The logistical and political skills and confidence that I picked up running a 60 person guild directly lead to my promotion to leadership positions at my company. I see the same traits in corporate worker bees that I did in my guild worker bees.
Some one else mentioned voice actors as an issue but seriously-- games that let you talk to each other at international distances for free will be used for telephone calls if the taxes on telephone calls don't come down in many countries.
In Houston, they are reviewing (and turning over many of) over a hundred cases that were based on DNA evidence.
There was this problem of the lab using incorrect techniques and even worse apparently just saying the DNA evidence matched if the prosecution really wanted it too.
DNA evidence can be manipulated fairly easily apparently. It took close to a decade before they got caught.
The problem is that these games have taken a leisure activity and then stretched out the time to play them artificially to where there is not much fun for some activities.
The 22 hours I put into getting my "jboots" was just a pointless and artificial limit to slow the rate jboots entered the game. People who could play 12 hours at a stretch got jboots in about 11 hours-- those of us who played shorter periods often took longer to get the same rewards.
The game is only fun as long as it maintains its illusion as a game.
For example.
Paying 70 million in salary for a team that usually beats other teams is acceptable. But going the next logical step and selling "successful bat swings" destroys the illusion.
The gross mockery of baseball that has 70 million dollar "aces" pretending to be equals of a 4 million dollar team of 3rd stringers (yet winning year after year) still has just enough illusion left of the original game.
Likewise-- buying gold is okay and buying an experienced but used character is okay. However, the day Sony or Blizzard puts a price of $10 per level and a formal price on all items and expansion/zone flags then they will destroy the illusion.
What is the point of just giving Sony $850 and then saying "I win". The rich people NEED hordes of poor people playing the hard way to get the good feeling that justifies paying that much money to "win" and play.
put another way What family would play monopoly when you could buy a thousand dollars in the game for a dollar. The parents could win any game because they have more money.
It's not a fair game when you let people buy a winning position.
---
Another example... because of this money issue many real world games have limits. For example: in nascar, the track has a right to buy the winning car for a set price (so you better not spend more than that set price) and in drag car racing, there is a maximum speed you can run (890 class is 8.9 seconds). Only in the 'unlimited' class can you spend any amount of money.
What we "890" game players want is a level playing field.
Unfortunately... you still have the 80 hour a week players-- so what I want is a game where you can't buy a position or gold and where you can't play more than a certain number of hours per week. ("This is the 20 hour a week server-- all players on this server are limited to 20 hours a week" "This is the 30 hour a week server".. etc.
It was the never-ending alcoholism story that drove me to quit Iron man forever. The idea of my "hero" crawling around puking and suffering DT's just didn't float my boat.
First-- I get your point. And I agree with your statement "clearly prices are too low for some people, and too high for others, as is always going to be the case" for the most part.
now..
Clearly prices are too HIGH. Because they encourage rampant criminal behavior and a growing disrespect for the rule of law. The prices are not "fair" prices.
The prices reflect a historical cartel and a VERY temporary lock on the market that is in the process of collapsing even as we speak. "Mass" market share shrinks for entertainment with each passing year.
As we choose between spending $0 to watch "Star Wreck" (Very entertaining FREE star trek parody), $0 for a gazillion mini movies on Yahoo and other places (I love the stop motion piano guy- gave him a good 8 hours of my entertainment time last year), playing another 40 hours of our $15 a month online game, or another 40 hours on our $40 video game ($1/hour) or spending $10 ($5/2 hours+gas+overpriced refreshments) to watch a warmed over, mangled spider man story, the choice gets a little harder each day.
A simple glance at any part of the movie staff from producer to actor to writer to editor shows a tiny group of people who are grossly overcompensated for a few hours of work compared to the rest of the planet. Sure, they have gotten some broken laws passed and have distribution deals that lock up entire regions of the world, but they are being routed around.
Returning to my first point... just as prohibition was clearly a stupid law since it encouraged the entire populace to break the law and lead to a massive growth of organized crime, the current copyright laws and ridiculously high prices (required because we are paying people $20 million for 4 months work) are equally stupid and too high.
There are MANY good looking actors who can do a great job of acting. The cost of making and distributing TV shows and movies is dropping like a stone- the major cost now is salaries, not physical plant. Compare this with 50 years ago when salaries were low- physical costs were high, and movies were cheap (and "stars" had to work in several movies every year).
---
Finally, what irritates me about this entire situation is that it is about yield management. Sure- they can and do sell it at a profit for $2.49. But they price it at the absolute highest price that generates the maximum profit. Sometimes the trade off is a great increase in price for a tiny increase in profits. And with that is a great decrease in the number of people who can get the product. Similar to when they bring out a movie for $90 because they know the 10,000 people that will buy it will produce ( a very tiny!) bit more profit than the 100,000 people who would buy it at $9.
Yield management takes things that are pleasant and frequently make them extremely unpleasant.
RDJ is a very good actor. I'm sure he can use those method acting skills to convincingly portray a man who has problems getting over a substance abuse problem.
--- And all I'm trying to say, is: Pearl Harbor sucked and I miss you. / I need you like Ben Affleck needs acting school, He was terrible in that film. / I need you like Cuba Gooding needed a bigger part, He's way better than Ben Affleck.
It think it is more that the prices are out of line with reality.
A movie company could sell movies for $3.00 and make about $1 profit per copy ($1.00 going to the middle men, actors, writers, etc).
So for a movie that only attracted 200 million viewers throughout the entire world, that would provide the company 200 million, and 200 million to everyone else involved.
Clearly- prices are too high.
That's their right- they can try to sell the thing for anything they want.
But if they were charging $3.00 to see in the theatre and $3.00 to buy the DVD, almost no one would copy them. And we know they are already selling them in china and india for $2.49 (LESS than the $3.00) at a profit. The profit they make here is obscene.
(and again- we in the west are getting ripped off paying $20 for something the rest of the world gets cheap-- just like medicine)
An actor-- a writer-- a producer-- etc has a reasonable expectation of a "really nice income" of $300k to $500k. Anything above that is a temporary abberation that is not going to last.
This is one of the reasons we need to legalize marijuana. So we can put real criminals in jail. Sounds like they make everyone a criminal so they can't put anyone in jail.
Just had an image of Michael and Bush going at it like those two teenage girls-- Mike's holding Bush's hair and bush is hitting Mike on the back of the head with a pair of brass knuckles...
Of course the image of Mike in a black bra and a halter top is just wrong.
According to hobbes, the rich guy needs it much more. Because once enough minimum wage guys lose everything, they will take the rich persons property and perhaps his life.
You have to keep people at a certain minimum level of prosperity and happiness.
The cost for the air craft carrier was going to be 1.2 billion with fuzzy accounting or 1.3 billion with accurate accounting. Having occasional $600 screws and $20,000 toilets actually made the entire project cheaper.
I always feel like the CIA is the stupid cover agency for the "real" agency that is effective. To some extent, this is sort of true via the NSA vs CIA.
I also think the real purpose of a lot of our financial aid is to keep nations in africa and other places balkanized and ineffectual.
Slashdot Mirror
The logistical and political skills and confidence that I picked up running a 60 person guild directly lead to my promotion to leadership positions at my company. I see the same traits in corporate worker bees that I did in my guild worker bees.
Some one else mentioned voice actors as an issue but seriously-- games that let you talk to each other at international distances for free will be used for telephone calls if the taxes on telephone calls don't come down in many countries.
yup...
roleplaying is tough when the voice is totally wrong.
In Houston, they are reviewing (and turning over many of) over a hundred cases that were based on DNA evidence.
There was this problem of the lab using incorrect techniques and even worse apparently just saying the DNA evidence matched if the prosecution really wanted it too.
DNA evidence can be manipulated fairly easily apparently. It took close to a decade before they got caught.
I believe you.
There is a certain truthiness to what you say.
And what's up with the "won't be open with the press there".
If the meeting can be discussed publicly after the meeting, then what they say is open to publication and discussion anyway.
Unless they keep no notes and do not record the 'public' meeting.
The problem is that these games have taken a leisure activity and then stretched out the time to play them artificially to where there is not much fun for some activities.
The 22 hours I put into getting my "jboots" was just a pointless and artificial limit to slow the rate jboots entered the game. People who could play 12 hours at a stretch got jboots in about 11 hours-- those of us who played shorter periods often took longer to get the same rewards.
Actually, last month the account growth took a downtick for the first time.
Wow may have seen it's peak.
The game is only fun as long as it maintains its illusion as a game.
For example.
Paying 70 million in salary for a team that usually beats other teams is acceptable.
But going the next logical step and selling "successful bat swings" destroys the illusion.
The gross mockery of baseball that has 70 million dollar "aces" pretending to be equals of a 4 million dollar team of 3rd stringers (yet winning year after year) still has just enough illusion left of the original game.
Likewise-- buying gold is okay and buying an experienced but used character is okay. However, the day Sony or Blizzard puts a price of $10 per level and a formal price on all items and expansion/zone flags then they will destroy the illusion.
What is the point of just giving Sony $850 and then saying "I win". The rich people NEED hordes of poor people playing the hard way to get the good feeling that justifies paying that much money to "win" and play.
put another way
What family would play monopoly when you could buy a thousand dollars in the game for a dollar. The parents could win any game because they have more money.
It's not a fair game when you let people buy a winning position.
---
Another example... because of this money issue many real world games have limits. For example: in nascar, the track has a right to buy the winning car for a set price (so you better not spend more than that set price) and in drag car racing, there is a maximum speed you can run (890 class is 8.9 seconds). Only in the 'unlimited' class can you spend any amount of money.
What we "890" game players want is a level playing field.
Unfortunately... you still have the 80 hour a week players-- so what I want is a game where you can't buy a position or gold and where you can't play more than a certain number of hours per week. ("This is the 20 hour a week server-- all players on this server are limited to 20 hours a week" "This is the 30 hour a week server".. etc.
Except for "happy birthday."
Even tho it was written in 1893, the copyright dates from 1935 for some weird reason and won't expire until 2030.
It was the never-ending alcoholism story that drove me to quit Iron man forever.
The idea of my "hero" crawling around puking and suffering DT's just didn't float my boat.
First-- I get your point.
And I agree with your statement "clearly prices are too low for some people, and too high for others, as is always going to be the case" for the most part.
now..
Clearly prices are too HIGH. Because they encourage rampant criminal behavior and a growing disrespect for the rule of law. The prices are not "fair" prices.
The prices reflect a historical cartel and a VERY temporary lock on the market that is in the process of collapsing even as we speak. "Mass" market share shrinks for entertainment with each passing year.
As we choose between spending $0 to watch "Star Wreck" (Very entertaining FREE star trek parody), $0 for a gazillion mini movies on Yahoo and other places (I love the stop motion piano guy- gave him a good 8 hours of my entertainment time last year), playing another 40 hours of our $15 a month online game, or another 40 hours on our $40 video game ($1/hour) or spending $10 ($5/2 hours+gas+overpriced refreshments) to watch a warmed over, mangled spider man story, the choice gets a little harder each day.
A simple glance at any part of the movie staff from producer to actor to writer to editor shows a tiny group of people who are grossly overcompensated for a few hours of work compared to the rest of the planet. Sure, they have gotten some broken laws passed and have distribution deals that lock up entire regions of the world, but they are being routed around.
Returning to my first point... just as prohibition was clearly a stupid law since it encouraged the entire populace to break the law and lead to a massive growth of organized crime, the current copyright laws and ridiculously high prices (required because we are paying people $20 million for 4 months work) are equally stupid and too high.
There are MANY good looking actors who can do a great job of acting. The cost of making and distributing TV shows and movies is dropping like a stone- the major cost now is salaries, not physical plant. Compare this with 50 years ago when salaries were low- physical costs were high, and movies were cheap (and "stars" had to work in several movies every year).
---
Finally, what irritates me about this entire situation is that it is about yield management. Sure- they can and do sell it at a profit for $2.49. But they price it at the absolute highest price that generates the maximum profit. Sometimes the trade off is a great increase in price for a tiny increase in profits. And with that is a great decrease in the number of people who can get the product. Similar to when they bring out a movie for $90 because they know the 10,000 people that will buy it will produce ( a very tiny!) bit more profit than the 100,000 people who would buy it at $9.
Yield management takes things that are pleasant and frequently make them extremely unpleasant.
RDJ is a very good actor. I'm sure he can use those method acting skills to convincingly portray a man who has problems getting over a substance abuse problem.
---
And all I'm trying to say, is: Pearl Harbor sucked and I miss you. / I need you like Ben Affleck needs acting school, He was terrible in that film. / I need you like Cuba Gooding needed a bigger part, He's way better than Ben Affleck.
I mean certified accounting shows both spider man I & II barely broke even. /wag
It think it is more that the prices are out of line with reality.
A movie company could sell movies for $3.00 and make about $1 profit per copy ($1.00 going to the middle men, actors, writers, etc).
So for a movie that only attracted 200 million viewers throughout the entire world, that would provide the company 200 million, and 200 million to everyone else involved.
Clearly- prices are too high.
That's their right- they can try to sell the thing for anything they want.
But if they were charging $3.00 to see in the theatre and $3.00 to buy the DVD, almost no one would copy them. And we know they are already selling them in china and india for $2.49 (LESS than the $3.00) at a profit. The profit they make here is obscene.
(and again- we in the west are getting ripped off paying $20 for something the rest of the world gets cheap-- just like medicine)
An actor-- a writer-- a producer-- etc has a reasonable expectation of a "really nice income" of $300k to $500k. Anything above that is a temporary abberation that is not going to last.
9 times?
And she's destroyed how many people's lives?
And she's put on probation again?
What are they thinking in California?
This is one of the reasons we need to legalize marijuana. So we can put real criminals in jail.
Sounds like they make everyone a criminal so they can't put anyone in jail.
Yup.. they start as early as 5:30am-- go as long as all day until 2:00am.
The police stopped enforcing the law about a year ago and it has gotten worse sense then.
What kind of person goes out- and turns on their boom box at 5:30am and starts washing their car??? It's not even light out yet.
who are illegally distributing music to me through the solid walls of my friend's house from three blocks over.
Sometimes they distribute music to her from 5:30am to 2am.
Just had an image of Michael and Bush going at it like those two teenage girls-- Mike's holding Bush's hair and bush is hitting Mike on the back of the head with a pair of brass knuckles...
Of course the image of Mike in a black bra and a halter top is just wrong.
According to hobbes, the rich guy needs it much more.
Because once enough minimum wage guys lose everything, they will take the rich persons property and perhaps his life.
You have to keep people at a certain minimum level of prosperity and happiness.
Your right. I'm full of shit.
8 2753,00.htm0 /smartphone-viruses-52-and-counting
There is no smart phone virus threat.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,1000000091,391
http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/mobile/2005/04/2
http://itvibe.com/news/3072/
Oh wait.. there is and it was trivially easy to find news about the threat.
An SDK makes it easy to write lots of cool stuff too. You have to weigh the benefits vs the risks.
Having an SDK makes it easy to develop software.
Viruses are software and are developed so having an SDK makes it easier to develop them.
It's simple logic man. Maybe you haven't gotten to that point in school yet.
No SDK means a lot harder to develop viruses and worms.
One minor change I would make...
Anyone without insurance would get the best "negotiated" rate that the health provider offers.
It is twisted to charge a person people without insurance $1800 and a person with insurance $75.
I'd say it almost qualifies as downright evil.
I had heard this as well.
The cost for the air craft carrier was going to be 1.2 billion with fuzzy accounting or 1.3 billion with accurate accounting. Having occasional $600 screws and $20,000 toilets actually made the entire project cheaper.
I always feel like the CIA is the stupid cover agency for the "real" agency that is effective. To some extent, this is sort of true via the NSA vs CIA.
I also think the real purpose of a lot of our financial aid is to keep nations in africa and other places balkanized and ineffectual.
But I'm just paranoid.