"WoW has got to make more than that per year. 12 million subscribers × $13 per subscriber per month × 12 months per year = $1,872,000,000 gross per year, to a first approximation."
how is this off-topic? Says in the description the movie was released last summer. I'm discussing the description, doesn't get more on-topic than that.
"Given that Gran Turismo games to date have basically been updates of the original with better graphics and more cars, but no changes to fundamental features (AI in particular), this may have been a bit of a culture shock for them. But then, Forza 2 and 3 have both come out since the release of Gran Turismo 4, and have provided Polyphony with the kind of competition within the realistic racing genre that they've never had before."
Having never played a Forza game but having bought all GT games to date, I'd have to disagree with you. GT fans will buy the new GT game regardless of competitors. The fact that GT for PSP came out 4 years after the initial release date and then didn't even have a career mode proves Polyphony could care less what the competition offers or what customers want. (instead of a career mode, you race around any track you want for $$, then use the $$ to buy better cars, mods, etc. All the tracks are unlocked from the beginning and there are no licenses to earn)
next you'll be suggesting all peanuts and shellfish be banned and made illegal to sell, own or produce because some people have allergies and it could kill them
There is a minority for everything. If you let the minority rule the majority the majority would have no rights or freedoms and nothing would get accomplished because the majority would simply run around trying to fix everything for every minority.
Speaking of Battle for Terra, did anyone else think Avatar was a rip-off of Battle for Terra? Humans try to destroy nature-loving aliens, only to fail, despite over-whelming firepower?
"How does the kindle discriminate against the blind any more than, say, A BOOK?"
Simple: by forcing Amazon to come out with a new device that caters more to their needs, 0.3% of the population (~1 million blind vs 300 million Americans) forces the other 99.7% of the population to pay for all the hardware and software advances required for them to use the device.
"it's up to the copyright owner themselves to make the complaint. How on earth does a government "inherit" copyright just because the original owner was from their country?"
I was thinking that too. Does the US own Indians? Does Italy own everything Greek or Roman?
"Intel isn't going to bring people back to a hotel room, and the more companies you have in Las Vegas that week the bigger CES will be, whether they're in their room or on the floor."
Also once these small time players become larger companies thanks to hotel rooms at CES, do you think they're going to want to associate themselves with the small time players peddling wares out of a hotel room? This is like selling TVs off the back of a truck, if you become successful eventually you'll want to get your own store, and eventually these companies will move out of their rooms and down to CES floor.
If you don't do this, these smaller companies might band together and get one hotel for themselves that week and do their own thing. Sure 10 grand ain't much to a Vegas hotel, but you get several dozen 10 grands together and some of the smaller hotels might take notice.
"I mean I'm not a show vendor and I even know that doing such things is not ok with hotel management."
you didn't RTFA: "the vendor's chief representative reports that they had contacted the hotel management before the show and asked if there were any limitations on showing product in the suites. The hotel management at The Venetian reportedly said there were not.... "I asked the hotel staff if there were any limitations for using the suite. They said the only limitations were how many people were at our parties. ""
I think the real lesson here is not to stay at The Venetian. If I want to get a hotel, then invite a few people over to view a new laptop, what business is that of CES? I know CES doesn't want to lose money, but really these small businesses are just moving out of the way for the big guys to get more booths. Intel isn't going to bring people back to a hotel room, and the more companies you have in Las Vegas that week the bigger CES will be, whether they're in their room or on the floor.
Google seems to be shooting themselves in the foot, it would take a phone with lots of developer support to topple the iPhone. Only way to get developers is to show them the $$$$ like the iPhone does. Google needs to get the developers paid and make them millionaires like the iPhone does
Article states that not only will XP have problems but so will many other devices like media centers, USB drives, game consoles, and anything else that uses a hard drive. USB drives will be the worse though since 4k drives formatted for XP won't work with Windows 7 and vise versa. Honestly I think this is too soon, put it off another 10 years, by then we'll have OS's that would have supported 4k for 10+ yrs already and all devices should be compatible by then.
"WinXP is end-of-life? You'd best tell that to all the millions of users (including big businesses) out there."
Couldn't agree more. Hopefully I don't have to rehash how horrible Vista was, and Windows 7 came out a few months ago so it's a bit early to proclaim XP is dead when it's hopeful replacement just showed up.
I think 4096-byte sectors are Very Bad News. I have no experience with these drives but XP doesn't like them which is reason enough for me to avoid them. I hope hard drive manufactures come out with a standard naming scheme for these new drives so they're easy to identify online, like IDE, SATA, PATA, etc. Maybe AFD for Advanced Format Drive?
Please California, chase away all of your big businesses! Midwestern states would welcome the jobs.
If online taxes were required I'd just purchase more from eBay and chinese vendors. Is that what California wants? People are going to buy wherever it's cheaper, whether it's down the street, online or overseas.
Agreed. I know there were many threads on the macrumors forums discussing buying an iPhone for $49 to $99 (depending on the deal that day), then cancelling and paying $175 ETF, getting an iPhone for $224 or $274, sometimes lower than the cost of a iPod Touch.
"It's a very pretty video of a special effects demo.
I'm impressed by the special effects and not impressed by his story telling ability."
Hollywood had no choice really. They've been pumping out crap for years and making $100 million and this guy comes along and gives away free crap. If we found out we could get the same crap for free what would happen to hollywood?
I'm sure they considered a hit man but figured it would be cheaper to hire him.
"I rewatched it, and there's a break at about 53 seconds, where the camera is off to the side, so you can't see if there's a cut between shots...If I were doing it, I'd have done the 72 video method, and even have some extras, like where he was cleaning the clock face to fill time randomly."
Agreed. Someone could probably do the entire video in a hour or two, then edit it all together, along with the cleaning fillers. All you have to do is draw the minute, then loop him cleaning back and forth for the remainder of the minute, then draw another minute, loop again, etc. But he'd still need to draw 720 times, and honestly it would probably be easier to record him cleaning for 30 seconds then create 720 loops lasting ~30 seconds.
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"WoW has got to make more than that per year. 12 million subscribers × $13 per subscriber per month × 12 months per year = $1,872,000,000 gross per year, to a first approximation."
You're dead on: in 2007 they were making 1.1 billion a year. Two years later I have no doubt it's approaching 2 billion.
how is this off-topic? Says in the description the movie was released last summer. I'm discussing the description, doesn't get more on-topic than that.
Oh I forgot this nugget: the reason for the 4 year delay on GT4 for PSP: ""Once we experienced PS3 online and went through all of that, we came to the conclusion that PSP should not be a standalone product - it should be linked in to the world of Gran Turismo, linked with the PlayStation 3," said Yamauchi."
18 months later GT for PSP is released and there is no online play, nor are there any online leaderboards for time trial times or the ability to share ghost laps with other players.
Polyphony is full of crap. I sold my PSP after GT4 was released since there was no point to keeping it anymore.
The irony is they blamed GT5 for PS3 for the delay GT4 for PSP: "Yamauchi stated developing Gran Turismo 5 on the PlayStation 3 "took much more time and effort and this was because loads of new stylish cars have started to come out so it took longer to develop than we had first imagined," and that it was unlikely the PSP version would be released by the end of 2008."
So are they now going to blame the recent release of GT4 for PSP on the delay for GT5, because they were pushing to release the psp version?
I'm so tired of waiting for GT releases and hearing excuses
"Given that Gran Turismo games to date have basically been updates of the original with better graphics and more cars, but no changes to fundamental features (AI in particular), this may have been a bit of a culture shock for them. But then, Forza 2 and 3 have both come out since the release of Gran Turismo 4, and have provided Polyphony with the kind of competition within the realistic racing genre that they've never had before."
Having never played a Forza game but having bought all GT games to date, I'd have to disagree with you. GT fans will buy the new GT game regardless of competitors. The fact that GT for PSP came out 4 years after the initial release date and then didn't even have a career mode proves Polyphony could care less what the competition offers or what customers want. (instead of a career mode, you race around any track you want for $$, then use the $$ to buy better cars, mods, etc. All the tracks are unlocked from the beginning and there are no licenses to earn)
nuclear testing != braille on Kindle
next you'll be suggesting all peanuts and shellfish be banned and made illegal to sell, own or produce because some people have allergies and it could kill them
There is a minority for everything. If you let the minority rule the majority the majority would have no rights or freedoms and nothing would get accomplished because the majority would simply run around trying to fix everything for every minority.
"the minority will not have any rights."
What makes you think they do?
Battle for Terra came out in 2007, hardly last summer.
Speaking of Battle for Terra, did anyone else think Avatar was a rip-off of Battle for Terra? Humans try to destroy nature-loving aliens, only to fail, despite over-whelming firepower?
"How does the kindle discriminate against the blind any more than, say, A BOOK?"
Simple: by forcing Amazon to come out with a new device that caters more to their needs, 0.3% of the population (~1 million blind vs 300 million Americans) forces the other 99.7% of the population to pay for all the hardware and software advances required for them to use the device.
Completely fair IMHO
"...evil
quick, somebody justify and rationalize it"
for those of you just joining us, Google's corporate motto is "Don't be evil"
"Another example of why organized religion is bullshit."
No, this is an example of why some organized religion is bullshit.
It's the Church of England for god's sake, what did you expect? It was created so a king could get a divorce and it's been a joke ever since.
What if Obama created Church of America, would anyone care?
"it's up to the copyright owner themselves to make the complaint. How on earth does a government "inherit" copyright just because the original owner was from their country?"
I was thinking that too. Does the US own Indians? Does Italy own everything Greek or Roman?
"Intel isn't going to bring people back to a hotel room, and the more companies you have in Las Vegas that week the bigger CES will be, whether they're in their room or on the floor."
Also once these small time players become larger companies thanks to hotel rooms at CES, do you think they're going to want to associate themselves with the small time players peddling wares out of a hotel room? This is like selling TVs off the back of a truck, if you become successful eventually you'll want to get your own store, and eventually these companies will move out of their rooms and down to CES floor.
If you don't do this, these smaller companies might band together and get one hotel for themselves that week and do their own thing. Sure 10 grand ain't much to a Vegas hotel, but you get several dozen 10 grands together and some of the smaller hotels might take notice.
"I mean I'm not a show vendor and I even know that doing such things is not ok with hotel management."
you didn't RTFA: "the vendor's chief representative reports that they had contacted the hotel management before the show and asked if there were any limitations on showing product in the suites. The hotel management at The Venetian reportedly said there were not.... "I asked the hotel staff if there were any limitations for using the suite. They said the only limitations were how many people were at our parties. ""
I think the real lesson here is not to stay at The Venetian. If I want to get a hotel, then invite a few people over to view a new laptop, what business is that of CES? I know CES doesn't want to lose money, but really these small businesses are just moving out of the way for the big guys to get more booths. Intel isn't going to bring people back to a hotel room, and the more companies you have in Las Vegas that week the bigger CES will be, whether they're in their room or on the floor.
"It sounds to me like Google lost alot of good will with such a high unsubsidized price."
They lost me. After many, many stories about free google cell phones supported by ads how can anyone not be disappointed by the $500 price?
I really don't see how Google thinks they'll sell any. $500+ is a huge bite, and $180 puts it in competition with $199 iPhone 3GS, so if you're deciding between the iPhone and Nexus price really isn't a factor. Couple that with 126,000+ iPhone apps vs 20,000 Android apps and the fact many Android apps don't run on lower-end Android phones doesn't inspire someone to purchase a Android phone.
Google seems to be shooting themselves in the foot, it would take a phone with lots of developer support to topple the iPhone. Only way to get developers is to show them the $$$$ like the iPhone does. Google needs to get the developers paid and make them millionaires like the iPhone does
ah this was what I was looking for: Drobo, XP Users: Beware of 4K “Advanced Format” Drives!
Article states that not only will XP have problems but so will many other devices like media centers, USB drives, game consoles, and anything else that uses a hard drive. USB drives will be the worse though since 4k drives formatted for XP won't work with Windows 7 and vise versa. Honestly I think this is too soon, put it off another 10 years, by then we'll have OS's that would have supported 4k for 10+ yrs already and all devices should be compatible by then.
"WinXP is end-of-life? You'd best tell that to all the millions of users (including big businesses) out there."
Couldn't agree more. Hopefully I don't have to rehash how horrible Vista was, and Windows 7 came out a few months ago so it's a bit early to proclaim XP is dead when it's hopeful replacement just showed up.
I think 4096-byte sectors are Very Bad News. I have no experience with these drives but XP doesn't like them which is reason enough for me to avoid them. I hope hard drive manufactures come out with a standard naming scheme for these new drives so they're easy to identify online, like IDE, SATA, PATA, etc. Maybe AFD for Advanced Format Drive?
" I also think it's cute that they feel amazon has a moral right to pay more taxes in this 'time of hardship'."
I think it's cute that the NY Times forgets Amazon is online, they don't rely on local people, and could just as easily move overseas as it could to another state to save that billion dollars in taxes. I'm sure there's plenty of states that would welcome Amazon and the 15,000+ jobs it brings with tax-exempt status.
Please California, chase away all of your big businesses! Midwestern states would welcome the jobs.
If online taxes were required I'd just purchase more from eBay and chinese vendors. Is that what California wants? People are going to buy wherever it's cheaper, whether it's down the street, online or overseas.
good to know next time i drive from mexico to alaska
"If a business or trademark name is "deceptively or intentionally similar" to an established entity, it is technically in violation by definition."
Bing! did purchase bing.biz back in 2001, so I'd say that's prior art, although bing.com has been registered since 1996, but bing.com use to be some kind device that notifies you of cellphone calls(more info) so that certainly wasn't conflicting with a web design site.
I can understand why they'd want to sue, after all whenever you search for bing all you get is the microsoft bing, they're no where to be found.
"Perhaps a better option would be a tiered ETF?"
Agreed. I know there were many threads on the macrumors forums discussing buying an iPhone for $49 to $99 (depending on the deal that day), then cancelling and paying $175 ETF, getting an iPhone for $224 or $274, sometimes lower than the cost of a iPod Touch.
"That's obese!"
exactly: doesn't the Wii Fit do this already? If you're obese according to BMI it makes your avatar obese, if you're underweight it makes your avatar very skinny. Since the Wii Fit came out in 2007 and Microsoft didn't file until June 2008 I'd say that's enough prior air.
Is Microsoft going to sue Nintendo for Wii Fit?
I'm not surprised Italy is having a problem with the internet after they sentenced Amanda Knox to 26 years on 100% circumstantial evidence that would be laughable even for a TV drama. What other BS do you want to do Italy? My wife wanted to go someday but not now, not ever.
"It's a very pretty video of a special effects demo. I'm impressed by the special effects and not impressed by his story telling ability."
Hollywood had no choice really. They've been pumping out crap for years and making $100 million and this guy comes along and gives away free crap. If we found out we could get the same crap for free what would happen to hollywood?
I'm sure they considered a hit man but figured it would be cheaper to hire him.
"I rewatched it, and there's a break at about 53 seconds, where the camera is off to the side, so you can't see if there's a cut between shots...If I were doing it, I'd have done the 72 video method, and even have some extras, like where he was cleaning the clock face to fill time randomly."
Agreed. Someone could probably do the entire video in a hour or two, then edit it all together, along with the cleaning fillers. All you have to do is draw the minute, then loop him cleaning back and forth for the remainder of the minute, then draw another minute, loop again, etc. But he'd still need to draw 720 times, and honestly it would probably be easier to record him cleaning for 30 seconds then create 720 loops lasting ~30 seconds.