It's simple. They sell printers at a loss and ink at over 500 to 5000% it's value. That's why you see all those kiosks that will refill your ink. The problem is some of them don't use "quality" ink. You know a company is full of shit when they start to use microchips to prevent 3rd party ink cartridges. Be smart!! Buy a laser printer. Most of those are VASTLY more efficient. I've printed almost 2,000 pages off of my Samsung ML 2581ND laser printer and it's still going strong.
Color prints work the same. If you invest in a good printer, the ink doesn't cost much. If you get a $20 printer expect to pay that $50-$70 difference in ink.
Actually that's one of the best ideas I've ever heard. Companies now depend on their IP to make money. Hit them where they get the money from and this type of shit will stop.
You don't have to worry about companies pulling out of the USA as the important ones have too much vested here.
I played eve, not too seriously but I managed to be involved with some pretty epic battles. The main differences between Eve and other MMORPH are the following:
1) Space setting (100%). You are in a ship, when you move around 2) The economy is extremely advanced compared to other games. Meaning there are players who run banks, companies who produce ships, products etc, players who have to help move the product between systems... etc. It's all VERY player involved. If you are smart, you can make tons of ISK (their form of currency) easily and quickly. 3) The market is extremely advanced. Like the economy there are companies, banks, corporations, investments, shipping lanes, protection rackets, security companies, armies, etc... all dependent on player interaction. One would think it would be fragile but in fact it's one of the strongest points of the game. Think location vs supply and demand. You're in a deep system where there aren't too many places to find ammo, weapondry, supplies... things sell at a premium. 4) The skill required to play this game ranges depending on what you do. If you are part of a pvp squad or army the skill curve is immensely difficult. It gets down to tiny differences in ship equipment and configuration... as well as sheer numbers. Don't let that fool you though. Numbers don't mean squat in some situations. However if you aren't really into pvping in ships there are politics on a whole other scale than other PVP's, as well as economic. Be a banker, or trader, or manufacturer. Sounds boring but the interaction with players is pretty deep so you aren't just sitting there hitting a button over and over again. 5) Creating things - You don't sit there hitting a button or "farming items" to make this next weapon for yourself. You can buy and sell everything you need to make things... 6) What you do can affect the game. Since player interaction is so deep... what you do can often affect the games outcome for everyone. 7) Training skills does not require you to play. Just planning ahead as you can set it to train these skills over a set amount of time.
EVE allows someone to play for 10 minutes a day or 10 hours... that is why it is unique and amazing.
Lets be clear... I don't steal. I pay for everything I own.... whether it be through blockbuster used movies, or target... or somewhere else... I actually buy the physical media. However... at this point the media companies have blatantly prevented me from exercising my rights (DMCA)...
I rip every movie I get, every song... and I strip out ALL DRM. Even you Disney... though you've gotten more challenging as of late. I will never promote straight out stealing anything, but I will happily break unjust laws like the DMCA... to view my own content, when, where, and how I want.
You can't prevent this anymore. BitTorrent is FAR too powerful and with the next gen almost here even tracking will be difficult. If I was them... (media companies) I would be focusing on making it easier to access instead of wasting BILLIONS on technologies that are broken days after they are released. You CANNOT stop pirates... you CAN make it not worth the effort.
It's because Apple can't let go... and design...
on
Flash Is Not a Right
·
· Score: 1
Apple has ALWAYS been know to be control freaks. They know best mantra. Instead of listening to their customer base on what they want Apple did it's usual tactics of "Apple knows best". The other problem is the backwards compatibility to older iphones. It's literally a technical limitation where users would not have a "seemless" experience. aka their hardware is insufficient to provide a non laggy user experience with flash.
Flash however, like any language, can be written very poorly and Apple is afraid that they can't put enough protections in place should a bad app get on the phone. Security exploits etc...
I don't like Apple. Never have never will... I did buy an itouch because the user interface was great until I realized I couldn't get pictures OFF of it. Now it sits in my room and my Droid happily replaced it.
Apple has a great product but there are MUCH better products out there now than the iphone, with much better service, at much better prices.
Not that this is an excuse, but because the NC government won't play triage with projects and cut what it can tolerate so the budget is experiencing a shortfall again in the billions.
In a star trek world people would work well together but the money is made coming up with the next biggest and best product meaning you beat our the competitors. Working together often eliminates that huge profit margin one gets when they have the "best" tech for "this need". Open Source solutions are often (not always) designed from this viewpoint that "A collaborative effort will result in an ideal product with the motivation being profit profit profit".
Add on top of that is that there are many things that drive technology. Some needs are speed, others are security, etc etc etc.
In my work for the our "data" is our life blood. If it's hacked, destroyed etc... we're screwed. We sell our information so while speed is often important... security is #1. If I was working for the stock exchange, security would come in second merely because time is ESSENTIAL. Security comes immediately after. Get the gist?
Now, when you're talking high level networking where you're dealing with thousands or even hundreds of thousands of connections simultaneously then you have to combine a mix of things.
This is where it makes it extremely difficult to make a program that does everything in simple man terms. That's why there are network administrators and architects. There are far too many variables to turn into a windows like gui where "Are you sure?" will cover it. Here's a small list of the variables you're going to encounter
- Size of network - Location of all users (remote and local) - Security requirements (government contracts often require certain levels) - Company polices (do you need to have site filters for porn sites) - What kind of filters will you use - What kind of hardware is this all operating under - Many routers run different flavors of linux where some commands are different (Cisco *cough*).
It pretty much comes down to... networking in the home is easy because it is simple. You're going to have X number of boxes connected wired or wirelessly to a single incoming connection. Easy.
However, in the real environment you may have 20+ connections coming in with complex equipment that routes and load balances those incoming and outgoing connections. If someone were create a piece of software for this it would need every single manufacturer of routing equipment to work together. That's just not going to happen.
So... the only common things that can happen are learning to write script once you've thought out your network and that's the easy part.
Actually the only "whore" (using your words) here is you who are profiting off of work YOU never did (your parents books). That's exactly the kind of thing that has copyright screwed up. The Authors Guild realizes that it's impossible to stop the digital movement. They can either go with it, or go down kicking and screaming like the RIAA and MPAA. The only difference is that they don't have the vast resources to pool from in order to take that stance.
Fact is, if you make something worth paying for people will pay. They WANT to pay. The people who steal it probably weren't going to pay for it anyway if they got it. I'm not saying that makes it right, but that life.
I despise how out of print Music, Movies or Books is suddenly this big issue when someone like Google goes... we'll publish them. YOU weren't getting money anyway. You have NOT lost anything. You have EVERY right to tell them to stop if you don't want to publish it but millions of otherwise lost and forgotten to the public works are no longer lost and forgotten.
Suddenly publishers who were "Oh... lets not print this it's not cost efficient" are like "OH! WAIT... WE WANT TO PUBLISH IT NOW!". Get over yourself. Google is doing something that needs to be done to an industry that is overly controlled. I want artists to get paid for their work... but more importantly I want access to that work.
You cannot control the flow of information. Corney sounding I know... but it's true. People will always find a way to view things the way they want. Eventually the law catches up with that. You hear the people preaching that "It's futile what the RIAA/MPAA is doing... blah blah" or "Their business model is outdated..." and frankly i get tired of hearing the same of drivel repeated by people who don't truly understand business or accept that most people don't WANT to "hack" their stuff. They just want it to work.
They have a death grip on things. With Copyrights, Patents and Trademarks at an all time profit high their business is nowhere close to being destroyed. People want to be entertained and they will buy what entertains them. Most people don't give a rats ass about region coding, encryption etc... they just know it works.
However... lately... to my bewildered amusement people are becoming more intelligent about these issues. Politicians and those usually uncaring are suddenly forced to recognize the problems as they are starting to affect them. The biggest being the completely unnecessary transition to Digital TV. It affects their pocket books. People start to realize just how strong of a grapple hold the industry has and have start to voice their concerns.
Politicians have begun to realize they can gain support from their constituents by championing against the RIAA and MPAA. What was once a huge profit source for BOTH republicans and democrats has now become the target of ire from their customer base... AND those they supposedly protect (the artists).
The genius of it all is that normal everyday people... are starting to think again. They aren't fanning over Paris "no brain" Hilton. Watch the news... it's slowly (painfully) changing from covering Britney Spears latest escapades... to now covering useful news like the economy, our lives, jobs, family etc. We are being encouraged on every front to promote Transparency.
That movement... makes what the RIAA and MPAA do seem wrong to the normal joe and right now... Normal Joe is afraid of losing his job... angry at the decisions made by the previous administration... and looking for a source of anger. People touching his money... really piss him off.
Enjoy these thoughts.
Slashdot Mirror
It's simple. They sell printers at a loss and ink at over 500 to 5000% it's value. That's why you see all those kiosks that will refill your ink. The problem is some of them don't use "quality" ink. You know a company is full of shit when they start to use microchips to prevent 3rd party ink cartridges. Be smart!! Buy a laser printer. Most of those are VASTLY more efficient. I've printed almost 2,000 pages off of my Samsung ML 2581ND laser printer and it's still going strong.
Color prints work the same. If you invest in a good printer, the ink doesn't cost much. If you get a $20 printer expect to pay that $50-$70 difference in ink.
Actually that's one of the best ideas I've ever heard. Companies now depend on their IP to make money. Hit them where they get the money from and this type of shit will stop.
You don't have to worry about companies pulling out of the USA as the important ones have too much vested here.
I played eve, not too seriously but I managed to be involved with some pretty epic battles. The main differences between Eve and other MMORPH are the following:
1) Space setting (100%). You are in a ship, when you move around
2) The economy is extremely advanced compared to other games. Meaning there are players who run banks, companies who produce ships, products etc, players who have to help move the product between systems... etc. It's all VERY player involved. If you are smart, you can make tons of ISK (their form of currency) easily and quickly.
3) The market is extremely advanced. Like the economy there are companies, banks, corporations, investments, shipping lanes, protection rackets, security companies, armies, etc... all dependent on player interaction. One would think it would be fragile but in fact it's one of the strongest points of the game. Think location vs supply and demand. You're in a deep system where there aren't too many places to find ammo, weapondry, supplies... things sell at a premium.
4) The skill required to play this game ranges depending on what you do. If you are part of a pvp squad or army the skill curve is immensely difficult. It gets down to tiny differences in ship equipment and configuration... as well as sheer numbers. Don't let that fool you though. Numbers don't mean squat in some situations. However if you aren't really into pvping in ships there are politics on a whole other scale than other PVP's, as well as economic. Be a banker, or trader, or manufacturer. Sounds boring but the interaction with players is pretty deep so you aren't just sitting there hitting a button over and over again.
5) Creating things - You don't sit there hitting a button or "farming items" to make this next weapon for yourself. You can buy and sell everything you need to make things...
6) What you do can affect the game. Since player interaction is so deep... what you do can often affect the games outcome for everyone.
7) Training skills does not require you to play. Just planning ahead as you can set it to train these skills over a set amount of time.
EVE allows someone to play for 10 minutes a day or 10 hours... that is why it is unique and amazing.
Cue up Monty Python Holy Grail quotes
Lets be clear... I don't steal. I pay for everything I own.... whether it be through blockbuster used movies, or target... or somewhere else... I actually buy the physical media. However... at this point the media companies have blatantly prevented me from exercising my rights (DMCA)...
I rip every movie I get, every song... and I strip out ALL DRM. Even you Disney... though you've gotten more challenging as of late. I will never promote straight out stealing anything, but I will happily break unjust laws like the DMCA... to view my own content, when, where, and how I want.
You can't prevent this anymore. BitTorrent is FAR too powerful and with the next gen almost here even tracking will be difficult. If I was them... (media companies) I would be focusing on making it easier to access instead of wasting BILLIONS on technologies that are broken days after they are released. You CANNOT stop pirates... you CAN make it not worth the effort.
Bam
http://www.pcworld.com/article/173092/3_reasons_why_iphone_wont_get_adobe_flash.html
Apple has ALWAYS been know to be control freaks. They know best mantra. Instead of listening to their customer base on what they want Apple did it's usual tactics of "Apple knows best". The other problem is the backwards compatibility to older iphones. It's literally a technical limitation where users would not have a "seemless" experience. aka their hardware is insufficient to provide a non laggy user experience with flash.
Flash however, like any language, can be written very poorly and Apple is afraid that they can't put enough protections in place should a bad app get on the phone. Security exploits etc...
I don't like Apple. Never have never will... I did buy an itouch because the user interface was great until I realized I couldn't get pictures OFF of it. Now it sits in my room and my Droid happily replaced it.
Apple has a great product but there are MUCH better products out there now than the iphone, with much better service, at much better prices.
Cya iphone.
Not that this is an excuse, but because the NC government won't play triage with projects and cut what it can tolerate so the budget is experiencing a shortfall again in the billions.
In a star trek world people would work well together but the money is made coming up with the next biggest and best product meaning you beat our the competitors. Working together often eliminates that huge profit margin one gets when they have the "best" tech for "this need". Open Source solutions are often (not always) designed from this viewpoint that "A collaborative effort will result in an ideal product with the motivation being profit profit profit".
Add on top of that is that there are many things that drive technology. Some needs are speed, others are security, etc etc etc.
In my work for the our "data" is our life blood. If it's hacked, destroyed etc... we're screwed. We sell our information so while speed is often important... security is #1. If I was working for the stock exchange, security would come in second merely because time is ESSENTIAL. Security comes immediately after. Get the gist?
Now, when you're talking high level networking where you're dealing with thousands or even hundreds of thousands of connections simultaneously then you have to combine a mix of things.
This is where it makes it extremely difficult to make a program that does everything in simple man terms. That's why there are network administrators and architects. There are far too many variables to turn into a windows like gui where "Are you sure?" will cover it. Here's a small list of the variables you're going to encounter
- Size of network
- Location of all users (remote and local)
- Security requirements (government contracts often require certain levels)
- Company polices (do you need to have site filters for porn sites)
- What kind of filters will you use
- What kind of hardware is this all operating under
- Many routers run different flavors of linux where some commands are different (Cisco *cough*).
It pretty much comes down to... networking in the home is easy because it is simple. You're going to have X number of boxes connected wired or wirelessly to a single incoming connection. Easy.
However, in the real environment you may have 20+ connections coming in with complex equipment that routes and load balances those incoming and outgoing connections. If someone were create a piece of software for this it would need every single manufacturer of routing equipment to work together. That's just not going to happen.
So... the only common things that can happen are learning to write script once you've thought out your network and that's the easy part.
Actually the only "whore" (using your words) here is you who are profiting off of work YOU never did (your parents books). That's exactly the kind of thing that has copyright screwed up. The Authors Guild realizes that it's impossible to stop the digital movement. They can either go with it, or go down kicking and screaming like the RIAA and MPAA. The only difference is that they don't have the vast resources to pool from in order to take that stance.
Fact is, if you make something worth paying for people will pay. They WANT to pay. The people who steal it probably weren't going to pay for it anyway if they got it. I'm not saying that makes it right, but that life.
I despise how out of print Music, Movies or Books is suddenly this big issue when someone like Google goes... we'll publish them. YOU weren't getting money anyway. You have NOT lost anything. You have EVERY right to tell them to stop if you don't want to publish it but millions of otherwise lost and forgotten to the public works are no longer lost and forgotten.
Suddenly publishers who were "Oh... lets not print this it's not cost efficient" are like "OH! WAIT... WE WANT TO PUBLISH IT NOW!". Get over yourself. Google is doing something that needs to be done to an industry that is overly controlled. I want artists to get paid for their work... but more importantly I want access to that work.
You cannot control the flow of information. Corney sounding I know... but it's true. People will always find a way to view things the way they want. Eventually the law catches up with that. You hear the people preaching that "It's futile what the RIAA/MPAA is doing... blah blah" or "Their business model is outdated..." and frankly i get tired of hearing the same of drivel repeated by people who don't truly understand business or accept that most people don't WANT to "hack" their stuff. They just want it to work. They have a death grip on things. With Copyrights, Patents and Trademarks at an all time profit high their business is nowhere close to being destroyed. People want to be entertained and they will buy what entertains them. Most people don't give a rats ass about region coding, encryption etc... they just know it works. However... lately... to my bewildered amusement people are becoming more intelligent about these issues. Politicians and those usually uncaring are suddenly forced to recognize the problems as they are starting to affect them. The biggest being the completely unnecessary transition to Digital TV. It affects their pocket books. People start to realize just how strong of a grapple hold the industry has and have start to voice their concerns. Politicians have begun to realize they can gain support from their constituents by championing against the RIAA and MPAA. What was once a huge profit source for BOTH republicans and democrats has now become the target of ire from their customer base... AND those they supposedly protect (the artists). The genius of it all is that normal everyday people... are starting to think again. They aren't fanning over Paris "no brain" Hilton. Watch the news... it's slowly (painfully) changing from covering Britney Spears latest escapades... to now covering useful news like the economy, our lives, jobs, family etc. We are being encouraged on every front to promote Transparency. That movement... makes what the RIAA and MPAA do seem wrong to the normal joe and right now... Normal Joe is afraid of losing his job... angry at the decisions made by the previous administration... and looking for a source of anger. People touching his money... really piss him off. Enjoy these thoughts.