I'm not trying to take away the fact that they sold 1 million units very quickly, but technically they were "selling" them longer than 28 days via pre-orders. Did Apple take pre-orders for the iPhone that the article compares sales rate to? I can't remember. Most of their new products are not available to buy until they are actually available.
When he says "a whole lot of pennies have to add up before it becomes a bunch of money" does he mean like the 1 billion songs that iTunes has sold? Because at 9.1 cents per song, that comes out to $91,000,000... which is exactly a lot of money.
I use Wacom's smallest tablet (so I can reach any part of my screen without having to move my arm too much). I hold the pen in my hand even while typing since I don't use my right index finger for typing (I'm a quick 4 finger typist).
Anyway, I find it really easy to highlight lines of text. It also has 2 programmable buttons on the pen plus 4 programmable buttons on the tablet.
Most people give up too quickly on tablets. Making the switch will absolutely slow you down for a week or two, but once you get used to it, you'll never use a mouse again.
I really enjoyed the first Manhunt for Playstation. When I heard Manhunt 2 was coming out for the Wii, I was psyched. Then, after all the controversy, they decided to censor the game by blurring out a major portion of the game - the violent cut scenes. I decided not to buy the game since I am an adult and should be able to buy the game uncensored.
My question is, why can't game devs release 2 versions of a game with different ratings - one being censored and one going all out?
I believe many of these video sharing sites claim rights to anything you post. You may want to keep that in mind when choosing (if that matters to you).
I posted this on CNET, but I might as well post it here as well:
Is there anything better than sensational bogus statistics? Some politicians claim states would lose half a trillion dollars in tax by 2011? Do they think most Americans didn't make it past 2nd grade math? Let's examine that claim with real math and logic:
Here are the e-commerce retail sales for the last 9 years:
That's a total of $578 billion in revenue for 99-07.
Now, if we assume an average of 7% sales tax, and we assume that ALL items are taxable (which in most states they are not, like food and clothing), you would need $7.14 trillion in revenue to accumulate sales tax of $500 billion (which is the claimed lost tax by 2011).
That would mean that e-commerce would have to magically jump from $136B in revenue to an average of $1.6 trillion each year for 08-11. I mean, seriously, their figures are not even in the same ballpark as reality.
That's fine as long as people who barely use any bandwidth see their prices REDUCED. Someone using 50MB per month should certainly not pay more than $5/mo.
That would be fine if they charged more for heavy users AND less for light users... however, we all know that is not how it will work out. They will charge MORE for heavy users and THE SAME (as now) for light users. In other words, light users will never see a reduction in price.
Also as downloading movies and web-based apps become more mainstream, they need to be reasonable with bandwidth "tiers" and tiers should certainly grow over time. I wouldn't consider usage "heavy" at the present time until data transfer is >20GB/month.
And there is a large community of people who trade live music which is completely legal for many bands. I know I have well over 100GB of live (legal) shows and my collection pales in comparison to many others. I don't doubt that a lot of piracy occurs but when you exaggerate, you lose credibility.
Take it from the mouth of the ex-Attorney General and just about anyone else connected to the Bush administration... when asked to divulge your passphrase, simply say "I don't recall." It works for them, so it should work for everyone else.
I agree and hope HD-DVD wins. I hope Sony gets screwed YET AGAIN for trying to shove their format down everyone's throats. If I remember correctly from articles I've read, it is much less costly for DVD production plants to upgrade their facilities to produce HD-DVDs than to produce Blu-Ray... which would mean less costs passed on to consumers.
As for Blu-Ray "winning", does anyone know where we can find actual numbers for DISCS sold? All I've seen is PLAYERS sold, which to me, is not really all that telling. I think most people buying PS3s are buying it to play games - not to watch movies.
I've been using gmail for over a year now and I think they may be 100% for me. I don't recall getting a single spam in my inbox, and not a single false positive in my spam folder. In any case, 99.999% or 100%... they rock!
I actually wrote mine in VB Script, but here is the string I searched for:
src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/nav2/dp/btn-atc._V46858960_.gif" width="160" alt="Add to Shopping Cart"
Note1: I didn't simply search for "Add to Shopping Cart" since there are more Add to cart buttons on the page (the main item may be out of stock, but "other people bought" items may be in stock. The search above was for the specific sized Add To Cart button.
Note2: There are supposed to be 2 actual spaces before "width" (although they won't show above and I didn't want to add an &nbs p; in case it may confuse you).
Note3: The code may have changed on Amazon's page since I built my script. You may want to just check the code behind a page that has an item in stock.
When I decided to by mine, I just set up a script that checked Amazon every minute or two. I know they have sites that do that already, but there are hundreds of people signed up for the email notifications on those sites. I figured if I had my own script I might get a head start on those people - which paid off. I think I had my script running for only 3 days before I got my Wii. I'm sure many other slashdotters did the same.
I agree, it would be nice, although keep in mind that many toys sold on Amazon are sold by third parties. I know Amazon still gets a cut, but it's probably not that much. Also, if you buy stuff actually sold by Amazon - between the free shipping and normal discounts on their merch, I don't think they make all that much off of each sale. They make profits by volume. In fact, according to their financials, Amazon clears about 2.5% of their gross income as profit, which is not all that much when you consider donating to normal charities probably reduces your donations by 15-20%+.
So basically, the MPAA can obtain info illegally through someone else as long as they have a document that SAYS they expect the info to be collected legally while knowing full-well that the info has probably been obtained illegally. After all, if it was obtainable legally, they get the info themselves without paying $15K for it.
So, how come P2P companies can't use the EXACT SAME DEFENSE when they have disclaimers on their sites/apps saying that their products should not be used to illegally transfer content?
First, let me say that in contrast to many people here, I actually like Adobe's products. I have been using Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat since version 4. I do agree that Illustrator takes a while to launch (even on fast machines), but other than that, I have no complaints. In fact, of all large software I've used, I find Adobe's to be the most stable, feature-rich and easy to use.
I will not, however, move to an online subscription-based app, and I'm sure many other design professionals will agree. Adobe's core users will force them to offer a desktop version. There are just too many cons to using an online app:
1) What if you are working in an area with no broadband access - or even no access at all? 2) What if your ISP or local hardware is down? 3) What kind of servers will they need to have in place to support thousands of users simultaneously editing large graphics? 4) What about privacy? 5) What about security for companies working on secret projects?
Those are just a few things that come to mind immediately, and I'm sure there are more.
Even if broadband is uber-fast in 10 years (which I doubt considering the infrastructure needed to be improved upon), there will be more things than ever competing for that data speed. Will I be able to stream an HD movie for my kids to watch while I work on a 500MB tradeshow graphic for my company? I bet not - even if my ISP tripled their speed to 10Mb. And even at 50Mb, it is WAY faster to open that 500MB file from a local disk than upload it to a server somewhere.
I'm sure we'll have a local-run app for decades to come.
According to articles on the US changes, they blurred out the real graphic scenes (which really disappoints me as an adult who should be able to see them). Why can't they release an M version with lots of blurring called "Manhunt 2: The Jack Thompson Pussy Version, Still Not For Kids" and an uncut, unblurred AO version called "Manhunt 2: For Real"?
The US currently spends over $50B per year on the war on drugs. They have been "fighting" this war for over 30 years and have not even made a dent. So, every year, they spend more. If this isn't the clearest example of politicians ignoring facts then I don't know what is.
Not true. Mike Tyson was the last opponent. And no, I was not annoyed by any Game Genie codes... how much fun is the game when you take away the gameplay? Tyson was not that hard. Once you got through the 1:30 of those 1 punch knock-down uppercuts, he was almost as easy as Super Macho Man.
I use both Mac (at work) and PC (at home). I must say that I love my Mac and really can't stand using my PC. I've tried to convince friends to switch, but human nature is simply resistant to change. They have no interest taking time to learn a new OS/Platform even though in the long-run, it will provide a better experience for them. Hopefully, as Windows tries to emulate the great aspects of OS X, it will be less of a learning curve for Mac newbies.
I've also tried to convince friends about the advantage of using a Wacom tablet instead of a mouse. It really is a great interface, but takes a few weeks to get used to.
One day, I'm sure I'll convince at least 1 person to have enough patience to discover the benefits of Mac and a Wacom tablet. But, it has not happened yet.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not trying to take away the fact that they sold 1 million units very quickly, but technically they were "selling" them longer than 28 days via pre-orders. Did Apple take pre-orders for the iPhone that the article compares sales rate to? I can't remember. Most of their new products are not available to buy until they are actually available.
When he says "a whole lot of pennies have to add up before it becomes a bunch of money" does he mean like the 1 billion songs that iTunes has sold? Because at 9.1 cents per song, that comes out to $91,000,000... which is exactly a lot of money.
I use Wacom's smallest tablet (so I can reach any part of my screen without having to move my arm too much). I hold the pen in my hand even while typing since I don't use my right index finger for typing (I'm a quick 4 finger typist).
Anyway, I find it really easy to highlight lines of text. It also has 2 programmable buttons on the pen plus 4 programmable buttons on the tablet.
Most people give up too quickly on tablets. Making the switch will absolutely slow you down for a week or two, but once you get used to it, you'll never use a mouse again.
Park as far as possible everywhere you go. These walks from your car to the store/work/home will add up to several extra miles in the week.
Use the stairs instead of the elevator when you can.
Do 10 minutes of push-ups and sit-ups before work in the morning.
Put ankle weights on when you leave the house in the morning and walk around all day with them.
Go for walks at lunchtime
Take the long way when walking from your cube to someone else's at work.
I really enjoyed the first Manhunt for Playstation. When I heard Manhunt 2 was coming out for the Wii, I was psyched. Then, after all the controversy, they decided to censor the game by blurring out a major portion of the game - the violent cut scenes. I decided not to buy the game since I am an adult and should be able to buy the game uncensored.
My question is, why can't game devs release 2 versions of a game with different ratings - one being censored and one going all out?
I believe many of these video sharing sites claim rights to anything you post. You may want to keep that in mind when choosing (if that matters to you).
...so they can convict him before GW is out of office so he can get pardoned.
I posted this on CNET, but I might as well post it here as well:
Is there anything better than sensational bogus statistics? Some politicians claim states would lose half a trillion dollars in tax by 2011? Do they think most Americans didn't make it past 2nd grade math? Let's examine that claim with real math and logic:
Here are the e-commerce retail sales for the last 9 years:
2007 $136B
2006 $108B
2005 $86B
2004 $69B
2003 $57B
2002 $44
2001 $34
2000 $29
1999 $15
Source: http://www.census.gov/eos/www/archives.html
That's a total of $578 billion in revenue for 99-07.
Now, if we assume an average of 7% sales tax, and we assume that ALL items are taxable (which in most states they are not, like food and clothing), you would need $7.14 trillion in revenue to accumulate sales tax of $500 billion (which is the claimed lost tax by 2011).
That would mean that e-commerce would have to magically jump from $136B in revenue to an average of $1.6 trillion each year for 08-11. I mean, seriously, their figures are not even in the same ballpark as reality.
That's fine as long as people who barely use any bandwidth see their prices REDUCED. Someone using 50MB per month should certainly not pay more than $5/mo.
That would be fine if they charged more for heavy users AND less for light users... however, we all know that is not how it will work out. They will charge MORE for heavy users and THE SAME (as now) for light users. In other words, light users will never see a reduction in price.
Also as downloading movies and web-based apps become more mainstream, they need to be reasonable with bandwidth "tiers" and tiers should certainly grow over time. I wouldn't consider usage "heavy" at the present time until data transfer is >20GB/month.
And there is a large community of people who trade live music which is completely legal for many bands. I know I have well over 100GB of live (legal) shows and my collection pales in comparison to many others. I don't doubt that a lot of piracy occurs but when you exaggerate, you lose credibility.
Take it from the mouth of the ex-Attorney General and just about anyone else connected to the Bush administration... when asked to divulge your passphrase, simply say "I don't recall." It works for them, so it should work for everyone else.
I agree and hope HD-DVD wins. I hope Sony gets screwed YET AGAIN for trying to shove their format down everyone's throats. If I remember correctly from articles I've read, it is much less costly for DVD production plants to upgrade their facilities to produce HD-DVDs than to produce Blu-Ray... which would mean less costs passed on to consumers.
As for Blu-Ray "winning", does anyone know where we can find actual numbers for DISCS sold? All I've seen is PLAYERS sold, which to me, is not really all that telling. I think most people buying PS3s are buying it to play games - not to watch movies.
I've been using gmail for over a year now and I think they may be 100% for me. I don't recall getting a single spam in my inbox, and not a single false positive in my spam folder. In any case, 99.999% or 100%... they rock!
I actually wrote mine in VB Script, but here is the string I searched for:
src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/nav2/dp/btn-atc._V46858960_.gif" width="160" alt="Add to Shopping Cart"
Note1: I didn't simply search for "Add to Shopping Cart" since there are more Add to cart buttons on the page (the main item may be out of stock, but "other people bought" items may be in stock. The search above was for the specific sized Add To Cart button.
Note2: There are supposed to be 2 actual spaces before "width" (although they won't show above and I didn't want to add an &nbs p; in case it may confuse you).
Note3: The code may have changed on Amazon's page since I built my script. You may want to just check the code behind a page that has an item in stock.
When I decided to by mine, I just set up a script that checked Amazon every minute or two. I know they have sites that do that already, but there are hundreds of people signed up for the email notifications on those sites. I figured if I had my own script I might get a head start on those people - which paid off. I think I had my script running for only 3 days before I got my Wii. I'm sure many other slashdotters did the same.
I agree, it would be nice, although keep in mind that many toys sold on Amazon are sold by third parties. I know Amazon still gets a cut, but it's probably not that much. Also, if you buy stuff actually sold by Amazon - between the free shipping and normal discounts on their merch, I don't think they make all that much off of each sale. They make profits by volume. In fact, according to their financials, Amazon clears about 2.5% of their gross income as profit, which is not all that much when you consider donating to normal charities probably reduces your donations by 15-20%+.
So basically, the MPAA can obtain info illegally through someone else as long as they have a document that SAYS they expect the info to be collected legally while knowing full-well that the info has probably been obtained illegally. After all, if it was obtainable legally, they get the info themselves without paying $15K for it.
So, how come P2P companies can't use the EXACT SAME DEFENSE when they have disclaimers on their sites/apps saying that their products should not be used to illegally transfer content?
There are no life forms lower than hypocrites.
First, let me say that in contrast to many people here, I actually like Adobe's products. I have been using Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat since version 4. I do agree that Illustrator takes a while to launch (even on fast machines), but other than that, I have no complaints. In fact, of all large software I've used, I find Adobe's to be the most stable, feature-rich and easy to use.
I will not, however, move to an online subscription-based app, and I'm sure many other design professionals will agree. Adobe's core users will force them to offer a desktop version. There are just too many cons to using an online app:
1) What if you are working in an area with no broadband access - or even no access at all?
2) What if your ISP or local hardware is down?
3) What kind of servers will they need to have in place to support thousands of users simultaneously editing large graphics?
4) What about privacy?
5) What about security for companies working on secret projects?
Those are just a few things that come to mind immediately, and I'm sure there are more.
Even if broadband is uber-fast in 10 years (which I doubt considering the infrastructure needed to be improved upon), there will be more things than ever competing for that data speed. Will I be able to stream an HD movie for my kids to watch while I work on a 500MB tradeshow graphic for my company? I bet not - even if my ISP tripled their speed to 10Mb. And even at 50Mb, it is WAY faster to open that 500MB file from a local disk than upload it to a server somewhere.
I'm sure we'll have a local-run app for decades to come.
According to articles on the US changes, they blurred out the real graphic scenes (which really disappoints me as an adult who should be able to see them). Why can't they release an M version with lots of blurring called "Manhunt 2: The Jack Thompson Pussy Version, Still Not For Kids" and an uncut, unblurred AO version called "Manhunt 2: For Real"?
The US currently spends over $50B per year on the war on drugs. They have been "fighting" this war for over 30 years and have not even made a dent. So, every year, they spend more. If this isn't the clearest example of politicians ignoring facts then I don't know what is.
Not true. Mike Tyson was the last opponent. And no, I was not annoyed by any Game Genie codes... how much fun is the game when you take away the gameplay? Tyson was not that hard. Once you got through the 1:30 of those 1 punch knock-down uppercuts, he was almost as easy as Super Macho Man.
I use both Mac (at work) and PC (at home). I must say that I love my Mac and really can't stand using my PC. I've tried to convince friends to switch, but human nature is simply resistant to change. They have no interest taking time to learn a new OS/Platform even though in the long-run, it will provide a better experience for them. Hopefully, as Windows tries to emulate the great aspects of OS X, it will be less of a learning curve for Mac newbies.
I've also tried to convince friends about the advantage of using a Wacom tablet instead of a mouse. It really is a great interface, but takes a few weeks to get used to.
One day, I'm sure I'll convince at least 1 person to have enough patience to discover the benefits of Mac and a Wacom tablet. But, it has not happened yet.
And they are still selling out as fast as retailers get them in stock.
They attributed it to a testing slipup.