That still doesn't explain the Betamax failure, though.
By the time I saw my first home video recorder, the early problems of Betamax had been eliminated. The machine had a timer, multi-hour tapes were available, there was even a multi-load option to put 4 tapes in a stack and have it use them all while you were on vacation. The tape was automatically unthreaded once a certain threshold of FF/RW was hit--and in fact, many VHS decks had started to keep the tape threaded initially, because a 1 second pause to thread or unthread the tape each time you hit a button is damn annoying when you're skipping around trying to find a particular point.
Video stores were about 50/50 Beta/VHS. There were other manufacturers selling Beta decks. And Beta still had far better video quality--maybe you couldn't see it on lousy US NTSC TVs, but on PAL systems it was very obvious.
Yet VHS still won. So I don't buy the argument that alleged early deficiencies of Betamax account for its failure.
Is there anywhere you can buy even a fraction of Sony's catalogue? And when I say buy, I mean go out and find a specific title that you remember fondly, not hunt through a bargain bin for some random junk.
There's this web site called eBay. If you go there and search, you'll find you can pick up thousands of PS1 titles for very little cash.
It also doesn't help that it's very difficult to find a PSP you can actually try out, and that when you finally do find one the first thing you notice is the horrible load times.
I played Mario Sunshine. It was OK, but at the end of the game I found myself feeling like I'd eaten an entire box of chocolates. I put the GameCube away and got out the PS2 and played something less saccharine to take the taste away.
One issue is that ROM cartridges are expensive to make, compared to CDs.
That said, I agree that there just aren't enough great GBA games, and the prices are too high. Metroid Zero Mission is still $30+, and it's a 2 year old game for an old system.
The real issue is that you need to set up the parameters of the market to favor the behavior you want to see. There's no ideal platonic Market that is inherently the best and which will automatically occur.
When Slashdot produces one of those irritating "You need to wait a while before posting" errors, I'd like the plugin to store the HTTP POST data and quietly retry every now and again until the post goes through.
Currently I leave a tab open and go back to it and retry, but it's annoying because it seems to be totally random how much time Slashdot will require to elapse before the post can go in. I've had it tell me to slow down because I posted 35 minutes ago.
During an erection, the foreskin pulls back to reveal the glans.
Dude, you need to see more uncircumcized penises.
The difference in stimulation is negligable (and based on mearly anecdotal evidence).
There's nothing anecdotal about the documented loss of millions of sensory receptors. If you want to argue that you can lose sensory input without losing sensation, maybe you ought to come up with a plausible mechanism and some evidence?
For doubters, read Robert Malloy's book. I love and hate this book. It's hard to dispute empirical research.
The very first review on the page mentions that the book doesn't include any details of the methodology or the research results. On that basis, it's pretty easy to dispute. In fact, it's a worthless "because I'm an expert and I say so" book.
My parents did their best to bring me up as a meat eater, but I never liked the stuff. You can ask my mother about the battles to get me to eat bacon, pork, lamb, liver,...
As soon as I moved away from home and had the chance to make a free choice without requiring that they cater to my whims, I stopped eating meat.
So I really don't believe that meat has any unique appeal.
Re:Javascript is insecure - AJAX is security hole
on
Ruby On Rails Goes 1.1
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· Score: 1
The easy way around the problem is per-site JavaScript permissions. Internet Explorer has allowed you to set up your browser like that for ages, I'm surprised Firefox isn't the same way.
The OS X problem is that Apple shipped an old and somewhat broken version of Ruby. I'm sure that now that Rails is getting more attention, that will be fixed in the next release of OS X... Ocelot or Liger or whatever it is.
The reason phone numbering is so poor, is it was engineered to be implementable using mechanical exchange systems operated via gears and rotors. This meant you had to have a fixed width for area codes and for numbers within an exchange. It also meant you had to be able to start decoding the number as soon as you got the first digit.
You're quite right that a rational system designed now would have a checksum digit, like credit card numbers do.
A rational system designed for modern equipment would also do away with fixed-width phone numbers. That way when a given area code ran out of 4-digit numbers, you'd just keep going to 5 digit numbers, then 6 digit. Nobody would ever have to have their telephone number reassigned.
It would be trivial to do. We already use 1 as a special escape for "I'm about to start dialling an area code". Similarly, you could pick a digit to mark the break between components of the number (country, area, exchange, local, end of number) just like we use . in IP addresses. You could even use * or #, which are currently unused except for voicemail systems, and not have to change existing numbers.
So 555 1212 would become 555*1212*, and then there would be no problem issuing 555*12345* or even 555*1234567* without having to reassign any numbers.
(I should mention that this is the kind of addressing system developed by Ted Nelson and crew for the Xanadu system Tumbler Line, hence there's plenty of prior art.)
If it'd been me, I'd have warned the company to withdraw the brochures and reprint with the right number, then left an announcement saying something like "In view of the sale of the Minneapolis Twins to Madison Wisconsin, this week's game has been cancelled..."
Slashdot Mirror
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"
Sure, and butter is really no better tasting than margarine, it's just another myth.
That still doesn't explain the Betamax failure, though.
By the time I saw my first home video recorder, the early problems of Betamax had been eliminated. The machine had a timer, multi-hour tapes were available, there was even a multi-load option to put 4 tapes in a stack and have it use them all while you were on vacation. The tape was automatically unthreaded once a certain threshold of FF/RW was hit--and in fact, many VHS decks had started to keep the tape threaded initially, because a 1 second pause to thread or unthread the tape each time you hit a button is damn annoying when you're skipping around trying to find a particular point.
Video stores were about 50/50 Beta/VHS. There were other manufacturers selling Beta decks. And Beta still had far better video quality--maybe you couldn't see it on lousy US NTSC TVs, but on PAL systems it was very obvious.
Yet VHS still won. So I don't buy the argument that alleged early deficiencies of Betamax account for its failure.
You can't launch and repair secret spy satellites with a space probe. That's why the Shuttle will continue until there's a replacement.
There's this web site called eBay. If you go there and search, you'll find you can pick up thousands of PS1 titles for very little cash.
That explains why my damn GameCube won't do progressive scan even with the cable. Fscking Nintendo...
It also doesn't help that it's very difficult to find a PSP you can actually try out, and that when you finally do find one the first thing you notice is the horrible load times.
If you think GTA is about violence, you're missing the point.
And while I like my GameCube, it needs more games that aren't saccharine-sweet.
I played Mario Sunshine. It was OK, but at the end of the game I found myself feeling like I'd eaten an entire box of chocolates. I put the GameCube away and got out the PS2 and played something less saccharine to take the taste away.
Get a forwarding address from a reputable company like pobox.com, and point it at whichever of the other 4 options you want to use at any given time.
Because of the laws passed by your dumbass politicians. Or was that a rhetorical question?
One issue is that ROM cartridges are expensive to make, compared to CDs.
That said, I agree that there just aren't enough great GBA games, and the prices are too high. Metroid Zero Mission is still $30+, and it's a 2 year old game for an old system.
...I get all my game reviews from trustworthy and unbiased sources like Official PlayStation Magazine and Nintendo Power.
Ah, but you wouldn't be saying that if you were the one getting the 39 cents.
The real issue is that you need to set up the parameters of the market to favor the behavior you want to see. There's no ideal platonic Market that is inherently the best and which will automatically occur.
When Slashdot produces one of those irritating "You need to wait a while before posting" errors, I'd like the plugin to store the HTTP POST data and quietly retry every now and again until the post goes through.
Currently I leave a tab open and go back to it and retry, but it's annoying because it seems to be totally random how much time Slashdot will require to elapse before the post can go in. I've had it tell me to slow down because I posted 35 minutes ago.
Dude, you need to see more uncircumcized penises.
There's nothing anecdotal about the documented loss of millions of sensory receptors. If you want to argue that you can lose sensory input without losing sensation, maybe you ought to come up with a plausible mechanism and some evidence?
The very first review on the page mentions that the book doesn't include any details of the methodology or the research results. On that basis, it's pretty easy to dispute. In fact, it's a worthless "because I'm an expert and I say so" book.
My parents did their best to bring me up as a meat eater, but I never liked the stuff. You can ask my mother about the battles to get me to eat bacon, pork, lamb, liver, ...
As soon as I moved away from home and had the chance to make a free choice without requiring that they cater to my whims, I stopped eating meat.
So I really don't believe that meat has any unique appeal.
Now, cheesecake on the other hand...
I mis-read it as "Coronary".
The easy way around the problem is per-site JavaScript permissions. Internet Explorer has allowed you to set up your browser like that for ages, I'm surprised Firefox isn't the same way.
Still, there's a plugin for it...
The OS X problem is that Apple shipped an old and somewhat broken version of Ruby. I'm sure that now that Rails is getting more attention, that will be fixed in the next release of OS X... Ocelot or Liger or whatever it is.
http://developer.apple.com/tools/rubyonrails.html
Ignoring BSDs, Minix pre-dates Linux, and was fully open source.
It wasn't Free Software (TM), but it was open source.
The reason phone numbering is so poor, is it was engineered to be implementable using mechanical exchange systems operated via gears and rotors. This meant you had to have a fixed width for area codes and for numbers within an exchange. It also meant you had to be able to start decoding the number as soon as you got the first digit.
You're quite right that a rational system designed now would have a checksum digit, like credit card numbers do.
A rational system designed for modern equipment would also do away with fixed-width phone numbers. That way when a given area code ran out of 4-digit numbers, you'd just keep going to 5 digit numbers, then 6 digit. Nobody would ever have to have their telephone number reassigned.
It would be trivial to do. We already use 1 as a special escape for "I'm about to start dialling an area code". Similarly, you could pick a digit to mark the break between components of the number (country, area, exchange, local, end of number) just like we use . in IP addresses. You could even use * or #, which are currently unused except for voicemail systems, and not have to change existing numbers.
So 555 1212 would become 555*1212*, and then there would be no problem issuing 555*12345* or even 555*1234567* without having to reassign any numbers.
(I should mention that this is the kind of addressing system developed by Ted Nelson and crew for the Xanadu system Tumbler Line, hence there's plenty of prior art.)
Trouble is, that doesn't help when people get your cell phone number by misdialing it, or by using a marketing autodialer.
If it'd been me, I'd have warned the company to withdraw the brochures and reprint with the right number, then left an announcement saying something like "In view of the sale of the Minneapolis Twins to Madison Wisconsin, this week's game has been cancelled..."