"Refund? The principle of the thing is worth more than the money, and for most people, neither is that important to them."
The cost, to Microsoft, of the Refund is not just a lost sale. It's also the time and money that went into licensing and de-licensing that copy, and returning the money. It's not cheap for them.
There's also the fact that everyone who does this can now tell everyone they know that they got their money back for their unused copy of Windows. Eventually, it'll stick in peoples' heads that they aren't stuck with Windows.
It also gives you the ability to defuse anyone who says 'Yeah, but I've already paid for it, so I might as well use it.' If you haven't actually received the refund, they'll say it's like a rebate and you won't get it.
Not entirely true, because these 'clever users' are actually 'clever system admins' that are creating new ways to make sure SPAM doesn't get to their users. So the SPAMmers really do care about them quite a lot.
Neat. It actually helped me find a potential source for something I've been trying to find local because I want to touch it before I buy it. (Intuos3 6x11)
But it also returns results from websites... Buy.com is not 'local' for me. It needs an option to choose 'brick and mortar' only or it's a pretty major hassle to use.
I have reached my 'max' a lot. Even exceeded it now that I'm on Cable. You simply aren't downloading from the right sources. (Plural, yes... I've maxed it out multiple times via multiple protocols, and at separate times.)
You're assuming they use that codec. Using a slightly lossy codec saves you more than half of that size and using a very lossy one (that still is almost undetectable by humans) will save you like 90% of it. TV is not the best picture on the market, even HDTV over cable. Why would I expect it to be perfect over the internet when it's not perfect over cable and satellite?
I agree that high def will take more than the current tv-over-internet is providing. And I agree that we are not ready for it. But the market will change drastically once people start asking for it. One of the things I expect is that every provider will start offering their own brand via their own network only, at rates cheaper than you can get from a third-party. It's cheaper for them because of the bandwidth, etc etc. A lot of ISPs are now also Cable providers. (Or the other way around, actually.) They already have the content, they already have the 'on-demand' capability. They just need to hook it up for internet instead of digital cable, and hook it up for all channels. (Yes, that's a bit more work than I make it out to be.)
With the complete control of their own infrastructure, they don't have to send every packet from 1 source to everywhere on the network. They can set up repeaters and just send from the source to the repeaters, and let the repeaters worry about individuals in the local area.
These are just what I came up with in the last 30 minutes. If I knew their infrastructure like they did, I'm sure I could come up with even better ways to do this and save them money. It's not rocket science.
DSL and other broadband providers won't have the TV infrastructure in place yet, but that may actually work to their advantage as they don't have to work around a currently working system, but can design it from the ground up to do the job.
Wait, what was your argument again? I think you forgot the references to Nazis and Hitler. Throw in some other completely unrelated emotion-jerking things, too.
The way to fight DRM is not just to 'not use it', it's to show all your friends how cool it is NOT to be DRM-infested. See what I can do? *drags music files to a blank CD on the desktop and the CD burns* Neat, huh? *drags video to an portable video player and it auto-resamples it, then shows that same video can be shown on the TV in the living room without any extra work* Neat, huh?
When they realize they can't do half the neat stuff with their DRM-infested files, they'll consider that each and every time they make a purchase in the future. Until then, you cannot make the common consumer care.
Because he's the richest philanthropist in the world and there seems to be no sign of this changing for the worse. Luck or not, he took a nothing company to biggest-in-the-world and has kept it there. It would take a HELL of a lot of luck to do that by luck alone. The man's not an idiot, no matter what you might think.
Why does this always get modded insightful? Some countries have 100megabit internet as the standard. The US is still stuck around 7-10mbit for the majority of us. 7-10mbit is PLENTY to watch TV on. Are you saying that business will be unable to cope with giving the customer what they want to pay for?
In processing power terms, that's like saying 'Nobody will be able to play these 'nextgen' video games because the processing power isn't there.' (Yes, people said that. We have gone FAR beyond that point now.)
In data storage terms, that's like saying games will never look real because you'd have to distribute too much information. (Yes, people said that. CDs came in and kicked this idiocy to the curb. Then DVDs. Then HD-DVD/BluRays.)
The market will be there to provide what we want as soon as we have a use for it. You can count on it.
Good call. I suspect the aim is to deliver it to places that could have issues if they are ruptured, or there are other reasons they can't just jam a needle in. It -is- hard to imagine a scenerio where they don't mind that it takes several hours for the drug/chemical to do its thing, though. I mean, if you want to pump someone full of drugs, you generally want to do it -right now-.
I have to say, this is the way to do it. But then, the YouTube folks would have to actually WATCH all the video on YouTube, and I think that's considered cruel and unusual and violates the Geneva Convention. Then they'd have to locate the copyright holder of the works in question. With the Simpsons, that's easy. With video of local Orlando band... How would you know it wasn't the uploader's stuff? (Assuming the description doesn't outright say so.)
That's an interesting idea, but it assumes some pretty clean conditions. The light has to be absolutely the same over the entire surface, it would probably need to be blurred as you said, the surface would have to be absolutely the same color everywhere (no dust, no marks), the surface would to be completely non-reflective, and probably some other things that I haven't thought of. It would be extremely hard.
It also assumes that the variations are always the same, and that the variations in your photos are from defects and not from the natural color differences in the real world and the digital camera's attempt to map them to a very restricted color palette.
Some people will always be idiots. You can't stop that. The rest of the world can be helped.
As for the 'usually three or four months'... Perhaps that's just the subset of the population that you've seen. When providing things (or services) for free, you get different people than when you charge. They typically tend to be the people who aren't willing to pay. Those who -are- willing to pay will generally look up a computer shop in the phone book and use that, instead of looking for a free service.
It may have taken your 'customers' (can't think of a better word) 3-4 months to find you and their budget wouldn't allow them to fix a toy.
I used to work at a computer shop, but haven't for about a year and a half now, so things have changed a bit I'm sure. But even then, if someone's computer was getting slow, they generally said it had been slow for a while, but finally got bad enough to do something about it in the last month or so. Anyone that had waited 3 months generally turned their computer on only when they absolutely needed it.
As they say, 'the plural of anecdote isn't data', and we've clearly had very different experiences. I still think that botnets overloading a computer will make it be repaired faster and ultimately hurt botnets.
That's just the first layer, though. Once about 20 attackers hit the same machine, the person is going to notice that their 'intarwebs are teh slow' and either get a friend to 'fix' it (probably with an OS reinstall) or take it to a shop, where the same thing is likely to happen if they are that infected. If they take it to the shop, they're likely to get the protection they need, and if their friend has to fix it 3 weeks in a row, they're likely to take it to a shop when he screams at them.
Things usually get worse before they get better, and this seems to be no exception.
That's a neat read, and maybe something I'll actually try one day... But isn't using Kubuntu to set up the system to install Debian a bit like using Windows to set up the system to install DOS? I mean like, quite a step backwards? (I'm a huge Kubuntu fan, and Debian before that... But Debian's biggest complaint has always been how far behind it is on adding new stuff.)
Ah, thanks! I haven't bought a phone from them yet (because I wanted unlocked ones) but the entire rest of my family has. That'll come in very handy if we switch providers.
I'm definitely for dropping the penny. I'm not sure about the nickel... That's a bit much, I think.
As for the dollars becoming coins... I can agree with $1 bills being coins, but I think $5 is too much. I can't say 'Oh well, I lost $5. I won't even bother to look for it.' A $1... I'd still look for it, but I wouldn't be heartbroken if it disappeared. That's what happens to coins. They get dropped. Bills don't get dropped because they are easy to put in a wallet. (If you suggest a coin wallet, I'll slap you. That'd be huge with the number of $1s I carry for the vending machine.)
Pennies, I never look for it they drop. Dimes I usually look for.
Dynasty Warriors: "Not nearly as much fun as when it began"?
Then I'd LOVE to go back in time and play them, because I love these games. I started at DW4 and have play DW5, DW5e, SW, SW2, and DW for the PSP, whichever one it was, Devil Kings, and NNN. I loved them all. (NNN least because it's just not as good a game, honestly.)
Yes, they are the same thing over and over, basically, but that's what I -want-. If I didn't want ot play a Dynasty Warriors-type game, I'd go buy something else.
And the series HAS improved. If you ask someone (who is new to the series) to play DW1 and DW5 and pick the better one, they'll pick DW5 every time. Even DW3 vs DW5, most of your responses would be DW5.
The difference for those who have played them all is that the plot doesn't change. It's the same thing, over and over. So after 5 games of the same exact plot, you tend to get a little sick of it, I'm sure.
Luckily, I play it for the action, and the plot is secondary for me. Interesting, but hardly necessary. (If it was necessary, I'd have hated Devil Kings.)
Every time you reply to a troll, you feed his hunger for attention. If they get hungry enough, they actually DO go away. Unfortunately, people keep feeding them.
No, it just happens that I think the GNAA is one of the funniest troll pieces in existence. I even tried to watch the GNFOS movie once, but it was so amazingly bad that I ended up just skimming it and getting rid of it. To this day, I still want those 10 minutes back.
The article writer only used the term 'pyramid scheme' for the effect he knew it'd have. Those are 'evil' and he's trying to make SL out to be evil by association.
It's not like a pyramid scheme in any way shape or form.
I have my own reasons for hating Linden Labs (customer service, especially) but call it like it is.
Slashdot Mirror
"Refund? The principle of the thing is worth more than the money, and for most people, neither is that important to them."
The cost, to Microsoft, of the Refund is not just a lost sale. It's also the time and money that went into licensing and de-licensing that copy, and returning the money. It's not cheap for them.
There's also the fact that everyone who does this can now tell everyone they know that they got their money back for their unused copy of Windows. Eventually, it'll stick in peoples' heads that they aren't stuck with Windows.
It also gives you the ability to defuse anyone who says 'Yeah, but I've already paid for it, so I might as well use it.' If you haven't actually received the refund, they'll say it's like a rebate and you won't get it.
Not entirely true, because these 'clever users' are actually 'clever system admins' that are creating new ways to make sure SPAM doesn't get to their users. So the SPAMmers really do care about them quite a lot.
Neat. It actually helped me find a potential source for something I've been trying to find local because I want to touch it before I buy it. (Intuos3 6x11)
But it also returns results from websites... Buy.com is not 'local' for me. It needs an option to choose 'brick and mortar' only or it's a pretty major hassle to use.
I have reached my 'max' a lot. Even exceeded it now that I'm on Cable. You simply aren't downloading from the right sources. (Plural, yes... I've maxed it out multiple times via multiple protocols, and at separate times.)
Maybe 'standard' is the wrong word. Available and cheap, is what I mean. Not necessarily that the average person already has it.
e rnet_by_2006/1121875198
Sweden was who I had in mind. Apparently the UK is very close to getting it as well.
http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=32304
http://www.betanews.com/article/100Mbps_Cable_Int
You're assuming they use that codec. Using a slightly lossy codec saves you more than half of that size and using a very lossy one (that still is almost undetectable by humans) will save you like 90% of it. TV is not the best picture on the market, even HDTV over cable. Why would I expect it to be perfect over the internet when it's not perfect over cable and satellite?
I agree that high def will take more than the current tv-over-internet is providing. And I agree that we are not ready for it. But the market will change drastically once people start asking for it. One of the things I expect is that every provider will start offering their own brand via their own network only, at rates cheaper than you can get from a third-party. It's cheaper for them because of the bandwidth, etc etc. A lot of ISPs are now also Cable providers. (Or the other way around, actually.) They already have the content, they already have the 'on-demand' capability. They just need to hook it up for internet instead of digital cable, and hook it up for all channels. (Yes, that's a bit more work than I make it out to be.)
With the complete control of their own infrastructure, they don't have to send every packet from 1 source to everywhere on the network. They can set up repeaters and just send from the source to the repeaters, and let the repeaters worry about individuals in the local area.
These are just what I came up with in the last 30 minutes. If I knew their infrastructure like they did, I'm sure I could come up with even better ways to do this and save them money. It's not rocket science.
DSL and other broadband providers won't have the TV infrastructure in place yet, but that may actually work to their advantage as they don't have to work around a currently working system, but can design it from the ground up to do the job.
Yeah, kill all the rednecks!
Er, make it illegal to be a redneck!
Er, boycott redneck products!
Wait, what was your argument again? I think you forgot the references to Nazis and Hitler. Throw in some other completely unrelated emotion-jerking things, too.
The way to fight DRM is not just to 'not use it', it's to show all your friends how cool it is NOT to be DRM-infested. See what I can do?
*drags music files to a blank CD on the desktop and the CD burns*
Neat, huh?
*drags video to an portable video player and it auto-resamples it, then shows that same video can be shown on the TV in the living room without any extra work*
Neat, huh?
When they realize they can't do half the neat stuff with their DRM-infested files, they'll consider that each and every time they make a purchase in the future. Until then, you cannot make the common consumer care.
Because he's the richest philanthropist in the world and there seems to be no sign of this changing for the worse. Luck or not, he took a nothing company to biggest-in-the-world and has kept it there. It would take a HELL of a lot of luck to do that by luck alone. The man's not an idiot, no matter what you might think.
Why does this always get modded insightful? Some countries have 100megabit internet as the standard. The US is still stuck around 7-10mbit for the majority of us. 7-10mbit is PLENTY to watch TV on. Are you saying that business will be unable to cope with giving the customer what they want to pay for?
In processing power terms, that's like saying 'Nobody will be able to play these 'nextgen' video games because the processing power isn't there.' (Yes, people said that. We have gone FAR beyond that point now.)
In data storage terms, that's like saying games will never look real because you'd have to distribute too much information. (Yes, people said that. CDs came in and kicked this idiocy to the curb. Then DVDs. Then HD-DVD/BluRays.)
The market will be there to provide what we want as soon as we have a use for it. You can count on it.
Good call. I suspect the aim is to deliver it to places that could have issues if they are ruptured, or there are other reasons they can't just jam a needle in. It -is- hard to imagine a scenerio where they don't mind that it takes several hours for the drug/chemical to do its thing, though. I mean, if you want to pump someone full of drugs, you generally want to do it -right now-.
I have to say, this is the way to do it. But then, the YouTube folks would have to actually WATCH all the video on YouTube, and I think that's considered cruel and unusual and violates the Geneva Convention. Then they'd have to locate the copyright holder of the works in question. With the Simpsons, that's easy. With video of local Orlando band... How would you know it wasn't the uploader's stuff? (Assuming the description doesn't outright say so.)
That's an interesting idea, but it assumes some pretty clean conditions. The light has to be absolutely the same over the entire surface, it would probably need to be blurred as you said, the surface would have to be absolutely the same color everywhere (no dust, no marks), the surface would to be completely non-reflective, and probably some other things that I haven't thought of. It would be extremely hard.
It also assumes that the variations are always the same, and that the variations in your photos are from defects and not from the natural color differences in the real world and the digital camera's attempt to map them to a very restricted color palette.
No, I'm smart enough to own a wallet. It's like a windscreen for money that you don't want to lose. You should try it.
Some people will always be idiots. You can't stop that. The rest of the world can be helped.
... Perhaps that's just the subset of the population that you've seen. When providing things (or services) for free, you get different people than when you charge. They typically tend to be the people who aren't willing to pay. Those who -are- willing to pay will generally look up a computer shop in the phone book and use that, instead of looking for a free service.
As for the 'usually three or four months'
It may have taken your 'customers' (can't think of a better word) 3-4 months to find you and their budget wouldn't allow them to fix a toy.
I used to work at a computer shop, but haven't for about a year and a half now, so things have changed a bit I'm sure. But even then, if someone's computer was getting slow, they generally said it had been slow for a while, but finally got bad enough to do something about it in the last month or so. Anyone that had waited 3 months generally turned their computer on only when they absolutely needed it.
As they say, 'the plural of anecdote isn't data', and we've clearly had very different experiences. I still think that botnets overloading a computer will make it be repaired faster and ultimately hurt botnets.
That's just the first layer, though. Once about 20 attackers hit the same machine, the person is going to notice that their 'intarwebs are teh slow' and either get a friend to 'fix' it (probably with an OS reinstall) or take it to a shop, where the same thing is likely to happen if they are that infected. If they take it to the shop, they're likely to get the protection they need, and if their friend has to fix it 3 weeks in a row, they're likely to take it to a shop when he screams at them.
Things usually get worse before they get better, and this seems to be no exception.
That's a neat read, and maybe something I'll actually try one day... But isn't using Kubuntu to set up the system to install Debian a bit like using Windows to set up the system to install DOS? I mean like, quite a step backwards? (I'm a huge Kubuntu fan, and Debian before that... But Debian's biggest complaint has always been how far behind it is on adding new stuff.)
Ah, thanks! I haven't bought a phone from them yet (because I wanted unlocked ones) but the entire rest of my family has. That'll come in very handy if we switch providers.
That'd be great if it was free. It typically costs $20-50 to unlock a phone, and that's IF you trust random-online-phone-unlocker.
We still have a third digit after the decimal on gas prices, you REALLY think retailers are going to drop a decimal place? Not a chance.
I'm definitely for dropping the penny. I'm not sure about the nickel... That's a bit much, I think.
As for the dollars becoming coins... I can agree with $1 bills being coins, but I think $5 is too much. I can't say 'Oh well, I lost $5. I won't even bother to look for it.' A $1... I'd still look for it, but I wouldn't be heartbroken if it disappeared. That's what happens to coins. They get dropped. Bills don't get dropped because they are easy to put in a wallet. (If you suggest a coin wallet, I'll slap you. That'd be huge with the number of $1s I carry for the vending machine.)
Pennies, I never look for it they drop. Dimes I usually look for.
Dynasty Warriors: "Not nearly as much fun as when it began"?
Then I'd LOVE to go back in time and play them, because I love these games. I started at DW4 and have play DW5, DW5e, SW, SW2, and DW for the PSP, whichever one it was, Devil Kings, and NNN. I loved them all. (NNN least because it's just not as good a game, honestly.)
Yes, they are the same thing over and over, basically, but that's what I -want-. If I didn't want ot play a Dynasty Warriors-type game, I'd go buy something else.
And the series HAS improved. If you ask someone (who is new to the series) to play DW1 and DW5 and pick the better one, they'll pick DW5 every time. Even DW3 vs DW5, most of your responses would be DW5.
The difference for those who have played them all is that the plot doesn't change. It's the same thing, over and over. So after 5 games of the same exact plot, you tend to get a little sick of it, I'm sure.
Luckily, I play it for the action, and the plot is secondary for me. Interesting, but hardly necessary. (If it was necessary, I'd have hated Devil Kings.)
A mod point, a mod point! My kingdom for a mod point!
Seriously, that's the funniest thing all morning.
"Do not feed the troll."
I repeat:
"Do not feed the troll."
Every time you reply to a troll, you feed his hunger for attention. If they get hungry enough, they actually DO go away. Unfortunately, people keep feeding them.
No, it just happens that I think the GNAA is one of the funniest troll pieces in existence. I even tried to watch the GNFOS movie once, but it was so amazingly bad that I ended up just skimming it and getting rid of it. To this day, I still want those 10 minutes back.
The article writer only used the term 'pyramid scheme' for the effect he knew it'd have. Those are 'evil' and he's trying to make SL out to be evil by association.
It's not like a pyramid scheme in any way shape or form.
I have my own reasons for hating Linden Labs (customer service, especially) but call it like it is.
Management decision. It was talked about and they decided not to for some reason. I don't think they ever actually told me why.