Merchant Prince
- Thread starter dreamingbadger
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Techno-Guru
Mongoose
Would anyone still read books in the Third Imperium? I mean I know we'd have PDFs or the equivilent but books?AndrewW said:
Techno-Guru
Mongoose
DeadMike said:
Printing and artificially aging copies of ancient Earth classics to sell to gulliable collectors? :wink:
Techno-Guru said:
I wish. It's never that easy. More like "The last copy of (insert book name here) that was a limited printing run a thousand years ago has surfaced. At least the rumors say so. Unfortunately, (Name horrible thing or enemy) is also there and guarding/looking for the book. See if the rumors are true and bring it back because it contains hidden/lost knowledge that could turn the tide in the war. The future survival of your people depend on you. If you can not return it, make sure no one else can but you will get a bad boy if you don't bring it back. Oh yes, you can not take your Battle Dress or heavy weapons because the rock it's on will not allow it. Thank you for volunteering, and Good Luck."
Remember we still have perfectly legible copies of books that are 400+ years old:
CD's start to 'break down' after 10 years or so...
Anything stored on 3.5" will soon (next 10-20 years or so) not have much hardware available to read it...
formats change regularly and not all new software is fully backwards compatable...
There will always be a need for hardcopy IMTU.
CD's start to 'break down' after 10 years or so...
Anything stored on 3.5" will soon (next 10-20 years or so) not have much hardware available to read it...
formats change regularly and not all new software is fully backwards compatable...
There will always be a need for hardcopy IMTU.
lastbesthope
Mongoose
mrfingle said:
I've got plenty of CDs older than that with no problems.
LBH
No, all CD's break down, just much faster if used regularly or exposed to heat/sun light too much. 10 years is the expected life expectancy, so if you have CD's close to, or over 10 years of age, you better start backing them up onto new media.
I have already lost half of my music CD collection, but I am pretty sure that happened as fast as it did due to keeping them in the car console instead of in the air conditioned house.
I have already lost half of my music CD collection, but I am pretty sure that happened as fast as it did due to keeping them in the car console instead of in the air conditioned house.
GamerDude
Cosmic Mongoose
This was a number of years ago, but I read in one of my comp mags (I used to get like 15 a month) the "ask a question" columns where this was asked..
The answer was stamped CD's were expected to last about 25 years, the ones you burned more like 50 to 75.
Since neither type of CD has been around that long there's no way to truly test it (I hate "simulated wear")
The answer was stamped CD's were expected to last about 25 years, the ones you burned more like 50 to 75.
Since neither type of CD has been around that long there's no way to truly test it (I hate "simulated wear")
I was going through the prices for slaves... Concubines bring in the highest amount, about CR2,200 (base) and that got me thinking... would you actually bother trying to transport human cargo around for so little profit margin? Being caught is a serious crime in most systems (at least one would think), and it's hard to smuggle people. You have the cost to catch them, to keep them, blah-blah-blah.
Surely there are more profitable ways to trade and make far more money for less risk? I know it might sound kind of cool, but it doesn't make that much economic sense to me.
Surely there are more profitable ways to trade and make far more money for less risk? I know it might sound kind of cool, but it doesn't make that much economic sense to me.
May seem low compared to other 'goods' - but with a 'cost' of zero, the margin is decent and the investment is low. Using emergency low berths, one could cram in four to the ton. In system slavery might see even more bodies to the ton.
In RL the risk vs profit of many criminal endeavors actually makes no 'sense' - hence the phrase 'crime doesn't pay'...
In RL the risk vs profit of many criminal endeavors actually makes no 'sense' - hence the phrase 'crime doesn't pay'...
dmccoy1693
Cosmic Mongoose
phavoc said:
Cr 2,200? Hm. That converts to about $4,000. An underground brothel worker can bring in that much for their owners in under a week. I'd multiply that 2200 by atleast 10, possibly even 100.
Cost of goods would include forging travels (since at some point they probably have to pass through some kind of semi-legit check point, not bribable but lax security), paying off authorities at the originating location of the cargo to stifle the missing person's case, paying off authorities at the location of the brothel (locations where bothels are illegal need to be underground, locations where they are legal are probably regulated and require documentation), and bribes, bribes, bribes. And that's just what I can think of ATM.
GamerDude
Cosmic Mongoose
well, if you look at the slave trade during the late 1700's, late 1800's... it was when the trader transported in quantity. And they weren't kept in the best of conditions...
Now if you have the right equipment, you can move a lot.. especially if you say, equip the cargo hold properly to hold them all.
Unfortunately, in Jump you can't just bring 10 of them "on deck", splash them with buckets of sea water to clean them and give them 15 minutes of fresh air. You also have the problem of how are they going to the bathroom...7 days is a LOONNGGG timeto hold it in.
Now if you have the right equipment, you can move a lot.. especially if you say, equip the cargo hold properly to hold them all.
Unfortunately, in Jump you can't just bring 10 of them "on deck", splash them with buckets of sea water to clean them and give them 15 minutes of fresh air. You also have the problem of how are they going to the bathroom...7 days is a LOONNGGG timeto hold it in.
dmccoy1693 said:
Exactly... So it doesn't make economic sense to transport them, but it does, at least for some, to use them.
If I remember the book correctly, you had to give them a medic check about once per week to make sure they were still healthy, so I guess you could put them in cold storage for the journey, but there's always that risk of losing them when you revive them. Not sure how many slavers are gonna pay for state-of-the-art cold sleep revival facilities and personnel for such an operation. Cuts into the bottom line.
It's not quite like slavery in the 1800s, where you could cram people in and not have to worry about life support. Starships operate a tad differently than a sailing ship.
AndrewW
Emperor Mongoose
Alien Module 1: Aslan has the Slaver (Hkisyeleaa class):
This indicates it's possible to double the amount of bodies a low berth unit can handle.
Note the ship uses low birth's not emergency low berths, doubling low births capacity brings them equal to emergency low berths in terms of carrying capacity for the tonnage and cost.
Aslan said:
This indicates it's possible to double the amount of bodies a low berth unit can handle.
Note the ship uses low birth's not emergency low berths, doubling low births capacity brings them equal to emergency low berths in terms of carrying capacity for the tonnage and cost.
dreamingbadger
Mongoose
GamerDude said:
Why would you need to? Just keep'em in coldsleep, it's cheaper, its safer (for the carrier)...
AndrewW said:
doh what he said!
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