Until science _disproves_ something, that thing should not be discounted as a possibility. That includes God, goblins, and pink dinosaurs under the ocean floor.
You can't disprove a negative. All you can do is exhaustively apply tests which should detect the phenomena that some people claim (without evidence of the phenomena to back it up). If the result is repeatedly negative, it may as well not exist. It is not reasonable to continuously look for something for which there is no evidence that it exists in the first place.
The Netgears of this world should ship their devices secure by default. The device should be set up to use encryption by default, using a random key (printed on the unit underside and a slip of paper) and the appropriate instructions to let the user figure the rest out.
It can't be hard to do and with the appropriate marketing might shift a few more devices.
It's easy to enforce. Someone does a spot of wardriving. Once they find an unprotected wireless network, they triangulate to where its coming from and then issue the appropriate fine.
I guess the issue isn't what widget set you use, but the fact that you have two stacks underpinning both of them with little sharing of libraries or settings. When KDE & GNOME learn to play nice and share the same settings, desktop files, theme engine, and behaviour is the day that Linux move on from pointless widget wars (that no end user cares anything about) and focus on delivering a high quality desktop.
Even if they licenced to 2002 and had ported the entire API - a big if - that doesn't permit them or their users to benefit from anything that has occured since. That probably includes.NET 1.1 and DirectX9. Obviously as time goes on, the gulf gets wider. Then Apple is faced with the ineviable position of coming back to Microsoft on their knees begging to remain compatible with all the latest games & apps which by design or accident no longer work on their port.
It can't end well for Apple. They are doomed to follow in the footsteps of OS/2 if they follow the route of poorly supporting Windows, even through a licenced API. You may recall that OS/2 was far superior to Windows 3.1 for all the good it did it.
Unless Apple have licenced the entire of Windows from Microsoft, there is no way in hell they could implement the Win32 API to such a degree and expect it to work. Especially for Apple users. Just look at WINE for reasons why this is true. WIN32 is too complicated and constantly moving. Documentation is poor or non-existent for large parts of it. Parts like the embedded browser control, DirectX and the.NET runtimes are NON-TRIVIAL to put it mildly.
Even if they licenced a version of WINE from Codeweavers, Transgaming or whomever, it still wouldn't offer complete compatibility. It might be enough to get games going, but anymore than that is pot luck.
So the suggestion that they can just implement Win32 is absurd. Perhaps they have some kind of virtualization trick up their sleeve because that's the only way I can see it working.
The same will be true from going between PS3s cell and whatever the 360 has. Everything will have to be rewritten, all graphics will have to be redone, isn't the PS3 miles ahead of the 360 as well? I am just trying to make the point that cheap dev kits are going to make game development cheaper which will then allow many more games to be made for the Revolution.
I don't think this will be the case. While it may be true if you hit the platform APIs directly, you can just bet your boots most studios don't do that. They'll go through an abstraction layer that ensures 90% of the code and probably most of the sound, textures, models are shared. Certainly each system is different in the details but broadly they are the same. It's akin to writing software that runs on OS X, XP and Linux. It looks daunting because all three operating systems are totally different but with the aid of wxWidgets or QT (or SDL if its a game), then it's not so bad. Abstraction implies some performance loss but like most software development, that you write the game first and then focus on optimising it.
What matters is that if you look at the specs of the XBox 360 & PS3, they are fairly comparable. For example, both systems have 512Mb. Both systems support multi-core processors. Both systems support unfeasibly large numbers of polygons. Both systems have comparable controllers. Both systems support high resolution TVs. With an abstraction layer porting is straightforward.
The Revolution is just too different. It supposedly has 88Mb which immediately means you have less than a fifth the memory to work with. It's single core, the processor speed is far slow, it doesn't support HD and its controller is totally different than the other systems. The controller is going to be a hellish problem for games makers. It's great if you're Nintendo producing a unique title just for your console that exploits the controller. It's not great if you're trying to port a game that needs more buttons. Some PSP games (e.g. GTA) employ very clunky button combos because of lack of buttons. Now imagine the situation being even worse for the Revolution. Games makers may have to list a conventional controller as a requirement to play the game which restricts sales.
I speculated that the Revolution might end up on the same tier as existing PS2 / XBox / GC development. I suspect that's how many games companies will approach the platform. At the moment that seems fine, but the titles are just going to dry up in the next few years. It also means that the Revolution will suffer from lazy portitis where you get the same crappy PS2 / XBox experience on your new console.
I know it wasn't written by god, you know it wasn't written by god. More like a bunch of guys infected by a particularly bad meme. But fundamentalists believe it is the word of god, and go to great lengths to assert that the Garden of Eden, Noah's ark etc. are literally true. Once you're that far gone, then you should be believing and following the bible to the letter.
Conversely if you're just a casual Christian who picks and chooses what to believe, why believe any of it at all? If you think of it as a good source of moral tenets, then why not toss all the other garbage out and lead a decent life without trying to justify yourself to a book written by tribesmen.
Personally I think most evangelicals are just on a power trip. The bible is just their way to assert their alleged moral superiority over others. Others being blacks, Jews, Muslims, homosexuals - basically anyone who might not conform to their silly belief set.
If the XBox did ship an HD-DVD version it would do much to level the pitch again. Though Blu-ray would probably still win out. Perhaps Microsoft knows this and will hum and haw until it's all over for HD-DVD. Of course they could go the other way and spoil the PS3 launch with a revamped XBox 360 which includes an HD-DVD drive amongst other things.
I think the "failure" of UMD (although it's still recoverable) is that Sony decided to sell these things at full price. As in FULL PRICE. In Europe that meant 25 up. I have yet to see a UMD which wasn't significantly more expensive than the same DVD, in the same store, often in the bargain bin. You'd have to be insane to buy a UMD in that climate. You can't apply the same model as DVD for something which people are only likely to watch a handful of times.
Sony still have a chance to retrieve the situation. Either reduce UMDs to a sensible price, e.g. 10. Or kill the format and entirely sell movies, e.g. through an online store. For extra points, they'd produce something akin to iTunes for the purpose and allow users manage their downloads and rip their own movies too. Of course, that assumes Sony has sense which is a highly debateable point.
I've watched DVDs on my PS2. In fact I have a PS2 hooked up to a secondary TV set in my house expressly for the purpose of playing games and watching the odd movie. For six months I even took it with me on a contract with a portable TV and used if for both purposes. Playback quality is quite acceptable, although the lack of region free is a huge pain in the arse. I haven't even bothered with the remote for the thing - the controller does a passable job.
I wouldn't have any problem whatsoever using the PS3 in a similar way, assuming I had a reason to buy a Bluray player which I don't. In fact I don't see any reason I would wish to play HD-DVD or Bluray even if I had an HD tv. Upsampled DVDs would be perfectly acceptable for most purposes. I do think that Bluray is going to win out eventually.
I should add I've also watched movies on my PSP. Most weeks see me stuck on a train for a 3 journey. I've ripped a few movies onto PSP for such occasions. Got to do something with it...
The problem is that you can't pick and choose what you want to follow. There is no maybe about it. If the bible says do something you do it, or you're disobeying the word of god. It's all or nothing affair even if it means performing multiple nonsense and possibly contradictory practices at once. If the bible says no shaving of beards then it's no shaving of beards or you are not following the word of god. No ifs or buts.
For the Falwells of the world to focus on one thing and ignore the others exposes them for the venomous bigots and hypocrites that they are. The bible is merely a crutch to support their own deep seated intolerance.
Yeah, but ports are the only way you can hope to bulk up your games catalogue. Unless EA et al port their best selling titles to the Revolution, the lineup for that platform is going to look measly. At least the GC had the luxury of having roughly comparable performance to the PS2 & XBox to ease porting and lower costs of doing so. Now, the Revolution is miles behind the other next-gen platforms. You're not talking ports but complete rewrites.
The other alternative is that the Revolution will get its ports in the other direction - from the GC, PS2, XBox lineup. That's a possibility but only so long as those markets get the new releases which is slowly going to change over time.
Yeah, I guess I should ignore any commentary by people who have actually had a chance to use it. I hope you don't take all exaggerated advertisements as literally as the initial teaser video.
Does the ad say "this is exaggerated for effect"? Nope. Then I think I will continue to expect the controller to work much as was shown. Though perhaps you think everyone is going to be waving their warrior with gay little wrist movements? That's surely a stunning controller.
Please think before you make ridiculous comments like that. If you have some kind of grudge against Nintendo that's fine.
Oh yes it must be a grudge. Why else point out such a very obvious issue with the controller? Perhaps you're a fan boy yourself? I know it can be easy to get overly defensive in such a situation.
You can express that easily in other ways. If not, do a little research before ranting about black eyes and broken vases. It's laughable.
It's not laughable. It's extremely obvious. This thing is an accident waiting to happen and when it does someone like the Lancet will pick up on it. It's not the first time they've done such stories as you could easily confirm yourself with a google for "playstation lancet".
Tell that to an excitable kid after he smacks his sister in the mouth while playing a game. My crystal ball says you'll see lawsuits a few years from now over accidents caused by this.
Personally I think it would be cool to wave your arms like a lunatic for some games, but it's an inevitability that this system will cause injuries.
I'm not sure how you got modded insightful for spreading misinformation. I'd love to see where you got the notion that the rev controller will require more than slight hand rotation and movement.
Duh, from Nintendo's own teaser. If you can't see how badly this could end then you're not watching very carefully. The outtakes for the teaser could easily have contained strained wrists, dislocated shoulders, black eyes, smashed bulbs, broken vases and all kinds of accidents resulting from the flinging of arms around in a confined space.
The point is that the PS3 & XBox 360 are fairly comparable. Similar controllers, same screen resolutions, ability to dump out large numbers of polygons. Porting a game from a PS3 to an XBox 360 or vice versa will be a relatively straightforward affair. You can programme to the lowest common denominator (of the two) and your game would still look good on the other. There may be differences and things unique to each system that you want to exploit but on the whole, they're similar enough that there is no great shakes moving from one to the other.
The same is mostly true for the current generation. The Gamecube, PS2 & XBox have roughly comparable performance to allow porting. There are differences (e.g. PS2 ports sometimes need a squeeze to fit), but the similarities probably allow you to share a substantial amount of the code and graphics.
Not so for the Revolution. It's so dissimilar with the PS3 and XBox 360 that any game maker will be forced to compromise in all kinds of ways to get their game to fit - graphical detail, the game engine, the controller system will all be massive headaches for developers. Even 3D models and textures may have to be redone. Just read the developer's diaries that go with PS2 to PSP ports and read their problems and you'll the problems in store for the Revolution.
But the Revolution contoller is about immersion as much as it is about enjoyment. Instead of sending an instruction to your character to swing the sword (passive second person) you actually move your arm to swing the sword (active first person), which will make people much more interested if they actually play the game instead of watch it.
Which is great, but I suspect that a few years down the line you will a Lancet study on a whole slew of Revolution related injuries - RSI, bruises and fractures etc. - caused by a system that requires someone to wave a controller around, possibly quite forcefully.
The controller is so weird that combined with the lower specs in the machine, games makers are going to have a hell of a job to port their games over to the platform. Nintendo may find themselves one of only a handful of makers who even bother.
How about the fact that they spend more time trying to prevent people from playing emulators and other cool shit on the PSP than they do making games worth a crap?
How is that any different from any other console ever? Personally I want to see Sony release Linux on a UMD and let the homebrew people have at it. They can produce cool shit that runs from memory stick via the Linux without stepping on the toes of the games makers.
What about the fact that in America you can't purchase the PSP with out spending $250 and that's with out getting a game.
It's a high price but the hardware is far superior to the DS. You're basically getting a wireless video / audio player and games console.
Where are the games? There are like 3 that I find great tops. (Lumines, wipeout and GTA).
The PSP lineup is filled with mostly mediocre games but it is not for lack of hardware. As you say, games like GTA demonstrate the platform has legs. I wouldn't say the situation is any better or worse than the DS though. Still, there is evidence that the lineup is getting somewhat better with some great games like Pursuit Force & Syphon Filter recently appearing. The problem with games thus far is that most titles have been cut-down console ports. Slowly the clue is sinking in that this doesn't work.
BTW Surfing on the PSP pretty much sucks. I know the DS browser will cost money but that's partly because it'll be a better browser (Opera) and it also comes with a GBA cart that will be used for extra Memory to make surfing better (Yeah I know the DS doesn't have much onboard, but shit the PSP doesn't have nearly enough either.. Hit a few sites and you'll be running out of memory like crazy)
Just because it's Opera doesn't mean its any good. Surfing on any small device whether you have a touchscreen or not pretty much sucks. Surfing on my iPaq sucks through IE, NetFront or even MiniMo. Even when I have a stylus to click on links. It's the formfactor and the lack of keyboard, and there is nothing you can do about it. Even if the DS stuck up a virtual keyboard (same as my iPaq), it would still be a pain in the butt to use. I don't even know what kind of browser the PSP uses but I suspect from the presence of just-fit / smart-fit modes that it would be a licenced version of NetFront.
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You can't disprove a negative. All you can do is exhaustively apply tests which should detect the phenomena that some people claim (without evidence of the phenomena to back it up). If the result is repeatedly negative, it may as well not exist. It is not reasonable to continuously look for something for which there is no evidence that it exists in the first place.
If it's a desktop replacement, why not just buy an iMac and save yourself half the money?
They could afford to subsidize a substantial part of the machine and still make their money back when they're charging that much.
It can't be hard to do and with the appropriate marketing might shift a few more devices.
It's easy to enforce. Someone does a spot of wardriving. Once they find an unprotected wireless network, they triangulate to where its coming from and then issue the appropriate fine.
I guess the issue isn't what widget set you use, but the fact that you have two stacks underpinning both of them with little sharing of libraries or settings. When KDE & GNOME learn to play nice and share the same settings, desktop files, theme engine, and behaviour is the day that Linux move on from pointless widget wars (that no end user cares anything about) and focus on delivering a high quality desktop.
It can't end well for Apple. They are doomed to follow in the footsteps of OS/2 if they follow the route of poorly supporting Windows, even through a licenced API. You may recall that OS/2 was far superior to Windows 3.1 for all the good it did it.
Even if they licenced a version of WINE from Codeweavers, Transgaming or whomever, it still wouldn't offer complete compatibility. It might be enough to get games going, but anymore than that is pot luck.
So the suggestion that they can just implement Win32 is absurd. Perhaps they have some kind of virtualization trick up their sleeve because that's the only way I can see it working.
Exactly. But frankly I wonder why anyone would pay $250 to watch that old trout writhe around on stage.
This is greed, pure and simple.
I don't think this will be the case. While it may be true if you hit the platform APIs directly, you can just bet your boots most studios don't do that. They'll go through an abstraction layer that ensures 90% of the code and probably most of the sound, textures, models are shared. Certainly each system is different in the details but broadly they are the same. It's akin to writing software that runs on OS X, XP and Linux. It looks daunting because all three operating systems are totally different but with the aid of wxWidgets or QT (or SDL if its a game), then it's not so bad. Abstraction implies some performance loss but like most software development, that you write the game first and then focus on optimising it.
What matters is that if you look at the specs of the XBox 360 & PS3, they are fairly comparable. For example, both systems have 512Mb. Both systems support multi-core processors. Both systems support unfeasibly large numbers of polygons. Both systems have comparable controllers. Both systems support high resolution TVs. With an abstraction layer porting is straightforward.
The Revolution is just too different. It supposedly has 88Mb which immediately means you have less than a fifth the memory to work with. It's single core, the processor speed is far slow, it doesn't support HD and its controller is totally different than the other systems. The controller is going to be a hellish problem for games makers. It's great if you're Nintendo producing a unique title just for your console that exploits the controller. It's not great if you're trying to port a game that needs more buttons. Some PSP games (e.g. GTA) employ very clunky button combos because of lack of buttons. Now imagine the situation being even worse for the Revolution. Games makers may have to list a conventional controller as a requirement to play the game which restricts sales.
I speculated that the Revolution might end up on the same tier as existing PS2 / XBox / GC development. I suspect that's how many games companies will approach the platform. At the moment that seems fine, but the titles are just going to dry up in the next few years. It also means that the Revolution will suffer from lazy portitis where you get the same crappy PS2 / XBox experience on your new console.
Conversely if you're just a casual Christian who picks and chooses what to believe, why believe any of it at all? If you think of it as a good source of moral tenets, then why not toss all the other garbage out and lead a decent life without trying to justify yourself to a book written by tribesmen.
Personally I think most evangelicals are just on a power trip. The bible is just their way to assert their alleged moral superiority over others. Others being blacks, Jews, Muslims, homosexuals - basically anyone who might not conform to their silly belief set.
If the XBox did ship an HD-DVD version it would do much to level the pitch again. Though Blu-ray would probably still win out. Perhaps Microsoft knows this and will hum and haw until it's all over for HD-DVD. Of course they could go the other way and spoil the PS3 launch with a revamped XBox 360 which includes an HD-DVD drive amongst other things.
Sony still have a chance to retrieve the situation. Either reduce UMDs to a sensible price, e.g. 10. Or kill the format and entirely sell movies, e.g. through an online store. For extra points, they'd produce something akin to iTunes for the purpose and allow users manage their downloads and rip their own movies too. Of course, that assumes Sony has sense which is a highly debateable point.
I wouldn't have any problem whatsoever using the PS3 in a similar way, assuming I had a reason to buy a Bluray player which I don't. In fact I don't see any reason I would wish to play HD-DVD or Bluray even if I had an HD tv. Upsampled DVDs would be perfectly acceptable for most purposes. I do think that Bluray is going to win out eventually.
I should add I've also watched movies on my PSP. Most weeks see me stuck on a train for a 3 journey. I've ripped a few movies onto PSP for such occasions. Got to do something with it...
For the Falwells of the world to focus on one thing and ignore the others exposes them for the venomous bigots and hypocrites that they are. The bible is merely a crutch to support their own deep seated intolerance.
The other alternative is that the Revolution will get its ports in the other direction - from the GC, PS2, XBox lineup. That's a possibility but only so long as those markets get the new releases which is slowly going to change over time.
Does the ad say "this is exaggerated for effect"? Nope. Then I think I will continue to expect the controller to work much as was shown. Though perhaps you think everyone is going to be waving their warrior with gay little wrist movements? That's surely a stunning controller.
Please think before you make ridiculous comments like that. If you have some kind of grudge against Nintendo that's fine.
Oh yes it must be a grudge. Why else point out such a very obvious issue with the controller? Perhaps you're a fan boy yourself? I know it can be easy to get overly defensive in such a situation.
You can express that easily in other ways. If not, do a little research before ranting about black eyes and broken vases. It's laughable.
It's not laughable. It's extremely obvious. This thing is an accident waiting to happen and when it does someone like the Lancet will pick up on it. It's not the first time they've done such stories as you could easily confirm yourself with a google for "playstation lancet".
Personally I think it would be cool to wave your arms like a lunatic for some games, but it's an inevitability that this system will cause injuries.
Duh, from Nintendo's own teaser. If you can't see how badly this could end then you're not watching very carefully. The outtakes for the teaser could easily have contained strained wrists, dislocated shoulders, black eyes, smashed bulbs, broken vases and all kinds of accidents resulting from the flinging of arms around in a confined space.
The same is mostly true for the current generation. The Gamecube, PS2 & XBox have roughly comparable performance to allow porting. There are differences (e.g. PS2 ports sometimes need a squeeze to fit), but the similarities probably allow you to share a substantial amount of the code and graphics.
Not so for the Revolution. It's so dissimilar with the PS3 and XBox 360 that any game maker will be forced to compromise in all kinds of ways to get their game to fit - graphical detail, the game engine, the controller system will all be massive headaches for developers. Even 3D models and textures may have to be redone. Just read the developer's diaries that go with PS2 to PSP ports and read their problems and you'll the problems in store for the Revolution.
That is the challenge.
Which is great, but I suspect that a few years down the line you will a Lancet study on a whole slew of Revolution related injuries - RSI, bruises and fractures etc. - caused by a system that requires someone to wave a controller around, possibly quite forcefully.
The controller is so weird that combined with the lower specs in the machine, games makers are going to have a hell of a job to port their games over to the platform. Nintendo may find themselves one of only a handful of makers who even bother.
You'd have a point if people walked around with one, and possibly more barcodes visible upon their person.
How is that any different from any other console ever? Personally I want to see Sony release Linux on a UMD and let the homebrew people have at it. They can produce cool shit that runs from memory stick via the Linux without stepping on the toes of the games makers.
What about the fact that in America you can't purchase the PSP with out spending $250 and that's with out getting a game.
It's a high price but the hardware is far superior to the DS. You're basically getting a wireless video / audio player and games console.
Where are the games? There are like 3 that I find great tops. (Lumines, wipeout and GTA).
The PSP lineup is filled with mostly mediocre games but it is not for lack of hardware. As you say, games like GTA demonstrate the platform has legs. I wouldn't say the situation is any better or worse than the DS though. Still, there is evidence that the lineup is getting somewhat better with some great games like Pursuit Force & Syphon Filter recently appearing. The problem with games thus far is that most titles have been cut-down console ports. Slowly the clue is sinking in that this doesn't work.
BTW Surfing on the PSP pretty much sucks. I know the DS browser will cost money but that's partly because it'll be a better browser (Opera) and it also comes with a GBA cart that will be used for extra Memory to make surfing better (Yeah I know the DS doesn't have much onboard, but shit the PSP doesn't have nearly enough either.. Hit a few sites and you'll be running out of memory like crazy)
Just because it's Opera doesn't mean its any good. Surfing on any small device whether you have a touchscreen or not pretty much sucks. Surfing on my iPaq sucks through IE, NetFront or even MiniMo. Even when I have a stylus to click on links. It's the formfactor and the lack of keyboard, and there is nothing you can do about it. Even if the DS stuck up a virtual keyboard (same as my iPaq), it would still be a pain in the butt to use. I don't even know what kind of browser the PSP uses but I suspect from the presence of just-fit / smart-fit modes that it would be a licenced version of NetFront.