Actually, as a happy GameCube owner (in addition to PS2, Dreamcast, PS1, Jaguar, CD32, N64, and Saturn), The 'Cube is the one box that I hope doesn't carry backwards compatibility on to its next incarnation. Not that the games aren't great, there are some fantastic ones, its more that I hope they veer far away from the tiny little disc format and move on to some DVD-based standard format, both for the consumer and for developers. It's time for the big N to embrace some format standards.
Presumably, the difference between the two GPUs wouldn't be big enough as to prevent that from working
Actually, there's already been talk about the problems with backwards compatibility because of the change in graphic processors as well. nVidia had/has the contract for the X-Box 1 and ATI picked it up for XB2. Given that the XB2 will have both a new CPU architecture and a new GPU architecture (with incompatible optimizations), I think getting old XB1 games running on the new box may be a bit harder than some are anticipating. But, given MS's history, XB2 is not the machine we should be worrying about, it's the third generation X that should be done right.
One of my lawyer clients gives Christmas bonuses in the range of $6,000 - $11,000 (and these are receptionists and paralegals, not just non-partner lawyers). So, no, $1500 is not necessarily too much. I'd say go with your gut. Give them what you think they're worth, not what convention dictates.
So, let me get this straight... The reviewers say that this should be a whole number version number (OS XI?) but complain that it costs too much? Sounds a bit hypocritical to me.
I've seen the new "improved" Outlook in action on TechTV and I don't get where all the accolades are coming from. The new interface is terrible. It's cluttered, overly complex, and too heavy on eye candy. As a consultant, I know that at least my clients want a clean interface. All they want on their current Outlook is the Outlook Bar and the message pane. They don't even want the Preview Pane. And now the screen is seperated into thirds with the way too big control panel thingy on the left, the message headers in the middle and the preview pane/read pane on the right? This is a step backward in my opinion.
If you don't believe the Bible word for word, then how do you decide which parts to believe as fact, which parts to accept are fiction and which parts merely need interpretation (and, whose interpretation to accept as the accurate one)?
How is the Big Bang theory and more ridiculous than the idea that there is a giant, invisible man that breathed all of existance into being at a whim? And, if there HAD to be something there before the universe in order to start the universe, then by the same logic, there HAD to have been something there before God to "start" God. You want proof of the Big Bang origin of the universe but are perfectly willing to accept the Christian origin of the universe without hesitation. I don't get it.
In what way is a science experiment insincere?!?!? An honest attempt at discovering the truth is possibly the most sincere endeavor that we can embark upon. The fact that the results don't satisfy your religious beliefs is irrelevant to the sincerity of the experiment.
Having come from a graphic design background, I've developed a pet peve about using a program for something other than for what it was intended when there are programs out there whose strength is that particular function. In design, it manifests itself by people using Quark as a Word Processor. Then there are accountants that use Excel as a Word Processor. In your case, you're trying to use a program designed to surf the web to edit text. What is with the fear of word processors or dedicated text editors? They are there for a reason and they do what they do well (and what they weren't designed to do poorly >ahemahem). I think that if you settle on a good external text editor and integrate that into your workflow, you'll find that your productivity will increase and you'll be less frustrated in the long run.
...animation? A vast majority of adults still see animation and think - "Must be for kids." I saw a 40s-ish guy in the South Park movie with six or seven kids ranging in age from 8 to 12. Comics, animation, and gmaes have grown up. It'll merely take a while for society to catch up.
This kind of sums up the difference between stealing and sharing, though not in the way that you were probably intending. What you are describing is only applicable to real goods. In order for it to be necessary to sacrifice a portion of something in order to share it, it must be real (a cookie, a toy (time), etc...). And if someone took that real property without your permission, it would, indeed, be stealing.
On the other hand, intellectual property requires no sacrifice on anyone's part in order for more than one individual to use it concurrently. When an artist sings a song, it requires no sacrifice on his/her part neither does someone giving someone else a copy of that song (either by selling, handing out, or sharing). Radio stations "share" their content all the time by sending the information out over the airwaves.
This distinction is exactly why there is a legal difference between theft and intellectual property/copyright violation.
TV and movies are collaborative media, yet he insists that all the big insights be his and his alone. That prevents people from hijacking his vehicles (as happened with the Buffy movie) but also prevents people from telling him when his clothes are no invisible, but missing. No wonder Buffy got so far off track.
In the Amiga world (the glory days), there were two names. Jay Miner (the father of the Amiga) and Dave Haynie (the godfather of the Amiga). Ahh... if only management types didn't suck ass.
California has the highest per capita income in the nation. They also have the highest tax rates (after all is said and done). They also have a tremendous illegal alien problem.
Florida is much smaller economy-wise and population-wise. They have NO state income tax or state sales tax on necessities. They also have a tremendous illegal alien problem.
California has one of the highest (THE highest?) state budget deficit in the nation.
I was in Lowe's yesterday with a couple of friends helping them buy a grill and on the way out of the store I noticed that on the wall near the exit there is a box. There is the name of some security company on the box (don't remember the name) and in the center of the box was a cut out with a Palm OS device screen peeking out. Tre' cool.:)
If you ask me, Sony is a much larger monopoly and more consumer damaging company than M$ could ever hope to be. They make money off of alot of the movies we watch, the movie houses we go to, the tv shows we watch, and the tv shows we watch them on. Every monitor that was attached to the macs we used in highschool were Trinitrons. Nearly every one's VCR, home stereo, personal CD player, personal cassette player, headphones, DVD player, and Surround Sound decoder sports the Sony logo. How can people who do everything they can to keep Microsoft out of their computers, and are disgusted when they see MSNBC logos be so willing to accept with open arms and embrace products and content from Sony?
Basically, Microsoft has and continues to push out crappy product with nothing but market share behind it.
Windows pretty much sucks. WinCE pretty much sucks. Office is an unnecessary hog. Ditto IE.
Is there any question that these products, if put on an equal playing ground, would have significantly less market penetration?
Now let's look at the Sony items you've listed.
Movies: Well, there are lots of movie studios and they all put out both good stuff and crap. Sony is no exception. Same goes for TV shows (as a matter of fact, Sony is very strongly behind one of the best science fiction shows of recent memory and pushing hard to find it a new home since it was dumped by Showtime (Odyssey 5). So I applaud them for that.
Monitors/TVs. Trinitron rocks. There is plenty of competition out there, but for picture quality and color fidelity Trinitron blows the others away. You may pay a premium for it, but isn't that what premiums are all about? SHOULDN'T you pay a premium for a premium item?!?!?
VCRs. Sony's one misstep in the consumer electronics arena IMHO. There are/were much better VCRs on the market than Sony. And, come to think of it, I can't think of more than one friend of mine that has a Sony VCR. VCRs have really become disposable anyway. Not a prestige item. You buy a cheap one and throw it away when it breaks. No biggie.
Home stereo. While I personally prefer other brands of home stereo to Sony, you have to admit, as long as you steer clear of the ES line, you get an amazing bargain for you money with Sony's home stereo equipment. One could possibly make an argument that there is a Sony tax on this stuff, but look at the prices of the equipment objectively and you'll see there really isn't. Now Yamaha throws a brand tax on their equipment - no question.
Personal CD Player/Cassette player. Yet another market that has become throw away. Still, Sony created this market and still makes a good product in it.
Headphones. Sony does not make the best headphones on the market. People serious about headphones generally don't buy Sony. Most will go with Sennheiser or AKG or the like. Sony doesn't hold nearly a monopoly in the headphone market.
DVD players. Again, there are many brands to choose from, but Sony still makes a damned good product in this arena.
Now, the fundamental difference between Sony and Microsoft is that, contrary to your statement, Sony doesn't hold monopoly power in ANY market you've mentioned. There is a thriving open market in every single area. There's Matsushita, Toshiba, RCA, and a ton of other options for the buying public. That Sony has been able to make their name synonomous with quality is remarkable given the amount of competition. If Microsoft had achieved it's position in the same manner, I doubt there would be nearly as much of a stink about them.
How about TWO Virtua Fighter/Tekken crossovers?!? One could use the VF engine and control scheme and be called Virtua Fighter/Tekken and the other could use the Tekken engine and conrtol scheme and be called Tekken/Virtua Fighter. THAT would rock.:)
...than see Open Source mandated. No single source of software should be mandated. The government should be free to evaluate each solution based on its merits and price/performance. Mandating anything like this is a bad idea.
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Actually, as a happy GameCube owner (in addition to PS2, Dreamcast, PS1, Jaguar, CD32, N64, and Saturn), The 'Cube is the one box that I hope doesn't carry backwards compatibility on to its next incarnation. Not that the games aren't great, there are some fantastic ones, its more that I hope they veer far away from the tiny little disc format and move on to some DVD-based standard format, both for the consumer and for developers. It's time for the big N to embrace some format standards.
Actually, there's already been talk about the problems with backwards compatibility because of the change in graphic processors as well. nVidia had/has the contract for the X-Box 1 and ATI picked it up for XB2. Given that the XB2 will have both a new CPU architecture and a new GPU architecture (with incompatible optimizations), I think getting old XB1 games running on the new box may be a bit harder than some are anticipating. But, given MS's history, XB2 is not the machine we should be worrying about, it's the third generation X that should be done right.
One of my lawyer clients gives Christmas bonuses in the range of $6,000 - $11,000 (and these are receptionists and paralegals, not just non-partner lawyers). So, no, $1500 is not necessarily too much. I'd say go with your gut. Give them what you think they're worth, not what convention dictates.
So, let me get this straight... The reviewers say that this should be a whole number version number (OS XI?) but complain that it costs too much? Sounds a bit hypocritical to me.
I've seen the new "improved" Outlook in action on TechTV and I don't get where all the accolades are coming from. The new interface is terrible. It's cluttered, overly complex, and too heavy on eye candy. As a consultant, I know that at least my clients want a clean interface. All they want on their current Outlook is the Outlook Bar and the message pane. They don't even want the Preview Pane. And now the screen is seperated into thirds with the way too big control panel thingy on the left, the message headers in the middle and the preview pane/read pane on the right? This is a step backward in my opinion.
How is the Big Bang theory and more ridiculous than the idea that there is a giant, invisible man that breathed all of existance into being at a whim? And, if there HAD to be something there before the universe in order to start the universe, then by the same logic, there HAD to have been something there before God to "start" God. You want proof of the Big Bang origin of the universe but are perfectly willing to accept the Christian origin of the universe without hesitation. I don't get it.
In what way is a science experiment insincere?!?!? An honest attempt at discovering the truth is possibly the most sincere endeavor that we can embark upon. The fact that the results don't satisfy your religious beliefs is irrelevant to the sincerity of the experiment.
Having come from a graphic design background, I've developed a pet peve about using a program for something other than for what it was intended when there are programs out there whose strength is that particular function. In design, it manifests itself by people using Quark as a Word Processor. Then there are accountants that use Excel as a Word Processor. In your case, you're trying to use a program designed to surf the web to edit text. What is with the fear of word processors or dedicated text editors? They are there for a reason and they do what they do well (and what they weren't designed to do poorly >ahemahem). I think that if you settle on a good external text editor and integrate that into your workflow, you'll find that your productivity will increase and you'll be less frustrated in the long run.
...animation? A vast majority of adults still see animation and think - "Must be for kids." I saw a 40s-ish guy in the South Park movie with six or seven kids ranging in age from 8 to 12. Comics, animation, and gmaes have grown up. It'll merely take a while for society to catch up.
This kind of sums up the difference between stealing and sharing, though not in the way that you were probably intending. What you are describing is only applicable to real goods. In order for it to be necessary to sacrifice a portion of something in order to share it, it must be real (a cookie, a toy (time), etc...). And if someone took that real property without your permission, it would, indeed, be stealing.
On the other hand, intellectual property requires no sacrifice on anyone's part in order for more than one individual to use it concurrently. When an artist sings a song, it requires no sacrifice on his/her part neither does someone giving someone else a copy of that song (either by selling, handing out, or sharing). Radio stations "share" their content all the time by sending the information out over the airwaves.
This distinction is exactly why there is a legal difference between theft and intellectual property/copyright violation.
Pogo Radio Your Way
According to the review it's not there quite yet, but it's on the way.
Universal Vivendi has snapped up the rights to produce a game based on the Marvel universe.
Universal signs 10 year deal with Marvel
Let me know how that goes. I haven't tried a spanned multiple disk set. Everything else has been goldne with it, though.
It's not spyware. The ad's the same every time. It's sponsored, not spying.
I use UltimateZip. It's free, fast, and compatible. Very nice software.
UltimateZip Web Site
Didn't seem to hurt Straczynski on Babylon 5.
So just slap an "Apple Label" on whatever you want to install OSX on. Problem solved. :)
In the Amiga world (the glory days), there were two names. Jay Miner (the father of the Amiga) and Dave Haynie (the godfather of the Amiga). Ahh... if only management types didn't suck ass.
Wow! Dave Haynie. Haven't heard from you in a while. Mind telling an old-timer Amiga user what you've been up to of late? :)
What the hell is a "high-risk" country and why would they want such device?
California has the highest per capita income in the nation. They also have the highest tax rates (after all is said and done). They also have a tremendous illegal alien problem.
Florida is much smaller economy-wise and population-wise. They have NO state income tax or state sales tax on necessities. They also have a tremendous illegal alien problem.
California has one of the highest (THE highest?) state budget deficit in the nation.
Florida has no budget deficit.
How is this possible? Liberalism run rampant.
Basically, Microsoft has and continues to push out crappy product with nothing but market share behind it.
Windows pretty much sucks.
WinCE pretty much sucks.
Office is an unnecessary hog.
Ditto IE.
Is there any question that these products, if put on an equal playing ground, would have significantly less market penetration?
Now let's look at the Sony items you've listed.
Movies: Well, there are lots of movie studios and they all put out both good stuff and crap. Sony is no exception. Same goes for TV shows (as a matter of fact, Sony is very strongly behind one of the best science fiction shows of recent memory and pushing hard to find it a new home since it was dumped by Showtime (Odyssey 5). So I applaud them for that.
Monitors/TVs. Trinitron rocks. There is plenty of competition out there, but for picture quality and color fidelity Trinitron blows the others away. You may pay a premium for it, but isn't that what premiums are all about? SHOULDN'T you pay a premium for a premium item?!?!?
VCRs. Sony's one misstep in the consumer electronics arena IMHO. There are/were much better VCRs on the market than Sony. And, come to think of it, I can't think of more than one friend of mine that has a Sony VCR. VCRs have really become disposable anyway. Not a prestige item. You buy a cheap one and throw it away when it breaks. No biggie.
Home stereo. While I personally prefer other brands of home stereo to Sony, you have to admit, as long as you steer clear of the ES line, you get an amazing bargain for you money with Sony's home stereo equipment. One could possibly make an argument that there is a Sony tax on this stuff, but look at the prices of the equipment objectively and you'll see there really isn't. Now Yamaha throws a brand tax on their equipment - no question.
Personal CD Player/Cassette player. Yet another market that has become throw away. Still, Sony created this market and still makes a good product in it.
Headphones. Sony does not make the best headphones on the market. People serious about headphones generally don't buy Sony. Most will go with Sennheiser or AKG or the like. Sony doesn't hold nearly a monopoly in the headphone market.
DVD players. Again, there are many brands to choose from, but Sony still makes a damned good product in this arena.
Now, the fundamental difference between Sony and Microsoft is that, contrary to your statement, Sony doesn't hold monopoly power in ANY market you've mentioned. There is a thriving open market in every single area. There's Matsushita, Toshiba, RCA, and a ton of other options for the buying public. That Sony has been able to make their name synonomous with quality is remarkable given the amount of competition. If Microsoft had achieved it's position in the same manner, I doubt there would be nearly as much of a stink about them.