Are you honestly claiming that "Windows XP Professional x64 Edition" isn't being sold as a particular version of "Windows XP Professsional"?
x64 isn't like the difference between Home, Pro, and MCE. Or between Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, etc.
x64 isn't a feature set its an architecture.
Suppose I released a Microsoft Office plug in, and just listed 'any edition of Microsoft Office 2003 or later' as the requirement. Would you really expect it to work with "Microsoft Office 2004: Mac" without a specific mention of the Mac platform? Of course not.
I concede a lot of consumers don't really know what x64 is. (Hell, a LOT of IT nerds don't really know what x64 is. In fact, I know almost nobody who actually needs or really benefits from an x64 desktop OS. 64-bit Linux users *included*. )
No, we don't think everyone has to wait in line for months, but it does happen an awful lot.
Yeah, it happens an awful lot because the hospitals keep treating the people who NEED immediate surgery, while they keep queuing people who don't. You know so that the person who needs it first gets it first. Its true that additional funding for healthcare would help alleviate the queues, and I'd like to see taxes diverted from less important projects to health care, especially -preventative- care. And to be fair, some great strides have been made in this area.
It rarely happens here: only when you need to see a specific specialist who is in high demand.
Of course, you don't count anyone who can't afford care as 'waiting', and the price for care is set based on supply and demand. That sort of conspires to keep the lines short for these 'counting purposes' don't you think?
Consider anything where people lined up -- for Nintendo Wii, for opening night movie tickets for huge titles like LotR, for Tickle Me Elmo, etc, etc. Get rid of the lines by just letting the market set the price, allowing it to rise until demand matched supply. The lineups would "disappear", and anyone willing to shell out the bucks can walk right up. Same goes for health care -- except that the people going without aren't magically cured - they still need treatment. They just aren't in the queue anymore.
So now they aren't 'waiting', and the queues are nice and short. USA FTW!! But how exactly is that 'better'?
The bottom line is that Canada provides better overall care to more of its citizens at a lower total cost.
Yesterday, however, some scientists doubted whether Russia's latest Arctic grab stood up to scrutiny.
To extend a zone, a state has to prove that the structure of the continental shelf is similar to the geological structure within its territory. Under the current UN convention on the laws of the sea, no country's shelf extends to the North Pole. Instead, the International Seabed Authority administers the area around the pole as an international area.
"Frankly I think it's a little bit strange," Sergey Priamikov, the international co-operation director of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in St Petersburg, told the Guardian. "Canada could make exactly the same claim. The Canadians could say that the Lomonosov ridge is part of the Canadian shelf, which means Russia should in fact belong to Canada, together with the whole of Eurasia."
---- Pwned! All your base are belong to... Canada!!
It's not a zero-sum game. Additional resources enter the economy every day. Increased population means a bigger labor force, improvements to technology means we can use our current resources more efficiently...
Not quite. The banks that lend you money don't want to be paid back in 'labor' or 'improvements in efficiency'. They want to be paid back in MONEY. And the only place to get MONEY is (ultimately) from the banks.
Increases in labor and efficiency only shift the allocation of money between individuals within the system. That might let YOU get ahead, but only by putting someone else further in debt. But in aggregate the total actual supply of money is handled soley by the banks. And every new dollar that is issued is issued as debt that must be evntually repaid with interest.
At the macro level, every dollar that issued into the economy, implies that even more dollars will need to be ultimately issued to pay it back. Those dollars will themselves need to be paid back. And the cycle continues.
Its not a 'bad thing' per se; its not like we've had provably better systems in the past. And it was theorized that this one could be sustained indefinately. But as the fed loses control over the rate of inflation the delicate balance between economic growth, interest rates and money supply is coming apart and we may be headed for a serious economic crash.
Not to mention issues like trade imbalances, the trend worldwide to diversify out of US currency holdings, and its loss of status as the middle east starts selling oil in Euro's... all combine to lead to a glut of usd for sale on the international markets with no takers, ultimately devaluing it, largely beyond the control of the federal reserve.
I've shipped to Canada before on ebay. It did end up costing far more than I was expecting. It was something like $15 for 1 GBA game.
I'm curious. How do you ship within the US, and how much would that GBA game have cost to ship by that method?
I'm seeing Fedex will move 0.25lb from New York to California for 8.00, and will go from New York to Vancouver, Canada for 12.60. A $4.50 premium to cross the border doesn't seem that excessive at all to me.
But more importantly, for something small, light, thin, and cheap like a GBA game, why wouldn't you just offer to send it first class mail. That would cost $1.00 to send to Canada in a cardboard padded envelope.
In a small box it would be ~$1.93.
If I'm buying a small 5-20$ item I don't need the security of a courier.
But even if I do want a courier... note that fedex is often markedly cheaper than UPS. And yeah, the price should range from $9-21 for an a couple pounds or less 3-7 day ground shipment. Plus prices are better if you do your own paperwork, and do the paperwork correctly, have an account with the courier, drop off the package, etc, etc.
If your a serious ebay seller, you should be set up for all of that. If you've got a feedback rating of 14 then whatever I accept that you won't... but if your a 'power seller' with 200 items listed at time then its reasonable to expect you to have some basic grasp of what your international shipping options are. You are just shutting out potential buyers by failing to perform that bit of legwork. I've dealt with Australia, Hong Kong, England, New Zealand, Germany, and countless other countries all successfully -- its sad that I have the most trouble buying from the US, right next door.
However, a lot of ebay sellers just call up UPS or god-knows-who, don't have an account, and then ask how much for a courier from their house to Canada. The reception on the other end automatically offers the mid-level 'overnight airmail' (as opposed to economy-ground), with at your door pickup, and the price comes back at $86.00 or something equally ludicrous.
So I get an email back saying that it will be $86 bucks, and that's the end of that deal. There's no point in telling them it can done for far less, they just don't care, and already resent that they've had to make the one phone call.
Walmart isn't really going to be affected. The manufacturers are just going to release an 'exclusive' to walmart SKU that's grey instead of white, and has a different logo and box -- and that will be at walmarts price.
the floors will have no real benefit to anyone. The small retailers are still fucked... walmart may not be able to undercut on the 'same' product, but walmwart will still have an equivalent product and they'll still lose out.
Meanwhile, our prices go up, as things like inventory clearouts, big sales, discount online merchants that pass their low overhead savings to you, all become illegal on any affected product.
Do you really think that manufacturers have been selling to stuff at Walmart for lower prices purely because of this law?
Manufacturers sell to walmart for less because walmart buys in fantastic volume, and can be relied upon to pay on time. But that has nothing to do with retail prices, or price floors. Manufacturers weren't setting retail prices. They couldn't. Until NOW.
But now that they can, do you think they'll piss off their biggest customers like walmart by forcing them to RAISE prices to a minimum floor? of course not... they'll just work around it as described above.
BoB, sadly, is quite a bit more than merely a huge corp that is taking over the game.
The BoB vs everyone thing is not 'merely' the result of BoB being a huge corp.
Its more along the lines of finding out that refs and designers all play for a particular team (BoB), then having them (the developers) lie and deny it, then having it proven to be true, then trying to sweep it under the carpet...
Has led to a lot of hostility towards BoB. It doesn't bother me that the devs etc play the game, but their roles in the game and in-game activities need to be transparent in order to preserve the credibility of the game.
EVE is open PvP, and highly competitive... it looks pretty bad when the largest and most successful group contains a bunch of devs and GMs. Its natural to suspect that some of their 'insider' knowledge or influence is rubbing off on the guild and is reflected in its success. It looks downright awful, when its actually proven that those devs have outright cheated on at least a few occasions. And then to lie about it, deny they cheated, and ban the person who accused them... well...
Here we are. Everyone v BoB.
I quit playing. I don't need that kind of 'drama'. I don't recommend anyone pick it up, despite the fact that its well designed and interesting game.
Whats the point of playing a competitive game if you can't trust the developer not to cheat to win.
Right, because we need more opportunity to judge whether a company that buys something for X is allowed to sell it for whatever he can get.
If customers don't want X, I should be allowed to lower prices until it moves. If its taking up shelf space I want for something else, I should be allowed to lower prices until it moves.
If I can make a healthy profit selling them for 20% mark-up because my processes are efficient but you can't make a healthy profit unless there is a 100% markup we should each be allowed to sell at the price of our choosing.
If customers invariably choose me over you, because I'm cheaper, and they don't care that I'm in the warehouse district or mail order, that's business.
I really shouldn't have to go to court for a 'judgement' everytime I want to sell something beneath a given price.
Finally! Nothing would make me happier than to see American's finally feel the gouging by 'offshore' merchants.
Sure your widget is only $65.00 in Canada. While its $120.00 in the USA thanks to the price floor. Fellow Canucks? Shipping on orders over $50.00 is free.
But you say you are in "Usa" how is that pronounced? "OO-saw"? Is that in Africa? No matter, we only ship to crazy foreign countries like yours at a flat rate per pound using the most expensive courier we can find. It will cost you $54.00 in shipping. Hey... that's still a 1 dollar savings!! $1.06 savings after the exchange rate!
Just kidding. We know where you are. And I'm sure you know where we are too. But there is some sad truth to it... American merchants, and especially ebay sellers often have RIDICULOUS terms for shipping to such far off places like Canada, if they'll even entertain the notion at all.
Mine is 'warm', not 'hot', but certainly well above room temperature.
The big heat issue in standby is apparently from the wifi chipset.
As for actual problems with Wii overheating seem primarily if its using wireless wii connect24 standby AND is horizontal. It seems that if its on its side, it cools much more efficiently.
Its also obviously more of an issue if its not well ventilated (e.g. in a closed component rack with no airflow), or sitting horizontally on carpet, in direct sunlight, etc.
Mine runs cool enough that I'm not worried about it. That said, it would be nice to see a firmware update come out that periodically shuts off the wireless while in standby to let it cool down... wii connect"18" so to speak.;)
Intel's graphics chips may not be powerful enough for heavy gaming, but that should not be an issue for Linux users anyway.
Right. Because I have a completely separate computer that I use to boot windows games. Oh wait...
I see your point, but this is slashdot... not "Microsoft office user formum and portal system framework v3.0" (At least that's what I'd imagine they'd call it.)
Point is we are largely technology enthusiasts... and there is nothing in intel integrated graphics to be enthusiastic about. Their drivers yes... but the chips themselves... hell no.
Cyberbullying has been the norm in usenet ngs for the longest time. It's time the 'poor little college kid' on facebook got hazed as well...
usenet ngs had near zero penetration of the average class room. Really if some 12 year old posted I was a 'retarded dickless faggot' on usenet, who would even see it? Who would even care? He might as well have just written it on a post-it note and stuck it to his bed frame for all it mattered.
But now, the internet is mainstream, highly indexed, and if someone in your class posts your a 'retarded dickless faggot' on myspace or whatever, everyone sees it. He may as well have written it on the blackboard in class, in indelible ink.
Why is inflation the way it works? Because deflation would kill millions of Americans.
So will hyperinflation caused by currency de-valuation, due to oversupply and no demand, which is a scenario we're facing now.
Huh? The debt is no different than my personal debt. I have some income. I have some expenses. I have some debt. I pay more on my debt than the interest, and the debt goes down. Eventually, it becomes zero
As individuals we can theoretically pay down our own debt faster than it accumulates by reigning in our spending, or working harder or whatever. But this can't happen on the macro-scale, if I start paying my debt faster, it just means someone else is falling behind faster (indirectly because they are paying me more, or suffering from me not buying as much).
There simply isn't enough money in the system to pay everyone's debt down. Unless we print more, and then lend it to people... which is exactly what we do. Except that borrowing more money to pay down the debt doesn't really get us anywhere.
Its equivalent to paying your Mastercard with your Visa.
Intuitively eventually this catches up to you, and it looks like this is finally starting to happen. They thought as long as the population grows, and technology advanced, that the total productivity of the nation would keep up with the currency debt spiral, and the 'balance' could be held indefinately.
Deflation has been deemed worse than inflation. Deflation is harder to manage than inflation. So a "small" inflation has been built-in to our economy to ensure stability of the economy. People much smarter than you determined that this is an acceptable trade off.
They knew it was unstable, but they thought they could control it. I can't say for certain that it absolutely can't be controlled, but its becoming clear that they, at the very least, lacked the discipline or ability to control it.
Inflation is rising, despite their best efforts to keep it low, and they're lying about it. They are changing the rules, and redefining things to hide the true inflation rate. The use of hedonics for example.
If you bought a computer 3 years ago for $1000, and then replace it with one that today also costs $1000, but is twice as fast. They count it as a $2000 dollar computer (because its 'twice as good' as the old one) and inflation shows that the price of computers today is half what it was 3 years ago, despite the fact that we're still paying the same amount.
Of course, when the price actually goes up, they substitute an inferior product to keep inflation numbers looking low. Suppose you bought a desk for $200 dollars several years ago and it was made of, oh say, actual wood. And then you try to buy that same furniture today, you'd find might it would cost $1000 perhaps, you know, due to the inflation of the price of wood... but you can get a piece-o-crap desk at walmart made of plastic and particle board for $200 bucks -- well then we'll just substitute for that and inflation shows a 0% change. Desks are still $200 hurrah!
And when something is really ugly, like the recent fuel price hikes... well how are we going to fix for that? Its not like we can substitute a cheaper product in? How about we just not count fuel anymore? Ok! So, now inflation is reported excluding energy. (And food is excluded to for that matter.)
So lets see... inflation is supposed to be a broad measure that tells us essentially how much more money we need this year over last year in order to maintain the same standard of living? Yet it excludes the cost of fuel and energy. It requires that I buy inferior products. And even though my cellphone costs the same as the last two I've bought I'm supposed to think I've massively splurged on it because it now has a camera, and picture caller id.
So what exactly does 'inflation' mean NOW? Its just a meaningless number so detached from reality that its useless, except that people still find it pschologically reassuring to hear that inflation is
"fear" - definitely. The bigger they get and the more information they accumulate the easier it will be for them abuse their power.
The best way to ensure people or corporations or governments don't abuse their power is to refuse to give it to them in the first place. Trusting them because they're the 'good guys' is a very distant second place.
At this stage google has enough marketshare in search, and enough presence in email, analytics, google payments, social networking, stuff like youtube, etc that the potential for abuse is becoming enormous. If you have any sort of google account they can link a tremendous amount of stuff to it if they wanted to... or if they are ordered by a court to. Even if you don't have a google account, they can link a tremendous amount of information together, and possibly even identify you.
For example if you so much as reply to someone with a gmail address google gets a source ip address they can link to search history if they wanted to. Sure its not fool proof, and yes ip addresses change all the time... but its reliable enough to be useful for some tasks, and promising enough to be alluring to those who'd want to abuse it. After all, the number of households who've used the ip address I currently have in the last 18 months is probably around 2-3.
The point is googles 'net' is now wide enough, that it can snare almost anyone. Simply having that much power, even if they don't currently plan to use or abuse it is clearly a much higher risk than if they simply didn't have that power in the first place. Perhaps paranoid levels of 'fear' are unjustified, but they've reached the point where their moves should be scrutinized with caution. And then there is always risk that they'll be coerced to abuse that power by government.
Apple embeds a minimum of three items relating to you, in EVERY file/song in your iTunes library. Not just the new 'drm free', nor just ones you purchase, but every file/song. Buy a CD at the carwash, import it via iTunes and bingo...
I'm looking at some songs I just ripped from CD last week using the latest version of iTunes, and no there isn't any user or otherwise identifying information in any of them. I'm not saying yours don't, and I'm not saying iTunes never embeds this information, and I'm not saying that if they do we shouldn't ask 'why'.
But it seems clear that iTunes doesn't -always- do it. Indeed until EMI offered its music drm free I didn't even have an iTMS account, and I'm not sure what exactly iTunes would have embedded even if were to embed something.
And even if the information is embedded, I'm not sure that we should be up in arms about malicious or invasive use. A lot of ripping software automatically tags files with all kinds of silly 'needless' information. Even MS Office 'tags' all new documents with all kinds of information, some of which is personally identifying.
If you are going to take pains to explain to me what you, as a business, are doing with ALL of my personal information, then do it - leaving something (anything, sorry...) out dilutes the promise.
So you want the fine print to read...
Apple hereby notifies you that if you send an email to Apple, Apple may use the 'from' address or, at its option and if present, the 'reply-to' address in order to respond to your message. Please note your email address may be embedded in the headers of any email corresponsance from apple to you. It will be visible to all routers, and mail servers, and other network infrastructure during its delivery, including infrastructure not under the control of apple. For all intents and purposes if we respond to you by email the general public may be able to intercept your email address.
Apple hereby notifies you that if you order any physical goods, your name, address, and other personally identifying information may be printed on the outside of the package where it may be seen by anyone. Additionally, inside the package we may include a 'receipt' that also bears personally indentifying information.
Apple hereby notifies you that if you order an ipod and elect to take advantage of our free engraving offer, the inscription to be engraved may, at your option, contain your name or other personally identifying information, like your birthday or anniversary. That information will be recorded in our systems with your order and shared with the engraver. Additionally, we will engrave the inscription on the rear of your of ipod where it might be visible others during order processing and fulfilment. We also hereby advise you that anyone looking at the rear of your ipod once it has been delivered may also read the inscription.
Apple...
Etc.
I mean seriously. I -agree- the above examples are perhaps 'different' in the sense that the systems can't operate unless those 'privacy' invasions are accepted, but that really isn't the point. You demanded full disclosure of any use or exposure of your personal information.
As for the name/address in apples drm free files. Its a simple case of evolution. When the songs were DRMed they had all this information in the system to bind your account, your computer, and the song together. Did they tell us then? Should they have? In the case of DRM files (like email), personally identifying markers had to be there for the systems to work.
When they stopped the DRM, they just turned off the encryption/signatures, before sending you the file, but all the account information was still added, same as it always was, even though it was no longer needed. I seriously doubt it was even a conscious decision.
As for should they tell us? Yes, they probably should, or even just remove it. But its not like its hidden information, and iTunes itself will display it for you. Do we really need transparency on things that aren't hidden, and are between us and Apple, and not visible to a 3rd party, unless we make it visible.
If you bought a Dresser from apple, and apple stuck a copy of the receipt inside the one of the drawers, would you really be outraged that apple had used your personal information so cavalierly, without even disclosing this use on their privacy policy?
Ironically, I think this would be the result God would want.
I can just see Him sitting there rolling his eyes...
This is even worse than the last universe I made. Damned humans were supposed to fend for themselves... but Noooooooo... they just sat there staring up at me telling themselves that if I'd wanted them to eat I'd bring them lunch.
So this time around I make damn sure they can't see me, hoping that if they couldn't prove I was there they'd be inclined to figure things out... but Oh Nooooooo... here we are again. I wonder how long before this batch starves?
Has yours? No? What does that tell us then? That yours is no better than theirs.
Next time you might want to choose examples that *your* science actually has some real victories in... you know like has their 'science' built an iPhone? or something like that.
But that's all beside the point. Religion is for the questions relating to the purpose of the universe and things in it. Science is for determining how the universe works. The two questions are fundamentally different.
Religion should not be used to answer science questions... and science should not be used to answer religious ones.
I don't mind too much if they aren't willing to go there - but they shouldn't be calling their service "unlimited" when it's actually "very limited".
If you read everything carefully 'unlimited' means no limit to the time you are connected to the network, not the amount of bandwidth you consume. Its 'unlimited access' not 'unlimited bandwidth'.
And from the carriers point of view its the evolution of the old dial-up days, when everything was metered in time. You could get 10 hours, 20 hours, 60 hours, 120 hours, or unlimited internet access. There was never a limit on data because even unlimited at 56kbps wasn't a strain on the network.
Today, nearly all broadband is 'unlimited access', and at speeds that it would be impossible to deliver anything anywhere near the maximum throughput to everyone at once at the prices they charge.
So the access is unlimited, and the peak speed is 10mbps, or 25mbps, and that is what they advertise. That there is also cap on the maximum total bandwidth you consume is a separate issue that they don't mention. For two reasons, first one that it dilutes the advertising, and makes it more confusing. Most people really don't understand bandwidth. And second being that its not a hard number - its more of a localised issue and really the truth is that they don't currently really care how much bandwidth you use as long as its not causing a 'problem for them'.
And what's a problem for them depends on where you are, when you use the bandwidth, whether or not they are having capacity issues in that area due to older infrastructure or lots of bandwidth hogs, whether customers are complaining, etc. They maintain a 'soft cap' policy to deal with those problem individuals.
Some doctors? It just seems like some doctor with a degree held one and said, "Yeah that feels a bit better." They made no mention of a medical reason to use one over any other mouse, they simply said, "It might feel a little better."
I completely agree with your post overall. However, you implied a question about why the vertical vs horizontal has a medical basis:
The skeletal picture illustrates the idea fairly well.
Or stand up, and let your arms fall to your sides, the natural position is clearly the 'vertical' position, whith your palms against your upper leg/thigh. Now 'twist' them to the 'horizontal' position with the palms facing behind you. Most of us, at least, can feel the difference as your arms twist away from neutral and can feel the tension increase on the forearm tendons. Its not 'uncomfortable' per se, but its easy to how a vertical mouse eliminates that tension.
How much better the vertical position is would be a separate question, but if your forearms hurt after a day of mousing its pretty reasonable that eliminating that tension is going to help.
must be pissed. How do they look when a bunch of coders implement in three weeks what they worked on for months?
They only pisser is this perception you are propogating.
If the Mono team had to design and implement silverlight it would have taken them far longer.
Everyone in the business knows that implementation is the shortest step of any well managed project. Design, specification, prototyping, proof of concept, etc are what take the real time. Microsoft handed all that to them on a silver platter, complete with a working version to test/validate against.
That it took only 21 days to duplicate silverlight is pretty impressive, but it doesn't really detract from the MS team at all. Of course it took them longer, they did all the heavy lifting.
I am tired of people that use over the top examples to justify an over-reaction to a game. If you could rape a child in a game, it probably wouldn't be very fun, but I don't think it should be a crime. It isn't anything, it's a fucking computer program, THAT IS ALL. There is nothing wrong with it, and the vast majority of the people that would check out this kind of thing would probably be laughing at how insanely rediculous it was.
Ok. Fine. Go ahead and make and market such a game. Nobody is stopping you.
But don't get on your high horse because Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft won't license the game for their hardware. Why should they? They don't want that kind of image. They don't want to be associated with that. They have strict contracts with developers explaining that they decide what gets published on their brand of console. They aren't releasing just the hardware. They have a big hand in the branding, design, and approval of the software and everybody knows it.
If you don't like it, make your own. Hell you can release your own AO console if you want. Just toss together some whitebox PCs, and start shipping them direct to consumers. Sell your games on LiveBSD discs. If there were a substantial market for this it would sell.
There is a thriving adult community of websites, stores, and movie production studios who you might be able to get to carry your product. Although, frankly, even for them, a game about raping kids is probably only going to be tolerated by a small niche.
Slashdot Mirror
Are you honestly claiming that "Windows XP Professional x64 Edition" isn't being sold as a particular version of "Windows XP Professsional"?
x64 isn't like the difference between Home, Pro, and MCE. Or between Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, etc.
x64 isn't a feature set its an architecture.
Suppose I released a Microsoft Office plug in, and just listed 'any edition of Microsoft Office 2003 or later' as the requirement. Would you really expect it to work with "Microsoft Office 2004: Mac" without a specific mention of the Mac platform? Of course not.
I concede a lot of consumers don't really know what x64 is. (Hell, a LOT of IT nerds don't really know what x64 is. In fact, I know almost nobody who actually needs or really benefits from an x64 desktop OS. 64-bit Linux users *included*. )
No, we don't think everyone has to wait in line for months, but it does happen an awful lot.
Yeah, it happens an awful lot because the hospitals keep treating the people who NEED immediate surgery, while they keep queuing people who don't. You know so that the person who needs it first gets it first. Its true that additional funding for healthcare would help alleviate the queues, and I'd like to see taxes diverted from less important projects to health care, especially -preventative- care. And to be fair, some great strides have been made in this area.
It rarely happens here: only when you need to see a specific specialist who is in high demand.
Of course, you don't count anyone who can't afford care as 'waiting', and the price for care is set based on supply and demand. That sort of conspires to keep the lines short for these 'counting purposes' don't you think?
Consider anything where people lined up -- for Nintendo Wii, for opening night movie tickets for huge titles like LotR, for Tickle Me Elmo, etc, etc. Get rid of the lines by just letting the market set the price, allowing it to rise until demand matched supply. The lineups would "disappear", and anyone willing to shell out the bucks can walk right up. Same goes for health care -- except that the people going without aren't magically cured - they still need treatment. They just aren't in the queue anymore.
So now they aren't 'waiting', and the queues are nice and short. USA FTW!! But how exactly is that 'better'?
The bottom line is that Canada provides better overall care to more of its citizens at a lower total cost.
From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,211328 9,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
... Canada!!
Yesterday, however, some scientists doubted whether Russia's latest Arctic grab stood up to scrutiny.
To extend a zone, a state has to prove that the structure of the continental shelf is similar to the geological structure within its territory. Under the current UN convention on the laws of the sea, no country's shelf extends to the North Pole. Instead, the International Seabed Authority administers the area around the pole as an international area.
"Frankly I think it's a little bit strange," Sergey Priamikov, the international co-operation director of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in St Petersburg, told the Guardian. "Canada could make exactly the same claim. The Canadians could say that the Lomonosov ridge is part of the Canadian shelf, which means Russia should in fact belong to Canada, together with the whole of Eurasia."
----
Pwned! All your base are belong to
It's not a zero-sum game. Additional resources enter the economy every day. Increased population means a bigger labor force, improvements to technology means we can use our current resources more efficiently...
Not quite. The banks that lend you money don't want to be paid back in 'labor' or 'improvements in efficiency'. They want to be paid back in MONEY. And the only place to get MONEY is (ultimately) from the banks.
Increases in labor and efficiency only shift the allocation of money between individuals within the system. That might let YOU get ahead, but only by putting someone else further in debt. But in aggregate the total actual supply of money is handled soley by the banks. And every new dollar that is issued is issued as debt that must be evntually repaid with interest.
At the macro level, every dollar that issued into the economy, implies that even more dollars will need to be ultimately issued to pay it back. Those dollars will themselves need to be paid back. And the cycle continues.
Its not a 'bad thing' per se; its not like we've had provably better systems in the past. And it was theorized that this one could be sustained indefinately. But as the fed loses control over the rate of inflation the delicate balance between economic growth, interest rates and money supply is coming apart and we may be headed for a serious economic crash.
Not to mention issues like trade imbalances, the trend worldwide to diversify out of US currency holdings, and its loss of status as the middle east starts selling oil in Euro's... all combine to lead to a glut of usd for sale on the international markets with no takers, ultimately devaluing it, largely beyond the control of the federal reserve.
I've shipped to Canada before on ebay. It did end up costing far more than I was expecting. It was something like $15 for 1 GBA game.
I'm curious. How do you ship within the US, and how much would that GBA game have cost to ship by that method?
I'm seeing Fedex will move 0.25lb from New York to California for 8.00, and will go from New York to Vancouver, Canada for 12.60. A $4.50 premium to cross the border doesn't seem that excessive at all to me.
But more importantly, for something small, light, thin, and cheap like a GBA game, why wouldn't you just offer to send it first class mail. That would cost $1.00 to send to Canada in a cardboard padded envelope.
In a small box it would be ~$1.93.
If I'm buying a small 5-20$ item I don't need the security of a courier.
But even if I do want a courier... note that fedex is often markedly cheaper than UPS. And yeah, the price should range from $9-21 for an a couple pounds or less 3-7 day ground shipment. Plus prices are better if you do your own paperwork, and do the paperwork correctly, have an account with the courier, drop off the package, etc, etc.
If your a serious ebay seller, you should be set up for all of that. If you've got a feedback rating of 14 then whatever I accept that you won't... but if your a 'power seller' with 200 items listed at time then its reasonable to expect you to have some basic grasp of what your international shipping options are. You are just shutting out potential buyers by failing to perform that bit of legwork. I've dealt with Australia, Hong Kong, England, New Zealand, Germany, and countless other countries all successfully -- its sad that I have the most trouble buying from the US, right next door.
However, a lot of ebay sellers just call up UPS or god-knows-who, don't have an account, and then ask how much for a courier from their house to Canada. The reception on the other end automatically offers the mid-level 'overnight airmail' (as opposed to economy-ground), with at your door pickup, and the price comes back at $86.00 or something equally ludicrous.
So I get an email back saying that it will be $86 bucks, and that's the end of that deal. There's no point in telling them it can done for far less, they just don't care, and already resent that they've had to make the one phone call.
Walmart isn't really going to be affected. The manufacturers are just going to release an 'exclusive' to walmart SKU that's grey instead of white, and has a different logo and box -- and that will be at walmarts price.
the floors will have no real benefit to anyone. The small retailers are still fucked... walmart may not be able to undercut on the 'same' product, but walmwart will still have an equivalent product and they'll still lose out.
Meanwhile, our prices go up, as things like inventory clearouts, big sales, discount online merchants that pass their low overhead savings to you, all become illegal on any affected product.
Do you really think that manufacturers have been selling to stuff at Walmart for lower prices purely because of this law?
Manufacturers sell to walmart for less because walmart buys in fantastic volume, and can be relied upon to pay on time. But that has nothing to do with retail prices, or price floors. Manufacturers weren't setting retail prices. They couldn't. Until NOW.
But now that they can, do you think they'll piss off their biggest customers like walmart by forcing them to RAISE prices to a minimum floor? of course not... they'll just work around it as described above.
BoB, sadly, is quite a bit more than merely a huge corp that is taking over the game.
The BoB vs everyone thing is not 'merely' the result of BoB being a huge corp.
Its more along the lines of finding out that refs and designers all play for a particular team (BoB), then having them (the developers) lie and deny it, then having it proven to be true, then trying to sweep it under the carpet...
Has led to a lot of hostility towards BoB. It doesn't bother me that the devs etc play the game, but their roles in the game and in-game activities need to be transparent in order to preserve the credibility of the game.
EVE is open PvP, and highly competitive... it looks pretty bad when the largest and most successful group contains a bunch of devs and GMs. Its natural to suspect that some of their 'insider' knowledge or influence is rubbing off on the guild and is reflected in its success. It looks downright awful, when its actually proven that those devs have outright cheated on at least a few occasions. And then to lie about it, deny they cheated, and ban the person who accused them... well...
Here we are. Everyone v BoB.
I quit playing. I don't need that kind of 'drama'. I don't recommend anyone pick it up, despite the fact that its well designed and interesting game.
Whats the point of playing a competitive game if you can't trust the developer not to cheat to win.
this ruling seems to allow for more judgment
Right, because we need more opportunity to judge whether a company that buys something for X is allowed to sell it for whatever he can get.
If customers don't want X, I should be allowed to lower prices until it moves. If its taking up shelf space I want for something else, I should be allowed to lower prices until it moves.
If I can make a healthy profit selling them for 20% mark-up because my processes are efficient but you can't make a healthy profit unless there is a 100% markup we should each be allowed to sell at the price of our choosing.
If customers invariably choose me over you, because I'm cheaper, and they don't care that I'm in the warehouse district or mail order, that's business.
I really shouldn't have to go to court for a 'judgement' everytime I want to sell something beneath a given price.
Finally! Nothing would make me happier than to see American's finally feel the gouging by 'offshore' merchants.
Sure your widget is only $65.00 in Canada. While its $120.00 in the USA thanks to the price floor. Fellow Canucks? Shipping on orders over $50.00 is free.
But you say you are in "Usa" how is that pronounced? "OO-saw"? Is that in Africa? No matter, we only ship to crazy foreign countries like yours at a flat rate per pound using the most expensive courier we can find. It will cost you $54.00 in shipping. Hey... that's still a 1 dollar savings!! $1.06 savings after the exchange rate!
Just kidding. We know where you are. And I'm sure you know where we are too. But there is some sad truth to it... American merchants, and especially ebay sellers often have RIDICULOUS terms for shipping to such far off places like Canada, if they'll even entertain the notion at all.
Mine is 'warm', not 'hot', but certainly well above room temperature.
... wii connect"18" so to speak. ;)
The big heat issue in standby is apparently from the wifi chipset.
As for actual problems with Wii overheating seem primarily if its using wireless wii connect24 standby AND is horizontal. It seems that if its on its side, it cools much more efficiently.
Its also obviously more of an issue if its not well ventilated (e.g. in a closed component rack with no airflow), or sitting horizontally on carpet, in direct sunlight, etc.
Mine runs cool enough that I'm not worried about it. That said, it would be nice to see a firmware update come out that periodically shuts off the wireless while in standby to let it cool down
Intel's graphics chips may not be powerful enough for heavy gaming, but that should not be an issue for Linux users anyway.
Right. Because I have a completely separate computer that I use to boot windows games. Oh wait...
I see your point, but this is slashdot... not "Microsoft office user formum and portal system framework v3.0" (At least that's what I'd imagine they'd call it.)
Point is we are largely technology enthusiasts... and there is nothing in intel integrated graphics to be enthusiastic about. Their drivers yes... but the chips themselves... hell no.
Cyberbullying has been the norm in usenet ngs for the longest time. It's time the 'poor little college kid' on facebook got hazed as well...
usenet ngs had near zero penetration of the average class room. Really if some 12 year old posted I was a 'retarded dickless faggot' on usenet, who would even see it? Who would even care? He might as well have just written it on a post-it note and stuck it to his bed frame for all it mattered.
But now, the internet is mainstream, highly indexed, and if someone in your class posts your a 'retarded dickless faggot' on myspace or whatever, everyone sees it. He may as well have written it on the blackboard in class, in indelible ink.
Its a huge difference in visibility and impact.
Why is inflation the way it works? Because deflation would kill millions of Americans.
So will hyperinflation caused by currency de-valuation, due to oversupply and no demand, which is a scenario we're facing now.
Huh? The debt is no different than my personal debt. I have some income. I have some expenses. I have some debt. I pay more on my debt than the interest, and the debt goes down. Eventually, it becomes zero
As individuals we can theoretically pay down our own debt faster than it accumulates by reigning in our spending, or working harder or whatever. But this can't happen on the macro-scale, if I start paying my debt faster, it just means someone else is falling behind faster (indirectly because they are paying me more, or suffering from me not buying as much).
There simply isn't enough money in the system to pay everyone's debt down. Unless we print more, and then lend it to people... which is exactly what we do. Except that borrowing more money to pay down the debt doesn't really get us anywhere.
Its equivalent to paying your Mastercard with your Visa.
Intuitively eventually this catches up to you, and it looks like this is finally starting to happen. They thought as long as the population grows, and technology advanced, that the total productivity of the nation would keep up with the currency debt spiral, and the 'balance' could be held indefinately.
Deflation has been deemed worse than inflation. Deflation is harder to manage than inflation. So a "small" inflation has been built-in to our economy to ensure stability of the economy. People much smarter than you determined that this is an acceptable trade off.
They knew it was unstable, but they thought they could control it. I can't say for certain that it absolutely can't be controlled, but its becoming clear that they, at the very least, lacked the discipline or ability to control it.
Inflation is rising, despite their best efforts to keep it low, and they're lying about it. They are changing the rules, and redefining things to hide the true inflation rate. The use of hedonics for example.
If you bought a computer 3 years ago for $1000, and then replace it with one that today also costs $1000, but is twice as fast. They count it as a $2000 dollar computer (because its 'twice as good' as the old one) and inflation shows that the price of computers today is half what it was 3 years ago, despite the fact that we're still paying the same amount.
Of course, when the price actually goes up, they substitute an inferior product to keep inflation numbers looking low. Suppose you bought a desk for $200 dollars several years ago and it was made of, oh say, actual wood. And then you try to buy that same furniture today, you'd find might it would cost $1000 perhaps, you know, due to the inflation of the price of wood... but you can get a piece-o-crap desk at walmart made of plastic and particle board for $200 bucks -- well then we'll just substitute for that and inflation shows a 0% change. Desks are still $200 hurrah!
And when something is really ugly, like the recent fuel price hikes... well how are we going to fix for that? Its not like we can substitute a cheaper product in? How about we just not count fuel anymore? Ok! So, now inflation is reported excluding energy. (And food is excluded to for that matter.)
So lets see... inflation is supposed to be a broad measure that tells us essentially how much more money we need this year over last year in order to maintain the same standard of living? Yet it excludes the cost of fuel and energy. It requires that I buy inferior products. And even though my cellphone costs the same as the last two I've bought I'm supposed to think I've massively splurged on it because it now has a camera, and picture caller id.
So what exactly does 'inflation' mean NOW? Its just a meaningless number so detached from reality that its useless, except that people still find it pschologically reassuring to hear that inflation is
"hate" - no, not yet. No real reason to hate.
But
"fear" - definitely. The bigger they get and the more information they accumulate the easier it will be for them abuse their power.
The best way to ensure people or corporations or governments don't abuse their power is to refuse to give it to them in the first place. Trusting them because they're the 'good guys' is a very distant second place.
At this stage google has enough marketshare in search, and enough presence in email, analytics, google payments, social networking, stuff like youtube, etc that the potential for abuse is becoming enormous. If you have any sort of google account they can link a tremendous amount of stuff to it if they wanted to... or if they are ordered by a court to. Even if you don't have a google account, they can link a tremendous amount of information together, and possibly even identify you.
For example if you so much as reply to someone with a gmail address google gets a source ip address they can link to search history if they wanted to. Sure its not fool proof, and yes ip addresses change all the time... but its reliable enough to be useful for some tasks, and promising enough to be alluring to those who'd want to abuse it. After all, the number of households who've used the ip address I currently have in the last 18 months is probably around 2-3.
The point is googles 'net' is now wide enough, that it can snare almost anyone. Simply having that much power, even if they don't currently plan to use or abuse it is clearly a much higher risk than if they simply didn't have that power in the first place. Perhaps paranoid levels of 'fear' are unjustified, but they've reached the point where their moves should be scrutinized with caution. And then there is always risk that they'll be coerced to abuse that power by government.
Apple embeds a minimum of three items relating to you, in EVERY file/song in your iTunes library. Not just the new 'drm free', nor just ones you purchase, but every file/song. Buy a CD at the carwash, import it via iTunes and bingo...
I'm looking at some songs I just ripped from CD last week using the latest version of iTunes, and no there isn't any user or otherwise identifying information in any of them. I'm not saying yours don't, and I'm not saying iTunes never embeds this information, and I'm not saying that if they do we shouldn't ask 'why'.
But it seems clear that iTunes doesn't -always- do it. Indeed until EMI offered its music drm free I didn't even have an iTMS account, and I'm not sure what exactly iTunes would have embedded even if were to embed something.
And even if the information is embedded, I'm not sure that we should be up in arms about malicious or invasive use. A lot of ripping software automatically tags files with all kinds of silly 'needless' information. Even MS Office 'tags' all new documents with all kinds of information, some of which is personally identifying.
If you are going to take pains to explain to me what you, as a business, are doing with ALL of my personal information, then do it - leaving something (anything, sorry...) out dilutes the promise.
...
So you want the fine print to read
Apple hereby notifies you that if you send an email to Apple, Apple may use the 'from' address or, at its option and if present, the 'reply-to' address in order to respond to your message. Please note your email address may be embedded in the headers of any email corresponsance from apple to you. It will be visible to all routers, and mail servers, and other network infrastructure during its delivery, including infrastructure not under the control of apple. For all intents and purposes if we respond to you by email the general public may be able to intercept your email address.
Apple hereby notifies you that if you order any physical goods, your name, address, and other personally identifying information may be printed on the outside of the package where it may be seen by anyone. Additionally, inside the package we may include a 'receipt' that also bears personally indentifying information.
Apple hereby notifies you that if you order an ipod and elect to take advantage of our free engraving offer, the inscription to be engraved may, at your option, contain your name or other personally identifying information, like your birthday or anniversary. That information will be recorded in our systems with your order and shared with the engraver. Additionally, we will engrave the inscription on the rear of your of ipod where it might be visible others during order processing and fulfilment. We also hereby advise you that anyone looking at the rear of your ipod once it has been delivered may also read the inscription.
Apple...
Etc.
I mean seriously. I -agree- the above examples are perhaps 'different' in the sense that the systems can't operate unless those 'privacy' invasions are accepted, but that really isn't the point. You demanded full disclosure of any use or exposure of your personal information.
As for the name/address in apples drm free files. Its a simple case of evolution. When the songs were DRMed they had all this information in the system to bind your account, your computer, and the song together. Did they tell us then? Should they have? In the case of DRM files (like email), personally identifying markers had to be there for the systems to work.
When they stopped the DRM, they just turned off the encryption/signatures, before sending you the file, but all the account information was still added, same as it always was, even though it was no longer needed. I seriously doubt it was even a conscious decision.
As for should they tell us? Yes, they probably should, or even just remove it. But its not like its hidden information, and iTunes itself will display it for you. Do we really need transparency on things that aren't hidden, and are between us and Apple, and not visible to a 3rd party, unless we make it visible.
If you bought a Dresser from apple, and apple stuck a copy of the receipt inside the one of the drawers, would you really be outraged that apple had used your personal information so cavalierly, without even disclosing this use on their privacy policy?
Seriously, that's just absurd.
First, Flying Labs (the devs) maintain complete creative control. SOE is literally just publishing it.
Until SOE buys a big stake in Flying Labs.
When you dance with an 800 lb gorilla you should expect to get stepped on.
Even if it promises not to.
Ironically, I think this would be the result God would want.
I can just see Him sitting there rolling his eyes...
This is even worse than the last universe I made. Damned humans were supposed to fend for themselves... but Noooooooo... they just sat there staring up at me telling themselves that if I'd wanted them to eat I'd bring them lunch.
So this time around I make damn sure they can't see me, hoping that if they couldn't prove I was there they'd be inclined to figure things out... but Oh Nooooooo... here we are again. I wonder how long before this batch starves?
...has their 'science' cured cancer yet?
... and science should not be used to answer religious ones.
Has yours? No? What does that tell us then? That yours is no better than theirs.
Next time you might want to choose examples that *your* science actually has some real victories in... you know like has their 'science' built an iPhone? or something like that.
But that's all beside the point. Religion is for the questions relating to the purpose of the universe and things in it. Science is for determining how the universe works. The two questions are fundamentally different.
Religion should not be used to answer science questions
I don't mind too much if they aren't willing to go there - but they shouldn't be calling their service "unlimited" when it's actually "very limited".
If you read everything carefully 'unlimited' means no limit to the time you are connected to the network, not the amount of bandwidth you consume. Its 'unlimited access' not 'unlimited bandwidth'.
And from the carriers point of view its the evolution of the old dial-up days, when everything was metered in time. You could get 10 hours, 20 hours, 60 hours, 120 hours, or unlimited internet access. There was never a limit on data because even unlimited at 56kbps wasn't a strain on the network.
Today, nearly all broadband is 'unlimited access', and at speeds that it would be impossible to deliver anything anywhere near the maximum throughput to everyone at once at the prices they charge.
So the access is unlimited, and the peak speed is 10mbps, or 25mbps, and that is what they advertise. That there is also cap on the maximum total bandwidth you consume is a separate issue that they don't mention. For two reasons, first one that it dilutes the advertising, and makes it more confusing. Most people really don't understand bandwidth. And second being that its not a hard number - its more of a localised issue and really the truth is that they don't currently really care how much bandwidth you use as long as its not causing a 'problem for them'.
And what's a problem for them depends on where you are, when you use the bandwidth, whether or not they are having capacity issues in that area due to older infrastructure or lots of bandwidth hogs, whether customers are complaining, etc. They maintain a 'soft cap' policy to deal with those problem individuals.
Some doctors? It just seems like some doctor with a degree held one and said, "Yeah that feels a bit better." They made no mention of a medical reason to use one over any other mouse, they simply said, "It might feel a little better."
I completely agree with your post overall. However, you implied a question about why the vertical vs horizontal has a medical basis:
http://www.evoluent.com/vm3.html
The skeletal picture illustrates the idea fairly well.
Or stand up, and let your arms fall to your sides, the natural position is clearly the 'vertical' position, whith your palms against your upper leg/thigh. Now 'twist' them to the 'horizontal' position with the palms facing behind you. Most of us, at least, can feel the difference as your arms twist away from neutral and can feel the tension increase on the forearm tendons. Its not 'uncomfortable' per se, but its easy to how a vertical mouse eliminates that tension.
How much better the vertical position is would be a separate question, but if your forearms hurt after a day of mousing its pretty reasonable that eliminating that tension is going to help.
must be pissed. How do they look when a bunch of coders implement in three weeks what they worked on for months?
They only pisser is this perception you are propogating.
If the Mono team had to design and implement silverlight it would have taken them far longer.
Everyone in the business knows that implementation is the shortest step of any well managed project. Design, specification, prototyping, proof of concept, etc are what take the real time. Microsoft handed all that to them on a silver platter, complete with a working version to test/validate against.
That it took only 21 days to duplicate silverlight is pretty impressive, but it doesn't really detract from the MS team at all. Of course it took them longer, they did all the heavy lifting.
Why would we want to bring him back?
I am tired of people that use over the top examples to justify an over-reaction to a game. If you could rape a child in a game, it probably wouldn't be very fun, but I don't think it should be a crime. It isn't anything, it's a fucking computer program, THAT IS ALL. There is nothing wrong with it, and the vast majority of the people that would check out this kind of thing would probably be laughing at how insanely rediculous it was.
Ok. Fine. Go ahead and make and market such a game. Nobody is stopping you.
But don't get on your high horse because Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft won't license the game for their hardware. Why should they? They don't want that kind of image. They don't want to be associated with that. They have strict contracts with developers explaining that they decide what gets published on their brand of console. They aren't releasing just the hardware. They have a big hand in the branding, design, and approval of the software and everybody knows it.
If you don't like it, make your own. Hell you can release your own AO console if you want. Just toss together some whitebox PCs, and start shipping them direct to consumers. Sell your games on LiveBSD discs. If there were a substantial market for this it would sell.
There is a thriving adult community of websites, stores, and movie production studios who you might be able to get to carry your product. Although, frankly, even for them, a game about raping kids is probably only going to be tolerated by a small niche.
Nanny nanny boo boo...
Yeah. Like I said. 4. What did you do? Inherit the low id when somebody intelligent died?