The next worldwide industrial boom will be Bioengineering. If people are willing to pay $1000 for a CPU upgrade, imagine what they would pay for blue eyes. Or broad shoulders. Or a high IQ. Or thick hair that will never fall out. Or straight teeth. The list goes on and on.
I think you probably said this wrong, but to agree with all the other replying posters...This is a SERIOUSLY BAD IDEA. "Survival of the fittest" and "laissez faire" should NEVER be mixed. I don't recall Darwin ever saying that he with the most money should be able to physically destroy his competition. Imagine if you're the son of a lower-middle-class family...and Trevor, a boy in your class, is from a reasonably afluent family. He picks on you every day, and one day, you actually stand up to him and give him a black eye. Not one to stand down from a fight, the next day Trevor comes to school three times his original size and with the reflexes of a cat. He doesn't even wait for you to react to him - He simply lunges at you and crushes your neck. Most other students could probably have taken the blow or dodged it, but your family was too poor to make sure that your skeletal system had been reinforced with the most recent genetic advancements.
And should you live to tell about it, don't forget that his genetic makeup will most likely be passed on to his offspring, so Trevor Jr. will already have those enhancements in place without any medical procedures, and he'll be ready to make your son the whipping boy before they're even in school together.
You'll have mass disparity between social classes, and a few elite people who rule the world with an iron fist. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. You want to talk about putting power in the hands of those who would abuse it? This would only add physical enforcement to the Golden Rule - "He who has the gold makes the rules."
Said creator designed us to create these mutant creatures. Then humanity as a majority decides that it was ethically wrong to do so, and the project was scrapped. Are you then to believe that "our creator" intended for us all along to discover that it was a mistake?
Supposing then that the measures we take in response to our "ban" on genetic hybridization are to make other sweeping cuts against geneticism in general, including genetic engineering of crops and gene therapy for hereditary diseases and chromosomal malformation. Are you then going to say that it was the plan all along?
Did your god plan all along for you to be spending that brief amount of time posting on Slashdot? Geez...why don't we all just stop thinking *period*, and just follow the course that we'll inevitably take anyway. Oh, forget it...It was probably planned all along for me to question your thinking anyway, right?
I respect your point of view, but I also think you should examine the fallacy of its thinking.
Unfortunately, the very reasons you're eagerly awaiting IPv6 are probably the reasons that you won't ever see it, and you probably already know those reasons.
The Internet stopped being about information about five years ago (Or at least that wasn't the point anymore) and it's now all about eCommerce and BS like that. The very same companies that got on the Internet in the first place to deliver information are now delivering information only from their marketing departments, and not from engineers or researchers. Commerical interests have all but drowned out its original spirit, and are also partially the reason for the inception of Abilene (Internet2). Of course, it probably won't be long before that new promised land gets pillaged and raped. The Internet as we know it seems to be in an eternal state of loss of innocence, I'm afraid. I don't think the solution is to supplant or supercede the original 'net, but to just have a user-maintained network...kinda like what the network-area neighborhoods are designed to accomplish, except on a much grander scale. When the corporate interests don't exist, then the public can do with it as they see fit.
I liked Insurrection a lot too...but I think that the popularity of a Star Trek is determined by space battles (Though even Space Battles couldn't save ST5, or "Star Trek V: The Wrath of God". Think about it.
Everyone loves ST2, ST6, ST7 (kinda), and ST8. I don't know how the even number rule even TRIES to apply to ST4...
Personally? I rank them this way:
ST2,ST3,ST6,ST9,ST7,ST1,ST4,ST8,ST5. What can I say? It seems like everyone seems to forget Star Trek III when they say "This movie sucks!" or "This movie rocks!". It's got your space battles, cocky Kirk, fistfights with Christopher Lloyd as a Klingon, subterfuge at Starfleet HQ, and even Yellow Alerts in Space Dock!
"Bridge, this is the captain...How do you have a yellow alert in space dock?" "Sir! Someone is stealing the Enterprise!"
I love the way the initial shipment of XBoxes keeps decreasing in the eyes of the/. posters. First it was 350,000 units, then 300,000, and now it's only 200,000. And still Microsoft hasn't released numbers yet, so all of those are pure speculation. I'm guessing that the shipment was closer to the 350,000 mark, if not higher. As well, Microsoft is shipping 100,000 units per week through the holiday season.
If you're looking for neutral commentary about the Xbox and GameCube, you're certainly not helping the situation. Nobody knows if Microsoft is shipping 100K units a week through the holiday season, least of which is you. According to most reports I've read over the last few days, the word was that Microsoft was actually having production problems due to difficulty obtaining all those PC components, and the fact that they burned up some equipment in the factory when they were "overclocking" their manufacturing line during crunch time.
But again, nobody really knows any of this, so this is just idle speculation on the parts of a lot of people. But I will say this, though - First off, if the truth isn't bad, then there's no reason to hide it. Why does Microsoft need to hide their launch/shipping numbers? It's certainly not because they're trying not to be unfair - No company would willingly offer its competitors such an easy advantage. And if Microsoft's ship numbers were actually worth reporting, you can bet your $330 DVD player that they would've reported them. Any victory in business is still a victory, no matter how small.
I don't think this is a case of a lot of anti-MS posters gang-banging on Microsoft for what they see as an attempt to cover their asses. I think it's a case of a lot of reasonably intelligent people calling bullshit when they see it. And I'm not a fanboy one way or the other, but I certainly smell something fishy here too.
I'll bite. What makes the Kyocera 6035 so terrible? My girlfriend and I were looking at getting one for Christmas. Personally, we think the Treo is butt-ugly, and the Kyocera looks much sleeker and easier to work with. The VisorPhone is practically right out, unless you use the headset exclusively.
But please - Tell me what's wrong with the Kyocera.
Unless you were just being sarcastic, in which case I wholeheartedly agree with you...
Please read the title underneath the Slashdot logo.News for Nerds. Puh.
Yeah, I definitely think the root post here needs some more attention. I agree. Jon Katz's posts have been specious before, but this is just utter bullshit. I call for a retraction and censure.
As a separate point against this entire letter...
on
Message from Kabul
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· Score: 5, Insightful
Didn't the Taliban STRICTLY regulate technology? The Taliban thought the Internet was evil, after all, and outlawed it. So I find it HIGHLY suspicious that someone managed to start up an ISP in the middle of this war, and that someone else out there is more concerned about getting on Slashdot than staying alive and eating, which is what 99% of the Afghani population is probably concerned with.
This was bullshit. Sorry, but it *can't* be legit.
Yeah, I want to see "Leave the Bronx"...added extras could include a 19-minute extended hardcore remix of Tom Servo's rendition of the credits music, backed up by some aging former punk-hardcore rocker...Flea should do nicely...:D
Re:I withhold judgement until I PLAY it...
on
XBox Released
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· Score: 2
Not that it matters, but Final Fantasy II was released as IV in Japan, not V. North America didn't see FFV until Final Fantasy Anthology was released a few years ago.
And for the record, it wasn't an American launch title. If I remember correctly, the 1st party launch lineup was Super Mario World, Pilotwings, F-Zero, Play Action Football (Or somesuch, I don't recall), and something else that slips my mind...
Pilotwings was actually pretty cool, outside of the damned Helicopter invasion missions. I played Pilotwings 64 some - It was pretty snazzy, and while everyone was saluting Mario 64's visual imagery, everyone ignored Pilotwings 64, which was every damned bit as good. Two words...Rocket Pack.:D
Re:Probably hard to boot from
on
Firewire and Linux?
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· Score: 5, Informative
I'm not intending to troll here, but Macs can boot from FireWire (And USB). Granted, Macs have their own custom boot firmware, but the point is that it can be done.
Feasability is the issue, though. I doubt that people will want to start hacking custom BIOSes to enable FireWire as a boot device...
This is actually an idea I've been tossing around in my head for some time and might reserve to work on for a senior project or something. Instead of using P2P to distribute name changes or something, why don't we just have user-specific locally-cached DNS tables? You can continue to use DNS for new systems and places you haven't been to, but basically, it works by indexing metadata searches and allows you to assign your own names to things. For instance, let's say I already knew Slashdot's address. I can go to http://slashdot.org, and then assign it the name "Troll Land". From now on, I can just type in "Troll Land" and it'll open up Slashdot instead. Any URLs that direct to Slashdot.org will have Troll Land replaced on the fly (On the client end - Server-side code might be a bit difficult to work about, but then they're pushing the content to you anyway, so what's it to the client?).
If you for some reason overwrite an actual DNS entry, by calling eBay www.yahoo.com, then the difference is made by just using the http:// header, or, in the case of this app, dns://www.yahoo.com.
This way, users can organize the Internet the way it works for them. If they want to send URLs to someone, it's handled as a separate sort of context, and basically the inserted URL gets the actual DNS name reversed into it, so if I send you an AIM message linking you to Troll Land, it shows up as http://slashdot.org.
I don't know where you get this idea the MS is going to crush anybody. Firstly, there are 2 other very strong competitors to choose from<SNIP>
Hmm...Oh, I don't know...Remember Digital Research? How about a little web browser company called Netscape? What about everyone's past-time favorite word processor, WordPerfect? Surely these companies didn't self-engineer their own demises...
And while MS has the cash, they will not keep pouring money into something that loses a big chunk of money every time they sell a console. Investors do not like that.
Microsoft's investors couldn't give a damn because most of Microsoft's investors are Microsoft employees. The members of the Microsoft board collectively own a significant controlling share of Microsoft stock, so even if the private investors didn't like it, Microsoft could tell them to shove it and push on anyway. Besides - Your average Microsoft stockholder doesn't really give a damn about Microsoft's ethics anyway, so long as they continue to drive up the stock value. Microsoft's dominance in as many markets as possible ensures its long-term profitability, and that's all that investors care about.
I think you are being overly paranoid by saying they'll be no console industry if microsoft succeeds. There's always somebody to step in with something better.
You're absolutely right. Please excuse me while I wait for someone to step in with a better x86 operating system that runs my software.
I just thought it'd be an interesting tactic if this were the case...
I do question your figures though...The PS2 has *not* sold 10 million units. The PSX just broke that figure last Christmas, and it had been out for five/six years. I don't exactly remember PS2s flying off the shelf this year, especially not at $300.
Every console from the dawn of time has got exclusive games that can't be found anywhere else. That's part of the bait in selling consoles. Because MS will be using the same tried and true tactics, that is evil now??
There are several differences here that render your logic unconsciably dumb.
Some publishers have "exclusive" titles because they just can't afford to develop titles for more than one platform. They might not have enough resources. Nintendo can keep its 1st party titles (Mario, Zelda, and Metroid) because it develops them IN-HOUSE. Meaning that those people don't pay licensing fees because THEY ARE the licensors. Let's assume for the moment that Nintendo rigged some exclusive deals with Square (Which is far from the truth - Straight from the mouth of Hironobu Sakaguchi - "We develop for the systems that we can make the best use of in our expressions.")...
Nintendo keeps Square under its belt because they can afford to. They can't, however, afford to keep Konami and Capcom and Tecmo and Sunsoft and Interplay exclusive. They just don't have the cash to do it, and that wouldn't exactly be fair (Not the point, but c'mon). MICROSOFT, on the other hand, has the cash. They can outlast a self-imposed blockade for years. They've got plenty of other funds to draw from to keep things going. Nintendo doesn't. The Pachinko market isn't gonna keep 'em going, and Pokemon as a core business would only prolong their death.
What you see at work here is the classic example of a company declaring itself a competitor in a field it has never been in before, and suddenly using its massive weight to crush those beneath it that can't survive by other means. Nintendo can't undergo a focus shift, other than to become a software developer. That's what Sega did. If it were to happen, then Microsoft would basically have single-handedly upended Nintendo just by coming along.
Microsoft will try to do what Sony did, come out of nowhere and dominiate the market. How come nobody vilifies Sony?
Because Sony didn't exactly come out of nowhere. Sony was just trying to make a return on its failed investment that it had with Nintendo for the SNES CD-ROM add-on. The PSX project manager put his job on the line to turn the add-on's failure into a console contender. Had he not been so bold, Sony was planning on pulling out of the video entertainment business for good. Sony didn't have the intent of crushing all of its competitors by stifling their cash flow like Microsoft will. As proof of this, look at Sony's early advertising for the PSX. "U R NOT RED E"? That's fucking ridiculous, and the reason it is that way is because Sony didn't give much of an advertising budget to a product they didn't think was going to succeed.
I think you're the one that needs to get a grip. You don't understand the video gaming industry as well as you proclaim to. We're not just fighting Microsoft. We're fighting for the survival of our industry. If Microsoft succeeds, then five years from now, there won't be a console industry...just like there's no operating system industry.
...of Nintendo, in the attempt to get a jump on the xbox.
Of course, they might have been planning this all along.
I wonder what other interesting marketing tricks msft and nintendo have in store for each other.
Well, while it doesn't explain why Xbox games are already on the shelf, it does explain why GameCube games were shipping rather early. My local MallWart has Super Monkey Ball, Wave Race, Luigi's Mansion, and Rogue Leader in stock right now, and has had them for a week already.
It seems like a really good way to counter all the Xbox hype - Xbox launches with what seems to be half of its original units (~350K), and the GameCube strikes by launching four days early and with DOUBLE the number of units. Too bad it couldn't launch with double the number of games, but as far as that goes, it can work both ways.
If your console launches by itself with 20 games, then the perception is that you're launching with that many games because ten or fifteen suck titles will make the other five or ten look REALLY good. Launching against a competitor, however...Launching with more games seems to display market confidence.
I'm worried. I'm no fanboy, but I want Nintendo to win here because I think Microsoft has tainted enough marketspace as it is...
As the voice actor (And model for the player representation) in Tachyon: The Fringe, you managed to have a starring role in a video game which succeeded in the marketplace based on its own merits and (No offense) not because of the draw of its cast. Tia Carrere's "The Daedalus Encounter" and Brent Spiner's "Chronomaster" rapidly shoot to mind as immense failures in this regard.
How did you like the experience of helping to bring Tachyon to life? Was it better than working in film? Would you do it again? Can we have a Brisco County Jr. FPS?:D
The Nintendo Power Pad was a great idea in concept, but the system wasn't powerful enough to provide a decent entertainment experience with it. DDR is addictive and fun. If you don't want to play in the arcades where people can see you and make fun of you, then get a home set - It's domestically available for PSX, though Konami has only domestically published two titles, and has a third in the works. If you import, Japan has over ten Dance Dance Revolution titles, and they're almost totally in English anyway, so you'll only need to get a modchip or a GameShark.
Konami also released two DDR games for the Dreamcast in Japan, and a Disney-themed DDR for the N64 (Which is also now available for the PSX) but I don't think they made any first-party dance mats, so you'll have to stick with third-party crap mats if you want to play DDR on your Dreamcast. To my knowledge, nobody makes 3rd-party mats for the N64.
Don't knock it until you've tried it. It's loads of fun, and while you might not be very good at it right away, it doesn't take that much practice to get good. It's especially fun to show off in front of a crowd at your local arcade.
Early on, Tick gets thwacked and shatters through one of the streets in the city and lands in a subway tunnel, only to be prompty slammed by a passing subway train. For the rest of the episode, he speaks/acts like a Brit.
"Now we've all learned something today...We've learned that when someone gets hit by a subway train, they become British...
"But what does a British person become when he gets hit by a subway train?...
"...we came in and said there should be a platform that's identical with millions and millions of machines, and the bios of that should be open to everybody to use..."
Genesis 1:3
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Geez, Billy...Get the fuck off your high-horse. It's our turn to play God...
"Unfortunately, no free utilities are listed for the recovery."
Well, for what it's worth, us Mac users are already used to paying out the nose for stuff. I happen to have both Norton Utilities and TechTool Pro actually, and I don't know a Mac user who doesn't have one or the other. They're excellent resources in a pinch.
For those of you who claim that with "Apple's stuck-up attitude about it's OS" that it should come with these sorts of utilities, understand that Norton Utilities for the Mac is much different from Norton "Let's baby the infantile user" Utilities for Windows. TechTool Pro and NU bring out the power users in the Macintosh community. Oh...and IAAPOBIHAMAW. (I am a PC owner but I have a Mac at Work)
Slashdot Mirror
The next worldwide industrial boom will be Bioengineering. If people are willing to pay $1000 for a CPU upgrade, imagine what they would pay for blue eyes. Or broad shoulders. Or a high IQ. Or thick hair that will never fall out. Or straight teeth. The list goes on and on.
I think you probably said this wrong, but to agree with all the other replying posters...This is a SERIOUSLY BAD IDEA. "Survival of the fittest" and "laissez faire" should NEVER be mixed. I don't recall Darwin ever saying that he with the most money should be able to physically destroy his competition. Imagine if you're the son of a lower-middle-class family...and Trevor, a boy in your class, is from a reasonably afluent family. He picks on you every day, and one day, you actually stand up to him and give him a black eye. Not one to stand down from a fight, the next day Trevor comes to school three times his original size and with the reflexes of a cat. He doesn't even wait for you to react to him - He simply lunges at you and crushes your neck. Most other students could probably have taken the blow or dodged it, but your family was too poor to make sure that your skeletal system had been reinforced with the most recent genetic advancements.
And should you live to tell about it, don't forget that his genetic makeup will most likely be passed on to his offspring, so Trevor Jr. will already have those enhancements in place without any medical procedures, and he'll be ready to make your son the whipping boy before they're even in school together.
You'll have mass disparity between social classes, and a few elite people who rule the world with an iron fist. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. You want to talk about putting power in the hands of those who would abuse it? This would only add physical enforcement to the Golden Rule - "He who has the gold makes the rules."
Okay. Let's take this one step further.
Said creator designed us to create these mutant creatures. Then humanity as a majority decides that it was ethically wrong to do so, and the project was scrapped. Are you then to believe that "our creator" intended for us all along to discover that it was a mistake?
Supposing then that the measures we take in response to our "ban" on genetic hybridization are to make other sweeping cuts against geneticism in general, including genetic engineering of crops and gene therapy for hereditary diseases and chromosomal malformation. Are you then going to say that it was the plan all along?
Did your god plan all along for you to be spending that brief amount of time posting on Slashdot? Geez...why don't we all just stop thinking *period*, and just follow the course that we'll inevitably take anyway. Oh, forget it...It was probably planned all along for me to question your thinking anyway, right?
I respect your point of view, but I also think you should examine the fallacy of its thinking.
Unfortunately, the very reasons you're eagerly awaiting IPv6 are probably the reasons that you won't ever see it, and you probably already know those reasons.
The Internet stopped being about information about five years ago (Or at least that wasn't the point anymore) and it's now all about eCommerce and BS like that. The very same companies that got on the Internet in the first place to deliver information are now delivering information only from their marketing departments, and not from engineers or researchers. Commerical interests have all but drowned out its original spirit, and are also partially the reason for the inception of Abilene (Internet2). Of course, it probably won't be long before that new promised land gets pillaged and raped. The Internet as we know it seems to be in an eternal state of loss of innocence, I'm afraid. I don't think the solution is to supplant or supercede the original 'net, but to just have a user-maintained network...kinda like what the network-area neighborhoods are designed to accomplish, except on a much grander scale. When the corporate interests don't exist, then the public can do with it as they see fit.
I liked Insurrection a lot too...but I think that the popularity of a Star Trek is determined by space battles (Though even Space Battles couldn't save ST5, or "Star Trek V: The Wrath of God". Think about it.
Everyone loves ST2, ST6, ST7 (kinda), and ST8. I don't know how the even number rule even TRIES to apply to ST4...
Personally? I rank them this way: ST2,ST3,ST6,ST9,ST7,ST1,ST4,ST8,ST5. What can I say? It seems like everyone seems to forget Star Trek III when they say "This movie sucks!" or "This movie rocks!". It's got your space battles, cocky Kirk, fistfights with Christopher Lloyd as a Klingon, subterfuge at Starfleet HQ, and even Yellow Alerts in Space Dock!
"Bridge, this is the captain...How do you have a yellow alert in space dock?" "Sir! Someone is stealing the Enterprise!"
I love the way the initial shipment of XBoxes keeps decreasing in the eyes of the /. posters. First it was 350,000 units, then 300,000, and now it's only 200,000. And still Microsoft hasn't released numbers yet, so all of those are pure speculation. I'm guessing that the shipment was closer to the 350,000 mark, if not higher. As well, Microsoft is shipping 100,000 units per week through the holiday season.
If you're looking for neutral commentary about the Xbox and GameCube, you're certainly not helping the situation. Nobody knows if Microsoft is shipping 100K units a week through the holiday season, least of which is you. According to most reports I've read over the last few days, the word was that Microsoft was actually having production problems due to difficulty obtaining all those PC components, and the fact that they burned up some equipment in the factory when they were "overclocking" their manufacturing line during crunch time.
But again, nobody really knows any of this, so this is just idle speculation on the parts of a lot of people. But I will say this, though - First off, if the truth isn't bad, then there's no reason to hide it. Why does Microsoft need to hide their launch/shipping numbers? It's certainly not because they're trying not to be unfair - No company would willingly offer its competitors such an easy advantage. And if Microsoft's ship numbers were actually worth reporting, you can bet your $330 DVD player that they would've reported them. Any victory in business is still a victory, no matter how small.
I don't think this is a case of a lot of anti-MS posters gang-banging on Microsoft for what they see as an attempt to cover their asses. I think it's a case of a lot of reasonably intelligent people calling bullshit when they see it. And I'm not a fanboy one way or the other, but I certainly smell something fishy here too.
I'll bite. What makes the Kyocera 6035 so terrible? My girlfriend and I were looking at getting one for Christmas. Personally, we think the Treo is butt-ugly, and the Kyocera looks much sleeker and easier to work with. The VisorPhone is practically right out, unless you use the headset exclusively. But please - Tell me what's wrong with the Kyocera.
NO. I sincerely doubt you can imagine a Beowulf cluster of these. And if you can, you're a retard.
There is an appropriate category already. It's called Games. Why /. doesn't use it for this beats the hell out of me...
Unless you were just being sarcastic, in which case I wholeheartedly agree with you...
Please read the title underneath the Slashdot logo.News for Nerds. Puh. Yeah, I definitely think the root post here needs some more attention. I agree. Jon Katz's posts have been specious before, but this is just utter bullshit. I call for a retraction and censure.
Didn't the Taliban STRICTLY regulate technology? The Taliban thought the Internet was evil, after all, and outlawed it. So I find it HIGHLY suspicious that someone managed to start up an ISP in the middle of this war, and that someone else out there is more concerned about getting on Slashdot than staying alive and eating, which is what 99% of the Afghani population is probably concerned with.
This was bullshit. Sorry, but it *can't* be legit.
Yeah, I want to see "Leave the Bronx"...added extras could include a 19-minute extended hardcore remix of Tom Servo's rendition of the credits music, backed up by some aging former punk-hardcore rocker...Flea should do nicely... :D
Not that it matters, but Final Fantasy II was released as IV in Japan, not V. North America didn't see FFV until Final Fantasy Anthology was released a few years ago.
:D
And for the record, it wasn't an American launch title. If I remember correctly, the 1st party launch lineup was Super Mario World, Pilotwings, F-Zero, Play Action Football (Or somesuch, I don't recall), and something else that slips my mind... Pilotwings was actually pretty cool, outside of the damned Helicopter invasion missions. I played Pilotwings 64 some - It was pretty snazzy, and while everyone was saluting Mario 64's visual imagery, everyone ignored Pilotwings 64, which was every damned bit as good. Two words...Rocket Pack.
I'm not intending to troll here, but Macs can boot from FireWire (And USB). Granted, Macs have their own custom boot firmware, but the point is that it can be done. Feasability is the issue, though. I doubt that people will want to start hacking custom BIOSes to enable FireWire as a boot device...
This is actually an idea I've been tossing around in my head for some time and might reserve to work on for a senior project or something. Instead of using P2P to distribute name changes or something, why don't we just have user-specific locally-cached DNS tables? You can continue to use DNS for new systems and places you haven't been to, but basically, it works by indexing metadata searches and allows you to assign your own names to things. For instance, let's say I already knew Slashdot's address. I can go to http://slashdot.org, and then assign it the name "Troll Land". From now on, I can just type in "Troll Land" and it'll open up Slashdot instead. Any URLs that direct to Slashdot.org will have Troll Land replaced on the fly (On the client end - Server-side code might be a bit difficult to work about, but then they're pushing the content to you anyway, so what's it to the client?).
If you for some reason overwrite an actual DNS entry, by calling eBay www.yahoo.com, then the difference is made by just using the http:// header, or, in the case of this app, dns://www.yahoo.com. This way, users can organize the Internet the way it works for them. If they want to send URLs to someone, it's handled as a separate sort of context, and basically the inserted URL gets the actual DNS name reversed into it, so if I send you an AIM message linking you to Troll Land, it shows up as http://slashdot.org.
I don't know where you get this idea the MS is going to crush anybody. Firstly, there are 2 other very strong competitors to choose from<SNIP>
Hmm...Oh, I don't know...Remember Digital Research? How about a little web browser company called Netscape? What about everyone's past-time favorite word processor, WordPerfect? Surely these companies didn't self-engineer their own demises...
And while MS has the cash, they will not keep pouring money into something that loses a big chunk of money every time they sell a console. Investors do not like that.
Microsoft's investors couldn't give a damn because most of Microsoft's investors are Microsoft employees. The members of the Microsoft board collectively own a significant controlling share of Microsoft stock, so even if the private investors didn't like it, Microsoft could tell them to shove it and push on anyway. Besides - Your average Microsoft stockholder doesn't really give a damn about Microsoft's ethics anyway, so long as they continue to drive up the stock value. Microsoft's dominance in as many markets as possible ensures its long-term profitability, and that's all that investors care about.
I think you are being overly paranoid by saying they'll be no console industry if microsoft succeeds. There's always somebody to step in with something better.
You're absolutely right. Please excuse me while I wait for someone to step in with a better x86 operating system that runs my software.
I just thought it'd be an interesting tactic if this were the case...
I do question your figures though...The PS2 has *not* sold 10 million units. The PSX just broke that figure last Christmas, and it had been out for five/six years. I don't exactly remember PS2s flying off the shelf this year, especially not at $300.
Every console from the dawn of time has got exclusive games that can't be found anywhere else. That's part of the bait in selling consoles. Because MS will be using the same tried and true tactics, that is evil now??
There are several differences here that render your logic unconsciably dumb.
Some publishers have "exclusive" titles because they just can't afford to develop titles for more than one platform. They might not have enough resources. Nintendo can keep its 1st party titles (Mario, Zelda, and Metroid) because it develops them IN-HOUSE. Meaning that those people don't pay licensing fees because THEY ARE the licensors. Let's assume for the moment that Nintendo rigged some exclusive deals with Square (Which is far from the truth - Straight from the mouth of Hironobu Sakaguchi - "We develop for the systems that we can make the best use of in our expressions.")...
Nintendo keeps Square under its belt because they can afford to. They can't, however, afford to keep Konami and Capcom and Tecmo and Sunsoft and Interplay exclusive. They just don't have the cash to do it, and that wouldn't exactly be fair (Not the point, but c'mon). MICROSOFT, on the other hand, has the cash. They can outlast a self-imposed blockade for years. They've got plenty of other funds to draw from to keep things going. Nintendo doesn't. The Pachinko market isn't gonna keep 'em going, and Pokemon as a core business would only prolong their death.
What you see at work here is the classic example of a company declaring itself a competitor in a field it has never been in before, and suddenly using its massive weight to crush those beneath it that can't survive by other means. Nintendo can't undergo a focus shift, other than to become a software developer. That's what Sega did. If it were to happen, then Microsoft would basically have single-handedly upended Nintendo just by coming along.
Microsoft will try to do what Sony did, come out of nowhere and dominiate the market. How come nobody vilifies Sony?
Because Sony didn't exactly come out of nowhere. Sony was just trying to make a return on its failed investment that it had with Nintendo for the SNES CD-ROM add-on. The PSX project manager put his job on the line to turn the add-on's failure into a console contender. Had he not been so bold, Sony was planning on pulling out of the video entertainment business for good. Sony didn't have the intent of crushing all of its competitors by stifling their cash flow like Microsoft will. As proof of this, look at Sony's early advertising for the PSX. "U R NOT RED E"? That's fucking ridiculous, and the reason it is that way is because Sony didn't give much of an advertising budget to a product they didn't think was going to succeed.
I think you're the one that needs to get a grip. You don't understand the video gaming industry as well as you proclaim to. We're not just fighting Microsoft. We're fighting for the survival of our industry. If Microsoft succeeds, then five years from now, there won't be a console industry...just like there's no operating system industry.
Well, while it doesn't explain why Xbox games are already on the shelf, it does explain why GameCube games were shipping rather early. My local MallWart has Super Monkey Ball, Wave Race, Luigi's Mansion, and Rogue Leader in stock right now, and has had them for a week already.
It seems like a really good way to counter all the Xbox hype - Xbox launches with what seems to be half of its original units (~350K), and the GameCube strikes by launching four days early and with DOUBLE the number of units. Too bad it couldn't launch with double the number of games, but as far as that goes, it can work both ways.
If your console launches by itself with 20 games, then the perception is that you're launching with that many games because ten or fifteen suck titles will make the other five or ten look REALLY good. Launching against a competitor, however...Launching with more games seems to display market confidence.
I'm worried. I'm no fanboy, but I want Nintendo to win here because I think Microsoft has tainted enough marketspace as it is...
As the voice actor (And model for the player representation) in Tachyon: The Fringe, you managed to have a starring role in a video game which succeeded in the marketplace based on its own merits and (No offense) not because of the draw of its cast. Tia Carrere's "The Daedalus Encounter" and Brent Spiner's "Chronomaster" rapidly shoot to mind as immense failures in this regard. How did you like the experience of helping to bring Tachyon to life? Was it better than working in film? Would you do it again? Can we have a Brisco County Jr. FPS? :D
Play Dance Dance Revolution!
The Nintendo Power Pad was a great idea in concept, but the system wasn't powerful enough to provide a decent entertainment experience with it. DDR is addictive and fun. If you don't want to play in the arcades where people can see you and make fun of you, then get a home set - It's domestically available for PSX, though Konami has only domestically published two titles, and has a third in the works. If you import, Japan has over ten Dance Dance Revolution titles, and they're almost totally in English anyway, so you'll only need to get a modchip or a GameShark.
Konami also released two DDR games for the Dreamcast in Japan, and a Disney-themed DDR for the N64 (Which is also now available for the PSX) but I don't think they made any first-party dance mats, so you'll have to stick with third-party crap mats if you want to play DDR on your Dreamcast. To my knowledge, nobody makes 3rd-party mats for the N64.
Don't knock it until you've tried it. It's loads of fun, and while you might not be very good at it right away, it doesn't take that much practice to get good. It's especially fun to show off in front of a crowd at your local arcade.
Early on, Tick gets thwacked and shatters through one of the streets in the city and lands in a subway tunnel, only to be prompty slammed by a passing subway train. For the rest of the episode, he speaks/acts like a Brit. "Now we've all learned something today...We've learned that when someone gets hit by a subway train, they become British...
...
"But what does a British person become when he gets hit by a subway train?
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..."COMATOSE!!!"
"...we came in and said there should be a platform that's identical with millions and millions of machines, and the bios of that should be open to everybody to use..."
Genesis 1:3
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Geez, Billy...Get the fuck off your high-horse. It's our turn to play God...
Wow! You just referred to the Final Fantasy movie! If I had some mod points, they'd be all yours right now. Sir, I salute you. :)
"Unfortunately, no free utilities are listed for the recovery."
Well, for what it's worth, us Mac users are already used to paying out the nose for stuff. I happen to have both Norton Utilities and TechTool Pro actually, and I don't know a Mac user who doesn't have one or the other. They're excellent resources in a pinch.
For those of you who claim that with "Apple's stuck-up attitude about it's OS" that it should come with these sorts of utilities, understand that Norton Utilities for the Mac is much different from Norton "Let's baby the infantile user" Utilities for Windows. TechTool Pro and NU bring out the power users in the Macintosh community. Oh...and IAAPOBIHAMAW. (I am a PC owner but I have a Mac at Work)
QuickTime Pro is only needed for the Large clip. You can view the small/medium clips with QuickTime.