That's because everyone always goes "Oh long distance was so expensive then!" Ignoring that it subsidized the far more used local calls. Once you take the long distance revenue away from the LEC it has to start charging for the local calls since maintaining all that last mile equipment isn't as free as people were led to believe by its previous rates.
The best part of the whole thing though is the government will now continue to sit on its hands while all the pieces they broke Bell into reform into one entity that essentially becomes a monopoly again. Minus the government oversight and all the cool lab stuff. Awesome, the worst of both worlds is coming soon...or is it already here?
There was a very interesting article in National Geographic recently about population. As you mentioned, developed countries have birth rates below replacement. The United States only comes in above replacement (and even then, I think it was only by a bit) due to immigration. Remove that and we're well below replacement rate, like other countries of similar prosperity.
The other interesting point of the article was that the population problem takes care of itself. It made the case that the draconian population control measures instituted in China and India actually came after the rate of procreation had started to take a nose dive. They were a response to a situation that had already started to correct itself. Just as levels reduced in developed countries had. Countries that not only did not have the harsh measures, but had actual incentives to reproduce.
The article left open the question if we would have enough resources to support a lot more people, but said that based on demographics the numbers were going to climb a bit more in the coming couple of decades before declining. This was due to the fact that the poorer nations initially had a surplus of children as their standard of living/education increased (a hold over from the prior generation, the United States baby boom generation for example) before the national correction occurred.
I have no idea why OnLive is billed as a competitor to "buying an expensive gaming PC". It is clearly a competitor to buying a cheap console. And looked at objectively, it fails at every point in that match up (ongoing cost, selection of titles, performance, image quality, ease of use, reliability, versatility of experience, etc) except perhaps a barely lower initial cost and novelty.
The gaming PC thing is a head scratcher. Let's forget that buying a Dell and plugging a $100 video card in it will get the job done better (and cheaper long term) I acknowledge some people don't want or can't deal with the hassle of PC Gaming. But the majority of the "big name" games that run poorly on that cheap laptop you have console ports that will run fine on a Xbox360 arcade. Most PC and Console titles aren't even available on the service. If you want to play those games with no hassle, no mods and aren't super concerned about top of the line graphics then the console will get you more for less. And you can even still play them when you run out of money for a monthly fee, they won't vanish into the ether.
Using OnLive on mobile devices is the most bizarre business case yet though. Ramming latency sensitive and high bandwidth use applications over an unreliable connection that is increasingly limited by ISPs to avoid having to buy local hardware that has never been cheaper historically was crazy enough on land based connections that could conceivably be upgraded (but probably won't) was crazy enough. Pushing it over cellphone wireless networks that have real finite physical limits in their ability to provide bandwidth to users sounds like the product of some one that thinks cell phones work through enchantment by wizards.
OnLive is the answer to the question nobody asked. At least, no reasonable consumer asked. I know who asked it!
Re:I'm still using CGA you insensitive clod
on
Goodbye, VGA
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· Score: 1
The "Color" part of this of this Color Graphics Adapter is really stretching the definition of color.
I don't understand why you think you'd get a fair fight. We are already doing nothing about the end run around labor laws, environmental laws and safety standards that are already on the books...
My first thought was this sounds idiotic...but after reading about it a bit more I guess it could work. I wonder how it deals with jams...you can't just ask the sender to retransmit after dumping all the "data" in the event of some sort of failure event.
But it sounds like it involves building a whole lot of infrastructure. The United States doesn't really do that kind of stuff anymore so it wouldn't work here. But maybe somewhere else they do.
That is more or less what I thought when I read this. The top dog using money to get legislation designed to destroy competition and buying out smaller competitors is nothing new. But why should I be particularly concerned about something like an internet search provider, an arena with a ridiculously small barrier to entry? Hell, they're dead last on the list IMO.
The extra preservatives merely reduce the smell and slow the decay. It is the high fructose corn syrup that is deposited throughout our bodies during our life that provides a steady fuel source for the undeath phase.
Logically, Marty's parents would have had a fight about Lorraine having cheated on George with Calvin Klein well before Marty reached that stage in his life. There's no reason they suddenly would have had that fight on the exact day Marty came back from 1955.
Another problem with MMOs is they kind of have to get it right out of the gate. This is true to an extent with all games, but look at the example shown where they sold a million and lost almost as many in the first month. With a regular game I might be disappointed with bugs and 6-9 months later I'll install the patch and start playing. (I can't tell you how many poorly reviewed 'buggy' games I've played for the first time, a year after release and not had any complaints about bugs at all) But when I have to pay $15-20 to retry a game I already got burned out of $60 on, chances are I'm not going to bother. It's throwing good money after bad and all.
In Season 4 (not sure if we're talking about the show or books now, but I'm talking about the show of course) Dexter kills an innocent...well, innocent of murder anyway. The guy was as asshole and probably abusive, but he did not fit the code and there was no evidence he killed anyone. Batista and crew capture the actual culprit (his assistant) and he confesses. He once killed a likely child predator that appeared to be targeting his own children. I can't recall if he had any evidence of him having done anything to anyone else, but the episode made it seem like he kind of just felt like it and decided to be proactive this time since it was his own that were potentially at stake. And of course he kills Freebo, but that was sort of self defense.
The show has started to jump the shark for me a bit (The emotionless, patient, calculating Dexter of season 1 has never truly returned and the writers seem content to write him doing out of character stupid things to give him obstacles to overcome. In the first season, we're shown a somewhat more reckless and less confident young Dexter in flashbacks more or less follow his code of protection nearly perfectly. But its the older and more experienced Dexter who breaks his own rules all the time, and continually pays the price for it. It's hard to buy a character that cunning making these kinds of mistakes over and over again.
While they had Dexter dwell on the accidental killing for a little while last season I think they missed a real opportunity with the character there that time.
Child porn is an easy way to get an enemy sent to jail, plant it on their computer and phone in a tip. Ta-da! It's even easier now, you don't even need to have any actual CP to get the job done, just encrypt a section of their drive with a password they cannot know.
Slashdot Mirror
I prefer the term America-Fuck-Yeahism.
That definition must be incorrect because that sounds just like the United States of Freedom and Democracy-loving America and that can't be right!
That's because everyone always goes "Oh long distance was so expensive then!" Ignoring that it subsidized the far more used local calls. Once you take the long distance revenue away from the LEC it has to start charging for the local calls since maintaining all that last mile equipment isn't as free as people were led to believe by its previous rates.
The best part of the whole thing though is the government will now continue to sit on its hands while all the pieces they broke Bell into reform into one entity that essentially becomes a monopoly again. Minus the government oversight and all the cool lab stuff. Awesome, the worst of both worlds is coming soon...or is it already here?
Those who do study the past are also doomed to repeat. Its just they are less surprised and more frustrated.
They didn't even innovate on the price! I distinctly remember Scorched Earth: The Mother of All Games...$1.00 on the title screen.
There was a very interesting article in National Geographic recently about population. As you mentioned, developed countries have birth rates below replacement. The United States only comes in above replacement (and even then, I think it was only by a bit) due to immigration. Remove that and we're well below replacement rate, like other countries of similar prosperity. The other interesting point of the article was that the population problem takes care of itself. It made the case that the draconian population control measures instituted in China and India actually came after the rate of procreation had started to take a nose dive. They were a response to a situation that had already started to correct itself. Just as levels reduced in developed countries had. Countries that not only did not have the harsh measures, but had actual incentives to reproduce. The article left open the question if we would have enough resources to support a lot more people, but said that based on demographics the numbers were going to climb a bit more in the coming couple of decades before declining. This was due to the fact that the poorer nations initially had a surplus of children as their standard of living/education increased (a hold over from the prior generation, the United States baby boom generation for example) before the national correction occurred.
I have no idea why OnLive is billed as a competitor to "buying an expensive gaming PC". It is clearly a competitor to buying a cheap console. And looked at objectively, it fails at every point in that match up (ongoing cost, selection of titles, performance, image quality, ease of use, reliability, versatility of experience, etc) except perhaps a barely lower initial cost and novelty.
The gaming PC thing is a head scratcher. Let's forget that buying a Dell and plugging a $100 video card in it will get the job done better (and cheaper long term) I acknowledge some people don't want or can't deal with the hassle of PC Gaming. But the majority of the "big name" games that run poorly on that cheap laptop you have console ports that will run fine on a Xbox360 arcade. Most PC and Console titles aren't even available on the service. If you want to play those games with no hassle, no mods and aren't super concerned about top of the line graphics then the console will get you more for less. And you can even still play them when you run out of money for a monthly fee, they won't vanish into the ether.
Using OnLive on mobile devices is the most bizarre business case yet though. Ramming latency sensitive and high bandwidth use applications over an unreliable connection that is increasingly limited by ISPs to avoid having to buy local hardware that has never been cheaper historically was crazy enough on land based connections that could conceivably be upgraded (but probably won't) was crazy enough. Pushing it over cellphone wireless networks that have real finite physical limits in their ability to provide bandwidth to users sounds like the product of some one that thinks cell phones work through enchantment by wizards.
OnLive is the answer to the question nobody asked. At least, no reasonable consumer asked. I know who asked it!
The "Color" part of this of this Color Graphics Adapter is really stretching the definition of color.
I don't understand why you think you'd get a fair fight. We are already doing nothing about the end run around labor laws, environmental laws and safety standards that are already on the books...
My first thought was this sounds idiotic...but after reading about it a bit more I guess it could work. I wonder how it deals with jams...you can't just ask the sender to retransmit after dumping all the "data" in the event of some sort of failure event. But it sounds like it involves building a whole lot of infrastructure. The United States doesn't really do that kind of stuff anymore so it wouldn't work here. But maybe somewhere else they do.
That is more or less what I thought when I read this. The top dog using money to get legislation designed to destroy competition and buying out smaller competitors is nothing new. But why should I be particularly concerned about something like an internet search provider, an arena with a ridiculously small barrier to entry? Hell, they're dead last on the list IMO.
The extra preservatives merely reduce the smell and slow the decay. It is the high fructose corn syrup that is deposited throughout our bodies during our life that provides a steady fuel source for the undeath phase.
And women dump their boyfriends right after Valentines because they already got their gift?
Inch by inch, everything is a cinch! But there's miles of inches and mile by mile it's a huge fucking pile!
Logically, Marty's parents would have had a fight about Lorraine having cheated on George with Calvin Klein well before Marty reached that stage in his life. There's no reason they suddenly would have had that fight on the exact day Marty came back from 1955.
Another problem with MMOs is they kind of have to get it right out of the gate. This is true to an extent with all games, but look at the example shown where they sold a million and lost almost as many in the first month. With a regular game I might be disappointed with bugs and 6-9 months later I'll install the patch and start playing. (I can't tell you how many poorly reviewed 'buggy' games I've played for the first time, a year after release and not had any complaints about bugs at all) But when I have to pay $15-20 to retry a game I already got burned out of $60 on, chances are I'm not going to bother. It's throwing good money after bad and all.
I thought Avatar's 3D was pretty neat...until about 10-15 minutes in when I honestly didn't even notice it anymore.
Maybe the "good guys" just thought everyone else was to incompetent to complete the tasks?
I'm not so sure why everyone is so caught up in using your powers for good or evil and how good can become evil and so on.
I for one would use my powers for sloth and hedonism!
I don't want to own cars, I want to throw them and look good doing it!
Bit of a SPOILER ahead....
In Season 4 (not sure if we're talking about the show or books now, but I'm talking about the show of course) Dexter kills an innocent...well, innocent of murder anyway. The guy was as asshole and probably abusive, but he did not fit the code and there was no evidence he killed anyone. Batista and crew capture the actual culprit (his assistant) and he confesses. He once killed a likely child predator that appeared to be targeting his own children. I can't recall if he had any evidence of him having done anything to anyone else, but the episode made it seem like he kind of just felt like it and decided to be proactive this time since it was his own that were potentially at stake. And of course he kills Freebo, but that was sort of self defense.
The show has started to jump the shark for me a bit (The emotionless, patient, calculating Dexter of season 1 has never truly returned and the writers seem content to write him doing out of character stupid things to give him obstacles to overcome. In the first season, we're shown a somewhat more reckless and less confident young Dexter in flashbacks more or less follow his code of protection nearly perfectly. But its the older and more experienced Dexter who breaks his own rules all the time, and continually pays the price for it. It's hard to buy a character that cunning making these kinds of mistakes over and over again.
While they had Dexter dwell on the accidental killing for a little while last season I think they missed a real opportunity with the character there that time.
While that's true, its sort of hard to buy that a guy just had misguided good intentions when he named himself "Doctor Doom".
Child porn is an easy way to get an enemy sent to jail, plant it on their computer and phone in a tip. Ta-da! It's even easier now, you don't even need to have any actual CP to get the job done, just encrypt a section of their drive with a password they cannot know.
I'd rather sit on my ass all day eating money sandwiches until I died from a cash overdose.
Seriously though, I don't want to work.
Considering the cost of intel motherboards, one would think they'd at least be able to give you a header on the board to install these things.