I recently switched back from DSL to cable after initially falling for the "cable is slow because it shared" campaign. After the AT&T merger my DSL bill went from $29 to over $100 month for "pro" DSL with 1 static IP. When I called to see what was up they acted quite rude and firmly stated the "deal" I had was no longer avaialable and had the nerve to say I should be grateful that my rates stayed unchanged so long after the merger, so I hung up, called the cable company and ordered the all-in-once service. Digital Cable, Internet and Digital Phone and its about half what my bills were separately. When I called to cancel my phone service suddenly AT&T wanted to talk...evidently this is happening alot since I was bounced from a "customer retention specialist". They offered deal after deal and just didnt seem to want to accept "shut it off" as an answer.
Fragile? They each come in their own case as well as a caddy. I love my DS but the sheer data size of a UMD allows for much more complex games, cinematics, vocals, music, etc. As prices come down it might get more efficient but when a a gig of SD memory for example costs on average the price of 2 DS games, games requiring large amounts of static memory is not very practical. Both have their advantages, the DS does have a ton of games like Tetris, New Super Mario, etc that can be played and put back down in minutes, on the other hand you arent going to see GTA on a DS or compare as far as quality and depth compare Maddens on the two platforms. My DS is my commuting game console, but my psp is my lounging around console, they both fit a purpose.
As long as we are being anal, there are no such things as Satans, Satan is a singular, though in Islam there is a plural (Shayatin). The closest thing in the english language whould be demons, but if we are talking daemons then we wouldnt be using windows to start with, so the registry edits would be moot.
UMD's are admittedly lower in resolution than DVD'd but they are just about on par with VHS which was sufficient for most for a long time. At 480 x 272 a umd would look fine on smaller tv's and especially mobile screens like I have in my van. It just seems to me that a portable standalone player kind of like the Video Now and Mini Dvd players they have for kids and maybe in dash players for vehicles would really give the UMD an advantage if I didnt fear it was already too late.
Another idea that I have actually seen (but cant remember the title) was including the UMD as a bonus disk with the DVD. I would gladly pay an extra couple bucks for that.
Usually "concerns" like this can be attributed to people that dont understand the technology. There are plenty of ways to block ports, restrict access and diable services, any half-competent sys admin can accomplish this. The benefits far outweigh the negatives if its done properly. Take the "dig thorough books" comment as an example, many times a book is checked out or there is only one reference copy, that problem is completely eliminated if the data is available online. Typing and basic computer application skills are just an added bonus.
Handhelds usually have a longer life than consoles, the PSP has just really started to gain momentum with a recent flood of games at much higher quality than the early stuff. UMD may have failed as a movie format (I still argue it could survive if standalone recorders and players were made available) but its sufficient for game distribution, switching to an all memory stick format would do nothing but make Sony's already mostly wasted battle for control over piracy that much more difficult. UMD adds at least a rudimentary level of security, yes its hackable for the most part but doing so is extremely difficult without knowing where to look and how to do it. Lots of people on here talk about homebrew and PSP hacks but outside the geek community there are very very few that even know its possible.
What I think is odd is that Nintendo never seems to do anything about piracy other than sue websites blatently selling pirate devices, yet the still have GBA and DS games in the top 10 almost every month and outsell Sony in most countries. If Sony put half the money in game development that they do in hardware redesigns which add nothing they could probably have a more competative library of games to increase the sales of their hardware.
It really seems sometimes like Sony has a Kamakazi view of marketing...protect the "idea" at the cost of self sacrifice. It happened with Betamax, it happened with MiniDisk (they finally opened that one up but it was too late), it happened with Memory sticks (sony is mostly the only company that uses them), it happened with UMD and I would bet the next victim of their own arrogance is going to be BlueRay. Its like they just never learn. Sony seems to obsess over the idea of owning a "standard" so much so that they pretty much destroy any chance of the new product becoming a standard before it has a chance.
If thats Sony's idea of how to corner the market they are deluding themselves. Surely you dont think that Sony would see a benefit to creating a shortage in the standalone player market when its the High End early adopters that are needed for the new format to survive. How many people on average actually use their game console as their primary dvd player? I would guess its probably well under 25% here in the U.S., in fact I dont know of anyone personally that watches DVD's on their PS2 at all. The only time I have ever watched one on mine was using it with a flip up screen so the kids could watch movies before I had a DVD player in my van. Even if it was an unprobable 50% thats still a tiny fragment of the overall movie market. If anything this will hurt the PS3 the most, since many that would have bought one will wait for artifically inflated prices to drop or go elsewhere for their entertainment.
I understand your point, as I said I find aol beneath me as do most I know but for some its like training wheels they refuse to take off their bicycles. If its free I can no longer use " paying extra for crap you dont need" as an excuse to pry them away. Seniors was just an example of a market that finds comfort in whats familiar, there are many others. I have a neighbor for instance that has a cable modem but still cant wrap her head around the idea that she doesnt need to sign into aol first to use the damn thing, at least now it wont ding her for an extra $19 a month to do so.
I know that its fashionable to bash AOL, I participate in it myself. I have found though, that for newer users especially seniors citizens find alot of what AOL has to offer less intimidating than being let loose on the wilds of the internet. Opening up that for all and going to a branded advertising base could really turn things around for them. Most already make concessions for AIM, how long until other AOL services and features are more accepted now that there isnt a price tag attached? I suspect more than a few will their way into the accepted mainstream.
I've never purchased a strategy guide and cant think of anyone I know that has. Im not usually one to cheat but when im helplessly stuck and really like the game (usually the game is just average so i drop it) gamefaqs.org and dozens of other sites have all the info you need. I put strategy guides in the same category as game sharks...useless crap for kids that would rather cheat than learn to actually play.
buying cable or satellite a channel at a time might seem like a good idea, but its like buying an album on itunes 1 song at a time.99 cents sounds great till you see that the album is now 14 dollars rather than the $9 it costs at Best Buy. I have seen two implimentations of "ala-carte" programming in both cases less than 1/3rd of the channels included in the standard" digital tier ended up costing quite a bit more than just taking them all and not watching the channels you dont like.
Sorry but when your storage cost is 5-6x the cost of the media something is definately wrong. Neat idea but way way overpriced for a piece of plastic and some cardboard sleeves.
I paid far more than that for it back when it was released for the PSP. The episodic release means you dont have to shell out so much money and get to play far more than free "demo" would let you. With xbox live there is also the possiblility of more dynamic content like new music tracks and themes as well. This sounds more like a good idea of what xbox live could be rather than a negative.
With all the fuss over "Net Neutrality" how in the heck does ICANN think they can do something like this? First they screwed over the small registrars through rate increases and vote weighing, then they dropped the.xxx from the last agenda (something pretty much everyone in the world wanted with the exception of bush and friends), Then the IANA contract renewal without so much as discussion, and there have already many decisions made favoring big business and less than neutral positions. Its really past time for ICANN reform or dismissal. So ICANN can regluate the internet but who regulates ICANN? ICANN should be replaced with an ELECTED international governing body.
As long as they are making new games for the Wii I dont see releasing Wii enhanced versions of old ones as a bad thing. I can recall several games I have played with older controllers where I thought about how much better they would have been with the new one. N64 titles come to mind, I hated the n64 controller but loved some of the games. Pre dual shock ps1 games also are a good example.
If the new zelda game is alot of fun on the Wii, I can totally see people saying "gee I wish Ocarina of Time could use the remote", things like slashing bushes or waving the wand to control the music would totally fit, now it might actually happen. You dont have to buy it, but for those that would enjoy it, its nice to see the option there especially at a bargain price.
Damnit where is Cloak and Dagger, show Dabney Coleman some love and give us the video game goodness. Im still waiting for the Double Dragon, Mortal Combat and Street Fighter box set too.
Thats true if you have a manager who is responsive and actually knows what they are doing. The manager was the one that instated the policy. He was from a totally non-tech background and was one of those "promote from within" managers from a different department. Im sure he is probably gone now but he was adamant he knew better no matter how difficult it made the job for the rest of us.
I have worked for two ends of the extreme, one company that was very restrictive with internet access and one that was wide open.
Working in IT I found the overly restrictive company made repairs and troubleshooting increasingly difficult since many times I had to research a problem at home and then fix it at work. I remember one incident where we had a scsi backplane go bad on a server that was out of waranty, they had a couple of lower techs hammer against it for 3 days before passing it to me. I looked at the error logs, ran some diagnostics and looked up some error codes, had the problem isolated in 10 minutes, but ended up getting written up for "using the internet" on company time. I found that after a while I did the bare minimum required not be fired since half the time I was doing busy work at home and the real work at home anyway.
The other company was a telco provider we had unrestricted access, it was great troubleshooting and repairs had an amazing turnaround time, but there were people that abused the priviledge. Eventually they weeded themselves out through poor performanace reviews or being called out for slacking off. Basically it comes down to what kind of employees you have, if they are responsible and take their job seriously internet access isnt a problem, its a matter of trust. If you dont trust your employees you either need better ones or perhaps need to find out what you may be doing that causes them to have no dedication to the job.
Dont get me wrong I have the box set and was there opening night for Serenity, but for that matter I have had a Dreamcast since 9-9-99 but it died prematurely and I got over it just like I got over Firefly being Axed. It didnt matter that Sega had a better gem to crap ratio just as it doesnt matter that the network screwed Joss by showing firefly out of order and switched times around too much for it get an audience, they are both dead, they are no more! they have ceased to be! Smarts lost out to mass appeal, it sucks but thats life.
I kept waiting for the author to make his point but all the did was prove that poor planning, marketing and spin control lead to failure. The article should have been called how to really screw up gaming in spite of innovation. In the end it was just another ode to the Dreamcast with is has become as common as Browncoaters whining about Firefly...its over get over it.
Sega was a great company (sorry but I dont concider the shell that was left after the Sammy merger Sega) but they screwed the pooch. Sega released the Dreamcast way to early compared to the other companies next generation consoles, they had too few 3rd party games and though good for hardcore gamers too many quirky titles and not enough mainstream ones. Take Shenmue as an example, it was a beautiful game that was fun if you were into that kind of thing, but for the masses that title was destined to go nowhere. Super Magenetic Neo was another that I loved but outside of the "gamers" it was just a quirky title that didnt sell, you simply have to have the shoveled mainstream crap to survive. Add in the fact that the Dreamcast was cracked wide open before the other consoles even hit the shelves and the writing was on the wall.
What happened to "Sega Has What Nintendon't" and agressive marketing that showed off the platform. All they did was had people doing mundane things suddenly screaming Sega!, that doesnt sell product it just encourages the use of the remotes mute button. Don't blame competition, lack of competition is never a good thing. Poor timing, poor execution, poor security and poor spin control = poor SEGA.
Zonk posted something positive about the ps3? Isnt this one of the signs of the apocalypse?
The interface looks nice, the one positive about the psp so far for me is that the menu's are simple to navigate and fairly customizable. For the ps3 to have a shot at being the media hub it needs a menu that is not only pleasant to look at but easy to use with the remote as well as the controller, this looks to fit the bill nicely.
Why dont they just get it over and done drop BSG and rename themselves SpikeTV2. For only being a short time after the media declared Science Fiction was going mainstream why is there so little of it? Now instead of SG1, Firefly and Farscape we get Wrestling and that who wants to dress up like a tard and pretend your a superhero show. Oh well only another year or so to wait until the new Star Wars series brings on a wealth of copycats, clones and wannabees but by that time I expect that the SciFi channel wont exist anyway.
Well basically it was an uncorrected proof of a book, 2 of then were given to him by the Author, but the publisher didnt like that. Another example of DCMA gone wrong.
Slashdot Mirror
I recently switched back from DSL to cable after initially falling for the "cable is slow because it shared" campaign. After the AT&T merger my DSL bill went from $29 to over $100 month for "pro" DSL with 1 static IP. When I called to see what was up they acted quite rude and firmly stated the "deal" I had was no longer avaialable and had the nerve to say I should be grateful that my rates stayed unchanged so long after the merger, so I hung up, called the cable company and ordered the all-in-once service. Digital Cable, Internet and Digital Phone and its about half what my bills were separately. When I called to cancel my phone service suddenly AT&T wanted to talk...evidently this is happening alot since I was bounced from a "customer retention specialist". They offered deal after deal and just didnt seem to want to accept "shut it off" as an answer.
DRM baaaad....Freedom Goooood
Fragile? They each come in their own case as well as a caddy. I love my DS but the sheer data size of a UMD allows for much more complex games, cinematics, vocals, music, etc. As prices come down it might get more efficient but when a a gig of SD memory for example costs on average the price of 2 DS games, games requiring large amounts of static memory is not very practical. Both have their advantages, the DS does have a ton of games like Tetris, New Super Mario, etc that can be played and put back down in minutes, on the other hand you arent going to see GTA on a DS or compare as far as quality and depth compare Maddens on the two platforms. My DS is my commuting game console, but my psp is my lounging around console, they both fit a purpose.
As long as we are being anal, there are no such things as Satans, Satan is a singular, though in Islam there is a plural (Shayatin). The closest thing in the english language whould be demons, but if we are talking daemons then we wouldnt be using windows to start with, so the registry edits would be moot.
UMD's are admittedly lower in resolution than DVD'd but they are just about on par with VHS which was sufficient for most for a long time. At 480 x 272 a umd would look fine on smaller tv's and especially mobile screens like I have in my van. It just seems to me that a portable standalone player kind of like the Video Now and Mini Dvd players they have for kids and maybe in dash players for vehicles would really give the UMD an advantage if I didnt fear it was already too late.
Another idea that I have actually seen (but cant remember the title) was including the UMD as a bonus disk with the DVD. I would gladly pay an extra couple bucks for that.
Usually "concerns" like this can be attributed to people that dont understand the technology. There are plenty of ways to block ports, restrict access and diable services, any half-competent sys admin can accomplish this. The benefits far outweigh the negatives if its done properly. Take the "dig thorough books" comment as an example, many times a book is checked out or there is only one reference copy, that problem is completely eliminated if the data is available online. Typing and basic computer application skills are just an added bonus.
Handhelds usually have a longer life than consoles, the PSP has just really started to gain momentum with a recent flood of games at much higher quality than the early stuff. UMD may have failed as a movie format (I still argue it could survive if standalone recorders and players were made available) but its sufficient for game distribution, switching to an all memory stick format would do nothing but make Sony's already mostly wasted battle for control over piracy that much more difficult. UMD adds at least a rudimentary level of security, yes its hackable for the most part but doing so is extremely difficult without knowing where to look and how to do it. Lots of people on here talk about homebrew and PSP hacks but outside the geek community there are very very few that even know its possible.
What I think is odd is that Nintendo never seems to do anything about piracy other than sue websites blatently selling pirate devices, yet the still have GBA and DS games in the top 10 almost every month and outsell Sony in most countries. If Sony put half the money in game development that they do in hardware redesigns which add nothing they could probably have a more competative library of games to increase the sales of their hardware.
It really seems sometimes like Sony has a Kamakazi view of marketing...protect the "idea" at the cost of self sacrifice. It happened with Betamax, it happened with MiniDisk (they finally opened that one up but it was too late), it happened with Memory sticks (sony is mostly the only company that uses them), it happened with UMD and I would bet the next victim of their own arrogance is going to be BlueRay. Its like they just never learn. Sony seems to obsess over the idea of owning a "standard" so much so that they pretty much destroy any chance of the new product becoming a standard before it has a chance.
Try http://flash.atpinc.com/products/view.php?product_ id=1178
They have a flash drive called the ToughDrive that is waterproof and can supposedly withstand being run over by a small car.
If thats Sony's idea of how to corner the market they are deluding themselves. Surely you dont think that Sony would see a benefit to creating a shortage in the standalone player market when its the High End early adopters that are needed for the new format to survive. How many people on average actually use their game console as their primary dvd player? I would guess its probably well under 25% here in the U.S., in fact I dont know of anyone personally that watches DVD's on their PS2 at all. The only time I have ever watched one on mine was using it with a flip up screen so the kids could watch movies before I had a DVD player in my van. Even if it was an unprobable 50% thats still a tiny fragment of the overall movie market. If anything this will hurt the PS3 the most, since many that would have bought one will wait for artifically inflated prices to drop or go elsewhere for their entertainment.
I understand your point, as I said I find aol beneath me as do most I know but for some its like training wheels they refuse to take off their bicycles. If its free I can no longer use "
paying extra for crap you dont need" as an excuse to pry them away. Seniors was just an example of a market that finds comfort in whats familiar, there are many others. I have a neighbor for instance that has a cable modem but still cant wrap her head around the idea that she doesnt need to sign into aol first to use the damn thing, at least now it wont ding her for an extra $19 a month to do so.
I know that its fashionable to bash AOL, I participate in it myself. I have found though, that for newer users especially seniors citizens find alot of what AOL has to offer less intimidating than being let loose on the wilds of the internet. Opening up that for all and going to a branded advertising base could really turn things around for them. Most already make concessions for AIM, how long until other AOL services and features are more accepted now that there isnt a price tag attached? I suspect more than a few will their way into the accepted mainstream.
I've never purchased a strategy guide and cant think of anyone I know that has. Im not usually one to cheat but when im helplessly stuck and really like the game (usually the game is just average so i drop it) gamefaqs.org and dozens of other sites have all the info you need. I put strategy guides in the same category as game sharks...useless crap for kids that would rather cheat than learn to actually play.
buying cable or satellite a channel at a time might seem like a good idea, but its like buying an album on itunes 1 song at a time .99 cents sounds great till you see that the album is now 14 dollars rather than the $9 it costs at Best Buy. I have seen two implimentations of "ala-carte" programming in both cases less than 1/3rd of the channels included in the standard" digital tier ended up costing quite a bit more than just taking them all and not watching the channels you dont like.
Sorry but when your storage cost is 5-6x the cost of the media something is definately wrong. Neat idea but way way overpriced for a piece of plastic and some cardboard sleeves.
I paid far more than that for it back when it was released for the PSP. The episodic release means you dont have to shell out so much money and get to play far more than free "demo" would let you. With xbox live there is also the possiblility of more dynamic content like new music tracks and themes as well. This sounds more like a good idea of what xbox live could be rather than a negative.
With all the fuss over "Net Neutrality" how in the heck does ICANN think they can do something like this? First they screwed over the small registrars through rate increases and vote weighing, then they dropped the .xxx from the last agenda (something pretty much everyone in the world wanted with the exception of bush and friends), Then the IANA contract renewal without so much as discussion, and there have already many decisions made favoring big business and less than neutral positions. Its really past time for ICANN reform or dismissal. So ICANN can regluate the internet but who regulates ICANN? ICANN should be replaced with an ELECTED international governing body.
As long as they are making new games for the Wii I dont see releasing Wii enhanced versions of old ones as a bad thing. I can recall several games I have played with older controllers where I thought about how much better they would have been with the new one. N64 titles come to mind, I hated the n64 controller but loved some of the games. Pre dual shock ps1 games also are a good example.
If the new zelda game is alot of fun on the Wii, I can totally see people saying "gee I wish Ocarina of Time could use the remote", things like slashing bushes or waving the wand to control the music would totally fit, now it might actually happen. You dont have to buy it, but for those that would enjoy it, its nice to see the option there especially at a bargain price.
Damnit where is Cloak and Dagger, show Dabney Coleman some love and give us the video game goodness. Im still waiting for the Double Dragon, Mortal Combat and Street Fighter box set too.
Thats true if you have a manager who is responsive and actually knows what they are doing. The manager was the one that instated the policy. He was from a totally non-tech background and was one of those "promote from within" managers from a different department. Im sure he is probably gone now but he was adamant he knew better no matter how difficult it made the job for the rest of us.
I have worked for two ends of the extreme, one company that was very restrictive with internet access and one that was wide open.
Working in IT I found the overly restrictive company made repairs and troubleshooting increasingly difficult since many times I had to research a problem at home and then fix it at work. I remember one incident where we had a scsi backplane go bad on a server that was out of waranty, they had a couple of lower techs hammer against it for 3 days before passing it to me. I looked at the error logs, ran some diagnostics and looked up some error codes, had the problem isolated in 10 minutes, but ended up getting written up for "using the internet" on company time. I found that after a while I did the bare minimum required not be fired since half the time I was doing busy work at home and the real work at home anyway.
The other company was a telco provider we had unrestricted access, it was great troubleshooting and repairs had an amazing turnaround time, but there were people that abused the priviledge. Eventually they weeded themselves out through poor performanace reviews or being called out for slacking off. Basically it comes down to what kind of employees you have, if they are responsible and take their job seriously internet access isnt a problem, its a matter of trust. If you dont trust your employees you either need better ones or perhaps need to find out what you may be doing that causes them to have no dedication to the job.
Evidently not enough to cover costs...
I'll see your IMDB link and raise you the box office reciepts
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379786/business
Dont get me wrong I have the box set and was there opening night for Serenity, but for that matter I have had a Dreamcast since 9-9-99 but it died prematurely and I got over it just like I got over Firefly being Axed. It didnt matter that Sega had a better gem to crap ratio just as it doesnt matter that the network screwed Joss by showing firefly out of order and switched times around too much for it get an audience, they are both dead, they are no more! they have ceased to be! Smarts lost out to mass appeal, it sucks but thats life.
I kept waiting for the author to make his point but all the did was prove that poor planning, marketing and spin control lead to failure. The article should have been called how to really screw up gaming in spite of innovation. In the end it was just another ode to the Dreamcast with is has become as common as Browncoaters whining about Firefly...its over get over it.
Sega was a great company (sorry but I dont concider the shell that was left after the Sammy merger Sega) but they screwed the pooch. Sega released the Dreamcast way to early compared to the other companies next generation consoles, they had too few 3rd party games and though good for hardcore gamers too many quirky titles and not enough mainstream ones. Take Shenmue as an example, it was a beautiful game that was fun if you were into that kind of thing, but for the masses that title was destined to go nowhere. Super Magenetic Neo was another that I loved but outside of the "gamers" it was just a quirky title that didnt sell, you simply have to have the shoveled mainstream crap to survive. Add in the fact that the Dreamcast was cracked wide open before the other consoles even hit the shelves and the writing was on the wall.
What happened to "Sega Has What Nintendon't" and agressive marketing that showed off the platform. All they did was had people doing mundane things suddenly screaming Sega!, that doesnt sell product it just encourages the use of the remotes mute button. Don't blame competition, lack of competition is never a good thing. Poor timing, poor execution, poor security and poor spin control = poor SEGA.
Zonk posted something positive about the ps3? Isnt this one of the signs of the apocalypse?
The interface looks nice, the one positive about the psp so far for me is that the menu's are simple to navigate and fairly customizable. For the ps3 to have a shot at being the media hub it needs a menu that is not only pleasant to look at but easy to use with the remote as well as the controller, this looks to fit the bill nicely.
Why dont they just get it over and done drop BSG and rename themselves SpikeTV2. For only being a short time after the media declared Science Fiction was going mainstream why is there so little of it? Now instead of SG1, Firefly and Farscape we get Wrestling and that who wants to dress up like a tard and pretend your a superhero show. Oh well only another year or so to wait until the new Star Wars series brings on a wealth of copycats, clones and wannabees but by that time I expect that the SciFi channel wont exist anyway.
Well basically it was an uncorrected proof of a book, 2 of then were given to him by the Author, but the publisher didnt like that. Another example of DCMA gone wrong.