Re:A more practical way to reduce change
on
Making Change
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· Score: 1
Actually that's not quite true, in Australia basically everything in super markets is still it's original pirce (37c, 16c, $1.34 etc) but what they do is subtotal the ENTIRE purchase and then round THAT amount to the nearest 5c..
In my example the total is $1.87 so you would pay $1.85
The theory is that on average you will end up even, some times you pay a couple cents extra, sometimes a couple cents less.
Note: This is open to exploitation by little old ladies trying to buy items 1 at a time for items that end with 1,2 6,7 or buy items in pairs when they end with 3,4 8,9 to always save 1-2c per transaction, in practive I've never seen it happen.. but it's definitely possible.
Clearly they are going about this the wrong way..
What they need to do is come up with a killer game, which just happens to run on linux. Then with some sneaky controller combo it drops you into a linux shell. That way it actually stands a chance of getting past Microsoft QA/review and burnt onto cd's and widely distributed before the "easter egg" is leaked and a signed linux is out in the wild..
Think about it..
The lameness filter almost certainly wont let someone post an authentic screenshot, even though you could as it's purely text based..
This link has a "screenshot" of what a typical screen might look like.
Come to think of it, I can't imagine why the producer of legitimiate information would object to having it linked from other pages in whatever way suits the linking page
Advertising dollars for one thing.. If you deep link to the article/file that you normally have to navigate through several pages of indirect banner add exposure, resulting in them paying bandwidth for your visit, but getting nothing in return
Session/tranient based content sites. Providing a deep link, can often lead to potential problems with sites which are session based, while it's ultimately a design problem some sites can get awfully confused when they make the assumption that to be on page x you've already visited a through w to get there.
That's two reasons of the top of my head
You also need to consider the case that a MMORPG style game comes out for Xbox Live (which one almost certainly will).. There is nothing that I am aware of to stop someone producing say Star Wars Galaxies for Xbox and charging you an ADDITIONAL monthly fee on top of your live service costs to play the game.. Anything that contains more persistance than a frag count or hottest lap time is going to cost $$ to maintain it's servers and I can't see microsoft paying these companies running costs out of the live subscription bill..
In this case you'd be left footing two bills, both an xbox live subscription and a game world subscription..
I can just see ebay now
Not born with mitochlorions in your system?
Don't want to mess with all that training and discipline to become a jedi?
Having to much fun dabbling in the dark side to get accepted to jedi academy?
No problems!
You are bidding on this rare opportunity to instantly become a jedi.
Light Side
Comes with free light sabre (blue)
Please check my feedback and bid with confidence.
I accept Paypal, Check, Money Orders..
Bid early and bid often!
May the force be with you!!
While people are busy saving money www.buy.com offers to beat amazon's prices by 10%.
I haven't read the fine print on how this works, probaby a rebate..
The client isn't in the hands of the enemy. It's running on their own servers. All you can do is send input characters to their servers. No code runs locally at all. You literally play over a telnet session or the equivalent there of.
Disclaimer: At least that's how i remember the last one operating,/. effect prevents confirming this event is the same.
Some years back i was involved in the Safe T Cam system in australia, which is basically a road safety system for heavy vehicles. It was actually a little more sinister than tag tracking. It used some logic to identify the "size" of an oncoming vehicle, and for large vehicles it would use OCR to identify the number plate. This was logged along with a time stamp, across the state there were several such points. If the same number plate was identified at two distant points within a certain time, alarms were triggered. These were then used to investigate the driver in questions log books (truck drivers must take certain rest breaks by law, and over large interstate distances, getting from point A to B in a certain time meant they were either speeding, or not taking mandatory breaks or both). While the ticketing wasnt automatic, it is only a short step from it, and for that matter it could theoretically by turned on for all vehicles quite easily..
For example, if I could transfer Mp3's, DivX files, or emulators and ROMs over to my XBox via its Ethernet port onto HD, I would most certainly be using it much more. Of course that is if I could play Mp3's (not WMA only), watch DivX, and use MAME on it. Of course this would be officially forbidden, but we all know how MS plays. MS, leak us the tools, you'll get more console sales at least.
Perhaps you're forgetting they sell consoles at a LOSS and make profits on the titles sold. Selling consoles to hackers/enthusiasts, and them running a bunch of open source/underground utilities, mame in particular (opens access to thousands of games for free if you're prepared to pirate the roms) does not HELP the MS bottom line, in fact it hurts it. A console sold at a loss with potentially NO titles purchased is not something MS wants to see happen.
This price drop has brought up something that always made me curious as an aussie gamer. The hypothetical "what if" is about to be answered..
The problem for the average aussie gamer, is that titles/consoles that are sold here are basically sold in USD prices, converted to local currency.. i.e. That $40US game will be released here at ~$80AUD. However, the average aussie wage is the same (or less) in AUD than an equivalent job in USD..
So the aussie gamer is effectively paying "twice" as much for games with his hard earnt cash..
i.e. Two kids working at mcdonalds say, are bringing home their $8/hr local currency for 20 hour week.
The US kid, $160 USD buys them 4 games.
The Aussie kid, $160 AUD buys them 2 games.
Of course the best solution for the aussie gamer would be if they sold the title for an equivalent local amount..
But if that was the case, then wouldnt everyone overseas just turn around and import/mail order stuff from these countries where the local dollar was weak. You'll already see people pondering about doing this exact thing in the comments.
Will this establish a driver for more "affordable" gaming prices in Australia, or will it just provoke a massive mail order business by US folks looking to score their gaming at cheap rates..
Slashdot Mirror
Actually that's not quite true, in Australia basically everything in super markets is still it's original pirce (37c, 16c, $1.34 etc) but what they do is subtotal the ENTIRE purchase and then round THAT amount to the nearest 5c..
In my example the total is $1.87 so you would pay $1.85
The theory is that on average you will end up even, some times you pay a couple cents extra, sometimes a couple cents less.
Note: This is open to exploitation by little old ladies trying to buy items 1 at a time for items that end with 1,2 6,7 or buy items in pairs when they end with 3,4 8,9 to always save 1-2c per transaction, in practive I've never seen it happen.. but it's definitely possible.
My guess is that some student is about to get their ass hauled into the head of departments office and given a stern talking too..
This will go down on your permanent record..
Clearly they are going about this the wrong way.. What they need to do is come up with a killer game, which just happens to run on linux. Then with some sneaky controller combo it drops you into a linux shell. That way it actually stands a chance of getting past Microsoft QA/review and burnt onto cd's and widely distributed before the "easter egg" is leaked and a signed linux is out in the wild.. Think about it..
The lameness filter almost certainly wont let someone post an authentic screenshot, even though you could as it's purely text based.. This link has a "screenshot" of what a typical screen might look like.
You also need to consider the case that a MMORPG style game comes out for Xbox Live (which one almost certainly will).. There is nothing that I am aware of to stop someone producing say Star Wars Galaxies for Xbox and charging you an ADDITIONAL monthly fee on top of your live service costs to play the game.. Anything that contains more persistance than a frag count or hottest lap time is going to cost $$ to maintain it's servers and I can't see microsoft paying these companies running costs out of the live subscription bill..
In this case you'd be left footing two bills, both an xbox live subscription and a game world subscription..
I can just see ebay now Not born with mitochlorions in your system? Don't want to mess with all that training and discipline to become a jedi? Having to much fun dabbling in the dark side to get accepted to jedi academy? No problems! You are bidding on this rare opportunity to instantly become a jedi. Light Side Comes with free light sabre (blue) Please check my feedback and bid with confidence. I accept Paypal, Check, Money Orders.. Bid early and bid often! May the force be with you!!
While people are busy saving money www.buy.com offers to beat amazon's prices by 10%. I haven't read the fine print on how this works, probaby a rebate..
The client isn't in the hands of the enemy. It's running on their own servers. All you can do is send input characters to their servers. No code runs locally at all. You literally play over a telnet session or the equivalent there of.
/. effect prevents confirming this event is the same.
Disclaimer: At least that's how i remember the last one operating,
Some years back i was involved in the Safe T Cam system in australia, which is basically a road safety system for heavy vehicles. It was actually a little more sinister than tag tracking. It used some logic to identify the "size" of an oncoming vehicle, and for large vehicles it would use OCR to identify the number plate. This was logged along with a time stamp, across the state there were several such points. If the same number plate was identified at two distant points within a certain time, alarms were triggered. These were then used to investigate the driver in questions log books (truck drivers must take certain rest breaks by law, and over large interstate distances, getting from point A to B in a certain time meant they were either speeding, or not taking mandatory breaks or both). While the ticketing wasnt automatic, it is only a short step from it, and for that matter it could theoretically by turned on for all vehicles quite easily..
Big brother watches...
Robber: This is a stick up! Give me all the cash NOW
Clerk: Ok sir.. But I'll need you to place your finger on the scanner so that the change drawer will open and i can get the money for you..
Robber: Err, umm.. nevermind
This price drop has brought up something that always made me curious as an aussie gamer. The hypothetical "what if" is about to be answered..
The problem for the average aussie gamer, is that titles/consoles that are sold here are basically sold in USD prices, converted to local currency.. i.e. That $40US game will be released here at ~$80AUD. However, the average aussie wage is the same (or less) in AUD than an equivalent job in USD..
So the aussie gamer is effectively paying "twice" as much for games with his hard earnt cash..
i.e. Two kids working at mcdonalds say, are bringing home their $8/hr local currency for 20 hour week.
The US kid, $160 USD buys them 4 games. The Aussie kid, $160 AUD buys them 2 games.
Of course the best solution for the aussie gamer would be if they sold the title for an equivalent local amount.. But if that was the case, then wouldnt everyone overseas just turn around and import/mail order stuff from these countries where the local dollar was weak. You'll already see people pondering about doing this exact thing in the comments.
Will this establish a driver for more "affordable" gaming prices in Australia, or will it just provoke a massive mail order business by US folks looking to score their gaming at cheap rates..
I'll be looking on with interest
Selling his car..
Stooping to doing commander keen clones for pocket pc for a living..
He even recently cut his hair short (expect it on ebay soon?)