I just don't understand how they could not have for seen this shortage.
They saw the shortage and they knew it was going to happen. The people running Nintendo's financial and business planning know what they're doing and probably have spreadsheets of predicted outcomes.
The problem is reaching the best profit margin. (Reminding of an old computer game in High School business class) Nintendo could build spend money on 100 new factories and pump out 100 million Wii's in one month to satisfy demand. But what happens when the month is over? Nintendo is left with 100 factories with 1000's of works sitting around picking their noses. Effectively, they'd start hemorrhaging money in keeping said factories with the only recourse to sell the factories.
Otherwise, they're now pumping out millions of of systems a month that no one is buying, because demand was just satisfied in one orgasmic explosion. All those systems are being pushed into storage, which costs money. Now, we look at something like the PS3 and all the design/model changes it had. If a design/model change happened to the Wii, it'd have to firesale it's entire stock to make way for the new stuff.
It's a balancing act and Nintendo has the benefit of pop-culture status with the Wii. The "OMG, there's a Wii on the Shelf" shock (thanks to customer experience and news media hype) practically guarantees an impulse purchase, if for no other reason to tell their friends they finally found a Wii (even if they just got a 360/PS3 as a gift).
Also, Nintendo increased output (that started 5 months ago) to *help* meet holiday demand but as there is with super popular things, there can only be a reasonable amount of product produced. Demand can come in spikes (holidays), but production simply cannot be spiked like that. It takes time to make a product, but takes an instant to create demand. And unlike the 360 or PS3, the Wii hasn't had time to stock up units for the holiday rush as it's been more-or-less sold out since it launched.
All told, these same individuals believe the company could be leaving as much as $1 billion on the table this holiday season.
The question I have is, ok it's $1 billion this holiday season but what about the after affects of the holiday? How many people who are dying to get the Wii (but can't) will still go and buy it in Jan., Feb., Mar.? My guess? A lot. Considering they've been doing it since Nov. 2006.
It reminds of the pirated music idea. A person who pirates music(or movies) isn't necessarly going to be buying said music(or movies). Thus, one cannot say that pirating is a 1:1 effect on sales. Likewise, you cannot say that people who cannot buy a Wii as a gift for the holidays will not buy one after the holidays. Theoretically, if the Big N satisfied demand in December, they would then loose all those Q1 2008 sales. So, what's the point? The real question is, if those who want a Wii, but bought a 360/PS3, will still buy a Wii in the future?
nstall WIndows XP SP0 on a PC that is 5 or 6 years old... Then you see what you are missing.
Go install WinME and tell me WinXP wasn't a blessing of an upgrade! =D And I actually went from Win2k to WinXP and I loved it, as a gamer. As a business professional, it might have been different. But I saw less BSODs in WinXP, though, I admit, I don't know if I had SP0 version or not. XP was still young, but I don't remember how young.
Hey, thanks for responding, my favorite Apple/Nintendo fangirl! =D
Did you read what I said about the Barbies? STORE EMPLOYEES were grabbing them BEFORE they hit the shelves to scalp on eBay.
Nope. I admit I skipped over the Barbie part of your previous post. Though, this kind of action isn't a big problem as most stores I know have a "no purchase" policy that they take pretty serious. Not to say there isn't instances, but for the most part, I've not seen it happen, particularly with hot ticket items, which get scrutinized pretty seriously (like the Wii and Tickle-Me-Elmos).
eBay has been around for over a decade, you know.
Yup, I first bought something from them in 1997/8. Something around there. It was for printer ink. My last purchase was last week, but it's been 8 years since I my last purchase that I used eBay due to fraud abuse. This last purchase was for $10, to see if it's gotten better since. We'll see.
It was around for Beanie Babies - I sold $2000 worth of them,
Well done! Obviously you have some entrepreneurial skills.
Even Cabbage Patch Kids were sold in newspaper classifieds for $200 each back in 1984.
Yup, they where.
eBay just made it easier.
Yup, it did.
In fact, if you look at when eBay really took off, there's probably an argument to be made that eBay became wildly successful because of beanie babies, not the other way around.
Definitely, I would support this point as I agree that such hot collector items and hard-to-find desirables (be it due to fevered holiday demand or old-old-age) has, at least, helped make eBay as popular as it is. Given that it has the largest market penetration ability, as in, the whole world (that has the internet). You can pretty much find anything.
So, great, you made fine points. Scalping is not new. But I have never said that it was. Less you missed it, let me quote my statements highlight a some key words...
This "ticket scalping" like attitude is pretty new to a lot of consumers...
The point was it's new that the level of scalping that's going on and the competition that brings.
The internet has changed everything and services like eBay have done their part, as you have acknowledged. However, unlike newspaper ads, the trunk of one's car, long trench coats, or even eBay in 1998, the Internet (and it's services) in 2007 have significant more impact on the consumer world and phenomenons such as holiday toy rushes or heavy hyped product releases (see: Wii, Playstation 3, iPhone, etc).
So, I think you miss-read or interpreted what I wrote before because you're arguing points that I never argued against, that scalping didn't exist before, as I actually agree with you and know that scalping isn't new, per-say, but it's current levels are exposing people to it who never would have experienced it in the past. Which, of course, might make some people believe this is a new thing, but I am not one of those.
That and there's plenty of mis-leading information. Not to say I'm for the MPAA or RIAA (I'm not, I believe piracy is a response to excessive prices in attempt of the market to correct itself), but here's another stupid comment he seems to be listening to...
since less than 20 percent of college students live on campus and use the residence hall networks, this means that less than 4 percent of the infringers are using campus networks,
Er... 20% living on campus isn't a 1:1 correlation to who's using the campus network. I worked at college computer lab and I didn't live on campus, and I used their network all the time (and before re-imaging lappys, I know that there are a lot of others pirating from campus without living on campus). It's pretty easy to download stuff via Wireless with a laptop or directly on a campus machine and copy it to a flash drive. Heck, our university even "loaned" laptops overnight or for a few days, in which they could easily download music or movies. Heck, I never even had DSL/Cable because it was just a short walk to the Union to plug-in my laptop and game. It saved me $40+/month and as a college student that was a "good thing"(tm).
With that said, it's also likely there are plenty of other people with DSL/Cable downloading crap. The only difference, you're roommates will come and hang you if you bring down their ping on Counter-Strike or WoW. So, I think it's likely a lot more than 20% use the campus networks.
Absolutely, it's not *new* for parents to fight over hot Xmas gift items and that's not the point I was trying to make. The point was it's new that the level of scalping that's going on and the competition that brings. Most of the parents that fought over Tickle-Me-Elmo or Cabbage Patch Kids did so and lost to those who where going to use them.
"Product Scalping" is having all the rules of Ticket Scalping applied with little of the draw-backs. Scalpers have no worries of having a zero worth product, a Wii will retain it's retail value even after Xmas and can still be sold for little-to-no-loss. Scalpers are camping out for days to pick something up, something more parents cannot do. Scalpers and parents alike are turning to an army of the no-job, living-in-the-parents-basement type to stand outside in blistering colds to buy up any supply, just to compete.
Suffice it to say, there wasn't the availability of the internet and services like eBay to make that so easy for most products of the past. And now with all the media attention and large profits being touted about by news services, it's getting the attention of people who want make a fast buck. I admit, I considered doing it before the Wii/PS3 launched. I know a friend who helped his relative scalp PS3 (not as successfully given the lack of PS3 popularity).
The game is the same, but the rules and players have dramatically changed, and that's what makes it new. Of course, I also hate scalping (any kind). I laughed when all the scalpers got screwed when Led Zeppelin announced that you have to present the original purchasing credit card with the tickets to get into the show. Though, unlike Zeppelin tickets, which have a second stage of transaction (entry into the event), products don't have this.
It's one thing to loose out to another parent with child who wants something. It's entirely something else to loose out to someone who'll (literally) turn around and offer the item to you at 10x cost. Of course, where does it stop? I waited outside for hours in the cold to just PRE-ORDER a Wii... and I was pretty much last in line. Product cannot even get to stores before they're tagged with someone's name.
For the record, I've never had any problem canceling. [...]
I do get the occasional email, maybe three times since canceling last year, asking me to re-subscribe.
I never had a problem canceling, but (like I said) I found it more difficult than expected. I expected to just log into my online account and find a some sort of "big red cancel me" button. Something akin to canceling your membership to an online game such as WoW. What I did find was a few clicks to find out I had to call in to cancel my online account. Ok, I can join up online, but I have to cancel through the phone? *shrug* I expected it to be easier given this was CR.
Though, it was a real simple and easy phone call to cancel through the phone without any hassling "trick questions" to keep your account or attempts to 'guilt' you from canceling. There's no problems canceling your account, just that it's more difficult than I would have expected given it's an online membership.
Cheers, Fozzy
Re:Couple Thoughts
on
Where are Wii?
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Take a look at Amazon or over at ebay.
Excellent point. There are few consumer goods, toys if you will, that this applies to. This "ticket scalping" like attitude is pretty new to a lot of consumers and of course they're going to blame the company directly. However, it's not the case. Besides the unprecedented demand (it's been practically sold out for over a year in a lot of places) and the fact that hot toys, even when not in demand in the off season, can see sold-out status during the holidays, Nintendo has actually increased factory output for the holidays. Of course, I think 1.8 million consoles a month is nothing to shake a stick at.
I do feel sorry for a little sorry for those who cannot get one, but I also write it off as them not trying hard enough. With a little effort, it wasn't hard to get a Wii back in Oct. They would sit on the shelf for about 2 days before going sold out (according to GameStop and WalMart employees in my local area, YMMV). If you called every day, you'd have gotten one in a week. Of course, your best bet now is to wait until after Xmas, when the Wii bubble pops, and all those hording Wii's for premium re-sales during Xmas will flood the market at standard costs. Otherwise, good luck and keep trying!
The information they provide is truthful and valuable. People will pay for "data."
Exactly. I signed up for CR online when I was looking to buy a new cars in 2006 (and still had it when I bought another in 2007). To find the right car for me I spent the $30 to help read up on the cars I was interested in. It helped. I was able to read up on the past history of the cars, like the Toyota Corolla, and find it had a long history of excellent reviews. I was also able to knock a few cars off my list, like the Chevy Aveo, which had a recall in 2006/7 (I forget what year). Despite both cars having similar gas milage, the Aveo was a much smaller car (something my fiancee, who's French, felt more comfortable with given her European cars) with not as good reviews. In America, given the average size of a car is much larger, I felt safer with her having a slightly bigger car and she's adjusted to the size difference, given that roads here are also much larger.
That small amount of money I wrote off as part of the cost of a proper new-car purchase. And what's $45 when you're spending $15,000? However, I have no reason to continue until there's some other big name purchase I want to do so I canceled. I'll pick up their magazine at the gym when I see one laying around. I also found it more difficult than expected to cancel my account with CR.
As a standards web developer, one can only say that's a good thing. Since that time MS and some of the big name web standards developers have come out in having people use the IE Conditionalcomments to target specific CSS code to (any) IE. It allows you to keep your main CSS files IE hack 'clean'.
Hellgate has had its own share of video-driver stupidity.
*had*? Did they fix it? I haven't played in 2-weeks (been busy) and I'm on the final push to the Hellgate, but I cannot play for 1-hour without the game locking up on me. It would be nice if they fixed that.
Then, when I'm done with Lego Star Wars, maybe I'll go back and finish that. It got pretty annoying that I had to stop. Though, I've never grouped up with anyone yet. Is that any good?
Well.. I *could* but the framerate was below 15fps. I think I had to turn off one of the anti-aliasing settings or something. Then again, I was having driver issues at the time. Every time I tried to update to the latest NForce driver it would fail to give proper widescreen monitor resolutions and my desktop would go to the dump. So, I was using a pretty old video driver which might have been causing issues. I also don't have SLI. Maybe it'll run well now that I've managed to update my video driver (finally).
But I have little interest in WoW until the next xPac comes out. I'll at least be able to advance my character again without having to schedule 4-hour gaming sessions to raid on Fri./Sat. nights (not something I'm willing to do anymore). That and I've been having a blast with Lego Star Wars, Mario Galaxies, and Resident Evil on the Wii along with Hellgate: London, Sam and Max episode 1 (it was free), Oblivion, FF VII and the Baulder's Gate series (yeah, I'm behind the times on some PC games;p).
the first company to solve these problems will kill hard copies as fast as MP3's killed CD's.
CD's aren't dead. I use them all the time to burn my MP3's too for backup and for playback in my cars (can you believe it? a 2006 and 2007 car radio STILL doesn't have MP3 CD players standard?)
Though, the last CD Album I bought was Weird Al and that's because he makes more on CD's than download sales and I support him. Otherwise, I just downloaded Dragonforce's 3 albums from iTunes saving $4-5 per album then Amazon's prices. Though, I kind of wanted the slip art and inserts. =|
Exactly my thought. Would SLI make that much of a difference to this game?
Yes. At least, when I stopped playing almost a year ago, when I bought my new Dell XPS system and played WoW with all the settings nearly maxed (I STILL couldn't max out all settings on a Duel-core system with GForce 7800 GTX and 2GB ram) the graphics quality was night and day from playing on my old P3 Inspiron notebook.
Sure, WoW can be played on low-end systems, but it's infinitely more beautiful on high-end systems. Moon/Sun reflections on water and roads. Much better water effects. Better shadowing and anti-aliasing. Longer view-distances. etc.
SLI will be fine as it will allow you to crank up the settings to max without suffering from poor framerates. So, is this laptop worth it? No. Is it a wet-dream? Yes and if you have the money to burn, go for it. It'll probably be a great laptop that lasts you a good 5+ years running high-end games. But do you want the "theme" skins? Dell owns Alienware. If you're going to drop $4.5k, you might just want to get one of those, it's going to have the same stuff (eventually) and it will have a universally cool case.
I downloaded Zelda 2 for the Wii VC and I understand now why I couldn't touch the game when I was a kid.
I agree that it's not the difficulty. It's the attempt to make an RPG with action elements but miss both the good RPG and action elements (of the 8-bit era). Take the first Castlevania NES game and compare it to Zelda 2 and one should see why Castlevania was a good action game and Zelda was not... there was always something to keep you interested. Re-skinning Zelda onto Castelvania would have been more fun than Zelda 2.
Actually, he presented two compelling reasons, but apparently you weren't reading very closely. First, it allows more flexibility in language implementation, Second, you can't have any concept of a secure language in the browser if any insecure language can be running at the same time.
No, I re-read it a few times. This part particularly. The first reason is not a "good idea", as I premised it, but I didn't do a good job explaining why. Allowing multiple language support *would* allow flexibility (no argument there) but would be significantly worse for the end-user and developer because of 1) increased browser footprint size. Now browsers will need to implement programming language 'x','y','z'. Or maybe... they'll only implement language 'x' and 'z'.
Which leads to point 2) browser compatibility. JavaScript has been around 'forever'(in Internet history) and it's still poorly supported across browsers. Frameworks like jQuery or YUI! make things much better, but that doesn't change the fact that browser makers will do what they want. Once we start to allow IE or Netscape or Safari to freely implement whatever client side scripting languages they wants, then we'll soon see web pages that only work in Safari or IE or Netscape. All one has to do is look at ActiveX and the mess that created. Last I checked, it didn't make me or a lot of other people happy when I HAD to use the P.O.S. IE6 to access some website. I don't want that to happen again and I don't want to be a developer that has to also write 2,3,4,5 different programming scripts to make a website work on 2,3,4,5 different web browsers. Having code that says "If NN { Load NetScript } else if IE { Load LiveScript } else if FF { Load FoxScript}"... etc. Let-alone the fact that even if Mozilla implements MicroSoft scripting language, doesn't mean it's going to be 100% compatible, just like JavaScript is today.
See, that's why I believe the author did not present something that was a "good idea". Such "flexibility" is not a good thing on the web when the web NEEDS standards. It needs a standard scripting language (JavaScript), a standard markup language (SGML: HTML and XML), and a standard style language (CSS). We've already got plug-ins if that's not good enough. Flash, Java, etc. I'm sorry, I'm just not convinced by his arguments that multiple scripting languages (like allowing C++,.Net, etc) is a 'good thing'. Despite the fact that I would love to be able to program in something like C.
Of course, that doesn't solve the problem that is JavaScript. I don't disagree that it's broken to some extent and there's plenty of improvements that can be made. I just disagree with the idea of allowing browser makers decide what scripting languages they want to support, because they're not going to be able to support 'everything'(tm).
He never said that he didn't want to support JavaScript.
This is from the article...
It also paves the way for replacing JavaScript with a secure programming language.
I read this as the author not wanting to support JavaScript anymore. Though, securing JavaScript is another topic of discussion. I can fall on both sides of that argument depending on what 'security' someone is talking about because a) you cannot secure against shitty programming b) and any 'client side' languages have an inherit security issue. Namely letting a 3rd party execute code on a remote computer is a security red flag by it's very nature.
I also agree with him that the default CSS needs to be standardized, or at least some parts of it. I don't care if Apple uses their pretty buttons or not, but at least having list items behave the same from one browser to another would be nice. (And while I'm all for Apple having their pretty buttons by default, I still want a way to override every form element. That goes for you, too, radio butto
he hasn't really solved any of the major issues plaguing HTML
Actually, he's proposing MORE problems. Here's my take...
No more doctypes
Why? Adding a "version" attribute it just going to break compatibility. The "web" has enough problems with compatibility, lets not inject MORE. Doctypes work fine. Sure, it's long and doesn't appear to make much sense reading it, but... if it's not broke, don't 'fix' it.
There is only one scripting language allowed on a page. This is to simplify the addition of new languages to the browser. It also paves the way for replacing JavaScript with a secure programming language.
I'm sorry but the auther hasn't presented any compelling reason why this is a 'good idea'(tm) and I can think of several reasons this is a 'bad idea'(tm). Do have I have to mention active X, proprietary languages, and 'broken' sites because of it? Then the need for Web.Devs. job skills increase significantly and become much more cumbersome.
No more framesets, frames, or iframes. The security properties of these were problematic. Instead we'll have modules.
Hmmm... I don't like frames per say. I don't use them. Though, I don't see how modules are going to make things better or easier but more complex. A frame was simple. A window in a window. That's simple. If Developers abused them, it's the developers fault, not the language for having it. With "AJAX" and Flash video, I'm game to just remove frames all together.
The default CSS content needs to be standardized.
It already can be done and this is not the responsibility of HTML. This is as annoying as forcing ones religion on someone else. I'm not going to tell Microsoft they have to use Mozilla's default CSS. Or Apple to stop using their pretty buttons in Safari. Forget it. It's a non-issue. CSS RESET already exists, and developers need to just be educated. Design topics don't have a place in HTML.
The only character encoding permitted in HTML 5 is UTF-8
While I want to say "I agree with that" because that's what I do, I think, again, "only" is not the right choice. Can we predict the future? Will UTF-8 be suitable 'forever'? Funny, computers original "only" supported latin characters. That wasn't a good idea. "only" supporting UTF-8 is also a bad idea, but I would like to see it used a default.
Browsers should not perform heroics to try to make bad content displayable
I agree with this.
The tag form is allowed, but not required for or.
I 100% disagree. Standards are standards. If we don't want browsers to "perform heroics" on correcting 'bad code' then lets not give people confusing "standards" of "it's ok to it like this... or like this... or this is 'ok' too!". No. and . Tags are tags and they have a function. There are no "special" children. But I do think [script] needs empty tag support.
CSS can be used to style custom tags.
Agree.
mymenubar {display: div; width: 100%;}
What's wrong with "display:block"? If you want a [div] tag use one. If you want to make your own tag name, then don't try to make it a [div]. Div's are "block" elements. If you want a block element then "display:block".
Custom Attributes
I agree. But are we talking about HTML or JavaScript now? And why are you talking about JavaScript when you already said you don't want to support JavaScript? I'm confused as to your intentions.
That's It
Kudos for trying, but I think you missed the target.
I've heard ghosting was a problem with the launch PSPs
I owned an original PSP and I never heard of Ghosting as a problem. Dead Pixels, yet. Not ghosting. I had 3-4 dead pixels on mine. Only one was annoying, but livable. Either way, I thought the screen was beautiful and never had a complaint about it.
Oh well, I guess I'll burn some karma for this topic.
How about the high-profile Hollywood screenwriter strike?
High profile? Are you kidding? Paris Hilton, Brittney Spears, and Lindsy Lohan got more press coverage for drunk driving in one day than this entire strike has garnered this entire time. In fact, the last I heard in the news was how the Screenwriters are screaming conspiracy because they're NOT getting the air-time they want!
And it's not "la French", it's "LES French".
You're right, but I think he was going for "la France" as that's the popular phrase, but this isn't French class. Would it be too ironic to call you a French grammar Nazi?
I can't avoid feeling antipathy for the French
Why?The France are generally great people (as much as I love to give them the hardest time about their poor government programs, shitty service at banks and government offices, or their military victories). Speaking as an American who's engaged to and has been dating a French woman for over 4-years. By no means am I an expert, but I've a fair share of French Culture, sometimes the hard way.
but I must concede to them
That would be a first. You'd definitely take them by surprise.;P
it takes balls to stand up for their rights the way they do.
See, now I know that you don't understand the French. It doesn't take balls. It doesn't take much at all. Striking in France is practically a hobby. They... Do... It... All... The... Time... Seriously, I cannot remember a time I was in France that didn't have strikes (or riots). I only laugh when CNN or some other outlet covers it as some sort of "end of France" like story.
Sadly, there's a group of people (usually college students) that don't even know half the facts about what they're striking about. All they want to do is participate in a strike. Strikes also go far beyond "right". Just ask all the students and professors that where forcibly turned away from their classes (during important exams no less) by other students that were protesting. "My 'Rights' trump yours" is a more realistic motto for for some.
France is also as media driven as the U.S. All it takes is one news broadcast or paper to say "train works will have to work more for less" to send all government workers on Strike without understanding the situation. Simply put, protest is part of the French culture. Just ask Marie Antoinette, who took away their baguettes and she lost her head. =P
It's hard to be on strike and lose many days of pay.
Tell that to the endless number of people who are not striking and cannot make it to their jobs against their will because they rely on public transportation. How about the harm to their countries economy? For what? The reasons for these strikes are just asinine. They're not trying to abolish the train system, striking to show what it would be like to not have trains isn't going to make a point. They're not trying to layoff the train work force. Striking to show how less workers would mean less trains and poorer service is not going to make a point.
In fact, that extra 6 billion euros a year they will get for moving the retirement age back to 55, instead of 50, could be spent to INCREASE the number of jobs available. Something that France still needs badly. But this small group of French activists don't see it like that. It's "more work, less pay" and that's how the media totes it. Good thing the majority of France isn't that stupid and support president Sarko's reforms despite the hardships the monopolist unions are trying to strangle the French citizens with by forcing them into submission and making their lives hell.
The real story about the recent train strikes isn't the train strikers but the average French commuter who continues to go to work in defiance to the strikes. That speaks louder than the *yawn* Paris marches.
Of course, actually carrying a balance is equally a no-brainer; don't do it.
Ironically, CC companies call those people "Dead-Beats". However, as a commuter, I can safely say that I will continue to use my gas credit card to continue to save 5% on all my gas purchases. A cost that I'd have to pay independent of using a debt or credit card.
Slashdot Mirror
They saw the shortage and they knew it was going to happen. The people running Nintendo's financial and business planning know what they're doing and probably have spreadsheets of predicted outcomes.
The problem is reaching the best profit margin. (Reminding of an old computer game in High School business class) Nintendo could build spend money on 100 new factories and pump out 100 million Wii's in one month to satisfy demand. But what happens when the month is over? Nintendo is left with 100 factories with 1000's of works sitting around picking their noses. Effectively, they'd start hemorrhaging money in keeping said factories with the only recourse to sell the factories.
Otherwise, they're now pumping out millions of of systems a month that no one is buying, because demand was just satisfied in one orgasmic explosion. All those systems are being pushed into storage, which costs money. Now, we look at something like the PS3 and all the design/model changes it had. If a design/model change happened to the Wii, it'd have to firesale it's entire stock to make way for the new stuff.
It's a balancing act and Nintendo has the benefit of pop-culture status with the Wii. The "OMG, there's a Wii on the Shelf" shock (thanks to customer experience and news media hype) practically guarantees an impulse purchase, if for no other reason to tell their friends they finally found a Wii (even if they just got a 360/PS3 as a gift).
Also, Nintendo increased output (that started 5 months ago) to *help* meet holiday demand but as there is with super popular things, there can only be a reasonable amount of product produced. Demand can come in spikes (holidays), but production simply cannot be spiked like that. It takes time to make a product, but takes an instant to create demand. And unlike the 360 or PS3, the Wii hasn't had time to stock up units for the holiday rush as it's been more-or-less sold out since it launched.
Cheers,
Fozzy
The question I have is, ok it's $1 billion this holiday season but what about the after affects of the holiday? How many people who are dying to get the Wii (but can't) will still go and buy it in Jan., Feb., Mar.? My guess? A lot. Considering they've been doing it since Nov. 2006.
It reminds of the pirated music idea. A person who pirates music(or movies) isn't necessarly going to be buying said music(or movies). Thus, one cannot say that pirating is a 1:1 effect on sales. Likewise, you cannot say that people who cannot buy a Wii as a gift for the holidays will not buy one after the holidays. Theoretically, if the Big N satisfied demand in December, they would then loose all those Q1 2008 sales. So, what's the point? The real question is, if those who want a Wii, but bought a 360/PS3, will still buy a Wii in the future?
Cheers,
Fozzy
Go install WinME and tell me WinXP wasn't a blessing of an upgrade! =D And I actually went from Win2k to WinXP and I loved it, as a gamer. As a business professional, it might have been different. But I saw less BSODs in WinXP, though, I admit, I don't know if I had SP0 version or not. XP was still young, but I don't remember how young.
Cheers,
Fozzy
Face to face... not butt to face. hehe
I admit. I typed "Yahoo" into Google before. =P
Hey, thanks for responding, my favorite Apple/Nintendo fangirl! =D
Nope. I admit I skipped over the Barbie part of your previous post. Though, this kind of action isn't a big problem as most stores I know have a "no purchase" policy that they take pretty serious. Not to say there isn't instances, but for the most part, I've not seen it happen, particularly with hot ticket items, which get scrutinized pretty seriously (like the Wii and Tickle-Me-Elmos).
Yup, I first bought something from them in 1997/8. Something around there. It was for printer ink. My last purchase was last week, but it's been 8 years since I my last purchase that I used eBay due to fraud abuse. This last purchase was for $10, to see if it's gotten better since. We'll see.
Well done! Obviously you have some entrepreneurial skills.
Yup, they where.
Yup, it did.
Definitely, I would support this point as I agree that such hot collector items and hard-to-find desirables (be it due to fevered holiday demand or old-old-age) has, at least, helped make eBay as popular as it is. Given that it has the largest market penetration ability, as in, the whole world (that has the internet). You can pretty much find anything.
So, great, you made fine points. Scalping is not new. But I have never said that it was. Less you missed it, let me quote my statements highlight a some key words...
The internet has changed everything and services like eBay have done their part, as you have acknowledged. However, unlike newspaper ads, the trunk of one's car, long trench coats, or even eBay in 1998, the Internet (and it's services) in 2007 have significant more impact on the consumer world and phenomenons such as holiday toy rushes or heavy hyped product releases (see: Wii, Playstation 3, iPhone, etc).
So, I think you miss-read or interpreted what I wrote before because you're arguing points that I never argued against, that scalping didn't exist before, as I actually agree with you and know that scalping isn't new, per-say, but it's current levels are exposing people to it who never would have experienced it in the past. Which, of course, might make some people believe this is a new thing, but I am not one of those.
Have a good one Porcupine!
That and there's plenty of mis-leading information. Not to say I'm for the MPAA or RIAA (I'm not, I believe piracy is a response to excessive prices in attempt of the market to correct itself), but here's another stupid comment he seems to be listening to...
Er... 20% living on campus isn't a 1:1 correlation to who's using the campus network. I worked at college computer lab and I didn't live on campus, and I used their network all the time (and before re-imaging lappys, I know that there are a lot of others pirating from campus without living on campus). It's pretty easy to download stuff via Wireless with a laptop or directly on a campus machine and copy it to a flash drive. Heck, our university even "loaned" laptops overnight or for a few days, in which they could easily download music or movies. Heck, I never even had DSL/Cable because it was just a short walk to the Union to plug-in my laptop and game. It saved me $40+/month and as a college student that was a "good thing"(tm).
With that said, it's also likely there are plenty of other people with DSL/Cable downloading crap. The only difference, you're roommates will come and hang you if you bring down their ping on Counter-Strike or WoW. So, I think it's likely a lot more than 20% use the campus networks.
Cheers,
Fozzy
Absolutely, it's not *new* for parents to fight over hot Xmas gift items and that's not the point I was trying to make. The point was it's new that the level of scalping that's going on and the competition that brings. Most of the parents that fought over Tickle-Me-Elmo or Cabbage Patch Kids did so and lost to those who where going to use them.
"Product Scalping" is having all the rules of Ticket Scalping applied with little of the draw-backs. Scalpers have no worries of having a zero worth product, a Wii will retain it's retail value even after Xmas and can still be sold for little-to-no-loss. Scalpers are camping out for days to pick something up, something more parents cannot do. Scalpers and parents alike are turning to an army of the no-job, living-in-the-parents-basement type to stand outside in blistering colds to buy up any supply, just to compete.
Suffice it to say, there wasn't the availability of the internet and services like eBay to make that so easy for most products of the past. And now with all the media attention and large profits being touted about by news services, it's getting the attention of people who want make a fast buck. I admit, I considered doing it before the Wii/PS3 launched. I know a friend who helped his relative scalp PS3 (not as successfully given the lack of PS3 popularity).
The game is the same, but the rules and players have dramatically changed, and that's what makes it new. Of course, I also hate scalping (any kind). I laughed when all the scalpers got screwed when Led Zeppelin announced that you have to present the original purchasing credit card with the tickets to get into the show. Though, unlike Zeppelin tickets, which have a second stage of transaction (entry into the event), products don't have this.
It's one thing to loose out to another parent with child who wants something. It's entirely something else to loose out to someone who'll (literally) turn around and offer the item to you at 10x cost. Of course, where does it stop? I waited outside for hours in the cold to just PRE-ORDER a Wii... and I was pretty much last in line. Product cannot even get to stores before they're tagged with someone's name.
Cheers,
Fozzy
I never had a problem canceling, but (like I said) I found it more difficult than expected. I expected to just log into my online account and find a some sort of "big red cancel me" button. Something akin to canceling your membership to an online game such as WoW. What I did find was a few clicks to find out I had to call in to cancel my online account. Ok, I can join up online, but I have to cancel through the phone? *shrug* I expected it to be easier given this was CR.
Though, it was a real simple and easy phone call to cancel through the phone without any hassling "trick questions" to keep your account or attempts to 'guilt' you from canceling. There's no problems canceling your account, just that it's more difficult than I would have expected given it's an online membership.
Cheers,
Fozzy
Excellent point. There are few consumer goods, toys if you will, that this applies to. This "ticket scalping" like attitude is pretty new to a lot of consumers and of course they're going to blame the company directly. However, it's not the case. Besides the unprecedented demand (it's been practically sold out for over a year in a lot of places) and the fact that hot toys, even when not in demand in the off season, can see sold-out status during the holidays, Nintendo has actually increased factory output for the holidays. Of course, I think 1.8 million consoles a month is nothing to shake a stick at.
I do feel sorry for a little sorry for those who cannot get one, but I also write it off as them not trying hard enough. With a little effort, it wasn't hard to get a Wii back in Oct. They would sit on the shelf for about 2 days before going sold out (according to GameStop and WalMart employees in my local area, YMMV). If you called every day, you'd have gotten one in a week. Of course, your best bet now is to wait until after Xmas, when the Wii bubble pops, and all those hording Wii's for premium re-sales during Xmas will flood the market at standard costs. Otherwise, good luck and keep trying!
Cheers,
Fozzy
Exactly. I signed up for CR online when I was looking to buy a new cars in 2006 (and still had it when I bought another in 2007). To find the right car for me I spent the $30 to help read up on the cars I was interested in. It helped. I was able to read up on the past history of the cars, like the Toyota Corolla, and find it had a long history of excellent reviews. I was also able to knock a few cars off my list, like the Chevy Aveo, which had a recall in 2006/7 (I forget what year). Despite both cars having similar gas milage, the Aveo was a much smaller car (something my fiancee, who's French, felt more comfortable with given her European cars) with not as good reviews. In America, given the average size of a car is much larger, I felt safer with her having a slightly bigger car and she's adjusted to the size difference, given that roads here are also much larger.
That small amount of money I wrote off as part of the cost of a proper new-car purchase. And what's $45 when you're spending $15,000? However, I have no reason to continue until there's some other big name purchase I want to do so I canceled. I'll pick up their magazine at the gym when I see one laying around. I also found it more difficult than expected to cancel my account with CR.
Cheers,
Fozzy
I've always been interested in why people find it ok to fart in the bathroom but not on the couch with your sweetheart?
Admittedly if it's loud, it's annoying, but what's so different about a fart in the bathroom to a face to face fart?
Cheers,
Fozzy
As a standards web developer, one can only say that's a good thing. Since that time MS and some of the big name web standards developers have come out in having people use the IE Conditional comments to target specific CSS code to (any) IE. It allows you to keep your main CSS files IE hack 'clean'.
Cheers,
Fozzy
The testers would have caught it but their computers didn't start when they tried to turn them on the next day so they could never identify it. =P
*had*? Did they fix it? I haven't played in 2-weeks (been busy) and I'm on the final push to the Hellgate, but I cannot play for 1-hour without the game locking up on me. It would be nice if they fixed that.
Then, when I'm done with Lego Star Wars, maybe I'll go back and finish that. It got pretty annoying that I had to stop. Though, I've never grouped up with anyone yet. Is that any good?
Cheers,
Fozzy
Well.. I *could* but the framerate was below 15fps. I think I had to turn off one of the anti-aliasing settings or something. Then again, I was having driver issues at the time. Every time I tried to update to the latest NForce driver it would fail to give proper widescreen monitor resolutions and my desktop would go to the dump. So, I was using a pretty old video driver which might have been causing issues. I also don't have SLI. Maybe it'll run well now that I've managed to update my video driver (finally).
But I have little interest in WoW until the next xPac comes out. I'll at least be able to advance my character again without having to schedule 4-hour gaming sessions to raid on Fri./Sat. nights (not something I'm willing to do anymore). That and I've been having a blast with Lego Star Wars, Mario Galaxies, and Resident Evil on the Wii along with Hellgate: London, Sam and Max episode 1 (it was free), Oblivion, FF VII and the Baulder's Gate series (yeah, I'm behind the times on some PC games ;p).
Cheers,
Fozzy
Yes. At least, when I stopped playing almost a year ago, when I bought my new Dell XPS system and played WoW with all the settings nearly maxed (I STILL couldn't max out all settings on a Duel-core system with GForce 7800 GTX and 2GB ram) the graphics quality was night and day from playing on my old P3 Inspiron notebook.
Sure, WoW can be played on low-end systems, but it's infinitely more beautiful on high-end systems. Moon/Sun reflections on water and roads. Much better water effects. Better shadowing and anti-aliasing. Longer view-distances. etc.
SLI will be fine as it will allow you to crank up the settings to max without suffering from poor framerates. So, is this laptop worth it? No. Is it a wet-dream? Yes and if you have the money to burn, go for it. It'll probably be a great laptop that lasts you a good 5+ years running high-end games. But do you want the "theme" skins? Dell owns Alienware. If you're going to drop $4.5k, you might just want to get one of those, it's going to have the same stuff (eventually) and it will have a universally cool case.
Cheers,
Fozzy
I downloaded Zelda 2 for the Wii VC and I understand now why I couldn't touch the game when I was a kid.
I agree that it's not the difficulty. It's the attempt to make an RPG with action elements but miss both the good RPG and action elements (of the 8-bit era). Take the first Castlevania NES game and compare it to Zelda 2 and one should see why Castlevania was a good action game and Zelda was not... there was always something to keep you interested. Re-skinning Zelda onto Castelvania would have been more fun than Zelda 2.
Cheers,
Fozzy
No, I re-read it a few times. This part particularly. The first reason is not a "good idea", as I premised it, but I didn't do a good job explaining why. Allowing multiple language support *would* allow flexibility (no argument there) but would be significantly worse for the end-user and developer because of 1) increased browser footprint size. Now browsers will need to implement programming language 'x','y','z'. Or maybe... they'll only implement language 'x' and 'z'.
Which leads to point 2) browser compatibility. JavaScript has been around 'forever'(in Internet history) and it's still poorly supported across browsers. Frameworks like jQuery or YUI! make things much better, but that doesn't change the fact that browser makers will do what they want. Once we start to allow IE or Netscape or Safari to freely implement whatever client side scripting languages they wants, then we'll soon see web pages that only work in Safari or IE or Netscape. All one has to do is look at ActiveX and the mess that created. Last I checked, it didn't make me or a lot of other people happy when I HAD to use the P.O.S. IE6 to access some website. I don't want that to happen again and I don't want to be a developer that has to also write 2,3,4,5 different programming scripts to make a website work on 2,3,4,5 different web browsers. Having code that says "If NN { Load NetScript } else if IE { Load LiveScript } else if FF { Load FoxScript}"... etc. Let-alone the fact that even if Mozilla implements MicroSoft scripting language, doesn't mean it's going to be 100% compatible, just like JavaScript is today.
See, that's why I believe the author did not present something that was a "good idea". Such "flexibility" is not a good thing on the web when the web NEEDS standards. It needs a standard scripting language (JavaScript), a standard markup language (SGML: HTML and XML), and a standard style language (CSS). We've already got plug-ins if that's not good enough. Flash, Java, etc. I'm sorry, I'm just not convinced by his arguments that multiple scripting languages (like allowing C++, .Net, etc) is a 'good thing'. Despite the fact that I would love to be able to program in something like C.
Of course, that doesn't solve the problem that is JavaScript. I don't disagree that it's broken to some extent and there's plenty of improvements that can be made. I just disagree with the idea of allowing browser makers decide what scripting languages they want to support, because they're not going to be able to support 'everything'(tm).
This is from the article...
I read this as the author not wanting to support JavaScript anymore. Though, securing JavaScript is another topic of discussion. I can fall on both sides of that argument depending on what 'security' someone is talking about because a) you cannot secure against shitty programming b) and any 'client side' languages have an inherit security issue. Namely letting a 3rd party execute code on a remote computer is a security red flag by it's very nature.
Thank you for correcting me. I appreciate it. (In all seriousness)
Actually, he's proposing MORE problems. Here's my take...
Why? Adding a "version" attribute it just going to break compatibility. The "web" has enough problems with compatibility, lets not inject MORE. Doctypes work fine. Sure, it's long and doesn't appear to make much sense reading it, but... if it's not broke, don't 'fix' it.
I'm sorry but the auther hasn't presented any compelling reason why this is a 'good idea'(tm) and I can think of several reasons this is a 'bad idea'(tm). Do have I have to mention active X, proprietary languages, and 'broken' sites because of it? Then the need for Web.Devs. job skills increase significantly and become much more cumbersome.
Hmmm... I don't like frames per say. I don't use them. Though, I don't see how modules are going to make things better or easier but more complex. A frame was simple. A window in a window. That's simple. If Developers abused them, it's the developers fault, not the language for having it. With "AJAX" and Flash video, I'm game to just remove frames all together.
It already can be done and this is not the responsibility of HTML. This is as annoying as forcing ones religion on someone else. I'm not going to tell Microsoft they have to use Mozilla's default CSS. Or Apple to stop using their pretty buttons in Safari. Forget it. It's a non-issue. CSS RESET already exists, and developers need to just be educated. Design topics don't have a place in HTML.
While I want to say "I agree with that" because that's what I do, I think, again, "only" is not the right choice. Can we predict the future? Will UTF-8 be suitable 'forever'? Funny, computers original "only" supported latin characters. That wasn't a good idea. "only" supporting UTF-8 is also a bad idea, but I would like to see it used a default.
I agree with this.
I 100% disagree. Standards are standards. If we don't want browsers to "perform heroics" on correcting 'bad code' then lets not give people confusing "standards" of "it's ok to it like this... or like this... or this is 'ok' too!". No.
and . Tags are tags and they have a function. There are no "special" children. But I do think [script] needs empty tag support.
Agree.
What's wrong with "display:block"? If you want a [div] tag use one. If you want to make your own tag name, then don't try to make it a [div]. Div's are "block" elements. If you want a block element then "display:block".
I agree. But are we talking about HTML or JavaScript now? And why are you talking about JavaScript when you already said you don't want to support JavaScript? I'm confused as to your intentions.
Kudos for trying, but I think you missed the target.
Cheers,
Fozzy
I owned an original PSP and I never heard of Ghosting as a problem. Dead Pixels, yet. Not ghosting. I had 3-4 dead pixels on mine. Only one was annoying, but livable. Either way, I thought the screen was beautiful and never had a complaint about it.
Oh well, I guess I'll burn some karma for this topic.
High profile? Are you kidding? Paris Hilton, Brittney Spears, and Lindsy Lohan got more press coverage for drunk driving in one day than this entire strike has garnered this entire time. In fact, the last I heard in the news was how the Screenwriters are screaming conspiracy because they're NOT getting the air-time they want!
You're right, but I think he was going for "la France" as that's the popular phrase, but this isn't French class. Would it be too ironic to call you a French grammar Nazi?
Why?The France are generally great people (as much as I love to give them the hardest time about their poor government programs, shitty service at banks and government offices, or their military victories). Speaking as an American who's engaged to and has been dating a French woman for over 4-years. By no means am I an expert, but I've a fair share of French Culture, sometimes the hard way.
That would be a first. You'd definitely take them by surprise. ;P
See, now I know that you don't understand the French. It doesn't take balls. It doesn't take much at all. Striking in France is practically a hobby. They... Do... It... All... The... Time... Seriously, I cannot remember a time I was in France that didn't have strikes (or riots). I only laugh when CNN or some other outlet covers it as some sort of "end of France" like story.
Sadly, there's a group of people (usually college students) that don't even know half the facts about what they're striking about. All they want to do is participate in a strike. Strikes also go far beyond "right". Just ask all the students and professors that where forcibly turned away from their classes (during important exams no less) by other students that were protesting. "My 'Rights' trump yours" is a more realistic motto for for some.
France is also as media driven as the U.S. All it takes is one news broadcast or paper to say "train works will have to work more for less" to send all government workers on Strike without understanding the situation. Simply put, protest is part of the French culture. Just ask Marie Antoinette, who took away their baguettes and she lost her head. =P
Tell that to the endless number of people who are not striking and cannot make it to their jobs against their will because they rely on public transportation. How about the harm to their countries economy? For what? The reasons for these strikes are just asinine. They're not trying to abolish the train system, striking to show what it would be like to not have trains isn't going to make a point. They're not trying to layoff the train work force. Striking to show how less workers would mean less trains and poorer service is not going to make a point.
In fact, that extra 6 billion euros a year they will get for moving the retirement age back to 55, instead of 50, could be spent to INCREASE the number of jobs available. Something that France still needs badly. But this small group of French activists don't see it like that. It's "more work, less pay" and that's how the media totes it. Good thing the majority of France isn't that stupid and support president Sarko's reforms despite the hardships the monopolist unions are trying to strangle the French citizens with by forcing them into submission and making their lives hell.
The real story about the recent train strikes isn't the train strikers but the average French commuter who continues to go to work in defiance to the strikes. That speaks louder than the *yawn* Paris marches.
Cheers,
Fozzy
Ironically, CC companies call those people "Dead-Beats". However, as a commuter, I can safely say that I will continue to use my gas credit card to continue to save 5% on all my gas purchases. A cost that I'd have to pay independent of using a debt or credit card.
Cheers,
Fozzy