That other route for radar detectors has been done in a way... sometimes a cop will set everything up and then go for a cup of coffee. It's amusing ot see anyone with a detector slam on the brakes.
Sounds a lot like what a guy I know does... he's got friends in the local recycling center, so when they get in books, particuarly older hard covers, he takes them and sells them on ebay, making decent enough money on it too.
Not ot mention baen's other initiative, Webscription which you pay for 4 books that you get over a number of months as they prep it for publishing (In HTML), and get a full, edited (digital) copy in Palm Pilot, Rocketbook, RTF and MS Reader formats.
Cost? $15 a month for the books that are started that month. And, you only pay for months you want something from.
Could this be the fiture in publishing? Maybe... might just be a flop, but hey, at least it's getting tried.
First Wizards passes up the money cow that is Dragonlance for the 3E/d20 system (althugh, Margreat Wies, one of the creators of the world is going to be publishing the setting for 3E, through her own company), retired Planescape (as in, all the flavour is drained, and the concepts are laid out in Manual of the Planes), shunted Ravenloft off to White Wolf (You know, makes of Vampire the Masqurade, and such... they did a good edition, but should have made the core book compleat, without the need for their DM book)
Pretty much all they kept is Grayhawk (original D&D setting) and Forgotten Realms... both proven products, but, in the case of Dragonlance (nothing new published for games in ages) and Ravenloft, they were established as well.
And they're looking to take a risk on a new venture? paying a total of $160,000 for two potential ideas and one rough product? true, for the independant who gets the money, it's a dream, unless they want to retain ownerwhip of the materials.
myself, i'll keep hacking away on my own settings, useing them and developing them more... if I publish, I'll make them compatible with the Open Game License and release them digitally. Sure, migh not make money, but I have control over them.
My high school used to do something like this, unofficially at least. Fridays tended to be a free for all.. What ever games you brough, the admin would turn a blind eye to. Particuarly if you left all the files (this was pre Directx and CD's , you installed the files from disk and you could zip up the directory and had yourself a (pirated) game... with rawcopy, you didn't worry about copy protection either)
This was years ago, before the school division got rather... anal retentive and started doing massive security updates (pfft.. well in thier eyes) to lock down acess...
Interesting, opening a exe file in C++ and hitting run worked rather well to run anything you wanted... thier security was patched onto windows 95... Editing INI, bat and sys files to avoid the security program from loading was simple enough too... just had to make sure to put it back the same to make the admin happy.
Exaclly... I'm hopeing someone manages to put together a good game that has more focus on strategy than "Build and swarm"... difficult to do, but, it should be possible.
I beleive the story at the time wasn't that they were going to be used to create a super computer, but were going to be used as homputer hardware for guided missles.
I actually beleive that the "razon and blades model" has been used in consols by two companies. Microsoft... and Sega, refering to a story posted on slashdot a few weeks back...
Hatred isn't a logical thing. I'm fully in agreement of what exists isn't communism (communism, the pure verion would work well, but there are too many flaws in human nature to accept it at this time.)
But, it's a title they claimed, and the Americanpublic has been subject to Anti Communism propaganda for so long... it's a sort of brain washing...
Alright. First and formost, you talk to the company (as you have). And they're not going anything..
Next step is probably to inform toshiba that you're going to take this to a consumer's rights organisation (you'll have to look for which one is best to take the issue to, I'm Canadian, so I don't know where one takes these issues to in other countries). Companies, no matter the size -hate- getting involved with these organisations, because they often actually do help the consumer. If Toshiba doesn't make any attempt to help you (and even if they do) go to the consumer rights organisation and work with them to see what can be done about it.
That's the path i'd take... I like my Toshiba... the fan died long ago, but it's only a P100 420CDT Sattilite Pro, so overheating's rare.
Slashdot Mirror
First Neverwinter Nights and now Warcraft III?
*starts scrapeing up cash*
That other route for radar detectors has been done in a way... sometimes a cop will set everything up and then go for a cup of coffee. It's amusing ot see anyone with a detector slam on the brakes.
Sounds a lot like what a guy I know does... he's got friends in the local recycling center, so when they get in books, particuarly older hard covers, he takes them and sells them on ebay, making decent enough money on it too.
Cost? $15 a month for the books that are started that month. And, you only pay for months you want something from.
Could this be the fiture in publishing? Maybe... might just be a flop, but hey, at least it's getting tried.
First Wizards passes up the money cow that is Dragonlance for the 3E/d20 system (althugh, Margreat Wies, one of the creators of the world is going to be publishing the setting for 3E, through her own company), retired Planescape (as in, all the flavour is drained, and the concepts are laid out in Manual of the Planes), shunted Ravenloft off to White Wolf (You know, makes of Vampire the Masqurade, and such... they did a good edition, but should have made the core book compleat, without the need for their DM book)
Pretty much all they kept is Grayhawk (original D&D setting) and Forgotten Realms... both proven products, but, in the case of Dragonlance (nothing new published for games in ages) and Ravenloft, they were established as well.
And they're looking to take a risk on a new venture? paying a total of $160,000 for two potential ideas and one rough product? true, for the independant who gets the money, it's a dream, unless they want to retain ownerwhip of the materials.
myself, i'll keep hacking away on my own settings, useing them and developing them more... if I publish, I'll make them compatible with the Open Game License and release them digitally. Sure, migh not make money, but I have control over them.
group of nut cases?
Naw...
but if it happens, make sure that
a) there's food
b) there's firefighters to cut down on the need for the asbestos underware.
My high school used to do something like this, unofficially at least. Fridays tended to be a free for all.. What ever games you brough, the admin would turn a blind eye to. Particuarly if you left all the files (this was pre Directx and CD's , you installed the files from disk and you could zip up the directory and had yourself a (pirated) game... with rawcopy, you didn't worry about copy protection either)
This was years ago, before the school division got rather... anal retentive and started doing massive security updates (pfft.. well in thier eyes) to lock down acess...
Interesting, opening a exe file in C++ and hitting run worked rather well to run anything you wanted... thier security was patched onto windows 95... Editing INI, bat and sys files to avoid the security program from loading was simple enough too... just had to make sure to put it back the same to make the admin happy.
all else fails, they make good emergancy toilet paper too...
Actually clone troopers were decent shots. Storm Troopers (who were not clones) were piss poor ones though.
MEMS is a chip that does the work. The same chip can be used for differnt aplication, from retina projecting to TV projection.
add:
Duct tape.
Compleat MacGuyver series on video.
never worry about her being in a situation she can't get out of again.
Now that's a responce that doesn't please the media... but, i think it pleases the geeks...
Exaclly... I'm hopeing someone manages to put together a good game that has more focus on strategy than "Build and swarm"... difficult to do, but, it should be possible.
I beleive the story at the time wasn't that they were going to be used to create a super computer, but were going to be used as homputer hardware for guided missles.
I actually beleive that the "razon and blades model" has been used in consols by two companies. Microsoft... and Sega, refering to a story posted on slashdot a few weeks back...
Hatred isn't a logical thing. I'm fully in agreement of what exists isn't communism (communism, the pure verion would work well, but there are too many flaws in human nature to accept it at this time.)
But, it's a title they claimed, and the Americanpublic has been subject to Anti Communism propaganda for so long... it's a sort of brain washing...
Paciffic Northwest?
*looks outside*
I do beleive that I happen to be in the praries/Canadian Shield region of the continent... a long bloody way from the Pacific Northwest.
Hmm. I can do pretty much the same thing now, without the water block. Just a matter of planting the tree in the ground...
and not running it over with the lawn mower...
Actually, I beleive the story mentions that the Chinese solid water is polymer based, while Driwater is not.
So, I don't think that a patent issue will come up. Differnt techniques.
I think it's less anti china and more an anti communist thing.
Normal reasoning is Communism = Bad.
Now the ovious Joke...
So they invented ice in china?
*raspy breathing*
Never underestimate the power of slashdot my apprentice.
Now if this was popup ads...
Alright. First and formost, you talk to the company (as you have). And they're not going anything..
Next step is probably to inform toshiba that you're going to take this to a consumer's rights organisation (you'll have to look for which one is best to take the issue to, I'm Canadian, so I don't know where one takes these issues to in other countries). Companies, no matter the size -hate- getting involved with these organisations, because they often actually do help the consumer. If Toshiba doesn't make any attempt to help you (and even if they do) go to the consumer rights organisation and work with them to see what can be done about it.
That's the path i'd take... I like my Toshiba... the fan died long ago, but it's only a P100 420CDT Sattilite Pro, so overheating's rare.
the other part is... what does Switzerland have that anyone wants... I mean really...