Interesting that you presume I'm not an American; does any questioning of the values underlying American culture HAVE to come from the outside? Has the brainwashing of an entire continent been THAT successful?
American culture IS the most consumerist the world has ever seen; regardless of whether that's a good or a bad thing, it has a direct bearing upon the relative subsidy that trans-global corporations will be willing to invest per individual to capture market share.
Only when we can separate nationalistic hubris from reality will we be able to properly assess the machinations of the world's true powers.
The difference isn't that great, you're forgetting that Americans have to pay an additional sales tax, varying depending on which state they make the purchase.
The British VAT (Value Added Tax) of 17.5% is built into the British price.
American Price: $200 = £138
True British Price: £199 - £35 VAT = £164
The Price Difference: £164 (British) - £138 (US) = £26
That extra £26 is necessary for two reasons:
1. As a buffer for the downwards adjustment that the British Pound will have to make before joining the Euro.
2. To compensate for the lower number of expected games sales per unit sold in the UK as opposed to the US; Americans find happiness and personal worth by buying things they don't need and are less discerning about the quality of the games they buy.
I know this is OT, but have any of you noticed the latest shit that the Guardians of Content are pulling: running space and paper-wasting graphical adverts down the side of the printer friendly versions of articles!
I guess being able to track our identities isn't enough for the NY Times.
And, seriously, a STARBUCKS ad to accompany THIS particular article? C'mon!
I'm now living in Edinburgh in the UK rather than my home city of Dublin, largely because of the inavailability of broadband in Ireland. I wanted set up my own Internet-related business from home and using a dial-up connection literally wasn't an option.
For all the bullshit about the Celtic Tiger, greed and idiocy on the part of the Irish Government messed things up for an entire generation of would-be Irish entrepaneurs. The bungled privatisation of the national phone company, Eircom, followed by it's filleting, ensured that even the prospect of broadband was delayed for years.
Now the remnants of Eircom, in a battle of wills with the telecoms ombudsman, are refusing to launch any service until the government allows them to set ridiculous service fees including a per MB charge. It's 2002 and the Irish, both potential online business professionals and the public in general, have yet to start developing the online sensibility that only an exposure to high-speed Internet can offer.
I'm using Telewest's service. You can get their cable internet on it's own but their TV and phone packages are pretty good too. I pay £49 (80 Euros) a month for broadband 'net, a phone line and 70+ channels (no premium channels). The national phone charges are pretty good and if I made more calls I'd probably pay the extra £15 a month for unlimited calls within the UK. Their international charges are, like BT's, extortionate so I use OneTel for that (good online billing, monthly direct debit).
I forget the math at this stage but I remember, before I signed up, working out that an equivalent Sky TV / BT DSL combo would only have worked out better per month if I was going for the premium film channels too. Also, the installation charges just to get a phone line installed were outrageous.
Maybe these new reductions change that but, to be honest, I don't trust BT, not after they were caught deliberately restricting bandwidth to certain customers. To Hell with them!
I also gather that Telewest will soon (?) be introducing a premium 1Gig service; the guy who installed my broadband 'net connection a couple of months ago told me that he actually has a test version of that service installed at home. Lucky bastard.
Slashdot Mirror
Interesting that you presume I'm not an American; does any questioning of the values underlying American culture HAVE to come from the outside? Has the brainwashing of an entire continent been THAT successful?
American culture IS the most consumerist the world has ever seen; regardless of whether that's a good or a bad thing, it has a direct bearing upon the relative subsidy that trans-global corporations will be willing to invest per individual to capture market share.
Only when we can separate nationalistic hubris from reality will we be able to properly assess the machinations of the world's true powers.
$20?
Well, at the current level of cut-throat competition, I expect to see Sony, MS and Nintendo match that price by the end of the month.
The difference isn't that great, you're forgetting that Americans have to pay an additional sales tax, varying depending on which state they make the purchase.
The British VAT (Value Added Tax) of 17.5% is built into the British price.
American Price: $200 = £138
True British Price: £199 - £35 VAT = £164
The Price Difference: £164 (British) - £138 (US) = £26
That extra £26 is necessary for two reasons:
1. As a buffer for the downwards adjustment that the British Pound will have to make before joining the Euro.
2. To compensate for the lower number of expected games sales per unit sold in the UK as opposed to the US; Americans find happiness and personal worth by buying things they don't need and are less discerning about the quality of the games they buy.
So, not such a bad deal after all.
From the article: "...it's unclear whether costs would be passed along to subscribers" You can't buy comedy this good.
I know this is OT, but have any of you noticed the latest shit that the Guardians of Content are pulling: running space and paper-wasting graphical adverts down the side of the printer friendly versions of articles!
I guess being able to track our identities isn't enough for the NY Times.
And, seriously, a STARBUCKS ad to accompany THIS particular article? C'mon!
I'm now living in Edinburgh in the UK rather than my home city of Dublin, largely because of the inavailability of broadband in Ireland. I wanted set up my own Internet-related business from home and using a dial-up connection literally wasn't an option.
For all the bullshit about the Celtic Tiger, greed and idiocy on the part of the Irish Government messed things up for an entire generation of would-be Irish entrepaneurs. The bungled privatisation of the national phone company, Eircom, followed by it's filleting, ensured that even the prospect of broadband was delayed for years.
Now the remnants of Eircom, in a battle of wills with the telecoms ombudsman, are refusing to launch any service until the government allows them to set ridiculous service fees including a per MB charge. It's 2002 and the Irish, both potential online business professionals and the public in general, have yet to start developing the online sensibility that only an exposure to high-speed Internet can offer.
I'm using Telewest's service. You can get their cable internet on it's own but their TV and phone packages are pretty good too. I pay £49 (80 Euros) a month for broadband 'net, a phone line and 70+ channels (no premium channels). The national phone charges are pretty good and if I made more calls I'd probably pay the extra £15 a month for unlimited calls within the UK. Their international charges are, like BT's, extortionate so I use OneTel for that (good online billing, monthly direct debit).
I forget the math at this stage but I remember, before I signed up, working out that an equivalent Sky TV / BT DSL combo would only have worked out better per month if I was going for the premium film channels too. Also, the installation charges just to get a phone line installed were outrageous.
Maybe these new reductions change that but, to be honest, I don't trust BT, not after they were caught deliberately restricting bandwidth to certain customers. To Hell with them!
I also gather that Telewest will soon (?) be introducing a premium 1Gig service; the guy who installed my broadband 'net connection a couple of months ago told me that he actually has a test version of that service installed at home. Lucky bastard.
"Be thankful this was a low-tech attack, and that the planes weren't delivery mechanisms for biological warfare." How do you know they weren't?