If your PS2 takes a long time to load Grand Theft Auto, a PS1 game, try turning on fast PS1 CD access in the PS2's config screens.
Oh, you meant GTA 3 and Vice City. Unlike PlayStation 2 games in the high-profile series, well-made GameCube games are specially designed to load quickly, streaming level content and using tracked music instead of loading all level content first and streaming background music. One hardly notices loading time in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
How do you expect to fit 32 players into a room in a single-family residence? How do you expect to have players' parents approve of disconnecting their consoles and TVs and LANning up? Oh, you mean Internet play? Many areas are still not wired for residential high-speed Internet access, and satellite still has too much latency for real-time gaming. (Civ and Tetrinet are turn based so they don't count.) Even in areas wired for broadband, most minor children's allowances are not large enough to afford upwards of $400 per year for broadband.
Do you believe in restricting independent amateurs from making console style games because they can't afford the 5 or 6 figures USD necessary to buy a legitimate development kit for GameCube or Xbox? Or are you willing to that the best console game pad is compatible with PC games through a $16 adapter?
with an online business, that online business can service THE WHOLE WORLD!
No it can't. Taxation is national. Payment services are often national. Book content regulation is definitely national; what some countries consider acceptable others consider pornographic or seditious. Other business rules are national as well. Unless the EU manages to expand into a global corporate government, economic borders will always exist.
it seems like these things SHOULD be much cheaper.
Who feeds the mouths of the author's children? Who reimburses the publisher for editing and promoting books that sell poorly? Remember that publishers fill the role of a venture capitalist in taking gambles on works.
why haven't magazines gone this route?
Many magazines' web sites already offer subscription sections, and Slashdot users female-dog about having to subscribe for a whole year just to read one article for fifteen minutes. The web sites can't easily do transactions for under a dollar until decipayment services such as BitPass become more popular. (Here, I use "decipayment" to refer to payments on the order of 0.10-0.25 EUR or USD, as opposed to sub-penny "micropayments.") Yes, it's a Catch-22, and only a publisher offering a large selection of works that takes a particular decipayment service can make that service popular.
My experience is that labor is the biggest single cost in a product.
Labor is the entire cost of a product; supply and demand determine the value of the labor used to develop, replicate, and deliver a given product. You're still correct in that Amdahl's Law limits the effect that labor reductions in replication and delivery can have on the product's final price.
Just export it to PDF at that point and be happy with it.
The handheld readers would have to scroll horizontally to read most PDFs that I've encountered. Scrolling horizontally over a column of text is a Very Bad Thing(tm). Yes, there would be an extra step to typeset the work in a format designed for handheld electronic reader devices, but I agree that this step probably wouldn't cost very much.
BarnesAndNoble.com and Amazon.com already maintain low prices in the face of all the costs you mentioned plus shipping the books from the publisher and re-shipping them to the customer, except for "Digital editoring(sic) people who take the book and put it into the proper format for an e-book that is convenient to the user." I'm assuming that this wouldn't cost the publisher more than digitally typesetting the print edition does.
If you're compiling a large program, your motherboard and OS support hot-swap, and you add more RAM, then yes, the next GCC process to execute will see the extra RAM.
Removing RAM, on the other hand, would probably need a hardware switch on the motherboard that swaps everything in that bank to disk.
What about people with both hearing problems and vision problems who use a Braille terminal?
I understand the approximation made here, but ideally, I wouldn't approach the question "prove that you're not a spammer" as "prove that you are an able-bodied human" but more as "prove that you have something to write that I would want to read," which is really what we all want.
I'm saying "wait, and they should get around to it," just like the old Napster got around to making a Mac client, and Apple is currently getting around to making a Windows client for the iTunes Music Store.
iTunes Music Store was made available to every single customer who had the necessary equipment and software without non-disclosure or any other agreement other than the basic terms of service.
Doesn't the operating system that comes pre-installed on the "necessary equipment" have a non-disclosure agreement printed on its wrapper? Otherwise, I could in theory take Mac OS X and run it in an emulator on a wintel box.
There were glitches in the initial rollout of iTunes Music Store. Mainstream news web sites did report them. Do you deny analogies between the iTMS rollout and some companies' "release candidate" processes? Perhaps an analogy of movies opening first "in select cities" might suit your view of the situation better, no?
Who cares?
You rhetorically accused me of not owning any Macintosh computer: "What's that? You don't have a Mac?" I responded that I do own a Mac, but it's still not suitable for iTMS. If I had $1000 to spend on recorded music, I would spend it on CDs from a local pawn shop instead of spending it on a Macintosh computer just so I can get iTMS.
I'm assuming Apple wanted to get the bugs out of the system with a 20x smaller user base first. You'll find lots of Slashdot users who, in the first week of iTunes Music Store's operation, commented about analogies to a beta test.
I have a Mac, but it's a 75 MHz Performa 6230. My grandpa uses it to do a local bar's books. Before that, I had an 8 MHz Macintosh Classic. I was a Mac person until I went to a Windows school, and my current machine was purchased while I attended the Windows school.
I realized a few more important points immediately after I hit submit:
But don't think that the music industry doesn't repackage their product in several different formats as well.
However, the other repackagings don't usually come before first publication. The CD is analogous to the hardcover, not the paperback.
Greatest hits CDs
"Hanson's Greatest Hits"? Try "Hanson's Greatest Hit", singular. The problem here is that a one hit wonder's greatest hits CD costs just as much as those of consistent hitmakers such as the Beatles or 1980s Michael Jackson.
singles (if you can still find them)
No, I can't still find back-catalog singles at Best Buy.
Plus, songs are licensed for use in everything from movies to TV shows to elevator music.
Last time I checked, the songwriters and their publishers got much more out of those deals than the labels.
radio stations *pay* to use their music
FCC-licensed music radio stations buy licenses from BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC, which represent songwriters and their publishers, not the record labels. They generally receive free promo CDs to play on the air.
a $4 paperback weighs twice as much as a CD
So why does the retailer mark up CDs so much more than paperback books? And why do record clubs such as Columbia House charge so much for shipping and handling?
I really wish some big name company would have the guts to start a 0.10c service for non-DRM downloads
Where would it get the recordings? Where would it get the license to distribute phonorecords[1] of the underlying musical work? Put together, those cost much more than 10 cents to license.
[1] "Phonorecord" is legalese for a copy of a sound recording.
Try the library for free stuff
on
Napster Tries Again
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I get my free Disney material at the public library. Advantages of the library vs. other methods:
Guaranteed DVD quality (as opposed to Kazaa's unpredictable quality)
I don't have to worry about accidentally running across sick pornography or other misnamed files (as opposed to Kazaa)
I don't fund lobbying for further extensions of both the scope and the duration of copyright (as opposed to Suncoast and, to a lesser extent, Blockbuster)
You may be surprised at the selection offered by your public library. I sure was.
You have iTunes Music Store beta
on
Napster Tries Again
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Here's what I got whilest using my TiBook
Please don't complain about lack of the new Napster on Mac OS X because 1. remember that it took a while for Napster to make a Mac client for its old network, and 2. as a TiBook owner, you're in on the beta test of iTunes Music Store, which seems equivalent to what the new Napster offers ($1 singles, $10 albums).
They also don't even mention Windows 98
Because of its (lack of a) security model, Microsoft's Windows 9x operating systems aren't that great for much other than running legacy DOS apps.
Your comparison from book pricing to CD pricing glosses over several important details. First of all, movies have a theatrical window, a video window, a pay-per-view window, a premium-cable window, a basic-cable window, and broadcast TV. Many movies have already recouped during the theatrical window. Likewise, books have a hardcover window before they hit paperback. Second, with books, you don't have two separate works from two separate authors to license under two separate contracts, unlike with CDs where the songwriter and the artist both get cuts. Finally, what many listeners really want (a custom mix CD with singles by several artists) has to be shipped to each individual customer, rather than in bulk from a warehouse to a store.
Slashdot Mirror
A PS2 takes forever to load GTA!
If your PS2 takes a long time to load Grand Theft Auto, a PS1 game, try turning on fast PS1 CD access in the PS2's config screens.
Oh, you meant GTA 3 and Vice City. Unlike PlayStation 2 games in the high-profile series, well-made GameCube games are specially designed to load quickly, streaming level content and using tracked music instead of loading all level content first and streaming background music. One hardly notices loading time in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
64 players is a lot. 24-32 is decent.
How do you expect to fit 32 players into a room in a single-family residence? How do you expect to have players' parents approve of disconnecting their consoles and TVs and LANning up? Oh, you mean Internet play? Many areas are still not wired for residential high-speed Internet access, and satellite still has too much latency for real-time gaming. (Civ and Tetrinet are turn based so they don't count.) Even in areas wired for broadband, most minor children's allowances are not large enough to afford upwards of $400 per year for broadband.
Do you believe in restricting independent amateurs from making console style games because they can't afford the 5 or 6 figures USD necessary to buy a legitimate development kit for GameCube or Xbox? Or are you willing to that the best console game pad is compatible with PC games through a $16 adapter?
If you read classics ebooks are already free
Though Project Gutenberg continues to add public domain classics to its collection, the number of public domain classics in existence is now fixed, and it will never grow as long as The Walt Disney Company continues to exist, unless you back the Eldred Act (or its equivalent outside the States).
with an online business, that online business can service THE WHOLE WORLD!
No it can't. Taxation is national. Payment services are often national. Book content regulation is definitely national; what some countries consider acceptable others consider pornographic or seditious. Other business rules are national as well. Unless the EU manages to expand into a global corporate government, economic borders will always exist.
it seems like these things SHOULD be much cheaper.
Who feeds the mouths of the author's children? Who reimburses the publisher for editing and promoting books that sell poorly? Remember that publishers fill the role of a venture capitalist in taking gambles on works.
why haven't magazines gone this route?
Many magazines' web sites already offer subscription sections, and Slashdot users female-dog about having to subscribe for a whole year just to read one article for fifteen minutes. The web sites can't easily do transactions for under a dollar until decipayment services such as BitPass become more popular. (Here, I use "decipayment" to refer to payments on the order of 0.10-0.25 EUR or USD, as opposed to sub-penny "micropayments.") Yes, it's a Catch-22, and only a publisher offering a large selection of works that takes a particular decipayment service can make that service popular.
My experience is that labor is the biggest single cost in a product.
Labor is the entire cost of a product; supply and demand determine the value of the labor used to develop, replicate, and deliver a given product. You're still correct in that Amdahl's Law limits the effect that labor reductions in replication and delivery can have on the product's final price.
Just export it to PDF at that point and be happy with it.
The handheld readers would have to scroll horizontally to read most PDFs that I've encountered. Scrolling horizontally over a column of text is a Very Bad Thing(tm). Yes, there would be an extra step to typeset the work in a format designed for handheld electronic reader devices, but I agree that this step probably wouldn't cost very much.
BarnesAndNoble.com and Amazon.com already maintain low prices in the face of all the costs you mentioned plus shipping the books from the publisher and re-shipping them to the customer, except for "Digital editoring(sic) people who take the book and put it into the proper format for an e-book that is convenient to the user." I'm assuming that this wouldn't cost the publisher more than digitally typesetting the print edition does.
The old man pause, and with a sympathetic frown continued. 'They've been experimenting on you, I'm afraid.'
You mean "In Soviet Earth, mice experiment on YOU"?
Yeah, I know, dead horse beats you and all...
If you're compiling a large program, your motherboard and OS support hot-swap, and you add more RAM, then yes, the next GCC process to execute will see the extra RAM.
Removing RAM, on the other hand, would probably need a hardware switch on the motherboard that swaps everything in that bank to disk.
What about people with both hearing problems and vision problems who use a Braille terminal?
I understand the approximation made here, but ideally, I wouldn't approach the question "prove that you're not a spammer" as "prove that you are an able-bodied human" but more as "prove that you have something to write that I would want to read," which is really what we all want.
I'm saying "wait, and they should get around to it," just like the old Napster got around to making a Mac client, and Apple is currently getting around to making a Windows client for the iTunes Music Store.
iTunes Music Store was made available to every single customer who had the necessary equipment and software without non-disclosure or any other agreement other than the basic terms of service.
Doesn't the operating system that comes pre-installed on the "necessary equipment" have a non-disclosure agreement printed on its wrapper? Otherwise, I could in theory take Mac OS X and run it in an emulator on a wintel box.
God, what a dumbass you are.
I give up.
Then give both team tests and individual tests. I had a math professor who did this for a geometric modeling course at my school.
When the penalty for DWI in the USA was pretty wimpy it happened all the time, but now the penalty is total financial and employable destruction
So should I switch from Dance With Intensity to StepMania?
Slashdot is not an authority
There were glitches in the initial rollout of iTunes Music Store. Mainstream news web sites did report them. Do you deny analogies between the iTMS rollout and some companies' "release candidate" processes? Perhaps an analogy of movies opening first "in select cities" might suit your view of the situation better, no?
Who cares?
You rhetorically accused me of not owning any Macintosh computer: "What's that? You don't have a Mac?" I responded that I do own a Mac, but it's still not suitable for iTMS. If I had $1000 to spend on recorded music, I would spend it on CDs from a local pawn shop instead of spending it on a Macintosh computer just so I can get iTMS.
The iTunes Music Store is not a beta project.
I'm assuming Apple wanted to get the bugs out of the system with a 20x smaller user base first. You'll find lots of Slashdot users who, in the first week of iTunes Music Store's operation, commented about analogies to a beta test.
I have a Mac, but it's a 75 MHz Performa 6230. My grandpa uses it to do a local bar's books. Before that, I had an 8 MHz Macintosh Classic. I was a Mac person until I went to a Windows school, and my current machine was purchased while I attended the Windows school.
I realized a few more important points immediately after I hit submit:
But don't think that the music industry doesn't repackage their product in several different formats as well.
However, the other repackagings don't usually come before first publication. The CD is analogous to the hardcover, not the paperback.
Greatest hits CDs
"Hanson's Greatest Hits"? Try "Hanson's Greatest Hit", singular. The problem here is that a one hit wonder's greatest hits CD costs just as much as those of consistent hitmakers such as the Beatles or 1980s Michael Jackson.
singles (if you can still find them)
No, I can't still find back-catalog singles at Best Buy.
Plus, songs are licensed for use in everything from movies to TV shows to elevator music.
Last time I checked, the songwriters and their publishers got much more out of those deals than the labels.
radio stations *pay* to use their music
FCC-licensed music radio stations buy licenses from BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC, which represent songwriters and their publishers, not the record labels. They generally receive free promo CDs to play on the air.
a $4 paperback weighs twice as much as a CD
So why does the retailer mark up CDs so much more than paperback books? And why do record clubs such as Columbia House charge so much for shipping and handling?
Also, try using your Dark Side of the Moon record on a CD player
Line out, line in, record, pop-reduction, save, burn, stick it in my CD player, and it works! All thanks to the Audio Home Recording Act.
I really wish some big name company would have the guts to start a 0.10c service for non-DRM downloads
Where would it get the recordings? Where would it get the license to distribute phonorecords[1] of the underlying musical work? Put together, those cost much more than 10 cents to license.
[1] "Phonorecord" is legalese for a copy of a sound recording.
I get my free Disney material at the public library. Advantages of the library vs. other methods:
You may be surprised at the selection offered by your public library. I sure was.
the filter points people to my captcha, which is here and they have to type in "I am not a spammer" and then the letters in the graphic.
The problem with your approach and with any approach that uses a CAPTCHA is that it provides no way for a visually impaired human being to first-contact you. If you use a CAPTCHA, you can't do business with the U.S. government.
What's left of the old Napster doesn't appear to have been worked on for two years.
Here's what I got whilest using my TiBook
Please don't complain about lack of the new Napster on Mac OS X because 1. remember that it took a while for Napster to make a Mac client for its old network, and 2. as a TiBook owner, you're in on the beta test of iTunes Music Store, which seems equivalent to what the new Napster offers ($1 singles, $10 albums).
They also don't even mention Windows 98
Because of its (lack of a) security model, Microsoft's Windows 9x operating systems aren't that great for much other than running legacy DOS apps.
Your comparison from book pricing to CD pricing glosses over several important details. First of all, movies have a theatrical window, a video window, a pay-per-view window, a premium-cable window, a basic-cable window, and broadcast TV. Many movies have already recouped during the theatrical window. Likewise, books have a hardcover window before they hit paperback. Second, with books, you don't have two separate works from two separate authors to license under two separate contracts, unlike with CDs where the songwriter and the artist both get cuts. Finally, what many listeners really want (a custom mix CD with singles by several artists) has to be shipped to each individual customer, rather than in bulk from a warehouse to a store.