417493
story
palegray.net writes
"Wired is running a story on how Gwyneth Cravens, a former nuclear power protester has changed her views on nuclear power as a viable solution to the world's energy needs. Said Cravens: 'I used to think we surely could do better. We could have more wind farms and solar. But I then learned about base-load energy, and that there are three forms of it: fossil fuels, hydro and nuclear. In the United States, we're maxed out on hydro. That leaves fossil fuels and nuclear power, and most of the fossil fuel burned is coal.'"
417707
submission
Mike S. writes:
Nintendo WII's and the reason why Nintendo wants it SOLD OUT!.
I think this info needs to be put out right now, it should of been put out last year when all retailers were forced into the Nintendo NAR ( Nintendo Auto Replen ) program. Any retailer that did not want to be in NAR was not going to be selling Nintendo product.
Here is the real story
Last year around the time of the Nintendo WII launch, many retailers were aproached by Nintendo. This happened in the US first as Nintendo does not care about the Euro market as that is not where the problems are. I know i will get flamed for this, however consumers in North America need to wake up the reality of NO REFUND Policies coming up soon . In previous years all Vendors had been flooding the Market with their products because the % of returns was far lower then the % of products kept.
However now it is a much greater number of returns, only about 20% keep the product.The main reason is customers abusing the return policies
ex. Buy a tv here return it 13 days later get money back, buy a tv at another location then use it then return.. okay you dont have to be a genious to figure it out. The point is you can realy use product for free for your entire lifetime!!!! if you wanted to.
Vendors such as Electronics are worried about the North American Market right now and in so doing this they are aproaching Head Offices of retailers and asking if they can change their policies for NO Refunds for Consoles or gaming. This is what happened last christmas, Nintendo went to all associated retailers and the answer to Nintendo was no. Nintendo then told the retailers fine!! then you will get 10 units / month ( for some smaller retailers).
Now you ask why is it benificial to Nintendo selling smaller amounts of product?
THE APPLE EFFECT.
Everyone knows why Apple is where they are, they do not want 95% of the computer market.Here is why : It is easier to control 5% and having them buy all your product then trying to get 95% to buy your product!!!
Anyone who disagress with that statement is living in a fantasy land.
So in essence Nintendo is limiting product on the market, and the number one reason is market saturation vs frivalous returns. If you don't saturate the market with your product it becomes sought after like it is gold and no one in their right mind would return it, because it would sell out 1 minute right after, then you would not have the product in your hand thus you would not have the POWER of the product!!! being in your hand.
I am speaking out because I work for Best Buy and I am sick and tired of this NonSense. Time for the truth to come out "Nintendo is doing this because of North American return policies"
No retailer can order WII's as I said before all retailers are on the N.A.R ( Nintendo Auto Replen) that preety much states that retailers get what they get from Nintendo and have to shut up.
Again I repeat all retailers even Wallmart!! is on NAR.
Please post this as this is all about returns. Most retailers in europe don't have full refunds like here. So therefore Nintendo sends more product there. I would if I was Nintendo, that means less "buy and try" returns.
Now Sony has gone the Nintendo way too. All retailers are on an auto replen program with Sony too. Sony is copying Nintendo and NOW there is Inside news that Microsoft may go the same way.
To all North American customers your day's of abusing returns policies and using product but never keeping it are coming to an end. Either retailers do what Nintendo wants or even less product comes in . At our store we have not had a WII system come back in one year..
Is N.A.R working? yes for us, because we do not have to deal with buy and try returns anymore.
417625
submission
jim.hansson writes:
had some problem starting google-earth so i started looking around a bit.
in googleearth directory i found libgcc_s.so and libstdc++.so.
both are GPL but are using something called runtime exception.
As a special exception, you may use this file as part of a free software
library without restriction. Specifically, if other files instantiate
templates or use macros or inline functions from this file, or you compile
this file and link it with other files to produce an executable, this
file does not by itself cause the resulting executable to be covered by
the GNU General Public License. This exception does not however
invalidate any other reasons why the executable file might be covered by
the GNU General Public License.
but when i looked at googleearth homepage i could not find any links to sourcecode for those to libraries, does this exception let google of the hook when it comes to the requierment to distribute the sourcecode for those libraries. IANAL but the way I read it google still have to make the source for those libraries available(there search engine does not count).
also found some lib that is LGPL but can not remember which one(leave that one up to the reader to find out=).
371359
submission
DCC writes:
The new super-slim Samsung Ultra Video F500 is the first mobile phone in the world to be DivX-certified, offering DVD-like quality video and audio playback. The F500 also has a unique swivel design that allows for an adjustable viewing angle or serves as a stand. For those who love watching video and listening to music on the go, the new Samsung Ultra Video F500 may just be your new best friend. Quoting the review:-
"As a personal media player, the
SGH-F500 is probably the ultimate luxury. It comes with a large 2.4" LCD screen with a resolution of 320 x 240. That makes it imminently suitable for mobile video entertainment without having to make the phone look like a brick. All the popular video formats are supported like WMV, MPEG-4 and DivX. The wealth of connectivity options which include HSDPA, Bluetooth A2DP and 3G make it excellent for mobile Internet surfing and even wireless stereo audio entertainment."
371231
submission
edadams writes:
Accused of online music theft, Oregon woman strikes back
232847
submission
vague disclaimer writes:
The Observer newspaper appears to have removed from its internet archive a story about autism research which had been excoriated by Ben Goldacre, the "Bad Science" writer for sister paper The Guardian. Goldacre had caught the Observer not only totally misunderstanding the research (used as a front page lead) but also apparently misquoting one source and falsifying a quote from another to draw a spurious link the the "MMR debate". In the UK controversy still surrounds claims of a link between autism and the use of the MMR vaccine and newspapers are more than happy to stir the pot. It is not clear whether the removal is because they were embarrassed, or threatened with legal action.
232797
submission
RulerOf writes:
I went to look up a local butcher this morning that I needed place a phone order with as I usually do, by finding them on Google Maps and utilizing the "Call" feature that Google added to thier maps service back in November of last year. I've found it to be an incredibly useful tool, but I was rife with disappointment this morning when I scoured the Google Maps page, only to find that the "Call" button had gone missing.
I later confirmed my fears, ironically through a Google News search, by finding an article detailing that Google has killed its click-to-call program.
