Be very careful in spending. Consider whether this port is absolutly necesssary.
Actually, this is beginning to illuminate Branson's plan all along. The Space Ship One is an atmospheric vehicle, not truly a 'space vehicle'. I've always wondered why Richard Branson, with a successful airline already, would want to get into the high-atmosphere business with SS1. It seemed like a limited, fad market.
But here, I'm seeing his true intention. Branson isn't just selling a few tickets on a high-flying plane, he is getting into the space industry! And here will be a cornerstone of this industry: The New Mexico SpacePort. No matter what team or company ends up making the best ships, they will still need somewhere for customers to get service and a place from which to lift-off.
It's f&*^ing brilliant, when you think about it. No wonder this guy's a mega-billionaire. He's trying to corner the airport -- I mean SpacePort -- market!
LAN parties! While I certainly wouldn't call it a laptop it is certainly more portable than some of the rigs I've seen with carrying straps wrapped around them. A built-in screen is much nicer than lugging a heavy CRT around with you, too.
Aside from the gaming aspect, it would still be nice to have a fairly heavy-duty station for 'regular work' which you can take from site to site. Again, you're not going to get much use from the battery, but anywhere you can sit and plug-in would be fine. The $3200 price is a little offputting, but I suppose that's the price you pay (pun intended) for the convenience of a portable game-capable workstation.
use a reputable dealer like Amazon or NewEgg for any electronics.
Also, since this article is about cameras: B&H Photohttp://www.bhphotovideo.com/ is well respected. Not the bottom barrel cheapest, but reputable and I've never had a problem with them.
NewEgg http://www.newegg.com/ is great, although they've recently defaulted to UPS (oops) shipping, and FedEx now costs extra. Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/ is okay, but make sure you're actually buying from Amazon directly, and not one of the scammy "partner stores" which link off of the Amazon page.
During these holiday shopping weeks, I've been noticing a fair number of Xbox 360 titles and even a lot of PSP titles sitting on the shelves. I can't really explain the PSP titles, except that maybe demand isn't high for the Sony portable.
With the 360 sold out and pretty much unavailable anywhere, there isn't much demand for the software. So it sits there, collecting dust. I'm surprised at the number of boxes just sitting there, like they overproduced or something. Keep in mind that these are games which developers have already spent the money and work putting together. Without consoles to play them on, there is no demand.
(With Christmas just a couple weeks away, one wonders why Microsoft is pushing so hard into Japan with a poor launch instead of recommitting to North America.)
Godaddy has a long history of screwing their customers over. They prematurely shut down domains and demand renewals way early of their expiration. They hold peoples' domains hostage in very inappropriate ways. They've implemented sleazy redirects and hidden frames and webbots; they use misleading advertising practices to hook users in with seemingly cheap prices and then nickle and dime them to death. Godaddy is THE WORST registrar on the Internet. And I do NOT work for them nor their competitors, but I advise all my clients to NEVER do business with them. They are a total and complete nightmare. I cringe when I come across someone who is foolish enough to use them as a registrar because I know it will make my and the client's life miserable at one point or another. It's inevitable. If it hasn't happened to you, it will. It's as certain as death and taxes. Godaddy sucks.
The thing which concerns me is that instead of just moving on with building the true next generation titles, some shops (EA I'm looking at you) seem to be content with re-writing existing titles again just for the 360 unit.
I was just reading an article about how EA is converting Burnout Revenge over to Xbox 360 format. Keep in mind this is a very recent title, and I would have expected an Xbox backwards-compatiblity "profile" for this game. EA seem to think people should buy it all over again. To me, this not undermines the whole backwards-compatible angle of the 360 (it shouldn't carry the Xbox name if it can't handle the Xbox games), but smells of extreme laziness on the part of the developer. A re-hash instead of a new gameplay, very this-gen instead of next. But you can bet it'll be sold at a new-game price.
It's these kind of things which make me, and I'm sure others, wait until next year to see what the competition brings.
Microsoft put it in the 49.99-59.99 range so they choose ther price at 59.99 (most likely because, with the small user base, they need the extra money to recover porting costs.
I think you misspelled free profit.
P.S. (although I do wonder with MS losing $126 per machine leads to higher licensing costs for the game makers. That would quickly explain the higher prices on just about every game except MS-Studios titles.)
So, you expect game developers to publish HD-DVD games which won't run on the 1.5-to-3 million Xbox consoles Microsoft claims they want to sell by year end? Or how about the millions more consoles they'll sell next year before HD-DVD drives actually, possibly become available?
No game maker is going to cut off their own nose like this. HD-DVD in XBox360 is a dead topic.
The truth is the rich at the top want to keep one part of the company and cash out another and now realize the merger was stupid.
Gee, I've been saying since, oh I dunno, around 2000 that this was a stupid idea. They claimed they would have "synergy" between divisions (a sure sign of management buzzword cockery) and cross-promotion. All it really meant is that it moved ad dollars from one internal spreadsheet to another internal spreadsheet.
And yes, I've since made sure to _not_ buy into Time Warner nor AOL.
It is certainly NOT better for the folks who claim rebates. Instead of a good sale deal, you are now stuck with filling out forms, cutting out UPCs, making sure you get it all together in the envelope and after doing all that hope that they don't screw you over.
In the meantime, whether or not they actually fulfill your rebate, your name+address and these days even email address are now well within the clutches of the manufacturer, to be sold and resold on a whim to any and all who ask.
No. Its not better for the buyer. I'd much prefer a return to the days where I walk in, get a sale price, pay anonymously and leave with my items a done deal.
Last I checked current problems with the X-Box 360 are about average for a new console. As in no more than any of the Sony or Nintendo consoles. (About 3% if I remeber right.)
First you knock the complaints as "unsubstantiated", yet then you blurt out meaningless statistics without backing them up yourself. Well, the last time I checked, the problem rate on 360 units was in the double digits varying from 13-16%. Of course, people with problems are more likely to be vocal (and post, hit online vote tabs, etc.) but that is still a LOT of problems with a new product. Especially after Microsoft already did a merket test run with their first console the original Xbox.
Before you discount me as a Microsoft hater, I actually own two orginal Xbox units which I very much enjoy. Here's a rundown of issues I've seen around the Xbox 360 launch:
Perplexing, even confusing Core vs. Premium packaging. Why even include a hard drive if they're brow-beating developers not to rely on it.
Keeping the Xbox name, but not really backwards compatible. Few games work. Even recent Xbox releases not compatible. And you need a special attachment (the HDD) to make it work if at all. I expect this will be a talking point for upset parents this Christmas, after buying "green" titles which somehow don't work on the "white" Xbox.
Pre-orders without enough units to fill pre-order demand. (pre-orders are supposed to be for companies to gauge interest in their product, not fux0r early adopters willing to put down payments.)
Release in 3 contintents without enough supply for even one contintent. Even more of a black eye to Microsoft if it turns out Japan has units still sitting on shelves after next week.
Release before a major shopping holiday, again without enough units. Meeting demand so it looks like a sell-out while satisfying early customers is one thing. But this is another, a complete supply-level botch job. Just so MS can claim being first with a new console. In the end it may backfire, not supplying enough machines to stave off Sony's upcoming PS3 release while at the same time giving Sony lots of free market info about issues to avoid.
Graphical glitches, in early adopters machines and store display kiosks. These of course make newsworthy items -- in a bad way.
Game crashes, machines suddenly shutting off. Probably overheating issue.
Overheating issues, and possibly bad power supplies. Didn't Microsoft already have power supply issues in their first Xbox? Don't they ever learn?
And now, gouging trenches in game DVDs. Not everyone is busy tossing their Xbox360 in the air while it is running, so why are so many people reporting sratched/scraped discs?
HDTV graphics. On a typical TV with which 91% (or higher) of owers will use, the enhanced graphics are not really much better than current consoles. HDTV penetration in the US is still in single-digit percentages, and even lower in other countries. Nice if you have it, but not much difference for the rest of us.
Hype. Xbox360 is Not really the hundreds/thousands/millions of times more powerful than the last Xbox. What, you mean MS (and Sony) lied at E3?! For shame.
Xbox 360 name. A contorted way to squeeze the number 3 into the product name, to compete with Sony's upcoming PS3. 360-degrees means you end up back where you started. Which may be where Microsoft is headed with this abortion of a product launch.
Finally, gawd-awful ugly design. Not that consoles are works of art, but the look of the Xbox360 makes me cringe. Especially on its end, where it looks like some sort of mechanical tampon.
Incidentally what the hell are people doing with this whole standing up, lying down there console crap.
The PS2 originally came out with a tray-drive which could stand on end.
There are plenty of others stating they left it in place, and the laser head still has a tendency to scrape the disc. I would imagine its partly due to heat expansion, where gamers say their discs eject really hot after a couple hours playing, the disc probably gets out of round and wobbles more than MS ever anticipated. Especially at 12X or whatever crazy speed at which these are spinning.
Some stores clerks are reporting rather high return rates on 360 discs because of circular gouges in the surface. EBgames offers something like a $3 extended warranty on the discs themselves, it might actually be worthwhile if Xbox270 consoles are eating games.
P.S. (This is why I never believe the hype that CD's and their ilk are considered "permanent" storage because "nothing ever touches the surface". The mechanical failures just move from the media to the reading unit, in these cases the laser focusing element.)
P.P.S. This entire console release is looking worse and worse for Microsoft. I can't believe how many ways they seemed to have scr**ed the pooch with this launch. Maybe the "Dreamcast" labels weren't so misplaced after all.
I preordered a 360 over a month ago, and was required to pay upon ordering. Turns out that instead of filling the preorders, the reseller instead held an event where they sold 360:s to random people.
This is exactly why I don't pre-order anything anymore, especially if it requires a large down-payment deposit. Now they've got your money, and you don't have any leverage. You would've thought people would learn after things like the ATI 9800 (with Half-Life 2, supposedly) fiasco, or any of the recent _insert_game_name_here which gets delayed. The fact that these kind of "Pre-order" scams still work today surprises me. While Microsoft is trying to release simultaneously on 3 continents, there is still a shortage here on their home turf.
Anyway, here in the U.S. I was at the local game shop. On a lark, I asked the shop manager if they expected any Xbox 360s soon, and she said they were still filling pre-orders until at least March. Holy bologna, Batman! If I had paid for a pre-ordered unit and had to wait until after the new-year, I'd be super pissed. Pre-orders are supposed to be a way for companies to gauge interest in their product, but to release without enough product !In 3 Continents!!Right before the holiday shopping season! would be practically suicide for any other company. This is a huge marketing miss for Microsoft!
Good. Maybe, just maybe this will help end the new era of TV stations stretching their shows one (or like Cold Case, several) minutes later than their scheduled run time. I swear they started runing these long to screw with TiVos and VCRs.
I'm pretty sure Eolas has made it a public point that they don't want to license this to Microsoft. Specifically it seems they want MS to suffer, for sneaking away with the browser market in the first place. They've also (sort of) promised that they won't go after other browsers.
I was under the impression (from over here in the UK) that the rating on a game means that no-one under a certain age should be sold it. The article suggests that such a thing is against the First Amendment, WTF?
In the U.S. at the very top of the Bill of Rights, the first amendment says this: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Essentially, the government cannot restrict what you say or what you write. When applied to games, it means government can't "ban" your stuff. Individual stores of course can choose to not carry certain items, it is their own right not to sell such material.
Note that the ESRB rating system is made up from the game industry itself. The problem with these sorts of laws is that it gives the force of law to a private group (the ESRB). And so, despite all these busybodies in various states who keep trying to pass these type of laws, they get consistently knocked down by the courts.
I am reminded of the entire Tipper Gore vs. Frank Zappa music censorship battle.
Tipper Gore, wife of U.S. vice-president and 2000 election Democratic candidate Al Gore, was huge behind the whole censorship of music. She wanted to ban all sorts of stuff (yeah, nice line for a supposed 'liberal' to take). After some capitulation, we're still stuck with those giant "bad laguage" warning stickers.
I'm a parent, and of course I'm concerned about what my kids see and do. But these are the kind of nanny-state politics which cause me to spend my vote on independents. I'd almost swing to the republican side (idea of lesser government), but that party has been abducted by neo-con heavy debt-spenders and the ultra-conservative fundamentalist Christian taliban. I woe the Democrats if they're actually serious about running Sen. Billary, who is spearheading her own unconstitutional anti-game rhetoric.
And the Democrats wonder why the true liberals and moderates are abondanding them at the polls.
Adding a rebate is a way for manufacturers to discount goods already in the supply chain
I call shenanigans.
Time was, a manufacturer could put a sale discount on a product, and retailers would get a refund (or future discount) on items sold during the sale period. The retailer was in the position of claiming the refunds, sort of like the AMD vs Intel lawsuit thing going on, but usually without the pressure of screwing over competitors.
I don't know if rebates come out of pressure from the stores, whom obviously would benefit from getting out of this task while still being able to advertise a "sale" price. Or perhaps strategy from the manufacturers, where many claims are not filed, and many others can be denied/delayed/ignored. Perhaps collusion of the two. But it puts the effort of claiming the refunds on the shoulders of the consumer -- with as I mentioned lots of tricks to deny or ignore claims. It is certainly not the only way to put existing items on discount, just "better" for both the vendor and the maker.
Does anybody else find it as preposterous as do I, that to identify far eastern sites they want to use.asia which is a completely western-centric delineation and uses a western alphabet?
HyperWRT is also one I've heard of that's supposed to be good.
HyperWRT is designed to be pretty much what Linksys provides, but with a few extra features enabled (why Linksys hides these, I dunno). The main feature which I enjoy is the remote Reboot button, although its pretty stable and I don't need to use it much.
Having an early model of the WRT54GS (the speedboost model, with more RAM), my big concern is how many varations of this hardware have been put on the market. Some flashes are model-dependent... even the 'official' ones from the Linksys site. They even seem to sell these things at Sam's Club of all places. But its impossible to tell *just what revision* you're actually getting until you tear open the packaging.
No wonder it takes two years for a murder suspect to stand trial, 23 months to deal with the paperwork of RIAA lawsuits
You're confusing criminal court with civil court. But the main reason it takes years for a murder trial is that the first thing a defense lawyer does is petition for delay, so they can actually mount a defense. Very very few captial charges elect their constitutional granted swift and speedy trial.
So, in summary, who cares about these a-holes in Brooklyn? Maybe if they get enough chargebacks, they will get dropped by the credit card processors and have to close up shop.
The problem with most of these is that they will close up shop, either by themselves or by being forced out of the market. But then they just regroup and open another fraudulent business in another name ("shedding names") under yet another merchant account. Although electronics is a big scam field, at least you did receive a working product of some sort -- albiet not exactly what was advertised. [I'm sure in their minds they send you something 'exactly like the S400" but cheaper, which is better than a box of bricks. If their ads were more honest, people probably wouldn't complain.]
Worse is the construction field, where contractors often break up and regroup to get out of sub-par building lawsuits.
i would propose to put 360 related stories in a new category
Oh calm down, already. Since the Thanksgiving release, Xbox360 buzz is already falling off pretty sharply. Don't worry, late next year you can reconfigure your filters for all the Playstation 3 articles choking Slashdot and the rest of the press.
Granted, the tools certainly already exist for irresponsi^Wconcerned parents to block these channels out
Way to talk out of your a^W^W hind-quarters, linking a well-known site (without actual linking) to try and bolster your argument without actually having any experience in the matter. The big problem is that even if shows are tagged with ratings (and many on cableTV simply aren't) the commercial breaks aren't. So what happens is that many ugly shows still bypass "parental protection" and worse even those properly tagged don't affect the commercials. So you manage to block most Comedy Central shows from the kids, but all the GIRLS GONE WILD commercials still display in all their "glory".
Not that I mind a few GIRLS GONE WILD commercials, I'm not that much of a prude. But at the same time I don't want them on the screen while channel flipping up in front of my small children, either.
I'm not so sure these days. Games seem to be eating Hollywood's lunch, which is bad for theaters, and small development houses grow merge and die off but that's the norm. There's nothing which would indicate a full blown game crash like the 1983 Atari debacle.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, this is beginning to illuminate Branson's plan all along. The Space Ship One is an atmospheric vehicle, not truly a 'space vehicle'. I've always wondered why Richard Branson, with a successful airline already, would want to get into the high-atmosphere business with SS1. It seemed like a limited, fad market.
But here, I'm seeing his true intention. Branson isn't just selling a few tickets on a high-flying plane, he is getting into the space industry! And here will be a cornerstone of this industry: The New Mexico SpacePort. No matter what team or company ends up making the best ships, they will still need somewhere for customers to get service and a place from which to lift-off.
It's f&*^ing brilliant, when you think about it. No wonder this guy's a mega-billionaire. He's trying to corner the airport -- I mean SpacePort -- market!
LAN parties! While I certainly wouldn't call it a laptop it is certainly more portable than some of the rigs I've seen with carrying straps wrapped around them. A built-in screen is much nicer than lugging a heavy CRT around with you, too.
Aside from the gaming aspect, it would still be nice to have a fairly heavy-duty station for 'regular work' which you can take from site to site. Again, you're not going to get much use from the battery, but anywhere you can sit and plug-in would be fine. The $3200 price is a little offputting, but I suppose that's the price you pay (pun intended) for the convenience of a portable game-capable workstation.
Also, since this article is about cameras: B&H Photo http://www.bhphotovideo.com/ is well respected. Not the bottom barrel cheapest, but reputable and I've never had a problem with them.
NewEgg http://www.newegg.com/ is great, although they've recently defaulted to UPS (oops) shipping, and FedEx now costs extra.
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/ is okay, but make sure you're actually buying from Amazon directly, and not one of the scammy "partner stores" which link off of the Amazon page.
During these holiday shopping weeks, I've been noticing a fair number of Xbox 360 titles and even a lot of PSP titles sitting on the shelves. I can't really explain the PSP titles, except that maybe demand isn't high for the Sony portable.
With the 360 sold out and pretty much unavailable anywhere, there isn't much demand for the software. So it sits there, collecting dust. I'm surprised at the number of boxes just sitting there, like they overproduced or something. Keep in mind that these are games which developers have already spent the money and work putting together. Without consoles to play them on, there is no demand.
(With Christmas just a couple weeks away, one wonders why Microsoft is pushing so hard into Japan with a poor launch instead of recommitting to North America.)
I believe you have misspelled Network Solutions.
The thing which concerns me is that instead of just moving on with building the true next generation titles, some shops (EA I'm looking at you) seem to be content with re-writing existing titles again just for the 360 unit.
I was just reading an article about how EA is converting Burnout Revenge over to Xbox 360 format. Keep in mind this is a very recent title, and I would have expected an Xbox backwards-compatiblity "profile" for this game. EA seem to think people should buy it all over again. To me, this not undermines the whole backwards-compatible angle of the 360 (it shouldn't carry the Xbox name if it can't handle the Xbox games), but smells of extreme laziness on the part of the developer. A re-hash instead of a new gameplay, very this-gen instead of next. But you can bet it'll be sold at a new-game price.
It's these kind of things which make me, and I'm sure others, wait until next year to see what the competition brings.
I think you misspelled free profit.
P.S. (although I do wonder with MS losing $126 per machine leads to higher licensing costs for the game makers. That would quickly explain the higher prices on just about every game except MS-Studios titles.)
So, you expect game developers to publish HD-DVD games which won't run on the 1.5-to-3 million Xbox consoles Microsoft claims they want to sell by year end? Or how about the millions more consoles they'll sell next year before HD-DVD drives actually, possibly become available?
No game maker is going to cut off their own nose like this. HD-DVD in XBox360 is a dead topic.
Gee, I've been saying since, oh I dunno, around 2000 that this was a stupid idea. They claimed they would have "synergy" between divisions (a sure sign of management buzzword cockery) and cross-promotion. All it really meant is that it moved ad dollars from one internal spreadsheet to another internal spreadsheet.
And yes, I've since made sure to _not_ buy into Time Warner nor AOL.
It is certainly NOT better for the folks who claim rebates. Instead of a good sale deal, you are now stuck with filling out forms, cutting out UPCs, making sure you get it all together in the envelope and after doing all that hope that they don't screw you over.
In the meantime, whether or not they actually fulfill your rebate, your name+address and these days even email address are now well within the clutches of the manufacturer, to be sold and resold on a whim to any and all who ask.
No. Its not better for the buyer. I'd much prefer a return to the days where I walk in, get a sale price, pay anonymously and leave with my items a done deal.
Holy smokes, where to begin. Where to begin...
First you knock the complaints as "unsubstantiated", yet then you blurt out meaningless statistics without backing them up yourself. Well, the last time I checked, the problem rate on 360 units was in the double digits varying from 13-16%. Of course, people with problems are more likely to be vocal (and post, hit online vote tabs, etc.) but that is still a LOT of problems with a new product. Especially after Microsoft already did a merket test run with their first console the original Xbox.
Before you discount me as a Microsoft hater, I actually own two orginal Xbox units which I very much enjoy. Here's a rundown of issues I've seen around the Xbox 360 launch:
The PS2 originally came out with a tray-drive which could stand on end.
There are plenty of others stating they left it in place, and the laser head still has a tendency to scrape the disc. I would imagine its partly due to heat expansion, where gamers say their discs eject really hot after a couple hours playing, the disc probably gets out of round and wobbles more than MS ever anticipated. Especially at 12X or whatever crazy speed at which these are spinning.
Some stores clerks are reporting rather high return rates on 360 discs because of circular gouges in the surface. EBgames offers something like a $3 extended warranty on the discs themselves, it might actually be worthwhile if Xbox270 consoles are eating games.
P.S. (This is why I never believe the hype that CD's and their ilk are considered "permanent" storage because "nothing ever touches the surface". The mechanical failures just move from the media to the reading unit, in these cases the laser focusing element.)
P.P.S. This entire console release is looking worse and worse for Microsoft. I can't believe how many ways they seemed to have scr**ed the pooch with this launch. Maybe the "Dreamcast" labels weren't so misplaced after all.
This is exactly why I don't pre-order anything anymore, especially if it requires a large down-payment deposit. Now they've got your money, and you don't have any leverage. You would've thought people would learn after things like the ATI 9800 (with Half-Life 2, supposedly) fiasco, or any of the recent _insert_game_name_here which gets delayed. The fact that these kind of "Pre-order" scams still work today surprises me. While Microsoft is trying to release simultaneously on 3 continents, there is still a shortage here on their home turf.
Anyway, here in the U.S. I was at the local game shop. On a lark, I asked the shop manager if they expected any Xbox 360s soon, and she said they were still filling pre-orders until at least March. Holy bologna, Batman! If I had paid for a pre-ordered unit and had to wait until after the new-year, I'd be super pissed. Pre-orders are supposed to be a way for companies to gauge interest in their product, but to release without enough product ! In 3 Continents ! ! Right before the holiday shopping season ! would be practically suicide for any other company. This is a huge marketing miss for Microsoft!
Good. Maybe, just maybe this will help end the new era of TV stations stretching their shows one (or like Cold Case, several) minutes later than their scheduled run time. I swear they started runing these long to screw with TiVos and VCRs.
I'm pretty sure Eolas has made it a public point that they don't want to license this to Microsoft. Specifically it seems they want MS to suffer, for sneaking away with the browser market in the first place. They've also (sort of) promised that they won't go after other browsers.
In the U.S. at the very top of the Bill of Rights, the first amendment says this:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Essentially, the government cannot restrict what you say or what you write. When applied to games, it means government can't "ban" your stuff. Individual stores of course can choose to not carry certain items, it is their own right not to sell such material.
Note that the ESRB rating system is made up from the game industry itself. The problem with these sorts of laws is that it gives the force of law to a private group (the ESRB). And so, despite all these busybodies in various states who keep trying to pass these type of laws, they get consistently knocked down by the courts.
Tipper Gore, wife of U.S. vice-president and 2000 election Democratic candidate Al Gore, was huge behind the whole censorship of music. She wanted to ban all sorts of stuff (yeah, nice line for a supposed 'liberal' to take). After some capitulation, we're still stuck with those giant "bad laguage" warning stickers.
I'm a parent, and of course I'm concerned about what my kids see and do. But these are the kind of nanny-state politics which cause me to spend my vote on independents. I'd almost swing to the republican side (idea of lesser government), but that party has been abducted by neo-con heavy debt-spenders and the ultra-conservative fundamentalist Christian taliban. I woe the Democrats if they're actually serious about running Sen. Billary, who is spearheading her own unconstitutional anti-game rhetoric.
And the Democrats wonder why the true liberals and moderates are abondanding them at the polls.
I call shenanigans.
Time was, a manufacturer could put a sale discount on a product, and retailers would get a refund (or future discount) on items sold during the sale period. The retailer was in the position of claiming the refunds, sort of like the AMD vs Intel lawsuit thing going on, but usually without the pressure of screwing over competitors.
I don't know if rebates come out of pressure from the stores, whom obviously would benefit from getting out of this task while still being able to advertise a "sale" price. Or perhaps strategy from the manufacturers, where many claims are not filed, and many others can be denied/delayed/ignored. Perhaps collusion of the two. But it puts the effort of claiming the refunds on the shoulders of the consumer -- with as I mentioned lots of tricks to deny or ignore claims. It is certainly not the only way to put existing items on discount, just "better" for both the vendor and the maker.
Does anybody else find it as preposterous as do I, that to identify far eastern sites they want to use .asia which is a completely western-centric delineation and uses a western alphabet?
HyperWRT is designed to be pretty much what Linksys provides, but with a few extra features enabled (why Linksys hides these, I dunno). The main feature which I enjoy is the remote Reboot button, although its pretty stable and I don't need to use it much.
Having an early model of the WRT54GS (the speedboost model, with more RAM), my big concern is how many varations of this hardware have been put on the market. Some flashes are model-dependent... even the 'official' ones from the Linksys site. They even seem to sell these things at Sam's Club of all places. But its impossible to tell *just what revision* you're actually getting until you tear open the packaging.
You're confusing criminal court with civil court. But the main reason it takes years for a murder trial is that the first thing a defense lawyer does is petition for delay, so they can actually mount a defense. Very very few captial charges elect their constitutional granted swift and speedy trial.
The problem with most of these is that they will close up shop, either by themselves or by being forced out of the market. But then they just regroup and open another fraudulent business in another name ("shedding names") under yet another merchant account. Although electronics is a big scam field, at least you did receive a working product of some sort -- albiet not exactly what was advertised. [I'm sure in their minds they send you something 'exactly like the S400" but cheaper, which is better than a box of bricks. If their ads were more honest, people probably wouldn't complain.]
Worse is the construction field, where contractors often break up and regroup to get out of sub-par building lawsuits.
Oh calm down, already. Since the Thanksgiving release, Xbox360 buzz is already falling off pretty sharply. Don't worry, late next year you can reconfigure your filters for all the Playstation 3 articles choking Slashdot and the rest of the press.
Way to talk out of your a^W^W hind-quarters, linking a well-known site (without actual linking) to try and bolster your argument without actually having any experience in the matter. The big problem is that even if shows are tagged with ratings (and many on cableTV simply aren't) the commercial breaks aren't. So what happens is that many ugly shows still bypass "parental protection" and worse even those properly tagged don't affect the commercials. So you manage to block most Comedy Central shows from the kids, but all the GIRLS GONE WILD commercials still display in all their "glory".
Not that I mind a few GIRLS GONE WILD commercials, I'm not that much of a prude. But at the same time I don't want them on the screen while channel flipping up in front of my small children, either.
I'm not so sure these days. Games seem to be eating Hollywood's lunch, which is bad for theaters, and small development houses grow merge and die off but that's the norm. There's nothing which would indicate a full blown game crash like the 1983 Atari debacle.