Assuming we can fit, say, ten trillion people per solar system...
You're also making the fatal assumption that each of those ten trillion people won't have 38 IPv6 addressable devices. I know that I've got at least 6 IPv4 addessable devices. What makes you think that that number per capita won't increase in the future?
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.xcerion.com%2F
Those guys can't even put down proper HTML, I'm not sure i'd trust them to write a whole web-based "OS" in XML
I highly doubt that the score listed there is truly indicative of anyone's coding prowess. FFS, Google's score still sucks. But I will say one thing: Both sites look fine.
At first glance I had thought this was the poster child for what could go wrong with the ill fated battery debacle that Dell and others had gone through, but, FTA:
I told him I had a Dell Inspiron 1200.
His model isn't on Dell's official list of affected models. So, one wonders, was it the "laptop, battery, or cord" that started the fire? I would imagine that if the cord wasn't severely mangled, and assuming the laptop itself didn't have a very serious manufacturing flaw (that probably would have prevented it from working in the first place), perhaps the transformer was at fault.
Reading the article though, I found it very... unsatisfying. It seems more that the real news is the writer's inability to get any meaningful correspondence with Dell about this particular issue... but then again, that isn't really news.
FWIW, Bluray is superior to HD-DVD in many ways.
When it comes down to it, I would rather pick a Blu-Ray disk over an HD-DVD disk, if the disk was the ONLY factor in the choice. Blu-Ray is superior to HD-DVD, yes. MPEG-2 is NOT superior to VC-1. End of story. To top it off, HD-DVD is cheaper to manufacture, as it's pressed with existing pressing hardware. HD-DVD is superior in its creation (win for the publisher) and its quality (win for the consumer) and its price (win for the consumer). Blu-Ray has more space.
To say that Blu-Ray trumps HD-DVD in a bunch of ways is simply ignorant. It doesn't add up.
However, when you say this:
The real winner will be Internet ala carte providers, who give the consumers what they want, when they want it. Sony shouldn't fear HD-DVD. They should fear Apple iTunes.
You're absolutely right. The next Rupert Murdoch will be the man to create this service, and offer it at a reasonable price. The real question is that, knowing this, is that person going to be Steve Jobs? Will it be Bill gates? Could it be Google? Hell, it might even be Rupert Murdoch.
Funny enough, I also have the Motorola e815. You see, I haven't always had huge disgust toward Verizon until a few months ago. When I bought my e815 I was all excited because it was a very full featured phone, could play mp3's, had a slot for a memory card, and had bluetooth (woot). I bought the data cable and took it home and immediately tried to connect it to my computer so I could cut some ringtones (which cost more than FULL SONGS) and put them on my mp3 capable phone.
6 hours later, after acquiring software I wasn't supposed to have and having risked completely hosing my phone by editing its seem file, I had done what I'd set out to do. The fact that I had to do it was ridiculous, and when I discovered that what I was trying to do was indeed possible--by shelling out a certain amount of money to Verizon to utilize services that shouldn't even require connection to their network--I was upset, to say the least, but relieved that at least there was an option if you're inclined to take the necessary steps.
My e815 is no longer one of Verizon's offerings as a phone. I was excited recently to learn that my contract would be expiring soon, and I could get a new phone. I would want one that's at least as functional as my current phone, and also one that utilizes the same version (or an improved version) of the UI that's on my e815. It's a good UI, and compared to other offerings like LG, it has a third navigation button which is sorely lacking on other phones--the menu button. But there's a problem that I discovered the last time I was at a Verizon store. The phone I want doesn't fucking exist in their lineup. That makes me sick.
Every single phone they sell is exactly the same. Sure, some have larger displays and really dysfunctional buttons (have you seen the RAZR?), but they're all just as useless as a free LG PoS.
Let me make an anaolgy for you as to why this is bad. You arrive at a Kia dealership and look at their cheapest car. Upon test driving it, you find that it has no power windows, no power locks, no A/C, no cruise control, an underpowered engine, looks like a toy, and costs $8000. You go down the street to the Cadillac dealership and find that all of their cars have the Power windows, power seats, power locks, A/C, cruise, big V8's, etc. However, you find that they repainted it to look just like the Kia, and you have to pay them a monthly premium every time you want to roll down your windows. It also costs 50 grand.
You'd tell them to go fuck themselves. Of course, both cars will still get you from A to B, just like a Verizon phone will always make the phone call. Either way, any informed person would take their business somewhere else.
Between neutered Bluetooth and very few ways to get anything onto the device short of VCAST
It seems you left out that part about completely stripping the UI (that was designed by the phone manufacturer, you know, the ones with the vision of how the device should work) and replacing it with Fisher Price UI v2.0.
I've got a great idea for a cellular company, and we should make it. First, lets disable every new feature on a product that we sell, and replace it with a shittier version that will allow us to charge people money and provide it over the network. Second, lets remove any and all innovation that could ever go into a device by stripping its UI and replace that with something that might make people more inclined to purchase things over our network (you need to use Get It Now to view pictures you've taken with the built in camera). Third, lets charge an average of $20 more than every other provider, and carry fewer minutes and the same or shorter warranty.
And last, but most certainly not least, before we slowly rape the customer over a two year contract and laugh all the way to the bank, let's name ourselves Verizon Wireless, and give everyone no choice but to buy from us, because, of course, "It's the [fuckin'] network."
As soon as every HDTV is connected to an HTPC, and every HTPC is connected to a 25+ Mbit internet connection.
I have done some in home experiments with streaming VC-1 encoded HD content over IP, and it works rather well. But the fastest connections available to consumers (even at higher prices) are about 15 Mb/s from services like Verizon's FIOS. HD-DVD content seems to average about 17+ Mb/s while watching the video (at least that's what powerdvd says). If you can't find an internet connection that'll give you not only that, but at least another 75-100% of wiggle room to allow for buffering and high motion scenes where the bitrate will spike 25-30 Mbits plus, well, then, you're not going to match the experience of HD media. And you're also going to need a server that can stream out 20-30 gigs of content to a single site in 2 hours or less. To a hundred thousand people at the same time. I mean, I won't lie and say it's impossible, but it's not practical.
HD-DVD and Blu Ray are the stopgap solutions until something like HD over IP is practical, which won't be for a while. It might not even be for another 10 years (though I believe it'll be sooner), but I think that 10 years, nay, maybe even 5, is long enough to justify creation and use of a format.
Jim | Today | FOOL YOUR PARENTS! MYSPACE SPYWARE REMOVER!
Social networking at its best, would be the method to defeat this.
Of course, chances are really good that every bulletin like that would just link to a porn site, a pyramid scheme, a myspace layout site, or, ironically enough, more spyware.
You bring up a good point, but I must say that my statement should be taken with a grain of salt. To put it another way: From my [completely biased because I'm an American] point of view, I would almost expect that you should see the flagship of scientific revolution to be here in the States. And, seeing this article affirm that assumption is quite... reassuring.
Knowing that education in this country is a far cry beyond (in a general sense) many others in the world, I wouldn't expect this finding to hold true for the rest of my lifetime, and I recognize that it wouldn't necessarily be the case even today, until I read this. And with a bit of whimsy, like the man who fears losing a bet he knows he's going to win, I ask, "wouldn't you expect it?"
It's comforting to know that in the fields of science and medicine I can find the most advanced things close to home, and growing up here, it *is* something I would expect from this country. I just hope I won't look like an idiot for saying so in another twenty years.
...neither am I an expert, I have spoken with people who have both visited and attended MIT and when I speak with them about what goes on there, I always hear tales of really cutting edge stuff. Most of it is medical and scientific in nature, but nonetheless, the place is always spoken of highly by the people I hear speak of it.
Of course, I also hear about amazing things that are being done that are just as cutting edge and just as important in places such as The Cleveland Clinic.
I guess what it comes down to is the fact that, while you may hear about someone at a renowned hospitol getting the first artificial heart, or using his brain to control a computer, MIT will one up them with something a lot less obvious, like taking away the need for a heart, or *replacing* the brain with a computer.
At the heart of it, science and medicine are the two areas that I think are ultimately the most important to progress in, but the point is that it doesn't matter where or how it gets done, just as long as progress is made. I find it nice (being an American) that scientific revolution is a home grown product for me, but then again, revolution is, of course, in our roots.
I know it has been asked before, but WHY in the name of GOD does this kind of information need to be on a fucking laptop?!
My mother works at a VA hospitol and as such, has access to read and modify all the personal information necessary to commit identity theft on thousands of patients, and of course, she has a laptop computer issued by the hospitol so that she can work from afar. When she originally received it, it was nothing more than a Win2k box with VPN software, MS terminal services. All of the sensitive data was/is stored on the servers on their intranet. After a small "upgrade," the laptop was returned, only this time it came back with a full encryption setup. The interesting thing is that there is STILL no sensitive data stored on the laptop. It is, however, just as easily accessible. The point is, if someone stole that laptop, no sensitive data would be compromised, even if the encryption was broken (which probably wouldn't happen).
I don't fucking understand, why when we have the technology READILY available to completely prevent this kind of crap, that it isn't used. A shout out to all the companies on this planet: Centralize your damned security. Laptops cost $500. This kind of shit publicity and potential lawsuits cost a hell of a lot more.
I don't use Microsoft's products because I want to. I use them (on occasion) because I'm forced to by the standards of others (Word documents, argh) that Microsoft has carefully crafted.
I personally hate Word, but not because I think it's a shitty word processor, but because in the paperless world of today, working in the constraints of an 8" x 11" sheet of virtual white space is beyond stupid. Text documents should function more like a web page (or perhaps more like a user friendly Wikipedia page) and contain automatic printer formatting capabilities... There was a project I read about a couple years back called Transliterature http://www.transliterature.org/ that called for a "revolution" in how we transmit and manipulate written information in a digital medium. You might want to read up on it because it makes a hell of a lot more sense than the emulated paper (with oh so dangerous macros!) that we've been using for the last thirty years. If Microsoft even adopts some of the outlines of that format, I know I wouldn't hate the program quite so much...
Of course, I'll admit, "Paper on a Computer Screen" v11.x is really, really, damn good at what it does. I can't imagine how they can keep adding features to a program with such a bland purpose.
The 360's HDDVD drive already works on PC... I'm not sure how well it works, but I'm waiting for some more info because I'm seriously considering buying one. I've already watched some of the 1080p content available over at apple.com and needless to say, I'm spoiled against DVD's and DVD rips.
I use my car every day. It's an excellent car. Ten years old, low miles, runs like a dream. I take care of it. I change the oil, I lube the joints, etc. The engine under the hood was engineered by the best at General Motors, and its quality is obvious every time I start the vehicle. It performs well, it gets good mileage, and it works on all the roads in the country. I've got a couple gripes about the design, and the anti theft system is a joke, and wiring the stereo was a bitch, but in the end, I paid $5,000 for that vehicle. It was worth every penny.
I use Windows XP every day. It's an excellent operating system. Five years old, two service packs, runs like a dream. I take care of my computer. I defrag the hard drive, I make backups, I vacuum out the dust. The kernel was engineered by the best at Microsoft, the OS is silky smooth and it's obvious every time I boot my computer. It's extremely stable, and boasts uptimes that can turn heads. My games run well and my web browsing is rather snappy. I've got a couple gripes about the interface, but in the end, I paid $100 for that operating system. It was worth every penny.
No one should ever bitch about anti-piracy mechanisms in an operating system. If you don't steal it, they don't bother you.
I have bought music from iTunes. Once. After buring one CD (I don't have an iPod) and then reformatting and not being allowed to redownload the files (which is bullshit. I paid for them.), I haven't done it since. In that time, I've discovered that I only really like maybe one or two of the songs I purchased, and my total ran me over $25. $25 to listen to TWO songs occasionally? There's something wrong with that.
Most of the stuff that comes out tends to be crap. It is enjoyable to listen to and then a month later you never want to hear the song again. That's not a worthwhile investment. In fact, it's a waste of money. Top it off with DRM and you run into the realization that you can't even give away something you consider to be worthless, and piracy starts to looks pretty attractive.
Since my iTunes blunder, the CD I burned is scratched to all hell now, I've downloaded a few albums and after finding some I enjoy, I've actually bought the CD. Granted, if I was a teenager, I probably wouldn't... seeing as how I wouldn't have a job and all... I'd probably rather go buy overpriced clothes or something.
Sorry, trying to make Firefox look bad hasn't worked in the past and it won't work now.
You're basically saying, "Even things such as massive memory management issues can't make Firefox look bad, and that, of course, is by virtue of its being Firefox." That's some type of logical flaw, but I forget which one it is.
Of course, I happen to love Internet Explorer, especially IE7RC1. And nothing, not even the new Anti-Phising features and the low memory usage for multiple tabs and instances can make my browser look good. It hasn't worked in the past and it won't work now.
Not really.
If these systems look for patterns of behavior, it is completely plausible to say that, in a certain area, a legitimate shopper who is a white male acts this way, and a potential white male shoplifter acts this way. It would likely be oversight to simply assume that, for the same two shoppers, being in the same place only of a different color, would act in the exact same fashions given the same intent.
Just cause you're white, black, Asian, whatever, doesn't mean you shoplift in the same fashion as everyone else. But it doesn't mean you shop in the same fashion either. The definition of inconspicuous changes wildly from place to place, and person to person.
Apply the same formula to age and gender and then reevaluate the profiles for different areas and you can see my point. Perhaps gay shoppers behave differently too....
For this purpose, I would say that "serious" could be defined as a person that confers joy with the acquisition of items or other valuables in the game. Not that such notions are by any means unwarranted, believe me, I loved every purple I ever got.
The reason that these players would buy these packs, but not necessarily actively seek one, is for the same reason you're still carrying around that little pet rabbit or cockroach or kitten or cockatiel or whatever in your backpacks... The same reason that you would like to have a baby murloc and, supposing you could get one for three bucks, you'd consider plunking down the change... It's not that someone such as yourself doesn't plan to buy the cards, it's that you don't plan to never buy them.
Slashdot Mirror
You're also making the fatal assumption that each of those ten trillion people won't have 38 IPv6 addressable devices. I know that I've got at least 6 IPv4 addessable devices. What makes you think that that number per capita won't increase in the future?
Nerd opinions are nothing but oversight, eh?
I highly doubt that the score listed there is truly indicative of anyone's coding prowess. FFS, Google's score still sucks. But I will say one thing: Both sites look fine.
640 gigs ought to be enough for anybody.
I told him I had a Dell Inspiron 1200.
His model isn't on Dell's official list of affected models. So, one wonders, was it the "laptop, battery, or cord" that started the fire? I would imagine that if the cord wasn't severely mangled, and assuming the laptop itself didn't have a very serious manufacturing flaw (that probably would have prevented it from working in the first place), perhaps the transformer was at fault.
Reading the article though, I found it very... unsatisfying. It seems more that the real news is the writer's inability to get any meaningful correspondence with Dell about this particular issue... but then again, that isn't really news.
When it comes down to it, I would rather pick a Blu-Ray disk over an HD-DVD disk, if the disk was the ONLY factor in the choice. Blu-Ray is superior to HD-DVD, yes. MPEG-2 is NOT superior to VC-1. End of story. To top it off, HD-DVD is cheaper to manufacture, as it's pressed with existing pressing hardware. HD-DVD is superior in its creation (win for the publisher) and its quality (win for the consumer) and its price (win for the consumer). Blu-Ray has more space.
To say that Blu-Ray trumps HD-DVD in a bunch of ways is simply ignorant. It doesn't add up.
However, when you say this: The real winner will be Internet ala carte providers, who give the consumers what they want, when they want it. Sony shouldn't fear HD-DVD. They should fear Apple iTunes.
You're absolutely right. The next Rupert Murdoch will be the man to create this service, and offer it at a reasonable price. The real question is that, knowing this, is that person going to be Steve Jobs? Will it be Bill gates? Could it be Google? Hell, it might even be Rupert Murdoch.
Will it be me? Will it be you?
Funny enough, I also have the Motorola e815. You see, I haven't always had huge disgust toward Verizon until a few months ago. When I bought my e815 I was all excited because it was a very full featured phone, could play mp3's, had a slot for a memory card, and had bluetooth (woot). I bought the data cable and took it home and immediately tried to connect it to my computer so I could cut some ringtones (which cost more than FULL SONGS) and put them on my mp3 capable phone.
6 hours later, after acquiring software I wasn't supposed to have and having risked completely hosing my phone by editing its seem file, I had done what I'd set out to do. The fact that I had to do it was ridiculous, and when I discovered that what I was trying to do was indeed possible--by shelling out a certain amount of money to Verizon to utilize services that shouldn't even require connection to their network--I was upset, to say the least, but relieved that at least there was an option if you're inclined to take the necessary steps.
My e815 is no longer one of Verizon's offerings as a phone. I was excited recently to learn that my contract would be expiring soon, and I could get a new phone. I would want one that's at least as functional as my current phone, and also one that utilizes the same version (or an improved version) of the UI that's on my e815. It's a good UI, and compared to other offerings like LG, it has a third navigation button which is sorely lacking on other phones--the menu button. But there's a problem that I discovered the last time I was at a Verizon store. The phone I want doesn't fucking exist in their lineup. That makes me sick.
Every single phone they sell is exactly the same. Sure, some have larger displays and really dysfunctional buttons (have you seen the RAZR?), but they're all just as useless as a free LG PoS.
Let me make an anaolgy for you as to why this is bad. You arrive at a Kia dealership and look at their cheapest car. Upon test driving it, you find that it has no power windows, no power locks, no A/C, no cruise control, an underpowered engine, looks like a toy, and costs $8000. You go down the street to the Cadillac dealership and find that all of their cars have the Power windows, power seats, power locks, A/C, cruise, big V8's, etc. However, you find that they repainted it to look just like the Kia, and you have to pay them a monthly premium every time you want to roll down your windows. It also costs 50 grand.
You'd tell them to go fuck themselves. Of course, both cars will still get you from A to B, just like a Verizon phone will always make the phone call. Either way, any informed person would take their business somewhere else.
It seems you left out that part about completely stripping the UI (that was designed by the phone manufacturer, you know, the ones with the vision of how the device should work) and replacing it with Fisher Price UI v2.0.
I've got a great idea for a cellular company, and we should make it. First, lets disable every new feature on a product that we sell, and replace it with a shittier version that will allow us to charge people money and provide it over the network. Second, lets remove any and all innovation that could ever go into a device by stripping its UI and replace that with something that might make people more inclined to purchase things over our network (you need to use Get It Now to view pictures you've taken with the built in camera). Third, lets charge an average of $20 more than every other provider, and carry fewer minutes and the same or shorter warranty.
And last, but most certainly not least, before we slowly rape the customer over a two year contract and laugh all the way to the bank, let's name ourselves Verizon Wireless, and give everyone no choice but to buy from us, because, of course, "It's the [fuckin'] network."
You're right.
As soon as every HDTV is connected to an HTPC, and every HTPC is connected to a 25+ Mbit internet connection.
I have done some in home experiments with streaming VC-1 encoded HD content over IP, and it works rather well. But the fastest connections available to consumers (even at higher prices) are about 15 Mb/s from services like Verizon's FIOS. HD-DVD content seems to average about 17+ Mb/s while watching the video (at least that's what powerdvd says). If you can't find an internet connection that'll give you not only that, but at least another 75-100% of wiggle room to allow for buffering and high motion scenes where the bitrate will spike 25-30 Mbits plus, well, then, you're not going to match the experience of HD media. And you're also going to need a server that can stream out 20-30 gigs of content to a single site in 2 hours or less. To a hundred thousand people at the same time. I mean, I won't lie and say it's impossible, but it's not practical.
HD-DVD and Blu Ray are the stopgap solutions until something like HD over IP is practical, which won't be for a while. It might not even be for another 10 years (though I believe it'll be sooner), but I think that 10 years, nay, maybe even 5, is long enough to justify creation and use of a format.
It's not broken! I swear it works just as well as all the myspace bulletins do!
How dare you take away from the flare of this lawsuit!
Now click here for a free PS3!
...imagine what they can do when they really put their mind to it?Read: Cash.
Social networking at its best, would be the method to defeat this.
Of course, chances are really good that every bulletin like that would just link to a porn site, a pyramid scheme, a myspace layout site, or, ironically enough, more spyware.
You bring up a good point, but I must say that my statement should be taken with a grain of salt. To put it another way: From my [completely biased because I'm an American] point of view, I would almost expect that you should see the flagship of scientific revolution to be here in the States. And, seeing this article affirm that assumption is quite... reassuring.
Knowing that education in this country is a far cry beyond (in a general sense) many others in the world, I wouldn't expect this finding to hold true for the rest of my lifetime, and I recognize that it wouldn't necessarily be the case even today, until I read this. And with a bit of whimsy, like the man who fears losing a bet he knows he's going to win, I ask, "wouldn't you expect it?"
It's comforting to know that in the fields of science and medicine I can find the most advanced things close to home, and growing up here, it *is* something I would expect from this country. I just hope I won't look like an idiot for saying so in another twenty years.
...neither am I an expert, I have spoken with people who have both visited and attended MIT and when I speak with them about what goes on there, I always hear tales of really cutting edge stuff. Most of it is medical and scientific in nature, but nonetheless, the place is always spoken of highly by the people I hear speak of it.
Of course, I also hear about amazing things that are being done that are just as cutting edge and just as important in places such as The Cleveland Clinic.
I guess what it comes down to is the fact that, while you may hear about someone at a renowned hospitol getting the first artificial heart, or using his brain to control a computer, MIT will one up them with something a lot less obvious, like taking away the need for a heart, or *replacing* the brain with a computer.
At the heart of it, science and medicine are the two areas that I think are ultimately the most important to progress in, but the point is that it doesn't matter where or how it gets done, just as long as progress is made. I find it nice (being an American) that scientific revolution is a home grown product for me, but then again, revolution is, of course, in our roots.
It's to be expected, eh?
In Memoriam.
Over to my pantry I stroll, to pull out my long unopened pack of Nissin Top Ramen. I shall make a bowl to mark this tragic day.
Cheers, Slashdot.
Two words: Terminal Server.
I know it has been asked before, but WHY in the name of GOD does this kind of information need to be on a fucking laptop?!
My mother works at a VA hospitol and as such, has access to read and modify all the personal information necessary to commit identity theft on thousands of patients, and of course, she has a laptop computer issued by the hospitol so that she can work from afar. When she originally received it, it was nothing more than a Win2k box with VPN software, MS terminal services. All of the sensitive data was/is stored on the servers on their intranet. After a small "upgrade," the laptop was returned, only this time it came back with a full encryption setup. The interesting thing is that there is STILL no sensitive data stored on the laptop. It is, however, just as easily accessible. The point is, if someone stole that laptop, no sensitive data would be compromised, even if the encryption was broken (which probably wouldn't happen).
I don't fucking understand, why when we have the technology READILY available to completely prevent this kind of crap, that it isn't used. A shout out to all the companies on this planet: Centralize your damned security. Laptops cost $500. This kind of shit publicity and potential lawsuits cost a hell of a lot more.
I personally hate Word, but not because I think it's a shitty word processor, but because in the paperless world of today, working in the constraints of an 8" x 11" sheet of virtual white space is beyond stupid. Text documents should function more like a web page (or perhaps more like a user friendly Wikipedia page) and contain automatic printer formatting capabilities... There was a project I read about a couple years back called Transliterature http://www.transliterature.org/ that called for a "revolution" in how we transmit and manipulate written information in a digital medium. You might want to read up on it because it makes a hell of a lot more sense than the emulated paper (with oh so dangerous macros!) that we've been using for the last thirty years. If Microsoft even adopts some of the outlines of that format, I know I wouldn't hate the program quite so much...
Of course, I'll admit, "Paper on a Computer Screen" v11.x is really, really, damn good at what it does. I can't imagine how they can keep adding features to a program with such a bland purpose.
The 360's HDDVD drive already works on PC... I'm not sure how well it works, but I'm waiting for some more info because I'm seriously considering buying one. I've already watched some of the 1080p content available over at apple.com and needless to say, I'm spoiled against DVD's and DVD rips.
I use my car every day. It's an excellent car. Ten years old, low miles, runs like a dream. I take care of it. I change the oil, I lube the joints, etc. The engine under the hood was engineered by the best at General Motors, and its quality is obvious every time I start the vehicle. It performs well, it gets good mileage, and it works on all the roads in the country. I've got a couple gripes about the design, and the anti theft system is a joke, and wiring the stereo was a bitch, but in the end, I paid $5,000 for that vehicle. It was worth every penny.
I use Windows XP every day. It's an excellent operating system. Five years old, two service packs, runs like a dream. I take care of my computer. I defrag the hard drive, I make backups, I vacuum out the dust. The kernel was engineered by the best at Microsoft, the OS is silky smooth and it's obvious every time I boot my computer. It's extremely stable, and boasts uptimes that can turn heads. My games run well and my web browsing is rather snappy. I've got a couple gripes about the interface, but in the end, I paid $100 for that operating system. It was worth every penny.
No one should ever bitch about anti-piracy mechanisms in an operating system. If you don't steal it, they don't bother you.
http://jurassicparkwtf.ytmnd.com/
But I just had to.
I believe it has something to do with value.
I have bought music from iTunes. Once. After buring one CD (I don't have an iPod) and then reformatting and not being allowed to redownload the files (which is bullshit. I paid for them.), I haven't done it since. In that time, I've discovered that I only really like maybe one or two of the songs I purchased, and my total ran me over $25. $25 to listen to TWO songs occasionally? There's something wrong with that.
Most of the stuff that comes out tends to be crap. It is enjoyable to listen to and then a month later you never want to hear the song again. That's not a worthwhile investment. In fact, it's a waste of money. Top it off with DRM and you run into the realization that you can't even give away something you consider to be worthless, and piracy starts to looks pretty attractive.
Since my iTunes blunder, the CD I burned is scratched to all hell now, I've downloaded a few albums and after finding some I enjoy, I've actually bought the CD. Granted, if I was a teenager, I probably wouldn't... seeing as how I wouldn't have a job and all... I'd probably rather go buy overpriced clothes or something.
You're basically saying, "Even things such as massive memory management issues can't make Firefox look bad, and that, of course, is by virtue of its being Firefox." That's some type of logical flaw, but I forget which one it is.
Of course, I happen to love Internet Explorer, especially IE7RC1. And nothing, not even the new Anti-Phising features and the low memory usage for multiple tabs and instances can make my browser look good. It hasn't worked in the past and it won't work now.
...That we'll finally be able to determine if the hand that belongs to that face on the Martian surface is giving us the finger.
Not really. If these systems look for patterns of behavior, it is completely plausible to say that, in a certain area, a legitimate shopper who is a white male acts this way, and a potential white male shoplifter acts this way. It would likely be oversight to simply assume that, for the same two shoppers, being in the same place only of a different color, would act in the exact same fashions given the same intent.
Just cause you're white, black, Asian, whatever, doesn't mean you shoplift in the same fashion as everyone else. But it doesn't mean you shop in the same fashion either. The definition of inconspicuous changes wildly from place to place, and person to person.
Apply the same formula to age and gender and then reevaluate the profiles for different areas and you can see my point. Perhaps gay shoppers behave differently too....
For this purpose, I would say that "serious" could be defined as a person that confers joy with the acquisition of items or other valuables in the game. Not that such notions are by any means unwarranted, believe me, I loved every purple I ever got.
The reason that these players would buy these packs, but not necessarily actively seek one, is for the same reason you're still carrying around that little pet rabbit or cockroach or kitten or cockatiel or whatever in your backpacks... The same reason that you would like to have a baby murloc and, supposing you could get one for three bucks, you'd consider plunking down the change... It's not that someone such as yourself doesn't plan to buy the cards, it's that you don't plan to never buy them.