This isn't a question of who the majority of *buyers* are but who represents the larger overall potential revenue stream over time.
You and I as a casual RTS gamers are a one time revenue. We don't add much value back to the Blizzard/SC2. I've played maybe 80 hours total. OTOH, these other guys - the ones you think are being pandered to - these guys play the game for thousands/tens of thousands of hours. The top SC2 guys have literally played for thousands of hours - and the game's not even a year old yet. These guys conceivably represent a huge revenue stream that potentially dwarfs that of initial sales.
Hardcore SC2 players have the attitude that the single player campaign is the add-on to the "real game" which is the multiplayer and from most perspectives, they're right. Me, I got through one and a half playthroughs of single player before my interest ran out. I will probably never touch SC2 again. I paid 60 for the roughly 80 hours of entertainment. These other guys? They paid 60-100 (collector's edition) for the privilege of making Blizzard more money.
In complete agreement. As someone who sells/trades on eBay for obscure parts, so long as you're dealing with individuals, you're fine. When you start dealing with eBay companies that are selling NIB stuff is when you start getting junk.
Ars is all over the map in terms of quality. Ars science writing and engineering overviews are as good as it gets for educated lay audiences. Other stuff is above average, depending on who is doing the writing. Ars gaming content - meh. And the recent "Ask Ars" responses make me wonder about the editorial staff - articles that get basic transfer speeds of popular media wrong and confuse bits and bytes?
I read Ars almost every day but I don't have nearly the amount of respect for most of their non science content as I used to
That was exactly my point when I commented on this article yesterday on the site itself.
People are coming out of the woodwork screaming about fraud and astroturfing. No. Pretty much every single person who you'll find for this kind of gig is going to have an acting background on top of their day job. This is how the acting communities work. A handful of people out a hundred can make ends meet just by acting. The rest have to make ends meet by working day jobs. The overwhelming majority don't make much money at. Most move on after a period of time, but some of them plug away.
One of my best friends had (and still has) the acting bug. She lived in New York for a while after graduating. and managed to get quite a few small roles while waiting tables and tending bar. Eventually, she gave up it as a vocation (I think her parents bribed her) and now she's a lawyer. Still participates in community theater, still loves getting in front of the camera whenever she's given the opportunity. Just like every other actor who never made it as a professional actor.
And this is NYC we're talking about, for Taco's sake. CEO of a real estate company could describe a half dozen types of businesses that simply don't exist in most of the world.
Oh yeah, and those shows like Blind Date and their ilk? Half those people are actors, too. They're not acting in a role other than themselves for Blind Date. They're trying to get "exposure" or just jumped at the chance to get in front of a camera.
Of all the cockamamie REAL underhanded bullshit marketing tactics that big corporations pull every day, this is the one people are going to freak out about? GTFO.
That's the biggest issue with tablets at the moment - they cost too damned much money. It really is a ripoff. A tablet should be the same price as a netbook, but manufacturers are still in greed mode. They see Apple commanding stupid premiums for their device and they "compete" by pricing their devices similarly. There is absolutely no reason a decent tablet shouldn't cost $300 or less. There are already a few examples (e.g. Advent Vega is a Tegra 2 10" tablet for £250) but the brand names are still too expensive. Hopefully when the market is flooded with Android 3.0 devices the prices will become a bit more reasonable and competitive.
You don't know what you're talking about.
Even Samsung CE, part of the Samsung group that makes the touchscreen, SOC and flash that goes into an iPad can't make a feature equivalent tablet that's compete with Apple on price.
Low cost Android tablets are low cost because they use low cost components.
That's more or less right. If the bullets are flying in large quantities it's generally not hard to figure out where they're coming from, but if you've got one or two snipers taking potshots at your platoon, it can be quite difficult to find them. In those cases, the traditional method for locating the shooter involves the section/squad commander yelling "charlie team, take a bound!". This seems much safer.
Is that officers have an even safer and smarter way of determining the direction of incoming enemy fire: "Sergeant Duffy, go find me that sniper."
FLAC on your PMP and/or phone? Why? On what output devices are you listening to your FLAC on the go?
I used to have a script to manually downgrade my lossless audio for portable carry but now that iTunes does that for me as a per device option, I just let it do it automagically.
With USAA, the app tells me to write VOID across the front. It might also tell me to destroy the check, but I'm not sure. It certainly doesn't tell me to mail the thing in.
This guy didn't find proof of anything because he wasn't very good at what he was doing. Him and fifty other guys that SCO might have hired and had sign an NDA to look for incriminating evidence. One guy comes up with a false positive and the game's over as far as SCO's concerned. SCO has all the proof they need and has their expert witness and testimony. What are the other fifty guys going to do? They've signed an NDA and even if they break it, the stock response is, "That guy wasn't very good and/or negligent."
The biggest mistake SCO made, aside from starting this nonsense in the first place, was messing with IBM's legal department. Everyone knows you don't fuck with IBM lawyer's.
I can't believe we're still talking about this nonsense.
Okay, now I'm getting frustrated with your obstinacy. You've fallen into the same trap that you're accusing the FF devs of having failed into. You're making superficial arguments without understanding why things are changing and the process behind them.
I read your link and aside from the cute metaphor, doesn't say much of anything new, whether it be specifically to UI modes or human/organizational processes in general. Even it did contribute something new, it doesn't say much that is relevant to THIS discussion, which is about FF4b UI changes. Not Gnome. And FYI, the app centric versus window centric modes isn't something OS X does completely correctly, either. I suggest you site Google Daring Fireball for app centricity flaws of OS X going years back.
You have yet to bring up a single instance of a UI change that, to use your metaphor, indicative of cargo cult usability. The most immediate changes that make it similar to Chrome are changes FF should have made a long time ago and there have been workarounds for some time.
Since yesterday, I've been running a W7 VM to try out FF4b. It's good stuff. They're taking usability issues seriously and it is obvious, right from the get go. I don't enjoy coding anymore, nor do I like participating in dev lists. There was a time when I had the time but now I don't and even if I did, it don't float my boat anymore. The test pilot surveying is maybe a little overly cute, but the user interaction data they are gathering looks to be both good and relevant. I am looking at a fairly well organized series of studies that seem to be gathering a lot of relevant data, point by point. I'm going to let it record my actions for the next 7 days. I may switch back to FF4 for a week on other platforms as well.
For some reason, you've become frustrated with FF and have some type of hard-on against whatever it they're doing. People often get to this point in any relationship, where an action, any action is always annoying and indicative of a character flaw when the same action in a third party wouldn't be seen in the same light. You can return to rationality. We've all done it with other people, friends, wives, girlfriends, brothers, mothers, operating systems, desktop environments, computer games, and flippin' web browsers. Step back. Take a deep breath. Put some effort into being rational. You bring up some good points but you're also tilting at some windmills.
Slashdot Mirror
This isn't a question of who the majority of *buyers* are but who represents the larger overall potential revenue stream over time.
You and I as a casual RTS gamers are a one time revenue. We don't add much value back to the Blizzard/SC2. I've played maybe 80 hours total. OTOH, these other guys - the ones you think are being pandered to - these guys play the game for thousands/tens of thousands of hours. The top SC2 guys have literally played for thousands of hours - and the game's not even a year old yet. These guys conceivably represent a huge revenue stream that potentially dwarfs that of initial sales.
Hardcore SC2 players have the attitude that the single player campaign is the add-on to the "real game" which is the multiplayer and from most perspectives, they're right. Me, I got through one and a half playthroughs of single player before my interest ran out. I will probably never touch SC2 again. I paid 60 for the roughly 80 hours of entertainment. These other guys? They paid 60-100 (collector's edition) for the privilege of making Blizzard more money.
Which would you prioritize?
So, no. The US would not have "beaten the Soviets into space."
I thought it was an open secret that there were lost cosmonauts before Yuri Gagarin - he was just the first guy to make it back down.
In complete agreement. As someone who sells/trades on eBay for obscure parts, so long as you're dealing with individuals, you're fine. When you start dealing with eBay companies that are selling NIB stuff is when you start getting junk.
That said, I would never buy HDs off of eBay.
That's the first thought that occurred to me when I read "Glitter Boy" on /.
Ars is all over the map in terms of quality. Ars science writing and engineering overviews are as good as it gets for educated lay audiences. Other stuff is above average, depending on who is doing the writing. Ars gaming content - meh. And the recent "Ask Ars" responses make me wonder about the editorial staff - articles that get basic transfer speeds of popular media wrong and confuse bits and bytes?
I read Ars almost every day but I don't have nearly the amount of respect for most of their non science content as I used to
That was exactly my point when I commented on this article yesterday on the site itself.
People are coming out of the woodwork screaming about fraud and astroturfing. No. Pretty much every single person who you'll find for this kind of gig is going to have an acting background on top of their day job. This is how the acting communities work. A handful of people out a hundred can make ends meet just by acting. The rest have to make ends meet by working day jobs. The overwhelming majority don't make much money at. Most move on after a period of time, but some of them plug away.
One of my best friends had (and still has) the acting bug. She lived in New York for a while after graduating. and managed to get quite a few small roles while waiting tables and tending bar. Eventually, she gave up it as a vocation (I think her parents bribed her) and now she's a lawyer. Still participates in community theater, still loves getting in front of the camera whenever she's given the opportunity. Just like every other actor who never made it as a professional actor.
And this is NYC we're talking about, for Taco's sake. CEO of a real estate company could describe a half dozen types of businesses that simply don't exist in most of the world.
Oh yeah, and those shows like Blind Date and their ilk? Half those people are actors, too. They're not acting in a role other than themselves for Blind Date. They're trying to get "exposure" or just jumped at the chance to get in front of a camera.
Of all the cockamamie REAL underhanded bullshit marketing tactics that big corporations pull every day, this is the one people are going to freak out about? GTFO.
Actors with day jobs!
Look at the bio for the woman they link to. At the end, she actually is involved in some sort of travel "writing."
Samsung's twisting the truth, but of all the dirty, underhanded crap that the big boys pull, this ain't a big one.
Only if you mean the seeds of life yet to be left by the Great Old Ones.
You guessed right on the no cable front. Divested myself of that crap years ago. Don't miss it.
Watch out, here come the car analogies.
Fiat 500 > BMW 335
Ford 500 > Lexus 400
Mazda 626 > MB S550
Okay, I have to ask. What's the deal with this Bieber kid and why do people hate him so much?
That's the biggest issue with tablets at the moment - they cost too damned much money. It really is a ripoff. A tablet should be the same price as a netbook, but manufacturers are still in greed mode. They see Apple commanding stupid premiums for their device and they "compete" by pricing their devices similarly. There is absolutely no reason a decent tablet shouldn't cost $300 or less. There are already a few examples (e.g. Advent Vega is a Tegra 2 10" tablet for £250) but the brand names are still too expensive. Hopefully when the market is flooded with Android 3.0 devices the prices will become a bit more reasonable and competitive.
You don't know what you're talking about.
Even Samsung CE, part of the Samsung group that makes the touchscreen, SOC and flash that goes into an iPad can't make a feature equivalent tablet that's compete with Apple on price.
Low cost Android tablets are low cost because they use low cost components.
App update. Especially easy to do several hundred megs in less than an hour with the 20MB limit removed on IOS.
That's more or less right. If the bullets are flying in large quantities it's generally not hard to figure out where they're coming from, but if you've got one or two snipers taking potshots at your platoon, it can be quite difficult to find them. In those cases, the traditional method for locating the shooter involves the section/squad commander yelling "charlie team, take a bound!". This seems much safer.
Is that officers have an even safer and smarter way of determining the direction of incoming enemy fire: "Sergeant Duffy, go find me that sniper."
Haven't actually spent any time in any service, eh?
The most difficult part of any immediate action response to a sniper and/or many kinds of ambushes is determining where the fire is coming from.
Surprise! If you bought your car in the last 10 years, your car does in fact have several computers that do in fact control performance and mileage.
Tuning and/or tweaking ECUs is one of the first steps in car performance modification.
Slashdot used to link to OMM right on the front page, right next to the E2, Themes and Penny Arcade links.
FLAC on your PMP and/or phone? Why? On what output devices are you listening to your FLAC on the go?
I used to have a script to manually downgrade my lossless audio for portable carry but now that iTunes does that for me as a per device option, I just let it do it automagically.
Ah, to run out of mod points as I see this comment....
With USAA, the app tells me to write VOID across the front. It might also tell me to destroy the check, but I'm not sure. It certainly doesn't tell me to mail the thing in.
Maybe grad school.
Old school linux sucked.
This guy didn't find proof of anything because he wasn't very good at what he was doing. Him and fifty other guys that SCO might have hired and had sign an NDA to look for incriminating evidence. One guy comes up with a false positive and the game's over as far as SCO's concerned. SCO has all the proof they need and has their expert witness and testimony. What are the other fifty guys going to do? They've signed an NDA and even if they break it, the stock response is, "That guy wasn't very good and/or negligent."
The biggest mistake SCO made, aside from starting this nonsense in the first place, was messing with IBM's legal department. Everyone knows you don't fuck with IBM lawyer's.
I can't believe we're still talking about this nonsense.
Okay, now I'm getting frustrated with your obstinacy. You've fallen into the same trap that you're accusing the FF devs of having failed into. You're making superficial arguments without understanding why things are changing and the process behind them.
I read your link and aside from the cute metaphor, doesn't say much of anything new, whether it be specifically to UI modes or human/organizational processes in general. Even it did contribute something new, it doesn't say much that is relevant to THIS discussion, which is about FF4b UI changes. Not Gnome. And FYI, the app centric versus window centric modes isn't something OS X does completely correctly, either. I suggest you site Google Daring Fireball for app centricity flaws of OS X going years back.
You have yet to bring up a single instance of a UI change that, to use your metaphor, indicative of cargo cult usability. The most immediate changes that make it similar to Chrome are changes FF should have made a long time ago and there have been workarounds for some time.
Since yesterday, I've been running a W7 VM to try out FF4b. It's good stuff. They're taking usability issues seriously and it is obvious, right from the get go. I don't enjoy coding anymore, nor do I like participating in dev lists. There was a time when I had the time but now I don't and even if I did, it don't float my boat anymore. The test pilot surveying is maybe a little overly cute, but the user interaction data they are gathering looks to be both good and relevant. I am looking at a fairly well organized series of studies that seem to be gathering a lot of relevant data, point by point. I'm going to let it record my actions for the next 7 days. I may switch back to FF4 for a week on other platforms as well.
For some reason, you've become frustrated with FF and have some type of hard-on against whatever it they're doing. People often get to this point in any relationship, where an action, any action is always annoying and indicative of a character flaw when the same action in a third party wouldn't be seen in the same light. You can return to rationality. We've all done it with other people, friends, wives, girlfriends, brothers, mothers, operating systems, desktop environments, computer games, and flippin' web browsers. Step back. Take a deep breath. Put some effort into being rational. You bring up some good points but you're also tilting at some windmills.
In one post, you've managed to encapsulate a lot of what's wrong with modern political followership.
Question nothing. Follow the tribe. Abdicate your responsibility as a citizen. Hide inconvenient truths. Look the other way. Be a sheep.
Does that sound about right? Because that's what it sounds like you're saying.
You're durn right it's a trap!