Same diet, different gut bacteria - one group gets fat, the other stays lean.
The old (calories in - calories burned) model is overly simplistic and ignores a couple decades of research that shows that obesity is more than just a willpower deficit.
"Could you imagine what would happen if Google pulled access to its maps API or started charging?"
Dunno about your company. Bur out company has some functionality which depends on the Maps API and we're already paying Google for our API access, including SLAs and limits on our usage.
Business models which rely on using/abusing other companies business models to survive are ALWAYS in a precarious position.
"Then there's the whole social media thing - probably a WAY bigger time sink than dumb telephones ever were."
I don't buy that, because I remember the arguments between me and my sister over who got to use the second phone line (me for modem use to dial into an old BBS or her to yak with her friends) going completely nuclear on a regular basis.
Mind you, it was YEARS after my parents originally got her the second phone line that I started trying ti dial BBSes. They did that so her constant phone usage would quit tying up the main line because my dad used it for business calls from time to time.
Obviously the plural of anecdote is NOT data, and YMMV.
Actually, if you read the link you provided, that 97% was in a referendum that got less than 25% voter turnout. And the absolute number of votes cast to become a state was actually lower than in previous years.
Let's see, according to figures I can find if we chopped US military budget in half, it'd still be twice the expenditures of the next largest military.
I'm sure that will leave us wide open for the rest of the world to waltz right in.
I promise you, we don't have to spend more on our military than the next 10 largest military budgets COMBINED to be safe.
If you read the intro to the baen free library (http://www.baen.com/library/intro.asp) you'll find that they discovered that freely available DRM-Free downloads of books CONSISTENTLY increase sales of actual physical copies.
So I'd say there's a good chance the same principles you talked about in your experience with Bandcamp hold true for eBooks too.
The fact that the guy you replied to didn't realize the submission meant exactly what it said - microtransactions are, in and of themselves, neither good or bad. They simply are. It's how the developer uses them that determines if it's good or bad.
But people don't work that way. Once some "thing" that is not inherently "good" or "bad" has a "bad" association in someone's mind, that thing is "bad". Never mind that the next instance of "thing" that they meet may be used in a "good" manner - they've already internalized the "thing == bad" rule and will blindly apply that to every other instance of "thing" that they meet.
That explains pretty much every windows install I'm personally aware of (including my own)
Either people want to play their games or they have to use/support legacy apps for a business that it doesn't want to take the time, expense and risk of replacing.
Not for DOS-era games, but the ones that came just after that (Dungeon Keeper 2, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Need For Speed 4, etc)
I've spent a lot of hours trying to get those games running reliably in a Win7 environment with no success (compatibility mode, virtual machines, etc).
You also missed that private schools get to select students to avoid all the problem students that suck down lots and lots of resources in the public school system, so Private Schools can more efficiently use their resources.
Don't kid yourself, States rights went the way of the Dodo when the Union States went along with the federal government's plan to override the other states exercising their rights to withdraw from a "voluntary" union - that cemented the Federal Government as the higher power. Any protestations to the contrary since then have been empty wind and useless wishes.
I have 4 year old twins, one is ADHD and one is not. We spent a year working our way down the list of possible solutions before we got to the point where it was either medicate her or let her fail. No it wasn't just personality or low tolerance for an active kid.
The Therapist's office was set up as a diagnostic tool - 120 linear feet of shelf space, all at kid level, just CRAMMED with toys. My son would pick a toy, play for a bit, pick another toy, play for a bit, etc.
My daughter was a ferret on crystal meth, bouncing from point to point, rarely stopping long enough to even TOUCH THE TOY SHE WAS LOOKING AT.
She's on medication now (not ritalin, but I tend to forget the name of it) and she's still a very active 4 year old. But the meds take enough of the edge off her fidgets that she can actually stop and complete tasks if she wants to. We're still doing therapy to help her learn habits that will let her succeed in school and life.
When we got the diagnosis (two separate diagnoses, actually) I was dead set against medication - lucky for my daughter's therapist, she indicated that medication was a last resort or I would've walked out of her office then and there. But after a year of trying various non-medicinal treatments with zero success, we finally tried medication.
Anyone who says all ADHD diagnoses are just "kids being kids" needs to pull their head out.
"But don't come to me to tell that bug free complex games are *impossible*. That's bullshit."
Certainly not - you're absolutely correct.
But are you prepared to pay what it would cost to buy a game comparable to today's triple-A titles that has gone through the engineering and process necessary to ensure that it's bug-free?
The reinstall each year was good advice in the 95/98 days - since MS went to the NT kernal (2000, XP, etc) - not so much.
I had one machine that served as my primary machine (gaming, light development, etc) for 3+ years running XP with no reinstalls - the only reason it's not still running is that I upgraded.
I have a machine that acts as a print server, file server, ripping/burning station, etc that's been running the same Win2k install for 7+ years now.
Neither machine suffered appreciably - not like my old Win98se box that within 9-10 months (of the same kind of use my old WinXP box suffered for 3 years) would slow to a complete crawl.
You think that's bad, just wait until his 'funny' brother Special Relativity shows up - then you get backed into a corner listening to him repetitively describe this time he crossed the street while the General stands across the room and rolls his eyes.
Yeah, except for those who DO explicitly request your newsletter/daily digest/special offers and then turn around and mark it spam instead of unsubscribing.
Slashdot Mirror
Nope, not that simple:
https://www.scientificamerican...
Same diet, different gut bacteria - one group gets fat, the other stays lean.
The old (calories in - calories burned) model is overly simplistic and ignores a couple decades of research that shows that obesity is more than just a willpower deficit.
"Could you imagine what would happen if Google pulled access to its maps API or started charging?"
Dunno about your company. Bur out company has some functionality which depends on the Maps API and we're already paying Google for our API access, including SLAs and limits on our usage.
Business models which rely on using/abusing other companies business models to survive are ALWAYS in a precarious position.
"Then there's the whole social media thing - probably a WAY bigger time sink than dumb telephones ever were." I don't buy that, because I remember the arguments between me and my sister over who got to use the second phone line (me for modem use to dial into an old BBS or her to yak with her friends) going completely nuclear on a regular basis. Mind you, it was YEARS after my parents originally got her the second phone line that I started trying ti dial BBSes. They did that so her constant phone usage would quit tying up the main line because my dad used it for business calls from time to time. Obviously the plural of anecdote is NOT data, and YMMV.
Actually, if you read the link you provided, that 97% was in a referendum that got less than 25% voter turnout. And the absolute number of votes cast to become a state was actually lower than in previous years.
So, uh, isn't DICE violating FTC regs by publishing this shite without disclosing that they've been PAID by UBER to endorse their service???
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking#how/
Let's see, according to figures I can find if we chopped US military budget in half, it'd still be twice the expenditures of the next largest military.
I'm sure that will leave us wide open for the rest of the world to waltz right in.
I promise you, we don't have to spend more on our military than the next 10 largest military budgets COMBINED to be safe.
Ok, that's fine - but only if we stop letting all the Coal Plants dump their pollution into the atmosphere for free....
What???
You mean there might be a REASON to use iodized salt instead of all-natural, feel-good-warm-and-fuzzy Gourmet Sea Salt??
I'm shocked, SHOCKED, I say...
"This is why law enforcement needs to actually follow the law."
Except that's NOT what the conniving bastards behind this will take away from this.
THEY will take away the fact that they need to ram through even HARSHER laws that prevent the need for apologies.
Why yes I'm bitter and cynical, why do you ask?
If you read the intro to the baen free library (http://www.baen.com/library/intro.asp) you'll find that they discovered that freely available DRM-Free downloads of books CONSISTENTLY increase sales of actual physical copies.
So I'd say there's a good chance the same principles you talked about in your experience with Bandcamp hold true for eBooks too.
If only there were a way to search for information like that
Au Contraire - the susceptibility to cold was perfectly understood by the engineers.
Management is another story, but the engineers knew what the consequences of launching in conditions that cold would be. (see Roger Boisjoly)
The fact that the guy you replied to didn't realize the submission meant exactly what it said - microtransactions are, in and of themselves, neither good or bad. They simply are. It's how the developer uses them that determines if it's good or bad.
But people don't work that way. Once some "thing" that is not inherently "good" or "bad" has a "bad" association in someone's mind, that thing is "bad". Never mind that the next instance of "thing" that they meet may be used in a "good" manner - they've already internalized the "thing == bad" rule and will blindly apply that to every other instance of "thing" that they meet.
...So an Apple iPhone Engineer walks into a bar...
I have four words: "Games and Legacy Apps"
That explains pretty much every windows install I'm personally aware of (including my own)
Either people want to play their games or they have to use/support legacy apps for a business that it doesn't want to take the time, expense and risk of replacing.
I'd be interested to see what you've got. I got it "running", but only for certain lengths of time - it inevitably crashes every 15-30 minutes.
Not for DOS-era games, but the ones that came just after that (Dungeon Keeper 2, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Need For Speed 4, etc)
I've spent a lot of hours trying to get those games running reliably in a Win7 environment with no success (compatibility mode, virtual machines, etc).
Not to detract from your overall point, but Minecraft enters Beta in 5 days:
http://notch.tumblr.com/post/2175441966/minecraft-beta-december-20-2010
Carry on
You also missed that private schools get to select students to avoid all the problem students that suck down lots and lots of resources in the public school system, so Private Schools can more efficiently use their resources.
Don't kid yourself, States rights went the way of the Dodo when the Union States went along with the federal government's plan to override the other states exercising their rights to withdraw from a "voluntary" union - that cemented the Federal Government as the higher power. Any protestations to the contrary since then have been empty wind and useless wishes.
I have 4 year old twins, one is ADHD and one is not. We spent a year working our way down the list of possible solutions before we got to the point where it was either medicate her or let her fail. No it wasn't just personality or low tolerance for an active kid.
The Therapist's office was set up as a diagnostic tool - 120 linear feet of shelf space, all at kid level, just CRAMMED with toys. My son would pick a toy, play for a bit, pick another toy, play for a bit, etc.
My daughter was a ferret on crystal meth, bouncing from point to point, rarely stopping long enough to even TOUCH THE TOY SHE WAS LOOKING AT.
She's on medication now (not ritalin, but I tend to forget the name of it) and she's still a very active 4 year old. But the meds take enough of the edge off her fidgets that she can actually stop and complete tasks if she wants to. We're still doing therapy to help her learn habits that will let her succeed in school and life.
When we got the diagnosis (two separate diagnoses, actually) I was dead set against medication - lucky for my daughter's therapist, she indicated that medication was a last resort or I would've walked out of her office then and there. But after a year of trying various non-medicinal treatments with zero success, we finally tried medication.
Anyone who says all ADHD diagnoses are just "kids being kids" needs to pull their head out.
"But don't come to me to tell that bug free complex games are *impossible*. That's bullshit."
Certainly not - you're absolutely correct.
But are you prepared to pay what it would cost to buy a game comparable to today's triple-A titles that has gone through the engineering and process necessary to ensure that it's bug-free?
The reinstall each year was good advice in the 95/98 days - since MS went to the NT kernal (2000, XP, etc) - not so much.
I had one machine that served as my primary machine (gaming, light development, etc) for 3+ years running XP with no reinstalls - the only reason it's not still running is that I upgraded.
I have a machine that acts as a print server, file server, ripping/burning station, etc that's been running the same Win2k install for 7+ years now.
Neither machine suffered appreciably - not like my old Win98se box that within 9-10 months (of the same kind of use my old WinXP box suffered for 3 years) would slow to a complete crawl.
You think that's bad, just wait until his 'funny' brother Special Relativity shows up - then you get backed into a corner listening to him repetitively describe this time he crossed the street while the General stands across the room and rolls his eyes.
Yeah, except for those who DO explicitly request your newsletter/daily digest/special offers and then turn around and mark it spam instead of unsubscribing.