I think Vivendi should pick up the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever. That way they'll have a monopoly on games we will never see during our lifetime.
Right.... Then you shouldn't mind if I write a "custom filter" the just happens to morph the bloody fingerprint found on the glove near Nicole Brown's body to match your fingerprint. O.J. will finally have justice and you can maintain your naivety as they cart you down to the execution chamber.
Hippies make me laugh. Socialist utopias don't exist. You either get fully goverment owned enterprise or publicly owned corporations. Ask anyone who lived in Soviet Russian how great goverment ownership was - you'll get an earful. Corporations are only as bad as the society that enable them. If you have a problem with corporations, you might want to focus your energies on the society in which they exist. Greedy, blood-sucking corporations arrise from a greedy, baby-eating society.
I for one love my desk job -- tending fields for 18 hours a day would just suck.
20 years seems harsh only when viewed in the context of a "victim-less" crime. However, most white collar crime has the potential to affect a larger number of innocents than most people consider.
Consider the consequences of an irrevokable malicious act on a trading company. If damage is broad enough the perp shuts down said company for days on end. Thousands of clients are unable to do anything during this time. Employees waste thousands of man hours attempting to rebuild wasted systems. If the damage is extensive enough, it could put the entire company out of business.
Just take a look at the fallout of the Enron situation and you'll find countless people who have lost entire life savings because of some "victim-less" white collar crimes. Not only is Enron dead, their consulting firm has died, thousands of people are out of work, numerous support companies have gone under, and thousands of people have lost millions upon millions of dollars in retirement savings. The consequences of Enron's illegal practices touch many people who did not have anything to do with the crimes being commited.
Don't assume because a crime doesn't physically harm someone that it has fewer consequences or requires lesser punishment. In the broad perspective of total social impact, white collar crimes have the potential to an aweful lot of harm to a large number of people.
There are a few reasons for this, some of them technical, some not.
1. The providers deal with the phone manufactures directly and squeeze them for every point of margin they can get out of them. One of the few leverage points the manufacturers have is exclusivity on the carrier in exchange for lower per-unit costs. This is the main reason a multi-band cell phone is only "authorized" to work on a single carrier. Pretty crappy for consumers in that you don't have a choice of carriers, but at the same time you get a lower price point for the initial phone investment.
2. Most of the providers in the State are on different cell technologies. TDMA, CDMA, GSM, iDen, and a number hybrids. If you have a single technology phone (i.e. TDMA), you can't switch to a provider that has only GSM service.
3. Tying you into a one carrier means they can force you into signing long term service contracts. Why would you not sign a 1 or 2-year contract after shelling out $300 for a phone that will only work on that one provider's system? Freedom of choice is usurped by the carriers in their desire to have consistant, long term contractual income. It's much easier to forcaste future revenues when people are locked in.
None of these factors are there to serve the consumer. So does it really come as a surprise that service is so bad here in the States?
If a non-profit could have done this years ago, why didn't they? This actually seems like a reasonable approach to providing kid-safe areas of the internet without having each and every site register their content with some central authority, or worse yet some PMRC-like entity being spawned by bored housewives. This would also provide a solution to the whole "libraries must censor" debate that's going before the supreme court.
That's why help desk people are such shite. You get what you pay for. Only when the consumer votes with his/her wallet will we receive the level of customer support we deserve. Until then, continue to expect 2 hour wait times to get bitched at by the hag at the other end of the line.
No. There won't be a Linux version.
Here's the equation:
New game release, should we port to linux? Lets look at some of our previous game releases:
PC:
500k units sold @ $40 a unit == $20,000,000
PS2:
250k units sold @ $50 a unit == $12,500,000
Linux:
5 units sold @ $60 a unit == $300
Answer: NO LINUX PORT FOR YOU!
Who cares about 80% efficiency if it costs a fortune? If my next refrigerator costs $10k, it's certainly not more efficient for me. Until they tell me how much it'll cost, I'll stick with the tried and true methods.
He's not worth reading, IMO. His Mars series was the dullest, politics-based waste of treespace. None of the characters were likable, things jumped all over the place, and I really got sick of who was sleeping / jealous of who. Bleck - garbage.
This is your elected "representative" bowing down to the special interest groups. Get ready to grab your ankles as the RIAA prepares to saddle up. Just because elected officials "represent" you doesnt mean they actually give a damn what you want. (sarcasm)They've got the "greater good" to worry about. (/sarcasm)
You want to know why? Because many parents are complete, total morons. No really, they are. If they're not doing totally stupid crap, they're ignoring the kids because their career/boyfriend/(insert self-centered reason here)
I saw someone bring a 3 year old in to watch Hannibal. When asked, the mother said she couldn't find a baby sitter. So instead of NOT SEEING THE MOVIE, she brought her 3 year old in. Needless to say, that was not the most pleasant movie experience. Considering that she was inconsiderate enough to bring her child to see that movie, do you think she lifted a finger when that child started screaming?
Take one day, get off your nerd-chair and enjoy a little humor. All you that keep bitching about "I come here for real information" need to take a chill. It's 1 day out of the year - get over it.
Being a geek is all well and good, but it's not what makes the world go round. If you were looking for anything remotely usuable, practical, or relevent, you wouldnt be here anyway.
Maintaining gross margins to please shareholders is a bitch. Unfortunately, there's more that goes into pricing models then matching your competitors lower margins.
Fast Company is dying because its content sucks. Someone thought a two year subscription would be a "good" gift. Having read that rag for over a year, I found 1 and only 1 good article in its the tome like volumes. I just hope it dies out so they stop filling up my mailbox.
Let me see - employer is not paying me, so I'll loan it my credit cards to rack up huge amounts of debt? Someone's an idiot here - anyone working for free since 2000 should know better than to hand off the credit card.
Here's a rule to live by - you're not getting a pay check? Time to find another job.
Why bother with this foundation? If they just wait a few years enough species will die off that they'll have 100% coverage. Problem solved with 0 extra effort.
I'm not too sure why anyone would be worried about losing their copyrights through this service. When you submit any project through University, you give up your rights of copyright. University has full control over who sees your work and under what circumstances. Why do you think professors/students must submit a release request when they spin off their work into the private sector?
The point wasnt to say anyone should do it for the money. I love programming and will do it for the foreseeable future. My point being that religious wars regarding which OS one programs against are pointless and nieve. If I'm asked to program Windows, Linux, Mac, or VAX, it does not diminish my enjoyment of programming. In fact, I rather expand my knowledge to every platform I can - I find I'm always learning something I never thought of before.
Sticking to a single platform is self-limiting at best, and at worse can paint you into a career dead-end quickly. By saying "I'd never program X" or "I'm only going to program Y", you're telling your future employeers "look, I don't care what you want, its not important to me". Which is a major career-limiting statement if I've ever heard one.
What a crock. You do the work you're paid to do. If programming MS's crap puts food on the table and a roof over my head, then I'm all for MS. It really doesnt matter to me - programming is programming. Oh to be young, idealistic, and ignorant again!
The decline in album sales has nothing to do with online file trading. The reason sales are down is because the record companies are releasing nothing but rehashed shit lately. I don't even bother turning on the radio anymore since all they play is recycled, teen-scream garbage.
"Pop Science" has nothing to do with the problems caused by the improper handling of hazardous materials. Dismissing the problems caused by these materials by saying "they bought it, it's now their problem" is irresponsible at best.
Imagine I'm a gun store owner. I know for a fact that the person at my counter is going to commit a crime with their purchase. I am both legally and morally obligated to do something about it - i.e. not sell that gun. Just because the buyer wants it does not negate my responsibilities to society as a whole.
How is this any different from "selling" our waste materials to an irresponsible foreign company; a company which would not be allowed to operate under the same conditions in the United States? If we as a country know that handling hazardous materials properly is important and must be managed, how then can you even suggest selling that waste to another country negates our responsibility to manage it properly? Double standards are lazy ways to avoiding responsibility. They're also a cheap way out of doing the right thing.
"Do YOU think people loose the right to choose when they are poor?" Damn straight I do. The poor do not have any choice over whether or not some company dumps garbage into their environment. Go down to the inner city and ask how many people have a choice over their environment, their level of health care, the quality of education in their schools. It's not about running their lives, its about providing them a voice that says "this is not right". It's hard to hear the poor in this or any other country because we generally choose to ignore them.
"Poverty is what you make of it". What a crock. Poverty is poverty, no matter how hard you try to rationalize it away. The poor do not have the same choices as the rich. And they certainly do not get heard as often. Conjecture about what you would or would not do in that situation is simply that.
You asked who is being self-centered - I'd argue that it's you. You're argument comes from an irresponsible, non-empathetic world view. Mine comes from seeing that we all share this world and that we can't negate responsibility just because there's an almighty Dollar attached to it.
Slashdot Mirror
Sarcasm is lost on the moronic, apparently.
I think Vivendi should pick up the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever. That way they'll have a monopoly on games we will never see during our lifetime.
Right.... Then you shouldn't mind if I write a "custom filter" the just happens to morph the bloody fingerprint found on the glove near Nicole Brown's body to match your fingerprint. O.J. will finally have justice and you can maintain your naivety as they cart you down to the execution chamber.
Hippies make me laugh. Socialist utopias don't exist. You either get fully goverment owned enterprise or publicly owned corporations. Ask anyone who lived in Soviet Russian how great goverment ownership was - you'll get an earful. Corporations are only as bad as the society that enable them. If you have a problem with corporations, you might want to focus your energies on the society in which they exist. Greedy, blood-sucking corporations arrise from a greedy, baby-eating society.
I for one love my desk job -- tending fields for 18 hours a day would just suck.
20 years seems harsh only when viewed in the context of a "victim-less" crime. However, most white collar crime has the potential to affect a larger number of innocents than most people consider.
Consider the consequences of an irrevokable malicious act on a trading company. If damage is broad enough the perp shuts down said company for days on end. Thousands of clients are unable to do anything during this time. Employees waste thousands of man hours attempting to rebuild wasted systems. If the damage is extensive enough, it could put the entire company out of business.
Just take a look at the fallout of the Enron situation and you'll find countless people who have lost entire life savings because of some "victim-less" white collar crimes. Not only is Enron dead, their consulting firm has died, thousands of people are out of work, numerous support companies have gone under, and thousands of people have lost millions upon millions of dollars in retirement savings. The consequences of Enron's illegal practices touch many people who did not have anything to do with the crimes being commited.
Don't assume because a crime doesn't physically harm someone that it has fewer consequences or requires lesser punishment. In the broad perspective of total social impact, white collar crimes have the potential to an aweful lot of harm to a large number of people.
There are a few reasons for this, some of them technical, some not. 1. The providers deal with the phone manufactures directly and squeeze them for every point of margin they can get out of them. One of the few leverage points the manufacturers have is exclusivity on the carrier in exchange for lower per-unit costs. This is the main reason a multi-band cell phone is only "authorized" to work on a single carrier. Pretty crappy for consumers in that you don't have a choice of carriers, but at the same time you get a lower price point for the initial phone investment. 2. Most of the providers in the State are on different cell technologies. TDMA, CDMA, GSM, iDen, and a number hybrids. If you have a single technology phone (i.e. TDMA), you can't switch to a provider that has only GSM service. 3. Tying you into a one carrier means they can force you into signing long term service contracts. Why would you not sign a 1 or 2-year contract after shelling out $300 for a phone that will only work on that one provider's system? Freedom of choice is usurped by the carriers in their desire to have consistant, long term contractual income. It's much easier to forcaste future revenues when people are locked in. None of these factors are there to serve the consumer. So does it really come as a surprise that service is so bad here in the States?
If a non-profit could have done this years ago, why didn't they? This actually seems like a reasonable approach to providing kid-safe areas of the internet without having each and every site register their content with some central authority, or worse yet some PMRC-like entity being spawned by bored housewives. This would also provide a solution to the whole "libraries must censor" debate that's going before the supreme court.
That's why help desk people are such shite. You get what you pay for. Only when the consumer votes with his/her wallet will we receive the level of customer support we deserve. Until then, continue to expect 2 hour wait times to get bitched at by the hag at the other end of the line.
Oh ya? I bet my specialist can beat up your specialist!
No. There won't be a Linux version. Here's the equation: New game release, should we port to linux? Lets look at some of our previous game releases: PC: 500k units sold @ $40 a unit == $20,000,000 PS2: 250k units sold @ $50 a unit == $12,500,000 Linux: 5 units sold @ $60 a unit == $300 Answer: NO LINUX PORT FOR YOU!
Who cares about 80% efficiency if it costs a fortune? If my next refrigerator costs $10k, it's certainly not more efficient for me. Until they tell me how much it'll cost, I'll stick with the tried and true methods.
He's not worth reading, IMO. His Mars series was the dullest, politics-based waste of treespace. None of the characters were likable, things jumped all over the place, and I really got sick of who was sleeping / jealous of who. Bleck - garbage.
garcia, do you see this?
This is your elected "representative" bowing down to the special interest groups. Get ready to grab your ankles as the RIAA prepares to saddle up. Just because elected officials "represent" you doesnt mean they actually give a damn what you want. (sarcasm)They've got the "greater good" to worry about. (/sarcasm)
You want to know why? Because many parents are complete, total morons. No really, they are. If they're not doing totally stupid crap, they're ignoring the kids because their career/boyfriend/(insert self-centered reason here)
I saw someone bring a 3 year old in to watch Hannibal. When asked, the mother said she couldn't find a baby sitter. So instead of NOT SEEING THE MOVIE, she brought her 3 year old in. Needless to say, that was not the most pleasant movie experience. Considering that she was inconsiderate enough to bring her child to see that movie, do you think she lifted a finger when that child started screaming?
And the movie sucked too.
Take one day, get off your nerd-chair and enjoy a little humor. All you that keep bitching about "I come here for real information" need to take a chill. It's 1 day out of the year - get over it.
Being a geek is all well and good, but it's not what makes the world go round. If you were looking for anything remotely usuable, practical, or relevent, you wouldnt be here anyway.
Maintaining gross margins to please shareholders is a bitch. Unfortunately, there's more that goes into pricing models then matching your competitors lower margins.
Do we have to see this same article posted here? This has to be three by my count? Can I submit it again next week and get some kudos? Thanks!
Fast Company is dying because its content sucks. Someone thought a two year subscription would be a "good" gift. Having read that rag for over a year, I found 1 and only 1 good article in its the tome like volumes. I just hope it dies out so they stop filling up my mailbox.
Let me see - employer is not paying me, so I'll loan it my credit cards to rack up huge amounts of debt? Someone's an idiot here - anyone working for free since 2000 should know better than to hand off the credit card.
Here's a rule to live by - you're not getting a pay check? Time to find another job.
Why bother with this foundation? If they just wait a few years enough species will die off that they'll have 100% coverage. Problem solved with 0 extra effort.
I'm not too sure why anyone would be worried about losing their copyrights through this service. When you submit any project through University, you give up your rights of copyright. University has full control over who sees your work and under what circumstances. Why do you think professors/students must submit a release request when they spin off their work into the private sector?
The point wasnt to say anyone should do it for the money. I love programming and will do it for the foreseeable future. My point being that religious wars regarding which OS one programs against are pointless and nieve. If I'm asked to program Windows, Linux, Mac, or VAX, it does not diminish my enjoyment of programming. In fact, I rather expand my knowledge to every platform I can - I find I'm always learning something I never thought of before. Sticking to a single platform is self-limiting at best, and at worse can paint you into a career dead-end quickly. By saying "I'd never program X" or "I'm only going to program Y", you're telling your future employeers "look, I don't care what you want, its not important to me". Which is a major career-limiting statement if I've ever heard one.
What a crock. You do the work you're paid to do. If programming MS's crap puts food on the table and a roof over my head, then I'm all for MS. It really doesnt matter to me - programming is programming. Oh to be young, idealistic, and ignorant again!
The decline in album sales has nothing to do with online file trading. The reason sales are down is because the record companies are releasing nothing but rehashed shit lately. I don't even bother turning on the radio anymore since all they play is recycled, teen-scream garbage.
"Pop Science" has nothing to do with the problems caused by the improper handling of hazardous materials. Dismissing the problems caused by these materials by saying "they bought it, it's now their problem" is irresponsible at best.
Imagine I'm a gun store owner. I know for a fact that the person at my counter is going to commit a crime with their purchase. I am both legally and morally obligated to do something about it - i.e. not sell that gun. Just because the buyer wants it does not negate my responsibilities to society as a whole.
How is this any different from "selling" our waste materials to an irresponsible foreign company; a company which would not be allowed to operate under the same conditions in the United States? If we as a country know that handling hazardous materials properly is important and must be managed, how then can you even suggest selling that waste to another country negates our responsibility to manage it properly? Double standards are lazy ways to avoiding responsibility. They're also a cheap way out of doing the right thing.
"Do YOU think people loose the right to choose when they are poor?" Damn straight I do. The poor do not have any choice over whether or not some company dumps garbage into their environment. Go down to the inner city and ask how many people have a choice over their environment, their level of health care, the quality of education in their schools. It's not about running their lives, its about providing them a voice that says "this is not right". It's hard to hear the poor in this or any other country because we generally choose to ignore them.
"Poverty is what you make of it". What a crock. Poverty is poverty, no matter how hard you try to rationalize it away. The poor do not have the same choices as the rich. And they certainly do not get heard as often. Conjecture about what you would or would not do in that situation is simply that.
You asked who is being self-centered - I'd argue that it's you. You're argument comes from an irresponsible, non-empathetic world view. Mine comes from seeing that we all share this world and that we can't negate responsibility just because there's an almighty Dollar attached to it.