Besides that, what you spend vs. what you get on the mini is just...too much.
$600 for 1GB of ram and a 160GB hard drive? Without a keyboard, mouse or monitor.
I mean seriously... It's small and that's cool and all but $600 buys a lot of computer these days. Look at the 'upgraded' one - $800. Dell has run deals on Core i7 machines for about that and they include a keyboard, mouse AND MONITOR.
Yes, but your entire example revolves around a micro-event in the publishing world. 100 or even 1,000 copies of something is peanuts compared to a single run on a moderately popular book. Costs go down dramatically when you're doing 100k+ vs 1k.
It's not an appropriate comparison to books published by the big houses out there.
Actually, drinking in a bar is a huge, huge rip off. Some places charge per drink what you can buy a bottle for. That doesn't stop people from going though.
You do make sense though. It's the underlying 'justification' for much of the piracy that's out there. Right or wrong, too many people are doing it to simply call them all criminals and be done with it. Some kind of compromise needs to be reached.
Actually, I think the judge would find for the defendant instead of throwing the case out. While the outcome for the defendant would effectively be the same either way, the impact on OTHER cases is huge.
The MAFIAA have cornered themselves, they'll probably sing and dance and offer any kind of settlement that doesn't set a precedent in case law against them.
Assuming the judge *lets* them drop the case without prejudice. Seems like the judge is more than tired of the nonsense and if the MAFIAA tries a 'oh! my bad! Let's be friends' he'll *find* for the defendant - which would amount to making case law out of his/her defense.
That would go a LONG way to invalidating their whole extortion scheme - they sue, defense cites this case and then puts in a counterclaim for legal fees and damages.
The MAFIAA doesn't care if they don't win - they just can't afford to actually LOSE because it would set a precedent.
Actually grid-tie systems are REQUIRED to disconnect if the grid loses power.
Even ignoring the "minor" issue of possibly electrocuting someone working on the line: If you back-fed a one-block area you'd completely overload any kind of reasonable residential generator/PV system you could possibly have in place.
Plus, chances are you'd be out of phase when the grid came back up.
First, the 360 has consistently out-sold the PS3. Not sure where you're getting your numbers from but I suggest you look it up.
MS also has much more success with their online content than the PS3.
I'm fairly sure you're wrong about Wii development - several programmers in this topic have said it was fairly easy to program or.
Do i smell some concealed fanboyism? For the record I own a PS3, not a 360... so a MS fanboy i'm not. However I question your logic on much of your post. The BR drive is probably the underlying reason for a conservative 25% of the PS3 sales. After all, Sony dumped TONS of money into promoting BR and signing sales agreements - and then priced the PS3 the same as every BR player on the market. That made the purchase a no-brainer and STILL the 360 out-sells the PS3.
As for calling BR the defacto standard for HD movies...it's the ONLY standard for HD movies on physical media yet DVDs *greatly* outsell BR. Online streaming exceeds BR. Pirates often don't even bother with BR anymore, a well endcoded 700MB DIVX file is by *far* the most common file format. Even movies are making the same point - the content is more important than the quality.
A PS3 for $300 isn't going to make a difference though. Not when there are already tons of sales/promos and discounts for it. Heck, sign up for a sony CC and you can knock 100 bucks off the price straight out. I've seen them discounted under $200 before. MS is starting to pick up exclusive games that used to be strictly Playstation (square enix - final fantasy) for years and years. If not for Blue-ray Sony would be in huge trouble with the PS3 right now given the economy. Heck, they are anyhow.
You're dead-on about the PS3. If not for the blue-ray player (and the $zillions in marketing for BR) I think the PS3 would have been practically stillborn.
to wit:
I bought a PS3 because i talked the wife into a ~$2000 1080P TV and she decided we needed a blue-ray player to go with it.
With the $100 gift card at target at the time, the PS3 was cheaper than a blue-ray player. If it hadn't been for the utility of that drive I never would have bought it. A year or so later, I own exactly 3 PS3 games...but it's handy for watching movies off my media server.
How about at these "indepentant nations" al la indian casinos?
If they can't be sued in US courts (except for specific, limited things) how come they can sue you in US courts? They would have to sue you based on US law which does not apply in their 'independant nation' or sue you based on indian law in an indian court which can't do much to you if you walk off the reservation. The irony!
Yes, i know there's more complexity to the interaction of US/native indian laws but it's incredibly stupid overall. ESPECIALLY with something so regulated as gambling.
That's funny, the last part essentially makes the gambling commission an independant law-making body that I assume does not follow the same checks and balances as our actual government which are mandated by the constitution.
You realize this kind of thing is watched for, particularly at higher stakes tables and especially if you're winning big. It's watched for by people with lots of training and years of experience doing it 40+ hours a week.
Do some people get away with it? Sure. Do most people get caught? You bet. If you're that smart you can design a camera and HUD into a pair of glasses with an undetectable wireless connection to a computer to play the perfect game...well you could make plenty more money doing high-end R&D i bet.
Also - I'm reasonably certain that if you're caught using a cheating device you not only face lovely felony charges in NV but also void all winnings (but odd, do you void losses? doubtful).
Yes but in the case you linked, the machine was (per the story) labeled with an advisory that the maximum payout is $2,500.00 and the casino is not responsible for errors or malfunctions, etc. la la la "we can't hear you!"
Now, I disagree that they should be able to write off responsibility like that for errors. Especially since there's no way for you to know if there's an error in the casino's favor (without running real-time debugging which they will never let you do). But... if you sit down in front of a sign that says "the most you can ever win in one hand is 2500" then how can you reasonably expect to win 1.6M? I'll skip the lame car analogy though:)
Actually most casinos will give you all kinds of comps if you win big. Either to get you to stay longer, come back soon to the casino that took such good care of you, of feel rich so you play higher stakes tables. All because every hand/spin/bet after that big win puts money back into the casino's pocket.
Winning by itself, through luck, is part of their operating costs and also doubles as advertizing. It proves the dream of hitting it big can actually happen to you.
I woudn't call it a myth exactly. You need to supply enough power from the USB port to power the device and then supply additional power to charge the battery. Oh, and overcome any losses in the charge circuit, etc. too while ur at it.
Any device that requires.5w or more to operate will not be able to charge off a low-power USB port at all (while on).
Your phone must have a small battery in your phone (or mistaken about being in low power mode) - you're only getting 2.5wh over 5 hours. 4+wh is plenty common (3.7v * 1.1Ah in BB or RAZR)
GP is wrong, low-power usb is sufficient for charging *some* phones (if they allow it)
Yep. And the funny part is the first blackberry to start that nonsense of requiring a driver to charge was the blackberry pearl...which had a SMALLER battery that it's predecessors!
Seeing as how their phones don't like to charge with a plain-jane blackberry wall-wart I'm going to lean towards the phallic choice you suggest.
Try explaining to a secretary why the "right charger" - 'look, it fits' won't charge her VP's phone when it clearly works 'it just charged his blackberry!'
Or how about that legit copy of CS4 you bought and then your dog ate the CD/DVD/box with serial/etc.?
So you hit up P2P and get a crack so you can use software that you legally paid for but due to stupid "anti-piracy" restrictions are unable to use thanks to your dog.
It's "let's treat everyone like a criminal because at least a few people out there surely are" as usual.
Hell, if they tried that advertising campaign I'd sue for slander/libel. TPB may be a lot of things, but they don't support terrorism or KP.
Piracy perhaps, but the argument is that it's not illegal there and many people really don't give a rats ass about the MAFIAA crying wolf these days. They're the poster child for greedy corporations hurting the 'little guy'.
My experience was a bit different but overall similar.
You missed one important fact - The RIAA tried (and luckily failed) to make ripping CDs you own into MP3s for your own use illegal. That was an underlying ruling that lead to them forcing through the DMCA and encrypting DVDs and such. Then when DVD was cracked, they tried (semi-successfully) to make that knowledge illegal, not to mention the act.
I understand your arguments. But! Why should an individual need to buy into a company and argue at their shareholder meetings when said company has rammed laws through to protect it's business model? Why when a company has made criminals out of its very customers? Why should anyone have to go to anyone but the politicians behind this debacle?
Yes, I disagree with the MAFIAA's behavior but I wouldn't go after them as much as the law makers who allow this nonsense to happen.
Besides...go rant at a shareholder meeting and star in the next 'don't taze me bro' youtube clip, eh?
TPB is a few things. To say it's entirely non-political is simply wrong. It may exist *mainly* for the financial enrichment of a few admins but in the process it also serves as a strong political statement. A statement, if nothing else, saying: This is important, deal with me!
TPB forces courts and governments to address the desires of big business, the desires of massive numbers of individuals and existing law that's come in between across multiple jurisdictions, countries, and continents. That is fundamental politics. If TPB had no interest in politics they certainly would not stand in the spotlight so openly or hold press conferences, etc. Any lawyer will tell you it's in your best interests to STFU when you're on trial. Therefore, it stands to reason that simple money making is not the only reason TPB exists but, arguably, not even the main reason.
I think there's truth to both sides of the 'lost sales' argument. I strongly disagree with the numbers touted in news stories and other pro-MAFIAA nonsense. When their "lost sales" amount to half again of the RETAIL PRICE of ALL SALES there's something very wrong. Retail value (note, not gross or net income but total retail price) of all RIAA crap sold in 2006 was a bit under $12B. I've seen news stories quoting $6B in "lost sales". I don't buy that, sorry. It's a grossly inflated number that means nothing when related to gross/net income.
Moving on. Yes, there are *some* people who refuse to pay and said piracy does not lead to additional revenue. Pretty rare though - if you're a hermit and don't ever give reviews to friends or go to a concert to see a band you like listening to it's possible. There are plenty of people which wind up generating revenue off what started out as piracy.
Instead of making criminals out of potential customers and alienating them, maybe the MAFIAA should consider making them customers. They're trying to force an outdated business model to persist through coercion, bribery (ahem lawmakers), lawsuits, and a myriad of other ways the general population does not approve of. Adapt or die. If they had tried to adapt from the start they could be rolling in money. Heck, look at google - they don't make anything, they don't sell anything, they don't do anything but help you find what you're looking for. They make a fortune. Imagine if they had a tangible product to sell at the core of their business? (yes, I know they 'sell' search and it's valuable but it's also not something you can really package up and hand to someone. They provide a few seconds of actual service to any user in a given day)
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Besides that, what you spend vs. what you get on the mini is just...too much.
$600 for 1GB of ram and a 160GB hard drive? Without a keyboard, mouse or monitor.
I mean seriously... It's small and that's cool and all but $600 buys a lot of computer these days. Look at the 'upgraded' one - $800. Dell has run deals on Core i7 machines for about that and they include a keyboard, mouse AND MONITOR.
Yes, but your entire example revolves around a micro-event in the publishing world. 100 or even 1,000 copies of something is peanuts compared to a single run on a moderately popular book. Costs go down dramatically when you're doing 100k+ vs 1k.
It's not an appropriate comparison to books published by the big houses out there.
Actually, drinking in a bar is a huge, huge rip off. Some places charge per drink what you can buy a bottle for. That doesn't stop people from going though.
You do make sense though. It's the underlying 'justification' for much of the piracy that's out there. Right or wrong, too many people are doing it to simply call them all criminals and be done with it. Some kind of compromise needs to be reached.
Actually, I think the judge would find for the defendant instead of throwing the case out. While the outcome for the defendant would effectively be the same either way, the impact on OTHER cases is huge.
The MAFIAA have cornered themselves, they'll probably sing and dance and offer any kind of settlement that doesn't set a precedent in case law against them.
Assuming the judge *lets* them drop the case without prejudice. Seems like the judge is more than tired of the nonsense and if the MAFIAA tries a 'oh! my bad! Let's be friends' he'll *find* for the defendant - which would amount to making case law out of his/her defense.
That would go a LONG way to invalidating their whole extortion scheme - they sue, defense cites this case and then puts in a counterclaim for legal fees and damages.
The MAFIAA doesn't care if they don't win - they just can't afford to actually LOSE because it would set a precedent.
Actually grid-tie systems are REQUIRED to disconnect if the grid loses power.
Even ignoring the "minor" issue of possibly electrocuting someone working on the line: If you back-fed a one-block area you'd completely overload any kind of reasonable residential generator/PV system you could possibly have in place.
Plus, chances are you'd be out of phase when the grid came back up.
I seriously LOL'ed on this one. Love the couple screws casually scattered on the floor as well.
Somehow, I suspect, you're still wrong though! You'd better post calibration data on that DMM along the mfg and model of that PSU. /sarcasm
First, the 360 has consistently out-sold the PS3. Not sure where you're getting your numbers from but I suggest you look it up.
MS also has much more success with their online content than the PS3.
I'm fairly sure you're wrong about Wii development - several programmers in this topic have said it was fairly easy to program or.
Do i smell some concealed fanboyism? For the record I own a PS3, not a 360 ... so a MS fanboy i'm not. However I question your logic on much of your post. The BR drive is probably the underlying reason for a conservative 25% of the PS3 sales. After all, Sony dumped TONS of money into promoting BR and signing sales agreements - and then priced the PS3 the same as every BR player on the market. That made the purchase a no-brainer and STILL the 360 out-sells the PS3.
As for calling BR the defacto standard for HD movies...it's the ONLY standard for HD movies on physical media yet DVDs *greatly* outsell BR. Online streaming exceeds BR. Pirates often don't even bother with BR anymore, a well endcoded 700MB DIVX file is by *far* the most common file format. Even movies are making the same point - the content is more important than the quality.
A PS3 for $300 isn't going to make a difference though. Not when there are already tons of sales/promos and discounts for it. Heck, sign up for a sony CC and you can knock 100 bucks off the price straight out. I've seen them discounted under $200 before. MS is starting to pick up exclusive games that used to be strictly Playstation (square enix - final fantasy) for years and years. If not for Blue-ray Sony would be in huge trouble with the PS3 right now given the economy. Heck, they are anyhow.
You're dead-on about the PS3. If not for the blue-ray player (and the $zillions in marketing for BR) I think the PS3 would have been practically stillborn.
to wit:
I bought a PS3 because i talked the wife into a ~$2000 1080P TV and she decided we needed a blue-ray player to go with it.
With the $100 gift card at target at the time, the PS3 was cheaper than a blue-ray player. If it hadn't been for the utility of that drive I never would have bought it. A year or so later, I own exactly 3 PS3 games...but it's handy for watching movies off my media server.
You walk in, you know the odds, you place your bet, you win/lose based on established rules.
Where's the part about theft? If you don't like the odds, don't play.
How about at these "indepentant nations" al la indian casinos?
If they can't be sued in US courts (except for specific, limited things) how come they can sue you in US courts? They would have to sue you based on US law which does not apply in their 'independant nation' or sue you based on indian law in an indian court which can't do much to you if you walk off the reservation. The irony!
Yes, i know there's more complexity to the interaction of US/native indian laws but it's incredibly stupid overall. ESPECIALLY with something so regulated as gambling.
That's funny, the last part essentially makes the gambling commission an independant law-making body that I assume does not follow the same checks and balances as our actual government which are mandated by the constitution.
Make a good project for a law student perhaps.
You realize this kind of thing is watched for, particularly at higher stakes tables and especially if you're winning big. It's watched for by people with lots of training and years of experience doing it 40+ hours a week.
Do some people get away with it? Sure. Do most people get caught? You bet. If you're that smart you can design a camera and HUD into a pair of glasses with an undetectable wireless connection to a computer to play the perfect game...well you could make plenty more money doing high-end R&D i bet.
Also - I'm reasonably certain that if you're caught using a cheating device you not only face lovely felony charges in NV but also void all winnings (but odd, do you void losses? doubtful).
Yes but in the case you linked, the machine was (per the story) labeled with an advisory that the maximum payout is $2,500.00 and the casino is not responsible for errors or malfunctions, etc. la la la "we can't hear you!"
Now, I disagree that they should be able to write off responsibility like that for errors. Especially since there's no way for you to know if there's an error in the casino's favor (without running real-time debugging which they will never let you do). But ... if you sit down in front of a sign that says "the most you can ever win in one hand is 2500" then how can you reasonably expect to win 1.6M? I'll skip the lame car analogy though :)
Actually most casinos will give you all kinds of comps if you win big. Either to get you to stay longer, come back soon to the casino that took such good care of you, of feel rich so you play higher stakes tables. All because every hand/spin/bet after that big win puts money back into the casino's pocket.
Winning by itself, through luck, is part of their operating costs and also doubles as advertizing. It proves the dream of hitting it big can actually happen to you.
I woudn't call it a myth exactly. You need to supply enough power from the USB port to power the device and then supply additional power to charge the battery. Oh, and overcome any losses in the charge circuit, etc. too while ur at it.
Any device that requires .5w or more to operate will not be able to charge off a low-power USB port at all (while on).
Your phone must have a small battery in your phone (or mistaken about being in low power mode) - you're only getting 2.5wh over 5 hours. 4+wh is plenty common (3.7v * 1.1Ah in BB or RAZR)
GP is wrong, low-power usb is sufficient for charging *some* phones (if they allow it)
Important bit of info not discussed:
The USB spec is designed to protect the *computer* not the device.
Devices draw as much as they can up to the max power they're engineered for - blackberries, for example draw more than 500mA on a wall-wart.
Yep. And the funny part is the first blackberry to start that nonsense of requiring a driver to charge was the blackberry pearl...which had a SMALLER battery that it's predecessors!
Seeing as how their phones don't like to charge with a plain-jane blackberry wall-wart I'm going to lean towards the phallic choice you suggest.
Try explaining to a secretary why the "right charger" - 'look, it fits' won't charge her VP's phone when it clearly works 'it just charged his blackberry!'
Ugh...
Or how about that legit copy of CS4 you bought and then your dog ate the CD/DVD/box with serial/etc.?
So you hit up P2P and get a crack so you can use software that you legally paid for but due to stupid "anti-piracy" restrictions are unable to use thanks to your dog.
It's "let's treat everyone like a criminal because at least a few people out there surely are" as usual.
Hell, if they tried that advertising campaign I'd sue for slander/libel. TPB may be a lot of things, but they don't support terrorism or KP.
Piracy perhaps, but the argument is that it's not illegal there and many people really don't give a rats ass about the MAFIAA crying wolf these days. They're the poster child for greedy corporations hurting the 'little guy'.
My experience was a bit different but overall similar.
You missed one important fact - The RIAA tried (and luckily failed) to make ripping CDs you own into MP3s for your own use illegal. That was an underlying ruling that lead to them forcing through the DMCA and encrypting DVDs and such. Then when DVD was cracked, they tried (semi-successfully) to make that knowledge illegal, not to mention the act.
I understand your arguments. But! Why should an individual need to buy into a company and argue at their shareholder meetings when said company has rammed laws through to protect it's business model? Why when a company has made criminals out of its very customers? Why should anyone have to go to anyone but the politicians behind this debacle?
Yes, I disagree with the MAFIAA's behavior but I wouldn't go after them as much as the law makers who allow this nonsense to happen.
Besides...go rant at a shareholder meeting and star in the next 'don't taze me bro' youtube clip, eh?
TPB is a few things. To say it's entirely non-political is simply wrong. It may exist *mainly* for the financial enrichment of a few admins but in the process it also serves as a strong political statement. A statement, if nothing else, saying: This is important, deal with me!
TPB forces courts and governments to address the desires of big business, the desires of massive numbers of individuals and existing law that's come in between across multiple jurisdictions, countries, and continents. That is fundamental politics. If TPB had no interest in politics they certainly would not stand in the spotlight so openly or hold press conferences, etc. Any lawyer will tell you it's in your best interests to STFU when you're on trial. Therefore, it stands to reason that simple money making is not the only reason TPB exists but, arguably, not even the main reason.
I think there's truth to both sides of the 'lost sales' argument. I strongly disagree with the numbers touted in news stories and other pro-MAFIAA nonsense. When their "lost sales" amount to half again of the RETAIL PRICE of ALL SALES there's something very wrong. Retail value (note, not gross or net income but total retail price) of all RIAA crap sold in 2006 was a bit under $12B. I've seen news stories quoting $6B in "lost sales". I don't buy that, sorry. It's a grossly inflated number that means nothing when related to gross/net income.
Moving on. Yes, there are *some* people who refuse to pay and said piracy does not lead to additional revenue. Pretty rare though - if you're a hermit and don't ever give reviews to friends or go to a concert to see a band you like listening to it's possible. There are plenty of people which wind up generating revenue off what started out as piracy.
Instead of making criminals out of potential customers and alienating them, maybe the MAFIAA should consider making them customers. They're trying to force an outdated business model to persist through coercion, bribery (ahem lawmakers), lawsuits, and a myriad of other ways the general population does not approve of. Adapt or die. If they had tried to adapt from the start they could be rolling in money. Heck, look at google - they don't make anything, they don't sell anything, they don't do anything but help you find what you're looking for. They make a fortune. Imagine if they had a tangible product to sell at the core of their business? (yes, I know they 'sell' search and it's valuable but it's also not something you can really package up and hand to someone. They provide a few seconds of actual service to any user in a given day)