I can't believe DC or Marvel would compromise artistic integrity for a buck.
They're businesses. That's written into the Mission Statement.
Right under where it says, "Will sell out for money"
I kinda wonder if this is going to be like Lucas did with Star Wars.. in a few years another line will begin with the After Watchmen and then the Pre-Before Watchmen and like that there, culminating with factions of fans split between which was better before or after reimaginings of everything.
I can't believe DC or Marvel would compromise artistic integrity for a buck.
Well done. Great use of sarcasm.
When I look at my two cartons of classic comic books which are worth about nil, thanks to their reprinting of comics, I realize you can never again look at them as something which could be considered 'investment' ever again. Buy 'em if you like them, but don't expect to get anything for Issue #1 or the Special Series or even the one where ____ kills off _____. Because they'll have them all re-printed and bound for people who want to just buy the whole collection in one volume.
Don't be absurd! Nothing sells better to a changing, increasingly diverse market than taking your old formula and pushing it to extremes that no one has asked for! It works for celebrities and reality television!
Television viewers, for the most part, are not buying individual issues - they are tuned into a show and either watch it or not, or the network drops it due to ratings.
Comics have been becoming a parody unto themselves. All this seriousness... geez. It's like Soap Opera in graphical format. I expect even Comic Book Guy has to be wondering at some point where the magic went when it left comics.
Didn't really care much for Watchmen - I felt it didn't live up to expectations. Sounds like DC is thrashing around trying to find a new readership/revenue stream.
Apple does`nt want to play nice? I`ll set them right up there on the shelf next to the eight-track player. Besides, now that Jobs is gone, Apple is just circling the drain. They all but abandoned their notebooks to chase iPhone and iPad sales. Give it a couple of years. It`ll be "Apple who?"
Considering the % of their revenue coming from non-personal computers, I'm surprised they haven't abandoned them. But to pick up the revenue they'd sacrifice they'll need to find a new market nitch to exploit. Better think fast or Samsung will invent it first.
"Stop thinking of software as an asset, and start thinking of it as you think about paper and pens," White said. Astonishingly, he then added, "It may require huge changes in your accounting procedures."
So you think because a few million people run Apps that the entire corporate infrastructure, the existing mainframe, unix, windows, and linux systems, and EVERYTHING ELSE is going to change to make ROOM for Apple in the enterprise?
Sir, you SERIOUSLY underestimate your importance to North American enterprises. Even Microsoft isn't that ignorant of their REAL place in the IT industry.
I think the iPhone has an app for Enterprise Payroll...
Who is responsible for the kill, the guy pulling the trigger or the guy pressing the button on the laser?
Does it have to be one or the other? Besides, aren't they likely to be the same person? Or more likely, one person designating a target on a computer - the computer then making sure that the laser stays point at the target, and the bullet making sure that it stays pointed at the laser dot.
Just have the target wearing a suit covered with bits of mirror and he/she is safe. I see this as a coming fad amond despots...
Where's the Tom Selleck slashdot icon when you need it
Thinking of Quigley Down Under, myself. See guy running away. Prop rifle on a rock. Fiddle with site. Look through it at guy still running away. Pull trigger. Guy still running.. still running.. then falls down.
A fancy new way to kill people. Great. Maybe we should invest some of the R&D money spent on this pointless project and fund medical research or a space program that isn't humiliating.
Really neat development.. in the country which has had 4 presidential assassinations and a few unsuccessful attempts.
Pass a new law: It is illegal to shoot the President with this bullet, this action may result in fine, imprisonment or both.
Of course, the laser (even IR) will give away the spotter's position. This is no sniper weapon. I wonder, then, what applications the technology does have.
So don't be all day about it - aim and fire and let the bullet do the rest of the work, that's what it's for.
And the "store brands" will be shite on a crusty roll. look at the Best Buy "exclusive" computers, they are the lowest POS garbage that any OEM can scrape together, every part of them is crap from the caps to the plastic. it won't take long for people to realize the ones that can "only be found here" will be the junk piles, like those BB and Staples "exclusive" laptops where they stick some desktop CPU like a bottom of the line Celeron or Pentium in a cheap laptop and pass it off as a good deal.
The best way is to not try to make funky store brands but to simply offer incentives to buy. When my oldest needed a laptop right that minute for class after the old Dell gave up the ghost he went to two local stores, the Staples and Best buy. The Staples were doing nothing but bait and switch, every model he would look at on the floor was magically out of stock but they could get him 'something similar' for a $300 markup, instead we went to the local BB and when they saw he was comparing prices the floor guy said "I'll throw in a bookbag and cleaning kit" and sealed the deal. Later when we checked online they sold it to him within $40 of the average price and the bookbag made up for the difference so we were happy.
So you can still make the sale in retail, simply offer the customer a good deal. I went amazon for my netbook, not because i had something against the local shops, but all they had were Atom crap and i wanted an AMD, now i go into the local shops like Walmart and best buy and i see they have quite a lot of nice AMD Fusion based so if i needed another one I could be tempted if they throw in a little swag or offer a decent price. The local staples still sucks though, last time I went in there with a customer who wanted me there to help decide on some monitors for his business what did i see? same old bait and switch BS. I got so disgusted that even though the BB is 35 miles away i said 'Hop in my truck and we'll get you some monitors". treat the customer right they'll buy, try to screw 'em and watch those sales walk out the door, its really that simple. that customer spent nearly a grand on monitors that day and those sales COULD have been Staples if they wouldn't have tried to screw him. I can't bitch too much about their douchebag tactics though, the customer was so impressed i was trying to keep him from getting ripped off he bought an extra 22 inch and handed it to me for my trouble as well as threw $2000 worth of business my way building the machines for his office. So I guess i should thank Staples for being douches, it certainly made me look better by comparison.
So you judge all stores by the lousy business practices of a few? I remember a chain of electronics stores which wouldn't give you your money back, but exchange or give store credit. They had such a horrible reputation the complaints were legion - oddly enough that chain is Frys and they're going as strong as every, despite quite probably being on the BBB's double-black-with-underscores-list for past practices.
Some chains pull it off and others don't. I think you can find a number of chains with poor reputations, but a number who have done something well and thrive because of it.
Look at Trader Joe's. Sure, you can buy all that stuff elsewhere but it's cheaper because it's a "house brand." If Target can do this, more power to 'em.
Trader Joe's works because they are very focused on the quality of the goods from their suppliers - if the stuff gets too many complaints, it's gone and they look for a new supplier. I must spend half my food money at TJ's simply because the food and produce are always top-notch. If the big supermarket chains had the same attention to detail TJ's had there never would have been a TJ's.
It's not VoIP calls that are the cited problem, it's the periodic signals when it's not in use that tell the server, "Hey, I'm still here!"
If that's indeed the case, it is understandable - it's like some idiot calling you up and then telling you to stay on the line while they get around to you. I've had telemarketers do this (yeah, I know about the Do Not Call List, and so do they -- they're choosing to flaunt it) because they dial a bunch of numbers at once, then respond to the first one that picked up.
Probably a good engineering way around it - could also be NTT DoCoMo doesn't want to put any money into upgrading their network.
I do the opposite of what this article suggests. I'll look up reviews or whatever online, and instead of waiting around for shipping I go out and buy it. I've even done this with Target.
If they stop carrying these products, then I will never be buying from them, since they'll have nothing I want to buy.
Quite a few items I'll buy locally rather than on-line. The reason being - if it breaks or is received DOA or not as described I can take it right back. I've had to return items to online sellers and it's lots of fun waiting about 3 weeks for the item to get replaced or refunded.
This will work for a few weeks before people simply look up the equivalent part numbers. Sears tried this already. It sucked, made headaches, and didn't help the problem at all.
This was once the way Montgomery Ward, Sears, J.C. Penney and other stores operated. There were certain products you could only get with their brand name on it. Sure, other stores would have something similar but you went on the quality reputation of the store you saw it in. Also gives them a bit of a leg up against copy-cats.
Down-side and reality-check: Most stuff is being made in China, Thailand, Vietname, Bangladesh, etc. so they're passing the 'savings' on to the buyer and the consumer as well, by selling to all comers, rather than just one chain of stores. Further, China has a rotten track-record of selling stuff out the back door - contract with a Chinese mill for 100,000 fuzzy pink sweaters and you can bet, once they've finished your order, since they're tooled up for this model, they'll be dumping another 50,000 out the back door to whoever wants to buy them, no questions asked.
Up to the Moon landings people were driven by the spirit of discovery. With most of the earth known and a Moon landing having found the true nature of the body (i.e. not Cheese, not dust, not ice,...), there's not much else driving exploration. Sure, there's Mars, but ask the common person to point to the Moon and they readily will, ask them to point to Mars and they'll not even know if it is in the night sky, at the present, let along where it is.
The Space Program also lead to a voyage of scientific discovery. Many materials and processes were discovered out of necessity, which really did lead to a massive boom in consumer products and medicine. Perhaps this is what n00t is after, kickstart the ol' 'merkin economy with an infusion of government cash into laboratories to develop the next space suit, rocket drive, solar shielding, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
I can't believe DC or Marvel would compromise artistic integrity for a buck.
They're businesses. That's written into the Mission Statement.
Right under where it says, "Will sell out for money"
I kinda wonder if this is going to be like Lucas did with Star Wars .. in a few years another line will begin with the After Watchmen and then the Pre-Before Watchmen and like that there, culminating with factions of fans split between which was better before or after reimaginings of everything.
No doubt. Mad hermits always have useful dialog. They are just so hard to find.
I think every character Alan Moore writes is autobiographical, in a Walter Mitty-esque way.
and if I were Superman when Superman gets old I'll be like this ...
as if the first movie didn't suck enough. If you haven't read the comics, you should. The movie does the comic books no justice at all.
Bad movies don't matter. They'll just reboot and try again in a few years. The public apparently doesn't notice.
I can't believe DC or Marvel would compromise artistic integrity for a buck.
Well done. Great use of sarcasm.
When I look at my two cartons of classic comic books which are worth about nil, thanks to their reprinting of comics, I realize you can never again look at them as something which could be considered 'investment' ever again. Buy 'em if you like them, but don't expect to get anything for Issue #1 or the Special Series or even the one where ____ kills off _____. Because they'll have them all re-printed and bound for people who want to just buy the whole collection in one volume.
Thanks comic companies.
I can't wait to have Alan Moore sign my copy of Watchman Babies: V for Vacation!
Shouldn't that be: V for Vaccination?
Next up: Watchmen Babies - The Weening.
Don't be absurd! Nothing sells better to a changing, increasingly diverse market than taking your old formula and pushing it to extremes that no one has asked for! It works for celebrities and reality television!
Television viewers, for the most part, are not buying individual issues - they are tuned into a show and either watch it or not, or the network drops it due to ratings.
Comics have been becoming a parody unto themselves. All this seriousness... geez. It's like Soap Opera in graphical format. I expect even Comic Book Guy has to be wondering at some point where the magic went when it left comics.
Didn't really care much for Watchmen - I felt it didn't live up to expectations. Sounds like DC is thrashing around trying to find a new readership/revenue stream.
Apple does`nt want to play nice? I`ll set them right up there on the shelf next to the eight-track player. Besides, now that Jobs is gone, Apple is just circling the drain. They all but abandoned their notebooks to chase iPhone and iPad sales. Give it a couple of years. It`ll be "Apple who?"
Considering the % of their revenue coming from non-personal computers, I'm surprised they haven't abandoned them. But to pick up the revenue they'd sacrifice they'll need to find a new market nitch to exploit. Better think fast or Samsung will invent it first.
So you think because a few million people run Apps that the entire corporate infrastructure, the existing mainframe, unix, windows, and linux systems, and EVERYTHING ELSE is going to change to make ROOM for Apple in the enterprise?
Sir, you SERIOUSLY underestimate your importance to North American enterprises. Even Microsoft isn't that ignorant of their REAL place in the IT industry.
I think the iPhone has an app for Enterprise Payroll...
j/k
Who is responsible for the kill, the guy pulling the trigger or the guy pressing the button on the laser?
Does it have to be one or the other? Besides, aren't they likely to be the same person? Or more likely, one person designating a target on a computer - the computer then making sure that the laser stays point at the target, and the bullet making sure that it stays pointed at the laser dot.
Just have the target wearing a suit covered with bits of mirror and he/she is safe. I see this as a coming fad amond despots...
Back in the 1980's they failed to come to grips with what Business Users expected of a PC - thus Microsoft's fortunes were made.
Repeat?
If everything went metric we wouldn't have these problems.
The bullet is 10cm not 10in.
Well, that explains why we kept missing Mars when shooting at it...
But who would have thought that *snipers* of all people would have to worry about becoming obsolete due to new technology . . .
Next: a self-administering poison . . .
hawk
I'm thinking along the lines of .. you can make a rifle that fires a 10 inche laser guided bullet. Um. Why not just make a laser rifle?
Congratulations. You've invented the laser guided missile launcher.
*facepalm*
Nano-missile, thank you.
This is Slashdot, after all.
Where's the Tom Selleck slashdot icon when you need it
Thinking of Quigley Down Under, myself. See guy running away. Prop rifle on a rock. Fiddle with site. Look through it at guy still running away. Pull trigger. Guy still running .. still running .. then falls down.
A fancy new way to kill people. Great. Maybe we should invest some of the R&D money spent on this pointless project and fund medical research or a space program that isn't humiliating.
Really neat development .. in the country which has had 4 presidential assassinations and a few unsuccessful attempts.
Pass a new law: It is illegal to shoot the President with this bullet, this action may result in fine, imprisonment or both.
Of course, the laser (even IR) will give away the spotter's position. This is no sniper weapon. I wonder, then, what applications the technology does have.
So don't be all day about it - aim and fire and let the bullet do the rest of the work, that's what it's for.
Sounds more like a dart than a bullet.
The real trick is training the sharks to fire the rifles.
And the "store brands" will be shite on a crusty roll. look at the Best Buy "exclusive" computers, they are the lowest POS garbage that any OEM can scrape together, every part of them is crap from the caps to the plastic. it won't take long for people to realize the ones that can "only be found here" will be the junk piles, like those BB and Staples "exclusive" laptops where they stick some desktop CPU like a bottom of the line Celeron or Pentium in a cheap laptop and pass it off as a good deal.
The best way is to not try to make funky store brands but to simply offer incentives to buy. When my oldest needed a laptop right that minute for class after the old Dell gave up the ghost he went to two local stores, the Staples and Best buy. The Staples were doing nothing but bait and switch, every model he would look at on the floor was magically out of stock but they could get him 'something similar' for a $300 markup, instead we went to the local BB and when they saw he was comparing prices the floor guy said "I'll throw in a bookbag and cleaning kit" and sealed the deal. Later when we checked online they sold it to him within $40 of the average price and the bookbag made up for the difference so we were happy.
So you can still make the sale in retail, simply offer the customer a good deal. I went amazon for my netbook, not because i had something against the local shops, but all they had were Atom crap and i wanted an AMD, now i go into the local shops like Walmart and best buy and i see they have quite a lot of nice AMD Fusion based so if i needed another one I could be tempted if they throw in a little swag or offer a decent price. The local staples still sucks though, last time I went in there with a customer who wanted me there to help decide on some monitors for his business what did i see? same old bait and switch BS. I got so disgusted that even though the BB is 35 miles away i said 'Hop in my truck and we'll get you some monitors". treat the customer right they'll buy, try to screw 'em and watch those sales walk out the door, its really that simple. that customer spent nearly a grand on monitors that day and those sales COULD have been Staples if they wouldn't have tried to screw him. I can't bitch too much about their douchebag tactics though, the customer was so impressed i was trying to keep him from getting ripped off he bought an extra 22 inch and handed it to me for my trouble as well as threw $2000 worth of business my way building the machines for his office. So I guess i should thank Staples for being douches, it certainly made me look better by comparison.
So you judge all stores by the lousy business practices of a few? I remember a chain of electronics stores which wouldn't give you your money back, but exchange or give store credit. They had such a horrible reputation the complaints were legion - oddly enough that chain is Frys and they're going as strong as every, despite quite probably being on the BBB's double-black-with-underscores-list for past practices.
Some chains pull it off and others don't. I think you can find a number of chains with poor reputations, but a number who have done something well and thrive because of it.
Look at Trader Joe's. Sure, you can buy all that stuff elsewhere but it's cheaper because it's a "house brand." If Target can do this, more power to 'em.
This strategy doesn't have to suck as much as the Sears-branded Atari 2600.
Trader Joe's works because they are very focused on the quality of the goods from their suppliers - if the stuff gets too many complaints, it's gone and they look for a new supplier. I must spend half my food money at TJ's simply because the food and produce are always top-notch. If the big supermarket chains had the same attention to detail TJ's had there never would have been a TJ's.
It rings a bell for two things: Atari and the hacker magazine.
I wonder if there's a connection somewhere ;)
It's not VoIP calls that are the cited problem, it's the periodic signals when it's not in use that tell the server, "Hey, I'm still here!"
If that's indeed the case, it is understandable - it's like some idiot calling you up and then telling you to stay on the line while they get around to you. I've had telemarketers do this (yeah, I know about the Do Not Call List, and so do they -- they're choosing to flaunt it) because they dial a bunch of numbers at once, then respond to the first one that picked up.
Probably a good engineering way around it - could also be NTT DoCoMo doesn't want to put any money into upgrading their network.
I do the opposite of what this article suggests. I'll look up reviews or whatever online, and instead of waiting around for shipping I go out and buy it. I've even done this with Target.
If they stop carrying these products, then I will never be buying from them, since they'll have nothing I want to buy.
Quite a few items I'll buy locally rather than on-line. The reason being - if it breaks or is received DOA or not as described I can take it right back. I've had to return items to online sellers and it's lots of fun waiting about 3 weeks for the item to get replaced or refunded.
This will work for a few weeks before people simply look up the equivalent part numbers. Sears tried this already. It sucked, made headaches, and didn't help the problem at all.
This was once the way Montgomery Ward, Sears, J.C. Penney and other stores operated. There were certain products you could only get with their brand name on it. Sure, other stores would have something similar but you went on the quality reputation of the store you saw it in. Also gives them a bit of a leg up against copy-cats.
Down-side and reality-check: Most stuff is being made in China, Thailand, Vietname, Bangladesh, etc. so they're passing the 'savings' on to the buyer and the consumer as well, by selling to all comers, rather than just one chain of stores. Further, China has a rotten track-record of selling stuff out the back door - contract with a Chinese mill for 100,000 fuzzy pink sweaters and you can bet, once they've finished your order, since they're tooled up for this model, they'll be dumping another 50,000 out the back door to whoever wants to buy them, no questions asked.
Best of luck to them with that.
Up to the Moon landings people were driven by the spirit of discovery. With most of the earth known and a Moon landing having found the true nature of the body (i.e. not Cheese, not dust, not ice, ...), there's not much else driving exploration. Sure, there's Mars, but ask the common person to point to the Moon and they readily will, ask them to point to Mars and they'll not even know if it is in the night sky, at the present, let along where it is.
The Space Program also lead to a voyage of scientific discovery. Many materials and processes were discovered out of necessity, which really did lead to a massive boom in consumer products and medicine. Perhaps this is what n00t is after, kickstart the ol' 'merkin economy with an infusion of government cash into laboratories to develop the next space suit, rocket drive, solar shielding, etc.