Well, I'd imagine the cost difference is because we have engineers/developers/etc who make about 10-20 times the amount of their Indian counterparts.
Yes, NASA pays exhorbinant costs (take a look at how much private companies are paying for their shuttles vs NASA) . You also have to compare American cost of labor/parts vs India.
Now can someone run the metrics of cost of services/goods of India vs America? Take that factor into account and give us an adjusted price difference
I agree with the last mile comment.
Google, however, is not going to build out more than a few markets. For them this is an experiment, to show that prices can be cheaper and the product can be of better quality - as far as they can demonstrate in a few tiny markets.
Try and build a national infrastructure - with data centers sending out that much content, with cables being lined through every city/town/neighborhood - this is an astronomical and mind-blowing logistics nightmare. The barrier to entry into this market is not gov't, it's the cost and willpower to get in. For google to become a competitor they will actually have to expand to major markets. While I wish they would, they can't - it's incredibly difficult. Once they do so, their costs will go up substantially.
Again, I hope they do manage to do this, but I am not holding my breath - and nobody else should
While I prefer new to refurb, and was once infuriated where my brand new (35 day old phone) which broke was replaced by a refurb, the refurbs are actually really good. These phones have been re-serviced and look new. When you get your refurb, other than knowing it's a refurb, there is no difference. They replace the body, and any broken components. It's like a new phone, except they can't claim it as new.
Yes it's frustrating to wait a day to get the phone (possibly more if over weekend and holiday), but without increasing costs (dramatically) they will not keep in stock every single phone they keep. First off, it could be a 2 year old phone that is no longer produced. Do you think they will keep 100 of those laying around? Multiply that by every phone the store has sold and you can see where it would become a logistics nightmare, and really expensive. Meaning, your costs would go up.
The phone companies are not stupid - if they could keep the phones stocked and not overnight you a phone (which definitely costs money) they would do so.
That doesn't mean this will suck. There is no reason to not give something a chance other then to be a naysayer. BTW, not that I read them, but I know many people who are huge fans of the star wars and star trek books...fans which some like the star wars/trek movies and some do not.
In the end, instead of saying "this is gonna suck" without any basis (and none of us have ANY basis since the author hasn't even written it) we should give it a shot. I am looking forward to this. I enjoyed the LOTR movies and hope to enjoy these two hobit ones.
I remember the tv show, beyond 2000, back in the early 90s. One of the items they talked about was being able to fax someone objects. So you would scan it, and it would send (over the phone lines) a fax to someone who had a similar machine and the machine would create the object.
A sequel NOT written by Tolkien? Ew. How about instead another prequel taken from The Silmarillion? That would be full of awesome, almost guaranteed to win several internets.
Funny, your message and writing style seem remarkably like this guy Copy So did you copy from this guy, or are you dual accounting?
How is the above insightful? How is that poster anymore then a standard nay-saying fanboy? The person is shooting down a sequel BEFORE it is even written let alone time for him to read it before it is filmed.
I swear we wonder how we get people in congress who shoot down ideas or pass retarded laws that make no sense - when they have no clue about the subject matter (e.g. IP, copyright, net neutrality, patents)....well don't wonder anymore - our local politicians are doing the same thing the OP is doing speaking before they know what the subject matter entails...
I've been holding off on getting LOTR set for bluray until this came out. I was wavering and even a week ago thought "maybe i should just buy it, there won't be a hobit movie"...glad to know my stubborness is paying off.
They're interested in getting the most effort out of their employees for the least possible reward
Oh, that's quite easy. "Bring me a bag of gold...your reward...a ration". Failing = death, not doing the quest equals finding new work (e.g. being fired and getting a new job, assuming you meet the level requirements aka skillset)
To "own"? Let's not kid ourselves here... there's no real ownership involved unless there is a way to get DRM-free files in 720p off the device using anything other than your eyeballs. I seriously doubt there is, which makes this just a really expensive rental service. I'm sure there are already lots of services which feature renting movies from all 6 major studios while taking your money and laughing about it.
Really - your eyeballs can get files off a device? So should I call you Jordi LaForge?
Not that I would use this service (I prefer having the physical media), but if I get to d/l it to my computer, and it resides there as long as I so choose to keep it then I own the right to view the movie as much as I want. I don't own the movie, that ownership resides with the company that released it...but I own the right to view it. Same thing if I buy a dvd from a store. It's about preference. My friend prefers to have his movies on hard drive, i prefer to keep it on disk.
It's a funny looking picture. How many famous scientists put out a picture like that? He is also one of the most recognizable faces in the science community. Yes there are more famous people - but do we know what they look like? How many of these scientists have multiple movies based on their lives? It's more then his political agenda.
Scientific studies performed without a reason have historically produced results that we can apply to practical applications. This doesnt' always happen and then someone comes around saying "but why are we wasting money on X worthless study"....but what if that study gave us some new piece of knowledge that helped us in some way? What if that study will help someone five, ten, fifteen, one-hundreed years from now?
So studies that seem worthless today may be great tomorrow. The studies may return immediate useful results. Then there is always - because we are curious and satisfying our curiousity and feeding our brains (we are explorers) is a good thing.
RTFA
It was an obscure 3rd party controller from overseas that, according to the article, Nintendo had no idea existed. The sheriff's office could barely track it down on the web it was so obscure.
I did RTFA...and let me explain something to you....NONE OF THAT MATTERS. Nintendo is a huge company. Lawyer wants payday. Family is distraught and wants to blame somebody (except themselves). Lawyer capitalizes on this and goes to sue Nintendo, hoping that Nintendo will settle for a few million (which the layer gets 50% of).
This is manslaughter. Whoever left a gun near a 3-year-old needs locking up.
WRONG! It is clearly Nintendo's fault for making their contoller look "similar" to a gun and obviously the family should sue Nintendo for negligible homicide and reap millions.
What...you don't believe me? Just wait until the family gets a lawyer telling them practically the same thing and how the family was wronged by Nintendo.
Me: "/globalwhisper Hey bill, long time no"
Global Whisper from Bill: "Hmm, where did your message go"
Me: "/re Sorry bout that, almost got backstabbed by that jackass kid dave. He's always trying to kill me when I'm barely paying attention...Too bad i beat his n00b ass"
Some of my fondest coding memories were programming for an LP mud.:) I loved the fact that wizards (coders) could literally have programming wars. For example, one wizard makes a dest ("destruct" -- basically, kicking off another player or wizard, with a lot of fanfare) that has a big leadup to it. So another wizard, tired of getting dested, writes a rapid counter-dest that kicks off the wizard doing the dest before it completes. So the first wizard writes an insta-dest that doesn't give the second wizard a chance to counter. So the second wizard writes an object that seeks out the first wizard's inventory, intercepts their commands, and if they try to start a dest against them, it instead turns the dest on its caster. So the first wizard writes an object that scans their inventory for objects to intercept the dest, and if it finds something that shouldn't be there, the object kills it off for them and then dests its owner. And on and on, back and forth.
It gets to the point "Your body contemplates to take a breath of air....you get kicked";) BTW, later in your post you said "screams out in pain"...how does one scream out in pain in a text based mmo?
I might be biased though because I started playing back in the early 90's on various MUDs which were a) free and b) a lot more creative with their game mechanics. Give me a good old tabletop RPG any day of the week.
Really? You are trying to compare muds of the early 90s (which I also played) to todays games? You are comparing "You are in a room, your exists are up, down, north, west". I played majormud, telearena, tradewars2002, and a bunch of others. They were great, but nothing compared to today. After playing Doom 1 I said "wow one day we will have a merger of this and muds" and we do.
I think your dislike of MMOS today (which is just a large graphical mud) is that you are comparing today to your youth...that's a mistake...about as much of a mistake when I rented the original transformers series, and battlestar galactica series...what a way to kill my childhood memories. Things seem better from when you were a kid because your brain fantasizes and makes it better then what it was...plus as a kid we have beeter imaginations and are more easily impressed then when we are adults.
BTW - it did cost money to play muds back in the day depending on where you played (just like today). I had to pay $20/month so I could have a monthly account with the local BBS. It did cost the guy time/money to keep the computers/phone lines up and running and he was limited to 15-25 people at a time. He paid $10/line so charging users $20/month was fair.
This is like buying a car. Every time I've tried to buy a car, the salesman has tried to make the deal more complicated. Let's talk trade in! Nope. I'm selling my car separately. Well how about financing? Nope, I'm paying cash. What about this nifty special warranty the dealer offers? I'd rather just hand you the money than going through that charade. And no, I'm not handing you the money. Well, an extended manufacturer warranty? I'll self-insure, thank you.
Really? Buying a car is that complex?
"How much is the car sales person? X you say? Ok I will give you Y. Great now that we agree on Z let's move on.
I would like to finance, what's your rates? Q you say? Well that's better then my bank, so great let's move on.
I want to sell you my car, how much are you offering? M you say? Well, M is a bit low, how about N? Great now that we agree on O let's move on.
"Finally, the warranty, how much? S you say? Ok I will give you T. Great we have a deal"
It's four fairly simple steps...if a person finds that difficult then I'd imagine Linux involves solving the mystery of the universe. At any point in the process if you are unhappy with one of the rates you can decline. If your car purchase is anymore complex then that (other then inspecting the car) then you are doing something entirely wrong.
Porsche 918 Spyder gets 58mpg and this is a freaken scream machine. Porsche
I mean, really, if they can get this kind of car (0-60mph in 3.2 seconds) then there is no excuse for ALL cards to get such great ratings. The whole "hybrids are slow" is ridiculous.
It is bad enough that they try to use SS as one, but, I do not want a sanctioned national id.
Too late...SS has already transformed (many many years ago) into a national ID. It's how you get a job (legally), get benefits (until they run out), pay your taxes, get loans, track your criminal record, track your passport, etc. It's a very good way of tracking people because it's a huge freakin number that is used on a 1:1 ratio.
However, social security has a major flaw...our cards have absolutely ZERO ways of gauranteeing the person holding the ID is actually the person using the ID (except age....i don't think I could pass for a 75 year old person...since I am 33).
Giving this card a method to be used as an ID will help.
BTW - jsut in thought. By law we are all required to have social security numbers from birth. We are not all required to have drivers license's, but many states require people have some kind of gov't id card by the age of 18. That means if you live in one of those states you have to get a drivers license, non-drivers license, passport, military id or welfare card by the age of 18...that is an extra ID (and some would say tracking) form. By putting a picture on your social card then people who would prefer not to be tracked can live their entire lives with only ONE form of ID (social)...anyhow I digress.
My point is this id will help prevent fraud, amongst other things. I am down for a bit less fraud
Slashdot Mirror
Well, I'd imagine the cost difference is because we have engineers/developers/etc who make about 10-20 times the amount of their Indian counterparts. Yes, NASA pays exhorbinant costs (take a look at how much private companies are paying for their shuttles vs NASA) . You also have to compare American cost of labor/parts vs India. Now can someone run the metrics of cost of services/goods of India vs America? Take that factor into account and give us an adjusted price difference
I agree with the last mile comment. Google, however, is not going to build out more than a few markets. For them this is an experiment, to show that prices can be cheaper and the product can be of better quality - as far as they can demonstrate in a few tiny markets. Try and build a national infrastructure - with data centers sending out that much content, with cables being lined through every city/town/neighborhood - this is an astronomical and mind-blowing logistics nightmare. The barrier to entry into this market is not gov't, it's the cost and willpower to get in. For google to become a competitor they will actually have to expand to major markets. While I wish they would, they can't - it's incredibly difficult. Once they do so, their costs will go up substantially. Again, I hope they do manage to do this, but I am not holding my breath - and nobody else should
While I prefer new to refurb, and was once infuriated where my brand new (35 day old phone) which broke was replaced by a refurb, the refurbs are actually really good. These phones have been re-serviced and look new. When you get your refurb, other than knowing it's a refurb, there is no difference. They replace the body, and any broken components. It's like a new phone, except they can't claim it as new. Yes it's frustrating to wait a day to get the phone (possibly more if over weekend and holiday), but without increasing costs (dramatically) they will not keep in stock every single phone they keep. First off, it could be a 2 year old phone that is no longer produced. Do you think they will keep 100 of those laying around? Multiply that by every phone the store has sold and you can see where it would become a logistics nightmare, and really expensive. Meaning, your costs would go up. The phone companies are not stupid - if they could keep the phones stocked and not overnight you a phone (which definitely costs money) they would do so.
Shame on the organisation behind it for creating it. And every one of you assholes who immediately started joking about it, you disgust me.
It's a microsoft product
S: "We clearly read a 0.1 Richter reading in your apartment last night around 10PM, but we can't confirm this with any other data."
fix't
That doesn't mean this will suck. There is no reason to not give something a chance other then to be a naysayer. BTW, not that I read them, but I know many people who are huge fans of the star wars and star trek books...fans which some like the star wars/trek movies and some do not.
In the end, instead of saying "this is gonna suck" without any basis (and none of us have ANY basis since the author hasn't even written it) we should give it a shot. I am looking forward to this. I enjoyed the LOTR movies and hope to enjoy these two hobit ones.
I remember the tv show, beyond 2000, back in the early 90s. One of the items they talked about was being able to fax someone objects. So you would scan it, and it would send (over the phone lines) a fax to someone who had a similar machine and the machine would create the object.
Is this step 1 to that?
A sequel NOT written by Tolkien? Ew. How about instead another prequel taken from The Silmarillion? That would be full of awesome, almost guaranteed to win several internets.
Funny, your message and writing style seem remarkably like this guy Copy So did you copy from this guy, or are you dual accounting?
How is the above insightful? How is that poster anymore then a standard nay-saying fanboy? The person is shooting down a sequel BEFORE it is even written let alone time for him to read it before it is filmed.
I swear we wonder how we get people in congress who shoot down ideas or pass retarded laws that make no sense - when they have no clue about the subject matter (e.g. IP, copyright, net neutrality, patents)....well don't wonder anymore - our local politicians are doing the same thing the OP is doing speaking before they know what the subject matter entails...
I've been holding off on getting LOTR set for bluray until this came out. I was wavering and even a week ago thought "maybe i should just buy it, there won't be a hobit movie"...glad to know my stubborness is paying off.
They're interested in getting the most effort out of their employees for the least possible reward
Oh, that's quite easy. "Bring me a bag of gold...your reward...a ration". Failing = death, not doing the quest equals finding new work (e.g. being fired and getting a new job, assuming you meet the level requirements aka skillset)
To "own"? Let's not kid ourselves here... there's no real ownership involved unless there is a way to get DRM-free files in 720p off the device using anything other than your eyeballs. I seriously doubt there is, which makes this just a really expensive rental service. I'm sure there are already lots of services which feature renting movies from all 6 major studios while taking your money and laughing about it.
Really - your eyeballs can get files off a device? So should I call you Jordi LaForge?
Not that I would use this service (I prefer having the physical media), but if I get to d/l it to my computer, and it resides there as long as I so choose to keep it then I own the right to view the movie as much as I want. I don't own the movie, that ownership resides with the company that released it...but I own the right to view it. Same thing if I buy a dvd from a store. It's about preference. My friend prefers to have his movies on hard drive, i prefer to keep it on disk.
It's a funny looking picture. How many famous scientists put out a picture like that? He is also one of the most recognizable faces in the science community. Yes there are more famous people - but do we know what they look like? How many of these scientists have multiple movies based on their lives? It's more then his political agenda.
Scientific studies performed without a reason have historically produced results that we can apply to practical applications. This doesnt' always happen and then someone comes around saying "but why are we wasting money on X worthless study"....but what if that study gave us some new piece of knowledge that helped us in some way? What if that study will help someone five, ten, fifteen, one-hundreed years from now?
So studies that seem worthless today may be great tomorrow. The studies may return immediate useful results. Then there is always - because we are curious and satisfying our curiousity and feeding our brains (we are explorers) is a good thing.
RTFA It was an obscure 3rd party controller from overseas that, according to the article, Nintendo had no idea existed. The sheriff's office could barely track it down on the web it was so obscure.
I did RTFA...and let me explain something to you....NONE OF THAT MATTERS. Nintendo is a huge company. Lawyer wants payday. Family is distraught and wants to blame somebody (except themselves). Lawyer capitalizes on this and goes to sue Nintendo, hoping that Nintendo will settle for a few million (which the layer gets 50% of).
You are so going to hell for that comment...And I hate you for making me laugh....now I'm going with you.
This is manslaughter. Whoever left a gun near a 3-year-old needs locking up.
WRONG! It is clearly Nintendo's fault for making their contoller look "similar" to a gun and obviously the family should sue Nintendo for negligible homicide and reap millions.
What...you don't believe me? Just wait until the family gets a lawyer telling them practically the same thing and how the family was wronged by Nintendo.
How did the insurance company screw him out of his life insurance policy? He hasn't died yet.
Once they started shooting the French said "Welp, okay" and blew them out of the water.
Wait the French didn't surrender? Are you sure it was the French?
Me: "/globalwhisper Hey bill, long time no"
Global Whisper from Bill: "Hmm, where did your message go"
Me: "/re Sorry bout that, almost got backstabbed by that jackass kid dave. He's always trying to kill me when I'm barely paying attention...Too bad i beat his n00b ass"
Some of my fondest coding memories were programming for an LP mud. :) I loved the fact that wizards (coders) could literally have programming wars. For example, one wizard makes a dest ("destruct" -- basically, kicking off another player or wizard, with a lot of fanfare) that has a big leadup to it. So another wizard, tired of getting dested, writes a rapid counter-dest that kicks off the wizard doing the dest before it completes. So the first wizard writes an insta-dest that doesn't give the second wizard a chance to counter. So the second wizard writes an object that seeks out the first wizard's inventory, intercepts their commands, and if they try to start a dest against them, it instead turns the dest on its caster. So the first wizard writes an object that scans their inventory for objects to intercept the dest, and if it finds something that shouldn't be there, the object kills it off for them and then dests its owner. And on and on, back and forth.
It gets to the point "Your body contemplates to take a breath of air....you get kicked" ;) BTW, later in your post you said "screams out in pain"...how does one scream out in pain in a text based mmo?
I might be biased though because I started playing back in the early 90's on various MUDs which were a) free and b) a lot more creative with their game mechanics. Give me a good old tabletop RPG any day of the week.
Really? You are trying to compare muds of the early 90s (which I also played) to todays games? You are comparing "You are in a room, your exists are up, down, north, west". I played majormud, telearena, tradewars2002, and a bunch of others. They were great, but nothing compared to today. After playing Doom 1 I said "wow one day we will have a merger of this and muds" and we do.
I think your dislike of MMOS today (which is just a large graphical mud) is that you are comparing today to your youth...that's a mistake...about as much of a mistake when I rented the original transformers series, and battlestar galactica series...what a way to kill my childhood memories. Things seem better from when you were a kid because your brain fantasizes and makes it better then what it was...plus as a kid we have beeter imaginations and are more easily impressed then when we are adults.
BTW - it did cost money to play muds back in the day depending on where you played (just like today). I had to pay $20/month so I could have a monthly account with the local BBS. It did cost the guy time/money to keep the computers/phone lines up and running and he was limited to 15-25 people at a time. He paid $10/line so charging users $20/month was fair.
This is like buying a car. Every time I've tried to buy a car, the salesman has tried to make the deal more complicated. Let's talk trade in! Nope. I'm selling my car separately. Well how about financing? Nope, I'm paying cash. What about this nifty special warranty the dealer offers? I'd rather just hand you the money than going through that charade. And no, I'm not handing you the money. Well, an extended manufacturer warranty? I'll self-insure, thank you.
Really? Buying a car is that complex?
"How much is the car sales person? X you say? Ok I will give you Y. Great now that we agree on Z let's move on.
I would like to finance, what's your rates? Q you say? Well that's better then my bank, so great let's move on.
I want to sell you my car, how much are you offering? M you say? Well, M is a bit low, how about N? Great now that we agree on O let's move on.
"Finally, the warranty, how much? S you say? Ok I will give you T. Great we have a deal"
It's four fairly simple steps...if a person finds that difficult then I'd imagine Linux involves solving the mystery of the universe. At any point in the process if you are unhappy with one of the rates you can decline. If your car purchase is anymore complex then that (other then inspecting the car) then you are doing something entirely wrong.
Porsche 918 Spyder gets 58mpg and this is a freaken scream machine. Porsche
I mean, really, if they can get this kind of car (0-60mph in 3.2 seconds) then there is no excuse for ALL cards to get such great ratings. The whole "hybrids are slow" is ridiculous.
It is bad enough that they try to use SS as one, but, I do not want a sanctioned national id.
Too late...SS has already transformed (many many years ago) into a national ID. It's how you get a job (legally), get benefits (until they run out), pay your taxes, get loans, track your criminal record, track your passport, etc. It's a very good way of tracking people because it's a huge freakin number that is used on a 1:1 ratio.
However, social security has a major flaw...our cards have absolutely ZERO ways of gauranteeing the person holding the ID is actually the person using the ID (except age....i don't think I could pass for a 75 year old person...since I am 33).
Giving this card a method to be used as an ID will help.
BTW - jsut in thought. By law we are all required to have social security numbers from birth. We are not all required to have drivers license's, but many states require people have some kind of gov't id card by the age of 18. That means if you live in one of those states you have to get a drivers license, non-drivers license, passport, military id or welfare card by the age of 18...that is an extra ID (and some would say tracking) form. By putting a picture on your social card then people who would prefer not to be tracked can live their entire lives with only ONE form of ID (social)...anyhow I digress.
My point is this id will help prevent fraud, amongst other things. I am down for a bit less fraud