An economist might not protest over price discrimination in general, but would over this particular form of it. Basically you are wasting the time of most customers just so that you can charge a little more to the people who aren't willing to waste their time.
Every time there's a virus there's always a big number shown for the amount of money it cost due to lost productivity. I wonder how much lost productivity there is due to rebates (both applying for them and processing them)?
Yeah but if you've been rolling your dice for the last 120 years then on your last 7 rolls you got 5 record highs with none of the rolls being low for the last 20 years, you might begin to suspect someone rigged your dice.
Would you bet your entire life savings that the next roll wasn't going to be high?
Yup... we are having an extremely mild winter here in eastern canada. Pretty much like early spring weather at the end of January. It's damn eerie, really.
No. Science does not demand that anyone believe anything. In fact Science encourages skepticism.
Science does require that people understand the theories. To be a scientist you should not believe in any theory. But you do need to understand them, especially if you want to be able to refute them.
You can also pick and choose. Agree with natural selection and disagree with abiotic genesis. Agree with General Relativity and disagree with String Theory. Its not all or nothing.
I can understand your confusion though, even a lot of people who consider themselves scientists don't get what science really is. They really should be teaching the scientific method and the philosophy of science a little better.
To paraphrase Indiana Jones: Science is the search for fact, not truth. If its truth you're looking for then you'd better enrol in a philosophy class.
I remember Tycho explained that originally the two characters in their strip weren't supposed to be them, just two guys that played a lot of video games. Over time they started notice that the personalities of the characters start to resemble theirs, then the rest is history.
See this is why I can't get into MMORPGs... everything is acronyms, Level 60 this, phat lewts that. Too much focus on leveling up and character classes to the point where actual story and entertainment are ignored.
... maybe someone
will figure out that academic performance will be higher if you send
only the brightest most motivated 5% of kids to college, like 100
years ago, than if you basically force everyone to go, as we do now.
That's part of the problem. the smartest 5% are getting the same amount of education as the dumbest 5%, the result is everyone is poorly educated.
Is that actually making them buy more though? See if I quickly grab an extra jar of jelly, then realise when I get home that I already have jelly in the cupboard, its not like I'm going to throw it out. It just means that I'll not have to buy jelly for a while.
And how many extra people are you going to get to by something just because its located near something else? What happens if I'm looking for jam, then I see no jam near the jelly out by the peanut butter and assume the store doesn't carry jam? This has actually happened to me and only on subsequent visits did I realise that some products aren't in ther proper sections. So there were a couple of meals I would have used their product, but didn't, simply because it was too hard to find their stuff.
For every sale you gain from moving stuff around, I bet you'd lose a bunch because you have food in confusing areas. But that doesn't appear on their stats because they don't collect information on people who don't buy stuff, just on the stuff people do buy.
Besides that, isn't this a lot of common sense? Put a few cans of spaghetti sauce in the pasta section, because people buying pasta are likely to want spaghetti sauce. I didn't need to spend millions of dollars to figure that out.
You are a lot more optimistic than I am. My take is that we have a whole lot of Pointy Haired office workers whose sole job is to make excel spreadsheets. In order for them to make excel spreadsheets they need lots of numbers. It doesn't matter if these numbers are relevant to anything at all. The more cells on the excel spreadsheet you can fill, the more work it looks like you're doing. Also, it makes it easier to cook the books (or the spreadsheet, as it were) and justify any expenditure you want to make.
All of this marketing data does is justify marketing departments' budgets. Really what possible use is it to know how much ketchup I'm using or that when I buy corn flakes I'm also likely to buy milk?
No, seriously, maybe I'm wrong and there is some valid use for this stuff, in which case, I'd really like to know. I have thought about this a lot, and asked a lot of people and have never gotten an answer that makes sense.
Another way to look at it is they are penalising those who do not allow them to monitor their shopping behaviour.
Everytime someone buys $185 worth of groceries they are charging a $15 fee to keep their purchasing decisions private. Does this still sound like a good deal?
Maybe it is a good deal to you, but don't think that your grocer is doing you a favour by offering you the choice between paying a fee and allowing them to violate your privacy.
Well if someone intentionally makes a typo or uses bad grammar, like saying "teh intarnets", just to be ironical, that's cool by me. I expect the level of language to be informal here. But if its obvious they they just made a typo, or a sentence is a little too awkward, then the editor should fix it. There is a difference between informal languge and language that's just hard to understand.
I don't think hard to read articles gives you any kind of street cred. To me it just seems like you don't care about ease of use.
I guess what it comes down to is: Is it more important that the slashdot "brand" be associated with newsgroups, mailing lists, and irc, OR is it more important that its easy to use? To me, your argument sounds like a marketing guy arguing that product quality is less important than fitting in with his marketing scheme.
More importantly, web proxies are easy to find. If someone wants to be a dick on a web board, there isn't much you can do to stop them. you can only really inconvenience them.
Some of the problem with K5 was it was trying too hard to be different from slashdot. Many stories were voted down simply because the topic appeared on slachdot (-1, slashdot). There isn't a huge amount of tech stories that don't appear on slashdot, so people have to find something else. And so conversation degenerates to the lowest common denominator, politics.
Exactly. Saying windows 95 works on a 486 and KDE doesn't is stupid. I can just as easily go on about how windowmaker, blackbox, rox, etc. run fine on a 486 while WinXP won't even install.
Yeah... well I'm not sure when it'll come about. Likely it'll be linked to ubuntu since that's the distro that seems to most have things together on the desktop front, and already has active forums.
That's actually not a bad idea. Actually I was thinking about making a website that you could rate and comment on different linux apps.
I hope you don't mind if I steal your idea? Of course there won't be a perfect match for every app, but there's probably something close. And it will at least give you an idea where to start.
That's fine. But the next time someone decides not to support linux because it has a low user base, you're just going to have to accept it. Personally, I'd like to have games that run on linux. Before that can happen normal people will have to be using Linux.
And your example just show another rule of marketing: know your audience. Someone running a command line conversion utility isn't really going to care what its called. Ditto for web servers, programming languages, IDEs and system administration tools.
But if you're talking about a graphics editor or IM software, or a media player, the name is important. Unless of course you don't want people to use the software. In which case what's the point of open sourcing it?
This is exactly the problem with open source software: No one is able to take constructive criticism. Someone mentions a problem immediately 20 people jump on him pointing to how things are really so much worse somewhere else. I guess screwing up is ok as long as Microsoft screws up in the same way, right?
Forget Microsoft for a second. Application names of most Open Source software sucks. Yeah that recursive acronym may be very clever, but its useless to anyone who's just searching for the app they want. Wanna know why people call it Linux and not GNU/Linux? Guh-Noo-Linux is hard to say for the 99.9% of the world that doesn't speak Klingon.
Yeah Outlook Express isn't a great name for an email client. Acrobat doesn't tell you its a PDF reader. But you know what? Microsoft and Adobe have this thing called a marketing department. Spend enough on marketing (and having a monopoly doesn't hurt) people will associate Outlook with email, and Acrobat with PDFs. In fact most people don't know what a PDF is but they know what Acrobat is.
So to recap: Microsoft: 1) get a monopoly and 2) spend a lot on marketing 3) name your products whatever the hell you want. Open Source: 1) name your product something stupid and 2) sit around complaining about how stupid people are for not using your superior product.
And even if you have a monopoly and the world best marketing department, some names are just never going to sell. ie. GIMP: At best the name is confusing, at worst its offensive. GNU: hard to pronounce and even if you know what the letters stand for its confusing on multiple levels.
On the other hand, Firefox: Has nothing to do with web browsing but they have put some effort into marketing it so they should be able to make it work.
The name of your product is a big part of marketing your product. start out with a stupid name, you're going to be fighting an uphill battle in promoting your product. Of course, promoting the GIMP is like climbing Everest with no equipment. I've seen people who were literally afraid to click on an icon labelled "GIMP". Have you ever seen Microsoft come up with a application name that got that reaction?
I have to bookmark your comment... its just so typically American. You are making an argument that storm strengths are decreasing based on only the strengths of the storms that hit the US that you know about (which is only two). I mean its one thing to be ignorant of a subject, but to make an argument based on two data points? I really, really hope you're trolling here.
In case you aren't (and for the people who modded you up), The most powerful storm ever recorded was Hurricane Wilma which was a storm this year (as in 2005). In fact four of the ten most powerful storms recorded occured within the last two years. 4 out of 10. Check the wikipedia link to see the list.
Elaine: "Well, the female body is a... work of art. The male body is
utilitarian, it's for gettin' around, like a jeep."
Jerry: "So you don't think it's attractive?"
Elaine: "It's hideous. The hair, the... the lumpiness. It's simian."
George: "Well, some women like it."
Elaine: "Hmm. Sickies."
I'm Sam Waterston, of the popular TV series "Law & Order". As a senior citizen, you're probably aware of the threat robots pose. Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel. Well, now there's a company that offers coverage against the unfortunate event of robot attack, with Old Glory Insurance. Old Glory will cover you with no health check-up or age consideration.
You need to feel safe. And that's harder and harder to do nowadays, because robots may strike at any time.
And when they grab you with those metal claws, you can't break free.. because they're made of metal, and robots are strong. Now, for only $4 a month, you can achieve peace of mind in a world full of grime and robots, with Old Glory Insurance. So, don't cower under your afghan any longer. Make a choice.
WARNING: Persons denying the existence of Robots may be Robots themselves.
Slashdot Mirror
Every time there's a virus there's always a big number shown for the amount of money it cost due to lost productivity. I wonder how much lost productivity there is due to rebates (both applying for them and processing them)?
Would you bet your entire life savings that the next roll wasn't going to be high?
Yup... we are having an extremely mild winter here in eastern canada. Pretty much like early spring weather at the end of January. It's damn eerie, really.
Science does require that people understand the theories. To be a scientist you should not believe in any theory. But you do need to understand them, especially if you want to be able to refute them.
You can also pick and choose. Agree with natural selection and disagree with abiotic genesis. Agree with General Relativity and disagree with String Theory. Its not all or nothing.
I can understand your confusion though, even a lot of people who consider themselves scientists don't get what science really is. They really should be teaching the scientific method and the philosophy of science a little better.
To paraphrase Indiana Jones: Science is the search for fact, not truth. If its truth you're looking for then you'd better enrol in a philosophy class.
Yep, Brian is a great straight man. And its twice as funny that the straight man is a talking dog.
Not sure what the story on their GF's are.
Also, Apple probably gave them a bunch of money for product placement.
See this is why I can't get into MMORPGs... everything is acronyms, Level 60 this, phat lewts that. Too much focus on leveling up and character classes to the point where actual story and entertainment are ignored.
That's part of the problem. the smartest 5% are getting the same amount of education as the dumbest 5%, the result is everyone is poorly educated.
Bigfoot ate the cat in the box! It all makes sense now...
And how many extra people are you going to get to by something just because its located near something else? What happens if I'm looking for jam, then I see no jam near the jelly out by the peanut butter and assume the store doesn't carry jam? This has actually happened to me and only on subsequent visits did I realise that some products aren't in ther proper sections. So there were a couple of meals I would have used their product, but didn't, simply because it was too hard to find their stuff.
For every sale you gain from moving stuff around, I bet you'd lose a bunch because you have food in confusing areas. But that doesn't appear on their stats because they don't collect information on people who don't buy stuff, just on the stuff people do buy.
Besides that, isn't this a lot of common sense? Put a few cans of spaghetti sauce in the pasta section, because people buying pasta are likely to want spaghetti sauce. I didn't need to spend millions of dollars to figure that out.
All of this marketing data does is justify marketing departments' budgets. Really what possible use is it to know how much ketchup I'm using or that when I buy corn flakes I'm also likely to buy milk?
No, seriously, maybe I'm wrong and there is some valid use for this stuff, in which case, I'd really like to know. I have thought about this a lot, and asked a lot of people and have never gotten an answer that makes sense.
Everytime someone buys $185 worth of groceries they are charging a $15 fee to keep their purchasing decisions private. Does this still sound like a good deal?
Maybe it is a good deal to you, but don't think that your grocer is doing you a favour by offering you the choice between paying a fee and allowing them to violate your privacy.
I don't think hard to read articles gives you any kind of street cred. To me it just seems like you don't care about ease of use.
I guess what it comes down to is: Is it more important that the slashdot "brand" be associated with newsgroups, mailing lists, and irc, OR is it more important that its easy to use? To me, your argument sounds like a marketing guy arguing that product quality is less important than fitting in with his marketing scheme.
More importantly, web proxies are easy to find. If someone wants to be a dick on a web board, there isn't much you can do to stop them. you can only really inconvenience them.
Some of the problem with K5 was it was trying too hard to be different from slashdot. Many stories were voted down simply because the topic appeared on slachdot (-1, slashdot). There isn't a huge amount of tech stories that don't appear on slashdot, so people have to find something else. And so conversation degenerates to the lowest common denominator, politics.
Exactly. Saying windows 95 works on a 486 and KDE doesn't is stupid. I can just as easily go on about how windowmaker, blackbox, rox, etc. run fine on a 486 while WinXP won't even install.
Also, what is a derailleur?
Yeah... well I'm not sure when it'll come about. Likely it'll be linked to ubuntu since that's the distro that seems to most have things together on the desktop front, and already has active forums.
I hope you don't mind if I steal your idea? Of course there won't be a perfect match for every app, but there's probably something close. And it will at least give you an idea where to start.
And your example just show another rule of marketing: know your audience. Someone running a command line conversion utility isn't really going to care what its called. Ditto for web servers, programming languages, IDEs and system administration tools.
But if you're talking about a graphics editor or IM software, or a media player, the name is important. Unless of course you don't want people to use the software. In which case what's the point of open sourcing it?
Forget Microsoft for a second. Application names of most Open Source software sucks. Yeah that recursive acronym may be very clever, but its useless to anyone who's just searching for the app they want. Wanna know why people call it Linux and not GNU/Linux? Guh-Noo-Linux is hard to say for the 99.9% of the world that doesn't speak Klingon.
Yeah Outlook Express isn't a great name for an email client. Acrobat doesn't tell you its a PDF reader. But you know what? Microsoft and Adobe have this thing called a marketing department. Spend enough on marketing (and having a monopoly doesn't hurt) people will associate Outlook with email, and Acrobat with PDFs. In fact most people don't know what a PDF is but they know what Acrobat is.
So to recap: Microsoft: 1) get a monopoly and 2) spend a lot on marketing 3) name your products whatever the hell you want. Open Source: 1) name your product something stupid and 2) sit around complaining about how stupid people are for not using your superior product.
And even if you have a monopoly and the world best marketing department, some names are just never going to sell. ie. GIMP: At best the name is confusing, at worst its offensive. GNU: hard to pronounce and even if you know what the letters stand for its confusing on multiple levels.
On the other hand, Firefox: Has nothing to do with web browsing but they have put some effort into marketing it so they should be able to make it work.
The name of your product is a big part of marketing your product. start out with a stupid name, you're going to be fighting an uphill battle in promoting your product. Of course, promoting the GIMP is like climbing Everest with no equipment. I've seen people who were literally afraid to click on an icon labelled "GIMP". Have you ever seen Microsoft come up with a application name that got that reaction?
In case you aren't (and for the people who modded you up), The most powerful storm ever recorded was Hurricane Wilma which was a storm this year (as in 2005). In fact four of the ten most powerful storms recorded occured within the last two years. 4 out of 10. Check the wikipedia link to see the list.
Hurricanes are getting stronger, dude.
Elaine: "Well, the female body is a... work of art. The male body is utilitarian, it's for gettin' around, like a jeep."
Jerry: "So you don't think it's attractive?"
Elaine: "It's hideous. The hair, the... the lumpiness. It's simian."
George: "Well, some women like it."
Elaine: "Hmm. Sickies."
You need to feel safe. And that's harder and harder to do nowadays, because robots may strike at any time.
And when they grab you with those metal claws, you can't break free.. because they're made of metal, and robots are strong. Now, for only $4 a month, you can achieve peace of mind in a world full of grime and robots, with Old Glory Insurance. So, don't cower under your afghan any longer. Make a choice.
WARNING: Persons denying the existence of Robots may be Robots themselves.