A key point is that to buy a book used, someone previously must have bought it new. The fewer people who buy the book new, the more demand their will be in the used market, and therefore the higher the price will rise on the used market. Obviously once it hits a price higher than the new book, people will start buying new again.
This is also effected by the fact that not everyone will sell their copy and most people will not immediately sell their copy upon purchase.
The upshot is that while this may decrease sales, it won't every drive sales to zero, or anything close.
What would really be interesting would be if someone would combine this with a data glove that uses piezoelectric crystals to provide tactile feedback.
A cracker friend of mine noted this way back in 1983. Another interesting tidbit: back then, at least, a fairly high percentage of admins used "god" for the root password.
What is really frightening is that Microsoft is actually one of the more developer-friendly of closed-source companies.
But speaking as someone who has used Microsoft development products for over a decade now, the trouble has always been that the information flow was one-way. They provide you with reams of information, but when you report a problem (and in one case, I was even able to give them a source line and fix for a bug in the ATL), it usually goes into a black hole. I still remember how shocked I was the first time this happened to me. I was used to the way Borland actually let you talk to an engineer and gave you an answer in a timely fashion, even if it was "well, we'll fix it in the next release".
And while I am talking about failings of Microsoft's developer support, I'll mention the other big one: They have a tendency to focus too much on the technology du jour and not enough on older stuff. You find lots of stupidities like sample code that no longer works (just ran into this the other day with the "SAMPLE.DSM" macros that come with Visual Studio). The people at Microsoft need to understand that developers can't just instantly jump to whatever new technology is out there even if it is superior. When you've got a million lines of code that use DDE, the answer "Use COM" is not sufficient.
Although there are no moving parts to go wrong, the law of averages seems to dictate that some of the myriad components will occasionally fail, and scientists who work regularly on computors rely on the machine being available for at best only 80 per cent of its theoretical working time.
Which again is why health guidelines talk about sodium and not salt. It is because pretty much any sodium compound will cause hypertension. (Well, many will kill you first, but that's not the point.)
While salt is the major source, there are many other common sources, and it is especially important for people with hypertension to remember this as otherwise they might boost MSG intake to "add flavor" lost because of lower salt intake.
It only helps show that you are overanalysing a joke...
You still are missing the point, though, which is that it is not "salt" alone that causes hypertension, but a number of different compounds containing sodium. Thus your comment was at best a non sequitor because the post it replied to made no mention of salt, and thus was not by any stretch of the imagination confusing salt with sodium.
The only way your comment would not be considered a non sequitor would be if you assumed that salt, and not other sodium compounds, was the cause of hypertension. But this is, of course, a bad assumption, so the original poster's comment about "hypertension" does not in any way, shape or form imply "salt".
But you assumed it did, because you were in a hurry to "correct" him, and didn't bother to think it through long enough to notice that you were the one making the mistake.
I was originally thinking "Yeah, I could write a fake 'Magic Lantern' that made it look like I did nothing but play 'Civilization 3' all day!" Then I realize that this was what the real "Magic Lantern" would show...
That is not the point. The point is that it is the sodium ion in particular that causes hypertension, not NaCl in particular.
Again, this is why food labels speak of "sodium" and not "salt" or "MSG".
So your little "you are ignorant" response to the original poster's joke was mistaken. He never mentioned "salt" so there was no confusion of "salt" with sodium.
You'd know that your machine had been rebooted recently, which would be a tipoff if you were a paranoid type, especially since truly paranoid types would make the log hard to destroy by having it print, or ftping it somewhere in a cron job.
It likely won't be long before someone writes something that automatically detects the attempt to install "Magic Lantern" and then turns on a "Magic Lantern" emulator that sends exactly whatever keystrokes the crook wants sent. Imagine the fun that could be had... A nasty crook could have fun implicating all sorts of innocent people in criminal activities.
Probably because they think it is "salt" that causes hypertension, when it is actually "sodium" that should be avoided. They get confused because the bulk of a person's sodium intake is salt, so "salt intake" roughly equals "sodium intake". But of course, nutrition guidelines have to be accurate, which is why the nutrition info labels say "sodium" not "salt".
Oh, wait, the original poster didn't mention "salt", did he?
Don't go entirely on the date "Neuromancer" was published. Gibson published a number of short stories in the late seventies, early eighties that were set in his "universe". (The most famous of these was "Johnny Mnemonic", which had some of the same characters and inspired of crappy movie.) See "Burning Chrome".
Vinge's depictions of hacker culture were far more accurate, though.
Not to diss Stephanson or the book (great author, great book), but somehow I suspect that he got the idea from all the news articles discussing the potential for using bacteria to clean up oils spills that were current back than.
Most of the SF "predictions" here are like that. SF writers taking things discussed by scientists and running with them. Stephanson's books are practically a roadmap of the scitech news articles that were published around the time they were written. For example, "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" had a lot to do with parts of both "Snow Crash" and "The Big U".
Gibson coined the word, and, along with Vinge and others, may have popularized it, but the concept is old. Probably half of P. K. Dick's novels involved some sort of false reality, often created by outside forces. More explicitly, Samual Delany uses the idea of a false reality created by computers as a plot-point in his Tower trilogy written in the early sixties.
There way well be earlier ones, these are just the random ones I've run into in my reading.
Slashdot Mirror
This was a small one, the size of the one that hit Tunguska. Even if it hit the Earth, the chances of a high death toll would be extremely small.
Gotta love moderaters that are too stupid to check timestamps before clicking "Redundant".
Meat is murder, you bastard.
Idjits.
This is also effected by the fact that not everyone will sell their copy and most people will not immediately sell their copy upon purchase.
The upshot is that while this may decrease sales, it won't every drive sales to zero, or anything close.
What would really be interesting would be if someone would combine this with a data glove that uses piezoelectric crystals to provide tactile feedback.
A cracker friend of mine noted this way back in 1983. Another interesting tidbit: back then, at least, a fairly high percentage of admins used "god" for the root password.
Something I learned the hard way: companies that ask for sacrifices like delayed paychecks almost invariably fail before any "reward" appears.
What all the young squirts don't seem to realize is that in 1982, 640k was a massive amount of memory.
Yes, but what did detective Emacs say?
Let me know when they have one in July...
But speaking as someone who has used Microsoft development products for over a decade now, the trouble has always been that the information flow was one-way. They provide you with reams of information, but when you report a problem (and in one case, I was even able to give them a source line and fix for a bug in the ATL), it usually goes into a black hole. I still remember how shocked I was the first time this happened to me. I was used to the way Borland actually let you talk to an engineer and gave you an answer in a timely fashion, even if it was "well, we'll fix it in the next release".
And while I am talking about failings of Microsoft's developer support, I'll mention the other big one: They have a tendency to focus too much on the technology du jour and not enough on older stuff. You find lots of stupidities like sample code that no longer works (just ran into this the other day with the "SAMPLE.DSM" macros that come with Visual Studio). The people at Microsoft need to understand that developers can't just instantly jump to whatever new technology is out there even if it is superior. When you've got a million lines of code that use DDE, the answer "Use COM" is not sufficient.
If only my WinMe box had that kind of uptime!
"Baking Soda" and "MSG" are not rare substances.
Which again is why health guidelines talk about sodium and not salt. It is because pretty much any sodium compound will cause hypertension. (Well, many will kill you first, but that's not the point.)
While salt is the major source, there are many other common sources, and it is especially important for people with hypertension to remember this as otherwise they might boost MSG intake to "add flavor" lost because of lower salt intake.
You still are missing the point, though, which is that it is not "salt" alone that causes hypertension, but a number of different compounds containing sodium. Thus your comment was at best a non sequitor because the post it replied to made no mention of salt, and thus was not by any stretch of the imagination confusing salt with sodium.
The only way your comment would not be considered a non sequitor would be if you assumed that salt, and not other sodium compounds, was the cause of hypertension. But this is, of course, a bad assumption, so the original poster's comment about "hypertension" does not in any way, shape or form imply "salt".
But you assumed it did, because you were in a hurry to "correct" him, and didn't bother to think it through long enough to notice that you were the one making the mistake.
Typical slashdot behavior, that.
I was originally thinking "Yeah, I could write a fake 'Magic Lantern' that made it look like I did nothing but play 'Civilization 3' all day!" Then I realize that this was what the real "Magic Lantern" would show...
Again, this is why food labels speak of "sodium" and not "salt" or "MSG".
So your little "you are ignorant" response to the original poster's joke was mistaken. He never mentioned "salt" so there was no confusion of "salt" with sodium.
You'd know that your machine had been rebooted recently, which would be a tipoff if you were a paranoid type, especially since truly paranoid types would make the log hard to destroy by having it print, or ftping it somewhere in a cron job.
Which is why "Sodium" is what's on the nutrition info labels.
You have, perhaps, heard of the chemical compound "Sodium Bicarbonate"? Or perhaps "MonoSodium Glutamate"?
Oh, sorry, that is "Baking Soda" and "MSG".
So as I said, the original poster did not confuse "Salt" and "Sodium", and was perfectly accurate. It was you that confused "Salt" with "Sodium".
Oh, wait, the original poster didn't mention "salt", did he?
So who is confused?
After the Drake Equation:
Vinge's depictions of hacker culture were far more accurate, though.
Most of the SF "predictions" here are like that. SF writers taking things discussed by scientists and running with them. Stephanson's books are practically a roadmap of the scitech news articles that were published around the time they were written. For example, "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" had a lot to do with parts of both "Snow Crash" and "The Big U".
There way well be earlier ones, these are just the random ones I've run into in my reading.