I recommended Speakeasy to all my clients, and just about everyone I knew, because I had amazing service from them. Best Buy I've never had anything but shitty service from. As of a few minutes ago, I'm recommending everyone I know steer very clear, and all my clients who are currently using Speakeasy to be prepared for when things start collapsing.
That will put them at a significant competitive disadvantage to the likes of RedHat.
More like RedHat being at a competitive disadvantage when Apple, IBM, and every other commercial vendor that uses the currently LGPLed gcc toolchain ignores GPLv3 versions and sets up a working group to continue to maintain the GPLv2 versions, while the GPL3 version of gcc languishes in obscurity along with its friend, HURD.
Cozy up to game developers and make the Mac a viable gaming platform
Not worth the time and effort. Your first point is worthwhile, but frankly, the only PC-only games worth worrying about, World of Warcraft and Starcraft, are available for the Mac already.
Not only would they be competing with Windows, but with the Xbox 360, the Wii, the PS3, and all of the last generation consoles for the gaming dollar, and it's just plain NOT WORTH IT. I'd love to have all kinds of nifty games available to play on my Mac, so I could wipe my Windows box and run only Linux on it, but it's just not going to happen, and it would be utterly stupid of Apple to waste money and time trying to do it.
I've re-rolled on my fair share of new servers, and by now I don't believe ANYONE who tells me they've been in Naxx unless they have the gear to show me. Every guild leader has naxx experience, etc, etc.
And I've personally/gquit one guild because they falsely advertised that they didn't care what spec you were (lot of aggressive marketing for druids out there). I've done the full resto druid thing back when innervate was a talent. I've had it up to here with "hardcore" raiding. If a group wants people of a certain spec, even if that happens to be the spec I am, I just don't join. Saves headaches for them and me.
Right, so if people would not do the kind of blatantly obvious and traceable things that might allow you to get sued, such as connecting to a torrent anyone can see, you can keep them out of your wallet that way too.
If I got a RIAA lawsuit threat, I'd be laughing all the way to my lawyers with the countersuit. I get music legally, without giving any money to the RIAA or the artists, and there's nothing short of the nuclear option against property ownership in general that can stop me from doing it, because they already got their cut. They just didn't get it from me.
Well, the problem with that is that the vast majority, if not all, of the really good gear is not tradable, ie "bind-on-equip". You actually have to run instances, pvp, craft them (many of the best pieces of crafted equipment cannot be traded, or require that the user have a certain level in that trade skill), turn in quests (which involve running instances for most of the good ones) or raise faction (which for the good stuff requires running instances repeatedly). There are a _few_ really unique pieces that can be traded, but they're rare enough that you can't build up a decent stock of them to actually try and do that kind of advertising in a RMT sense, or they're crafted items, which require a level of tradeskill and resource collection that makes it near impossible to develop an actual regular trade in them. Maybe a few people will use it to advertise to prospective buyers some super neat item they have, but the AH does that well enough as is.
The only real change that will come of this is that those guilds who require a certain spec or minimum gear level will be able to check that out without having to take someone's word on it and reduce the chance they'll get burned with a new applicant. People make a lot of fuss over how this is supposedly unfair, but if you're not willing to change your play style and talent build to fit the guild you want to join, why in the world are you bothering to apply?
How about driving you to refusing to buy the music in the first place?
Vote with your wallet, because that's the only vote that counts. Just buy used CDs. There are tons of places to do it online, and plenty of stores that sell pre-owned CDs as well. The RIAA and company gets zero money from it, and they can't stop it unless they wipe out the first-sale doctrine for everything, not just music. I wonder how much those music executives would enjoy being told that they have no right to resell their Jaguar to a dealership when they want to get a down payment on that nifty new Porsche.
If I ran my own store I'd be hard pressed to display PS1 games, but some of them still do. Last I looked the store I mentioned in Saugus did carry PS1 games, and even some N64 games still, and until at least a year ago they were selling PS1 games in the Beverly store as well, where I picked up a few gems.
Why would I not?
First and foremost, the vast majority of PS1 games you get as a trade-in are in barely saleable condition. Scratched to hell and back by god knows what.
Second, that era of games is starting to get re-released and remade as well. Mega Man X Collection obviated the need for me to hunt down X6 somewhere (though I did find it by happy accident, at a Game Stop no less). Resident Evil has been remade for four different console since then, including the DS. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is being released on Xbox Live Marketplace. I can't imagine this won't continue.
Third, space. You were already complaining about crowded stores. Well, keeping another bin of games taking up space makes that crowding even worse.
Fourth, far fewer people actually want them anymore. There are at least as many, if not more titles available for the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube, and they're awash in them, and I'd wager that the functioning install-base of old PS1s is far smaller than PS2s, Xboxes, and Gamecubes, let alone the PSP, DS, GBA (some of the stores still have a decent GBA rack, though the DS is pushing some out) Xbox 360, Wii, PS3, etc. The only people that actually want PS1 games are collectors and hobbyists. It used to be that any game player was a hobbyist, now that just isn't the case. Joe Blow just ain't going to buy Vagrant Story, Valkyrie Profile, Saiyuki, of Arc the Lad Collection. Not to mention that it's impossible to actually keep a stock of those kinds of cult games, without raising the price to well beyond reason.
Funcoland had a huge array of used products for every platform you could think of
Funcoland also existed in a much different landscape before it got bought. Back then there were a lot more functioning SNES, NES, Genesis, and N64 systems out there than there are now. The Dreamcast and N64 selection lasted quite a long time in most Gamestops before the lack of anyone buying them forced them to put that space to more profitable use. Not to mention the lack of re-release software collections, and it was far more difficult to access, and play reasonable, ROM images of those games.
Nowadays with ultra-popular games that used to be confined to the SNES released for later consoles (IE, Chrono Cross, which Funcoland used to sell for $80, the FF games, the old Mega Man games) being released for later consoles in collections, ROM collections for SNES, NES, Genesis, and systems that didn't even register on the US market can be downloaded in an evening's time, and played with reasonable controllers on a PC. Heck, the entire library of these old consoles will soon be available online via things like the Xbox Live marketplace, and the Wii marketplace (whatever they call it, I haven't gotten one yet) if they aren't now. It just doesn't make sense for anyone outside a true niche retailer to carry a supply of that kind of stuff, now. If Funcoland were still an independent concern, they would have done the same thing.
I don't bother anymore. I used to when it was EB. It was worth it. You were guaranteed the game/system and you usually got some bonus too.
I know many people that preordered with EB. You were probably guaranteed to get it EVENTUALLY, not on release day. The PS2 supply debacle was just the first big problem of that nature. Until then, you could reasonably guarantee day-of, because your total market wasn't big enough to sell out all your copies with people beating down the door. I know more than a few people that preordered a "guaranteed" PS2 that certainly didn't get it on day of release. Blame the explosion in game popularity, not the store.
Congratulations. Do you work there, or know somebody who does?
Nope. I think I mentioned this in my post, actually. If someone broke the company rules for me, it wasn't because I asked them to, or demanded that they do, as a lot of people I see in stores seem to think works. The whole "customer is always right, especially if you yell" crap is going to elicit nothing but malicious rules-lawyering in return.
Seriously, I've never heard somebody overlook blatant faults in something like this unless they were talking about a bad relationship they didn't realize they were in....
Snipped for brevity. Not that you will actually visit any of these stores to check out that I'm telling the truth, but since you're in MA, there's at least a chance that it'll happen, though it's a bit of a drive from Leominster. I'm not likely to visit your local one to see how bad it is either. The Game Stops in Saugus RT 1 south (used to be a Funcoland), in the Wal Mart plaza in Salem, and the one in Beverly. Especially the Beverly one. The EB in the Liberty Tree Mall is awful, and was awful before Game Stop even thought of buying out EB, as was the one that thankfully closed down in the North Shore Mall. There are apparently other ones around, but I haven't visited them, because I generally find something between the four of them. I have visited plenty in other states as well, and none of them are as infested with cardbord ads and empty boxes as you've claimed. Sure, the shop windows are covered with stuff, but aside from the top row, they just don't have that many "Coming Soon" titles out there. The EBs (they still carry the name, and from what I've heard the management hasn't been folded into the same management structure yet, so they're run nearly the same) I've been to are bad, but none of them have undergone any change i've noticed. They were already bad. They are mostly mall-based stores, which have ma
The chains that GameStop absorbed (Funcoland, EB, etc...) never had the anti-customer practices that Gamestop has
Uhhh, how many times did you ever shop at a Funcoland or an Electronics Boutique? In my opinion EB has always been the absolute worst of all the specialty games retailers I've ever encountered. Bar none. Bad policies, run their employees ragged on purpose to encourage turnover (every kid wants to work in a game store, and they'll work cheaper too) Software Etc? Please, I stopped going to the local store because of their constant badgering alone, price better or no. Game Stop buying them was the best thing that ever happened to them. Funcoland I never saw a difference between what they were and what they became after the merger. They were still pushy as hell, and there wasn't much you could do about it. You're looking at these guys through some strongly tinted rose glasses, here.
What types of things am I talking about?
Oh joy, let's see.
Imposing draconian quotas on their employees, which causes the sales associates to bully the customer into sales to prevent losing their job;
Sounds like what every Funcoland and EB employee I know and have known has told me was the case. I had people at Software Etc, EB, Babbages, Funcoland, GameWorld, and every other game store I've been in do their damndest to get me to buy those crappy "scratch remover" things, as well as assorted other stuff. If you think that's limited to Game Stop, it only shows how limited your experience is.
Forcing pre-orders for items which are not in short supply;
Really, FORCING preorders? I've pre-ordered one game EVER (Zelda: WIndwaker for the Ocarina of TIme/Master quest for GameCube disc you got), and that was from EB. Every new game (which isn't many these days) that I bought day of release from GameStop I bought without a preorder. Every single one, including big name games such as Final Fantasy 12.
Paying pathetic trade-in values while charging outrageous prices for used titles;
Here's a hint. If someone offers you less than you believe your game is worth, don't sell it to them. Sell it on eBay for what you think it's worth, and go spend that cash as opposed to store credit.
And if someone is charging an outrageous price for something, don't buy it. I buy piles of used games from Gamestop, and for none of them (save one or two hard-to-find items, but that's rarity for you) will I pay over $20. These days I have a hard time justifying paying more than $10 per game. I walked home with Max Payne, Max Payne 2, and Splinter Cell one day, for a grand total of $5 INCLUDING TAX. Ridiculously overpriced, indeed!
Maintaining a poor back catalog;
As far as the Gamestop.com website is concerned, you're correct. A lot of games don't seem to exist anymore as far as they're concerned. However, I've picked up a ton of non-existant games just by walking into the store. It's like a scavenger hunt. Finding old ANYTHING takes some looking. Hard to find items are called that for a reason.
Accepting vendor promotions that encourage their sales associates to favor one vendor over others at no real gain to the company;
Well, I imagine that someone upstream is getting paid enough that it seems to them that it's worth it to the company. It may not be worth it to your particular store, but "the company" generally cares about the big picture in general. Welcome to Corporate America. I hate it too, that's why I don't work there anymore.
Cramming so much marketing material into the store that you can't find anything you're looking for;
I must have the most awesome 5 GameStops in the world then, because aside from marketing material on the side-panels of the stands, the only thing stopping me from finding what I want are the vats of awful Xbox games, PS2 games, and DVDs they're just begging me to take off their hands. I honestly don't know what you're talking about.
Finally, people are starting to give us back as good as we are giving them. It's about time. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Hopefully every country will start applying the full standard and stopping US government officials they don't like from entering as well. Then maybe we'll see some change here, and possibly a little humility.
You foreigners have been way too cowardly, refusing standing up for yourselves against my government. Get some fucking backbone.
They're trying to say that code is not patentable, but running software as part of a system functioning to accomplish some task is patentable, as it is part of a system.
The principle is the same as the venerable Method of exercising a cat patent. It isn't required that the laser pointer, or the wall be patentable to violate the patent against using the wall and the laser pointer in that way.
Similarly, they are arguing that while the source code may not be patentable as such, executing the source with a processor to accomplish something is patentable. Another way to think of it is that a creative work, say a song or a novel, is not patentable (copyright != patents, remember). However, "Method of transcribing a communication onto paper" describing using any tool for marking paper to inscribe marks in a known or unknown language, is theoretically patentable. Hell, for all I know Harper Collins has it in it's vault ready to make a killing off every other publisher ever when the time is right.
...I could care less if the company cares about the community or its values, and that's the point.
The only good argument from a business perspective for open source is that if you use open source software you are not going to be held hostage by a licensor that alters the deal when your business is wedded to the IT infrastructure they provide. As long as the open source license these "bad" open source companies release it under is really an open license that allows you to modify and redistribute the code, that's all that matters. I don't have to care why the released the source. It just doesn't matter.
"Foolproof systems do not take into account the ingenuity of fools." - Gene Brown
There are no solutions that users cannot screw up. Learn that or expect major disappointment for the rest of your days when things you thought couldn't possibly be simpler are screwed up beyond belief.
Basically, this method of security fails when people don't care about their security. This is a problem?
Security requires active checking to make sure a security measure is in effect. If you don't check to see if your padlock was secured, it's not the lock maker's fault if someone unhooked the unlocked padlocked and stole your stuff.
Actually this is worse. The lock maker damn well isn't at fault IF YOU DIDN'T CHECK THAT IT WAS YOUR PADLOCK.
I call bullshit on this
on
Finding New Code
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· Score: 5, Interesting
I'm not a coder, but my impression of the vast majority of coders is that they reinvent the wheel because they believe that everyone screwed up their wheel implementation and if no one is going to do it right, they should.
Open source operating system has problems inter-operating with closed, constantly changing, standards-free, and hostile proprietary system.
Alert the blogosphere!
I mean, I feel for the guy trying to get Linux to work in a Microsoft-only environment, but this isn't exactly surprising, at all. Hell, Microsoft has problems getting their own software (Entourage in Office Mac) working with Exchange. The answer is to never use Exchange in the first place. If you're already locked into Exchange and its feature set as a driving force within your business, you're going to have to suck up and deal, or go through the pain of a switchover to something that's reasonably open. I've got the same problem with a client which is a marketing department of a large Netware based company, and the marketing people all use Macs exclusively, and the Novell Mac client is too buggy to use, forcing them to install VirtualPC on their machines so they can to basic e-mail and scheduling stuff. Costly, you bet, especially in my time because of how buggy it all is, and the idiotic design flaws of their network, but they can't just switch over because they're locked in to Netware after years of use, and they're paying for that shortsighted decision. However, it's still cheaper than dealing with the upheaval of switching from Netware to something reasonable.
My local hardware store sells them for 50 cents each, individually boxed. Dunno if they're recycled paper boxes, but there are plenty that aren't sold in the blister packaging. He sells them as fast as he can get them in.
So, your company is poorly run, has an IT infrastructure that's poorly maintained, as well as enough issues with power that you regularly have building-wide power outages? That sounds like a far bigger issue than whether you, personally, are able to get any work done with no power.
Financially prudent living involves purchasing very little, in real life or Second Life.
Not necessarily. Purchasing fewer luxuries is part of financially prudent living, but in business and personal life, I see way too many people stepping over dollars to pick up dimes. Paying for improvements in various efficiencies, most notably energy efficiency, which will directly translate to cost savings, often involves purchasing a significant amount of things.
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I recommended Speakeasy to all my clients, and just about everyone I knew, because I had amazing service from them. Best Buy I've never had anything but shitty service from. As of a few minutes ago, I'm recommending everyone I know steer very clear, and all my clients who are currently using Speakeasy to be prepared for when things start collapsing.
That will put them at a significant competitive disadvantage to the likes of RedHat.
More like RedHat being at a competitive disadvantage when Apple, IBM, and every other commercial vendor that uses the currently LGPLed gcc toolchain ignores GPLv3 versions and sets up a working group to continue to maintain the GPLv2 versions, while the GPL3 version of gcc languishes in obscurity along with its friend, HURD.
You forgot the Chewbacca defense.
"If Chewbacca lives on Endor, IBM must pay us lots of money!"
Cozy up to game developers and make the Mac a viable gaming platform
Not worth the time and effort. Your first point is worthwhile, but frankly, the only PC-only games worth worrying about, World of Warcraft and Starcraft, are available for the Mac already.
Not only would they be competing with Windows, but with the Xbox 360, the Wii, the PS3, and all of the last generation consoles for the gaming dollar, and it's just plain NOT WORTH IT. I'd love to have all kinds of nifty games available to play on my Mac, so I could wipe my Windows box and run only Linux on it, but it's just not going to happen, and it would be utterly stupid of Apple to waste money and time trying to do it.
I've re-rolled on my fair share of new servers, and by now I don't believe ANYONE who tells me they've been in Naxx unless they have the gear to show me. Every guild leader has naxx experience, etc, etc.
/gquit one guild because they falsely advertised that they didn't care what spec you were (lot of aggressive marketing for druids out there). I've done the full resto druid thing back when innervate was a talent. I've had it up to here with "hardcore" raiding. If a group wants people of a certain spec, even if that happens to be the spec I am, I just don't join. Saves headaches for them and me.
And I've personally
Right, so if people would not do the kind of blatantly obvious and traceable things that might allow you to get sued, such as connecting to a torrent anyone can see, you can keep them out of your wallet that way too.
If I got a RIAA lawsuit threat, I'd be laughing all the way to my lawyers with the countersuit. I get music legally, without giving any money to the RIAA or the artists, and there's nothing short of the nuclear option against property ownership in general that can stop me from doing it, because they already got their cut. They just didn't get it from me.
Well, the problem with that is that the vast majority, if not all, of the really good gear is not tradable, ie "bind-on-equip". You actually have to run instances, pvp, craft them (many of the best pieces of crafted equipment cannot be traded, or require that the user have a certain level in that trade skill), turn in quests (which involve running instances for most of the good ones) or raise faction (which for the good stuff requires running instances repeatedly). There are a _few_ really unique pieces that can be traded, but they're rare enough that you can't build up a decent stock of them to actually try and do that kind of advertising in a RMT sense, or they're crafted items, which require a level of tradeskill and resource collection that makes it near impossible to develop an actual regular trade in them. Maybe a few people will use it to advertise to prospective buyers some super neat item they have, but the AH does that well enough as is.
The only real change that will come of this is that those guilds who require a certain spec or minimum gear level will be able to check that out without having to take someone's word on it and reduce the chance they'll get burned with a new applicant. People make a lot of fuss over how this is supposedly unfair, but if you're not willing to change your play style and talent build to fit the guild you want to join, why in the world are you bothering to apply?
...then the industry should revoke, or not renew the license it gave apple, and sign a deal with someone who meets their requirements.
If they're getting hurt so bad by Apple's structure, it's their responsibility to stop dealing with Apple. End of story.
How about driving you to refusing to buy the music in the first place?
Vote with your wallet, because that's the only vote that counts. Just buy used CDs. There are tons of places to do it online, and plenty of stores that sell pre-owned CDs as well. The RIAA and company gets zero money from it, and they can't stop it unless they wipe out the first-sale doctrine for everything, not just music. I wonder how much those music executives would enjoy being told that they have no right to resell their Jaguar to a dealership when they want to get a down payment on that nifty new Porsche.
Maybe there will actually be some left for me the next time I try to buy one. =(
If I ran my own store I'd be hard pressed to display PS1 games, but some of them still do. Last I looked the store I mentioned in Saugus did carry PS1 games, and even some N64 games still, and until at least a year ago they were selling PS1 games in the Beverly store as well, where I picked up a few gems.
Why would I not?
First and foremost, the vast majority of PS1 games you get as a trade-in are in barely saleable condition. Scratched to hell and back by god knows what.
Second, that era of games is starting to get re-released and remade as well. Mega Man X Collection obviated the need for me to hunt down X6 somewhere (though I did find it by happy accident, at a Game Stop no less). Resident Evil has been remade for four different console since then, including the DS. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is being released on Xbox Live Marketplace. I can't imagine this won't continue.
Third, space. You were already complaining about crowded stores. Well, keeping another bin of games taking up space makes that crowding even worse.
Fourth, far fewer people actually want them anymore. There are at least as many, if not more titles available for the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube, and they're awash in them, and I'd wager that the functioning install-base of old PS1s is far smaller than PS2s, Xboxes, and Gamecubes, let alone the PSP, DS, GBA (some of the stores still have a decent GBA rack, though the DS is pushing some out) Xbox 360, Wii, PS3, etc. The only people that actually want PS1 games are collectors and hobbyists. It used to be that any game player was a hobbyist, now that just isn't the case. Joe Blow just ain't going to buy Vagrant Story, Valkyrie Profile, Saiyuki, of Arc the Lad Collection. Not to mention that it's impossible to actually keep a stock of those kinds of cult games, without raising the price to well beyond reason.
Funcoland had a huge array of used products for every platform you could think of
Funcoland also existed in a much different landscape before it got bought. Back then there were a lot more functioning SNES, NES, Genesis, and N64 systems out there than there are now. The Dreamcast and N64 selection lasted quite a long time in most Gamestops before the lack of anyone buying them forced them to put that space to more profitable use. Not to mention the lack of re-release software collections, and it was far more difficult to access, and play reasonable, ROM images of those games.
Nowadays with ultra-popular games that used to be confined to the SNES released for later consoles (IE, Chrono Cross, which Funcoland used to sell for $80, the FF games, the old Mega Man games) being released for later consoles in collections, ROM collections for SNES, NES, Genesis, and systems that didn't even register on the US market can be downloaded in an evening's time, and played with reasonable controllers on a PC. Heck, the entire library of these old consoles will soon be available online via things like the Xbox Live marketplace, and the Wii marketplace (whatever they call it, I haven't gotten one yet) if they aren't now. It just doesn't make sense for anyone outside a true niche retailer to carry a supply of that kind of stuff, now. If Funcoland were still an independent concern, they would have done the same thing.
I don't bother anymore. I used to when it was EB. It was worth it. You were guaranteed the game/system and you usually got some bonus too.
I know many people that preordered with EB. You were probably guaranteed to get it EVENTUALLY, not on release day. The PS2 supply debacle was just the first big problem of that nature. Until then, you could reasonably guarantee day-of, because your total market wasn't big enough to sell out all your copies with people beating down the door. I know more than a few people that preordered a "guaranteed" PS2 that certainly didn't get it on day of release. Blame the explosion in game popularity, not the store.
Congratulations. Do you work there, or know somebody who does?
Nope. I think I mentioned this in my post, actually. If someone broke the company rules for me, it wasn't because I asked them to, or demanded that they do, as a lot of people I see in stores seem to think works. The whole "customer is always right, especially if you yell" crap is going to elicit nothing but malicious rules-lawyering in return.
Seriously, I've never heard somebody overlook blatant faults in something like this unless they were talking about a bad relationship they didn't realize they were in....
Snipped for brevity. Not that you will actually visit any of these stores to check out that I'm telling the truth, but since you're in MA, there's at least a chance that it'll happen, though it's a bit of a drive from Leominster. I'm not likely to visit your local one to see how bad it is either. The Game Stops in Saugus RT 1 south (used to be a Funcoland), in the Wal Mart plaza in Salem, and the one in Beverly. Especially the Beverly one. The EB in the Liberty Tree Mall is awful, and was awful before Game Stop even thought of buying out EB, as was the one that thankfully closed down in the North Shore Mall. There are apparently other ones around, but I haven't visited them, because I generally find something between the four of them. I have visited plenty in other states as well, and none of them are as infested with cardbord ads and empty boxes as you've claimed. Sure, the shop windows are covered with stuff, but aside from the top row, they just don't have that many "Coming Soon" titles out there. The EBs (they still carry the name, and from what I've heard the management hasn't been folded into the same management structure yet, so they're run nearly the same) I've been to are bad, but none of them have undergone any change i've noticed. They were already bad. They are mostly mall-based stores, which have ma
The chains that GameStop absorbed (Funcoland, EB, etc...) never had the anti-customer practices that Gamestop has
Uhhh, how many times did you ever shop at a Funcoland or an Electronics Boutique? In my opinion EB has always been the absolute worst of all the specialty games retailers I've ever encountered. Bar none. Bad policies, run their employees ragged on purpose to encourage turnover (every kid wants to work in a game store, and they'll work cheaper too) Software Etc? Please, I stopped going to the local store because of their constant badgering alone, price better or no. Game Stop buying them was the best thing that ever happened to them. Funcoland I never saw a difference between what they were and what they became after the merger. They were still pushy as hell, and there wasn't much you could do about it. You're looking at these guys through some strongly tinted rose glasses, here.
What types of things am I talking about?
Oh joy, let's see.
Imposing draconian quotas on their employees, which causes the sales associates to bully the customer into sales to prevent losing their job;
Sounds like what every Funcoland and EB employee I know and have known has told me was the case. I had people at Software Etc, EB, Babbages, Funcoland, GameWorld, and every other game store I've been in do their damndest to get me to buy those crappy "scratch remover" things, as well as assorted other stuff. If you think that's limited to Game Stop, it only shows how limited your experience is.
Forcing pre-orders for items which are not in short supply;
Really, FORCING preorders? I've pre-ordered one game EVER (Zelda: WIndwaker for the Ocarina of TIme/Master quest for GameCube disc you got), and that was from EB. Every new game (which isn't many these days) that I bought day of release from GameStop I bought without a preorder. Every single one, including big name games such as Final Fantasy 12.
Paying pathetic trade-in values while charging outrageous prices for used titles;
Here's a hint. If someone offers you less than you believe your game is worth, don't sell it to them. Sell it on eBay for what you think it's worth, and go spend that cash as opposed to store credit.
And if someone is charging an outrageous price for something, don't buy it. I buy piles of used games from Gamestop, and for none of them (save one or two hard-to-find items, but that's rarity for you) will I pay over $20. These days I have a hard time justifying paying more than $10 per game. I walked home with Max Payne, Max Payne 2, and Splinter Cell one day, for a grand total of $5 INCLUDING TAX. Ridiculously overpriced, indeed!
Maintaining a poor back catalog;
As far as the Gamestop.com website is concerned, you're correct. A lot of games don't seem to exist anymore as far as they're concerned. However, I've picked up a ton of non-existant games just by walking into the store. It's like a scavenger hunt. Finding old ANYTHING takes some looking. Hard to find items are called that for a reason.
Accepting vendor promotions that encourage their sales associates to favor one vendor over others at no real gain to the company;
Well, I imagine that someone upstream is getting paid enough that it seems to them that it's worth it to the company. It may not be worth it to your particular store, but "the company" generally cares about the big picture in general. Welcome to Corporate America. I hate it too, that's why I don't work there anymore.
Cramming so much marketing material into the store that you can't find anything you're looking for;
I must have the most awesome 5 GameStops in the world then, because aside from marketing material on the side-panels of the stands, the only thing stopping me from finding what I want are the vats of awful Xbox games, PS2 games, and DVDs they're just begging me to take off their hands. I honestly don't know what you're talking about.
Fast, cheap, and good.
I can give you two out of three, which do you pick?
Finally, people are starting to give us back as good as we are giving them. It's about time. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Hopefully every country will start applying the full standard and stopping US government officials they don't like from entering as well. Then maybe we'll see some change here, and possibly a little humility.
You foreigners have been way too cowardly, refusing standing up for yourselves against my government. Get some fucking backbone.
They're trying to say that code is not patentable, but running software as part of a system functioning to accomplish some task is patentable, as it is part of a system.
The principle is the same as the venerable Method of exercising a cat patent. It isn't required that the laser pointer, or the wall be patentable to violate the patent against using the wall and the laser pointer in that way.
Similarly, they are arguing that while the source code may not be patentable as such, executing the source with a processor to accomplish something is patentable. Another way to think of it is that a creative work, say a song or a novel, is not patentable (copyright != patents, remember). However, "Method of transcribing a communication onto paper" describing using any tool for marking paper to inscribe marks in a known or unknown language, is theoretically patentable. Hell, for all I know Harper Collins has it in it's vault ready to make a killing off every other publisher ever when the time is right.
...I could care less if the company cares about the community or its values, and that's the point.
The only good argument from a business perspective for open source is that if you use open source software you are not going to be held hostage by a licensor that alters the deal when your business is wedded to the IT infrastructure they provide. As long as the open source license these "bad" open source companies release it under is really an open license that allows you to modify and redistribute the code, that's all that matters. I don't have to care why the released the source. It just doesn't matter.
"Foolproof systems do not take into account the ingenuity of fools." - Gene Brown
There are no solutions that users cannot screw up. Learn that or expect major disappointment for the rest of your days when things you thought couldn't possibly be simpler are screwed up beyond belief.
Right, so only the entire population of the United States would save a lot of money. You're right, nothing to see.
Basically, this method of security fails when people don't care about their security. This is a problem?
Security requires active checking to make sure a security measure is in effect. If you don't check to see if your padlock was secured, it's not the lock maker's fault if someone unhooked the unlocked padlocked and stole your stuff.
Actually this is worse. The lock maker damn well isn't at fault IF YOU DIDN'T CHECK THAT IT WAS YOUR PADLOCK.
I'm not a coder, but my impression of the vast majority of coders is that they reinvent the wheel because they believe that everyone screwed up their wheel implementation and if no one is going to do it right, they should.
Open source operating system has problems inter-operating with closed, constantly changing, standards-free, and hostile proprietary system.
Alert the blogosphere!
I mean, I feel for the guy trying to get Linux to work in a Microsoft-only environment, but this isn't exactly surprising, at all. Hell, Microsoft has problems getting their own software (Entourage in Office Mac) working with Exchange. The answer is to never use Exchange in the first place. If you're already locked into Exchange and its feature set as a driving force within your business, you're going to have to suck up and deal, or go through the pain of a switchover to something that's reasonably open. I've got the same problem with a client which is a marketing department of a large Netware based company, and the marketing people all use Macs exclusively, and the Novell Mac client is too buggy to use, forcing them to install VirtualPC on their machines so they can to basic e-mail and scheduling stuff. Costly, you bet, especially in my time because of how buggy it all is, and the idiotic design flaws of their network, but they can't just switch over because they're locked in to Netware after years of use, and they're paying for that shortsighted decision. However, it's still cheaper than dealing with the upheaval of switching from Netware to something reasonable.
Well, I get my CFL bulbs in single-serving boxes like the normal ones.
http://www.greenliteusa.com/spirals.html
My local hardware store sells them for 50 cents each, individually boxed. Dunno if they're recycled paper boxes, but there are plenty that aren't sold in the blister packaging. He sells them as fast as he can get them in.
So, your company is poorly run, has an IT infrastructure that's poorly maintained, as well as enough issues with power that you regularly have building-wide power outages? That sounds like a far bigger issue than whether you, personally, are able to get any work done with no power.
Financially prudent living involves purchasing very little, in real life or Second Life.
Not necessarily. Purchasing fewer luxuries is part of financially prudent living, but in business and personal life, I see way too many people stepping over dollars to pick up dimes. Paying for improvements in various efficiencies, most notably energy efficiency, which will directly translate to cost savings, often involves purchasing a significant amount of things.