Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:60%? Try 7% (Score 1) 574

by stpitner (#36847044) Attached to: Why Netflix Had To Raise Its Prices

I've been a member of Netflix since around 2000. I had the 4-dvd's at a time that was later grandfathered into a 3-dvd's at a time pricing yet still was able to keep 4 dvd's. I guess a price change was inevitable. While I now stream more than I rent dvd's, I can't say that I'm happy with the price increase either. My rate is going from $19.99 to $29.98 as they are now going to put me into the 4 dvd's + streaming. So for me it's a 50% increase. I'm losing the "benefit" that I had of the extra dvd and now paying extra for streaming. It's a doubly whammy for long time customers. I also need to decide if I want to pay another $5 for blue-ray discs when I can't see how large their selection is of blue-ray. I think what I might do is drop to 3 dvd's, add blue-ray, and then the pay about $28/month. I don't know if I like that idea or not. I miss the days from way back when I was first a member and they sent all of their members a dvd rack to hold your 4 netflix dvd's that you have rented out. I still use it!
Cellphones

Submission + - It's official: cell phones are killing bees (inhabitat.com) 5

Submitted by greenerd
greenerd writes: Scientists may have found the cause of the world’s sudden dwindling population of bees – and cell phones are to blame. Research conducted in Lausanne, Switzerland has shown that the signal from cell phones not only confuses bees, but also leads to their death. Over 83 experiments have yielded the same results.
Intel

Submission + - Intel Unveils Z68 Express Sandy Bridge Chipset

Submitted by adeelarshad82
adeelarshad82 writes: Intel has announced immediate availability of systems and motherboards based the Z68 Express chipset, the latest in the second-generation Core (aka "Sandy Bridge") family. One of the biggest advantages of Z68 Express chipset over the previous Sandy Bridge chipsets is that users don't have to make any more compromises when it comes to functionality since Z68 Express chipset offers more flexibility. This is evident primarily in its support for switchable graphics. The use of LucidLogix Virtu GPU virtualization lets the user decide on the fly whether to use integrated Intel HD Graphics or an installed video card. Overall this makes for a reduction in power usage, works with all video cards, and the use of dynamic virtualization eliminates the need for restarting or swapping cables.
Games

Submission + - Star Wars MMO: EA's Big Bet to Cost $100M (industrygamers.com) 1

Submitted by donniebaseball23
donniebaseball23 writes: EA's BioWare is developing its first-ever MMORPG in Star Wars: The Old Republic, and the publisher is betting big that the project will be a huge success. Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter says development alone cost an estimated $80 million, with marketing and distribution adding in another $20 million. The good news is it shouldn't take much to break even. ""We estimate that EA will cover its direct operating costs and break even at 500,000 subscribers (this is exceedingly conservative, and the actual figure is probably closer to 350,000), meaning that with 1.5 million paying subscribers, EA will have 1 million profitable subs," Pachter noted.
Games

Submission + - Triple Monitor Gaming: GTX 590 vs. Radeon HD 6990

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: TechSpot has done an extensive hardware review that compares the GeForce GTX 590 against the Radeon HD 6990 when using three monitors for gaming. Quoting:

"With the release of the dual-GPU AMD Radeon HD 6990, closely followed by the competing Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 we saw graphics card performance reach new heights. With bandwidth throughput in excess of 300GB/s, these cards can consume more power than entire computer systems. Moreover, the two GPUs on board of either product are so complex that combined make up for 11,000 million transistors."
Blackberry

Submission + - RIM Gets Defensive At BlackBerry World (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by
gabbo529
gabbo529 writes: "Research In Motion came out guns blazing at its annual Blackberry World event in Orlando, Fla., this week in order to prove its still got game in the consumer electronics industry. Along with new Blackberry Bold phones, updates to the Playbook and the announcement involving Microsoft, the company directly addressed some of its doubters, namely financial analysts."
Data Storage

Submission + - What to do with old electronics?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I've been doing some spring cleaning, and realized that I have a lot of older, but still usable electronics piling up, and I'm not sure what do do with all the old stuff: a 5mp digital camera, P4 era "gaming" rig, a centrino laptop... the list goes on, and it's all in usable shape. I work as a graphics designer and do lots of 3d rendering, so I've been forced to upgrade my hardware over time, and most of my workflow has gone the way of OSX. I'm not exactly sure what to do with all of it. I've gone the linux route with one of the my older systems- acting as a home media server (feeding an XBMC appleTV)... but what do do with the rest? Donate? Trash? Sell? Hopefully someone has more inspiration that I do?
Microsoft

Submission + - Would You Work For Microsoft? 1

Submitted by AC Slater
AC Slater writes: I fondly look back on my high school days reading slashdot during Lab and joining in on the Microsoft hate and joining the chorus about how they mishandled everything they touched. Specifically the things that stuck with me are their acquisition of Bungie, their 3E policy (embrace, extend, extinguish), and reading about all of the unfixed bugs, "features" and various other issues. At one point I tried making a Borg version of Bill Gates much like the one gracing Slashdot. Well, I'm out of college now and the real world caught up with me. I interviewed for a position at Microsoft and frankly was blown away. All of the employees were very happy with their jobs, both publically and privately, the working environment seemed amazing, the pay is very generous and they were already outlining advancement opportunities at the interview.

So, having been a longtime /. reader, and having conflicted feelings about the company as a whole I ask Slashdot, would you work for Microsoft?

On a side note, I checked and MS is #50 on the Forbe's Top 100 Best Companies to Work For List. And of course, a disclaimer that I do not work for Microsoft, yet.
Microsoft

Submission + - OSI gives thumbs-up to 2 Microsoft licenses (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by OSSes Ass
OSSes Ass writes: The Open Source initiative has officially approved two Microsoft Shared Source licenses, Microsoft Community (Ms-CL) and Microsoft Permissive (Ms-PL). Ars notes that this was not a surprising decision, given FSF Europe's support, but that significant roadblocks remain for Microsoft in the OSS arena. 'Although OSI validation of Microsoft's licenses is a very big win for Microsoft and the open-source software community, this victory is overshadowed by Microsoft's aggressive attitude towards open-source software. Certain vocal factions of the OSS community will express extreme distrust for Microsoft's open-source licenses, which will make it difficult for the company to build a bridge with the broader OSS community.'
XBox (Games)

Submission + - DVD size limiting Unreal Tournament 3 on Xbox 360 (gamepro.com)

Submitted by powerlord
powerlord writes: DVD's size may be starting to show its limits. Mark Rein, President of Epic (creators of "Gears of War"), was quoted as saying, "We'll compress some things. But you know, we may have fewer maps on the 360 version... Blu-Ray has definitely given us a lot of legroom," while speaking at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival.
Movies

Submission + - Bad Movie Physics Hurt Scientific Understanding (physorg.com)

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "A paper published by UCF researchers claims that bad movie physics hurt students' understanding of real world physics. From the article, "Some people really do believe a bus traveling 70 mph can clear a 50-foot gap in a freeway, as depicted in the movie Speed." The professors published this paper out of fear that society will pay the price. One of the authors commented on advancements in the past years "All the luxuries we have today, the modern conveniences, are a result of the science research that went on in the '60s during the space race. It didn't just happen. It took people doing hard science to do it." I commented on the physics of the most recent Die Hard having problems detracting from my enjoyment of the movie but is it really the root of a growing problem of poor science & math among students?"

Slashdot Top Deals

Disclaimer: "These opinions are my own, though for a small fee they be yours too." -- Dave Haynie

Close