These days we have super wealthy for no other weather than because they know a guy from college.
This isn't even close to new; it certainly pre-dates capitalism, and probably has been true for as long as humans have used money.
What is new, is the awareness of how often those who have gotten ahead in life did so in ways that leave others wondering "Why couldn't that have happenned to me?" With each new media that has been invented, more and more information has been available to people, and amoungst all that information are ever more detailed biographies of people who once would have just been stared at in awe.
but I have to wonder: how long will it be before US companies realize that we really are worth our salaries, that you get what you pay for?
This will happen shortly after the economic model that rewards CEOs and stockholders for the companies short-term gains, even if it is at the expense of the long term, comes to an end. I am not an economist, but I am not hopeful this will happen in my lifetime.
As someone who has worked in tech support for many years (and as such is pretty familiar with the BS that goes on in these companies), I do everything I can to make the product look just like it did when it came out of the box before I send/take it to tech support. I remove everything I've added, put back everything I took out, and I make sure the HDD has a clean install of whatever shipped with it.
You can make a very good case that this shouldn't be necessary, but if what you want is your product fixed in a timely manner, its the best course of action.
Sounds to me like you should look into joining a clan...
The thing is that not all of us are so inclined. And while the existence of clans has created a great environment for those who choose to participate in them, for those of us who do not it makes the online component of many games worthless; what team of random strangers stands a chance against an organised clan, regardless of the game?
This has led to many people like me totally abandoning online gaming, even though it should be something I like.
I don't think we're talking about mere coincidence here. If you could show that your doctor was taking money to prescribe specific medications (and not using his own medical judgement), I suspect there might be a lawsuit in there somewhere.
The thing is that in many cases either several different medications solve the same problem or at the very least several different medications are relevent to the same symptoms. This is where the drug companies exert their influence; when the doctor doesn't know the med won't fix the problem, he is encouraged to give a particular brand.
And while I don't know that I bunch of lawsuits couldn't stop this, keep in mind whose business model would be threatened by such a lawsuit; you can bet that the drug companies would happily offer their lawyers to assist any doctor so threatened.
If the international data plan charges $24 per 20MB
In addition to the points others have made, notice that he was on a cruise. Though I have never been on one myself, I have heard that they charge sky high prices for any data/cell usage.
Though one can equally argue that if these people didn't exist all entertainment would have to sell itself by word of mouth, ergo the crap they protect us from would rarely get made.
Didn't some internet provider at one time threaten or attempt to disconnect customers whose computer were suspected to have spyware or a virus infection?
Virtually all ISPs do this, its just that what they count as "suspected to have spyware or a virus infection" is pretty lax. Usually the only thing that counts is sending out more than x many emails in a certain time frame. Of course, I would rather have them be lax than be intruding to my system.
Maybe if they are able to recover more money, that the California taxpayers will eventually have to pay, the California voters will get pissed off and vote out the clowns that passed legislation they should have known would be doomed.
Dream on; for every nerd that thinks this was a waste of money there are 100 parents and grandparents who don't care about the constitution when you should be thinking of the children.
Were they hoping that every game publisher in the country would just let their law slide and not bother to challenge it, even though those same publishers had already successfully challenged similar laws?
Yes. From their perspective the government is in the right and the game companies are EVIL, and when you are fighting EVIL you do whatever it takes, including passing laws you know will fall.
Given that the majority of PS2 owners purchased their console when it was NOT the most technologically advanced console out there, what makes you think that owning the most gigahurtzy console will be important to them this time around?
In fairness to the fanbois, they really did think that the PS2 was the HW king last gen; some of them still do. So in their minds history is just going to repeat itself.
Windows ME was a giant pile of steaming Bovine Feces. I have never meat ONE person that though ME was useful for ANYTHING. Everyone waited for XP to come along to fix it. windows 2000 was for corporations and not for home use so you never really saw it at home. XP was the first time they merged the home and corperate OS lines.
Vista is looking very much like the steaming turd that ME was to many people.
You forget one historically important fact; that ME and XP came out just one year apart. It was really easy for everyone to skip ME because XP was already on the way. A very good arguement can made that MS never really intended ME to be a 98 replacement.
On the other hand it sounds like Vista is here to stay and that the next MS operating system is years away.
They are lowering there prices because everybody has caught on that they are really high.
If only this were true. Once upon a time HMV was a music store that screwed people. Then people stopped buying music there so they started selling DVDs. Just last month they added video games to the mix. I was in an HMV last month, perhaps 25% of the shelf space was for music.
This cut isn't because HMV has figured out what they were doing wrong, its because they make all their money off of DVDs and games and the few CDs that are left in the store are stealing valuable shelf space. Despite the fact they continue to market themselves as a music store, I think its just a matter of time before the music is gone.
MS is cynical and ruthless because it can and because it is profitable;
Which is what some posters here seem to be missing. The people who are going to be mad about this, in large part, already had long lists of greivences against MS. I predict that MS will not lose a single sale from this action.
My first point was that it is very widespread now, and my second point is that someone probably thought of it a long time ago. Since it was not based on a news event witnessed by half of the world's population, one could likely assume some sort of normal growth model for that technique. Your example fails on this point. Of course, because it's only "likely", I used the word "guess".
If I recall, the trend of putting "unsubscribe" links in emails started after CANSPAM required it. That was 2003.
So how does that work out that the PS3 sold twice as many consoles as the 360?
Of course it doesn't, but I bet I can guess why he thinks it ought to. If you go to http://www.sonydefenseforce.com/?p=95 you will see that it claims there "the Sony platform even managed to outsell the much hyped Nintendo Wii"(using NPD numbers). But what the site author tries to make you not notice (and presumably the GP didn't notice) is that he lumps the PSP, PS2, and PS3 into one category, while not doing the same for other companies.
Though unlike the GP I wouldn't call such antics stock manipulation as fanboy-ism.
In much the same way that cell phones make for crappy portable game machines, so would the DS make for a really crappy phone.
And yet your comments show exactly why this might work. There are people in the world who don't want a portable game player, but enjoy playing games on their phone because for them a phone is important, and games are a nice extra. There are other people in the world that are exactly the opposite. I use my cell so rarely that I often forget it; I never forget my DS and having the ability to make a rare phone call off of it would be cool.
add another one to the list
Osama Bin Laden is still the boogey man
Does anyone remember when the tabloids regularily announced that Hitler was alive and just found? This was still going on when I was a kid and I was born 30 years after WWII. My point is that even when the government and serious new outlets give up on Osama, he will still have a presence in our lives.
The problem with a-la-carte pricing is that it makes it impossible for new networks to get enough subscribers to start up.
A couple of things. First of all, I don't know about the U.S., but in Canada in the last decade, it has become very common for specialty channels to advertise on other, more mainstream channels; I am sure that would work in this case. Second, the barrier you worry about already exists, all that's different is who's holding the keys; right now a new channel's life or death depends on convincing the cable companies to include it in an otherwise popular package. Third, as others have pointed out, even most specialty channels make their money off of advertising spots, not money from cable sales.
The US is a huge consumer. They can't cut us out all the way.
The point is that the US is on the road to broke, and if nothing is done to stop this trend you will cut yourselves out. Keep in mind that the companies selling you stuff and the companies lending you money aren't one and the same, and there may come a time when their interests will colide. When that day comes will it have massive global reprecussions - sure, but that doesn't mean that this trend will be allowed to continue forever.
Considering the US has a long history of not complying with WTO rulings that don't suit them, I am surprised that they would even try this method; even if the WTO were to rule in their favour, they know all too well that the WTO is all bark and no bite.
I'll admit that I got bored of following HW developments years ago(meaning this may have been discussed to death already), and perhaps I am remembering this wrong, but I seem to recall that some years ago (pre-90nm) that it was common knowledge that 60nm was the absolute barrier below which chips would never pass. I seem to recall reading many an article stating that quantum theory and the uncertainty principle would keep chips from ever being any smaller.
Not that I am totally shocked that an supposed absolute in computing fell, its just that as one who once was in the loop, but no longer is, I didn't see this coming.
Slashdot Mirror
This isn't even close to new; it certainly pre-dates capitalism, and probably has been true for as long as humans have used money.
What is new, is the awareness of how often those who have gotten ahead in life did so in ways that leave others wondering "Why couldn't that have happenned to me?" With each new media that has been invented, more and more information has been available to people, and amoungst all that information are ever more detailed biographies of people who once would have just been stared at in awe.
This will happen shortly after the economic model that rewards CEOs and stockholders for the companies short-term gains, even if it is at the expense of the long term, comes to an end. I am not an economist, but I am not hopeful this will happen in my lifetime.
...for anyone planning on owning the XBox 720.
As someone who has worked in tech support for many years (and as such is pretty familiar with the BS that goes on in these companies), I do everything I can to make the product look just like it did when it came out of the box before I send/take it to tech support. I remove everything I've added, put back everything I took out, and I make sure the HDD has a clean install of whatever shipped with it.
You can make a very good case that this shouldn't be necessary, but if what you want is your product fixed in a timely manner, its the best course of action.
The thing is that not all of us are so inclined. And while the existence of clans has created a great environment for those who choose to participate in them, for those of us who do not it makes the online component of many games worthless; what team of random strangers stands a chance against an organised clan, regardless of the game?
This has led to many people like me totally abandoning online gaming, even though it should be something I like.
The thing is that in many cases either several different medications solve the same problem or at the very least several different medications are relevent to the same symptoms. This is where the drug companies exert their influence; when the doctor doesn't know the med won't fix the problem, he is encouraged to give a particular brand.
And while I don't know that I bunch of lawsuits couldn't stop this, keep in mind whose business model would be threatened by such a lawsuit; you can bet that the drug companies would happily offer their lawyers to assist any doctor so threatened.
In addition to the points others have made, notice that he was on a cruise. Though I have never been on one myself, I have heard that they charge sky high prices for any data/cell usage.
Though one can equally argue that if these people didn't exist all entertainment would have to sell itself by word of mouth, ergo the crap they protect us from would rarely get made.
Virtually all ISPs do this, its just that what they count as "suspected to have spyware or a virus infection" is pretty lax. Usually the only thing that counts is sending out more than x many emails in a certain time frame. Of course, I would rather have them be lax than be intruding to my system.
Dream on; for every nerd that thinks this was a waste of money there are 100 parents and grandparents who don't care about the constitution when you should be thinking of the children.
Were they hoping that every game publisher in the country would just let their law slide and not bother to challenge it, even though those same publishers had already successfully challenged similar laws?Yes. From their perspective the government is in the right and the game companies are EVIL, and when you are fighting EVIL you do whatever it takes, including passing laws you know will fall.
In fairness to the fanbois, they really did think that the PS2 was the HW king last gen; some of them still do. So in their minds history is just going to repeat itself.
You forget one historically important fact; that ME and XP came out just one year apart. It was really easy for everyone to skip ME because XP was already on the way. A very good arguement can made that MS never really intended ME to be a 98 replacement.
On the other hand it sounds like Vista is here to stay and that the next MS operating system is years away.
If only this were true. Once upon a time HMV was a music store that screwed people. Then people stopped buying music there so they started selling DVDs. Just last month they added video games to the mix. I was in an HMV last month, perhaps 25% of the shelf space was for music.
This cut isn't because HMV has figured out what they were doing wrong, its because they make all their money off of DVDs and games and the few CDs that are left in the store are stealing valuable shelf space. Despite the fact they continue to market themselves as a music store, I think its just a matter of time before the music is gone.
Which is what some posters here seem to be missing. The people who are going to be mad about this, in large part, already had long lists of greivences against MS. I predict that MS will not lose a single sale from this action.
If I recall, the trend of putting "unsubscribe" links in emails started after CANSPAM required it. That was 2003.
Of course it doesn't, but I bet I can guess why he thinks it ought to. If you go to http://www.sonydefenseforce.com/?p=95 you will see that it claims there "the Sony platform even managed to outsell the much hyped Nintendo Wii"(using NPD numbers). But what the site author tries to make you not notice (and presumably the GP didn't notice) is that he lumps the PSP, PS2, and PS3 into one category, while not doing the same for other companies.
Though unlike the GP I wouldn't call such antics stock manipulation as fanboy-ism.
And yet your comments show exactly why this might work. There are people in the world who don't want a portable game player, but enjoy playing games on their phone because for them a phone is important, and games are a nice extra. There are other people in the world that are exactly the opposite. I use my cell so rarely that I often forget it; I never forget my DS and having the ability to make a rare phone call off of it would be cool.
Don't forget hydro-electric; at least acdording to this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sources_of_Elec tricity_in_the_US_2005_New.png its a factor
Does anyone remember when the tabloids regularily announced that Hitler was alive and just found? This was still going on when I was a kid and I was born 30 years after WWII. My point is that even when the government and serious new outlets give up on Osama, he will still have a presence in our lives.
A couple of things. First of all, I don't know about the U.S., but in Canada in the last decade, it has become very common for specialty channels to advertise on other, more mainstream channels; I am sure that would work in this case. Second, the barrier you worry about already exists, all that's different is who's holding the keys; right now a new channel's life or death depends on convincing the cable companies to include it in an otherwise popular package. Third, as others have pointed out, even most specialty channels make their money off of advertising spots, not money from cable sales.
The point is that the US is on the road to broke, and if nothing is done to stop this trend you will cut yourselves out. Keep in mind that the companies selling you stuff and the companies lending you money aren't one and the same, and there may come a time when their interests will colide. When that day comes will it have massive global reprecussions - sure, but that doesn't mean that this trend will be allowed to continue forever.
Considering the US has a long history of not complying with WTO rulings that don't suit them, I am surprised that they would even try this method; even if the WTO were to rule in their favour, they know all too well that the WTO is all bark and no bite.
Why don't you spend a few dozen hours looking for a time Microsoft publically admitted a mistake then forked over cash and you can enlighten us?
What do you think "play short video clips" means?
I'll admit that I got bored of following HW developments years ago(meaning this may have been discussed to death already), and perhaps I am remembering this wrong, but I seem to recall that some years ago (pre-90nm) that it was common knowledge that 60nm was the absolute barrier below which chips would never pass. I seem to recall reading many an article stating that quantum theory and the uncertainty principle would keep chips from ever being any smaller.
Not that I am totally shocked that an supposed absolute in computing fell, its just that as one who once was in the loop, but no longer is, I didn't see this coming.