ts a bloody rotten shame that most software and media STILL needs to be purchased at the local store, or send to you on a snailmail plastic disk.
Thats a really good point. Why are games not available online?
Of the programs I have purchased, they have all be available online. All my books, too.
If we had an Amazon equvailant to games, I would have burned so much more money by now...
"PC games will never go away, but if the market keeps shrinking due to the increasing ease of piracy... then the number and quality of games will almost certainly decrease."
I disagree, or at the very least, it isn't as clear cut as that.
The abundance of poor quality games increases piracy, because people don't trust it will be worth the money. But, high quality games cause people to want it now and they just can't wait for a pirated version to come out, in addition to those who wish to compensate creators for good work (yes, those people do exist).
I'm sure that despite the amount of pirated copies of Doom3 that will exist, the creators of Doom3 will still be appropriately compensated for their efforts in producing a high quality game.
...want to see the general populace actually become smart enough to see everyday scams.
If the general populace is smart enough to catch on to these crafty scams, they might also be smart enough to turn on their monitor and spare you the easy tech support call when their computer "wouldn't turn on."
As much as you gripe about the stupidity and "waste of time," you gotta appreciate being paid for that "waste of time," no?
One other problem companies have is changing their website's appearance. For example, CapitalOne recently changed their homepage and I was actually too nervous to log in for a few days.
Also, a poor quality website can make people suspicious. A friend of mine asked me to inspect his cable company's website to see if it were real or not because it was so poorly designed. I told him since it was so poorly designed to not trust it's security, either, and not bother doing the online bill pay.
It's really sad that if it isn't in a browser, we won't use it.
Sad? Why is it sad? I see it just as a natural course of action.
I, personally, am mobile. I prefer services that I can use on my two computers, the computer labs, and friends' computers ("Hey, check this out"). In addition, I reinstall my hard drives on a regular basis, and I don't always reinstall every single program.
If I could open up my browser and start doing an activity right away instead of downloading and installing a client, I will use the browser option every time.
The same exact thing happened to me. I'm involved in a wind turbine feasibility study, and further information was readily given on the right of our e-mails.
I found information I would have not found otherwise.
So for each user ie for each GB the cost comes to $2/user which is nothing for gaints like Google, Rediff, Spymac etc etc..
This is a good point. When adding in the ads, the cost would then be easily deflected.
Lets say that from buying in bulk, it costs them only $1 per user. Lets also say that the advertiser has to pay $0.50 per click. It wouldn't be so far fetched to guess that the average user will click on an ad at least twice in their span of time using gmail...
And of course there are going to be lots of people who will click on lots of ads. Using Google for both web searching and e-mail is a lot of ad exposure.
Sorry but JavaScript should not be necessary and should be eliminated completely.
All client side scripting should be avoided for any sort of mass consumption.
Individual computers just have all sorts of different settings and preferences, so it's just unreliable to put valueable information that could be blocked because of the inability to execute client side scripting.
I had this problem when I first got gmail. My computer just didn't jive with the javascript preventing me from logging in. It took me quite awhile to figure out how to solve the problem. And of course, Google listed how to solve the problem... but you had to log in to see how to solve it.
This has caused me to have a tentative feeling about Gmail. I now ponder how reliable it is, because what if I need to access my mail, and I can't because of this again?
The good thing, though, is that I can set the "reply to" to any address I want. I have all my mail forwarded to my gmail account, and then I set my reply to my prefered e-mail address. At least then I know I can access my e-mail in an alternate location, have all my e-mail be downloaded onto my computer, AND be able to use the gmail UI.
I think it is a give and take situation. There are some things it'll be good for, and some things it won't be good for.
I bought a $380 PDA, and for just $50 I could get a 2 year warranty that covered human error (like crushing the display). I figured since I don't usually have this sort of cash around to buy something this expensive, $50 was absolutely nothing for at least a sense of security (I have no idea how well they will uphold their end of the bargain because I haven't had to use it).
No-a-days I wouldn't bother wasting money on a warranty for a computer because I can fix it myself. But back when I got my very first computer, I did get the warranty. Good thing, too. The mother board and DVD-ROM died. I definitely got my money back by having a guy come to my place - two separate times - with a brand new mother board and DVD-ROM.
A lot of these warranties cover rough handling - dropping it, crushing, etc. That's a good deal for klutzes. Yet, if you're a responsible person who takes good care of your things, then obviously the warranty isn't something for you.
I agree that "Download this as a PDF" is much more preferable than having the information solely available as a PDF.
I manage websites, and one of my clients wants me to just put up PDFs! I've told him it isn't the best for usability reasons, but he just doesn't want to pay me to create the pages.
Of course there needs to be a balance between time you spend with your friends doing fun stuff and time spent with your SO doing fun stuff, but it shouldn't take an enormous amount of effort to balance. It should come naturally, and when possible, the two worlds should overlap.
If gaming is important to you, than you need to find a girlfriend who enjoys gaming, too, and will join you. This is important, because later on, when you're married, this will cause problems. She could expect you to "grow up" and stop doing "childish" things.
An IT manager showed some obvious interest in me. I decided to pursue this for at least a friendship, because I can always use another gaming friend and movie buff to hang with. I later find out he thinks I'm perfect and never imagined a girl like me could exist. I'm a geeky hot chick who shares all his interests. He makes it obvious he wants more from me.
I THEN find out the guy is married! Turns out he's so smitten he was actually considering having an affair. Of course I put a stop to that dream.
My whole point is, the guy had no concept that a woman like me existed, so instead he settled for a nice woman who put up with him and lets him get laid every once and awhile. Obviously, he isn't happy with this, and his mind is wondering to other, seemingly better prospects.
If the girl you are with cannot handle your hobbies, and refuses to join you with your hobbies, than you are with the wrong woman for you. There is someone better out there.
(You may need to wait 10+ years before you can find her, but she's out there)
Unbeknownst to me, my printer port had broken from the mother board. I got my printer about 6 months after I got the computer, so I imagine, the printer port was just always broken.
I spent an entire day on the phone calling back and forth between the computer company and printer company. Finally, the printer company swore that their printer was fine, and told me to force the computer company to accept the blame.
I stuck to my guns and told the computer company the printer was absolutely fine, and that something had to be wrong with the computer itself. I was then told to go through a whole bunch of steps, a few of which included DOS prompts. Since my very first computer was run completely through DOS, I had no problem with these steps. This mystified the tech support guy.
The mysticism then turned into cynicism. He asks me:
"Are you a competitor?" *laugh* "No." "I don't believe you. I think you are a competitor testing our tech support." "What? No, I'm not a competitor!" "By law you are required to tell me if you are a competitor if I ask you. So I'm asking you, are you a competitor?" "No! I am not a competitor!" "Then how do you know DOS?" "My first computer ran off of DOS!" "Right.." "Look, I just want my friggen printer to work, ok?"
After many more tests, his superior came to the conclusion that my printer port just must be broken. A few days later, a repairman showed up and swapped in a new motherboard, and voila! It worked.
No kidding! I've been looking at these laptops for awhile now - not to game, but to do my work!
I move around so often that it begins to be a real strain when I cannot have my entire work with me at all times. It's quite impressive to be able to make changes on a 3D model on demand from the client. That subsequently saves back and forth time, as the client inevitably says, "No, that's not what I was thinking.. it was more like this."
So yes, I agree - Gamers, keep driving that market!
If AOL addresses are good for anything, it's using them as a spam trap.
I use my AOL e-mail address as a spam catcher for newsgroups.
I was once getting a lot of flack in a tech area and getting frustrated. Finally someone spoke up and said it was because I was using an AOL address! "sheesh," I said, "Close minded are we? I use this e-mail as a spam trap!"
I also still need to sift through it occasionally, as people still - after 4 years of not using AOL - e-mail my AOL address. I would just ignore them for their stupidity, but I've gotten some pretty entertaining letters!
I am a student of architecture, and it amazes me how this argument has infiltrated into the minds of the student body. Their perfect solution to the transportation problem is to say "this is a biking city/campus!" They embarrassed themselves by telling some rather important people the other day that they were not going to implement a bus or metro system in their city planning because everyone should just ride bikes.
I cannot ride a bike, as I have sports asthma, and I know a ton of other people with similar or more severe problems. Older, injured, disabled and people who are simply sick can not ride a bike. One could not wear a skirt to work and ride a bike as well as having a chance of ruining their nice pants by riding a bike.
Let alone the typical problems of showing up to your destination all sweaty and sticky, and the misfortune of the weather being too cold, too hot, or too rainy.
Biking is not a solution to the mass transportation issue.
Slashdot Mirror
ts a bloody rotten shame that most software and media STILL needs to be purchased at the local store, or send to you on a snailmail plastic disk. Thats a really good point. Why are games not available online? Of the programs I have purchased, they have all be available online. All my books, too. If we had an Amazon equvailant to games, I would have burned so much more money by now...
Interesting... the same thing happened to a friend of mine's Diablo I CD.
It's funny that the first two tales I hear of this "exploding CD" phenomenon are with diablo CDs!
"PC games will never go away, but if the market keeps shrinking due to the increasing ease of piracy... then the number and quality of games will almost certainly decrease."
I disagree, or at the very least, it isn't as clear cut as that.
The abundance of poor quality games increases piracy, because people don't trust it will be worth the money. But, high quality games cause people to want it now and they just can't wait for a pirated version to come out, in addition to those who wish to compensate creators for good work (yes, those people do exist).
I'm sure that despite the amount of pirated copies of Doom3 that will exist, the creators of Doom3 will still be appropriately compensated for their efforts in producing a high quality game.
If the general populace is smart enough to catch on to these crafty scams, they might also be smart enough to turn on their monitor and spare you the easy tech support call when their computer "wouldn't turn on."
As much as you gripe about the stupidity and "waste of time," you gotta appreciate being paid for that "waste of time," no?
98%, eh? heh.
One other problem companies have is changing their website's appearance. For example, CapitalOne recently changed their homepage and I was actually too nervous to log in for a few days.
Also, a poor quality website can make people suspicious. A friend of mine asked me to inspect his cable company's website to see if it were real or not because it was so poorly designed. I told him since it was so poorly designed to not trust it's security, either, and not bother doing the online bill pay.
It's really sad that if it isn't in a browser, we won't use it.
Sad? Why is it sad? I see it just as a natural course of action.
I, personally, am mobile. I prefer services that I can use on my two computers, the computer labs, and friends' computers ("Hey, check this out"). In addition, I reinstall my hard drives on a regular basis, and I don't always reinstall every single program.
If I could open up my browser and start doing an activity right away instead of downloading and installing a client, I will use the browser option every time.
I agree, the ads are helpful.
The same exact thing happened to me. I'm involved in a wind turbine feasibility study, and further information was readily given on the right of our e-mails.
I found information I would have not found otherwise.
So for each user ie for each GB the cost comes to $2/user which is nothing for gaints like Google, Rediff, Spymac etc etc..
This is a good point. When adding in the ads, the cost would then be easily deflected.
Lets say that from buying in bulk, it costs them only $1 per user. Lets also say that the advertiser has to pay $0.50 per click. It wouldn't be so far fetched to guess that the average user will click on an ad at least twice in their span of time using gmail...And of course there are going to be lots of people who will click on lots of ads. Using Google for both web searching and e-mail is a lot of ad exposure.
Support Google! Click on more ads!
Sorry but JavaScript should not be necessary and should be eliminated completely.
All client side scripting should be avoided for any sort of mass consumption.
Individual computers just have all sorts of different settings and preferences, so it's just unreliable to put valueable information that could be blocked because of the inability to execute client side scripting.
I had this problem when I first got gmail. My computer just didn't jive with the javascript preventing me from logging in. It took me quite awhile to figure out how to solve the problem. And of course, Google listed how to solve the problem... but you had to log in to see how to solve it.
This has caused me to have a tentative feeling about Gmail. I now ponder how reliable it is, because what if I need to access my mail, and I can't because of this again?
The good thing, though, is that I can set the "reply to" to any address I want. I have all my mail forwarded to my gmail account, and then I set my reply to my prefered e-mail address. At least then I know I can access my e-mail in an alternate location, have all my e-mail be downloaded onto my computer, AND be able to use the gmail UI.
That's awful. When I read "Shiremail" I immediately thought of Ireland, four leaf clovers and green things.
:( Hopefully Shiremail will win.
Didn't even think about hobbits
On that list I feel compelled to trade in only one item for a younger model.
Hilarious. I hope it is the car you want to trade in!
I think it is a give and take situation. There are some things it'll be good for, and some things it won't be good for. I bought a $380 PDA, and for just $50 I could get a 2 year warranty that covered human error (like crushing the display). I figured since I don't usually have this sort of cash around to buy something this expensive, $50 was absolutely nothing for at least a sense of security (I have no idea how well they will uphold their end of the bargain because I haven't had to use it). No-a-days I wouldn't bother wasting money on a warranty for a computer because I can fix it myself. But back when I got my very first computer, I did get the warranty. Good thing, too. The mother board and DVD-ROM died. I definitely got my money back by having a guy come to my place - two separate times - with a brand new mother board and DVD-ROM. A lot of these warranties cover rough handling - dropping it, crushing, etc. That's a good deal for klutzes. Yet, if you're a responsible person who takes good care of your things, then obviously the warranty isn't something for you.
I agree that "Download this as a PDF" is much more preferable than having the information solely available as a PDF.
I manage websites, and one of my clients wants me to just put up PDFs! I've told him it isn't the best for usability reasons, but he just doesn't want to pay me to create the pages.
Ah well.
Seriously, you need a better girlfriend.
Of course there needs to be a balance between time you spend with your friends doing fun stuff and time spent with your SO doing fun stuff, but it shouldn't take an enormous amount of effort to balance. It should come naturally, and when possible, the two worlds should overlap.
If gaming is important to you, than you need to find a girlfriend who enjoys gaming, too, and will join you. This is important, because later on, when you're married, this will cause problems. She could expect you to "grow up" and stop doing "childish" things.
An IT manager showed some obvious interest in me. I decided to pursue this for at least a friendship, because I can always use another gaming friend and movie buff to hang with. I later find out he thinks I'm perfect and never imagined a girl like me could exist. I'm a geeky hot chick who shares all his interests. He makes it obvious he wants more from me.
I THEN find out the guy is married! Turns out he's so smitten he was actually considering having an affair. Of course I put a stop to that dream.
My whole point is, the guy had no concept that a woman like me existed, so instead he settled for a nice woman who put up with him and lets him get laid every once and awhile. Obviously, he isn't happy with this, and his mind is wondering to other, seemingly better prospects.
If the girl you are with cannot handle your hobbies, and refuses to join you with your hobbies, than you are with the wrong woman for you. There is someone better out there.
(You may need to wait 10+ years before you can find her, but she's out there)
Unbeknownst to me, my printer port had broken from the mother board. I got my printer about 6 months after I got the computer, so I imagine, the printer port was just always broken.
I spent an entire day on the phone calling back and forth between the computer company and printer company. Finally, the printer company swore that their printer was fine, and told me to force the computer company to accept the blame.
I stuck to my guns and told the computer company the printer was absolutely fine, and that something had to be wrong with the computer itself. I was then told to go through a whole bunch of steps, a few of which included DOS prompts. Since my very first computer was run completely through DOS, I had no problem with these steps. This mystified the tech support guy.
The mysticism then turned into cynicism. He asks me:
"Are you a competitor?"
*laugh* "No."
"I don't believe you. I think you are a competitor testing our tech support."
"What? No, I'm not a competitor!"
"By law you are required to tell me if you are a competitor if I ask you. So I'm asking you, are you a competitor?"
"No! I am not a competitor!"
"Then how do you know DOS?"
"My first computer ran off of DOS!"
"Right.."
"Look, I just want my friggen printer to work, ok?"
After many more tests, his superior came to the conclusion that my printer port just must be broken. A few days later, a repairman showed up and swapped in a new motherboard, and voila! It worked.
No kidding! I've been looking at these laptops for awhile now - not to game, but to do my work!
I move around so often that it begins to be a real strain when I cannot have my entire work with me at all times. It's quite impressive to be able to make changes on a 3D model on demand from the client. That subsequently saves back and forth time, as the client inevitably says, "No, that's not what I was thinking.. it was more like this."
So yes, I agree - Gamers, keep driving that market!
If AOL addresses are good for anything, it's using them as a spam trap.
I use my AOL e-mail address as a spam catcher for newsgroups.
I was once getting a lot of flack in a tech area and getting frustrated. Finally someone spoke up and said it was because I was using an AOL address! "sheesh," I said, "Close minded are we? I use this e-mail as a spam trap!"
I also still need to sift through it occasionally, as people still - after 4 years of not using AOL - e-mail my AOL address. I would just ignore them for their stupidity, but I've gotten some pretty entertaining letters!
Touting "ride a bike!" is no solution at all.
I am a student of architecture, and it amazes me how this argument has infiltrated into the minds of the student body. Their perfect solution to the transportation problem is to say "this is a biking city/campus!" They embarrassed themselves by telling some rather important people the other day that they were not going to implement a bus or metro system in their city planning because everyone should just ride bikes.
I cannot ride a bike, as I have sports asthma, and I know a ton of other people with similar or more severe problems. Older, injured, disabled and people who are simply sick can not ride a bike. One could not wear a skirt to work and ride a bike as well as having a chance of ruining their nice pants by riding a bike.
Let alone the typical problems of showing up to your destination all sweaty and sticky, and the misfortune of the weather being too cold, too hot, or too rainy.
Biking is not a solution to the mass transportation issue.