This may be the most important issue of this discussion. Many times you get what you pay for and on the surface an initial cost reduction, especially in these trying financial times, looks pretty damn good. The down side is that historically the more control any given mega-company has over your purchase options the more they abuse it. The example of music at Wally World is classic. They even go so far as to exert a cultural influence on a broader scale by changing Christmas into a generic holiday.
I personally do not want any of these companies telling me what I can or can't buy. Nor do I want them to shamelessly exploit our national religious holidays while at the same time marketing it as something much different in order to be politically correct and still profit from it.
Whos to say that if all games move to a digital distribution methodology that they won't then also exert more control over what we are allowed to purchase. There are some songs that you cannot buy individually and are required to buy the entire album if you want it bad enough. I most certainly would not want to have to buy a poorly produced boring game that they need to recover their costs on just to get the new version of MechWarrior.
I want the swearing left in my songs and the gore and guts left in my games! And a Merry Christmas to you all!
I beg to differ on your comparison of handling capabilities between a motorcycle and a car. I will concede that it is much easier for the average person to learn to drive fairly fast in a car as opposed to on a motorcycle. However as a former professional motorcycle racer I would contend that had your opponent been a well trained and experienced rider you would most likely have been left far behind. Even if the cornering capabilities were conceded to your car, (which I don't agree to) the braking and acceleration capabilities of the MC you describe give it the ability to brake much later into the corners and accelerate much sooner coming out of the corners.
This sounds more like a case of a semi skilled car driver up against an unskilled motorcycle rider. If you ever get to Illinois I will be happy to give you another go against a motorcycle and mine is nowhere near what you describe above. You just need to be prepared to have to tell your friends that you got dusted on a back road by a Harley Sportster.;-}
I will agree to your final statement on the possibility of becoming an organ donor in the event of going down at speed on a bike.
Sorry to burst your bubble but being patriotic in the USA has been deemed to be possibly insulting to some group or another. As such it has now been officially designated as being politically incorrect and will not be tolerated! Please proceed to re-education center Bravo and await further instructions.
Thanks for playin' and have a great day
While in theory I would agree with your premise of low to minimal profit margin, it does not work that way, at least in the USA. Profits are how major companies are gauged in driving stock market values. The sad part of that is that companies that work towards a balance of profit against contributing value to society as a whole will suffer at the hands of investors. Perhaps one day that will change and the consumer will once again be placed in higher regard than the investors but please excuse me if I don't hold my breath while waiting.
I find it quite interesting that as Obama's policies and proposals in personal freedoms, taxes, and huge increases in the national debt (under the guise of stimulus spending) that there seem to be fewer and fewer people that admit to voting for the man.
Rubbish! I have been in bonus plans at the last three companies I have worked for. While the amounts were nowhere near what the AIG folks received, every one of my bonuses have been tied directly to both personal and corporate performance. As far as people jumping ship if they don't get a bonus, that's an individual choice each person would need to make. The last time my bonus was eliminated I did not jump ship mainly because I understood that the company cannot pay out extra money when the economy is horked and profits were way down. Demanding a bonus when there is no money coming in is as ridiculous as trying to squeeze whiskey out of a watermelon.
When I got into the IT business I was 42 with no degree of any sort and had been in the manufacturing business for 20 years. I was moved by management from the CNC machining department to the design engineering department so as to add more practical mechanical knowledge to the team. I bought a computer so that when I got in from of the CAD/CAM system I would be able to at least type my own name. I quickly discovered that those newfangled computer thingies were pretty cool. One thing led to another and the next thing you know a year later I am working for one of the largest IT companies in the world whose color is Big Blue. That was a little over 10 years ago and the only certification or degree I have goten in that time is PMP. (yeah I know - WTF was I thinkin')
At any rate I now work for a smaller (500 people) software development and hosting company as the manager of their smallish datacenter as well as the deployment and support team.
Why the rambling history? Mainly to make the point that age, education, and job role are crappy criteria to base an argument on across the board. People make of themselves what they want and to say they are victim of circumstance is rubbish. I was taught when I was young that I was responsible for figuring out what I wanted to do and be and then digging in to make it happen and be the best I could be at it. Teachers should be held to the same business standards as the rest of us. Performance based compensation and promotion and also the risk of lost employment if the suck. I let my staff know on a very regular basis that I expect excellence from them to the best of their individual abilities and anything less is unacceptable.
Read, Think, Ask Questions, Explore... But for Gods sake do not be a victim of your own making
FYI there are two school teachers in my family and they were taught and follow the same approach
How the heck did this get to 60 something post without the obligatory tie in to a similar product to attract super models to the geeks posting on/.???
Geez.. is there a subliminal message imbedded in the posts trying to get all our minds of the geek and girls dilema?
That is true until a company gets sued for a couple million $$ by a customer for losing all of the customers mission critical data. The payout will indeed have an impact on the bottom, middle, and top lines...
Not exactly 'government' intervention but Harley Davidson can be used as an example of intervention gone well:
Harley-Davidson successfully petitions the International Trade Commission (ITC) for tariff relief, which is granted April 1, 1983. The tariff, scheduled to end five years later, is placed on all imported Japanese motorcycles 700cc or larger as a response to Japanese motorcycle manufacturers stockpiling inventories of unsold motorcycles in the United States. Harley then requested early termination of the tarrifs in 1987. And they are still going strong today...
OK..I'll bite - If a persona pays less for their college education, the cost of which has not changed, then who picks up the part they didn't pay? All things being equal if a year of college costs $XXX, and the student only pays $X, someone has to pick up the remaining $XX. While this may well benefit the student I somehow miss the part where it benefits most others, including those of us trying to save money for our own kids to go to college.
Odds are that with my wife and my incomes combined we won't qualify for much of any of the 'discounts'. In effect we will be paying for one and a half college educations just for my daughter to go... Kinda lopsided to me
That last bit reminds me of a quote from a book I read many years ago. It is probably not completely accurate but goes something like this:
The problem with the world today is that fools and fanatics are so sure of themselves while much smarter men have so many doubts. Based on my completely life experiences and unscientific observations we unfortunately have way too many of the former and way too many of the latter running the world today....
My daughters are a freshman and a sophomore in high school. They get up at 5:20 am to be able to catch a 6:35 am bus to school. They arrive home at 3:30 in the afternoon. There's your 10 hours give or take... The math can be done many ways, dependant on individual situations, but any way you slice it I still find it hard to believe that the average is 4 hours each day including weekends.
Only on/. have I ever seen expressions of "curb-stomping of puppies" and "baby eating" used to make a point in a political technology discussion..
I will sleep better tonight knowing that creative debate minds are still alive and well on the web
Trying to get thru life in the US without "credit" today is near impossible. Cars, mortgage, college loans, etc
Regarding the abusive merchant, I went thru 14 years (yes years) of fighting Amex to get them to stop billing me for an ISP bill out of Australia, on a card that had been cancelled 3 years prior to them accepting the ISP charges. This made it all the way to a collection agency even though Amex readily admitted they were not my charges. After submitting complaints thru the Better Business Bureau, FDIC, and any other agency they finally stopped. The down side is that the black mark made it into one of the three major credit reporting agencies. Getting it off has been another round of headaches.
The best part of the whole adventure was when I spoke with Amex on the phone and they told me it was too small of an amount for them to waste time on resolving it...
Slashdot Mirror
Ok I'll bite..Since when does a random first post blurb become a Troll mod?
Rats..foiled again by clicking too slow
Makes my day complete
This may be the most important issue of this discussion. Many times you get what you pay for and on the surface an initial cost reduction, especially in these trying financial times, looks pretty damn good. The down side is that historically the more control any given mega-company has over your purchase options the more they abuse it. The example of music at Wally World is classic. They even go so far as to exert a cultural influence on a broader scale by changing Christmas into a generic holiday. I personally do not want any of these companies telling me what I can or can't buy. Nor do I want them to shamelessly exploit our national religious holidays while at the same time marketing it as something much different in order to be politically correct and still profit from it. Whos to say that if all games move to a digital distribution methodology that they won't then also exert more control over what we are allowed to purchase. There are some songs that you cannot buy individually and are required to buy the entire album if you want it bad enough. I most certainly would not want to have to buy a poorly produced boring game that they need to recover their costs on just to get the new version of MechWarrior. I want the swearing left in my songs and the gore and guts left in my games! And a Merry Christmas to you all!
I beg to differ on your comparison of handling capabilities between a motorcycle and a car. I will concede that it is much easier for the average person to learn to drive fairly fast in a car as opposed to on a motorcycle. However as a former professional motorcycle racer I would contend that had your opponent been a well trained and experienced rider you would most likely have been left far behind. Even if the cornering capabilities were conceded to your car, (which I don't agree to) the braking and acceleration capabilities of the MC you describe give it the ability to brake much later into the corners and accelerate much sooner coming out of the corners. This sounds more like a case of a semi skilled car driver up against an unskilled motorcycle rider. If you ever get to Illinois I will be happy to give you another go against a motorcycle and mine is nowhere near what you describe above. You just need to be prepared to have to tell your friends that you got dusted on a back road by a Harley Sportster. ;-}
I will agree to your final statement on the possibility of becoming an organ donor in the event of going down at speed on a bike.
Care to trade some of that spare karma for a shiny new car warranty I just bought?
Sorry to burst your bubble but being patriotic in the USA has been deemed to be possibly insulting to some group or another. As such it has now been officially designated as being politically incorrect and will not be tolerated! Please proceed to re-education center Bravo and await further instructions. Thanks for playin' and have a great day
While in theory I would agree with your premise of low to minimal profit margin, it does not work that way, at least in the USA. Profits are how major companies are gauged in driving stock market values. The sad part of that is that companies that work towards a balance of profit against contributing value to society as a whole will suffer at the hands of investors. Perhaps one day that will change and the consumer will once again be placed in higher regard than the investors but please excuse me if I don't hold my breath while waiting.
Based on the above post, The answer to Gothmolly is a resounding 'YES You Can!' You are most certainly allowed to continue blaming Bush...
I find it quite interesting that as Obama's policies and proposals in personal freedoms, taxes, and huge increases in the national debt (under the guise of stimulus spending) that there seem to be fewer and fewer people that admit to voting for the man.
Rubbish! I have been in bonus plans at the last three companies I have worked for. While the amounts were nowhere near what the AIG folks received, every one of my bonuses have been tied directly to both personal and corporate performance. As far as people jumping ship if they don't get a bonus, that's an individual choice each person would need to make. The last time my bonus was eliminated I did not jump ship mainly because I understood that the company cannot pay out extra money when the economy is horked and profits were way down. Demanding a bonus when there is no money coming in is as ridiculous as trying to squeeze whiskey out of a watermelon.
"Slashdot quotes" AND "make sense" in one sentence... You got balls that's for sure! Oh yeah, and in the spirit of the day "Also, fuck you. :-)"
Uhhh...what are those 'floppies' thingies you refer to?
When I got into the IT business I was 42 with no degree of any sort and had been in the manufacturing business for 20 years. I was moved by management from the CNC machining department to the design engineering department so as to add more practical mechanical knowledge to the team. I bought a computer so that when I got in from of the CAD/CAM system I would be able to at least type my own name. I quickly discovered that those newfangled computer thingies were pretty cool. One thing led to another and the next thing you know a year later I am working for one of the largest IT companies in the world whose color is Big Blue. That was a little over 10 years ago and the only certification or degree I have goten in that time is PMP. (yeah I know - WTF was I thinkin') At any rate I now work for a smaller (500 people) software development and hosting company as the manager of their smallish datacenter as well as the deployment and support team. Why the rambling history? Mainly to make the point that age, education, and job role are crappy criteria to base an argument on across the board. People make of themselves what they want and to say they are victim of circumstance is rubbish. I was taught when I was young that I was responsible for figuring out what I wanted to do and be and then digging in to make it happen and be the best I could be at it. Teachers should be held to the same business standards as the rest of us. Performance based compensation and promotion and also the risk of lost employment if the suck. I let my staff know on a very regular basis that I expect excellence from them to the best of their individual abilities and anything less is unacceptable. Read, Think, Ask Questions, Explore... But for Gods sake do not be a victim of your own making FYI there are two school teachers in my family and they were taught and follow the same approach
How the heck did this get to 60 something post without the obligatory tie in to a similar product to attract super models to the geeks posting on /.???
Geez .. is there a subliminal message imbedded in the posts trying to get all our minds of the geek and girls dilema?
HEY! I own a Harley you insensitive clod! Now where did I put those black leather chaps with the fringe and my wallet with the chain on it??
Ummm... Moderating on /. ??
That is true until a company gets sued for a couple million $$ by a customer for losing all of the customers mission critical data. The payout will indeed have an impact on the bottom, middle, and top lines...
Not exactly 'government' intervention but Harley Davidson can be used as an example of intervention gone well: Harley-Davidson successfully petitions the International Trade Commission (ITC) for tariff relief, which is granted April 1, 1983. The tariff, scheduled to end five years later, is placed on all imported Japanese motorcycles 700cc or larger as a response to Japanese motorcycle manufacturers stockpiling inventories of unsold motorcycles in the United States. Harley then requested early termination of the tarrifs in 1987. And they are still going strong today...
OK..I'll bite - If a persona pays less for their college education, the cost of which has not changed, then who picks up the part they didn't pay? All things being equal if a year of college costs $XXX, and the student only pays $X, someone has to pick up the remaining $XX. While this may well benefit the student I somehow miss the part where it benefits most others, including those of us trying to save money for our own kids to go to college. Odds are that with my wife and my incomes combined we won't qualify for much of any of the 'discounts'. In effect we will be paying for one and a half college educations just for my daughter to go... Kinda lopsided to me
That last bit reminds me of a quote from a book I read many years ago. It is probably not completely accurate but goes something like this: The problem with the world today is that fools and fanatics are so sure of themselves while much smarter men have so many doubts. Based on my completely life experiences and unscientific observations we unfortunately have way too many of the former and way too many of the latter running the world today....
My daughters are a freshman and a sophomore in high school. They get up at 5:20 am to be able to catch a 6:35 am bus to school. They arrive home at 3:30 in the afternoon. There's your 10 hours give or take... The math can be done many ways, dependant on individual situations, but any way you slice it I still find it hard to believe that the average is 4 hours each day including weekends.
Only on /. have I ever seen expressions of "curb-stomping of puppies" and "baby eating" used to make a point in a political technology discussion..
I will sleep better tonight knowing that creative debate minds are still alive and well on the web
Trying to get thru life in the US without "credit" today is near impossible. Cars, mortgage, college loans, etc Regarding the abusive merchant, I went thru 14 years (yes years) of fighting Amex to get them to stop billing me for an ISP bill out of Australia, on a card that had been cancelled 3 years prior to them accepting the ISP charges. This made it all the way to a collection agency even though Amex readily admitted they were not my charges. After submitting complaints thru the Better Business Bureau, FDIC, and any other agency they finally stopped. The down side is that the black mark made it into one of the three major credit reporting agencies. Getting it off has been another round of headaches. The best part of the whole adventure was when I spoke with Amex on the phone and they told me it was too small of an amount for them to waste time on resolving it...
Would that >100 IQ be from before or after their mandatory /. treatements and medications?