Information Wants to be free and shifty
on
Convergence Culture
·
· Score: 2, Informative
A welcome book, particularly when it seems that the primary aim of corporate policies are to make their products less useful and more annoying at each turn. In particular, the upgrade path of the PSP is a perfect example. Each firmware upgrade reduces the capabilities of the PSP, and downgrades are eagerly sought. In the meantime Sony has so hopelessly crippled the platform that it cannot even exploit the capability for wireless download services due to its own DRM!
I got a v1.5 unit sortly after launch and for the most part I regret the purchase. Too big, too fragile, UMDs are a joke, memorystick pro duos are too expensive, and the battery life limits my primary use video playback from ripped video. On the other hand I love my DS and just bought a DS lite and use it in conjunction with the GBA micro all the time (using a play yan for MP3 and video playback). As for cutting the price, is Ken "The PS3 isn't expensive enough" Kuratagi going to go along with this? Nore likely He'll raise prices and incorporate a UMD drive so DRMed that it can't read UMD discs. The foot cannon, isn't effective enough! Get out the foot mass driver!
Nice try. The Brits still require warrants for eavesdropping, and the tip came from a neighbor. All by the book police work the ACLU would approve of. As for airline searches, the searches are well documented and noted in advance with probable cause and the implied consent of the passenger.
I'm in the same position. Had the good luck to buy a 1.5 and never upgraded (what does it say for a product when everybody wants to downgrade the firmware and each upgrade further cripples it?). While the screen and audio makes for excellent memory stick movies I still barely use it, due to the huge form factor, fragility, bad battery life, and horrific memory stick costs. On the other hand I've just upgraded to a DS Lite from my original DS Phat. I use it all the time especially in conjunction with the GBA micro. Both take the Play Yan cartridge providing excellent video and mp3 support. When on the run I use the micro for it's small size, but when I'm sitting down I use the DS Lite for the better screen and battery life. The worst part of Sony's strategy is that they are actively supressing the two practical applications of the PSP memory stick movies and homebrew, while desparately looking for some practical application for the unit.
The PSP does have a potential killer app. Wireless downloadable movies. Exploit the WiFi function to allow users to download movies to a large memory stick with a firmware mod. Agressively market the service (in conjunction with recharge cables) at airports, Starbucks and train stations. Unfortunately the present leadership of Sony would never risk something as audacious as this, which is why Sony is cratering.
If they made games no-one wanted, why are they being pirated? Cost/benefits ratio. People are willing to watch a marginal movie on cable or from bittorrent for "free" (already paid for the movie channel) but wouldn't bother to see the same movie in the cinema or buy the dvd because it isn't worth that much. In the same fashion, a game that costs $50 isn't worth the cost or effort of buying it, while a "free" version of the same game might be worth a look. Of course, a sufficently good product will shift the balance. While I first saw a black market version of Howl's Moving Castle (complete with people getting up in front of the screen etc.) before the American release, I also ran out to the cinema (El Capitan in Hollywood) to see it and own two kosher copies(region 1 & 2). Why? Because it's an excellent film that deserves the best quality of reproduction and I feel allegance to Studio Ghibli because they produce the best product possible. Same thing with Appleseed. On the other hand, while I saw Revenge of the Sith in the cinema, had I seen the pirate edition with the timecode counter and the rest, I'd have certianly avoided bothering with any other viewings. In the same manner, I always buy CDs and rip them myself to ensure proper encoding, and to allow for future re-rips as formats change.
After that, they can re-evaluate just what "Live Free or Die" means. The present administration has been re-evaluating this and is favoring the the latter of the two options for its subj^H^H^H^Hcitizens.
A great understatement. I've ordered books that are listed "usually ships next business day" with next day shipping, only to have the book ship 2 months later. Trying to cancel this order was impossible since it "was already being processed".
Amazon used to have highly responsive customer service representatives, who had wide discretion. When they tried to organize they were fired and phone responses were outsourced to Belfast and e-mail responses to New Delhi. I assume that the webpage management has been similarly outsourced.
Amazon has always been the vendor of last resort for me. They established themselves by dumping product below cost, decimating independent bookstores in the process. Now that they have to service this debt and compete on a level playing field, they pursue "odd directions" to cover up the weakness of their core business.
I suspect that the ever overrated Jeff Bezos will eventually go down as notable failure similar to Kozomo but on a much grander scale.
Oh and I forgot the killer Anime for MMOG, Stellvia. No guns, team operations are essential, woman friendly, and the stakes are enormous. Oh and there is a built in training path.
One word: Anime As with most Anime the emphasis is on teams of individuals who depend upon each other. Consider Nadesico, Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Geneshaft, or even Neon Genesis Evangelion. Then of course there's Sakura Wars which derived from RPGs to begin with. A MMOG based on Sakura Wars would rock! Geki! Teikoku Kageki-dan!
Um, not quite. Most school textbooks are in poor repair and antiquated in the US. Secondly present textbook publishing is volume driven, with the content often dictated by Texas and other large red state markets. The use of an OLPC would not only allow for up to date textbooks but would allow more enlightened states to avoid present least common denominator content.
The prototypical "Two Guys in a Garage" were Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in 1939 who founded one of the top "blue sky" research labs HP Labs. i.e. the two guys in the garage predated the cold war and founded "blue sky" research labs, as did previous inventors coming from modest origins (Bell, Chester Carlson of XEROX, Edwin Land of Polaroid). Inventors create labs, Managers kill them.
There is room for growth, at the bottom. If a given configuration is "fast enough" which I do belive is true, then the new market is driving the cost, size and weight down. Essentially the OLPC "$100" laptop and what I call the 'bubble pack PC', a small cheap ($50-$200) PC, zero maintanence, sold in bubble packs as an impulse buy. These will be secondary machines, but they will change computing radically.
And instituted a yet infinitely stupider format in its place. Dropping the UMD in favor of a $60-120 memory stick which will only play one movie (out of a choice of Hitch, S.W.A.T., The Grudge, or XXX: State of the Union) at 240x320 resolution! We can rule out arrogance at this point in that it implies self preservation.
This is how Intel got to this point to begin with. If I remember correctly, there was a big purge of experienced designers after the P3 came out, when it came time for the P4 (Prescott) they didn't have enough folks who could work from a clean sheet of paper. They got by on superior fab until the P4M showed up from a non-decimated division. On the other hand AMD went on a hiring binge for good processor designers and has had the upper hand ever since.
Slashdot Mirror
kill the Insert key!
Music Consumers Spend a Year Dead for Legal Purposesb lack_Desiato
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotblack_Desiato#Hot
A welcome book, particularly when it seems that the primary aim of corporate policies are to make their products less useful and more annoying at each turn. In particular, the upgrade path of the PSP is a perfect example. Each firmware upgrade reduces the capabilities of the PSP, and downgrades are eagerly sought. In the meantime Sony has so hopelessly crippled the platform that it cannot even exploit the capability for wireless download services due to its own DRM!
I got a v1.5 unit sortly after launch and for the most part I regret the purchase. Too big, too fragile, UMDs are a joke, memorystick pro duos are too expensive, and the battery life limits my primary use video playback from ripped video. On the other hand I love my DS and just bought a DS lite and use it in conjunction with the GBA micro all the time (using a play yan for MP3 and video playback).
As for cutting the price, is Ken "The PS3 isn't expensive enough" Kuratagi going to go along with this? Nore likely He'll raise prices and incorporate a UMD drive so DRMed that it can't read UMD discs.
The foot cannon, isn't effective enough! Get out the foot mass driver!
Nice try. The Brits still require warrants for eavesdropping, and the tip came from a neighbor. All by the book police work the ACLU would approve of. As for airline searches, the searches are well documented and noted in advance with probable cause and the implied consent of the passenger.
Details here:s urveillance-not-illegal.html
http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/08/legal-
If this format catches on. If it doesn't the media price rises as availability drops. DAT, MiniDisc, UMD...
Next generation units will use bluray as a storage device an play video using UMDs. Best of both worlds!
...Held at the White House?
So the new Apple Slogan is "Slightly less crappy than Dell"?
I'm in the same position. Had the good luck to buy a 1.5 and never upgraded (what does it say for a product when everybody wants to downgrade the firmware and each upgrade further cripples it?). While the screen and audio makes for excellent memory stick movies I still barely use it, due to the huge form factor, fragility, bad battery life, and horrific memory stick costs.
On the other hand I've just upgraded to a DS Lite from my original DS Phat. I use it all the time especially in conjunction with the GBA micro. Both take the Play Yan cartridge providing excellent video and mp3 support. When on the run I use the micro for it's small size, but when I'm sitting down I use the DS Lite for the better screen and battery life.
The worst part of Sony's strategy is that they are actively supressing the two practical applications of the PSP memory stick movies and homebrew, while desparately looking for some practical application for the unit.
The PSP does have a potential killer app. Wireless downloadable movies. Exploit the WiFi function to allow users to download movies to a large memory stick with a firmware mod. Agressively market the service (in conjunction with recharge cables) at airports, Starbucks and train stations. Unfortunately the present leadership of Sony would never risk something as audacious as this, which is why Sony is cratering.
If they made games no-one wanted, why are they being pirated?
Cost/benefits ratio. People are willing to watch a marginal movie on cable or from bittorrent for "free" (already paid for the movie channel) but wouldn't bother to see the same movie in the cinema or buy the dvd because it isn't worth that much. In the same fashion, a game that costs $50 isn't worth the cost or effort of buying it, while a "free" version of the same game might be worth a look.
Of course, a sufficently good product will shift the balance. While I first saw a black market version of Howl's Moving Castle (complete with people getting up in front of the screen etc.) before the American release, I also ran out to the cinema (El Capitan in Hollywood) to see it and own two kosher copies(region 1 & 2). Why? Because it's an excellent film that deserves the best quality of reproduction and I feel allegance to Studio Ghibli because they produce the best product possible. Same thing with Appleseed.
On the other hand, while I saw Revenge of the Sith in the cinema, had I seen the pirate edition with the timecode counter and the rest, I'd have certianly avoided bothering with any other viewings.
In the same manner, I always buy CDs and rip them myself to ensure proper encoding, and to allow for future re-rips as formats change.
How will they distribute the rootkits?
After that, they can re-evaluate just what "Live Free or Die" means.
The present administration has been re-evaluating this and is favoring the the latter of the two options for its subj^H^H^H^Hcitizens.
Yes let us restore the cannon and fire B&B out of it.
3 8?
I mean, can't we convince them to tag along for a ride with Scotty http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/15/06342
A great understatement. I've ordered books that are listed "usually ships next business day" with next day shipping, only to have the book ship 2 months later. Trying to cancel this order was impossible since it "was already being processed".
Amazon used to have highly responsive customer service representatives, who had wide discretion. When they tried to organize they were fired and phone responses were outsourced to Belfast and e-mail responses to New Delhi. I assume that the webpage management has been similarly outsourced.
Amazon has always been the vendor of last resort for me. They established themselves by dumping product below cost, decimating independent bookstores in the process. Now that they have to service this debt and compete on a level playing field, they pursue "odd directions" to cover up the weakness of their core business.
I suspect that the ever overrated Jeff Bezos will eventually go down as notable failure similar to Kozomo but on a much grander scale.
Oh and I forgot the killer Anime for MMOG, Stellvia. No guns, team operations are essential, woman friendly, and the stakes are enormous. Oh and there is a built in training path.
One word:
Anime
As with most Anime the emphasis is on teams of individuals who depend upon each other. Consider Nadesico, Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Geneshaft, or even Neon Genesis Evangelion. Then of course there's Sakura Wars which derived from RPGs to begin with. A MMOG based on Sakura Wars would rock! Geki! Teikoku Kageki-dan!
All your base are belong to us! ... ...
Gentlemen, make your time!
For great justice!
Sorry (sob) I just can't go on!
Um, not quite. Most school textbooks are in poor repair and antiquated in the US. Secondly present textbook publishing is volume driven, with the content often dictated by Texas and other large red state markets.
The use of an OLPC would not only allow for up to date textbooks but would allow more enlightened states to avoid present least common denominator content.
The prototypical "Two Guys in a Garage" were Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in 1939 who founded one of the top "blue sky" research labs HP Labs.
i.e. the two guys in the garage predated the cold war and founded "blue sky" research labs, as did previous inventors coming from modest origins (Bell, Chester Carlson of XEROX, Edwin Land of Polaroid). Inventors create labs, Managers kill them.
Of course they ran Windows NE (Neanderthal Edition)
There is room for growth, at the bottom. If a given configuration is "fast enough" which I do belive is true, then the new market is driving the cost, size and weight down. Essentially the OLPC "$100" laptop and what I call the 'bubble pack PC', a small cheap ($50-$200) PC, zero maintanence, sold in bubble packs as an impulse buy. These will be secondary machines, but they will change computing radically.
And instituted a yet infinitely stupider format in its place. Dropping the UMD in favor of a $60-120 memory stick which will only play one movie (out of a choice of Hitch, S.W.A.T., The Grudge, or XXX: State of the Union) at 240x320 resolution! We can rule out arrogance at this point in that it implies self preservation.
This is how Intel got to this point to begin with. If I remember correctly, there was a big purge of experienced designers after the P3 came out, when it came time for the P4 (Prescott) they didn't have enough folks who could work from a clean sheet of paper. They got by on superior fab until the P4M showed up from a non-decimated division. On the other hand AMD went on a hiring binge for good processor designers and has had the upper hand ever since.