Yes, well, people say lots of foolish things. Taxes on dividends are "double taxation", as profits have been taxed at the corporate level once, and then they get taxed again when they're dispersed to the shareholders. The most reasonable thing to do would to eliminate the dividend tax altogether, since it really doesn't increase tax receipts so much as force companies to distribute profits in other ways.
I hear this crap about the "unfairness" of this "double taxation" all the time, as if "double taxation" was some kind of unique burden inflicted on stockholders. Last time I checked people were taxed on income AND they pay sales taxes on consumer goods many of which have subsidies AND regulatory fees. So that's "quadruple taxation" when you buy a can of Coca-Cola.
The most REASONABLE thing to do would be to remove the special tax rates for dividends and capital gains and to force people to report them as regular income.
There is no doubt that capitol gains taxes allow a few people to pay somewhat less than they might otherwise. What people rarely appreciate is that nearly everyone should be investing regularly and thus benefiting. Instead, most people are making poor financial decisions like '90 days same as cash', Rent-to-Own, Credit Card debt, etc. There is a reason people are so happy to loan most anyone money: they win and you don't. People make these decisions to support lifestyles beyond their means, when they should be debt-free and investing to build wealth.
People who post stupidity like this refuse to admit the deck is completely stacked against poor people. Examples:
Investment
The people who do well in the stock market are the people who cheat and break the law AKA rich people. Look at Enron. Everyone who makes big money in the stock market cheats, usually through manipulation or insider information. Obviously rich people who can pay bribes, have more contacts, etc. are in a better postion to do this that poor individual investors. Look at how employees at Enron, Worldcom, or countless other companies lost their shirts while the management did just fine by cheating. These aren't "isolated cases" this is endemic in the entire market. Stock analysts seem to insist on a kind of willful ignorance on this issue, mainly because they're part of the problem (often secretly manipulating stocks).
Debt
Ever read a fucking history book? Understand the words "usury" and "debt slavery"? But if you want to deal with contemporary America:
You get a credit card where the company offers a FIXED rate of 1% which is quite reasonable. The credit card company waits for you to accumulate a bit of debt on the card then they immedately change your rate to 35% plus a $100 fee per month. What do you do if you can't pay off the total immedately? You're screwed.
The reson those people are willing to loan to anyone is because we've basically stopped enforcing laws on usury and debt fraud. I'm not sure why people think this is a good thing.
He's a troll because Social Security, like the name implies, is a social insurance program for poor elderly people, disabled people, and other needy people in society. Rich people were never intended to get any benefit whatsoever out of Social Security. Social Security was never intended to be an individual retirement system or account as some (who oppose the very existence of any sort of social welfare) try to argue.
Actually, if you interpret "taxes" more broadly into "money you pay the government" which inclueds regulatory fees, other fees, many fines, and various subsidies, you'll find that the ACTUAL tax burden for most Americas is around 50% and slowly increases the poorer you get. Very poor Americans (those who make less than $10,000 per year) can have as much as a 70% (that's not a typo) "tax burden".
I'm going to be accused of exaggerating, but I'm not. For example, you buy a gallon of gas. Most people are aware of the state and federal taxes, but you're not aware of the SUBSIDIES given to the oil companies, gas station operators, chemical companies, etc. That's ALSO a tax. Ironically, the subsidies are supposed to reduce gas prices but it's just a switch from paying at the pump to paying on your taxes.
America's Army just proves that the US military has shitloads of money and has no problem pissing it away on trivial promotions (the development costs for AA run into the millions). The US military spends more on advertising than Sony. Your tax dollars at work.
"you don't find classics like On the Waterfront or 12 Angry Men in the bargain bin,"
Yeah you do, or at least, *I* have. Ever been to a Wal-mart? Anything that has been on the shelves a while and hasn't sold can get discounted.
"It's a sad thing, because in response, the game industry is going to chase the brainless blockbuster format"
What, like movies, and television, and books, and music, and ALL OTHER FUCKING MEDIA IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF MANKIND. How many plays from classic english playwrights have you attended OTHER than Shakespere? How many times have you heard the 1812 Overature or the Nutcracker Suite? Tchaikovsky isn't THAT good. I bet there were neanderthals bitching about the "popularization" of cave paintings.
Frankly, Majesco had a shitty lineup of games. Bloodrayne and it's sequel were just mediocre. They had 'Psychonauts' a quirky platfiormer that was pretty good and.... that's pretty mcuh it. Advent Rising sucked, and most of the rest of their games were AWFUL movie licenses (Aeon Flux was OK, but for a movie that came out 10 years too late). Is it any wonder this publisher failed?
As a businessman, I can tell you that the stereotype you picked up is nonsense. Business has conservatives, and it has liberals, and I haven't seen that many who are even political.
Business is a broad word. Technically the kid selling lemonade is a "businessman".
I'm talking about the culture that dominates the upper management of many large corporations and many segments of industry (banking for example). Of course, there are industries that are notably mjore liberal that others, then media industry and tech industries for example. But they're they exception, not the rule, and as you tend to go up the ranks most officers tend to be conservative.
Now I could argue that it's the influence of the overwhelmingly conservative business schools where most of these guys got their degrees, but I doubt it since there are lots of people from other backgrounds that become executives (just like universities, hint, hint). I think it's more likely that conservatives are simply more attracted to these sorts of business roles.
The problem in academia (and there are a lot more studies than just one) is that it is very strongly biased to the left. And that bias means there is little diversity (a favorite word of you guys on the left, eh?) in education.
And you've failed to give examples of how this is a BAD thing, assuming it's even true. Are the business schools teaching communism? Are the life sciences departments teaching environmental terrorism? Are Nazis riding on dinosaurs? Let's see some concrete examples of negative effects.
Conservatives are often advised, in a number of fields, to not go for PhD's because they will never get tenure. This is highly surprising when 90-100% of many liberal arts departments are liberals.
As are liberals, I'm sure. It is not bias to say, for example, that a communist should not pursue a business degree nor should a creationist pursue a life sciences degree as they are philisophically opposed to the disciples. That's not the fault of biology or free market economics.
And finally, what's a liberal? What's a conservative? Contrary to what you may think, the labels ARE NOT mutually exclusive. Many people have a range of opinions on different issues. When we're dealing with terms that aren't well-defined I'm disinclined to take a few surveys as gospel.
For example, I suspect that you would call former President Bill Clinton a far-left liberal but I would call him a centrist, leaning very slightly towards the left. We'd probably both agree that current President George Bush is a conservative, but you would probably call him a moderate and I would call him far right, though not part of the lunatic fringe (Pat Robertson, etc.).
And the numbers prove... what exactly? That liberals are attracted to academia and vice-versa? Or that educated peple are more liberal? Shock. Surprise. I fail to see any credible evidence presented on how this is bad in and of itself though I can think that some conservative might think so. Admit the rhetoric this article makes representaions about ONE unreferenced study conducted by a right-wing pressure group. Post a link to the actual study.
Y'know the business community is filled with conservatives. This bias is obviously an anti-liberal conspiracy.
As another poster said, given the REGIONAL economic dependence on the US, it is extremely unlikely that China would mount any sort of extended terrorist campaign against the US or it's allies if the US pushed the issue and used force to protect Taiwan, Hong Kong, or even Tibet. I agree with the AC that the breakup of China would be no worse than the breakup of the Soviet Union. If the Chinese are going to Balkanize, they're going to Balkanize. China certainly does not have a long history of this (they have a long history of putting up with tyranny in the name of stability).
If starroms represents the current state of legal ROMS, I feel completely validated. 3 years in operation and they've aquired 27 Atari ROMS. About the only credible argument I can see for buying this thing is the fact that it's mostly open source, so users won't be orpaned when it inevitably fails.
I own many console games. Fair Use provisions in copyright law allow me to make backups of these games, as well as reverse-engineer things like microprocessors to create emulators. These two things together allow me to play games that I own on computers other than the ones the games were originally designed for. So no, it's not piracy, and it's not illegal. Your opinion is one that is so often parroted, I think some people believe it. This is not a good thing, as it is not correct.
I seriously doubt that the vast majority (99%+) own original copies of all or most of the games they play on emulators. And even if they did, so what? How does having the original 2600 cartridge or JAMMA rig or whatever get your software onto this console? It's not easy to rip ROMS from the original cartridge to your PC, so this option isn't available for 99%+ of those that MIGHT happent ot have some old carts lying around.
From a strictly practical point of view, the only way to get ROMS for this console is to download them off warez sites, which is damn inconvienient. Unless Gamepark is planning on offering some sort of central download site, which is legally dubious.
I don't think it's that crazy to question the viability of a console for which the entire library consists of emulated (and therefore mostly pirated) games.
And finally, regardless of what you or I may think, the Corporate Masters behind Sony and other media companies seem to believe that emulation is illegal and bad for their business. And they have the money and power to make those opinions reality, to the detriment of Gamepark. Gamepark is supposedly a business, not some punk kid downloading warez. Lawsuits or even legal threats can hurt business and scare off investors. For example, media companies could halt distribution of the GP2X in the USA arguing it violates the DMCA as a "circumvention device" (case law already supports this interpretation).
I'm not say that this is "right" or "good", simply that this is the way it IS and Gamepark needs to realize this if they hope to be successful.
Umm, call me crazy but doesn't the fact that the vast majority of the games on the platform seem to be provided through emulation throw the entire legal state of this console into question? Does this thing come with lots of ROMS pre-loaded? Apparently not (from reading their website). Nor do they seem to offer any way to download ROMS through their website? So I'm assuming the only way to get the ROMS is through the usual sources (piracy).
How practical is this for consumers? "Sure, it can play zillions of games but you have to download them from warez sites." So while this might hold some interest for the/. hacker crowd capable of doing this, this is hardly practical for kids (as suggested by some posters) or the general public.
All the posts here are saying this would be a terrible idea but no one has mentioned why.
Short list of reasons:
1) MS could just steal it.
You heard me. MS is a big powerful corporation and Opera Software isn't. MS can just TAKE whatever features they want from Opera. OperaSoft could sue, but they'd lose.
2) Opera isn't the shit
Most sources seem to think that Opera has about a 1% market share. I've used it, and I don't like it. I don't like the "sea of windows" interface, but most importantly, it's SLOW. Slower than Firefox, way slower than IE. Slower than Safari on OSX too. At least that's been my experience.
3) MS is going in a different direction with IE
As has been noted by other posters, the key features of the new IE will be it's search functionality (Vista will have something like MSN Desktop Search standard) and tighter client/web integration, allowing programmers to write software with UIs that will work both on the PC and over the internet with little performance hit. This is made possible with MS' new APIs. Yeah, you can do it wiht Java but Java is dog-slow.
Many of the mistakes made were basic design flaws, like the following:
Mistake #1: Overheating CPU or GPU
I've rarely bought PC systems that had serious overheating problems. The only system I can think of off the top of my head was a white box dual Opteron server (back when they were initially intoduced) that would overheat if crammed in the closet. Like the 360, this system was built with inadaquate cooling (the problem was more egregious on the server because it was in a HUGE case to accomodate a RAID array).
This problem is actually easily dealt with. As discussed in the article all that is really necessary is to increase the power of the fans substantially, that would increase the noise but cest la vie.
Mistake #2: No MSN Music
This is basically a crock. You can buy music on your PC and then play it on your 360, PC, or a portable player. And you can do it with iTunes, Rhapsody, etc. It strikes me that this is FAR more useful than having your music stuck on the 360. It's clear that MS is targeting people that either own PCs or have easy access to them. (which describes most people on/.)
Mistake #3: No HDMI support
While claim and claim is made about Microsoft offering HDMI or DVI support in the future "with a special cable," I find these rumors very hard to believe. If HDMI support was as trivial as making a cable, don't you think Monster Cable or any of the 3rd party manufacturers would have already made a cable
Pacific Cable has one http://www.pacificcable.com/Xbox-360-VGA-DVI-Conve rter.html. It's "only" $650 though. I'm assuming it contains an Analogue to Digital Converter at that price, which means that the "official" kit will probably have to do something similar. The PS3 will almost certainly have a HDMI port (or DVI port, they're very similar). Still, this is completely dropping to ball over at MS. More rush to market madness.
Mistake #4: 20GB is too small
The author is just high on this one. 20GB is plenty if you aren't hosting music, video, etc. on the 360 which is exactly what was intended. The author of the article does not apparently grasp the concept of Windows Media Extender. The idea is that you have a central "server" Media Centre PC and then you use Extender boxes as remote front-ends for the PC on your Home Theatre, etc. The 360 just has the same functionality as those $100 UPnP boxes you can get at Frys, like this thing http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=318&sec=1 from D-Link. These things have NO hard drives.
Mistake #4: 20GB is too small
The big downside of the HD is that it's 2.5", so it's slow (probably faster than the XBOX HD though). The author seems to have forgotten the entire purpose of the HD was disk caching to make games load faster, making the internal HD USB2 is a terrible idea in this context.
Mistake #5: Microtransaction Security
Beyond nit-picking. In the U.S., you don't have any liablity if the 360 is stolen, etc. In Europe you DO, but you're probably already using a debit card for this reason. Hell, if you're in the US you're probably using a debit card too because of the lovely 30% interest rates we're seeing (rant, rant).
Mistake #6: No Web Browser
Yeah, this sucks ass. If you want to defend MS on this one, explain how the 360 doesn't have a web browser but the DREAMCAST did? It seems like this would be trivially easy to add (MS could even update through Live if they felt it necessary) and users would like it. The fact that MS even has a specialized product for this niche (MSNTV, formerly WebTV), and consequently had ready-made software, is even more mystifying.
Mistake #9: No System-Wide Video Calibration
This is a real complaint, but the author is making it in an obtuse way. The problem is that the 360 is "optomized" for
Closely linking the OS and diretory is a *major strategic mistake* that most companies will realize when MS does a major upgrade to AD and links it to server 2009 or whatever it will be called.
This isn't stupid, at least not for Microsoft. MS understood early on that directory, calendaring, and collaboration services were the next "killer app" for the corporate LAN, and designed Windows 2000 with these services in mind. And lo and behold, this shit works great in Win2K.
The "major strategic mistake" has been made by the Linux/Unix world who have yet to take the need for these services AND full interoperability with Windows seriously. Unless the Linux world develops a system that is VASTLY superior to the Windows system I don't see anyone switching.
And don't try to pin it on the "Windows monopoly". That's crap. WinNT beat out Netware when Netware had a virtual monopoly.
Um, no. This is a testbed Linux cluster. The exact same thing could have been done cheaper with commodity PCs lying around. Not to mention the time and energy saved not have to recompile and tweak all your software (which is what this team had to do) because of the wonky architecture. In fact your example perfectly illustrates why the 360 won't be as attractive a hacking/Linux platform as the original XBOX was.
"It's no different from Payola and just as illegal."
No it isn't, illegal that is. People don't seem to understand that payola laws are VERY narrow and ONLY cover record labels paying individual radio DJs and radio stations for airplay of specific songs. That is the ONLY thing that is illegal, and this law is widely violated by using "third parties". And by "widely violated" I mean virtually every single song you hear on commercial radio is the result of payola. The laws are really about going after DJs who essentially are screwing the STATIONS by playing a different "payola list" than what the labels paid the STATION for. Radio is such a wasteland that DJs are completely willing to get fired for kickbacks, hence payola.
Are you saying that you don't think it would be a good thing if we could go ask Earthlink for a list of everybody that's emailed him in the last two years, and cross-reference that with emails received by other known terrorists? Maybe go talk to anybody with the address "abdullah1987@hotmail.com" who emailed him?
Why wouldn't he delete the mail as it came in? Or use a public terminal? Or a stolen account? Or... These kids of security measures aren't speculative BTW, if you read jihadi websites they're filled with information about securing your inet connection. Or even more likely, critical information didn't go over the public networks because the jihadis are well aware of all the legal and illegal surveillance that goes on now and don't trust the networks. And when they use them, they pay attention to security and don't pass critical data over unsecured links. In fact, based on what I've read and heard from intelligence guys, the jihadis seem to take information security much more seriously than people in the west imagine. Not surprising, considering their lives depend on it.
If you doubt this, look at Iraq. We have the best SIGINT in the world, and we know for a FACT that the anti-coalition forces are using cellphones and wireless communications for logistics, target tracking, etc. but there's not a damn thing they can do about is except wideband jamming and that would screw ALL the Iraqis and the coalition forces too. So they're stuck with untracable militants coordinating attacks with cellphones and VoIP.
As has been stated repeatedly, this kind of legislation is really directed at common criminals (like copyright violators) NOT "terrorists". The "terrorists" are really foreign intelligence agents and they're far too sophisiticated (or just know a few simple tricks) for this to work.
To digress briefly: I really don't understand all the crap we hear about the absolute NEED to implement draconian security measures to deal with an Evil New Idea(tm). I remember the Evil New Idea(tm) used to be communism, and there was a lot of paranoid hysteria about how the communists were going to "get us" that never materialized. Communism was popular for a while, even in America somewhat, but was eventually abandoned by almost everyone when it became clear it didn't work.
In fact, this kind of hysteria tends to STRENGTHEN the Bad Guys(tm) because it tends to bolster their argument that the "other side" (Evil Westerners(tm) is bad. Look at how this plays out in Iran. The nation is trying to liberalize, but the hardliners always use the threats of Western powers (like the US) as an excuse to crackdown. It's not even really an excuse whe foreign nations are openly threating to attack. None of this helps the liberals. The hardline attitude hasn't helped get rid of Kim or Castro.
Could it be used to make sure that only code signed by Microsoft can run in a virtual machine?
I know for a fact the 360 is using Virtual PC for XBOX emulation, but I haven't heard that there is any hardware-level virtualiation for the 360. It can't be built into the CPU core(s) as they're fairly well understood so that means some sort of software level virtualization and it's difficult to imagine that would be worth the performance hit. And it seems to me a monumental task to make a emulator that would perform well emulating a cutting-edge GPU like the one in the 360. And I'm really dubious of the notion that this would provide any additional content protection. You could easily implement some sort of key-signing in the OS, without having to waste valuable hardware space.
But if you're saying that the "Virtual XBOX" emulator for the 360 probably won't run unsigned code, then yeah, you're probably right.
But will it have a TV output? And will your Free operating system's X server be able to draw to the TV output? Not everybody likes to crowd four people around a 17" monitor. And will it come with a gamepad for playing games other than FPS and RTS?
Linux-compatible TV-tuner card, $20. USB gamepad, $20. (Or if I wanted to I'm sure I could buy the new Microsoft gamepad, $40. I bet it's Linux-compatible or soon will be.)
And it's stil an open question as to whether or not any free OS's will be able to use the TV output of the 360.
Uniquely? Compare to the Dreamcast, which can boot unsigned code from CD-R.
What I meant that it was a "uniquely capable hacking platform", in that while it wasn't as easy to hack as some other systems you could do a lot more with it than with other consoles due to it's familiar architecture. The capabilites of the DC were pretty limited in comparison, especially if you didn't have the broadband adapter.
Anyway, there are reports that only one core is availble to intitial game developers, and one of the cores is strictly for M$ bullshit content protection TC such as the hypervisor, etc.
"Reports", yeah, but this isn't true. Several of the lanuch games were multi-clore, including Kameo and Perfect Dark. Numerous developers have commented on this. And as far as I know, Hypervisor on IBM systems has nothing to do with content protection and it's difficult to see why it would be implemented here.
Sounds like a shitload of TC shit build right into the chip, so I am NOT holding my breath for linux to be ported to this (not that I wouldn't be thrilled to see this).
Why? I'm being serious. What is the point? Most people agree that the 360 is FAR less of a GP design than the original XBOX, and it's using a funky architecture, so it's likely that it will be difficult to get Linux or *BSD to work, it'll probably perform like crap, and you'll have to re-compile everything for the 360. What is the value proposition here over a cheap PC? I can buy $200 PCs without OS from Fry's.
I can vaguely understand the Linux projects for the original XBOX. That was basically a PC, and it was easy to adapt both Linux and software. This isn't true with the 360. Look at the PS2, Linux on the PS2 is all but useless because of the different architecture. I tend to think the original XBOX will be regarded as UNIQUELY hackable in the world of game consoles.
Why not send fewer units to Japan so you can SEND THEM WHERE PEOPLE ARE WAITING IN LINE TO BUY THEM? I saw pictures somewhere (Kotaku?) that was like the PSP launch in the US. They had pictures of stores with piles of the systems that no one was buying.
Just so you know, the Japanese version of the 360 is almost certainly different enough from the American version that they can't just drop unsold units into American stores. The OS would probably be in Japanese, and at the very least they would have to change the packaging. Microsoft was clearly trying to improve the sales of the Xbox/360 in Japan, and they failed spectacularly (as predicted). MS just doesn't seem to be able to make major inroads in Japan (not suprising for an American company).
You should also consider the costs of shipping the units from Japan to the USA. No, any unsold 360s are likey to stay there. The bright side is that it's likely that MS has already adjusted production and we'll see most units purposed to the USA (and eventually Europe) in the future.
I don't consider a 19" TV "servicable". Especially when it's the same price as a 32" STV.
And it's not "anti-M$ bias". MS was guaranteed to sit in the number 2 slot long before this console was even ANNOUNCED because of the way they've screwed the Japanese market. This isn't FUD, it's reality. Unless Sony totally blows the PS3 somehow they've got the Japanese market locked up, which pretty much means they have the console market locked up. Unless MS develops a kickass Live implementation in Japan this is exactly what's going to happen and I haven't been hearing any announcements along these lines.
I had pretty much the same criticism for the PS2. After all the hype, the weakness of the initial PS2 titales was a HUGE letdown. I refused to buy it and waited for the XBOX, which despite it's chunkiness and the crapiness of the inital controller (ovoid face buttons drove me nuts), the "s" is my favorite gaming controller and the XBOX is clearly the technical superior of the last generation consoles.
Still, I ended up buying a PS2 because I'm a big DBZ fan and I wanted to play Budokai. Lame reason? Maybe. But it highlights the greatest strength of the PS2, which is the sheer number of games for the platform, including "niche" games like Budokai. I someone who bought the PS2 for GTA3 and played nothing else (except the sequels). The greater variety of games allows the PS2 to appeal to a wider variety of gamers and unltimately that's what allowed Sony to hold onto the market.
Of course, they could still blow it on the PS3 but this seems doubtful according to virtually all observers. They PS3 seems to look a lot like "PS2 with better graphics" and that's probably a winning strategy for Sony.
One ray of sunshine in this launch (for me anyway) is that not only has the promised backwards-compatiblity materialized and works, but the 360 actually improves the graphics considerably, something that was promised and not delivered with the PS2 playing PS1 games. I'd argue that the whole approach of Microsoft to the console business seems more "customer friendly" than that of Sony or Nintendo, but that might just be my American bias showing.
It may be too early to say, but put me in the camp that say this launch has been just short of disasterous, mainly due to the lack of good games and console availability. I'd argue that the PS2 had a similar lousy launch lineup, but sold a lot better due to MUCH more effective hype. I remember that the graphics on the PS2 were supposed to cure cancer and raise the dead, no such melodramatic hype for the 360. The 360 has all the hallmarks of a product that was rushed to market.
One of the biggest hurdles I think the 360 is facing is the essential need for an HDTV system, which still hasn't seen wide adoption. And that's because the cheapest servicable HDTV system is at least $650. Combined with the $300 sticker price of the 360, and the cost of games, it makes the 360 clearly a very expensive proposition.
I'd also note that the PS2 has a lot of big games coming out, like Final Fantasy XII. Overall I think that the 360 sales will be disappointing until cheaper consumer-level HDTVs become available. I think this is a bit of a shame, since the biggest draw of the 360 isn't it's graphics but the extensive online features, something that will be notably absent in the PS3.
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Yes, well, people say lots of foolish things. Taxes on dividends are "double taxation", as profits have been taxed at the corporate level once, and then they get taxed again when they're dispersed to the shareholders. The most reasonable thing to do would to eliminate the dividend tax altogether, since it really doesn't increase tax receipts so much as force companies to distribute profits in other ways.
I hear this crap about the "unfairness" of this "double taxation" all the time, as if "double taxation" was some kind of unique burden inflicted on stockholders. Last time I checked people were taxed on income AND they pay sales taxes on consumer goods many of which have subsidies AND regulatory fees. So that's "quadruple taxation" when you buy a can of Coca-Cola.
The most REASONABLE thing to do would be to remove the special tax rates for dividends and capital gains and to force people to report them as regular income.
There is no doubt that capitol gains taxes allow a few people to pay somewhat less than they might otherwise. What people rarely appreciate is that nearly everyone should be investing regularly and thus benefiting. Instead, most people are making poor financial decisions like '90 days same as cash', Rent-to-Own, Credit Card debt, etc. There is a reason people are so happy to loan most anyone money: they win and you don't. People make these decisions to support lifestyles beyond their means, when they should be debt-free and investing to build wealth.
People who post stupidity like this refuse to admit the deck is completely stacked against poor people. Examples:
Investment
The people who do well in the stock market are the people who cheat and break the law AKA rich people. Look at Enron. Everyone who makes big money in the stock market cheats, usually through manipulation or insider information. Obviously rich people who can pay bribes, have more contacts, etc. are in a better postion to do this that poor individual investors. Look at how employees at Enron, Worldcom, or countless other companies lost their shirts while the management did just fine by cheating. These aren't "isolated cases" this is endemic in the entire market. Stock analysts seem to insist on a kind of willful ignorance on this issue, mainly because they're part of the problem (often secretly manipulating stocks).
Debt
Ever read a fucking history book? Understand the words "usury" and "debt slavery"? But if you want to deal with contemporary America:
You get a credit card where the company offers a FIXED rate of 1% which is quite reasonable. The credit card company waits for you to accumulate a bit of debt on the card then they immedately change your rate to 35% plus a $100 fee per month. What do you do if you can't pay off the total immedately? You're screwed.
The reson those people are willing to loan to anyone is because we've basically stopped enforcing laws on usury and debt fraud. I'm not sure why people think this is a good thing.
He's a troll because Social Security, like the name implies, is a social insurance program for poor elderly people, disabled people, and other needy people in society. Rich people were never intended to get any benefit whatsoever out of Social Security. Social Security was never intended to be an individual retirement system or account as some (who oppose the very existence of any sort of social welfare) try to argue.
Actually, if you interpret "taxes" more broadly into "money you pay the government" which inclueds regulatory fees, other fees, many fines, and various subsidies, you'll find that the ACTUAL tax burden for most Americas is around 50% and slowly increases the poorer you get. Very poor Americans (those who make less than $10,000 per year) can have as much as a 70% (that's not a typo) "tax burden".
I'm going to be accused of exaggerating, but I'm not. For example, you buy a gallon of gas. Most people are aware of the state and federal taxes, but you're not aware of the SUBSIDIES given to the oil companies, gas station operators, chemical companies, etc. That's ALSO a tax. Ironically, the subsidies are supposed to reduce gas prices but it's just a switch from paying at the pump to paying on your taxes.
America's Army just proves that the US military has shitloads of money and has no problem pissing it away on trivial promotions (the development costs for AA run into the millions). The US military spends more on advertising than Sony. Your tax dollars at work.
What the hell is wrong with you people?
"you don't find classics like On the Waterfront or 12 Angry Men in the bargain bin,"
Yeah you do, or at least, *I* have. Ever been to a Wal-mart? Anything that has been on the shelves a while and hasn't sold can get discounted.
"It's a sad thing, because in response, the game industry is going to chase the brainless blockbuster format"
What, like movies, and television, and books, and music, and ALL OTHER FUCKING MEDIA IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF MANKIND. How many plays from classic english playwrights have you attended OTHER than Shakespere? How many times have you heard the 1812 Overature or the Nutcracker Suite? Tchaikovsky isn't THAT good. I bet there were neanderthals bitching about the "popularization" of cave paintings.
Frankly, Majesco had a shitty lineup of games. Bloodrayne and it's sequel were just mediocre. They had 'Psychonauts' a quirky platfiormer that was pretty good and.... that's pretty mcuh it. Advent Rising sucked, and most of the rest of their games were AWFUL movie licenses (Aeon Flux was OK, but for a movie that came out 10 years too late). Is it any wonder this publisher failed?
As a businessman, I can tell you that the stereotype you picked up is nonsense. Business has conservatives, and it has liberals, and I haven't seen that many who are even political.
Business is a broad word. Technically the kid selling lemonade is a "businessman".
I'm talking about the culture that dominates the upper management of many large corporations and many segments of industry (banking for example). Of course, there are industries that are notably mjore liberal that others, then media industry and tech industries for example. But they're they exception, not the rule, and as you tend to go up the ranks most officers tend to be conservative.
Now I could argue that it's the influence of the overwhelmingly conservative business schools where most of these guys got their degrees, but I doubt it since there are lots of people from other backgrounds that become executives (just like universities, hint, hint). I think it's more likely that conservatives are simply more attracted to these sorts of business roles.
The problem in academia (and there are a lot more studies than just one) is that it is very strongly biased to the left. And that bias means there is little diversity (a favorite word of you guys on the left, eh?) in education.
And you've failed to give examples of how this is a BAD thing, assuming it's even true. Are the business schools teaching communism? Are the life sciences departments teaching environmental terrorism? Are Nazis riding on dinosaurs? Let's see some concrete examples of negative effects.
Conservatives are often advised, in a number of fields, to not go for PhD's because they will never get tenure. This is highly surprising when 90-100% of many liberal arts departments are liberals.
As are liberals, I'm sure. It is not bias to say, for example, that a communist should not pursue a business degree nor should a creationist pursue a life sciences degree as they are philisophically opposed to the disciples. That's not the fault of biology or free market economics.
And finally, what's a liberal? What's a conservative? Contrary to what you may think, the labels ARE NOT mutually exclusive. Many people have a range of opinions on different issues. When we're dealing with terms that aren't well-defined I'm disinclined to take a few surveys as gospel.
For example, I suspect that you would call former President Bill Clinton a far-left liberal but I would call him a centrist, leaning very slightly towards the left. We'd probably both agree that current President George Bush is a conservative, but you would probably call him a moderate and I would call him far right, though not part of the lunatic fringe (Pat Robertson, etc.).
And the numbers prove... what exactly? That liberals are attracted to academia and vice-versa? Or that educated peple are more liberal? Shock. Surprise. I fail to see any credible evidence presented on how this is bad in and of itself though I can think that some conservative might think so. Admit the rhetoric this article makes representaions about ONE unreferenced study conducted by a right-wing pressure group. Post a link to the actual study.
Y'know the business community is filled with conservatives. This bias is obviously an anti-liberal conspiracy.
As another poster said, given the REGIONAL economic dependence on the US, it is extremely unlikely that China would mount any sort of extended terrorist campaign against the US or it's allies if the US pushed the issue and used force to protect Taiwan, Hong Kong, or even Tibet. I agree with the AC that the breakup of China would be no worse than the breakup of the Soviet Union. If the Chinese are going to Balkanize, they're going to Balkanize. China certainly does not have a long history of this (they have a long history of putting up with tyranny in the name of stability).
If starroms represents the current state of legal ROMS, I feel completely validated. 3 years in operation and they've aquired 27 Atari ROMS. About the only credible argument I can see for buying this thing is the fact that it's mostly open source, so users won't be orpaned when it inevitably fails.
I own many console games. Fair Use provisions in copyright law allow me to make backups of these games, as well as reverse-engineer things like microprocessors to create emulators. These two things together allow me to play games that I own on computers other than the ones the games were originally designed for. So no, it's not piracy, and it's not illegal. Your opinion is one that is so often parroted, I think some people believe it. This is not a good thing, as it is not correct.
I seriously doubt that the vast majority (99%+) own original copies of all or most of the games they play on emulators. And even if they did, so what? How does having the original 2600 cartridge or JAMMA rig or whatever get your software onto this console? It's not easy to rip ROMS from the original cartridge to your PC, so this option isn't available for 99%+ of those that MIGHT happent ot have some old carts lying around.
From a strictly practical point of view, the only way to get ROMS for this console is to download them off warez sites, which is damn inconvienient. Unless Gamepark is planning on offering some sort of central download site, which is legally dubious.
I don't think it's that crazy to question the viability of a console for which the entire library consists of emulated (and therefore mostly pirated) games.
And finally, regardless of what you or I may think, the Corporate Masters behind Sony and other media companies seem to believe that emulation is illegal and bad for their business. And they have the money and power to make those opinions reality, to the detriment of Gamepark. Gamepark is supposedly a business, not some punk kid downloading warez. Lawsuits or even legal threats can hurt business and scare off investors. For example, media companies could halt distribution of the GP2X in the USA arguing it violates the DMCA as a "circumvention device" (case law already supports this interpretation).
I'm not say that this is "right" or "good", simply that this is the way it IS and Gamepark needs to realize this if they hope to be successful.
Umm, call me crazy but doesn't the fact that the vast majority of the games on the platform seem to be provided through emulation throw the entire legal state of this console into question? Does this thing come with lots of ROMS pre-loaded? Apparently not (from reading their website). Nor do they seem to offer any way to download ROMS through their website? So I'm assuming the only way to get the ROMS is through the usual sources (piracy).
/. hacker crowd capable of doing this, this is hardly practical for kids (as suggested by some posters) or the general public.
How practical is this for consumers? "Sure, it can play zillions of games but you have to download them from warez sites." So while this might hold some interest for the
All the posts here are saying this would be a terrible idea but no one has mentioned why.
Short list of reasons:
1) MS could just steal it.
You heard me. MS is a big powerful corporation and Opera Software isn't. MS can just TAKE whatever features they want from Opera. OperaSoft could sue, but they'd lose.
2) Opera isn't the shit
Most sources seem to think that Opera has about a 1% market share. I've used it, and I don't like it. I don't like the "sea of windows" interface, but most importantly, it's SLOW. Slower than Firefox, way slower than IE. Slower than Safari on OSX too. At least that's been my experience.
3) MS is going in a different direction with IE
As has been noted by other posters, the key features of the new IE will be it's search functionality (Vista will have something like MSN Desktop Search standard) and tighter client/web integration, allowing programmers to write software with UIs that will work both on the PC and over the internet with little performance hit. This is made possible with MS' new APIs. Yeah, you can do it wiht Java but Java is dog-slow.
Many of the mistakes made were basic design flaws, like the following:
/.)
Mistake #1: Overheating CPU or GPU
I've rarely bought PC systems that had serious overheating problems. The only system I can think of off the top of my head was a white box dual Opteron server (back when they were initially intoduced) that would overheat if crammed in the closet. Like the 360, this system was built with inadaquate cooling (the problem was more egregious on the server because it was in a HUGE case to accomodate a RAID array).
This problem is actually easily dealt with. As discussed in the article all that is really necessary is to increase the power of the fans substantially, that would increase the noise but cest la vie.
Mistake #2: No MSN Music
This is basically a crock. You can buy music on your PC and then play it on your 360, PC, or a portable player. And you can do it with iTunes, Rhapsody, etc. It strikes me that this is FAR more useful than having your music stuck on the 360. It's clear that MS is targeting people that either own PCs or have easy access to them. (which describes most people on
Mistake #3: No HDMI support
While claim and claim is made about Microsoft offering HDMI or DVI support in the future "with a special cable," I find these rumors very hard to believe. If HDMI support was as trivial as making a cable, don't you think Monster Cable or any of the 3rd party manufacturers would have already made a cable
Pacific Cable has one http://www.pacificcable.com/Xbox-360-VGA-DVI-Conve rter.html. It's "only" $650 though. I'm assuming it contains an Analogue to Digital Converter at that price, which means that the "official" kit will probably have to do something similar. The PS3 will almost certainly have a HDMI port (or DVI port, they're very similar). Still, this is completely dropping to ball over at MS. More rush to market madness.
Mistake #4: 20GB is too small
The author is just high on this one. 20GB is plenty if you aren't hosting music, video, etc. on the 360 which is exactly what was intended. The author of the article does not apparently grasp the concept of Windows Media Extender. The idea is that you have a central "server" Media Centre PC and then you use Extender boxes as remote front-ends for the PC on your Home Theatre, etc. The 360 just has the same functionality as those $100 UPnP boxes you can get at Frys, like this thing http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=318&sec=1 from D-Link. These things have NO hard drives.
Mistake #4: 20GB is too small
The big downside of the HD is that it's 2.5", so it's slow (probably faster than the XBOX HD though). The author seems to have forgotten the entire purpose of the HD was disk caching to make games load faster, making the internal HD USB2 is a terrible idea in this context.
Mistake #5: Microtransaction Security
Beyond nit-picking. In the U.S., you don't have any liablity if the 360 is stolen, etc. In Europe you DO, but you're probably already using a debit card for this reason. Hell, if you're in the US you're probably using a debit card too because of the lovely 30% interest rates we're seeing (rant, rant).
Mistake #6: No Web Browser
Yeah, this sucks ass. If you want to defend MS on this one, explain how the 360 doesn't have a web browser but the DREAMCAST did? It seems like this would be trivially easy to add (MS could even update through Live if they felt it necessary) and users would like it. The fact that MS even has a specialized product for this niche (MSNTV, formerly WebTV), and consequently had ready-made software, is even more mystifying.
Mistake #9: No System-Wide Video Calibration
This is a real complaint, but the author is making it in an obtuse way. The problem is that the 360 is "optomized" for
This has already been done. It was called "Neo-Geo".
Closely linking the OS and diretory is a *major strategic mistake* that most companies will realize when MS does a major upgrade to AD and links it to server 2009 or whatever it will be called.
This isn't stupid, at least not for Microsoft. MS understood early on that directory, calendaring, and collaboration services were the next "killer app" for the corporate LAN, and designed Windows 2000 with these services in mind. And lo and behold, this shit works great in Win2K.
The "major strategic mistake" has been made by the Linux/Unix world who have yet to take the need for these services AND full interoperability with Windows seriously. Unless the Linux world develops a system that is VASTLY superior to the Windows system I don't see anyone switching.
And don't try to pin it on the "Windows monopoly". That's crap. WinNT beat out Netware when Netware had a virtual monopoly.
http://arrakis.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ps2/cluster.php
;)
I think that's pretty useful
Um, no. This is a testbed Linux cluster. The exact same thing could have been done cheaper with commodity PCs lying around. Not to mention the time and energy saved not have to recompile and tweak all your software (which is what this team had to do) because of the wonky architecture. In fact your example perfectly illustrates why the 360 won't be as attractive a hacking/Linux platform as the original XBOX was.
"It's no different from Payola and just as illegal."
No it isn't, illegal that is. People don't seem to understand that payola laws are VERY narrow and ONLY cover record labels paying individual radio DJs and radio stations for airplay of specific songs. That is the ONLY thing that is illegal, and this law is widely violated by using "third parties". And by "widely violated" I mean virtually every single song you hear on commercial radio is the result of payola. The laws are really about going after DJs who essentially are screwing the STATIONS by playing a different "payola list" than what the labels paid the STATION for. Radio is such a wasteland that DJs are completely willing to get fired for kickbacks, hence payola.
Are you saying that you don't think it would be a good thing if we could go ask Earthlink for a list of everybody that's emailed him in the last two years, and cross-reference that with emails received by other known terrorists? Maybe go talk to anybody with the address "abdullah1987@hotmail.com" who emailed him?
Why wouldn't he delete the mail as it came in? Or use a public terminal? Or a stolen account? Or... These kids of security measures aren't speculative BTW, if you read jihadi websites they're filled with information about securing your inet connection. Or even more likely, critical information didn't go over the public networks because the jihadis are well aware of all the legal and illegal surveillance that goes on now and don't trust the networks. And when they use them, they pay attention to security and don't pass critical data over unsecured links. In fact, based on what I've read and heard from intelligence guys, the jihadis seem to take information security much more seriously than people in the west imagine. Not surprising, considering their lives depend on it.
If you doubt this, look at Iraq. We have the best SIGINT in the world, and we know for a FACT that the anti-coalition forces are using cellphones and wireless communications for logistics, target tracking, etc. but there's not a damn thing they can do about is except wideband jamming and that would screw ALL the Iraqis and the coalition forces too. So they're stuck with untracable militants coordinating attacks with cellphones and VoIP.
As has been stated repeatedly, this kind of legislation is really directed at common criminals (like copyright violators) NOT "terrorists". The "terrorists" are really foreign intelligence agents and they're far too sophisiticated (or just know a few simple tricks) for this to work.
To digress briefly: I really don't understand all the crap we hear about the absolute NEED to implement draconian security measures to deal with an Evil New Idea(tm). I remember the Evil New Idea(tm) used to be communism, and there was a lot of paranoid hysteria about how the communists were going to "get us" that never materialized. Communism was popular for a while, even in America somewhat, but was eventually abandoned by almost everyone when it became clear it didn't work.
In fact, this kind of hysteria tends to STRENGTHEN the Bad Guys(tm) because it tends to bolster their argument that the "other side" (Evil Westerners(tm) is bad. Look at how this plays out in Iran. The nation is trying to liberalize, but the hardliners always use the threats of Western powers (like the US) as an excuse to crackdown. It's not even really an excuse whe foreign nations are openly threating to attack. None of this helps the liberals. The hardline attitude hasn't helped get rid of Kim or Castro.
Please mod the parent up. We need more practical, non-hysterical, examples like this of how this information can be used against innocents.
Could it be used to make sure that only code signed by Microsoft can run in a virtual machine?
I know for a fact the 360 is using Virtual PC for XBOX emulation, but I haven't heard that there is any hardware-level virtualiation for the 360. It can't be built into the CPU core(s) as they're fairly well understood so that means some sort of software level virtualization and it's difficult to imagine that would be worth the performance hit. And it seems to me a monumental task to make a emulator that would perform well emulating a cutting-edge GPU like the one in the 360. And I'm really dubious of the notion that this would provide any additional content protection. You could easily implement some sort of key-signing in the OS, without having to waste valuable hardware space.
But if you're saying that the "Virtual XBOX" emulator for the 360 probably won't run unsigned code, then yeah, you're probably right.
But will it have a TV output? And will your Free operating system's X server be able to draw to the TV output? Not everybody likes to crowd four people around a 17" monitor. And will it come with a gamepad for playing games other than FPS and RTS?
Linux-compatible TV-tuner card, $20. USB gamepad, $20. (Or if I wanted to I'm sure I could buy the new Microsoft gamepad, $40. I bet it's Linux-compatible or soon will be.)
And it's stil an open question as to whether or not any free OS's will be able to use the TV output of the 360.
Uniquely? Compare to the Dreamcast, which can boot unsigned code from CD-R.
What I meant that it was a "uniquely capable hacking platform", in that while it wasn't as easy to hack as some other systems you could do a lot more with it than with other consoles due to it's familiar architecture. The capabilites of the DC were pretty limited in comparison, especially if you didn't have the broadband adapter.
Anyway, there are reports that only one core is availble to intitial game developers, and one of the cores is strictly for M$ bullshit content protection TC such as the hypervisor, etc.
"Reports", yeah, but this isn't true. Several of the lanuch games were multi-clore, including Kameo and Perfect Dark. Numerous developers have commented on this. And as far as I know, Hypervisor on IBM systems has nothing to do with content protection and it's difficult to see why it would be implemented here.
Sounds like a shitload of TC shit build right into the chip, so I am NOT holding my breath for linux to be ported to this (not that I wouldn't be thrilled to see this).
Why? I'm being serious. What is the point? Most people agree that the 360 is FAR less of a GP design than the original XBOX, and it's using a funky architecture, so it's likely that it will be difficult to get Linux or *BSD to work, it'll probably perform like crap, and you'll have to re-compile everything for the 360. What is the value proposition here over a cheap PC? I can buy $200 PCs without OS from Fry's.
I can vaguely understand the Linux projects for the original XBOX. That was basically a PC, and it was easy to adapt both Linux and software. This isn't true with the 360. Look at the PS2, Linux on the PS2 is all but useless because of the different architecture. I tend to think the original XBOX will be regarded as UNIQUELY hackable in the world of game consoles.
Why not send fewer units to Japan so you can SEND THEM WHERE PEOPLE ARE WAITING IN LINE TO BUY THEM? I saw pictures somewhere (Kotaku?) that was like the PSP launch in the US. They had pictures of stores with piles of the systems that no one was buying.
Just so you know, the Japanese version of the 360 is almost certainly different enough from the American version that they can't just drop unsold units into American stores. The OS would probably be in Japanese, and at the very least they would have to change the packaging. Microsoft was clearly trying to improve the sales of the Xbox/360 in Japan, and they failed spectacularly (as predicted). MS just doesn't seem to be able to make major inroads in Japan (not suprising for an American company).
You should also consider the costs of shipping the units from Japan to the USA. No, any unsold 360s are likey to stay there. The bright side is that it's likely that MS has already adjusted production and we'll see most units purposed to the USA (and eventually Europe) in the future.
Westinghouse 19"
I don't consider a 19" TV "servicable". Especially when it's the same price as a 32" STV.
And it's not "anti-M$ bias". MS was guaranteed to sit in the number 2 slot long before this console was even ANNOUNCED because of the way they've screwed the Japanese market. This isn't FUD, it's reality. Unless Sony totally blows the PS3 somehow they've got the Japanese market locked up, which pretty much means they have the console market locked up. Unless MS develops a kickass Live implementation in Japan this is exactly what's going to happen and I haven't been hearing any announcements along these lines.
I had pretty much the same criticism for the PS2. After all the hype, the weakness of the initial PS2 titales was a HUGE letdown. I refused to buy it and waited for the XBOX, which despite it's chunkiness and the crapiness of the inital controller (ovoid face buttons drove me nuts), the "s" is my favorite gaming controller and the XBOX is clearly the technical superior of the last generation consoles.
Still, I ended up buying a PS2 because I'm a big DBZ fan and I wanted to play Budokai. Lame reason? Maybe. But it highlights the greatest strength of the PS2, which is the sheer number of games for the platform, including "niche" games like Budokai. I someone who bought the PS2 for GTA3 and played nothing else (except the sequels). The greater variety of games allows the PS2 to appeal to a wider variety of gamers and unltimately that's what allowed Sony to hold onto the market.
Of course, they could still blow it on the PS3 but this seems doubtful according to virtually all observers. They PS3 seems to look a lot like "PS2 with better graphics" and that's probably a winning strategy for Sony.
One ray of sunshine in this launch (for me anyway) is that not only has the promised backwards-compatiblity materialized and works, but the 360 actually improves the graphics considerably, something that was promised and not delivered with the PS2 playing PS1 games. I'd argue that the whole approach of Microsoft to the console business seems more "customer friendly" than that of Sony or Nintendo, but that might just be my American bias showing.
It may be too early to say, but put me in the camp that say this launch has been just short of disasterous, mainly due to the lack of good games and console availability. I'd argue that the PS2 had a similar lousy launch lineup, but sold a lot better due to MUCH more effective hype. I remember that the graphics on the PS2 were supposed to cure cancer and raise the dead, no such melodramatic hype for the 360. The 360 has all the hallmarks of a product that was rushed to market.
One of the biggest hurdles I think the 360 is facing is the essential need for an HDTV system, which still hasn't seen wide adoption. And that's because the cheapest servicable HDTV system is at least $650. Combined with the $300 sticker price of the 360, and the cost of games, it makes the 360 clearly a very expensive proposition.
I'd also note that the PS2 has a lot of big games coming out, like Final Fantasy XII. Overall I think that the 360 sales will be disappointing until cheaper consumer-level HDTVs become available. I think this is a bit of a shame, since the biggest draw of the 360 isn't it's graphics but the extensive online features, something that will be notably absent in the PS3.