The ones at my best buy are racist and do not like helping whitey (seen it in action at least 3 times). Had one turn off the 'you can check out here light' then when 3 blacks showed up the light went back on.
Watch out, you might get a reply from some liberal saying that it's impossible for black people to be racist, or a more moderate one will say that they can't be "racist", and only "prejudiced".
Exactly; that 20-year thing is extreme hyperbole. Blockbuster's business model wasn't threatened at all until Netflix came about, and wasn't in in really serious turmoil until online video-on-demand services became popular.
Exactly my point! Even after we've had transporters and phasers for a while, and there's been a 5-year mission to explore the galaxy, we'll still have to wait until the Next Generation before we have a decent holodeck where you can't just walk into the walls.
I don't see the problem here. In such a case, you should be able to get it on Netflix or Amazon instant play. If not, then the idiot studio that made Hop is going to lose out, and either learn their lesson next year, or other studios will learn from them. There's tons of holiday movies on Netflix, so obviously someone's seen the light.
I'd like to have automated waiters, even in higher-end restaurants. Most waiters aren't that great; they take too long to refill your drinks or bring you things, and they mess up your order sometimes. I'd rather these things be done by automation.
Obviously, no one gives a shit about any of those factors, because Blockbuster is dead and Redbox and Netflix are doing great. People make fun of America's younger generations as being too impulsive and impatient, but apparently they're quite happy with waiting a few days for Netflix DVDs (for movies that aren't on instant play), or dealing with Redbox's lack of selection, and not at all willing to fork over $5 a pop for renting DVDs at a traditional store, whereas only here on Slashdot do I see people crying and moaning about the demise of Blockbuster. This is rather funny: apparently the vast majority of Americans are actually more forward-thinking and less old-fashioned than the Slashdot crowd. Even my 75-year-old mother, who's a happy customer of Netflix and gave up on Blockbuster ages ago, makes you guys look like a bunch of old codgers.
There is still no online replacement for being able to carry a pair of pants over to match them to a shirt.
It's a lot worse for women, which is probably why most men (esp. Slashdotters) don't understand: with men, it's fairly easy: all the colors are boring neutral colors like gray, and the sizes are very simple: S/M/L, or for pants, waist and inseam. Though even there, there can be a lot of variation: I wear a difference size of Levi's jeans depending on which style it is for instance. For women, it's much worse: the way the garment is cut makes a huge difference because there's several different measurements (waist, hips, bust, shoulders), and there's far more color involved for them, so matching things is much more important. With men, you just get the right size jeans and wear any shirt you like.
Here's what you said before: I miss being able to go down to a video store and rent a physical DVD/Blu-ray of the latest videos at a flat rate
Redbox has all the "latest videos", which to most people, colloquially means "all the latest Hollywood fare".
If you want indie stuff, that's what Netflix is for. If you want indie stuff right now, without a wait, then you need to buy it on Amazon or wherever, and pay for same-day or overnight UPS shipping since you're such a spoiled ass. Expecting the market to support thousands of stores nationwide to rent indie videos at absurdly high prices is unrealistic. Obviously, there's not enough people willing to pay for such a service to keep it afloat.
The first class letter service is not going to sustain the USPS at all, despite a few seniors. The real money for the USPS is in two places: junk mail (which is falling), and packages (which is rising). Their move to Sunday deliveries for Amazon is very smart, and a way to use their existing distribution network, which is far better and more efficient than UPS or Fedex.
From what I've seen in my attempts at shopping for clothes online, there's no savings to buying online at all. Instead, you can get good clothes much more cheaply by going to cheaper stores like Kohl's, or even Macy's, and then using the promotional coupons they frequently have for 15-20% savings.
Yep, Blockbuster was forced out of business by both Netflix/Amazon and, the final nail in the coffin, Redbox. Why spend $5 to rent a DVD from some big, overpriced store with annoying employees, when I can walk up to a big vending machine and rent the same video for $1?
Sears is dying because their products are mostly crap, except for electronics where they have the exact same problem that Best Buy does. Sears has long tried to be a big general store, with not only clothes, but electronics, tools, and appliances, and even auto care in some locations. They even used to sell computers back in the 80s and early 90s. That model doesn't really work now, especially for electronics.
Macy's and JCP don't have the same model. They mostly concentrate on clothing, plus homewares (kitchen stuff plus towels and bedding). They have the same model as Kohl's, which appears to be doing just fine. Clothing is much harder to do on the internet, because of two factors: 1) changing rooms, and 2) you can't feel a fabric from your computer screen. You could buy towels online, for instance, but you run a good risk of getting something with the plushness of a Super 8 Motel towel; you simply can't tell the difference from a JPEG photo. In a JCP or Kohl's store, you can look at all the towels they have and feel them in person to make your selection, and if you go to such a store now, you'll see that there's actually a pretty wide range of towels there varying greatly in price. They look the same from a distance, but feel them close-up and it's obvious why some cost 3 times as much as the cheapest ones. It's largely the same with clothing too.
Macy's does seem to be taking over in the mall anchor store market, but from what I can tell they're doing fine. The idea of them falling to internet sales seems rather ridiculous to me. What'll kill them is if someone invents holodecks where you can visit virtual stores but it really seems like you're there, and can look and feel everything. Obviously, this is Star Trek technology and isn't likely to happen for centuries (at least until we make first contact with the Vulcans, after inventing warp drive!), if ever. Heck, even worse, we have to invent transporters first! That's no easy feat. So unless some aliens break the Prime Directive and give us holodeck technology very soon, I think Macy's and the other clothing stores have nothing to fear (unlike Best Buy).
I never was a huge fan of Netflix going to the subscription system for DVD's. I miss being able to go down to a video store and rent a physical DVD/Blu-ray of the latest videos at a flat rate (with better video quality and all the great extra features that you don't get with streaming).
Don't care if some people don't have health care or education because they can't afford it? Free market is the way to go.
Think health care & education are important for a civilized, well-functioning society?
This is exactly what it all boils down to. And the answer is that a large portion of America's population, including people who can't afford decent healthcare or education, do not want these things to be given to all the citizens in our society. We're not going to be a civilized, well-functioning society as long as so much of our population has this mentality, and votes this way. The only way this will change will be to break the country apart, so that people with this mentality can be in their own country, and can enjoy turning into a 3rd-world society, while the rest of us can be free to implement decent governance for a change.
Actually, this is incorrect. Go back and look at the voting record for the 2006 bill. It was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, and it was cosponsored by two Democrats and 1 Republican.
To make a car analogy, it's like buying a Ford Pinto, and complaining about how it catches on fire, but then refusing to buy a different car, and continuing to buy more Pintos while whining about the gas tank problem.
Typical non-thoughtful, unhelpful sheep/fan-boy reply. So, I'm not allowed to complain when a package installed a component that I explicitly deselected? I'm not allowed to complain when a product force installs something unnecessary - something with network/tracking capability to boot - and/or automatically adds other things, like IE plugins (like the Office Sharepoint component does)?
Your complaining is simply whining. Do you really think MS gives two shits about your opinion? You think you're going to get them to not bundle crap you don't want, or not have tracking capability? You have two choices: use their stuff and put up with it, or don't use their stuff, and use something else instead.
I understand that even sipping the Kool-Aid has some consequences
Exactly. Either drink the kool-aid and accept the consequences, or do something different. It's not like there's no alternatives to MS software out there. Giving them money, and then whining about the crap they shovel to you, is not going to change anything; you're just enabling them and being a useful stooge.
That's Canada. Canada is a much, much smaller market than the US. The US will hang onto magstripe technology for decades, maybe more. Just look at how backwards our banking systems are here: people still use paper checks, there's no electronic funds transfer without huge fees, there's no real use of crypto, etc. Look at Europe to see what banking should be like; we in the US are at least a century away from getting that kind of technology, with the rate of change here.
The corporations aren't adopting any free alternatives to MS Office in any substantial numbers unfortunately, plus with MS's other enterprise software (Sharepoint, etc.) which is all integrated together, they have a lot of business computing pretty well locked-up.
MS has a lot more business software out there besides just Windows (desktop) and Office, and it's their focus on business use that keeps them so strong and profitable there: Windows Server, SQL Server, Sharepoint, Exchange/Outlook, Azure, etc. MS isn't making that much money in consumer markets, but their business markets are extremely profitable. They're losing lots of money because they keep futilely trying to make flashy consumer devices to compete with Apple, and losing at it: Xbox, Zune, Windows 8, WinPhone, Surface.
That's exactly my view as well. Nokia already had a lot of in-house engineering talent, working not only on old Symbian, but also on Maemo/Meego, which is fairly similar to Android (since they're both Linux-based). The Asian OEMs have been pretty bad at integreting Android with their hardware, loading their phones down with all kinds of buggy crapware and giving Android a reputation for instability and bugginess; this probably isn't too surprising since Asian companies in general seem to not do very well with software anyway. Nokia could have bested them on the software integration, and been the #1 Android phone maker.
Apparently most of the market disagrees with you because Symbian is dead, since not enough people shared your opinion to keep the company afloat using that OS.
Slashdot Mirror
Watch out, some liberals are going to respond here and tell you that Wall Street didn't commit any crimes and that you're full of shit.
But you'll never win, because Best Buy demands unique, exclusive model numbers from the manufacturers.
If you're reasonably intelligent, you will win: you'll leave Best Buy, go home, get on Amazon.com, and order model 12345A from them for $650.
Or, if you really want it locally, you can buy it from Costco too.
The ones at my best buy are racist and do not like helping whitey (seen it in action at least 3 times). Had one turn off the 'you can check out here light' then when 3 blacks showed up the light went back on.
Watch out, you might get a reply from some liberal saying that it's impossible for black people to be racist, or a more moderate one will say that they can't be "racist", and only "prejudiced".
Exactly; that 20-year thing is extreme hyperbole. Blockbuster's business model wasn't threatened at all until Netflix came about, and wasn't in in really serious turmoil until online video-on-demand services became popular.
Exactly my point! Even after we've had transporters and phasers for a while, and there's been a 5-year mission to explore the galaxy, we'll still have to wait until the Next Generation before we have a decent holodeck where you can't just walk into the walls.
I don't see the problem here. In such a case, you should be able to get it on Netflix or Amazon instant play. If not, then the idiot studio that made Hop is going to lose out, and either learn their lesson next year, or other studios will learn from them. There's tons of holiday movies on Netflix, so obviously someone's seen the light.
I'd like to have automated waiters, even in higher-end restaurants. Most waiters aren't that great; they take too long to refill your drinks or bring you things, and they mess up your order sometimes. I'd rather these things be done by automation.
Obviously, no one gives a shit about any of those factors, because Blockbuster is dead and Redbox and Netflix are doing great. People make fun of America's younger generations as being too impulsive and impatient, but apparently they're quite happy with waiting a few days for Netflix DVDs (for movies that aren't on instant play), or dealing with Redbox's lack of selection, and not at all willing to fork over $5 a pop for renting DVDs at a traditional store, whereas only here on Slashdot do I see people crying and moaning about the demise of Blockbuster. This is rather funny: apparently the vast majority of Americans are actually more forward-thinking and less old-fashioned than the Slashdot crowd. Even my 75-year-old mother, who's a happy customer of Netflix and gave up on Blockbuster ages ago, makes you guys look like a bunch of old codgers.
There is still no online replacement for being able to carry a pair of pants over to match them to a shirt.
It's a lot worse for women, which is probably why most men (esp. Slashdotters) don't understand: with men, it's fairly easy: all the colors are boring neutral colors like gray, and the sizes are very simple: S/M/L, or for pants, waist and inseam. Though even there, there can be a lot of variation: I wear a difference size of Levi's jeans depending on which style it is for instance. For women, it's much worse: the way the garment is cut makes a huge difference because there's several different measurements (waist, hips, bust, shoulders), and there's far more color involved for them, so matching things is much more important. With men, you just get the right size jeans and wear any shirt you like.
Here's what you said before:
I miss being able to go down to a video store and rent a physical DVD/Blu-ray of the latest videos at a flat rate
Redbox has all the "latest videos", which to most people, colloquially means "all the latest Hollywood fare".
If you want indie stuff, that's what Netflix is for. If you want indie stuff right now, without a wait, then you need to buy it on Amazon or wherever, and pay for same-day or overnight UPS shipping since you're such a spoiled ass. Expecting the market to support thousands of stores nationwide to rent indie videos at absurdly high prices is unrealistic. Obviously, there's not enough people willing to pay for such a service to keep it afloat.
The first class letter service is not going to sustain the USPS at all, despite a few seniors. The real money for the USPS is in two places: junk mail (which is falling), and packages (which is rising). Their move to Sunday deliveries for Amazon is very smart, and a way to use their existing distribution network, which is far better and more efficient than UPS or Fedex.
From what I've seen in my attempts at shopping for clothes online, there's no savings to buying online at all. Instead, you can get good clothes much more cheaply by going to cheaper stores like Kohl's, or even Macy's, and then using the promotional coupons they frequently have for 15-20% savings.
Yep, Blockbuster was forced out of business by both Netflix/Amazon and, the final nail in the coffin, Redbox. Why spend $5 to rent a DVD from some big, overpriced store with annoying employees, when I can walk up to a big vending machine and rent the same video for $1?
Sears is dying because their products are mostly crap, except for electronics where they have the exact same problem that Best Buy does. Sears has long tried to be a big general store, with not only clothes, but electronics, tools, and appliances, and even auto care in some locations. They even used to sell computers back in the 80s and early 90s. That model doesn't really work now, especially for electronics.
Macy's and JCP don't have the same model. They mostly concentrate on clothing, plus homewares (kitchen stuff plus towels and bedding). They have the same model as Kohl's, which appears to be doing just fine. Clothing is much harder to do on the internet, because of two factors: 1) changing rooms, and 2) you can't feel a fabric from your computer screen. You could buy towels online, for instance, but you run a good risk of getting something with the plushness of a Super 8 Motel towel; you simply can't tell the difference from a JPEG photo. In a JCP or Kohl's store, you can look at all the towels they have and feel them in person to make your selection, and if you go to such a store now, you'll see that there's actually a pretty wide range of towels there varying greatly in price. They look the same from a distance, but feel them close-up and it's obvious why some cost 3 times as much as the cheapest ones. It's largely the same with clothing too.
Macy's does seem to be taking over in the mall anchor store market, but from what I can tell they're doing fine. The idea of them falling to internet sales seems rather ridiculous to me. What'll kill them is if someone invents holodecks where you can visit virtual stores but it really seems like you're there, and can look and feel everything. Obviously, this is Star Trek technology and isn't likely to happen for centuries (at least until we make first contact with the Vulcans, after inventing warp drive!), if ever. Heck, even worse, we have to invent transporters first! That's no easy feat. So unless some aliens break the Prime Directive and give us holodeck technology very soon, I think Macy's and the other clothing stores have nothing to fear (unlike Best Buy).
I never was a huge fan of Netflix going to the subscription system for DVD's. I miss being able to go down to a video store and rent a physical DVD/Blu-ray of the latest videos at a flat rate (with better video quality and all the great extra features that you don't get with streaming).
Here's a clue for you: Redbox.
Don't care if some people don't have health care or education because they can't afford it? Free market is the way to go.
Think health care & education are important for a civilized, well-functioning society?
This is exactly what it all boils down to. And the answer is that a large portion of America's population, including people who can't afford decent healthcare or education, do not want these things to be given to all the citizens in our society. We're not going to be a civilized, well-functioning society as long as so much of our population has this mentality, and votes this way. The only way this will change will be to break the country apart, so that people with this mentality can be in their own country, and can enjoy turning into a 3rd-world society, while the rest of us can be free to implement decent governance for a change.
Actually, this is incorrect. Go back and look at the voting record for the 2006 bill. It was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, and it was cosponsored by two Democrats and 1 Republican.
And, the Postal carriers' union thinks it was a great bill
It boggles my mind why you would want to continue doing business with a company that treats you this way. You must be a glutton for punishment.
To make a car analogy, it's like buying a Ford Pinto, and complaining about how it catches on fire, but then refusing to buy a different car, and continuing to buy more Pintos while whining about the gas tank problem.
Typical non-thoughtful, unhelpful sheep/fan-boy reply. So, I'm not allowed to complain when a package installed a component that I explicitly deselected? I'm not allowed to complain when a product force installs something unnecessary - something with network/tracking capability to boot - and/or automatically adds other things, like IE plugins (like the Office Sharepoint component does)?
Your complaining is simply whining. Do you really think MS gives two shits about your opinion? You think you're going to get them to not bundle crap you don't want, or not have tracking capability? You have two choices: use their stuff and put up with it, or don't use their stuff, and use something else instead.
I understand that even sipping the Kool-Aid has some consequences
Exactly. Either drink the kool-aid and accept the consequences, or do something different. It's not like there's no alternatives to MS software out there. Giving them money, and then whining about the crap they shovel to you, is not going to change anything; you're just enabling them and being a useful stooge.
If you don't like MS's products, you're free to not buy them, and to use something different.
That's Canada. Canada is a much, much smaller market than the US. The US will hang onto magstripe technology for decades, maybe more. Just look at how backwards our banking systems are here: people still use paper checks, there's no electronic funds transfer without huge fees, there's no real use of crypto, etc. Look at Europe to see what banking should be like; we in the US are at least a century away from getting that kind of technology, with the rate of change here.
The corporations aren't adopting any free alternatives to MS Office in any substantial numbers unfortunately, plus with MS's other enterprise software (Sharepoint, etc.) which is all integrated together, they have a lot of business computing pretty well locked-up.
MS has a lot more business software out there besides just Windows (desktop) and Office, and it's their focus on business use that keeps them so strong and profitable there: Windows Server, SQL Server, Sharepoint, Exchange/Outlook, Azure, etc. MS isn't making that much money in consumer markets, but their business markets are extremely profitable. They're losing lots of money because they keep futilely trying to make flashy consumer devices to compete with Apple, and losing at it: Xbox, Zune, Windows 8, WinPhone, Surface.
That's exactly my view as well. Nokia already had a lot of in-house engineering talent, working not only on old Symbian, but also on Maemo/Meego, which is fairly similar to Android (since they're both Linux-based). The Asian OEMs have been pretty bad at integreting Android with their hardware, loading their phones down with all kinds of buggy crapware and giving Android a reputation for instability and bugginess; this probably isn't too surprising since Asian companies in general seem to not do very well with software anyway. Nokia could have bested them on the software integration, and been the #1 Android phone maker.
Apparently most of the market disagrees with you because Symbian is dead, since not enough people shared your opinion to keep the company afloat using that OS.