It's been established that the next-generation consoles will do more than just gaming, they'll also become hubs of your entertainment center. At the very least, they'll probably have PVR capabilities, and probably will be able to handle music libraries and Video On Demand. With the addition of a high speed wireless LAN capable of reaching the neighbors, that potentially could give you access to your neighbor's resources... and if configured for a neighborhood mesh network it could reach far further. Advanced P2P filesharing and a common archival framework (sharing drives prevents duplication of files and allows more efficient use of the total space).
I should note that all this ties in nicely with the recent slashdot article about Playstation 3 Grid Computing. It practically demanded a high speed network... might as well be a local one.
I doubt Sony would actually do something that the MPAA disapproves of so strongly, but modding your console is not out of the question... of course, a virus or worm might help such capabilities along.
Cowboy Bebop has been almost entirely unedited, with a few notable exceptions (and the dubbing obviously). Translation is an art, 99% of the time cutting the swears is both unnoticable and not inaccurate. I'm a diehard and frankly I'm happy with how little was done. It was much less than I expected.
I think in both M$ and Corel's case, they expected that users would be forced to make the transition more quickly by making the upgrade indispensible (that's how microsoft does it), thus forcing everyone to upgrade their productivity software as well. In short, everyone moves, the existing userbase buys new OS X copies of office and coreldraw, and they make some easy money. But they aren't, because Apple is making the transistion as painless and therefore gradual as possible, so they don't lose customers in the process. Boo Hoo.
Obviously the japanese have sex. There are erotic and pornagraphic works of all kinds. And throughout Japanese history and culture it has been treated with considerably more candor than in most of the western world. But perhaps that's not what he was talking about. I think one could make a pretty good case that romance plays a rather small role in Japanese culture, and that compared to western style romance is so faint as to be almost irrelevant. Or perhaps he was talking about something else entirely.
After A Wild Sheep Chase was required summer reading for me (over 9 years ago - this review is a little late) I also became a big Murakami fan, and went on a reading kick of his books. And I experienced the exact same effect - I got depressed. Good writing and excellent translations, but they made me feel lousy.
This is true of so many excellent books (and music, and films, etc.) but still many love them. I'm sure there's a lesson to be learned here, but I'm not quite sure what it is.
Damn, I think you solved a problem I've been worrying over. I said I would set up a site for my family, especially to help coordinate our family reunion. What are the other options besides Yahoo Groups? Are there any more focused options?
1) Ultimate TVs recievers are sold at a loss and require a monthly service charge. 2) $500 is too much, unless it comes with significantly enhanced features (i.e. DVD capability is standard and good quality, hard drive is relatively large for pvr, internet capabilities, relatively low/no monthly fee, novel parent-friendly control, and/or can act as a digital reciever). Even then $500 is a lot for one consumer item, even a flexible one like that. Bringing it down in price to $400 or less may be a must. 3) The gamebox buying single young adults I know frequently blow their money on expensive electronics gadgets (often they can't really afford them but they do). It's easy for them since they don't have kids. 4) Statistical averages don't tell you anything about the distribution of values. There are lots of folks who would like all these capabilities to be associated with one TV.
Well, lots of folks aren't using their various boxes with multiple TV sets, because lots of folks only have one TV, and don't want anymore. That's why we need ever-larger stands to put our home theaters in. My family didn't have more than one TV, neither does my brother. That's a big market. Furthermore, their are a lot of singles and couples out there who don't have a need for more than one TV but do want all the different stuff. Lots of game systems are sold to adults too, particularly young adults, who are likely to be single.
Plus, kids can record shows too (if you make it simple enough). They certainly watch a lot of recorded stuff. A PVR might even mitigate their TV watching habits to just a few (parent-approved) shows.
Your typical PVR drive can record and/or play up to three digital streams at a time (based on DirecTivo's capabilities). With multiple or faster drives you could presumably do more. Recording a digital stream on a drive should also not consume much if any processing power. Thus you could probably play the game while recording at least one show, though if you have more set there might be problem.
You can't, probably because those boxes are currently being used as revenue streams (and thus impeding the adoption of digital tech) and also subject to petty attempts at monopolization by their manufacturers cutting deals with the cable monopolies. But the underlying chips and tech are the same, and if they ever got their asses together it would be trivial to make a box that would support any of the various standards, or standardize them all. A big but relatively independent player like microsoft could make it happen. They could even consolidate billing and lump together services. They could also maintain different options - a series of game consoles that maintain backwards pvr capability, and cheaper pvr-only consoles that are upgraded much less frequently, both of which include digital reciever/converter functions.
Plus if you're using comcast like me (not that I have another option) you'd know that they're pushing digital like crazy. If it weren't so much more expensive it might even catch on, and if they wanted to they could force a digital upgrade since a) they have a local monopoly on cable b)broadcast reception 'round here is a total joke, and c)the guvmn't is trying to push digital broadcast and HDTV too.
Videophiles may sneer at the convergence capabilities of these boxes (they did at the PS2's dvd capabilities) but the fact of the matter is they make sense. I don't want a half dozen boxes around my TV. That's a great way to blow the circuit breakers and eat up space and plugs I don't have. If it can be built all in one box (and it can, and since there are common technologies such as MPEG2 compression underlying these different devices the convergence boxes can be made relatively cheap and efficient compared to buying a bunch of them) then why not do so?
The system should be easily adaptable to digital satellite, digital cable, and video on demand. In fact AFAIK they all use the same MPEG2 video standards as DVDs, just different transmission mediums, and coordinating the service with a single satellite broadcast is much easier than with a host of terrestrial ones. It could even be used with analog, although that would require an expensive converter or two. Ultimately this could be used to help push digital broadcasts into the mainstream (though it'd be a lot faster to just lower the damn prices).
Re:Criticism of foreigners unwarranted?
on
Greenbacks No More
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· Score: 2
Wouldn't a "fake" $20 bill cost $21 to make, plus adhesive then?
Re:how about real change?
on
Greenbacks No More
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· Score: 4, Interesting
Oddly enough Jackson has an interesting history with money.
The Second Bank of the United States was established in 1816, and quickly became one of the most influential institutions in the world. Many people regarded the privately owned bank which wielded independent of the government as a dangerous and anti-democratic institution, benefitting the rich at the expense of the working class and heavily tied to foreign interests. Or as banker Meyer Rothschild wrote, "Let me issue and control a nation's currency and I care not who writes its laws." No person fought so hard and so opposed the bank as the populist Andrew Jackson, who once famously remarked "The bank...is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!" In 1836 Jackson vetoed the bill to renew it's charter, and considered it one of the greatest accomplishments of his career. However, following the panic of 1907 the Federal Reserve was established, for all intents and purposes identical to it's predecessors.
It is with considerable irony that Jackson's visage now appears appears on the $20 bill, beneath the words "Federal Reserve Note".
I think you're on to something there. Our country is a nation of immigrants who have come seeking political freedom and economic opportunity. And what symbolizes economic opportunity in America more than anything? MONEY. GREENBACKS. $$$$. Which incidentally have pictures of the folks responsible for said political freedom. A symbol of our nation. Multicolored, multisized bills with non-historical designs, in contrast, look like monopoly money to us.
P.S. I also think we should bite the bullet and go metric. But changing the highway signs alone will be crazy expensive.
I don't think the currency is ugly at all. Far from it. While other countries' gaudy bills look like flyers for some cheap rave, our distinctive greenbacks always look exactly like money. You may not be able to tell how much from just a quick glance or feel, but that is not necessarily bad. The designs on the bills are intricate and detailed yet highly visible and consistently recognizable, as is the color and feel of the cash. The idea that a multicolored design is somehow more desireable than a monochromatic one is just plain dumb, like saying that color photography is artisticly superior to black and white. As for the subject matter of dead great presidents and historical monuments and emblems, that suits me just fine. It may not be touchy-feely, but it's our history.
And on a side note, just how is changing our currency going to benefit the US? A careless tourist may give you the wrong money, but no cashier will accept it - except maybe if it is too high, which ultimately represents an influx of cash. Too bad for them, but it's their own fault.
I agree, less than VGA rez 640x480 isn't very useful for pictures (though it's adequate for video, i.e. VCDs). Said Logitech camera is actually based on technology from Smal Camera, and is also employed in the Fujifilm Axia. The tech is small enough (and fairly advanced - it has automatic saturation control so details still come through) and could be integrated into a cell phone. Sony also came up with a memory-stick using camera that was about the size of a pack of gum. Not to mention the recent X3 technology which should give big improvements in color and sharpness and smaller sensors per rez, particularly for low-rez imagers which have the most trouble with color artifacts.
In any case, the technology is already there now and will get significantly better in the near future. A tiny camera you have with you at all times can still be very useful.
Stop thinking about how people use technology today and think about how they could use it tomorrow, and how much it's actually worth.
Most people don't use PDAs, because most people don't NEED PDAs, certainly not enough to hook one on their belt. They're great for supergeeks and very busy people, but not for the general public. Most non-obstinate people would like to have a mobile phone though, and would like their mobile do stuff that's useful on the road (phone, messaging, address book, camera, and information services).
Side note - I don't like carrying a lot of stuff around. As far as I'm concerned, I should never have more than three things in my pants (no not THOSE you perv) - my keys, my wallet w/cards+money, and a pen. Possibly a phone small enough to fit in my pocket (nokia 8260 for instance). None of this belt clip shit for me, thanks. I don't carry stuff around because I think it might be useful - I carry stuff around that it sucks to be without when I need them. PDAs don't qualify, when the pen and a few slips of paper in my wallet do the job well enough.
Videophones never caught one because there's no point in sending a continuous video stream of your face (unless, of course, you're getting naked, and then it's pointed elsewhere). In fact 99% of the time you wouldn't even want to send video, for various reasons. But a mobile phone can be used anywhere and it would be great if it could take pics of the immediate area for purposes of analysis and communication. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Everytime someone suggests putting a camera in mobile phone, there's always a bunch of people who assume that it would be used for videoconferencing purposes or high-rez photography, and whine about how useless it is. Get a clue. There are very good reasons to have even a low-rez camera in your phone, some of them more useful than having a phone/PDA combo. Consider the REAL uses:
1) How many times have you been somewhere where you REALLY wished you had a camera, but you didn't. How often did you have your mobile phone? (assuming you had one at all)
2) Have you ever been in a situation where you would have liked to quickly relay your situation to someone, i.e. you're witnessing a crime in progress, someone ran into your car and you'd like to keep a record of the situation, you need to describe a location to someone who's familiar with the area, etc.
3) Have you ever run out of storage on your camera, or wanted to send pictures or streaming video for live updates to something on the web?
- the feeling of uncontrolled motion not controlled? - the rapid switching between camera angles? - the focusing on a scene with an unnatural perspective relative to the real world? - incorrect depth information for your viewing angle and location? - the lack of depth and limited luminescence and color?
Regardless, 3d displays should amplify these effect significantly in all cases except the last. In particular, because of the new depth, won't this make a large difference on how far/close you should sit to the screen, and won't the effect differ for people depending on the distance between their eyes? And what about viewing the screen from an angle? If you aren't sitting in the sweet spot, the image could be warped or scaled to comic or sickening levels even for normal folks. Which is fine if you're watching alone and organize the furniture around the TV, assuming you're some anti-social videophile.
It costs a MILLION PER FEATURE TO CONVERT!!! Way too much for porn.
Of course, when people start using these nifty cameras that can record video depth as well, the additional cost for new 3D productions will be trivial.
I don't think there's any doubt in anyone's mind who knows anything about the situation but that our uncritical and over-generous patent system needs serious reviewal. Likewise the overly-broad and overly-long copyright system. The matter of EULAs hasn't been addressed at all in a legal sense. Nor have potentially discriminatory and damaging region locking and copy protection schemes.
What is needed now is for congress, the courts, business, or the people to take a long hard look at the situation and make some changes for the better, but I don't see anyone moving on these issues individually or as aggregate. And even if they were, there's a serious possibility it could just be made worse. Anyone have any ideas?
Slashdot Mirror
It's been established that the next-generation consoles will do more than just gaming, they'll also become hubs of your entertainment center. At the very least, they'll probably have PVR capabilities, and probably will be able to handle music libraries and Video On Demand. With the addition of a high speed wireless LAN capable of reaching the neighbors, that potentially could give you access to your neighbor's resources... and if configured for a neighborhood mesh network it could reach far further. Advanced P2P filesharing and a common archival framework (sharing drives prevents duplication of files and allows more efficient use of the total space).
I should note that all this ties in nicely with the recent slashdot article about Playstation 3 Grid Computing. It practically demanded a high speed network... might as well be a local one.
I doubt Sony would actually do something that the MPAA disapproves of so strongly, but modding your console is not out of the question... of course, a virus or worm might help such capabilities along.
Cowboy Bebop has been almost entirely unedited, with a few notable exceptions (and the dubbing obviously). Translation is an art, 99% of the time cutting the swears is both unnoticable and not inaccurate. I'm a diehard and frankly I'm happy with how little was done. It was much less than I expected.
I think in both M$ and Corel's case, they expected that users would be forced to make the transition more quickly by making the upgrade indispensible (that's how microsoft does it), thus forcing everyone to upgrade their productivity software as well. In short, everyone moves, the existing userbase buys new OS X copies of office and coreldraw, and they make some easy money. But they aren't, because Apple is making the transistion as painless and therefore gradual as possible, so they don't lose customers in the process. Boo Hoo.
Ah... but what does he mean by sexless?
Obviously the japanese have sex. There are erotic and pornagraphic works of all kinds. And throughout Japanese history and culture it has been treated with considerably more candor than in most of the western world. But perhaps that's not what he was talking about. I think one could make a pretty good case that romance plays a rather small role in Japanese culture, and that compared to western style romance is so faint as to be almost irrelevant. Or perhaps he was talking about something else entirely.
After A Wild Sheep Chase was required summer reading for me (over 9 years ago - this review is a little late) I also became a big Murakami fan, and went on a reading kick of his books. And I experienced the exact same effect - I got depressed. Good writing and excellent translations, but they made me feel lousy.
This is true of so many excellent books (and music, and films, etc.) but still many love them. I'm sure there's a lesson to be learned here, but I'm not quite sure what it is.
Damn, I think you solved a problem I've been worrying over. I said I would set up a site for my family, especially to help coordinate our family reunion. What are the other options besides Yahoo Groups? Are there any more focused options?
1) Ultimate TVs recievers are sold at a loss and require a monthly service charge.
2) $500 is too much, unless it comes with significantly enhanced features (i.e. DVD capability is standard and good quality, hard drive is relatively large for pvr, internet capabilities, relatively low/no monthly fee, novel parent-friendly control, and/or can act as a digital reciever). Even then $500 is a lot for one consumer item, even a flexible one like that. Bringing it down in price to $400 or less may be a must.
3) The gamebox buying single young adults I know frequently blow their money on expensive electronics gadgets (often they can't really afford them but they do). It's easy for them since they don't have kids.
4) Statistical averages don't tell you anything about the distribution of values. There are lots of folks who would like all these capabilities to be associated with one TV.
Well, lots of folks aren't using their various boxes with multiple TV sets, because lots of folks only have one TV, and don't want anymore. That's why we need ever-larger stands to put our home theaters in. My family didn't have more than one TV, neither does my brother. That's a big market. Furthermore, their are a lot of singles and couples out there who don't have a need for more than one TV but do want all the different stuff. Lots of game systems are sold to adults too, particularly young adults, who are likely to be single.
Plus, kids can record shows too (if you make it simple enough). They certainly watch a lot of recorded stuff. A PVR might even mitigate their TV watching habits to just a few (parent-approved) shows.
Your typical PVR drive can record and/or play up to three digital streams at a time (based on DirecTivo's capabilities). With multiple or faster drives you could presumably do more. Recording a digital stream on a drive should also not consume much if any processing power. Thus you could probably play the game while recording at least one show, though if you have more set there might be problem.
You can't, probably because those boxes are currently being used as revenue streams (and thus impeding the adoption of digital tech) and also subject to petty attempts at monopolization by their manufacturers cutting deals with the cable monopolies. But the underlying chips and tech are the same, and if they ever got their asses together it would be trivial to make a box that would support any of the various standards, or standardize them all. A big but relatively independent player like microsoft could make it happen. They could even consolidate billing and lump together services. They could also maintain different options - a series of game consoles that maintain backwards pvr capability, and cheaper pvr-only consoles that are upgraded much less frequently, both of which include digital reciever/converter functions.
Plus if you're using comcast like me (not that I have another option) you'd know that they're pushing digital like crazy. If it weren't so much more expensive it might even catch on, and if they wanted to they could force a digital upgrade since a) they have a local monopoly on cable b)broadcast reception 'round here is a total joke, and c)the guvmn't is trying to push digital broadcast and HDTV too.
Videophiles may sneer at the convergence capabilities of these boxes (they did at the PS2's dvd capabilities) but the fact of the matter is they make sense. I don't want a half dozen boxes around my TV. That's a great way to blow the circuit breakers and eat up space and plugs I don't have. If it can be built all in one box (and it can, and since there are common technologies such as MPEG2 compression underlying these different devices the convergence boxes can be made relatively cheap and efficient compared to buying a bunch of them) then why not do so?
The system should be easily adaptable to digital satellite, digital cable, and video on demand. In fact AFAIK they all use the same MPEG2 video standards as DVDs, just different transmission mediums, and coordinating the service with a single satellite broadcast is much easier than with a host of terrestrial ones. It could even be used with analog, although that would require an expensive converter or two. Ultimately this could be used to help push digital broadcasts into the mainstream (though it'd be a lot faster to just lower the damn prices).
When Microsoft was announcing the dissolution of the UltimateTV team back in January, and reassigning them to the Xbox team, it was pretty obvious what was going on. It was to me.
Wouldn't a "fake" $20 bill cost $21 to make, plus adhesive then?
Oddly enough Jackson has an interesting history with money.
The Second Bank of the United States was established in 1816, and quickly became one of the most influential institutions in the world. Many people regarded the privately owned bank which wielded independent of the government as a dangerous and anti-democratic institution, benefitting the rich at the expense of the working class and heavily tied to foreign interests. Or as banker Meyer Rothschild wrote, "Let me issue and control a nation's currency and I care not who writes its laws." No person fought so hard and so opposed the bank as the populist Andrew Jackson, who once famously remarked "The bank...is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!" In 1836 Jackson vetoed the bill to renew it's charter, and considered it one of the greatest accomplishments of his career. However, following the panic of 1907 the Federal Reserve was established, for all intents and purposes identical to it's predecessors.
It is with considerable irony that Jackson's visage now appears appears on the $20 bill, beneath the words "Federal Reserve Note".
I think you're on to something there. Our country is a nation of immigrants who have come seeking political freedom and economic opportunity. And what symbolizes economic opportunity in America more than anything? MONEY. GREENBACKS. $$$$. Which incidentally have pictures of the folks responsible for said political freedom. A symbol of our nation. Multicolored, multisized bills with non-historical designs, in contrast, look like monopoly money to us.
P.S. I also think we should bite the bullet and go metric. But changing the highway signs alone will be crazy expensive.
I don't think the currency is ugly at all. Far from it. While other countries' gaudy bills look like flyers for some cheap rave, our distinctive greenbacks always look exactly like money. You may not be able to tell how much from just a quick glance or feel, but that is not necessarily bad. The designs on the bills are intricate and detailed yet highly visible and consistently recognizable, as is the color and feel of the cash. The idea that a multicolored design is somehow more desireable than a monochromatic one is just plain dumb, like saying that color photography is artisticly superior to black and white. As for the subject matter of dead great presidents and historical monuments and emblems, that suits me just fine. It may not be touchy-feely, but it's our history.
And on a side note, just how is changing our currency going to benefit the US? A careless tourist may give you the wrong money, but no cashier will accept it - except maybe if it is too high, which ultimately represents an influx of cash. Too bad for them, but it's their own fault.
It blocks light and protects the lens!
I agree, less than VGA rez 640x480 isn't very useful for pictures (though it's adequate for video, i.e. VCDs). Said Logitech camera is actually based on technology from Smal Camera, and is also employed in the Fujifilm Axia. The tech is small enough (and fairly advanced - it has automatic saturation control so details still come through) and could be integrated into a cell phone. Sony also came up with a memory-stick using camera that was about the size of a pack of gum. Not to mention the recent X3 technology which should give big improvements in color and sharpness and smaller sensors per rez, particularly for low-rez imagers which have the most trouble with color artifacts.
In any case, the technology is already there now and will get significantly better in the near future. A tiny camera you have with you at all times can still be very useful.
Stop thinking about how people use technology today and think about how they could use it tomorrow, and how much it's actually worth.
Most people don't use PDAs, because most people don't NEED PDAs, certainly not enough to hook one on their belt. They're great for supergeeks and very busy people, but not for the general public. Most non-obstinate people would like to have a mobile phone though, and would like their mobile do stuff that's useful on the road (phone, messaging, address book, camera, and information services).
Side note - I don't like carrying a lot of stuff around. As far as I'm concerned, I should never have more than three things in my pants (no not THOSE you perv) - my keys, my wallet w/cards+money, and a pen. Possibly a phone small enough to fit in my pocket (nokia 8260 for instance). None of this belt clip shit for me, thanks. I don't carry stuff around because I think it might be useful - I carry stuff around that it sucks to be without when I need them. PDAs don't qualify, when the pen and a few slips of paper in my wallet do the job well enough.
Videophones never caught one because there's no point in sending a continuous video stream of your face (unless, of course, you're getting naked, and then it's pointed elsewhere). In fact 99% of the time you wouldn't even want to send video, for various reasons. But a mobile phone can be used anywhere and it would be great if it could take pics of the immediate area for purposes of analysis and communication. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Everytime someone suggests putting a camera in mobile phone, there's always a bunch of people who assume that it would be used for videoconferencing purposes or high-rez photography, and whine about how useless it is. Get a clue. There are very good reasons to have even a low-rez camera in your phone, some of them more useful than having a phone/PDA combo. Consider the REAL uses:
1) How many times have you been somewhere where you REALLY wished you had a camera, but you didn't. How often did you have your mobile phone? (assuming you had one at all)
2) Have you ever been in a situation where you would have liked to quickly relay your situation to someone, i.e. you're witnessing a crime in progress, someone ran into your car and you'd like to keep a record of the situation, you need to describe a location to someone who's familiar with the area, etc.
3) Have you ever run out of storage on your camera, or wanted to send pictures or streaming video for live updates to something on the web?
It does sort of beg the question though - if porn is picking up 3d before anyone else, will you get dirty looks for buying a 3d tv?
(at least with VCRs you were buying it to record TV first, and watch porn second).
I wonder what contributes to this effect -
- the feeling of uncontrolled motion not controlled?
- the rapid switching between camera angles?
- the focusing on a scene with an unnatural perspective relative to the real world?
- incorrect depth information for your viewing angle and location?
- the lack of depth and limited luminescence and color?
Regardless, 3d displays should amplify these effect significantly in all cases except the last. In particular, because of the new depth, won't this make a large difference on how far/close you should sit to the screen, and won't the effect differ for people depending on the distance between their eyes? And what about viewing the screen from an angle? If you aren't sitting in the sweet spot, the image could be warped or scaled to comic or sickening levels even for normal folks. Which is fine if you're watching alone and organize the furniture around the TV, assuming you're some anti-social videophile.
It costs a MILLION PER FEATURE TO CONVERT!!! Way too much for porn.
Of course, when people start using these nifty cameras that can record video depth as well, the additional cost for new 3D productions will be trivial.
I don't think there's any doubt in anyone's mind who knows anything about the situation but that our uncritical and over-generous patent system needs serious reviewal. Likewise the overly-broad and overly-long copyright system. The matter of EULAs hasn't been addressed at all in a legal sense. Nor have potentially discriminatory and damaging region locking and copy protection schemes.
What is needed now is for congress, the courts, business, or the people to take a long hard look at the situation and make some changes for the better, but I don't see anyone moving on these issues individually or as aggregate. And even if they were, there's a serious possibility it could just be made worse. Anyone have any ideas?