Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Make it less painful for them to comply. (Score 1) 387

If you can determine the reason for their resistance to good policy, you could work to make it as painless as possible to comply. I can imagine a person would be unwilling to hand over their laptop if they feared the process taking too long, or surrendering privacy, or even exposing unethical or unlawful uses of the system. Obviously the last example opens up a whole different set of issues but it shouldn't be too hard to mitigate their fears in the other cases through education and/or savvy use of technology.

Comment Re:The trend will be to direct-download games. (Score 1) 135

You need to talk to some insiders in retail before you go off thinking 50% is a typical margin on games (and consoles). I own a video game store and the margin on NEW games maxes out at 20% but usually hits around 12-15%. That's GROSS margin. I still have to account for shipping and for the cut for the credit card/debit transaction providers.

Now new CONSOLES is even worse. The margin is 5% or less. We usually lose a little money selling new consoles.

Talk about taking risks. Try operating a video game store that trades in used goods. It slays me that the publishers can even THINK that the used market is damaging their profits. They obviously never took an economics course. Secondary markets drive demand (as most people here know and have indicated) for products and give people the opportunity to lower the risk (cost) to try some games they would otherwise never buy.

Oh and we DO promote games too. I spend OUR money advertising games to try to get people interested in coming in and trying them out and (hopefully) buying them. We let people try any game (and encourage it) before they buy so they know they're getting something they'll like (Halo Wars being a good example of something that didn't meet expectations). The relationship between [new and used] video game retailer and video game publisher is not parasitic as some of them would like to portray, but symbiotic. I for one hope that relationship continues well into the future.

-- Taz

Education

Submission + - Dealing with An IT Bully (earthweb.com)

jammag writes: ""You are an idiot." That was how I was greeted on an already gloomy, rainy Monday morning...The lovely human being who greeted me that morning was our VP of software development, Dirk." This first person account of dealing with a tech world geek-gone-bad presents some ideas for coping, IT style, but in the end the person just left. Isn't that often the best thing to do?"
Censorship

Submission + - Courageous Blogger Wins 1.5 Year Legal Battle! (fixyourthinking.com)

FixYourThinking writes: "After nearly one and a half years of harassment from a relentless attorney, it seems that quietly a blogger in South Carolina has won a monumental ruling in favor of bloggers. In a summary judgement requested by the Defendant Philip Smith was able to obtain a special sanction after the Plaintiff attorney put a "notice of lien" (called lis pendens) on Smith's residence. The judge also reprimanded the Plaintiff attorney for abusive deposition and court procedure. The case set forth the following; "It's not the format; it's the content and intention that make text journalism / reporting""
Censorship

Submission + - What NASA won't tell you about air safety. 6

rabble writes: According to a report out of Washington, DC's WTOP, NASA wants to avoid telling you about how unsafe you are when you fly. According to the article, when an $8.5M safety study of about 24,000 pilots indicated an alarming number of near collisions and runway incidents, NASA refused to release the results. The article quotes one congressman as saying "There is a faint odor about it all." A friend of mine who is a general aviation pilot responded to the article by saying "It's scary but no surprise to those of us who fly."
The Courts

Submission + - U.S. court denies Webcasters' stay petition (kpfa.org)

Michael Manoochehri writes: "Reuters reports that a "federal appeals court has denied a petition by U.S. Internet radio stations seeking to delay a royalty rate hike due July 15 they say could kill the fledgling industry." This royalty rate hike, put forth by the US Copyright Royalty Board, will increase royalty rates for webcast music tremendously, in some cases to more per year than many webcasters bring in from revenue. Save Net Radio, a coalition of webcasters, is telling listeners that "We are appealing to the millions of Internet radio listeners out there, the webcasters they support and the artists and labels we treasure to rise up and make your voices heard again before this vibrant medium is silenced.""

Comment Re:Downfacing camera anomalies (Score 1) 275

The object to which you are referring is most likely the OTHER SRB. I thought you meant the sun at first but saw the distinct small glow cross the screen right at the 3:32 mark. It's glowing because even after separation, the boosters are still alight (no real thrust of course). You even see flames emitted later in the video as it's approaching splashdown. -- this is my non-sig

Slashdot Top Deals

"Take that, you hostile sons-of-bitches!" -- James Coburn, in the finale of _The_President's_Analyst_

Working...