Re:I was at E3 and gaming journalism is broken
on
Inside the Xbox 360
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· Score: 1
Actually you can get HDTVs in Eu now. Most of them in the form of LCD-TVs though. And a couple of channels will begin transmitting HDTV in Eu during the autumn. (At least in Sweden. But I believe some other countries are doing it as well.)
1) As has been pointed out (multiple times) use BT with your mobile phone. 2) How would you talk into that in any case? It would make people using the Ngage look hip and cool in comparison.
And good riddance to it. Personally I find it a bonus that it doesn't have a phone in it. I laready have phones that have BT, I don't need another one.
And it allows the platform to be more open than if you have to adhere to the strict rules for mobile phones.
For me the inclusion of a phone would have ment no-sale. This way it seems interesting.
He's not particularly clued in on game engines neither:
Valve implemented dynamic lights, vertex lighting and light maps, and even High Dynamic Range lighting, an advanced feature in digital photography. There are a few professional cameras able to capture HDR images, and you can imagine the difficulty in reproducing it. (see Greg Downing, see HDR SHOP).
1) All non-POS cameras can produce HDR images. You just need to take multiple images.
2) Adding HDR to a game is quite trivial (it's pretty much like changing the definition of a pixel from uint8 to float). Making it run well is harder, but that's the job of the gfx card. In reality HDR in games is a lot easier than in reality as you are generating the data yourself. You just have to decide which dynamic range you want.
Currently "HDR" in games mean "a lot of bloom". I haven't seen a game that uses tonal mapping in order to make the effect "better" for the gamer.
It isn't unethical if those people are just free riders. What if that $9 billion in profit was mostly because of the work of the people who didn't get laid off?? Is it ethical to to keep on extra people who aren't really contributing to that profit at the expense of those who are doing the hard work?? Say you run a hard project for a few months and get a good product in the end. Puring that time you have to push the team hard in order to get finished on time. After that you fire the coders as they are now "not needed" and "dead wood".
Does that seem reasonable to you?
Re:Reduce expenses by cutting executive salaries?
on
IBM Europe Workers Strike
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
First off, Europe is not one country with identical rules. I live and work in Sweden and we have 40 hour weeks. There are weeks when I work more than that, and not many that I work less. OTOH I get paid for the overtime I put in. That seems somewhat optional in the US (re articles about working at EA studios).
In addition to my long vacation each year, when I get childen I have the opportunity to take time off work to spend time with them during their first years.
Besides it would be interesting to see some research regarding if more than 40 hours work week 50 weeks a year actually produces more in the long run. I do kind of doubt it.
Life is short and it shouldn't be wasted on holiday. It should be spent with family first and at work on something meaningful second. God forbid that you should spend you holiday or extra time off with your family.
Currently economics is limited since it only place value on the bottom line. There is no concept of getting more work out of your employees since they are not over-worked and content with their life. I'm sure the rest of the world will catch up to European life-standards sooner or later.
Becuase it isn't true? The reason BT is fast and eMule is slow is because eMule has a horrendously complex queue system.
Tracking is only used to a find whom to download from. The actual downloading comes later and that is where BT is fast and eMule is slow. In fact, eMule is quite good at finding other users to download from.
Xbox Media Center is not the same thing as a Windows Media Center Extender. Quite apparently you haven't used it.
XBMC is what all of these other companies are trying to do. The only problem is that it requires you to mod your XBox. (Though soft-modding is sufficient.)
For instance, if an online publisher provides a torrent option, the browser could automatically + silently use BT instead of the usual http or ftp. That's not how those extentions work. You still have to provide separate links for HTTP or FTP (or torrents). It's just that with torrents you donwload the.torrent file over HTTP/FTP and then route that to the Bittorrent client.
There are some big fileservers for gaming (ie demos, patches, preview-movies etc) that use Torrents.
Basically I fail to see what an extention/plugin would solve that can't be solved with the current system.
Each device can only be Master in one piconet. And last I looked there were no chipsets that handled scatter-nets properly. (Ie having a device be master in one piconet and client in another.)
IOW if they wanted more than 7 devices they'd need multiple Bluetooth adaptors. And I believe they really don't expect more than 4 players per game. But this allows you to keep other devices (Eye-toy etc) hooked up while you play 4 player games.
Added bonus is that it seems to support PSP to link with it. So each player has one screen (on PSP) plus two common ones. Seems like it would be possible to do some neat things with this.
Unfortunately I doubt all that many games will support it all out. Since not many end users will have multiple screens hooked up to it. Most likely it will suffer just like multi-head gaming on the PC has.
BTW 7 controllers is probably only because Bluetooth per default support 8 devices per pico-net. Of those one is the host device, hence 7 controller devices.
I do agree that in many cases people that download the show will keep on downloading the show instead of watching on TV. The reason being that that is most likely the easiest way for them. (Or for many of us the only way since no channels around here has bothered to pick up the show yet.)
However, I think the point with the article was that people that download the show tip their not so clued in friends to watch the show (on TV). That's where the bonus effect is.
Naturally the problem here is that any show worth watching also requires you to watch from the beginning. So that means that you need to get the first few eps from your clued in pal. Or wait for the DVDs to arrive. I can personally say that most of the TV shows I've bought on DVD I had watched before by downloading. I'm no longer interested in watching shows on TV one or several years after they have been first broadcasted. Then I might as well pick up a DVD set.
I do know that the Swedish channel TV4 had problems with airing of the "new" show Lost as many had already seen it before by downloading from the net. This show was shown only half a year after the US premiere which is quite extraordinary. Usually it takes at least one year.
The problem is that they could have shown it at the same time as the original broadcast. It's not as if they were making the show ep by ep before but they are just not gutsy enough and want to wait to see the initial reaction before making a bet. Now I'm sure that it would have cost a lot of money for them to show the series right away; but perhaps that business model of charging a lot for shows to other channels isn't particularly valid anymore. And perhaps the Swedish channel would have lost less money by going the direct route anyways.
Basically there are many problems involved in this. That people are downloading shows from the net is more or less only because current situation with global TV distribution sucks.
I know that sounds dumb, but Sci-Fi makes most of their revenue from that, but I personally will continue to download the episodes simply because I don't care
But they don't actually measure how many has watched the commersials. They only ask people if they have seen the show and are then able to set the rates after that.
So if you do get a call where they want to ask you about your TV watching habits and they ask if you have seen Battlestar Galactica you say "Yes!". You don't say "No because I downloaded it from the net."
In the article they also mention that this is basically a warm up for the people on the next NG team as they will move on to that after this.
Paying for addons is not really something that is new with NG. Quite a few games (particularly console games as it's hard to make them upgradeable) have add-on packs you can buy.
Why not see it as a great opportunity for new players to get into the game? Besides it was over a year ago that it was released, so it's not really a new game anyways. They pretty much state that this is to give those that don't have Live the opportunity to get the same content (and some other new stuff) from the store. The people that should be annoyed are those that bought the game and the upgrades. OTOH they probably enjoy the game enough not to be bothered by it.
It says right in the second paragraph that it will be at a discounted price. Besides that you can try and sell your old copy as you get the new one.
Besides it seems like the people that will buy it again are most likely fans and don't mind that. Or you can just get most of the stuff over Live if you feel that's a better deal.
We're not talking photoshopped mockups here, this would take even a group of people A LOT of time to do, and even then seems like a lot of trouble to go and you don't even spread it around to a lot of places.
It looks a bit like a normal demo. I bet quite a lot of the normal demo folk would be able to throw something like that together.
Besides it looks more like it will be an accessory to the GC and Revolution rather than the Revolution itself. There is even a picture of it being connected to two boxes where one is labelled GC and the other "?".
I have the Logitech controller for XBox and IMHO it's better to the Wavebird in every way. Easier to hold, better layout and rumble effect. I guess the one point where the Wavebird wins is battery; but since the Logitech lasts a couple of months per battery set that isn't really a problem for me.
And just FYI, I played through about half of Ninja Gaiden with that controller (the first part I played with the standard controller). If it's possible to play through NG without noticing any lag then I think it's safe to say that there isn't any lag.
Only the first drive, from Thomson, had that problem. I haven't heard of anyone buying an XBox in the last few years that have had the problem.
Re:Audio processesing using the GPU
on
GPU Gems 2
·
· Score: 1
I don't think you understand just what a processing monster current GPUs are. Basically you put a bunch of vector processors on a chip with very fast memory tied to it. These GPUs are typically on the same scale or slightly larger than a normal CPU. Now tell me how a general purpose CPU is going to compete with that?
No you will never format rows in Word using a GPU. But if you are into scientific processing it would seem a reasonable investment. Even if CPUs eventually take back the dominance you'll have a head start by having made a lot of parallell/vectorized code.
And just to be clear. I wouldn't trust any of the propaganda regarding the Cell until we can see it ourselves.
Modern integrated cameras are pretty close to low-/mid-end digital cameras. These phones have 2MPx cameras with optical focus and in some cases zoom. The pictures produced are good enough to be printed on a normal photo-paper.
As far as MP3s are concerned most newer models take some sort of memory card. Just copy the music over and pop it in and you have music on the move. Even the iPod/iShuffle can't do that (ie copy without iTunes).
The question isn't if the integrated cell phone is the best solution. The question is if it's good enough.
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Actually you can get HDTVs in Eu now. Most of them in the form of LCD-TVs though. And a couple of channels will begin transmitting HDTV in Eu during the autumn. (At least in Sweden. But I believe some other countries are doing it as well.)
Only if people aren't desparate enough to get a job. Look at the gaming industry for instance, they seem to be using up people at an alarming rate.
I'd compare it to devices like the Sony U50/U70. Only those don't have Bluetooth. (And are only available in Japan.)
1) As has been pointed out (multiple times) use BT with your mobile phone.
2) How would you talk into that in any case? It would make people using the Ngage look hip and cool in comparison.
And good riddance to it. Personally I find it a bonus that it doesn't have a phone in it. I laready have phones that have BT, I don't need another one.
And it allows the platform to be more open than if you have to adhere to the strict rules for mobile phones.
For me the inclusion of a phone would have ment no-sale. This way it seems interesting.
1) All non-POS cameras can produce HDR images. You just need to take multiple images.
2) Adding HDR to a game is quite trivial (it's pretty much like changing the definition of a pixel from uint8 to float). Making it run well is harder, but that's the job of the gfx card. In reality HDR in games is a lot easier than in reality as you are generating the data yourself. You just have to decide which dynamic range you want.
Currently "HDR" in games mean "a lot of bloom". I haven't seen a game that uses tonal mapping in order to make the effect "better" for the gamer.
It isn't unethical if those people are just free riders. What if that $9 billion in profit was mostly because of the work of the people who didn't get laid off?? Is it ethical to to keep on extra people who aren't really contributing to that profit at the expense of those who are doing the hard work??
Say you run a hard project for a few months and get a good product in the end. Puring that time you have to push the team hard in order to get finished on time. After that you fire the coders as they are now "not needed" and "dead wood".
Does that seem reasonable to you?
First off, Europe is not one country with identical rules. I live and work in Sweden and we have 40 hour weeks. There are weeks when I work more than that, and not many that I work less. OTOH I get paid for the overtime I put in. That seems somewhat optional in the US (re articles about working at EA studios).
In addition to my long vacation each year, when I get childen I have the opportunity to take time off work to spend time with them during their first years.
Besides it would be interesting to see some research regarding if more than 40 hours work week 50 weeks a year actually produces more in the long run. I do kind of doubt it.
Life is short and it shouldn't be wasted on holiday. It should be spent with family first and at work on something meaningful second.
God forbid that you should spend you holiday or extra time off with your family.
Currently economics is limited since it only place value on the bottom line. There is no concept of getting more work out of your employees since they are not over-worked and content with their life. I'm sure the rest of the world will catch up to European life-standards sooner or later.
Becuase it isn't true? The reason BT is fast and eMule is slow is because eMule has a horrendously complex queue system.
Tracking is only used to a find whom to download from. The actual downloading comes later and that is where BT is fast and eMule is slow. In fact, eMule is quite good at finding other users to download from.
Xbox Media Center is not the same thing as a Windows Media Center Extender. Quite apparently you haven't used it.
XBMC is what all of these other companies are trying to do. The only problem is that it requires you to mod your XBox. (Though soft-modding is sufficient.)
Arachno Spores - A leathal spore, with a funny name.
Soylent Chow - It's a Dog eat Dog world.
For instance, if an online publisher provides a torrent option, the browser could automatically + silently use BT instead of the usual http or ftp. .torrent file over HTTP/FTP and then route that to the Bittorrent client.
That's not how those extentions work. You still have to provide separate links for HTTP or FTP (or torrents). It's just that with torrents you donwload the
There are some big fileservers for gaming (ie demos, patches, preview-movies etc) that use Torrents.
Basically I fail to see what an extention/plugin would solve that can't be solved with the current system.
Besides that it doesn't take 2 weeks to download a file.
Yeah yeah, I know that's a bit trollish. But in my experience the best part with torrents is that they are fast and that they work.
Each device can only be Master in one piconet. And last I looked there were no chipsets that handled scatter-nets properly. (Ie having a device be master in one piconet and client in another.)
IOW if they wanted more than 7 devices they'd need multiple Bluetooth adaptors. And I believe they really don't expect more than 4 players per game. But this allows you to keep other devices (Eye-toy etc) hooked up while you play 4 player games.
Added bonus is that it seems to support PSP to link with it. So each player has one screen (on PSP) plus two common ones. Seems like it would be possible to do some neat things with this.
Unfortunately I doubt all that many games will support it all out. Since not many end users will have multiple screens hooked up to it. Most likely it will suffer just like multi-head gaming on the PC has.
BTW 7 controllers is probably only because Bluetooth per default support 8 devices per pico-net. Of those one is the host device, hence 7 controller devices.
That should be "difference between a terrorist and a freedom fighter".
I do agree that in many cases people that download the show will keep on downloading the show instead of watching on TV. The reason being that that is most likely the easiest way for them. (Or for many of us the only way since no channels around here has bothered to pick up the show yet.)
However, I think the point with the article was that people that download the show tip their not so clued in friends to watch the show (on TV). That's where the bonus effect is.
Naturally the problem here is that any show worth watching also requires you to watch from the beginning. So that means that you need to get the first few eps from your clued in pal. Or wait for the DVDs to arrive. I can personally say that most of the TV shows I've bought on DVD I had watched before by downloading. I'm no longer interested in watching shows on TV one or several years after they have been first broadcasted. Then I might as well pick up a DVD set.
I do know that the Swedish channel TV4 had problems with airing of the "new" show Lost as many had already seen it before by downloading from the net. This show was shown only half a year after the US premiere which is quite extraordinary. Usually it takes at least one year.
The problem is that they could have shown it at the same time as the original broadcast. It's not as if they were making the show ep by ep before but they are just not gutsy enough and want to wait to see the initial reaction before making a bet. Now I'm sure that it would have cost a lot of money for them to show the series right away; but perhaps that business model of charging a lot for shows to other channels isn't particularly valid anymore. And perhaps the Swedish channel would have lost less money by going the direct route anyways.
Basically there are many problems involved in this. That people are downloading shows from the net is more or less only because current situation with global TV distribution sucks.
I know that sounds dumb, but Sci-Fi makes most of their revenue from that, but I personally will continue to download the episodes simply because I don't care
But they don't actually measure how many has watched the commersials. They only ask people if they have seen the show and are then able to set the rates after that.
So if you do get a call where they want to ask you about your TV watching habits and they ask if you have seen Battlestar Galactica you say "Yes!". You don't say "No because I downloaded it from the net."
In the article they also mention that this is basically a warm up for the people on the next NG team as they will move on to that after this.
Paying for addons is not really something that is new with NG. Quite a few games (particularly console games as it's hard to make them upgradeable) have add-on packs you can buy.
Why not see it as a great opportunity for new players to get into the game? Besides it was over a year ago that it was released, so it's not really a new game anyways. They pretty much state that this is to give those that don't have Live the opportunity to get the same content (and some other new stuff) from the store. The people that should be annoyed are those that bought the game and the upgrades. OTOH they probably enjoy the game enough not to be bothered by it.
It says right in the second paragraph that it will be at a discounted price. Besides that you can try and sell your old copy as you get the new one.
Besides it seems like the people that will buy it again are most likely fans and don't mind that. Or you can just get most of the stuff over Live if you feel that's a better deal.
We're not talking photoshopped mockups here, this would take even a group of people A LOT of time to do, and even then seems like a lot of trouble to go and you don't even spread it around to a lot of places.
It looks a bit like a normal demo. I bet quite a lot of the normal demo folk would be able to throw something like that together.
Besides it looks more like it will be an accessory to the GC and Revolution rather than the Revolution itself. There is even a picture of it being connected to two boxes where one is labelled GC and the other "?".
Personally I think it's fake.
I have the Logitech controller for XBox and IMHO it's better to the Wavebird in every way. Easier to hold, better layout and rumble effect. I guess the one point where the Wavebird wins is battery; but since the Logitech lasts a couple of months per battery set that isn't really a problem for me.
And just FYI, I played through about half of Ninja Gaiden with that controller (the first part I played with the standard controller). If it's possible to play through NG without noticing any lag then I think it's safe to say that there isn't any lag.
Only the first drive, from Thomson, had that problem. I haven't heard of anyone buying an XBox in the last few years that have had the problem.
I don't think you understand just what a processing monster current GPUs are. Basically you put a bunch of vector processors on a chip with very fast memory tied to it. These GPUs are typically on the same scale or slightly larger than a normal CPU. Now tell me how a general purpose CPU is going to compete with that?
No you will never format rows in Word using a GPU. But if you are into scientific processing it would seem a reasonable investment. Even if CPUs eventually take back the dominance you'll have a head start by having made a lot of parallell/vectorized code.
And just to be clear. I wouldn't trust any of the propaganda regarding the Cell until we can see it ourselves.
Modern integrated cameras are pretty close to low-/mid-end digital cameras. These phones have 2MPx cameras with optical focus and in some cases zoom. The pictures produced are good enough to be printed on a normal photo-paper.
As far as MP3s are concerned most newer models take some sort of memory card. Just copy the music over and pop it in and you have music on the move. Even the iPod/iShuffle can't do that (ie copy without iTunes).
The question isn't if the integrated cell phone is the best solution. The question is if it's good enough.