I ordered from EB on 10/8. They told me there were about 30 people in front of me. On 11/21, I was told that I was 31 on the list and they would be getting 12 systems. Two or three weeks ago I called back to see when the next round of shipments would come in. They told me they didn't know, but I would get a call when it was my turn. They said that 6 of the people who got called for the original 12 systems didn't show up. So everybody moved up an additional 6 spots on the list (which would put me at 13th on the list). At this point they told me I was number 26 on the list. WTF?!?! "This does not make sense." Any conspiracy theorists out there wanna take a crack at this one? How bout optimists that may have a legitimate explanation? BTW, the guy at the store simply claims that the previous guy that told me I was 31 in line mis-counted.
I was hoping someone could give me good reasons to stop trying to get to level 60 with my priest
Because your would be level 60 priest isn't significantly different from any other level 60 priest. People don't think of you as InserCharNameHere. They think of you as that level X priest, and if your lucky they might think of which skill tree you spec'd in.
Don't hate me for saying what you were thinking...
I was notified that my copy shipped last week. I haven't gotten it yet, but I'm hopefull that it will arrive soon. Has anyone got their copy yet and seen it? If so, what'd ya think?
Stop me if you heard this one...
Catholic: Who do you confess your sins to? Baptist: God. So, who do you confess your sins to? Catholic: A priest. Baptist: I heard about that, who does the priest confess his sins to? Catholic: A bishop. Baptist: Who does the bishop confess his sins to? Catholic: A cardinal. Baptist: Who does the cardinal confess his sins to? Catholic: The Pope. Baptist: Okay, who does the Pope confess his sins to? Catholic: God. Baptist: Oh, so the Pope is a Baptist!
What is the best PC to TV setup?
Cheapest with mild quaility trade-offs?
I got a 47" projection (not LCD) TV with HDTV (component) support.
My pc gots an nVidia 6800 GT (256MB) video card with vga, dvi, and composite output.
If I output through the composite to my TV, words look really fuzzy and the resolution settings are all funky in general. If I put some media player in full screen mode the picture is generally okay.
Where do I need to go from here to get a descent PC with TV as monitor solution going?
I'm considering upgrading my TV in the upcoming year, what features should I look for if I want to use the new TV as a PC monitor?
And how to get my PC Audio to my TV? Even with connector adaptors the signal doesn't seem compatable.
My proxy server is acting funny, so I don't know if this is the right one www.norecordlabel.com, but there are sites for artists that are tired of being pushed around by record labels.
What's the diff? Release All Stock at once
If 100 people want to buy an xbox 360 on 11/22, but there are only 90 to be had. The other 10 people are going to have to wait until more are produced; meanwhile perhaps more people want to buy one creating more people that those 10 would have to compete with when additional systems are released.
Trickle Release
If 100 people want to buy an xbox 260 on 11/22, but only 30 released by MS and another 60 that will release in the near future. 70 people will have to compete with each other and the new interest buyers every time MS sends out a few more system. When all 90 of the original produced systems have finally been released theres still only 90 people with system and the original 10 plus new people interested are left without a sytem. I bet those people aren't buying many xbox 360 game while they are waiting their turn to fight for a system.
I don't get it, What does the trickle release accomplish?
Dude, are you joking?
No. I think this is a legitamit conjecture based on personal experiences that may ultimately prove to be untrue or more likely never proved/disproved.
You think they're different?
Yes.
So you're saying/.ers are on higher grounds just because they have moral considerations?
Umm.. Even if the conjecture is true, I don't know if a comparison of moral grounds is even relavent. I think it is better to make a decision about the morality of an activity, but the thought that such a decision may have never been made is intresting. I mean, assuming this is true, why is it that they haven't bothered considering it?
And the Chinese can't tell between right and wrong on this copyright issue?
Collectively/.ers can't; but that's beside the point. Maybe they haven't tried to decern the difference.
They don't know it's wrong or don't know the damage it cost so they do it; vs/.ers know it's wrong and still keep doing it.
Not that all/.ers think it's wrong, but that's an interesting way to look at it. Maybe they could be less liable because of it or something.
It almost becomes a fashionable sports here: anything/.ers - good; anything Chinese - bad.
Chinese generally are not bad, but who would mention the things that they do that are status quo or slightly better than?
Why would I be compelled to tell anyone on slashdot that I like the way they do their pickup basketball games there? (They play games to 3-5 points so that people don't have to wait to play as long.)
Pirated copies of all kinds of things are sold at shops out in the open for all to see. They don't even try to hide it.
At one place I thought was like a flee market, they were selling GBA cartridges for about $5 US (before haggling). The cartridges looked legit at first. I just assumed they were used, then I saw a 6 games in one cartridge. Not a game like the Atari collection or something like that but like 6 Super Mario games in one including a recently released title.
Another place I went to was in a strip mall like shop. It looked like a retail buy/sell/trade place you might find in the US. Maybe like a mini version of an EB games store. The clerk behaved just like someone working at EB might act. Not pushy, but really zealous about gaming. I didn't even know it was a store for pirated stuff, until the issue of price came up. A few games were priced higher than the others only because it required a different type of DVD. Between that and the prices, I finally realized what they were selling.
The point of all this? I wonder if most Chinese have even given piracy moral consideration./.ers may be pro piracy, insulted by the word pirace, anti-piracy, or whatever; but at least moral consideration was made at some point.
For a long time, I've been very careful about piracy and stuff. I got my own convinctions about it, and I try hard to hold true to them. I've explained this to my wife, who is from China, over and over again. Yet she continually puts me in compromising situations, and has to be reminded why I wont go along with it. Outside of my influence, I don't think she has any considerations toward piracy whatsoever.
Assume people that can't play, can't play due to bugs.
Which is better?
A game that 9,998 people can play today, but two people couldn't.
A game that 9,999 people can play a year from now, but one person cannot.
A game that no one will ever play.
How bout with an OS...
An OS that 99.98% of the features are usable by 99.98% of the users today.
An OS that 99.99% of the features are usable by 99.99% of the users in a year.
An OS that 100.00% of the features are usable by 100.00% of the users in... never.
It really is the same balance question for security as well.
Who is going spend a million dollars on a nearly flawless security system for their home's Welcome mat that they have on the front porch?
IMO, a good software company would take both options one and two then continue the trend as they approach option three as long as revenues permit.
Let the buyer decided if the current level of reliability is good enough for them. Maybe its not, they can take their business elsewhere, not buy it, or if absolutely necessary build it themselves.
I would push for the Vendor to have a reasonable return policy. How bout 30-90 days?
At the end of the day, are you threating to not buy the vendor's software or are you threating to continue to complain about the vendor's software?
What does the version number have to do with what people use?
Versioning is not an indication of development effort.
Aside from that, there are lots of reasons why one application's release cylces (which has a loose correlation but hardly anything absolute with the version) may be shorter than another. Most people using their browser over their media player, may cause the release cycle to be longer which would be the opposite effect to what you have implied.
All I'm trying to say here is that your comment is the same as asking why Wookies live on Endor.
Was I just baited?
The US still has slaves btw. Children in the US that are capable of doing some productive labor for profit are not allowed to do so because of their age. They are forced to submit to the mercy of their parents which isn't usually a bad thing. A situation of forced submission without an out, or slavery, persists nontheless.
Age discrimination is alive and well in the US. Even the GD Anti Age Discrimination Act discriminates on age in that it only applies to people over 40!
The point relavent to this conversation is that, if you don't think that slavery as a form of control for shelter/protection/provisions is moral then you better take a closer look at the child labor laws.
Sorry. Too many pronouns on my part. I was refering to the article regarding how Chinese people are forced to hack their way around the internet bs that the government has in place.
I recently spent a month in China with my wife who is Chinese.
From what we gather from locals (city dwellers) the average income is about 1000 yuan per month. Which is about $125 US.
Food is really cheap in China; but things like clothes have huge variants in pricing. Like a Golf type shirt for example can be found in a street shop for as low as 40 yuan (app. 5$ US). In the mall the golf shirts range from the sale rack 600 yuan on up to 1100yuan. I'd estimate 750 yuan median though. Still that's nearly $100 US. I'm not talking about one of the upitee malls either. Just the Kaiyuan (sp?) mall in the center of Xi'an. Electronics seem to cost a good deal more than in US.
Of the middle class people that I visited, they all seemed to have at least one TV. I guess my point is that things are better than you might think in some ways in China and worse than you might think in other ways.
Chinese like to remind me too often that my country only has 200 years history.
Eventually I got annoyed by this and said "What are you talking about? Your country has only been around for about 50yrs? (people's republic of china)"
Let's see what else...
Political conversations came up frequently during my trip. From what I gathered from the people I talked to, China seems to be moving further away from communist ideals and towards that of capitalism. This kind of news discourages me though.
I heard people say openly that the rule #1 of the classroom rules for elementry schools should be changed to have the Communist Party part removed. It says something like "I will love my country and the communist party.". The people didn't seem scared to talk about it at all.
It was a month trip. I have lots to tell, but I'll stop there.
Great programmers write easy-to-understand, supportable code.
Agreed, but this is only one aspect of greatness. This contest reveals greatness in other aspects of being a "Great Programmer". Specifically, problem solving skills and/or quick access and implementation of common algorithms. Here's my Great Programmer checklist.
1. Writes software that works. - DUH!
2. Finds simple solutions to both simple and complex problems.
3. Understands and demonstrates balance of code clarity. That is, the balance between when readable code is more important versus cycle saving ugly mangled goodness of swiftness. Or makes the right choice given this delima "Shave clock cycles; or make this code easier to maintain?"
4. Solves problems quickly.
5. Well read. This person must be in the know as much as possible in regards to all the goings on in the programming realm. Especially in regards to those things that applying to his specific sector.
6. Likes to code. - No one likes a depressed, burnt out, tired programmer that's only in it because his guidance councilor told him the job market was great (at the time maybe it was). You know who you are.
I did have nearly all of my CD collection stolen at one point. I had ripped nearly 75% of the materials to my PC. My auto insurance did not cover it even though they were stolen out of my car. I did file a police report. I started to file an insurance claim, but didn't finish everything on the claim as I barely exceeded my dectible for the things that were covered anway (CD Player + Window). So I do have some evidence that this event actually occured. I have most but not all of the jewel cases.
What kind of trouble can I get in to?
What if I try to recover the other 25% from other sources?
Thanks
You could have chosen to join a different society when you left your parents' home.
It would have been nice if someone would have told me that.
Where's the nearest libertarian society? And how can I sign-up?
Why is it illegal to sell what can be freely given?
Why are there seat belt laws? I mean who does it hurt if I don't buckle up? If someone is dumb enough not to buckle up and they get killed in a car accident I say "Oh well."
Dang it. Now I'm just getting all flustered. Darn you!
Slashdot Mirror
I ordered from EB on 10/8. They told me there were about 30 people in front of me. On 11/21, I was told that I was 31 on the list and they would be getting 12 systems. Two or three weeks ago I called back to see when the next round of shipments would come in. They told me they didn't know, but I would get a call when it was my turn. They said that 6 of the people who got called for the original 12 systems didn't show up. So everybody moved up an additional 6 spots on the list (which would put me at 13th on the list). At this point they told me I was number 26 on the list. WTF?!?! "This does not make sense." Any conspiracy theorists out there wanna take a crack at this one? How bout optimists that may have a legitimate explanation? BTW, the guy at the store simply claims that the previous guy that told me I was 31 in line mis-counted.
I was hoping someone could give me good reasons to stop trying to get to level 60 with my priest
Because your would be level 60 priest isn't significantly different from any other level 60 priest. People don't think of you as InserCharNameHere. They think of you as that level X priest, and if your lucky they might think of which skill tree you spec'd in.
Don't hate me for saying what you were thinking...
I came across these interesting articles some time ago. Your post reminded me of them.
No Tables
2 Column
3 Column
I don't think this negates your point. Even though the solutions are fairly simple, they aren't obvious (until after you see them of course).
"Why'd the cancer cross the road?"
I was notified that my copy shipped last week. I haven't gotten it yet, but I'm hopefull that it will arrive soon. Has anyone got their copy yet and seen it? If so, what'd ya think?
Thanks
And home builders should be responsible for providing and maintaining a home security system for each home they build?
If a home builder installs faulty locks, sure they should replace em'.
Side Note: Crimes are the fault of the criminal, not those who failed to protect you from them.
I thought the Pope was a Baptist.
Stop me if you heard this one...
Catholic: Who do you confess your sins to?
Baptist: God. So, who do you confess your sins to?
Catholic: A priest.
Baptist: I heard about that, who does the priest confess his sins to?
Catholic: A bishop.
Baptist: Who does the bishop confess his sins to?
Catholic: A cardinal.
Baptist: Who does the cardinal confess his sins to?
Catholic: The Pope.
Baptist: Okay, who does the Pope confess his sins to?
Catholic: God.
Baptist: Oh, so the Pope is a Baptist!
What is the best PC to TV setup?
Cheapest with mild quaility trade-offs?
I got a 47" projection (not LCD) TV with HDTV (component) support.
My pc gots an nVidia 6800 GT (256MB) video card with vga, dvi, and composite output.
If I output through the composite to my TV, words look really fuzzy and the resolution settings are all funky in general. If I put some media player in full screen mode the picture is generally okay.
Where do I need to go from here to get a descent PC with TV as monitor solution going?
I'm considering upgrading my TV in the upcoming year, what features should I look for if I want to use the new TV as a PC monitor?
And how to get my PC Audio to my TV? Even with connector adaptors the signal doesn't seem compatable.
Thanks
My proxy server is acting funny, so I don't know if this is the right one www.norecordlabel.com, but there are sites for artists that are tired of being pushed around by record labels.
Beware windows apps with calls to SetWindowsHook() with WH_KEYBOARD or WH_KEYBOARD_LL as the idHook
Enjoy
What's the diff?
Release All Stock at once
If 100 people want to buy an xbox 360 on 11/22, but there are only 90 to be had. The other 10 people are going to have to wait until more are produced; meanwhile perhaps more people want to buy one creating more people that those 10 would have to compete with when additional systems are released.
Trickle Release
If 100 people want to buy an xbox 260 on 11/22, but only 30 released by MS and another 60 that will release in the near future. 70 people will have to compete with each other and the new interest buyers every time MS sends out a few more system. When all 90 of the original produced systems have finally been released theres still only 90 people with system and the original 10 plus new people interested are left without a sytem. I bet those people aren't buying many xbox 360 game while they are waiting their turn to fight for a system.
I don't get it, What does the trickle release accomplish?
Dude, are you joking?
/.ers are on higher grounds just because they have moral considerations?
/.ers can't; but that's beside the point. Maybe they haven't tried to decern the difference.
/.ers know it's wrong and still keep doing it. /.ers think it's wrong, but that's an interesting way to look at it. Maybe they could be less liable because of it or something.
/.ers - good; anything Chinese - bad.
No. I think this is a legitamit conjecture based on personal experiences that may ultimately prove to be untrue or more likely never proved/disproved.
You think they're different?
Yes.
So you're saying
Umm.. Even if the conjecture is true, I don't know if a comparison of moral grounds is even relavent. I think it is better to make a decision about the morality of an activity, but the thought that such a decision may have never been made is intresting. I mean, assuming this is true, why is it that they haven't bothered considering it?
And the Chinese can't tell between right and wrong on this copyright issue?
Collectively
They don't know it's wrong or don't know the damage it cost so they do it; vs
Not that all
It almost becomes a fashionable sports here: anything
Chinese generally are not bad, but who would mention the things that they do that are status quo or slightly better than?
Why would I be compelled to tell anyone on slashdot that I like the way they do their pickup basketball games there? (They play games to 3-5 points so that people don't have to wait to play as long.)
Anyway, thanks for the reply.
In China...
/.ers may be pro piracy, insulted by the word pirace, anti-piracy, or whatever; but at least moral consideration was made at some point.
Pirated copies of all kinds of things are sold at shops out in the open for all to see. They don't even try to hide it.
At one place I thought was like a flee market, they were selling GBA cartridges for about $5 US (before haggling). The cartridges looked legit at first. I just assumed they were used, then I saw a 6 games in one cartridge. Not a game like the Atari collection or something like that but like 6 Super Mario games in one including a recently released title.
Another place I went to was in a strip mall like shop. It looked like a retail buy/sell/trade place you might find in the US. Maybe like a mini version of an EB games store. The clerk behaved just like someone working at EB might act. Not pushy, but really zealous about gaming. I didn't even know it was a store for pirated stuff, until the issue of price came up. A few games were priced higher than the others only because it required a different type of DVD. Between that and the prices, I finally realized what they were selling.
The point of all this? I wonder if most Chinese have even given piracy moral consideration.
For a long time, I've been very careful about piracy and stuff. I got my own convinctions about it, and I try hard to hold true to them. I've explained this to my wife, who is from China, over and over again. Yet she continually puts me in compromising situations, and has to be reminded why I wont go along with it. Outside of my influence, I don't think she has any considerations toward piracy whatsoever.
Assume people that can't play, can't play due to bugs.
... never.
Which is better?
A game that 9,998 people can play today, but two people couldn't.
A game that 9,999 people can play a year from now, but one person cannot.
A game that no one will ever play.
How bout with an OS...
An OS that 99.98% of the features are usable by 99.98% of the users today.
An OS that 99.99% of the features are usable by 99.99% of the users in a year.
An OS that 100.00% of the features are usable by 100.00% of the users in
It really is the same balance question for security as well.
Who is going spend a million dollars on a nearly flawless security system for their home's Welcome mat that they have on the front porch?
IMO, a good software company would take both options one and two then continue the trend as they approach option three as long as revenues permit.
Let the buyer decided if the current level of reliability is good enough for them. Maybe its not, they can take their business elsewhere, not buy it, or if absolutely necessary build it themselves.
I would push for the Vendor to have a reasonable return policy. How bout 30-90 days?
At the end of the day, are you threating to not buy the vendor's software or are you threating to continue to complain about the vendor's software?
It was designed for use on a Wind Blown Operating System.
What does the version number have to do with what people use?
Versioning is not an indication of development effort.
Aside from that, there are lots of reasons why one application's release cylces (which has a loose correlation but hardly anything absolute with the version) may be shorter than another. Most people using their browser over their media player, may cause the release cycle to be longer which would be the opposite effect to what you have implied.
All I'm trying to say here is that your comment is the same as asking why Wookies live on Endor.
Was I just baited?
Mod article down, -1 Flamebait.
The US still has slaves btw. Children in the US that are capable of doing some productive labor for profit are not allowed to do so because of their age. They are forced to submit to the mercy of their parents which isn't usually a bad thing. A situation of forced submission without an out, or slavery, persists nontheless.
Age discrimination is alive and well in the US. Even the GD Anti Age Discrimination Act discriminates on age in that it only applies to people over 40!
The point relavent to this conversation is that, if you don't think that slavery as a form of control for shelter/protection/provisions is moral then you better take a closer look at the child labor laws.
Was I just baited? You bastards!
Sorry. Too many pronouns on my part. I was refering to the article regarding how Chinese people are forced to hack their way around the internet bs that the government has in place.
I thought he was the Hobgoblin?
I recently spent a month in China with my wife who is Chinese.
From what we gather from locals (city dwellers) the average income is about 1000 yuan per month. Which is about $125 US.
Food is really cheap in China; but things like clothes have huge variants in pricing. Like a Golf type shirt for example can be found in a street shop for as low as 40 yuan (app. 5$ US). In the mall the golf shirts range from the sale rack 600 yuan on up to 1100yuan. I'd estimate 750 yuan median though. Still that's nearly $100 US. I'm not talking about one of the upitee malls either. Just the Kaiyuan (sp?) mall in the center of Xi'an. Electronics seem to cost a good deal more than in US.
Of the middle class people that I visited, they all seemed to have at least one TV.
I guess my point is that things are better than you might think in some ways in China and worse than you might think in other ways.
Chinese like to remind me too often that my country only has 200 years history.
Eventually I got annoyed by this and said "What are you talking about? Your country has only been around for about 50yrs? (people's republic of china)"
Let's see what else...
Political conversations came up frequently during my trip. From what I gathered from the people I talked to, China seems to be moving further away from communist ideals and towards that of capitalism. This kind of news discourages me though.
I heard people say openly that the rule #1 of the classroom rules for elementry schools should be changed to have the Communist Party part removed. It says something like "I will love my country and the communist party.".
The people didn't seem scared to talk about it at all.
It was a month trip. I have lots to tell, but I'll stop there.
Great programmers write easy-to-understand, supportable code.
Agreed, but this is only one aspect of greatness. This contest reveals greatness in other aspects of being a "Great Programmer". Specifically, problem solving skills and/or quick access and implementation of common algorithms. Here's my Great Programmer checklist.
1. Writes software that works. - DUH!
2. Finds simple solutions to both simple and complex problems.
3. Understands and demonstrates balance of code clarity. That is, the balance between when readable code is more important versus cycle saving ugly mangled goodness of swiftness. Or makes the right choice given this delima "Shave clock cycles; or make this code easier to maintain?"
4. Solves problems quickly.
5. Well read. This person must be in the know as much as possible in regards to all the goings on in the programming realm. Especially in regards to those things that applying to his specific sector.
6. Likes to code. - No one likes a depressed, burnt out, tired programmer that's only in it because his guidance councilor told him the job market was great (at the time maybe it was). You know who you are.
Anyone got extra items to add?
I did have nearly all of my CD collection stolen at one point. I had ripped nearly 75% of the materials to my PC. My auto insurance did not cover it even though they were stolen out of my car. I did file a police report. I started to file an insurance claim, but didn't finish everything on the claim as I barely exceeded my dectible for the things that were covered anway (CD Player + Window). So I do have some evidence that this event actually occured. I have most but not all of the jewel cases.
What kind of trouble can I get in to?
What if I try to recover the other 25% from other sources?
Thanks
You could have chosen to join a different society when you left your parents' home.
It would have been nice if someone would have told me that.
Where's the nearest libertarian society? And how can I sign-up?
Why is it illegal to sell what can be freely given?
Why are there seat belt laws? I mean who does it hurt if I don't buckle up? If someone is dumb enough not to buckle up and they get killed in a car accident I say "Oh well."
Dang it. Now I'm just getting all flustered. Darn you!
When you signed up for society you handed your rights over to society
I would tend to agree with that except for one problem. I didn't sign-up, but here I am nonetheless.