There is a difference between "it seems to work" and "recommend practice".
For your personal desktop or webserver, feel free to experiment with upgrading.
Fedora Core 3 specifically recommends a reinstall, mostly due to some fairly major changes in some important packages that upgrading will not auto handle.
Again, for production, I-lose-my-job-if-it-doesn't-work use, Fedora is a poor choice.
"One nation, under God, indivisible is not practicing religion, not teaching religion, not promoting religion. If it were then separation of church and state should extend to our currency and founding documents."
1. The phrase "under God" does promote religion, unfortunately it is also one that a vast majority take as a matter of fact and can't even fathom that there is an alternative.
2. Yes, the phrase shouldn't be on our currency and other documents. However, the majority is certainly against this and it is a philsophical problem. In reality, I don't stop and read my dollar bills every time I spend them, so for practical reasons it doesn't really matter. That doesn't make it right.
Netflix actually helps here. Say you want to watch TV show of choice, like say Farscape. Figure how much you'd spend to buy the entire set. Now you have a large number of DVDs laying around. And you'll be tempted to marathon the whole thing rather than do a Farscape night.
Netflix to the rescue, I think it is more useful for series than single movies. You don't have to track where you are (which episode did we just watch), the disks come over a period of time and no hassle of keeping/selling the disks when you're done.
Regular TV is dead, better to watch when you want to and can take the time.
There is more than price. Netflix's library is bigger than Blockbuster's, at least at this point.
Don't forgot the service is more than just the rental, the website is key as well. I've found several movies/shows that I would not have probably rented had it not been for Netflix recommendations/reviews.
Doing what you do better than anyone else is still key in business.
There are serious issues in upgrading Fedora, especially 2->3. RH doesn't recommmend it either.
Sure, you may like playing roulette with FC, but I won't.
All of this is looking back, of course. At the time Fedora was announced, all we really knew was that it was likely to be less stable than previous RHL releases and on a 6 month upgrade cycle with support likely running out in 12 months. The fact that FC has turned out better than that is good, but at the time there was a fair amount of uncertainty as to how FC would shake out.
Personally, I'm happy with Debian on the server and Gentoo on the desktop.
"Name change + more community openness != RH abandoning Fedora. We didn't communicate this well. We suck!"
I disagree, when the change came along I understood exactly what was being said and what the options were.
The key is, I didn't like any of what I was hearing and saw no future in continued Red Hat use. I've tried other distros and found a better experience than the old days, so there's no "win back" situation to be had with Fedora.
As I've said many times since the Fedora introduction, Red Hat's main failing was ignoring the small business/home office market. RHEL was way too expensive and Fedora way too unstable for such use, Red Hat left no alternative except to go elsewhere. Unfortunately, this same market segment was the foundation of a lot of grass root support for RH many different areas. And now that missing ra ra support is hurting.
- Cash flow - Good staff - Fill rate on orders (dismal at times) - Getting known. Realize I opened in 1982. I would guess my store was one of maybe 150 games-only stores in existence at that time. - Unsold inventory (Thank you eBay! Thank you, thank you, thank you!)"
How interesting! He says on the one hand that online discounters are Bad, then later praises the fact he can dump his old stock on ebay! Hmmm.
I think his discussion of perceived value is spot on. B&M's obviously can't do things like timely delivery of new releases, but again there are value-add things they offer that will up the perceived value of the products they are trying to sell. The trick is balancing that versus price.
This is near and dear to my heart. Why? The Death of all real Game Stores in my area.
The sole suviving store carrying GW products in my area does the following:
1. Sells at full retail. No discounts PERIOD. 2. Nothing else to market/support GW. No gaming space, no knowledgable staff, zippo. In short, no value-add from the store. 3. Does maintain a decent stock of product.
The store I choose to patronage:
1. Sells at a discount to club members, not a lot but enough to get my attention (10-15%). 2. Nothing else to market/support GW, same diff. 3. Does not maintain a lot of stock, but is willing to take special orders by any means (email, phone) and offers additional volume discounts. 4. Is an additional 30 minutes away.
So, why go to store number 2? They've said they want my business (here, have a discount). The competition between stores is two things: price and distance. Store 1 loses.
Now, new store, same as store 2 except:
1. Has a bigger stock. 2. Has gaming space.
Ah, now we have a new winner! The key is competing.
Ok, so B&M feel they are losing out to internet sellers. What to do? Compete on things other than Price! Do value added things like offering game space (hell, you could charge for it and most folks wouldn't mind), having knowledgable staff, sponsing local competitions and generally seeming like you care. Online retailers can't do that.
The key is you have to give a reason for your customers to come in, simply expecting them to pay more for the privilege of visiting your store is NOT enough and you WILL lose that business.
You fail to realize that the brick and mortars are the ones doing the Internet sales. Not all of them, but enough realized they could up their sales by opening to the Net. The Warestore (hey Neal!) is a good example.
Note that most retailers sell their GW stuff at full retail. I have yet to hear a decent reason (from a store owner) for doing this. There are a couple stores in my area that realize offering a discount is a good incentive for repeat business, they implemented this by offering discounts to gaming club members. However, most of the stores don't seem to get this concept and fail to compete on any other factor. And then complain they can't compete.
GW shouldn't care one way or the other, as their customer is not the end user anyway, EXCEPT for their direct sales line, ie internet/phone sales.
I guess GW putting up shops in direct competition with their customers (brick and mortars) isn't proof? Okay.
I highly recommend the 4th ed box set, mostly for the mini rule book. The $50 main book is good as well, but not for just starting in again. The really cool part is that the mini book has the exact same page numbers as the Big book (it's really just a scaled down version, literally).The Combat Patrol rules are in the Big book, but there's only one small rule change from 40k in 40 minutes (which is still a much better name anyway). At the risk of GW legal coming after me, the only difference is ordance is specifically forbidden in CP, whereas the guy who wrote 40in40 basically said "I wouldn't play with someone who brought ordance to a patrol, why put it in the rules?".
You can also pick up the mini rule book off Ebay, seems several people are breaking up the box set just to sell in pieces. Expect to pay $15-20.
Don't be an ass. I've talked to numerous people who have owned/run/worked in games shops, they all tell the same story. GW makes Microsoft look pretty tame, vendor-requirements-wise. A lot of game shops don't bother, the startup costs are way too high and GW wants the store to carry way too much stock.
There are plenty of instances where a GW store has opened and driven off the other shops in the area, at least from a carrying the merchandise angle.
GW's business plan is "make money". Cutting out the retail stores means more markup for GW.
You do realize GW tried to ban all other shops from offering items on the Internet, right?
Also, the break down is such that winning the game is still the most important.
But don't believe me, check for yourself. http://gt.us.games-workshop.com/Rules/R ules.htm#Ju dging
Re:The problem with WH and 40k
on
NYT on Warhammer
·
· Score: 3, Informative
I'd recommend drafting your friends (I have the same problem as you, small town with torches and burning crosses for those dirty gamers).
A new twist to 40k is Combat Patrol. Small points games (400) that are fun and don't take a lot of models. Perfect for getting back in and taking someone with you.
See more here: http://www.patrolclash.org.uk/index.htm
Re:You're kidding me
on
NYT on Warhammer
·
· Score: 3, Informative
GW publishes a magazine, White Dwarf, which is pretty much one giant ad for their stuff. Oh, and the occasional interesting piece for the players.
But mostly, it's "Look, new cool models released this month!! And see, they beat this other army, wow!".
Re:Tactile dimension hardly unique to Warhammer
on
NYT on Warhammer
·
· Score: 1
I'd love to read the article, but I like my soul where it is. RSS link someone?
At any rate, in Warhammer 40k you're talking a large number of figures to play a game, say 30-50 average. Someone who takes the modeling side seriously spends a lot of time not just painting, but converting or even scratch building models.
Want to see what I mean, check this: http://coolminiornot.com/
Re:The problem with WH and 40k
on
NYT on Warhammer
·
· Score: 4, Informative
I've been playing since around 2001, started right in the middle of the Game Store Crash (another topic). Games don't take 6 hours to play any more, typically 2 hours if both players are wanting to get done and not sitting around BSing (which is common in friendly games).
Tournament games typically have a 2 hour time limit, which includes setup/deployment.
Most important point: I've met exactly one player below the age of 23. Average age is 25-35, on a guess.
Nah, not the same tank. I got one from Walmart for $10 on clearance, complete with Nicad battery and charger!
The one in the article is (was) made by Motorworks and doesn't fire pellets, rather it has some foam missiles it can launch. The barrel moves up and down as in "push button, barrel moves up and then down". It is cool that the missiles can be fire by remote.
The thing cries for variable speed control on the tracks, dang thing is way too fast to control at full speed all the time.
The missile launcher (same thing/company) is cooler, fire 10 missiles, all from the remote! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?View Item&item =5957343127&category=44026
I picked up this exact tank from Walmart for $10. It cries for variable speed and will make a good robot base. The author failed to mention the foam missiles the tank can fire (from the remote!).
There is Missile Launcher from the same company that fires 10 missiles in sequence as well and yes I got one on clearance from Walmart for $10.
Did I mention this includes a Nicad battery and charger?
Watch for nasty visitors your plant may introduce or attract to your workplace.
A coworker once had a plant in his cube, it became infested with some kind of mite. These mites then migrated through the halls to some other plants, can't recall if they killed the plants or what the deal was. Caused quite the stir, plants at desks were banned from then on.
Slashdot Mirror
There is a difference between "it seems to work" and "recommend practice".
For your personal desktop or webserver, feel free to experiment with upgrading.
Fedora Core 3 specifically recommends a reinstall, mostly due to some fairly major changes in some important packages that upgrading will not auto handle.
Again, for production, I-lose-my-job-if-it-doesn't-work use, Fedora is a poor choice.
Hopefully these same folks will not be put off linux all together when Fedora Core 4 requires a reinstall.
Fedora is not a good choice for production anything.
"One nation, under God, indivisible is not practicing religion, not teaching religion, not promoting religion. If it were then separation of church and state should extend to our currency and founding documents."
1. The phrase "under God" does promote religion, unfortunately it is also one that a vast majority take as a matter of fact and can't even fathom that there is an alternative.
2. Yes, the phrase shouldn't be on our currency and other documents. However, the majority is certainly against this and it is a philsophical problem. In reality, I don't stop and read my dollar bills every time I spend them, so for practical reasons it doesn't really matter. That doesn't make it right.
Uh, you'll notice Apple is still around and doing better than ever.
It's one thing to recognize competition, it's another to react to it badly out of fear.
Fear is the Mind Killer.
Netflix actually helps here. Say you want to watch TV show of choice, like say Farscape. Figure how much you'd spend to buy the entire set. Now you have a large number of DVDs laying around. And you'll be tempted to marathon the whole thing rather than do a Farscape night.
Netflix to the rescue, I think it is more useful for series than single movies. You don't have to track where you are (which episode did we just watch), the disks come over a period of time and no hassle of keeping/selling the disks when you're done.
Regular TV is dead, better to watch when you want to and can take the time.
There is more than price. Netflix's library is bigger than Blockbuster's, at least at this point.
Don't forgot the service is more than just the rental, the website is key as well. I've found several movies/shows that I would not have probably rented had it not been for Netflix recommendations/reviews.
Doing what you do better than anyone else is still key in business.
There are serious issues in upgrading Fedora, especially 2->3. RH doesn't recommmend it either.
Sure, you may like playing roulette with FC, but I won't.
All of this is looking back, of course. At the time Fedora was announced, all we really knew was that it was likely to be less stable than previous RHL releases and on a 6 month upgrade cycle with support likely running out in 12 months. The fact that FC has turned out better than that is good, but at the time there was a fair amount of uncertainty as to how FC would shake out.
Personally, I'm happy with Debian on the server and Gentoo on the desktop.
"Name change + more community openness != RH abandoning Fedora. We didn't communicate this well. We suck!"
I disagree, when the change came along I understood exactly what was being said and what the options were.
The key is, I didn't like any of what I was hearing and saw no future in continued Red Hat use. I've tried other distros and found a better experience than the old days, so there's no "win back" situation to be had with Fedora.
As I've said many times since the Fedora introduction, Red Hat's main failing was ignoring the small business/home office market. RHEL was way too expensive and Fedora way too unstable for such use, Red Hat left no alternative except to go elsewhere. Unfortunately, this same market segment was the foundation of a lot of grass root support for RH many different areas. And now that missing ra ra support is hurting.
"The setups were hypothetical, however. "
From the article, it doesn't sound like they setup ANY boxes. I look before leaping to conclusions about this "study".
They not only said generic builds, but HYPOTHETICAL builds. As in they didn't actually setup machines, rather it is all a thought experiment.
As to whether it was a poor experiment or not, show me the data.
I will say GW is usually good on customer service, I'm surprised the store in question didn't direct you to call GW and get a replacement.
The fact that the store wouldn't handle the return is typical, AFAIK stores can't return mechandise, defective or otherwise, to GW.
"D.W.: CHALLENGES
- Cash flow
- Good staff
- Fill rate on orders (dismal at times)
- Getting known. Realize I opened in 1982. I would guess my store was one of maybe 150 games-only stores in existence at that time.
- Unsold inventory (Thank you eBay! Thank you, thank you, thank you!)"
How interesting! He says on the one hand that online discounters are Bad, then later praises the fact he can dump his old stock on ebay! Hmmm.
I think his discussion of perceived value is spot on. B&M's obviously can't do things like timely delivery of new releases, but again there are value-add things they offer that will up the perceived value of the products they are trying to sell. The trick is balancing that versus price.
This is near and dear to my heart. Why? The Death of all real Game Stores in my area.
The sole suviving store carrying GW products in my area does the following:
1. Sells at full retail. No discounts PERIOD.
2. Nothing else to market/support GW. No gaming space, no knowledgable staff, zippo. In short, no value-add from the store.
3. Does maintain a decent stock of product.
The store I choose to patronage:
1. Sells at a discount to club members, not a lot but enough to get my attention (10-15%).
2. Nothing else to market/support GW, same diff.
3. Does not maintain a lot of stock, but is willing to take special orders by any means (email, phone) and offers additional volume discounts.
4. Is an additional 30 minutes away.
So, why go to store number 2? They've said they want my business (here, have a discount). The competition between stores is two things: price and distance. Store 1 loses.
Now, new store, same as store 2 except:
1. Has a bigger stock.
2. Has gaming space.
Ah, now we have a new winner! The key is competing.
Ok, so B&M feel they are losing out to internet sellers. What to do? Compete on things other than Price! Do value added things like offering game space (hell, you could charge for it and most folks wouldn't mind), having knowledgable staff, sponsing local competitions and generally seeming like you care. Online retailers can't do that.
The key is you have to give a reason for your customers to come in, simply expecting them to pay more for the privilege of visiting your store is NOT enough and you WILL lose that business.
You fail to realize that the brick and mortars are the ones doing the Internet sales. Not all of them, but enough realized they could up their sales by opening to the Net. The Warestore (hey Neal!) is a good example.
Note that most retailers sell their GW stuff at full retail. I have yet to hear a decent reason (from a store owner) for doing this. There are a couple stores in my area that realize offering a discount is a good incentive for repeat business, they implemented this by offering discounts to gaming club members. However, most of the stores don't seem to get this concept and fail to compete on any other factor. And then complain they can't compete.
GW shouldn't care one way or the other, as their customer is not the end user anyway, EXCEPT for their direct sales line, ie internet/phone sales.
I guess GW putting up shops in direct competition with their customers (brick and mortars) isn't proof? Okay.
Uh, like this?6 /152021 9.shtml?tid=127&tid=98
http://books.slashdot.org/articles/03/04/1
I guess I could get a deposition from my friend the former-game-store-owner, but for an AC I don't think'll I'll bother. Live in fantasy, as you wish.
I highly recommend the 4th ed box set, mostly for the mini rule book. The $50 main book is good as well, but not for just starting in again. The really cool part is that the mini book has the exact same page numbers as the Big book (it's really just a scaled down version, literally).The Combat Patrol rules are in the Big book, but there's only one small rule change from 40k in 40 minutes (which is still a much better name anyway). At the risk of GW legal coming after me, the only difference is ordance is specifically forbidden in CP, whereas the guy who wrote 40in40 basically said "I wouldn't play with someone who brought ordance to a patrol, why put it in the rules?".
You can also pick up the mini rule book off Ebay, seems several people are breaking up the box set just to sell in pieces. Expect to pay $15-20.
Don't be an ass. I've talked to numerous people who have owned/run/worked in games shops, they all tell the same story. GW makes Microsoft look pretty tame, vendor-requirements-wise. A lot of game shops don't bother, the startup costs are way too high and GW wants the store to carry way too much stock.
There are plenty of instances where a GW store has opened and driven off the other shops in the area, at least from a carrying the merchandise angle.
GW's business plan is "make money". Cutting out the retail stores means more markup for GW.
You do realize GW tried to ban all other shops from offering items on the Internet, right?
Also, the break down is such that winning the game is still the most important.
R ules.htm#Ju dging
But don't believe me, check for yourself.
http://gt.us.games-workshop.com/Rules/
I'd recommend drafting your friends (I have the same problem as you, small town with torches and burning crosses for those dirty gamers).
A new twist to 40k is Combat Patrol. Small points games (400) that are fun and don't take a lot of models. Perfect for getting back in and taking someone with you.
See more here:
http://www.patrolclash.org.uk/index.htm
GW publishes a magazine, White Dwarf, which is pretty much one giant ad for their stuff. Oh, and the occasional interesting piece for the players.
But mostly, it's "Look, new cool models released this month!! And see, they beat this other army, wow!".
I'd love to read the article, but I like my soul where it is. RSS link someone?
At any rate, in Warhammer 40k you're talking a large number of figures to play a game, say 30-50 average. Someone who takes the modeling side seriously spends a lot of time not just painting, but converting or even scratch building models.
Want to see what I mean, check this:
http://coolminiornot.com/
I've been playing since around 2001, started right in the middle of the Game Store Crash (another topic). Games don't take 6 hours to play any more, typically 2 hours if both players are wanting to get done and not sitting around BSing (which is common in friendly games).
Tournament games typically have a 2 hour time limit, which includes setup/deployment.
Most important point: I've met exactly one player below the age of 23. Average age is 25-35, on a guess.
Nah, not the same tank. I got one from Walmart for $10 on clearance, complete with Nicad battery and charger!
w Item&item =5957343127&category=44026
The one in the article is (was) made by Motorworks and doesn't fire pellets, rather it has some foam missiles it can launch. The barrel moves up and down as in "push button, barrel moves up and then down". It is cool that the missiles can be fire by remote.
The thing cries for variable speed control on the tracks, dang thing is way too fast to control at full speed all the time.
The missile launcher (same thing/company) is cooler, fire 10 missiles, all from the remote!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie
I picked up this exact tank from Walmart for $10. It cries for variable speed and will make a good robot base. The author failed to mention the foam missiles the tank can fire (from the remote!).
There is Missile Launcher from the same company that fires 10 missiles in sequence as well and yes I got one on clearance from Walmart for $10.
Did I mention this includes a Nicad battery and charger?
Watch for nasty visitors your plant may introduce or attract to your workplace.
A coworker once had a plant in his cube, it became infested with some kind of mite. These mites then migrated through the halls to some other plants, can't recall if they killed the plants or what the deal was. Caused quite the stir, plants at desks were banned from then on.