LOL, I understand exactly "what Sony has in mind", but I just don't think that translates well into reality. You didn't need to go over the marketing PR with me - we all know it. The question is - do people care, and or want it?
It's not strange for a game machine to be called one. The system comes with a game controller, all accessories are for playing games...Sony may want to make it a "media hub", but until it can replace a TiVo I don't think the mass majority of the public gives a rats ass. The essential, main function of a PS3 is to play games, no matter what Sony has promised you in the future. The point is, yes, Sony wants to make it more, but the question posed was, how many of those gamers are big Blu-ray software buyers, and how many bought it for the gaming features. Sony's online is a joke right now, so all that pie-in-the-sky stuff you are talking about is just that - Sony's dreams that have yet to materialize.
So yeah, PS3 is just a gaming machine right now that also plays Blu-Ray movie discs. People make this big deal about more of them than HD-DVD players, and my reason for posting was to point out that EVERY SINGLE HD-DVD player sold has been for watching movies (the XBOX 360 add-on or stand-alone player). The same CANNOT be said for the PS3. That's why I don't think it's fair to say, "Blu-Ray is winning because there are more Blu-Ray capable players." The
But it's not just a gaming machine. It plays games, but people have bought it for playing Blu-Ray movies too. In fact videophile sites such as this rave about it. Whatever way you dice it, it is selling Blu-Ray discs and lots of them. As for TIVO, you're right it doesn't have a video input and it annoys me. I griped that the 360 didn't have an input and I griped that the PS3 doesn't either. But you can run Linux and MythTV and you can plug a USB TV adapter if you wish. So in fact you can use it as a PVR if you desire. It stinks that it doesn't do it out of the box, but it is doable.
You may correctly claim this is irrelevant to the mass majority but so what? If we're going to make comparisons to the TIVO, bear in mind that a TIVO series 3 costs MORE than a PS3. Is it entirely feasible that Sony could produce a USB dongle or a rev 2 that did include a PVR and still be cheaper than a TIVO with a machine that does so much more.
Absolutely, positively, INCORRECT. Sony did not SELL 1.8m PS3's...they SHIPPED 1.8 million PS3's. Many of them are sitting in stores, right next to the ones that were returned by many eBayers unopened because they eBay sales tanked. THEY ARE NOT SELLING. Period. End of story. Sitting there collecting dust. They are not coming in and going right out and then being restocked - they are just sitting there. You honestly are the first person I've seen with the balls to argue otherwise, because arguing anything but is like saying New Coke wasn't so bad.
Bollocks. Clearly they were sold and clearly Sony have manufactured and sold many thousands more since. Besides, MS claimed 10 million sold too, but guess what - they meant shipped as well and went through all kinds of verbal gymnastics to explain why sold meant shipped. Either way that's the only metric these companies have the ability to actually say with certainty. Just accept it and move on.
LOL, Sony has really sold you, haven't they? It's clear I'm having a discussion with a fan - for the record, I own neither an XBOX 360 nor a PS3. It's clear you understand the company line that Sony wants people to believe; problem is, just because they cross their fingers and wish real hard doesn't mean it's going to come true. You really believe all the hype, huh?
I don't own a PS3 or XBox 360 either so what's your point? I'm certainly interested in the PS3 but that's because I can see the potential for the system in all sorts of ways. It doesn't mean I'm going to queue up at midnight to get one though. Better to wait and see.
The problem with that argument is that the PS3 is not a Blu-Ray movie player, first and foremost : it is a gaming system.
I don't think you truly understand what Sony has in mind for the PS3. It plays games sure, but it is also a very capable Blu-Ray / DVD / CD / SACD / MP3 / H264 / AAC / ATRAC player, and doubtless soon enough will do downloadable movies & IPTV. You might buy it for games (though some people obviously bought it as a cheap BD player), but Sony very much intend the thing to be a multimedia & entertainment center. They are also very much using the thing as a vector to increase their markets for HD TVs, Blu-Ray movies, downloadable content as much as they are for games. This is why it's a bit strange when people single it out for games. It means profits in all sorts of other ways for Sony.
The fact of the matter is that, yes, there are more Blu-Ray capable machines at the moment. But what is of question is how many of those machines is being used largely for watching films. By contrast, every single XBOX 360 add-on is exclusively for watching films, as MS has explicitly stated that no games will come out this generation that utilize the add-on. When you keep that in mind, the supposed install base numbers look much closer. Beyond that, it must be recognized how tiny the numbers we are talking about anyway - neither of them are signifigant at all at this point in terms of mass consumers.
Incorrect. The very fact that Blu-Ray sales are triple HD-DVD has very much to do with the fact that the PS3 contains a player built-in. It has very much to do with the fact that even some people bought the PS3 as a cheap Blu-Ray player and not just a console. Clearly the attach rate is higher for Blu-Ray or sales wouldn't have shot up so high. That people are not required to buy some monstrous strap on for their 360 to do it which in itself would put a lot of people off the idea.
The truth is, the format war is far from over. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are both going to remain niche formats for quite some time. Just because Sony shoe-horned a Blu-Ray player into the PS3 that most of their target audience would have bought anyway, does not a format war win. Especially since PS3's are rotting on the shelves (my local BB has signs up all over saying, "WE HAVE THEM!" and the signs are actually getting dusty they've been up for so long...), their impact over the life of the formats just may not be that signifigant.
Blu-Ray has uses outside of movies for consoles. For starters it makes games harder to pirate and distribute. Secondly it means games can contain more content, or more locales, or be more optimal for better gameplay. And by using Blu-Ray for games Sony lowers production and distribution costs for Blu-Ray movies since they are made on the same kit. Sure, the PS3 may have been able to scratch by without a Blu-Ray drive but next gen consoles really need the extra space anyway. 360 apologists might claim different but all those high def textures, polys, FMV have to fit somewhere. Either it goes on the disc(s), or you download it (i.e. screw you 360 Core owners), or you download it and pay for it (screw you all). Microsoft's own Blue Dragon game comes on 3 DVDs if you can imagine that. So while Sony obviously pushed for their own format, consoles really need it anyway.
The truth is, the format war is far from over. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are both going to remain niche formats for quite some time. Just because Sony shoe-horned a Blu-Ray player into the PS3 that most of their target audience would have bought anyway, does not a format war win. Especially since PS3's are rotting on the shelves (my local BB has signs up all over saying, "WE HAVE THEM!" and the signs are actually getting dusty they've been up for so long...), their impact over the life of the formats just may not be that signifigant.
People complain when Sony can't provide enough consoles. People complain when they can. You can't have it both ways. Besides I don't walk into a superm
The thing is, there are 100,000 PS3s selling in the US alone per week, plus maybe 5000 other BD players. The market for Blu-Ray is just increasing enormously and the HD-DVD market isn't. And Japan is almost entirely Blu-Ray. And Europe is neither (you'll be lucky to see BD or HD-DVDs outside of flagship stores, or airports) but will become instantly Blu-Ray when the PS3 launches.
It is really hard to see how HD-DVD could possibly win in those circumstances.
Like I said, I reckon pragmatism alone suggests they'll win. Personally I couldn't give a crap about the formats since they're almost identicial, however since I intend to get a PS3 I would prefer if it was Blu-Ray for obvious reasons. My other remark was alluding to Sony's uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Dual format players will win this war. As soon as this sells below $500, all other makers will follow. Right now it sells for $1200.
I doubt it. Dual format players are just a way to cash-in on hesitant early adopters. Once Blu-Ray or HD-DVD wins there will be absolutely no point in perpetuating the life of the other format. As Blu-Ray looks increasingly likely to win, why waste money on a dual format player, especially when they are considerably more expensive?
I really thought that Sony would lose this format war, boy was I wrong!
They still could lose it (this is Sony we're talking about here). But at the end of the day they're dumping 100,000 PS3s into the market per week so pragmatism alone suggests they'd need to have a monstrous screw-up to lose at this point.
I find it disturbing how quick many people resort to coercion to accomplish their goals. CFLs so clearly out perform incandescents that their eventual triumph in the free market is assured. Why do we need to hold a gun to people's head to drive their adoption? Will the use of threats of state power really accelerate the rate of adoption enough to justify it?
Yes, but incandescents are cheaper. People buy cheap things even if ultimately they have to buy another one in 4 months. I know its a false economy but that's the way things are. You could spend 10 million dollars promoting CFLs and the vast majority would still stay with what they have.
The only way you're ever going to make people change is by banning incandescents outright or slapping a tax on them. Probably the latter is more easier since it does not require you *force* people to change. They can still use incandescents if they want but you make it hurt them in the place they most care about - their wallet.
Of course, the intention behind these announcements- besides the straight publicity- is to give the impression of Dixons and PC World as hi-tech, cutting-edge type places. When in fact they're mediocre at best; sometimes competitive, but just as often overpriced- particularly for more humble items such as USB and Ethernet cables, staffed by salespeople who like to pretend they know more than they do, flogging overpriced warranties and with a poor reputation. Online shopping is much cheaper, and with a better selection.
My impression of PC World is that it's more interested in selling you a warranty than giving sound advice on anything at all. That assumes that the shaven monkeys who were there would even be capable of sound advice to begin with. Sadly there are people too ignorant, or clueless who think they really do know what they're doing. There is even a PC repair shop if you can believe that charging an arm and a leg to remove spyware. That's how Gary Glitter got caught - by returning his computer complete with kiddie porn to a PC World. Smart move Gary.
The same reasons being most likely that by "supporting" MySQL or PostgreSQL they are effectively suffocating the companies who continue to develop of those databases and probably poaching a few sales too. Eventually those other companies might go down the tubes or at least suffer financially and Oracle can turn around and claim "see you can't trust open source, buy Oracle".
I wonder why MS doesn't try the same thing - push out Microsoft Linux, complete with a free Vista / Windows runtime included, support the thing until Red Hat or Novell go bust and then shitcan it. Naturally the proprietary layer sitting over Linux would not be open sourced.
You are asking a question about WHAT IS EBAY GOING TO DO? What do you expect them to do? Do you think eBay bought the memory stick, found it was fraudulent, and was hurt? Or do you think maybe they see a user with hundreds, thousands, or more happy users that gave the person positive feedback?
The problem is that once an item is received, most people rate it instantly and then don't have any obvious way to revise their rating. They have no way to alert other buyers that the seller is suspect. And if they do detect a fraud, their negative is drowned by a sea of green because the fraudster knows most people rate the second they open their package.
EBay should provide the proper and direct tools for buyers to rapidly highlight fraud. You might claim that it's the user's responsibility to check the device, but the fraudsters rely on the wheels of Ebay grinding so slowly that more people are suckered before anybody notices. By the time you fill out some stupid form and wait 2 weeks in the resolution centre, hundreds or even thousands of others have bought into the same con. Some item categories should feature a second chance for the user to report an item. Buyers should be randomly surveyed about items. Certain categories should contain mandatory warnings, fraud information snippets and "report fraud" links tacked onto every sale. Buyers should be able to see the negative / neutral ratings in a single page for a "gist" of the negative issues. EBay could even buy items from suspect sellers and confirm for themselves. The fact is that memory card fraud is rampant and EBay could be doing more to stop it, yet they sit on their hands until it gets too much.
Go and search for "4gb memory stick" - I bet virtually every one of them will turn out to be a fake. I'm sure EBay knows this too.
The real question is.. WHAT DID YOU DO?
I waited three weeks for the item to ship and then reported it as undelivered. Between my ordering and that time, the account of the seller was suspended, but only after countless people had also purchased cards. As it happens my package actually did turn up but it was a forgery so I continued and finally won my dispute. I reckon the guy had a good 8 weeks over the busy Christmas period of sending nothing but fakes out and knowing most people wouldn't even check the product before rating it. The guy still had a 98.5% rating at the end.
Fact is that EBay could do more. They just choose not to.
Go to ebay and do a search on 'wholesale list'. You will find people attepting to deceive the buyers, I'll even say that much of this is fraud.
Jesus that is a very scummy set of auctions. The worst part is that eBay could obviously tack big warnings to every auction in that category (with BLINK tags if necessary) indicating that the item in the picture is not what you're actually buying. Better yet, ban pictures from certain categories altogether.
I bought a memory stick from ebay which turned out to be a forgery. Fortunately I got my money refunded, but you can still go onto ebay today and see IDENTICAL frauds occuring. The guy who pushed the fake cards has just been booted only to set up again as somebody else. What's worse is that people are giving the guy a positive rating because they never bother to check their memory card out after receiving it. And that gives the scammer more time to lure more people in. Fortunately I did check the card (by filling it with files and see if it works) and I reported that it was a fake.
Why does eBay not do more to snuff it out? They MUST KNOW that certain items (e.g. memory sticks) are virtually all fraudulent. They MUST BE ABLE to tack warnings onto such sales. I suspect they don't care much because they get a slice of every transaction including whatever is left in the paypal account when they finally suspend it. Their loss adjusters probably know that only a small percentage of people will ever pursue for a refund, so why try so hard to do anything about the problem when they're making money from it.
If eBay are really serious about fraud, they should be doing more than pay lip service to fix the issue, which includes being more proactive when fraud is suspected or likely and providing more accessible tools so the buyers can highlight issues faster.
Sounds like a good idea in practice but then how do you deal with things that cost $1.27 or something. Do you round down? Hell no. Do you round up to $1.50? But then that adds up for the individual but also has secondary impacts (e.g. cost of living increases).
That really depends on the business model of the store. Lots of stores will round up to.99 or 1 irrespective of tax being included or not. For example, the UK has two popular chains called Poundland and The 99p Store respectively, even though tax is included in prices. Conversely, a store like Tesco will charge you 19c (euro cents) for a tin of beans if that's what it costs.
My issue with tax is from experience in the US. I often buy something claiming to cost 1 dollar (or 99c), and in the end it costs me $1.09 or similar and since I don't know how much tax will add until it gets scanned. Since I don't know how much to have ready, I end up handing over dollar bills and get a pile of change in response. If the price included tax, there would be less need for so many coins in circulation simply because people would know up front how much they're about to pay for something.
The more rational solution is to phase out the standard size penny and issue a smaller penny. Smaller means less material, means it will cost less. The EU and UK do this for instance. I imagine lots of other nations do as well.
The UK 1p coin is larger than a US 1 cent coin and I imagine would be affected by the same material cost issues. If tax is out of the question, perhaps the better solution is just take the coin out of circulation and require people round up or down to the nearest 5 pence or cents.
Essentially, Sony thinks a mainstream price for players is $300-$400 which is what HD-DVD players will be selling for by next christmas and Blu-Ray players (by their own guestimates) will not make their way to that price point until 2009/2010
Hmm, I expect you will be able to have Blu-Ray player for $400 by next Christmas. Even the PS3 is only $500 ("only" because of what else it does). Even iSupply estimated that the BD drive in the PS3 cost Sony $125. That was back at launch and now the production and supply shortages appear to have gone. I'd be surprised if it even cost Sony $100 now to slap them in the PS3. The price is continually dropping. Throw a case and hardware around a drive, factor in the margins and players for $300-400 is easily attainable.
Besides there appears to be nothing intrinsically more expensive about manufacturing a BD player over an HD-DVD player. The physical medium might differ, but use similar blue-laser technology and probably everything except the bit that moves the laser over the disc is analogous for both. If HD-DVD players can cost less, than so can Blu-Ray ones.
And second, Sony totally blew it when they built the PS3 Blue-Ray capabilities; it can't play 720p, only 480p or 1080p, which means that a very large proportion of in-place US HDTV sets couldn't use anything but 480p, which is pretty much the same as a progressive scan standard DVD in terms of resolution. Oddly, the PS3 will do 720p for games. Just not for DVDs.
The PS3 decodes Blu-Ray (and DVD) content in firmware. Firmware is updateable. Any problems you may consider exist in the firmware are entirely solveable. I know of at least one thread that goes into great detail as to what Sony engineers are doing to improve the playback. And that includes supporting various scaling options.
Besides, the PS3 has sold approximately 1.5 million consoles since launch, which doesn't even include Europe where Blu-Ray and HD-DVD market penetration is virtually zero but will be 99%+ Blu-Ray come March. It doesn't take much to see that the writing is on the wall for HD-DVD unless something pretty spectactular happens for the format.
Third, Sony's balking at allowing prawn into the format (like they did for betamax), which is (IMHO) likely to deal them another severe blow. It seems like they have developed an unmatchable expertise at shooting themselves in the foot.
Google "Vivid and blu-ray". Seems some porn companies intend to put out discs in the format. Not that porn companies even care these days what format to back. Porn is content. Porn companies are content providers, and they don't care what pipeline you get it through as long as you get it.
I think if I looked at CMVC now I would consider it arcane, but at the time it was just an amazingly powerful, mysterious way of managing source code.
By contrast Clearcase should be amazingly powerful, but it is just so demanding of hardware and so fragile to administer and use that I wonder why anybody bothers. Our company operates out of several offices, and each site needs to replicate the same source control databases because CC works terribly over a WAN. Which means every site has several clearcase admins, and their own set of servers and must constantly run replication servers to keep them all in sync. And the jobs fail on occasion, or merge errors happen and it's just all a big mess.
Any other source control system would work acceptably over a WAN meaning you only need one source control system (with perhaps a backup for failover) and that's it. Certainly you wouldn't need the enormous amount of hardware or admins required to keep CC going. Unless you're Boeing or somebody I would seriously suggest Subversion over it any day of the week.
Slightly off-topic, but CMVC was a lovely source control system (to use). I'd probably think it was antiquated if I used it today but 10 years ago it was extremely advanced and much better than even some systems today. The CMVC client was a bug system and source control system in one, meaning tight integration. Somebody would raise a bug and you would check files out against the bug and check them all in as a single discrete package. Much better than the "b=123456" hacks you have to do with comments on CVS or SVN or similar. Much, much, much better than that travesty known as Clearcase (+ Clearquest) which perversely probably killed CMVC when IBM bought Rational out.
The Wii wasn't exactly cheap in Europe either. They sell for approx 250-270. And the XBox 360 sells for 299 or 399.
Even if you consider that Europe includes tax in its prices and consider the ex VAT price, the cost of goods in Europe is far, far higher than the equivalent than in the US.
And the Zune, PS3 and PSP will play unencrypted MP3 and AAC too. Still doesn't help if you bought something from iTMS and now discover that it's bound to Apple-only devices and you can NEVER play it on anything else except by circumventing the DRM.
The moral here is that stores that encrypt music or tie them to a device suck. I really don't understand why music publishers want DRM at all. All that happens with lock-in is that somebody like Apple dominates the market and then the music industry is compelled to dance to their tune. If you level the playing field by publishing music without restrictions, then you can set your own price, since if Apple won't meet your price, then somebody else sure as hell will. Consumers win out too since they can get their music from dozens of sites and use them on dozens of their own devices. I doubt the amount of piracy would change significantly either since albums can be had right now on P2P, so what difference does it make if there is DRM or not?
I wonder how much quality would be possible if it were recoded down to a more manageable 3Gb or so but still in HD. That way you could fit them on a DVD. Won't be long before the market is flooded with DVD players that support HD AVC content playback.
What I mean is the speed signs all switched from mph to kmh overnight. Literally. The speed limits in the entire of the ROI legally went from imperial to metric at midnight and that was that. As it happened the limits were almost the same (but expressed in kmh to the nearest 10) so it wasn't too much of a shock. e.g. 30mph was replaced by 50kmh which is roughly 3mph more iirc but easy to manage. Distance signs may have been in Km for a longer but not the speeds.
There are some holdouts, but mostly for populist things like pints and miles, and even then canned beer is usually 500ml. Virtually everything in industry and commerce is all measured in metric and only metric.
...nobody here uses metric. Everything is in miles rather than kilometres such as all of our traffic signs for distance and speed and I don't know anyone who uses metres and centimetres for measurements - it's always feet and inches when buying anything in hardware stores for example.
Actually it's a mix. People talk in miles, stones, pints and inches (for certain body parts). But then they'll happily talk centimetres, metres, kilograms or litres for other things. As for hardware stores, it is almost entirely metric with just vestiges of imperial here and there. Everything from screws, nails, flooring, tiles, boards is all measured in metric. A short trip to an online DIY site such as www.screwfix.com would confirm that.
Certainly it's less metric than the rest of Europe, but not massively so. Anyway, Ireland demonstrates that the UK could convert to KM for road distances and speed without the collapse of civilization - the changeover happened virtually over night.
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But it's not just a gaming machine. It plays games, but people have bought it for playing Blu-Ray movies too. In fact videophile sites such as this rave about it. Whatever way you dice it, it is selling Blu-Ray discs and lots of them. As for TIVO, you're right it doesn't have a video input and it annoys me. I griped that the 360 didn't have an input and I griped that the PS3 doesn't either. But you can run Linux and MythTV and you can plug a USB TV adapter if you wish. So in fact you can use it as a PVR if you desire. It stinks that it doesn't do it out of the box, but it is doable.
You may correctly claim this is irrelevant to the mass majority but so what? If we're going to make comparisons to the TIVO, bear in mind that a TIVO series 3 costs MORE than a PS3. Is it entirely feasible that Sony could produce a USB dongle or a rev 2 that did include a PVR and still be cheaper than a TIVO with a machine that does so much more.
Absolutely, positively, INCORRECT. Sony did not SELL 1.8m PS3's...they SHIPPED 1.8 million PS3's. Many of them are sitting in stores, right next to the ones that were returned by many eBayers unopened because they eBay sales tanked. THEY ARE NOT SELLING. Period. End of story. Sitting there collecting dust. They are not coming in and going right out and then being restocked - they are just sitting there. You honestly are the first person I've seen with the balls to argue otherwise, because arguing anything but is like saying New Coke wasn't so bad.
Bollocks. Clearly they were sold and clearly Sony have manufactured and sold many thousands more since. Besides, MS claimed 10 million sold too, but guess what - they meant shipped as well and went through all kinds of verbal gymnastics to explain why sold meant shipped. Either way that's the only metric these companies have the ability to actually say with certainty. Just accept it and move on.
LOL, Sony has really sold you, haven't they? It's clear I'm having a discussion with a fan - for the record, I own neither an XBOX 360 nor a PS3. It's clear you understand the company line that Sony wants people to believe; problem is, just because they cross their fingers and wish real hard doesn't mean it's going to come true. You really believe all the hype, huh?
I don't own a PS3 or XBox 360 either so what's your point? I'm certainly interested in the PS3 but that's because I can see the potential for the system in all sorts of ways. It doesn't mean I'm going to queue up at midnight to get one though. Better to wait and see.
I don't think you truly understand what Sony has in mind for the PS3. It plays games sure, but it is also a very capable Blu-Ray / DVD / CD / SACD / MP3 / H264 / AAC / ATRAC player, and doubtless soon enough will do downloadable movies & IPTV. You might buy it for games (though some people obviously bought it as a cheap BD player), but Sony very much intend the thing to be a multimedia & entertainment center. They are also very much using the thing as a vector to increase their markets for HD TVs, Blu-Ray movies, downloadable content as much as they are for games. This is why it's a bit strange when people single it out for games. It means profits in all sorts of other ways for Sony.
The fact of the matter is that, yes, there are more Blu-Ray capable machines at the moment. But what is of question is how many of those machines is being used largely for watching films. By contrast, every single XBOX 360 add-on is exclusively for watching films, as MS has explicitly stated that no games will come out this generation that utilize the add-on. When you keep that in mind, the supposed install base numbers look much closer. Beyond that, it must be recognized how tiny the numbers we are talking about anyway - neither of them are signifigant at all at this point in terms of mass consumers.
Incorrect. The very fact that Blu-Ray sales are triple HD-DVD has very much to do with the fact that the PS3 contains a player built-in. It has very much to do with the fact that even some people bought the PS3 as a cheap Blu-Ray player and not just a console. Clearly the attach rate is higher for Blu-Ray or sales wouldn't have shot up so high. That people are not required to buy some monstrous strap on for their 360 to do it which in itself would put a lot of people off the idea.
The truth is, the format war is far from over. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are both going to remain niche formats for quite some time. Just because Sony shoe-horned a Blu-Ray player into the PS3 that most of their target audience would have bought anyway, does not a format war win. Especially since PS3's are rotting on the shelves (my local BB has signs up all over saying, "WE HAVE THEM!" and the signs are actually getting dusty they've been up for so long...), their impact over the life of the formats just may not be that signifigant.
Blu-Ray has uses outside of movies for consoles. For starters it makes games harder to pirate and distribute. Secondly it means games can contain more content, or more locales, or be more optimal for better gameplay. And by using Blu-Ray for games Sony lowers production and distribution costs for Blu-Ray movies since they are made on the same kit. Sure, the PS3 may have been able to scratch by without a Blu-Ray drive but next gen consoles really need the extra space anyway. 360 apologists might claim different but all those high def textures, polys, FMV have to fit somewhere. Either it goes on the disc(s), or you download it (i.e. screw you 360 Core owners), or you download it and pay for it (screw you all). Microsoft's own Blue Dragon game comes on 3 DVDs if you can imagine that. So while Sony obviously pushed for their own format, consoles really need it anyway.
The truth is, the format war is far from over. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are both going to remain niche formats for quite some time. Just because Sony shoe-horned a Blu-Ray player into the PS3 that most of their target audience would have bought anyway, does not a format war win. Especially since PS3's are rotting on the shelves (my local BB has signs up all over saying, "WE HAVE THEM!" and the signs are actually getting dusty they've been up for so long...), their impact over the life of the formats just may not be that signifigant.
People complain when Sony can't provide enough consoles. People complain when they can. You can't have it both ways. Besides I don't walk into a superm
Is the hologram on the DVD. That is pretty fucking cool! Otherwise... meh.
It is really hard to see how HD-DVD could possibly win in those circumstances.
Like I said, I reckon pragmatism alone suggests they'll win. Personally I couldn't give a crap about the formats since they're almost identicial, however since I intend to get a PS3 I would prefer if it was Blu-Ray for obvious reasons. My other remark was alluding to Sony's uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
I doubt it. Dual format players are just a way to cash-in on hesitant early adopters. Once Blu-Ray or HD-DVD wins there will be absolutely no point in perpetuating the life of the other format. As Blu-Ray looks increasingly likely to win, why waste money on a dual format player, especially when they are considerably more expensive?
They still could lose it (this is Sony we're talking about here). But at the end of the day they're dumping 100,000 PS3s into the market per week so pragmatism alone suggests they'd need to have a monstrous screw-up to lose at this point.
Yes, but incandescents are cheaper. People buy cheap things even if ultimately they have to buy another one in 4 months. I know its a false economy but that's the way things are. You could spend 10 million dollars promoting CFLs and the vast majority would still stay with what they have.
The only way you're ever going to make people change is by banning incandescents outright or slapping a tax on them. Probably the latter is more easier since it does not require you *force* people to change. They can still use incandescents if they want but you make it hurt them in the place they most care about - their wallet.
My impression of PC World is that it's more interested in selling you a warranty than giving sound advice on anything at all. That assumes that the shaven monkeys who were there would even be capable of sound advice to begin with. Sadly there are people too ignorant, or clueless who think they really do know what they're doing. There is even a PC repair shop if you can believe that charging an arm and a leg to remove spyware. That's how Gary Glitter got caught - by returning his computer complete with kiddie porn to a PC World. Smart move Gary.
The same reasons being most likely that by "supporting" MySQL or PostgreSQL they are effectively suffocating the companies who continue to develop of those databases and probably poaching a few sales too. Eventually those other companies might go down the tubes or at least suffer financially and Oracle can turn around and claim "see you can't trust open source, buy Oracle".
I wonder why MS doesn't try the same thing - push out Microsoft Linux, complete with a free Vista / Windows runtime included, support the thing until Red Hat or Novell go bust and then shitcan it. Naturally the proprietary layer sitting over Linux would not be open sourced.
The problem is that once an item is received, most people rate it instantly and then don't have any obvious way to revise their rating. They have no way to alert other buyers that the seller is suspect. And if they do detect a fraud, their negative is drowned by a sea of green because the fraudster knows most people rate the second they open their package.
EBay should provide the proper and direct tools for buyers to rapidly highlight fraud. You might claim that it's the user's responsibility to check the device, but the fraudsters rely on the wheels of Ebay grinding so slowly that more people are suckered before anybody notices. By the time you fill out some stupid form and wait 2 weeks in the resolution centre, hundreds or even thousands of others have bought into the same con. Some item categories should feature a second chance for the user to report an item. Buyers should be randomly surveyed about items. Certain categories should contain mandatory warnings, fraud information snippets and "report fraud" links tacked onto every sale. Buyers should be able to see the negative / neutral ratings in a single page for a "gist" of the negative issues. EBay could even buy items from suspect sellers and confirm for themselves. The fact is that memory card fraud is rampant and EBay could be doing more to stop it, yet they sit on their hands until it gets too much.
Go and search for "4gb memory stick" - I bet virtually every one of them will turn out to be a fake. I'm sure EBay knows this too.
The real question is.. WHAT DID YOU DO?
I waited three weeks for the item to ship and then reported it as undelivered. Between my ordering and that time, the account of the seller was suspended, but only after countless people had also purchased cards. As it happens my package actually did turn up but it was a forgery so I continued and finally won my dispute. I reckon the guy had a good 8 weeks over the busy Christmas period of sending nothing but fakes out and knowing most people wouldn't even check the product before rating it. The guy still had a 98.5% rating at the end.
Fact is that EBay could do more. They just choose not to.
Jesus that is a very scummy set of auctions. The worst part is that eBay could obviously tack big warnings to every auction in that category (with BLINK tags if necessary) indicating that the item in the picture is not what you're actually buying. Better yet, ban pictures from certain categories altogether.
Why does eBay not do more to snuff it out? They MUST KNOW that certain items (e.g. memory sticks) are virtually all fraudulent. They MUST BE ABLE to tack warnings onto such sales. I suspect they don't care much because they get a slice of every transaction including whatever is left in the paypal account when they finally suspend it. Their loss adjusters probably know that only a small percentage of people will ever pursue for a refund, so why try so hard to do anything about the problem when they're making money from it.
If eBay are really serious about fraud, they should be doing more than pay lip service to fix the issue, which includes being more proactive when fraud is suspected or likely and providing more accessible tools so the buyers can highlight issues faster.
That really depends on the business model of the store. Lots of stores will round up to .99 or 1 irrespective of tax being included or not. For example, the UK has two popular chains called Poundland and The 99p Store respectively, even though tax is included in prices. Conversely, a store like Tesco will charge you 19c (euro cents) for a tin of beans if that's what it costs.
My issue with tax is from experience in the US. I often buy something claiming to cost 1 dollar (or 99c), and in the end it costs me $1.09 or similar and since I don't know how much tax will add until it gets scanned. Since I don't know how much to have ready, I end up handing over dollar bills and get a pile of change in response. If the price included tax, there would be less need for so many coins in circulation simply because people would know up front how much they're about to pay for something.
The more rational solution is to phase out the standard size penny and issue a smaller penny. Smaller means less material, means it will cost less. The EU and UK do this for instance. I imagine lots of other nations do as well.
The UK 1p coin is larger than a US 1 cent coin and I imagine would be affected by the same material cost issues. If tax is out of the question, perhaps the better solution is just take the coin out of circulation and require people round up or down to the nearest 5 pence or cents.
Hmm, I expect you will be able to have Blu-Ray player for $400 by next Christmas. Even the PS3 is only $500 ("only" because of what else it does). Even iSupply estimated that the BD drive in the PS3 cost Sony $125. That was back at launch and now the production and supply shortages appear to have gone. I'd be surprised if it even cost Sony $100 now to slap them in the PS3. The price is continually dropping. Throw a case and hardware around a drive, factor in the margins and players for $300-400 is easily attainable.
Besides there appears to be nothing intrinsically more expensive about manufacturing a BD player over an HD-DVD player. The physical medium might differ, but use similar blue-laser technology and probably everything except the bit that moves the laser over the disc is analogous for both. If HD-DVD players can cost less, than so can Blu-Ray ones.
Alternatively, how about pricing things with tax included, so people aren't carrying around a bunch of loose change the whole time.
The PS3 decodes Blu-Ray (and DVD) content in firmware. Firmware is updateable. Any problems you may consider exist in the firmware are entirely solveable. I know of at least one thread that goes into great detail as to what Sony engineers are doing to improve the playback. And that includes supporting various scaling options.
Besides, the PS3 has sold approximately 1.5 million consoles since launch, which doesn't even include Europe where Blu-Ray and HD-DVD market penetration is virtually zero but will be 99%+ Blu-Ray come March. It doesn't take much to see that the writing is on the wall for HD-DVD unless something pretty spectactular happens for the format.
Third, Sony's balking at allowing prawn into the format (like they did for betamax), which is (IMHO) likely to deal them another severe blow. It seems like they have developed an unmatchable expertise at shooting themselves in the foot.
Google "Vivid and blu-ray". Seems some porn companies intend to put out discs in the format. Not that porn companies even care these days what format to back. Porn is content. Porn companies are content providers, and they don't care what pipeline you get it through as long as you get it.
By contrast Clearcase should be amazingly powerful, but it is just so demanding of hardware and so fragile to administer and use that I wonder why anybody bothers. Our company operates out of several offices, and each site needs to replicate the same source control databases because CC works terribly over a WAN. Which means every site has several clearcase admins, and their own set of servers and must constantly run replication servers to keep them all in sync. And the jobs fail on occasion, or merge errors happen and it's just all a big mess.
Any other source control system would work acceptably over a WAN meaning you only need one source control system (with perhaps a backup for failover) and that's it. Certainly you wouldn't need the enormous amount of hardware or admins required to keep CC going. Unless you're Boeing or somebody I would seriously suggest Subversion over it any day of the week.
Slightly off-topic, but CMVC was a lovely source control system (to use). I'd probably think it was antiquated if I used it today but 10 years ago it was extremely advanced and much better than even some systems today. The CMVC client was a bug system and source control system in one, meaning tight integration. Somebody would raise a bug and you would check files out against the bug and check them all in as a single discrete package. Much better than the "b=123456" hacks you have to do with comments on CVS or SVN or similar. Much, much, much better than that travesty known as Clearcase (+ Clearquest) which perversely probably killed CMVC when IBM bought Rational out.
Even if you consider that Europe includes tax in its prices and consider the ex VAT price, the cost of goods in Europe is far, far higher than the equivalent than in the US.
The moral here is that stores that encrypt music or tie them to a device suck. I really don't understand why music publishers want DRM at all. All that happens with lock-in is that somebody like Apple dominates the market and then the music industry is compelled to dance to their tune. If you level the playing field by publishing music without restrictions, then you can set your own price, since if Apple won't meet your price, then somebody else sure as hell will. Consumers win out too since they can get their music from dozens of sites and use them on dozens of their own devices. I doubt the amount of piracy would change significantly either since albums can be had right now on P2P, so what difference does it make if there is DRM or not?
I wonder how much quality would be possible if it were recoded down to a more manageable 3Gb or so but still in HD. That way you could fit them on a DVD. Won't be long before the market is flooded with DVD players that support HD AVC content playback.
What I mean is the speed signs all switched from mph to kmh overnight. Literally. The speed limits in the entire of the ROI legally went from imperial to metric at midnight and that was that. As it happened the limits were almost the same (but expressed in kmh to the nearest 10) so it wasn't too much of a shock. e.g. 30mph was replaced by 50kmh which is roughly 3mph more iirc but easy to manage. Distance signs may have been in Km for a longer but not the speeds.
There are some holdouts, but mostly for populist things like pints and miles, and even then canned beer is usually 500ml. Virtually everything in industry and commerce is all measured in metric and only metric.
Actually it's a mix. People talk in miles, stones, pints and inches (for certain body parts). But then they'll happily talk centimetres, metres, kilograms or litres for other things. As for hardware stores, it is almost entirely metric with just vestiges of imperial here and there. Everything from screws, nails, flooring, tiles, boards is all measured in metric. A short trip to an online DIY site such as www.screwfix.com would confirm that.
Certainly it's less metric than the rest of Europe, but not massively so. Anyway, Ireland demonstrates that the UK could convert to KM for road distances and speed without the collapse of civilization - the changeover happened virtually over night.