I doubt it would hurt the sales that much, given that it would still be better than the alternatives (since DSL still isn't really that available, from what I am told).
The article mentions that 1% of the users are using 16% of the bandwidth. If they can eliminate that 1%, they would make money in the end. If they focus on that one percent, it won't hurt them at all.
In any case, if the bandwidth based charges hurt sales and going to the flat rate is really causing them to hemorrhage money, then they will simply close up shop. No business will stay in business if they can't make money off of it and they aren't obligated to provide the service.
That entirely depends. Some places charge for support (especially software) and as far as hardware goes, you generally are paying for it (hidden cost).
Personally, I wish support was a separate fee, as I rarely have to use it.
If anything, Apple is charging for support they don't need to provide.
This balance issue always got me - I think it means that in the end, the universe is better without Jedi. Luke is probably the last one. Otherwise, if there are light side jedi, there will always be dark side jedi, right?
I think the idea was to make Yoda look a little cocky on purpose, actually. Even the wise can become smug and make mistakes, right? I think that's the whole point, but it's only my view.
Item! Hold onto your hats, everyone, because this is the Big One. From one of my better sources, who must obviously remain nameless, I've learned that there is going to be another Star Wars movie! Plot details about Star Wars 4 are extremely sketchy, but from what I understand, Luke and Laura have to find a magic potion that was hidden by Boba Fett, Darth Vader's son-in-law, in order to save their home planet from space drug dealers. It's good to know that Steven Spielberg still has the magic touch. Stay tuned for more info. And may The Force be with you and your loved ones! Link
I know, I was calling him to task on his MS bashing. MS Money is actually a very good package (shock! horror!) and I would consider using a good package a sign of intelligence (or at least common sense).
I use Quicken myself (because the Canadian version is the best Canadian personal financial software I can find), but I am not stupid enough to put my credit card numbers (or any identification numbers, for that matter) into it.
Out of curiousity, does anyone know if any financial packages out there actually provide built-in encryption?
Sadly, Slashdot isn't on the list, but some great sites are.
Why would Slashdot be on the list? Did JonKatz discover a fascinating fossil that put the archeological community on its ears and post his dissertation on it here?
Why would a news site win an award for original content?
(Disclaimer: I haven't read the criteria they use, so maybe Slashdot should be in the list - but I doubt it)
I firmly believe that small teams result in faster, cleaner and better code generation. And that's why large projects should be made up of a number of small teams.
However, the fact is that code standards and reviews mitigate risk (both for the current project and future projects involving the same code) and are necessary for a successful project. You have obviously never had to maintain other peoples code. I have to all the time and it's hard enough with the standards we have in place.
Would you build a bridge based on a sketch on a napkin? Then why the hell would you code without proper design? That's just stupid. Maybe your team suffers from "Death by Design" but that hardly rules the benefits of proper design out. In fact, using proper design I would say that I am twice as productive, easily.
Well, it's actually kind of hard to find a working NES (compared to other old consoles, I mean) - but you could buy a complete, non-working one with some games and then play on an emulator. Legally. Just like you should.:)
My NES broke when I was a child and I never did find a replacement. My dad tried to fix it. No more NES for me. Luckily I had a snes at the time. Too bad it wasn't backwards compatible.
I would love to get my hands on one of the newer designed ones with the top loading slot for game cartridges.
Ah well, I barely have time for the new games, so I rarely play the old ones.
Nope that's not the one. THe one I am talking about bitched about something I did with a function that I was taught from a textbook that was not ANSI-C.
Honestly, I don't remember for sure, but it wasn't an escape character.
The things the compiler was missing were due to limitations of using 8 bit hardware - namely large datatypes.
Good game design has little to do with the number of dimensions. The problem is there aren't enough good game designers (along with excellent teams working with them).
It's just like the business programming world - it's hard to fill the demand for good designers/programmers, so there is a lot of crap out there these days.
There are plenty of good 3d games. Pikmin is very fun and it's 3d. No replay value, but that's typical of first wave games. Resident Evil is fun. Metal Gear Solid is fun. Morrowind is fun and addictive and extremely replayable (and buggy, unfortunately). All good games with good designers at the helm.
You seem to forget that there were tons of crap games back in the NES era too - Avoid the Noid, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Robin Hood... all crap and all in blessed two dimensions.
Actually, the gameboy compiler I used, while missing a few features of the C language, was *very* strict when it compiled C - I don't use C much, but I learned how much non-standard C that textbooks are full of.
In any case, I have a laptop I could haul around if I want too. I'm just more likely to have the gba in my backpack:) And if I actually hacked something together, it would be for fun. When I do things purely for fun, I don't care about standards.
I used a homebrew SDK to design a digital voltage meter that plugged into a gameboy/gameboy colour when I was in college - It measured Vrms better than some commercial products we tested against.
I'd like to do a PDA setup - maybe I can hack a keyboard together to plug into my gba - someone did it for the gameboy - link - look about halfway down the page.
Besides, the GBA is a good medium to develop games for - you don't need a team of 3d modellers and designers and whatnot - you can do with a designer/programmer, artist, and musician.
Plus it's just fun to hack around with console games!
As was mentioned in several posts, this is bad (for MS) because it may allow two things - non-authorized software development and pirated software. (don't mark me as redundant yet, keep reading:)
That's why Nintendo stuck with cartridges and why they now have a non-standard format for Gamecube games. I am really surprised other console developers haven't done this.... the slight increase in costs to slow piracy is a good trade-off.
Anyone know if it would be possible to burn those mini-dvd's that Nintendo uses?
Yes you did miss my point. How does anyone know that you didn't opt-in? Can you prove that you didn't? The key is that they "claim" that you opted in, and it is hard to prove you didn't with the current system.
If we put the onus on the mailing list to prove that you did opt-in, then the legitimate ones would dissappear out of fear of lawsuits. Or we would have to register for the such lists by registered mail or provide tangible proof in some way. This would raise the bar of entry for the Internet for legitimate business and nobody would bother anymore. Think about it.
What we really need is a method of registering commercial email with a third party. When you subscribe to a list on a website it would launch a connection with said third party where you would verify that you wish to receive the mail. Additionally, this third party would allow you to cancel at any time. This would be effective if coupled with a law that says you cannot send commercial email to someone without registering with this third party.
Of course then you start running into privacy issues...
As you can see, I have given this a lot of thought, and I simply don't think you have. You made a broad statement without considering the consequences and alternatives and that is my whole point and that is what you didn't understand.
To be fair, you did pay *something* to make your copy and making a copy from your copy would result in degredation. Also, you wouldn't be (easily) able to share your copy with thousands of people.
The problem with piracy is you can't quantify how much the bottom line was dented (as much as the RIAA/MPAA/BSA like to say you can) but I would argue that if you like the movie and would have bought it if you couldn't copy it, you did hurt the bottom line.
That is why digital scares the RIAA/MPAA so much - it's portable, easy to distribute, and it doesn't degrade (beyond the first lossy encoding, I mean).
I hate big media too, but that doesn't make piracy right or even justified. If you really want to make a statement, don't buy, pirate, or support the media in any way.
You missed my point entirely. You said spam must be banned completely and opt-in spam is just spam and I responded to those comments, which are far too broad in scope.
I know that a Dell mailing list is not spam, but if we passed a law based on solely what you say, then someone could easily sue Dell ("I don't want this info, so it's spam! I opted in, but opt-in spam is illegal so there!"), and thus Dell would not publish a mailing list.
Of course, narrowing it down is difficult too. The problem is that you can't pass a law that says "A Dell opt-in mailings are OK, but free vacation opt-in mailings are not" - that's too specific. How would a law define if there is "useful information" in the email?
As you say in another thread, you were unclear. Be careful what you say, because everyone will take it at face value. Not that it matters, this is Slashdot, who cares:)
Slashdot Mirror
Most people played with the old NES mat using their hands, from what I remember :)
I doubt it would hurt the sales that much, given that it would still be better than the alternatives (since DSL still isn't really that available, from what I am told).
The article mentions that 1% of the users are using 16% of the bandwidth. If they can eliminate that 1%, they would make money in the end. If they focus on that one percent, it won't hurt them at all.
In any case, if the bandwidth based charges hurt sales and going to the flat rate is really causing them to hemorrhage money, then they will simply close up shop. No business will stay in business if they can't make money off of it and they aren't obligated to provide the service.
That entirely depends. Some places charge for support (especially software) and as far as hardware goes, you generally are paying for it (hidden cost).
Personally, I wish support was a separate fee, as I rarely have to use it.
If anything, Apple is charging for support they don't need to provide.
This balance issue always got me - I think it means that in the end, the universe is better without Jedi. Luke is probably the last one. Otherwise, if there are light side jedi, there will always be dark side jedi, right?
I think the idea was to make Yoda look a little cocky on purpose, actually. Even the wise can become smug and make mistakes, right? I think that's the whole point, but it's only my view.
Item! Hold onto your hats, everyone, because this is the Big One. From one of my better sources, who must obviously remain nameless, I've learned that there is going to be another Star Wars movie! Plot details about Star Wars 4 are extremely sketchy, but from what I understand, Luke and Laura have to find a magic potion that was hidden by Boba Fett, Darth Vader's son-in-law, in order to save their home planet from space drug dealers. It's good to know that Steven Spielberg still has the magic touch. Stay tuned for more info. And may The Force be with you and your loved ones!
Link
Death Star Daycare
I [pause] did not sleep [pause] with [pause] that ensign
Not quite, still gotta use a mouse.
Course, you could try the silver dot thingy, but you probably can't use that if you're vibrating around, right?
I know, I was calling him to task on his MS bashing. MS Money is actually a very good package (shock! horror!) and I would consider using a good package a sign of intelligence (or at least common sense).
I use Quicken myself (because the Canadian version is the best Canadian personal financial software I can find), but I am not stupid enough to put my credit card numbers (or any identification numbers, for that matter) into it.
Out of curiousity, does anyone know if any financial packages out there actually provide built-in encryption?
Using financial tracking software is stupid?
Budgets are for dummies too, right?
Let me qualify my statement before you mod me as flamebait :)
What I mean is, Slashdot doesn't post original content (often), only links to existing content.
Unless we have a fascinating ScienceTroll I haven't noticed...
Sadly, Slashdot isn't on the list, but some great sites are.
Why would Slashdot be on the list? Did JonKatz discover a fascinating fossil that put the archeological community on its ears and post his dissertation on it here?
Why would a news site win an award for original content?
(Disclaimer: I haven't read the criteria they use, so maybe Slashdot should be in the list - but I doubt it)
I firmly believe that small teams result in faster, cleaner and better code generation. And that's why large projects should be made up of a number of small teams.
However, the fact is that code standards and reviews mitigate risk (both for the current project and future projects involving the same code) and are necessary for a successful project. You have obviously never had to maintain other peoples code. I have to all the time and it's hard enough with the standards we have in place.
Would you build a bridge based on a sketch on a napkin? Then why the hell would you code without proper design? That's just stupid. Maybe your team suffers from "Death by Design" but that hardly rules the benefits of proper design out. In fact, using proper design I would say that I am twice as productive, easily.
Not quite true - it said that they went with the 100 most mature projects. So it depends on their definition of mature...
Here's the link
GBDK
Well, it's actually kind of hard to find a working NES (compared to other old consoles, I mean) - but you could buy a complete, non-working one with some games and then play on an emulator. Legally. Just like you should. :)
My NES broke when I was a child and I never did find a replacement. My dad tried to fix it. No more NES for me. Luckily I had a snes at the time. Too bad it wasn't backwards compatible.
I would love to get my hands on one of the newer designed ones with the top loading slot for game cartridges.
Ah well, I barely have time for the new games, so I rarely play the old ones.
Nope that's not the one. THe one I am talking about bitched about something I did with a function that I was taught from a textbook that was not ANSI-C.
Honestly, I don't remember for sure, but it wasn't an escape character.
The things the compiler was missing were due to limitations of using 8 bit hardware - namely large datatypes.
Good game design has little to do with the number of dimensions. The problem is there aren't enough good game designers (along with excellent teams working with them).
... all crap and all in blessed two dimensions.
It's just like the business programming world - it's hard to fill the demand for good designers/programmers, so there is a lot of crap out there these days.
There are plenty of good 3d games. Pikmin is very fun and it's 3d. No replay value, but that's typical of first wave games. Resident Evil is fun. Metal Gear Solid is fun. Morrowind is fun and addictive and extremely replayable (and buggy, unfortunately). All good games with good designers at the helm.
You seem to forget that there were tons of crap games back in the NES era too - Avoid the Noid, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Robin Hood
Actually, the gameboy compiler I used, while missing a few features of the C language, was *very* strict when it compiled C - I don't use C much, but I learned how much non-standard C that textbooks are full of.
:) And if I actually hacked something together, it would be for fun. When I do things purely for fun, I don't care about standards.
In any case, I have a laptop I could haul around if I want too. I'm just more likely to have the gba in my backpack
Who says you have to program only games?
I used a homebrew SDK to design a digital voltage meter that plugged into a gameboy/gameboy colour when I was in college - It measured Vrms better than some commercial products we tested against.
I'd like to do a PDA setup - maybe I can hack a keyboard together to plug into my gba - someone did it for the gameboy - link - look about halfway down the page.
Besides, the GBA is a good medium to develop games for - you don't need a team of 3d modellers and designers and whatnot - you can do with a designer/programmer, artist, and musician.
Plus it's just fun to hack around with console games!
As was mentioned in several posts, this is bad (for MS) because it may allow two things - non-authorized software development and pirated software. (don't mark me as redundant yet, keep reading :)
That's why Nintendo stuck with cartridges and why they now have a non-standard format for Gamecube games. I am really surprised other console developers haven't done this.... the slight increase in costs to slow piracy is a good trade-off.
Anyone know if it would be possible to burn those mini-dvd's that Nintendo uses?
Yes you did miss my point. How does anyone know that you didn't opt-in? Can you prove that you didn't? The key is that they "claim" that you opted in, and it is hard to prove you didn't with the current system.
If we put the onus on the mailing list to prove that you did opt-in, then the legitimate ones would dissappear out of fear of lawsuits. Or we would have to register for the such lists by registered mail or provide tangible proof in some way. This would raise the bar of entry for the Internet for legitimate business and nobody would bother anymore. Think about it.
What we really need is a method of registering commercial email with a third party. When you subscribe to a list on a website it would launch a connection with said third party where you would verify that you wish to receive the mail. Additionally, this third party would allow you to cancel at any time. This would be effective if coupled with a law that says you cannot send commercial email to someone without registering with this third party.
Of course then you start running into privacy issues...
As you can see, I have given this a lot of thought, and I simply don't think you have. You made a broad statement without considering the consequences and alternatives and that is my whole point and that is what you didn't understand.
To be fair, you did pay *something* to make your copy and making a copy from your copy would result in degredation. Also, you wouldn't be (easily) able to share your copy with thousands of people.
The problem with piracy is you can't quantify how much the bottom line was dented (as much as the RIAA/MPAA/BSA like to say you can) but I would argue that if you like the movie and would have bought it if you couldn't copy it, you did hurt the bottom line.
That is why digital scares the RIAA/MPAA so much - it's portable, easy to distribute, and it doesn't degrade (beyond the first lossy encoding, I mean).
I hate big media too, but that doesn't make piracy right or even justified. If you really want to make a statement, don't buy, pirate, or support the media in any way.
You missed my point entirely. You said
:)
spam must be banned completely
and
opt-in spam is just spam
and I responded to those comments, which are far too broad in scope.
I know that a Dell mailing list is not spam, but if we passed a law based on solely what you say, then someone could easily sue Dell ("I don't want this info, so it's spam! I opted in, but opt-in spam is illegal so there!"), and thus Dell would not publish a mailing list.
Of course, narrowing it down is difficult too. The problem is that you can't pass a law that says "A Dell opt-in mailings are OK, but free vacation opt-in mailings are not" - that's too specific. How would a law define if there is "useful information" in the email?
As you say in another thread, you were unclear. Be careful what you say, because everyone will take it at face value. Not that it matters, this is Slashdot, who cares
Data can be read from a printer or monitor - think "Plug n' Play" :)
The only true write-only portion of a PC/circuit I can think of is GND