Most of the ones I've picked out that "Mom" would even find suitable, can be found on GameTap for a lot less than $400 + $70/yr + (Whatever Live! charges for the game.). Of those, the article already describes how much "Mom" hated several. (e.g. Uno, Marble Blast Ultra, Geometry Wars Evolved)
And WTF ever convinced you that "Mom" would want to play "Dead or Alive 4"? I mean, seriously?
And for the *slightly* more complex gamer, Marble Blast Ultra?
Didn't you read the article? (Wait, stupid question.) "Mom" hated all of those games, with the notable exception of Hexic. In fact, it sounds like it took several days of grueling gameplay to get "Mom" to warm up to any of the games.
The entire article can be summed up like this:
- "Mom" loves the idea of murder mysteries and sportscar racing. - "Mom" wants them to be less action oriented and more cerebral. - "Mom" is not as coordinated as a teenager, and does not want to mash four joysticks and thirty buttons. - "Mom" also thinks the 360 makes a nice screensaver.
Maybe it's just me, but every commercial for an XBox 360 game ending in, "Rated M for Mature" might just be turning Mom off. I mean, I'm sure that deep-down she wants to go around disembowling alien creatures all day like Angela Landsbury, fly a spaceship like Mary Tyler Moore, and race in a demolition race like Dolly Parton, but she doesn't exactly advertise that fact. Methinks there might be just a smidge of a generation and gender barrier there.
Stevie J. will be unpleased with this development.
What are you talking about? Jobs probably leaked it himself. Not only does it generate free press for Apple, but it would help ramp up the buzz machine. Jobs can then take that general feedback ("oh, this feature sucks" or "that feature is wonderful!") and redirect it back into the product without having to provide tech support for a beta product!
Just about the right time for it, too. Apple has already revealed the features in this copy, and is obviously at the later stages of development. Which means that they are ready to start polishing, but still have time to yank and replace components if necessary.
VideoGames Etc. near Harwood Heights (Chicagoland area, toward Skokie) is the place to visit if you want to check out the Internet Cafe scene. It's run by a fellow named Sean Kelly. Kelly is one of the primary organizers of the Classic Gaming Expo, and is well versed in gaming systems new and old. As a result, you'll find that his store is filled with a combination of Internet Gaming, classic systems, and the latest stuff from Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. It's weird to find it all under one roof, yet quite satisfying when you can walk home with something for both your PS2 and Odyssey^2.
Here's their address if you want to visit:
Videogames Etc 4351 N. Harlem Norridge, IL 60706
Don't tell them I sent you, because they'd have no idea who I am.:)
Sure, but it's not a critical problem for the average consumer right now.
Perfectly correct. However, these things need to be ready ahead of time, or we'll have a mad scramble on our hands when the memory limitations become a problem. Hell, Microsoft *still* hasn't gotten the kinks out of Windows 64bit yet. If they don't hurry, they're going to be in a serious world of hurt when the public makes the changeover.
But since when has the "average consumer" needed more than 4GB of RAM, let alone 1GB or 2GB's?
1GB is pretty standard on systems these days. High end systems reguarly have 2GB. It's not much of a stretch to imagine that systems three years from now will be bumping up against the 3-4GB barrier. Especially as HD everything takes ahold, thus requiring insane amounts of memory to handle the latest multimedia files.
For examples of this, look no further than the new generation of game consoles. Developers are already complaining that the ~22.5 GBytes/sec bandwidth on the video bus just isn't enough for 1080p resolutions, and Sony is betting that future games will require as much as 30 Gigabytes of storage!
Yes, actually. When MP3s first started appearing, they were REALLY hard to get hold of. (Usually consisting of secret FTP sites that a friend of a friend of a friend told you about.) At the time, it occurred to me that music producers could make money by selling MP3s. Instead, they started trying to shut down MP3 sites.
It was at this point I realized that they needed to start selling the stuff or the "problem" would only get worse. As I told a coworker at the time, 'net surfers are going to take the path of least resistence. If they can get music more conveniently than dealing with ratioed FTP sites (I hated those things), they will happily pay a reasonable fee.
Unsurprisingly, the RIAA members ignored the wonderful business opportunity that was staring them in the face. So then they had to contend with Napster. By the time the entire debacle was over, every person on the planet now knew about the convenience of online music! To get support from congress for their legal tactics, they actually started claiming that they would have a music store out Real Soon Now(TM). Of course, one never materialized. (At least the MPAA members were smart enough to launch MovieLink.) If it hadn't been for Apple, Lord knows what would have happened.:-(
MODS: You can mod me back down. It seems I should have read the PDF rather than relying on the explanation given by the article. I think others have quite well explained where and why special DVDs would be needed.
Okay, I got over my adversion of reading the PDF, and finally downloaded it. It seems that you're right about the media. I guess time will tell if "special media" means "premium cost media" or "upgrades to the existing media".
Anyone want to take a guess at how much these discs are going to cost?
Well, you can get a 50 pack spindle of DVD+Rs from Amazon for about $22.95. Seems quite affordable to me.
Oh, you mean you didn't read the article? They're changing the CSS software, not the media hardware. But please, go on yammering about something you didn't take the time to read about. I'm sure the mods with uprate you to something weird like +5 Flamebait.
Apple showed that people will pay for downloads, if they are presented with few enough restrictions. So, the MPAA is trying to pre-empt the P2P people by getting legal downloads in place before illegal ones take off.
Which is what the RIAA members should have done in the first place. If they had, the world would have never known what "Napster" was. Unfortunately, they were too busy (and are still too busy!) protecting their tiny little empires to care about the actual business side of things.
Yes, it is a nice gesture of how sincere they are about making you pay twice for the movie. Once for the download and again for the blank media to burn it to.
According to TFA, they're changing the CSS spec, not creating special discs. So you should be able to take the DRMed movie you legally downloaded, and burn it to a standard DVD. The only difference is that the DRM would not be "broken" to create the disc as Music DRM is when a CD is created.
...that the MPAA and its members aren't quite as evil as the RIAA and its members. I don't think this will really help anything (what prevents me from making a DVD now?), but it's a nice gesture of sincerity.:)
*sigh* It's not supposed to be funny. It's a philosphy: SEIZE THE MOMENT! Don't sit around waiting for the next thing to happen. Take stock of what you want to do, what you know you already can accomplish, and the possible paths of reaching your goals.
For example, you've already got a degree. About 90% of the people I have met have their degree in something other than the field they ended up working in! So get off your thumbs, and see if that degree plus your personal coding experience can get you a Junior level programming position. You'll need to supplement your personal experience with some good learning materials (you can never go wrong with the classics like Richie, Knuth, and Tanenbaum!), and you'll need to apply yourself to improving your analytical abilities.
But at the end of the day, if it's something you love doing, DO IT! Don't poke around with 10 more years of college. If college has drilled anything into your brain, it should be, "Never stop learning!" After all, college is just a resource that provides the materials and contacts you need. To actually get anything useful out of it, you should be pulling the information yourself! And with such a wealth of awesome written information on Computer Science, how could you not be learning if it's what you're interested in?
Again, SEIZE THE MOMENT! Do whatever it is that excites you the most. If you're driven in your love for it, others will take notice.
Some modern embedded processors have been specifically designed to execute Java naively. e.g. ARM Jazelle and the new Atmel AVR32.
Yes, I'm aware of these processors. However, they're not actually stack-based. They convert the Java instructions into ARM RISC instructions which are register-based. So while such chips are very useful in accelerating Java on standard RISC architectures (also VLIW architectures such as MAJC), they are not actually stack machines.
The only modern example of a stack-based processor for accelerating Java that I am aware of, is the Java Optimized Processor (JOP).
Expert Eric Laforest talks about stack computers and why they are better than register-based computers. Apparently NASA uses stack computers in some of their probes.
Therefore, we should consider moving to Java-based Operating Systems and accelerator chips!
[...]
In case anyone is wondering, I'm only half joking. Java is a stack-based platform, perfectly suited to processors that don't actually exist in real-life. Sun created the picoJava in the 90's, and claimed that it was faster than the Pentium of the day. They may have been correct at the time, but the chip was never widely used, so it was difficult to say for sure. With CPU speed becoming less important than stability, I/O, and correctness of code, it's possible that such machines may start showing up in more mainstream applications.
You hit the nail on the head. Couldn't have said better myself.
To add one more point, I think it's important to note how PCs are becoming home entertainment centers in their own right. Once a large portion of the population is able to hook their flatscreen TVs into their computers, there will be very little barrier in the home to getting TV off the internet. As it so happens, we're almost there today.
I find it interesting how every competitor to iTunes simply sets up a music store and expects the consumers to start flooding in. If they paid more attention, they might get a feeling for what Apple is actually up to. (And why they're constantly ahead of the competition.)
Has anyone here seen the pilot episode of the new Aquaman series that didn't get picked up? If you did, then you probably watched it off of iTunes. If you similarly saw the Global Frequency pilot, then you may have found that the experience of getting Aquaman off of iTunes compared favorably with getting Global Frequency off of a P2P network. The only difference is that you didn't have any TV execs telling you how horrible a person you are for "stealing" the material off a P2P network rather than... erm... not watching it because it wasn't available via any other outlet.
In fact, the pilot for the new Aquaman series feels very much like a the network testing the waters to gauge viewer response. Since they weren't going to produce a series anyway (it got canned in the WB/UPN merger) it made perfect cannon-fodder for this sort of experiment. Now we'll see if the execs pick up on the fan enthusiasm and produce the show.
Or will we?
What I think goes right past many analysts is that (IMHO) it's also Apple's experiment. Just how many viewers can they get from Internet purchases alone? Is it enough to run a series only on the net? Perhaps enough to partner with a television network as SciFi and SkyOne did with BSG? Or perhaps the results will be just enough to suggest that advertiser-supported Internet television will be the wave of the future? Either way, this is a huge experiment for Apple and content creators alike. Slowly but surely, Apple is ushering in an era of content distributed ONLY via the Internet, thus phasing out the old methods of distribution.
If Apple's experiments are successful, they will instantly make other iTunes clones obsolete. Not only would they need to be content carriers, but they'd need to be content producers (or at least exclusive distribution points) as well! I don't think anyone else is ready for that leap quite yet. Apple may have come from behind in regards to Internet music, but they will probably be the first in show with Internet television.
Slashdot Mirror
Most of the ones I've picked out that "Mom" would even find suitable, can be found on GameTap for a lot less than $400 + $70/yr + (Whatever Live! charges for the game.). Of those, the article already describes how much "Mom" hated several. (e.g. Uno, Marble Blast Ultra, Geometry Wars Evolved)
And WTF ever convinced you that "Mom" would want to play "Dead or Alive 4"? I mean, seriously?
The entire article can be summed up like this:
- "Mom" loves the idea of murder mysteries and sportscar racing.
- "Mom" wants them to be less action oriented and more cerebral.
- "Mom" is not as coordinated as a teenager, and does not want to mash four joysticks and thirty buttons.
- "Mom" also thinks the 360 makes a nice screensaver.
Depends. Can she tie-dye them?
Maybe it's just me, but every commercial for an XBox 360 game ending in, "Rated M for Mature" might just be turning Mom off. I mean, I'm sure that deep-down she wants to go around disembowling alien creatures all day like Angela Landsbury, fly a spaceship like Mary Tyler Moore, and race in a demolition race like Dolly Parton, but she doesn't exactly advertise that fact. Methinks there might be just a smidge of a generation and gender barrier there.
</sarcasm>
What are you talking about? Jobs probably leaked it himself. Not only does it generate free press for Apple, but it would help ramp up the buzz machine. Jobs can then take that general feedback ("oh, this feature sucks" or "that feature is wonderful!") and redirect it back into the product without having to provide tech support for a beta product!
Just about the right time for it, too. Apple has already revealed the features in this copy, and is obviously at the later stages of development. Which means that they are ready to start polishing, but still have time to yank and replace components if necessary.
VideoGames Etc. near Harwood Heights (Chicagoland area, toward Skokie) is the place to visit if you want to check out the Internet Cafe scene. It's run by a fellow named Sean Kelly. Kelly is one of the primary organizers of the Classic Gaming Expo, and is well versed in gaming systems new and old. As a result, you'll find that his store is filled with a combination of Internet Gaming, classic systems, and the latest stuff from Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. It's weird to find it all under one roof, yet quite satisfying when you can walk home with something for both your PS2 and Odyssey^2.
:)
Here's their address if you want to visit:
Videogames Etc
4351 N. Harlem
Norridge, IL 60706
Don't tell them I sent you, because they'd have no idea who I am.
For examples of this, look no further than the new generation of game consoles. Developers are already complaining that the ~22.5 GBytes/sec bandwidth on the video bus just isn't enough for 1080p resolutions, and Sony is betting that future games will require as much as 30 Gigabytes of storage!
It was at this point I realized that they needed to start selling the stuff or the "problem" would only get worse. As I told a coworker at the time, 'net surfers are going to take the path of least resistence. If they can get music more conveniently than dealing with ratioed FTP sites (I hated those things), they will happily pay a reasonable fee.
Unsurprisingly, the RIAA members ignored the wonderful business opportunity that was staring them in the face. So then they had to contend with Napster. By the time the entire debacle was over, every person on the planet now knew about the convenience of online music! To get support from congress for their legal tactics, they actually started claiming that they would have a music store out Real Soon Now(TM). Of course, one never materialized. (At least the MPAA members were smart enough to launch MovieLink.) If it hadn't been for Apple, Lord knows what would have happened.
MODS: You can mod me back down. It seems I should have read the PDF rather than relying on the explanation given by the article. I think others have quite well explained where and why special DVDs would be needed.
Okay, I got over my adversion of reading the PDF, and finally downloaded it. It seems that you're right about the media. I guess time will tell if "special media" means "premium cost media" or "upgrades to the existing media".
I withdraw my previous argument.
Good God, there's a lot of misinformation in these threads.
Oh, you mean you didn't read the article? They're changing the CSS software, not the media hardware. But please, go on yammering about something you didn't take the time to read about. I'm sure the mods with uprate you to something weird like +5 Flamebait.
...that the MPAA and its members aren't quite as evil as the RIAA and its members. I don't think this will really help anything (what prevents me from making a DVD now?), but it's a nice gesture of sincerity. :)
Finally, someone who actually read the article. The entire review was, "Like totally seriously, this is like SOOOO seriously slick!"
Since I've been having fun with Latin lately, here's my review of the article: Like, fac me cocleario vomere!
*sigh* It's not supposed to be funny. It's a philosphy: SEIZE THE MOMENT! Don't sit around waiting for the next thing to happen. Take stock of what you want to do, what you know you already can accomplish, and the possible paths of reaching your goals.
For example, you've already got a degree. About 90% of the people I have met have their degree in something other than the field they ended up working in! So get off your thumbs, and see if that degree plus your personal coding experience can get you a Junior level programming position. You'll need to supplement your personal experience with some good learning materials (you can never go wrong with the classics like Richie, Knuth, and Tanenbaum!), and you'll need to apply yourself to improving your analytical abilities.
But at the end of the day, if it's something you love doing, DO IT! Don't poke around with 10 more years of college. If college has drilled anything into your brain, it should be, "Never stop learning!" After all, college is just a resource that provides the materials and contacts you need. To actually get anything useful out of it, you should be pulling the information yourself! And with such a wealth of awesome written information on Computer Science, how could you not be learning if it's what you're interested in?
Again, SEIZE THE MOMENT! Do whatever it is that excites you the most. If you're driven in your love for it, others will take notice.
Carpe Momento
The only modern example of a stack-based processor for accelerating Java that I am aware of, is the Java Optimized Processor (JOP).
[...]
In case anyone is wondering, I'm only half joking. Java is a stack-based platform, perfectly suited to processors that don't actually exist in real-life. Sun created the picoJava in the 90's, and claimed that it was faster than the Pentium of the day. They may have been correct at the time, but the chip was never widely used, so it was difficult to say for sure. With CPU speed becoming less important than stability, I/O, and correctness of code, it's possible that such machines may start showing up in more mainstream applications.
You hit the nail on the head. Couldn't have said better myself.
To add one more point, I think it's important to note how PCs are becoming home entertainment centers in their own right. Once a large portion of the population is able to hook their flatscreen TVs into their computers, there will be very little barrier in the home to getting TV off the internet. As it so happens, we're almost there today.
I believe you mean "portable microcomputer".
This (yes, THAT) is a mini-computer.
I find it interesting how every competitor to iTunes simply sets up a music store and expects the consumers to start flooding in. If they paid more attention, they might get a feeling for what Apple is actually up to. (And why they're constantly ahead of the competition.)
Has anyone here seen the pilot episode of the new Aquaman series that didn't get picked up? If you did, then you probably watched it off of iTunes. If you similarly saw the Global Frequency pilot, then you may have found that the experience of getting Aquaman off of iTunes compared favorably with getting Global Frequency off of a P2P network. The only difference is that you didn't have any TV execs telling you how horrible a person you are for "stealing" the material off a P2P network rather than... erm... not watching it because it wasn't available via any other outlet.
In fact, the pilot for the new Aquaman series feels very much like a the network testing the waters to gauge viewer response. Since they weren't going to produce a series anyway (it got canned in the WB/UPN merger) it made perfect cannon-fodder for this sort of experiment. Now we'll see if the execs pick up on the fan enthusiasm and produce the show.
Or will we?
What I think goes right past many analysts is that (IMHO) it's also Apple's experiment. Just how many viewers can they get from Internet purchases alone? Is it enough to run a series only on the net? Perhaps enough to partner with a television network as SciFi and SkyOne did with BSG? Or perhaps the results will be just enough to suggest that advertiser-supported Internet television will be the wave of the future? Either way, this is a huge experiment for Apple and content creators alike. Slowly but surely, Apple is ushering in an era of content distributed ONLY via the Internet, thus phasing out the old methods of distribution.
If Apple's experiments are successful, they will instantly make other iTunes clones obsolete. Not only would they need to be content carriers, but they'd need to be content producers (or at least exclusive distribution points) as well! I don't think anyone else is ready for that leap quite yet. Apple may have come from behind in regards to Internet music, but they will probably be the first in show with Internet television.
Sorry Nokia. You're already too late.