With assinine comments link this "Nice to get a head start on what we'll be cloning next year;)", as the footnote to this news posting. It now becomes clear to me why the computer GUI will never truely evolve beyond what it is today. Thanks Taco for the insight!
Actually not... the system was sold for many years for interactive kiosks much like the CD-i was used for. Just because the dropped gaming from the product functionality doesn't mean they dropped the product.
The old Art Bell show, now hosted by some new guy covered this going on at around 1am MST while I was driving into work... I was surprised when I got in and loaded up/. and there was nothing... till SIX HOURS Later... what the F?
This page has a very interested and lengthy article where the researcher goes about proving the age of the universe to be at around 16 Billion years old, which is totally in line with scientific estimates. A very good read, if nothing else, it was thought provoking.
"There is no business justification; that's not why I did it," Robertson told News.com of his rationale behind the contest. "I did it because I thought people should have the choice to run the software they want on the hardware of their choice."
Robertson said that Xbox is designed much like a PC with a closed operating system run on Intel microprocessors. He argues that as it has done with PCs, Microsoft is trying to make its software the defacto operating system in gaming consoles.
"I think Xbox sets a dangerous precedent," he told CNET News.com.
He has said in interviews recently that he doesn't care which version of Linux is used to achive the goal. It just has to be repeatable. The idea is to prevent Microsoft from jumping ship from the PC to a closed MS hardware platform for PCs which would truely exclude other OSs from the marketplace.
This isn't really anything amazing. Tec Toy originally released this system back in 1989. Granted that release only has 21 games built into it at the time. I belive they released a second one in the mid 90's that had a larger number of titles. This is the same hardware, just more games built in. For more info on the SMSIII, check SegaBase... scroll down the page about 1/2 way.
That's not the kind of cap they're talking about. The kind of cap being used with the Ausies, is "you get xGb of download use this month" cap. Which is stupid... but forces people who actually make full use of that 250K DSL connection to have to pony up more money. God forbid you pay for a 640K connection and actually use it as well!
"I couldn't, and still can't, understand how someone would think "Oh, that film was made by Warner Bros, it must be good, I'll get it." What made it memorable was that some marketing monkey boy must have believed that to be case. To me it showed a complete lack of understanding between the people releasing the DVD's and the people buying them."
shows me that the author of this article is completely out of touch with the gaming public and consumers in general. People do buy things based on who made it.
How many people buy EA sports games BECAUSE they are EA sports games? Or Sega racing games, or Nintendo platform games, Square RPGs, ID FPSs, or even (insert favorite brand) pick-up trucks?
Better yet, to stick to the movie format, if you go into a movie store and you want to buy/rent a low-budget action film, and between two unknown movies with unknown actors and unknown content, you can pick a movie by Cannon Video, or one by Full Moon Video (known for horror films)... let's see, chances are you're going to take home the movie by Cannon because they are well known for making action films.
Why can't we make better use of the communities we already have? All this constant building new communities does nothing but add to the suburban sprawl that is already a blight on our landscape....oh wait... no, yeah. That's right...
Oh, I said nothing about stability. I said they never abandon a product. You're interpretation is literally the output of the MS hype machine. They want people to think they're doing something new when they are always repurposing the past in addition to anything new they might add.
Bob is Clippy MSN is still MSN WinG is DirectX etc... have you ever actually developed using the MSDN kit? They don't hide any of this, it's all in the comments, in the source code examples, in the documentation/guides. The whole MS interpretation of OO and reusable code is add to code and always use existing modules wherever possible. You do not start from scratch.
If there is a product they have put on the back burner in the last few years, rest assured it will show up someplace else as some other name down the road.
Microsoft has never hidden their ultimate goal... Read the company literature. Read the comments from the staff. But remember, that you have to read it from a corporate perspective.
What does that mean? Well, what is their mission statement? Their corporate mission statement has always been literally to achive Windows on every desktop/screen/whatever. Period.
Are they working to achieve this goal? The answer is yes.
...please forgive my pseudo-rambling, It's going on 24hrs since I last slept;p doh!...
Look, the primary reason for passport logins is in order to attract customers. PERIOD. If MS can offer passport security (sic) login support across nearly all commonly used platforms, then they can potentially approach a company with large volume customer interaction such as AT&T, FedEx, etc... or even our Government and use the sell line of "XX% of the US internet population has access to Passport, and XX% of internet users already have accounts created, reducing your sign-up/registration headaches. We would like to offer you this secure (sic), unified login solution for your customers as a convienence to both you and them. We can even integrate all of your customer service functions into this login for you as part of your initial installation! We'll even support your internal *nix environment so that you don't have to change servers (!for now!)."
So, then say, FedEx says hey, that sounds great, we can integrate everything into this, and it looks like everyone already has a Passport account, and there's no change in equipment on our end, and wow this will really make it easier for our customers to login and issue shipments, track shipments... We'll take it.
Microsoft never abandons a product, period, they just repurpose it a few years later. The MSN network never died, MS is just trying to co-op the internet under their wing. They want all data to come through them so they can get on with the subcription model they have been trying to migrate to since 1995. Passport has one primary purpose, it is the login mechanism of MSN, and the leverage to get companies to chanel data through MSN, which get's more customers, then more companies, etc...
Once MS has "critical mass" on Passport, they can leverage it even harder as part of their DRM initiatives. This isn't to control what you see and here per se. Remember, MS is about one and only one thing, maximizing the profit of the shareholders. PERIOD. If every piece of data has to pass through a piece of MS technology, even a nominal toll of cents becomes a tremendous amount of money.
What do you think the X-Box is all about. It is about marginalizing the PC. Just wait till next year when the data/streaming formats that are only X-Box compatible, or X-Box first start to role out. Just wait until you can subscribe to Office on your X-Box variant... Not only does this completely elimiate anti-trust issues due to the large volume of established law supporting the rights of hardware manufactures to control the content on their systems. The consolidation of all of these technologies over the next couple of years will give MS even more leverage in pushing their protocols to prospective clients... thus feeding the loop....and don't give me that crap about "nobody is buying X-Box systems". You're right, nobody is buying them. That's not the point. If MS was worried about sales, they wouldn't be giving away litterally hundres, if not thousands of consoles regularly. Pepsi shortly ends yet another "500 free X-Boxes" promotions this month. Who as ever heard of a console manufacture regularly givining away thousands of systems as much as a year after launch? MS only cares about
DRM components on a PC may or may not ever happen, but I believe the whole discussion will be mute in a number of years anyways...
Just what kind of power supply does this guy have in the system? or does he have a second one attached? I sure only seemed to see one in the pictures though.
This looks to me like a classic case of...
on
What Free Cable?
·
· Score: 1
This looks to me like a classic case of C|Net violating the DMCA in providing a way to get around content delivery controls, and pirate cable service.
2) Are you running only Microsoft products (if you have a single custom ASP page running on your server answer no)?
3) Are you running the current versions of all software and protocols used?
4) Do you have all current updates and service patches applied?
5) Was/Is your installation completed and maintained by someone who is MSCE for every aspect, component, and method of use for the MS software and protocols you are using?
If you have answered no to any of these questions, you are TSOL.
Actually, Tron did bomb in the theaters when it first came out... and I'll tell you why. It came out the same time as E.T.
I personally went and saw Tron by myself while my parents took my little sister to see E.T. (which I never bothered to see in the theaters), and I never regretted it.
I've always liked the original release of this film... and it still blows me away to this day. Every rehash since has generally offended me as crap... I would only consider the DVD if they did for it like Scott is planning to do for Legend... (basically the same thing Criterion did for Brazil). As disc set with the original print and the final directors cut included...
This is absolutely nothing new and has been going on for as long as there has been gaming magazines. Some would like to claim EGM pioneered the art, but I think they just mastered it to a new all time highs back in early 90's. EGM, GamePro, Next Generation, etc... all of them were guilty of this. Not only do magazines review games as a "final release" review when the games are only beta. Some have been known to review games strictly from video footage alone, feeling they don't have the time to really play all of these games.
I know this from fact. I've been in the industry, having published a magazine myself over disgust at this type of B.S. I can't tell you how many tradeshow parties I attended in the early to mid 90's where after a few drinks, this or that reviewer from different magazines would start to blathering about how they reviewed this or that game. Or when pressed about a flawed opinion, they would say how they reviewed it from video and it's the publishers fault for changing the game, or how they refuse to send back loaner hardware/software for whatever reasons.
I think the most blaring case of this was the time when Capcom nailed most of the magazines and made them look like fools regarding the first Resident Evil game. Capcom had been sending us betas on an almost monthly bases for a few months. Capcom like most publishers were also getting upset at magazines publishing strategy guides a month before a game would come out and decided to take action.
Well, everyone... and I mean everyone decided that they were going to be the first to do a Resident Evil strategy guide based on the last beta that had been sent out... only Capcom completely redid both item and monster placement as well as what doors were locked/unlocked and what keys were needed in the final game. When all of the magazines hit the stands... all of them had guides that bore zero resemblance to the final game. The magazines that put themselves into this mess all bitched about Capcom screwing them over, but the reality was that they did it to themselves.
Another classic case that always stood out in my mind was back when WipeOut was released for the PlayStation. At this time Next Generation still was trying to pretend that they only reviewed final product... unfortunately, I know they had a two-three month lead time like most print magazines. Also, I was working very closely with Psygnosis at the time getting regular beta releases of the game that we used to generate preview video material on our website. Basically the review they ran was based on playing a next to last release of the game. It was clear by the comments made in the review, and it was the first time I had caught them flat out. I actually called out a staffer from their mag on it a tradeshow and was told basically (I'm paraphrasing) "so what, most people aren't observant enough to care, and the game was great anyways!"
Or how about Bubsy the Bobcat? I don't think anyone ever actually played this game, but everyone gave it top marks for the year... even game of the year in some areas. If you actually played the game you would see that it was marginal at best... but the publisher spread lots a cash and hype around... and it paid off in coverage.
The bottom line is if you want reliable opinions on a game, either play the game yourself, or talk to other gamers you know who have both played it, and share your likes in games. Advertising based magazines have to much at stake to give honest reviews for all games, or their staff are such fan-boys that they are incapable of providing fair or acurate coverage for anything.
Slashdot Mirror
Here are some nice fractal generated snowflakes...
...they're pretty cool to watch over your desktop after you turn off the stock background art.
With assinine comments link this "Nice to get a head start on what we'll be cloning next year ;)", as the footnote to this news posting. It now becomes clear to me why the computer GUI will never truely evolve beyond what it is today. Thanks Taco for the insight!
Actually not... the system was sold for many years for interactive kiosks much like the CD-i was used for. Just because the dropped gaming from the product functionality doesn't mean they dropped the product.
The old Art Bell show, now hosted by some new guy covered this going on at around 1am MST while I was driving into work... I was surprised when I got in and loaded up /. and there was nothing... till SIX HOURS Later... what the F?
http://www.aish.com/societywork/sciencenature/Age_ of_the_Universe.asp
This page has a very interested and lengthy article where the researcher goes about proving the age of the universe to be at around 16 Billion years old, which is totally in line with scientific estimates. A very good read, if nothing else, it was thought provoking.
http://www.forbes.com/newswire/2003/01/03/rtr83678 5.html
"There is no business justification; that's not why I did it," Robertson told News.com of his rationale behind the contest. "I did it because I thought people should have the choice to run the software they want on the hardware of their choice."
Robertson said that Xbox is designed much like a PC with a closed operating system run on Intel microprocessors. He argues that as it has done with PCs, Microsoft is trying to make its software the defacto operating system in gaming consoles.
"I think Xbox sets a dangerous precedent," he told CNET News.com.
He has said in interviews recently that he doesn't care which version of Linux is used to achive the goal. It just has to be repeatable. The idea is to prevent Microsoft from jumping ship from the PC to a closed MS hardware platform for PCs which would truely exclude other OSs from the marketplace.
NOT
Apple Records for infringement... It's not like they're using it anyways. Two of the guys are dead!
Whatever... the point is, this isn't really hot news. This company has already released atleast one of these before in the past.
This isn't really anything amazing. Tec Toy originally released this system back in 1989. Granted that release only has 21 games built into it at the time. I belive they released a second one in the mid 90's that had a larger number of titles. This is the same hardware, just more games built in. For more info on the SMSIII, check SegaBase... scroll down the page about 1/2 way.
That's not the kind of cap they're talking about. The kind of cap being used with the Ausies, is "you get xGb of download use this month" cap. Which is stupid... but forces people who actually make full use of that 250K DSL connection to have to pony up more money. God forbid you pay for a 640K connection and actually use it as well!
So, now we know how he's going to pay for his lawsuit... Not even Microsoft makes more than the porn industry :)
This statement right here:
"I couldn't, and still can't, understand how someone would think "Oh, that film was made by Warner Bros, it must be good, I'll get it." What made it memorable was that some marketing monkey boy must have believed that to be case. To me it showed a complete lack of understanding between the people releasing the DVD's and the people buying them."
shows me that the author of this article is completely out of touch with the gaming public and consumers in general. People do buy things based on who made it.
How many people buy EA sports games BECAUSE they are EA sports games? Or Sega racing games, or Nintendo platform games, Square RPGs, ID FPSs, or even (insert favorite brand) pick-up trucks?
Better yet, to stick to the movie format, if you go into a movie store and you want to buy/rent a low-budget action film, and between two unknown movies with unknown actors and unknown content, you can pick a movie by Cannon Video, or one by Full Moon Video (known for horror films)... let's see, chances are you're going to take home the movie by Cannon because they are well known for making action films.
As for the rest of the article...
What a pretentious prick...
Why can't we make better use of the communities we already have? All this constant building new communities does nothing but add to the suburban sprawl that is already a blight on our landscape. ...oh wait... no, yeah. That's right...
FREE KEVIN!
Oh, I said nothing about stability. I said they never abandon a product. You're interpretation is literally the output of the MS hype machine. They want people to think they're doing something new when they are always repurposing the past in addition to anything new they might add.
Bob is Clippy
MSN is still MSN
WinG is DirectX
etc... have you ever actually developed using the MSDN kit? They don't hide any of this, it's all in the comments, in the source code examples, in the documentation/guides. The whole MS interpretation of OO and reusable code is add to code and always use existing modules wherever possible. You do not start from scratch.
If there is a product they have put on the back burner in the last few years, rest assured it will show up someplace else as some other name down the road.
Microsoft has never hidden their ultimate goal... Read the company literature. Read the comments from the staff. But remember, that you have to read it from a corporate perspective.
What does that mean? Well, what is their mission statement? Their corporate mission statement has always been literally to achive Windows on every desktop/screen/whatever. Period.
Are they working to achieve this goal? The answer is yes.
...please forgive my pseudo-rambling, It's going on 24hrs since I last slept ;p doh! ...
...and don't give me that crap about "nobody is buying X-Box systems". You're right, nobody is buying them. That's not the point. If MS was worried about sales, they wouldn't be giving away litterally hundres, if not thousands of consoles regularly. Pepsi shortly ends yet another "500 free X-Boxes" promotions this month. Who as ever heard of a console manufacture regularly givining away thousands of systems as much as a year after launch? MS only cares about
Look, the primary reason for passport logins is in order to attract customers. PERIOD. If MS can offer passport security (sic) login support across nearly all commonly used platforms, then they can potentially approach a company with large volume customer interaction such as AT&T, FedEx, etc... or even our Government and use the sell line of "XX% of the US internet population has access to Passport, and XX% of internet users already have accounts created, reducing your sign-up/registration headaches. We would like to offer you this secure (sic), unified login solution for your customers as a convienence to both you and them. We can even integrate all of your customer service functions into this login for you as part of your initial installation! We'll even support your internal *nix environment so that you don't have to change servers (!for now!)."
So, then say, FedEx says hey, that sounds great, we can integrate everything into this, and it looks like everyone already has a Passport account, and there's no change in equipment on our end, and wow this will really make it easier for our customers to login and issue shipments, track shipments... We'll take it.
Microsoft never abandons a product, period, they just repurpose it a few years later. The MSN network never died, MS is just trying to co-op the internet under their wing. They want all data to come through them so they can get on with the subcription model they have been trying to migrate to since 1995. Passport has one primary purpose, it is the login mechanism of MSN, and the leverage to get companies to chanel data through MSN, which get's more customers, then more companies, etc...
Once MS has "critical mass" on Passport, they can leverage it even harder as part of their DRM initiatives. This isn't to control what you see and here per se. Remember, MS is about one and only one thing, maximizing the profit of the shareholders. PERIOD. If every piece of data has to pass through a piece of MS technology, even a nominal toll of cents becomes a tremendous amount of money.
What do you think the X-Box is all about. It is about marginalizing the PC. Just wait till next year when the data/streaming formats that are only X-Box compatible, or X-Box first start to role out. Just wait until you can subscribe to Office on your X-Box variant... Not only does this completely elimiate anti-trust issues due to the large volume of established law supporting the rights of hardware manufactures to control the content on their systems. The consolidation of all of these technologies over the next couple of years will give MS even more leverage in pushing their protocols to prospective clients... thus feeding the loop.
DRM components on a PC may or may not ever happen, but I believe the whole discussion will be mute in a number of years anyways...
Just what kind of power supply does this guy have in the system? or does he have a second one attached? I sure only seemed to see one in the pictures though.
This looks to me like a classic case of C|Net violating the DMCA in providing a way to get around content delivery controls, and pirate cable service.
All MS has to do is ask these questions:
1) Is all of your hardware HQL approved?
2) Are you running only Microsoft products (if you have a single custom ASP page running on your server answer no)?
3) Are you running the current versions of all software and protocols used?
4) Do you have all current updates and service patches applied?
5) Was/Is your installation completed and maintained by someone who is MSCE for every aspect, component, and method of use for the MS software and protocols you are using?
If you have answered no to any of these questions, you are TSOL.
...and and don't foget, we wouldn't have the glorious OS/2 PM GUI if it wasn't for Amiga (this was the trade IBM got for them porting REXX)!
Actually, Tron did bomb in the theaters when it first came out... and I'll tell you why. It came out the same time as E.T.
I personally went and saw Tron by myself while my parents took my little sister to see E.T. (which I never bothered to see in the theaters), and I never regretted it.
I've always liked the original release of this film... and it still blows me away to this day. Every rehash since has generally offended me as crap... I would only consider the DVD if they did for it like Scott is planning to do for Legend... (basically the same thing Criterion did for Brazil). As disc set with the original print and the final directors cut included...
oh well...
This is absolutely nothing new and has been going on for as long as there has been gaming magazines. Some would like to claim EGM pioneered the art, but I think they just mastered it to a new all time highs back in early 90's. EGM, GamePro, Next Generation, etc... all of them were guilty of this. Not only do magazines review games as a "final release" review when the games are only beta. Some have been known to review games strictly from video footage alone, feeling they don't have the time to really play all of these games.
I know this from fact. I've been in the industry, having published a magazine myself over disgust at this type of B.S. I can't tell you how many tradeshow parties I attended in the early to mid 90's where after a few drinks, this or that reviewer from different magazines would start to blathering about how they reviewed this or that game. Or when pressed about a flawed opinion, they would say how they reviewed it from video and it's the publishers fault for changing the game, or how they refuse to send back loaner hardware/software for whatever reasons.
I think the most blaring case of this was the time when Capcom nailed most of the magazines and made them look like fools regarding the first Resident Evil game. Capcom had been sending us betas on an almost monthly bases for a few months. Capcom like most publishers were also getting upset at magazines publishing strategy guides a month before a game would come out and decided to take action.
Well, everyone... and I mean everyone decided that they were going to be the first to do a Resident Evil strategy guide based on the last beta that had been sent out... only Capcom completely redid both item and monster placement as well as what doors were locked/unlocked and what keys were needed in the final game. When all of the magazines hit the stands... all of them had guides that bore zero resemblance to the final game. The magazines that put themselves into this mess all bitched about Capcom screwing them over, but the reality was that they did it to themselves.
Another classic case that always stood out in my mind was back when WipeOut was released for the PlayStation. At this time Next Generation still was trying to pretend that they only reviewed final product... unfortunately, I know they had a two-three month lead time like most print magazines. Also, I was working very closely with Psygnosis at the time getting regular beta releases of the game that we used to generate preview video material on our website. Basically the review they ran was based on playing a next to last release of the game. It was clear by the comments made in the review, and it was the first time I had caught them flat out. I actually called out a staffer from their mag on it a tradeshow and was told basically (I'm paraphrasing) "so what, most people aren't observant enough to care, and the game was great anyways!"
Or how about Bubsy the Bobcat? I don't think anyone ever actually played this game, but everyone gave it top marks for the year... even game of the year in some areas. If you actually played the game you would see that it was marginal at best... but the publisher spread lots a cash and hype around... and it paid off in coverage.
The bottom line is if you want reliable opinions on a game, either play the game yourself, or talk to other gamers you know who have both played it, and share your likes in games. Advertising based magazines have to much at stake to give honest reviews for all games, or their staff are such fan-boys that they are incapable of providing fair or acurate coverage for anything.
Take a dollar from this man since he's a day late and soon to be a dollar short in his ideas.