My favorite part, if you've RTFA to the very end, is this:
UPDATE In last weeks column on socially responsible investing, I mentioned an exchange-traded fund called the HealthShares Emerging Cancer Fund. What I failed to notice, because the company hadnt bothered informing potential investors on the funds own home page, was that the day before my deadline the company announced it was shutting down the fund in September.
Now here is someone you should definitely listen to.
The real reason Blizzard has only released (or will release) 2 expansion packs so far is that they DON'T have to release expansion packs to rack in the bucks. They don't need to get a burst of income in order to cover the cost of development of content. They are already racking it in. Expansions are just gravy and, I'd argue, really just to keep the game interesting enough so people keep drinking the Kool-Aid.;)
World of Diablo would sell better than WoW I'd bet. But Diablo is sort of a semi-MMO already.
Honestly, I think half the success of Warcraft is the same reason MySpace is so popular. Its first a social hangout, game second. And the game is simple enough to learn that anyone can play it - as with setting up a MySpace page.
They will be even more shocked when they come to realize that all of these price increases are simply a symptom of America's slip from "world superpowe" to " average wealthy western nation". Fuel and consumer products have cost this much in Europe for decades. The EU is doing just fine dealing with $5+ for a gallon of gas, and they aren't strip mining the Alps. But we can expect to have European sized cars and European sized houses at the european $3000 per sq ft not the US $125 per sq ft. Did it ever occur to you that perhaps Europeans pay that much for gas because of TAXES? Like 45 to 65% +/- tax. So it's not nearly the same thing. Besides, most European cities are not at all built like American cities. There isn't nearly as much "sprawl", everything is VERY much compacted together and mass transit is on a whole other level.
Statements like yours only highlight your ignorance and your obvious lack of knowledge of the world beyond your borders.
Feel free to look up "Fuel Tax" in Wikipedia for a decent summary.
What I'd like to know is, did anyone ever really use the "boss" key for its legitimate purpose?:) I think it showed up first in Leather Goddesses of Phobos.
Its really irrelevant whether "the people" "learn the only thing a company is interested in is making money." The company can only make money by the will of the people. Its the basis of capitalism and its why things are like they are. As long as there is demand and people pay they will make money. If people do not pay and there is no demand they will not make money. Its really that simple.
Monopolies are only monopolies because people will not sacrifice to do without. You can say Microsoft is a monopoly. But they are only a monopoly because people will not do without their product. Then you can go into artificial monopolies like the phone companies and the cable companies and your utilities. These are government mandated monopolies. You don't have a choice because your government says so. But even your government can get away with this because people are not willing to sacrifice and do without. Do without electricity, without TV, without a simple to use operating system, etc. The majority will always choose convenience.
This is just how things work. Its human nature and its how things will probably always work. Sure, you get small revolutions or someone brilliant comes up with something game changing, but the fundamental rules never change. People are lazy, resistant to change, and there is always someone with a decent idea ready to capitalize on that. You can see evidence of it everywhere. Even in peoples shopping habits.
Why do you think places like Costco and Sam's Club are so successful? I would venture its not because the prices are necessarily all that great (you can do better if you search online), it's because everything you "need" is in one place and its just plain easier to get it all at one place instead of driving around or walking through the mall. You can always cash in on the laziness of the masses.
People who read Slashdot and bother to post comments are not the lazy types I'm talking about either. In general this demographic is not lazy and tends to overachieve. So its somewhat of a foreign concept. But the reality is more like the movie Idiocracy than not. In all seriousness as much as that movie is sarcastic and a parody its very much true.
While this is completely off topic, I have to add that neither of the companies you are implicating were "evil" when they were as young as Google is now. Companies generally start out with high ideals. Its later they become "Evil".
Yes actually I have. Postfix is extremely easy to set up with SpamAssassin. It requires cutting and pasting two configuration lines if you can't understand the manual and can do a google search. I suppose you could make the pedantic argument that it's twice as hard as tarmail since tarmail requires one line.
In fact setting up ClamAV and SpamAssassin alone is orders of magnitude more complex.
I might argue that if you have a hard time understanding the postfix manual you have no business running a mail server.
In any case, I wasn't trying to compare, just trying to understand why it was worth the effort of yet another SMTP server.
I'm not trying to belittle your effort in any way but, after reading over your page I have to ask, what exactly does tarmail do that postfix, or any other SMTP server commonly used these days doesn't?
I think this is pretty easy to predict. Basically, a significant percentage of people will "opt-out". Enough so that they will eventually remove the opt-out choice. At which point, a critical mass of people will be miffed enough that they will just cancel membership. And their net revenue will be a significant percentage less than it is right now before they introduced this ridiculous scheme.
I mean seriously. If they even have to consider alternate revenue streams that are so obviously risky, it pretty much is the writing on the wall for the game, is it not?
But then again, I know people in marketing that are under the complete and utter idiotic delusion that people LIKE and WANT advertising. Self delusion never fails to amaze me.
This article is already ancient by Slashdot standards, but I felt compelled to respond.
I have no grief with how Google handled this. They have enough money to "manipulate" the market because they don't stick to old, obsolete business plans that don't work where the only way to currently keep them feasible is to sue the crap out of anyone and everyone you think is a threat -- or lobby your political representative that's in your pocket. Google can manipulate the market because THEIR business model apparently works and they are forcing these old, entrenched companies, who are quite used to their monopolies and being able to screw their customers with impunity, to their graves. So Google is forcing them to actually have to compete again. Competition is ALWAYS good for us, the consumer. Watch how much Sony and Blu-Ray rapes the consumer now that they have no competition, for example.
So Google, evil or not, at least in the short term, are great in my book. Granted if they are unqualified in their successes they will most likely end up being one of these "old, entrenched companies" (because in the end its all about the stock holders and profit) but, in theory, it should always play out exactly how its playing out or capitalism just doesn't work. The market ultimately decides.
All I know is that if this means that my wife will be able to get to the right department when calling the insurance company to make a doctor appointment for our kids I'll be a happy camper.;) I would forgo the cursing, redialing, and angry expletives that are required right now in order to make a simple pre-note that we are taking the kids in for their required annual physical.
Your other comments may have merit but the complaint about mass production and quick support is one I have to take exception to. I mean REALLY, you can't just plug in any old keyboard and keep typing away? If you find some obvious business model around OLED keys that is irreplaceable I would be more sympathetic, but as new as this technology apparently is I don't find that a compelling argument. Time and success of the product will bring the mass production and quick support. Anyone who has ever been in any sort of start-up venture knows how hard it is to ramp up to that sort of thing, especially when you have something bleeding edge. It not just about the technology, its also about all the stuff that goes around it like infrastructure, investment capital and scale.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. However, I would add that I think the whole point of his article is that there is a massive shakeup going on in the industry, as anyone who reads Slashdot knows, and he was basically pointing out just some of the various new ways a musician has at his/her disposal to distribute their music. He broke it down into six, but I don't really think his intention was to make his six examples the only options. Those were just the biggest options right now. It's way too soon to say which models will be the "new" models in the future. But this was an excellent start and a great introspective into what exactly is going on from the business side. I personally can't wait to see what the new models end up being in the long term and I have no sympathy for the greedy machine that the music industry has so obviously become. They made their bed and now they get to sleep in it. Maybe their really IS such a thing as karma.
Seriously. I don't know anyone first hand who has a "second life" character. How does this MMO universe compare to say, WoW, or any other established MMO? I find it a little bit amazing that it gets all the press it does. I actually played for all of about 5 minutes before I realized it was really pretty boring. I just don't see the attraction myself, but different strokes for different folks I guess. Is it really such a significant online environment worthy of all the press it gets? I see a lot of news about it relatively often, but I wonder if its just not an environment more accessible to journalistic types rather than a notable or significant phenomenon. I would be truly interested to know the typical kinds of people that put a good chunk of time into it. While Wow, for example, seems to cater to just about anyone that plays any sort of computer/video games, Second Life would certainly seem to be an extreme niche sort of market to me. Of course I could just be old and no longer hip.;)
If the facts bear out she deserves some sort of penalty. While the penalty of stoning by the mob is probably not it, it's sad that someone can do something so sick and get away with it. I'm all for innocent until proven guilty but if it never goes to court this will never be sorted out. So this needs to go to court. If they don't do anything then the system is failing. As far as the reported facts go it would seem they meant her obvious menace. But without a trial and a presentation of ALL the facts you will never know.
I think its pretty safe to say it will be far more than SEVERAL false positives. There will be an incredibly high amount of false positives. Then it will be on the sender to prove that they are innocent due to the vast money and legal teams available to those who would remove fair use altogether. Any other opinion is naive at best. Look at what the RIAA has been doing and try to make a convincing argument otherwise. Not possible. Innocent until proven guilty is a vain hope of the past. One is now guilty until proven innocent or can afford the better lawyers. Yes, this is a very pessimistic opinion but it's by far the reality in this day and age despite the Constitution and despite what the Intelligentia would like to think.
I am definitely not a lawyer. That said, assuming you decline to sign it, if they try to fire you only on the basis of not signing a new contract when you are already employed would be highly questionable and I can't see any judge in his right mind siding with your company. That said, before you decline to sign it make sure there is no other reason for them to find to fire you. Because believe me they will look.
Completely anecdotal, I dated a director of HR. And I can tell you, in general, they do NOT look out for the employees. In this day and age they are no longer the "brokers" between management and employees. Their sole purpose is to do the will of the upper management. And if that means looking for a reason to terminate you, they WILL find one, even if its something as lame as you came to work late a few times in the past few months. You would be amazed at the things that get filed into your employee records, even without your knowledge.
So ultimately, if you are going to decline to sign this thing, make sure you go to HR and ask for your files first and make sure there is nothing in there that they can use against you to justify your termination.
You, sir, are the reason why corporate America sucks. They made a movie about you. Its called "Office Space." You should watch it some day. I manage a team of 4 people. In the real world there is seldom a constant stream of real work to be done. There is always down time and waiting around for tickets, for other teams to catch up, etc. For you to even make a statement like this pretty much pushes your opinions into the realm of unreality. When stuff needs to really get done -- there is a fire to be put out -- my guys are all over it like flies to honey. But on the other end of the spectrum are the times when there are no fires to put out. Everything is running fluidly and perfectly because we put in the extra effort to make sure that things run that way. We scripted things that could be automated, we set up autonomous systems that will alert us if something important goes down, we set up automatic backups of critical infrastructure. Frankly, once all that is in place there isn't a whole lot to do unless someone needs something special for a new project, or there is some unaccounted for chain of events that cause the aforementioned fire. This is what we are paid to do. To keep things running smoothly and perfectly the majority of the time. The reason people get paid for their jobs is because they can do their job WHEN IT MATTERS. All the other times are irrelevant. The only thing you show here is that you are a poor manager and I feel sorry for anyone that has to call you boss.
Probably because books are a handy, cheap format to have information in. I can sit in my hot tub and read a book. I won't do that with my latest electronic gizmo of the day. Its cheaper to replace the book than my gizmo if I accidentally drop what I'm reading in the water. And I can always just dry out the book and it still "works.";)
Slashdot Mirror
My favorite part, if you've RTFA to the very end, is this:
UPDATE In last weeks column on socially responsible investing, I mentioned an exchange-traded fund called the HealthShares Emerging Cancer Fund. What I failed to notice, because the company hadnt bothered informing potential investors on the funds own home page, was that the day before my deadline the company announced it was shutting down the fund in September.
Now here is someone you should definitely listen to.
The real reason Blizzard has only released (or will release) 2 expansion packs so far is that they DON'T have to release expansion packs to rack in the bucks. They don't need to get a burst of income in order to cover the cost of development of content. They are already racking it in. Expansions are just gravy and, I'd argue, really just to keep the game interesting enough so people keep drinking the Kool-Aid. ;)
World of Diablo would sell better than WoW I'd bet. But Diablo is sort of a semi-MMO already.
Honestly, I think half the success of Warcraft is the same reason MySpace is so popular. Its first a social hangout, game second. And the game is simple enough to learn that anyone can play it - as with setting up a MySpace page.
Statements like yours only highlight your ignorance and your obvious lack of knowledge of the world beyond your borders.
Feel free to look up "Fuel Tax" in Wikipedia for a decent summary.
What I'd like to know is, did anyone ever really use the "boss" key for its legitimate purpose? :) I think it showed up first in Leather Goddesses of Phobos.
Its really irrelevant whether "the people" "learn the only thing a company is interested in is making money." The company can only make money by the will of the people. Its the basis of capitalism and its why things are like they are. As long as there is demand and people pay they will make money. If people do not pay and there is no demand they will not make money. Its really that simple.
Monopolies are only monopolies because people will not sacrifice to do without. You can say Microsoft is a monopoly. But they are only a monopoly because people will not do without their product. Then you can go into artificial monopolies like the phone companies and the cable companies and your utilities. These are government mandated monopolies. You don't have a choice because your government says so. But even your government can get away with this because people are not willing to sacrifice and do without. Do without electricity, without TV, without a simple to use operating system, etc. The majority will always choose convenience.
This is just how things work. Its human nature and its how things will probably always work. Sure, you get small revolutions or someone brilliant comes up with something game changing, but the fundamental rules never change. People are lazy, resistant to change, and there is always someone with a decent idea ready to capitalize on that. You can see evidence of it everywhere. Even in peoples shopping habits.
Why do you think places like Costco and Sam's Club are so successful? I would venture its not because the prices are necessarily all that great (you can do better if you search online), it's because everything you "need" is in one place and its just plain easier to get it all at one place instead of driving around or walking through the mall. You can always cash in on the laziness of the masses.
People who read Slashdot and bother to post comments are not the lazy types I'm talking about either. In general this demographic is not lazy and tends to overachieve. So its somewhat of a foreign concept. But the reality is more like the movie Idiocracy than not. In all seriousness as much as that movie is sarcastic and a parody its very much true.
While this is completely off topic, I have to add that neither of the companies you are implicating were "evil" when they were as young as Google is now. Companies generally start out with high ideals. Its later they become "Evil".
Yes actually I have. Postfix is extremely easy to set up with SpamAssassin. It requires cutting and pasting two configuration lines if you can't understand the manual and can do a google search. I suppose you could make the pedantic argument that it's twice as hard as tarmail since tarmail requires one line.
In fact setting up ClamAV and SpamAssassin alone is orders of magnitude more complex.
I might argue that if you have a hard time understanding the postfix manual you have no business running a mail server.
In any case, I wasn't trying to compare, just trying to understand why it was worth the effort of yet another SMTP server.
I'm not trying to belittle your effort in any way but, after reading over your page I have to ask, what exactly does tarmail do that postfix, or any other SMTP server commonly used these days doesn't?
I think this is pretty easy to predict. Basically, a significant percentage of people will "opt-out". Enough so that they will eventually remove the opt-out choice. At which point, a critical mass of people will be miffed enough that they will just cancel membership. And their net revenue will be a significant percentage less than it is right now before they introduced this ridiculous scheme.
I mean seriously. If they even have to consider alternate revenue streams that are so obviously risky, it pretty much is the writing on the wall for the game, is it not?
But then again, I know people in marketing that are under the complete and utter idiotic delusion that people LIKE and WANT advertising. Self delusion never fails to amaze me.
This article is already ancient by Slashdot standards, but I felt compelled to respond.
I have no grief with how Google handled this. They have enough money to "manipulate" the market because they don't stick to old, obsolete business plans that don't work where the only way to currently keep them feasible is to sue the crap out of anyone and everyone you think is a threat -- or lobby your political representative that's in your pocket. Google can manipulate the market because THEIR business model apparently works and they are forcing these old, entrenched companies, who are quite used to their monopolies and being able to screw their customers with impunity, to their graves. So Google is forcing them to actually have to compete again. Competition is ALWAYS good for us, the consumer. Watch how much Sony and Blu-Ray rapes the consumer now that they have no competition, for example.
So Google, evil or not, at least in the short term, are great in my book. Granted if they are unqualified in their successes they will most likely end up being one of these "old, entrenched companies" (because in the end its all about the stock holders and profit) but, in theory, it should always play out exactly how its playing out or capitalism just doesn't work. The market ultimately decides.
or does this sound like the beginning of a Douglas Adams story?
All I know is that if this means that my wife will be able to get to the right department when calling the insurance company to make a doctor appointment for our kids I'll be a happy camper. ;) I would forgo the cursing, redialing, and angry expletives that are required right now in order to make a simple pre-note that we are taking the kids in for their required annual physical.
Your other comments may have merit but the complaint about mass production and quick support is one I have to take exception to. I mean REALLY, you can't just plug in any old keyboard and keep typing away? If you find some obvious business model around OLED keys that is irreplaceable I would be more sympathetic, but as new as this technology apparently is I don't find that a compelling argument. Time and success of the product will bring the mass production and quick support. Anyone who has ever been in any sort of start-up venture knows how hard it is to ramp up to that sort of thing, especially when you have something bleeding edge. It not just about the technology, its also about all the stuff that goes around it like infrastructure, investment capital and scale.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. However, I would add that I think the whole point of his article is that there is a massive shakeup going on in the industry, as anyone who reads Slashdot knows, and he was basically pointing out just some of the various new ways a musician has at his/her disposal to distribute their music. He broke it down into six, but I don't really think his intention was to make his six examples the only options. Those were just the biggest options right now. It's way too soon to say which models will be the "new" models in the future. But this was an excellent start and a great introspective into what exactly is going on from the business side. I personally can't wait to see what the new models end up being in the long term and I have no sympathy for the greedy machine that the music industry has so obviously become. They made their bed and now they get to sleep in it. Maybe their really IS such a thing as karma.
So what exactly did all those people who couldn't afford TV's when they first came out do? Wow they must have suffered a great deal. :/
Seriously. I don't know anyone first hand who has a "second life" character. How does this MMO universe compare to say, WoW, or any other established MMO? I find it a little bit amazing that it gets all the press it does. I actually played for all of about 5 minutes before I realized it was really pretty boring. I just don't see the attraction myself, but different strokes for different folks I guess. Is it really such a significant online environment worthy of all the press it gets? I see a lot of news about it relatively often, but I wonder if its just not an environment more accessible to journalistic types rather than a notable or significant phenomenon. I would be truly interested to know the typical kinds of people that put a good chunk of time into it. While Wow, for example, seems to cater to just about anyone that plays any sort of computer/video games, Second Life would certainly seem to be an extreme niche sort of market to me. Of course I could just be old and no longer hip. ;)
If the facts bear out she deserves some sort of penalty. While the penalty of stoning by the mob is probably not it, it's sad that someone can do something so sick and get away with it. I'm all for innocent until proven guilty but if it never goes to court this will never be sorted out. So this needs to go to court. If they don't do anything then the system is failing. As far as the reported facts go it would seem they meant her obvious menace. But without a trial and a presentation of ALL the facts you will never know.
I think its pretty safe to say it will be far more than SEVERAL false positives. There will be an incredibly high amount of false positives. Then it will be on the sender to prove that they are innocent due to the vast money and legal teams available to those who would remove fair use altogether. Any other opinion is naive at best. Look at what the RIAA has been doing and try to make a convincing argument otherwise. Not possible. Innocent until proven guilty is a vain hope of the past. One is now guilty until proven innocent or can afford the better lawyers. Yes, this is a very pessimistic opinion but it's by far the reality in this day and age despite the Constitution and despite what the Intelligentia would like to think.
I am definitely not a lawyer. That said, assuming you decline to sign it, if they try to fire you only on the basis of not signing a new contract when you are already employed would be highly questionable and I can't see any judge in his right mind siding with your company. That said, before you decline to sign it make sure there is no other reason for them to find to fire you. Because believe me they will look.
Completely anecdotal, I dated a director of HR. And I can tell you, in general, they do NOT look out for the employees. In this day and age they are no longer the "brokers" between management and employees. Their sole purpose is to do the will of the upper management. And if that means looking for a reason to terminate you, they WILL find one, even if its something as lame as you came to work late a few times in the past few months. You would be amazed at the things that get filed into your employee records, even without your knowledge.
So ultimately, if you are going to decline to sign this thing, make sure you go to HR and ask for your files first and make sure there is nothing in there that they can use against you to justify your termination.
You, sir, are the reason why corporate America sucks. They made a movie about you. Its called "Office Space." You should watch it some day. I manage a team of 4 people. In the real world there is seldom a constant stream of real work to be done. There is always down time and waiting around for tickets, for other teams to catch up, etc. For you to even make a statement like this pretty much pushes your opinions into the realm of unreality. When stuff needs to really get done -- there is a fire to be put out -- my guys are all over it like flies to honey. But on the other end of the spectrum are the times when there are no fires to put out. Everything is running fluidly and perfectly because we put in the extra effort to make sure that things run that way. We scripted things that could be automated, we set up autonomous systems that will alert us if something important goes down, we set up automatic backups of critical infrastructure. Frankly, once all that is in place there isn't a whole lot to do unless someone needs something special for a new project, or there is some unaccounted for chain of events that cause the aforementioned fire. This is what we are paid to do. To keep things running smoothly and perfectly the majority of the time. The reason people get paid for their jobs is because they can do their job WHEN IT MATTERS. All the other times are irrelevant. The only thing you show here is that you are a poor manager and I feel sorry for anyone that has to call you boss.
I wrote this yesterday.
Probably because books are a handy, cheap format to have information in. I can sit in my hot tub and read a book. I won't do that with my latest electronic gizmo of the day. Its cheaper to replace the book than my gizmo if I accidentally drop what I'm reading in the water. And I can always just dry out the book and it still "works." ;)
A time machine!
I'm interested to see who gets fired over this mess. :) And, as an extension, whether its noted anywhere or not!