First, Sony has to admit that they lost this round of the console wars - to inferior hardware that nevertheless met the consumers' wants.
Then they have to look at what they need to do to at least play serious catch-up for the next generation release in 5 years.
Lose the hard drive. This is one that only Nintendo got right. They foresaw the declining price of flash memory (well, duh, who didn't??? Oh, Sony and Microsoft...) and issued a patch for the console that allows it to access 16 gig (and maybe larger - someone would have to check) from a flash card. And we all know how easy it is to swap flash crds, so you have unlimited storage. It's also quieter, faster, and generates less heat. This is a no-brainer.
Cut the energy bill. The PS3 uses 180 watts to play a blu-ray movie. Stand-alone blu-ray players use less than 20 watts to do the same job - and the stand-alone player also does the job quieter, and will play external media on usb cards and usb hard drives ($120 for a blu-ray player that does all that - why would I buy a PS3 to play blu-ray disks?)
So drop the blu-ray player crap. The PS3 uses more energy on stand-by doing nothing than the Wii does when playing a game.
Keep backwards compatibility with PS3 games. Sure, it lets people delay getting a few new games, but it also encourages earlier adoption of the new console. The initial high price killed console adoption for years.
Better controllers. The Wii not only beat everyone on this, but at initial release time they already knew they were going to release the Motion Plus a few years down the road, when component costs dropped a bit more. Those two tabs on the bottom of the original Wiimotes for the Motion Plus to lock in were there from Day One.
Lose the "hard-core-gamer" "boyz-in-moms-basement" sexist image. Half the population won't even look at either the PS3 or the Xbox for themselves. Women easily justify the Wii by buying the Wii Fit.
Nonsense. It explains all those "God sent me back because HE wasn't ready to take me home yet" so-called experiences as just artifacts of the brain under extreme distress. And it's not like heaven would be a paradise - for one thing, it would be full of boring, nosy, uptight, self-righteus busybodies. For another, worshiping anything for eternity is not my idea of a good job. It would be pure hell over the long term to anyone with an IQ over that of thawing ice.
So do like I did - don't buy the books. If they're "teaching from the book", you're wasting your money on the class - bitch about it as "low-quality education" and drop the course for a better one. If they're not "teaching from the book", you don't need the book.
Pepper spray is illegal for use in war under the Geneva Convention, it falls under riot control substances, which are banned.
What they are talking about doing is feeding it to their soldiers in cold weather. That definitely wouldn't help their cold weather survival because it would boost circulation, increasing heat loss, so it must be about making them more capable in cold weather - essentially making them "better soldiers" in the cold at the cost of having to be more careful with hypothermia.
Bzzt! Wrong...:-)
FTFA:
But scientists say the chili's primary purpose will be as a stun grenade against suspected insurgents.
According to the SIFY news site: When deployed, the grenade showers the targets with a dust so spicy that in trials subjects were blinded for hours and left with breathing problems.
Look who Jobs is trying to get on board - newspaper publishers. The people who live and die (mostly die) by fixed format. And if you think 1024px wide is the "new default width to design to anyway", you're WAY behind the curve. Still using a 4:3 display?
it does away with about three levels of abstraction that "computer" users invariably had to deal with (box on desktop moves, causing an analog movement to an arrow-shaped "pointer" on a screen, with which I can "manipulate" pictorial representations of "documents", sorted into hierarchies with pictorial representations of "folders", which can contain other such "folders" and so on). That's just gone.
Computer touch screens have been around for decades... and running in "kiosk mode" takes care of the rest. The iPad is not a revolution - it's not even evolution, because of the absolutely crappy screen resolution - 1024x768, or in the case of movies filmed at 2.35:1, you'll be watching them at 1024 x 436. Even 192x x 1080 gets scaled down to 1024 x 576, or 589824 pixels, as opposed to 1920 x 1080 having 2,073,600 pixels (more than 3.5 times as much).
17" is not very portable. you could have had a desktop with even better spec for less money
My desktop is 2 x 26" LCDs, so I already have the "better desktop"...
I wanted a 17" for 3 reasons:
larger screen
full keyboard including number pad
room for a second hard drive
It normally sits off to one side doing email and stuff while I work on the other computer; usually, when I have to bring it somewhere, weight isn't an issue because I'm also bringing other gear, like a camcorder and tripod, so it all goes into a pull-bag, along with lots of cables, a clipboard, power bars, extensions, rechargers, etc (think mobile video studio).
If your laptop is getting hot while using it, you can do two things:
lift the rear up a bit to increase air flow (I slipped an old dvd case under the rear);
switch from Vista to linux (I motice - in the rare times that I boot into Vista, the fan is on a LOT; it almost never kicks in under linux because it runs a lot cooler, even while watching videos).
I bought mine (hp pavilion dv9000 series) 3 years ago and even with the second 320 gig hard drive and 4 gigs of ram it came to that price - and prices have since dropped.
Google uses Sedna Patent Services. Here are some of the patents Google has had assigned to them - there's something in there that they can "trade" with other patent holders:
I know that the "concept" is used as a CYA excuse for failures by failures. "Oh, but we used industry best practices."
And the iPad is an attempt by Jobs to get more licensing fees for h264 codecs (he and his other buddies in MPAG-LA own patents on it) as the default codec for HTML5 video. This is a direct assault on open standards. ("standard" != "open standard").
Jobs is pitching the iPad at the newspaper industry - an industry that is dying because they can't understand anything except fixed formats.
The iPad is not a tablet computer, despite all the hype. It's just one step removed from the iPDA.
Look at Apple's recent history. Launch the iPod, then route people to iTunes. Launch the iPhone, then route people ONLY to the App Store. Launch the iPad, and then route people ONLY to specific restricted formats.
Each device is more encumbered and restricted than the last.
What next - the iBrick? It does nothing, but it does it really well?
All he had to do was somehow get word to the wife that "your hubby is into child porn". But like all loser nerds, he had to go the overly-complicated route.
There's no reason why they can't use html for what it was supposed to be for - the semantic markup - and let the end user control the actual display format. The 800-pixel-wide website is an anachronism.
You forgot the carry case (because unlike a laptop, you can't close it to protect it), + taxes. A grand.
I can get a laptop with much higher specs for less. What am I saying - I *have* a laptop with much higher specs. Better screen resolution. 10x the storage space of the top-of-the-line iPad (640 gig). 4 gigs of ram, multi-core, supports flash, usb, ethernet, has a built-in camera... and at 17", the screen is big enough for several people to watch it at once.
It can even make phone calls!
The iPad should really be called the iPDA - it's a PDA, not a tablet computer.
Apple is part of MPEG-LA, and guess what - Apple and their partners in MPEG-LA own the patents to h264 - and they want HTML5 to use h264 as the default standard for video, and get you to pay a licensing fee for each device.
There's a bigdifference between "standards" and "open standards." Apple is pulling a Microsoft.
As soon as anyone says "industry best practices", my bogometer gets pegged. Everyone has a different version of what "industry best practices" should be.
A word of advice - don't use that marketroid phrase in a serious discussion.
Then split your monitor into two windows, showing one web site on the left and another on the right.
I'm running 3840x1200 you insensitive clod!:-)
In one of those 800-pixel layouts, they allocate a couple hundred pixels for the left column, another 160 pixels for the right column, 20 pixels for each side for padding - and that leaves 400 pixels for text. It's not 1990 any more.
Why do you think newspapers are printed in five or six columns, not one wide column across the page?
Ever read a book? Unless you're going after the Readers Digest "I'm too stupid/lazy to read a real book" market, it's dominated by single-column formats.
Slashdot Mirror
First, Sony has to admit that they lost this round of the console wars - to inferior hardware that nevertheless met the consumers' wants.
Then they have to look at what they need to do to at least play serious catch-up for the next generation release in 5 years.
Nonsense. It explains all those "God sent me back because HE wasn't ready to take me home yet" so-called experiences as just artifacts of the brain under extreme distress. And it's not like heaven would be a paradise - for one thing, it would be full of boring, nosy, uptight, self-righteus busybodies. For another, worshiping anything for eternity is not my idea of a good job. It would be pure hell over the long term to anyone with an IQ over that of thawing ice.
I gave up after 5 or six slides - I have *never* seen that many ads on a non-game site.
Sorry to disappoint you but it's only one article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_paper
I'll sell you a print version if you really want it.
"It was the sound of hundreds of millions of Christians grinding their teeth (and their axes) ..."
So do like I did - don't buy the books. If they're "teaching from the book", you're wasting your money on the class - bitch about it as "low-quality education" and drop the course for a better one. If they're not "teaching from the book", you don't need the book.
Poster mistakenly claimed:
Bzzt! Wrong... :-)
FTFA:
I like my "linux in a nutshell" book, you insensitive clod!
No:
One prick to catch it, one prick to test for it.
Of course, this could have all been avoided if people didn't have sex Soviet Russia - style:
"In Soviet Russia, prick probes YOU!"
It doesn't matter whether you're straight or gay - Chlamydia, herpes, aids ... they don't discriminate. Use a condom!
You're in the wrong thread. We're talking about iPads, not iPhones :-)
And we all know what "design to a specific display" means when the PHBs start having wet dreams in their pants ...
Thank $_DIETY that the iPDA won't have a browser.
Look who Jobs is trying to get on board - newspaper publishers. The people who live and die (mostly die) by fixed format. And if you think 1024px wide is the "new default width to design to anyway", you're WAY behind the curve. Still using a 4:3 display?
Computer touch screens have been around for decades ... and running in "kiosk mode" takes care of the rest. The iPad is not a revolution - it's not even evolution, because of the absolutely crappy screen resolution - 1024x768, or in the case of movies filmed at 2.35:1, you'll be watching them at 1024 x 436. Even 192x x 1080 gets scaled down to 1024 x 576, or 589824 pixels, as opposed to 1920 x 1080 having 2,073,600 pixels (more than 3.5 times as much).
My desktop is 2 x 26" LCDs, so I already have the "better desktop" ...
I wanted a 17" for 3 reasons:
It normally sits off to one side doing email and stuff while I work on the other computer; usually, when I have to bring it somewhere, weight isn't an issue because I'm also bringing other gear, like a camcorder and tripod, so it all goes into a pull-bag, along with lots of cables, a clipboard, power bars, extensions, rechargers, etc (think mobile video studio).
If your laptop is getting hot while using it, you can do two things:
I bought mine (hp pavilion dv9000 series) 3 years ago and even with the second 320 gig hard drive and 4 gigs of ram it came to that price - and prices have since dropped.
http://www.faqs.org/patents/asn/1686
http://www.faqs.org/patents/asn/16553
http://www.faqs.org/patents/asn/1735
Google wants a proprietary system, because THEY have something they can trade with; non-proprietary systems lower the barriers to entry.
The original idea was that anyone can publish a style sheet, and you can pick and choose the ones you like. That sort of got lost ...
I know that the "concept" is used as a CYA excuse for failures by failures. "Oh, but we used industry best practices."
And the iPad is an attempt by Jobs to get more licensing fees for h264 codecs (he and his other buddies in MPAG-LA own patents on it) as the default codec for HTML5 video. This is a direct assault on open standards. ("standard" != "open standard").
Jobs is pitching the iPad at the newspaper industry - an industry that is dying because they can't understand anything except fixed formats.
The iPad is not a tablet computer, despite all the hype. It's just one step removed from the iPDA.
Look at Apple's recent history. Launch the iPod, then route people to iTunes. Launch the iPhone, then route people ONLY to the App Store. Launch the iPad, and then route people ONLY to specific restricted formats.
Each device is more encumbered and restricted than the last.
What next - the iBrick? It does nothing, but it does it really well?
All he had to do was somehow get word to the wife that "your hubby is into child porn". But like all loser nerds, he had to go the overly-complicated route.
">> "Apple is refined and locked down revolution for the masses."
Their next product - the iPDA will be even more locked-down. But for less than $200 for a "real Apple", people will buy it ...
There's no reason why they can't use html for what it was supposed to be for - the semantic markup - and let the end user control the actual display format. The 800-pixel-wide website is an anachronism.
You forgot the carry case (because unlike a laptop, you can't close it to protect it), + taxes. A grand.
I can get a laptop with much higher specs for less. What am I saying - I *have* a laptop with much higher specs. Better screen resolution. 10x the storage space of the top-of-the-line iPad (640 gig). 4 gigs of ram, multi-core, supports flash, usb, ethernet, has a built-in camera ... and at 17", the screen is big enough for several people to watch it at once.
It can even make phone calls!
The iPad should really be called the iPDA - it's a PDA, not a tablet computer.
I set it up in the wee hours of April 1st for April Fools. Get into the spirit of things, already.
"if it helps to move more towards web standards"
Apple is part of MPEG-LA, and guess what - Apple and their partners in MPEG-LA own the patents to h264 - and they want HTML5 to use h264 as the default standard for video, and get you to pay a licensing fee for each device.
There's a bigdifference between "standards" and "open standards." Apple is pulling a Microsoft.
As soon as anyone says "industry best practices", my bogometer gets pegged. Everyone has a different version of what "industry best practices" should be.
A word of advice - don't use that marketroid phrase in a serious discussion.
I'm running 3840x1200 you insensitive clod! :-)
In one of those 800-pixel layouts, they allocate a couple hundred pixels for the left column, another 160 pixels for the right column, 20 pixels for each side for padding - and that leaves 400 pixels for text. It's not 1990 any more.
Ever read a book? Unless you're going after the Readers Digest "I'm too stupid/lazy to read a real book" market, it's dominated by single-column formats.