I have the more expensive edition of the madcatz SFIV stick and it has been a great stick. You are also incorrect that they only work on their own console. They also work as a USB PC joystick. I actually use mine more for MAME these days than playing street fighter.
Has Harmonix mentioned how many players you will be able to have on the 360 at the same time? There is a potential of seven (Guitar,Bass,Drums,Keyboard,3 vocalists) can the 360 even handle that many controllers?
I now have only the essentials on my keyring. One house key, one car key, car remote, bottle opener. Makes life seem so much easier every time I pull the keys out of my pocket.
From the comments at Gizmodo there was a post that explained how to opt out from your web account
Sign in to the Verizon website. - On the red bar near the top, hover over "My Verizon." Click on "My Profile." (Don't go over to the sub-menu that pops up.) - In the second section down, under Phone Controls, there's a link to "View/Edit Privacy (CPNI) Settings." Click on that. - Voila! Click on the button that says "Don't share my CPNI." Remember to hit the save button before you leave.
I think 360 will be around until the next generation of consoles and still be relevant. I am not a MS fanboy, I own all 3 current gen systems. There are a few holes in your argument.
A) Profit to loss margin. Every time someone buys a 360 MS makes no money on it
This has been a typically accepted practice in the console business for a long time, eventually the hardware costs come down and the console breaks even or makes a small profit. It is the razor/blade model. The hardware is sold at a loss while money is made on the license fees on the games.
B) HD-DVD. By supporting HD-DVD and then refusing to release a Blu-Ray drive, MS basically lost what the PS2's big selling point was: The next generation of video
Yes MSFT gambled on HDDVD and it lost, however I think MSFT has a different idea for the future of HD. With the recent announcement of the deal with Netflix to allow movie streaming from the internet it looks like MSFT thinks the next HD format will be your hard drive. I will buy into this if they can offer a cheap 300GB hard drive attachment or allow for saving to generic external drives.
C) The total cost of ownership. The 360 is like a bad computer, one that starts out cheap but requires a massive hardware upgrade to actually do anything....
This is untrue. The new 360 pro cost $299 and not everyone uses the wireless option, my router is in the living room behind the TV. By that argument the Wii is incomplete for those that do not have a wireless router and costs another $25
Agreed that most of us here know our way around PC stuff, but just telling someone "hey don't buy junk" is not really a solution. Seriously that statement is almost as useful as telling someone "Hey, just stop using the internet."
There is nothing wrong however wanting consumer hardware to work properly. The "grandma scenario" as you call it applies to a lot of us here with hardware. I imagine you and many others here; myself included; end up being computer support for friends and family
For those of us that are at a minimum technically competent this is not an issue.
I was mostly making a suggestion to the original poster to actually post something useful. Instead of just bashing someone for using something cheap and not offering a possible solution.
You on the other hand provided a possible solution.
I was just thinking there are probably a lot of people that do not have the ability or want to tinker with firmware.
OK. So other than bashing so called "cheap crappy consumer routers" and posting your uptime, what do you suggest? Not everyone has the resources to buy a $3000 Cisco router, nor does everyone have the time or knowledge to configure a Linux machine for routing.
At GDC08 this year MSFT announced that the 65nm xboxes are leading to a lower RROD failure rate. As far as being able to tell if the 360 is the new hardware or not it is pretty simple. All of the new non elite 360s with an HDMI port are using the 65nm chips
Not to mention the 360's high risk of the RROD. I've already made my decision not to buy the 360 until it gets a hardware refresh.
Unless I am mistaken, late in 2007 the 360s were switched to a smaller fab process and the cooling solution was revamped when they added the HDMI port to the $350 SKU. so the risk of RROD should be greatly reduced
I have not been to Brunswick in years, it is good to hear that they started getting better games. Last time I was there most of the games either sucked or were broken. A trip to Naperville may be in order.
Two dollars per pallet is not really fair. I work for a logistics company that handles the warehousing for a major cheese company. On a given week we normally send 7-10 trailers to that distribution center. Each trailer usually has between 30 and 50 pallets, so that is $60-$100 per truckload that our customer would lose. So at the high end they stand to lose $52000 per year with this initiative.
On the other hand if we were to adopt RFID tech in the warehouse we would have to run TWO systems, one for the barcode system we and all of our other retailers use and another for the RFID.
So it is really not cost effective either way we go right now. If this were a bigger push by more than one retailer it would make sense. But this is just the 800lb gorilla throwing its weight around again.
I have an old PS2 Logitech Trackman marble+ that I love,I am really used to controlling things with my thumb. I am dreading the day when it dies,the new models design is horrible. The one I own has three seperate areas for the two mouse buttons and the scroll wheel. All the new logitech stuff has the scroll wheel squished in between the two mouse buttons. On my current model I can comfortable have the first three fingers resting on the buttons and wheel, this is not possible on the new ones. Any one know of a similar design thumb controlled trackball?
And what if it's a WD drive they are talking about? The life of those is so low they had to drop their warranty to 1 year because they admitted 3 years would put them out of business. (The reason I only use Segate 5 year warranty drives).
if you check newegg for hard drives most of the WD drives there have a 3 or 5 year warranty on them
I agree we should be well on the way to alternative energy methods in the coming years. Sadly the US does not seem to be truly interested in other alternate fuel types, and honestly our current attitudes will keep squeezing oil from the planet until we have used every last drop. Instead the current push seems to be towards Corn ethanol which has more efficient alternatives such as sugar cane ethanol.
From Wikipedia
Chemically pure hydrogen is derived from a feed stock. The energy to drive this conversion can be produced from fossil fuels, etc. Thus, hydrogen is not a harvestable energy source comparable to fossil fuels, solar energy, and wind energy. The conversions to produce hydrogen will have inherent losses of energy that make hydrogen less advantageous as an energy carrier. Additionally, there are economic and energy penalties associated with packaging, distribution, storage and transfer of hydrogen. Current technologies use between 165% to 212% of the higher heating value to produce the hydrogen
Fuel Cells have a lot of work to be done. One of the concerns I have is the tendency to freeze up in colder climates. Also fuel cells look to use Natural Gas (another resource that has the same issues as using gasoline) as the main method to produce hydrogen.
This means that gas stations would have to be retooled to provide ethanol. If you're going to retool the gas stations to provide ethanol, you might as well retool them to provide hydrogen instead
If you had bothered to read the article you would have come across this paragraph.
The researchers devised a system in which gasoline would be injected into the combustion chamber by conventional means. Ethanol would be stored in its own tank or compartment and would be introduced by a separate direct-injection system. The ethanol would have to be replenished only once every few months, roughly as often as the oil is changed. A vehicle that used this approach would operate around 25 percent more efficiently than a vehicle with a conventional engine.
So this could be something that is refilled when getting routine maintainence instead of a weekly fillup.
In most other countries, auto transmissions are rare and actually cost more as an 'optional extra'.
Actually here in the US the automatic is also mostly "optional" on most cars and usually adds about $1000 to the cost. It is more prevelant here but we do end up paying for it.
Slashdot Mirror
I have the more expensive edition of the madcatz SFIV stick and it has been a great stick. You are also incorrect that they only work on their own console. They also work as a USB PC joystick. I actually use mine more for MAME these days than playing street fighter.
Has Harmonix mentioned how many players you will be able to have on the 360 at the same time? There is a potential of seven (Guitar,Bass,Drums,Keyboard,3 vocalists) can the 360 even handle that many controllers?
I now have only the essentials on my keyring. One house key, one car key, car remote, bottle opener. Makes life seem so much easier every time I pull the keys out of my pocket.
SAP is worse. At least MSFT and Apples software sometimes works like it is supposed to. SAP....not so much.
For those of us geeks that like anime try http://www.otakubooty.com/ to find people in your area.
Did it have a pain in the diodes on its left side?
From the comments at Gizmodo there was a post that explained how to opt out from your web account
Sign in to the Verizon website.
- On the red bar near the top, hover over "My Verizon." Click on "My Profile." (Don't go over to the sub-menu that pops up.)
- In the second section down, under Phone Controls, there's a link to "View/Edit Privacy (CPNI) Settings." Click on that.
- Voila! Click on the button that says "Don't share my CPNI." Remember to hit the save button before you leave.
How often does that happen with Guitar Hero? Oh, right. Never
Depends on the women you hang out with. Some of the geek girls I hang out with are impressed with the rock band skills.
I think 360 will be around until the next generation of consoles and still be relevant. I am not a MS fanboy, I own all 3 current gen systems. There are a few holes in your argument.
A) Profit to loss margin. Every time someone buys a 360 MS makes no money on it
This has been a typically accepted practice in the console business for a long time, eventually the hardware costs come down and the console breaks even or makes a small profit. It is the razor/blade model. The hardware is sold at a loss while money is made on the license fees on the games.
B) HD-DVD. By supporting HD-DVD and then refusing to release a Blu-Ray drive, MS basically lost what the PS2's big selling point was: The next generation of video
Yes MSFT gambled on HDDVD and it lost, however I think MSFT has a different idea for the future of HD. With the recent announcement of the deal with Netflix to allow movie streaming from the internet it looks like MSFT thinks the next HD format will be your hard drive. I will buy into this if they can offer a cheap 300GB hard drive attachment or allow for saving to generic external drives.
C) The total cost of ownership. The 360 is like a bad computer, one that starts out cheap but requires a massive hardware upgrade to actually do anything....
This is untrue. The new 360 pro cost $299 and not everyone uses the wireless option, my router is in the living room behind the TV. By that argument the Wii is incomplete for those that do not have a wireless router and costs another $25
Agreed that most of us here know our way around PC stuff, but just telling someone "hey don't buy junk" is not really a solution. Seriously that statement is almost as useful as telling someone "Hey, just stop using the internet."
There is nothing wrong however wanting consumer hardware to work properly. The "grandma scenario" as you call it applies to a lot of us here with hardware. I imagine you and many others here; myself included; end up being computer support for friends and family
For those of us that are at a minimum technically competent this is not an issue.
I was mostly making a suggestion to the original poster to actually post something useful. Instead of just bashing someone for using something cheap and not offering a possible solution.
You on the other hand provided a possible solution.
I was just thinking there are probably a lot of people that do not have the ability or want to tinker with firmware.
OK. So other than bashing so called "cheap crappy consumer routers" and posting your uptime, what do you suggest? Not everyone has the resources to buy a $3000 Cisco router, nor does everyone have the time or knowledge to configure a Linux machine for routing.
At GDC08 this year MSFT announced that the 65nm xboxes are leading to a lower RROD failure rate. As far as being able to tell if the 360 is the new hardware or not it is pretty simple. All of the new non elite 360s with an HDMI port are using the 65nm chips
Not to mention the 360's high risk of the RROD. I've already made my decision not to buy the 360 until it gets a hardware refresh.
Unless I am mistaken, late in 2007 the 360s were switched to a smaller fab process and the cooling solution was revamped when they added the HDMI port to the $350 SKU. so the risk of RROD should be greatly reduced
I have not been to Brunswick in years, it is good to hear that they started getting better games. Last time I was there most of the games either sucked or were broken. A trip to Naperville may be in order.
Two dollars per pallet is not really fair. I work for a logistics company that handles the warehousing for a major cheese company. On a given week we normally send 7-10 trailers to that distribution center. Each trailer usually has between 30 and 50 pallets, so that is $60-$100 per truckload that our customer would lose. So at the high end they stand to lose $52000 per year with this initiative.
On the other hand if we were to adopt RFID tech in the warehouse we would have to run TWO systems, one for the barcode system we and all of our other retailers use and another for the RFID.
So it is really not cost effective either way we go right now. If this were a bigger push by more than one retailer it would make sense. But this is just the 800lb gorilla throwing its weight around again.
Taxes on eating can also be avoided by the people on welfare, as most of them are on Food Stamps which exempts taxes on food.
I have an old PS2 Logitech Trackman marble+ that I love,I am really used to controlling things with my thumb. I am dreading the day when it dies,the new models design is horrible. The one I own has three seperate areas for the two mouse buttons and the scroll wheel. All the new logitech stuff has the scroll wheel squished in between the two mouse buttons. On my current model I can comfortable have the first three fingers resting on the buttons and wheel, this is not possible on the new ones. Any one know of a similar design thumb controlled trackball?
And what if it's a WD drive they are talking about? The life of those is so low they had to drop their warranty to 1 year because they admitted 3 years would put them out of business. (The reason I only use Segate 5 year warranty drives).
if you check newegg for hard drives most of the WD drives there have a 3 or 5 year warranty on them
This game has caused me to waste more time than I care to admit. Any time I see a new version has been released I get sucked in all over again.
Does anyone know if the new dongle from MSFT that allows you to use a wireless 360 controller on the PC can sync a wii remote to the PC?
Not only is he a godly man, he's an intelligent one- he knows that things like alcohol and guns have absolutely nothing to do with violence
;)
Unless they are in a video game
I agree we should be well on the way to alternative energy methods in the coming years. Sadly the US does not seem to be truly interested in other alternate fuel types, and honestly our current attitudes will keep squeezing oil from the planet until we have used every last drop. Instead the current push seems to be towards Corn ethanol which has more efficient alternatives such as sugar cane ethanol.
From Wikipedia
Chemically pure hydrogen is derived from a feed stock. The energy to drive this conversion can be produced from fossil fuels, etc. Thus, hydrogen is not a harvestable energy source comparable to fossil fuels, solar energy, and wind energy. The conversions to produce hydrogen will have inherent losses of energy that make hydrogen less advantageous as an energy carrier. Additionally, there are economic and energy penalties associated with packaging, distribution, storage and transfer of hydrogen. Current technologies use between 165% to 212% of the higher heating value to produce the hydrogen
Fuel Cells have a lot of work to be done. One of the concerns I have is the tendency to freeze up in colder climates. Also fuel cells look to use Natural Gas (another resource that has the same issues as using gasoline) as the main method to produce hydrogen.
This means that gas stations would have to be retooled to provide ethanol. If you're going to retool the gas stations to provide ethanol, you might as well retool them to provide hydrogen instead
If you had bothered to read the article you would have come across this paragraph.
The researchers devised a system in which gasoline would be injected into the combustion chamber by conventional means. Ethanol would be stored in its own tank or compartment and would be introduced by a separate direct-injection system. The ethanol would have to be replenished only once every few months, roughly as often as the oil is changed. A vehicle that used this approach would operate around 25 percent more efficiently than a vehicle with a conventional engine.
So this could be something that is refilled when getting routine maintainence instead of a weekly fillup.
In most other countries, auto transmissions are rare and actually cost more as an 'optional extra'.
Actually here in the US the automatic is also mostly "optional" on most cars and usually adds about $1000 to the cost. It is more prevelant here but we do end up paying for it.