I've given the Proxomitron orders to kill the connection anytime a site (i.e. Hotmail) tries to direct me to MSN.
This has nothing to do with anti-M$ sentiment... the site is just such a worthless piece of shit.
But speaking of M$ manipulations, for weeks or months now Hotmail has been "cripple-wared" for Mozilla users - you get a click-through delay page saying it won't render properly. It appears, oddly, that this has been removed. Calm before the storm? If M$ will make their main portal IE-only, what's to stop them from doing the same with Hotmail?
I really really really doubt it, remember that Sony makes quite a pretty penny from all of these 'specialized units'.
They lose money on every unit that they sell. Lots of money, in the case of the PS2.
I think that this is a little too much excitement over the PS3 when the success of the PS2, though likely, is hardly in the bag. In Japan, it was a joke for some time after the system launch that its best selling game was "The Matrix" on DVD.
Since virtually all game consoles (incl. this one) are sold at a loss, with the aim of generating revenue through game licencing, Sony probably didn't find this joke very funny.
Another source of revenue, as you point out, is first-party peripherals, and licencing of same. (Interestingly, it's Microsoft, not Sony, who requires a peripheral for DVD-functionality on the XBox) But again, let's see if Sony can even make this formula work for the PS2 before assuming that the PS3 is the machine of the future. They had success with the PSX, but that was hardly the convergence machine that the current generation offers.
here's the deal: the mouse is a pointing device, not a mini-keyboard...
It's all about adding needless complexity and calling it innovation.
Not really. If some people use mice as mini-keyboards, then that's what those mice are. Meaning is determined by usage, as it is for words.
Anyway, here's the thing. Keyboards by themselves are a pretty amazing and versatile input device, all things considered. And mice can also be very effective and even efficient input devices: after all, a picture can say a thousand words. What's NOT efficient is having to switch back and forth between the two. Think about it - the largest movement you ever have to make while controling the cursor is to move your right index finger from the J key to the mouse button. Not to mention the orientation period in which you determine and re-centre the location of the pointer. This is why ergonomics is best served by granting keyboards as much of the functionality of the mouse as is possible (via hotkeys), and by imparting as many functions as possible to the mouse. This minimizes the occasions on which you have to make that big movement away from J, but once you do, lets you accomplish as much as possible while you're over there.
The QWERTY keyboard was not designed for inefficiency...
Where in any of the links (i.e. urbanlegends and the 2 from there) that you provide is there evidence against this claim?
"Gamers are the new artists, visionaries, and story-tellers of our time"
Um, what? There may be the odd game out there that requires artistic or narrative creation, but none of them are popular (look not to Sony's shamelessly and profitably derivative library of games, but to things like "Mario Paint" on the embarrassing failure that was the 64DD).
To quote someone from another forum, here's what you get from the majority of gamers these days:
"Ooooh, this edition of Gran Tekken Fantasy Solid XXXIIICM is pushing 15% more polygons than the last version, and with identical gameplay! I'm in heaven!"
It may well be that some people who are gamers will become our "new artists, visionaries, and story-tellers", possibly even by becoming game designers. So why not say that, instead of the nonsense above?
"...sparked by astonishingly inventive new technologies like the PS 2."
Is that a joke? There's not a scrap of invention in the PS2. You sound like Trip Hawkins, saying unbelievable crap like, "It's historic, a mass-market appliance that fundamentally changes society in the way the printing press did."
(yes, he actually said that)
It's a couple of long-existing technologies rolled into one, in a bid for the set-top box that will control the spew into every American's living room. It's going to ride the PSX's swell of mindshare and be very popular. Many kids will play it for a long time, having plenty of fun while getting pudgier and pastier and more passive. And that's about it.
Slashdot Mirror
This has nothing to do with anti-M$ sentiment... the site is just such a worthless piece of shit.
But speaking of M$ manipulations, for weeks or months now Hotmail has been "cripple-wared" for Mozilla users - you get a click-through delay page saying it won't render properly. It appears, oddly, that this has been removed. Calm before the storm? If M$ will make their main portal IE-only, what's to stop them from doing the same with Hotmail?
and instead of just taking my property, they'll beat the shit out of me, putting me in the hospital for weeks and *then* take my wallet
Why wouldn't they just take the wallet right after they jump you? Those are some patient crooks.
I really really really doubt it, remember that Sony makes quite a pretty penny from all of these 'specialized units'.
They lose money on every unit that they sell. Lots of money, in the case of the PS2.
I think that this is a little too much excitement over the PS3 when the success of the PS2, though likely, is hardly in the bag. In Japan, it was a joke for some time after the system launch that its best selling game was "The Matrix" on DVD. Since virtually all game consoles (incl. this one) are sold at a loss, with the aim of generating revenue through game licencing, Sony probably didn't find this joke very funny.
Another source of revenue, as you point out, is first-party peripherals, and licencing of same. (Interestingly, it's Microsoft, not Sony, who requires a peripheral for DVD-functionality on the XBox) But again, let's see if Sony can even make this formula work for the PS2 before assuming that the PS3 is the machine of the future. They had success with the PSX, but that was hardly the convergence machine that the current generation offers.
here's the deal: the mouse is a pointing device, not a mini-keyboard...
It's all about adding needless complexity and calling it innovation.
Not really. If some people use mice as mini-keyboards, then that's what those mice are. Meaning is determined by usage, as it is for words.
Anyway, here's the thing. Keyboards by themselves are a pretty amazing and versatile input device, all things considered. And mice can also be very effective and even efficient input devices: after all, a picture can say a thousand words. What's NOT efficient is having to switch back and forth between the two. Think about it - the largest movement you ever have to make while controling the cursor is to move your right index finger from the J key to the mouse button. Not to mention the orientation period in which you determine and re-centre the location of the pointer. This is why ergonomics is best served by granting keyboards as much of the functionality of the mouse as is possible (via hotkeys), and by imparting as many functions as possible to the mouse. This minimizes the occasions on which you have to make that big movement away from J, but once you do, lets you accomplish as much as possible while you're over there.
The QWERTY keyboard was not designed for inefficiency... Where in any of the links (i.e. urbanlegends and the 2 from there) that you provide is there evidence against this claim?
"Gamers are the new artists, visionaries, and story-tellers of our time"
Um, what? There may be the odd game out there that requires artistic or narrative creation, but none of them are popular (look not to Sony's shamelessly and profitably derivative library of games, but to things like "Mario Paint" on the embarrassing failure that was the 64DD).
To quote someone from another forum, here's what you get from the majority of gamers these days:
"Ooooh, this edition of Gran Tekken Fantasy Solid XXXIIICM is pushing 15% more polygons than the last version, and with identical gameplay! I'm in heaven!"
It may well be that some people who are gamers will become our "new artists, visionaries, and story-tellers", possibly even by becoming game designers. So why not say that, instead of the nonsense above?
"...sparked by astonishingly inventive new technologies like the PS 2."
Is that a joke? There's not a scrap of invention in the PS2. You sound like Trip Hawkins, saying unbelievable crap like, "It's historic, a mass-market appliance that fundamentally changes society in the way the printing press did."
(yes, he actually said that)
It's a couple of long-existing technologies rolled into one, in a bid for the set-top box that will control the spew into every American's living room. It's going to ride the PSX's swell of mindshare and be very popular. Many kids will play it for a long time, having plenty of fun while getting pudgier and pastier and more passive. And that's about it.