Yet again people see the word 'tax' and immediately jump to to the conclusion that everything for them (especially Americans) will suddenly cost more. In Canada our taxs are 45%, what do you guys have to complain about? Anyway, in conjuction with the first comment the EU is simply enforcing an already existing VAT tax standard. This is similar to the GST (Goods and Services Tax) we have here in Canada running at about 7%. The EU is trying to ensure that the proper taxes are being paid for. With online commerce the EU is simply protecting itself. My only big problem is the actual tax rate itself. The taxes on buying something online should not be greater than the taxes on buying it at a physical location. Perhaps even less due to the lessened value-added effects that are involed in electronic media. That is, we don't pay the value-added amounts as much, because there is less being using in their creation. Like, the value-added'ness' of CDs, or paper/covers on books and all those 'hidden' costs.
I've read Atlas' Shrugged, and I also read the article. We must realize that we are living in a society defined completely by material things. That is, our day to day life is molded by what we do, see, wear and eat. Ayn Rand was right, the coat-of-arms of today ARE these symbols. We are divided by symbols and their meaning. Looks at designers, religious symbols, gang symbols - all are means of defining who you are and who/what you choose to associate yourself with. Many of us associate ourselves with geek culture. Caffeine, hardware/software related tshirts - and other symbols that we use to define ourselves by. Just as many of the coat-of-arms represented common ideologies and themes, this holds true today. We use the unrelenting capitalism of our society to define ourselves by. We take these symbols from Mass Culture and adopt them into yourselves - Pop Culture. This semiotical discussion was brough to you by K.Moss, B. Gates, Linus. T and the big H. Anyone interested, John Fiske wrote a great article on semiotics, Pop Culture and Mass Culture and about all this iconography stuff. Try to find a copy online. It's worth the read. CM
After playing the Stress Test I really wonder about the quality of the final product. If Battle.net was unable to maintain 100,000 individuals in one section of the world, how will they perform when you have millions of users all over the world? Baring in mind that the server status has improved drastically in the past two weeks, is it really likely that Bnet will be able to support to proposed load? As for the graphics engine, I realize that the ST was limited by colour/detail to keep it small, but in comparison to other games... even Balder's Gate, the graphics are mediocre at best. I'm really intested to see how Direct3D/Glide is improved in the final copy. The best thing about D2 is Blizzard's striving to keep cheating out. Diablo I became extremely unfun when everyone was duping weapons and making it crappy for everyone else. I hope that D2 remains fair for as long as possible for everyone's enjoyment. -CM
Slashdot Mirror
Yet again people see the word 'tax' and immediately jump to to the conclusion that everything for them (especially Americans) will suddenly cost more. In Canada our taxs are 45%, what do you guys have to complain about? Anyway, in conjuction with the first comment the EU is simply enforcing an already existing VAT tax standard. This is similar to the GST (Goods and Services Tax) we have here in Canada running at about 7%. The EU is trying to ensure that the proper taxes are being paid for. With online commerce the EU is simply protecting itself. My only big problem is the actual tax rate itself. The taxes on buying something online should not be greater than the taxes on buying it at a physical location. Perhaps even less due to the lessened value-added effects that are involed in electronic media. That is, we don't pay the value-added amounts as much, because there is less being using in their creation. Like, the value-added'ness' of CDs, or paper/covers on books and all those 'hidden' costs.
I've read Atlas' Shrugged, and I also read the article. We must realize that we are living in a society defined completely by material things. That is, our day to day life is molded by what we do, see, wear and eat. Ayn Rand was right, the coat-of-arms of today ARE these symbols. We are divided by symbols and their meaning. Looks at designers, religious symbols, gang symbols - all are means of defining who you are and who/what you choose to associate yourself with. Many of us associate ourselves with geek culture. Caffeine, hardware/software related tshirts - and other symbols that we use to define ourselves by. Just as many of the coat-of-arms represented common ideologies and themes, this holds true today. We use the unrelenting capitalism of our society to define ourselves by. We take these symbols from Mass Culture and adopt them into yourselves - Pop Culture. This semiotical discussion was brough to you by K.Moss, B. Gates, Linus. T and the big H. Anyone interested, John Fiske wrote a great article on semiotics, Pop Culture and Mass Culture and about all this iconography stuff. Try to find a copy online. It's worth the read. CM
After playing the Stress Test I really wonder about the quality of the final product. If Battle.net was unable to maintain 100,000 individuals in one section of the world, how will they perform when you have millions of users all over the world? Baring in mind that the server status has improved drastically in the past two weeks, is it really likely that Bnet will be able to support to proposed load? As for the graphics engine, I realize that the ST was limited by colour/detail to keep it small, but in comparison to other games... even Balder's Gate, the graphics are mediocre at best. I'm really intested to see how Direct3D/Glide is improved in the final copy. The best thing about D2 is Blizzard's striving to keep cheating out. Diablo I became extremely unfun when everyone was duping weapons and making it crappy for everyone else. I hope that D2 remains fair for as long as possible for everyone's enjoyment. -CM