I haven't given Amazon a dime. And convenient or not, it's going to stay that way. I'm not going to feed the trolls that are mocking and destroying true innovation.
I wonder how many people realize that Nutrasweet (aspartame) started out as a neuro toxin being considered by the military as a candidate for chemical warfare.
Tesla isn't doing anything that isn't common in other industries. New technology always costs more at first so that they can recoup the cost of R&D and provide capital for increasingly large production runs (and the facilities required to do this). Having said this, I'm not sure I agree with handing them a $400m check. It seems like they're just hopping on the welfare wagon with everyone else.
My biggest worry was whether or not I'd have to update my video card (the spec says a minimum of 512MB of video memory). They've turned this into a non-issue. I will not buy defective products, and DRM is a defect- especially if it's of the SecurROM variety.
Essentially what a company does depends on the philosophy of its leaders, but if the philosophy is wrong then their actions will come to bite them in the end.
The downside is that depending on how high up the "leader" is, there can be a lot of collateral damage - to the company, to the culture, to the company's talent pool, everything. And despite the fact that there may very well be a small contingency that DOES know what the hell is going on, can produce results, etc., the only thing that seems to matter is staying the course with an action plan that's a complete failure. Having it come back to "bite them" understatement. This kind of "leadership" wrecks both companies, and the lives of those who put forth significant effort to do the right thing.
I haven't played every online game out there, but I have played a few - including WoW, Lineage ][, PlanetSide, and some others. I like Tabula Rasa, and I'll be dismayed if they call it quits. It has a nice balance of a lot of things, including the level of effort required to level. Although you can rally groups to do instances, they aren't so difficult that you have to. There are some nice touches - the sense of humor of the announcer at one of the main bases, mobs that actually look like they occupy their own world (they're often seen fighting with other mobs), and lots of other stuff. I'll miss it if they have to shut it down.
This happened to me once- I bought something from Microsoft - same exact situation. I couldn't see the policy until I opened the software, and once I opened the software I couldn't return it even if I disagreed with it and didn't install it. I went to the store and raised a fuss with the manager. First they attempted to tell me that if I didn't agree with the terms I could return it to *Microsoft*. After I kept pushing it (I went to a different store location), the manager there told me that if I didn't agree with the terms I could bring it back to the store. Turns out the terms weren't as onerous as I thought they'd be, so I kept it. But it was nice to know what my options were.
That looks like a pretty cool toy - too bad there are no linux drivers yet. On the other hand, there are a lot of drivers for commonly-used devices. I wonder how much these would quiet down an office full of cubes with people pounding on noisy keyboards.
I don't think it was EVER the founders' intent that people would consider becoming a lifetime politician. It was a matter of service. Get in, serve, get out. Besides, they are faced with the same circumstances if they are voted out of office.
The reason they get these cushy jobs is because of the connections they have to the inner sanctum. What if using these connections after they left office was determined to be a conflict of interest, and made illegal? Asking us to pay for these guys for fear that they might resort to other ways of enhancing their income almost smack of a protection racket.
Windows seems to boot pretty fast, but it's at least another minute before the system is actually usable. That's at home - at work, it's easily 3-5 minutes. It's rediculous. Even if these manufacturers manage to shave off a few seconds in the best case scenario it probably won't mean much when you start to look at real-life situations.
I remember reading a statistic recently citing that over 100,000 laptops were "lost or stolen" within the realm of airline travel. Now I wonder how many of these occurrences are inside jobs.
I wonder how likely this is to happen. Think about it - we have a government that has systematically become of the most purposelessly invasive influences in our lives, that has routinely skirted the law, and routinely questioned the validity of our constitutional democracy - if we can't stand up to that by throwing out the yahoos in office who vote for this stuff, would they seriously be able to stand up to someone on a plane?
Do you have a cable box? If so you're entire viewing history ever may be available.
Easy to thwart - just leave it on all the time, and occasionally change the channel even when you're just passing by. They can't tell what you're watching and what you aren't.
I absolutely agree with you. However, when I hear the term "making it," right or wrong, I usually think in terms of the pop-cultural meaning of "success" that has to do with material wealth, fame, social status, etc. This is what I was referring to.
On a side note, it's nice to hear when people have discovered what "living within your means" is all about. It sounds like you've got the bases covered. Quite cool.
Yes, those who are driven to cheat...A few of the good guys make it, but mostly, it's people that have cunning and are resourceful at getting their way - even if it means breaking the rules, or doing stuff they know is wrong but will provide some form of short-term payoff. That's why this crisis exists today.
I was going to comment something similar - While I don't know what it costs Apple to run the iTunes store, the marginal cost to produce each extra "license" sold via the iTunes store is ZERO. They've sold 2.4 billion "licenses". Take out the 9 cents for the MAFIAA, and the most of the rest is gravy. Does Apple charge 99c because it wants to be nice to customers? Hardly - it's a carefully-crafted price point that lands dead-center in compulsive-buy territory. Realistically, a 99c hit isn't that big a deal. But multiply it times a hundred, or even a thousand songs and it starts to add up, both in terms of cost to individual "licensees" and profit for Apple.
Where in the constitution does it *grant* the government this right? That's how it works. Those which are not specifically granted, simply do not exist.
Being "in public" does not convey any right whatsoever to the government to survey you. Period. That's why we have due process. Surveillance without a warrant is a violation of the constitution.
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I haven't given Amazon a dime. And convenient or not, it's going to stay that way. I'm not going to feed the trolls that are mocking and destroying true innovation.
I wonder how many people realize that Nutrasweet (aspartame) started out as a neuro toxin being considered by the military as a candidate for chemical warfare.
Tesla isn't doing anything that isn't common in other industries. New technology always costs more at first so that they can recoup the cost of R&D and provide capital for increasingly large production runs (and the facilities required to do this). Having said this, I'm not sure I agree with handing them a $400m check. It seems like they're just hopping on the welfare wagon with everyone else.
My biggest worry was whether or not I'd have to update my video card (the spec says a minimum of 512MB of video memory). They've turned this into a non-issue. I will not buy defective products, and DRM is a defect- especially if it's of the SecurROM variety.
"No that was your mother. Don't you remember?"
Essentially what a company does depends on the philosophy of its leaders, but if the philosophy is wrong then their actions will come to bite them in the end.
The downside is that depending on how high up the "leader" is, there can be a lot of collateral damage - to the company, to the culture, to the company's talent pool, everything. And despite the fact that there may very well be a small contingency that DOES know what the hell is going on, can produce results, etc., the only thing that seems to matter is staying the course with an action plan that's a complete failure. Having it come back to "bite them" understatement. This kind of "leadership" wrecks both companies, and the lives of those who put forth significant effort to do the right thing.
I totally agree. The game has a lot of unique qualities, and I personally they did a pretty damned good job on it. I will miss it!
I haven't played every online game out there, but I have played a few - including WoW, Lineage ][, PlanetSide, and some others. I like Tabula Rasa, and I'll be dismayed if they call it quits. It has a nice balance of a lot of things, including the level of effort required to level. Although you can rally groups to do instances, they aren't so difficult that you have to. There are some nice touches - the sense of humor of the announcer at one of the main bases, mobs that actually look like they occupy their own world (they're often seen fighting with other mobs), and lots of other stuff. I'll miss it if they have to shut it down.
This happened to me once- I bought something from Microsoft - same exact situation. I couldn't see the policy until I opened the software, and once I opened the software I couldn't return it even if I disagreed with it and didn't install it. I went to the store and raised a fuss with the manager. First they attempted to tell me that if I didn't agree with the terms I could return it to *Microsoft*. After I kept pushing it (I went to a different store location), the manager there told me that if I didn't agree with the terms I could bring it back to the store. Turns out the terms weren't as onerous as I thought they'd be, so I kept it. But it was nice to know what my options were.
And now we have the Federal Reserve. What a wonderful change that was.
That looks like a pretty cool toy - too bad there are no linux drivers yet. On the other hand, there are a lot of drivers for commonly-used devices. I wonder how much these would quiet down an office full of cubes with people pounding on noisy keyboards.
I don't think it was EVER the founders' intent that people would consider becoming a lifetime politician. It was a matter of service. Get in, serve, get out. Besides, they are faced with the same circumstances if they are voted out of office.
The reason they get these cushy jobs is because of the connections they have to the inner sanctum. What if using these connections after they left office was determined to be a conflict of interest, and made illegal? Asking us to pay for these guys for fear that they might resort to other ways of enhancing their income almost smack of a protection racket.
Windows seems to boot pretty fast, but it's at least another minute before the system is actually usable. That's at home - at work, it's easily 3-5 minutes. It's rediculous. Even if these manufacturers manage to shave off a few seconds in the best case scenario it probably won't mean much when you start to look at real-life situations.
And easily avoided anyway - they are LOUD.
This guy's a n00b. He doesn't understand open source - at all.
I remember reading a statistic recently citing that over 100,000 laptops were "lost or stolen" within the realm of airline travel. Now I wonder how many of these occurrences are inside jobs.
I wonder how likely this is to happen. Think about it - we have a government that has systematically become of the most purposelessly invasive influences in our lives, that has routinely skirted the law, and routinely questioned the validity of our constitutional democracy - if we can't stand up to that by throwing out the yahoos in office who vote for this stuff, would they seriously be able to stand up to someone on a plane?
Do you have a cable box? If so you're entire viewing history ever may be available.
Easy to thwart - just leave it on all the time, and occasionally change the channel even when you're just passing by. They can't tell what you're watching and what you aren't.
I absolutely agree with you. However, when I hear the term "making it," right or wrong, I usually think in terms of the pop-cultural meaning of "success" that has to do with material wealth, fame, social status, etc. This is what I was referring to.
On a side note, it's nice to hear when people have discovered what "living within your means" is all about. It sounds like you've got the bases covered. Quite cool.
Yes, those who are driven to cheat...A few of the good guys make it, but mostly, it's people that have cunning and are resourceful at getting their way - even if it means breaking the rules, or doing stuff they know is wrong but will provide some form of short-term payoff. That's why this crisis exists today.
I was going to comment something similar - While I don't know what it costs Apple to run the iTunes store, the marginal cost to produce each extra "license" sold via the iTunes store is ZERO. They've sold 2.4 billion "licenses". Take out the 9 cents for the MAFIAA, and the most of the rest is gravy. Does Apple charge 99c because it wants to be nice to customers? Hardly - it's a carefully-crafted price point that lands dead-center in compulsive-buy territory. Realistically, a 99c hit isn't that big a deal. But multiply it times a hundred, or even a thousand songs and it starts to add up, both in terms of cost to individual "licensees" and profit for Apple.
Yes, and bank robbery, like all other crimes, are at such an horrendous all-time high. This will certainly nip this problem in the bud!
Where in the constitution does it *grant* the government this right? That's how it works. Those which are not specifically granted, simply do not exist.
Being "in public" does not convey any right whatsoever to the government to survey you. Period. That's why we have due process. Surveillance without a warrant is a violation of the constitution.