Just FYI, the parent is referring to Austin, TX. They had a huge population growth period but the city was under the mentality of "If we don't build it, they won't come." They were wrong, so Austin has something like the 4th worst traffic in the US and a cost of living somewhat like Atlanta.
They cancel out the engine noise and allow you to hear every inane conversation, screaming kid, and tubercular passenger coughing up a lung with crystal clarity. That's the OPPOSITE of what I need on a flight.
I found this out on my most recent flight. I bought a set of (JVC active noise canceling from Amazon) for use in the server room. My first 3 flights with the headphones were fine, but the latest flight had a screaming baby. You can hear it quite clearly with the noise canceling. That situation hadn't occurred to me while I was buying the headphones.
Region locking? I wasn't aware that any PS3 games were region locked if you played them in HD.
Movies, yes, they're region locked. The games though have a particular resolution for standard def (PAL or NTSC) and they all work in HD, or at least that's how it used to work earlier in the console cycle.
On the movie side, there's only 3 regions now. That's a heck of a lot better than DVD
Digital downloads restrictions are based on regional licensing. Publisher A owns the game rights in region X, but Publisher B owns them in region Y
On everything else I agree with you. I own a 60GB model that I had to send in for repairs and ended up losing all my game saves that I didn't have backed up (about a year out of date), and was out $150
Check out DRBD and Heartbeat. Our NFS servers are configured this way. Once box can die, but then it fails over within a few seconds. 2 boxes with RAID5s running as synchronized block devices.
Word of caution, our server is balls slow. I'm not sure why/haven't had time/it's a production server. I've got a few conjectures as to why it is:
It's a RAID5
The disks are SATA
It's a gigE link between the boxes (but our write speeds are like 20MBps, so I don't think it's that)
Anyhow, I also have a 60GB fat PS3. Never had any issues besides an occasional hard lock. Had a few graphics glitches but that was only in one game. However, I've been playing through FFXIII and that thing freezes on me all the time. I was able to get around it by copying game saves to a USB drive then copying back. Seriously that was the fix. Now I've gotten to the point where it freezes when a camera pans after a cutscene, so I can't skip that section of code. I expected a fix in 3.21 (they always seem to put those hidden "Improves playback quality of certain Playstation software titles" in the firmware updates) so I updated to that. Oh, and I'm also on the third copy of my disk and all of my other games play fine. Thought it might have been heat related and replaced the thermal paste since I've been out of warranty for at least 2 years--no luck. Probably going to rent God of War or Heavy Rain after finals and see if I get any more problems, particularly with dual layer disks.
I really think that the number of people complaining about firmware updates bricking fall into these categories (largest to smallest): 1) Trolls, 2) people who updated the firmware and had the power flicker or flipped the switch or something else stupid and are now trying to blame Sony and 3) legitimately had problems.
If it's the PS3 we're talking about (which was my interpretation) it doesn't have a registry. If it's a PC game somebody is going to find the registry key and post it on the internet so you can regedit it. I never said it wouldn't a PITA, but it is possible.
I may be in the minority here, but I think the above analogy is flawed and this might actually be a decent idea.
Try: You go to a Ford dealer and test a car. It goes like it should. You say "Eh, let me sleep on it" and come back the next day. Then you test drive it again, but this time the salesman thinks you're just trying to drive the car around town, so he gives you a shorter test drive, perhaps not on the interstate (thus limiting you to 35-45mph). You say "eh, I'll sleep on it" and come back 2 days later. This time he limits you to going around the block.
I don't know about you, but I play demos once, maybe twice. This is to prevent people playing demos repeatedly and not buying the game. See Zero Punctuation and mirror's edge (?). He says something to the effect of "Just play the demo repeatedly and you'll have the game." It's to stop stuff like that.
Besides, couldn't you just reinstall the demo? Delete the demo and delete your game save and redownload it (sorry for people with sucky internet connections). Thus your demo will be renewed. If you're willing to go through that hassle, fine keep playing the demo without buying the full game. I think a lot of consumers will be buying the game.
For Gamestop and other kiosks I suspect Sony will give them special demos that don't degrade if Sony ends up implementing this (regardless of whether or not they get the patent).
It depends on the class for me quite frankly.
More mathy classes I take paper notes. More programming classes I type notes on my netbook because my instructor normally ends up editing something 2-3 times and inserting. On paper that results in a lot of arrows.
For other classes that it could go either way I type my notes. I can type faster, and then if I get bored I can check my email and stuff (ie not really pay attention). When the instructor busts out the tables and whatnot I bust out my ASCII art skills.
While I find that plan amazing, can we all think of the simple solution here first?
ITGUY: "$PHB, Can I have your laptop for an hour sometime today to back up your data? That way, in case your laptop crashes you won't lose all your documents. I promise I'll have it back to you before you leave work."
When you phrase it like that, he realizes he has something to lose if the computer dies. It could be he doesn't realize how important everything is if his computer was to suddenly not be there. You then take it in the back, ghost it (takes like 15-20 mins top) and give him back the laptop. Sure you have an image and not files, but you can restore it to another laptop (presumably you have a spare) and then pull the individual files off if you really wanted to.
Try that first, then if for some reason he shoots you down, try the covert operations.
It's going to be like the new AppMakr framework that allows any idiot with an RSS feed or twitter account and $200 to make an iPhone app. You'll have to wade through more junk to find the good stuff.
I don't doubt that there will be good add-ins via this. There's just going to be so much more trash.
I don't know about you, but my fridge is plugged into a rack PDU, which is of course running off UPS. So when the shit hits the fan, at least I have a refreshing drink.
Another perk is that since the server room is access controlled, nobody takes my food.
You buy a product. It's your property. The person who sold it to you doesn't like the way you're using it, so they break the product you bought.
Consider further: before buying the product, the vendor offers to pay for half of the product (making it much more accessible) if you sign a contract to use it the way they tell you to use it, for two whole years.
I'm not an Apple fanboy by any stretch, but people shouldn't sign the contract if they don't agree to the terms. 'Nuff said.
This is probably a few hours late, but this is referring to the iPhone 1.1 update. Remember the original iPhone was sold unsubsidized by AT&T. You could do at home activation of the thing. I think it was also possible to get an iPhone as a "Go" phone so you didn't have a contract at all.
The UAC in Windows 7 is a lot better. Having had Windows 7 installed since RTM release, I've gotten the prompt all of 5-10 times, and that was with installing all of my games, drivers, and random applications.
The PSN Store is divided into multiple regions. Each region has control over their own store. iirc there's more stores than 3 (SCEA, SCEE, SCEJ)
Publishers in 1 region may not be the same in others, hence pricing disparities. While SCEA might be the publisher in the US, Capcom could be the publisher in Japan. This somewhat explains the selection available between stores.
Each PSN Store is free to run their own promotions. I've picked up Calling All Cars for $4.99 before on the US Store, and gotten a free episode of Voltron
So 800 MS Points is $10 in the US. How much does 800 MS Points go for in other countries? Is it still $10 USD, or has it been adjusted? That's the apples to apples comparison right there.
Personally I like the $$$ option of the PSN rather than the point method of Microsoft. I have a credit card, I don't want to buy some sort of currency first to then buy games. I don't want to have to convert all points to prices to see if something is a good value. Nintendo's is a bit easier, with 1000 points being $10, but Microsoft wants you to spend more points without realizing it. 1200 points, Oh wow, that looks like only $12 when actually it's $15.
Personally I like the PSN UI. The current version is a whole lot better than the old one, particularly with regards to redeeming promo codes.
Not to say the PSN can't be improved. I would love to see either a unified login (for all regions) or a way to change your name with your current account. Right now when people want to change account names they create a new account. That decreases the number of names available for new PSN members. All because they got tired of xxxhazz0rszzzz and wanted omgitssephiroth. So I'm sure you've got guys out there with 5-10 accounts, where Sony could charge $5 to change your name and keep all your DLC/Trophies. Microsoft already allows you to change your name, iirc. I would also love to have some of the content available on the Japanese store, without creating a Japanese account and trying to browse that store. Will it happen? Who knows.
I agree with your sentiments, except for me it was mandated in 8th grade (we had learned it in grade school). Up until then, it was a "whatever you want to use is fine with us" mentality.
Since then I've also only written my name in cursive. I could probably more easily write hiragana than write every letter (upper and lower) in cursive, but that's only because I've handwritten more stuff in Japanese than English recently
Damn it, why didn't I make some sort of half assed comparison on my website, get linked to it from Slashdot, and watch my impressions go through the roof?
This guy didn't have any benchmarks (even a damn file copy would have been nice). He then added another category "Extras" to make Snow Leopard have the same number of "won" categories as Windows 7. First comment is that he appears "fair and balanced." Fuck that shit, he just did it so he didn't have a flame war about how he favored one over the other.
I'm thinking this slipped by the cens---I mean, reviewers. For every single overly strict reviewer they have, one or two is probably more lax. That guy, whose job is probably now in jeopardy, approved the app not realizing Apple won't make money, even if it did compete with existing iPhone functionality.
Either that or they're panicking because of the recent FCC inquiries so they don't want to mess anything up.
But we all know Apple doesn't panic.
Re:Who actually cares about the "good" ratings?
on
Gaming the App Store
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· Score: 1
When I look at Newegg reviews or the like, I like to read the 2-4 range. 1 star is usually consisting of dumbasses who expect every product to work flawlessly every time. "Oh I had to RMA this. Props to Newegg for fast RMA." 3 Dead parts, yes please write a negative review. If your first product was DoA wait until you actually use the damn thing to write a review.
3's usually have a good mix of pros and cons, though I find some of the 4 star Newegg people are very articulate about why they rated 4 instead of 5.
5's are just people who had no real problem with the product. I want to know any potential problems that may occur, not that it ran as expected.
Honestly I don't think they've improved the Emotion Engine emulation at all. I haven't seen "Improves playback of certain PS2 software" as a fix in a long time
For you in America and Europe yes they did that but not in Australia where it was done in software.
Not true. The EU 60GB model and US 80GB (with 4 usb ports) still had PS2 GPUs installed. the PS2 CPU was emulated, which is why it only has ~85% compatibility. The US 20/60GB models had a full PS2 inside.
The current lineup of PS3s do not have any PS2 parts, which is why I don't think we'll see a return of PS2 compatibility this generation.
Slashdot Mirror
Just FYI, the parent is referring to Austin, TX. They had a huge population growth period but the city was under the mentality of "If we don't build it, they won't come." They were wrong, so Austin has something like the 4th worst traffic in the US and a cost of living somewhat like Atlanta.
They cancel out the engine noise and allow you to hear every inane conversation, screaming kid, and tubercular passenger coughing up a lung with crystal clarity. That's the OPPOSITE of what I need on a flight.
I found this out on my most recent flight. I bought a set of (JVC active noise canceling from Amazon) for use in the server room. My first 3 flights with the headphones were fine, but the latest flight had a screaming baby. You can hear it quite clearly with the noise canceling. That situation hadn't occurred to me while I was buying the headphones.
Region locking? I wasn't aware that any PS3 games were region locked if you played them in HD.
Movies, yes, they're region locked. The games though have a particular resolution for standard def (PAL or NTSC) and they all work in HD, or at least that's how it used to work earlier in the console cycle.
On the movie side, there's only 3 regions now. That's a heck of a lot better than DVD
Digital downloads restrictions are based on regional licensing. Publisher A owns the game rights in region X, but Publisher B owns them in region Y
On everything else I agree with you. I own a 60GB model that I had to send in for repairs and ended up losing all my game saves that I didn't have backed up (about a year out of date), and was out $150
irradiated soil is the only immediate downside I see of that. You'll have to compete with the NIMBY's though.
Word of caution, our server is balls slow. I'm not sure why/haven't had time/it's a production server. I've got a few conjectures as to why it is:
I believe you mean "can even play PS2 games."
Anyhow, I also have a 60GB fat PS3. Never had any issues besides an occasional hard lock. Had a few graphics glitches but that was only in one game. However, I've been playing through FFXIII and that thing freezes on me all the time. I was able to get around it by copying game saves to a USB drive then copying back. Seriously that was the fix. Now I've gotten to the point where it freezes when a camera pans after a cutscene, so I can't skip that section of code. I expected a fix in 3.21 (they always seem to put those hidden "Improves playback quality of certain Playstation software titles" in the firmware updates) so I updated to that. Oh, and I'm also on the third copy of my disk and all of my other games play fine. Thought it might have been heat related and replaced the thermal paste since I've been out of warranty for at least 2 years--no luck. Probably going to rent God of War or Heavy Rain after finals and see if I get any more problems, particularly with dual layer disks.
I really think that the number of people complaining about firmware updates bricking fall into these categories (largest to smallest): 1) Trolls, 2) people who updated the firmware and had the power flicker or flipped the switch or something else stupid and are now trying to blame Sony and 3) legitimately had problems.
Does the PT Cruiser count as a truck for EPA? At the DMV it's categorized as a station wagon...
The folks at the DMV commented that I was correct because most people try to call it a sedan when they register for tags.
If it's the PS3 we're talking about (which was my interpretation) it doesn't have a registry. If it's a PC game somebody is going to find the registry key and post it on the internet so you can regedit it. I never said it wouldn't a PITA, but it is possible.
I may be in the minority here, but I think the above analogy is flawed and this might actually be a decent idea.
Try: You go to a Ford dealer and test a car. It goes like it should. You say "Eh, let me sleep on it" and come back the next day. Then you test drive it again, but this time the salesman thinks you're just trying to drive the car around town, so he gives you a shorter test drive, perhaps not on the interstate (thus limiting you to 35-45mph). You say "eh, I'll sleep on it" and come back 2 days later. This time he limits you to going around the block.
I don't know about you, but I play demos once, maybe twice. This is to prevent people playing demos repeatedly and not buying the game. See Zero Punctuation and mirror's edge (?). He says something to the effect of "Just play the demo repeatedly and you'll have the game." It's to stop stuff like that.
Besides, couldn't you just reinstall the demo? Delete the demo and delete your game save and redownload it (sorry for people with sucky internet connections). Thus your demo will be renewed. If you're willing to go through that hassle, fine keep playing the demo without buying the full game. I think a lot of consumers will be buying the game.
For Gamestop and other kiosks I suspect Sony will give them special demos that don't degrade if Sony ends up implementing this (regardless of whether or not they get the patent).
It depends on the class for me quite frankly. More mathy classes I take paper notes. More programming classes I type notes on my netbook because my instructor normally ends up editing something 2-3 times and inserting. On paper that results in a lot of arrows.
For other classes that it could go either way I type my notes. I can type faster, and then if I get bored I can check my email and stuff (ie not really pay attention). When the instructor busts out the tables and whatnot I bust out my ASCII art skills.
While I find that plan amazing, can we all think of the simple solution here first?
ITGUY: "$PHB, Can I have your laptop for an hour sometime today to back up your data? That way, in case your laptop crashes you won't lose all your documents. I promise I'll have it back to you before you leave work."
When you phrase it like that, he realizes he has something to lose if the computer dies. It could be he doesn't realize how important everything is if his computer was to suddenly not be there. You then take it in the back, ghost it (takes like 15-20 mins top) and give him back the laptop. Sure you have an image and not files, but you can restore it to another laptop (presumably you have a spare) and then pull the individual files off if you really wanted to.
Try that first, then if for some reason he shoots you down, try the covert operations.
It's going to be like the new AppMakr framework that allows any idiot with an RSS feed or twitter account and $200 to make an iPhone app. You'll have to wade through more junk to find the good stuff.
I don't doubt that there will be good add-ins via this. There's just going to be so much more trash.
I don't know about you, but my fridge is plugged into a rack PDU, which is of course running off UPS. So when the shit hits the fan, at least I have a refreshing drink.
Another perk is that since the server room is access controlled, nobody takes my food.
You buy a product. It's your property. The person who sold it to you doesn't like the way you're using it, so they break the product you bought.
Consider further: before buying the product, the vendor offers to pay for half of the product (making it much more accessible) if you sign a contract to use it the way they tell you to use it, for two whole years. I'm not an Apple fanboy by any stretch, but people shouldn't sign the contract if they don't agree to the terms. 'Nuff said.
This is probably a few hours late, but this is referring to the iPhone 1.1 update. Remember the original iPhone was sold unsubsidized by AT&T. You could do at home activation of the thing. I think it was also possible to get an iPhone as a "Go" phone so you didn't have a contract at all.
The UAC in Windows 7 is a lot better. Having had Windows 7 installed since RTM release, I've gotten the prompt all of 5-10 times, and that was with installing all of my games, drivers, and random applications.
Does it matter?
This is /.
I can't be expected to both Google something *and* RTFS. That's for the later comments to point out.
So 800 MS Points is $10 in the US. How much does 800 MS Points go for in other countries? Is it still $10 USD, or has it been adjusted? That's the apples to apples comparison right there.
Personally I like the $$$ option of the PSN rather than the point method of Microsoft. I have a credit card, I don't want to buy some sort of currency first to then buy games. I don't want to have to convert all points to prices to see if something is a good value. Nintendo's is a bit easier, with 1000 points being $10, but Microsoft wants you to spend more points without realizing it. 1200 points, Oh wow, that looks like only $12 when actually it's $15.
Personally I like the PSN UI. The current version is a whole lot better than the old one, particularly with regards to redeeming promo codes.
Not to say the PSN can't be improved. I would love to see either a unified login (for all regions) or a way to change your name with your current account. Right now when people want to change account names they create a new account. That decreases the number of names available for new PSN members. All because they got tired of xxxhazz0rszzzz and wanted omgitssephiroth. So I'm sure you've got guys out there with 5-10 accounts, where Sony could charge $5 to change your name and keep all your DLC/Trophies. Microsoft already allows you to change your name, iirc. I would also love to have some of the content available on the Japanese store, without creating a Japanese account and trying to browse that store. Will it happen? Who knows.
I agree with your sentiments, except for me it was mandated in 8th grade (we had learned it in grade school). Up until then, it was a "whatever you want to use is fine with us" mentality.
Since then I've also only written my name in cursive. I could probably more easily write hiragana than write every letter (upper and lower) in cursive, but that's only because I've handwritten more stuff in Japanese than English recently
Damn it, why didn't I make some sort of half assed comparison on my website, get linked to it from Slashdot, and watch my impressions go through the roof?
This guy didn't have any benchmarks (even a damn file copy would have been nice). He then added another category "Extras" to make Snow Leopard have the same number of "won" categories as Windows 7. First comment is that he appears "fair and balanced." Fuck that shit, he just did it so he didn't have a flame war about how he favored one over the other.
I'm thinking this slipped by the cens---I mean, reviewers. For every single overly strict reviewer they have, one or two is probably more lax. That guy, whose job is probably now in jeopardy, approved the app not realizing Apple won't make money, even if it did compete with existing iPhone functionality.
Either that or they're panicking because of the recent FCC inquiries so they don't want to mess anything up.
But we all know Apple doesn't panic.
When I look at Newegg reviews or the like, I like to read the 2-4 range. 1 star is usually consisting of dumbasses who expect every product to work flawlessly every time. "Oh I had to RMA this. Props to Newegg for fast RMA." 3 Dead parts, yes please write a negative review. If your first product was DoA wait until you actually use the damn thing to write a review.
3's usually have a good mix of pros and cons, though I find some of the 4 star Newegg people are very articulate about why they rated 4 instead of 5.
5's are just people who had no real problem with the product. I want to know any potential problems that may occur, not that it ran as expected.
Honestly I don't think they've improved the Emotion Engine emulation at all. I haven't seen "Improves playback of certain PS2 software" as a fix in a long time
They didn't remove functionality, if that's what you're asking. So long as your hardware supports PS2 games, you can play them.
For you in America and Europe yes they did that but not in Australia where it was done in software.
Not true. The EU 60GB model and US 80GB (with 4 usb ports) still had PS2 GPUs installed. the PS2 CPU was emulated, which is why it only has ~85% compatibility. The US 20/60GB models had a full PS2 inside.
The current lineup of PS3s do not have any PS2 parts, which is why I don't think we'll see a return of PS2 compatibility this generation.