I would appreciate any feedback on my new metasearch engine, Zeedex.com. Zeedex suggests terms to help you narrow your search. The terms are submitted by people. Anyone can contribute lists of terms, edit other people's lists, and leave comments. It's like a wiki.
I wanted to make something that would help people who are new to a topic, or are looking to dig deeper into a topic.
Anyway, it's only been up about two months, and I would be grateful for any suggestions, thoughts, etc. There aren't a lot of lists there yet because the site is still so new, so please test it with either "computer" or "civil rights". And if you like it, please register and add some lists!
Can someone explain to me how dodgeball, or friendster, would actually bring in money? I don't think people are inclined to pay for these services, and I'm not sure that they're such an obvious advertising market.
How can a quantum computer be simulated by a normal computer? I'm missing something. I thought the whole point of building quantum computers was that they did work that regular computers were incapable of.
So this has to be a bad simulation. If this were a good simulation, there would be no point to building a qc. So why do we want a bad simulation?
legion is the biggest mmorpg in south korea. something like 10% of the country plays. in addition to the enormous amounts of time people play (on average, 20 hours a week) "player killers" also get beaten up in "rl". that's messed up.
What's not being taken into account is how the images are arranged. IE, even though the display can only show a finite number of possible images, there is an infinite number of ways in which those images can be sequenced, or related to one another spatially. So the same image can represent different things, depending on the images next to it.
By way of analogy, there are only ten digits, but there are infinitely many numbers.
Is everquest productive, in an economic sense?
on
EverQuest and the UN
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I find this whole notion of selling virtual crafts very strange. Very, very strange.
After all, we could do a reductio ad absurdem whereby there is no everquest online game. Instead, it would be economically the same if Tom just pays Joe 2$ to think of a sword.
Two questions to ask, if you're interested in economics.
1st: what good is an imaginary sword?
2nd: is everquest productive, in an economic sense?
Question #1.
Someone is creating an imaginary object, and someone else is buying this imaginary object. But the imaginary object can't ever be used, except in the imaginary game. From an economic sense, is any value being created? Well, yes, because it improves the leisure of whoever buys it. It makes his game experience more fun, so he recieves a value. And from his perspective, it might be worth paying for: dollars spent for better leisure. However--
Question #2: Is everquest productive, in an economic sense?
In other words, is society as a whole wealthier or more efficient after a virtual trade takes place? My thinking is, no.
Example: Joe spends 3 hours building an imaginary sword in the game, and then sells it to Tom for 2$. Tom feels that he has gotten a fair trade, because he values the three hours saved more than the two dollars spent. And Tom now has a valuable tool in the game. But it's an imaginary game! Jake, the person who runs the game, could just have easily given Tom a sword with no effort required. Or a million swords. Why should Tom pay Joe for effort that isn't really required? So from society's perspective, it seems like the 2$ has been spent uselessly. Money has been moved around, but society as a whole isn't any wealthier or more efficient.
Now, why is buying an imaginary sword with real money pointless, from a macroeconomic perspective? After all, stories are imaginary, but we pay for books. The reason his action in buying an imaginary sword is pointless is because the resource he's paying for may be valuable, but it isn't scarce. A book, on the other hand, is scarce, in that it has only one author. And only that author can think of that exact book. But anyone can think of a generic imaginary sword without any effort or time spent. Why should someone pay for a resource that's so abundant? As an analogy, look at oxygen. Very valuable, because we couldn't live without it, but in most circumstances we wouldn't pay for it because it's abundant and cost nothing in time or effort. Similarly with an imaginary sword; anyone can think of one. The only difference is that in everquest, an abundant resource has been made artificially scarce.
Now if it seems to you in looking back over this reply that the explanation in question 2 seems to contradict that of question 1, you're not alone. It appears that this sword has a microeconomic value, but no macroeconomic value.
Which is why even after my explanation, I still think this is all really strange, and I don't quite understand it.
Anyone with more of an economics background, please leap in.
What should US programmers do if they are laid off because of foreign outsourcing?
If they should learn new skills, which new skills? Moving from programmer to software architect? Would that necessarily provide any more security?
Should they move to areas that can't be outsourced, like government and military work, or work that depends on knowledge of US culture, etc?
Or should they just abandon programming altogether for some other field? If so, what field? What other form of work (not management) would provide any better insurance against being outsourced to foreign workers?
In general, how are US workers to compete, since they obviously can't compete on price?
TV stations broadcast a selection of websites in the DTV bandwidth, which you receive with a special receiver at home that plugs into your computer. To complete the loop, you have to have a connection for uplink to your isp. From what I understand, this is closer to Akamai than to broadband, because you can't request sites, i.e. since this is still a broadcast medium, you will only get the most popular sites. You can't request obscureweblog.org because they would have to put it in the broadcast, and it would take a portion of bandwidth from everyone else.
Content Cacheing isn't the end-user's problem
on
P2P in 2001
·
· Score: 1
Having each user cache part of a web site they visit _sounds_ like a good idea, and technically it makes sense, but the economics and psychology of it are kind of iffy. Economically, you, the end user, would be providing a service that you wouldn't get paid for, and wouldn't receive any real benefit from. Now, you might argue that while you wouldn't benefit from helping, you _would_ benefit from others helping, but that's not really true. A website cached on a home pc would be slower to access, not faster, than one on a central server, even if it was a slowass server. All that you are doing is lowering the cost for the website owner. And you're not being paid for it. Psychologically, most people would also be uneasy serving content that they hadn't personally validated, so people would only volunteer to do this for sites they liked and approved of.
Finally, opencola's economics also look a bit iffy. Who pays for swarmcast? I don't think that the end users will, since they don't get anything. That leaves the website owners. And it seems like those who need it the most, e.g. small university sites that get slashdotted, would be least able to afford it.
Here are some websites of companies selling modern versions of TRS-80 like laptops. They are really sexy, especially the alphasmart and the quickpad. Generally, they have a 4 line b/w display, and go for 200+ hours on a few AAs. They cost around 200 dollars, and store about 100 pages of text (app. 200k).
www.alphasmart.com
www.quickpad.com
www.perfectsolutions.com
www.dreamwriter.com
www.calcuscribe.com
Some reviews:
Alphasmart
http://www.xpress.sfsu.edu/storyview.cfm?Story_ID= 1740
Quickpad
http://www.webreviews.com/97_08/quickpad.html
Also, there is a really good article reviewing the different textpads in the NYTimes that is worth purchasing if you're considering getting one of them. Do a search for Pogue and Keyboard. The article title begins with "State of the Art".
It'll get hacked. Console games depend on licensees paying to use the platform. But if gamers can hook it up to the net and download free games, then the value to the licensees plummets. And so the licensees migrate to other (closed) platforms.
Slashdot Mirror
I would appreciate any feedback on my new metasearch engine, Zeedex.com. Zeedex suggests terms to help you narrow your search. The terms are submitted by people. Anyone can contribute lists of terms, edit other people's lists, and leave comments. It's like a wiki.
I wanted to make something that would help people who are new to a topic, or are looking to dig deeper into a topic.
Anyway, it's only been up about two months, and I would be grateful for any suggestions, thoughts, etc. There aren't a lot of lists there yet because the site is still so new, so please test it with either "computer" or "civil rights". And if you like it, please register and add some lists!
Thanks,
Russell Miller
russell@adamm.net
http://www.zeedex.com/
Can someone explain to me how dodgeball, or friendster, would actually bring in money? I don't think people are inclined to pay for these services, and I'm not sure that they're such an obvious advertising market.
I'm confused.
How can a quantum computer be simulated by a normal computer? I'm missing something. I thought the whole point of building quantum computers was that they did work that regular computers were incapable of.
So this has to be a bad simulation. If this were a good simulation, there would be no point to building a qc. So why do we want a bad simulation?
Great idea! Mod this up!
legion is the biggest mmorpg in south korea. something like 10% of the country plays. in addition to the enormous amounts of time people play (on average, 20 hours a week) "player killers" also get beaten up in "rl".
that's messed up.
I think I've got this one sorted.
What's not being taken into account is how the images are arranged. IE, even though the display can only show a finite number of possible images, there is an infinite number of ways in which those images can be sequenced, or related to one another spatially. So the same image can represent different things, depending on the images next to it.
By way of analogy, there are only ten digits, but there are infinitely many numbers.
I find this whole notion of selling virtual crafts very strange. Very, very strange.
After all, we could do a reductio ad absurdem whereby there is no everquest online game. Instead, it would be economically the same if Tom just pays Joe 2$ to think of a sword.
Two questions to ask, if you're interested in economics.
1st: what good is an imaginary sword?
2nd: is everquest productive, in an economic sense?
Question #1.
Someone is creating an imaginary object, and someone else is buying this imaginary object. But the imaginary object can't ever be used, except in the imaginary game. From an economic sense, is any value being created? Well, yes, because it improves the leisure of whoever buys it. It makes his game experience more fun, so he recieves a value. And from his perspective, it might be worth paying for: dollars spent for better leisure. However--
Question #2: Is everquest productive, in an economic sense?
In other words, is society as a whole wealthier or more efficient after a virtual trade takes place? My thinking is, no.
Example: Joe spends 3 hours building an imaginary sword in the game, and then sells it to Tom for 2$. Tom feels that he has gotten a fair trade, because he values the three hours saved more than the two dollars spent. And Tom now has a valuable tool in the game. But it's an imaginary game! Jake, the person who runs the game, could just have easily given Tom a sword with no effort required. Or a million swords. Why should Tom pay Joe for effort that isn't really required? So from society's perspective, it seems like the 2$ has been spent uselessly. Money has been moved around, but society as a whole isn't any wealthier or more efficient.
Now, why is buying an imaginary sword with real money pointless, from a macroeconomic perspective? After all, stories are imaginary, but we pay for books. The reason his action in buying an imaginary sword is pointless is because the resource he's paying for may be valuable, but it isn't scarce. A book, on the other hand, is scarce, in that it has only one author. And only that author can think of that exact book. But anyone can think of a generic imaginary sword without any effort or time spent. Why should someone pay for a resource that's so abundant? As an analogy, look at oxygen. Very valuable, because we couldn't live without it, but in most circumstances we wouldn't pay for it because it's abundant and cost nothing in time or effort. Similarly with an imaginary sword; anyone can think of one. The only difference is that in everquest, an abundant resource has been made artificially scarce.
Now if it seems to you in looking back over this reply that the explanation in question 2 seems to contradict that of question 1, you're not alone. It appears that this sword has a microeconomic value, but no macroeconomic value.
Which is why even after my explanation, I still think this is all really strange, and I don't quite understand it.
Anyone with more of an economics background, please leap in.
What should US programmers do if they are laid off because of foreign outsourcing?
If they should learn new skills, which new skills? Moving from programmer to software architect? Would that necessarily provide any more security?
Should they move to areas that can't be outsourced, like government and military work, or work that depends on knowledge of US culture, etc?
Or should they just abandon programming altogether for some other field? If so, what field? What other form of work (not management) would provide any better insurance against being outsourced to foreign workers?
In general, how are US workers to compete, since they obviously can't compete on price?
Well, it's a cool idea. I hope they have better luck than candescent!
TV stations broadcast a selection of websites in the DTV bandwidth, which you receive with a special receiver at home that plugs into your computer. To complete the loop, you have to have a connection for uplink to your isp. From what I understand, this is closer to Akamai than to broadband, because you can't request sites, i.e. since this is still a broadcast medium, you will only get the most popular sites. You can't request obscureweblog.org because they would have to put it in the broadcast, and it would take a portion of bandwidth from everyone else.
Two other companies doing this are:
iBlast
Wavexpress
Having each user cache part of a web site they visit _sounds_ like a good idea, and technically it makes sense, but the economics and psychology of it are kind of iffy. Economically, you, the end user, would be providing a service that you wouldn't get paid for, and wouldn't receive any real benefit from. Now, you might argue that while you wouldn't benefit from helping, you _would_ benefit from others helping, but that's not really true. A website cached on a home pc would be slower to access, not faster, than one on a central server, even if it was a slowass server. All that you are doing is lowering the cost for the website owner. And you're not being paid for it. Psychologically, most people would also be uneasy serving content that they hadn't personally validated, so people would only volunteer to do this for sites they liked and approved of.
Finally, opencola's economics also look a bit iffy. Who pays for swarmcast? I don't think that the end users will, since they don't get anything. That leaves the website owners. And it seems like those who need it the most, e.g. small university sites that get slashdotted, would be least able to afford it.
Having listened to Joss at a con, he's a pretty cool, with-it kind of guy. Call the production office, let him know you want to work with him.
And good luck.
It's tough out there.
Here are some websites of companies selling modern versions of TRS-80 like laptops. They are really sexy, especially the alphasmart and the quickpad. Generally, they have a 4 line b/w display, and go for 200+ hours on a few AAs. They cost around 200 dollars, and store about 100 pages of text (app. 200k). www.alphasmart.com www.quickpad.com www.perfectsolutions.com www.dreamwriter.com www.calcuscribe.com Some reviews: Alphasmart http://www.xpress.sfsu.edu/storyview.cfm?Story_ID= 1740
Quickpad
http://www.webreviews.com/97_08/quickpad.html
Also, there is a really good article reviewing the different textpads in the NYTimes that is worth purchasing if you're considering getting one of them. Do a search for Pogue and Keyboard. The article title begins with "State of the Art".
It'll get hacked. Console games depend on licensees paying to use the platform. But if gamers can hook it up to the net and download free games, then the value to the licensees plummets. And so the licensees migrate to other (closed) platforms.
Check out dti3d.com. It's the shit.