...And to carry them all you have a Bat-utility belt, right Bruce?
Re:This is really missing the point
on
Death of the PDA?
·
· Score: 1
"Where is this mythical cell phone that has, just as I said, both SDIO and CF Type II, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g and an extensive list of expansion peripherals like full size keyboards?"
Removable storage: largely un-necessary on small networked device, although the P900 has Mem Stick support. I'm sure some of the chunkier 3G phones have other storage solutions.
Why would you need 802.11 on a phone *as well as* Bluetooth and GPRS?
Why do you need a fullsize keyboard when you have predictive text, touchscreen, voice recording, on-screen keyboard? Where would you store the full sized keyboard when carrying the phone around with you?
As I said, losing the un-necessary baggage of trying to fit a PC in your pocket.
But I assume you carry around all that shit connected to your PDA all the time, along with a seperate mobile phone and an array of solar panels.
I think it looks nicer than the P800, which had a severe case of iMac case styling disease. It's still a bit on the chunky side though.
Re:This is really missing the point
on
Death of the PDA?
·
· Score: 1
In case I didn't make that explicitly clear, they already do.
A modern phone is a PDA + connectivity - the dead wood of trying to cram a PC in people's pockets.
Re:This is really missing the point
on
Death of the PDA?
·
· Score: 1
"When smartphones, like the latest batch of Ipaqs or Toshibas, support bluetooth, wifi, multiple I/O capable expansion options (CFII+SDIO) and an extensive list of peripherals, sure."
"Unless Apple decides to make radical changes to their service model, a Windows-based version of iTunes will still remain a closed system, where iPod owners cannot access content from other services. Additionally, users of iTunes are limited to music from Apple's Music Store... this is a drawback for Windows users, who expect choice in music services, choice in devices, and choice in music from a wide-variety of music services to burn to a CD or put on a portable device. Lastly, if you use Apple's music store along with iTunes, you don't have the ability of using the over 40 different Windows Media-compatible portable music devices. When I'm paying for music, I want to know that I have choices today and in the future."
And yet when it comes to limiting the Xbox online capability to only allowing games licensed to the subscription-based Xbox Live closed system, that's totally in the consumer's best interests because of 'security' and 'ease of use'.
I have no interest in what Vince Desi or his company have to say about anything.
Being a talentless, exploitative shitsack isn't amusing or ironic. It's just a really, really pathetic way to attract attention if you lack the ability to produce work that can succeed on its own merits.
Having these parasites refer to game development as "our industry" makes my flesh crawl. Nobody in the games industry wants anything to do with you, you emotionally-retarded bastards.
Thankfully, for all Vince's claims to 'controversy', nobody gives a shit about their tired old gimmicks any more. I doubt that Postal 2 has been flying off the shelves either.
In fact, these pant-shitting imbeciles going bust (how did they last so long after the first Postal?) might be the first funny thing they do.
No, actually the best thing would be if Vince Desi and Jack Thompson were both killed in some horribly botched kinky sex ritual. They'd cancel each other out.
Firstly, at least Psion acknowledge that the PDA form factor is a dead end, with increasingly powerful phone platforms making it irrelevant to the modern market.
However I do think that it's odd that they've decided to differentiate their new offering by aiming at a 'laptop-lite' kind of product. It's like something from five years ago. The price just seems far too high, especially compared to Sony offerings in the sub-notebook and PDA+keyboard markets (which are expensive in themselves).
The decision to use WinCE is just stupid, doubly so for a company involved in Symbian.
Also no Bluetooth, WiFi or ethernet port built in. Erk.
At a fraction of the price, a little less bulky and with Symbian and it might be interesting.
"A cabinet for a radio, television set, or phonograph, designed to stand on the floor."
This isn't how the term 'console' is used to refer to video games hardware. 'Console' can refer to either a portable or TV-based system, and is used to differentiate from 'computer'.
Therefore, the original news item is poorly worded.
This analogy would only work if the similarities between 'Java' and 'SUVs' are meaningful, and lead to comparable conclusions. Instead, Greenspun focusses on one aspect of Java, and pulls figures (5 times the expense) out of his ass.
As it stands it's a nice soundbite, but that's all.
"In this case, the game (GTA3) has a system for incentivizing violence."
As do many thousands of other games. Not to mention movies that glorify violence.
"Why is it that the same people who think that computers can be used as a learning aid also dismiss out of hand the notion that a child learned something from a computer?"
Because there is no evidence whatsoever to support this theory.
"The video game manufacturers know that when they produce these games, the target market is teenagers"
This is factually incorrect.
"now, junior, you know raping that prostitute is wrong, don't you?"
Aside from the fact that the GTA games do not portray, make reference to or advocate rape, would you take a kid into a violent, adult-classified movie? Would you buy products with this kind of content for your children?
"Effectively, Sony and Take Two are in a partnership in the production, distribution, and sale of this dangerous product."
Please explain how this or any other entertainment product can be classified as 'dangerous'. It's funny how small publishers never get targetted with these lawsuits. (Oh, and Jack Thompson's involvement strongly suggests that any game brought under scrutiny might not even have been played or owned by the perpetrators, so they had free reign to chose whatever title suited their agenda.)
"If this helps curb the production and distribution of a dangerous product and prevents a single subsequent act of voilence, then society wins."
Please learn what personal responsibility means. Any curtailing of freedom of expression by definition is detrimental to society.
"This is far from a frivolous lawsuit, btw -- the odds of a win, given how GTA3 works and rewards its players, are probably better than 50:50."
Utter nonsense. This is a frivolous and opportunistic case being based on transparently faulty arguments. It has a better than 50:50 chance of getting thrown out.
"absolve from responsibility the businesses who make money by teaching kids how to kill and rewarding them for doing so"
Wrong. If you honestly believe this ridiculous piece of sensationalist rhetoric, you are beneath contempt.
I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for you to learn what you're talking about before voicing your opinion.
I wouldn't personally go for an Apple machine (as you predicted;), but they are clearly closer to making nice-looking computers than most of the casemod guys.
I'd like to see some hobbyists try building some stylish cases like that. An 'art deco' case styled after Maria from Metropolis. Organic shapes like those gloopy sculptures you get in public parks. Cylindrical PCs. Moulded foam rubber PCs (distinctive looking *and* quiet!). There's clearly plenty of room for experimentation.
I would like to see, one day, somebody build a computer case to look aesthetically pleasing, and not like a pile of melted action figures with chrome fins.
Going on past performances by the lawyer involved, it's can't even be considered a certainty that the kids had ever played GTA.
Jack Thompson's method is to match games (always ones from large, successful publishers, amazingly enough) to loosely 'similar' crimes after the event.
"That's damn impressive for realtime. Hell, it's pretty impressive even for a prerendering."
You know, it really isn't. A nice terrain engine. Standard architecture. Technically it looks similar to Morrowind. But you can make anything look better by sticking a swoopy camera through it.
Visuals aside, I've always thought Myst was a horribly over-rated game. Considering we can now have games with absolutely beautifully crafted real-time environments that aren't empty and static and offer the player lots of different types of challenge (Metroid Prime, GTA3 and Shenmue spring to mind) I don't really see what there is to be gained by going back to Cyan's outmoded ways.
Tools are improving. Efficiency is improving. Developers can now farm out music, art creation, testing, etc. to contractors. They can buy in engines and middleware.
Furthermore there is no hard-and-fast rule stating that just because a game can eat up $10 million budget, that that is the minimum that has to be spent to make a technically sound, playable and marketable game.
Further-furthermore, each hardware generation has a larger user base, offsetting the increased costs.
I do appreciate that it is an expensive business though, and consolidation is probably the wisest course of action for many smaller companies around today.
'The new consoles could have up to 1,000 times more processing power than current models' is not even worth responding to...
Oh, and *Jez San* is saying development is too expensive? Then don't pour millions into endlessly protracted projects that then get canned, dumbass!
Slashdot Mirror
You lost me at "Animation was horrible".
...And to carry them all you have a Bat-utility belt, right Bruce?
"Where is this mythical cell phone that has, just as I said, both SDIO and CF Type II, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g and an extensive list of expansion peripherals like full size keyboards?"
Removable storage: largely un-necessary on small networked device, although the P900 has Mem Stick support. I'm sure some of the chunkier 3G phones have other storage solutions.
Why would you need 802.11 on a phone *as well as* Bluetooth and GPRS?
Why do you need a fullsize keyboard when you have predictive text, touchscreen, voice recording, on-screen keyboard? Where would you store the full sized keyboard when carrying the phone around with you?
As I said, losing the un-necessary baggage of trying to fit a PC in your pocket.
But I assume you carry around all that shit connected to your PDA all the time, along with a seperate mobile phone and an array of solar panels.
"It runs MS PocketPC 2003. Personally I think it blows the SE P900 away."
Wrong.
Unless you're aiming to make the world's heaviest and power-hungriest phone, you use Symbian.
I think it looks nicer than the P800, which had a severe case of iMac case styling disease. It's still a bit on the chunky side though.
In case I didn't make that explicitly clear, they already do. A modern phone is a PDA + connectivity - the dead wood of trying to cram a PC in people's pockets.
"When smartphones, like the latest batch of Ipaqs or Toshibas, support bluetooth, wifi, multiple I/O capable expansion options (CFII+SDIO) and an extensive list of peripherals, sure."
I love the 'when' part.
Well, name one.
Third party publishers and the majority of Xbox owners don't seem to be convinced.
Neither Sony nor Nintendo (or Sega before that) have chosen to cripple their online offerings in this way.
And yet when it comes to limiting the Xbox online capability to only allowing games licensed to the subscription-based Xbox Live closed system, that's totally in the consumer's best interests because of 'security' and 'ease of use'.
...to drop the whole thing? It's laughable, anachronistic brainwashing and a waste of everyone's time.
Or is this another of those things where outmoded tradition has been irrationally enshrined as being beyond reproach, like your gun laws?
Sigh. Another loser passes up some of the best games of this generation thanks to their own insecurities.
I have no interest in what Vince Desi or his company have to say about anything.
Being a talentless, exploitative shitsack isn't amusing or ironic. It's just a really, really pathetic way to attract attention if you lack the ability to produce work that can succeed on its own merits.
Having these parasites refer to game development as "our industry" makes my flesh crawl. Nobody in the games industry wants anything to do with you, you emotionally-retarded bastards.
Thankfully, for all Vince's claims to 'controversy', nobody gives a shit about their tired old gimmicks any more. I doubt that Postal 2 has been flying off the shelves either.
In fact, these pant-shitting imbeciles going bust (how did they last so long after the first Postal?) might be the first funny thing they do.
No, actually the best thing would be if Vince Desi and Jack Thompson were both killed in some horribly botched kinky sex ritual. They'd cancel each other out.
Firstly, at least Psion acknowledge that the PDA form factor is a dead end, with increasingly powerful phone platforms making it irrelevant to the modern market.
However I do think that it's odd that they've decided to differentiate their new offering by aiming at a 'laptop-lite' kind of product. It's like something from five years ago. The price just seems far too high, especially compared to Sony offerings in the sub-notebook and PDA+keyboard markets (which are expensive in themselves).
The decision to use WinCE is just stupid, doubly so for a company involved in Symbian.
Also no Bluetooth, WiFi or ethernet port built in. Erk.
At a fraction of the price, a little less bulky and with Symbian and it might be interesting.
It's funny when Americans notice there are other countries for the first time.
Now go and read about how international diplomacy works, and stop making an ass of yourself.
"A cabinet for a radio, television set, or phonograph, designed to stand on the floor."
This isn't how the term 'console' is used to refer to video games hardware. 'Console' can refer to either a portable or TV-based system, and is used to differentiate from 'computer'.
Therefore, the original news item is poorly worded.
This analogy would only work if the similarities between 'Java' and 'SUVs' are meaningful, and lead to comparable conclusions. Instead, Greenspun focusses on one aspect of Java, and pulls figures (5 times the expense) out of his ass.
As it stands it's a nice soundbite, but that's all.
Jack Thompson (the lawyer in question) is a die-hard Republican, idiot.
"In this case, the game (GTA3) has a system for incentivizing violence."
As do many thousands of other games. Not to mention movies that glorify violence.
"Why is it that the same people who think that computers can be used as a learning aid also dismiss out of hand the notion that a child learned something from a computer?"
Because there is no evidence whatsoever to support this theory.
"The video game manufacturers know that when they produce these games, the target market is teenagers"
This is factually incorrect.
"now, junior, you know raping that prostitute is wrong, don't you?"
Aside from the fact that the GTA games do not portray, make reference to or advocate rape, would you take a kid into a violent, adult-classified movie? Would you buy products with this kind of content for your children?
"Effectively, Sony and Take Two are in a partnership in the production, distribution, and sale of this dangerous product."
Please explain how this or any other entertainment product can be classified as 'dangerous'. It's funny how small publishers never get targetted with these lawsuits. (Oh, and Jack Thompson's involvement strongly suggests that any game brought under scrutiny might not even have been played or owned by the perpetrators, so they had free reign to chose whatever title suited their agenda.)
"If this helps curb the production and distribution of a dangerous product and prevents a single subsequent act of voilence, then society wins."
Please learn what personal responsibility means. Any curtailing of freedom of expression by definition is detrimental to society.
"This is far from a frivolous lawsuit, btw -- the odds of a win, given how GTA3 works and rewards its players, are probably better than 50:50."
Utter nonsense. This is a frivolous and opportunistic case being based on transparently faulty arguments. It has a better than 50:50 chance of getting thrown out.
"absolve from responsibility the businesses who make money by teaching kids how to kill and rewarding them for doing so"
Wrong. If you honestly believe this ridiculous piece of sensationalist rhetoric, you are beneath contempt.
I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for you to learn what you're talking about before voicing your opinion.
Hey, I had one too. ;)
Verite Quake was pretty sweet, and their 'Mini GL' version of Quake 2 was an amazing hack.
Of course I've upgraded three times since then - and in every case the back of the box ensured that the card was 'futureproof'... hmm...
I wouldn't personally go for an Apple machine (as you predicted ;), but they are clearly closer to making nice-looking computers than most of the casemod guys.
I'd like to see some hobbyists try building some stylish cases like that. An 'art deco' case styled after Maria from Metropolis. Organic shapes like those gloopy sculptures you get in public parks. Cylindrical PCs. Moulded foam rubber PCs (distinctive looking *and* quiet!). There's clearly plenty of room for experimentation.
I would like to see, one day, somebody build a computer case to look aesthetically pleasing, and not like a pile of melted action figures with chrome fins.
Going on past performances by the lawyer involved, it's can't even be considered a certainty that the kids had ever played GTA.
Jack Thompson's method is to match games (always ones from large, successful publishers, amazingly enough) to loosely 'similar' crimes after the event.
He should be disbarred.
Well, there's a name I didn't expect to see in a news story about frivolous lawsuits.
Jack "2 Live Crew, Cop Killer, Dear Policeman I Am God, EverQuest Killed My Son" Thompson, Florida's leading disgrace to the legal profession.
"That's damn impressive for realtime. Hell, it's pretty impressive even for a prerendering."
You know, it really isn't. A nice terrain engine. Standard architecture. Technically it looks similar to Morrowind. But you can make anything look better by sticking a swoopy camera through it.
Visuals aside, I've always thought Myst was a horribly over-rated game. Considering we can now have games with absolutely beautifully crafted real-time environments that aren't empty and static and offer the player lots of different types of challenge (Metroid Prime, GTA3 and Shenmue spring to mind) I don't really see what there is to be gained by going back to Cyan's outmoded ways.
Development costs aren't growing 'exponentially'.
Tools are improving. Efficiency is improving. Developers can now farm out music, art creation, testing, etc. to contractors. They can buy in engines and middleware.
Furthermore there is no hard-and-fast rule stating that just because a game can eat up $10 million budget, that that is the minimum that has to be spent to make a technically sound, playable and marketable game.
Further-furthermore, each hardware generation has a larger user base, offsetting the increased costs.
I do appreciate that it is an expensive business though, and consolidation is probably the wisest course of action for many smaller companies around today.
'The new consoles could have up to 1,000 times more processing power than current models' is not even worth responding to...
Oh, and *Jez San* is saying development is too expensive? Then don't pour millions into endlessly protracted projects that then get canned, dumbass!