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The Color of Paradise is one of the best movies that I've seen -- a great example of Iranian film-making

Yes, the author is amazingly optimistic about human intelligence in general. They should not be taken seriously. I saw an interview with this guy on TechTV during an airing of The Screensavers, and I feel I can safely state that the author would agree with me in saying that it's not the foretelling that's important, but rather the intentions and thoughts behind them.

Let's not forget that Americans living during the 1900s lived in slums in the major cities of New York and Chicago. They invisioned flying cars and personal spacecraft before stumbling onto the Great Depression and two world wars. Let's not _underestimate_ human achievement either.

The author's intentions in this is to show what _can_ happen, given the proper circumstances and funding. I personally feel that if and when some glorious invention / annovation is made (e.g., time travel or "cure" for aging), it will be developed (and thus _patented_) by a whatever company creates it, and thus, most people will never see its hayday, until half a century later when politicians realize what a fucked up world it is. I can envision a world where time travel is patented by Sony and there's a huge Nike swoosh over Mars. Basically the worst parts of the Bible and The Matrix.

IMO, the author simply wants to foster intelligent conversation among people who care: this is what the world can be like. Here's what has to be done to prevent that... The power rests in your hands. Welcome to the Real World.

Actually, I believe the cameras use HD tapes, not hard drives. I think the camera they use is this one. That's one beautiful piece of equipment.
Andrew

Arrrgh. Stupid cut n' paste buffer. Correct link is here.

The screenshots look impressive. It would be cool if I could play that on my platform. And however I realize, that I belong to the minority of gamers (which is good, like Mark Twain has already said, "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect."), I still think that when they would wisely program this game for many different gaming platforms and few desktop ones, it'd be a piece of cake to release other version. But I'm affraid that they would prefer us to use other options, unfortunately...

Oh, well, I gues I'll just have to wait for Mason, or Warewolf, or Sands of Syllus, or Archipelago, or Catacombs, or Belchfire, or Acid Tempest, or Phoenix...

This isn't really a preview, more of a re-writing of parts of the FAQ availible at the official site. It really adds nothing to what is known except for a couple of new screenshots, and the author seems to lift a lot of phrases almost whole cloth out of pre-existing material - most annoying for those of us looking for real new dirt :)

a little big, but nice.

it starts at 5pm PST

Not only that, the author can't even get his Star Wars (or planetary systems) facts stright: "Obviously, the game will be set in the Star Wars universe (duh), but is not confined to just a single planet (hence the 'Galaxies' bit)" - Since when has any Star Wars episode been limited to one planet? And if there are multiple galaxies, it will certainly be a departure from the Star Wars mythology.

Let the site get slashdotted - wait for the game to be released and wait for a real review.

Just my $0.02

--
Inominate Recreant - in the code business for 22 years

Some may want to check out the official sites here and here or the FAQ on the game here.

Some may want to check out the official sites here and here or the FAQ on the game here.

If you think EQ is fun/addictivie, prepare to drool: http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/

I haven't built the project myself, but if you have enough of an interest in electronics, you can build it yourself quite easily with parts from the local Radio Shack.

Or go to your local Best Buy or similar and pick up a pair of these for about $60.

Of course, none of these were/are really sucessful, but I believe they have more games under their belt than your humble Verant. By the way, since you are "unofficially affiliated" with Verant Interactive, when is Sovereign due out?

Question: What's the advantage to this MP3 recorder over a minidisc recorder?

Now that I've destroyed your sense of manhood, would you mind answering a question? What do you consider a "decent mic" for portable applications? Like recording meetings? Not too bulky and easy to set up. I own a Sony M-100mc, which integrates a decent mic into a microcassette recorder. Works good, but having to use serial-access media is a pain.

Metropolis definatly is an anime. The short blurb going around is:

This exceptional animated film is based on the classic manga by the late, great Osamu Tezuka -- with whom director Rintaro worked on such '60s classics as Astro-Boy and Kimba -- and is scripted by Katuhiro Otomo (Akira). In an enormous, retro-future city where robots and androids do most of the work, there is nonetheless great unrest. The government is really a tool of evil billionaire Duke Red, and the seeds of rebellion grow underground. Stir into this crucible of turbulence a young man, his detective uncle, a youthful assassin, and an angelic blonde who doesn't realize just what she really is, and the result is as compelling as it is eye-popping, and as unusual as the swing-era music on the soundtrack. Original Japanese version with English subtitles.

If you need some more info, Here's a link.

SW:G is not out yet, but a lot of attention is being spent discussing the economy that will take shape when it does.

The developers (and the thousands of fans trolling the boards) are spending a lot of effort analyzing the fountains (things that bring money and resources into the economy) and drains (things that remove money and resources from the economy) in an attempt to make a relatively stable player economy.

In current Massively Multiplayer Onling RPGs (MMORPGs) nearly everyone is a fighter, and those that are not fighters are usually mules to help support the player's fighter character. One of the primary goals for the developers is to make crafting, and associated skills (such as mining) interesting enough in their own right to be viable alternatives to fighting characters. For this to work, they need a viable, working player economy... so they have far more incentive to get it right than most MMORPGs do.

You can read more on the developer's forum or in the FAQ. It is not expected to be out till late 2002, or early 2003 if it slips a bit, so we'll see how it turns out in reality... but I can hope...

Raven

SW:G is not out yet, but a lot of attention is being spent discussing the economy that will take shape when it does.

The developers (and the thousands of fans trolling the boards) are spending a lot of effort analyzing the fountains (things that bring money and resources into the economy) and drains (things that remove money and resources from the economy) in an attempt to make a relatively stable player economy.

In current Massively Multiplayer Onling RPGs (MMORPGs) nearly everyone is a fighter, and those that are not fighters are usually mules to help support the player's fighter character. One of the primary goals for the developers is to make crafting, and associated skills (such as mining) interesting enough in their own right to be viable alternatives to fighting characters. For this to work, they need a viable, working player economy... so they have far more incentive to get it right than most MMORPGs do.

You can read more on the developer's forum or in the FAQ. It is not expected to be out till late 2002, or early 2003 if it slips a bit, so we'll see how it turns out in reality... but I can hope...

Raven

"People are going to suddenly wake up and realize the the MS logo is on their computer, tv's, vcr's/dvr's, video games, toddler toys, kitchen appliances, car electroncs, etc

but people havent woken up to Sony yet , Sony are just about the only company that can complete the circle from not only producing the Artists that make the media (and the equipment they use to create it) to delivering it to the consumers eyes/ears on their Sony stereo/TV/computer/etc yet people still shower them with praise and dont feel they are a monopoly, even microsoft are not in Sonys exclusive position

I am undergoing a massive computer overhaul. A couple months ago I went out and bought a new monitor. Of course I bought a LCD. The LCD I bought was the Sony SDM-N80. I had never even seen the product. I just bought it on Sony's good name and the price I had to pay. The LCD is very good quality. The picture is crisp and clear. The space it cleared on my desk was immense. I never knew I had a desk until I bought it. LCD's require less power which also was a selling factor as well as the max. resolution is 1600*1200, 18.1" display, and has a Mac adapter for when I do decide to ever buy one for the reasons of a certain iPOD. Here are some specs for it. Not too many places have reviewed it (arsTechnica and Tom's did not), maybe because it is so expensive. Here is one review of the product.

The following page also reviews the more expensive LCDs.

DigitalOutput.net

Anyways that's my two cents take it with a grain of salt.

A completely random sample of five disks lying on my desk showed that four had the logo on the disc and the inside of the Jewel Case and one (Soundtrack from Jackie Brown) *only* on the Jewel Case (inside).
So there might be no way to tell if the CD has the logo before tearing the shrink-wrap. So what?
If I'm *forced* to open the shrink-wrap to discover if the disc is in fact a CDDA, then I can't be blamed. If the disc claims to be a CDDA (by carrying the Philips-Sony logo ) but is NOT (because of some protection scheme) this is fraudulent misuse of the logo. Even if the outside cover says "might not play on computers et al.". Because the use of the logo on the inside is a promise that the disc complies to the Red Book standard.

So I can at least demand my money back, open wrapper or not, and most countries would probably grant you compensation for your time to return the disc that is not a CD despite its claim to the contrary.

Finally we get to see a real Women Superhero, Captain Liberty, and they take her off the air.

Guess Ill go watch Lora Croft on the Tomb Raider dvd.

(Disclaimer, humor alert)

No balanced 1/4", no XLR, no bantam jacks

No AES/EBU either, but this is a CONSUMER-level product. Maybe pro-sumer, but definitely not professional.

If you want that sort of high-end stuff, you might want to look, oh, here, for example...

Yes! Because reboots are no longer being made, and are very limited in quantity. :)

For the person who didn't get it, "sponge worthy" was (at least, it may have other sources as well) a term used in a Seinfeld episode. In brief, the sponge is a birth control product used be a female (and therefore her partner doesn't need to use a condom), and after it is taken off the market, Elaine judges whether or not a man is "sponge worthy" - because there are few sponges left (she has a case), the guy has to be worth it for her to use one, rather than his using a condom.

I noticed that too, then again, almost all the news sites that have names the same as their titles are searched for. What I think is more funny is how many other sites that couldn't have been explained by people looking for cached versions of the site there are: nokia, sony, bmw... and Amazon for *'s sake! I guess it's good that people are using Google, but how stupid are they, really? And I didn't think bookmarks/shorcuts where that advanced of a concept.

heehee
Thankfully I never got into evercrack. I think I'm going to quit my job when Star Wars Galaxies comes out, though.

Most games have some sort of "payoff" device that is implicit when you play it. When you get that payoff, whether it is the final goal or some sort of intermediary plateau, you take a breather and appreciate your accomplishment. If a game defers that payoff and continues to promise it, it will become more and more of a time-sink. This fairly much appeals to the natural structure of human motivation - it's *designed* to generate obsessive behavior.

It upgrades the character models and textures throughout the world and has all sort of cool new stuff added in.. along with a new world to explore. You may wanna check the system req's first though since new/better textures/models may require new/better video chips ;)

have it already for a year. a Sony Glasstron.

Great for pR0n.

The prices seemed reaosnable, though not spectacular - from other comments, I gather you're expected to bargain. Being a foolish gaijin, I didn't realize this. As I was mostly interested in buying things that weren't sold in the States anyway, this doesn't bother me too much. I may have paid more than a native for the metallic orange camouflage MD Walkman, but it was still less than the equivalent functionality model in the States (even at the employee store). So I got a completely wack-looking MD player. Groovy, Bay-bee!

I didn't have too much problem asking after products. The staff will usually show you the register numbers when you look at them blankly after they've stated the total in Japanese. Just stick to the "protocol" of placing your money or credit card on the little tray they'll hand you with a printed receipt. They'll pick up the tray, make change or run the charge, and place the results back on the tray in front of you.

Oh, and one helpful bit of vocabulary: "Sumimasen...." usually said with a long drawn out final syllable - Sumimaseeen - and remember all the vowels are "short" and "pure" - not the dipthongs of English (One woman I was with had a strong Southern accent - she couldn't get passer-bys to understand that "Carry-Oh-Key" was "karaoke"). I'm given to understand that it translates literally as something along the lines of "I'm so very sorry to interrupt you in the midst of your important work, but....." Works wonders - staff on the other side of the shop will rush over. Even in the restaurants of "Little Tokyo" here in the East Village in New York.

Oh, and take a card from your hotel - it will have a map on the back showing where it is. Taxi drivers will need that. If you're staying with friends, ask them what train station is closest (this will also be on the hotel card map). If you can, memorize the kanji for that train station. Then you can get home, even on the subway, which doesn't have Roman lettering (but the JR train does, so it's not so difficult).

Because of one thing... Sony.

Sony Entertainment
Sony Electronics
Sony PlayStation
Sony Online Games
Sony Movies & TV
Sony Music

...MS isn't a pimple on that collective butt.
S O N Y ] [

This and the other trailer blew me away, especially when I found out that the live action scenes are entirely recorded with a special 24 frame/second progressive high definition video format, with a $102,360 Camcorder. This is the future of the cinema, indeed.

One thing the article mentions is that the XBox gets a bit of a head start over Sony, which has yet to release the ethernet/HD expansion pack.

On the other hand, how many people do you think will be interested in online Halo play, vs...

Online Star Wars?

Yeah, right. Microsoft will put those other tiny companies right out of business. Which would be bad because, you know, Sony would never try to be a huge control-freak media monopoly.

By the way, where did you hear that Microsoft isn't getting royalties from third-party Xbox games? Or is that just your own conspiracy theory?

Yeah, right. Microsoft will put those other tiny companies right out of business. Which would be bad because, you know, Sony would never try to be a huge control-freak media monopoly.

By the way, where did you hear that Microsoft isn't getting royalties from third-party Xbox games? Or is that just your own conspiracy theory?

Yeah, right. Microsoft will put those other tiny companies right out of business. Which would be bad because, you know, Sony would never try to be a huge control-freak media monopoly.

By the way, where did you hear that Microsoft isn't getting royalties from third-party Xbox games? Or is that just your own conspiracy theory?

Yeah, right. Microsoft will put those other tiny companies right out of business. Which would be bad because, you know, Sony would never try to be a huge control-freak media monopoly.

By the way, where did you hear that Microsoft isn't getting royalties from third-party Xbox games? Or is that just your own conspiracy theory?

The spec for CDDA (red Book or IEC-908) is Here, and there is some more stuff here.

As a long time Tick fan I have been eagerly awaiting this show. You can view a few 45 second clips of the show at http://www.spe.sony.com/tv/shows/tick/video.phtml.

The Tick is played by Patrick Warburton, who was "Puddy" (Elaine's Boyfriend) in Seinfeld and Johnny James (Jimmy James's VP) in Newsradio. He also was the voice of Kronk in Emperor's New Groove. An excellent casting choice for what is obviously a hard role to cast.

Also of note, in addition to The Tick and Arthur are "Captain Liberty" and "Batmanuel". When you see these characters you will probably notice that they greatly resemble American Maid and Die Fledermaus. This is actually due to copyright negotiations (which actually held up the show for some time). The original comic book characters belong to Ben Edlund, but all of the characters that were created for the cartoon are jointly owned by all the groups that produced the cartoon (Fox Children's Network, Saban, Graz and Sunbow). Since Sony (who owns Columbia Tri-Star) could not reach an agreement on who received what proceeds among all the companies they simply replaced the characters.

The official TV Show website is here.

It's got some video clips of the show, stills from the set, and a little background on the characters.

It looks like the TV show will be borrowing heavily from the cartoon show. I hope that there is some new material besides the cartoon gags. I wouldn't mind seeing some new story lines.

While I liked the movie (Episode 1), you certainly won't see me prostrating around the theatre in attempt to get quasi-religious significance out of it. On the countrary, there are other films that have taken that place in my heart at this point, thanks...

sigh... sorry, don't mean to be a dick... but...there are other countries besides the U.S. that use the dollar as the unit of currency.

in fairness, the poster you're replying to should have specified US$, CAN$, NZ$, etc... but i digress.

secondly, was the poster you responded to referring to playing CDs burned in a CDR on a PC, or was he referring to the fact that stereo component recorders like the Sony RCD-W1 require the special "Audio CD-R"s. Yes, I know, the market penetration of these things relative to PC burners is miniscule, but still, you've gotta ask yourself, "Why do these stereo component burners require special discs, when I know that plain old Data CD-Rs will do the job?" Secondly, ask yourself, "Why do these special discs that get used in these idiot-proof player/burners cost so much more? Is the company trying to take advantage of ignorant consumers that don't know any better, or are technophobic?"

Ah, the sweet sweet machinations of modern corporations. :)

For $200, you could have picked up a pair of noise canceling headphones that would also have had other uses as well (such as traveling on planes, etc). That's $100 savings. Could have thrown that towards more memory, larger HDD, faster CPU, etc...

-S

I filled in the form:

I saw the letter you sent to use the corrupt DMCA against a web site helping to promote your product. I was considering purchasing an Aibo. Now I won't. Change your mind and I might change mine.

Sincerely,
Thing 1

PS You can find a discussion here: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/28/005233 &mode=nested .

The only way companies are going to stop doing stupid things like this is if they begin to understand that many people become less inclined to buy their products when they do so.

playing a game that Sony already has (Infantry)?
If they bring in JeffP (maker of SubSpace, Infantry, Cosmic Rift) to help out with the game, I'll be more willing to give it a shot :)

His games are the only ones I ever go back to even after "retiring" for months.

playing a game that Sony already has (Infantry)?
If they bring in JeffP (maker of SubSpace, Infantry, Cosmic Rift) to help out with the game, I'll be more willing to give it a shot :)

His games are the only ones I ever go back to even after "retiring" for months.

It would be really cool to see Sony or some other company come up with a thin, flexible PDA. The technology is already there, save for the touch screen part of it.

Two companies, Flexible Circuits and E-Ink have the circuits and display parts down. All we need now is a flexible processor and flexible memory, and we'll have a Palm FleX which you'd be able to fold up or roll up and put in your briefcase.

If anyone knows of a vendor of flexible memory or processors, I'd love to hear of it.

• Symbol Technologies licenses the Palm and creates several units which can do RF, 802.11, and include a barcode scanner (high-output LED)
• Handspring invents the Springboard slot and implements pseudo-USB support for connecting the devices.
• Sony mimics that with the MemoryStick, but adds VFS support, and takes Handspring's USB protocol, changes one function, and makes their own spin on it.
• Handera, formerly TRG builds upon that with a sliding graffiti area (thanks for incorporating my idea from #palmchat back in 1998 on that one), and adds CF and SD slot architectures (still serially connected storage though, can't "run apps" from each card concurrently)
• Palm comes out with the replacement to the Vx, called the m505, and includes the Sony VFS extensions, the Handspring hardware port design (internally) and the Handspring USB modifications, but changes it enough to make yet a third fork of this pseudo-USB protocol. They also make sure to make every single thing about this new device completely incompatible with every single other thing available for their devices, even down to a 2mm change in the stylus length (I have a more detailed enumeration of those changes found here).

Why does Palm think they're about to, in any way, create a new hardware device that they think will surpass these existing innovative devices? Palm is ALWAYS behind the curve on hardware advances in this area. We're not even talking about comparing them to the iPAQ, VTech Helio, Agenda, Yopy, and the other dozens of non-PalmOS, non-WinCE handheld PDA devices.

Currently, Palm's OEMs for the PalmOS® software include:

• Sony
• Handspring
• Handera (formerly TRG)
• Qualcomm (bought out by Kyocera)
• Kyocera
• Symbol Technologies
• ...and others.

They get licensing from each and every one of these OEMs. Their hardware is the last thing to ever be updated. It is without a doubt, the least innovative portion of their business.. and they're choosing to keep it?!

I don't quite understand the motive behind this decision on their part. I suppose I'll find out at Palmsource in February.

This Sony page tells us that any CD carrying the "compact disc digital audio" logo is compliant to the IEC 908 standard and/or the Philips-Sony Compact Disc Digital Audio System Description (the RED Book). Any way to get the labels in for wrongfully using that logo (if they do) ?