Andromeda never came from Roddenberry's Star Trek world; it was pretty much a completely separate idea to begin with. To be clear, the basis for Andromeda was a fairly skeletal idea that Robert Hewitt Wolfe got from Roddenberry's estate and built upon. (Source ASource B)
You're not going to see Japanese companies doing this because the economics are all wrong. Frankly, we're getting a huge break with our anime here in North America. In Japan, they pay double or more what we do for the same shows on DVD, minus translations. I see no reason why a Japanese company would want to step in to lower the price of our DVDs further.
"Playstation 3" is only the expected name, and Sony hasn't been calling it that. The closest they've come is to refer to the internals and its 'cell processor.' Even Nvidia, who are making the GPU, have only called it the Playstation 3 as a convenience to the reader or interviewer. (Although it may be an indicator, yes, but this is not yet the final name.)
"X-Box Next" is not the final name, and is not in fact the expected name. All indications have it that "Xenon" will be the final product name, or at least the name for one of the configurations of it. (There was an official unofficial leak of this a while back.)
"Revolution" is the code name for the GameCube's successor, but again, this is not necessarily the final name. Remember that the GameCube was codenamed "Dolphin," so there's a good chance the final name will not be the same.
If you have a nvidia geforce card, then OpenGL isn't too bad to get working on a Linux box. Radeon cards are a little more difficult, since you may have to grab the CVS branch from the DRI project to get that working. The latest Radeon cards have drivers from ATI which support several features of the higher-end hardware you won't find in free drivers, but do have a few problems.
Writing software for OpenGL basic spec isn't too bad. It's whenever you want to use the full capabilities of the hardware that you start running into trouble. Everything is an extension, which shouldn't be a problem except that different manufacturers have different preferred extensions. (The problem is exacerated by manufacturers who tailor their extensions such that they describe only their hardware.) It can make for a pretty fractured codebase on the developer's end of things.
When the OpenGL ARB ratifies the GL 2.0 spec, which should be happening shortly if the ARB meeting notes are to be believed, things should quieten down a bit in this regard. But I do believe we'll always have some hardware that doesn't completely implement some of the features of these specs, and will either therefor not be able to advertise support for them, or will silently fall back to software. In other words, developers are always going to have to provide multiple rendering paths for their games, unless they want to go back to the days of marketing for a single card. (Think glide)
The reason the stylus hasn't taken off is because you've never been able to write directly on the images before. With a Wacom, you're writing in one place, and seeing it in another. This kind of disjoint does not bode well for a game, where quick hand-eye coordination is a necessity.
There are two areas, however, where we do have these devices already in use. The first is tablet pcs, which I shall rule out simply because they're not widely enough available for game developers to justify investing time and/or money into developing custom games for. The second is PDAs, which have a fairly small single screen, which has to handle both input and output. The DS has two screens, thus freeing up a much larger area than a PDA allows, exclusively for drawing/interacting with the stylus, thus making for a poor comparison point.
All of that having been said, I agree with you that I believe we're fairly limited in what we'll be able to see come out of having a stylus/touchpad on the DS. While the PSP tries to do everything entertainment at once, and ends up being everything short of a PDA (presumably so they aren't intruding on their CLIE marketshare in Japan), the DS ends up actually being a stripped-down PDA wanna-be. We've got two very confused devices here that both want to be taken very seriously, and take their inspiration from more expensive and feature-ful gadgets, but I'm at a loss as to how their specific features will operate in the real world.
Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if the DS was extremely popular in Japan (hey, the stylus might be the perfect input peripheral for an RPG, where you have a lot of config/stats to worry about, or an H-sim where.. uhh.. nm) but dragged along in North America. Likewise, I wouldn't be surprised if the PSP launch date got pushed a half dozen times because of clunkiness/breakability issues, and if even despite that, the battery life was half of what was promised.
Right now, I'm more interested in the DS simply because if it allows me to play games wirelessly on the bus on my ride into work with whoever else wants to join in, then I'm all for it. (I've used my link cable a grand total of 2 times, just because it's such a pain to set up.) But other than that, I have absolutely no incentive to upgrade.
Duke Nukem Forever? I'll bet you anything that the team made a prototype, looked at it a year in and said "cool, we can do this." Then they went ahead and started the "real thing" without increasing the size of the development team.
Betcha anything that they're either stuck with only three working, tuned levels and a whole bunch of crappy ones. Either that, or they're all sitting staring at their screens, repeating slowly to themselves "we're screwed.. so screwed.." as they try to get one-just one-level working.
Chop features at the start, dude. That's what they should've done. That game's never coming out, because they had the "vision" at the start, and they've never been willing to compromise. Now as the money runs out, they'll need to compromise, and it'll cost them even more time and money to change things..
My top problems with his used pocket pc idea: - Lithion Ion batteries are used in these types of PDAs, meaning they would need either some place to get free power, or a mod of some type to use regular batteries. Either way, I doubt they could afford them on their own
- Second prong of the previous problem; lithium ion batteries have a limited lifetime. Who's going to pay for replacement batteries?
- You need to sync a pocket pc somewhere every once in a while to back up information (like phone numbers, phone software itself, etc) so that if the power goes out on a unit, it isn't gone forever. (Changing a battery, for instance, would require a sync before and after) Who's going to provide these sync pcs, while assuring the privacy of this information?
- Most of the used pocket pcs donated would not come equipped with wireless capabilities. Built-in wireless was not commonplace until recently, and I doubt many people would donate their old wireless cards along with their PDAs (assuming they have one)
- Any wino worth his salt will tell you that having one of these on him is like asking to get it stolen from him. If he goes to a homeless shelter, there's every chance that others will gang up and beat him up for it. Carrying one of these could well be a liability for the very people it's intended to help.
- How long before law enforcement starts complaining about these pocket pcs being used for illegal purposes?
Nice try, Cringley, but I think it needs a little more work. Maybe if there were dedicated hardware built, it could fly, but as it is, this proposal has more holes in it than a... well... holey thingy.
This is release 0.0.3 of the client. If you check the release Changelog file, you'll see that ATI support won't be there until 0.1.0. The submitter jumped the gun.
Something tells me that we could be seeing a lot more game companies investing in source code insurance....it does exist, right?
Seriously, when a previous company I worked for went to E3, they made a point of ensuring that no developer computers were used for front-line demonstrations. It's just common sense not to have your source code, much less any of your company's development intellectual property, sitting there on the same computer you and your highly-fatigued coworkers are showing to the masses.
I think maybe a line has to be drawn here, because you're confusing two different concepts.
If you go to college or university, you're expected to work hard because you're getting an education. This is where the hard work and perseverence is applicable, because you're paying for an education.
With gaming, it's totally different. You're paying for entertainment, and the expectation here is that you're going to be entertained. Difficulty and rewards versus how much you put in shouldn't be dictated by how skilled you are. Sure, there are basic skill requirements for any game, but the objective isn't to weed out those unfit for, what, the sequel? I've paid for my game, I've paid to be entertained, I don't need to be weeded out because I can't afford to put in 4 hours a day trying to figure out how to get past [insert stupid crazy button press combo/timing crud here].
In case you're wondering why I'm making the comparison to education, it comes to mind because I knew a guy who looked at it from the other angle; I'm paying for my education, why don't they pass me? Needless to say, the guy was a bit of a moron.. (If you're reading, bud, it's because you were PLAYING ZELDA WHEN YOU SHOULD'VE BEEN STUDYING.)
If you want to break into the industry, the easiest way to do it is to create a mod for a game. That gets you something on your resume, and an actual prototype you can show around to people. Even if it's not the genre you want to do, it will show any potential employers that (a) you know what you're doing, and (b) that you've got some innovative ideas. (Assuming the mod is any good.) And most importantly, (c) that you can follow through and actually finish something.
One finished product is worth 10 works in progress any day.
I believe the responder's point was that, since a range coder is a simple improvement on the arithmetic encoder, you'd still have to pay for use of the arithmetic encoder patent.
Why don't they, like, have a special draft for lawyers? Why pick on us techies? Okay, sure they won't be much use in battle, but still.. wouldn't everyone like to see the fellas at SCO trying to put a restraining order on an Iraqi guerilla army?
I think it's only fair to point out the other reason Nintendo didn't want to touch CDs; load times. When CD-ROM drives first came out, they were single speed, which is... well... rather slow.
Keep in mind that that isn't a standard firewire cable on there; you need one with a special plug to insert into it. So it's not a matter of just carrying around the iPod and transferring files onto/off of it with any computer. You have to remember to bring the cable too.
Wonder if this is related to all the copying-style shoplifting that was going on with the original models..
I think a better analogy would be that they've decided to put the wheels on the cart when it comes out of the shop, instead of forcing you to look around for your own wheels all the time.
Personally, I'm waiting for them to screw up and sue one of their own. I can't wait for "Michael Bolten gets busted for sharing Puff Daddy mp3s" to show up in the news.;)
Slashdot Mirror
Andromeda never came from Roddenberry's Star Trek world; it was pretty much a completely separate idea to begin with. To be clear, the basis for Andromeda was a fairly skeletal idea that Robert Hewitt Wolfe got from Roddenberry's estate and built upon. (Source A Source B)
You're not going to see Japanese companies doing this because the economics are all wrong. Frankly, we're getting a huge break with our anime here in North America. In Japan, they pay double or more what we do for the same shows on DVD, minus translations. I see no reason why a Japanese company would want to step in to lower the price of our DVDs further.
"Playstation 3" is only the expected name, and Sony hasn't been calling it that. The closest they've come is to refer to the internals and its 'cell processor.' Even Nvidia, who are making the GPU, have only called it the Playstation 3 as a convenience to the reader or interviewer. (Although it may be an indicator, yes, but this is not yet the final name.)
"X-Box Next" is not the final name, and is not in fact the expected name. All indications have it that "Xenon" will be the final product name, or at least the name for one of the configurations of it. (There was an official unofficial leak of this a while back.)
"Revolution" is the code name for the GameCube's successor, but again, this is not necessarily the final name. Remember that the GameCube was codenamed "Dolphin," so there's a good chance the final name will not be the same.
Hey, if he's a real video game freak then this will DEVESTATE him. If not make him smash a few things =P
Yeah.. like maybe a few boxes
If you have a nvidia geforce card, then OpenGL isn't too bad to get working on a Linux box. Radeon cards are a little more difficult, since you may have to grab the CVS branch from the DRI project to get that working. The latest Radeon cards have drivers from ATI which support several features of the higher-end hardware you won't find in free drivers, but do have a few problems.
Writing software for OpenGL basic spec isn't too bad. It's whenever you want to use the full capabilities of the hardware that you start running into trouble. Everything is an extension, which shouldn't be a problem except that different manufacturers have different preferred extensions. (The problem is exacerated by manufacturers who tailor their extensions such that they describe only their hardware.) It can make for a pretty fractured codebase on the developer's end of things.
When the OpenGL ARB ratifies the GL 2.0 spec, which should be happening shortly if the ARB meeting notes are to be believed, things should quieten down a bit in this regard. But I do believe we'll always have some hardware that doesn't completely implement some of the features of these specs, and will either therefor not be able to advertise support for them, or will silently fall back to software. In other words, developers are always going to have to provide multiple rendering paths for their games, unless they want to go back to the days of marketing for a single card. (Think glide)
The reason the stylus hasn't taken off is because you've never been able to write directly on the images before. With a Wacom, you're writing in one place, and seeing it in another. This kind of disjoint does not bode well for a game, where quick hand-eye coordination is a necessity.
There are two areas, however, where we do have these devices already in use. The first is tablet pcs, which I shall rule out simply because they're not widely enough available for game developers to justify investing time and/or money into developing custom games for. The second is PDAs, which have a fairly small single screen, which has to handle both input and output. The DS has two screens, thus freeing up a much larger area than a PDA allows, exclusively for drawing/interacting with the stylus, thus making for a poor comparison point.
All of that having been said, I agree with you that I believe we're fairly limited in what we'll be able to see come out of having a stylus/touchpad on the DS. While the PSP tries to do everything entertainment at once, and ends up being everything short of a PDA (presumably so they aren't intruding on their CLIE marketshare in Japan), the DS ends up actually being a stripped-down PDA wanna-be. We've got two very confused devices here that both want to be taken very seriously, and take their inspiration from more expensive and feature-ful gadgets, but I'm at a loss as to how their specific features will operate in the real world.
Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if the DS was extremely popular in Japan (hey, the stylus might be the perfect input peripheral for an RPG, where you have a lot of config/stats to worry about, or an H-sim where.. uhh.. nm) but dragged along in North America. Likewise, I wouldn't be surprised if the PSP launch date got pushed a half dozen times because of clunkiness/breakability issues, and if even despite that, the battery life was half of what was promised.
Right now, I'm more interested in the DS simply because if it allows me to play games wirelessly on the bus on my ride into work with whoever else wants to join in, then I'm all for it. (I've used my link cable a grand total of 2 times, just because it's such a pain to set up.) But other than that, I have absolutely no incentive to upgrade.
Duke Nukem Forever? I'll bet you anything that the team made a prototype, looked at it a year in and said "cool, we can do this." Then they went ahead and started the "real thing" without increasing the size of the development team.
Betcha anything that they're either stuck with only three working, tuned levels and a whole bunch of crappy ones. Either that, or they're all sitting staring at their screens, repeating slowly to themselves "we're screwed.. so screwed.." as they try to get one-just one-level working.
Chop features at the start, dude. That's what they should've done. That game's never coming out, because they had the "vision" at the start, and they've never been willing to compromise. Now as the money runs out, they'll need to compromise, and it'll cost them even more time and money to change things..
My top problems with his used pocket pc idea:
... well ... holey thingy.
- Lithion Ion batteries are used in these types of PDAs, meaning they would need either some place to get free power, or a mod of some type to use regular batteries. Either way, I doubt they could afford them on their own
- Second prong of the previous problem; lithium ion batteries have a limited lifetime. Who's going to pay for replacement batteries?
- You need to sync a pocket pc somewhere every once in a while to back up information (like phone numbers, phone software itself, etc) so that if the power goes out on a unit, it isn't gone forever. (Changing a battery, for instance, would require a sync before and after) Who's going to provide these sync pcs, while assuring the privacy of this information?
- Most of the used pocket pcs donated would not come equipped with wireless capabilities. Built-in wireless was not commonplace until recently, and I doubt many people would donate their old wireless cards along with their PDAs (assuming they have one)
- Any wino worth his salt will tell you that having one of these on him is like asking to get it stolen from him. If he goes to a homeless shelter, there's every chance that others will gang up and beat him up for it. Carrying one of these could well be a liability for the very people it's intended to help.
- How long before law enforcement starts complaining about these pocket pcs being used for illegal purposes?
Nice try, Cringley, but I think it needs a little more work. Maybe if there were dedicated hardware built, it could fly, but as it is, this proposal has more holes in it than a
Any way shape or form? Does that preclude showing it on, oh, say, HDTV, where someone could capture that "high res" image and print off a note?
"This week, the BBC was charged with reproducing a bank note, obstencibly for the purpose of a news piece concerning the exchange rate.."
This is release 0.0.3 of the client. If you check the release Changelog file, you'll see that ATI support won't be there until 0.1.0. The submitter jumped the gun.
Something tells me that we could be seeing a lot more game companies investing in source code insurance....it does exist, right?
Seriously, when a previous company I worked for went to E3, they made a point of ensuring that no developer computers were used for front-line demonstrations. It's just common sense not to have your source code, much less any of your company's development intellectual property, sitting there on the same computer you and your highly-fatigued coworkers are showing to the masses.
Before or after deductions? ;)
I think maybe a line has to be drawn here, because you're confusing two different concepts.
If you go to college or university, you're expected to work hard because you're getting an education. This is where the hard work and perseverence is applicable, because you're paying for an education.
With gaming, it's totally different. You're paying for entertainment, and the expectation here is that you're going to be entertained. Difficulty and rewards versus how much you put in shouldn't be dictated by how skilled you are. Sure, there are basic skill requirements for any game, but the objective isn't to weed out those unfit for, what, the sequel? I've paid for my game, I've paid to be entertained, I don't need to be weeded out because I can't afford to put in 4 hours a day trying to figure out how to get past [insert stupid crazy button press combo/timing crud here].
In case you're wondering why I'm making the comparison to education, it comes to mind because I knew a guy who looked at it from the other angle; I'm paying for my education, why don't they pass me? Needless to say, the guy was a bit of a moron.. (If you're reading, bud, it's because you were PLAYING ZELDA WHEN YOU SHOULD'VE BEEN STUDYING.)
Just, um, clearing that up.
You install Real? Ick..
You would be surprised.
If you want to break into the industry, the easiest way to do it is to create a mod for a game. That gets you something on your resume, and an actual prototype you can show around to people. Even if it's not the genre you want to do, it will show any potential employers that (a) you know what you're doing, and (b) that you've got some innovative ideas. (Assuming the mod is any good.) And most importantly, (c) that you can follow through and actually finish something.
One finished product is worth 10 works in progress any day.
I believe the responder's point was that, since a range coder is a simple improvement on the arithmetic encoder, you'd still have to pay for use of the arithmetic encoder patent.
Why don't they, like, have a special draft for lawyers? Why pick on us techies? Okay, sure they won't be much use in battle, but still.. wouldn't everyone like to see the fellas at SCO trying to put a restraining order on an Iraqi guerilla army?
Might be useful for streaming something real-time 3D generated over a network.
Oh c'mon, admit it.. you've been drooling over the iPod since day one. ;)
I think it's only fair to point out the other reason Nintendo didn't want to touch CDs; load times. When CD-ROM drives first came out, they were single speed, which is... well... rather slow.
Keep in mind that that isn't a standard firewire cable on there; you need one with a special plug to insert into it. So it's not a matter of just carrying around the iPod and transferring files onto/off of it with any computer. You have to remember to bring the cable too.
Wonder if this is related to all the copying-style shoplifting that was going on with the original models..
Sounds like you could use this t-shirt..
I think a better analogy would be that they've decided to put the wheels on the cart when it comes out of the shop, instead of forcing you to look around for your own wheels all the time.
Is this USB High Speed they're promising, or..?
Personally, I'm waiting for them to screw up and sue one of their own. I can't wait for "Michael Bolten gets busted for sharing Puff Daddy mp3s" to show up in the news. ;)