All jokes aside, like most people in dangerous professions, he knew the risks and died doing what he loved to do. Given a choice of ways to go, that's not so bad.
The average consumer doesn't care about or understand hardware specs. The things that still matter the most will be the games and the price of the console and games. The PS3, despite its high price will still sell out the initial shipment unless something horribly wrong with the console gets past QC. But I think that the biggest benefactor of that sell out will be the PS2. A lot of average consumers will want a PS3, but not being able to find one, they may just opt for the other, much cheaper, Sony console. So this holiday season may well be a very good one for the PS2 and PS2 games. Again, I'm talking about average consumers, not hardcore gamers. Nintendo has a pretty good shot at these people, I'm not so sure about Microsoft yet. But I think Sony will definitely get some of their money, just not as much as they might like.
I don't really think this is going to fuel home computer sales because most people don't buy computers to watch movies or listen to music. What this does do is keep people who might be inclined to do this from escaping the need to buy the latest TV, HDDVD/Blu-Ray player, or next generation games console if they want HD content. As a general purpose device, the home computer is a potentially powerful competitor to traditional consumer electronics. That said, crippling media players on 32-bit CPUs is overkill because again, the average consumer isn't looking to use the PC for HD content.
Meh, this is just more proof that PCs are just too hard for the average person to use. There's no way the typical user can easily follow the suggestions in the article. If anyone ever comes up with a good appliance-like device that does the things most people want to do online without worrying about viruses and trojans, the PC will be dead. I think that this complexity is leading into an era of coexistence for the home user wherein they resign themselves to sharing the computer with malware until it becomes unusable. Then they call for their favorite helpful neighbor geek, or just buy a new computer and start over again.
You just gotta love this! Beyond some simple scam, it sounds like this guy is essentially creating game content in the form of this continuing drama. In an age of reality tv shows, this is just perfect.
A nice read. After that I'm kind of scared to go back to my work PC. Seriously though, all of these Windows shortcomings really point to a need to rebuild Windows from the ground up. Any needs for backwards compatibility could be handled via emulation or virtual machines. In the change of hardware going from Xbox to Xbox 360, Microsoft essentially did just this. Windows is way overdue for similar treatment.
In the past, I've joked about MS releasing its own Linux distribution, and this could still happen in the future, but I only see this if Vista comes out and fails spectacularly. By the same token, if MS Office were to come to Linux, I think that would be in conjunction with the MS Linux release, again, in the aftermath of a Vista implosion. Much is made of the dominance of MS Windows on the desktop, but the thing that really keeps millions of business users on Windows is MS Office. Most businesses think it is too much of a hassle to retrain to switch to some other office suite and then deal with document sharing issues with other businesses.
The question is, how much of a failure does Vista have to be in order to force this kind of shakeup? Perhaps not much, because Windows XP is already good enough for many of its users. So they really aren't going to be in a hurry to upgrade both hardware and software. This is especially true if they are primarily using Windows to run MS Office. But that also means that they may be reluctant to upgrade to the latest version of Office, especially if MS tries to entice them to upgrade to Vista by sprinkling Office with a bunch of Vista exclusive features. If Office is where Microsoft really makes its money, then this is big big trouble. Only if Vista fails to keep those Office upgrades coming will they be desperate enough to look to Linux to eek out more sales. And I still think this would have to be coupled with really slow Vista sales or even major technical difficulties. And by difficulties, I mean the kind of stuff that led Apple, in part, to abandon Copeland and build what eventually became OS X. (I know the Apple story involves more than that with the Jobs return and coup, but you get the point...)
It looks like a battle is brewing in East Asia to host the next big electronic entertainment show. This would have happened anyway, but with the downsizing of E3, the stakes are now higher. Recently there was a show proposal that would be hosted in South Korea and I wouldn't be too surprised to see a Chinese proposal in the near future.
Right now Perth may have a couple of advantages, one it's in an English speaking territory so it can potentially draw interest from North America. And two, it doesn't carry the political baggage that Korean, Chinese, and Japanese sites might due to the history of the relations of those nations. And for a city the size of Perth (1.3 million it says on the site), having a successful show like this once or twice a year may add enough to the local economy to make it worthwhile. Not only that, a good GO3 could attract other shows from across Australia to Perth.
While some serious business could be done at such a show, I think it is pretty clear that they're after the hordes of consumers who will come for the hype, glitz, and a chance to play some new games. I wouldn't expect too many consumers to take a trip from the Americas to Perth for this show, but you can bet that visitors from Asia might make the trip along with Australians of course.
EA is certainly taking a big risk of future lawsuits with this so called privacy policy. For one thing, no one in their right mind should seek access to a customer's credit card info without a direct need for it, and the direct unambiguous consent of the customer. Why take on the risk that a breach of EA's customer database could expose the credit card info of millions of customers if you don't have to? If I'm EA, it makes more sense to let Microsoft assume that risk in Xbox Live. Not only that, the EA policy as stated may even be in violation of the privacy laws of some jurisdictions. For my part, I won't be touching any online EA games until this issue is addressed and resolved.
Actually, I've got one and I think that it will appeal to anyone on/. who is sick of upgrading and troubleshooting their PC to play the latest PC games. Granted, that may be a small number around here, and I personally love problem solving, but it takes time away from playing, and of course, posting on/.! I've got mine connected to my PC monitor and so far it is working pretty well, I just need to find a decent USB KVM switch so that I can use my PC keyboard, the Belkin I tried was way too flaky. For better or worse, the 360 is likely going to become the next home for PC games. Microsoft's development tools have made the path the 360 pretty compelling.
Well, this is certainly a pleasant surprise. I know that personally this year I've had more social interaction with people I've met in games or on internet forums than ever before. I can't help but wonder though, when governments that want to more tightly control the contacts their citizens have are going to crack down on MMOGs in a big way. Granted, games are games, but in my experience, people chat about a lot more than the game online between raids and other events.
Oddly enough, they would stand a better chance of success if the service did come out for Linux simply because they would face a lot less competition there. But seriously, this whole Phantom saga has become one long no longer funny sort of joke.
What? A whole week? More like less than a day. I recall an arcade game, may have been the Journey one, that had planned to have a camera to allow players to put their face in the game along with the band. Well, this idea was very quickly squelched once they realized what was likely to happen if the players were given that kind of freedom. I suppose, aggressive policing could help, but it would only take one incident before the likes of Jack Thompson launched a lawsuit.
Sony needs to take a page from what Microsoft did today and open the PSP up to the indie and homebrew community with some good development tools at no cost or low cost. Years ago, Sony did something similar with the Yaroze program, though that was fairly limited. But right now the PSP is really hurting for games and attention in general. They have little to lose by embracing homebrewers rather than continuing the arms race to prevent homebrew software on the console. The PSP's been left for dead by the DS, so they really don't have anything to lose. If they can smoke out a few killer titles from out of nowhere plus the goodwill and publicity, it will be more than worth the trouble of some people playing pirated games on the PSP, which would happen anyway.
A price cut is always nice for the consumer, but the PSP really needs some great games. And a super easy and free direct from Sony way of getting TV shows and movies on the PSP would be great too. The iPod is kicking their butt in that department right now.
With apologies to Ford, Microsoft is making a pretty bold move by essentially embracing the homebrew community. Some may not want to pay the $99 bucks to be able to share their games, but this sure beats the heck out of the constant arms race that is usually waged between console makers and people want to run homebrew or pirated software. One could also argue though, that this is a desperate move by Microsoft to spur more Xbox 360 development. But given that Microsoft on the whole has always been developer friendly and makes some of the best development tools in the business (at least for Microsoft platforms), I suspect that this was always a part of their plan. For me personally, this is a dream come true! I've always wanted the chance to write something for a console, but the price in money, for professional kits, or effort, for the homebrew console scene, has been too great. I've twiddled a bit on the PC, but consoles are where the real action is right now.
It's true that piracy can definitely take a bite out of PC game sales. But I think the fact that for the genres that are still popular on and perhaps done best on the PC, the hardware requirements and setup challenges are a bigger factor. I don't think PC gaming is ever going to disappear, but the business model will have to change. Perhaps, PC games will just be a stepping stone to later console versions. That is, the PC game just becomes a loss leader to the console game where you make your real money. I can see the port friendly Xbox 360 being a good platform for this.
I too am one of those sys admins who was left high and dry by the quick end of support for RH9. And with budgets being what they are here, going to Enterprise wasn't really an option. But since that time, Ubuntu has proven itself to be quite capable and relatively easy to maintain. So if I ever get any time for it, I'll be taking the server over to Ubuntu Server. I don't think Redhat is going out of business because of Ubuntu any time soon, but the competition certainly doesn't help them. I actually think it more likely that Redhat will be bought by Microsoft or Oracle. Yeah, I know the Microsoft angle would require some fantastic, crazy stuff to happen, but the Oracle scenario probably shouldn't be dismissed out of hand.
Hmmm, one poster jokes that cracked 360 games might actually help Xbox 360 marketshare in China and Taiwan. It's a just a joke now, but what if this actually turned out to be the case? And then what if it spread to Korea and Japan? Much has been written about the effect of piracy on console and software sales, some of it implying that piracy helps more than hurts. So with the next generation of console wars promising to be closer than ever, will any of the desperate combatants be tempted to leave the lights on and the backdoor cracked open a bit? No one would publicly admit to this, but it does make one wonder... Right now Sony seems to be doing backflips to keep homebrew and pirated games off of the PSP. But in a tight war with Microsoft and Nintendo, will they be tempted to lighten up a bit on the PS3?
This is certainly good news for the Indians, but I wonder if this will be good for business too. Right now I would guess that China and India are pretty fierce competitors for offshored business from the West. China holds the edge right now in manufacturing, while IT related work seems to be India's forte (I reserve the right to be completely wrong about this). I don't really see manufacturing moving to India any time soon, but I think there is some pressure for more IT to go to China where the workers are increasingly cheaper than those in India as Indian wages increase due to high demand.
But I would guess that the less than free and open society in China coupled with China being looked upon, by the U.S. at least, as a dangerous competitor on the world stage, is putting a brake on IT work freely flowing into China. Seriously, China and the U.S. could be at war tomorrow if Taiwan declared independence. India can play this to their advantage by doing as much as possible to resemble the free and open society that Americans claim to love so much. India is, afterall, the world's largest democracy, so playing the freedom angle isn't too much of a stretch with the right marketing.
I'm not saying that there is any concious orchestration going on. But stories like censoring the internet don't help the image the government probably wants to project, so reversing that can only be to their advantage.
Yeah, Japanese developers will definitely be needed to move consoles in Japan. But it is likely that some of those games developed for the Japanese market while not finding success in Japan, might find it in the U.S.. So Japanese development could potentially be of more benefit in the U.S. than in Japan. This may especially be the case, if the PS3 does ridiculously well in Japan despite the very high price. But what I am I saying? Wii will absolutely pwn everything on both sides of the Pacific, right?
The More Books The Better
on
Beginning GIMP
·
· Score: 1
I'm sure that there will be the usual discussion of GIMP's shortcomings, etc., etc., but I for one am happy to see any book that makes using the GIMP easier. Go to any bookstore and it is pretty obvious that most of the other books concerning image creation and editing have been written for Photoshop. So if you can't afford Photoshop and are using something else like the GIMP, you have to use a lot of time translating techniques described for Photoshop into their GIMP equivalents. So anything GIMP specific is very very welcome. That said, I generally use Fireworks MX for my work in Windows, but I may pick a copy of the book anyway, since I use the GIMP when booted into Ubuntu.
Surely they cannot be unaware of how this could be exploited by those wishing to do harm to Americans, therefore I can only reach the conclusion that rfid passports are being pushed as a way for the government to ultimately track people in general. It would begin with being able to track foreigners and later as rfid makes its way into things like driver's licenses and auto plates, it could be used to track citizens. This is probably a goal of governments everywhere these days. First they'll tell you it's to stop terrorists, but with a flick of the switch, tracking citizens will be a breeze. I know the effective range is pretty short, but I can imagine that it would not be too hard for the government to build out an effective network, certainly in the most densely populated cities. It might even be able to piggy back on cell phone tower locations, so ordinary people wouldn't even know it was there. Ironically, true terrorists will be able to easily defeat this kind of tracking.
When I first heard about this on the news last night, my first reaction was that this was a way to widen the net of home schooling. That is, by more directly connecting a teacher in the classroom with a parent assisting and teaching in the home, it is a way to make homeschooling possible for a wider range of parents. As others have already noted, many home schooled kids are kids who would have been in the top schools anyway and often have better than average educated parents to teach them. But what about those parents who are not as well educated, or perhaps are not well organized? This virtual charter school is a way for them to be more involved in directing the education of their kids with the added bonus of perhaps raising their own level of education.
So yes, one can certainly look at this as subsidized home schooling, but I'd really like to see them get a shot at this because it has the potential to really get more parents involved in education. And, while the union won't admit it, it could lighten the load on traditional school teachers by reducing class size if enough parents go for this option. Let me tell you, a class of 30 or more kids is a lot of work and definitely not the best learning environment!
Few companies change the way they do business unless they see continuing as a money losing proposition. In a highly competitive market and a significant portion of savvy consumers armed with internet connected blogs and forums, the negative image of the rebate process was bad for business. I would guess that the people most likely to go through the rebate process are also most likely to complain about a bad rebate experience on the net. And if you don't mind mail order, it is easy enough to shop around and find the same or similar product for the same or even less than the after rebate price. Finally, since rebate and scam are, at least in the public mind, nearly synonymous these days, dumping the rebate scheme may be insurance against lost sales later.
Slashdot Mirror
All jokes aside, like most people in dangerous professions, he knew the risks and died doing what he loved to do. Given a choice of ways to go, that's not so bad.
The average consumer doesn't care about or understand hardware specs. The things that still matter the most will be the games and the price of the console and games. The PS3, despite its high price will still sell out the initial shipment unless something horribly wrong with the console gets past QC. But I think that the biggest benefactor of that sell out will be the PS2. A lot of average consumers will want a PS3, but not being able to find one, they may just opt for the other, much cheaper, Sony console. So this holiday season may well be a very good one for the PS2 and PS2 games. Again, I'm talking about average consumers, not hardcore gamers. Nintendo has a pretty good shot at these people, I'm not so sure about Microsoft yet. But I think Sony will definitely get some of their money, just not as much as they might like.
I don't really think this is going to fuel home computer sales because most people don't buy computers to watch movies or listen to music. What this does do is keep people who might be inclined to do this from escaping the need to buy the latest TV, HDDVD/Blu-Ray player, or next generation games console if they want HD content. As a general purpose device, the home computer is a potentially powerful competitor to traditional consumer electronics. That said, crippling media players on 32-bit CPUs is overkill because again, the average consumer isn't looking to use the PC for HD content.
Meh, this is just more proof that PCs are just too hard for the average person to use. There's no way the typical user can easily follow the suggestions in the article. If anyone ever comes up with a good appliance-like device that does the things most people want to do online without worrying about viruses and trojans, the PC will be dead. I think that this complexity is leading into an era of coexistence for the home user wherein they resign themselves to sharing the computer with malware until it becomes unusable. Then they call for their favorite helpful neighbor geek, or just buy a new computer and start over again.
You just gotta love this! Beyond some simple scam, it sounds like this guy is essentially creating game content in the form of this continuing drama. In an age of reality tv shows, this is just perfect.
A nice read. After that I'm kind of scared to go back to my work PC. Seriously though, all of these Windows shortcomings really point to a need to rebuild Windows from the ground up. Any needs for backwards compatibility could be handled via emulation or virtual machines. In the change of hardware going from Xbox to Xbox 360, Microsoft essentially did just this. Windows is way overdue for similar treatment.
In the past, I've joked about MS releasing its own Linux distribution, and this could still happen in the future, but I only see this if Vista comes out and fails spectacularly. By the same token, if MS Office were to come to Linux, I think that would be in conjunction with the MS Linux release, again, in the aftermath of a Vista implosion. Much is made of the dominance of MS Windows on the desktop, but the thing that really keeps millions of business users on Windows is MS Office. Most businesses think it is too much of a hassle to retrain to switch to some other office suite and then deal with document sharing issues with other businesses.
The question is, how much of a failure does Vista have to be in order to force this kind of shakeup? Perhaps not much, because Windows XP is already good enough for many of its users. So they really aren't going to be in a hurry to upgrade both hardware and software. This is especially true if they are primarily using Windows to run MS Office. But that also means that they may be reluctant to upgrade to the latest version of Office, especially if MS tries to entice them to upgrade to Vista by sprinkling Office with a bunch of Vista exclusive features. If Office is where Microsoft really makes its money, then this is big big trouble. Only if Vista fails to keep those Office upgrades coming will they be desperate enough to look to Linux to eek out more sales. And I still think this would have to be coupled with really slow Vista sales or even major technical difficulties. And by difficulties, I mean the kind of stuff that led Apple, in part, to abandon Copeland and build what eventually became OS X. (I know the Apple story involves more than that with the Jobs return and coup, but you get the point...)
It looks like a battle is brewing in East Asia to host the next big electronic entertainment show. This would have happened anyway, but with the downsizing of E3, the stakes are now higher. Recently there was a show proposal that would be hosted in South Korea and I wouldn't be too surprised to see a Chinese proposal in the near future.
Right now Perth may have a couple of advantages, one it's in an English speaking territory so it can potentially draw interest from North America. And two, it doesn't carry the political baggage that Korean, Chinese, and Japanese sites might due to the history of the relations of those nations. And for a city the size of Perth (1.3 million it says on the site), having a successful show like this once or twice a year may add enough to the local economy to make it worthwhile. Not only that, a good GO3 could attract other shows from across Australia to Perth.
While some serious business could be done at such a show, I think it is pretty clear that they're after the hordes of consumers who will come for the hype, glitz, and a chance to play some new games. I wouldn't expect too many consumers to take a trip from the Americas to Perth for this show, but you can bet that visitors from Asia might make the trip along with Australians of course.
EA is certainly taking a big risk of future lawsuits with this so called privacy policy. For one thing, no one in their right mind should seek access to a customer's credit card info without a direct need for it, and the direct unambiguous consent of the customer. Why take on the risk that a breach of EA's customer database could expose the credit card info of millions of customers if you don't have to? If I'm EA, it makes more sense to let Microsoft assume that risk in Xbox Live. Not only that, the EA policy as stated may even be in violation of the privacy laws of some jurisdictions. For my part, I won't be touching any online EA games until this issue is addressed and resolved.
Actually, I've got one and I think that it will appeal to anyone on /. who is sick of upgrading and troubleshooting their PC to play the latest PC games. Granted, that may be a small number around here, and I personally love problem solving, but it takes time away from playing, and of course, posting on /.! I've got mine connected to my PC monitor and so far it is working pretty well, I just need to find a decent USB KVM switch so that I can use my PC keyboard, the Belkin I tried was way too flaky. For better or worse, the 360 is likely going to become the next home for PC games. Microsoft's development tools have made the path the 360 pretty compelling.
Well, this is certainly a pleasant surprise. I know that personally this year I've had more social interaction with people I've met in games or on internet forums than ever before. I can't help but wonder though, when governments that want to more tightly control the contacts their citizens have are going to crack down on MMOGs in a big way. Granted, games are games, but in my experience, people chat about a lot more than the game online between raids and other events.
Oddly enough, they would stand a better chance of success if the service did come out for Linux simply because they would face a lot less competition there. But seriously, this whole Phantom saga has become one long no longer funny sort of joke.
What? A whole week? More like less than a day. I recall an arcade game, may have been the Journey one, that had planned to have a camera to allow players to put their face in the game along with the band. Well, this idea was very quickly squelched once they realized what was likely to happen if the players were given that kind of freedom. I suppose, aggressive policing could help, but it would only take one incident before the likes of Jack Thompson launched a lawsuit.
Sony needs to take a page from what Microsoft did today and open the PSP up to the indie and homebrew community with some good development tools at no cost or low cost. Years ago, Sony did something similar with the Yaroze program, though that was fairly limited. But right now the PSP is really hurting for games and attention in general. They have little to lose by embracing homebrewers rather than continuing the arms race to prevent homebrew software on the console. The PSP's been left for dead by the DS, so they really don't have anything to lose. If they can smoke out a few killer titles from out of nowhere plus the goodwill and publicity, it will be more than worth the trouble of some people playing pirated games on the PSP, which would happen anyway.
A price cut is always nice for the consumer, but the PSP really needs some great games. And a super easy and free direct from Sony way of getting TV shows and movies on the PSP would be great too. The iPod is kicking their butt in that department right now.
With apologies to Ford, Microsoft is making a pretty bold move by essentially embracing the homebrew community. Some may not want to pay the $99 bucks to be able to share their games, but this sure beats the heck out of the constant arms race that is usually waged between console makers and people want to run homebrew or pirated software. One could also argue though, that this is a desperate move by Microsoft to spur more Xbox 360 development. But given that Microsoft on the whole has always been developer friendly and makes some of the best development tools in the business (at least for Microsoft platforms), I suspect that this was always a part of their plan. For me personally, this is a dream come true! I've always wanted the chance to write something for a console, but the price in money, for professional kits, or effort, for the homebrew console scene, has been too great. I've twiddled a bit on the PC, but consoles are where the real action is right now.
It's true that piracy can definitely take a bite out of PC game sales. But I think the fact that for the genres that are still popular on and perhaps done best on the PC, the hardware requirements and setup challenges are a bigger factor. I don't think PC gaming is ever going to disappear, but the business model will have to change. Perhaps, PC games will just be a stepping stone to later console versions. That is, the PC game just becomes a loss leader to the console game where you make your real money. I can see the port friendly Xbox 360 being a good platform for this.
I too am one of those sys admins who was left high and dry by the quick end of support for RH9. And with budgets being what they are here, going to Enterprise wasn't really an option. But since that time, Ubuntu has proven itself to be quite capable and relatively easy to maintain. So if I ever get any time for it, I'll be taking the server over to Ubuntu Server. I don't think Redhat is going out of business because of Ubuntu any time soon, but the competition certainly doesn't help them. I actually think it more likely that Redhat will be bought by Microsoft or Oracle. Yeah, I know the Microsoft angle would require some fantastic, crazy stuff to happen, but the Oracle scenario probably shouldn't be dismissed out of hand.
Hmmm, one poster jokes that cracked 360 games might actually help Xbox 360 marketshare in China and Taiwan. It's a just a joke now, but what if this actually turned out to be the case? And then what if it spread to Korea and Japan? Much has been written about the effect of piracy on console and software sales, some of it implying that piracy helps more than hurts. So with the next generation of console wars promising to be closer than ever, will any of the desperate combatants be tempted to leave the lights on and the backdoor cracked open a bit? No one would publicly admit to this, but it does make one wonder... Right now Sony seems to be doing backflips to keep homebrew and pirated games off of the PSP. But in a tight war with Microsoft and Nintendo, will they be tempted to lighten up a bit on the PS3?
This is certainly good news for the Indians, but I wonder if this will be good for business too. Right now I would guess that China and India are pretty fierce competitors for offshored business from the West. China holds the edge right now in manufacturing, while IT related work seems to be India's forte (I reserve the right to be completely wrong about this). I don't really see manufacturing moving to India any time soon, but I think there is some pressure for more IT to go to China where the workers are increasingly cheaper than those in India as Indian wages increase due to high demand.
But I would guess that the less than free and open society in China coupled with China being looked upon, by the U.S. at least, as a dangerous competitor on the world stage, is putting a brake on IT work freely flowing into China. Seriously, China and the U.S. could be at war tomorrow if Taiwan declared independence. India can play this to their advantage by doing as much as possible to resemble the free and open society that Americans claim to love so much. India is, afterall, the world's largest democracy, so playing the freedom angle isn't too much of a stretch with the right marketing.
I'm not saying that there is any concious orchestration going on. But stories like censoring the internet don't help the image the government probably wants to project, so reversing that can only be to their advantage.
Yeah, Japanese developers will definitely be needed to move consoles in Japan. But it is likely that some of those games developed for the Japanese market while not finding success in Japan, might find it in the U.S.. So Japanese development could potentially be of more benefit in the U.S. than in Japan. This may especially be the case, if the PS3 does ridiculously well in Japan despite the very high price. But what I am I saying? Wii will absolutely pwn everything on both sides of the Pacific, right?
I'm sure that there will be the usual discussion of GIMP's shortcomings, etc., etc., but I for one am happy to see any book that makes using the GIMP easier. Go to any bookstore and it is pretty obvious that most of the other books concerning image creation and editing have been written for Photoshop. So if you can't afford Photoshop and are using something else like the GIMP, you have to use a lot of time translating techniques described for Photoshop into their GIMP equivalents. So anything GIMP specific is very very welcome. That said, I generally use Fireworks MX for my work in Windows, but I may pick a copy of the book anyway, since I use the GIMP when booted into Ubuntu.
Surely they cannot be unaware of how this could be exploited by those wishing to do harm to Americans, therefore I can only reach the conclusion that rfid passports are being pushed as a way for the government to ultimately track people in general. It would begin with being able to track foreigners and later as rfid makes its way into things like driver's licenses and auto plates, it could be used to track citizens. This is probably a goal of governments everywhere these days. First they'll tell you it's to stop terrorists, but with a flick of the switch, tracking citizens will be a breeze. I know the effective range is pretty short, but I can imagine that it would not be too hard for the government to build out an effective network, certainly in the most densely populated cities. It might even be able to piggy back on cell phone tower locations, so ordinary people wouldn't even know it was there. Ironically, true terrorists will be able to easily defeat this kind of tracking.
When I first heard about this on the news last night, my first reaction was that this was a way to widen the net of home schooling. That is, by more directly connecting a teacher in the classroom with a parent assisting and teaching in the home, it is a way to make homeschooling possible for a wider range of parents. As others have already noted, many home schooled kids are kids who would have been in the top schools anyway and often have better than average educated parents to teach them. But what about those parents who are not as well educated, or perhaps are not well organized? This virtual charter school is a way for them to be more involved in directing the education of their kids with the added bonus of perhaps raising their own level of education.
So yes, one can certainly look at this as subsidized home schooling, but I'd really like to see them get a shot at this because it has the potential to really get more parents involved in education. And, while the union won't admit it, it could lighten the load on traditional school teachers by reducing class size if enough parents go for this option. Let me tell you, a class of 30 or more kids is a lot of work and definitely not the best learning environment!
Hey! I resemble that remark! Grumbling ex-physicist storms off...
Few companies change the way they do business unless they see continuing as a money losing proposition. In a highly competitive market and a significant portion of savvy consumers armed with internet connected blogs and forums, the negative image of the rebate process was bad for business. I would guess that the people most likely to go through the rebate process are also most likely to complain about a bad rebate experience on the net. And if you don't mind mail order, it is easy enough to shop around and find the same or similar product for the same or even less than the after rebate price. Finally, since rebate and scam are, at least in the public mind, nearly synonymous these days, dumping the rebate scheme may be insurance against lost sales later.