You have assumed that US market is the only market present.
Not really, but it is the only one I care about as an individual and citizen of the US. However, there is more to it than my admittedly selfish interests. (Nearly) Every time money changes hands in the US, some form of tax is extracted. When I work, part of my salary goes to income taxes. When I use what's left over to purchase something, it might be sales taxed, but it becomes income for someone else, where its taxed again. That money is then used to purchase more raw goods and labor, which gets taxed again, over and over, etc. When you send some portion of that money out of the country, you break the cycle. Uncle Sam has needs that must be met, so he will get his money one way or the other, so by sending my tech job overseas, I'm not the only one losing out. So its not just as simple as using cheaper labor to save money, if it happens on a large enough scale, everyone loses (in the US) in the long run.
Outsourcing isn't something new, its been done for decades in other industries like manufacturing. People in IT have been benifiting from reduced costs on items and increases in stocks they own because of outsourcing in other industries, now that it's their job in jeapordy they complain.
While I generally agree that capitalism is good and market forces should be allowed to do their jobs, there's a bit of a difference between outsourcing minimum wage jobs and highly paid skilled jobs. When John Blue Collar loses his job to an over the border company, he usually has options for other minimal wage jobs (in general). When people in higher tax bracket jobs lose their jobs to foreign competition, they frequently have to take a huge cut in pay to continue to support themselves and their families. And while its not fair that lower income people are treated differently, higher income people also spend more money, pay more taxes and keep the whole system grinding along. After all, who spends more money on useless crap than geeks with a good income? You take away that income, they stop spending, and suddenly the high tech gadget market evaporates, leaving them with lots of excess product that was produced inexpensively offshore...
Several people have posted about caffeine, I'll add to that. I didn't think I had a problem with it either, never drank coffee, but did drink soda during the day and I like my chocolate. I decided to eliminate it due to some odd headaches I seemed to have whenever I didn't have any caffiene for a while. The headaches were horrible for about 3 days and I went from 5-6 hours of uneasy sleep to about 11-12 hours of dead-to-the-world deep sleep for several weeks. After that I eased into a normal, restful 7-8 hours a night and the headaches were gone unless I happend to drink a soda with caffeine. The slightest amount brought the headaches back, so I finally just gave it up for good. After months of avoiding it, I can now drink the occasional caffeine drink without any problems. So, even if you don't think you have a problem, clean out your system and you may be in for a surprise (and lots of quality sleep).
you have to make the argument that after playing a violent video game, your capabilities are somehow impared while you are under the influence of the video game
I've found that its generally a bad idea to drive immediately after playing a particulary realistic, violent driving game though...
> just flailing about in the world like some schoolyard bully that got his ass kicked.
I don't want to comment on the rest of this for either side, but this analogy is completely wrong. 9/11 was not an "ass-kicking" it was merely a bloody nose. We reacted the way most people would under the circumstances. You don't stop and wonder about the motivation of your attacker, you try your very best to beat the ever loving shit out of them. And once you are no longer threatened, then you try to figure how to prevent future attacks.
It's a good thing
on
Saving MUDs?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I can't comment on the relative number of total MUDs out there, as I have never kept track. I can say that as a former player and now Implementor of a long lived MUD, that the number of players that we attract hasn't changed much over the years. For the last couple of years we have had fewer *characters* online than in the past, but we switched to a non-multiplaying policy and the number of actual players online has remained fairly constant over the years. It has its cycles, some we understand, others we don't, but the only major change that I am certain of is the average age of the players. We've changed from mostly college aged players to mostly teenagers, which probably reflects the same changes in the Internet population.
The reason for stating that the current trend is a good thing, is that in many of the discussions I've followed, many have lamented the number of "StockMUDs" that have come into being. There are several code bases than can literally be downloaded and brought online in a matter of minutes, with enough content to start playing even though that content might be the same as thousands of other MUDs out there. Hopefully, these are the MUDs that are fading out, in favor of the graphical counterpart of StockMUD. Then, the ones that remain will be the ones worth trying. I don't envy anyone looking for a new MUD to play, with only Mudconnector as a starting point. You really need some recommendations from friends to get you started, or the search may wear you out before you find what you want.
Slashdot Mirror
You have assumed that US market is the only market present.
Not really, but it is the only one I care about as an individual and citizen of the US. However, there is more to it than my admittedly selfish interests. (Nearly) Every time money changes hands in the US, some form of tax is extracted. When I work, part of my salary goes to income taxes. When I use what's left over to purchase something, it might be sales taxed, but it becomes income for someone else, where its taxed again. That money is then used to purchase more raw goods and labor, which gets taxed again, over and over, etc. When you send some portion of that money out of the country, you break the cycle. Uncle Sam has needs that must be met, so he will get his money one way or the other, so by sending my tech job overseas, I'm not the only one losing out. So its not just as simple as using cheaper labor to save money, if it happens on a large enough scale, everyone loses (in the US) in the long run.
Outsourcing isn't something new, its been done for decades in other industries like manufacturing. People in IT have been benifiting from reduced costs on items and increases in stocks they own because of outsourcing in other industries, now that it's their job in jeapordy they complain.
While I generally agree that capitalism is good and market forces should be allowed to do their jobs, there's a bit of a difference between outsourcing minimum wage jobs and highly paid skilled jobs. When John Blue Collar loses his job to an over the border company, he usually has options for other minimal wage jobs (in general). When people in higher tax bracket jobs lose their jobs to foreign competition, they frequently have to take a huge cut in pay to continue to support themselves and their families. And while its not fair that lower income people are treated differently, higher income people also spend more money, pay more taxes and keep the whole system grinding along. After all, who spends more money on useless crap than geeks with a good income? You take away that income, they stop spending, and suddenly the high tech gadget market evaporates, leaving them with lots of excess product that was produced inexpensively offshore...
Several people have posted about caffeine, I'll add to that. I didn't think I had a problem with it either, never drank coffee, but did drink soda during the day and I like my chocolate. I decided to eliminate it due to some odd headaches I seemed to have whenever I didn't have any caffiene for a while. The headaches were horrible for about 3 days and I went from 5-6 hours of uneasy sleep to about 11-12 hours of dead-to-the-world deep sleep for several weeks. After that I eased into a normal, restful 7-8 hours a night and the headaches were gone unless I happend to drink a soda with caffeine. The slightest amount brought the headaches back, so I finally just gave it up for good. After months of avoiding it, I can now drink the occasional caffeine drink without any problems. So, even if you don't think you have a problem, clean out your system and you may be in for a surprise (and lots of quality sleep).
you have to make the argument that after playing a violent video game, your capabilities are somehow impared while you are under the influence of the video game
I've found that its generally a bad idea to drive immediately after playing a particulary realistic, violent driving game though...
Don't forget to plan out the 401K...
> just flailing about in the world like some schoolyard bully that got his ass kicked.
I don't want to comment on the rest of this for either side, but this analogy is completely wrong. 9/11 was not an "ass-kicking" it was merely a bloody nose. We reacted the way most people would under the circumstances. You don't stop and wonder about the motivation of your attacker, you try your very best to beat the ever loving shit out of them. And once you are no longer threatened, then you try to figure how to prevent future attacks.
I can't comment on the relative number of total MUDs out there, as I have never kept track. I can say that as a former player and now Implementor of a long lived MUD, that the number of players that we attract hasn't changed much over the years. For the last couple of years we have had fewer *characters* online than in the past, but we switched to a non-multiplaying policy and the number of actual players online has remained fairly constant over the years. It has its cycles, some we understand, others we don't, but the only major change that I am certain of is the average age of the players. We've changed from mostly college aged players to mostly teenagers, which probably reflects the same changes in the Internet population.
The reason for stating that the current trend is a good thing, is that in many of the discussions I've followed, many have lamented the number of "StockMUDs" that have come into being. There are several code bases than can literally be downloaded and brought online in a matter of minutes, with enough content to start playing even though that content might be the same as thousands of other MUDs out there. Hopefully, these are the MUDs that are fading out, in favor of the graphical counterpart of StockMUD. Then, the ones that remain will be the ones worth trying. I don't envy anyone looking for a new MUD to play, with only Mudconnector as a starting point. You really need some recommendations from friends to get you started, or the search may wear you out before you find what you want.