In his case, the magnets did have an inert coating. It wore through. I think his conclusion was that part of the problem was that the implants were not anchored, so they moved around and the coating got scratched or rubbed thin. The magnets were pretty small (like a small grain of rice) so even doubling the diameter didn't add much coating. He seemed pretty down on the idea of doing it "right" - at least with the kind of money available to the average piercing enthusiast.
That reminds me of an article I submitted to slashdot a few years back. A guy had implanted magnets in his fingertips and he could use that to sense other magnets and metallic objects. He said that he was surprised when he was able to detect where the motor was inside an electric can-opener just by putting his fingers close to it.
I don't have the link immediately available, but that story ended badly. His body ended up rejecting the magnet implants and they ended up breaking up in his fingers, the pictures on his website looked really bad, like his finger-tips were rotting off.
Or, it is to make Microsoft over-pay for Doubleclick. Their warchest has dwindled to under $30B for the first time in something like a decade. If they over-pay for Doubleclick, then it might just be one big brick in the wall, ultimately contributing to the death of two of the greatest evils ever to walk the Earth! Muahahahahaha!
I know this is April Fool's and all, and it looks like this year we were spared the pink ponies, but isn't this a tad close to starting a harmful rumor? People are stupid, and nVidia is a publicly traded company. I think there's enough crap to make fun of without having to resort to this type of thing? Just IMO.
I totally agree with you!!!
The absolute worst April Fools jokes are the ones that ACTUALLY FOOL PEOPLE!
Compare that to your movie habits, it's pretty few and far between big releases. Also they're not very good substitutes, you're not going to take Star Wars and claim it's exactly like Star Trek and it doesn't matter which one you see, whereas "Blonde teens #13" probably isn't too far from "Young and blonde #11".
Yet, Hollywood's intense aversion to risk does tend to produce films that are quite similar, repetitive and derivative even, since their goal is to find a formula that works and milk it for all its worth. So, while Star Wars and Star Trek are substantially different movies to an aficionado of the genre, to the average guy on the street (or worse, the average girl on the street) it is quite easy to confuse the two. And to the hollywood execs at Paramount who green-lighted Star Trek the Motion Picture, the prior success of Star Wars was certainly a very large factor in their decision.
I think I would be willing to pay 0.5 - 1% of purchase price to test-drive a car for a couple of hours, or listen to an amplifier and speaker combination to decide that I'm happy with it.
Few people, if any, purchase cars sight unseen on the internet now (ebay's automotive section is more of a big classified ads, just like their real estate section), I don't see that changing in the near future either. For other big-ticket items like home entertainment equipment, the majority of retail sales are at big-box stores which do have return policies, but do not "try out" policies. Because you really can't get much of a feel for a tv or receiver or speakers inside the store, these stores like best buy and circuit city really don't add any value over purchasing online. If anything, their minimum-wage, brain-washed-to-push-push-push-extended-warranties staff are a net negative compared to online purchasing.
All in, all I believe that the types of purchases for which a brick & mortar store does not add value ought to, and have been, migrating to online purchases. While the ones where B&M stores can add value are staying at the B&M retail stores.
as an ex-employee I hope the competition eats them up and they go away.
As an ex-customer, so do I.
Creative has been anything BUT creative with their sound card product line, unless you count creative ways to eff up your computer. I think they are the classic example of product quality stagnating in a monopoly market.
I've never been impressed with the "they did it too!" defense.
Good thing you are not the courts then. Because, "they did it too" is one of the primary defenses against assault with a deadly weapon -- if some guy is punching you in the face, then you have justification to hit back with anything you've got. If he was just standing there, doing nothing, then you've got no justification to assault him.
Copying phonebooks and selling the copies is "unfair competition" unless you hired a bunch of people who typed the material in themselves, using a scanner and OCR software to read them or just copying someone else's CDs is "unfair competition" and therefore illegal.
What if the phonebook scans were made available for 'free' download? Does that qualify? Because that kind of approach is an effective copyright on a database of facts which is not (currently) allowed under US law.
WTF? Where could the 'inventor' of tetris have gained patent protection?
What? Doesn't he deserve compensation for all of the uses his idea has been put to? The stacking of multiply shaped bricks to create large structures? Every building in the world was constructed using his methods. If it weren't for Tetris, there would be no construction, anywhere! The world owes him a huge debt.
So let's assume that mysterious, but very apparently very popular firewall X did indeed have a ton of good reviews. Doesn't that pretty much leave him as an edge-case?
Or the reviews were astroturf and/or advertiser influenced.
In your particular example, the true story part leaves out a few details.
Primarily that the company -- Kaleidescape that was the subject of the true story was doing roughly the same thing - essentially making it impossible to digitally pull the ripped video off of their unit's hard disks in a redistributable manner. They were doing it in conjunction with the DVD Copy Control Association and thought they had the sign-off from them to go forward. They got sued anyway.
I hope Thompson gets the same. You can't bargain with these bastards, give them an inch they will take your thumbs.
It's important to get history right. There's no sense at all in pretending Clinton was less than scum.
The post you were responding did not make an assertion either way, see point about context.
BTW: I voted for Clinton twice, then Bush twice. I bet you're envious, as a non-American, that you couldn't be that incredibly stupid four times in a row.
More random commentary with only the barest hint of relevant context.
Unless, of course, Part of Apple's agreement with the big labels is that all music is sold with the same DRM. "We won't let you sell our stuff unless EVERYTHING you sell has FairPlay."
That isn't too far-fetched. But then again, I havn't seen their contract. And I doubt you have either...
More apologia from the illogical. If Apple was serious about being anti-DRM, they would anounnce the fact that they were contractually bound to do so and that it "wasn't their fault." Then they could beat the big-5 over the head with all the bad press that would generate. It might even get the big-5 on the other end of an anti-trust suit.
You know that part about not being as hard as you make it out to be? You should have paid attention to that. Get knoppmyth burn to CD, boot from it and you are off and running. That pretty much works out of the box for ~80% of the people who try it.
The same reason Apple is opposed to variable pricing: consistency. They don't want to clutter iTunes with complicated explanations of what you are and aren't allowed to do with each track of music. Consumers will get confused and pissed off when Britney Spears will play on their Zune but Christina Aguilera won't.
If I had mod points I would give you +1 Funny for that. Good one!
Damn! Was that ever long. But you know what is sad? There have been plenty of apple apologias even longer than that. Yours is no disgrace.
I'm simply saying that using the fact that they're not currently doing it as some sort of "proof" that Apple doesn't really want to be rid of DRM is disingenuous.
So, even if they are not DOING it, Apple could have long ago said that yes they WILL do it and are currently WORKING ON IT. That Apple has said nothing of the kind is proof enough. And puh-leaze, don't give me any bunk about how Apple doesn't pre-announce things. They can and do when it suits them. If Jobs's anti-DRM stance were true, he could gain even more leverage over the big-5 by merely announcing the intent to go DRM-free for the labels that are OK with it.
When did I ever say Clinton's offense was more or less worse than the stuff Bush has engaged in.
My point was that Clinton is a serial sexual harasser, not some dude who got a blow job once or twice.
Which has nothing to do with the Bush administration. It doesn't make anything Bush has done more or less wrong.
Guilt by association. You jump in -- out of nowhere, with only the teeny-tiniest of context -- repeating a typical anti-clinton attack meme. The post you were responding to said nothing about womanizing, sexual harassment, victimization or the women's movement. So either you are a guy with such a single-minded focus on Clinton's blowjobs that you have to post your thoughts on it no matter how tangential they are to the current discussion. Or you just feel like whipping out the standard Clinton attack playbook whenever you see a chance.
Do you know how "deferred compensation" works? It is the same as stock options with a guaranteed sell price - it's golden handcuffs. If you leave before it fully vests, you do not get it. Every employment contract I've seen that included deferred compensation worked the same way.
The fact that he left and still got the defcomp is hinky, but not totally unheard of. Its the kind of exception that gets made when the company wants to stay in the former employee's good graces. But that he got it spread out over a handful of years instead of on departure is pretty unique. If you look up Haliburton's performance under Cheney's direct leadership, you'll see that he drove it into the crapper. Why would the company want to stay friendly with such a fuckup unless he could do something for them?
Just because the quid pro quo takes a few detours on its journey doesn't mean it isn't quid pro quo. These guys are smart enough to at least make the effort of hiding the payoff so as to keep the facts beyond the reach of the simple minds.
You're forgetting the meme. We're supposed to all continue to pretend (or actually believe, which is actually pretty incredible) that Clinton was 'persecuted' because of some blow jobs, not prosecuted for lying under oath when caught engaging in sexual harassment.
Because lying under oath to exploit one person, or at worst a handful of them to get your rocks off is worse than repeatedly getting up on national television and lying to the public about your very job in order to waste hundreds of billions of tax dollars, send thousands of citizens to die, and perpetrate the worst destruction of American values ever seen in the history of this country.
I'm not saying all of the empty space in the country is like that, but there's a reason that people in this country live where they do.
And that reason is?
Since you left it out, I'll put the words in your mouth. The reason people group where they do is convenience. Easy access to various resources, natural and man made. When the costs of living in such areas surpasses the benefits, people seek other locations. Nowadays the natural resources aren't so big a deal with the ability to run pipelines and electricity to anywhere with flat terrain. Man-made resources mean roads and we've got boatloads of them. The fly-over states are full of towns in the middle of nowhere with a highway nearby. We've got room for thousands more just like the ones we've already got.
If you want to argue that America needs to be kept 'easy' to live in, then do that. But then you are going to have decide where the line needs to be drawn, and your Disney analogy ain't any help there.
Slashdot Mirror
In his case, the magnets did have an inert coating. It wore through. I think his conclusion was that part of the problem was that the implants were not anchored, so they moved around and the coating got scratched or rubbed thin. The magnets were pretty small (like a small grain of rice) so even doubling the diameter didn't add much coating. He seemed pretty down on the idea of doing it "right" - at least with the kind of money available to the average piercing enthusiast.
I don't have the link immediately available, but that story ended badly. His body ended up rejecting the magnet implants and they ended up breaking up in his fingers, the pictures on his website looked really bad, like his finger-tips were rotting off.
Or, it is to make Microsoft over-pay for Doubleclick. Their warchest has dwindled to under $30B for the first time in something like a decade. If they over-pay for Doubleclick, then it might just be one big brick in the wall, ultimately contributing to the death of two of the greatest evils ever to walk the Earth! Muahahahahaha!
The absolute worst April Fools jokes are the ones that ACTUALLY FOOL PEOPLE!
Kirby vacuum cleaners aren't made out of plastic - they are hewn from metal (and even have 'self drive' like lawnmowers have).
I prefer to call the self-drive models, "carpet zamboni."
All in, all I believe that the types of purchases for which a brick & mortar store does not add value ought to, and have been, migrating to online purchases. While the ones where B&M stores can add value are staying at the B&M retail stores.
Thank you Captain Obvious.
Next time the original poster wishes to make a nuanced argument, he should post it instead of resorting to generalized one-liners.
Creative has been anything BUT creative with their sound card product line, unless you count creative ways to eff up your computer. I think they are the classic example of product quality stagnating in a monopoly market.
Good thing you are not the courts then. Because, "they did it too" is one of the primary defenses against assault with a deadly weapon -- if some guy is punching you in the face, then you have justification to hit back with anything you've got. If he was just standing there, doing nothing, then you've got no justification to assault him.
What if the phonebook scans were made available for 'free' download? Does that qualify? Because that kind of approach is an effective copyright on a database of facts which is not (currently) allowed under US law.
What? Doesn't he deserve compensation for all of the uses his idea has been put to? The stacking of multiply shaped bricks to create large structures? Every building in the world was constructed using his methods. If it weren't for Tetris, there would be no construction, anywhere! The world owes him a huge debt.
In your particular example, the true story part leaves out a few details.
Primarily that the company -- Kaleidescape that was the subject of the true story was doing roughly the same thing - essentially making it impossible to digitally pull the ripped video off of their unit's hard disks in a redistributable manner. They were doing it in conjunction with the DVD Copy Control Association and thought they had the sign-off from them to go forward. They got sued anyway.
I hope Thompson gets the same. You can't bargain with these bastards, give them an inch they will take your thumbs.
It's important to get history right. There's no sense at all in pretending Clinton was less than scum.
The post you were responding did not make an assertion either way, see point about context.
BTW: I voted for Clinton twice, then Bush twice. I bet you're envious, as a non-American, that you couldn't be that incredibly stupid four times in a row.
More random commentary with only the barest hint of relevant context.
You know that part about not being as hard as you make it out to be? You should have paid attention to that. Get knoppmyth burn to CD, boot from it and you are off and running. That pretty much works out of the box for ~80% of the people who try it.
So, even if they are not DOING it, Apple could have long ago said that yes they WILL do it and are currently WORKING ON IT. That Apple has said nothing of the kind is proof enough. And puh-leaze, don't give me any bunk about how Apple doesn't pre-announce things. They can and do when it suits them. If Jobs's anti-DRM stance were true, he could gain even more leverage over the big-5 by merely announcing the intent to go DRM-free for the labels that are OK with it.
The fact that he left and still got the defcomp is hinky, but not totally unheard of. Its the kind of exception that gets made when the company wants to stay in the former employee's good graces. But that he got it spread out over a handful of years instead of on departure is pretty unique. If you look up Haliburton's performance under Cheney's direct leadership, you'll see that he drove it into the crapper. Why would the company want to stay friendly with such a fuckup unless he could do something for them?
Just because the quid pro quo takes a few detours on its journey doesn't mean it isn't quid pro quo. These guys are smart enough to at least make the effort of hiding the payoff so as to keep the facts beyond the reach of the simple minds.You make it sound so simple.
Because lying under oath to exploit one person, or at worst a handful of them to get your rocks off is worse than repeatedly getting up on national television and lying to the public about your very job in order to waste hundreds of billions of tax dollars, send thousands of citizens to die, and perpetrate the worst destruction of American values ever seen in the history of this country.
You need a sense of proportion.
Then what explains the popularity of peer-to-peer?
Name ONE game that works on a p2p basis and not a centralized server basis.
I'm not saying all of the empty space in the country is like that, but there's a reason that people in this country live where they do.
And that reason is?
Since you left it out, I'll put the words in your mouth. The reason people group where they do is convenience. Easy access to various resources, natural and man made. When the costs of living in such areas surpasses the benefits, people seek other locations. Nowadays the natural resources aren't so big a deal with the ability to run pipelines and electricity to anywhere with flat terrain. Man-made resources mean roads and we've got boatloads of them. The fly-over states are full of towns in the middle of nowhere with a highway nearby. We've got room for thousands more just like the ones we've already got.
If you want to argue that America needs to be kept 'easy' to live in, then do that. But then you are going to have decide where the line needs to be drawn, and your Disney analogy ain't any help there.