Hmm, seems like you are right. I had thought the SNES was released a bit earlier. Technically there were games still being released into 1998, but AFAICT they don't really count (being re-releases).
OTOH, the 90's were definitely dominated by the SNES, and the N64 wasn't that big of a seller. Actual supported dates though are as you say.
Dead On Arrival. See 3DO, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, N64, XBOX, N-Gage, etc. Granted the latter portion of that list has a few really good games each... but they don't have the libraries of triple-A titles that the NES, SNES, PSX, and PS2 do.
Usually these platforms are picked up by people who have no real clue, or delude themselves into thinking this will somehow really be the next big thing.
Nah... there are so many (good) games for consoles, that you'll probably not ever have time for them all. I think I've managed to play most of the best for the SNES. I have many PSX and PS2 games (over 50 each as of last counting), and I've barely had time to scratch the surface of them. And there are many, many more for both of those platforms that I don't have. Probably a good thousand hours of play time for each platform, and that's quite a lot of gaming-hours.
Plus, if you don't have the financial ability to keep up, you can always stay behind a generation, and pick up all the good stuff at a very low price.
I just shelled out 200 for a playstation 2 late last year. I can't afford to go buying another game console every 2-3 years. I know technology is racing ahead so fast the a console is already obslete by the time it hits the market but would it really hurt if a company stuck to an obslete console for 5-7 years.
Sorry, but if you're just buying a PS2, then you're a latecomer. That was the end of 2002, and these were out in 2000. The PS3 isn't scheduled to be out til 2005 or 2006. These things do stick around for 5-7 years.
I mean, whose going to remember a console in ten years if it was only out 3 years before ti was discontinued? Stick with one console, build up a decent library for it, and actually work on a few good games for that console rather than the eyecandy we get now.
The SNES was dominant for well over a decade. You can buy them for a reasonable price and find games used for cheap in shops. PS1 games are still just as available and just as good as they always were. PS2 games will be around for an equivalent amount of time. (They were still making PS1 games even for the US market up until very recently.)
I can't keep buying consoles like this. I don't many can. And why shoudl I* buy the comapnies latest console, when if I just continue to save my money, I'll be able to afford the next model 3 years later.
Oh, stop whining. If you're just getting a PS2 end of 2002/beginning of 2003, you're sure as heck not someone who buys all the new stuff when it comes out. You probably won't have a PS3 until it's on its third generation, so that's a good 6 years right there.
Cost of console = n + $100 where n equals the prices of the console this one renders obselete.
This is an obvious troll. Anyone who really plays games doesn't toss their old consoles just because a new one comes out. I have a NES, N64, PS1, PS2, Cube, and GBA. I can still play games on any of them. There are many, many games I don't have for all of them. Obsolescence is something for PC's, not consoles.
(Unless of course you buy a DOA console that doesn't go anywhere. And that's just buyer cluelessness.)
It's a constant factor. You need a display device for your PC, too. What's the cost of a 60" 16:9 LCD? Oh yeah, they don't make them.
You could get a data projector starting at $1200, but the bulb replacement costs are going to kill you. And the image isn't all that great, especially in the low-end models.
It heavily depends on what you can do with it besides playing games. Ever tried to write a letter with a PS2? Or run a database?
Actually, I would argue this. In fact, I'd argue that getting a console makes more sense for most people:
Buy a PS2 for $179
Buy a lower-end PC for $500
vs
Buy a higher-end gaming PC for $3000
Which makes more sense? The only time this is not the case is if you're a developer or something who actually needs a lot of power out of a box, not just surfing, writing letters, and maybe hosting your site.
Besides, you could run OpenOffice.org or something on the PS2, although granted it's unlikely. Poeople seem to have something against using a box that looks like it's for games to do "serious work".
No, modding the XBOX to run Linux does not count.
And just why is that?
Truth is, it is silly to buy a PC just to play games. But the PC will still be with you a few years from now. And it might even be useful. And you can do more with it than with a console.
The average lifespan of a console (5-6 years) is much longer than the average lifespan of your average PC (2-3 years). If you're gaming on your PC, make that 6 months to one year. Those $500 graphics card upgrades will buy you 10 newly-released console games.
[snipped same-for-PDAs, PocketPC costs 3x more]
And those devices can also play games.
And mostly crappy ones, at that. The point of a game console is the games. It's not "oh, it can play games, technically, if someone wrote them" or "it's got faster, shinier graphics", it's "it's got better games".
But can the GBA store your appointments?
Yes it does. You'd be suprised what you can do with the GBA. Just go search google for the various PogoShell plugins that have been written.
I dunno if anyone saw this or cares, but I used my (lack of) GIMP skills to make some borg/SCO icons at the request of KilobyteKnight... it just got posted late so I don't know if anyone saw it.
Does anyone own a Zaurus? How useful are they really?
I own a Zaurus SL-5500: the "original" US market unit (as opposed to the original developer's unit, the SL-5000, which was basically the same thing with half the RAM). I'll say this: you can have it... when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
Two reasons it rocks:
The keyboard. The primary reason this is 10x more efficient than (most) palm devices: I can type very quickly on the build-in "hidden" keyboard. Yes, the Zaurus has something like PalmOS's Graffiti. In fact, the Z's recognizer is more sophisticated and accurate, and can learn any strokes you teach it. I still use the keyboard.
Linux. No, I do not use my Z as a "hacking tool" or "geek toy" primarily. I've written a test app for it or so, but that's it. (Doing so is incredibly easy, actually, but I haven't had a lot of time to spend on it.) I bought my Zaurus as a PDA, and that's what I use it for. Since I use Linux exclusively on the desktop, having it on the PDA is extremely natural, not to mention making things extremely flexible. I find syncing silly. I prefer ssh, scp, or (with the newer ROM) smbclient (which is like a braindead ftp, but it works). If I needed syncing, I would use rsync. It just fits very naturally into my work environment.
Some people complain about the PIM apps; the quality varies. The Todo List and Address Book aren't great, but I don't use the former and the latter is sufficient. The Text Pad, however, is pretty handy, and Opera (which even renders slashdot well!) and Hancomsheet (a fully-blown spreadsheet!) are killer apps for me.
The only reason I don't upgrade to a CL-760 is the fact I can't justify the cost: my Z works great as-is. With the work on OpenZaurus and Opie, the PIM issues are being solved, and I have little chance of being left with a "dead" platform.
Cell phone networks, FM radio towers and television antennaes could all turn into pieces of cheap and dirty tracking networks that use passive radar [...] for uses such as small airport radar coverage but wild possibilities abound including using cell phone networks to track speeders, terrorists or even individuals walking on city streets.
Note: these will not have any effect if you are wearing your tinfoil hat. In fact, I can sell you one right now for just $19.95 plus S&H.
If you order now, I'll throw in a free pair of tinfoil shoe covers so they can't see where you've been, either.
Prices shown do not include sales tax. Void where prohibited.
There. Case solved. Stop being paranoid about such silly things. If you want to be paranoid, be paranoid that the MPAA might accidentally associate your IP with file sharing even if you don't file share, or be paranoid that John Ashcroft is using the PATRIOT Act or Patriot Act II (to be introduced in Congress soon) to spy on you for reasons unrelated to terrorism (as he has done). Better yet, donate some money to the ACLU to protect your civil liberties or to the EFF to protect your electronic freedoms.
I agree. People need to be far more discerning in their paranoia. If we yell "the sky is falling" everytime someone logs trivial information, no one will listen when we spot the asteroid on a collision-course for our rights. (Like the ones you mention.)
Another example is the rampant and ridiculous tinfoil-hat paranoia surrounding RFID. I don't know why a crowd composed of supposed techie geeks fall for so many obviously wrong urban legends and scare stories. Maybe it's just the vocal minority.
Get a grip, people. You'll need it when things really start to slide.
I've taken the liberty of performing a little editing (i.e. replacing "AMD" with a fictional dot-com "Handtasia"...how much does this sound like something we've heard oh so many times before...
So you argue that this is dot-com vaporware, because by replacing key terms with a fictional and cheap-sounding words, it looks like dot-com vaporware?;-) You realize this is like the textbook definition of a Straw Man argument right?
Well, there will always be virus authors, it's like banning weapons: you're only taking away from those who get things through legitimate means.
Think what this would ban: bug tracking and security lists, compilers, assemblers, debuggers, hex editors, etc. These are how viruses get written.
However, if the public doesn't have access to any of this (particularly security tracking lists), then antivirus companies become the one and only legal source for fixes. Presto, huge demand created, which means more legislated profit.
To be honest, I hope it just trashes boot sectors before writing random crap all over the hard drive. That might actually get the message through. All these soft viruses just make people think of it as an inconvenience. When something bad happens, people might just start sitting up and taking notice.
As much as the desire for morbid entertainment in me would like to see this cause some uproar for a week or two, I honestly don't think it will solve anything. Simple history.
Years before 2001/09/11, I heard a number of people say "it'll take some major act of terrorism/violent uprising/etc. to wake them up and change things." I'm sure many of you have heard the same. Well, it happened. It woke people up. And it changed things, too. The problem is those changes weren't good ones.
As others have posted, imagine for instance a worm that slightly altered documents, here and there. A small number, a misspelling, nothing that'd catch notice for awhile. Many places only keep a week or two of backups. Imagine knowing all the documentation you own might be compromised, and you had no recourse.
I can only imagine the laws that would get passed if such a worm got a foothold and wreaked its havoc. And that is not funny or entertaining.
I thought this was going to be something that was cool, like eink. Maybe there's more to this they don't talk about, but I've seen displays that look like this at the local theater.
The ones I've seen look like real-life versions of vertical banner ads (coincidentally enough). Just a big LCD-ish display, whatever the actual technology. They're somewhat eyecatching in that they move, but... when it comes down to it, it's just an ad. Big deal.
Of course, I can think of more interesting uses for the system, if you put them absolutely everywhere and integrated touchscreen capabilities. But animated advertisements in real life are just about as interesting as the sort you find on the web. And you can't filter them either.
When Sony says "3-6 hours" for other "high-end devices" (like their laptops), in reality it's more like an hour or two. The problem is, this will hurt the PSP. It's one thing to carry a power brick with your laptop; it's entirely another to carry one for your pocket game device.
The GBA SP, with light on, easily gets 10 hours. It seems like I rarely ever have to charge mine. If I had to charge every three hours, this would be much different.
It won't stop me from buying one, since I do most of my gaming at home, and it'll probably have a boatload of great games---the main reason for investing in any console---but if they really want to succeed, they should take a good hard look at this.
My own response to the RIAA crackdown was to get a Netflix account, get into fansubs, and swear off CD purchases for life.
So, wait, your answer is to watch more movies? How does that have anything to do with music?
Er, because he's watching movies and not buying/listening to music?
Once again, we have a false analogy that keeps cropping up in these discussions: that a movie and an album of music have anything in common other than general size and shape.
Another falsehood that has cropped up: that this statement has anything to do with what the poster said.
I keep seeing arguments on/. that given $20, people would rather buy a DVD than a CD. Sorry, that's ridiculous! I don't remember the last time I bought a DVD and watched it twice a day for 2 weeks, like I have with some of my more favourite recent albums.
You do know how Netflix works, right? You pay a flat $20/month and get to check out as many DVDs as you want. You can have 3 out at a time (more if you pay more) with no due-date. This means a fairly unlimited supply of new DVDs to watch each month for less than the cost of a single DVD.
Going further, I can't rip a DVD and watch it on my iPod on the subway or while I'm working, movies take up far more of my attention to enjoy them.
This may be true, but obviously the poster is going to be buying a lot fewer CDs every month. Perhaps they don't take music with them everywhere, or listen all the time. (Personally, I just listen to di.fm, and there are numerous other free streams out there.)
Right now they have to assume that a word document is unaltered upon receipt from a client. Now, with DRM, they can guarantee it. They also need to control distribution of documents and readability.
Don't be silly. This can easily be done already. PGP sign and/or encrypt your documents, and your clients can verify they get there intact, and only authorized recipients can read them.
Or did you want your clients not changing them? Wait, same deal applies. You've got the original signature, anyone who gets the document can verify it's in its original state.
Hint: when you give the data to someone, you can't restrict what they do with it. I don't mean it in terms of a rights, just simple physics. Grandiose complex schemes like this one are easy targets; if you rely on them, when they break, you're in trouble. Litigation won't make secrets secret again, or undo damages.
Slashdot Mirror
Hmm, seems like you are right. I had thought the SNES was released a bit earlier. Technically there were games still being released into 1998, but AFAICT they don't really count (being re-releases).
OTOH, the 90's were definitely dominated by the SNES, and the N64 wasn't that big of a seller. Actual supported dates though are as you say.
Dead On Arrival. See 3DO, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, N64, XBOX, N-Gage, etc. Granted the latter portion of that list has a few really good games each... but they don't have the libraries of triple-A titles that the NES, SNES, PSX, and PS2 do.
Usually these platforms are picked up by people who have no real clue, or delude themselves into thinking this will somehow really be the next big thing.
Nah... there are so many (good) games for consoles, that you'll probably not ever have time for them all. I think I've managed to play most of the best for the SNES. I have many PSX and PS2 games (over 50 each as of last counting), and I've barely had time to scratch the surface of them. And there are many, many more for both of those platforms that I don't have. Probably a good thousand hours of play time for each platform, and that's quite a lot of gaming-hours.
Plus, if you don't have the financial ability to keep up, you can always stay behind a generation, and pick up all the good stuff at a very low price.
Sorry, but if you're just buying a PS2, then you're a latecomer. That was the end of 2002, and these were out in 2000. The PS3 isn't scheduled to be out til 2005 or 2006. These things do stick around for 5-7 years.
The SNES was dominant for well over a decade. You can buy them for a reasonable price and find games used for cheap in shops. PS1 games are still just as available and just as good as they always were. PS2 games will be around for an equivalent amount of time. (They were still making PS1 games even for the US market up until very recently.)
Oh, stop whining. If you're just getting a PS2 end of 2002/beginning of 2003, you're sure as heck not someone who buys all the new stuff when it comes out. You probably won't have a PS3 until it's on its third generation, so that's a good 6 years right there.
This is an obvious troll. Anyone who really plays games doesn't toss their old consoles just because a new one comes out. I have a NES, N64, PS1, PS2, Cube, and GBA. I can still play games on any of them. There are many, many games I don't have for all of them. Obsolescence is something for PC's, not consoles.
(Unless of course you buy a DOA console that doesn't go anywhere. And that's just buyer cluelessness.)
This time I really think they've picked a great name.
It's just what I'll say when I think of it.
"XBox? Next!"
(Sorry, but you have to admit they really had that one coming ;-))
It's a constant factor. You need a display device for your PC, too. What's the cost of a 60" 16:9 LCD? Oh yeah, they don't make them.
You could get a data projector starting at $1200, but the bulb replacement costs are going to kill you. And the image isn't all that great, especially in the low-end models.
Actually, I would argue this. In fact, I'd argue that getting a console makes more sense for most people:
vs
Which makes more sense? The only time this is not the case is if you're a developer or something who actually needs a lot of power out of a box, not just surfing, writing letters, and maybe hosting your site.
Besides, you could run OpenOffice.org or something on the PS2, although granted it's unlikely. Poeople seem to have something against using a box that looks like it's for games to do "serious work".
And just why is that?
The average lifespan of a console (5-6 years) is much longer than the average lifespan of your average PC (2-3 years). If you're gaming on your PC, make that 6 months to one year. Those $500 graphics card upgrades will buy you 10 newly-released console games.
And mostly crappy ones, at that. The point of a game console is the games. It's not "oh, it can play games, technically, if someone wrote them" or "it's got faster, shinier graphics", it's "it's got better games".
Yes it does. You'd be suprised what you can do with the GBA. Just go search google for the various PogoShell plugins that have been written.
No.
And that's a feature.
It has drawbacks though... they'll invade your system even if you don't have any.
I dunno if anyone saw this or cares, but I used my (lack of) GIMP skills to make some borg/SCO icons at the request of KilobyteKnight... it just got posted late so I don't know if anyone saw it.
As I said previously, these just differ by filter; I couldn't decide which I liked. Feel free to use them however.
OK, my GIMP skills suck, but I was bored (meaning I had something else to do :-)) and put these together anyhow:
Just different filters; I couldn't decide which one I liked. HTH.
I own a Zaurus SL-5500: the "original" US market unit (as opposed to the original developer's unit, the SL-5000, which was basically the same thing with half the RAM). I'll say this: you can have it... when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
Two reasons it rocks:
Some people complain about the PIM apps; the quality varies. The Todo List and Address Book aren't great, but I don't use the former and the latter is sufficient. The Text Pad, however, is pretty handy, and Opera (which even renders slashdot well!) and Hancomsheet (a fully-blown spreadsheet!) are killer apps for me.
The only reason I don't upgrade to a CL-760 is the fact I can't justify the cost: my Z works great as-is. With the work on OpenZaurus and Opie, the PIM issues are being solved, and I have little chance of being left with a "dead" platform.
So, what do they use to treat Luposlipaphobia?
Note: these will not have any effect if you are wearing your tinfoil hat. In fact, I can sell you one right now for just $19.95 plus S&H. If you order now, I'll throw in a free pair of tinfoil shoe covers so they can't see where you've been, either.
Prices shown do not include sales tax. Void where prohibited.
I agree. People need to be far more discerning in their paranoia. If we yell "the sky is falling" everytime someone logs trivial information, no one will listen when we spot the asteroid on a collision-course for our rights. (Like the ones you mention.)
Another example is the rampant and ridiculous tinfoil-hat paranoia surrounding RFID. I don't know why a crowd composed of supposed techie geeks fall for so many obviously wrong urban legends and scare stories. Maybe it's just the vocal minority.
Get a grip, people. You'll need it when things really start to slide.
You mean like downloading shows and movies from KaZaA?
Can't wait til they get to the IRS. Or the SEC.
So you argue that this is dot-com vaporware, because by replacing key terms with a fictional and cheap-sounding words, it looks like dot-com vaporware? ;-) You realize this is like the textbook definition of a Straw Man argument right?
Just what the world needs. Now instead of getting that one bit of exercise required to find the remote, you can just shift your weight a little.
Well, there will always be virus authors, it's like banning weapons: you're only taking away from those who get things through legitimate means.
Think what this would ban: bug tracking and security lists, compilers, assemblers, debuggers, hex editors, etc. These are how viruses get written.
However, if the public doesn't have access to any of this (particularly security tracking lists), then antivirus companies become the one and only legal source for fixes. Presto, huge demand created, which means more legislated profit.
There's your paranoia for the evening.
As much as the desire for morbid entertainment in me would like to see this cause some uproar for a week or two, I honestly don't think it will solve anything. Simple history.
Years before 2001/09/11, I heard a number of people say "it'll take some major act of terrorism/violent uprising/etc. to wake them up and change things." I'm sure many of you have heard the same. Well, it happened. It woke people up. And it changed things, too. The problem is those changes weren't good ones.
As others have posted, imagine for instance a worm that slightly altered documents, here and there. A small number, a misspelling, nothing that'd catch notice for awhile. Many places only keep a week or two of backups. Imagine knowing all the documentation you own might be compromised, and you had no recourse.
I can only imagine the laws that would get passed if such a worm got a foothold and wreaked its havoc. And that is not funny or entertaining.
I thought this was going to be something that was cool, like eink. Maybe there's more to this they don't talk about, but I've seen displays that look like this at the local theater.
The ones I've seen look like real-life versions of vertical banner ads (coincidentally enough). Just a big LCD-ish display, whatever the actual technology. They're somewhat eyecatching in that they move, but... when it comes down to it, it's just an ad. Big deal.
Of course, I can think of more interesting uses for the system, if you put them absolutely everywhere and integrated touchscreen capabilities. But animated advertisements in real life are just about as interesting as the sort you find on the web. And you can't filter them either.
When Sony says "3-6 hours" for other "high-end devices" (like their laptops), in reality it's more like an hour or two. The problem is, this will hurt the PSP. It's one thing to carry a power brick with your laptop; it's entirely another to carry one for your pocket game device.
The GBA SP, with light on, easily gets 10 hours. It seems like I rarely ever have to charge mine. If I had to charge every three hours, this would be much different.
It won't stop me from buying one, since I do most of my gaming at home, and it'll probably have a boatload of great games---the main reason for investing in any console---but if they really want to succeed, they should take a good hard look at this.
Er, because he's watching movies and not buying/listening to music?
Another falsehood that has cropped up: that this statement has anything to do with what the poster said.
You do know how Netflix works, right? You pay a flat $20/month and get to check out as many DVDs as you want. You can have 3 out at a time (more if you pay more) with no due-date. This means a fairly unlimited supply of new DVDs to watch each month for less than the cost of a single DVD.
This may be true, but obviously the poster is going to be buying a lot fewer CDs every month. Perhaps they don't take music with them everywhere, or listen all the time. (Personally, I just listen to di.fm, and there are numerous other free streams out there.)
Don't be silly. This can easily be done already. PGP sign and/or encrypt your documents, and your clients can verify they get there intact, and only authorized recipients can read them.
Or did you want your clients not changing them? Wait, same deal applies. You've got the original signature, anyone who gets the document can verify it's in its original state.
Hint: when you give the data to someone, you can't restrict what they do with it. I don't mean it in terms of a rights, just simple physics. Grandiose complex schemes like this one are easy targets; if you rely on them, when they break, you're in trouble. Litigation won't make secrets secret again, or undo damages.