When I was in high school, my math teacher told us all to get TI-83's because he wouldn't be able to help us perform certain functions on our calculators if we had a different one.
I got a TI-86 for programming purposes and, as it turned out, our teacher didn't know how to use a TI-83 either so everybody turned to me for help. I didn't own a TI-83 so I couldn't help them, so it ended up I was the only one able to do certain problems in the class:P
Open Office versus MS Office is similar. A lot more people out there use MS Office (myself included) versus Open Office. When my friends ask me a question over the phone about Excel, I can guide them through the steps without even looking at their or my own computer. If they were to use Open Office I would tell them I had no idea how to use it.
One of the benefits of a semi-monopoly over a certain software area. Community support systems.
"more so than average, engineers are loners, with neither desire to socialize nor skill in socializing."
That is completely false. The idea that engineers are "antisocial" is one of those generalized stereotypes based on physical appearance and general demeaner. The "majority" of people believe that the fact engineers in college pull overnighters, sometimes go for multiple days without showering simply because they've been working on the same project the entire time, and just in general don't attend to their physical appearances (unshaven etc.) implies that they are not social.
Any engineer knows that engineers are very social. It just tends to be with other engineers. In my non-engineering classes, most people tend to stay in small social groups. Sometimes never making much further contact than a lab or reading partner. Some don't even bother making new friends and stick to their regular group.
Engineering classes, on the other hand, are full of collaboration. By the end of most of my engineering labs everybody knows almost everybody else by name. Most of us have worked with each other closely on some difficult project.
There is a degree of community and acceptance amongst people in the engineering profession.
Take slashdot for example. Through our various means of communication, the average engineer interacts with far more people from a far greater background than any non-engineer will have the chance to in their lifetimes.
We are social butterflies amongst those who don't discriminate against us based on what we must do to accommodate our workloads.
I've read through most of the posts, and nobody's really suggested this outright, but...
Hasn't anybody considered it could have been one of the kids who visited the porn site(s)?
I remember when I was younger (and that was in the EARLY days) there was some kid in class who would point all the library computers to some pseudo-porn site.
Nobody really knew what was going on, and nobody ever found him. Nor did anybody in the class really care (because come on, at age 8 we were all sending e-mails to hotmail users from God@hotmail.com, and by age 10 we all knew where to see porn if we wanted to), but I think the odds of one of the male students dastardly pointing the class computer to some naughty website, then giggling away when the girls said "ewwwww" and ran to hide is much higher than of an actual female school teacher browsing pornographic material.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking "anybody/everybody can do it" but statistically speaking, much fewer females than males actively browse porn.
Especially elementary school teachers... at school.
If it was a single male teacher... maybe... no wait... probably. But honestly now. Statistics have to be of some worth.
I love Sony, and I think the PS3 is awesome. I'll definitely buy one when I can muster up 600 washingtons. There's just one thing I've noticed from listening to my friends and people on forums.
A $600 system can never have a "system seller" game.
This is not to say the system won't sell, but $600, as mentioned many times before, just isn't an impulse buy. Even the Xbox 360 at $400 for the premium version is a difficult "walk in and buy for Gears of War" system. One game just isn't enough.
The Wii, at $250, is definitely in the impulse buy range. If I see one on the shelf, I wouldn't even hesitate to pick it up, along with Zelda, and purchase it.
The PS3, at $600, for even semi-hardcore gamers, is just not an item that one can justify purchasing because one REALLY good game came out. When Halo 3 comes out for the 360, it will sell systems. If Halo 3 came out exclusively for the PS3, the price would be prohibitively large enough that people might still say "I think I'm going to wait for the price drop," or "I'll wait until it has another good game that I want."
On the other hand, Sony has done a good job of selling through all their units until Christmas. Pricing is correct when there is a readily available of supply for purchase, yet enough to match production levels. If they gradually drop the price of the system, interest may rise again to the point of sell-out. But really, who wants that? In many ways, I kind of wish the Wii were $300. Then maybe I could actually buy one without paying $400 for it off eBay.
The point is, they're still making $5M so why bother cutting off the spammers unless it is advantageous for them to do so. I.E. if they make $5M by keeping the spammers, I'm sure they'd drop them if they could make $10M in that action.
It's kind of like if you make $80,000/year and every year an extra $5 appears in your account. Even if somebody told you "hey if you stop serving such and such, those $5 will disappear." Why would you bother? In fact, if somebody said "if you stop serving those people, that $5 will turn into $10" you still probably wouldn't care:P
In order for MCI to have a legitimate reason to cancel those accounts, they'd have to make hundreds of millions from that decision and/or be in legal trouble. Otherwise, it's a non-issue.
Slashdot Mirror
When I was in high school, my math teacher told us all to get TI-83's because he wouldn't be able to help us perform certain functions on our calculators if we had a different one.
I got a TI-86 for programming purposes and, as it turned out, our teacher didn't know how to use a TI-83 either so everybody turned to me for help. I didn't own a TI-83 so I couldn't help them, so it ended up I was the only one able to do certain problems in the class:P
Open Office versus MS Office is similar. A lot more people out there use MS Office (myself included) versus Open Office. When my friends ask me a question over the phone about Excel, I can guide them through the steps without even looking at their or my own computer. If they were to use Open Office I would tell them I had no idea how to use it.
One of the benefits of a semi-monopoly over a certain software area. Community support systems.
So... essentially all this news article is saying, or rather... proposing, is "what if Microsoft and Apple teamed up for the iPod."
Really just one thing.
1. There wouldn't be a Zune.
Considering the way the Zune has been selling, that point doesn't even count.
"more so than average, engineers are loners, with neither desire to socialize nor skill in socializing." That is completely false. The idea that engineers are "antisocial" is one of those generalized stereotypes based on physical appearance and general demeaner. The "majority" of people believe that the fact engineers in college pull overnighters, sometimes go for multiple days without showering simply because they've been working on the same project the entire time, and just in general don't attend to their physical appearances (unshaven etc.) implies that they are not social. Any engineer knows that engineers are very social. It just tends to be with other engineers. In my non-engineering classes, most people tend to stay in small social groups. Sometimes never making much further contact than a lab or reading partner. Some don't even bother making new friends and stick to their regular group. Engineering classes, on the other hand, are full of collaboration. By the end of most of my engineering labs everybody knows almost everybody else by name. Most of us have worked with each other closely on some difficult project. There is a degree of community and acceptance amongst people in the engineering profession. Take slashdot for example. Through our various means of communication, the average engineer interacts with far more people from a far greater background than any non-engineer will have the chance to in their lifetimes. We are social butterflies amongst those who don't discriminate against us based on what we must do to accommodate our workloads.
I've read through most of the posts, and nobody's really suggested this outright, but... Hasn't anybody considered it could have been one of the kids who visited the porn site(s)? I remember when I was younger (and that was in the EARLY days) there was some kid in class who would point all the library computers to some pseudo-porn site. Nobody really knew what was going on, and nobody ever found him. Nor did anybody in the class really care (because come on, at age 8 we were all sending e-mails to hotmail users from God@hotmail.com, and by age 10 we all knew where to see porn if we wanted to), but I think the odds of one of the male students dastardly pointing the class computer to some naughty website, then giggling away when the girls said "ewwwww" and ran to hide is much higher than of an actual female school teacher browsing pornographic material. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking "anybody/everybody can do it" but statistically speaking, much fewer females than males actively browse porn. Especially elementary school teachers... at school. If it was a single male teacher... maybe... no wait... probably. But honestly now. Statistics have to be of some worth.
I love Sony, and I think the PS3 is awesome. I'll definitely buy one when I can muster up 600 washingtons. There's just one thing I've noticed from listening to my friends and people on forums.
A $600 system can never have a "system seller" game.
This is not to say the system won't sell, but $600, as mentioned many times before, just isn't an impulse buy. Even the Xbox 360 at $400 for the premium version is a difficult "walk in and buy for Gears of War" system. One game just isn't enough.
The Wii, at $250, is definitely in the impulse buy range. If I see one on the shelf, I wouldn't even hesitate to pick it up, along with Zelda, and purchase it.
The PS3, at $600, for even semi-hardcore gamers, is just not an item that one can justify purchasing because one REALLY good game came out. When Halo 3 comes out for the 360, it will sell systems. If Halo 3 came out exclusively for the PS3, the price would be prohibitively large enough that people might still say "I think I'm going to wait for the price drop," or "I'll wait until it has another good game that I want."
On the other hand, Sony has done a good job of selling through all their units until Christmas. Pricing is correct when there is a readily available of supply for purchase, yet enough to match production levels. If they gradually drop the price of the system, interest may rise again to the point of sell-out. But really, who wants that? In many ways, I kind of wish the Wii were $300. Then maybe I could actually buy one without paying $400 for it off eBay.
The point is, they're still making $5M so why bother cutting off the spammers unless it is advantageous for them to do so. I.E. if they make $5M by keeping the spammers, I'm sure they'd drop them if they could make $10M in that action. It's kind of like if you make $80,000/year and every year an extra $5 appears in your account. Even if somebody told you "hey if you stop serving such and such, those $5 will disappear." Why would you bother? In fact, if somebody said "if you stop serving those people, that $5 will turn into $10" you still probably wouldn't care:P In order for MCI to have a legitimate reason to cancel those accounts, they'd have to make hundreds of millions from that decision and/or be in legal trouble. Otherwise, it's a non-issue.