It isn't about a price war, it's a format war. If I spend $150 on an HD-DVD player and that format dies next year, I have to buy a Blu-Ray player anyway. The money I spent on the HD-DVD player was a waste. This is where consumers have a problem. Generally competition is good, but eventually one format will win this battle and you don't want to be heavily invested in the losing side.
I don't have a problem with a salesperson making a suggestion. The original post implied (to me at least) that the salesperson was refusing to sell the game to them. It appears that is not the case.
My anecdote is that I went to see the South Park movie in the theater and the ticket girl tried to explain to a mother that the movie was very adult oriented (she had two kids with her both looked to be around 10). The mother was very offended and bought the tickets anyway. 10 minutes into the movie she quickly escorted her kids out of the theater.
So again, I don't have a problem with suggestions. But when the original poster said "turned away" i took that to mean he wouldn't sell it to them.
Well, there's two problems with your post. First of all, your "old man" has no business telling adults what games to buy regardless of who they are buying them for. He can certainly stop kids from buying them, but not adults. Second, I'm not really sure who made you the supreme judge on parenting skills. We're talking about video games here. No matter what the rating is, it's still a video game. I'm more worried about parents who have done such a bad job raising their kids that we need to be afraid that a video game is going to set them on a crime spree. Just my two cents.
Actually, what bringing a human to mars achieves is the ability to perform scientific studies and react in real-time to any changing conditions. I hate it when people insist that robots can do everything that a human can do. A human, given a reasonable tool set, can do infinitely more research in one trip than robots can. Robots are extremely limited. Given an unexpected discovery, a human can easily change the focus of their research. A robot may or may not be able to adapt, requiring either a new robot be built and sent up or the current robot be used in a way in which it was never intended.
It was marked insightful because it is...at least compared to what you're saying. I'm saying that the country probably has windows machines and software and may, in fact, think it is more useful to have their kids learn to use that software.
Thanks for the advice. I work from home once a week and needed to get it working. Whatever the problem was, it was taking too long to fix. I was very excited to get it working so quickly the first time. I had Ubuntu installed and was connected to work in a matter of two hours, if that. But then I spent a couple of hours trying to fix these problems. That's usually when I give up with Linux on my desktop, when an update breaks something. I may go back and try it again at some point.
I finally tried to use Linux as my work from home PC. There are Linux ports of both the Cisco VPN client and the Citrix client I need to connect to the office, so I thought why bother with Windows. I was actually able to get everything installed relatively easily using Ubuntu 7. Then I found that the mouse would freeze after an hour or so of working. The only way to get it working again was to log out and log back in. Googled it, found that updating the kernel will fix the problem. So I do that. Now the VPN doesn't work. Google that, found a fix. Citrix doesn't work. Turns out it won't work with the latest kernel. Windows XP Pro.
Yes, you're right, it doesn't really matter. That would have absolutely no effect whatsoever on any other sector of the economy. For example, in the U.S. there is a tariff on imported sugar. This was done to protect the American sugar industry. Guess what, candy and soda production has steadily been moving to Canada and Mexico for the cheaper sugar, taking all those American jobs with them and reducing the business of the American sugar producers anyway. The point is, artificially altering the price of something through taxes or tariffs ALWAYS has negative side effects and rarely (if ever) solves the "problem" for which it was implemented in the first place. Why is it that the solution for a problem always has to be the most drastic and painful one? Consumer pressure is going to drive the production of more fuel efficient vehicles as the price of oil continues go up naturally (ie outside of US influence). People who want, or more importantly, NEED to drive less efficient vehicles do not need to be punished by their nanny state.
I call shenanigans!!! You really expect us to believe that A)You have a wife and B)SHE is bugging YOU to get another game console. Sorry, that is just too much.
Actually, I think you are right. I saw an episode of "Good Eats" with Alton Brown the other day. He was making sourdough bread and showed how to collect your own yeast. He put a bowl of water with flour in it near a window. Apparently, the yeast and some bacteria will take over the mixture to the exclusion of harmful bacteria.
Yes, I saw that later. I am sure they are huge. But anyway, back when I used to play checkers regularly and considered myself to be pretty good, that 8 piece database would kick my ass. I used a program called checkerboard which can use the chinook database. Occasionally, I'd come across someone being a real PITA on the online checkers games, and I'd use checkerboard w. the chinook database to put them in their place. Not advocating cheating in general, but it was a good way to get someone to shut up.
Try playing Tic-Tac-Toe there Joshua. I think you'll find that the only winning move is not to play. Seriously, the whole point of the article is that they PROVED that a perfect game played by both sides results in a DRAW.
Well, it's a little different with software. The manufacturer of a range, table or AC unit know exactly what you are going to do with it and can assure its safety if used as intended. Microsoft, on the other hand, can't know exactly what the output of an Excel spreadsheet will be used for. As an extreme and unlikely example, imagine an engineer using Excel to calculate stress in a new building. Maybe the result from his spreadsheet is not quite accurate enough and the building falls. It's up to the user to know the limitations of the software.
Take a breath buddy. All i said was that Apple is free to make whatever they want and you are free to buy it or not. That's all the further it does. Apple has no obligation or business reason to make the iPhone more open. Last I checked they were selling pretty well.
Well, that article doesn't really say anything about how many people know they can be tracked by their cell phone. It does have a lot paranoid speculation about what is happening with that information. Again, anybody who has an idea of how cell phones work know they could be tracked with some level of detail. Most of them don't care. People who don't know how cell phones work don't care. I don't care. Some people (such as yourself) do care. It all works out.
Well, what part of my statement was wrong? I said AT LEAST the radius of the cell tower's reception range. 25 ft falls into that range. Also lack of paranoia != ignorance. I think most cell phone users are aware of the fact that they can be tracked by their phone.
So the iPhone isn't for you then. You won't buy one. I do have one serious issue with your list of rants. Your cell phone provider NEEDS to know where you are at least within the radius of a cell tower. That's kind of how it works. They may not need to store that info, but cell phones don't work without it. That said, I (and most people) aren't that paranoid, but if you are, then you have the option to not use the iPhone.
...a device that isn't under the control of its owner works against the interests of its owner.
I have images in my head of my iPhone stealing my money, calling my boss and telling him off, etc. Maybe, just maybe, it will do everything that owners want it to do (make phone calls, play music, surf the net). Granted there may be some things I would like it to do that it won't. Buy something else then.
Slashdot Mirror
It isn't about a price war, it's a format war. If I spend $150 on an HD-DVD player and that format dies next year, I have to buy a Blu-Ray player anyway. The money I spent on the HD-DVD player was a waste. This is where consumers have a problem. Generally competition is good, but eventually one format will win this battle and you don't want to be heavily invested in the losing side.
I don't have a problem with a salesperson making a suggestion. The original post implied (to me at least) that the salesperson was refusing to sell the game to them. It appears that is not the case. My anecdote is that I went to see the South Park movie in the theater and the ticket girl tried to explain to a mother that the movie was very adult oriented (she had two kids with her both looked to be around 10). The mother was very offended and bought the tickets anyway. 10 minutes into the movie she quickly escorted her kids out of the theater. So again, I don't have a problem with suggestions. But when the original poster said "turned away" i took that to mean he wouldn't sell it to them.
Well, there's two problems with your post. First of all, your "old man" has no business telling adults what games to buy regardless of who they are buying them for. He can certainly stop kids from buying them, but not adults. Second, I'm not really sure who made you the supreme judge on parenting skills. We're talking about video games here. No matter what the rating is, it's still a video game. I'm more worried about parents who have done such a bad job raising their kids that we need to be afraid that a video game is going to set them on a crime spree. Just my two cents.
Actually, what bringing a human to mars achieves is the ability to perform scientific studies and react in real-time to any changing conditions. I hate it when people insist that robots can do everything that a human can do. A human, given a reasonable tool set, can do infinitely more research in one trip than robots can. Robots are extremely limited. Given an unexpected discovery, a human can easily change the focus of their research. A robot may or may not be able to adapt, requiring either a new robot be built and sent up or the current robot be used in a way in which it was never intended.
It was marked insightful because it is...at least compared to what you're saying. I'm saying that the country probably has windows machines and software and may, in fact, think it is more useful to have their kids learn to use that software.
It is possible that they had SOME computers before this deal.
Thanks for the advice. I work from home once a week and needed to get it working. Whatever the problem was, it was taking too long to fix. I was very excited to get it working so quickly the first time. I had Ubuntu installed and was connected to work in a matter of two hours, if that. But then I spent a couple of hours trying to fix these problems. That's usually when I give up with Linux on my desktop, when an update breaks something. I may go back and try it again at some point.
I finally tried to use Linux as my work from home PC. There are Linux ports of both the Cisco VPN client and the Citrix client I need to connect to the office, so I thought why bother with Windows. I was actually able to get everything installed relatively easily using Ubuntu 7. Then I found that the mouse would freeze after an hour or so of working. The only way to get it working again was to log out and log back in. Googled it, found that updating the kernel will fix the problem. So I do that. Now the VPN doesn't work. Google that, found a fix. Citrix doesn't work. Turns out it won't work with the latest kernel. Windows XP Pro.
Well, yeah, unless you misspell it the same way every time.
I'm talking about taxes and tariffs. I didn't say anything about regulations.
Try reading my post again without the agenda colored glasses.
Yes, you're right, it doesn't really matter. That would have absolutely no effect whatsoever on any other sector of the economy. For example, in the U.S. there is a tariff on imported sugar. This was done to protect the American sugar industry. Guess what, candy and soda production has steadily been moving to Canada and Mexico for the cheaper sugar, taking all those American jobs with them and reducing the business of the American sugar producers anyway. The point is, artificially altering the price of something through taxes or tariffs ALWAYS has negative side effects and rarely (if ever) solves the "problem" for which it was implemented in the first place. Why is it that the solution for a problem always has to be the most drastic and painful one? Consumer pressure is going to drive the production of more fuel efficient vehicles as the price of oil continues go up naturally (ie outside of US influence). People who want, or more importantly, NEED to drive less efficient vehicles do not need to be punished by their nanny state.
I call shenanigans!!! You really expect us to believe that A)You have a wife and B)SHE is bugging YOU to get another game console. Sorry, that is just too much.
Actually, I think you are right. I saw an episode of "Good Eats" with Alton Brown the other day. He was making sourdough bread and showed how to collect your own yeast. He put a bowl of water with flour in it near a window. Apparently, the yeast and some bacteria will take over the mixture to the exclusion of harmful bacteria.
Yes, I saw that later. I am sure they are huge. But anyway, back when I used to play checkers regularly and considered myself to be pretty good, that 8 piece database would kick my ass. I used a program called checkerboard which can use the chinook database. Occasionally, I'd come across someone being a real PITA on the online checkers games, and I'd use checkerboard w. the chinook database to put them in their place. Not advocating cheating in general, but it was a good way to get someone to shut up.
Already Done
Try playing Tic-Tac-Toe there Joshua. I think you'll find that the only winning move is not to play. Seriously, the whole point of the article is that they PROVED that a perfect game played by both sides results in a DRAW.
That's what I actually thought happened, it's just not as entertaining. Carry on.
1) Submit story to slashdot you know is already debunked. ...
2) Get first post on said story noting the debunking.
3)
4) Profit? Karma?
Well, it's a little different with software. The manufacturer of a range, table or AC unit know exactly what you are going to do with it and can assure its safety if used as intended. Microsoft, on the other hand, can't know exactly what the output of an Excel spreadsheet will be used for. As an extreme and unlikely example, imagine an engineer using Excel to calculate stress in a new building. Maybe the result from his spreadsheet is not quite accurate enough and the building falls. It's up to the user to know the limitations of the software.
Take a breath buddy. All i said was that Apple is free to make whatever they want and you are free to buy it or not. That's all the further it does. Apple has no obligation or business reason to make the iPhone more open. Last I checked they were selling pretty well.
Well, that article doesn't really say anything about how many people know they can be tracked by their cell phone. It does have a lot paranoid speculation about what is happening with that information. Again, anybody who has an idea of how cell phones work know they could be tracked with some level of detail. Most of them don't care. People who don't know how cell phones work don't care. I don't care. Some people (such as yourself) do care. It all works out.
Well, what part of my statement was wrong? I said AT LEAST the radius of the cell tower's reception range. 25 ft falls into that range. Also lack of paranoia != ignorance. I think most cell phone users are aware of the fact that they can be tracked by their phone.
So the iPhone isn't for you then. You won't buy one. I do have one serious issue with your list of rants. Your cell phone provider NEEDS to know where you are at least within the radius of a cell tower. That's kind of how it works. They may not need to store that info, but cell phones don't work without it. That said, I (and most people) aren't that paranoid, but if you are, then you have the option to not use the iPhone.