It's a shame, because back in the early 90's I got into comp sci and computer graphics, using Indigos and Onyx machines in all my early work. I even bought an Indy for use in college, and there's no way I would have been able to do such cool project work in school without it. It's a shame to see this, because I was as big a fan as SGI could have had back in the day, but I know the day SGI started its decline.
It was SIGGRAPH 2000. New Orleans. I got an invite to the SGI party, and we were all expecting a huge new announcement of a SGI-brand PC graphics card. This would have been the smart move, because about this time PC cards were starting to eat into SGI's markets... So why not use the amazing brand name of SGI and produce a killer PC card? So what did SGI announce? A new line of supercomputers. There were audible groans in the crowd.
Oh well, it was part of history. My Indy still works just fine, and I was even able to update to a newer version of Irix recently... And I'll still wear my SGI shirts, thankyouverymuch;-).
Exactly. As an early adopter of DVD, there is NO WAY I will buy either of these two formats. I'm skipping these completely because I personally don't like being treated as a criminal. I have a nice HDTV, but I cannot play HD-DVD or Blue-Ray at full res because I'm lacking that HDMI junk. The only reason that "copy protection" is there is to inconvenience the average customer; people who want to pirate these movies will do it just fine....
Besides, DVDs just really caught on mainstream 3 years ago or so (when I stopped seeing VHS tapes). It's just the greed of the media industry that is pushing these new formats on us; they want us to buy all our movies over again.
Who wants to play around with a general purpose computer when they can be sued for just about anything under the DMCA? Seriously, the reason I got into CS is because I had a computer to play with and a computer systems lab in high school. These days everyone is expected to just consume what's already been developed instead of creating something new.
Besides, with the DMCA and all the vague patents out there, the risk of law suit is quite high if you dare try to write some cool software. Innovation is dead, and I feel sorry for everyone growing up in school now. The opportunities to learn and explore are severely limited now in the fields of advanced technology, which seems to me is opposite of what you would actually want.
I made a MythTV box to watch TV. Every day that goes by I feel more and more like a criminal.
I often get frustrated with the liberal slant of the replies to Digg stories and how fast conservative replies are modded down. Yes, there are some of us who don't cleanse our speech with a PC filter, but we have every right to speak our mind as you do, right?
Agreed. I bought a DVD player for $1K back in 1997 (i.e. early adopter), but that's because the jump in technology was quite apparent. From VHS to DVD, you get improvements in form factor, resolution, sound, no-rewind, storage, etc, etc, etc.
As I look at the transition from DVD to HD-DVD, all I personally see are negatives: The DRM not letting me play a HD-DVD on MY NEW HDTV! I am absolutely the early-adopter market they need, and there is no way I will buy. Just because my HDTV doesn't have their DRM HDMI stuff, I cannot play full-res. This assumption that I am a criminal, and the fact that this *only* inconveniences the average user (people who want to pirate this stuff will still do it), makes me react so negatively that I just wonder why this has all gone completely wrong.
When the DVD came out it was all about great stuff for the customer. Now with HD-DVD is about great protections for the media cartels.
"The same problem is had by those who fiddle with their GPS while driving, or even the entertainment system. Must we introduce specific legislation for each device?"
Ahh, you must be new here. The real problem is the fact that *all* new laws seem to get more and more specific. This is great for the politicians; it keeps them busy and "doing" what they're supposed to be doing, right? To them, their sole purpose is to create more laws. Passing a general "don't be stupid" law would be great, but then what would all those morons do for the remaining 364 days?
We're in a replacement market for computers, people just don't buy new computers because, it has to be because their old one is too old these days.
... Which is why it will be so interesting to see what happens when Vista comes out. People will have to buy a new machine or at least upgrade in order to run the new Windows. But instead of spending all that money just to run the "it's better this time, we swear!" version of Windows, perhaps they'll funnel some money towards Apple....
I can hardly even bring myself to question things like this. Why do we still consider them a Most Favored Nation in trade status? All they do is steal our ideas and produce them with cheap, exploited labor. But the U.S. gov't refuses to do anything about it.
Anymore you can pretty much take what *should* be done, then know that the U.S. gov't will not do it. Same with illegal immigration. What the heck is going on here? Why can't we just take a stand, cut off some Chinese products? Sure, everyone argues that we depend on their cheap products, but you know what? Maybe we should suck it up for a few years and get our OWN production back up. Everything is so short-term anymore. What about 10 years from now? What happens when the Chinese decouple their currency from the U.S. Dollar?
Yeah, I use the right-hand pinky to support the bottom right corner, leaving enough fingers to comfortably use the stylus.
My only problem now is I keep getting pwned in multiplayer. Oh well, I only can play for probably a small fraction of the time these teenagers are playing...
But there is no way I would touch this new HD-DVD/Blu-ray hardware with a ten-foot cattle prod. Let's see.... Can't play HD on my Sony HDTV (no HDCP, oh well!), The Man just wants to further restrict my fair use, and the benefits of the format change are ZERO from a practical standpoint (form factor, no rewinding, etc that made change from VHS to DVD so obvious).
As an alumnus of Carnegie Mellon, it was great to see the coverage. I did not realize that a lot of the Stanford team came from CMU; certainly says a lot about our robotics dept. Red is certainly a powerhouse there, and congrats that the two vehicles came in second and third.
I'm such a Nova junkie, and this was an excellent episode.
When I read stories like this one, and the one about theater wanting to move to digital projection, I just can't help of thinking of someone rearranging deck chairs on some large cruise ship that was built a while ago. I'm pretty sure it met a rather depressing fate..
/theater is dead //it's not dead because of the lack of "technology"
Re:Is Sony being charitable?
on
Region-free PS3
·
· Score: 1
"Is Sony being charitable?"
Isn't it funny that just because we may be able to buy their games and play them at any location in the world that we're considering them "charitable"? What a screwed up time we live in. The customer has no power anymore.
So, to answer your question: NO. They are not being charitable.
"News for Nerds" and you can't spell Tigh, Cylon, or Moore?
For some reason Slashdot just doesn't seem like the place for me anymore. I'm a total geek and want editors of stories that actually know how to spell, especially in a story about the best sci-fi on tv.
Sure, if as an application developer you have an intense love of PAIN.
Believe me... I know. We have an application that supports both MySQL and Oracle. The Oracle side of development just leaves me wondering how the company became so successful with the junk it calls a DB server and API libraries, along with a hint of wanting to firebomb the corporate office that happens to be just up the road.
Also, you'd figure that the market that will actually buy HD DVDs (blu ray, HD-DVD, whatever) is most likely an educated consumer. They'll see exactly every constraint the "industry" is trying to force on this technology.
I figure that the average Joe won't be buying these discs because 1) the "new" tech looks just like the old tech (same size disc, "digital", no rewinding, etc), and 2) they already think that playing DVDs on their HD is "high-def".
The average consumer is so confused already that you would think the producers of the new high-def DVDs would go out of their way to make the early adoption crowd very happy. As it is, there is no way I'm buying any of these new discs because I have a HDTV without that HDCP junk in it, and I don't want my product arbitrarily crippled by The Man.
I just picked up that Chibi-Robo game. It's a lot of fun, and well-made. I would put this game in my top-five list of games for the system, and it was just released like a month ago!
Slashdot Mirror
Oh, I see, so I'm supposed to buy this new DRM-crippled hardware because the studios may promise to be nice for a few years? I don't think so.
... if you loose what? What are we letting go?
"Still it's pretty and I want one." ...which is why they can add $200 to the price...
It's a shame, because back in the early 90's I got into comp sci and computer graphics, using Indigos and Onyx machines in all my early work. I even bought an Indy for use in college, and there's no way I would have been able to do such cool project work in school without it. It's a shame to see this, because I was as big a fan as SGI could have had back in the day, but I know the day SGI started its decline.
;-).
It was SIGGRAPH 2000. New Orleans. I got an invite to the SGI party, and we were all expecting a huge new announcement of a SGI-brand PC graphics card. This would have been the smart move, because about this time PC cards were starting to eat into SGI's markets... So why not use the amazing brand name of SGI and produce a killer PC card? So what did SGI announce? A new line of supercomputers. There were audible groans in the crowd.
Oh well, it was part of history. My Indy still works just fine, and I was even able to update to a newer version of Irix recently... And I'll still wear my SGI shirts, thankyouverymuch
Exactly. As an early adopter of DVD, there is NO WAY I will buy either of these two formats. I'm skipping these completely because I personally don't like being treated as a criminal. I have a nice HDTV, but I cannot play HD-DVD or Blue-Ray at full res because I'm lacking that HDMI junk. The only reason that "copy protection" is there is to inconvenience the average customer; people who want to pirate these movies will do it just fine....
Besides, DVDs just really caught on mainstream 3 years ago or so (when I stopped seeing VHS tapes). It's just the greed of the media industry that is pushing these new formats on us; they want us to buy all our movies over again.
How about.... no?
Who wants to play around with a general purpose computer when they can be sued for just about anything under the DMCA? Seriously, the reason I got into CS is because I had a computer to play with and a computer systems lab in high school. These days everyone is expected to just consume what's already been developed instead of creating something new.
Besides, with the DMCA and all the vague patents out there, the risk of law suit is quite high if you dare try to write some cool software. Innovation is dead, and I feel sorry for everyone growing up in school now. The opportunities to learn and explore are severely limited now in the fields of advanced technology, which seems to me is opposite of what you would actually want.
I made a MythTV box to watch TV. Every day that goes by I feel more and more like a criminal.
Your wait has been over for a while now:
http://www.apple.com/macmini/
I often get frustrated with the liberal slant of the replies to Digg stories and how fast conservative replies are modded down. Yes, there are some of us who don't cleanse our speech with a PC filter, but we have every right to speak our mind as you do, right?
Agreed. I bought a DVD player for $1K back in 1997 (i.e. early adopter), but that's because the jump in technology was quite apparent. From VHS to DVD, you get improvements in form factor, resolution, sound, no-rewind, storage, etc, etc, etc.
As I look at the transition from DVD to HD-DVD, all I personally see are negatives: The DRM not letting me play a HD-DVD on MY NEW HDTV! I am absolutely the early-adopter market they need, and there is no way I will buy. Just because my HDTV doesn't have their DRM HDMI stuff, I cannot play full-res. This assumption that I am a criminal, and the fact that this *only* inconveniences the average user (people who want to pirate this stuff will still do it), makes me react so negatively that I just wonder why this has all gone completely wrong.
When the DVD came out it was all about great stuff for the customer. Now with HD-DVD is about great protections for the media cartels.
No thanks.
"The same problem is had by those who fiddle with their GPS while driving, or even the entertainment system. Must we introduce specific legislation for each device?"
Ahh, you must be new here. The real problem is the fact that *all* new laws seem to get more and more specific. This is great for the politicians; it keeps them busy and "doing" what they're supposed to be doing, right? To them, their sole purpose is to create more laws. Passing a general "don't be stupid" law would be great, but then what would all those morons do for the remaining 364 days?
We're in a replacement market for computers, people just don't buy new computers because, it has to be because their old one is too old these days.
... Which is why it will be so interesting to see what happens when Vista comes out. People will have to buy a new machine or at least upgrade in order to run the new Windows. But instead of spending all that money just to run the "it's better this time, we swear!" version of Windows, perhaps they'll funnel some money towards Apple....
I can hardly even bring myself to question things like this. Why do we still consider them a Most Favored Nation in trade status? All they do is steal our ideas and produce them with cheap, exploited labor. But the U.S. gov't refuses to do anything about it.
Anymore you can pretty much take what *should* be done, then know that the U.S. gov't will not do it. Same with illegal immigration. What the heck is going on here? Why can't we just take a stand, cut off some Chinese products? Sure, everyone argues that we depend on their cheap products, but you know what? Maybe we should suck it up for a few years and get our OWN production back up. Everything is so short-term anymore. What about 10 years from now? What happens when the Chinese decouple their currency from the U.S. Dollar?
"No one buys a Mac for the hardware. "
I guess I'm no one. Interesting...
Yeah, I use the right-hand pinky to support the bottom right corner, leaving enough fingers to comfortably use the stylus.
My only problem now is I keep getting pwned in multiplayer. Oh well, I only can play for probably a small fraction of the time these teenagers are playing...
My favorite part of that little chart of sales numbers is the fact that the Gamecube is beating the Xbox 360 in sales.
That just makes me so happy.
I bought a Sony DVD player in 1997 for $1000.
But there is no way I would touch this new HD-DVD/Blu-ray hardware with a ten-foot cattle prod. Let's see.... Can't play HD on my Sony HDTV (no HDCP, oh well!), The Man just wants to further restrict my fair use, and the benefits of the format change are ZERO from a practical standpoint (form factor, no rewinding, etc that made change from VHS to DVD so obvious).
As an alumnus of Carnegie Mellon, it was great to see the coverage. I did not realize that a lot of the Stanford team came from CMU; certainly says a lot about our robotics dept. Red is certainly a powerhouse there, and congrats that the two vehicles came in second and third.
I'm such a Nova junkie, and this was an excellent episode.
When I read stories like this one, and the one about theater wanting to move to digital projection, I just can't help of thinking of someone rearranging deck chairs on some large cruise ship that was built a while ago. I'm pretty sure it met a rather depressing fate..
/theater is dead
//it's not dead because of the lack of "technology"
"Is Sony being charitable?"
Isn't it funny that just because we may be able to buy their games and play them at any location in the world that we're considering them "charitable"? What a screwed up time we live in. The customer has no power anymore.
So, to answer your question: NO. They are not being charitable.
"Let. It. Go."
No. It's too important.
"News for Nerds" and you can't spell Tigh, Cylon, or Moore?
For some reason Slashdot just doesn't seem like the place for me anymore. I'm a total geek and want editors of stories that actually know how to spell, especially in a story about the best sci-fi on tv.
Sure, if as an application developer you have an intense love of PAIN.
Believe me... I know. We have an application that supports both MySQL and Oracle. The Oracle side of development just leaves me wondering how the company became so successful with the junk it calls a DB server and API libraries, along with a hint of wanting to firebomb the corporate office that happens to be just up the road.
Umm.... in Japan even the Gamecube is selling better than the 360.
Also, you'd figure that the market that will actually buy HD DVDs (blu ray, HD-DVD, whatever) is most likely an educated consumer. They'll see exactly every constraint the "industry" is trying to force on this technology.
I figure that the average Joe won't be buying these discs because 1) the "new" tech looks just like the old tech (same size disc, "digital", no rewinding, etc), and 2) they already think that playing DVDs on their HD is "high-def".
The average consumer is so confused already that you would think the producers of the new high-def DVDs would go out of their way to make the early adoption crowd very happy. As it is, there is no way I'm buying any of these new discs because I have a HDTV without that HDCP junk in it, and I don't want my product arbitrarily crippled by The Man.
I'm a customer, not a consumer, darn it.
I just picked up that Chibi-Robo game. It's a lot of fun, and well-made. I would put this game in my top-five list of games for the system, and it was just released like a month ago!