Seriously, is Sony intentionally driving itself into the ground? (and no, I'm not trolling)
It's a known fact that consoles don't bring in revenue, it's in-house games and accessories and licensing fees. If the PS3 price were even remotely close to the XBox 360, I could see Sony not cutting the price on grounds of competitive pricing; that's clearly not the case. I can't see sales ticking up significantly through the first price drop, unless there's something I'm missing.
Also, in general, I read an article that congress is really pressuring the IRS to start trying to close the 'tax gap'. Basically, I think they're gonna get meaner and go after more people in order to close the gap between what they think they should be bringing in.....and what they actually do bring in.
This is in facttrue. The IRS is more carefully examining middle-class tax returns.
rather than locking down the perimeter of the campus (should have locked down the state all the way to Roanoke!), and getting the helicopters up
I believe someone mentioned that the high winds - there was a high wind warning for a large part of Virginia - prevented the use of any helicopters, even for medical transportation. Their options for securing the campus were limited to the ground.
There are still enough shares outstanding in the public float for a few more reverse splits. 2:1 reverse would take price to $1.88 leaving approximately 7.8 million public shares; 3:1 reverse to $2.82 and 5.6 million pubilc shares; 4:1 reverse to $3.76 and 3.9 million shares. For the requirements listed on page 14 of listing requirements (http://www.nasdaq.com/about/nasdaq_listing_req_fe es.pdf - PDF warning) the first is only being met with stockholder's equity (which is about $8 million). The second and third (publicly-held shares and market value of said shares) are in no danger of dropping below listing requirements. SCOX shouldn't be in danger of being delisted but their only option may be a reverse split since a buyback would not only drain cash reserves but also lower shareholder equity, which must be at a minimum of $2.5 million or else the stock gets a delisting notice yet again.
EA reps say there is no deal in place: "The9 Ltd. (NCTY) saw its share price jump as much as 17% to a record high Monday on a report of a $200 million investment deal with Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS), although EA later denied reports that it has signed such a deal with the Chinese game site....A spokesman for EA denied the two companies have signed any deal, but declined to comment on whether they were discussing such a relationship."
The only personally identifiable info I can think of inside the Windows installation is if you were prompted to enter during Windows setup or later changed the name and organization fields that appear on the System properties panel (WinKey+Break). I know that some OEMs preset these fields -- IBM sets them to IBM CUSTOMER -- so I don't see why MS would waste time having that data transmitted other than to tick off/.ers, privacy advocates and the EFF. If you've registered your copy of Windows though (and who does that anyway?) then you've already given permission to MS to tie your personally identifying information to your product ID and key and you don't have a leg to stand on in this argument.
the dippy senator doesn't know that games cannot show all their "footage" - ever heard of an MMORPG senator dipshit?
MMOs have a baseline rating (I've usually seen T) and carry the "Game experience may change during online play" disclaimer to cover anything that wasn't part of the game when it was reviewed. The disclaimer is part of the ESRB ratings system to accomodate online games with "user-generated content," including chatting or permitted modifications. TFA seems to imply that only the ratings process (not the actual ratings) would change, so criticizing Brownback on the grounds that his proposals can't be applied to MMOs is inaccurate (and correctly modded as trolling).
Were it me, I'd immediately fire off an email and send a snail-mail copy as well. Registered mail is only a few bucks.
Registered mail is expensive: $7.90 plus postage (minimum total cost, $8.29) and the proposed rate increase would take it to nearly twelve bucks. Point is, the cost to Viacom to file these DMCA notices is very little, as they already have lawyers and a budget line set aside for this purpose; the innocent firms and people getting caught up in Viacom's net most likely don't have lawyers on staff for counter-claims nor the time and resources to fight erroneous DMCA notices. The DMCA is a losing battle for small content creators on the wrong side of a takedown notice.
Makes me think of the USPS instituting that "packages over one pound can no longer be put in mailboxes -- they must be brought to the counter" garbage.
It also discourages people who look at the mailbox door before opening it (most people look for the pickup time for the box and glance at the other info) from trying to shove a huge box inside, jamming the mailbox and preventing anyone else from depositing mail there until the carrier comes to empty it. I see it every couple of weeks with a merchandise return box or a box which someone has printed a postage-paid label for.
There are two RSS feeds, one above the ticker and one below the vulnerabilities by product, which need to be shot. The one above the ticker moves so fast you can't even read it. Did these people even preview the page before making it live?
The dude jumps out of a plane with a homemade jetpack and flies around for six minutes, and you're not impressed?
When the hardest part seems to be a controlled ground takeoff (and maintaining control until you can get up to speed), no, I'm not impressed. It's a neat expensive toy that requires another neat expensive toy -- the plane -- to function. I'll be impressed when it can function by itself.
I purchased a 3 year local depot drop off repair service contract as well as Lojack for Laptops.
Lojack for Laptops sucks. It's Windows only and requires IE. Plus they reserve the right to terminate the contract if your computer doesn't connect to their servers after x days.
The Snopes article only focuses on the myth that Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year (false: it is the Saturday before Christmas, has been for many years) but does correctly define Black Friday as the day which supposedly brings most businesses into a profit for the year -- the financial phrase "in the black" means you are making money, whereas being "in the red" means you are losing money. Snopes doesn't comment on whether the definition is true, but it certainly makes sense for seasonal retailers.
No, the old system didn't wear out, but current hardware did far surpass it.
True, but in the console world, a new system never brings with it games that really show off that hardware and stress the system a bit. (Conversely, there are computer games that run circles around the latest video cards.) Just in the past several years have I heard developers for the PS2 say they have "reached the limits of the hardware," years after the platform's launch, and current games for the PS3 are certainly not kicking the Cell processor's tail. The new system is only greatly surpassed when comparing new system launch to old system launch; the average gamer, on the other hand, is going to compare the old platform's best-looking games to the new platform's best-looking games (of which there are very few when a platform first launches), and that comparison has greatly narrowed over the years, thus destroying one of the industry's best reasons for someone to buy a new platform, implied obsolescence.
OTOH, MMORPG producers have pretty consistently ignored the sale of items / characters via 3rd parties. Or at least they've not been diligent enough about stamping it out and keeping it to a dull rumble.
It's a matter of convenience. Either have multiple IDs for different purposes, or have one ID that basically works with anything, at the slight risk of providing a bit of extra information about yourself.
At least in Virginia, if you aren't eligible for any other government-issued ID (e.g. military) that prints your birthdate and you already have your drivers license, you cannot, by law, request a DMV-issued photo ID card. Of course, Virginia passed a law a few years ago prohibiting the use of SSNs as a "customer number" (i.e. the drivers license number) on any state-issued identification card, so the only personal info you'd be sharing would be height, weight, address, etc.
Maybe the submitter wouldn't have put an apostrophe in "As" if his teacher had an incentive to teach him some grammar?
A good jab at the submitter, but this usage of the apostrophe is actually correct in this situation, as it may not be clear from the headline itself that "As" is referring to multiple letter grades of "A."
But to all those people using PayPal what do you really expect? [...] There's not rules and regulations to stop them from breaking laws that in any other financial institution are... well... laws.
I expect Paypal (and any other company that functions like them, offering bank-like services) to not only attempt to make money but also give its customers a sense of security when using their services. A company in that line of business based in the U.S. is only going to go so far before the government does something, especially when their business is linked to regulated financial institutions.
I read somewhere (either/. or digg) that if we keep pushing the number of cores on a proc, eventually we'll hit a point where power consumption requires more than your standard 120V outlet. Forget architectural bottlenecks and cooling; when can we no longer just plug our computers into a regular power outlet?
A significant number of companies are having to restate past and current earnings (the latter is what is causing the delisting notices to go out, because the 10-Q for the most recent ended quarter has to also be restated) so given the situation, the flurry of delisting notices is not surprising. NASDAQ maintains a daily list of companies not in compliance with continued listing requirements; today's list (9/21) had about 70 or so companies delinquent on their quarterly or annual reports (10-Q and 10-K) to the SEC. Most of the other companies don't meet the minimum $1 bid price (a company's shares trading below $1 for more than thirty days are served a notice of intent to delist, and have 180 days to come back into compliance.
Other reasons that could result in a delisting letter from NASDAQ include failure to maintain:
Minimum market value of publicly-held shares
Minimum market value of listed securities
Minimum number of market makers
Minimum level of stockholders' equity
Minimum level of total assets and/or total revenue
Minimum net income from continuing operations
Minimum number of publicly-held shares
Minimum number of round-lot shareholders
Other notable companies that face delisting include nVidia, Autodesk, BEA Systems, CNET, Verisign, and the Cheesecake Factory. The reason? Delinquent 10-K or 10-Q filings.
1. So it happened earlier in recorded human history?
2. There was technology throughout most of human history that recorded Arctic ice cover?
3. Until aircraft, nuclear submarines, nuclear icebreakers, and satellites were invented, nobody was able to say with certainty whether the Northwest Passage existed or not, which was previously the domain of people like Henry Hudson. Indeed, until the technology existed, nobody could really map the icepack with any decent accuracy.
I refer you to these twotexts (Neither is an affiliate link, btw). They cover voyages seeking the "Northwest Passage" during the 18th and 19th centuries. We know from recorded documents by the explorers that they were indeed smart enough to follow previous voyages; as they moved into the Arctic ice region, however, those explorers repeatedly found those partially "successful" routes blocked by ice, usually as far as they could see. While a ship today could conceivably break the ice all the way from one end of the ice pack to the other, it would be pointless; the idea of a "Northwest Passage" was a clear trade route to Asia from Europe without going through South America or around Africa. We didn't need technology to figure out that shifting slabs of ice aren't conducive to finding a stable, viable trade route, which also means that mapping the icepack for finding trade routes is just as futile. It wasn't just one or two ships sent to find this passage; nearly two hundred years of voyages and records show that the natural environment at the time did not allow for a "Northwest Passage," with or without technology.
...not because it's not important for the democratic process and our election system in the U.S., but because trying to thoroughly investigate will be impossible. Both political parties have their own political agendas, and the manufacturers of voting machines have their own self-preservation agendas. Now, I'm not posting this because I believe the election was or wasn't stolen; it's just an issue that rears its ugly head every so often without results. The answer to the question "Was the 2004 election stolen?" will be at best an educated guess, IMO.
I think that they should enforce laws, like in china where your account only lets you play 3-4 hours a night max. Even though I have heard of people there opening 2 accounts just so that they can get their full fix.
Preventing people from playing longer than x hours is not the problem. The real issue is people who cannot type/logout or willingly leave the computer. A casual player might end up being on for more than 3-4 hours because some of the longer missions, raids, quests, etc. are time-consuming. If they can step away, what's the problem?
The Associated Press and the New York Times are now reporting that Atlantis will not launch Sunday. The delay will "give engineers more time to determine whether one of the most powerful lightning strikes ever at a Kennedy Space Center launch pad caused any problems. The lightning Friday didn't hit the shuttle -- it struck a wire attached to a tower used to protect the spacecraft from such strikes at the launch pad -- but it created a lightning field around the vehicle, NASA managers said. The launch, planned for Sunday, now won't happen until at least Monday."
Slashdot Mirror
Seriously, is Sony intentionally driving itself into the ground? (and no, I'm not trolling)
It's a known fact that consoles don't bring in revenue, it's in-house games and accessories and licensing fees. If the PS3 price were even remotely close to the XBox 360, I could see Sony not cutting the price on grounds of competitive pricing; that's clearly not the case. I can't see sales ticking up significantly through the first price drop, unless there's something I'm missing.
Also, in general, I read an article that congress is really pressuring the IRS to start trying to close the 'tax gap'. Basically, I think they're gonna get meaner and go after more people in order to close the gap between what they think they should be bringing in.....and what they actually do bring in.
This is in fact true. The IRS is more carefully examining middle-class tax returns.
rather than locking down the perimeter of the campus (should have locked down the state all the way to Roanoke!), and getting the helicopters up
I believe someone mentioned that the high winds - there was a high wind warning for a large part of Virginia - prevented the use of any helicopters, even for medical transportation. Their options for securing the campus were limited to the ground.
And the first ad right below the summary is...
Report Software Piracy
Earn up to $200,000 for Reporting Pirated Software - All Confidential
bsa.org/reportpiracy
There are still enough shares outstanding in the public float for a few more reverse splits. 2:1 reverse would take price to $1.88 leaving approximately 7.8 million public shares; 3:1 reverse to $2.82 and 5.6 million pubilc shares; 4:1 reverse to $3.76 and 3.9 million shares. For the requirements listed on page 14 of listing requirements (http://www.nasdaq.com/about/nasdaq_listing_req_fe es.pdf - PDF warning) the first is only being met with stockholder's equity (which is about $8 million). The second and third (publicly-held shares and market value of said shares) are in no danger of dropping below listing requirements. SCOX shouldn't be in danger of being delisted but their only option may be a reverse split since a buyback would not only drain cash reserves but also lower shareholder equity, which must be at a minimum of $2.5 million or else the stock gets a delisting notice yet again.
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20070409-70657 6.html?mod=wsjcrmain (subscription only)
EA reps say there is no deal in place: "The9 Ltd. (NCTY) saw its share price jump as much as 17% to a record high Monday on a report of a $200 million investment deal with Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS), although EA later denied reports that it has signed such a deal with the Chinese game site....A spokesman for EA denied the two companies have signed any deal, but declined to comment on whether they were discussing such a relationship."
The only personally identifiable info I can think of inside the Windows installation is if you were prompted to enter during Windows setup or later changed the name and organization fields that appear on the System properties panel (WinKey+Break). I know that some OEMs preset these fields -- IBM sets them to IBM CUSTOMER -- so I don't see why MS would waste time having that data transmitted other than to tick off /.ers, privacy advocates and the EFF. If you've registered your copy of Windows though (and who does that anyway?) then you've already given permission to MS to tie your personally identifying information to your product ID and key and you don't have a leg to stand on in this argument.
MMOs have a baseline rating (I've usually seen T) and carry the "Game experience may change during online play" disclaimer to cover anything that wasn't part of the game when it was reviewed. The disclaimer is part of the ESRB ratings system to accomodate online games with "user-generated content," including chatting or permitted modifications. TFA seems to imply that only the ratings process (not the actual ratings) would change, so criticizing Brownback on the grounds that his proposals can't be applied to MMOs is inaccurate (and correctly modded as trolling).
Registered mail is expensive: $7.90 plus postage (minimum total cost, $8.29) and the proposed rate increase would take it to nearly twelve bucks. Point is, the cost to Viacom to file these DMCA notices is very little, as they already have lawyers and a budget line set aside for this purpose; the innocent firms and people getting caught up in Viacom's net most likely don't have lawyers on staff for counter-claims nor the time and resources to fight erroneous DMCA notices. The DMCA is a losing battle for small content creators on the wrong side of a takedown notice.
It also discourages people who look at the mailbox door before opening it (most people look for the pickup time for the box and glance at the other info) from trying to shove a huge box inside, jamming the mailbox and preventing anyone else from depositing mail there until the carrier comes to empty it. I see it every couple of weeks with a merchandise return box or a box which someone has printed a postage-paid label for.
There are two RSS feeds, one above the ticker and one below the vulnerabilities by product, which need to be shot. The one above the ticker moves so fast you can't even read it. Did these people even preview the page before making it live?
When the hardest part seems to be a controlled ground takeoff (and maintaining control until you can get up to speed), no, I'm not impressed. It's a neat expensive toy that requires another neat expensive toy -- the plane -- to function. I'll be impressed when it can function by itself.
Lojack for Laptops sucks. It's Windows only and requires IE. Plus they reserve the right to terminate the contract if your computer doesn't connect to their servers after x days.
The Snopes article only focuses on the myth that Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year (false: it is the Saturday before Christmas, has been for many years) but does correctly define Black Friday as the day which supposedly brings most businesses into a profit for the year -- the financial phrase "in the black" means you are making money, whereas being "in the red" means you are losing money. Snopes doesn't comment on whether the definition is true, but it certainly makes sense for seasonal retailers.
True, but in the console world, a new system never brings with it games that really show off that hardware and stress the system a bit. (Conversely, there are computer games that run circles around the latest video cards.) Just in the past several years have I heard developers for the PS2 say they have "reached the limits of the hardware," years after the platform's launch, and current games for the PS3 are certainly not kicking the Cell processor's tail. The new system is only greatly surpassed when comparing new system launch to old system launch; the average gamer, on the other hand, is going to compare the old platform's best-looking games to the new platform's best-looking games (of which there are very few when a platform first launches), and that comparison has greatly narrowed over the years, thus destroying one of the industry's best reasons for someone to buy a new platform, implied obsolescence.
A large MMO has actually been very proactive in stopping EULA-violating activity. Some companies just seem to care more than others about currency/item trading.
At least in Virginia, if you aren't eligible for any other government-issued ID (e.g. military) that prints your birthdate and you already have your drivers license, you cannot, by law, request a DMV-issued photo ID card. Of course, Virginia passed a law a few years ago prohibiting the use of SSNs as a "customer number" (i.e. the drivers license number) on any state-issued identification card, so the only personal info you'd be sharing would be height, weight, address, etc.
A good jab at the submitter, but this usage of the apostrophe is actually correct in this situation, as it may not be clear from the headline itself that "As" is referring to multiple letter grades of "A."
I expect Paypal (and any other company that functions like them, offering bank-like services) to not only attempt to make money but also give its customers a sense of security when using their services. A company in that line of business based in the U.S. is only going to go so far before the government does something, especially when their business is linked to regulated financial institutions.
I read somewhere (either /. or digg) that if we keep pushing the number of cores on a proc, eventually we'll hit a point where power consumption requires more than your standard 120V outlet. Forget architectural bottlenecks and cooling; when can we no longer just plug our computers into a regular power outlet?
A significant number of companies are having to restate past and current earnings (the latter is what is causing the delisting notices to go out, because the 10-Q for the most recent ended quarter has to also be restated) so given the situation, the flurry of delisting notices is not surprising. NASDAQ maintains a daily list of companies not in compliance with continued listing requirements; today's list (9/21) had about 70 or so companies delinquent on their quarterly or annual reports (10-Q and 10-K) to the SEC. Most of the other companies don't meet the minimum $1 bid price (a company's shares trading below $1 for more than thirty days are served a notice of intent to delist, and have 180 days to come back into compliance.
Other reasons that could result in a delisting letter from NASDAQ include failure to maintain:
Other notable companies that face delisting include nVidia, Autodesk, BEA Systems, CNET, Verisign, and the Cheesecake Factory. The reason? Delinquent 10-K or 10-Q filings.
I refer you to these two texts (Neither is an affiliate link, btw). They cover voyages seeking the "Northwest Passage" during the 18th and 19th centuries. We know from recorded documents by the explorers that they were indeed smart enough to follow previous voyages; as they moved into the Arctic ice region, however, those explorers repeatedly found those partially "successful" routes blocked by ice, usually as far as they could see. While a ship today could conceivably break the ice all the way from one end of the ice pack to the other, it would be pointless; the idea of a "Northwest Passage" was a clear trade route to Asia from Europe without going through South America or around Africa. We didn't need technology to figure out that shifting slabs of ice aren't conducive to finding a stable, viable trade route, which also means that mapping the icepack for finding trade routes is just as futile. It wasn't just one or two ships sent to find this passage; nearly two hundred years of voyages and records show that the natural environment at the time did not allow for a "Northwest Passage," with or without technology.
...not because it's not important for the democratic process and our election system in the U.S., but because trying to thoroughly investigate will be impossible. Both political parties have their own political agendas, and the manufacturers of voting machines have their own self-preservation agendas. Now, I'm not posting this because I believe the election was or wasn't stolen; it's just an issue that rears its ugly head every so often without results. The answer to the question "Was the 2004 election stolen?" will be at best an educated guess, IMO.
Preventing people from playing longer than x hours is not the problem. The real issue is people who cannot type /logout or willingly leave the computer. A casual player might end up being on for more than 3-4 hours because some of the longer missions, raids, quests, etc. are time-consuming. If they can step away, what's the problem?
The Associated Press and the New York Times are now reporting that Atlantis will not launch Sunday. The delay will "give engineers more time to determine whether one of the most powerful lightning strikes ever at a Kennedy Space Center launch pad caused any problems. The lightning Friday didn't hit the shuttle -- it struck a wire attached to a tower used to protect the spacecraft from such strikes at the launch pad -- but it created a lightning field around the vehicle, NASA managers said. The launch, planned for Sunday, now won't happen until at least Monday."