"Every 100,000 downloads someone will win an iPod nano and a $100 giftcard, with the grand prize being an iMac, 10 iPod (60GB), and $10,000 credit at iTunes. [Factually incorrect statement removed] Looks like business is going well for Apple"
So, for every 100,000 downloads (~$100,000.00 gross) they are giving away $50 in hardware and $100 in gift certificates. Wow, that's almost impressive.. wait, no it's not.
They'll gross just shy of $1 billion during this period, during which they will award About $161,000.00 in hardware and certificates. That's.0016%. If their profit margin isn't large enough to sustain that amount with ease, then they need to look into their pricing structure.
So in the future all companies with 50+ employees will have to (be able to) report on all people who were 'interested' in a position and their race/ethnic background.
Does this strike anyone else as a really bad freaking idea? How long before someone tells the NSA to find all people of Middle Eastern decent who were interested in jobs in the air line industry? Or what jobs Middle Easterns are looking into... It seems like this informatio's only purpose is racial profiling. Whether under the guise of affirmative action, national security, or the war on terror, it still amounts to making a person's race and ethnicity more important then their skills and abilities.
As much as I hate AA (I'm a best person for the position backer, the free market makes race and ethnicity irrelivant), I think this is 10 times worse.
LOL, just to make sure we're clear, I had no knowledge of that project when mentioning sleazy advertising company 'ABC'. I was speaking on a purely hypothetical situation, any similarities with real life companies and or OS projects are purely coincidental.
You realise he's not hijacking the software, right? The code is OS and will remain so.
What he is doing is protecting his Trademark, not a patent. This way, when sleazy advertising corp 'ABC' releases a new 'Bit Torrent Client' with add/spy ware included, he can sue them to prevent them from using the word 'Bit Torrent' in their name.
Will this effect other OS clients? Doubtful, if you have a publicly distributed app with the word 'Bit Torrent' in the name, you should either change your app's name, or contact Bram about waving the fee.
Home Depot (not sure what the UK equivalent is) has 5 packs for ~$10. A bit more expensive then standard 60watt bulbs, but they put out the same lums as a traditional 60watt bulb at 14watts consumed.
-Rick
Re:Beats my education on Africa
on
Africa, The MMOG
·
· Score: 1
A very valid point. I guess I've just been stuck through so many "history of racism" classes/lectures, I'm a bit fed up with it.
When I got the green light to listen to music at work, my first choice was buds. I'm a application developer, and when we moved offices I went from a somewhat annoying (right next to the door) yet quiet (against 2 exterior walls), to a very loud (next to the network support bull pen) cubical. I used the ear buds for a while, but the ambient noise was still adiable unless I really cranked the music, which was just as distracting. I finally dug out an old set of Sony Switchback headphones. Those things are wonderful. Ambient noise gets cut way down, and they have some pretty decent sound quality. As for the cubical tapping, I figure if it's really important, they'll tap louder.
I phrased my post poorly. What I ment was that if the middle east were to stop providing us with oil, we would be okay. They would still be selling oil, just not to us. But that would free up resources from other countries (Russia/Central America).
The largest effect on our gas prices is not the barrel. Look at the change in crude costs over the last two years, gas prices should have doubled if crude was to blame. No, the problem lies in the refinement industry. The US regulary runs at 90%+ capacity (I can't recall exact numbers) We have ~ 120 refineries. Which means if you have a handful of refineries down for maintenance, and another refiner drops (due to strike/fire/huricanes/etc) you are not going to be able to produce enough gas to meet demand. After Katrina hit gas prices skyrocketed, not because of the middle east, hell they were sending us extra crude (If I recall correctly, someone even offered to ship refined gasoline across the Atlantic). The problem was that we had a large number of our refineries in the area. Many of those refineries were either damanged or with out electricity. Sure, there may have been a slight surge in gas costs anyways due to the disruption of flow in the gulf, but more refineries further inland would have saved us a lot of costs.
That being said, necesity is the mother of invention. And $3/gallon is one hell of a motivator. Once you get past that $3/gallon gasoline line, building the hydrogen infrastructure starts looking like an economicly sound idea. At $2.39 (local cheap gas here) it is still the cheapest short term.
Although I recently did the math on my and my wife's driving habbits. Replacing my daily commute (built 3.4l Fiero ~20mpg) and her evening driving (87 dodge Raider ~12mpg) with a new Golf TDI (45mpg diesel) will save us about $100/month in fuel costs, even with the higher price of diesel. Not only would it save us money in the long run, it has the ability to run on non-petrol fuels, and produces less emissions.
"I'm impressed. First, though we get only a small amount of our oil from the Middle East, oil is a global market."
True, I was not saying that if the entire Middle East stoped producing oil, I was saying that if the US stoped buying ME oil. For instance, if we attack Iran, Saudi Arabia may just give us the bird and tell us to go hump a tree. Now, SA is still producing oil, just not for the US. The extra oil they have would be distributed, thus lightening the demand on Central America's exports slightly. Then, the US would lean more on CA for it's oil.
"Second, Prius batteries last more than 3-5 years."
Granted, another poster pointed that out already, I appologized for my inaccurate statement, and now know better.
"Third, while the VW can run on biodiesel, I don't think there's a decent supply for this fuel yet"
As mentioned in another post. Biodiesel plants are being built. There is a 20m gallon/year plant being built just out side of Madison, WI right now.
"The biodiesel that exists is not fossil-fuel free, either, since the food that it's grown with uses fossil-fuel derived fertilizer."
Soy (the current primary bio-diesel crop) is pretty light on the fertilizer, and the big advantage is that it doesn't need nitrogen (ie: petrol based fertilizers) unlike corn (used for ethanol) which needs large amounts of petrol based fertilizers. There are also new technologies going into carbon scruber algee. Acres of these plants can be grown arround coal based power plants to clean emissions from the air. Not only do they help clean the air, but they can be processed into biodiesel, and the remains can be further processed into ethanol. So yes, right now there is not enough bio-diesel to fuel every single vehicle in the world. But the production is growing rapidly.
-Rick
Re:Beats my education on Africa
on
Africa, The MMOG
·
· Score: 1
No, that was the education that was presented to me by both my Female Native American high school Multi-Cultural Literature teacher, and the teacher from my Multi-Cultural Studies class (online, no idea on the teachers race, but she is a woman).
Me personally, I LOVE to study foreign cultures. I spent time in foreign exchange after highschool, I got stationed over seas in the military, I enjoy literature and documentaries about foreign cultures.
What I don't like is the "education" I have received from organized schools about multiculturalism. Both of the classes I took we focused on the oppression of those societies by white men, instead of taking a look at the beauty of their cultures.
* resistant to change
* opposed to liberal reforms
* cautious: avoiding excess; "a conservative estimate"
* a person who has conservative ideas or opinions
Definitions of liberal on the Web:
* broad: showing or characterized by broad-mindedness; "a broad political stance"; "generous and broad sympathies"; "a liberal newspaper"; "tolerant of his opponent's opinions"
* having political or social views favoring reform and progress
* tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition
* a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties
* big: given or giving freely; "was a big tipper"; "the bounteous goodness of God"; "bountiful compliments"; "a freehanded host"; "a handsome allowance"; "Saturday's child is loving and giving"; "a liberal backer of the arts"; "a munificent gift"; "her fond and openhanded grandfather"
* a person who favors an economic theory of laissez-faire and self-regulating markets
* free: not literal; "a loose interpretation of what she had been told"; "a free translation of the poem"
My bust. I was incorrect, prius batteries are better protected then I had been originally told.
As for diesel exhaust, check for yourself, modern diesels (VW TDI) are 50 state legal, including California's Tier 1. And running biodiesel drops the emissions even more. In any case emissions per mile are lower across the board then gasoline engines.
-Rick
Beats my education on Africa
on
Africa, The MMOG
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Slaves came from Africa. Anglo-saxon men are bad.
What I wouldn't give for a Multi-Cultural class that actually studied different cultures instead of how the white Anglo-saxon male has subjugated them.
"The TDI is certified to the tough minimum Tier 1 requirement - this is the stringent California standard for what is permitted from a car's tailpipe. The TDI could have been certified to even stricter requirements if not for NOX and particulate emissions, which are naturally higher in diesel engines because of their exceptional combustion efficiencies.
Volkswagen is confident these NOX levels can be lowered using new technology if the sulfur level in our nation's diesel fuel was reduced. For this very reason, Volkswagen and the other members of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers have advocated lower federal sulfur content standards in both diesel and gasoline fuels." - http://tedshelton.blogspot.com/2005/11/good-custom er-service-from-vw.html
There's plenty more out on the web. the TDI with current US petrol diesel will have a higher particulate rate per gallon spent, but a lower rate per mile due to their improved efficiency.
"but they still, if memory serves, have higher particulate, NOx, and hydrocarbon emissions than gas engines. That said, I wouldn't mind owning a biodiesel-powered Jetta."
Similar/Lower NOx and hydrocarbon per gallon. Lower particulate per mile. If you look at the exhaust from a 30mpg gas car over 100,000 miles compared to a 45mpg turbo diesel over 100,000 miles, the diesel will be lower across the board. Going biodiesel drops it even more as you are completely removing sulfur from the equation.
I am NOT saying I am liberal or conservative or republican or democratic. What I'm saying is the terms liberal and conservative can mean many different things.
Someone who is (politically) conservative doesn't want change. These are the people who will defend the constitution and depend on legal precedence. (IOW, these people make good supreme court justices).
Someone who is (politically) liberal wants change. These are the people who see the problems with the current situation and want to correct it. (IOW, these people make good congressmen and senators)
In America, we started off with a pretty religious, and strict social and political environment (compared to now). So, calling a person conservative (meaning, they don't want change) became synonymous with white Christian men.
The problem is people aren't just liberal or conservative. Take Pres Bush for example. He is considered a conservative, but he takes a very liberal approach to running the country.
Side note, we get less then 20% of our oil from the middle east, if they drop out completely we would just push harder on Venezuala.
On the other hand, if you buy a brand new VW Gold tdi (turbo diesel) for about the same cost (nicely loaded just under $22k) you get 45mpg (realistic estimate, not inflated EPA). So your fuel costs are similar to the of the Pirus but you have a car with significantly more power and pep. You also have a vehicle that can be feed 100% biodiesel and run with out a drop of petrol. And given the ruggedness of Diesel engines and the VW quality, you have a car that will continue to get 45mpg for 200,000. Compared to the Prius which is going to need new batteries every 3-5 years.
Player-Customized content is more like it. TFA isn't saying that legions of basement dwelling mama's boys are going to crank out new models and textures. It's saying that the player should have more customization, and that customization should be shared with other players. Which is already the case in a lot of MMOs (things like custom houses). I think it's true, but even more so, I think the real drive is a non-static environment. Players want to see their work mean something. Not clear a city of a ghoul infestation just to see the ghouls come back 5 minutes later. Why can't my guild cleans that city and take over the biggest house in the walls, put up our banners, clean the place up, and leave a permanent mark on the world? Ahh well, I have a journal entry full of my ideas for an MMO if anyone is interested: http://slashdot.org/~RingDev/journal/128132
Too many people confuse Political Conservativism/Liberalism with Moral Conservativism/Liberalism, and then try to pin everyone into a political party accordingly. There are people of liberal morals and conservative attitudes in both political parties. True, there are more morally liberal polititians on the democratic side, but just because you don't belong to the old boys club doesn't mean you can't be a republican. And some of those most morally conservative republicans would be the most likely to do something as politically liberal as change the constitution.
Jack Thompson is a man of conservative morals. But he wants legislative changes, which makes him a political liberal. Which means that he is the type of person you never want to be in power.
Keep your eyes open. Today yes, the very conservative republican party is still in charge. But they are expected to lose a lot of seats in the 2k6 elections. And given her most recent posturing, Mrs. Clinton could be setting herself up for a run for president in 2k8.
I'm not claiming to be for or against either side. But theoretically atleast, a political conservative (not a moral conservative) would be against the introduction of new censorship laws. What I'm most affraid of is morally conservative liberals. People who have very set morals and no problem trying to legislate other people to be like them.
Slashdot Mirror
"Every 100,000 downloads someone will win an iPod nano and a $100 giftcard, with the grand prize being an iMac, 10 iPod (60GB), and $10,000 credit at iTunes. [Factually incorrect statement removed] Looks like business is going well for Apple"
.0016%. If their profit margin isn't large enough to sustain that amount with ease, then they need to look into their pricing structure.
So, for every 100,000 downloads (~$100,000.00 gross) they are giving away $50 in hardware and $100 in gift certificates. Wow, that's almost impressive.. wait, no it's not.
They'll gross just shy of $1 billion during this period, during which they will award About $161,000.00 in hardware and certificates. That's
-Rick
So in the future all companies with 50+ employees will have to (be able to) report on all people who were 'interested' in a position and their race/ethnic background.
Does this strike anyone else as a really bad freaking idea? How long before someone tells the NSA to find all people of Middle Eastern decent who were interested in jobs in the air line industry? Or what jobs Middle Easterns are looking into... It seems like this informatio's only purpose is racial profiling. Whether under the guise of affirmative action, national security, or the war on terror, it still amounts to making a person's race and ethnicity more important then their skills and abilities.
As much as I hate AA (I'm a best person for the position backer, the free market makes race and ethnicity irrelivant), I think this is 10 times worse.
-Rick
LOL, just to make sure we're clear, I had no knowledge of that project when mentioning sleazy advertising company 'ABC'. I was speaking on a purely hypothetical situation, any similarities with real life companies and or OS projects are purely coincidental.
-Rick
You realise he's not hijacking the software, right? The code is OS and will remain so.
What he is doing is protecting his Trademark, not a patent. This way, when sleazy advertising corp 'ABC' releases a new 'Bit Torrent Client' with add/spy ware included, he can sue them to prevent them from using the word 'Bit Torrent' in their name.
Will this effect other OS clients? Doubtful, if you have a publicly distributed app with the word 'Bit Torrent' in the name, you should either change your app's name, or contact Bram about waving the fee.
-Rick
Not if your neighbor has a wireless hub ;)
-Rick
Home Depot (not sure what the UK equivalent is) has 5 packs for ~$10. A bit more expensive then standard 60watt bulbs, but they put out the same lums as a traditional 60watt bulb at 14watts consumed.
-Rick
A very valid point. I guess I've just been stuck through so many "history of racism" classes/lectures, I'm a bit fed up with it.
-Rick
When I got the green light to listen to music at work, my first choice was buds. I'm a application developer, and when we moved offices I went from a somewhat annoying (right next to the door) yet quiet (against 2 exterior walls), to a very loud (next to the network support bull pen) cubical. I used the ear buds for a while, but the ambient noise was still adiable unless I really cranked the music, which was just as distracting. I finally dug out an old set of Sony Switchback headphones. Those things are wonderful. Ambient noise gets cut way down, and they have some pretty decent sound quality. As for the cubical tapping, I figure if it's really important, they'll tap louder.
-Rick
So true. But we only have 2 more years of Bush. Hopefully we can go that long with out pissing off any more economicly critical allies.
-Rick
I phrased my post poorly. What I ment was that if the middle east were to stop providing us with oil, we would be okay. They would still be selling oil, just not to us. But that would free up resources from other countries (Russia/Central America).
The largest effect on our gas prices is not the barrel. Look at the change in crude costs over the last two years, gas prices should have doubled if crude was to blame. No, the problem lies in the refinement industry. The US regulary runs at 90%+ capacity (I can't recall exact numbers) We have ~ 120 refineries. Which means if you have a handful of refineries down for maintenance, and another refiner drops (due to strike/fire/huricanes/etc) you are not going to be able to produce enough gas to meet demand. After Katrina hit gas prices skyrocketed, not because of the middle east, hell they were sending us extra crude (If I recall correctly, someone even offered to ship refined gasoline across the Atlantic). The problem was that we had a large number of our refineries in the area. Many of those refineries were either damanged or with out electricity. Sure, there may have been a slight surge in gas costs anyways due to the disruption of flow in the gulf, but more refineries further inland would have saved us a lot of costs.
That being said, necesity is the mother of invention. And $3/gallon is one hell of a motivator. Once you get past that $3/gallon gasoline line, building the hydrogen infrastructure starts looking like an economicly sound idea. At $2.39 (local cheap gas here) it is still the cheapest short term.
Although I recently did the math on my and my wife's driving habbits. Replacing my daily commute (built 3.4l Fiero ~20mpg) and her evening driving (87 dodge Raider ~12mpg) with a new Golf TDI (45mpg diesel) will save us about $100/month in fuel costs, even with the higher price of diesel. Not only would it save us money in the long run, it has the ability to run on non-petrol fuels, and produces less emissions.
-Rick
"I'm impressed. First, though we get only a small amount of our oil from the Middle East, oil is a global market."
True, I was not saying that if the entire Middle East stoped producing oil, I was saying that if the US stoped buying ME oil. For instance, if we attack Iran, Saudi Arabia may just give us the bird and tell us to go hump a tree. Now, SA is still producing oil, just not for the US. The extra oil they have would be distributed, thus lightening the demand on Central America's exports slightly. Then, the US would lean more on CA for it's oil.
"Second, Prius batteries last more than 3-5 years."
Granted, another poster pointed that out already, I appologized for my inaccurate statement, and now know better.
"Third, while the VW can run on biodiesel, I don't think there's a decent supply for this fuel yet"
As mentioned in another post. Biodiesel plants are being built. There is a 20m gallon/year plant being built just out side of Madison, WI right now.
"The biodiesel that exists is not fossil-fuel free, either, since the food that it's grown with uses fossil-fuel derived fertilizer."
Soy (the current primary bio-diesel crop) is pretty light on the fertilizer, and the big advantage is that it doesn't need nitrogen (ie: petrol based fertilizers) unlike corn (used for ethanol) which needs large amounts of petrol based fertilizers. There are also new technologies going into carbon scruber algee. Acres of these plants can be grown arround coal based power plants to clean emissions from the air. Not only do they help clean the air, but they can be processed into biodiesel, and the remains can be further processed into ethanol. So yes, right now there is not enough bio-diesel to fuel every single vehicle in the world. But the production is growing rapidly.
-Rick
No, that was the education that was presented to me by both my Female Native American high school Multi-Cultural Literature teacher, and the teacher from my Multi-Cultural Studies class (online, no idea on the teachers race, but she is a woman).
Me personally, I LOVE to study foreign cultures. I spent time in foreign exchange after highschool, I got stationed over seas in the military, I enjoy literature and documentaries about foreign cultures.
What I don't like is the "education" I have received from organized schools about multiculturalism. Both of the classes I took we focused on the oppression of those societies by white men, instead of taking a look at the beauty of their cultures.
-Rick
Definitions of conservative on the Web:
* resistant to change
* opposed to liberal reforms
* cautious: avoiding excess; "a conservative estimate"
* a person who has conservative ideas or opinions
Definitions of liberal on the Web:
* broad: showing or characterized by broad-mindedness; "a broad political stance"; "generous and broad sympathies"; "a liberal newspaper"; "tolerant of his opponent's opinions"
* having political or social views favoring reform and progress
* tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition
* a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties
* big: given or giving freely; "was a big tipper"; "the bounteous goodness of God"; "bountiful compliments"; "a freehanded host"; "a handsome allowance"; "Saturday's child is loving and giving"; "a liberal backer of the arts"; "a munificent gift"; "her fond and openhanded grandfather"
* a person who favors an economic theory of laissez-faire and self-regulating markets
* free: not literal; "a loose interpretation of what she had been told"; "a free translation of the poem"
-Rick
I don't know about the cost effectivity. There is a 20m gal/year biodiesel plant being built just outside of Madison, WI.
-Rick
My bust. I was incorrect, prius batteries are better protected then I had been originally told.
As for diesel exhaust, check for yourself, modern diesels (VW TDI) are 50 state legal, including California's Tier 1. And running biodiesel drops the emissions even more. In any case emissions per mile are lower across the board then gasoline engines.
-Rick
Slaves came from Africa. Anglo-saxon men are bad.
What I wouldn't give for a Multi-Cultural class that actually studied different cultures instead of how the white Anglo-saxon male has subjugated them.
-Rick
"Significantly, particulate emissions have been reduced by over 90 percent in the past 15 years." - http://www.greencar.com/index.cfm?content=features 13
m er-service-from-vw.html
"The TDI is certified to the tough minimum Tier 1 requirement - this is the stringent California standard for what is permitted from a car's tailpipe. The TDI could have been certified to even stricter requirements if not for NOX and particulate emissions, which are naturally higher in diesel engines because of their exceptional combustion efficiencies.
Volkswagen is confident these NOX levels can be lowered using new technology if the sulfur level in our nation's diesel fuel was reduced. For this very reason, Volkswagen and the other members of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers have advocated lower federal sulfur content standards in both diesel and gasoline fuels." - http://tedshelton.blogspot.com/2005/11/good-custo
There's plenty more out on the web. the TDI with current US petrol diesel will have a higher particulate rate per gallon spent, but a lower rate per mile due to their improved efficiency.
-Rick
"but they still, if memory serves, have higher particulate, NOx, and hydrocarbon emissions than gas engines. That said, I wouldn't mind owning a biodiesel-powered Jetta."
Similar/Lower NOx and hydrocarbon per gallon. Lower particulate per mile. If you look at the exhaust from a 30mpg gas car over 100,000 miles compared to a 45mpg turbo diesel over 100,000 miles, the diesel will be lower across the board. Going biodiesel drops it even more as you are completely removing sulfur from the equation.
-Rick
I am NOT saying I am liberal or conservative or republican or democratic. What I'm saying is the terms liberal and conservative can mean many different things.
Someone who is (politically) conservative doesn't want change. These are the people who will defend the constitution and depend on legal precedence. (IOW, these people make good supreme court justices).
Someone who is (politically) liberal wants change. These are the people who see the problems with the current situation and want to correct it. (IOW, these people make good congressmen and senators)
In America, we started off with a pretty religious, and strict social and political environment (compared to now). So, calling a person conservative (meaning, they don't want change) became synonymous with white Christian men.
The problem is people aren't just liberal or conservative. Take Pres Bush for example. He is considered a conservative, but he takes a very liberal approach to running the country.
-Rick
Side note, we get less then 20% of our oil from the middle east, if they drop out completely we would just push harder on Venezuala.
On the other hand, if you buy a brand new VW Gold tdi (turbo diesel) for about the same cost (nicely loaded just under $22k) you get 45mpg (realistic estimate, not inflated EPA). So your fuel costs are similar to the of the Pirus but you have a car with significantly more power and pep. You also have a vehicle that can be feed 100% biodiesel and run with out a drop of petrol. And given the ruggedness of Diesel engines and the VW quality, you have a car that will continue to get 45mpg for 200,000. Compared to the Prius which is going to need new batteries every 3-5 years.
-Rick
Player-Customized content is more like it. TFA isn't saying that legions of basement dwelling mama's boys are going to crank out new models and textures. It's saying that the player should have more customization, and that customization should be shared with other players. Which is already the case in a lot of MMOs (things like custom houses). I think it's true, but even more so, I think the real drive is a non-static environment. Players want to see their work mean something. Not clear a city of a ghoul infestation just to see the ghouls come back 5 minutes later. Why can't my guild cleans that city and take over the biggest house in the walls, put up our banners, clean the place up, and leave a permanent mark on the world? Ahh well, I have a journal entry full of my ideas for an MMO if anyone is interested: http://slashdot.org/~RingDev/journal/128132
-Rick
Don't blame me, I voted for Fiengold! ;)
-Rick
Too many people confuse Political Conservativism/Liberalism with Moral Conservativism/Liberalism, and then try to pin everyone into a political party accordingly. There are people of liberal morals and conservative attitudes in both political parties. True, there are more morally liberal polititians on the democratic side, but just because you don't belong to the old boys club doesn't mean you can't be a republican. And some of those most morally conservative republicans would be the most likely to do something as politically liberal as change the constitution.
-Rick
Jack Thompson is a man of conservative morals. But he wants legislative changes, which makes him a political liberal. Which means that he is the type of person you never want to be in power.
-Rick
Keep your eyes open. Today yes, the very conservative republican party is still in charge. But they are expected to lose a lot of seats in the 2k6 elections. And given her most recent posturing, Mrs. Clinton could be setting herself up for a run for president in 2k8.
I'm not claiming to be for or against either side. But theoretically atleast, a political conservative (not a moral conservative) would be against the introduction of new censorship laws. What I'm most affraid of is morally conservative liberals. People who have very set morals and no problem trying to legislate other people to be like them.
-Rick