Southwest, as the only airline not approved by the galactic empire, is probably not a good example.
They are much less evil than the others due to the fact they can actually make money honestly.
agreed... +1 to tripleevenfall
*snip* By a conservative estimate, lets say 100 dollars to buy the game, plus 15*12 = 280 dollars MINIMUM to play this game for a year.
It'd cost you much less than $100.00 to get the game and all of it's expansions now. About half that, actually.
With the newest patch, [ 4.2.0 ] - anyone who has a retail version of vanilla WOW ( The first CD ) is automatically upgraded to The Burning Crusade expansion now. see http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2993743#technical ( last item under general patch notes ).
And that first version of WoW is on sale often for about $ 10.00 these days.
So for $10 bucks if you catch it on sale, you get World of Warcraft and the first expansion ( The Burning Crusade ), which is now included. ( It downloads for you automatically when you begin playing ).
I found the Cataclysm expansion on sale at Buy.com during the month of May for $18.00 shipped.
So I'm up to $28.00, and just waiting for the WoLK expansion to go on sale somewhere. I figure I should be able to snag it for $20.00 or less. Making WoW - with all the expansions - cost about $48.00 for the software this year, or about the price of most other games on CD / DVD lately. Whether they be for PC, Mac, XBox, etc.
Just FYI
*snip*
I don't want anyone to forget their illegal warrantless wiretapping and the massive lobbying effort get themselves retroactive immunity for their cooperation over the illegal spying on you.
Thank You for reminding everyone. I was gonna do that till I saw your post.
Rock on man! I agree with 1000% of your post, including the sig. I gotta get back and check out The Realm myself. Very nice, and really seemed to start this whole MMORPG thing, via transitioning MUDs to "modern" MMORPGS via tolerable graphical interfaces and reward systems. I waited and waited for someone on this thread to chime in about it. You sir, are the victor. Simple and fun (not to mention affordable), and yet, largely forgotten. I would mod you up, but I really wanted to post a letter of appreciation from another Realm brother!
Great to see your post, BigSes !
I couldn't believe it myself when I searched these posts and saw no mention of the grand-daddy of MMORPG's ! I had to chirp up.
Glad to meet you, if/when you log in to The Realm, look for WebWarrior ( 400 Warrior ), Wryen ( 400 Wizzie ), Kalann ( 520 Adventurer, or MorningGlory. ( Yeah, I prefer watching the female form on my screen all day
Thanks for the Cheers, brother. Made my day meeting a fellow Realmer.
Seeya in the game
And, yeah, the sig, ain't it the truth though ?
The Realm Online http://www.realmserver.com/ , though not as popular as EQ or WoW, still has it's cartoonish charm, PvE or PvP, ( You can switch your own PvP on or off, or just attack another PvP flagged player to turn it on ).
And last I knew, each player still had their own password protected house, with lock chests in the bedrooms, but you needed to get into the habit of typing
I return to The Realm every few years or so, it's such a neat trip down memory lane.. and I'm glad it's still there. And, every time I return, my trusty old characters are right there waiting for me.
Last time I'd played the max level was 1000.
And it didn't come easy.
Gee.. Thanks guys... now I'm thinking it's time to renew my subscription.
Well, I guess it won't hurt to help keep a piece of history going !
It's not just users. Applications still aren't being written to work properly with non-administrator accounts. I just installed SimplyAccounting 2010 on Windows XP and started getting weird errors poking around in it using a Limited Account, but switching to an Administrator account, no more errors.
I agree, the problem with Windows is not so much the OS itself but poorly written applications.
One of the largest examples is World of Warcraft. After five years, it still insists on storing all of its data in its program directory. I actually had to install it outside of Program Files to get it to work on Vista, even with UAC turned off and logged in as Administrator (the account, not an account in that group).
I think more software developers need to look at Firefox, a good example. Data, including plugins, are kept in the user's home. Different users can have different plugins and data, and everything just works even on a properly-secured system.
Blizzard can even download the source code to figure out basic stuff like "where to put files" because after all these years of writing Windows games, they still lack that basic knowledge.
Actually, in Windows 7, WoW installs itself all over ones hard drive. In Win7, WoW primarily installs into the Users-Public folders by default, apparently to avoid UAC issues, especially while updating. ( Users-Public-Games-World of WarCraft ). But it now also installs files into several other folders throughout the hierarchy. Like the update and cache info in the Users-[your user name ]- AppData-Local-Blizzard Entertainment folder. And a log file in ProgramData-Blizzard, as well as dll files and Uninstall info in Program Files-Common Files- Blizzard Entertainment-World of Warcraft. There may be other locations now as well, but the point is Blizzard must have heard your wish, because now WoW is 'installed' into so many different places in my hard drive that I'd have trouble backing this one particular application up easily on a regular basis. I don't like the way it installs now in Windows 7. I'd rather it all be in one place, so I don't have to hunt all over my hard drive in order to back this program up. Or to remove it.
Most cows are kept in a field, milked then slaughtered, and they don't seem to mind. They make little effort to escape their field, look happy while chewing the cud as they are milked, and only in the last few minutes of their lives do they show signs of concern. By then of course, it is too late.
What most people think doesn't matter when one person can see what is happening and appreciates the consequences. It is their view I am interested in.
To you Mad Merlin, I say moo. Keep chewing the cud.
Dude, do you know how long a cow would last in the Serengeti ? Or even in the woods in upstate NY ?
As soon as the lions and tigers and bears caught a sniff of that cow, said cow would be chased down until it either fell from exhaustion or was tackled by fangs and claws in it's neck. Then it would be mercilessly ripped apart while alive, to feed the animals above it in natures food chain.
Said cow might last 2 days in the wild. 2 days of nervous 'freedom' while it looked for food whilst trying to not become food.
So, you're right. A cow in a field full of food and virtually no predators would stay put, happily.
Hell, we humans pretty much do the same.
Even though this cow still ends up being food someday, it has a better life. ( I'm talkin' field raised cattle here, obviously. The pen operations suck. )
With humans, I would venture to say that the cow's death is less dramatic, and probably less painful.
Getting back on the subject,
The point is,
If you aren't living in the wild yourself, then somebody, somewhere, has your history. Your credit history, your employment history, you health history, your shopping history, your web page history, and on and on...
If you use a shopping card, Like Krogers, Marsh, IGA, etc, then you probably get coupons in the mail for just the exact foods that you like to eat and that you normally buy. Your coupon is a thank you for having allowed your grocer to sell your purchasing and eating habits to other firms.
Your bank regularly sells your information to brokers, insurance companies, mortgage lenders, and anyone else with some cash to pony up for the information. In fact, almost ALL of the companies you've Ever done business with, sells your information in some form or another. This gives them even more income to further enhance their bottom line.
So why are you so paranoid about this company verses all the others ?
btw, this is all Just in case you were unaware of, but might become interested in, this view.
Wouldn't matter. You could shoot him and abuse his body, guillotine him, or drive him to suicide with his letter opener, and the next RIAA CEO would continue in the same vein (only with better security). It's the organization which needs to be destroyed, not any individual head of it.
It's not just one CEO.
That "RIAA Organization" is owned, or paid for, and representing, and suing people, at the behest of the record labels you buy your CD"s from.
These include;
Big Machine Records
BMG Entertainment
Disney
EMI ( Capitol, Capitol Nashville, Virgin Records, and others )
Flicker
HBO
MGM
MTV ( including Nick at Nite, Nickelodeon, VH-1 and others )
Paradigm
Sony BMG ( Columbia, Epic, RCA, Arista, and others )[ all part of the same family ]
Universal Music Group ( Universal Records )
Warner Music Group
etc.
There are hundreds of them.
If you haven't seen it before, here's a good list http://www.riaaradar.com/tree.asp
That is your RIAA. It isn't just one CEO. It's the group of companies in that list on that website.
Want to hurt them ? Stop buying their stuff and feeding their lawyers, till they fly right.
I haven't purchased a CD from any of these 'companies', or any Sony product in almost 4 years. And Counting. And I hear plenty of music all day long on the radio. It ain't killing me.
I don't want my money going to their lawyers to twist the laws the way they do. It's a matter of principle. And now, maybe even pride.
I'm not out to sink the RIAA. The record labels need that group to protect their interests. It's the way they are Going About protecting that interest that I am opposed to. And I don't want the record labels to disappear either. I like music.
But I won't give my money to any group that abuses peoples rights and the laws as they were Intended.
I'm not hurting them much, they seem to have made it through this last recession without having to ask for a handout from the feds.
Even if they do claim they are in such poor financial condition from the abundant volumes of piracy they say is going on, they seem to be in good financial shape. So Somebody is still buying their products and supporting their RIAA "lawyers".
Which leads me to a parting question. Don't lawyers have to take some kind of oath to uphold the spirit of our Constitution and obey the laws that protect the people ?
Wikipedia keeps its past articles. In any case, that can be said of anything on the internet, as it can all be changed. Books can go out of print. Short of keeping a copy yourself and emailing them to others as needed, there is no form of citations that will get around the problem.
For the sake of less eye strain, which should be a concern for children-oriented devices.
eink doesn't have less eyestrain or whatever, its still dark gray on light gray, just like the LCD, but it does use less power. They claim one year battery life for the LCD reader... with eink they could probably go a couple years... why bother.
I remember when dial up was priced per hour. Competition slowly and inevitably drove the price down further and further, and then some companies offered unlimited dial up at a fixed price. A few even offered unlimited monthly dial up for free !
( NetZero, Surfree, and that little ISP in my hometown, and in hometowns across the country. to name but a few of the inexpensive dial up options that appeared. And that are even now out there, still, to this day ). And they still do a decent business.
So yes, Verizon, PLEASE start charging per Kb or MB or whatever. We've been down this road before. Your prices will all eventually be driven ever downward by the competition, like dial up was. Until the time, in the not so distant future, when your metered service will either become so cheap that that you will run away from the market with your tail between your legs, Verizon, or it will become such an expensive and poor choice for most folks that people will drop your company altogether and go elsewhere.
Ironically, NetZero is still out there, waiting for your next move, Verizon.
I see their TV ads every day, telling people that all they really need is NetZero's basic service at around $10.00 a MONTH, saving folks about $300.00 a year over broadband. They're not free anymore, but they are a real bargain.
Go ahead and laugh, but dial up is really all that most folks really need for checking email and a short web surfing session. Think Grandma and Grandpa, and all of those out there with active lifestyles that only use their home desktops for maybe 10 minutes a day. They are usually out and about, playing and dining, and using their Smartphones all day long. Dial up suits lots of people just fine.
And if Verizon or anyone else starts gouging folks with overage charges with their metered service, as they used to with their cell phone plans, I can see a whole lot more folks going back to dialup. Especially at just $10.00 a month. Unlimited.
I will watch Verizon and their ilk dig themselves another hole while trying to empty peoples pockets with this metered plan of theirs.
Should be entertaining to see if they survive yet another attempt to gouge their customers with overage fees.
Yeah, they'll make a bundle on overage fees for a while in the beginning, at their customers expense, of course. Which leads to them losing customers in droves, again. Which leads to lower prices, and spending tons in advertising and new service terms and lower price points than the competitors trying to get their market share back. Sound familiar Verizon ? And Sprint ?
Life can be such a vicious circle.
Real Programmers don't eat quiche. They eat Twinkies and Szechwan food.
