"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair."
You're right - Microsoft is essentially running the same play as they did with the Xbox... instead of the PS2 from Sony, the enormous dominant monolith that they're assaulting is the iPod from Apple. They are doing rather well with the Xbox though (although not in Japan, where they really are struggling) and although they're not owning the market like I'm sure they'd like to eventually do, they're making headway. If the PS3 bombs, they are very nicely positioned.
That said, the Xbox (and the 360) didn't get where it is through just marketing dollars, although I'm sure that plenty of them were spent. It was a bit powerful than the PS2, it had a few exclusive blockbuster games like Halo, and Xbox Live was really quite excellent. They also made sure many great games were multi-platform, so that the Xbox had a reasonable stable of games to play. There were real, significant reasons that they did well with the Xbox. Enough reasons that people could buy both an Xbox and a PS2 and not feel like a complete idiot.
The problem with the Zune is that there don't seem to be those points of differentiation. The wireless stuff sounded interesting at launch, but has been progressively nerfed into insignificance, and although the screen is bigger, it's the same resolution as an iPod anyway, so... I really would've thought Microsoft would've just gone down the iPod feature list and matched everything they could, and then added perhaps three extra features to make it more attractive. Doing everything that the iPod does isn't going to make people switch, and lacking stuff like mass storage is just silly. Still, this is only Zune v1.0, and the battle is long...
Technician 1: I got it! We can just shut off the power! Technician 2: No such luck. It's solar powered. Technician 1: Solar power! When will people learn?
This is my favoured solution too... but I'm pretty much resigned to bike paths, since I've nearly been killed a few times on the roads by people who don't see me, or are concentrating on large trucks, or talking on their cellphone. I haven't actually been knocked off yet, but a bit of bad luck and boom, I'm dead.
I have managed to work at one place with good bikeways, and clean, non-busy showers in the building, and it was excellent. I saved money, got fitter, and felt better when I started the day. I suppose I also helped reduce pollution and fossil fuel usage because of the lack of my mass on the bus, but that's a fairly tiny amount.
Ralph Wiggum: Oh, Daddy, this tastes like Grandma! Chief Wiggum: Holy Moly, it does taste like Grandma! Ralph: I want more. Chief Wiggum: Yeah, me too. We'll take a bushel or a pack or just--just give it to me.
Interesting side note regarding Steam... here in Australia the boxed copy of HL2 is AU$110 in EB Games, while on Steam it's a lot cheaper. The Source Premier Pack is US$60, which includes HL2, Episode 1, Lost Coast, Day of Defeat and a bunch of other stuff, while there's a minimal HL2 Pack for US$30. With the exchange rate the way it is, US$60 ~ AU$80, which makes things significantly cheaper.
It blows my mind that the boxed HL2 is still so expensive here... but at least there's another option. Steam and other systems of its ilk could become increasingly popular if local prices are ridiculous. The only downside is the massive download for the game, which sucks doubly in a country like Australia with its download limits. Ugh.
My university (Bond Uni in Australia) had a similar program for lectures when I was there, although it was only for the law school. Every law lecture was recorded on VCR, and the tapes placed in the library to be loaned out using the standard process. I believe it took about a week, although this was probably because of the physical meatspace component, not because of any policy.
Law students would use these tapes to catch up on missed lectures, but they would also use them as study aids around exam time. Groups of students would borrow (or copy) the tapes and sit down in someone's lounge to watch an entire semester's worth of Constitutional Law or Torts in a day. Not much fun, but it probably helped for the upcoming exam. Sometimes they'd even pause the lecture and chat about a salient point for a bit, or even curse themselves for enrolling to study law.
Canned lectures are usually never as good as being there, so I think restrictions on viewing are unnecessary. The mp3s will get handed around anyway, so don't waste your time.
You're right - WoW is a lot more fun with real friends, instead of the usual assholes you meet in PUGs (pick up groups). I reactivated my account recently after travelling for a few months, and I started a new char on a server with three RL buddies. We play Thursday nights with Teamspeak, so we can chat and carry on, as well as co-ordinate what the hell we're doing. It's like cards night with the boys, and it's really fun. Much more fun than being with random, tantrum-throwing wankers who show all the maturity of a sugar-rushing preschooler.
The other reason we only play one night a week is that it keeps the addiction down... always a good safeguard for school, jobs and wives.
I noticed this when I visited Paris as well - wide, open sidewalks with big bushy trees that flare out without having to be trimmed back every week. On the other hand, I wandered some old streets of Kyoto recently and they seem to do the opposite - very ugly. From a purely visual perspective, it's no contest.
Interesting side note though - an American friend of mine came to Australia and couldn't stand the locally-produced versions of Coke, Pepsi, etc. He would bring back cases of corn syruped soda when he visited the states, because he greatly preferred that flavour to the Australian can sugar version.
Funny thing is, it seemed to work the exact opposite way for me. In the US, I'd try soda and go "Ewwwww so much sweetness!" and pine for good old cane sugar soda from back home.
Australia pizza, on the other hand, is complete crap.
Jack Thompson sues U.S. District Court of Southeastern Florida over Florida Bar decision? I wonder if he'll stop when he gets to suing Jesus, or whether he'll go the final step up to God...
I'll have to agree - I've recently started using daily contact lenses and my experience has been excellent. I used to use monthly lenses, but found that after the first few days of use, they'd get quite dry and uncomfortable. Like the story poster, I went back to glasses for a while, but tried dailies in the last few months. They're much easier on the eyes, and there's no messing about with solutions or storage.
They are more expensive though - three months of lenses (six boxes of thirty) just cost me about $180 here in Canada. I think it's worth it, though.
I'm fairly in agreement with you, but I suppose a small bonus is that it does work with the non-iTunes music stores like Napster, Rhapsody, etc. This is a point of contention though, because no non-Apple player can use iTunes, and no iPod works with Napster so it's not exactly a direct comparison, but it does offer other options for digital music purchases.
(Personally any player/platform/store DRM lock in crap turns me right off, but YMMV).
Slashdot Mirror
This reminds me of a Douglas Adams quote:
"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair."
You're right - Microsoft is essentially running the same play as they did with the Xbox... instead of the PS2 from Sony, the enormous dominant monolith that they're assaulting is the iPod from Apple. They are doing rather well with the Xbox though (although not in Japan, where they really are struggling) and although they're not owning the market like I'm sure they'd like to eventually do, they're making headway. If the PS3 bombs, they are very nicely positioned.
That said, the Xbox (and the 360) didn't get where it is through just marketing dollars, although I'm sure that plenty of them were spent. It was a bit powerful than the PS2, it had a few exclusive blockbuster games like Halo, and Xbox Live was really quite excellent. They also made sure many great games were multi-platform, so that the Xbox had a reasonable stable of games to play. There were real, significant reasons that they did well with the Xbox. Enough reasons that people could buy both an Xbox and a PS2 and not feel like a complete idiot.
The problem with the Zune is that there don't seem to be those points of differentiation. The wireless stuff sounded interesting at launch, but has been progressively nerfed into insignificance, and although the screen is bigger, it's the same resolution as an iPod anyway, so... I really would've thought Microsoft would've just gone down the iPod feature list and matched everything they could, and then added perhaps three extra features to make it more attractive. Doing everything that the iPod does isn't going to make people switch, and lacking stuff like mass storage is just silly. Still, this is only Zune v1.0, and the battle is long...
"There's nothing more exhilarating than pointing out the shortcomings of others, is there?" - Randal Graves, Clerks
Obj Simpsons:
Technician 1: I got it! We can just shut off the power!
Technician 2: No such luck. It's solar powered.
Technician 1: Solar power! When will people learn?
This is my favoured solution too... but I'm pretty much resigned to bike paths, since I've nearly been killed a few times on the roads by people who don't see me, or are concentrating on large trucks, or talking on their cellphone. I haven't actually been knocked off yet, but a bit of bad luck and boom, I'm dead.
I have managed to work at one place with good bikeways, and clean, non-busy showers in the building, and it was excellent. I saved money, got fitter, and felt better when I started the day. I suppose I also helped reduce pollution and fossil fuel usage because of the lack of my mass on the bus, but that's a fairly tiny amount.
1-3/8 x 4-1/8 inches isn't 35 x 103cm, it's ~ 3.5 x 10.3cm. Otherwise that's a rather enormous teeny Linux server.
Ralph Wiggum: Oh, Daddy, this tastes like Grandma!
Chief Wiggum: Holy Moly, it does taste like Grandma!
Ralph: I want more.
Chief Wiggum: Yeah, me too. We'll take a bushel or a pack or just--just give it to me.
That poor bastard. No wonder he was angry.
Interesting side note regarding Steam... here in Australia the boxed copy of HL2 is AU$110 in EB Games, while on Steam it's a lot cheaper. The Source Premier Pack is US$60, which includes HL2, Episode 1, Lost Coast, Day of Defeat and a bunch of other stuff, while there's a minimal HL2 Pack for US$30. With the exchange rate the way it is, US$60 ~ AU$80, which makes things significantly cheaper.
It blows my mind that the boxed HL2 is still so expensive here... but at least there's another option. Steam and other systems of its ilk could become increasingly popular if local prices are ridiculous. The only downside is the massive download for the game, which sucks doubly in a country like Australia with its download limits. Ugh.
My university (Bond Uni in Australia) had a similar program for lectures when I was there, although it was only for the law school. Every law lecture was recorded on VCR, and the tapes placed in the library to be loaned out using the standard process. I believe it took about a week, although this was probably because of the physical meatspace component, not because of any policy.
Law students would use these tapes to catch up on missed lectures, but they would also use them as study aids around exam time. Groups of students would borrow (or copy) the tapes and sit down in someone's lounge to watch an entire semester's worth of Constitutional Law or Torts in a day. Not much fun, but it probably helped for the upcoming exam. Sometimes they'd even pause the lecture and chat about a salient point for a bit, or even curse themselves for enrolling to study law.
Canned lectures are usually never as good as being there, so I think restrictions on viewing are unnecessary. The mp3s will get handed around anyway, so don't waste your time.
Ah, it's ok. It's like Jabba the Hutt helping to take down the Empire.
Or Jenna Jameson movies per square foot.
There's more nifty info on the Flickrblog: http://blog.flickr.com/flickrblog/2006/08/great_sh ot_wher.html
Apparently Safari support is currently broken, but will be fixed shortly.
You're right - WoW is a lot more fun with real friends, instead of the usual assholes you meet in PUGs (pick up groups). I reactivated my account recently after travelling for a few months, and I started a new char on a server with three RL buddies. We play Thursday nights with Teamspeak, so we can chat and carry on, as well as co-ordinate what the hell we're doing. It's like cards night with the boys, and it's really fun. Much more fun than being with random, tantrum-throwing wankers who show all the maturity of a sugar-rushing preschooler.
The other reason we only play one night a week is that it keeps the addiction down... always a good safeguard for school, jobs and wives.
"Captain... I sense he's hiding something."
"Er, thanks for nothing, councillor."
I love the smell of a pre-prepared astroturf Slashdot post in the morning!
I noticed this when I visited Paris as well - wide, open sidewalks with big bushy trees that flare out without having to be trimmed back every week. On the other hand, I wandered some old streets of Kyoto recently and they seem to do the opposite - very ugly. From a purely visual perspective, it's no contest.
Interesting side note though - an American friend of mine came to Australia and couldn't stand the locally-produced versions of Coke, Pepsi, etc. He would bring back cases of corn syruped soda when he visited the states, because he greatly preferred that flavour to the Australian can sugar version.
Funny thing is, it seemed to work the exact opposite way for me. In the US, I'd try soda and go "Ewwwww so much sweetness!" and pine for good old cane sugar soda from back home.
Australia pizza, on the other hand, is complete crap.
My desire to buy a Philips product ever again in my lifetime just plummetted to zero. Nice work, marketing department!
Jack Thompson sues U.S. District Court of Southeastern Florida over Florida Bar decision? I wonder if he'll stop when he gets to suing Jesus, or whether he'll go the final step up to God...
I'll have to agree - I've recently started using daily contact lenses and my experience has been excellent. I used to use monthly lenses, but found that after the first few days of use, they'd get quite dry and uncomfortable. Like the story poster, I went back to glasses for a while, but tried dailies in the last few months. They're much easier on the eyes, and there's no messing about with solutions or storage.
They are more expensive though - three months of lenses (six boxes of thirty) just cost me about $180 here in Canada. I think it's worth it, though.
They do very nice bags indeed, and they get extra points for having a bag called the Budgie Smuggler.
The Visa Crucible: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/04/25
Well played, sir.
I'm fairly in agreement with you, but I suppose a small bonus is that it does work with the non-iTunes music stores like Napster, Rhapsody, etc. This is a point of contention though, because no non-Apple player can use iTunes, and no iPod works with Napster so it's not exactly a direct comparison, but it does offer other options for digital music purchases.
(Personally any player/platform/store DRM lock in crap turns me right off, but YMMV).