I agree. I assumed that the image of the computer(s) would be included in the backup. Having those images will save you a ton of time, even if each image is only for 50 computers.
That said, there is a big difference between backing up the images and backing up each individual desktop in the company.
This may just be a wording issue, but it looks like you want to back up the desktops. Is that true?
I can't think of any good reason to do that. All the important data should be on the server. If the user wants to save a picture on the local disk to use as a background or something that's one thing (although I wouldn't allow that myself) but nothing important should be on those disks.
Past that, I don't have the experience to help you. All I can do is reiterate what another poster has already put up. Check the backups. I can't tell you how many stories I've heard about backups that "went fine" until someone needed data. Stories where the tapes were so old they almost shredded themselves in the drives. Stories of "backing up" for at least 6 months onto a cleaning tape (I bet the drive was in good condition though!). Stories of the backup data being garbage because of a faulty cable or something. The backup is worthless if you can't get the data back off it successfully.
Reminds me of one of my favorite Futurama quotes, from the episode called "Put Your Head on my Shoulders." The gang is at Elzar's restaurant as bender comes up offering to sell roses to give to their dates.
Bender: Now how about a rose for the lady? Five bucks a pop! Gary: I'll take one. Fry: Oh, yeah? Well I want one too. Bender: Eight bucks. Fry: But you just said-- Bender: Demand suddenly skyrocketed. You all saw it!
So many stores simply didn't sell 360s because they eBayed their entire stock. I don't see why Sony doesn't do the same.
Just set a price. A DECENT price. $400.
Then say "the first two shipments will be sold all on eBay by us. Bidding starts now."
The fanboys and early adopters who are willing to shell out will drive all the systems up to $900 or more. Sony will sell 'em all, they'll make a profit (surely PS3s don't cost THAT much to make), and those of us who will wait for a more reasonable price will get it later.
Instead, they're charging EVERYONE $600. They will sell fewer to "normal" people, and they won't get any of those insane profit margins that eBaying the first two shippment would get them. Sony is worse off, the average joe is worse off.
It's simple economics. If you have a hot product, why fuss with stores and go straight to a market decided price (with a minimum, of course) by eBaying them for a while. I'm sure eBay would cut you a huge deal on the auction.
Heck, you're Sony. You can auction them yourself off your site.
But instead of charging $400 and getting tons of proffit from the people willing to pay $1500, you're charging $600 and getting a large loss.
The worst part is the console. I remember a couple of years ago when the phantom was relatively new they showed off the console and some PC ports and the thing seemed at least somewhat real. At this point, they seem to have less of a console than ever. Even if they released the console they originally promised, it would be underpowered. Here are the specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2500+
Video card: nVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra, with 128MB RAM
RAM: 256MB
Hard drive: 80GB "content cache"
The HDD is good and the RAM is comparable to the 360. The graphics card is very outdated (the Wii is probably more advanced), and the CPU at 1.8 GHz doesn't quite compare with triple 3.2 GHz cores of a 360.
And they'd probably have to charge PS3 type prices just to try to stay afloat, and I think we all know how well they'd do with those prices.
Amazing that some investors are just this stupid. At this point, how could they EVER make that money back? Even if they sold that keyboard for $200 and it was pure profit, they'd have to sell 350,000 of 'em and they'll never do that (especially at that price).
It's like watching Duke Nukem Forever's development, only more absurd.
Nope, it depends on exactly how you define things.
If you mean "the chicken or any kind of egg", the answer is any kind of egg. Obviously, dinosaurs had eggs before chickens existed.
If you mean "the chicken or the chicken's egg", the answer is the chicken. Only a chicken can lay a chicken's egg.
If you mean "the chicken or the egg containing a chicken", then the answer is the egg, because as the article points out the first chicken had to exist in an egg before it laid eggs of its own.
GLOVER, ANDERSON B, KC5UVV (Technician)
(address removed by me for privacy reasons)
Issue Date: Jun 05, 1996
Expire Date: Jun 05, 2006
Date of last Change: Jun 05, 1996
Nothing like the fun of public databases! Looks like you have less than 2 weeks before your license runs out.
I should note... I just thought of an experience that kind of shows why I'm excited.
If you look up last Sunday's Fox Trot comic strip, you'll see Jason tap dancing. In the last panel he is telling his friend Marcus that he didn't get into the talent show because one of the judges knew morse code. It was so cool for me to be able to figure out what the message was ("Some day I will rule you all") without having to go to a translator program on the internet.
Lots of people know Spanish, or French, or other such things. Morse code is a true geek language.
I have a Technician's license. My call sign is KC0QBP. I have a HT that I've used on and off to listen to the local repeater and such. I kind of lost interest in that part. After all, 2m and such mostly lets you talk to local hams.
That said, I've been learning morse code since Christmas and I intend to take the code test next month (the next time my local club offers the test). I'm going to order an Elecraft K2 and I'm quite excited. CW is so much more interesting than FM Voice. It takes skill, it has a challenge, and you I can hear letters and words in the series of beeps. Plus you can use it to talk to people all over the world. I'm especially excited because the K2 is a big electronics kit. The fact is once you get past a few blinking LED kits and such there are just no electronic kits to build that take any skill.
I find it kind of interesting, but I can see why some people don't think it's terribly interesting. Many of the things that used to make ham radio so interesting (being able to talk to people across the country or the world for free) are no longer unique (thanks to the internet and basically free long-distance calling).
It's too bad eHam has been down for 2 days (at least). I've wanted to post on their message board but I can't (since... it's down). I don't suppose anyone knows why?
You're right, there is nothing wrong with bookmarks. I meant the "google search for favoritestore.com" part. I then remembered that they also used bookmarks (because the google search thing was weird to them, as it should have been) so I added that statement. I just added it the wrong place.
Well, I tend to shorten them to "slash" and "backslash".
As for the exclamation point, that's what I tend to call it. I would have to think for a while if you called it a "bang" to me. But if I'm describing a statement to someone that needs it in programming (such a "if (!condition || func(x))" then I just say "not". The person knows what I'm talking about.
I just thought of another one. Make sure to teach them about URLs when you do the web. Someone else touched on teaching them this, but let me give some specific things.
How do you go to a website? Do you know what the #1 search on Yahoo is? It's "Google". My parent's computers are set up with Google as the home page. Do you know how they get just about anywhere? Searching google. Want to go to "favoritestore.com"? Well you type "favoritestore.com" in the Google search field and hit Search then click on the right one that comes up. They also use bookmarks. That one took a LONG TIME to break. I can not tell you how many people I've seen with that one.
Also, what is a home page in your web browser? That's the company that sells you your internet service! We subscribe to Google. We never get a bill from them. We do get bills from Comcast for Internet. But that little logical inconsistency doesn't seem to occur to them. I think I've got this one through to my parents too, but I'm not sure. I know it is (at least in part) related to AOL. The fact that you can change this to whatever you want is important and should be mentioned.
The last one for now is a personal pet-peeve of mine. I run into this in the otherwise very smart and computer savvy people in my high level CS classes.
This -/ - is a FOREWORD-slash
This - \ - is a BACK-slash
One leans forward, the other leans backward. The terms are NOT INTERCHANGEABLE. The mean DIFFERENT things.
Of course this wouldn't be a problem is MS stuck with / as a path separator for DOS just like UNIX used, but that's another argument.
An excellent list. I can only add a few small things to it.
First is the Ctrl-X/V/C. Make sure they understand copy/paste/cut. It is terribly useful and something that a surprisingly small number of computer users seem to know how to use.
READ DIALOG BOXES. This goes with the "no one from Nigeria" stuff. I can't tell you how many people I've helped with computers or errors or questions where the process of helping them consisted of "Did you read the dialog box?" "What does the dialog box say?" "So what should you do?" and that helped them.
Last, and most important UNDERSTAND THE FILESYSTEM. I've gotten my parents quite good at day-to-day use of the computer. It has taken YEARS. That said, I wouldn't consider them computer literate. This is one of the reasons.
So you want to find a file my parents saved. Where is it? That's right... My Documents. Not a sub-folder, just My Documents. That's where there are a few thousand files. Why? Because that is the default save location. Unless it's not. Some programs (AOL, etc) like to save somewhere else. So files saved from those programs are in those folders. Good luck finding anything, especially with the cruddy Windows search function. Spotlight would work well, but then again I gave them Google Desktop and they don't use it (it's easier to just scroll through the list of 3,000 files).
Introducing them to a few basic file types (TXT, JPG, HTML, DOC, XLS, ZIP, etc.) would also be a good step. So would the idea that you can delete a zip file after you unzip it. A decent chunk of the stuff in my parents My Documents folder? Zip files and their contents that Windows or AOL unzipped for them. But since that process is hidden, they don't know to delete the ZIP files or what they are.
In fact, they don't understand files and e-mail either. When you get an attachment in e-mail (say a picture) and you choose to view it and it gets saved to the hard drive... what do you do the next time you want to view that picture? That's right, you go to the e-mail and RE-SAVE the file with the default filename (helpfully with a "(1)" or some such at the end to ensure you have tons of spare copies) and let the right program open up automatically again. E-mail is a foreign land from the file system for all they know. AOL and it's tendencies to keep it's own weird folders and such have NOT helped at all in this regard.
In fact, warn them against AOL in the first place. I can not tell you how many things I've given up teaching because of AOL.
I'll post more if I can think of it. But basic use of the filesystem (especially creating folder and how you can nest folders and use that for organization) is critical.
Maybe the PS3 is reasonably priced compared to previous consoles if you take inflation into account.
But Nintendo is still only charging $250 or so
And $600 just strikes me as WAY TOO MUCH. Even if it is not that bad historically. I could buy a decent laptop for that. I could buy a new HDTV. I could pay 2 months of car payments on a VERY nice car.
If MS wanted $400, Sony wanted $600, and Nintendo wanted $400 then I might be willing to pay more. But if Nintendo can sell their console (that I REALLY want) for $250, then Sony won't get me to buy their "ultra powerful do all" console (that I'm somewhat interested in) for 2-3x that.
And that assumes Nintendo doesn't go with $200 (1/3 the price of a PS3) or $150 (1/4 the price).
They had my money. They built up brand equity. I was ready to buy it. Even if they pulled a 360 and charged $400.
Then they announced it would cost $600. And did I mention that there aren't really any games I really want to play? Just MGS4 and maybe Assassin's Creed.
Nice try Sony. You lost your brand equity. It was alredy eroeded with the PSP (how about some good games for once?). I was full-on Nintendo before all of this. I still like Nintendo best and will buy their console.
But I won't be buying a PS3 for over $400. I may even wait for $300. I won't be buying a 360 for over $300.
Three consoles, two shot themselves in the foot (as far as I'm concerned). Who will win? The expensive one, the MORE expensive one, or the reasonably priced one with about a dozen games that I want to play?
When I bought my mac last year, I can tell you that having BootCamp would have eased my mind a bunch. It would have been very nice to be able to "go back to Windows" if I found OS X horrible (which I was pretty sure I wouldn't).
Would I have used BootCamp much? Probably not.
The one use I would have for it is I still need Windows for school sometimes. I keep Virtual PC around for that. However I may have used BootCamp to statisfy that disire. However I would rather use ParallelWorstation (or whatever that software is called) instead if they were available at the same time (as it turned out they were).
In short, it would have eased my mind but I don't think I'd use it much.
On second thought, I probably would. I'd love to have CounterStrike again.
2 GHz Core Duo, 1 Gig of RAM, XP Pro, 100 Gig 7200 RPM drive, glossy screen, you're looking at $1746 shipped.
The price YOU quoted was for 1.66 GHz, XP Media Center, 5400 RPM drive, non-glossy screen.
By the way, both prices are after a 22% SALE that Dell is holding. I know they're always holding some sale or another, but even with the sale your price is flat out wrong for the specs you quoted.
This doesn't include all the great software that OS X comes with like iLife, iWork, and more. Also, the Dell is 50% thicker than the Mac. The video out is VGA only (not DVI). On the plus side, you do get the 5-in-1 media card reader (I'm still surprised Apple hasn't done this yet with all the media stuff they push).
If I make a white Macbook match the Dell (by upping the RAM, the hard drive, and adding Apple Care)... it costs $1798.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Macintosh premium: $52
That's 3%.
I'd GLADLY pay $52 to get OS X, iLife, and a laptop that isn't 50% thicker.
That's interesting. I went to Dell and configured a laptop to match the Macbook. It was an Inspiron 6400. Same processor, same memory, same graphics, same wireless, same size hard drive, none of the great Apple software. The display is 15".
$1487.
An equivalent Macbook (the lowest one) is $1099. Add in $200 for Applecare and the Macbook is still cheaper. Plus the Dell is 50% thicker. It also weighs 16% more.
An Inspiron 640m 14" notebook configured to be the same as the Macbook is $1457. Still $200 more and you don't get all that great software (OS X and iLife). It weighs the same, but is still 50% thicker.
What a 12" screen? You'll need a Inspiron 710m. But that means a 1.7 GHz Pentium M. Matching things the best I can otherwise (CD-RW only, no DVD reader or burner) it costs... $1658. That's $400 more than the Macbook. It weighs one pound less than the 13" MacBook but... it's STILL 50% THICKER.
The Macbook is a great deal. You say you configured a cheaper Dell... can you provide the model? I'd like to see for myself.
First, there is OS X. Even if you don't think you're that interested, just give it a try. You might like it. You could also keep it around for media purposes (iDVD, etc).
You can run Windows, Linux or OS X. You can run virtualization software (Parallels Workstation is the name of the main one right now, and some say Leopard will have it built in) so you can run multiple OSes at once with better performance than VMWare (just make sure to put a ton of RAM in). My understanding is that Macs end up very well supported too in Linux. Combine that with the fact you are now using x86 hardware (which means it's in lots of laptops) and the drivers should be there very soon (if they aren't there now).
Plus there is the great Apple hardware. If you get the MacBook Pro, you get the cool glowing keyboard and screen that brighten and dim with the ambient light (note: no idea how well this is supported in Linux). The thing is thin, quiet (compared to most laptops), they are supposed to be running much cooler with the latest firmware update, they have the sudden motion sensor, front row remote (someone will make that work under Linux soon), magsafe power connector, and more.
They are BEAUTIFUL machines. OS X is fantastic. Give it a try. Worst case scenario, you end up with a beautiful laptop running Linux. Or you may just fall in love with OS X. Either way, it's great hardware.
I think we will see the per-game fee, which depending on how much virtual console you intent to play isn't bad (as long as they don't do something stupid like make the games expire after 90 days).
That said, I really like your Gametap idea. I think that would be an excellent way to offer the virtual console service.
Both would be ideal. Only interested in one or two games? Just buy 'em. Want to play 'em all? That will be $7.50 a month.
I think episodic content is an interesting idea and I'm for it, but only on one condition.
It should start episodic, and it should be cheap. First episode is $10. Second is $10. Third is $10....
And of course they have to be worth that much (a decent amount of content). $10 is enough that I'm willing to risk it, unlike the $60 you have to pay for a normal game. None of this "our game is $60, and then each episode is $15 after that" stuff. Don't use episodic content as an excuse for not completing a full expansion pack.
I don't think we'll see this done right ever. But the idea is there. That's how I'd be willing to buy episodic content (in fact I would be more likely to buy because of the lower risk I'm willing to tolerate when a game costs $60).
I should have checked Wikipedia. Thanks for the link.
I keep forgetting just HOW MUCH STUFF Wikipedia has. They are quickly approaching Tower of Babble / Library of Alexandria status in many ways (at least in English).
Odd things can be related. I remember hearing about how there were fox fur breeders somewhere (like in Russia). They decided to try to breed tamer foxes so they wouldn't have to worry about getting bit so much. Well after a few generations they succeeded. There was only one problem: all the tame foxes had a big white streak down their back, ruining the pelt. They two traits were related somehow, even though you wouldn't think it.
So, what if it was a choice between good vision and very high intelligence? How about between good vision or very low risk of cancer/heart disease?
Bad vision is correctable. If there is a trade off to make, good vision would be something that wouldn't be too hard to trade for something better.
This is the kind of thing I was thinking. As fun as it may be to say "Sony is evil again!", there is no reason why this couldn't be a normal Blu-Ray title that was just edited. You could take a DVD edit out a certain chunk of the title and then it would fit on a CD without having to compress it more. This could easily be the same thing (especially if you cut out all the extra languages, special features, etc).
Those are all announced. While there are quite a few there, I don't think many of them will be big "must have" type titles. More important though is which of those are launch titles. We actually know very little about what is a launch title and what is not right now.
Slashdot Mirror
That said, there is a big difference between backing up the images and backing up each individual desktop in the company.
I can't think of any good reason to do that. All the important data should be on the server. If the user wants to save a picture on the local disk to use as a background or something that's one thing (although I wouldn't allow that myself) but nothing important should be on those disks.
Past that, I don't have the experience to help you. All I can do is reiterate what another poster has already put up. Check the backups. I can't tell you how many stories I've heard about backups that "went fine" until someone needed data. Stories where the tapes were so old they almost shredded themselves in the drives. Stories of "backing up" for at least 6 months onto a cleaning tape (I bet the drive was in good condition though!). Stories of the backup data being garbage because of a faulty cable or something. The backup is worthless if you can't get the data back off it successfully.
Bender: Now how about a rose for the lady? Five bucks a pop!
Gary: I'll take one.
Fry: Oh, yeah? Well I want one too.
Bender: Eight bucks.
Fry: But you just said--
Bender: Demand suddenly skyrocketed. You all saw it!
Just set a price. A DECENT price. $400.
Then say "the first two shipments will be sold all on eBay by us. Bidding starts now."
The fanboys and early adopters who are willing to shell out will drive all the systems up to $900 or more. Sony will sell 'em all, they'll make a profit (surely PS3s don't cost THAT much to make), and those of us who will wait for a more reasonable price will get it later.
Instead, they're charging EVERYONE $600. They will sell fewer to "normal" people, and they won't get any of those insane profit margins that eBaying the first two shippment would get them. Sony is worse off, the average joe is worse off.
It's simple economics. If you have a hot product, why fuss with stores and go straight to a market decided price (with a minimum, of course) by eBaying them for a while. I'm sure eBay would cut you a huge deal on the auction.
Heck, you're Sony. You can auction them yourself off your site.
But instead of charging $400 and getting tons of proffit from the people willing to pay $1500, you're charging $600 and getting a large loss.
Genius.
The worst part is the console. I remember a couple of years ago when the phantom was relatively new they showed off the console and some PC ports and the thing seemed at least somewhat real. At this point, they seem to have less of a console than ever. Even if they released the console they originally promised, it would be underpowered. Here are the specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2500+
Video card: nVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra, with 128MB RAM
RAM: 256MB
Hard drive: 80GB "content cache"
The HDD is good and the RAM is comparable to the 360. The graphics card is very outdated (the Wii is probably more advanced), and the CPU at 1.8 GHz doesn't quite compare with triple 3.2 GHz cores of a 360.
And they'd probably have to charge PS3 type prices just to try to stay afloat, and I think we all know how well they'd do with those prices.
Amazing that some investors are just this stupid. At this point, how could they EVER make that money back? Even if they sold that keyboard for $200 and it was pure profit, they'd have to sell 350,000 of 'em and they'll never do that (especially at that price).
It's like watching Duke Nukem Forever's development, only more absurd.
If you mean "the chicken or any kind of egg", the answer is any kind of egg. Obviously, dinosaurs had eggs before chickens existed.
If you mean "the chicken or the chicken's egg", the answer is the chicken. Only a chicken can lay a chicken's egg.
If you mean "the chicken or the egg containing a chicken", then the answer is the egg, because as the article points out the first chicken had to exist in an egg before it laid eggs of its own.
So... what kind of egg?
Nothing like the fun of public databases! Looks like you have less than 2 weeks before your license runs out.
If you look up last Sunday's Fox Trot comic strip, you'll see Jason tap dancing. In the last panel he is telling his friend Marcus that he didn't get into the talent show because one of the judges knew morse code. It was so cool for me to be able to figure out what the message was ("Some day I will rule you all") without having to go to a translator program on the internet.
Lots of people know Spanish, or French, or other such things. Morse code is a true geek language.
That said, I've been learning morse code since Christmas and I intend to take the code test next month (the next time my local club offers the test). I'm going to order an Elecraft K2 and I'm quite excited. CW is so much more interesting than FM Voice. It takes skill, it has a challenge, and you I can hear letters and words in the series of beeps. Plus you can use it to talk to people all over the world. I'm especially excited because the K2 is a big electronics kit. The fact is once you get past a few blinking LED kits and such there are just no electronic kits to build that take any skill.
I find it kind of interesting, but I can see why some people don't think it's terribly interesting. Many of the things that used to make ham radio so interesting (being able to talk to people across the country or the world for free) are no longer unique (thanks to the internet and basically free long-distance calling).
It's too bad eHam has been down for 2 days (at least). I've wanted to post on their message board but I can't (since... it's down). I don't suppose anyone knows why?
You're right, there is nothing wrong with bookmarks. I meant the "google search for favoritestore.com" part. I then remembered that they also used bookmarks (because the google search thing was weird to them, as it should have been) so I added that statement. I just added it the wrong place.
As for the exclamation point, that's what I tend to call it. I would have to think for a while if you called it a "bang" to me. But if I'm describing a statement to someone that needs it in programming (such a "if (!condition || func(x))" then I just say "not". The person knows what I'm talking about.
How do you go to a website? Do you know what the #1 search on Yahoo is? It's "Google". My parent's computers are set up with Google as the home page. Do you know how they get just about anywhere? Searching google. Want to go to "favoritestore.com"? Well you type "favoritestore.com" in the Google search field and hit Search then click on the right one that comes up. They also use bookmarks. That one took a LONG TIME to break. I can not tell you how many people I've seen with that one.
Also, what is a home page in your web browser? That's the company that sells you your internet service! We subscribe to Google. We never get a bill from them. We do get bills from Comcast for Internet. But that little logical inconsistency doesn't seem to occur to them. I think I've got this one through to my parents too, but I'm not sure. I know it is (at least in part) related to AOL. The fact that you can change this to whatever you want is important and should be mentioned.
The last one for now is a personal pet-peeve of mine. I run into this in the otherwise very smart and computer savvy people in my high level CS classes.
This - / - is a FOREWORD-slash
This - \ - is a BACK-slash
One leans forward, the other leans backward. The terms are NOT INTERCHANGEABLE. The mean DIFFERENT things.
Of course this wouldn't be a problem is MS stuck with / as a path separator for DOS just like UNIX used, but that's another argument.
First is the Ctrl-X/V/C. Make sure they understand copy/paste/cut. It is terribly useful and something that a surprisingly small number of computer users seem to know how to use.
READ DIALOG BOXES. This goes with the "no one from Nigeria" stuff. I can't tell you how many people I've helped with computers or errors or questions where the process of helping them consisted of "Did you read the dialog box?" "What does the dialog box say?" "So what should you do?" and that helped them.
Last, and most important UNDERSTAND THE FILESYSTEM. I've gotten my parents quite good at day-to-day use of the computer. It has taken YEARS. That said, I wouldn't consider them computer literate. This is one of the reasons.
So you want to find a file my parents saved. Where is it? That's right... My Documents. Not a sub-folder, just My Documents. That's where there are a few thousand files. Why? Because that is the default save location. Unless it's not. Some programs (AOL, etc) like to save somewhere else. So files saved from those programs are in those folders. Good luck finding anything, especially with the cruddy Windows search function. Spotlight would work well, but then again I gave them Google Desktop and they don't use it (it's easier to just scroll through the list of 3,000 files).
Introducing them to a few basic file types (TXT, JPG, HTML, DOC, XLS, ZIP, etc.) would also be a good step. So would the idea that you can delete a zip file after you unzip it. A decent chunk of the stuff in my parents My Documents folder? Zip files and their contents that Windows or AOL unzipped for them. But since that process is hidden, they don't know to delete the ZIP files or what they are.
In fact, they don't understand files and e-mail either. When you get an attachment in e-mail (say a picture) and you choose to view it and it gets saved to the hard drive... what do you do the next time you want to view that picture? That's right, you go to the e-mail and RE-SAVE the file with the default filename (helpfully with a "(1)" or some such at the end to ensure you have tons of spare copies) and let the right program open up automatically again. E-mail is a foreign land from the file system for all they know. AOL and it's tendencies to keep it's own weird folders and such have NOT helped at all in this regard.
In fact, warn them against AOL in the first place. I can not tell you how many things I've given up teaching because of AOL.
I'll post more if I can think of it. But basic use of the filesystem (especially creating folder and how you can nest folders and use that for organization) is critical.
But Nintendo is still only charging $250 or so
And $600 just strikes me as WAY TOO MUCH. Even if it is not that bad historically. I could buy a decent laptop for that. I could buy a new HDTV. I could pay 2 months of car payments on a VERY nice car.
If MS wanted $400, Sony wanted $600, and Nintendo wanted $400 then I might be willing to pay more. But if Nintendo can sell their console (that I REALLY want) for $250, then Sony won't get me to buy their "ultra powerful do all" console (that I'm somewhat interested in) for 2-3x that.
And that assumes Nintendo doesn't go with $200 (1/3 the price of a PS3) or $150 (1/4 the price).
Then they announced it would cost $600. And did I mention that there aren't really any games I really want to play? Just MGS4 and maybe Assassin's Creed.
Nice try Sony. You lost your brand equity. It was alredy eroeded with the PSP (how about some good games for once?). I was full-on Nintendo before all of this. I still like Nintendo best and will buy their console.
But I won't be buying a PS3 for over $400. I may even wait for $300. I won't be buying a 360 for over $300.
Three consoles, two shot themselves in the foot (as far as I'm concerned). Who will win? The expensive one, the MORE expensive one, or the reasonably priced one with about a dozen games that I want to play?
Hmmmmmm......
Would I have used BootCamp much? Probably not.
The one use I would have for it is I still need Windows for school sometimes. I keep Virtual PC around for that. However I may have used BootCamp to statisfy that disire. However I would rather use ParallelWorstation (or whatever that software is called) instead if they were available at the same time (as it turned out they were).
In short, it would have eased my mind but I don't think I'd use it much.
On second thought, I probably would. I'd love to have CounterStrike again.
I go to Dell and check out the same model...
2 GHz Core Duo, 1 Gig of RAM, XP Pro, 100 Gig 7200 RPM drive, glossy screen, you're looking at $1746 shipped.
The price YOU quoted was for 1.66 GHz, XP Media Center, 5400 RPM drive, non-glossy screen.
By the way, both prices are after a 22% SALE that Dell is holding. I know they're always holding some sale or another, but even with the sale your price is flat out wrong for the specs you quoted.
This doesn't include all the great software that OS X comes with like iLife, iWork, and more. Also, the Dell is 50% thicker than the Mac. The video out is VGA only (not DVI). On the plus side, you do get the 5-in-1 media card reader (I'm still surprised Apple hasn't done this yet with all the media stuff they push).
If I make a white Macbook match the Dell (by upping the RAM, the hard drive, and adding Apple Care)... it costs $1798.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Macintosh premium: $52
That's 3%.
I'd GLADLY pay $52 to get OS X, iLife, and a laptop that isn't 50% thicker.
$1487.
An equivalent Macbook (the lowest one) is $1099. Add in $200 for Applecare and the Macbook is still cheaper. Plus the Dell is 50% thicker. It also weighs 16% more.
An Inspiron 640m 14" notebook configured to be the same as the Macbook is $1457. Still $200 more and you don't get all that great software (OS X and iLife). It weighs the same, but is still 50% thicker.
What a 12" screen? You'll need a Inspiron 710m. But that means a 1.7 GHz Pentium M. Matching things the best I can otherwise (CD-RW only, no DVD reader or burner) it costs... $1658. That's $400 more than the Macbook. It weighs one pound less than the 13" MacBook but... it's STILL 50% THICKER.
The Macbook is a great deal. You say you configured a cheaper Dell... can you provide the model? I'd like to see for myself.
First, there is OS X. Even if you don't think you're that interested, just give it a try. You might like it. You could also keep it around for media purposes (iDVD, etc).
You can run Windows, Linux or OS X. You can run virtualization software (Parallels Workstation is the name of the main one right now, and some say Leopard will have it built in) so you can run multiple OSes at once with better performance than VMWare (just make sure to put a ton of RAM in). My understanding is that Macs end up very well supported too in Linux. Combine that with the fact you are now using x86 hardware (which means it's in lots of laptops) and the drivers should be there very soon (if they aren't there now).
Plus there is the great Apple hardware. If you get the MacBook Pro, you get the cool glowing keyboard and screen that brighten and dim with the ambient light (note: no idea how well this is supported in Linux). The thing is thin, quiet (compared to most laptops), they are supposed to be running much cooler with the latest firmware update, they have the sudden motion sensor, front row remote (someone will make that work under Linux soon), magsafe power connector, and more.
They are BEAUTIFUL machines. OS X is fantastic. Give it a try. Worst case scenario, you end up with a beautiful laptop running Linux. Or you may just fall in love with OS X. Either way, it's great hardware.
That said, I really like your Gametap idea. I think that would be an excellent way to offer the virtual console service.
Both would be ideal. Only interested in one or two games? Just buy 'em. Want to play 'em all? That will be $7.50 a month.
That would be fantastic.
It should start episodic, and it should be cheap. First episode is $10. Second is $10. Third is $10....
And of course they have to be worth that much (a decent amount of content). $10 is enough that I'm willing to risk it, unlike the $60 you have to pay for a normal game. None of this "our game is $60, and then each episode is $15 after that" stuff. Don't use episodic content as an excuse for not completing a full expansion pack.
I don't think we'll see this done right ever. But the idea is there. That's how I'd be willing to buy episodic content (in fact I would be more likely to buy because of the lower risk I'm willing to tolerate when a game costs $60).
I keep forgetting just HOW MUCH STUFF Wikipedia has. They are quickly approaching Tower of Babble / Library of Alexandria status in many ways (at least in English).
So, what if it was a choice between good vision and very high intelligence? How about between good vision or very low risk of cancer/heart disease?
Bad vision is correctable. If there is a trade off to make, good vision would be something that wouldn't be too hard to trade for something better.
This is the kind of thing I was thinking. As fun as it may be to say "Sony is evil again!", there is no reason why this couldn't be a normal Blu-Ray title that was just edited. You could take a DVD edit out a certain chunk of the title and then it would fit on a CD without having to compress it more. This could easily be the same thing (especially if you cut out all the extra languages, special features, etc).
Those are all announced. While there are quite a few there, I don't think many of them will be big "must have" type titles. More important though is which of those are launch titles. We actually know very little about what is a launch title and what is not right now.