CD-Rs use an organic dye which reacts to the recording laser in a CD-R burner, causing it to melt and pit--it then becomes non-translucent and the reading laser is refracted when it attempts to read those portions of the disc.
There are several known cases of bacteria and fungus attacking this organic dye, not including the obvious danger that heat and sunlight pose to it.
"Regular" CDs use a polycarbonate substrate instead which is literally stamped into the CD during an injection moulding process. THIS is a mechanical change, giving the advantage that a stamped CD could very well last 50-200 years, whereas a burned CD-R that is not hermetically sealed will be lucky to last 10-20.
It seems that what we need is an inorganic hybrid of a stamping machine and a CD-R burner, something that can (using a much more powerful laser) physically inscribe the bits into a polycarbonate-like material. The nice thing about a technology like this being adopted, is that the firmware could be modified to allow the same machine to create CDs, DVDs, and whatever else they throw at us within that form-factor. Even better would be the ability to come up with your own (Open Source?) disc data storage format.
Anyone want to play devil's advocate on that idea? Apart from cost, I could see consumables and waste being an issue.
China and India have been at the forefront of biogas power production for decades.
In 1979, China had an estimated 7.2 million biogas plants, fueled primarily by pig manure.
In the same year, India had 80,000 of its own biogas plants fueled by the defecation of the sacred cow. (Holy Shit!)
They've even been doing this in the US for quite some time. Here is another article that provides an excellent explanation of the process, costs, and capabilities of such a system.
In the year 2000, face recognition has all but demolished the epidemic of cheap friends borrowing cell phones to "check in." On the bad side, your complete vanity has you subscribing to the "face of the month" face transplant club, forcing you to spend several hours each month convincing the phone company that you are NOT a thief, just incredibly shallow.
Innovation is down because the innovators are too busy freaking out over how they will pay their mortgage. As soon as the general populace is no longer preoccupied by trying to survive, innovation will continue. However, it is a nasty catch-22.
(For reference, please see the Dark Ages and the Renaissance.)
Being a developer for nearly 10 years, I will forever make the statement that coding is NOT like manufacturing.
It is not like building a house; you are not limited by your physical abilities.
It is not like building a car; you are not limited by available manufacturing facilities, techniques, materials and the like.
It is a science and possibly more importantly, an art. You are limited only by your creativity, logic and problem-solving ability.
Having spent 3 months in India last year, they still have a long ways to go. Thousands upon thousands of development firms in a single city, yet out of the couple of dozen I visited, nearly half were asking--no, begging me to train and teach coding practices to their developers and managers alike.
Having worked with a few Indian firms, I can tell you that it is definitely no cake-walk/easy-out for companies looking to "reduce their overhead." A logistical nightmare, you need someone to collaborate with them daily (or nightly as it may be) -- as you slowly watch them piece together an application over the course of several months, wading through their relatively broken English, only for you to throw half of it out at the end, rewriting it yourself. What? You mean it's taken twice as long for them to do it than us? But wait- why didn't we just write it ourselves to begin with? Oh, right- we thought it would be cheaper this way.
To Corporate America: Most of you never needed dedicated development teams. If you really want to save money, you should be looking locally for development houses on contract. There's a very good chance it will not only be cheaper, but of higher quality than the total cost of doing business either internally or offshore.
Instead of worrying about what everyone else is doing while we cry over the thought that we may lose business to overseas developers, let's spend that energy on education and figuring out how to improve the *quality* of our developers.
Given the knowledge and skill, one developer CAN do the work of ten. No question. And this is how we, through the economies of scale, will remain a viable option for American industry.
They are ghost towns because we, the arcade generation, are now in our 20s and 30s, and the children born into gaming more recently are faced with the fact that technology in arcades was already near or behind their home PC or console.
Without our nostalgia and memories, what's left for them? A few decent games here and there, most of which they already have at home?
But now this brings another opportunity to the equation: with this machine, the sole value that Microsoft wants is that of advertisement. This coupled with the opportunity mix an arcade and a computer/game/netcafe, and you've found yourself the symbiotic mix that just may be the shot-in-the-arm the industry has been waiting for, and their ticket to the mainstream once more. Did I mention XBox Live?
Do not confuse this arcade market to that which our nostalgia holds so dear. Our nostalgia has been franchised, coupled with decent food and alcohol and placed against a mainstream soundtrack partially designed to insight and trigger the memories we're searching for; enter GameWorks, Dave & Busters, and the like--where the concept of an arcade follows the market which gave it life.
You don't suppose that in another 30-40 years our offspring will be loving enough to atleast place us in retirement homes with Galaga, Robotron and Tetris.. ?
I would have to agree with you. It's easy to place blame here in concept, but I would bet this a case of "They don't make 'em like they used to."
Those older, bulky PCs with their huge transistors--wait, that's starting to sound a little more rugged than my 6-9 month shelf-life desktop PC that was built as cheaply as possible.
I only smoke weed when I need to And I need to get some rest I confess, I burnt a hole in the mattress Yes, yes, it was me, I plead guilty And on the count of three I pull back the duvet Make my way to the refrigerator One dry potato inside, no lie Not even bread, jam When the light above my head went bam! I can't sleep, something's all over me Greasy, insomnia please release me And let me dream about making mad love on the heath Tearing off tights with my teeth But there's no relief I'm wide awake in my kitchen It's dark and I'm lonely Oh, if I could only get some sleep Creeky noises make my skin creep I need to get some sleep I can't get no sleep....
1993 XBox was actually an Amiga (CD32).
on
The 1991 "X-Box"
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Seriously. 1991 XBox with PC technology would be absurd. Commodore, however, did this with the Amiga--it actually shares many similarities to the XBox/PC relationship.
Over 200,000 CD32 units were sold worldwide (100,000 in UK alone) - as compared to 3DO, which only sold a bit over 100,000 worldwide. It took some balls for Amiga to move on that, but unfortunately Commodore went under not too long afterwards. It sold for $399 in the US when it was released.
CONTACT: Commodore Business Machines, Inc.
Marketing and PR Department
(610) 431-9478
--== Amiga CD32® Launched in U.S. at Intermedia ==--
(San Jose, CA - March 1, 1994) Commodore Business Machines, Inc. today announced at Intermedia the availability of the Amiga CD32 game machine in the United States
"The CD32 will be available this spring at mall-based software stores, regional electronics stores, and Amiga dealers throughout the US," says John DiLullo, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Commordore Business Machines, Inc. "We are bundling three excellant games with the CD32: Pinball Fantasies by 21st Century, Wing Commander by Electronic Arts, and Oscar from Microvalue Flair," DiLullo added," and offering a special price on Psygnosis' Microcosm."
First launched in Europe this past fall, Commodore reports to have sold over 100,000 units in Europe in just three months prior to Christmas. By outselling Sega four to one and claiming 38 market share of all CD ROM drives sold in the UK (according to the Gallup Weekly Report), the Amiga CD32 has established itself as the undisputed leader of the 32 bit machines.
Electronic Gaming Monthly agrees by rating the CD32 higher than Sega CD, 3DO or Jaguar. At a suggested retail price of just $399, the Amiga CD32 features an unbeatable combination of power and affordability.
"We challenge anyone to show us a better multimedia player at a better price," says Lew Eggebrecht, Vice President of Engineering for Commodore International.
"With 50 titles available today and 100 expected by first ship in the U.S., the Amiga CD32 has wide support among the software development community," says John Campbell, Director of Applications and Technical Support for Commodore International. "The success we have had in Europe has convinced publishers to invest in creating revolutionary new titles for the Amiga CD32," Campbell added.
The Amiga CD32 features a 32 bit Motorola 68EC020 Microprocessor with 2MB of memory, 16.7 million colors, and a double speed CD ROM drive built in. The CD32 will play audio CDs, most CDTV discs, and CD32 discs. With the addition of an optional MPEG-1 full motion video module, the CD32 can play MPEG VideoCDs, MovieCDs and Karaoke CDs with up to 74 minytes of better-than-VHS quality video and CD quality audio on a single disc. The suggested retail price of the MPEG module is $249.
"The CD ROM drive in the CD32 is a fully multisession compatible Mode 1, Mode 2 Form 1, and Mode 2 Form 2 drive," says Jeffrey Porter, Director, Advanced Technology for Commodore International. "With optional software, the CD32 can read Kodak® PhotoCD discs," Porter added.
Commodore Business Machines, Inc. based in West Chester, PA is the U.S. subsidary of Commodore Internatrinal Limited. The company manufactures and markets a complete line of Amiga computers and peripherals for the business, consumer, educational, and vertical markets. The company's worldwide installed user base of Amiga computers is approximately 5 million units.
But back to reality: for not much more money, you will have a PC that has similar capability, but poorer outputs -- oh, and it will look like ABSOLUTE TRASH.
The most expensive part of taking commodity hardware and making a dedicated device out of it *is the case* -- I want a sleek case that I can mount next to my thousands of dollars of other shiny boxes, not some fucking mini-tower with a neon light hanging out the side. Christ.
Screw incompatible ways, they could easily make new firmware available off of their website--that you download, burn onto a CD, and stick into your drive. Auto-update. Bingo. Done.
We need to be encouraging companies that have the balls to take steps like this.
As has been pointed out, this thing does run Linux.. It also has a REALmagic EM8500 onboard.
And that the DVD-ROM is connected via the IDE port?
I would put my money that the set of pins on the side of the board are for a standard PC/104 riser card (i.e. ethernet) -- not to mention the serial port that is internal to the box.
*THIS* is a perfect starting point for the "Linux Media Center." Why not add ethernet.. and another HD?
Unless it does this already (I didn't read the review, I hate Tom. I just look at pretty pictures.) - This thing is just waiting for transcode and some other software to be scripted together--stick a normal DVD in the drive, press a button on your remote control--bingo. DVD -> DIVX, stored on the internal HD, accessible via the network.
I would love a box like this with a HD added, connected to a P2P network. Search, download, right to the box. Oh, and replace DVD-ROM with DVD-RW; all of my friends will want copies of the movies I've stolen--or purchased if the MPAA gets their shit together.:P
Even if Microsoft were to attempt to pull Mono, they would wait until it is deeply entrenched into the Linux community and knowledge of C#/.NET itself is widespread among us before doing so.
They could look at this as free marketing, because I didn't give a damn about.NET until word of Linux/Mono came around.
When a market comes to a point where every product is nearly the same (MP3 players, automobiles, cell phones, PCs).. the only thing left to set yourself apart from competition are aesthetics.
Slashdot Mirror
CD-Rs use an organic dye which reacts to the recording laser in a CD-R burner, causing it to melt and pit--it then becomes non-translucent and the reading laser is refracted when it attempts to read those portions of the disc.
:P
There are several known cases of bacteria and fungus attacking this organic dye, not including the obvious danger that heat and sunlight pose to it.
"Regular" CDs use a polycarbonate substrate instead which is literally stamped into the CD during an injection moulding process. THIS is a mechanical change, giving the advantage that a stamped CD could very well last 50-200 years, whereas a burned CD-R that is not hermetically sealed will be lucky to last 10-20.
It seems that what we need is an inorganic hybrid of a stamping machine and a CD-R burner, something that can (using a much more powerful laser) physically inscribe the bits into a polycarbonate-like material. The nice thing about a technology like this being adopted, is that the firmware could be modified to allow the same machine to create CDs, DVDs, and whatever else they throw at us within that form-factor. Even better would be the ability to come up with your own (Open Source?) disc data storage format.
Anyone want to play devil's advocate on that idea? Apart from cost, I could see consumables and waste being an issue.
Jason Fisher
If SCSI is pronounced "scuzzy."
.. "Sassy."
:P
And the full acronym for "Serial attached SCSI" is SASCSI..
How exactly would we pronounce that? Sacksie? Sasky? Oh God, I bet it will be a silent C.
Yay, my computer iss really sspeedy now that I've upgraded to the new SSSASSSSSY DRIVE !@#!@^#^$^$#!
Jason Fisher.
China and India have been at the forefront of biogas power production for decades.
In 1979, China had an estimated 7.2 million biogas plants, fueled primarily by pig manure.
In the same year, India had 80,000 of its own biogas plants fueled by the defecation of the sacred cow. (Holy Shit!)
They've even been doing this in the US for quite some time. Here is another article that provides an excellent explanation of the process, costs, and capabilities of such a system.
In the year 2000, face recognition has all but demolished the epidemic of cheap friends borrowing cell phones to "check in." On the bad side, your complete vanity has you subscribing to the "face of the month" face transplant club, forcing you to spend several hours each month convincing the phone company that you are NOT a thief, just incredibly shallow.
Innovation is down because the innovators are too busy freaking out over how they will pay their mortgage. As soon as the general populace is no longer preoccupied by trying to survive, innovation will continue. However, it is a nasty catch-22.
:P
(For reference, please see the Dark Ages and the Renaissance.)
Jason Fisher
Being a developer for nearly 10 years, I will forever make the statement that coding is NOT like manufacturing.
:P
It is not like building a house; you are not limited by your physical abilities.
It is not like building a car; you are not limited by available manufacturing facilities, techniques, materials and the like.
It is a science and possibly more importantly, an art. You are limited only by your creativity, logic and problem-solving ability.
Having spent 3 months in India last year, they still have a long ways to go. Thousands upon thousands of development firms in a single city, yet out of the couple of dozen I visited, nearly half were asking--no, begging me to train and teach coding practices to their developers and managers alike.
Having worked with a few Indian firms, I can tell you that it is definitely no cake-walk/easy-out for companies looking to "reduce their overhead." A logistical nightmare, you need someone to collaborate with them daily (or nightly as it may be) -- as you slowly watch them piece together an application over the course of several months, wading through their relatively broken English, only for you to throw half of it out at the end, rewriting it yourself. What? You mean it's taken twice as long for them to do it than us? But wait- why didn't we just write it ourselves to begin with? Oh, right- we thought it would be cheaper this way.
To Corporate America: Most of you never needed dedicated development teams. If you really want to save money, you should be looking locally for development houses on contract. There's a very good chance it will not only be cheaper, but of higher quality than the total cost of doing business either internally or offshore.
Instead of worrying about what everyone else is doing while we cry over the thought that we may lose business to overseas developers, let's spend that energy on education and figuring out how to improve the *quality* of our developers.
Given the knowledge and skill, one developer CAN do the work of ten. No question. And this is how we, through the economies of scale, will remain a viable option for American industry.
Jason Fisher
They are ghost towns because we, the arcade generation, are now in our 20s and 30s, and the children born into gaming more recently are faced with the fact that technology in arcades was already near or behind their home PC or console.
.. ?
:P
Without our nostalgia and memories, what's left for them? A few decent games here and there, most of which they already have at home?
But now this brings another opportunity to the equation: with this machine, the sole value that Microsoft wants is that of advertisement. This coupled with the opportunity mix an arcade and a computer/game/netcafe, and you've found yourself the symbiotic mix that just may be the shot-in-the-arm the industry has been waiting for, and their ticket to the mainstream once more. Did I mention XBox Live?
Do not confuse this arcade market to that which our nostalgia holds so dear. Our nostalgia has been franchised, coupled with decent food and alcohol and placed against a mainstream soundtrack partially designed to insight and trigger the memories we're searching for; enter GameWorks, Dave & Busters, and the like--where the concept of an arcade follows the market which gave it life.
You don't suppose that in another 30-40 years our offspring will be loving enough to atleast place us in retirement homes with Galaga, Robotron and Tetris
Jason Fisher
"Or maybe they should think about picking up Britney Spears now that Pepsi has dropped her for Shakira..."
From what I understand, Britney Spears left Pepsi for coke.
Don't forget that massive antialiasing and multiple effects mean each frame will have anywhere from 4-16 passes.
It's a shame that the PS2 has no hard drive. That's their problem, live with it.
Sorry, but if it can't play DIVX at 640-720 resolution, I don't want any part in it.
320 or what-not just doesn't cut it.
I would have to agree with you. It's easy to place blame here in concept, but I would bet this a case of "They don't make 'em like they used to."
Those older, bulky PCs with their huge transistors--wait, that's starting to sound a little more rugged than my 6-9 month shelf-life desktop PC that was built as cheaply as possible.
Does that mean PAL games can run faster? :P
Is that Doom 3 pixel shading engine frustrating you again?
Breathe.
Someone please mod that up! Jennifer is right on the money there.
I only smoke weed when I need to
And I need to get some rest
I confess, I burnt a hole in the mattress
Yes, yes, it was me, I plead guilty
And on the count of three I pull back the duvet
Make my way to the refrigerator
One dry potato inside, no lie
Not even bread, jam
When the light above my head went bam!
I can't sleep, something's all over me
Greasy, insomnia please release me
And let me dream about making mad love on the heath
Tearing off tights with my teeth
But there's no relief
I'm wide awake in my kitchen
It's dark and I'm lonely
Oh, if I could only get some sleep
Creeky noises make my skin creep
I need to get some sleep
I can't get no sleep....
Seriously. 1991 XBox with PC technology would be absurd. Commodore, however, did this with the Amiga--it actually shares many similarities to the XBox/PC relationship.
Over 200,000 CD32 units were sold worldwide (100,000 in UK alone) - as compared to 3DO, which only sold a bit over 100,000 worldwide. It took some balls for Amiga to move on that, but unfortunately Commodore went under not too long afterwards. It sold for $399 in the US when it was released.
http://www.cd32.com/
Commodore Amiga CD32 Press Release Follows:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Commodore Business Machines, Inc.
Marketing and PR Department
(610) 431-9478
--== Amiga CD32® Launched in U.S. at Intermedia ==--
(San Jose, CA - March 1, 1994) Commodore Business Machines, Inc. today
announced at Intermedia the availability of the Amiga CD32 game machine
in the United States
"The CD32 will be available this spring at mall-based software stores,
regional electronics stores, and Amiga dealers throughout the US," says
John DiLullo, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Commordore
Business Machines, Inc. "We are bundling three excellant games with
the CD32: Pinball Fantasies by 21st Century, Wing Commander by Electronic
Arts, and Oscar from Microvalue Flair," DiLullo added," and offering a
special price on Psygnosis' Microcosm."
First launched in Europe this past fall, Commodore reports to have sold
over 100,000 units in Europe in just three months prior to Christmas. By
outselling Sega four to one and claiming 38 market share of all CD ROM
drives sold in the UK (according to the Gallup Weekly Report), the Amiga
CD32 has established itself as the undisputed leader of the 32 bit
machines.
Electronic Gaming Monthly agrees by rating the CD32 higher than Sega CD,
3DO or Jaguar. At a suggested retail price of just $399, the Amiga CD32
features an unbeatable combination of power and affordability.
"We challenge anyone to show us a better multimedia player at a better
price," says Lew Eggebrecht, Vice President of Engineering for Commodore
International.
"With 50 titles available today and 100 expected by first ship in the
U.S., the Amiga CD32 has wide support among the software development
community," says John Campbell, Director of Applications and Technical
Support for Commodore International. "The success we have had in Europe
has convinced publishers to invest in creating revolutionary new titles
for the Amiga CD32," Campbell added.
The Amiga CD32 features a 32 bit Motorola 68EC020 Microprocessor with
2MB of memory, 16.7 million colors, and a double speed CD ROM drive built
in. The CD32 will play audio CDs, most CDTV discs, and CD32 discs. With
the addition of an optional MPEG-1 full motion video module, the CD32 can
play MPEG VideoCDs, MovieCDs and Karaoke CDs with up to 74 minytes of
better-than-VHS quality video and CD quality audio on a single disc.
The suggested retail price of the MPEG module is $249.
"The CD ROM drive in the CD32 is a fully multisession compatible Mode 1,
Mode 2 Form 1, and Mode 2 Form 2 drive," says Jeffrey Porter, Director,
Advanced Technology for Commodore International. "With optional
software, the CD32 can read Kodak® PhotoCD discs," Porter added.
Commodore Business Machines, Inc. based in West Chester, PA is the U.S.
subsidary of Commodore Internatrinal Limited. The company manufactures
and markets a complete line of Amiga computers and peripherals for the
business, consumer, educational, and vertical markets. The company's
worldwide installed user base of Amiga computers is approximately 5
million units.
Notice the quote at the bottom of ./ today. ;)
Great! Too bad Nintendo didn't realize that they were fucking their own sister by including that mini-DVD crap.
Yes, I agree. Tom is a complete idiot.
But back to reality: for not much more money, you will have a PC that has similar capability, but poorer outputs -- oh, and it will look like ABSOLUTE TRASH.
The most expensive part of taking commodity hardware and making a dedicated device out of it *is the case* -- I want a sleek case that I can mount next to my thousands of dollars of other shiny boxes, not some fucking mini-tower with a neon light hanging out the side. Christ.
Screw incompatible ways, they could easily make new firmware available off of their website--that you download, burn onto a CD, and stick into your drive. Auto-update. Bingo. Done.
We need to be encouraging companies that have the balls to take steps like this.
As has been pointed out, this thing does run Linux.. It also has a REALmagic EM8500 onboard.
:P
And that the DVD-ROM is connected via the IDE port?
I would put my money that the set of pins on the side of the board are for a standard PC/104 riser card (i.e. ethernet) -- not to mention the serial port that is internal to the box.
*THIS* is a perfect starting point for the "Linux Media Center." Why not add ethernet.. and another HD?
Unless it does this already (I didn't read the review, I hate Tom. I just look at pretty pictures.) - This thing is just waiting for transcode and some other software to be scripted together--stick a normal DVD in the drive, press a button on your remote control--bingo. DVD -> DIVX, stored on the internal HD, accessible via the network.
I would love a box like this with a HD added, connected to a P2P network. Search, download, right to the box. Oh, and replace DVD-ROM with DVD-RW; all of my friends will want copies of the movies I've stolen--or purchased if the MPAA gets their shit together.
Yeah, I agree with "specialized_sporks." --You don't know what the hell you're talking about.
:P
Gamma rays, shmamma rays. And what the hell is a "meter" anyway?
Even if Microsoft were to attempt to pull Mono, they would wait until it is deeply entrenched into the Linux community and knowledge of C#/.NET itself is widespread among us before doing so.
.NET until word of Linux/Mono came around.
They could look at this as free marketing, because I didn't give a damn about
Jason Fisher
When a market comes to a point where every product is nearly the same (MP3 players, automobiles, cell phones, PCs) .. the only thing left to set yourself apart from competition are aesthetics.
Grievance for women?
Only on one condition:
Natalie Portman.