A low price and lack of inventory hasn't hurt the Wii.
There's no question that the Wii has been a successful game console, almost certainly the most successful of the current generation. But could it have been EVEN MORE successful, had Nintendo priced it at $299.99 and spent the extra revenue on additional production capacity? It's a moot point but an interesting one.
Why would you WANT to buy them? I can think of only three valid reasons:
1. No other computers are practically available where you live 2. You have a philanthropic desire to aid those in category #1 3. You crave the "geek cred" of owning a rare and unique device
If you're just looking for a general-purpose computer to own and use, this is not the best choice for you. You'll get similar performance out of a 6-year-old Xbox.
Eww? The sewer was bad enough, but 'solid water effects?' The mere beginnings of imagination have me wishing it wasn't almost lunch time.
Solid water? Isn't that called 'ice'?
Then again, this is from a franchise that gave us a character called 'Solid Snake'. To distinguish him from the regular type of snake, which is gaseous.
They used the TASER to subdue him without twisting arms other more forceful methods.
Using the taser IS a more forceful method of subduing him than twisting his arm, though.
Twist his arm, the worst-case outcome is that his arm gets broken. Put a shitload of voltage through him, though, and there's an outside chance you'll stop his heart and kill him. Which is a more appropriate application of force?
BMG invented Discman-resistant CD's with a light sand-blasting just before packaging. But, many people claimed it was derivative of Geffen's efforts to create Walkman-resistant tapes using magnets.
Not to mention Decca's attempt at selling LP singles made of paraffin wax so they melted as you played them, and The Aeolian Company's player-piano rolls made of toilet tissue.
Now, I am not saying that one should actually get as much as the theoretical maximum
No, what you're saying is that you either don't understand or choose to ignore the difference between peak and sustained transfer rates.
Nobody who sees an advertised transfer rate of "up to 12Mb/s" would reasonably assume that they will be able to maintain a sustained rate of 12Mb for each and every of the 2.6 million or so seconds that make up a month.
A dick who makes his own decisions and deals with the consequences.
EVERYONE deals with the consequences of their decisions. Those who make decisions that are more likely to lead to strongly negative consequences are called "morons".
You agree to it when clicking that little checkbox for accepting the license when installing the damn OS.
Who actually INSTALLS a Windows OS? I thought most people (legally) obtain Windows by purchasing a computer that comes with it pre-installed.
Re:Back when people could actually code..
on
DOS 5 Upgrade Video
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· Score: 1
Coders today are right lazy bastards.
I think you mean "right PRODUCTIVE bastards".
The coder in 2007 can deliver a feature-complete small product in the same time it takes the coder in 1987 just to draw out a memory map to determine where each chunk of code or data ought to be loaded.
When considering upgrading to GbE (10 Gbps isn't available in desktops at reasonable prices), you can get half the speed without switching from Cat 5 to Cat 5e or Cat 6 at the end-user end.
You may be able to extend the life of your existing Cat5 runs by a few years if you switch to 802.11n wireless now, but it won't meet your needs forever.
Actually, it's not a bad short-term solution; pulling your Cat5 and replacing it with Cat6 might not give you benefits that match the cost, and fiber to the desktop isn't cost-effective yet. But as far as "the end" of wired networks, no. That won't be happening.
Guess what: There is not a standard definition for ANY of those terms [programmer, system analyst, software engineer...]
No, not in the general Human Resources community. That's why it was necessary for the authors of the Occupational Outlook Handbook to create their own standard definition for each title.
Just as architect is a different job than carpenter, so is software engineer a different job than programmer. They're not merely different terms for the same role, though many people currently do have titles which do not befit their actual duties.
my question has always been, "why was it okay for my to make copies of my vinyl albums, put them on cassette, and give it to a friend but it's not okay for me to make a copy of a cd and give that cd copy to the same friend?"
It was never okay for you to distribute dubbed cassette copies of albums to your friends.
The difference is that before public file sharing took off, there was no way for the RIAA companies to rifle through your tape collections to see what unlawful copying you might have been engaging in.
The problem is that the users who buy these things are too hip and smart and cool to spend 45 seconds with the manual. User error, nothing to see here.
"User didn't realize 'Off' doesn't actually mean 'Off'" is an example of awful interface design, not user error.
Apple's design philosophy has generally been to make everything intuitive enough that a user doesn't NEED to memorize a series of arcane printed instructions in order to perform basic tasks. And what task is more basic than powering the device on or off?
I wonder if they'll go back to the Macross source material when plotting the movie... there's a lot more good substance there then in our version.
This is a good insight, CmdrTaco, and I wish you had posted it in the comments thread rather than using your editor-fu to append it to the end of the story submission, so that it could be moderated +5 Insightful by users like me. Or so that users who don't think it's a good insight could mod it down to -1 Overrated.
Administrators administrate. Editors edit. Commenters comment. It should stay that way.
How can I create my own flash content and distribute it without paying a large sum of money?
If the freeware tools capable of creating or exporting to SWF files don't meet your needs, a license for Flash goes for about $700 retail. To anybody serious about distributing content, that is NOT a large sum of money.
Silverlight becomes success and passes Flash as the major app in the sector.
How/why would this happen?
Flash's marketshare seems extremely difficult to bite into: it's free, it works mostly seamlessly, and it's so easy to get that most people already have it (you edge-case Slashdotters that complain about the lack of a native AmigaOS version don't really matter).
What would Silverlight offer that would convince consumers -- and, more importantly, content CREATORS -- to make a switch?
It is not to late to throw in a remote keyboard and mouse and throw in sony open office, sony firefox and sony thunderbird, PS3 it is more than just a toy and of course M$ can never match it.
So basically you are advocating that Sony adopt the same marketing approach with the PS3 that was used for the Commodore 64 (successfully) and the Atari XEGS (not successfully). "Our gaming console has a keyboard, which makes it a computer and not a gaming console! The kids can do their homework on it! Mom can file her recipes!"
Twenty years ago, the strategy had some merit; few households already had a general-purpose home computer in them in the early 1980s. Now that everyone already has a computer or two at home, and a brand new "real" PC can be had--with monitor and probably a crap-o inkjet printer included--for the same price as the PS3 console alone, I think such a marketing campaign would be doomed to failure.
And therefore I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony try it.
You're not going to get significant revenue still selling these old titles
True, but if you release your old titles for free, they'll essentially be competing for gamers' time with your new titles. And from a business perspective, it's more profitable to sell a new game to ten people than give away a decade-old one to a hundred people.
The numbers of equal temperament might look arbitrary [...], but on a logarithmic scale, they are perfectly neat
This is true, but as far as perception of musical consonance/dissonance goes, logarithms don't mean much. It's the harmonic series that serves as the foundation of music.
But yes, individual preference for one tuning over another is surely a result of cultural conditioning. There's a noticeable difference between the pentatonic scale formed by the "black keys" of the 12tet scale and the 5-tone "slendro" scale used in traditional Javanese gamelan, but one cannot say one of these scales is better, or truer, than the other; merely that one has a subjective preference.
Why not? The platform still sells a tremendous number of new consoles and titles. When people want to play a Guitar Hero or DDR game--and they do, often--not everybody fires up an Xbox 360 to do so.
The PS2 is the best choice for budget-conscious gamers in the current sales climate. The Wii is half the price of the PS3, but not just half the fun; and likewise, the PS2 is half the price of the Wii, and not just half the fun.
Viacom used his video as part of a report that included commentary on it. That's fair use.
Well, it might be.
Or Viacom's clip might be an unauthorized derivative work of the guy's video. In which case Viacom has potential liability for copyright infringement. And if Viacom is found to have infringed copyright, one possible remedy would be for the copyright of the derivative work to revert to the original work's creator.
But then, the guy may not want to pursue relief, because the response might be a claim that his commercial is a derivative work of "Star Wars". His best course of action is probably to complain loudly and then get on with his life.
Slashdot Mirror
A low price and lack of inventory hasn't hurt the Wii.
There's no question that the Wii has been a successful game console, almost certainly the most successful of the current generation. But could it have been EVEN MORE successful, had Nintendo priced it at $299.99 and spent the extra revenue on additional production capacity? It's a moot point but an interesting one.
Are we not good enough to buy those?
Why would you WANT to buy them? I can think of only three valid reasons:
1. No other computers are practically available where you live
2. You have a philanthropic desire to aid those in category #1
3. You crave the "geek cred" of owning a rare and unique device
If you're just looking for a general-purpose computer to own and use, this is not the best choice for you. You'll get similar performance out of a 6-year-old Xbox.
Eww? The sewer was bad enough, but 'solid water effects?' The mere beginnings of imagination have me wishing it wasn't almost lunch time.
Solid water? Isn't that called 'ice'?
Then again, this is from a franchise that gave us a character called 'Solid Snake'. To distinguish him from the regular type of snake, which is gaseous.
They used the TASER to subdue him without twisting arms other more forceful methods.
Using the taser IS a more forceful method of subduing him than twisting his arm, though.
Twist his arm, the worst-case outcome is that his arm gets broken. Put a shitload of voltage through him, though, and there's an outside chance you'll stop his heart and kill him. Which is a more appropriate application of force?
BMG invented Discman-resistant CD's with a light sand-blasting just before packaging.
But, many people claimed it was derivative of Geffen's efforts to create Walkman-resistant tapes using magnets.
Not to mention Decca's attempt at selling LP singles made of paraffin wax so they melted as you played them, and The Aeolian Company's player-piano rolls made of toilet tissue.
I swear, sometimes it's hard to tell who has dumber names: Web 2.0 startups, or Open Source projects.
It's like the Dot-com Bubble all over again. I can't wait until next week's story, about how WUB.com has bought Flizmo for $X50 Thrillion...
Now, I am not saying that one should actually get as much as the theoretical maximum
No, what you're saying is that you either don't understand or choose to ignore the difference between peak and sustained transfer rates.
Nobody who sees an advertised transfer rate of "up to 12Mb/s" would reasonably assume that they will be able to maintain a sustained rate of 12Mb for each and every of the 2.6 million or so seconds that make up a month.
A dick who makes his own decisions and deals with the consequences.
EVERYONE deals with the consequences of their decisions. Those who make decisions that are more likely to lead to strongly negative consequences are called "morons".
You agree to it when clicking that little checkbox for accepting the license when installing the damn OS.
Who actually INSTALLS a Windows OS? I thought most people (legally) obtain Windows by purchasing a computer that comes with it pre-installed.
Coders today are right lazy bastards.
I think you mean "right PRODUCTIVE bastards".
The coder in 2007 can deliver a feature-complete small product in the same time it takes the coder in 1987 just to draw out a memory map to determine where each chunk of code or data ought to be loaded.
When considering upgrading to GbE (10 Gbps isn't available in desktops at reasonable prices), you can get half the speed without switching from Cat 5 to Cat 5e or Cat 6 at the end-user end.
You may be able to extend the life of your existing Cat5 runs by a few years if you switch to 802.11n wireless now, but it won't meet your needs forever.
Actually, it's not a bad short-term solution; pulling your Cat5 and replacing it with Cat6 might not give you benefits that match the cost, and fiber to the desktop isn't cost-effective yet. But as far as "the end" of wired networks, no. That won't be happening.
Guess what: There is not a standard definition for ANY of those terms [programmer, system analyst, software engineer...]
No, not in the general Human Resources community. That's why it was necessary for the authors of the Occupational Outlook Handbook to create their own standard definition for each title.
Just as architect is a different job than carpenter, so is software engineer a different job than programmer. They're not merely different terms for the same role, though many people currently do have titles which do not befit their actual duties.
Extra capacity is useless if the cost of data is artificially inflated
If you'd prefer, you can pay $18 per 700MB for your music data...
The value of a music file is not measured by the number of sectors it occupies on disk, but by the quality of the music contained therein.
my question has always been, "why was it okay for my to make copies of my vinyl albums, put them on cassette, and give it to a friend but it's not okay for me to make a copy of a cd and give that cd copy to the same friend?"
It was never okay for you to distribute dubbed cassette copies of albums to your friends.
The difference is that before public file sharing took off, there was no way for the RIAA companies to rifle through your tape collections to see what unlawful copying you might have been engaging in.
The problem is that the users who buy these things are too hip and smart and cool to spend 45 seconds with the manual. User error, nothing to see here.
"User didn't realize 'Off' doesn't actually mean 'Off'" is an example of awful interface design, not user error.
Apple's design philosophy has generally been to make everything intuitive enough that a user doesn't NEED to memorize a series of arcane printed instructions in order to perform basic tasks. And what task is more basic than powering the device on or off?
First, when VHS and Beta appeared, the only real way to see porn films was in a XXX theater. You couldn't watch them in the privacy of your home.
Dear child, have you really never before heard of an 8mm film projector?
I wonder if they'll go back to the Macross source material when plotting the movie... there's a lot more good substance there then in our version.
This is a good insight, CmdrTaco, and I wish you had posted it in the comments thread rather than using your editor-fu to append it to the end of the story submission, so that it could be moderated +5 Insightful by users like me. Or so that users who don't think it's a good insight could mod it down to -1 Overrated.
Administrators administrate. Editors edit. Commenters comment. It should stay that way.
Were any of you really expecting an offering called "WINDOWS Live Services" to be intercompatible with Linux, OS X, or CP/M?
How can I create my own flash content and distribute it without paying a large sum of money?
If the freeware tools capable of creating or exporting to SWF files don't meet your needs, a license for Flash goes for about $700 retail. To anybody serious about distributing content, that is NOT a large sum of money.
Silverlight becomes success and passes Flash as the major app in the sector.
How/why would this happen?
Flash's marketshare seems extremely difficult to bite into: it's free, it works mostly seamlessly, and it's so easy to get that most people already have it (you edge-case Slashdotters that complain about the lack of a native AmigaOS version don't really matter).
What would Silverlight offer that would convince consumers -- and, more importantly, content CREATORS -- to make a switch?
It is not to late to throw in a remote keyboard and mouse and throw in sony open office, sony firefox and sony thunderbird, PS3 it is more than just a toy and of course M$ can never match it.
So basically you are advocating that Sony adopt the same marketing approach with the PS3 that was used for the Commodore 64 (successfully) and the Atari XEGS (not successfully). "Our gaming console has a keyboard, which makes it a computer and not a gaming console! The kids can do their homework on it! Mom can file her recipes!"
Twenty years ago, the strategy had some merit; few households already had a general-purpose home computer in them in the early 1980s. Now that everyone already has a computer or two at home, and a brand new "real" PC can be had--with monitor and probably a crap-o inkjet printer included--for the same price as the PS3 console alone, I think such a marketing campaign would be doomed to failure.
And therefore I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony try it.
You're not going to get significant revenue still selling these old titles
True, but if you release your old titles for free, they'll essentially be competing for gamers' time with your new titles. And from a business perspective, it's more profitable to sell a new game to ten people than give away a decade-old one to a hundred people.
The numbers of equal temperament might look arbitrary [...], but on a logarithmic scale, they are perfectly neat
This is true, but as far as perception of musical consonance/dissonance goes, logarithms don't mean much. It's the harmonic series that serves as the foundation of music.
But yes, individual preference for one tuning over another is surely a result of cultural conditioning. There's a noticeable difference between the pentatonic scale formed by the "black keys" of the 12tet scale and the 5-tone "slendro" scale used in traditional Javanese gamelan, but one cannot say one of these scales is better, or truer, than the other; merely that one has a subjective preference.
I'd hardly call the PS2 "current."
Why not? The platform still sells a tremendous number of new consoles and titles. When people want to play a Guitar Hero or DDR game--and they do, often--not everybody fires up an Xbox 360 to do so.
The PS2 is the best choice for budget-conscious gamers in the current sales climate. The Wii is half the price of the PS3, but not just half the fun; and likewise, the PS2 is half the price of the Wii, and not just half the fun.
Viacom used his video as part of a report that included commentary on it. That's fair use.
Well, it might be.
Or Viacom's clip might be an unauthorized derivative work of the guy's video. In which case Viacom has potential liability for copyright infringement. And if Viacom is found to have infringed copyright, one possible remedy would be for the copyright of the derivative work to revert to the original work's creator.
But then, the guy may not want to pursue relief, because the response might be a claim that his commercial is a derivative work of "Star Wars". His best course of action is probably to complain loudly and then get on with his life.