Actually, I think that is incorrect and probably why certain things (e.g. at Google) likely remain in Beta for a long time. GAAP requires different rules between released and unreleased products, not whether or not a "profit" is being made. My understanding is that for something in beta (or unreleased), the cost of goods sold comes from company expenses (e.g. R&D budget) as opposed to revenues. This basically means that unreleased "products" impact the income and not the profit of the company. It also impacts where a company must account for reservations to cover risk (for example, if they were to be sued because of Google News or other "product") required due to "selling" an unreleased product. I do not know the exact GAAP rules for when a product moves from beta to release but it is not whether or not the product makes a profit.
Google's case is a little different since they do not actually "sell" some of the services they offer (notably Google News) but the general rules still apply and are likely why some things remain labeled Beta.
All these amazing discoveries from Hubble and people still talk about abandoning it.
It's old news, that's why - those stars were born years ago and are probably already dead! Why can't we spend the money on something more useful, like an Anti-Gravity device!!
First you have to decide what difference it makes if the results are good or bad - who gets judged and is held responsible.
If it is you then: like all performance metrics, if the results are good then they matter - argue so. If the results are poor, then they are just statistics and you should point towards other, less numerical, measurements to justify your continued employment.
Of course, for these types of measurements to matter you have to be measuring the correct thing. If the website loads faster but the customer still can't find the needed information because the layout sucks, then clearly that is not a good measure of customer satisfaction. You have to correlate what you are measuring (website performance) with what you care about (customer satisfaction). Unless you can show how those are related then you are correct in your worry - the performance stats are useless.
As those who saw the 2000 Super Bowl (I believe that was the one) can attest, much of this money was indeed spent on marketing.
That was advertising, not marketing. If they had spent that amount on marketing, maybe those companies would have created a product that potential customers wanted at a price which would have created enough revenue to be a sustainable company. Instead, they spend millions of dollars advertising and selling something that was not properly marketed in the first place.
Thank you! An actual well reasoned and intelligent post that shows how messed up both extremes on this issue are wrong.
This is no longer an issue that the courts should decide - the problem is the lack of legislation deciding who is and who is not a citizen, as you pointed out. Until that crucial part of the equation is decided, the debate will continue to spiral out of control as it has for the past twenty years.
Just as the anti-abortion and pro-death penalty paradox is perplexing, the stereotypical pro-abortion person is anti-death penalty. That is even more perplexing if you believe that the fetus is alive and its' only crime is being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
This type of question always scares me - if this guy was attempting to work on my network, the last thing I would want him to do is move to Linux "just because". Why are you moving the server to a platform you are not familiar enough with? Because you have used it in an unrelated application? Is there something wrong with the Windows server (besides being old and the typical Windows bashing?)
I'm all for trying things out but is it right to do this with a clients "proprietary" data? What is your backup plan? Will the server store the information as well as act as the firewall? Why Linux and not a flavor of BSD?
After all of that, whlie a book may feel nice - you will get much better and more up to date information on the 'net.
Only because the majority of American's don't know what the word "buoyant" means.
Yes we do! They still teach sex education in some places around here. How exactly the buoy-ant and girl-ant make a baby-ant isn't made so clear, but that is another problem.
MMO's are different from traditional games because they are, by design, supposed to be continuing revenue. This means that they need to maintain current users while also attracting new ones (to replace those that leave and increase revenue.) From a business perspective it is clearly a product management issue: what changes do you allow or introduce and how do you balance short term gains or player happiness with the health of the game over the lifetime of the product. In the EQ case, if they were successful in moving players from EQ1 to EQ2 then they made the right decision. If they lost players - to WoW, for example - then they failed.
What isn't known at this point is what the real expected lifetime of a MMO should be. AC, EQ, and UO appear to reaching end of life but we don't know if that is from poor management or if it could have been extended. The playerbase, overall, continues to grow and these types of games do not (or should not) support constant switching by players. Something to get people "hooked" and keep them coming back, despite the next new thing coming out, is what a game of this type will need in order to last over the long haul.
The problem with listening to players - as argued in the linked essay - is that they do not think about the longterm health of the game world. It is certainly true that designers have, in the past, made piss-poor decisions regarding gaming features but that does not mean that the player base should be listened to all the time (i.e. the customer is NOT always right.)
Your complaints are a result of the game designer/maintainer succumbing to the player demands that everything be made easier, thus ensuring the ultimate death of the game.
There was a post a while back about an essay that said this very thing and people got upset, saying that you shouldn't ignore the players since they know best. They don't, though. The best way to make an online world succeed over the long run is to ignore the players - people quit, complain, whine, etc. but as long as new players are joining then you are doing something right. It is when you listen to the players so much that all of the unique features that got players to join in the beginning are removed and no new players want to join. Thus beginning the downward spiral to eventual obsolescence.
In my opinion, the best way to learn any language well is to see how others have used it to solve problems.
Why of course! It worked for Bill Gates, it can work for you too!
"The best way to prepare [to be a programmer] is to write programs, and to study great programs that other people have written. In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and fished out listings of their operating system."
Bill is, of course, correct that open-source and interoperability are not necessarily synonymous. That isn't to say that Microsoft's close-source, proprietary approach will lead to better interoperability.
Also, though not quantifiable, the fast development cycle that open-source is often praised for could lead to broken interoperability if the developers of an open source application do not feel like maintaining the function. The typical reply is that the code is opensource, so you can modify it and put the functions you want back in. This puts the enduser in the unenviable position of having to develop an application as opposed to using it. To be fair, if Microsoft breaks a function there typically isn't anything the enduser can do but complain.
This is both a blessing and curse of open-source software that is not maintained or supported by a large corporate identity (e.g. IBM, which is why this does not apply to Microsoft's main concern, Linux...IBM would not support IBM and allow interoperability to break.)
I agree, partly, but there really is more behind it then Disney (or BV) didn't think the movie would do well enough to warrant marketing it more. Part of the problem is an aversion to non-Disney material and another is past experience (Princess Mononoke - a more adult film and something Disney doesn't have experience with) not being good for Disney.
The Oscar was based mainly on the merit of the film, and fame of Miyazaki, and not any real push by Disney. Part of the reason that Disney relented to release the film in the US was that it won 1st place at the Berlin Film Festival in early 2002.
Disney did not have merchandise rights for Studio Ghibli films - just distribution rights. If you were a Disney exec and had to decide whether to push "Spirited Away" or try to get people to buy more "Lilo & Stich" toys, which would you do? This isn't a a conspiracy per se, but it does help support that a lack of marketing hurt the film's commercial success and that it was Disney's choice.
The problem is not necessarily public acceptance but studio marketing. Looking at the linked box office data it is pretty obvious that movies released to very few theatres (e.g. "Cowboy Bebop") don't do as well as movies heavily marketed and released to thousands of theatres. (On "Tokyo Godfathers" - that isn't the type of movie that the general public would like anyway - crossdressing old men in cartoons are not kid-friendly...)
"Spirited Away", which did pretty well despite all the effort by Disney to not market the movie, shows that anime can be successful when done right. The fact that it took an Oscar to get the public to notice the movie is sad, when Buena Vista could have had a real hit on it's hands. There are more and more Miyazaki movies on DVD in places like Target now but the marketing is still minimal (though I have seen commercials for Naussica).
There is a disconnect between what the Adult Swim alpha geek will consider good anime and what will do well in theatres (see Pokemon). The influx of Japanese manga and anime is growing, though, I suspect that we will see more movies released in theatres once the studious catch on to the growing trend. Kids that under five now will not think that Anime is strange or foreign, which will directly impact public acceptance of anime as a legitimate movie choice.
For instance, in Muslim countries women aren't leered at and treated as sex objects, because society conditions them not to. In Western societies, women are objectified through their portrayal as breasts on a stick on TV.
Have you ever been to a Muslim country?!?! Do you really think that women would rather be relegated to subcitizens than be "leered" at? Do you really think that men do not treat women as objects - sure, it isn't publicly but you can always go to a "tv" bar. The problem with this is not there is too much violence on TV or in video games - it is the inability to accept responsibility. You can't go looking for scapegoats everytime something goes wrong. You want to reduce the amount of violence in games and TV, fine, but this is not the way to do it.
The fact that this stuff was just left there most likely means it was obsolete. Sometimes I sit and wonder what is really being used our goverment (spy equipment, techonology, etc.) What we do know about is astounding. Anyone know anything more indepth about that "golf ball" thing?
The part that scares me is this: the NSA has jurisdiction inside the USA, unlike the CIA which does not. I do not think most/.'s would be comfortable with the NSA in thier backyard.
I find it hard to believe that this movie would gain mass appeal if not for the increased importance of the love story side.
Yes, the story is universal and loved by many but in today's society, USA atleast, the played down roles of women would have been attacked, most likely. By giving Arwen a bigger role the producers can appeal to more people but hopefully stay true to story.
The part I love is that they brought in language experts to teach the actors Tolkien Elvish! There are even rumors of subtitles being used. Considering this was one of the main reasons that Tolkien began the books I find it amazing and heartening that the movies are truly attempting to stick with the story and world so closely.
That's the problem. This whole free speech thing has gone too far in the wrong direction. Censorship is bad, when it is by the goverment. When a person, or company, decides to censor themselves is should be their right. Who are you to tell BMG what they should allow transported over Napster. Do I agree that the German goverment should be allowed to tell BMG what to allow? NO. That is the problem; BMG is NOT. Get it straight. It seems that/.'ers are constantly looking to blame the US goverment or big corporations: in this case it is the German goverment and that is who the outcry should be against.
I think you mean to say that the future is fusion power. Fusion involves the joining of two atoms into one, and the energy is released due to the decrease in total mass. Fission is the splitting of large atoms, and the energy is released due to (??? I forget)
Slashdot Mirror
Google's case is a little different since they do not actually "sell" some of the services they offer (notably Google News) but the general rules still apply and are likely why some things remain labeled Beta.
If it is you then: like all performance metrics, if the results are good then they matter - argue so. If the results are poor, then they are just statistics and you should point towards other, less numerical, measurements to justify your continued employment.
Of course, for these types of measurements to matter you have to be measuring the correct thing. If the website loads faster but the customer still can't find the needed information because the layout sucks, then clearly that is not a good measure of customer satisfaction. You have to correlate what you are measuring (website performance) with what you care about (customer satisfaction). Unless you can show how those are related then you are correct in your worry - the performance stats are useless.
That was advertising, not marketing. If they had spent that amount on marketing, maybe those companies would have created a product that potential customers wanted at a price which would have created enough revenue to be a sustainable company. Instead, they spend millions of dollars advertising and selling something that was not properly marketed in the first place.
This is no longer an issue that the courts should decide - the problem is the lack of legislation deciding who is and who is not a citizen, as you pointed out. Until that crucial part of the equation is decided, the debate will continue to spiral out of control as it has for the past twenty years.
Just as the anti-abortion and pro-death penalty paradox is perplexing, the stereotypical pro-abortion person is anti-death penalty. That is even more perplexing if you believe that the fetus is alive and its' only crime is being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Why are you moving the server to a platform you are not familiar enough with? Because you have used it in an unrelated application? Is there something wrong with the Windows server (besides being old and the typical Windows bashing?)
I'm all for trying things out but is it right to do this with a clients "proprietary" data? What is your backup plan? Will the server store the information as well as act as the firewall? Why Linux and not a flavor of BSD?
After all of that, whlie a book may feel nice - you will get much better and more up to date information on the 'net.
Wow! Good thing Novell recently released Linux 9.0!
What's the website address?
Yes we do! They still teach sex education in some places around here. How exactly the buoy-ant and girl-ant make a baby-ant isn't made so clear, but that is another problem.
Sounds like the blind following the dumb.
As others have mentioned, the cheating and stupidity will be the biggest hurdles to overcome.
Problem is that they are bouncing here and there, and everywhere - so it is hard to collect.
Here
MMO's are different from traditional games because they are, by design, supposed to be continuing revenue. This means that they need to maintain current users while also attracting new ones (to replace those that leave and increase revenue.) From a business perspective it is clearly a product management issue: what changes do you allow or introduce and how do you balance short term gains or player happiness with the health of the game over the lifetime of the product. In the EQ case, if they were successful in moving players from EQ1 to EQ2 then they made the right decision. If they lost players - to WoW, for example - then they failed.
What isn't known at this point is what the real expected lifetime of a MMO should be. AC, EQ, and UO appear to reaching end of life but we don't know if that is from poor management or if it could have been extended. The playerbase, overall, continues to grow and these types of games do not (or should not) support constant switching by players. Something to get people "hooked" and keep them coming back, despite the next new thing coming out, is what a game of this type will need in order to last over the long haul.
The problem with listening to players - as argued in the linked essay - is that they do not think about the longterm health of the game world. It is certainly true that designers have, in the past, made piss-poor decisions regarding gaming features but that does not mean that the player base should be listened to all the time (i.e. the customer is NOT always right.)
There was a post a while back about an essay that said this very thing and people got upset, saying that you shouldn't ignore the players since they know best. They don't, though. The best way to make an online world succeed over the long run is to ignore the players - people quit, complain, whine, etc. but as long as new players are joining then you are doing something right. It is when you listen to the players so much that all of the unique features that got players to join in the beginning are removed and no new players want to join. Thus beginning the downward spiral to eventual obsolescence.
Why of course! It worked for Bill Gates, it can work for you too!
From Wikiquote.Also, though not quantifiable, the fast development cycle that open-source is often praised for could lead to broken interoperability if the developers of an open source application do not feel like maintaining the function. The typical reply is that the code is opensource, so you can modify it and put the functions you want back in. This puts the enduser in the unenviable position of having to develop an application as opposed to using it. To be fair, if Microsoft breaks a function there typically isn't anything the enduser can do but complain.
This is both a blessing and curse of open-source software that is not maintained or supported by a large corporate identity (e.g. IBM, which is why this does not apply to Microsoft's main concern, Linux...IBM would not support IBM and allow interoperability to break.)
The Oscar was based mainly on the merit of the film, and fame of Miyazaki, and not any real push by Disney. Part of the reason that Disney relented to release the film in the US was that it won 1st place at the Berlin Film Festival in early 2002.
Disney did not have merchandise rights for Studio Ghibli films - just distribution rights. If you were a Disney exec and had to decide whether to push "Spirited Away" or try to get people to buy more "Lilo & Stich" toys, which would you do? This isn't a a conspiracy per se, but it does help support that a lack of marketing hurt the film's commercial success and that it was Disney's choice.
"Spirited Away", which did pretty well despite all the effort by Disney to not market the movie, shows that anime can be successful when done right. The fact that it took an Oscar to get the public to notice the movie is sad, when Buena Vista could have had a real hit on it's hands. There are more and more Miyazaki movies on DVD in places like Target now but the marketing is still minimal (though I have seen commercials for Naussica).
There is a disconnect between what the Adult Swim alpha geek will consider good anime and what will do well in theatres (see Pokemon). The influx of Japanese manga and anime is growing, though, I suspect that we will see more movies released in theatres once the studious catch on to the growing trend. Kids that under five now will not think that Anime is strange or foreign, which will directly impact public acceptance of anime as a legitimate movie choice.
[no carrier]
Have you ever been to a Muslim country?!?! Do you really think that women would rather be relegated to subcitizens than be "leered" at? Do you really think that men do not treat women as objects - sure, it isn't publicly but you can always go to a "tv" bar.
The problem with this is not there is too much violence on TV or in video games - it is the inability to accept responsibility. You can't go looking for scapegoats everytime something goes wrong. You want to reduce the amount of violence in games and TV, fine, but this is not the way to do it.
The part that scares me is this: the NSA has jurisdiction inside the USA, unlike the CIA which does not. I do not think most /.'s would be comfortable with the NSA in thier backyard.
Yes, the story is universal and loved by many but in today's society, USA atleast, the played down roles of women would have been attacked, most likely. By giving Arwen a bigger role the producers can appeal to more people but hopefully stay true to story.
The part I love is that they brought in language experts to teach the actors Tolkien Elvish! There are even rumors of subtitles being used. Considering this was one of the main reasons that Tolkien began the books I find it amazing and heartening that the movies are truly attempting to stick with the story and world so closely.
That's the problem. This whole free speech thing has gone too far in the wrong direction. Censorship is bad, when it is by the goverment. When a person, or company, decides to censor themselves is should be their right. Who are you to tell BMG what they should allow transported over Napster. Do I agree that the German goverment should be allowed to tell BMG what to allow? NO. That is the problem; BMG is NOT. Get it straight. It seems that /.'ers are constantly looking to blame the US goverment or big corporations: in this case it is the German goverment and that is who the outcry should be against.
Due to the decrease in total mass