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360 Wireless Clashing With Wal-Mart Tech
vladcole writes "Xbox 360 kiosks are getting shut down by some Wal-Mart employees sick of having their handheld inventory devices and printers malfunction, according to this compilation of Joystiq reader reports." From the article: "There's no reason to get worried about the Xbox 360 launch date (there, we recognized the elephant in the room), but the breadth and frequency of these reports point to a compatibility issue between the Xbox 360 and Wal-Mart, at least." Next Generation confirms that Wal-Mart is having issues with the 360 pods.
So if I have an xbox 360 will it affect my remote control changing channels... Oh wait... ;)
But seriously, think this would have an effect on wireless networks/devices?
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
I read 'Next Generation confirms...' as 'Netcraft confirms,' and thought, "Damn, they're getting really good."
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
Wal-Mart has some of the best tech in retail, actually. Just because they *sell* cheap crap doesn't mean they *use* cheap crap.
If you want to know what other retailers will be doing in 5 years, take a look at Wal-Mart's tech. There's a reason people are willing to work in their tech group for the low wages - it's because they learn a LOT.
All other valid slams on Wal-Mart aside, their tech is most definitely good stuff.
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
Heh. Try it on a computer; high resolution with better anti aliasing, anisotropic filtering, normal mapping, and polygon counts.
Against stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain.
the 360's communicate via airborn chair transmission. Some stray chairs are bound to hit the odd bystander.
I believe electronic devices have to comply with relevant FCC specifications before they are released into the market.
An age-old argument, to be sure. But the allure of consoles around their launch time remains: they typically will play the newest games on high settings flawlessly (I never saw the 360's Call of Duty 2 demo drop below 60 fps), and still for less than a gaming-quality PC costs.
WHO NEEDS SHIFT WHEN YOU HAVE CAPSLOCK/ DAMN1
Yep! No arguments there. It's just going to look worse, is all. And 3 years from now, your PC will not only play Call of Duty 2 at ultra high, but whatever other games you want which look even better. 360 will be stuck with whatever it could play when it came out.
Against stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain.
Wal-Mart is way up front in technology for major retails in the US (and I would expect the world).
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
And 3 years from now, your PC will not only play Call of Duty 2 at ultra high, but whatever other games you want which look even better.
Assuming your CPU is still fast enough and you spend another $300 on a new graphics card.
360 will be stuck with whatever it could play when it came out.
And your computer will magically get faster over the next three years? Games on consoles do tend to get better over the life of the console as developers gain experience with the console. It is much easier to optimize for a fixed platform.
No kidding.
I work for a rather large company, and when Wal-Mart came in and said "YOU WILL USE THIS RFID, TO OUR SPECS" our fearless leaders said "Anything you want."
Now, for our overall industry of the company I work for, Wal-Mart could take a flying nose dive. But, for our division? It would be suicide to not have our product out there.
So we installed their system. To their specifications.
Karnal
Not even out in the wild, and still problems? Of course, I wonder what doesn't interfere with a 1998 Point-of-Sale retail system.
"I'm a well-wisher, in that I don't wish you any specific harm."
Here are some pictures for those of you interested.. The Wal Mart down the road from my house Phillipsburg, NJ
Or ATi makes shoddy graphics drivers. That causes lots of crashes too.
Against stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain.
I wouldn't be surprised if it's the exact same thing.
Wasn't it Walmart that was using WiFi POS systems without encryption before? So that you could park your car in the parking lot, start up your laptop and harvest CC numbers all day long.
Yep! No arguments there. It's just going to look worse, is all. And 3 years from now, your PC will not only play Call of Duty 2 at ultra high, but whatever other games you want which look even better. 360 will be stuck with whatever it could play when it came out.
The Pc will cost at least an extra $200+ every year to do that. Whiel the 360/PS3/revolution will be 399 up front and that would be about it. As well for 80% of us, we can't really tell the difference, have just as much fun. Seriously graphics aren't that important. It's nice to have a good looking game but it is as much about the art direction as it is about the technology. Castlevania: SOTN could be for any platform, looks amazing, and doesn't need that much graphics power to do it. While Games of the same era (like Quake 2) look horribly dated and ungly.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
I have a Radeon 9600. It is approximately 5 years old and can run Half-Life 2, Quake IV, Battlefield 2, Age of Empires III, and similar games. Can it run them on high? No. Can it run them on a higher resolution, with better graphics, than a console? Yes. The Playstation 2 came out in 2000, the same year as my 9600. It is not going to run Quake IV at the same level of quality no matter how much you prod it. A console is almost always inferior to a similar PC in terms of power; the only advantages it has, technologically, are price and stability. Price is a silly comparison because a personal computer will do all sorts of things a console won't, and has a longer shelf life because people don't stop making games for it when a new round of videocards come out, wherears a console forces you to upgrade eventually. Stability is a whole category unto itself, but suffice to say the games that crash do so because they're pushing things to the limit.
Or ATi makes shoddy graphics drivers. That causes lots of crashes too.
A good game is pretty independant of the graphics. They help but there are a lot of pretty games that aren't funt o play. A game like starcraft/warcraft III look alright even years after they came out but a game like Quake II or Unreal look pretty bad even a year after. A lot of the time it's not important how much antiscopic filtering and Antialiasing the iamges it, it onyl matters that it's fun.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
if you had RTFA you'd know that MS has already developed a software based solution to the problem.
Kent Simon Multitheft Auto
My sister-in-law works in Wal-Mart's fashion design department and lives quite comfortably on $35,000/year while her husband goes to grad school. She actually likes her job, contrary to what many people may assume. If you're in the home office, it really isn't too bad.
It's always fashionable to slam Wal-Mart, but people really miss some of the decent things they do. For example, since I started there in 1998, the Waltons have donated no less than $563 million to the University of Arkansas. They basically paid for the new honors college. The Waltons may have anti-competitive business practices, frown on unions, and do many other unsettling things, but you can't argue that they aren't trying to make up for it by giving away large amounts of money. I won't forget that their contributions to university scholarships paid for my (and my wife's) education.
That said, I still shop at Target, until they actually open at least a third of those 40-some-odd checkout lanes. :)
There are two types of people: those prepared for the zombie apocalypse and those who will be eaten.
I'm not sure why your PC costs 200+ dollars each year to stay viable. I spend much less than that and I have never encountered a game I could not play. It costs 200-500 a year AT LEAST if you want to stay on or near the cutting edge, but if all you want to do is play your games at a reasonable frame rate and resolution (especially compared to consoles) then a PC is very cost effective, once you factor in the fact that you need one anyways.
Against stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain.
Apparently the printer rolls, whenever an XBox 360 was around would print out "Linux must Die!" with each order... Wonder how that got there...
<SOH>ALLYOURBASEAREBELONGTOUS<EOH>
Very strange...
Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...
i thought that was circuit city
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
This is true. Living in Fayetteville, Arkansas is fairly in expensive as well. If you find the right place, you can live less than a mile from the university for under $500 bucks a month. My appartment two blocks from the university costs $500 after utilities.
I live ok on a $1300/month salary from the University. I could live very well on twice that. Also, if you work at the University full-time, they waive 95% of your tuition and %50 of your spouse's or children's tuition. $160 per semester is much more affordable than $2000 per semester.
"When God kisses Satan and the Incarnations applaud." "Death is dead. Long live Death!"
erm...just what about kameo in your opinion makes it look like crap, besides the fact that it is on a M$ console?
Please do tell.
They have just-in-time inventory
At my previous job, WalMart was one of our biggest customers. Not only do they not have a warehouse or stockroom at any of the stores (Stuff is taken off of the truck, and almost instantly brought onto the sales floor), everything is ordered automatically. Their computer system tracks what is selling, and what isn't. Items that sell good are continued to be stocked, poor selling items are dropped automatically, without any human intervention. I'm sure that managers are able to override some things, but the vast majority of it is automatic.
And like another poster said, when you do business with WalMart, you tailor your systems to meet their specifications. We had to redo most of our computer system to match with theirs. It ended up costing the company nearly a hundred thousand dollars, but the business that it provided was well worth the cost.
On an offtopic note, has anyone ever seen the "WalMart Cheer"? They do it at all of their corporate meetings, and the store employees do it every morning at opening, and every night at closing. It's hilarious.
have a Radeon 9600. It is approximately 5 years old
Er, no. Your Radeon 9600 is just over two years old.
READY.
#
I'm not sure why your PC costs 200+ dollars each year to stay viable. I spend much less than that and I have never encountered a game I could not play. It costs 200-500 a year AT LEAST if you want to stay on or near the cutting edge, but if all you want to do is play your games at a reasonable frame rate and resolution (especially compared to consoles) then a PC is very cost effective, once you factor in the fact that you need one anyways.
To get a midrange card every year to keep the PC current it will cost $200 at least, often more and more often. Anything less and your getting an economy card which has a dismal performance return for the money. It costs 500-900 to stay cuttign edge (especially with the SLI stuff). Most hardcore PC gamers I know spend ~$300 for a mid range card every 6 months. Casual gamers shell out ~$200 every year or so. Frame rate and resolution don't make the game any more fun, The games I'm addicted to for the PC are WOW and War III. Neither could be for the console but the things that graphics are importan for (DOOM 3, Half life 2, Far Cry) aren't fun for long.
I am also addicted to a dozen Console games(MGS 3, Damacy Katamary, ect..). These games are fine despite the aged graphics. I'm not playing for eye candy, I'm playing for fun.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
You can't be serious. Casual gamers shell out ~$200 a year? That's what I call a hardcore gamer. I call myself a casual gamer, and I usually buy a graphics card OR a mobo/CPU upgrade once every 2 years. And it's never top of the line too.
I prefer PC gaming for two reasons. Graphics are always sharper and clearer, and because of the mouse and keyboard interface.
My favourite games are RTSs (AoE) and FPS (Half Life 2). These types of games NEED a truly analog device to play, and there's just no way a controller will suffice. I realise it is slightly more expensive to maintain my computer than buy a PS2 or XBOX up front, but I'm willing to pay that price to be able to accurately control my games.
Call Forum Joe, That's my name, That name again is Forum Joe.
Yeah, I about laughed out loud when I read that.
:D
This time in the year 2000, ATI was releasing the Radeon.
Yes, THE ORIGINAL Radeon (later named 7500). Two pipes, 3 textures per pipe and a T&L unit.
Come on people, get your ATI release dates straight
2000: Radeon SDR/DDR
2001: Radeon 8500 (later reworked as 9000/9100/9200)
2002: Radeon 9500 series, 9700 series
2003: Radeon 9600 series, Radeon 9800 series
2004: Radeon x300/x600/x700/x800 series
2005: Radeon x1300/x1600/x1800 series
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
Is it me or does the controller on the 360 Demo rig look a lot like the old Sega Dreamcast controller? Sans the slot for the nifty game save/mini-handheld card. Do the controllers use 802.11 or BlueTooth? I know the console itself uses 802.11g. - Michael "TheZorch" Haney thezorch@gmail.com
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
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