That has to be a first for me: my roomates cat walked across the keyboard and somehow managed to submit the post before I was done with it. Meant to read something like:
MP3 has only now started to make them reconsider? I bought my MP3 Diskman (Diskman being a Sony trademark) almost three years ago. Something like this, but of course a much older version.
MP3 has only now started to make them reconsider? I bought my MP3 Diskman (Disabout almost three years ago. Something like this, but just a much older version.
And of course playing Heddy Newman in the unforgettable Herman's Head. Okay, maybe it was forgettable, but it also had Yeardly Smith (Lisa Simpson.) And... Umm... Jason Bernard who played the professor in The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. Wow... I actually saw that, and remember most of the plot. And it's got the voice of Homer in it as well. Oh... wait. I saw the original. God bless IMDB for the random memories of stuff I really don't care about.
some studies have shown (antidepressants) can increase the occurence of suicide attempts in groups who take it.
From what I have come to understand, this isn't so much a result of the medicine as much as a result of coming out of depression. When under a deep depression, one is generally lethargic and emotionally numb. Suicide becomes something that is quite draining to think about, and one really doesn't feel that they are hurting anyways so much as a complete lack of emotion. It is when people are coming back from depression that A) it starts to hurt again B) the person has the physical energy to plan and follow through with the act and C) the person has enough emotional clarity to reflect on how much they actually were suffering in the time when they felt numb.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a psychologist, but am friends with several people who are psychology students and/or suffering from depression. One of my friends missed his head with a shotgun because his girlfriend knocked on his appartment door, distracting him enough for self-preserving instincts to kick in.
Well, it means the DoJ can't say that MS is a monopoly in the field of office productivity software. However in terms of the OS market on business PCs... yeah. And they can use their drastically greater marketshare in OS installs to leverage an unfair advantage over their competition in other markets (Browser, Media Player, and of course arguably the most widely used pieces of software in the corporate world... Solitaire and Minesweeper.)
It's a difference in semantics. You are saying that the Installer is 23MB, while the article is saying the hard drive had 65 Megs less on it afterwards, which makes sense as the installer program would be uncompressed and likely not even automatically deleted from the hard drive after the install completes, using up disk space. In fact the article even states that the download is 23 megs.
But the slashdot post was worded poorly, IMO. Install is often mistaken for Installer. I read it that way at first and then wondered why the article said that 23 Meg was downloaded. Gave me a moment of confusion.
That's not really related. What the grandparent was saying is that companies will simply stop offering internet service in Utah. This would make sense as the law would add large costs, ranging from inplementing the filtering software to tech support increases to legal liability if their filters DON'T filter out smut. The ISPs that do offer services in Utah will be forced to crank up their costs to the consumer to remain lucrative.
Or maybe I could get my tinfoil hat on and assume that some ISP has figured out a way to filter relatively cheaply and is pushing for this legislation to effectively hobble the competition.
Beat me to the punch. My roomate got it from here and we've had a blast in the last couple of weeks since we got it. Considering that he's thinking about writing a zombie survival horror video game, he's kinda had zombies on the brain anyways.
If you're into it for the zombies, I might also suggest Lord of the Fries, where you play a zombie filling a fast food order. And FreeLoader is another really fun game by the same people. The great thing about CheapAss games is their price. They used to be even better a couple years ago, most games costing less than $5, but then they started thinking they could actually get away with actually making quality games. Caveat: one reason that CheapAss games are so cheap is that by default they usually don't come with some of the things you need to play: dice (We've all got those sitting somewhere) Player markers (We've all got a chess set, some little plastic toys or random colored doo-dads to use. Counters? (Dried beans, pennies, small stones or whatnot are just as fun to play with.) You can usually get a deluxe version with "all the bits" but that somehow seems impure. Gotta play it the original CheapAss(tm) way.
CheapAss even has some free games, including a combat strategy game which seems right up the aisle of the original submitter. I assume every self respecting gamer has the dark secret of RPGs in their past and still has their cache of dice sitting somewhere just waiting to be used.
This article is not saying that it is now allright to spam. This article does not tell about the ruling having anything to do with free speech. The article says that the judge found that there was not sufficient evidence to prove that the defendant was spamming.
Linux: Debian to be Marketed to Japan and China Linux (nerd) Star Wars Sith Trailer and the O.C. Star Wars (nerd) IT: Virginia Court Overturns Spammer Convictions Law regarding spam? important to IT workers. (vaguely nerd) Google Calendar Coming Soon? Google (nerd) IT: New Vulnerabilities Discovered in Firefox 1.0 Security + Firefox = (definately nerd) Sony Ericsson Announces First Walkman Phone Tech goodies (nerd) Science: Double-Slit Experiment in Time, Not Space Physics (very nerdy) Your Rights Online: Appeals Court Sends Eolas Case Back For New Trial Again, yes it's law, but important to people in the software industry. verdict: (nerd) Linux: LiveCD Lets You Try Out Project Looking Glass (très nerdy) Games: More Powerhouse Designers on Next-Gen Xbox video games culture? That would be filed under (nerd).
So, where is this lack of News for Nerds? Only two legal stories on the front page at the time of my posting, one relating to web browser IP infringements, and the other one being SPAM.
I don't think we've been able to find a technical method to stop spam that doesn't suck, so we've now gotta go the legal route. In my experience nerds rely more on digital communications than most non-nerds, so anything that can affect the medium as much as spam becomes important (thus newsworthy) to nerds.
Or do you have this as your Slashdot front page perchance?
And if the amount of legal news still gets your riled up, you can edit your Homepage and take out the "your rights online" and "politics" sections, reducing the offending reports.
I mean, what self respecting nerd would be into politics and law and all that boring stuff???
Oddly enough, if True.com is put out of business by a lawsuit stemming from this, that wouldn't change the fact that companies would still have to follow the law. Then all matchmaking sites would be forced to decide between three choices:
Risk getting suid by customers.
Risk getting fined by states. Just not offering the service from people from those states.
I wonder if this would get customers to start writing to their representatives if match.com would simply deny anybody from CA. the right to create an account and suspend any accounts from that state with just a message of
"Due to article H2732b, Match.com is unable to offer services to your state. Please contact your local representatives by clicking HERE."
(where here is a link to an automagic form where you just put your name and other info in, and off it goes.)
Then I guess a better question to ask would be whether or not the representatives actually care about what people write to them, especially in e-mail form.
I know it is just statitistics and bell curves and whatnot rearing it's ugly head. I heard it best put as "it would be a much bigger coincidence if there were no conicidences." I remember doing an excercise in stats class on birthdays and finding out that a lot of people shared the same birthday. Then we did the math and found that it takes a group of about twenty people for there to be a 50% chance that two people shared a birthday.
But knowing that still doesn't make it feel any less wierd how much my MP3 CD player "liked" to play a LOT of Björk when I had her on mixes that were put on random (the way I almost always like to listen to music.) It felt like almost every other song was Björk. Creepy. And much less than half the songs were Björk songs.
I guess neat quirks like that are why I like random so much and am really considering getting an Ipod Shuffle. I mean, that would so fit with my musical listening style. Load a random batch of songs on, put em on shuffle and go. Plugging it in to copy new songs to it would probably be about as regular of a task as plugging in my cell phone, so I don't even really think I'd need the full gig model as I could generally go several weeks on one MP3 mix cd without getting annoyed.
On another note, it can be really fun to add the sound samples from video games into a random play list. Always makes life a little more surreal to be rockin' out to some music and then being slapped with "It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks and become one with all the people." "Eternity lies ahead of us, and behind. Have you drunk your fill?" or "Organic Superlube? Oh, it's great stuff, great stuff. You really have to keep an eye on it, though--it'll try and slide away from you the first chance it gets." Okay, I think you get the picture that I have Alpha Centauri in that random list right now.
Maybe you want to look into low profile CRT then. They aren't QUITE on the market yet, but neither are you, from what I understand. They are cabable of getting a bit larger viewing area than standard CRTs, and have less depth (physically, not colorwise.) They also have better color/contrast/brightness/viewing angle than LCD/Plasma. Of course they will cost a bit more than standard CRTs, but less than LCD/Plasma. I haven't heard anything about how well they hold up, though. Haven't been able to find much info online, just what I heard from a friend who sells TVs for a living, who heard it from a rep (I believe Toshiba, but don't quote me on that.)
Or depending on your definition of big ass TV, you could go with a standard Sony CRT up to 36". True, those are some heavy SOBs, but the tubes will last through anything. If you're looking for a good clean picture, this is the way you probably want to go. If you're looking to impress people, just spend that extra couple thousand dollars you would have spent on flat panel to build up an impressive movie and video game collection, or spend it on a really good sound system.
Seriously, If there is so little room in the house that you NEED flat panel, then you probably won't be able to sit far enough from the screen that you need anything larger than 36". Unless you just want to show people how much disposable cash you have. And if you're looking to impress, girls would probably be more impressed with you spending money on a good set of copper pans and learning how to cook well enough that you can actually use them.
Because Dell does most of its sales to companies. These companies want to go with the "safe" bet, and that is Intel in their minds. It's all about brand recognition from people that don't know the difference between one spec sheet and another. All they care about is the "Pentium Inside" sticker so they think they bought the best.
On another note, I've seen an interesting switch in the past couple of years. When buying prebuilt home computers, it's generally the lower end ones that carry intel processors (generally celerons.) while the "extreme gaming" or "ultimate home media" setup or whatever that particular vendor calls it tends to be AMD.
Sony maybe? Or maybe Mitsubishi. Those guys are close to having a vertical monopoly (where you produce a little bit of everything, not so much that you have a particular market cornered.) Seriously, go take a look at Mitsubishi's website and see how many different things that company does. In addition to the TV's and automobiles that we know about (both Mitsubishi and Isuzu,) Mitsubishi does textiles, chemicals, energy, construction machines, mining, foods, production of space and aircraft equipment, financing, real estate, factory construction, IT, electronics, semiconductors, nanotech, financial consulting, New business consulting, medical care, social services and more. It seems like the only thing Mitsubishi doesn't have a hand in is entertainment media. It may make sense for them to start with video games due to the popularity in their native Japan. Although I'm not familiar enough with their business practices to guess if they'd want to break into the market with acquisitions or just start up their own division. Mitsubishi is one company I wouldn't want to have on my bad side. And I can't find any references, but from what I understand Mitsubishi is family owned.
I didn't mean to say that they were actually good, but they try to project the image that they're good. So if they get caught with something, they change their ways pretty quickly.
I'll bet that soon enough we'll find an alternate source for plastics. I know that someone has made plastic bags out of corn oil. They are a lot more biodegradable than petro-plastic, but they seem pretty flimsy to me (Although that may have just been an effort to make it more biodegradable.) The flimsiness means that once I take the groceries out, the bag gets thrown away. With sturdier bags I generally reuse them: carrying stuff somewhere, garbage bags for small garbage cans (such as in the bathroom) etc. This means I don't have to buy garbage bags, so these corn oil bags do somewhat reduce the reuse part of the hippie trinity of reduce, reuse, recycle. However advances in alternate plastic sources would help improve the strength, while possibly holding prices at a pretty constant level, rather than being dependant on ever fluctuating and rising oil prices.
Besides, "burning" hydrogen for fuel really is not a viable option. The hydrogen is created by electrolosys in a fairly energy inefficient process. This is run by electricity from standard electric plants which have their own level of inefficiency. Storage and shipment of the hydrogen is quite problematic in and of itself. All of this means that hydrogen often ends up using MORE fossil fuels than just burning the gas in the engine. One advantage that it does have is the burning is in a more centralized location which allows for better controls on the exhaust gasses (Chem scrubbers in smokestacks are far better than a catalytic converter, and more difficult to tamper with.)
I like to believe that biodiesel would make a better fuel source than petroleum, but I know that it carries its own wastes in production. High yields of corn to make the necessary oils would require a fair amount of fertilizer (Which is ironically manufactured using fossil fuels) although this could be mitigated somewhat with using alternate crops/farming methods (cue the HEMP NOW radicals.) Conversion to biodiesel also requires some energy and materials, although I get the feeling it isn't much worse than what is needed to crack petroleum into gasoline.
Novel environmentally conscious methods can be applied to tree farming as well. While it does raise the cost slightly, environmentally managed tree farming can actually provide more timber per acre per year than traditional clear cutting, and the wood is of a higher quality than standard row planted tree farms. The extra cost is mostly in labor, which means that supporting environmentally managed tree farms creates jobs, thus adding to the economy.
Ahhh... sounds like Vegas to me! But yeah... there are people out there who's job it is to lay out stores to maximize sales. And indeed, my "someone's trying to scam me" Spider-Sense does go off in many newer stores, even as I'm getting free samples at the grocery store (Which I kinda treat as a little bonus. Might buy the product if it does indeed interest me, but don't feel guilty if I don't unless the person giving out the samples is an extremely cute girl. Once even got steak! Not a whole steak or anything, but... yum.)
Hmm... incoherent post, more writing inside the parenthesis than outside. Something's wrong. AHAH! It's 5:23 AM. That's it. Good thing I don't work till noon.
I agree with you on not actually needing a color printer, but from what I hear Canon inkjet printers are quite good, and the cartridges are very easilly refillable for less than $10 a pop. But don't take my word for it as I've never owned a Canon printer (Although I know quite a few people with Canon cameras who are quite happy with them) and a very quick google search didn't come up with much info besides CHEEP INKJ37 REFIL HERE! and BUY V14GR4 WITHOUT PRESCRIPTION NOW!
But going on and on about the extended warranty after the customer flat out says they are not interested isn't cool either. The customer *KNOWS* that getting the warranty nets the salesperson extra cash. Why do you think they want to give you their fucking money? Offer the warranty once. If they don't want it, don't push the issue. If they want more info, give it to them. It's not the thirty seconds that gets annoying. It's the thirty seconds at the office store. The ten seconds at Arby's of them asking if you want fries or a cookie with your low carb wrap. The big box electronic store trying to sell you a $75 dollar Monster video cable when you just bought a shitty 15" TV. The bank sending offers for life insurance with your statement. The cell phone company pushing "two months free" of wireless web and then not turning it off when you call to cancel it. The snotty tone of voice given when you don't supersize. Radio Shack asking if I am interested in a new cell phone when I'm just picking up an RCA cable. It all adds up and soon it starts to feel like everyone is just out for your money. Upselling the customer really does get annoying after a while, and I'd take my business elsewhere if I knew I wouldn't get it there.
Actually, ever since "Supersize Me" came out, McDonald's has become really good about this. Walk up to the counter or drive up to the speaker and get a "Welcome to McDonald's. How may I help you?" instead of "Would you like to try a (insert random meal here I'm not interested in) for only (price I don't feel like paying.)" And then once you are done ordering, you may get a "Will that complete your order?" instead of "Would you like that supersized?" Seriously, McDonalds (at least where I live) doesn't push larger sizes on you any more. Now, the new "I'd hit it" slogan which I've heard about does scare me, even though it absolutely reeks of urban legend/hoax. But seriously, McDonald's is one of the quickest reacting businesses to market pressures. Once animal rights groups got on them, they proved that their beef doesn't come from South America and made sure that their chicken providers don't cut the beaks off of chickens. McDonald's was one of the first fast food chains to replace lard with veggie oil when fat became evil. Remeber styrofoam containers? You can still find them at a lot of restaraunts, but not McDonald's since the 80's. I'm not saying that they are good at heart, but they do know what most other companies don't seem to realize: Don't piss on your customers. And you know what? It seems to be a profitable business strategy
As for your stupid customer with the broken CD-RW, I've seen employees at computer stores equally as dumb. Asked about memory and being pointed to the hard drives. Asked about CPU's and being pointed towards the HPs and Packard Bells (okay, that one was a few years back, but...)
That aside, I personally usually get the warranty, as it is quite convienient. Especially through American if you have one in your area. Usually just drop the thing off, then pick it up in working condition less than a week later. And they are the only authorized repair center in my area for a lot of electronics: Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Panasonic, so you know it will be trading less hands when the repairs are done. You do still get some upselling from them, but if you're honest about what you want they help you out. And if you feel like you're being forced into a purchase, find another salesperson. They live off of their commission, so some try to make the quick buck, but the REALLY successful salesemen make their money by building up a portfolio of loyal customers who always ask for them by name when buying something. Oh, and if they want to make the sale, a salesman at American does have the authority to give you a price break. So if you don't waste too much of their tim
Amen, for that two or three times a year where you might need color, you either know someone with a color printer or can just head over to Kinko's. And if you don't have those options available, well, then you probably don't need to print in color.
Maybe that's because a new car is over $10,000 for about the cheapest cars out there, while you can easilly find a computer for around $500. Even a Mac. That, and cars are much more of a necessity for most people than computers are. Without a computer, the average person can't check their e-mail or play solitare. Without a car, they can't go to work, go shopping, pick up the kids from soccer practice, get a haircut, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
That has to be a first for me: my roomates cat walked across the keyboard and somehow managed to submit the post before I was done with it. Meant to read something like:
MP3 has only now started to make them reconsider? I bought my MP3 Diskman (Diskman being a Sony trademark) almost three years ago. Something like this, but of course a much older version.
MP3 has only now started to make them reconsider? I bought my MP3 Diskman (Disabout almost three years ago. Something like this, but just a much older version.
And of course playing Heddy Newman in the unforgettable Herman's Head. Okay, maybe it was forgettable, but it also had Yeardly Smith (Lisa Simpson.) And... Umm... Jason Bernard who played the professor in The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. Wow... I actually saw that, and remember most of the plot. And it's got the voice of Homer in it as well. Oh... wait. I saw the original. God bless IMDB for the random memories of stuff I really don't care about.
some studies have shown (antidepressants) can increase the occurence of suicide attempts in groups who take it.
From what I have come to understand, this isn't so much a result of the medicine as much as a result of coming out of depression. When under a deep depression, one is generally lethargic and emotionally numb. Suicide becomes something that is quite draining to think about, and one really doesn't feel that they are hurting anyways so much as a complete lack of emotion. It is when people are coming back from depression that A) it starts to hurt again B) the person has the physical energy to plan and follow through with the act and C) the person has enough emotional clarity to reflect on how much they actually were suffering in the time when they felt numb.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a psychologist, but am friends with several people who are psychology students and/or suffering from depression. One of my friends missed his head with a shotgun because his girlfriend knocked on his appartment door, distracting him enough for self-preserving instincts to kick in.
Well, it means the DoJ can't say that MS is a monopoly in the field of office productivity software. However in terms of the OS market on business PCs... yeah. And they can use their drastically greater marketshare in OS installs to leverage an unfair advantage over their competition in other markets (Browser, Media Player, and of course arguably the most widely used pieces of software in the corporate world... Solitaire and Minesweeper.)
It's a difference in semantics. You are saying that the Installer is 23MB, while the article is saying the hard drive had 65 Megs less on it afterwards, which makes sense as the installer program would be uncompressed and likely not even automatically deleted from the hard drive after the install completes, using up disk space. In fact the article even states that the download is 23 megs.
But the slashdot post was worded poorly, IMO. Install is often mistaken for Installer. I read it that way at first and then wondered why the article said that 23 Meg was downloaded. Gave me a moment of confusion.
That's not really related. What the grandparent was saying is that companies will simply stop offering internet service in Utah. This would make sense as the law would add large costs, ranging from inplementing the filtering software to tech support increases to legal liability if their filters DON'T filter out smut. The ISPs that do offer services in Utah will be forced to crank up their costs to the consumer to remain lucrative.
Or maybe I could get my tinfoil hat on and assume that some ISP has figured out a way to filter relatively cheaply and is pushing for this legislation to effectively hobble the competition.
Beat me to the punch. My roomate got it from here and we've had a blast in the last couple of weeks since we got it. Considering that he's thinking about writing a zombie survival horror video game, he's kinda had zombies on the brain anyways.
If you're into it for the zombies, I might also suggest Lord of the Fries, where you play a zombie filling a fast food order. And FreeLoader is another really fun game by the same people. The great thing about CheapAss games is their price. They used to be even better a couple years ago, most games costing less than $5, but then they started thinking they could actually get away with actually making quality games. Caveat: one reason that CheapAss games are so cheap is that by default they usually don't come with some of the things you need to play: dice (We've all got those sitting somewhere) Player markers (We've all got a chess set, some little plastic toys or random colored doo-dads to use. Counters? (Dried beans, pennies, small stones or whatnot are just as fun to play with.) You can usually get a deluxe version with "all the bits" but that somehow seems impure. Gotta play it the original CheapAss(tm) way.
CheapAss even has some free games, including a combat strategy game which seems right up the aisle of the original submitter. I assume every self respecting gamer has the dark secret of RPGs in their past and still has their cache of dice sitting somewhere just waiting to be used.
This article is not saying that it is now allright to spam. This article does not tell about the ruling having anything to do with free speech. The article says that the judge found that there was not sufficient evidence to prove that the defendant was spamming.
Hmm... let me look at the front page.
Linux: Debian to be Marketed to Japan and China Linux (nerd)
Star Wars Sith Trailer and the O.C. Star Wars (nerd)
IT: Virginia Court Overturns Spammer Convictions Law regarding spam? important to IT workers. (vaguely nerd)
Google Calendar Coming Soon? Google (nerd)
IT: New Vulnerabilities Discovered in Firefox 1.0 Security + Firefox = (definately nerd)
Sony Ericsson Announces First Walkman Phone Tech goodies (nerd)
Science: Double-Slit Experiment in Time, Not Space Physics (very nerdy)
Your Rights Online: Appeals Court Sends Eolas Case Back For New Trial Again, yes it's law, but important to people in the software industry. verdict: (nerd)
Linux: LiveCD Lets You Try Out Project Looking Glass ( très nerdy )
Games: More Powerhouse Designers on Next-Gen Xbox video games culture? That would be filed under (nerd).
So, where is this lack of News for Nerds? Only two legal stories on the front page at the time of my posting, one relating to web browser IP infringements, and the other one being SPAM.
I don't think we've been able to find a technical method to stop spam that doesn't suck, so we've now gotta go the legal route. In my experience nerds rely more on digital communications than most non-nerds, so anything that can affect the medium as much as spam becomes important (thus newsworthy) to nerds.
Or do you have this as your Slashdot front page perchance?
And if the amount of legal news still gets your riled up, you can edit your Homepage and take out the "your rights online" and "politics" sections, reducing the offending reports.
I mean, what self respecting nerd would be into politics and law and all that boring stuff???
Thankfully, Acrobat is not a monolithic piece of crap. All the stuff that takes so long to run is extra plugins, and they can be disabled. There are even programs to do it automatically, but this is something that I would trust doing manually over some program. I mean, if I somehow mess up Acrobat removing some plugins, I reinstall Acrobat. If the program messes up the system, is loaded with spyware or whatever, then the whole OS might have to go.
- "Due to article H2732b, Match.com is unable to offer services to your state. Please contact your local representatives by clicking HERE."
(where here is a link to an automagic form where you just put your name and other info in, and off it goes.)Then I guess a better question to ask would be whether or not the representatives actually care about what people write to them, especially in e-mail form.
I know it is just statitistics and bell curves and whatnot rearing it's ugly head. I heard it best put as "it would be a much bigger coincidence if there were no conicidences." I remember doing an excercise in stats class on birthdays and finding out that a lot of people shared the same birthday. Then we did the math and found that it takes a group of about twenty people for there to be a 50% chance that two people shared a birthday.
But knowing that still doesn't make it feel any less wierd how much my MP3 CD player "liked" to play a LOT of Björk when I had her on mixes that were put on random (the way I almost always like to listen to music.) It felt like almost every other song was Björk. Creepy. And much less than half the songs were Björk songs.
I guess neat quirks like that are why I like random so much and am really considering getting an Ipod Shuffle. I mean, that would so fit with my musical listening style. Load a random batch of songs on, put em on shuffle and go. Plugging it in to copy new songs to it would probably be about as regular of a task as plugging in my cell phone, so I don't even really think I'd need the full gig model as I could generally go several weeks on one MP3 mix cd without getting annoyed.
On another note, it can be really fun to add the sound samples from video games into a random play list. Always makes life a little more surreal to be rockin' out to some music and then being slapped with "It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks and become one with all the people." "Eternity lies ahead of us, and behind. Have you drunk your fill?" or "Organic Superlube? Oh, it's great stuff, great stuff. You really have to keep an eye on it, though--it'll try and slide away from you the first chance it gets." Okay, I think you get the picture that I have Alpha Centauri in that random list right now.
You mean the ones that Nintendo apologized to and gave free gameboys for the trouble?
Maybe you want to look into low profile CRT then. They aren't QUITE on the market yet, but neither are you, from what I understand. They are cabable of getting a bit larger viewing area than standard CRTs, and have less depth (physically, not colorwise.) They also have better color/contrast/brightness/viewing angle than LCD/Plasma. Of course they will cost a bit more than standard CRTs, but less than LCD/Plasma. I haven't heard anything about how well they hold up, though. Haven't been able to find much info online, just what I heard from a friend who sells TVs for a living, who heard it from a rep (I believe Toshiba, but don't quote me on that.)
Or depending on your definition of big ass TV, you could go with a standard Sony CRT up to 36". True, those are some heavy SOBs, but the tubes will last through anything. If you're looking for a good clean picture, this is the way you probably want to go. If you're looking to impress people, just spend that extra couple thousand dollars you would have spent on flat panel to build up an impressive movie and video game collection, or spend it on a really good sound system.
Seriously, If there is so little room in the house that you NEED flat panel, then you probably won't be able to sit far enough from the screen that you need anything larger than 36". Unless you just want to show people how much disposable cash you have. And if you're looking to impress, girls would probably be more impressed with you spending money on a good set of copper pans and learning how to cook well enough that you can actually use them.
Because Dell does most of its sales to companies. These companies want to go with the "safe" bet, and that is Intel in their minds. It's all about brand recognition from people that don't know the difference between one spec sheet and another. All they care about is the "Pentium Inside" sticker so they think they bought the best.
On another note, I've seen an interesting switch in the past couple of years. When buying prebuilt home computers, it's generally the lower end ones that carry intel processors (generally celerons.) while the "extreme gaming" or "ultimate home media" setup or whatever that particular vendor calls it tends to be AMD.
Sony maybe? Or maybe Mitsubishi. Those guys are close to having a vertical monopoly (where you produce a little bit of everything, not so much that you have a particular market cornered.) Seriously, go take a look at Mitsubishi's website and see how many different things that company does. In addition to the TV's and automobiles that we know about (both Mitsubishi and Isuzu,) Mitsubishi does textiles, chemicals, energy, construction machines, mining, foods, production of space and aircraft equipment, financing, real estate, factory construction, IT, electronics, semiconductors, nanotech, financial consulting, New business consulting, medical care, social services and more. It seems like the only thing Mitsubishi doesn't have a hand in is entertainment media. It may make sense for them to start with video games due to the popularity in their native Japan. Although I'm not familiar enough with their business practices to guess if they'd want to break into the market with acquisitions or just start up their own division. Mitsubishi is one company I wouldn't want to have on my bad side. And I can't find any references, but from what I understand Mitsubishi is family owned.
Remember...
It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks and become one with all the people.
Chairman Sheng-ji Yang
"Ethics for Tomorrow"
(Taken from Alpha Centauri, of course)
I didn't mean to say that they were actually good, but they try to project the image that they're good. So if they get caught with something, they change their ways pretty quickly.
I'll bet that soon enough we'll find an alternate source for plastics. I know that someone has made plastic bags out of corn oil. They are a lot more biodegradable than petro-plastic, but they seem pretty flimsy to me (Although that may have just been an effort to make it more biodegradable.) The flimsiness means that once I take the groceries out, the bag gets thrown away. With sturdier bags I generally reuse them: carrying stuff somewhere, garbage bags for small garbage cans (such as in the bathroom) etc. This means I don't have to buy garbage bags, so these corn oil bags do somewhat reduce the reuse part of the hippie trinity of reduce, reuse, recycle. However advances in alternate plastic sources would help improve the strength, while possibly holding prices at a pretty constant level, rather than being dependant on ever fluctuating and rising oil prices.
Besides, "burning" hydrogen for fuel really is not a viable option. The hydrogen is created by electrolosys in a fairly energy inefficient process. This is run by electricity from standard electric plants which have their own level of inefficiency. Storage and shipment of the hydrogen is quite problematic in and of itself. All of this means that hydrogen often ends up using MORE fossil fuels than just burning the gas in the engine. One advantage that it does have is the burning is in a more centralized location which allows for better controls on the exhaust gasses (Chem scrubbers in smokestacks are far better than a catalytic converter, and more difficult to tamper with.)
I like to believe that biodiesel would make a better fuel source than petroleum, but I know that it carries its own wastes in production. High yields of corn to make the necessary oils would require a fair amount of fertilizer (Which is ironically manufactured using fossil fuels) although this could be mitigated somewhat with using alternate crops/farming methods (cue the HEMP NOW radicals.) Conversion to biodiesel also requires some energy and materials, although I get the feeling it isn't much worse than what is needed to crack petroleum into gasoline.
Novel environmentally conscious methods can be applied to tree farming as well. While it does raise the cost slightly, environmentally managed tree farming can actually provide more timber per acre per year than traditional clear cutting, and the wood is of a higher quality than standard row planted tree farms. The extra cost is mostly in labor, which means that supporting environmentally managed tree farms creates jobs, thus adding to the economy.
Ahhh... sounds like Vegas to me! But yeah... there are people out there who's job it is to lay out stores to maximize sales. And indeed, my "someone's trying to scam me" Spider-Sense does go off in many newer stores, even as I'm getting free samples at the grocery store (Which I kinda treat as a little bonus. Might buy the product if it does indeed interest me, but don't feel guilty if I don't unless the person giving out the samples is an extremely cute girl. Once even got steak! Not a whole steak or anything, but... yum.)
Hmm... incoherent post, more writing inside the parenthesis than outside. Something's wrong. AHAH! It's 5:23 AM. That's it. Good thing I don't work till noon.
I agree with you on not actually needing a color printer, but from what I hear Canon inkjet printers are quite good, and the cartridges are very easilly refillable for less than $10 a pop. But don't take my word for it as I've never owned a Canon printer (Although I know quite a few people with Canon cameras who are quite happy with them) and a very quick google search didn't come up with much info besides CHEEP INKJ37 REFIL HERE! and BUY V14GR4 WITHOUT PRESCRIPTION NOW!
But going on and on about the extended warranty after the customer flat out says they are not interested isn't cool either. The customer *KNOWS* that getting the warranty nets the salesperson extra cash. Why do you think they want to give you their fucking money? Offer the warranty once. If they don't want it, don't push the issue. If they want more info, give it to them. It's not the thirty seconds that gets annoying. It's the thirty seconds at the office store. The ten seconds at Arby's of them asking if you want fries or a cookie with your low carb wrap. The big box electronic store trying to sell you a $75 dollar Monster video cable when you just bought a shitty 15" TV. The bank sending offers for life insurance with your statement. The cell phone company pushing "two months free" of wireless web and then not turning it off when you call to cancel it. The snotty tone of voice given when you don't supersize. Radio Shack asking if I am interested in a new cell phone when I'm just picking up an RCA cable. It all adds up and soon it starts to feel like everyone is just out for your money. Upselling the customer really does get annoying after a while, and I'd take my business elsewhere if I knew I wouldn't get it there.
Actually, ever since "Supersize Me" came out, McDonald's has become really good about this. Walk up to the counter or drive up to the speaker and get a "Welcome to McDonald's. How may I help you?" instead of "Would you like to try a (insert random meal here I'm not interested in) for only (price I don't feel like paying.)" And then once you are done ordering, you may get a "Will that complete your order?" instead of "Would you like that supersized?" Seriously, McDonalds (at least where I live) doesn't push larger sizes on you any more. Now, the new "I'd hit it" slogan which I've heard about does scare me, even though it absolutely reeks of urban legend/hoax. But seriously, McDonald's is one of the quickest reacting businesses to market pressures. Once animal rights groups got on them, they proved that their beef doesn't come from South America and made sure that their chicken providers don't cut the beaks off of chickens. McDonald's was one of the first fast food chains to replace lard with veggie oil when fat became evil. Remeber styrofoam containers? You can still find them at a lot of restaraunts, but not McDonald's since the 80's. I'm not saying that they are good at heart, but they do know what most other companies don't seem to realize: Don't piss on your customers. And you know what? It seems to be a profitable business strategy
As for your stupid customer with the broken CD-RW, I've seen employees at computer stores equally as dumb. Asked about memory and being pointed to the hard drives. Asked about CPU's and being pointed towards the HPs and Packard Bells (okay, that one was a few years back, but...)
That aside, I personally usually get the warranty, as it is quite convienient. Especially through American if you have one in your area. Usually just drop the thing off, then pick it up in working condition less than a week later. And they are the only authorized repair center in my area for a lot of electronics: Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Panasonic, so you know it will be trading less hands when the repairs are done. You do still get some upselling from them, but if you're honest about what you want they help you out. And if you feel like you're being forced into a purchase, find another salesperson. They live off of their commission, so some try to make the quick buck, but the REALLY successful salesemen make their money by building up a portfolio of loyal customers who always ask for them by name when buying something. Oh, and if they want to make the sale, a salesman at American does have the authority to give you a price break. So if you don't waste too much of their tim
Amen, for that two or three times a year where you might need color, you either know someone with a color printer or can just head over to Kinko's. And if you don't have those options available, well, then you probably don't need to print in color.
Maybe that's because a new car is over $10,000 for about the cheapest cars out there, while you can easilly find a computer for around $500. Even a Mac. That, and cars are much more of a necessity for most people than computers are. Without a computer, the average person can't check their e-mail or play solitare. Without a car, they can't go to work, go shopping, pick up the kids from soccer practice, get a haircut, etc.