See the thing about phones in the US that you don't understand is that for the most part, they don't have SIM cards.
Well, the 65 million GSM subscribers in the US (about 40% of the market) do have SIM cards. Of course, there are lots of locked phones floating around - but that's easy to resolve. And, of course, CDMA doesn't
The US doesn't have a single cellphone standard like GSM -- the providers all use different and incompatible (and mostly lousy) technologies. Only very recently is GSM service available (on frequencies nonstandard in the rest of the world) from one (or two?) providers.
Stop spreading shit. The US has GSM, and has had it since 1995. There are two national GSM providers (Cingular and T-Mobile) that, combined, serve more than 65 million GSM subscribers.
GSM 1900 and GSM 850 are standard GSM frequencies. 900MHz and 1800MHz are reserved for military communications in the US, so GSM has to run on the frequencies reserved for cellular communications (850MHz "Cellular" and 1900MHz "PCS"). GSM 850 and GSM 1900 are used throughout North America and in many other locations around the world.
I wouldn't call CDMA2000, the other major standard in the US, "Lousey". CDMA2000 is technically superior from a radio perspective; CDMA works in places that GSM just can't handle (like 50km from a cell site). CDMA2000 1x EV-DO also offers better latency (~200ms) and bandwidth (500-700kbps, real world) than EDGE or UMTS.
things like pay-as-you-go contracts
Have you heard of T-Mobile To Go, Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile, Cingular Go Phone, Net10, or any of the many other pay-as-you-go providers in the US?
so everyone has backup phones and phones for houseguests, and can swap the handsets between services at will
Well, being a GSM subscriber, I could certainly do this - but why I would wnat to is beyond me. Everyone has their own phone, so why would you need phones for guests? And why would you need to swap services around? It's a pain in the ass to swap SIM cards around (usually need to pull out the battery).
Even upgrading your handset in the US is a hassle -- it involves a lot of waiting on hold to talk to someone at your carrier and waiting hours for the change to be recognized by the system, and they usually charge you a big fee for the privilege.
This is just plain wrong. T-Mo/Cingular are GSM, so you just move you SIM over. Verizon and Sprint allow you to change your phone using a text message, at a store, over the phone, or using a web system. It takes less than five minutes, and there isn't a fee. And the change happens immediately.
DSL and digital terrestrial TV are similarly way more flexible, competitive, standardized and useful here than in the US.
I'll take your word for DSL, because DSL does frankly suck in the US. But digital terrestrial TV? There are few places in the US where you cannot put up an antenna and recieve free broadcast digital television. Plus, there's cable, VDSL/FIOS (if your phone company offers it), and if you don't like that, there are two DBS providers (EchoStar and DirecTV).
So, let's summarize:
65 million GSM subscribers in the US (40% of mobile users)
GSM operates on standard 850Mhz and 1900Mhz frequencies because of spectrum allocation in the US
Two national GSM providers and many local GSM providers
Lots of pay as you go providers
Handset changes easy with GSM or CDMA
No fee for handset change
Free OTA digital TV, cable, and DBS available
So, wow, was there anything that your long rant about the US got right?
Unavailability of compatible "different devices" in the United States, perhaps? I've looked but failed to find any providers with decent coverage in the United States that advertise SIM-only plans or any place to buy a SIM-less GSM phone in the United States.
Any wireless provider will sell you a phone without a contract in the US. The price, however, is universally crappy. But that leaves eBay - many people replace their phone every 12 months, which creates a huge secondary market with excellent prices.
As for getting a SIM only, T-Mo is happy to give you one, as is Cingular. You're better off signing up for a year and getting the "free" phone, though, as you can usually sell it on eBay for ~$100.
I haven't purchased a phone from a carrier for over three years.
to ensure that their goddamn awful technology succeeds over more promising technology
Microsoft delivers software solutions that work today. They don't work as well as they could, but they work better than anything else.
I've spent time in both Linux and Windows shops, and let me tell you this - Windows Server + Exchange + Active Directory beats SLES + Openexchange + eDirectory any day of the week.
It's not about what you can hack up, because in the enterprise, it's almost always cheaper to buy software than it is to create it. The less work that IT has do do, the better.
Today, Windows is simply the best OS and serverr system for business. It integrates better, it's cheaper (SLES and RHEL aren't free - quite the opposite, in fact), and it's easier to manage.
I am so tired of hearing this. Firefly is a show that caters to a vary narrow group of people - it is innovative and unique, but it is not for everyone.
Serenity was an utter failure at the box office. It has not even come close to the $40 million necessary to recover its budget, even in terms of box office sales (actual revenue for the studio is much lower).
Why is it any surprise that Fox would replace Firefly with a show that has broader appeal? The only shame was that Firefly could have done well on cable - where it's less about "what more profitable show could we put here" and more about "what is the return on investment for this show".
First. Please tell me, how is using allofmp3 different--morally or legally in the United States--from downloading the audio files from a P2P network?
It's easier, the files are higher-quality, and, at least in Russia, MediaServices has the rights to distribute the music that they are selling. Whether or not it is leagal for you to download those tracks has not been determined.
Second, what divinatory powers are you using to find that the security hole somehow relates to the iTunes Music Store? I'm not saying that it isn't, but that information is nowhere to be found in the security bulletin and iTunes has more network features than just the ability to hook up to the iTMS.
Unclear. But I despise iTunes for my own reasons - primarily because I cannot buy from the iTMS because Apple somehow believes that my IP is outside of the US, but also because the tracks are DRM-encumbered AAC files.
Not to mention the fact that iTunes is a memory hog, doesn't look or behave like a Windows application, etc.
Reading all the commentary on/. about XBOX 360 indicates to me that people here really don't get it.
The biggest complaint is that the 360 is just an XBOX with better graphics. What did you expect? The PS3 is going to be a PS2 with better graphics. The PS2 was a Playstation with better graphics.
But it's worse than that. You trash the 360 for not being innovative, yet:
It's the first console with built-in support for wireless controllers.
It's the first console with a built-in network media player.
It's the first console to ship with an extensive unified online system - out of the box.
It's the first console where every game will play in HD - and where the system, not the game, handles the scaling to the proper resolution
It's the first console to offer downloadable games and content from indie developers through a micropayment system
XBOX 360 isn't about hardware. It's about bringing online gaming to the core of the console experience. Standardizing scorekeeping and matchmaking accross games. Supporting voicechat in every game, even single-player games.
XBOX 360 has what no other console has truly had - a standardized interface accross every game. Plug in an iPod, bring up the dashboard, and play some tunes - while you're in a game. Start up a voice chat session with a friend - while you're in a game.
More and more, consoles are about software. And that's exactly what Microsoft is - a software company.
Sony doesn't realize that with the PS3 - they see the PS3 as just another piece of hardware. Time will tell whether they are right.
OOo is just fine on huge, complex documents. It's very stable, predictable and reliable.
I don't know if you've actually tried it, but whenever I've reached the 200-300 page mark with OOo (2.0), it has bogged down so much that it becomes unusable.
Not that Word doesn't also crap out - it does, but not until you get into the 1000+ page range, in my experience.
A whole lot of people spend around 4 to 5h in front of a TV every day of the week, mostly without interruption and that's considered normal. TV addiction is much more widespread than computer game addiction. Yet I haven't heard of a TV user anonymous. IMO most TV viewers have serious issues.
It's not really the same at all. Television "addicts" usually have no problem balancing their time - few TV watchers would skip work, stay up until 4am, or watch for 12 hours straight. Sure, there may be some extreme cases, but the vast majority of TV viewers do not show the typical signs of addiction.
Contrast that with game addicts - many play to the point of exhaustion, start leading extremely unbalanced schedules, become sleep deprived, shun social interaction.
MMOs seem to be particularly conducive to this kind of behavior. I stopped playing WOW when the dreams started. Vivid, intense dreams that began to interfere with my perception of reality. At one point, I had difficulty determining if I was asleep or awake.
This kind of hysteria, this kind of addiction - it's just like a drug. At some point, you're not enjoying the game - you are tired and bored, yet there is something that compells you to keep playing. That's addiction.
Game addiction, particularly with MMOs, is very similar in many ways to gambling addiction. There is the thrill of victory, the excitement of chance, and the constant "rewards".
One of my friends has 150 days of logged playtime. That's nearly 12 hours a day, every day, a full 66% of his awake time.
Zealot doesn't mean that you stop living. Every one of us depends on Microsoft products in some way, every day. My bank runs on Windows. So does the software that coordinates bus schedules for the transit district here. So does much of the software that handles credit card transactions.
You cannot escape the fact that we live in a world of proprietary technology. Your BIOS is proprietary software. The software in your vehicle is proprietary technology. Your CPU is proprietary technology.
Contrast this with the XBOX. It started off with lots of hype, never really went anywhere with its library, instead relying on technical superiority, and they're already coming out with the next console before this one has had five years.
Oh my god! A 5-year lifecycle! It's not like Nintendo has ever had a lifecycle that short.
As for the library, XBOX had a number of notable exclusives, and with Rare onboard it appears that the 360 will have a number of notable exclusives as well.
Enter the XBOX360. Now, the XBOX didn't have a great library, and so there's not much track record there. It's got slightly improved graphics (but probably not as good as the competition will have), some backward compatibility (but to a meager library), and the same old DVD format. People say "there are interesting games on the horizon," but honestly, I want to know: what are they?
Don't believe Sony's crapola. Most developers have said that the XBOX 360 is roughly equal to the PS3 in terms of graphical muscle. The ATI GPU in the 360 is no pushover, no matter what Sony would have you believe.
And I wouldn't call over 200 games "meager" in terms of backwards compatibility.
And there are interesting games now. Lots of Rare fans like myself have been waiting for another Perfect Dark, there's PGR3, DOA4, and, of course, all the 3rd party sports and racing games.
As for DVD, who gives a crap? DVD-9 holds more than 9 gigabytes of data - it's certainly enough for any PC game out there, and I fail to realize why it's a serious issue for the 360.
Contrast this to the competition. The PS3 promises what the PS2 promised (and delivered on): highly improved graphics, full backward compatibility, a higher capacity format and the ability to play next-gen movies. It's sitting on a vast library of 2 generations of games, and all indications point to the next generation being just as big.
You're assuming that Blue-Ray is the format of the future. And that backwards-compatibility is going to be 100% - hell, even newer PS2 revs are having trouble maintaining full backwards-compatibility.
The Revolution promises full backward compatibility to everything Nintendo owns (although details are fuzzy), a new form of controller that could really make console shooters something else (as well as open up new types of games), and most importantly, all the Nintendo franchise games.
The Revolution isn't even competitive in this area. Nintendo has segmented themselves into a different market segment through the odd controller, late launch, different pricepoint, and different hardware specs.
Oh, and I don't see you crapping on Nintendo for choosing DVD-9 for Revolution.
I can see why someone would want a PS3. I can see why someone would want a Nintendo Revolution. But why would someone want an XBOX360?
You don't get it, do you? The 360 isn't about improved hardware, it's about improved software. Downloadable demos & movies. Independant games. Intelligent matchmaking. Integrated VoIP. Connectivity with XP Media center boxes. Connectivity with portable media devices.
Want to voice chat with a buddy while playing a single-player game? No problem. Want to try Kameo before you plunk down $50? No problem. Want to customize the UI with themes and wallpapers? Yep. Want to stream some tunes from your PC or an iPod while you game? Yep. Want to play some cool indie mini-games in HD? Yep.
In a world with tough energy challenges, we face tough choices. In a future world where oil is becoming increasingly rare, the "Great American Road Trip" is going to become a luxury that few can afford.
America has an identity connected with the automobile. In a world where energy is becoming our biggest challenge, that cannot last but so long.
Bigger question: have any of the reviews discovered if nVidia's cheated on this benchmark yet? It seems that any time ATI or nVidia releases a new card, they've also got some drivers that "optimize" for the 3DMark benchmarking software. So I figure it must just mean that nobody's found out how they're doing it yet.
It's kind of sad to think that when they announce some obviously kick-ass hardware that all I can think of is "how did they cheat this time?"
The GeForce FX scandal was a few years ago, and no major GPU manufacturer is stupid enough to try to pull something like that again.
Image quality has been excellent on the GeForce 6 and 7 series parts so far. Some have reported a "shimmering" issue with AF turned on, but it's so difficult to spot that most people will never notice it. I certainly never have.
Yes, public transit in the US is in a pretty sorry state. But there is some hope. My community, Boulder CO, is actually serious about public transit. Through a parnership with the RTD (regional transportation district), there is a pretty decent bus system with 10-minute service to most places around town (15-minute service late at night), 30-minute service to Denver, and 1-hour service to the airport.
Colorado residents just approved FasTracks as well, which provides $4.6 billion in funding for 119 miles of new light-rail and commuter-rail service throughout the area, as well as expanded bus service.
Hybrids derive thier electric power from regenrtve braking and only make use of thier electric motors when crusing and driving around town.
Not quite. The Prius, for example, uses a power-split device that allows power to be directed from the engine through two motor-generators and the battery. This eliminates the need for a traditional transmission.
If you have a 40 min highway commute the 4cyl gas engine is going to be doing most of the work and you wont even see the improved gas mileage of a hybrid.
While hybrids are essentially conventional vehicles at high-speeds, they are conventional vehicles with engines that are appropriately designed to supply sustained power necessary to maintain speed. Because of the electric system, there isn't a need for a large, inefficent motor to provide acceptable accelration.
The Prius, for example, uses a 76hp I-4 engine that uses the Miller cycle. Such an engine would be highly underpowered in a similar weight conventional vehicle.
Its emissions will be the same as any other 4cyl car as well.
The Prius, 2006 Civic Hybrid, Highlander Hybrid, and Escape Hybrid are all AT-PZEV certified. While there are some PZEV certified conventional vehicles (e.g. certain models of the Ford Focus), they are rare. The Prius and other PZEV vehicles are cleaner than non-PZEV vehicles, even at highway speeds.
New diesels produce much lower emissions (sometimes better than thier unleaded counterparts) get excellent gas mileage (north of 40mpg for many models).
No production diesel can currently meet California emission standards in the US. Mileage per gallon cannot be compared between diesel and gas as a measure of effiency because diesel has over 30% more energy per gallon than gasoline.
NOx emissions are particularly problematic with diesel engines. The higher compression ratios create considerably more work for the catalytic converter.
What would it be like to manage the disposal of these batteries if there was suddenly tens of millions of such cars driving around?
Current hybrids use Ni-MH batteries, which aren't particularly toxic from a disposal perspective, and, more importantly, conatin valuable metals that can be recovered through recycling.
Toyota, for example, pays a $200 "bounty" for dead batteries, because the nickel in them is quite valuable.
Ni-MH is probably the most "eco-friendly" battery technology. It's certainly worlds better than Ni-Cd.
"That's more memory bandwidth than a quad-Opteron system."
Yes, but with considerably more latency. DDR2 is great until you realize that the latency effectively kills any performance advantage you had with higher clocks. DDR2-533 is about as fast as DDR-400.
I don't know if I agree with the "most". I'd definitely go with "some", especially new switchers who don't know Mac's standard operating procedure. But if you've put in 50 CDs and never had a prompt, this might give you pause, especially because for some people giving anything but Software Update this sort of power is very scary.
Mac OS requires elevation for a lot of different changes - the more that users see the screen, the more that they get used to it. And, to them, allowing elevation is the "safe" choice.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, the 65 million GSM subscribers in the US (about 40% of the market) do have SIM cards. Of course, there are lots of locked phones floating around - but that's easy to resolve. And, of course, CDMA doesn't
The US doesn't have a single cellphone standard like GSM -- the providers all use different and incompatible (and mostly lousy) technologies. Only very recently is GSM service available (on frequencies nonstandard in the rest of the world) from one (or two?) providers.
Stop spreading shit. The US has GSM, and has had it since 1995. There are two national GSM providers (Cingular and T-Mobile) that, combined, serve more than 65 million GSM subscribers.
GSM 1900 and GSM 850 are standard GSM frequencies. 900MHz and 1800MHz are reserved for military communications in the US, so GSM has to run on the frequencies reserved for cellular communications (850MHz "Cellular" and 1900MHz "PCS"). GSM 850 and GSM 1900 are used throughout North America and in many other locations around the world.
I wouldn't call CDMA2000, the other major standard in the US, "Lousey". CDMA2000 is technically superior from a radio perspective; CDMA works in places that GSM just can't handle (like 50km from a cell site). CDMA2000 1x EV-DO also offers better latency (~200ms) and bandwidth (500-700kbps, real world) than EDGE or UMTS.
things like pay-as-you-go contracts
Have you heard of T-Mobile To Go, Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile, Cingular Go Phone, Net10, or any of the many other pay-as-you-go providers in the US?
so everyone has backup phones and phones for houseguests, and can swap the handsets between services at will
Well, being a GSM subscriber, I could certainly do this - but why I would wnat to is beyond me. Everyone has their own phone, so why would you need phones for guests? And why would you need to swap services around? It's a pain in the ass to swap SIM cards around (usually need to pull out the battery).
Even upgrading your handset in the US is a hassle -- it involves a lot of waiting on hold to talk to someone at your carrier and waiting hours for the change to be recognized by the system, and they usually charge you a big fee for the privilege.
This is just plain wrong. T-Mo/Cingular are GSM, so you just move you SIM over. Verizon and Sprint allow you to change your phone using a text message, at a store, over the phone, or using a web system. It takes less than five minutes, and there isn't a fee. And the change happens immediately.
DSL and digital terrestrial TV are similarly way more flexible, competitive, standardized and useful here than in the US.
I'll take your word for DSL, because DSL does frankly suck in the US. But digital terrestrial TV? There are few places in the US where you cannot put up an antenna and recieve free broadcast digital television. Plus, there's cable, VDSL/FIOS (if your phone company offers it), and if you don't like that, there are two DBS providers (EchoStar and DirecTV).
So, let's summarize:
So, wow, was there anything that your long rant about the US got right?
Unavailability of compatible "different devices" in the United States, perhaps? I've looked but failed to find any providers with decent coverage in the United States that advertise SIM-only plans or any place to buy a SIM-less GSM phone in the United States.
Any wireless provider will sell you a phone without a contract in the US. The price, however, is universally crappy. But that leaves eBay - many people replace their phone every 12 months, which creates a huge secondary market with excellent prices.
As for getting a SIM only, T-Mo is happy to give you one, as is Cingular. You're better off signing up for a year and getting the "free" phone, though, as you can usually sell it on eBay for ~$100.
I haven't purchased a phone from a carrier for over three years.
Not that, of course, they advertise this.
to ensure that their goddamn awful technology succeeds over more promising technology
Microsoft delivers software solutions that work today. They don't work as well as they could, but they work better than anything else.
I've spent time in both Linux and Windows shops, and let me tell you this - Windows Server + Exchange + Active Directory beats SLES + Openexchange + eDirectory any day of the week.
It's not about what you can hack up, because in the enterprise, it's almost always cheaper to buy software than it is to create it. The less work that IT has do do, the better.
Today, Windows is simply the best OS and serverr system for business. It integrates better, it's cheaper (SLES and RHEL aren't free - quite the opposite, in fact), and it's easier to manage.
wireless means 802.11
Since when? Wireless can be used to refer to any wire-free technology. "Wireless Phone". "Wireless Broadband". "Wireless Speakers". "Wireless Mouse".
FOX certainly stacked the odds against it.
I am so tired of hearing this. Firefly is a show that caters to a vary narrow group of people - it is innovative and unique, but it is not for everyone.
Serenity was an utter failure at the box office. It has not even come close to the $40 million necessary to recover its budget, even in terms of box office sales (actual revenue for the studio is much lower).
Why is it any surprise that Fox would replace Firefly with a show that has broader appeal? The only shame was that Firefly could have done well on cable - where it's less about "what more profitable show could we put here" and more about "what is the return on investment for this show".
No,
integral a^b da = 1/(b+1)*a^(b+1)
only works because you are integrating with respect to a, not with respect to b.
First. Please tell me, how is using allofmp3 different--morally or legally in the United States--from downloading the audio files from a P2P network?
It's easier, the files are higher-quality, and, at least in Russia, MediaServices has the rights to distribute the music that they are selling. Whether or not it is leagal for you to download those tracks has not been determined.
Second, what divinatory powers are you using to find that the security hole somehow relates to the iTunes Music Store? I'm not saying that it isn't, but that information is nowhere to be found in the security bulletin and iTunes has more network features than just the ability to hook up to the iTMS.
Unclear. But I despise iTunes for my own reasons - primarily because I cannot buy from the iTMS because Apple somehow believes that my IP is outside of the US, but also because the tracks are DRM-encumbered AAC files.
Not to mention the fact that iTunes is a memory hog, doesn't look or behave like a Windows application, etc.
The biggest complaint is that the 360 is just an XBOX with better graphics. What did you expect? The PS3 is going to be a PS2 with better graphics. The PS2 was a Playstation with better graphics.
But it's worse than that. You trash the 360 for not being innovative, yet:
XBOX 360 isn't about hardware. It's about bringing online gaming to the core of the console experience. Standardizing scorekeeping and matchmaking accross games. Supporting voicechat in every game, even single-player games.
XBOX 360 has what no other console has truly had - a standardized interface accross every game. Plug in an iPod, bring up the dashboard, and play some tunes - while you're in a game. Start up a voice chat session with a friend - while you're in a game.
More and more, consoles are about software. And that's exactly what Microsoft is - a software company.
Sony doesn't realize that with the PS3 - they see the PS3 as just another piece of hardware. Time will tell whether they are right.
OOo is just fine on huge, complex documents. It's very stable, predictable and reliable.
I don't know if you've actually tried it, but whenever I've reached the 200-300 page mark with OOo (2.0), it has bogged down so much that it becomes unusable.
Not that Word doesn't also crap out - it does, but not until you get into the 1000+ page range, in my experience.
Have you seen how fast a PC notebook with a modern BIOS sleeps and wakes? Have you heard of 'reduced latency suspend state'?
My notebook can wake as fast as the hard drive can spin up. I have raced it against a friend's PowerBook - and won.
No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.
A whole lot of people spend around 4 to 5h in front of a TV every day of the week, mostly without interruption and that's considered normal. TV addiction is much more widespread than computer game addiction. Yet I haven't heard of a TV user anonymous. IMO most TV viewers have serious issues.
It's not really the same at all. Television "addicts" usually have no problem balancing their time - few TV watchers would skip work, stay up until 4am, or watch for 12 hours straight. Sure, there may be some extreme cases, but the vast majority of TV viewers do not show the typical signs of addiction.
Contrast that with game addicts - many play to the point of exhaustion, start leading extremely unbalanced schedules, become sleep deprived, shun social interaction.
MMOs seem to be particularly conducive to this kind of behavior. I stopped playing WOW when the dreams started. Vivid, intense dreams that began to interfere with my perception of reality. At one point, I had difficulty determining if I was asleep or awake.
This kind of hysteria, this kind of addiction - it's just like a drug. At some point, you're not enjoying the game - you are tired and bored, yet there is something that compells you to keep playing. That's addiction.
Game addiction, particularly with MMOs, is very similar in many ways to gambling addiction. There is the thrill of victory, the excitement of chance, and the constant "rewards".
One of my friends has 150 days of logged playtime. That's nearly 12 hours a day, every day, a full 66% of his awake time.
That's addiction.
Zealot doesn't mean that you stop living. Every one of us depends on Microsoft products in some way, every day. My bank runs on Windows. So does the software that coordinates bus schedules for the transit district here. So does much of the software that handles credit card transactions.
You cannot escape the fact that we live in a world of proprietary technology. Your BIOS is proprietary software. The software in your vehicle is proprietary technology. Your CPU is proprietary technology.
Just watch the making of documentary for epIII of star wars, and look at all the shiny G5's hooked up to xserve's with awsome apple cinema display's.
Better yet, watch the end credits - look for the huge AMD logo. Episode III was rendered on Opterons, not XServes.
Contrast this with the XBOX. It started off with lots of hype, never really went anywhere with its library, instead relying on technical superiority, and they're already coming out with the next console before this one has had five years.
Oh my god! A 5-year lifecycle! It's not like Nintendo has ever had a lifecycle that short.
As for the library, XBOX had a number of notable exclusives, and with Rare onboard it appears that the 360 will have a number of notable exclusives as well.
Enter the XBOX360. Now, the XBOX didn't have a great library, and so there's not much track record there. It's got slightly improved graphics (but probably not as good as the competition will have), some backward compatibility (but to a meager library), and the same old DVD format. People say "there are interesting games on the horizon," but honestly, I want to know: what are they?
Don't believe Sony's crapola. Most developers have said that the XBOX 360 is roughly equal to the PS3 in terms of graphical muscle. The ATI GPU in the 360 is no pushover, no matter what Sony would have you believe.
And I wouldn't call over 200 games "meager" in terms of backwards compatibility.
And there are interesting games now. Lots of Rare fans like myself have been waiting for another Perfect Dark, there's PGR3, DOA4, and, of course, all the 3rd party sports and racing games.
As for DVD, who gives a crap? DVD-9 holds more than 9 gigabytes of data - it's certainly enough for any PC game out there, and I fail to realize why it's a serious issue for the 360.
Contrast this to the competition. The PS3 promises what the PS2 promised (and delivered on): highly improved graphics, full backward compatibility, a higher capacity format and the ability to play next-gen movies. It's sitting on a vast library of 2 generations of games, and all indications point to the next generation being just as big.
You're assuming that Blue-Ray is the format of the future. And that backwards-compatibility is going to be 100% - hell, even newer PS2 revs are having trouble maintaining full backwards-compatibility.
The Revolution promises full backward compatibility to everything Nintendo owns (although details are fuzzy), a new form of controller that could really make console shooters something else (as well as open up new types of games), and most importantly, all the Nintendo franchise games.
The Revolution isn't even competitive in this area. Nintendo has segmented themselves into a different market segment through the odd controller, late launch, different pricepoint, and different hardware specs.
Oh, and I don't see you crapping on Nintendo for choosing DVD-9 for Revolution.
I can see why someone would want a PS3. I can see why someone would want a Nintendo Revolution. But why would someone want an XBOX360?
You don't get it, do you? The 360 isn't about improved hardware, it's about improved software. Downloadable demos & movies. Independant games. Intelligent matchmaking. Integrated VoIP. Connectivity with XP Media center boxes. Connectivity with portable media devices.
Want to voice chat with a buddy while playing a single-player game? No problem. Want to try Kameo before you plunk down $50? No problem. Want to customize the UI with themes and wallpapers? Yep. Want to stream some tunes from your PC or an iPod while you game? Yep. Want to play some cool indie mini-games in HD? Yep.
What will become of the Great American Road Trip?
In a world with tough energy challenges, we face tough choices. In a future world where oil is becoming increasingly rare, the "Great American Road Trip" is going to become a luxury that few can afford.
America has an identity connected with the automobile. In a world where energy is becoming our biggest challenge, that cannot last but so long.
Slashdot users may be far more intereseted in the GeForce 6600 DDR2:
s /geforce6600ddr2/
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Review
At $99, it's a lot easier to swallow than the $600 GPUs we're now seeing, and it still offers excellent performance and decent Linux support.
Bigger question: have any of the reviews discovered if nVidia's cheated on this benchmark yet?
It seems that any time ATI or nVidia releases a new card, they've also got some drivers that "optimize" for the 3DMark benchmarking software. So I figure it must just mean that nobody's found out how they're doing it yet.
It's kind of sad to think that when they announce some obviously kick-ass hardware that all I can think of is "how did they cheat this time?"
The GeForce FX scandal was a few years ago, and no major GPU manufacturer is stupid enough to try to pull something like that again.
Image quality has been excellent on the GeForce 6 and 7 series parts so far. Some have reported a "shimmering" issue with AF turned on, but it's so difficult to spot that most people will never notice it. I certainly never have.
Yes, public transit in the US is in a pretty sorry state. But there is some hope. My community, Boulder CO, is actually serious about public transit. Through a parnership with the RTD (regional transportation district), there is a pretty decent bus system with 10-minute service to most places around town (15-minute service late at night), 30-minute service to Denver, and 1-hour service to the airport.
Colorado residents just approved FasTracks as well, which provides $4.6 billion in funding for 119 miles of new light-rail and commuter-rail service throughout the area, as well as expanded bus service.
As BP is so fond of saying, it's a start.
Hybrids derive thier electric power from regenrtve braking and only make use of thier electric motors when crusing and driving around town.
Not quite. The Prius, for example, uses a power-split device that allows power to be directed from the engine through two motor-generators and the battery. This eliminates the need for a traditional transmission.
If you have a 40 min highway commute the 4cyl gas engine is going to be doing most of the work and you wont even see the improved gas mileage of a hybrid.
While hybrids are essentially conventional vehicles at high-speeds, they are conventional vehicles with engines that are appropriately designed to supply sustained power necessary to maintain speed. Because of the electric system, there isn't a need for a large, inefficent motor to provide acceptable accelration.
The Prius, for example, uses a 76hp I-4 engine that uses the Miller cycle. Such an engine would be highly underpowered in a similar weight conventional vehicle.
Its emissions will be the same as any other 4cyl car as well.
The Prius, 2006 Civic Hybrid, Highlander Hybrid, and Escape Hybrid are all AT-PZEV certified. While there are some PZEV certified conventional vehicles (e.g. certain models of the Ford Focus), they are rare. The Prius and other PZEV vehicles are cleaner than non-PZEV vehicles, even at highway speeds.
New diesels produce much lower emissions (sometimes better than thier unleaded counterparts) get excellent gas mileage (north of 40mpg for many models).
No production diesel can currently meet California emission standards in the US. Mileage per gallon cannot be compared between diesel and gas as a measure of effiency because diesel has over 30% more energy per gallon than gasoline.
NOx emissions are particularly problematic with diesel engines. The higher compression ratios create considerably more work for the catalytic converter.
What would it be like to manage the disposal of these batteries if there was suddenly tens of millions of such cars driving around?
Current hybrids use Ni-MH batteries, which aren't particularly toxic from a disposal perspective, and, more importantly, conatin valuable metals that can be recovered through recycling.
Toyota, for example, pays a $200 "bounty" for dead batteries, because the nickel in them is quite valuable.
Ni-MH is probably the most "eco-friendly" battery technology. It's certainly worlds better than Ni-Cd.
"That's more memory bandwidth than a quad-Opteron system."
Yes, but with considerably more latency. DDR2 is great until you realize that the latency effectively kills any performance advantage you had with higher clocks. DDR2-533 is about as fast as DDR-400.
I don't know if I agree with the "most". I'd definitely go with "some", especially new switchers who don't know Mac's standard operating procedure. But if you've put in 50 CDs and never had a prompt, this might give you pause, especially because for some people giving anything but Software Update this sort of power is very scary.
Mac OS requires elevation for a lot of different changes - the more that users see the screen, the more that they get used to it. And, to them, allowing elevation is the "safe" choice.
Valve delaying a game? Who would have thought!
Heck. I can give you ONE reason not to move to Vista, and it's all you need.
Trusted Computing.
'nuff said.
Well, you probably won't like Mac OS X on x86, either. It's going to be the first OS to use the TPM to do copyright enforcement.
And Vista will run fine on systems without a TPM.
Really, the fear of "Trusted Computing" isn't grounded in reality.