To be perfectly honesty, I to was a victim of advertising. I had every intention of getting her a diamond engagement ring. However it turns out she didn't really want one (thought they were quite gaudy, etc.), and discovered the De Beers story herself. I was enlightened to say the least.
At anyrate, we went shopping for quite a while for a ring, and one thing is for certain, all the mall-type jewellry stores are crap. It will take you about 3 or 4 stores to realize that they all sell pretty much the same stuff (albeit at wildly fluctuating prices), and are about as ethical as a used car salesman.
But, they will give you ideas. What you do next is find a nice, independantly owned jewelry store. These will always be run by a real jeweler. Explain what you want, and he will show you examples of what he has, both available on the shelves and pictures of things he has made. Just about everything was nicer, and a lot more original than the same old ones we saw in every other stores. Custom made items are the same price as things on the shelves.
In our case, what we wanted was pretty close to something he had, so we used that as a starting point, and then described some changes. About a week later, I went in and picked up a beautiful, custom made ring. The centre stone was my girlfriends choice, a sapphire. For added irony, the sapphire actually has a real history (not a marketed one) as an engagement stone, and they are quite a bit rarer than diamonds.
So, by getting it custom made, we got exactly the ring we wanted, at a very good price. It is an original, so it doesn't look like everyone elses ring out there. With a owner-operator type store, you are supporting your local economy. We also get free cleanings and sizings for ever (OK, assuming they don't go out of business which isn't likely).
My other piece of advice if you are going to buy a diamond is to go to http://www.bridaltips.com/diamond.htm for the best guide I found when I still thought she wanted a diamond.
One of the great SatireWire stories.
on
Economy of Errors
·
· Score: 1
Without any doubt, Satire is my favorite form of humour. As many of you here, I have been reading The Onion for years. I found SatireWire a while back, and have been enjoying it since. It isn't The Onion, but nothing is. It is quite funny in it's own right.
Just a comment really...
The Narnia books were some of my favorites as a child. I also remember rushing home to watch the (somewhat brutal) live TV show that told the stories. I would look forward to a good movie based on them.
My real point of this post is I often comment that I think Harry Potter really isn't that different from the Narnia books. I think the success is just a product of modern marketing on something of quality. If C. S. Lewis was writing now, I think we would see the series become a wild success, just like Potter.
I am not really commenting on the quality of the movie, more the books. The movie was alright, and it did stay true to the story, but it was not a classic or anything. I think the C. S. Lewis books would be the same way if they were coming out now. Great books, enjoyed and loved by poeple around the world, but they would also become a piece of pop culture. 1000's of toys and games, movies, etc. of varying quality would come of them.
"Don't they have something better to do during the summer than hack our site?" asked the RIAA representative, who asked not to be identified. "Perhaps it at least took 10 minutes away from stealing music."
"Doesn't the RIAA have anything better to do than hacking into my website?" asked a pimply 15-year old who asked to be called "H@ckeR d00d." "perhaps it at least took 10 minutes away from fucking over artists."
Come on, Episodes 4,5,6 are the reigning king of milking the consumers. The countless VHS releases... lets see we had (starting in the middle somewhere)
1. Came out, marketed as "Last time to get the original series"
2. Couple years later, we got the "remastered" version. Again, marketed very heavily, anda gain, as the "Last time" to get something or another. This was the biggest push.
3. And of course, a couple of years later, out comes the version with a couple of extra scenes.
They got everyone who remotely wanted it too buy it over a few years (with the priuce eventually dropping to the "why not" range"), then come out with the extra scenes version in order to milk all the hard core fans for another copy.
I don't think there is any thing wrong with it all. I am not trying to be accusing, I simply want the flat out info and the truth about the reasons behind the contest.
Lots of people have mentioned are Canadian Money, and something interesting has happened up here. It was about 15 years ago that we got rid of our dollar and introduced the loony. OK, it makes sense coin money lasts much longer and is way more economical than paper. BUt, was there ever outcry. My god, you would think it was the end of the world.
However, next came bill changes, then the $2 coin, then more bill changes, and so on. The complaining has gone down and down over time. Now, we pretty much just accept that our money changes. New bills come out and old ones leave. It is no big deal, and it really doesn't bug anyone.
My point, yes there is huge resistance, but eventually, people come to accept change. You have had the same money so long, that even a bigger head has caused complaints and outcry. People will get used to change.
The lifespan of a bill is about 18 months or so, although this changes for different denominations. There are not many designs floating around, and when you see an "old" bill five years after it went out of circulation, it is almost certainly someone that decided it wasn't worth saving anymore, probably because they really needed a pack of cigarettes.
Also, when a new bill comes out, banks actively try to take the old ones out of circulation. This gets rid of them a heck of a lot faster than the natural lifespan.
If you walk in anywhere with a giant stack of old bills even a year after they have gone out of circulation, you are going to be noticed.
"The anti-counterfeit measures are basically non-existant"...
... except for the watermarks, microprint, iridescent markings, micro engraved printing process, blue and red fibers embedded in the linen paper, and the micro-thin plastic strip embedded in each bill.
I am sure that he was referring to "in comparison to other countries." Yes you may have some anti-counterfit measures, but American money is still very simple to copy, much simpler than others around the world.
That and the anticounterfit measures have to be readily and easily visible to the average cashier, or else they are pretty much useless.
Google recently ran it's "first annual programming contest," with a winner receiving $10,000. Many slashdotters suspect this was simply a way to recruit new talent. So, was finding new people one of the initial goals for this project, and have you hired any new programmers as a direct result of it? What were the other goals (PR, generation of new ideas, etc) where there?
Roll of quarters
Favorite baking
Favorite snack
CDs
Videos
New day planner (the one the school gave her is shit)
Umm, be creative, get her things that will make her smile, maybe follow her hobbies (not that she has any time for them)
Also, When you send her food, send her her favorites, and send her a bunch of other stuff she likes too. Gives her lots to share with people that she lives with. Makes her a nice person, and not everyone she lives with will be getting these.
Sorry, I didn't have the site handy before. Go to Heavens Above for a really good free resource on finding the flares. you don't need to register to get good results, just head through the "select" your location link.
For example, I easily got these results for where I often go camping.
One of the very cool things about the Sattelites is the Iridium Flares. Basically, they look like a slow moving, super bright shooting star.
I have had the opportunity to see these first hand a couple of times, and I can say they are super neat. If you are ever out camping, look it up and see if one is gonna pass over head. The above mentioned site has lots of resources on where they can be found.
You worked at a shipping dock, meaning you were part of a staff of a large company that shipped a crapload of stuff. About 300 items a day by you alone buy your count.
I doubt this company has nearly as many people as yours did, nor ships nearly as much. And maybe they pay their shippers more than $6 per hour.
At any rate, my point is their S&H costs aren't that exoborant. Yes, it amounts to a small profit for them, but whatever, every person on E-bay is making a profit on S&H.
Here's a clue. Most of the CD's on this site have been mastered in a studio as well. Maybe not quite the state of the art place down at WhateverMajorLabel, but still a pretty nice place with people who make a living off it doing the mixing.
They do that with their own money. If they choose to distibute it themselves, they make the labels and other stuff with their own money. It is not cheap, but it is also something that any band that is remotely close to making it big manages to get the money to pay for and produce their 1000 CD run.
The demands for cavier and 5 star hotels for your hoochies don't come into play until you are big anyway. Tours, they generally pay for themselves. Yes, there is the odd flop, on both the large and small scale, but in general, they make a lot of money off tours.
So, when you look at a major label and talk about their costs, which as someone else mentioned, they make "Recoupable" costs, it doesn't look all that big anymore.
And of course, what happens to any label that has someone big? That someone is bought out by a major label. If that someone can't be bought, the whole label is bought. If that can't happen, clearchannel does what it can to keep it from being played until they decide to sell. The labels demand control of the industry. They don't do it in nice fair ways, they do it by screwing whoever they can and taking every penny they can possibly get their hands own. They don't have a good image anyway, and they aren't even bothering to try and make one. How do they sleep at night? On a bed made of money.
It is not for shipping, it is for shipping and handling. This includes the cost of Postage, envelopes and other supplies, and the time of the person packaging and shipping the item.
It is like this for virtually every company in the world that ships. Your prices for shipping are more than the cost of an envelope and stamp because you are aslo paying for someones time to package and ship it. You can also note that their shipping and handling costs are not that far off from Amazon, and right on par with other "independant" places.
A lot of people seem to think that the Gamecubes days are numbered. I will save the inevitable reply and just quote the Acts of Gord article myself.
What I want to know is do you think this is enough to save the cube? Where are they going now?
I have always thought it is gonna succeed anyway, but I have read enough of other peoples opinions to at least admit the possibility that it will fail. But the new games that people have been waiting for are now being hyped and are coming real soon. I think this will help it a lot.
The average person may only buy one system per generation, but us "average users" that grew up with Nintendo are getting a lot older now, and have perfectly good jobs. PS2's are good, I won't take anything away from that, but $150 to have a second systems doesn't seem that unreasonable. For me, these are the exact announcements I have been waiting for to go out and buy a Gamecube. Also the price drop has provided further incentive for parents to choose the Cube for their kids.
You say Nintendo has 4 of the top 6. Woop-de-fucking-doo. I say PS2 has "2 of the top 3", or maybe even "6 of the top 10, including the top 2 spots."
I am a Nofriendo fan myself, but come on, at least show us a list that puts Nintendo in a better light than it's competitors if you are gonna blow their horn for them.
PK
"Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?"
Just because you can find an example that doesn't fit the rules, doesn't meant he rules are wrong. He even allows for successes in cases that don't meet the criteria. Every rule has exceptions. He is talking about how to maximize your odds or creating a successful product.
(BTW, aren't there laws against unsolicited faxing)?
No, there arn't. There are laws controlling when you can send them and what you have to do if someone requests to have their number removed. You are however allowed to send unsolicited faxes.
PK
Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket?
Radio stations pay when they play a song, or they have received permission from the label to play it. In a bar, they pay an annual licensing fee in order to be allowed to play recorded music (CDs). Even a "Wedding DJ" is not legally allowed to play CDs. They have to either be buying special mix CDs that they are technically leasing and are allowed to play to large groups (things like the "Hot Tracks" series), or they need a license. Many just break the law. You are not legally allowed to play your purchased Cds to groups of people.
OK, who caught the episode about a week and a half ago where they roast Homer. The part that left me laughing hardest was at the end where they were doing the musical medly, and there is a clip (not from any episode mind you) of Homer on a pair of water skis, jumping over a couple of sharks. That was great.
PK
Slashdot Mirror
I mean, or course it is from Utah. Where else do people want to edit their movies like this... PK
At anyrate, we went shopping for quite a while for a ring, and one thing is for certain, all the mall-type jewellry stores are crap. It will take you about 3 or 4 stores to realize that they all sell pretty much the same stuff (albeit at wildly fluctuating prices), and are about as ethical as a used car salesman.
But, they will give you ideas. What you do next is find a nice, independantly owned jewelry store. These will always be run by a real jeweler. Explain what you want, and he will show you examples of what he has, both available on the shelves and pictures of things he has made. Just about everything was nicer, and a lot more original than the same old ones we saw in every other stores. Custom made items are the same price as things on the shelves.
In our case, what we wanted was pretty close to something he had, so we used that as a starting point, and then described some changes. About a week later, I went in and picked up a beautiful, custom made ring. The centre stone was my girlfriends choice, a sapphire. For added irony, the sapphire actually has a real history (not a marketed one) as an engagement stone, and they are quite a bit rarer than diamonds.
So, by getting it custom made, we got exactly the ring we wanted, at a very good price. It is an original, so it doesn't look like everyone elses ring out there. With a owner-operator type store, you are supporting your local economy. We also get free cleanings and sizings for ever (OK, assuming they don't go out of business which isn't likely).
My other piece of advice if you are going to buy a diamond is to go to http://www.bridaltips.com/diamond.htm for the best guide I found when I still thought she wanted a diamond.
Probably my favorite story has to be CANADIAN WARSHIP SEIZES TANKER IN... WAIT... CANADA HAS A WARSHIP? Granted, I am Canadian, but read it for a good lauhg, and for an example of the quality that comes out of SatireWire.
My real point of this post is I often comment that I think Harry Potter really isn't that different from the Narnia books. I think the success is just a product of modern marketing on something of quality. If C. S. Lewis was writing now, I think we would see the series become a wild success, just like Potter.
I am not really commenting on the quality of the movie, more the books. The movie was alright, and it did stay true to the story, but it was not a classic or anything. I think the C. S. Lewis books would be the same way if they were coming out now. Great books, enjoyed and loved by poeple around the world, but they would also become a piece of pop culture. 1000's of toys and games, movies, etc. of varying quality would come of them.
"Doesn't the RIAA have anything better to do than hacking into my website?" asked a pimply 15-year old who asked to be called "H@ckeR d00d." "perhaps it at least took 10 minutes away from fucking over artists."
Come on, Episodes 4,5,6 are the reigning king of milking the consumers. The countless VHS releases... lets see we had (starting in the middle somewhere)
1. Came out, marketed as "Last time to get the original series"
2. Couple years later, we got the "remastered" version. Again, marketed very heavily, anda gain, as the "Last time" to get something or another. This was the biggest push.
3. And of course, a couple of years later, out comes the version with a couple of extra scenes.
They got everyone who remotely wanted it too buy it over a few years (with the priuce eventually dropping to the "why not" range"), then come out with the extra scenes version in order to milk all the hard core fans for another copy.
Wrong example to prove a point here.
PK
PK
However, next came bill changes, then the $2 coin, then more bill changes, and so on. The complaining has gone down and down over time. Now, we pretty much just accept that our money changes. New bills come out and old ones leave. It is no big deal, and it really doesn't bug anyone.
My point, yes there is huge resistance, but eventually, people come to accept change. You have had the same money so long, that even a bigger head has caused complaints and outcry. People will get used to change.
PK
Also, when a new bill comes out, banks actively try to take the old ones out of circulation. This gets rid of them a heck of a lot faster than the natural lifespan.
If you walk in anywhere with a giant stack of old bills even a year after they have gone out of circulation, you are going to be noticed.
PK
I am sure that he was referring to "in comparison to other countries." Yes you may have some anti-counterfit measures, but American money is still very simple to copy, much simpler than others around the world.
That and the anticounterfit measures have to be readily and easily visible to the average cashier, or else they are pretty much useless.
PK
Google recently ran it's "first annual programming contest," with a winner receiving $10,000. Many slashdotters suspect this was simply a way to recruit new talent. So, was finding new people one of the initial goals for this project, and have you hired any new programmers as a direct result of it? What were the other goals (PR, generation of new ideas, etc) where there?
Roll of quarters
Favorite baking
Favorite snack
CDs
Videos
New day planner (the one the school gave her is shit)
Umm, be creative, get her things that will make her smile, maybe follow her hobbies (not that she has any time for them)
Also, When you send her food, send her her favorites, and send her a bunch of other stuff she likes too. Gives her lots to share with people that she lives with. Makes her a nice person, and not everyone she lives with will be getting these.
PK
For example, I easily got these results for where I often go camping.
pk
I have had the opportunity to see these first hand a couple of times, and I can say they are super neat. If you are ever out camping, look it up and see if one is gonna pass over head. The above mentioned site has lots of resources on where they can be found.
pk
I doubt this company has nearly as many people as yours did, nor ships nearly as much. And maybe they pay their shippers more than $6 per hour.
At any rate, my point is their S&H costs aren't that exoborant. Yes, it amounts to a small profit for them, but whatever, every person on E-bay is making a profit on S&H.
pk
I call Troll...
They do that with their own money. If they choose to distibute it themselves, they make the labels and other stuff with their own money. It is not cheap, but it is also something that any band that is remotely close to making it big manages to get the money to pay for and produce their 1000 CD run.
The demands for cavier and 5 star hotels for your hoochies don't come into play until you are big anyway. Tours, they generally pay for themselves. Yes, there is the odd flop, on both the large and small scale, but in general, they make a lot of money off tours.
So, when you look at a major label and talk about their costs, which as someone else mentioned, they make "Recoupable" costs, it doesn't look all that big anymore.
And of course, what happens to any label that has someone big? That someone is bought out by a major label. If that someone can't be bought, the whole label is bought. If that can't happen, clearchannel does what it can to keep it from being played until they decide to sell. The labels demand control of the industry. They don't do it in nice fair ways, they do it by screwing whoever they can and taking every penny they can possibly get their hands own. They don't have a good image anyway, and they aren't even bothering to try and make one. How do they sleep at night? On a bed made of money.
PK
It is like this for virtually every company in the world that ships. Your prices for shipping are more than the cost of an envelope and stamp because you are aslo paying for someones time to package and ship it. You can also note that their shipping and handling costs are not that far off from Amazon, and right on par with other "independant" places.
pk
What I want to know is do you think this is enough to save the cube? Where are they going now?
I have always thought it is gonna succeed anyway, but I have read enough of other peoples opinions to at least admit the possibility that it will fail. But the new games that people have been waiting for are now being hyped and are coming real soon. I think this will help it a lot.
The average person may only buy one system per generation, but us "average users" that grew up with Nintendo are getting a lot older now, and have perfectly good jobs. PS2's are good, I won't take anything away from that, but $150 to have a second systems doesn't seem that unreasonable. For me, these are the exact announcements I have been waiting for to go out and buy a Gamecube. Also the price drop has provided further incentive for parents to choose the Cube for their kids.
Comments? PK
You say Nintendo has 4 of the top 6. Woop-de-fucking-doo. I say PS2 has "2 of the top 3", or maybe even "6 of the top 10, including the top 2 spots."
I am a Nofriendo fan myself, but come on, at least show us a list that puts Nintendo in a better light than it's competitors if you are gonna blow their horn for them.
PK
"Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?"
PK
No, there arn't. There are laws controlling when you can send them and what you have to do if someone requests to have their number removed. You are however allowed to send unsolicited faxes.
PK
Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket?
Radio stations pay when they play a song, or they have received permission from the label to play it. In a bar, they pay an annual licensing fee in order to be allowed to play recorded music (CDs). Even a "Wedding DJ" is not legally allowed to play CDs. They have to either be buying special mix CDs that they are technically leasing and are allowed to play to large groups (things like the "Hot Tracks" series), or they need a license. Many just break the law. You are not legally allowed to play your purchased Cds to groups of people.
PK
Umm... no.
"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture" -Elvis Costello, 1983
PK
OK, who caught the episode about a week and a half ago where they roast Homer. The part that left me laughing hardest was at the end where they were doing the musical medly, and there is a clip (not from any episode mind you) of Homer on a pair of water skis, jumping over a couple of sharks. That was great. PK