But, if it hadn't been recal'd, a smart lawyer would use that and accept the (comparitively minor) equipment violation.
Of course, said smart lawyer would have to then overcome his own client's testimony that he was doing 60 in a residental area, something that I believe is illegal in any US jurisdiction.
While the 114 MPH might have increased the sentence (particularly since it shows the defendant lying about how fast he was going), the verdict would likely be the same regardless.
If you don't mind using Freeloader or Action Replay, you can get a Japanese version from Lik-Sang. The hardware is exactly the same (the GBA doesn't have region coding) but the boot disc is region-specific. It would add an extra disc swap when you first boot the system but it would solve your color coordination dilemma...fortunately, I bought a black Cube.:)
Brazil isn't like the US - they don't spend hundreds of billions on military, and therefore, I doubt their military computer systems make up even 10% of their infrastructure)
I know it's nitpicking, but I would take issue with this comment. Of course Brazil doesn't spend "hundreds of billions" on military - they don't HAVE hundreds of billions to spend (or the capability to generate that income by issuing bonds and expanding their debt). However, Brazil has in the very recent past actually spent more on their military than, for example, Israel.
This is the only chart I could find on short notice, and despite Brazil's figure being taken from 2001 while others were taken from 2002 they still managed to come in right behind South Korea (where there is a far more immediate military concern) and ahead of Israel (wow) in military spending.
Again, I know it doesn't approach US spending but the military is still quite clearly a significant drain on their budget...
Did AOL Cause The Dotcom Depression?
on
Glory Days at AOL
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· Score: 4, Interesting
As I was reading the article (something few so far seem to have done), it was mentioned that the goal of AOL Business Affairs was to get as much of the venture capital possessed by a potential "partner" as possible. This makes me wonder if, even more than poorly thought-out ideas, fancy chairs and expensive office space, AOL caused - or at least hastened - the end of the dotcom boom. If they were siphoning ridiculous amounts of money out of these new companies before they even got their businesses moving, there would clearly be little left to actually make the businesses work. While association with AOL could be an asset, wouldn't losing a third or more of the available start-up capital making the AOL deal have given executives pause?
I'd be curious to see some figures on how much of the aforementioned venture capital AOL managed to scoop up during the boom and what percentage of the total VC spent on Internet startups that number represents.
Of course, this doesn't change the fact that if people were busted out because of AOL it means the executives of the busted company were making bad decisions...but it might make even happier those on the sidelines (particularly those who got out of AOL/TW stock before the bottom dropped out and those who AOL squeezed out of business) who are now watching AOL seemingly reap what it sowed.
You and the poster above you are absolutely right. Fat people have been around for years and years before fast food, TV, etc. AND we shouldn't be sin taxing all this stuff. I should have been more clear and said "If they feel they have to tax something causing obesity..."
I'm mostly a libertarian at heart and believe that this kind of behavior tax is just a way for "tax-and-spend" folks (I hate to use that term because it gets bandied about too much - it just fits so well) to get additional revenue streams. They put a gloss on it by making it out to be a measure to encourage a healthy lifestyle, but the reality is that they just want more money in the government coffers.
Of course, all that is why I'd rather new taxes (if they simply have to be collected) be levied on those who can best afford it - huge multinational corporations (Disney, Viacom and GE in the cases of the big three networks). Doing otherwise (particularly in the case of a fast food tax) just penalizes people who are in lower income brackets since a lot more people with an income around poverty level eat fast food than do millionaires.
Of course, I would first recomend that everyone in Mr. Ortiz's district get together and talk about the possibility of recalling the guy. He seems pretty out of touch with what state legislatures are supposed to be doing.
Not only "debunked on Howard Stern," but debunked on Howard Stern by a caller...a caller to Howard Stern...a caller who presumably listens to Howard Stern...Ouch.
That's great for people who play multiplayer...maybe. I'm worried, though, about how good a game will be whose original purpose is to fulfill the Nintendo requirement of developing at least one Gamecube game in order to get permission to develop games for the GBA. Let's face it, Square is not above releasing bad games (or even bad movies) in order to cash in.
It may not be relevant to the story, but actually the release date of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles was determined by Nintendo of America as they are handling the publishing/distribution of that game - along with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Sword of Mana for the GBA - in North America.
My point was that commercials aren't what need this kind of "sin tax" but rather the television networks themselves (perhaps for every 40 minutes of programming) - they're the ones getting the money to RUN the commercials and they're the ones providing the programming where the commercials run. While the commercials might indeed be encouraging unhealthy lifestyles, nobody would watch them if there was no "entertainment" programming. Commercials don't stick people to the couch, CSI does.
There's no question in my mind that the biggest cause of sedentary lifestyles in this country is the good old idiot box. And I'm not talking about the people who build televisions because RCA, Toshiba, Zenith, et. al. couldn't care less whether you ever turned on your TV after you purchase it, but rather commercial televison networks which make billions of dollars every year trying as hard as they can to get as many people as possible to watch as much of their programming as possible, preferably while eating a McDonald's hamburger accompanied by a bag of Nacho Cheesier Doritos and a Coke (or a Budweiser - they're not THAT picky).
Even if they think that SCO has a case, they won't cave and they would probably try to file for an injunction so that SCO can't damage IBM's customers by revoking the license. Then, again assuming that IBM believes SCO's case has merit, they can tie SCO up in court for years, with the injunction remaining in place until the case is settled.
This is a PR threat by SCO where they're trying to "prove" publicly that they have the upper hand.
I'm surprised at this - Tukwila is a place with LOTS of businesses - one of the greater Seattle area's largest malls is there (Southcenter), with LOTS of busineeses around it - all new stuff that's used all the time, too - no ghetto anything. One wonders how they're all that cash-strapped.
I confess that I don't know jack about Tukwila but I would suspect that the reason there are a lot of businesses located there is because of cheaper property values and hence cheaper property taxes which would give the area a smaller tax base with which to support their schools. The way to figure out how much money a school district has to work with (without actually looking at the budgets) is to find out how much RESIDENTIAL property values. Since they mention a large portion of the student population qualifying for the free and reduced lunch cost program, I would expect residential property values to be quite low.
The biggest difference is delineated in your first sentence: "I did a study at my university..." [emphasis added]
High school students are going to be a LOT tougher on equipment than students at university, so in terms of hardware longevity a comparison between the two is invalid on its face.
Furthermore, a university is necessarily better funded than a high school and so they can afford to experiment with different platforms - in fact, the nature of universities is such that they would be EXPECTED to be trying different things and teaching on many different platforms.
And here's the most fundamental question: If your science department had a PC lab and a Mac lab and had to eliminate one, which would they choose? Just my guess, but I suspect that they would eliminate the Mac lab for the simple reason that not only are more people already familiar with them but they're the most likely to be used after college is over.
And it didn't cost the department any extra, for us to learn and actually use with some degree of success these systems.
You're either fooling yourself or you just don't understand how much training costs a company. Hardware costs are usually only the tip of the iceberg. You have to factor in the time (time=money, remember) it takes to do training, lost productivity during that training time, reduced productivity while training is initially being put into practice, etc.
While it can often be worth the investment to train on a new system, a cash-strapped school district (today that usually means 40-child classes and the like) probably doesn't have the money to spend.
To my mind, the district would be better off applying for another $40,000 (or less, since PCs are cheaper anyway) from B&MG to purchase PCs with which their staff is already familiar...not to mention the fact that the majority of computer jobs, and the VAST majority of non-computer jobs that require computer knowledge, are going to be PC-based, so the value of Macs in a classroom becomes even less.
1) The second article clearly states that the grand from the B&MG foundation does NOT restrict them to one particular type of computer. Add into that the fact that the value of their grant is TEN TIMES that of the Apple grant.
2) The article also points out that the Macs in use are for teachers who prefer them. Presumably, a teacher who is familiar enough with Macs to have a preference for them needs little in the way of tech support to maintain his/her personal Mac.
3) Despite this grant, PCs are STILL cheaper to buy and maintain generally and so I agree with the district that they need to focus on one computer. It's made clear in both articles that this is a cash-strapped district and trying to maintain both Macs and PCs is indeed a lot more expensive than just maintaining PCs. Consider that hiring ONE Mac-savvy tech to add to their IT team would cost almost as much as the value of the grant in ONE year and would certainly exceed it in two.
In short, any pro-Mac fervor about this is trumped by reality.
The only reason Valve has kept Half-Life 2 quiet is because they learned their lesson with Team Fortress 2. They offered a feature list and showed screenshots of Team Fortress 2 right after they scooped up the Team Fortress team and nothing has happened since, causing many salivating TF fans like myself a lot of angst. Of course, I'd still buy a TF2 game in a heartbeat, where DNF doesn't interest me much at all (and never has).
I ask because I've read that most developers [HAVE to] leave all the marketing to their publisher. Many of them cannot even release a screenshot without clearing it through the publisher's marketing department. It therefore makes me wonder if Take Two was the origin for the early hype factory of DNF and therefore should take responsibility now for whatever bad feelings are out there in the public about the game.
Of course, the aforementioned public has to take responsibility, too. All it takes is an announcement of a game and one or two screenshots for some geeks to immediately declare that "This will be the best game ever!" followed immediately by putting up fan sites full of speculative information. I've seen people complaing about not seeing any game info for a LONG time, but of course if they got any they would complain once again: "Only three screenshots?? We need more than that!"
3DRealms, since going through all the DNF turmoil, has for the most part done the responsible thing: They've shut up about the game. When asked about a release date, they now say "When it's done" and they don't answer any more specific questions than that. If gamers would just let it lie, they might just end up with a pleasant surprise when the game comes out. And, if it doesn't, then maybe the stories about this game will end...which would be a very good thing, indeed.
Actually, it's one part that I find signature lines silly on a site where you display not only your user ID but also potentially your e-mail address and website; one part the fact that sometimes while reading a comment I'll get to the sig, find it annoying and consider the comment more unfavorably because of that; and eight parts that I found it amusing that it would be there but that I would never see it again after the initial entry.:)
That's interesting. Personally, I'd rather see the commercials scanned through than a blue screen but I might be the only one.:)
That brings up, though, what I think might be the biggest reason that the studios went after SONICblue and ReplayTV where they don't go after certain VCR companies that might have similar commercial-avoidance features: There are so many VCRs available that the likelihood of someone buying a VCR with the fancy Commercial Advance feature is much smaller than buying a PVR with the same feature. Why? Because there are SO many VCR companies and models available while, up until very recently (with Panasonic and Toshiba entering the mix), there have been only two major DVR manufacturers (or licensors in the case of Tivo) so a prospective DVR/PVR customer would have had to buy one of those two products. If more companies jump on the HD-recording bandwagon with more variety in terms of features, it will make it that much harder for the studios to go after a particular feature/company...not to mention the fact that Tivo and ReplayTV are relatively small compared to the big consumer electronics manufacturers and thus are more appealing litigation targets.
Then Toshiba and Panasonic have devices that you might be interested in. Both have DVR/DVD-R/RW products that can record to hard drive or disc. Neither have broadband/dial-up connections or program guides. The biggest problem is that they're still pretty expensive, running at minimum around the same price as a Tivo or Replay with lifetime guide service and as high as $1,500 MSRP. Here's a link to one of the Panasonic products, and a link to a Toshiba product.
WITH Commercial Advance. For the next three days, apparently they are closing out factory-renewed 40-hour ReplayTV 5040 units WITH Commercial Advance. Not only that, but the site also says that these units are coming with lifetime service. The total cost is $330(!!). You can get them at SONICblue. I'm not in the market since I'm still happy with my "ancient" ReplayTV and just can't justify buying a new one, but it's the best PVR deal I've seen for a factory renewed unit (as opposed to a used unit bought privately).
Removing the commercial skip bit is lame, since there are VCRs that do this already and they've never been attacked.
While it's true that there are VCRs with the features, the fact is that the VCRs do it by doing a scan fast-forward through the commercials. It's been demonstrated in studies that people seeing commercials as they're fast-forwarding are affected by them just as much as if they saw them at normal speed. With the ReplayTV version, the advance happens all but instantaneously, so people aren't exposed to the commercials even for a second.
As someone who has had a ReplayTV for many years (without Commercial Advance), I can tell you that even with 30-second skip I still get exposed to pieces of commercials and am still aware of what's being advertised. While I might not be able to discuss the latest Miller Light commercial in detail, I still know that they added Pam Anderson to the latest cat fight.:)
The fact that they haven't conjures up various conspiracy theories, or (in my opinion the more likely option) demonstrates that they really don't care that much about the problem despite their press releases.
Further, the two years without a patch, despite the myriad insecurities brought to light, gives further evidence of a lack of caring.
Forgive me for asking, but why SHOULD they care? Diablo 2 has been out for three years and the expansion has been out for two.
Now, I'll examine whether or not they do indeed care:
Since the game's release, people have been able to play through the entire game easily offline (in other words, no significant bugs that prevent such), they've been able to do matchmaking on battle.net AND they've even been able to play games hosted on battle.net servers. During that time, they've also been provided with new special items, enhancement and correction of unbalanced skills and repair of the serious playability bugs that existed. Even more relevant, Blizzard is STILL trying to address the problem of cheaters as is clearly evidenced by THIS STORY.
In short, Blizzard cares more about Diablo 2, a product over two years old that is now being sold at discounted prices, than most companies care about games in their first month of release. More importantly, they're demonstrating that they care about the people who are still playing by getting rid of cheaters and providing better customer care than some of the companies running MMORPGs which you actually have to pay monthly fees to play.
As far as I can tell, none of Gamespy's content (apart from some of the downloads at File Planet) requires any payment at all. Furthermore, I know it can seem "cool" these days to predict bad things with no evidence, but CJayC (the guru of GameFAQs) stated quite plainly and directly that everything that's free now will stay free:
"GameFAQs will still be free.
We're not cutting off any part of the site and making you pay for any of it. From the FAQs to the Message Boards, everything you see today for no charge on the site will be free tomorrow. While we may someday introduce new features that require payment, nothing you see today is going to be turned into a premium service."
There's nothing wrong with turning off cynicism for a minute or two so that you can simply accept statements at face value until proven to be lies. Wait to get cynical again if and when GameFAQs starts charging you to look at the FAQs - you might even be a happier person in the meantime.
Slashdot Mirror
How about "over 35 mph in a residental neighborhood"? There's no excuse any way you slice it - 50, 60 or 100+.
Of course, said smart lawyer would have to then overcome his own client's testimony that he was doing 60 in a residental area, something that I believe is illegal in any US jurisdiction.
While the 114 MPH might have increased the sentence (particularly since it shows the defendant lying about how fast he was going), the verdict would likely be the same regardless.
If you don't mind using Freeloader or Action Replay, you can get a Japanese version from Lik-Sang. The hardware is exactly the same (the GBA doesn't have region coding) but the boot disc is region-specific. It would add an extra disc swap when you first boot the system but it would solve your color coordination dilemma...fortunately, I bought a black Cube. :)
I know it's nitpicking, but I would take issue with this comment. Of course Brazil doesn't spend "hundreds of billions" on military - they don't HAVE hundreds of billions to spend (or the capability to generate that income by issuing bonds and expanding their debt). However, Brazil has in the very recent past actually spent more on their military than, for example, Israel.
This is the only chart I could find on short notice, and despite Brazil's figure being taken from 2001 while others were taken from 2002 they still managed to come in right behind South Korea (where there is a far more immediate military concern) and ahead of Israel (wow) in military spending.
Again, I know it doesn't approach US spending but the military is still quite clearly a significant drain on their budget...
I'd be curious to see some figures on how much of the aforementioned venture capital AOL managed to scoop up during the boom and what percentage of the total VC spent on Internet startups that number represents.
Of course, this doesn't change the fact that if people were busted out because of AOL it means the executives of the busted company were making bad decisions...but it might make even happier those on the sidelines (particularly those who got out of AOL/TW stock before the bottom dropped out and those who AOL squeezed out of business) who are now watching AOL seemingly reap what it sowed.
I'm mostly a libertarian at heart and believe that this kind of behavior tax is just a way for "tax-and-spend" folks (I hate to use that term because it gets bandied about too much - it just fits so well) to get additional revenue streams. They put a gloss on it by making it out to be a measure to encourage a healthy lifestyle, but the reality is that they just want more money in the government coffers.
Of course, all that is why I'd rather new taxes (if they simply have to be collected) be levied on those who can best afford it - huge multinational corporations (Disney, Viacom and GE in the cases of the big three networks). Doing otherwise (particularly in the case of a fast food tax) just penalizes people who are in lower income brackets since a lot more people with an income around poverty level eat fast food than do millionaires.
Of course, I would first recomend that everyone in Mr. Ortiz's district get together and talk about the possibility of recalling the guy. He seems pretty out of touch with what state legislatures are supposed to be doing.
Imus rules!
That's great for people who play multiplayer...maybe. I'm worried, though, about how good a game will be whose original purpose is to fulfill the Nintendo requirement of developing at least one Gamecube game in order to get permission to develop games for the GBA. Let's face it, Square is not above releasing bad games (or even bad movies) in order to cash in.
It may not be relevant to the story, but actually the release date of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles was determined by Nintendo of America as they are handling the publishing/distribution of that game - along with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Sword of Mana for the GBA - in North America.
My point was that commercials aren't what need this kind of "sin tax" but rather the television networks themselves (perhaps for every 40 minutes of programming) - they're the ones getting the money to RUN the commercials and they're the ones providing the programming where the commercials run. While the commercials might indeed be encouraging unhealthy lifestyles, nobody would watch them if there was no "entertainment" programming. Commercials don't stick people to the couch, CSI does.
There's no question in my mind that the biggest cause of sedentary lifestyles in this country is the good old idiot box. And I'm not talking about the people who build televisions because RCA, Toshiba, Zenith, et. al. couldn't care less whether you ever turned on your TV after you purchase it, but rather commercial televison networks which make billions of dollars every year trying as hard as they can to get as many people as possible to watch as much of their programming as possible, preferably while eating a McDonald's hamburger accompanied by a bag of Nacho Cheesier Doritos and a Coke (or a Budweiser - they're not THAT picky).
This is a PR threat by SCO where they're trying to "prove" publicly that they have the upper hand.
I confess that I don't know jack about Tukwila but I would suspect that the reason there are a lot of businesses located there is because of cheaper property values and hence cheaper property taxes which would give the area a smaller tax base with which to support their schools. The way to figure out how much money a school district has to work with (without actually looking at the budgets) is to find out how much RESIDENTIAL property values. Since they mention a large portion of the student population qualifying for the free and reduced lunch cost program, I would expect residential property values to be quite low.
High school students are going to be a LOT tougher on equipment than students at university, so in terms of hardware longevity a comparison between the two is invalid on its face.
Furthermore, a university is necessarily better funded than a high school and so they can afford to experiment with different platforms - in fact, the nature of universities is such that they would be EXPECTED to be trying different things and teaching on many different platforms.
And here's the most fundamental question: If your science department had a PC lab and a Mac lab and had to eliminate one, which would they choose? Just my guess, but I suspect that they would eliminate the Mac lab for the simple reason that not only are more people already familiar with them but they're the most likely to be used after college is over.
You're either fooling yourself or you just don't understand how much training costs a company. Hardware costs are usually only the tip of the iceberg. You have to factor in the time (time=money, remember) it takes to do training, lost productivity during that training time, reduced productivity while training is initially being put into practice, etc.
While it can often be worth the investment to train on a new system, a cash-strapped school district (today that usually means 40-child classes and the like) probably doesn't have the money to spend.
To my mind, the district would be better off applying for another $40,000 (or less, since PCs are cheaper anyway) from B&MG to purchase PCs with which their staff is already familiar...not to mention the fact that the majority of computer jobs, and the VAST majority of non-computer jobs that require computer knowledge, are going to be PC-based, so the value of Macs in a classroom becomes even less.
2) The article also points out that the Macs in use are for teachers who prefer them. Presumably, a teacher who is familiar enough with Macs to have a preference for them needs little in the way of tech support to maintain his/her personal Mac.
3) Despite this grant, PCs are STILL cheaper to buy and maintain generally and so I agree with the district that they need to focus on one computer. It's made clear in both articles that this is a cash-strapped district and trying to maintain both Macs and PCs is indeed a lot more expensive than just maintaining PCs. Consider that hiring ONE Mac-savvy tech to add to their IT team would cost almost as much as the value of the grant in ONE year and would certainly exceed it in two.
In short, any pro-Mac fervor about this is trumped by reality.
The only reason Valve has kept Half-Life 2 quiet is because they learned their lesson with Team Fortress 2. They offered a feature list and showed screenshots of Team Fortress 2 right after they scooped up the Team Fortress team and nothing has happened since, causing many salivating TF fans like myself a lot of angst. Of course, I'd still buy a TF2 game in a heartbeat, where DNF doesn't interest me much at all (and never has).
Of course, the aforementioned public has to take responsibility, too. All it takes is an announcement of a game and one or two screenshots for some geeks to immediately declare that "This will be the best game ever!" followed immediately by putting up fan sites full of speculative information. I've seen people complaing about not seeing any game info for a LONG time, but of course if they got any they would complain once again: "Only three screenshots?? We need more than that!"
3DRealms, since going through all the DNF turmoil, has for the most part done the responsible thing: They've shut up about the game. When asked about a release date, they now say "When it's done" and they don't answer any more specific questions than that. If gamers would just let it lie, they might just end up with a pleasant surprise when the game comes out. And, if it doesn't, then maybe the stories about this game will end...which would be a very good thing, indeed.
Actually, it's one part that I find signature lines silly on a site where you display not only your user ID but also potentially your e-mail address and website; one part the fact that sometimes while reading a comment I'll get to the sig, find it annoying and consider the comment more unfavorably because of that; and eight parts that I found it amusing that it would be there but that I would never see it again after the initial entry. :)
That brings up, though, what I think might be the biggest reason that the studios went after SONICblue and ReplayTV where they don't go after certain VCR companies that might have similar commercial-avoidance features: There are so many VCRs available that the likelihood of someone buying a VCR with the fancy Commercial Advance feature is much smaller than buying a PVR with the same feature. Why? Because there are SO many VCR companies and models available while, up until very recently (with Panasonic and Toshiba entering the mix), there have been only two major DVR manufacturers (or licensors in the case of Tivo) so a prospective DVR/PVR customer would have had to buy one of those two products. If more companies jump on the HD-recording bandwagon with more variety in terms of features, it will make it that much harder for the studios to go after a particular feature/company...not to mention the fact that Tivo and ReplayTV are relatively small compared to the big consumer electronics manufacturers and thus are more appealing litigation targets.
Then Toshiba and Panasonic have devices that you might be interested in. Both have DVR/DVD-R/RW products that can record to hard drive or disc. Neither have broadband/dial-up connections or program guides. The biggest problem is that they're still pretty expensive, running at minimum around the same price as a Tivo or Replay with lifetime guide service and as high as $1,500 MSRP. Here's a link to one of the Panasonic products, and a link to a Toshiba product.
WITH Commercial Advance. For the next three days, apparently they are closing out factory-renewed 40-hour ReplayTV 5040 units WITH Commercial Advance. Not only that, but the site also says that these units are coming with lifetime service. The total cost is $330(!!). You can get them at SONICblue. I'm not in the market since I'm still happy with my "ancient" ReplayTV and just can't justify buying a new one, but it's the best PVR deal I've seen for a factory renewed unit (as opposed to a used unit bought privately).
While it's true that there are VCRs with the features, the fact is that the VCRs do it by doing a scan fast-forward through the commercials. It's been demonstrated in studies that people seeing commercials as they're fast-forwarding are affected by them just as much as if they saw them at normal speed. With the ReplayTV version, the advance happens all but instantaneously, so people aren't exposed to the commercials even for a second.
As someone who has had a ReplayTV for many years (without Commercial Advance), I can tell you that even with 30-second skip I still get exposed to pieces of commercials and am still aware of what's being advertised. While I might not be able to discuss the latest Miller Light commercial in detail, I still know that they added Pam Anderson to the latest cat fight. :)
Further, the two years without a patch, despite the myriad insecurities brought to light, gives further evidence of a lack of caring.
Forgive me for asking, but why SHOULD they care? Diablo 2 has been out for three years and the expansion has been out for two.
Now, I'll examine whether or not they do indeed care:
Since the game's release, people have been able to play through the entire game easily offline (in other words, no significant bugs that prevent such), they've been able to do matchmaking on battle.net AND they've even been able to play games hosted on battle.net servers. During that time, they've also been provided with new special items, enhancement and correction of unbalanced skills and repair of the serious playability bugs that existed. Even more relevant, Blizzard is STILL trying to address the problem of cheaters as is clearly evidenced by THIS STORY.
In short, Blizzard cares more about Diablo 2, a product over two years old that is now being sold at discounted prices, than most companies care about games in their first month of release. More importantly, they're demonstrating that they care about the people who are still playing by getting rid of cheaters and providing better customer care than some of the companies running MMORPGs which you actually have to pay monthly fees to play.
Even shorter: You're wrong.
"GameFAQs will still be free.
We're not cutting off any part of the site and making you pay for any of it. From the FAQs to the Message Boards, everything you see today for no charge on the site will be free tomorrow. While we may someday introduce new features that require payment, nothing you see today is going to be turned into a premium service."
There's nothing wrong with turning off cynicism for a minute or two so that you can simply accept statements at face value until proven to be lies. Wait to get cynical again if and when GameFAQs starts charging you to look at the FAQs - you might even be a happier person in the meantime.