What is it called when you offer to sell a product at a greatly reduced price, especially when there's another bidder? Is that bribery too? Or is it two companies competing for a bid/
I have to say that I doubt Microsoft outright bribed the government to get this deal to go through. However, they were probably willing to take a loss on this to offer them Windows at an insanely reduced price. The problem is that by offering windows up as a loss leader, microsoft is getting Nigerian children hooked on their product making it much harder to transition away later. They've found yet another group of children who will eventually equate the internet with double clicking on a big blue 'e'. That's worth any loss they take initially on this deal. It's not a bribe, but offering a huge discount is definitely an investment for MS.
to play devils advocate. they dont care about the hardcore people that will crack it no matter what. but you know a number of people that are casual copiers. they rent crack and copy dvds effortlessly. That is the aim. that and control. but if they can stop the casual copiers. that is what they want.
I agree, but I think this is an indication of how out of touch these media cartels are with what's really going on out there even after all these years. The hardcore copiers (the ones that likely won't be stopped by DRM) are also more likely to put their copies up on bittorrent. The casual copiers are likely making backups (which is legal and should be easy anyways), or at worst ripping movies they rented and maybe giving a few friends copies. Yet this is all the MPAA is really preventing with their copy protection.
So after all that effort, blu-ray movies will still end up on bittorrent while paying customers are punished. Way to go MPAA.
I agree. While this could be a useful measure, companies will find ways to game the system like they always do. The problem is, if they just publish hard numbers and exact specs they will be difficult to interpret. When they publish these "more useful" stats, they'll just do everything they can to get the biggest (or smallest) numbers while sacrificing everything else.
For example... I was recently shopping for home theater projectors and was doing a lot of comparisons between brands. The two most important things I was looking for were picture quality and brightness. Both have standard metrics such as contrast ratio and lumens. The problem is that the manufacturers know they're being judged on these two numbers, so they just play with the numbers until they get them as high as possible. Sure, you can get theoretically get a picture with the advertised contrast ratio, but the brightness will be terrible. And yes, you can get a picture as bright as advertised, but it will look like crap. The numbers are supposed to give you an indication of the quality of the projector, but instead it's just a dick measuring contest between manufacturers and most would likely sacrifice overall quality just to up their numbers.
I would expect the same will go for CPU manufacturers in this case. Processors will be advertised at XGHz and Ywatts*, but you definitely won't see both X and Y true at the same time.
*Y watts based on our definition of "typical use" while running at a much slower clock speed than X
First, let me say that I am a student at Virginia Tech, and this has been a trying day for everyone here in Blacksburg. I can't imagine what it was like for my fellow Hokies who were in Norris Hall. That said, I had to reply to this...
The solution to school shootings is *more* guns in the classrooms?
Currently at Virginia Tech, there are NO guns in classrooms (unless someone is carrying one on campus illegally like the shooter today). Banning guns on campus did nothing to avert this tragedy. It did prevent law abiding students from carrying protection and possibly stopping this guy partway through his rampage. It's very possible the same outcome would have occurred if guns were allowed on campus. However, banning guns won't prevent criminals from using them.
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I have to say that I doubt Microsoft outright bribed the government to get this deal to go through. However, they were probably willing to take a loss on this to offer them Windows at an insanely reduced price. The problem is that by offering windows up as a loss leader, microsoft is getting Nigerian children hooked on their product making it much harder to transition away later. They've found yet another group of children who will eventually equate the internet with double clicking on a big blue 'e'. That's worth any loss they take initially on this deal. It's not a bribe, but offering a huge discount is definitely an investment for MS.
I agree, but I think this is an indication of how out of touch these media cartels are with what's really going on out there even after all these years. The hardcore copiers (the ones that likely won't be stopped by DRM) are also more likely to put their copies up on bittorrent. The casual copiers are likely making backups (which is legal and should be easy anyways), or at worst ripping movies they rented and maybe giving a few friends copies. Yet this is all the MPAA is really preventing with their copy protection.
So after all that effort, blu-ray movies will still end up on bittorrent while paying customers are punished. Way to go MPAA.
For example... I was recently shopping for home theater projectors and was doing a lot of comparisons between brands. The two most important things I was looking for were picture quality and brightness. Both have standard metrics such as contrast ratio and lumens. The problem is that the manufacturers know they're being judged on these two numbers, so they just play with the numbers until they get them as high as possible. Sure, you can get theoretically get a picture with the advertised contrast ratio, but the brightness will be terrible. And yes, you can get a picture as bright as advertised, but it will look like crap. The numbers are supposed to give you an indication of the quality of the projector, but instead it's just a dick measuring contest between manufacturers and most would likely sacrifice overall quality just to up their numbers.
I would expect the same will go for CPU manufacturers in this case. Processors will be advertised at XGHz and Ywatts*, but you definitely won't see both X and Y true at the same time.
*Y watts based on our definition of "typical use" while running at a much slower clock speed than X
If the pages of his legal briefs are getting stuck together, then he must really like writing them. Let the man enjoy his passionate love of the law.
First, let me say that I am a student at Virginia Tech, and this has been a trying day for everyone here in Blacksburg. I can't imagine what it was like for my fellow Hokies who were in Norris Hall. That said, I had to reply to this...
The solution to school shootings is *more* guns in the classrooms?
Currently at Virginia Tech, there are NO guns in classrooms (unless someone is carrying one on campus illegally like the shooter today). Banning guns on campus did nothing to avert this tragedy. It did prevent law abiding students from carrying protection and possibly stopping this guy partway through his rampage. It's very possible the same outcome would have occurred if guns were allowed on campus. However, banning guns won't prevent criminals from using them.