Slashdot Mirror
Strong Contender Already For Adafruit's Kinect Challenge
sammyF70 writes "Adafruit's bounty on open source drivers for Microsoft's Kinect may have been already won. Someone called 'KinectMan2' has posted videos of Kinect's output as seen on Windows 7 to YouTube. That was fast. Hopefully Linux drivers are coming soon."
A few more details are available on a forum post the man made. Adafruit said the bounty could be his if he posts the source code, and they also upped the reward to $3,000 in response to another silly statement from Microsoft.
Those Sony subsidies went to product recognition and goodwill until they decided to first remove "Other OS" from newer models then remove it in the field from existing models that accepted the wrong Sony-published firmware update.
There is software that can intercept (called filter in windows) usb communication.
google for "usb port monitor"
The thing is £150 for a couple of motion sensors and a camera. If they're selling that at a loss then they're doing something VERY wrong. Besides, selling at a loss is idiotic. What's to stop Sony buying up every single Kinect and setting fire to them, it will cost MS a ton of money and nobody will be buying their games, so they can write off the alleged $150m they spent developing the thing.
People and companies behave oddly, very unlike what they're supposed to according the economic theory.
For instance, the inventor of novocaine is reported to have tried to stop its usage for dentistry, because he thought that it was too mundane of an use and wanted it used for grand surgery. People seem to have this idea that they decide what their invention is good for, and not the people who pay for it.
Adafruit stipulated that the driver source must be released as open source. I see that happening next Tuesday, when hell freezes over.
"Lame" - Galaxar
I think you're not considering microsoft's r&d costs as something that may help $150 for each kinect sale amount to a loss when factored in.
R&D costs approach zero as a factor in the final product cost when volume goes high enough. Selling more units, even without associated game sales, only serves to lower the per-unit fixed cost overhead.
They could also take a much more basic economic approach, rather than waving the legal stick - Bundle the hardware with a must-have game, so actual game-buyers don't see it as costing more, but hardware-only purchasers end up with a game they don't want and can't even give away (because everyone else already has it because of the bundling).
So overall... Stupid on MS's part, but not even remotely surprising.
Guess I buy a different class of printer... I have several, some years old, and never had a problem with jets clogging. Incidently, only Epson sells printers with fixed jet nozzles. When you buy an HP or Lexmark, you get new jets with every cartridge. Canon splits the difference... the ink tanks are sold individually, but you can replace the nozzle assembly after it starts to fail.
Ink matters, too, if you're printing things that need to last. Cheap ink can fade in less than a year or two; high quality inks can last 100+ years. Obviously, there's no sense in paying extra for 100 year ink for a printed memo (do people still sent those) that's in use for a day, but for many uses, ink really does matter.
-Dave Haynie
Stop being an attention whoring second rate electronics kit seller for third rate geeks and build your own damn hardware.
I don't know if you got ripped off by AdaFruit some time in the past or what, but this statement is pretty unfair. AdaFruit has some good prices on various electronic bits that can be a pain in the ass to find elsewhere. What's more, they've made a name for themselves as a trustworthy vendor, so when folks buy bits and pieces from AdaFruit, they know they will get quick, quality hardware, unlike some other online vendors that seem to have trouble tracking their orders and getting sales to their customers doors in a respectable timeframe.
As for the jab about third rate geeks, well that's just some foul elitism on your part. AdaFruit and LadyAda.net offer some straightforward, accessible, free electronics tutorials complete with source code and pictures. For folks who just want to dabble and hobby around in electronics, this is a great resource that doesn't require the rigorous study of electrical engineering in order to learn how to make a cool, flashy LED toy that they can show off to their friends. Furthermore, said guides are simple enough that they can be used in young classrooms (as in elementary to middle school) and can provide up and coming geeks inspiration for continuing in the technical fields. This is a priceless quality in some societies where academic and scientific competency are mocked and scorned.
So all in all, I have to say that AdaFruit, their customers, and their business partners are all entities that I support quite strongly. They offer valuable services and products to those that need them. If such products and services are, "below," an uber-geek like yourself (I have to assume you are one, to write such scornful and condescending words), well then don't use them. However, scorning any tech company for helping to lower the bar of entry into the engineering and technical fields is just putrid elitism at its worst. It only gets lonely at the top is when you intentionally block others from the path to the summit.
So keep your condescending misinformed crap to yourself. Some of us truly value the idea of living in a world where peers with common technical interests are not few and far between.
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
I guess I will donate $50 in 15 days if nothing comes from the OSS community before.
For crying out loud could you not think of a more worthier cause for your cash other than speeding up the release of a game controller driver? Might I suggest http://www.foodforthepoor.org/ or a similarly worthy organization?
Why?
To me you seem to be espousing a very ridiculous notion: that there's something wrong with buying somebody's hardware and doing something with it. And Adafruit is offering to pay somebody for the documentation.
So, if their evil plan succeeds, horror of horrors, people might buy a Kinect to do something with it.