Actually, with people leading longer lives, more people will have the opportunity to train in multiple disciplines. This would help scientific progress as people find ways to combine ideas from very different fields of study.
Okay, so I've seen tons of stories about people who sell EQ, SWG, or Diablo II items online...
I even know someone who has sold SWG money on e-bay and made quite a profit...
Which leads to the obvious question:
Who the heck is buying all this stuff?
Can we get some posts from people who actually buy virtual items? Why do you do it? What do you do with the items you buy? How do you decide how much a virtual sword is worth?
Later, he is admitting it is possible on the mobile, but not feaseable. (NIH Phase 2). But impracticable on the infrastructure. You have to install a new one.
Partially, correct. There have to be installed new Base Tranciever Stations. But hardly a new complete infrastructure. The whole GSM "back-end" is compatible.
In what way is that more inpracticable than installing a new "back-end" for the higher level functions? Which he says, can easily added to CDMA2k.
Installing new core network equipment is much less expensive than installing entirely new base station equipment!
To install new core network equipment, you just replace a few pieces of equipment in the network room at a centralized operations center. Sure, these may be fairly expensive, high-powered switches, but there are only a few of them and they are all centrally located.
To install entirely new base stations, you have to drive out to hundreds or even thousands of remote sites, rip the old equipment, and install new equipment. Base stations are scattered all over the place: in small purpose-built closets, on telephone poles, on building rooftops, etc.
Not only are you buying a ton of expensive new equipment, you have to pay massive labor costs to get it installed and working. After that you have to setup up new wireline connections to connect the equipment to your core network.
Keep in mind that you cannot rip the old 2G base station equipment, you need it for your existing customers. Thus, you need probably need to add more space for your new equipment. This may mean leasing more space, building larger equipment closets, upgrading the air conditioning in existing spaces, etc.
There is no doubt existing IS-95 operators have a huge advantage over GSM operators when it comes to rolling out commercial 3G services any time soon. US consumers who actually want 3G services (ie stuff that uses lots of bandwidth) will benefit from this.
In Europe this is not an issue, since GSM is mandatory there are no IS-95 networks so you have just have to sit and wait for a few years until UMTS becomes remotely mature.
Note that it is not entirely clear how much people really want these vaunted 3G services. Lots of people seem to be pretty happy just using thier mobiles for voice. If consumers are not interesting in paying more for premium services, the newer networks really have nothing to offer them.
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It will bring the word "Kludge" to mind for many English speaking software-types ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kludge
What keeps Kasparov from playing the exact same game again now that he has found a series of moves the program cannot beat?
Does it adapt in some way? Are some real programmers in there overnight tweaking things to prevent that?
Actually, with people leading longer lives, more people will have the opportunity to train in multiple disciplines. This would help scientific progress as people find ways to combine ideas from very different fields of study.
Okay, so I've seen tons of stories about people who sell EQ, SWG, or Diablo II items online ...
...
I even know someone who has sold SWG money on e-bay and made quite a profit
Which leads to the obvious question:
Who the heck is buying all this stuff?
Can we get some posts from people who actually buy virtual items? Why do you do it? What do you do with the items you buy? How do you decide how much a virtual sword is worth?
The economy is not a zero sum game, the total amount of wealth in the U. S. is much much greater than it was 30 years ago.
The rich today may indeed hold a greater proportion of the total wealth in the economy than they did 30 years ago.
It does not, however, follow that the average citizen today is less wealthy than his counterpart of 30 years ago.
As long as the total economy grows, everyone can win.