"PC games will never go away, but if the market keeps shrinking due to the increasing ease of piracy... then the number and quality of games will almost certainly decrease."
The PC game market is growing, not shrinking. Many companies are losing money, I don't doubt that and I don't question the rest of his assertions, but nevertheless, this doesn't change the fact that the PC market of legitimately purchased PC games is growing, not shrinking.
"Seems to me like a classic case of water down the product and rip off the consumer. "
Don't forget the fact that they supersize the product to make it appear more valuable, and then (like you said) they water it down to rip off the consumer.
The sirup for soda machines and the corns for popcorn both have one thing in common. They're incredibly cheap to produce, incredibly cheap to store, and incredibly cheap to distribute.
If you have Progressive and want to save more than 25%, just switch insurance company. That's what I did a few years ago and I saved a bundle.
This big brother tactic is not a cost-cutting measure, it's more of a branding publicity stunt. Progressive is an expensive rip off. Even with the 5% to 25% discount, it's still a rip off.
Go to http://insweb.com to see if I'm telling the truth. (btw, I am not affiliated with insweb in anyway, I'm just referring you to it since it was recommended by Consumer Reports two or three years ago)
Unfortunately, the majority of P2P users are using this service illegally. Less than 1% of gun owners are convicted or even apprehended for gun crimes. It's not the same argument. People can and should consider the two things very different.
Saying that something should be illegal because it is already illegal is a circular argument. If we outlawed guns, I can guarantee you that the percentage you quote of criminal gun owners would go all the way up to 100%.
Copying information that is visible to me is not a crime. Freedom of Visible Information, as I like to call it, is not a crime -- it is a made-up crime. If you don't want me to copy you, don't show it to me.
Copyright is a government made up word. Piracy is also a government made up word. And although the words "copy", "rights", and "piracy", all had their original meanings attributed and negotiated by the people at large. The elite repossessed, recombined, and reassigned new meanings to those words and now those new made up words define a new unnatural reality that our government is trying to impose on us.
Also, there is no reason she can't have the best of both worlds. She only really needs a machine that will do the user interface for her, she doesn't really need a machine that will count or store the votes for her.
For instance, you could have a machine that prints out a human-readable and a machine-readable paper scantron and then you could collect those scantrons through a ballot box. This way, you could count the votes electronically, and you could count the votes manually should it ever come to that. What Diebold really wants to do is to take our ballot boxes away.
Opera gives you the choice between random google ads and targeted google ads. Not only that, but the box isn't already clicked for you. The choice is clearly explained to you. I know it's only been a few years, but I'm actually beginning to trust Opera and Google.
On the other hand, companies like DoubleClick and Yahoo mislead and lie. That's their modus operandi. Plus, in the case of DoubleClick, they sell your information to the highest bidder, so there is no way to ensure that some guy from Senegal isn't going to get their hands on it. That's the difference.
Plus, the linked registration page you provided is even worst than you described. On one hand, they have an excellent visible privacy notice located just next to the form text input boxes -->
PRIVACY NOTICE
We never share your personal information with third parties without your explicit permission. You won't receive communication from anyone other than Herald.com or The Miami Herald as a result of registering with us.
Our Privacy Policy
But on the other hand, the catch all fine print contradicting the privacy policy you're referring to is all the way at the bottom of the page a number of scrolls down where 95% of the viewers wouldn't see it in the first place.
To me, this is misleading. It's as bad as Yahoo changing retroactively its privacy policy without their users permission. And this is the type of thing that makes my blood boil.
I agree with this, the subtle lies are much worst than the blatant lies. And I trust the bloggers about as much as I trust the newspapers, which means I don't really trust any of them.
...yet when you go to register your company name and trademark there is no dispute; it's either available or it's not.
Actually, there are company name and trademark disputes, those are just less frequent.
Part of it is that it costs a lot more money to register a company name and/or a trademark, but don't assume there are no lawsuits. The fact that there are many different juridictions in which you can register those things and the fact that there is no one centralized database with all those names makes the system prone lawsuits
Yeah, I know what movie you're talking about, that's the worst movie ever shown. I had thought about leaving the movie theater within the first five minutes, but I relented and I've regretted this decision ever since.
The advantage they claim is that their design doesn't attempt to power the rail wheels, and instead uses the main tires to provide power and braking. They say that this results in a significant cost savings.
This has also been done before and it's in use on one or two lines in the subway system of Paris, France.
I can't speak about the Dvoark keyboard either, but I can confirm that any type of variation over your routine is probably a good idea.
When I first got wrist pains at work (and didn't have medical insurance), I added an extra usb trackball mouse on the left side of my keyboard at work and I changed my keyboard and my mouse to some funky ergonomic models at home. That, plus an improved posture at the keyboard and a number of frequent walking breaks, that did the trick for me. The symptoms subsided and went away.
Get caller id and automatically route all the anonymous callers to your voice mail. You're a business man, hopefully, you can solve such a simple problem.
Slashdot Mirror
The PC game market is growing, not shrinking. Many companies are losing money, I don't doubt that and I don't question the rest of his assertions, but nevertheless, this doesn't change the fact that the PC market of legitimately purchased PC games is growing, not shrinking.
Don't forget the fact that they supersize the product to make it appear more valuable, and then (like you said) they water it down to rip off the consumer.
The sirup for soda machines and the corns for popcorn both have one thing in common. They're incredibly cheap to produce, incredibly cheap to store, and incredibly cheap to distribute.
That's true to some extent, but there are other things you can learn from Craig.
1) If you become popular, don't hire more than one or two people. This way, in hard times, you will still be able to thrive.
2) Usability and simplicity are important unless you have a lot of money to burn.
Yeah, ever wondered why some faces of the suspects were blurred out, and not others?
For the most part, jail is for suspects awaiting trial and prison is for convicts convicted of something.
Go to http://insweb.com to see if I'm telling the truth. (btw, I am not affiliated with insweb in anyway, I'm just referring you to it since it was recommended by Consumer Reports two or three years ago)
Saying that something should be illegal because it is already illegal is a circular argument. If we outlawed guns, I can guarantee you that the percentage you quote of criminal gun owners would go all the way up to 100%.
Copying information that is visible to me is not a crime. Freedom of Visible Information, as I like to call it, is not a crime -- it is a made-up crime. If you don't want me to copy you, don't show it to me.
Copyright is a government made up word. Piracy is also a government made up word. And although the words "copy", "rights", and "piracy", all had their original meanings attributed and negotiated by the people at large. The elite repossessed, recombined, and reassigned new meanings to those words and now those new made up words define a new unnatural reality that our government is trying to impose on us.
That's not right.
For instance, you could have a machine that prints out a human-readable and a machine-readable paper scantron and then you could collect those scantrons through a ballot box. This way, you could count the votes electronically, and you could count the votes manually should it ever come to that. What Diebold really wants to do is to take our ballot boxes away.
On the other hand, companies like DoubleClick and Yahoo mislead and lie. That's their modus operandi. Plus, in the case of DoubleClick, they sell your information to the highest bidder, so there is no way to ensure that some guy from Senegal isn't going to get their hands on it. That's the difference.
PRIVACY NOTICE
We never share your personal information with third parties without your explicit permission. You won't receive communication from anyone other than Herald.com or The Miami Herald as a result of registering with us. Our Privacy Policy
But on the other hand, the catch all fine print contradicting the privacy policy you're referring to is all the way at the bottom of the page a number of scrolls down where 95% of the viewers wouldn't see it in the first place.
To me, this is misleading. It's as bad as Yahoo changing retroactively its privacy policy without their users permission. And this is the type of thing that makes my blood boil.
I agree with this, the subtle lies are much worst than the blatant lies. And I trust the bloggers about as much as I trust the newspapers, which means I don't really trust any of them.
I feel silly, here is the actual link I wanted to reference --> drivingvotes.org
Your argument is fallacious. You're just trying to anger and lay a guilt-trip on the Americans that are not voting.
Ironically, what you're doing is a form of complaining and I doubt that it will change the voting habits of the people you're trying to reach. You better stop voting, go to a state where the votes are actually going to count, and start registering voters -- instead of complaining on Slashdot.
Think about it, why waste time voting, when you could actually leverage the strength of your vote ten thousand times.
Disingenuous? That may be so, but I've given up explaining radioactivity to people a long time ago.
Hey check this out. What Google coudn't do, Slashdot did in one minute.
Actually, there are company name and trademark disputes, those are just less frequent.
Part of it is that it costs a lot more money to register a company name and/or a trademark, but don't assume there are no lawsuits. The fact that there are many different juridictions in which you can register those things and the fact that there is no one centralized database with all those names makes the system prone lawsuits
I think, your reply is directed at the previous poster, not me.
Let's see... filtered coal dust... water vapor... filtered coal dust... water vapor... which one would you rather inhale?
Yeah, I know what movie you're talking about, that's the worst movie ever shown. I had thought about leaving the movie theater within the first five minutes, but I relented and I've regretted this decision ever since.
This has also been done before and it's in use on one or two lines in the subway system of Paris, France.
At least, that's a war we could actually Win.
Then, when are the British authorities going after SCO?
When I first got wrist pains at work (and didn't have medical insurance), I added an extra usb trackball mouse on the left side of my keyboard at work and I changed my keyboard and my mouse to some funky ergonomic models at home. That, plus an improved posture at the keyboard and a number of frequent walking breaks, that did the trick for me. The symptoms subsided and went away.
Try activewords.com
Get caller id and automatically route all the anonymous callers to your voice mail. You're a business man, hopefully, you can solve such a simple problem.