Until I see the birth of one of these (bonus points if you've read the applicable books), I'm going to remain un-excited. Well, maybe except Oculus - that I may get excited over...
Absolutely! But sadly, the world is full of unpleasant people who will get it into their heads that what they want, they must have, and devil-may-care about the consequences. I'm not about to leave my life savings in a box on my doorstep in the hopes that no one will steal it. I'm going to safeguard it in a vault or a bank (another topic for another thread, perhaps) because there are thieves afoot. My phone has a password on it because I'm not convinced the person to find it in case I misplace it won't be one to call Kenya on my dime. My car door is locked. The list goes on...
No - simply invoking the error chain, though I can see how that might come across in the reading. Take a link out of the error chain, any error chain (in flight collision, at-sea collision, ordnance mishap) and suddenly all you have is a close call instead of a headline. In similar fashion to the related story, taking certain precautions (full night of sleep, drink a six pack instead of a case, put down the phone instead of answering it mid-turn), keeps everyone out of harm's way. Tech is a tool - so are weapons. The user has certain responsibilities for both understanding and usage.
I dunno. Sure - there's the pseudo-excuse that is Autism, and the pseudo-apology upon getting caught (didn't regret it when you were viewing the images, did you?). But unless you crawled out from under a rock and into Best Buy after being a hermit for the last decade, then by now you should know enough to take certain precautions. Turn your webcam away from you, close your laptop, don't change clothes in front of it, put your router in standby when not using it, don't click that link, he's not really an African Prince, she's not really going to Western Union you the money plus another hundred for your trouble, these aren't really naked pics of Pink, etc. In 2013, I think survival of the digital fittest should come into play...
"It also notes that Tesla's quoted new-car prices net out a $7,500 Federal income-tax credit for purchase of a plug-in electric car. According to the California dealers, just 20 percent of all car shoppers qualify for that credit--and the group attributes that statistic to the Congressional Budget Office..." says the industry that touts 0.9% APR financing (for well qualified buyers - suspect that number is a mite lower than 20%).
Just look no further than WASD. It's everywhere. It's a good idea, and it stuck. Personally, if I had an idea, put it in the wild, and saw it used later by someone else, I'd like to think I'd be charitable enough to say "Wow - I thought of that and people like it enough to use it." Developing a card game myself now, and a mite paranoid that someone like White Wolf or Steve Jackson might give me a slapdown due to some mechanics minutia. Reading this, I figure, heck with it. Make it, turn it into a PDF, throw it into the wild, and see what happens. Cards Against Humanity seems to be doing well for themselves. My day job pays enough. Why not?
There's space to be had - Governor's Island. That rock has been sitting idle for years, but the "woe is us - we're too crowded" headlines make for better ad sales than "we just blew up a building that could have housed any number of businesses if we'd just fixed it up." You have to really want it, people. Not just wank about it.
Yes, but poorly and for far more of _your_ taxpayer dollars than a more up-to-date solution would have been. Take the bowling alley projectors (I say this because the only other places I saw these projectors in use were bowling alleys):
On USS McCAMPBELL (DDG-85), commissioned in 2002, the replacement bulbs were of the three separate colors, lasted about 2000 hours each, cost about $1500 each, and every time we fired our 5" gun, we had to recalibrate them. There were two of these projectors.
At the time, a pair of large-screen plasmas would have been the same size, took up less space, cost about $3000ish, been shock mounted for an additional 50% of the cost, and been rated for about 10,000+ hours. I'll let you do the math on replacement costs and man-hours to calibrate.
Why did we do it that way? Because there was a contract in place. We were forced into a bad deal, with old tech, that didn't do its job well, because a voter needed to remain employed.
Likewise - Ford does not make money by making it easy to hack your own vehicle. Before long, we'll be signing EULAs every time we stick our key in the ignition, and we Ford will be licensing their vehicles, not selling them.
Our tech in the Department of the Navy is 10 years old right out of the gate... Tape backup drives, 80/86 processors, bowling alley displays for Combat Information Center. And these things are showing up on newly commissioned warships! Perspective folks - suddenly Ford and their ilk aren't so bad...:-/
Bagram. Carriers. FOBs. Hundreds of thousands of American Servicemembers who are forward deployed worldwide do not have and are not allowed to have personal electronics (iPads, PS3s, XBoxs, and the like) linked to the available network. They're barely able to check e-mail or Facebook, much less get Steam or XBox Live to reach out to their respective servers for authentication. And guess what? These 18-25 year old folks with discretionary income are NOT going to spend it on games the cannot play because of always-connected DRM requirements.
Think with your wallets, developers and publishing houses. Rule number one of business: Never make it hard for the customer to give you his money. You are making it hard. That makes you dumb.
Slashdot Mirror
EVE Online still holds the record for most epic fallout from not paying a bill...
Also do not need a $400 pair of jeans to cover them. Sorry, Apple - you're hip and trendy and build a very capable device, but I don't NEED one...
Until I see the birth of one of these (bonus points if you've read the applicable books), I'm going to remain un-excited. Well, maybe except Oculus - that I may get excited over...
In my desire to be wordy, I failed in the accuracy department. I stand corrected. Your delivery, however... Meh. Though granted, it is the internet...
Unobtanium. Only possible explanation...
Absolutely! But sadly, the world is full of unpleasant people who will get it into their heads that what they want, they must have, and devil-may-care about the consequences. I'm not about to leave my life savings in a box on my doorstep in the hopes that no one will steal it. I'm going to safeguard it in a vault or a bank (another topic for another thread, perhaps) because there are thieves afoot. My phone has a password on it because I'm not convinced the person to find it in case I misplace it won't be one to call Kenya on my dime. My car door is locked. The list goes on...
No - simply invoking the error chain, though I can see how that might come across in the reading. Take a link out of the error chain, any error chain (in flight collision, at-sea collision, ordnance mishap) and suddenly all you have is a close call instead of a headline. In similar fashion to the related story, taking certain precautions (full night of sleep, drink a six pack instead of a case, put down the phone instead of answering it mid-turn), keeps everyone out of harm's way. Tech is a tool - so are weapons. The user has certain responsibilities for both understanding and usage.
I dunno. Sure - there's the pseudo-excuse that is Autism, and the pseudo-apology upon getting caught (didn't regret it when you were viewing the images, did you?). But unless you crawled out from under a rock and into Best Buy after being a hermit for the last decade, then by now you should know enough to take certain precautions. Turn your webcam away from you, close your laptop, don't change clothes in front of it, put your router in standby when not using it, don't click that link, he's not really an African Prince, she's not really going to Western Union you the money plus another hundred for your trouble, these aren't really naked pics of Pink, etc. In 2013, I think survival of the digital fittest should come into play...
"It also notes that Tesla's quoted new-car prices net out a $7,500 Federal income-tax credit for purchase of a plug-in electric car. According to the California dealers, just 20 percent of all car shoppers qualify for that credit--and the group attributes that statistic to the Congressional Budget Office..." says the industry that touts 0.9% APR financing (for well qualified buyers - suspect that number is a mite lower than 20%).
Just look no further than WASD. It's everywhere. It's a good idea, and it stuck. Personally, if I had an idea, put it in the wild, and saw it used later by someone else, I'd like to think I'd be charitable enough to say "Wow - I thought of that and people like it enough to use it." Developing a card game myself now, and a mite paranoid that someone like White Wolf or Steve Jackson might give me a slapdown due to some mechanics minutia. Reading this, I figure, heck with it. Make it, turn it into a PDF, throw it into the wild, and see what happens. Cards Against Humanity seems to be doing well for themselves. My day job pays enough. Why not?
There's space to be had - Governor's Island. That rock has been sitting idle for years, but the "woe is us - we're too crowded" headlines make for better ad sales than "we just blew up a building that could have housed any number of businesses if we'd just fixed it up." You have to really want it, people. Not just wank about it.
Yeah - article after article about how spiffy all the apps are, but nary a watch available to put them on. So we wait. And wait. And wait...
Now all EA games will come with free misery AND a Force Choke...
Yes, but poorly and for far more of _your_ taxpayer dollars than a more up-to-date solution would have been. Take the bowling alley projectors (I say this because the only other places I saw these projectors in use were bowling alleys): On USS McCAMPBELL (DDG-85), commissioned in 2002, the replacement bulbs were of the three separate colors, lasted about 2000 hours each, cost about $1500 each, and every time we fired our 5" gun, we had to recalibrate them. There were two of these projectors. At the time, a pair of large-screen plasmas would have been the same size, took up less space, cost about $3000ish, been shock mounted for an additional 50% of the cost, and been rated for about 10,000+ hours. I'll let you do the math on replacement costs and man-hours to calibrate. Why did we do it that way? Because there was a contract in place. We were forced into a bad deal, with old tech, that didn't do its job well, because a voter needed to remain employed. Likewise - Ford does not make money by making it easy to hack your own vehicle. Before long, we'll be signing EULAs every time we stick our key in the ignition, and we Ford will be licensing their vehicles, not selling them.
Modern tape drives - I do not doubt your tale. The sad state of our end is that we're using tape drives that are 10-15 years old.
Our tech in the Department of the Navy is 10 years old right out of the gate... Tape backup drives, 80/86 processors, bowling alley displays for Combat Information Center. And these things are showing up on newly commissioned warships! Perspective folks - suddenly Ford and their ilk aren't so bad... :-/
the Playstation Network?
Bagram. Carriers. FOBs. Hundreds of thousands of American Servicemembers who are forward deployed worldwide do not have and are not allowed to have personal electronics (iPads, PS3s, XBoxs, and the like) linked to the available network. They're barely able to check e-mail or Facebook, much less get Steam or XBox Live to reach out to their respective servers for authentication. And guess what? These 18-25 year old folks with discretionary income are NOT going to spend it on games the cannot play because of always-connected DRM requirements. Think with your wallets, developers and publishing houses. Rule number one of business: Never make it hard for the customer to give you his money. You are making it hard. That makes you dumb.