I always liked the idea of the self-checkout things -- mostly because most people are afraid of the technology and wont use them, and so the lines are always really short...
Now I'll have to think twice about using a CC when using one of these things...
On the other hand, when you go to the register they get your CC#/exp. date, and they get a signature which could be copied (and either way they also get a paper copy)... but the idea of them being "harvested" in that manner bothers me.
As far as the credit card checks go, I hate those...
I recently received one already printed with my name on it, my acct # on it, and the amount already filled in for approximately 4 times my cash-advance credit limit. (Upon reading the back, it said the check would be treated as a cash advance.
That meant $15 + 3% for the cash advance. Plus it'd put me over the limit -- a $35 fee, plus being over the limit puts me into "default" and so I get the default interest rate of Prime + 24.99%.
sad, isn't it?
Oh, yeah, and its a Citi card. (But hey, its ok, I pay attention and dont use those, and I get 5% off when I buy gas... and when paying $2.479/gallon that 5% starts to add up.)
and look how many CCGs there are that he didn't create...
Or better yet, how many there *have* been... most fail due to lack of interest (typically caused by either stupid game mechanics or extreme similarity to another game)
As for rights retained, card originally drafted a script for the movie, but the script he wrote is not going to be used (obviously, since they are having others write the script).
According to his website, Card wants to see the best possible movie made out of the story, regardless of what must be changed or dropped.
interesting... My information is obviously mistaken. Someone told me that Windows codenames (or maybe Windows NT codenames) were supposed to be a series of places to ski.
I never looked at it too hard, and just thought "oh, what a cool piece of trivia"
I don't know much about skiing, but I dont think that all of those names are likely to be names of ski resorts... or even necessarily of just general "names of places with skiing"...
no, maximizing profit doesn't kill a company, because in order to maximize profits you must produce the product with the highest demand per unit cost, (this typically also means the highest quality per unit cost), have the widest possible distribution channels (with the lowest per-unit distribution costs), etc.
In other words, you have to have stuff that people want, charging as much as possible *without* hurting demand, and being produced and distributed with as little waste as possible.
If music cost $49,999,999.95 / song, from the RIAA Music Store, and nobody else sold music, the demand would be 0. Or damn close.
On the other hand, if the RIAA Music Store was the only gig in town and sold CDs at $29.95, there would be some demand. But still much less than if the store sold their CDs for $7.95.
Demand for music is very elastic, because most people don't need particularly large music collections. They would prefer them, but have a maximum price they are willing to pay.
Your analysis would be correct, but only for those people that *need* however-many CDs (or songs)
You start from a good premise, but you cheated. Because, you see, blogger B violated a law regardless of the interpretation of free press.
You see, *inducing* someone to violate an NDA is illegal regardless of who does the inducing. Now, if the person comes to you and says "have I got a scoop for you" and you publish and do *not* specifically reward the source, then you have something closer to the issue being debated.
From Merriam-Webster: something established by authority, custom, or general consent as a model or example
Also From M-W: regularly and widely used, available, or supplied
From Dictionary.com: Something, such as a practice or a product, that is widely recognized or employed, especially because of its excellence.
I do not see reference to IEEE, ISO, ECMA, or any other "standards body" in these definitions. Sure, there are definitions of the word "standard" that reference such things, but then:
From M-W: a long narrow tapering flag that is personal to an individual or corporation and bears heraldic devices
So clearly my usage need not fit all alternate meanings, just the one I want. In other words, if you are going to be a grammar nazi, be right. Or, rather, it actually does mean what I think it means.
No, this isn't really meant as flamebait. Just an expression of my opinion.
I use both products a great deal.
I am running Microsoft Office 2003 on my laptop, and OpenOffice.org 1.1 on my Linux desktop.
I went to great pains to get permission to plug my laptop into the office network so that I could do the simple things (like filling out my time sheet spreadsheet) and bigger things (like creating design docs or proposals for new projects) in MS Office on my laptop instead of having to slug it out with OO.o.
I can't point to a specific thing and say "this is why I don't like OO.o" It just seems an exceptionally poor product. Very sub-par. The interface is not as clean, its less intuitive, it does what I expect less often, and its less easy to configure (or, perhaps, I just memorized the Microsoft Office stuff and not the OO.o yet).
I still end up using both every day, and I know which one I prefer. I even prefer it enough that I went out and *gasp* bought a copy of MS Office to install on my Windows desktop after trying OO.o for windows for a week or so.
Also, OO.o Writer doesn't do MS Word.doc compatibility quite right yet. Which is annoying, as MS Word.doc is the standard format. I know its hard (especially as the format undoubtedly changes with every new version)
You would be correct, expcept that ISPs qualify as common carriers.
This means that they get things like protection for bad stuff people do on their network in exchange for not being allowed to ask what people will do on their network...
If they want to give up that protection (and have the ??IA sue *them* instead of end-users, they are welcome to do so -- then they would be legally allowed to restrict that sort of thing in [almost] any anti-competitive way they like.
However... even if you had all approximately 40 million lines of the core Windows code, would you be able to look and be certain that all the code was original (or show what was stolen from where)
You remember when free shipping was only on orders of $75, and then when nobody bought extra stuff, it went to $50, and then to $25 when they realized that most orders are $15-$20 (so that one more item that might not be ordered got added to make the limit)?
Well, I bet in 6 months you'll see Amazon Prime, just $49 per year... or something like that...
and if that pricepoint doesn't work, they'll lower it again. As far as they can without losing more money on the shipping charges than they earn through the extra sales.
hell, I don't work for Coca-Cola and *I* get all the free sodas I can drink.
For that matter, Microsoft employees *also* get all the free soda they can drink... and I think they have both coke and pepsi... but I don't really remember...
Slashdot Mirror
You know... that's kinda clever.
Of course, then it wouldn't be dark when you turned off the lights... but so long as its not in a bedroom its probably not a bad idea!
YES!
I have a 17" sony with one stuck subpixel... a single green component is always at 100% brightness.
It sucks!
Guess what. I do.
At my last job my entire company had 21" Planar LCD screens - my department had two per person...
Is your company hiring?
Better question: Is your department hiring?
well, now that's interesting...
I have set up about 2 dozen Dell LCDs (each and every one was a 170x FP (their 17" high-quality ones).
I have seen, oh, another 8 Apple displays, 1 IBM, and 2 Sonys.
I have, to date, seen one dead pixel -- one green component stuck on a single pixel on one of the two sonys.
perhaps this is just because Sony makes crappy LCDs?
Very interesting...
I always liked the idea of the self-checkout things -- mostly because most people are afraid of the technology and wont use them, and so the lines are always really short...
Now I'll have to think twice about using a CC when using one of these things...
On the other hand, when you go to the register they get your CC#/exp. date, and they get a signature which could be copied (and either way they also get a paper copy)... but the idea of them being "harvested" in that manner bothers me.
Thanks for the info!
As far as the credit card checks go, I hate those...
I recently received one already printed with my name on it, my acct # on it, and the amount already filled in for approximately 4 times my cash-advance credit limit. (Upon reading the back, it said the check would be treated as a cash advance.
That meant $15 + 3% for the cash advance. Plus it'd put me over the limit -- a $35 fee, plus being over the limit puts me into "default" and so I get the default interest rate of Prime + 24.99%.
sad, isn't it?
Oh, yeah, and its a Citi card. (But hey, its ok, I pay attention and dont use those, and I get 5% off when I buy gas... and when paying $2.479/gallon that 5% starts to add up.)
Also, I couldn't start Fareq's Xerox company and sell "Xerox machines"
I would have to call them copiers.
My customers, on the other hand, would be free to use the term xerox.
and look how many CCGs there are that he didn't create...
Or better yet, how many there *have* been... most fail due to lack of interest (typically caused by either stupid game mechanics or extreme similarity to another game)
It was licensed not-all-that-long ago, IIRC.
As for rights retained, card originally drafted a script for the movie, but the script he wrote is not going to be used (obviously, since they are having others write the script).
According to his website, Card wants to see the best possible movie made out of the story, regardless of what must be changed or dropped.
Hmm...
interesting... My information is obviously mistaken. Someone told me that Windows codenames (or maybe Windows NT codenames) were supposed to be a series of places to ski.
I never looked at it too hard, and just thought "oh, what a cool piece of trivia"
I don't know much about skiing, but I dont think that all of those names are likely to be names of ski resorts... or even necessarily of just general "names of places with skiing"...
whatever.
All Windows codenames are, anyway...
Other products are codenamed along other patterns...
...are belong to us
no, maximizing profit doesn't kill a company, because in order to maximize profits you must produce the product with the highest demand per unit cost, (this typically also means the highest quality per unit cost), have the widest possible distribution channels (with the lowest per-unit distribution costs), etc.
In other words, you have to have stuff that people want, charging as much as possible *without* hurting demand, and being produced and distributed with as little waste as possible.
This is true to an extent.
If music cost $49,999,999.95 / song, from the RIAA Music Store, and nobody else sold music, the demand would be 0. Or damn close.
On the other hand, if the RIAA Music Store was the only gig in town and sold CDs at $29.95, there would be some demand. But still much less than if the store sold their CDs for $7.95.
Demand for music is very elastic, because most people don't need particularly large music collections. They would prefer them, but have a maximum price they are willing to pay.
Your analysis would be correct, but only for those people that *need* however-many CDs (or songs)
You start from a good premise, but you cheated. Because, you see, blogger B violated a law regardless of the interpretation of free press.
You see, *inducing* someone to violate an NDA is illegal regardless of who does the inducing. Now, if the person comes to you and says "have I got a scoop for you" and you publish and do *not* specifically reward the source, then you have something closer to the issue being debated.
From Merriam-Webster: something established by authority, custom, or general consent as a model or example
Also From M-W: regularly and widely used, available, or supplied
From Dictionary.com: Something, such as a practice or a product, that is widely recognized or employed, especially because of its excellence.
I do not see reference to IEEE, ISO, ECMA, or any other "standards body" in these definitions. Sure, there are definitions of the word "standard" that reference such things, but then:
From M-W: a long narrow tapering flag that is personal to an individual or corporation and bears heraldic devices
So clearly my usage need not fit all alternate meanings, just the one I want. In other words, if you are going to be a grammar nazi, be right. Or, rather, it actually does mean what I think it means.
Why no open-office?
.doc compatibility quite right yet. Which is annoying, as MS Word .doc is the standard format. I know its hard (especially as the format undoubtedly changes with every new version)
Mostly because OO.o sucks ass.
No, this isn't really meant as flamebait. Just an expression of my opinion.
I use both products a great deal.
I am running Microsoft Office 2003 on my laptop, and OpenOffice.org 1.1 on my Linux desktop.
I went to great pains to get permission to plug my laptop into the office network so that I could do the simple things (like filling out my time sheet spreadsheet) and bigger things (like creating design docs or proposals for new projects) in MS Office on my laptop instead of having to slug it out with OO.o.
I can't point to a specific thing and say "this is why I don't like OO.o" It just seems an exceptionally poor product. Very sub-par. The interface is not as clean, its less intuitive, it does what I expect less often, and its less easy to configure (or, perhaps, I just memorized the Microsoft Office stuff and not the OO.o yet).
I still end up using both every day, and I know which one I prefer. I even prefer it enough that I went out and *gasp* bought a copy of MS Office to install on my Windows desktop after trying OO.o for windows for a week or so.
Also, OO.o Writer doesn't do MS Word
although...
If you have a spare room in a condo, and I want it...
You are "renting" me the room which I am "renting" from you.
So... does "renting" mean the act of offering up the room or the act of paying for the room?
You would be correct, expcept that ISPs qualify as common carriers.
This means that they get things like protection for bad stuff people do on their network in exchange for not being allowed to ask what people will do on their network...
If they want to give up that protection (and have the ??IA sue *them* instead of end-users, they are welcome to do so -- then they would be legally allowed to restrict that sort of thing in [almost] any anti-competitive way they like.
However... even if you had all approximately 40 million lines of the core Windows code, would you be able to look and be certain that all the code was original (or show what was stolen from where)
You remember when free shipping was only on orders of $75, and then when nobody bought extra stuff, it went to $50, and then to $25 when they realized that most orders are $15-$20 (so that one more item that might not be ordered got added to make the limit)?
Well, I bet in 6 months you'll see Amazon Prime, just $49 per year... or something like that...
and if that pricepoint doesn't work, they'll lower it again. As far as they can without losing more money on the shipping charges than they earn through the extra sales.
Mod parent funny, insightful, and redundant?
hell, I don't work for Coca-Cola and *I* get all the free sodas I can drink.
For that matter, Microsoft employees *also* get all the free soda they can drink... and I think they have both coke and pepsi... but I don't really remember...
OT: no problem, just don't put price-controls on it, and there will be exactly as many doses as people are willing to buy (at the going rate).
Mostly because with shortages the going rate will rise until people stop wanting them badly enough.