True, but its not like you are locked into the iPod firmware either. The iPod 5th Generation Video, for example, has two processors, and as such, can run Linux, Rockbox, and I am sure other apps. Just mod the firmware, install your app. Its great, I have been playing Bejewled on my iPod months before iTunes started offering games for the iPod.
And who cares about DRM? Just sign up for Napster2Go, use a program such as Muv2Audio, convert songs to MP3 format. Feed MP3s into iTunes and it automatically imports album art.
Of course, I hate iTunes. I hate that I am forced to upgrade every other week. I went to YamiPod over a year ago, and have not looked back.
As I have the older generation iPod, I do not have to worry about said hash checks. I can continue to use YamiPod, use it on Mac, Windows or Linux without reformatting the iPod, and transfer songs to or FROM the device.
So I do not have a handheld that can do internet. Big whoop, I already have to carry my laptop with me just about everywhere I go, is there something wrong with just accessing internet on it? Why do I need it on my handheld too? Oh, because its pretty!
(insert submitter's name) writes in to tell us that (insert URL) is reporting that the Nintendo Wii has sold (x) number of units, barely itching out past the XBox 360, which has sold (y) units. Both are still well outselling the poor Sony PS3 which has only sold (z).
Automated comments: Score 3, Funny - And is anyone surprised by this
This must generate a thread of at least 10 posts
Sore 4, Interesting - If Sony would stop (insert profanity) their developers, maybe PS3 sales would be stronger.
This must generate a thread of at least 15 posts.
Score 2 - I just bought a PS3 because it was a cheap BluRay player.
HD Format Wars Automated news generator: (insert submitters name) writes in to tell us that (insert URL) is reporting that (Company X) has decided to go with the (insert format name). Recent sales figures shows that BluRay is currently outselling HD-DVD (y:z) Article approver will comment: "I am just waiting on (insert movie) to be released, that will get me to decide which format to go with..
Mandnatory comments must include: Score 5, Interesting / Funny- The Porn industry has decided to go with HD-DVD this must generate a thread of atleast 20 replies
Score 3 - I just hope BluRay wins out, not because of the format, but because I want the storage capacity.
Score 4, Informative - Neither format will win, both will quietly die, because there is not a significant enough improvement over DVD to justify a format war. The reason DVD won over VHS is because there was a huge technology leap. We are still on discs here, the next big leap will be with downloadable content, not HD-DVD This must generate a thread of atleast 20 replies, some agreeing, some disagreeing, at least one funny comment with will spur a whole other conversation not remotely related to the story
Same thing we have been hearing for months, and already knew, the Wii is kicking butt, Sony is struggling to keep afloat.
While its not selling as well the other two consoles, though, I should like to point out that 4 million consoles in under a year is nothing to sneeze at.
Wrong. DLLs are Dynamic Link Libraries. The DLL itself is generally not executable, although I guess it could be. DLLs are called by programs to perform specific funcitons, so that a programmer does not have to rewrite code that has already been written by others.
The point I was making is that programs writes dlls and replaces DLLs in the system directory all the time, whether its a Microsoft Product, Adobe Product, or some little poker game you downloaded off the internet. While I do not like the fact that Microsoft replaced / installed DLLs without notification, I am saying it does not look as if it harmed anything (other than our sense of security). Now if it was like the tcp/ip stack that was updated, or something like that, I would be a bit more concerned.
Of course, if you do not want updates, all you got to do is get a good firewall or PeerGuardian or something, and blacklist the Microsoft IP range
It sounds as if the author of the summery does not understand digital television:
I don't understand how AT&T manages to deliver U-verse without any analog channels." Dish Network and DirectTV have never offered analog channels. Everything gets converted to digital, which allows you to put several SD channels in the bandwidth limitation of one analog SD channel. The box then converts it back to analog, where its read by your analog TV.
Or as a result of this vote, will they suddenly have to drop 50 SD channels to make room for 5 NTSC channels?" Doubtful. This most likely does not mean that they have to continue to broadcast analog signals, just that they have to find a way to make the digital broadcasts readable by analog TVs, which can be done through a converter box. And what if they do make them broadcast them in analog? Most cable operators still broadcast their basic cable in analog. And if its only the local channels, they no longer have to broadcast food network, nickelodeon or disney in analog. Plus, most cable operators have more than enough bandwidth available, I doubt that they are going to drop a few digital channels because they have to keep a few analog around for another 4 years, as, like I just stated, many broadcast many more of their channels than is required in analog still.
It seems like its just a few updated DLL files. Programs throw dlls around all the time. These do not seem to have harmed anything. However, it does not sound right. How did these updates get installed, that is kinda my question. Is Windows programmed to ocassionally phone home, and when it did, these updates got applied, or did MS have some bot that like scanned IP addresses looking for copies of windows and push these, or what? Kinda strange.
I somehow doubt, though, that the intent is malicious. While Microsoft may play dirty politics, and turn off pirated versions of Windows, I seriously doubt Microsoft would intentionally push software out that would screw up their own software. Chances are, this is just either an oversight on someone's part, or an improperly deployed update. Or it could be how Microsoft is planning on blackscreening vista users.
So, are people at your company so accustomed to browsing wit personal T3 lines, or what? Will they break down in tears if forced to work with 768 kb/s DSL? Sadly, some do. We have a 20 Mbps fiber connection to the internet. Granted, that is shared between 900 users, but even in the worst of times, its generally faster than DSL. Actually had an executive scream last week because her internet was slow. I went and investigated, and yeah, it was slower than normal, when clicking on a link, it took a whole three seconds to resolve! She asked if she could get a dedicated line, and part of me wanted to ask her if she wanted to pay for a 28k dialup connection, or foot for the 56k dialup.:-)
No, actually, I was not refering to the internet, though. I used it to say that sometimes you may have trouble getting a webpage to even load up over wireless in our building as the wireless network is oversatuated. Most network activity is done between the servers.
The problem that clients in our building seem to neglect is that, yeah, while we are running G, which is 56Mbps, that does not mean that it will be only half the speed of their 100 Mbps ethernet connection, its generally much slower. The problem is, on ethernet, you have a 100 Mbps connection straight to the switch, dedicated to you. Over the wireless, you are sharing that 54Mbps connection with 50 other people in your area, so you are not getting 54 Mbps, you are getting between 1-5 Mbps. This is why you ge an excellent signal, then almost cannot browse the internet. i think we finally got it through most of our users minds that the wireless was there as a convienince, not at a replacement for the ethernet, and most will now use their ethernet cable.
I do not mind some copy protection. While it can be broken, and pirates will crack your software no matter what you do, I must agree with earlier posts that say that this will probably be a limited amount of your audience. I think the key thing is while I do not care if people profit from their software, you should think about not making the price so high that it invites piracy. This can be difficult if the software is highly specialized to a small corner of the market.
I hate the idea of phoning home and e;icenses, which once again, can be cracked. In this case you are punishing legit customers. And, OMG, what if you do not have an always on internet connection? I have seen these, these are absolutely annoying, the software pops up every few minutes, demanding to phone home, and you have to dial in. OMG, that is SO annoying. And the elicense thing is flawed too. We actually had this problem had an issue with someone who looks like they stole our serial number (or some hacker used a keygen or something), and so we just bought licenses for this software two days ago, and we cannot install a single product becuase its saying the code is already in use. We are having all kinds of problems with their tech support, where they have tried calling us thieves and everything else.
Oh, and what happens if you have a harddrive crash, and have to reinstall the software, and did not get to check in your old elicense before you lost all data on your harddrive?
No, phoning home and elicenses are evil. Do not use them, you only end up punishing legit customers and not hurting the piraters at all
:-) What can I say? I work in IT as a PC tech, and lately it has been only the Macs that have been giving us trouble. I have been inventing stuff to do, but am finding myself spending WAY too much time on Slashdot. Come on, someone spill coffee on their laptop, install some piece of software that completely screws up your comptuer, or, gasps, give me a couple of blackberry setups, I am board here.
I just got a sudden urge to go play Duck Hunt. Can't think of why.
There was also a mini-game in Wii Play that seemed oddly familer. I was shooting at balloons, clay discs and a few ducks. Of course, Nintendo is always on the leading edge of technology, they wouldn't dare to bundle something they came out with 20 years ago with their new system. This has got to be a whole new concept.
To think, I can actually use a gun to shoot at people. Take that, Wild Gunmen. Take that, Area 51. Take that, Night of the Living Dead!
Sad thing is, I will probably actually buy one. I just bought my Wii a few weeks ago and to my surprise it gets played more than three times as much as my PS3 and gaming computer combined.
It seems that Apple has copyrighted and trademarked anything pretty. Oh, and the pay people to program for their Unix OS. The GUIs for Linux seem to be programmed by fanboys, Loosely colaborated, and when you do finally come out with something pretty (such as GNOME), its so processor intensive, you pretty much have a pretty GUI that almost will not run your programs (hmmmm, now I know where Vista got its influence).
But what can you expect, you are running a GUI that some programmer setting in his parents' basement wrote for a windowing system that was written in 1987 (X11) which is based on another windowing system that came out in 1984 (X), which was PORTED to an operating system that came out in 1991 (Linux), that was based loosely on an operating system that is roughly 38 years old, and optimized for a processor that no one has used in over 10 years (the 386). Ha, and they call Windows a 32-bit gui to a 16 bit patch of an 8 bit operating system originally intended for a 4 bit processor written by a two bit company that does not like 1 bit of competition.
That being said, I am not saying that Linux is a bad operating system. I am saying that more work needs to be made on the usability of Linux. I mean, I am sorry, but if I am trying to install a GUI Linux app inside of the GUI windowing manager, why the heck should I have to use a command line to install the stupid thing?
Okay, I am stepping off of my soap box. I just bashed Linux on Slashdot. I am going to get modded down to -1 troll, and loose my excellent Karma level.
Oh, I might be able to save it..... wait for it.......
While I am sure that the article is well written and very scientific, the summery loosely refers to it, and the one or two quotes taken seem to be out of context and are being used to try to support Republican bashing / conservative bashing. The summery should be used to give us a brief synopsis of the article, not to push your own political agenda.
A researcher not affiliated with the study stated, liberals 'could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas.' Moreover, 'the results could explain why President Bush demonstrated a single-minded commitment to the Iraq war and why some people perceived Sen. John F. Kerry... as a flip-flopper.'" Notice how the quotes selected came from an editorial or an outside researcher, not from the study itself.
For the people approving articles, do you have to post verbatum what the submitter sent you? We have had too many articles approved lately with bad summeries.
Probably more than you think. I use Firefox to download updates to Firefox. If I am on a machine with a version older than two, you have to go to Mozilla.com and download the entire package. I also use Firefox to download the installer so that I can slap it on a thumbdrive and install whenever I go to someone's machine.
My question is, how many of these are repeat customers. I am running three Windows OSes on one computer, Linux and OSX on another, not only did I download Firefox on each machine, but I will redownload when alphas, betas, release candidates and final releases come out. I bet in the last four years, I have done more than 50 Firefox downloads myself.
Another thing to take into account is how many people have Firefox, but do not use it? I install it on anyone's machien that I am doing work on, and its on all the computer images when we role out new computers. I tend to see way more Mac users using Firefox than PC users (probably just because Safari is just so horrid, even the betas do not come near what Firefox has done for years, although I must admit Safarri is improving).
So, yeah, 400 million downloads, with maybe 50 million people actually using it.
One of these days, someone is going to announce more software downloads than there are people on the planet.
I hear you. If your supervisor tells us at 11 AM on Tuesday the second that you are starting work at 8AM on Monday the first, and needs a computer, and we cannot get it to you until 3 PM on Tuesday afternoon, that is really not the fault of the IT department. If a supervisor tells us Friday at 8 AM that a new person is starting Monday and needs a computer, but has ignored IT telling them for a month that they are out of computers and you must buy more, and there is no computer ther Monday morning, once again, not the fault of the IT department. Of course, guess who gets blamed.
I had a user whom I just reimaged, and some supervisor thought they would save money by giving her Adobe Acrobat 6 Standard, despite the fact that everyone else is using Acrobat 8 Professional. We told that supervisor that Acrobat 6 most likely would not open up the documents that the other users were writing. Yet, who gets blamed when suddenly you cannot open PDFs?
Of course, I do not have time to mess with it, as I am trying to setup your new Blackberry, even though you just got another Blackberry two months ago, and you think that the new Blackberry is supposed to automagically work, of course you do not seem to understand that we have to reset your password on the BES, then contact AT&T on your behalf because it never occured to you to have the new phone activated, then have to contact them 2-3 more times because you listened to their sales department rather than your IT department and signed up on some funkey plan that is not compatable with our system.
Forgive us please when you cannot get into our FTP site to retrieve your Powerpoint presentation for a new business venture because you decided to FTP in from the clients office 10 minutes before the presentation just to realize that THEIR firewall prevents FTP access. I am sorry that you did not plan ahead.
I am sorry if I have to tell you that we cannot troubleshoot your home wireless network. I am sorry if I can get your laptop to connect to 10 different public and private wireless networks all across the city yet you cannot get it to connect to your wireless network that you setup yourself.
I am sorry if we have to block Yahoo Messanger because you have called in several times complaining about your computer running slow, and this is always fixed by removing all the crap that Yahoo installs along with its messanger.
I am sorry if I have to block access to Smiley Central because it is adware. I am sorry if I have to block access to some website you use to store passwords at because they are selling the client data you store there to hackers. I am sorry if I have to block access to streaming radio stations and Limewire and Kazaa because our internet was slow.
I am sorry we are out of server space, despite the fact we have been telling you you were runinng low for months, and you either needed to purchase more space or delete some stuff.
I am sorry if mail suddenly starts being bounced, because you are over your quota, depsite the fact that we have shown you in training how to check the size, we told you your limit, showed you how to archive, and have been sending you e-mails for a week telling you that you are approacing your limit.
I am sorry that you cannot print over wireless, despite the fact that we tell you that you can't. I am sorry if it takes you several hours to upload that 1 gig file to the server because you refuse to plug in your ethernet cable.
I am sorry if we do not have any more power adaptors to lend you because we have already lent out the dozen or so we already had for the day, or if by the end of the week we are only down to 4 because people will not return them.
I am sorry that we cannot give you Windows Vista, because we have determined that CS1 and 2 do not run on it right, and that your Finance deapratment does not want to pay for the upgrade to CS3.
I am sorry that Illustrator on your Mac no longer loads up because you decided to go in and delete system fonts that the program use
As most games on the PS3 tend to be ports of other games on other systems, if you have any of these already, you can probably skip the PS3 version.
The most recent addition to my titles has been Elder Scrolls Oblivion. This game is absolutely beautiful, and translated really well to the PS3. The game of the year addition is due out soon
Ninja Gaidan Sigma is beautiful and fun. Spent many hours with this one. The demo is available for download from the online store.
Super Rub-a-Dub is highly addictive, and I think its only $6 or something through the online store.
Resistance Fall of Man is AWSOME if you like playing FPS without the use of Keyboard or mouse.
The Need For Speed games are always good.
The Gran Turismo HD Concepts demo is available for download from the online store.
Stay away from Sonic The Hedgehog. REALLY slow to get started, REALLY buggy, LONG load waits.
Download Lemmings and Soduku from the online store. Both are cheap, and while they do not really show off the power of the PS3, are highly addictive. Lemmings is the traditional side scroller (not a 3d remake), but with updated graphics, so its beautiful and fun.
FEAR is good, but not as good as the PC version.
Little Big World is due out soon. The previews of this game (available from the online store) look awsome!
The PS3 upconverts PS1 and PS2 games. I should point out though that this simply takes the 480i game, and upconverts the graphics and runs a smoother on it, it does NOT rerender 3D graphics at a higher resolution, which is a pity, FF9 for the PSX looks amazing at 1024x768 on PC Playstation emulators. Hopefully a future firmware update will fix this, its not as if the Cell Processor does not have the speed to do it, and the newer PS3s run all legacy games in software emulation mode anyways.
Also, remember that the PS3 is still a fairly cheap BluRay player. While I could not justify the price of a PS3 for just a game system or a movie player, I felt it was worth the price to get the two. Plus, it makes a great Windows Media device. Just load up TVersity (http://tversity.com/home) on the PC, and the PS3 now will play most of the movies I have on my PC (although I do have some issues with some XVid and TS streams)
Fair point, but I think you are forgetting something - you are comparing the prices based on if you are an American trying to buy a product in the UK, in which case the exchange rate would be against you. You are a UK citizen making a UK salary paying UK prices. I am willing to bet that when you figure in your income in GBP versus the same person with the same job in the US making USD, and then what you are paying for the PS3, it comes out to be about the same. You are not being screwed, the reason the exchange is like that is that the British pound is stronger than the US Dollar.
There is no VAT in the US, its Sales tax, and the reason it varies from area to area, from 0-9.75% is because its not a federal tax, but is set by the state, and in some cases the county or city will add to it. For example, large Native American areas will have 0% sales tax on items. In the area of Texas I live in, the sales tax is 8.25% (varies when I go from one city to the next, typically between 8-8.75%).
While at first, that may sound lower, the difference is that VAT is added into the sales price, Sales Tax is not. Therefore, while the unit is $699 in the store, you then add on top of that the 8.25% sales tax. This, in my area, brought the total of the PS3 to $756.67 Of course, the advertised price is $699. Very few places in the US add tax to their advertised prices, i think the exception is when advertising gasoline prices, and a few mom and pop stores.
I had to read the summery a couple of times before I realized that they were talking about TV on the web, not WebTV. I was wondering how 500,000 boxes with 56k modems were expected to choke the internet, or for that matter, download high bandwidth multimedia material.
"One of the most powerful and popular content management systems (CMSs) is Joomla, a superior derivative of Mambo If its so popular, why have I never heard of it, and why do you need to explain what it is?
Shoot, that's the whole reason I got on Myspace in the first place. Set the profile to where only your friends can view it, the monitor who your friends are. If I wanted the whole world to be able to see what I posted, I could just goto Geocities or something. Yeah, I have my own.com, and have a few things set up in areas where it requires a username and password to access it, but why bother anymore? Everyone I know has myspace, just approve them as friends, and they can see the stuff that I don't want the whole world to see.
Slashdot Mirror
True, but its not like you are locked into the iPod firmware either. The iPod 5th Generation Video, for example, has two processors, and as such, can run Linux, Rockbox, and I am sure other apps. Just mod the firmware, install your app. Its great, I have been playing Bejewled on my iPod months before iTunes started offering games for the iPod.
And who cares about DRM? Just sign up for Napster2Go, use a program such as Muv2Audio, convert songs to MP3 format. Feed MP3s into iTunes and it automatically imports album art.
Of course, I hate iTunes. I hate that I am forced to upgrade every other week. I went to YamiPod over a year ago, and have not looked back.
As I have the older generation iPod, I do not have to worry about said hash checks. I can continue to use YamiPod, use it on Mac, Windows or Linux without reformatting the iPod, and transfer songs to or FROM the device.
So I do not have a handheld that can do internet. Big whoop, I already have to carry my laptop with me just about everywhere I go, is there something wrong with just accessing internet on it? Why do I need it on my handheld too? Oh, because its pretty!
(insert submitter's name) writes in to tell us that (insert URL) is reporting that the Nintendo Wii has sold (x) number of units, barely itching out past the XBox 360, which has sold (y) units. Both are still well outselling the poor Sony PS3 which has only sold (z).
Automated comments:
Score 3, Funny - And is anyone surprised by this
This must generate a thread of at least 10 posts
Sore 4, Interesting - If Sony would stop (insert profanity) their developers, maybe PS3 sales would be stronger.
This must generate a thread of at least 15 posts.
Score 2 - I just bought a PS3 because it was a cheap BluRay player.
HD Format Wars Automated news generator:
(insert submitters name) writes in to tell us that (insert URL) is reporting that (Company X) has decided to go with the (insert format name). Recent sales figures shows that BluRay is currently outselling HD-DVD (y:z)
Article approver will comment: "I am just waiting on (insert movie) to be released, that will get me to decide which format to go with..
Mandnatory comments must include:
Score 5, Interesting / Funny- The Porn industry has decided to go with HD-DVD
this must generate a thread of atleast 20 replies
Score 3 - I just hope BluRay wins out, not because of the format, but because I want the storage capacity.
Score 4, Informative - Neither format will win, both will quietly die, because there is not a significant enough improvement over DVD to justify a format war. The reason DVD won over VHS is because there was a huge technology leap. We are still on discs here, the next big leap will be with downloadable content, not HD-DVD
This must generate a thread of atleast 20 replies, some agreeing, some disagreeing, at least one funny comment with will spur a whole other conversation not remotely related to the story
Same thing we have been hearing for months, and already knew, the Wii is kicking butt, Sony is struggling to keep afloat.
While its not selling as well the other two consoles, though, I should like to point out that 4 million consoles in under a year is nothing to sneeze at.
Wrong. DLLs are Dynamic Link Libraries. The DLL itself is generally not executable, although I guess it could be. DLLs are called by programs to perform specific funcitons, so that a programmer does not have to rewrite code that has already been written by others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamically_linked_library
The point I was making is that programs writes dlls and replaces DLLs in the system directory all the time, whether its a Microsoft Product, Adobe Product, or some little poker game you downloaded off the internet. While I do not like the fact that Microsoft replaced / installed DLLs without notification, I am saying it does not look as if it harmed anything (other than our sense of security). Now if it was like the tcp/ip stack that was updated, or something like that, I would be a bit more concerned.
Of course, if you do not want updates, all you got to do is get a good firewall or PeerGuardian or something, and blacklist the Microsoft IP range
It seems like its just a few updated DLL files. Programs throw dlls around all the time. These do not seem to have harmed anything. However, it does not sound right. How did these updates get installed, that is kinda my question. Is Windows programmed to ocassionally phone home, and when it did, these updates got applied, or did MS have some bot that like scanned IP addresses looking for copies of windows and push these, or what? Kinda strange.
I somehow doubt, though, that the intent is malicious. While Microsoft may play dirty politics, and turn off pirated versions of Windows, I seriously doubt Microsoft would intentionally push software out that would screw up their own software. Chances are, this is just either an oversight on someone's part, or an improperly deployed update. Or it could be how Microsoft is planning on blackscreening vista users.
No, actually, I was not refering to the internet, though. I used it to say that sometimes you may have trouble getting a webpage to even load up over wireless in our building as the wireless network is oversatuated. Most network activity is done between the servers.
The problem that clients in our building seem to neglect is that, yeah, while we are running G, which is 56Mbps, that does not mean that it will be only half the speed of their 100 Mbps ethernet connection, its generally much slower. The problem is, on ethernet, you have a 100 Mbps connection straight to the switch, dedicated to you. Over the wireless, you are sharing that 54Mbps connection with 50 other people in your area, so you are not getting 54 Mbps, you are getting between 1-5 Mbps. This is why you ge an excellent signal, then almost cannot browse the internet. i think we finally got it through most of our users minds that the wireless was there as a convienince, not at a replacement for the ethernet, and most will now use their ethernet cable.
I do not mind some copy protection. While it can be broken, and pirates will crack your software no matter what you do, I must agree with earlier posts that say that this will probably be a limited amount of your audience. I think the key thing is while I do not care if people profit from their software, you should think about not making the price so high that it invites piracy. This can be difficult if the software is highly specialized to a small corner of the market.
I hate the idea of phoning home and e;icenses, which once again, can be cracked. In this case you are punishing legit customers. And, OMG, what if you do not have an always on internet connection? I have seen these, these are absolutely annoying, the software pops up every few minutes, demanding to phone home, and you have to dial in. OMG, that is SO annoying. And the elicense thing is flawed too. We actually had this problem had an issue with someone who looks like they stole our serial number (or some hacker used a keygen or something), and so we just bought licenses for this software two days ago, and we cannot install a single product becuase its saying the code is already in use. We are having all kinds of problems with their tech support, where they have tried calling us thieves and everything else.
Oh, and what happens if you have a harddrive crash, and have to reinstall the software, and did not get to check in your old elicense before you lost all data on your harddrive?
No, phoning home and elicenses are evil. Do not use them, you only end up punishing legit customers and not hurting the piraters at all
:-) What can I say? I work in IT as a PC tech, and lately it has been only the Macs that have been giving us trouble. I have been inventing stuff to do, but am finding myself spending WAY too much time on Slashdot. Come on, someone spill coffee on their laptop, install some piece of software that completely screws up your comptuer, or, gasps, give me a couple of blackberry setups, I am board here.
Now if I had a Wii in my cube......
I just got a sudden urge to go play Duck Hunt. Can't think of why.
There was also a mini-game in Wii Play that seemed oddly familer. I was shooting at balloons, clay discs and a few ducks. Of course, Nintendo is always on the leading edge of technology, they wouldn't dare to bundle something they came out with 20 years ago with their new system. This has got to be a whole new concept.
To think, I can actually use a gun to shoot at people. Take that, Wild Gunmen. Take that, Area 51. Take that, Night of the Living Dead!
Sad thing is, I will probably actually buy one. I just bought my Wii a few weeks ago and to my surprise it gets played more than three times as much as my PS3 and gaming computer combined.
It seems that Apple has copyrighted and trademarked anything pretty. Oh, and the pay people to program for their Unix OS. The GUIs for Linux seem to be programmed by fanboys, Loosely colaborated, and when you do finally come out with something pretty (such as GNOME), its so processor intensive, you pretty much have a pretty GUI that almost will not run your programs (hmmmm, now I know where Vista got its influence).
But what can you expect, you are running a GUI that some programmer setting in his parents' basement wrote for a windowing system that was written in 1987 (X11) which is based on another windowing system that came out in 1984 (X), which was PORTED to an operating system that came out in 1991 (Linux), that was based loosely on an operating system that is roughly 38 years old, and optimized for a processor that no one has used in over 10 years (the 386). Ha, and they call Windows a 32-bit gui to a 16 bit patch of an 8 bit operating system originally intended for a 4 bit processor written by a two bit company that does not like 1 bit of competition.
That being said, I am not saying that Linux is a bad operating system. I am saying that more work needs to be made on the usability of Linux. I mean, I am sorry, but if I am trying to install a GUI Linux app inside of the GUI windowing manager, why the heck should I have to use a command line to install the stupid thing?
Okay, I am stepping off of my soap box. I just bashed Linux on Slashdot. I am going to get modded down to -1 troll, and loose my excellent Karma level.
Oh, I might be able to save it..... wait for it.......
MICROSOFT SUCKS!!!!!!
For the people approving articles, do you have to post verbatum what the submitter sent you? We have had too many articles approved lately with bad summeries.
Probably more than you think. I use Firefox to download updates to Firefox. If I am on a machine with a version older than two, you have to go to Mozilla.com and download the entire package. I also use Firefox to download the installer so that I can slap it on a thumbdrive and install whenever I go to someone's machine.
My question is, how many of these are repeat customers. I am running three Windows OSes on one computer, Linux and OSX on another, not only did I download Firefox on each machine, but I will redownload when alphas, betas, release candidates and final releases come out. I bet in the last four years, I have done more than 50 Firefox downloads myself.
Another thing to take into account is how many people have Firefox, but do not use it? I install it on anyone's machien that I am doing work on, and its on all the computer images when we role out new computers. I tend to see way more Mac users using Firefox than PC users (probably just because Safari is just so horrid, even the betas do not come near what Firefox has done for years, although I must admit Safarri is improving).
So, yeah, 400 million downloads, with maybe 50 million people actually using it.
One of these days, someone is going to announce more software downloads than there are people on the planet.
I hear you. If your supervisor tells us at 11 AM on Tuesday the second that you are starting work at 8AM on Monday the first, and needs a computer, and we cannot get it to you until 3 PM on Tuesday afternoon, that is really not the fault of the IT department. If a supervisor tells us Friday at 8 AM that a new person is starting Monday and needs a computer, but has ignored IT telling them for a month that they are out of computers and you must buy more, and there is no computer ther Monday morning, once again, not the fault of the IT department. Of course, guess who gets blamed.
I had a user whom I just reimaged, and some supervisor thought they would save money by giving her Adobe Acrobat 6 Standard, despite the fact that everyone else is using Acrobat 8 Professional. We told that supervisor that Acrobat 6 most likely would not open up the documents that the other users were writing. Yet, who gets blamed when suddenly you cannot open PDFs?
Of course, I do not have time to mess with it, as I am trying to setup your new Blackberry, even though you just got another Blackberry two months ago, and you think that the new Blackberry is supposed to automagically work, of course you do not seem to understand that we have to reset your password on the BES, then contact AT&T on your behalf because it never occured to you to have the new phone activated, then have to contact them 2-3 more times because you listened to their sales department rather than your IT department and signed up on some funkey plan that is not compatable with our system.
Forgive us please when you cannot get into our FTP site to retrieve your Powerpoint presentation for a new business venture because you decided to FTP in from the clients office 10 minutes before the presentation just to realize that THEIR firewall prevents FTP access. I am sorry that you did not plan ahead.
I am sorry if I have to tell you that we cannot troubleshoot your home wireless network. I am sorry if I can get your laptop to connect to 10 different public and private wireless networks all across the city yet you cannot get it to connect to your wireless network that you setup yourself.
I am sorry if we have to block Yahoo Messanger because you have called in several times complaining about your computer running slow, and this is always fixed by removing all the crap that Yahoo installs along with its messanger.
I am sorry if I have to block access to Smiley Central because it is adware. I am sorry if I have to block access to some website you use to store passwords at because they are selling the client data you store there to hackers. I am sorry if I have to block access to streaming radio stations and Limewire and Kazaa because our internet was slow.
I am sorry we are out of server space, despite the fact we have been telling you you were runinng low for months, and you either needed to purchase more space or delete some stuff.
I am sorry if mail suddenly starts being bounced, because you are over your quota, depsite the fact that we have shown you in training how to check the size, we told you your limit, showed you how to archive, and have been sending you e-mails for a week telling you that you are approacing your limit.
I am sorry that you cannot print over wireless, despite the fact that we tell you that you can't. I am sorry if it takes you several hours to upload that 1 gig file to the server because you refuse to plug in your ethernet cable.
I am sorry if we do not have any more power adaptors to lend you because we have already lent out the dozen or so we already had for the day, or if by the end of the week we are only down to 4 because people will not return them.
I am sorry that we cannot give you Windows Vista, because we have determined that CS1 and 2 do not run on it right, and that your Finance deapratment does not want to pay for the upgrade to CS3.
I am sorry that Illustrator on your Mac no longer loads up because you decided to go in and delete system fonts that the program use
As most games on the PS3 tend to be ports of other games on other systems, if you have any of these already, you can probably skip the PS3 version.
The most recent addition to my titles has been Elder Scrolls Oblivion. This game is absolutely beautiful, and translated really well to the PS3. The game of the year addition is due out soon
Ninja Gaidan Sigma is beautiful and fun. Spent many hours with this one. The demo is available for download from the online store.
Super Rub-a-Dub is highly addictive, and I think its only $6 or something through the online store.
Resistance Fall of Man is AWSOME if you like playing FPS without the use of Keyboard or mouse.
The Need For Speed games are always good.
The Gran Turismo HD Concepts demo is available for download from the online store.
Stay away from Sonic The Hedgehog. REALLY slow to get started, REALLY buggy, LONG load waits.
Download Lemmings and Soduku from the online store. Both are cheap, and while they do not really show off the power of the PS3, are highly addictive. Lemmings is the traditional side scroller (not a 3d remake), but with updated graphics, so its beautiful and fun.
FEAR is good, but not as good as the PC version.
Little Big World is due out soon. The previews of this game (available from the online store) look awsome!
Ratchet and Clank comes out in October.
While there is not a ton of games out now, the next few months look exciting for the PS3.
http://ps3.ign.com/index/release.html
The PS3 upconverts PS1 and PS2 games. I should point out though that this simply takes the 480i game, and upconverts the graphics and runs a smoother on it, it does NOT rerender 3D graphics at a higher resolution, which is a pity, FF9 for the PSX looks amazing at 1024x768 on PC Playstation emulators. Hopefully a future firmware update will fix this, its not as if the Cell Processor does not have the speed to do it, and the newer PS3s run all legacy games in software emulation mode anyways.
Also, remember that the PS3 is still a fairly cheap BluRay player. While I could not justify the price of a PS3 for just a game system or a movie player, I felt it was worth the price to get the two. Plus, it makes a great Windows Media device. Just load up TVersity (http://tversity.com/home) on the PC, and the PS3 now will play most of the movies I have on my PC (although I do have some issues with some XVid and TS streams)
Good thing I read this. I was about to comment there was a typo, I glanced over the article too fast. I thought they were refering to SECAM
Fair point, but I think you are forgetting something - you are comparing the prices based on if you are an American trying to buy a product in the UK, in which case the exchange rate would be against you. You are a UK citizen making a UK salary paying UK prices. I am willing to bet that when you figure in your income in GBP versus the same person with the same job in the US making USD, and then what you are paying for the PS3, it comes out to be about the same. You are not being screwed, the reason the exchange is like that is that the British pound is stronger than the US Dollar.
My bad, the PS3 was $599, I spent an extra $100 to get a three year extended warrenty, bringing the price, before tax, to $699
There is no VAT in the US, its Sales tax, and the reason it varies from area to area, from 0-9.75% is because its not a federal tax, but is set by the state, and in some cases the county or city will add to it. For example, large Native American areas will have 0% sales tax on items. In the area of Texas I live in, the sales tax is 8.25% (varies when I go from one city to the next, typically between 8-8.75%).
While at first, that may sound lower, the difference is that VAT is added into the sales price, Sales Tax is not. Therefore, while the unit is $699 in the store, you then add on top of that the 8.25% sales tax. This, in my area, brought the total of the PS3 to $756.67 Of course, the advertised price is $699. Very few places in the US add tax to their advertised prices, i think the exception is when advertising gasoline prices, and a few mom and pop stores.
I had to read the summery a couple of times before I realized that they were talking about TV on the web, not WebTV. I was wondering how 500,000 boxes with 56k modems were expected to choke the internet, or for that matter, download high bandwidth multimedia material.
Does it strike anyone as strange that the article is on Macworld about how to exploit a Microsoft DRM in an application that only works on Windows?
I know the feeling, I felt like I was experiencing Deja Vu. I almost glanced over the post.
Shoot, that's the whole reason I got on Myspace in the first place. Set the profile to where only your friends can view it, the monitor who your friends are. If I wanted the whole world to be able to see what I posted, I could just goto Geocities or something. Yeah, I have my own .com, and have a few things set up in areas where it requires a username and password to access it, but why bother anymore? Everyone I know has myspace, just approve them as friends, and they can see the stuff that I don't want the whole world to see.