I don't know why everyone is always so excited that you have to buy a DVD accessory to play DVDs. This is no different -- price-wise -- than the PS2 making you buy a memory card if you ever want to save a game. Basically both consoles make you buy an extra controller and an extra accessory to get full functionality. (Assuming you want a DVD Player, anyway.)
Of course, when Sony puts out the PS2 hard drive, the playing field will look a little different.
If anyone's interested, there's a pretty good sci-fi novel called Signal to Noise by Eric S. Nylund that deals, in part, with this same subject. I'd recommend it. It's a bit dense, much like Neuromancer, but worth the read.
So now we are mad at Microsoft for following the rules? (That is, not letting people play games?) I'm just making sure -- sometimes it's confusing to keep up with.
God forbid the US try to remain an economic superpower! I'd much prefer being hired out as cheap labor to a country with a better economy, or not having a job at all. Maybe if I was lucky I could get a job making t-shirts for 10 cents an hour, instead of buying them. Stupid government!
I don't think anyone is saying they would or should use it to stop demonstrations, but it would be nice to have when demonstrations get out of hand, like they did in Seattle with the WTO. Especially for those of us that lived by the police station on Capitol Hill -- I had to leave b/c there was too much tear gas in the air. (Whether or not the demonstrators was right had nothing to do with it; when they start breaking things then they are wrong.)
Funny how, even after an article as well-researched as this, refuses to say anything good about the XBOX. All the comments are about how people over 12 really do like Nintendo and Tom's doesn't know what they're talking about. (Although if they had said the PS2 is better I"m sure everyone would be praising them as geniuses.) Why don't we all just take a moment and admit that the XBOX is pretty good? If you've seen Max Payne on both side by side (I have), you wouldn't be saying the PS2 is as good. Don't get me wrong, I like the PS2 and think it has, for now, better games (MGS:2, FFX, GTA3), but the XBOX is clearly a superior machine.
Maybe he is disappointed that what would otherwise be a very good RPG features a character with a seemingly unnatural attachment to a "miniature giant space hamster"...
Not to mention the fact that the article mentions that the "strict constructionist" view was shared with the founding fathers, which anyone who knows anything about history would realize is total garbage. Some of them felt that way, sure; but some took a much broader view. Which, probably, is the right one. Thomas Jefferson, who was surely one of the greatest founding fathers, is a good example of this. He was a strict constructionist until he was offered the chance to make the "Louisania Purchase." He realized that, from a strict constructionist point of view, this probably wasn't something the government should do. However, it was also something that would be clearly beneficial to the country. So he flip-flopped (he was a politician...) and became a broad constructionist and bought the land. I think the lesson here is that, in terms of running a country, "strict constructionists" should have given up long ago -- there's too much not covered by the constitution to only go by what it says.
This is great and all, but shouldn't someone point out that, whatever the case might have been in the past, the current version of Netscape sucks. IE is a much better browser, IMHO. If you have to use one of the two, who would actually want Netscape?
Did anyone else notice the security bulletin on the MSFT site for this *latest* problem was from March 29? Think there's any chance whoever wrote this virus read the bulletin and then coded a virus specifically to take advantage of it, since he/she knew -- like all of us -- that 99.9% of the population will never patch any program they have?
It is true that the PS2 plays DVDs, but the XBOX DVD player -- in my experience -- seems a little better. The PS2 does play them out of the box, but using the controller to run the DVD player is not fun. Of course, you can buy a real remote for 30 bucks or so -- the same price it costs to get an XBOX remote/DVD functionality. (A much better remote at that.) And, from what I hear, the XBOX DVD player is much better than Sony's, although I don't really know much about that.
On the other hand, it is very hard to argue with the PS2 game catalog....
When you think about it, I think anyone would be shocked if PS2 hadn't outsold both of the other consoles simply because there are more PS2s available to buy. Just think about it: Microsoft has 100,000 XBOXs and sells them all; Nintento has 100,000 Cubes and sells them all; Sony has -- lets say -- 300,000 PS2s out there and sells 150,000. In this case, is it really surprising that more PS2s were sold than anything else? (There was a survey done before Christmas of major game retailers where they expected PS2 to be the top-seller, along with MSG2)
Anyway, it seesm like a situation where everyone is winning. I went into a couple game stores this weekend (EBX & Babbages), and the clerk there told me they were selling out of all three systems.
Luckily, you can still get GTA3 for your precocious pre-teen child. This will help teach them many life lessons. For example, that working with the mob will only end up badly since at some point they will turn on you and try to kill you, so you should proactively kill them first. Or that, after having sex with a hooker to make yourself stronger, you should beat her into a bloody pulp with a baseball bat and take your money back.
Christmas, Chanukah, and Festivus are all around the corner, so don't wait. Pick up a copy now!
Short memories
on
XBox Released
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Apparently, the guy who wrote this doesn't remember the PS2 launch. Other than SSX and Madden, there weren't any incredible games either. In fact, for the first few months I had mine, I kept wondering when the good games were going to show up. Of course, now they are showing up -- GTA3, TH3, Half-Life, MSG2 -- and more, but it took a year. I think it would be better to look a year from now and see what kind of games are around for both consoles, and then judge.
Check out IGN.com for a seriously in-depth review. (It's 8 pages long.) I'm not sure about the movie, but it sounds like the extras are great. I guess the DVD is actually a director's cut sort of thing, with footage that was cut from the theatrical release reinserted for the DVD release. Who knows? Maybe in 10 years Lucas will give us a cut worth watching. We can hope, anyway.
Thanks for the confirmation. I never realized it until I actually got around to reading The Stranger a few months ago, and though "hey, this is like that Cure song." For what it's worth, my sister is a bartender and she said they had to pull the Staring at the Sea CD out of their jukebox. Go figure.
I think it's actually about the Camus book "The Stranger." The main character kills an Arab for no real reason, other than it was hot out. (Gross simplification.) But maybe that's just me. That was the first song I thought of though -- funny it's not on the list
I never thought I'd see a patent story where everyone on Slashdot would be defending a patent. Only with Microsoft. If MSFT was going after AT&T with a patent, I have no doubt everyone posting would currently be planning a place to meet around Redmond in order to go burn the MSFT campus to the ground.
Last time I was there, I was driving down the freeway right behind the strip and the big electronic screen for one of the casinos -- I forget which one, but I think Bellagio -- that is supposed to show what's going on there had nothing but a blue screen. In the corner you could see one corner of a gray box with the text Dr. Watson...
My friends and I all got a good laugh.
This was a good movie, but I don't think it should be compared to Sixth Sense or Usual Suspects (which it has been in some reviews). The endings of both those movies snap the entire movie into focus, like putting the last piece in a puzzle. Memento leaves as many questions unanswered as it answers.
Still, worth seeing. A very original idea and the backwards thing works pretty well.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know why everyone is always so excited that you have to buy a DVD accessory to play DVDs. This is no different -- price-wise -- than the PS2 making you buy a memory card if you ever want to save a game. Basically both consoles make you buy an extra controller and an extra accessory to get full functionality. (Assuming you want a DVD Player, anyway.)
Of course, when Sony puts out the PS2 hard drive, the playing field will look a little different.
If anyone's interested, there's a pretty good sci-fi novel called Signal to Noise by Eric S. Nylund that deals, in part, with this same subject. I'd recommend it. It's a bit dense, much like Neuromancer, but worth the read.
So now we are mad at Microsoft for following the rules? (That is, not letting people play games?) I'm just making sure -- sometimes it's confusing to keep up with.
God forbid the US try to remain an economic superpower! I'd much prefer being hired out as cheap labor to a country with a better economy, or not having a job at all. Maybe if I was lucky I could get a job making t-shirts for 10 cents an hour, instead of buying them. Stupid government!
I don't think anyone is saying they would or should use it to stop demonstrations, but it would be nice to have when demonstrations get out of hand, like they did in Seattle with the WTO. Especially for those of us that lived by the police station on Capitol Hill -- I had to leave b/c there was too much tear gas in the air. (Whether or not the demonstrators was right had nothing to do with it; when they start breaking things then they are wrong.)
Does anyone else find it ironic that the one company that didn't suck up to the Chinese was Microsoft?
Funny how, even after an article as well-researched as this, refuses to say anything good about the XBOX. All the comments are about how people over 12 really do like Nintendo and Tom's doesn't know what they're talking about. (Although if they had said the PS2 is better I"m sure everyone would be praising them as geniuses.) Why don't we all just take a moment and admit that the XBOX is pretty good? If you've seen Max Payne on both side by side (I have), you wouldn't be saying the PS2 is as good. Don't get me wrong, I like the PS2 and think it has, for now, better games (MGS:2, FFX, GTA3), but the XBOX is clearly a superior machine.
Maybe he is disappointed that what would otherwise be a very good RPG features a character with a seemingly unnatural attachment to a "miniature giant space hamster" ...
Right, Boo?
Not to mention the fact that the article mentions that the "strict constructionist" view was shared with the founding fathers, which anyone who knows anything about history would realize is total garbage. Some of them felt that way, sure; but some took a much broader view. Which, probably, is the right one. Thomas Jefferson, who was surely one of the greatest founding fathers, is a good example of this. He was a strict constructionist until he was offered the chance to make the "Louisania Purchase." He realized that, from a strict constructionist point of view, this probably wasn't something the government should do. However, it was also something that would be clearly beneficial to the country. So he flip-flopped (he was a politician ...) and became a broad constructionist and bought the land. I think the lesson here is that, in terms of running a country, "strict constructionists" should have given up long ago -- there's too much not covered by the constitution to only go by what it says.
This is great and all, but shouldn't someone point out that, whatever the case might have been in the past, the current version of Netscape sucks. IE is a much better browser, IMHO. If you have to use one of the two, who would actually want Netscape?
She replaces Glorifindel in her horse chase scenes, not Legolas. He doesn't show up until Rivendell.
"Kleenex" is also a good example of this same thing. I mean, who calls it "facial tissue"?
Did anyone else notice the security bulletin on the MSFT site for this *latest* problem was from March 29? Think there's any chance whoever wrote this virus read the bulletin and then coded a virus specifically to take advantage of it, since he/she knew -- like all of us -- that 99.9% of the population will never patch any program they have?
It is true that the PS2 plays DVDs, but the XBOX DVD player -- in my experience -- seems a little better. The PS2 does play them out of the box, but using the controller to run the DVD player is not fun. Of course, you can buy a real remote for 30 bucks or so -- the same price it costs to get an XBOX remote/DVD functionality. (A much better remote at that.) And, from what I hear, the XBOX DVD player is much better than Sony's, although I don't really know much about that.
....
On the other hand, it is very hard to argue with the PS2 game catalog
When you think about it, I think anyone would be shocked if PS2 hadn't outsold both of the other consoles simply because there are more PS2s available to buy. Just think about it: Microsoft has 100,000 XBOXs and sells them all; Nintento has 100,000 Cubes and sells them all; Sony has -- lets say -- 300,000 PS2s out there and sells 150,000. In this case, is it really surprising that more PS2s were sold than anything else? (There was a survey done before Christmas of major game retailers where they expected PS2 to be the top-seller, along with MSG2)
Anyway, it seesm like a situation where everyone is winning. I went into a couple game stores this weekend (EBX & Babbages), and the clerk there told me they were selling out of all three systems.
Uh, doesn't anyone think this is just some prisoner who knows he's screwed and is just trying to say anything he can to save his ass?
Luckily, you can still get GTA3 for your precocious pre-teen child. This will help teach them many life lessons. For example, that working with the mob will only end up badly since at some point they will turn on you and try to kill you, so you should proactively kill them first. Or that, after having sex with a hooker to make yourself stronger, you should beat her into a bloody pulp with a baseball bat and take your money back.
Christmas, Chanukah, and Festivus are all around the corner, so don't wait. Pick up a copy now!
Apparently, the guy who wrote this doesn't remember the PS2 launch. Other than SSX and Madden, there weren't any incredible games either. In fact, for the first few months I had mine, I kept wondering when the good games were going to show up. Of course, now they are showing up -- GTA3, TH3, Half-Life, MSG2 -- and more, but it took a year. I think it would be better to look a year from now and see what kind of games are around for both consoles, and then judge.
Check out IGN.com for a seriously in-depth review. (It's 8 pages long.) I'm not sure about the movie, but it sounds like the extras are great. I guess the DVD is actually a director's cut sort of thing, with footage that was cut from the theatrical release reinserted for the DVD release. Who knows? Maybe in 10 years Lucas will give us a cut worth watching. We can hope, anyway.
Thanks for the confirmation. I never realized it until I actually got around to reading The Stranger a few months ago, and though "hey, this is like that Cure song." For what it's worth, my sister is a bartender and she said they had to pull the Staring at the Sea CD out of their jukebox. Go figure.
I think it's actually about the Camus book "The Stranger." The main character kills an Arab for no real reason, other than it was hot out. (Gross simplification.) But maybe that's just me. That was the first song I thought of though -- funny it's not on the list
If you've read Darwin's Radio, you know that the DNA sequence that"doesn't seem to do anything" codes for the SHIVA virus. Duh.
I never thought I'd see a patent story where everyone on Slashdot would be defending a patent. Only with Microsoft. If MSFT was going after AT&T with a patent, I have no doubt everyone posting would currently be planning a place to meet around Redmond in order to go burn the MSFT campus to the ground.
Last time I was there, I was driving down the freeway right behind the strip and the big electronic screen for one of the casinos -- I forget which one, but I think Bellagio -- that is supposed to show what's going on there had nothing but a blue screen. In the corner you could see one corner of a gray box with the text Dr. Watson ...
My friends and I all got a good laugh.
This was a good movie, but I don't think it should be compared to Sixth Sense or Usual Suspects (which it has been in some reviews). The endings of both those movies snap the entire movie into focus, like putting the last piece in a puzzle. Memento leaves as many questions unanswered as it answers. Still, worth seeing. A very original idea and the backwards thing works pretty well.