Frankly, I'm getting really tired of all the artificial limitations that Jobs is placing left and right for developers and consumers alike. A bit offtopic, but yesterday I realized that while quicktime pro can export to MP4 as well as MOV, if you want to use H264, you need to use the MOV container. Why? When Microsoft did that with WMA vs MP3, people complained. Loudly.
Just rename the.MOV to.MP4. The formats are practically identical - the MPEG-4 group chose Apple's MOV format for that basis of the MP4 format, and thus MP4 is a subset of MOV (but a rather complete subset). Just like 3GP is a subset of MP4 as well (restricting codec usage mainly). A MOV parser can easily handle either, and most MP4 parsers ignore whatever extra junk there may be in a MOV file.
Or, 512 bytes plus pointers leading to next/previous "sectors" of data as metadata.
Now you're able to store an arbitrary file, and all you really need to know is the ID of the beginning. Or one of the pieces and you can then recover the file.
Sounds like a great way to store and spread files - TwitterShare! Like Rapidshare, but without the suck. And let the MPAA/RIAA battle it out with all the users.
Guitar Hero: Halo would be...interesting, but to be fair it does have some very excellent music and I really wouldn't mind playing along (although we might need new plastic instruments:-).
There is a free GH Halo track up for DLC (on the Xbox360, naturally) - Halo Theme MJOLNIR Mix (from Halo 2 Volume 1 soundtrack).
Though, I think this is for Bungie's future games. Halo IP is owned by Microsoft anyhow. Part of Bungie's re-spinoff from Microsoft is so they could get away from Halo. And multiplatform releases.
I think the issue that that Apple forbids flash whereas flash support for Android has just not yet been developed.
The big question is WHY?!
Adobe wants to get Flash on the iPhone. Yet Jobs has spurned Flash. Yet Adobe keeps trying.
All that effort could've been better spent getting Flash working on open devices, like Android. Instead Adobe just wants Apple to support Flash. Hell, didn't Jobs give Adobe a challenge to show Flash working well on any device?
My opinion, if you care to hear it, is that it's really easy to jump on someone for not being open when it's not your bread and butter that's at stake. I don't like Adobe and I don't like Apple but what I see here is Adobe scrambling to maintain control and authority over Flash because they perceive (possibly correctly) that to be their lifeline in a turbulent marketplace
Probably at the urging of the biggest users of flash - advertisers. For everyone wanting flash - I dare you to disable all addons that block flash - including NoScript, AdblockPlus, FlashBlock and others. You'll find that a good majority of pages will have some flash ad or other on it, and sites that require flash like YouTube, Vimeo, HomeStarRunner and the like are the narrow minority of sites.
You'll probably turn flash blockers on again after a few minutes of browsing. Now imagine that on your phone, except you've got a processor that's a third as fast (since the Nexus 1 and iPad have Ghz CPUs), and which is probably spending more time rendering the flash than rendering the page.
I've got devices that have full Flash. Let's just say having the page stop rendering so I can view the ad in real time isn't exactly the best browsing experience I've had. Or even worse, videos that still drop frames (on my Nokia N810), or one site that consumed so much CPU time, it was effectively locked up trying to play a video (1 frame every 30 seconds, 2 seconds of audio every 30 seconds, UI unresponsive). Easiest way to back out of that was remove the battery, losing other data (yay multitasking).
Adobe's probably getting pressure from advertisers. Surprisingly, Adobe hasn't fast-tracked a Flash player for the more open platforms out there - 3 years of griping about Flash on the iPhone, and they don't have anything for Android.
Actually, at one time,/. did support unicode. Just that well, it's really hard to whitelist unicode codepoints, and crap like "force right-to-left" gets used by people who think it funny to reverse text. (The source code of the page doesn't show it, but because the unicode renderer obeys it, every bit of text onwards gets rendered right-to-left).
An old trick was to use the old "megamillion" character which contains several unicode codepoints (which follow with the character when copy and pasted). Copy and paste that character and havoc ensues.
Even if it wasn't stated in the box, it was advertised that it did run Linux. Even people who doesn't need or care about this functionality should stay up to Sony on this. Next time they may remove a funcionality you do care about. Conceptually, it is the same thing as removing the capability of playing Bluray discs.
Well, Sony certainly "advertises" it in their manual:
There is more to the PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3(TM)) computer entertainment system than you may have assumed. In addition to playing games, watching movies, listening to music, and viewing photos, you can use the PS3(TM) system to run the Linux operating system.
It may not be on the box, but it's certainly documented on Sony's own websites
Does it have to be one of those well-broken-in, lubricated cubes that easily spin, or does it work with a stiff cube just out of the packaging? I'd bet it would not.
For times well under a minute, at least a lubricated one. Even speed cubers use graphite or something. And those one-handled cubers (the ones who solve two cubes simultaneously) require it - I don't think one hand has enough agility and strength to do the twists of a brand new cube.
Um..... please explain how Apple is responsible for the progression from floppies to hard drives, or from parallel ports to USB ports. The former seems a natural event since programs/OSes could no longer fit on floppies. The second is a result of the USB Consortium. To give Apple credit for this seems disingenuous, (especially since Apple would have preferred to kill USB in favor of Firewire).
Simple. The iMac shipped with USB everything. No floppy disk. No legacy ports (ADB, RS232, etc). Hell, I don't think the original ones came with a CD burner!
Back then yes you had USB. But you had two measly ports that pretty much sat empty because all the peripherals you could get were cheaper and easier to get in other connection formats. A keyboard and mouse were PS/2 because you could get both cheaply (a cheapass USB one would run you $50, a PS2 version of same for $20 or less). Printers used the parallel port. Modems either plugged into a serial port or inside your PC. And hard drives you had to install 'em yourself. You could get external Zips and Jaz drives, but unless you used SCSI, you put up with parallel ports. You transferred data via sneakernet.
And hell, USB had been around for 3+ years and peripherals were hard to come by. They were expensive and no one wanted them. OS support was iffy, too. Windows 95 OSR2 had basic keyboard/mouse support. Windows 98 same, but you could get drivers for mass storage. Basically non-existent until Windows 2000.
The Apple releases the iMac and gets you USB only. All of a sudden, a flood of peripherals started coming out for USB, and prices plunged. USB floppies, USB printers, keyboards and mice under $10. USB didn't mean overpriced anymore. And I scoffed at USB devices because they were overpriced - the USB versions were always much more expensive.
And Apple did like Firewire, because well, you could stick a hard disk on it and not have ot wait all day to transfer files like USB. (Remember, the iPod used Firewire purely because USB 1.1 was pathetically slow, and USB2.0 was on the horizon but would take a few more years to become popular and standard on every PC)
I'm surprised that people haven't started making personal resolvers easy to set up and use - or routers don't start coming with them to bypass the ISP resolvers. After all, all you really need is the list of root servers (which change inrrequently and are available at a well-known place for self-bootstrapping) and that's it. Eliminates pharming (poisoned DNS servers), ISP shenanigans including NXDOMAIN, and possibly others.
Add in the ability to link with DHCP in the router and no more needing annoying IP addresses for a home network.
Gods, remember the damn digicams that had full floppy disk drives on them? I used to work with someone that swore up and down that was the "easiest" way to get pictures off a camera and onto a computer. Apparently she had never heard of media readers....
Remember, these were made in the late 90's early 2000s. Floppy disks were CHEAP, a box of 10 would run you $10 if not less on sale. A meager 16MB card would cost $100+ easily. So you could go with a camera that required $100+ memory cards to use, or went with one that used common floppy disks that at the time, everyone had. No messing with serial cables, parallel cables (or if you were lucky, USB) transferring data. Just eject the disk from the camera, pop it in your PC, done.
They literally were the fastest, cheapest storage media around, and damn trivial to transfer data off of. Later versions used a CD burner to record mini CDs for the same reason - flash media was freaking expensive (though by then, a 128MB card could be had for around $100, but the CDs costed $10 or less). And you didn't have to put up with USB 1.1 speeds.
NOwadays we scoff as we buy 8GB cards for $10, but prices have seriously plummeted only in the past few years.
This is bogus. Online multiplayer is NOT included in Halo 2. It is a separate subscription fee (Xbox Live Gold). There is absolutely no legal basis whatsoever to justify forcing MS to release this functionality, because it was never included in the price you paid for Halo 2; it was always separate.
If you weren't an Xbox Live Gold subscriber, then you're not missing out on anything now that you had before, because online play was never available to you anyway. If you're paying the XBL Gold fee to play Halo 2 online and they don't support it anymore, cancel your subscription or buy a new game.
I hear Halo 3 is pretty good.
Uninformed comments like these are exactly why MS charges for online play instead of giving it away for free. It means that as a vendor they get to decide what to sell, instead of being forced to sell or support a product they no longer want to offer, or being railroaded into giving it away for free.
Not to mention that Microsoft really wants to upgrade Xbox Live. The reason they can't is because ONE GAME is preventing them from doing it. Yes, that game is Halo 2, which on the rankings is basically the #1 original Xbox game that was played on live by a huge margin. Even so, I think there were only something like 10,000 odd players at most, though I've seen reports saying that at its peak, it's only between 1000-2000 players worldwide.
Given how many millions use Xbox Live (Gold), and how few actually play the one game that's holding it back architecturally, it's a sound choice I think. Plus, there's been two other multiplayer Halo FPS games since then (Halo 3 and Halo ODST).
The only real question is Halo 2 for Vista (which works fine on Win7), since its Live client is updated independently of the game itself and has the potential for continuation of service (hell, multiplayer on that has long been free once Microsoft dropped the Games for Windows Live subscription requirement). Halo 2 fanatics can have their hand at that if they really, really, really hate gaming with Halo 3.
360s aren't too expensive these days - I've seen many retailers do half-price discounting of the Arcade models ($100 brand new!), and add in a hard disk, or with the latest firmware, any USB mass storage, and you've upgraded. Halo 3's pretty cheap these days used or new. Or go Halo ODST and get Halo 3 multiplayer with it.
Pirates are any ISP's best customers. Once a pirate is hooked, then they're not likely to stop or downgrade their internet service. If anything, they'll upgrade their internet service.
If the ISP charges for the bandwidth they use, even better.
Actually, no. People who use bandwidth are an ISP's worst customers. They want to sell their basic high-speed plans to people who'll check email once a week and maybe surf the BBC or CNN for a few minutes daily, tops. They'll try to convince those who just use twitter and facebook all day that they need the next tier up. And oh, if you do any sort of gaming, well, you really want the super-high-speed $100+/month plan!
These people pay big bucks and the ISP can oversell very easily.
Pirates who use all their bandwidth mean they can't oversell as much. They'd much rather kick them off and replace them (even if they're paying $100+/month) with 5 light users who pay $40/month.
It does for a lot of laptops. That's why many companies seem to have - for example - a model that ends in -US or CA. The major model number on the top may say DX8200, but the stamp on the bottom is more specifically a DX8243CA...
Yeah, but it's not really a worry for warranty purposes. Most likely it's because they have different software loads - the Canadian version often includes the option for French. Or the trialware crap is different (because we don't have Hulu, Netflix, and others which makes no sense to include in the Canadian version). Occasionally it's because the US and Canadian versions are configured differently - the Canadian version having several features reduced to keep the pricepoints similar and/or acceptable (e.g., slower CPU, smaller hard disk).
Such differentiation is expected, but to do crap like deny local warranty service for legitmately purchased goods is just evil, not to mention treating such goods as having no warranty - you can send it back, but they can't return it because it can only be returned within the original country of purchase.
I don't know why it's a copyright issue, since it's a physical item, but usually we call such legitimate imports "grey market" goods. They're not officially for sale ("white market") nor are they illegal to sell ("black market"), but they're legally sold goods for distribution elsewhere that's re-imported for local sale.
Happens all the time even with IP materials like books, CDs and DVDs. Hell, Amazon and Walmart are probably the biggest "offenders" - I can buy two CDs, one locally and one from Amazon (or Walmart) and the local one is from the Canadian distributor, while the one I got from Amazon (or Walmart) comes from the US.
Ditto books - sometimes the US-Canadian book pricing is so out of whack, it's cheaper to get it from Amazon.com than Amazon.ca even with shipping charges.
Camera manufacturers used to be the biggest PITA regarding grey market goods - if you imported a camera, they would insist that warranties and such were only honored in the purchasing country - buy it in the US, service is done in the US, other countries would not touch it. Oh yeah, and the return shipping, to that address in the country.
Thankfully, for most products this doesn't happen (it's not strictly illegal, but it's a great way to piss off customers) anymore - I figure most companies gave up trying to track serial numbers and points of origin, and lets them move inventory around as needed by demand.
Of course, importation of such products is perfectly legal.
Sorry, they TRIED, as did the guy who sold it, to contact Apple. Apple actually DENIED the device was lost... Also, in the end, through MUCH trial and effort, the device WAS returned. Gizmodo did not buy the device, the device was handed over willingly and for free, gizmodo bought the STORY. The device was returned.
Apple customer support denied the device was missing. Which just means that customer support didn't know one was missing. And Apple customer support has stated that they get so many fake iphone prototype claims that they don't act of them. Too many cheap chinese clones.
But the finder didn't contact the bar to see if anyone called it in. Apparently the guy who lost it called the bar repeatedly asking if anyone turned it in.
Come to think of it, as the lost iPhone was really already a 4th generation device, Apple probably wasn't seeking any sort of punitive measures against the guy, and the restrictions on personal use of prototype hardware was probably heavily reduced.
After all, it's an iPhone. We've seen the 3 previous models already. And there isn't much new or innovative Apple could've put in.
Hell, Apple doesn't make big announcements when they introduce new Macs (like they did a couple of weeks ago) - just a quiet little refresh, and every other site picks up and makes it news, even though it's just spec bumps here and there and minor new features. Maybe if there was a super-big-fantastic announcement (e.g., Blu-Ray support), but for the msot part, most announcements are low-key. It's hard to generate buzz. Or hell, when the iMacs came out and the 27" came with a video input.
Ditto the iPods - sure a nice keynote on the new features, but then again, the old iPod Touch and the Classics got barely a mention despite getting upgrades.
The iPhone's getting to that point - it's a phone, there's not much one can improve on it hardware-wise. Hell, the 3GS was pretty much "meh" on the hardware, other than making the software fly. The software that drives the iPhone though is probably quite intriguing, but we already learned about 4.0.
Now, the secrecy behind the iPad was probably quite high, as were restrictions placed on it because it's a new Apple product. There were rumors, but until the big announcement, no concrete details.
Apple's learned several things over the past decade - first, takedown notices are a surefire way to confirm rumors. Second, it doesn't have to be super-secretive on everything - things that are likely to underwhelm on presentation (like mere spec upgrades), well, let it leak (there were so many SKUs posted on the new MacBooks that we knew they were coming). Thus, Apple concentrates the secrecy on its second gen iPad and whatever new device it's concocting. New screen? Front facing camera? Meh features - the only thing Apple can do is either drop one or the other (due to availability and/or software issues) and leave it for the next model. After all, they appeared to do that with the camera feature on the iPod Touch 3rd gen.
Maybe so. But being familure with the lawyer thing, I smell a big fat Class Action (where of course the lawyers get paid big fat checks, and the consumers get a coupon).
True, then again, accepting this payback probably excludes them from any other settlement. So a user has an option - get a refund for getting their computer fixed, or getting a coupon for a free 6 months of McAfee, but having to pay to fix their computer. The really dumb ones get a coupon and a broken computer.
Also, McAfee will probably hide behind the EULA for the class action, since the EULA probably also said they don't have to pay if they screw up your system anyhow.
This is incorrect. I've created unencrypted BDs and they play on all players. And even if they didn't work, nearly all BD players also play AVCHD discs (which are very similarly laid out and encrypted) and you could just make one of those instead to play the HD content you want to play.
It'd be great if you knew from where you spoke before putting out false information like this.
It depends on the profile and player. Prereocrded blu-ray's are using the BDMV profile, which gives you all that nice menu, java, and bd-live stuff. The one that consumers can make is called BDAV, which is far simpler (basically just a bog-simple menu system), and no full authoring.
AVCHD is a subset of the Blu-Ray spec allowing people to make high-def video onto simpler media like DVDs, knowing full wekk they cannot actually author their own BDs.
Alas, BDMV support on BD-R(E) is sketchy (only the PS3 is guaranteed to support it), though I think most players now will support it. BDAV support is mandatory on BD-R(E). AVCHD support is dependent on the player, though I think most these days support it just because.
The only way to guaranteed BDMV support on all players is to have AACS keys and a big plant doing runs (but it doesn't mean you have to do a run to test - there are players that do BDMV on BD-R(E)). And short of a big studio, small filmmakers will have a hard time making professional-level BDs. Probably the way the big studios like it though - less competition to upset the money cart.
I guess the thinking is that since he lost one, he probably has a replacement now. All they have to do is get him over to Germany, get him drunk, and hopefully he'll misplace his new one. Which will be an even later prototype to scoop Gizmodo.
After all, aren't C't and Heise based in Germany?
(Yes, that was a joke)
On a more serious note - it could also be that Apple realizes that iPhones just aren't news anymore. Look at their Macs - they tend to just get quietly refreshed these days unless there's some major big announcement. Ditto iPods (the Touch, Shuffle and Nano stole the keynote, the Classic being just a mere footnote). Short of something amazing, iPhones will probably head the same way - a new one gets released with little fanfare. After all, all the major features are already announced as part of iPhone OS 4.0 - all we learned from Gizmodo is what the new hardware might have. The iPad was new and novel for Apple, heads would've rolled had someone accidentally lost that.
with their points system. It's not a great system, but I just realized two things.
1) I've bought stuff from Xbox Live Marketplace, using points. 2) I've never purchased anything from PSN. Except freebies.
The reason? I could get points "on sale" all the time (it doesn't take long to find someone selling MS point cards for 10% off , and Best Buy/Dell/etc. do run 25% off deals a few times a year). PSN cards have their value marked on them, so it's hard to find any retailer willing to discount a card with $50 marked on it.
And with Sony doing the OtherOS crap, I haven't updated my firmware. Then Sony banned un-updated PS3s from connecting to PSN. Which is a great way to ensure that I never spend a penny on PSN. And I had considered anteing up to buy some stuff for LittleBigPlanet.
And I upgraded Xbox360s, so had to use the license transfer tool - worked great, if a bit long because you have to download everything again to get the updated licenses. (Those who send their Xboxes in for service have the license transfer done automatically).
Oh well. At least the PS3 has gotten a slew of single player games lately. I'll reserve multiplayer and the like for my Xbox.
You took a robot, capable of crunching numbers at speeds in excess of a thousand calculations per second, programmed it and engineered it to perform a specific task, and then wanted to see if humans, who take 1/5th of a second just to react, can't do any more than a few SIMPLE calculations in a second, and had them use the worlds laggiest controller, and wanted to see who would win?
It's a pick-and-place machine. Most PnP require that the inputs and outputs are stored in well-known locations, and have pretty basic image recognition software (they can tell if a black blob is in the wrong place, for example - if it was loaded wrong). Or to handle the slight misalignment of the source or destination.
In this case, the robot is picking and placing from and to a platform that can move arbitrarily, while it's even doing the picking and placing. That implies it not only knows it has to look for the source and destination, but recognize the platform and perform the task. Even if the thing it's grabbing suddenly decided to move under it while it's doing the picking or placing.
The human might be slower, but they're also a lot more unpredictable, so the robot has it use up its millions of calculations per second to figure out where things are and react when things start moving from under it.
Shouldn't the EULA that I agreed to when I bought the hardware apply, not a revised one released after the fact? What are the consequences of refusing this firmware update?
Except the PS3 duplicates the PC experience.
Some games require you to "install" them on the hard disk (every one from PSN, but many disc-games as well have disc installers). And of course, most games give you an EULA you have to page through to play the first time. And all system updates give you an EULA you have to agree to.
That's the biggest peeve I have with facebook/myspace, et al. They don't take the end users' security into consideration.
That's the #1 reason why I don't use their services. Otherwise, for a ton of people, they're fantastic services.
What security is there in the first place? You put up a private photo and expect that only your friends see it? And that maybe they're all too stupid to "save as" and re-post the photo elsewhere as a public photo?
The privacy settings are just feel-good measures. Post something good and unless you have no friends, someone's probably going to re-post it elsewhere. Of course, if people realized this all the "private" data on Facebook wouldn't be there, so you put up some basic crap that really doesn't do anything. Once it's on the 'net, it's out there, no matter the privacy settings. The only way to keep it off is to not post it in the first place.
To think otherwise is like those "image DRM," "document DRM" and "email DRM" type services out there claiming to keep your images, documents, and emails safe from third parties/leaks, and allowing things like "expiring" content.
I can see that integrated graphics in a CPU can be handy for some applications, like low-power mobile stuff and such.
But for a desktop PC, isn't this a disadvantage? If you're using a proper graphics card, couldn't that space in the CPU be used for better things than a redundant graphics circuit?
Except, most PCs don't have proper graphics cards. It's why the top video card manufacturer is not nVidia or AMD, it's Intel. Yes, Intel sells the most graphics chipsets.
And graphics is one of the last high-speed devices to be integrated into the CPU core - these modern CPUs are basically the CPU core plus north bridge in one, integrating the PCIe bridges and memory controllers (and now GPU). The other peripherals are much slower and can hang off the PCIe bus.
And one less chip on the motherboard == big savings for OEMs like Dell/HP/etc, where 99% of the PCs they sell by volume (not by model) probably ship with Intel graphics.
Slashdot Mirror
Just rename the .MOV to .MP4. The formats are practically identical - the MPEG-4 group chose Apple's MOV format for that basis of the MP4 format, and thus MP4 is a subset of MOV (but a rather complete subset). Just like 3GP is a subset of MP4 as well (restricting codec usage mainly). A MOV parser can easily handle either, and most MP4 parsers ignore whatever extra junk there may be in a MOV file.
Or, 512 bytes plus pointers leading to next/previous "sectors" of data as metadata.
Now you're able to store an arbitrary file, and all you really need to know is the ID of the beginning. Or one of the pieces and you can then recover the file.
Sounds like a great way to store and spread files - TwitterShare! Like Rapidshare, but without the suck. And let the MPAA/RIAA battle it out with all the users.
Guitar Hero: Halo would be...interesting, but to be fair it does have some very excellent music and I really wouldn't mind playing along (although we might need new plastic instruments :-).
There is a free GH Halo track up for DLC (on the Xbox360, naturally) - Halo Theme MJOLNIR Mix (from Halo 2 Volume 1 soundtrack).
Though, I think this is for Bungie's future games. Halo IP is owned by Microsoft anyhow. Part of Bungie's re-spinoff from Microsoft is so they could get away from Halo. And multiplatform releases.
The big question is WHY?!
Adobe wants to get Flash on the iPhone. Yet Jobs has spurned Flash. Yet Adobe keeps trying.
All that effort could've been better spent getting Flash working on open devices, like Android. Instead Adobe just wants Apple to support Flash. Hell, didn't Jobs give Adobe a challenge to show Flash working well on any device?
Probably at the urging of the biggest users of flash - advertisers. For everyone wanting flash - I dare you to disable all addons that block flash - including NoScript, AdblockPlus, FlashBlock and others. You'll find that a good majority of pages will have some flash ad or other on it, and sites that require flash like YouTube, Vimeo, HomeStarRunner and the like are the narrow minority of sites.
You'll probably turn flash blockers on again after a few minutes of browsing. Now imagine that on your phone, except you've got a processor that's a third as fast (since the Nexus 1 and iPad have Ghz CPUs), and which is probably spending more time rendering the flash than rendering the page.
I've got devices that have full Flash. Let's just say having the page stop rendering so I can view the ad in real time isn't exactly the best browsing experience I've had. Or even worse, videos that still drop frames (on my Nokia N810), or one site that consumed so much CPU time, it was effectively locked up trying to play a video (1 frame every 30 seconds, 2 seconds of audio every 30 seconds, UI unresponsive). Easiest way to back out of that was remove the battery, losing other data (yay multitasking).
Adobe's probably getting pressure from advertisers. Surprisingly, Adobe hasn't fast-tracked a Flash player for the more open platforms out there - 3 years of griping about Flash on the iPhone, and they don't have anything for Android.
Actually, at one time, /. did support unicode. Just that well, it's really hard to whitelist unicode codepoints, and crap like "force right-to-left" gets used by people who think it funny to reverse text. (The source code of the page doesn't show it, but because the unicode renderer obeys it, every bit of text onwards gets rendered right-to-left).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode_control_characters#Bidirectional_text_control
An old trick was to use the old "megamillion" character which contains several unicode codepoints (which follow with the character when copy and pasted). Copy and paste that character and havoc ensues.
http://tipotheday.com/2007/08/26/wtf-is-this-character/
Well, Sony certainly "advertises" it in their manual:
http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/manual.html
http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/index.html
http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/3_15/settings/osinstall.html
Choice quote from the second link:
It may not be on the box, but it's certainly documented on Sony's own websites
For times well under a minute, at least a lubricated one. Even speed cubers use graphite or something. And those one-handled cubers (the ones who solve two cubes simultaneously) require it - I don't think one hand has enough agility and strength to do the twists of a brand new cube.
Simple. The iMac shipped with USB everything. No floppy disk. No legacy ports (ADB, RS232, etc). Hell, I don't think the original ones came with a CD burner!
Back then yes you had USB. But you had two measly ports that pretty much sat empty because all the peripherals you could get were cheaper and easier to get in other connection formats. A keyboard and mouse were PS/2 because you could get both cheaply (a cheapass USB one would run you $50, a PS2 version of same for $20 or less). Printers used the parallel port. Modems either plugged into a serial port or inside your PC. And hard drives you had to install 'em yourself. You could get external Zips and Jaz drives, but unless you used SCSI, you put up with parallel ports. You transferred data via sneakernet.
And hell, USB had been around for 3+ years and peripherals were hard to come by. They were expensive and no one wanted them. OS support was iffy, too. Windows 95 OSR2 had basic keyboard/mouse support. Windows 98 same, but you could get drivers for mass storage. Basically non-existent until Windows 2000.
The Apple releases the iMac and gets you USB only. All of a sudden, a flood of peripherals started coming out for USB, and prices plunged. USB floppies, USB printers, keyboards and mice under $10. USB didn't mean overpriced anymore. And I scoffed at USB devices because they were overpriced - the USB versions were always much more expensive.
And Apple did like Firewire, because well, you could stick a hard disk on it and not have ot wait all day to transfer files like USB. (Remember, the iPod used Firewire purely because USB 1.1 was pathetically slow, and USB2.0 was on the horizon but would take a few more years to become popular and standard on every PC)
I'm surprised that people haven't started making personal resolvers easy to set up and use - or routers don't start coming with them to bypass the ISP resolvers. After all, all you really need is the list of root servers (which change inrrequently and are available at a well-known place for self-bootstrapping) and that's it. Eliminates pharming (poisoned DNS servers), ISP shenanigans including NXDOMAIN, and possibly others.
Add in the ability to link with DHCP in the router and no more needing annoying IP addresses for a home network.
Remember, these were made in the late 90's early 2000s. Floppy disks were CHEAP, a box of 10 would run you $10 if not less on sale. A meager 16MB card would cost $100+ easily. So you could go with a camera that required $100+ memory cards to use, or went with one that used common floppy disks that at the time, everyone had. No messing with serial cables, parallel cables (or if you were lucky, USB) transferring data. Just eject the disk from the camera, pop it in your PC, done.
They literally were the fastest, cheapest storage media around, and damn trivial to transfer data off of. Later versions used a CD burner to record mini CDs for the same reason - flash media was freaking expensive (though by then, a 128MB card could be had for around $100, but the CDs costed $10 or less). And you didn't have to put up with USB 1.1 speeds.
NOwadays we scoff as we buy 8GB cards for $10, but prices have seriously plummeted only in the past few years.
Not to mention that Microsoft really wants to upgrade Xbox Live. The reason they can't is because ONE GAME is preventing them from doing it. Yes, that game is Halo 2, which on the rankings is basically the #1 original Xbox game that was played on live by a huge margin. Even so, I think there were only something like 10,000 odd players at most, though I've seen reports saying that at its peak, it's only between 1000-2000 players worldwide.
Given how many millions use Xbox Live (Gold), and how few actually play the one game that's holding it back architecturally, it's a sound choice I think. Plus, there's been two other multiplayer Halo FPS games since then (Halo 3 and Halo ODST).
The only real question is Halo 2 for Vista (which works fine on Win7), since its Live client is updated independently of the game itself and has the potential for continuation of service (hell, multiplayer on that has long been free once Microsoft dropped the Games for Windows Live subscription requirement). Halo 2 fanatics can have their hand at that if they really, really, really hate gaming with Halo 3.
360s aren't too expensive these days - I've seen many retailers do half-price discounting of the Arcade models ($100 brand new!), and add in a hard disk, or with the latest firmware, any USB mass storage, and you've upgraded. Halo 3's pretty cheap these days used or new. Or go Halo ODST and get Halo 3 multiplayer with it.
Actually, no. People who use bandwidth are an ISP's worst customers. They want to sell their basic high-speed plans to people who'll check email once a week and maybe surf the BBC or CNN for a few minutes daily, tops. They'll try to convince those who just use twitter and facebook all day that they need the next tier up. And oh, if you do any sort of gaming, well, you really want the super-high-speed $100+/month plan!
These people pay big bucks and the ISP can oversell very easily.
Pirates who use all their bandwidth mean they can't oversell as much. They'd much rather kick them off and replace them (even if they're paying $100+/month) with 5 light users who pay $40/month.
Yeah, but it's not really a worry for warranty purposes. Most likely it's because they have different software loads - the Canadian version often includes the option for French. Or the trialware crap is different (because we don't have Hulu, Netflix, and others which makes no sense to include in the Canadian version). Occasionally it's because the US and Canadian versions are configured differently - the Canadian version having several features reduced to keep the pricepoints similar and/or acceptable (e.g., slower CPU, smaller hard disk).
Such differentiation is expected, but to do crap like deny local warranty service for legitmately purchased goods is just evil, not to mention treating such goods as having no warranty - you can send it back, but they can't return it because it can only be returned within the original country of purchase.
I don't know why it's a copyright issue, since it's a physical item, but usually we call such legitimate imports "grey market" goods. They're not officially for sale ("white market") nor are they illegal to sell ("black market"), but they're legally sold goods for distribution elsewhere that's re-imported for local sale.
Happens all the time even with IP materials like books, CDs and DVDs. Hell, Amazon and Walmart are probably the biggest "offenders" - I can buy two CDs, one locally and one from Amazon (or Walmart) and the local one is from the Canadian distributor, while the one I got from Amazon (or Walmart) comes from the US.
Ditto books - sometimes the US-Canadian book pricing is so out of whack, it's cheaper to get it from Amazon.com than Amazon.ca even with shipping charges.
Camera manufacturers used to be the biggest PITA regarding grey market goods - if you imported a camera, they would insist that warranties and such were only honored in the purchasing country - buy it in the US, service is done in the US, other countries would not touch it. Oh yeah, and the return shipping, to that address in the country.
Thankfully, for most products this doesn't happen (it's not strictly illegal, but it's a great way to piss off customers) anymore - I figure most companies gave up trying to track serial numbers and points of origin, and lets them move inventory around as needed by demand.
Of course, importation of such products is perfectly legal.
Apple customer support denied the device was missing. Which just means that customer support didn't know one was missing. And Apple customer support has stated that they get so many fake iphone prototype claims that they don't act of them. Too many cheap chinese clones.
But the finder didn't contact the bar to see if anyone called it in. Apparently the guy who lost it called the bar repeatedly asking if anyone turned it in.
Come to think of it, as the lost iPhone was really already a 4th generation device, Apple probably wasn't seeking any sort of punitive measures against the guy, and the restrictions on personal use of prototype hardware was probably heavily reduced.
After all, it's an iPhone. We've seen the 3 previous models already. And there isn't much new or innovative Apple could've put in.
Hell, Apple doesn't make big announcements when they introduce new Macs (like they did a couple of weeks ago) - just a quiet little refresh, and every other site picks up and makes it news, even though it's just spec bumps here and there and minor new features. Maybe if there was a super-big-fantastic announcement (e.g., Blu-Ray support), but for the msot part, most announcements are low-key. It's hard to generate buzz. Or hell, when the iMacs came out and the 27" came with a video input.
Ditto the iPods - sure a nice keynote on the new features, but then again, the old iPod Touch and the Classics got barely a mention despite getting upgrades.
The iPhone's getting to that point - it's a phone, there's not much one can improve on it hardware-wise. Hell, the 3GS was pretty much "meh" on the hardware, other than making the software fly. The software that drives the iPhone though is probably quite intriguing, but we already learned about 4.0.
Now, the secrecy behind the iPad was probably quite high, as were restrictions placed on it because it's a new Apple product. There were rumors, but until the big announcement, no concrete details.
Apple's learned several things over the past decade - first, takedown notices are a surefire way to confirm rumors. Second, it doesn't have to be super-secretive on everything - things that are likely to underwhelm on presentation (like mere spec upgrades), well, let it leak (there were so many SKUs posted on the new MacBooks that we knew they were coming). Thus, Apple concentrates the secrecy on its second gen iPad and whatever new device it's concocting. New screen? Front facing camera? Meh features - the only thing Apple can do is either drop one or the other (due to availability and/or software issues) and leave it for the next model. After all, they appeared to do that with the camera feature on the iPod Touch 3rd gen.
True, then again, accepting this payback probably excludes them from any other settlement. So a user has an option - get a refund for getting their computer fixed, or getting a coupon for a free 6 months of McAfee, but having to pay to fix their computer. The really dumb ones get a coupon and a broken computer.
Also, McAfee will probably hide behind the EULA for the class action, since the EULA probably also said they don't have to pay if they screw up your system anyhow.
It depends on the profile and player. Prereocrded blu-ray's are using the BDMV profile, which gives you all that nice menu, java, and bd-live stuff. The one that consumers can make is called BDAV, which is far simpler (basically just a bog-simple menu system), and no full authoring.
AVCHD is a subset of the Blu-Ray spec allowing people to make high-def video onto simpler media like DVDs, knowing full wekk they cannot actually author their own BDs.
Alas, BDMV support on BD-R(E) is sketchy (only the PS3 is guaranteed to support it), though I think most players now will support it. BDAV support is mandatory on BD-R(E). AVCHD support is dependent on the player, though I think most these days support it just because.
The only way to guaranteed BDMV support on all players is to have AACS keys and a big plant doing runs (but it doesn't mean you have to do a run to test - there are players that do BDMV on BD-R(E)). And short of a big studio, small filmmakers will have a hard time making professional-level BDs. Probably the way the big studios like it though - less competition to upset the money cart.
I guess the thinking is that since he lost one, he probably has a replacement now. All they have to do is get him over to Germany, get him drunk, and hopefully he'll misplace his new one. Which will be an even later prototype to scoop Gizmodo.
After all, aren't C't and Heise based in Germany?
(Yes, that was a joke)
On a more serious note - it could also be that Apple realizes that iPhones just aren't news anymore. Look at their Macs - they tend to just get quietly refreshed these days unless there's some major big announcement. Ditto iPods (the Touch, Shuffle and Nano stole the keynote, the Classic being just a mere footnote). Short of something amazing, iPhones will probably head the same way - a new one gets released with little fanfare. After all, all the major features are already announced as part of iPhone OS 4.0 - all we learned from Gizmodo is what the new hardware might have. The iPad was new and novel for Apple, heads would've rolled had someone accidentally lost that.
with their points system. It's not a great system, but I just realized two things.
1) I've bought stuff from Xbox Live Marketplace, using points.
2) I've never purchased anything from PSN. Except freebies.
The reason? I could get points "on sale" all the time (it doesn't take long to find someone selling MS point cards for 10% off , and Best Buy/Dell/etc. do run 25% off deals a few times a year). PSN cards have their value marked on them, so it's hard to find any retailer willing to discount a card with $50 marked on it.
And with Sony doing the OtherOS crap, I haven't updated my firmware. Then Sony banned un-updated PS3s from connecting to PSN. Which is a great way to ensure that I never spend a penny on PSN. And I had considered anteing up to buy some stuff for LittleBigPlanet.
And I upgraded Xbox360s, so had to use the license transfer tool - worked great, if a bit long because you have to download everything again to get the updated licenses. (Those who send their Xboxes in for service have the license transfer done automatically).
Oh well. At least the PS3 has gotten a slew of single player games lately. I'll reserve multiplayer and the like for my Xbox.
It's a pick-and-place machine. Most PnP require that the inputs and outputs are stored in well-known locations, and have pretty basic image recognition software (they can tell if a black blob is in the wrong place, for example - if it was loaded wrong). Or to handle the slight misalignment of the source or destination.
In this case, the robot is picking and placing from and to a platform that can move arbitrarily, while it's even doing the picking and placing. That implies it not only knows it has to look for the source and destination, but recognize the platform and perform the task. Even if the thing it's grabbing suddenly decided to move under it while it's doing the picking or placing.
The human might be slower, but they're also a lot more unpredictable, so the robot has it use up its millions of calculations per second to figure out where things are and react when things start moving from under it.
Except the PS3 duplicates the PC experience.
Some games require you to "install" them on the hard disk (every one from PSN, but many disc-games as well have disc installers). And of course, most games give you an EULA you have to page through to play the first time. And all system updates give you an EULA you have to agree to.
Reading EULAs is part of the Sony PS3 experience.
What security is there in the first place? You put up a private photo and expect that only your friends see it? And that maybe they're all too stupid to "save as" and re-post the photo elsewhere as a public photo?
The privacy settings are just feel-good measures. Post something good and unless you have no friends, someone's probably going to re-post it elsewhere. Of course, if people realized this all the "private" data on Facebook wouldn't be there, so you put up some basic crap that really doesn't do anything. Once it's on the 'net, it's out there, no matter the privacy settings. The only way to keep it off is to not post it in the first place.
To think otherwise is like those "image DRM," "document DRM" and "email DRM" type services out there claiming to keep your images, documents, and emails safe from third parties/leaks, and allowing things like "expiring" content.
Except, most PCs don't have proper graphics cards. It's why the top video card manufacturer is not nVidia or AMD, it's Intel. Yes, Intel sells the most graphics chipsets.
And graphics is one of the last high-speed devices to be integrated into the CPU core - these modern CPUs are basically the CPU core plus north bridge in one, integrating the PCIe bridges and memory controllers (and now GPU). The other peripherals are much slower and can hang off the PCIe bus.
And one less chip on the motherboard == big savings for OEMs like Dell/HP/etc, where 99% of the PCs they sell by volume (not by model) probably ship with Intel graphics.