Because all high frequency trading does is inflate the cost for those of us who do invest in the "old-fashioned" buy-and-hold manner.
I heard it best described in this way: There's a hot new gadget that's being released today, and you *really* want to go buy one. Unfortunately, as you're walking down the street, some hedge fund investors see you coming and quickly jump in front of the store milliseconds before you get there to form a line at the door. The store opens, the investor at the front of the line buys ALL of the gadget inventory. He then turns around and sells all those units to the guy behind him for a small profit, who sells to the guy behind him for a small profit, who sells to the guy behind him, etc.
Eventually, they get back to you, but now if you're going to buy that gadget, it's going to cost you some significant percentage more to purchase for actual use. And you don't really have any option if you're going to buy one, because every store selling the gadget has a pool of financial sharks circling the entrance just waiting for another "traditional investment" sucker.
In the end, the store doesn't benefit, since they still only sold the item at the normal price, and you don't benefit because you just got your price jacked up. The only beneficiaries are the HFT scum who have played the system in such a way to artificially inflate your costs to their own benefit while adding absolutely no actual value to the product as it passed through their hands. This DOES impact you, because the more of your investment that gets siphoned out by the hedge funds, the less you have left to actually invest in the original stock.
If it's patterns we're looking for, then the real indicator of a new console is when the release of the new Zelda game gets delayed "so we can polish it to perfection."
Just like they repeatedly "polished" Twilight Princess for the Gamecube, only to use it as a hook for selling the Wii to the "hardcore" crowd.
Nothing wrong with driving slow in residential areas, especially in the UK where the roads are rarely straight and long.
But on the US interstate system, many of the highways do have artificially low speed limits that really should be raised. Further evidence of the arbitrary nature of the limits is when you see the speed limit change by 5-10 mph simply because you passed over an invisible state line. The road is identical on either side of the state line, and is engineered to handle speeds much higher than either, but the actual limits differ due to policies set by the state politicians.
And again, these are wide open interstate highways where pedestrians and non-motorized vehicles are generally prohibited to begin with, and which typically have minimum speed limits in excess of 40 mph and it's 90% fatality rate.
Re:Possibly Risky But Highly Useful Nonetheless
on
Spray-On Liquid Glass
·
· Score: 1
Well, if you're scared of ingesting little bits of glass, I hope you're not one who uses powdered non-dairy creamer in their coffee. Glass dust has been uses as an anti-caking agent in creamer powder for ages. Don't believe it? Just check the nearest can of creamer, and you see it listed right there (as silicon dioxide) in the ingredient list.
Really, with a layer as this as this product claims to make, I doubt anyone has to be that worried about tearing up their lungs or stomach. Silicosis is only a hazard when large amounts of silica dust are inhaled over a prolonged period of time. Asbestos is a hazard because it is formed of long crystalline fibers which keep it lodged in lungs when inhaled. And of course ingestion of small amounts is a moot point since these layers are so thin that applying enough force to cause a fragment to cut tissue would also be enough force to pulverize the shards into particles equivalent to what we eat and breath just from our environment every day.
Actually, "play sand" is still almost entirely silicon dioxide, just like "regular sand."
The only difference is that the play sand has been washed and screened so that it has less dust and a more uniform grain size. The fact is, "toxic" silicon dioxide is all around us, and we all breathe some amount of it in every single day. Silicosis only becomes an issue for people that breathe in large amounts of it on a regular basis - i.e. people who work 40+ hours a week in fine-dust-generating industries. If the silicon dioxide found in "regular sand" was truly a health hazard, then every beach in California would be outlawed (or at least coated in warning stickers) telling you to keep away. Hasn't ever happened, and never will, since casual exposure from playing in sand is not a silicosis hazard in any way.
Another thing to consider is that given the typical chemical makeup of rocks and sand is that if it were even possible to remove all the "harmful" SiO2 from sand all you'd be left with was a fine dust of metals and trace elements which would be harmful if played in.
In the old days when magazine reviews were still relevant, it really wasn't that uncommon to read reviews that basically came down to "great game, but we can't recommend it due to this bug or that glitch." And with systems that didn't allow patches, getting those kind of reviews could be devastating to a game.
Nowadays, even with the certification processes, some of the biggest AAA single-player games are shipping with game stopping bugs that would have been bad enough to kill a whole franchise 10 years ago. The only difference is that now the developers go back and patch problems in the code that they should have found and fixed if they had only done their due diligence to begin with.
Which brings us back to the problem of developers pushing out shoddy code now since they know they can fix it later. In the "good old days" of console gaming, before every system had internal storage and internet connections, if a game went out the door full of bugs that was it. Once the word got around that the game was buggy and/or unplayable, people wouldn't buy it and the developer/publisher would pay dearly for that mistake. This healthy fear of a product failing in the market due to bugs and poor code was usually enough to push developers to do the best possible q/a job that they could, even if it meant delaying a game release.
But now that every game console has the ability to support patches, the developers/publishers have begun to rely on this as a crutch so that they can save time and release on some pre-determined schedule and/or save money by not bothering with full q/a attention.
Bendable pins are a feature, not a bug. They help keep the plug from falling out of the old loose sockets. And it's only old sockets in need of replacement anyway that are so loose that plugs can drop out.
So, what you're saying is that you want Nintendo to buy out Bug Labs and repackage their modular hand-held device into a shiny new casing?
The thing is though, that your dream hardware is a nightmare for developers and publishers since having that many add-ons and expansions would severely fragment the user base. Then you're back to the whole chicken-and-egg dilemma that gaming consoles have faced for years. Who's going to make a game that uses add-on X, if there's no guarantee that a significant number of system users have that add-on, and why should users go out and buy said add-on if there aren't enough games to make it worthwhile?
Yes, I have used home. I've even logged into it more than once (three times to be precise) and spent an hour or so trying things out each time. In the end, I just couldn't find any reason for going back. If I want to talk with my friends, it's easier to just call them up on the phone/VoIP. If I want to play simple mini-games (and not wait in line for the privilege to do so) there are a lot more options immediately available from my web browser. If I want to dress up dolls, I can go play with my sister's old barbies for free, and not have to pay extra for every piece of clothing. If I want to dance like a fool in public, I can just get up and go outside.
And I'm still trying to figure out why so many people are griping about the lack of BC in the PS3. I have a 60GB model, and I've used the BC feature maybe two or three times total since I bought it. Yeah, it was an important feature back when there were very few quality games for the system in general, but now there are enough current-gen games to play that I don't have the time or need to go back and play old ones. The thing is, most people who actually care about playing PS2 games either already have a PS2, or they already have a PS3 w/ BC because they bought one early on. Meanwhile, the vast majority of people saying the lack of BC (or the price, or the lack of linux) is why they won't buy a PS3 never really intend to buy one anyway. They just enjoy griping about Sony, and nothing short of giving them some Super-Jesus-Machine-of-Orgasmic-Pleasure for free will ever make them happy. And even after that, some of them will still find reasons to complain.
I would assume that the loss of Linux support is likely due to not bothering to accommodate for the large changes in hardware under the hood. If their research shows that not enough people are using a feature make it worth developing and supporting, why should they waste resources on that feature? Of course, by that logic, then Home should have dies a long time ago too...
At any rate, it shouldn't take too long for unofficial workarounds to show up.
Actually, from the Developer's perspective, there is one other reason for achievements -- to entice people paying more money for additional download content. One of the reasons gaming can be so addictive is due to the collecting aspect. It's not just to have a score to brag about, but to have some measuring stick to say that you've truly "beaten" a game. But with DLC that includes additional achievements, suddenly that game that you "beat" last week is now only 80% finished, and if you want to actually beat it then you'll have to go spend more money on the extra content first.
Music controllers are quite cheap if you don't mind being a game or two behind the latest and greatest. Just last week I bought a set of Rock Band instruments from sam's/walmart for -$8 (clearance bundle at Sam's Club for $22 from which I returned the unopened software to walmart for $30 store credit). Granted, it was only cheap because I got the last ps3 bundle in stock while the 360 bundles were still $80.
Once the Beatles version comes out, I expect to see some crazy deals on the RB2 hardware as well.
Well, the REALLY smart thing to do is live with a cheap old car as long as you possibly can while making payments into your own savings account towards a new car. Then buy the new car with cash and forget the bank financing entirely. Once the purchase is done, continue making payment towards the next new car. By deferring the first new car a couple years to begin with, you can put yourself in a positive cycle that will yield thousands in savings for years to come.
When I lived in a bi-state metro area and had a job that required a lot of driving across the country, I learned which states had higher and lower taxes on the gas (and thus higher/lower overall price). So the end result is that as much as possible I'd fill up in the cheap states and drive through the expensive ones. I'm sure lots of other people do the same, so as it already is many states don't get their fair share in fuel taxes for the mileage driven on their roads.
Statistically, most people will do most of their driving in their home state, so residency info and odometer readings should be more than sufficient to give a fair enough allocation to each state without requiring some invasive govt-controlled GPS tracking system.
One thing I still don't understand in the Great Controller Debate is why so many people insist that the 360 thumbsticks are so much better for being offset. Last time I checked, my body was symmetrical and my hands were the same size. So, if I'm doing an action that requires similar movements with both thumbs (twiddling two sticks to drive a car, run while aiming, etc.) why should I hold each thumb differently in relation to the controller? And if I'm doing dissimilar actions with each thumb (lateral movements with one, button presses with another) does it really matter that much if the buttons aren't symmetrical with the stick? Or is it just that all the 360 fanboys like having that right stick offset because they're so used to holding only their right hand in front of them when it's most often making small repetitive motions?
Personally, I have to agree with all the other old curmudgeons that the best controllers ARE the traditional ones --- that is, the ones that started the industry, not the ones currently being supplanted by these new "too simple" motion inputs.
The ones the photographer took are great, but it's clear they have a checklist of groups and positions they put everyone though.. making for cookie cutter type photos
The solution there is to be a little more choosy when you hire a photographer. Ideally, wedding pictures are something you only get done once, so you have to ask yourself what it is you want to record in the pictures... do you want to know who was there, or to know what happened there? For the former, pretty much any photographer with their checklist of poses will do. For the latter, you need to hire a good photographer that focuses more on the "journalistic" aspect and is skilled in capturing the essence and emotion of the event while still keeping themselves mostly out of the way during the ceremony. Problem is, good photographers like that aren't cheap. Almost half the cost of our wedding was for the pictures, but I still think it was money well spent.
Of course, there's always the crowdsourcing option -- let enough amateurs take enough pictures and sort through everything after the fact to find the few good pictures. Problem is, that takes a lot of time... and for a couple newlyweds, spending hours on end sorting through pictures is probably the last thing on their mind.
Sure, you're fine as long as you don't share your password or have an easily guessed one, but I'm still not completely comfortable about the idea. My wife and I know most of each others passwords, so what would keep her from using the service to send an urgent ring to interrupt whatever I'm doing for whatever she thinks is important?
Or in the case of wiping someone else's device... consider all the kids running around these days with tricked out iphones (and what are they doing with them anyway? we didn't have any sort of cellphones when we were that age) that could easily root out their friends' credentials by one means or another.
Yeah, I don't expect wide scale hacking of the service by strangers, but the potential for griefing among peers or interruptions from family is certainly something I'm not looking forward to.
I hope there's good security on the auto-locate feature. Aside from the obvious "prank" of remotely wiping someone's iphone, I can also see this being abused for such things as spying on people's locations, or perhaps less invasive but more annoying... a "loved one" forcing your phone to ring when you already set it to silent for a meeting or movie.
You know, you're absolutely right, it would be great if there was some way to find out how good a game was before buying it.
Like if you could get a demonstration that wasn't pre-selected, tweaked, and polished to shine so bright you're blinded from seeing the real turd underneath. Or if you could get a bunch of experts to play the whole complete game first and not incomplete pre-release versions and then write reviews their experiences that are free from being influenced by any publisher incentives or threats. Or if you could get together in online discussion rooms and have a rational discourse with other game players without the conversation being drowned out by loudmouth shills (both paid and self-indoctrinated) that can't possibly see anything wrong with their game/system of preference.
Let me know when the industry grows up enough that reliable and honest preview information is readily available. Until then, I think I'll stick with the whole renting/borrowing/buying-used plan and try things myself before paying full price for the latest game on day one.
Two major problems with this possible system: First, it's just a camera. Without a full set of buttons on a controller that can be operated one-handed (or two hands with independent motion), you're stuck with waggle-only games and the Wii has already shown us how bad (or just plain frustrating) those can be.
Second, at this point in the console life cycle it's just another add-on with potential for a niche market at best. Unless there is massive developer support and or a large pack-in campaign, there simply won't be enough people with the hardware to justify developing many games for is.
So basically we're looking at another eye-toy, albeit one that can work in most rooms. Maybe Microsoft can come out and really surprise us with something amazing to add to what's already been tried before, but I'm not keeping my hopes too high for this one.
Slashdot Mirror
Because all high frequency trading does is inflate the cost for those of us who do invest in the "old-fashioned" buy-and-hold manner.
I heard it best described in this way: There's a hot new gadget that's being released today, and you *really* want to go buy one. Unfortunately, as you're walking down the street, some hedge fund investors see you coming and quickly jump in front of the store milliseconds before you get there to form a line at the door. The store opens, the investor at the front of the line buys ALL of the gadget inventory. He then turns around and sells all those units to the guy behind him for a small profit, who sells to the guy behind him for a small profit, who sells to the guy behind him, etc.
Eventually, they get back to you, but now if you're going to buy that gadget, it's going to cost you some significant percentage more to purchase for actual use. And you don't really have any option if you're going to buy one, because every store selling the gadget has a pool of financial sharks circling the entrance just waiting for another "traditional investment" sucker.
In the end, the store doesn't benefit, since they still only sold the item at the normal price, and you don't benefit because you just got your price jacked up. The only beneficiaries are the HFT scum who have played the system in such a way to artificially inflate your costs to their own benefit while adding absolutely no actual value to the product as it passed through their hands. This DOES impact you, because the more of your investment that gets siphoned out by the hedge funds, the less you have left to actually invest in the original stock.
If it's patterns we're looking for, then the real indicator of a new console is when the release of the new Zelda game gets delayed "so we can polish it to perfection."
Just like they repeatedly "polished" Twilight Princess for the Gamecube, only to use it as a hook for selling the Wii to the "hardcore" crowd.
Nothing wrong with driving slow in residential areas, especially in the UK where the roads are rarely straight and long.
But on the US interstate system, many of the highways do have artificially low speed limits that really should be raised. Further evidence of the arbitrary nature of the limits is when you see the speed limit change by 5-10 mph simply because you passed over an invisible state line. The road is identical on either side of the state line, and is engineered to handle speeds much higher than either, but the actual limits differ due to policies set by the state politicians.
And again, these are wide open interstate highways where pedestrians and non-motorized vehicles are generally prohibited to begin with, and which typically have minimum speed limits in excess of 40 mph and it's 90% fatality rate.
Well, if you're scared of ingesting little bits of glass, I hope you're not one who uses powdered non-dairy creamer in their coffee. Glass dust has been uses as an anti-caking agent in creamer powder for ages. Don't believe it? Just check the nearest can of creamer, and you see it listed right there (as silicon dioxide) in the ingredient list.
Really, with a layer as this as this product claims to make, I doubt anyone has to be that worried about tearing up their lungs or stomach. Silicosis is only a hazard when large amounts of silica dust are inhaled over a prolonged period of time. Asbestos is a hazard because it is formed of long crystalline fibers which keep it lodged in lungs when inhaled. And of course ingestion of small amounts is a moot point since these layers are so thin that applying enough force to cause a fragment to cut tissue would also be enough force to pulverize the shards into particles equivalent to what we eat and breath just from our environment every day.
Actually, "play sand" is still almost entirely silicon dioxide, just like "regular sand."
The only difference is that the play sand has been washed and screened so that it has less dust and a more uniform grain size. The fact is, "toxic" silicon dioxide is all around us, and we all breathe some amount of it in every single day. Silicosis only becomes an issue for people that breathe in large amounts of it on a regular basis - i.e. people who work 40+ hours a week in fine-dust-generating industries. If the silicon dioxide found in "regular sand" was truly a health hazard, then every beach in California would be outlawed (or at least coated in warning stickers) telling you to keep away. Hasn't ever happened, and never will, since casual exposure from playing in sand is not a silicosis hazard in any way.
Another thing to consider is that given the typical chemical makeup of rocks and sand is that if it were even possible to remove all the "harmful" SiO2 from sand all you'd be left with was a fine dust of metals and trace elements which would be harmful if played in.
Broken games still get shipped all the time.
In the old days when magazine reviews were still relevant, it really wasn't that uncommon to read reviews that basically came down to "great game, but we can't recommend it due to this bug or that glitch." And with systems that didn't allow patches, getting those kind of reviews could be devastating to a game.
Nowadays, even with the certification processes, some of the biggest AAA single-player games are shipping with game stopping bugs that would have been bad enough to kill a whole franchise 10 years ago. The only difference is that now the developers go back and patch problems in the code that they should have found and fixed if they had only done their due diligence to begin with.
Which brings us back to the problem of developers pushing out shoddy code now since they know they can fix it later. In the "good old days" of console gaming, before every system had internal storage and internet connections, if a game went out the door full of bugs that was it. Once the word got around that the game was buggy and/or unplayable, people wouldn't buy it and the developer/publisher would pay dearly for that mistake. This healthy fear of a product failing in the market due to bugs and poor code was usually enough to push developers to do the best possible q/a job that they could, even if it meant delaying a game release.
But now that every game console has the ability to support patches, the developers/publishers have begun to rely on this as a crutch so that they can save time and release on some pre-determined schedule and/or save money by not bothering with full q/a attention.
Bendable pins are a feature, not a bug. They help keep the plug from falling out of the old loose sockets. And it's only old sockets in need of replacement anyway that are so loose that plugs can drop out.
So, what you're saying is that you want Nintendo to buy out Bug Labs and repackage their modular hand-held device into a shiny new casing?
The thing is though, that your dream hardware is a nightmare for developers and publishers since having that many add-ons and expansions would severely fragment the user base. Then you're back to the whole chicken-and-egg dilemma that gaming consoles have faced for years. Who's going to make a game that uses add-on X, if there's no guarantee that a significant number of system users have that add-on, and why should users go out and buy said add-on if there aren't enough games to make it worthwhile?
so then... not too many PAX attendees need be worried about this?
you miss out whole words because your mind is racing ahead while your hands are trying to keep up. not that uncommon of a problem.
Yes, I have used home. I've even logged into it more than once (three times to be precise) and spent an hour or so trying things out each time. In the end, I just couldn't find any reason for going back. If I want to talk with my friends, it's easier to just call them up on the phone/VoIP. If I want to play simple mini-games (and not wait in line for the privilege to do so) there are a lot more options immediately available from my web browser. If I want to dress up dolls, I can go play with my sister's old barbies for free, and not have to pay extra for every piece of clothing. If I want to dance like a fool in public, I can just get up and go outside.
And I'm still trying to figure out why so many people are griping about the lack of BC in the PS3. I have a 60GB model, and I've used the BC feature maybe two or three times total since I bought it. Yeah, it was an important feature back when there were very few quality games for the system in general, but now there are enough current-gen games to play that I don't have the time or need to go back and play old ones. The thing is, most people who actually care about playing PS2 games either already have a PS2, or they already have a PS3 w/ BC because they bought one early on. Meanwhile, the vast majority of people saying the lack of BC (or the price, or the lack of linux) is why they won't buy a PS3 never really intend to buy one anyway. They just enjoy griping about Sony, and nothing short of giving them some Super-Jesus-Machine-of-Orgasmic-Pleasure for free will ever make them happy. And even after that, some of them will still find reasons to complain.
I would assume that the loss of Linux support is likely due to not bothering to accommodate for the large changes in hardware under the hood. If their research shows that not enough people are using a feature make it worth developing and supporting, why should they waste resources on that feature? Of course, by that logic, then Home should have dies a long time ago too...
At any rate, it shouldn't take too long for unofficial workarounds to show up.
Actually, from the Developer's perspective, there is one other reason for achievements -- to entice people paying more money for additional download content. One of the reasons gaming can be so addictive is due to the collecting aspect. It's not just to have a score to brag about, but to have some measuring stick to say that you've truly "beaten" a game. But with DLC that includes additional achievements, suddenly that game that you "beat" last week is now only 80% finished, and if you want to actually beat it then you'll have to go spend more money on the extra content first.
Music controllers are quite cheap if you don't mind being a game or two behind the latest and greatest. Just last week I bought a set of Rock Band instruments from sam's/walmart for -$8 (clearance bundle at Sam's Club for $22 from which I returned the unopened software to walmart for $30 store credit). Granted, it was only cheap because I got the last ps3 bundle in stock while the 360 bundles were still $80.
Once the Beatles version comes out, I expect to see some crazy deals on the RB2 hardware as well.
Well, the REALLY smart thing to do is live with a cheap old car as long as you possibly can while making payments into your own savings account towards a new car. Then buy the new car with cash and forget the bank financing entirely. Once the purchase is done, continue making payment towards the next new car. By deferring the first new car a couple years to begin with, you can put yourself in a positive cycle that will yield thousands in savings for years to come.
When I lived in a bi-state metro area and had a job that required a lot of driving across the country, I learned which states had higher and lower taxes on the gas (and thus higher/lower overall price). So the end result is that as much as possible I'd fill up in the cheap states and drive through the expensive ones. I'm sure lots of other people do the same, so as it already is many states don't get their fair share in fuel taxes for the mileage driven on their roads.
Statistically, most people will do most of their driving in their home state, so residency info and odometer readings should be more than sufficient to give a fair enough allocation to each state without requiring some invasive govt-controlled GPS tracking system.
One thing I still don't understand in the Great Controller Debate is why so many people insist that the 360 thumbsticks are so much better for being offset. Last time I checked, my body was symmetrical and my hands were the same size. So, if I'm doing an action that requires similar movements with both thumbs (twiddling two sticks to drive a car, run while aiming, etc.) why should I hold each thumb differently in relation to the controller? And if I'm doing dissimilar actions with each thumb (lateral movements with one, button presses with another) does it really matter that much if the buttons aren't symmetrical with the stick? Or is it just that all the 360 fanboys like having that right stick offset because they're so used to holding only their right hand in front of them when it's most often making small repetitive motions?
Personally, I have to agree with all the other old curmudgeons that the best controllers ARE the traditional ones --- that is, the ones that started the industry, not the ones currently being supplanted by these new "too simple" motion inputs.
The solution there is to be a little more choosy when you hire a photographer. Ideally, wedding pictures are something you only get done once, so you have to ask yourself what it is you want to record in the pictures... do you want to know who was there, or to know what happened there? For the former, pretty much any photographer with their checklist of poses will do. For the latter, you need to hire a good photographer that focuses more on the "journalistic" aspect and is skilled in capturing the essence and emotion of the event while still keeping themselves mostly out of the way during the ceremony. Problem is, good photographers like that aren't cheap. Almost half the cost of our wedding was for the pictures, but I still think it was money well spent.
Of course, there's always the crowdsourcing option -- let enough amateurs take enough pictures and sort through everything after the fact to find the few good pictures. Problem is, that takes a lot of time... and for a couple newlyweds, spending hours on end sorting through pictures is probably the last thing on their mind.
Yep. Worked like a charm for the Auto Industry...
Sure, you're fine as long as you don't share your password or have an easily guessed one, but I'm still not completely comfortable about the idea. My wife and I know most of each others passwords, so what would keep her from using the service to send an urgent ring to interrupt whatever I'm doing for whatever she thinks is important?
Or in the case of wiping someone else's device... consider all the kids running around these days with tricked out iphones (and what are they doing with them anyway? we didn't have any sort of cellphones when we were that age) that could easily root out their friends' credentials by one means or another.
Yeah, I don't expect wide scale hacking of the service by strangers, but the potential for griefing among peers or interruptions from family is certainly something I'm not looking forward to.
I hope there's good security on the auto-locate feature. Aside from the obvious "prank" of remotely wiping someone's iphone, I can also see this being abused for such things as spying on people's locations, or perhaps less invasive but more annoying... a "loved one" forcing your phone to ring when you already set it to silent for a meeting or movie.
You know, you're absolutely right, it would be great if there was some way to find out how good a game was before buying it.
Like if you could get a demonstration that wasn't pre-selected, tweaked, and polished to shine so bright you're blinded from seeing the real turd underneath. Or if you could get a bunch of experts to play the whole complete game first and not incomplete pre-release versions and then write reviews their experiences that are free from being influenced by any publisher incentives or threats. Or if you could get together in online discussion rooms and have a rational discourse with other game players without the conversation being drowned out by loudmouth shills (both paid and self-indoctrinated) that can't possibly see anything wrong with their game/system of preference.
Let me know when the industry grows up enough that reliable and honest preview information is readily available. Until then, I think I'll stick with the whole renting/borrowing/buying-used plan and try things myself before paying full price for the latest game on day one.
...and the trial will be completed at the very last minute and at great expense. (cue llamas)
Two major problems with this possible system: First, it's just a camera. Without a full set of buttons on a controller that can be operated one-handed (or two hands with independent motion), you're stuck with waggle-only games and the Wii has already shown us how bad (or just plain frustrating) those can be.
Second, at this point in the console life cycle it's just another add-on with potential for a niche market at best. Unless there is massive developer support and or a large pack-in campaign, there simply won't be enough people with the hardware to justify developing many games for is.
So basically we're looking at another eye-toy, albeit one that can work in most rooms. Maybe Microsoft can come out and really surprise us with something amazing to add to what's already been tried before, but I'm not keeping my hopes too high for this one.