When someone talks about trying to reform people of a certain sub-culture and help them put their powers to good work, I am reminded of CAP from Stylewars.
CAP had one mission in life: to spraypaint the word CAP ontop of whatever you spray painted previously. All he wanted to do was piss people off. His tags weren't beautiful art; they were cheap white spray paint ontop of your piece. He was the script-kiddie of the tagging world.
There will always exist some social misfit who only wants to be destructive.
actually, in the area I bought my townhouse in, the prices were stagnant for 9 years. Then they shot up when I bought, and 3 years later, they haven't stopped.
Yes, perhaps its misleading of me to not emphasize that. Housing can also be "overvalued."
And even though it can appreciate in value and make you money by way of capital gains after a sale, its also the thing you use for shelter. Treat it as such. If it happens to make money, fine.
But it will be cheaper than renting. Also, the money you spend on the interest portion of your mortgage is tax-deductable. Something to consider for those who are highly compensated or just looking for a tax break.
With mortgages where you put down as little as 3% and the current interest rates SO SO SO low, now is the time to buy. Infact, with rates this low, try to roll the closing costs into the mortgage. The rates are really that low. Don't see yourself staying in the area beyond 5 years? Get a 15 year ARM (instead of a 30 yr fixed) and get an even LOWER interest rate.
3 years ago I bought a town house. My monthly mortage (with 3% down and no PMI, due to some program they were running) including property taxes was less than what I paid for an apartment. And 3 times the space. 3 years later, my monthly outlay for housing has remained constant; apartment prices DON'T.
The appreciation on the town house has been significant; when everyone was losing money on tech stocks in 2001 and 2002 I was "making" money. Its probably what I will use as a downpayment for the house I'm looking to buy in a few months.
So the big issues are: 1) having 1 box that does it, or 3 boxes 2) components you already have
Consider: 100 cd carousel, console with one of those "30+ classic atari games!", and an AV receiver to combine the sound sources (A, B, or A+B). (those carousels go for $60 these days, a console can go from $300 down to nothing if used, and a receiver can be anywhere from $1000 to under $100, depending upon your needs).
If you already have a lot of these components, this set up can satisfy most of your requirements. But if you want this all on ONE box, then there is only one way to go: Custom set-up.
As for the computer solution, playing ripped music (Wavs, Flac, MP3, WTF) and playing MAME are not really processor intensive- so whatever machine you have lying around might be great. All you need is a half decent sound card (if you don't need Dolby 5.1, then most cheap soundblasters will do ya!) and a half decent videocard with some TV out (does your TV take composite? Coax? S-video?). And an $80 harddrive from Compusa (maybe 2 if you don't go for MP3).
So thats like, $250, $300 for HD, soundcard and video card?
Which is cheap, but the above setup can be just as cheap.
In this case, (no PVR) the Computer solution might be cheaper than a PVR solution (due to the limited demands on the computer) and it satisfies the 1 box requirement. So thats a win.
In actuality, a lot of slashdotters have found the price to be about what it would cost to go with a store bought solution. So I challenge you to spec out a system that functions as good as the store bought and is cheaper.
The major point is builders pride. You do it because you love the doing.
okay, apparently I'm not hardcore! But after a while you need to switch up games. For example, I can't play Grand Theft Auto for more than 5 hours... I gotta switch to something else. Same with Halo.
Ehen I visited my friends in brooklyn (who have an Xbox) we played Halo and another game that was just like Halo. Both were good, and we had a blast... but that was it. Golf doesn't interest me, nor does KOTOR (do I have to turn in my geek membership card now?!).
But! I totally forgot about Xbox live- which apparently is well talked up by the Penny Arcade dewds.
sorry, I should have put a smiley face after the "still hanging on" comment... But I feel confident in saying that Nintendo's major strategy (in addition to GBA tie ins, which are really just bogus and kinda lame) was being cheaper.
As for the Backwards compatibility of PS2, I think it was a great gimmick and during acceptance meant you can play your old games. I mean, instead of having a console with 3 new games, you had 20 old ones, too! But many years down the road, while some STILL play PS1 games on their PS2s they are in the minority (and they are also known as cheap-skates;).
The gem from the article: The details suggest Microsoft is far more concerned about keeping the cost of its Xbox Next console low than it is with including dazzling technological features or driving its rivals out of the business, according to a variety of industry sources.
The Xbox outperforms the PS2 on graphics every day. Yet, I prefer the PS2 (mostly because once you are done playing HALO, whats next?!)
So performance is not enough. Nintendo's strategy was to underprice the behemoths, and they are still hanging on.
So if MSFT can sell a console cheaper than the PS3, AND!! get a bunch of games developed, they will continue on into the future as a major player in the home console market.
Not only did I download the BIG QY10 manual from the Yamaha page (which I bought off eBay), AND the Tascam MR-8 fromn their page (Even though I sitll have the manual) and the Sony cordless phone, but I download every manual I can (the whole SDK for palm os, etc. etc. etc.).
This makes ME happy. And when you make me happy, I spend my money on you. It was so GRAND to leaf through the MR-8 manual pages to find out exactly what it can and can't do without sinking my money down and finding out I can't use it for the purpose I intended.
Slashdot Mirror
When someone talks about trying to reform people of a certain sub-culture and help them put their powers to good work, I am reminded of CAP from Stylewars.
CAP had one mission in life: to spraypaint the word CAP ontop of whatever you spray painted previously. All he wanted to do was piss people off. His tags weren't beautiful art; they were cheap white spray paint ontop of your piece. He was the script-kiddie of the tagging world.
There will always exist some social misfit who only wants to be destructive.
actually, in the area I bought my townhouse in, the prices were stagnant for 9 years. Then they shot up when I bought, and 3 years later, they haven't stopped.
Yes, perhaps its misleading of me to not emphasize that. Housing can also be "overvalued."
And even though it can appreciate in value and make you money by way of capital gains after a sale, its also the thing you use for shelter. Treat it as such. If it happens to make money, fine.
But it will be cheaper than renting. Also, the money you spend on the interest portion of your mortgage is tax-deductable. Something to consider for those who are highly compensated or just looking for a tax break.
$7k can be your closing costs. 0% down. super low interest rates. Stop renting; its bad for you.
With mortgages where you put down as little as 3% and the current interest rates SO SO SO low, now is the time to buy.
Infact, with rates this low, try to roll the closing costs into the mortgage. The rates are really that low. Don't see yourself staying in the area beyond 5 years? Get a 15 year ARM (instead of a 30 yr fixed) and get an even LOWER interest rate.
3 years ago I bought a town house. My monthly mortage (with 3% down and no PMI, due to some program they were running) including property taxes was less than what I paid for an apartment. And 3 times the space. 3 years later, my monthly outlay for housing has remained constant; apartment prices DON'T.
The appreciation on the town house has been significant; when everyone was losing money on tech stocks in 2001 and 2002 I was "making" money. Its probably what I will use as a downpayment for the house I'm looking to buy in a few months.
that's what I'm saying! MSFT's key to the market is being CHEAP. Good, and CHEAP. And those controllers have got to go.
yet at this late stage, the only thing that would get me to buy an Xbox would be to drop the price to $100...
So the big issues are: 1) having 1 box that does it, or 3 boxes
2) components you already have
Consider: 100 cd carousel, console with one of those "30+ classic atari games!", and an AV receiver to combine the sound sources (A, B, or A+B). (those carousels go for $60 these days, a console can go from $300 down to nothing if used, and a receiver can be anywhere from $1000 to under $100, depending upon your needs).
If you already have a lot of these components, this set up can satisfy most of your requirements.
But if you want this all on ONE box, then there is only one way to go: Custom set-up.
As for the computer solution, playing ripped music (Wavs, Flac, MP3, WTF) and playing MAME are not really processor intensive- so whatever machine you have lying around might be great. All you need is a half decent sound card (if you don't need Dolby 5.1, then most cheap soundblasters will do ya!) and a half decent videocard with some TV out (does your TV take composite? Coax? S-video?). And an $80 harddrive from Compusa (maybe 2 if you don't go for MP3).
So thats like, $250, $300 for HD, soundcard and video card?
Which is cheap, but the above setup can be just as cheap.
In this case, (no PVR) the Computer solution might be cheaper than a PVR solution (due to the limited demands on the computer) and it satisfies the 1 box requirement. So thats a win.
In actuality, a lot of slashdotters have found the price to be about what it would cost to go with a store bought solution. So I challenge you to spec out a system that functions as good as the store bought and is cheaper.
The major point is builders pride. You do it because you love the doing.
okay, apparently I'm not hardcore! But after a while you need to switch up games. For example, I can't play Grand Theft Auto for more than 5 hours... I gotta switch to something else. Same with Halo.
haven't played, but yeah, the Penny Arcade boys speak highly of it.
Ehen I visited my friends in brooklyn (who have an Xbox) we played Halo and another game that was just like Halo. Both were good, and we had a blast... but that was it. Golf doesn't interest me, nor does KOTOR (do I have to turn in my geek membership card now?!).
But! I totally forgot about Xbox live- which apparently is well talked up by the Penny Arcade dewds.
sorry, I should have put a smiley face after the "still hanging on" comment... But I feel confident in saying that Nintendo's major strategy (in addition to GBA tie ins, which are really just bogus and kinda lame) was being cheaper.
;).
As for the Backwards compatibility of PS2, I think it was a great gimmick and during acceptance meant you can play your old games. I mean, instead of having a console with 3 new games, you had 20 old ones, too! But many years down the road, while some STILL play PS1 games on their PS2s they are in the minority (and they are also known as cheap-skates
Subject line pretty much says it all.
The gem from the article:
The details suggest Microsoft is far more concerned about keeping the cost of its Xbox Next console low than it is with including dazzling technological features or driving its rivals out of the business, according to a variety of industry sources.
The Xbox outperforms the PS2 on graphics every day. Yet, I prefer the PS2 (mostly because once you are done playing HALO, whats next?!)
So performance is not enough. Nintendo's strategy was to underprice the behemoths, and they are still hanging on.
So if MSFT can sell a console cheaper than the PS3, AND!! get a bunch of games developed,
they will continue on into the future as a major player in the home console market.
(just my 2 cents)
You expect information from the headline.
wait no, scratch that;
You read the headline.
God bless slashdot.
Actually, I don't read the headline, NOR the actual article. I just come to post some smarmy tripe.
US State Department
I guess RTFA is too much to ask on a slow news day.
Not only did I download the BIG QY10 manual from the Yamaha page (which I bought off eBay), AND the Tascam MR-8 fromn their page (Even though I sitll have the manual) and the Sony cordless phone, but I download every manual I can (the whole SDK for palm os, etc. etc. etc.).
This makes ME happy. And when you make me happy, I spend my money on you. It was so GRAND to leaf through the MR-8 manual pages to find out exactly what it can and can't do without sinking my money down and finding out I can't use it for the purpose I intended.
This was a FAR easier read than that pendantic crap!
I can't believe I scrolled almost half-way down!
Is it me, or did no-one else get your allusion? /. is pathetic. I quit.
panasonic had them, too!
I loved reading the VCR manual for those pictures alone.
That's just part of an old frame tale!
Good catch!
embers-fire
Is that your last name?
That is the COOLEST name I have ever seen! (well, second to Zaxxon...) 2 points!
Will it see how assinine our legal system is.
;)
The last sentence was counting on the context from the previous sentence. When you don't read the whole headline, you miss out on the context.
Or maybe you just haven't had enough caffeine yet.