[ Posted by kevin
Wed, 16 Aug 2006 20:40:49 GMT ]
Ebay has always pissed me off, even though I use them quite a lot lately. They basically have no competition, and are the catch-all advertising for selling anything on the internet. It’s a stupid system that needs to change, but how do you redirect all those searchers that have “ebay” imprinted on their forehead as the only place to shop online besides amazon?
They also just charge too damn much. 6% on large listings, plus $6 for each item you post (whether or not it sells).
From http://pages.ebay.com/sell/announcement200607/overview/index.html
And, when you compare our operations costs for an average Store Inventory listing and an average core listing – factoring in the duration of each – our cost to host a Store Inventory listing is more than 50% higher than for a core listing. In fact, current Store Inventory insertion fees don’t cover eBay’s costs for hosting them.
Bullox! It’s run by a bloody computer, buy a few more servers and show us the revolution of computers. You should be able to host kazillions of auctions with no noticeable speed decrease. Google shows us how easy it is to scale… This is such a “I don’t understand how computers work and I’m a marketing person” response…
Technorati Tags: ebay
Posted in Society, Ambitions | 2 comments
[ Posted by kevin
Tue, 15 Aug 2006 14:08:27 GMT ]
The matrix was one of the most popular movies of all time, while the Island didn’t even get very good reviews. They share the similarity of a “virtual world” that people awaken from, which may have caused the bad reviews. Truly, though, people have been making movies and books about awakening since the beginning of time.
Why is the Island so much better than the Matrix?
1) It’s more realistic.
Neo in the Matrix transcended both virtual and actual realities, and that distances the viewers from identifying with the film. While the Matrix is a future world that might happen if we start battling with sentient computers, the Island is just one short medical breakthrough away. The society of the “real world” presented in the Island is very similar to our own.
2) The bad guys are badder.
The matrix’s computers were content to let us live out our little lives in a virtual existence. They even went to a lot of trouble to make sure we were happy in our environment (in that utopia didn’t work).
The Island is the only thing I’ve seen that justifies the horror of the death camps of World War 2. The incinerator scene still echoes in my head.
3) It’s easier to identify with the Island, because I’m not an evil computer program trying to use people as batteries. But if I could pay money to guarantee an organ transplant, I would. I can see myself as both product and sponsor, and the only person I struggle to identify with is the evil doctor leading the organization. If they’d thrown in just a little bit more medical excitement about the dreams-of-sponsor somehow being in the transfer, and that being intentional research and benefiting the world, then “justifying” the cruelty would have been a lot easier.
To me, the big paradigm of the Island is the justification of the horror. The only horror equal to it was the death camps of World War 2, and I (and most people) have never understood their justification or how they ever happened. It’s been nearly a month since I first watched the Island, and I still think of it often or dream about it. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it.
Technorati Tags: movies, awakening, the island, the matrix
Posted in Concerts | 1 comment
