I understand why you'd think there was only a handful. People threaten to cancel over things all the time. Blizzard's cancellation page actually has an option for "quitting due to the Forsaken nerf" FFS.:P
In this case people actually did quit. The people spoke with their wallets, and that's a language corporate execs understand.
Capitalism in action. Company wants to do something. Customers protest not by complaining on the forum (though they did), but by cancelling subscriptions. Company adds up lost revenue and decides that this is not good for the business after all. Customers get what they want.
Hell, this is EXACTLY how a market economy is supposed to work! Kudos to the people who backed up their complaints by cancelling.
Isn't it more a problem that Microsoft isn't competitive in the markets where "young, hip developers" are doing things? They don't have a competitive smartphone OS right now, and likely won't anytime soon. That's where the exciting development is happening. So they're not a player.
If you're a developer looking to do smartphone apps, are you really going to target Windows Mobile? If so, which version? The obsolete one, or the one that isn't out yet? It's not a serious option at this point. So to say they lost developers for some reason is kind of silly, since it's not a problem with their developer outreach or their tools. They haven't given people something to develop FOR.
Because the article is about a company knowingly selling defective product and then blaming the customer... which is rather much like what Apple is doing with this "you're holding it wrong" bullshit.
Sorry fanboys, but Apple is just as greedy and evil as everybody else. A coat of shiny doesn't change much.
"E - "The damage to our reputation and long-term viability as a company when we're inevitably caught covering this up" Asymptotically approaches infinity."
You haven't been paying attention to Corporate America in the last decade, have you? Long term thinking doesn't exist. It's all about meeting short term revenue projections.
The game will be easy to buy at release, or even better, two weeks after release. By then, all these little details marketing would rather you not know when buying will be public, along with the bugs and problem lists.
There is no good reason to shell out money for a game months in advance with no idea what you're really going to get on release day. If you do and stuff like this happens, you get what you deserve.
So I get to pay full game price for the game, then get to pay for hours (or a normal subscription) to play it... AND I get annoying ads on top of that?
Gee, these guys sure know how to get me excited about playing a game!
"Mobile" in terms of dumb phones actually isn't moving very quickly. Dumb phones have existed for a couple of decades, and strictly speaking call quality was better in the 90s then it is today. In terms of voice in remote places and durability, every phone on the market today is straight up worse then the Nokia 6160 I had 10 years ago. Voice is more of an afterthought these days.
The smartphone market on the other hand is pretty young, and is acting like a new market with rapid improvements and cut throat competition. It's also a market subject to fashion trends and full of users who will change phones as often as their contracts allow, which really isn't the case in say the PC market (where average users will buy a new computer when the old one dies and these days even gamers don't need frequent upgrades like they used to).
What they really mean by "fair representation" would be more accurately described as "damn voters won't vote for the people we want them to, so we're screwing with the rules."
I'd have liked the article more if he came up with a practical solution instead of just complaining that names are hard. Keeping in mind that the people using the database want to be able to pull out a last name so they can send christmas cards to the 99.99% of people who fit that naming scheme in this area.
Mostly because the people coming up with airport security are by and large morons. They had an incident about that very thing in Charlottetown once. Screener asks a person "is there a bomb in your bag?"
Realizing what a stupid question that is, he says "yes". Turns out security guys don't realize they're asking stupid questions.
And Microsoft's controllers use standard AA batteries, which you can charge with a standard AA charger. You don't even need to leave the console on to charge it, unlike the PS3.
In the last 360 software update, they added USB thumb drive support. You can copy games/saves/profiles over to that, and copy them to the new console. (You can also copy it between 360s right now doing that, I did it a few days ago when visiting a friend.)
This would be fine and all, except there's no real online equivalent. Canada411.com is supposed to be the same thing, but it's got nowhere near the same listings as the printed phone book does.
So in this case, it's not really just a change in how it's delivered. It's degradation of the quality of the available information.
Until they fix that, I'll need to keep requesting the dead tree version. (Not to mention that version also works during a blackout when I need to call the power company and tell them there's a blackout.)
More like it helps promote stupidity when spending taxpayer money. Someone can put in a bid for "Linux" that's cheaper then "Vista", by the whole free thing. They'll leave out the part where it involves changing an entire infrastructure that is based around Windows, retraining the IT staff that all know how to administer/support/develop for Windows, and users who know how to use Windows. Not to mention the cost surrounding applications and migration.
This type of nonsense happens all the time in other areas. They'll take the lowest bid because by law they're supposed to, even though they know that bid is from a disreputable vendor that will wind up delivering an inferior product late and over-budget. When you take decision making ability out of the process, you might cut down on potential corruption, but you increase the likelihood of BS bids winning.
More like they don't want to be shot out of a catapult when the media turns something minor into a huge scandal and the politicians come looking for scapegoats.
Except for the numerous other times apps have been approved, then removed when Apple changes their mind? Or stuff that was rejected for no discernable reason then approved under media scruitiny?
Apple is a perfect example of the sheer idiocy of this process. People are making totally arbitrary decisions over what can and can't be sold, with no consistency or logic. The policy can change on a whim, at which point previously allowed things are no longer allowed.
Without the amazing skills of Apple's marketing department, this pathetic joke of a store would fail horribly.
Yeah, I saw that line and immediately thought about some of the "temporary solutions" people have proposed over the years. The statement is an oxymoron. It's either not a solution to the problem, or it's not temporary.
We've got less of those being made now, because I've taken to listing the previous "temporary solutions" every time someone proposes a new one.
Slashdot Mirror
:)
I understand why you'd think there was only a handful. People threaten to cancel over things all the time. Blizzard's cancellation page actually has an option for "quitting due to the Forsaken nerf" FFS. :P
In this case people actually did quit. The people spoke with their wallets, and that's a language corporate execs understand.
The pirates cared a lot about lan support too. Won't somebody think of the pirates?
The phone lines to cancel were jammed solid since this started, 3 days ago. The account server has been going up and down from load.
We're not talking about a "handful" of cancellations from a few disgruntled folks. This was a big deal and turned into real money.
Capitalism in action. Company wants to do something. Customers protest not by complaining on the forum (though they did), but by cancelling subscriptions. Company adds up lost revenue and decides that this is not good for the business after all. Customers get what they want.
Hell, this is EXACTLY how a market economy is supposed to work! Kudos to the people who backed up their complaints by cancelling.
I'm constaly dancing around the 300GB limit on the drive I have now. So... yes.
Isn't it more a problem that Microsoft isn't competitive in the markets where "young, hip developers" are doing things? They don't have a competitive smartphone OS right now, and likely won't anytime soon. That's where the exciting development is happening. So they're not a player.
If you're a developer looking to do smartphone apps, are you really going to target Windows Mobile? If so, which version? The obsolete one, or the one that isn't out yet? It's not a serious option at this point. So to say they lost developers for some reason is kind of silly, since it's not a problem with their developer outreach or their tools. They haven't given people something to develop FOR.
Because the article is about a company knowingly selling defective product and then blaming the customer... which is rather much like what Apple is doing with this "you're holding it wrong" bullshit.
Sorry fanboys, but Apple is just as greedy and evil as everybody else. A coat of shiny doesn't change much.
"E - "The damage to our reputation and long-term viability as a company when we're inevitably caught covering this up"
Asymptotically approaches infinity."
You haven't been paying attention to Corporate America in the last decade, have you? Long term thinking doesn't exist. It's all about meeting short term revenue projections.
Well yeah, but that was back in the dark ages when cell phones were expected to reliably act as phones.
These days they're a fashion accessory. If it actually works as a phone is kind of a side point as long as you can have loads of garbage apps.
Moral of the story: pre-orders are for suckers.
The game will be easy to buy at release, or even better, two weeks after release. By then, all these little details marketing would rather you not know when buying will be public, along with the bugs and problem lists.
There is no good reason to shell out money for a game months in advance with no idea what you're really going to get on release day. If you do and stuff like this happens, you get what you deserve.
So I get to pay full game price for the game, then get to pay for hours (or a normal subscription) to play it... AND I get annoying ads on top of that?
Gee, these guys sure know how to get me excited about playing a game!
Making it so that moving in every direction uses the same amount of movement to go the same distance. Unlike the diagonals on squire tiles in Civ 4.
The real question is why hexes weren't in use all along.
"Mobile" in terms of dumb phones actually isn't moving very quickly. Dumb phones have existed for a couple of decades, and strictly speaking call quality was better in the 90s then it is today. In terms of voice in remote places and durability, every phone on the market today is straight up worse then the Nokia 6160 I had 10 years ago. Voice is more of an afterthought these days.
The smartphone market on the other hand is pretty young, and is acting like a new market with rapid improvements and cut throat competition. It's also a market subject to fashion trends and full of users who will change phones as often as their contracts allow, which really isn't the case in say the PC market (where average users will buy a new computer when the old one dies and these days even gamers don't need frequent upgrades like they used to).
What they really mean by "fair representation" would be more accurately described as "damn voters won't vote for the people we want them to, so we're screwing with the rules."
I'd have liked the article more if he came up with a practical solution instead of just complaining that names are hard. Keeping in mind that the people using the database want to be able to pull out a last name so they can send christmas cards to the 99.99% of people who fit that naming scheme in this area.
Mostly because the people coming up with airport security are by and large morons. They had an incident about that very thing in Charlottetown once. Screener asks a person "is there a bomb in your bag?"
Realizing what a stupid question that is, he says "yes". Turns out security guys don't realize they're asking stupid questions.
And Microsoft's controllers use standard AA batteries, which you can charge with a standard AA charger. You don't even need to leave the console on to charge it, unlike the PS3.
In the last 360 software update, they added USB thumb drive support. You can copy games/saves/profiles over to that, and copy them to the new console. (You can also copy it between 360s right now doing that, I did it a few days ago when visiting a friend.)
This would be fine and all, except there's no real online equivalent. Canada411.com is supposed to be the same thing, but it's got nowhere near the same listings as the printed phone book does.
So in this case, it's not really just a change in how it's delivered. It's degradation of the quality of the available information.
Until they fix that, I'll need to keep requesting the dead tree version. (Not to mention that version also works during a blackout when I need to call the power company and tell them there's a blackout.)
More like it helps promote stupidity when spending taxpayer money. Someone can put in a bid for "Linux" that's cheaper then "Vista", by the whole free thing. They'll leave out the part where it involves changing an entire infrastructure that is based around Windows, retraining the IT staff that all know how to administer/support/develop for Windows, and users who know how to use Windows. Not to mention the cost surrounding applications and migration.
This type of nonsense happens all the time in other areas. They'll take the lowest bid because by law they're supposed to, even though they know that bid is from a disreputable vendor that will wind up delivering an inferior product late and over-budget. When you take decision making ability out of the process, you might cut down on potential corruption, but you increase the likelihood of BS bids winning.
And will that bid include the cost of retraining the entire IT staff on Linux?
More like they don't want to be shot out of a catapult when the media turns something minor into a huge scandal and the politicians come looking for scapegoats.
When you drink coffee, you're making it harder to wake up tomorrow without coffee.
Not having coffee results in the same amount of wakefulness, only without the money spent on coffee.
Except for the numerous other times apps have been approved, then removed when Apple changes their mind? Or stuff that was rejected for no discernable reason then approved under media scruitiny?
Apple is a perfect example of the sheer idiocy of this process. People are making totally arbitrary decisions over what can and can't be sold, with no consistency or logic. The policy can change on a whim, at which point previously allowed things are no longer allowed.
Without the amazing skills of Apple's marketing department, this pathetic joke of a store would fail horribly.
Yeah, I saw that line and immediately thought about some of the "temporary solutions" people have proposed over the years. The statement is an oxymoron. It's either not a solution to the problem, or it's not temporary.
We've got less of those being made now, because I've taken to listing the previous "temporary solutions" every time someone proposes a new one.