I just don't get how the government is "bad" in Americans' eyes. The people elect the government. If corporations are corrupting the process then we need campaign finance reform. Instead people vilify their own extension of power. It's just ridiculous.
No it wouldn't. What the devil are you talking about? We already have net neutrality, just not enshrined in law. My God do you even think before you speak?
As opposed to giving more power to corporations, which are the source of the corruption? Why wouldn't you advocate for governmental reform instead of restricting the government's power and allowing giant companies to run roughshod over your rights? Sigh... never mind. I hate trying to argue logic with regressive, conservative Americans.
Ever since the political red shift of 1980, our country has been falling apart. Our infrastructure is decaying, our schools are degenerating, our health care is failing, and the gap between rich and poor is widening. And yet here you are moaning about "big government legislation" to protect the one shining beacon of the past 30 years: the internet. What a fool you are.
Really? There's enough competition out there? Are you blind or a complete idiot? 1 or 2 wireline providers, 4 major wireless providers, 1 of which doesn't go beyond city limits.
It's called a price versus demand curve. As the price tends towards zero the demand increases infinitely. Since there are practical limits, demand at free plateaus at about 10x demand at the original price. This isn't about people being able to afford the games. They just don't value these games at their original prices. There's nothing you can do about it. DRM'ing the game to high heaven won't make those people who don't value the game suddenly purchase it. You're not going to suddenly increase your sales by an order of magnitude. You likely won't even increase it, unless you lower your prices. That's why those ridiculous sales on Steam are so popular. Highly rated games for incredibly cheap prices on holidays or whatever other special day comes up attracts lots of customers.
I'm not saying game prices are too high. In fact based on the rate of inflation I'm worried that the gaming market will bottom out as publishers are unable to raise their game prices to even match inflation, let alone the increasing costs of game development. But that "90% piracy rate" is totally misleading. These are not people who would have bought your game had DRM been implemented.
I don't think you understand that people have a relatively stable budget for spending on media and entertainment. Whether they spend it on movies or games, whether they pirate or not the same amount of money is going to go into the industry. Not to mention pirating allows them to indulge in the game industry without the constraints of a limited budget. If a person can only afford to play 1 game every few months due to budget and time constraints, how likely are they to maintain their interest in games in general?
Google has been pushing for strict net neutrality regulations from the beginning. Most likely they and their lawyers, just like everyone else, has discovered and accepted that the telecom incumbents' hold on the Congressional Legislature is just far too strong to fight uncompromisingly. I won't into all the details, but there is ample evidence to suggest that Genachowski(the head of the FCC) is cowing to the combined might of the Democratic and Republican parties, who for the most part are in Verizon and AT&T's back pockets (all Rs and the majority of Ds). Google I suspect has squeaked out net neutrality principles for at least wireline, if not wireless.
LTE is a 3.9G technology, faster than current 3G technologies employed by most carriers worldwide. With an LTE phone you'll manage speeds of 5-12 mbps down/2-5 mbps up. Battery life will probably be a bit of an issue though.
Actually China Telecom is pouring billions of yuan into expanding their 3G network across as much as China as possible. 4G equipment is currently much more expensive than 3G. Not to mention LTE's ecosystem must still develop before smaller carriers will make the jump.
Another problem is that providing backhaul for 4G can be difficult. For example over 90% of AT&T's towers are still currently served by T1s. I foresee several smaller carriers remaining on 3G for at least a few more years.
Well Verizon's 4G will be on the 700 MHz band, which allows for deep penetration of thick walls and extremely long distances. Unfortunately for them they only have 20 MHz in that band, so caps will be a must. If I recall they plan on selling "buckets" of data. Don't see that working out too well in the face of Clear's capless 4G however.
Interestingly, I'm typing this out on an uncapped 4G WiMAX connection in Nagasaki, Japan. I download hundreds of gigabytes a month while paying $50/month. It's quite fun actually. I get approximately 5/.5 mbps international and 110 ms ping.
Actually if you look at just the internet division of cable companies they achieve margins of 80%. It's actually disgusting how profitable they are while providing so little service.
Not really, no it isn't. There are fiber ISPs in rural America, and they cite their installation costs as close to FIOS's urban and suburban installations.
Sorry to double post, but I just thought this comment in the interview was extremely stupid: "We have to put a stake in the ground somewhere. We could put five years, we could put two years." Why do you have to set a limit on a license for a fully purchased game? That's got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard. How can this guy not understand the frustration of consumers whose money goes into a "three year Playpass", rather than wholly owning the game?
No no, the problem is exactly the licenses evaporating, or rather people's accounts being closed and a user subsequently losing out on all their purchased games. I think a simple, extremely reasonable solution would be to allow users to download and play the game locally if they wish a la Steam. Give them both the option to play in the cloud (much more convenient) and locally (sense of security and ownership) and you have an award winning service that destroys your Valve-hosted competitor.
Unfortunately, no. That would require investing in fiber to the home in the last mile, which requires a great deal more money than a paltry 5 million, and which incumbents will do everything they can to prevent from happening. At least until the copper lines degrade to complete uselessness, which won't be for a few more decades.
All this means is that scientists are in fact humans and make small errors just like everyone else. I'm just glad that scientific academies and agencies have the integrity to publicly admit when they're wrong in spite of the obvious fear-mongering and finger-pointing that will result from the anti-AGW camp.
I don't know why this was modded Flamebait. If the recent healthcare debate has taught us anything about our country, it's that Americans are purposely ignorant of the rest of the civilized and developed world, and have no interest in educating themselves on successes outside of their own country.
This isn't going to find its way into any consumer products. 70 GPa? No federal agency would certify such a device to be sold into the hands of Joe Schmoe. The more meaningful consequence of this research is the demonstration of storing mechanical energy into chemical energy. In 20 years this may lead to innovations in energy storage on a massive scale, like in solar or wind power plants.
Didn't Google pay something like twice as much as Apple was willing to pay for the ad company Apple wanted to buy?
Now another $700 million for this company? I know it's not true, but sometimes it feels like Google has more money than the government. It's pretty amazing how much they throw around.
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I just don't get how the government is "bad" in Americans' eyes. The people elect the government. If corporations are corrupting the process then we need campaign finance reform. Instead people vilify their own extension of power. It's just ridiculous.
i've come to believe Page is slowly succumbing to the dark side.
No it wouldn't. What the devil are you talking about? We already have net neutrality, just not enshrined in law. My God do you even think before you speak?
As opposed to giving more power to corporations, which are the source of the corruption? Why wouldn't you advocate for governmental reform instead of restricting the government's power and allowing giant companies to run roughshod over your rights? Sigh... never mind. I hate trying to argue logic with regressive, conservative Americans.
Ever since the political red shift of 1980, our country has been falling apart. Our infrastructure is decaying, our schools are degenerating, our health care is failing, and the gap between rich and poor is widening. And yet here you are moaning about "big government legislation" to protect the one shining beacon of the past 30 years: the internet. What a fool you are.
Really? There's enough competition out there? Are you blind or a complete idiot? 1 or 2 wireline providers, 4 major wireless providers, 1 of which doesn't go beyond city limits.
Before the election of Bush and the appointment of a Republican FCC, the ISPs were classified as Common Carriers.
It's called a price versus demand curve. As the price tends towards zero the demand increases infinitely. Since there are practical limits, demand at free plateaus at about 10x demand at the original price. This isn't about people being able to afford the games. They just don't value these games at their original prices. There's nothing you can do about it. DRM'ing the game to high heaven won't make those people who don't value the game suddenly purchase it. You're not going to suddenly increase your sales by an order of magnitude. You likely won't even increase it, unless you lower your prices. That's why those ridiculous sales on Steam are so popular. Highly rated games for incredibly cheap prices on holidays or whatever other special day comes up attracts lots of customers.
I'm not saying game prices are too high. In fact based on the rate of inflation I'm worried that the gaming market will bottom out as publishers are unable to raise their game prices to even match inflation, let alone the increasing costs of game development. But that "90% piracy rate" is totally misleading. These are not people who would have bought your game had DRM been implemented.
I don't think you understand that people have a relatively stable budget for spending on media and entertainment. Whether they spend it on movies or games, whether they pirate or not the same amount of money is going to go into the industry. Not to mention pirating allows them to indulge in the game industry without the constraints of a limited budget. If a person can only afford to play 1 game every few months due to budget and time constraints, how likely are they to maintain their interest in games in general?
Google has been pushing for strict net neutrality regulations from the beginning. Most likely they and their lawyers, just like everyone else, has discovered and accepted that the telecom incumbents' hold on the Congressional Legislature is just far too strong to fight uncompromisingly. I won't into all the details, but there is ample evidence to suggest that Genachowski(the head of the FCC) is cowing to the combined might of the Democratic and Republican parties, who for the most part are in Verizon and AT&T's back pockets (all Rs and the majority of Ds). Google I suspect has squeaked out net neutrality principles for at least wireline, if not wireless.
LTE is a 3.9G technology, faster than current 3G technologies employed by most carriers worldwide. With an LTE phone you'll manage speeds of 5-12 mbps down/2-5 mbps up. Battery life will probably be a bit of an issue though.
Actually China Telecom is pouring billions of yuan into expanding their 3G network across as much as China as possible. 4G equipment is currently much more expensive than 3G. Not to mention LTE's ecosystem must still develop before smaller carriers will make the jump.
Another problem is that providing backhaul for 4G can be difficult. For example over 90% of AT&T's towers are still currently served by T1s. I foresee several smaller carriers remaining on 3G for at least a few more years.
Interestingly, I'm typing this out on an uncapped 4G WiMAX connection in Nagasaki, Japan. I download hundreds of gigabytes a month while paying $50/month. It's quite fun actually. I get approximately 5/.5 mbps international and 110 ms ping.
Actually if you look at just the internet division of cable companies they achieve margins of 80%. It's actually disgusting how profitable they are while providing so little service.
Not really, no it isn't. There are fiber ISPs in rural America, and they cite their installation costs as close to FIOS's urban and suburban installations.
Liiiiiiiar. I'm in Nagasaki and most houses and buildings have FTTH.
Sorry to double post, but I just thought this comment in the interview was extremely stupid: "We have to put a stake in the ground somewhere. We could put five years, we could put two years." Why do you have to set a limit on a license for a fully purchased game? That's got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard. How can this guy not understand the frustration of consumers whose money goes into a "three year Playpass", rather than wholly owning the game?
No no, the problem is exactly the licenses evaporating, or rather people's accounts being closed and a user subsequently losing out on all their purchased games. I think a simple, extremely reasonable solution would be to allow users to download and play the game locally if they wish a la Steam. Give them both the option to play in the cloud (much more convenient) and locally (sense of security and ownership) and you have an award winning service that destroys your Valve-hosted competitor.
Unfortunately, no. That would require investing in fiber to the home in the last mile, which requires a great deal more money than a paltry 5 million, and which incumbents will do everything they can to prevent from happening. At least until the copper lines degrade to complete uselessness, which won't be for a few more decades.
All this means is that scientists are in fact humans and make small errors just like everyone else. I'm just glad that scientific academies and agencies have the integrity to publicly admit when they're wrong in spite of the obvious fear-mongering and finger-pointing that will result from the anti-AGW camp.
I don't know why this was modded Flamebait. If the recent healthcare debate has taught us anything about our country, it's that Americans are purposely ignorant of the rest of the civilized and developed world, and have no interest in educating themselves on successes outside of their own country.
His wrong? That's getting a little too personal there don't you think?
This isn't going to find its way into any consumer products. 70 GPa? No federal agency would certify such a device to be sold into the hands of Joe Schmoe. The more meaningful consequence of this research is the demonstration of storing mechanical energy into chemical energy. In 20 years this may lead to innovations in energy storage on a massive scale, like in solar or wind power plants.
I think such dedication to Halo, of all shooters, puts all of gaming to shame. Sigh.
Didn't Google pay something like twice as much as Apple was willing to pay for the ad company Apple wanted to buy? Now another $700 million for this company? I know it's not true, but sometimes it feels like Google has more money than the government. It's pretty amazing how much they throw around.