$1 is a rip off if the tune is from Apple. Unless you want proprietary hardware (the overpriced iPod) you can't play the tune on anything but your computer.
... 2 years ago before iPod/iTunes made legitimate music buying easy...
Are you kidding?
I'll agree that IF you have an iPod, then iTunes solves the problem. However, for everyone else out there with any other kind of an MP3 player, there aren't many options.
It isn't easy if you actually want to listen to your music ANYWHERE besides your computer. I'm through with the days of lugging around CDs, which is why I have a portable MP3 player. I also refuse to pay for Apple's overpriced hardware.
So, if you don't want to listen to your music exclusively on your computer through iTunes, if you don't want to burn your downloaded music to a CD, or if you don't have an iPod... there is plenty of room for improvement.
There are still no easy legitimate (non Apple) options for purchasing music online, that you can then bring wherever you want. The best way is to buy and rip a cd, and put it on your player.
If you are a hardcore player, you generally won't be using a strategy guide to start with. Strategy guides for MMO games are out of date by the time they are printed. The only way to keep up is to read patch notes, and a strategy website that keeps up to date data.
I have the Nomad Zen Jukebox, and it does what you are describing. You can increase the playback speed without increasing the pitch. It is an excellent feature for listening to audiobooks.
Imagine if they did this at an all you can eat restaraunt. Treating it like the all you can rent Netflix.
Patron: *Reaches for the piping hot roast beef*
Restaraunt owner: "I'm sorry, last time you were here you ate over 2 pounds of meat. This is not profitable for us, so this time you may only eat rice or jello. Thank you..."
They will lose sales on games in that case. I know that many gamers who are building new boxes, or buying new graphics cards, are buying the Radeon 9700Pro or the 9800Pro.
The reasons for this are that the 9800 Pro is faster than the LONG awaited GeforceFX 5800 Ultra in almost every area. The 9700 Pro is about equivalent in performance. Check out the reviews on tomshardware.com and anandtech.com and see for yourself.
Anyhow, I doubt EA would want to alienate ATI at this point.
Battlefield 1942 and C&C Generals are exceptions to the EA rule. EA loves to crank out sports titles with little more to offer than the previous years release, besides updated stats.
Also, the customer support at EA just plain sucks. I can't think of a game since Anarchy Online where the support sucked as bad as it does for C&C Generals. Don't get me wrong, though. I think Generals is an excellent game, and I have been playing it quite a bit... now that I actually have it working. However, there are a lot of people who can't install the game, or it crashes to the desktop consistently, or it freezes up all the time. The only information that is returned from the game itself is that a "Serious Error" has occured.
There is absolutely no useful input from EA to help people out with this problem. They give you links to benchmarking, and system stability testing software. If all of these utilities prove your system is indeed stable, EA basically ignores you, and the problem.
Anyhow, I could care less about this union. I doubt EA will stop supporting ATI cards, so Nvidias major competitor will still keep going strong. I personally think that Nvidia is just trying to raise the perceived value of their gfx cards, since the actual performance of the cards is lower than the latest ATI cards.
-Nitar
Re:U.S. may suffer.. Citizens will survive..
on
Giant Sucking Noise
·
· Score: 1
one more...
6) U.S. company can't sell the overpriced product, because U.S engineer now lives in India.
Your example that the a patent only lasting 5 years, causes inflated prices is flawed. I agree that the prices are inflated, because the company has cornered the market for the drug. However, you say:
"...drugs that pass clinicals only have a patent lasting 5 years before generics can be made..."
I don't see this as only 5 years. It gives them a 5 year corner on the market to charge whatever they want, especially if it is a truly crucial drug. If it was 10 years, do you think they would lower the price of the drug, and give themselves more time to recover the research cost? No! They aim to please the stockholder. They'll charge what the market can withstand. With a longer patent, that's a longer amount of time that they can name the price of the drug before any competition can step in. There are no scruples here, only the bottom line.
At least they are telling everybody that there is going to be another edition coming out in November.
Let us all consider what George Lucas would do in this situation. Release a VHS tape, and claim that there won't be a DVD for 5 years. A few months later, a DVD will come out... surprise! Too bad if you already bought the VHS.
George Lucas gouges his fans deceptively. At least with Lord of the Rings, they are telling everybody about the special edition in November. That way, if you want to wait for it, you can. They aren't tricking anyone into buying the first version. If you can't wait until November, and you want to see it still, rent it! Or borrow it from somebody!
Which part of "Buy Opera today - For the best internet experience Ad Free" do you not understand?
I don't think that the poster misunderstood that. I think the problem is, there are free alternatives. Why should I pay $39.00 for something that can be obtained for free?
This comes on the heels of IBM bailing out of the consumer HD market.
Are they going to have a 6 week waiting period if one of the drives fails? Are they going to tell people that their drives don't fail any more than anyone else's? Are their drives going to have extraordinarily high failure rates, in some cases 50%? Are they going to tell people that they are using their drives too much if they are on for more than 8 hours a day?
Sorry, but they can't even get consumer grade hard drives to work with any semblance of reliability. Why would people trust them to make drives that are obviously going to be targeted at high-end commercial boxes?
There is currently a class action lawsuit pending against IBM for their recent HD disasters that they unleashed upon the public. Maybe people should wait and see, before jumping on the next IBM storage bandwagon.
How are they forcing more sales? People are not forced to by this new DVD. If they buy it, it is because they choose to. Feel free to to NOT purchase the new Blade Runner DVD. I however, will be buying it. I have been holding out on getting the original director's cut, and it looks like it paid off. I'll just get this one instead.
You can still see the new scenes that were added. Check out your local Blockbuster, when it is released.
First of all, the Google search appliance was mentioned yesterday right here.
Second, this is a story on Oscar nominations for a specific film that does interest many geeks. FOTR has been covered by Slashdot for quite awhile now.
Except that their superior selection is mostly out of stock. Try renting an anime. They are always out of stock. Is Netflix too cheap to buy more copies? From the posts I've read, several people here (including myself) have quit Netflix for that very reason.
It seems to me that it would benefit them more to just shell out the cash for some more copies of highly requested dvds. Otherwise they lose customers, and the $240/year that each one provides them.
This was about the same experience I had. I really wonder how long the person who reviewed Netflix in the article, was subscribed for.
I had some specific movies I wanted to see. In my case, these were also anime dvds. Frums is correct. I don't know anywhere to get anime on dvd in Atlanta either. As an off-topic note, if anyone does, enlighten us...
Anyhow, I subscribed to Netflix for about 4 months. They said that it could take up to 3 months to get a particular title. One of the movies I wanted to see was in my queue for four months, and it had still never come back in.
I wrote Netflix several emails about this. Essentially, if these dvds were so popular that they couldn't keep them in stock, why not buy more? Well, they said they were working on it. But they were too slow, so I cancelled. I would have stayed subscribed had I been able to get any of the movies I actually wanted to see. But I kept getting movies that I could rent for really cheap at blockbuster.
My main purpose for Netflix was not the unlimited rental time. It was having access to a huge library of dvds. Although they claim a huge selection, the truth of the matter is that you don't have access to most of it, due to limited inventory. Being on the east coast, it would take 5 days, sometimes more, to get a movie. It would take the same amount of time to get a credit for returning a movie. So I didn't really save any money over going to Blockbuster. It turned out to be a waste of money for me.
So, take that for what it is worth. If they do open an east coast distribution center, and the stock is good, it may be worth trying again. But I think I'll wait another year or two.
I agree with you that this isn't about banning toys. But it is more than just a list of toys that parents might want to be wary of. What they want to do, is stop these toys from being marketed to children.
You will notice the recommended ages of these toys. I think the problem is not necessarily the toys themselves, but the age group of children that they are marketed towards. I don't really watch much TV, so I don't know if there are advertisements for these toys. But, if they are being advertised during shows for young kids, I would have to agree that it should be stopped.
That being said, ultimately, it comes down to one thing. Parents being involved in their childrens lives. There is no better safeguard than that. I don't think a lot of these toys should be marketed towards children, but when it comes down to it, the responsibility lies with the parents. Parents can't rely on government legistlation to do their parenting for them. If you want to prevent your children from having these toys, then do it. Don't rely on somebody else to do it for you.
Charter Pipeline where I am specifically states that connections are limited on the downstream at 384k. Supposedly this will change in the future, but I am not counting on anything. If there was any alternative available, I would use it. But the only alternative is 56k... so that is no alternative at all.
Actually, I would go back to @Home the moment their service became available again. As it happens, I can't get DSL where I live, and the only other available service is Charter Pipeline.
However, Charter Pipeline is the most ridiculous excuse for "broadband" that I have ever seen. With @Home I could get download speeds in excess of 2.0Mbps, but with Charter I get a mere 384Kbps. There is no comparison.
Re:Networked/Linked Games
on
XBox Released
·
· Score: 1
Slashdot Mirror
$1 is a rip off if the tune is from Apple. Unless you want proprietary hardware (the overpriced iPod) you can't play the tune on anything but your computer.
...Final Fantasy III of course!
Are you kidding?
I'll agree that IF you have an iPod, then iTunes solves the problem. However, for everyone else out there with any other kind of an MP3 player, there aren't many options.
It isn't easy if you actually want to listen to your music ANYWHERE besides your computer. I'm through with the days of lugging around CDs, which is why I have a portable MP3 player. I also refuse to pay for Apple's overpriced hardware.
So, if you don't want to listen to your music exclusively on your computer through iTunes, if you don't want to burn your downloaded music to a CD, or if you don't have an iPod... there is plenty of room for improvement.
There are still no easy legitimate (non Apple) options for purchasing music online, that you can then bring wherever you want. The best way is to buy and rip a cd, and put it on your player.
-Nitar
If you are a hardcore player, you generally won't be using a strategy guide to start with. Strategy guides for MMO games are out of date by the time they are printed. The only way to keep up is to read patch notes, and a strategy website that keeps up to date data.
I have the Nomad Zen Jukebox, and it does what you are describing. You can increase the playback speed without increasing the pitch. It is an excellent feature for listening to audiobooks.
Imagine if they did this at an all you can eat restaraunt. Treating it like the all you can rent Netflix.
Patron: *Reaches for the piping hot roast beef*
Restaraunt owner: "I'm sorry, last time you were here you ate over 2 pounds of meat. This is not profitable for us, so this time you may only eat rice or jello. Thank you..."
-Nitar
Me too, I rather enjoyed Daredevil! I'm not sure why people give it the bad reviews.
They will lose sales on games in that case. I know that many gamers who are building new boxes, or buying new graphics cards, are buying the Radeon 9700Pro or the 9800Pro.
The reasons for this are that the 9800 Pro is faster than the LONG awaited GeforceFX 5800 Ultra in almost every area. The 9700 Pro is about equivalent in performance. Check out the reviews on tomshardware.com and anandtech.com and see for yourself.
Anyhow, I doubt EA would want to alienate ATI at this point.
Battlefield 1942 and C&C Generals are exceptions to the EA rule. EA loves to crank out sports titles with little more to offer than the previous years release, besides updated stats.
Also, the customer support at EA just plain sucks. I can't think of a game since Anarchy Online where the support sucked as bad as it does for C&C Generals. Don't get me wrong, though. I think Generals is an excellent game, and I have been playing it quite a bit... now that I actually have it working. However, there are a lot of people who can't install the game, or it crashes to the desktop consistently, or it freezes up all the time. The only information that is returned from the game itself is that a "Serious Error" has occured.
There is absolutely no useful input from EA to help people out with this problem. They give you links to benchmarking, and system stability testing software. If all of these utilities prove your system is indeed stable, EA basically ignores you, and the problem.
Anyhow, I could care less about this union. I doubt EA will stop supporting ATI cards, so Nvidias major competitor will still keep going strong. I personally think that Nvidia is just trying to raise the perceived value of their gfx cards, since the actual performance of the cards is lower than the latest ATI cards.
-Nitar
one more...
6) U.S. company can't sell the overpriced product, because U.S engineer now lives in India.
Your example that the a patent only lasting 5 years, causes inflated prices is flawed. I agree that the prices are inflated, because the company has cornered the market for the drug. However, you say:
"...drugs that pass clinicals only have a patent lasting 5 years before generics can be made..."
I don't see this as only 5 years. It gives them a 5 year corner on the market to charge whatever they want, especially if it is a truly crucial drug. If it was 10 years, do you think they would lower the price of the drug, and give themselves more time to recover the research cost? No! They aim to please the stockholder. They'll charge what the market can withstand. With a longer patent, that's a longer amount of time that they can name the price of the drug before any competition can step in. There are no scruples here, only the bottom line.
At least they are telling everybody that there is going to be another edition coming out in November.
Let us all consider what George Lucas would do in this situation. Release a VHS tape, and claim that there won't be a DVD for 5 years. A few months later, a DVD will come out... surprise! Too bad if you already bought the VHS.
George Lucas gouges his fans deceptively. At least with Lord of the Rings, they are telling everybody about the special edition in November. That way, if you want to wait for it, you can. They aren't tricking anyone into buying the first version. If you can't wait until November, and you want to see it still, rent it! Or borrow it from somebody!
I'll personally just buy both.
What are you talking about? OS X doesn't run Neverwinter Nights. (yet)
Which part of "Buy Opera today - For the best internet experience Ad Free" do you not understand?
I don't think that the poster misunderstood that. I think the problem is, there are free alternatives. Why should I pay $39.00 for something that can be obtained for free?
True, he didn't cut off any arms, but he did cut somebody in HALF in Episode I.
This comes on the heels of IBM bailing out of the consumer HD market.
Are they going to have a 6 week waiting period if one of the drives fails? Are they going to tell people that their drives don't fail any more than anyone else's? Are their drives going to have extraordinarily high failure rates, in some cases 50%? Are they going to tell people that they are using their drives too much if they are on for more than 8 hours a day?
Sorry, but they can't even get consumer grade hard drives to work with any semblance of reliability. Why would people trust them to make drives that are obviously going to be targeted at high-end commercial boxes?
There is currently a class action lawsuit pending against IBM for their recent HD disasters that they unleashed upon the public. Maybe people should wait and see, before jumping on the next IBM storage bandwagon.
Here's the link to the lawsuit, if you are interested.
How are they forcing more sales? People are not forced to by this new DVD. If they buy it, it is because they choose to. Feel free to to NOT purchase the new Blade Runner DVD. I however, will be buying it. I have been holding out on getting the original director's cut, and it looks like it paid off. I'll just get this one instead.
You can still see the new scenes that were added. Check out your local Blockbuster, when it is released.
-Nitar
First of all, the Google search appliance was mentioned yesterday right here.
Second, this is a story on Oscar nominations for a specific film that does interest many geeks. FOTR has been covered by Slashdot for quite awhile now.
Don't read it if you don't care about.
-Nitar
Except that their superior selection is mostly out of stock. Try renting an anime. They are always out of stock. Is Netflix too cheap to buy more copies? From the posts I've read, several people here (including myself) have quit Netflix for that very reason.
It seems to me that it would benefit them more to just shell out the cash for some more copies of highly requested dvds. Otherwise they lose customers, and the $240/year that each one provides them.
-Nitar
This was about the same experience I had. I really wonder how long the person who reviewed Netflix in the article, was subscribed for.
I had some specific movies I wanted to see. In my case, these were also anime dvds. Frums is correct. I don't know anywhere to get anime on dvd in Atlanta either. As an off-topic note, if anyone does, enlighten us...
Anyhow, I subscribed to Netflix for about 4 months. They said that it could take up to 3 months to get a particular title. One of the movies I wanted to see was in my queue for four months, and it had still never come back in.
I wrote Netflix several emails about this. Essentially, if these dvds were so popular that they couldn't keep them in stock, why not buy more? Well, they said they were working on it. But they were too slow, so I cancelled. I would have stayed subscribed had I been able to get any of the movies I actually wanted to see. But I kept getting movies that I could rent for really cheap at blockbuster.
My main purpose for Netflix was not the unlimited rental time. It was having access to a huge library of dvds. Although they claim a huge selection, the truth of the matter is that you don't have access to most of it, due to limited inventory. Being on the east coast, it would take 5 days, sometimes more, to get a movie. It would take the same amount of time to get a credit for returning a movie. So I didn't really save any money over going to Blockbuster. It turned out to be a waste of money for me.
So, take that for what it is worth. If they do open an east coast distribution center, and the stock is good, it may be worth trying again. But I think I'll wait another year or two.
-Nitar
I agree with you that this isn't about banning toys. But it is more than just a list of toys that parents might want to be wary of. What they want to do, is stop these toys from being marketed to children.
You will notice the recommended ages of these toys. I think the problem is not necessarily the toys themselves, but the age group of children that they are marketed towards. I don't really watch much TV, so I don't know if there are advertisements for these toys. But, if they are being advertised during shows for young kids, I would have to agree that it should be stopped.
That being said, ultimately, it comes down to one thing. Parents being involved in their childrens lives. There is no better safeguard than that. I don't think a lot of these toys should be marketed towards children, but when it comes down to it, the responsibility lies with the parents. Parents can't rely on government legistlation to do their parenting for them. If you want to prevent your children from having these toys, then do it. Don't rely on somebody else to do it for you.
Charter Pipeline where I am specifically states that connections are limited on the downstream at 384k. Supposedly this will change in the future, but I am not counting on anything. If there was any alternative available, I would use it. But the only alternative is 56k... so that is no alternative at all.
Actually, I would go back to @Home the moment their service became available again. As it happens, I can't get DSL where I live, and the only other available service is Charter Pipeline.
However, Charter Pipeline is the most ridiculous excuse for "broadband" that I have ever seen. With @Home I could get download speeds in excess of 2.0Mbps, but with Charter I get a mere 384Kbps. There is no comparison.
The Dreamcast has had networking for years...
I have an Asus A7A266 with Crucial memory. Not one single problem yet.