Oops, I almost typed up a real response with some actual numbers before I checked your previous comments on other threads to see you're just trolling and real discussion is pointless. My bad!
I wasn't insulting you by saying you care for your electronics, tool. I was implying that you ARE NOT part of the unwashed masses that smash their own feces in to the keypads of the cell phones.
I'm just a computer engineer that repairs small electronics as a job, what the hell would I know? If anything, I should be mad at you for not being my customer. I guess all I can tell you is I SEE poorly cared for electronic devices ALL DAY LONG EVERY DAY, and I'm sure what passes through my hands is 0.00000000000000001% of the total devices in need of service.
You are the anomaly. I RARELY see anyone take the slightest bit of care of their smaller electronics, no matter the cost. It sounds absurd, but is observably true. There's a reason there are several thousand of each current revision of portable game system that are destroyed by poor care (broken in half, smashed to bits, scratched to the point of lunacy) on eBay at any given time. Then imagine how many were under warranty and were returned.
I fix video games for a living, and Sony has made great plans to keep me in business. This thing looks like it could quite possibly be the most fragile system ever. Adults can't use sliders without breaking them, and Sony wants to give them to teenagers and children that will throw them in backpacks with textbooks.
Taking clamshell durability versus slider durability, then comparing to the rate of user destruction of clamshell systems would imply that without a carrying case or protective hard cover used constantly for storage, these things are just simply doomed. I don't see how a single one can survive on its own. I imagine the fish that are presents for the little girl in Finding Nemo.
I hope they've already started working on the logistics of handling millions of warranty returns and repairs at once. Microsoft may be able to provide some advice on that front.
RE: AC below commenting on flex ribbons wearing out: I don't think I've seen more than one or two (out of several thousand) ribbons in a clamshell system that have just "worn out." They do break easily, but only once the actual case or hinges are broken, or if someone was tampering with the internals. Even the few that were "worn out" appeared to have worn out because there was a ton of dirt and debris inside the areas where the moved around, adding to the wear. They are simply not the fault point on their own or through normal use.
I don't think that's the case. If you are doing the x-clamp replacement thing and heating it up and all that, and the repair seems to not be working or holding, I think it is because the heatsink is bigger. It's harder to force the console to overheat to the point of melting solder. If you are actually reballing the GPU, then I don't know what to tell you.
I repair all generations of video game consoles for a living, and have repaired several thousand consoles. Allow me to touch several bases quickly:
E74 is not "on the rise", it has stayed as steady as ever. 3 red rings of death are declining with the new designs (they were pushing close to 100% failure rate within 3 years for the first generation), so other problems are finally allowed to surface since the consoles actually stay running long enough now.
New generation consoles are ALL going to have MANY more problems than old consoles. It's because of 3 things. They all run hotter since they have behemoth (comparatively) processors. Second, they have TONS more moving parts. Finally, components are smaller and made to less stringent standards (and there are tons more on each board).
The most complicated repair that really ever needs done to cartridge based systems is replacing a fuse. Almost all "broken" systems just need the game connectors cleaned. The processors usually don't even have a heat sink on them because they don't even get warm. The only heat sinks in the things would be on the 7805's. Also, they didn't use custom processors. Older machines had chips like Z80's or 68000's for brains. Obviously established architectures. Then we start adding moving parts, and you actually introduce wear in to the equation where there was no wear before. That was the problem with the NES blinking. The game connector actually had to move around, so it wore out. That's why the SNES and N64 are so much more reliable. They have no moving parts, robust components, and more cooling power than they need. Exactly the opposite of today's designs. New console designs are inherently recipes for disaster. Cheaper components, tons of moving parts, and not enough cooling.
MS could add more cooling. A better fan, or added fans, and a better designed interior for airflow would completely solve the heat issues that kill these things. However, it would require almost completely redesigning case and laying out a new board with different locations of all the parts, both on the board and around the board (meaning even the faceplate, plastic buttons, and drive size would need dealt with). Good luck presenting that to your boss when your product is turning profits just fine right now.
And to anyone saying they never have their disc drives in their computers go bad, try running a program from the CD for EVERY SINGLE SECOND your computer is on, and it probably won't make it to the end of the year. And open and close the drive a dozen times a day.
I agree completely, but I've noticed some strange things lately about McDonalds. There have been about 3 or 4 recently built around me that I've been to, and there are some noticeable differences in modern McDonalds. They all have comfortable atmospheres. They have a giant LCD TV. They don't have the standard fast-food "eat and get the hell out as quickly as possible" kind of atmosphere inside. They also have a lot more seats than you'd think they'll ever need. Maybe this is just around me (say, for example, that it's just the same owner in this area doing these things or something), but I think they may be trying to get customers to stay IN the "restaurant" instead of ordering and getting the hell out. Having an obnoxious amount of seats, and really nice, huge LCD TV's would seem to back this up.
(For those of you who think this is senseless drivel, try to recall Long John Silver's before 1995. Great family restaurant that was relaxed and encouraged you to sit around inside and eat and be merry. Whenever I'd eat at one, it was packed to the brim. Around 1995 they changed to the standard fast food get in/out, and now whenever I stop at one, there are 5 people inside at most.)
Does anyone here honestly think nanny = "responsibility"?
In this special case, yes, I think it does. I'm an alcoholic. I'm currently trying to cut back my drinking. I'm not trying to stop completely. I'd like to go to a party and still have a few beers. I know beforehand that I only want to have a few beers. However, after I've had those few beers, THE ALCOHOL KICKS IN AND I START MAKING PROGRESSIVELY MORE RETARDED DECISIONS, MOST OF WHICH ARE TO DRINK MORE. Alcohol obviously affects your judgement. If I set out for a night saying to myself "I know I only want to drink 5 beers tonight instead of 12." After 1 beer, I can still say to myself "Alright, I can have 4 more beers." but by the time I've gotten to 4 I'm already thinking "Hey, why not a few more?" and then I wake up handcuffed to a toilet and wearing a wedding dress.
So a self-imposed restriction while in the proper state of mind as to restricting what you know will be next to impossible to control when you're inevitably out of the proper state of mind later is, in my opinion, still an expression of self-control. Think of it as giving your keys to your friends so you have to walk home. You know you'd NEVER drive drunk, but who knows what you'll do after you've drank the better part of a gallon of corn whiskey.
Most traffic cops rely on you incriminating yourself to give a ticket. My roommate is a cop, and he's had courses on "verbal jujitsu" from an instructor who's goal when he pulls someone over is to give them a ticket and have them politely thank him for it.
If you are in heavy traffic, or even medium traffic, you can not be reliably radar'ed. In these cases, almost every time, if you just answer "no, sir, I really don't know how fast I was going, I don't think I was going faster than anyone else." they'll give up and tell you to slow down (at least that is the case in major cities, it may not work in small towns where they still get hardons from issuing a traffic citation).
All it boils down to is:
Were you in heavy traffic when you were supposedly radared? If yes, take it to court, because they have to mark that on the ticket, and you can make up almost any story to say they are wrong (my roommate "wrecklessopp" has been pulled over over 50 times, and has only been given 3 tickets. He does exactly what I've said, and he takes every case to court.)
Ask to see the radar (or whatever device they claim to have caught you with.) More often than not, they see you going faster than traffic, can't radar you quick enough, decide to pull you over, and tell you that you were going "pretty fast there, son." Asking to see the radar will get you out of a lot of tickets (if you were in heavy traffic.)
But, remember, traffic cops are power tripping assholes, so the best thing you can do is ALWAYS BE POLITE. NO MATTER WHAT. DO NOT BE A SMART ASS. TAKE THE KEYS OUT OF THE IGNITION, PUT THEM IN PLAIN SIGHT ON THE DASHBOARD, AND POLITELY ASK TO SEE THE RADAR BECAUSE YOU REALLY DIDN'T THINK YOU WERE GOING THAT FAST.
Oh, and if you were in light to no traffic you're fucked no matter what. You've been radared and they won't listen to your story. You pay the court costs, and good night.
When I reply to these scams, I usually tell them they need to fax me whatever "important documents" from "the bank" that I need to fill out, along with all of our email conversations "to save for my records." I then give them a random fax number at the FBI, and encourage them to send me as much information as possible.
"Virginia is considering just such a measure, largely because several of the 9/11 hijackers were licensed there. "
I'm having trouble making the connection between putting an RFID tag in an ID card, and how this STOPS TERRORISTS FROM GETTING THE CARDS IN THE FIRST PLACE....
Well my hopes are that it will discourage payment by way of paypal. However, when someone bids knowingly on an auction that it is clearly stated that they will be charged extra if they use paypal, they can not reasonably expect to strong arm me in to accepting less money than agreed upon when they want to send money by way of paypal. I refer to these people as "idiots"
And in the case of the "money order or shut up" I didn't mean that I said that to them, I stated that I politely told them in so many words to do that to avoid any conflict and the fee. (IE, no need for bad feedback)
And thank you for providing the actual link. For some reason any other time I've asked for it I never get a reply from the person telling me about it. I've had people say they reported my auctions before but I've never had one pulled, which is why I thought they were full of crap. Now I have to decide how to stop getting raped by paypal...
For the most part, except when I'm cleaning out closets and such, I sell small value items. It's absurd that the listing and paypal fees can actually cost me more money to sell an item than I make off of selling it.
I've had bidders on my auctions tell me this over and over (after they win the auctions that I clearly stated not to bid on if you didn't agree, of course) and that they were not going to pay it. I said send a money order or shut up (politely) and to please send to me the link to the TOS help pages that states this, and they never do. This just affirms my belief that they are full of shit.
So, in short, you have stated this. Do you have a link to somewhere on eBay that I can read about this at? I've looked for...minutes....and never found anything. It would suck to have my account suspended for violating TOS, but I've never had eBay tell me differently, so I'll continue to charge.
Not entirely flamebait, please finish before modding down...
Mainstream music sucks anyway. Get over it and stop downloading it for the simple fact that it sucks.
That said, if you actually want to support an artist, don't ever buy their albums. Instead, go to their shows and buy their merchandise. Most of the time, this money goes directly to them. This is almost always true for small bands on small labels. I haven't bought a record in 6 years because I know not a single cent is going to the artist unless I buy that album straight from them or it was DIY released. Instead, all the money I would have spent on records, I use to buy shirts, stickers, posters, pins, and what the hell ever straight from the band when I go to see them.
Card counting is part of ANY card game and is SUPPOSED to be part of ANY card game. That's why there are only 52 cards or less in any strategic card game, not 4253634565 cards so everything is totally random. Most card games are supposed to be based on some sort of strategy and not JUST pure luck. Card counting is just another strategy.
You know, it's really not that big of a problem for me...
I use Yahoo! mail, and they really do a great job of filtering spam. They have an option by every email to report it as spam, have it investigated, and then blacklisted if appropriate (delivered to spam folder, not deleted, just in case it's important in some way)
In addition to their spam filters, you can create your own and they work pretty decent, too. I get about 100 spam mails a day, about 95 are filtered to my trashcan or spam folder, and only about 5 get through...I can deal with that.
I don't see how spam makes any money any more...oh well.
Damn, that thing would probably go faster than light if it had a 5" exhaust pipe that made it sound like a go-kart, a body kit, a spoiler higher than its roof, new rims and low profile tires, and a paint job that made it look like vaginal expulsions...
I mean, wow, what if those scientists really fucking knew what they were doing and did some of those high-tech mods like new spark plug wires, and painting the engine block? Holy shit...
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say MS may just have anticipated this move. Therefore, they would assume it would be done by ordered brute force. So by that logic, they would pick (or at least influence the random generation of) a key that was much later in any type of order. So, finally, to cut back on the number of years this project would take to complete... Work backwards!
"...Some scientists even see the day when trees and grasses will be used to mine metals and minerals without disturbing the soil."...That sounds suspiciously familiar to this one scheme I've heard of that people apparently have been doing for centuries. They plant these special "seeds" in the ground that grow and harvest tons of minerals. When the plant is big enough and the time is right, they EAT it. Fugging weirdos.
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Oops, I almost typed up a real response with some actual numbers before I checked your previous comments on other threads to see you're just trolling and real discussion is pointless. My bad!
I wasn't insulting you by saying you care for your electronics, tool. I was implying that you ARE NOT part of the unwashed masses that smash their own feces in to the keypads of the cell phones.
I'm just a computer engineer that repairs small electronics as a job, what the hell would I know? If anything, I should be mad at you for not being my customer. I guess all I can tell you is I SEE poorly cared for electronic devices ALL DAY LONG EVERY DAY, and I'm sure what passes through my hands is 0.00000000000000001% of the total devices in need of service.
Jerk.
You are the anomaly. I RARELY see anyone take the slightest bit of care of their smaller electronics, no matter the cost. It sounds absurd, but is observably true. There's a reason there are several thousand of each current revision of portable game system that are destroyed by poor care (broken in half, smashed to bits, scratched to the point of lunacy) on eBay at any given time. Then imagine how many were under warranty and were returned.
And technology costs more the more you shrink it.
THANK YOU SONY!!!!!
I fix video games for a living, and Sony has made great plans to keep me in business. This thing looks like it could quite possibly be the most fragile system ever. Adults can't use sliders without breaking them, and Sony wants to give them to teenagers and children that will throw them in backpacks with textbooks.
Taking clamshell durability versus slider durability, then comparing to the rate of user destruction of clamshell systems would imply that without a carrying case or protective hard cover used constantly for storage, these things are just simply doomed. I don't see how a single one can survive on its own. I imagine the fish that are presents for the little girl in Finding Nemo.
I hope they've already started working on the logistics of handling millions of warranty returns and repairs at once. Microsoft may be able to provide some advice on that front.
RE: AC below commenting on flex ribbons wearing out: I don't think I've seen more than one or two (out of several thousand) ribbons in a clamshell system that have just "worn out." They do break easily, but only once the actual case or hinges are broken, or if someone was tampering with the internals. Even the few that were "worn out" appeared to have worn out because there was a ton of dirt and debris inside the areas where the moved around, adding to the wear. They are simply not the fault point on their own or through normal use.
I don't think that's the case. If you are doing the x-clamp replacement thing and heating it up and all that, and the repair seems to not be working or holding, I think it is because the heatsink is bigger. It's harder to force the console to overheat to the point of melting solder. If you are actually reballing the GPU, then I don't know what to tell you.
I repair all generations of video game consoles for a living, and have repaired several thousand consoles. Allow me to touch several bases quickly:
E74 is not "on the rise", it has stayed as steady as ever. 3 red rings of death are declining with the new designs (they were pushing close to 100% failure rate within 3 years for the first generation), so other problems are finally allowed to surface since the consoles actually stay running long enough now.
New generation consoles are ALL going to have MANY more problems than old consoles. It's because of 3 things. They all run hotter since they have behemoth (comparatively) processors. Second, they have TONS more moving parts. Finally, components are smaller and made to less stringent standards (and there are tons more on each board).
The most complicated repair that really ever needs done to cartridge based systems is replacing a fuse. Almost all "broken" systems just need the game connectors cleaned. The processors usually don't even have a heat sink on them because they don't even get warm. The only heat sinks in the things would be on the 7805's. Also, they didn't use custom processors. Older machines had chips like Z80's or 68000's for brains. Obviously established architectures. Then we start adding moving parts, and you actually introduce wear in to the equation where there was no wear before. That was the problem with the NES blinking. The game connector actually had to move around, so it wore out. That's why the SNES and N64 are so much more reliable. They have no moving parts, robust components, and more cooling power than they need. Exactly the opposite of today's designs. New console designs are inherently recipes for disaster. Cheaper components, tons of moving parts, and not enough cooling.
MS could add more cooling. A better fan, or added fans, and a better designed interior for airflow would completely solve the heat issues that kill these things. However, it would require almost completely redesigning case and laying out a new board with different locations of all the parts, both on the board and around the board (meaning even the faceplate, plastic buttons, and drive size would need dealt with). Good luck presenting that to your boss when your product is turning profits just fine right now.
And to anyone saying they never have their disc drives in their computers go bad, try running a program from the CD for EVERY SINGLE SECOND your computer is on, and it probably won't make it to the end of the year. And open and close the drive a dozen times a day.
Sweet Jesus, is this article's sole purpose to be fodder for bad vaporware jokes?
Start cranking 'em out, folks.
I agree completely, but I've noticed some strange things lately about McDonalds. There have been about 3 or 4 recently built around me that I've been to, and there are some noticeable differences in modern McDonalds. They all have comfortable atmospheres. They have a giant LCD TV. They don't have the standard fast-food "eat and get the hell out as quickly as possible" kind of atmosphere inside. They also have a lot more seats than you'd think they'll ever need. Maybe this is just around me (say, for example, that it's just the same owner in this area doing these things or something), but I think they may be trying to get customers to stay IN the "restaurant" instead of ordering and getting the hell out. Having an obnoxious amount of seats, and really nice, huge LCD TV's would seem to back this up.
(For those of you who think this is senseless drivel, try to recall Long John Silver's before 1995. Great family restaurant that was relaxed and encouraged you to sit around inside and eat and be merry. Whenever I'd eat at one, it was packed to the brim. Around 1995 they changed to the standard fast food get in/out, and now whenever I stop at one, there are 5 people inside at most.)
Does anyone here honestly think nanny = "responsibility"?
In this special case, yes, I think it does.
I'm an alcoholic. I'm currently trying to cut back my drinking. I'm not trying to stop completely. I'd like to go to a party and still have a few beers. I know beforehand that I only want to have a few beers. However, after I've had those few beers, THE ALCOHOL KICKS IN AND I START MAKING PROGRESSIVELY MORE RETARDED DECISIONS, MOST OF WHICH ARE TO DRINK MORE. Alcohol obviously affects your judgement. If I set out for a night saying to myself "I know I only want to drink 5 beers tonight instead of 12." After 1 beer, I can still say to myself "Alright, I can have 4 more beers." but by the time I've gotten to 4 I'm already thinking "Hey, why not a few more?" and then I wake up handcuffed to a toilet and wearing a wedding dress.
So a self-imposed restriction while in the proper state of mind as to restricting what you know will be next to impossible to control when you're inevitably out of the proper state of mind later is, in my opinion, still an expression of self-control. Think of it as giving your keys to your friends so you have to walk home. You know you'd NEVER drive drunk, but who knows what you'll do after you've drank the better part of a gallon of corn whiskey.
Ask to see the radar.
Most traffic cops rely on you incriminating yourself to give a ticket. My roommate is a cop, and he's had courses on "verbal jujitsu" from an instructor who's goal when he pulls someone over is to give them a ticket and have them politely thank him for it.
If you are in heavy traffic, or even medium traffic, you can not be reliably radar'ed. In these cases, almost every time, if you just answer "no, sir, I really don't know how fast I was going, I don't think I was going faster than anyone else." they'll give up and tell you to slow down (at least that is the case in major cities, it may not work in small towns where they still get hardons from issuing a traffic citation).
All it boils down to is:
Were you in heavy traffic when you were supposedly radared? If yes, take it to court, because they have to mark that on the ticket, and you can make up almost any story to say they are wrong (my roommate "wrecklessopp" has been pulled over over 50 times, and has only been given 3 tickets. He does exactly what I've said, and he takes every case to court.)
Ask to see the radar (or whatever device they claim to have caught you with.) More often than not, they see you going faster than traffic, can't radar you quick enough, decide to pull you over, and tell you that you were going "pretty fast there, son." Asking to see the radar will get you out of a lot of tickets (if you were in heavy traffic.)
But, remember, traffic cops are power tripping assholes, so the best thing you can do is ALWAYS BE POLITE. NO MATTER WHAT. DO NOT BE A SMART ASS. TAKE THE KEYS OUT OF THE IGNITION, PUT THEM IN PLAIN SIGHT ON THE DASHBOARD, AND POLITELY ASK TO SEE THE RADAR BECAUSE YOU REALLY DIDN'T THINK YOU WERE GOING THAT FAST.
Oh, and if you were in light to no traffic you're fucked no matter what. You've been radared and they won't listen to your story. You pay the court costs, and good night.
When I reply to these scams, I usually tell them they need to fax me whatever "important documents" from "the bank" that I need to fill out, along with all of our email conversations "to save for my records." I then give them a random fax number at the FBI, and encourage them to send me as much information as possible.
Anyone remember that Philip K. Dick short story that the movie "Screamers" was based on?
"Second Variety" I think it was. Check out either the book or the movie. Interesting discussion about AI and self-replicating robots and such.
Regardless of service, or relation to person service is being performed for:
a Happy Meal and a case of beer
"The company got its start by offering a tool to identify pornographic images"
My tool quite readily identifies pornographic images. Well, at least the ones I like.
"Virginia is considering just such a measure, largely because several of the 9/11 hijackers were licensed there. "
I'm having trouble making the connection between putting an RFID tag in an ID card, and how this STOPS TERRORISTS FROM GETTING THE CARDS IN THE FIRST PLACE....
Well my hopes are that it will discourage payment by way of paypal. However, when someone bids knowingly on an auction that it is clearly stated that they will be charged extra if they use paypal, they can not reasonably expect to strong arm me in to accepting less money than agreed upon when they want to send money by way of paypal. I refer to these people as "idiots"
And in the case of the "money order or shut up" I didn't mean that I said that to them, I stated that I politely told them in so many words to do that to avoid any conflict and the fee. (IE, no need for bad feedback)
And thank you for providing the actual link. For some reason any other time I've asked for it I never get a reply from the person telling me about it. I've had people say they reported my auctions before but I've never had one pulled, which is why I thought they were full of crap. Now I have to decide how to stop getting raped by paypal...
For the most part, except when I'm cleaning out closets and such, I sell small value items. It's absurd that the listing and paypal fees can actually cost me more money to sell an item than I make off of selling it.
I've had bidders on my auctions tell me this over and over (after they win the auctions that I clearly stated not to bid on if you didn't agree, of course) and that they were not going to pay it. I said send a money order or shut up (politely) and to please send to me the link to the TOS help pages that states this, and they never do. This just affirms my belief that they are full of shit.
...minutes....and never found anything. It would suck to have my account suspended for violating TOS, but I've never had eBay tell me differently, so I'll continue to charge.
So, in short, you have stated this. Do you have a link to somewhere on eBay that I can read about this at? I've looked for
Please Reply
Not entirely flamebait, please finish before modding down...
Mainstream music sucks anyway. Get over it and stop downloading it for the simple fact that it sucks.
That said, if you actually want to support an artist, don't ever buy their albums. Instead, go to their shows and buy their merchandise. Most of the time, this money goes directly to them. This is almost always true for small bands on small labels. I haven't bought a record in 6 years because I know not a single cent is going to the artist unless I buy that album straight from them or it was DIY released. Instead, all the money I would have spent on records, I use to buy shirts, stickers, posters, pins, and what the hell ever straight from the band when I go to see them.
Card counting is part of ANY card game and is SUPPOSED to be part of ANY card game. That's why there are only 52 cards or less in any strategic card game, not 4253634565 cards so everything is totally random. Most card games are supposed to be based on some sort of strategy and not JUST pure luck. Card counting is just another strategy.
You mean we don't all have tiny Johnsons, drive mini-RC cars, and video tape our neighbors in the shower with the world's smallest digital camera?
You know, it's really not that big of a problem for me...
I use Yahoo! mail, and they really do a great job of filtering spam. They have an option by every email to report it as spam, have it investigated, and then blacklisted if appropriate (delivered to spam folder, not deleted, just in case it's important in some way)
In addition to their spam filters, you can create your own and they work pretty decent, too. I get about 100 spam mails a day, about 95 are filtered to my trashcan or spam folder, and only about 5 get through...I can deal with that.
I don't see how spam makes any money any more...oh well.
Damn, that thing would probably go faster than light if it had a 5" exhaust pipe that made it sound like a go-kart, a body kit, a spoiler higher than its roof, new rims and low profile tires, and a paint job that made it look like vaginal expulsions...
I mean, wow, what if those scientists really fucking knew what they were doing and did some of those high-tech mods like new spark plug wires, and painting the engine block? Holy shit...
Oh wait...nevermind...
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say MS may just have anticipated this move. Therefore, they would assume it would be done by ordered brute force. So by that logic, they would pick (or at least influence the random generation of) a key that was much later in any type of order. So, finally, to cut back on the number of years this project would take to complete...
Work backwards!
86 hours?
...what a pussy.
"...Some scientists even see the day when trees and grasses will be used to mine metals and minerals without disturbing the soil." ...That sounds suspiciously familiar to this one scheme I've heard of that people apparently have been doing for centuries. They plant these special "seeds" in the ground that grow and harvest tons of minerals. When the plant is big enough and the time is right, they EAT it. Fugging weirdos.