And you free to take your love for totalitarianism and corporatism abroad, and I encourage you to.
OK, so what DO our kids need exposure to then?
You seem to complain a lot but don't really offer up any viable options other than everyone who disagrees with you has to GTFO. Seriously, got any plans?
Well, my *guess* based on observations of other retail stores opening up is that they STARTED with a lot of staff and while other stores would cut back after a month or so (I'm looking at you Home Depot!), Apple probably found that the volume and income per sq ft justified them keeping the staff. Once they started opening more stores it would appear they could afford to sufficiently staff even the smaller ones based on the results they were getting.
I recall reading someplace that Apple did not hire any market consultants for the retail stores except to examine Gateway to find what they did wrong. Everything else appears to be them just making it up as they go along!
"...That is ridiculously heavy staffing for retail."
and they can afford to staff it well with AVERAGE annual sales per sq ft of ~$4000 for comparison: Best Buy = $971, Target = $300 Average Mall Store sales (for other stores) are around $400 per sq ft.
ref from 2006: "so Johnson then offered some comparison between Apple and electronics retailer Best Buy. An Apple store does 67% of the revenue of a typical Best Buy store, he said, in just 10 percent of the square-footage."
You can't use Verizon because Apple originally approached Verizon and they wanted nothing to do with it on Apple's terms.
AT&T was the only carrier that was willing to agree to Apple's terms and to upgrade it's system to handle Visual Voicemail.
In exchange for being the ONLY carrier investing in what -at the time- was an unknown and possible flop, AT&T got an exclusive multi-year distribution deal.
AT&T acted as though the iPhone would just be a blip on the mobile phone market. Surprise!
There was a TV commercial a few years ago that showed some company "launching" their website in real time.
There was a "countdown" and then...they were LIVE! And then...they got an order! Hurrah!
and then they got a few more orders! Hurrah!
And while they were breaking out the champagne, someone noticed there was a problem.. The order counter was increasing at an very very rapid rate.
Everyone got quiet. They now had a lot of customers, but how were they going to fill all these incoming orders?
(I couldn't find the commercial for reference, sorry)
3 guys are out on the golf course, when one of them puts the palm of his hand up to the side of his head and starts talking.
After apparently carrying on a conversation with an invisible person, he puts his hand down and looks at his golf buddies.
"sorry, I got one of those new-fangled cell phones implanted in my hand." he said, "No more lugging around that bag phone for me!
As they walk to the next tee, one of the other guys is now just standing there staring straight ahead and laughing.
"sorry" he says, "I was watching a funny beer commercial on my new TV-eye Implant, am I up?"
Later at the Club House, they notice that the third guy is missing.
Nursing their drinks, they look out the window and see him squatting by a tree with his pants down making a face.
After a minute or so he stands up, pulls up his pants and heads to the Club House.
I also had the ATM at my BANK do that to me at 6am.
Everything was fine until it went through the motions of dispensing the cash, I could hear the machine whirring away trying to count the paper, then the dispenser door did not open, then I got a receipt, then the machine conked out and showed an error message on the screen.
while I agree that the family photographer probably sold the image to a stock photo place, AC is correct that you do NOT need a "hi-rez" or 300dpi image for the final size of a large print that is viewed from far away. Billboards print at around 70dpi(one example)
"Toyota and Honda don't build their parts here, they ship them from oversea's."
Oh really? Then why does mine have a sticker that says: PARTS CONTENT INFORMATION: USA/CANADA PARTS CONTENT: 75% MAJOR SOURCES OF FOREIGN PARTS CONTENT: Japan: 20% COUNTRY OF ORIGIN ENGINE PARTS: USA COUNTRY OF ORIGIN TRANSMISSION PARTS: USA
at the gas station in Wisconsin where I got "told" by a guy bitching about my Toyota.
Despite the fact that my truck is built in Texas by Americans with 85% US content apparently the "profits" all go back to "Japan" SO THERE! (never mind Toyota being on the NYSE and the "profits" go to the shareholders...) I can't imagine what this guy will do now when a new Hummer - built in Louisiana by Americans, but owned by the Chinese - pulls up to the pump!
I would love to be there when it happens though! ack ack ack....
The company was unable to reach a deal with a new buyer or secure debt refinancing.
Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego, had been named as a potential buyer of the troubled retailer, but an agreement was not reached.
"We were just looking to buy one company," said Pliego in a statement, "We were sure it would just be an easy in-and-out. Five minutes, tops."
However, during takeover negotiations, Pliego said he stood around Circuit Cityâ(TM)s executive offices waiting for someone to show him "a balance sheet, an income statement, a cash flow statement, anything."
After fifteen minutes of being ignored by Circuit City executives, Pliego decided to try to find the documents himself. Frustrated, Pliego ultimately tapped acting Chief Executive James A. Marcum on the shoulder and told him he couldnâ(TM)t find the financial statements he was looking for.
Marcum said he would go in the back to check if they had any more. He reportedly did not return.
"I think he went on break," said Pliego as he stormed out of the building, sarcastically muttering to himself, "Sorry to bother you."
Hopes of making an 11th hour deal with the Golden Gate private equity firm broke down late last night after the organization became annoyed by a hard-sell on an extended warranty plan.
"Perhaps the webmaster didn't know anything about web programming?"
But just enough to get the job and show a demo.
There is a guy I know who "wrote software" for a living "for the government".
He put up a personal website to sell some stuff and like this site, it had the same warnings about only using IE.
When I could not access his site, I called him and asked him what the problem was and he bemoaned about how he wishes there was only One Browser to write for and how he is used to making "secure" sites for places like 4H or something because "kids" are involved. (gotta keep 'em safe!)
I think it basically boiled down to he just took what he knew from programming something for a closed environment and thought it would work on the web. It doesn't.
His PERSONAL SITE also has INSTRUCTIONS on the main page of HOW TO USE THE WEBSITE.
How to use the xxxxxxx Web Site...
1) Press the F11 key (top row of keyboard) to view site full screen.
2) Do NOT use you browser 'Back' button - always use the various navigation buttons or links on the screen (Return, etc).
3) Always wait for any images to completely resolve or fill before taking the your next step.
4) Exit the site via the 'Goodbye' link, NOT the browser 'X' button.
5) All of these procedures will speed and improve your access to the xxxxxx xxxxx site.
I would post the URL to his site but I hate to see his server get trashed, I'm sure it is out of his home. If you don't make it onto the site, you get this error screen that asks you if you want to Restart The Application.
And he wonders why no one is buying stuff from him.
and what happens if/when Electric Cars end up working out? Lets throw that into the mix They won't be paying any gasoline tax, they will have to find some other way to get a revenue stream from all the vehicles using the road and this would appear to be a step in the direction of solving that "problem".
in Chicago you can go at speed (whatever your speed is!) through the iPass (that's what we call it...) because it is 2-4 lanes separated from the actual booths.
I was told by a somewhat reliable source who is an anorak about this stuff that they have been tested up to 110mph and still work fine.
What is to stop someone from making sets of fake plates with YOUR number on them and running through these toll roads or red lights?
already being done by kids here
I publish a magazine, so I understand what the problem is:
When the magazine is printed, one pile gets sent to the magazine distributor who gets them to the bookstores.
They have a relatively efficient system and they get to the stores in a timely manner.
The other pile goes to the mailing distributor who puts labels on them and then they are at the mercy of the USPS.
These are NOT sent First Class Mail, but Periodical rate or "STANDARD" (used to be called BULK)
It can take from a week to 4 weeks for the mailed copies to make their way across the USA.
I have seen people on both coasts get theirs while other people that are a 6 hour drive from where they were originally mailed wait 4 weeks!
Some mail bags are held until there is "enough" mail to get moved from a main USPS point to someplace else. All this used to work much better when there was a lot of other BULK mail in the system, but now that there is less, a lot of this stuff just sits waiting for enough for a full truckload or something.
It is extremely frustrating and has gotten much worse in the last year.
This is how it works for smaller publications.
Larger ones like TIME, NEWSWEEK, etc have their own PRIVATE Distribution system that gets all the magazines delivered to the main Post Offices around the country so they can ALL be delivered on a Friday or Saturday and that is when they also hit the Newstands.
They can benefit from the economies of scale of their operation, smaller pubs cannot.
I get letters and "announcements" that are Excel documents for some reason.
Turns out the reason is because the user treats the cells as "Tabs" and uses them to "Center" text and "Indent" things, create "Columns"
These people have no clue how to use a Word Processor to format their document and they also have no clue how to use a Spreadsheet program for what it was intended for either.
I know someone else who treats a Spreadsheet like a Database. Except what they have is a Text File in Excel Format. No defined fields, can't sort because they typed the info in to "look good" but serial numbers are in Different Columns! Line Breaks when they reached the end of their 17" screen really hoses the thing good.
Can't export the data to CSV or anything to make it useful elsewhere but "IT'S ALL STORED ON A SPREADSHEET!" which was the original mandate.
and of course, off-topic from TFA, I signed up with a Product Testing Place. They email me once every six months and see if I want to test some new gadget or something and I get paid $75.
I signed a confidentiality agreement with them.
I am not allowed to discuss ANYTHING about the product or reveal I am testing it or anything. I was never there, I am nobody.
Last year I got an email - From The President of The Testing Company - personally thanking me for all the help in the last year.
He also thanked everyone else who "helped" last year as well and I could see who they were because apparently the President (or the secretary) just put all our emails into the TO: field and let it fly.
Lots of Identifiable people on the list because they used their WORK email, like john.doe@largecorporation.com
So it was easy to see who else was part of that big Butt Plug testing program.
I did a REPLY to ONLY the President and laid into him about the confidentiality agreement and told him if he didn't know how to use email to stay away from the computer.
Later that day we all got another email from the President, this time apologizing for revealing all our personal emails, never happen again etc etc. And apparently he figured out how to use BCC!
So yelling at someone does seem to work to change behaviour.
Also- this is a dupe comment, I posted this once before on Slashdot someplace, but since this is Slashdot I didn't think a dupe would be a problem.
Slashdot Mirror
And you free to take your love for totalitarianism and corporatism abroad, and I encourage you to.
OK, so what DO our kids need exposure to then?
You seem to complain a lot but don't really offer up any viable options other than everyone who disagrees with you has to GTFO.
Seriously, got any plans?
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
"...Children do not fucking need longer exposure to the indoctrination of the socialist and corporatist SCUM invading our US society."
You are free to send your kids to the private school of your choice if you don't like the public options available to you.
Well, my *guess* based on observations of other retail stores opening up is that they STARTED with a lot of staff and while other stores would cut back after a month or so (I'm looking at you Home Depot!), Apple probably found that the volume and income per sq ft justified them keeping the staff.
Once they started opening more stores it would appear they could afford to sufficiently staff even the smaller ones based on the results they were getting.
I recall reading someplace that Apple did not hire any market consultants for the retail stores except to examine Gateway to find what they did wrong.
Everything else appears to be them just making it up as they go along!
"...That is ridiculously heavy staffing for retail."
and they can afford to staff it well with AVERAGE annual sales per sq ft of ~$4000
for comparison: Best Buy = $971, Target = $300
Average Mall Store sales (for other stores) are around $400 per sq ft.
ref from 2006: "so Johnson then offered some comparison between Apple and electronics retailer Best Buy. An Apple store does 67% of the revenue of a typical Best Buy store, he said, in just 10 percent of the square-footage."
You can't use Verizon because Apple originally approached Verizon and they wanted nothing to do with it on Apple's terms.
AT&T was the only carrier that was willing to agree to Apple's terms and to upgrade it's system to handle Visual Voicemail.
In exchange for being the ONLY carrier investing in what -at the time- was an unknown and possible flop, AT&T got an exclusive multi-year distribution deal.
AT&T acted as though the iPhone would just be a blip on the mobile phone market. Surprise!
There was a TV commercial a few years ago that showed some company "launching" their website in real time.
There was a "countdown" and then...they were LIVE! And then...they got an order! Hurrah!
and then they got a few more orders! Hurrah!
And while they were breaking out the champagne, someone noticed there was a problem.. The order counter was increasing at an very very rapid rate.
Everyone got quiet. They now had a lot of customers, but how were they going to fill all these incoming orders?
(I couldn't find the commercial for reference, sorry)
3 guys are out on the golf course, when one of them puts the palm of his hand up to the side of his head and starts talking.
After apparently carrying on a conversation with an invisible person, he puts his hand down and looks at his golf buddies.
"sorry, I got one of those new-fangled cell phones implanted in my hand." he said, "No more lugging around that bag phone for me!
As they walk to the next tee, one of the other guys is now just standing there staring straight ahead and laughing.
"sorry" he says, "I was watching a funny beer commercial on my new TV-eye Implant, am I up?"
Later at the Club House, they notice that the third guy is missing.
Nursing their drinks, they look out the window and see him squatting by a tree with his pants down making a face.
After a minute or so he stands up, pulls up his pants and heads to the Club House.
"sorry I'm late, I was getting a fax"
I also had the ATM at my BANK do that to me at 6am. Everything was fine until it went through the motions of dispensing the cash, I could hear the machine whirring away trying to count the paper, then the dispenser door did not open, then I got a receipt, then the machine conked out and showed an error message on the screen.
My bank credited my account in 3 days.
while I agree that the family photographer probably sold the image to a stock photo place, AC is correct that you do NOT need a "hi-rez" or 300dpi image for the final size of a large print that is viewed from far away.
Billboards print at around 70dpi (one example)
Come Here Often?
Oh really? Then why does mine have a sticker that says:
PARTS CONTENT INFORMATION:
USA/CANADA PARTS CONTENT: 75%
MAJOR SOURCES OF FOREIGN PARTS CONTENT: Japan: 20%
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN ENGINE PARTS: USA
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN TRANSMISSION PARTS: USA
You aren't from Wisconsin are you?
at the gas station in Wisconsin where I got "told" by a guy bitching about my Toyota.
Despite the fact that my truck is built in Texas by Americans with 85% US content apparently the "profits" all go back to "Japan" SO THERE! (never mind Toyota being on the NYSE and the "profits" go to the shareholders...)
I can't imagine what this guy will do now when a new Hummer - built in Louisiana by Americans, but owned by the Chinese - pulls up to the pump!
I would love to be there when it happens though! ack ack ack....
"Stay away from him children, he's been Slashdotted"
yeah, like "FEAR THIS!"
or Calvin peeing on an apple...
If a company wants to make an MP3 player with buttons on the headphone cable, instead of on the device, why is that evil?
- It isn't standards compliant. When standards disintegrate the consumer pays.
It is a slippery slope indeed!
The next thing they will do is require you to use some sort of Apple-only program to load music on the iPod!
"Perhaps the webmaster didn't know anything about web programming?"
But just enough to get the job and show a demo.
There is a guy I know who "wrote software" for a living "for the government".
He put up a personal website to sell some stuff and like this site, it had the same warnings about only using IE.
When I could not access his site, I called him and asked him what the problem was and he bemoaned about how he wishes there was only One Browser to write for and how he is used to making "secure" sites for places like 4H or something because "kids" are involved. (gotta keep 'em safe!)
I think it basically boiled down to he just took what he knew from programming something for a closed environment and thought it would work on the web. It doesn't.
His PERSONAL SITE also has INSTRUCTIONS on the main page of HOW TO USE THE WEBSITE.
How to use the xxxxxxx Web Site...
1) Press the F11 key (top row of keyboard) to view site full screen.
2) Do NOT use you browser 'Back' button - always use the various navigation buttons or links on the screen (Return, etc).
3) Always wait for any images to completely resolve or fill before taking the your next step.
4) Exit the site via the 'Goodbye' link, NOT the browser 'X' button.
5) All of these procedures will speed and improve your access to the xxxxxx xxxxx site.
I would post the URL to his site but I hate to see his server get trashed, I'm sure it is out of his home. If you don't make it onto the site, you get this error screen that asks you if you want to Restart The Application.
And he wonders why no one is buying stuff from him.
and my new "Electric Car"!
~~~rip! *opens Utility Bill...
hey! what's this new line item on my Electric Bill?!
and what happens if/when Electric Cars end up working out?
Lets throw that into the mix
They won't be paying any gasoline tax, they will have to find some other way to get a revenue stream from all the vehicles using the road and this would appear to be a step in the direction of solving that "problem".
in Chicago you can go at speed (whatever your speed is!) through the iPass (that's what we call it...) because it is 2-4 lanes separated from the actual booths.
I was told by a somewhat reliable source who is an anorak about this stuff that they have been tested up to 110mph and still work fine.
What is to stop someone from making sets of fake plates with YOUR number on them and running through these toll roads or red lights?
already being done by kids here
I publish a magazine, so I understand what the problem is:
When the magazine is printed, one pile gets sent to the magazine distributor who gets them to the bookstores.
They have a relatively efficient system and they get to the stores in a timely manner.
The other pile goes to the mailing distributor who puts labels on them and then they are at the mercy of the USPS.
These are NOT sent First Class Mail, but Periodical rate or "STANDARD" (used to be called BULK)
It can take from a week to 4 weeks for the mailed copies to make their way across the USA.
I have seen people on both coasts get theirs while other people that are a 6 hour drive from where they were originally mailed wait 4 weeks!
Some mail bags are held until there is "enough" mail to get moved from a main USPS point to someplace else. All this used to work much better when there was a lot of other BULK mail in the system, but now that there is less, a lot of this stuff just sits waiting for enough for a full truckload or something.
It is extremely frustrating and has gotten much worse in the last year.
This is how it works for smaller publications.
Larger ones like TIME, NEWSWEEK, etc have their own PRIVATE Distribution system that gets all the magazines delivered to the main Post Offices around the country so they can ALL be delivered on a Friday or Saturday and that is when they also hit the Newstands.
They can benefit from the economies of scale of their operation, smaller pubs cannot.
I get letters and "announcements" that are Excel documents for some reason.
Turns out the reason is because the user treats the cells as "Tabs" and uses them to "Center" text and "Indent" things, create "Columns"
These people have no clue how to use a Word Processor to format their document and they also have no clue how to use a Spreadsheet program for what it was intended for either.
I know someone else who treats a Spreadsheet like a Database.
Except what they have is a Text File in Excel Format.
No defined fields, can't sort because they typed the info in to "look good" but serial numbers are in Different Columns!
Line Breaks when they reached the end of their 17" screen really hoses the thing good.
Can't export the data to CSV or anything to make it useful elsewhere but "IT'S ALL STORED ON A SPREADSHEET!" which was the original mandate.
and of course, off-topic from TFA, I signed up with a Product Testing Place. They email me once every six months and see if I want to test some new gadget or something and I get paid $75.
I signed a confidentiality agreement with them.
I am not allowed to discuss ANYTHING about the product or reveal I am testing it or anything. I was never there, I am nobody.
Last year I got an email - From The President of The Testing Company - personally thanking me for all the help in the last year.
He also thanked everyone else who "helped" last year as well and I could see who they were because apparently the President (or the secretary) just put all our emails into the TO: field and let it fly.
Lots of Identifiable people on the list because they used their WORK email, like john.doe@largecorporation.com So it was easy to see who else was part of that big Butt Plug testing program.
I did a REPLY to ONLY the President and laid into him about the confidentiality agreement and told him if he didn't know how to use email to stay away from the computer.
Later that day we all got another email from the President, this time apologizing for revealing all our personal emails, never happen again etc etc. And apparently he figured out how to use BCC!
So yelling at someone does seem to work to change behaviour.
Also- this is a dupe comment, I posted this once before on Slashdot someplace, but since this is Slashdot I didn't think a dupe would be a problem.
for those that want to know more about how things operate "behind the scenes" at DEKA, check out CODE NAME: GINGER
absolutely fascinating look at DEKA from an insider during the development of the Segway.