I saw those pictures the other day. The system looks very cool, but I'm a bit worried because it looks like the second processor has NO memory, and that's it's all on processor 0. While the second processor can use that memory (of course because it's an NUMA system), I'm worried about how much of an impact that would have on performance. I would think that having each processor have one channel of memory (if possible) would have much better performance than give one processor two channels and the other none.
Can anyone shed any light as to how this might perform?
Either way it's a cool achievement, and the little "fin" on top is a wifi antenna, which is cool.
Wouldn't it be interesting, though, if the next-gen consoles determined what new DVD standard won out? Video games defining movie's media.
It's possible. If every PS3 and GC2/N-Sider/Whatever (Usually the code names are cooler (Dolphin), but oh well) could also play Blu-Ray disks, that would be a MAJOR boost. It would mean production facilites for both the drives and disks (drive costs down, provide volume needed to satisfy demand of some movie releases), and provide players for the format in MANY homes. This would mean that HD-DVD (or anything else someone comes up with) would be up against a formidable barrier to mass adoption.
I agree. The biggest problem with multiplayer on the GameBoy was needing two cartridges. For practical purposes this usually limited you to Tetris.
The GBA and it's remote boot fixed that by letting you play with one cartridge (although you were limited by the GBAs memory). The DS is supposed to keep this feature. This means the new biggest problem is the cable.
The cables are unsightly, you have to carry one around, and they are "short". Sure they may be long, but in practice (like two people in a car or on a plane, one sitting in front of the other) the cable can seem short and get in the way. I've never played 3 or 4 player games, but I would imagine that it only gets worse.
The wireless is fantastic though. Not only do you not need to fuss with the cable, but they could do 8 player, or 16 player, or more! Imagine if you got enough people with a football game, you could have one person play each player on the field! Or do something similar with many other sports. There are many cool things that this opens up; and if it's WiFi/Bluetooth that could mean internet play too.
There are other little bonuses too. Bluetooth has a standard printer protocall (if I understand correctly) to allow cell phones and PDAs and such to print things easily. Think of just walking up your DS to a printer, pressing a button, and having your highscore table printed out, or the sections of the map you know in Metroid, or something like that. Add in that you could take a picture on a cellphone and Bluetooth it to the GBA to put you in the game. This plus the touch screen means the best Mario Paint game ever could be made. Real drawing, printing, saving (move files over BT), internet sharing (BT or WiFi), putting your picture in, etc.
The DS (and WiFi and BT) open up tons of cool opertunities. The tech demos that were shown and such are just the tip of the ice burg.
I really hope so. The backwards compatability really helped the PS2 (IMO), and I think it would really help the GC2 (or whatever) when it comes out. I'm pretty sure Sony is going to have backward compatability, but MS seems to be waffeling on the issue (which could end-up to their detriment).
As for the mini-disc, while I think they may move off to a different format for the increased storage space (dual layer DVD, maybe blue-laser based DVD), I think that at this point the DVD player aspect of a console is worthless. When the current generation started, a DVD player was $150+. So a $300 PS2 could be thought of a $150+ DVD player plus a $150+ PS1 plus a PS2 so it was a deal. I used my PS2 to watch DVDs for 3 years. But at this point most people who want a DVD player have one, and I doubt that they are going to buy a console simply because it has DVD functionality. You can now buy decent DVD players for $40 or under, so I don't think the ability to play DVDs is a selling point any more.
Now if it plays HD-DVDs (or whatever comes after the DVD), that would be a different story. Sony might do this by using Blue-Ray (their DVD replacement) in the PS3 (my speculation).
Nintendo had a bit of a problem because by the time it was launched the PS2 was already huge. There were almost certanly people who if they came out much closer whould have gone with a 'cube. But they launched later.
As for the Dreamcast, it launched a year+ early. It wasn't a "next-gen" system so much as a system inbetween generations. It was launched TOO early. If the DC had been released 3-6 months before the PS2, I bet it would have done better. I think it would have still died due to other factors, but it would have done better than it did.
And this is what Nintendo is trying to do. They want to launch about 6 months before the PS3. They will get a head start, but won't be seen as an inbetween generation.
As for the games, they did a decent job with the GBA launch, a good job with the GC launch. We've learned that more good games at launch means a better system, so the companies understand that. The PSP is supposed to launch with a bunch of games, not that "here is 3, and few care about the other two" that the N64 saw. Few games hurt Nintendo in the N64 days, I think they've learned their lesson. I also think that $150 or $200 would be a perfect price point to launch at, especially with Sony probably going near $250 or $300 with the PS3.
What I've heard says that it will be March/April/May of '05, aka Spring. The price, yeah it's not cheap. As for the size, it's supposed to be just a little bigger than a standard GBA. It's no GameGear, which would be a major mistake.
As for the this being the next Nintendo vs. Sega, I think that the PSP is targeted much more at hardcore gamers, while the GBA is the system for everyone (including little kids). I think there is room for both of them.
The DS really interests me though. First it includes networking built in (I think it's WiFi but I'm not sure) so that is taken care of. As for networking on the 'cube, I understand their lack of support, there isn't too much of a reason for it right now. For SOOO many games the online bit just feels "tacked on", so I can understand their hesitation.
But the DS isn't in it's final form factor. I can't wait to see what it ends up looking like. I kind of like the way it looks now, it's kinda retro in how similar it is to the old Game & Watch games.
Last of all, as for PSP media being used in the PS3, I seriously doubt it. I don't know if it would be possible to make a drive that would read both, but I'd put up a large sum of money saying that the PS3 will use Blue-Ray discs.
I think it's sad. It's too bad that Eisner has run the company into the ground. Too bad we can't bring back Walt. I really lament that they are dumping 2D drawn by hand. It may be expensive, but there is a quality there that you just can't match. Disney had a string of great movies when I was a kid. Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, etc. Then they started churing out sequels and direct-to-video sequels and cheesy stuff and things that make you wonder what they were smoking (The Country Bears). The Lion King came out in '94, Eisner came in in '95. Pocahontas came out in '95 and Disney hasn't had a major hit since (with the exception of the properties that they have published for Pixar).
As far as I'm concerned, Pixar IS the new Disney and Disney is dead. Disney has no chance untill Eisner has run it into the ground (more so) and leaves and someone who understands Disney comes in (like Roy Disney).
Eisner is taking Disney, grabbing a killer bee nest, setting in a fire ant hill, smashing it, diggin up the fire ant mound, and juggling gernades all while eating poisin-ivy.
As properties, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and the rest are barely even promoted any more. The Disney Channel has turned into crud and doesn't even seem to show the old cartoons anymore, just horribly derivitive designed-by-committe sit-coms.
I used to love Disney. But they aren't even a shell of their former selves as far as I'm concerned.
PS: While posting this, I had to wait because of "database maintence". I've never seen that on/. Cool.
I'll ignore all the other things about the N-Gauge and look at is as a gamer for you. I'm ignoring design flaws (listed above), the fact I already have a cell phone, don't want a new one, and won't carry two, etc.
I don't like it. Everything I've seen shows me that I don't like it. Let's see what I see wrong with it:
"Must Have Game" - You know what the must have game for the N-Gauge is? Neither do I! I don't know of ANY games for the N-Gauge that are supposed to be great, or even unique. Everything I've seen is a port (Splinter Cell), something I don't care about (Tomb Raider), etc. Nothing says "Buy Me" to me.
Screen - Why is the screen VIRTICLE? Platformers are best with square or horizontal screens. The Sonic game for the NG "letterboxes" the game so that it's more playable, but that means you're wasting most of the screen, and it's still thin. In a world where people want widescreen DVDs, widescreen HDTV television, the GBA went widescreen after being square, and so on, why make the screen VIRTICLE? The screen is also relativly tiny. If the horizontal resolution was good, then a virticle screen would be OK. But as it is the screen would be better if you turned in on it's side.
Controlls - The controlls worry me. Using the phone's keypad as buttons? That reminds me of the 12 buttons on the bottom of Atari Jaguar controllers. With a GBA you know where the buttons are. I'd be worried it would be too easy to hit the wrong button or two buttons at once. I may be wrong on this one once I played with the thing, but as a consumer looking at it it's worrysome.
The "other" factors that ignore it as a system are all major problems for me. But even as a console, it's just not there. The major problem is the games. The screen seems like a design flaw to me, but if the games were there I could see past that. At this point the N-Gauge is a joke. I have another post in this article about what it would take to get me to buy a QD and what I think Nokia should do if they want the N-Gauge to succede, and I think you should read that.
But like everything else, it comes down to the games. I don't know of ANYTHING on the N-Gauge that I even want to play, so why would I buy one.
Looking through the list of games on Gamespot for the N-Gauge only confirms this. Bomberman, Crash Nitro Kart, MotoGP, Pandimonium, Puyo Pop, Rayman 3, Puzzle Bobble, Super Monkey Ball. There are more, but they are all basically games from other systems, at least ther ones that catch my attention. Games I've seen before, games I've played before, games I can get elsewhere (GBA for example). The higest score any game gets seems to be 7.6 out of 10. Most of the rest are in the 6s or under. The GBA's top rated game (Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga) is a 9.2/10, with many others in the 8s a another 9 or two.
The games are there. This means the players aren't there. This means the money isn't there. This means the games aren't there. It's a cycle. If you don't make a kick ass game or three for your system, don't expect someone else to come along and do it because they won't.
I want to be able to use my laptop with it (over BT) to access the 'net
That's about all I care about. So what will it take to get me to buy an N-Gauge? I don't know if it fits the above specifications, so I'll give it my standard test for a new phone that doesn't fit the features I want. I will buy it if...
It's free to me
I'm not forced into a contract
And... that's it
If the phone is free and there is no contract (ie I pay month-to-month, not that "and my 1st born for the next two years" stuff) I'll take one. You'll make the money off me from me buying games (if you make good ones available) and cell phone fees.
I have a GBA. I plan to buy a PSP and a DS. Nokia was NEVER on my radar as anything seroius. They have to make it VERY attractive to me to get me to own one (see requirements above), and if a cellphone I like better exists that is acceptable to me, I'll pay for it if I like it. Nokia has basically no hope when it comes to me.
The N-Gauge is a "cute" idea that was half-baked from the beginning. If they had released the QD origonally, they would be in a bad place. But they put out the origional, so they are just a joke.
The ONLY hope of survival for the N-Gauge at this point (IMO) is to turn it into "technology" instead of a product. Make MANY phones that play N-Gauge games. Let OTHER cellphone makers make phones that are "N-Gauge compliant". They would all play the games, and they would all play them the same (not phone X is faster than Y, which has a bigger screen). By making it a standard and charging a nominal licensing fee (on games and on phones) they can survive and make money.
Otherwise, you're sunk Nokia (as far as the N-Gauge goes. I know the company won't go bankrupt over this). Do what I said above, or give up and try again in a few years (and with a different name). You didn't succede with the N-Gauge, and you won't with the QD. Give up, cut your losses (my strategy above), or fail. That's how I see it.
That assumes that the person really knew what they were doing. Chances are it's just some kid who found a computer and managed to guess the password or something. If it was a pro job, you're right. But I'm betting it's just some kid or wannabe. Even if they did change some files, there are probably some that they forgot to modify, and those will give you a clue.
Did you keep a backup? You could compare the backup against the current system state to see what's been added or changed. A hacker can't modify contents of DVDs that aren't in the drive or an external HD that's unplugged, so that you give you a safe reference point to what's been created, but not what's been modified.
When did it happen, do you know? If so then you can search the drives for files that were created/modified on or after that date. That should allow you to restrict the number of things that you need to look anywhere from some to significantly.
Let me ask you this. I am allowed to "tape" a show to DVD so I can watch it later, right? Of course. So I record a Spongebob marathon so my hypothetical 2 year old can watch it any time. I used to tape cartoons to watch later when nothing was on, it was legal.
But I always had a second copy. The first copy would degrade (it was VHS, so repeated watchings would do that), or get lost, or get jammed in the machine and become worthless. By having a second copy I'm still safe.
So now my 2 year old scratches the disk and it's ruined. Now what? My second copy wasn't part of a piriting scam. It was just backup. Legal, didn't hurt anyone or devalue the property. It was just for me. Now I won't be able to do that. I've lost a perfectly fair right to use something I own in a valid way.
Bricks can be used for evil (many people use them every year to bash someone's skull or break windows) but bricks aren't outlawed. People run over other people in cars PURPOSLY, but cars are still legal.
If you take away everything that can be used illegally, you'll have nothing. You'll be naked and cold. But you could still use your arms to puch someone or strangle someone so...
It's a slippery slope. The above paragraph is hyperboly, but you can't ban something because a few people use it wrong. When 70% of people use it for illegal stuff, then you can talk about banning it. But when 1-5% do (I would bet lower than that in many circumstances) you shouldn't ban it.
PS: Every time something is copied, put a unique identifier into the video that tells what machine duplicated/edited it. That way you can trace the pirated copies to where they came from and shut 'em down. I wouldn't mind that. I keep my rights, and the studio can shut down the pirates.
But as a consumer I would win in that situation so I guess it's not a option, huh.
If I set some large device to store energy and then send it back into the grid wrong (lets say it comes into my house at 220v, 60hz so send it at 1500v 300hz) therby screwing everything up for everyone else on my section of the grid, don't you think the power company would come and cut me off?
In fact, thanks to safties in the power system, if you tried that you'd probably blow up the transformer outside your house. This would cut off you from the rest of the grid and protect everyone else.
It's the power company's job to give me good service. Steady power, clean, no problems. My ISP (who actually IS Comcast) should be the same way. Fast, reliable, no problems. Instead ISPs often follow your "we're just the middle man" theory. This leads to my 'net connection getting wasted by downloading tons of spam for every real message that should get through.
The power company won't let you scew up THEIR network. The phone company doesn't look kindly to people hijacking phone lines and using them for free, and ISPs should be no different. They should FIGHT these zombies.
After all, zombies cut into the bottom line in traffic that has to be passed (both outgoing spam and incomming spam), storage (storing spam on their e-mail servers), and other such things.
Knock the zombies off the network. This is no slippery slope, this is climbing back UP the "you can do whatever you want even when it makes the internet worse for 99% of people" hill that a blind eye has slid us down.
I agree. Now of course you can't disconnect them completely because then they can't download software to fix their system. This means that you (Comcrud) would have to send them all CDs that contained whatever was neccessary to fix the computer. That costs money, support, etc.
I agree they should be cut off, but to all but one site (something on Comcrud's servers) that mirrors all the downloads people might need (free AV software, anti-spyware, etc). Once they downloaded the software and ran it, they could request having their internet restored.
And if they won't fix their computer, no loss to the rest of us. Who needs all those infected computers run by idiots who won't fix their machines.
For reference, I had an identicle system and never had a problem with it at all, even with heavy/long playsessions. I'd still have it but I sold it to a neighbor about 6 months after I got a PS2.
It worked great for them untill a large book fell of a shelf and crushed the poor thing.
...I won't have to stop and pay for gas when driving through cattle country! Everytime I run low and gas I can just take a trip through a field with cows and see how many "gallons" I can hit! All I need is a little mini-processing station in my car when they get it right. And I bet I could cook burgers and steaks on my engine block so I use all parts of the cow! I'm "eco-friendly"!
Now all I need to do is figure out what kind of cows make the highest octane gas. Longhornds, or maybe Angus. I wonder if milk vs. beef cows makes a difference.
If the cow is "corn-fed beef", does that mean the fuel I'd make has ethonol? If the cows are fed beans, would my car have to be able to run on Methane to use the fuel made from the cows?
Thanks. I know that. 4 x 75 MHz is 300. If you use HyperThreading enabled CPUs it might be more like 350 or 400 MHz. By using all those CPUs and running multiple tasks (OS X is SMP enabled after all) the computer could FEEL like a 300 MHz G3. I say G3 because there is no Altivec. Four threads running at 75 MHz each means your getting the same ammount of work done that you would with one processor running at 300 MHz (roughly. I know that SMP doesn't scale at 100%, but I'm ignoring that for now).
I'm not saying it'd be good, I'm just saying that you could make it seem halfway decent if you throw enough hardware at it (which my parrent post said you couldn't do at this point).
Calm down, dude. How is my theoretical computer not that equivelent to a 250-300 MHz G3 computer if PearPC can take advantage of multiple CPUs?
Macs have always been quite hard to emulate, at least that's my understanding. Thanks to Altivec, register starvation, and other things (see another post of mine in this topic) it's not easy.
It's mostly a problem of emulating the PPC chips themselves. There are emulators for the 68k based Macs (basillisk and executor to name two), and PPC based ones can be emulated too recently (SheepShaver has gotten this ability recently, I understand). Once you've got the chip emulated, the rest isn't that bad.
This is why there have always been "Mac on Mac" emulators (like Mac on Linux, or SheepShaver to run MacOS on PPC based BeOS and Linux machines). They don't have to deal with the whole processor issue, they just have to provide the right environment for the software.
So the ability to run OS X on Intel hardware is quite novel and interesting.
As for running Darwin, you can. Darwin is open source. The problem is that you can't run OS X on top of the x86 version because you can't get the source code to that. So you'd either have to rewrite ALL of the OS X libraries and then use emulation to run real Mac programs, or you'd have to use emulation to run the OS X libraries AND the software. Neither is easily done. Since they both require the CPU emulator, why not skip the middle man?
As for the "Virtual PC works well", see that post of mine I referenced above. It's MUCH easier to fake a x86 on a PPC than vice versa.
No one is claiming this is anywhere near usefull yet, but you never know what will come out if something like this.
Yeah, you'd need multiple processors at least to try to get G3 like speed out if it.
Speaking of which, does anyone know if PearPC uses multiple threads? I mean can it really take advantage of SMP? Because while it may be slow (a 3 GHz PC would run like a 75 MHz Mac), if it could use multiple processors (different tasks use different processors) then it would FEEL faster.
If this was the case, all you'd need is 4 Opterons or Xeons with HT and you could get yourself the equivenent of a 300 MHz iMac that you could buy for a fraction of what all that hardware would cost you. But it would be really geeky! Who says Macs are more expensive than equivelent PCs;)
No. The number tossed around is at least 40x slower, and there are many reasons.
First is the obvious that if you can never emulate something the same speed that it would be if it was native. It will always be at least a hair slower.
In actuality, this is MUCH slower. There are a few reasons:
Registers - A PPC chip has something like DOUBLE the number of registers (on CPU memory that's used to hold variables while being worked on) as an Opteron chip. And Opteron has many more registers than a standard x86 chip. To make matters worse, while with PPCs and Opterons most registers are general purpose (can be used for anything), many operations in the x86 world require you to use a specific register, so they are less flexable. All this means lots of register swapping and other such trickery to make things work, and it costs speed. A version compiled/written for an Opteron should be faster, but it is still not the same. All these registers is one of the reasons why it's so easy to emulate a x86 on PPC but not vice-versa.
The second big reason is Alitvec. This is basically MMX/3DNow!/SSE, but I've heard it described as those things on steroids. It allows things to be done VERY fast that would take much longer without them. Matrix transforms, running the same instruction on a large table of data, etc. PearPC doesn't emulate Altivec right now. While OS X will run without it (G3s don't have it, IIRC), things would run much faster if Altivec operations could be mapped to SSE/MMX/etc. whenever possible. They are working on this.
Graphics - The graphics engine is all software (I think). If the graphics calls could be "pushed through" to the graphics card so that OS X's use of OpenGL in Quartz (to draw windows and do effects on them) could be done in hardware (instead of in software like on Macs that don't have good enough graphics cards) that would speed things up too.
Those are the main reasons. I think we'd all KILL for OS X on PCs, but I think we all know that realistically it's never going to happen.
Still, remember the software is only v0.1 so when they add things like Altivec and just do general optimisations, things should get faster.
That was the first thing that I thought of when I saw this. Before E3 Sega said something BIG was going to be annouced. Some people thought it was a new console (portable or a new Dreamcast). Others thought it was some big new game that would take the world by storm. The idea of a merger or some such was also tossed around (Nintendo, or maybe MS, or I suppose even Sony).
Instead, what do we get as a big annoucement? They are publishing "The Matrix Online". Oh yeah, that was worth hype.
A big part of me didn't buy that and thought that they either overhyped something, or something went wrong and they couldn't annouce it.
THIS makes perfect sense as a big annoucement. I think you're right. I think this was going to be the big annoucement and they had to hold off or something.
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Can anyone shed any light as to how this might perform?
Either way it's a cool achievement, and the little "fin" on top is a wifi antenna, which is cool.
Wouldn't it be interesting, though, if the next-gen consoles determined what new DVD standard won out? Video games defining movie's media.
It's possible. If every PS3 and GC2/N-Sider/Whatever (Usually the code names are cooler (Dolphin), but oh well) could also play Blu-Ray disks, that would be a MAJOR boost. It would mean production facilites for both the drives and disks (drive costs down, provide volume needed to satisfy demand of some movie releases), and provide players for the format in MANY homes. This would mean that HD-DVD (or anything else someone comes up with) would be up against a formidable barrier to mass adoption.
Who says video games aren't important :)
The GBA and it's remote boot fixed that by letting you play with one cartridge (although you were limited by the GBAs memory). The DS is supposed to keep this feature. This means the new biggest problem is the cable.
The cables are unsightly, you have to carry one around, and they are "short". Sure they may be long, but in practice (like two people in a car or on a plane, one sitting in front of the other) the cable can seem short and get in the way. I've never played 3 or 4 player games, but I would imagine that it only gets worse.
The wireless is fantastic though. Not only do you not need to fuss with the cable, but they could do 8 player, or 16 player, or more! Imagine if you got enough people with a football game, you could have one person play each player on the field! Or do something similar with many other sports. There are many cool things that this opens up; and if it's WiFi/Bluetooth that could mean internet play too.
There are other little bonuses too. Bluetooth has a standard printer protocall (if I understand correctly) to allow cell phones and PDAs and such to print things easily. Think of just walking up your DS to a printer, pressing a button, and having your highscore table printed out, or the sections of the map you know in Metroid, or something like that. Add in that you could take a picture on a cellphone and Bluetooth it to the GBA to put you in the game. This plus the touch screen means the best Mario Paint game ever could be made. Real drawing, printing, saving (move files over BT), internet sharing (BT or WiFi), putting your picture in, etc.
The DS (and WiFi and BT) open up tons of cool opertunities. The tech demos that were shown and such are just the tip of the ice burg.
As for the mini-disc, while I think they may move off to a different format for the increased storage space (dual layer DVD, maybe blue-laser based DVD), I think that at this point the DVD player aspect of a console is worthless. When the current generation started, a DVD player was $150+. So a $300 PS2 could be thought of a $150+ DVD player plus a $150+ PS1 plus a PS2 so it was a deal. I used my PS2 to watch DVDs for 3 years. But at this point most people who want a DVD player have one, and I doubt that they are going to buy a console simply because it has DVD functionality. You can now buy decent DVD players for $40 or under, so I don't think the ability to play DVDs is a selling point any more.
Now if it plays HD-DVDs (or whatever comes after the DVD), that would be a different story. Sony might do this by using Blue-Ray (their DVD replacement) in the PS3 (my speculation).
As for the Dreamcast, it launched a year+ early. It wasn't a "next-gen" system so much as a system inbetween generations. It was launched TOO early. If the DC had been released 3-6 months before the PS2, I bet it would have done better. I think it would have still died due to other factors, but it would have done better than it did.
And this is what Nintendo is trying to do. They want to launch about 6 months before the PS3. They will get a head start, but won't be seen as an inbetween generation.
As for the games, they did a decent job with the GBA launch, a good job with the GC launch. We've learned that more good games at launch means a better system, so the companies understand that. The PSP is supposed to launch with a bunch of games, not that "here is 3, and few care about the other two" that the N64 saw. Few games hurt Nintendo in the N64 days, I think they've learned their lesson. I also think that $150 or $200 would be a perfect price point to launch at, especially with Sony probably going near $250 or $300 with the PS3.
That's my take anyways.
As for the this being the next Nintendo vs. Sega, I think that the PSP is targeted much more at hardcore gamers, while the GBA is the system for everyone (including little kids). I think there is room for both of them.
The DS really interests me though. First it includes networking built in (I think it's WiFi but I'm not sure) so that is taken care of. As for networking on the 'cube, I understand their lack of support, there isn't too much of a reason for it right now. For SOOO many games the online bit just feels "tacked on", so I can understand their hesitation.
But the DS isn't in it's final form factor. I can't wait to see what it ends up looking like. I kind of like the way it looks now, it's kinda retro in how similar it is to the old Game & Watch games.
Last of all, as for PSP media being used in the PS3, I seriously doubt it. I don't know if it would be possible to make a drive that would read both, but I'd put up a large sum of money saying that the PS3 will use Blue-Ray discs.
As far as I'm concerned, Pixar IS the new Disney and Disney is dead. Disney has no chance untill Eisner has run it into the ground (more so) and leaves and someone who understands Disney comes in (like Roy Disney).
Eisner is taking Disney, grabbing a killer bee nest, setting in a fire ant hill, smashing it, diggin up the fire ant mound, and juggling gernades all while eating poisin-ivy.
As properties, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and the rest are barely even promoted any more. The Disney Channel has turned into crud and doesn't even seem to show the old cartoons anymore, just horribly derivitive designed-by-committe sit-coms.
I used to love Disney. But they aren't even a shell of their former selves as far as I'm concerned.
PS: While posting this, I had to wait because of "database maintence". I've never seen that on /. Cool.
I don't like it. Everything I've seen shows me that I don't like it. Let's see what I see wrong with it:
The "other" factors that ignore it as a system are all major problems for me. But even as a console, it's just not there. The major problem is the games. The screen seems like a design flaw to me, but if the games were there I could see past that. At this point the N-Gauge is a joke. I have another post in this article about what it would take to get me to buy a QD and what I think Nokia should do if they want the N-Gauge to succede, and I think you should read that.
But like everything else, it comes down to the games. I don't know of ANYTHING on the N-Gauge that I even want to play, so why would I buy one.
Looking through the list of games on Gamespot for the N-Gauge only confirms this. Bomberman, Crash Nitro Kart, MotoGP, Pandimonium, Puyo Pop, Rayman 3, Puzzle Bobble, Super Monkey Ball. There are more, but they are all basically games from other systems, at least ther ones that catch my attention. Games I've seen before, games I've played before, games I can get elsewhere (GBA for example). The higest score any game gets seems to be 7.6 out of 10. Most of the rest are in the 6s or under. The GBA's top rated game (Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga) is a 9.2/10, with many others in the 8s a another 9 or two.
The games are there. This means the players aren't there. This means the money isn't there. This means the games aren't there. It's a cycle. If you don't make a kick ass game or three for your system, don't expect someone else to come along and do it because they won't.
That's about all I care about. So what will it take to get me to buy an N-Gauge? I don't know if it fits the above specifications, so I'll give it my standard test for a new phone that doesn't fit the features I want. I will buy it if...
If the phone is free and there is no contract (ie I pay month-to-month, not that "and my 1st born for the next two years" stuff) I'll take one. You'll make the money off me from me buying games (if you make good ones available) and cell phone fees.
I have a GBA. I plan to buy a PSP and a DS. Nokia was NEVER on my radar as anything seroius. They have to make it VERY attractive to me to get me to own one (see requirements above), and if a cellphone I like better exists that is acceptable to me, I'll pay for it if I like it. Nokia has basically no hope when it comes to me.
The N-Gauge is a "cute" idea that was half-baked from the beginning. If they had released the QD origonally, they would be in a bad place. But they put out the origional, so they are just a joke.
The ONLY hope of survival for the N-Gauge at this point (IMO) is to turn it into "technology" instead of a product. Make MANY phones that play N-Gauge games. Let OTHER cellphone makers make phones that are "N-Gauge compliant". They would all play the games, and they would all play them the same (not phone X is faster than Y, which has a bigger screen). By making it a standard and charging a nominal licensing fee (on games and on phones) they can survive and make money.
Otherwise, you're sunk Nokia (as far as the N-Gauge goes. I know the company won't go bankrupt over this). Do what I said above, or give up and try again in a few years (and with a different name). You didn't succede with the N-Gauge, and you won't with the QD. Give up, cut your losses (my strategy above), or fail. That's how I see it.
Did you keep a backup? You could compare the backup against the current system state to see what's been added or changed. A hacker can't modify contents of DVDs that aren't in the drive or an external HD that's unplugged, so that you give you a safe reference point to what's been created, but not what's been modified.
When did it happen, do you know? If so then you can search the drives for files that were created/modified on or after that date. That should allow you to restrict the number of things that you need to look anywhere from some to significantly.
But I always had a second copy. The first copy would degrade (it was VHS, so repeated watchings would do that), or get lost, or get jammed in the machine and become worthless. By having a second copy I'm still safe.
So now my 2 year old scratches the disk and it's ruined. Now what? My second copy wasn't part of a piriting scam. It was just backup. Legal, didn't hurt anyone or devalue the property. It was just for me. Now I won't be able to do that. I've lost a perfectly fair right to use something I own in a valid way.
Bricks can be used for evil (many people use them every year to bash someone's skull or break windows) but bricks aren't outlawed. People run over other people in cars PURPOSLY, but cars are still legal.
If you take away everything that can be used illegally, you'll have nothing. You'll be naked and cold. But you could still use your arms to puch someone or strangle someone so...
It's a slippery slope. The above paragraph is hyperboly, but you can't ban something because a few people use it wrong. When 70% of people use it for illegal stuff, then you can talk about banning it. But when 1-5% do (I would bet lower than that in many circumstances) you shouldn't ban it.
PS: Every time something is copied, put a unique identifier into the video that tells what machine duplicated/edited it. That way you can trace the pirated copies to where they came from and shut 'em down. I wouldn't mind that. I keep my rights, and the studio can shut down the pirates.
But as a consumer I would win in that situation so I guess it's not a option, huh.
That should read "and the free updates for life that they were promised.", just incase anyone wondered. Sorry 'bout that.
And what did you "win"? A free upgrade to a product with only one year of free updates.
How did anyone "win" anything in this one? A refund of the origional purchase price AND a free upgrade would have been much more fair.
If N.A. was nice, they'd give the customers a free upgrade and the free upgrades that they promissed.
In fact, thanks to safties in the power system, if you tried that you'd probably blow up the transformer outside your house. This would cut off you from the rest of the grid and protect everyone else.
It's the power company's job to give me good service. Steady power, clean, no problems. My ISP (who actually IS Comcast) should be the same way. Fast, reliable, no problems. Instead ISPs often follow your "we're just the middle man" theory. This leads to my 'net connection getting wasted by downloading tons of spam for every real message that should get through.
The power company won't let you scew up THEIR network. The phone company doesn't look kindly to people hijacking phone lines and using them for free, and ISPs should be no different. They should FIGHT these zombies.
After all, zombies cut into the bottom line in traffic that has to be passed (both outgoing spam and incomming spam), storage (storing spam on their e-mail servers), and other such things.
Knock the zombies off the network. This is no slippery slope, this is climbing back UP the "you can do whatever you want even when it makes the internet worse for 99% of people" hill that a blind eye has slid us down.
I won't lose sleep, and neither should you.
I agree they should be cut off, but to all but one site (something on Comcrud's servers) that mirrors all the downloads people might need (free AV software, anti-spyware, etc). Once they downloaded the software and ran it, they could request having their internet restored.
And if they won't fix their computer, no loss to the rest of us. Who needs all those infected computers run by idiots who won't fix their machines.
To go through a normal airport I get scanned and they may make me take off my shoes and do a pat down and take an invasive look into my luggage.
What kind of search will I have to go through to get into SPACE?
Note: for the humor impaired, this is a joke.
It worked great for them untill a large book fell of a shelf and crushed the poor thing.
Now all I need to do is figure out what kind of cows make the highest octane gas. Longhornds, or maybe Angus. I wonder if milk vs. beef cows makes a difference.
If the cow is "corn-fed beef", does that mean the fuel I'd make has ethonol? If the cows are fed beans, would my car have to be able to run on Methane to use the fuel made from the cows?
Oh, there are just too many jokes. :)
I'm not saying it'd be good, I'm just saying that you could make it seem halfway decent if you throw enough hardware at it (which my parrent post said you couldn't do at this point).
Calm down, dude. How is my theoretical computer not that equivelent to a 250-300 MHz G3 computer if PearPC can take advantage of multiple CPUs?
It's mostly a problem of emulating the PPC chips themselves. There are emulators for the 68k based Macs (basillisk and executor to name two), and PPC based ones can be emulated too recently (SheepShaver has gotten this ability recently, I understand). Once you've got the chip emulated, the rest isn't that bad.
This is why there have always been "Mac on Mac" emulators (like Mac on Linux, or SheepShaver to run MacOS on PPC based BeOS and Linux machines). They don't have to deal with the whole processor issue, they just have to provide the right environment for the software.
So the ability to run OS X on Intel hardware is quite novel and interesting.
As for running Darwin, you can. Darwin is open source. The problem is that you can't run OS X on top of the x86 version because you can't get the source code to that. So you'd either have to rewrite ALL of the OS X libraries and then use emulation to run real Mac programs, or you'd have to use emulation to run the OS X libraries AND the software. Neither is easily done. Since they both require the CPU emulator, why not skip the middle man?
As for the "Virtual PC works well", see that post of mine I referenced above. It's MUCH easier to fake a x86 on a PPC than vice versa.
No one is claiming this is anywhere near usefull yet, but you never know what will come out if something like this.
Speaking of which, does anyone know if PearPC uses multiple threads? I mean can it really take advantage of SMP? Because while it may be slow (a 3 GHz PC would run like a 75 MHz Mac), if it could use multiple processors (different tasks use different processors) then it would FEEL faster.
If this was the case, all you'd need is 4 Opterons or Xeons with HT and you could get yourself the equivenent of a 300 MHz iMac that you could buy for a fraction of what all that hardware would cost you. But it would be really geeky! Who says Macs are more expensive than equivelent PCs ;)
First is the obvious that if you can never emulate something the same speed that it would be if it was native. It will always be at least a hair slower.
In actuality, this is MUCH slower. There are a few reasons:
Those are the main reasons. I think we'd all KILL for OS X on PCs, but I think we all know that realistically it's never going to happen.
Still, remember the software is only v0.1 so when they add things like Altivec and just do general optimisations, things should get faster.
Instead, what do we get as a big annoucement? They are publishing "The Matrix Online". Oh yeah, that was worth hype.
A big part of me didn't buy that and thought that they either overhyped something, or something went wrong and they couldn't annouce it.
THIS makes perfect sense as a big annoucement. I think you're right. I think this was going to be the big annoucement and they had to hold off or something.
I said don't give them ideas! PLEASE don't give them ideas!
Now someone might make it! Save me.
*sobs*