Is it just me or is it about fucking time that NASA builds a carport for this multi-billion dollar equipment? Every time they keep something in Florida, it gets hurricaned, hailed on, attacked by gators, or assaulted by old people with canes and walkers.
Just to drift this even further offtopic, if the FCC sticks with their digital TV timeline, you won't get any more analog broadcasts after Feb. 2009 so you may want to adjust your estimate by a year.:) Also I think you're a little optimistic with the pricing of quality displays. I guess it all depends on what size you want. Maybe by 2009 or 2010 a 32" LCD or comparable tech will be in the sub-$500 range.
Actually they might be fudging their numbers a little bit. If you think about it, if availability is scarce, that means demand stays high. They can't sell a quarter million per week forever. Eventually they will reach market saturation and demand will taper off. However if they intentionally limit output to keep consoles permanently sold out, demand will remain high for much longer.
I don't know for sure. Nintendo definitely has a winner with the Wii but how long until the novelty wears off and people say, "but where are the new games?".
"If I had the capital to do it and were in their position, I'd have taken the loss on HD-DVD and approached Nintendo and Microsoft about putting it in the Wii and 360 at no greater cost than the DVD drives they used."
Corporate subsidies speed adoption of emerging technologies all the time, and it's a shame the HD-DVD consortium lacked the foresight to do this. If, like Sony and others, they were willing to bite the bullet and count on media sales to make up the difference 3 years from now, they might have had a fighting chance.
Yeah that sounds like a cheap shot to me too, but I bet it turns into comedy when spoken through his hilarious Commodore 64-era voice box. Maybe it was one of those 'you just had to be there' jokes, or maybe Hawking is being jerky. You would be too if your abusive wife beat you and burnt you with hot water and you didn't have the physical ability to do anything about it. Maybe.
And before anyone answers Hawking's question, yes we all know that creationists believe that the answer to 'what was here first' is God. Ok, God is the alpha and the omega, he's always been here and he always will be. A short-lived snail could say the same about me but it only makes it true from his perspective.
See, this still doesn't make sense to me. If you have DVD now, and you haven't purchased HD-DVD, and you know that Blu-Ray is crushing HD-DVD in the marketplace and through studio support, what compelling reason do you have for paying more for a dying format?
Might as well go get a Laserdisc player. I hear Pioneer still releases movies for that.
I think Nintendo borrowed Apple's reality distortion field for this launch. Fascinating how this shoe: http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=212 is now on the other foot.:)
Yep, you nailed it. HD-DVD was going for name recognition, since everyone knows what a DVD is by now. Then they piss off uninformed consumers by accidentally selling HD-DVDs to people with normal DVD players. Now they remedy that by including the DVD format release on the hybrid HD-DVD/DVD disc. Nobody with an HD-DVD player gives a rat's ass about the DVD release being on the disc as well...it's only a CYA policy for the disc pressers and retail outlets.
What shocked me was that my aunt and uncle, who live in a genteel town full of 5400 people, were asking me what I thought about Blu-Ray discs since they just bought a new LCD tv for Christmas this past year. I was surprised that it had that depth of name recognition already and it's a new format.
Standard def content on a 25G disc? Why even care? And if you're really serious, go buy a blu-ray burner. I've seen them at Frys and other places already. Drop that crazy expensive treat in your MythTV box, record some shows to the HD, and burn away.
I'm with you on this one. Yeah it's expensive, but you get what you pay for. Anyone crying about the price just has to add half a dozen peripherals to the X360 to get the same functionality, and by then, they've spent *more* than they would have, had they purchased a PS3 instead.
It'd be more foolish if Sony had stuck with the crusty old DVD format. Devs were running out of room. When a system-seller like Hideo Kojima (metal gear guru) comes to Sony and says, "I don't think we can fit MGS4 on a DVD", Sony listens. The fact that we ended up with the best Blu-Ray player on the market for a measly $500 to $600 is a big plus. Gotta love the Sony subsidy.:)
Guess you haven't priced Gears of War or other next-gen games yet.
Games are $60 now. PC games are only $10 cheaper. Hell, even new PS2 games are still $50. I don't get why X360 games are more expensive...with Sony, at least you can say 'well they're on BR discs, they might cost more to make' but ultimately you're buying the content, not the media.
Yeah, I bet they are..and now you are starting to see the dilemma here. Not alot of stuff runs on Vista and the driver support is abysmal. Sure, this will change over time, but NOW is what matters to some shops like yours.
It's not a Vista argument, but the main reason shops are considering switching now, and thus why this is news, is that Vista is pushing heavier requirements and a huge expense on IT departments. It's a tough decision for alot of medium and large business. A CIO must decide which is more cost-effective. Upgrading every workstation on the floor (since many companies are coming up on a hardware refresh cycle) plus the cost of new licensing plus the cost of support increase...or seek a cheaper yet equally effective alternative..or don't upgrade at all.
FYI our shop has chosen the latter option. XP is 'good enough' for our day to day operations and when the hardware refresh comes around next year, we'll take everything into consideration and probably end up with XP Pro on those stations as well.
"If Illinois was switching from paper and typewriters to computers, we might have a situation where going with Linux could potentially be cheaper. "
It's an issue now for many, many IT departments because we're all in for a big, expensive paradigm shift. Remember when you switched from 2000 to XP and suddenly, you needed to upgrade all of your servers and workstations to support the bloat? Guess what, Vista and Server2k3 is pushing this same treadmill on us again. XP has also gotten considerably fatter and slower in all the years of patching. It's amazing to see the difference between a machine running XP SP0 and XP SP2 with all 88 patches. Vista brings the same burden to the table and alot of shops are asking themselves why they need to upgrade to Vista since XP is pretty much 'good' now, particularly in light of the poor software and driver support that Vista currently offers.
Things are really going to get interesting when Vista is the only option from the big OEMs like Dell and HP. When you can no longer buy workstations with XP Pro, admins are going to get upset.
I think I just threw up a little bit. In my mouth.
Re:Does Vista have anything we need?
on
Is Vista a Trap?
·
· Score: 1
Well we can agree to disagree because PC developers have developed the 'lets take 4 years to make a game' syndrome and I'm tired of running on the upgrade treadmill. My PS3 is close enough and looks fantastic without making a bunch of racket in my living room or taking up too much space in my entertainment center. Oh and it plays Blu-ray discs...how much would that cost to add to your PC?;)
Re:Does PC Gaming have anything we need?
on
Is Vista a Trap?
·
· Score: 1
X360 games allow for modification (at Microsoft's discretion) and due to the online nature of both of the new consoles, patching games and adding mods are as simple as downloading a file. Some PS3 games (like Ridge Racer 7) have downloadable special races and Blast Factor has a multiplayer online pack.
With hard drives and online capabilities in these consoles, the lines between consoles and PCs blur even further. It's up to the vendors and developers as to which directions you as a consumer can take, which is limiting, but at least you know the stuff will work as expected.
Re:Does Vista have anything we need?
on
Is Vista a Trap?
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
It's about time to give up on PC gaming, especially with the beauty, convenience and comfort of today's powerful consoles (both of them). Nothing compares to 5.1 Dolby TrueHD sound blasting from a nice surround system while you're seated on a comfortable couch in front of your high-def TV of choice. You get your shooters, online games, web surfing, etc.
With Vista, MS gives us another reason to turn towards consoles as a smarter choice. It's currently an unnecessary upgrade that wraps your media in shackles with DRM and pesters you every 5 minutes to second guess whatever you want to do with it. Oh and it's expensive and won't look pretty unless you spend some $$$ on your computer.
The days of Wintendo are numbered and I think Vista is a good reason to bring the curtain down.
Actually the power generation from thunder thighs could be alot greater. I've seen alot of fatties that have holes in their sweatpants where their inner thighs rub together under extreme pressure during limited distance walking. If you could harness that friction and use it to power something, that'd be a bonus. Even a static electricity generator like a thigh-mounted Van de Graff generator would do the trick.
Because compared to anything else that rumbles, Nintendo's tech sucks. Immersion didn't even want to mess with them. "What, Nintendo uses rumble? Since when?" an Immersion exec was quoted saying.
Slashdot Mirror
Anomaly indeed. :) Props for the super low user number, you must have helped father Slashdot.
Well you know what they say (and I speak from experience as well),
"The best way to kill your sex life is to get married."
I see someone that's about to get a job with...anyone but NASA. :)
Is it just me or is it about fucking time that NASA builds a carport for this multi-billion dollar equipment? Every time they keep something in Florida, it gets hurricaned, hailed on, attacked by gators, or assaulted by old people with canes and walkers.
Just park the damn thing under a roof for once.
Just to drift this even further offtopic, if the FCC sticks with their digital TV timeline, you won't get any more analog broadcasts after Feb. 2009 so you may want to adjust your estimate by a year. :) Also I think you're a little optimistic with the pricing of quality displays. I guess it all depends on what size you want. Maybe by 2009 or 2010 a 32" LCD or comparable tech will be in the sub-$500 range.
Actually they might be fudging their numbers a little bit. If you think about it, if availability is scarce, that means demand stays high. They can't sell a quarter million per week forever. Eventually they will reach market saturation and demand will taper off. However if they intentionally limit output to keep consoles permanently sold out, demand will remain high for much longer.
I don't know for sure. Nintendo definitely has a winner with the Wii but how long until the novelty wears off and people say, "but where are the new games?".
You make a good point here:
"If I had the capital to do it and were in their position, I'd have taken the loss on HD-DVD and approached Nintendo and Microsoft about putting it in the Wii and 360 at no greater cost than the DVD drives they used."
Corporate subsidies speed adoption of emerging technologies all the time, and it's a shame the HD-DVD consortium lacked the foresight to do this. If, like Sony and others, they were willing to bite the bullet and count on media sales to make up the difference 3 years from now, they might have had a fighting chance.
Yeah that sounds like a cheap shot to me too, but I bet it turns into comedy when spoken through his hilarious Commodore 64-era voice box. Maybe it was one of those 'you just had to be there' jokes, or maybe Hawking is being jerky. You would be too if your abusive wife beat you and burnt you with hot water and you didn't have the physical ability to do anything about it. Maybe.
And before anyone answers Hawking's question, yes we all know that creationists believe that the answer to 'what was here first' is God. Ok, God is the alpha and the omega, he's always been here and he always will be. A short-lived snail could say the same about me but it only makes it true from his perspective.
See, this still doesn't make sense to me. If you have DVD now, and you haven't purchased HD-DVD, and you know that Blu-Ray is crushing HD-DVD in the marketplace and through studio support, what compelling reason do you have for paying more for a dying format?
Might as well go get a Laserdisc player. I hear Pioneer still releases movies for that.
I think Nintendo borrowed Apple's reality distortion field for this launch. Fascinating how this shoe: http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=212 is now on the other foot. :)
Yep, you nailed it. HD-DVD was going for name recognition, since everyone knows what a DVD is by now. Then they piss off uninformed consumers by accidentally selling HD-DVDs to people with normal DVD players. Now they remedy that by including the DVD format release on the hybrid HD-DVD/DVD disc. Nobody with an HD-DVD player gives a rat's ass about the DVD release being on the disc as well...it's only a CYA policy for the disc pressers and retail outlets.
What shocked me was that my aunt and uncle, who live in a genteel town full of 5400 people, were asking me what I thought about Blu-Ray discs since they just bought a new LCD tv for Christmas this past year. I was surprised that it had that depth of name recognition already and it's a new format.
Standard def content on a 25G disc? Why even care? And if you're really serious, go buy a blu-ray burner. I've seen them at Frys and other places already. Drop that crazy expensive treat in your MythTV box, record some shows to the HD, and burn away.
Seriously though, take these crap comments to Digg. Who cares that a console manufacturer is able to deliver their product successfully or not?
I'm with you on this one. Yeah it's expensive, but you get what you pay for. Anyone crying about the price just has to add half a dozen peripherals to the X360 to get the same functionality, and by then, they've spent *more* than they would have, had they purchased a PS3 instead.
:)
It'd be more foolish if Sony had stuck with the crusty old DVD format. Devs were running out of room. When a system-seller like Hideo Kojima (metal gear guru) comes to Sony and says, "I don't think we can fit MGS4 on a DVD", Sony listens. The fact that we ended up with the best Blu-Ray player on the market for a measly $500 to $600 is a big plus. Gotta love the Sony subsidy.
Guess you haven't priced Gears of War or other next-gen games yet.
Games are $60 now. PC games are only $10 cheaper. Hell, even new PS2 games are still $50. I don't get why X360 games are more expensive...with Sony, at least you can say 'well they're on BR discs, they might cost more to make' but ultimately you're buying the content, not the media.
Oy vey...5 miles per day? My knees are already about to implode from my 8 years of skateboarding in my youth.
I guess there's always lots of swimming!
Yeah, I bet they are..and now you are starting to see the dilemma here. Not alot of stuff runs on Vista and the driver support is abysmal. Sure, this will change over time, but NOW is what matters to some shops like yours.
It's not a Vista argument, but the main reason shops are considering switching now, and thus why this is news, is that Vista is pushing heavier requirements and a huge expense on IT departments. It's a tough decision for alot of medium and large business. A CIO must decide which is more cost-effective. Upgrading every workstation on the floor (since many companies are coming up on a hardware refresh cycle) plus the cost of new licensing plus the cost of support increase...or seek a cheaper yet equally effective alternative..or don't upgrade at all.
FYI our shop has chosen the latter option. XP is 'good enough' for our day to day operations and when the hardware refresh comes around next year, we'll take everything into consideration and probably end up with XP Pro on those stations as well.
"If Illinois was switching from paper and typewriters to computers, we might have a situation where going with Linux could potentially be cheaper. "
It's an issue now for many, many IT departments because we're all in for a big, expensive paradigm shift. Remember when you switched from 2000 to XP and suddenly, you needed to upgrade all of your servers and workstations to support the bloat? Guess what, Vista and Server2k3 is pushing this same treadmill on us again. XP has also gotten considerably fatter and slower in all the years of patching. It's amazing to see the difference between a machine running XP SP0 and XP SP2 with all 88 patches. Vista brings the same burden to the table and alot of shops are asking themselves why they need to upgrade to Vista since XP is pretty much 'good' now, particularly in light of the poor software and driver support that Vista currently offers.
Things are really going to get interesting when Vista is the only option from the big OEMs like Dell and HP. When you can no longer buy workstations with XP Pro, admins are going to get upset.
A guy would be saying this?
I think I just threw up a little bit. In my mouth.
Well we can agree to disagree because PC developers have developed the 'lets take 4 years to make a game' syndrome and I'm tired of running on the upgrade treadmill. My PS3 is close enough and looks fantastic without making a bunch of racket in my living room or taking up too much space in my entertainment center. Oh and it plays Blu-ray discs...how much would that cost to add to your PC? ;)
X360 games allow for modification (at Microsoft's discretion) and due to the online nature of both of the new consoles, patching games and adding mods are as simple as downloading a file. Some PS3 games (like Ridge Racer 7) have downloadable special races and Blast Factor has a multiplayer online pack.
With hard drives and online capabilities in these consoles, the lines between consoles and PCs blur even further. It's up to the vendors and developers as to which directions you as a consumer can take, which is limiting, but at least you know the stuff will work as expected.
It's about time to give up on PC gaming, especially with the beauty, convenience and comfort of today's powerful consoles (both of them). Nothing compares to 5.1 Dolby TrueHD sound blasting from a nice surround system while you're seated on a comfortable couch in front of your high-def TV of choice. You get your shooters, online games, web surfing, etc.
With Vista, MS gives us another reason to turn towards consoles as a smarter choice. It's currently an unnecessary upgrade that wraps your media in shackles with DRM and pesters you every 5 minutes to second guess whatever you want to do with it. Oh and it's expensive and won't look pretty unless you spend some $$$ on your computer.
The days of Wintendo are numbered and I think Vista is a good reason to bring the curtain down.
Actually the power generation from thunder thighs could be alot greater. I've seen alot of fatties that have holes in their sweatpants where their inner thighs rub together under extreme pressure during limited distance walking. If you could harness that friction and use it to power something, that'd be a bonus. Even a static electricity generator like a thigh-mounted Van de Graff generator would do the trick.
Because compared to anything else that rumbles, Nintendo's tech sucks. Immersion didn't even want to mess with them. "What, Nintendo uses rumble? Since when?" an Immersion exec was quoted saying.