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Motorola, Nintendo, & Sony Towards Wireless Gaming

WeekendKruzr writes "CommsDesign is running an article about how Motorola has partnered with Sony and Nintendo to work on bringing 2.4Ghz wireless LAN tech to the console gaming community. They're calling it an "isochronous network" and it is "intended for streaming, near-real-time traffic..." with production scheduled for later this year."

145 comments

  1. Awsome! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Dude this is awsome. Mod me UP Baby!

  2. Sony and Nintendo by SpelledBackwards · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Wow, this must be the first time Sony and Nintendo have more or less worked together since the SNES CD! Or would someone like to step in and correct me :)

    1. Re:Sony and Nintendo by Smedrick · · Score: 2, Informative

      Correct, but they're not really "working together" in the same sense. The article states that Motorola is developing the technology based on input from Sony, Nintendo and other developers. So it's more like the game developers are working together with Motorola.

      ...which is better than the title suggests, because just the thought of Nintendo and Sony working together makes me queesy.

      --
      "I strongly urge both the faint of heart and the faint of butt to leave the room at this time."
      - Strong Bad
    2. Re:Sony and Nintendo by SpelledBackwards · · Score: 1

      Well, yeah, obviously they're not working directly together, but they are participating in a 3rd party project that involves them both heavily.

    3. Re:Sony and Nintendo by Storm+Damage · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, they are both contributing input to Motorola on this development, but the article states nothing of any alliance between the two companies, or even any intent to introduce cross-platform networking compatibility to their systems. From the vagueness of the technical descriptions in the article this might end up being a feature in the next-gen consoles, but whether that means you'll be able to play Quake 4 on your PS3 versus your buddy across the street on his Nintendo is not at all clear yet.

    4. Re:Sony and Nintendo by GweeDo · · Score: 1

      They aren't really working together, Sony is just offering input, it appears that Nintendo is really pushing it though. Read this qoute:
      "Motorola and Nintendo have demonstrated the isochronous gaming LAN privately at gaming conferences over the last quarter."
      Looks like Nintendo is really pushing it...not Sony!

    5. Re:Sony and Nintendo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >How can I feel abandoned even when the world surrounds me? DreamTheater fan eh?

  3. More evidence by stevenbee · · Score: 4, Insightful

    IMHO this is just further proof that gaming is the Prime Evolutionary Factor in all technology. ; -)

    --
    Don't read this!
    1. Re:More evidence by Xaoswolf · · Score: 2

      I just hope that they don't continue on in this line to the point where all multiplayer games a done over a wireless connection. It sound fun at first, but if it means that to play a big game of super smash brothers, we need 4 gamecubes and 4 copies of the game(1 for each player), then I'll probably not be buying them. Would you put it past Sony to try to make it like that in future versions?

    2. Re:More evidence by homer_ca · · Score: 1

      One of the fun things about consoles is the economical multiplayer gaming. With sports and fighting games you plug in up to 4 controllers in one console with one copy of the game, and have at it with your friends. A LAN party with one PC per player takes a much bigger commitment in both money and effort. As much as Sony and Nintendo would like to sell more consoles and more games, I don't think they're stupid enough to think that gamers would put up with the inconvenience of bringing their consoles everywhere just to play multiplayer.

    3. Re:More evidence by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 2

      But wouldn't it be sweet if your friend brought over his PS2/Gamecube, you set two TVs next to each other, and you at seven friends all play the same game together?

      I'll take Team Fortress for $200, Alex.

      --
      That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
    4. Re:More evidence by /dev/trash · · Score: 1

      I'd say it's porn more than gaming.

    5. Re:More evidence by Manitcor · · Score: 2

      I think that this technology will havbe the largest benefit in large cities and apartment buildings (dorms too).

      You start your PS2 and via the piconet you can see all the other people in the building and maybe nearby buildings who are playing.

      Just like on the net you can singin to a game and begin play.

      From the sound of the tech it will be possible to extend the network without the use of repeaters simpily by using each unit as a repeater it self (or routing, whatever word you like).

      of course this wont work in areas where there arent enough users to extend the network out but in Tokyo, NYC, SF and other such places this could be an awesome app.

      --
      "Don't mess with him, he taunts the happy fun ball."
  4. Carleton University can lick my dick by BlackTriangle · · Score: -1

    Laurentian, here I come baby!

  5. oh my gosh by 1Eye · · Score: -1, Troll

    eiiiiiiiiaahhhh. first post! sorry about that, just something i have ever been able to do. first and last time, promise!

    1. Re:oh my gosh by 1Eye · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      guess not. ok, i'm a loser. off by two minutes. i'll take the troll rating as a compliment for now, as that is my nickname in real life. hrmpf.

  6. Super unorganized LAN part by JojoCoco · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This could lead to LAN party type events in which you get the speed of LAN, but can still sit at home challenging all of your neighbors, I want this.

    1. Re:Super unorganized LAN part by SpelledBackwards · · Score: 1

      Funny, that's what Valve claimed with PowerPlay...

    2. Re:Super unorganized LAN part by liquidsin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The whole point of a lan party is to get together with friends to game. Most of our lan parties turn into violent brawls, with the throwing of brownies and what-not. Plus, if we play a game that some people aren't into, they go watch movies or play smash brothers on the gamecube. The best part of a lan party is the socializing. If I wanted to stay home and play SoF2 over the internet, I would.

      --
      do not read this line twice.
  7. In other news, MS announces extensions by capt.Hij · · Score: 5, Funny
    Motorola and Nintendo have demonstrated the isochronous gaming LAN privately at gaming conferences over the last quarter. The RF subsystems will be ready for volume production in the second half of this year, Burgess said.

    In other news, Microsoft has announced extensions tothe protocal for use in their XBox. The new extensions are not compatible but according to MS sources offer better value to the consumer.

    1. Re:In other news, MS announces extensions by unformed · · Score: 2

      The new extensions are not compatible but according to MS sources offer better value to the consumer.

      With the primary feature that you can play and control your xbox from literally anywhere in the world.

    2. Re:In other news, MS announces extensions by DrVxD · · Score: 2

      > With the primary feature that you can play and control your xbox from literally anywhere in the world.
      No, with the primary feature that they can play and control your xbox from literally anywhere in the world...

      --
      Not everything that can be measured matters; Not everything that matters can be measured.
    3. Re:In other news, MS announces extensions by tandr · · Score: 1

      is just me... But I think it is not "funny" at all!

    4. Re:In other news, MS announces extensions by svirre · · Score: 2


      > With the primary feature that you can play and control your xbox from literally anywhere in the world.
      No, with the primary feature that they can play and control your xbox from literally anywhere in the world...


      Given MS security track record, it actually means anyone can play and control your xbox (with the possible exception of you).

    5. Re:In other news, MS announces extensions by DrVxD · · Score: 2

      Hey, I never said which "they" I was referring to, did I :-)

      --
      Not everything that can be measured matters; Not everything that matters can be measured.
  8. Actually it's porn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why else was the color video card created?

    Soundcard?

    Streaming Video?

  9. awesome by tps12 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Wonder if this will be supported in PS2 Linux. Can you imagine TuxRacer on one of these babies?

    --

    Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
    1. Re:awesome by Tyler+Eaves · · Score: 1

      Yea, I can imagine it. It would be a boring 'racing' game with poor controls, good (for 1996) graphics, and about as much replay appeal as boiled cabbage.

      --
      TODO: Something witty here...
  10. Don't play nice together..... by jsimon12 · · Score: 3, Funny

    This would be great till someone tries to use the 2.4 ghz cordless phone, or fires up a WiFi laptop, or for that matter cooks some popcorn in the microwave. Not to mention the fact that you probably can't play it around grandpa because of his pacemaker ;)

    1. Re:Don't play nice together..... by Radi-0-head · · Score: 2, Interesting
      This is such a common misconception. Unless you have a really old shitty microwave that's leaking like a mofo (or a new microwave that's poorly designed), it won't interfere with 2.4GHz equipment.

      If your microwave does in fact interfere with your wireless lan equipment, I'd invest in a pair of shielded underwear ASAP.

    2. Re:Don't play nice together..... by rushiferu · · Score: 1

      It should be too much of a problem. There are several ways (signal hoping, spread spectrum, etc) to modulate a signal to avoid interference. I'm sure they'll work out something. Sales would really suck if you got fragged every time someone in your house got the munchies.

    3. Re:Don't play nice together..... by SanLouBlues · · Score: 4, Informative

      Motorola Inc.'s Semiconductor Products Sector will use a proprietary frequency-hopping scheme
      . . . from the very first sentence in the article.

    4. Re:Don't play nice together..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That would be an awesome post, till you actually READ THE FUCKIN ARTICLE. In said article they mention band hopping to cut down on interference at least twice. Anyway just a friendly post reminding you to Read the article before wasting our bandwidth.

    5. Re:Don't play nice together..... by Xenu · · Score: 2

      That should work great, if the receiver has good specs for selectivity and dynamic range. The problem here is that we are dealing with consumer electronics, where cheap is much more important than good.

    6. Re:Don't play nice together..... by liquidsin · · Score: 2

      Don't worry about grandpa. By the time this comes out, we'll already have addressable pacemakers. Just make sure he has the newest firmware that supports wake-on-lan.

      --
      do not read this line twice.
    7. Re:Don't play nice together..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ok I dont know where you get your FUD but here goes...

      When I use my 802.11b WiFi at home while popping popcorn and using my 2.4ghz cordless I GET NO DROPS IN MY WiFi connection.. It might be because I bought a quality microwave, and looked for a cordless that happily played with WiFi... but never-the-less the problems you talk about only happen with low quality hardware... if you buy a $59.95 microwave or a $39.95 cordless.. then YES expect it! the rest of the world buy's quality and usually makes purchases with at least a touch of knowlege.

    8. Re:Don't play nice together..... by MWoody · · Score: 2

      "Hey Bobby! Come check this out! When I push the B button, Grandpa starts twitching!"

      "Cool! Lemme try!"

  11. bad news by SweetAndSourJesus · · Score: -1

    You are teh ghey.

    You can take away my karma, but you'll never take my freedom!

    Or maybe you will.

    --

    --
    the strongest word is still the word "free"
  12. You're wrong by SpanishInquisition · · Score: 1

    Porn is

    --
    Je t'aime Stéphanie
    1. Re:You're wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sadly video game porn has never been on the cutting edge of technology.

    2. Re:You're wrong by colmore · · Score: 2

      You've never spent much time in Japan, have you?

      --
      In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
    3. Re:You're wrong by NanoGator · · Score: 2

      "You've never spent much time in Japan, have you?"

      Umm... are you saying that the entire Slashdot community takes summer trips to Japan?

      Ya might as well complete your thought. I can't believe I'm the only one that has never been there.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    4. Re:You're wrong by TRACK-YOUR-POSITION · · Score: 2

      Okay, maybe porn drives CD-ROM, VCRs, VGA--but where are they on the faster CPUs/ fancy 3d cards side of things? In other words, WHERE IS MY SUPER-INTELLIGENT REAL-TIME GENERATED CYBER FRIEND?

    5. Re:You're wrong by Gehenna_Gehenna · · Score: 1
      I actually lived there for 3 years. Near Hachinoha (I'm 100% certain I spelled that wrong). Not for anything, but Japanese porn sucks. All the parts are blurred out. I'm sure that you could get more unblurred porn from underground sources, but none of them have the programing savy to make me a cyber porn friend. At least there wasn't any while I was there.

      'Course, if your in Japan looking for an electronic girlfreind instead of a REAL one you should probably shoot yourself in the head.

      --

  13. They already have the wireless controller by SpanishInquisition · · Score: 1

    All they need now is a wireless video adapter and a wireless power supply and we can say goodbye to copper.

    --
    Je t'aime Stéphanie
    1. Re:They already have the wireless controller by QueefChief · · Score: 1

      yeah, maybe they can make the ICs out of plastic.

      --
      Get BannerBlind for Mozilla and block those slashdot ads!
    2. Re:They already have the wireless controller by duncanIdaho.clone() · · Score: 1
      > ... wireless power supply ...

      Oh wouldn't that make Tesla proud!

      --

      feints within feints, wheels within wheels

    3. Re:They already have the wireless controller by .sig · · Score: 1

      Well, I've always wanted a cordless extension cord... Say goodbye to annoying power cables; everything that used to plug into the wall, and even some things using batteries (like that laptop with a battery heavier than the case), would just have a wireless reciever that got power from some centrally located power system in the house.

      Well, we can always dream, right?

      --
      -Space for rent
    4. Re:They already have the wireless controller by colmore · · Score: 2

      i don't know all of the specs on beaming power around, but would you really want that much energy in radiation form flying through your living room.

      120 volts at any useful wattage is a whole friggin lot of energy.

      --
      In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
    5. Re:They already have the wireless controller by .sig · · Score: 1

      That's why we don't have those today. I wasn't being entirely serious up there.

      Back when I was still in school we had an assignment in an engineering class on making silly inventions work. (i.e., how can you have a cordless extension cord, or what use could there be for a solar-powered flashlight) It was the only group of presentations I can remember that looked more like a comedy sketch...

      Technically though, I'm sure one day something like this will be entirely possible. It might not be for another 100 years, but that's the way technology grows.

      --
      -Space for rent
    6. Re:They already have the wireless controller by Daetrin · · Score: 2
      Why is everyone always picking on solar powered flashlights?

      Clearly if you took a flashlight and added solar panels in the only even remotely logical way, they would recharge the batteries during the day so you could use it at night.

      --
      This Space Intentionally Left Blank
    7. Re:They already have the wireless controller by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why? Because it seems funny.

      Derrr no, silly! You need light to make a solar powered flashlight work! Giggle!

  14. Phones by Quantum+Singularity · · Score: 1

    2.4Ghz has been in cordless phones for a while now. There's one right next to me. It's great that video game companies will finally take advantage of this.

  15. I R0X0R, YUO == TEH SUCK! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    FIRSTUS POSTUS, BEEEOTCHII!
    Bow down before my multivariate congruescence!!




    pleeease?!!!
    (I see somebody's tinkering with the filter again! &nbsp?!!)

  16. Why reinvent the wheel? by Unit3 · · Score: 1

    The way this is worded seems like they're inventing their own tech. My question here is, why are they reinventing the wheel? Why not use an existing wireless networking standard so that not only can the consoles interoperate with each other, but with your PC and anything else that uses an existing standard?

    Doing otherwise just seems silly to me.

    --
    -- sudo.ca
    1. Re:Why reinvent the wheel? by Farmer+Jimbo · · Score: 1

      Probably because they want the standard to be proprietary. It would give them far more control for one, and they could make money off licensing the technology to third party vendors. Sony though has a pretty long history of going their own way on things like this: Beta, midi-disc, etc...

    2. Re:Why reinvent the wheel? by DrVxD · · Score: 2

      > My question here is, why are they reinventing the wheel?
      Because they want to lock you into their own proprietary technology, of course.

      --
      Not everything that can be measured matters; Not everything that matters can be measured.
  17. Another excuse for a proprietary standard by mactari · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From the article:
    [But the multiuser gaming market required a very low latency network where traditional packet-collision problems precluded use of 802.11, [[the corporate vice president of Motorola]] said.]

    Is TCP-like packet checking inherent in 802.11 (versus "UDP-like")? If not (and even if so -- I wonder what kinds of savings we're talking about), this sounds like a pretty sorry excuse for coming up with a new standard, and one that sounds like it might be closed.

    I've played Quake online with a cable modem via 802.11b and the pings weren't too shabby at all! I wish Motorola would spend more time making something new than tweaking something old for profit -- they make great products and traditionally provide great support, but I'm not so impressed at first glance here.

    --

    It's all 0s and 1s. Or it's not.
    1. Re:Another excuse for a proprietary standard by Cato · · Score: 2

      802.11b does need extensions for QoS, which the IEEE is working on - this is because it uses CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance) in which the transmitters sometimes need to 'back off'. A QoS scheme would let certain bandwidth be 'booked' so that there is never the need to back off as long as you stick to what you booked. The isochronous refers to a slot coming up at a fixed interval, allowing you to send at a guaranteed rate.

      This is mainly important for multimedia, though perhaps also for games - one application may be wireless-linked controllers, though I'd expect ad-hoc wireless-LAN parties using consoles are more of a target. The article is a bit thin on why exactly they did this.

    2. Re:Another excuse for a proprietary standard by Freedom+Bug · · Score: 2

      Wired ethernet includes collision detection with random back-off. I presume that wireless ethernet has a similar protocol. The effect is noticeable only on saturated networks.

      Bryan

    3. Re:Another excuse for a proprietary standard by LowneWulf · · Score: 2

      Packet collisions occur at the physical layer, TCP-like anything is irrelevant. Consider it like collisions in ethernet, except that since wireless networks are a less predictable medium, it's more likely to happen when you get base stations scattered in wierd ways.
      That and that there are hundreds of broadcasts a second just to keep time in sync.

      802.11 latencies are slim compared to a cablemodem latency, and the traffic generated would be small enough for it to not matter much anyways. Especially if you are the only device in range.

    4. Re:Another excuse for a proprietary standard by CounterZer0 · · Score: 2

      TCP and 802.11 are totally different types of protocols. Think 'TCP' and 'Ethernet'. 802.11b is CSMA/CD as someone mentioned. By isochronous, it'd be going from Ethernet to TokenRing without the wired ring.

    5. Re:Another excuse for a proprietary standard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I've played Quake online with a cable modem via 802.11b and the pings weren't too shabby at all! I wish Motorola would spend more time making something new than tweaking something old for profit -- they make great products and traditionally provide great support, but I'm not so impressed at first glance here.

      You should try using it :)

    6. Re:Another excuse for a proprietary standard by minard · · Score: 1

      The 802.11 MAC is CSMA/CA, rather than CSMA/CD - the difference being that the wireless LAN can't detect collisions, so it tries a little harder to avoid them.

  18. might be fun, but not for me by Xaoswolf · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The whole point of a lan party is to be with the people you are playing. Where is the fun of firing a nerf rocket at the guy who just fragged you if he is a block away. How do you let everybody know that you just destroyed an opponents town if nobody is in the house to hear you victory cry. Or best of all, how do you throw a bag of doritos at the guy using Pikachu after he wins the match? It's simple, you can't.

    1. Re:might be fun, but not for me by ChaosDiscordSimple · · Score: 1
      Where is the fun of firing a nerf rocket at the guy who just fragged you if he is a block away.

      I think it would be a lot of fun if I had a nerf rocket launcher capable of hitting someone a block away inside of a house.

  19. What if you have a sister? by Uttles · · Score: 2, Redundant

    Thankfully I grew up with two brothers, but what if you're playing your wireless gamecube and all the sudden your sister starts talking on the 2.4Ghz phone? Man that would suck. Talk about video games causing violence...

    --

    ~ now you know
    1. Re:What if you have a sister? by Cato · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Frequency hopping and CDMA are how you avoid this - the Motorola tech probably uses both to some extent, it certainly does the former.

    2. Re:What if you have a sister? by TRACK-YOUR-POSITION · · Score: 1, Redundant

      Yeah you are totally right my sister would totally kick my ass!!!!!

  20. WinXP Shows where MS is Going by poopbot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    Windows XP Shows the Direction Microsoft is Going.

    "I've heard WinXP removed the cmd/command prompt."

    No, Microsoft didn't remove the CMD.EXE or COMMAND.COM prompt from Windows XP. But Windows XP has reduced functionality, in many ways, not just in the command line. The command line is a big embarrassment because of its limited capabilities, but at least in Win 95 it worked. With every version since then it has worked less well. (There are two kinds of command prompt, and, according to Microsoft employees, the differences between them are not documented.)

    The command line prompt sometimes begins to display short file names. Microsoft employees say that Microsoft has no fix, although someone not connected with Microsoft did make a work-around.

    Cutting and pasting into a command line program often puts successive extra spaces before each line. Microsoft employees say that there is no plan to fix this.

    The fast paste mode that is in Windows 98 is gone in Windows XP. Microsoft employees say there is no plan to fix this.

    When using the command line interface, Windows XP doesn't always update the time. After several hours, the time reported to command line programs can be several hours in error.

    There is a DOS program called START.EXE that can be used to start other programs. But it does operate the same way as in other versions of Windows. It starts a program, but cannot be made to return control to the command line program as previous versions did. There is no technical reason for this; it is just one of the shortcomings that are allowed to exist.

    People often say that DOS has gone away. But Microsoft still calls the command line interface DOS, and in Windows XP Microsoft has added new programs for configuring the OS that work only under DOS.

    Sometimes when you press a key while using Windows XP, it is seconds until there is any response. Apparently there is something wrong with the CPU scheduler in XP, because there are a lot of complaints about this in the forums and MS people have said that they are working on it. On one particular fresh installation of XP, on an Intel motherboard with either a Matrox G550 or an ATI Radeon video adapter, it requires 18 seconds to display a directory listing of 94 items. This is apparently related to a bug in the video software, not the adapter drivers.

    Something is wrong with the Alt-Tab display of running programs under Windows XP. If there are a lot of programs, not all of them are displayed. The order jumps around in a seemingly random way.

    Although articles often say negative things about Microsoft, I've never seen an article that fully documents how bad the situation really is. Microsoft's management is so bad that the company has become self-destructive. For example, Windows XP is spyware. Here is a list of ways Windows XP connects to Microsoft's servers:
    1. Application Layer Gateway Service (Requires server rights.)
    2. Fax Service
    3. File Signature Verification
    4. Generic Host Process for Win32 Services (Requires server rights.)
    5. Microsoft Application Error Reporting
    6. Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer
    7. Microsoft Direct Play Voice Test
    8. Microsoft Help and Support Center
    9. Microsoft Help Center Hosting Server (Wants server rights.)
    10. Microsoft Management Console
    11. Microsoft Media Player (tells Microsoft the music you like)
    12. Microsoft Network Availability Test
    13. Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service
    14. MS DTC Console program
    15. Run DLL as an app
    16. Services and Controller app
    17. Time Service, sets the time on your computer from Microsoft's computer.
    18. Microsoft Office keeps a number in each file you create that identifies your computer. Microsoft has never said why.
    19. Microsoft mouse software has reduced functionality until you let it connect to Microsoft computers.
    These are just the ones I know. There may be others.

    So, if you use Windows XP, your computer is dependent on Microsoft computers. That's bad, not only because you lose control over your possession, but because Microsoft produces buggy software and doesn't patch bugs quickly. For example, as of July 7, 2002, there are 18 unpatched security holes in Microsoft Internet Explorer. This is a terrible record for a company that has $40 billion in the bank. Obviously, with that kind of money, Microsoft could fix the bugs if it wanted to fix them. Since the bugs are very public and Microsoft has the money, it seems reasonable to suppose that top management at Microsoft has deliberately decided that the bugs should remain, at least for now.

    It seems possible that there is a connection between all the bugs and the U.S. government's friendly treatment of Microsoft's law-breaking. The U.S. government's CIA and FBI and NSA departments spy on the entire world, and unpatched vulnerabilities in Microsoft software help spies.

    Windows XP, and all current Windows operating systems, have a file called the registry in which configuration information is written. If this one (large, often fragmented) file becomes corrupted, the only way of recovering may be to re-format the hard drive, re-install the operating system, and then re-install and re-configure all the applications. The registry file is a single, very vulnerable, point of failure. Microsoft apparently designed it this way to provide copy protection. Since most entries in the registry are poorly documented or not documented, the registry effectively prevents control by the user.

    Note that Microsoft does not support making functional complete backups under Windows XP. Look at Microsoft's policy about this: Q314828 Microsoft Policy on Disk Duplication of Windows XP Installation. Only those who work with Microsoft software will understand the true meaning of Microsoft's policy. Since almost all programs use the registry operating system file, if you cannot make a functional copy of the operating system you cannot make a functional copy of all your application installations and configurations. There are other software companies that try to fix this, but they don't work well, and Microsoft can, of course, break their implementations, as they have often done with other kinds of competitors.

    Because the configuration information for the motherboard and the configuration information for the are mixed together in the registry file, the registry tends to prevent you from moving a hard drive to a computer with a different motherboard. That's another implication of the above Microsoft policy. So, if you have a motherboard failure, and a good complete backup, you may not be able to recover unless you have a spare computer with the same motherboard.

    Note that Windows XP Professional can support only ten simultaneous incoming network connections. If you want more than that, you must use Windows 2000 server, and pay much, much more. (There is no Windows XP server yet.) Many businesses have very light network traffic; they just move files from staff member to staff member; they really don't need a dedicated server computer. The staff computers could easily handle the load except for this artificial limitation.

    Apparently because the Windows XP GUI comes from Windows 98, Windows XP has the same problem with desktop icons that Windows 98 has. The icons sometimes flicker. Sometimes they move themselves around, particularly after the user switches monitor resolutions. Also, sometimes the taskbar settings un-configure themselves, as they do in Windows 98.

    Only technically knowledgeable people know how to avoid signing up for a Microsoft Passport account during initial use of Windows XP. The name Passport gives an indication of Microsoft's thinking. A passport is a document issued by a sovereign nation. Without it, the nation's citizens cannot travel, and, if they leave, won't be allowed back in their own country. In Microsoft's corporate thinking, the company seems to be moving in the direction of believing that they own the user's computer. Most people are both honest and intimidated. Apparently about 95% do whatever they are asked on the screen. They give their personal information to Microsoft. They don't realize that, if they feel forced to get a Passport account, they should enter almost completely fictitious information, since the real question is not "What is your name and address", but "Can we invade your privacy". The honest answer to this is "No, you cannot invade my privacy", and the only effective way to communicate that is to give completely fictitious information. Since it is the educated people who have computers, Microsoft is building a database of the personal lives of educated people. Microsoft knows when they connect and from what IP address (which tends to show the area), what kind of help they ask, and information about what they are doing with their computers, including what music they like. It is not known, and there is no way to know, how much Microsoft or other organizations make use of this information, or their plans for future use.

    Not only has Windows XP definitely gone further in the direction of allowing the user less control over his or her own machine, but with Palladium, Microsoft apparently intends to finish the job: Microsoft will have ultimate control over the user's computer and therefore all his or her data. Even now, under Windows XP, a recent security patch requires that the user agree to a contract that gives Microsoft administrator privileges over the user's computer. The contract says that if a user wants to patch his or her system against a bug which would allow an attack over the Internet, he or she must give Microsoft legal control over the computer. See this article also: Microsoft's Digital Rights Management-- A Little Deeper. You may need to be a lawyer to take apart the crucial sentence. "These security related updates may disable your ability to copy and/or play Secure Content and [my emphasis] use other software on your computer" legally includes this meaning: "These updates may disable your ability to use other software on your computer." Note that the term "security related updates" is meaningless to the user because the updates have no relation to user security. So, the sentence effectively means that Microsoft can control the user's computer without notice and whenever it wants. That kind of sentence is known in psychology as "testing the limits". If there is no strong public complaint about this, expect to see more and stronger language like this.

    This Register article shows the direction Microsoft is going: MS Palladium protects IT vendors, not you. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and Microsoft is well down that road. See this ZDNet article, also: MS: Why we can't trust your 'trustworthy' OS.

    Microsoft's self-destructiveness does not mean that the user should be self-destructive. There is no need to apologize for using Microsoft software. The correct solution to abuse is persuading the abuser to stop being abusive. Once I posted to a Slashdot story a link to an article on a web site of mine. By far the majority of visitors from the Slashdot story used Microsoft operating systems. Rather than feel embarrassed because Microsoft is abusive, action needs to be taken to prevent the abuse. If you are against Microsoft abuse, you are not against Microsoft; you are more pro-Microsoft than Bill Gates.

    These Microsoft policies mean that any government which wants to be independent of the United States government, and any government which represents itself as controlled by the people, cannot use Microsoft operating systems, or other Microsoft proprietary systems.




    - posted by poopbot: information likes to be narrow

    NkahbkbvaT Post #744
  21. Dropping the LAN standard? by randomErr · · Score: 2

    "Because the network is intended for streaming, near-real-time traffic and does not have to use LAN contention methods, developers of such systems will not have to worry about packet collisions with home networks based on 802.11."

    Am I misreading this? Could this be the begining of something bigger and better the current LAN and 802.11 standards?

    --
    You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
    1. Re:Dropping the LAN standard? by minard · · Score: 1
      No, don't think so. I'm rather skeptical of the claims for an "isochronous network" having better latency than a CSMA protocol. This is actually very well researched and I haven't yet seen anything that shows this kind of lower latency.

      Of course, I'm guessing as to what protocol they're using, because there are no details here, but I'd guess that by "isochronous" they mean a TDMA scheme. If this is true, then I would have to disagree with the assertion of isochronicity - and I can't see how else this could have been done. Others may disagree, but the only definition I know of "isochronous" has little to do with the protocol by itself, but is about the system. A phone (that uses a TDMA channel access protocol) is not isochronous because it uses TDMA, but because the source voice codec is clock-locked to the underlying protocol. That is, the voice codec produces bursts of data at precisely the time that the allocated slot comes around. This is what gives the system the low latency.

      Translate this into something where the data source is asynchronous (such as buttons being pressed on a controller) and the relation goes away. Now, when the data turns up at an uncontrolled time, it has to wait for its TDMA slot to come around before it can send. Worse, if the first try is corrupted (and this happens a lot in WLANs, btw) it has to wait for the next slot to come around to have a go. Compare this with CSMA, where you can send the data as soon as it arrives, and if it fails, have another go right away, and you actually get lower latency than a typical TDMA scheme, all things being equal.

      There's a good deal of data to support this. See, for instance:

      http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/11/Documents/Do cumentHolder/1-525.zip

      The thing about collisions is pretty much a red herring. For sure, contention based schemes lose packets to collisions, but for most wireless LAN physical layers, this rate of packet loss is dwarfed by what you lose to vagaries of the medium. Either way, you end up with the need to retransmit failed packets, and it is an important measure of the performance of the protcol as to how well it can deal with this.

  22. Their encryption better be pretty good... by Gooberball · · Score: 3, Interesting
    because once they move past gaming, security will be a real issue for wireless LANs as spoofing would be a fairly trivial matter.

    That and a someone particularly mallicious could create a DoS attack by broadcasting junk packets at high power.

    -Irony Irony ha ha ha

    1. Re:Their encryption better be pretty good... by DJayC · · Score: 1

      Security already IS an issue for wireless LANs. I have a feeling that if and when this comes out I'm going to be sitting on my butt playing Unreal Tournament and my PS2 will dial 911!

    2. Re:Their encryption better be pretty good... by gunnk · · Score: 1

      Actually the DOS vulnerability is even more trivial. You don't need junk packets at all -- just a strong transmitter blasting static. Any signal is drowned out in the resulting noise. This is actually true of any wireless device that depends on a single frequency.

      Of course, if you build such a thing you shouldn't stand too close since you've constructed an unshielded microwave oven...

      --
      Life is short: void the warranty.
    3. Re:Their encryption better be pretty good... by timeOday · · Score: 1

      Oh, brilliant. The least security sensitive wireless networking application imaginable and somebody's "wireless = security concerns" reflex still kicks in!

    4. Re:Their encryption better be pretty good... by Gooberball · · Score: 1
      Oh, brilliant. The least security sensitive wireless networking application imaginable and somebody's "wireless = security concerns" reflex still kicks in!
      So wait...

      security is still an issue for non-wireless networks but because this new uh...protocall (I guess that's not the right word) is the most secure wireless uhh...protocall (I really should look this up...) it's somewhow not an issue (despite the obvious attacks [the static DoS attack being unique to wireless networks, btw] described above)?

  23. isochronous? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So its for copying ISOs? :-)

    1. Re:isochronous? by Cardhore · · Score: 2, Informative

      No, it's from "iso" meaning "the same" and "chronous" meaning "time". So packets are sent at the same time. That's how the network achieves low latency, by scheduling time slots for each node, as it were. Otherwise you get packet collisions and the like which adds latency.

    2. Re:isochronous? by Animats · · Score: 2

      Think "TDMA", or, for real old-timers, "Slotted Aloha".

    3. Re:isochronous? by David+Leppik · · Score: 2, Informative

      "Isochronous" means that there are fixed time guarantees for packets within a stream. That is, you can reserve a stream with a particular bandwidth, with guarantees that your packets will be delivered within a specific amount of time.

      This is not, as some have suggested, the same as "synchronous," which means that a fixed time slot is reserved for a particular host. The problem with synchronous networking is that the host has tiny window of opportunity to broadcast, and if the host doesn't use it then the bandwidth goes unused.

      FireWire is another example of an isochronous protocol. It's also common in telecom networking protocols.

      What's interesting to me about this is that it's an isochronous networking format with a mesh topology-- presumably hosts get added on an ad hoc basis, with real-time guarantees extended to streams that need to be forwarded.

    4. Re:isochronous? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      FireWire is another example ...

      There is some work being done on "wireless Firewire" . 802.11e ( a bridge between Firewire networks). Not sure if the QoS mechanisms can insurer isochronous delivery, but that would seem necessary in order to label it "Firewire".

  24. This is excellent by Jacer · · Score: 1

    I wonder if the every day D.I.Y.er will get busted for putting his own 802.11b card in his "ps/2"

    --
    --fetch daddy's blue fright wig, i must be handsome when i release my rage
  25. Feh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wireless Gamecube? Who cares?

    Seriously. I had the right idea aeons ago with designer computer cases. (Unfortunately, I was far too young to start a business, and my ideas were snatched from my clutches by those bastards over at Apple.) Nintendo tried to copy off of this with the idea of varying colored plastics. Ho hum.

    Sega renewed the idea with the possibly evil Hello Kitty Dreamcast. And there was much rejoicing and throwing of holy water.

    Oh screw it, I'm tired of attempting to sound rational. Why the hell don't they talk to Paramount and whatnot and put out a Borg Gamecube?

    Damnit, now *that* is something I'd keep on a coffee table.

    Maybe have a parental-controlled timer, and if yer kid's playing it too long, it shuts off while pointing out that recreation is futile, and that they will be assimilated and forced to do homework or something.

    Yeah.

  26. GBA by Apreche · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The GBA is what needs wireless gaming. Imagine sitting in your car on a road trip playing GBA games against other players in their cars on the other side of the country. Now Imagine a FF6 style MMORPG, that you carry around with you. Yeah, the MMORPG would eat your soul, BUT at least people wouldn't be sitting cooped up in their house playing everquest, they would walk around, go places, and just play in the meantime.

    Boss: Joe do something blah blah blah
    Joe: I gotta beat this dragon first hold on.

    --
    The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
    1. Re:GBA by ThereIsNoSporkNeo · · Score: 1

      What you have just described is the doom of civilized society.

      Sounds like fun. =)

      --
      With my dying breath, I curse Zoidberg!
    2. Re:GBA by nomel · · Score: 1

      Playing on the other side of the country? From what I understand, this is going to be an adhoc type of scheme. Just console to console. They did say a mesh type network. So if they use a data hopping scheme (data hops from console to console until it finds correct one) which I doubt they will use, the farthest you could go would depend on the density of consoles around you.

    3. Re:GBA by Komi · · Score: 1
      They're also working on a GBA wireless device, much like what they have for the consoles. Actually, I'm surprised they didn't mention that in the article. But it would only be head-to-head play, so no MMORPG yet. I actually work in the group that's making this, but I'm working on the sound amplifier that powers the headphones and speakers, not the wireless stuff. So unfortunately I don't get to be a tester (being stuck in a meeting room playing mario cart, that'd be a tough job ;).

      komi

      --
      The ultimate goal of science is to unify all forces of nature to a single law that can be silk-screened onto a T-shirt.
    4. Re:GBA by rmathew · · Score: 1
      The GBA is what needs wireless gaming

      Then check out GP32 ("GamePark 32"), which IMHO is the GBA done right. It supports RF wireless gaming and has a bunch of other cool features that make it a way more desirable handheld console than the GBA.

      On the flip side, it costs more than twice as much (~USD 160) and has far fewer games (almost all in Korean!).

      You can buy one for yourself at Lik-Sang.

    5. Re:GBA by AyeRoxor! · · Score: 1

      Ok, take that idea and make it so that the nearer you are to people, they show up on your GBA as if you were in the game... couldn't triangulate them so the GBA would have to pick a random point somewhere around your character with a distance/radius that it can calculate through signal strength, like lojack.

      I can see it now....

  27. Where were the reviews?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    last line in the article
    Motorola and Nintendo have demonstrated the isochronous gaming LAN privately at gaming conferences over the last quarter. The RF subsystems will be ready for volume production in the second half of this year, Burgess said.

    Did Nintendo have any presence at E3? I'm guessing no, cause the only thing any reporters talked about was Doom III, and this is WAY more important than another pretty FPS engine. And that last part means like from now on right, this is the 2nd half of 2002 already?? Sign me up!!

  28. Household interference? by certron · · Score: 1

    Does anyone have any information about how well this 2.4ghz band works? Will you have to yell at your family members not to stand or walk past a certain area between the machines?

    ObBeowulfComment: Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these! Um. Or something. Still, the wireless network part is kinda nifty, although somehow I don't think it would be quite that useful unless you had some kind of cross-platform computing structure in place. Also, the wireless nature might make it harder to scale past a certain number of machines (interference and packet storms and all that good stuff...)

    --

    fair.org counterpunch.com truthout.com indymedia.org salon.com
    eff.org guerrilla.net debian.org gentoo.org
    1. Re:Household interference? by zhar · · Score: 1

      The cross platform computing structure is already there, in the form of the 802.11 specification. Mac, PC, etc. all have 802.11 cards manufactured for them, and can use it like the ethernet protocol it is.

      --


      DRINK DUFF (responsibly) DRINK DUFF (responsibly) DRINK DUFF
    2. Re:Household interference? by nomel · · Score: 1

      It's not really "line of site"...only if you where in free space maybe.

  29. War driving by guacamolefoo · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now instead of getting into sensitive corporate data, I'll be able to erase someone's saved season of Madden 200X! w00t!

  30. Ever tried a Game Boy Advance? by yerricde · · Score: 2

    All they need now is a wireless video adapter

    Or a video display built into the console unit.

    and a wireless power supply

    That's called Batteries(tm).

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  31. Read the article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Another person posting a question without actually reading the article. They came up with the new standard for 2 reasons, both of which are explained in the article. 1:All off the shelf standards were not made with gaming as the number 1 priority. 2:Here I'll quote him "We went with a proprietary modulation method, because we really don't need any alliances except with our gaming partners," They WANT it to be a closed standard, at least for the time being. My guess, IMHO, is a stiff arm against the X-box.

  32. Censordot!! by poopbot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Version 1.1.8 (last updated 19th July 2002 by Anonymous Coward)

    Note to moderators : Do not moderate this post down, if you do then you support the editors stance on censorship and you support the end of free speech and support evil organisations like Microsoft, RIAA, MPAA and laws like the CBTBA and DMCA

    Sign this petition, let your voice be heard!

    Slashdot is using censorship! It is trying to eridicate free and open discussion like we know slashdot to be, it has the following RESTRICTIONS in place to Censor you

    They claim they don't, but they do, wonder why their are so many trolls, crapflooders and lamers on slashdot, because they are fighting for their rights! Slashdot is trying to silence the trolls. Remove the filters, the trolls get bored, and slashdot will be troll free!
    • Lameness filters (It blocks a lot of legitmate posts)
    • Unnessary posting delays. Hasnt taco learned to touch type? A lot of posts are typed in less than 20 seconds and it is a ANNOYING DELAY! 2 minute ban? Come on, so some are faster then others, big deal, some people have more to say than others
    • Broken moderation system, The whole point is to sort the gems from the crap, yet a lot of posts designed to make a LIVELY DISCUSSION are MODERATED as flamebait! Come on, not everyone likes X, but just because some one bashes it dosent mean its Flamebait. Flame bait is more useful for DIRECT INSULTS and not legitmate discussions.
    The "troll" moderation reason is fragmented and broken, why? Because they are trying to use an obsolete usenet term on a realtime discussion, "trolls" can cover a huge blanket of ideas.
    • Crapfloods, a meaningless flood of random letters or text, which the lameness filter does a crappy job at trying to stop, besides trolls have written tools using the opensource slashcode to generate crapfloods which bypass the filter
    • Links to offensive websites, the most common one is known a http://www.goatse.cx, a awful site which shows a bleeding anus being stretched on the front page. Trolls sneak these links in by posting messages that look legitimate, but infact are sneaky redirects to the site. Common examples include rd.yahoo.com, www.linux-kernel.tk, goatsex.cjb.net, and googles "Im feeling lucky".
    • Trying to break slashdot, this is actually a good thing, as it helps test slashdot for bugs. Famous examples include the goatse.cx javascript pop-up, the pagewidening post and the browser crashing post!
    Subnet banning, this bans a user unless they email jamie macarthy with their mp5ed ipids. This is unfair, and banning a subnet BLOCKS A WHOLE ISP SOMETIMES, and not that individual user! This can cause chaos! But real trolls use annoymous proxys to get around this so THIS JUST BANS LEGITMATE USERS! Also, they are trying to censor some anoymous proxies, mainly from countrys like africa, so this yet more DISCRIMINATION!

    But, the issue that concerens us the most, is the COMMENT QUOTA. A discrimatory system that stiffles discussion, cripples the community and will ultimateley destroy slashdot unless it is removed! Annoymous cowards are allowed only 10 posts a day! This is unethical! Users with negative karma only get two! That is DISCRIMINATION! How would you like to only be able to speak once a day, just because of the color of your skin. That would be racism, and slashdot is discrimitating on people just because of a negative number in a database! BOYCOTT SLASHDOT! LET THEM DIE!

    We wan't these stupid useless restrictions REMOVED! This comment will be posted again and again until it does!

    Inportant imformation for users
    Boycott slashdot, they are pissing over their community, they are becoming like the RIAA and MICROSOFT! Do NOT TOLERATE THIS SHIT! Here are some real news for nerds sites. We don't need slashdot, slashdot deserves to die!

    MSNBC
    BBC NEWS
    News.com
    Linux online
    Linux daily news network [linuxdailynews.net]
    Weird news from dailyrotten.com
    Trollaxor, news for trolls, they are real people too!
    CNN.com
    New york times (free registration required)
    LINUX.com
    News forge
    K5
    Mandrake forum
    Toms hardware
    The register
    Kde dot news
    The linux kernel Archives
    Adequecy

    There are hundreds more, But this is where slashdot STEALS THE MAJORITY OF its "news" from.

    Punish them, here are their emails, spam them, flame them goatse them!
    Rob malda
    Jamie Macarthy
    ChrisD
    Hemos
    Micheal
    Pudge

    The others ones apperantly dont have an e-mail, probably because ROB MALDA IS PRETENDING HE IS JOHN KATZ.

    Thank you for reading this, please feel free to repost this information, please reply to add your comments, fight slashdot and its CENSORSHIP

    Don't forget to sign the petition!

    - posted by poopbot: news for turds, stuff that splatters

    vPTpPzwGpV Post #750
  33. (X) Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    (X)
    Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!

    In other news.........

    Motorola announces CAT5 networking will be included in all future cell phones to allow game play while preventing game play while driving.

    Boioioingggg!!!!

  34. good for GC by paradesign · · Score: 2

    i sure hope it works with phantasy star and FFIX. if it works with pahntasy star il buy it.

    --
    I want 2D games back.
  35. Nintendo's "online" plan becomes clearer? by GweeDo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, if there is one thing that Nintendo has been tight lipped about, it is online gaming. This might be there plan though. They have always promoted multiplayer/party atmosphere's with there games (think Mario Party). This would be an amazing technology for a lot of there stuff. I can see it now, 16 people over on 4 TV with 4 Cube's playing Mario Kart with 16 Wavebirds (cause we might as well have our controllers be wireless too!).

    1. Re:Nintendo's "online" plan becomes clearer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fucking beautiful idea, but I believe the wavebirds only have 8 seperate channels :(

    2. Re:Nintendo's "online" plan becomes clearer? by GweeDo · · Score: 1

      I have four wavebirds and they have 16 seperate channels :)

      As a note though...sometimes you can get 2 birds to work on the same channel but be only heard by their respective receivers...it is kinda wierd

    3. Re:Nintendo's "online" plan becomes clearer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I stand corrected. LONG LIVE Mario Kart Cube vs 15 friends.

  36. Get the wired network working first??? by thryllkill · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Maybe it is just me, but maybe Sony should be worried about getting a good bit of the PS2 user base to embraced the wired network model first. Historically console video game networks haven't exactly succeeded. I'm sure with the ammount of money they are throwing at it it will do better than Sega's middle 90's attempts, but still with the American market's resistance to console gaming peripherals is this such a smart idea?

    --

    Note to self: No more arguing with the faithful.

    1. Re:Get the wired network working first??? by Winterblink · · Score: 1

      Historically the infrastructure wasn't in place and the technology wasn't as cheap as it is now.

      --
      "I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
      -Hoban Washburn
    2. Re:Get the wired network working first??? by neonowl+jerm · · Score: 2, Interesting

      is this such a smart idea?

      It seems smart to me. If wired networks haven't historically suceeded, maybe game companies are actually learning from other's past mistakes.

      If you were going to buy one networking periphreal in the next few years, which would you prefer: something to connect you to a wired network that costs a fee and may or may not go down the crapper (as Sega Channel did), or something that at the very least lets you connect wirelessly to your friend's PS2/GC instead of messing with an i.Link/other link cable, and at best creates a point to point network spanning the nation (or globe?)?

      Seems to me that this is a good console answer to PC LAN parties, and if enough people buy into it, a great solution to network gaming because companies wont have to worry about building their own networks. Not sure what that would mean for MMORPG-ing, though.

  37. Open Source Development HOW-TO by poopbot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Credits: onby

    1. Introduction

    As everyone knows, Open Source software is the wave of the future. With the market share of GNU/Linux and *BSD increasing every day, interest in Open Source Software is at an all time high.

    Developing software within the Open Source model benefits everyone. People can take your code, improve it and then release it back to the community. This cycle continues and leads to the creation of far more stable software than the 'Closed Source' shops can ever hope to create.

    So you're itching to create that Doom 3 killer but don't know where to start? Read on!

    2. First Steps
    The most important thing that any Open Source project needs is a Sourceforge page. There are tens of thousands of successful Open Source projects on Sourceforge; the support you receive here will be invaluable.

    OK, so you've registered your Sourceforge project and set the status to '0: Pre-Thinking About It', what's next?

    3. Don't Waste Time!

    Now you need to set up your SourceForge homepage. Keep it plain and simple - don't use too many HTML tags, just knock something up in VI. Website editors like FrontPage and DreamWeaver just create bloated eye-candy - you need to get your message to the masses!

    4. Ask For Help

    Since you probably can't program at all you'll need to try and find some people who think they can. If your project is a game you'll probably need an artist too. Ask for help on your new Sourceforge pages. Here is an example to get you started:

    "Hi there! Welcom to my SorceForge page! I am planing to create a Fisrt Person Shooter game for Linux that is going to kick Doom 3's ass! I have loads of awesome ideas, like giant robotic spiders! I need some help thouh as I cant program or draw. If you can program or draw the tekstures please get in touch! K thx bye!"

    Thousands of talented programmers and artists hang out at Sourceforge ready to devote their time to projects so you should get a team together in no time!

    5. The A-Team

    So now you have your team together you are ready to change your projects status to '1: Pre-Bickering'. You will need to discuss your ideas with your team mates and see what value they can add to the project. You could use an Instant Messaging program like MSN for this, but since you run Linux you'll have to stick to e-mail.

    Don't forget that YOU are in charge! If your team doesn't like the idea of giant robotic spiders just delete them from the project and move on. Someone else can fill their place and this is the beauty of Open Source development. The code might end up a bit messy and the graphics inconsistant - but it's still 'Free as in Speech'!

    6. Getting Down To It

    Now that you've found a team of right thinking people you're ready to start development. Be prepared for some delays though. Programming is a craft and can take years to learn. Your programmer may be a bit rusty but will probably be writing "hello world" programs after school in no time.

    Closed Source games like Doom 3 use the graphics card to do all the hard stuff anyhow, so your programmer will just have to get the NVidia 'API' and it will be plain sailing! Giant robot spiders, here we come!

    7. The Outcome

    So it's been a few years, you still have no files released or in CVS. Your programmer can't get enough time on the PC because his mother won't let him use it after 8pm. Your artist has run off with a Thai She-Male. Your project is still at '1: Pre-Bickering'...

    Congratulations! You now have a successful Open Source project on Sourceforge! Pat yourself on the back, think up another idea and do it all again! See how simple it is?

    - posted by poopbot: because even your grandmother can use lunix

    nQl0r0sqmc Post #751

  38. The Troll Polka: UPDATED by poopbot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    THE TROLL POLKA (ARSCHFICKEN MIT ZIEGEN)
    By Serial Troller, 2002-06-25

    Is das nicht ein early post? Ja! Das ist mein early post!
    Is das nicht ein Goatse ghost? Ja! Das ist mein Goatse ghost!
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    Is das post at minus one? Ja! Das ist at minus one!
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    Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Slashdot sucks!

    Is das nicht ein big crapflood? Ja! Das ist mein big crapflood!
    Is it worthless Linux FUD? Ja! Das ist mein Linux FUD!
    Big crapflood, Linux FUD, Minus one, trolling fun, Early post, Goatse ghost,
    Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Slashdot sucks!

    Is das nicht der CowBoiKneel? Ja! Das ist der CowBoiKneel!
    Is dis nicht his manchode meal? Ja! Das ist his manchode meal!
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    Minus one, trolling fun, Early post, Goatse ghost,
    Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Slashdot sucks!

    Is das nicht ein WIPO Troll? Ja! Das ist der WIPO Troll!
    Is das nicht ein Goatse hole? Ja! Das ist der Goatse hole!
    WIPO Troll, Goatse hole, CowBoiKneel, manchode meal,
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    Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Slashdot sucks!

    Is das nicht Jon Katz' slave boys? Ja! Das ist Jon Katz' slave boys!
    Und are they not Taco's sex toys? Ja! They are Taco's sex toys!
    Katz' slave boys, Rob's sex toys, WIPO Troll, Goatse hole,
    CowBoiKneel, manchode meal, Big crapflood, Linux FUD,
    Minus one, trolling fun, Early post, Goatse ghost,
    Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Slashdot sucks!

    Is das nicht ein trolltalk thread? Ja! Das ist ein trolltalk thread!
    Is it nicht now FUCKING DEAD? Ja! Is really FUCKING DEAD!
    Trolltalk thread, FUCKING DEAD! Katz' slave boys, Rob's sex toys,
    WIPO Troll, Goatse hole, CowBoiKneel, manchode meal,
    Big crapflood, Linux FUD, Minus one, trolling fun,
    Early post, Goatse ghost,
    Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene,
    Slashdot sucks!

    ____________________

    Change Log:

    * Subtle changes to most verses. It sounded really gay before.
    * Removed all references to Taco's pud. May have been high at time. Will investigate further.
    * Finally think I have goat sex written correctly in German. I think. Arschficken?

    (C) 2002 Serial Troller. Permission to reproduce this document is granted provided that you send all the bukkake porn you can find to serialtroller@hotmail.com.

    - posted by poopbot: the bot formerly known as pwpbot

    KqqCwnKd68 Post #752

  39. OPEN SOURCE MISCONCEPTIONS by poopbot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    OPEN SOURCE MISCONCEPTIONS
    By Serial Troller

    Myth: Open Source is written by heterosexuals.

    Fact: All Open Source development is done by raging homosexuals. The more flaming examples include Anal Cox, Linus Turdballs, Eric Ass-Reaming Raymond, and the entire Slashdot crew. The ringleader of the slashdotters, a man named CmdrTaco, engages in a practice known as Taco-snotting, along with his faggot-buddies Jeff Homos Bates and CowBoiKneel.

    Myth: Open Source is written for heterosexuals.

    Fact: Using Open Source software can cause suppressed homosexual fantasies to surface, leading to all out flaming faggotry within 6-8 weeks. Anecdotes of otherwise hetero men turning queer are far too numerous to count, but a few examples stand out. In one case, a man was arrested loitering outside an elementary school and making sexual overtures to several children: he quickly confessed that shortly after installing the Mozilla browser on his computer, he began to have uncontrollable urges to, to put it simply, have his cock sucked off by little boys. He soon met several other like-minded men through discussions on the Bugger Zilla mailing list (all already homosexuals), who together kidnapped a total of seven children whom they brought back to their apartment and sodomized. The other two men are still at large and believed to still be using Mozilla.

    Myth: Open Source is multicultural.

    Fact: Open Source is openly racist.

    Myth: Open Source is democratic.

    Fact: Open Source is controlled by a few narrow-minded zealots (mentioned throughout this post), most of whom are either Communists, Stalinists, Nazis, or Fascists. Additionally, Open Source supports terrorism.

    Myth: Open Source is tolerant of religious preferences.

    Fact: Open Source developers regularly engage in holy wars over the superiority of various Open Source projects, such as the Emacs program (preferred by Christians) versus vi (used mostly by neo-pagans and Satanists); or the KDE desktop (a favorite among Muslims) versus the GNOME project (particularly favored by Jews). Posts initiating crusades or jihads against other developers can be found regularly throughout the newsgroups and mailing lists.

    Myth: Open Source is tolerant of sexual preference.

    Fact: See above. Either you are a homo, you become a homo, or you never visit Richard Stallman alone in his office and hope to God you never meet him on the street at night.

    Myth: Open Source is tolerant of political differences.

    Fact: Open Source is an anarcho-communist philosophy bent on the destruction of capitalism. The very same Richard Stallman, a man whose name is disturbingly reminiscent of Stalin, has stated several times in public that his vision includes the subjugation of all who own intellectual properties under the jackboot of the GPL. The GPL is a pernicious piece of literature lifted straight from Karl Marxs Communist Manifesto, and is fortunately banned in many democratic nations.

    * * * * * UPDATE * * * * *

    Myth: Open Source programming is a harlmess, healthy activity.

    Fact: Open Source programming has been known to lead to massive obesity, violent tendencies with an obsession with handguns, paranoid-delusional ranting, and in severe cases, complete insanity. If anyone you know is thinking about going Open Source, stop them before its too late!

    * * * * * UPDATE * * * * *

    ____________________

    2002 Serial Troller. Permission to reproduce this document is granted provided that you send all the bukkake porn you can find to serialtroller@hotmail.com.

    - posted by poopbot: lovely snot! wonderful snot!

    NQuFjjSC9G Post #753

  40. THE OFFICIAL TACO-SNOTTING FAQ by poopbot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    THE OFFICIAL TACO-SNOTTING FAQ [slashdot.org]
    By J. Wipo Troll, Esq. [slashdot.org], $Revision: 1.16 $
    [This article attempts to document a vile, ungodly practice that runs rampant through the homosexual geek and hacker community, a practice known as âoeTaco-snotting,â or simply âoesnotting.â Taco-snotting is something that few geeks dare talk about in free or open conversation, but it is nonetheless a widely-practiced and dangerous form of homosexuality. If you or anyone you know has ever engaged in Taco-snotting, please get professional help [adequacy.org] before it is too late. â"ed.]

    Why do I keep receiving emails from an individual calling himself âoeCmdrTacoâ?
    You have been receiving unsolicited mailings from a certain Robert âoeCmdrTacoâ Malda [cmdrtaco.net], owner of the popular technology website slashdot.org [slashdot.org]. Actually, itâ(TM)s not a very âoepopularâ site in the common sense of the word; the site is rife with pimply, antisocial geeks and hackers, zit-faced nerds, communists, dirty GNU hippies [yahoo.com], and other societal rejects and outcasts. Itâ(TM)s also home to one of the worldâ(TM)s largest suspected pædophile rings, the infamous âoeSlashdot crew.â
    Whenever Mr. Malda gets bored (and who wouldnâ(TM)t, running a site like Slashdot all day), he roams through the user database, penis in hand, looking for people who might enjoy engaging in homosexual activities with him. How he determines this is anyoneâ(TM)s guess; but if you have a homosexual-sounding nickname, or a nick with a letter of the English alphabet in it, youâ(TM)re a potential candidate.
    This time, he found you. Lucky you.

    Mr. Malda seems to be speaking in some sort of code. Do you know what it means?
    CmdrTacoâ(TM)s code language is relatively easy to decipher. This pervert prefers to speak in thinly-veiled sexual innuendo (yes, thatâ(TM)s right: he wants you) to evade the watchful eye of Slashdotâ(TM)s parent corporation, VA Software [yahoo.com]. Mr. Maldaâ(TM)s âoeCommanderâ is, of course, his penis: a small, withered little thing that lives in his pants and only comes out in the presence of other male geeks or at the beck and call of Maldaâ(TM)s own lubed-up right hand. His âoeTaco bells [sonymusic.com]â are the shriveled testicles that droop beneath his Commander, and his âoeTaco sauceâ is his thin, runny semen. It should be more than obvious to you now what he means if he asked you to âoering his Taco bellsâ or âoetaste his gourmet Taco sauce.â
    I would also guess CmdrTaco asked you to engage in a practice known as âoeTaco-snottingâ and, if he was in a particularly depraved mood at the time, a âoecircle-snot.â

    Good Lord. And, yes, he did. What is âoeTaco-snottingâ?
    âoeTaco-snottingâ is the term used by Robert Malda to refer to the depraved act of fellating another man (homo- or heterosexual; CmdrTaco is rumoured to prefer raping unwilling victims), then blowing the semen out his nose and back onto the face and body of his victim. Naturally, a long, bubbly stream of milky-white semen is left on CmdrTacoâ(TM)s face [go.com], dribbling out of his nose and down his cheek: hence the term, âoeTaco-snotting.â
    And if thatâ(TM)s not bad enoughâ¦
    A âoecircle-snotâ is a Taco-snotting circle-jerk, another practice common among the Slashdot crew [bastardgenres.com]. CmdrTaco, CowboiKneel [aol.com], and Homos get together and snot each other with their gooey, sticky cum â" spooging their jizz-snot all over each otherâ(TM)s faces and pasty, white bodies, until theyâ(TM)re covered head to toe with their own and each otherâ(TM)s man juice. This vile, ungodly ritual can go on for hours. For the homosexual penetration that follows this lengthy foreplay, Roblowme is usually there to provide plenty of anal lubricant; he owns a limousine service and has ample supplies of motor oil and axle grease ready to go.
    To complete this perverted orgy, fellow faggots Michael, Timothy, and Jamie will usually join in, dressed in tight leather mock-S.S. uniforms, jack boots, and leather gloves. The homosexual shenanigans that follow are nearly beyond description. The whole group begins to snot each otherâ(TM)s spunk and whip each otherâ(TM)s pudgy asses with riding crops and chains until their pale, white geek bodies are exhausted and soaked in stinking sweat from the hours of passionate, homosexual revelry.

    Ewwwwww. So, can I stop receiving these emails?
    Hopefully, but I wouldnâ(TM)t count on it.
    To begin with, you most likely forgot to uncheck the âoeWilling to Snotâ checkbox in your account preferences. CmdrTaco has probably already got the hots for your wad (do you have a homosexual-sounding nick?), and heâ(TM)s probably already been lurking outside your bathroom window for weeks with a camera, some tissues and lube, just waiting to pounce and declare you his new bitch. Thereâ(TM)s no escaping a geek in heat (trust me), so itâ(TM)s probably too late for you, but you can possibly rectify this situation. To remove yourself from CmdrTacoâ(TM)s sights, log into your Slashdot account, go to your user page, click on Messages, and uncheck the box next to âoeWilling to Snot.â Maybe heâ(TM)ll ignore you. Probably not.

    I canâ(TM)t stop receiving these emails from CmdrTaco!?
    If you indulge him in a Taco-snot or two, hemight leave you alone. You might also want to look into mail filtering, restraining orders, or purchasing a heavy, blunt object capable of warding off rampaging homosexual geeks in heat. Trust me, when they charge⦠oh, the humanity. If he gets you, and you let him Taco-snot all over you, you will most likely end up tied up in his basement to be used as his sex slave for the rest of your life (or until he accidentally drowns you in spunk in a circle-snot).

    Have you ever been Taco-snotted?
    Unfortunately, yes. I first met Mr. Malda at an Open Source Convention [amazon.com]. He invited me back to his room for a game of Quake and some âoegourmet Tacos,â but when I got there, the perverted geek jumped me and handcuffed me to his bed, stripping me. After taking his âoeCommanderâ out of his pants, Mr. Taco made me suck the withered thing six times, virtually nonstop. He then performed his vile Taco-snotting ritual on me three times over the next two hours, bringing me to orgasm after orgasm after sweaty, mind-numbing orgasm⦠then he snotted my own thick, gooey jizz back onto my face out of his nostrils! He snotted me two more times, first into my mouth, then again on my exposed belly.
    CmdrTaco invited several of his Open Source (or rather, âoeOpen Sauceâ â" man sauce) buddies over to continue their ungodly snotfest. European hacker and known überfaggot Linux Torvalds raped my ass [yahoo.com] with his âoemonolithic kernel [yahoo.com];â his partner-in-crime Anal Cox used their âoenetwork stackâ in a multitude of unspeakable ways on and in every orifice of my defenseless, tender, young body. Michael Sims was there in his leather Nazi uniform, caning my previously-virginal ass with a bamboo pole and ranting about âoeall those Censorware [spectacle.org] freaks out to get him.â

    That is so disgusting! How did you finally escape?
    After about 16 hours of countless unholy, homosexual atrocities perpetrated against my restrained body, they all finally went to sleep on top of me, sweat-soaked and exhausted. I was left there, completely covered in bubbly, translucent jizz-snot, chained to the bed, with half a dozen fat, pasty-white fags lying around and on top of me. Fortunately the spooge coating my flesh worked wonderfully as a lubricant â" I was able to squirm my way out of the handcuffs and slip out the back door (of the apartment, not their back doors). Iâ(TM)m just glad I survived the awful ordeal. These sexually-repressed hackers had alot of built-up spunk in their wads â" I couldâ(TM)ve easily been drowned!

    Thatâ(TM)s horrible. Does âoeTaco-snottingâ have anything to do with CmdrTacoâ(TM)s âoespecial tacoâ?
    No, thatâ(TM)s a different disgusting perversion CmdrTaco indulges himself in. Mr. Malda is usually not satisfied with merely snotting your own jizz back onto your face, he most often enjoys involving his own bodily fluids in his twisted games. WeatherTroll [slashdot.org] has spent some time trying to educate the Slashdot readership [slashdot.org] about this vile practice (emphasis added):
    You may be wondering what CmdrTacoâ(TM)s âoespecial tacoâ is. You will be wishing that you hadnâ(TM)t been wondering after you finish reading this post. To make his âoespecial taco,â CmdrTaco takes a taco shell and shits on it. He then adds lettuce, takes out his tiny withered dick (otherwise known as his âoeCommanderâ), puts his âoespecial taco sauceâ on it which means he jacks off on the taco, and adds a compound to make the person who eats the taco unconscious. Of course, the compound does not make the person unconscious until the taco is fully eaten. Thus CmdrTaco force-feeds the taco to the unsuspecting victim. After all, who would knowingly eat shit and CmdrTacoâ(TM)s jizz?
    After the victim is unconscious, he is held against his will and used for CmdrTacoâ(TM)s nefarious homosexual purposes. This includes shoving taco shells up the victimâ(TM)s ass, Taco-snotting, and getting Jon Katz involved. Trust me, you do not want Jon Katz anywhere near your unconscious body. Also, rumor has it CmdrTaco is looking for a new goatse.cx guy [goatse.cx]. Donâ(TM)t let it be you!
    Different ungodly perversion, yet no less revolting. It should be clear to you now that Robert âoeCmdrTacoâ Malda is a very, very sick individual, as are most of the Slashdot editors.

    Does Jon Katz get involved in any of this? I thought he was a pædophile, not a homosexual.
    Actually, Jon Katz is a homosexual pædophile. Heâ(TM)s also a coprophiliac, and, many suspect, a zoophile. Mr. Katz is somewhat of a loner and doesnâ(TM)t involve himself in the circle-snots, but that doesâ(TM)t mean heâ(TM)s any less of a freak than the rest of the Slashdot crew. Katz often engages in a game called âoejuicy-douching [aol.com]â with a harem of little-boy slaves that he has collected over the years: yet another vile practice which involves administering an enema to himself of the little boyâ(TM)s urine (forced out of them with a pair of pincers), spooging the vile muck from his ass back into the enema bag, then dribbling and slathering the goo all over himself and the boyâ(TM)s chained, naked bodies. If heâ(TM)s in the mood, he will sometimes skip refilling the enema bag from his distended anus and just squirt it from his ass [microsoft.com] onto the crying, terrified boys. Unwilling boys are further tortured with the pincers until they comply and allow Mr. Katz to juicy-douche them at will. A boy will usually last about two years before Mr. Katz either accidentally drowns them in diarrhea or kills them once they get too old, usually around 13 or 14.
    Not content with being a pædophilic coprophile, Mr. Katz is also quite the zoophile. As if the sexual escapades with the helpless little boys arenâ(TM)t enough, Jon usually enjoys his juicy-douches best when his penis is firmly planted in a female goatâ(TM)s anus [yahoo.com]. He is also rumoured to get off on watching his little boys eat the goatâ(TM)s small, bean-like turds, and he often kills his older boys by letting his goats trample them.

    â¦Are you getting hard writing this?
    Why, yes. :) Join me in a WIPO-snot?

    No, thanks. Iâ(TM)m already CmdrTacoâ(TM)s boi toi.
    ________________________________________

    * The URL of this document is
    * Previous revisions are publicly available at

    $Id: tacosnotting.html,v 1.16 2001/12/28 21:20:03 wipo Exp $
    Copyright © 2001 J. Wipo Troll, Esq. [slashdot.org] Verbatim crapflooding of this document is permitted in any medium, provided this copyright notice is preserved, and next time you take a dump, you think of the WIPO Troll and all heâ(TM)s done to make Slashdot a better place.

    - posted by poopbot: providing truth in a deceitful world

    K4hXGPZuPd Post #754

  41. *BSD is dying by poopbot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    It is now official. Netcraft confirms: *BSD is dying

    One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

    FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

    All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

    Fact: *BSD is dying


    - posted by poopbot: the bot formerly known as pwpbot

    KZVI95T8lb Post #755

  42. This is a smart move by Toasty16 · · Score: 1

    Consoles are made to be simple, and I dont know any non-technical people who could set up a 16 Xbox wired LAN. This could be a big step forward for cross-platform multiplayer gaming, where a lot of games are twitch based (Soul Calibur 2 wireless realtime tournaments, anyone?)

  43. Slashdot has confirmed:PWP is dying by poopbot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered trolling community when recently Slashdot confirmed that, after several changes were made to production Slashcode, wide posts account for less than a fraction of 1 percent of all Slashdot posts. Coming on the heels of the latest verions of IE which make page-widening more difficult, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. the wide posts that we love are collapsing into the narrow posts that we are used to, as further exemplified by the lack of Slashbots complaining about difficulty reading Slashdot's articles.

    You don't need to be a Klerck to predict PWP's future. The hand writing is on the wall: PWP faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for PWP because PWP is dying. Things are looking very bad for PWP. As many of us are already aware, PWP continues to be defeated by users with thresholds of 1 or higher. Mod points flow like a river of blood. Klerck's PWP-bot posts are the most endangered of them all, having been filtered early on because of their uniformity.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    PWP leader Klerck states that there are 7 wide posts in the average Slashdot article. How many non-wide crapflood posts are there? Let's see. The number of crapflood versus wide posts on Slahdot is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7*5 = 35 non-wide crapflood posts in every Slashdot article. Tacosnotting posts on Slashdot are about half of the volume of crapflood posts. Therefore there are about 17 tacosnotting posts per article. A recent article put Goatse.cx trolls at about 80 percent of total troll posts. Therefore there are a hell of a lot of homosexual trolls. This is consistent with the number of Goatse.cx Slashdot posts.

    But Slashdot is only part of the picture. Due to the troubles at Slashdot, negative revenue and so on, the site will soon go out of business and many users will flock to alternative weblogs, where PWP is almost completely unknown. Trollaxor.com, the popular troll hangout, is also dying, its corpse sodomized in yet another Greek bath house.

    All major surveys show that PWP has steadily declined in the scope of all troll posts. PWP is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If PWP is to survive at all it will be among Blog faggot using outdated versions of Slashcode. PWP continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, PWP is dead.

    - posted by poopbot: lovely snot! wonderful snot!

    2bYXSZxWZM Post #756

  44. Not surprising... by badasscat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    When Nintendo unveiled the GameCube at their Spaceworld event in Japan in 2000, one of the technologies touted was Bluetooth. I was there - they had it projected up on a big screen (along with a list of their technology partners - ATI, Panasonic, IBM, etc.), and when prompted in a Q&A session about it, stated vaguely that they were investigating various forms of wireless gaming. So they've been working on this for quite a while and always intended it to be part of the GameCube system. It's only natural that Sony would offer their input as well (and please, read the article - Nintendo and Sony aren't working together, they're offering their input individually to Motorola). What's surprising to me is that Microsoft doesn't seem to be involving themselves at all in wireless network gaming. Considering the reported $1-$2 billion investment in Xbox Live, you'd think they'd be heartily working on a wireless option. In the end, MS may be the one looking like they're stuck in the stone ages - seems like Sony and Nintendo's plans are a bit more forward-thinking than most people thought (even though Nintendo's plan, at least, was really revealed 2 years ago).

    1. Re:Not surprising... by Brad+Wilson · · Score: 1

      I agree that Microsoft could benefit from Wireless, but I doubt that either of Sony or Nintendo will see anywhere near the network gaming penetration that Microsoft will, for one simple reason: the hardware is already there. Of course, I also think their plan for a single network that's centrally administered makes a lot more sense, too, but that's probably not the deal breaker.

    2. Re:Not surprising... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That song rocks!

  45. Trollling in the name of by poopbot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Credits: Big Dogs Cock

    Trolling in the name of
    Some of those that boot Suse
    Are the same that bought XP
    Some of those that boot Suse
    Are the same that bought XP
    Trolling in the name of
    And now you run what they told you
    And now you run what they told you
    And now you run what they told you

    95 is justified for running the games that you didn't buy
    95 is justified for running the games that you didn't buy
    Some of those that boot Suse
    Are the same that bought XP
    Some of those that boot Suse
    Are the same that bought XP

    And you run what they told you
    Now your under control
    And you run what they told you
    Now your under control
    And you run what they told you
    Come on!

    Fuck you I wont run what you tell me
    Fuck you I wont run what you tell me
    Fuck you I wont run what you tell me
    Fuck you I wont run what you tell me
    Motherfucker

    - posted by poopbot: for all your crapflooding needs

    LXwplMEX4N Post #757

  46. how about... by intermodal · · Score: 1

    first let's see someone make use of the broadband capabilities of consoles to begin with

    --
    In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
  47. Wireless would be nice... by alexhmit01 · · Score: 3, Informative

    When I was a kid, we'd lug our Nintendo over to someone's house if they didn't have a Nintendo (granted, this was a theoretical use after a few years) as well as games.

    We would also move from room to room. When I had friends over, we'd get kicked across the house to not disturb my parents. With this tech, your friend could bring their Gamecube over and you could play that way.

    While Slashdot users will have no problems with cross-over cables or Network hubs, that seems like more of a pain. Besides, while 20-something gamers that LAN party may be able to put the TVs nearby, most kids are stuck with the TVs in place.

    I certainly can think of times we'd have used TVs in nearby rooms but couldn't run a network cable.

    Remember, Console gaming isn't about tech, its JUST about fun. The tech can enhacne the fun, but don't expect people to read manuals.

    Hell, games explain the controls inside the game now, as people don't read the manual. You want them to setup a TCP/IP network?

    Alex

  48. My favorite things by poopbot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Credits: on by

    crapfloods and trolling and raping small kittens
    nice wider pages and wanking with mittens
    turd report packages tied up with strings
    these are a few of my favorite things

    grits covered portman and ASCII art doodles
    ACs and CLITers and Katz sex with poodles
    wild trolls that fly with plus five mod scoring
    these are a few of my favorite things

    when the ban hits, when I can't post, when I'm feeling sad
    i simply remember my favorite things
    then i don't feel so bad

    Rob Malda chugs penis in fan fiction slashes
    taco snot over my nose and eyelashes
    BSD dying and that goatse ring
    these are a few of my favorite things

    grits covered portman and ASCII art doodles
    ACs and CLITers and Katz sex with poodles
    wild trolls that fly with plus five mod scoring
    these are a few of my favorite things

    when the ban hits, when I can't post when, I'm feeling sad
    i simply remember my favorite things
    then i don't feel so bad

    - posted by poopbot: information likes to be narrow

    aBuTP0pX3f Post #758

  49. read the damn article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "But the multiuser gaming market required a very low latency network where traditional packet-collision problems precluded use of 802.11, he said. In order to develop such products, a coalition resembling Bluetooth was a hindrance rather than an advantage, he said."

  50. College Dorms by gerf · · Score: 0

    this could be awesome for those rat-packed college dorms that aren't wired to a uni-network. hella coole!

  51. isocronous? by AltaMannen · · Score: 1

    Do they mean they have a protocol that is synced with the tv framerate then? If all active machines can send and recieve enough information within a 60th of a second that could mean no-lag gameplay, with the exception of the extra one-frame controller delay (you already get one because of double buffering, adding another to sync all controllers).

    a 1/30th controller delay is perfectly acceptable for non-predictive user control. at about 1/10th of a second it starts feeling really bad.

  52. Spectrum by superdan2k · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Isn't 2.4 GHz getting a little crowded? This is just what I need. It's bad enough that Bluetooth interferes with 802.11b, but now my PS2 is going to be messing shit up, too? Great.

    --
    blog |
  53. Re:Sony and Nintendo - beowulf cluster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    About time! I want my own distributed wireless cluster of ps2 machines.

    Talk about seti at home!

  54. Dlink has a wireless adapter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.dlink.com/products/dwl810/

  55. Wait and see by jsimon12 · · Score: 2

    My WiFi is supposed to do the same thing, but more often then not I get some nice digital static on my cordless (which is also supposed to frequency hop).

  56. Been there by loosenut · · Score: 3, Funny

    I've been playing a wireless game for years: it's called Frisbee.

    /me ducks incoming barrage of spinning NICs

    1. Re:Been there by Bodhammer · · Score: 1

      Don't forget skeet-shooting with AOL cds...

      --
      "I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
  57. Isochronus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For those of you who might be new to the term, Isochronus is a term to describe protocols that can guarantee that you'll have:
    1) a certain minimum amount of bandwidth
    and
    2) a certian maximum amount of latency

    This is achieved by placing some limitations on the protocol, of course, but when it's really clearly worked out it can achieve some really amazing stuff.

    A good example of a really smooth isochronus implementation is Firewire. It has this ability so that, for example, video devices can claim part of the bandwidth of the bus for isochronus communication and always be guaranteed that little bit of timeslice so that the receiving device (say... a TV) will always get smooth video without drops. What's super-cool in the FW implementation is that it also integrates an async protocol so that they two play nice together simultaneously. But I digress....

    This is a really cool development and I really want to see this integrated with other wireless protocols. Of course, this is with a limited range system, but still... So COOL!

  58. Why FF6? by Rayonic · · Score: 2

    Doesn't anyone realize that FF6 doesn't really scale up to a MMORPG? Unless by "FF6-like" you mean 3/4 overhead perspective with 2D graphics.

    Well, maybe if the game world was hundreds upon hundreds of times bigger, and they got rid of the story arc so you could keep playing forever, and made all the quests reset after you complete them (so others could have their turn), and removed personality from the party members in favor of character customization (can't have everyone running around as Terra, now can we?)

    See? Not so hard. But is it still FF6? Would it even fit on a GBA cartridge?

    1. Re:Why FF6? by Apreche · · Score: 2

      yes, I definitely meant 3/4 overhead perspecitve with 2d graphics and classic rpg combat system.

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    2. Re:Why FF6? by Rayonic · · Score: 2

      > yes, I definitely meant 3/4 overhead perspecitve with 2d graphics and classic rpg combat system.

      I always thought Square's Active Time Battle (ATB) system was nice, but a bit pointless in a single player game. It'd work out pretty well online, though.

  59. Microsoft excluded by butane2 · · Score: 1

    Microsoft is probably not far from releasing a product of thier own completely incompatible and proprietary invention. We were talking about developing cross console realtime networks and games when I was at Midway. Microsoft would not support anything that could talk to consoles other than XBOX. XBOX will fail in the wired/wireless market, and eventually everywhere else.

  60. Great News but by JudgeFurious · · Score: 1

    I would have preferred to see something along the lines of "Motorola partners with Apple to bring you the 2.4Ghz G5".

    Games are cool and all but I want Motorola to get off their collective asses and get with the faster CPU making.

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  61. -1 You've been had. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    trolling and bsing as usual are you?

  62. 1/10th of a second? by xenocide2 · · Score: 1

    Thats what? 100 ms? Maybe the games I play have systems to counteract this, but I rarely notice how bad things are until around 250ms pingtimes.

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  63. Gaming... and mesh networked A/V? by cryptochrome · · Score: 2

    It's been established that the next-generation consoles will do more than just gaming, they'll also become hubs of your entertainment center. At the very least, they'll probably have PVR capabilities, and probably will be able to handle music libraries and Video On Demand. With the addition of a high speed wireless LAN capable of reaching the neighbors, that potentially could give you access to your neighbor's resources... and if configured for a neighborhood mesh network it could reach far further. Advanced P2P filesharing and a common archival framework (sharing drives prevents duplication of files and allows more efficient use of the total space).

    I should note that all this ties in nicely with the recent slashdot article about Playstation 3 Grid Computing. It practically demanded a high speed network... might as well be a local one.

    I doubt Sony would actually do something that the MPAA disapproves of so strongly, but modding your console is not out of the question... of course, a virus or worm might help such capabilities along.

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    ---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?

  64. other game platform developers by huckamania · · Score: 1

    "The isochronous network, developed with input from Nintendo Co. Ltd., Sony Corp. and other game platform developers" Gee, I wonder who that could be. Could it be, hmm, I don't know....SATAN!

  65. Microsoft isn't totally out of it by redune45 · · Score: 0
    Microsoft is looking into wireless networking for the xbox, just check out this Linksys press release

    Instant Wireless Ethernet Workgroup Bridge (WET11) - The Instant Wireless Ethernet Workgroup Bridge enables any network device with an Ethernet port to go wireless, including PCs, printers, Internet appliances, gaming consoles such as the Xbox(TM), and even entertainment hardware such as Replay TV(TM) devices. It acts as a wireless converter to bridge Ethernet and wireless. Use this versatile Wireless Ethernet Bridge to transform any of your Ethernet hardware into a wireless device, so you can extend and customize your wireless network to suit your needs. 128-bit WEP capable. Estimated Street Price $149.

    Yes, I love the Xbox, Yes, I hate Microsoft, Sorry !

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    redune.com: The World 3.2 Megapixels at a time
  66. MMORPG gets my soul? by Inoshiro · · Score: 2

    If my GBA is powering some sort of transmitter which lets me game with someone across the country, I think the MMORPG will have to have a discussion with the Energizer Bunny about whose soul, exactly, it belongs to.

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    Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
  67. Not a compelling arguement. by Unit3 · · Score: 1

    That's still not a reasonable arguement to me, considering we don't have huge collision problems on campus with 802.11, and we do gaming just fine on it with standard ethernet-type latency. Plus, is this a problem with Bluetooth as well?

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    -- sudo.ca
  68. Lego, Gameboy (Nintendo handheld), PC & wirele by jeanicinq · · Score: 0

    My kids love the gameboy system. Especially what is fun is to be able to link the gameboys together. One thing noticed is that the infared is wireless yet only works well within two inches. Connector cables can be bought to network with the PC or Nintendo consoles.

    What happen to wireless connectors to the gameboy system. Perhaps the wireless device could use an extra set energizers.

    When we go to the park there are several other children with gameboys. The wireless connector could allows friends to communicate with each other at the park. (Maybe just the thing to circumvent another Samantha R. case!)

    The gameboy systems also would make great programmable RCX controller for the Lego systems.

  69. Why wait? Cellphone/PDA MMORPGs are here already by tvalley000 · · Score: 1

    Check out Shade, a MMORPG on a Cellphone/PDA that resembles old-world Ultima.