Overall, I'd say that Dreamcast's failure was more so a combination of people opting to wait for Sony's console (given the track record between the two in the previous generation), as well as the fact that Dreamcast games could be pirated merely by downloading the image and burning it with a regular CD burner.
Not to mention, lack of support from some important players in the field, notably EA.
Which is why Mac OS X is going to be turned into iOS - pretty soon, you'll only be allowed to install signed binaries on Mac OS X. It will resolve the issue of people installing software from "untrusted sources," meaning anyone not paying Apple large sums of money.
How come everybody thinks this is where OSX is heading, while Microsoft runs a 100% closed source desktop OS with rumours of signed code required in the next version, just about invented the appstore-model for an appliance in the form of the Xbox Live Arcade (for the 1st gen Xbox, before it became the Marketplace)? Yet, nobody seems to worry about Microsoft owning >80% of the desktop market while doing exactly the same things Apple did, only years earlier.
And create a free directly competing game to their newer titles? They'd become their own competitor in an already crowded market. Not sure they'd like that idea.
One of the advantages of a wired network is that the data only leaves the premises at well defined locations that you control.
Well defined locations you control, or well defined locations you *think* you control? It is very well possible to do port security at the access layer of your network, but how many networks have that? There's always some outlet somewhere for a printer that nobody uses... Somebody sneaks his way into the building, hooks up an accesspoint to that port, sits in his van outside, and can hack away at your network. Really, wired is not always as safe as people think.
In fact, i remember a customer with a voip network, and had a sip intercom at the front door... I got sniggered at when i suggested that anybody could screw off the intercom, and had free access to the network. Went into my report anyway.
And before you can say "encryption will protect me", think about how easy it would be to build a transmitter running on the same frequencies as the wireless network and sit that just outside the company and pointed inwards - instant denial of service attack with zero traceability.
Zero traceability? Get an Aruba wireless network controller with sufficient accesspoints, put a map of your building in the controller, and it will tell you where rogue transmitters are, including those outside of the building (if you left enough white space around the building map when uploading). Cisco has similar solutions, and i'm sure there are many more.
You can use the Thunderbolt ports to drive external displays, as they are compatible with Apple's previous Mini Displayport connectors. Besides, it's not as if the machine has become useless because there are no other TB devices to connect. Somebody has to be the first to implement TB, if there were harddrives available with TB ports before computers, you'd complain about the same thing because there is nothing to connect it to.
Apple did almost the same thing when USB came out, by being the first to build legacy-free machines with only USB connectors, doing away with serial and parallel ports. That worked out nicely too. And this time, they *did* include USB *and* FW even, so you still have plenty of options.
It's not just Sony doing this. EA sells these "online passes" for $10 too, for example to 2nd hand buyers of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. It is not just annoying for the used game market, but it also makes it harder to return a new game to the store if you don't like it. I have the luck that the people in my local game shop know me and trust me when i say i didn't enter the key of the supplied online pass, but i might not be so lucky if i buy it at another store. EA could have used a layer of that silver scratch-off stuff, but they don't. It makes me more careful when buying games, which in the end results in me buying less games.
Yes. Apple makes computers for people who don't understand anything about computers. Microsoft makes computers for professionals.
Didn't know that Microsoft makes computers. But you are aware that most people who don't understand computers, use Windows, right? "Oh, perhaps the printer didn't hear me. I'll just hit the print button again."
There should be no restrictions about which app someone can legally run on their computer, phone, or any other device they have bought, and Apple has set a bad precedent with the app store model.
Microsoft en Sony have done exactly the same with their game consoles and their respective shops, marketplaces, whatever, yet nobody ever complains about that. Why is that?
He is right though. 12 bit alpha channels in audio files is where the future's at. It provides more granular control of deciding what background noise in the customer's home you can hear through the music. Well worth the upgrade.
Pacman has had no influence or side effects on people whatsoever. If it did, then people playing it in the 80s would now be moving around in black rooms, listening to monotonous electronic music, swallowing white pills, wouldn't they?
Basically, if you're behind NAT, you're on a LAN with a gateway (/gatekeeper) to the internet, **NOT** actually on the internet.
There is no difference between public and private addresses technically, it's just an agreement that we are allowed to use 10.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x and 172.16.x.x inside our own networks and don't route these ranges to the outside. Even if you have a public address from your provider, you still have a gateway.
Selling you this as "internet" is false advertising. Not that false advertising has ever stopped ISPs, with their "unlimited" broadband.
My provider sells "access to Internet", not "Internet".
AVM's FritzBox 7370 (i believe) is deployed by dutch provider Xs4all to provide IPv6 to endusers.
Now if only they could deliver speeds above 4Mbps in my city (only the 3rd city of the country), i would seriously consider staying with them.
Yeah, i remember buying a light kit for the GBA screen (which came without any lighting whatsoever), and i believe it came with a special screwdriver to open the GBA. Some weird triangular thingy, if memory serves me well.
Ah ok, didn't know the sales tax was that low in the US. Over here in the Netherlands, this tax is 19%, but this is included in the price. Without this tax, it would cost about $308.
AFAIK, US prices don't include sales tax, while European prices do, so add 20% or so to the US price before you start comparing it. But this still brings the price difference to $60 or so.
Uh, several of these ddos attacks (at least in the Netherlands, where the police and government sites were being ddos'ed by teenagers) were made using LOIC, a piece of software that people install *voluntarily* to aid this kind of attacks. I'm not sure you can call these machines "infected", since the software has to be installed manually, and doesn't spread on its own like most botnet-malware. While i do not approve of that kind of software, i would not want an OS that cleans my system of software that i install myself, with or without asking.
Well, there are limited options on a chess game. You just have 64 positions and 32 pieces, there's a limited number of plays. That makes easy for a computer to beat humans. The game is nearly deterministic, no randomness as in poker.
Just because there is a limited number of options because of rules on movement etcetera, that doesn't mean that this limited number of plays isn't a bloody huge number beyond the capacity of most computers. Imagine the starting position of a chess game: white has 20 moves, and black has the same 20 moves. That is already 400 combinations, after only 1 move. In the next move, there are a few more options because a bishop can escape, say 25 options, same for black. That's a quarter of a million possibilities after only 2 moves.
Besides, brute force doesn't get you far. There is the "horizon problem", where a chess computer thinking x moves ahead, will keep pushing back threats until they are x+1 moves away, only to reappear on the horizon in the very next move. It takes more than brute force to work around that.
Yes, i guess you could call chess deterministic, but perhaps not, given the huge number of possibilities. And since you make the comparison with poker... I dare to guess that there are more possible chess games than poker games, given a limit on the amount of money involved.
I expect it's a bit different with cars and bikes... You take them on public roads, shared by others, and there is all kinds of safety regulations involved. You cannot just take anything with wheels and an engine on the road without the neccessary paperwork. I see what you're getting at, but there are rules on the road. However, if you just use it on private, closed circuits, i guess it's a different matter.
but I can readily admit that most Mac users are Yahoo Answers-grade stupid when it comes to computers.
What, and Windows users aren't? I agree that most Mac users aren't exactly the brightest computer users, but get real, most Windows users don't even know other OS's exist, let alone what an OS is. Mindless flock of sheep, really.
Two can play at that game. If I ever create something popular enough to require quite a bit of bandwidth (unlikely, I know, but it might happen...), I know which ISPs will get more "traffic shape"ed than others (i.e. this pair and Virgin whose top dick made similar statements a couple of years ago).
Hah, and if your potential customers try to reach you, and find out your service is painstakingly slow... Who do you think they will blame? Their provider (who has no trouble with them visiting facebook or whatever), or your site? Hm?
The only thing you'll accomplish, is having fewer customers than you could have had. I'm afraid that this game cannot be played by two that simple.
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Overall, I'd say that Dreamcast's failure was more so a combination of people opting to wait for Sony's console (given the track record between the two in the previous generation), as well as the fact that Dreamcast games could be pirated merely by downloading the image and burning it with a regular CD burner.
Not to mention, lack of support from some important players in the field, notably EA.
Which is why Mac OS X is going to be turned into iOS - pretty soon, you'll only be allowed to install signed binaries on Mac OS X. It will resolve the issue of people installing software from "untrusted sources," meaning anyone not paying Apple large sums of money.
How come everybody thinks this is where OSX is heading, while Microsoft runs a 100% closed source desktop OS with rumours of signed code required in the next version, just about invented the appstore-model for an appliance in the form of the Xbox Live Arcade (for the 1st gen Xbox, before it became the Marketplace)? Yet, nobody seems to worry about Microsoft owning >80% of the desktop market while doing exactly the same things Apple did, only years earlier.
And create a free directly competing game to their newer titles? They'd become their own competitor in an already crowded market. Not sure they'd like that idea.
A war doesn't have to be between two states. It often is, but doesn't have to be. Can be between organisations as well.
One of the advantages of a wired network is that the data only leaves the premises at well defined locations that you control.
Well defined locations you control, or well defined locations you *think* you control? It is very well possible to do port security at the access layer of your network, but how many networks have that? There's always some outlet somewhere for a printer that nobody uses... Somebody sneaks his way into the building, hooks up an accesspoint to that port, sits in his van outside, and can hack away at your network. Really, wired is not always as safe as people think.
In fact, i remember a customer with a voip network, and had a sip intercom at the front door... I got sniggered at when i suggested that anybody could screw off the intercom, and had free access to the network. Went into my report anyway.
And before you can say "encryption will protect me", think about how easy it would be to build a transmitter running on the same frequencies as the wireless network and sit that just outside the company and pointed inwards - instant denial of service attack with zero traceability.
Zero traceability? Get an Aruba wireless network controller with sufficient accesspoints, put a map of your building in the controller, and it will tell you where rogue transmitters are, including those outside of the building (if you left enough white space around the building map when uploading). Cisco has similar solutions, and i'm sure there are many more.
You can use the Thunderbolt ports to drive external displays, as they are compatible with Apple's previous Mini Displayport connectors. Besides, it's not as if the machine has become useless because there are no other TB devices to connect. Somebody has to be the first to implement TB, if there were harddrives available with TB ports before computers, you'd complain about the same thing because there is nothing to connect it to.
Apple did almost the same thing when USB came out, by being the first to build legacy-free machines with only USB connectors, doing away with serial and parallel ports. That worked out nicely too. And this time, they *did* include USB *and* FW even, so you still have plenty of options.
It's not just Sony doing this. EA sells these "online passes" for $10 too, for example to 2nd hand buyers of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. It is not just annoying for the used game market, but it also makes it harder to return a new game to the store if you don't like it. I have the luck that the people in my local game shop know me and trust me when i say i didn't enter the key of the supplied online pass, but i might not be so lucky if i buy it at another store. EA could have used a layer of that silver scratch-off stuff, but they don't. It makes me more careful when buying games, which in the end results in me buying less games.
Yes. Apple makes computers for people who don't understand anything about computers. Microsoft makes computers for professionals.
Didn't know that Microsoft makes computers. But you are aware that most people who don't understand computers, use Windows, right? "Oh, perhaps the printer didn't hear me. I'll just hit the print button again."
There should be no restrictions about which app someone can legally run on their computer, phone, or any other device they have bought, and Apple has set a bad precedent with the app store model.
Microsoft en Sony have done exactly the same with their game consoles and their respective shops, marketplaces, whatever, yet nobody ever complains about that. Why is that?
I'd guess they could set themselves up in a manner similar to how PayPal operates...and not have to mess with 'bank' regulations....?
Seems to work well for PP so far...
Paypal has a bank license in the EU, so yes, they did have to mess with bank regulations.
He is right though. 12 bit alpha channels in audio files is where the future's at. It provides more granular control of deciding what background noise in the customer's home you can hear through the music. Well worth the upgrade.
Pacman has had no influence or side effects on people whatsoever. If it did, then people playing it in the 80s would now be moving around in black rooms, listening to monotonous electronic music, swallowing white pills, wouldn't they?
then no one will pirate the inferior version.
No, they'll pirate the finished version instead. I'm not sure i get your point.
Apple is not a gamer company.
Neither was MS, before the first Xbox. Neither was Sony, before the first PlayStation.
Gamers want to be able to tweak their hardware and Apple is not likely to allow this.
Wot, and Nintendo, MS and Sony *do* allow this? Ask geohot about his experiences with that.
Basically, if you're behind NAT, you're on a LAN with a gateway (/gatekeeper) to the internet, **NOT** actually on the internet.
There is no difference between public and private addresses technically, it's just an agreement that we are allowed to use 10.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x and 172.16.x.x inside our own networks and don't route these ranges to the outside. Even if you have a public address from your provider, you still have a gateway.
Selling you this as "internet" is false advertising. Not that false advertising has ever stopped ISPs, with their "unlimited" broadband.
My provider sells "access to Internet", not "Internet".
AVM's FritzBox 7370 (i believe) is deployed by dutch provider Xs4all to provide IPv6 to endusers. Now if only they could deliver speeds above 4Mbps in my city (only the 3rd city of the country), i would seriously consider staying with them.
Yeah, i remember buying a light kit for the GBA screen (which came without any lighting whatsoever), and i believe it came with a special screwdriver to open the GBA. Some weird triangular thingy, if memory serves me well.
Ah ok, didn't know the sales tax was that low in the US. Over here in the Netherlands, this tax is 19%, but this is included in the price. Without this tax, it would cost about $308.
AFAIK, US prices don't include sales tax, while European prices do, so add 20% or so to the US price before you start comparing it. But this still brings the price difference to $60 or so.
Uh, several of these ddos attacks (at least in the Netherlands, where the police and government sites were being ddos'ed by teenagers) were made using LOIC, a piece of software that people install *voluntarily* to aid this kind of attacks. I'm not sure you can call these machines "infected", since the software has to be installed manually, and doesn't spread on its own like most botnet-malware. While i do not approve of that kind of software, i would not want an OS that cleans my system of software that i install myself, with or without asking.
Well, there are limited options on a chess game. You just have 64 positions and 32 pieces, there's a limited number of plays. That makes easy for a computer to beat humans. The game is nearly deterministic, no randomness as in poker.
Just because there is a limited number of options because of rules on movement etcetera, that doesn't mean that this limited number of plays isn't a bloody huge number beyond the capacity of most computers. Imagine the starting position of a chess game: white has 20 moves, and black has the same 20 moves. That is already 400 combinations, after only 1 move. In the next move, there are a few more options because a bishop can escape, say 25 options, same for black. That's a quarter of a million possibilities after only 2 moves.
Besides, brute force doesn't get you far. There is the "horizon problem", where a chess computer thinking x moves ahead, will keep pushing back threats until they are x+1 moves away, only to reappear on the horizon in the very next move. It takes more than brute force to work around that.
Yes, i guess you could call chess deterministic, but perhaps not, given the huge number of possibilities. And since you make the comparison with poker... I dare to guess that there are more possible chess games than poker games, given a limit on the amount of money involved.
Or Nazi gold...
I always thought Nazi Gold was a right-extremist radio station?
I expect it's a bit different with cars and bikes... You take them on public roads, shared by others, and there is all kinds of safety regulations involved. You cannot just take anything with wheels and an engine on the road without the neccessary paperwork. I see what you're getting at, but there are rules on the road. However, if you just use it on private, closed circuits, i guess it's a different matter.
but I can readily admit that most Mac users are Yahoo Answers-grade stupid when it comes to computers.
What, and Windows users aren't? I agree that most Mac users aren't exactly the brightest computer users, but get real, most Windows users don't even know other OS's exist, let alone what an OS is. Mindless flock of sheep, really.
Two can play at that game. If I ever create something popular enough to require quite a bit of bandwidth (unlikely, I know, but it might happen...), I know which ISPs will get more "traffic shape"ed than others (i.e. this pair and Virgin whose top dick made similar statements a couple of years ago).
Hah, and if your potential customers try to reach you, and find out your service is painstakingly slow... Who do you think they will blame? Their provider (who has no trouble with them visiting facebook or whatever), or your site? Hm?
The only thing you'll accomplish, is having fewer customers than you could have had. I'm afraid that this game cannot be played by two that simple.