Really? I wasn't aware that things that are a pain to pirate (yes, you can use hacks and modchips to play your burnt disks and download them off of TPB just like you could a computer game), and actually work (just about) 100% of the time and are original is going to sell more then the movie you saw in the theaters 3 months ago with a terribly generic plot that you could have pirated 5 months ago before it was even released. Honestly, piracy is to blame, but mostly because its a pain to pirate video games and a pain to buy and use bought videos and music.
So wait... how does that prove your point if you can't even name the piece of hardware in question?
I could go around saying that *insert hardware here* doesn't work on Linux/Windows/BSD/OS X/Plan 9/DOS/etc. But honestly, if you can't even name the chipset in question how do we know you didn't just make this up to make MS look better?
My whole point is that the theory is wrong, and natural economic forces almost always trend toward monopolies, which will continue to gain more and more power.
Ummm... Wrong. Lets take an example: gas.
Company A has a large oil reserve, it takes the oil, refines it, and makes gas.
Company B has a smaller, but still large oil reserve, takes the oil, refines it, and makes gas.
Company C has an even smaller oil reserve that is running out to make gas.
So the most logical solution would be that company A buys out companies B and C giving it a monopoly, however, citizens don't like the high price of gas and make cars that run on something else other than gas, the monopoly dissolves as the new technology replaces them. Why doesn't this happen more often? Because there are patents. Take out patents and Ford, Chevy, Toyota, etc could all collaborate indirectly via reverse engineering and make a better electric car. So citizens buy those cars and they prosper, and it goes on and on. Yes, there might be very short term monopolies, but take out patents and copyrights and current monopolies would collapse in a very short amount of time and the lawyer problem to entry dissolves.
In the more general sense, just search for "monopolistic behavior" or "anti-competitive tactics" and you'll surely find no end to the listing of harm large competitors have tried doing to unfairly eliminate their smaller counterparts, which is only stopped by have a strong government that forbids such behaviors in the name of the public interest.
Name one major monopoly that hasn't been directly or indirectly caused by the government. Then go to places where there is either no, or very little patent enforcement and you will see much, much, less monopolies then here in the US or in Europe.
Ummm... Actually if everything was deregulated, monopolies would not form and we would have thriving capitalism. Unfortunately the Republicans won't abolish the hindrances such as patents, absurd copyright, etc. which leads to monopolies.
Oh, I'll take that bet. I'll have to collect via my wife's Vista install though, rather than Ubuntu 8.10, since 8 hours of Googling, modprobing and sudoing has been unable to breathe life into the generic USB wifi dongle that Vista just worked with.
What chipset is it? And you are sure that you tested this on a generic Vista install, meaning no third-party drivers whatsoever. You may have a point if its a Broadcom chipset, but just about anything else Linux will detect without fail and Windows requires messing around with drivers.
But, honestly, I'd rather the Linux "basic" driver to the third-party crapware that you have to install to get some printers working. Things that are so slow to do some things make the device (or Windows) totally unusable because of the slowness. It would be one thing if all the drivers were standardized and worked seamlessly but it seems like every device requires yet another crapware extension to use the software.
Re:Cue the "where are MY games" whining
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The Gym Arcade
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I'm still waiting for a "Story Arc Recap"-Feature for Games.
Most of the Tales games by Namco have that, at least Tales of Symphonia does and I think the GBA remake of Phantasia did too....
I will bet you just about any amount of money that the standard kernel for Vista doesn't detect that card. Yes, Windows has third-party drivers, but Windows relies on third-party drivers for everything, Linux does not.
Its no surprise that Linux supports more devices. Just look at various hardware devices that require third-party drivers and sometimes even third-party software to function on Windows.
Re:Cue the "where are MY games" whining
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The Gym Arcade
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· Score: 1
The reasons that most hardcore gamers don't like the "new age of games" include a lot of things. Number one, they have more disposable income to spend on games and less free-time and more stress. This isn't back when they were 10 and had to settle for 3 NES games for Christmas, 2 NES games for their birthdays, etc. So they want a lot more games, they also want them to be very intense, to take them off of the stress of the day, they don't want short games like a lot of the Wii games, they want good 50 hour + games. And those are dying with games that are either too simple (like Wii fit, etc), games that take too much time (like MMORPGs) or games that are too tedious (like some tactics games).
The problem is, if the alarm system fails, who do you blame? Its easy to say to the police/insurance agency "I had my alarm installed from *insert major alarm vendor here*, I set it but it failed or they disabled it" and they would believe you and care more about your case. If you said oh I bought my alarm from *insert minor DIY alarm vendor*, set it up myself and can control it from my iPhone, they will think its cool, but would blame the error on you and your case drops from near last priority to dead last.
a) What are you running it on? A P-133? If you'll remember, XP was pretty damned slow when it first came out. Slower, in fact, than Vista (comparatively speaking)
Actually, I'm comparing it from a laptop with a 1.6 Ghz Intel Core Duo CPU with 512 MB of RAM running the pre-installed Windows Home Basic. And comparing that with a live-CD running Ubuntu 8.04... Ubuntu running of of the CD is faster than Vista is from the Hard Disk, and Ubuntu running off of the HD is faster than Vista by far. And just so you know, this system runs no anti-virus so you can't use that as an excuse, just the fact that Vista is slow.
b) Like what? Are you talking about the "My Documents" to "Documents" transition? Like how XP moved your docs folder from C:\My Documents to %user%\ ?
No, but some of the settings, like Display is now renamed Personalization, etc. While that renaming is simply annoying for those who are mildly technically inclined, for those who aren't, it can make the OS unbearable.
c) Did you really expect Microsoft to not include DRM in Vista? They're in a pretty hard place; they have to bow to multiple governments demands as to what they can and cannot include in their OS. Not only that, but they'd get their arses sued off by the media companies, who would then release their own DRM stuff that would only bog Windows down even more.
Oh yes, I'm sure they sure can't just make a stand and say "DRM is evil" with all the billions of dollars they have, what else are the media companies going to do? Make it only playable on Macs which won't thrive if they have the majority marketshare? They sure aren't going to make it Linux only. So what else are they going to do?
Sure they would release their own DRM, but MS can make a point in saying that DRM is morally, and economically wrong.
Funnily enough, it's only Microsoft that's at the mercy of these organisations... I don't see Apple getting yelled at for including iChat, iMovie, iLife, Quicktime, GarageBand and iTunes with their OS. I also don't see nearly as many users bitching about the actual restrictive DRM in their OS as there are about the unintrusive (WGA notwithstanding) DRM in Vista.
Because it isn't easy to buy a non-MS computer. Go into any major retailer and about the only computers you will find running Linux are sub-par desktops and underpowered notebooks (netbooks), the rest is running restrictive Vista. With a Mac you know what you are getting and its easy to buy something that isn't OS X, on the other hand it isn't easy to buy a cheap computer with decent specs that isn't running Windows because MS has a virtual monopoly.
And I really don't consider being called a pirate for a purchased copy of Windows with the screen turning black every so often "non-intrusive". DRM by nature is intrusive.
Did you know that you pay more per chip in a bag of potato chips than you do per megabyte of RAM these days?
Think about that. Suck it up and buy some more RAM and enjoy Vista the way it was supposed to be used - XP ran like shit on less than 64MB of RAM, so why is Vista bashed for having the same comparative requirements?
Vista offers no more than XP it offers nothing other than DRM and more non-needed things. XP had a lot more than the previous version of home Windows, Windows ME. It offered the NT kernel, a new UI, etc. All that Vista has is DRM, and a newer UI, why should it take a ton more RAM? I don't see the point. The average consumer doesn't see the point, Heck, I don't think even MS sees the point and that is why Vista fails
I have another theory. MS, not wanting to waste time, money, people, and any other resource on developing something that may not do well in the market place, tests the waters to see if anyone actually wants the product. Maybe if they did that with Vista, they wouldn't have that train wreck.
Lets see why Vista was a train wreck: A) It ran pathetically slow B) It renamed things for no apparent reasons and C) It had too much DRM and other crap. I think that anyone could have told you that it wouldn't go over too well. It wasn't because of things developed that "wouldn't go over well in the marketplace" it was the idiot Ballmer trying to push his agenda that is killing MS over developing decent software.
Microsoft is a mature company in a mature industry. The days of investing a product and crossing your fingers that it will sell are long gone. They need to think like a car company now.
A mature industry?!?! You tell me that making OSes that crash every few hours and have to reboot all the time is part of a "mature industry"? And I'm not just talking about Windows, I'm talking also talking about a few of the flaws that OS X and Linux have too. To use your analogy its like having a car that stalls every hour or so, and when you have more than 3 people in it stalls more often, and if you have certain luggage in the back it stalls more often too. The OS industry is not mature it no longer is a monopoly with Linux and OS X becoming popular, but it sure isn't mature.
Why exactly is Apple worried about people making different browsers/media players for the iPhone/iPod touch? They already paid the ~$250 for Safari/iPod player so why does it matter if they want to use VLC instead and use Opera to browse? They bought the hardware. I could understand them rejecting such projects as an Amazon MP3 store or something, but media players and browsers? Come on Apple, we already gave you our $$$ for that.
"Free" and "easy to get" is relative - try traveling around the US on a frequent basis and it becomes neither free nor easy to get.
Lets see... last time I checked there were about 5 unsecured wireless routers in range, and there were a lot more last time I went into a major city.... Its both free and easy to get.
Upgrade your software. Seriously, if you're a business, you shouldn't be using Home versions of the software.
A) It wasn't business, I was doing it for a friend because I was the only mildly technically inclined person she knew, B) it wasn't my laptop (otherwise it would be running Ubuntu) and I wasn't really given much of a choice to use a different laptop but then again I didn't think that Windows would randomly restart (haven't been an admin of a Windows box for ~3 years, done some work for work on an XP box but wasn't admin and do a bit of VM with XP every now and then)
The HOME versions of XP and Vista (XP Home, Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium) do this automatically. Supposedly there's a way around it with some registry hacking, but I've never bothered. You get around 5 minutes from when the dialog pops up to hit the "Reboot later" button, which just silences it for another 5 minutes.
And who thought this to be a good idea? Seriously, if we need to patch Joe Sixpack's computer he is going to shut it down eventually and reboot it. But teaching users that computers just spontaneously reboot every now and then doesn't really help them when a virus that does the same thing infects their computers they think everything is normal, creating a bigger problem than unpatched installs.
And the dialog box wouldn't have helped me, it was fullscreen hooked up to a projector.
What would be smart for Windows to do is to not randomly reboot. For example, I was asked to run a PowerPoint presentation at a funeral. No problems there, except the laptop was running Vista, midway through the presentation the computer showed "Logging Off" and the computer rebooted. Naturally, there wasn't anything I could do about it, I rebooted the thing and it ran mostly smoothly the rest of the way, but seriously MS, by default don't reboot I don't care if its a patch that if not applied it can turn your computer into a script kiddy's toy, I care that my computer doesn't randomly shut down (but then again, I run Linux:))
Ok, fine, I should say "any decent developer can test and debug a game easily that is for a console" on the other hand, its impossible to test every single hardware configuration for a PC.
The main problem with PC gaming is the fact that it doesn't always work. Wheras if I buy a game for the Wii/PS3/360 I can be 100% guaranteed that it will work on my system. The most I might have to do is spend $20 for an extra controller. On the other hand, if I buy a PC game I have to worry about if I have enough RAM, graphics card capability, the right operating system, a fast enough 'Net connection, etc. For the average person, that just makes making a PC game a total hassle, not only that but the game's performance is not equal for everyone, unlike console gaming, plus, upgrades for console games are cheap, upgrades for PCs are quite expensive (not only the gear itself, but hiring someone to put it in, not everyone is computer literate). And don't get me started on DRM... PC gaming has many, many flaws, but being easily pirated isn't one of them.
No. This isn't about patents, its about Nintendo being like Apple and Doing Whats Best For You (TM). They don't think that anyone would dare exceed the 512 MB system memory of the Wii, nor would anyone even think of filling up a 2 GB SD card with downloaded content. Honestly, who cares about SDHC support when Nintendo has 2 perfectly good USB ports that could be used for flash drives (and again, have with homebrew)
The console is about as cheap as they get, and Nintendo put an incredible amount of research and effort into making the best games in the world. When do you folk feel a bit ethically obliged to let the company just make some money out of the good work they've done.
Nintendo makes about $50 on each Wii, compare that to MS and Sony who lose money whenever a 360 or PS3 is bought. Plus, most homebrewers are exactly that, homebrewers, this isn't a 1337 W@r3z h@ck either, its simply homebrew.
Thirdly Nintendo may not have deliberately broken the previous hacks anyway. All they did was release a new binary and the compiled code moved a bit in memory. I think a little too much credit may be being given here.
Ah, yes, because there was so much else in that update. Oh and never mind the fact that it searched for modified saves and deleted them, that's certainly not intentional.
Just look at the rise of "computer" classes in high schools that don't teach you more than Word and Excel. And even the highest level computer classes only might barely touch on HTML. This is no different.
For a lot of businesses, for $1,000 every three years, the $0 alternative better be really really equivalent, or even better
Ummm... So the business has 2 computers? To buy Office Pro it costs about $500 retail, and even with small business its $450. And even with buying the Home and Student version its still $150 retail (which you aren't supposed to be installing onto business machines according to MS). So either way, its more like $10,000 or more for any business that isn't being run in someone's basement.
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Really? I wasn't aware that things that are a pain to pirate (yes, you can use hacks and modchips to play your burnt disks and download them off of TPB just like you could a computer game), and actually work (just about) 100% of the time and are original is going to sell more then the movie you saw in the theaters 3 months ago with a terribly generic plot that you could have pirated 5 months ago before it was even released. Honestly, piracy is to blame, but mostly because its a pain to pirate video games and a pain to buy and use bought videos and music.
So wait... how does that prove your point if you can't even name the piece of hardware in question?
I could go around saying that *insert hardware here* doesn't work on Linux/Windows/BSD/OS X/Plan 9/DOS/etc. But honestly, if you can't even name the chipset in question how do we know you didn't just make this up to make MS look better?
My whole point is that the theory is wrong, and natural economic forces almost always trend toward monopolies, which will continue to gain more and more power.
Ummm... Wrong. Lets take an example: gas.
Company A has a large oil reserve, it takes the oil, refines it, and makes gas.
Company B has a smaller, but still large oil reserve, takes the oil, refines it, and makes gas.
Company C has an even smaller oil reserve that is running out to make gas.
So the most logical solution would be that company A buys out companies B and C giving it a monopoly, however, citizens don't like the high price of gas and make cars that run on something else other than gas, the monopoly dissolves as the new technology replaces them. Why doesn't this happen more often? Because there are patents. Take out patents and Ford, Chevy, Toyota, etc could all collaborate indirectly via reverse engineering and make a better electric car. So citizens buy those cars and they prosper, and it goes on and on. Yes, there might be very short term monopolies, but take out patents and copyrights and current monopolies would collapse in a very short amount of time and the lawyer problem to entry dissolves.
In the more general sense, just search for "monopolistic behavior" or "anti-competitive tactics" and you'll surely find no end to the listing of harm large competitors have tried doing to unfairly eliminate their smaller counterparts, which is only stopped by have a strong government that forbids such behaviors in the name of the public interest.
Name one major monopoly that hasn't been directly or indirectly caused by the government. Then go to places where there is either no, or very little patent enforcement and you will see much, much, less monopolies then here in the US or in Europe.
Ummm... Actually if everything was deregulated, monopolies would not form and we would have thriving capitalism. Unfortunately the Republicans won't abolish the hindrances such as patents, absurd copyright, etc. which leads to monopolies.
Oh, I'll take that bet. I'll have to collect via my wife's Vista install though, rather than Ubuntu 8.10, since 8 hours of Googling, modprobing and sudoing has been unable to breathe life into the generic USB wifi dongle that Vista just worked with.
What chipset is it? And you are sure that you tested this on a generic Vista install, meaning no third-party drivers whatsoever. You may have a point if its a Broadcom chipset, but just about anything else Linux will detect without fail and Windows requires messing around with drivers.
But, honestly, I'd rather the Linux "basic" driver to the third-party crapware that you have to install to get some printers working. Things that are so slow to do some things make the device (or Windows) totally unusable because of the slowness. It would be one thing if all the drivers were standardized and worked seamlessly but it seems like every device requires yet another crapware extension to use the software.
I'm still waiting for a "Story Arc Recap"-Feature for Games.
Most of the Tales games by Namco have that, at least Tales of Symphonia does and I think the GBA remake of Phantasia did too....
I will bet you just about any amount of money that the standard kernel for Vista doesn't detect that card. Yes, Windows has third-party drivers, but Windows relies on third-party drivers for everything, Linux does not.
Its no surprise that Linux supports more devices. Just look at various hardware devices that require third-party drivers and sometimes even third-party software to function on Windows.
The reasons that most hardcore gamers don't like the "new age of games" include a lot of things. Number one, they have more disposable income to spend on games and less free-time and more stress. This isn't back when they were 10 and had to settle for 3 NES games for Christmas, 2 NES games for their birthdays, etc. So they want a lot more games, they also want them to be very intense, to take them off of the stress of the day, they don't want short games like a lot of the Wii games, they want good 50 hour + games. And those are dying with games that are either too simple (like Wii fit, etc), games that take too much time (like MMORPGs) or games that are too tedious (like some tactics games).
The problem is, if the alarm system fails, who do you blame? Its easy to say to the police/insurance agency "I had my alarm installed from *insert major alarm vendor here*, I set it but it failed or they disabled it" and they would believe you and care more about your case. If you said oh I bought my alarm from *insert minor DIY alarm vendor*, set it up myself and can control it from my iPhone, they will think its cool, but would blame the error on you and your case drops from near last priority to dead last.
a) What are you running it on? A P-133? If you'll remember, XP was pretty damned slow when it first came out. Slower, in fact, than Vista (comparatively speaking)
Actually, I'm comparing it from a laptop with a 1.6 Ghz Intel Core Duo CPU with 512 MB of RAM running the pre-installed Windows Home Basic. And comparing that with a live-CD running Ubuntu 8.04... Ubuntu running of of the CD is faster than Vista is from the Hard Disk, and Ubuntu running off of the HD is faster than Vista by far. And just so you know, this system runs no anti-virus so you can't use that as an excuse, just the fact that Vista is slow.
b) Like what? Are you talking about the "My Documents" to "Documents" transition? Like how XP moved your docs folder from C:\My Documents to %user%\ ?
No, but some of the settings, like Display is now renamed Personalization, etc. While that renaming is simply annoying for those who are mildly technically inclined, for those who aren't, it can make the OS unbearable.
c) Did you really expect Microsoft to not include DRM in Vista? They're in a pretty hard place; they have to bow to multiple governments demands as to what they can and cannot include in their OS. Not only that, but they'd get their arses sued off by the media companies, who would then release their own DRM stuff that would only bog Windows down even more.
Oh yes, I'm sure they sure can't just make a stand and say "DRM is evil" with all the billions of dollars they have, what else are the media companies going to do? Make it only playable on Macs which won't thrive if they have the majority marketshare? They sure aren't going to make it Linux only. So what else are they going to do?
Sure they would release their own DRM, but MS can make a point in saying that DRM is morally, and economically wrong.
Funnily enough, it's only Microsoft that's at the mercy of these organisations... I don't see Apple getting yelled at for including iChat, iMovie, iLife, Quicktime, GarageBand and iTunes with their OS. I also don't see nearly as many users bitching about the actual restrictive DRM in their OS as there are about the unintrusive (WGA notwithstanding) DRM in Vista.
Because it isn't easy to buy a non-MS computer. Go into any major retailer and about the only computers you will find running Linux are sub-par desktops and underpowered notebooks (netbooks), the rest is running restrictive Vista. With a Mac you know what you are getting and its easy to buy something that isn't OS X, on the other hand it isn't easy to buy a cheap computer with decent specs that isn't running Windows because MS has a virtual monopoly.
And I really don't consider being called a pirate for a purchased copy of Windows with the screen turning black every so often "non-intrusive". DRM by nature is intrusive.
Did you know that you pay more per chip in a bag of potato chips than you do per megabyte of RAM these days? Think about that. Suck it up and buy some more RAM and enjoy Vista the way it was supposed to be used - XP ran like shit on less than 64MB of RAM, so why is Vista bashed for having the same comparative requirements?
Vista offers no more than XP it offers nothing other than DRM and more non-needed things. XP had a lot more than the previous version of home Windows, Windows ME. It offered the NT kernel, a new UI, etc. All that Vista has is DRM, and a newer UI, why should it take a ton more RAM? I don't see the point. The average consumer doesn't see the point, Heck, I don't think even MS sees the point and that is why Vista fails
I have another theory. MS, not wanting to waste time, money, people, and any other resource on developing something that may not do well in the market place, tests the waters to see if anyone actually wants the product. Maybe if they did that with Vista, they wouldn't have that train wreck.
Lets see why Vista was a train wreck: A) It ran pathetically slow B) It renamed things for no apparent reasons and C) It had too much DRM and other crap. I think that anyone could have told you that it wouldn't go over too well. It wasn't because of things developed that "wouldn't go over well in the marketplace" it was the idiot Ballmer trying to push his agenda that is killing MS over developing decent software.
Microsoft is a mature company in a mature industry. The days of investing a product and crossing your fingers that it will sell are long gone. They need to think like a car company now.
A mature industry?!?! You tell me that making OSes that crash every few hours and have to reboot all the time is part of a "mature industry"? And I'm not just talking about Windows, I'm talking also talking about a few of the flaws that OS X and Linux have too. To use your analogy its like having a car that stalls every hour or so, and when you have more than 3 people in it stalls more often, and if you have certain luggage in the back it stalls more often too. The OS industry is not mature it no longer is a monopoly with Linux and OS X becoming popular, but it sure isn't mature.
Why exactly is Apple worried about people making different browsers/media players for the iPhone/iPod touch? They already paid the ~$250 for Safari/iPod player so why does it matter if they want to use VLC instead and use Opera to browse? They bought the hardware. I could understand them rejecting such projects as an Amazon MP3 store or something, but media players and browsers? Come on Apple, we already gave you our $$$ for that.
"Free" and "easy to get" is relative - try traveling around the US on a frequent basis and it becomes neither free nor easy to get.
Lets see... last time I checked there were about 5 unsecured wireless routers in range, and there were a lot more last time I went into a major city.... Its both free and easy to get.
Upgrade your software. Seriously, if you're a business, you shouldn't be using Home versions of the software.
A) It wasn't business, I was doing it for a friend because I was the only mildly technically inclined person she knew, B) it wasn't my laptop (otherwise it would be running Ubuntu) and I wasn't really given much of a choice to use a different laptop but then again I didn't think that Windows would randomly restart (haven't been an admin of a Windows box for ~3 years, done some work for work on an XP box but wasn't admin and do a bit of VM with XP every now and then)
The HOME versions of XP and Vista (XP Home, Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium) do this automatically. Supposedly there's a way around it with some registry hacking, but I've never bothered. You get around 5 minutes from when the dialog pops up to hit the "Reboot later" button, which just silences it for another 5 minutes.
And who thought this to be a good idea? Seriously, if we need to patch Joe Sixpack's computer he is going to shut it down eventually and reboot it. But teaching users that computers just spontaneously reboot every now and then doesn't really help them when a virus that does the same thing infects their computers they think everything is normal, creating a bigger problem than unpatched installs.
And the dialog box wouldn't have helped me, it was fullscreen hooked up to a projector.
The intrepid can find this for themselves...
Well, unless this thing runs in WINE so I doubt those who are intrepid can find it for themselves...
(For those who are clueless and won't get the joke, Intrepid Ibex is the codename for Ubuntu 8.10)
What would be smart for Windows to do is to not randomly reboot. For example, I was asked to run a PowerPoint presentation at a funeral. No problems there, except the laptop was running Vista, midway through the presentation the computer showed "Logging Off" and the computer rebooted. Naturally, there wasn't anything I could do about it, I rebooted the thing and it ran mostly smoothly the rest of the way, but seriously MS, by default don't reboot I don't care if its a patch that if not applied it can turn your computer into a script kiddy's toy, I care that my computer doesn't randomly shut down (but then again, I run Linux :))
Ok, fine, I should say "any decent developer can test and debug a game easily that is for a console" on the other hand, its impossible to test every single hardware configuration for a PC.
The main problem with PC gaming is the fact that it doesn't always work. Wheras if I buy a game for the Wii/PS3/360 I can be 100% guaranteed that it will work on my system. The most I might have to do is spend $20 for an extra controller. On the other hand, if I buy a PC game I have to worry about if I have enough RAM, graphics card capability, the right operating system, a fast enough 'Net connection, etc. For the average person, that just makes making a PC game a total hassle, not only that but the game's performance is not equal for everyone, unlike console gaming, plus, upgrades for console games are cheap, upgrades for PCs are quite expensive (not only the gear itself, but hiring someone to put it in, not everyone is computer literate). And don't get me started on DRM... PC gaming has many, many flaws, but being easily pirated isn't one of them.
No. This isn't about patents, its about Nintendo being like Apple and Doing Whats Best For You (TM). They don't think that anyone would dare exceed the 512 MB system memory of the Wii, nor would anyone even think of filling up a 2 GB SD card with downloaded content. Honestly, who cares about SDHC support when Nintendo has 2 perfectly good USB ports that could be used for flash drives (and again, have with homebrew)
The console is about as cheap as they get, and Nintendo put an incredible amount of research and effort into making the best games in the world. When do you folk feel a bit ethically obliged to let the company just make some money out of the good work they've done.
Nintendo makes about $50 on each Wii, compare that to MS and Sony who lose money whenever a 360 or PS3 is bought. Plus, most homebrewers are exactly that, homebrewers, this isn't a 1337 W@r3z h@ck either, its simply homebrew.
Thirdly Nintendo may not have deliberately broken the previous hacks anyway. All they did was release a new binary and the compiled code moved a bit in memory. I think a little too much credit may be being given here.
Ah, yes, because there was so much else in that update. Oh and never mind the fact that it searched for modified saves and deleted them, that's certainly not intentional.
Just look at the rise of "computer" classes in high schools that don't teach you more than Word and Excel. And even the highest level computer classes only might barely touch on HTML. This is no different.
This is good in a way similar to the iPhone Safari attacks, while it is bad as any security flaw is, this might pave a way for unlocking, etc.
For a lot of businesses, for $1,000 every three years, the $0 alternative better be really really equivalent, or even better
Ummm... So the business has 2 computers? To buy Office Pro it costs about $500 retail, and even with small business its $450. And even with buying the Home and Student version its still $150 retail (which you aren't supposed to be installing onto business machines according to MS). So either way, its more like $10,000 or more for any business that isn't being run in someone's basement.