As for the markeing speak, how is decreasing the number of players available forplay enhaning the experience?
As you said, they're not even decreasing the number of players (except if you count the ones that don't bother buying their products in the first place because of this), the 2nd hand market only maintains the number of players that they had before since the one selling is leaving and the one buying is coming in.
I've translated the marketing speak into layman's terms, but I don't understand something:
How does preventing second-hand purchase people from using online components allow SONY to more quickly make the online experience/contents better for the people who initially bought the game?
It's not like the tech people maintaining and unclogging the tubes actually work on creating the contents...
I just responded the same thing to another post. It's funny how you just "know" the time, but if someone asks you a few seconds after you glanced at your watch, you can't answer without glancing again and thinking about it.
It's to the point when I glance at my watch and 2 seconds after someone asks me the time, I have to look again because I don't know what time it is exactly, just that it's "close to" something.
Yup, contrary to what the government wants you to believe, the terrorists won a looooong time ago (10 years actually, well... come next September 11th anyways).
Roundabouts will increase accidents for a short period of time, until people get used to them. The same happened here (Quebec) when turning right on red lights was finally allowed a few years back. People are so dumb though, that a lot still turn right on red without coming to a full stop beforehand or cut off people that have the right of way.
Also, it'd be nice if cops would stop focusing on speed and focus more on idiot drivers, going 150kph on the highway isn't necessarily dangerous (see Germany), going 120kph and tailgating or weaving in/out of lanes, cutting people off and not using your mirrors when changing lanes is.
You bring a valid point, but I think that the root of this the problem is education: most people don't know that malicious software can spread from simply plugging in a USB key.
Perhaps more and better training from the company IT dept. would be helpful in educating these people. Ignorance isn't a valid defense, granted, but it's a reality that most IT dept. have to live with.
For non-techy types, there isn't an easy or obvious way to view/wipe the contents of a USB stick without first plugging it into your computer. Sandboxing and VMs are not Joe the Plumber-type applications. If Windows and Macs had a built-in USB sandbox feature that IT could turn on, it would make things much easier.
Or again, better education from the IT dept. asking users to bring them found USB drives for identification and if they can't find the owner, they can wipe it and give it back to the person who found it.
Sounds to me like horrible management is the cause here. That Mcnamara guy sounds like a real pompous ass.
Just because you're willing to sacrifice everything and work 80 hour weeks, it doesn't mean that I should be forced to.
In Quebec, overtime is on a voluntary basis only, so you can politely tell your boss to f*ck off if he's forcing you to stay longer. If you're fired for "not being a team player" or "not performing as per expectations" because you refuse to do 60h+ work weeks, well you can then go to the Work Commission and sue your employer for wrongful termination and win back all of the unpaid overtime plus unpaid wages AND get your job back (I don't see why you would go back though). All you need to do is tabulate hours worked and the over time demands received. Doing this sets a precedent and usually involves an investigation of the employer as well.
FYI, you don't even need a lawyer for this as it's the defendant that has to do the leg work and prove that you were indeed rightfully terminated.
Thanks for the insight, I've never been offered options but if ever I do, I will definitely make sure that I don't include then in my compensation evaluation, or have the paperwork reviewed by an experienced lawyer.
Wow, mortgages are complicated in the US. Up here (Quebec, Canada) the mortgages for my properties only had about 8 pages each and most of those were the forms with your personal info and the numbers. Even the insurance papers weren't more than 5 pages.
Messages sent only to your address and messages from a source that has sent you many messages in the past get flagged Important automatically.
Before crying "anti-competitive" (which flagging your stuff on a service you provide, isn't), that blogger may want to do some actual investigative work... I'm pretty sure the feature is just working as intended and Google's stuff gets flagged because they know the rules better, not because they put in a line of code that says "IF mail.fromGoogle == TRUE THEN Flag.ThatShitUp"
Then again, investigation takes time and effort and it's much easier to get hits on your site by submitting any " is being evil!" story on Slashdot. It's not like there's fact checking going on before a story gets approved for the front page.
God forbid that people be allowed to get medical care.
Oh that's right, instead of spending the cash on providing better lives for the people, we prefer to go fight someone else's war in a foreign country for an order of magnitude more money.
Protecting civil and human rights across to globe is a very decent thing to do and I applaud it, but first start by taking care of your own people.
Oh right, we can't do that because that would be socialist, and socialism is bad.
I'm pretty sure that's he's not worried about losing his right to phone-bomb. Rather, he's worried about the fact that the authorities will be allowed to tap his phone, access his computer and arrest him all without a shred of evidence and because they think that he *might* be doing something illegal like.
Would this make the cover bands that play in bars criminals? I doubt that they have licenses from the artists whose songs they are playing. Unless they fall in the "fair use" category?
You make good points, however I fail to see how minimum wage jobs deserve more than minimum wage. I'm sorry, but a gadget salesman at Apple does not deserve more than a bugger flipper at Harvey's and neither deserve more than minimum wage (I'm talking starting salary here, both deserve raises for performance and length of employment).
They want more money? Go to school, go to trade school or work your way up the ladder at the job you have. Sorry if I sound bitter, but I've seen too many barely educated union workers making 30$ an hour for menial jobs.
Problem is that companies do not want to reduce their margins, so they pass the extra cost generated by the higher wages to the consumers.
I'm for unions when they protect employees for bad working conditions, selling electronics after school hardly qualifies as bad working conditions. It's a temp job while you get a degree to go do what you really want, you're supposed to not be paid much.
Unions have their place because back in the day employers were totally killing off their employees and not remunerating them fairly, but today the pendulum swung the other way and there are many unions on power trips.
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As for the markeing speak, how is decreasing the number of players available forplay enhaning the experience?
As you said, they're not even decreasing the number of players (except if you count the ones that don't bother buying their products in the first place because of this), the 2nd hand market only maintains the number of players that they had before since the one selling is leaving and the one buying is coming in.
I've translated the marketing speak into layman's terms, but I don't understand something:
How does preventing second-hand purchase people from using online components allow SONY to more quickly make the online experience/contents better for the people who initially bought the game?
It's not like the tech people maintaining and unclogging the tubes actually work on creating the contents...
I just responded the same thing to another post. It's funny how you just "know" the time, but if someone asks you a few seconds after you glanced at your watch, you can't answer without glancing again and thinking about it.
I totally agree with you.
It's to the point when I glance at my watch and 2 seconds after someone asks me the time, I have to look again because I don't know what time it is exactly, just that it's "close to" something.
Yup, contrary to what the government wants you to believe, the terrorists won a looooong time ago (10 years actually, well... come next September 11th anyways).
Roundabouts will increase accidents for a short period of time, until people get used to them. The same happened here (Quebec) when turning right on red lights was finally allowed a few years back. People are so dumb though, that a lot still turn right on red without coming to a full stop beforehand or cut off people that have the right of way.
Also, it'd be nice if cops would stop focusing on speed and focus more on idiot drivers, going 150kph on the highway isn't necessarily dangerous (see Germany), going 120kph and tailgating or weaving in/out of lanes, cutting people off and not using your mirrors when changing lanes is.
I thought that hackers already had their own Wikileaks and that it was called Pastebin.
It's been demonstrated tons of times that when you make something fun, people go for it.
Just look at Volkswagen's The Fun Theory project for proof.
Splinter Cell, Assassin's Creed, Crysis 2, Deus Ex Human Revolution...
Ubisoft, Gameloft, EA, Behavior Studios (formerly A2M), Beenox, Eidos, Funcom etc.
Sure, the companies weren't founded here but as they have offices here, they are subject to our laws.
You might even get Steven Spielberg to make a movie about you as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_me_if_you_can
Considering that some bars have policies similar to the TSA, I wouldn't be too surprised that this will happen one day.
You bring a valid point, but I think that the root of this the problem is education: most people don't know that malicious software can spread from simply plugging in a USB key.
Perhaps more and better training from the company IT dept. would be helpful in educating these people. Ignorance isn't a valid defense, granted, but it's a reality that most IT dept. have to live with.
For non-techy types, there isn't an easy or obvious way to view/wipe the contents of a USB stick without first plugging it into your computer. Sandboxing and VMs are not Joe the Plumber-type applications. If Windows and Macs had a built-in USB sandbox feature that IT could turn on, it would make things much easier.
Or again, better education from the IT dept. asking users to bring them found USB drives for identification and if they can't find the owner, they can wipe it and give it back to the person who found it.
Sounds to me like horrible management is the cause here. That Mcnamara guy sounds like a real pompous ass.
Just because you're willing to sacrifice everything and work 80 hour weeks, it doesn't mean that I should be forced to.
In Quebec, overtime is on a voluntary basis only, so you can politely tell your boss to f*ck off if he's forcing you to stay longer. If you're fired for "not being a team player" or "not performing as per expectations" because you refuse to do 60h+ work weeks, well you can then go to the Work Commission and sue your employer for wrongful termination and win back all of the unpaid overtime plus unpaid wages AND get your job back (I don't see why you would go back though). All you need to do is tabulate hours worked and the over time demands received. Doing this sets a precedent and usually involves an investigation of the employer as well.
FYI, you don't even need a lawyer for this as it's the defendant that has to do the leg work and prove that you were indeed rightfully terminated.
The best security feature to come out of 9/11 is the fact that passengers won't stand by idly anymore and will mob the would-be terrorist.
Thanks for the insight, I've never been offered options but if ever I do, I will definitely make sure that I don't include then in my compensation evaluation, or have the paperwork reviewed by an experienced lawyer.
Wow, mortgages are complicated in the US. Up here (Quebec, Canada) the mortgages for my properties only had about 8 pages each and most of those were the forms with your personal info and the numbers. Even the insurance papers weren't more than 5 pages.
Messages sent only to your address and messages from a source that has sent you many messages in the past get flagged Important automatically.
Before crying "anti-competitive" (which flagging your stuff on a service you provide, isn't), that blogger may want to do some actual investigative work... I'm pretty sure the feature is just working as intended and Google's stuff gets flagged because they know the rules better, not because they put in a line of code that says "IF mail.fromGoogle == TRUE THEN Flag.ThatShitUp"
Then again, investigation takes time and effort and it's much easier to get hits on your site by submitting any " is being evil!" story on Slashdot. It's not like there's fact checking going on before a story gets approved for the front page.
It stopped for a whole 9 hours...
God forbid that people be allowed to get medical care.
Oh that's right, instead of spending the cash on providing better lives for the people, we prefer to go fight someone else's war in a foreign country for an order of magnitude more money.
Protecting civil and human rights across to globe is a very decent thing to do and I applaud it, but first start by taking care of your own people.
Oh right, we can't do that because that would be socialist, and socialism is bad.
These CEOs and companies you mention are rich, this kid is not.
That's why.
I'm pretty sure that's he's not worried about losing his right to phone-bomb. Rather, he's worried about the fact that the authorities will be allowed to tap his phone, access his computer and arrest him all without a shred of evidence and because they think that he *might* be doing something illegal like.
Nintendo will not start peddling NintenDVDs, they just don't want to pay SONY for the rights for blu-ray or DVD playback.
The only reason that SONY made UMD was because they already had a foot in the door with the content providers seeing as they are one.
Would this make the cover bands that play in bars criminals? I doubt that they have licenses from the artists whose songs they are playing. Unless they fall in the "fair use" category?
You make good points, however I fail to see how minimum wage jobs deserve more than minimum wage. I'm sorry, but a gadget salesman at Apple does not deserve more than a bugger flipper at Harvey's and neither deserve more than minimum wage (I'm talking starting salary here, both deserve raises for performance and length of employment).
They want more money? Go to school, go to trade school or work your way up the ladder at the job you have. Sorry if I sound bitter, but I've seen too many barely educated union workers making 30$ an hour for menial jobs.
Problem is that companies do not want to reduce their margins, so they pass the extra cost generated by the higher wages to the consumers.
I'm for unions when they protect employees for bad working conditions, selling electronics after school hardly qualifies as bad working conditions. It's a temp job while you get a degree to go do what you really want, you're supposed to not be paid much.
Unions have their place because back in the day employers were totally killing off their employees and not remunerating them fairly, but today the pendulum swung the other way and there are many unions on power trips.