There is a small selection of games (compared to PS3 & xbox 360) and generally poorer quality than other console versions. Also it appears less Wii games make it to budget then other consoles too.
We own a Wii and only my son plays it now because the only decent games for it are the LEGO series.
I've gone back to playing games on my PC - we are planning to sell our Wii and buy a different console which will give us more choice and a wider range of games.
It seems Mr Andreesen has $10 million burning a hole in his pocket. That must have been some sales pitch.
Not bad though, mention "Social Web" with your product and it equates to funding.
I'm going to create my new product - The "Social Toilet" - it's a cubicle that everyone can share and allows you to twitter, facebook, search and share your poop. I'm going to need about $10 million to get me started.
And thus the curse of Open Source manifests itself - Develop something to to the virge of usability and robustness...then BAM! "Fuggit" let's start again in a new direction and it will be "better" and spend more years in development wilderness.
The Ubuntu distro is showing great maturity and evolving nicely....then "Fuggit!" let's go a different way and start the integration again!
The n900 Nokia computer, no it's a phone, no it's a computer (ad nauseum). The OS (Maemo) reached good stability and then BAM! Nokia said "Fuggit! We can do this better - let's start an OS called Meego(still not running properly)"
KDE 3 to 4, Gnome 2.x to 3....
"Welcome to the world of Linux and Open Source where everything is in a perpetual state of development and a finished release is just a pipe-dream"
In the UK when anyone questioned immigration policy they were publically branded "racist" by the Labour party and prevented it from being debated. It was a legitimate concern
There's always a reason to curtail people's rights:
Communist witch hunt The Cold war Terrorism Child Pornography
Let's suppose they do start "filtering" content there will always be a way to circumvent it. It comes to a point where if you stand against it you are then branded a "sympathizer" and thus becomes politically incorrect to oppose it.
(In the UK when anyone questioned immigration policy they were publically branded "racist" by the Labour party and prevented it from being debated. It was a legitimate concern)
Unfortunately not nearly enough people question the motives of the Government & their commercial "bed fellows".
First you unleash an insane dictator over most of Europe, encourage David Hasselhoff to keep singing (why?), think bailing out the Euro is a "good thing", produce annoyingly reliable cars and now decide software is patentable.
Anyone (feeling brave enough) can host their own Usenet server - open protocols and that malarky is still possible.
As a massively connected "network" of information and easily understood protocol writing software to parse it is straightforward.
Maybe political pressure is being exerted to shut the Usenet servers down. Media companies are aware of it's existence and will encourage it's extinction ("good luck with that").
Modern BBS-type systems are fine but are self-contained and do not encourage sharing of information (more accurately "replication") of nodes and data.
I don't think Usenet will ever go away - people are still using gopher today and some modern browsers still support it!
As long as the underpinnings of the Internet are open and free then anyone can create there own "protocol" and transmit data. This is a fundemental right of the Internet.
Can you imagine if all this was created by a commercial entity - we just would not have the freedom we have now.
As long as some geeks run and admin their servers - there will always be an open and free way of transmitting data.
Believe me our "governments" and corporate "sponsors" are trying to remove those freedoms.
Yeah, much like your attitude and you live-up to the narky-sterotypical "open source" kid who put people (and businesses) off Linux altogether.
I would love to fix the source myself but two things hold me back: (1) I just do not know enough about wifi & various chipsets to do something about it (2) Unfortunately, I do not have an infinite amount of time to dedicate to the rt2500 problems (I have other obligations in "meat" space - e.g. partner, kids and full-time job)
Unfortunately I have wasted precious moments replying to you post instead.
FWIW: I am extremely grateful to people who develop the Linux kernel, use an open source license and the enormous amount of open-source software (e.g. Linus, Richard Stallman, the "faceless" people that spend their time writing software).
Because of them I am free from my dependency on Windows and actually have a realistic choice.
For me the two biggest problems seems to be wifi & graphics cards.
ATI decided my r300-based card was legacy and discontinued it via the closed-sources drivers. I'm screwed(thankfully the open source drivers are ok but nowhere near as fast).
RT2500 - I could download the source of the serialmonkey drivers and compile them. Great it works fine and did that with every distro upgrade.
Then these drivers were abandoned and all focus is now on the in-kernel version and stability has suffered ever since.
I would have thought the maintainers could have adapted the legacy driver to work with the new kernel - even as a temporary solution.
Then again Linux is a "server" OS and seen that way from the kernel maintainers.
The developers switched to a new driver model because it's "better".
If "better" means once-working wifi chipset becomes grossly unstable, previous drivers are considered "legacy" hence will not compile on kernels later that 2.6.29 and current drivers are as stable as a "one-legged man playing football".
A few years later and 2.6.34 is released - is it working yet?
Considering the RT2500 chipset is present many wifi products the current state of "stability" is woefully inadequate.
(and don't get me started on f***ed up i845 drivers for xorg! - worked fine under previous kernels & xorg an update later by both - graphics performance royally screwed and many crashes)
Apart from that - happy Linux user for over 10 years!
So at every juncture Google will be connected to everything?
Potentially access the interner via a Goggle ISP, accessing Google DNS, using Google search, communicating via Google email, using Goole chat and Google Buzz with my friends.
Am I being paranoid or will my privacy become a moot point?
I do use Google search and gmail on a regular basis and it's also free of charge. In return they use my data - cannot complain about that.
If it really bothered me I can use alternatives.
I think it is commendable that Google are willing to roll-out fibre (in the USA only at the moment) and improve the technology.
But "holy crap" that is an expensive undertaking! I read about this somewhere else and I think Google were going to charge a "competitive" fee for access.
Broadband in the UK now largely sucks arse because the cost of improving/replacing existing lines is very expensive. No company is willing to take the risk so Google stepping forward ideally is a "good thing".
However, if they can guarantee the same rights some other ISPs in the UK then great and I am willing to pay for it. If Google want to analyse all my packets of data and use it to advertise stuff to me then I'm not so sure I will like this development.
Entities like Phorm, BT, Virgin & Tiscali (Talk Talk) are more than happy to follow the UK Government's / music industry's lead on intrusive surveillance. That's why I refuse to use thier services.
If Google want to lay down infrastructure then that's fine - as long as I have a choice to do otherwise.
This is mainly due to Eric Schmidt's comments on your expected privacy.
I still want the freedom to choose while I have it.
It would be interesting to see how the "personality" of Microsoft will change when Steve "Dancing Monkey-Boy" Ballmer finally leaves Microsoft.
Maybe it will become a "friendlier" company as a result.
In recent years Steve "my other monopoly is sweat glands" Ballmer seems to be hindering the company and maybe a fresh perspective by someone is needed for Microsoft.
It seems that since Bill Gates has left the company the attitude of Microsoft has "softened" (I use that word in the loosest possible terms!) towards Open Source stuff and begrudgingly partly accepting (again in the loosest possible terms) it.
1. Open Source This is the most benign on this list, and it's only here because now everyone and their brother is going to make a new "Android-powered" device.
I'm tempted to quote the whole paragraph but this last bit made me laugh! I thought this was a good thing because it means more competition, the "barrier to entry" is low - it's accessable to almost anyone and enables innovation.
3. Device Debugging..Back in my day (and by "in my day," I mean two years ago..Why do I hate this extremely useful tool? I hate it because it makes about 40% of my debugging skills nearly useless!.. curse their cotton socks, has quite literally taken a process that used to involve hours of work and reduced it to simply pressing F11. Not only is it straightforward and easy to use, but it also works on every platform out there (Mac, PC, and Linux).
He MUST be JOKING - must be! No developer in thier right mind would see this as a bad thing! Especially "Back in my day (and by "in my day," I mean two years ago)". This "wealth of experience" proves his naivety.
6. Java--Thanks, But I'll Take It from Here As a programmer, it makes me feel like I'm getting a very slow lobotomy..nearly impossible to, say, write an anti-aliased font library that renders in a reasonable amount of time..write custom libraries in C with their NDK, but now we're debugging two languages..
What a narrow-minded view!. Not everyone wants to write low-level stuff like an anti-aliased font library. The vm that "runs" the android platform is absolutely fine for every day stuff like email apps and "fart" applications!
9. A General Lack of 'Evilness' This lack of an iron grip (which both Apple and Verizon have effectively, if obnoxiously, employed on mobile developers) is exactly what is leading to the current and future fragmentation..Google, with luck, will learn when it's good to be evil
10. Hardware, Hardware, Hardware The current crop of Android hardware, for lack of a better word, sucks..
He MUST be JOKING - must be! He MUST be naive. Quite frankly I have lost the will to comment further except
I really must admit that Android, despite its relatively few flaws, is one of my favorite platforms to work with. Quite honestly, if my complaint about how the word 'Intent' makes for awkward grammatical constructions ranks in the top 10, I'd say the Android platform is doing pretty well for itself.
I hate to think what he could have said if he hated Android!
I'll give the guy the benefit of the doubt and some of these points are "tongue-in-cheek" - assuming that's the case then ok verrry funny!
I'm certainly not defending Google or an Android fanboy but this article is utter rubbish.
He should really go and develop for the iPhone or Windows mobile instead. Both these platforms are more aligned with his way of thinking!
I remember back in the early eighties EA used to release some great games.
Anyone remember Skyfox, Pinball Construction Set, The Bard's Tale series and Racing Destruction Set?
All they seem to do now is publish endless sports titles and I imagine the licensing fees must be huge.
Maybe it is a "Good Thing" they are shutting down the services for these titles - one less reason to buy them.
The decision seems to be mainly the Sports Division of EA hopefully this decision won't start affecting other games genres.
Games affected:
February 2, 2010 Online Service Shutdown
* UEFA Champions League 07 PC and x360
* Facebreaker x360 and PS3
* Fantasy Football 09 x360 and PS3
* FIFA 07 PSP, PS2, PC
* Fight Night Round 3 PS2
* Madden 08 Wii
* Madden 08 PC
* Madden 09 Xbox1
* Madden 09 Wii and PSP
* March Madness 07 x360
* NBA 07 PSP, x360
* NBA 08 PS2, PSP, Wii
* NBA 09 Wii - Europe only
* NBA Street (2007) PS3 and x360
* NCAA Football 08 PS2
* NCAA Football 09 PS2
* NASCAR 08 PS2
* NASCAR 09 PS2
* NASCAR 09 PS3 and x360 - Europe Only
* NFL Tour PS3 and x360
* NHL 07 PSP and x360
* NHL 08 PC
* Tiger Woods 07 PC
* Madden 09 x360 and PS3
* Madden 07 Xbox 360
Slashdot Mirror
I caught a couple of people out with this today.
Then I thought about it.
Actually this would be useful especially with something like the xbox kinect system or a webcam.
E.g. Doing something like cooking and "virtually" turning pages using motion capture via the webcam.
I enjoy cooking and trying to use my notebook to read through a recipie while my hands are covered in dough is no fun.
It's a matter of time before someone does this for real.
Cool!
It isn't just innovation but value for money too
Here in the UK the Wii is poor value for money.
There is a small selection of games (compared to PS3 & xbox 360) and generally poorer quality than other console versions. Also it appears less Wii games make it to budget then other consoles too.
We own a Wii and only my son plays it now because the only decent games for it are the LEGO series.
Expensive controllers too:
PS3 motion controller = £30
Wii motionplus & wiimote = £50
I've gone back to playing games on my PC - we are planning to sell our Wii and buy a different console which will give us more choice and a wider range of games.
Nice money if you can get it.
It seems Mr Andreesen has $10 million burning a hole in his pocket. That must have been some sales pitch.
Not bad though, mention "Social Web" with your product and it equates to funding.
I'm going to create my new product - The "Social Toilet" - it's a cubicle that everyone can share and allows you to twitter, facebook, search and share your poop.
I'm going to need about $10 million to get me started.
And thus the curse of Open Source manifests itself - Develop something to to the virge of usability and robustness...then BAM! "Fuggit" let's start again in a new direction and it will be "better" and spend more years in development wilderness.
The Ubuntu distro is showing great maturity and evolving nicely....then "Fuggit!" let's go a different way and start the integration again!
The n900 Nokia computer, no it's a phone, no it's a computer (ad nauseum). The OS (Maemo) reached good stability and then BAM! Nokia said "Fuggit! We can do this better - let's start an OS called Meego(still not running properly)"
KDE 3 to 4, Gnome 2.x to 3....
"Welcome to the world of Linux and Open Source where everything is in a perpetual state of development and a finished release is just a pipe-dream"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnists/article-464355/It-extremist-fascist-illiberal-demand-stringent-immigration-controls.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/3642549/Door-opens-for-migration-debate.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1280705/Labour-tried-stifle-debate-immigration.html
http://www.cadaad.org/2010_volume_4_issue_1/63-45
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2010/04/the_politics_of_race.html
http://blogcritics.org/politics/article/gordons-gaffe-sinks-labour-in-heat/
There's always a reason to curtail people's rights:
Communist witch hunt
The Cold war
Terrorism
Child Pornography
Let's suppose they do start "filtering" content there will always be a way to circumvent it.
It comes to a point where if you stand against it you are then branded a "sympathizer" and thus becomes politically incorrect to oppose it.
(In the UK when anyone questioned immigration policy they were publically branded "racist" by the Labour party and prevented it from being debated. It was a legitimate concern)
Unfortunately not nearly enough people question the motives of the Government & their commercial "bed fellows".
First you unleash an insane dictator over most of Europe, encourage David Hasselhoff to keep singing (why?), think bailing out the Euro is a "good thing", produce annoyingly reliable cars and now decide software is patentable.
Thanks for nothing.
"..Win 7 is hardly based on Vista.."
What the hell is it based on then?
Linux, freeBSD, DOS 3.31?
Anyone (feeling brave enough) can host their own Usenet server - open protocols and that malarky is still possible.
As a massively connected "network" of information and easily understood protocol writing software to parse it is straightforward.
Maybe political pressure is being exerted to shut the Usenet servers down. Media companies are aware of it's existence and will encourage it's extinction ("good luck with that").
Modern BBS-type systems are fine but are self-contained and do not encourage sharing of information (more accurately "replication") of nodes and data.
I don't think Usenet will ever go away - people are still using gopher today and some modern browsers still support it!
As long as the underpinnings of the Internet are open and free then anyone can create there own "protocol" and transmit data.
This is a fundemental right of the Internet.
Can you imagine if all this was created by a commercial entity - we just would not have the freedom we have now.
As long as some geeks run and admin their servers - there will always be an open and free way of transmitting data.
Believe me our "governments" and corporate "sponsors" are trying to remove those freedoms.
"..mock you back into the Stone.."
Yeah, much like your attitude and you live-up to the narky-sterotypical "open source" kid who put people (and businesses) off Linux altogether.
I would love to fix the source myself but two things hold me back:
(1) I just do not know enough about wifi & various chipsets to do something about it
(2) Unfortunately, I do not have an infinite amount of time to dedicate to the rt2500 problems (I have other obligations in "meat" space - e.g. partner, kids and full-time job)
Unfortunately I have wasted precious moments replying to you post instead.
FWIW: I am extremely grateful to people who develop the Linux kernel, use an open source license and the enormous amount of open-source software (e.g. Linus, Richard Stallman, the "faceless" people that spend their time writing software).
Because of them I am free from my dependency on Windows and actually have a realistic choice.
So basically rogerborg, F*** Off.
Generally Linux works very well.
For me the two biggest problems seems to be wifi & graphics cards.
ATI decided my r300-based card was legacy and discontinued it via the closed-sources drivers. I'm screwed(thankfully the open source drivers are ok but nowhere near as fast).
RT2500 - I could download the source of the serialmonkey drivers and compile them. Great it works fine and did that with every distro upgrade.
Then these drivers were abandoned and all focus is now on the in-kernel version and stability has suffered ever since.
I would have thought the maintainers could have adapted the legacy driver to work with the new kernel - even as a temporary solution.
Then again Linux is a "server" OS and seen that way from the kernel maintainers.
Applying that argument to Linux is retarded.
The problem for me is that the "legacy" drivers were rock solid and I never thought about it until kernel 2.6.30 & greater were released.
My wifi was ultra-reliable under the "legacy" drivers.
Since the newer drivers were released I have had nothing but problems.
What changed between old and new drivers?
Is the RT2500-based chipset working reliably now?
The developers switched to a new driver model because it's "better".
If "better" means once-working wifi chipset becomes grossly unstable, previous drivers are considered "legacy" hence will not compile on kernels later that 2.6.29 and current drivers are as stable as a "one-legged man playing football".
A few years later and 2.6.34 is released - is it working yet?
Considering the RT2500 chipset is present many wifi products the current state of "stability" is woefully inadequate.
(and don't get me started on f***ed up i845 drivers for xorg! - worked fine under previous kernels & xorg an update later by both - graphics performance royally screwed and many crashes)
Apart from that - happy Linux user for over 10 years!
There have been numerous studies worldwide about the effects of these transmitters and so far I don't think there is any proof of ill-effects.
Logically you should be fine.
However, it all depends how you feel about being so close to the transmitter. We are emotive creatures not logical creatures.
If you bought the apartment would you look over your shoulder evrytime you think about it?
If you have doubts then maybe it's a bad idea.
If you are the nerd you claim to be it would be easy enough to write your own script or apply a css to reformat the page.
You have perl and python available to you they are both on your n900.
I must have forgot to disable the "dyslexic option" for my keyboard :)
So at every juncture Google will be connected to everything?
Potentially access the interner via a Goggle ISP, accessing Google DNS, using Google search, communicating via Google email, using Goole chat and Google Buzz with my friends.
Am I being paranoid or will my privacy become a moot point?
I do use Google search and gmail on a regular basis and it's also free of charge. In return they use my data - cannot complain about that.
If it really bothered me I can use alternatives.
I think it is commendable that Google are willing to roll-out fibre (in the USA only at the moment) and improve the technology.
But "holy crap" that is an expensive undertaking!
I read about this somewhere else and I think Google were going to charge a "competitive" fee for access.
Broadband in the UK now largely sucks arse because the cost of improving/replacing existing lines is very expensive. No company is willing to take the risk so Google stepping forward ideally is a "good thing".
However, if they can guarantee the same rights some other ISPs in the UK then great and I am willing to pay for it. If Google want to analyse all my packets of data and use it to advertise stuff to me then I'm not so sure I will like this development.
Entities like Phorm, BT, Virgin & Tiscali (Talk Talk) are more than happy to follow the UK Government's / music industry's lead on intrusive surveillance. That's why I refuse to use thier services.
If Google want to lay down infrastructure then that's fine - as long as I have a choice to do otherwise.
This is mainly due to Eric Schmidt's comments on your expected privacy.
I still want the freedom to choose while I have it.
Considering the n900 was released only a couple of months ago that's pretty good going.
When the android phone was first released (year and a half ago?) it had only a handful (well under 100 apps) of applications available.
By your expectations the n900 should have over 20,000 applications "instantly"?
As it is, it's the best phone on the market except for the application support; I'm still hoping that comes good
Are you nuts?
Go to http://maemo.org/downloads/Maemo5/.
Presently there are 149 applications for the n900 and a few via the OVI store.
BTW:
There is an effort to port Android to the n900: http://gizmodo.com/5455495/watch-a-nokia-n900-dual+boot-maemo-and-android
If you want android then buy a google phone!!!!
You are border-line trolling!
It would be interesting to see how the "personality" of Microsoft will change when Steve "Dancing Monkey-Boy" Ballmer finally leaves Microsoft.
Maybe it will become a "friendlier" company as a result.
In recent years Steve "my other monopoly is sweat glands" Ballmer seems to be hindering the company and maybe a fresh perspective by someone is needed for Microsoft.
It seems that since Bill Gates has left the company the attitude of Microsoft has "softened" (I use that word in the loosest possible terms!) towards Open Source stuff and begrudgingly partly accepting (again in the loosest possible terms) it.
1. Open Source
This is the most benign on this list, and it's only here because now everyone and their brother is going to make a new "Android-powered" device.
I'm tempted to quote the whole paragraph but this last bit made me laugh!
I thought this was a good thing because it means more competition, the "barrier to entry" is low - it's accessable to almost anyone and enables innovation.
3. Device Debugging ..Back in my day (and by "in my day," I mean two years ago..Why do I hate this extremely useful tool? I hate it because it makes about 40% of my debugging skills nearly useless!..
curse their cotton socks, has quite literally taken a process that used to involve hours of work and reduced it to simply pressing F11. Not only is it straightforward and easy to use, but it also works on every platform out there (Mac, PC, and Linux).
He MUST be JOKING - must be!
No developer in thier right mind would see this as a bad thing!
Especially "Back in my day (and by "in my day," I mean two years ago)". This "wealth of experience" proves his naivety.
6. Java--Thanks, But I'll Take It from Here
As a programmer, it makes me feel like I'm getting a very slow lobotomy..nearly impossible to, say, write an anti-aliased font library that renders in a reasonable amount of time..write custom libraries in C with their NDK, but now we're debugging two languages..
What a narrow-minded view!. Not everyone wants to write low-level stuff like an anti-aliased font library. The vm that "runs" the android platform is absolutely fine for every day stuff like email apps and "fart" applications!
9. A General Lack of 'Evilness'
This lack of an iron grip (which both Apple and Verizon have effectively, if obnoxiously, employed on mobile developers) is exactly what is leading to the current and future fragmentation..Google, with luck, will learn when it's good to be evil
10. Hardware, Hardware, Hardware
The current crop of Android hardware, for lack of a better word, sucks..
He MUST be JOKING - must be!
He MUST be naive.
Quite frankly I have lost the will to comment further except
I really must admit that Android, despite its relatively few flaws, is one of my favorite platforms to work with. Quite honestly, if my complaint about how the word 'Intent' makes for awkward grammatical constructions ranks in the top 10, I'd say the Android platform is doing pretty well for itself.
I hate to think what he could have said if he hated Android!
I'll give the guy the benefit of the doubt and some of these points are "tongue-in-cheek" - assuming that's the case then ok verrry funny!
I'm certainly not defending Google or an Android fanboy but this article is utter rubbish.
He should really go and develop for the iPhone or Windows mobile instead. Both these platforms are more aligned with his way of thinking!
"...At our current trend rate we've got about 625 days before we will not have new IPv4 addresses available..."
I think this:http://www.xkcd.com/605/ sums it up
I remember back in the early eighties EA used to release some great games.
Anyone remember Skyfox, Pinball Construction Set, The Bard's Tale series and Racing Destruction Set?
All they seem to do now is publish endless sports titles and I imagine the licensing fees must be huge.
Maybe it is a "Good Thing" they are shutting down the services for these titles - one less reason to buy them.
The decision seems to be mainly the Sports Division of EA hopefully this decision won't start affecting other games genres.
Games affected:
February 2, 2010 Online Service Shutdown
* UEFA Champions League 07 PC and x360
* Facebreaker x360 and PS3
* Fantasy Football 09 x360 and PS3
* FIFA 07 PSP, PS2, PC
* Fight Night Round 3 PS2
* Madden 08 Wii
* Madden 08 PC
* Madden 09 Xbox1
* Madden 09 Wii and PSP
* March Madness 07 x360
* NBA 07 PSP, x360
* NBA 08 PS2, PSP, Wii
* NBA 09 Wii - Europe only
* NBA Street (2007) PS3 and x360
* NCAA Football 08 PS2
* NCAA Football 09 PS2
* NASCAR 08 PS2
* NASCAR 09 PS2
* NASCAR 09 PS3 and x360 - Europe Only
* NFL Tour PS3 and x360
* NHL 07 PSP and x360
* NHL 08 PC
* Tiger Woods 07 PC
* Madden 09 x360 and PS3
* Madden 07 Xbox 360