Who in the hell would buy a computer from Rent A Center or Aaron Rents, etc. Computer speeds these days are primarily a luxury for home users...other than hardcore gamers there is very little that a person cant do with a 6 year old hand me down computer like you can pick up at yard sales for $50. I would say its a place for people with more money than sense...but of course its for people with no money and no sense. Their current flyer on their website shows a sempron based cheapo compaq for $99 a month for 12 months...not only is it a discontinues model but Microcenter about 8 miles away has the same one as a refurb for $249. I've been "broke ass poor" before but never stooped to that kind of gouging, I guess I just dont understand why anyone does.
The problem there is that you have the telco and cable companies making the "rules" for their own regulation which always means they are done to look like something "restrictive" but only purposefully sever to restrict any decent competition. They have "regulated" themselves back into the monopolistic structure that was in place before the original bell split up. What needs to happen is regulation without the telco's and cable companies being allowed much say.
I live in the midwest 12 miles from the heart of a major city, I can get 10/1 (guaranteed 5/512) but have to pay for business class to get it, thats $165 a month but hey it comes with 1 static IP address...If I go 5 miles further south I cant get anything but dial up.
He has a very good point...I'd check the non intern machines if they are the same the company is likely not going to be a place you really want to work from an IT perspective...I've done that one before and it was a lesson well learned. Some companies seem to want new bells and whistles on the software side but want to spend zero dollars on hardware and just expect the IT department to work it out. There seems to be a disconnect as to who much productivity depends on the functionality of the computer. That new act database might have some super new feature but if it means that looking up a contact on the ancient desktop is going to take an extra 2-3 minutes you haven't gained anything but lost productivity.
Actually if the machines are that old...support is not going to be much of an issue in a few months anyway since XP itself will be a "dead" platform as far as MS support goes anyway...I would suspect that within a few months of the cutoff date XP will become even more of a haven for spyware and viruses than it is now since security holes wont get patched.
This sounds much like Sony's spin on thing when the PSP was struggling for sales. I dont think its so much that people dont understand the product its that the market has changed around them. Mobile gaming doesn't need a dedicated device for most people anymore. A good bellwether in my home is the opinion of my children. So far none of them have expressed any interest in it at all, but they all want either new ipod touches or ipads. Hardcore gamers will of course still spring for the "deeper" experience that is more common on dedicated platforms but I think that crowd is going to end up rather surprised at just how niche they really are. Even my son who is 10 has decided that being able to do things besides just gaming is sometimes more important than the gaming itself.
I had Lindy's collection service calling my house with a robodial at all hours multiple time a day for over year...even after I explained to them that I have never had comcast and never will because they aren't even available where I live. Apparently that was some kind of confirmation to them that it was my debt. I ended up having to get an attorney friend of mine after them to get them to stop. It turned out to be someone with the same first and last name that lived in the same area code but not the same town.
I work with dozens of clients that are all upper class usually they are the early adopters of this kind of stuff but so far I dont know a single person that owns one or has expressed and desire to get one. In talking to my friends none has mentioned even wanting one. Is the area I live in just smarter, more thrifty? I've checked out the sony tv's as well as the samsungs when I was in the market for a new tv for my living room a few months back, it was ok but IMHO not worth an extra $100 much less the $500 difference in an equivalent non-3d tv. The essentially forced upgrade to HD (yes I know there are converters, hd is technically better, etc...but for those who aren't glued to a television most of the time it was just seen as a government mandated money grab) was hard enough to swallow...trying to dupe consumers into the 3d bs was just too much IMHO.
It seems like we are so desperate to find a conspiracy in all this that we are forgetting that Samsung happens to be one of the biggest parts suppliers for the iPhone and iPad. This has far more to do with the conflict of interest there than a direct assault against Android.
Gotta wonder what kind of flack Amazon is going to take for this one. I've had a couple clients looking into cloud services including moving to AWS and have already had one of them call me and cancel a meeting about it. While I understand stuff happens, the entire sales pitch for AWS was redundancy and build as you grow. Redundancy has obviously not worked in this case, while I usually support cloud services, this is definitely going to be a hard example to counter when trying to sell it to potential customers.
I will admit I buy more $1 apps than traditional games now. My gaming time has been scarce for years, but back before the app store I would shell out $60 for a game and half of them would get played for an hour or less. Now I actually play more just because of the convenience, yes most of the games are more casual but are a entertaining enough experience that I just dont miss console gaming anymore, in fact I sold off both my 360 and PS3 a few months back. That said I dont mind paying for good games, I paid $10 for dead space and regularly buy $5 plus apps if they are interesting and reviews are decent. Im more of an old school gamer anyway, most of the time I would rather play a shooter like dondonpachi than CoD. For my kids gaming on an ipod or ipad was a no brainer...my son doesn't care if its Mario Cart or Kart Racer Rush he just likes the racing, I can spend $30 for him to do that on a DS or $1 to have the same type of game with motion sensing on the ipod. For my daughters games like Cake Mania and Plants vs Zombies are the types they were into to start with, I can pay $19 for a CD copy for a computer or $5 for the same game on the app store...its not even something I have to think about.
I do think that predictions of death for gaming on the pc and consoles are both exaggerated and premature, however I do think there will be a big drop in impulse purchasing of games for those platforms. I will still always choose a game like Bioshock or Fallout on the PC but my usual habit is changing, as a result there are far less games on my shelf I have "still have to get around to", games I buy now are ones I actually want to play now.
Rather ironic that the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave is slowly but surely progressing to a point where the only ones who will really have "freedom" will be the outlaws that all these things are supposedly being put in place to catch.
I would love to see a windows compatible tablet...but it truly needs to be designed around touch. That's something MS has failed to do in each previous attempt. Its just not practical to tack on a touch response onto a mouse and keyboard designed operating system, even pen based with more precision it just end up being a poor way to navigate and get anything done. I have an HP TC1100 which looks like a thick ipad and was made 7 years ago, hardware wise its actually still a capable device except that with windows on it, its practically unusable for anything but goofing around.
Your right, there likely wont be that option, most of the responses I have seen to big stinks being raised over small violations don't result in the device becoming more open...usually it just ensures that the next generation product isn't open at all. While I agree that if a product is going to use GPL it should comply with GPL, the hoops that have to be run through to make both the content providers and the open source community are usually contrary to each other and when it comes down to functionality vs hackability most companies are going to choose to just close up shop on the open source side of things.
It might be inferior..but that doesn't change the fact that most people are happier paying $0-$5 a month for a dvr that can handle the digital tiers they subscribe to but also does the basics they expect it to do. Tivo may be superior...even vastly superior but 99% of the market just doesn't care.
Web access as a human right? I think we might want to look at things like heath care, shelter and food first. I really doubt those living in poverty, under oppressive governments, etc, give a rats behind about web access.
I wanted global policies but was overruled by management that decided the ability to play solitaire and converse over AIM was far more important that spyware, and employees wasting time.
We actually did regularly scheduled cleanups but they do little good when the first thing they do when they get it back is install smiley central, weather bug and whatever screensaver app they think is doing them a favor. Locking them down wasn't given as an option even though it was suggested to management...they threw it back at the IT department as just trying to be lazy and not wanting to clean up machines rather than actually helping productivity and avoiding interruptions. Leaving there is still one of the highlights of my life.
I worked in a office where about once a year one of the employees would "spill" coffee on her laptop..usually a week or so after she noticed a deployment of new laptops in some other department. It worked until she moved to a floor with security camera's and was caught...after that her replacement was the one that recieved a shiny new one. The sad part was the machines she had were never out of date they simply became bogged down because of her browsing and installing habits, but rather than ask to have it cleaned up or god forbit learn to do it herself she would just have an "accident".
There was a game on the ipod touch years ago called Word Fu that did something similar without a camera, when you tilted the ipod your view of the dice would change so you could see the sides...it was subtle and not even an advertised feature but it became a rather mind blowing demo to show off to friends. It was accelerometer based only but combined with head tracking it could be an amazing new way to play games if it gets support.
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Who in the hell would buy a computer from Rent A Center or Aaron Rents, etc. Computer speeds these days are primarily a luxury for home users...other than hardcore gamers there is very little that a person cant do with a 6 year old hand me down computer like you can pick up at yard sales for $50. I would say its a place for people with more money than sense...but of course its for people with no money and no sense. Their current flyer on their website shows a sempron based cheapo compaq for $99 a month for 12 months...not only is it a discontinues model but Microcenter about 8 miles away has the same one as a refurb for $249. I've been "broke ass poor" before but never stooped to that kind of gouging, I guess I just dont understand why anyone does.
The problem there is that you have the telco and cable companies making the "rules" for their own regulation which always means they are done to look like something "restrictive" but only purposefully sever to restrict any decent competition. They have "regulated" themselves back into the monopolistic structure that was in place before the original bell split up. What needs to happen is regulation without the telco's and cable companies being allowed much say.
I live in the midwest 12 miles from the heart of a major city, I can get 10/1 (guaranteed 5/512) but have to pay for business class to get it, thats $165 a month but hey it comes with 1 static IP address...If I go 5 miles further south I cant get anything but dial up.
He has a very good point...I'd check the non intern machines if they are the same the company is likely not going to be a place you really want to work from an IT perspective...I've done that one before and it was a lesson well learned. Some companies seem to want new bells and whistles on the software side but want to spend zero dollars on hardware and just expect the IT department to work it out. There seems to be a disconnect as to who much productivity depends on the functionality of the computer. That new act database might have some super new feature but if it means that looking up a contact on the ancient desktop is going to take an extra 2-3 minutes you haven't gained anything but lost productivity.
Actually if the machines are that old...support is not going to be much of an issue in a few months anyway since XP itself will be a "dead" platform as far as MS support goes anyway...I would suspect that within a few months of the cutoff date XP will become even more of a haven for spyware and viruses than it is now since security holes wont get patched.
This sounds much like Sony's spin on thing when the PSP was struggling for sales. I dont think its so much that people dont understand the product its that the market has changed around them. Mobile gaming doesn't need a dedicated device for most people anymore. A good bellwether in my home is the opinion of my children. So far none of them have expressed any interest in it at all, but they all want either new ipod touches or ipads. Hardcore gamers will of course still spring for the "deeper" experience that is more common on dedicated platforms but I think that crowd is going to end up rather surprised at just how niche they really are. Even my son who is 10 has decided that being able to do things besides just gaming is sometimes more important than the gaming itself.
Netflix is still working on the PS3 with PSN down..you have to click through a few error messages but then it loads normally.
Throttling and Port Blocking...to improve your user experience of course.
Umm yes my attorney friend was quite aware, which is how as I stated in the original post that he was able to get them to stop.
I had Lindy's collection service calling my house with a robodial at all hours multiple time a day for over year...even after I explained to them that I have never had comcast and never will because they aren't even available where I live. Apparently that was some kind of confirmation to them that it was my debt. I ended up having to get an attorney friend of mine after them to get them to stop. It turned out to be someone with the same first and last name that lived in the same area code but not the same town.
I work with dozens of clients that are all upper class usually they are the early adopters of this kind of stuff but so far I dont know a single person that owns one or has expressed and desire to get one. In talking to my friends none has mentioned even wanting one. Is the area I live in just smarter, more thrifty? I've checked out the sony tv's as well as the samsungs when I was in the market for a new tv for my living room a few months back, it was ok but IMHO not worth an extra $100 much less the $500 difference in an equivalent non-3d tv. The essentially forced upgrade to HD (yes I know there are converters, hd is technically better, etc...but for those who aren't glued to a television most of the time it was just seen as a government mandated money grab) was hard enough to swallow...trying to dupe consumers into the 3d bs was just too much IMHO.
It seems like we are so desperate to find a conspiracy in all this that we are forgetting that Samsung happens to be one of the biggest parts suppliers for the iPhone and iPad. This has far more to do with the conflict of interest there than a direct assault against Android.
I should have caught that considering I worked on a bombers in the AF, but thank you. BTW, you only need one "from" between originates and ground.
I understand that but it still makes it a hard sell in the short-term until this all blows over.
Gotta wonder what kind of flack Amazon is going to take for this one. I've had a couple clients looking into cloud services including moving to AWS and have already had one of them call me and cancel a meeting about it. While I understand stuff happens, the entire sales pitch for AWS was redundancy and build as you grow. Redundancy has obviously not worked in this case, while I usually support cloud services, this is definitely going to be a hard example to counter when trying to sell it to potential customers.
I will admit I buy more $1 apps than traditional games now. My gaming time has been scarce for years, but back before the app store I would shell out $60 for a game and half of them would get played for an hour or less. Now I actually play more just because of the convenience, yes most of the games are more casual but are a entertaining enough experience that I just dont miss console gaming anymore, in fact I sold off both my 360 and PS3 a few months back. That said I dont mind paying for good games, I paid $10 for dead space and regularly buy $5 plus apps if they are interesting and reviews are decent. Im more of an old school gamer anyway, most of the time I would rather play a shooter like dondonpachi than CoD. For my kids gaming on an ipod or ipad was a no brainer...my son doesn't care if its Mario Cart or Kart Racer Rush he just likes the racing, I can spend $30 for him to do that on a DS or $1 to have the same type of game with motion sensing on the ipod. For my daughters games like Cake Mania and Plants vs Zombies are the types they were into to start with, I can pay $19 for a CD copy for a computer or $5 for the same game on the app store...its not even something I have to think about.
I do think that predictions of death for gaming on the pc and consoles are both exaggerated and premature, however I do think there will be a big drop in impulse purchasing of games for those platforms. I will still always choose a game like Bioshock or Fallout on the PC but my usual habit is changing, as a result there are far less games on my shelf I have "still have to get around to", games I buy now are ones I actually want to play now.
Rather ironic that the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave is slowly but surely progressing to a point where the only ones who will really have "freedom" will be the outlaws that all these things are supposedly being put in place to catch.
I would love to see a windows compatible tablet...but it truly needs to be designed around touch. That's something MS has failed to do in each previous attempt. Its just not practical to tack on a touch response onto a mouse and keyboard designed operating system, even pen based with more precision it just end up being a poor way to navigate and get anything done. I have an HP TC1100 which looks like a thick ipad and was made 7 years ago, hardware wise its actually still a capable device except that with windows on it, its practically unusable for anything but goofing around.
Your right, there likely wont be that option, most of the responses I have seen to big stinks being raised over small violations don't result in the device becoming more open...usually it just ensures that the next generation product isn't open at all. While I agree that if a product is going to use GPL it should comply with GPL, the hoops that have to be run through to make both the content providers and the open source community are usually contrary to each other and when it comes down to functionality vs hackability most companies are going to choose to just close up shop on the open source side of things.
It might be inferior..but that doesn't change the fact that most people are happier paying $0-$5 a month for a dvr that can handle the digital tiers they subscribe to but also does the basics they expect it to do. Tivo may be superior...even vastly superior but 99% of the market just doesn't care.
Web access as a human right? I think we might want to look at things like heath care, shelter and food first. I really doubt those living in poverty, under oppressive governments, etc, give a rats behind about web access.
I wanted global policies but was overruled by management that decided the ability to play solitaire and converse over AIM was far more important that spyware, and employees wasting time.
We actually did regularly scheduled cleanups but they do little good when the first thing they do when they get it back is install smiley central, weather bug and whatever screensaver app they think is doing them a favor. Locking them down wasn't given as an option even though it was suggested to management...they threw it back at the IT department as just trying to be lazy and not wanting to clean up machines rather than actually helping productivity and avoiding interruptions. Leaving there is still one of the highlights of my life.
Except they aren't just on screen saver, they are also on the menu's and they aren't ads for other books, in fact their first client is Buick.
I worked in a office where about once a year one of the employees would "spill" coffee on her laptop..usually a week or so after she noticed a deployment of new laptops in some other department. It worked until she moved to a floor with security camera's and was caught...after that her replacement was the one that recieved a shiny new one. The sad part was the machines she had were never out of date they simply became bogged down because of her browsing and installing habits, but rather than ask to have it cleaned up or god forbit learn to do it herself she would just have an "accident".
There was a game on the ipod touch years ago called Word Fu that did something similar without a camera, when you tilted the ipod your view of the dice would change so you could see the sides...it was subtle and not even an advertised feature but it became a rather mind blowing demo to show off to friends. It was accelerometer based only but combined with head tracking it could be an amazing new way to play games if it gets support.