If the salesman refuses, raise hell with his manager. Purchaser gets the disks for free, salesman gets reprimanded (or fired).
You forget the managers job. His job is to ensure his staff have the tools and pliable morals to sell you things. He won't be reprimanded or fired instead he's be "coached" on how to sell it to you without getting you angry. Perhaps he'll be told a better lie to use.
The Wii and to a lesser extent the DS almost require innovative gameplay.
I'd trade innovation for polish. Innovative games are usually gimmicky, unpolished, and often tiresome. The very few that are both polished and innovative tend to shine but they are outnumbered by the number of games that are innovative and crap.
Brand loyalty amongst gamers is the dumbest thing ever conceived. You miss out on so much by being "loyal" and by not delving into other systems that it makes you very much like the all-show-no-go crowd that emerged after The Fast and the Furious...
In other words, it makes you a fucking moron.
ie. Rabid Fanboyism.
Remember them, the ones who started slagging the 360 right away, then the wii before launch, and then the ps3 right now. The success or failure of a Companies console doesn't really determine the size of your penis. So taking any of it as seriously as people here have tends to diminish the human race as a whole.
Lets see, the article was posted by someone who seems to be with REAL.com. A number of "try it it folks, not as bad as before" seems to smell like astro turfers. I sense this entire post is pretty much a testament that REAL hasn't changed. They're still the same old shyster trying to sell you something someone else is giving for free. All the positive posts seem to have exactly the same tone with similar style. It makes me very very suspicious.
You're one for three, in my experience. Hardware issues: yeah, I've had a few. But my Mac just never crashes. And I have no idea what you're talking about when you say that "heavy usage" implies "regular maintenance". My Mac runs smoothly all the time, and the only "maintenance" I do is backing it up regularly.
I think the implications is the other way. Windows got better not Macs crashing a lot. My windows box has yet to crash. Haven't needed to reboot except for patches (adobe and windows update). Windows has made great strides from the frequent BSOD era of 95. If you don't do the stupid things your box tends not to be stupid regardless of what it is these days. If you do the stupid things Apple tends to make truly stupid harder.
NPD is brick and mortar only excluding some notably large brick and mortar outlets (walmart). Although it encompasses a large fraction of the market it under represent any firm with large online or mail order sales or any firm that sells a lot through Walmart. I do believe Apple is gaining a lot of lap top market share because it's price premium isn't as high in that market and it's got brand power that Lenovo or Gateway don't. I was thinking of recommending we get one for the office because of the amount of print work we do.
I am not a Apple fan, but I recognize it's strengths and weaknesses (note to people in the Steve Jobs RDF, it's not perfect).
I imagine one reason the PS3 is doing well internationally is that it's still somewhat "new" in Europe. Another is that it's not catching on in Japan very well at all -- and I'm not really seeing Microsoft taking steps to fix this./i>
It might be more accurate that the price premium isn't as stiff. During the past 8 years the US dollar has fallen 40%-50% against all major currencies so to an American a PS3 is ludicrously more expensive then the PS2 was at launch. However in Canada, in the EU and japan it came otu at approximately the same price point as the PS2 relative to inflation.
When you sell a mobile phone below cost, you are supposed to make up for the difference in the subscription fees. Which are mandatory to pay in the binding period even if you unlock the phone and use it on another net.
The phones being unlocked were likely bought at full retail. Honestly even if Apple sold at the subsidized price they'd still likely make money. Apple generally sells high margin products. Do you really think an iPod costs $399 in raw materials and labor?
I doubt anybody bought the 3yr contract version to unlock unless they knew for certain an unlocked phone = subsidized phone cost + exit fee on AT&T contract + profit.
So why is this legal and mod chips illegal? What's so special about computer hardware when it's got an MS or Sony logo on it, as opposed to an Apple or AT&T logo?
Precedent. We know both situations are technologically the same but in court cases concerning these technologies haven't. Also the difference may be how vigorously they are defended. Apple makes money both ways but MS/Sony/Nintendo loses money if piracy is too easy. AT&T may lose potential revenue as well but since it's not their technology they likely have far less say in it except to pressure Appl for a hardware revision.
Now is it legal, I would think so yes Apple and AT&T are loosing money from the deal but that is the cost of doing business realizing that people are not going to play by your rules all the time.
If you bought it without a 3yr AT&T deal then At&T lost a potential customer but Apple lost nothing. If you bought it with a 3yr deal then AT&T and apple have lost nothing. AT&T may attempt to extort Apple to lock them down better or differently or per sue unlockers individually but Apple is in a win - win situation.
The main reason PS3 sales are sluggish (and the reason I haven't even looked at buying one) is that most households in the US don't have an HDTV, and a PS3 really isn't worth the cost if you don't already have one. Considering that raises the minimum spending to enjoy the system to somewhere in the range of $1500 (System, Games, TV, cables, etc). While XBox360 certainly benefits from having HDTV, it's not as much of a requirement to enjoy the full feature set.
The HDTV install base is shifting fairly rapidly. Right now I have 2. Most of the people I know have at least 1 in the household. However I'm middle/upper middle class Canadian. So perhaps our poor country cousins down in the states are ina different spot. You know with your currency falling 40% and all.
...since when does "blatantly wrong" quality for "insightful" mods?
He may be basing his comment on international numbers. NPD only report American non walmart sales. VGCharts takes data from international sources as well. So while in the US the Ps3 is lagging slightly behind the PS3, the 360 doesn't sell well outside of the US and may in fact be outsold 2:1 over all. Although VgCharts will often revise their numbers as their latest is based on up to date and projected info. As new numbers come in they will revise it. According to VG charts the Ps3 has had a marginal lead for the last few months while NPD still shows the 360 strong. What we can take this as is that the 360 is still strong in the US market but is losing over all. But not by much and they still have a significant lead.
In Ireland, one in three pubs went bust. One thing that the anti-smoking lobby failed to predict, is that now instead of smelling of smoke, pubs smell of sweat and farts, which is far worse.
again what was the churn rate before the ban? a stat on closures only doesn't say anything. one in three new businesses in general close within the first year.
You do know a large amount of drives are made in Taiwan. Which is within arms reach of Chinese technology spies. I can't imagine sea gate has much technology that China hasn't already stolen.
I had a look at the website (on behalf of commercial science publishers) in question and I really couldn't care less about those pictures. It's probably fair-use anyway.
photographs and images never have republishing rights as fair use. If you grab anything from a clip art collections or someone else's collected works it needs the appropriate license. Photographers and graphics artists can't make money on support thus require licensing fees to get paid for their work. They take it really seriously because it is their primary income. Photographers for an organization like the associated press or independants don't just do it for shits and giggles.
I think it's a demographic thing. People who smoke tend to drink. Once a smoking ban goes into effect there is an initial dip in patrons which recovers shortly after. I recall someone did a Case study of the smoking laws in British Colombia, Canada and the net effect was a drop in patrons initially and a recovery up to pre-ban numbers after. It's been a while since I've run across it but it came up when our city was proposing a similar ban and some pro-smoking and restaurant groups provided studies specifying a drop. The anti-smoking lobby pulled the one from BC to outline that it was a temporary state.
My own city has instituted a ban and has not had a mass closure of restaurants and bars. It's been 2 years now and I had not noticed any of the most vocal establishments which claimed they'd be run out of business close. Bingo's however have noted lower attendance. I live in Edmonton, AB Canada. Here are some articles on it.
I couldn't find much more as the story is very old news here. I'd like to see stats from before and after as well as bars and restaurants tend to be a very dangerous business to begin with. Noting revenue declines in single locations or closures may not mean anything if the rate pre-ban was the same. Since it's a city wide ban it's not like people have anywhere else to socialize. It's counter intuitive that such a change could reduce business permanently.
Generally, yes. A virus could check for the existence of one of these rootkits, and abuse its hidden locations to hide itself. Which means that a virus can hide from even rootkit detectors in the shadow of "legitimate" software.
A virus could just skip the middle man and do it themselves. There no special permissions needed to create a malformed directory. I doubt it makes the system more vulnerable, it's just a very annoying hidden file hack.
It doesn't matter what their intent is, they are using rootkit techniques to hide shit on your computer. This allows other parties to piggyback on that tech and install other nastier UNDETECTABLE malware. It would be like if your house cleaning lady leaves your front door wide open when she leaves. Someone could stroll in, fuck your shit up, and leave undetected. Definitely something to seriously worry about.
However any old program can also do similar things by creating badly formated directory names. Rootkit implies a bit more. There are many files that employ the hidden property (like thumbs.db). Would we consider merely trying to hid enough to be a root kit? Or does it have to be malformed directory names? The previous rootkits made the Os unable to even see these files directly but this malformed directory can still be seen if you know what your looking for.
Seems like they've been pushing their own proprietary stuff for the past 20 yrs - most recently Blue Ray, but then there was that miniDisc that went nowhere. Not sure...did they have a roll in VHS/Beta? I used to be a fanboy, but it seems they get more negative press anymore.
MD disks were actually very successful across asia. They didn't find a market in North America. In the same span they have also created the 3.5 inch floppy, the CD, and had a bit of input on the DVD. It's be more accurate to describe their format strategies as being hit and miss since they have been part of some huge dogs (beta, UMD) and some very successful formats (CDs, 3.5 inch floppies).
Slashdot Mirror
If the salesman refuses, raise hell with his manager. Purchaser gets the disks for free, salesman gets reprimanded (or fired).
You forget the managers job. His job is to ensure his staff have the tools and pliable morals to sell you things. He won't be reprimanded or fired instead he's be "coached" on how to sell it to you without getting you angry. Perhaps he'll be told a better lie to use.
Bioware has a tradition of making Xbox games that come out on the PC later. I don't recall a single Xbox game of theirs that didn't come out on PC.
The Wii and to a lesser extent the DS almost require innovative gameplay.
I'd trade innovation for polish. Innovative games are usually gimmicky, unpolished, and often tiresome. The very few that are both polished and innovative tend to shine but they are outnumbered by the number of games that are innovative and crap.
Brand loyalty amongst gamers is the dumbest thing ever conceived. You miss out on so much by being "loyal" and by not delving into other systems that it makes you very much like the all-show-no-go crowd that emerged after The Fast and the Furious...
In other words, it makes you a fucking moron.
ie. Rabid Fanboyism.
Remember them, the ones who started slagging the 360 right away, then the wii before launch, and then the ps3 right now. The success or failure of a Companies console doesn't really determine the size of your penis. So taking any of it as seriously as people here have tends to diminish the human race as a whole.
Wait 6 mo for the PC version.
Uh, me. Packers are taking on the Cowboys.
Packers are gonna win the superbowl this year!
As a non Us citizen all I heard was
"Uh, me. blah blah blah.
blah blah blah this year!"
Lets see, the article was posted by someone who seems to be with REAL.com. A number of "try it it folks, not as bad as before" seems to smell like astro turfers. I sense this entire post is pretty much a testament that REAL hasn't changed. They're still the same old shyster trying to sell you something someone else is giving for free. All the positive posts seem to have exactly the same tone with similar style. It makes me very very suspicious.
Maybe her heart didn't regenerate. Maybe she just has two, because she's a klingon.
I didn't notice forehead ridges. Must be a Timelord then.
You're one for three, in my experience. Hardware issues: yeah, I've had a few. But my Mac just never crashes. And I have no idea what you're talking about when you say that "heavy usage" implies "regular maintenance". My Mac runs smoothly all the time, and the only "maintenance" I do is backing it up regularly.
I think the implications is the other way. Windows got better not Macs crashing a lot. My windows box has yet to crash. Haven't needed to reboot except for patches (adobe and windows update). Windows has made great strides from the frequent BSOD era of 95. If you don't do the stupid things your box tends not to be stupid regardless of what it is these days. If you do the stupid things Apple tends to make truly stupid harder.
NPD is brick and mortar only excluding some notably large brick and mortar outlets (walmart). Although it encompasses a large fraction of the market it under represent any firm with large online or mail order sales or any firm that sells a lot through Walmart. I do believe Apple is gaining a lot of lap top market share because it's price premium isn't as high in that market and it's got brand power that Lenovo or Gateway don't. I was thinking of recommending we get one for the office because of the amount of print work we do.
I am not a Apple fan, but I recognize it's strengths and weaknesses (note to people in the Steve Jobs RDF, it's not perfect).
I imagine one reason the PS3 is doing well internationally is that it's still somewhat "new" in Europe. Another is that it's not catching on in Japan very well at all -- and I'm not really seeing Microsoft taking steps to fix this./i>
It might be more accurate that the price premium isn't as stiff. During the past 8 years the US dollar has fallen 40%-50% against all major currencies so to an American a PS3 is ludicrously more expensive then the PS2 was at launch. However in Canada, in the EU and japan it came otu at approximately the same price point as the PS2 relative to inflation.
When you sell a mobile phone below cost, you are supposed to make up for the difference in the subscription fees. Which are mandatory to pay in the binding period even if you unlock the phone and use it on another net.
The phones being unlocked were likely bought at full retail. Honestly even if Apple sold at the subsidized price they'd still likely make money. Apple generally sells high margin products. Do you really think an iPod costs $399 in raw materials and labor?
I doubt anybody bought the 3yr contract version to unlock unless they knew for certain an unlocked phone = subsidized phone cost + exit fee on AT&T contract + profit.
So why is this legal and mod chips illegal? What's so special about computer hardware when it's got an MS or Sony logo on it, as opposed to an Apple or AT&T logo?
Precedent. We know both situations are technologically the same but in court cases concerning these technologies haven't. Also the difference may be how vigorously they are defended. Apple makes money both ways but MS/Sony/Nintendo loses money if piracy is too easy. AT&T may lose potential revenue as well but since it's not their technology they likely have far less say in it except to pressure Appl for a hardware revision.
Now is it legal, I would think so yes Apple and AT&T are loosing money from the deal but that is the cost of doing business realizing that people are not going to play by your rules all the time.
If you bought it without a 3yr AT&T deal then At&T lost a potential customer but Apple lost nothing. If you bought it with a 3yr deal then AT&T and apple have lost nothing. AT&T may attempt to extort Apple to lock them down better or differently or per sue unlockers individually but Apple is in a win - win situation.
The main reason PS3 sales are sluggish (and the reason I haven't even looked at buying one) is that most households in the US don't have an HDTV, and a PS3 really isn't worth the cost if you don't already have one. Considering that raises the minimum spending to enjoy the system to somewhere in the range of $1500 (System, Games, TV, cables, etc). While XBox360 certainly benefits from having HDTV, it's not as much of a requirement to enjoy the full feature set.
The HDTV install base is shifting fairly rapidly. Right now I have 2. Most of the people I know have at least 1 in the household. However I'm middle/upper middle class Canadian. So perhaps our poor country cousins down in the states are ina different spot. You know with your currency falling 40% and all.
...since when does "blatantly wrong" quality for "insightful" mods?
He may be basing his comment on international numbers. NPD only report American non walmart sales. VGCharts takes data from international sources as well. So while in the US the Ps3 is lagging slightly behind the PS3, the 360 doesn't sell well outside of the US and may in fact be outsold 2:1 over all. Although VgCharts will often revise their numbers as their latest is based on up to date and projected info. As new numbers come in they will revise it. According to VG charts the Ps3 has had a marginal lead for the last few months while NPD still shows the 360 strong. What we can take this as is that the 360 is still strong in the US market but is losing over all. But not by much and they still have a significant lead.
SW computability is still 80%+. I have the 60gb old one but use software rendering when ever I can. I have yet to play a game where it didn't work.
In Ireland, one in three pubs went bust. One thing that the anti-smoking lobby failed to predict, is that now instead of smelling of smoke, pubs smell of sweat and farts, which is far worse.
again what was the churn rate before the ban? a stat on closures only doesn't say anything. one in three new businesses in general close within the first year.
You do know a large amount of drives are made in Taiwan. Which is within arms reach of Chinese technology spies. I can't imagine sea gate has much technology that China hasn't already stolen.
I had a look at the website (on behalf of commercial science publishers) in question and I really couldn't care less about those pictures. It's probably fair-use anyway.
photographs and images never have republishing rights as fair use. If you grab anything from a clip art collections or someone else's collected works it needs the appropriate license. Photographers and graphics artists can't make money on support thus require licensing fees to get paid for their work. They take it really seriously because it is their primary income. Photographers for an organization like the associated press or independants don't just do it for shits and giggles.
I think it's a demographic thing. People who smoke tend to drink. Once a smoking ban goes into effect there is an initial dip in patrons which recovers shortly after. I recall someone did a Case study of the smoking laws in British Colombia, Canada and the net effect was a drop in patrons initially and a recovery up to pre-ban numbers after. It's been a while since I've run across it but it came up when our city was proposing a similar ban and some pro-smoking and restaurant groups provided studies specifying a drop. The anti-smoking lobby pulled the one from BC to outline that it was a temporary state.
My own city has instituted a ban and has not had a mass closure of restaurants and bars. It's been 2 years now and I had not noticed any of the most vocal establishments which claimed they'd be run out of business close. Bingo's however have noted lower attendance. I live in Edmonton, AB Canada. Here are some articles on it.
Bingo
I couldn't find much more as the story is very old news here. I'd like to see stats from before and after as well as bars and restaurants tend to be a very dangerous business to begin with. Noting revenue declines in single locations or closures may not mean anything if the rate pre-ban was the same. Since it's a city wide ban it's not like people have anywhere else to socialize. It's counter intuitive that such a change could reduce business permanently.
Generally, yes. A virus could check for the existence of one of these rootkits, and abuse its hidden locations to hide itself. Which means that a virus can hide from even rootkit detectors in the shadow of "legitimate" software.
A virus could just skip the middle man and do it themselves. There no special permissions needed to create a malformed directory. I doubt it makes the system more vulnerable, it's just a very annoying hidden file hack.
Like someone else pointed out, CD was a Sony/Philips collaboration and if you look at the spec and who contributed what it's nearly 50/50.
It doesn't matter what their intent is, they are using rootkit techniques to hide shit on your computer. This allows other parties to piggyback on that tech and install other nastier UNDETECTABLE malware. It would be like if your house cleaning lady leaves your front door wide open when she leaves. Someone could stroll in, fuck your shit up, and leave undetected. Definitely something to seriously worry about.
However any old program can also do similar things by creating badly formated directory names. Rootkit implies a bit more. There are many files that employ the hidden property (like thumbs.db). Would we consider merely trying to hid enough to be a root kit? Or does it have to be malformed directory names? The previous rootkits made the Os unable to even see these files directly but this malformed directory can still be seen if you know what your looking for.
Seems like they've been pushing their own proprietary stuff for the past 20 yrs - most recently Blue Ray, but then there was that miniDisc that went nowhere. Not sure...did they have a roll in VHS/Beta? I used to be a fanboy, but it seems they get more negative press anymore.
MD disks were actually very successful across asia. They didn't find a market in North America. In the same span they have also created the 3.5 inch floppy, the CD, and had a bit of input on the DVD. It's be more accurate to describe their format strategies as being hit and miss since they have been part of some huge dogs (beta, UMD) and some very successful formats (CDs, 3.5 inch floppies).