if they're so far outside our light-cone that we'll never come into contact with them.
Assuming we can hold our civilisation together, it's still going to take us a friggin' long time to explore a single galaxy that's 100,000 lightyears across, with 200-400 billion stars in it. Even if there are thousands of intelligent races in the Milky Way, it might still take us a million years to find even one.
And if we're alone in this galaxy, the nearest one is 2 million lightyears away. Who's going to volunteer to check it out? You'll need more than a packed lunch. And most other galaxies are much further away than that.
First you say it's not worth buying, then you say people are going to be pissed off that they didn't buy one. Which is it?
Personally, I have no problem with extra choices (though some people do). I just want a bigger HDD - and I'd rather not pay US$180 for it, thanks MS, m'kay?
Just buy a PS3 instead. Sony are happy to heavily subsidise the hardware for you, and won't even complain if you don't buy any games or movies for it.
Or, better still, port your signal processing code to a GPU instead. They're much cheaper and far more powerful than a Cell, and with far more local memory bandwidth too. GPUs aren't ideal for every algorithm, but they do work well for many forms of signal processing.
Why dump the core? Why not lower its price by $50 too, and compete against the Wii?
I know everyone gets all resentful that a non-HDD version somehow means games can't support the HDD, but that's not the case. There are 360 games that require the HDD, and there are many, many more games which can take advantage of it if it's there. There are so many HDDs in the market that developers would be foolish to ignore them, it's not like some third-party add-on with no penetration. MS deliberately abstracted the filesystem for the same reasons it's abstracted in every OS - it dramatically increases flexibility.
You may not want a 'tard pack yourself, but believe it or not, it's actually better value for what you get - MS lose more money on the Core version. For 75% of the price you can pay 99% of the games, and that matters a lot to some segments of the market.
The current system can't output the full 1080p via component out.
I'm running 1080p right now, from my 360 to my (Acer) 1080p LCD TV, via component - and it looks fine. HDMI offers a more convenient connection (one cable instead of at least four) and it's digital (no conversion to analogue and back again, also it won't degrade over moderate distances), but in practical terms I'm more than happy with component. Wouldn't say no to HDMI, but I wouldn't rush out and pay more for it.
The problem is that the system just isn't powerful enough to drive this resolution at a proper frame rate.
No more or less than the PS3. This is a common misconception (fostered by Sony).
The GPUs in the 360 and the PS3 were designed at the same time using the same process technology, and have roughly the same capabilities (PS3 has more pipelines, 360 has more shaders & bandwidth, but overall it's pretty close). The CPUs aren't that dissimilar either - PS3 has an advantage for crunching numbers, 360 has an advantage with general processing, it's arguable which is better for playing games (360 is easier to program though). Either system is quite capable of playing 1080p games at full frame rate, so long as the game isn't too demanding (hence Virtua Tennis is 1080p on both, and R:FoM/Gears are only 720p).
when it recieves the 1080i, it drops the res to 540, and upscales that to 720. make sense?
No, not at all. Only the most braindead TV would do that. You forgot that interlaced lines are staggered vertically, so that a 1080i still frame has identical resolution to 1080p. All movies played through a 1080i 30Hz signal are reverse-telecined by the TV to get the original 1080p 24Hz movie, and this is what is scaled to 720p. Any 1080i signal can be trivially upscaled to 1080p before downscaling to 720p, with minimal loss.
And to be perfectly honest, unless you have a 50+" screen or you sit closer than 2m, the average 20/20 human eye is hard-pressed to resolve the difference anyway.
So, your PS3 "lite" wouldn't play Blu-Ray movies any more - nor would it play any PS3 game released on a Blu-Ray disc (which is all of them). You'd basically end up with an expensive, half-broken PS2 that could manage a few downloaded games too.
Sure, Sony could start re-releasing games on DVD, but there's already a next-gen console with DVD games for that sort of price, and a larger range of games too - the Xbox 360.
Really, now that exclusives are disappearing and multiplatform games are becoming the norm, the primary difference between the PS3 and the 360 is the Blu-Ray player and the extra money. And when HD disc players drop under $200 next year, then even that won't matter.
Sounds to me like all your problems were due to the current crappy state of nVidia's Vista drivers.
FWIW, I had pretty much the same experience. The difference being, instead of blaming Vista & going back to XP, I took out the nVidia card and put in an ATi card instead. No more problems, both monitors available, and Vista works as expected. I'll wait a few months before putting the nVidia card back in again.
The moral is the same - don't rush to install Vista. But do put the blame where it's due.
While Skype is popular (I occasionally use it on my mobile phone), its proprietary model is annoying and limiting. Here in AU, voip is really starting to take off, and it's all based on SIP, the official standard for this sort of thing. From my normal home phone, I can make free calls to Asterisk setups or any other SIP client, including friends & family's voip phones, and PCs running Windows Messenger, Jabber or GTalk (via gateways if necessary). I can call overseas to any fixed phone for 20c/hour, and nationally for 10c untimed.
However, there are still some friends who are still using Skype instead of SIP, so I can't just pick up my regular phone and ring them for free (instead I have to pick up my mobile, connect to my wifi and call them with Skype instead). A SIP-Skype gateway might help, though I've never found one.
Perhaps Asterisk could be rigged to manage it, but there's this whole proprietary-protocol problem, see?
Here in Australia, all broadband is limited by a quota. The same is true of much of the rest of the world, outside the US.
A big reason for this (as it was explained to me) is that apparently the US (or US networks) charges other countries for data transmitted from the US (though that didn't stop local AU providers from charging us equally for Australian content, or even content cached locally by the ISP). I'd be interested to hear someone confirm or deny this theory.
As for limiting a cable user's volume, remember that unlike other transmission methods, their bandwidth is shared with other cable users on the local loop, so they *can't* all get full line capacity. If one user tries to max out the cable continually, it's hardly fair on his neighbours.
I certainly agree that the cable bastards could be much more upfront about these implied limits in their contracts however.
Sony subsidises the hardware, as do the other manufacturers. Value for money is not at issue, and never was.
The only question is, how much is a PS3 worth to you, right now? Those that want a cheap Blu-Ray player + two decent games and have $700 to spare, can buy it today and feel happy if they want. Those of us who are accustomed to paying no more than a $300 entry fee for a games platform will probably want to wait, regardless of what else is thrown in.
Personally, I'm not big on paying extra for "potential". If it doesn't do everything I want yet, I'll wait until it does - and save a few $$$ in the process when the price drops.
"Second-Life ripoff? Pussies! We're gonna announce a Crackdown-based online community!
Huge online city, physics-based, virtual shops, yeah yeah - with us, you're gonna have your own apartment and your own hotted-up, tweakable, morphing supercar to tool about in. The higher your gamerscore, the higher your equivalent stats! Get that last achievement in Gears, you can out-jump Neo and play catchies with your friends - using a bus. Someone's avatar spams you? Blow 'em away with a fully physics-based grenade launcher.
Bowling, hah - try urban street racing and rocket-jump olympics. Completely expandable; new games will install themed new neighbourhoods & items - take your muscle car for a tour through Pinata Island, or try out your new Torque Bow on your friends. And best of all, entire suburbs of annoying Miis and Home avatars for you to test out your toys on:-)"
You're discrediting stuff that has the potential to be really groundbreaking.
Key word, right there.
Wake me when it's released, and we can see how groundbreaking it actually ended up. Sony aren't exactly known for delivering on their promises, remember?
You may not have realised it, but there are actually entire other countries out there, many of whom produce movies too. For example, Bollywood in India alone produces more than twice the number of films that Hollywood does (if you don't count pr0n, that is).
Even if you just look at English-speaking movies, there's still the UK, Australia and New Zealand to add to the Canadian industry. The US probably spends the most money on movies, but I'm sure there's enough content elsewhere to keep most distributors afloat, especially when you add subtitled foreign-language films (e.g. Japanese anime) as well.
Then of course there's the stifling effect that Hollywood has on other markets. Without it, other countries might have a chance to get more of their films to an eager public, so any shortfall would be offset.
Oh yeah, you *do* want the driving
on
Crackdown Review
·
· Score: 1
what's the poitn of driving
I too spent my time leaping around the city & looking for ways to climb the tallest buildings. But after I'd maxed the other stats, I turned my attention to the driving - and it's at least as much fun as the jumping and explosions:-)
What the review didn't mention is that, as your driving skill increases (mostly by driving right over those pesky gang members), the Agency cars (supercar, SUV and truck cab) actually morph progressively into sleeker, beefier, more dangerous-looking vehicles, and get correspondingly faster, tougher, more manoeuverable and generally gnarlier. Best of all, when you get to four stars (the max), they all gain a whole new ability (mounted guns in the supercar, turbo boost in the truck cab, and this very cool suspension "leaping" ability in the SUV).
Ever since I got them, I've been "leaping" my SUV off the top of parking structures, doing insane double-front-flips, bouncing it into ever-more inaccessible places, and occasionally taking time out to plough the truck through oncoming traffic on the freeways, or to do donuts with the supercar in gang-controlled carparks with the mounted guns blazing.
The game isn't perfect, but I've been more addicted to it than even Gears of War or Viva Pinata. Rent it if you like, but I don't think that'll give you time to do more than scratch the surface. That city is *huge*, and full of little secret tunnels, massive exploding barrel chains, carefully placed ramp opportunities (not to mention the mobile ramp trucks), giant globes to crush bad guys with, and other areas to explore. I've been playing it for 30-40 hours now, I've been all over the city and I'm still continually finding places I never realised even existed.
How many of customers of this service want to watch movies on their computer? Pretty safe bet to say 100%.
Not that safe. I'd consider myself a potential customer (except I'm in Australia so I'm out of luck), but watching movies on a PC (by myself) sucks. I'd much rather watch it on my large-screen TV in the living room, with real surround sound - but I still want the convenience of downloading the movie.
It's not that hard to do. I ran (long) DVI->HDMI and S/PDIF cables to my amp, and it works great - so long as the DRM is satisfied with ordinary XP and DVI out, no HDCP. Another option is cat5 or wifi to an Xbox 360 acting as a Media Center Extender - does their DRM allow that? Limited to 720p, but for downloads, that's probably acceptable (given that Australians are stuck with download quotas).
If it doesn't - oh well, back to DVDs and the old-style DRM-free BitTorrent network:-/
Of course they're still leaping off store shelves, it's well known that shortages of demand help maintain the "grass is greener" fiction that the object of desire is more desirable than ever. It's not until after the Wii is purchased and the initial desire is satisfied that the excitement starts to fade, and the shortcomings start to niggle. Nintendo still have a first class seat on the Public Opinion train (whereas Sony got crushed underneath it).
I bought my Wii last year, and the whole family had fun with it - at first. But Wii Sports doesn't stay much fun unless you have a crowd to play it with, Zelda started getting a little tedious halfway through - and the Viva Piñata addiction really took hold (even my agèd, non-gaming mother put aside the wiimote and raised buzzlegums and sparrowmints for hours at a stretch).
I still think there's very much a time and place for the unique brand of gaming the Wii allows, but the games aren't there yet to carry you much past the novelty stage. The 360 gets more usage than the Wii does, these days.
Cool, so I can wait until that annoying git in the office down the hall formats his hard drive, then accuse him of downloading music illegally, and he's screwed:-)
Most films are photo-realistic already, yet for some reason art direction is a fairly major department. Many photos themselves are considered art. Of course photo-realistic games can have good art direction (and photo-realism can actually help convey the art better than, say, a TRS-80 could).
"Art" has little to do with the manner in which it is expressed. It is that which provokes an emotional response in the viewer, simple as that.
Yeah, I can imagine a second-person shooter wouldn't be nearly so much fun. I mean, who wants to play from the viewpoint of the hapless minion, watching the protagonist mow down your foot-bound colleagues all around you with his awesome mech suit?
I read a lot of books on my smartphone. The screen is bright & crisp, even in daylight, the text is well-defined, and I can read for hours with no hint of headaches or eye fatigue. The "page" is small, but flipping pages is effortless with the scrollwheel under my thumb.
However, what convinced me to prefer it over paper are the things books can't match:
Size - it's smaller than a single paperback, yet can store vast numbers of books on a 2GB memory card. Great for long business trips, or for portable reference libraries.
Convenience - I always have my phone with me, therefore I always have my books with me. If I find myself waiting for 10 minutes for any reason, I can read a few more pages, and my reference books are always on hand.
Access - it never loses my place, it's fully searchable, I can jump around & easily retrace my steps, it's trivial to look up words with a built-in dictionary, etc etc
Reading in bed - a biggie for me. Lighter that most paperbacks (let alone hardbacks) so my hands don't get tired holding it up, fully backlit so I don't need to angle it towards the bedside light, or even have the light on at all (doesn't disturb spouse), not even page-turning noises.
Sure it's not for everyone. There are disadvantages as well of course (expensive, relatively fragile, gotta keep it charged), but since I'm copping all that for the smartphone anyway, it's no extra inconvenience.
Slashdot Mirror
if they're so far outside our light-cone that we'll never come into contact with them.
Assuming we can hold our civilisation together, it's still going to take us a friggin' long time to explore a single galaxy that's 100,000 lightyears across, with 200-400 billion stars in it. Even if there are thousands of intelligent races in the Milky Way, it might still take us a million years to find even one.
And if we're alone in this galaxy, the nearest one is 2 million lightyears away. Who's going to volunteer to check it out? You'll need more than a packed lunch. And most other galaxies are much further away than that.
First you say it's not worth buying, then you say people are going to be pissed off that they didn't buy one. Which is it?
Personally, I have no problem with extra choices (though some people do). I just want a bigger HDD - and I'd rather not pay US$180 for it, thanks MS, m'kay?
Just buy a PS3 instead. Sony are happy to heavily subsidise the hardware for you, and won't even complain if you don't buy any games or movies for it.
Or, better still, port your signal processing code to a GPU instead. They're much cheaper and far more powerful than a Cell, and with far more local memory bandwidth too. GPUs aren't ideal for every algorithm, but they do work well for many forms of signal processing.
Why dump the core? Why not lower its price by $50 too, and compete against the Wii?
I know everyone gets all resentful that a non-HDD version somehow means games can't support the HDD, but that's not the case. There are 360 games that require the HDD, and there are many, many more games which can take advantage of it if it's there. There are so many HDDs in the market that developers would be foolish to ignore them, it's not like some third-party add-on with no penetration. MS deliberately abstracted the filesystem for the same reasons it's abstracted in every OS - it dramatically increases flexibility.
You may not want a 'tard pack yourself, but believe it or not, it's actually better value for what you get - MS lose more money on the Core version. For 75% of the price you can pay 99% of the games, and that matters a lot to some segments of the market.
Because:
I'm running 1080p right now, from my 360 to my (Acer) 1080p LCD TV, via component - and it looks fine. HDMI offers a more convenient connection (one cable instead of at least four) and it's digital (no conversion to analogue and back again, also it won't degrade over moderate distances), but in practical terms I'm more than happy with component. Wouldn't say no to HDMI, but I wouldn't rush out and pay more for it.
No more or less than the PS3. This is a common misconception (fostered by Sony).
The GPUs in the 360 and the PS3 were designed at the same time using the same process technology, and have roughly the same capabilities (PS3 has more pipelines, 360 has more shaders & bandwidth, but overall it's pretty close). The CPUs aren't that dissimilar either - PS3 has an advantage for crunching numbers, 360 has an advantage with general processing, it's arguable which is better for playing games (360 is easier to program though). Either system is quite capable of playing 1080p games at full frame rate, so long as the game isn't too demanding (hence Virtua Tennis is 1080p on both, and R:FoM/Gears are only 720p).
No, not at all. Only the most braindead TV would do that. You forgot that interlaced lines are staggered vertically, so that a 1080i still frame has identical resolution to 1080p. All movies played through a 1080i 30Hz signal are reverse-telecined by the TV to get the original 1080p 24Hz movie, and this is what is scaled to 720p. Any 1080i signal can be trivially upscaled to 1080p before downscaling to 720p, with minimal loss.
And to be perfectly honest, unless you have a 50+" screen or you sit closer than 2m, the average 20/20 human eye is hard-pressed to resolve the difference anyway.
Give 'em an inch of space and they'll waste a mile.
So, your PS3 "lite" wouldn't play Blu-Ray movies any more - nor would it play any PS3 game released on a Blu-Ray disc (which is all of them). You'd basically end up with an expensive, half-broken PS2 that could manage a few downloaded games too.
Sure, Sony could start re-releasing games on DVD, but there's already a next-gen console with DVD games for that sort of price, and a larger range of games too - the Xbox 360.
Really, now that exclusives are disappearing and multiplatform games are becoming the norm, the primary difference between the PS3 and the 360 is the Blu-Ray player and the extra money. And when HD disc players drop under $200 next year, then even that won't matter.
Sounds to me like all your problems were due to the current crappy state of nVidia's Vista drivers.
FWIW, I had pretty much the same experience. The difference being, instead of blaming Vista & going back to XP, I took out the nVidia card and put in an ATi card instead. No more problems, both monitors available, and Vista works as expected. I'll wait a few months before putting the nVidia card back in again.
The moral is the same - don't rush to install Vista. But do put the blame where it's due.
Yes indeed, Asterisk FTW.
While Skype is popular (I occasionally use it on my mobile phone), its proprietary model is annoying and limiting. Here in AU, voip is really starting to take off, and it's all based on SIP, the official standard for this sort of thing. From my normal home phone, I can make free calls to Asterisk setups or any other SIP client, including friends & family's voip phones, and PCs running Windows Messenger, Jabber or GTalk (via gateways if necessary). I can call overseas to any fixed phone for 20c/hour, and nationally for 10c untimed.
However, there are still some friends who are still using Skype instead of SIP, so I can't just pick up my regular phone and ring them for free (instead I have to pick up my mobile, connect to my wifi and call them with Skype instead). A SIP-Skype gateway might help, though I've never found one.
Perhaps Asterisk could be rigged to manage it, but there's this whole proprietary-protocol problem, see?
Here in Australia, all broadband is limited by a quota. The same is true of much of the rest of the world, outside the US.
A big reason for this (as it was explained to me) is that apparently the US (or US networks) charges other countries for data transmitted from the US (though that didn't stop local AU providers from charging us equally for Australian content, or even content cached locally by the ISP). I'd be interested to hear someone confirm or deny this theory.
As for limiting a cable user's volume, remember that unlike other transmission methods, their bandwidth is shared with other cable users on the local loop, so they *can't* all get full line capacity. If one user tries to max out the cable continually, it's hardly fair on his neighbours.
I certainly agree that the cable bastards could be much more upfront about these implied limits in their contracts however.
Sony subsidises the hardware, as do the other manufacturers. Value for money is not at issue, and never was.
The only question is, how much is a PS3 worth to you, right now? Those that want a cheap Blu-Ray player + two decent games and have $700 to spare, can buy it today and feel happy if they want. Those of us who are accustomed to paying no more than a $300 entry fee for a games platform will probably want to wait, regardless of what else is thrown in.
Personally, I'm not big on paying extra for "potential". If it doesn't do everything I want yet, I'll wait until it does - and save a few $$$ in the process when the price drops.
"Second-Life ripoff? Pussies! We're gonna announce a Crackdown-based online community!
Huge online city, physics-based, virtual shops, yeah yeah - with us, you're gonna have your own apartment and your own hotted-up, tweakable, morphing supercar to tool about in. The higher your gamerscore, the higher your equivalent stats! Get that last achievement in Gears, you can out-jump Neo and play catchies with your friends - using a bus. Someone's avatar spams you? Blow 'em away with a fully physics-based grenade launcher.
Bowling, hah - try urban street racing and rocket-jump olympics. Completely expandable; new games will install themed new neighbourhoods & items - take your muscle car for a tour through Pinata Island, or try out your new Torque Bow on your friends. And best of all, entire suburbs of annoying Miis and Home avatars for you to test out your toys on :-)"
It's inevitable, you know it is...
Key word, right there.
Wake me when it's released, and we can see how groundbreaking it actually ended up. Sony aren't exactly known for delivering on their promises, remember?
You may not have realised it, but there are actually entire other countries out there, many of whom produce movies too. For example, Bollywood in India alone produces more than twice the number of films that Hollywood does (if you don't count pr0n, that is).
Even if you just look at English-speaking movies, there's still the UK, Australia and New Zealand to add to the Canadian industry. The US probably spends the most money on movies, but I'm sure there's enough content elsewhere to keep most distributors afloat, especially when you add subtitled foreign-language films (e.g. Japanese anime) as well.
Then of course there's the stifling effect that Hollywood has on other markets. Without it, other countries might have a chance to get more of their films to an eager public, so any shortfall would be offset.
I too spent my time leaping around the city & looking for ways to climb the tallest buildings. But after I'd maxed the other stats, I turned my attention to the driving - and it's at least as much fun as the jumping and explosions :-)
What the review didn't mention is that, as your driving skill increases (mostly by driving right over those pesky gang members), the Agency cars (supercar, SUV and truck cab) actually morph progressively into sleeker, beefier, more dangerous-looking vehicles, and get correspondingly faster, tougher, more manoeuverable and generally gnarlier. Best of all, when you get to four stars (the max), they all gain a whole new ability (mounted guns in the supercar, turbo boost in the truck cab, and this very cool suspension "leaping" ability in the SUV).
Ever since I got them, I've been "leaping" my SUV off the top of parking structures, doing insane double-front-flips, bouncing it into ever-more inaccessible places, and occasionally taking time out to plough the truck through oncoming traffic on the freeways, or to do donuts with the supercar in gang-controlled carparks with the mounted guns blazing.
The game isn't perfect, but I've been more addicted to it than even Gears of War or Viva Pinata. Rent it if you like, but I don't think that'll give you time to do more than scratch the surface. That city is *huge*, and full of little secret tunnels, massive exploding barrel chains, carefully placed ramp opportunities (not to mention the mobile ramp trucks), giant globes to crush bad guys with, and other areas to explore. I've been playing it for 30-40 hours now, I've been all over the city and I'm still continually finding places I never realised even existed.
Not that safe. I'd consider myself a potential customer (except I'm in Australia so I'm out of luck), but watching movies on a PC (by myself) sucks. I'd much rather watch it on my large-screen TV in the living room, with real surround sound - but I still want the convenience of downloading the movie.
It's not that hard to do. I ran (long) DVI->HDMI and S/PDIF cables to my amp, and it works great - so long as the DRM is satisfied with ordinary XP and DVI out, no HDCP. Another option is cat5 or wifi to an Xbox 360 acting as a Media Center Extender - does their DRM allow that? Limited to 720p, but for downloads, that's probably acceptable (given that Australians are stuck with download quotas).
If it doesn't - oh well, back to DVDs and the old-style DRM-free BitTorrent network :-/
Hey, it worked for Mac OS X.
"You phone companies don't know nuthin' about proper phones, not like Apple does."
Of course they're still leaping off store shelves, it's well known that shortages of demand help maintain the "grass is greener" fiction that the object of desire is more desirable than ever. It's not until after the Wii is purchased and the initial desire is satisfied that the excitement starts to fade, and the shortcomings start to niggle. Nintendo still have a first class seat on the Public Opinion train (whereas Sony got crushed underneath it).
I bought my Wii last year, and the whole family had fun with it - at first. But Wii Sports doesn't stay much fun unless you have a crowd to play it with, Zelda started getting a little tedious halfway through - and the Viva Piñata addiction really took hold (even my agèd, non-gaming mother put aside the wiimote and raised buzzlegums and sparrowmints for hours at a stretch).
I still think there's very much a time and place for the unique brand of gaming the Wii allows, but the games aren't there yet to carry you much past the novelty stage. The 360 gets more usage than the Wii does, these days.
Cool, so I can wait until that annoying git in the office down the hall formats his hard drive, then accuse him of downloading music illegally, and he's screwed :-)
Most films are photo-realistic already, yet for some reason art direction is a fairly major department. Many photos themselves are considered art. Of course photo-realistic games can have good art direction (and photo-realism can actually help convey the art better than, say, a TRS-80 could).
"Art" has little to do with the manner in which it is expressed. It is that which provokes an emotional response in the viewer, simple as that.
Yeah, I can imagine a second-person shooter wouldn't be nearly so much fun. I mean, who wants to play from the viewpoint of the hapless minion, watching the protagonist mow down your foot-bound colleagues all around you with his awesome mech suit?
and end up typing "almost three" instead. Happens all the time.
I read a lot of books on my smartphone. The screen is bright & crisp, even in daylight, the text is well-defined, and I can read for hours with no hint of headaches or eye fatigue. The "page" is small, but flipping pages is effortless with the scrollwheel under my thumb.
However, what convinced me to prefer it over paper are the things books can't match:
Sure it's not for everyone. There are disadvantages as well of course (expensive, relatively fragile, gotta keep it charged), but since I'm copping all that for the smartphone anyway, it's no extra inconvenience.