have never found the music played by cab drivers to be enjoyable. Generally they make the cab ride even less enjoyable... I mean, does pounding Reggae music really make flying around a city in a '91 Caprice held together with baling wire and duct tape more enjoyable, or scarier?
Well, a number of the items on Black Friday were free after rebate. Unless they are making massive interest on your money during the 6 weeks before they send the rebate check, they are losing money by giving away items for free and then paying someone to mail you the check.
Stuff I got free after rebate included a DVD drive, 256 megs of RAM, keyboard, video tapes, and CD-R's. Things I think have SOME value.
The irony, though, is that while I think while the stores might do it to draw people in, the people who get to the store an hour before it opens don't stick around to buy other stuff - they grab the sale stuff, pay, and run to the next store. At least that's what I did.
The problem with this logic is that there doesn't really seem to be any business advantage to playing the radio in a cab. In a resturant, one can argue that the muzak contributes to the ambiance of the resturant. It's unlikely that it does in a cab. Furthermore, as one generally picks a cab based on it's being available to be hailed, having good music gives no particular cabdriver any competitive advantage in attracting customers. Unlike a resturant, where you could argue the resturant makes money from customers who go to that resturant because they like the ambiance, including the muzak, it's unlikely it's possible to hail a particular cab b/c of the music, so the cabbie isn't making addititional profit from playing the music.
Like any company, they are trying to make as much money as they can. Selling data is profitable, because marketers love data that lets them target customers better. One can argue if it's bad for consumers or not, but as long as it doesn't piss off enough customers that leave, it's good for Verizon.
So why is protecting users good for the DSL biz? Because, as much as they would never admit it, file sharing is one of the killer apps of broadband. It's the reason many broadband users have it, it's the reason I plan to get it in the near future. Let's face it, nobody needs more than a modem to post on slashdot, check their email, or shop on ebay. But if you want dozens of pirated songs or movies, broadband is great. As much as the ads might trumpet about streaming video, P2P is the main app for broadband, and Verizon having to discourage their users from using p2p would shrink dsl demand and hurt Verizon.
I've actually built a small side business buying stuff on rebate when it's free or real cheap after rebate, then reselling it on ebay. Plus I haven't paid for cd'r's or surge protectors in a long time. I've probably sent for over 100 rebates, and I've had one that was sent back as rejected for no reason (and it was for $3).
All the ads and rebate forms have lots of fine print. Novel idea... read it. As far as taxes, that's a government issue.
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have never found the music played by cab drivers to be enjoyable. Generally they make the cab ride even less enjoyable... I mean, does pounding Reggae music really make flying around a city in a '91 Caprice held together with baling wire and duct tape more enjoyable, or scarier?
Well, a number of the items on Black Friday were free after rebate. Unless they are making massive interest on your money during the 6 weeks before they send the rebate check, they are losing money by giving away items for free and then paying someone to mail you the check. Stuff I got free after rebate included a DVD drive, 256 megs of RAM, keyboard, video tapes, and CD-R's. Things I think have SOME value. The irony, though, is that while I think while the stores might do it to draw people in, the people who get to the store an hour before it opens don't stick around to buy other stuff - they grab the sale stuff, pay, and run to the next store. At least that's what I did.
The problem with this logic is that there doesn't really seem to be any business advantage to playing the radio in a cab. In a resturant, one can argue that the muzak contributes to the ambiance of the resturant. It's unlikely that it does in a cab. Furthermore, as one generally picks a cab based on it's being available to be hailed, having good music gives no particular cabdriver any competitive advantage in attracting customers. Unlike a resturant, where you could argue the resturant makes money from customers who go to that resturant because they like the ambiance, including the muzak, it's unlikely it's possible to hail a particular cab b/c of the music, so the cabbie isn't making addititional profit from playing the music.
Like any company, they are trying to make as much money as they can. Selling data is profitable, because marketers love data that lets them target customers better. One can argue if it's bad for consumers or not, but as long as it doesn't piss off enough customers that leave, it's good for Verizon.
So why is protecting users good for the DSL biz? Because, as much as they would never admit it, file sharing is one of the killer apps of broadband. It's the reason many broadband users have it, it's the reason I plan to get it in the near future. Let's face it, nobody needs more than a modem to post on slashdot, check their email, or shop on ebay. But if you want dozens of pirated songs or movies, broadband is great. As much as the ads might trumpet about streaming video, P2P is the main app for broadband, and Verizon having to discourage their users from using p2p would shrink dsl demand and hurt Verizon.
I've actually built a small side business buying stuff on rebate when it's free or real cheap after rebate, then reselling it on ebay. Plus I haven't paid for cd'r's or surge protectors in a long time. I've probably sent for over 100 rebates, and I've had one that was sent back as rejected for no reason (and it was for $3).
All the ads and rebate forms have lots of fine print. Novel idea... read it. As far as taxes, that's a government issue.