Just never use your seller account to buy. No one cares about negative feedback for a buyer, so you're free to leave whatever feedback is appropriate without fear of retaliation.
True, but you talk about it like it was some Series 1 relic from the past. The last day you could buy a Lifetime sub was April 15th, less than a week ago.
Not only does Microsoft actually have a large Linux lab the lab has contributed to at least one GPL'd project, GAIM. MS has appears to have made an exception to the MS developers can't even look at GPL'd code" policy, for good business reason. I'll bet it still applies to devs outside that department though.
A TiVo works like a VCR if you don't have a subscription - you need to tell it what channel to records, and when to start and stop. But it doesn't stop working altogether and turn into a paperweight.
No, actually it does stop working and turn into a paperweight (known as "boat anchor mode"). Only the first of the Series 1s would function without a subscription. The later upgrades and all Series 2s don't function at all beyond LiveTV and "trick play" without a subscription. The only other option is "TiVo Basic", which is included with the TiVos with built in DVD burners.
People who buy the cube tend to do so to pick up nintendo 1st party titles and ignore everything else
That's because that's where Nintendo stands out. When I choose which platform to buy a game for I use basically two broad criteria. Cost and "experience" (platform fanboyism isn't one). If a game is cheaper for one of the platforms I'll get it for that one, unless it's significantly "less good" (such as no online). Cost being equal I'll then choose the game that gives me the best experience. This is subjective, of course, but I think in general the XBox gives the best overall experience. The graphics tend to be the best of the three and the online is undoubtedly best. Therefore, all else being equal I'll choose the XBox version, then the GC version (slightly better than the PS2 graphically and in load times), then the PS2 version. However, since hardly any games (are there any at all?) are GC/PS2 only I end up with the XBox version for the cross platforms, and the PS2 and GC versions for games exclusive to those platforms. (Of course, this is thrown off by games I got really cheap, but those tend to be PS2 versions). It ends up that the only reason I have Nintendo versions is because they're from when I only had a GC (it was my first current gen) or they're GC exclusives.
1. Unless you come up with some way to retroactively tell the difference, if it can run legitimate Dreamcast discs, it can read CD-Rs.
It's trivially easy to detect recordable media in hardware.
2. Some Dreamcast games were written for WinCE, which means emulation or having to shell out $$$ for a license
Hardly any games used WinCE. Regardless, it's not like the Dreamcast has WinCE embedded so licensing is not an issue. The GD-ROM is a ready to run game, built with WinCE or not.
Perhaps one reason why they [Wal-Mart] aren't pushing it so hard.
Wal-Mart is the driving focus in retail RFID adoption. No one is pushing harder for it than them in the retail space. Back in 2003 they mandated that their top 100 suppliers all need to using RFID by January 2005. While it looks like many won't make that date, it's still far more than would have adopted it otherwise.
The shuttle's issues come from politics and beauocracy, rather than callousness and unconcern. Look what happenes when there's a shuttle accident, and compare that to the reactions to accidents in the old Soviet Union. China seems to be going down the same road, with the handling of the recent Long March accident.
I'm not talking about the cosmonauts. I'm talking about the "little people" on the ground. Plesetek was the site of at least 3 fatal accidents, one of them a Soyuz explosion that killed at least 50 people. There was also the Nedelin disaster that killed 126 people. Although that was later discovered to be an ICBM accident rather than a rocket the concepts are very much the same. The Soviet system being what it was, I don't think those people had too much choice in their jobs. When you have to apply for a permit to get a new apartment or move between towns your options are rather limited.
I don't think anyone knows about HD CRTs. Seriously. I never see them, and no one seems that interested in selling them. When people think "old school" big screen they think projection. CRTs may in fact be a good option, but it seems a bit late to start that push now.
Not in the US they don't:
"Likewise, the rental right exception does not extend to computer programs used or embodied "in connection with a limited purpose computer that is designed for playing video games and may be designed for other purposes."
This applies to tapes and DVDs as well. The only exceptions to the First Sale Doctrine currently are the rental of computer software and pre-recorded music. Most people are confused by this because of the old practice of "priced for rental" videotapes. A priced for rental tape would cost $75-100 or more, which of course the video store would have to pay or else not have new releases in stock. This was the same price everyone would have to pay if they wanted to buy it, hence the "priced for rental" and "priced to own" terminology.
No one is arguing that costs come down eventually. But saying "within the next year or two you won't be able to get a standard TV" is ridiculous. Costs may be coming down relatively fast on HDTVs, but the absolute cost is still quite high. DVD players aren't a very good comparison. I bought my first DVD player in 1998 for $250 (Philips 825). Now they're cheaper than VCRs. The sweet spot to swing adoption was when they dropped below $100 and were competive with good VCRs. HDTVs need to drop to that sweet spot too. Not below $100 obviously, but competitive with good CRT TVs. They still need more than a few years to do that.
The latest Walmart flyer has brand-name HD sets starting at $500 US (with built-in tuners.)
Those are tiny "HD-ready" LCD panels. You'll need to buy an HD box at another $200+. Not to mention 17-23" is hardly an acceptable size for a main viewing room for most people. Once you get into an acceptable size (say 26-30") panel you're looking at $900, and that doesn't include the $200 box.
Projection TVs are an option, but they start around $1000 as well. You're really not getting into HDTV for less than a grand.
Because a main viewing room size HDTV costs $1000+ and a decent CRT costs $200-300. In a few years when I "must" have an HDTV they'll be at least $2-300 cheaper. Sure, I'd love to have an HDTV now, but if my main TV were to die today I'd replace it with another CRT. I simply can't afford an HDTV right now.
As for not even being able to in 1-2 years, not likely. People have been saying that for years now and it's just not happening. They're still far too expensive for a mass adoption.
You're not serious, are you? Fixed camera angles, linear gameplay, predictable action sequences.. this is what you consider the 'best game ever'?
Well, he did say one of the best games ever, not the best. Considering that it got 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 9.5 it's pretty hard to argue with that statement.
The Presidental Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor for heroism and blah blah blah
Where did you get that idea that it was for "heroism"?
SEC. 2. Award of the Medal. (a) The Medal may be awarded by the President as provided in this order to any person who has made an especially meritorious contribution to (1) the security or national interests of the United States, or (2) world peace, or (3) cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.
How do you find what you are looking for when the "phone book" is of no help?
Are you seriously proposing that typing "www.somerandomcompany" is a better and more reliable option for locating a given company's website than a search engine? All of your other situations already exist today, and certainly wouldn't be made worse.
Say, I want to go to the main Perl site. Which address should I type into my browser?
You're supposed to type in the correct one, of course. Why are you just guessing? Typing www.somebrandname.com is a convenience that marketers have jumped on, to be sure, but it's not how things were designed to work.
Is it perl.org.us? Why? Am I supposed to know who Larry Wall is and that he is an American?
It's whatever he chooses to register. All you're "supposed to know" is how to find the information you're looking for. It's like 800 numbers. People try to get 1-800-OUR-CORP but only one person can have that number, and it may have been of significance to someone else first. You wouldn't expect to pick up the phone and dial 1-800-DRG-STOR to refill your prescription, so you shouldn't expect to type www.perl.com to get to the language site. After all, some guy named Bob Perl might have registered it first. You'd pick up a phone directory to figure out what number to call, and you'd use a search engine to see what URL to visit.
Whichever channel you tell it to record on. That's how it works for the same network multiple times so I assume that's how it would work with other multiple inputs. I get two each of NBC and ABC stations, one from CT and one from western MA. All the shows are listed separately, when searching it will say "ER (22 WWLP)" and then "ER (30 WVIT)" for example. When you set up a Season Pass you set it by channel. If you get a Season Pass to ER it will be a Season Pass to ER on WVIT (or WWLP). If ER gets rescheduled on WVIT it will know if the guide is updated in time, but if there were the bizarre situation that WVIT didn't show ER one night (a local preemption, say) it wouldn't know to record it on WWLP instead.
My TiVo address is different than my Yahoo account (which I've never used for email at all). When I signed up it went through a Yahoo process where I entered my Yahoo info, forwarded to a TiVo page where I entered my TiVo info and then finalized back at Yahoo.
You can file locally to you, not them, even if they're in another state.
That's not necessarily true. In my state you can only sue an out of state defendant if they own property here. The party I was looking into suing was in Georgia, and you must sue where the defendent resides there too.
Choice doesn't matter much, you can get whatever you want online. It's going to make used games more expensive if Gamestop.com swallows ebgames.com. For years now you've been able to get 25% off and free shipping at EB Games with the combination of two coupon codes (15% off and free shipping) and your EB Edge card (another 10%). Gamestop only allows one coupon per order (either 15% or free shipping), and their discount card is not usable online. The price of used games just went up 25% for me.
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Just never use your seller account to buy. No one cares about negative feedback for a buyer, so you're free to leave whatever feedback is appropriate without fear of retaliation.
True, but you talk about it like it was some Series 1 relic from the past. The last day you could buy a Lifetime sub was April 15th, less than a week ago.
No, actually it does stop working and turn into a paperweight (known as "boat anchor mode"). Only the first of the Series 1s would function without a subscription. The later upgrades and all Series 2s don't function at all beyond LiveTV and "trick play" without a subscription. The only other option is "TiVo Basic", which is included with the TiVos with built in DVD burners.
That's because that's where Nintendo stands out. When I choose which platform to buy a game for I use basically two broad criteria. Cost and "experience" (platform fanboyism isn't one). If a game is cheaper for one of the platforms I'll get it for that one, unless it's significantly "less good" (such as no online). Cost being equal I'll then choose the game that gives me the best experience. This is subjective, of course, but I think in general the XBox gives the best overall experience. The graphics tend to be the best of the three and the online is undoubtedly best. Therefore, all else being equal I'll choose the XBox version, then the GC version (slightly better than the PS2 graphically and in load times), then the PS2 version. However, since hardly any games (are there any at all?) are GC/PS2 only I end up with the XBox version for the cross platforms, and the PS2 and GC versions for games exclusive to those platforms. (Of course, this is thrown off by games I got really cheap, but those tend to be PS2 versions). It ends up that the only reason I have Nintendo versions is because they're from when I only had a GC (it was my first current gen) or they're GC exclusives.
It's trivially easy to detect recordable media in hardware.
2. Some Dreamcast games were written for WinCE, which means emulation or having to shell out $$$ for a license
Hardly any games used WinCE. Regardless, it's not like the Dreamcast has WinCE embedded so licensing is not an issue. The GD-ROM is a ready to run game, built with WinCE or not.
Wal-Mart is the driving focus in retail RFID adoption. No one is pushing harder for it than them in the retail space. Back in 2003 they mandated that their top 100 suppliers all need to using RFID by January 2005. While it looks like many won't make that date, it's still far more than would have adopted it otherwise.
The shuttle's issues come from politics and beauocracy, rather than callousness and unconcern. Look what happenes when there's a shuttle accident, and compare that to the reactions to accidents in the old Soviet Union. China seems to be going down the same road, with the handling of the recent Long March accident.
I'm not talking about the cosmonauts. I'm talking about the "little people" on the ground. Plesetek was the site of at least 3 fatal accidents, one of them a Soyuz explosion that killed at least 50 people. There was also the Nedelin disaster that killed 126 people. Although that was later discovered to be an ICBM accident rather than a rocket the concepts are very much the same. The Soviet system being what it was, I don't think those people had too much choice in their jobs. When you have to apply for a permit to get a new apartment or move between towns your options are rather limited.
Don't forget a blatant disregard for safety and human life, that certainly made things easier.
Where did you get that idea?
Coming back into this late, sorry. Anyway it's about 80% of households in the US, and it's only increasing.
I don't think anyone knows about HD CRTs. Seriously. I never see them, and no one seems that interested in selling them. When people think "old school" big screen they think projection. CRTs may in fact be a good option, but it seems a bit late to start that push now.
http://www.rmslaw.com/articles/art65.htm
This applies to tapes and DVDs as well. The only exceptions to the First Sale Doctrine currently are the rental of computer software and pre-recorded music. Most people are confused by this because of the old practice of "priced for rental" videotapes. A priced for rental tape would cost $75-100 or more, which of course the video store would have to pay or else not have new releases in stock. This was the same price everyone would have to pay if they wanted to buy it, hence the "priced for rental" and "priced to own" terminology.
No one is arguing that costs come down eventually. But saying "within the next year or two you won't be able to get a standard TV" is ridiculous. Costs may be coming down relatively fast on HDTVs, but the absolute cost is still quite high. DVD players aren't a very good comparison. I bought my first DVD player in 1998 for $250 (Philips 825). Now they're cheaper than VCRs. The sweet spot to swing adoption was when they dropped below $100 and were competive with good VCRs. HDTVs need to drop to that sweet spot too. Not below $100 obviously, but competitive with good CRT TVs. They still need more than a few years to do that.
Projection TVs are an option, but they start around $1000 as well. You're really not getting into HDTV for less than a grand.
As for not even being able to in 1-2 years, not likely. People have been saying that for years now and it's just not happening. They're still far too expensive for a mass adoption.
Well, he did say one of the best games ever, not the best. Considering that it got 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 9.5 it's pretty hard to argue with that statement.
Where did you get that idea that it was for "heroism"?
Per Executive Order 11085, issued by JFK in 1963.Are you seriously proposing that typing "www.somerandomcompany" is a better and more reliable option for locating a given company's website than a search engine? All of your other situations already exist today, and certainly wouldn't be made worse.
You're supposed to type in the correct one, of course. Why are you just guessing? Typing www.somebrandname.com is a convenience that marketers have jumped on, to be sure, but it's not how things were designed to work.
Is it perl.org.us? Why? Am I supposed to know who Larry Wall is and that he is an American?
It's whatever he chooses to register. All you're "supposed to know" is how to find the information you're looking for. It's like 800 numbers. People try to get 1-800-OUR-CORP but only one person can have that number, and it may have been of significance to someone else first. You wouldn't expect to pick up the phone and dial 1-800-DRG-STOR to refill your prescription, so you shouldn't expect to type www.perl.com to get to the language site. After all, some guy named Bob Perl might have registered it first. You'd pick up a phone directory to figure out what number to call, and you'd use a search engine to see what URL to visit.
Whichever channel you tell it to record on. That's how it works for the same network multiple times so I assume that's how it would work with other multiple inputs. I get two each of NBC and ABC stations, one from CT and one from western MA. All the shows are listed separately, when searching it will say "ER (22 WWLP)" and then "ER (30 WVIT)" for example. When you set up a Season Pass you set it by channel. If you get a Season Pass to ER it will be a Season Pass to ER on WVIT (or WWLP). If ER gets rescheduled on WVIT it will know if the guide is updated in time, but if there were the bizarre situation that WVIT didn't show ER one night (a local preemption, say) it wouldn't know to record it on WWLP instead.
My TiVo address is different than my Yahoo account (which I've never used for email at all). When I signed up it went through a Yahoo process where I entered my Yahoo info, forwarded to a TiVo page where I entered my TiVo info and then finalized back at Yahoo.
That's not necessarily true. In my state you can only sue an out of state defendant if they own property here. The party I was looking into suing was in Georgia, and you must sue where the defendent resides there too.
Choice doesn't matter much, you can get whatever you want online. It's going to make used games more expensive if Gamestop.com swallows ebgames.com. For years now you've been able to get 25% off and free shipping at EB Games with the combination of two coupon codes (15% off and free shipping) and your EB Edge card (another 10%). Gamestop only allows one coupon per order (either 15% or free shipping), and their discount card is not usable online. The price of used games just went up 25% for me.