Don't they need MS Office? I don't use it all that frequently but when I need an office app, it's the suite that I turn to. For me it's a case of if it's not broken, don't fix it. I don't need a free alternative because I already own MS Office and I'm quite happy with it. It works well on my Windows machine and in a year or two when this machine is outdated and I can justify getting a new one, I'll be switching to Mac where I know I can continue to use MS Office. I've been using it for years, I'm familiar with it, and I have no incentive to switch. Although I will admit that I still run MS Office 2003 because the newer version looked like crap and I had no incentive to upgrade. Ribbons?
The MS Office clones are exactly that. The big "feature" is compatibility because that's what everyone cares about. Will they be able to open the files they already have? The problem as I see it is a lack of innovation. What does Open Office or any other competing product have that MS Office doesn't have? Where is my incentive to switch?
I left IE for Firefox because there was a long list of features that interested me. When I tell someone about Firefox it's very easy to make the case for switching. With MS Office, it would be far easier to make a case not to switch unless the person doesn't already own a copy of it. Even then it's not very expensive. I have a legit license for the newest Office around here somewhere that I got from watching three videos during a promotion last year. I don't recall what they were about because I never watched them. I simply opened them on my computer and left them going in some little program I had to install. After all three the site said I had met my commitment and about six weeks later I received my copy of MS Office. It was a promo thing direct from MS. There was also an option to watch 3 other videos and get a copy of Vista but I was having connection issues with my cable modem at the time and they ran out of copies before I had a chance to do that one. Not that I would have used Vista even with it being free. I don't use the new Office. And what does that say about a product when you have a legit copy for free and you still won't use it? Unfortunately I paid retail for my copy of Office 2003.
You're forgetting one key thing, Apple is Apple whereas there are lots of companies that are "Linux". When someone sees an ad for RedHat or Ubuntu, they are seeing an add for that particular company as well as an ad for "Linux". But then they see an ad for a diff company and the waters get muddied a little. When I turn on the tv and see the Mac and PC guys, I know who they are. I know there is one Mac and one PC (well, it's actually Windows and there is more than one... XP, Vista, etc., but you get my point).
Apple has to sell people on Mac. Microsoft sells people on Windows. Ubuntu not only has to sell people on Linux, but also that their way is better than RedHat or Gentoo or Debian or Harry's Basement Brand Linux 5.0 (Harry did a fine job on this new version... 4.8 has some pretty big bugs but 5.0 seems rock solid).
But wait, it gets worse. So now John Doe is sold on Linux and he's selected Ubuntu. He gets his box home from wherever he bought it and pops it in. He manages to get it installed without much effort. Then what? He's used to using a variety of apps like Office that are avail on both Mac's and PC's. Sure he has options. You and I know about these options. We know there are companies working on making stuff compatible through the use of Wine or whatever, but does John Doe know that?
You can buy computer stuff much cheaper online but every time I'm in a store that sells overpriced computers, I see someone buying one. I even bought my last desktop machine at CompUSA because it was convenient and I wanted one that day (my previous machine had failed the day before). Now I don't mind downloading software and it doesn't get much easier than "apt-get install" but then again, I'm only using Ubuntu on servers choosing instead to stick with Windows on my desktop (switching to Mac the next time I upgrade but this machine still has a lot of life left in it.
How many regular consumers want to be able to just walk into a store and buy software? How many want to bring home a copy of something from the office? I tend to think in terms of what I myself want. I'm a huge fan of Ubuntu and often get into heated arguments about why it's the best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be. Even I don't run it on my desktop. It's just not useful enough for me in that situation. I think the same hold true for most people and until that changes, until you have the software choices, you aren't going to get widespread adoption.
Crap like this is why I lost faith in Microsoft and quit running Windows years ago. Thankfully my RHEL box isn't affected by this sort of... oh... wait... really? Shit.
I don't want to be on the bleeding edge but I don't want to be miles behind either. I also don't have the time nor the energy to subscribe to yet another mailing list. And what good would it do for me to subscribe to it anyway? Am I going to know what to do when I see an email that says XYZ has a huge security hole? I assume if there is a serious security problem an update will be pushed through the normal channels. When I do my update and then upgrade, I'll get said update and the problem will be solved.
For some things you need newer versions. With something like Apache it's never mattered to me what version I was running other than am I on 1 or 2 because those are wildly different. 2.0 or 2.1 or whatever isn't, or at least hasn't been thus far, very important. It's entirely different with MySQL or PHP when the tools available to me depend on which version I'm using. I'm not saying that Ubuntu is the only one that makes it possible to stay relatively up to date but it does seem to be the easiest, for people that don't have a lot of time to mess with it or learn the intricacies of another package manager.
The reason why Ubuntu is the distro that gets the most press these days is because it's the easiest to use. Or maybe it's not. Maybe Mandriva is actually easier (it sure wasn't the last time I tried it but it's been about two years now). Either way, Ubuntu has a reputation for having a really slick package manager, the same as Debian, but without all of the bullshit that plagued/plauges Debian. So people use it, people love it, and they talk. Word gets around that hey, Linux is finally easy.
At the end of the day, is there really all that much separating each distro? They all run the same software but it's how they go about things that define them and make each one unique. In my opinion Ubuntu does it better than anyone, right now. Next year? Who knows. The popular distro seems to change fairly often so it will be interesting to see how long Ubuntu can hold on. So far they are doing a damn good job though.
Mandrake was the first distro that really worked for me. I started with Debian but it's not good for beginners. It's too easy to mess things up. apt-get hose-my-computer happened a bit too frequently so I switched. It worked great until a new KDE came out and then OMFG it was a nightmare trying to get it upgraded.
I've used several different distros since then and they all have their good and bad. My favorite by far is Ubuntu and that's what I run on my server. I don't have the time to fuck with it. I want something that is there and if not up to the minute, at least reasonably close without me having to hunt anything down. I run two commands and my system gets upgraded, keeping me with newer versions of everything I need. Contrast this to my experience with other distros... went something along the lines of, oh look XYZ has shiny new feature that would really help in this situation. I'll update my system... ok, that's all done, oh look, I'm a full major version back on XYZ. That's ok, I'll manually upgrade it. Three hours later I'm still trying to get all of the rpm dependencies taken care of. It's nuts.
I don't know how things are on the desktop as I haven't had the time to use Linux on a desktop in a couple years. I need Windows for a few things and I just leave it at that. Once you get married and have a kid your fucking around time is completely shot to hell. On servers though, it's Ubuntu or bust for me.
OS/1 was originally called OS/0 but there was a division by zero issue so they changed it. Unfortunately this happened late at night after much frustration and there was a mistake in the math resulting in 0+1 equaling 2 (for large values of 1 apparently).
Please never mention this again. The devs feel terrible for this oversight.
I feel the same way about doing it myself. If I had access to a lift then it would be a different story. I'd do my own tires as well. As it is, it's worth the $$ to let someone else do it.
I'm used to people spouting off about stuff they obviously know nothing about but damn... could you be any farther from the truth on this??? When you say the dealer is going to ass rape you on parts and labor, are you being serious or what? I worked at Firestone and then a Caddy dealer for about three years total doing oil changes (and tires at Firestone) and at least where I worked, you didn't get ripped off. Oil changes cost no more than the 10 minute places and we did a damn good job. Lots of places over-tighten the drain plug but you can't say it happens more at dealerships than anywhere else. Lots of people are morons and think it has to be as tight as a lug nut. Also, the washer on some vehicles needs to be replaced every so often (not the plug unless you strip it, just the washer/gasket/whatever) to get a good seal. The plug does not need to be very tight.
I had a lot of cars come in with plugs that were a bitch to remove and sometimes the plug was stripped. Filters on the other hand were sometimes over-tightened but it didn't cause a problem. They only need to be hand tight but if you tighten with the wrench it's not big deal. I've never had one that was stripped or problematic to get out due to being too tight. I had a Chevy van that was a nightmare but per the book you were supposed to lift the engine to get to it so it had nothing to do with the tightness of anything, just poor design.
Labor is generally inline with other reputable places with one major difference, if you have a Toyota and you go to a Toyota mechanic, he's going to know your car and the nuances of that vehicle. Sure lots of mechanics can probably do the work but people who work on one or two types of vehicles are going to be better on those particular types (generally speaking of course, any particular mechanic may suck ass but you know what I mean). You may see a big difference in the cost of parts but remember they are using name brand manufacturer parts. You can ask for generic if you want, or even supply your own parts, negating any price difference. Some shops will even install used parts but you'll most likely have to supply your own (go to a junk yard).
If I need minor work I don't really care where I go but if I need a tranny rebuilt, an engine overhaul, or major anything, I'm going to a Toyota dealer and letting people who know my two vehicles work on them.
How do we expect to win our war in Iraq and the one we are about to start with Iran if we don't pay our taxes?!?!?! The simple solution most, if not all of our problems is to tax everything bought/sold/traded/etc over the intarweb. I say set the tax to 20%. It's not that much really. Just a fifth. We can afford it and think of the benefits!
We'd have more money for our endless wars. We have huge numbers of bankruptcies right now because people spend more than they should. By raising taxes people won't be able to afford as much, will think twice about impulse purchases, and will end up saving money in the long run. This means less bankruptcies in the future. Did I mention we need money for wars? We could help keep people from losing their shirts in the stock market by taking that money from them in the form of taxes. We need money for wars damn it?
20%. That's all I ask. Just one fifth of everything. We could use a little to help social security... maybe give half away to other countries... I can think of more stuff... so start giving now!
Holy mother of God. I know a lot of people bash Fox News so at first I took the comments as just the typical bashing but after reading several I had to go and watch myself. Both of the newscasters should be shot. Put some chlorine in the gene pool already!
To the main news guy: someday a doctor will tell him he has an iq of 42 and is retarded.
This made me laugh only because it's posted on Slashdot which a site that links to news. Maybe instead Taco should write everything himself? Of course not. Sites that link to crap have their place... granted there are enough of them already in my opinion. Between Slashdot, Digg, and a handful of good porn sites, do we really need the rest of the intarweb?
Which obviously, as witness on/. today, causes confusion. An RC should be marked RC and only the final version should have no extra verbage. Or you could take it farther and have it say Final or Gold or Most-Badass-Browser-Ever-Finally-In-Its-final-form-and... well, you get the idea.
I had no idea chairs cost so much. Damn. I thought I spent a lot on the one I have and it was only $120. Granted it's total crap. Fairly comfortable but the bolts that hold the arms on stripped so the arms are always loose.
Mine was $180 last week for half a tank, but I'm using fuel I buy at the airport, not the standard crap you most likely put in your engine. I doubt it makes me go any faster but ya never know.
What if you already have a phone? I'm with Cingular and I owned a phone that I wanted to add to my existing plan with them, as a new line. I called up and they said the only way they could add a new line was by my signing a 2 year contract. I already had the phone so the early term fee I would be hit with if I wanted to cancel this line is just pure profit for them.
What bugs me most is they do it on a per-line basis. I have three lines so for me to switch companies it would cost me $600 in early term fees. That's ridiculous.
Luckily I really like the service with Cingular and don't want to switch... I just upgraded my phones a few months back and did three new contracts with them, otherwise I'd be screwed.
I have dvd's from just a couple years ago that are no longer readable. If you look at the write side you'll see where some areas are much darker than others. I'm guessing those areas are no longer readable. It's like something inside is bleeding into the surrounding areas but since there is no liquid inside, that doesn't make much sense. Thankfully I just have a few seasons of one tv show that I've found to be unreadable and nothing significant.
The problem with Rhapsody is a lack of content, at least from what I've seen. Do a search for Metallica and you'll find 23 tracks. I noticed Lala also doesn't have Metallica's music. Not sure if iTunes does or not. I own all of their stuff either on cd or dvd and some was bought on tapes back in the day... paid $$$ for Binge and Purge twice so I could get the cd version after I had already bought the tape version. Anyway, my point is that Rhapsody is great if they have what you want to listen to. Of course Metallica is not all I listen to but they are a good test band to check the depth of a service's catalog.
Most people? You really believe that? I have a HUGE music collection and guess what, I didn't pay for most of it. I almost never buy music anymore because I can get it for free. Until the free sources are gone (and that's NEVER going to happen), I'll continue to do what I do. Songs for a penny a piece wouldn't do it for me at this point. I do on occasion buy music dvd's but that's only because I like the surround sound featured on the music dvd's I own.
We need to get more for our money than what we can get right now for free, otherwise why pay? What's the incentive to pay even ten cents per song if I don't have to? The quality is no different, or at least no better. I've been pirating for years and years so it's not like the threat of jail or huge fines is going to deter me.
The simple fact is that for lots of people iTunes and the like are just fine. For many more people, Soulseek et all work too.
I know we all hate anything and everything but this doesn't seem so bad. It's damn fast. I'd wager it's just as fast as playing songs in Winamp and that's impressive. Granted it's still in beta and all but it's also on the front page of/. so who knows what it will be like six months from now.
That said, I think it's a good thing. The only question in my mind is how long until you can rip the audio as it streams? You can play each song once for free it says, and that's all it takes to make a copy. You can rip audio from Pandora but with that you can't pick the song or when it will play so this might be even better than that. Then again, lots of people I know think 128k is shite. That's what all of my music is at so it would be fine for me.
Now if only they would do the $20 per month for unlimited listening... that would be pretty sweet.
Which is why helmets aren't allowed in Nascar, Formula 1, or (insert some other one here). Helmets are just too dangerous. Much like seat belts. Just think if you drive into a body of water... how will you get out in time if you are buckled in? Or the air bag... do you know how fast it comes out? That will smash your poor head into a bloody mess.
Would I wear a helmet in a car? No, probably not. I do however think that they could save lives. I just don't think the risk warrants their use.
The VA's for the Simpsons supposedly get about $360k per episode and are now negotiating for $500k per episode. The season they are working on now was supposed to have 22 episodes but now maybe only have 20 because they are 2 months behind schedule. Even at only 20 episodes the stand to make a crap load. Every 3 episodes puts them over the million dollar mark. I can kinda understand where this guy is coming from.
How much does a season of the Simpsons make compared to this game? How much does each VA make working on the Simpsons for this season? Compare that to what he made.
But lets be fair, we're comparing apples to oranges. He is just a guy off the street who happened to get the job. The VA's for the Simpsons haven't always been making this much. It's gone up and up throughout the years because the Simpsons have continued to do well and their voices, their particular voices, are key to the show. Homer needs to sound like the Homer we know and love. They can't just hire someone else to do his voice.
But again, I can kinda see where he would feel shafted considering how much this game has made but he got what he negotiated and should be happy with it. It's not like he was doing back breaking manual labor in the hot sun for that money.
Slashdot Mirror
Don't they need MS Office? I don't use it all that frequently but when I need an office app, it's the suite that I turn to. For me it's a case of if it's not broken, don't fix it. I don't need a free alternative because I already own MS Office and I'm quite happy with it. It works well on my Windows machine and in a year or two when this machine is outdated and I can justify getting a new one, I'll be switching to Mac where I know I can continue to use MS Office. I've been using it for years, I'm familiar with it, and I have no incentive to switch. Although I will admit that I still run MS Office 2003 because the newer version looked like crap and I had no incentive to upgrade. Ribbons?
The MS Office clones are exactly that. The big "feature" is compatibility because that's what everyone cares about. Will they be able to open the files they already have? The problem as I see it is a lack of innovation. What does Open Office or any other competing product have that MS Office doesn't have? Where is my incentive to switch?
I left IE for Firefox because there was a long list of features that interested me. When I tell someone about Firefox it's very easy to make the case for switching. With MS Office, it would be far easier to make a case not to switch unless the person doesn't already own a copy of it. Even then it's not very expensive. I have a legit license for the newest Office around here somewhere that I got from watching three videos during a promotion last year. I don't recall what they were about because I never watched them. I simply opened them on my computer and left them going in some little program I had to install. After all three the site said I had met my commitment and about six weeks later I received my copy of MS Office. It was a promo thing direct from MS. There was also an option to watch 3 other videos and get a copy of Vista but I was having connection issues with my cable modem at the time and they ran out of copies before I had a chance to do that one. Not that I would have used Vista even with it being free. I don't use the new Office. And what does that say about a product when you have a legit copy for free and you still won't use it? Unfortunately I paid retail for my copy of Office 2003.
You're forgetting one key thing, Apple is Apple whereas there are lots of companies that are "Linux". When someone sees an ad for RedHat or Ubuntu, they are seeing an add for that particular company as well as an ad for "Linux". But then they see an ad for a diff company and the waters get muddied a little. When I turn on the tv and see the Mac and PC guys, I know who they are. I know there is one Mac and one PC (well, it's actually Windows and there is more than one... XP, Vista, etc., but you get my point).
Apple has to sell people on Mac. Microsoft sells people on Windows. Ubuntu not only has to sell people on Linux, but also that their way is better than RedHat or Gentoo or Debian or Harry's Basement Brand Linux 5.0 (Harry did a fine job on this new version... 4.8 has some pretty big bugs but 5.0 seems rock solid).
But wait, it gets worse. So now John Doe is sold on Linux and he's selected Ubuntu. He gets his box home from wherever he bought it and pops it in. He manages to get it installed without much effort. Then what? He's used to using a variety of apps like Office that are avail on both Mac's and PC's. Sure he has options. You and I know about these options. We know there are companies working on making stuff compatible through the use of Wine or whatever, but does John Doe know that?
You can buy computer stuff much cheaper online but every time I'm in a store that sells overpriced computers, I see someone buying one. I even bought my last desktop machine at CompUSA because it was convenient and I wanted one that day (my previous machine had failed the day before). Now I don't mind downloading software and it doesn't get much easier than "apt-get install" but then again, I'm only using Ubuntu on servers choosing instead to stick with Windows on my desktop (switching to Mac the next time I upgrade but this machine still has a lot of life left in it.
How many regular consumers want to be able to just walk into a store and buy software? How many want to bring home a copy of something from the office? I tend to think in terms of what I myself want. I'm a huge fan of Ubuntu and often get into heated arguments about why it's the best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be. Even I don't run it on my desktop. It's just not useful enough for me in that situation. I think the same hold true for most people and until that changes, until you have the software choices, you aren't going to get widespread adoption.
Crap like this is why I lost faith in Microsoft and quit running Windows years ago. Thankfully my RHEL box isn't affected by this sort of... oh... wait... really? Shit.
I don't want to be on the bleeding edge but I don't want to be miles behind either. I also don't have the time nor the energy to subscribe to yet another mailing list. And what good would it do for me to subscribe to it anyway? Am I going to know what to do when I see an email that says XYZ has a huge security hole? I assume if there is a serious security problem an update will be pushed through the normal channels. When I do my update and then upgrade, I'll get said update and the problem will be solved.
For some things you need newer versions. With something like Apache it's never mattered to me what version I was running other than am I on 1 or 2 because those are wildly different. 2.0 or 2.1 or whatever isn't, or at least hasn't been thus far, very important. It's entirely different with MySQL or PHP when the tools available to me depend on which version I'm using. I'm not saying that Ubuntu is the only one that makes it possible to stay relatively up to date but it does seem to be the easiest, for people that don't have a lot of time to mess with it or learn the intricacies of another package manager.
The reason why Ubuntu is the distro that gets the most press these days is because it's the easiest to use. Or maybe it's not. Maybe Mandriva is actually easier (it sure wasn't the last time I tried it but it's been about two years now). Either way, Ubuntu has a reputation for having a really slick package manager, the same as Debian, but without all of the bullshit that plagued/plauges Debian. So people use it, people love it, and they talk. Word gets around that hey, Linux is finally easy.
At the end of the day, is there really all that much separating each distro? They all run the same software but it's how they go about things that define them and make each one unique. In my opinion Ubuntu does it better than anyone, right now. Next year? Who knows. The popular distro seems to change fairly often so it will be interesting to see how long Ubuntu can hold on. So far they are doing a damn good job though.
Mandrake was the first distro that really worked for me. I started with Debian but it's not good for beginners. It's too easy to mess things up. apt-get hose-my-computer happened a bit too frequently so I switched. It worked great until a new KDE came out and then OMFG it was a nightmare trying to get it upgraded. I've used several different distros since then and they all have their good and bad. My favorite by far is Ubuntu and that's what I run on my server. I don't have the time to fuck with it. I want something that is there and if not up to the minute, at least reasonably close without me having to hunt anything down. I run two commands and my system gets upgraded, keeping me with newer versions of everything I need. Contrast this to my experience with other distros... went something along the lines of, oh look XYZ has shiny new feature that would really help in this situation. I'll update my system... ok, that's all done, oh look, I'm a full major version back on XYZ. That's ok, I'll manually upgrade it. Three hours later I'm still trying to get all of the rpm dependencies taken care of. It's nuts. I don't know how things are on the desktop as I haven't had the time to use Linux on a desktop in a couple years. I need Windows for a few things and I just leave it at that. Once you get married and have a kid your fucking around time is completely shot to hell. On servers though, it's Ubuntu or bust for me.
My heart skipped a beat when I read this.
OS/1 was originally called OS/0 but there was a division by zero issue so they changed it. Unfortunately this happened late at night after much frustration and there was a mistake in the math resulting in 0+1 equaling 2 (for large values of 1 apparently).
Please never mention this again. The devs feel terrible for this oversight.
I feel the same way about doing it myself. If I had access to a lift then it would be a different story. I'd do my own tires as well. As it is, it's worth the $$ to let someone else do it.
I'm used to people spouting off about stuff they obviously know nothing about but damn... could you be any farther from the truth on this??? When you say the dealer is going to ass rape you on parts and labor, are you being serious or what? I worked at Firestone and then a Caddy dealer for about three years total doing oil changes (and tires at Firestone) and at least where I worked, you didn't get ripped off. Oil changes cost no more than the 10 minute places and we did a damn good job. Lots of places over-tighten the drain plug but you can't say it happens more at dealerships than anywhere else. Lots of people are morons and think it has to be as tight as a lug nut. Also, the washer on some vehicles needs to be replaced every so often (not the plug unless you strip it, just the washer/gasket/whatever) to get a good seal. The plug does not need to be very tight.
I had a lot of cars come in with plugs that were a bitch to remove and sometimes the plug was stripped. Filters on the other hand were sometimes over-tightened but it didn't cause a problem. They only need to be hand tight but if you tighten with the wrench it's not big deal. I've never had one that was stripped or problematic to get out due to being too tight. I had a Chevy van that was a nightmare but per the book you were supposed to lift the engine to get to it so it had nothing to do with the tightness of anything, just poor design.
Labor is generally inline with other reputable places with one major difference, if you have a Toyota and you go to a Toyota mechanic, he's going to know your car and the nuances of that vehicle. Sure lots of mechanics can probably do the work but people who work on one or two types of vehicles are going to be better on those particular types (generally speaking of course, any particular mechanic may suck ass but you know what I mean). You may see a big difference in the cost of parts but remember they are using name brand manufacturer parts. You can ask for generic if you want, or even supply your own parts, negating any price difference. Some shops will even install used parts but you'll most likely have to supply your own (go to a junk yard).
If I need minor work I don't really care where I go but if I need a tranny rebuilt, an engine overhaul, or major anything, I'm going to a Toyota dealer and letting people who know my two vehicles work on them.
How do we expect to win our war in Iraq and the one we are about to start with Iran if we don't pay our taxes?!?!?! The simple solution most, if not all of our problems is to tax everything bought/sold/traded/etc over the intarweb. I say set the tax to 20%. It's not that much really. Just a fifth. We can afford it and think of the benefits!
We'd have more money for our endless wars. We have huge numbers of bankruptcies right now because people spend more than they should. By raising taxes people won't be able to afford as much, will think twice about impulse purchases, and will end up saving money in the long run. This means less bankruptcies in the future. Did I mention we need money for wars? We could help keep people from losing their shirts in the stock market by taking that money from them in the form of taxes. We need money for wars damn it?
20%. That's all I ask. Just one fifth of everything. We could use a little to help social security... maybe give half away to other countries... I can think of more stuff... so start giving now!
Holy mother of God. I know a lot of people bash Fox News so at first I took the comments as just the typical bashing but after reading several I had to go and watch myself. Both of the newscasters should be shot. Put some chlorine in the gene pool already!
To the main news guy: someday a doctor will tell him he has an iq of 42 and is retarded.
We can call ourselves... Spartans!
This made me laugh only because it's posted on Slashdot which a site that links to news. Maybe instead Taco should write everything himself? Of course not. Sites that link to crap have their place... granted there are enough of them already in my opinion. Between Slashdot, Digg, and a handful of good porn sites, do we really need the rest of the intarweb?
Which obviously, as witness on /. today, causes confusion. An RC should be marked RC and only the final version should have no extra verbage. Or you could take it farther and have it say Final or Gold or Most-Badass-Browser-Ever-Finally-In-Its-final-form-and... well, you get the idea.
I had no idea chairs cost so much. Damn. I thought I spent a lot on the one I have and it was only $120. Granted it's total crap. Fairly comfortable but the bolts that hold the arms on stripped so the arms are always loose.
For some reason the last RC didn't have say it was an RC build. File a bug report and see if they get this fixed by Tuesday... lol
Your place or mine? Wait... you are FEMALE right? RIGHT?!?!?!
Mine was $180 last week for half a tank, but I'm using fuel I buy at the airport, not the standard crap you most likely put in your engine. I doubt it makes me go any faster but ya never know.
What if you already have a phone? I'm with Cingular and I owned a phone that I wanted to add to my existing plan with them, as a new line. I called up and they said the only way they could add a new line was by my signing a 2 year contract. I already had the phone so the early term fee I would be hit with if I wanted to cancel this line is just pure profit for them.
What bugs me most is they do it on a per-line basis. I have three lines so for me to switch companies it would cost me $600 in early term fees. That's ridiculous.
Luckily I really like the service with Cingular and don't want to switch... I just upgraded my phones a few months back and did three new contracts with them, otherwise I'd be screwed.
I have dvd's from just a couple years ago that are no longer readable. If you look at the write side you'll see where some areas are much darker than others. I'm guessing those areas are no longer readable. It's like something inside is bleeding into the surrounding areas but since there is no liquid inside, that doesn't make much sense. Thankfully I just have a few seasons of one tv show that I've found to be unreadable and nothing significant.
The problem with Rhapsody is a lack of content, at least from what I've seen. Do a search for Metallica and you'll find 23 tracks. I noticed Lala also doesn't have Metallica's music. Not sure if iTunes does or not. I own all of their stuff either on cd or dvd and some was bought on tapes back in the day... paid $$$ for Binge and Purge twice so I could get the cd version after I had already bought the tape version. Anyway, my point is that Rhapsody is great if they have what you want to listen to. Of course Metallica is not all I listen to but they are a good test band to check the depth of a service's catalog.
Most people? You really believe that? I have a HUGE music collection and guess what, I didn't pay for most of it. I almost never buy music anymore because I can get it for free. Until the free sources are gone (and that's NEVER going to happen), I'll continue to do what I do. Songs for a penny a piece wouldn't do it for me at this point. I do on occasion buy music dvd's but that's only because I like the surround sound featured on the music dvd's I own.
We need to get more for our money than what we can get right now for free, otherwise why pay? What's the incentive to pay even ten cents per song if I don't have to? The quality is no different, or at least no better. I've been pirating for years and years so it's not like the threat of jail or huge fines is going to deter me.
The simple fact is that for lots of people iTunes and the like are just fine. For many more people, Soulseek et all work too.
I know we all hate anything and everything but this doesn't seem so bad. It's damn fast. I'd wager it's just as fast as playing songs in Winamp and that's impressive. Granted it's still in beta and all but it's also on the front page of /. so who knows what it will be like six months from now.
That said, I think it's a good thing. The only question in my mind is how long until you can rip the audio as it streams? You can play each song once for free it says, and that's all it takes to make a copy. You can rip audio from Pandora but with that you can't pick the song or when it will play so this might be even better than that. Then again, lots of people I know think 128k is shite. That's what all of my music is at so it would be fine for me.
Now if only they would do the $20 per month for unlimited listening... that would be pretty sweet.
Which is why helmets aren't allowed in Nascar, Formula 1, or (insert some other one here). Helmets are just too dangerous. Much like seat belts. Just think if you drive into a body of water... how will you get out in time if you are buckled in? Or the air bag... do you know how fast it comes out? That will smash your poor head into a bloody mess.
Would I wear a helmet in a car? No, probably not. I do however think that they could save lives. I just don't think the risk warrants their use.
The VA's for the Simpsons supposedly get about $360k per episode and are now negotiating for $500k per episode. The season they are working on now was supposed to have 22 episodes but now maybe only have 20 because they are 2 months behind schedule. Even at only 20 episodes the stand to make a crap load. Every 3 episodes puts them over the million dollar mark. I can kinda understand where this guy is coming from.
How much does a season of the Simpsons make compared to this game? How much does each VA make working on the Simpsons for this season? Compare that to what he made.
But lets be fair, we're comparing apples to oranges. He is just a guy off the street who happened to get the job. The VA's for the Simpsons haven't always been making this much. It's gone up and up throughout the years because the Simpsons have continued to do well and their voices, their particular voices, are key to the show. Homer needs to sound like the Homer we know and love. They can't just hire someone else to do his voice.
But again, I can kinda see where he would feel shafted considering how much this game has made but he got what he negotiated and should be happy with it. It's not like he was doing back breaking manual labor in the hot sun for that money.