Q. Why? A. Game consoles are usually sold at a loss. The companies make money from selling or licensing the software, not the hardware.
Q. What does this mean for us? A. We can buy the hardware cheap and "repurpose" it. Sure, it will void our warranty, but how cool would it be to have a 600Mhz linux box with 64 megs of RAM, built in TV output, sound output, a DVD drive, a hard drive and ethernet for $300?
With hardware like this, it's only a matter of time before linux runs on it. And when it does, there is the obvious MP3 player idea, but there are also dozens of other uses such a device would have.
Ahh.. I see what you meant now. The game companies are not making any money off the music anymore. I thought you meant that the Minibosses weren't making any money.
Anyway, it's still at best a "gray area" of the law. If the companies involved wanted to, they could probably lobby the government to prosecute the Minibosses. But of course, they probably wouldn't bother unless they thought it was financially important.
Try it from a Windows machine. I too am forced to use Linux at work, so I am unable to enjoy my own link. Aparrantly, it induces the computer to create a pretty blue color.;-P
How about the possibility of using this thing for backing up computer systems? It has a firewire input. The capacity of a tape is probably measured in the tens or hundreds of gigabytes. This might be an excellent and economical backup device.
Of course, it would be necessary to have some digital output to get the data off of the tapes once you've backed up your computer data onto them.
Well, suppose I make a thousand copies of Windows 98 and give the copies away to all my friends. Suppose I modify the install screen and startup screen so it says "Cryptnotic's Windows 98". Now, I'm I'm not getting any money from doing this, right? So basically it isn't doing any harm, right?
Anyway, if you didn't already know, there are tons of video game soundtrack CD's which are published by the makers of the video games. Mostly these are for the Final Fantasy series, Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, other Squaresoft games, and other RPG games with orchestral music. A lot of these CD's are very good, and people who make their own recordings of these songs are unfairly competing with the original artists.
Wav is one of those few things that Micros~1 did right.
It's a pretty simple header that enumerates the sample width, format and stereo-mono information. The header is followed by the actual samples.
It's pretty clean. Somehow they managed to get it done without adding in all kinds of components and drag and drop and embedded scripting... like they did with all the other Micros~1 technologies.;-)
Isn't this a horrible violation of the intellectual property of the authors of this music? Don't the original authors of the music, who slaved for hours and hours to create the melodies, deserve compensation for their work?
I mean, presumably, these songs are the copyrighted work of the video game manufacturers, Nintendo, Konami, Capcom, etc. Right?
Yeah. It'll be even better if someone figures out how to download the memory of the DC. That way we could rip out the emulator and use it with roms that are already out there on the internet.
yeah, that $1.50 per day part would be annoying. I'm not saying I would use the service... only that it would be cool to have a comprehensive library of ROMS.
I would probably use it if it were a $1.50 to use it forever type license. But of course, that's not what they're suggesting.
But Bleem^TM for the Dreamcast console? Is it even fast enough to run PSX games at full speed? I'd think only PSX 2 has enough juice for that (binary compatibility is one of PSX 2's selling points).
Probably. The DC uses a 200Mhz Hitachi SuperH processor and has a much more advanced graphics system than the PSX. The original PSX used a 33Mhz MIPS R3000 variant processor and a very simple 3D chip.
So basically the DC would have 6 clock cycles to emulate each of the PSX's clock cycles... Is this possible? I think so. Probably not by doing simple interpretive emulation... probably techniques like dynamic recompilation and just-in-time compiling would be necessary for full speed.
Using the more advanced graphics system of the DC, they could also add graphics features to the rendering of old PSX games (e.g. perspective correct textures).
Yeah, this kind of thing really saddens me. Perhaps they are looking for a way to commercialize the project. That's not the part that makes me sad. What makes me sad is that it seems like nothing is happening.
I thought that the program was very solid, but lacking in features. There were lots of things listed in the menus and interface that just didn't work. The interface was innovative, but like most 3D programs, not flexible.
I just sent an email to the webmaster@moonlight3d.org informing them about this "Ask Slashdot" article. Maybe they will have something to say...
In the meantime check out some of the other 3D modelling, rendering, and animation available for Linux: blender, AC3D, etc. For more, look on freshmeat.
This is true. However, if the message were encoded with a one time pad, then it would be impossible to decrypt. Every possible plaintext of the same length would be equally likely. So basically, you'd have to guess the correct answer. Their contest would have probably have no winners. Maybe that's what they're trying to do. I don't know.
However, in the United States at least, there is a thing called "judicial review", by which the supreme court can declare a law to be "unconstitutional", which means in violation of the constitution of the United States, and thus invalid.
Slashdot Mirror
Q. Why?
A. Game consoles are usually sold at a loss. The companies make money from selling or licensing the software, not the hardware.
Q. What does this mean for us?
A. We can buy the hardware cheap and "repurpose" it. Sure, it will void our warranty, but how cool would it be to have a 600Mhz linux box with 64 megs of RAM, built in TV output, sound output, a DVD drive, a hard drive and ethernet for $300?
With hardware like this, it's only a matter of time before linux runs on it. And when it does, there is the obvious MP3 player idea, but there are also dozens of other uses such a device would have.
No, they can do it on a Pentium3-600 with a nVidia GeForce card, which is basically what the X-box setup will be.
Mine will.
Microsoft selling "loss-leader" hardware. Excellent. I will buy 10 and "repurpose" them. :-)
Panasonic's video printers
Sharp's video printers
Anyway, it's still at best a "gray area" of the law. If the companies involved wanted to, they could probably lobby the government to prosecute the Minibosses. But of course, they probably wouldn't bother unless they thought it was financially important.
Of course, it would be necessary to have some digital output to get the data off of the tapes once you've backed up your computer data onto them.
Ahh... I misread the TB for a GB... big mistake... but, it was late and I was tired.
Anyway, if you didn't already know, there are tons of video game soundtrack CD's which are published by the makers of the video games. Mostly these are for the Final Fantasy series, Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, other Squaresoft games, and other RPG games with orchestral music. A lot of these CD's are very good, and people who make their own recordings of these songs are unfairly competing with the original artists.
It's a pretty simple header that enumerates the sample width, format and stereo-mono information. The header is followed by the actual samples.
It's pretty clean. Somehow they managed to get it done without adding in all kinds of components and drag and drop and embedded scripting... like they did with all the other Micros~1 technologies. ;-)
Hmm... that's strange. I think they meant that the file size limit was 2GB, and was then raised to 4GB. However, filesystems can be much bigger.
I mean, presumably, these songs are the copyrighted work of the video game manufacturers, Nintendo, Konami, Capcom, etc. Right?
I would probably use it if it were a $1.50 to use it forever type license. But of course, that's not what they're suggesting.
Probably. The DC uses a 200Mhz Hitachi SuperH processor and has a much more advanced graphics system than the PSX. The original PSX used a 33Mhz MIPS R3000 variant processor and a very simple 3D chip.
So basically the DC would have 6 clock cycles to emulate each of the PSX's clock cycles... Is this possible? I think so. Probably not by doing simple interpretive emulation... probably techniques like dynamic recompilation and just-in-time compiling would be necessary for full speed.
Using the more advanced graphics system of the DC, they could also add graphics features to the rendering of old PSX games (e.g. perspective correct textures).
The convenience of paying $1.50 to download a really rare ROM rather than scouring web sites for hours to find it might be worthwhile.
I thought that the program was very solid, but lacking in features. There were lots of things listed in the menus and interface that just didn't work. The interface was innovative, but like most 3D programs, not flexible.
I just sent an email to the webmaster@moonlight3d.org informing them about this "Ask Slashdot" article. Maybe they will have something to say...
In the meantime check out some of the other 3D modelling, rendering, and animation available for Linux: blender, AC3D, etc. For more, look on freshmeat.
However, in the United States at least, there is a thing called "judicial review", by which the supreme court can declare a law to be "unconstitutional", which means in violation of the constitution of the United States, and thus invalid.
And all the trollers on slashdot are liable if I pour hot grits down my pants and burn myself.