Re:In a Corporatocracy, we're all just targets.
on
Clever Girl Bess
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· Score: 3
The problem is not explicitly that there are mass markets. (I like mass markets because it means cheap gear) The problem is that the mass markets snuff out niche markets, limiting choice. Choice good. No choice bad.
The wider problem is that capitalism is no longer about making money by building and selling valuable products, it's about making money by controlling and manipulating markets. (Yes, maybe I'm naive to think it was ever any different...leave me to my fantasies, thank you!)
In other words, I agree, and the problem's going to get worse before it gets better.
You're right, and single sourcing my link to the world scares me. However, I think it's going to be difficult to open up any given satellite network to competition. Unlike cable, launching more satellites doesn't entail tearing up city streets, it's just obscenely expensive, so it's not really open to the argument that there's a public resource being used here. (Yes, frequency spectrum is limited, but it's not THAT limited, especially for directional narrowcasts like this).
I don't know why you're buying all these dishes, but every one I've seen can do all of these things in one smallish dish (even local channels, which AFAIK are a no-cost option if you are outside a certain radius from the transmission tower).
So yes, it would be nice to get y'all out in the sticks wired (then I could move there! Yay!) but the problem with satellite is not quite as dire as you make it out to be.
(Cept for the latency, and that really sucks. Damn Einstein...)
Re:My Generation's "Kennedy was Shot" moment
on
The Challenger
·
· Score: 1
This might sound harsh, but it's not meant to be. Maybe he wasn't the "voice of a generation", maybe he was the voice of a number of otherwise disenfranchised individuals, and not so terribly important in the Grand Scheme.
Keep in mind that that doesn't mean 10% of the Slashdot readership is apathetic about the explosion. 10% of the people who composed their responses to the article in five minutes might be apathetic, but they'd have just said "first post" anyway, so who cares what (if?) they think?
In other words, no, it is not a sign of the state of Slashdot. It's an artifact of the fact that it takes time to compose a well-thought-out discussion post, but no time to say "BO-ring!".
They just didn't buy the license from Harmony Gold, the company Carl Macek set up to pimp anime in America. I was upset when I found out what they did to Robotech, and now I'm livid with what they're doing to the import toy market. (the Toycom Valkyires that aren't allowed to be imported) I'd LOVE to be able to buy a decent Valkyrie toy in the US, but Harmony Gold won't let anybody sell them, and won't sell them themselves.
When did capitalism stop being about selling products and start being about controlling markets?
Investment? You mean that out of court settlement to prevent Apple from hanging Microsoft out to dry on stolen QuickTime code? Kindof a funny investment, neh?
Apple's quarterly losses notwithstanding, the sales on the MessagePad 2100 were pretty strong. The 2100 was arguably the first really great Newton.
At the time Jobs came back to Apple, Newton, Inc. had been spun off into its own company. If I recall, Apple still had a large (perhaps controlling) interest in the company, but Newton, Inc. looked like it had a bright future ahead of it. So yes, since Jobs had to buy out the remainder of the Newton, Inc. stock and then close the company down, it sounds like it was pretty damn personal to me. Like running somebody over, then backing up...
Jobs has a nigh-pathological loathing for the Newton, since it was the pet project of John Sculley, the fellow who ushered Mr. Jobs out of the company he helped to found. Jobs is reputed to have said to the developers of the Newton "Apple makes computers. Computers have keyboards. Where's the keyboard?" even though a keyboard was an option for the Newton. So, if Jobs had anything to do with the Newton, it would have been even deader than it is now. He killed it pretty handily when he took the reins back at Infinite Loop.
If you think Ultra Magnus is cool, check out God Magnus, Super Fire Convoy, and God Magnus+Super Fire Convoy=God Fire Convoy.
Look here. GM is the blue one, SFC is the red one, and GFC is the really improbably large one at the bottom of the page.
One thing to say...WOW.
Pluto's out there thinking to itself "Who do those bastards think they are? I'll show you a planet, beeyotch!" and starts hurling comets from the Oort cloud. Damn scientists.
Because "Spectre" is too much like "Spook" and somebody called an African-American person spook once, and that person didn't like it. You can't win word games when you're playing against people who have already decided you're a racist because you're white (or Mormon or whatever). The irony of this conclusion is left as an exercise for the class.
I think he should have titled it "Shadow of the Hegemon: How I, Orson Scott Card, Being Of Sound Mind and Body Think Black People and Homosexuals Should Be Fed Into A Wood Chipper Like in Fargo Because I Don't Like Them". That would be nice and unambiguous.
Bah! Everybody knows there's only one story in RPG's. "Kill Foozle." Foozle is defined as that which needs to be killed. Foozle need not be Named at the beginning of the adventure, but it ain't over 'till Foozle is dead. Embellish as necessary.
Try James Joyce, "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". I've never read another book better described as a random string of words. Then again, doggerel also applies. Two great tastes that taste great together!
Every chapter, I wanted to tell him "Epiphany THIS, nelly boy!" God, I hated that book.
Wow, so you discovered that there are archetypal storytelling forms that don't seem to change much over time? And that storytellers actuall stick to them? Astounding. And pretty late to the game. Check out Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces" and discover that there aren't all that many stories to be told.
The story's framework is irrelevant to the story's quality. What draws me to a story is character interaction and development. And at that, Card is consistently displays his brilliance. Check out his book Enchantment (my favourite of his works...I liked it even better than Ender's Game!) for examples.
Decepticon tape recorder was SOUNDWAVE. Shockwave was the purple laser pistol. Soundwave (one of the best TF's ever...I loved the way his weapons could fit in his back just like batteries!) is apparently going to be reissued in Japan later this year. Yay!
100% original. He's not going to be imported by Hasbro, due to the laws you mention, but there are lots of companies who import cool Japanese toys at a non-trivial markup.
Just because something's marketed doesn't mean it sucks. The cartoon, and the toys, were of very good quality. Just because there were both doesn't mean both were bad. Take a deep breath and contemplate Jetfire's transformation sequence. You'll feel better.
Check out Tamiya's Mini-4wd line. It's a nice little car, a hell of a lot faster than the Stompers, and it's very reasonably priced (well under $10 for the base model). There's quite a scene around these cars...hop up kits and racing leagues abound. I think they're neat cars, but if I had a kid I'd probably get him/her one and let them use the hop-up kits to understand simple mechanical systems. Neat stuff.
Dude! You don't understand! They're TRANSFORMERS! And I don't have to bid on them only to get outbid by some pathetic little shit with a paper route and too much time on his hands refreshing e-bay like a speed-crazed ferret!
Don't have to get him on ebay. He's being reissued. You can pre-order him (and buy a bunch of the other TF2000 series, some are reissues, some I've never seen before, most are freakin' amazing) here.
Gobots were first in the US by a few months, but both had been selling in Japan for the better part of a year. I remember getting the vehicle that would become Trailblazer about five months before Transformers hit US shelves. If I'd only known what I'd had...I'd a kept the box. : )
They're also some brilliant engineering. First time I saw Starscream do his thing, I knew that I wanted to be an engineer when I grew up. I'm still working on the growing up part...but I still love my Transformers.
Think about it this way...it's far less weird than that sled that dude in Citizen Kane wanted...: )
And, if you compare the price to what these things are going for one-off on ebay, it's a bargain. I predict he's going to see the high side of $25k for the set.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem is not explicitly that there are mass markets. (I like mass markets because it means cheap gear) The problem is that the mass markets snuff out niche markets, limiting choice. Choice good. No choice bad.
The wider problem is that capitalism is no longer about making money by building and selling valuable products, it's about making money by controlling and manipulating markets. (Yes, maybe I'm naive to think it was ever any different...leave me to my fantasies, thank you!)
In other words, I agree, and the problem's going to get worse before it gets better.
You're right, and single sourcing my link to the world scares me. However, I think it's going to be difficult to open up any given satellite network to competition. Unlike cable, launching more satellites doesn't entail tearing up city streets, it's just obscenely expensive, so it's not really open to the argument that there's a public resource being used here. (Yes, frequency spectrum is limited, but it's not THAT limited, especially for directional narrowcasts like this).
So, basically, you're hosed. : )
I don't know why you're buying all these dishes, but every one I've seen can do all of these things in one smallish dish (even local channels, which AFAIK are a no-cost option if you are outside a certain radius from the transmission tower).
So yes, it would be nice to get y'all out in the sticks wired (then I could move there! Yay!) but the problem with satellite is not quite as dire as you make it out to be.
(Cept for the latency, and that really sucks. Damn Einstein...)
This might sound harsh, but it's not meant to be. Maybe he wasn't the "voice of a generation", maybe he was the voice of a number of otherwise disenfranchised individuals, and not so terribly important in the Grand Scheme.
Keep in mind that that doesn't mean 10% of the Slashdot readership is apathetic about the explosion. 10% of the people who composed their responses to the article in five minutes might be apathetic, but they'd have just said "first post" anyway, so who cares what (if?) they think?
In other words, no, it is not a sign of the state of Slashdot. It's an artifact of the fact that it takes time to compose a well-thought-out discussion post, but no time to say "BO-ring!".
buy license!=blatantly rip off.
They just didn't buy the license from Harmony Gold, the company Carl Macek set up to pimp anime in America. I was upset when I found out what they did to Robotech, and now I'm livid with what they're doing to the import toy market. (the Toycom Valkyires that aren't allowed to be imported) I'd LOVE to be able to buy a decent Valkyrie toy in the US, but Harmony Gold won't let anybody sell them, and won't sell them themselves.
When did capitalism stop being about selling products and start being about controlling markets?
Investment? You mean that out of court settlement to prevent Apple from hanging Microsoft out to dry on stolen QuickTime code? Kindof a funny investment, neh?
Apple's quarterly losses notwithstanding, the sales on the MessagePad 2100 were pretty strong. The 2100 was arguably the first really great Newton.
At the time Jobs came back to Apple, Newton, Inc. had been spun off into its own company. If I recall, Apple still had a large (perhaps controlling) interest in the company, but Newton, Inc. looked like it had a bright future ahead of it. So yes, since Jobs had to buy out the remainder of the Newton, Inc. stock and then close the company down, it sounds like it was pretty damn personal to me. Like running somebody over, then backing up...
Jobs has a nigh-pathological loathing for the Newton, since it was the pet project of John Sculley, the fellow who ushered Mr. Jobs out of the company he helped to found. Jobs is reputed to have said to the developers of the Newton "Apple makes computers. Computers have keyboards. Where's the keyboard?" even though a keyboard was an option for the Newton. So, if Jobs had anything to do with the Newton, it would have been even deader than it is now. He killed it pretty handily when he took the reins back at Infinite Loop.
If you think Ultra Magnus is cool, check out God Magnus, Super Fire Convoy, and God Magnus+Super Fire Convoy=God Fire Convoy. Look here. GM is the blue one, SFC is the red one, and GFC is the really improbably large one at the bottom of the page. One thing to say...WOW.
Pluto's out there thinking to itself "Who do those bastards think they are? I'll show you a planet, beeyotch!" and starts hurling comets from the Oort cloud. Damn scientists.
Because "Spectre" is too much like "Spook" and somebody called an African-American person spook once, and that person didn't like it. You can't win word games when you're playing against people who have already decided you're a racist because you're white (or Mormon or whatever). The irony of this conclusion is left as an exercise for the class.
I think he should have titled it "Shadow of the Hegemon: How I, Orson Scott Card, Being Of Sound Mind and Body Think Black People and Homosexuals Should Be Fed Into A Wood Chipper Like in Fargo Because I Don't Like Them". That would be nice and unambiguous.
Bah! Everybody knows there's only one story in RPG's. "Kill Foozle." Foozle is defined as that which needs to be killed. Foozle need not be Named at the beginning of the adventure, but it ain't over 'till Foozle is dead. Embellish as necessary.
Try James Joyce, "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". I've never read another book better described as a random string of words. Then again, doggerel also applies. Two great tastes that taste great together!
Every chapter, I wanted to tell him "Epiphany THIS, nelly boy!" God, I hated that book.
Wow, so you discovered that there are archetypal storytelling forms that don't seem to change much over time? And that storytellers actuall stick to them? Astounding. And pretty late to the game. Check out Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces" and discover that there aren't all that many stories to be told.
The story's framework is irrelevant to the story's quality. What draws me to a story is character interaction and development. And at that, Card is consistently displays his brilliance. Check out his book Enchantment (my favourite of his works...I liked it even better than Ender's Game!) for examples.
Decepticon tape recorder was SOUNDWAVE. Shockwave was the purple laser pistol. Soundwave (one of the best TF's ever...I loved the way his weapons could fit in his back just like batteries!) is apparently going to be reissued in Japan later this year. Yay!
100% original. He's not going to be imported by Hasbro, due to the laws you mention, but there are lots of companies who import cool Japanese toys at a non-trivial markup.
BUT you can buy the import, for a hell of a lot less than you'd pay on ebay for an original. Yay grey market importers!
Just because something's marketed doesn't mean it sucks. The cartoon, and the toys, were of very good quality. Just because there were both doesn't mean both were bad. Take a deep breath and contemplate Jetfire's transformation sequence. You'll feel better.
Check out Tamiya's Mini-4wd line. It's a nice little car, a hell of a lot faster than the Stompers, and it's very reasonably priced (well under $10 for the base model). There's quite a scene around these cars...hop up kits and racing leagues abound. I think they're neat cars, but if I had a kid I'd probably get him/her one and let them use the hop-up kits to understand simple mechanical systems. Neat stuff.
h tm
http://www.tamiya.com/america/MINI4WD/minikits.
http://www.mini4wdracer.com/
Dude! You don't understand! They're TRANSFORMERS! And I don't have to bid on them only to get outbid by some pathetic little shit with a paper route and too much time on his hands refreshing e-bay like a speed-crazed ferret!
*pant pant*
sorry. Got a bit carried away there.
Asked and answered. You can preorder here for delivery in June. Scroll down to find him.
Don't have to get him on ebay. He's being reissued. You can pre-order him (and buy a bunch of the other TF2000 series, some are reissues, some I've never seen before, most are freakin' amazing) here.
Gobots were first in the US by a few months, but both had been selling in Japan for the better part of a year. I remember getting the vehicle that would become Trailblazer about five months before Transformers hit US shelves. If I'd only known what I'd had...I'd a kept the box. : )
They're also some brilliant engineering. First time I saw Starscream do his thing, I knew that I wanted to be an engineer when I grew up. I'm still working on the growing up part...but I still love my Transformers.
Think about it this way...it's far less weird than that sled that dude in Citizen Kane wanted...: )
And, if you compare the price to what these things are going for one-off on ebay, it's a bargain. I predict he's going to see the high side of $25k for the set.