The worst business decision was removing a feature. You can argue about how ever having Linux on the PS3 was a bad business decision but the point is they did it. Removal of the feature in the redesigned units was acceptable but they removed it from existing units.
Linux on the PS3 allowed Sony to have free publicity news articles every time a supercomputer was mentioned. They may not have made any direct profit on those units but they did get to benefit from economics of scale. Heck, this is a company that reports units sitting on store shelves as part of the installed userbase when telling developers the number of systems sold. It's almost a guarantee that they reported several thousand lab systems as well.
Then there are people like me who purchased a PS3 despite owning a 360 because I could use Linux on it; it taking the place of a Blu-ray player, game system, and a hobby computer in the crowded entertainment center. Sony made money from their 'bad' business decision from me.
I purchased a couple dozen games and several blu-ray discs before March's announcement of firmware 3.30. Since then, my PS3 is no longer a game system. I can't buy new games because they will demand new firmware. I can't even play some of the games I own due to no online support. Sony screwed me and everyone like me who was stupid enough to trust them.
Well no more. Removal of a feature in existing units is betrayal. I have been a Playstation customer since 9/9/1995 and it ended 4/1/2010. I tell people my story when they ask me about buying a game system (which is quite a few actually) and to date, Sony has lost at least 10 sales to Microsoft and Nintendo because of it. Now tell me again what the bad business decision was.
I've been envisioning a variation of standard first/third person shooter game that would be played with the standard controller but have Kinect support for altering the player's view based on their movements.
Can you imagine leaning to one side to look around a wall? Or ducking to get cover? I think something like this is needed to sell this thing to the gamers. Developers need to accentuate the existing controller interface and not try to replace it with flailing.
I only hope that Microsoft brought Johnny Chung Lee on board with the intension to do such a project. I'd be disappointed if he was just hired to help with Kinect Adventure or something.
There is no such thing as a Mac Pro G5. All Mac Pros use Intel CPUs and the G5 is a PowerPC chip. You're probably using a G5 PowerMac. That being said...
Adobe Flash was designed initially for use on Microsoft Windows systems running x86 CPUs. Although it has been ported to other platforms and architectures, its performance is still better on Windows than other OSes and magnitudes better on x86 than other CPUs. I've used Flash on a dual 2GHz G5 PowerMac and I can attest that it runs worse than a 1GHz Pentium III.
The iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad/AppleTV all use an ARM CPU, an ARM Cortex A8 to be more specific which is what the Motorola Droid uses, which means that Flash performance on the Apple iOS devices should be comparable to the Droid's. In other words, I wouldn't get your hopes up.
I remember this. The late 90s HP had this gem of an application that was a virtual fish and every time you printed a job to an HP printer it would give you credits to buy accessories and such for your fish tank. Our network printers saw a sufficient enough surge that we had to ban the application.
I'm guessing that it's a combination data and enhanced power connector that will be used for a single connection on the new units.
The Kinect camera bar will probably need two cables for operating on older 360 units; a USB connection to the console and an external power adapter. I'm guessing that the external power adapter will be shipping with kits but bundled systems will not include it.
I am happy to see more USB ports on the console especially since they are now being used for external memory.
Skies of Arcadia Legends plays just fine on the Wii. If you're an RPG fan who bought a Wii for Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy spinoffs then just find yourself a GC controller and memory card and you're all set.
This is a moot point of contention anyway as anyone on/. who owns a backwards compatible PS3 can no longer access PSN thanks to Sony removing OtherOS.
The good news? Nintendo is releasing Stack Up for the Wii.
The bad news? R.O.B. will cost around $50k.
I am so going to have fun when they release Gyromite. When one of those suckers gets loose it won't just destory your TV, it'll take out your entire living room.
I'm not entirely sure how easy it is to port code from the Dreamcast to the current consoles and even if it was automatic companies would still have to worry about testing and certification from both MS/Sony and the ESRB. That said, look for this popular form of shovelware to continue as long as it's profitable. Not that I really mind as getting classics to the masses is a good thing.:)
It's worth noting that MvC2 will be the fourth game ported from the Dreamcast to X360 with Rez, Soulcalibur, and Ikaruga being the others. It's also worth noting that Sega could be open to the idea as they have just released Outrun Online Arcade (Outrun 2) and are set to release Virtual-On soon; both not Dreamcast games but they do show that Sega sees a market here.
By the way, your want list is possible but I should make a few notes.
* Crazy Taxi would be awesome and would fit the DL game concept perfectly. If this happens, it will probably be very similar to Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars (Crazy Taxi 1 and 2) for the PSP where all the licensed music and store names are gone but online play has been added. Crazy Taxi 3 for the Xbox is still not compatible with the 360 and will probably remain an orphan.
* Jet Set Radio (by which you probably mean Jet Grind Radio) is a possibility but would probably have a few soundtrack changes due to licensing. The Xbox sequel Jet Set Radio Future is mostly compatible with the 360 and is available for dirt cheap through used retailers which would make a DL release unlikely.
* Shenmue probably wouldn't be worth Sega's effort for a DL release at this time. I'm pretty sure the series is dead and a DL release wouldn't likely sell enough to justify it. The sequel runs under BC... just not well.
* SSX Tricky is the only game on your list not from Sega. Electronic Arts seems to have forgotten about the series with the last news about SSX 4 was over four years ago. I do know that porting from PS2 code would definitely not be as easy as using Dreamcast code.
My additions would be:
* Power Stone 1 and 2 - Power Stone 2 in particular was a great party game and would fit the idea of DL games perfectly. This is probably the likeliest DC game that Capcom would port after MvC2.
* Tech Romancer - Its unknown so that makes it unlikely but come on Capcom, this should be an easy port.
* Pocket Fighter (aka Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix) - OK, this is not a DC game but since we got Puzzle Fighter it would seem logical.
Oh and the biggest one would not be from Capcom but back to Sega:
*Chu Chu Rocket - This should be released ASAP. To be honest, I can't think of a reason not to have this as a DL game unless they are planning a Wii release sometime soon.
I'm probably not their market then...
on
Piracy and the PSP
·
· Score: 1
I own a PSP and about 30 games. I'm seriously thinking of hacking mine to play games off of the memory stick. Why?
UMDs are fine with me. I don't mind the inconvenience of carrying them around as I'm only usually playing one game at a time. Plus the simple fact is that I maintain control of the game. They can't take it away.. which is likely why they are so hot to kill physical discs.
The UMD disc and the original PSP 1000 were designed together. Unfortunately with the PSP 2000 and 3000, the UMD slot pushes against the clear plastic instead of the outer white shell and can destroy the disc housing thus rendering the game unusable. I call foul.
So Sony can cry about pirates destroying their business. It obviously has nothing to do with the fact that there are only about 6 original games on the system, or that PS3 remote play is a joke (Seriously, try it if you want to see what OnLive looks like), or that you have to re-buy discs after the machine destroys them because their customer service sucks, or anything like that.
Oh and BTW I won't be purchasing any more games thanks to Patapon 2 being download only. Either announce that UMD is dead or give people their choice of DL or retail.
I wouldn't be surprised to see free discs & downloads of games where a car company makes a racing game
You wouldn't be surprised to know that Toyota did this with their Yaris game. It is a free download on Xbox Live.
The problem is that if you got it for free you still paid too much. I'm not saying that this type of thing can't work, I'm just saying that this particular example was a bad game.
While I'm a Linux zealot, I am willing to deploy Windows and MAC when I need to...
I'm glad that you're willing to deploy Media Access Control as your Internets wouldn't be of much use without them.
As a Linux zealot you should really know that unless you just end up using the friendly, easy to configure, do everything for you, *nix's like Ubuntu and Mac.
Youtube on the iPhone works because Google recompressed most, if not all, of the Flash (flv) videos to iPhone readable MPEG4 (mp4). It is my understanding that new videos uploaded to the service will automatically be stored as both mp4 and flv.
The iPhone hardware is capable of running Flash but doing so would create an unacceptable drain on the battery. mp4 playback isn't a problem because it is hardware accelerated.
Personally I would like to see Youtube's site on my desktop using the mp4 instead of Flash but that's not likely as requiring Flash allows for annoying ads as well.
Having the iPod be recognized as a USB mass storage device while still requiring custom software to load music onto it is a good design. The iPod works by reading a custom database that points to the actual music files on the device. The remaining space can be used for storage of files like a normal USB drive. I personally keep various utilities on mine including Floola.
I'm sure by looking at the box that you can see this it's not big enough to fit a normal CD in it. Also note that mini-CDs are not an option because most (if not all) slot loading Macintosh computers cannot use mini-CDs. I believe on the box it does say "Internet Connection Required" and you are posting to/. so this shouldn't be an issue.
Windows 98 is not supported. From the specification page: Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 2 or later For that matter, Windows XP running SP1 isn't even supported.
The iPod Shuffle manual (located with very minimal searching here (warning: PDF)) explains what those blinking LED messages mean. You have to READ the manual to know what the magic is.
I will admit that this post sounds defensive of Apple products, especially because I also admit to being a Mac and iPod owner. I personally have encountered many more jagged edges with Apple products than you have but I am not a "fanboy", I'm simply an educated user and I have done my research and found this solution better than the alternatives.
Your wife clearly did not even read the packaging, let alone perform any outside research before buying the product and now you are bitter for having to support it. Maybe you should just be happy that she didn't buy a Zune. Not only does the Zune have the same limitations that the iPod has but it halts writes to the device until handshaking is complete. I'm not trying to bash the device, just point out that problems exist elsewhere.
Perhaps the best solution is to educate yourself and your wife so that you know what you're getting into.
Back in my day we had a term called Robber Baron to describe exactly what Bill Gates was. Well not really my day as the term dates back to 12th century Germany but you get the picture. These people used illegal and immoral tactics to amass their fortunes.
Some of the big Robber Barons of the Industrial Age went and used their ill-gotten money later in life in philanthropy and are remembered today as people who helped the community even though they destroyed many lives getting to the top.
Compare Bill Gates to John D. Rockefeller. Both used illegal monopolies to become the richest man in the world. Both then used their fortunes as charity to try to buy the public opinion. Bill Gates is the Robber Baron of the Information Age.
I'm not going to say that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hasn't done any good, because they have. I will say that the foundation still clings to Gates' practices of being shady. Also the idea that giving out Windows/Office licenses to the poor is a charitable donation is about as patronizing as Rockefeller's practice of giving dimes to children.
Let me start out with stating that I support the use of taser devices by police. I believe that having an intermediary between "come peacefully" and "I will have to kill you" is a very good tool to give to officers.
My problem is that these deaths weren't just exacerbated by tasers, they were caused by them. If the officer had used a firearm instead, it would've been death caused by gun. Why is this any different?
I am not a police officer and one reason that I'm not is a heart condition that would prevent me from fulfilling my duties as an officer. The same condition that would cause me to die if I was on the receiving end of a taser! Now you may like to say that it would be my heart condition that was the cause of said taser related death but I have to think that a simple restraining would keep me alive. If someone shoots me with a taser, I will die and I damn well want my death certificate to say "death by taser".
It's high time that people (and that includes police officers who are in fact just people) start referring to tasers as "less lethal" weapons instead of "non-lethal". That's what this lawsuit is about. The manufacturers don't want people thinking that these things can and do kill, they just want people to think that they are preferable to firearms.
So keep carrying tasers as they do have their use. Just make sure that everyone knows that they are less-lethal weapons. They do kill. Oh and don't tase me bro. I don't want to die.
P.S. I'm also pro gun but I don't think we should gratuitously shoot people with them either.
Imagine if a supermarket put up a big advertising board at the front of the store with pepsi branding and trademarks, but underneath it was just coke cans for sale, with the whole thing paid for by coke. Pepsi would be pissed at coke and the supermarket, and probably institute a trademark lawsuit.
A much better analogy would be if a customer walked into a supermarket with no advertising out front and asked an employee for Pepsi. The employee directed them toward the soft drink isle where there was a large ad display for Coke (paid for by Coke) and further down the isle is the Pepsi which the customer wanted in the first place.
This scenario is much closer to the Google issue with the excetion that Google isn't a store and doesn't even get a cut of the Pepsi sold; only the Coke. Now while I personally think Google should be able to link whatever the hell they want; it's their website but they may be guilty of trademark infringement if they did something like Pepsi but without the slashcode to prevent rickrolling. This would at least be something.
The fact that they aren't doing anything illegal or done before in other venues (see above) tells me that Pepsi can go pound sand, and by Pepsi, I mean the vendors suing, as they have brick and mortar precedent in Google's favor.
I love the TrackPoint. I have used a TrackPoint to play entire games of Starcraft; something that I would not try on any other pointing device other than a mouse. I have a Model M PS2 keyboard with integrated TrackPoint that I still sometimes use via a USB adapter (although it would be a lot more useful if it had a Command/Windows key).
TrackPoint was my favorite integrated pointing device until I used a multi-touch touchpad.
Two finger scrolling is quite possibly the most wonderful way to browse the web. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who uses a laptop... hell I'd recommend it to anyone who uses a computer.
I would probably still be using a TrackPoint today if it wasn't for multi-touch touchpads. Well, I should say that I'd be still using a TrackPoint if they still had laptops with just the TrackPoint and not trying to replace the buttons with a combo touchpad that does both poining devices poorly.
We are talking about the independent consumer market here.
Intel developed the Itanium because they needed a desktop/workstation 64-bit x86 architecture since Apple-IBM-Motorola had a functional one with the PowerPC 970 (G5) and AMD was rapidly developing a competing one... one that would eventually become the standard.
Without AMD, Intel would have been able to simply sit back and sell 32-bit Pentiums for years before the PowerPC took away any significant chunk of the market. AMD's faster, better, cheaper x86 has pushed Intel's development ahead faster than any other factor has. Even if you ignore the technical advancements that the competition brought forth, AMD has kept Intel's prices down, and by simple transposition, kept Intel's profits down as well.
Consider this: if AMD had gone bust a few years back, Intel would've stuck with the floundering Pentium 4 architecture and not have been forced to adapt the Pentium III into the Pentium M and eventually into their current consumer line, the Core 2.
Development time costs money. Competition costs money. Sure it is needed for products to evolve but try explaining that to the stockholders.
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The worst business decision was removing a feature. You can argue about how ever having Linux on the PS3 was a bad business decision but the point is they did it. Removal of the feature in the redesigned units was acceptable but they removed it from existing units.
Linux on the PS3 allowed Sony to have free publicity news articles every time a supercomputer was mentioned. They may not have made any direct profit on those units but they did get to benefit from economics of scale. Heck, this is a company that reports units sitting on store shelves as part of the installed userbase when telling developers the number of systems sold. It's almost a guarantee that they reported several thousand lab systems as well.
Then there are people like me who purchased a PS3 despite owning a 360 because I could use Linux on it; it taking the place of a Blu-ray player, game system, and a hobby computer in the crowded entertainment center. Sony made money from their 'bad' business decision from me.
I purchased a couple dozen games and several blu-ray discs before March's announcement of firmware 3.30. Since then, my PS3 is no longer a game system. I can't buy new games because they will demand new firmware. I can't even play some of the games I own due to no online support. Sony screwed me and everyone like me who was stupid enough to trust them.
Well no more. Removal of a feature in existing units is betrayal. I have been a Playstation customer since 9/9/1995 and it ended 4/1/2010. I tell people my story when they ask me about buying a game system (which is quite a few actually) and to date, Sony has lost at least 10 sales to Microsoft and Nintendo because of it. Now tell me again what the bad business decision was.
I've been envisioning a variation of standard first/third person shooter game that would be played with the standard controller but have Kinect support for altering the player's view based on their movements.
Can you imagine leaning to one side to look around a wall? Or ducking to get cover? I think something like this is needed to sell this thing to the gamers. Developers need to accentuate the existing controller interface and not try to replace it with flailing.
I only hope that Microsoft brought Johnny Chung Lee on board with the intension to do such a project. I'd be disappointed if he was just hired to help with Kinect Adventure or something.
There is no such thing as a Mac Pro G5. All Mac Pros use Intel CPUs and the G5 is a PowerPC chip. You're probably using a G5 PowerMac. That being said...
Adobe Flash was designed initially for use on Microsoft Windows systems running x86 CPUs. Although it has been ported to other platforms and architectures, its performance is still better on Windows than other OSes and magnitudes better on x86 than other CPUs. I've used Flash on a dual 2GHz G5 PowerMac and I can attest that it runs worse than a 1GHz Pentium III.
The iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad/AppleTV all use an ARM CPU, an ARM Cortex A8 to be more specific which is what the Motorola Droid uses, which means that Flash performance on the Apple iOS devices should be comparable to the Droid's. In other words, I wouldn't get your hopes up.
I remember this. The late 90s HP had this gem of an application that was a virtual fish and every time you printed a job to an HP printer it would give you credits to buy accessories and such for your fish tank. Our network printers saw a sufficient enough surge that we had to ban the application.
They do have a small size, it's not on the menu though. If you would like to order it, just ask for a 'short' whatever.
Also, Foamy the Squirrel is one of the most unfunny things I have ever been forced by a friend to watch.
I'm guessing that it's a combination data and enhanced power connector that will be used for a single connection on the new units.
The Kinect camera bar will probably need two cables for operating on older 360 units; a USB connection to the console and an external power adapter. I'm guessing that the external power adapter will be shipping with kits but bundled systems will not include it.
I am happy to see more USB ports on the console especially since they are now being used for external memory.
Skies of Arcadia Legends plays just fine on the Wii. If you're an RPG fan who bought a Wii for Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy spinoffs then just find yourself a GC controller and memory card and you're all set.
This is a moot point of contention anyway as anyone on /. who owns a backwards compatible PS3 can no longer access PSN thanks to Sony removing OtherOS.
The good news? Nintendo is releasing Stack Up for the Wii.
The bad news? R.O.B. will cost around $50k.
I am so going to have fun when they release Gyromite. When one of those suckers gets loose it won't just destory your TV, it'll take out your entire living room.
Druids can't train swords. :P
I'm not entirely sure how easy it is to port code from the Dreamcast to the current consoles and even if it was automatic companies would still have to worry about testing and certification from both MS/Sony and the ESRB. That said, look for this popular form of shovelware to continue as long as it's profitable. Not that I really mind as getting classics to the masses is a good thing. :)
It's worth noting that MvC2 will be the fourth game ported from the Dreamcast to X360 with Rez, Soulcalibur, and Ikaruga being the others. It's also worth noting that Sega could be open to the idea as they have just released Outrun Online Arcade (Outrun 2) and are set to release Virtual-On soon; both not Dreamcast games but they do show that Sega sees a market here.
By the way, your want list is possible but I should make a few notes.
* Crazy Taxi would be awesome and would fit the DL game concept perfectly. If this happens, it will probably be very similar to Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars (Crazy Taxi 1 and 2) for the PSP where all the licensed music and store names are gone but online play has been added. Crazy Taxi 3 for the Xbox is still not compatible with the 360 and will probably remain an orphan.
* Jet Set Radio (by which you probably mean Jet Grind Radio) is a possibility but would probably have a few soundtrack changes due to licensing. The Xbox sequel Jet Set Radio Future is mostly compatible with the 360 and is available for dirt cheap through used retailers which would make a DL release unlikely.
* Shenmue probably wouldn't be worth Sega's effort for a DL release at this time. I'm pretty sure the series is dead and a DL release wouldn't likely sell enough to justify it. The sequel runs under BC... just not well.
* SSX Tricky is the only game on your list not from Sega. Electronic Arts seems to have forgotten about the series with the last news about SSX 4 was over four years ago. I do know that porting from PS2 code would definitely not be as easy as using Dreamcast code.
My additions would be:
* Power Stone 1 and 2 - Power Stone 2 in particular was a great party game and would fit the idea of DL games perfectly. This is probably the likeliest DC game that Capcom would port after MvC2.
* Tech Romancer - Its unknown so that makes it unlikely but come on Capcom, this should be an easy port.
* Pocket Fighter (aka Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix) - OK, this is not a DC game but since we got Puzzle Fighter it would seem logical.
Oh and the biggest one would not be from Capcom but back to Sega:
*Chu Chu Rocket - This should be released ASAP. To be honest, I can't think of a reason not to have this as a DL game unless they are planning a Wii release sometime soon.
I own a PSP and about 30 games. I'm seriously thinking of hacking mine to play games off of the memory stick. Why?
UMDs are fine with me. I don't mind the inconvenience of carrying them around as I'm only usually playing one game at a time. Plus the simple fact is that I maintain control of the game. They can't take it away.. which is likely why they are so hot to kill physical discs.
The UMD disc and the original PSP 1000 were designed together. Unfortunately with the PSP 2000 and 3000, the UMD slot pushes against the clear plastic instead of the outer white shell and can destroy the disc housing thus rendering the game unusable. I call foul.
So Sony can cry about pirates destroying their business. It obviously has nothing to do with the fact that there are only about 6 original games on the system, or that PS3 remote play is a joke (Seriously, try it if you want to see what OnLive looks like), or that you have to re-buy discs after the machine destroys them because their customer service sucks, or anything like that.
Oh and BTW I won't be purchasing any more games thanks to Patapon 2 being download only. Either announce that UMD is dead or give people their choice of DL or retail.
Thanks to discovery.com's commercials, I learned that most meteors burn up in Earth's atmosphere.
Ah the atmosphere. Ahhhh!
I wouldn't be surprised to see free discs & downloads of games where a car company makes a racing game
You wouldn't be surprised to know that Toyota did this with their Yaris game. It is a free download on Xbox Live.
The problem is that if you got it for free you still paid too much. I'm not saying that this type of thing can't work, I'm just saying that this particular example was a bad game.
Steven Fry has got plenty of geek cred. He played the original Ask Jeeves!
ask.com doesn't use Jeeves as their mascot anymore but I think of Steven Fry every time they are mentioned.
While I'm a Linux zealot, I am willing to deploy Windows and MAC when I need to...
I'm glad that you're willing to deploy Media Access Control as your Internets wouldn't be of much use without them.
As a Linux zealot you should really know that unless you just end up using the friendly, easy to configure, do everything for you, *nix's like Ubuntu and Mac.
Youtube on the iPhone works because Google recompressed most, if not all, of the Flash (flv) videos to iPhone readable MPEG4 (mp4). It is my understanding that new videos uploaded to the service will automatically be stored as both mp4 and flv.
The iPhone hardware is capable of running Flash but doing so would create an unacceptable drain on the battery. mp4 playback isn't a problem because it is hardware accelerated.
Personally I would like to see Youtube's site on my desktop using the mp4 instead of Flash but that's not likely as requiring Flash allows for annoying ads as well.
Breaking it down even further.
Having the iPod be recognized as a USB mass storage device while still requiring custom software to load music onto it is a good design. The iPod works by reading a custom database that points to the actual music files on the device. The remaining space can be used for storage of files like a normal USB drive. I personally keep various utilities on mine including Floola.
I'm sure by looking at the box that you can see this it's not big enough to fit a normal CD in it. Also note that mini-CDs are not an option because most (if not all) slot loading Macintosh computers cannot use mini-CDs. I believe on the box it does say "Internet Connection Required" and you are posting to /. so this shouldn't be an issue.
Windows 98 is not supported. From the specification page: Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 2 or later For that matter, Windows XP running SP1 isn't even supported.
The iPod Shuffle manual (located with very minimal searching here (warning: PDF)) explains what those blinking LED messages mean. You have to READ the manual to know what the magic is.
I will admit that this post sounds defensive of Apple products, especially because I also admit to being a Mac and iPod owner. I personally have encountered many more jagged edges with Apple products than you have but I am not a "fanboy", I'm simply an educated user and I have done my research and found this solution better than the alternatives.
Your wife clearly did not even read the packaging, let alone perform any outside research before buying the product and now you are bitter for having to support it. Maybe you should just be happy that she didn't buy a Zune. Not only does the Zune have the same limitations that the iPod has but it halts writes to the device until handshaking is complete. I'm not trying to bash the device, just point out that problems exist elsewhere.
Perhaps the best solution is to educate yourself and your wife so that you know what you're getting into.
Back in my day we had a term called Robber Baron to describe exactly what Bill Gates was. Well not really my day as the term dates back to 12th century Germany but you get the picture. These people used illegal and immoral tactics to amass their fortunes.
Some of the big Robber Barons of the Industrial Age went and used their ill-gotten money later in life in philanthropy and are remembered today as people who helped the community even though they destroyed many lives getting to the top.
Compare Bill Gates to John D. Rockefeller. Both used illegal monopolies to become the richest man in the world. Both then used their fortunes as charity to try to buy the public opinion. Bill Gates is the Robber Baron of the Information Age.
I'm not going to say that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hasn't done any good, because they have. I will say that the foundation still clings to Gates' practices of being shady. Also the idea that giving out Windows/Office licenses to the poor is a charitable donation is about as patronizing as Rockefeller's practice of giving dimes to children.
Win + U (and a little hacking) gives you a command prompt with system level privilege.
Let me start out with stating that I support the use of taser devices by police. I believe that having an intermediary between "come peacefully" and "I will have to kill you" is a very good tool to give to officers.
My problem is that these deaths weren't just exacerbated by tasers, they were caused by them. If the officer had used a firearm instead, it would've been death caused by gun. Why is this any different?
I am not a police officer and one reason that I'm not is a heart condition that would prevent me from fulfilling my duties as an officer. The same condition that would cause me to die if I was on the receiving end of a taser! Now you may like to say that it would be my heart condition that was the cause of said taser related death but I have to think that a simple restraining would keep me alive. If someone shoots me with a taser, I will die and I damn well want my death certificate to say "death by taser".
It's high time that people (and that includes police officers who are in fact just people) start referring to tasers as "less lethal" weapons instead of "non-lethal". That's what this lawsuit is about. The manufacturers don't want people thinking that these things can and do kill, they just want people to think that they are preferable to firearms.
So keep carrying tasers as they do have their use. Just make sure that everyone knows that they are less-lethal weapons. They do kill. Oh and don't tase me bro. I don't want to die.
P.S. I'm also pro gun but I don't think we should gratuitously shoot people with them either.
Imagine if a supermarket put up a big advertising board at the front of the store with pepsi branding and trademarks, but underneath it was just coke cans for sale, with the whole thing paid for by coke. Pepsi would be pissed at coke and the supermarket, and probably institute a trademark lawsuit.
A much better analogy would be if a customer walked into a supermarket with no advertising out front and asked an employee for Pepsi. The employee directed them toward the soft drink isle where there was a large ad display for Coke (paid for by Coke) and further down the isle is the Pepsi which the customer wanted in the first place.
This scenario is much closer to the Google issue with the excetion that Google isn't a store and doesn't even get a cut of the Pepsi sold; only the Coke. Now while I personally think Google should be able to link whatever the hell they want; it's their website but they may be guilty of trademark infringement if they did something like Pepsi but without the slashcode to prevent rickrolling. This would at least be something.
The fact that they aren't doing anything illegal or done before in other venues (see above) tells me that Pepsi can go pound sand, and by Pepsi, I mean the vendors suing, as they have brick and mortar precedent in Google's favor.
Interesting. For quite some time I've been connecting my Mac client (using the OpenVPN GUI Tunnelblick) to a Linux OpenVPN server.
Sure Windows clients can play too but it's not like OpenVPN is Windows only.
Every time I hear about the foundation talking about Windows on XO I think about Jobs giving OS X free to OLPC and being turned down.
How is it that OS X can't go on the XO because it's not free (as in speech) but Windows can even though it's not free (as in speech or beer).
I'm a supporter of the OLPC project but this is getting really disturbing.
I love the TrackPoint. I have used a TrackPoint to play entire games of Starcraft; something that I would not try on any other pointing device other than a mouse. I have a Model M PS2 keyboard with integrated TrackPoint that I still sometimes use via a USB adapter (although it would be a lot more useful if it had a Command/Windows key).
TrackPoint was my favorite integrated pointing device until I used a multi-touch touchpad.
Two finger scrolling is quite possibly the most wonderful way to browse the web. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who uses a laptop... hell I'd recommend it to anyone who uses a computer.
I would probably still be using a TrackPoint today if it wasn't for multi-touch touchpads. Well, I should say that I'd be still using a TrackPoint if they still had laptops with just the TrackPoint and not trying to replace the buttons with a combo touchpad that does both poining devices poorly.
We are talking about the independent consumer market here.
Intel developed the Itanium because they needed a desktop/workstation 64-bit x86 architecture since Apple-IBM-Motorola had a functional one with the PowerPC 970 (G5) and AMD was rapidly developing a competing one... one that would eventually become the standard.
Without AMD, Intel would have been able to simply sit back and sell 32-bit Pentiums for years before the PowerPC took away any significant chunk of the market. AMD's faster, better, cheaper x86 has pushed Intel's development ahead faster than any other factor has. Even if you ignore the technical advancements that the competition brought forth, AMD has kept Intel's prices down, and by simple transposition, kept Intel's profits down as well.
Consider this: if AMD had gone bust a few years back, Intel would've stuck with the floundering Pentium 4 architecture and not have been forced to adapt the Pentium III into the Pentium M and eventually into their current consumer line, the Core 2.
Development time costs money. Competition costs money. Sure it is needed for products to evolve but try explaining that to the stockholders.