ChinaSmack has much more detailed coverage on this story, including translated Chinese netizen reactions and ton of photoshops. There are only a few ways that the Chinese can criticize the "ZF" (Chinese Government), these sorts of harmless mockery is one of them.
Much like Lulzsec's PBS hack, this will hurt their cause more than it helps...
My concern is that the actions of these hackers will incite a response from governments around the world that will limit internet freedom for the rest of us...
With the breach in Lockheed, Google, and (maybe) a senator also happening this week. And with accusations this last week that the Chinese are out to get American secrets, high-profile hacks on major international companies, and the Pentagon declaring hacking an 'act of war', these series of events compressed into a short period of time will only create impetus for governments to crack down and create new laws that will restrict the internet.
Yeah, all this is saying is that Sony won't be building expensive proprietary technology like Cell or Blu-ray, and esoteric technology like XDR Ram, into the PS4.
They probably are going to use off-the-shelf components like MS. Intel, IBM, ATI, Nvidia, all make components that are impressive. There is no need to develop everything from scratch in-house like the PS3. In fact, the MS tactic of using off-the-shelf components (which they have used even on the first Xbox) is clearly the way to go. Outside of a few first-party titles (Killzone, Uncharted,God of War) that look wonderful, most third-party cross-platform titles haven't bothered to tailor their development for the Cell. And as far as the disk format, there really isn't any impetus to go beyond the 50GBs that Blu-ray affords on the PS4.
The real reality is that game development costs are astronomical for AAA titles. Developing for a single platform really isn't viable, especially if they are using an esoteric architecture like the Cell. Its unreasonable to expect developers to give one platform special attention over the other, and in the same respect its unreasonable for a platform maker to build technology that will go unused into their machine as well.
Looking at the NGP, Sony seems to have adopted a plain-jane quad-core ARM cortex-A9 and a quad-core PowerVR chipset. Hardware that will be common place in the next year, Qualcomm's Snapdragon APQ8064 is similar in design, Sony clearly intends on having the Playstation Suite on Android phones converge with the NGP. Sony clearly intends on having the PS4 go a similar route.
It wouldn't be surprising if PS4 uses a ARM CortexA15 (which goes upto 16 cores) and an Nvidia chipset like "Project Denver"; Nvidia ARM/GPU hybrid. So that all development efforts PC/NGP/Android/iOS/360/Nintendo Project Cafe/PS3/PS4 can be brought under one roof. Obviously, the concept of the hardware platform itself is changing for console makers. Cross-platform tools such as Epic's Unreal Engine are becoming mini-platforms unto themselves.
We've had industrial accidents in West as well, as systems that have been hacked into. BP is the most recent example, and Union Carbine's Bhopal disaster is another (which killed 3,700 people and inured close to half a million). Cover ups, slow-response, not very unique to one country or company.
None of it is "cultural thing". In fact, Sony isn't very Japanese these days, its run by a British-born American, and Western executives pull a lot of sway, especially in the music division, movie studios and Playstation division where a lot of its is centered in the US. Their phone division is split with Ericsson, their music division with Germany's BMG.
First, its called a monopoly. And already government scrutiny is strict when large record labels merge, much less when a company like a Google goes out to buy them.
Second, labels are ultimately as good as their artists. Even if hypothetically Google were able to overcome the international regulatory scrutiny to create a music monopoly, it doesn't guarantee that future artists will necessarily sign with the Google label. The reality of course is that in a competitive market new labels will arise, which the next great artist could sign with if the terms are better, the real question becomes how will Google's monetary compensation compare with artist's realistic expectations.
What the music industry needs isn't a corporate behemoth to rule music and parasitically take a cut between the artist and the consumer, it needs a better business model, a more efficient way to commoditize digital media that gives creators fair compensation for their work relative to the realties of the ubiquity of piracy.
There have been a lot of technology advancements that dramatically increase the amount of light each photosite can collect. The biggest is BSI (back side illuminated) sensors which can double the amount of light that gets captured per photosite. We are also moving to high-dynamic range, high-speed, and pixel-binning CMOS technology that can combine signal data from multiple photosites into one.
In general you will get better quality from a larger sensor, all things being equal, but technology has moved considerably forward. 1~2 micron photosites (that are common in cellphones) can easily handle 8MPs. But don't expect it to take the same quality as a dSLR (or even the larger sensored point and shoots).
Its not about a design flaw, some people are on their cell phone, distracted, and in some cases plain DRUNK. One Toyota SUA had a driver with a blood alcohol level of.103 (link above). Its easier to blame the car rather then admit you were drinking or were texting on the cellphone.
In other cases it turned out to be a complete hoax (in the case of the California Prius incident):
GIve me a break, people that spew this BS haven't actually used Linux on the PS3.
It was NOT a "major" feature, I was on the YDL forums (the most active PS3 Linux community online) and it was a ghost town.
Quite frankly, PS3 on the Linux was useless, it had 256MB or RAM, less then 200MBs were usable, you could hack it to access GPU memory but it was overall pretty much useless. PPU builds of applications were hard to find, you were stuck without Flash (crappy Gnash work around), and old version of Firefox (no HTML5), and any cheap netbook would run circles around it.
The worst part is after 3 years of Linux on the PS3 nobody made any substantial Cell applications. There was barely any community support. Nobody cared.
All these whiners complaining about he loss of Linux of the PS3; where the hell were you when it was available?
* Fine, acceptable or normal; excellent, realistic or authentic * "Lisa the Iconoclast" is the sixteenth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 18, 1996. In the episode, Springfield's bicentennial approaches, and Lisa writes an essay on town founder Jebediah Springfield....
As does "embiggen":
* Make bigger
Not to mention "Dingleberry":
*Vaccinium erythrocarpum, the Southern Mountain Cranberry; Any residual irregularity following processing; A small piece of feces clumped to anus
But if you put in "Microsoft" there is no definition: it just says " * microsoft is also a word in: Deutsch"
The electron microscope I used to use ran on OS/2 Warp. Acquired images had to be transferred off the computer using Zip drives. Its still in service. I have a fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) machines that runs on OS9 exclusively.
The thing is, being that some scientific equipment can easily be six-figures, the computers that are connected to those machines are dedicated to it and run one piece of software exclusively. Many scientist aren't in-depth computer people, most labs with won't allow those computers to have any other software that isn't necessary to be installed, or be used to surf the net, or be upgraded if its working. Any downtime associated with such an expensive machine can be costly, and the software that runs it is usually finicky and filled with bugs (being that the userbase is miniscule).
The fact that its on XP isn't much of an issue, in fact, it seems a lot more progressive then other equipment out there. I know equipment that will on run on Windows 95/98/Me, and let me tell you it's a NIGHTMARE!
The problem isn't just the physical media itself, once you open the door for a legitimate ripping they also open the door for illegitimate ripping. In the PSN network once ownership is established you can re-download the game an unlimited number of times and on 5 different devices. The PSP itself is an insecure system.
Also, UMDs don't come with CD-keys (or I guess UMD-keys in this case). There is no way to authenticate one disk from another; which means you can go around buying and returning used UMDs to rip to your system, you could swap disks around with friends and everyone could claim ownership, or even rental UMDs that you could rip to your system and promptly return. This is a poor way for Sony to gather the support of developers/publishers to the system.
What Sony should have done is the 3 Free game download promotion they did in Europe but is conspicuously absent in the rest of the world. All you had to do with authenticate you had a UMD, it didn't even have to be yours, and you wold receive a code to download three games. They could be games you already owned, or they could be completely brand new games. One of the games you could choose from is Gran Turismo PSP, brand-new and cost $40.
Being inciteful is not a crime. We may not agree with neo-nazis, anti-abortionists, etc, but public information is public. Free speech is a right.
How many times have we at Slashdot had sympathy for similar situations involving piracy and hacking. Where legal and litigious means are employed to silence "inciteful" uses of technology.
While we don't know the real details of this individuals arrest, the likelihood is that she was targeted by the police for her blog posts. Charging someone for something trivial or finding something ancillary to justify the arrest is usually easy enough for law enforcement, even if the charge gets dropped, its a massive inconvenience and expensive on the accused.
Its not meant for playback of a single video like the GFX cards do, or watch a DVD or Blu-ray, its designed for content creation and distribution. In an early demo, the Cell did 48 simultaneous Mpeg2 streams in real-time.
The big issue isn't DRM. In fact, DRM is far worse on downloadable content then disc-based ones like Blu-ray.
For the average consumer, you can play a Blu-ray in any Blu-ray player be it your own or anyone elses.
The problem is that movies cost $35 freakin' dollars. Sorry, Transformers is NOT worth $35 in entertainment value. Neither is Harry Potter or Alvin and the Chipmunks. They need to drop the price down to where DVD is.
I know Slashdot has become another trash site filled with sensationalism, but get your facts right at least. This is essentially the same thing as iTunes.
Its even on the site you linked to:
"you have one download, one redownload, and that's it."
Actually the Hasselblad has a multipass system on their H3DII-39MP. This system will do the exact same thing as the Foveon sensor, it offsets so that each pixel via miniature piezo electric motor gets every color.
As for the Foveon, its a proven flop, its in the Sigma SD14 and have produced worse images then equivalent CMOs based sensors on Canon/Nikon/Sony, etc. Worse is the high-ISO noise level, the Foveon produces more noise then any modern CMOs.
If you have a Hasselblad V-system and want to use a modern digital back you should get the new Mamiya/Phase One 645 AFDIII with a V-adapter. Its an open system so it'll take all your old blad V-lenses (as well as Contax, Zeiss Ikon, Pentax lenses as well). Also the 50MP sensor will be available to Leaf and PhaseOne later. Not to mention the availability of cheap backs (the Mamiya ZD back is around $8k now)
I've followed 2ch for close to a decade. And its the best and worst the internet has to offer, in fact, its the embodiment of internet. Its an entire universe of unfiltered data; full of smut and porn, jerks, racism, spam, and diverse information and insight that could otherwise not flourish.
The thing is, to navigate 2ch you really need an external viewer (such as gikonavi etc). The site is too cumbersome otherwise, and with it you can add a certain degree of your own moderation and filtering to it. But you still need a thick-skin to navigate it.
One thing 2ch doesn't have is a sanitized hive-mind that, say, Slashdot has (hatred of Microsoft, Sony; love of OSS, Apple, etc.) There certainly is a much more vile hive-mind at times, but there really is no ego being that there's no log-in and you can't really get banned. There are lots of moderated forums in Japan like the US, and lots of people go to them, but 2ch is a good complement to it. Sometimes you want to hear what people really think in an environment that doesn't have the fear of being filtered, 'dugg down', or banned. 2ch really is pure internet anarchy that somehow works.
the OP should have a mentioned that 20% market share, and Sony's goal of taking 50% market share with Blu-ray, is only IN JAPAN. It should be noted that the Japanese media market is much smaller; due to higher prices (DVDs cost $30-50, with only bargain titles hitting below $20). Capturing 50% by volume of the Japanese market is dramatically different then the US market, just by the sheer scale and volume difference, hence, titling this post "Sony Thinks Blu-ray Will Sell Like DVDs by Year End" is a disservice to Slashdot readers to the facts.
Honestly, Slashdot posts more old regurgitated FUD then Engaget and Gizmodo.
The "analyst" rumor that Slashdot links to in the OP was started by Business Week back in January, but was quickly denied in the next sentence by Barry Meyer, CEO of Warner Brothers.
"One source reported that Toshiba had offered to pay more than $100 million, while Sony bid closer to $400 million. But Meyer denied there was a bidding war and said Warner instead looked solely at global sales of both formats in making its decision."
You gotta be kidding. Sony is certainly more American then Toshiba, Sony's biggest share-holder is American (Dodge & Cox), not to mention its run by an Welsh-American CEO. By comparison, Toshiba has to be the most un-American company in existence. During the Cold War, Toshiba was found guilty of illegally selling the Soviet Union and helping build propellers for Russian nuclear submarines that could sneak past NATO's defenses, which is against the COCOM agreement that the US and Japan are both part of. Congress almost past a bill that would ban all Toshiba products being sold in the US.
IrDA can only do 115.2 Kbps (there are some non-UART extension that can approach 4mbs). This of-course is incredibly cumbersome with having to keep line of site coupled with snail pace transfer speeds.
Transferjet would allow for a modern iteration of physical interaction transfer of data. Not only fast but also able to actually charge the device via induction.
W-USB and Bluetooth will still require authentication and configuration being that data is being broadcast over the air. Transferjet doesn't, its a cheap and quick method to transfer data, it in fact uses a very novel approach to human-interface; by actually using the physical device rather then a software interface to transfer data. Want to transfer you pictures from your digital camera to your iPod? Touch the two devices and press go. Something like this would not be possible with W-USB or BT 3.0. It in fact is a complement to those other standards.
Slashdot Mirror
ChinaSmack has much more detailed coverage on this story, including translated Chinese netizen reactions and ton of photoshops. There are only a few ways that the Chinese can criticize the "ZF" (Chinese Government), these sorts of harmless mockery is one of them.
http://www.chinasmack.com/2011/pictures/floating-chinese-government-officials-stun-netizens.html
Much like Lulzsec's PBS hack, this will hurt their cause more than it helps...
My concern is that the actions of these hackers will incite a response from governments around the world that will limit internet freedom for the rest of us...
With the breach in Lockheed, Google, and (maybe) a senator also happening this week. And with accusations this last week that the Chinese are out to get American secrets, high-profile hacks on major international companies, and the Pentagon declaring hacking an 'act of war', these series of events compressed into a short period of time will only create impetus for governments to crack down and create new laws that will restrict the internet.
Yeah, all this is saying is that Sony won't be building expensive proprietary technology like Cell or Blu-ray, and esoteric technology like XDR Ram, into the PS4.
They probably are going to use off-the-shelf components like MS. Intel, IBM, ATI, Nvidia, all make components that are impressive. There is no need to develop everything from scratch in-house like the PS3. In fact, the MS tactic of using off-the-shelf components (which they have used even on the first Xbox) is clearly the way to go. Outside of a few first-party titles (Killzone, Uncharted,God of War) that look wonderful, most third-party cross-platform titles haven't bothered to tailor their development for the Cell. And as far as the disk format, there really isn't any impetus to go beyond the 50GBs that Blu-ray affords on the PS4.
The real reality is that game development costs are astronomical for AAA titles. Developing for a single platform really isn't viable, especially if they are using an esoteric architecture like the Cell. Its unreasonable to expect developers to give one platform special attention over the other, and in the same respect its unreasonable for a platform maker to build technology that will go unused into their machine as well.
Looking at the NGP, Sony seems to have adopted a plain-jane quad-core ARM cortex-A9 and a quad-core PowerVR chipset. Hardware that will be common place in the next year, Qualcomm's Snapdragon APQ8064 is similar in design, Sony clearly intends on having the Playstation Suite on Android phones converge with the NGP. Sony clearly intends on having the PS4 go a similar route.
It wouldn't be surprising if PS4 uses a ARM CortexA15 (which goes upto 16 cores) and an Nvidia chipset like "Project Denver"; Nvidia ARM/GPU hybrid. So that all development efforts PC/NGP/Android/iOS/360/Nintendo Project Cafe/PS3/PS4 can be brought under one roof. Obviously, the concept of the hardware platform itself is changing for console makers. Cross-platform tools such as Epic's Unreal Engine are becoming mini-platforms unto themselves.
Sorry, but this is plain racist.
We've had industrial accidents in West as well, as systems that have been hacked into. BP is the most recent example, and Union Carbine's Bhopal disaster is another (which killed 3,700 people and inured close to half a million). Cover ups, slow-response, not very unique to one country or company.
None of it is "cultural thing". In fact, Sony isn't very Japanese these days, its run by a British-born American, and Western executives pull a lot of sway, especially in the music division, movie studios and Playstation division where a lot of its is centered in the US. Their phone division is split with Ericsson, their music division with Germany's BMG.
First, its called a monopoly. And already government scrutiny is strict when large record labels merge, much less when a company like a Google goes out to buy them.
Second, labels are ultimately as good as their artists. Even if hypothetically Google were able to overcome the international regulatory scrutiny to create a music monopoly, it doesn't guarantee that future artists will necessarily sign with the Google label. The reality of course is that in a competitive market new labels will arise, which the next great artist could sign with if the terms are better, the real question becomes how will Google's monetary compensation compare with artist's realistic expectations.
What the music industry needs isn't a corporate behemoth to rule music and parasitically take a cut between the artist and the consumer, it needs a better business model, a more efficient way to commoditize digital media that gives creators fair compensation for their work relative to the realties of the ubiquity of piracy.
There have been a lot of technology advancements that dramatically increase the amount of light each photosite can collect. The biggest is BSI (back side illuminated) sensors which can double the amount of light that gets captured per photosite. We are also moving to high-dynamic range, high-speed, and pixel-binning CMOS technology that can combine signal data from multiple photosites into one.
http://image-sensors-world.blogspot.com/2011/02/sony-announces-12mp-155um-pixel-bsi.html
In general you will get better quality from a larger sensor, all things being equal, but technology has moved considerably forward. 1~2 micron photosites (that are common in cellphones) can easily handle 8MPs. But don't expect it to take the same quality as a dSLR (or even the larger sensored point and shoots).
Here's a list (SUA) sudden unintended acceleration complaints to the NHTSA
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/nhtsa-data-dive-3-117-models-ranked-by-rate-of-ua-incidents/
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/05/sudden.acceleration.fact.check/index.html
Atop that, most of SUA complaints to the NHTSA are a sham.
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/89-dead-in-the-nhtsa-complaint-database-it%E2%80%99s-a-sham/
Its not about a design flaw, some people are on their cell phone, distracted, and in some cases plain DRUNK. One Toyota SUA had a driver with a blood alcohol level of .103 (link above). Its easier to blame the car rather then admit you were drinking or were texting on the cellphone.
In other cases it turned out to be a complete hoax (in the case of the California Prius incident):
http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/12/toyota-autos-hoax-media-opinions-contributors-michael-fumento.html
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/fox-is-sikes-a-balloon-boy/
GIve me a break, people that spew this BS haven't actually used Linux on the PS3.
It was NOT a "major" feature, I was on the YDL forums (the most active PS3 Linux community online) and it was a ghost town.
Quite frankly, PS3 on the Linux was useless, it had 256MB or RAM, less then 200MBs were usable, you could hack it to access GPU memory but it was overall pretty much useless. PPU builds of applications were hard to find, you were stuck without Flash (crappy Gnash work around), and old version of Firefox (no HTML5), and any cheap netbook would run circles around it.
The worst part is after 3 years of Linux on the PS3 nobody made any substantial Cell applications. There was barely any community support. Nobody cared.
All these whiners complaining about he loss of Linux of the PS3; where the hell were you when it was available?
This is being blown out of proportion.
The XEL-1 was discontinued in Japan because new TV sets sold this year will require a "V-chip" parental control, and a $2,000 11" TV doesn't justify a redesign to add that feature. The XEL-1 is still going to be sold in the US and Europe.
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=en&u=av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20100216_349284.html
Also, Sony is still going ahead with their 22B yen ($210M) investment in OLED
http://www.trustedreviews.com/tvs/news/2008/05/22/Sony-Boasts-of-22-Billion-OLED-Investment/p1
Moreover, at the 2010 CES Sony just finished showing off a 24.5" OLED set that does 3D.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/07/sony-oled-3d-tv-eyes-on/
As Mark Twain said, can be applied to OLED, "rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated"
Pretty impressive, 'cromulent' does show up...
http://www.google.com/dictionary?langpair=en%7Cen&q=cromulent&hl=en/
* Fine, acceptable or normal; excellent, realistic or authentic ...
* "Lisa the Iconoclast" is the sixteenth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 18, 1996. In the episode, Springfield's bicentennial approaches, and Lisa writes an essay on town founder Jebediah Springfield.
As does "embiggen":
* Make bigger
Not to mention "Dingleberry":
*Vaccinium erythrocarpum, the Southern Mountain Cranberry; Any residual irregularity following processing; A small piece of feces clumped to anus
But if you put in "Microsoft" there is no definition: it just says " * microsoft is also a word in: Deutsch"
http://www.google.com/dictionary?langpair=en%7Cen&q=microsoft&hl=en/
The electron microscope I used to use ran on OS/2 Warp. Acquired images had to be transferred off the computer using Zip drives. Its still in service. I have a fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) machines that runs on OS9 exclusively.
The thing is, being that some scientific equipment can easily be six-figures, the computers that are connected to those machines are dedicated to it and run one piece of software exclusively. Many scientist aren't in-depth computer people, most labs with won't allow those computers to have any other software that isn't necessary to be installed, or be used to surf the net, or be upgraded if its working. Any downtime associated with such an expensive machine can be costly, and the software that runs it is usually finicky and filled with bugs (being that the userbase is miniscule).
The fact that its on XP isn't much of an issue, in fact, it seems a lot more progressive then other equipment out there. I know equipment that will on run on Windows 95/98/Me, and let me tell you it's a NIGHTMARE!
The problem isn't just the physical media itself, once you open the door for a legitimate ripping they also open the door for illegitimate ripping. In the PSN network once ownership is established you can re-download the game an unlimited number of times and on 5 different devices. The PSP itself is an insecure system.
Also, UMDs don't come with CD-keys (or I guess UMD-keys in this case). There is no way to authenticate one disk from another; which means you can go around buying and returning used UMDs to rip to your system, you could swap disks around with friends and everyone could claim ownership, or even rental UMDs that you could rip to your system and promptly return. This is a poor way for Sony to gather the support of developers/publishers to the system.
What Sony should have done is the 3 Free game download promotion they did in Europe but is conspicuously absent in the rest of the world. All you had to do with authenticate you had a UMD, it didn't even have to be yours, and you wold receive a code to download three games. They could be games you already owned, or they could be completely brand new games. One of the games you could choose from is Gran Turismo PSP, brand-new and cost $40.
Being inciteful is not a crime. We may not agree with neo-nazis, anti-abortionists, etc, but public information is public. Free speech is a right.
How many times have we at Slashdot had sympathy for similar situations involving piracy and hacking. Where legal and litigious means are employed to silence "inciteful" uses of technology.
While we don't know the real details of this individuals arrest, the likelihood is that she was targeted by the police for her blog posts. Charging someone for something trivial or finding something ancillary to justify the arrest is usually easy enough for law enforcement, even if the charge gets dropped, its a massive inconvenience and expensive on the accused.
Its not meant for playback of a single video like the GFX cards do, or watch a DVD or Blu-ray, its designed for content creation and distribution. In an early demo, the Cell did 48 simultaneous Mpeg2 streams in real-time.
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/playstation/cell-processor-demos-mpeg2-x-48-100853.php
The big issue isn't DRM. In fact, DRM is far worse on downloadable content then disc-based ones like Blu-ray.
For the average consumer, you can play a Blu-ray in any Blu-ray player be it your own or anyone elses.
The problem is that movies cost $35 freakin' dollars. Sorry, Transformers is NOT worth $35 in entertainment value. Neither is Harry Potter or Alvin and the Chipmunks. They need to drop the price down to where DVD is.
I know Slashdot has become another trash site filled with sensationalism, but get your facts right at least. This is essentially the same thing as iTunes.
Its even on the site you linked to:
"you have one download, one redownload, and that's it."
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080921-playstation-3-video-drm-two-strikes-and-youre-out.html
For medium format digitals the body & lens are minuscule costs compared to that digital back that cost between $14-40k.
Actually the Hasselblad has a multipass system on their H3DII-39MP. This system will do the exact same thing as the Foveon sensor, it offsets so that each pixel via miniature piezo electric motor gets every color.
As for the Foveon, its a proven flop, its in the Sigma SD14 and have produced worse images then equivalent CMOs based sensors on Canon/Nikon/Sony, etc. Worse is the high-ISO noise level, the Foveon produces more noise then any modern CMOs.
If you have a Hasselblad V-system and want to use a modern digital back you should get the new Mamiya/Phase One 645 AFDIII with a V-adapter. Its an open system so it'll take all your old blad V-lenses (as well as Contax, Zeiss Ikon, Pentax lenses as well). Also the 50MP sensor will be available to Leaf and PhaseOne later. Not to mention the availability of cheap backs (the Mamiya ZD back is around $8k now)
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/phase645.shtml
I've followed 2ch for close to a decade. And its the best and worst the internet has to offer, in fact, its the embodiment of internet. Its an entire universe of unfiltered data; full of smut and porn, jerks, racism, spam, and diverse information and insight that could otherwise not flourish.
The thing is, to navigate 2ch you really need an external viewer (such as gikonavi etc). The site is too cumbersome otherwise, and with it you can add a certain degree of your own moderation and filtering to it. But you still need a thick-skin to navigate it.
One thing 2ch doesn't have is a sanitized hive-mind that, say, Slashdot has (hatred of Microsoft, Sony; love of OSS, Apple, etc.) There certainly is a much more vile hive-mind at times, but there really is no ego being that there's no log-in and you can't really get banned. There are lots of moderated forums in Japan like the US, and lots of people go to them, but 2ch is a good complement to it. Sometimes you want to hear what people really think in an environment that doesn't have the fear of being filtered, 'dugg down', or banned. 2ch really is pure internet anarchy that somehow works.
the OP should have a mentioned that 20% market share, and Sony's goal of taking 50% market share with Blu-ray, is only IN JAPAN. It should be noted that the Japanese media market is much smaller; due to higher prices (DVDs cost $30-50, with only bargain titles hitting below $20). Capturing 50% by volume of the Japanese market is dramatically different then the US market, just by the sheer scale and volume difference, hence, titling this post "Sony Thinks Blu-ray Will Sell Like DVDs by Year End" is a disservice to Slashdot readers to the facts.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/Blu-ray-sales-hit-record-in-Japan.html
In the US, Blu-ray consists of 8% of media sales calculated only from the top 20 sellers.
Source, Home Meida Magazine (warning: netbook link):
Chart on Page 3
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom040608/
They have tours of Japan Steel Work's sword factories, following link has some pictures:
http://ameblo.jp/machizukuri-engineer/entry-10070632943.html
An older example of the swords they make (from the Russo-Japanese war):
http://www.e-sword.jp/sale/0650/0650_1006syousai.htm
The company also uses sword-making as a source of research that they apply to other field's of forging
http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110001457129/
Honestly, Slashdot posts more old regurgitated FUD then Engaget and Gizmodo.
The "analyst" rumor that Slashdot links to in the OP was started by Business Week back in January, but was quickly denied in the next sentence by Barry Meyer, CEO of Warner Brothers.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2008/tc2008014_928006.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_top+story
"One source reported that Toshiba had offered to pay more than $100 million, while Sony bid closer to $400 million. But Meyer denied there was a bidding war and said Warner instead looked solely at global sales of both formats in making its decision."
You gotta be kidding. Sony is certainly more American then Toshiba, Sony's biggest share-holder is American (Dodge & Cox), not to mention its run by an Welsh-American CEO. By comparison, Toshiba has to be the most un-American company in existence. During the Cold War, Toshiba was found guilty of illegally selling the Soviet Union and helping build propellers for Russian nuclear submarines that could sneak past NATO's defenses, which is against the COCOM agreement that the US and Japan are both part of. Congress almost past a bill that would ban all Toshiba products being sold in the US.
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19871201faessay7874/george-r-packard/the-coming-u-s-japan-crisis.html
IrDA can only do 115.2 Kbps (there are some non-UART extension that can approach 4mbs). This of-course is incredibly cumbersome with having to keep line of site coupled with snail pace transfer speeds.
Transferjet would allow for a modern iteration of physical interaction transfer of data. Not only fast but also able to actually charge the device via induction.
W-USB and Bluetooth will still require authentication and configuration being that data is being broadcast over the air. Transferjet doesn't, its a cheap and quick method to transfer data, it in fact uses a very novel approach to human-interface; by actually using the physical device rather then a software interface to transfer data. Want to transfer you pictures from your digital camera to your iPod? Touch the two devices and press go. Something like this would not be possible with W-USB or BT 3.0. It in fact is a complement to those other standards.