It's due to the fact that people in the USA are so freaking brave that they'll swallow them just to prove the terrorists haven't won. Or, alternatively, they're actually very scared of tiny spherical magnets.
As far as I know, in-app purchases require you to put in your password. Parents really should know better than to trust their kids with full access to unlimited credit. That said, I do believe that the companies are acting in a predatory fashion.
However, kids are marketed to in a pretty ruthless fashion, so I think teaching kids about how to budget money and not impulse buy all the time is very useful. Get them a pre-paid card and give them £5 a week to spend - they learn something and get to play the games without being able to rack up huge bills.
I agree, but on the other hand, it allows you to try out the game before spending money on it. The only in-app purchases I buy are add-ons for games that I play and enjoy - board games like Small World, Ticket to Ride etc.
Mind you, those are "one-off" purchases - once you've paid for Small World "Cursed" expansion, you've got it forever (or until Small World 2 comes out - I've pledged for the Kickstarter project).
It's not the phone companies - it's the banks/credit card companies. With phone companies, it's trivial to buy a Pay As You Go mobile phone - I use one for my personal (non-work) phone as it works out a lot cheaper for me.
I can't believe that more parents don't set up a limited balance bank card so that their kids can learn about budgeting etc. Just load a small amount of money per week onto the card and let them use that to pay for in-app purchases. When it runs out of money, the kids have to wait until next week and maybe learn a bit about delayed gratification.
Yes, however when private citizens/companies infringe your rights, you've got laws to provide some redress/justice, but when a government does so, you haven't got that option (or it's much less reliable). Thus, it's considered far more outrageous when the government takes away your rights.
Private citizens/companies also tend to have far less power/influence over your life, so again, it's not nearly as important. In this case, people can choose a different manufacturer of their next phone/tablet and thus get around the censorship. As much as I dislike Apple's behaviour, I don't think it's a major problem if they decide to censor things in their store. I'm against censorship, but I don't think Apple should be forced to carry material if they don't want to. If they had a monopoly, the situation would be quite different.
As a UK subject, I've already paid for the production of Doctor Who (via the license fees), so I don't see why I should pay a second time to watch it at my convenience.
If 20 armed people are coercing you to do or not do something, then the law is on your side and what they are doing is illegal. If the government does it, the law is on their side.
Angry mobs can violate your rights, but not legally.
It's true that atheism can be tricky to define and there are a lot of different interpretations of different atheistic positions. However, you cannot believe in a god and be an atheist. Atheism is not believing in any gods and has nothing to do with which society you are in.
In theory, yes. In practise, he needs to be careful talking about his employer and his employer's products as it makes it seem like he's talking on behalf of his employer. It probably wouldn't matter if he was a janitor, but as a Creative Director it adds weight to his comments.
I recently tried to get Open University software running properly on Windows 7. Does that count as truly creepy? (I still wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat with fleeting dreams of arcane compatibility modes and tentacles).
Most (all?) of the carriers in the UK do age-related blocking of websites. e.g. any page that is to do with alcohol/drugs/pronography even if it's on wikipedia. Usually it's just a quick phone call to them to get them to remove the block .
I'm sure they will have a customer service department when they've got past the initial rush of building the first devices. Pledging on Kickstarter is to help "kickstart" a product/idea from imagination to production. Not all of the projects are from established companies (I would suspect a minority are) and so they haven't necessarily got a customer service department yet.
If you're only happy dealing with fully fledged companies, then maybe you should rethink your use of Kickstarter as you'll probably be disappointed.
I was thinking more of fans adding to the history/future of the events in the Culture universe, and that could well involve using existing characters' names.
Slashdot Mirror
It's due to the fact that people in the USA are so freaking brave that they'll swallow them just to prove the terrorists haven't won. Or, alternatively, they're actually very scared of tiny spherical magnets.
It reminds me of http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/01/30/leigh-van-bryan-and-emily-bunting-banned-from-entering-us-after-twitter-joke-about-destroying-america_n_1241104.html/ where that whole country of gun-toting free-thinking individuals wouldn't have been safe from a couple of tourists from the UK.
As far as I know, in-app purchases require you to put in your password. Parents really should know better than to trust their kids with full access to unlimited credit. That said, I do believe that the companies are acting in a predatory fashion.
However, kids are marketed to in a pretty ruthless fashion, so I think teaching kids about how to budget money and not impulse buy all the time is very useful. Get them a pre-paid card and give them £5 a week to spend - they learn something and get to play the games without being able to rack up huge bills.
Winne-the-Pooh? The UK beef burgers are more likely to be 75% horse. Eeyore would be closer.
I agree, but on the other hand, it allows you to try out the game before spending money on it. The only in-app purchases I buy are add-ons for games that I play and enjoy - board games like Small World, Ticket to Ride etc.
Mind you, those are "one-off" purchases - once you've paid for Small World "Cursed" expansion, you've got it forever (or until Small World 2 comes out - I've pledged for the Kickstarter project).
It's not the phone companies - it's the banks/credit card companies. With phone companies, it's trivial to buy a Pay As You Go mobile phone - I use one for my personal (non-work) phone as it works out a lot cheaper for me.
http://www.money.co.uk/prepaid-cards.htm/ lists a few. I wouldn't trust another adult with full access to my bank/credit card, so why trust a child?
Actually, the problem is giving kids access to unlimited credit. Prepaid cards would not have this problem at all.
I can't believe that more parents don't set up a limited balance bank card so that their kids can learn about budgeting etc. Just load a small amount of money per week onto the card and let them use that to pay for in-app purchases. When it runs out of money, the kids have to wait until next week and maybe learn a bit about delayed gratification.
That's why they outsource it to a different company. They're not employed directly by Microsoft, so they don't have to disclose anything.
Yes, however when private citizens/companies infringe your rights, you've got laws to provide some redress/justice, but when a government does so, you haven't got that option (or it's much less reliable). Thus, it's considered far more outrageous when the government takes away your rights.
Private citizens/companies also tend to have far less power/influence over your life, so again, it's not nearly as important. In this case, people can choose a different manufacturer of their next phone/tablet and thus get around the censorship. As much as I dislike Apple's behaviour, I don't think it's a major problem if they decide to censor things in their store. I'm against censorship, but I don't think Apple should be forced to carry material if they don't want to. If they had a monopoly, the situation would be quite different.
Unless you're a buddhist.
As a UK subject, I've already paid for the production of Doctor Who (via the license fees), so I don't see why I should pay a second time to watch it at my convenience.
If 20 armed people are coercing you to do or not do something, then the law is on your side and what they are doing is illegal. If the government does it, the law is on their side.
Angry mobs can violate your rights, but not legally.
It's true that atheism can be tricky to define and there are a lot of different interpretations of different atheistic positions. However, you cannot believe in a god and be an atheist. Atheism is not believing in any gods and has nothing to do with which society you are in.
In theory, yes. In practise, he needs to be careful talking about his employer and his employer's products as it makes it seem like he's talking on behalf of his employer. It probably wouldn't matter if he was a janitor, but as a Creative Director it adds weight to his comments.
Well, no-one gets out alive.
I don't think that he said that gravity affects anitmatter differently to matter. I thought that gravity affects them both the same amount.
Jeremy Clarkson?
I recently tried to get Open University software running properly on Windows 7. Does that count as truly creepy? (I still wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat with fleeting dreams of arcane compatibility modes and tentacles).
Most (all?) of the carriers in the UK do age-related blocking of websites. e.g. any page that is to do with alcohol/drugs/pronography even if it's on wikipedia. Usually it's just a quick phone call to them to get them to remove the block .
I'm sure they will have a customer service department when they've got past the initial rush of building the first devices. Pledging on Kickstarter is to help "kickstart" a product/idea from imagination to production. Not all of the projects are from established companies (I would suspect a minority are) and so they haven't necessarily got a customer service department yet.
If you're only happy dealing with fully fledged companies, then maybe you should rethink your use of Kickstarter as you'll probably be disappointed.
I was thinking more of fans adding to the history/future of the events in the Culture universe, and that could well involve using existing characters' names.
Unfortunately, most people will pay a lot more for Mac computers than they are prepared to pay to prevent human deaths across the world.
It's easy to put PDFs and other ebooks onto Kindles. I use Calibre on linux to transfer/convert books to my Kindle.
What? Can you speak up please?