I've always thought that this was weird, that you're there online as soon as tickets go on sale and it's impossible to get through and when you do you manage to get through you get a few crappy seats. And yet touts somehow are getting hold of loads of tickets, as if they've got peering with Ticketmaster's server and access half an hour beforehand or something equally as ridiculous.
I asked someone "in the know" about this one time, and they said the majority of scalpers and touts get hold of a large number of good seats easily by either going to or knowing someone at the venue box office.
Personally I've not had a problem with the few gigs I've been to where I've had to provide ID instead of a ticket, namely the recent free RATM gig in London, but then I make a habit of just getting a few tickets (or just one) for gigs and always tend to go as I only ever book for stuff I'm really interested in seeing, and if I can't go or have a spare ticket I'm usually going as well, or I'll just take the hit. Best thing would be to make the tickets transferrable still, but make it a lot of effort - you have to phone up, give the credit card details for the new person, make it take a few minutes etc. That way, touts would think twice about selling on a large number of tickets given the time investment required, and it would completely eliminate ticket buying/selling outside venues on the date of the gig.
Why is peoples' immediate reaction to this list so negative? You'd struggle to find a company giving this level of advice to their customer service reps to help customers deal with a specific issue. I've phoned numerous customer service numbers and never experienced the level of product knowledge and satisfaction that I have with Apple. I've recently had the hard drive, bottom case and battery all replaced for free on my three-year-old MacBook without any fuss and after dealing with reps who knew exactly what I was talking about.
They'll need to fix this problem, and it sucks that you're not getting a free bumper (as it always does when you don't get free stuff), but at least as a result of this memo you're getting immediate correct advice as to what you're going to get from Apple as a result of this issue.
Because in the iPhone for example, H.264 decoding is handled by a dedicated chip, which is there to give greater performance-per-watt for its specific task. The video tag is intercepted by QuickTime which hardware decodes the video.
Why should they? You're not in a 24-month contract with Apple, they've fulfilled their commitment to the consumer by providing the product (so apparently you're not aware what the realities are). You're in it with the wireless carrier, and you made the choice to enter that contract. If you didn't weigh up the relative pros and cons of that contract and signed it because you were getting something shiny, that's your own fault. And my understanding is that in this situation, if you said you wanted the $30 unlimited plan you get to keep it if you carry on paying for it, which makes perfect sense to me.
Also, the whole point of a contract is that it works both ways - if the other party fucks up and as a result is in breach of the contract, you are entitled to go to a higher authority and challenge them. If it says in the contract with AT&T "they must provide this" and they don't, you can complain and happily exit the contract as a result of them being in breach of it. If it doesn't say that, you've got nothing to complain about. Once again, no one forced you to enter that contract, and there are provisions in the law that cover you if the other party doesn't keep to it.
In the UK, the data plans for the iPad are available on all the major UK 3G networks, all of which price their plans differently as a result of differing service included with the plan. If that's a different situation to the US (admission: I know it is, I'm being crass), I'd say there's a regulatory or competition problem with the wireless carriers. That's nothing to do with Apple, otherwise the situation would be the same in every country, which it's not.
In which case, you could take Steve Jobs' comments at face value, and it is just about the fact that Flash is crap, buggy, memory-hogging and inadequate to be run on a low-power, low-spec'd mobile device.
I think that said enough really, I'm saving up the myriad of other reasons for other arguments.
Seriously though, since when was Steve Jobs' ability and skill as a marketer and product promoter something to whine about when relating to a business? He's not there to make friends with Richard Stallman. I'm not even convinced that's possible. If you really had to choose someone to promote your product, does anyone really believe that the near-evangelism that Steve Jobs has created in an industry that's previously found it hard to be seen as even interesting is a bad thing?
I was under the impression it was increased government deregulation combined with greed that had caused the current economic crisis?
And to be honest, what the market left alone would decide is the cheapest solution - which is to pay backhanders to third world countries to pile it up in rubbish heaps there, poisoning just about everyone within a large radius, which is exactly what has happened, and what this legislation is attempting to correct.
The RoHS legislation is rather heavy-handed, but also quite specific - it forces decent management of electronic waste. Surely that's a good thing?
"...as well as reside their operations outside the jurisdiction of governments [...] but I wonder how they plan to get a bandwidth pipe large enough and still be reliable."
And that's the problem - eventually, at some point, the data has to go back to the US (or wherever the nearest country to the barge is located) at which point the data will come under the jurisdiction of said government. If it's not covered under the law already, you can be sure they'll put something in that will allow them to go sniffing at that pipe as normal.
It's not even so much the removal of large portions of the book, which is basically necessary in any such transfer from book to film for a book of this kind, it's just that such massive artistic changes were made. It is, for all intents and purposes, a children's film.
One of the most iconic moments in the book is when Leto tries to kill the Baron, and in narrowly avoiding his death he becomes incredibly agitated, but manages once leaving the room to control and calm himself in the corridor away from the sight of everyone under him, and technically and strategically assess the situation. In the film, this was represented by him leaving the room and proceeding to chuckle violently whilst flying into the air. That for me negated any positive points the film ever had. That's a huge stylistic and artistic change in the fundamental characteristics of arguably the second most important character in the book.
Please, please... Mac OS X and Linux arguing is like your cousins having a fight. We're all descended from the same grandparent. Now if only we could make peace and combine our awesomeness to take out the noisy neighbour across the street that's determined to undermine you and sleep with your sister.
If the FBI's third most-important priority claims just over 3.5 percent of its active agents, how many agents and FBI resources are dedicated to the remaining Top Ten priorities?
Why would it assumed to be less, just because they're lower priority? Who's to say that numbers 3 to 10 aren't all allocated 3.5 percent, if not more, each?
NSA lackey: Mr President, we've just received word that we're to monitor the government's communications networks.
NSA President: Get me the president... of AT&T! We'll need them on this one...
*ring* *ring*
NSA President: Hello, Randall?
AT&T President: Ugh, who do you want us to spy on this time, Keith?
If this is anything like the Sky+ HD boxes released middle of last year in the UK however, there's a big difference.
They'll hook you in by getting you to join their service and telling you they'll get an HD box out to you. Then they phone you up a few days later to inform you that there's currently a high demand for boxes, and they're delayed in getting one out to you, but if you sit tight you'll get one in a few weeks. By this point it's too late - even if legally you can still opt out of the contract, the psychology of the situation has done its part. You're unlikely to think "I can't be bothered with this now, I'm going to go through the process of cutting off the service" but rather just sit tight and wait it out.
Bond Villain: Now Mr Bond, prepare to die in the most horrifically evil way known to man as we resequence your genome with incompatible DNA! Let's see you get out of this one!
Bond Villain's Aide: Sir, couldn't we just, you know, shoot him?
Even if the poster didn't know about the other M$/eBay article, why would they even post this? Was it just to advertise the crap article that it's linked to, or to generate more flaming comments about M$? Can I get linked to if I submit "As we move into an increasingly digital world, what's next"?
Interesting choice of words, considering Ken Kutaragi himself said:
"A completely simultaneous launch is physically impossible"
It seems they expect a worldwide launch "around this time [november]", but whether that happens or not remains to be seen...
Slashdot Mirror
I've always thought that this was weird, that you're there online as soon as tickets go on sale and it's impossible to get through and when you do you manage to get through you get a few crappy seats. And yet touts somehow are getting hold of loads of tickets, as if they've got peering with Ticketmaster's server and access half an hour beforehand or something equally as ridiculous.
I asked someone "in the know" about this one time, and they said the majority of scalpers and touts get hold of a large number of good seats easily by either going to or knowing someone at the venue box office.
Personally I've not had a problem with the few gigs I've been to where I've had to provide ID instead of a ticket, namely the recent free RATM gig in London, but then I make a habit of just getting a few tickets (or just one) for gigs and always tend to go as I only ever book for stuff I'm really interested in seeing, and if I can't go or have a spare ticket I'm usually going as well, or I'll just take the hit. Best thing would be to make the tickets transferrable still, but make it a lot of effort - you have to phone up, give the credit card details for the new person, make it take a few minutes etc. That way, touts would think twice about selling on a large number of tickets given the time investment required, and it would completely eliminate ticket buying/selling outside venues on the date of the gig.
Why is peoples' immediate reaction to this list so negative? You'd struggle to find a company giving this level of advice to their customer service reps to help customers deal with a specific issue. I've phoned numerous customer service numbers and never experienced the level of product knowledge and satisfaction that I have with Apple. I've recently had the hard drive, bottom case and battery all replaced for free on my three-year-old MacBook without any fuss and after dealing with reps who knew exactly what I was talking about.
They'll need to fix this problem, and it sucks that you're not getting a free bumper (as it always does when you don't get free stuff), but at least as a result of this memo you're getting immediate correct advice as to what you're going to get from Apple as a result of this issue.
Because in the iPhone for example, H.264 decoding is handled by a dedicated chip, which is there to give greater performance-per-watt for its specific task. The video tag is intercepted by QuickTime which hardware decodes the video.
Why should they? You're not in a 24-month contract with Apple, they've fulfilled their commitment to the consumer by providing the product (so apparently you're not aware what the realities are). You're in it with the wireless carrier, and you made the choice to enter that contract. If you didn't weigh up the relative pros and cons of that contract and signed it because you were getting something shiny, that's your own fault. And my understanding is that in this situation, if you said you wanted the $30 unlimited plan you get to keep it if you carry on paying for it, which makes perfect sense to me.
Also, the whole point of a contract is that it works both ways - if the other party fucks up and as a result is in breach of the contract, you are entitled to go to a higher authority and challenge them. If it says in the contract with AT&T "they must provide this" and they don't, you can complain and happily exit the contract as a result of them being in breach of it. If it doesn't say that, you've got nothing to complain about. Once again, no one forced you to enter that contract, and there are provisions in the law that cover you if the other party doesn't keep to it.
In the UK, the data plans for the iPad are available on all the major UK 3G networks, all of which price their plans differently as a result of differing service included with the plan. If that's a different situation to the US (admission: I know it is, I'm being crass), I'd say there's a regulatory or competition problem with the wireless carriers. That's nothing to do with Apple, otherwise the situation would be the same in every country, which it's not.
Then don't use them. People act like this is hard or something. Apple is not heroin, it's just capitalistic.
This is so hilariously out-of-touch with reality that your previous statement now makes perfect sense.
I'm both, so should I be able to or not be able to understand the API? It all makes perfect sense to me.
In which case, you could take Steve Jobs' comments at face value, and it is just about the fact that Flash is crap, buggy, memory-hogging and inadequate to be run on a low-power, low-spec'd mobile device.
I think that said enough really, I'm saving up the myriad of other reasons for other arguments.
Seriously though, since when was Steve Jobs' ability and skill as a marketer and product promoter something to whine about when relating to a business? He's not there to make friends with Richard Stallman. I'm not even convinced that's possible. If you really had to choose someone to promote your product, does anyone really believe that the near-evangelism that Steve Jobs has created in an industry that's previously found it hard to be seen as even interesting is a bad thing?
Meh, if it's a choice between that and Steve Ballmer spitting in your face I know which one I'd choose...
I was under the impression it was increased government deregulation combined with greed that had caused the current economic crisis?
And to be honest, what the market left alone would decide is the cheapest solution - which is to pay backhanders to third world countries to pile it up in rubbish heaps there, poisoning just about everyone within a large radius, which is exactly what has happened, and what this legislation is attempting to correct.
The RoHS legislation is rather heavy-handed, but also quite specific - it forces decent management of electronic waste. Surely that's a good thing?
"...as well as reside their operations outside the jurisdiction of governments [...] but I wonder how they plan to get a bandwidth pipe large enough and still be reliable."
And that's the problem - eventually, at some point, the data has to go back to the US (or wherever the nearest country to the barge is located) at which point the data will come under the jurisdiction of said government. If it's not covered under the law already, you can be sure they'll put something in that will allow them to go sniffing at that pipe as normal.
It's not even so much the removal of large portions of the book, which is basically necessary in any such transfer from book to film for a book of this kind, it's just that such massive artistic changes were made. It is, for all intents and purposes, a children's film.
One of the most iconic moments in the book is when Leto tries to kill the Baron, and in narrowly avoiding his death he becomes incredibly agitated, but manages once leaving the room to control and calm himself in the corridor away from the sight of everyone under him, and technically and strategically assess the situation. In the film, this was represented by him leaving the room and proceeding to chuckle violently whilst flying into the air. That for me negated any positive points the film ever had. That's a huge stylistic and artistic change in the fundamental characteristics of arguably the second most important character in the book.
Please, please... Mac OS X and Linux arguing is like your cousins having a fight. We're all descended from the same grandparent. Now if only we could make peace and combine our awesomeness to take out the noisy neighbour across the street that's determined to undermine you and sleep with your sister.
NSA lackey: Mr President, we've just received word that we're to monitor the government's communications networks.
NSA President: Get me the president... of AT&T! We'll need them on this one...
*ring* *ring*
NSA President: Hello, Randall?
AT&T President: Ugh, who do you want us to spy on this time, Keith?
If this is anything like the Sky+ HD boxes released middle of last year in the UK however, there's a big difference.
They'll hook you in by getting you to join their service and telling you they'll get an HD box out to you. Then they phone you up a few days later to inform you that there's currently a high demand for boxes, and they're delayed in getting one out to you, but if you sit tight you'll get one in a few weeks. By this point it's too late - even if legally you can still opt out of the contract, the psychology of the situation has done its part. You're unlikely to think "I can't be bothered with this now, I'm going to go through the process of cutting off the service" but rather just sit tight and wait it out.
Any publicity is, after all, good publicity.
Are you sure? This guy doesn't look in his 20's at all...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdyYe7sDlhA
The main problem with Milankovitch cycles is that they can't explain how the ice ages go from 100,000 year cycle to 41,000 year cycle.
Trust me, it makes perfect sense if you're a Dave Matthews Band fan.
Bond Villain: Now Mr Bond, prepare to die in the most horrifically evil way known to man as we resequence your genome with incompatible DNA! Let's see you get out of this one! Bond Villain's Aide: Sir, couldn't we just, you know, shoot him?
www.torrents.to + Videora iPod Converter
Even if the poster didn't know about the other M$/eBay article, why would they even post this? Was it just to advertise the crap article that it's linked to, or to generate more flaming comments about M$? Can I get linked to if I submit "As we move into an increasingly digital world, what's next"?
Can I be the first to congratulate CmdrTaco on his most coherent and relevant post in a long time?
Interesting choice of words, considering Ken Kutaragi himself said: "A completely simultaneous launch is physically impossible" It seems they expect a worldwide launch "around this time [november]", but whether that happens or not remains to be seen...
fast food & supermarket chains, banking ATMs, schools and baggage handling
Is that in order of importance?