"To be quite honest, selling the PS3 hurts the bottom line more than not selling right now. The last estimate I heard was that 30 software titles or accessories must be sold per system to break even (on the 60GB)."
You're forgetting that the cost to manufacture a PS3 has already been spent. They're assembled, packaged, shrink-wrapped and already sitting on the shelves. The only variable right now is if they get any of that money back in the form of a sale.
If Sony can't hire a survey team that will ask questions like "Would you be interested in Feature X even if it doubled the price?" then it's their own damned fault.
"Here's what Sony needs to learn:"
They need to learn to stop blaming the consumer for their own problems. The consumer works for his or her money and it is up to Sony to actually put forward a little effort to get that money from the consumer. In this quasi-capitalist market, Sony is not entitled to the consumers bowing to their will, rather the other way around (i. e. if the market is only willing to bear half the price for Feature X, you either sell it at that price or don't sell it at all).
Attempting to blame the consumers for Sony's own short-sightedness in a competitive market makes you sound like... well, a Sony executive.
Has either format yet reached the market penetration of the laserdisc format? Because that's pretty much the only segment of the population that will be interested in either for the forseeable future: audiophiles.
"Of course not, no more than the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has conisders the outcome of increased overpopulation and the ensuing political, social and environmental chaos that will be caused by curing endemic diseaes in third world countries.
What!? This little bit of "social Darwinism" gets modded insightful!? "Sorry, we could cure your child's terminal disease, but letting him die an agonizing death would help keep the price of gasoline down."
What if it's decided that letting you live would contribute to the "political, social and environmental chaos?" Would you stand up and volunteer to be dragged out into the street and shot? Or does your sense of first world privilege only allow you to consider that outcome for poor/brown people?
Seriously, your attitude just made the case in favor of the legislation as far as I'm concerned.
"Jim Gray, Turing Award winner and developer of many fundamental database technologies, was reported missing at sea after a short solo sailing trip to the Farallon Islands off San Francisco."
So it's probably calloused to be talking about the Darwin award, but this is something you simply have to expect when you go on these solo sailing expeditions. Sure, there's the allure of "one man against the sea," but the sea often wins (has a very long history of wins, in fact), and if you don't take the necessary precautions, well... when you want to take your life into your own hands like that, by definition everything that happens to you is your own fault.
"I think this is a real test case of whether the notion of the UK as a nation holds any actual power in the World."
Compared to whom? The US is still waiting for France to extradite French citizen Roman Polanski to answer a rape charge. "No extradition" often means just that, unless you think that the UK should hold countries to violate their own constitutions.
OK, so we're supposed to both decimalize our measurement system while simultaneously shifting to a currency system where the smallest increment is 1/20?
The Sixteenth Amendment came from everybody disagreeing with a flawed Supreme Court ruling (namely Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.) that declared that taxing income for landlords was a direct capitation. But even then, that didn't prevent Congress from taxing income from wages and the like.
"the funds had to be collected from the states"
The federal government had the ability to levy indirect taxes without apportionment since at least Hylton v. United States in 1796. And even that ignores customs and duties, which was the main source of income for the early federal government.
"state legislatures had to squeeze the money from their constituents and"
The only taxes that the federal government can't touch without apportionment are property taxes (which, at the time, meant "slaves").
"Direct tax" means a tax on being warm and having a pulse; "property tax," a type of direct tax, is a tax on property just for the sake of being there. What you do with that warm body and the property you have under your control can be taxed indirectly.
"Obviously, the Senate was very resistant to any expansion of the budget which would require their bosses (the state legislatures) to raise taxes."
Note the order of the amendments: the Sixteenth predates the Seventeenth. The Sixteenth Amendment had the approval of 2/3 of the state-appointed Senators.
"The 16th and 17th were passed because this very deliberate limitation was seen as a problem."
The Sixteenth Amendment was passed to ensure that pre-existing income taxes did not favor the wealthy landowners. The people wanted a more egalitarian/progressive tax structure.
The Seventeenth Amendment is a completely different animal from the states' point of view: it absolves them of pesky responsibilities. It is easier to sit back and cherry-pick which issues to complain about and challenge in federal courts than it is to actively participate in the federal process and potentially alienate voters. Senate appointments was one more way for a state legislator to lose the next election.
"Obviously, this pretty much gutted the power of the states."
The states can repeal either whenever they please, without intervention from Congress.
The same could be said of Gonzales v. Raich. That didn't prevent a majority of the Supreme Court from nullifying a California law dealing solely with intrastate commerce.
Slashdot Mirror
"To be quite honest, selling the PS3 hurts the bottom line more than not selling right now. The last estimate I heard was that 30 software titles or accessories must be sold per system to break even (on the 60GB)."
You're forgetting that the cost to manufacture a PS3 has already been spent. They're assembled, packaged, shrink-wrapped and already sitting on the shelves. The only variable right now is if they get any of that money back in the form of a sale.
"You had to know that would raise the price."
If Sony can't hire a survey team that will ask questions like "Would you be interested in Feature X even if it doubled the price?" then it's their own damned fault.
"Here's what Sony needs to learn:"
They need to learn to stop blaming the consumer for their own problems. The consumer works for his or her money and it is up to Sony to actually put forward a little effort to get that money from the consumer. In this quasi-capitalist market, Sony is not entitled to the consumers bowing to their will, rather the other way around (i. e. if the market is only willing to bear half the price for Feature X, you either sell it at that price or don't sell it at all).
Attempting to blame the consumers for Sony's own short-sightedness in a competitive market makes you sound like... well, a Sony executive.
"While the general image of Google is still that it 'does no evil'"
Bullshit.
Has either format yet reached the market penetration of the laserdisc format? Because that's pretty much the only segment of the population that will be interested in either for the forseeable future: audiophiles.
"with an optical scan system that allows a voter to mark an oval next to a candidate's name before slipping a ballot into an electronic reader."
I don't know about the rest of Florida, but here in Volusia County that's exactly what's been in place since at least 2004.
"Of course not, no more than the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has conisders the outcome of increased overpopulation and the ensuing political, social and environmental chaos that will be caused by curing endemic diseaes in third world countries.
What!? This little bit of "social Darwinism" gets modded insightful!? "Sorry, we could cure your child's terminal disease, but letting him die an agonizing death would help keep the price of gasoline down."
What if it's decided that letting you live would contribute to the "political, social and environmental chaos?" Would you stand up and volunteer to be dragged out into the street and shot? Or does your sense of first world privilege only allow you to consider that outcome for poor/brown people?
Seriously, your attitude just made the case in favor of the legislation as far as I'm concerned.
"There are some, but they are a pretty small minority of the population."
Never underestimate the spending power of fourteen-year-old girls.
"Given the amount of time that many people spend playing WoW, you'd be able to tell which ones were the Wii players by their ONE MASSIVE ARM."
Slashdotters, masturbation, etc...
Oh, it's just too easy.
Personally, with the Turbo Grafx 16 support, I'm waiting for an English version of Rondo of Blood.
"Jim Gray, Turing Award winner and developer of many fundamental database technologies, was reported missing at sea after a short solo sailing trip to the Farallon Islands off San Francisco."
So it's probably calloused to be talking about the Darwin award, but this is something you simply have to expect when you go on these solo sailing expeditions. Sure, there's the allure of "one man against the sea," but the sea often wins (has a very long history of wins, in fact), and if you don't take the necessary precautions, well... when you want to take your life into your own hands like that, by definition everything that happens to you is your own fault.
are typosquatters?
Find everything there is to know about "salshdot!"
"International Standards Organization (ISO)"
Intertional Organization for Standardization
Microsoft will "revolutionize" internet television in about 8 years.
I've already seen her stance on video games, that's all I needed to know.
"What they did was they got 1 FISA judge to declare the whole program legal,"
Yay, a general warrant! We don't need no stinking Fourth Amendment!
So we get a 0 % to 5 % tax on using the form of currency that doesn't allow others to easily track our spending habits, et al?
"I think this is a real test case of whether the notion of the UK as a nation holds any actual power in the World."
Compared to whom? The US is still waiting for France to extradite French citizen Roman Polanski to answer a rape charge. "No extradition" often means just that, unless you think that the UK should hold countries to violate their own constitutions.
To comply with listing requirements, we are including a non-functioning hard drive with this WoW account.
I'd rather eBay start delisting all those "informational CDs" instead.
What's wrong with the oldie-but-goodie Bomberman '93 now available for download, complete with 5-player joy if you have a WaveBird lying around?
"I've got a huge jar of them."
You poor thing. I'm willing to bite the bullet and take it off your hands for you, because I'm such a giving guy.
"Ever since the "Leave a penny, take a penny" concept took off,"
I've only ever seen it at gas stations. And I've started seeing signs on those cups like "Need a penny? Take a penny. Need two pennies? Get a job!"
OK, so we're supposed to both decimalize our measurement system while simultaneously shifting to a currency system where the smallest increment is 1/20?
"Especially in conjunction with the 16th."
The Sixteenth Amendment came from everybody disagreeing with a flawed Supreme Court ruling (namely Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.) that declared that taxing income for landlords was a direct capitation. But even then, that didn't prevent Congress from taxing income from wages and the like.
"the funds had to be collected from the states"
The federal government had the ability to levy indirect taxes without apportionment since at least Hylton v. United States in 1796. And even that ignores customs and duties, which was the main source of income for the early federal government.
"state legislatures had to squeeze the money from their constituents and"
The only taxes that the federal government can't touch without apportionment are property taxes (which, at the time, meant "slaves").
"Direct tax" means a tax on being warm and having a pulse; "property tax," a type of direct tax, is a tax on property just for the sake of being there. What you do with that warm body and the property you have under your control can be taxed indirectly.
"Obviously, the Senate was very resistant to any expansion of the budget which would require their bosses (the state legislatures) to raise taxes."
Note the order of the amendments: the Sixteenth predates the Seventeenth. The Sixteenth Amendment had the approval of 2/3 of the state-appointed Senators.
"The 16th and 17th were passed because this very deliberate limitation was seen as a problem."
The Sixteenth Amendment was passed to ensure that pre-existing income taxes did not favor the wealthy landowners. The people wanted a more egalitarian/progressive tax structure.
The Seventeenth Amendment is a completely different animal from the states' point of view: it absolves them of pesky responsibilities. It is easier to sit back and cherry-pick which issues to complain about and challenge in federal courts than it is to actively participate in the federal process and potentially alienate voters. Senate appointments was one more way for a state legislator to lose the next election.
"Obviously, this pretty much gutted the power of the states."
The states can repeal either whenever they please, without intervention from Congress.
"This is not an issue of interstate commerce."
The same could be said of Gonzales v. Raich. That didn't prevent a majority of the Supreme Court from nullifying a California law dealing solely with intrastate commerce.
Welcome to the post-FDR world.
Best of both worlds: I imported a Hori pad for my GameCube.