Based on how often the words "fag" "gay" and "homo" get thrown around in your average online game, I'd say there are a lot of homosexual men to cater to.
We can keep going back. $199 in 1991 dollars is only $280.82 today, and that got you an SNES, two controllers and Super Mario World. And you didn't even need two controllers for a two-player game of SMW.
$199 in 1986 dollars ($340.89 today) got you an NES, two control pads, a Zapper, and the venerable Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cart. If you wanted the Deluxe set with R.O.B the Video Robot, that finally pushes things over the X360's price tag.
Sure, it's not a Saturn or a PlayStation 2, but...
It's not much smaller, but the 360 has the advantage of a vertical alignment, much like both flavors of the PS2. It may take up the same volume of air, but less tatami mattage.
"pretty much can't tell the difference and seem to watch the SD versions of these channels 99% of the time."
So... why exactly is there a Congressional mandate to switch television formats again? Seriously, this comment right here describes the average US citizen (though perhaps not the average audiophile Slashdotter).
"so that someday he too can struggle in the decision between food and maintaining his subscription to World of Warcraft."
"Too?" As in you think about whether to buy food or WoW? And you have a son to feed?
Look, we get enough flak from Jack Thompson types as it is, why don't you do us all a favor and call child services now before your face is plastered on TV news.
Tulane University is in New Orleans. It might be more accurate if the headline read "Hurricane Katrina Reduces Tulane's Engineering School." TFA doesn't mention engineering specifically, and I wouldn't be surrpised if all programs shy of medicine/nursing have been reduced.
"Several hundred people" is at best a drop in the bucket compared to a market composed of tens of millions of people in this country alone. Sony is built on the backs of far more than "several hundred people."
If you want to make a personal choice to avoid tainting yourself by owning further Sony products, I understand, agree with and applaud your efforts. But don't dellude yourself into thinking that Sony actually notices, let alone cares. If you're going to do it, make sure you're doing it for yourself, because you're the only person it's going to matter to.
500k is around 30% of the 1.6 million PSPs out there. 30% is a sizeable gap.
"and these are devices that cost considerably more."
And that helps how? Fewer units is fewer units. Game companies don't care about how much the hardware costs so much as how large the installed base is.
"The chart shows they've sold more than the PS2!"
This is Japan we're talking about: everybody there already owns 8 PS2s, one of each color (heck, even I have two). And the PS2 is on the wane ("ZOMG! Game Boy outsells NES!").
If you step out of the Slashdot echo chamber once in a while, you'd realize that nobody cares about the rootkit. Peole are still throwing money at Sony products, be it hardware or media.
... hold off your purchase until the SNES emulator(s) gets a little more streamlined. First gen games run fine with no frame skipping, but it chokes a bit on Super Metroid.
Of course, if you're more interested in NES, go for it. I haven't tried Genny/MD yet, but I imagine it runs better than the SNES code (i. e. full speed).
I got my PSP because of what I could put on it (ROMs and the occasional MP3, but I got something smaller that plays MP3s with no DRM crap), not for what Sony could put on. I have yet to see any compelling UMDs to buy, be it game or movie (but my opinion of the movies may be skewed by my refusal to buy movies from MPAA members).
Modern games? Well, I know I'm getting Animal Crossing for Christmas...
Note to trolls: I've only played the ROMs of cartridges I own (and still own) and dumped myself with my SWC. Take your holier-than-thou attitude and shove it.
"Does GM get sued because it puts a GM-developed air conditioner in its cars, not giving you the *choice* of other competitors?"
Depends: does GM insist that every one of their cars be sold with a GM-branded a/c whether the customer wants one or not? Does GM insist that the a/c is an integral part of the car and the car simply will not run without an a/c? Is the a/c left running even in the dead of winter? Does GM threaten to stop dealing with dealerships that allow customers to remove the GM a/c and/or put in an a/c from a different manufacturer? Will GM threaten to take your car away if you open the hood and try to figure out how to disable the a/c?
"Poor MS, getting immolated yet again for being successful."
Yeah, I know. Mussolini got the trains running on time and look what they did to him!
Nobody here questions that Microsoft is successful. The question is exactly what Microsoft is successful at. The government punishes lots of "successful" people: successful murderers, successful bank robbers, etc.
"Last I looked, Microsoft didn't stop other media players from running on Windows."
So keeping certain Windows APIs hidden from competing media applications doesn't count?
"And your analogy fails AGAIN when you realise that Microsoft don't provide all operating systems,"
But Microsoft is using its inordinate market power to keep those competitors down, using pressure on distributors instead of actually making a competing product.
Vanderbilt didn't have a monopoly on oil, either, but that didn't stop him from doing a heck of a lot of damage.
"Unbundling media player helps no-one. It just hurts the user as they have to go out and download a media player rather than having it built in."
It only "helps noone" because Microsoft refuses to deduct the R&D spent making WMP from the price of a Windows license. As much as many of us may be tempted to believe so, Microsoft didn't simply reach up their collective backsides and pull out WMP fully formed from nothing.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, don't start modding "redundant" until after the first 99.
... the launch bugs are shaken out and I'm not forced to buy a bundle.
Maybe the PS3 will have a Whining Bitch Engine....
<duck/>
"Are they there for the homosexual male?"
Based on how often the words "fag" "gay" and "homo" get thrown around in your average online game, I'd say there are a lot of homosexual men to cater to.
Nah, half the folks would scream "pound pound!" the other half "number number!" and then a bloody free-for-all would ensue.
We can keep going back. $199 in 1991 dollars is only $280.82 today, and that got you an SNES, two controllers and Super Mario World. And you didn't even need two controllers for a two-player game of SMW.
$199 in 1986 dollars ($340.89 today) got you an NES, two control pads, a Zapper, and the venerable Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cart. If you wanted the Deluxe set with R.O.B the Video Robot, that finally pushes things over the X360's price tag.
Sure, it's not a Saturn or a PlayStation 2, but...
It's not much smaller, but the 360 has the advantage of a vertical alignment, much like both flavors of the PS2. It may take up the same volume of air, but less tatami mattage.
It doesn't say "$0.83," it says "0.83 cents," also known as $0.0083.
It would make life easier if the freaking cent sign worked on here. You can use &euro and £, but God forbid I use ¢ or try the ASCII code.
€
£
and a whole lot of nothing
I have fans? [slashdot.org] Wow.
Actually, those are my fans (hence the "my" in the URL). The URL you want for a universal link to your fans list is:
http://slashdot.org/~fwitness/fans
Unless it's part of a joke, in which case carry on.
"why do talented people waste their abilities on viruses?"
Sex. It's all about the groupies, man!
"pretty much can't tell the difference and seem to watch the SD versions of these channels 99% of the time."
So... why exactly is there a Congressional mandate to switch television formats again? Seriously, this comment right here describes the average US citizen (though perhaps not the average audiophile Slashdotter).
Heck, I would have started with the fact that he went into a salon myself...
"the United States of America and its global interests"
Once upon a time those two were considered mutuall exclusive.
"so that someday he too can struggle in the decision between food and maintaining his subscription to World of Warcraft."
"Too?" As in you think about whether to buy food or WoW? And you have a son to feed?
Look, we get enough flak from Jack Thompson types as it is, why don't you do us all a favor and call child services now before your face is plastered on TV news.
I think Hurricane Katrina already did that.
" it has been pretty constricted in terms of CPU, memory and even video power compared to the PS3 and the xbox360"
"Pretty constricted" is subjective at best. The PS2 is "pretty constricted" compared to the GCN and Xbox.
"add that to the fact that it uses a completely unstandard controller"
They've already stated the system comes with the thumbstick dongle, giving you a pretty standard controller for unoriginal ports.
Yes, but does it run the SNES emulator at full speed, or does it have the same problems as the PSP?
"Several hundred people" is at best a drop in the bucket compared to a market composed of tens of millions of people in this country alone. Sony is built on the backs of far more than "several hundred people."
If you want to make a personal choice to avoid tainting yourself by owning further Sony products, I understand, agree with and applaud your efforts. But don't dellude yourself into thinking that Sony actually notices, let alone cares. If you're going to do it, make sure you're doing it for yourself, because you're the only person it's going to matter to.
"That's a gap of less than 500k,"
500k is around 30% of the 1.6 million PSPs out there. 30% is a sizeable gap.
"and these are devices that cost considerably more."
And that helps how? Fewer units is fewer units. Game companies don't care about how much the hardware costs so much as how large the installed base is.
"The chart shows they've sold more than the PS2!"
This is Japan we're talking about: everybody there already owns 8 PS2s, one of each color (heck, even I have two). And the PS2 is on the wane ("ZOMG! Game Boy outsells NES!").
If you step out of the Slashdot echo chamber once in a while, you'd realize that nobody cares about the rootkit. Peole are still throwing money at Sony products, be it hardware or media.
... hold off your purchase until the SNES emulator(s) gets a little more streamlined. First gen games run fine with no frame skipping, but it chokes a bit on Super Metroid.
Of course, if you're more interested in NES, go for it. I haven't tried Genny/MD yet, but I imagine it runs better than the SNES code (i. e. full speed).
I got my PSP because of what I could put on it (ROMs and the occasional MP3, but I got something smaller that plays MP3s with no DRM crap), not for what Sony could put on. I have yet to see any compelling UMDs to buy, be it game or movie (but my opinion of the movies may be skewed by my refusal to buy movies from MPAA members).
Modern games? Well, I know I'm getting Animal Crossing for Christmas...
Note to trolls: I've only played the ROMs of cartridges I own (and still own) and dumped myself with my SWC. Take your holier-than-thou attitude and shove it.
"First, no one from Sony ever claimed it could render Toy Story."
Really?
"Second, Gradius V is actually a later-generation game"
I was referring to Gradius III & IV, a PS2 launch title (complete with $50 price tag). And, yes, a PSX game could look better than that.
"Does GM get sued because it puts a GM-developed air conditioner in its cars, not giving you the *choice* of other competitors?"
Depends: does GM insist that every one of their cars be sold with a GM-branded a/c whether the customer wants one or not? Does GM insist that the a/c is an integral part of the car and the car simply will not run without an a/c? Is the a/c left running even in the dead of winter? Does GM threaten to stop dealing with dealerships that allow customers to remove the GM a/c and/or put in an a/c from a different manufacturer? Will GM threaten to take your car away if you open the hood and try to figure out how to disable the a/c?
"Poor MS, getting immolated yet again for being successful."
Yeah, I know. Mussolini got the trains running on time and look what they did to him!
Nobody here questions that Microsoft is successful. The question is exactly what Microsoft is successful at. The government punishes lots of "successful" people: successful murderers, successful bank robbers, etc.
"Last I looked, Microsoft didn't stop other media players from running on Windows."
So keeping certain Windows APIs hidden from competing media applications doesn't count?
"And your analogy fails AGAIN when you realise that Microsoft don't provide all operating systems,"
But Microsoft is using its inordinate market power to keep those competitors down, using pressure on distributors instead of actually making a competing product.
Vanderbilt didn't have a monopoly on oil, either, but that didn't stop him from doing a heck of a lot of damage.
"Unbundling media player helps no-one. It just hurts the user as they have to go out and download a media player rather than having it built in."
It only "helps noone" because Microsoft refuses to deduct the R&D spent making WMP from the price of a Windows license. As much as many of us may be tempted to believe so, Microsoft didn't simply reach up their collective backsides and pull out WMP fully formed from nothing.