Keep your eye on the ball. SCO is merely running interference for M$. M$ is still taxing the world $40,000,000,000/year for a dozen programs it mostly wrote more than a decade ago.
I'd counter-claim astroturfing, but I don't know who would be paying...:)
You've clearly got a belief structure built up here... some people are christians, and frankly I don't agree with them either...
You've accused me of lying (that's emotionally loaded terminology in my mind) You're use of "m$" clearly identifies you as a disinterested observer? We all have opinions that we bring to the table. That mine is different than yours does not make me evil. ...and then you accused me of lying for money. We disagree somewhere, lets have a conversation rather than a shouting match.
fraudulently misrepresenting themselves
that's a lot of negatives, but I see where you're headed.
Duh. M$ is leveraging their desktop operating system monopoly to gain an advantage (cross-subsidizing from their monopoly) in console gaming. That may be illegal.
You pretending not to know that is telling
That seems non-obvious. IANAL and all that, but offering development tools to the public and wailing antitrust seems like a stretch. What could MS offer to customers in any market for free without crossing your boundary here?
Way to fail to own it. They gave you something free (yes, there are caveats) or at worst dirt-cheap, that others sell for much more. You can now choose -- your wallet or your "must-irrationaly-hate-ms" reflex?
God help you if the indians get close to you with a few "gimme" rounds of texas hold'em. You'll never break free.
...you see where I'm going with this?
it's almost like this truly vicious practice that many shareware vendors have (wolves in sheeps clothing, these guys). They offer you up a fantastic game as a trial version and then ask you to pay for it if you love it.
bastards.
I can imagine that Sony and Nintendo are none to amused at this, so I'll just sit back and wait for them to file antitrust complaints.
...yeah. but it's MS that stifles innovation. What antitrust issue do you see here? The 2nd place player in a field tries to gain an advantage by giving things away... I'd come up with an analogy but they seem to obvious. I'll let you run with it.
the ubiquity of the technology does not in any way detract from the usefulness/worth of professional people to run it.
Visual Studio express free downloads from MS has not resulted in management writing their own code Hammers & paint @ home depot has not caused massive layoffs of contractors Everyone has a pocketknife but surgeons are still employed. Many many crappy cameras in the wild does not mean that people will start liking crappy pictures
I like nice pictures. Blogging hasn't (yet) killed journalism/professional writing. I expect photogs will survive.
Strictly speaking the itanium platform has been in the market for years supporting EFI...:) But commercially, you're right... I was actually making a little joke there (very little, I suppose) in wondering out loud if the EFI platform was providing a real benefit.
We'll see what happens as it leaks further in to intel platforms...
The difference in the apple product model shows through here. Power management problems like those described by the story submitter (love that random complaints can be slashdot front page material) are related to bios in use, drivers in use... apple folk obviously deliver an OS to a limited set of hardware, drivers, bioses (did I pluralize that properly?). Windows tries to be all things to all people. breadth vs. depth, etc...
When XP came out many (many many many) systems could not boot in ACPI mode. Many systems had a bios that would report as supporting ACPI and then fall over in an unexpected way... what resolved this was.... time in market. Once it became important to boot XP it became important to pay attention to the ACPI spec. The XP installer actually has a backdoor built in for those dark days of 2001... you can bang on "f7" when you boot into textmode setup (the media-boot phase) and setup will ignore ACPI support.
Vista no longer supports non-acpi machines. Vista also tries to do more with power management and if you have current-ish system from a major OEM (dell, gateway, sony, toshiba, hp, etc) they've already posted BIOS updates to make things go in the brave new world. Partnering with the big guys is where MS can recover some depth in the hardware space.
Vista now provides a new hybrid sleep mode, combining standby with hibernation. The sleep option will write out a hibernate file so that if the machine takes a nap & runs out of juice (laptop scenario here) you can plug the box in and resume without losing your context. I'm typing on a Dell xps m170 right now -- it works well.
What they ARE doing is selling their users out to media companies. They are getting paid by those companies to put support for powerful DRM on every computer around the planet so there will exist a market for DRM media. They are getting paid for this as added revenue on top of the "Windows and Office" tax.
uhm... what?
that's gibberish. There is DRM built in to the OS, but it's as harmful to you as a knife in the drawer... it only comes out if you try to use it. Yes, Vista can support DRM'd music, and the stuff that they negotiated to work with cablecard is pretty restrictive... but if you don't like it, don't use it.
did that hurt?
just don't use it. If you don't like the TPM stuff and full volume encryption... don't turn it on. If you don't like the creepy DRM'd music (or these fancy new "itunes downloads" the kids use these days) then don't use it. You're none the worse for wear. If you want it it's there and you can get access to things that otherwise would not be found in a digital format legally.
Assuming that you asked your friendly neighborhood malware author for your copy of the OS... then yes, this sounds easy. it would be much easier in XP, but it's good to see that we've left this capability in there for Vista as well.
Vista has the same signed binaries idea -- on 64 bit versions it is especially well enforced.
This is another FUD piece. Vista makes it more difficult to modify the installation sources. In XP and previous os's the installation sources were just a pile of binaries. Anyone with write access to the source could take out one thing and add another...
With Vista the OS is already built and closed up inside of an image file... to review:
in vista
in order to "exploit" this "vulnerability" you need to have write access to the installation sources and the tools and knowledge to rebuild the share (the image format is not "zip", you need a certain understanding of the process to make this go).
in XP you just need access to the shares.
And in what way is this different from any other thing that you'll ever install on your computer?
Re:I had no idea Windows Vista was released today
on
Vista Hackers Get Busy
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· Score: 1
there is the business release and then there's launch. the consumer stuff happens in january -- you'll start to hear about it in the new year.
I've heard that retirement and semi-retirement limits your life expectancy. Not to be too (too too) vindictive here, but this makes me hope that's the case.
It's tycho's writing style that take me back every day -- any book adaptation will have to include it. An index that categorized by game reviews would make it a must-own.
Re:Not as good as the oldies....
on
Halo 2 Reviews
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· Score: 1
This sort of post always pisses me off.
"Nobody's made a better game than game X, which I learned to game on"...
Get over it. Even new games can be good, and some can be extraordinary.
I love Halo and I love Halo 2 (did some beta stuff) and you can't say that I just don't know better:
-I've had a CS addiction (ran a clan, had a server)
-I've played UT both PC and Xbox (here's a game that's got mechanics and lacks a soul)
-I've played through all the old stuff -- the Dooms, Wolfenstein etc.
-Goldeneye, for console gaming love... etc etc...
I am a gamer -- pc, console, handheld -- I'll kick your ass wherever I find you.
Halo (and it's successor) do something different and great...actually it does many things, all of them slightly better than anyone else. It's like the perfect-storm -- lots of littles and a few bigs come together to make it fantastic.
-Real competitive FPS gameplay on a console. With an excellent control scheme (go ahead and whine about how you can't game w/out a mouse & keyboard -- in Xbox land the playing field is level and you're a wuss who can't adapt).
-Beautiful graphics that don't get in the way of the story or the game -- they aid it. And they're tuned so even with 16 people on single screen (each xbox running 4 screen splits) there's not a bit of lag/distortion/etc.
-weapons scale from newb-cannon to nuanced sniping (pistol!) -- a moment to learn, a lifetime to master (halo1 tip -- you can shoot-melee-shoot with the shotty faster than you can shoot-shoot)
-A real, deep, interesting storyline.
-real, deep, thought-through enemies and AI with different attacks and skill levels.
-from loser to legendary. you can play through on Easy, then master the game on the harder levels. Co-op through legendary -- when you finally beat the game it feels like something you should put on your resume.
-The mechanics of the game only enhance the experience, they never detract. You're not worrying about saving (automatic checkpoints)... you don't think about load times (virtually nonexistent)... you don't worry about what you can't do (drive the car or jack it. Blow it up. Roll over bad people and smear them across the landscape). Everything feels natural.
-Multiplayer action that never gets old. I've put hours and hours into playing the same old maps with the same 20-30 guys -- and we're still learning from each other, tuning our games.
-In Halo 2 -- xbox Live. The best gaming network ever put together. This is MP gaming the way it should be. Play with anybody anywhere. Drunk canadians and hardened college kids with nothing better to do at 2 am? It'll find you the perfect match.
There are joys in gaming on a console. You aren't getting owned because someone with a $5000 video card can see the corners of your polys when he's still a pixel on the far side of your map. You don't have to go out every night before playing to download punkbuster + or the dozens of flavor-of-the-minute cheat breakers... you don't have to download a patch, a revision, or check steam, or cut off and burn your left big toe as a sacrifice to the gods of the internet to gain access to a lag-free game.
You can jump right in, anywhere, and get your own setup running without having to put a carry strap on your pc.
I was actually cruising this thread to mod up somebody who would mention the fantastic multiplayer experience that Halo delivers, but this has devolved into a bunch of unrelated "MS is bad" and "fear gaming industry" crap. To get this back on topic:
The reviews are in from me, god, and everyone. They love Halo2 and rightly so. If you have an XBox then get it, get on Live, and come find me. I'm BurlyBob.
Hardware shortages are a fact life in product launches. Making sure that the shortage is news is what makes it marketing.
I can't wait for my wireless handheld 3d FPS fun.
I don't think that fuel cells for your pocket electronics are that far off. Batteries improve slowly, sure (I suppose I should have found a more correct term..."power source"?) but we're not mucking about with cadmium anymore, this is something that's really taking off....which could mean that in a year or two my DS will have 20 hours of life between charges, rather than 10.:)
How did this random website make news offering a one-trick-pony review of this hardware? It's crap. Here's why.
To hit the high points, lets start with his conclusion.
At this point, the market just doesn't appear to be ready for a pair of new handhelds to step onto the scene.
The latest Nintendo handheld platform (the Gameboy Advance) launched in 2000 (the SP is just prettier, not more functional -- it's the same device). Clinton was President, some parts of the world still liked Americans... and we were typing away on piii 600s, with 64mb of ram. In what way are we not ready to move on? Of course we're ready for a new platform, and maybe even a new idea or two (it's about damn time I had a real FPS in my pocket, and fragged others wirelessly). I'm a married man with a kid, I don't have too much cash to spare... but I have a GBA, a GBA SP and I'll get myself a Nintendo DS when it comes out (I'd consider the Sony, but it is beyond my price range).
That's the big picture. Some smaller points:
Sony: -he's only got 2 complaints about the PSP: One: Battery life: Yes. But batteries get better and for all we know they'll offer a fuel-cell pack for this thing in a years time. I give Sony props for putting out the polygons.
Two: Price: He's got a point, it's expensive. But people by iPods and I think they're crazy.
Nintendo: -His arguments against the DS make even less sense. One: "remakes aren't innovative". New software reshaped to take advantage of a new platform using new features... the only thing that's still around is the Mario face on the box. Two: The GBA is out there and it's cheap. F3@r this? Really? You have a gi-mungous installed base with compatible games and you're offering updates for those legacy titles when used on the new H/W (pokemon gba titles can d/l updates at the new movie, in the DS)... this is market leverage, not a liability.
I guess this guy gets recognized for maintaining his luddite-ish "I-hate-new-things" tone for the entire article, but this just means he's taken a stand, not that he's thought it through.
I've got a kid, a wife, a house, a job... the only way I get to play games is on my gbaSP. 10 minutes at a time (waiting for wife @ mall, in meeting/the john @ work, etc) I've put in more than 150 hours of gaming with this toy.
This reads a bit like the Republican take on Kerry's record. It's so like accuracy that it can be deceiving. Here's what I saw from just a glance...
Automatic Update is off by default...
...it's a true statement, but their comment goes on to say it should be off... so what is wrong with having it off and prompting users to change state if they want to?
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing, manual. Unnecessary on most home machines. Should be disabled by default.
The service is not enabled... it is in a state where applications that rely on it can start it if its necessary, but that would be performed by the user. Have it not enabled is not a security risk....
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager, manual. Unnecessary on most home machines. Should be disabled by default.
I love this service. I love that it is not enabled by default, but must (as above) be initiated by the user. Again, there is nothing wrong having this service in a state where the user can enable it without confusion...
Secondary Logon, automatic (enables starting processes under alternate credentials). Unnecessary on most home machines. Should be disabled by default.
This service is what allows fast-user-switching (multiple console logons w/out logging out). It is an integral part of the XP ui and absolutely should be enabled.
The chief weakness of a single-user system is that whoever sits at the keyboard is the administrator, or root in UNIX parlance, capable of taking any action he pleases. He can install programs and delete files or wipe out whole directories; he can alter system settings with the same privileges as the owner.
Newsflash -- Windows is not *nix, its user base is not a *nix user base, etc... Excuse the cliche, but "Mom" is not going to login as a "user" then launch setup apps in root/admin context -- this is just not something that "mom" can wrap her head around.
the user decides whether or not to allow provider X or Web site Y to run code on his machine, based on pure guesswork and vague impressions.
For example, Internet Explorer allows a user to choose websites from which potentially dangerous content like JavaScript and ActiveX controls will be trusted. Content from 'untrusted' websites can be assigned reduced privileges.
This approach is wrongheaded from the start.
I'm calling bullshit on this one. Pick -- the end user should be smart enough to work in the user context until he/she needs admin access, then they should go use it for that specific context, etc... but they shouldn't know if they trust a site or not? And by default there is nothing in the "trusted" sites list, so the user is going to be prompted for each download attempt. If they don't like the "zones" idea that's fine, but complaining about the implementaion is different from that implementation being unsafe.
"Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed" is not selected. (We would leave it enabled.) "Installation of desktop items" gets a prompt, and is enabled for trusted sites. (We would require a prompt at all sites.) The pop-up blocker is enabled, but disabled for trusted sites. (We would leave it enabled.)
More of the same. We get it, you don't like the "zones" thing. There is no difference between what the review wants and what IE already does in this case. There are no trusted sites by default and the user is going to have to go out of his/her way to get some there. If you like reading some activex riddled crap page you should be able to view the site without being bothered every 2 seconds. You have that right.
As a matter of fact, can you imagine the user experience if these setting
In short, your car metaphor is deceptive and plain wrong.
I didn't intend it to be a comparison of the technologies. I intended it to be an explanation of how I make my buying decisions and I think it's an effective analogy on that level. People will replaceme their tools/technologies/cars with a competitive offering when:
a. They are fed up with their status quo OR b. Something new, exciting, forward-thinking and fantastic shows up.
The slashdot religion (with apologies to some for the gross generalization) seems to expect "a" to happen, and believes that "B" will come as an entitlement of developing with a different process.
I dont' care if OpenOffice does the same things that word does today. What Word does (despite the article that spawned this thread) is everying that I can think of wanting it to do for me. For something to replace it on my system either "A" or "B" has to happen.
What about the halloween memos? You can't be that new to slashdot, your uid number isn't that large
Being here and participating here does not mean that I'm a believer in the anti-ms FUD that gets spread. Actually it means I take most of the sniping with the same salt I apply to republican "democrats are the devil" antics. It's all over the top, and it obscures any valid points that can be made.
Go back and reread the "worst" of the halloween memo's (#1) http://www.opensource.org/halloween/halloween1.php..I just did. Ignore the Green (commentary) text... maybe even just plow through the MS text that's been highlighted in red. Really try to examine it... what is in there that is so horrific? A big company that examined it's competition and took careful notes?
Microsoft aren't directly preventing others from entering the market and making a place for themselves. But they do make to very hard with their well-established software and lock-in tricks. Anyone wishing to compete with MS cannot make something just a little better than MS's product. They would have to make it so incredibly, amazingly better than MS
Yes. You have to make it amazingly better than an MS product.. but if you believe the rhetoric posted here then it can't be that hard to do. You can even use their devilishly-clever "we'll give it to you for free" tactics against them...
I love my VW (seriously, stick with me here). My love for that car (the handling, the layout, the comfort... I could go on...) makes it 100% more likely that I will buy another VW the next time around because of that experience. If my experience was other than fantastic I would consider another brand... the only thing that will break that mold is if something is unbelievably, fantastically different (say GM has something hydrogen powered before VW does).
Are you kidding? How about a little thing called "barrier to entry".
No, I'm not kidding.
How can they possibly know of competing software?
I assume from your statement that you would like the world to know about the availability of other options... if you want to accomplish that then you need to make the effort here, bring the fire to the people, rather than complaining that the AOL-using public is a "bunch of newbs".
I'm not trying to be antagonistic here, but I do want my point to be clear.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd counter-claim astroturfing, but I don't know who would be paying...
You've clearly got a belief structure built up here... some people are christians, and frankly I don't agree with them either...
You've accused me of lying (that's emotionally loaded terminology in my mind)
You're use of "m$" clearly identifies you as a disinterested observer? We all have opinions that we bring to the table. That mine is different than yours does not make me evil.
that's a lot of negatives, but I see where you're headed.
That seems non-obvious. IANAL and all that, but offering development tools to the public and wailing antitrust seems like a stretch. What could MS offer to customers in any market for free without crossing your boundary here?
God help you if the indians get close to you with a few "gimme" rounds of texas hold'em. You'll never break free.
it's almost like this truly vicious practice that many shareware vendors have (wolves in sheeps clothing, these guys). They offer you up a fantastic game as a trial version and then ask you to pay for it if you love it.
bastards.
Visual Studio express free downloads from MS has not resulted in management writing their own code
Hammers & paint @ home depot has not caused massive layoffs of contractors
Everyone has a pocketknife but surgeons are still employed.
Many many crappy cameras in the wild does not mean that people will start liking crappy pictures
I like nice pictures. Blogging hasn't (yet) killed journalism/professional writing. I expect photogs will survive.
Strictly speaking the itanium platform has been in the market for years supporting EFI... :) But commercially, you're right... I was actually making a little joke there (very little, I suppose) in wondering out loud if the EFI platform was providing a real benefit.
We'll see what happens as it leaks further in to intel platforms...
Yes, I'm on RTM. "ACPI Compliant system" is (unfortunately) a label a little broader than the package it applies to.
Look for a bios update first. And note that you can disable the hybrid sleep in the power manament control pane.
\
to be clear -- do you mean that this gives mac an edge that windows customers won't have? Or the other way around?
When XP came out many (many many many) systems could not boot in ACPI mode. Many systems had a bios that would report as supporting ACPI and then fall over in an unexpected way... what resolved this was.... time in market. Once it became important to boot XP it became important to pay attention to the ACPI spec. The XP installer actually has a backdoor built in for those dark days of 2001... you can bang on "f7" when you boot into textmode setup (the media-boot phase) and setup will ignore ACPI support.
Vista no longer supports non-acpi machines. Vista also tries to do more with power management and if you have current-ish system from a major OEM (dell, gateway, sony, toshiba, hp, etc) they've already posted BIOS updates to make things go in the brave new world. Partnering with the big guys is where MS can recover some depth in the hardware space.
Vista now provides a new hybrid sleep mode, combining standby with hibernation. The sleep option will write out a hibernate file so that if the machine takes a nap & runs out of juice (laptop scenario here) you can plug the box in and resume without losing your context. I'm typing on a Dell xps m170 right now -- it works well.
that's gibberish. There is DRM built in to the OS, but it's as harmful to you as a knife in the drawer... it only comes out if you try to use it. Yes, Vista can support DRM'd music, and the stuff that they negotiated to work with cablecard is pretty restrictive... but if you don't like it, don't use it.
did that hurt?
just don't use it. If you don't like the TPM stuff and full volume encryption... don't turn it on. If you don't like the creepy DRM'd music (or these fancy new "itunes downloads" the kids use these days) then don't use it. You're none the worse for wear. If you want it it's there and you can get access to things that otherwise would not be found in a digital format legally.
someone needs to mod parent up as funny. I worry that without the "score:5 funny" line at the top the audience won't understand... :)
just fyi folks, my post here is +5 insightful. thanks.
Assuming that you asked your friendly neighborhood malware author for your copy of the OS... then yes, this sounds easy. it would be much easier in XP, but it's good to see that we've left this capability in there for Vista as well.
Vista has the same signed binaries idea -- on 64 bit versions it is especially well enforced.
This is another FUD piece. Vista makes it more difficult to modify the installation sources. In XP and previous os's the installation sources were just a pile of binaries. Anyone with write access to the source could take out one thing and add another...
With Vista the OS is already built and closed up inside of an image file... to review:
in vista in order to "exploit" this "vulnerability" you need to have write access to the installation sources and the tools and knowledge to rebuild the share (the image format is not "zip", you need a certain understanding of the process to make this go).
in XP you just need access to the shares.
And in what way is this different from any other thing that you'll ever install on your computer?
there is the business release and then there's launch. the consumer stuff happens in january -- you'll start to hear about it in the new year.
I've heard that retirement and semi-retirement limits your life expectancy. Not to be too (too too) vindictive here, but this makes me hope that's the case.
It's tycho's writing style that take me back every day -- any book adaptation will have to include it. An index that categorized by game reviews would make it a must-own.
"Nobody's made a better game than game X, which I learned to game on"...
Get over it. Even new games can be good, and some can be extraordinary.
I love Halo and I love Halo 2 (did some beta stuff) and you can't say that I just don't know better:
-I've had a CS addiction (ran a clan, had a server)
-I've played UT both PC and Xbox (here's a game that's got mechanics and lacks a soul)
-I've played through all the old stuff -- the Dooms, Wolfenstein etc.
-Goldeneye, for console gaming love... etc etc...
I am a gamer -- pc, console, handheld -- I'll kick your ass wherever I find you.
Halo (and it's successor) do something different and great...actually it does many things, all of them slightly better than anyone else. It's like the perfect-storm -- lots of littles and a few bigs come together to make it fantastic.
-Real competitive FPS gameplay on a console. With an excellent control scheme (go ahead and whine about how you can't game w/out a mouse & keyboard -- in Xbox land the playing field is level and you're a wuss who can't adapt).
-Beautiful graphics that don't get in the way of the story or the game -- they aid it. And they're tuned so even with 16 people on single screen (each xbox running 4 screen splits) there's not a bit of lag/distortion/etc.
-weapons scale from newb-cannon to nuanced sniping (pistol!) -- a moment to learn, a lifetime to master (halo1 tip -- you can shoot-melee-shoot with the shotty faster than you can shoot-shoot)
-A real, deep, interesting storyline.
-real, deep, thought-through enemies and AI with different attacks and skill levels.
-from loser to legendary. you can play through on Easy, then master the game on the harder levels. Co-op through legendary -- when you finally beat the game it feels like something you should put on your resume.
-The mechanics of the game only enhance the experience, they never detract. You're not worrying about saving (automatic checkpoints)... you don't think about load times (virtually nonexistent)... you don't worry about what you can't do (drive the car or jack it. Blow it up. Roll over bad people and smear them across the landscape). Everything feels natural. -Multiplayer action that never gets old. I've put hours and hours into playing the same old maps with the same 20-30 guys -- and we're still learning from each other, tuning our games. -In Halo 2 -- xbox Live. The best gaming network ever put together. This is MP gaming the way it should be. Play with anybody anywhere. Drunk canadians and hardened college kids with nothing better to do at 2 am? It'll find you the perfect match.
There are joys in gaming on a console. You aren't getting owned because someone with a $5000 video card can see the corners of your polys when he's still a pixel on the far side of your map. You don't have to go out every night before playing to download punkbuster + or the dozens of flavor-of-the-minute cheat breakers... you don't have to download a patch, a revision, or check steam, or cut off and burn your left big toe as a sacrifice to the gods of the internet to gain access to a lag-free game.
You can jump right in, anywhere, and get your own setup running without having to put a carry strap on your pc.
I was actually cruising this thread to mod up somebody who would mention the fantastic multiplayer experience that Halo delivers, but this has devolved into a bunch of unrelated "MS is bad" and "fear gaming industry" crap. To get this back on topic:
The reviews are in from me, god, and everyone. They love Halo2 and rightly so. If you have an XBox then get it, get on Live, and come find me. I'm BurlyBob.
Hardware shortages are a fact life in product launches. Making sure that the shortage is news is what makes it marketing. I can't wait for my wireless handheld 3d FPS fun.
I don't think that fuel cells for your pocket electronics are that far off. Batteries improve slowly, sure (I suppose I should have found a more correct term..."power source"?) but we're not mucking about with cadmium anymore, this is something that's really taking off. ...which could mean that in a year or two my DS will have 20 hours of life between charges, rather than 10. :)
To hit the high points, lets start with his conclusion.
The latest Nintendo handheld platform (the Gameboy Advance) launched in 2000 (the SP is just prettier, not more functional -- it's the same device). Clinton was President, some parts of the world still liked Americans... and we were typing away on piii 600s, with 64mb of ram. In what way are we not ready to move on? Of course we're ready for a new platform, and maybe even a new idea or two (it's about damn time I had a real FPS in my pocket, and fragged others wirelessly). I'm a married man with a kid, I don't have too much cash to spare... but I have a GBA, a GBA SP and I'll get myself a Nintendo DS when it comes out (I'd consider the Sony, but it is beyond my price range).That's the big picture. Some smaller points:
Sony:
-he's only got 2 complaints about the PSP:
One: Battery life: Yes. But batteries get better and for all we know they'll offer a fuel-cell pack for this thing in a years time. I give Sony props for putting out the polygons.
Two: Price: He's got a point, it's expensive. But people by iPods and I think they're crazy.
Nintendo:
-His arguments against the DS make even less sense.
One: "remakes aren't innovative". New software reshaped to take advantage of a new platform using new features... the only thing that's still around is the Mario face on the box.
Two: The GBA is out there and it's cheap. F3@r this? Really? You have a gi-mungous installed base with compatible games and you're offering updates for those legacy titles when used on the new H/W (pokemon gba titles can d/l updates at the new movie, in the DS)... this is market leverage, not a liability.
I guess this guy gets recognized for maintaining his luddite-ish "I-hate-new-things" tone for the entire article, but this just means he's taken a stand, not that he's thought it through.
I've got a kid, a wife, a house, a job... the only way I get to play games is on my gbaSP. 10 minutes at a time (waiting for wife @ mall, in meeting/the john @ work, etc) I've put in more than 150 hours of gaming with this toy.
I love nintendo. I will buy the DS.
The service is not enabled... it is in a state where applications that rely on it can start it if its necessary, but that would be performed by the user. Have it not enabled is not a security risk....
I love this service. I love that it is not enabled by default, but must (as above) be initiated by the user. Again, there is nothing wrong having this service in a state where the user can enable it without confusion...
This service is what allows fast-user-switching (multiple console logons w/out logging out). It is an integral part of the XP ui and absolutely should be enabled.
Newsflash -- Windows is not *nix, its user base is not a *nix user base, etc... Excuse the cliche, but "Mom" is not going to login as a "user" then launch setup apps in root/admin context -- this is just not something that "mom" can wrap her head around.
I'm calling bullshit on this one. Pick -- the end user should be smart enough to work in the user context until he/she needs admin access, then they should go use it for that specific context, etc... but they shouldn't know if they trust a site or not? And by default there is nothing in the "trusted" sites list, so the user is going to be prompted for each download attempt. If they don't like the "zones" idea that's fine, but complaining about the implementaion is different from that implementation being unsafe.
More of the same. We get it, you don't like the "zones" thing. There is no difference between what the review wants and what IE already does in this case. There are no trusted sites by default and the user is going to have to go out of his/her way to get some there. If you like reading some activex riddled crap page you should be able to view the site without being bothered every 2 seconds. You have that right.
As a matter of fact, can you imagine the user experience if these setting
like Firefox stealing the Popup-Blocker Notification bar from the xpsp2 IE release? :) It's a cannibalistic industry.
In short, your car metaphor is deceptive and plain wrong.
I didn't intend it to be a comparison of the technologies. I intended it to be an explanation of how I make my buying decisions and I think it's an effective analogy on that level. People will replaceme their tools/technologies/cars with a competitive offering when:
a. They are fed up with their status quo
OR
b. Something new, exciting, forward-thinking and fantastic shows up.
The slashdot religion (with apologies to some for the gross generalization) seems to expect "a" to happen, and believes that "B" will come as an entitlement of developing with a different process.
I dont' care if OpenOffice does the same things that word does today. What Word does (despite the article that spawned this thread) is everying that I can think of wanting it to do for me. For something to replace it on my system either "A" or "B" has to happen.
"A" is a long way off.
What about the halloween memos? You can't be that new to slashdot, your uid number isn't that large
p ..I just did. Ignore the Green (commentary) text... maybe even just plow through the MS text that's been highlighted in red. Really try to examine it... what is in there that is so horrific? A big company that examined it's competition and took careful notes?
Being here and participating here does not mean that I'm a believer in the anti-ms FUD that gets spread. Actually it means I take most of the sniping with the same salt I apply to republican "democrats are the devil" antics. It's all over the top, and it obscures any valid points that can be made.
Go back and reread the "worst" of the halloween memo's (#1) http://www.opensource.org/halloween/halloween1.ph
Microsoft aren't directly preventing others from entering the market and making a place for themselves. But they do make to very hard with their well-established software and lock-in tricks. Anyone wishing to compete with MS cannot make something just a little better than MS's product. They would have to make it so incredibly, amazingly better than MS
Yes. You have to make it amazingly better than an MS product.. but if you believe the rhetoric posted here then it can't be that hard to do. You can even use their devilishly-clever "we'll give it to you for free" tactics against them...
I love my VW (seriously, stick with me here). My love for that car (the handling, the layout, the comfort... I could go on...) makes it 100% more likely that I will buy another VW the next time around because of that experience. If my experience was other than fantastic I would consider another brand... the only thing that will break that mold is if something is unbelievably, fantastically different (say GM has something hydrogen powered before VW does).
there it is, imho.
Are you kidding? How about a little thing called "barrier to entry".
No, I'm not kidding.
How can they possibly know of competing software?
I assume from your statement that you would like the world to know about the availability of other options... if you want to accomplish that then you need to make the effort here, bring the fire to the people, rather than complaining that the AOL-using public is a "bunch of newbs".
I'm not trying to be antagonistic here, but I do want my point to be clear.