Even for Slashdot this is getting pretty annoying. Wow, a security hole in a multimedia oriented OS with millions of lines of code that is target #1 for virus makers and hackers. No way!
I made a Duke 3D map of my junior high. Why? Because as a 13 year old it is the SINGLE PLACE I know as well as my own home. A map needs to be big and accurate, what is better than a place you spend 6 hours a day in?
The RIAA has simply turned into another basic union. Every union in the US was good at some point but they have all far surpassed that honorable period. This is just another bureaucratic organization more concerned with its own bottom-line than culture or the general public.
Look at the carpenter's unions. Do you think the US is a better place because each hour they cost the employer about $80? These are mostly uneducated, only moderately skilled workers, commanding huge wage and benefit packages. This ultimately leads to ridiculous housing costs that get passed down to the consumer.
The baseball players union is in the same boat. They are the main reason why the average family can barely afford a trip to the ballpark. ARod was originally slated to be traded to the Red Sox in a deal where he would accept a small paycut. The players union vetoed it, as they didn't want a man with a $250m deal taking any sort of a pay cut.
Want to know why a movie costs $100m to make these days? Hollywood unions (editors/actors/etc). Want to know why cable is so expensive? Unions. Are the owners passing the costs down to the consumer? Yes, of course. Owners take the risk, for that risk they want 10% profit. So any increased costs are getting passed down. This is why manufacturing is getting done overseas. American workers have gotten so expensive that it is cheaper to build something and ship it thousands of miles on huge ships, and then drive it around the country, than to make it in this country.
The worst part is that I'm 99% Democrat/Liberal. Unfortunately as an owner of a unionized company I see how unions have made markets unprofitable and not worth the risk. The average consumer will be hard pressed to push the RIAA to cut the pork. The only ones that can change things are the unionized workers themselves. Get Bono and Madonna to gather their friends and fight the RIAA, then maybe we'll see some change.
Some people don't realize the other sect that buy gold. I'm in a raiding guild, if I'm logged in (which is pretty often despite working 6am-6pm) I'm raiding. I don't have the time to do disenchanting runs in Dire Maul, but my guild needs me in instances. So I bought a few gold for repairs and to buy some mats for my pots. Does it suck? Yes. Am I an asshole? Maybe. That being said, I have the discretionary income to spend. The dollar value of my time works out to some gold selling rates. It makes discal sense to me in terms of time invested. The game shouldn't be a job, it's a game. Farming Dire Maul and herbs is a job that I do a LOT of as is, but when I hit a wall at work and had no time to farm I made the plunge. Since the vast majority of my gold was used in repairs I really don't think I helped to destroy the already broken economy. Maybe I'm just being naive.
Also, some people are a bit out of touch with Warcraft. The value of skins isn't low because of farmers. It is low because leatherworking is broken and serves little to no purpose. The only useful skins are Core Leathers, and you can only get those in Molten Core (where farmers can't go). Stating that your rugged leathers don't sell because of the farmers shows a lack of experience in the game.
Obviously, it's asfe to assume this chair will not take off any time soon, if at all. The question is what if this did become popular, wouldn't this turn an office into an even more manfucturing type of setting? If everything you need is on the chair, then why do you even need cubicles? Or if you do keep the carpetted temporary walls, can't the "personal space" be even tighter? They only need room for one of these chairs. While I do desire a more comfortable chair, at least one better than this piece of wood at the college has provided the computer clusters with, this may be going a bit far. What's weird though, is that it does look comfortable. Personal taste, style, and dignity aside, we could certainly use a more ergonimic experience when checking Slashdot 7 times a day.
Let me just present my own situation. I go to a college of 12,000+ and we have many computer clusters. Most are split between PC's and Mac's. The Mac's are used, but few use them willingly. It's mostly because the Pc's are always busy, so someone jumps on a MAc until a Pc opens up. We are presented with a choice between MAC and PCS, and I routintely see half a cluster comprised of unused MACs, simply to be fair and have a 50/50 ratio. Inversely, our CS department is solely comprised of Linux and Linux programming. Everything is done in the console, and all programs are compiled with gcc. The result is that my roommate who's a CS senior with a high GPA is completely inept in Windows. I'm a business major, when he asks me for help routinely. While some will say that maybe he's dumb, the truth is that he doesn't play with computers in his free time, most of his work is done for school. Therefore, he has minimal Windows knowledge for his own computer in the apartment, and when presented with a problem is completely lost. I once asked him to create a "Hello World" program for Windows, and after 30 minutes he gave up, despite having Visual Studio at his disposal. His entire class and department has the same issues, because he's been taught in a Slashdot-type of community. His teachers routinely make fun of MS and all their tools, and refuse to use them. They have a vague premonition that their punishing MS and making a statement, but the only ones being hurt are the students. I left the CS department for these reasons, as did many others, being an overly passionate Linux junky is unfair to students dependant on the leadership of thier teachers. There's something to be said about intuitive OS and software.
My only hope is that they keep AOL IM and ICQ two seperate entities. I used to use ICQ when it first came out, and it was a great tool. Unfortunately, the creators began taking a "Brookstone" like approach to its product, and started to include the capabilities to do anything and everything. Eventually, the program got too large and veered off its main focus. Instant Messenger is for text messaging, plain and simple, it has a few other features but it's remained on course to this point. So either this will be a positive step and it'll keep one basic messaging program, and one all-inclusive program. Or it will be negative in that this is Aol's first step towards combining the 2 products into one large mess. It's bad enough that Winamp has started to get outside its intentions, don't let Aol IM get forced down this road also.
Slashdot Mirror
Wouldn't this only be news if he WASN'T the one playing Spock?
Even for Slashdot this is getting pretty annoying. Wow, a security hole in a multimedia oriented OS with millions of lines of code that is target #1 for virus makers and hackers. No way!
I made a Duke 3D map of my junior high. Why? Because as a 13 year old it is the SINGLE PLACE I know as well as my own home. A map needs to be big and accurate, what is better than a place you spend 6 hours a day in?
Idiots.
The RIAA has simply turned into another basic union. Every union in the US was good at some point but they have all far surpassed that honorable period. This is just another bureaucratic organization more concerned with its own bottom-line than culture or the general public.
Look at the carpenter's unions. Do you think the US is a better place because each hour they cost the employer about $80? These are mostly uneducated, only moderately skilled workers, commanding huge wage and benefit packages. This ultimately leads to ridiculous housing costs that get passed down to the consumer.
The baseball players union is in the same boat. They are the main reason why the average family can barely afford a trip to the ballpark. ARod was originally slated to be traded to the Red Sox in a deal where he would accept a small paycut. The players union vetoed it, as they didn't want a man with a $250m deal taking any sort of a pay cut.
Want to know why a movie costs $100m to make these days? Hollywood unions (editors/actors/etc). Want to know why cable is so expensive? Unions. Are the owners passing the costs down to the consumer? Yes, of course. Owners take the risk, for that risk they want 10% profit. So any increased costs are getting passed down. This is why manufacturing is getting done overseas. American workers have gotten so expensive that it is cheaper to build something and ship it thousands of miles on huge ships, and then drive it around the country, than to make it in this country.
The worst part is that I'm 99% Democrat/Liberal. Unfortunately as an owner of a unionized company I see how unions have made markets unprofitable and not worth the risk. The average consumer will be hard pressed to push the RIAA to cut the pork. The only ones that can change things are the unionized workers themselves. Get Bono and Madonna to gather their friends and fight the RIAA, then maybe we'll see some change.
Some people don't realize the other sect that buy gold. I'm in a raiding guild, if I'm logged in (which is pretty often despite working 6am-6pm) I'm raiding. I don't have the time to do disenchanting runs in Dire Maul, but my guild needs me in instances. So I bought a few gold for repairs and to buy some mats for my pots. Does it suck? Yes. Am I an asshole? Maybe. That being said, I have the discretionary income to spend. The dollar value of my time works out to some gold selling rates. It makes discal sense to me in terms of time invested. The game shouldn't be a job, it's a game. Farming Dire Maul and herbs is a job that I do a LOT of as is, but when I hit a wall at work and had no time to farm I made the plunge. Since the vast majority of my gold was used in repairs I really don't think I helped to destroy the already broken economy. Maybe I'm just being naive.
Also, some people are a bit out of touch with Warcraft. The value of skins isn't low because of farmers. It is low because leatherworking is broken and serves little to no purpose. The only useful skins are Core Leathers, and you can only get those in Molten Core (where farmers can't go). Stating that your rugged leathers don't sell because of the farmers shows a lack of experience in the game.
Obviously, it's asfe to assume this chair will not take off any time soon, if at all. The question is what if this did become popular, wouldn't this turn an office into an even more manfucturing type of setting? If everything you need is on the chair, then why do you even need cubicles? Or if you do keep the carpetted temporary walls, can't the "personal space" be even tighter? They only need room for one of these chairs. While I do desire a more comfortable chair, at least one better than this piece of wood at the college has provided the computer clusters with, this may be going a bit far. What's weird though, is that it does look comfortable. Personal taste, style, and dignity aside, we could certainly use a more ergonimic experience when checking Slashdot 7 times a day.
Let me just present my own situation. I go to a college of 12,000+ and we have many computer clusters. Most are split between PC's and Mac's. The Mac's are used, but few use them willingly. It's mostly because the Pc's are always busy, so someone jumps on a MAc until a Pc opens up. We are presented with a choice between MAC and PCS, and I routintely see half a cluster comprised of unused MACs, simply to be fair and have a 50/50 ratio.
Inversely, our CS department is solely comprised of Linux and Linux programming. Everything is done in the console, and all programs are compiled with gcc. The result is that my roommate who's a CS senior with a high GPA is completely inept in Windows. I'm a business major, when he asks me for help routinely. While some will say that maybe he's dumb, the truth is that he doesn't play with computers in his free time, most of his work is done for school. Therefore, he has minimal Windows knowledge for his own computer in the apartment, and when presented with a problem is completely lost. I once asked him to create a "Hello World" program for Windows, and after 30 minutes he gave up, despite having Visual Studio at his disposal. His entire class and department has the same issues, because he's been taught in a Slashdot-type of community. His teachers routinely make fun of MS and all their tools, and refuse to use them. They have a vague premonition that their punishing MS and making a statement, but the only ones being hurt are the students. I left the CS department for these reasons, as did many others, being an overly passionate Linux junky is unfair to students dependant on the leadership of thier teachers. There's something to be said about intuitive OS and software.
My only hope is that they keep AOL IM and ICQ two seperate entities. I used to use ICQ when it first came out, and it was a great tool. Unfortunately, the creators began taking a "Brookstone" like approach to its product, and started to include the capabilities to do anything and everything. Eventually, the program got too large and veered off its main focus. Instant Messenger is for text messaging, plain and simple, it has a few other features but it's remained on course to this point. So either this will be a positive step and it'll keep one basic messaging program, and one all-inclusive program. Or it will be negative in that this is Aol's first step towards combining the 2 products into one large mess. It's bad enough that Winamp has started to get outside its intentions, don't let Aol IM get forced down this road also.