for any data problem, there's a hierarchical representation that is simple, clear, practical and wrong
Most knowledge workers stop once they get to clear and practical, or sometimes just clear. Once you have simple, clear, and practical, it's time to whip out the video games. The real world consists entirely of an incredible number of quantum particles interacting in ways that are yet unknown; all data is inherently a simplification.
I'm by no means an expert, but if I'm not hearing any sound, doesn't that mean that my inner ear isn't vibrating? Unless there is some kind of inaudible high or low-frequency sound in the source noise, it seems like cancelling the pressure changes would be effective. I'd worry that the system might fail for some reason though.
It's pretty much obvious if you examine the history and apply some economics. Modern consumer technology products generally aren't made from expensive raw materials; rather, the companies which sell them incur substantial research, development, and capital costs (to build the sophisticated factories necessary to produce them). In economic terms, the marginal cost is small and the startup cost is high.
Upon startup, supply is naturally very limited due to production ramps and such, while demand is high among a relatively small group of enthusiasts. Thus, prices of new tech products are high upon release. This is true of processors, RAM, GPUs, etc. It's not that the marginal cost of the new product is any higher than that of the old one; it's simply that a supply-demand calculation shows that the high prices will be the most profitable. Over time, the enthusiasts start to run out and your factory is producing more product for the same small cost in raw materials. As the supply-demand situation shifts, the most profitable price declines sharply. That's why you can buy a DVD player at Wal-Mart for $50 now.
To bring this back to the PS3, Sony has decided that a synergy exists between their Blu-Ray movie format and the PS3 game format, so they are shipping the PS3 with Blu-Ray despite its current, inconvenient place at the top of this price curve. Sony isn't as worried about the PS3 price as some would expect because they don't yet have enough for the enthusiasts anyway and they can cut the price later.
Your example of music CDs and DVDs is irrelevant because the creation of new albums and movies requires an ongoing infusion of development money, whereas the Blu-Ray R&D is a one-time expense. A better example would be the price of a CD-R; I remember when they were $20 each.
It's pretty much well-known that Sony is going to be selling PS3s for below-cost for a while, but that doesn't make them a particularly great deal from a consumer's point of view.
There's nothing about a Blu-Ray player that is particularly expensive to produce, and that $1,000 price is a completely artificial one designed to appeal to early adopters. I certainly question their sanity; in mere months, the price will be less than $300. The ability to play the handful of released Blu-Ray titles in the meantime cannot possibly be worth $700, and barebones players will probably be $150 within a year or so.
You are a complete asshole, and there is no jurisdiction in the world where your warped understanding of the meaning of "legal tender" is remotely true. I'm sure you've bullied people into agreeing with you, but it's no secret that underpaid bus drivers are unlikely to argue with the occasional violent asshole who demands a free ride. Your rationalization of this crime isn't really particularly creative, and nobody believes it but you. Spend that $50 on an anger management counseling session.
It doesn't matter what people want to run. Office 2000 is just an example of generic productivity software from more than five years ago. Linux running OpenOffice on 256MB is going to be pretty crappy too.
The point is that the plant is trying to claim the PS3 is as powerful as a high-end desktop computer, when it isn't up to snuff with the mid-range computers of three years ago.
Well, no. They only do 4 episodes a week, so it's about 16 episodes per month at the most. However, they don't make new shows every week either, so the average per month is more like 13, making the cost a bit less than $10. Many of your other shows listed don't do nearly that many episodes, so they come out cheaper per month.
Compared to Tivo, there are some advantages -- it's easy to archive to a (data) DVD, and easier to put on an iPod. Overall, it makes the most sense if you don't watch enough TV to justify the cost of cable and a Tivo but still want to watch a couple shows.
Given that it will cost you $1000 to build an XBox360 with something approaching the same features
Nice. Is this the $400 one with a $600 Blu-Ray player duct-taped to it?
all those peripherals you shell out for won't be used for the games anyway because they have to target the standard system
Wait... so why did I shell out $600 extra over the purchase price? Whoops!
It has a full installation of Linux native, will browse the web, play music, and allow you to code on it
Your friends need to take a look back on the PS2 release, when we were told the exact same things. It's amazing the way that everyone has forgotten PS2 Linux, when it was so horrible. I guess it didn't matter that it was horrible, since it wasn't useful in the first place.
it's more powerful than a $2500 high end PC for $600
Whoops, my bad -- you're a plant. Dude, the PS3 has 256MB of RAM, and this is not upgradeable. You can't run Office 2000 on that crap.
A good university degree should help you to learn and reason
I live right next to a university, so I see college graduates everywhere. I try to tip them well...
Seriously, while some people learn how to learn and reason from their university experience, I'd hardly consider it the general case. In particular, those who are self-taught may find the real educational advantages to be minimal. The social and networking advantages are usually more tangible. That's why I have a problem with:
In some jobs, especially in larger companies, there's a ceiling, you can't be promoted above a certain level without a degree.
This is a trend we need to resist (not that you are wrong for saying so). As the cost of a university education increases, it's turning into a new class barrier. We need to harness those who are smart and capable, not those who have the wealthiest parents or those who are willing to enslave themselves to a bank. Otherwise, the costs of education will continue to rise, and it will become more difficult to compete with the emerging skilled labor force in China and India.
Everyone seems to be forgetting the real reason software sucks: all the developers are reading Slashdot instead of coding. Get back to work, you slackers!
Oh, you don't need to get so close if all you need is a few thousand gees. And besides, you'd want a relatively small hole, something that could dissipate itself via Hawking radiation if containment failed.
Well, all you need to do to fix that is to use a small black hole as your centripetal force. As all matter experiences gravitation equally, the body's structure wouldn't experience centrifugal stress.
Look at all the trouble Apple went through to make getting songs off the iPod and onto a 'new' system impossible.
Not true; Apple didn't do anything at all to prevent this, they just didn't write software to do it. The files are stored on the iPod in their original form, but with a database index as the name. The database isn't at all difficult to read.
created the trinity of Console/PC/and Handheld gaming
Oh, I get it!
Console - the Father; remember that the first mainstream electronic games were not PCs in any sense. Handheld - the Son, birthed from the console. PC - the Holy Ghost, naturally... because it's DEAD.
While it's great to use MiB to clarify things and create consistency, you shouldn't assume without checking that any given device is quoted in binary units, particularly when the device isn't RAM. In particular, the floppies you mention are 1440 KiB, or 1.41 MiB, or in metric units 1.47 MB. The quoted "1.44MB" actually mixed both standards, if you can believe that.
I have the same deal the article author does: too many games, not enough time, never finish anything. I don't see what the problem is, though. Knowing that there is more to do in a game, if I ever had time to do it, doesn't make me enjoy playing it any less. If I was really obsessed with completionism, I'd buy fewer games, but I've never felt a strong need to get every medal or unlock everything or whatever. I just enjoy the game until I'm not enjoying it anymore, and then I switch to something else.
Of course, these days I have money for games but not enough time to play everything as much as I'd like. In my college days, I had plenty of time but no money, so I played fewer games for longer. I think I get more out of gaming now, though.
There is no standard for media player integration, unless you consider the Dock Connector a de facto standard. If all you want is the sound, the iPod has a standard minijack connector and pins for line-out, but it's not "integration" if all you're getting is sound. There isn't a standard, USB or otherwise, for selecting playlists and all the other things that people want to do in their cars.
Slashdot Mirror
I'll tell you why it lags so badly. Dirty secret of PS3 Linux: 256MB of RAM. Even the cheapest Dell desktop has 512 these days.
well made and well-priced
I also remember when a 386 cost $8,000. Sure, it would last, but you'd throw it away after a few years anyway.
I much prefer a Pentium 4 for $800. Thank god for Asia.
for any data problem, there's a hierarchical representation that is simple, clear, practical and wrong
Most knowledge workers stop once they get to clear and practical, or sometimes just clear. Once you have simple, clear, and practical, it's time to whip out the video games. The real world consists entirely of an incredible number of quantum particles interacting in ways that are yet unknown; all data is inherently a simplification.
I'm by no means an expert, but if I'm not hearing any sound, doesn't that mean that my inner ear isn't vibrating? Unless there is some kind of inaudible high or low-frequency sound in the source noise, it seems like cancelling the pressure changes would be effective. I'd worry that the system might fail for some reason though.
John Kerry, is that you?
It's pretty much obvious if you examine the history and apply some economics. Modern consumer technology products generally aren't made from expensive raw materials; rather, the companies which sell them incur substantial research, development, and capital costs (to build the sophisticated factories necessary to produce them). In economic terms, the marginal cost is small and the startup cost is high.
Upon startup, supply is naturally very limited due to production ramps and such, while demand is high among a relatively small group of enthusiasts. Thus, prices of new tech products are high upon release. This is true of processors, RAM, GPUs, etc. It's not that the marginal cost of the new product is any higher than that of the old one; it's simply that a supply-demand calculation shows that the high prices will be the most profitable. Over time, the enthusiasts start to run out and your factory is producing more product for the same small cost in raw materials. As the supply-demand situation shifts, the most profitable price declines sharply. That's why you can buy a DVD player at Wal-Mart for $50 now.
To bring this back to the PS3, Sony has decided that a synergy exists between their Blu-Ray movie format and the PS3 game format, so they are shipping the PS3 with Blu-Ray despite its current, inconvenient place at the top of this price curve. Sony isn't as worried about the PS3 price as some would expect because they don't yet have enough for the enthusiasts anyway and they can cut the price later.
Your example of music CDs and DVDs is irrelevant because the creation of new albums and movies requires an ongoing infusion of development money, whereas the Blu-Ray R&D is a one-time expense. A better example would be the price of a CD-R; I remember when they were $20 each.
It's pretty much well-known that Sony is going to be selling PS3s for below-cost for a while, but that doesn't make them a particularly great deal from a consumer's point of view.
There's nothing about a Blu-Ray player that is particularly expensive to produce, and that $1,000 price is a completely artificial one designed to appeal to early adopters. I certainly question their sanity; in mere months, the price will be less than $300. The ability to play the handful of released Blu-Ray titles in the meantime cannot possibly be worth $700, and barebones players will probably be $150 within a year or so.
You are a complete asshole, and there is no jurisdiction in the world where your warped understanding of the meaning of "legal tender" is remotely true. I'm sure you've bullied people into agreeing with you, but it's no secret that underpaid bus drivers are unlikely to argue with the occasional violent asshole who demands a free ride. Your rationalization of this crime isn't really particularly creative, and nobody believes it but you. Spend that $50 on an anger management counseling session.
It doesn't matter what people want to run. Office 2000 is just an example of generic productivity software from more than five years ago. Linux running OpenOffice on 256MB is going to be pretty crappy too.
The point is that the plant is trying to claim the PS3 is as powerful as a high-end desktop computer, when it isn't up to snuff with the mid-range computers of three years ago.
Well, no. They only do 4 episodes a week, so it's about 16 episodes per month at the most. However, they don't make new shows every week either, so the average per month is more like 13, making the cost a bit less than $10. Many of your other shows listed don't do nearly that many episodes, so they come out cheaper per month.
Compared to Tivo, there are some advantages -- it's easy to archive to a (data) DVD, and easier to put on an iPod. Overall, it makes the most sense if you don't watch enough TV to justify the cost of cable and a Tivo but still want to watch a couple shows.
Given that it will cost you $1000 to build an XBox360 with something approaching the same features
Nice. Is this the $400 one with a $600 Blu-Ray player duct-taped to it?
all those peripherals you shell out for won't be used for the games anyway because they have to target the standard system
Wait... so why did I shell out $600 extra over the purchase price? Whoops!
It has a full installation of Linux native, will browse the web, play music, and allow you to code on it
Your friends need to take a look back on the PS2 release, when we were told the exact same things. It's amazing the way that everyone has forgotten PS2 Linux, when it was so horrible. I guess it didn't matter that it was horrible, since it wasn't useful in the first place.
it's more powerful than a $2500 high end PC for $600
Whoops, my bad -- you're a plant. Dude, the PS3 has 256MB of RAM, and this is not upgradeable. You can't run Office 2000 on that crap.
In fact, the researchers in the article are using strands of what's known as deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, to peform computations.
t m is a good link to explain how it works, double helixes and all.
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/dna-computer1.h
You are, quite simply, completely and utterly wrong. There is no way around it.
(Score, -1: did not even attempt to sniff at TFA from a distance)
I think it's partially intended as a hint about what a future without network neutrality might be like.
You've obviously never played The Sims.
A good university degree should help you to learn and reason
I live right next to a university, so I see college graduates everywhere. I try to tip them well...
Seriously, while some people learn how to learn and reason from their university experience, I'd hardly consider it the general case. In particular, those who are self-taught may find the real educational advantages to be minimal. The social and networking advantages are usually more tangible. That's why I have a problem with:
In some jobs, especially in larger companies, there's a ceiling, you can't be promoted above a certain level without a degree.
This is a trend we need to resist (not that you are wrong for saying so). As the cost of a university education increases, it's turning into a new class barrier. We need to harness those who are smart and capable, not those who have the wealthiest parents or those who are willing to enslave themselves to a bank. Otherwise, the costs of education will continue to rise, and it will become more difficult to compete with the emerging skilled labor force in China and India.
Everyone seems to be forgetting the real reason software sucks: all the developers are reading Slashdot instead of coding. Get back to work, you slackers!
Oh, you don't need to get so close if all you need is a few thousand gees. And besides, you'd want a relatively small hole, something that could dissipate itself via Hawking radiation if containment failed.
Well, all you need to do to fix that is to use a small black hole as your centripetal force. As all matter experiences gravitation equally, the body's structure wouldn't experience centrifugal stress.
Look at all the trouble Apple went through to make getting songs off the iPod and onto a 'new' system impossible.
Not true; Apple didn't do anything at all to prevent this, they just didn't write software to do it. The files are stored on the iPod in their original form, but with a database index as the name. The database isn't at all difficult to read.
What do you think were the first mainstream electronic games? I nominate Pong; things that were played by hackers on university minis don't count.
created the trinity of Console/PC/and Handheld gaming
Oh, I get it!
Console - the Father; remember that the first mainstream electronic games were not PCs in any sense.
Handheld - the Son, birthed from the console.
PC - the Holy Ghost, naturally... because it's DEAD.
We should all stick with 1.44 MiB floppies.
While it's great to use MiB to clarify things and create consistency, you shouldn't assume without checking that any given device is quoted in binary units, particularly when the device isn't RAM. In particular, the floppies you mention are 1440 KiB, or 1.41 MiB, or in metric units 1.47 MB. The quoted "1.44MB" actually mixed both standards, if you can believe that.
I have the same deal the article author does: too many games, not enough time, never finish anything. I don't see what the problem is, though. Knowing that there is more to do in a game, if I ever had time to do it, doesn't make me enjoy playing it any less. If I was really obsessed with completionism, I'd buy fewer games, but I've never felt a strong need to get every medal or unlock everything or whatever. I just enjoy the game until I'm not enjoying it anymore, and then I switch to something else.
Of course, these days I have money for games but not enough time to play everything as much as I'd like. In my college days, I had plenty of time but no money, so I played fewer games for longer. I think I get more out of gaming now, though.
There is no standard for media player integration, unless you consider the Dock Connector a de facto standard. If all you want is the sound, the iPod has a standard minijack connector and pins for line-out, but it's not "integration" if all you're getting is sound. There isn't a standard, USB or otherwise, for selecting playlists and all the other things that people want to do in their cars.