The Xbox360 can't have market domination if Microsoft continues to not break a profit. Simple free market economics (Austrian School) show that the supply will eventually be more than demand, causing the prices to drop. Once a competitive product is released, this will cause demand to go down even further.
If Microsoft had a monopoly on video game systems, I believe it would be cause to worry. They don't, and they will never have a monopoly granted by the one group that can create a monopoly: government.
From what I can see, Microsoft's loss-leader on the Xbox360 IS a smart move to getting in the living room, yet there is much more to controlling the living room than the Xbox360 can handle. My MCE PC (>$2000) still won't do everything I want to see in a single-console computer.
Isn't there a zoom feature in the information menu? I'd be surprised if they forgot that step!
I absolutely hate "Fair" compression on anything over 480p. Even the best compression still looks terrible, considering what my cable company probably does to the signal first.
Fortunately, HD programming is becoming more prevalent and that is why the X360 is a needed purchase. Almost all my TVs will be HD-capable by early next year.
True. I'm no Microsoft basher (I see more wealthy people in my age group because of Microsoft than any other company).
World domination of one person or cabal is scary, but world domination from a corporation owned by millions (billions?) of people isn't something I think we need to fear, especially if that domination is likely to be ended by some other company (Google, etc).
I know MS doesn't care if I lose money -- I just wanted to make note to the geeks who care that there is a use for the X360 other than gaming!
I'm a big MCE supporter. Yes, I have tried MythTV (5 different installs) and Sage and every other variety over the years. MCE passes the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor), crashed only once in the past 4 months, and can handle nearly unlimited tuners. No, there is no hardcore cable HDTV support (except for unencrypted channels which is all I get anyway). The third party support is awesome and all my add-ons are bulletproof.
I will be buying an X360 to replace my Xboxes which currently run as extenders. I have less than 10 games (most bought used). If MS is losing money on every X360, then they'll lose 3x that with my units.
I am more interested in HDTV support and multichannel sound on the X360 extenders, as well as how well the actual video quality is. My Xbox extender's output is pretty bad (noise, gamma modifications and other weird issues). I'm waiting for the rush of X360's to purchase them used if possible, as I did with my Xboxes.
Turner Network Television recently aired a commercial off of the InPhase Tapestry drive. Maxell built that drive for InPhase.
Data backup has become very expensive for some of my customers. The amount of data a company of even minimal size (50 employees) goes through in a day blows my mind. We've been investing every option but none are cost effective (except when a hard drive goes).
My dilemma is that as backup storage (such as the HVD) gets bigger, it seems that hard drives quickly outpace the new form of backup storage. 1.6TB discs sound great, yet I'm weary of having that much data on an easy to break/burn/steal disc. 300GB is more feasible as I can see making a few copies of the backup "just in case."
Nonetheless, the write speeds listed don't seem all that great, and what interfaces will let us copy data at those speeds? Moving 1.6TG of data off of a server without slowing down user access (24 hours per day with offshore employees) sounds like it will still take hours and hours to back up (if not longer). A recovery stage would take even longer.
For now, I'm happiest with redundancy backups. I don't like mirroring or RAIDx/y or clusters (too many nightmares over the 15 years I've worked with all of it), but having a server dupe itself daily has given us the best turnover and safety margins we've seen, as well as being very cost effective compared to use-once media or (shudder) tapes.
The real reason behind research requests for adding processes (and red tape) is budgetary. This guy wants to see more money spent!
Don't be surprised by it. Government has terrorists to help increase their budget (war is the health of the State). Scientists have the bird flu, HIV and little green men.
The Canadian government wants to rob the citizens of $700,000,000 and give it to programmers. Why not just arm yourself, go to your neighbor's house in the U.S., and take their money?
It is the same thing. Don't believe the hype, read deeper.
What is the primarily reason that corporate policy precludes using GPL'd software? I thought the friction was reduced in the most recent GPL version. Is this being addressed in the next GPL?
I know some consider it broke, but Nessus is fairly popular, and the GPL resistance seems a key reason for going closed source.
...American Balloon-flying tycoons complained in a unified march against the outsourcing of their jobs. Economic experts in the U.S. administration believe these important jobs can be secured with a tariff on hot air, something the administration isn't lacking and wishes to utilize to the fullest for the betterment of the U.S. population.
If I do a standard google search such as John Johnson, Chicago, IL it'll list all the phone numbers, and if I click on a number, it will automatically load up my phone dialer and begin dialing.
This IS a little different from the Click-to-Call, but it has been part of Google's PDA services for well over a year. I use it every day (I hate saving contacts if I don't have to).
I read on some SEO forums that Click-to-Call was limited to a few States and might stay that way for a while. I haven't seen any CtC links in Illinois or Wisconsin, yet.
You're OK to hire kids who don't have any of the skills learned in college (and even think that a degree is "useless!")
I don't want to subsidize 4 years of partying. One of my partners is a college grad and he knows he wasted all that time.
The fact that your offers are being turned down by college grads and can be done by high school kids leads me to believe that you're either doing HTML work or your products are comprised of bad software.
Or our company works in a non-software industry handling bids and B2B management for billion dollar construction projects. HTML?
It sounds like you want to hire an MBA to run a lemonade stand. Sounds like you need to re-evaluate the calibre of employees you think you deserve.
Our market is international and I need hard workers who don't have indoctrinated business skills but self-discovered ones. As we expand to Poland, Czech Rep and Dubai, I don't need some snotty "the U.S. is best" kid dragging the entire team down.
he's obviously not even talking about a real job.
Right. I'm quoted in recent (and a far back as 2001) print issues of Electrical Contractors Magazine and other contracting journals with my push for more business-savvy IT employees. I'm seeing literally millions lost in Chicago work for lack of good employees. I can't go through another round of interviews with people who don't understand simple profit statements.
Give me a DRIVEN H.S. grad who I can train in good business practices and I'll turn him into gold. I want all my employees opening their own business in 5 years, not leaving to make money for someone else.
I can't seem to hire 4-year college grads in any of my IT businesses -- they won't work for the base salary we offer. Most of my recent hires were fresh out of high school (doing a few CC courses) or older employees canned by cutbacks elsewhere.
I have 3 friends with college degrees in an IT field who took Geek Squad jobs after losing 6 figure jobs. I wouldn't hire them for even G.S.'s salary, I know they're lacking in business knowledge and skills.
It is far cheaper and more profitable to get a geek out of high school. I'm looking for a digital helper now, and I'll be looking to hire from people I meet in forums, not another kid with a useless piece of paper and 4 years of debt.
Want to get kids in? Scout at Best Buy and Circuit City this Christmas. Meet possible future students hands-on and talk about how they can work and attend a community college, a better way to further their futures.
Pretty detailed tiny image of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. How many noodly appendage comments will we see?
With the growing number of sequenced microbes, we can search through nature's large trove of tools to find ones that fit the job," Levskaya said. "In our case, searching for light-sensing domains led us to use a photosynthetic bacterium." The students produced ghostlike, living photos of many things, including themselves and their advisors
I wonder how far they are from being able to take a huge image of a processor chip pathway and use these microbes to lay out an eating path for another microbe to create cheaper chips. I'm guessing it isn't realistic in the near future, but as the progression builds towards more "consistent" bacteria, maybe we'll see more aggressive use of these discoveries for profitable reasons.
That's my biggest question -- is anyone seeing private R&D scientists investing time and money in engineered bacteria that will be protected by patents or other IP protections? It's pretty amazing that TFA's discovery was by students.
Some with the "MS=monopoly" opinion may call this an anti-competitive move, yet I wonder about the loss-leader aspect of the console itself.
Could some of the suppliers actually buy 1M X360's, tear them down and resell the parts to Microsoft for a profit?
How much, per title sold, does MS receive in licensing fees? $5? $10?
Did MS ever recoup any money (or even profit at all) from the original X?
Do MS shareholders approve of the loss? If so, it is their money to lose.
If you look at MS' "monopoly" use of the loss leader and see that Nintendo and Sony were both still able to compete, why do people still complain about these tactics? It seems to me that it is not anti-competitive but it actually brings more gamers into the market.
This gives Sony and Nintendo a constantly fresh group to entice into their systems.
The hard cost in the article also doesn't take any net costs into account: R&D, technical support, marketing (x10) or updates. I bet the actual loss per unit is double the figure.
I'm surprised we don't see cell-phone-like sales tactics: Buy an X360 for $99 with a 2 year X-Box Live commitment. Maybe it is because the market is too young to sign a contract?
I own multiple X's, but only maybe 8 titles (6 were 2nd hand). The X is a great MCE extender. That is my sole reason for wanting an X360.
These hard drives are LEGO shaped but not LEGO sized. It mimics the look and feel of a LEGO brick but it really isn't compatible (unless the bottom has much smaller divisions).
Stackable hard drives is a fine idea but I'd like to take one apart to see how ventilation is. I've had a much higher failure rate in external drives than internal drives (almost 3:1) over the past 6 years. I still wonder if it is heat or just bad power supplies in these things.
I'm more of a monotoned desktop kind of guy -- if I'm OCD about anything at all, it is definitely crazy colors all over the place. I think on my desktop (where I could have up to 5 different sized external drives depending on projects in action), these drives could end up looking like a bad website from the early days: color hell.
I think the pricing is decent though, and would love a breakdown of what "Power Supply Kit" means and how hardy these things are.
I'm happy to see that we're looking at an important part of a free competitive market: voluntary cooperation for better competitive products.
The security enhancements we'll see that come out of these (and future) discussions will help all users yet also increase competitiveness in other areas. We didn't need a Congress or government body to force regulations, they're occurring out of customer need.
Note that government could create regulations but we all know that those regulations come too late and can never adapt to current and future ever-changing needs.
I read a great article today about the historical growth of the Net because of the lack of regulations and taxes.
It seems odd that it will take 18 months to develop documentation for the file formats. Sure, the formats must be complex, but it seems like maybe this documentation organization might not be a truly independent standards body.
Ecma's wiki and site seems to be pretty much confirm that they're composed of manufacturer members. I wouldn't consider them the equivalent of ANSI or UL. 18 months of work by a collusive industry is more throwing those governments a bone than actually getting the work done right.
I guess there should be some applause for getting the ball rolling. Uphill?
Higher resolutions at faster refresh rates is great, but I'm wanting video to head in a different direction. I'm sure I'm not alone.
First, heat efficiency in getting out of control. My MCE runs fairly cool but I needed to fab my own fan brackets. I won't even look at newer video cards if they're running 10 degC hotter. I know more speed generally means more heat but there has to be some techniques to reduce it.
Coupled with the heat problems we're getting annoyingly loud fans on the card. In my theater I've replaced a vidcard because the fan started acting up. Not good.
I'd love to see more support for the newer resolutions out there. My backup projector needs a 960x540 resolution which requires buying Powerstrip. My regular projector requires 1280x720. Even the newest cards I've tested ignore these fairly standard resolutions in their drivers.
I'm not impressed with many on-board video decoders lately. Fuzzy text, artifacts that shoulder occur and (sometimes) color errors.
I'm happy to see ATI releasing these fast cards at cheap prices but I fear that none of the future needs are being planned for.
They should also STOP SCREAMING THEIR PRODUCT NAME.
I'm not feeling too negative, really. My post was focused more on how popular opinion is manipulated without much debate.
I feel all the news I "reported" has merit, yet it is the trades that are reporting it. I checked all the websites of Chicago TV news channels and none reported on these items.
People reading news rags by number are outnumbered by those who watch and believe the talking heads -- even fictional ones.
Props to CSI for being on top of what the TV media is reporting. I'm not critical of those who give the people what they want!
C-SPAN2 today will air an episode of Head of the Class 2005 where the students form a representative government that really is more interested in padding their pockets than in protecting their constituents.
We have to accept that the media has nothing to report on. They HAVE to report on games that may entice teenagers to murder, and the fiction media has to make it fact.
It isn't like Sharon quit the Likud or gold hit a 18 year high or GM is cutting 30,000 union jobs that it should have cut 20 years ago or even that Intel and Micron are colluding on flash memory. I know there's no real news out there for fiction-media to mimic.
The lady watches a lot of Law & Order (SVU primarily) and whenever I'm on the couch watching the show, all I can think of is "criminals are stupid" and "these cops are walkin all over people's rights." Then I realize it isn't reality -- but I do believe that a majority of viewers THINK this is real life. It isn't anywhere near what happens in the situations presented.
Wasn't it the Miami ADA who complains about how they have problems with getting guilty verdicts because juries expect DNA and other CSI-style evidence? Is this CSI pandering to the local legal authorities in pushing what may be a big issue for them?
I, for one, welcome our new "this is reality and you better accept it" overlords. The positive thing about shows like this is that it only helps in destroying the media regimes that exist today.
BTW, the advertisement to the right of this article is a GTA:LS for the PSP ad. Funny.
I was comtemplating how my software can work no matter what OS I might be using.
This means that I could be running SuperWriter on a Mac, a PC, or even my PDA, and I wouldn't have to worry about compatibility. The programmers wouldn't have to write for 3 platforms, and the support crew wouldn't need a 3x complicated help desk database.
Maybe "The browser is the OS" is a bad quote. It is more "the browser is the software interface platform" or something.
I think it is (at least, as implemented in the newer AJAX varieties). Yet there is still some bloat/lag that is part of AJAX that is frustrating to me. It isn't bandwidth related (slow servers coupled with an inefficient protocol) but it is still there.
I haven't programmed for Java since the first implementation years ago, so I'm not very knowledgable in how it has changed over the years. My fear with Java is seeing differing Java platforms that may introduce incompatibilities. Again, my knowledge of Java is limited, so I can't really comment on if it really is the ultimate answer.
I think the OSS community could do a FAR better job implementing a Java/AJAX/DHTML-style language with millions of programmers inputting what they want to see, and the other millions working on refining the structures. Sure, new items will always be needed, but finding a common bedrock to build the foundation on is very important, and I don't see it in Java, yet.
Slashdot Mirror
The Xbox360 can't have market domination if Microsoft continues to not break a profit. Simple free market economics (Austrian School) show that the supply will eventually be more than demand, causing the prices to drop. Once a competitive product is released, this will cause demand to go down even further.
If Microsoft had a monopoly on video game systems, I believe it would be cause to worry. They don't, and they will never have a monopoly granted by the one group that can create a monopoly: government.
From what I can see, Microsoft's loss-leader on the Xbox360 IS a smart move to getting in the living room, yet there is much more to controlling the living room than the Xbox360 can handle. My MCE PC (>$2000) still won't do everything I want to see in a single-console computer.
Isn't there a zoom feature in the information menu? I'd be surprised if they forgot that step!
I absolutely hate "Fair" compression on anything over 480p. Even the best compression still looks terrible, considering what my cable company probably does to the signal first.
Fortunately, HD programming is becoming more prevalent and that is why the X360 is a needed purchase. Almost all my TVs will be HD-capable by early next year.
True. I'm no Microsoft basher (I see more wealthy people in my age group because of Microsoft than any other company).
World domination of one person or cabal is scary, but world domination from a corporation owned by millions (billions?) of people isn't something I think we need to fear, especially if that domination is likely to be ended by some other company (Google, etc).
I know MS doesn't care if I lose money -- I just wanted to make note to the geeks who care that there is a use for the X360 other than gaming!
I'm a big MCE supporter. Yes, I have tried MythTV (5 different installs) and Sage and every other variety over the years. MCE passes the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor), crashed only once in the past 4 months, and can handle nearly unlimited tuners. No, there is no hardcore cable HDTV support (except for unencrypted channels which is all I get anyway). The third party support is awesome and all my add-ons are bulletproof.
I will be buying an X360 to replace my Xboxes which currently run as extenders. I have less than 10 games (most bought used). If MS is losing money on every X360, then they'll lose 3x that with my units.
I am more interested in HDTV support and multichannel sound on the X360 extenders, as well as how well the actual video quality is. My Xbox extender's output is pretty bad (noise, gamma modifications and other weird issues). I'm waiting for the rush of X360's to purchase them used if possible, as I did with my Xboxes.
Turner Network Television recently aired a commercial off of the InPhase Tapestry drive. Maxell built that drive for InPhase.
Data backup has become very expensive for some of my customers. The amount of data a company of even minimal size (50 employees) goes through in a day blows my mind. We've been investing every option but none are cost effective (except when a hard drive goes).
My dilemma is that as backup storage (such as the HVD) gets bigger, it seems that hard drives quickly outpace the new form of backup storage. 1.6TB discs sound great, yet I'm weary of having that much data on an easy to break/burn/steal disc. 300GB is more feasible as I can see making a few copies of the backup "just in case."
Nonetheless, the write speeds listed don't seem all that great, and what interfaces will let us copy data at those speeds? Moving 1.6TG of data off of a server without slowing down user access (24 hours per day with offshore employees) sounds like it will still take hours and hours to back up (if not longer). A recovery stage would take even longer.
For now, I'm happiest with redundancy backups. I don't like mirroring or RAIDx/y or clusters (too many nightmares over the 15 years I've worked with all of it), but having a server dupe itself daily has given us the best turnover and safety margins we've seen, as well as being very cost effective compared to use-once media or (shudder) tapes.
The real reason behind research requests for adding processes (and red tape) is budgetary. This guy wants to see more money spent!
Don't be surprised by it. Government has terrorists to help increase their budget (war is the health of the State). Scientists have the bird flu, HIV and little green men.
The Canadian government wants to rob the citizens of $700,000,000 and give it to programmers. Why not just arm yourself, go to your neighbor's house in the U.S., and take their money?
It is the same thing. Don't believe the hype, read deeper.
But are most users incorporating Nessus code or are they using Nessus as a standalone product?
I'd assume utilizing GPL'd software in a standalone fashion should have no bearing on your output, right?
What is the primarily reason that corporate policy precludes using GPL'd software? I thought the friction was reduced in the most recent GPL version. Is this being addressed in the next GPL?
I know some consider it broke, but Nessus is fairly popular, and the GPL resistance seems a key reason for going closed source.
If I go to google.com on my PDA phone, Google forwards me to http://www.google.com/pda
If I do a standard google search such as John Johnson, Chicago, IL it'll list all the phone numbers, and if I click on a number, it will automatically load up my phone dialer and begin dialing.
This IS a little different from the Click-to-Call, but it has been part of Google's PDA services for well over a year. I use it every day (I hate saving contacts if I don't have to).
I read on some SEO forums that Click-to-Call was limited to a few States and might stay that way for a while. I haven't seen any CtC links in Illinois or Wisconsin, yet.
You're OK to hire kids who don't have any of the skills learned in college (and even think that a degree is "useless!")
I don't want to subsidize 4 years of partying. One of my partners is a college grad and he knows he wasted all that time.
The fact that your offers are being turned down by college grads and can be done by high school kids leads me to believe that you're either doing HTML work or your products are comprised of bad software.
Or our company works in a non-software industry handling bids and B2B management for billion dollar construction projects. HTML?
It sounds like you want to hire an MBA to run a lemonade stand. Sounds like you need to re-evaluate the calibre of employees you think you deserve.
Our market is international and I need hard workers who don't have indoctrinated business skills but self-discovered ones. As we expand to Poland, Czech Rep and Dubai, I don't need some snotty "the U.S. is best" kid dragging the entire team down.
he's obviously not even talking about a real job.
Right. I'm quoted in recent (and a far back as 2001) print issues of Electrical Contractors Magazine and other contracting journals with my push for more business-savvy IT employees. I'm seeing literally millions lost in Chicago work for lack of good employees. I can't go through another round of interviews with people who don't understand simple profit statements.
Give me a DRIVEN H.S. grad who I can train in good business practices and I'll turn him into gold. I want all my employees opening their own business in 5 years, not leaving to make money for someone else.
I can't seem to hire 4-year college grads in any of my IT businesses -- they won't work for the base salary we offer. Most of my recent hires were fresh out of high school (doing a few CC courses) or older employees canned by cutbacks elsewhere.
I have 3 friends with college degrees in an IT field who took Geek Squad jobs after losing 6 figure jobs. I wouldn't hire them for even G.S.'s salary, I know they're lacking in business knowledge and skills.
It is far cheaper and more profitable to get a geek out of high school. I'm looking for a digital helper now, and I'll be looking to hire from people I meet in forums, not another kid with a useless piece of paper and 4 years of debt.
Want to get kids in? Scout at Best Buy and Circuit City this Christmas. Meet possible future students hands-on and talk about how they can work and attend a community college, a better way to further their futures.
Obligatory Coral Cache Link
Pretty detailed tiny image of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. How many noodly appendage comments will we see?
With the growing number of sequenced microbes, we can search through nature's large trove of tools to find ones that fit the job," Levskaya said. "In our case, searching for light-sensing domains led us to use a photosynthetic bacterium." The students produced ghostlike, living photos of many things, including themselves and their advisors
I wonder how far they are from being able to take a huge image of a processor chip pathway and use these microbes to lay out an eating path for another microbe to create cheaper chips. I'm guessing it isn't realistic in the near future, but as the progression builds towards more "consistent" bacteria, maybe we'll see more aggressive use of these discoveries for profitable reasons.
That's my biggest question -- is anyone seeing private R&D scientists investing time and money in engineered bacteria that will be protected by patents or other IP protections? It's pretty amazing that TFA's discovery was by students.
Some with the "MS=monopoly" opinion may call this an anti-competitive move, yet I wonder about the loss-leader aspect of the console itself.
Could some of the suppliers actually buy 1M X360's, tear them down and resell the parts to Microsoft for a profit?
How much, per title sold, does MS receive in licensing fees? $5? $10?
Did MS ever recoup any money (or even profit at all) from the original X?
Do MS shareholders approve of the loss? If so, it is their money to lose.
If you look at MS' "monopoly" use of the loss leader and see that Nintendo and Sony were both still able to compete, why do people still complain about these tactics? It seems to me that it is not anti-competitive but it actually brings more gamers into the market.
This gives Sony and Nintendo a constantly fresh group to entice into their systems.
The hard cost in the article also doesn't take any net costs into account: R&D, technical support, marketing (x10) or updates. I bet the actual loss per unit is double the figure.
I'm surprised we don't see cell-phone-like sales tactics: Buy an X360 for $99 with a 2 year X-Box Live commitment. Maybe it is because the market is too young to sign a contract?
I own multiple X's, but only maybe 8 titles (6 were 2nd hand). The X is a great MCE extender. That is my sole reason for wanting an X360.
These hard drives are LEGO shaped but not LEGO sized. It mimics the look and feel of a LEGO brick but it really isn't compatible (unless the bottom has much smaller divisions).
Stackable hard drives is a fine idea but I'd like to take one apart to see how ventilation is. I've had a much higher failure rate in external drives than internal drives (almost 3:1) over the past 6 years. I still wonder if it is heat or just bad power supplies in these things.
I'm more of a monotoned desktop kind of guy -- if I'm OCD about anything at all, it is definitely crazy colors all over the place. I think on my desktop (where I could have up to 5 different sized external drives depending on projects in action), these drives could end up looking like a bad website from the early days: color hell.
I think the pricing is decent though, and would love a breakdown of what "Power Supply Kit" means and how hardy these things are.
I'm happy to see that we're looking at an important part of a free competitive market: voluntary cooperation for better competitive products.
The security enhancements we'll see that come out of these (and future) discussions will help all users yet also increase competitiveness in other areas. We didn't need a Congress or government body to force regulations, they're occurring out of customer need.
Note that government could create regulations but we all know that those regulations come too late and can never adapt to current and future ever-changing needs.
I read a great article today about the historical growth of the Net because of the lack of regulations and taxes.
It seems odd that it will take 18 months to develop documentation for the file formats. Sure, the formats must be complex, but it seems like maybe this documentation organization might not be a truly independent standards body.
Ecma's wiki and site seems to be pretty much confirm that they're composed of manufacturer members. I wouldn't consider them the equivalent of ANSI or UL. 18 months of work by a collusive industry is more throwing those governments a bone than actually getting the work done right.
I guess there should be some applause for getting the ball rolling. Uphill?
Definitely tried that, but it doesn't ever list standard HDTV resolutions. I've never even seen standard SDTV resolutions/refresh rates.
Higher resolutions at faster refresh rates is great, but I'm wanting video to head in a different direction. I'm sure I'm not alone.
First, heat efficiency in getting out of control. My MCE runs fairly cool but I needed to fab my own fan brackets. I won't even look at newer video cards if they're running 10 degC hotter. I know more speed generally means more heat but there has to be some techniques to reduce it.
Coupled with the heat problems we're getting annoyingly loud fans on the card. In my theater I've replaced a vidcard because the fan started acting up. Not good.
I'd love to see more support for the newer resolutions out there. My backup projector needs a 960x540 resolution which requires buying Powerstrip. My regular projector requires 1280x720. Even the newest cards I've tested ignore these fairly standard resolutions in their drivers.
I'm not impressed with many on-board video decoders lately. Fuzzy text, artifacts that shoulder occur and (sometimes) color errors.
I'm happy to see ATI releasing these fast cards at cheap prices but I fear that none of the future needs are being planned for.
They should also STOP SCREAMING THEIR PRODUCT NAME.
I'm not feeling too negative, really. My post was focused more on how popular opinion is manipulated without much debate.
I feel all the news I "reported" has merit, yet it is the trades that are reporting it. I checked all the websites of Chicago TV news channels and none reported on these items.
People reading news rags by number are outnumbered by those who watch and believe the talking heads -- even fictional ones.
Props to CSI for being on top of what the TV media is reporting. I'm not critical of those who give the people what they want!
The issue with Micron wasn't with Flash memory.
:)
Wait about 1 hour
C-SPAN2 today will air an episode of Head of the Class 2005 where the students form a representative government that really is more interested in padding their pockets than in protecting their constituents.
We have to accept that the media has nothing to report on. They HAVE to report on games that may entice teenagers to murder, and the fiction media has to make it fact.
It isn't like Sharon quit the Likud or gold hit a 18 year high or GM is cutting 30,000 union jobs that it should have cut 20 years ago or even that Intel and Micron are colluding on flash memory. I know there's no real news out there for fiction-media to mimic.
The lady watches a lot of Law & Order (SVU primarily) and whenever I'm on the couch watching the show, all I can think of is "criminals are stupid" and "these cops are walkin all over people's rights." Then I realize it isn't reality -- but I do believe that a majority of viewers THINK this is real life. It isn't anywhere near what happens in the situations presented.
Wasn't it the Miami ADA who complains about how they have problems with getting guilty verdicts because juries expect DNA and other CSI-style evidence? Is this CSI pandering to the local legal authorities in pushing what may be a big issue for them?
I, for one, welcome our new "this is reality and you better accept it" overlords. The positive thing about shows like this is that it only helps in destroying the media regimes that exist today.
BTW, the advertisement to the right of this article is a GTA:LS for the PSP ad. Funny.
I was comtemplating how my software can work no matter what OS I might be using.
This means that I could be running SuperWriter on a Mac, a PC, or even my PDA, and I wouldn't have to worry about compatibility. The programmers wouldn't have to write for 3 platforms, and the support crew wouldn't need a 3x complicated help desk database.
Maybe "The browser is the OS" is a bad quote. It is more "the browser is the software interface platform" or something.
I think it is (at least, as implemented in the newer AJAX varieties). Yet there is still some bloat/lag that is part of AJAX that is frustrating to me. It isn't bandwidth related (slow servers coupled with an inefficient protocol) but it is still there.
I haven't programmed for Java since the first implementation years ago, so I'm not very knowledgable in how it has changed over the years. My fear with Java is seeing differing Java platforms that may introduce incompatibilities. Again, my knowledge of Java is limited, so I can't really comment on if it really is the ultimate answer.
I think the OSS community could do a FAR better job implementing a Java/AJAX/DHTML-style language with millions of programmers inputting what they want to see, and the other millions working on refining the structures. Sure, new items will always be needed, but finding a common bedrock to build the foundation on is very important, and I don't see it in Java, yet.