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GeekNights 20101018 - October Tech News Roundup
Tonight on GeekNights, having skipped several smaller topics in recent memory, we cover them all in a tech news roundup! Oracle is being evil, Google has robot cars, Dutch hotels may soon be over-regulated, stores don't like it when smart people do smart things with technology, a survey is wrong about password safety, and Facebook implements one time passwords. Rym's also back on the sauce.
- Rym's Thing - Girl with a Ball
- Scott's Thing - Madmaze
Comments
Did anyone have the heart to tell Rym most aspirin pills contain caffeine?
I have plain unbuffered aspirin.
How would this even be an issue? Do people not read the labels of medication they consume?
Also:NO! Says the man in the Vatican! It is read by god!
< /bitter>
http://5z8.info/olive-loaf-penetration.gif_i2v5m_alqaeda-message-boards (sfw)
Once upon a time there was a writeup about how the price of a cup of coffee from a coffee shop was a bargain. Included in the price were things like a place to sit, pleasant music, a light overhead for reading, newspapers for browsing, etc. If a local store isn't adding any value (tangible or intangible) to your purchase, then by all means switch to Amazon. If, on the other hand, the store gives you more than a product, consider shopping at the store. Maybe the local comic shop hosts 24-hour comic events, gaming tournaments, and celebrity signings that you enjoy. Or maybe politically you'd rather see more of your money stay in your local economy. Or maybe you don't like what the bargain retailer does with your money. If none of that matters to you, that's cool. But you pretty much dismissed those who have motivations other than financial maximization as ignorant in your podcast.
If there's a premium for shopping locally, you have to figure out if it's worth it to you. In some cases (Best Buy), it probably isn't. In others (comic shop), it might be.
I also go to (fewer) conventions and have (fewer) friends. I haven't found conventions to be a substitute for anything, partly because attendance requires the ritual sacrifice of large amounts of money to some combination of Texaco/Southwest/Alamo/Ramada. That's probably different when you have half a dozen good friends with open couches in the right cities or 8 million neighbors that conventions wish to attract. Isn't there just a large concentration of people? I'll try to dig that episode up. I disagree with your argument, though, for at least two reasons:
1. If "paying more" equals "giving to charity", and giving to charity is a moral imperative, then is it also a moral imperative to buy only the cheapest iteration of a physical product so that you can maximize the wealth you have available for donation? If that's the case, is it morally irresponsible to buy an iPod over an Archos or Sandisk device?
2. It's always cheaper to sell things out of a warehouse than to maintain a retail space, right? So an online retailer will almost always have the best price, and it's always better to order online. I'm putting words in your mouth, but it seems like you're inclined to buy from whoever can give you the best price regardless of other factors. Taken to its logical conclusion, that means the elimination of local retail altogether. Frankly, I've lived in no-horse towns with zero retail, and it sucks. Especially if you want to buy clothes that fit.
On a side note, the Humble Indie Bundle guys had a great panel at PAX Prime, and one of the things they addressed was the intersection of pricing, charity, and piracy. John Graham (I think) suggested that it's so easy to pirate a game that actually buying it is really just a donation to the developer/publisher.
On another side note, why doesn't anyone do price matching for charity? Like, if you find a lower price, you can show the store the ad or web page and they'll donate the difference to charity.
Also, the moral of the story is that you should live in a major city. New York being the optimal choice, of course.
Choosing a higher price still doesn't amount to charity, though, unless you discount all the other reasons to do business with one company over another. I just want your subways. Trains would make my commute so much better.
Obviously, my situation is different from other peoples'. My only real point is that no business has any business attempting to prevent people from using extant information to make informed decisions. That is exactly what these used book sellers are doing in preventing people from scanning the ISBNs of books to see what they're worth. Comparison shopping is competition.
I do take factors other than price to heart in many purchasing decisions. Quality is one. Good labor practices are another. But when the same good has two different prices at two different stores, there is no reason in the world not to buy it from the cheaper store assuming all other factors are relatively equal. (For example, I avoid WalMart because I hate dealing with the people. I avoid shady bodegas because I'm wary of expired goods and food poisoning. I refused to shop at the Beacon Key Food because it smelled like a butt).
I am personally in a situation where physical stores have almost nothing to offer me. I do need physical spaces for gaming and social events, but few stores provide those without fairly direct compensation. Some examples from my life:
1. All consumer electronics: NewEgg/Amazon/Monoprice are cheaper than Best Buy or local stores, have better service, and ship cheaper than even local delivery. In many cases, the prices online are absurdly lower, to the point that you would have to be an idiot to buy anything at Best Buy unless you needed it right the fuck then. Local stores have no additional expertise or knowledge that isn't available online, and in many cases are woefully incompetent/misinformed.
2. Bicycle: Purchased locally because I wanted to try it out AND it was just as cheap as I could have gotten it online. I also continue to periodically acquire service for the bike locally, as I have neither the space nor the patience to perform my own maintenance anymore.
3. All new books and DVDs: Amazon is so much cheaper it's crazy. Case closed.
4. Board Games: The Compleat Strategist is OK (on par with Millenium), but it's too small to host large gaming events. The prices are OK, but the convenience of online ordering beats walking over there to buy something in person. I also buy board games infrequently (as I already own most of the good ones).
5. Groceries: Online groceries aren't actually that much more expensive than local grocery stores here, and the convenience is a factor of a billion.
6. Shoes: Zappos is way better than any shoe stores I've entered in my entire life. While I plan to buy a new pair of boots locally, I buy boots maybe once every 15 years or so.
I don't buy much else on a regular basis. The vast majority of the disposable income I spend is not on the purchasing of physical things, but on experiences (dinner, shows, other entertainment, travel, etc...). I probably spend more on dining out in a given month than I spend on DVDs in a year. I buy physical non-food things so rarely it's not even an issue. Malls are completely useless to me. My combined yearly purchases of non-food physical goods is probably low enough to not matter to the local economy at all.
Emily found a restaurant/coffee shop near us in Queens that is similarly sized to THINK Coffee, but quieter. Might be useful if we have the need.
(If fact to help Luke out, I convinced him if he bought a bunch of Burning wheel books I would buy his first set).
Hell, cut a deal with Geek Chic and have an "uber roleplaying room" that can be rented by the hour, complete with stocked minifridge.
Monetize games and sell them, but shift the core business to basically being a gamer lounge.
http://isotopecomics.com/
Actually, depending on where you are relative to Philly I may be able to help you out. There is a guy, Kevin Schlabach, who runs the Seize Your Turn blog. He puts together gaming afternoons in the party rooms of local pubs & such during non-busy times. I haven't kept tabs on him b/c his events are 2+ hours from me and not worth it, but from what I remember they were successful.