at least for their long distance service, they at one point offered a service to set a cap on your long distance bill - but they didn't actually DO anything with it. My mother ended up with a $1300 phone bill a while back, even though she had a $150 limit on the long distance bill. AT&T was unapologetic, and told her they had no obligation to honor the cap that they offered to put on her bill. When they finally realized she wasn't going to pay them beyond the $150, they disconnected the phone and gave the number to someone else, all in the course of a day. Mom switched to VOIP and never looked back.
this is slightly different, as this is taking the output of say, iTunes, and playing the same audio stream through the speakers in three different rooms. So, if you are strumming some air guitar in the shower, the people in the other rooms would be listening to dragonforce as well. Probably trivial to setup given your system, but different nonetheless.
Just like with 'hard copies' of music, you are limited to playing back digital music (DRM or not) only in places where you have the proper equipment. Just like with any of those 'legacy' formats, they are useless without some sort of playback device, which for digital music is a computer, ipod, zune, etc.
If I buy a CD, when I want to listen to it in another room, I have to take the CD to that room and put in the CD player. Just because I have a CD in the stereo in my bedroom doesn't mean I can listen to it when I am in the kitchen, or the family room. Why would I be able to listen to an MP3 in the livingroom if my playback equipment is in the bedroom?
If I want to listen to an MP3 or iTunes download away from the computer it is currently located on, I can copy it to my ipod, connect the ipod to my receiver, and I am good to go. Or I can copy the song to another computer in another room (iTunes DRM allows you to authorize 5 computers). I can burn that music to a CD and play it in any cd player, anywhere. I can stream it to a wii or a xbox using freely available software.
from the summary: "The Tolkien Trust says that New Line paid them only $62,500...instead of the agreed-upon 7.5 percent of gross receipts of all film-related revenue."
It's been two years since I worked there, so I dont have the employee handbook available, but if you are burning something on a non-company issued CD-R, that would mean its a personal CD-R. Meaning you are using their machines / time for personal use, which is a no-no.
If you could make $20/hr doing the job yourself, you could make $13-15/hr doing it as a member of the geek squad, and not have to worry about all the headaches and hassles of running things yourself. A big box retailer is also fully insured, so if a tech fries your system, they have insurance to cover that sort of thing. You may not have the managers and LP officers to pay, but you also don't have the economies of scale. Not saying it isn't doable to undercut them and make a living, but i don't think it is quite so enticing when you think about all the other BS involved.
the technicians likely know how to fix the problems...however, when i was on the GS, and I'm sure is still the case, turnaround time was key. It could take you an entire day or longer to clean out a heavily infected system, and often times there were still major issues, and you could still end up needing to restore the machine. The pricing was something like $40 for virus removal, $40 for spyware removal. Alternatively, charge $60 for a system restore that will take an hour or two. In either case, you also tried to sell AV & Anti-Spyware software, software installs & a 'system tune up' that would run about $120 for the package. So either way, the customer was in for almost $200, but the system restore was a sure thing and took far less time, obviously meaning more computers going through the system and bringing in more revenue.
Not long before I left, they did install a bunch of 4 port KVMs, but prior to that, bench space was at a premium. We could have maybe 10-12 systems hooked up at a time. You didn't want 6 machines running virus/spyware removals, as that would take up 1/2 your bench space for the entire day. That hurts revenue, which in turn hurts the amount of hours you get the following week / month.
People are quick to bash the geek squad techs, when at least at my store, probably 13 of 15 were competent techs. We were just hamstrung by the corporate bullshit that comes along with working in an environment like Best Buy. You have to give the customer enough service to keep them happy, while bringing in enough revenue to keep the managers happy.
17% paid less than $4? Well, that means that of the 38% that paid, 21% paid more than $4. What does $4 have to do with anything at all? It is a completely arbitrary number.
The numbers that would be important are: Of the 62% who paid nothing, how many of them would have bought the disc at retail at launch? Of the 38% who paid something, how many of them would have bought the disc at retail at launch? How much more / less did they pay than if they bought it at retail?
Not to mention that they will still sell physical CDs, which they stand to make more money off of.
for a team like the patriots, for every season ticket holder, there are probably 5 people willing to take over those seats if someone loses their season ticket rights, who isn't looking at it as investment where they can make a few bucks every week.
nobody said it was Cringleys idea....he simply reported that it was NOT Google's idea.
Why cant we mod stories themselves?
on
Replacing a Thinkpad?
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· Score: 1, Informative
I have moderator points, and i'd much rather mod the story as Troll or Flamebait, than go through and mod up all the comments pointing out the flaws in this guys logic behind avoiding lenovo.
i would guess that the OP, like myself, wants an iPod touch in 80/160gb varieties.
i would have replaced my 40gb iPod photo today with an 80 or 160gb iPod touch...but to me, neither of the newly announced iPods (touch/classic) are worth 'upgrading' to.
am I going to willingly post this information on someplace like slashdot? No. However, if it showed up in a picture on flickr, google maps, or in a picture on some social networking site, i wouldn't give a shit. What exactly is it that you are so scared of?
tell me how creating your own account on the LA Times website so you can read the article helps you 'support the rights of adults to pay for and listen to whatever speech they want'
Slashdot Mirror
at least for their long distance service, they at one point offered a service to set a cap on your long distance bill - but they didn't actually DO anything with it. My mother ended up with a $1300 phone bill a while back, even though she had a $150 limit on the long distance bill. AT&T was unapologetic, and told her they had no obligation to honor the cap that they offered to put on her bill. When they finally realized she wasn't going to pay them beyond the $150, they disconnected the phone and gave the number to someone else, all in the course of a day. Mom switched to VOIP and never looked back.
this is slightly different, as this is taking the output of say, iTunes, and playing the same audio stream through the speakers in three different rooms. So, if you are strumming some air guitar in the shower, the people in the other rooms would be listening to dragonforce as well. Probably trivial to setup given your system, but different nonetheless.
Just like with 'hard copies' of music, you are limited to playing back digital music (DRM or not) only in places where you have the proper equipment. Just like with any of those 'legacy' formats, they are useless without some sort of playback device, which for digital music is a computer, ipod, zune, etc.
If I buy a CD, when I want to listen to it in another room, I have to take the CD to that room and put in the CD player. Just because I have a CD in the stereo in my bedroom doesn't mean I can listen to it when I am in the kitchen, or the family room. Why would I be able to listen to an MP3 in the livingroom if my playback equipment is in the bedroom?
If I want to listen to an MP3 or iTunes download away from the computer it is currently located on, I can copy it to my ipod, connect the ipod to my receiver, and I am good to go. Or I can copy the song to another computer in another room (iTunes DRM allows you to authorize 5 computers). I can burn that music to a CD and play it in any cd player, anywhere. I can stream it to a wii or a xbox using freely available software.
your comparison is absurd, at best.
from the summary: "The Tolkien Trust says that New Line paid them only $62,500...instead of the agreed-upon 7.5 percent of gross receipts of all film-related revenue."
they went for gross, not net
you do realize you linked to a SP2 CD, while this article is discussing a CD containing all the POST-SP2 patches and updates?
It's been two years since I worked there, so I dont have the employee handbook available, but if you are burning something on a non-company issued CD-R, that would mean its a personal CD-R. Meaning you are using their machines / time for personal use, which is a no-no.
If you could make $20/hr doing the job yourself, you could make $13-15/hr doing it as a member of the geek squad, and not have to worry about all the headaches and hassles of running things yourself. A big box retailer is also fully insured, so if a tech fries your system, they have insurance to cover that sort of thing. You may not have the managers and LP officers to pay, but you also don't have the economies of scale. Not saying it isn't doable to undercut them and make a living, but i don't think it is quite so enticing when you think about all the other BS involved.
the technicians likely know how to fix the problems...however, when i was on the GS, and I'm sure is still the case, turnaround time was key. It could take you an entire day or longer to clean out a heavily infected system, and often times there were still major issues, and you could still end up needing to restore the machine. The pricing was something like $40 for virus removal, $40 for spyware removal. Alternatively, charge $60 for a system restore that will take an hour or two. In either case, you also tried to sell AV & Anti-Spyware software, software installs & a 'system tune up' that would run about $120 for the package. So either way, the customer was in for almost $200, but the system restore was a sure thing and took far less time, obviously meaning more computers going through the system and bringing in more revenue.
Not long before I left, they did install a bunch of 4 port KVMs, but prior to that, bench space was at a premium. We could have maybe 10-12 systems hooked up at a time. You didn't want 6 machines running virus/spyware removals, as that would take up 1/2 your bench space for the entire day. That hurts revenue, which in turn hurts the amount of hours you get the following week / month.
People are quick to bash the geek squad techs, when at least at my store, probably 13 of 15 were competent techs. We were just hamstrung by the corporate bullshit that comes along with working in an environment like Best Buy. You have to give the customer enough service to keep them happy, while bringing in enough revenue to keep the managers happy.
aye, there are plenty of keyboards out there with eject buttons. not to mention right clicking the drive and selecting 'eject'.
its just another completely arbitrary number that means nothing.
12% of people were 60% of sales.
What if it said, 5% of people were 45% of sales?
or 25% of people were 85% of sales?
It just shows you can spin numbers whatever way you want, however it suits your purposes.
You can spin the numbers any way you want...
17% paid less than $4? Well, that means that of the 38% that paid, 21% paid more than $4. What does $4 have to do with anything at all? It is a completely arbitrary number.
The numbers that would be important are:
Of the 62% who paid nothing, how many of them would have bought the disc at retail at launch?
Of the 38% who paid something, how many of them would have bought the disc at retail at launch? How much more / less did they pay than if they bought it at retail?
Not to mention that they will still sell physical CDs, which they stand to make more money off of.
for a team like the patriots, for every season ticket holder, there are probably 5 people willing to take over those seats if someone loses their season ticket rights, who isn't looking at it as investment where they can make a few bucks every week.
nobody said it was Cringleys idea....he simply reported that it was NOT Google's idea.
I have moderator points, and i'd much rather mod the story as Troll or Flamebait, than go through and mod up all the comments pointing out the flaws in this guys logic behind avoiding lenovo.
bullshit, what she did was stupid, plain and simple, and they should give her some time in jail to work on her 'art' skills.
exactly, and its important to note, the songs don't play on the zune either.
But is the headline Universal offers iPod and Zune Resistant Music? Of course not.
actually, the songs wont play on a zune either.
i would guess that the OP, like myself, wants an iPod touch in 80/160gb varieties.
i would have replaced my 40gb iPod photo today with an 80 or 160gb iPod touch...but to me, neither of the newly announced iPods (touch/classic) are worth 'upgrading' to.
We're changing our name! ShootersExchange.com is becoming ShootersXchange.com!
looks like they realized the error of their ways.
i bought my ps2 on launch day, and only replaced it last year because it was just too darned big - i wanted the smaller footprint of the new ps2.
sorry, was i supposed to put this in the form of a joke somehow?
movies get pirated on bit torrent all the time before they hit theaters, why does this get its own front page story?
michael moore reminds me a lot of jack thompson - if the media would just stop giving him so much attention, he would fade away.
am I going to willingly post this information on someplace like slashdot? No. However, if it showed up in a picture on flickr, google maps, or in a picture on some social networking site, i wouldn't give a shit. What exactly is it that you are so scared of?
and? I can clearly see license plates and drivers when I am driving around town. so what.
tell me how creating your own account on the LA Times website so you can read the article helps you 'support the rights of adults to pay for and listen to whatever speech they want'