In order to protect herself from being potentially exposed, she decided to join a high-profile national lawsuit, charging that they had created a potential for people to find out her sexual preferences. How many days do you think it'll be before her picture is all over the web, sitting right next to the headline "formerly closeted lesbian pulled out of closet by attaching her name and face to a privacy lawsuit"?
Unfortunately there are plenty of assholes out there who will exaggerate anything in order to claim that they are more security conscious than the next person (and perhaps hope to get a contract for their company). But this is surely small war, no-one dead, move along please.
And those same people don't know (or remember) the first rule of intelligence:
Those who know, don't talk. Those who talk, don't know.
Selling us all unlimited *contracts* that they know they cant deliver, then later switching it to limited while we are still stuck with the contract should be something the FCC should look into.
Actually, such a change in the contract would probably let you get out of the contract without early termination fees. More likely they will do it for renewals only by no longer offering unlimited plans.
I used to think that way and never get the warranty, but these days the sales people give you 'gifts' for taking it. Basically, they give you a 80$ gift for a 100$ warranty. Then it becomes much more likely you'll get the warranty (assuming you need the gift they offer). For me, the latest extended warranty was with my PS3, they offered a 2nd controller with the warranty for just 10$ more than the normal price of the controller. 10$ for some peace of mind? Sure.
Two points:
In such cases, read the fine print. While the salesperson may say "you get a new one" the warranty often only paysup to your cost of the device if repairs are more than the purchase price. So if your receipt shows a lower purchase price (due to a full price warranty and discount on the device) you will only get the lower price back; usually as a gift card.
OTOH, some warranties can be returned within a set period for a full refund. Get the discount, return the warranty later.
A number of tehm automatically double the manufacturer's warranty, so for many items buying an extended warranty is pretty much duplication of existing coverage.
But, you see, Target markets to people who want value - reasonable cost and stylish. That's the message their ads put out, and you got it.
I'm not saying you are a sheep; just that effective marketing takes many forms and influences us in ways we may not even recognize.
Erm, except... I don't know that I've seen a target ad for their clothes. The only ones I can think of seeing were for electronics (I generally only watch TV for sports)
We go there for groceries because they're way cheaper than the grocery store, and I just wander through the men's section.
First, I'm not implying you specifically have been affected by Target ads, but will make a couple of generalizations
1. You don't have to remember an ad for it to be effective; and memorable ads may not be the most effective. It's all about subtle influences on behavior.
2. Even though you may only see (or remember) electronic ads; Target's value/style message could still get through and open you to looking at other items in the store. Again, effective ads exert subtle influences in people's beliefs about and desires fo products / services (and politicians although political ads rarely could be called subtle).
GSM is a pretty darn well-defined spec. The FCC compliance process takes months and is amongst the strictest in the business. You either conform completely or you don't get a licence. So WTF are these flavours you speak of?
ATT and T-Mobile use different frequency for 3G; so while the GSM phone bands are pretty standard the data bands are not. Hence no ATT 3G for teh Nokia N900 or T-Mobile 3G for unlocked ATT iPhones.
Approaches like this are pretty direct attacks on why free markets work. Almost all classical and neoclassical economic theory assume things like the existence of a supply/demand price curve, availability of pricing information, etc. If you have some nutty system where price curves aren't really defined beyond an individual level, prices aren't widely available, etc., all the usual pricing signals, resource allocation by the "invisible hand", etc., get a lot more muddled, and probably begin to break down.
Actually, it's a logical extension of classical economics. Aggregate supply and demand curves still exits; however you are just able to better price discrimante than before. Companies have tried this for years, universities have been doing it for years in terms of tuition.
Basically it means recruiting people for whom money is more important than their closest family and friends, and would happily fuck them over to recoup their losses. Possibly why MLM is so popular in America.
I don't think the clothes I buy at Target are worn by a "star"... but I could be wrong, mainly because I don't pay attention to such things. I buy clothes there because... I like the styles, and the prices are cheap. I discovered this simply by walking past them in the store.
Which brings us to your point. I don't think we're all sheep simply because a product we purchase employs a specific marketing tactic. It's sort of a "If a tree fell" scenario - how am I a sheep when I don't know that some cultural icon gets paid to wear / use something that I coincidentally also wear / use?
But, you see, Target markets to people who want value - reasonable cost and stylish. That's the message their ads put out, and you got it.
I'm not saying you are a sheep; just that effective marketing takes many forms and influences us in ways we may not even recognize.
Bill Gates also used to think his MSN proprietary network paywall would have more success than any silly Internet thingie. What he fails to realize is than in an Internet era, where price information travels rapidly, prices converge towards fixed prices. Not this drivel.
Actually, I see where this pricing model may succeed. First, if you look at pricing on the web it is all over the map. Even the big payers often have very different prices. Even on Ebay, even where buyers could set a max bid at the lowest price they can buy an item elsewhere, I see people more for items tahn they can at Amazon. I've even seen BIN prices below current bid prices. You would expect all the BIN stuff to go as soon as the bid price reched its price, but I've seen cases where that is not happening (and the sellers had similar feedback so it was not a trust issue). While there may be a number of reasons (buying outside of the area where other retailers ship, for example); it also leads me to conclude buyers do not use teh pricing transparency of the internet to their advantage.
Second, retailers could serve up different prices once the buyer accesses their pages, so no buyer may see the same price. Price search engines could either be ignored of fed a generic come-on price that changes when the buyer actually hits the retailer's page. The dynamic pricing ability of the web has the potential to revolutionize pricing and raise the margins on products (as well lowering them). Analytics, coupled with near instant data availability, give you the ability to gain real time insight into what's happening in the marketplace. More demand - jack up price until demand drops off, then drop it again.
People seem to assume that is development costs; but AA's budget, in true Army style, could include a lot more - from printing copies, facility costs, operational costs such as vehicle gas, travel and TDY expenses, etc.
That said, 33 mill is pretty impressive, especially if it is all in costs of the organization.
Alienating anyone in the field is a very bad idea, because it WILL come back to bite you eventually, and you never know who might prove useful down the line.
If what you are saying is true, please explain then, why do companies feel free to alienate workers en masse?
Their are lots of reasons, but one important thing to consider is the people in the company are not the company. The individuals may or may not agree with the decisions made; leaving them on good terms is what you really are doing.
There's no reason to be immature when you leave a company, whether it's your choice or not. Behave with class even if you're truly pissed, and don't bitch about how pissed off you are/were when you're interviewing either - nobody wants a whiner.
(SNIP)
A friend has closed product development consulting contracts because he did a favor for someone 10 years ago and that now-senior-executive remembered him. Be that remembered person.
How true. Never burn bridges unnecessarily. One of the best pieces of advice I got was "Never make an enemy when you can make a friend."
Basically if the payoff for being pissy is to make you feel good for 15 minutes, just go have a beer with friends instead. You'll feel just as good, and it may cost you less in the long run.
Except, of course, ant package that big cannot simply be dropped into a mailbox, and when you go to the USPO they will not take it with insufficient postage. Your best bet is to disassemble it enough to put it into a flat rate box.
Pardon my good sense, but isn't the only real response to this for anyone who isn't satisfied to just stop paying them anything at all and go play something else?
As with any situation where a dev doesn't give the players what they want, the only way to send a message is to stop paying for a sub-par product and go support something that you enjoy.
Exactly. If enough gamers reuse to buy their stuff; they will either change their model or go out of business. As a side note, I wonder what their reaction would be if players in game asked others not to spend real money and to spread the word to do the same? Their own game could be the used to spread a viral protest against the game.
I would say that this is mostly a personal aesthetic thing. It's sort of related to the reverence people who hate "digital books" hold for paper copies; they'll give you loads of ultimately irrational excuses down to the smell of the paper as to why they prefer to read a "real book." I've been reading novels on a screen for years, and I've discovered that I quite like the ability to zoom in on small-font text or to hold thousands of books in the footprint of one on my desk (it's really a coffee table but shhh!).
You're right, it is an personal aesthetic thing - different people value different things. To some people, owning many watches is enjoyable because they like watches, while someone else thinks a cell phone is fine because all they want to know is the time. Same thing with writing with a fine pen on quality paper vs. cheap stick pen and notebook filler paper. Neither is wrong, they just have differing tastes.
More to your point, reading a real book is more than simply looking at words on a page; if that is what someone enjoys their reasons, like yours for liking an e-reader, are neither irrational nor excuses, they simply are personal preferences.
Also, typewriters are very classy. A lot of writers still use them for many reasons I've heard. They like the satisfying sounds it makes. You can't go back and edit things you've just written. It separates you from technology. It separates you from office work. You can haul it anywhere it work without worrying about battery life. You can't get distracted and browse slashdot...
speaking of which, I should get back to my writing.
Actually, there were Selectrics that allowed editing - you hit an erase key and it lifted teh ink with an erasing ribbon by retyping the letter. It did, however, require power to run. Selectrics were a joy to use.
I wouldn't worry about that, as the end result of *not* cutting back on energy use is also the eventual destruction of the world economy. We live unsustainably. Oil isn't forever. Nukes aren't forever. Enjoy it while it lasts.
It drove me nuts being in college and meeting "IT" majors. I would ask them questions like what they like to program in or what kind of Linux they use, but anything I asked beyond the technical skills required to setup a standard home Linksys router was met with a blank stare and an explanation of how good they are with anti-virus and firewalls. It made me wonder why as an aviation major I knew ten times more than any IT major I ever met.
Well, you probably new more about basic aeronautics, because (and this is just a wild ass guess) your life depended on it? Little things, like why aircraft stall, can play a big role in your ability to maintain coordinated flight. As a result, most aviation majors learn a bit about the fundamentals of flight even though they are by no means aeronautical engineers.
Similarly, aeros know why a plane flys but can't just jump into the right seat and fly. Takeoff, maybe, but then again any idiot can takeoff. Landing is a whole different matter. An aero attempting to fly would quickly gain practical experience in the four fundamental forces involved in flight (stall, spin, crash, and burn); just as an aviator trying to design their own plane would learn why you don't use rectangular windows in an aircraft. (see Comet).
Skill sets are learned based on a perceived need and value.As a side note, did you have a bigger watch as well? With a cool circular slide rule?
Old destroyer man here. Nature and the elements are one enemy that sailors battle every day.
(snip)
Care to step aboard an aircraft carrier? During flight operations, no matter how peaceful, there is more danger in one 24 hour day than most people can imagine.
Which is why locking him up in a room for a little counseling session with some A Gangers, a few Bosuns, and maybe a hull tech or two wouldn't be a bad start...
Slashdot Mirror
In order to protect herself from being potentially exposed, she decided to join a high-profile national lawsuit, charging that they had created a potential for people to find out her sexual preferences. How many days do you think it'll be before her picture is all over the web, sitting right next to the headline "formerly closeted lesbian pulled out of closet by attaching her name and face to a privacy lawsuit"?
She filed as a Jane Doe to protect her privacy.
Unfortunately there are plenty of assholes out there who will exaggerate anything in order to claim that they are more security conscious than the next person (and perhaps hope to get a contract for their company). But this is surely small war, no-one dead, move along please.
And those same people don't know (or remember) the first rule of intelligence:
Those who know, don't talk. Those who talk, don't know.
Selling us all unlimited *contracts* that they know they cant deliver, then later switching it to limited while we are still stuck with the contract should be something the FCC should look into.
Actually, such a change in the contract would probably let you get out of the contract without early termination fees. More likely they will do it for renewals only by no longer offering unlimited plans.
I used to think that way and never get the warranty, but these days the sales people give you 'gifts' for taking it. Basically, they give you a 80$ gift for a 100$ warranty. Then it becomes much more likely you'll get the warranty (assuming you need the gift they offer). For me, the latest extended warranty was with my PS3, they offered a 2nd controller with the warranty for just 10$ more than the normal price of the controller. 10$ for some peace of mind? Sure.
Two points:
In such cases, read the fine print. While the salesperson may say "you get a new one" the warranty often only paysup to your cost of the device if repairs are more than the purchase price. So if your receipt shows a lower purchase price (due to a full price warranty and discount on the device) you will only get the lower price back; usually as a gift card.
OTOH, some warranties can be returned within a set period for a full refund. Get the discount, return the warranty later.
A number of tehm automatically double the manufacturer's warranty, so for many items buying an extended warranty is pretty much duplication of existing coverage.
But, you see, Target markets to people who want value - reasonable cost and stylish. That's the message their ads put out, and you got it.
I'm not saying you are a sheep; just that effective marketing takes many forms and influences us in ways we may not even recognize.
Erm, except ... I don't know that I've seen a target ad for their clothes. The only ones I can think of seeing were for electronics (I generally only watch TV for sports)
We go there for groceries because they're way cheaper than the grocery store, and I just wander through the men's section.
First, I'm not implying you specifically have been affected by Target ads, but will make a couple of generalizations
1. You don't have to remember an ad for it to be effective; and memorable ads may not be the most effective. It's all about subtle influences on behavior.
2. Even though you may only see (or remember) electronic ads; Target's value/style message could still get through and open you to looking at other items in the store. Again, effective ads exert subtle influences in people's beliefs about and desires fo products / services (and politicians although political ads rarely could be called subtle).
GSM is a pretty darn well-defined spec. The FCC compliance process takes months and is amongst the strictest in the business. You either conform completely or you don't get a licence. So WTF are these flavours you speak of?
ATT and T-Mobile use different frequency for 3G; so while the GSM phone bands are pretty standard the data bands are not. Hence no ATT 3G for teh Nokia N900 or T-Mobile 3G for unlocked ATT iPhones.
Is Islam an economic system?
No, but it contains rules on economic behaviour. There are islamic banks, for example. Google is your friend.
Which, intersteingly enough, manage to make a profit without violating Islamic law. Pretty flexible bunch, those capitalists.
Approaches like this are pretty direct attacks on why free markets work. Almost all classical and neoclassical economic theory assume things like the existence of a supply/demand price curve, availability of pricing information, etc. If you have some nutty system where price curves aren't really defined beyond an individual level, prices aren't widely available, etc., all the usual pricing signals, resource allocation by the "invisible hand", etc., get a lot more muddled, and probably begin to break down.
Actually, it's a logical extension of classical economics. Aggregate supply and demand curves still exits; however you are just able to better price discrimante than before. Companies have tried this for years, universities have been doing it for years in terms of tuition.
Basically it means recruiting people for whom money is more important than their closest family and friends, and would happily fuck them over to recoup their losses. Possibly why MLM is so popular in America.
China seems to be catching up. Darn copycats.
I don't think the clothes I buy at Target are worn by a "star" ... but I could be wrong, mainly because I don't pay attention to such things. I buy clothes there because ... I like the styles, and the prices are cheap. I discovered this simply by walking past them in the store.
Which brings us to your point. I don't think we're all sheep simply because a product we purchase employs a specific marketing tactic. It's sort of a "If a tree fell" scenario - how am I a sheep when I don't know that some cultural icon gets paid to wear / use something that I coincidentally also wear / use?
But, you see, Target markets to people who want value - reasonable cost and stylish. That's the message their ads put out, and you got it.
I'm not saying you are a sheep; just that effective marketing takes many forms and influences us in ways we may not even recognize.
Bill Gates also used to think his MSN proprietary network paywall would have more success than any silly Internet thingie. What he fails to realize is than in an Internet era, where price information travels rapidly, prices converge towards fixed prices. Not this drivel.
Actually, I see where this pricing model may succeed. First, if you look at pricing on the web it is all over the map. Even the big payers often have very different prices. Even on Ebay, even where buyers could set a max bid at the lowest price they can buy an item elsewhere, I see people more for items tahn they can at Amazon. I've even seen BIN prices below current bid prices. You would expect all the BIN stuff to go as soon as the bid price reched its price, but I've seen cases where that is not happening (and the sellers had similar feedback so it was not a trust issue). While there may be a number of reasons (buying outside of the area where other retailers ship, for example); it also leads me to conclude buyers do not use teh pricing transparency of the internet to their advantage.
Second, retailers could serve up different prices once the buyer accesses their pages, so no buyer may see the same price. Price search engines could either be ignored of fed a generic come-on price that changes when the buyer actually hits the retailer's page. The dynamic pricing ability of the web has the potential to revolutionize pricing and raise the margins on products (as well lowering them). Analytics, coupled with near instant data availability, give you the ability to gain real time insight into what's happening in the marketplace. More demand - jack up price until demand drops off, then drop it again.
People seem to assume that is development costs; but AA's budget, in true Army style, could include a lot more - from printing copies, facility costs, operational costs such as vehicle gas, travel and TDY expenses, etc.
That said, 33 mill is pretty impressive, especially if it is all in costs of the organization.
Alienating anyone in the field is a very bad idea, because it WILL come back to bite you eventually, and you never know who might prove useful down the line.
If what you are saying is true, please explain then, why do companies feel free to alienate workers en masse?
Their are lots of reasons, but one important thing to consider is the people in the company are not the company. The individuals may or may not agree with the decisions made; leaving them on good terms is what you really are doing.
There's no reason to be immature when you leave a company, whether it's your choice or not. Behave with class even if you're truly pissed, and don't bitch about how pissed off you are/were when you're interviewing either - nobody wants a whiner. (SNIP) A friend has closed product development consulting contracts because he did a favor for someone 10 years ago and that now-senior-executive remembered him. Be that remembered person.
How true. Never burn bridges unnecessarily. One of the best pieces of advice I got was "Never make an enemy when you can make a friend."
Basically if the payoff for being pissy is to make you feel good for 15 minutes, just go have a beer with friends instead. You'll feel just as good, and it may cost you less in the long run.
But you'll still feel as pissy...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postage_due
Except, of course, ant package that big cannot simply be dropped into a mailbox, and when you go to the USPO they will not take it with insufficient postage. Your best bet is to disassemble it enough to put it into a flat rate box.
Pardon my good sense, but isn't the only real response to this for anyone who isn't satisfied to just stop paying them anything at all and go play something else?
As with any situation where a dev doesn't give the players what they want, the only way to send a message is to stop paying for a sub-par product and go support something that you enjoy.
Exactly. If enough gamers reuse to buy their stuff; they will either change their model or go out of business. As a side note, I wonder what their reaction would be if players in game asked others not to spend real money and to spread the word to do the same? Their own game could be the used to spread a viral protest against the game.
(snip
I would say that this is mostly a personal aesthetic thing. It's sort of related to the reverence people who hate "digital books" hold for paper copies; they'll give you loads of ultimately irrational excuses down to the smell of the paper as to why they prefer to read a "real book." I've been reading novels on a screen for years, and I've discovered that I quite like the ability to zoom in on small-font text or to hold thousands of books in the footprint of one on my desk (it's really a coffee table but shhh!).
You're right, it is an personal aesthetic thing - different people value different things. To some people, owning many watches is enjoyable because they like watches, while someone else thinks a cell phone is fine because all they want to know is the time. Same thing with writing with a fine pen on quality paper vs. cheap stick pen and notebook filler paper. Neither is wrong, they just have differing tastes.
More to your point, reading a real book is more than simply looking at words on a page; if that is what someone enjoys their reasons, like yours for liking an e-reader, are neither irrational nor excuses, they simply are personal preferences.
Also, typewriters are very classy. A lot of writers still use them for many reasons I've heard. They like the satisfying sounds it makes. You can't go back and edit things you've just written. It separates you from technology. It separates you from office work. You can haul it anywhere it work without worrying about battery life. You can't get distracted and browse slashdot...
speaking of which, I should get back to my writing.
Actually, there were Selectrics that allowed editing - you hit an erase key and it lifted teh ink with an erasing ribbon by retyping the letter. It did, however, require power to run. Selectrics were a joy to use.
Yea, schools. PU is a fine school.
I wouldn't worry about that, as the end result of *not* cutting back on energy use is also the eventual destruction of the world economy. We live unsustainably. Oil isn't forever. Nukes aren't forever. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Breeder reactors. Nukes can be forever.
Another side note? Buckeye? War Eagle? E-R?
It drove me nuts being in college and meeting "IT" majors. I would ask them questions like what they like to program in or what kind of Linux they use, but anything I asked beyond the technical skills required to setup a standard home Linksys router was met with a blank stare and an explanation of how good they are with anti-virus and firewalls. It made me wonder why as an aviation major I knew ten times more than any IT major I ever met.
Well, you probably new more about basic aeronautics, because (and this is just a wild ass guess) your life depended on it? Little things, like why aircraft stall, can play a big role in your ability to maintain coordinated flight. As a result, most aviation majors learn a bit about the fundamentals of flight even though they are by no means aeronautical engineers.
Similarly, aeros know why a plane flys but can't just jump into the right seat and fly. Takeoff, maybe, but then again any idiot can takeoff. Landing is a whole different matter. An aero attempting to fly would quickly gain practical experience in the four fundamental forces involved in flight (stall, spin, crash, and burn); just as an aviator trying to design their own plane would learn why you don't use rectangular windows in an aircraft. (see Comet).
Skill sets are learned based on a perceived need and value.As a side note, did you have a bigger watch as well? With a cool circular slide rule?
It's in, well, Towson, which is in Baltimore County, MD.
Old destroyer man here. Nature and the elements are one enemy that sailors battle every day.
(snip)
Care to step aboard an aircraft carrier? During flight operations, no matter how peaceful, there is more danger in one 24 hour day than most people can imagine.
Which is why locking him up in a room for a little counseling session with some A Gangers, a few Bosuns, and maybe a hull tech or two wouldn't be a bad start...