I've been with Vonage as a customer for a couple of years and they never really had solid revenues. The company's founders get rich quick plan was to go public and sell all their shares. However their financial statements didn't look stable in a volatile VOIP market. I don't remember the exact numbers but at the time they went public they spent roughly ~$100 of advertising per customer sign-up. Skype was gaining steam during this period as well.
They offered IPO stock to their customer base prior to going public and that idea tanked hard. A lot of people agreed to buy stock online but when the first day of trading bombed many didn't follow through. Vonage tried to threaten them with lawsuits but I don't think they actually did.
Are you talking about the random 1v1 PvP matches or team PvP matches? Neither of them were dominated by Wa/Mo. If anything, people were tired of the IWAY pickup teams and there was plenty of variety.
Or how about an open ended RPG system where you start off with a lower end level like an ELO chess rating. You can attempt any quest you want of various difficulties, but upon completion / failure within a certain (played) hourly time frame your level / rating moves up or down. It would also be better if you could change the quests to have more variety and skill based (e.g. puzzles, mini-multiplayer competitions) as opposed to pure get x item/kill x monster grindfests.
That's one aspect I liked about Guild Wars a lot. Max damage weapons were easily and cheapily attainable and you could create a max level PvP only character off the bat. All items traded / bought for huge prices were mostly for comsetic value and PvP was pretty much entirely skill based as opposed to who had the uber items from grinding the longest.
I just Googled and in addition with the most recent pricing error, came up with this (March 2003) and this (December 1999).
More importantly, from the last link:
The Federal Trade Commission generally occupies itself with unfair business practices like so-called bait-and-switch pricing and cedes issues of pricing errors to state jurisdictions. State contract laws, meanwhile, typically protect merchants who make a genuine error in pricing.
But other watchdog organizations may set higher standards. The Better Business Bureau Online, for instance, is drafting a new set of standards for Web merchants who want to post the organization's seal of approval on their sites. The current version of the draft requires merchants to "comply with all commitments, representations, and other promises made to a consumer."
Whether that statement would require a merchant to sell a DVD player for $100 as a result of an advertising error, however, is an open question. "We're open to feedback on this one," said Russ Bodoff, the Better Business Bureau Online's chief operating officer. "It's a difficult issue, because the Internet presents real questions around this area of consumer expectations."
I know that retailers such as Fry's have disclaimers in their weekly advertisements: "Store not responsible for pricing mistakes, etc." Does Amazon have any such clause in their T&C?
My point was that as individuals we should not be able to choose which laws to obey and which ones to disobey. What may be common sense to some may not be for others, that's why it's the governments' job to enforce all laws.
How would you feel if the police force suddenly decided to enforce only laws they agree with?
If you have a problem with a system or law, then try to change it instead of ignoring it. What would be the result if everyone used your mentality regarding laws?
I can't drink and drive? Fuck you, bust me.
Why can't I randomly fire my handgun into the air in urban areas? Fuck you, bust me.
I can't drive 100mph? Fuck you, bust me.
I'm not diagreeing with you that rural customers should pay more, but that's the difference between private and public companies. US Postal Service will deliver at a flat rate to Alaska / Hawaii despite losing money, while UPS / FedEx refuse to deliver or will charge higher rates.
Sometimes I wish there was a government broadband infrastructure in place in the US like Korea / China. They pay minimal monthly costs (even when compared to their relative salaries) for better access than I get for $55/mo.
I play(-ed as of two weeks ago) poker as sole income for the past 3 years. I've seen a lot of people burn out within 6-12 months. The only reason I can keep playing is that I truly enjoy the game outside of monetary value and I pace myself / have other things in my life.
I was also a video game reviewer in the past. Not as much fun as you would think when you're forced into playing games you don't really care about.
Washington State made playing online poker a class C felony (same as a registered sex offender) in June 2006:
http://washingtonvotes.org/2006-SB-6613
Now the state has extended the law to prosecute those who even write about online poker:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/ 2003062386_danny15.html
* Windows has a similar problem with only one Taskbar and only one Start Menu. Why not a Taskbar for each monitor and/or, even better, the ability to pop the Start Menu up directly under the cursor ?
* There's (typically) no "maximise across all screens" button.
These two problems can be solved by Ultramon. Actually, you don't get a start menu per monitor (only taskbar) but there is an option for each taskbar to only display items on that one monitor.
Don't forget about the price of controllers for multi-player fun. An additial 3 controllers were set you back ~$180, or $430 for console + 4 controllers.
Reflection of personal inbox / space is a reflection of personality, what else is new? Next thing I know some expert's going to walk into a messy room and say, "Your disorganized room states a lot about your personality."
Slashdot Mirror
I've been with Vonage as a customer for a couple of years and they never really had solid revenues. The company's founders get rich quick plan was to go public and sell all their shares. However their financial statements didn't look stable in a volatile VOIP market. I don't remember the exact numbers but at the time they went public they spent roughly ~$100 of advertising per customer sign-up. Skype was gaining steam during this period as well.
They offered IPO stock to their customer base prior to going public and that idea tanked hard. A lot of people agreed to buy stock online but when the first day of trading bombed many didn't follow through. Vonage tried to threaten them with lawsuits but I don't think they actually did.
Anyway, their stock has steadily dropped since that day:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=VG&t=1y
In Slashdot, titles resemble Soviet Russia jokes.
Dell already installs plenty of bloatware when it comes to pre-installed Windows machines, I would hate to think of a Dell version of Linux.
Are you talking about the random 1v1 PvP matches or team PvP matches? Neither of them were dominated by Wa/Mo. If anything, people were tired of the IWAY pickup teams and there was plenty of variety.
Or how about an open ended RPG system where you start off with a lower end level like an ELO chess rating. You can attempt any quest you want of various difficulties, but upon completion / failure within a certain (played) hourly time frame your level / rating moves up or down. It would also be better if you could change the quests to have more variety and skill based (e.g. puzzles, mini-multiplayer competitions) as opposed to pure get x item/kill x monster grindfests.
That's one aspect I liked about Guild Wars a lot. Max damage weapons were easily and cheapily attainable and you could create a max level PvP only character off the bat. All items traded / bought for huge prices were mostly for comsetic value and PvP was pretty much entirely skill based as opposed to who had the uber items from grinding the longest.
I just Googled and in addition with the most recent pricing error, came up with this (March 2003) and this (December 1999).
More importantly, from the last link:
The Federal Trade Commission generally occupies itself with unfair business practices like so-called bait-and-switch pricing and cedes issues of pricing errors to state jurisdictions. State contract laws, meanwhile, typically protect merchants who make a genuine error in pricing.
But other watchdog organizations may set higher standards. The Better Business Bureau Online, for instance, is drafting a new set of standards for Web merchants who want to post the organization's seal of approval on their sites. The current version of the draft requires merchants to "comply with all commitments, representations, and other promises made to a consumer."
Whether that statement would require a merchant to sell a DVD player for $100 as a result of an advertising error, however, is an open question. "We're open to feedback on this one," said Russ Bodoff, the Better Business Bureau Online's chief operating officer. "It's a difficult issue, because the Internet presents real questions around this area of consumer expectations."
I know that retailers such as Fry's have disclaimers in their weekly advertisements: "Store not responsible for pricing mistakes, etc." Does Amazon have any such clause in their T&C?
Are you arguing that individuals should be able to choose which laws to obey? Is this better for our society?
My point was that as individuals we should not be able to choose which laws to obey and which ones to disobey. What may be common sense to some may not be for others, that's why it's the governments' job to enforce all laws.
How would you feel if the police force suddenly decided to enforce only laws they agree with?
If you have a problem with a system or law, then try to change it instead of ignoring it. What would be the result if everyone used your mentality regarding laws?
I can't drink and drive? Fuck you, bust me.
Why can't I randomly fire my handgun into the air in urban areas? Fuck you, bust me.
I can't drive 100mph? Fuck you, bust me.
I'm not diagreeing with you that rural customers should pay more, but that's the difference between private and public companies. US Postal Service will deliver at a flat rate to Alaska / Hawaii despite losing money, while UPS / FedEx refuse to deliver or will charge higher rates.
Sometimes I wish there was a government broadband infrastructure in place in the US like Korea / China. They pay minimal monthly costs (even when compared to their relative salaries) for better access than I get for $55/mo.
So it's like doing all those menial quests in WoW? I can do that!
"No, but the guns create a culture of violence that tells them its ok to shoot people."
So people didn't kill each other before guns existed?
Fight over virtual sword from Legend of Mir 3 ends in jail time.
I play(-ed as of two weeks ago) poker as sole income for the past 3 years. I've seen a lot of people burn out within 6-12 months. The only reason I can keep playing is that I truly enjoy the game outside of monetary value and I pace myself / have other things in my life.
I was also a video game reviewer in the past. Not as much fun as you would think when you're forced into playing games you don't really care about.
http://washingtonvotes.org/2006-SB-6613
Now the state has extended the law to prosecute those who even write about online poker:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews
If you want to go super utilitarian just use a rubber band. Nothing says baller like pulling out a roll of hundreds. :p
* There's (typically) no "maximise across all screens" button.
These two problems can be solved by Ultramon. Actually, you don't get a start menu per monitor (only taskbar) but there is an option for each taskbar to only display items on that one monitor.
Don't forget about the price of controllers for multi-player fun. An additial 3 controllers were set you back ~$180, or $430 for console + 4 controllers.
You mean the other three guys, unless there's some 2-man variant of bridge that I'm unaware of.
How is this any different from spinning platters in hdds?
Reflection of personal inbox / space is a reflection of personality, what else is new? Next thing I know some expert's going to walk into a messy room and say, "Your disorganized room states a lot about your personality."
You mean a GP2k? http://gp2x.co.uk/aboutgp2x.html
you can use automatically created disposable e-mail addresses.