"The band's biggest fans ought to have the best seats, not the band's richest fans," said Tim Todd, 47, of Kansas City, Mo., who used ticketFast recently to buy tickets for a concert by the rock group Phish.
That's about as socialist of an idea as you can get - that desire should trump means in the purchase of goods and services.
It ain't just/. that is leaning to the left... it is the way the nation is leaning as a whole.
There is no right to purchase tickets for a concert or event. I seriously don't see why there should be any controversy over this - if Ticketmaster (or anybody) can get $1,500 for a ticket then they should be allowed to get $1,500 for a ticket. That simple. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing -every- ticket placed up for auction: instead of charging $125, $90, $80 and $50 let every ticket be sold for their true, free market value - nosebleed seats behind a post may go as low as $20 and front row center may go for $3,000. There is nothing wrong with this.
That's just asking for scalping to get worse, by pricing event tickets for popular events even farther out of the average person's reach. Most people who keep up with a team or a star do so because they feel that they can get tickets when they want to, even if it's somewhat expensive. This will sorely disillusion them to this.
So? If anything this will encourage people to find new artists to follow. This is a good thing. If too many people get ticked off at Menudo or New Kids on the Block for the incredibly high ticket prices perhaps these groups will find ways to play without having to use Ticketmaster. This is a good thing.
It is certainly your right to complain, and to seek improvements from within. However, I have little (some, but very little) sympathy for people who say "my boss treats me like crap" but then refuse to leave because "it's too hard" to find a better place.
I once asked the local post office to stop delivering all of the junk mail - the fliers, the postcards and whatnot. I never buy anything from these companies and you'd think they'd like to save on printing costs but the post office will deliver to everybody - there is no way to opt out.
Just how many people actually buy V x 1 q 4 p G . R g 4? Somehow I -really- find it hard to believe that anybody buys drugs from these people yet these particular spammers persist.
Among recent winners:
$ 48 c 8 , 000 at a 3 , 6 o 7% fi d xed - rat m e
$ 37 f 2 , 000 at a 3 c , 90% v x ariabl s e - ra i te
$ 49 w 2 , 000 at a 3 b , 21% int u eres a t - only
$ 2 v 48 , 000 at a 3 b , 36% f q ixed - rat n e
$ 19 v 8 , 000 at a 3 , j 55% v z ariable - rat v e
Yeah... the theory that "If no one acctually buys anything from those adds, if they don't drive sales, then sooner or later they will be discontinued" is really working. C'mon... how many mortgage leads were generated by this? And yet they never stop arriving.
That said, the same thing applies to websites: seriously - how many people have bought a new car because they watched an ad before reading an article from time.com? How many sales have the 24 hour passes at salon.com generated? How many people have bought a car or an airline ticket because it was driving/flying in front of all of the text on a screen and making vroom vroom noises?
Just because the former employee(s?) haven't testified in court doesn't mean their testimony isn't evidence. There are, in my opinion, credible claims that the NSA is behaving exactly as accused. Interestingly enough the media isn't making a big deal over this - a truly anti-Bush mainstream press would blare on every headline "Bush's NSA comfirms wire-tapping claims are state secret" or similar.
Is it just me or does his photo not look like Steve Martin in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels after receiving permission to go to the bathroom?
This guy needs to go away now. How about setting up a de-elect Lamar Smith fund to buy campaign ads in his home district to clearly point out just how much of a slug this guy is? If he is dead-set on affecting people around the country then he deserves to play with a national election. TV ads with photos of Cape Cod (where he really lives)and of the Hollywood sign with a voiceover along the lines of "he lives in Cape Cod and represents Hollywood. What has Rep Lamar Smith done for you lately?" He's kind of in the sticks so local newspaper and radio ads should be fairly cheap. Anybody in?
Don't think it would be. At some point somebody is going to make a serious challenge to click wrap or a stealth TOS change on the grounds of consensus ad idem - it is unreasonable to expect the average person to understand pages and pages of legaleese. The argument that somebody "signed" something they didn't understand is presented in court all the time - and often results in victory for the plaintiff.
Once upon a time - back in the mid 80s IIRC there was some fuss about a couple of TV stations that was experimenting with broadcasting a "flag" (really a sub-audible tone) over the commercials with the intention of allowing VCRs to skip the ads - tone present, fast forward, tone absent, play. The advertisers blew a gasket, threatened to sue, etc etc etc, and forced them to stop broadcasting the ad identification.
AOL is driving down a road that will further alienate them from their users
Do you think any significant quantity of AOL's users care about things like this? There are two and only two things that will get AOL's attention: legislation/legal action or if really popular websites started to block AOL users from using their services. If MySpace blocked all traffic from AOL users until AOL scrapped their email tax and fired the person who blocked this email then (after the necessary lawsuits which AOL would ultimately lose) AOL would fire the person responsible for blocking these emails (or at least a very public scapegoat) and would scrap the email tax.
That TiVo sued EchoStar in tiny Marshall, Texas, was no accident, said Bradford Lyerla, intellectual property attorney and partner with Marshall, Gerstein & Borun, a specialty firm in Chicago. Juries there, Lyerla said, find in favor of the plaintiffs in patent trials about 80% of the time.
Echostar should file for change of venue - if TiVo protests that past history does nothing to show bias then EchoStar should present a notoriously anti-plaintiff location. Jury shopping is a great, big, steaming load that violates both word and spirit of the concept of equal protection and due process.
Missing Christmas sales will hurt them. It won't hurt them near as much as the embarrassment and loss of face.
What loss of face? Among linux people who didn't intend to buy the OS anyway? Loss of face within the ranks of probably 90% of the computer users out there who buy an OS along with the machine and never upgrade? Within the ranks of the non-technical CIOs who make decisions to buy $5,000,000 - $5,000,000,000 worth of Microsoft at a time? What are the odds that GM, Lucent, IBM, United Airlines, Bancorp, Deutchsbank, the Los Angeles School District, the GAO, the US Senate, the US Navy... will spend even a single dime less on Microsoft because of this?
Yes, the MS managers lose face in the eyes of the MS employees, but so what? Do you think Bill cares what his employees think?
GM has announced that they are going to start shipping engineering jobs overseas - probably not a particularly wise decision. If I were a corporate executive the last thing I'd want to do would be to torque off the segment of the engineering crowd that really holds a grudge, loves to drink beer, and holds a degree in mechanical engineering.
Now if only we can convince the various boards of directors that they would save billions if they started to outsource executives. Nothing will boost profits quicker than finding some guy in India to do a better job at running a company than the current CEO but for 1/10 the salary.
Follow up by trimming the fat in state government - capping benefits at 25% of every dollar spent on salaries is perfectly reasonable (Detroit offers an average of 80% in benefits of every dollar spent on salaries).
Cutting taxes of the middle class will work wonders, but she won't do that because she is more interested in entitlements than productivity or economic expansion.
She could stop spending so much and reduce the tax rate.
Some other poster on/. reported that some Fortune 500 company bases promotions 90% on personal appearance and social skills and 10% on actual job performance. (I so dearly wish said poster had identified the company... I would have loved to have sent requests for confirmation to their HR department).
I did: the US Rep and both Senators. They all "appreciated my concern" but expressed the need corporations have to high-quality talent. All three were in favor of relaxing the H1B limits and bringing more people in.
Somewhere out there one can look up all of the companies that have hired H1B workers - very interesting to see all of the locals who hired H1Bers even though local unemployment rates are through the roof. (Thanks to our suburb-hating, anti-business Canadian governor Michigan has the worst unemployment rates in the country. Everybody is doing better except for us.)
Way back when I was pimped out to a particular (and nameless) company that sold services machines to businesses around the world. One day I was caught in the crossfire between corporate executives and I, along with dozens of others, was abruptly shown the door.
Within days the CEO of said nameless company that sold services and machines to businesses around the world was in the paper bemoaning the complete dearth of qualified IT professionals and begging congress to increase the number of H1B visas that he could exploit. I sent him a letter pointing out that I was an IT professional with glowing reviews from every manager with whom I had ever come in contact, sent references and let him know that I was availabe and would take a position anywhere in the world, including (especially?) ones that involved lots of travel.
He ignored me. There is no shortage of IT workers - for every open position there are probably 10 qualified applicants. (Of course, there may not be enough women or minority applicants...)
Am I the only person who speculates that perhaps Google shouldn't keep the data in the first place? Yes, I understand the geek mentality that never deleting any files is a good thing, but does Google really need to log every search along with the IP address?
Slashdot Mirror
That's about as socialist of an idea as you can get - that desire should trump means in the purchase of goods and services.
It ain't just /. that is leaning to the left... it is the way the nation is leaning as a whole.
You are perfectly free to create a competing ticket service and give Ticketmaster a run for the money.
So? If anything this will encourage people to find new artists to follow. This is a good thing. If too many people get ticked off at Menudo or New Kids on the Block for the incredibly high ticket prices perhaps these groups will find ways to play without having to use Ticketmaster. This is a good thing.
And for those with non-compete agreements?
I once asked the local post office to stop delivering all of the junk mail - the fliers, the postcards and whatnot. I never buy anything from these companies and you'd think they'd like to save on printing costs but the post office will deliver to everybody - there is no way to opt out.
Same reason why advertisers send out 98 pieces of junk mail.
Among recent winners:
Yeah... the theory that "If no one acctually buys anything from those adds, if they don't drive sales, then sooner or later they will be discontinued" is really working. C'mon... how many mortgage leads were generated by this? And yet they never stop arriving.
That said, the same thing applies to websites: seriously - how many people have bought a new car because they watched an ad before reading an article from time.com? How many sales have the 24 hour passes at salon.com generated? How many people have bought a car or an airline ticket because it was driving/flying in front of all of the text on a screen and making vroom vroom noises?
Just because the former employee(s?) haven't testified in court doesn't mean their testimony isn't evidence. There are, in my opinion, credible claims that the NSA is behaving exactly as accused. Interestingly enough the media isn't making a big deal over this - a truly anti-Bush mainstream press would blare on every headline "Bush's NSA comfirms wire-tapping claims are state secret" or similar.
This guy needs to go away now. How about setting up a de-elect Lamar Smith fund to buy campaign ads in his home district to clearly point out just how much of a slug this guy is? If he is dead-set on affecting people around the country then he deserves to play with a national election. TV ads with photos of Cape Cod (where he really lives)and of the Hollywood sign with a voiceover along the lines of "he lives in Cape Cod and represents Hollywood. What has Rep Lamar Smith done for you lately?" He's kind of in the sticks so local newspaper and radio ads should be fairly cheap. Anybody in?
Don't think it would be. At some point somebody is going to make a serious challenge to click wrap or a stealth TOS change on the grounds of consensus ad idem - it is unreasonable to expect the average person to understand pages and pages of legaleese. The argument that somebody "signed" something they didn't understand is presented in court all the time - and often results in victory for the plaintiff.
Once upon a time - back in the mid 80s IIRC there was some fuss about a couple of TV stations that was experimenting with broadcasting a "flag" (really a sub-audible tone) over the commercials with the intention of allowing VCRs to skip the ads - tone present, fast forward, tone absent, play. The advertisers blew a gasket, threatened to sue, etc etc etc, and forced them to stop broadcasting the ad identification.
Um.... Gates = rich. Rich people give to the GOP. Where's the shocker?
Do you think any significant quantity of AOL's users care about things like this? There are two and only two things that will get AOL's attention: legislation/legal action or if really popular websites started to block AOL users from using their services. If MySpace blocked all traffic from AOL users until AOL scrapped their email tax and fired the person who blocked this email then (after the necessary lawsuits which AOL would ultimately lose) AOL would fire the person responsible for blocking these emails (or at least a very public scapegoat) and would scrap the email tax.
Ain't gonna happen though.
Echostar should file for change of venue - if TiVo protests that past history does nothing to show bias then EchoStar should present a notoriously anti-plaintiff location. Jury shopping is a great, big, steaming load that violates both word and spirit of the concept of equal protection and due process.
What loss of face? Among linux people who didn't intend to buy the OS anyway? Loss of face within the ranks of probably 90% of the computer users out there who buy an OS along with the machine and never upgrade? Within the ranks of the non-technical CIOs who make decisions to buy $5,000,000 - $5,000,000,000 worth of Microsoft at a time? What are the odds that GM, Lucent, IBM, United Airlines, Bancorp, Deutchsbank, the Los Angeles School District, the GAO, the US Senate, the US Navy... will spend even a single dime less on Microsoft because of this?
Yes, the MS managers lose face in the eyes of the MS employees, but so what? Do you think Bill cares what his employees think?
It sounds as if they are attempting to find a true replacement for the Concorde.
Now if only we can convince the various boards of directors that they would save billions if they started to outsource executives. Nothing will boost profits quicker than finding some guy in India to do a better job at running a company than the current CEO but for 1/10 the salary.
Follow up by trimming the fat in state government - capping benefits at 25% of every dollar spent on salaries is perfectly reasonable (Detroit offers an average of 80% in benefits of every dollar spent on salaries).
Cutting taxes of the middle class will work wonders, but she won't do that because she is more interested in entitlements than productivity or economic expansion.
She could stop spending so much and reduce the tax rate.
Some other poster on /. reported that some Fortune 500 company bases promotions 90% on personal appearance and social skills and 10% on actual job performance. (I so dearly wish said poster had identified the company... I would have loved to have sent requests for confirmation to their HR department).
What has she done to attract new jobs (or even retain existing ones)?
Somewhere out there one can look up all of the companies that have hired H1B workers - very interesting to see all of the locals who hired H1Bers even though local unemployment rates are through the roof. (Thanks to our suburb-hating, anti-business Canadian governor Michigan has the worst unemployment rates in the country. Everybody is doing better except for us.)
Within days the CEO of said nameless company that sold services and machines to businesses around the world was in the paper bemoaning the complete dearth of qualified IT professionals and begging congress to increase the number of H1B visas that he could exploit. I sent him a letter pointing out that I was an IT professional with glowing reviews from every manager with whom I had ever come in contact, sent references and let him know that I was availabe and would take a position anywhere in the world, including (especially?) ones that involved lots of travel.
He ignored me. There is no shortage of IT workers - for every open position there are probably 10 qualified applicants. (Of course, there may not be enough women or minority applicants...)
Am I the only person who speculates that perhaps Google shouldn't keep the data in the first place? Yes, I understand the geek mentality that never deleting any files is a good thing, but does Google really need to log every search along with the IP address?
Who cares about Gimp? Paint.net is all that most non-professionals or uber-hobby folk would ever need. And it is free (as in non-alcoholic beer).