, and I believe the artist gets 70% of the purchase price.
For the record, I don't think $5 should be the rock-bottom price that never gets lowered, I think that's where it should be lowered to for now. Once the market gets a bump in purchase numbers, then you can start to slowly lower the price to generate more sales.
True, libraries and used book sales contribute nothing for authors. If people are already buying e-books at $10, why drop it all the way to $1? I mean, it could eventually get there, but why would you just drop straight to the bottom? Then if you aren't making enough money, people will get pissed if you raise the price back up...it would be better to drop it to $5, which would still be enough to increase sales, and then if things are looking really good continue to drop the price over time as more people get on board.
True, but writing a book also takes a tremendous effort...I'm putting up the $5 price point as a possibility due to the number of copies a book has to sell for the author to make decent money and for the time investment required.
As someone who writes (working on a book, although I don't expect it will ever be published) and does music production (http://www.livingwithanerd.com/music if you are interested in what I'm currently working on), writing takes considerably longer. Charging the same amount for a book as you do for a single music track is shortchanging the author.
Still, your point does make a lot of sense...storing and transferring a large number of e-books requires very little in the way of hardware, but looking at it strictly from the author's point of view, charging only $1 for a book would really suck.
100% agreed, although I think $2.50 might be a bit too cheap....I think $5 is a good price point for a digital copy of a book. Still, you have the right idea...lowering prices substantially on e-books would net publishers a massive increase in sales, especially with the emergence of e-readers going mainstream.
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I think they should charge per section while offering a discount if you want access to everything. While I don't read the Times, if I did I know that I would likely be ignoring half of it (style sections, etc.) That way, they can truly see how much revenue each section brings in and I don't have to pay for something I won't read.
Thoughts?
Siebel does work with IE 7+8...just not the version that we have in use. As I said in another post, our database has over 200,000 contacts and over 300,000 service requests, amongst other data...it's not as easy as installing a couple of new hardware racks and pressing "intsall" :-) They are planning on using the time spent upgrading Siebel as an excuse to update our network infastructure as well (which hasn't been touched since essentially 2003)...Gigabit ethernet soup to nuts, etc.
Besides, for our needs, Siebel has been perfect. The database just grew WAY faster than anyone expected it to because of a few contracts no one could have forseen. Corporate has been funding the upgrades and infastructure updates in each business unit for the past 6 months, and our turn is up sometime in the middle of this year. It sucks now, but the wait will be well worth it.
You mean people don't want to hear opinions presented as facts? Huh...sounds like Fox News has us fooled -_-
I chose Verizon. There is no point in having a fast network or browsing while calling if I can't freakin' connect to the network.
I'm quite happy with my HTC Ozone and having at least two bars reception no matter where I am, even in the elevators at work.
doy, lol.
Thanks for the advice and the good vibes:-)
In the spirit of making it without a major label and needing a little exposure for my own work, here are four free tracks off the ambient album I'm working on: http://www.livingwithanerd.com/music. These are 100% DRM and cost free. Enjoy!
...then go back to CoD4. Hell, that's what Joel Gardiner did IRL...if it's good enough for the cueball it's good enough for anyone, I say.
$5 is way better than $10 for an ebook :-)
Besides, don't forget about the HUGE amount of classic literature that is legally freely available. http://www.literaturecollection.com/ has just a small sampling of what is out there.
Yeah...they know how big of a risk it is, but we have a massive database with 200,000+ contacts, 300,000+ service requests, and lord knows how many accounts. Not exactly easy to upgrade :-) Their rollout plans are ahead of schedule and they have a small phalanx of techs solely doing network security, so it should be fine. I'm looking forward to the new system, it will be interesting to see how smoothly it all goes down.
I gotta say, for all the little things that could be addressed where I work, the business unit as a whole runs quite smoothly. Each department is a puzzle piece, and the whole place is one neatly finished puzzle. I consider myself quite lucky to work there:-)
That was one of the most informative things I've ever read on these boards. Thank you :-)
Same. We are stuck with IE6 due to some technicality involving Siebel. We are set to get a major overhaul to the entire network in the middle of this year (with all 550+ of us getting computer upgrades around the same time), but in the meantime our IT staff have been...busy.
Sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like he was insubordinate...he's playing by their rules and using their solution. Obviously, he has his own opinions about their decision, but he isn't going to jeopardize his job over something so trivial.
I brought it up merely because it seemed relevant to the thread, that's all. Still, under any other circumstance, I would agree with you completely. While I personally have never had to manage a large network, I know a number of people who have. I would imagine everyone wanting their own custom config would get very frustrating very quickly.
You don't understand...he is the only person who is going to be recording phone calls. He was tapped to be directly involved with creating the process to record these phonecalls...yet his suggestion of using a legally free and stable piece of software over an expensive, unstable piece of software is ignored. His other responsibilities are the same as mine where I work...mail merge programming. The guy isn't a technomoron, he knows his shit. If anything, it's the place he is working at that is the problem.
This is a company (which, obviously, will continue to go unnamed) that uses almost nothing but Cisco to run their network...yet contracts the sysadmin to IBM.
They're morons. The only reason he stays is because the pay is awesome.
Yes, but you are assuming software isn't considered a method. It SHOULD be a method, because it doesn't inherintly change anything within a computer, and if I'm not mistaken there are fights going on right now to define it as such...it is a method by which a computer is told to operate, but doesn't actually modify the computer in any way.
Analogy: making a choose your own adventure book doesn't change the fact that it is a book...it merely changes the way you obtain and utilize the data (words) on its pages. You wouldn't expect to get a patent on reading every other page in a book, would you?
I don't have any links handy on me with this subject but Bilski vs. Kappos could have a major ripple effect on software patents depending on what happens with their definition.
This occurred in the call center where a friend of mine works. Their clients only required a handful of calls to be recorded each month, so rather than invest in an expensive system to record everything, they do it by hand (they use Cisco Softphone, so it isn't as difficult as it sounds). They were going to purchase him a Creative sound card along with some crap Creative recording software. He asked if he could just use Audacity instead, since it is rock solid, he knows how to use it, and since it is under the GNU there aren't any legal issues. Their answer? Nope. Because it is open source, their IT department "determined" its use could lead to a security risk.
Sometimes, the asshole is puckered way too tight.
Yeah, but they can't deny patents due to a pending lawsuit that could potentially outlaw them...
I'm telling you though, read through the arguments. It will only take you 15-20 minutes. The justices, all of them, continuously ripped these people new orifices. It was a beatdown quite unlike anything I've seen (read?) in the Supreme Court for a long time.
There is a library behind our house, but it leaves a lot to be desired. We drive to one about 15 minutes from us instead, because it is MUCH bigger and there is a killer sushi restaurant across the street.
We're probably never going to get rid of software patents, odious as they are;
The way the oral arguments on Bilski vs Kappos went back in November, software patents are one step away from an endangered species.
When you have every judge in the Supreme Court agreeing with one another on a subject...
Most of what I listen to is produced and released by people working out of their bedroom or home studio (such as myself). I LOVE supporting people like that, because they get a large chunk of the money.
You might want to check out http://magnatune.com/...plenty to find on there, and I believe the artist gets 70% of the purchase price.
That's pretty much I got the number.
For the record, I don't think $5 should be the rock-bottom price that never gets lowered, I think that's where it should be lowered to for now. Once the market gets a bump in purchase numbers, then you can start to slowly lower the price to generate more sales.
True, libraries and used book sales contribute nothing for authors. If people are already buying e-books at $10, why drop it all the way to $1? I mean, it could eventually get there, but why would you just drop straight to the bottom? Then if you aren't making enough money, people will get pissed if you raise the price back up...it would be better to drop it to $5, which would still be enough to increase sales, and then if things are looking really good continue to drop the price over time as more people get on board.
True, but writing a book also takes a tremendous effort...I'm putting up the $5 price point as a possibility due to the number of copies a book has to sell for the author to make decent money and for the time investment required.
As someone who writes (working on a book, although I don't expect it will ever be published) and does music production (http://www.livingwithanerd.com/music if you are interested in what I'm currently working on), writing takes considerably longer. Charging the same amount for a book as you do for a single music track is shortchanging the author.
Still, your point does make a lot of sense...storing and transferring a large number of e-books requires very little in the way of hardware, but looking at it strictly from the author's point of view, charging only $1 for a book would really suck.
100% agreed, although I think $2.50 might be a bit too cheap....I think $5 is a good price point for a digital copy of a book. Still, you have the right idea...lowering prices substantially on e-books would net publishers a massive increase in sales, especially with the emergence of e-readers going mainstream.
In the event you are joking, my response is this: lulzwut?
In the event you aren't joking, my response is this: lulzwut?