Matchbox cars would be easiest. Although, if you are a typical slashdotter, your inhaler would probably start having trouble when you get that high in altitude.
My method of avoiding accidents is much more simple and much more effective than yours. I simply assume that every driver around me is going to do the most asinine, idiotic, and jackass thing possible. When I come to an intersection, I assume that at least one idiot will run a red light or that one moron will lane change in the intersection. Hell, I avoided an accident last week when I assumed that the jackass sitting to my left in a two lane turning lane would turn wide and end up in my lane, which he did, and I made sure to hold up during my turn so he wouldn't hit me. Of course, then I jacked my high beams and horn at him and then flipped him off. But I avoided getting hit by the moron.
Yet people can't shut up about 9/11 even a decade later.
Hopefully they won't shut up about it for decades to come. That's the only way we can keep from repeating past mistakes of lethargy and a false sense of security, is by not forgetting about our enemies. People act like the terrorists just started to want us dead around 2001. We just stopped thinking that we were vulnerable, and then reality set in.
Their only advantage is that tanks can still drive on them when they've been bombed full of holes and if we're going to stick to a military mentality forever, someone please let me know how to get off this fucking planet without cutting off my nuts and eating the pudding.
Try a space shuttle. That works for NASA (99% of the time anyways).
Most maintenance schedules for aircraft are set by the FAA, not at the airline's whim.
And you actually trust that every plane gets every bit of scheduled maintenance done properly and on schedule? You're not looking to purchase any bridges at this time, are you? If the maintenance isn't done the plane is more likely to fail when you put demands on it, e.g. during "turbulence or other bad weather" or when trying to recover from "pilot error" situations.
Well, if they don't want sanctions from the FAA or to get shut down, then yes, they stick to the schedules set by the FAA.
Oh trust me, the moron drivers down here in Florida are much, much worse than anything Boston can throw at us.
You have, in this corner, a 90% blind, 4'9" old woman who has glasses thicker than the tires on her gargantuan Grand Marquis, who drives two inches from her steering wheel, in the left lane, 20 mph below the speed limit in the left lane, only getting over to the right while crossing intersections, only to get back over very slowly 100 feet later.
In the other corner, you have Billy Bob, red neck extraordinaire, with two gun racks in his pickup truck that has monster truck sized wheels, is jacked about five feet higher than the legal limit, a sticker of calvin peeing on !BrandOfHisTruck, has a small plastic set of antlers for a hood ornament, and changes lanes every ten seconds while driving 25-30 mph over the speed limit, all while never using his blinker and utilizing the turn lane as a merge lane and the shoulder of the road as the outside lane.
Oh yeah, in this other corner over here, we have tool Doctor who drives a BWM, has his cell phone permanently attached between his left hand and his ear, while driving 10 inches from the car in front of him no matter what speed they are moving at. He drives 20 mph over the speed limit when coming up behind you, passes you on either side as fast as he has to to pass you, and then drives 10 mph below the speed limit once he has cut you off. He slams on the brakes coming up to green lights and only floors it once the light begins to turn yellow.
There are probably at least a few more examples I can throw out there of your typical Florida drivers, but let's also not forget that once bad drivers from other states perfect their suckage at driving, they retire to, you guessed it, Florida.
Neither do retailers give you refunds for "defective games." They'll give you another copy, but if the game fundamentally doesn't work with your computer (not sure how else you will get a "defective" downloaded game, you can always redownload if the download is corrupt) you are still up the pike.
Don't forget about the Edge Card, Disc Protection Warranty, Accessories (huge money maker), Magazines, Strategy Guides (another huge money maker, which is why they push these hard), and gift cards (I'm pretty sure the percent of gift cards that are not fully used or never used is in the 25-50% range). Trust me, Gamestop is not the woe is me, barely making it retailer you paint them to be. They are making bank.
You have the same issue with discs. If a disc breaks, or you lose the CD-Key, you are SOL. At least with Steam, you never have to worry about either. You can always re-download, your CD-Key is stored for easy access, and it's easy to access at a buddies house. Yes, if Steam ever goes away, this may become an issue. But that is a straw man argument at this point. They are making so much money on the Steam platform that this eventuality (because nothing lasts forever) is not in the foreseeable future. And your CDs and DVDs have a certain shelf life as well. Think your discs are going to last forever? Assuming a static-free environment (which we all know is far from the case for most normal users) you may get up to 80 years or so out of the discs. In reality, your discs will probably be scratched or worn beyond use within a few decades.
No, you don't get "cash." You get store credit. You can usually ask for cash, but they give you something like 60% of the trade-in value (so they get an even higher profit margin). And when you accept store credit, you are basically guaranteeing that the money they give you will go right back into their hands anyways. It's not that they buy low, sell high. It's the percentage to which they do it. I still balk at the 48% number. In reality it's much closer to 75% than 50% IMO.
I can wait one sleep cycle, or "kick it off before I go to work," but you and I both know that the general public won't be so patient. In order for such a distribution system to work, the availability of bandwidth more on the order of 20Mb/s or higher must be widespread, and I don't see that happening anytime soon unfortunately.
Not true. If you set Steam to offline mode, you can play without ever connecting to their servers. You are right when it comes to downloading updates or connecting for the purpose of updating achievements, etc, but in terms of just playing, no.
Defense Grid does let you set paths to some extent, but it does constrain you. That being said, it's one of the best paid-for TD games I've played, and probably easily a top 10 overall TD. I'd recommend it even at full price, much less when it goes on sale.
One reason they got out of trade-ins for PC games is because they couldn't resell PC games with the same success as console games. Many games just couldn't be resold due to CD-Key issues and PC Games tend to go out of style a lot faster than console games, due to the ever evolving hardware inherent with PCs. Play a PS2 game from a year ago or from three years ago and your experience with both games in terms of graphics, length, etc, won't be too different. Play a current release PC Game versus one from three years ago (assuming similar genre) and the difference is much more noticeable (assuming that the two games received similar reviews of course).
Also, they could not resell PC games for near as much as console games, so their profit margin wasn't the 50%+ that they pull on console resells (I don't buy the 48% number, personally I think it's much higher than that).
Yeah, about six-seven years ago, I figured that in 20 years, Gamestop would no longer sell PC Games. That estimate kept dropping exponentially until, with the current state of the PC Market, I'm willing to bet that before the end of 2010, they are out of the PC Market altogether (other than perhaps online). PC Games make them virtually no money due to the fact that they cannot resell the games and hopefully most people don't get their dumb three dollar disc insurance (yet another way to increase margins). The only way I see them staying in the PC Market is with something competing with Steam, perhaps with an in-store kiosk.
Yeah, I used to go out and buy every game I anticipated right at launch and at least half the time, if not more like 75-80% of the time, the game didn't stay active in my game system or my hard drive (depending on platform) for more than a few weeks. Now, if it's a casual game purchase (like Defense Grid or Plants v. Zombies) I'll play a demo if available and then buy immediately after if I like, or if no demo is available, wait a week to see if a good set of reviews come out, or otherwise if I think I'll like it and it's $15 or less, I'll just pony up and buy it. For console or full price PC games, I'll either wait for a good set of reviews and the first price drop or just wait until it's a bargain bin (I have waited a long time for Freedom Force, although admittedly, not on purpose, to become cheap, and now you can get both it and the expansion on Steam for less than $7.00) if there is not a good demo/review available.
You aren't kidding about DLC or expansions, and no one has it figured out better than EA with The Sims franchise. Look at all of the expansions, etc to Sims and Sims 2, and I'm sure it will be a similar experience with Sims 3. EA is probably keeping themselves in or near the black simply because of the sims franchise.
I really don't understand the perceived conflict between retailers and game publishers. Retailers like GameStop pimp new releases just as much as they do used games.
One problem here. They only pimp new releases until they have a decent stock of used copies. Then they'll shove the used copies down your proverbial throat.
Slashdot Mirror
Does anyone else smell some viral marketing?
There, fixed it for you.
Matchbox cars would be easiest. Although, if you are a typical slashdotter, your inhaler would probably start having trouble when you get that high in altitude.
And one Santa at an Eagles game...oh wait, that was the Eagles fans throwing those "meteors."
The only problem with the argument that it was lightning is that those aircraft are able to withstand a direct lightning strike and still fly.
My method of avoiding accidents is much more simple and much more effective than yours. I simply assume that every driver around me is going to do the most asinine, idiotic, and jackass thing possible. When I come to an intersection, I assume that at least one idiot will run a red light or that one moron will lane change in the intersection. Hell, I avoided an accident last week when I assumed that the jackass sitting to my left in a two lane turning lane would turn wide and end up in my lane, which he did, and I made sure to hold up during my turn so he wouldn't hit me. Of course, then I jacked my high beams and horn at him and then flipped him off. But I avoided getting hit by the moron.
Yet people can't shut up about 9/11 even a decade later.
Hopefully they won't shut up about it for decades to come. That's the only way we can keep from repeating past mistakes of lethargy and a false sense of security, is by not forgetting about our enemies. People act like the terrorists just started to want us dead around 2001. We just stopped thinking that we were vulnerable, and then reality set in.
What about the one that crashed into the Hudson river
It wasn't a crash, it was an aquatic landing, you insensitive clod
Their only advantage is that tanks can still drive on them when they've been bombed full of holes and if we're going to stick to a military mentality forever, someone please let me know how to get off this fucking planet without cutting off my nuts and eating the pudding.
Try a space shuttle. That works for NASA (99% of the time anyways).
Most maintenance schedules for aircraft are set by the FAA, not at the airline's whim.
And you actually trust that every plane gets every bit of scheduled maintenance done properly and on schedule? You're not looking to purchase any bridges at this time, are you? If the maintenance isn't done the plane is more likely to fail when you put demands on it, e.g. during "turbulence or other bad weather" or when trying to recover from "pilot error" situations.
Well, if they don't want sanctions from the FAA or to get shut down, then yes, they stick to the schedules set by the FAA.
Oh trust me, the moron drivers down here in Florida are much, much worse than anything Boston can throw at us.
You have, in this corner, a 90% blind, 4'9" old woman who has glasses thicker than the tires on her gargantuan Grand Marquis, who drives two inches from her steering wheel, in the left lane, 20 mph below the speed limit in the left lane, only getting over to the right while crossing intersections, only to get back over very slowly 100 feet later.
In the other corner, you have Billy Bob, red neck extraordinaire, with two gun racks in his pickup truck that has monster truck sized wheels, is jacked about five feet higher than the legal limit, a sticker of calvin peeing on !BrandOfHisTruck, has a small plastic set of antlers for a hood ornament, and changes lanes every ten seconds while driving 25-30 mph over the speed limit, all while never using his blinker and utilizing the turn lane as a merge lane and the shoulder of the road as the outside lane.
Oh yeah, in this other corner over here, we have tool Doctor who drives a BWM, has his cell phone permanently attached between his left hand and his ear, while driving 10 inches from the car in front of him no matter what speed they are moving at. He drives 20 mph over the speed limit when coming up behind you, passes you on either side as fast as he has to to pass you, and then drives 10 mph below the speed limit once he has cut you off. He slams on the brakes coming up to green lights and only floors it once the light begins to turn yellow.
There are probably at least a few more examples I can throw out there of your typical Florida drivers, but let's also not forget that once bad drivers from other states perfect their suckage at driving, they retire to, you guessed it, Florida.
Neither do retailers give you refunds for "defective games." They'll give you another copy, but if the game fundamentally doesn't work with your computer (not sure how else you will get a "defective" downloaded game, you can always redownload if the download is corrupt) you are still up the pike.
Pretty much.
Don't forget about the Edge Card, Disc Protection Warranty, Accessories (huge money maker), Magazines, Strategy Guides (another huge money maker, which is why they push these hard), and gift cards (I'm pretty sure the percent of gift cards that are not fully used or never used is in the 25-50% range). Trust me, Gamestop is not the woe is me, barely making it retailer you paint them to be. They are making bank.
You have the same issue with discs. If a disc breaks, or you lose the CD-Key, you are SOL. At least with Steam, you never have to worry about either. You can always re-download, your CD-Key is stored for easy access, and it's easy to access at a buddies house. Yes, if Steam ever goes away, this may become an issue. But that is a straw man argument at this point. They are making so much money on the Steam platform that this eventuality (because nothing lasts forever) is not in the foreseeable future. And your CDs and DVDs have a certain shelf life as well. Think your discs are going to last forever? Assuming a static-free environment (which we all know is far from the case for most normal users) you may get up to 80 years or so out of the discs. In reality, your discs will probably be scratched or worn beyond use within a few decades.
No, you don't get "cash." You get store credit. You can usually ask for cash, but they give you something like 60% of the trade-in value (so they get an even higher profit margin). And when you accept store credit, you are basically guaranteeing that the money they give you will go right back into their hands anyways. It's not that they buy low, sell high. It's the percentage to which they do it. I still balk at the 48% number. In reality it's much closer to 75% than 50% IMO.
I can wait one sleep cycle, or "kick it off before I go to work," but you and I both know that the general public won't be so patient. In order for such a distribution system to work, the availability of bandwidth more on the order of 20Mb/s or higher must be widespread, and I don't see that happening anytime soon unfortunately.
Not true. If you set Steam to offline mode, you can play without ever connecting to their servers. You are right when it comes to downloading updates or connecting for the purpose of updating achievements, etc, but in terms of just playing, no.
Defense Grid does let you set paths to some extent, but it does constrain you. That being said, it's one of the best paid-for TD games I've played, and probably easily a top 10 overall TD. I'd recommend it even at full price, much less when it goes on sale.
One reason they got out of trade-ins for PC games is because they couldn't resell PC games with the same success as console games. Many games just couldn't be resold due to CD-Key issues and PC Games tend to go out of style a lot faster than console games, due to the ever evolving hardware inherent with PCs. Play a PS2 game from a year ago or from three years ago and your experience with both games in terms of graphics, length, etc, won't be too different. Play a current release PC Game versus one from three years ago (assuming similar genre) and the difference is much more noticeable (assuming that the two games received similar reviews of course).
Also, they could not resell PC games for near as much as console games, so their profit margin wasn't the 50%+ that they pull on console resells (I don't buy the 48% number, personally I think it's much higher than that).
Yeah, about six-seven years ago, I figured that in 20 years, Gamestop would no longer sell PC Games. That estimate kept dropping exponentially until, with the current state of the PC Market, I'm willing to bet that before the end of 2010, they are out of the PC Market altogether (other than perhaps online). PC Games make them virtually no money due to the fact that they cannot resell the games and hopefully most people don't get their dumb three dollar disc insurance (yet another way to increase margins). The only way I see them staying in the PC Market is with something competing with Steam, perhaps with an in-store kiosk.
Yeah, I used to go out and buy every game I anticipated right at launch and at least half the time, if not more like 75-80% of the time, the game didn't stay active in my game system or my hard drive (depending on platform) for more than a few weeks. Now, if it's a casual game purchase (like Defense Grid or Plants v. Zombies) I'll play a demo if available and then buy immediately after if I like, or if no demo is available, wait a week to see if a good set of reviews come out, or otherwise if I think I'll like it and it's $15 or less, I'll just pony up and buy it. For console or full price PC games, I'll either wait for a good set of reviews and the first price drop or just wait until it's a bargain bin (I have waited a long time for Freedom Force, although admittedly, not on purpose, to become cheap, and now you can get both it and the expansion on Steam for less than $7.00) if there is not a good demo/review available.
Except that Gamestop doesn't mark a $60 game down to $20, but down to $50-55. They are just as greedy as the publishers, if not more so.
You aren't kidding about DLC or expansions, and no one has it figured out better than EA with The Sims franchise. Look at all of the expansions, etc to Sims and Sims 2, and I'm sure it will be a similar experience with Sims 3. EA is probably keeping themselves in or near the black simply because of the sims franchise.
How do you think Starbucks makes money off of $5 coffee?
It is probably the crack cocaine they mix in with the cream and sugar.
I really don't understand the perceived conflict between retailers and game publishers. Retailers like GameStop pimp new releases just as much as they do used games.
One problem here. They only pimp new releases until they have a decent stock of used copies. Then they'll shove the used copies down your proverbial throat.