"Selling hardware at a loss is typical of the console market."
No, actually it's not. Only Microsoft loses money on it's boxes. No matter what Sony is selling their boxes for, they make a profit on every one. It's the difference between a profit oriented, well thought out plan, and a slapped together Microsoft 1.0.
"In order to fully understand the math, you have to assign a dollar value to your time. I find that about $250 an hour is a good number for me during the week; since I value my weekends more, I arbitrarily assign a value of $500 an hour..."
Okay dude, I totally agree with you that the Mac is _not_ more expensive, but your hourly wages are a little optimistic. Even at $250 an hour you probably wasted $50 writing that reply. That's just not good business.:-)
I've given this some real thought and if it's possible to time travel at all, it would not be as how we see it in the movies. I'm a philosopher at heart and I think these points have been heard in many different forms:
If I could travel back in time, then why would we not have seen people doing so already? Wouldn't travelers from OUR future visit us now?
If it is at all possible, then it can't be possible to effect the future or the past-- you may only observe.
There are very strong arguements that TIME DOES NOT EXIST. Everything is relative to the observer, and many arguments have been made that suggest that Quantum reality is true-- that all possibilities in the universe are played out and live in discrete "strings" of reality. Sometimes, those strings cross, and you get phenomina such as Deja Vu. Take a lok at the following book: The End of Time, by Julian Barbour. Also, anything by Stephen Hawking.
The effects and observations we make concerning time travel may be directly influenced by our transendental means of observation. That is, how we perceive reality is completely based on how we observe it. Really take a second to think about that, because it's one of the most profound concepts I've come accross.
I just don't see it as a reality. I think what will actually happen is something altogether different-- but not a physical human being traveling into the past to hang out with Babe Ruth. Know whut I mean, vern?
I'm shocked at the lack of knowledge this forum has for Web 3D. There is a standard-- it's Viewpoint. Over 55 million people have the plugin, and it comes preinstalled on any machine with AOL. We've been in business for years and have tons of large name clients. It's free for hobbyists. You simply export your content from your favorite authoring app.
This is interesting, because it brings to light the differences in business models. I see the guys at ID software with a much better plan. They don't have to sell the product. The problem with Garage Games method is that there is no guarantee of income, and they have to invest their own income to publish the game. They only make money if the game is a commercial success. The better it does, the more money they make. ID, on the other hand, has a guaranteed flat income.
This really comes down to marketing leverage. Garage Games is not as large, or well know. In order to increase their credibility and the proliferation of their technology they have to take risks. The benefits can be very lucrative-- but are in no way guaranteed. I think you'll see Garage Games adopt a different model when they become as sucessfull as ID, because most business men you talk to will take guaranteed income as the cash cow any day. But good luck to their in either case-- I love Tribes.
Nothing, because hardly anyone uses it on the desktop. The real ramifications are not to any specific platform, per se-- but to the idea of an OPEN GRAPHICS LANGUAGE. Hence, the name: OpenGL. If anything, the Mac would have a lot more at stake if Microshaft gets their hands on the kitchen sink. Steve-o has been pushing hard at getting OpenGL out there.
Depends on your web site and your audience, but Netscape 4 and Lynx can go F themselves. My "arrogance" is based on numbers, experience, and knowledge of the industry over many years. Yours is likely based on conjecture and personal preference-- which you are certainly entitled to. If I am building a text-based web site for research then Lynx is important. NS 4 is hardly ever important because it renders so incredibly quirky. I can code to make it look right, but it's such a pain in the arse when even Netscape doesn't sell it anymore. Upgrade or perish, vegabond!:-)
... for encouraging people to upgrade a 2 year old OS to XP. Apple is doing the same tyhing with OS X from OS 9. I do agree that Microsoft has a severe fragmentation problem with their OS's... how many versions are floating around that all, essentially, are the same darn thing? Ugh.
My company has just migrated from in-house to out-of-house serving. We now require secure transfer of files, so we use SSH 2. Luckily, my main design/development machine is running OS X. Not only does OS X have a built in command line SSH client, but there is a nice commercial app called rBrowser that slaps a nice GUI on it. It's $50/seat.
NS 4 and dynamically written code
on
Pet Bugs?
·
· Score: 1
The best one I can think of was with (no suprise) Netscape 4.x. In order for the DOM to be properly updated, I needed to write a different SCRIPT tag for each item I wanted present to the ensuing code. In other words, each tag I wrote dynamically with JS had to be closed out, with a new one opened, in order to exist in the NS 4 DOM. IE/NS6, etc. all update after the document.write.
Back in the 60's and 70's, people could buy kits to make a computer. Today, hobbyists can still do similar things-- but the spirit is not the same. I build R/C cars and 99% of the fun is just tweaking it out. I've also added a hard drive to my TiVo. I enjoy tinkering with things like this, and a lot of other people do, too.
TiVo could go a step further, by giving users a small how-to guide for basic TiVo hacking. Things like adding Hard Drive's, enabling hidden features, etc. It would be a new (or revistalized?) idea: Customizable Consumer Electronics. It's like you're building a component Stereo system, except the components are all in one box.
Lindows/Linux, whatever you want to call it... it will never be a desktop enviroment for more than a sliver of people. Furthermore, any hardware that costs $300 is useless for anything other than Palm-Pilot type tasks.
They'll sell a mediocre amount of PC's with Lindows, and it will do jack squat for the Linux and/or Linux gaming community. It'll also confuse the consumer, which is an utter moron when it comes to purchasing hardware or software-- especially at a WalMart. What it may do, is force PC makers who sell Windows to rethink their strategy. They're being bullied into selling Windows, and it costs them big bucks.
Don't get me wrong, here. I like WalMart. I like the idea of a cheap, usable computer. I don't dislike the average person's reasons for buying a computer... but this will utterly fail. Linux is the polar opposite of a beginner's OS.
I think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves, here. Wireless is not a secure solution out of the box. I'm sticking to wires. After all, my desktop using ain't that portable... nor do I want it to be.:-)
I have liked Mozilla for a long time because of it's feature set, but as of this release the Mac OS X port is VERY FAST to resize windows and reflow text. I never thought I would say it-- but Mozilla is faster than IE on my box at work- a 500 MHz G4. I could not be happier!
Go to college. If you dont' go to college you're never going to learn some of the most essential lessons of your life:
1) How to work harder than you ever thought possible.
2) How to party like you never thought possible.
3) How to make friends from all walks of life and all races, orientations, religions, and languages (key in any job).
4) How to expand your mind beyond the scope of a vocational school-- learn your liberal arts cause it's the best thing you can do!
5) Create connections and friendships that will not only expand you personal life, but help you in your business life. You'd be surprised how many jobs and connections you'll make in college.
I know I sound like I'm preaching, but going directly to work or to a vocational school would have been a terrible idea for me. I needed the time to mature and to see the rest of the world, having grown up in a small town. That may not be your scenario but consider this: without the ability to problem solve you'll neveer be more than a worker bee. If you can't critically think you'll never move past middle management or be able to start your own business. We all think we know everything in High School but the reality of it is that you're barely a quarter of the way there. My freshmen year of college must have accounted for then the next 25%. I learned so much about myself, my life, and what I wanted to do.
In summary: go to college. Your life is more than just a job. I swear that, if you take the time to go to the right place and try the right stuff the end result will be success. Even if you go and hate it-- at least you know you tried it!
Oh, and when you're done, do some travelling. I didn't get to, so I'm 25 and still never been to Europe.
"The files will be copy-protected in some way, using Microsoft's digital rights management encryption technology."
Hahahahahahahaha (wipe tears from eyes) Hahahahaha.
Microsoft and digital rights. OMG, that has to be a mis-print. Tell me it's a mis-print. I can't laugh enough about the irony. And honest to god, does anyone want to take a bet how many hours it will take to crack the code and spread it throughout the world? I'm thinking less than one work day.
Okay. Suppose I have $40 Billion in the back and decide I would like to buy every professional sports team in the US. How does my bank deal with that? I mean, it's not like you could ever have access to $40 in a single withdrawl. I suppose they have many banks and many accounts...
I agree that the launches of PS1 and PS2 were less than stellar, but they were decent. They weren't as bad as X-Box which has _no_ killer apps. None. Not a single one. Halo is getting there, but as usual Microsoft has no concept of branding... they have no lovable characters and no memorable ones. PS1/PS2 do.
I dont' think the PS2's graphics are bad, either. I think they're amazing. I have a ton of games and have YET to be dissapointed. They're not flat at all. Don't know where you got that one. To be honest, it's really easy to push a lot of polygons to a measly 768 x 480 screen... it's what you do with those polys that counts. Game consoles, and computers, are sold primarily on the quality of the game which is a direct effect of the ability of the developers to use the hardware in an efficient and clever way. Don't count on Microsoft to be efficient and clever.
You could always use the 800 pound gorilla arguement-- that Microsoft will eventually crush the competition. But allow me to retort. Microsoft has made several blunders lately and people are sick of them. They can see through it now and are considering other options. Additionally, Sony is a 900 pound gorilla and will monkey-stomp the competition into submission. Look at the memory stick. They STILL haven't given up on it.
Way too often, experience at a job is misguided into management. Just because someone knows how to do their job well doesn't mean they make good management. Simple. And the worst part of this are the smaller companies who have the "buddy system" in place-- they're all friends and their judgement is affected.
I think it comes down to your ability to make a stand and say "no" to obsurd management decisions, because here is what happens: You do all of the work, they make all of the money. Sound fair? Nope. Don't jump ship because your job is just hard, jump ship when the management starts doing one of these:
Shows little or no vision. Without calculated risk there is no gain. That "gain" is your stock options.
Makes decisions based on what the other guys are doing. Do I really need to explain why this is a horrible approach?
Many of the people in management were friends before they were hired or "brought on board." Friends make terrible business partners. They either ignore, or do not see incompetance.
Unintelligent management. This is very different from non-visionaries. Not all managamentent needs to be visionary, but they all have to be smart enough to grasp a concept and go. Very few understand the product or resources they manage, and this is a big concern.
Okay, I don't like Window's, but at least it's a viable choice for a consumer OS. For god's sake, what is a person who can't afford (and likely not know how to use) a computer do with Linux? I know you can save some cash, but at the expense of usability and application base.
They should just buy droves of iMac's and make everyone's like easier. No one will ever agree about the OS, but the Mac is by far the easiest to use out of the box, it's highy reliable (software and hardware) and it's not that expensive.
Video Compression
on
Apple PDA?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Some people have been saying the video is fake because certain portions are not "moving" with other elements. While I am just as skeptical as others it is important to note how temporal compression works in video codecs. Essentially, areas that do not change location or value by enough, based on a given threshold or compression rate, will not change. In general, this is done in square chunks. So if that text is small enough and not moving enough, it will not move in the movie-- thus saving space in the movie size by not changing redundant pixels. The reason why the outside may be moving is because it's larger on screen and has a higher contrast between the edges... and may lie on the "box" edges of the compression codec.
Then again, it could be a fancy video editing trick. I saw the videos and it appears strange why the clip the video's when they do. If they wanted to make a stronger case they would have longer clips and continuous UI change. It could be a series of composites...
Slashdot Mirror
"Selling hardware at a loss is typical of the console market."
No, actually it's not. Only Microsoft loses money on it's boxes. No matter what Sony is selling their boxes for, they make a profit on every one. It's the difference between a profit oriented, well thought out plan, and a slapped together Microsoft 1.0.
"In order to fully understand the math, you have to assign a dollar value to your time. I find that about $250 an hour is a good number for me during the week; since I value my weekends more, I arbitrarily assign a value of $500 an hour..."
:-)
Okay dude, I totally agree with you that the Mac is _not_ more expensive, but your hourly wages are a little optimistic. Even at $250 an hour you probably wasted $50 writing that reply. That's just not good business.
Better yet, why don't the recommend an upgrade to a Mac? :-)
I've given this some real thought and if it's possible to time travel at all, it would not be as how we see it in the movies. I'm a philosopher at heart and I think these points have been heard in many different forms:
I just don't see it as a reality. I think what will actually happen is something altogether different-- but not a physical human being traveling into the past to hang out with Babe Ruth. Know whut I mean, vern?
Hi All,
I'm shocked at the lack of knowledge this forum has for Web 3D. There is a standard-- it's Viewpoint. Over 55 million people have the plugin, and it comes preinstalled on any machine with AOL. We've been in business for years and have tons of large name clients. It's free for hobbyists. You simply export your content from your favorite authoring app.
This is interesting, because it brings to light the differences in business models. I see the guys at ID software with a much better plan. They don't have to sell the product. The problem with Garage Games method is that there is no guarantee of income, and they have to invest their own income to publish the game. They only make money if the game is a commercial success. The better it does, the more money they make. ID, on the other hand, has a guaranteed flat income.
This really comes down to marketing leverage. Garage Games is not as large, or well know. In order to increase their credibility and the proliferation of their technology they have to take risks. The benefits can be very lucrative-- but are in no way guaranteed. I think you'll see Garage Games adopt a different model when they become as sucessfull as ID, because most business men you talk to will take guaranteed income as the cash cow any day. But good luck to their in either case-- I love Tribes.
"The question is, what does this mean for Linux"
Nothing, because hardly anyone uses it on the desktop. The real ramifications are not to any specific platform, per se-- but to the idea of an OPEN GRAPHICS LANGUAGE. Hence, the name: OpenGL. If anything, the Mac would have a lot more at stake if Microshaft gets their hands on the kitchen sink. Steve-o has been pushing hard at getting OpenGL out there.
Depends on your web site and your audience, but Netscape 4 and Lynx can go F themselves. My "arrogance" is based on numbers, experience, and knowledge of the industry over many years. Yours is likely based on conjecture and personal preference-- which you are certainly entitled to. If I am building a text-based web site for research then Lynx is important. NS 4 is hardly ever important because it renders so incredibly quirky. I can code to make it look right, but it's such a pain in the arse when even Netscape doesn't sell it anymore. Upgrade or perish, vegabond! :-)
... for encouraging people to upgrade a 2 year old OS to XP. Apple is doing the same tyhing with OS X from OS 9. I do agree that Microsoft has a severe fragmentation problem with their OS's... how many versions are floating around that all, essentially, are the same darn thing? Ugh.
My company has just migrated from in-house to out-of-house serving. We now require secure transfer of files, so we use SSH 2. Luckily, my main design/development machine is running OS X. Not only does OS X have a built in command line SSH client, but there is a nice commercial app called rBrowser that slaps a nice GUI on it. It's $50/seat.
The best one I can think of was with (no suprise) Netscape 4.x. In order for the DOM to be properly updated, I needed to write a different SCRIPT tag for each item I wanted present to the ensuing code. In other words, each tag I wrote dynamically with JS had to be closed out, with a new one opened, in order to exist in the NS 4 DOM. IE/NS6, etc. all update after the document.write.
What a royal pain in the arse.
Back in the 60's and 70's, people could buy kits to make a computer. Today, hobbyists can still do similar things-- but the spirit is not the same. I build R/C cars and 99% of the fun is just tweaking it out. I've also added a hard drive to my TiVo. I enjoy tinkering with things like this, and a lot of other people do, too.
TiVo could go a step further, by giving users a small how-to guide for basic TiVo hacking. Things like adding Hard Drive's, enabling hidden features, etc. It would be a new (or revistalized?) idea: Customizable Consumer Electronics. It's like you're building a component Stereo system, except the components are all in one box.
Lindows/Linux, whatever you want to call it... it will never be a desktop enviroment for more than a sliver of people. Furthermore, any hardware that costs $300 is useless for anything other than Palm-Pilot type tasks.
They'll sell a mediocre amount of PC's with Lindows, and it will do jack squat for the Linux and/or Linux gaming community. It'll also confuse the consumer, which is an utter moron when it comes to purchasing hardware or software-- especially at a WalMart. What it may do, is force PC makers who sell Windows to rethink their strategy. They're being bullied into selling Windows, and it costs them big bucks.
Don't get me wrong, here. I like WalMart. I like the idea of a cheap, usable computer. I don't dislike the average person's reasons for buying a computer... but this will utterly fail. Linux is the polar opposite of a beginner's OS.
I think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves, here. Wireless is not a secure solution out of the box. I'm sticking to wires. After all, my desktop using ain't that portable... nor do I want it to be. :-)
I have liked Mozilla for a long time because of it's feature set, but as of this release the Mac OS X port is VERY FAST to resize windows and reflow text. I never thought I would say it-- but Mozilla is faster than IE on my box at work- a 500 MHz G4. I could not be happier!
Go to college. If you dont' go to college you're never going to learn some of the most essential lessons of your life:
1) How to work harder than you ever thought possible.
2) How to party like you never thought possible.
3) How to make friends from all walks of life and all races, orientations, religions, and languages (key in any job).
4) How to expand your mind beyond the scope of a vocational school-- learn your liberal arts cause it's the best thing you can do!
5) Create connections and friendships that will not only expand you personal life, but help you in your business life. You'd be surprised how many jobs and connections you'll make in college.
I know I sound like I'm preaching, but going directly to work or to a vocational school would have been a terrible idea for me. I needed the time to mature and to see the rest of the world, having grown up in a small town. That may not be your scenario but consider this: without the ability to problem solve you'll neveer be more than a worker bee. If you can't critically think you'll never move past middle management or be able to start your own business. We all think we know everything in High School but the reality of it is that you're barely a quarter of the way there. My freshmen year of college must have accounted for then the next 25%. I learned so much about myself, my life, and what I wanted to do.
In summary: go to college. Your life is more than just a job. I swear that, if you take the time to go to the right place and try the right stuff the end result will be success. Even if you go and hate it-- at least you know you tried it!
Oh, and when you're done, do some travelling. I didn't get to, so I'm 25 and still never been to Europe.
"The files will be copy-protected in some way, using Microsoft's digital rights management encryption technology."
Hahahahahahahaha (wipe tears from eyes) Hahahahaha.
Microsoft and digital rights. OMG, that has to be a mis-print. Tell me it's a mis-print. I can't laugh enough about the irony. And honest to god, does anyone want to take a bet how many hours it will take to crack the code and spread it throughout the world? I'm thinking less than one work day.
Okay. Suppose I have $40 Billion in the back and decide I would like to buy every professional sports team in the US. How does my bank deal with that? I mean, it's not like you could ever have access to $40 in a single withdrawl. I suppose they have many banks and many accounts...
http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInqu iry.asp?userid=0DZTYC0CAN&mscssid=NL38K8FKPLVT8HJ8 75NGN49A4A9N2W9D&isbn=0399144463
She could learn a thing or two from this book. When the cheese moves, Mrs. Rosen, you move TO IT. Not the other way around!
I agree that the launches of PS1 and PS2 were less than stellar, but they were decent. They weren't as bad as X-Box which has _no_ killer apps. None. Not a single one. Halo is getting there, but as usual Microsoft has no concept of branding... they have no lovable characters and no memorable ones. PS1/PS2 do.
I dont' think the PS2's graphics are bad, either. I think they're amazing. I have a ton of games and have YET to be dissapointed. They're not flat at all. Don't know where you got that one. To be honest, it's really easy to push a lot of polygons to a measly 768 x 480 screen... it's what you do with those polys that counts. Game consoles, and computers, are sold primarily on the quality of the game which is a direct effect of the ability of the developers to use the hardware in an efficient and clever way. Don't count on Microsoft to be efficient and clever.
You could always use the 800 pound gorilla arguement-- that Microsoft will eventually crush the competition. But allow me to retort. Microsoft has made several blunders lately and people are sick of them. They can see through it now and are considering other options. Additionally, Sony is a 900 pound gorilla and will monkey-stomp the competition into submission. Look at the memory stick. They STILL haven't given up on it.
Let me save you from reading the article. His whole arguement is cost. Yes, we know they're more expensive. Next...
Great... now instead of 2 smaller, crappy companies we have 1 big crappy company. Oh goody, goody.
Way too often, experience at a job is misguided into management. Just because someone knows how to do their job well doesn't mean they make good management. Simple. And the worst part of this are the smaller companies who have the "buddy system" in place-- they're all friends and their judgement is affected.
I think it comes down to your ability to make a stand and say "no" to obsurd management decisions, because here is what happens: You do all of the work, they make all of the money. Sound fair? Nope. Don't jump ship because your job is just hard, jump ship when the management starts doing one of these:
Okay, I don't like Window's, but at least it's a viable choice for a consumer OS. For god's sake, what is a person who can't afford (and likely not know how to use) a computer do with Linux? I know you can save some cash, but at the expense of usability and application base.
They should just buy droves of iMac's and make everyone's like easier. No one will ever agree about the OS, but the Mac is by far the easiest to use out of the box, it's highy reliable (software and hardware) and it's not that expensive.
Some people have been saying the video is fake because certain portions are not "moving" with other elements. While I am just as skeptical as others it is important to note how temporal compression works in video codecs. Essentially, areas that do not change location or value by enough, based on a given threshold or compression rate, will not change. In general, this is done in square chunks. So if that text is small enough and not moving enough, it will not move in the movie-- thus saving space in the movie size by not changing redundant pixels. The reason why the outside may be moving is because it's larger on screen and has a higher contrast between the edges... and may lie on the "box" edges of the compression codec.
Then again, it could be a fancy video editing trick. I saw the videos and it appears strange why the clip the video's when they do. If they wanted to make a stronger case they would have longer clips and continuous UI change. It could be a series of composites...