So wait, you are saying that MCSE and CCNE certifications have no merit? The test facilities are run independently by a recognized organization. Why did we spend all that time and money and study so hard? Have you ever taken one of the test?
I hope you're kidding. Firstly, a CCNA qualifies you to be a tape switcher, a CCNP combined with atleast 4+ years of experience qualifies you to administer a network segment and if you're presenting a CCIE certificate number to me you'd best have 10+ years worth of relevant experience.
(Note that little qualifier word stuck in there; "experience".)
As for an MCSE certs they're not even good as toilet paper due to the rough edges.
You haven't lived until you've spoken to a MCSE cert holder who informs you that they'd like a $100k/year salary to start. Experience? Why yes, I have my MCSE!
Every asswipe that could spell HTML had 4 years of it on his resume. A test might have saved everyone some pain.
Or maybe your company bothering to check references would have saved everyone some pain!
Sure. So they have to go through a dozen "references" for every Tom, Dick and Harry who's claimed to make a website. "Yeah, see www.example.com? I designed that. Yeah, yeah, I designed that one. Oh, and here's a list of ten more rando.. er.. samples of my work!"
Takes way too much investigative research to find fakes from reality. It's much, much easier to just give someone a simple test. Here's an example layout, here's content. Do x, y, and z with the content. Make this part dynamic. Would you like a coffee or tea while you work?
My final exam for Web Page Authoring in college was essentially like that. Here's a range of data; create a simple database, input the information, make the webpage give me data based on this list of criteria and lay it out in a functional manner. I got delayed because there were no working computers left so I lost the first 30 minutes of a 90 minute exam session but I was still the first one done. If you know the material it'll be a breeze. If you don't you'll flounder around and you won't get the job.
Wait - wasn't it a complaint of IT professionals that every jackass with a home computer came into the IT industry and called themselves a pro?!? Since we don't have a trustworthy certification body for the industry wouldn't it be prudent to expect skills tests to assure an employer that you're an actual professional rather than somebody's nephew who, like, really knows computers and stuff?
Capitalism works just fine... text messaging is too expensive, so I don't use it.
There... capitalism at it's finest. If someone using text messaging is complaining it's too expensive, then maybe they should look at alternatives or STFU. THAT is what capitalism is all about.
Oh. So when I get a message telling me that Zoltan has prepared my fortune for me, or that my Perfect Crush is waiting for me, or I can find out my top five Perfect Lovers and I get dinged $0.10 apiece for receiving them, just exactly how is that "capitalism at its finest" and how, pray-tell, am I supposed to stop 'using' it?
Per-text messaging rates exist to punish those who send or receive the occasional message. It has nothing to do with the big "problem" the telecom companies are talking about - the power text users who're "clogging" the network with their flurry of messages. Those, you see, are on low-priced fixed-rate unlimited message plans so they remain unaffected.
It's simple math. At $0.10 apiece, unless and until I start sending/receiving more than 50 messages consistently each and every month it's not worthwhile for me to sign up for a plan - even though it's a mere $5.00 per month. However any time I talk to a rep from my phone company they tell me my option is to do just that.
I would (seriously, cause i own a hybrid:)) like to see your sources: a few minutes of googling shows people claiming anywhere from 2-6k, maybe that's not counting labor, but considering this isn't a rip-the-transmission-out type of job I don't see how the difference is coming from labor costs...
I can relate to this. My friend didn't make it to the freshman camp a year ago because some guy stole several meters of railroad track for the scrap metal.
I'd have to Google it, but a church somewhere ran into crisis because some derelict(s) decided to make off with their copper downspouts.
Most salvage people know better than to cut into a fuel tank without taking precautions. But word might not have gone out about salvaging hybrid or electric cars safely.
That's why the main power cables are fluorescent orange.
I could be wrong, but I don't think the battery pack for a Camry or Prius costs anywhere near 10,000 dollars.
You're right. Initial figures place them around $12-15k plus labour. If they're in fact $10k at this point in time it means economy of scale is finally taking effect.
Yeah I get the feeling that this is actually what EA are trying to make happen. They like console games bacuse:
About the only inconsistency I can see with your summary is the "media in the drive" thing, as most PC games I've experienced require the CD to be in the drive to function.
However that being said I've become a console game convert for several reasons so the lack of DRM, as it were, is basically icing on the cake.
No need to update drivers, DirectX, RAM, CPU, video card, etc. for new games or new revisions.
Compatability wise, if I want to bring a game over to my friends' house or vice-versa we don't have to sit and rhyme off hardware versus requirements; I just have to ascertain whether they have a PlayStation 3 or not. Pretty simple, really.
Rather than signing up for a different online gameplay service for each game / game company, I just have to have a PlayStation account and I can use online gameplay for every compatable game.
With the savings I experience by not having to constantly upgrade video cards I can afford to upgrade components that will more aptly suit my other computing needs.
If a game caffs I don't lose my documents or other personal files. If my system caffs, I don't have to worry about bringing my personal data into the repair shop.
I'd much rather play on a 60" widescreen than a 19" widescreen any day.
My Harmon Kardon + Polk Audio surround sound system kicks my computer speakers in every possible way.
My couch is way more comfortable than my best computer chair
Console gaming is a far more social experience.
I have tables in my living room that allow for snacks and beverages, opposed to my cramped computer desk.
Wireless game controllers are not only better suited to a gaming environment, they allow me to situate myself much more comfortably during gameplay.
Really when you weigh the benefits of console gaming I just can't see the obsession with PC gaming anyways.
Because the Prius can get 40mpg at 145KPH with more interior space.
Bull. At 145KPH the Prius is using an under-powered 4 cylinder engine and dragging the heavily electrical components along for the ride. The interior space is roughly comparable and you'll wind up with even poorer fuel economy.
In Canadian gallons, the Prius gets 67MPG tested at an average speed of 77KPH and a top speed of 97KPH on a 16-km course. Keeping in mind the deterioration of economy from the city rating of 71MPG on a stop-and-go 12km course with an average speed of 32KPH and a top speed of 91KPH with 18 stops and approx. 4 minutes of idling time. Remember that the Prius was designed for short, stop-and-go city commutes so the higher you bring the speed the sharper the decline in economy.
Sorry sir, but you're going to have to try an awful lot harder than that.:)
n.b. Anybody who buys a Hybrid Synergy Driveline vehicle without doing their proper research and winds up driving like a maniac like that individual in the silver Pruis is, frankly, either mentally deficient, has a disproportionate amount of money compared to grey matter, or is a yuppie hippy environmentalist who only cares about telling their friends they drive a damned Prius.
Otherwise I'd like to direct your attention to the recent Top Gear track test where they drove the Prius around the track at top speed and followed it in a BMW M3 (or was it an M5?) and discovered that the German car consumed less fuel. So if you want to drive at 145KPH on the 401 twice a day, buy a Bimmer. You'll be doing the environment a favour.
1. Based on the speed at which most Prius drivers go, they have plenty of time on their hands. and 2. wouldn't it be better to spend the money on retro-fitting older cars. Better to reuse than recycle.
Actually there's a Prius owner that drove the same stretch of the 401 as I did at approximately the same time every day and let me tell you, at average speeds of 130-140KPH I wonder why they didn't just buy a damn Corolla and save the extra cash.
On the one hand their competitors will quote the old-style battery lives so SONY will look bad.
On the other, people will be suing them if they don't get every last second of battery life claimed under the new rules
(See, eg., the class-action suits against HD manufacturers for selling Gb instead of GiB...)
Add to this the fact that batteries lose capacity over time (whether you use them or not) and, no, it's not gonna happen.
The problem is people will sue no matter what if they feel they can gain some kind of windfall out of the deal. Look at posted fuel economies of cars. People blame manufacturers but the ratings come from the government's official testing centre (here in Canada, anyways). Everybody knows hard drives are measured in millions and billions of bytes and operating systems report in base-2 but that's the way it's always been ever since I was purchasing 20 and 40 MEG hard drives. Tough cookies. Cigarettes kill. Anybody alive today who claims they don't know the health risks associated with cigarettes is either too mentally incompetent to care for themselves or they're flat out lying. Battery life on notebooks are, of course, a marketing gimmick based on the lowest performance settings and basic, resource un-intensive tasks like word processing. Always has been. Again; tough cookies.
If a person doesn't do their research before making a major (depending on one's definition of major) purchase it's their own damn fault. Especially today when an hour's worth of Googling can return hundreds of pages of results to pore through there's really no excuse. If you find a forum that says "That new ${vehicle}'s fuel consumption rating is off by 40-60%!" and you buy it anyways do you really have any right to complain? If people are talking about battery life being less than half the posted rating on the box - who are you to bitch and moan? How about instead writing the manufacturer and informing them that you are NOT going to purchase their product until their stated numbers more closely reflect reality (or until their numbers are disclaimed sufficiently so you know what you're getting into).
Everyone knows that people in trailer parks don't deserve entertainment. If they're awake, they should be working - preferably doing physical labor so they can't get too uppity.
Where is it stated that everybody is entitled to the same level of consumer goods and/or entertainment? Successful people have always had more things and a higher level of service than poor people, but at the end of the day not everybody can be highly successful. Somebody has to make the sandwiches and ditches don't dig themselves. (Before you get on your high horse, I've worked in both the restaurant and construction industries. At some point it dawned on me that I wanted a better lot in life so I changed and succeeded.)
More than 50% of the US population is suffering an economic downturn vs their situation 8 years ago.
Yeah, and how much of that was due to ignorance and people taking "too good to be true" sub-prime mortgages - in some cases walking away from highly subsidized mortgages in the process? Not only is ignorance no excuse, it's dangerous, especially when combined with greed and the lack of common sense.
I agree I'm not the target demographic. The target demographic is people who place immediate wants over long term needs.
Why does there have to be a distinction? I have an elaborate, high-end home theatre system but I'm still in an ever improving financial situation. I didn't choose home theatre instead of something, I chose my home theatre because I wanted it. I am in the target demographic, I do have a BluRay player (a PlayStation 3, FWIW) and I do intend to participate in high definition movie ownership over the next several years. I stopped purchasing DVDs a few years ago in anticipation of the HD takeover.
I should be the target demographic. I'm a guy in my 20s who earns more than most people my age but I still have a 24 inch CRT and watch DVDs on my computer.
Until HDTV offers me something useful, I'll stick with that setup.
By your own admission you're not in the target demographic. Obviously you don't prioritize home entertainment so what are you on about? It's not just an income basis. Who cares about the price of tomatoes if you don't like tomatoes?
Poor people quibble over nickels and dimes.
No, self-made rich people do.
Actually that's the very mentality that keeps lower and middle class people in the bracket they're in. The truly wealthy, including (especially) the self-made variety worry about dollars rather than spending time quibbling over nickels.
Consider which is a more beneficial use of your time for a number of hours; haggling/worrying/niggling over $100, or earning $1000?
I'm currently averaging about 1 TV every 3-4 years or so.
You'd save a lot of money if you just bought a higher quality TV in the first place.
Let's see, the first was bought on a dishwasher's pay, the second is a high quality CRT unit that still resides in my bedroom to this day and the third will last me for several years in my living room (nee; home theatre).
Besides, I wasn't talking about people adopting current HD technology. I was talking about *widespread* adoption of TVs with MORE than 1080p resolution. I'll stand by my opinion that 20 years is a highly optimistic estimate for that.
So you're holding out for super-high-definition - technology that hasn't really breached the "experimental" phases yet? Well that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish right there and really has no bearing on the adoption rate of BluRay, seeing as BluRay is designed for 720/1080 sets.
(n.b. Those were the first "like 28-32" sets I came across at the first store I checked. Were I in the market I'd comparison shop at 3-5 stores online, setup price-watch e-mails and watch for store flyers and sales and I'd get one or the other for $500 or below.)
...can you even buy a blu-ray movie for 50$? I don't really see blu-ray replacing dvd in movie sales unless blu-ray becomes cheaper. Last time I checked (admittedly, this was a while ago) blu-ray was still twice as expensive as dvd. I have no interest in buying an HDTV, so blu-ray has absolutely nothing for me. Except added cost, of course.
Firstly your cost estimates on the movies themselves are sorely out of whack.
Secondly, you are not the target demographic. If you think $300 for a high definition media player or $25-40 for a high definition movie is too expensive then you're going to have to face the fact that your opinion is meaningless to the movie studios. No, I'm not trying to be mean, I'm trying to give you a sense of perspective.
For people in the target demographic who earn enough money and are in a secure financial position they're not concerned about the nominal cost of a BluRay player or the movies. They're concerned about getting what's good/best for their needs/wants and that's that. Poor people quibble over nickels and dimes.
I'll leave you to your regularly scheduled bubble now.
Not to mention that there is absolutely no reason at all to improve on Blu-Ray anytime soon. The vast majority of people I know are still watching 480i CRT televisions. It's going to be 2 decades, bare minimum, before displays capable of more than Blu-Ray's 1080p gain a significant foothold in people's homes.
Sorry, but my empirical evidence trumps yours, and your 2 decades figure is way off base unless the "vast majority of people [you] know" happen to reside in local area trailer parks.
Tell me the ratio of CRT to LCD|Plasma television models available at any major retail outlet. You seriously only buy a TV every 20-25 years? I'm currently averaging about 1 TV every 3-4 years or so.
Yes BluRay is cheaper than flash drives but flash is far more useful.
With a flash drive you could plug it into your PC/media box and save a list of films you'd like to see.
The device stores your movie preferences, membership info, rental history and whatever else is needed.
You go to Blockbuster and pop it into their machine.
It tells you what films are available and lets you choose which you want without the problem of all the copies being out.
It fills the rest of the device with trailers you might like and possibly other free content.
You go home, insert the flash drive into your player and enjoy.
You seem to forget that the premise of a retail store location is that people (customers / consumers) will browse and therefore purchase things they didn't think they needed when they left the house. Do you think it's an accident that they have chips and drinks right beside the cashier?
The number of people with the equipment to actually benefit from anything more than 16 bit audio is tiny tiny tiny.
Of course, the number of people who think they will benefit is probably a fairly large number.
My home theatre will allow me to discern the difference. Just because some people have $200-500 "theatre/stereo in a box" setups doesn't mean the rest of us don't want high(er) quality audio.
I still use CDs, mostly to burn audio disks - but they are still a bit cheaper than DVDs if you have a small amount of data.
Here in Ontario, Canada it's actually cheaper on a per disc basis to buy/burn DVD[+/-]Rs than it is to buy CD-Rs. On a per-MB basis it's almost exponentially cheaper to buy blank DVDs.
This only holds up during the beginning of the tech cycle for BluRay. There are a few factors that will lead to wider adoption and preference.
1) HDTV prices will continue to fall. As the cost of an HDTV approaches that of it's Standard definition counterparts more people will purchase HDTV.
That's funny; I'm finding it increasingly difficult to even find SD television sets anymore and when I do I realize there's really no point in saving the $20-100. Anybody who intentionally purchases a non-HD set nowadays is delusional.
I actually have to search and scour to find SD sets; usually only finding the old CRT variety and frankly I'd be happy to pay extra simply for the privilege of not having a 100lb set to lug around and gather dust.
The old strawman about HDTV prices being out of whack is long dead, burned and blown away my friend.
The real issue WRT set prices is the fact that people in general don't replace their TV sets until their existing set caffs and they have a genuine need to. With modern sets lasting upwards of 5-10 years it's just going to take a while before HD sets become as ubiquitous as SD sets once were but they're slowly, steadily gaining.
Having been an on_site customer of a DSL company, I can assure you that on-site techs do think that they are paid to show up and aren't actually there to make sure the services their employers sells to me are working. Here are how I view the ways they've tried to just end the call/go away without fixing anything :
1. "Explain that the issue is elsewhere and that preventing me from leaving will only prolong their outage." : "Elsewhere" WHERE?If the problem is not here, you can still call your colleagues, who will fix the thing wherever elsewhere is and you can stay where you are to make sure you actually fixed my problem. THAT is your job.
The problem will take about 6 hours to rectify. What's for dinner?
2. "Show that the problem is with their own equipment, and that I'm not responsible for it." Always a good one : if there was no powersurge (a UPS works wonder to avoid losing equipment to those), no changes in the configuration nor the equipment, and everything has been rebooted and checked just ffs, and it still doesn't work, then saying that it's my equipment is pure BS. Like #1, all you do is push the responsability on someone else. As there is nobody besides me (the customer) and your employer ( which you are paid to represent), there is noone to take the blame, no matter how hard you try.
I'm glad you're so well disciplined. I'd like to introduce you to about a dozen (nee, hundred) of my former customers who thought they were level one technical support who would quite helpfully modify everything from their network settings or registry right through wiring setup of the network equipment. Admittedly that's our fault anyways for not selling the higher spec'd customer proof equipment, but I digress.
3. That's called blackmailing, and might result in a lawsuit against you and your employer.
I'm reasonably certain I can find something in my TOS that covers threats and intimidation of my employees that will invoke a breech of contract. But hey, you're a lawyer so who am I to judge?
4. and I might offer to have your head on a plate and your job down the drain.. depending on how good a customer I am (for your employer)
Of course you're right. I've made a few of those phone calls myself. Bastards at the ISP have no sense of humour.
"Hey, all I did was imprison the guy for an indeterminate period of time by sealing off the exits and the prick threatened to stab me with his pen. If you don't mind, I'd like you to fax a copy of his termination leter to xxxx...."
Having been an on-site tech for a cable company, a DSL company, and a multi-service ISP; I can assure you that customers do think that they can prevent a technician from leaving if the service isn't working to their satisfaction. I've responded in a number of different ways to customers. Here are some of the ways I've managed to vacate the premise:
I think all of us who've done on-site support for any long period of time know the woes of the frustrated, crazy, silly, stupid or downright insane customers we come across from time to time. Granted it's a small percentage of the userbase but it's significant enough to warrant attention. People unfortunately don't realize that we did not break their ${serviceable_item}, we're just doing our jobs and trying to fix it. Also that I have a life outside of their little world and if and when I'm ready to leave I'll bloody well do so.
It helps that I'm over six feet tall and slightly heavier than my dad's old football playing weight so I don't get too many physical threats, but nonetheless I've had my fair share and I've always dealt with them swiftly and sharply. As soon as you let the person get the upper hand in the intimidation game the situation can only escalate.
As to all the theories about second parties, firearms, witnesses, home defence et al. that's just Slashdot rhetoric rearing its ugly head. I'd wager that most people commenting on the subject, as usual, have no first hand experience with the situation are are thusly not qualified to open their yaps. But considering the locale I won't hold my breath.:)
Slashdot Mirror
So wait, you are saying that MCSE and CCNE certifications have no merit? The test facilities are run independently by a recognized organization. Why did we spend all that time and money and study so hard? Have you ever taken one of the test?
I hope you're kidding. Firstly, a CCNA qualifies you to be a tape switcher, a CCNP combined with atleast 4+ years of experience qualifies you to administer a network segment and if you're presenting a CCIE certificate number to me you'd best have 10+ years worth of relevant experience.
(Note that little qualifier word stuck in there; "experience".)
As for an MCSE certs they're not even good as toilet paper due to the rough edges.
You haven't lived until you've spoken to a MCSE cert holder who informs you that they'd like a $100k/year salary to start. Experience? Why yes, I have my MCSE!
Forehead, meet keyboard.
Or maybe your company bothering to check references would have saved everyone some pain!
Sure. So they have to go through a dozen "references" for every Tom, Dick and Harry who's claimed to make a website. "Yeah, see www.example.com? I designed that. Yeah, yeah, I designed that one. Oh, and here's a list of ten more rando.. er.. samples of my work!"
Takes way too much investigative research to find fakes from reality. It's much, much easier to just give someone a simple test. Here's an example layout, here's content. Do x, y, and z with the content. Make this part dynamic. Would you like a coffee or tea while you work?
My final exam for Web Page Authoring in college was essentially like that. Here's a range of data; create a simple database, input the information, make the webpage give me data based on this list of criteria and lay it out in a functional manner. I got delayed because there were no working computers left so I lost the first 30 minutes of a 90 minute exam session but I was still the first one done. If you know the material it'll be a breeze. If you don't you'll flounder around and you won't get the job.
Wait - wasn't it a complaint of IT professionals that every jackass with a home computer came into the IT industry and called themselves a pro?!? Since we don't have a trustworthy certification body for the industry wouldn't it be prudent to expect skills tests to assure an employer that you're an actual professional rather than somebody's nephew who, like, really knows computers and stuff?
Capitalism works just fine ... text messaging is too expensive, so I don't use it.
There ... capitalism at it's finest. If someone using text messaging is complaining it's too expensive, then maybe they should look at alternatives or STFU. THAT is what capitalism is all about.
Oh. So when I get a message telling me that Zoltan has prepared my fortune for me, or that my Perfect Crush is waiting for me, or I can find out my top five Perfect Lovers and I get dinged $0.10 apiece for receiving them, just exactly how is that "capitalism at its finest" and how, pray-tell, am I supposed to stop 'using' it?
Per-text messaging rates exist to punish those who send or receive the occasional message. It has nothing to do with the big "problem" the telecom companies are talking about - the power text users who're "clogging" the network with their flurry of messages. Those, you see, are on low-priced fixed-rate unlimited message plans so they remain unaffected.
It's simple math. At $0.10 apiece, unless and until I start sending/receiving more than 50 messages consistently each and every month it's not worthwhile for me to sign up for a plan - even though it's a mere $5.00 per month. However any time I talk to a rep from my phone company they tell me my option is to do just that.
This isn't capitalism; it's extortion.
I would (seriously, cause i own a hybrid :)) like to see your sources: a few minutes of googling shows people claiming anywhere from 2-6k, maybe that's not counting labor, but considering this isn't a rip-the-transmission-out type of job I don't see how the difference is coming from labor costs...
My service manager??!
n.b. I work in the car industry.
I can relate to this. My friend didn't make it to the freshman camp a year ago because some guy stole several meters of railroad track for the scrap metal.
I'd have to Google it, but a church somewhere ran into crisis because some derelict(s) decided to make off with their copper downspouts.
Most salvage people know better than to cut into a fuel tank without taking precautions. But word might not have gone out about salvaging hybrid or electric cars safely.
That's why the main power cables are fluorescent orange.
I could be wrong, but I don't think the battery pack for a Camry or Prius costs anywhere near 10,000 dollars.
You're right. Initial figures place them around $12-15k plus labour. If they're in fact $10k at this point in time it means economy of scale is finally taking effect.
you can also have a large battery made up of smaller batteries inside of it.
Actually that's redundant. A battery is a collection of cells, a battery of batteries would be a collection of collections of cells.
Round and round and round we go.
Yeah I get the feeling that this is actually what EA are trying to make happen. They like console games bacuse:
About the only inconsistency I can see with your summary is the "media in the drive" thing, as most PC games I've experienced require the CD to be in the drive to function.
However that being said I've become a console game convert for several reasons so the lack of DRM, as it were, is basically icing on the cake.
Really when you weigh the benefits of console gaming I just can't see the obsession with PC gaming anyways.
Because the Prius can get 40mpg at 145KPH with more interior space.
Bull. At 145KPH the Prius is using an under-powered 4 cylinder engine and dragging the heavily electrical components along for the ride. The interior space is roughly comparable and you'll wind up with even poorer fuel economy.
In Canadian gallons, the Prius gets 67MPG tested at an average speed of 77KPH and a top speed of 97KPH on a 16-km course. Keeping in mind the deterioration of economy from the city rating of 71MPG on a stop-and-go 12km course with an average speed of 32KPH and a top speed of 91KPH with 18 stops and approx. 4 minutes of idling time. Remember that the Prius was designed for short, stop-and-go city commutes so the higher you bring the speed the sharper the decline in economy.
Sorry sir, but you're going to have to try an awful lot harder than that. :)
n.b. Anybody who buys a Hybrid Synergy Driveline vehicle without doing their proper research and winds up driving like a maniac like that individual in the silver Pruis is, frankly, either mentally deficient, has a disproportionate amount of money compared to grey matter, or is a yuppie hippy environmentalist who only cares about telling their friends they drive a damned Prius.
Otherwise I'd like to direct your attention to the recent Top Gear track test where they drove the Prius around the track at top speed and followed it in a BMW M3 (or was it an M5?) and discovered that the German car consumed less fuel. So if you want to drive at 145KPH on the 401 twice a day, buy a Bimmer. You'll be doing the environment a favour.
QED, etc.
1. Based on the speed at which most Prius drivers go, they have plenty of time on their hands. and 2. wouldn't it be better to spend the money on retro-fitting older cars. Better to reuse than recycle.
Actually there's a Prius owner that drove the same stretch of the 401 as I did at approximately the same time every day and let me tell you, at average speeds of 130-140KPH I wonder why they didn't just buy a damn Corolla and save the extra cash.
On the one hand their competitors will quote the old-style battery lives so SONY will look bad.
On the other, people will be suing them if they don't get every last second of battery life claimed under the new rules
(See, eg., the class-action suits against HD manufacturers for selling Gb instead of GiB...)
Add to this the fact that batteries lose capacity over time (whether you use them or not) and, no, it's not gonna happen.
The problem is people will sue no matter what if they feel they can gain some kind of windfall out of the deal. Look at posted fuel economies of cars. People blame manufacturers but the ratings come from the government's official testing centre (here in Canada, anyways). Everybody knows hard drives are measured in millions and billions of bytes and operating systems report in base-2 but that's the way it's always been ever since I was purchasing 20 and 40 MEG hard drives. Tough cookies. Cigarettes kill. Anybody alive today who claims they don't know the health risks associated with cigarettes is either too mentally incompetent to care for themselves or they're flat out lying. Battery life on notebooks are, of course, a marketing gimmick based on the lowest performance settings and basic, resource un-intensive tasks like word processing. Always has been. Again; tough cookies.
If a person doesn't do their research before making a major (depending on one's definition of major) purchase it's their own damn fault. Especially today when an hour's worth of Googling can return hundreds of pages of results to pore through there's really no excuse. If you find a forum that says "That new ${vehicle}'s fuel consumption rating is off by 40-60%!" and you buy it anyways do you really have any right to complain? If people are talking about battery life being less than half the posted rating on the box - who are you to bitch and moan? How about instead writing the manufacturer and informing them that you are NOT going to purchase their product until their stated numbers more closely reflect reality (or until their numbers are disclaimed sufficiently so you know what you're getting into).
Poor people quibble over nickels and dimes.
Everyone knows that people in trailer parks don't deserve entertainment. If they're awake, they should be working - preferably doing physical labor so they can't get too uppity.
Where is it stated that everybody is entitled to the same level of consumer goods and/or entertainment? Successful people have always had more things and a higher level of service than poor people, but at the end of the day not everybody can be highly successful. Somebody has to make the sandwiches and ditches don't dig themselves. (Before you get on your high horse, I've worked in both the restaurant and construction industries. At some point it dawned on me that I wanted a better lot in life so I changed and succeeded.)
More than 50% of the US population is suffering an economic downturn vs their situation 8 years ago.
Yeah, and how much of that was due to ignorance and people taking "too good to be true" sub-prime mortgages - in some cases walking away from highly subsidized mortgages in the process? Not only is ignorance no excuse, it's dangerous, especially when combined with greed and the lack of common sense.
I agree I'm not the target demographic. The target demographic is people who place immediate wants over long term needs.
Why does there have to be a distinction? I have an elaborate, high-end home theatre system but I'm still in an ever improving financial situation. I didn't choose home theatre instead of something, I chose my home theatre because I wanted it. I am in the target demographic, I do have a BluRay player (a PlayStation 3, FWIW) and I do intend to participate in high definition movie ownership over the next several years. I stopped purchasing DVDs a few years ago in anticipation of the HD takeover.
I should be the target demographic. I'm a guy in my 20s who earns more than most people my age but I still have a 24 inch CRT and watch DVDs on my computer.
Until HDTV offers me something useful, I'll stick with that setup.
By your own admission you're not in the target demographic. Obviously you don't prioritize home entertainment so what are you on about? It's not just an income basis. Who cares about the price of tomatoes if you don't like tomatoes?
Poor people quibble over nickels and dimes.
No, self-made rich people do.
Actually that's the very mentality that keeps lower and middle class people in the bracket they're in. The truly wealthy, including (especially) the self-made variety worry about dollars rather than spending time quibbling over nickels.
Consider which is a more beneficial use of your time for a number of hours; haggling/worrying/niggling over $100, or earning $1000?
I'm currently averaging about 1 TV every 3-4 years or so.
You'd save a lot of money if you just bought a higher quality TV in the first place.
Let's see, the first was bought on a dishwasher's pay, the second is a high quality CRT unit that still resides in my bedroom to this day and the third will last me for several years in my living room (nee; home theatre).
Besides, I wasn't talking about people adopting current HD technology. I was talking about *widespread* adoption of TVs with MORE than 1080p resolution. I'll stand by my opinion that 20 years is a highly optimistic estimate for that.
So you're holding out for super-high-definition - technology that hasn't really breached the "experimental" phases yet? Well that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish right there and really has no bearing on the adoption rate of BluRay, seeing as BluRay is designed for 720/1080 sets.
So I guess I'll be without a set until prices for decent sized screens (think 28 or 32") comes close to $500.
Would you prefer LCD or Plasma?
(n.b. Those were the first "like 28-32" sets I came across at the first store I checked. Were I in the market I'd comparison shop at 3-5 stores online, setup price-watch e-mails and watch for store flyers and sales and I'd get one or the other for $500 or below.)
...can you even buy a blu-ray movie for 50$? I don't really see blu-ray replacing dvd in movie sales unless blu-ray becomes cheaper. Last time I checked (admittedly, this was a while ago) blu-ray was still twice as expensive as dvd. I have no interest in buying an HDTV, so blu-ray has absolutely nothing for me. Except added cost, of course.
Firstly your cost estimates on the movies themselves are sorely out of whack.
Secondly, you are not the target demographic. If you think $300 for a high definition media player or $25-40 for a high definition movie is too expensive then you're going to have to face the fact that your opinion is meaningless to the movie studios. No, I'm not trying to be mean, I'm trying to give you a sense of perspective.
For people in the target demographic who earn enough money and are in a secure financial position they're not concerned about the nominal cost of a BluRay player or the movies. They're concerned about getting what's good/best for their needs/wants and that's that. Poor people quibble over nickels and dimes.
I'll leave you to your regularly scheduled bubble now.
Not to mention that there is absolutely no reason at all to improve on Blu-Ray anytime soon. The vast majority of people I know are still watching 480i CRT televisions. It's going to be 2 decades, bare minimum, before displays capable of more than Blu-Ray's 1080p gain a significant foothold in people's homes.
Sorry, but my empirical evidence trumps yours, and your 2 decades figure is way off base unless the "vast majority of people [you] know" happen to reside in local area trailer parks.
Tell me the ratio of CRT to LCD|Plasma television models available at any major retail outlet. You seriously only buy a TV every 20-25 years? I'm currently averaging about 1 TV every 3-4 years or so.
Yes BluRay is cheaper than flash drives but flash is far more useful.
With a flash drive you could plug it into your PC/media box and save a list of films you'd like to see. The device stores your movie preferences, membership info, rental history and whatever else is needed. You go to Blockbuster and pop it into their machine. It tells you what films are available and lets you choose which you want without the problem of all the copies being out. It fills the rest of the device with trailers you might like and possibly other free content.
You go home, insert the flash drive into your player and enjoy.
You seem to forget that the premise of a retail store location is that people (customers / consumers) will browse and therefore purchase things they didn't think they needed when they left the house. Do you think it's an accident that they have chips and drinks right beside the cashier?
The number of people with the equipment to actually benefit from anything more than 16 bit audio is tiny tiny tiny.
Of course, the number of people who think they will benefit is probably a fairly large number.
My home theatre will allow me to discern the difference. Just because some people have $200-500 "theatre/stereo in a box" setups doesn't mean the rest of us don't want high(er) quality audio.
I still use CDs, mostly to burn audio disks - but they are still a bit cheaper than DVDs if you have a small amount of data.
Here in Ontario, Canada it's actually cheaper on a per disc basis to buy/burn DVD[+/-]Rs than it is to buy CD-Rs. On a per-MB basis it's almost exponentially cheaper to buy blank DVDs.
But DVD's scratch really easily... flash drives have the potential to last a LOT longer.
I'll see your "discs get scratched easily" and raise you with a "what happens when a flash drive gets wet?"
This only holds up during the beginning of the tech cycle for BluRay. There are a few factors that will lead to wider adoption and preference.
1) HDTV prices will continue to fall. As the cost of an HDTV approaches that of it's Standard definition counterparts more people will purchase HDTV.
That's funny; I'm finding it increasingly difficult to even find SD television sets anymore and when I do I realize there's really no point in saving the $20-100. Anybody who intentionally purchases a non-HD set nowadays is delusional.
I actually have to search and scour to find SD sets; usually only finding the old CRT variety and frankly I'd be happy to pay extra simply for the privilege of not having a 100lb set to lug around and gather dust.
The old strawman about HDTV prices being out of whack is long dead, burned and blown away my friend.
The real issue WRT set prices is the fact that people in general don't replace their TV sets until their existing set caffs and they have a genuine need to. With modern sets lasting upwards of 5-10 years it's just going to take a while before HD sets become as ubiquitous as SD sets once were but they're slowly, steadily gaining.
The problem will take about 6 hours to rectify. What's for dinner?
I'm glad you're so well disciplined. I'd like to introduce you to about a dozen (nee, hundred) of my former customers who thought they were level one technical support who would quite helpfully modify everything from their network settings or registry right through wiring setup of the network equipment. Admittedly that's our fault anyways for not selling the higher spec'd customer proof equipment, but I digress.
I'm reasonably certain I can find something in my TOS that covers threats and intimidation of my employees that will invoke a breech of contract. But hey, you're a lawyer so who am I to judge?
Of course you're right. I've made a few of those phone calls myself. Bastards at the ISP have no sense of humour.
"Hey, all I did was imprison the guy for an indeterminate period of time by sealing off the exits and the prick threatened to stab me with his pen. If you don't mind, I'd like you to fax a copy of his termination leter to xxxx...."
I think all of us who've done on-site support for any long period of time know the woes of the frustrated, crazy, silly, stupid or downright insane customers we come across from time to time. Granted it's a small percentage of the userbase but it's significant enough to warrant attention. People unfortunately don't realize that we did not break their ${serviceable_item}, we're just doing our jobs and trying to fix it. Also that I have a life outside of their little world and if and when I'm ready to leave I'll bloody well do so.
It helps that I'm over six feet tall and slightly heavier than my dad's old football playing weight so I don't get too many physical threats, but nonetheless I've had my fair share and I've always dealt with them swiftly and sharply. As soon as you let the person get the upper hand in the intimidation game the situation can only escalate.
As to all the theories about second parties, firearms, witnesses, home defence et al. that's just Slashdot rhetoric rearing its ugly head. I'd wager that most people commenting on the subject, as usual, have no first hand experience with the situation are are thusly not qualified to open their yaps. But considering the locale I won't hold my breath. :)