After doing some quick calculations, the actual amount he's being fined is 100,170,- (NOK).
This is comparable to a typical down payment for a Oslo apartment, which many students actually buy while still in college.
Minimum wage in Norway is equal to about $12.70/hr USD, and goes up by age (among other factors), so a 25-year old would be making a minimum of $19.84/hr USD.
Re:TV is actually worse than movies...
on
TV Piracy is Next
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· Score: 1
As an American who currently lives in Norway, I'd have to say Norway has done an excellent job with TV.
One of the government-owned TV stations (NRK) provides their most popular shows online via streaming WMV. The others might also, but that is the only one I'm sure of.
Norway's prohibition of advertisements targeted toward children, as well as the extremely short and sparse commercial breaks - the few advertisements being other shows on the same channel, generally - shows that the Norwegian TV industry is a completely different beast from the United States' TV industry.
f I pay $50 for a game that sucks and then after a month it's no use to me, I would feel completely screwed. Give me a free download and a $15 first month... then if it sucks I'm out $15. (and unfortunately, a lot of MMORPGs suck... bad). I believe that is the whole point.
Since most MMORPGs do suck, the devs/publisher needs to provide some kind of initial hook - in this case, your $50 box copy.
You don't want to throw away your $50 investment, because that would just make you feel stupid, so you keep playing, even though it isn't fun.
For the first few hours/days of play, your character will level fast, and things will be close together - they know you don't have the patience for the big timesinks yet and that you'll quite playing if it isn't fun. Within the first month, you've gotten to where you're forced to start grouping, and things are starting to take a lot more of your time. At the end of that first month, you're probably thinking "This isn't very much fun, but it's fun playing with those people/friends I've met." So you stay on with your subscription.
If you're only loss is the few minutes it took you to find the downloadable client and start it, then you have no initial incentive to stay in this kind of game, and you probably will never reach the deeper psychological hooks.
If you're a paying customer, you can grab the file from FilePlanet. Alternatively, you can signup for the WoW beta here, and grab the Official Blizzard Download Client from the signup area.
Since the official Blizzard download client is a marvelous piece of BitTorrent shit (the Blizzard forums are rampant with posts complaining of choked bandwidth and horrible download speeds - I'm personally getting about 6 KB/s down and was putting up 70 KB/s before I choked the upload with a 3rd party program.), does anyone have a torrent file for this?
I did find a torrent on Suprnova, but haven't been able to get a decent connection speed.
I live in an inner-city ghetto, also. I also doubt that many people around me have computers, and if they did get online, they would sound like 12-year old AIM kiddies.
On the other hand - there are people like you, and I, that aren't visible in our neighborhoods. So maybe it would turn out you've got a potential friend hiding out in their apartment a block away, thinking the same cynical things you are.
If I had mod points, you'd be getting up.
In addition to the points you've made, another thing to consider is that all the money to buy these luxury goods has to come from somewhere. Traditionally, it's been our higher-paying jobs.
Higher wages -> better talent pool -> better product -> better sales -> better economy.
Cheap isn't the way to go.
Do we really need more MMOGs targeted for younger demographics?
We've already seen how an MMOG can ruin the lives of fully-grown, critically-thinking adults. Setting up an addictive game targeted to those who haven't yet developed the responsibility structure and critical thinking skills necessary to protect themselves from addiction can't be a good idea.
I thought that of myself, while I was suffering from insomnia. So I got a graveyard job, and couldn't sleep in the daytime. It wasn't until I was unemployed, and started doing web design from my home (with no real schedule at all) that I realized what it was that I needed - a 36 hour day.
If I have no association with the outside world, I will stay awake for 26 hours, become tired, sleep for 10, and wake up feeling refreshed, energized, creative - all those things that make life so wonderful to live. Unfortunately, as I'm now in college, I have to keep myself on the 24 hour day, and I'm definitely suffering from it. I can't ever really get my energy up, I feel exhausted, nervous, and worn down.
Well, that's great for you blokes in the European Union, and one of the reasons I enjoy watching the BBC.
Unfortunately for your fellow humans in the USA, I doubt the American government would be likely to institute similiar legislation. The US government isn't going to do much to stand in the way of corporate profit, I assure you.
I'm pretty sure you've got that acronym wrong. Shut The Fuck Up (STFU) would be the proper acronym for what you are referring to.
However, it can clearly be seen that the acronym in question is SFU. Hence, we here at Microsoft would prefer your using our chosen acronym: Stupid Fucking Users.
It could just be my jaded marketing self rearing it's ugly head, but if downloading TV without advertisements did catch on, product placement would be raised to a new level.
I don't know about you, but I would really not look forward to downloading the "new" episodes of Futurama, where Slurm has been replaced with Pepsi, Bender espouses his new, carefree lifestyle thanks to herpes medication, and Leela makes pointed, frequent trips to refresh her Tampax.
It's probably not what you're looking for (it's not free, although there is a free ad-supported version for pretty much any OS), but I use Opera's M2 client.
Since I use Opera for browsing and mail, it's a natural extension for me to use it as an RSS reader, too. I especially like the filtering, for grouping messages from different feeds (and email) into similiar views based on topics. I dislike having lots of extra apps open for basic things, so the integrated solution works well for me.
I would agree - this isn't exactly an informative gmail^H^H^H^H^HLinux article, other than to please^H^H^H^H^H^Hinform Linux users of what they already know.
I, for one, welcome our gmail invite-bearing overlords. ;D
Pick them up and toss one by one? You're so inefficent! See what you do is delete the path leading out the park. Wait a while, thousands of people stand by the gates not being able to get out... then you lower the land under the remaining path until it's water. Then delete the path as the people still stand on it:D
Obviously you played RCT from the viewpoint of a large corporate money-making manager. There's really something to be said for the mom-and-pop method of drowning invididuals one at a time. Gives it that personal touch, don't you know?
First: My beloved 'player-control' window is now accessible only by using 'ctrl+m'. The standard windows 'maximize' button now sets iTunes up to full screen.
Second: One performance increase I noticed immediately is that it's no longer lagging when scrolling through large library lists. I have 3500+ mp3s in there, and the previous version was very choppy when scrolling. The update seems to have fixed that.
The idea behind this camera (from a business perspective, not a real life perspective) is to lower the cost of entry into the realm of digital cameras for Joe User. They want the camera to be extremely cheap, so that Joe User sees a cheap DIGITAL camera, and gets blown away by the low price, the features, the ease of printing, etc...
If you're still having trouble grasping why they don't charge more at the POS, look at Lexmark printers - cheap printer, expensive ink. Sadly, Lexmark sells a ghastly number of printers every year to (guess who?) Joe User.
As a former first level technical assistance specialist, I'd like to state that I have never heard "My Windows is broken." The actual phrase used is "My Internet is broken."
"I know that, Mrs. Rosen. I released my album on the p2p network over 1 year ago, and those that want to buy it directly from me will, and do. I have no personal interest in becoming a slave to RIAA marketing and hype.":P
Stupidfilter is blind to irony. It says so in the FAQ.
After doing some quick calculations, the actual amount he's being fined is 100,170,- (NOK).
This is comparable to a typical down payment for a Oslo apartment, which many students actually buy while still in college.
Minimum wage in Norway is equal to about $12.70/hr USD, and goes up by age (among other factors), so a 25-year old would be making a minimum of $19.84/hr USD.
As an American who currently lives in Norway, I'd have to say Norway has done an excellent job with TV.
One of the government-owned TV stations (NRK) provides their most popular shows online via streaming WMV. The others might also, but that is the only one I'm sure of.
Norway's prohibition of advertisements targeted toward children, as well as the extremely short and sparse commercial breaks - the few advertisements being other shows on the same channel, generally - shows that the Norwegian TV industry is a completely different beast from the United States' TV industry.
f I pay $50 for a game that sucks and then after a month it's no use to me, I would feel completely screwed. Give me a free download and a $15 first month... then if it sucks I'm out $15. (and unfortunately, a lot of MMORPGs suck... bad).
I believe that is the whole point.
Since most MMORPGs do suck, the devs/publisher needs to provide some kind of initial hook - in this case, your $50 box copy.
You don't want to throw away your $50 investment, because that would just make you feel stupid, so you keep playing, even though it isn't fun.
For the first few hours/days of play, your character will level fast, and things will be close together - they know you don't have the patience for the big timesinks yet and that you'll quite playing if it isn't fun. Within the first month, you've gotten to where you're forced to start grouping, and things are starting to take a lot more of your time. At the end of that first month, you're probably thinking "This isn't very much fun, but it's fun playing with those people/friends I've met." So you stay on with your subscription.
If you're only loss is the few minutes it took you to find the downloadable client and start it, then you have no initial incentive to stay in this kind of game, and you probably will never reach the deeper psychological hooks.
MMORPGs are a dirty business.
Would you mind posting those up somewhere? :D
If you're a paying customer, you can grab the file from FilePlanet. Alternatively, you can signup for the WoW beta here, and grab the Official Blizzard Download Client from the signup area.
Since the official Blizzard download client is a marvelous piece of BitTorrent shit (the Blizzard forums are rampant with posts complaining of choked bandwidth and horrible download speeds - I'm personally getting about 6 KB/s down and was putting up 70 KB/s before I choked the upload with a 3rd party program.), does anyone have a torrent file for this?
I did find a torrent on Suprnova, but haven't been able to get a decent connection speed.
I live in an inner-city ghetto, also. I also doubt that many people around me have computers, and if they did get online, they would sound like 12-year old AIM kiddies. On the other hand - there are people like you, and I, that aren't visible in our neighborhoods. So maybe it would turn out you've got a potential friend hiding out in their apartment a block away, thinking the same cynical things you are.
If I had mod points, you'd be getting up. In addition to the points you've made, another thing to consider is that all the money to buy these luxury goods has to come from somewhere. Traditionally, it's been our higher-paying jobs. Higher wages -> better talent pool -> better product -> better sales -> better economy. Cheap isn't the way to go.
Statistics are like bikinis - what they reveal is enticing. What they cover is vital. ~Aaron Levenstein
Do we really need more MMOGs targeted for younger demographics?
We've already seen how an MMOG can ruin the lives of fully-grown, critically-thinking adults. Setting up an addictive game targeted to those who haven't yet developed the responsibility structure and critical thinking skills necessary to protect themselves from addiction can't be a good idea.
If I have no association with the outside world, I will stay awake for 26 hours, become tired, sleep for 10, and wake up feeling refreshed, energized, creative - all those things that make life so wonderful to live. Unfortunately, as I'm now in college, I have to keep myself on the 24 hour day, and I'm definitely suffering from it. I can't ever really get my energy up, I feel exhausted, nervous, and worn down.
Well, that's great for you blokes in the European Union, and one of the reasons I enjoy watching the BBC.
Unfortunately for your fellow humans in the USA, I doubt the American government would be likely to institute similiar legislation. The US government isn't going to do much to stand in the way of corporate profit, I assure you.
I'm pretty sure you've got that acronym wrong. Shut The Fuck Up (STFU) would be the proper acronym for what you are referring to.
However, it can clearly be seen that the acronym in question is SFU. Hence, we here at Microsoft would prefer your using our chosen acronym: Stupid Fucking Users.
Thanks,Microsoft
It could just be my jaded marketing self rearing it's ugly head, but if downloading TV without advertisements did catch on, product placement would be raised to a new level.
I don't know about you, but I would really not look forward to downloading the "new" episodes of Futurama, where Slurm has been replaced with Pepsi, Bender espouses his new, carefree lifestyle thanks to herpes medication, and Leela makes pointed, frequent trips to refresh her Tampax.
Just my opinion.
It's probably not what you're looking for (it's not free, although there is a free ad-supported version for pretty much any OS), but I use Opera's M2 client.
Since I use Opera for browsing and mail, it's a natural extension for me to use it as an RSS reader, too. I especially like the filtering, for grouping messages from different feeds (and email) into similiar views based on topics. I dislike having lots of extra apps open for basic things, so the integrated solution works well for me.
I would agree - this isn't exactly an informative gmail^H^H^H^H^HLinux article, other than to please^H^H^H^H^H^Hinform Linux users of what they already know.
I, for one, welcome our gmail invite-bearing overlords.
;D
Obviously you played RCT from the viewpoint of a large corporate money-making manager. There's really something to be said for the mom-and-pop method of drowning invididuals one at a time. Gives it that personal touch, don't you know?
Because, as we all know, the main point of any massive multiplayer online Korean game is to get your character a better hat.
Seriously, though, this game is lots of fun - I'm an addict myself.
Another one I've recently discovered is 'Survival Project' at http://english.spgame.com/spMain.asp
Oh, and for the lazy: Gunbound. Get out your engrish dictionary and go have some fun.
First: My beloved 'player-control' window is now accessible only by using 'ctrl+m'. The standard windows 'maximize' button now sets iTunes up to full screen.
Second: One performance increase I noticed immediately is that it's no longer lagging when scrolling through large library lists. I have 3500+ mp3s in there, and the previous version was very choppy when scrolling. The update seems to have fixed that.
You're missing the whole point.
The idea behind this camera (from a business perspective, not a real life perspective) is to lower the cost of entry into the realm of digital cameras for Joe User. They want the camera to be extremely cheap, so that Joe User sees a cheap DIGITAL camera, and gets blown away by the low price, the features, the ease of printing, etc...
If you're still having trouble grasping why they don't charge more at the POS, look at Lexmark printers - cheap printer, expensive ink. Sadly, Lexmark sells a ghastly number of printers every year to (guess who?) Joe User.
As a former first level technical assistance specialist, I'd like to state that I have never heard "My Windows is broken." The actual phrase used is "My Internet is broken."
Thank you.
http://www.emptylogic.com/suprnova/torrents/413/Ha lf.Life.2.Beta-ANON(2).torrent
Oops. Fixed the URL.
here.
"I know that, Mrs. Rosen. I released my album on the p2p network over 1 year ago, and those that want to buy it directly from me will, and do. I have no personal interest in becoming a slave to RIAA marketing and hype." :P