I think they called it the "classic controller". It looks like an SNES pad with two thumbsticks attached, and it's what you would use to play N64 or SNES games (since the Wiimote doesn't have enough buttons). If you look around you'll find pictures of it.
Someone always posts that. It's idiotic. You have buy a memory card ($40) or a hard drive($100), plus XBox Live ($50). That is $390 to $450 depending on which way you go for storage. That also doesn't include things like the wireless controller (which the Wii comes with) for comparison, or the price of games (the Wii comes with a game, the 360 doens't), etc.
I agree it would be a terrible thing for the industry if the console were to fail, but it would be OK with me.
I had an N64 and it was my favorite console of that generation by far. Some people say it "failed" because it didn't put The Big N back on top. I really enjoyed the thing, and I'm glad I bought it.
I have a 'Cube and many people say it failed (or is close). I've bought FAR more games for the 'cube than my XBox and PS2. It was a great little system. I don't regret buying it at all.
If the Wii fails, so what. I can afford to lose $250 on a console that that will only have a bunch of great games during it's life (Marios, Zeldas, Pikmins, Smash Brothers, etc.). That's OK with me. It will be sad, but I'll still love the games.
Let's not forget that even if Nintendo's grand experiment fails (the controller) everyone could always use the "classic" controller for the rest of the console's life-span (not unlike the NES Zapper was basically forgotten about). The Wiimote can still be used for fun with light-gun games (and is worth it for me for that fact alone).
The PS3 is $600. I'm not buying that until I'm dead sure there are tons of games I want for it. Even with the price drop that will have to happen by the time I buy it.
The 360 is $400. It's not as worrying as the PS3 but that's still a fair amount of money.
The Wii is $250, and worse case scenerio I can use it as a replacement 'Cube and have a few new fun games.
The Wii may "fail" because it doesn't take over the industry or ends up in 3rd place, but I bet I'll still love it anyway.
All that said, who do we think... objectivly... is the most likely to fail? The cheap one with the "gimmick", the expensive one that is more of the same, or the obscenely expensive one that currently seems like more of the same?
Well that would be easy to fix. Just require a Macintosh. You schedule what you want to see and the Mac downloads it. Then when you go to watch it off your iTV it gets streamed from the Mac in your house. Or a little hard drive in the iTV would work too.
It's a reasonable solution, and they can let you watch it directly over the net as soon as your connection is fast enough.
Our house system does make those pop sounds, but since it is located next to the heater in the basement it doesn't bother anyone. I can tell you it does work, but each filter (and there are two of them) is the size of a desktop PC and is nothing but tons of fins to provide surface area. I don't know how much ozone it produces (if any) though.
I know about those lawsuits, which is why I always get a chuckle out of the new Ionic Breeze commercials where they talk about how they added their new "Ozone Guard Technology" or whatever it's called.
I just remembered (right after I posted, of course) how they move air. If I remember correctly the charge on the plates in the system causes the air (which was already charged on it's way in) to accelerate. The plates have one charge (negative?) and the air is charged the opposite way (positive?). They are naturally attracted to each-other, but since the big plates aren't going anywhere the air gets pulled in. When it gets close enough it loses it's charge but now has momentum and keeps going through (also gets pushed out by more air being pulled in). Combine this with the dust and such that gets sucked in (only gets stuck to the plates) and you get air movement.
I can't comment on the Ionic Breeze, but I can tell you the principal is perfectly sound. At my house we had an Electrostatic Air Filtration System installed, which is basically the same thing but attached to the duct work. The thing does make a noticeable difference with allergens and such (which is why we bought it).
What they show on the commercial (about wiping one off and it being filthy) is absolutely true. About once a month (for our system) you are supposed to pull out the two filters (each about the size of the average desktop PC) and the two screens (just simple mechanical filtration for the large stuff). You stick 'em in a utility sink with some dishwashing powder shake 'em around, and then let 'em soak.
You put in perfectly clear water, and when you lift the two filters out the stuff is a very solid grey color. It also leaves a hideous ring in the sink.
Electrostatic air filtration really does work. I have no doubt that the Ionic Breeze systems do work (to some degree). But the principal is absolutely sound.
Which is espeically pathetic because I would still pay the DVR fee if they TRIPLED it to the $15 a month that TiVo charges. That way, I could still have a TiVo and DirecTV would get an extra $10 a month. Even if they only doubled it. Heck, they could have raised the price to $6 a month.
But instead they lost me as a future customer (and many others) because they were greedy over $1 and decided to give people sub-standard equiptment (non-TiVos) to save $$$.
I know they are phasing them out, but they don't support MPEG4 which is what DirecTV will start using for new channels at some point (possibly including switching local channels). My understanding is that this will effect HDTV users more than little old SDTV me. As for the comment about eBay, that's true, but I'm guessing that by the time it dies I'll want to switch to a HD TiVo. If it were to die tomorrow, there is no question I'd get a new one off eBay. But I expect it to live for years to come.
Same here. I have a DirecTiVo and it was very quickly clear to me that as much as I like DirecTV, I like my TiVo more. When my TiVo ceases to function (due to death, new channels I want to watch, whatever) I'm cancelling your service unless you offer a new Genuine TiVo I can purchase and use by then.
Dish Network: I've been getting mail from you every once and a while trying to get me to switch. Same thing applies. Give me a Genuine TiVo and when the time comes I'll go to you (since my local cable is horrid).
I have DirecTV (which frankly because they stopped supporting my TiVo I will dump when the time comes). Now I know the Series 3 supports CableCARD but does not support satellite inputs. Does anyone know if it would be possible for DirecTV to make a "DirecTV CableCARD", possibly with some little external box to transform the signals from the DirecTV frequencies to cable frequencies?
In other words, is there some reasonable way where if they were interested DirecTV (or even Dish) could make a CableCARD compatible thing to let you view/record their signal?
This is rediculous. The only way to get a "good credit history" is to go in debt and then pay for it regularly. Those of us who are responsible and have next to no credit score, well maybe they just aren't interested in us.
A FICO score is a stupid measure of responsibility for something like this. I would argue the person who plans well and doesn't get into debt is MORE responsible than the person who gets into debt and pays his monthly payments.
He let's Americans gamble on his site, so he lets them break the law. That's illegal. At least that what I'm guessing their logic is. My guess is that their claim to him is a little tenuous to say the least. I bet he refused to bar access from US betters. The US's stance is hardly unknown, especially if you are in that industry.
I think that "online gambling is prohibition" comment is rather ridiculous. Online gambling is something people do from home, where one of the big things about prohibition is that it removed a common social activity (going to a bar with friends and to meet people). They are nothing alike except that they are both bans on something popular, and (are likey to get) overturned.
Don't forget that there is a REASON online gambling is still illegal. While that act can be intrepreted that way, Congress could have easily changed that by passing a law. However, don't think that all the casinos in Vegas and elsewhere like the idea of online gambling. That could take away a LOT of a their business if it was legalized. I'd be amamzed if they weren't pouring out money to keep online gambling illegal.
I don't know, I think the blu-ray is one of the most important parts of the PS3. I think it's good they keep it there. I don't predict sales to be very good until the drop the price, but it will still sell some. The blu-ray drive will give the system a much longer longevity than the 360 (assuming MS sticks to their no-HD-DVD-games position) because it will let the developers put more content/higher resolution content on a disc (no stuppid swapping).
This is a console that may do well, but it will grow into sales. There is no way on earth this is going to be a PS or PS2 that just takes off like a rocket. The DS is probably a more apt comparison (although the high PS3 price make that a bit of a stretch).
One this is for sure, this next round of consoles should be interesting. Huge power/price vs. High power/price vs. Innovation/low-price. It's not 3 nearly identicle horses in different colors: it's a rhino, a horse, and a gazel.
But that only affects multiplayer. In single player, you can just use the dumber routines if they don't have the card. This especially appiles to small creatures who aren't doing much more than pathfinding. In a GTA type game you can just put more people/cars on the street. There are circumstances where it would be perfectly possible.
The biggest problem is multiplayer where you basically have to have everyone require it or force everyone to use software.
I read the blurb this morning. The idea is that it accelerates the basic operations that everything uses (line of sight, path finding, etc.). The more complex AI (actual behavior, planning, etc) is built the normal way. It simply offloads the CPU and thus allows faster calculations.
The other real difference is that it is better than current algorythms. So instead of using A* for pathfinding, it works correctly even on dynamicaly changing terrain. This would mean things like no longer having NPCs getting stuck on rocks or logs or some such (*cough* half-life 1 *cough*).
There is where I disagree. I'm not saying manditory life for car-jackers. Child molesters are about the worst society has to offer. Manditory life sentaces are nice, manditory death would be better but I was "comprimising". At a certain point, you give up your rights to be treated like a normal person.
The fact that you think child molesters should have those kind of rights is scary.
OK. I'm all for removing sex offenders rights (I'd support mandatory life sentences for child molesters with good proof of guilt), but this is nuts. Let's ignore the constitutional issues here, what about the people who are falsely accused? From what I hear it is hardly uncommon for women to accuse their husbands of things during divorces to try to get custody. Let's add on top of that people who accuse family members they don't get along with, the obvious blackmail possibilities (give me a raise or you go on the list), and this is just idiotic.
I'm amazed anyone would even have the gaul to propose this kind of thing, let alone try to actually pass it.
I was in a small private middle/highschool years ago and they decided to do a laptop program. Now I loved it (it meant I got a laptop), but that didn't make them useful. For computer classes, the students used... the school computers (because they couldn't afford to give out the software they used). For most classes you weren't allowed to use them. The classes that really didn't make much use of them. I remember our science class. The laptops were used for typing up lab reports and notes and definition lists. None of them were due in class so while we could type them up and turn them in, there was no need to if you could look busy enough to not annoy the teacher. This was quite a while ago (Pentium MMX 266 was new for laptops, about '98 or so?) so chatting wasn't too big of a problem (ICQ was the big one then). But the kids used them to play games (Solitare, etc because they couldn't play many real games) or just surf the net (good thing they put those network jacks everywhere) and e-mail. I shudder to think what MySpace would have wrought.
As a kid I enjoyed it, because I the kind who used it for school and learning on my own. For 98% of the students there, the laptops were an expensive waste and often a distraction when used. Plus they were heavy.
A good computer lab and a good teacher will do far more for most students than giving them laptops will. Require them to have desktops and home and give THOSE out if little Billy "must" have a computer. Take all that laptop money and make more computer labs. If you are going to spend $1000 on each student to give them a laptop, get a computer for every forth kid in the school that's really nice with great software for $2000. That costs half as much and is probably better for everyone. Spend the rest on a good admin and a couple of very competent computer teachers.
DDR nothing, I can't wait for Punchout Wii. One in each hand, REAL boxing type moves. You can block, punch, uppercut, jab, etc. That would rule. Also, have you seen the Madden video going around? Neither of those tends to be my kind of game but I'll have to try 'em out anyway.
Sounds terribly useful to me. My main computer is my Laptop which I move around a bit (on the desk, in the chair, on the couch, etc). I would LOVE to be able to sit down and plug the little dongle in (or better yet, just use UWB if it gets built into laptops) to sync with my iPod, connect a printer, etc. I have quite a few little USB gizmos and having to plug something into the laptop is a bit of a pain. But to be able to have all that stuff (let's add PDA, hard drive, etc) connected at once would be great. As it is now, I either have to choose what I want to plug in, or use a USB hub with a cable to wherever my laptop would be.
Not a lot of point for Desktops. Great for laptops. A wireless docking station.
Slashdot Mirror
I think they called it the "classic controller". It looks like an SNES pad with two thumbsticks attached, and it's what you would use to play N64 or SNES games (since the Wiimote doesn't have enough buttons). If you look around you'll find pictures of it.
Someone always posts that. It's idiotic. You have buy a memory card ($40) or a hard drive($100), plus XBox Live ($50). That is $390 to $450 depending on which way you go for storage. That also doesn't include things like the wireless controller (which the Wii comes with) for comparison, or the price of games (the Wii comes with a game, the 360 doens't), etc.
You can not buy a usable XBox 360 for $300.
I agree it would be a terrible thing for the industry if the console were to fail, but it would be OK with me.
I had an N64 and it was my favorite console of that generation by far. Some people say it "failed" because it didn't put The Big N back on top. I really enjoyed the thing, and I'm glad I bought it.
I have a 'Cube and many people say it failed (or is close). I've bought FAR more games for the 'cube than my XBox and PS2. It was a great little system. I don't regret buying it at all.
If the Wii fails, so what. I can afford to lose $250 on a console that that will only have a bunch of great games during it's life (Marios, Zeldas, Pikmins, Smash Brothers, etc.). That's OK with me. It will be sad, but I'll still love the games.
Let's not forget that even if Nintendo's grand experiment fails (the controller) everyone could always use the "classic" controller for the rest of the console's life-span (not unlike the NES Zapper was basically forgotten about). The Wiimote can still be used for fun with light-gun games (and is worth it for me for that fact alone).
The PS3 is $600. I'm not buying that until I'm dead sure there are tons of games I want for it. Even with the price drop that will have to happen by the time I buy it.
The 360 is $400. It's not as worrying as the PS3 but that's still a fair amount of money.
The Wii is $250, and worse case scenerio I can use it as a replacement 'Cube and have a few new fun games.
The Wii may "fail" because it doesn't take over the industry or ends up in 3rd place, but I bet I'll still love it anyway.
All that said, who do we think... objectivly... is the most likely to fail? The cheap one with the "gimmick", the expensive one that is more of the same, or the obscenely expensive one that currently seems like more of the same?
Well that would be easy to fix. Just require a Macintosh. You schedule what you want to see and the Mac downloads it. Then when you go to watch it off your iTV it gets streamed from the Mac in your house. Or a little hard drive in the iTV would work too.
It's a reasonable solution, and they can let you watch it directly over the net as soon as your connection is fast enough.
Our house system does make those pop sounds, but since it is located next to the heater in the basement it doesn't bother anyone. I can tell you it does work, but each filter (and there are two of them) is the size of a desktop PC and is nothing but tons of fins to provide surface area. I don't know how much ozone it produces (if any) though.
I know about those lawsuits, which is why I always get a chuckle out of the new Ionic Breeze commercials where they talk about how they added their new "Ozone Guard Technology" or whatever it's called.
I just remembered (right after I posted, of course) how they move air. If I remember correctly the charge on the plates in the system causes the air (which was already charged on it's way in) to accelerate. The plates have one charge (negative?) and the air is charged the opposite way (positive?). They are naturally attracted to each-other, but since the big plates aren't going anywhere the air gets pulled in. When it gets close enough it loses it's charge but now has momentum and keeps going through (also gets pushed out by more air being pulled in). Combine this with the dust and such that gets sucked in (only gets stuck to the plates) and you get air movement.
I can't comment on the Ionic Breeze, but I can tell you the principal is perfectly sound. At my house we had an Electrostatic Air Filtration System installed, which is basically the same thing but attached to the duct work. The thing does make a noticeable difference with allergens and such (which is why we bought it).
What they show on the commercial (about wiping one off and it being filthy) is absolutely true. About once a month (for our system) you are supposed to pull out the two filters (each about the size of the average desktop PC) and the two screens (just simple mechanical filtration for the large stuff). You stick 'em in a utility sink with some dishwashing powder shake 'em around, and then let 'em soak.
You put in perfectly clear water, and when you lift the two filters out the stuff is a very solid grey color. It also leaves a hideous ring in the sink.
Electrostatic air filtration really does work. I have no doubt that the Ionic Breeze systems do work (to some degree). But the principal is absolutely sound.
Which is espeically pathetic because I would still pay the DVR fee if they TRIPLED it to the $15 a month that TiVo charges. That way, I could still have a TiVo and DirecTV would get an extra $10 a month. Even if they only doubled it. Heck, they could have raised the price to $6 a month.
But instead they lost me as a future customer (and many others) because they were greedy over $1 and decided to give people sub-standard equiptment (non-TiVos) to save $$$.
I know they are phasing them out, but they don't support MPEG4 which is what DirecTV will start using for new channels at some point (possibly including switching local channels). My understanding is that this will effect HDTV users more than little old SDTV me. As for the comment about eBay, that's true, but I'm guessing that by the time it dies I'll want to switch to a HD TiVo. If it were to die tomorrow, there is no question I'd get a new one off eBay. But I expect it to live for years to come.
Same here. I have a DirecTiVo and it was very quickly clear to me that as much as I like DirecTV, I like my TiVo more. When my TiVo ceases to function (due to death, new channels I want to watch, whatever) I'm cancelling your service unless you offer a new Genuine TiVo I can purchase and use by then.
Dish Network: I've been getting mail from you every once and a while trying to get me to switch. Same thing applies. Give me a Genuine TiVo and when the time comes I'll go to you (since my local cable is horrid).
I have DirecTV (which frankly because they stopped supporting my TiVo I will dump when the time comes). Now I know the Series 3 supports CableCARD but does not support satellite inputs. Does anyone know if it would be possible for DirecTV to make a "DirecTV CableCARD", possibly with some little external box to transform the signals from the DirecTV frequencies to cable frequencies?
In other words, is there some reasonable way where if they were interested DirecTV (or even Dish) could make a CableCARD compatible thing to let you view/record their signal?
I agree completely, nothing he says is terribly innovative. Doesn't make him wrong though.
This is rediculous. The only way to get a "good credit history" is to go in debt and then pay for it regularly. Those of us who are responsible and have next to no credit score, well maybe they just aren't interested in us.
A FICO score is a stupid measure of responsibility for something like this. I would argue the person who plans well and doesn't get into debt is MORE responsible than the person who gets into debt and pays his monthly payments.
I know what Dave Ramsey has to say about this.
He let's Americans gamble on his site, so he lets them break the law. That's illegal. At least that what I'm guessing their logic is. My guess is that their claim to him is a little tenuous to say the least. I bet he refused to bar access from US betters. The US's stance is hardly unknown, especially if you are in that industry.
I think that "online gambling is prohibition" comment is rather ridiculous. Online gambling is something people do from home, where one of the big things about prohibition is that it removed a common social activity (going to a bar with friends and to meet people). They are nothing alike except that they are both bans on something popular, and (are likey to get) overturned.
Don't forget that there is a REASON online gambling is still illegal. While that act can be intrepreted that way, Congress could have easily changed that by passing a law. However, don't think that all the casinos in Vegas and elsewhere like the idea of online gambling. That could take away a LOT of a their business if it was legalized. I'd be amamzed if they weren't pouring out money to keep online gambling illegal.
This is a console that may do well, but it will grow into sales. There is no way on earth this is going to be a PS or PS2 that just takes off like a rocket. The DS is probably a more apt comparison (although the high PS3 price make that a bit of a stretch).
One this is for sure, this next round of consoles should be interesting. Huge power/price vs. High power/price vs. Innovation/low-price. It's not 3 nearly identicle horses in different colors: it's a rhino, a horse, and a gazel.
But that only affects multiplayer. In single player, you can just use the dumber routines if they don't have the card. This especially appiles to small creatures who aren't doing much more than pathfinding. In a GTA type game you can just put more people/cars on the street. There are circumstances where it would be perfectly possible.
The biggest problem is multiplayer where you basically have to have everyone require it or force everyone to use software.
I read the blurb this morning. The idea is that it accelerates the basic operations that everything uses (line of sight, path finding, etc.). The more complex AI (actual behavior, planning, etc) is built the normal way. It simply offloads the CPU and thus allows faster calculations.
The other real difference is that it is better than current algorythms. So instead of using A* for pathfinding, it works correctly even on dynamicaly changing terrain. This would mean things like no longer having NPCs getting stuck on rocks or logs or some such (*cough* half-life 1 *cough*).
There is where I disagree. I'm not saying manditory life for car-jackers. Child molesters are about the worst society has to offer. Manditory life sentaces are nice, manditory death would be better but I was "comprimising". At a certain point, you give up your rights to be treated like a normal person.
The fact that you think child molesters should have those kind of rights is scary.
You can not reform a child molester.
I'll bite. Why does that make me a blockhead?
OK. I'm all for removing sex offenders rights (I'd support mandatory life sentences for child molesters with good proof of guilt), but this is nuts. Let's ignore the constitutional issues here, what about the people who are falsely accused? From what I hear it is hardly uncommon for women to accuse their husbands of things during divorces to try to get custody. Let's add on top of that people who accuse family members they don't get along with, the obvious blackmail possibilities (give me a raise or you go on the list), and this is just idiotic.
I'm amazed anyone would even have the gaul to propose this kind of thing, let alone try to actually pass it.
I was in a small private middle/highschool years ago and they decided to do a laptop program. Now I loved it (it meant I got a laptop), but that didn't make them useful. For computer classes, the students used... the school computers (because they couldn't afford to give out the software they used). For most classes you weren't allowed to use them. The classes that really didn't make much use of them. I remember our science class. The laptops were used for typing up lab reports and notes and definition lists. None of them were due in class so while we could type them up and turn them in, there was no need to if you could look busy enough to not annoy the teacher. This was quite a while ago (Pentium MMX 266 was new for laptops, about '98 or so?) so chatting wasn't too big of a problem (ICQ was the big one then). But the kids used them to play games (Solitare, etc because they couldn't play many real games) or just surf the net (good thing they put those network jacks everywhere) and e-mail. I shudder to think what MySpace would have wrought.
As a kid I enjoyed it, because I the kind who used it for school and learning on my own. For 98% of the students there, the laptops were an expensive waste and often a distraction when used. Plus they were heavy.
A good computer lab and a good teacher will do far more for most students than giving them laptops will. Require them to have desktops and home and give THOSE out if little Billy "must" have a computer. Take all that laptop money and make more computer labs. If you are going to spend $1000 on each student to give them a laptop, get a computer for every forth kid in the school that's really nice with great software for $2000. That costs half as much and is probably better for everyone. Spend the rest on a good admin and a couple of very competent computer teachers.
Dreamhost (my hosting provider) is having the same problem. Check out the excellent summary of the situation in this blog entry.
DDR nothing, I can't wait for Punchout Wii. One in each hand, REAL boxing type moves. You can block, punch, uppercut, jab, etc. That would rule. Also, have you seen the Madden video going around? Neither of those tends to be my kind of game but I'll have to try 'em out anyway.
Sounds terribly useful to me. My main computer is my Laptop which I move around a bit (on the desk, in the chair, on the couch, etc). I would LOVE to be able to sit down and plug the little dongle in (or better yet, just use UWB if it gets built into laptops) to sync with my iPod, connect a printer, etc. I have quite a few little USB gizmos and having to plug something into the laptop is a bit of a pain. But to be able to have all that stuff (let's add PDA, hard drive, etc) connected at once would be great. As it is now, I either have to choose what I want to plug in, or use a USB hub with a cable to wherever my laptop would be.
Not a lot of point for Desktops. Great for laptops. A wireless docking station.
OK, that makes perfect sense.