Just sell the shit cheap and shoot for volume instead, no protection needed, especially if the consumers actually think the product is worth the price and prefer to buy it.
That is a perfectly valid theory, that I pretty much think would turn out to work great. However, the simple truth is that you don't know how that would actually work in the real world. I don't, either; nobody does.
They've been running their business a certain way for a long time, and making a killing. Now we're in the digital age, and the context is different and changing rapidly. Expecting them to one day up and use a totally different pricing model than they've been making a killing with up to this point is silly. Of course they're going to try and do things the exact same way as they always have.
And they've got people assuring them it's possible. These companies that are making the DRM 'software' are also making a killing, and it's mostly because the media people believe what they're selling, which is the ability to keep doing things the way they always have, in this new and scary age. I have no idea if the DRM companies know what they're doing in futile or not; that depends on how cynical you are.
I fear big egos will lead many geeks to underestimate their adversaries. Feel free to prove me wrong, of course.:)
The great part is that you're totally right. I had a friend who was an FBI forensic computer examiner, and was privy to many of their techniques and stories (omitting anything identifying, of course). Now, I'm not claiming that they can "spot" a hidden folder or anything like that; I have no idea about this particular case and technology. But it is true that the vast majority of the crowd here grossly underestimates the intelligence and technical savvy employed by our federal government. It can be both hilarious and infuriating, depending on context.
Just wanted to toss that onto the fire. Burn, baby, burn!
Having actually USED visual voicemail, I can assure you that it is no gimmick.
That is unless of course you enjoy listening to the automated "message received at... press x to listen... press y to delete" crap after being forced to wade through and delete old voicemail before listening to that new one you just received.
And the more you use voicemail, the more glorious this becomes. My girlfriend gets off of work every day and can have 3-7 voicemails from friends and family waiting for her. She was waiting for Friend S to call about tonight, so that one's first, then her mom's since she sent mom an important email earlier in the day and wants to hear the response, then these other people can wait for tonight or tomorrow, when she has some more time.
It's literally the best feature of the phone for her, followed very closely by the SMS text formatting so it's like different IM sessions with different people. Again, if you send a lot of text messages and you're used to just a list of the N most recent messages you've gotten, the SMS-as-chat formatting, showing your texts and theirs, in order, separated by each contact so they're like conversations... it's a fantastic improvement over the way every other phone does it.
But more importantly, you CANNOT just sit in a parking lot and use Wi-fi without deciding to ACTIVELY log on to the access point.
True enough. However, when I actively try to use that access point, my computer uses DHCP to ask for an IP address, which the access point can choose to provide or not. In this case, the access point did provide one, and then happily routed all the traffic the guy's laptop sent its way.
So, the guy (through his laptop) asked to use the network, and the shop owner (through her access point) agreed. How is this theft?
Similarly, CF bulbs (yes, I do use them) don't "pay for themselves": you don't get paid to use them, they only cost less, when compared to an older, less efficient technology.
I don't think I understand your point. It's obvious that not turning on a light at all uses the least amount of energy, that being zero. The assumption is that I need a light in some situation, so which type of light should I use? "Don't use a light at all" is not a valid answer.
Also, the "pays for itself" is a perfectly good arguement, in this context. Say with a normal lightbulb, I'm going to buy one a year for $0.50 and pay $10/year in energy. That's a total of $105 over ten years. Or, I could buy a $10 CF bulb now, and pay $5 each year for those ten year. Sure, after year #1, I'll have spent more money with the CF solution, but after year #2, the CF solution will be cheaper than the normal lights by $1; it has "paid for itself". And after those 10 years, $55 savings!
So, yes, we're comparing a newer technology to an older one; that's the whole point.
Your graph shows A) that crime is dropping. This is good. It also shows B) that several hundred thousand people in this country are victimized each each by violent crimes. This hardly proves anything in your favor, because the graph also shows C) absolutely nothing about gun statistics. Perhaps you linked the wrong one?
You can call me names all you like, but myself and many other people feel that, simply, if every American weren't allowed to own guns, if they didn't sell them at Wal-Mart or in shops in every 'seedy' neighborhood in this country, that there would be fewer of them in the country, in total, for people to use to shoot other people. Of course they're mostly obtained illegally; they're stolen from all the people in the country who own them. If you all didn't own then, they would be must harder to steal, wouldn't they? You'd have to smuggle them in or steal them from police or something. Much harder than breaking into random houses until you found one.
You simply can't argue against the fact that if guns were illegal in this country, there would be far fewer of them in the country and, thus, fewer people shot. It's a no-brainer. And of course criminals will always have them, just like they do now. Maybe we shouldn't give said criminals a ready supply on-hand for the taking so they can always have more?
You obviously value your 'right' to own a gun more than the the many thousands of people who are killed by handguns each year in this country. That's fine for you, you vote the way that allows that to continue. I'm going to prioritize those lives higher, and vote accordingly. I'd vote to repeal the second Amendment in a heartbeat; it's out of date and out of touch with the times we live in.
Feel free to keep calling me names, though. Seems like fun!
You know what I'm tired of? You shooting your gun. Because in this context, "you" is "anybody in America" and "shooting your gun" is "shooting other Americans". So yea, I'm tired of people all over America shooting each other all the time. I will vote always for legislation that restrict your gun use, and cheer loudly for technology like this which makes it harder for you to shoot other people, because I'm tired of hearing about how Americans are always shooting other Americans.
I know what you're going to say, "I'm a safe gun owner!" You're not, because as above, "you" are just one of the millions of gun-toting Americans, and those millions are constantly shooting other people. So yea, I'm lumping you in with them, because if none of you could shoot your guns, then none of you could continue shooting other Americans.
Take your own advice. If Slashdot or the tech community isn't what you enjoy anymore, spend your time elsewhere. Don't waste your and our time bitching about it.
They're saying "1/5 the price of a Cisco part", or an 80% savings. So... buy two. You still get a 60% savings, and you have a live backup on site if the primary breaks. Economy of scale applies here, as well. If you're buying replacements for four Cisco switches, buy five of these new ones and still enjoy a 75% savings with a backup on-hand. Or buy six to have two backups on-hand, and enjoy a 70% overall savings.
Having a replacement on-hand, with the correct config already loaded, beats even Cicso bringing you a new one "within the hour".
Doug
Re:Ok, can we just put more empty space in now?
on
Intel Makes 45nm Chip
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· Score: 1
Is it just me, or is web-browsing and document writing fast enough?
For a few years now, I've been telling family members and friends who ask me advice about buying a new computer: Don't ever worry about the CPU. In fact, get the slowest one you can find. It'll be cooler and the battery will last longer, most likely. (Of course, I tell them to put as much RAM in the thing as they want to spend, as well.)
But I'll take this one further. I recently got a new laptop at work; it's an IBM ThinkPad T43. Not terribly new tech, and it's very much a business machine. 1GB ram, some Centrino CPU, some ATI mobile graphics chip...
The thing plays WoW at 25fps. Now, this is at 1024x768, the native LCD resolution, and 25fps isn't stellar... but this is a work laptop. Playing a relatively new game with default graphics settings at a very-playable 25fps? Insane.
I am totally not complaining, of course. I love the fact that current tech is almost overkill for anything we can throw at it; it just means we'll find more interesting things to throw at it!
I did find a corp, two of them in fact, and I'm sorry to say, my game experience was exactly the same as the parent. The only real difference was that I had people to chat with while I was doing, essentially, nothing. And I had to relocate everything I had a couple times as they changed home systems.
I also played for about four months, so I paid for it, but it was just boring. So much potential, and stunning visuals... Frankly, yes, I do expect a game to "spoon-feed" me content. I'm paying for it, I expect to be entertained.
Predicted response: "Well, then you need to find a good corp! And play longer, so you can get more skills!" EVE players are constantly telling others how, after a year or so of playing, the game is awesome...
I play on Hellscream, one of the most populous servers, and this simply isn't true. I play about every day, and I'd say I get a queue maybe half the time, and it's rarely over 15min. Usually 6-10, when I get it.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to never see it, but "30-60min on all servers all the time" is just untrue.
Pride goeth before a fall. The classy thing to do would be to thank the person (whose v- address signifies that they're a vendor, in this case a headhunter) and decline politely, then make your plans to piss on Gates's grave or whatever floats your boat.
How could it be that you missed it in the article and in the summary above that that's exactly what he did?
You're wrong. In fact, you're proving the author's point perfectly.
The games are much more complex, but you don't even notice it because you're so used to them. No complex controls? Compare the standard PS2 controller to the Atari controller, even an old-school gamepad. Two sticks, directional pad, four buttons, four triggers? That's a hell of a lot to keep track of; you just don't think so because you're used to it.
No complex rule systems? I haven't playes GTA:SA, but can't you work out to get stronger, or perform other activities to increase your attributes, or get a pilot's license to fly a plane? Take World of Warcraft, arguably the most popular game in the world at the moment. There are a million quests and talent trees and skills you may or may not use in situations and pets and instances and the auction house... it's a huge, interconnected system, and our kids are navigating it with ease.
So, today's games are as described, and you yourself are living proof that people have risen to the task of playing them, so much so that you don't even notice anymore how hard and complex they are. Again, you've made the author's point for him.
I think your ISP may disagree when half their customers start saturating their pipes 24 hours a day so that they can watch a new movie each night.
In that case, my ISP can eat my shorts. They advertise "always on", and give me a big pipe; heaven forbid I should turn around and use it. And for a perfectly legitimate purpose; no, actually, for exactly the advertised purpose of said pipe, the delivery of digital media straight to my home. That's what they say I could do if I signed up with them; now I've signed up, and that's what I'm going to do.
I hate ISPs. How I wish Speakeasy was within range...
When all those articles were coming out about Doom 3 being such a sophisticated engine that current hardware couldn't take full advantage of it, I couldn't help but wonder, how do you know that?
Well, say you're running a modern game on a modern card, and you're getting 60fps. Say also that you know that game is pushing N polygons or whatever to the screen. It would seem that that modern card is capable of handling that N at 60fps.
So, Mr. Carmack says to himself: I'm going to make a game that pushes 10N out to the screen! He does so, and of course it runs at about 6fps on the same machine. But he can confidently say that future hardware will run this game just fine. And hey, these 6fps look awesome, can you imagine if it were full-speed??
You don't have to have tomorrow's hardware to guess how powerful it will be and scale your models/code appropriately.
...collect all the information needed to snatch the blogger and make an example out of him and his family?
What country/world do you live in?? You're really contemplating the possibility that the Chinese government is going to hunt you down, "snatch" you away, and do horrible things to you?
Listen, America has a number of problems, but keeping its citizens safe from foreign aggression while on their own soil is not one of them. And I'm including "terrorism", even though that's not remotely the point here.
Furthermore, "...the United States (US) lacks extradition treaties with over fifty nations, including the People's Republic of China and North Korea." So even if they asked the US politely to hand you over, our government would just laugh at them.
How paranoid do you have to be to think that not only is the government of China going to notice you, but send somebody over to get you? Wow.
Doug's tip: Put the DVD in the player, say, when you get home from work and/or when you decide you'll be watching the movie. Leave the TV off, and go do something else. When you come back later, turn the TV on, and you'll magically be at the DVD's menu.
"Forced"... I agree, it's stupid, but you're hardly forced to watch it. Go fix the popcorn, or play a game, or make out with your SO... think out of the box, people.
Honestly, how many people USE Amazon's 1-click ordering anyway?
Not to be mean, but I can't believe this didn't get modded as a troll. I use 1-Click all the time on Amazon; why not? See, the trick is, you can set all the info up and double and triple check it all, and then never have to check again. That's the whole point, to give relief to people like you.
As for the order itself... you have 90 minutes to add new things to a 1-Click order, or go in and check the order to make sure it's correct, or modify or cancel it. I do that every time, myself. But I know the payment and shipping stuff is already correct, so I don't even have to look at that.
Slashdot Mirror
UCSD's CS program was particularly good, I always thought.
Also, I was a UCSD CS TA at one point... what year were you?
Just sell the shit cheap and shoot for volume instead, no protection needed, especially if the consumers actually think the product is worth the price and prefer to buy it.
That is a perfectly valid theory, that I pretty much think would turn out to work great. However, the simple truth is that you don't know how that would actually work in the real world. I don't, either; nobody does.
They've been running their business a certain way for a long time, and making a killing. Now we're in the digital age, and the context is different and changing rapidly. Expecting them to one day up and use a totally different pricing model than they've been making a killing with up to this point is silly. Of course they're going to try and do things the exact same way as they always have.
And they've got people assuring them it's possible. These companies that are making the DRM 'software' are also making a killing, and it's mostly because the media people believe what they're selling, which is the ability to keep doing things the way they always have, in this new and scary age. I have no idea if the DRM companies know what they're doing in futile or not; that depends on how cynical you are.
That's all I got.
Doug
To paraphrase the internet as a whole: "Links, or it didn't happen."
Doug
The great part is that you're totally right. I had a friend who was an FBI forensic computer examiner, and was privy to many of their techniques and stories (omitting anything identifying, of course). Now, I'm not claiming that they can "spot" a hidden folder or anything like that; I have no idea about this particular case and technology. But it is true that the vast majority of the crowd here grossly underestimates the intelligence and technical savvy employed by our federal government. It can be both hilarious and infuriating, depending on context.
Just wanted to toss that onto the fire. Burn, baby, burn!
Doug
And the more you use voicemail, the more glorious this becomes. My girlfriend gets off of work every day and can have 3-7 voicemails from friends and family waiting for her. She was waiting for Friend S to call about tonight, so that one's first, then her mom's since she sent mom an important email earlier in the day and wants to hear the response, then these other people can wait for tonight or tomorrow, when she has some more time.
It's literally the best feature of the phone for her, followed very closely by the SMS text formatting so it's like different IM sessions with different people. Again, if you send a lot of text messages and you're used to just a list of the N most recent messages you've gotten, the SMS-as-chat formatting, showing your texts and theirs, in order, separated by each contact so they're like conversations... it's a fantastic improvement over the way every other phone does it.
Doug
True enough. However, when I actively try to use that access point, my computer uses DHCP to ask for an IP address, which the access point can choose to provide or not. In this case, the access point did provide one, and then happily routed all the traffic the guy's laptop sent its way.
So, the guy (through his laptop) asked to use the network, and the shop owner (through her access point) agreed. How is this theft?
Doug
Including being able to record two (possibly HD) shows at once? My understanding of the set-top boxes was that they can only do one channel at a time.
Doug
I don't think I understand your point. It's obvious that not turning on a light at all uses the least amount of energy, that being zero. The assumption is that I need a light in some situation, so which type of light should I use? "Don't use a light at all" is not a valid answer.
Also, the "pays for itself" is a perfectly good arguement, in this context. Say with a normal lightbulb, I'm going to buy one a year for $0.50 and pay $10/year in energy. That's a total of $105 over ten years. Or, I could buy a $10 CF bulb now, and pay $5 each year for those ten year. Sure, after year #1, I'll have spent more money with the CF solution, but after year #2, the CF solution will be cheaper than the normal lights by $1; it has "paid for itself". And after those 10 years, $55 savings!
So, yes, we're comparing a newer technology to an older one; that's the whole point.
Doug
Your graph shows A) that crime is dropping. This is good. It also shows B) that several hundred thousand people in this country are victimized each each by violent crimes. This hardly proves anything in your favor, because the graph also shows C) absolutely nothing about gun statistics. Perhaps you linked the wrong one?
You can call me names all you like, but myself and many other people feel that, simply, if every American weren't allowed to own guns, if they didn't sell them at Wal-Mart or in shops in every 'seedy' neighborhood in this country, that there would be fewer of them in the country, in total, for people to use to shoot other people. Of course they're mostly obtained illegally; they're stolen from all the people in the country who own them. If you all didn't own then, they would be must harder to steal, wouldn't they? You'd have to smuggle them in or steal them from police or something. Much harder than breaking into random houses until you found one.
You simply can't argue against the fact that if guns were illegal in this country, there would be far fewer of them in the country and, thus, fewer people shot. It's a no-brainer. And of course criminals will always have them, just like they do now. Maybe we shouldn't give said criminals a ready supply on-hand for the taking so they can always have more?
You obviously value your 'right' to own a gun more than the the many thousands of people who are killed by handguns each year in this country. That's fine for you, you vote the way that allows that to continue. I'm going to prioritize those lives higher, and vote accordingly. I'd vote to repeal the second Amendment in a heartbeat; it's out of date and out of touch with the times we live in.
Feel free to keep calling me names, though. Seems like fun!
Doug
You know what I'm tired of? You shooting your gun. Because in this context, "you" is "anybody in America" and "shooting your gun" is "shooting other Americans". So yea, I'm tired of people all over America shooting each other all the time. I will vote always for legislation that restrict your gun use, and cheer loudly for technology like this which makes it harder for you to shoot other people, because I'm tired of hearing about how Americans are always shooting other Americans.
I know what you're going to say, "I'm a safe gun owner!" You're not, because as above, "you" are just one of the millions of gun-toting Americans, and those millions are constantly shooting other people. So yea, I'm lumping you in with them, because if none of you could shoot your guns, then none of you could continue shooting other Americans.
I'm tired of it.
Doug
Take your own advice. If Slashdot or the tech community isn't what you enjoy anymore, spend your time elsewhere. Don't waste your and our time bitching about it.
Doug
They're saying "1/5 the price of a Cisco part", or an 80% savings. So... buy two. You still get a 60% savings, and you have a live backup on site if the primary breaks. Economy of scale applies here, as well. If you're buying replacements for four Cisco switches, buy five of these new ones and still enjoy a 75% savings with a backup on-hand. Or buy six to have two backups on-hand, and enjoy a 70% overall savings.
Having a replacement on-hand, with the correct config already loaded, beats even Cicso bringing you a new one "within the hour".
Doug
For a few years now, I've been telling family members and friends who ask me advice about buying a new computer: Don't ever worry about the CPU. In fact, get the slowest one you can find. It'll be cooler and the battery will last longer, most likely. (Of course, I tell them to put as much RAM in the thing as they want to spend, as well.)
But I'll take this one further. I recently got a new laptop at work; it's an IBM ThinkPad T43. Not terribly new tech, and it's very much a business machine. 1GB ram, some Centrino CPU, some ATI mobile graphics chip...
The thing plays WoW at 25fps. Now, this is at 1024x768, the native LCD resolution, and 25fps isn't stellar... but this is a work laptop. Playing a relatively new game with default graphics settings at a very-playable 25fps? Insane.
I am totally not complaining, of course. I love the fact that current tech is almost overkill for anything we can throw at it; it just means we'll find more interesting things to throw at it!
Doug
I did find a corp, two of them in fact, and I'm sorry to say, my game experience was exactly the same as the parent. The only real difference was that I had people to chat with while I was doing, essentially, nothing. And I had to relocate everything I had a couple times as they changed home systems.
I also played for about four months, so I paid for it, but it was just boring. So much potential, and stunning visuals... Frankly, yes, I do expect a game to "spoon-feed" me content. I'm paying for it, I expect to be entertained.
Predicted response: "Well, then you need to find a good corp! And play longer, so you can get more skills!" EVE players are constantly telling others how, after a year or so of playing, the game is awesome...
Doug
I play on Hellscream, one of the most populous servers, and this simply isn't true. I play about every day, and I'd say I get a queue maybe half the time, and it's rarely over 15min. Usually 6-10, when I get it.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to never see it, but "30-60min on all servers all the time" is just untrue.
Doug
How could it be that you missed it in the article and in the summary above that that's exactly what he did?
Doug
You're wrong. In fact, you're proving the author's point perfectly.
The games are much more complex, but you don't even notice it because you're so used to them. No complex controls? Compare the standard PS2 controller to the Atari controller, even an old-school gamepad. Two sticks, directional pad, four buttons, four triggers? That's a hell of a lot to keep track of; you just don't think so because you're used to it.
No complex rule systems? I haven't playes GTA:SA, but can't you work out to get stronger, or perform other activities to increase your attributes, or get a pilot's license to fly a plane? Take World of Warcraft, arguably the most popular game in the world at the moment. There are a million quests and talent trees and skills you may or may not use in situations and pets and instances and the auction house... it's a huge, interconnected system, and our kids are navigating it with ease.
So, today's games are as described, and you yourself are living proof that people have risen to the task of playing them, so much so that you don't even notice anymore how hard and complex they are. Again, you've made the author's point for him.
Doug
I LOVE posts like this. I laugh out loud, because I have sigs turned off because they're annoying. Your post, sans sig, is so inane it's hilarious. :)
Doug
In that case, my ISP can eat my shorts. They advertise "always on", and give me a big pipe; heaven forbid I should turn around and use it. And for a perfectly legitimate purpose; no, actually, for exactly the advertised purpose of said pipe, the delivery of digital media straight to my home. That's what they say I could do if I signed up with them; now I've signed up, and that's what I'm going to do.
I hate ISPs. How I wish Speakeasy was within range...
Doug
I pick April 18, 1995. 11:20am.
Doug
Anymore?
I just want to know what the hell you're all talking about!!
Doug
Well, say you're running a modern game on a modern card, and you're getting 60fps. Say also that you know that game is pushing N polygons or whatever to the screen. It would seem that that modern card is capable of handling that N at 60fps.
So, Mr. Carmack says to himself: I'm going to make a game that pushes 10N out to the screen! He does so, and of course it runs at about 6fps on the same machine. But he can confidently say that future hardware will run this game just fine. And hey, these 6fps look awesome, can you imagine if it were full-speed??
You don't have to have tomorrow's hardware to guess how powerful it will be and scale your models/code appropriately.
Doug
What country/world do you live in?? You're really contemplating the possibility that the Chinese government is going to hunt you down, "snatch" you away, and do horrible things to you?
Listen, America has a number of problems, but keeping its citizens safe from foreign aggression while on their own soil is not one of them. And I'm including "terrorism", even though that's not remotely the point here.
Furthermore, "...the United States (US) lacks extradition treaties with over fifty nations, including the People's Republic of China and North Korea." So even if they asked the US politely to hand you over, our government would just laugh at them.
How paranoid do you have to be to think that not only is the government of China going to notice you, but send somebody over to get you? Wow.
Doug
Doug's tip: Put the DVD in the player, say, when you get home from work and/or when you decide you'll be watching the movie. Leave the TV off, and go do something else. When you come back later, turn the TV on, and you'll magically be at the DVD's menu.
"Forced"... I agree, it's stupid, but you're hardly forced to watch it. Go fix the popcorn, or play a game, or make out with your SO... think out of the box, people.
Doug
Not to be mean, but I can't believe this didn't get modded as a troll. I use 1-Click all the time on Amazon; why not? See, the trick is, you can set all the info up and double and triple check it all, and then never have to check again. That's the whole point, to give relief to people like you.
As for the order itself... you have 90 minutes to add new things to a 1-Click order, or go in and check the order to make sure it's correct, or modify or cancel it. I do that every time, myself. But I know the payment and shipping stuff is already correct, so I don't even have to look at that.
Doug