"Better" is a massive understatement. The Broadway show has been running for over five years now. There's also a national tour and productions in London, Melboure, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Copenhagen, Buenos Aires, and Tokyo. There's a UK national tour coming up, as well.
And Brooks wasn't just a "playwrite". He's one of the producers, the writer, the composer, and the lyricist.
Hard to get any hard figures on how much the show has made so far, but just the advance ticket sales for the original production topped $17M and Nathan Lane was rumoured to be pulling down £30,000 a week for his performance in the London production. I think maybe possibly the show has been just a wee bit profitable.:)
I can't fathom how they could have out-sucked the first. I'd be tempted to watch out of sheer morbid curiosity, but I fear my brain would crawl out my ear in self defense.
I only care about pricing here in the states, and it doesn't look terribly competitive for the 360:
Core ($299) + Memory card ($40) + one Platinum priced game ($30) = $369
And that configuration has less memory (64MB v 512MB built-in to the wii), no wireless ethernet ($99 add-on for the Core system), no wireless controller ($50 add-on for the Core system). All for $120 more.
DVD was a selling point, not a brand new unproven format with credible competition. And it was hardly new technology. Players had been around for about five years when the PS2 was release, they were already less than $300 and were ubiquitous enough that Walmart stocked them. Contrast to Blu-ray, which had it's first player debut months ago, still sells for $1000 and has to compete against a format that costs half as much and has more content on the market.
Then to find the console will be $249 (and Nintendo then has the nerve to hype the fact that they are making profit on each Wii) and come with just one controller. Wi + $60 = Wii. Bringing the total to $310. Then for families and those who bought into the four player experience hype, we have $430.
And even including four controllers and a game, they'd still be price competitive with the 360 and significantly cheaper than the PS3. Huh. Funny. Almost like it's a reasonable price.
Erm, 5-7kWh/mo is only ~ 7-10W draw. Even the PS2 draws about 30W (~ 21kWh/mo) and the PS3 will likely be closer to the 360 at about 160W (~ 115kWh/mo).
Actually, the comment I replied to said nothing about no home network. That was a prior comment to the same parent. And yes, there is a bundled game. It's stated in the press release, reported widely, and advertised on the boxes in several pictures of the retail box.
Not actually sure what "first learn to reply" is supposed to refer to.
Oh, hrm, someone completely missed that. I was going by Joel Johnson from Wired News:
How much will Opera cost? Unknown. No price has yet been set for the download-able Opera web browser, but it sounds like it could very well be free, once Nintendo finishes discussions with Opera.
It sounds like it might end up being a free download though. It's entirely possible they couldn't commit to shipping with just because they haven't signed a final contract yet (not necessarily a bad time.. with a lot of companies it's just a somewhat arduous process.)
Now lets look at the Wii: It doesn't have a hard drive, just like the core, it doesn't come with HD video cables, just like the core, it doesn't include a headset, just like the core, so the only thing left is the wired/wireless controller and we don't know for sure yet what the Wii will include (however if E3 is any indication they do make both versions and I wouldn't put it past them including the wired version).
Yeah, but it comes with 512MB built-in flash, and will take bog standard SD cards for expansion. Add an extra $40 there just to get a 64MB card so you can save games (cursing under your breath that if it used standard flash you could get 1GB for the same price).
Wii also does wireless networking out of the box. Add another $100 for the adapter on the core.
Noone's been speculating they won't include the Wii Remote. It's the centerpiece of the new system. Whether they'll include the wired "classic" controller is the only thing in the air. So, add another $50 for a wireless controller to bring the Core system up to par.
Then there's the bundled game. Add another $20 to get even a budget title on the XBox side.
That brings up to a grand total of an extra $210 to rectify the most glaring ommisions in the Core system. Of course, since we're talking two systems it's impossible to make them perfectly equivilent; the 360 is still pretty certainly the more powerful system and supports HD output, while the Wii has it's unique controller features and hints of some interesting console features (the "channels" whatever they are, built-in browser, etc).
Last I checked, Blu-Ray is everybody that is media important except Toshiba. HD-DVD is a smidgen of media companies and electronic wanna bes (except for Toshiba) that happens to be market friendly sooner.
Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo, RCA. Microsoft and Intel are important allies. HP has a media center coming out. LG is hedging their bets and producing players for both formats. Most major studios are producing both formats.
Really, way too early to declare a "winner", if there is one.
Yeah, that's one reason I recommend skipping on suspension at lower price points. For heavier rider on a budget my favourite is to get something with a nice sturdy frame (steel is a great bargin), then toss the stock rims and replace then with Sun Rhyno Lites. A little extra cost, but in the long run pays for itself by not needing to be trued as often.
When I got back into biking a couple years back I started at 6'3', 260#, and was riding 15+ miles a day. Reliable wheels were a must.:)
Who said anything about all "that crap". I specifically said that the bells and whistles (e.g. ridiculous number of gears, suspension, etc) on cheap bikes these days to sell them.
What matters is construction. If you ride legallly, in traffic, an accident due to equipment failure can be a serious matter. And if you put on a significant number of miles, maintainance on a better than Walmart bike is going to pay off.
A reasonable quality used bike is a good route to go. Beginning of the season is a good time to buy, since a lot of people are upgrading. Making sure the bike is sized properly is a must, though. Nothing turns people off cycling more than a bike that doesn't fit.
New isn't the yuppie extravagence you make it out to be. You can get into a reasonable hybrid for about $275 USD (something like a Trek 7000 or Jamis Commuter). Around here that's about as much as a summer's supply of bus passes. And you get a frame with a lifetime warranty and quality (if basic) components.
I've had my share of beaters, as well. The last one was a a Huffy that snapped while I was riding it.
You're not going to get "decent" suspension on something that runs $150CDN. A nine-speed cassette isn't anything to get terribly excited about. At a particular price point the more features, the more flimsy the parts will be. You're actually better off dropping the near useless (in that range) suspension and going with less aggressive gearing (most casual riders aren't going to take advantage of that that kind of range anyways).
And anyone who is planning on using a bike for transportation really really should invest in a better product. That doesn't necessarily mean dropping a few grand, but I wouldn't recommend going less than $300-400 CDN. Probably more for a trail bike.
That's not what symmetric means in this context. It merely means that the processors have equal access to a shared memory address space. The Opteron is actually a NUMA architecture (non-uniform memory access), thanks to the integrated memory controller. Each processor has it's own memory bank which it can access faster than the others in the system.
Technically there's no reason a system could be built with different speed processors. Likely the reason it's not typically supported is because there's little reason for it and it complicates scheduler design. In this case the cores would be identical in their potential speed, which simplifies things.
I've started converting over (as part of a plan to cut my ludicrous electric bill in half) and so far, I'm incredibly unimpressed by the GE branded bulbs. My first bulbs were Commercial Electric (manufactured by TCP, also sold under the Durabright brand name) and I'm very happ'y with those - they come on instantly at near full brightness.
I was in Target over the weekend and grabbed a pack of GE bulbs for the next batch. Utter crap by comparison. I would never planned on switching out the entire house. They take about a second to snap on and are noticeably dim for at least a minute.
I'll be tossing these ones into the attic and basement probably, and buy the last block at Home Depot again.
Games for the PS3 may not make use of the tilt features in their controller either. Or may have used rumble if Sony hadn't dropped that feature.
Bacwards compatability looks like it requires rebuying your old games.
There should be 100% backwards compatibility to the Gamecube, so this only applies to the earlier cartridge based systems and games for other consoles.
Slashdot Mirror
"Better" is a massive understatement. The Broadway show has been running for over five years now. There's also a national tour and productions in London, Melboure, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Copenhagen, Buenos Aires, and Tokyo. There's a UK national tour coming up, as well.
:)
And Brooks wasn't just a "playwrite". He's one of the producers, the writer, the composer, and the lyricist.
Hard to get any hard figures on how much the show has made so far, but just the advance ticket sales for the original production topped $17M and Nathan Lane was rumoured to be pulling down £30,000 a week for his performance in the London production. I think maybe possibly the show has been just a wee bit profitable.
I can't fathom how they could have out-sucked the first. I'd be tempted to watch out of sheer morbid curiosity, but I fear my brain would crawl out my ear in self defense.
There are DS titles that have sold 3 million now individually.
And it's taken them months to reach those numbers; e.g. Animal Crossing has been out since last year, and New Super Mario Bros since May.
FFIII for DS in Japan sold almost 600,000 copies in less than a week. How is this impressive?
Total sales of FFIII have only hit 655,533 a month after release.
I only care about pricing here in the states, and it doesn't look terribly competitive for the 360:
Core ($299) + Memory card ($40) + one Platinum priced game ($30) = $369
And that configuration has less memory (64MB v 512MB built-in to the wii), no wireless ethernet ($99 add-on for the Core system), no wireless controller ($50 add-on for the Core system). All for $120 more.
DVD was a selling point, not a brand new unproven format with credible competition. And it was hardly new technology. Players had been around for about five years when the PS2 was release, they were already less than $300 and were ubiquitous enough that Walmart stocked them. Contrast to Blu-ray, which had it's first player debut months ago, still sells for $1000 and has to compete against a format that costs half as much and has more content on the market.
You might not have noticed this, but that is about the PS2. (Yes, I know you probably know that. I'm being sarcastic.)
Sony has a huge ulterior motive called blu-ray this round.
Then to find the console will be $249 (and Nintendo then has the nerve to hype the fact that they are making profit on each Wii) and come with just one controller. Wi + $60 = Wii. Bringing the total to $310. Then for families and those who bought into the four player experience hype, we have $430.
And even including four controllers and a game, they'd still be price competitive with the 360 and significantly cheaper than the PS3. Huh. Funny. Almost like it's a reasonable price.
Erm, 5-7kWh/mo is only ~ 7-10W draw. Even the PS2 draws about 30W (~ 21kWh/mo) and the PS3 will likely be closer to the 360 at about 160W (~ 115kWh/mo).
Actually, the comment I replied to said nothing about no home network. That was a prior comment to the same parent. And yes, there is a bundled game. It's stated in the press release, reported widely, and advertised on the boxes in several pictures of the retail box.
Not actually sure what "first learn to reply" is supposed to refer to.
It sounds like it might end up being a free download though. It's entirely possible they couldn't commit to shipping with just because they haven't signed a final contract yet (not necessarily a bad time.. with a lot of companies it's just a somewhat arduous process.)
I just looked at rough pricing on Amazon. Figured I'd be kind to the XBox. :)
... unless you run out of space or want to move saved games between machines. :) I grabbed pricing from amazon, which likely isn't the cheapest source.
Now lets look at the Wii: It doesn't have a hard drive, just like the core, it doesn't come with HD video cables, just like the core, it doesn't include a headset, just like the core, so the only thing left is the wired/wireless controller and we don't know for sure yet what the Wii will include (however if E3 is any indication they do make both versions and I wouldn't put it past them including the wired version).
Yeah, but it comes with 512MB built-in flash, and will take bog standard SD cards for expansion. Add an extra $40 there just to get a 64MB card so you can save games (cursing under your breath that if it used standard flash you could get 1GB for the same price).
Wii also does wireless networking out of the box. Add another $100 for the adapter on the core.
Noone's been speculating they won't include the Wii Remote. It's the centerpiece of the new system. Whether they'll include the wired "classic" controller is the only thing in the air. So, add another $50 for a wireless controller to bring the Core system up to par.
Then there's the bundled game. Add another $20 to get even a budget title on the XBox side.
That brings up to a grand total of an extra $210 to rectify the most glaring ommisions in the Core system. Of course, since we're talking two systems it's impossible to make them perfectly equivilent; the 360 is still pretty certainly the more powerful system and supports HD output, while the Wii has it's unique controller features and hints of some interesting console features (the "channels" whatever they are, built-in browser, etc).
Last I checked, Blu-Ray is everybody that is media important except Toshiba. HD-DVD is a smidgen of media companies and electronic wanna bes (except for Toshiba) that happens to be market friendly sooner.
Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo, RCA. Microsoft and Intel are important allies. HP has a media center coming out. LG is hedging their bets and producing players for both formats. Most major studios are producing both formats.
Really, way too early to declare a "winner", if there is one.
Yeah, that's one reason I recommend skipping on suspension at lower price points. For heavier rider on a budget my favourite is to get something with a nice sturdy frame (steel is a great bargin), then toss the stock rims and replace then with Sun Rhyno Lites. A little extra cost, but in the long run pays for itself by not needing to be trued as often.
:)
When I got back into biking a couple years back I started at 6'3', 260#, and was riding 15+ miles a day. Reliable wheels were a must.
Who said anything about all "that crap". I specifically said that the bells and whistles (e.g. ridiculous number of gears, suspension, etc) on cheap bikes these days to sell them.
What matters is construction. If you ride legallly, in traffic, an accident due to equipment failure can be a serious matter. And if you put on a significant number of miles, maintainance on a better than Walmart bike is going to pay off.
A reasonable quality used bike is a good route to go. Beginning of the season is a good time to buy, since a lot of people are upgrading. Making sure the bike is sized properly is a must, though. Nothing turns people off cycling more than a bike that doesn't fit.
New isn't the yuppie extravagence you make it out to be. You can get into a reasonable hybrid for about $275 USD (something like a Trek 7000 or Jamis Commuter). Around here that's about as much as a summer's supply of bus passes. And you get a frame with a lifetime warranty and quality (if basic) components.
I've had my share of beaters, as well. The last one was a a Huffy that snapped while I was riding it.
You're not going to get "decent" suspension on something that runs $150CDN. A nine-speed cassette isn't anything to get terribly excited about. At a particular price point the more features, the more flimsy the parts will be. You're actually better off dropping the near useless (in that range) suspension and going with less aggressive gearing (most casual riders aren't going to take advantage of that that kind of range anyways).
And anyone who is planning on using a bike for transportation really really should invest in a better product. That doesn't necessarily mean dropping a few grand, but I wouldn't recommend going less than $300-400 CDN. Probably more for a trail bike.
Think servers, not desktops. They're going to be the target for both the processing power of four cores and the adaptive power features AMD describes.
Just looking at one of our web clusters, we vary from ~ 150 to ~ 3500 requests per second, with fairly smooth build-up. Certainly not all or nothing.
That might be true for desktops, but in the server space we can keep multiple cores fed nicely, thank you very much. :)
That's not what symmetric means in this context. It merely means that the processors have equal access to a shared memory address space. The Opteron is actually a NUMA architecture (non-uniform memory access), thanks to the integrated memory controller. Each processor has it's own memory bank which it can access faster than the others in the system.
Technically there's no reason a system could be built with different speed processors. Likely the reason it's not typically supported is because there's little reason for it and it complicates scheduler design. In this case the cores would be identical in their potential speed, which simplifies things.
I've started converting over (as part of a plan to cut my ludicrous electric bill in half) and so far, I'm incredibly unimpressed by the GE branded bulbs. My first bulbs were Commercial Electric (manufactured by TCP, also sold under the Durabright brand name) and I'm very happ'y with those - they come on instantly at near full brightness.
I was in Target over the weekend and grabbed a pack of GE bulbs for the next batch. Utter crap by comparison. I would never planned on switching out the entire house. They take about a second to snap on and are noticeably dim for at least a minute.
I'll be tossing these ones into the attic and basement probably, and buy the last block at Home Depot again.
Never ran accross that accessory, myself, so no idea. :) Would be nice, though.
Games may not make use of the Wiimote.
Games for the PS3 may not make use of the tilt features in their controller either. Or may have used rumble if Sony hadn't dropped that feature.
Bacwards compatability looks like it requires rebuying your old games.
There should be 100% backwards compatibility to the Gamecube, so this only applies to the earlier cartridge based systems and games for other consoles.
The Core 2 Duo architecture uses two cores (obviously) and shares the L2 cache (revolutionary, usually each core has a seperate L2).
Revolutionary? The POWER4 was sharing L2 cache between cores way back in 2001, followed by the UltraSparc IV+ in 2005.