There is this thing called the internet which contains a lot of information. Eg you can find information of which PSP firmware version a game requires before you buy it.
I think it's safe to assume that the Eu market will soon crack that firmware.
Unless the new PSP firmware was designed with formal verification. In that case, you'd need to find space inside the case to install a modchip.
Yeah, I bet they added something like formal verification in a firmware update. There are a lot easier ways to secure the system than this. I kind of doubt it's even relevant.
Besides even if the end result is a modchip that seems like a reasonable price to pay for future gaming pleasures. (I'd settle for something like a dual BIOS, which allowed me to switch between firmware versions.)
Oh and *plonk*. Last Word Fallacy?
It's old usenet slang for "welcome to my killfile".
I didn't say I was playing for 12 hours straight... I was problably playing for about 4 hours and I had battery left when I got home.
If you had been on such a flight you'd probably know that a lot of the time you spend eating, trying to sleep or just being uncomfortable.
BTW I don't own any UMD movies, I just encode DVDs or avi's. The reason I can afford it all is because I actually have a job (hence the 12 hour flights) and so I'm not a pennyless hippy.
The PSP's battery life is so short that it's not really all _that_ portable. For example, it probably won't be able to keep me entertained for the length of a long flight. I have used my PSP on several flights (two which were 12 hours+) without needing the extra battery I borrowed anytime. During that time I spent most of the time with it watching movies (the screen on my PSP is a lot better than the inflight entertainment systems have).
You may have a lot of flight longer than that, but if you bring an extra battery you should be fine.
Or you just bought an early PSP? (I have a 1.0 BTW.)
And just as a quick information for anyone worried about the FUD above. The PSP/WILL NOT/ upgrade your PSP automatically. It will simply refuse to play the game until you upgrade. (I have tested this myself.)
Furthermore the PSP/WILL NOT/ allow you to upgrade unless you are plugged into a wall socket. So unless you always play with the PSP plugged in you don't need to worry.
Finally, since the PSP was resently released in Eu with 2.0 firmware I think it's safe to assume that the Eu market will soon crack that firmware. There hasn't been all that much incentive before since most people who wanted homebrew just didn't upgrade.
In one sentence you suggest using a DS for homebrew and in the next you imply that the PSP is bad since you have to rip/encode movies to watch on it. Pretty nice case of double-think if you ask me.
To me the PSP comes out on top wrt homebrew (a lot more of it), screen, video/music and pure power. The DS comes out on top wrt interesting add-ons (mic, touchscreen, dualscreen). Both are pretty inadequate wrt actual games. (There are plenty for both, but not that much that actually warrant a purchase.)
For completeness sake, there is one for PSP too. And it allows you to play in full-screen mode. Hell the SCUMMVM games look better on my PSP than my PC.
Personally I think it's a toss-up between the two. IMHO both have a few games that are interesting but not enough to really warrant a purchase.
I only have a PSP so far but I use it more for homebrew (ScummVM baby!) and movies (great for long flights) than actual gaming.
For me a huge gorgeous screen on the PSP coupled with it's pretty damned powerful processor is more "innovative" than microphone and touchscreen. My Palm has had that for quite a while, I want something new.
In the end I'll likely get a DS as well. But I may actually pick up an extra PSP before that (white, 2.0 so I can play new games without losing out on the homebrew).
I haven't checked this thread in a while so I recon you won't see this. But someone might come to my aid.
I just picked out the old machine and loaded it up again.
First off, I have pretty much 0 movies in MPEG format. And I can't say I have had any in the last 3-4 years. So that it can play those directly is pretty moot. But it's not that much of a bother to transcode (I do it for my PSP all the time).
However at least in my Clie I have Netfront version 3.0 in it which does not handle ftp. In fact it can't even load the Slashdot main page without running out of memory.
In summary it's a POS like most other apps I've found on Palm devices. For Christs sake my bloody mobile phone (not even a smart phone) can load Slashdot. Why the hell can't a palmtop do it?
If anyone has a good tip on an alternative (working) browser for a Palm I'd love to get tips.
As it stands now I have to reiterate that PalmOS dying is about bloody time. It should have been scrapped years ago.
Yes but you still need an application doing the actual load-balancing. That may be built in or not; but it still has to exist.
And I imagine that if you have a complex site with dynamic content from a database you'll still need to optimise your design to get as much use as possible from the load balancing.
First off, it's not entirely clear what you want to do with it. If you want load balancing then that's one problem. If you want parallel batch processing (such as rendering farms or compiling) then that's another problem. And for the really juicy stuff, ie running a normal application distributed on multiple computers then that is a third, and very different problem.
But all of them require that you add something to the original program which distributes the work (load balancing/render farms). If you want your original program to run in parallel then that is a much harder problem to solve. Basically you'll have to remake it into something like the above.
The last problem would basically require the computer to extract threads out of your code. This is pretty much impossible to do automatically though.
Well, I've seen some things like this but AFAIK nothing that has been confirmed to work. The one hack I've heard about required you to have two PSPs and then playing with the flash memory directly.
The one "downgrade" firmware I've seen was a hoax.
I think that for many things the basic PalmOS is good at has now been replaced with mobile phones. And I don't mean smart phones but normal feature phones.
My phone handles contact and appointments. For notes I can use dictaphone or type in short messages with T9.
The battery time isn't as good if I want to use it to phone with as well. OTOH I have chargers available at most places so I seldom have a problem of running out of battery.
Oh, and my phone (SonyEricsson T630) is about a quarter of the size of a Palm device.
This is pretty much my experience as well. I got a Sony Clie UX50 (clamshell Palm with real qwerty keyboard) last summer. I was quite surprised to find that the Palm software culture was something of Win32 shareware "give me money!" on steroids.
On paper the device was really good. It can play MP3s and video (re-encoded naturally). It has built in WiFi (11b) and Bluetooth. And, as I stated, a real keyboard.
Problem is that the MP3 player was broken, in accordance to Palm standards (We don't need no steenkin' file system!) it couldn't handle folders. The movie player requires that files are in the magic folder with magic filenames. (The same is true for PSP btw, probably due to some power moran over at Sony.)
You could install some programs on it, but as I mentioned above everyone required payment for their crappy utilities. The FTP client I tried cost $15 and couldn't handle folders.
That's about when I gave up and realised that in order to get a working system I'd need to put a loooot of money into it.
It works fine as a WiFi WWW browser. And with fine I mean "As long as you don't need anything advanced". I would love to flash it with a basic Linux distro so I could actually put programs that worked on it instead.
Palm should have ditched their crappy OS many years ago and concentrated on GUI stuff. With Linux/BSD under the hood they may still have mattered today.
You can read them online for free (reg required) at Gamasutra. As I've understood it it's the online version of GDM. (Not sure if they have all the articles from GDM though.)
I have to say though that this post-mortem was a bit dissapointing as it was only a report on a PM. It wasn't written by the developers themselves and thus lacked any content.
Eg they mention that they added a scripting language, but not which language or any details about it.
its the availablity of homebrews. that and the huge amounts of pirated software thats available for it. its the same reason why the xbox sold well with the "computer power users" You can't play homebrew on the 2.0 machines being sold in Eu.
That's what stopping me from updating my 1.0. (I even considered buying a new PSP just to play the latest games on. In Japan they are pretty damned cheap compared to here.)
Twin DLP projectors mounted on the ceiling, projecting onto a custom curved surface ultra-wide screen (like a section from a huge torus - there is a company that makes these for theaters, but you could probably custom build it as well).
That would require special optical lenses on the projectors. Normal projectors are designed to focus on a flat screen, if you want to project onto something not flat you need a lens that can match the curvature of your screen.
While you may still be able to buy licences for the old games id has gone on record for waiting until all licenced games are out of "sales period" (basically a few years) before they release their source.
This is naturally in order to not piss off their customers.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, I bet they added something like formal verification in a firmware update. There are a lot easier ways to secure the system than this. I kind of doubt it's even relevant.
Besides even if the end result is a modchip that seems like a reasonable price to pay for future gaming pleasures. (I'd settle for something like a dual BIOS, which allowed me to switch between firmware versions.)
It's old usenet slang for "welcome to my killfile".
I didn't say I was playing for 12 hours straight... I was problably playing for about 4 hours and I had battery left when I got home.
If you had been on such a flight you'd probably know that a lot of the time you spend eating, trying to sleep or just being uncomfortable.
BTW I don't own any UMD movies, I just encode DVDs or avi's. The reason I can afford it all is because I actually have a job (hence the 12 hour flights) and so I'm not a pennyless hippy.
The PSP's battery life is so short that it's not really all _that_ portable. For example, it probably won't be able to keep me entertained for the length of a long flight.
I have used my PSP on several flights (two which were 12 hours+) without needing the extra battery I borrowed anytime. During that time I spent most of the time with it watching movies (the screen on my PSP is a lot better than the inflight entertainment systems have).
You may have a lot of flight longer than that, but if you bring an extra battery you should be fine.
Or you just bought an early PSP? (I have a 1.0 BTW.)
/WILL NOT/ upgrade your PSP automatically. It will simply refuse to play the game until you upgrade. (I have tested this myself.)
/WILL NOT/ allow you to upgrade unless you are plugged into a wall socket. So unless you always play with the PSP plugged in you don't need to worry.
And just as a quick information for anyone worried about the FUD above. The PSP
Furthermore the PSP
Finally, since the PSP was resently released in Eu with 2.0 firmware I think it's safe to assume that the Eu market will soon crack that firmware. There hasn't been all that much incentive before since most people who wanted homebrew just didn't upgrade.
Oh and *plonk*.
Yes because we all know that Slashdot is the only source of gaming news on the internet. Either that or there are like 50-bajillion other sites.
Yes yes, I've been trolled and stuff.
In one sentence you suggest using a DS for homebrew and in the next you imply that the PSP is bad since you have to rip/encode movies to watch on it. Pretty nice case of double-think if you ask me.
To me the PSP comes out on top wrt homebrew (a lot more of it), screen, video/music and pure power. The DS comes out on top wrt interesting add-ons (mic, touchscreen, dualscreen). Both are pretty inadequate wrt actual games. (There are plenty for both, but not that much that actually warrant a purchase.)
For completeness sake, there is one for PSP too. And it allows you to play in full-screen mode. Hell the SCUMMVM games look better on my PSP than my PC.
Personally I think it's a toss-up between the two. IMHO both have a few games that are interesting but not enough to really warrant a purchase.
I only have a PSP so far but I use it more for homebrew (ScummVM baby!) and movies (great for long flights) than actual gaming.
For me a huge gorgeous screen on the PSP coupled with it's pretty damned powerful processor is more "innovative" than microphone and touchscreen. My Palm has had that for quite a while, I want something new.
In the end I'll likely get a DS as well. But I may actually pick up an extra PSP before that (white, 2.0 so I can play new games without losing out on the homebrew).
Or it may be that it just turns the console into sleep mode. So when you press power again it turns on at the same place.
I haven't checked this thread in a while so I recon you won't see this. But someone might come to my aid.
I just picked out the old machine and loaded it up again.
First off, I have pretty much 0 movies in MPEG format. And I can't say I have had any in the last 3-4 years. So that it can play those directly is pretty moot. But it's not that much of a bother to transcode (I do it for my PSP all the time).
However at least in my Clie I have Netfront version 3.0 in it which does not handle ftp. In fact it can't even load the Slashdot main page without running out of memory.
In summary it's a POS like most other apps I've found on Palm devices. For Christs sake my bloody mobile phone (not even a smart phone) can load Slashdot. Why the hell can't a palmtop do it?
If anyone has a good tip on an alternative (working) browser for a Palm I'd love to get tips.
As it stands now I have to reiterate that PalmOS dying is about bloody time. It should have been scrapped years ago.
There is a launch title list at the main site.
Just look for it - or perhaps, use Google.
Yes but you still need an application doing the actual load-balancing. That may be built in or not; but it still has to exist.
And I imagine that if you have a complex site with dynamic content from a database you'll still need to optimise your design to get as much use as possible from the load balancing.
First off, it's not entirely clear what you want to do with it. If you want load balancing then that's one problem. If you want parallel batch processing (such as rendering farms or compiling) then that's another problem. And for the really juicy stuff, ie running a normal application distributed on multiple computers then that is a third, and very different problem.
But all of them require that you add something to the original program which distributes the work (load balancing/render farms). If you want your original program to run in parallel then that is a much harder problem to solve. Basically you'll have to remake it into something like the above.
The last problem would basically require the computer to extract threads out of your code. This is pretty much impossible to do automatically though.
No they are not fish powered, I hear then run on Petrosaurses. Very very dead ones.
Oh it's a new kind of music alright. More specifically it's a new kind of crappy music.
Well, I've seen some things like this but AFAIK nothing that has been confirmed to work. The one hack I've heard about required you to have two PSPs and then playing with the flash memory directly.
The one "downgrade" firmware I've seen was a hoax.
I think that for many things the basic PalmOS is good at has now been replaced with mobile phones. And I don't mean smart phones but normal feature phones.
My phone handles contact and appointments. For notes I can use dictaphone or type in short messages with T9.
The battery time isn't as good if I want to use it to phone with as well. OTOH I have chargers available at most places so I seldom have a problem of running out of battery.
Oh, and my phone (SonyEricsson T630) is about a quarter of the size of a Palm device.
This is pretty much my experience as well. I got a Sony Clie UX50 (clamshell Palm with real qwerty keyboard) last summer. I was quite surprised to find that the Palm software culture was something of Win32 shareware "give me money!" on steroids.
On paper the device was really good. It can play MP3s and video (re-encoded naturally). It has built in WiFi (11b) and Bluetooth. And, as I stated, a real keyboard.
Problem is that the MP3 player was broken, in accordance to Palm standards (We don't need no steenkin' file system!) it couldn't handle folders. The movie player requires that files are in the magic folder with magic filenames. (The same is true for PSP btw, probably due to some power moran over at Sony.)
You could install some programs on it, but as I mentioned above everyone required payment for their crappy utilities. The FTP client I tried cost $15 and couldn't handle folders.
That's about when I gave up and realised that in order to get a working system I'd need to put a loooot of money into it.
It works fine as a WiFi WWW browser. And with fine I mean "As long as you don't need anything advanced". I would love to flash it with a basic Linux distro so I could actually put programs that worked on it instead.
Palm should have ditched their crappy OS many years ago and concentrated on GUI stuff. With Linux/BSD under the hood they may still have mattered today.
I believe it's possible to run later versions of Firefox with full SVG support in the browser.
That should give you some alternatives to pure Flash.
You can read them online for free (reg required) at Gamasutra. As I've understood it it's the online version of GDM. (Not sure if they have all the articles from GDM though.)
I have to say though that this post-mortem was a bit dissapointing as it was only a report on a PM. It wasn't written by the developers themselves and thus lacked any content.
Eg they mention that they added a scripting language, but not which language or any details about it.
its the availablity of homebrews. that and the huge amounts of pirated software thats available for it. its the same reason why the xbox sold well with the "computer power users"
You can't play homebrew on the 2.0 machines being sold in Eu.
That's what stopping me from updating my 1.0. (I even considered buying a new PSP just to play the latest games on. In Japan they are pretty damned cheap compared to here.)
Cg doesn't replace DirectX nor OpenGL. It replaces the native shader languages used in these two however (HLSL and GLSL respectively).
If you do an application with Cg you will most likely use OpenGL or D3D for the rest of the engine.
ScummVM is ported to the PSP too. It works really good on the big PSP screen.
;-)
And I'd say that running an x86 emulator is quite a bit more neat than running a homebrew app. It's just not as useful.
That would require special optical lenses on the projectors. Normal projectors are designed to focus on a flat screen, if you want to project onto something not flat you need a lens that can match the curvature of your screen.
While you may still be able to buy licences for the old games id has gone on record for waiting until all licenced games are out of "sales period" (basically a few years) before they release their source.
This is naturally in order to not piss off their customers.