It doesn't matter whether a system's graphical abilities are maxed out because graphical improvements don't matter anymore. That's why the Wii has 50% of the console market despite not only having the weakest hardware but also having a game library that's too lazy to even use the power that's there.
The Wii sells because it's made for non-gamers. Non-gamers buy it. Girl: "Oh my god my Sims character is sooooo much like Paris Hilton. Wow and my pony is soooo beautifull!:D Wow it's so romantic that Ken is marrying BArbie. That made my cry. Hey dad I want to so fitness". Dad: "No, I am going to play Wii tennis with your mom". Son the gamer: "Yo 'sup dude let's play Super Mario B-... ah FSCK!"
This is why the Wii is dominating, it is focusing more on what makes games fun rather then proclaiming that they can put 34234234234234 scaling and rotating polygons on the screen all rendering withing.005 MS.
Name one game on the Wii that is fun and not released by Nintendo. Yes...
Graphics != A good game. Sure, I'd rather have a game with good graphics then not, but really, if the same game was on the Wii, PS3, and 360 I'd pick the one that had the most content and best controls rather then the best graphics.
Do you own Doom 3? Go to system settings and disable all special effects. Come back here and tell me how boring the game has became without them. You have two different types of graphics: observatory graphics and immersive graphics. Observatory graphics are the amount of hairs on Snake's beard. Who cares? Immersive graphics are race games with post processing effects and motion blur that makes your think you actualy go faster than 2mph. How about Doom 3? Those are immersive graphics too. With everything on high and cool 5.1 surround sound you are engaging in true horror. It will scare they the shit out of you. How about playing Crysis Warhead? Who cares about the gameplay when you feel like your walking with an object over a grass-textured plain? Nobody, because Crysis Warhead is all about being on a island and thinking you are actualy there and are actualy doing something.
Calculation power is also very important for games nowadays. How about physics puzzles? Jumping into the water so you don't get shot by bullits. A game of hide-and-seek when your opponent's character is being rendered with per-pixel-lightning, so you can see what he's planning behind the wall. What weapon is he holding? How about Killzone 2 when you have to think about the wind factor when you throw a grenate. Tactics! Etc.
No games are not just pure static mechanics anymore. In some cases graphics are just one big pile of care, like with observatory graphics, but immersive graphics and physics and realistic shadows and fluid animation (jump in the water so the bullits don't hit you) are very functional.
The Wii makes games fun? Well I can conclude that it's fun for the thirst 3 hours with these gestures you have to make but after 2 days nobody would still care anymore. It's just boring.
Who says you need 3D rendering to create a two dimensional image of mathermatical data and a databass filled with coordinates and images with RGB data?
I don't quite get why people got so mightly pleased when they hear that someone of whom they don't approve now gets to spend a bunch of money to deal with the fact they just got sued.
When humands feel that they are threatenend, they try to identify that threat. They like it when something is being done about that threat.
Also, they made such a perfectly locked down machine that you can't pirate games or run 3D in Linux (which would be great for open source emulators of other 3D consoles).
That's just plain not true. Frist of all it was Sony who pushed support for the PS3 in the Linux kernel. According to Sony (use google yourself) their plan was to use Linux in the next Playstation. The 3D doesn't work yet because of the proprietary, yup, nVidia card. Noveau, the clean room reverse enginered nVidia X.org driver, has a mailing list in which I read that they were going for PS3 support as well. I don't know what state that is in today.
Nobody has yet brought out a game that takes full power of the PS3. That's just like Metal Gear Solid 3 that brought HDR lightning, shaders, cool post-processing effects, briliant animation and a shitload of polygons to the PS2; it takes time.
What happens with the Xbox360? Developpers are taking the fullest out of the Xbox360 and therefore it will not, ever, bring you better graphics, so the lifetime of that console is about to run out.
Graphics on the PS3 will just keep on improving as the console gets cheaper and cheaper and in the end makes more revenue for Sony that the Xbox360 for Microsoft. Believe me when I say that the Xbox360 support will just drop like a stone when the next Xbox comes out, just like the Xbox1 when the 360 came out, while the PS3 will just like the PS2 be supported for many years.
How expensive was the PS2 when it was released? Yup... See what a succes that became?
The entire point of that is ofcourse that Windows for example is full of crap apps because any moron is able to write a Windows app. But what if you log in with a user account in XP? Yup... all apps you have require root.
I can imagine that Sony doesn't want to sacrifice good technology and doesn't want to dumb it down for the stupid but just says: "Ok this is a special piece of hardware. Unit x, y and z are for multithreaded number crunching, unit k is for the graphics, this is for that, etc. and go ahead and utilise it to make something awesome. If you can't do it than go make your crappy software for the Wii".
And guess what? All crappy games are out on the Wii and do not utilise shit. The graphics of most games are even poorer than on the Gamecube.
It's entirely possible, even likely, that when all is said and done, the cost of training and the extra support time will easily outweigh the cost of using Windows.
Think ahead in time.
Wait for it...
Wait for it...
Windows upgrades. Server upgrades. Client upgrades. New Windows OS training.
So because Apache was not initialy made for Windows and so it still lacks Windows support you will have problems with it in Windows and so that makes Linux suck?
Not to mention that Lenevo (read = IBM) laptops are not 'just for mobility'. The built quality is just insane(ly good).
Laptop makers like Dell & co are building their portables with predictable failure in mind. That ofcourse means the cheapest of the cheapest parts that they can get their hands on and it must die in a certain amount of years, while Lenevo is know for building laptops that last and can resist impacts (like the harddisk that stops working when the laptop sensing it is falling).
So in other words you pay more money for a laptop that is built to last for as long as you'd wish. Lenevo is known for making Linux friendly computers, so you pay extra for the additional Linux testing. You also pay for the innovation that is really innovative (like the 'falling'-sensor so your FS doesn't get corrupted by a HD shock). The only thing that doesn't work yet is the fingerprint reader and the GPU switcher on Linux, but you can't blame Lenevo for that because there is simply no such functionality in Linux.
The GPU switcher is software that is being worked on in X.org (but development/planning has stalled) that switches between the onboard GPU and the ATI/nVidia GPU based on power management.
The government can somewhat track us, but we can track everybody in the government too.
So what? You'll end up in a database and your name goes through 100 servers a day, but we know where politicians are on a 24/7 basis.
This is not a book. When politicians decide (if they do that) to fsck with us we can fsck back twice as hard. "You may stop me, but you can't stop us all" stuff.
Not evertybody is fscking stupid from a general perspective man... -_-'
My dad is not stupid, he just doesn't understand how computers work. Took him about 3 years before he was fully able to play Halo with WASD, but he knows how to insert a disc in a drive.And it took me 2 days to teach him how to use Ubuntu to it's fullest extend from a GUI perspective.
The EU does what the US should have done: encourage competition and punnisch illegal actions taken by dominant companies. Period. Good riddance. I'd rather have a choice between a Windows and a Linux and a whatever PC than only to have the choice to buy "Made for Vista" crap.
Fsck DRM. Fsck DirectInput. Fsck Direct3D. Fsck closed formats and protocols. Fsck lock-in. Fsck backdoors. Fsck x86 dominance (where's my 200 dollar/euro 64 threads CPU with a 1000% performance increase, huh?). Etc...
To all the idiots trying to hype this 'discovery', go back to school and first learn about RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury), please. Then think about the sweat and the blisters as a different, totaly unrelated, 'problem'.
I've played a game on a Nokia phone that utilises the camera and some software just like this too. you then need to turn around (yourself with the phone in your hand) to shoot down enemies from all around you (including up and downlooking too). The software was even sophisticated enough to understand walls and objects in RL that enemies could hide behind!
Feed them Ubuntu, Wine, Firefox with user agent switcher (Firefox 3 under WinXP) and Adobe Flash and adblock plus and MS Office 2003 (with MS OOXML converter) under Wine and script and hack it all together so that you can launch MSOffice docs from the home folder and stuff. Optionally install some games that work perfectly under Wine and create a laucnh icon in the games menu under applications in Gnome, take 2 days to teach them everything and they and you are happy.
Worked for my dad with a dual boot but he hasn't and doesn't even want to dual boot back into Windows ever again. He does it only at his work because that IT environment is build with Windows workstations in mind, but he does his 'homework' in Ubuntu as well.
When he tried OpenOffice.org he said that compatibility wasn't completely perfect, but he then also said that the same thing counts for upgrading to newer versions of MSOffice from time to time!
Just google for a DirectX 10 download on some kind of russian website I don't have time for to find myself ATM. Works on XP. UAC? Download a virusscanner and log into XP with a user account instead of an (default) admin account.
I always wanted to know this from a Microsoft programmer, so I'm just going to ask you;-);
Did you ever take a look at the Wine source code? And if so; what are your thoughts? Does it make you laugh or sad? Are they completely missing the boat in some cases? Is it totally different from the Windows source code? etc. What are you thoughts?
Google must be losing confidence in their ability to compete on merits alone.
I think Google is pissed by Microsofts recent actions* and wants to send a big "How dare you fsck with us!" message back to Redmond. I totally support Google is in this case and even think it is the right thing to do, because Google is a company that is strong enough to fight back where other misfortunate companies could not. To think that (of all companies) Microsoft wanted to sue google for anti-trust.
Documentation my ass. I read the Wine mailing list a lot and the first thing newbie programmers hear on that list is to take the MSDN documentation with a grain of salt since it is A) not written at the time of programming and B) not written by the programmers itself.
Furthermore; the small, leaked part of the source code for Windows contains comments such as "Changing X seems to fuck up the goddamn C compiler" and "Removing this seems to break Office 98" which implies that not a lot of people at Microsoft still know what is realy going on in the subsystems.
Slashdot Mirror
It doesn't matter whether a system's graphical abilities are maxed out because graphical improvements don't matter anymore. That's why the Wii has 50% of the console market despite not only having the weakest hardware but also having a game library that's too lazy to even use the power that's there.
The Wii sells because it's made for non-gamers. Non-gamers buy it. Girl: "Oh my god my Sims character is sooooo much like Paris Hilton. Wow and my pony is soooo beautifull! :D Wow it's so romantic that Ken is marrying BArbie. That made my cry. Hey dad I want to so fitness". Dad: "No, I am going to play Wii tennis with your mom". Son the gamer: "Yo 'sup dude let's play Super Mario B-... ah FSCK!"
This is why the Wii is dominating, it is focusing more on what makes games fun rather then proclaiming that they can put 34234234234234 scaling and rotating polygons on the screen all rendering withing .005 MS.
Name one game on the Wii that is fun and not released by Nintendo. Yes...
Graphics != A good game. Sure, I'd rather have a game with good graphics then not, but really, if the same game was on the Wii, PS3, and 360 I'd pick the one that had the most content and best controls rather then the best graphics.
Do you own Doom 3? Go to system settings and disable all special effects. Come back here and tell me how boring the game has became without them. You have two different types of graphics: observatory graphics and immersive graphics. Observatory graphics are the amount of hairs on Snake's beard. Who cares? Immersive graphics are race games with post processing effects and motion blur that makes your think you actualy go faster than 2mph. How about Doom 3? Those are immersive graphics too. With everything on high and cool 5.1 surround sound you are engaging in true horror. It will scare they the shit out of you. How about playing Crysis Warhead? Who cares about the gameplay when you feel like your walking with an object over a grass-textured plain? Nobody, because Crysis Warhead is all about being on a island and thinking you are actualy there and are actualy doing something.
Calculation power is also very important for games nowadays. How about physics puzzles? Jumping into the water so you don't get shot by bullits. A game of hide-and-seek when your opponent's character is being rendered with per-pixel-lightning, so you can see what he's planning behind the wall. What weapon is he holding? How about Killzone 2 when you have to think about the wind factor when you throw a grenate. Tactics! Etc.
No games are not just pure static mechanics anymore. In some cases graphics are just one big pile of care, like with observatory graphics, but immersive graphics and physics and realistic shadows and fluid animation (jump in the water so the bullits don't hit you) are very functional.
The Wii makes games fun? Well I can conclude that it's fun for the thirst 3 hours with these gestures you have to make but after 2 days nobody would still care anymore. It's just boring.
Who says you need 3D rendering to create a two dimensional image of mathermatical data and a databass filled with coordinates and images with RGB data?
Ah that technology. Well then... good luck with looking up and downwards. What? Oh never mind...
I don't quite get why people got so mightly pleased when they hear that someone of whom they don't approve now gets to spend a bunch of money to deal with the fact they just got sued.
When humands feel that they are threatenend, they try to identify that threat. They like it when something is being done about that threat.
Basic human instinct.
Also, they made such a perfectly locked down machine that you can't pirate games or run 3D in Linux (which would be great for open source emulators of other 3D consoles).
That's just plain not true. Frist of all it was Sony who pushed support for the PS3 in the Linux kernel. According to Sony (use google yourself) their plan was to use Linux in the next Playstation. The 3D doesn't work yet because of the proprietary, yup, nVidia card. Noveau, the clean room reverse enginered nVidia X.org driver, has a mailing list in which I read that they were going for PS3 support as well. I don't know what state that is in today.
Nobody has yet brought out a game that takes full power of the PS3. That's just like Metal Gear Solid 3 that brought HDR lightning, shaders, cool post-processing effects, briliant animation and a shitload of polygons to the PS2; it takes time.
What happens with the Xbox360? Developpers are taking the fullest out of the Xbox360 and therefore it will not, ever, bring you better graphics, so the lifetime of that console is about to run out.
Graphics on the PS3 will just keep on improving as the console gets cheaper and cheaper and in the end makes more revenue for Sony that the Xbox360 for Microsoft. Believe me when I say that the Xbox360 support will just drop like a stone when the next Xbox comes out, just like the Xbox1 when the 360 came out, while the PS3 will just like the PS2 be supported for many years.
How expensive was the PS2 when it was released? Yup... See what a succes that became?
It's the right qualification for such a statement.
Multithreading, 'nuff said. The PS3 is full of processing units.
The entire point of that is ofcourse that Windows for example is full of crap apps because any moron is able to write a Windows app. But what if you log in with a user account in XP? Yup... all apps you have require root.
I can imagine that Sony doesn't want to sacrifice good technology and doesn't want to dumb it down for the stupid but just says: "Ok this is a special piece of hardware. Unit x, y and z are for multithreaded number crunching, unit k is for the graphics, this is for that, etc. and go ahead and utilise it to make something awesome. If you can't do it than go make your crappy software for the Wii".
And guess what? All crappy games are out on the Wii and do not utilise shit. The graphics of most games are even poorer than on the Gamecube.
It's entirely possible, even likely, that when all is said and done, the cost of training and the extra support time will easily outweigh the cost of using Windows.
Think ahead in time. Wait for it...
Wait for it...
Windows upgrades. Server upgrades. Client upgrades. New Windows OS training.
Wait for it...
Long term savings.
There it is!
So because Apache was not initialy made for Windows and so it still lacks Windows support you will have problems with it in Windows and so that makes Linux suck?
Yeah that's sooooo totaly logical... NOT!
Not to mention that Lenevo (read = IBM) laptops are not 'just for mobility'. The built quality is just insane(ly good).
Laptop makers like Dell & co are building their portables with predictable failure in mind. That ofcourse means the cheapest of the cheapest parts that they can get their hands on and it must die in a certain amount of years, while Lenevo is know for building laptops that last and can resist impacts (like the harddisk that stops working when the laptop sensing it is falling).
So in other words you pay more money for a laptop that is built to last for as long as you'd wish. Lenevo is known for making Linux friendly computers, so you pay extra for the additional Linux testing. You also pay for the innovation that is really innovative (like the 'falling'-sensor so your FS doesn't get corrupted by a HD shock). The only thing that doesn't work yet is the fingerprint reader and the GPU switcher on Linux, but you can't blame Lenevo for that because there is simply no such functionality in Linux.
The GPU switcher is software that is being worked on in X.org (but development/planning has stalled) that switches between the onboard GPU and the ATI/nVidia GPU based on power management.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megahertz_myth
The government can somewhat track us, but we can track everybody in the government too.
So what? You'll end up in a database and your name goes through 100 servers a day, but we know where politicians are on a 24/7 basis.
This is not a book. When politicians decide (if they do that) to fsck with us we can fsck back twice as hard. "You may stop me, but you can't stop us all" stuff.
Nothing to worry about...
Not evertybody is fscking stupid from a general perspective man... -_-' My dad is not stupid, he just doesn't understand how computers work. Took him about 3 years before he was fully able to play Halo with WASD, but he knows how to insert a disc in a drive.And it took me 2 days to teach him how to use Ubuntu to it's fullest extend from a GUI perspective.
It's just software... It was a downloadable java game from a third party developper and I played it on a Nokia n95 I believe.
The EU does what the US should have done: encourage competition and punnisch illegal actions taken by dominant companies. Period. Good riddance. I'd rather have a choice between a Windows and a Linux and a whatever PC than only to have the choice to buy "Made for Vista" crap.
Fsck DRM. Fsck DirectInput. Fsck Direct3D. Fsck closed formats and protocols. Fsck lock-in. Fsck backdoors. Fsck x86 dominance (where's my 200 dollar/euro 64 threads CPU with a 1000% performance increase, huh?). Etc...
To all the idiots trying to hype this 'discovery', go back to school and first learn about RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury), please. Then think about the sweat and the blisters as a different, totaly unrelated, 'problem'.
Discovery my fscking ass...
I've played a game on a Nokia phone that utilises the camera and some software just like this too. you then need to turn around (yourself with the phone in your hand) to shoot down enemies from all around you (including up and downlooking too). The software was even sophisticated enough to understand walls and objects in RL that enemies could hide behind!
Feed them Ubuntu, Wine, Firefox with user agent switcher (Firefox 3 under WinXP) and Adobe Flash and adblock plus and MS Office 2003 (with MS OOXML converter) under Wine and script and hack it all together so that you can launch MSOffice docs from the home folder and stuff. Optionally install some games that work perfectly under Wine and create a laucnh icon in the games menu under applications in Gnome, take 2 days to teach them everything and they and you are happy.
Worked for my dad with a dual boot but he hasn't and doesn't even want to dual boot back into Windows ever again. He does it only at his work because that IT environment is build with Windows workstations in mind, but he does his 'homework' in Ubuntu as well.
When he tried OpenOffice.org he said that compatibility wasn't completely perfect, but he then also said that the same thing counts for upgrading to newer versions of MSOffice from time to time!
Just google for a DirectX 10 download on some kind of russian website I don't have time for to find myself ATM. Works on XP. UAC? Download a virusscanner and log into XP with a user account instead of an (default) admin account.
I always wanted to know this from a Microsoft programmer, so I'm just going to ask you ;-);
Did you ever take a look at the Wine source code? And if so; what are your thoughts? Does it make you laugh or sad? Are they completely missing the boat in some cases? Is it totally different from the Windows source code? etc. What are you thoughts?
Google must be losing confidence in their ability to compete on merits alone.
I think Google is pissed by Microsofts recent actions* and wants to send a big "How dare you fsck with us!" message back to Redmond. I totally support Google is in this case and even think it is the right thing to do, because Google is a company that is strong enough to fight back where other misfortunate companies could not. To think that (of all companies) Microsoft wanted to sue google for anti-trust.
Google, give 'em hell!
* http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10082800-93.html
Documentation my ass. I read the Wine mailing list a lot and the first thing newbie programmers hear on that list is to take the MSDN documentation with a grain of salt since it is A) not written at the time of programming and B) not written by the programmers itself.
Furthermore; the small, leaked part of the source code for Windows contains comments such as "Changing X seems to fuck up the goddamn C compiler" and "Removing this seems to break Office 98" which implies that not a lot of people at Microsoft still know what is realy going on in the subsystems.