English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

20:00

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I don't know, I'm happy enough with my current 100 PPI.

I don't really desire more. There is no real reason to.

@Cerberus It's biology. The human eye can only make out objects of a certain size. Once they are small enough that you can't see them, why would you pay more to have them?

Cerberus

It's not that simple...

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus You would probably desire more if you saw a computer running a 400dpi display. Text would be easier to read. Images would be sharper, assuming they were high-def. etc.

Cerberus

Which they won't be.

And isn't text already easy to read?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus No, it is that simple. When customers can't tell the difference between option A and option B, they won't pay more for B just because it has higher PPI.

@Cerberus it would be easier. It's a well-known fact of typography that higher-dpi fonts are easier to read.

Cerberus

20:02

I mean, if my game won't run, that's when I want a faster computer. If my phone is slow because it has low RAM, that's when I want a new phone. But a higher PPI? It's so...inconsequential.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Well, you can see it if you get very close.

And people buy things not for the most rational of reasons.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus Well, throughout the history of computing, screens have increased their PPI up to a certain maximum. People paid for it. They have paid for better displays all along.

It's not that inconsequential.

Cerberus

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I don't know. It's just not something that appeals to me like other upgrades. It would have a low priority.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Just look at an iphone 3gs and an iphone 4. you'll see the difference right away.

Cerberus

When I look at a Galaxy S2, it looks fine. I don't notice any difference unless I compare them side by side.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus The galaxy s2... compared to the galaxy nexus?

Cerberus

20:05

I find that I care less about PPI than I might have expected.

Yes.

And I also don't notice much of a difference between my Gnex and the HTC One.

Only when I'm actively looking for it.

The PPI, I mean.

By the way, an HTC One will be delivered to my door tomorrow...

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

why? feeling masochistic for the insane buttons?

Cerberus

My friend has had his fixed (people had danced on it), and he can't be home to receive it, nor pick it up, and he's leaving for the Canaries the day after.

I liked the HTC One.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I'm sure it's perfectly fine if you don't hate the buttons.

Cerberus

Maybe I would hate the inexpansible memory.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

maybe.

Cerberus

20:08

Unless it came with 64 GB, perhaps.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I wish my phone had more storage.

Cerberus

Or a card reader.

How much do you have?

A sensitive question, I understand.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

16gb

Cerberus

Yeah that's what I have too.

I have 2.8 GB free now.

But it is hardly growing.

> "Time Warner Cable and Comcast are both trialing... plans that offer a measly $5 discount if users accept a 5GB cap with $1 per GB overages."

KitFox

@RegDwigнt What? No love for Zelda or Portal?

Cerberus

20:22

Good luck watching Youtube/Netflix on 5GB/month.

Mitch

Portal loves Zelda

Cerberus

Why the hell are they trying to introduce a data cap that's lower than many mobile caps?

And why are they charging $1 for an extra GB, which is what a mobile GB should cost?

One GB over cable should cost more like 1 cent.

Mitch

woo hoo! flag war!

Of should I say 'fucking flag war'

Matt Эллен

or maybe "fuck a flag" war

Mitch

-Now- who's the perv?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

20:25

kalina again.

wait. that's not meant to be a reply to mitch.

Mitch

It's like they're going back through messages to -find- things to flag.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 ha ha. already processed. Authorities have been notified.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

hm, i'd better get out of here then.

Cerberus

Bai.

RegDwigнt

20:59

►

151 million views. And yet I only saw it today.

That's as many views as there are Russians. I am the very last one.

Cerberus

> Burstein reports that while Internet traffic continues to expand at “ferocious rates,” your broadband provider’s net cost has been generally flat or even down. In fact, he estimates that when providers add up the cost of backbone transport costs and moving traffic from their network to individual customers, they end up **spending less than $1 per month on traffic per customer.** But they charge you $40-50 or more for the service.

Burstein also notes that broadband usage has almost no impact on provider costs, whether they offer 3Mbps or 1,000Mbps service, have caps of 50GB, 500GB, or no …

@RegDwigнt Oh, not that stupid video.

I totally didn't get that.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus that video is for Kit anyway.

If you want a video for yourself, hold on.

►

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt Wow.

If that is you, you're...exhausting.

And why are you censoring your own "fuck"?

No censorship needed on Youtube.

MετάEd

21:28

@Cerberus That's how it's always been in telecom. Most of the money you spend on telecom is for the measurement, accounting, and billing for services, not for the actual signal.

Cerberus

@MετάEd I believe those 8 cents are supposed to include essential administration and stuff too.

Whether you use 1 or 2 GB, that doesn't make measurement or billing more expensive.

Oh, you were replying to that other quotation.

MετάEd

@Cerberus Don't forget that pricing is value based.

Cerberus

Excuse me?

MετάEd

Value-based pricing

Value-based pricing, or value optimized pricing, is a pricing strategy. It sets prices primarily, but not exclusively, on the value, perceived or estimated, to the customer rather than on the cost of the product or historical prices. Value-based pricing can be used as a means of improving profits through higher prices and stable volumes, or as an opportunity to increase market share with minimal price erosion or competitive response. Goods that are very intensely traded (e.g. oil and other commodities) or that are sold to highly sophisticated customers in large markets (e.g. automotive in...

Cerberus

"Value" is a bit...vague.

What they mean is that you can increase prices if demand is high and elasticity low.

MετάEd

21:33

@Cerberus Actually, "value" isn't vague, it's just that it varies over time and different customers have different value for the same product. It's hard to know, but it isn't vague.

@Cerberus No, that's marginal value. It's different.

Competition can drive pricing to marginal value, of course.

Cerberus

I would like a state regulator to go over the actual cost price and force telco's to charge a price actually based on that. So basically a flat rate per customer based on costs that cannot be linked to usage or location; then a surcharge based on whether or not they had to spend extra on cables or other devices to serve your location specifically; and then another surcharge based on how much traffic you use. The flat rate would for most people be the bulk of the cost.

The total would probably be like € 2/month...

@MετάEd It is basically price, isn't it? Either the price or the demand curve is what it must mean.

@MετάEd Marginal value? That is not a term I know.

There's marginal cost and marginal income, and marginal profit.

And there's cost price.

MετάEd

The Consumer: Marginal Value, Marginal Utility, and Consumer Surplus (David D. Friedman)

Cerberus

> The most important result of that analysis will be that the consumer's demand curve is identical to his marginal value curve.

QED.

Hey, I miss @Jasper!

MετάEd

@Cerberus There are various assumptions, such as competition and complete information, that are necessary before you can know that.

Cerberus

How do you mean?

The introduction seems to make a broad claim?

Or is this about a specific situation?

By the way, their "marginal utility" basically looks like another way to express price elasticity, incrementally and absolutely, instead of relatively and only at a specific point as normal.

Cerberus

22:08

> By the principle of declining marginal utility, the marginal value curve should slope down; the more we have, the less we value additional quantities. I have just demonstrated that the demand curve is identical to the marginal value curve.

@MετάEd So the value curve and the demand curve are normally always the same, they agree. Right?

RegDwigнt

@KitFox more like no license. Nintendo in particular are infamous for their "my way or the highway" attitude. Plus they might have offers from Knex and Kreo, who also make bricks, but with whom they already have arrangements for other kinds of toys. I do wonder about Gabe, though. And I'm not the only one. I am the only one, however, in that I ultimately don't care, as I never cared about Portals one bit.

KitFox

But. Zelda. Portal. Yay.

!!define yay

KitSox

@KitFox yay (colloquial) Alternative form of yea (yes).

KitFox

Yes

Cerberus

22:31

pressing F5 on Facebook 10–20 people per second are still signing up for the Pietition, even after midnight.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

That's how cookies should be

KitFox

You are evil.

2

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

8 cookies, 17 minutes this time, less done than the time I did four cookies

Cerberus

Yay!

I want?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Anytime, just come over

Takes about 40 minutes from "I want cookies" to "I have cookies"

Gotta run

KitFox

22:42

I figure it's about 13 hours to get there, so...you better pre-heat the oven.

MετάEd

@KitFox My bags are packed, I'm ready to go

KitFox

Oh. In that case, it would take a lot less time.

I think.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

22:58

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 nice sag!

KitFox

@RegDwigнt I had no idea my people were so loved and yet considered so mysterious.

Thanks for sharing.

Robusto

23:34

@Cerberus What's a Pietition? Does it have anything to do with pie?

Cerberus

@Robusto It is in order to support Zwarte Piet!

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Better make some more then.

@Cerberus A worthy cause, I'm sure.

Cerberus

14,000 new people have joined the group already since my last report. It is now 1:37 AM.

Quite.

But it's bed time...good night!

Robusto

►

@Cerberus Zwarte nijt.

Cerberus

disappears in a swirling puff of pitch-black snow

@Robusto Nacht to you too!

poof

Mitch

23:51

@KitSox What? No, that's wrong. "Q: Are you going to have your gall bladder removed? A: Yay!"

@Cerberus Cost price? That's the price of the cost? How much does that item cost? OK, then what's the price of that cost? How much do you have to pay to get the chance to pay?

Is there anything else in the chat history that I can take out of context?

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