Not new - but definately a neat idea
on
Games on Demand
·
· Score: 2, Informative
The idea is not new - EB had a service that you could rent a computer game, and it would download and install to your system - allowing you to play the game for the specific period of time, then if you actually went out and bought it - the saved games and everything would transport right over. The service tanked (as far as I know, EB doesn't have a link to it anymore), don't know why... Hopefully, this one does better, and has a better selection of games.
You mean Nextel in the states? I personally have seen the Nextel phone, and if it weren't for the price and limitedness of how it exactly works, I would get one - use it all the time, as that is what most of my calls are for - little two or three second conversations confirming details, or asking directions.
Cell phone companies will find another way to prevent you from taking your cell phone number and/or equipment when you change carriers. It's sad, really, but that's the way these companies operate - snag the customer, keep them until they either default, or just can't take anymore.
I want it so that when you sign up to a company, you can keep the phone, even if you change services - the phone number can be changed, I don't care. But other people's milage my vary...
The problem is that no one teaches mainframe operations in schools, you basically need to learn by being dropped into it - and not screwing up everything. Fewer and fewer businesses are willing to invest in promising new talent to learn these legacy systems, but their own mainframe gurus are retiring or dying off - so eventually this corporations will 'bleed out' skill-wise.
And no, the mainframe cannot be replaced by a client-server solution. I listened to this moron chant throughout school - mainframes are not dead. REALITY CHECK - there are just some applications where a mainframe makes more sense. Mainframes can handle enormous amounts of data without having to break it up for a cluster, or without being bogged down with I/O like most client-server type solutions. Mainframes are great when you need to handle databases with tons of information in it - and you need to consistantly dig through it. Most machines cannot handle it, and will buckle. Mainframes almost never buckle, unless you are testing new stuff on them (naughty newbie - that's what a test LPAR is for) or you do funky things to them.
Great - so I can get inthralled by another series that gets canned. Dude - it's slated for the axe by the same people who have killed off Lexx, Stargate SG-1, and Farscape. Mainstream media doesn't WANT sci-fi - they want shows like Seinfeld, Cheers, Just Shoot Me, and Friends. They want something that you can just shut your brain off, put your feet up, and veg out to - nothing with serious 'let me think' value or anything with redeeming entertainment value either.
My question would be, "Who are they screw-heads, and why should I PAY them?!" Bills I don't remember instigating don't get paid. And let them sue me - they have to prove it.
Sure, Nintendo was found guilty and fined for price fixing, but like the music industry - will they just raise the price of every unit just as a big middle finger to every consumer?
RCA integrated a special plug that allowed the XBOX to function as an integrated AV device (as far as it was explained to me) hence they are the only ones to carry this logo. It's keyed, and makes hooking the console up to the television nearly idiot-proofed.
Lawmakers seem to forget the chain of how laws work - without enforcement, laws are nothing more than toilet paper with words on it. Poor idiots just keep passing laws against this or that, but those laws are instantly neutered when the police cannot enforce it because the law's enforcement requires authoritative clairivoyance, or it requires technology that just doesn't exist, or even the police themselves refuse to enforce it because it takes their manpower and equipment away from *real* problems.
I have always liked the idea of being able to take an address from your PC, transfer it to your PDA with contact information, and if your really having problems finding it - beaming it to your car's navigation computer to find the directions to get to said person's house - eliminating re-entry and it's associated problems.
And if it would make a universal standard for hands-free talking on a cell phone - why not? Granted, there will be people who will abuse it - and dumb people who will crash because they are using distracting features while driving, but perhaps they shouldn't be driving in the first place.
Why do we need another PDA device, exactly? I mean, yes, it uses Linux - but so does the Sharp Zaurus (sp?), and has had the kinks worked out of the mix more... Is this a case of India just wanting to say 'Me Too!'?
You know, I have gotten pretty pissed off at Hollywood - trying to make sure I watch what they want me to watch when they want me to watch at the price they want me to watch it at.
Has anyone considered BMWFilms.com? I mean, their films are short, but they are free. The only product they are trying to sell is BMW automobiles, and I already own one before I started watching their stuff. Now if they could just get other films produced, then we'd be in business. They don't even care if you share the films with your friends. Only hangup is that they need Windows Media Player, or Quicktime (they offer a third option, but as I don't use it and don't remember what it is - I won't guess).
When are we going to get tired of watching stupid Hollywood films, and just make one of our own - open source film.:)
I think the Direct Marketers who really want to sell stuff have realized that they need positive marketing techniques, and are willing to realize that the spammers, and other not-so-reputible business establishments have really made consumers sick to death of hearing from anyone selling anything.
The first step for these businesses is to see that spamming and dishonesty doesn't win customers - customers will not do business with you to spite you if they get ten unsolicitated e-mails from people about your business than if you just put on advertisement on television, or just used word-of-mouth advertising.
Patent abuse should really be punishable. I mean, patents were made to stifle innovation, they were made to promote it. Now we've got every tom-dick-and-harry patenting blatently prior art things, or just commonplace market things, and attempting to sue people out of existance.
Let's just make it that if you patent something that is reviewed, and sounds like a dug-headslap type thing - you get a toenail pulled out with a pair of pliers. On severe cases - just bring back public stoning (no, not drug induced bliss - bludgeoned to h*ll with big fu***** rocks) for the offending numbskull, and his/her lawyer.
The main problem with free (as in speech) universes is that someone had to labor to produce it - they had to have the inspiration to come up with it. Simply writing a line, and handing it to the next person is NOT what I believe this person had in mind.
Many writers feel very passionately about their settings, their characters, and their hard work. As an unpublished writer, I cringe every time people come up with an non-cannonical version of this, that, or the other thing - totally ruining the vision of characters, places, and events simply because the author didn't take the time to do his research.
With that said, however - the concept (if you could make it work, and enforce integrity) of free universes is appealing in that the story, and your characters live on after either you have died, or have moved on to other things.
I went the 'career first' route myself - and in the end, I now have to take the college I didn't when I first started in the IT/IS market. Personally, I regret it, as all the time I spent taking certification classes actually added up to more expense and more time than if I would have just pursued a degree from the local university.
It's easier when your younger - not only in the academic part, but the actual GETTING INTO COLLEGE part - as for some reason, jobs don't seem to understand older individuals WANTING to get their degrees later.
College IS expensive, but that's why the Federal and State government provide Financial Aid - to allow you to make yourself a more productive member of society (translation, paying more in taxes in the long run) in exchange for giving you a subsidized loan at good rates. Most of the time, they will even let you make no payments on it UNTIL 6 months after you graduate, then they keep your payments low so that you don't drown right away getting settled into your career ($50 dollars is a common monthly payment).
Go to college first - the job you get afterward will make the time and money spent worth it.
Once is funny, twice is even funny - if the material is good (but this is not). Malda just doesn't get it, and they want to get people to subscribe? Not with this happening EVERY year.
Even the local paper knows when to quit - something Slashdot needs desperately
I am afraid I have to back that position. I am not giving money to a company that is already calling me a theif, and I haven't had the pleasure of DOING anything yet!
I am not putting another dime in Disney's pocket so they can turn around and lobotomize my PC. I don't care how 'cool' or 'l337' their product(s) are, they're not getting my dollars.
But that would actually imply him READING the article, something that's sooooo passe for the Slashdot crowd.
It's been my experience that Slashdot likes to incite it's readers, not actually inform them. Such a monumental waste of a large readership - you can bet sites like The New York Times wish they had those numbers...
I was in a similar situation a year ago - presented with a Management position over the merger of two Life Insurance companies (guilty parties will remain nameless), they wanted someone with the experience I had - and the determination. However, I am NOT a leader. I take my queues from others - this is not a weakness to admit your shortcomings and to stick with what your good at, it's wiseman's common sense.
Anyway, I took the position under the assurance from my supervisor's supervisor that if I didn't like the job, I could return to my previous position. Oh how that was a lie. From the time I took the job, to the time of my termination - I had gone from model employee to Satan incarnate in 3 months time... New management turned my life upside down - suddenly the expectations on me were too high, and the price of failure was absolute.
I wish I could offer more encouraging words - but if you have any opportunity - just stall. If they want an absolute answer, and you feel you can sit down with someone whose in the decision chain but NOT your supervisor - address your concerns with this person. Otherwise, you might try to stall long enough to flee that place at once! Promotions to management is always a promotion with a demotion, and your fellow employees will HATE you for it.
Frankly, I don't know why they Federal Government is going hell-bent to ruin the economy with decisions like this... First it was denying to lower the high interest rate, then this. Stocks that were good buys are now tanking - million dollar businesses that have been around for years are going bankrupt, people are losing their life savings, and Greenspan just sits behind his nice little desk and smiles like an idiot.
I can see the potential revenue source - but it's not worth the problems it will cause to harness it. It would only be a consideration (not that I'd back it) IF the individual states removed their sales tax - but that will never happen. The Federal Government has already proven it cannot effectively spend the money given by other taxes and forms of revenue - why would this be any different.
It's sad Sony just decided to change the outside... It's like a cake made of crap, but it at least USED to have an excellent frosting on the outside... Now it doesn't even have that...:/
Does anyone take these people seriously anymore?
on
RIAA CEO Speaks
·
· Score: 1
My question:
Does anyone actually take the RIAA seriously anymore? They have pretty much demonstrated what interests they are protecting.
Don't get me wrong, I am for making money as the next person - but going into cafes and demanding money from every patron because the owner has the radio turned on, or has canned music in his/her/it's place? Come on...
They have never been much good at Customer Service. They have been stretching themselves too thin - and it shows in their financial status... I too hope that they can pull the company out of the slow spiral it was in...
Slashdot Mirror
The idea is not new - EB had a service that you could rent a computer game, and it would download and install to your system - allowing you to play the game for the specific period of time, then if you actually went out and bought it - the saved games and everything would transport right over. The service tanked (as far as I know, EB doesn't have a link to it anymore), don't know why... Hopefully, this one does better, and has a better selection of games.
You mean Nextel in the states? I personally have seen the Nextel phone, and if it weren't for the price and limitedness of how it exactly works, I would get one - use it all the time, as that is what most of my calls are for - little two or three second conversations confirming details, or asking directions.
Cell phone companies will find another way to prevent you from taking your cell phone number and/or equipment when you change carriers. It's sad, really, but that's the way these companies operate - snag the customer, keep them until they either default, or just can't take anymore.
I want it so that when you sign up to a company, you can keep the phone, even if you change services - the phone number can be changed, I don't care. But other people's milage my vary...
The problem is that no one teaches mainframe operations in schools, you basically need to learn by being dropped into it - and not screwing up everything. Fewer and fewer businesses are willing to invest in promising new talent to learn these legacy systems, but their own mainframe gurus are retiring or dying off - so eventually this corporations will 'bleed out' skill-wise.
And no, the mainframe cannot be replaced by a client-server solution. I listened to this moron chant throughout school - mainframes are not dead. REALITY CHECK - there are just some applications where a mainframe makes more sense. Mainframes can handle enormous amounts of data without having to break it up for a cluster, or without being bogged down with I/O like most client-server type solutions. Mainframes are great when you need to handle databases with tons of information in it - and you need to consistantly dig through it. Most machines cannot handle it, and will buckle. Mainframes almost never buckle, unless you are testing new stuff on them (naughty newbie - that's what a test LPAR is for) or you do funky things to them.
And that's when universities enact attendance requirements - auto-failing you if you don't attend x percent of the time.
Great - so I can get inthralled by another series that gets canned. Dude - it's slated for the axe by the same people who have killed off Lexx, Stargate SG-1, and Farscape. Mainstream media doesn't WANT sci-fi - they want shows like Seinfeld, Cheers, Just Shoot Me, and Friends. They want something that you can just shut your brain off, put your feet up, and veg out to - nothing with serious 'let me think' value or anything with redeeming entertainment value either.
My question would be, "Who are they screw-heads, and why should I PAY them?!" Bills I don't remember instigating don't get paid. And let them sue me - they have to prove it.
Sure, Nintendo was found guilty and fined for price fixing, but like the music industry - will they just raise the price of every unit just as a big middle finger to every consumer?
RCA integrated a special plug that allowed the XBOX to function as an integrated AV device (as far as it was explained to me) hence they are the only ones to carry this logo. It's keyed, and makes hooking the console up to the television nearly idiot-proofed.
Lawmakers seem to forget the chain of how laws work - without enforcement, laws are nothing more than toilet paper with words on it. Poor idiots just keep passing laws against this or that, but those laws are instantly neutered when the police cannot enforce it because the law's enforcement requires authoritative clairivoyance, or it requires technology that just doesn't exist, or even the police themselves refuse to enforce it because it takes their manpower and equipment away from *real* problems.
I have always liked the idea of being able to take an address from your PC, transfer it to your PDA with contact information, and if your really having problems finding it - beaming it to your car's navigation computer to find the directions to get to said person's house - eliminating re-entry and it's associated problems.
And if it would make a universal standard for hands-free talking on a cell phone - why not? Granted, there will be people who will abuse it - and dumb people who will crash because they are using distracting features while driving, but perhaps they shouldn't be driving in the first place.
Why do we need another PDA device, exactly? I mean, yes, it uses Linux - but so does the Sharp Zaurus (sp?), and has had the kinks worked out of the mix more... Is this a case of India just wanting to say 'Me Too!'?
You know, I have gotten pretty pissed off at Hollywood - trying to make sure I watch what they want me to watch when they want me to watch at the price they want me to watch it at.
:)
Has anyone considered BMWFilms.com? I mean, their films are short, but they are free. The only product they are trying to sell is BMW automobiles, and I already own one before I started watching their stuff. Now if they could just get other films produced, then we'd be in business. They don't even care if you share the films with your friends. Only hangup is that they need Windows Media Player, or Quicktime (they offer a third option, but as I don't use it and don't remember what it is - I won't guess).
When are we going to get tired of watching stupid Hollywood films, and just make one of our own - open source film.
I think the Direct Marketers who really want to sell stuff have realized that they need positive marketing techniques, and are willing to realize that the spammers, and other not-so-reputible business establishments have really made consumers sick to death of hearing from anyone selling anything.
The first step for these businesses is to see that spamming and dishonesty doesn't win customers - customers will not do business with you to spite you if they get ten unsolicitated e-mails from people about your business than if you just put on advertisement on television, or just used word-of-mouth advertising.
Patent abuse should really be punishable. I mean, patents were made to stifle innovation, they were made to promote it. Now we've got every tom-dick-and-harry patenting blatently prior art things, or just commonplace market things, and attempting to sue people out of existance.
Let's just make it that if you patent something that is reviewed, and sounds like a dug-headslap type thing - you get a toenail pulled out with a pair of pliers. On severe cases - just bring back public stoning (no, not drug induced bliss - bludgeoned to h*ll with big fu***** rocks) for the offending numbskull, and his/her lawyer.
The main problem with free (as in speech) universes is that someone had to labor to produce it - they had to have the inspiration to come up with it. Simply writing a line, and handing it to the next person is NOT what I believe this person had in mind.
Many writers feel very passionately about their settings, their characters, and their hard work. As an unpublished writer, I cringe every time people come up with an non-cannonical version of this, that, or the other thing - totally ruining the vision of characters, places, and events simply because the author didn't take the time to do his research.
With that said, however - the concept (if you could make it work, and enforce integrity) of free universes is appealing in that the story, and your characters live on after either you have died, or have moved on to other things.
I went the 'career first' route myself - and in the end, I now have to take the college I didn't when I first started in the IT/IS market. Personally, I regret it, as all the time I spent taking certification classes actually added up to more expense and more time than if I would have just pursued a degree from the local university.
It's easier when your younger - not only in the academic part, but the actual GETTING INTO COLLEGE part - as for some reason, jobs don't seem to understand older individuals WANTING to get their degrees later.
College IS expensive, but that's why the Federal and State government provide Financial Aid - to allow you to make yourself a more productive member of society (translation, paying more in taxes in the long run) in exchange for giving you a subsidized loan at good rates. Most of the time, they will even let you make no payments on it UNTIL 6 months after you graduate, then they keep your payments low so that you don't drown right away getting settled into your career ($50 dollars is a common monthly payment).
Go to college first - the job you get afterward will make the time and money spent worth it.
Once is funny, twice is even funny - if the material is good (but this is not). Malda just doesn't get it, and they want to get people to subscribe? Not with this happening EVERY year.
Even the local paper knows when to quit - something Slashdot needs desperately
I am afraid I have to back that position. I am not giving money to a company that is already calling me a theif, and I haven't had the pleasure of DOING anything yet!
I am not putting another dime in Disney's pocket so they can turn around and lobotomize my PC. I don't care how 'cool' or 'l337' their product(s) are, they're not getting my dollars.
But that would actually imply him READING the article, something that's sooooo passe for the Slashdot crowd.
It's been my experience that Slashdot likes to incite it's readers, not actually inform them. Such a monumental waste of a large readership - you can bet sites like The New York Times wish they had those numbers...
I was in a similar situation a year ago - presented with a Management position over the merger of two Life Insurance companies (guilty parties will remain nameless), they wanted someone with the experience I had - and the determination. However, I am NOT a leader. I take my queues from others - this is not a weakness to admit your shortcomings and to stick with what your good at, it's wiseman's common sense.
Anyway, I took the position under the assurance from my supervisor's supervisor that if I didn't like the job, I could return to my previous position. Oh how that was a lie. From the time I took the job, to the time of my termination - I had gone from model employee to Satan incarnate in 3 months time... New management turned my life upside down - suddenly the expectations on me were too high, and the price of failure was absolute.
I wish I could offer more encouraging words - but if you have any opportunity - just stall. If they want an absolute answer, and you feel you can sit down with someone whose in the decision chain but NOT your supervisor - address your concerns with this person. Otherwise, you might try to stall long enough to flee that place at once! Promotions to management is always a promotion with a demotion, and your fellow employees will HATE you for it.
Frankly, I don't know why they Federal Government is going hell-bent to ruin the economy with decisions like this... First it was denying to lower the high interest rate, then this. Stocks that were good buys are now tanking - million dollar businesses that have been around for years are going bankrupt, people are losing their life savings, and Greenspan just sits behind his nice little desk and smiles like an idiot.
I can see the potential revenue source - but it's not worth the problems it will cause to harness it. It would only be a consideration (not that I'd back it) IF the individual states removed their sales tax - but that will never happen. The Federal Government has already proven it cannot effectively spend the money given by other taxes and forms of revenue - why would this be any different.
It's sad Sony just decided to change the outside... It's like a cake made of crap, but it at least USED to have an excellent frosting on the outside... Now it doesn't even have that... :/
My question: Does anyone actually take the RIAA seriously anymore? They have pretty much demonstrated what interests they are protecting. Don't get me wrong, I am for making money as the next person - but going into cafes and demanding money from every patron because the owner has the radio turned on, or has canned music in his/her/it's place? Come on...
They have never been much good at Customer Service. They have been stretching themselves too thin - and it shows in their financial status... I too hope that they can pull the company out of the slow spiral it was in...