I'm one of the guys that makes computers work, that understands them. In corporate america, I'm 1 in 100, or even 1000. The rest are still stuck in the 15th century, and if you don't believe me, duck into the helpdesk call center. The sad thing is, by the time computers are smart enough to do the thinking for these retards, they'll also be able to do the job for them.
You probably make a lot of computer decisions out there for others, and that you might have some skills that others in your office don't have, but the reality is that there are plenty of people out there that have zero time in their day looking out for their computers. That is your job. They are experts in their job.
From your comments, let me take a stab at your personality...
You're probably one of those assholes that make people feel stupid abut their taste in movies, operating systems, and religion. Please prove me wrong. Tell me when people look at you they don't see everything that is wrong with fat, smelly, elitist, dateless losers that run their computers. I'm going out on a limb here, but I bet the word 'tolerant' has never been used to describe you. Do you even have a social life? Or do people see you as an asshole because you project that on them?
Here is an analogy for you... What if you had to fill out and do your own W-2 form every year from the company and messed it up? Would anyone go behind your back and call you an idiot for not being an expert in taxes? Tax records are complex and controlled by a select few people in the know, just like computers. DO THEY WALK AROUND LIKE THEY ARE GOD?
Get over yourself.
People have other problems in the world than to take your Think Geek T-Shirts seriously.
You know, this is the first time ever that I am actually looking for his extra posts to mod him down. Because of my tactical zeal, I am now inventing the term "karma slapping"-
Karma slapping: (v). present tense. 1. To bait trolls into carefully questioned counter-traps where they respond several times, and subsequnetly draining all of the karma out of their flamebait and response posts. 2. To de karma a troll comment with maximum force. Opposite of karma whoring.
Please feed the trolls. I'll keep a slappin' away when they post back.
"Moore's Law is too slow for us," Okamoto said, referring to the long-held truism that semiconductor power doubles roughly every 18 months. "We can't wait 20 years" to achieve a 1,000-fold increase in PlayStation performance, he said.
Hey, Sony! How getting your head out of the tech closet and think about making games today that don't play like ass?
How much do you want to bet that even with a playstation three hojillion the Resident Evil series still won't have "custom features" like the friggin' ability to sidestep or save your games anywhere but the God forsaken typewriter?
Honestly, can we get some late 80's gameplay dynamics up in this thing?
With that kind of power, I can only imagine that it is just that much more easy to make a game series like Resident Evil or Syphon Filter look and play like total doo-doo.
The govenment wants the instantaneous communication in case of emergency... instead of the damn near instantaneous communication that all people on the internet have today.
Are their concerns that specialized? First rule, don't put the DOD on the net! Just a bad idea all around. Most everything they would be trafficking is standard office files stuff, right? Would it kill them to not instant message with sub-20 pings?
I really don't see the concern here. If you can sit on top of a mountain and get your E-mail in a few seconds... then I suppose that I am misundrestanding the information needs that the government has. I don't suppose that they ALL need to have streaming video for their government purposes. Government decisions are not made in nanoseconds... and if they are, they are automated and definitely need not be automated on an open system.
So what is the real concern here? Do the Senators want to less lossy streaming prOn? Does the DoD want to really stream war footage back to the continent over the net? That is what their super expensive sattelites are for. Once again... why the speed when the net is almost instantaneous?
Besides, wouldn't any #1 priority packet get automatically sniffed by whoever was sitting a "listener" next to the routers, knowing that the US Gov't would be the only ones trafficking in #1 packets?
Zappers and scramblers? Talk about rude. I'm just waiting for the first law suit following a death due to a failed emergency call. It'll happen in the US, btw.
(OBVIOUS SARCASM:P) Oh, my goodness! How did we save people in the days before cell phones? When we are required to have a cell phone to save strangers on the streets will be the day that I move. Besides, the zapper is used in pulses to annoy the obvious, rude, horrible chatterheads out there.
However, you are right about the manners of the man... not the device. We just need jam zones.
The bandwidth in the open air is limited. Period. If someone is on the same frequency at the same time, you can't operate. You also cannot "split" that specific frequency. There are also issues like multipath, harmonics, and natural interference.
ANY SEALED CONDUCTOR MATERIAL CAN ACT LIKE A WHOLE NEW COMPLETE SKY BANDWIDTH, ADDING ANOTHER THOUSAND THAT CAN'T FIT IN THE SKY. Ta--DA!
SAY YOU CAN ONLY HAVE 1000 people "in the sky" at a time.
There are now more cell phones than POTS phones in the US.
Riiiiiiight. I believe you.
I am sure the future of communications for the home user will be wireless.
Yeah, once you figure out a scheme to keep information in the open air safe, secure, impossible to have multipath issues, clean signal strengths 100% of the time, and a way to cram fiber bandqwidth quality routing hubs over the EM spectrum WHICH BY ITS VERY NATURE IS LIMITED.
These kind of features are the reason I don't own a cell phone, and make my friends turn them off around me.
Great. I can't wait to get killed because some moron is blowing down the highway and can't be bothered to look up because he's on a hot streak after getting a double-railing. "(Sarcasm) Where can I sign up?"
Really. I would like to take my E-mail with me. Good idea. Sell me that. Make it small so people can't read it while driving.
It bothers the heck out of me when I see someone having a long, loud, boring conversation in the open air about his personal business all around me. Slowing down the grocery line, yammering about god knows what, making it impossible to reach for their wallet or purse, screeching away at the top of their lungs and ignoring everyone around them. Nowadays, even friends have no sense of priority. I take the time to visit a friend, then some jacksmack calls and hijacks their time for a half-hour while I stare at the ceiling. Why? Because in this society the cell phone is more importanst than any person sitting in front of you. Cell phones are the death of gentility and manners. Every personal cell phone call is more important than anything else. Period.
I carry a pager. I don't have to answer. I still get to friends and parties. They can even let me know if it is an emergency.
I drive professionally for about half of my day. I would say that a good 95% of the people that don't let me in traffic while my on-ramp is quickly ending on me are on phones. They can't be bothered to watch for other drivers... 'they' have a conversation to attend to, which is obviously much more important than that tractor-trailer next to you.
I actually saw a woman a month ago doing seventy on a city interstate bridge ramp dictating legal documents over a cell phone while changing lanes. For the first time ever... I actually wanted to see her vault off of the ramp and disappear into the river before she caused negligent homicide.
I like Darwin just fine. But I didn't choose to yack at someone in the middle of traffic. I expect to not die for these kinds of selfish mistakes.
New York has it right. Knowing New Yorkers and the way they are to their fellow man, you had to pass a law or risk EVERYONE getting killed on the highway.
'Nothing "sells itself". It's true that good products are sold by word of mouth, but people still have to know the product exists and that it has certain advantages that they may appreciate.
A well-advertised and more widely distributed inferior product will often sell better than the superior alternative, [sic emphasis mine]'
You are right. I understand that is a simplistic statement. It is simply a personal rule of mine, and from that you add your own knowledge to that idea and make a conclusion.
Please note that I was talking about "salesmanship" and not "advertising." Most businesses know that distinction so implicitly that they have two seperate departments for it, Sales AND Marketing. One gets the word out. The other pumps people for money. Pumping for money is what I am wary of. That is excessive, unless your business model is built on poor products. Then sales is all you have.
Also... if a product fills all of its requirements (including time and acceptable cost of alternate research), it is not considered "inferior." It is considered well placed. Then the other standard alternatives are "overpriced." Using the cheapest tool to function is simply cost (meaning opportunity, time, and price) meeting demands.
There are three rules that I have learned in business... they have helped me a lot. One of them applies in this one.
Currently one is in effect in my life right now. I am in a restraint of trade situation myself right now. My company made me sign a non-compete contract after I spent the money and effort to move, two days into the job, and I couldn't afford to walk out on those bastards. What do I do that warrants a non-compete contract? I'm a news photographer, figure that one out. I always thought of my job as interchangeable with others. But I couldn't afford to not sign and take my stuff back hundreds of miles. As usual with contracts, one signs reluctantly or under duress, while the other one smiles all the way to the bank.
Anyway, the three rules:
Rule #1. Any high profit industry is made high profit off of the backs of others. Expect lawyers. They are the luxury of high profits. The reason being that the people who get money in high profit industries immediately spend money on lawyers to insulate themselves and to rope in a permanent, high profit solutions against their customers and against their employees. Look at cigarettes, entertainment, alcohol, pornography, and the auto industry (personally, I am not surprised if soon cars come with waiver forms for the purchaser to get them out of the f'n lot... so an irresponsible company like Ford can so obviously produce top heavy, gas-guzzling deathtraps of excess that the American public so desires).
Anyway, the other two rules of note that will save you trouble:
Rule #2: Never work high up in a family business. If you are the same level as a family member, you're screwed. You will work forever. The family member will work to incompetence with 100% job security. You will make mention of it and get fired. Your options? Keep your mouth shut in an increasingly bad situation until you go nuts, think less of yourself and your life and continue working, or quit. Of course, never getting in that situation is the best. This rule also works for any business that works similar to a family business, meaning if your boss plays favorites a lot, say with a cute girl or something similar.
Rule #3: Good products and services sell themselves; it is the junk that you push. This is the most important rule of them all, one that after learning, makes you see the whole world of business differently.
You should be immediately suspicious of all sales tactics. If anyone is trying to sell something to you, you don't want it. REPEAT AFTER ME, "Salesmanship is the added cost to an inferior or overpriced product." If it was good, and you wanted it, no one would have to sell it to you... you would meet them at the checkout line with it in hand. Think about it. You are actively searching for things you like and want. This works in all things... including gettting jobs, cars, and yes, even dates.
Hey, lets not forget that the RIAA was bitching the same bitch and making the same kind of profits a year ago, and now. Now things couldn't be bleaker, many people are predicting the demise of the recording industry entirely.
Think of this as the last days of disco. NO real musical acts got signed during disco... and it was all performance music. Everyone thought it was great at the time, and Arista and other groups cleaned up.
Everyone loved disco. But like all fads, it got old really quick. Then they got tired of it. Then overall record sales slumped. Then they had to find real musical acts... people wanted to listen to real music instead of dance. The same analogy can be about raving. It used to be about dancing, then it became all about the drugs. Very quick.
Do you think anyone will care about Britney Spears in five years after we have been Britney bombed? Honestly, did anyone care about the superbowl ad? I personally am getting tired of her ass, bigtime. The rest of America is too.
It's limping. The proof? O-Town. That fucking boy band couldn't make it, even with 50 hours of network television to back it. See? Aren't we all just getting a little tired of Justin Timberlake? Aren't we all just a little ashamed that we know his name when we see his face?
In about a year, they'll have to look at real musicians again... whereas my little hometown of NAshville, TN will just keep chuggin' along. But even they had a country fad about 4 years ago... and yes, they whined that they were "dying" afterword. Yeah, after record breaking profits.
Give it a year, and make sure you turn off MTV so that those idiot rappers that talk about thinly veiled anal sex references to nine year olds watching MTV don't get any money... although I think that they are propped up by all of the morons out there. That is the one trend that I wish would die, grassy knoll style. Because I cannot put up with a woman flapping her ass on camera to crappy Casio SK1 sounds.
I'd be willing to bet more than a few dollars on the fact that Adobe, not unlike the music industry, benefits greatly from piracy. People learn Photoshop, and they go on to foster the de facto standard that is Adobe Photoshop in the commercial graphics design realm.
IANAAdobeTROLL, but the reason why photo is so good is that from a design standpoint, it is practically transparent... meaning easy to learn and operate. Most other "inferior" programs are designed off of their principles, therefore this need to learn argument needs work.
As far as your (and other peoples') argument that they wouldn't make as much money if they sold Photoshop for $50 - take a look at the guy who invented the Ginsu knife! Sure, they could charge $100s just like Heinkel or Chicago, but they only charged like $20 for a complete set of knives. They made *millions* by selling *lots* of knives at $20. Adobe could make a lot more money by selling *lots* of licenses for Photoshop @ $50 than they do now at $1000/license.
First, I'd like to challenge that idea. Provide me with data on how much Ginsu knives made, they may not have made as much money after all of the television advertizin' they bought.
Second, there is an issue with your comparison to Heckels, Chicago, or Onan knives and mail-order Ginsu. Once again, one is professional grade, one is consumer grade. The differences between a drop forged steel knife and a serrated stainless are more than insignifigant. It is better, so it is priced higher. Whether you feel the cost warrants a personal value enough to be worth it, that is your decision.
...just like I feel that BMWs and Mercedes-Benz autos are to expensive for the value.
Photoshop is a professional product, that requires professional feedback, developmet, and tool sets... unfortunately, that costs buku bucks to get done. Obvious Asian Rim piracy aside, it is a professional tool for professionals. It has professional costs, it also has professional development costs... and it functions well. So therefore it goes at professional prices. If it cost triple, people would buy it because it is indespensible, the true hallmark of its value.
As far as software goes, it is good, and worth the money... so therefore it has a high price.
Classic supply and demand.
I would like it cheaper too to own it. But there is a reason it costs so much.
Well, I'd say that the standardization problem that you speak of is dead on. Why, when we need all of these devices to have more power we decide to cram more AA batteries in them.
But where I differ is that there should be standardized plugs, and the mounting of the batteries should be your own.
I work in television news, and every station uses a different battery system (But all the batteries are HUUUUGE) in the back of the cameras. They purchase the batteries and the mount, and they go from there.
So they should sell the mount plate with the battery system, or at least be able to purchase the camcorder mount, PDA mount or the laptop mount that you are looking for with your battery system.
It works great for professional photographers, whether you use one big battery on the back, or you have three.
Yeah, until you try to make that power portable. Try to move it. Then you get that whole flywheel "angular momentum/gyroscope super resistance" thing going on. Kiss that energy bye bye.
Honestly, energy always eventually goes to its lowest state... but I don't think that kinetic flywheels are the way to store it, because by design you know there is some constant form of resistance that is draining it.
You would have to have some serious math and technology to get this one together. Feels unapplicable.
Well, I would suggest that you pull your stock now. Because when this guy fires back and gets a even larger settlement, then you will be losing your ass on those Dick Tracy watches.
The idea is a good one for a very specific audience, but CSI should not do that because it would be horrible in syndication.
You couldn't sell it properly.
It works with dedicated fan bases like soaps and sci-fi, but is bad for other things.
Its called the 'Power Button'
on
The Rise of CSI
·
· Score: 2
More than likely, it is located in a high corner of your remote control. If you press it in the presence of your family, they can no longer entertain themselves by ingesting graphic images of medical autopsies, brutalized bodies, blood-spattered sets and decomposing corpses.
describe the Japanese as "light-years ahead of us in cell phones."
Let them be light years ahead of us in cell phones. I really don't want all of that crap.
SPEEDIAL. VIBRATE MODE. A RELIABLE WAY TO SHUT THEM UP IN THEATRES AND OTHER QUIET PLACES.
That is all I want. I don't want to watch Blade Runner on my cell phone. I don't want to ask Jeeves anything, GET IT? I don't want a map to the city that is so dang tiny that I can't read it. If I want to order Chinese food, then I will call them personally, not use a scroll down menu. I am not trading stocks on my phone.
These are the same bastards that want to put a TV tuner card or a DVD drive in my PC... and make my computer into the worlds most expensive, horrible looking and sounding home theatre system. STOP IT!
Oh, and another thing. Stop making ring that plays 'Stairway to Heaven,' Snoop Dogg's 'Gin and Juice,' or the national anthem of France.
Those songs are driving everyone in the office crazy when "Mr. Cell Phone Jerk" is away and we can't find the phone in time to turn it off. Then "Miss Cell Phone Boyfriend Obsessive" calls back three times because sweetie didn't answer. Who hasn't played that game?
This is why my fiancee has our cell phone. I hate the things... and make her keep it off in my presence. Besides, is anyone really got anything that important to talk about that justifies vehicular manslaughter?
You are right. The truth of the matter is that technology, up to this point, has produced economic benefit off of every industry it has ever touched, ususally for the purchaser (I know I can successfully argue this point in generalities, and not specific this software blah blah). These guys just want all the money possible. They want you to mortgage your house so you can have the priveledge of playing a cover song on your own guitar in the privacy of your own home.
With porn, alcohol, cigarettes, movies, and music... (anything with a ridiculously high profit margin) is going to have an army of "extra cash floating around you" lawyers that will pit bull you to death. These people (in the industries above) are the most amazing liars I have ever seen. The best part about it, they don't need to lie personally, they get good lawyers to do it for the money.
Great Example: These are the kind of people that said that the movie Forrest Gump lost money. Riiiight. Cocksuckers. Brilliant accounting cocksuckers. But cocksuckers nonetheless.
I had to pay my taxes... they didn't after making huge profits off of that?!? It was a well-loved, Best Picture of the Friggin' Year! If I was a IRS agent, I would have personally audited the entire fucking studio for a stunt like that. I would have audited the Gate Security Guard's wallet for that kind of bullshit.
Just because you appear like you make bad business decisions doesn't mean you pay zero taxes.
That is why I say download all you want.
Too bad their little state controlled monopoly plans are going extinct, and will never work. Tear down KaZaA... somegthing else will pop up even faster than last time. Its free music Whack-A-Mole.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm one of the guys that makes computers work, that understands them. In corporate america, I'm 1 in 100, or even 1000. The rest are still stuck in the 15th century, and if you don't believe me, duck into the helpdesk call center. The sad thing is, by the time computers are smart enough to do the thinking for these retards, they'll also be able to do the job for them.
You probably make a lot of computer decisions out there for others, and that you might have some skills that others in your office don't have, but the reality is that there are plenty of people out there that have zero time in their day looking out for their computers. That is your job. They are experts in their job.
From your comments, let me take a stab at your personality...
You're probably one of those assholes that make people feel stupid abut their taste in movies, operating systems, and religion. Please prove me wrong. Tell me when people look at you they don't see everything that is wrong with fat, smelly, elitist, dateless losers that run their computers. I'm going out on a limb here, but I bet the word 'tolerant' has never been used to describe you. Do you even have a social life? Or do people see you as an asshole because you project that on them?
Here is an analogy for you... What if you had to fill out and do your own W-2 form every year from the company and messed it up? Would anyone go behind your back and call you an idiot for not being an expert in taxes? Tax records are complex and controlled by a select few people in the know, just like computers. DO THEY WALK AROUND LIKE THEY ARE GOD?
Get over yourself.
People have other problems in the world than to take your Think Geek T-Shirts seriously.
I humbly suggest that you check out keepersoflists.org for some funny on the subject of the oscars.
I am simply a servant of this humble order.
You know, this is the first time ever that I am actually looking for his extra posts to mod him down. Because of my tactical zeal, I am now inventing the term "karma slapping"-
Karma slapping: (v). present tense. 1. To bait trolls into carefully questioned counter-traps where they respond several times, and subsequnetly draining all of the karma out of their flamebait and response posts. 2. To de karma a troll comment with maximum force. Opposite of karma whoring.
Please feed the trolls. I'll keep a slappin' away when they post back.
"Moore's Law is too slow for us," Okamoto said, referring to the long-held truism that semiconductor power doubles roughly every 18 months. "We can't wait 20 years" to achieve a 1,000-fold increase in PlayStation performance, he said.
Hey, Sony! How getting your head out of the tech closet and think about making games today that don't play like ass?
How much do you want to bet that even with a playstation three hojillion the Resident Evil series still won't have "custom features" like the friggin' ability to sidestep or save your games anywhere but the God forsaken typewriter?
Honestly, can we get some late 80's gameplay dynamics up in this thing?
With that kind of power, I can only imagine that it is just that much more easy to make a game series like Resident Evil or Syphon Filter look and play like total doo-doo.
Quick, someone tell Linda Hamilton to head for the mountains! Her unborn child will be the only one to stop all of this madness!
The govenment wants the instantaneous communication in case of emergency... instead of the damn near instantaneous communication that all people on the internet have today.
Are their concerns that specialized? First rule, don't put the DOD on the net! Just a bad idea all around. Most everything they would be trafficking is standard office files stuff, right?
Would it kill them to not instant message with sub-20 pings?
I really don't see the concern here. If you can sit on top of a mountain and get your E-mail in a few seconds... then I suppose that I am misundrestanding the information needs that the government has. I don't suppose that they ALL need to have streaming video for their government purposes. Government decisions are not made in nanoseconds... and if they are, they are automated and definitely need not be automated on an open system.
So what is the real concern here? Do the Senators want to less lossy streaming prOn? Does the DoD want to really stream war footage back to the continent over the net? That is what their super expensive sattelites are for. Once again... why the speed when the net is almost instantaneous?
Besides, wouldn't any #1 priority packet get automatically sniffed by whoever was sitting a "listener" next to the routers, knowing that the US Gov't would be the only ones trafficking in #1 packets?
Just a bad idea all around, IMHO.
Zappers and scramblers? Talk about rude. I'm just waiting for the first
law suit following a death due to a failed emergency call. It'll happen
in the US, btw.
(OBVIOUS SARCASM
However, you are right about the manners of the man... not the device. We just need jam zones.
Read a physics book.
The bandwidth in the open air is limited. Period. If someone is on the same frequency at the same time, you can't operate. You also cannot "split" that specific frequency. There are also issues like multipath, harmonics, and natural interference.
ANY SEALED CONDUCTOR MATERIAL CAN ACT LIKE A WHOLE NEW COMPLETE SKY BANDWIDTH, ADDING ANOTHER THOUSAND THAT CAN'T FIT IN THE SKY. Ta--DA!
SAY YOU CAN ONLY HAVE 1000 people "in the sky" at a time.
There are now more cell phones than POTS phones in the US.
Riiiiiiight. I believe you.
I am sure the future of communications for the home user will be wireless.
Yeah, once you figure out a scheme to keep information in the open air safe, secure, impossible to have multipath issues, clean signal strengths 100% of the time, and a way to cram fiber bandqwidth quality routing hubs over the EM spectrum WHICH BY ITS VERY NATURE IS LIMITED.
Good luck. I would suggest you smoke more drugs.
Does this mean we can get a class action against uncle George for making crappy Star Wars (TM) strategy games?
I think I'm going to get some money back for Force Commander!
These kind of features are the reason I don't own a cell phone, and make my friends turn them off around me.
Great. I can't wait to get killed because some moron is blowing down the highway and can't be bothered to look up because he's on a hot streak after getting a double-railing. "(Sarcasm) Where can I sign up?"
Really. I would like to take my E-mail with me. Good idea. Sell me that. Make it small so people can't read it while driving.
It bothers the heck out of me when I see someone having a long, loud, boring conversation in the open air about his personal business all around me. Slowing down the grocery line, yammering about god knows what, making it impossible to reach for their wallet or purse, screeching away at the top of their lungs and ignoring everyone around them. Nowadays, even friends have no sense of priority. I take the time to visit a friend, then some jacksmack calls and hijacks their time for a half-hour while I stare at the ceiling. Why? Because in this society the cell phone is more importanst than any person sitting in front of you. Cell phones are the death of gentility and manners. Every personal cell phone call is more important than anything else. Period.
I carry a pager. I don't have to answer. I still get to friends and parties. They can even let me know if it is an emergency.
I drive professionally for about half of my day. I would say that a good 95% of the people that don't let me in traffic while my on-ramp is quickly ending on me are on phones. They can't be bothered to watch for other drivers... 'they' have a conversation to attend to, which is obviously much more important than that tractor-trailer next to you.
I actually saw a woman a month ago doing seventy on a city interstate bridge ramp dictating legal documents over a cell phone while changing lanes. For the first time ever... I actually wanted to see her vault off of the ramp and disappear into the river before she caused negligent homicide.
I like Darwin just fine. But I didn't choose to yack at someone in the middle of traffic. I expect to not die for these kinds of selfish mistakes.
New York has it right. Knowing New Yorkers and the way they are to their fellow man, you had to pass a law or risk EVERYONE getting killed on the highway.
'Nothing "sells itself". It's true that good products are sold by word of mouth, but people still have to know the product exists and that it has certain advantages that they may appreciate.
A well-advertised and more widely distributed inferior product will often sell better than the superior alternative, [sic emphasis mine]'
You are right. I understand that is a simplistic statement. It is simply a personal rule of mine, and from that you add your own knowledge to that idea and make a conclusion.
Please note that I was talking about "salesmanship" and not "advertising." Most businesses know that distinction so implicitly that they have two seperate departments for it, Sales AND Marketing. One gets the word out. The other pumps people for money. Pumping for money is what I am wary of. That is excessive, unless your business model is built on poor products. Then sales is all you have.
Also... if a product fills all of its requirements (including time and acceptable cost of alternate research), it is not considered "inferior." It is considered well placed. Then the other standard alternatives are "overpriced." Using the cheapest tool to function is simply cost (meaning opportunity, time, and price) meeting demands.
There are three rules that I have learned in business... they have helped me a lot. One of them applies in this one.
Currently one is in effect in my life right now. I am in a restraint of trade situation myself right now. My company made me sign a non-compete contract after I spent the money and effort to move, two days into the job, and I couldn't afford to walk out on those bastards. What do I do that warrants a non-compete contract? I'm a news photographer, figure that one out. I always thought of my job as interchangeable with others. But I couldn't afford to not sign and take my stuff back hundreds of miles. As usual with contracts, one signs reluctantly or under duress, while the other one smiles all the way to the bank.
Anyway, the three rules:
Rule #1. Any high profit industry is made high profit off of the backs of others. Expect lawyers. They are the luxury of high profits. The reason being that the people who get money in high profit industries immediately spend money on lawyers to insulate themselves and to rope in a permanent, high profit solutions against their customers and against their employees. Look at cigarettes, entertainment, alcohol, pornography, and the auto industry (personally, I am not surprised if soon cars come with waiver forms for the purchaser to get them out of the f'n lot... so an irresponsible company like Ford can so obviously produce top heavy, gas-guzzling deathtraps of excess that the American public so desires).
Anyway, the other two rules of note that will save you trouble:
Rule #2: Never work high up in a family business. If you are the same level as a family member, you're screwed. You will work forever. The family member will work to incompetence with 100% job security. You will make mention of it and get fired. Your options? Keep your mouth shut in an increasingly bad situation until you go nuts, think less of yourself and your life and continue working, or quit. Of course, never getting in that situation is the best. This rule also works for any business that works similar to a family business, meaning if your boss plays favorites a lot, say with a cute girl or something similar.
Rule #3: Good products and services sell themselves; it is the junk that you push. This is the most important rule of them all, one that after learning, makes you see the whole world of business differently.
You should be immediately suspicious of all sales tactics. If anyone is trying to sell something to you, you don't want it. REPEAT AFTER ME, "Salesmanship is the added cost to an inferior or overpriced product." If it was good, and you wanted it, no one would have to sell it to you... you would meet them at the checkout line with it in hand. Think about it. You are actively searching for things you like and want. This works in all things... including gettting jobs, cars, and yes, even dates.
Hey, lets not forget that the RIAA was bitching the same bitch and making the same kind of profits a year ago, and now. Now things couldn't be bleaker, many people are predicting the demise of the recording industry entirely.
Think of this as the last days of disco. NO real musical acts got signed during disco... and it was all performance music. Everyone thought it was great at the time, and Arista and other groups cleaned up.
Everyone loved disco. But like all fads, it got old really quick. Then they got tired of it. Then overall record sales slumped. Then they had to find real musical acts... people wanted to listen to real music instead of dance. The same analogy can be about raving. It used to be about dancing, then it became all about the drugs. Very quick.
Do you think anyone will care about Britney Spears in five years after we have been Britney bombed? Honestly, did anyone care about the superbowl ad? I personally am getting tired of her ass, bigtime. The rest of America is too.
It's limping. The proof? O-Town. That fucking boy band couldn't make it, even with 50 hours of network television to back it. See? Aren't we all just getting a little tired of Justin Timberlake? Aren't we all just a little ashamed that we know his name when we see his face?
In about a year, they'll have to look at real musicians again... whereas my little hometown of NAshville, TN will just keep chuggin' along. But even they had a country fad about 4 years ago... and yes, they whined that they were "dying" afterword. Yeah, after record breaking profits.
Give it a year, and make sure you turn off MTV so that those idiot rappers that talk about thinly veiled anal sex references to nine year olds watching MTV don't get any money... although I think that they are propped up by all of the morons out there. That is the one trend that I wish would die, grassy knoll style. Because I cannot put up with a woman flapping her ass on camera to crappy Casio SK1 sounds.
I'd be willing to bet more than a few dollars on the fact that Adobe, not unlike the music industry, benefits greatly from piracy. People learn Photoshop, and they go on to foster the de facto standard that is Adobe Photoshop in the commercial graphics design realm.
IANAAdobeTROLL, but the reason why photo is so good is that from a design standpoint, it is practically transparent... meaning easy to learn and operate. Most other "inferior" programs are designed off of their principles, therefore this need to learn argument needs work.
As far as your (and other peoples') argument that they wouldn't make as much money if they sold Photoshop for $50 - take a look at the guy who invented the Ginsu knife! Sure, they could charge $100s just like Heinkel or Chicago, but they only charged like $20 for a complete set of knives. They made *millions* by selling *lots* of knives at $20. Adobe could make a lot more money by selling *lots* of licenses for Photoshop @ $50 than they do now at $1000/license.
...just like I feel that BMWs and Mercedes-Benz autos are to expensive for the value.
First, I'd like to challenge that idea. Provide me with data on how much Ginsu knives made, they may not have made as much money after all of the television advertizin' they bought.
Second, there is an issue with your comparison to Heckels, Chicago, or Onan knives and mail-order Ginsu. Once again, one is professional grade, one is consumer grade. The differences between a drop forged steel knife and a serrated stainless are more than insignifigant. It is better, so it is priced higher. Whether you feel the cost warrants a personal value enough to be worth it, that is your decision.
Photoshop is a professional product, that requires professional feedback, developmet, and tool sets... unfortunately, that costs buku bucks to get done. Obvious Asian Rim piracy aside, it is a professional tool for professionals. It has professional costs, it also has professional development costs... and it functions well. So therefore it goes at professional prices. If it cost triple, people would buy it because it is indespensible, the true hallmark of its value.
As far as software goes, it is good, and worth the money... so therefore it has a high price.
Classic supply and demand.
I would like it cheaper too to own it. But there is a reason it costs so much.
Well, I'd say that the standardization problem that you speak of is dead on. Why, when we need all of these devices to have more power we decide to cram more AA batteries in them.
But where I differ is that there should be standardized plugs, and the mounting of the batteries should be your own.
I work in television news, and every station uses a different battery system (But all the batteries are HUUUUGE) in the back of the cameras. They purchase the batteries and the mount, and they go from there.
So they should sell the mount plate with the battery system, or at least be able to purchase the camcorder mount, PDA mount or the laptop mount that you are looking for with your battery system.
It works great for professional photographers, whether you use one big battery on the back, or you have three.
Yeah, until you try to make that power portable. Try to move it. Then you get that whole flywheel "angular momentum/gyroscope super resistance" thing going on. Kiss that energy bye bye.
Honestly, energy always eventually goes to its lowest state... but I don't think that kinetic flywheels are the way to store it, because by design you know there is some constant form of resistance that is draining it.
You would have to have some serious math and technology to get this one together. Feels unapplicable.
With all of our negative comments, they will be sending us all a notice by certified mail pretty soon.
(KNOCK ON DOOR)"I have a certified mail package for a Commander... what? Is this right? Taco?"
Well, I would suggest that you pull your stock now. Because when this guy fires back and gets a even larger settlement, then you will be losing your ass on those Dick Tracy watches.
Please don't feed the trolls.
The idea is a good one for a very specific audience, but CSI should not do that because it would be horrible in syndication.
You couldn't sell it properly.
It works with dedicated fan bases like soaps and sci-fi, but is bad for other things.
More than likely, it is located in a high corner of your remote control. If you press it in the presence of your family, they can no longer entertain themselves by ingesting graphic images of medical autopsies, brutalized bodies, blood-spattered sets and decomposing corpses.
Nice troll though, regardless.
describe the Japanese as "light-years ahead of us in cell phones."
Let them be light years ahead of us in cell phones. I really don't want all of that crap.
SPEEDIAL. VIBRATE MODE. A RELIABLE WAY TO SHUT THEM UP IN THEATRES AND OTHER QUIET PLACES.
That is all I want. I don't want to watch Blade Runner on my cell phone. I don't want to ask Jeeves anything, GET IT? I don't want a map to the city that is so dang tiny that I can't read it. If I want to order Chinese food, then I will call them personally, not use a scroll down menu. I am not trading stocks on my phone.
These are the same bastards that want to put a TV tuner card or a DVD drive in my PC... and make my computer into the worlds most expensive, horrible looking and sounding home theatre system. STOP IT!
Oh, and another thing. Stop making ring that plays 'Stairway to Heaven,' Snoop Dogg's 'Gin and Juice,' or the national anthem of France.
Those songs are driving everyone in the office crazy when "Mr. Cell Phone Jerk" is away and we can't find the phone in time to turn it off. Then "Miss Cell Phone Boyfriend Obsessive" calls back three times because sweetie didn't answer. Who hasn't played that game?
This is why my fiancee has our cell phone. I hate the things... and make her keep it off in my presence. Besides, is anyone really got anything that important to talk about that justifies vehicular manslaughter?
You are right. The truth of the matter is that technology, up to this point, has produced economic benefit off of every industry it has ever touched, ususally for the purchaser (I know I can successfully argue this point in generalities, and not specific this software blah blah). These guys just want all the money possible. They want you to mortgage your house so you can have the priveledge of playing a cover song on your own guitar in the privacy of your own home.
With porn, alcohol, cigarettes, movies, and music... (anything with a ridiculously high profit margin) is going to have an army of "extra cash floating around you" lawyers that will pit bull you to death. These people (in the industries above) are the most amazing liars I have ever seen. The best part about it, they don't need to lie personally, they get good lawyers to do it for the money.
Great Example: These are the kind of people that said that the movie Forrest Gump lost money. Riiiight. Cocksuckers. Brilliant accounting cocksuckers. But cocksuckers nonetheless.
I had to pay my taxes... they didn't after making huge profits off of that?!? It was a well-loved, Best Picture of the Friggin' Year! If I was a IRS agent, I would have personally audited the entire fucking studio for a stunt like that. I would have audited the Gate Security Guard's wallet for that kind of bullshit.
Just because you appear like you make bad business decisions doesn't mean you pay zero taxes.
That is why I say download all you want.
Too bad their little state controlled monopoly plans are going extinct, and will never work. Tear down KaZaA... somegthing else will pop up even faster than last time. Its free music Whack-A-Mole.