and I don't think Facebook is so central to the industry that anyone cares if they fall.
That's laughable.
Facebook is social gaming right now. There is at least one multi-billion dollar company created just from Facebook games (Zynga) who reaches something like 50 million social gamers per day. There are other multi-billion dollar companies who've recently entered the social gaming industry (Electronic Arts [EA], and Disney come to mind) and are trying to get a share of this enormous market.
As much as we (slashdot crowd) probably don't like Facebook, the fact remains that it is quite central to most anything relating to 'social' on the internet. Seriously, what else is there that has anything to do with what Facebook's doing that people are using in mass? I outlined a little bit about the insanely profitable social gaming arena that has used Facebook's massive user base to spread like wildfire. Where else can people play these sorts of games with all of their friends? People really enjoy the social aspect of Facebook. In fact, according to a study of ~7,800 Thai students, their primary reason to use Facebook was to relieve stress. (source)
To be honest, I'm not sure why I took the time to respond to this. I think the tech geek type tend to dismiss Facebook because it's not something that we're really into. The facts, however, show that Facebook is quite central to tens (perhaps hundreds) of millions of people's "internet lives", for lack of a better term. Think about this: Facebook has over 9 times the page views of youtube.com, the second most popular website in the world. (source)
Like he was saying: a severe case of reality deficit disorder. Maybe you need to try some construction or janitorial work for a few months to help cure that.
You do realize that EA bought Playfish, a producer of Facebook games similar to Zynga, right? I'd venture a guess that this has much, much more to do with those sorts of games than it does their 'traditional' PC/console games.
With Zynga probably becoming a billion-dollar company in 2011, people are starting to finally take notice of the micro-transactions that have been popular in Asia for some time. My take is that EA is making these sorts of changes to try and catch up to Zynga in the social gaming space.
So, in exchange for paying an extra $350 up front for your phone, you'll save a grand total of $370 over 2 years (~$15.42/month). I guess that's worth something.
Try explaining that to the 11 million people who play FarmVille.
Actually, the number is over twice what you quoted. There are 24+ million people who play FarmVille every day. In addition to being incredibly popular, FarmVille also helped raise over $700,000 for charity in 2009.
(Disclaimer: I work for Zynga, and was one of the original team members to bring FarmVille online.)
Really? I've found them to be fairly close in benchmarks I've read, with the Nvidia cards generally holding the edge. (Primarily comparing gtx 260 vs 4870) Can you show me any benchmarks within the last month or so that would possibly change my mind?
I've probably heard more "what?"s by executing ":> filename" or ">filename" to null a file than anything else. Obviously, it's far easier than using some combination of cp or cat and/dev/null.
Granted, I don't know every PC gamer, but I know quite a few, and I used to work at a store that sells video games, and I'm be fairly confident saying that while such people may not be a majority, we're certainly not a mere 0.2%.
.2% is not that small of a number. They're saying that 1 in 500 gamers has a problem with DRM, and I really don't find that hard to believe.
Do you think the number is significantly higher than 1 in 500?
I think this may have been said before, but what's wrong with setting up a basic samba server on one of your machines, and then simply using cron (Mac/Linux) or scheduled task(Windows) to dump the backups across the WAN via rsync/scp? (Depending on how important managing multiple versions of the same file is, perhaps using cron on the server-side do some SVN magic would make sense.)
You'd be able to allow multiple users access to other folders with simple Samba ACLs, and it'd all be right on their desktop with an interface they're used to. As far as maintaining the backend, simple rsyncs between your linux servers keep everything up to date in the case of node failure.
The solution also allows for easy drop-in replacement in terms of switching target backup/sharing servers. All you would need to do is email your new rsync script and tell LuserX to put it in XYZ directory. There'd be no walking them through configuring a new backup application they've probably never seen before.
Next, we merely assisted the Northern Alliance in ending a civil war that has been raging for decades. I guess you would prefer that we let innocent men, women and children continue to die as a result of that civil war.
Personally, I would have much preferred if we let that country deal with it's own bullshit and leave our government with more resources to deal with issues that effect the people it's directly responsible for.
Maybe I'll get flamed, but I think we stick our noses in too many other peoples' business. I don't see us having other countries come in and help clean up our problems. Why do we continually insist on playing world 'police' and helping other countries clean up theirs all the while having more than enough that needs tending to at home?
Your numbers are only accounting for Vista and say nothing about XP. So, while Vista may only have 56% market share, XP is probably making up the other 30+% to keep MS near or possibly above the 90% threshold they tend to hover near.
I suppose it doesn't have to be a law, but I'd venture to guess (since I haven't RTFA) that congress is getting involved due to the backing of so many student loans.
I really don't mind if people cheat on their own dime. I, however, do find it a bit unnerving knowing that so many students (in both traditional an online institutions) are cheating with my tax dollars.
Again, I like the fact that some of my tax money goes to fund students who would otherwise likely not have a chance for formal education. I don't have much of a problem with the feds making sure some of those students are properly using the money.
That said, webcams in the home as a solution? Seems a little much, but what are the low-cost alternatives?
I didn't say the system didn't need to be fixed. In fact, I said it's quite possible we can expect serious change.
What I did say, however, is that this election will not be the election where a third party wins, nor is there a remote chance of one winning. The time to fix our system isn't right at this moment, just a few months before the election. The time is the years leading up to the election, where there is actual time to start a movement. (Or, perhaps, continue a movement that's already been started.)
Look, I realize we have problems and by no means do I think "life is peachy" in our country. I also believe, should McCain be elected, we'll see our country further deteriorate as it has under the current administration and we'll be in a worse situation than we are right now at the end of his term(s) as president.
I'm not asking anyone to plug their ears and "...fix the system after our problems are resolved" by any means. We need change now, and for better or for worse, a third party vote in November doesn't provide that. I don't particularly like it (although I do feel Obama is as good of a candidate as we've seen in quite awhile), but that's the bottom line.
We could go back and forth all afternoon, and probably into the night.
You asked which issues I saw as Obama moving us in a new direction, and I took the time to reply and outline just a few where I see Obama's direction distinctly different than McCain's.
Whether or not you agree with them wasn't part of the question, but I'm glad you took the time to post your feelings on each.
Where do I start with the new direction? Obama is starkly different than McCain and Bush. I'll list only a few key differences, and if you'd like more I can certainly keep them coming.
1. Taxes
Obama wants to rescind the ridiculous tax breaks on those who make over $250k, and tax the private equity earnings (also called 'carried interest') Under Obama's plan, assuming it all went as proposed (not likely), the lowest economic demographic would see their take-home income increase 5%. The top 1% of income would be see their take-home income decrease by just over 8%.
McCain would propose an extension of the current Bush cuts and a 10% reduction in corporate taxes (to 25% from the current 35%) To compare versus Obama's plan, under McCain that bottom demographic would expect see a mere 0.2% increase in income, while the top 1% would see another 2.4% gain.
Seems to me that Obama wants to change the way the rich have been getting preferential treatment, and McCain simply wants more of the same -- only he'll actually be increasing the benefits for the wealthy.
2. Iraq
This also ties into spending, but a crystal clear difference for Obama and McCain (as well as Bush) is that Obama wants out. Sure, I think he understands that it will take a little more time than he initially thought, but he wants them out. McCain, on the other hand, wants our troops to be in Iraq indefinitely - likely costing us taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. The bottom line is that Obama will tell us (US citizens) and the people of Iraq that we are leaving, and McCain will not.
(Iran will likely be moving to the forefront of conversations soon as well. The differences here are also very clear; McCain wants sanctions while Obama would like to, at least initially, stress direct diplomacy.)
3. Health Care
Basically, Obama will build on our current system to create a publicly run Medicare-ish plan that any employer or individual can buy into. This allows people who are happy with their current plan to keep it, just how it is, but also allows people without insurance or those who are unhappy with their current plan to get the federally provided coverage. Obama's plan doesn't allow insurance providers to charge more to people with health conditions. Also included in Obama's plan are subsidies for low and middle income families to make sure they're able to afford insurance.
McCain wants to get rid of employer based insurance all together. Due to the obvious fallout of businesses providing insurance for their employees under McCain's plan, his solution is to give every worker $2,500 ($5,000 for families) worth of tax credit. For many families, this would be insufficient, particularly to those who have existing health conditions. In summary, I think McCain's plan would completely undermine our current employer based system and leave many families still without insurance which is exactly what we're trying to get rid of.
I wish I had mod points. People are taking this one FISA vote, and going completely off the deep end. Yeah, it's not a popular vote, and yes I disagree with some of the language within the amendments (telecom immunity) but I don't think that single vote is worthy of disqualifying a great candidate.
If everyone who was pro-Obama before the FISA vote and is pro- after the FISA vote actually end up voting for a third party candidate, they're essentially helping to bring McCain in as our next president. I'll probably get flamed for this, but the bottom line is a 3rd party isn't going to win this election.
Perhaps 20 years from now, depending on how these next couple of terms turn out, we can expect serious change to our two party system. For now, in my opinion, it's imperative that we keep McCain out of office. Our country is in dire need of a new direction, and as much as the FISA bill ticks some of us off, Obama is the candidate who can get us started. I implore all of you who have flopped away from Obama because of the FISA vote, to think about the rest of what Obama brings to the table. Also, if you can find the time, think about what our country will be like if we endure another 4 (8?) years of GWB's near twin in McCain. Our country needs this vote, probably more than any other vote in my lifetime (born in '78), and we need it now.
I remember when PayPal did that when I opened my account back in 2000. I'm not sure if they still do that, but it certainly is a solution. It adds significant time, infrastructure (auto mailing facilities, employees, machines, etc) -- which all boil down to cost. I didn't like waiting the 4 or 5 days for my secret pin to arrive. On the other hand, if I applied for an account and either my pin didn't work or I never received it and I had to go through it multiple times, I'd probably start looking at other solutions.
Slashdot Mirror
That's laughable.
Facebook is social gaming right now. There is at least one multi-billion dollar company created just from Facebook games (Zynga) who reaches something like 50 million social gamers per day. There are other multi-billion dollar companies who've recently entered the social gaming industry (Electronic Arts [EA], and Disney come to mind) and are trying to get a share of this enormous market.
As much as we (slashdot crowd) probably don't like Facebook, the fact remains that it is quite central to most anything relating to 'social' on the internet. Seriously, what else is there that has anything to do with what Facebook's doing that people are using in mass? I outlined a little bit about the insanely profitable social gaming arena that has used Facebook's massive user base to spread like wildfire. Where else can people play these sorts of games with all of their friends? People really enjoy the social aspect of Facebook. In fact, according to a study of ~7,800 Thai students, their primary reason to use Facebook was to relieve stress. (source)
To be honest, I'm not sure why I took the time to respond to this. I think the tech geek type tend to dismiss Facebook because it's not something that we're really into. The facts, however, show that Facebook is quite central to tens (perhaps hundreds) of millions of people's "internet lives", for lack of a better term. Think about this: Facebook has over 9 times the page views of youtube.com, the second most popular website in the world. (source)
Like he was saying: a severe case of reality deficit disorder. Maybe you need to try some construction or janitorial work for a few months to help cure that.
You do realize that EA bought Playfish, a producer of Facebook games similar to Zynga, right? I'd venture a guess that this has much, much more to do with those sorts of games than it does their 'traditional' PC/console games.
With Zynga probably becoming a billion-dollar company in 2011, people are starting to finally take notice of the micro-transactions that have been popular in Asia for some time. My take is that EA is making these sorts of changes to try and catch up to Zynga in the social gaming space.
Whoops math fail. Forgot to account for the difference. It should read 30*24 = 720, so you are paying $350 up front for $720 in savings.
Math fail again? :) You didn't subtract the $350 from $720 to show the actual savings.
Prepay for phone: $50*24 + 529 ($1729)
2yr contract: $80*24 + 179 ($2099)
So, in exchange for paying an extra $350 up front for your phone, you'll save a grand total of $370 over 2 years (~$15.42/month). I guess that's worth something.
They did.
Actually, the number is over twice what you quoted. There are 24+ million people who play FarmVille every day. In addition to being incredibly popular, FarmVille also helped raise over $700,000 for charity in 2009.
(Disclaimer: I work for Zynga, and was one of the original team members to bring FarmVille online.)
You were walking while wolves and a grizzly bears were stalking you? Awesome.
Have a look at Ubuntu Netbook Remix which is a new UI developed by Canonical especially for netbooks.
I first saw this a few weeks ago while attending a computer training class. One of my classmates had it, and I was quite impressed.
If it's so bad, then why bother taking the H1-B in the first place?
Really? I've found them to be fairly close in benchmarks I've read, with the Nvidia cards generally holding the edge. (Primarily comparing gtx 260 vs 4870) Can you show me any benchmarks within the last month or so that would possibly change my mind?
Techgage - GTX 260-216 vs 4870
Hexus - GTX 260-216 vs 4870
The GTX 295 looks like it will dominate the 4870x2 once it's released (supposedly in January)
xtreview - GTX 295 vs 4870x2
Fudzilla - GTX 295 vs 4870x2
I've probably heard more "what?"s by executing ":> filename" or ">filename" to null a file than anything else. Obviously, it's far easier than using some combination of cp or cat and /dev/null.
I don't have any mod points, but I got a good laugh. Thanks!
Do you think the number is significantly higher than 1 in 500?
Yes, because those are DEFINITELY mutually exclusive...
I wish I had mod points. Well said.
I think this may have been said before, but what's wrong with setting up a basic samba server on one of your machines, and then simply using cron (Mac/Linux) or scheduled task(Windows) to dump the backups across the WAN via rsync/scp? (Depending on how important managing multiple versions of the same file is, perhaps using cron on the server-side do some SVN magic would make sense.)
You'd be able to allow multiple users access to other folders with simple Samba ACLs, and it'd all be right on their desktop with an interface they're used to. As far as maintaining the backend, simple rsyncs between your linux servers keep everything up to date in the case of node failure.
The solution also allows for easy drop-in replacement in terms of switching target backup/sharing servers. All you would need to do is email your new rsync script and tell LuserX to put it in XYZ directory. There'd be no walking them through configuring a new backup application they've probably never seen before.
Clean and simple, but certainly not feature-rich.
I was going to mention this, but since you did, I'll point to the documentation. (I'm still new here..)
Personally, I would have much preferred if we let that country deal with it's own bullshit and leave our government with more resources to deal with issues that effect the people it's directly responsible for.
Maybe I'll get flamed, but I think we stick our noses in too many other peoples' business. I don't see us having other countries come in and help clean up our problems. Why do we continually insist on playing world 'police' and helping other countries clean up theirs all the while having more than enough that needs tending to at home?
Your numbers are only accounting for Vista and say nothing about XP. So, while Vista may only have 56% market share, XP is probably making up the other 30+% to keep MS near or possibly above the 90% threshold they tend to hover near.
I suppose it doesn't have to be a law, but I'd venture to guess (since I haven't RTFA) that congress is getting involved due to the backing of so many student loans.
I really don't mind if people cheat on their own dime. I, however, do find it a bit unnerving knowing that so many students (in both traditional an online institutions) are cheating with my tax dollars.
Again, I like the fact that some of my tax money goes to fund students who would otherwise likely not have a chance for formal education. I don't have much of a problem with the feds making sure some of those students are properly using the money.
That said, webcams in the home as a solution? Seems a little much, but what are the low-cost alternatives?
I didn't say the system didn't need to be fixed. In fact, I said it's quite possible we can expect serious change.
What I did say, however, is that this election will not be the election where a third party wins, nor is there a remote chance of one winning. The time to fix our system isn't right at this moment, just a few months before the election. The time is the years leading up to the election, where there is actual time to start a movement. (Or, perhaps, continue a movement that's already been started.)
Look, I realize we have problems and by no means do I think "life is peachy" in our country. I also believe, should McCain be elected, we'll see our country further deteriorate as it has under the current administration and we'll be in a worse situation than we are right now at the end of his term(s) as president.
I'm not asking anyone to plug their ears and "...fix the system after our problems are resolved" by any means. We need change now, and for better or for worse, a third party vote in November doesn't provide that. I don't particularly like it (although I do feel Obama is as good of a candidate as we've seen in quite awhile), but that's the bottom line.
We could go back and forth all afternoon, and probably into the night.
You asked which issues I saw as Obama moving us in a new direction, and I took the time to reply and outline just a few where I see Obama's direction distinctly different than McCain's.
Whether or not you agree with them wasn't part of the question, but I'm glad you took the time to post your feelings on each.
Where do I start with the new direction? Obama is starkly different than McCain and Bush. I'll list only a few key differences, and if you'd like more I can certainly keep them coming.
1. Taxes
Obama wants to rescind the ridiculous tax breaks on those who make over $250k, and tax the private equity earnings (also called 'carried interest') Under Obama's plan, assuming it all went as proposed (not likely), the lowest economic demographic would see their take-home income increase 5%. The top 1% of income would be see their take-home income decrease by just over 8%.
McCain would propose an extension of the current Bush cuts and a 10% reduction in corporate taxes (to 25% from the current 35%) To compare versus Obama's plan, under McCain that bottom demographic would expect see a mere 0.2% increase in income, while the top 1% would see another 2.4% gain.
Seems to me that Obama wants to change the way the rich have been getting preferential treatment, and McCain simply wants more of the same -- only he'll actually be increasing the benefits for the wealthy.
2. Iraq
This also ties into spending, but a crystal clear difference for Obama and McCain (as well as Bush) is that Obama wants out. Sure, I think he understands that it will take a little more time than he initially thought, but he wants them out. McCain, on the other hand, wants our troops to be in Iraq indefinitely - likely costing us taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. The bottom line is that Obama will tell us (US citizens) and the people of Iraq that we are leaving, and McCain will not.
(Iran will likely be moving to the forefront of conversations soon as well. The differences here are also very clear; McCain wants sanctions while Obama would like to, at least initially, stress direct diplomacy.)
3. Health Care
Basically, Obama will build on our current system to create a publicly run Medicare-ish plan that any employer or individual can buy into. This allows people who are happy with their current plan to keep it, just how it is, but also allows people without insurance or those who are unhappy with their current plan to get the federally provided coverage. Obama's plan doesn't allow insurance providers to charge more to people with health conditions. Also included in Obama's plan are subsidies for low and middle income families to make sure they're able to afford insurance.
McCain wants to get rid of employer based insurance all together. Due to the obvious fallout of businesses providing insurance for their employees under McCain's plan, his solution is to give every worker $2,500 ($5,000 for families) worth of tax credit. For many families, this would be insufficient, particularly to those who have existing health conditions. In summary, I think McCain's plan would completely undermine our current employer based system and leave many families still without insurance which is exactly what we're trying to get rid of.
I wish I had mod points. People are taking this one FISA vote, and going completely off the deep end. Yeah, it's not a popular vote, and yes I disagree with some of the language within the amendments (telecom immunity) but I don't think that single vote is worthy of disqualifying a great candidate.
If everyone who was pro-Obama before the FISA vote and is pro- after the FISA vote actually end up voting for a third party candidate, they're essentially helping to bring McCain in as our next president. I'll probably get flamed for this, but the bottom line is a 3rd party isn't going to win this election.
Perhaps 20 years from now, depending on how these next couple of terms turn out, we can expect serious change to our two party system. For now, in my opinion, it's imperative that we keep McCain out of office. Our country is in dire need of a new direction, and as much as the FISA bill ticks some of us off, Obama is the candidate who can get us started. I implore all of you who have flopped away from Obama because of the FISA vote, to think about the rest of what Obama brings to the table. Also, if you can find the time, think about what our country will be like if we endure another 4 (8?) years of GWB's near twin in McCain. Our country needs this vote, probably more than any other vote in my lifetime (born in '78), and we need it now.
I remember when PayPal did that when I opened my account back in 2000. I'm not sure if they still do that, but it certainly is a solution. It adds significant time, infrastructure (auto mailing facilities, employees, machines, etc) -- which all boil down to cost. I didn't like waiting the 4 or 5 days for my secret pin to arrive. On the other hand, if I applied for an account and either my pin didn't work or I never received it and I had to go through it multiple times, I'd probably start looking at other solutions.