If you want to talk about strange currency habits, perhaps you can answer me this: Why would anybody need 200.00 EUR and 500.00 EUR notes? We're supposed to be the anti-establishment paranoid nutjobs and you're supposed to be the ones embracing electronic money transfers, so why are the euro zone members the ones using denominations that are only really useful for stuffing mattresses with or burying in the back yard? Sure, in the UK you only go up to 100.00 GBP notes, but that's still a lot of money (closer to 200.00 EUR than to 100.00 USD)!
Hell, I feel strange carrying a 50.00 USD note on me...
" Wouldn't a pocketful of $1 coins have more mass that a pocketful of $1 notes?"
Sure, but an equal amount of money in $2 bills is lighter still.
If you have that many singles, you need to go back to remedial math. You're supposed to spend them on purchases where the integer dollar amount isn't divisible by 5 (or by 2 if you take my previous advice). Throwing around large bills all the time introduces more room for error (accidental or intentional) when receiving your change. The only reason you should be getting singles back in change is if you have less than 4 on you at the time.
At any rate, I find dollar coins are useful on small purchases. That way I only need to reach into one pocket.
"and the vending machine manufacturers and the casinos would welcome the move,"
Casinos already use the larger coin denominations (the easiest way to get half-dollars outside of a bank is at a casino). The vending machine folks, on the other hand, don't want to have to replace their old coin-sorting equiptment, the kinds that won't accept coins larger in diameter than a quarter. The new machines will accept half-dollar and dollar coins (far more reliable than dollar bill readers, IMO), but you're going to have to wait for the old machines to get replaced.
The real problem, though, are cash register change trays. With no slots for half-dollars, dollar coins or $2 bills, they never get given back out to customers in change and almost always end up going straight back to the bank. And the stores have no reason to order rolls or bundles of these denominations because, although it would make life a little easier on the floor (the fewer bills/coins you have to count in giving out change, the fewer mistakes you'll make), they have no place to put them.
IMO, the Mint had the right idea in doing an end-run around the banks and distributing Sac dollars to Wal-Mart. The only thing they need to do now is get Wal-Mart to equip all their cash registers with change trays with enough slots. The market will take care of everything else.
"but people keep wanting to use those $1 bills over the Ike dollars,"
The Ike dollar failed because it was freakin' huge! And I'm not just talking about big in pants pockets or change purses, either. Think about how much a roll of Ikes weigh, and then think about how much the bank would have to pay to ship a truckload of these things some non-negligible distance. Suddenly the paper dollar looks much more economical.
The Sue B. has defined the dollar coin form factor for the forseeable future (mechanical coin sorters for Sue Bs also work with Sacs).
"Because there was no reason to change, since Uncle Stupid kept printing paper dollars."
Alright, since you have it all figured out, when was the last time you saw a Kennedy half-dollar or a Jefferson $2 bill? They're both out there (half-dollars are minted every year, and the glut of $2 bills from 1995 is just beginning to wear out), but nobody uses them, either. Neither of them have any competition (they're both the only US currency in their respective denominations), and the public has been ignoring them as well.
If you think the solution to the dollar coin problem is to do away with the paper dollar, you're ignoring both of these other ignored denominations.
The real solution to getting these denominations used is to make cash registere drawers that have enough slots: 6 bill slots and 6 coin clots.
"If Microsoft dropped the Xbox to $100 first, theres a good chance many of the recent GC purchasers would have went the the Xbox as their second console."
But that would have lasted a week or so until Sony and Nintendo got together and disemboweled Microsoft with anti-dumping laws.
Sundials tend not to gain/lose up to 30 seconds a month like your average cheap quartz crystal watch does (unless, of course, the sundial is on a moving platform). Short of a cesium clock, if you want something that approaches that kind of accuracy, you want a decent marine chronometer, which is probably heavier (ie. more expensive to put into space) than a sundial. And even if you did, who's going to wind it?
Except that us Moz users also tend to have the PrefBar Images checkbox cleared on many sites. Heck, if someone is feeling bored one weekend I'm sure they could hammer out a XUL plugin to automatically disable images (and/or Flash) in certain domains.
"China is working toward launching a manned space flight Real Soon Now(tm). Many news sites have stories suggesting it could be as soon as a week away."
PRC doesn't have access to the numerous ground tracking stations that NASA has access to for its manned missions. In order to keep in touch with the capsule, the People's Army-Navy has some communications ships whose primary purpose for being are to be communications relays. When these ships leave port for points around the globe, it's a pretty good sign that a Chinese launch goes from "Real Soon Now" to "Any Minute Now."
"TIVO system - This so-much-cash thing just isn't true. In order to buy a Tivo with a lifetime of service (anyone who pays monthly is a sucker, IMHO - I've been using my Panasonic Showstopper/ReplayTV since they first hit the streets so these units can last), you're going to pay $650!! That's for 80 GB of space and no DVD-R capability."
For $200, DirecTV will give me a TiVo with two satellite tuners (record up to two shows at once), and I'm paying enough for programming now that there would be no extra service charge.
... when you can save up a little more for a digital television and play all your game systems in 640p or 1024i? Heck, unless there are changes to be made in the North American version, this box doesn't even have component outputs.
"For example the US makes it damn hard to renouce its citizenship."
Huh?
From the link in your post:
"Americans can renounce U.S. citizenship in the proper form at U.S. embassies and consulates abroad."
From your own post:
"In order to lose U.S. citizenship, the law requires that the person must apply for the foreign citizenship voluntarily, by free choice, and with the intention to give up U.S. citizenship."
Where does "damn hard" come into play here? Hell, it sounds a heck of a lot easier to get rid of your US citizenship than to attain it.
At any rate, all US citizens are dual citizens. For example, I'm currently a citizen of the United States and the State of Louisiana.
"Zelda and Mario are the only things good for the gamecube at the moment..."
On the flip side, Zelda and Mario are available on the system.
I mean, even if what you just said were true (I feel there are more "must-have" games for GCN than either of its two main competitors), I can't see why Zelda or Mario wouldn't be justification to buy the console.
Will the NES games just be straight ports, or will they involve a graphical and aural overhaul, making them 2.5-D and look like something out of SSB Melee?
"He concurs that sometimes PC demos are 'leaked' from magazine cover-discs, but wonders "why such a poor representation of a product would be released anywhere in the first place", and concludes: "I tried to understand the reasons for the release of rather 'flawed' demos, but short term gains such as marketing deals or market timing are usually clearly outweighed by the overall consequences.""
See, you're looking in the wrong place. Many of these corporations don't really care how their games do in the long-term. Their goal is to build up hype to attract short-term money from short-term investors. Think "dot-com bubble" or "Enron economics" for relatively recent examples of this trend.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm personally waiting for "unobtanium" and "cantaffordium"
"I'm British. I'm used to European money,"
If you want to talk about strange currency habits, perhaps you can answer me this: Why would anybody need 200.00 EUR and 500.00 EUR notes? We're supposed to be the anti-establishment paranoid nutjobs and you're supposed to be the ones embracing electronic money transfers, so why are the euro zone members the ones using denominations that are only really useful for stuffing mattresses with or burying in the back yard? Sure, in the UK you only go up to 100.00 GBP notes, but that's still a lot of money (closer to 200.00 EUR than to 100.00 USD)!
Hell, I feel strange carrying a 50.00 USD note on me...
- Sure, but an equal amount of money in $2 bills is lighter still.
- If you have that many singles, you need to go back to remedial math. You're supposed to spend them on purchases where the integer dollar amount isn't divisible by 5 (or by 2 if you take my previous advice). Throwing around large bills all the time introduces more room for error (accidental or intentional) when receiving your change. The only reason you should be getting singles back in change is if you have less than 4 on you at the time.
At any rate, I find dollar coins are useful on small purchases. That way I only need to reach into one pocket."The average person is a moron."
And half of them are even dumber than that!
<RIMSHOT/>
" They get their information from the mainstream news"
While we, the "enlightened few" get our news from fine, reputable sources like Slashdot and blogs! And Slashdot. Oh, wait, that last was a dupe...
"and the vending machine manufacturers and the casinos would welcome the move,"
Casinos already use the larger coin denominations (the easiest way to get half-dollars outside of a bank is at a casino). The vending machine folks, on the other hand, don't want to have to replace their old coin-sorting equiptment, the kinds that won't accept coins larger in diameter than a quarter. The new machines will accept half-dollar and dollar coins (far more reliable than dollar bill readers, IMO), but you're going to have to wait for the old machines to get replaced.
The real problem, though, are cash register change trays. With no slots for half-dollars, dollar coins or $2 bills, they never get given back out to customers in change and almost always end up going straight back to the bank. And the stores have no reason to order rolls or bundles of these denominations because, although it would make life a little easier on the floor (the fewer bills/coins you have to count in giving out change, the fewer mistakes you'll make), they have no place to put them.
IMO, the Mint had the right idea in doing an end-run around the banks and distributing Sac dollars to Wal-Mart. The only thing they need to do now is get Wal-Mart to equip all their cash registers with change trays with enough slots. The market will take care of everything else.
"but people keep wanting to use those $1 bills over the Ike dollars,"
The Ike dollar failed because it was freakin' huge! And I'm not just talking about big in pants pockets or change purses, either. Think about how much a roll of Ikes weigh, and then think about how much the bank would have to pay to ship a truckload of these things some non-negligible distance. Suddenly the paper dollar looks much more economical.
The Sue B. has defined the dollar coin form factor for the forseeable future (mechanical coin sorters for Sue Bs also work with Sacs).
"I dont think coins go well over there"
Two words: casino tokens.
"The parent post was pointing out quite politely that US money is the oddball in international circles,"
Depends on how you define "oddball," considering how common the US dollar is. The majority of hard US currency is outside of the US.
"Because there was no reason to change, since Uncle Stupid kept printing paper dollars."
Alright, since you have it all figured out, when was the last time you saw a Kennedy half-dollar or a Jefferson $2 bill? They're both out there (half-dollars are minted every year, and the glut of $2 bills from 1995 is just beginning to wear out), but nobody uses them, either. Neither of them have any competition (they're both the only US currency in their respective denominations), and the public has been ignoring them as well.
If you think the solution to the dollar coin problem is to do away with the paper dollar, you're ignoring both of these other ignored denominations.
The real solution to getting these denominations used is to make cash registere drawers that have enough slots: 6 bill slots and 6 coin clots.
Donkey Kong - $2.99
Donkey Kong Jr. - $2.99
Mario Bros. - $2.99
Excitebike - $2.99
"If Microsoft dropped the Xbox to $100 first, theres a good chance many of the recent GC purchasers would have went the the Xbox as their second console."
But that would have lasted a week or so until Sony and Nintendo got together and disemboweled Microsoft with anti-dumping laws.
"better by a watch!"
Sundials tend not to gain/lose up to 30 seconds a month like your average cheap quartz crystal watch does (unless, of course, the sundial is on a moving platform). Short of a cesium clock, if you want something that approaches that kind of accuracy, you want a decent marine chronometer, which is probably heavier (ie. more expensive to put into space) than a sundial. And even if you did, who's going to wind it?
Except that us Moz users also tend to have the PrefBar Images checkbox cleared on many sites. Heck, if someone is feeling bored one weekend I'm sure they could hammer out a XUL plugin to automatically disable images (and/or Flash) in certain domains.
"Comments like "Hey China, welcome to the 1960's" are akin to saying "Hey Cortez, welcome to the 1490's" upon his return from America."
I'm not sure Cortez is the analogy you want to use here, unless you're intentionally comparing the PRC to a butcher.
"China is working toward launching a manned space flight Real Soon Now(tm). Many news sites have stories suggesting it could be as soon as a week away."
PRC doesn't have access to the numerous ground tracking stations that NASA has access to for its manned missions. In order to keep in touch with the capsule, the People's Army-Navy has some communications ships whose primary purpose for being are to be communications relays. When these ships leave port for points around the globe, it's a pretty good sign that a Chinese launch goes from "Real Soon Now" to "Any Minute Now."
"54'40" or fight!"
Into British Columbia? My God, man! Isn't one California enough!?!
"TIVO system - This so-much-cash thing just isn't true. In order to buy a Tivo with a lifetime of service (anyone who pays monthly is a sucker, IMHO - I've been using my Panasonic Showstopper/ReplayTV since they first hit the streets so these units can last), you're going to pay $650!! That's for 80 GB of space and no DVD-R capability."
For $200, DirecTV will give me a TiVo with two satellite tuners (record up to two shows at once), and I'm paying enough for programming now that there would be no extra service charge.
... when you can save up a little more for a digital television and play all your game systems in 640p or 1024i? Heck, unless there are changes to be made in the North American version, this box doesn't even have component outputs.
"I was beginning to think that Nokia offered them some lucrative package in return for pimping their product."
They did. But then GameSpy read the fine print and realized their kickback was a percentage of N-Gage sales.
"For example the US makes it damn hard to renouce its citizenship."
Huh?
From the link in your post:
"Americans can renounce U.S. citizenship in the proper form at U.S. embassies and consulates abroad."
From your own post:
"In order to lose U.S. citizenship, the law requires that the person must apply for the foreign citizenship voluntarily, by free choice, and with the intention to give up U.S. citizenship."
Where does "damn hard" come into play here? Hell, it sounds a heck of a lot easier to get rid of your US citizenship than to attain it.
At any rate, all US citizens are dual citizens. For example, I'm currently a citizen of the United States and the State of Louisiana.
"Zelda and Mario are the only things good for the gamecube at the moment..."
On the flip side, Zelda and Mario are available on the system.
I mean, even if what you just said were true (I feel there are more "must-have" games for GCN than either of its two main competitors), I can't see why Zelda or Mario wouldn't be justification to buy the console.
waving hand
You don't need to see those games.
Those aren't the Zelda games you're looking for.
Go back and play Wind Waker again.
"and GameSpy advocating a "wait and see" approach, although they also have the inevitable contrarian view."
What? They don't have a Top 25 Reasons Not to Get an N-Gage page yet?
Will the NES games just be straight ports, or will they involve a graphical and aural overhaul, making them 2.5-D and look like something out of SSB Melee?
"A front page story post with the goatse guy?"
Just think! You can subscribe and get to see goatse a few minutes before everybody else!
"He concurs that sometimes PC demos are 'leaked' from magazine cover-discs, but wonders "why such a poor representation of a product would be released anywhere in the first place", and concludes: "I tried to understand the reasons for the release of rather 'flawed' demos, but short term gains such as marketing deals or market timing are usually clearly outweighed by the overall consequences.""
See, you're looking in the wrong place. Many of these corporations don't really care how their games do in the long-term. Their goal is to build up hype to attract short-term money from short-term investors. Think "dot-com bubble" or "Enron economics" for relatively recent examples of this trend.