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Comment: Re:They don't get it (Score 1) 722

by southpolesammy (#36767560) Attached to: Netflix Deflects Rage Over Price Increase

That's not at all true. If the URL's numbers are even somewhat close to accurate, Netflix stands to lose a huge amount of revenue.

If 20% move to the $16/month plan, that's a net revenue increase of 12% (20% users x 60% increase = 12% revenue increase). However, if 33% quit, that's a complete revenue loss of 33% as well. When you add in those that are modifying plans, what you get is that Netflix stands to lose about 25% of their revenue inflow due to this move.

Can they make it up in reduced bandwidth and shipping costs? Hard to say, but the sheer loss of revenue is hard to mask no matter how you look at it.

Comment: They don't get it (Score 1, Informative) 722

by southpolesammy (#36765892) Attached to: Netflix Deflects Rage Over Price Increase


This is a pure, unadulterated money grab. So I'm grabbing mine back before they get the chance. Canceled my service yesterday. And per http://www.hackingnetflix.com/2011/07/new-pricing-poll-what-are-you-going-to-do.html, I'm not the only one. Over 1/3 say they are quitting. Explain that to the shareholders, NetFlix execs.

Comment: Re:Why do people still consider this man a Genius? (Score 1) 203

by southpolesammy (#35482252) Attached to: Gates' Future of Education Straight Out of '60s

Don't ever underestimate the power of being in the right place at the right time. Couple that with am opportunistic business sense and the persistence to keep pushing on in spite of seemingly insurmountable hurdles, and your chance of success is higher than most.

Of course, Gates and MSFT went quite a bit beyond that, with monopolistic practices, vendor intimidation, and outright plagiarism in some cases, but underneath that lies the fundamentals above. We may not like how MSFT got where it is, but you can't deny their basic principles.

Comment: Re:God bless America (Score 1) 947

by southpolesammy (#35037212) Attached to: Teachers Back Away From Evolution In Class

Parent is absolutely right about abiogenesis being ridiculous, as we all know from countless data that we are in fact evolved from pirates, and I'm pretty sure that pirates were living beings. QED.

Furthermore, why bother to explain the creation of flora and fauna with science, when we already know that without their existence, we would not be able to create the perfect bowl of pasta with marinara sauce and meatballs, and thereby express our appreciation of the reflection of His Noodly Goodness.

Ramen, my brothers and sisters.

Comment: Prevention or Reaction? (Score 1) 212

by southpolesammy (#34868906) Attached to: Amazon EC2 Enables Cheap Brute-Force Attacks

I'm not certain how Amazon would be able to prevent such activity before it happened, aside from code snooping, which is probably in violation of the terms of their services agreement. Perhaps profiling would be in order before accepting someone as a customer, but how would you protect yourself against shell companies acting on behalf of a known abuser? Rather, I think the question should be "how quickly can Amazon react when this occurs".

ISP's and hosting providers have had to face similar situations for almost a couple decades now, and I would think that they'd be the logical entities for Amazon to consult with re: the mitigation of illegal activities using their cloud as an attack vector.

Comment: Re:Can't see why "dual core" would be a selling po (Score 1) 244

by southpolesammy (#34867596) Attached to: Dual-Core Chips Coming To All Smartphones In 2011

I think the Sony POS bit on The Onion from a couple years ago just about sums it up. Consumers are lemmings and will buy any stupid piece of crap as long as it's got more bells and whistles than the stupid piece of crap that came before it.


Comment: Re:a lot of articles like this one these days (Score 2) 491

by southpolesammy (#34770218) Attached to: When Smart People Make Bad Employees

Management hasn't changed -- the circumstances have.


Now that most things have been computerized or automated in some fashion, the gains from continued investment in tech R&D have become marginalized. Thus, instead of being the golden goose, IT is now a cost center because management can no longer realize the gains that were once possible, but have to continue to pay for IT, now as a necessary evil. This is also why companies are outsourcing and offshoring everything, because something must give in order to keep the profit machines in motion.

It's why American IT is slowly dying.

Comment: Re:Brilliant Jerks (Score 3, Insightful) 491

by southpolesammy (#34769836) Attached to: When Smart People Make Bad Employees



Comment: The List (Score 5, Informative) 230

by southpolesammy (#34653584) Attached to: Top 10 Things You CAN'T Have For Christmas
  7. Domespace rotating wooden house -- cost not indicated
