If widely adopted, there is built in inflation and no incentive to keep costs low. We assume that spam is uneconomical at $.01 per email. If that is proven false and the threshhold is actually even slightly higher, does that mean we all pay more to send approved email? If you refuse to pay, is your corporate email likely to be marked spam?
With this scheme, all we do is put ourselves in a direct cost offset race with unscrupulous organizations, pitting our own "safe email" assurances against those already proven willing to go to unethical and illegal lengths to profit from the very people paying for the "safe email" certificate in the first place...
Am I missing something, or does the entire system just seem destined to leapfrog in price and crumble down in a pathetic heap? Then again, it's really not about the spam, it's about profiting from one of the last free forms of communication.
I bought my netbook this year for less than the cost of two textbooks. I would go so far as to say the college book store could still make a decent living by offering rental and sale netbooks pre-loaded with proper course materials for much, much cheaper than what students pay on books right now.
No kidding.
What's the difference between the 10th edition you could use last year and the 11th edition you have to use this year? About $100 and a few rearranged chapters.
I don't like corn subsidies, but I don't expect if I posted my views to a random article that someone would suddenly be inspired and rush to help spread my views.
I figure they would see me as a disruptive twat with no clear understanding of how this site works.
Of course, I wouldn't hide under AC either. But that's just me.
Even if only God can make a tree, who said anything about the breath of life? We're talking about AI. Note the artificial part in that.
I'm not sure about how friendly you are with your local PC, but I don't consider mine to be a living, breathing thing. If it were, I'd be entirely too uncomfortable asking it to play so much porn for me... maybe.
I like how you were modded interesting instead of Funny. Some poor bastard out there is now furiously trying to hack the pentagon with tips from Zen Garden.
I can't stress this enough to friends, coworkers, online buddies, and everyone I meet in airports toting Kindles.
When you download a book from Amazon on the Kindle, you are not purchasing the contents of the book. You are purchasing a license that allows you to view the contents of that book. Those contents may change due to online interaction, to put it in gamer terms for the local crowd here.
Does this put me off the Kindle? No. I think they are extremely nifty. Would I be pissed were I halfway through Animal Farm when it got yanked? Yes. Quite.
This is a Brave New World, friends. How we react is what defines the future of the medium. Marches? Protests? Griping on a message board? Refusing to purchase it? Calling your Senator? All very valid responses.
I do wonder how many Kindle owners will throw them away after reading this. I also wonder how many of the loudest voices here in this forum actually own a Kindle and will cast it aside due to this startling turn of events...
My guess is that nothing changed today, and nothing will.
People speak loudest when they are least willing to act. Welcome to the farm.
Not to nitpick, but 1984 and Animal Farm aren't available for the iRex at all. Not legally anyway. And if they are, I will certainly mod you up for linking me to them.
This isn't a karma hunt, just looking for legitimate copies of the books on an e-reader.
It's really a horse and cart situation. Or maybe chicken and egg?
These things have a way of balancing themselves out. The way I figure it, digital download is the future and we'll see that locking us into set pricing schemes well before re-selling ever causes a real issue.
Of course, once we're into the arena of 100% digital distribution, we're talking about a whole other problem with price gouging -- if you only have one place to get it and can't re-sell it, you're pretty much at the mercy of the platform and game makers.... But that's a different topic.
It's funny you should specifically mention GTA IV. I just picked it up at lunch used from Blockbuster for $14.99. You can find it for around that price on Half.com and Amazon as well.
You may be right in that used game prices for high demand titles will continue to rise, but they will always come back down as the games get older, assuming you look for a cheaper outlet than GS/EB.
I recommend buying direct from the used seller on Half.com/Ebay.com or Amazon.com. And if you want that instant gaming fix, you'd be amazed at the savings you can get at a local pawn shop or movie/game rental store.
I guess the entire point here is that I used to be one of the first day buyers, but high prices have pushed me off of the front line and game makers rarely get my revenue at all. My cash goes to the resellers. Not because I don't want to support the great efforts of great game makers, but simply because I can't pay the high sticker price anymore.
Irrelevent to the article, which is the the game industry revenue is down.
It's actually extremely relevent. If the game companies are selling less total copies because gamers are turning to used game outlets due to the ridiculous price of new releases, they are going to see hits to their bottom line.
Is that the only reason for the sales decline? No. Of course not. But it is definitely a contributing factor and one of prime concern for game makers.
I used to regularly grab the must-have new release the day it hit shelves. Once they started passing my self imposed $50 mental barrier, I stopped.
I just can not physically bring myself to spend so much. I'd rather grab 4 used games from last year for the same total price.
I mean really, at the end of the day, they are just pushing gamers to Half.com, eBay, Gamestop, Amazon, and other used game outlets.
Where the publisher could potentially sell two copies at release for a slightly lower price ($39.99-$49.99 is a lot more attractive than $59.99+), they only sell one copy and then the re-seller retail stores take the profits from there for many years to come.
I don't doubt the number of lab animals mentioned simply due to the many years this has been in development and the extreme interest and funding from the US and Israili governments.
Last page of the article states: "The T91 is less powerful, more cramped and has a less spectacular display than pretty much any other newly released netbook, yet it is priced at $499."
I am going to say yes.
Asus is pretty great about providing drivers for their EEE line. My EEE Netbook came with a terrible Xandros build pre-installed, and I switched to Windows 7 pretty quickly, but all of the support was there.
Slashdot Mirror
If widely adopted, there is built in inflation and no incentive to keep costs low. We assume that spam is uneconomical at $.01 per email. If that is proven false and the threshhold is actually even slightly higher, does that mean we all pay more to send approved email? If you refuse to pay, is your corporate email likely to be marked spam?
With this scheme, all we do is put ourselves in a direct cost offset race with unscrupulous organizations, pitting our own "safe email" assurances against those already proven willing to go to unethical and illegal lengths to profit from the very people paying for the "safe email" certificate in the first place...
Am I missing something, or does the entire system just seem destined to leapfrog in price and crumble down in a pathetic heap? Then again, it's really not about the spam, it's about profiting from one of the last free forms of communication.
PHYSICS 101:
"Goatse Penisburg invented America in 1962 while high on chicken wings." - Thomas Edison 1843
Yeah, I am just close to the scam that is college textbook assery right now and hoping this idea catches on like wildfire.
Easier to wreck a netbook, yes. But, with the cost of books alone for this year, I could buy two per semester and still have change left over.
I got my EEE PC for under $200 and am enrolled full time working toward a BSBA. That's what my observations are based off of, as a reference.
I bought my netbook this year for less than the cost of two textbooks. I would go so far as to say the college book store could still make a decent living by offering rental and sale netbooks pre-loaded with proper course materials for much, much cheaper than what students pay on books right now.
No kidding. What's the difference between the 10th edition you could use last year and the 11th edition you have to use this year? About $100 and a few rearranged chapters.
After having just spent a little over $600 on text books, I am quite interested to see how this plays out.
I wouldn't mod as troll. Just as off topic.
I don't like corn subsidies, but I don't expect if I posted my views to a random article that someone would suddenly be inspired and rush to help spread my views.
I figure they would see me as a disruptive twat with no clear understanding of how this site works.
Of course, I wouldn't hide under AC either. But that's just me.
An informative post, sir. Now I feel bad about using my mod points on random hooker jokes today.
Are you serious? I mean, really?
Even if only God can make a tree, who said anything about the breath of life? We're talking about AI. Note the artificial part in that.
I'm not sure about how friendly you are with your local PC, but I don't consider mine to be a living, breathing thing. If it were, I'd be entirely too uncomfortable asking it to play so much porn for me... maybe.
I like how you were modded interesting instead of Funny. Some poor bastard out there is now furiously trying to hack the pentagon with tips from Zen Garden.
I get your point. But it's nothing to be smug about. I have the same disk. I like it a lot. I love the series.
I suppose you and I have different opinions of an upgrade, especially in the context of this article.
By your response, I suppose my copy of Die Hard, up converted during playback, is a brilliant re-imagining by 20th Century Fox.
Starbreeze are supposed to be working on a new Syndicate title although it remains to be seen how faithful to the original/s it will be.
I get scared when remakes of my favorites are made. Shadowrun is a recent, prime example of why.
Nintendo did this a few years ago when they re-released Zelda Ocarina of Time with hi-res graphics, and I loved it
You may be getting Twilight Princess confused with Ocarina of Time, but Nintendo hasn't released an updated version of OOT.
There was an April Fool's story in EGM a year or two ago, and there have been fan released texture packs, but nothing from Nintendo themselves.
That being said, it would be a great one to add to your list of "should do".
I can't stress this enough to friends, coworkers, online buddies, and everyone I meet in airports toting Kindles.
When you download a book from Amazon on the Kindle, you are not purchasing the contents of the book. You are purchasing a license that allows you to view the contents of that book. Those contents may change due to online interaction, to put it in gamer terms for the local crowd here.
Does this put me off the Kindle? No. I think they are extremely nifty. Would I be pissed were I halfway through Animal Farm when it got yanked? Yes. Quite.
This is a Brave New World, friends. How we react is what defines the future of the medium. Marches? Protests? Griping on a message board? Refusing to purchase it? Calling your Senator? All very valid responses.
I do wonder how many Kindle owners will throw them away after reading this. I also wonder how many of the loudest voices here in this forum actually own a Kindle and will cast it aside due to this startling turn of events...
My guess is that nothing changed today, and nothing will.
People speak loudest when they are least willing to act. Welcome to the farm.
Not to nitpick, but 1984 and Animal Farm aren't available for the iRex at all. Not legally anyway. And if they are, I will certainly mod you up for linking me to them.
This isn't a karma hunt, just looking for legitimate copies of the books on an e-reader.
Rollerball. One of the best most terrible movies ever. It is right up there with Omega Man and Capricorn One.
It's really a horse and cart situation. Or maybe chicken and egg?
These things have a way of balancing themselves out. The way I figure it, digital download is the future and we'll see that locking us into set pricing schemes well before re-selling ever causes a real issue.
Of course, once we're into the arena of 100% digital distribution, we're talking about a whole other problem with price gouging -- if you only have one place to get it and can't re-sell it, you're pretty much at the mercy of the platform and game makers.... But that's a different topic.
Yeah, when I saw that strip I could completely relate.
It's funny you should specifically mention GTA IV. I just picked it up at lunch used from Blockbuster for $14.99. You can find it for around that price on Half.com and Amazon as well.
You may be right in that used game prices for high demand titles will continue to rise, but they will always come back down as the games get older, assuming you look for a cheaper outlet than GS/EB.
I recommend buying direct from the used seller on Half.com/Ebay.com or Amazon.com. And if you want that instant gaming fix, you'd be amazed at the savings you can get at a local pawn shop or movie/game rental store.
I guess the entire point here is that I used to be one of the first day buyers, but high prices have pushed me off of the front line and game makers rarely get my revenue at all. My cash goes to the resellers. Not because I don't want to support the great efforts of great game makers, but simply because I can't pay the high sticker price anymore.
Irrelevent to the article, which is the the game industry revenue is down.
It's actually extremely relevent. If the game companies are selling less total copies because gamers are turning to used game outlets due to the ridiculous price of new releases, they are going to see hits to their bottom line.
Is that the only reason for the sales decline? No. Of course not. But it is definitely a contributing factor and one of prime concern for game makers.
No kidding.
I used to regularly grab the must-have new release the day it hit shelves. Once they started passing my self imposed $50 mental barrier, I stopped.
I just can not physically bring myself to spend so much. I'd rather grab 4 used games from last year for the same total price.
I mean really, at the end of the day, they are just pushing gamers to Half.com, eBay, Gamestop, Amazon, and other used game outlets.
Where the publisher could potentially sell two copies at release for a slightly lower price ($39.99-$49.99 is a lot more attractive than $59.99+), they only sell one copy and then the re-seller retail stores take the profits from there for many years to come.
The BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7341336.stm has a less biased and dodgy article that explains it in more believable terms.
I don't doubt the number of lab animals mentioned simply due to the many years this has been in development and the extreme interest and funding from the US and Israili governments.
Last page of the article states: "The T91 is less powerful, more cramped and has a less spectacular display than pretty much any other newly released netbook, yet it is priced at $499."
I am going to say yes. Asus is pretty great about providing drivers for their EEE line. My EEE Netbook came with a terrible Xandros build pre-installed, and I switched to Windows 7 pretty quickly, but all of the support was there.