If you are over what, about 35, you remember that land line phones were heavy items you leased from the phone company. If you wanted an additional one, you called, and waited for them to bring it... People under 30 tend to be shocked by that whole concept, now you can buy a phone for a few dollars at Wal Mart or buy a complex expensive one, regardless of who you get your land line phone service from. I imagine in the coming decades, young people will be shocked that we used to be stuck getting our cell phone from the cell phone company, and didnt just buy the one we want at Wal Mart of Best Buy and get service from the company we chose...
And for more proof that things dont change- people used to have "illegal" or "Hot" phones that they got from God knows where and hooked up themselves... Just like some people crack the software in their phones and use them outside of the cell company that sold the phone...
What if the cop takes your camera?
In my hometown, a cop got his car stuck in the mud. Someone took a picture of it, thinking it was funny.
The cop radios his friend, who pulls over the picture taker, and takes the camera...
From the below linked article: "The victim John Bell says Officer Devore threatened him. The lawsuit claims the officer said he'll "give Bell until the count of three to hand over the camera or he'll make his life "a living hell." " Full story from the local news, WKYC
Keep in mind that Big Oil and "Big Government" have many of the same interests, as gasoline is heavily taxed, and states and the fed make a ton of money from gasoline sales...
With all the legal issues involved with hiring and firing employees, I think we will see employment contracts move closer to sports contracts (for more senior level employees) and you will see year or two or five contracts for employees that other companies can buy out if they want to....
The SlingCatcher... is media-agnostic.
So they are saying the SlingCatcher isn't sure if media exists? I am all for media "hipspeak" if it makes them feel better/cooler, but at least have it make sense....
"I sort of get the impression that you believe those who would disagree with you are all just like that guy."
I hope not- the truth is, Slashdot is my favorite forum because I think the mod system works well, and almost all the posts here (I am excluding the blatant trolls and GNAA type posts) are thought out and intelligent. I guess my point is, that if a glass that holds 10 liters has two liters of water, then why not argue using the fact that there are only two liters of water? Why say that there is zero water, when two liters is bad enough?
Anyhow- I am sorry I gave the impression that I don't listen to people with whom I disagree... I really hope that is not how I am, because I don't really respect people who won't at least listen to and consider the other side...
And yes, there are a lot of people who enlist who have few other opportunities- but they are not the drooling half wits that they get made out to be sometimes. I will look for some info (non opinion pieces) about the education level of the enlistees... (Of course, by default, enlistees, esp. the young ones, are almost all not going to have college degrees, because if they did, they would try to take the Officer route...)
This is sad- I am interested in the technical aspects of the N. Korea bomb, and I come on slashdot and have to hear not just Bush bashing (you'll have that) but soldier bashing. It is a myth about soldiers being poor and uneducated, and it gets old. My dad was a Sr. Vp of a fortune 100 company and I was an enlisted man. Also, what a joke about the Nat'l Guard not being deployed. I can tell you first hand about an Ohio Nat'l Guard MP company that has been deployed to the middle east twice. But of course, you wouldn't care, because facts have no place here, right?
And like it or not, soldiers and their families voted overwhelmingly for GW Bush in the last election. So GW Bush's supporters do fight in Iraq. Of course, that is unimportant here, because it is a fact.
I am all for strong opinions about everything- but keep in mind that while we are all entitled to our own opinions, we are not entitled to our own facts. Whomever posted that there are zero congresman's kids in Iraq, are you serious? You even typed it as ZERO, and you are wrong. Seriously- how can you debate people that are like that?
Even better for me would be to navigate on the TV screen with my remote control (Just like I do for Cable movies on Demand) through a huge catalog, and download the movie without getting my butt off the couch, and own the movie. Of course this requires my TV to be hooked up to some type of PC or such in my living room. So pretty much I would like to be able to buy movies in the same way that I rent pay per view/onDemand movies now.
I always thought that by now, 6 years into the new millenium, we would have some way to have integrated TV/PC in the living room. Oh well...
Are you serious? Thats a great solution- for techies...
You make money (the wal mart and ipod way) by selling to the masses. Do you think the average DVD consumer knows how to rip and encode their dvds? Do you think that everyone, even if they have the time and ability, will want to go that route???
Great point, but is true of most jobs. Even "exciting" ones. Perhaps the best example is the military. Even for an infantry division, the ratio of waiting for action (or training for action, or travelling to action) to happen and action actually happening is pretty high. Kind of like my sex life, but that is another story....
I am not in marketing, but I think that like the majority of things Americans buy, the PS3 won;t cost $500. It will cost a swipe of the charge card and and a small uptick on their monthly minimum payment to the credit card company....
Haven;t you read how that reason people don;t seem to care that gas prices are up is b/c of credit? If people used cash and spent money thay actually have, $500 may be steep. But with plastic, people don't seem to realize that it is actually money
Just my 2 cents.
There's more to it- Let's say you live in NY City, so you don't own a car (not owning a car is responsible in my opinion, but don't get me started) and you rent your abode. This means you have no installment loan history, which means your credit score is lower. And let;s say you are really responsible (and unfortunately fairly unique and rare) because you only spend money you actually have, so you don't use credit cards, or you use credit cards like I do, i.e. as a convenience card, and pay off the balance each month. Then you have very little credit history. So you get screwed for being responsible.
The big think for me however, is the errors on credit reports. This is not a discussion in immigration, but there are estimates that there are 10 million illegal aliens in the US- what are the odds of someone using you SSN? Pretty high. And general credit reporting errors are high. And credit reporting agencies have little motivation to correct errors.
This is especially egregious when you consider how credit checks are done for businesses- The business you are applying for employment with doesn't usually know what is on your credit report- My job required a credit check, and the HR people told me they never see the credit report, they just get a yes or no from some agency based on some predetermined criteria... So you have no opportunity to even see why they rejected you, and thus no opportunity to contest errors.
My understanding is that if you are turned down for a job, that they have to notify you that your credit was the reason. But I wonder if they ever follow through...
But don't put things up for the world to see then get shocked that they really did see them. We know you are not all comp.scientists and stuff, but for Gates' sake this is slashdot!
I agree- however, none of that matters. All that matters is what your users think/perceive. Even if you are 100% right, if your users don't agree, even if your users are 100% wrong, then you will be out of business quick...
If the facebook users dont like the changes, and facebook wants to stay in business, they had better undo the changes...
Sort of like, you can have the right of way as a pedestrian in a crosswalk, but when the car runs you over you are still dead. I mean, you were right, but your still run over...
Slashdotting is slashdotting. It is irritating that they are trying to rename it "the Digg or Fark effect." If Digg or Fark cause a site to get hammered, it should still ne called slashdotting. Why? Because we (this community) are the originals, and still, in my opinion, the best.
By the way, I have an odd problem with the word neology. Why? Because in my 7th grade Latin Class, one of our assignments was to be a neologist, using latin roots to make up a new word. So the word neology makes me think of 7th grade. And 7th grade (well, much like now) was a time when I was especially awkward...
I dont agree 100%- I believe the internet can supplement knowledge of your local area. Case in point- I use the internet to find new places to ride my bike. With google maps I can scout out new trails. I have found new places in my own environment (The Cuyahoga Valley national Recreation Area) in a few clicks that would have taken me years to discover by just wandering around. And although this may make me an uber-geek, when I miss a point of interest sign while riding my bike, I can read it online later.
I see things all the time in my neighborhood that I then look up online, whether it is a new restaurant, developmemt, road etc. You may argue that by looking it up online I deprive myself of the opportunity to discover it offline on my own, however I am not an outgoing person who asks questions in real life, so w/out the net, I would just end up never knowing...
The internet also allows me to gather a ton of news about my immediate environment by reading newspapers online that I would not spend the money on otherwise (Ohio.com for the Akron Beacon Journal, cleveland.com for the cleveland plain dealer, and heck I even read the Youngstown and Canton papers- two things I would never buy).
You could also go a few levels into creepiness if you want- who are those fine looking females that live in your apartment building? Well, by jumping on myspace or facebook, you are likely to find out of they are single. You can also find out what kind of music they like, and then play it in your apartment a little too loud to attract them... If that is nt learning about your immediate environment, I don't know what is.
You can find registered sex offenders in the neighborhood. You can find out what your neighbors house is worth, without having to wander down to city hall...
There is a huge tract of land near me that is empty with no trespassing signs- I very knew what was there, but with google maps I discover a lake that is a few acres large. I never would have poked around there in real life- I live in rural Ohio, and poking around a place like that, you are likely to see someone with a shotgun with with 8 shells, and a mouth with 6 teeth...
Anyhow- that is just my 2 cents. And for what it is worth, there is no one around me that I could have a discussion about these things with- but here we are online having a discussion... so that is good for something, right?!?!?
We had a new woman in my department. It was even worse b/c she was very attractive. We all wanted to invite her out with us after work, not because we were trying to score with her, but because we wanted her to be part of the team. We never invited her, because we were all worried about sexual harrassment. It is tough to ask a young woman out with us, because we are worried about her taking it the wrong way. She ended up leaving the job after a few months. My advice to a woman who wants to be in the clique, is to initiate friendships. Men in many workplaces are so worried about getting called down to HR (Who hasn't sat through sexual harrassment training) that we ignore women and avoid eye contact...
My cheap solution is to use Nero and cheap 8X speed DVDs. Nero lets you turn off compression. It takes a few hours to run through all the DVDs, and one drawback is that if you forget that it is running and need to change discs, the backup will die out and you will have to start over, losing the spent DVDs. My solution is that I put hang a wind chime over the side of my desk and the tray hits it as it opens, letting me know to change discs. Sort of a ghetto solution, but it works for me...
You are talking to somebody whose Grandmother and Father worked for Ma Bell. I know all about those days!
Cool- but tell some under 25s how you used to get a phone, and you will get a blank stare and disbelief... Kids these days also dont understand how a phone could be a murder weapon in so many old movies- Hitting someone over the head with 2 pounds of plastic doesn't have the same effect.
How? VZW won't even activate a phone for you nowadays unless you get it from them. Even a completely unlocked CDMA phone direct from Motorola. If you get the phone from them it's crippled to their network (even if you pay full price for it!).
Anytime I say that you have to buy a phone from your provider, someone gets on my case and provides a long post about how you can solder this connection and add this card or that and use any phone for anything. My comment was just to appease those people
What if I already have the mp3s? Can I transfer them over for free? My experience with VZW tells me that I probably can't.... but I've been wrong before.
You bring up something I hadn't considered- can I add all my old unprotected MP3s to a Chocolate. That would be a deal breaker. I cant find an answer on Verizon's website.
There is a whole genre of people that marketers call "gold-collar." They have jobs that are neither blue nor white collar, generally fast food or mall type jobs. These people spend Hundreds on a purse. They are more or less people who make very little money but buy expensive luxury goods. It seems odd, but they are very real... http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonali ving/articles/0727goldcollar.html http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2005-06-08- gold-collar_x.htm?csp=N009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold-collar_worker
Um and one other thing- say it with me- CREDIT CARDS
Intelligent people think something that costs $600 costs, well, $600. A ton of people think $600 costs an extra $2 on their minimum monthly payment on their Capital One card... Money is not an issue to a lot of people, as long as they can charge it...
Landline phones in the US used to be rented from your telephone provider. If you wanted another phone, you had to call them and they would be out sometime "between 8am and 6pm." Most people under 30 don't believe this, and even to me, looking back, it seems ridiculous.
I hope that very soon kids will look at us the same way with the same disbelief and say "wait, you mean you had to get your cell phone directly from your wireless provider?!?!?"
Yes, you can get a cell phone and manipulate it in the same way that in the old days you could get an "illegal" extra landline phone, but this is rare.
Anyhow, you are right in your post. But keep in mind that songs for the Chocolate are $1.99 if you pull them right out of the air onto your phone, but 99cents if you buy the songs from your computer and wire them onto the Chocolate. So I am hoping we will see an iPod phone someday, i.e. and iPod with a phone, not a phone with sort-of-an-iPod-that-only-holds-100-songs like the rokr was (is? Are they still making that thing?)
I was always one of the people who never really cared that iTunes music was DRM'd. I figured that (shortsightedly) I would always use an iPod or burn CDs. I was wrong. When I go running, I like music so I take my iPod- but I dont like extra weight so I dont take my wireless phone. So, despite spending about $1000 at the ITMS, I am considering getting a Chocolate, so I can have my phone and MP3 player with me in one package. (I would have gotten a RokR, but seriously, why would I spend a ton of money for a phone that holds 100 songs?!?!) If I get a Chocolate, would it be wrong to convert my DRM'd iTunes music so I could use it with the Chocolate? Should I just eat the $1000 I spent at ITMS? (Please save the sarcastic comments about how I shouldn't have bought DRM'd music- I admit it, I was an idiot to do that...) And another point, I am not a marketing expert, but if they made a white iPod phone with at least a few gigs of memory, do they not realize that they would sell a ton ofthem? Why cant they just make an iPod phone? 90% of college kids would buy them.
You are exactly right, and my analogy leaves a bit to be desired, but my point was that there are some people who can, and or enjoy building their own stuff. Others just like to buy something that is made my a large manufacturer and performs out of the box...
I can think of many examples- Whether it is framing (My sister in law frames pictures rather than paying a couple hundred dollars to have it done, I am incapable of using the miter box et all and making it come out looking nice)
Gardening may be a good example- I do all my own gardening- it is easy, and doesn't require a ton of knowledge (I am talking basic residential gardening- I know farming etc require a ton of science and knowledge). I enjoy it. My parents, who could tend their own beds, have a landscaper.
And I am not putting anyone down here- but there are a suprising number of people who play games who wouldn't even be comfortable putting some extra memory in their box... Hanging out on slashdot it is easy to forget that we are hobbyists/enthusiasts, and may be more comfy putting a box together...
The car analogy comes into play:
A lot of people can build you a car that is by far faster than a lamborghini, for about a quarter of the cost. Just pick up an issue of Car Craft for evidence. The thing is, many people want something fast and stylish right from the manufacturer that they can just put the key in and go. The guy who builds a car from junk yard and aftermarket parts that runs sub 10 seconds in the quarter mile for under 15K is not the same guy who drops 200K on a lamborghini, due to finances, interests, or both....
Slashdot Mirror
If you are over what, about 35, you remember that land line phones were heavy items you leased from the phone company. If you wanted an additional one, you called, and waited for them to bring it... People under 30 tend to be shocked by that whole concept, now you can buy a phone for a few dollars at Wal Mart or buy a complex expensive one, regardless of who you get your land line phone service from. I imagine in the coming decades, young people will be shocked that we used to be stuck getting our cell phone from the cell phone company, and didnt just buy the one we want at Wal Mart of Best Buy and get service from the company we chose...
And for more proof that things dont change- people used to have "illegal" or "Hot" phones that they got from God knows where and hooked up themselves... Just like some people crack the software in their phones and use them outside of the cell company that sold the phone...
What if the cop takes your camera?
In my hometown, a cop got his car stuck in the mud. Someone took a picture of it, thinking it was funny.
The cop radios his friend, who pulls over the picture taker, and takes the camera...
From the below linked article: "The victim John Bell says Officer Devore threatened him. The lawsuit claims the officer said he'll "give Bell until the count of three to hand over the camera or he'll make his life "a living hell." "
Full story from the local news, WKYC
Keep in mind that Big Oil and "Big Government" have many of the same interests, as gasoline is heavily taxed, and states and the fed make a ton of money from gasoline sales...
Only if they share Arrrrgh! Rated movies....
With all the legal issues involved with hiring and firing employees, I think we will see employment contracts move closer to sports contracts (for more senior level employees) and you will see year or two or five contracts for employees that other companies can buy out if they want to....
The SlingCatcher... is media-agnostic.
So they are saying the SlingCatcher isn't sure if media exists? I am all for media "hipspeak" if it makes them feel better/cooler, but at least have it make sense....
"I sort of get the impression that you believe those who would disagree with you are all just like that guy."
I hope not- the truth is, Slashdot is my favorite forum because I think the mod system works well, and almost all the posts here (I am excluding the blatant trolls and GNAA type posts) are thought out and intelligent. I guess my point is, that if a glass that holds 10 liters has two liters of water, then why not argue using the fact that there are only two liters of water? Why say that there is zero water, when two liters is bad enough?
Anyhow- I am sorry I gave the impression that I don't listen to people with whom I disagree... I really hope that is not how I am, because I don't really respect people who won't at least listen to and consider the other side...
And yes, there are a lot of people who enlist who have few other opportunities- but they are not the drooling half wits that they get made out to be sometimes. I will look for some info (non opinion pieces) about the education level of the enlistees... (Of course, by default, enlistees, esp. the young ones, are almost all not going to have college degrees, because if they did, they would try to take the Officer route...)
This is sad- I am interested in the technical aspects of the N. Korea bomb, and I come on slashdot and have to hear not just Bush bashing (you'll have that) but soldier bashing. It is a myth about soldiers being poor and uneducated, and it gets old. My dad was a Sr. Vp of a fortune 100 company and I was an enlisted man. Also, what a joke about the Nat'l Guard not being deployed. I can tell you first hand about an Ohio Nat'l Guard MP company that has been deployed to the middle east twice. But of course, you wouldn't care, because facts have no place here, right?
And like it or not, soldiers and their families voted overwhelmingly for GW Bush in the last election. So GW Bush's supporters do fight in Iraq. Of course, that is unimportant here, because it is a fact.
I am all for strong opinions about everything- but keep in mind that while we are all entitled to our own opinions, we are not entitled to our own facts. Whomever posted that there are zero congresman's kids in Iraq, are you serious? You even typed it as ZERO, and you are wrong. Seriously- how can you debate people that are like that?
Even better for me would be to navigate on the TV screen with my remote control (Just like I do for Cable movies on Demand) through a huge catalog, and download the movie without getting my butt off the couch, and own the movie. Of course this requires my TV to be hooked up to some type of PC or such in my living room.
So pretty much I would like to be able to buy movies in the same way that I rent pay per view/onDemand movies now.
I always thought that by now, 6 years into the new millenium, we would have some way to have integrated TV/PC in the living room. Oh well...
Are you serious? Thats a great solution- for techies...
You make money (the wal mart and ipod way) by selling to the masses. Do you think the average DVD consumer knows how to rip and encode their dvds? Do you think that everyone, even if they have the time and ability, will want to go that route???
Great point, but is true of most jobs. Even "exciting" ones. Perhaps the best example is the military. Even for an infantry division, the ratio of waiting for action (or training for action, or travelling to action) to happen and action actually happening is pretty high. Kind of like my sex life, but that is another story....
I am not in marketing, but I think that like the majority of things Americans buy, the PS3 won;t cost $500. It will cost a swipe of the charge card and and a small uptick on their monthly minimum payment to the credit card company....
Haven;t you read how that reason people don;t seem to care that gas prices are up is b/c of credit? If people used cash and spent money thay actually have, $500 may be steep. But with plastic, people don't seem to realize that it is actually money
Just my 2 cents.
I know it is, technicaly. It is just that landlords rarely report to credit agencies...
There's more to it- Let's say you live in NY City, so you don't own a car (not owning a car is responsible in my opinion, but don't get me started) and you rent your abode. This means you have no installment loan history, which means your credit score is lower. And let;s say you are really responsible (and unfortunately fairly unique and rare) because you only spend money you actually have, so you don't use credit cards, or you use credit cards like I do, i.e. as a convenience card, and pay off the balance each month. Then you have very little credit history. So you get screwed for being responsible.
The big think for me however, is the errors on credit reports. This is not a discussion in immigration, but there are estimates that there are 10 million illegal aliens in the US- what are the odds of someone using you SSN? Pretty high. And general credit reporting errors are high. And credit reporting agencies have little motivation to correct errors.
This is especially egregious when you consider how credit checks are done for businesses- The business you are applying for employment with doesn't usually know what is on your credit report- My job required a credit check, and the HR people told me they never see the credit report, they just get a yes or no from some agency based on some predetermined criteria... So you have no opportunity to even see why they rejected you, and thus no opportunity to contest errors.
My understanding is that if you are turned down for a job, that they have to notify you that your credit was the reason. But I wonder if they ever follow through...
But don't put things up for the world to see then get shocked that they really did see them. We know you are not all comp.scientists and stuff, but for Gates' sake this is slashdot!
I agree- however, none of that matters. All that matters is what your users think/perceive. Even if you are 100% right, if your users don't agree, even if your users are 100% wrong, then you will be out of business quick...
If the facebook users dont like the changes, and facebook wants to stay in business, they had better undo the changes...
Sort of like, you can have the right of way as a pedestrian in a crosswalk, but when the car runs you over you are still dead. I mean, you were right, but your still run over...
Slashdotting is slashdotting. It is irritating that they are trying to rename it "the Digg or Fark effect." If Digg or Fark cause a site to get hammered, it should still ne called slashdotting. Why? Because we (this community) are the originals, and still, in my opinion, the best.
By the way, I have an odd problem with the word neology. Why? Because in my 7th grade Latin Class, one of our assignments was to be a neologist, using latin roots to make up a new word. So the word neology makes me think of 7th grade. And 7th grade (well, much like now) was a time when I was especially awkward...
I dont agree 100%- I believe the internet can supplement knowledge of your local area. Case in point- I use the internet to find new places to ride my bike. With google maps I can scout out new trails. I have found new places in my own environment (The Cuyahoga Valley national Recreation Area) in a few clicks that would have taken me years to discover by just wandering around. And although this may make me an uber-geek, when I miss a point of interest sign while riding my bike, I can read it online later.
I see things all the time in my neighborhood that I then look up online, whether it is a new restaurant, developmemt, road etc. You may argue that by looking it up online I deprive myself of the opportunity to discover it offline on my own, however I am not an outgoing person who asks questions in real life, so w/out the net, I would just end up never knowing...
The internet also allows me to gather a ton of news about my immediate environment by reading newspapers online that I would not spend the money on otherwise (Ohio.com for the Akron Beacon Journal, cleveland.com for the cleveland plain dealer, and heck I even read the Youngstown and Canton papers- two things I would never buy).
You could also go a few levels into creepiness if you want- who are those fine looking females that live in your apartment building? Well, by jumping on myspace or facebook, you are likely to find out of they are single. You can also find out what kind of music they like, and then play it in your apartment a little too loud to attract them... If that is nt learning about your immediate environment, I don't know what is.
You can find registered sex offenders in the neighborhood. You can find out what your neighbors house is worth, without having to wander down to city hall... There is a huge tract of land near me that is empty with no trespassing signs- I very knew what was there, but with google maps I discover a lake that is a few acres large. I never would have poked around there in real life- I live in rural Ohio, and poking around a place like that, you are likely to see someone with a shotgun with with 8 shells, and a mouth with 6 teeth...
Anyhow- that is just my 2 cents. And for what it is worth, there is no one around me that I could have a discussion about these things with- but here we are online having a discussion... so that is good for something, right?!?!?
We had a new woman in my department. It was even worse b/c she was very attractive. We all wanted to invite her out with us after work, not because we were trying to score with her, but because we wanted her to be part of the team. We never invited her, because we were all worried about sexual harrassment. It is tough to ask a young woman out with us, because we are worried about her taking it the wrong way. She ended up leaving the job after a few months. My advice to a woman who wants to be in the clique, is to initiate friendships. Men in many workplaces are so worried about getting called down to HR (Who hasn't sat through sexual harrassment training) that we ignore women and avoid eye contact...
My cheap solution is to use Nero and cheap 8X speed DVDs. Nero lets you turn off compression. It takes a few hours to run through all the DVDs, and one drawback is that if you forget that it is running and need to change discs, the backup will die out and you will have to start over, losing the spent DVDs. My solution is that I put hang a wind chime over the side of my desk and the tray hits it as it opens, letting me know to change discs. Sort of a ghetto solution, but it works for me...
You are talking to somebody whose Grandmother and Father worked for Ma Bell. I know all about those days!
Cool- but tell some under 25s how you used to get a phone, and you will get a blank stare and disbelief... Kids these days also dont understand how a phone could be a murder weapon in so many old movies- Hitting someone over the head with 2 pounds of plastic doesn't have the same effect.
How? VZW won't even activate a phone for you nowadays unless you get it from them. Even a completely unlocked CDMA phone direct from Motorola. If you get the phone from them it's crippled to their network (even if you pay full price for it!). Anytime I say that you have to buy a phone from your provider, someone gets on my case and provides a long post about how you can solder this connection and add this card or that and use any phone for anything. My comment was just to appease those people
What if I already have the mp3s? Can I transfer them over for free? My experience with VZW tells me that I probably can't.... but I've been wrong before.
You bring up something I hadn't considered- can I add all my old unprotected MP3s to a Chocolate. That would be a deal breaker. I cant find an answer on Verizon's website.
There is a whole genre of people that marketers call "gold-collar." They have jobs that are neither blue nor white collar, generally fast food or mall type jobs. These people spend Hundreds on a purse. They are more or less people who make very little money but buy expensive luxury goods. It seems odd, but they are very real...i ving/articles/0727goldcollar.html - gold-collar_x.htm?csp=N009
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonal
http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2005-06-08
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold-collar_worker
Um and one other thing- say it with me- CREDIT CARDS
Intelligent people think something that costs $600 costs, well, $600. A ton of people think $600 costs an extra $2 on their minimum monthly payment on their Capital One card... Money is not an issue to a lot of people, as long as they can charge it...
Landline phones in the US used to be rented from your telephone provider. If you wanted another phone, you had to call them and they would be out sometime "between 8am and 6pm." Most people under 30 don't believe this, and even to me, looking back, it seems ridiculous.
I hope that very soon kids will look at us the same way with the same disbelief and say "wait, you mean you had to get your cell phone directly from your wireless provider?!?!?"
Yes, you can get a cell phone and manipulate it in the same way that in the old days you could get an "illegal" extra landline phone, but this is rare.
Anyhow, you are right in your post. But keep in mind that songs for the Chocolate are $1.99 if you pull them right out of the air onto your phone, but 99cents if you buy the songs from your computer and wire them onto the Chocolate. So I am hoping we will see an iPod phone someday, i.e. and iPod with a phone, not a phone with sort-of-an-iPod-that-only-holds-100-songs like the rokr was (is? Are they still making that thing?)
I was always one of the people who never really cared that iTunes music was DRM'd. I figured that (shortsightedly) I would always use an iPod or burn CDs. I was wrong. When I go running, I like music so I take my iPod- but I dont like extra weight so I dont take my wireless phone. So, despite spending about $1000 at the ITMS, I am considering getting a Chocolate, so I can have my phone and MP3 player with me in one package. (I would have gotten a RokR, but seriously, why would I spend a ton of money for a phone that holds 100 songs?!?!) If I get a Chocolate, would it be wrong to convert my DRM'd iTunes music so I could use it with the Chocolate? Should I just eat the $1000 I spent at ITMS? (Please save the sarcastic comments about how I shouldn't have bought DRM'd music- I admit it, I was an idiot to do that...) And another point, I am not a marketing expert, but if they made a white iPod phone with at least a few gigs of memory, do they not realize that they would sell a ton ofthem? Why cant they just make an iPod phone? 90% of college kids would buy them.
You are exactly right, and my analogy leaves a bit to be desired, but my point was that there are some people who can, and or enjoy building their own stuff. Others just like to buy something that is made my a large manufacturer and performs out of the box...
I can think of many examples- Whether it is framing (My sister in law frames pictures rather than paying a couple hundred dollars to have it done, I am incapable of using the miter box et all and making it come out looking nice)
Gardening may be a good example- I do all my own gardening- it is easy, and doesn't require a ton of knowledge (I am talking basic residential gardening- I know farming etc require a ton of science and knowledge). I enjoy it. My parents, who could tend their own beds, have a landscaper.
And I am not putting anyone down here- but there are a suprising number of people who play games who wouldn't even be comfortable putting some extra memory in their box... Hanging out on slashdot it is easy to forget that we are hobbyists/enthusiasts, and may be more comfy putting a box together...
The car analogy comes into play:
A lot of people can build you a car that is by far faster than a lamborghini, for about a quarter of the cost. Just pick up an issue of Car Craft for evidence. The thing is, many people want something fast and stylish right from the manufacturer that they can just put the key in and go. The guy who builds a car from junk yard and aftermarket parts that runs sub 10 seconds in the quarter mile for under 15K is not the same guy who drops 200K on a lamborghini, due to finances, interests, or both....