I completely disagree with your logic. If I'm EA, and 99.8% "don't care", and I think that SecuROM/TAGES/wtfever will prevent ONE LOST SALE, I'm going to put it in.
Note that I do subscribe to the idea that DRM only hurts the paying customers, not the pirates. Obviously EA and the like don't agree with me.;-)
The only business model that I can think of that has (mostly) successfully worked around the piracy issue and seems to be doing quite well is Steam. EVERY SINGLE OTHER FORM of copy protection that I can think of has been circumvented within days, if not hours.
I quit WoW after 2 months because of exactly that reason. That's all it took - 2 months (actually way less than that if you figure I *quit* after 2 months). It was all I thought about. I do feel extremely lucky that I was strong enough to quit before any real damage happened; I didn't lose my job/family/etc. as I've heard some have. Do I want to play it still? You bet I do. Do I play other games still? Yep. I've been playing PC games for almost 20 years now, and I have NEVER seen anything like WoW. I chose one of the most mundane existences - I made stuff and sold it at the AH - hell, I wasn't even really raiding! This was just me doing my own thing mostly by myself (though I was in a guild, I didn't participate a whole lot), and all I would do all day was want to check and see how my auctions were doing. If I had put half that effort into other things in my life...
I'm happy to play Oblivion/GTA IV/Civilization Revolution for a few hours at a time and leave them. That wasn't the case with WoW. Like a rat pressing a bar...
Warning: Animated grossness, requires QT/QT equivalent, maybe NWS depending on your work environment, but funny as hell nonetheless. And also COMPLETELY offtopic, I'll see you all in -1, Offtopic HELL!!!;-)
Holy crap, that's awesome. My dad was the original h4x0r... he actually wired up a reel-to-reel in the family van and would play music on it while we roadtripped to visit my grandparents in Florida. His music of choice? "Alabama", "The Statler Brothers", and John Philip Sousa marches. It's a wonder to me, sometimes, that I even made it to adulthood. Might explain some things, too. 0_o
I got that as well (swing state here, too - Colorado). I even watched about 45 minutes of the hour-long video before I threw it in the trash. Such obvious propaganda and scare-mongering, it wasn't even funny.
I do firmly believe that the RIAA (and, by extension, the MPAA) are FAR from out of tricks. They didn't get to the positions they are by being stupid, just greedy.
I fervently hope that I'm wrong, but we've been hearing the "This is it! The death of the RIAA!" announcements for YEARS.
I agree with this as well. I haven't bought any episodic television off of iTunes. My girlfriend does all the time, though - she watches shows while she works out. I can't swallow even $2 for a TV show, though - it just seems like it would add up very quickly to me. I'd also feel like I had to be way more choosy about what I watch, as I am at heart a "channel surfer", I'd feel pretty restricted.
Interestingly enough, I don't mind renting movies that way (through PS3, etc.). Maybe because I can rent an entire movie for $3 (standard definition) vs. $2 for 42 minutes worth of television. I know, we're talking about fractions of a dollar difference per unit of time, but somehow my brain is programmed that way.
Re:Crysis, the affirmative answer to the old quest
on
Review: Crysis Warhead
·
· Score: 1
I'm not sure why this was modded -1, Flamebait. The parent makes a good point - as I posted in a semi-related thread a couple of days ago, I rented a movie from the Playstation store as an HD rental. The filesize was 6275 MB (around 6 GB). This download definitely saturated my connection, as I had the whole thing in around 2 hours. I realize that Comcast has a way of telling (or maybe they don't, who knows) P2P traffic from a straight download, but ultimately the question is the same - if I'm blasting a 6 GB file download in an hour or two, does that piss them off? Because I'm going to be mad if it does, since it was a perfectly legitimate use of the service that I'm paying for (vs. some "gray area" activities).
Yesterday I rented "The Usual Suspects" as an HD rental. It cost $4.50. I feel I got my money's worth, since it would have cost me at LEAST that in gas/time/rental price to go to the video store to rent it. It expires today at around 4:00 pm, after which I'll delete it (if it doesn't delete itself first). The rental is good for up to 14 days after you rent it, but once you play it the first time within that 14 day period, you can only play it within the next 24 hours after that. Just a heads up for anyone renting - they do tell you this before you click "Confirm" on the purchase, however, so I didn't feel "taken".
I will say, however, that this ONE download per purchased movie stuff is utter BS. Have they learned nothing from the Steam/Valve model?
But more damning, I think, is that the selection absolutely SUCKS. You could not cobble together a more random selection of (mostly) shitty movies/TV shows if you tried. It's really pathetic. There are some gems, but most of it is utter shit. I guess their target demographic are pubescent teens who think Wil Farrell is funny and "Step Brothers" should be on AFI's Top 100 list. There are a couple of Kubrick films (Eyes Wide Shut and A Clockwork Orange) which add a heavy weighted value to the selection, but still...
cost of failed hardware + cost of downtime (including labor, lost data if any, etc.) > cost of running the "perfect" environment
all over the same period of time, then we're still saving money by NOT running A/C units 24/7 in a hermetically sealed environment. That's all they're saying.
Were I an avid user of USENET when I started with them, I'd probably argue that they should reduce my monthly bill by the amount it would take me to get service with someone else (they can do this, I assure you). I believe a straight-up account with Giganews is something like $8 a month. Since I don't use it, I'm actually fine with it.
I admit that with regards to the few posts I've made in this thread, I sound a bit like a Comcast shill. I will say that I've been on again/off again with them over the years depending on where I live, and I've never had any complaints with them. My service was always rock-solid and FAST. That said, I think I'm the ONLY person I know who's had service with them who hasn't had complaints with them. I do know people who absolutely DESPISE Comcast.
...removing the full text of the declaration of independence or the constitution or the bill of rights from history textbooks?
I think you're making a bit of a hyperbolic comparison, and not entirely accurate, either. Removing ARPANet from the textbooks MIGHT be a similar stroke. Removing CURRENT USENET access from one ISP is in no way similar.
I'm somewhat conflicted about the whole thing. I don't have any real choice for highspeed internet that even comes close to touching Comcast's speeds where I live, for the price I pay.
1. I'm on one of those 6-months for $35 deals for 8 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up. When I confirmed with the salesperson on the phone that it would end on the 6-month date, she told me to just call back and they'd put me on the same deal for another 6 months. 0_0 I can't argue with that. Add to that my speeds are actually closer to 12 Mbps down (depending), and I really can't complain.
2. As I mentioned before, they're by far and away the fastest game in town (even faster than Qwest's BS "fiber" thing they're touting these days).
3. This 250 GB cap didn't bother me at first - until yesterday, when I rented a movie through my PS3. It was 6 GB, for something I deleted as soon as I was done. Most game demos are clocking in at 1 - 1.5 GB. Granted, there isn't much on the PSN Store that I'm interested in renting, but I realized that 6 GB x 30 days (if I were so inclined) = 180 GB, just in movies. The limit is still pretty high; but I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to see that it won't take too long before average users start getting close to that cap. Hopefully by then they'll adjust their limits (after presumably increasing their capacity).
4. I used to use USENET quite a bit back in the old days (I came in shortly after the "Eternal September", but not much), but I admit my usage has fallen to almost nothing. Few of the things I'm interested in have USENET groups; sadly, as I agree with previous posters that web forums pale in comparison to NNTP groups. So it's kind of a wash for me that they don't carry USENET groups anymore.
Dunno, just my confliced $0.02 on the whole Comcast i
All neighbors (3 of them). Let's just say I work in a fairly liberal work environment, so it's not any of them.;-)
I thought about my post, and realized that it's going to depend a lot on geography. I live in a blue city in the middle of a red state. My folks, who live in a solidly blue state, are going to vote for McCain, and it is, as you pointed out, not because of his skin type. But they're old, and I think they do it mostly because change (for good or bad - I'm not trying to create a political fracas in here) is scary when you're old.;-)
A propos of not much, I've spoken with several people who have admitted that they are voting for McCain, and when pressed as to why (not in an interrogatory way, I assure you - mostly out of general interest), it boiled down to Obama's black AND his middle name is Hussein. One person actually said (and I quote) "He went to a Muslim school, and I don't care what anyone says about it - that stuff gets IN THERE" as she pointed to her head. I'm not sure what "stuff" she was referring to. That was there only reason for voting for McCain. While I don't feel that voting for McCain automatically makes a person a Republican, it certainly seems that their vote is being cast out of a complete sense of fear of that which they don't understand.
I would not argue that voting against something that concerns you is a good idea; however, their fear is SO misplaced (and racist, or at least xenophobic), that it certainly paints them as uneducated and ridiculous.
Oh please. The people I deal with on a daily basis don't even understand the difference between gigabytes and gigahertz. It's like they stop listening after the first couple of letters of any word more than two syllables.
I have to agree. Believe it or not, Comcast is the BEST of the BEST where I live (and believe me, I've looked long and hard). The DSL (Qwest) SUCKS. Hard. I was paying the same price for 2 Mbps down/384 Kbps up with Qwest as I am for 8 Mbps down/640 kbps up (and I'm getting those speeds, too). And Qwest and Comcast are the ONLY options as far as consumer-priced broadband is concerned.
If FIOS were available, I'd be there, posthaste. But it isn't, and apparently won't be for quite some time (something about Qwest being the ILEC in the area and Verizon having no plans for service in Colorado - of which, of course, I can't seem to find any recent references to using Google).
The last movie was actually awful. Shia LaBoeuf is terrible, Harrison Ford was even campier than usual, the effects were "eh", and the story? Forget it. Even John Hurt didn't have much to work with. Let's always speak fondly of the Indiana Jones Trilogy (ok, maybe not the second one) and never speak of kingdoms of crystal skulls again.
Why? In all seriousness, if someone willingly wants to pay $999.99 for that app, then let them. It isn't (to my knowledge) hurting ANYONE. If someone was stupid enough to buy it "by accident", then that's THEIR problem. From what I can tell from the scant information, no impropriety was foisted upon buyers.
Slashdot Mirror
I completely disagree with your logic. If I'm EA, and 99.8% "don't care", and I think that SecuROM/TAGES/wtfever will prevent ONE LOST SALE, I'm going to put it in.
;-)
Note that I do subscribe to the idea that DRM only hurts the paying customers, not the pirates. Obviously EA and the like don't agree with me.
The only business model that I can think of that has (mostly) successfully worked around the piracy issue and seems to be doing quite well is Steam. EVERY SINGLE OTHER FORM of copy protection that I can think of has been circumvented within days, if not hours.
I quit WoW after 2 months because of exactly that reason. That's all it took - 2 months (actually way less than that if you figure I *quit* after 2 months). It was all I thought about. I do feel extremely lucky that I was strong enough to quit before any real damage happened; I didn't lose my job/family/etc. as I've heard some have. Do I want to play it still? You bet I do. Do I play other games still? Yep. I've been playing PC games for almost 20 years now, and I have NEVER seen anything like WoW. I chose one of the most mundane existences - I made stuff and sold it at the AH - hell, I wasn't even really raiding! This was just me doing my own thing mostly by myself (though I was in a guild, I didn't participate a whole lot), and all I would do all day was want to check and see how my auctions were doing. If I had put half that effort into other things in my life...
I'm happy to play Oblivion/GTA IV/Civilization Revolution for a few hours at a time and leave them. That wasn't the case with WoW. Like a rat pressing a bar...
Just tear it off...
;-)
Warning: Animated grossness, requires QT/QT equivalent, maybe NWS depending on your work environment, but funny as hell nonetheless. And also COMPLETELY offtopic, I'll see you all in -1, Offtopic HELL!!!
Holy crap, that's awesome. My dad was the original h4x0r... he actually wired up a reel-to-reel in the family van and would play music on it while we roadtripped to visit my grandparents in Florida. His music of choice? "Alabama", "The Statler Brothers", and John Philip Sousa marches. It's a wonder to me, sometimes, that I even made it to adulthood. Might explain some things, too. 0_o
I got that as well (swing state here, too - Colorado). I even watched about 45 minutes of the hour-long video before I threw it in the trash. Such obvious propaganda and scare-mongering, it wasn't even funny.
I do firmly believe that the RIAA (and, by extension, the MPAA) are FAR from out of tricks. They didn't get to the positions they are by being stupid, just greedy.
I fervently hope that I'm wrong, but we've been hearing the "This is it! The death of the RIAA!" announcements for YEARS.
I agree with this as well. I haven't bought any episodic television off of iTunes. My girlfriend does all the time, though - she watches shows while she works out. I can't swallow even $2 for a TV show, though - it just seems like it would add up very quickly to me. I'd also feel like I had to be way more choosy about what I watch, as I am at heart a "channel surfer", I'd feel pretty restricted.
Interestingly enough, I don't mind renting movies that way (through PS3, etc.). Maybe because I can rent an entire movie for $3 (standard definition) vs. $2 for 42 minutes worth of television. I know, we're talking about fractions of a dollar difference per unit of time, but somehow my brain is programmed that way.
No, as long as your negaself on Earth Minus One can pick up the computer upgrades you'll need for you...
I'm not sure why this was modded -1, Flamebait. The parent makes a good point - as I posted in a semi-related thread a couple of days ago, I rented a movie from the Playstation store as an HD rental. The filesize was 6275 MB (around 6 GB). This download definitely saturated my connection, as I had the whole thing in around 2 hours. I realize that Comcast has a way of telling (or maybe they don't, who knows) P2P traffic from a straight download, but ultimately the question is the same - if I'm blasting a 6 GB file download in an hour or two, does that piss them off? Because I'm going to be mad if it does, since it was a perfectly legitimate use of the service that I'm paying for (vs. some "gray area" activities).
Good point, I hadn't considered that. Makes sense.
Yesterday I rented "The Usual Suspects" as an HD rental. It cost $4.50. I feel I got my money's worth, since it would have cost me at LEAST that in gas/time/rental price to go to the video store to rent it. It expires today at around 4:00 pm, after which I'll delete it (if it doesn't delete itself first). The rental is good for up to 14 days after you rent it, but once you play it the first time within that 14 day period, you can only play it within the next 24 hours after that. Just a heads up for anyone renting - they do tell you this before you click "Confirm" on the purchase, however, so I didn't feel "taken".
I will say, however, that this ONE download per purchased movie stuff is utter BS. Have they learned nothing from the Steam/Valve model?
But more damning, I think, is that the selection absolutely SUCKS. You could not cobble together a more random selection of (mostly) shitty movies/TV shows if you tried. It's really pathetic. There are some gems, but most of it is utter shit. I guess their target demographic are pubescent teens who think Wil Farrell is funny and "Step Brothers" should be on AFI's Top 100 list. There are a couple of Kubrick films (Eyes Wide Shut and A Clockwork Orange) which add a heavy weighted value to the selection, but still...
I think you're still missing their point:
if
cost of failed hardware + cost of downtime (including labor, lost data if any, etc.) > cost of running the "perfect" environment
all over the same period of time, then we're still saving money by NOT running A/C units 24/7 in a hermetically sealed environment. That's all they're saying.
Were I an avid user of USENET when I started with them, I'd probably argue that they should reduce my monthly bill by the amount it would take me to get service with someone else (they can do this, I assure you). I believe a straight-up account with Giganews is something like $8 a month. Since I don't use it, I'm actually fine with it.
I admit that with regards to the few posts I've made in this thread, I sound a bit like a Comcast shill. I will say that I've been on again/off again with them over the years depending on where I live, and I've never had any complaints with them. My service was always rock-solid and FAST. That said, I think I'm the ONLY person I know who's had service with them who hasn't had complaints with them. I do know people who absolutely DESPISE Comcast.
...removing the full text of the declaration of independence or the constitution or the bill of rights from history textbooks?
I think you're making a bit of a hyperbolic comparison, and not entirely accurate, either. Removing ARPANet from the textbooks MIGHT be a similar stroke. Removing CURRENT USENET access from one ISP is in no way similar.
I'm somewhat conflicted about the whole thing. I don't have any real choice for highspeed internet that even comes close to touching Comcast's speeds where I live, for the price I pay.
1. I'm on one of those 6-months for $35 deals for 8 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up. When I confirmed with the salesperson on the phone that it would end on the 6-month date, she told me to just call back and they'd put me on the same deal for another 6 months. 0_0 I can't argue with that. Add to that my speeds are actually closer to 12 Mbps down (depending), and I really can't complain.
2. As I mentioned before, they're by far and away the fastest game in town (even faster than Qwest's BS "fiber" thing they're touting these days).
3. This 250 GB cap didn't bother me at first - until yesterday, when I rented a movie through my PS3. It was 6 GB, for something I deleted as soon as I was done. Most game demos are clocking in at 1 - 1.5 GB. Granted, there isn't much on the PSN Store that I'm interested in renting, but I realized that 6 GB x 30 days (if I were so inclined) = 180 GB, just in movies. The limit is still pretty high; but I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to see that it won't take too long before average users start getting close to that cap. Hopefully by then they'll adjust their limits (after presumably increasing their capacity).
4. I used to use USENET quite a bit back in the old days (I came in shortly after the "Eternal September", but not much), but I admit my usage has fallen to almost nothing. Few of the things I'm interested in have USENET groups; sadly, as I agree with previous posters that web forums pale in comparison to NNTP groups. So it's kind of a wash for me that they don't carry USENET groups anymore.
Dunno, just my confliced $0.02 on the whole Comcast i
All neighbors (3 of them). Let's just say I work in a fairly liberal work environment, so it's not any of them. ;-)
;-)
I thought about my post, and realized that it's going to depend a lot on geography. I live in a blue city in the middle of a red state. My folks, who live in a solidly blue state, are going to vote for McCain, and it is, as you pointed out, not because of his skin type. But they're old, and I think they do it mostly because change (for good or bad - I'm not trying to create a political fracas in here) is scary when you're old.
Guess I better make that credit card payment I was going to blow off.
A propos of not much, I've spoken with several people who have admitted that they are voting for McCain, and when pressed as to why (not in an interrogatory way, I assure you - mostly out of general interest), it boiled down to Obama's black AND his middle name is Hussein. One person actually said (and I quote) "He went to a Muslim school, and I don't care what anyone says about it - that stuff gets IN THERE" as she pointed to her head. I'm not sure what "stuff" she was referring to. That was there only reason for voting for McCain. While I don't feel that voting for McCain automatically makes a person a Republican, it certainly seems that their vote is being cast out of a complete sense of fear of that which they don't understand.
I would not argue that voting against something that concerns you is a good idea; however, their fear is SO misplaced (and racist, or at least xenophobic), that it certainly paints them as uneducated and ridiculous.
EXACTLY.
Oh please. The people I deal with on a daily basis don't even understand the difference between gigabytes and gigahertz. It's like they stop listening after the first couple of letters of any word more than two syllables.
... and misread it as "LHC Flips Out Tomorrow". Let's hope it isn't true. ;-)
768 Mbps! Holy schnikes! What more do you want, man?!?! ;-)
I have to agree. Believe it or not, Comcast is the BEST of the BEST where I live (and believe me, I've looked long and hard). The DSL (Qwest) SUCKS. Hard. I was paying the same price for 2 Mbps down/384 Kbps up with Qwest as I am for 8 Mbps down/640 kbps up (and I'm getting those speeds, too). And Qwest and Comcast are the ONLY options as far as consumer-priced broadband is concerned.
If FIOS were available, I'd be there, posthaste. But it isn't, and apparently won't be for quite some time (something about Qwest being the ILEC in the area and Verizon having no plans for service in Colorado - of which, of course, I can't seem to find any recent references to using Google).
The last movie was actually awful. Shia LaBoeuf is terrible, Harrison Ford was even campier than usual, the effects were "eh", and the story? Forget it. Even John Hurt didn't have much to work with. Let's always speak fondly of the Indiana Jones Trilogy (ok, maybe not the second one) and never speak of kingdoms of crystal skulls again.
Why? In all seriousness, if someone willingly wants to pay $999.99 for that app, then let them. It isn't (to my knowledge) hurting ANYONE. If someone was stupid enough to buy it "by accident", then that's THEIR problem. From what I can tell from the scant information, no impropriety was foisted upon buyers.