Stands to reason then that a digital copy costs considerably less. Which just proves the point I was trying to make. Certainly the costs don't justify a $14.95 'e-book' price tag, vs. a $17.95 paper copy.
Of course, while there is a premium for paper based books, if the e-reader market really wants to address the issue of declining sales, then someone should be taking a seriously hard look at how many e-books are priced.
Knocking a couple of bucks off the price of a paper version, which has to be printed and then trucked out to retailers all over the world, vs. the costs of providing a digital download is larcenous, at best.
If the listing service was truly marketed by Sony as lifetime, then there is a solution that can be described in three simple words-
Class Action Lawsuit.
Why not? Everyone else does it, and it's not like owners of these devices have anything to lose by giving this approach a try.
And there is certainly no shortage of lawyers willing to go after big corporations for their share of the 'take'
Started out with Mandrake on 3-1/2 inch floppies
Fooled around with some others, Damn Small, Puppy, Mepis, PCLinuxOS, even Debian, but never seriously.
First full time dual boot OS's were Linux Mint, Ubuntu, and OpenSUSE
Used KnoppMyth and NASLite for special purpose appliance distros for quite some time.
For the past few years it's been Linux Mint all the way, many times as the only installed OS. It's not perfect, but it does seem to me to be the most completely functional, out of the box, solution.
And I've switched from KnoppMyth to Mythbuntu, since the KnoppMyth transition to the Arch based LinHES required too much effort to re-learn the nomenclature, etc.
Back when my cable provider (Charter) first offered their DVR's, I discovered that with 3 adults, all with different viewing tastes, one DVR with it's standard recording capabilities and storage capacity was simply not up to our household's time-shifted viewing appetites.
Attempts to obtain a second DVR, at an additional monthly expense, were solidly refused by Charter. They maintained that their supply of DVR units was limited, and that providing more than one DVR in the same household was not part of their business plan. Not a very smart move, from my viewpoint, when you consider that most satellite services have been offering the option of multiple DVR's for quite some time now. Isn't it wonderful how having an exclusive cable territory allows cable operators to ignore customers wants/needs and adopt a take it or leave it attitude towards the quality of services provided? Oh, well, that's a rant for another day.
I started out small, with one PVR-150 and one frame grabber tuner in the backend, a minimalist frontend, and 80 Gb of storage (2 times the storage on the Charter DVR).
Today my backend supports 3 PVR-150's, the ability to record (paid for) premium channels by using a digital converter feeding directly into one of the PVR's, 3 frontends, and 750Gb of online storage, with an additional 300Gb on a separate NAS for archival storage of my personal DVD collection. All four units have fully supported APC battery backup systems, which protects against data loss here in rural Michigan, where the power can be unstable, even at the best of times. The frontends have replaced the need for stand alone DVD players at each of the 3 viewing stations, and anything that has been recorded can be viewed at anytime by anyone. Additionally, my entire music collection, which is quite extensive, since I am an independent DJ/Karaoke operator, can be accessed from the frontends, mapped into the Knoppmyth backend and stored on the same NAS as the media files.
Being relatively new to LINUX at the beginning, there was a bit of a learning curve, especially as the system evolved into it's current configuration, but there was always a wealth of information on the MythTV website http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page and the KnoppMyth User Forums http://www.knoppmyth.net/phpBB2/
Interestingly enough, Charter subsequently did add the ability to add an additional external USB hard drive to extend the storage capacity of their original DVR, but since it shares it's resources with viewing and recording tasks, it simply lacks the flexibility of the Knoppmyth backend.
Expanding storage costs aside, and using eBay as a bargain outlet for components, the backend unit ran about $250 to bring to it's current state, and each frontend ran $150 or less. After that, the only other expense is the $20/yr subscription fee to Schedules Direct http://www.schedulesdirect.org/ to obtain the needed TV listings data, which is hands down the biggest
entertainment bargain you could find anywhere.
Up next, the addition of a slave backend to support a recently acquired HDTV tuner to record unencrypted QAM cable channels, and additional tuners for those rare occasions when I do actually max out the system's recording abilities.
Note: I realize this post is somewhat off topic, since the original posting is about suing Time Warner for the right to use alternative set top boxes, but there are already alternative solutions available, such as MythTV and it's various derivatives, which can obtain virtually any functionality, short of a cable card, that the user desires, and requires no special lawsuit to implement on any current cable operators system.
I too have used TaxAct for the past few years. I find it easy to use, and less expensive than TurboTax.
Typically I file 3 seperate tax returns (for each of the 3 individuals in the household) plus 3 additional state tax returns (Michigan). All are filed electronicly, and the refunds, if any, are deposited directly into the appropriate checking accounts within 2-4 weeks.
Total cost for all of this is in the neighborhood of $50, much less than the cost of having three visits to the local tax preparation office.
All in All, no problems whatsoever in 4 years of use, and I expect this year to be no different.
TaxAct also has a free online tax prep site, if your return is simple enough to meet the guidelines.
It's curious to note that there is a overwhelming concept that PayPal has a 'stranglehold' on eBay.
Lest we forget our history.
At one time, eBay had their own inhouse payment system, which was NOT PayPal.
PayPal's supposed 'stranglehold' on eBay is, in fact, a creation of eBay itself.
PayPal was introduced as an online payment system for all sorts of e-commerce, which eventually included eBay.
PayPal services created a way for people who wanted to process online transactions, including those that wanted to accept credit card payments, but could not/would not spend the money required to create their own seperate merchant accounts with a credit card processing service. It is important to note that, in the early days of e-commerce, credit card processing companies were highly resistant to allowing online merchants access to credit card processing and electronic funds transactions. You almost always had to have a 'brick and mortar' business location in order to get a merchant account. The few institutions that would allow online operations access to these sorts of services charged such ridiculous fees that the costs outweighed the potential benefits, thereby protecting their brick and mortar accounts from competion from online operations. PayPal provided a reasonably priced way for enterprising online merchants to accept credit card and bank fund transfers without having to establish an actual storefront location. Shareware & Freeware authors, Online storefronts, Various user supported websites, Subscription chatrooms, and all sorts of other enterprises discovered the benefits of PayPal in the earliest days of e-commerce long before PayPal was the 'bully' of eBay.
Despite all it's other supposed faults, of which there are admittedly more than a few, this should/could be considered PayPal's overall major contribution to the natue of e-commerce as we know it today. If PayPal had not opened up this sort of financial transaction capability to the small online business scene, the big credit card companies/banking institutions would never have jumped on the bandwagon to let these sorts of enterprises get in on legitimate online funds processing. As a natural result of the nature of PayPal's creation, it's regulatory practices are different. Created 'offshore' because of the 'onshore' financial community's shortsighted approach, i.e., 'stonewalling', these sorts of business opportunities, PayPal's policies and practices were created in a completely different, and risky, business environment. Now that EVERYONE wants a piece of the online transactions market, it's easy to point the finger at PayPal and criticize the system that actually was the frontrunner in helping create the market that they all covet in the first place. A market that the 'onshore' institutions could have helped create in the first place, but refused to do so when they had the chance. It was much easier to let PayPal take all the risks in developing the market, and then jump in and try to grab what they can after the market is firmly established. Can anyone say "Imitate instead of Create" as a Business Model?
Eventually, PayPal's share of transactions on eBay grew to such an overwhelming percentage that they literally humiliated eBay's own in-house payment system. eBay's solution to their dilemma was simple, they dropped their in-house payment system completely and BOUGHT Paypal outright, which now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay. If PayPal holds the key to the lion's share of transactions on eBay, it is important to note that this is the way eBay prefers things to be.
And although there is no doubt that eBay transactions have most certainly become the bulk of their business, PayPal does continue to provide services to other endeavors, including those same independent online retailers, personal bill payment, and, if you stop to think about it, even competes against such services as Western Union Moneygrams. Dad can send Junior money (again!) while he is away
Auction Sniping the ONLY way to purchase on eBay!
on
How to Win on Ebay: Snipe
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· Score: 2, Informative
Being an avid eBay user for a number of years, I discovered the concept of sniping within 6 months of making my first transaction.
In the early phase, I did it all manually. Set an alarm on the computer 10 -15 minutes before the end of the auction, and then sat at the computer and entered my bid at the last possible moment.
There were a few drawbacks to this approach.
1) I was on a dailup connection, which was slow to send transactions, so I had to send my bid in well in advance of the time that someone could submit their last bid if they were on a broadband connection. The only thing worse than hauling yourself out of bed at 3am to bid on an item is to lose the bid because someone else has a faster connection to the internet than you do.
2) I had to phycially 'be there' to bid on each and every item I was interested in.
3) It was difficult to track similar objects and compare the current bid prices to make sure I was bidding on the correct item, i.e., the one I was most likely to win at the best possible price.
I looked around for sniping programs, tried out a few, and finally settled on my current sniping program. Here's why:
I.) I only pay a fee for the items I actually win. Currently this fee is 2% of the winning bid price. Since I am an agressive bargain hunter, the 2% fee is more than reasonable, since my wining bid prices are frequently low enough to upset a seller now and again.
II.) I can bid on a particular type of item 100 times or more, at no cost to me, until I get one at the bargain price I am searching for.
III.) Bid grouping.(The BIGGIE)
a) Let's say I've decided I want a gold plated whatchamacallit. In the next week, there are 14 of them coming up for bid. I've done my research, and I've discovered that these sell for about $42 on eBay, and about $8 shipping for a total of $50 delivered. I've also noted that a few folks have managed to get them for as little as $35, and one chap got lucky and got one for $27.
b) I check and find that I can purchase one of these items from an alternate source, local or online, for about $75-80.
c) Since I want the best possible deal I can get, I decide that I am willing to pay $27 + $8 shipping, for a total delivered price of $35. This is a huge goal, to get one of these for less than half of what they normally sell for, but, I am patient, and I never fall in love with any particular item. Price is always the central issue.
d) I seach the current listings for items, and now I am ready to start loading my bids into the sniper program. Since the goal is to get the item delivered to my door for $35, all bids are adjusted according to shipping costs. If a seller, like so many do, charges significantly higher shipping costs (in order to 'pad' the final selling price, and cheat eBay out of the appropriate seller fees) then the shipping fees that will be deducted from my $35 total cost goal will be higher than the shipping fees deducted from the bid that will be placed on the item listed by a seller who is charging a modest $6.50 for shipping.
e) After loading the sniper with all of the listings, and adjusting the bids so that the final cost to me is no more than $35, I tell the sniper program I want it to bid on each item as it becomes available until I win 1 (or 2, or 3, or however many I want at this price).
f) I go back to my daily life and let the sniper do the work. I will get email notifications that this item or that has gone beyond my bid price. These emails are ignored. I only want the item at the price previously determined. If someone else wants to pay more, god bless them, I'll wait.
g) Eventually one of two things will happen. I will win the item at the price I have set, or, I may have to add more items to the sniping group and keep on trying. After reloading the sniping group a couple of times without a win, if I really want the item, I may have to reset my concept of what I can reasonably expect
Obviously the recording industry thinks they should be the only 'pirates' in their industry.
Sue the consumers, and cheat the artists.
Stash a major portion of the proceeds into a political contribution fund, and use it to influence the lawmakers to pass legislation to give you Orwellian powers to spy on, harass, and penalize anyone and everyone, whether they have done anything wrong or not, and toss those 'Fair Use' laws out the window.
eBay currently gets a huge percentage of it's traffic through paid advertising with Google.
Now, because Google might infringe upon it's payment system and dabble a bit in online auctions, eBay will move it's advertising focus to someone like Yahoo or MSN that wouldn't send them anywhere near the referrals they get from Google?
Anyone else besides me see that concept being a bit like tossing the baby out with the bathwater?
Don't get me wrong, I'm quite willing to admit that I am hopelessly eBay addicted. I can also say that the chances of Google coming up with an auction site that would lure me away from eBay are somewhere between slim and none.
As for PayPal, while I have personally never had any problems, there are enough horror stories around to make any rational person realize that they COULD happen to anyone. Who remembers, BTW, that eBay bought PayPal because, quite frankly, PayPal was kicking eBay's original online payment system's butt, to put it mildly. If Google can do a better job with their online payment system, then by all means, let the consumer benefit, and let the chips fall where they may.
Like others have mentioned, eBay's (and PayPal's) achilles heel is their abominable customer service, on those occasions when a user needs some assistance. Their current policy is patterned, no doubt, like the model of some Hollywood version of the evil mega-insurance company. Just slam the door in the complaintant's face, and give them the double & triple dodge & shuffle untill they just give up in disgust and go away.
Although I have been personally extremely fortunate to have not needed assistance from eBay or PayPal on more than a few occasions, I can attest to the fact that getting anything accomplished is more than frustrating, it's damn near impossible. (HINT: BE PERSISTANT, REFUSE to go away, and seach the net for a way to contact a real, honest-to-goodness, live, human-type Supervisor. They can and will help you, *IF* you can just figure out how in the world to contact one in the first place.)
Here's a novel suggestion to eBay:
Instead of shifting your advertising budget to a venue that will give you LESS business instead of more, divert some ad dollars into some semblance of REAL Customer Service instead. Beat your opposition in the good old fashioned capitalist way. Build a better mousetrap, etc., etc.
Of course, you could also just opt for the new capitalism model, buy out your competition instead of going head to head against them in a free marketplace. Simply buyout Google like you did PayPal, and then you'd be the big, bad Internet bully everyone likes to think Google will someday become, instead.
I agree completely that Linux Distros should bite the bullet and include the proprietary drivers until there are decent open source equivalents.
Acess almost any website devoted to Linux and the problems with getting ATI and Nvidia video cards properly configured are almost lengendary. I've dumped countless different distros over the years simply because I did not want to endure the hardships involved in trying to 'fix' something that, to my mind, should have worked out of the box. With a SOHO network that has 9 different computers attatched to it, with a planned expansion to a total of 17, I REALLY do want to unload myself from the clutches of the Microsoft Monopoly as much as feasibly possible. More than anything else, many LINUX distros have the appeal of offering much better performance on older hardware that is currently permanently stuck on Win98, for lack of a better alternative. I just can't seem to find an all in one solution that works well across the spectrum of equipment I have available, and I have no interest in using a half dozen distros in order to migrate everything I want to move from Microsoft. If adding proprietary drivers, video or otherwise, helps smooth out the installation potholes in a distro, I say, by all means, add them in, and let the market decide if it is a good idea.
In over 5 yrs of 'tinkering' with various and sundry Linux distros, I am sorry to say that the only installation that I have ever been completely happy with was a NasLite box, which was hands down the easiest install I have ever done on any computer in over 25 years of installing everything from CP/M to DOS to Windows in every variety since Windows for Workgroups.
I can see this being an 'edge' for those Value Added distros that are already becoming common in the LINUX world, and it would certainly add a lot of value to their offerings as compared to the 'free as in beer' distros.
And if the 'free as in beer' distros follow suit, then so much the better for all of those potential users that WOULD use LINUX, if it would just install in a fashion that Joe Average, i.e. Non-LINUX-Geek, could deal with.
Just my opinion, from someone who is admittedly, only a LINUX wannabe at present, but would be more than willing to become a full fledged devotee if it would just get a little easier to install.
Fire up the flamethrowers if you must, but, until LINUX can correctly identify a broader selection of hardware, and do what must be done to make sure it works, the great unwashed masses (Microsoft Users) are still going to shy away from what anyone with any reasonable intelligence can already see is a much more viable option for a lot of reasons.
More LINUX users = More Demand for Quality Software = Better Computing for All of Us.
Bring on them drivers, Lord knows we could all use them!
In addition to all of the 'normal' options, ie, streaming media and a functional computer access in every room, home theater, blah, blah, blah, for many years I have had this idea in my mind of a home that is fully automated and keyed to voice command.
Want to make a phone call, run a bath, make coffee, look up information on the internet, purchase theater tickets? Simply speak your access keyword, and full command of any and all options are available upon request in an interactive voice format that parses normal conversational requests.
Conceptually the keyword would be patterned along the pseudo name of your automated valet. Mine was always going to be "McTavish".
Not quite Star Trek, but undoubtedly still beyond the scope of today's technology, even with unlimited funds.
But who knows? Maybe someday soon we'll see this as a Sourceforge project in the works!
As a Semi-Professional DJ using all digital technology, I have obviously have a huge selection of MP3's. I've had similar plans for my place, and the item I found that seems to provide the easiest solution is the Dell Rio Digital Audio Reciever. It plays MP3's anywhere you have a TCP/IP network conection. Just wire every room with a CAT 5 connection (you should anyway, just because!), and hook up a receiver in every room you need one in.
Since I haven't actually started my project yet, I don't actually own one, but I know they come with a remote, and I assume that they come with the power capacity to operate at least a nominally acceptable set of speakers. Alternately you would have to package them with a suitable amp to drive even the most outrageous sound system.
I found one on eBay, under the lisitng of
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks cdguru for your insight from an author's perspective. It helps to understand where those discounts from paper vs. digital are calculated.
Stands to reason then that a digital copy costs considerably less. Which just proves the point I was trying to make. Certainly the costs don't justify a $14.95 'e-book' price tag, vs. a $17.95 paper copy.
Of course, while there is a premium for paper based books, if the e-reader market really wants to address the issue of declining sales, then someone should be taking a seriously hard look at how many e-books are priced. Knocking a couple of bucks off the price of a paper version, which has to be printed and then trucked out to retailers all over the world, vs. the costs of providing a digital download is larcenous, at best.
If the listing service was truly marketed by Sony as lifetime, then there is a solution that can be described in three simple words- Class Action Lawsuit. Why not? Everyone else does it, and it's not like owners of these devices have anything to lose by giving this approach a try. And there is certainly no shortage of lawyers willing to go after big corporations for their share of the 'take'
Started out with Mandrake on 3-1/2 inch floppies
Fooled around with some others, Damn Small, Puppy, Mepis, PCLinuxOS, even Debian, but never seriously.
First full time dual boot OS's were Linux Mint, Ubuntu, and OpenSUSE
Used KnoppMyth and NASLite for special purpose appliance distros for quite some time.
For the past few years it's been Linux Mint all the way, many times as the only installed OS. It's not perfect, but it does seem to me to be the most completely functional, out of the box, solution.
And I've switched from KnoppMyth to Mythbuntu, since the KnoppMyth transition to the Arch based LinHES required too much effort to re-learn the nomenclature, etc.
Back when my cable provider (Charter) first offered their DVR's, I discovered that with 3 adults, all with different viewing tastes, one DVR with it's standard recording capabilities and storage capacity was simply not up to our household's time-shifted viewing appetites.
Attempts to obtain a second DVR, at an additional monthly expense, were solidly refused by Charter. They maintained that their supply of DVR units was limited, and that providing more than one DVR in the same household was not part of their business plan. Not a very smart move, from my viewpoint, when you consider that most satellite services have been offering the option of multiple DVR's for quite some time now. Isn't it wonderful how having an exclusive cable territory allows cable operators to ignore customers wants/needs and adopt a take it or leave it attitude towards the quality of services provided? Oh, well, that's a rant for another day.
Solution to this dilemma?
KnoppMyth http://www.mysettopbox.tv/
I started out small, with one PVR-150 and one frame grabber tuner in the backend, a minimalist frontend, and 80 Gb of storage (2 times the storage on the Charter DVR).
Today my backend supports 3 PVR-150's, the ability to record (paid for) premium channels by using a digital converter feeding directly into one of the PVR's, 3 frontends, and 750Gb of online storage, with an additional 300Gb on a separate NAS for archival storage of my personal DVD collection. All four units have fully supported APC battery backup systems, which protects against data loss here in rural Michigan, where the power can be unstable, even at the best of times. The frontends have replaced the need for stand alone DVD players at each of the 3 viewing stations, and anything that has been recorded can be viewed at anytime by anyone. Additionally, my entire music collection, which is quite extensive, since I am an independent DJ/Karaoke operator, can be accessed from the frontends, mapped into the Knoppmyth backend and stored on the same NAS as the media files.
Being relatively new to LINUX at the beginning, there was a bit of a learning curve, especially as the system evolved into it's current configuration, but there was always a wealth of information on the MythTV website http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page and the KnoppMyth User Forums http://www.knoppmyth.net/phpBB2/
Interestingly enough, Charter subsequently did add the ability to add an additional external USB hard drive to extend the storage capacity of their original DVR, but since it shares it's resources with viewing and recording tasks, it simply lacks the flexibility of the Knoppmyth backend.
Expanding storage costs aside, and using eBay as a bargain outlet for components, the backend unit ran about $250 to bring to it's current state, and each frontend ran $150 or less. After that, the only other expense is the $20/yr subscription fee to Schedules Direct http://www.schedulesdirect.org/ to obtain the needed TV listings data, which is hands down the biggest entertainment bargain you could find anywhere.
Up next, the addition of a slave backend to support a recently acquired HDTV tuner to record unencrypted QAM cable channels, and additional tuners for those rare occasions when I do actually max out the system's recording abilities.
Note: I realize this post is somewhat off topic, since the original posting is about suing Time Warner for the right to use alternative set top boxes, but there are already alternative solutions available, such as MythTV and it's various derivatives, which can obtain virtually any functionality, short of a cable card, that the user desires, and requires no special lawsuit to implement on any current cable operators system.
DaveJ45
I too have used TaxAct for the past few years. I find it easy to use, and less expensive than TurboTax.
Typically I file 3 seperate tax returns (for each of the 3 individuals in the household) plus 3 additional state tax returns (Michigan). All are filed electronicly, and the refunds, if any, are deposited directly into the appropriate checking accounts within 2-4 weeks.
Total cost for all of this is in the neighborhood of $50, much less than the cost of having three visits to the local tax preparation office.
All in All, no problems whatsoever in 4 years of use, and I expect this year to be no different.
TaxAct also has a free online tax prep site, if your return is simple enough to meet the guidelines.
It's curious to note that there is a overwhelming concept that PayPal has a 'stranglehold' on eBay.
Lest we forget our history.
At one time, eBay had their own inhouse payment system, which was NOT PayPal.
PayPal's supposed 'stranglehold' on eBay is, in fact, a creation of eBay itself.
PayPal was introduced as an online payment system for all sorts of e-commerce, which eventually included eBay. PayPal services created a way for people who wanted to process online transactions, including those that wanted to accept credit card payments, but could not/would not spend the money required to create their own seperate merchant accounts with a credit card processing service. It is important to note that, in the early days of e-commerce, credit card processing companies were highly resistant to allowing online merchants access to credit card processing and electronic funds transactions. You almost always had to have a 'brick and mortar' business location in order to get a merchant account. The few institutions that would allow online operations access to these sorts of services charged such ridiculous fees that the costs outweighed the potential benefits, thereby protecting their brick and mortar accounts from competion from online operations. PayPal provided a reasonably priced way for enterprising online merchants to accept credit card and bank fund transfers without having to establish an actual storefront location. Shareware & Freeware authors, Online storefronts, Various user supported websites, Subscription chatrooms, and all sorts of other enterprises discovered the benefits of PayPal in the earliest days of e-commerce long before PayPal was the 'bully' of eBay.
Despite all it's other supposed faults, of which there are admittedly more than a few, this should/could be considered PayPal's overall major contribution to the natue of e-commerce as we know it today. If PayPal had not opened up this sort of financial transaction capability to the small online business scene, the big credit card companies/banking institutions would never have jumped on the bandwagon to let these sorts of enterprises get in on legitimate online funds processing. As a natural result of the nature of PayPal's creation, it's regulatory practices are different. Created 'offshore' because of the 'onshore' financial community's shortsighted approach, i.e., 'stonewalling', these sorts of business opportunities, PayPal's policies and practices were created in a completely different, and risky, business environment. Now that EVERYONE wants a piece of the online transactions market, it's easy to point the finger at PayPal and criticize the system that actually was the frontrunner in helping create the market that they all covet in the first place. A market that the 'onshore' institutions could have helped create in the first place, but refused to do so when they had the chance. It was much easier to let PayPal take all the risks in developing the market, and then jump in and try to grab what they can after the market is firmly established. Can anyone say "Imitate instead of Create" as a Business Model?
Eventually, PayPal's share of transactions on eBay grew to such an overwhelming percentage that they literally humiliated eBay's own in-house payment system. eBay's solution to their dilemma was simple, they dropped their in-house payment system completely and BOUGHT Paypal outright, which now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay. If PayPal holds the key to the lion's share of transactions on eBay, it is important to note that this is the way eBay prefers things to be.
And although there is no doubt that eBay transactions have most certainly become the bulk of their business, PayPal does continue to provide services to other endeavors, including those same independent online retailers, personal bill payment, and, if you stop to think about it, even competes against such services as Western Union Moneygrams. Dad can send Junior money (again!) while he is away
Being an avid eBay user for a number of years, I discovered the concept of sniping within 6 months of making my first transaction.
In the early phase, I did it all manually. Set an alarm on the computer 10 -15 minutes before the end of the auction, and then sat at the computer and entered my bid at the last possible moment.
There were a few drawbacks to this approach.
1) I was on a dailup connection, which was slow to send transactions, so I had to send my bid in well in advance of the time that someone could submit their last bid if they were on a broadband connection. The only thing worse than hauling yourself out of bed at 3am to bid on an item is to lose the bid because someone else has a faster connection to the internet than you do.
2) I had to phycially 'be there' to bid on each and every item I was interested in.
3) It was difficult to track similar objects and compare the current bid prices to make sure I was bidding on the correct item, i.e., the one I was most likely to win at the best possible price.
I looked around for sniping programs, tried out a few, and finally settled on my current sniping program. Here's why:
I.) I only pay a fee for the items I actually win. Currently this fee is 2% of the winning bid price. Since I am an agressive bargain hunter, the 2% fee is more than reasonable, since my wining bid prices are frequently low enough to upset a seller now and again.
II.) I can bid on a particular type of item 100 times or more, at no cost to me, until I get one at the bargain price I am searching for.
III.) Bid grouping.(The BIGGIE)
a) Let's say I've decided I want a gold plated whatchamacallit. In the next week, there are 14 of them coming up for bid. I've done my research, and I've discovered that these sell for about $42 on eBay, and about $8 shipping for a total of $50 delivered. I've also noted that a few folks have managed to get them for as little as $35, and one chap got lucky and got one for $27.
b) I check and find that I can purchase one of these items from an alternate source, local or online, for about $75-80.
c) Since I want the best possible deal I can get, I decide that I am willing to pay $27 + $8 shipping, for a total delivered price of $35. This is a huge goal, to get one of these for less than half of what they normally sell for, but, I am patient, and I never fall in love with any particular item. Price is always the central issue.
d) I seach the current listings for items, and now I am ready to start loading my bids into the sniper program. Since the goal is to get the item delivered to my door for $35, all bids are adjusted according to shipping costs. If a seller, like so many do, charges significantly higher shipping costs (in order to 'pad' the final selling price, and cheat eBay out of the appropriate seller fees) then the shipping fees that will be deducted from my $35 total cost goal will be higher than the shipping fees deducted from the bid that will be placed on the item listed by a seller who is charging a modest $6.50 for shipping.
e) After loading the sniper with all of the listings, and adjusting the bids so that the final cost to me is no more than $35, I tell the sniper program I want it to bid on each item as it becomes available until I win 1 (or 2, or 3, or however many I want at this price).
f) I go back to my daily life and let the sniper do the work. I will get email notifications that this item or that has gone beyond my bid price. These emails are ignored. I only want the item at the price previously determined. If someone else wants to pay more, god bless them, I'll wait.
g) Eventually one of two things will happen. I will win the item at the price I have set, or, I may have to add more items to the sniping group and keep on trying. After reloading the sniping group a couple of times without a win, if I really want the item, I may have to reset my concept of what I can reasonably expect
Obviously the recording industry thinks they should be the only 'pirates' in their industry.
Sue the consumers, and cheat the artists.
Stash a major portion of the proceeds into a political contribution fund, and use it to influence the lawmakers to pass legislation to give you Orwellian powers to spy on, harass, and penalize anyone and everyone, whether they have done anything wrong or not, and toss those 'Fair Use' laws out the window.
Now there's a business model for you!
eBay currently gets a huge percentage of it's traffic through paid advertising with Google.
Now, because Google might infringe upon it's payment system and dabble a bit in online auctions, eBay will move it's advertising focus to someone like Yahoo or MSN that wouldn't send them anywhere near the referrals they get from Google?
Anyone else besides me see that concept being a bit like tossing the baby out with the bathwater?
Don't get me wrong, I'm quite willing to admit that I am hopelessly eBay addicted. I can also say that the chances of Google coming up with an auction site that would lure me away from eBay are somewhere between slim and none.
As for PayPal, while I have personally never had any problems, there are enough horror stories around to make any rational person realize that they COULD happen to anyone. Who remembers, BTW, that eBay bought PayPal because, quite frankly, PayPal was kicking eBay's original online payment system's butt, to put it mildly. If Google can do a better job with their online payment system, then by all means, let the consumer benefit, and let the chips fall where they may.
Like others have mentioned, eBay's (and PayPal's) achilles heel is their abominable customer service, on those occasions when a user needs some assistance. Their current policy is patterned, no doubt, like the model of some Hollywood version of the evil mega-insurance company. Just slam the door in the complaintant's face, and give them the double & triple dodge & shuffle untill they just give up in disgust and go away.
Although I have been personally extremely fortunate to have not needed assistance from eBay or PayPal on more than a few occasions, I can attest to the fact that getting anything accomplished is more than frustrating, it's damn near impossible. (HINT: BE PERSISTANT, REFUSE to go away, and seach the net for a way to contact a real, honest-to-goodness, live, human-type Supervisor. They can and will help you, *IF* you can just figure out how in the world to contact one in the first place.)
Here's a novel suggestion to eBay:
Instead of shifting your advertising budget to a venue that will give you LESS business instead of more, divert some ad dollars into some semblance of REAL Customer Service instead. Beat your opposition in the good old fashioned capitalist way. Build a better mousetrap, etc., etc.
Of course, you could also just opt for the new capitalism model, buy out your competition instead of going head to head against them in a free marketplace. Simply buyout Google like you did PayPal, and then you'd be the big, bad Internet bully everyone likes to think Google will someday become, instead.
DaveJ45
I agree completely that Linux Distros should bite the bullet and include the proprietary drivers until there are decent open source equivalents.
Acess almost any website devoted to Linux and the problems with getting ATI and Nvidia video cards properly configured are almost lengendary. I've dumped countless different distros over the years simply because I did not want to endure the hardships involved in trying to 'fix' something that, to my mind, should have worked out of the box. With a SOHO network that has 9 different computers attatched to it, with a planned expansion to a total of 17, I REALLY do want to unload myself from the clutches of the Microsoft Monopoly as much as feasibly possible. More than anything else, many LINUX distros have the appeal of offering much better performance on older hardware that is currently permanently stuck on Win98, for lack of a better alternative. I just can't seem to find an all in one solution that works well across the spectrum of equipment I have available, and I have no interest in using a half dozen distros in order to migrate everything I want to move from Microsoft. If adding proprietary drivers, video or otherwise, helps smooth out the installation potholes in a distro, I say, by all means, add them in, and let the market decide if it is a good idea.
In over 5 yrs of 'tinkering' with various and sundry Linux distros, I am sorry to say that the only installation that I have ever been completely happy with was a NasLite box, which was hands down the easiest install I have ever done on any computer in over 25 years of installing everything from CP/M to DOS to Windows in every variety since Windows for Workgroups.
I can see this being an 'edge' for those Value Added distros that are already becoming common in the LINUX world, and it would certainly add a lot of value to their offerings as compared to the 'free as in beer' distros.
And if the 'free as in beer' distros follow suit, then so much the better for all of those potential users that WOULD use LINUX, if it would just install in a fashion that Joe Average, i.e. Non-LINUX-Geek, could deal with.
Just my opinion, from someone who is admittedly, only a LINUX wannabe at present, but would be more than willing to become a full fledged devotee if it would just get a little easier to install.
Fire up the flamethrowers if you must, but, until LINUX can correctly identify a broader selection of hardware, and do what must be done to make sure it works, the great unwashed masses (Microsoft Users) are still going to shy away from what anyone with any reasonable intelligence can already see is a much more viable option for a lot of reasons.
More LINUX users = More Demand for Quality Software = Better Computing for All of Us.
Bring on them drivers, Lord knows we could all use them!
-DaveJ45
In addition to all of the 'normal' options, ie, streaming media and a functional computer access in every room, home theater, blah, blah, blah, for many years I have had this idea in my mind of a home that is fully automated and keyed to voice command.
Want to make a phone call, run a bath, make coffee, look up information on the internet, purchase theater tickets? Simply speak your access keyword, and full command of any and all options are available upon request in an interactive voice format that parses normal conversational requests.
Conceptually the keyword would be patterned along the pseudo name of your automated valet. Mine was always going to be "McTavish".
Not quite Star Trek, but undoubtedly still beyond the scope of today's technology, even with unlimited funds.
But who knows? Maybe someday soon we'll see this as a Sourceforge project in the works!
DaveJ45
As a Semi-Professional DJ using all digital technology, I have obviously have a huge selection of MP3's. I've had similar plans for my place, and the item I found that seems to provide the easiest solution is the Dell Rio Digital Audio Reciever. It plays MP3's anywhere you have a TCP/IP network conection. Just wire every room with a CAT 5 connection (you should anyway, just because!), and hook up a receiver in every room you need one in. Since I haven't actually started my project yet, I don't actually own one, but I know they come with a remote, and I assume that they come with the power capacity to operate at least a nominally acceptable set of speakers. Alternately you would have to package them with a suitable amp to drive even the most outrageous sound system. I found one on eBay, under the lisitng of
Electronics & Computers:Portable Electronics:MP3 Players
A Google search will also turn up a few references as well.
BTW, if anyone actually decides to take this route, I would be very interested in hearing about it.
DaveJ45
http://www.digitaldjkaraoke.webhop.net