You do understand that just because government has certain policies, that it doesn't mean it's what America "stands for".
You do realize that any given nearly any policy you can name, about half (at minimum) of the country is against, right?
Or is it hard for you to keep these competing ideas in your head?
Do you think that we stood for McCarthyism years ago? Reganomics? Slavery?
This country has done some fairly rotten shit. Every nation does. But there is a system in place that puts the people in the driver seat, more or less. And there are some ideals at the foundation (five freedoms, individual liberty, etc.) that make America and other modern democracies powerful systems.
I don't support nearly everything our nation does. I spend lots of time and energy railing against certain things we do. (I happen to agree with you on the TSA thing, but not the moronically hyperbolic description you used).
But the system we have in place... the idea that I and others like me can effect change peacefully in our most powerful institutions. That is what makes the U.S. (and other nations like us, of course) great places to live.
By remaining, you are implicitly saying that you can live with this system, or that it is at least better than any other alternatives.
I don't agree with how every cent of my taxes are spent, but that's what comes with representative democracy.
The benefits I net (security, social safety nets, police, fire, EMS, food inspectors, FAA, etc., etc.) far outweigh the things I don't like ("elective" war, eleven carrier groups, corn subsidies, etc.).
We've been down this road before. In the 1970s, we had the F-15s coming online, and we realized that the Soviets were building MiGs far, far cheaper. We began to worry.
We suspected the F-15 was far superior to most of the MiGs the USSR was producing (except the MiG-25, which we thought was some kind of super-fighter at the time). But western planners worried that superior or not, the F-15 would not stand up to the superior numbers of the Soviet and Warsaw Pact air forces.
So the DoD put out a contract for a cheap, single engine, high performance clear weather day fighter.
The F-16 would come out of that request. And it performed well beyond the wildest expectations. What was supposed to be a cheap answer to superior numbers that would only fly in daylight and only perform air-to-air proved to be a capable all weather fighter-bomber, and did superb in it's primary role.
The plan was to have the F-22 take over the role of the F-15 (except for the "E" variant), and have the F-35 take over the role of the F-16 (and the Harrier and some of the F/A-18s, IIRC).
But now that production has been cut on the F-22, that plan's changed. The F-22 won't be able to fully take over for the F-15, and the F-15s will have to serve longer into the future. It remains to be seen what happens with the F-35.
Given that the F-15 has a combat record of 400-something to zero, I'd say it's proven that superior performance combined with western training doctrine can be better than superior numbers.
The F-22 by all accounts is the next evolution of the same philosophy. In exercise after exercise, the F-22 remains untouched.
And it's better than that. In exercises where F-22s and F-15s deployed together against aggressor forces, after the F-22s expended their stores, they'd remain in the fight and provide combat data to the F-15 elements on their side. This boosted the kill rations for the F-15s they deployed with. The Raptors are even an advantage after they've fired off their last missiles. It's like having extra stealthy, forward deployed AWACS on your side.
Cablecard let's you decrypt the same signal that your cablebox does, without relying on any kind of analog hole. It's a pure digital stream without cableboxes.
There are other ways of doing it, sure. But if you want the full signal quality, it's the only legal and only practical game in town.
Some cableboxes will let you pipe out a firewire stream, but then you're renting a box (or several) and tools that handle it aren't as mature and reliable as just letting Windows Media Center manage a cablecard tuner.
Read the OP - the Cablecard tuner he wants to work will only work with Windows or iOS. There is no Android support for any cablecard device.
Really, Windows is the right answer here, it's just a question of what hardware he prefers. Even using iOS is a half-measure, there's no PVR support there.
It's useless for the OP's needs, though. He wants to work with the HDHomerun Prime. His options are Windows or iOS. And if he wants PVR functionality, his options are Windows or Windows.
I like Android as much as the next guy, but if you want cablecard, there's no other choice.
The HDHomerun Prime is a really neat tuner that is PC free. You just plug your cablecard into it, attach coax, and attach ethernet to get it on your network.
Once it's there, Windows 7 (and possibly Vista, not sure) will see it as a cablecard tuner (three cablecard tuner, in fact).
There's an iOS app as well, though all you can do is watch live TV with it, you loose the PVR functions you'd get with a Windows Media Center PC. Though you'd still have whatever other apps you want (Netflix, etc.).
The HD Homerun Prime tuner he's using (indeed, any cablecard tuner) needs to either run Windows or iOS, There is no OSX option that will work. And in fact, there are advantages of using Windows over iOS (PVR functionality).
He could install Windows 7 on an iMac, I guess, but unless you're married to the style of the iMac, I don't see why.
Cablecard? Integration with extenders like the Xbox 360?
XBMC is neat. I keep meaning to try it. But from what I've seen, it's not nearly as mature as Windows Media Center, and it's possible it never will be because of licensing for things like Cablecard.
Any netbook. Any tablet Some ultrabooks Some MacBooks (The whole "Air" line)
But it's okay, just keep mouthing off without knowing what you're talking about.
The fact is, for an OEM to provide legal decryption for DVDs, they have to pay. Doesn't matter if it's an OS, a standalone program, or even a hardware player. You include the deception algorithm, you need to have permission, and that means paying the DVD consortium the tax.
I don't know how much it is, or if it's enough to warrant this move. But it is the reality, and MS will probably save millions by not licensing it by default.
Thirded. I've got two xbox 360s in the house. I own no games for them. They serve just as media boxes to connect to WMC, and the only hickup they ever gave me turned out to be a bad NIC in the Media Center PC.
I pay for a gold XBox live subscription so I can watch Netflix on them, which also gives me access to HBO GO (On Demand) if I want it.
I record shows on the Media Center PC, and when the price comes down a bit, I'll probably pick up an HDHomeRun Prime Network tuner - sits on your network and allows any Windows 7 with Media Center equipped PC in the house grab one of it's three tuners. I very seldom watch live TV, but it's there if I want it.
That combined with Comcast's new Xbox App (from what I can tell it's all the content they have on on-demand, but with an nicer interface) means I'll be able to get rid of the last of my cable boxes without anyone in the house missing them.
I've not played with Myth of XBMC, but I've been curious. All I know is that WMC with xboxes "just works" for 99.9% of what I'd like to do.
Just to clarify - in my second sentence, what I mean is I rarely buy new games when they're new releases. I may wait a month or more to pick up a title. If it's not around any more, it probably wasn't worth buying (with a few notable exceptions).
I have a policy of only buying new unless the title is out of print.
I rarely buy games when they're brand new (mostly just Valve, and an occasional Nintendo or Blizzard title) and that's okay with me. I'm picky about games, and I want to make sure my money goes to support developers as much as possible.
I also like to make sure my games are in good condition and that they remain complete. That's hard to do with used games. I'm a little bit of a collector.
That said, I buy very few console games. Maybe 70% of what I buy is for the PC. And the idea of a console maker locking me into keeping the game, preventing me from resale... that's distasteful to me. I don't want to resell my games. But preventing it from being possible? Ugh.
I have a bunch of Steam and WiiWare games, and while I think the lack of resales on pure digital content is reasonable, if they're proposing locking physical discs this way, I'm wary.
Slashdot has done non-nerd, general interest stories before.
While there may be some exceptions I can't think of, they're all huge general-interest stories. Literally front page of the NY Times caliber.
The 9/11 attacks, the death of Bin-Laden, the start of the Iraq war, the 7/7 bombings, now this.
That's why they don't just do parenting stories. Because that's fluff that other outfits use to fill slow news days.
This, and the stories I referenced above are general interest. Virtually everyone in the country (in some cases, the planet) cares about these kinds of stories. So Slashdot carries them and gives nerds a place to discuss them from our own perspective.
I can see why you're so hurt by this. It's a terrible tragedy that you had to see this article on Slashdot.
You should sue. You know, for your emotional trauma.
If it was Troi's job to be sexy, she did a piss poor job of it. I never saw her as the least bit attractive. Mostly annoying.
Dax wasn't a blatant sexy character, though both Jadzia and Ezri were very attractive actresses. I think they got the balance really right with that/those character(s).
Rand / Uhura were attractive, but I don't know if the show went out of their way to sexualize them. I wasn't a fan of TOS, so perhaps I'm wrong.
Seven of Nine and T'Pol were definitely blatant ratings grabs. The characters were down right insulting, and one of the reasons I think Trek jumped the shark after DS9.
The Dabo girls, I'll give you. They were essentially the modern version of the Orion Slave Girls / hookers / strippers / etc. But they weren't characters. The objectification of them was intentional and conscious. You were supposed to be aware of it, and the characters in the Trek world were aware of it.
Being a heterosexual male, I don't recall much in the way of "sexy" make scenes. Q cuddling Picard in Tapestry? The many Klingon show of strength scenes with Worf in TNG / DS9? Picard nude in Cardasian custody in Chain of Command?
There's nothing to see. If ABC is "hiding" something, well, I don't see it.
Maybe he is hurt. But you can't tell from this security camera footage. He might have cuts on his face or the back of his head. I can't tell. But I doubt his broken nose claim is true. Anything else... this video doesn't prove or disprove it.
An American-born Muslim likely only speaks English. An Iranian-born Muslim likely only speaks Persian.
But both of them pray in Arabic. Arabic is the language Korans are printed in (many are printed in two languages, though) and it's the language of formal Muslim prayer.
Lots of Muslims become fluent in Arabic because of this, but many only become proficient enough to pray in the language and perhaps read the Koran. It's a bit like Latin in Catholicism used to be, or Hebrew with Jews.
English speaking Muslims may use "god" informally, but in prayer, and more formally, they'll all use "Allah" regardless of native tongue.
When you see passages underlined with a little note that says "19 people highlighted this," what did you think? People sent Amazon a postcard to let them know?
The whole market was different. I remember Super Mario Bros. 3 being out of reach because it was $60. That said, this was unusual to say the least. Most AAA games went for $45 for most, if not all of the NES lifespan.
Nothing for the NES under $30. That's $57.48 in today's dollars - for the CHEAP games!
The used market was also much, much smaller than it is today. This may be before Funcoland, and even if it's not, Funcoland was a mail-order resale company until the mid 90s (there were others, but early on, Funcoland was the first big player), when they and others moved into brick and mortar stores.
Then you have the difference between media then and now.
Take an old game that's still selling today - Starcraft. It was released in 1998, and is now 14 years old. It's production costs have been paid off, so you've now just got marginal cost and a small profit to make up.
Box, disc, printed manual, server overhead, support, and profit and Blizzard can sell a copy of the Starcraft Battlechest for $10.
Compare that to an old game being sold in the NES era. This same catalog has Atari 2600 and 7800 games. Including Centipede, Joust and some other games that are old by 1988. That's a better place to look for comparison, because Atari didn't manipulate prices like Nintendo did.
The cheapest game listed for the 2600 is $18. That's $35 in today's dollars.
Atari is still printing a box, probably a manual, and they've got no server costs. But the price of making a plastic cartridge, the PCB inside of it, and the custom ROM chips to go on the PCB are way higher than the cost of Blizzard pressing a plastic disc.
Finally, you have production costs - In 1988, you have marketing people, graphic artists, programmers, sound guys, etc. The technology was more primitive, but it still needed talented people to make it work because the tools were more primitive too. Super Mario Bros. 3 could probably be put together today by a team of 2-3 motivated people over a few months to a year. But developing it when it was state of the art probably took dozens of folks years.
Today, you still have programmers, you have writers, sound folks, video folks, folks who run servers for online content, graphics folks, etc. etc. etc.
I'm really not clear which is a bigger production cost, but I suspect that the cost today is higher. That has to be made up in the cost of the game, volume, ads, or DLC.
So the market has gone from lower initial investment with higher marginal costs of production to one where there are higher initial investments and low marginal costs of production and distribution (approaching zero with digital sales).
I haven't had a land line since 2002. But phone books have appeared on my front door everywhere I've lived since that time. I've never understood why. (I'm not sure what the schedule is, as I've moved a lot in 10 years).
Even though Windows Mobile is essentially unchanged in terms of binary comparability since v1.0, they only introduced Windows Market with version 6.1 or 6.2 a couple years ago.
When I stopped using my HTC Tilt 2 late last year, there were still only a few hundred apps (800?). By the time they launched, Microsoft had already announced that Windows Phone 7 would come out, and would break comparability with the 6.x and earlier Windows Mobile line.
So if you're a developer, what are you going to do? Invest time writing or porting an app for Windows 6.x when you know there won't be any devices that are comparable produced after a year? The writing was on the wall. Everyone who was holding out moved on to iOS or Android, for the most part. Some moved on to Windows Phone 7.
I suspect a lot more will move back to WP7 (or WP8?) once Windows 8 ships. But for now, most of the folks who liked Windows Mobile because it was so open and free (not in an OSS way, but in a "I can do whatever I want" way) have moved to Android. Look at XDA Developers.
Slashdot Mirror
You do understand that just because government has certain policies, that it doesn't mean it's what America "stands for".
You do realize that any given nearly any policy you can name, about half (at minimum) of the country is against, right?
Or is it hard for you to keep these competing ideas in your head?
Do you think that we stood for McCarthyism years ago? Reganomics? Slavery?
This country has done some fairly rotten shit. Every nation does. But there is a system in place that puts the people in the driver seat, more or less. And there are some ideals at the foundation (five freedoms, individual liberty, etc.) that make America and other modern democracies powerful systems.
I don't support nearly everything our nation does. I spend lots of time and energy railing against certain things we do. (I happen to agree with you on the TSA thing, but not the moronically hyperbolic description you used).
But the system we have in place... the idea that I and others like me can effect change peacefully in our most powerful institutions. That is what makes the U.S. (and other nations like us, of course) great places to live.
So renounce your citizenship and go elsewhere.
By remaining, you are implicitly saying that you can live with this system, or that it is at least better than any other alternatives.
I don't agree with how every cent of my taxes are spent, but that's what comes with representative democracy.
The benefits I net (security, social safety nets, police, fire, EMS, food inspectors, FAA, etc., etc.) far outweigh the things I don't like ("elective" war, eleven carrier groups, corn subsidies, etc.).
Nobody is compelling you to stay.
Who cares? Did you sprain something?
We've been down this road before. In the 1970s, we had the F-15s coming online, and we realized that the Soviets were building MiGs far, far cheaper. We began to worry.
We suspected the F-15 was far superior to most of the MiGs the USSR was producing (except the MiG-25, which we thought was some kind of super-fighter at the time). But western planners worried that superior or not, the F-15 would not stand up to the superior numbers of the Soviet and Warsaw Pact air forces.
So the DoD put out a contract for a cheap, single engine, high performance clear weather day fighter.
The F-16 would come out of that request. And it performed well beyond the wildest expectations. What was supposed to be a cheap answer to superior numbers that would only fly in daylight and only perform air-to-air proved to be a capable all weather fighter-bomber, and did superb in it's primary role.
The plan was to have the F-22 take over the role of the F-15 (except for the "E" variant), and have the F-35 take over the role of the F-16 (and the Harrier and some of the F/A-18s, IIRC).
But now that production has been cut on the F-22, that plan's changed. The F-22 won't be able to fully take over for the F-15, and the F-15s will have to serve longer into the future. It remains to be seen what happens with the F-35.
Given that the F-15 has a combat record of 400-something to zero, I'd say it's proven that superior performance combined with western training doctrine can be better than superior numbers.
The F-22 by all accounts is the next evolution of the same philosophy. In exercise after exercise, the F-22 remains untouched.
And it's better than that. In exercises where F-22s and F-15s deployed together against aggressor forces, after the F-22s expended their stores, they'd remain in the fight and provide combat data to the F-15 elements on their side. This boosted the kill rations for the F-15s they deployed with. The Raptors are even an advantage after they've fired off their last missiles. It's like having extra stealthy, forward deployed AWACS on your side.
Cablecard let's you decrypt the same signal that your cablebox does, without relying on any kind of analog hole. It's a pure digital stream without cableboxes.
There are other ways of doing it, sure. But if you want the full signal quality, it's the only legal and only practical game in town.
Some cableboxes will let you pipe out a firewire stream, but then you're renting a box (or several) and tools that handle it aren't as mature and reliable as just letting Windows Media Center manage a cablecard tuner.
Read the OP - the Cablecard tuner he wants to work will only work with Windows or iOS. There is no Android support for any cablecard device.
Really, Windows is the right answer here, it's just a question of what hardware he prefers. Even using iOS is a half-measure, there's no PVR support there.
It's useless for the OP's needs, though. He wants to work with the HDHomerun Prime. His options are Windows or iOS. And if he wants PVR functionality, his options are Windows or Windows.
I like Android as much as the next guy, but if you want cablecard, there's no other choice.
The HDHomerun Prime is a really neat tuner that is PC free. You just plug your cablecard into it, attach coax, and attach ethernet to get it on your network.
Once it's there, Windows 7 (and possibly Vista, not sure) will see it as a cablecard tuner (three cablecard tuner, in fact).
There's an iOS app as well, though all you can do is watch live TV with it, you loose the PVR functions you'd get with a Windows Media Center PC. Though you'd still have whatever other apps you want (Netflix, etc.).
The HD Homerun Prime tuner he's using (indeed, any cablecard tuner) needs to either run Windows or iOS, There is no OSX option that will work. And in fact, there are advantages of using Windows over iOS (PVR functionality).
He could install Windows 7 on an iMac, I guess, but unless you're married to the style of the iMac, I don't see why.
Cablecard? Integration with extenders like the Xbox 360?
XBMC is neat. I keep meaning to try it. But from what I've seen, it's not nearly as mature as Windows Media Center, and it's possible it never will be because of licensing for things like Cablecard.
What doesn't come with optical drives?
Any netbook.
Any tablet
Some ultrabooks
Some MacBooks (The whole "Air" line)
But it's okay, just keep mouthing off without knowing what you're talking about.
The fact is, for an OEM to provide legal decryption for DVDs, they have to pay. Doesn't matter if it's an OS, a standalone program, or even a hardware player. You include the deception algorithm, you need to have permission, and that means paying the DVD consortium the tax.
I don't know how much it is, or if it's enough to warrant this move. But it is the reality, and MS will probably save millions by not licensing it by default.
Thirded. I've got two xbox 360s in the house. I own no games for them. They serve just as media boxes to connect to WMC, and the only hickup they ever gave me turned out to be a bad NIC in the Media Center PC.
I pay for a gold XBox live subscription so I can watch Netflix on them, which also gives me access to HBO GO (On Demand) if I want it.
I record shows on the Media Center PC, and when the price comes down a bit, I'll probably pick up an HDHomeRun Prime Network tuner - sits on your network and allows any Windows 7 with Media Center equipped PC in the house grab one of it's three tuners. I very seldom watch live TV, but it's there if I want it.
That combined with Comcast's new Xbox App (from what I can tell it's all the content they have on on-demand, but with an nicer interface) means I'll be able to get rid of the last of my cable boxes without anyone in the house missing them.
I've not played with Myth of XBMC, but I've been curious. All I know is that WMC with xboxes "just works" for 99.9% of what I'd like to do.
Just to clarify - in my second sentence, what I mean is I rarely buy new games when they're new releases. I may wait a month or more to pick up a title. If it's not around any more, it probably wasn't worth buying (with a few notable exceptions).
I have a policy of only buying new unless the title is out of print.
I rarely buy games when they're brand new (mostly just Valve, and an occasional Nintendo or Blizzard title) and that's okay with me. I'm picky about games, and I want to make sure my money goes to support developers as much as possible.
I also like to make sure my games are in good condition and that they remain complete. That's hard to do with used games. I'm a little bit of a collector.
That said, I buy very few console games. Maybe 70% of what I buy is for the PC. And the idea of a console maker locking me into keeping the game, preventing me from resale... that's distasteful to me. I don't want to resell my games. But preventing it from being possible? Ugh.
I have a bunch of Steam and WiiWare games, and while I think the lack of resales on pure digital content is reasonable, if they're proposing locking physical discs this way, I'm wary.
Slashdot has done non-nerd, general interest stories before.
While there may be some exceptions I can't think of, they're all huge general-interest stories. Literally front page of the NY Times caliber.
The 9/11 attacks, the death of Bin-Laden, the start of the Iraq war, the 7/7 bombings, now this.
That's why they don't just do parenting stories. Because that's fluff that other outfits use to fill slow news days.
This, and the stories I referenced above are general interest. Virtually everyone in the country (in some cases, the planet) cares about these kinds of stories. So Slashdot carries them and gives nerds a place to discuss them from our own perspective.
I can see why you're so hurt by this. It's a terrible tragedy that you had to see this article on Slashdot.
You should sue. You know, for your emotional trauma.
It has been done but is not very widely adopted.
I've never experienced a car equipped with it first hand, so I can't give any insight as to why it's not more widely deployed.
http://www.gizmag.com/noise-cancellation-improves-fuel-efficiency/19826/
If it was Troi's job to be sexy, she did a piss poor job of it. I never saw her as the least bit attractive. Mostly annoying.
Dax wasn't a blatant sexy character, though both Jadzia and Ezri were very attractive actresses. I think they got the balance really right with that/those character(s).
Rand / Uhura were attractive, but I don't know if the show went out of their way to sexualize them. I wasn't a fan of TOS, so perhaps I'm wrong.
Seven of Nine and T'Pol were definitely blatant ratings grabs. The characters were down right insulting, and one of the reasons I think Trek jumped the shark after DS9.
The Dabo girls, I'll give you. They were essentially the modern version of the Orion Slave Girls / hookers / strippers / etc. But they weren't characters. The objectification of them was intentional and conscious. You were supposed to be aware of it, and the characters in the Trek world were aware of it.
Being a heterosexual male, I don't recall much in the way of "sexy" make scenes. Q cuddling Picard in Tapestry? The many Klingon show of strength scenes with Worf in TNG / DS9? Picard nude in Cardasian custody in Chain of Command?
I saw the ABC video and thought it seemed weird too. The lower third graphic was REALLY high, and blocked Zimmerman's head at key moments.
Then I found the original video without the ABC lower third direct from the City of Sanford.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WWDNbQUgm4
There's nothing to see. If ABC is "hiding" something, well, I don't see it.
Maybe he is hurt. But you can't tell from this security camera footage. He might have cuts on his face or the back of his head. I can't tell. But I doubt his broken nose claim is true. Anything else... this video doesn't prove or disprove it.
How is the game play? Because the voice acting on that is the worst I've ever heard.
Mostly true, but not quite.
An American-born Muslim likely only speaks English. An Iranian-born Muslim likely only speaks Persian.
But both of them pray in Arabic. Arabic is the language Korans are printed in (many are printed in two languages, though) and it's the language of formal Muslim prayer.
Lots of Muslims become fluent in Arabic because of this, but many only become proficient enough to pray in the language and perhaps read the Koran. It's a bit like Latin in Catholicism used to be, or Hebrew with Jews.
English speaking Muslims may use "god" informally, but in prayer, and more formally, they'll all use "Allah" regardless of native tongue.
When you see passages underlined with a little note that says "19 people highlighted this," what did you think? People sent Amazon a postcard to let them know?
The whole market was different. I remember Super Mario Bros. 3 being out of reach because it was $60. That said, this was unusual to say the least. Most AAA games went for $45 for most, if not all of the NES lifespan.
Check out this scan from a 1988 Sears Catalog:
http://wishbookweb.com/1988_Sears_Wishbook/pages/1988.xx.xx%20Sears%20Christmas%20Catalog%20P443.htm
or browse the whole catalog:
http://wishbookweb.com/1988_Sears_Wishbook/index.htm
Nothing for the NES under $30. That's $57.48 in today's dollars - for the CHEAP games!
The used market was also much, much smaller than it is today. This may be before Funcoland, and even if it's not, Funcoland was a mail-order resale company until the mid 90s (there were others, but early on, Funcoland was the first big player), when they and others moved into brick and mortar stores.
Then you have the difference between media then and now.
Take an old game that's still selling today - Starcraft. It was released in 1998, and is now 14 years old. It's production costs have been paid off, so you've now just got marginal cost and a small profit to make up.
Box, disc, printed manual, server overhead, support, and profit and Blizzard can sell a copy of the Starcraft Battlechest for $10.
Compare that to an old game being sold in the NES era. This same catalog has Atari 2600 and 7800 games. Including Centipede, Joust and some other games that are old by 1988. That's a better place to look for comparison, because Atari didn't manipulate prices like Nintendo did.
The cheapest game listed for the 2600 is $18. That's $35 in today's dollars.
Atari is still printing a box, probably a manual, and they've got no server costs. But the price of making a plastic cartridge, the PCB inside of it, and the custom ROM chips to go on the PCB are way higher than the cost of Blizzard pressing a plastic disc.
Finally, you have production costs - In 1988, you have marketing people, graphic artists, programmers, sound guys, etc. The technology was more primitive, but it still needed talented people to make it work because the tools were more primitive too. Super Mario Bros. 3 could probably be put together today by a team of 2-3 motivated people over a few months to a year. But developing it when it was state of the art probably took dozens of folks years.
Today, you still have programmers, you have writers, sound folks, video folks, folks who run servers for online content, graphics folks, etc. etc. etc.
I'm really not clear which is a bigger production cost, but I suspect that the cost today is higher. That has to be made up in the cost of the game, volume, ads, or DLC.
So the market has gone from lower initial investment with higher marginal costs of production to one where there are higher initial investments and low marginal costs of production and distribution (approaching zero with digital sales).
I haven't had a land line since 2002. But phone books have appeared on my front door everywhere I've lived since that time. I've never understood why. (I'm not sure what the schedule is, as I've moved a lot in 10 years).
I'm curious what the Wikipedia article you cited had for it's own citations and why you didn't just skip the middle man and cite those instead?
Even though Windows Mobile is essentially unchanged in terms of binary comparability since v1.0, they only introduced Windows Market with version 6.1 or 6.2 a couple years ago.
When I stopped using my HTC Tilt 2 late last year, there were still only a few hundred apps (800?). By the time they launched, Microsoft had already announced that Windows Phone 7 would come out, and would break comparability with the 6.x and earlier Windows Mobile line.
So if you're a developer, what are you going to do? Invest time writing or porting an app for Windows 6.x when you know there won't be any devices that are comparable produced after a year? The writing was on the wall. Everyone who was holding out moved on to iOS or Android, for the most part. Some moved on to Windows Phone 7.
I suspect a lot more will move back to WP7 (or WP8?) once Windows 8 ships. But for now, most of the folks who liked Windows Mobile because it was so open and free (not in an OSS way, but in a "I can do whatever I want" way) have moved to Android. Look at XDA Developers.