The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Is this not then a decision of who is my best friend? I chose to vote for the first time in my life for this very reason. I don't feel safe with either, but I know that down one path leads madness while the other offers a fighting chance for the future. Sometimes, discression is the better part of valor, and while we won't win this first battle we can make sure we don't lose the war against evil now.
There are sacrifices to be made with every decision. I don't consider my principles "lost" because of how I chose. In fact, I would rather back a 50/50 of winning time to improve than face a 99.999% chance of total failure. These "principles" of mine you speak of mean nothing to any candidate -- republican, democrat, libertarian, green, independent, grey fox, etc. They are my compass to help me decide how to live my own life, and will continue to do so unless the government makes it their business to take these choices away.
That is where my principles stand. To save the very things I hold dear, I must first defend to make sure they are not taken from me first. If making the tough decision to back the lesser of two evils seems like I am compromising those principles, just remember that a temporary stalemate is better than utter defeat.
The more votes third parties get, the more exposure they will get, and eventually meaningful change will happen.
Yes, the stunning successes of Ross Perot and Ralph Nader have definately endeared the 3rd party candidates to the American public. Republicans, especially, have been very strong supporters of the Green party this year. I can't imagine why -- maybe it's because their so patriotic?
Bzzt. The 3rd party helped decide the election in 2000, and as close as that race was it pales in comparison to the results that we'll see in this one.
In close elections such as this one, it's not so much voting *for* someone you like as it is voting *against* someone you dislike. I didn't vote for my candidate because I liked him -- I voted the way I did because I like his opponent even less.
Maybe when the election isn't so close, like in 1992 when Perot won 19% of the popular vote and was even included in the televised debates, can a 3rd party gain some recognition. As of right now, however, backing anyone but the Big Two right now will only go unnoticed.
There's a very simple reason why this SLI is so desireable by the marketing types at NVidia -- Lock In. Sure, you may only have the cash to buy one card right now, but in a year when ATI releases their next new thing are you going to spend *another* $400 for the next new card, or are you going to buy the now "Budget" 6800 and get almost as good performance?
is imaginging poor Christie Hamilton, a member of the Consumer Service Department, specificly offering a free console to the online identity "RuneLateralus". She didn't even try to pretend it was a real name by putting a space between the two words!
"Is that Rune or Ms. Lateralus? Ohh....ooook...."
You almost get the feeling that if Christie had asked what level her half-elven ranger was, she wouldn't have to stop and think before answering...
Everyone needs to remember that the purpose of the airwaves is to serve society and the public at large. Broadcasting something that 70-80% of the public at large finds patently offensive does not serve the public interest.
That public would say the same thing about all those "Vote for Candidate X" ads running over the airwaves right now. If you listen to the people running these campaigns, it's not just a battle for the White House but a moral crusade against the forces of evil right now. Each side is so convinced that the other will bring chaos and ruin to our society that they get a good Two Minute Hate in every time the other party's ads come on. So to let the current administration decide what should or should not be broadcast over the public waves that, in your words, "...the public at large finds patently offensive" is a dangerous course of action.
Do I listen to Howard Stern? No. Do a lot of people I know listen to him? Yes. Should I be able to dictate to them what they should or should not listen to based on my personal opinion of him? No.
It's a classic case of "I may despise what you say, but I'll fight to the death to protect your right to say it". If we censor Stern (who is strongly anti-Bush, if that's a coinsidence I'll eat my shoe) today, who do we censor tomorrow? Jon Stewart? Any dissenting voice that the administration feels is a danger to the country? I live in NYC, I remember the peaceful protestors around the RNC this year, and how they were prevented from holding an organized event because of the politics of our city. It disgraced our city, and our way of life, and condoning such totalitarian behavior only makes things worse.
The one that comes to mind immediately is Blizzard. I mean, have they made a bad game?
To be fair, Blizzard doesn't always deliver the knock-out punch on the first try. Their games always put the playability feature first, then work from there. The main thing that separates Blizzard from their competitors isn't being innovative (they aren't), but their consistent attention to detail. If they don't get it right at first (and believe me, they don't) they'll release countless patches until they do. For example, as recently as 10/28/04, they released a patch for Diablo II, which was first released 6/29/00 (yes, over *four* years ago).
You might think their many updates and patches part of a rush-to-market mentality, but they've consistently delayed games until they were playable and enjoyable out of the box. It's their constant attention to fans (the BnetD fiasco excluded) after the sale that's made them so successful and so popular.
Tetrisphere, on the N64, is one of the greatest game ever made. It combined all the awesome puzzle-strategy that made Tetris so wildly successful and translated into a fun 3-D environment (unlike, Wetris and Tetris3d, which just gave me headaches), with a kickass soundtrack and a collection of different play modes (including one of the best non FPS Multiplayer games, bested only by Super Puzzle Fighter II).
Nowadays you can get it for a song, and it's still just as great to play as it was when it was new. The graphics are still clean, crisp, and rendered to a modern finish. And the soundtrack just sounds killer on a good sound system.
Or...imagine this! They would require such complicated geometry, that even the best machines that were available two years ago could only run them at low-rez, low quality 640x480.
How would they have been treated in all the reviews? A bit like Tresspasser or Ultima IX, albeit without all the box puzzles and boring landscape?
You think people complain about how boring D3 is now --- all the horsepower a P4E can crank out just to render two or three zombies! Imagine if you were forced to play it on your brand new, $3000... Pentium 3 1Ghz teamed up with the hot new Geforce Ti4600!
why not allow that kiosk to burn the CD, print a label and a sleeve, and spit it out in 30 seconds? This way, you don't need to worry about stock -- you have a supply of any CD a customer could want that's limited only by how many CDRs you can cram in the back closet.
OR, why not allow the customer to mix-n-match those tracks, so a 10-song Albumn could benefit as many as 10 different artists! That allowance-limited teen might not have to decide between popular radio personality (I refuse to call them Artists), and as "filler" they might actually pick up something decent they wouldn't have heard of otherwise.
Or, they could just use iTunes or Rhapsody or Sony Connect or...
It depends on what part of the country you're from. Here in the North-East, we're not as affected by the Walmart monopoly. But I've got relatives that live in Florida, and they don't say "Store" or "Supermarket" anymore.
They say, "Oh, we're out of soda... I need to run to the Walmart". "Oh, we need a new TV... I need to head up to the Walmart."
Walmart is ubiqitious in some parts of the country. They're the second highest employer in the country, behind the government. Frankly, I'm surprised it's not a higher ratio.
As sad as it is, is anyone suprised that it happened? I mean, it's only the most anticipated game of the year (HL2 was the most anticipated game of last year, it's just coming out this year). I've got my preorder in, and I know a lot of other people who won't bother with it either. However, there are people who will always look to cheat the system, and as much as we hate it there's no use crying or screaming or starting flamewars that this will hurt 'the programmers'. But that's not the worst of it.
My main concern is the response and backlash from the Corps. It's not that I condone the behavior of these thieves, but I'm desperately afraid of the cure will be worse than the disease. Already we have games that can't work in everyone's PC, or disable programs you legitemately install. We have operating systems that require you to phone home every time you change your hardware, just so that the company can make sure you're not stealing.00001% of their yearly profits. What's next, that each copy will be biometrically tied to us, so we need to activate out consoles with a thumbprint identification before we can turn it on?
And what's going to be the target of the corporation's wrath, you ask? In this case, it's going to be USENET, BITTORRENT, and IRC. Three out-of-the-mainstream networks that corporations will try to convince law makers are nothing but havens for pirates and thieves. You'll hear the words "Terrorists" and "Child Pr0n" before this is over, too.
It's a tough world we live in. No matter which side you stand for, this much is certain: you're going to get screwed.
...he should apologize for what was left in. I mean, the controls were dreadful. Autotargeting friendlies -- wtf? And running felt more like skating in NHL2004. Not to mention the horrible graphical bugs -- polygons popping, shadows flaking, and the eyecandy constantly gets in the way of the camera.
Loading times, severe! Maps, miniscule! Missions, Bland! Role Playing, Diablo II did better!
It's only saving grace were some halfway funny moments. Still not worth the $50 I spent on it.
Okay, so I RTFA'ed
on
The Long Tail
·
· Score: 1, Redundant
Two quick comments, and I'm not quite sure what to do with them:
1) The entire point the article is trying to make, and thus avoids making, is that electronic commerse violates one of the most sacred foundations of economics: scarcity. This whole online vs. retail distribution model does nothing to explain the fundamental difference between the internet and brick&mortar, which is *there is no physical inventory to worry about on the internet*. At least, not at the scales we're talking about. Sure, it costs something to store a million songs digitally in eighteen different incompatible formats... but the price is negligable compared to a 10,000sqft warehouse to store a million standard CDs.
The bottom line is that the online model of distribution has lowered the break-even point of multimedia to the creation phase. Books, Music, Movies all become the same as signals on a wire that can be plugged in anywhere in civilization. Once the initial cost of production and advertising has been recouped, there's a *minimal* cost to distribution online that scares economists and retailers alike. You don't have to worry about stock, about shipping, or about inventory management. Thus, a twenty thousand dollar movie like Clerks or Blair Witch can easily become a hit -- because it takes much less effort to make more profit than a hundred-million dollar blockbuster!
2) When mentioning the MP3.com lawsuits, the article fails to mention the paradox of it's greatest innovation and fatal flaw. The reason MP3.com became so huge and the reason it got sued was because of a service that allowed you to put your CD in your PC at home, scan it for authenticity, then be able to access those songs from anywhere. The downside was, these songs were all in one database, created by MP3.com, and stored by MP3.com. The laws that say you can make a backup copy clearly (or not) state that only *you* are authorized to access *your* backups. Just because you own a CD doesn't entitle you to access MP3.com's digital copy. It's a rediculous semantic issue, and even further befuddles the issue of rights management. Ie. When I buy a CD, what am I getting? If I'm getting a physical piece of plastic, then I can do whatever I want with it. If I'm getting a license to listen to those songs, then I should be allowed to have access to those songs in whatever format I choose, and a replacement CD in the case of distaster should only cost the price of the round plastic and shipping.
These issues will be ironed out, not by courts, but by the people who want their music. They're already speaking with their wallets, and that's what scares institutions like the RIAA. It's not because people want to steal all the music (some do, but they make us look bad).
It's because the people, the consumers, want a free market to decide the cost of their entertainment. Artifical Scarcity in the form of big movie theaters, Book stores, CD stores, and DVD rental outlets are going to suffer due to the changing economics of the internet. It's not hype, and it's not loved by everyone, but it's the future.
It's why I can put a Wassily Kandinsky painting on my wall for $9.99. Not because I don't appreciate the art or think that the artist doesn't deserve to get paid. It's because technology has provided the ability to reproduce art at such a high level of quality. Now I can be one of a million people to buy that $9.99 poster and still appreciate fine art.
Long ago, Empire Interactive released an excellent cyberpunk-meets-lovecraft adventure game called "Dreamweb." It's a damn shame noone ever took off with it and made a sequel -- it never really achieved cult status like Sam & Max or Fandango, but it was certainly worthy of being in their company.
With the rebirth of the adventure genre, I wish some small developer could pick up the license and run with it. It was a story that was ripe for a continuation. Although it didn't receive the attention that it deserved back then, it's original story and setting would be much more popular with today's audience looking for something different.
The Adventure Company has done a good job of beating the dead Myst horse into the ground -- it's time for something more mature, something darker, something that's got a plot that doesn't involve wandering through beautifully rendered, empty alien landscapes pixelhunting for keys or randomly rotating levers and switches.
I imagine he could find some movie channel (or perhaps Comedy Central)
Well, considering that they already have one of the best (not to mention, most trusted) sources of news in the business, I'd say that'd be a pretty good idea!
So Bluetooth's being used by almost 1% of the population. Sounds like a real winner in my book!
Honestly, it hasn't been accepted by the hardware world in general. USB was great for device connectivity, but I'm still using PS/2 for keyboards and mice, and Parallel cables for printers. My network still runs on 10/100BaseT.
Aside from cellphone headsets and PDAs, and the random MAC user, has BT ever really been adopted? Not niche market, my-toster-talks-to-my-fridge sort of devices, but in everyday solutions?
Slashdot Mirror
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Is this not then a decision of who is my best friend? I chose to vote for the first time in my life for this very reason. I don't feel safe with either, but I know that down one path leads madness while the other offers a fighting chance for the future. Sometimes, discression is the better part of valor, and while we won't win this first battle we can make sure we don't lose the war against evil now.
There are sacrifices to be made with every decision. I don't consider my principles "lost" because of how I chose. In fact, I would rather back a 50/50 of winning time to improve than face a 99.999% chance of total failure. These "principles" of mine you speak of mean nothing to any candidate -- republican, democrat, libertarian, green, independent, grey fox, etc. They are my compass to help me decide how to live my own life, and will continue to do so unless the government makes it their business to take these choices away.
That is where my principles stand. To save the very things I hold dear, I must first defend to make sure they are not taken from me first. If making the tough decision to back the lesser of two evils seems like I am compromising those principles, just remember that a temporary stalemate is better than utter defeat.
The more votes third parties get, the more exposure they will get, and eventually meaningful change will happen.
Yes, the stunning successes of Ross Perot and Ralph Nader have definately endeared the 3rd party candidates to the American public. Republicans, especially, have been very strong supporters of the Green party this year. I can't imagine why -- maybe it's because their so patriotic?
Bzzt. The 3rd party helped decide the election in 2000, and as close as that race was it pales in comparison to the results that we'll see in this one.
In close elections such as this one, it's not so much voting *for* someone you like as it is voting *against* someone you dislike. I didn't vote for my candidate because I liked him -- I voted the way I did because I like his opponent even less.
Maybe when the election isn't so close, like in 1992 when Perot won 19% of the popular vote and was even included in the televised debates, can a 3rd party gain some recognition. As of right now, however, backing anyone but the Big Two right now will only go unnoticed.
George W. Bush -> 1260
John Kerry -> 1190
Al Z. Heimers -> 1370 (650m+720v)
Vote for the Z! Vote for Me!
There's a very simple reason why this SLI is so desireable by the marketing types at NVidia -- Lock In. Sure, you may only have the cash to buy one card right now, but in a year when ATI releases their next new thing are you going to spend *another* $400 for the next new card, or are you going to buy the now "Budget" 6800 and get almost as good performance?
is imaginging poor Christie Hamilton, a member of the Consumer Service Department, specificly offering a free console to the online identity "RuneLateralus". She didn't even try to pretend it was a real name by putting a space between the two words!
"Is that Rune or Ms. Lateralus? Ohh....ooook...."
You almost get the feeling that if Christie had asked what level her half-elven ranger was, she wouldn't have to stop and think before answering...
Everyone needs to remember that the purpose of the airwaves is to serve society and the public at large. Broadcasting something that 70-80% of the public at large finds patently offensive does not serve the public interest.
That public would say the same thing about all those "Vote for Candidate X" ads running over the airwaves right now. If you listen to the people running these campaigns, it's not just a battle for the White House but a moral crusade against the forces of evil right now. Each side is so convinced that the other will bring chaos and ruin to our society that they get a good Two Minute Hate in every time the other party's ads come on. So to let the current administration decide what should or should not be broadcast over the public waves that, in your words, "...the public at large finds patently offensive" is a dangerous course of action.
Do I listen to Howard Stern? No.
Do a lot of people I know listen to him? Yes.
Should I be able to dictate to them what they should or should not listen to based on my personal opinion of him? No.
It's a classic case of "I may despise what you say, but I'll fight to the death to protect your right to say it". If we censor Stern (who is strongly anti-Bush, if that's a coinsidence I'll eat my shoe) today, who do we censor tomorrow? Jon Stewart? Any dissenting voice that the administration feels is a danger to the country? I live in NYC, I remember the peaceful protestors around the RNC this year, and how they were prevented from holding an organized event because of the politics of our city. It disgraced our city, and our way of life, and condoning such totalitarian behavior only makes things worse.
Seriously! I want to be able to watch Xvids on there -- 1.8gb is enough for LOTR, encoded at 320x240x15fps, audio 11hz stereo.
Whether the battery can last that long is another story...
The one that comes to mind immediately is Blizzard. I mean, have they made a bad game?
To be fair, Blizzard doesn't always deliver the knock-out punch on the first try. Their games always put the playability feature first, then work from there. The main thing that separates Blizzard from their competitors isn't being innovative (they aren't), but their consistent attention to detail. If they don't get it right at first (and believe me, they don't) they'll release countless patches until they do. For example, as recently as 10/28/04, they released a patch for Diablo II, which was first released 6/29/00 (yes, over *four* years ago).
You might think their many updates and patches part of a rush-to-market mentality, but they've consistently delayed games until they were playable and enjoyable out of the box. It's their constant attention to fans (the BnetD fiasco excluded) after the sale that's made them so successful and so popular.
Tetrisphere, on the N64, is one of the greatest game ever made. It combined all the awesome puzzle-strategy that made Tetris so wildly successful and translated into a fun 3-D environment (unlike, Wetris and Tetris3d, which just gave me headaches), with a kickass soundtrack and a collection of different play modes (including one of the best non FPS Multiplayer games, bested only by Super Puzzle Fighter II).
Nowadays you can get it for a song, and it's still just as great to play as it was when it was new. The graphics are still clean, crisp, and rendered to a modern finish. And the soundtrack just sounds killer on a good sound system.
Or...imagine this! They would require such complicated geometry, that even the best machines that were available two years ago could only run them at low-rez, low quality 640x480.
... Pentium 3 1Ghz teamed up with the hot new Geforce Ti4600!
How would they have been treated in all the reviews? A bit like Tresspasser or Ultima IX, albeit without all the box puzzles and boring landscape?
You think people complain about how boring D3 is now --- all the horsepower a P4E can crank out just to render two or three zombies! Imagine if you were forced to play it on your brand new, $3000
...is Peter Molyneux laughing all the way to the bank.
Gordon Shumway, star of a certain Saturday morning cartoon called ALF, will most likely NOT be present in HL2.
So, to sum up: HL2 may have Aliens, will NOT have ALF.
Or, better yet,
why not allow that kiosk to burn the CD, print a label and a sleeve, and spit it out in 30 seconds? This way, you don't need to worry about stock -- you have a supply of any CD a customer could want that's limited only by how many CDRs you can cram in the back closet.
OR, why not allow the customer to mix-n-match those tracks, so a 10-song Albumn could benefit as many as 10 different artists! That allowance-limited teen might not have to decide between popular radio personality (I refuse to call them Artists), and as "filler" they might actually pick up something decent they wouldn't have heard of otherwise.
Or, they could just use iTunes or Rhapsody or Sony Connect or...
It depends on what part of the country you're from. Here in the North-East, we're not as affected by the Walmart monopoly. But I've got relatives that live in Florida, and they don't say "Store" or "Supermarket" anymore.
... I need to run to the Walmart". "Oh, we need a new TV ... I need to head up to the Walmart."
They say, "Oh, we're out of soda
Walmart is ubiqitious in some parts of the country. They're the second highest employer in the country, behind the government. Frankly, I'm surprised it's not a higher ratio.
As sad as it is, is anyone suprised that it happened? I mean, it's only the most anticipated game of the year (HL2 was the most anticipated game of last year, it's just coming out this year). I've got my preorder in, and I know a lot of other people who won't bother with it either. However, there are people who will always look to cheat the system, and as much as we hate it there's no use crying or screaming or starting flamewars that this will hurt 'the programmers'. But that's not the worst of it.
.00001% of their yearly profits. What's next, that each copy will be biometrically tied to us, so we need to activate out consoles with a thumbprint identification before we can turn it on?
My main concern is the response and backlash from the Corps. It's not that I condone the behavior of these thieves, but I'm desperately afraid of the cure will be worse than the disease. Already we have games that can't work in everyone's PC, or disable programs you legitemately install. We have operating systems that require you to phone home every time you change your hardware, just so that the company can make sure you're not stealing
And what's going to be the target of the corporation's wrath, you ask? In this case, it's going to be USENET, BITTORRENT, and IRC. Three out-of-the-mainstream networks that corporations will try to convince law makers are nothing but havens for pirates and thieves. You'll hear the words "Terrorists" and "Child Pr0n" before this is over, too.
It's a tough world we live in. No matter which side you stand for, this much is certain: you're going to get screwed.
I can honestly say I read each and every response.
If you believe me or not, that's up to you. I'm not running for office.
...he should apologize for what was left in. I mean, the controls were dreadful. Autotargeting friendlies -- wtf? And running felt more like skating in NHL2004. Not to mention the horrible graphical bugs -- polygons popping, shadows flaking, and the eyecandy constantly gets in the way of the camera.
Loading times, severe!
Maps, miniscule!
Missions, Bland!
Role Playing, Diablo II did better!
It's only saving grace were some halfway funny moments. Still not worth the $50 I spent on it.
Two quick comments, and I'm not quite sure what to do with them:
... but the price is negligable compared to a 10,000sqft warehouse to store a million standard CDs.
1) The entire point the article is trying to make, and thus avoids making, is that electronic commerse violates one of the most sacred foundations of economics: scarcity. This whole online vs. retail distribution model does nothing to explain the fundamental difference between the internet and brick&mortar, which is *there is no physical inventory to worry about on the internet*. At least, not at the scales we're talking about. Sure, it costs something to store a million songs digitally in eighteen different incompatible formats
The bottom line is that the online model of distribution has lowered the break-even point of multimedia to the creation phase. Books, Music, Movies all become the same as signals on a wire that can be plugged in anywhere in civilization. Once the initial cost of production and advertising has been recouped, there's a *minimal* cost to distribution online that scares economists and retailers alike. You don't have to worry about stock, about shipping, or about inventory management. Thus, a twenty thousand dollar movie like Clerks or Blair Witch can easily become a hit -- because it takes much less effort to make more profit than a hundred-million dollar blockbuster!
2) When mentioning the MP3.com lawsuits, the article fails to mention the paradox of it's greatest innovation and fatal flaw. The reason MP3.com became so huge and the reason it got sued was because of a service that allowed you to put your CD in your PC at home, scan it for authenticity, then be able to access those songs from anywhere. The downside was, these songs were all in one database, created by MP3.com, and stored by MP3.com. The laws that say you can make a backup copy clearly (or not) state that only *you* are authorized to access *your* backups. Just because you own a CD doesn't entitle you to access MP3.com's digital copy. It's a rediculous semantic issue, and even further befuddles the issue of rights management. Ie. When I buy a CD, what am I getting? If I'm getting a physical piece of plastic, then I can do whatever I want with it. If I'm getting a license to listen to those songs, then I should be allowed to have access to those songs in whatever format I choose, and a replacement CD in the case of distaster should only cost the price of the round plastic and shipping.
These issues will be ironed out, not by courts, but by the people who want their music. They're already speaking with their wallets, and that's what scares institutions like the RIAA. It's not because people want to steal all the music (some do, but they make us look bad).
It's because the people, the consumers, want a free market to decide the cost of their entertainment. Artifical Scarcity in the form of big movie theaters, Book stores, CD stores, and DVD rental outlets are going to suffer due to the changing economics of the internet. It's not hype, and it's not loved by everyone, but it's the future.
It's why I can put a Wassily Kandinsky painting on my wall for $9.99. Not because I don't appreciate the art or think that the artist doesn't deserve to get paid. It's because technology has provided the ability to reproduce art at such a high level of quality. Now I can be one of a million people to buy that $9.99 poster and still appreciate fine art.
It sounds to me like you're confusing Wired with News.Com.Com.
Don't be rediculous -- the coroner even confirmed he broke his neck trying that.
Long ago, Empire Interactive released an excellent cyberpunk-meets-lovecraft adventure game called "Dreamweb." It's a damn shame noone ever took off with it and made a sequel -- it never really achieved cult status like Sam & Max or Fandango, but it was certainly worthy of being in their company.
With the rebirth of the adventure genre, I wish some small developer could pick up the license and run with it. It was a story that was ripe for a continuation. Although it didn't receive the attention that it deserved back then, it's original story and setting would be much more popular with today's audience looking for something different.
The Adventure Company has done a good job of beating the dead Myst horse into the ground -- it's time for something more mature, something darker, something that's got a plot that doesn't involve wandering through beautifully rendered, empty alien landscapes pixelhunting for keys or randomly rotating levers and switches.
When will we see Blue Shift: Source?
I imagine he could find some movie channel (or perhaps Comedy Central)
Well, considering that they already have one of the best (not to mention, most trusted) sources of news in the business, I'd say that'd be a pretty good idea!
So Bluetooth's being used by almost 1% of the population. Sounds like a real winner in my book!
Honestly, it hasn't been accepted by the hardware world in general. USB was great for device connectivity, but I'm still using PS/2 for keyboards and mice, and Parallel cables for printers. My network still runs on 10/100BaseT.
Aside from cellphone headsets and PDAs, and the random MAC user, has BT ever really been adopted? Not niche market, my-toster-talks-to-my-fridge sort of devices, but in everyday solutions?
No, silly! Their leaders get their positions the same way the US Govt gets theirs. They buy their way in.