If someone is willing to pay for it then it is a commodity, regardless of if it is virtual or physical - just think of sales of IP.
That is correct, but some objects have little or no intrinsic value, because they have no utility. In the city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India in the 19th century, there was heavy speculation on a currency that was printed by no bank or government. Its value mushroomed and then collapsed. The Tulip Bulb Mania of 1630s Holland is another case. At least the tulips were pretty, which is more than I can say about Second Life. Web 2.0 will be followed by Bust 2.0.
I see you did your homework, and I would mod you up, but I don't have mod points today.
it appears that these spams are more of a scam to drive people to brokerages, or stock advisors. if you google one of the symbols in the spams, you will find very shady looking, hastily constructed sites who's sole purpose is to grab the #1 google ranking for the word "spam" and the symbol in the email.
I wonder if these "pump and dump" schemes are still working? This round of image spam has been going on for months now, so I'd expect that people just delete them. Even shorting these stocks may not be profitable at this point, which is why I think you are right, there is something else going on here. I wonder if this is some type of money laundering scheme?
As for retribution, if these are "shady looking, hastily constructed sites", then they are your targets. If I was more skilled and so inclined, I would be "analyzing" those sites.
money laudering (drug money, weapons sales, etc.) extortion (pay up or the server goes away) donations to "charities" (buy your own suicide bomber) fraud (the Eve Online bank scam)
If I wasn't such a nice person, I could have some fun with this.
Because motorcycles are utterly impractical for anything other than joy riding in nice weather?
You have a limited view of how motorcycles are used. Not everyone who has a motorcycle rides their shiny new Harley on weekends in the summer. Small displacement motorcycles (including scooters and auto-rickshaws) are used in hundreds of countries for daily transportation. Don't confuse "comfortable" with "practical".
I agree that the vast majority of media outlets are useless, but there is one notable exception - The Economist. Apparently I'm not the only person who is willing to pay for it - http://printmediakit.economist.com/Circulation.10. 0.html.
If somebody in a government position is doing something illegal, they probably just won't tell anybody about it. Calling it "classified" would just draw attention to it.
Not exactly; classifying a program is a great way of getting around those pesky contracting laws.
Check that; I realized the quality of the source I referred to, so I went back to find a more reputable source. All of the pages I found use the same article and don't refer to a reputable first source.
Pastor Franck Kabele, 35, told his congregation he could repeat the biblical miracle, and he attempted it from a beach in Gabon's capital of Libreville.
"He took his congregation to the beach saying he would walk across the Komo estuary, which takes 20 minutes by boat. He walked into the water, which soon passed over his head and he never came back."
I don't think that my thoughts came across in my first post. So, I'll re-state my original question - how has this affected the real-world prices of virtual commodities and currencies in MMORPGs?
I'm curious as to whether or not the lack of access by gold farmers in the Far East has increased the real-world prices of commodities and currencies. If so, it opens the door to the duplication of the effect by man-made events.
Has this affected the prices of virtual commodities in MMORPGs? If so, how and to what degree? I noticed that IGN isn't buying gold on any of the US or Euro servers that I checked; however, I don't follow MMORPGs, so this may be unrelated to the earthquake and telecom outage.
I tried to read what was in the little boxes, but the "spinner" at the bottom of the page kept drawing my attention. This looks like a start screen for a game, not an advisory site for Internet threats.
I know that you are being funny, but you have an interesting point. This probably makes other gold farms more profitable since the ones affected by this can't do business. If I played, I'd be a farming ho right now.
And even worse, having white skin, I get blamed for what you idiots do.
Like maintaining a significant military presence in the region to deter mainland China from invading Taiwan? Like keeping the lunatic Kim Jong Il from attacking South Korea, Japan, and others? Yeah, that is idiotic, protecting ingrates at great expense, which is why we probably aren't going to do it much longer.
I know that you are pissed off because you can't have all of your Internet today, but you really need to calm down. ScentCone is right; there is an inordinate amount of malicious activity originating in China. No, you don't control everything in the Far East, so it isn't your fault, but you shouldn't presume to speak for all of Hong Kong.
By the way, everyone who knowingly takes part in a criminal enterprise is a criminal, not just the "kingpin", so don't assign all of the blame to "evil American spam lords".
Slashdot Mirror
Damn, you've ruined my plans to turn /etc/shadow files into profitable advertising!
That is correct, but some objects have little or no intrinsic value, because they have no utility. In the city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India in the 19th century, there was heavy speculation on a currency that was printed by no bank or government. Its value mushroomed and then collapsed. The Tulip Bulb Mania of 1630s Holland is another case. At least the tulips were pretty, which is more than I can say about Second Life. Web 2.0 will be followed by Bust 2.0.
I wonder if these "pump and dump" schemes are still working? This round of image spam has been going on for months now, so I'd expect that people just delete them. Even shorting these stocks may not be profitable at this point, which is why I think you are right, there is something else going on here. I wonder if this is some type of money laundering scheme?
As for retribution, if these are "shady looking, hastily constructed sites", then they are your targets. If I was more skilled and so inclined, I would be "analyzing" those sites.
You're both right; I don't see the basis of an argument here.
Is this a good site for that?
A couple of ideas come to mind -
money laudering (drug money, weapons sales, etc.)
extortion (pay up or the server goes away)
donations to "charities" (buy your own suicide bomber)
fraud (the Eve Online bank scam)
If I wasn't such a nice person, I could have some fun with this.
You have a limited view of how motorcycles are used. Not everyone who has a motorcycle rides their shiny new Harley on weekends in the summer. Small displacement motorcycles (including scooters and auto-rickshaws) are used in hundreds of countries for daily transportation. Don't confuse "comfortable" with "practical".
I agree that the vast majority of media outlets are useless, but there is one notable exception - The Economist. Apparently I'm not the only person who is willing to pay for it - http://printmediakit.economist.com/Circulation.10. 0.html.
stupid people + clever lawyers = trouble
Should there be warning labels? Of course.
Should there be warning labels as a replacement for a basic level of education? Of course not.
Especially since guns are cheaper.
That explains a lot about modern society.
Will telecommunications eventually make face to face meetings obsolete or will there always be a need for a personal meeting?
Not exactly; classifying a program is a great way of getting around those pesky contracting laws.
Check that; I realized the quality of the source I referred to, so I went back to find a more reputable source. All of the pages I found use the same article and don't refer to a reputable first source.
I don't think that my thoughts came across in my first post. So, I'll re-state my original question - how has this affected the real-world prices of virtual commodities and currencies in MMORPGs?
I'm curious as to whether or not the lack of access by gold farmers in the Far East has increased the real-world prices of commodities and currencies. If so, it opens the door to the duplication of the effect by man-made events.
Has this affected the prices of virtual commodities in MMORPGs? If so, how and to what degree? I noticed that IGN isn't buying gold on any of the US or Euro servers that I checked; however, I don't follow MMORPGs, so this may be unrelated to the earthquake and telecom outage.
Correction - "the're", not "their".
Because usually he is stupid enough to tell them that their blind. Telling people about their shortcomings doesn't win any friends.
Fair enough. Of course, I'm going to brag about a recent "hit" prediction.
7 52561g nation
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=205217&cid=16
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Rumsfeld#Resi
Honestly, I hope that this one doesn't come true.
The other country that starts with an "I" and has four letters.
Funny how you mention the Gulf of Tonkin; I expect a similar incident to soon take place in the Persian Gulf.
I tried to read what was in the little boxes, but the "spinner" at the bottom of the page kept drawing my attention. This looks like a start screen for a game, not an advisory site for Internet threats.
I know that you are being funny, but you have an interesting point. This probably makes other gold farms more profitable since the ones affected by this can't do business. If I played, I'd be a farming ho right now.
Like maintaining a significant military presence in the region to deter mainland China from invading Taiwan? Like keeping the lunatic Kim Jong Il from attacking South Korea, Japan, and others? Yeah, that is idiotic, protecting ingrates at great expense, which is why we probably aren't going to do it much longer.
I know that you are pissed off because you can't have all of your Internet today, but you really need to calm down. ScentCone is right; there is an inordinate amount of malicious activity originating in China. No, you don't control everything in the Far East, so it isn't your fault, but you shouldn't presume to speak for all of Hong Kong.
By the way, everyone who knowingly takes part in a criminal enterprise is a criminal, not just the "kingpin", so don't assign all of the blame to "evil American spam lords".