I completely agree. Walk into your local neighborhood GameStop/Electronics Boutique/Best Buy and look at the floor space that they dedicate to PC games vs. Console games. That is where you can see the biggest indicator. Floorspace is expensive, so they are going to stock their shelves and dedicate that floorspace with the products that can maximize revenue.
At the GameStop in my town, they now dedicate more space to used console games then they do to PC games, and I'm in the same town as Geek-Central Purdue University. The same goes for the Best Buy in town.
Honestly, I prefer my Dreamcast/PS2/Xbox (there are advantages/disadvatages to all, no religous orthodoxy here) to my PC for many games, simply because it is simpler and I can sit down and play on my 36inch tv from my couch. Games like Civilization / Warcraft / almost any strategy game I prefer on the PC, but for things like Soul Calibur, Medal of Honor, Deus Ex, Final Fantasy, NFL 2K*, Knights of the Old Republic, I like the console.
You just live in the wrong place. Check out Copient Technologies (now owned by NCR). They developed the "MyMarsh" program for Marsh Supermarkets in Indiana. Also, if you shop at any stores that have those little printers that print out coupons, such as Meijer, those are run by Catalina Marketing and those are custom.
To all the people that say that they don't use discount cards in order to maintain privacy, do you ever pay with credit card, debit card, or check?
Many many companies use Catalina Marketing as their targeted marketing company. That company establishes who you are looking at your bank account number, or your credit card number. Then they can follow that number from store to store establishing correlations.
From their website:
Catalina Marketing provides a multi-dimensional understanding of the customer by combining purchase behavior inside and outside of the store with demographical information, attitudes and preferences...
Manages one of the sixth largest databases in the world, containing over 100 million customer records
"As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last loose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."
This sounds like something that would have been in Jennifer Government, a book by Max Berry. The book is set in a world where capitalism has run totally amuck. And is centered on an outlandish marketing scheme where Nike has orchestrates some killings to heighten "street cred" for their new line of shoes. It is a good read, so is Syrup by the same author.
Exactly. And as the maker of a software product it is thier perrogative as to what the default value is. I would hate to have the government telling me what the default values for things should be. If the user's don't use open standard type, yet they are given the oppurtunity to, then it is no longer the software manufacturer's fault.
I have been thinking, and talking with my co-workers about this: I wonder how many jobs have been lost in the "tech downturn" because of companies using Free/Open software instead of developing things themselves. This came to mind after hearing 2 suits sitting at a table next to me at lunch (who worked for a large insurance company) talking about how they reduced headcount in the database division. They said:
A: Yeah...I was able to reduce the IT headcount by 5 last month.
B: How?
A: Well, you know we were working on that claims system in house, well with the budget cut I scrapped the project. Instead I hired a couple kids from Purdue who wrote basically the same thing with Perl and Post-something or a another. I let the IT guys go, and just hired the kids part time, and we don't have to pay for the software. The budget is now about a 10th of what it was.
B: Good deal...I've heard that the web group is doing the same thing....
That conversation snippit really got me thinking about this. What does everyone else think?
I stand corrected. Disney doesn't own Pixar, but most if not all of the commercial success that they have had has been due to Disney films and Buena Vista distribution channels. Since Pixar is in the movie business, I still wonder what their stance is, regardless of who owns them.
There are companies that already hold much of this data about purchases. A company called Catalina Marketing who makes those little printers that print coupons when you buy things at grocery stores, or pet stores or whatever, already keep track of all purchases, including credit card numbers, checking account numbers, types of items purchesed, frequency, geographic locations, etc. All that data is searchable via a CRM system. Wal-Mart also has that system. People just need to learn that there is no "reasonable expectation" of privacy in any place outside of your own home. Unencrypted email has never been secure, it wasn't designed to be, ISP records are just as open.
There never has been "privacy," so I don't know what most of the advocates expect.
Just imagine for a second how the world would be different right now if there would have been a patent on Mosaic or Lynx (or any of the very early web browsers).
All I know is in Civ, when the race to get to Aplha Centauri starts, when the techs are more or less equal, the civilazation with the most number if citys usually wins...
I've used the refill stuff for Black and White on my Lexmark and it worked fine, but I wouldn't really dare on the color stuff. The color formulas are too touchy and if the mix is wrong, then the color matching in the printer and the driver will be wrong as well. (something you don't want in photos).
I've had my Z42 for about a year and a half. I'm on my 2nd B/W cart (refilled the first one once) and 2nd color and 2nd photo quality. I do a decent number of photographs, and my wife does a lot of text (still a student). The big thing: print in draft mode if it isn't REALLY important.
I think it is rather funny that 2 posts down we are talking about how sucky the IT job market is now and pay cuts and living paycheck to paycheck, but at the same time here we are talking about DVD sets and toys. Just an interesting observation.
I think the biggest problem here is that people are dedicating the early part of their lives to computers, and that is causing the "burn out." If you spend your youth sitting in a dark office drinking Mt. Dew and playing Quake without enjoying other things in life, you will see the "computer" as a reason that you are burnt out. I'm a developer. I graduated CS. I enjoy it. I like the coding. I like the projects. I even like the managers. BUT, I keep a very distinct line between my "life" and my "job." I'm married, I enjoy the outdoors, and when I leave work for the day (which is sometimes 6 hrs, sometimes 12 hrs) I leave work there. Sure I mess with the computer at home, but I also seperate my "hobby" (which I would be doing regardless what my job is) and my job. Basically it is a matter of work-life balance (to use the buzzword.) If you allow yourself to be 1 dimensional, then you will get sick of it.
Then you should become a TA for the course after you have taken it. Or perhaps take courses that are non CS related. I minored in English for this reason.
That is my point exactly. Word would be easier to use for you if it had a "vi" mode. The same impression would be made if you tried have a secretary who just finished the community college course on Word try to create a complexly formatted document with vi and LaTex. To her, Word would be much easier, because that is what she knows.
Easy to use often is "looks exactly like windows" when you consider the ease of use of any system is directly related to the amount of experience you have with it. Since most Joe Six-Pack users have had experience with Windows, that is what they know. If they can take that body of knowledge and apply it to a new system then they will like it better. Why is Ctrl-V paste and Ctrl-X cut? Wordstar. People knew those shortcuts from the old system, and since the software makers wanted to make it "easier to use" for new users, they kept the same bindings. How many people use Emacs key bindings in non-Emacs editors? It is the same principle. People like what they already know and hence look at it as "easier." Is QWERTY the best keyboard layout? When you think about it not really. But since we all know it most of us view it as the easiest, when it would actually be much easier to put all of the most common letters on the home row.
RedHat doesn't and will never make money from home users, so they don't care about home broadband. They make money, or at least try to, from business customers who need phone support because it is cheaper for them to ask for help then to hire or train someone to baby sit.
Slashdot Mirror
I completely agree. Walk into your local neighborhood GameStop/Electronics Boutique/Best Buy and look at the floor space that they dedicate to PC games vs. Console games. That is where you can see the biggest indicator.
Floorspace is expensive, so they are going to stock their shelves and dedicate that floorspace with the products that can maximize revenue.
At the GameStop in my town, they now dedicate more space to used console games then they do to PC games, and I'm in the same town as Geek-Central Purdue University. The same goes for the Best Buy in town.
Honestly, I prefer my Dreamcast/PS2/Xbox (there are advantages/disadvatages to all, no religous orthodoxy here) to my PC for many games, simply because it is simpler and I can sit down and play on my 36inch tv from my couch. Games like Civilization / Warcraft / almost any strategy game I prefer on the PC, but for things like Soul Calibur, Medal of Honor, Deus Ex, Final Fantasy, NFL 2K*, Knights of the Old Republic, I like the console.
You just live in the wrong place. Check out Copient Technologies (now owned by NCR). They developed the "MyMarsh" program for Marsh Supermarkets in Indiana.
Also, if you shop at any stores that have those little printers that print out coupons, such as Meijer, those are run by Catalina Marketing and those are custom.
Once again, my favorite game quote:
"As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last loose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."
-- Commissioner Pravin Lal, "Librarian's Preface"
This sounds like something that would have been in Jennifer Government, a book by Max Berry. The book is set in a world where capitalism has run totally amuck. And is centered on an outlandish marketing scheme where Nike has orchestrates some killings to heighten "street cred" for their new line of shoes. It is a good read, so is Syrup by the same author.
Yep. Purdue compilers course when I was there used PS as the target platform and we used the Dragon book as our text.
Here is a good searchable database of Microsoft innovations (ie. Publications) out of Microsoft Research.
Its not Slashdot, its Fark!
Exactly. And as the maker of a software product it is thier perrogative as to what the default value is. I would hate to have the government telling me what the default values for things should be. If the user's don't use open standard type, yet they are given the oppurtunity to, then it is no longer the software manufacturer's fault.
Aren't you supposed to "extend" it....
eXtensible Markup Language...
Just my $.02
That conversation snippit really got me thinking about this. What does everyone else think?
I stand corrected. Disney doesn't own Pixar, but most if not all of the commercial success that they have had has been due to Disney films and Buena Vista distribution channels.
Since Pixar is in the movie business, I still wonder what their stance is, regardless of who owns them.
I have always wondered what Pixar's stance on this is. Jobs is one of Pixar's head guys, but they are owned by Disney.
There are companies that already hold much of this data about purchases. A company called Catalina Marketing who makes those little printers that print coupons when you buy things at grocery stores, or pet stores or whatever, already keep track of all purchases, including credit card numbers, checking account numbers, types of items purchesed, frequency, geographic locations, etc. All that data is searchable via a CRM system. Wal-Mart also has that system. People just need to learn that there is no "reasonable expectation" of privacy in any place outside of your own home. Unencrypted email has never been secure, it wasn't designed to be, ISP records are just as open. There never has been "privacy," so I don't know what most of the advocates expect.
In keeping with the open source dogma of "you fix it," are all the parties BYOB?
Just imagine for a second how the world would be different right now if there would have been a patent on Mosaic or Lynx (or any of the very early web browsers).
All I know is in Civ, when the race to get to Aplha Centauri starts, when the techs are more or less equal, the civilazation with the most number if citys usually wins...
I love things like this...
:)
It must be true I read it on the internet
If it is true, which is probably isn't, then good luck Scotty!
If it isn't, well... weeee. one more hoax to the list.
I've used the refill stuff for Black and White on my Lexmark and it worked fine, but I wouldn't really dare on the color stuff. The color formulas are too touchy and if the mix is wrong, then the color matching in the printer and the driver will be wrong as well. (something you don't want in photos).
I've had my Z42 for about a year and a half. I'm on my 2nd B/W cart (refilled the first one once) and 2nd color and 2nd photo quality. I do a decent number of photographs, and my wife does a lot of text (still a student). The big thing: print in draft mode if it isn't REALLY important.
I think it is rather funny that 2 posts down we are talking about how sucky the IT job market is now and pay cuts and living paycheck to paycheck, but at the same time here we are talking about DVD sets and toys. Just an interesting observation.
I think the biggest problem here is that people are dedicating the early part of their lives to computers, and that is causing the "burn out." If you spend your youth sitting in a dark office drinking Mt. Dew and playing Quake without enjoying other things in life, you will see the "computer" as a reason that you are burnt out. I'm a developer. I graduated CS. I enjoy it. I like the coding. I like the projects. I even like the managers. BUT, I keep a very distinct line between my "life" and my "job." I'm married, I enjoy the outdoors, and when I leave work for the day (which is sometimes 6 hrs, sometimes 12 hrs) I leave work there. Sure I mess with the computer at home, but I also seperate my "hobby" (which I would be doing regardless what my job is) and my job.
Basically it is a matter of work-life balance (to use the buzzword.) If you allow yourself to be 1 dimensional, then you will get sick of it.
Then you should become a TA for the course after you have taken it. Or perhaps take courses that are non CS related. I minored in English for this reason.
That is my point exactly. Word would be easier to use for you if it had a "vi" mode. The same impression would be made if you tried have a secretary who just finished the community college course on Word try to create a complexly formatted document with vi and LaTex. To her, Word would be much easier, because that is what she knows.
Easy to use often is "looks exactly like windows" when you consider the ease of use of any system is directly related to the amount of experience you have with it. Since most Joe Six-Pack users have had experience with Windows, that is what they know. If they can take that body of knowledge and apply it to a new system then they will like it better. Why is Ctrl-V paste and Ctrl-X cut? Wordstar. People knew those shortcuts from the old system, and since the software makers wanted to make it "easier to use" for new users, they kept the same bindings. How many people use Emacs key bindings in non-Emacs editors? It is the same principle. People like what they already know and hence look at it as "easier." Is QWERTY the best keyboard layout? When you think about it not really. But since we all know it most of us view it as the easiest, when it would actually be much easier to put all of the most common letters on the home row.
RedHat doesn't and will never make money from home users, so they don't care about home broadband. They make money, or at least try to, from business customers who need phone support because it is cheaper for them to ask for help then to hire or train someone to baby sit.