If I remember correctly, Hormel (the makers of SPAM) actually did this with regards to the appropriation of their trademark to refer to unsolicited commercial email. They basically said, "Look, we'd rather you not use our trademark in a negative light, but we don't want to be dicks about it so we're granting permission anyway."
I like the way you think. It would be great if they could offer the song files in the same way that Rifftrax does. Even better would be, you pay $1 for the click track and put your CD of the song in and the game rips it for you.
However, the game data is more than just the click track. Each song is split into several tracks so that the game can realistically model the sound when a player misses a note. CDs and tracks from iTunes aren't separated into bass, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, vocals, drums and backup tracks.
You can still play a guitar hero type game with a one-track song, but a lot of the verisimilitude is missing the moment you miss a note and don't receive audio feedback.
In order to get the multi-track version of a song, you either need to get it from the original producer or cover it yourself. For indie bands and in-house stuff, this isn't much of a problem. For mainstream songs, you need to cut a deal with the song owner, i.e. the label.
> How can companies run like this? IN my mind I see this as a big waste of effort and money on Best Buy's part. This wasted money would have to translate into Best Buy's bottom line, and thus affect we, the consumers as higher overall prices.
One minor nitpick here. If BB could charge another $2.50 for a DVD without losing the equivalent sales, they would regardless of their costs. The price any retail store charges has -nothing- to do with what their cost for the item is.
One more time: their cost has no bearing on the final price.
If a widget costs more for them to obtain than they can sell it for, they simply won't sell it. Otherwise, they'll seek to maximize profits any way they can. The shareholders may have a legitimate gripe against this overly litigious policy, but we as consumers (ignoring for the moment that we have souls and empathy and aren't simply consuming machines) see no effects of this at all.
So you're right, in a sense; this does affect their bottom line. But they won't react to that by raising their prices unless they have no understanding whatsowhomever of economics.
Technically speaking, that's outside of spec for 100 Mbit ethernet. It has to do slightly with signal attenuation, but more so with collision detection. 100TX collision detection relies the fact that the first bit frame reaches its destination before the final bit has been transmitted. If this doesn't happen and a collision occurs, then the packet will not be retransmitted because the sender doesn't realize that the collision alarm was meant for it. The length of a 56-bit packet is roughly 112 meters (367 feet). It's possible to exceed this if you meet one of several criteria:
1. Ensure that no packets under a certain size will be present on your network. I've never tried this, don't know if it can be done, especially if you have "smart" hubs or switches that might fragment packets on their own.
2. Ensure that there will never be a collision. A full duplex switch on each end does this nicely.
I've successfully run ethernet cables hundreds of feet over spec and seen no ill effects simply because I keep a full duplex switch on each end. Yes, it's a hack. But it does work.
The supply in this case is the number of slots. Google only has so many of those slots in which to put ads. The demand is the number of ads that want to be placed in these slots. In economic terms, the slots and the exposure to the market that they represent are the scarce resource.
I don't think you're wrong; I think you misunderstood me.
Thank you for posting about opportunity cost. It needs to be brought up by someone in this discussion.
I would like to elaborate on your example, though.
The limiting factor in how many photos you sell is the demand, not the supply. If you take a photo out of inventory and hang it on your own wall, you're out your own cost to print that photograph (and, if it's the last photograph of that type and someone wants to buy it before you've had time to print another, you may be out that sale. Let's assume this doesn't happen.). Since you own the original work, you can easily make another. Your supply is not (effectively) limited.
Google's ad space, however, is supply-limited. Let's assume for the moment that they did have a $1,000,000 max cost per click and an unlimited daily budget on the keyword "tribble euthanasia." They're always going to win the top spot. Now, if "tribble euthanasia" was worth $25 per click on the open market and demand for the page space exceeded supply, then they would be potentially losing a $25 impression every time they show their own ad instead of a client's ad.
If I were a company owner (I'm not) or a corporate accountant (also not), I'd want to be able to track this. The easiest way to track this opportunity cost is to have Google bid for Adwords just like everyone else.
From TFA: "As does any advertiser, we aim to give our campaigns a budget which is in line with their value to us in terms of the increased traffic we might see. We actively monitor and manage the success of our ads by adjusting ad copy, keywords, bids, and so forth in the same way any advertiser who is concerned with their account performance would."
Google goes on to mention that, due to wanting to ensure the relevance of Adwords, Google doesn't even try to maintain the top spot. They run their campaigns like everyone else should be.
The economics of the situation show that it doesn't make sense for Google to engage in bidding wars with their own Adwords...because they might win.
So you'd also go out and start punching people who have really nice home theatre systems? After all, spending that kind of dough to watch movies is sorta asking for it too.
I've got no problem with the early adopter crowd...they make things cheaper for the rest of us. If someone has that kind of disposable income, hey! More power to 'em!
(My sincere apologies if you were joking and I missed it.)
They can't. You get queued before you see the character selection screen, so they don't know ahead of time whether you're going to play alliance or horde. Assuming you have characters in both factions, of course.
They could weight it on how high a level your characters for each faction are and which character you've been playing lately, but I doubt they've put that much effort into it.
We all feel like we are the best programmer in the world because programming is much like Art, very sugestive.
I believe the word you're looking for is subjective.
subjective (adj):
1. Proceeding from or taking place in a person's mind rather than the external world: a subjective decision.
2. Particular to a given person; personal: subjective experience.
Okay, you're both wrong, but the parent is more correct than the grandparent.
The "gravity" we feel standing on solid ground is simply the difference between what acceleration we should be experiencing and what we actually are experiencing. Acceleration due to gravity on the earth's surface is roughly 9.8 m/s^2. When you're actually accelerating at that rate, you feel weightless. It is only because we're not accelerating at all (when at rest with regards to the surface of the earth) that we feel weight.
An object in orbit is in free fall. There is no force opposing the force of gravity, so that object accelerates freely. If it has sufficient lateral inertia, it will continue to accelerate towards the earth's center but will continually fall around it.
That feeling you get when the roller coaster starts going down due to gravity? That's semi-weightlessness. There's a plane called the "Vomit Comet" that uses a similar concept: fly up really high, and dive with an acceleration of 9.8 m/s^2. The plane's path looks like a parabola, and as long as it's in free fall, the passengers experience "weightlessness."
The parent's mistake is assuming that an object in orbit, no matter how low, would feel weight. By definition, an object in orbit is in free fall, accelerating towards the center of the earth at the normal acceleration of gravity. This is countered by a lateral velocity of sufficient magnitude to prevent the object from actually colliding with the earth. An object in free fall feels no weight, because there is no force opposing its acceleration.
Sorry. People who misunderstand physics are a pet peeve of mine.
Used to work at Target on the logistics team. Inventory is done once a year. That's it. And when that report comes in, everyone is sat down and told to pay more attention 'cause we lose the equivalent of a TV a week from the electronics department alone.
So we paid attention for a month and went back to doing our work. It's possible to steal from a big box store and not have it noticed for a long time.
Indy cars crumple and have that crumple zone to deccelerate. Hard drives don't crumple; they just stop. So the instantaneous acceleration is much greater, even if the mass and speed isn't as high.
Slashdot Mirror
If I remember correctly, Hormel (the makers of SPAM) actually did this with regards to the appropriation of their trademark to refer to unsolicited commercial email. They basically said, "Look, we'd rather you not use our trademark in a negative light, but we don't want to be dicks about it so we're granting permission anyway."
I like the way you think. It would be great if they could offer the song files in the same way that Rifftrax does. Even better would be, you pay $1 for the click track and put your CD of the song in and the game rips it for you.
However, the game data is more than just the click track. Each song is split into several tracks so that the game can realistically model the sound when a player misses a note. CDs and tracks from iTunes aren't separated into bass, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, vocals, drums and backup tracks.
You can still play a guitar hero type game with a one-track song, but a lot of the verisimilitude is missing the moment you miss a note and don't receive audio feedback.
In order to get the multi-track version of a song, you either need to get it from the original producer or cover it yourself. For indie bands and in-house stuff, this isn't much of a problem. For mainstream songs, you need to cut a deal with the song owner, i.e. the label.
This would be taxing you based on business you're doing out of state, which would get ruled unconstitutional pretty quickly. Nice idea, though.
d'oh!
Pwned.
ITYM Neil Armstrong.
I'm doing science and I'm still alive!
(Sorry, someone had to!)
> How can companies run like this? IN my mind I see this as a big waste of effort and money on Best Buy's part. This wasted money would have to translate into Best Buy's bottom line, and thus affect we, the consumers as higher overall prices.
One minor nitpick here. If BB could charge another $2.50 for a DVD without losing the equivalent sales, they would regardless of their costs. The price any retail store charges has -nothing- to do with what their cost for the item is.
One more time: their cost has no bearing on the final price.
If a widget costs more for them to obtain than they can sell it for, they simply won't sell it. Otherwise, they'll seek to maximize profits any way they can. The shareholders may have a legitimate gripe against this overly litigious policy, but we as consumers (ignoring for the moment that we have souls and empathy and aren't simply consuming machines) see no effects of this at all.
So you're right, in a sense; this does affect their bottom line. But they won't react to that by raising their prices unless they have no understanding whatsowhomever of economics.
Technically speaking, that's outside of spec for 100 Mbit ethernet. It has to do slightly with signal attenuation, but more so with collision detection. 100TX collision detection relies the fact that the first bit frame reaches its destination before the final bit has been transmitted. If this doesn't happen and a collision occurs, then the packet will not be retransmitted because the sender doesn't realize that the collision alarm was meant for it. The length of a 56-bit packet is roughly 112 meters (367 feet). It's possible to exceed this if you meet one of several criteria:
1. Ensure that no packets under a certain size will be present on your network. I've never tried this, don't know if it can be done, especially if you have "smart" hubs or switches that might fragment packets on their own.
2. Ensure that there will never be a collision. A full duplex switch on each end does this nicely.
I've successfully run ethernet cables hundreds of feet over spec and seen no ill effects simply because I keep a full duplex switch on each end. Yes, it's a hack. But it does work.
The supply in this case is the number of slots. Google only has so many of those slots in which to put ads. The demand is the number of ads that want to be placed in these slots. In economic terms, the slots and the exposure to the market that they represent are the scarce resource.
I don't think you're wrong; I think you misunderstood me.
Thank you for posting about opportunity cost. It needs to be brought up by someone in this discussion.
I would like to elaborate on your example, though.
The limiting factor in how many photos you sell is the demand, not the supply. If you take a photo out of inventory and hang it on your own wall, you're out your own cost to print that photograph (and, if it's the last photograph of that type and someone wants to buy it before you've had time to print another, you may be out that sale. Let's assume this doesn't happen.). Since you own the original work, you can easily make another. Your supply is not (effectively) limited.
Google's ad space, however, is supply-limited. Let's assume for the moment that they did have a $1,000,000 max cost per click and an unlimited daily budget on the keyword "tribble euthanasia." They're always going to win the top spot. Now, if "tribble euthanasia" was worth $25 per click on the open market and demand for the page space exceeded supply, then they would be potentially losing a $25 impression every time they show their own ad instead of a client's ad.
If I were a company owner (I'm not) or a corporate accountant (also not), I'd want to be able to track this. The easiest way to track this opportunity cost is to have Google bid for Adwords just like everyone else.
From TFA: "As does any advertiser, we aim to give our campaigns a budget which is in line with their value to us in terms of the increased traffic we might see. We actively monitor and manage the success of our ads by adjusting ad copy, keywords, bids, and so forth in the same way any advertiser who is concerned with their account performance would."
Google goes on to mention that, due to wanting to ensure the relevance of Adwords, Google doesn't even try to maintain the top spot. They run their campaigns like everyone else should be.
The economics of the situation show that it doesn't make sense for Google to engage in bidding wars with their own Adwords...because they might win.
Sauron's had his...eye on you for some....time now, Mister Underhill.
So you'd also go out and start punching people who have really nice home theatre systems? After all, spending that kind of dough to watch movies is sorta asking for it too.
I've got no problem with the early adopter crowd...they make things cheaper for the rest of us. If someone has that kind of disposable income, hey! More power to 'em!
(My sincere apologies if you were joking and I missed it.)
Umm...the motorcycle jump in Terminator 2 wasn't CGI.
It wasn't Arnie on the bike, but it wasn't CGI.
They can't. You get queued before you see the character selection screen, so they don't know ahead of time whether you're going to play alliance or horde. Assuming you have characters in both factions, of course.
They could weight it on how high a level your characters for each faction are and which character you've been playing lately, but I doubt they've put that much effort into it.
Evans?
Or rather, Magister Evansis qui Destruit?
We all feel like we are the best programmer in the world because programming is much like Art, very sugestive.
I believe the word you're looking for is subjective.
subjective (adj):
1. Proceeding from or taking place in a person's mind rather than the external world: a subjective decision.
2. Particular to a given person; personal: subjective experience.
Okay, you're both wrong, but the parent is more correct than the grandparent.
The "gravity" we feel standing on solid ground is simply the difference between what acceleration we should be experiencing and what we actually are experiencing. Acceleration due to gravity on the earth's surface is roughly 9.8 m/s^2. When you're actually accelerating at that rate, you feel weightless. It is only because we're not accelerating at all (when at rest with regards to the surface of the earth) that we feel weight.
An object in orbit is in free fall. There is no force opposing the force of gravity, so that object accelerates freely. If it has sufficient lateral inertia, it will continue to accelerate towards the earth's center but will continually fall around it.
That feeling you get when the roller coaster starts going down due to gravity? That's semi-weightlessness. There's a plane called the "Vomit Comet" that uses a similar concept: fly up really high, and dive with an acceleration of 9.8 m/s^2. The plane's path looks like a parabola, and as long as it's in free fall, the passengers experience "weightlessness."
The parent's mistake is assuming that an object in orbit, no matter how low, would feel weight. By definition, an object in orbit is in free fall, accelerating towards the center of the earth at the normal acceleration of gravity. This is countered by a lateral velocity of sufficient magnitude to prevent the object from actually colliding with the earth. An object in free fall feels no weight, because there is no force opposing its acceleration.
Sorry. People who misunderstand physics are a pet peeve of mine.
</pedantic>
See, when I read this, at first I was a bit appalled. Is the lead dude of my favorite operating system starting to lose it?
Then I remembered that the lead dude of my least favorite operating system throws chairs at people. And I felt much better.
Submarine patents have a tendency to do that.
Used to work at Target on the logistics team. Inventory is done once a year. That's it. And when that report comes in, everyone is sat down and told to pay more attention 'cause we lose the equivalent of a TV a week from the electronics department alone.
So we paid attention for a month and went back to doing our work. It's possible to steal from a big box store and not have it noticed for a long time.
Indy cars crumple and have that crumple zone to deccelerate. Hard drives don't crumple; they just stop. So the instantaneous acceleration is much greater, even if the mass and speed isn't as high.
You had mercury and pipes?
In my day, we had to create a religion that induced the masses to spend millions of man-hours moving stones just to get a working calendar!
Not so...this has happened to me recently. No WI-FI devices will work in my house.
Since I'm not nearly important enough to be under surveillance by the FBI, I must conclude that, well, I dunno, actually.
I think I'll stop typing now.
What version of perl are you using to get that error?
And how many of the rest of you actually tried it out?
If I had mod points, sir, you would be +5 funny.
Best subtle joke of the day.