You're an exception to the rule if you've precisely calibrated your fridge temperature. Most people turn it up to the point just before their milk freezes in the container. With fridges that have 7 cooling settings, setting up a more accurate thermostat in newer fridges which then can be controlled through smart systems isn't that hard. In fact my newer fridge (Samsung) actually has a digital temperature readout in it accurate to 1/2 a degree. 1/2 degree adjustments are completely doable.
As for the dryer: who said middle of the night? I have no problems with that since my dryer is in the basement, but even for people who keep their dryer next to their bed delaying the drying to non-prime hours isn't that big of a deal. Example, running it during dinner time? 7-9pm?
Ultimately the end result will be systems that don't impact lifestyle but when aggregated across communities will have significant impact on the usage of power. In the mean time I'm sure you would prefer that the utility company turns off your neighbor's dryer to prevent a rolling blackout from striking during your football game.
People here are thinking binary. On off. That's not how a lot of these things work!
The fridge: YES: during peak times it can turn your fridge down 1/2 a degree and not spoil your food because you probably have the think cranked too high anyways
Oven: Not Applicable. How often do you use your over during the middle of the day? Almost never, you're at work!
HVAC: Again, 1/2 degree you won't feel.
Dishwasher: Sure, but you usually run the dishwasher in the evening/weekend anyways.
Dryer: Yeah, totally doable, delay it a few hours and you can have dry clothes without mold.
Lighting: Lights can detect if your idiot ass forgot to turn off the garage light.
Entertainment system: Nope - but again your system probably isn't on much before 6pm. Networks have figured this out and call it "prime time"
There. Suddenly smart appliances become useful to regulate peak usage and prevent ridiculously expensive backup generators from kicking in, lowering your overall bill, reducing rolling brownouts (california) and improving utility profitability.
That only works for commodity items. Games aren't commodities. Games titles are unique, creative works. Plasma screens are commodities that by and large provide the exact same function and aren't creative works. Hence you get price fixing with LG/Philips but not in the music world.
Supply and demand works fine in the game industry because of Willingness to Pay. at $70 people would buy 100,000 units. At $60, 500,000. At $45 600,000 units. Which one's the best for the developer/publisher? the 500,000 units at $60.
Another reason this doesn't apply is because price fixing requires concrete meetings to discuss pricing. There are lots of unspoken price-fixing examples in the real world. Coke/Pepsi. Colgate/Aquafresh. In those examples, the companies involved both know that getting into a price-war will just kill both companies. So they don't do it. This is where disruption comes into play with a new company and what happens regularly in the market as well. India's new $2000 brand new car from Tata - it'll likely make a killing.
Nothing going wrong in the gaming industry. If you want to recoup 100mil in expenses you had over 5 years to develop a game, and your hurdle rate is 13% ROI (low, actually since its a riskier than market investment) then you need, just to break even, 184mil in sales. So at $60, that's 3million units. Second you have to make up for the games that failed in your portfolio.
$60 ain't that high. If you don't like it, don't play. I haven't bought/played a PC game since Diablo2. But I will buy Diablo3. Guitar Hero for the Wii was worth my money, every cent, and I'll never sell it. So no used market there from me. Make good games that people want to play, and keep, until worthless on the secondary market if they ever do sell them. Anyways, business lesson over.
How about OCR the typed parts, and use prison labor to manually type up the handwritten parts? I don't think von Braun would be opposed to such use of slavery, in fact we'd be doing his memory an honor. With the army of drug-addicts in US prisons, this should be a piece of cake, done in no time.
You want to look at price per kwh. According to this overview, average price per kwh in The Netherlands is 0.28 per kwh. The Skystream is the most efficient generator per kwh at 5.09 EUR.
Without discounting to present value or accounting for inflation or other possible future taxes, you need 18 years of flawless operation to break even.
Is there anyone outside of CEOs that really agrees with the sort of copyright policy we currently have?
Yes. Everyone who owns a share of a company currently fighting for extended copyrights. There are a lot of Disney shareholders.
CEOs are maximizing the value for their shareholders (that's a separate debate) and one way to do that is to hold on to the rights as long as possible by any means necessary.
Trains in Europe for more than a small distance (say 1 country worth) are more expensive than flying. Far more expensive. I fly from Barcelona to Amsterdam a lot for under 100 euro each way. Including all taxes. The train takes longer, you have to change in Paris and you get stuck in a sleeper car with a pair of smelly Russian backpackers who haven't showered in 3 days.
How is this worse than the current solution? Even if google gets away with this, the current solution is still applicable - hardly a monopoly. Google will merely have a monopoly on the new solution. You can always still go find the copy in some dusty bookshelf somewhere.
Doing something better than currently available is called innovation - not monopoly.
you know, there's a crazy theory out there that a huge crust-shift moved atlantis to its current location, the antarctic. This break away of ice could soon reveal that long lost civilization. And then the predators will move in.
Since when was this a spoiler? Anyone could have written this without having seen the movie, just gathering some facts widely available.
Just give a writer two assignments: write a good review, write a bad review, we'll publish the one that's the most truthful later (or the one we feel like publishing if fox is in charge)
I think a lot of people are missing the obvious trends.
1) people are moving towards mobile phones and netbooks for mobility's sake 2) people are weary of crappy battery life 3) mobile data connections are becoming ubiquitous
This all combines to form the perfect mix for long battery life dumb terminals that only have a screen, camera, network connection and maybe a graphics processor/keyboard/voice. What's the best way to boost device-battery life? Remove computing from it.
So this cloud computing thing, whether its a mainframe, cluster or just plain SETI@home style network, will take over the functions normally performed by your laptop/mobile/desktop. Think about it... its already happening (nokia's internet tablet, etc.) and major corps are preparing for this move.
Slashdot Mirror
Must have fallen between the cushions.
You're an exception to the rule if you've precisely calibrated your fridge temperature. Most people turn it up to the point just before their milk freezes in the container. With fridges that have 7 cooling settings, setting up a more accurate thermostat in newer fridges which then can be controlled through smart systems isn't that hard. In fact my newer fridge (Samsung) actually has a digital temperature readout in it accurate to 1/2 a degree. 1/2 degree adjustments are completely doable.
As for the dryer: who said middle of the night? I have no problems with that since my dryer is in the basement, but even for people who keep their dryer next to their bed delaying the drying to non-prime hours isn't that big of a deal. Example, running it during dinner time? 7-9pm?
Ultimately the end result will be systems that don't impact lifestyle but when aggregated across communities will have significant impact on the usage of power. In the mean time I'm sure you would prefer that the utility company turns off your neighbor's dryer to prevent a rolling blackout from striking during your football game.
People here are thinking binary. On off. That's not how a lot of these things work!
The fridge: YES: during peak times it can turn your fridge down 1/2 a degree and not spoil your food because you probably have the think cranked too high anyways
Oven: Not Applicable. How often do you use your over during the middle of the day? Almost never, you're at work!
HVAC: Again, 1/2 degree you won't feel.
Dishwasher: Sure, but you usually run the dishwasher in the evening/weekend anyways.
Dryer: Yeah, totally doable, delay it a few hours and you can have dry clothes without mold.
Lighting: Lights can detect if your idiot ass forgot to turn off the garage light.
Entertainment system: Nope - but again your system probably isn't on much before 6pm. Networks have figured this out and call it "prime time"
There. Suddenly smart appliances become useful to regulate peak usage and prevent ridiculously expensive backup generators from kicking in, lowering your overall bill, reducing rolling brownouts (california) and improving utility profitability.
That only works for commodity items. Games aren't commodities. Games titles are unique, creative works. Plasma screens are commodities that by and large provide the exact same function and aren't creative works. Hence you get price fixing with LG/Philips but not in the music world.
Supply and demand works fine in the game industry because of Willingness to Pay. at $70 people would buy 100,000 units. At $60, 500,000. At $45 600,000 units. Which one's the best for the developer/publisher? the 500,000 units at $60.
Another reason this doesn't apply is because price fixing requires concrete meetings to discuss pricing. There are lots of unspoken price-fixing examples in the real world. Coke/Pepsi. Colgate/Aquafresh. In those examples, the companies involved both know that getting into a price-war will just kill both companies. So they don't do it. This is where disruption comes into play with a new company and what happens regularly in the market as well. India's new $2000 brand new car from Tata - it'll likely make a killing.
Nothing going wrong in the gaming industry. If you want to recoup 100mil in expenses you had over 5 years to develop a game, and your hurdle rate is 13% ROI (low, actually since its a riskier than market investment) then you need, just to break even, 184mil in sales. So at $60, that's 3million units. Second you have to make up for the games that failed in your portfolio.
$60 ain't that high. If you don't like it, don't play. I haven't bought/played a PC game since Diablo2. But I will buy Diablo3. Guitar Hero for the Wii was worth my money, every cent, and I'll never sell it. So no used market there from me. Make good games that people want to play, and keep, until worthless on the secondary market if they ever do sell them. Anyways, business lesson over.
1000th potato of the month? That's at least 33 potatos a day! That'd be a world record I suspect and well deserving of a certificate!
Screw the MacPad. Give me a Crunchpad
Roughly 12 parsecs.
For the two most important places in my house: The kitchen table and the porcelain throne. More real-time than tucking a newspaper under my arm!
How about OCR the typed parts, and use prison labor to manually type up the handwritten parts? I don't think von Braun would be opposed to such use of slavery, in fact we'd be doing his memory an honor. With the army of drug-addicts in US prisons, this should be a piece of cake, done in no time.
Just a tip: using a virtual keyboard won't be very effective.
Right, because you really want 1000 18 yr old students having access to professor's salary information.
I actually found that funny. Am I a nerd?
That was the windows version.
Isn't pent up angst what started the tea-party?
I tend to agree with the poster. Its posts like yours that make me thankful for freedom of speech.
You want to look at price per kwh. According to this overview, average price per kwh in The Netherlands is 0.28 per kwh. The Skystream is the most efficient generator per kwh at 5.09 EUR.
Without discounting to present value or accounting for inflation or other possible future taxes, you need 18 years of flawless operation to break even.
Let's start a lobby to make lobbying illegal.
Is there anyone outside of CEOs that really agrees with the sort of copyright policy we currently have?
Yes. Everyone who owns a share of a company currently fighting for extended copyrights. There are a lot of Disney shareholders.
CEOs are maximizing the value for their shareholders (that's a separate debate) and one way to do that is to hold on to the rights as long as possible by any means necessary.
Trains in Europe for more than a small distance (say 1 country worth) are more expensive than flying. Far more expensive. I fly from Barcelona to Amsterdam a lot for under 100 euro each way. Including all taxes. The train takes longer, you have to change in Paris and you get stuck in a sleeper car with a pair of smelly Russian backpackers who haven't showered in 3 days.
I love the train for commuting though.
How is this worse than the current solution? Even if google gets away with this, the current solution is still applicable - hardly a monopoly. Google will merely have a monopoly on the new solution. You can always still go find the copy in some dusty bookshelf somewhere.
Doing something better than currently available is called innovation - not monopoly.
you know, there's a crazy theory out there that a huge crust-shift moved atlantis to its current location, the antarctic. This break away of ice could soon reveal that long lost civilization. And then the predators will move in.
Since when was this a spoiler? Anyone could have written this without having seen the movie, just gathering some facts widely available.
Just give a writer two assignments: write a good review, write a bad review, we'll publish the one that's the most truthful later (or the one we feel like publishing if fox is in charge)
We know you're 100% English - otherwise your post would reek of cheese and Gauloises.
I think a lot of people are missing the obvious trends.
1) people are moving towards mobile phones and netbooks for mobility's sake
2) people are weary of crappy battery life
3) mobile data connections are becoming ubiquitous
This all combines to form the perfect mix for long battery life dumb terminals that only have a screen, camera, network connection and maybe a graphics processor/keyboard/voice. What's the best way to boost device-battery life? Remove computing from it.
So this cloud computing thing, whether its a mainframe, cluster or just plain SETI@home style network, will take over the functions normally performed by your laptop/mobile/desktop. Think about it... its already happening (nokia's internet tablet, etc.) and major corps are preparing for this move.
Lawyers: 195908092
The rest of us: 0
dammit! we lose again