Gaming_Geek 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (18) comment rss

  • On the post: Amazon To Hachette And Authors: Here, Let Us Explain Basic Price Elasticity To You

    Gaming_Geek ( profile ), 31 Jul, 2014 @ 04:54pm

    EBook prices

    I personally don't buy as many books as I used to. I take time I used to spend on reading books and use it for other things such as Facebook, movies, music, etc. When I look at books and such now, I tend to look very hard at prices. I tend to buy ebooks only in the 4.99 or less range, because, to me, they should be cheaper. Yes, there is an editing cost (even though most ebooks, even ones from big name authors, have horrible editing jobs) to put the book into the ebook format to use.

    I expect a hardcover to be more expensive as it is a hardcover book. I expect paperbacks to be 5-10 bucks because they are usually 2nd or 3rd prints of the book and cost less to make than a hardcover does.

    Since the ebook only needs to be edited and then copied as needed from a digital source, I see no reason to pay for printing costs and such that don't exist in that format. Thus why I tend to not buy ebooks priced over 5 dollars.

    I know alot of other people who feel the same.

    If the perception people have is wrong, then the big publishing houses need to explain why its wrong.

  • On the post: France Passes Anti-Amazon Law Eliminating Free Shipping; Amazon Responds With 0.01 Euro Shipping Fees

    Gaming_Geek ( profile ), 16 Jul, 2014 @ 11:20am

    Looking at this, it seems that this affects only Amazon? French based stores can still offer the 5% discount (Amazon is no longer allowed to) on books and also offer free shipping as well(Amazon has to charge the 0.01).

    That looks and quacks like a tariff to me. Maybe we should put some tariffs on french goods.

  • On the post: NSA's XKeyscore Source Code Leaked! Shows Tor Users Classified As 'Extremists'

    Gaming_Geek ( profile ), 03 Jul, 2014 @ 11:23am

    Re:

    So the extremists are the Assassins from Assassin's Creed? Everything is permitted?

    Does that make the NSA the Templars?

  • On the post: NSA's XKeyscore Source Code Leaked! Shows Tor Users Classified As 'Extremists'

    Gaming_Geek ( profile ), 03 Jul, 2014 @ 10:49am

    We're all extremists! The more the merrier I guess!

  • On the post: FCC Comment Page Buckles To Its Knees After John Oliver Asks Everyone To Comment

    Gaming_Geek ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2014 @ 01:06pm

    Re: Re: Bandwidth usage

    I agree. The solution is to provide what is needed for your customers and not oversubscribe the peering link.

  • On the post: FCC Comment Page Buckles To Its Knees After John Oliver Asks Everyone To Comment

    Gaming_Geek ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2014 @ 01:05pm

    Re: Re: Bandwidth usage

    I am not arguing that they cannot. I am telling you why the situation is how it is. That is all. I dislike the situation as well. I am all for true net neutrality.

  • On the post: FCC Comment Page Buckles To Its Knees After John Oliver Asks Everyone To Comment

    Gaming_Geek ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2014 @ 09:44am

    Bandwidth usage

    So, I want to help out.

    All ISPs purposely oversubscribe their peering connections. They do this to make money. This used to work really well for them prior to things like Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, etc. Before those things, the only people likely to heavily use their internet service were business users, people running p2p programs, and gamers. Everyone else just mainly checked email, browsed websites, and that was about it. That type of traffic is minimal and is mainly a burst style of communication. With the rise of Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, Pandora, and other such streaming services, more and more users are actually using the bandwidth they are paying for. This leads to a massive increase in traffic for the ISP.Many cannot afford to not oversubscribe the line. So they do things like install NetEqualizer boxes, which purposely delay users identified as heavy bandwidth users, or bandwidth hogs on the peering link; or an Allot box, which inspects packets and lets them see the type of traffic users are sending and receiving and throttle certain types of traffic.

    Im not defending the ISPs. I just wanted to give you guys reasons why they now want to charge sites for access to their customers and impose data caps and such.

  • On the post: Comcast Commercial Promotes Fast WiFi To Gamers… To Play Game With No Online Connection

    Gaming_Geek ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2014 @ 01:03pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    "I went to cable last year (UVerse - ugh) and even bumped the speed up to a whopping 21Mbit 2 months ago. Now I'm missing my DSL.

    Could someone explain why webpages load slower on cable? I feel like I'm back in the dial-up days. Ever since I went cable it seems all I ever see is that damn spinning circle when I click a link. I can light a cig and take a swig of coffee before the page starts to load.

    I can walk over to my parents house which is still a 3.5Mbit ADSL line and get the same if not faster page loads."

    On a cable connection, your modem shares the cable line with every other modem on the node. Each modem has a specified "timeslot" to send data in. Sometimes, modems coming online or modems slightly off in their timing send packets at the wrong time and cause your packets to have errors. The CMTS (device your cable modem connects to)sees these as codeword errors. There is an algorithm used to try and fix errored packets. If the packet cannot be fixed an uncorrectable notice is sent to your modem and the packet resends. On overloaded/poorly designed/problomatic nodes, this can cuase multiple retransmissions of packets, which will slow down your webpage loads somewhat at times. Your parents DSL is a straight shot from their modem to the local DSLAM (device ADSL modems connects to) and not shared usually.

    Also, if your cable provider is small, their DNS server they use might not be as efficient as one being used by the local ADSL provider. Try using Google (I know I know) DNS and see if that helps. Their DNS is 8.8.8.8.

  • On the post: Comcast Commercial Promotes Fast WiFi To Gamers… To Play Game With No Online Connection

    Gaming_Geek ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2014 @ 12:56pm

    Re:

    "It is just as useful as turning customers boxes into public wifi hotspots while claiming it won't slow the consumer down"

    As a Comcast customer, I check on this when I was made a public wifi place. Prior to this happening, my modem only used 4 downstream channels. Afterwards, my modem used 8 downstream channels (my original 4, and 4 for the public wifi), so that is a true statement to make technically. Of course, if you factor in extra processing on the modem/router( you now have your network and the public wifi network on the same modem/router sending/receiving traffic), then it does slow you down just a bit since you now have to process the public wifi traffic as well.

  • On the post: John Kerry Should 'Man Up' And Admit He's Wrong About Snowden

    Gaming_Geek ( profile ), 29 May, 2014 @ 09:41am

    Re: Obama welcoming debate

    Are you surprised by Obama not telling the truth about wanting open debate? His presidency has been one of the heaviest handed against whistleblowers and such from my understanding.

  • On the post: TrueCrypt Page Says It's Not Secure, All Development Stopped

    Gaming_Geek ( profile ), 29 May, 2014 @ 09:37am

    I'll be keeping an eye and ear out on this story to see what. if anything, comes from it.

  • On the post: To Succeed At EPA: Watch Tons Of Porn, (Don't) Work From Home, Or Pretend You're A Secret Agent

    Gaming_Geek ( profile ), 09 May, 2014 @ 11:10am

    I wonder if the employee actually had another job and this way used the EPA job for pleasure spending.

  • On the post: Obama Complains That TPP Critics Are 'Conspiracy Theorists' Who 'Lack Knowledge' About Negotiations

    Gaming_Geek ( profile ), 05 May, 2014 @ 05:40am

    Re: Re:

    They could always just go with the popular "we have to pass it to know whats in it" line.

  • On the post: John Kerry Claims US Is On The 'Right Side Of History' When It Comes To Online Freedom And Transparency

    Gaming_Geek ( profile ), 05 May, 2014 @ 05:37am

    Nothing surprising here. Kerry is just following his marching orders.

  • On the post: Company Uses Bogus Polls And Gag Orders To Protect Image Of License Plate Scanning

    Gaming_Geek ( profile ), 05 May, 2014 @ 05:34am

    I firmly believe that three people with different views can take the same statistical results and make them say that they support their view and not the others' views.

  • On the post: Maryland Police Dept. To Live Tweet Prostitution Vice Stings

    Gaming_Geek ( profile ), 05 May, 2014 @ 05:27am

    I wonder how many of these possible picture postings will turn into blackmail on local officials and such?

  • On the post: Turkey's Prime Minister Sues His Own Country Over Twitter

    Gaming_Geek ( profile ), 22 Apr, 2014 @ 10:37am

    Re:

    I agree.

  • On the post: Law School Trustee's Company Chills Critical Speech With Subpoena For Students' Personal Emails

    Gaming_Geek ( profile ), 22 Apr, 2014 @ 10:34am

    Hopefully these students win this fight, but with how things go nowadays, I do worry.