Right on! I drive an old Toyota Tercel, and I think there should be a special driver's license for SUVs. It drives me nuts to watch people who could barely pass the driving test in a 2-door compact car like mine attempt to wield the super-size Escalades and Excursions. The sad part is, they can go take the driving test in their neighbor's micro-car and then drive a vehicle the size of a small bus... if they had to parallel park their SUV, a lot of 'em would never get to drive.
As I saw in some/.ers sig a long time ago... "Sorry about your penis. Nice SUV though."
You don't have to answer it just because it rings;)
As obvious as you and I think that statement was, I think there aren't many people who can make that logical leap. If it was an important call, they'll leave a message. Otherwise, just ignore it. It's usually a 1-button tap during the ring to ignore a call... don't be a slave to your phone.
What's he going to learn? He could barely pull his saber to cut himself free of the Wampa at the beginning of Empire. This is supposed to be before ANH, when he barely even knew that Old Ben lived out in the desert.
Nah, this is just Lucas proving that he could mold a pile of dog crap into a sculpture of Darth Vader and people would kill each other to own it.
I think the game industry is pretty healthy. I think it's changing rapidly, but there are a lot of good examples as to what's good about gaming. Zonk's comment about ww2 games in the "department" shows one problem, however... a lack of creative ideas. World War 2 games are great, I'm a big-time Call of Duty player. But we do need some inventive ideas. However, if ww2 games were all made like CoD and CoD2, I'll play 'em just the same. Those are awesome.
There is no "reverse" racism; it is racist, or it is not.
My point was that it acts in reverse of the kind of racism most often encountered (at least in my experience). People think of "racist remarks" as being those that demean a person because they're ____. "Reverse racism" as I used it above is that I don't say your race sucks, I say mine is soooo wonderful! Let's talk about how wonderful ____ness is on every 3rd tv commercial and take a national holiday! Why do we need a day off work? To celebrate something we had absolutely no control over... what color/orientation/etc we were when we were born! Then, on top of that (as some AC pointed out later in this thread), a white pride rally = racism. Any other _____ pride rally? Oh, that's just pride. That's denying equality... which strangely seems to fit right back into the whole racism thing.
An excellent definition of racism is: (et al)
That's great, but *the* definition of the word "racism" is found here. So while you might be able to claim that I'm just spewing unfounded ideas here, I actually put some thought into this. Perhaps you meant to s/"An excellent"/"My Personal"?
My sig, by the way, comes from seeing hundreds of self-proclaimed "Grammer Nazis" (misspell intentional... that's how they spell it themselves). When you're an asshat to someone concerning their spelling and grammar, it doesn't hurt to at least do it right yourself.
As a fellow straight white male, I salute you. It's like reverse racism... rather than putting another race down, it's now appropriate to glorify one's own by celebrating "holidays". It still accomplishes the same purpose... one is viewed as exalted over the other(s). Pride in one's race/orientation/wtf-ever is still racism, no matter how you cut it. Whether you're a limey white or the darkest black, it doesn't matter at all... it's about what you do with the time you're given to live. Geez, everybody, just be "human" and get over yourselves.
Chances are they'll still just use their email unless something prevents them from doing so.
We use Lotus Notes. Our boxes are set to warn users when they hit 1000 MB, and the absolute max allowed is 1250. Other locations in our company have even more stringent requirements... some only allow 200 MB email storage. We've got engineers sending each other CAD files and crap like that, and we've only got about a half-dozen users out of about 100 who even come close to our limit.
Parent's post is a good idea... set them up a good system to manage docs... but be prepared, nobody likes change. Get the support of your superiors and then institute reasonable email limits. When people complain (and they WILL) be prepared to show them how easy it is to move the document to the file server in a well-labeled location "so everyone can get to it easily". You'll get a lot of resistance at first, but if you hold your ground on email limits, you'll make progress.
Sorry for the necropost, but I thought maybe I should add my $.02 on your comments, as a former RS employee.
Their salespeople are given impossible goals to meet. I live in a town of about 60,000 people. The RS pay scale is set up that you have to sell $4000 per week to hit commissionable sales... up until that point, you get your base pay and that's it. $4000 per week isn't possible on a regular basis except for 3 months out of the year... leading up to Christmas. Why? Mostly because they also overstaff the stores with morons. I know what many electronic components are... I took electronics in college. I'm not familiar with all the intricacies of every circuit, etc... but at least I know what the heck it's supposed to look like and how to read the label for a component's resistance/capacitance/whatever. The problem is that I can't make any money at it. Do you know how many resistors it takes to get to $4000? The only way I'll even make it *close* is if I sell a crap-paq computer, several home theater systems, and a cell phone. When the guy comes in looking for resistors, I'm worried that one of the sales sharks (who run over other employees in order to sell phones so they can reach commission) is going to be up front getting the next cell deal and I'm going to be stuck explaining how we don't have a 2-ohm resistor but you could buy the multi-pack of the 1-ohms and wire 2 in series to get the same effect. At the end of the day, the shark who ignores everyone headed for the components goes home with a better chance at a fat paycheck. Some of them intentionally don't learn anything about the parts so that they can "pass the customer to someone more knowledgeable" and wait for the cellular customer today. Radio Shack keeps up this dream of a "good salesman with unlimited earnings potential" because it forces their people to be aggressive, even when they don't know jack about what they're selling you. If they *tried* to just be an electrical supplier with a few extra gadgets, rather than a Best Buy, they'd do a lot better. They'd put a lot of Mom & Pop stores out of business, because they've already got all the logistics in place for getting parts to where they need to be.
when Clueless User #69 is the incredibly cute and hot granddaughter of the boss
If that's the case, why make a fuss when you have to go fix her machine? Heck, I'd be breaking stuff on it remotely at least once a week...
I don't know what our network's problem is, Susie... There's no logical explanation for why your "My Docs" folder disappears every Thursday. I'll keep investigating it for you, though...
I think the math example (which I've used myself in similar arguments) is more evidence of a symptom rather than the actual solution to the problem. Give a problem they've never seen before to the people I went to high school with, this is about how it would go:
50% would say "this is stupid" and not even try to solve it.
40% would make exactly 1 attempt and then complain that they couldn't figure it out.
The rest would plug away at it until they solved it, using whatever research methods they had available.
Teach your kids to be inquisitive. If it doesn't work, they should want to know why, not just assume that it's broken until an "expert" fixes it. Don't let them follow the path of least resistance. If they learn that they can get by without doing it, they'll never excel in anything.
People who don't even try to understand the problem will frustrate everyone. I don't know how many times I've wanted to throttle a user who says "it's broke" and can't even be bothered to write down the error message so that I can try to figure out how to fix it.
While my Latin isn't the best, doesn't it seem that since pro bono is the only part that was used, it's just "for good"? No mention of the public there. Adding the "public" in there is kinda putting words in their mouths. Take for instance
"I received 50 dollars."
and
"I received a loan of 50 dollars".
Slightly different meaning there.
Also, one could argue that protecting the public from representatives who misuse information made available to them IS for the public good.
I'm not allowed to work at a corporate-managed RadioShack ever again (I quit without notice).
Radio Shack pretends to care about its customers. It's evident from the way every meeting goes, all the way down to the store manager with his employees. The entire focus is on SELLING BIG-TICKET THINGS. If you're in here for batteries, I should offer you a cellular plan. Why? Because deep down, you want one, and you're just waiting for me to offer it to you. Their strategy for floor salesmen was "give them what they came in for, and then add as much as you can onto it." It doesn't matter if they need cellular service, if they have good enough credit to support it, whatever... sell it to them anyway!
Now, they're changing their pay scale as part of this revamping process, and making it so even less of the money goes to the people who sell things. Their new commission system is designed to screw the salesman 4 ways from Friday. I'm so glad I got out of there... I hated that job. Ugh.
Now, I don't even shop there. I'll find some little independent electronics retailer, or I'll find it online. Radio Shack isn't nearly what it used to be. They hire salespeople and try to make them knowledgeable instead of hiring knowledgeable people and making them into salesmen.
Everyone, do the world a favor... Take your money elsewhere.
For those who weren't paying attention, parent is referring to this from yesterday...
I suppose it was a *really short* downturn. Or perhaps they were holding the graph upside-down. Or maybe the "experts" don't have a freaking clue what's going to happen and they just spout off a different opinion daily. Who can know of such things?
You just *had* to go and post this AC... You'd probably get modded through the roof for this, man... I know you'd have 1 from me.
They're trying to accomplish with quantity what they lack in quality. If they'd devote time to quality games, they wouldn't have to worry about the quantity. As it stands, we get Tired Sequel XLVIII: The next-to-the-next-to-the-next-to-the-Last of the $VIDEOGAMEHEROES. Why? Because they're not allowing their people to get creative.
I have gained respect for WW2 vets after playing my way through Call of Duty and its expansion, and parts of CoD2. Documentaries don't show you anything gritty. They say things like "The 101st became the last-ditch effort to hold the line in the Battle of the Bulge." What you don't see is the sergeant screaming for a bazooka team to come take out a panzer, the guy who just had his legs blown off yelling for his mother as the medic who's working on him gets shot to pieces by a sniper, the guy who won't climb out of the bunker because there's so much gunfire and he's about to wet himself... Movies like Saving Private Ryan and the Band of Brothers HBO series do this in a Hollywood way, but then to actually simulate (however far from perfect the sim might be) the run off the Volga into Stalingrad... these are powerful stories if you view them as such. The feeling of "Oh CRAP!" when you realize all you're getting from the commissar is a clip of mosin-nagant ammo (no rifle!). Then when you get finished with the mission, you think, geez, that old man down the street experienced this in REALITY and lived to tell about it. The "traditional" methods for disseminating information about war water it down. Sure, you can find out that some Allied division clashed with some Axis troops at Pointe du Hoc, but that doesn't explain the kinds of things that those men had to live through.
I would venture to say that young people don't appreciate the full effect of a game like this, but if you're in the frame of mind where you want to kinda feel what it would be like? These games can effectively increase one's respect for the guy on the boat sailing toward the Norman coast. I'd say there's nothing disrespectful about these games, especially as they add more realism.
the fat that you go partially deaf for a few moments after the explosion etc.
Have you tried Call of Duty? They've got a pretty cool shellshock feature when something explodes near you. You go deaf, everything goes slow-motion, then it gradually returns to normal over a few seconds. Granted, there's no shock wave to hit you in the chest, and not a lot of "debris falling" noise, but it's enough to get your full attention.
Nothing will ever be quite like the real thing, I agree, but they are doing very well.
Dude, I'd give anything to have mod points today. I'm surrounded by people who have wayyyy too many kids and have no idea why their lives are such a mess. They're amazed that my wife and I (both 25) have bought a house. Yet they can't understand yet why we don't want to have a child yet. It blows their minds to think that someone could be married and *not* have a kid. The best part is when they ask and I say "We're waiting until we can support kids". They give me this confused look like I'm speaking another language and then say "hmmm. yeah, that's cool..." as if I'm some kind of weird idiot for not making babies all the time.
Amen. We don't *need* more CS majors. Making games a "selling point" in the curriculum is going to decrease the average intelligence of CS Majors, because we're going to attract those meatheads. If you're going to have gaming curriculum (which I *DO* believe is important, by the way), have it in the junior and senior-level classes, where the dipsticks have already been weeded out. Then give us some fun yet challenging assignments in the gaming world. DON'T increase enrollments by offering "game design" as CS 1xx or 2xx... they're just gonna change majors when they realize they can't hack it.
You're so right... it's not Christianity's fault that we do it this way. My family has started making a conscious effort to reduce materialism during the holiday season over the past few years. Yeah, we still go and buy something for each other, but nobody goes nuts getting gifts or anything; we spend some quality time together building memories. It's really reduced the stress for us at this time of year, plus we can do nice things for other people, too. One of the things we've done is to get together and spend the whole day making candies and cookies. Then we give them to our friends; they get cookies, we get to spend a great time making them. It makes the holiday mean something (to us, anyway).
There's *always* going to be a Christmas rush because retailers *create* a Christmas rush. They do their best to make you part with every penny you can possibly squeeze out of a person. They don't realize that this is bad for the business as a whole, they just see their bottom line boosted by holiday sales and that's all that matters.
I'd say the rush hurts the business not only for the reasons listed, but also the games that get shoved out the door too soon because the publisher wants the title on the shelves for Christmas, whether it was finished properly or not. Games should be released when they're good and ready, not when some suit in Marketing says he wants to release it. If the jackass was that good at his job, he could sell the product no matter what time of the year it was, and he would prefer to have a quality product to sell. Just my $.02US....
Nothing, really... it was listed on Dictionary.com when I typed in "Grammer". I went there to verify that "Grammer" had a meaning of some sort since the self-proclaimed "grammer nazis" around here really get on my nerves. I wonder if they're really nazis from Grammer...?
Slashdot Mirror
Right on! I drive an old Toyota Tercel, and I think there should be a special driver's license for SUVs. It drives me nuts to watch people who could barely pass the driving test in a 2-door compact car like mine attempt to wield the super-size Escalades and Excursions. The sad part is, they can go take the driving test in their neighbor's micro-car and then drive a vehicle the size of a small bus... if they had to parallel park their SUV, a lot of 'em would never get to drive.
/.ers sig a long time ago...
As I saw in some
"Sorry about your penis. Nice SUV though."
That's awesome. Just what I needed. Oh, for a mod point....
I'd mark that Insightful if I had mod points... good analogy!
You don't have to answer it just because it rings ;)
As obvious as you and I think that statement was, I think there aren't many people who can make that logical leap. If it was an important call, they'll leave a message. Otherwise, just ignore it. It's usually a 1-button tap during the ring to ignore a call... don't be a slave to your phone.
What's he going to learn? He could barely pull his saber to cut himself free of the Wampa at the beginning of Empire. This is supposed to be before ANH, when he barely even knew that Old Ben lived out in the desert.
Nah, this is just Lucas proving that he could mold a pile of dog crap into a sculpture of Darth Vader and people would kill each other to own it.
And yes, sadly enough, I will probably watch it.
I think the game industry is pretty healthy. I think it's changing rapidly, but there are a lot of good examples as to what's good about gaming. Zonk's comment about ww2 games in the "department" shows one problem, however... a lack of creative ideas. World War 2 games are great, I'm a big-time Call of Duty player. But we do need some inventive ideas. However, if ww2 games were all made like CoD and CoD2, I'll play 'em just the same. Those are awesome.
There is no "reverse" racism; it is racist, or it is not.
My point was that it acts in reverse of the kind of racism most often encountered (at least in my experience). People think of "racist remarks" as being those that demean a person because they're ____. "Reverse racism" as I used it above is that I don't say your race sucks, I say mine is soooo wonderful! Let's talk about how wonderful ____ness is on every 3rd tv commercial and take a national holiday! Why do we need a day off work? To celebrate something we had absolutely no control over... what color/orientation/etc we were when we were born! Then, on top of that (as some AC pointed out later in this thread), a white pride rally = racism. Any other _____ pride rally? Oh, that's just pride. That's denying equality... which strangely seems to fit right back into the whole racism thing.
An excellent definition of racism is: (et al)
That's great, but *the* definition of the word "racism" is found here. So while you might be able to claim that I'm just spewing unfounded ideas here, I actually put some thought into this. Perhaps you meant to s/"An excellent"/"My Personal"?
My sig, by the way, comes from seeing hundreds of self-proclaimed "Grammer Nazis" (misspell intentional... that's how they spell it themselves). When you're an asshat to someone concerning their spelling and grammar, it doesn't hurt to at least do it right yourself.
As a fellow straight white male, I salute you. It's like reverse racism... rather than putting another race down, it's now appropriate to glorify one's own by celebrating "holidays". It still accomplishes the same purpose... one is viewed as exalted over the other(s). Pride in one's race/orientation/wtf-ever is still racism, no matter how you cut it. Whether you're a limey white or the darkest black, it doesn't matter at all... it's about what you do with the time you're given to live. Geez, everybody, just be "human" and get over yourselves.
Chances are they'll still just use their email unless something prevents them from doing so. We use Lotus Notes. Our boxes are set to warn users when they hit 1000 MB, and the absolute max allowed is 1250. Other locations in our company have even more stringent requirements... some only allow 200 MB email storage. We've got engineers sending each other CAD files and crap like that, and we've only got about a half-dozen users out of about 100 who even come close to our limit. Parent's post is a good idea... set them up a good system to manage docs... but be prepared, nobody likes change. Get the support of your superiors and then institute reasonable email limits. When people complain (and they WILL) be prepared to show them how easy it is to move the document to the file server in a well-labeled location "so everyone can get to it easily". You'll get a lot of resistance at first, but if you hold your ground on email limits, you'll make progress.
Sorry for the necropost, but I thought maybe I should add my $.02 on your comments, as a former RS employee.
Their salespeople are given impossible goals to meet. I live in a town of about 60,000 people. The RS pay scale is set up that you have to sell $4000 per week to hit commissionable sales... up until that point, you get your base pay and that's it. $4000 per week isn't possible on a regular basis except for 3 months out of the year... leading up to Christmas. Why? Mostly because they also overstaff the stores with morons. I know what many electronic components are... I took electronics in college. I'm not familiar with all the intricacies of every circuit, etc... but at least I know what the heck it's supposed to look like and how to read the label for a component's resistance/capacitance/whatever. The problem is that I can't make any money at it. Do you know how many resistors it takes to get to $4000? The only way I'll even make it *close* is if I sell a crap-paq computer, several home theater systems, and a cell phone. When the guy comes in looking for resistors, I'm worried that one of the sales sharks (who run over other employees in order to sell phones so they can reach commission) is going to be up front getting the next cell deal and I'm going to be stuck explaining how we don't have a 2-ohm resistor but you could buy the multi-pack of the 1-ohms and wire 2 in series to get the same effect. At the end of the day, the shark who ignores everyone headed for the components goes home with a better chance at a fat paycheck. Some of them intentionally don't learn anything about the parts so that they can "pass the customer to someone more knowledgeable" and wait for the cellular customer today. Radio Shack keeps up this dream of a "good salesman with unlimited earnings potential" because it forces their people to be aggressive, even when they don't know jack about what they're selling you. If they *tried* to just be an electrical supplier with a few extra gadgets, rather than a Best Buy, they'd do a lot better. They'd put a lot of Mom & Pop stores out of business, because they've already got all the logistics in place for getting parts to where they need to be.
when Clueless User #69 is the incredibly cute and hot granddaughter of the boss
If that's the case, why make a fuss when you have to go fix her machine? Heck, I'd be breaking stuff on it remotely at least once a week...
I don't know what our network's problem is, Susie... There's no logical explanation for why your "My Docs" folder disappears every Thursday. I'll keep investigating it for you, though...
I think the math example (which I've used myself in similar arguments) is more evidence of a symptom rather than the actual solution to the problem. Give a problem they've never seen before to the people I went to high school with, this is about how it would go:
50% would say "this is stupid" and not even try to solve it.
40% would make exactly 1 attempt and then complain that they couldn't figure it out.
The rest would plug away at it until they solved it, using whatever research methods they had available.
Teach your kids to be inquisitive. If it doesn't work, they should want to know why, not just assume that it's broken until an "expert" fixes it. Don't let them follow the path of least resistance. If they learn that they can get by without doing it, they'll never excel in anything.
People who don't even try to understand the problem will frustrate everyone. I don't know how many times I've wanted to throttle a user who says "it's broke" and can't even be bothered to write down the error message so that I can try to figure out how to fix it.
While my Latin isn't the best, doesn't it seem that since pro bono is the only part that was used, it's just "for good"? No mention of the public there. Adding the "public" in there is kinda putting words in their mouths. Take for instance
"I received 50 dollars."
and
"I received a loan of 50 dollars".
Slightly different meaning there.
Also, one could argue that protecting the public from representatives who misuse information made available to them IS for the public good.
You don't know the half of it, amigo...
I'm not allowed to work at a corporate-managed RadioShack ever again (I quit without notice).
Radio Shack pretends to care about its customers. It's evident from the way every meeting goes, all the way down to the store manager with his employees. The entire focus is on SELLING BIG-TICKET THINGS. If you're in here for batteries, I should offer you a cellular plan. Why? Because deep down, you want one, and you're just waiting for me to offer it to you. Their strategy for floor salesmen was "give them what they came in for, and then add as much as you can onto it." It doesn't matter if they need cellular service, if they have good enough credit to support it, whatever... sell it to them anyway!
Now, they're changing their pay scale as part of this revamping process, and making it so even less of the money goes to the people who sell things. Their new commission system is designed to screw the salesman 4 ways from Friday. I'm so glad I got out of there... I hated that job. Ugh.
Now, I don't even shop there. I'll find some little independent electronics retailer, or I'll find it online. Radio Shack isn't nearly what it used to be. They hire salespeople and try to make them knowledgeable instead of hiring knowledgeable people and making them into salesmen.
Everyone, do the world a favor... Take your money elsewhere.
For those who weren't paying attention, parent is referring to this from yesterday...
I suppose it was a *really short* downturn. Or perhaps they were holding the graph upside-down. Or maybe the "experts" don't have a freaking clue what's going to happen and they just spout off a different opinion daily. Who can know of such things?
You just *had* to go and post this AC... You'd probably get modded through the roof for this, man... I know you'd have 1 from me.
They're trying to accomplish with quantity what they lack in quality. If they'd devote time to quality games, they wouldn't have to worry about the quantity. As it stands, we get Tired Sequel XLVIII: The next-to-the-next-to-the-next-to-the-Last of the $VIDEOGAMEHEROES. Why? Because they're not allowing their people to get creative.
Don't work harder, work smarter.
I'll throw $.02 in the pot...
I have gained respect for WW2 vets after playing my way through Call of Duty and its expansion, and parts of CoD2. Documentaries don't show you anything gritty. They say things like "The 101st became the last-ditch effort to hold the line in the Battle of the Bulge." What you don't see is the sergeant screaming for a bazooka team to come take out a panzer, the guy who just had his legs blown off yelling for his mother as the medic who's working on him gets shot to pieces by a sniper, the guy who won't climb out of the bunker because there's so much gunfire and he's about to wet himself... Movies like Saving Private Ryan and the Band of Brothers HBO series do this in a Hollywood way, but then to actually simulate (however far from perfect the sim might be) the run off the Volga into Stalingrad... these are powerful stories if you view them as such. The feeling of "Oh CRAP!" when you realize all you're getting from the commissar is a clip of mosin-nagant ammo (no rifle!). Then when you get finished with the mission, you think, geez, that old man down the street experienced this in REALITY and lived to tell about it. The "traditional" methods for disseminating information about war water it down. Sure, you can find out that some Allied division clashed with some Axis troops at Pointe du Hoc, but that doesn't explain the kinds of things that those men had to live through.
I would venture to say that young people don't appreciate the full effect of a game like this, but if you're in the frame of mind where you want to kinda feel what it would be like? These games can effectively increase one's respect for the guy on the boat sailing toward the Norman coast. I'd say there's nothing disrespectful about these games, especially as they add more realism.
the fat that you go partially deaf for a few moments after the explosion etc.
Have you tried Call of Duty? They've got a pretty cool shellshock feature when something explodes near you. You go deaf, everything goes slow-motion, then it gradually returns to normal over a few seconds. Granted, there's no shock wave to hit you in the chest, and not a lot of "debris falling" noise, but it's enough to get your full attention.
Nothing will ever be quite like the real thing, I agree, but they are doing very well.
To think... I used my last mod point this morning. That was priceless, best laugh I've had all day.
Dude, I'd give anything to have mod points today. I'm surrounded by people who have wayyyy too many kids and have no idea why their lives are such a mess. They're amazed that my wife and I (both 25) have bought a house. Yet they can't understand yet why we don't want to have a child yet. It blows their minds to think that someone could be married and *not* have a kid. The best part is when they ask and I say "We're waiting until we can support kids". They give me this confused look like I'm speaking another language and then say "hmmm. yeah, that's cool..." as if I'm some kind of weird idiot for not making babies all the time.
Otherwise, how can their parents take care of them, as they are legally required to do?
Yeah, like that happens... we're too busy blaming GTA for screwing our kids up, if you hadn't noticed.
Amen. We don't *need* more CS majors. Making games a "selling point" in the curriculum is going to decrease the average intelligence of CS Majors, because we're going to attract those meatheads. If you're going to have gaming curriculum (which I *DO* believe is important, by the way), have it in the junior and senior-level classes, where the dipsticks have already been weeded out. Then give us some fun yet challenging assignments in the gaming world. DON'T increase enrollments by offering "game design" as CS 1xx or 2xx... they're just gonna change majors when they realize they can't hack it.
worshipping the almighty dollar
You're so right... it's not Christianity's fault that we do it this way. My family has started making a conscious effort to reduce materialism during the holiday season over the past few years. Yeah, we still go and buy something for each other, but nobody goes nuts getting gifts or anything; we spend some quality time together building memories. It's really reduced the stress for us at this time of year, plus we can do nice things for other people, too. One of the things we've done is to get together and spend the whole day making candies and cookies. Then we give them to our friends; they get cookies, we get to spend a great time making them. It makes the holiday mean something (to us, anyway).
There's *always* going to be a Christmas rush because retailers *create* a Christmas rush. They do their best to make you part with every penny you can possibly squeeze out of a person. They don't realize that this is bad for the business as a whole, they just see their bottom line boosted by holiday sales and that's all that matters.
I'd say the rush hurts the business not only for the reasons listed, but also the games that get shoved out the door too soon because the publisher wants the title on the shelves for Christmas, whether it was finished properly or not. Games should be released when they're good and ready, not when some suit in Marketing says he wants to release it. If the jackass was that good at his job, he could sell the product no matter what time of the year it was, and he would prefer to have a quality product to sell. Just my $.02US....
Nothing, really... it was listed on Dictionary.com when I typed in "Grammer". I went there to verify that "Grammer" had a meaning of some sort since the self-proclaimed "grammer nazis" around here really get on my nerves. I wonder if they're really nazis from Grammer...?