I'm susprised that the word "patented" didn't jump out at more people; it seems an arbitrary restriction.
How long until New Scientist's sister magazine - New Musician - runs a contest where you can win a trip to Las Vegas for writing a 250-word essay on what the best DRM'ed album is?
While technically there were some alternatives available at the time, it was far from "absurdly useless."
USB drives were not out yet. CD-R drives were still not common or affordable, much less rewritable CDs. If you didn't have a computer at home that could write to CDs, you couldn't bring in your files to a no-floppy computer at school, or vice versa. (I went straight from floppies to USB/online storage)
Just because a new technology is available doesn't mean that the rest of the world automatically upgrades to it.
I have a better sense of humor than this feeble attempt at attracting attention.
I don't understand. Are you grumpy because: (a) They are succeeding at attracting attention; (b) You are not succeeding at attracting attention, despite your grumpiest attempts; (c) You discovered that www.getafirstlife.com is not actually functional
Have you ever wondered why AOL sent so many CDs instead of telling people that the program is on the internet?
I thought it was because sending CDs in the mail would increase the average bandwidth that they could advertise, when combined with their otherwise clunky dialup service.
They charge a $5 per month 'long distance admin fee' on your telephone service....My internet service will cost over $40 per month... and they said it will cost me $240 if I choose to bail out early.
How is that not progressive? They're just ahead of the inflation curve!
Our bills are different color ($5, $10, $20, $50, $100). However, they are still the same size. What's interesting is that all bills have braille, so that the blind can read them.
While they do have raised dots, they are not "braille". Braille numbers are quite different from the patterns that we have on our currency, for exactly the reason you specified: they would be too difficult to distinguish after a certain amount of wear.
The raised dots on our currency are blocks of six dots. One block for one bill, two blocks for a different bill, two blocks far apart for a third, etc. Further, the printing of the large numbers (and anything else that's printed dark on the bills) is in raised ink that you can feel with your fingers.
Also note that the lifespan of notes is much less than you suggest it may be. Highly-used notes may only be in circulation for a couple of years. A bit of poking around on Wikipedia will get you that info quite easily.
When I was visiting Canada on vacation in Fall 2000, the USD:CAD exchange was 0.65 USD per CAD. Canadians I talked to were concerned about two things: that their currency was going to become worthless and that it looked like a bloodthirsty Texas redneck might get elected US president. At least their currency rebounded.
Well, no. Your economy went in the shits while our stayed strong, and as a result our currency gained relative strength.
Slashdot Mirror
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Maybe they'll never get elected because their supporters make up words like "alot".
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You know, like the "New Coke"?
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Software crashes, angry user whacks the computer.
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Come to think of it, there isn't any "any" key, either...
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They should have made the announcement in a cathedral!
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Good ol' rock. Nothing beats that! /simpsons
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I'm susprised that the word "patented" didn't jump out at more people; it seems an arbitrary restriction.
How long until New Scientist's sister magazine - New Musician - runs a contest where you can win a trip to Las Vegas for writing a 250-word essay on what the best DRM'ed album is?
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Note to Self: Check to see if GPhone, GPod, and GTube are trademarked yet...
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While technically there were some alternatives available at the time, it was far from "absurdly useless."
USB drives were not out yet. CD-R drives were still not common or affordable, much less rewritable CDs. If you didn't have a computer at home that could write to CDs, you couldn't bring in your files to a no-floppy computer at school, or vice versa. (I went straight from floppies to USB/online storage)
Just because a new technology is available doesn't mean that the rest of the world automatically upgrades to it.
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(a) They are succeeding at attracting attention;
(b) You are not succeeding at attracting attention, despite your grumpiest attempts;
(c) You discovered that www.getafirstlife.com is not actually functional
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...except the atheists.
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"Here be dragons!"
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The raised dots on our currency are blocks of six dots. One block for one bill, two blocks for a different bill, two blocks far apart for a third, etc. Further, the printing of the large numbers (and anything else that's printed dark on the bills) is in raised ink that you can feel with your fingers.
Also note that the lifespan of notes is much less than you suggest it may be. Highly-used notes may only be in circulation for a couple of years. A bit of poking around on Wikipedia will get you that info quite easily.
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If we stop using pennies, then demand will drop, and the price of copper will go back down.
Then pennies would no longer cost more than they're worth, but that would mean...
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It's bad enough you'll have to put up with her for the whole vacation!
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