With estimates of total PS2 sales at between 30-40 million units ( depending on source) , over 200 new games for Christmas ( most from great game makers), progressive scan DVD, Digital Recorder capabilities, not to mention on line game play now, one has to yawn when they hear theses claims by Microsoft fanatics on how the Xbox is taking the world by storm.
Xbox definitely has the advantage over the PS2 for running linux, as Xbox is nothing more than a stripped down pc. It is good for those people that tied up a lot of money in the Xbox, now they have more use for it. Although linux runs on the PS2, it's not going to be the primary reason people buy a PS2 because many linux programs require more porting to work on the non-intel PS2 system- more people will continue to buy the PS2 because that is where the most/best games are. Linux is great, I use it exclusively but when it comes to games, nothing beats the PS2.
I am curious is Red Hat easier than SuSE? I can't imagine anything easier than SuSE for a new install. I did not try Red Hat since 5.x - used SuSE since 5.3.
OT: I am really happy with the latest Crossover Office from Codeweavers, Quicken 2002 works rather impressivly. I waited for years to upgrade my Quicken...
Yes, better to be safe and secure, remember those infamous Regan words of yesteryear "NEVER sacrifice security for freedom". Judges find it much easier now to order tracking ordinary people. Heck, they don't even need court orders for investigators to track bookstore purchases ect. andc keep track of those evil doers that buy naughty books. Welcome to the new, safer world thanks to the idiot in the white house. Enron's key man from Pennnsylvania that worked with bush for deregulation, Tom Ridge is only concerned about keeping America safe. If all that doesn't bother you why should you care they are tracking what you watch to see if you are avoiding the commericals? After all, if you are not doing anything wrong, you have NOTHING to worry about - wave your flage, shut up and be happy and most of all watch those commercials, there may be something important there that the new government controls want you to know! Every day look under your bed to make sure no terrorists are hiding there, you know they are every where....what color is it today???
gates and bush know what is best for all, just grab your Microsoft flag for your left hand and an American flag for your right, shake you head up and down, wave the flags and smile. Occassional chants of "these guys is great" ( language bush understands) are also permissable. There is no need to consider anything else, they will do your thinking for you.
Each and every day we learn more, yet each and ever day we hear the same old lame cover ups. How many days of this must pass before it will stop? How long will you sit back and allow the current administration to strip America of all it has. How long will you continue to look the other way, pretending it makes no difference? How long before you no longer have the rights to even think of stopping it? Anyone that questions anything is unpatriotic, anyone that doesn't shut up and just wave their flag is supporting the "evil ones", whom ever that may be at any given time of the day - usually just pulled out of the thin air whenever someone starts to question anything, heck , recently they called democracy itself evil when their involvement of the coup in Venuzuela to replace a well liked democratically leader with a oil friendly businessman.
Elections are coming up, you can make a difference, let the candidate know, send in a check, regardless of how small it will help the cause to give America back to the people.This insanity must stop while there is still a chance to get America back the days of peace and prosperity we knew so long ago, well it seems like long ago....
Microsoft out flanked Sony in a very shrewd move. Microsoft was losing on two fronts, both with the X-box and their Ultimate TV. The first move was to move the two together, but the really brilliant move had nothing to do with with either. Check past reports on the satellite merger, Echostar is buying Direct TV. Echostar has already announced it will use the Moxi digital recorder, thus wiping out the tecnological leader TiVO as well as Replay TV. Echostar will have the DVR monopoply and will be giving the Moxi digital recorder for FREE as compared to the $300-$500 TiVo and Replay TV units. But wait what has this to do with Microsoft? Microsoft's Paul Allen's company buys Moxi - get it? After ervrything is in place, Paul decides that linux is not the best operating system for Moxi and signs a contract with Microsft, now Microsoft has control of the Moxi and just rolls it all into one nice set top box. Who needs anything else, the Microsoft powered set top box will do it all and even share you prerecorded movies with your computer ( yes Windows XP will have the software to play the movies). If you can't win in a frontal attack, sneak around the back. I hope I am wrong---but keep you eyes open!
The rules are simple, Microsoft is a monopoply protected by the stongest military in the world. No foreign country will question anything any American monopoly says or does these days as long as we have a court appointed administration preparing for a nuclear attack and advertising a growing "hit list".
"Rules" suddenly being enforced after a couple of years of "Past Practice" (being accepted) is only a way to benefit certain individuals, in this case Microsoft. If these rules were going to be enforced this year, they should have made special note of it before the show, rather than last minute decisions.
Sony did the right thing, they took the high road, "past practice" of being accepted in other shows gives them the right to expect it to be accepted in this show.
Microsoft was worried about something else, not protecting the rules. Perhaps Microsoft was more worried about the exciting demos of Linux running on the PS2. Sony had linux running many demos to show the power of the PS2 with linux.
It was in there, IBM was forced to drop supporting OS/2 on the desktop if they didn't want to pay a big penalty for Windows licenses. IBM fought a good fight, but was not ruthless enough. Hopefully linux will fair better, but don't count on it as long as people refuse to learn about history, they will be forced to repeat it.
I have been using SuSE since 5.3 and I guess I will buy this upgrade as well, better to have everything on my hard drive then need to download many upgrades over a dial up. I usually copythe SuSE distro cds to my hard drive and have everything available every time I use YaST.Yast2 doesn't like the installation from hard drive but YaST has no problems with it. However, I do want to see what packages have been updated, I guess one of these days I should start with a clean install rather than just upgrade.
Regardless of what propganda they spread, we all know how Bush feels about "States Rights". He wasted no time bypassing the Florida state rights and going to the federal courts to stop counting the votes because it would have cause harm to his image ---well gosh, his image may have been tarnished! --- thinking back now and seeing how a year of bush has been we should be asking what harm was caused to America by not counting the all votes. OH wait, that's right, we are NOT allowed to question that, we can only wave our flags and be happy.
The glorious, court appointed chief has been reversing everything the previous administration had accomplished. He has taken us from peace and prosperity to doom and gloom. Unlike the previous administration that believed open competition was good for the country - BTW: the DOJ had collected over 1.4 BILLION dollars in fines and fees from various price fixing cartels during the Clinton years - the media only talked about Microsoft and how they were being picked on, but in reality all the price fixing cartels were being investigated. NO, the DOJ didn't get all of them, some the slippery bastards got away, but they got enough of them to help keep prices down, promote competition and to help consumers. This is totally different from todays administration that not only allows price fixing, even helped use it in California (with Enron) for political gain.
It's a sad day when a president is impeached for having sex with an intern and another is allowed to screw every American out of their tax money - yes I say "TAX" money, that is what they are doing, taking your "TAXES" paid for social security and using it to subsidize "Breaks" for big business, many of which are legally located outside USA to avoid paying taxes. But wait; don't question any of it, just wave your flag and be happy.
Much like the old commercial where the guy hits himself on the head and says " WOW - I could have had a V/8 " Americans that take the time to look beyond the hype will be saying "WOW - we could have had peace and prosperity "
Is America better off today or are Americans afraid to even consider the mistakes made by the current administration? Over a year later and they are still blaming the previous administration for America's current sistuation. It's time Americans pull their collective heads out of their butts and look at what is happenning. We have an "big business" administration that thinks monopolies can do no wrong. Every time someone questions it we have another "WOLF" cry to get everyone looking for terrorists under their beds rather than looking at the real problems facing America.It's sad that many Americans had to die, even more sad is it might have been prevented by the current administration, but it was more advantageous to them to not stop it.I am glad there are a few still fighting to preserve America for te common people, but have doubts they will be able to save Anmerica unless the general public wakes up from this Orwellian nightmare.
The only reason they gave information on 10,000 viewrs is the other 270,000 viewrs were watching something other than the Super Bowl. Also intersting , of the 10,000 they found the commercials more interesting than the game....
Most people that write and complain about TiVo never experienced it. It's kinda like ice cream, until you try it, you don't know what you are missing.
We have DTivo, 4 combination DTV/TiVo receivers that work really nice. They run on linux and are very easily upgraded. We only pay $9.99 TiVO service for the first receiver, the other 3 have no additional TiVo charges, only the DTV mirroring charge. Each Dtivo allows you to record two shows at one time while watching another ( with us it's 8 shows while watching another), you can join in a show any time after it starts and begin from the beginning and all in DOLBY DIGITAL sound ( if the show is in DD) - do that with a vcr!.
I won't even begin to talk about the "wishlists" and "season passes". I laugh at the people that never experienced the quality and ease of using a TiVo unit explaining TiVO; well it's about like a white person trying to tell someone what it is like being a non-white - they just don't know....
VCRs are almost worthless to us, the quality is far too poor to enjoy, not to mention the hassle of using it and no Dolby Digital sound. At any given time we have over 100 hours of high quality, digitally recorded shows that we like at the push of the button on our remote, no need to get up and grab a dvd and place it in the player, just turn on the system, select the movie or show we want to watch and enjoy it.
It saves us a lot of money over buying DVDs, heck before too long you can have thousands of dollars in even a small, 200 dvd collection! The Dtivos are free to new customers; if you can find any these days.
Quality over quanity, it's like having extra channels available at the same time , all running your favorite shows in dolby digital sound.
Yeah, they can write their reviews, probably never owned one, but they still know what it's like.. it's a joke to TiVo users that KNOW what it is really like.....
It's only a matter of time until someone comes up with a digital recorder setup that can be used in combination with Dtivo ect. a very nice little addition. Perhaps uing the usb port for input and the networking will allow storage on cds, and other devices for more permanent recordings of our favorite shows."Season Passes" would have a new meaning, having an entire season on a few cds. Starting to sound a lot like the new Moxi? But wait, isn't Microsoft most recent plans for doing the same with Ultimate TV? Yes, Sony must have seen this as the next step for the PS2, just allowing open source to help get there faster.
Having recently been brought from the darkness of digital Comcast cable to the true light of the superior quality and better techonolgy of SAT receivers, I am looking forward to this unit hitting the market. I orginally thought my timing was wrong, last week switched from Dish to Direct TV with TiVO but it may work out just fine, another year from now this Moxie may be ready for prime time, and Dish will give it frree for a one year contract getting everything I had with digital cable for less ( with Dolby digital and a better quality picture). It's amazing; I used to walk around the electronic stores asking myself why people would spend money on high definition TV when using DVDs with progressive scan is the only realistic way to enjoy them - then I got the Dish saw what was available and even SaMS Club had the 6000 on display- with HDTV. I am not ready finacially for HDTV yet, but do want the the Dolby Digital stations and personal video recorder.
Right now the TiVO is considered the best, but that may change with the introduction of the Moxie. Of course we can't rule out Sony and the PS2 - it has everything there and Sony has the license, the linux and the TiVO software, it would not be too great a feat for Sony to add everything to the PS2 via a hard drive and new input device for Dolby Digital signals.
Forget cable TV, they are more worried about providing cable modems then keeping up with home entertainment. This is working well for them now,with their monoply power of the cable, but as wireless setups such as that being introduced by Earthlink in Atlanta come on the scene, the need for cable modems will drop, and those wanting newer, better home entertainment will leave the cable monoplies for higher quality.
favorite quote from New York Times article:
" Mr. Perlman said that after Microsoft acquired WebTV for $425 million in April 1997 he had stayed and tried to refine the product until it became clear that Microsoft's principal interest was in ensuring that its Windows CE operating system was in the box rather than improving the consumer experience."
That sums it up very well, few people these days are trying to improve the consumer experience, most are just working to protect their monopolies.That goes for the cable compainies as well as Microsoft.
Of course those individuals that never experienced any of this will have no idea what I am talking about, much like the old ibmpc user that is not aware of the new techonology in computers , many here have never gone beyond basic tv and have no idea what they are missing.You can spot them right away, so far behind they talk with complete follish babble, they think they know more becasue they are up on PC technology - but it is a different ball game in home entertainment...
The next release will be better, we promise.....
on
XBox Defects Draw Ire
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· Score: 1
The number of defects means nothing, the poor customer service means nothing, as long as Microsoft is allowed to use it's Monopoly power to force sales in new markets. Get used to it, this is the time of monoplies and giant powerful corporations and when either type goes belly up, such as ENRON and destroys thousands of Americans lives, just forget which politicians helped make these giant corporations so powerful. Without a stong DOJ enforcing anti trust laws people are stuck with whatever they can get, just go on, wave your flag and be happy, but don't ever question what they are doing because that is unpatriotic and helping the enemy....
The latest rumor is Sony promised retailers in USA they would not lower prices any time before or during this Christmas season. However, some speculate there will be a price drop by summer.
Personally I would rather see Sony offer $100.00 instant rebates towards any games purchased at the time the console is purchased. This would allow the PS2 to be purchased with 2 quality games for the same price as the console today. It would help the sale of PS2 and also help the game developers.
Will these hypocrites ever stop? Soon they will claim it is unpatriotic to question anything Microsoft does and millions of mushrooms calling themselves patriotic Americans will agree. Ahhh, to go back to the good ol days when Americans actually had a voice and their votes were counted, seems like forever.
In a fair and open market PS2 and Nintendo would be the only resonable choices. However, with the past history of Microsoft using it's monopoly power to further it's market share in new markets, anything could happen. I am sure Microsoft is already putting pressure on developers that need to license information from Microsoft to develop for the xbox; and the retailers to keep shelf space available. Likewise the old shills and munchins as John Dvorak called them, the people paid to act like ordinary citizens while they write negative stuff about Microsoft's competitors and promote Microsoft. Everyone knows that advertising dollars buy better reviews so look out there as well.
Yes, all this is going on, it's only a matter of time to see if it works or not - I guess they call it agressive marketing, but many of us believe it is illegal use of a monopoly power. Of course , unless Microsoft goes down in flames like ENRON, no one with any influence cares.Wait, come to think of it no one really cares about ENRON either or they would be asking the guy in the white house about his involvment with ENRON - no although a far greater scandal than Whitewater, we won't here much, it is declared unpatriotic to question anything the white house does these days.
I am ready to buy, already have a PS2 that works great - ok - I confess, I am not too good at many games so I cheat, I use the Gameshark ( "Gameshark" should have discounts for ARRP members:) ). We already had a dedicated DVD player so we don't use the PS2 too much for watching DVDs .
BTW the new Sony remote includes a software update that greatly improves the dvd player capabilities in the PS2 ( the older version was region selectable, not sure if the new version is the same). The only problem I had was hooking up the PS2 with the dolby digital sound, my DD receiver only had one optical input, and the dedicated dvd player was already selected becasue it had a better remote. However,recently, I learned that radio Shack has a cheap 4 way adapter for digital optical input. I already ordered extra digital cable from Gameshark ( cheaper there) and ready to go with the PS2 fully intrigated into our home entertainment system with digital sound. I am looking forward to MGS2 and others using 5.1 sound.
Linux is the icing on the cake, already happy with the PS2! Two of my favorites in one package Linux and the PS2.
One of the first and most important recommendations will be to outlar open source software, everyone in America must use Microsoft supported products for security reasons. Microsoft will impliment backdoors so every computer can be viewed easily by Askkkroft and his group. No computer can be left untouched, they need to know who you are and what you are foing every minute of the day. Open Source can be hacked to easily and users could remove back doors- this is no good, it is unpatriotic to not allow the governement to snoop around your computers at will.
Slashdot Mirror
With estimates of total PS2 sales at between 30-40 million units ( depending on source) , over 200 new games for Christmas ( most from great game makers), progressive scan DVD, Digital Recorder capabilities, not to mention on line game play now, one has to yawn when they hear theses claims by Microsoft fanatics on how the Xbox is taking the world by storm.
Xbox definitely has the advantage over the PS2 for running linux, as Xbox is nothing more than a stripped down pc. It is good for those people that tied up a lot of money in the Xbox, now they have more use for it. Although linux runs on the PS2, it's not going to be the primary reason people buy a PS2 because many linux programs require more porting to work on the non-intel PS2 system- more people will continue to buy the PS2 because that is where the most/best games are. Linux is great, I use it exclusively but when it comes to games, nothing beats the PS2.
I am curious is Red Hat easier than SuSE? I can't imagine anything easier than SuSE for a new install. I did not try Red Hat since 5.x - used SuSE since 5.3.
OT: I am really happy with the latest Crossover Office from Codeweavers, Quicken 2002 works rather impressivly. I waited for years to upgrade my Quicken...
Yes, better to be safe and secure, remember those infamous Regan words of yesteryear "NEVER sacrifice security for freedom". Judges find it much easier now to order tracking ordinary people. Heck, they don't even need court orders for investigators to track bookstore purchases ect. andc keep track of those evil doers that buy naughty books. Welcome to the new, safer world thanks to the idiot in the white house. Enron's key man from Pennnsylvania that worked with bush for deregulation, Tom Ridge is only concerned about keeping America safe. If all that doesn't bother you why should you care they are tracking what you watch to see if you are avoiding the commericals? After all, if you are not doing anything wrong, you have NOTHING to worry about - wave your flage, shut up and be happy and most of all watch those commercials, there may be something important there that the new government controls want you to know! Every day look under your bed to make sure no terrorists are hiding there, you know they are every where....what color is it today???
gates and bush know what is best for all, just grab your Microsoft flag for your left hand and an American flag for your right, shake you head up and down, wave the flags and smile. Occassional chants of "these guys is great" ( language bush understands) are also permissable. There is no need to consider anything else, they will do your thinking for you.
Each and every day we learn more, yet each and ever day we hear the same old lame cover ups. How many days of this must pass before it will stop? How long will you sit back and allow the current administration to strip America of all it has. How long will you continue to look the other way, pretending it makes no difference? How long before you no longer have the rights to even think of stopping it? Anyone that questions anything is unpatriotic, anyone that doesn't shut up and just wave their flag is supporting the "evil ones", whom ever that may be at any given time of the day - usually just pulled out of the thin air whenever someone starts to question anything, heck , recently they called democracy itself evil when their involvement of the coup in Venuzuela to replace a well liked democratically leader with a oil friendly businessman.
Elections are coming up, you can make a difference, let the candidate know, send in a check, regardless of how small it will help the cause to give America back to the people.This insanity must stop while there is still a chance to get America back the days of peace and prosperity we knew so long ago, well it seems like long ago....
Microsoft out flanked Sony in a very shrewd move. Microsoft was losing on two fronts, both with the X-box and their Ultimate TV. The first move was to move the two together, but the really brilliant move had nothing to do with with either. Check past reports on the satellite merger, Echostar is buying Direct TV. Echostar has already announced it will use the Moxi digital recorder, thus wiping out the tecnological leader TiVO as well as Replay TV. Echostar will have the DVR monopoply and will be giving the Moxi digital recorder for FREE as compared to the $300-$500 TiVo and Replay TV units. But wait what has this to do with Microsoft? Microsoft's Paul Allen's company buys Moxi - get it? After ervrything is in place, Paul decides that linux is not the best operating system for Moxi and signs a contract with Microsft, now Microsoft has control of the Moxi and just rolls it all into one nice set top box. Who needs anything else, the Microsoft powered set top box will do it all and even share you prerecorded movies with your computer ( yes Windows XP will have the software to play the movies). If you can't win in a frontal attack, sneak around the back. I hope I am wrong---but keep you eyes open!
The rules are simple, Microsoft is a monopoply protected by the stongest military in the world. No foreign country will question anything any American monopoly says or does these days as long as we have a court appointed administration preparing for a nuclear attack and advertising a growing "hit list".
"Rules" suddenly being enforced after a couple of years of "Past Practice" (being accepted) is only a way to benefit certain individuals, in this case Microsoft. If these rules were going to be enforced this year, they should have made special note of it before the show, rather than last minute decisions.
Sony did the right thing, they took the high road, "past practice" of being accepted in other shows gives them the right to expect it to be accepted in this show.
Microsoft was worried about something else, not protecting the rules. Perhaps Microsoft was more worried about the exciting demos of Linux running on the PS2. Sony had linux running many demos to show the power of the PS2 with linux.
It was in there, IBM was forced to drop supporting OS/2 on the desktop if they didn't want to pay a big penalty for Windows licenses. IBM fought a good fight, but was not ruthless enough. Hopefully linux will fair better, but don't count on it as long as people refuse to learn about history, they will be forced to repeat it.
I have been using SuSE since 5.3 and I guess I will buy this upgrade as well, better to have everything on my hard drive then need to download many upgrades over a dial up. I usually copythe SuSE distro cds to my hard drive and have everything available every time I use YaST.Yast2 doesn't like the installation from hard drive but YaST has no problems with it. However, I do want to see what packages have been updated, I guess one of these days I should start with a clean install rather than just upgrade.
Regardless of what propganda they spread, we all know how Bush feels about "States Rights". He wasted no time bypassing the Florida state rights and going to the federal courts to stop counting the votes because it would have cause harm to his image ---well gosh, his image may have been tarnished! --- thinking back now and seeing how a year of bush has been we should be asking what harm was caused to America by not counting the all votes. OH wait, that's right, we are NOT allowed to question that, we can only wave our flags and be happy.
It's easy to find in the Dtivo, under title search "rev", list it as 1 1/2 hr doucmentary
The glorious, court appointed chief has been reversing everything the previous administration had accomplished. He has taken us from peace and prosperity to doom and gloom. Unlike the previous administration that believed open competition was good for the country - BTW: the DOJ had collected over 1.4 BILLION dollars in fines and fees from various price fixing cartels during the Clinton years - the media only talked about Microsoft and how they were being picked on, but in reality all the price fixing cartels were being investigated. NO, the DOJ didn't get all of them, some the slippery bastards got away, but they got enough of them to help keep prices down, promote competition and to help consumers. This is totally different from todays administration that not only allows price fixing, even helped use it in California (with Enron) for political gain.
It's a sad day when a president is impeached for having sex with an intern and another is allowed to screw every American out of their tax money - yes I say "TAX" money, that is what they are doing, taking your "TAXES" paid for social security and using it to subsidize "Breaks" for big business, many of which are legally located outside USA to avoid paying taxes. But wait; don't question any of it, just wave your flag and be happy.
Much like the old commercial where the guy hits himself on the head and says " WOW - I could have had a V/8 " Americans that take the time to look beyond the hype will be saying "WOW - we could have had peace and prosperity "
Is America better off today or are Americans afraid to even consider the mistakes made by the current administration? Over a year later and they are still blaming the previous administration for America's current sistuation. It's time Americans pull their collective heads out of their butts and look at what is happenning. We have an "big business" administration that thinks monopolies can do no wrong. Every time someone questions it we have another "WOLF" cry to get everyone looking for terrorists under their beds rather than looking at the real problems facing America.It's sad that many Americans had to die, even more sad is it might have been prevented by the current administration, but it was more advantageous to them to not stop it.I am glad there are a few still fighting to preserve America for te common people, but have doubts they will be able to save Anmerica unless the general public wakes up from this Orwellian nightmare.
The only reason they gave information on 10,000 viewrs is the other 270,000 viewrs were watching something other than the Super Bowl. Also intersting , of the 10,000 they found the commercials more interesting than the game....
Most people that write and complain about TiVo never experienced it. It's kinda like ice cream, until you try it, you don't know what you are missing.
We have DTivo, 4 combination DTV/TiVo receivers that work really nice. They run on linux and are very easily upgraded. We only pay $9.99 TiVO service for the first receiver, the other 3 have no additional TiVo charges, only the DTV mirroring charge. Each Dtivo allows you to record two shows at one time while watching another ( with us it's 8 shows while watching another), you can join in a show any time after it starts and begin from the beginning and all in DOLBY DIGITAL sound ( if the show is in DD) - do that with a vcr!.
I won't even begin to talk about the "wishlists" and "season passes". I laugh at the people that never experienced the quality and ease of using a TiVo unit explaining TiVO; well it's about like a white person trying to tell someone what it is like being a non-white - they just don't know....
VCRs are almost worthless to us, the quality is far too poor to enjoy, not to mention the hassle of using it and no Dolby Digital sound. At any given time we have over 100 hours of high quality, digitally recorded shows that we like at the push of the button on our remote, no need to get up and grab a dvd and place it in the player, just turn on the system, select the movie or show we want to watch and enjoy it.
It saves us a lot of money over buying DVDs, heck before too long you can have thousands of dollars in even a small, 200 dvd collection! The Dtivos are free to new customers; if you can find any these days.
Quality over quanity, it's like having extra channels available at the same time , all running your favorite shows in dolby digital sound.
Yeah, they can write their reviews, probably never owned one, but they still know what it's like.. it's a joke to TiVo users that KNOW what it is really like.....
It's only a matter of time until someone comes up with a digital recorder setup that can be used in combination with Dtivo ect. a very nice little addition. Perhaps uing the usb port for input and the networking will allow storage on cds, and other devices for more permanent recordings of our favorite shows."Season Passes" would have a new meaning, having an entire season on a few cds. Starting to sound a lot like the new Moxi? But wait, isn't Microsoft most recent plans for doing the same with Ultimate TV? Yes, Sony must have seen this as the next step for the PS2, just allowing open source to help get there faster.
Having recently been brought from the darkness of digital Comcast cable to the true light of the superior quality and better techonolgy of SAT receivers, I am looking forward to this unit hitting the market. I orginally thought my timing was wrong, last week switched from Dish to Direct TV with TiVO but it may work out just fine, another year from now this Moxie may be ready for prime time, and Dish will give it frree for a one year contract getting everything I had with digital cable for less ( with Dolby digital and a better quality picture). It's amazing; I used to walk around the electronic stores asking myself why people would spend money on high definition TV when using DVDs with progressive scan is the only realistic way to enjoy them - then I got the Dish saw what was available and even SaMS Club had the 6000 on display- with HDTV. I am not ready finacially for HDTV yet, but do want the the Dolby Digital stations and personal video recorder.
Right now the TiVO is considered the best, but that may change with the introduction of the Moxie. Of course we can't rule out Sony and the PS2 - it has everything there and Sony has the license, the linux and the TiVO software, it would not be too great a feat for Sony to add everything to the PS2 via a hard drive and new input device for Dolby Digital signals.
Forget cable TV, they are more worried about providing cable modems then keeping up with home entertainment. This is working well for them now,with their monoply power of the cable, but as wireless setups such as that being introduced by Earthlink in Atlanta come on the scene, the need for cable modems will drop, and those wanting newer, better home entertainment will leave the cable monoplies for higher quality.
favorite quote from New York Times article:
" Mr. Perlman said that after Microsoft acquired WebTV for $425 million in April 1997 he had stayed and tried to refine the product until it became clear that Microsoft's principal interest was in ensuring that its Windows CE operating system was in the box rather than improving the consumer experience."
That sums it up very well, few people these days are trying to improve the consumer experience, most are just working to protect their monopolies.That goes for the cable compainies as well as Microsoft.
Of course those individuals that never experienced any of this will have no idea what I am talking about, much like the old ibmpc user that is not aware of the new techonology in computers , many here have never gone beyond basic tv and have no idea what they are missing.You can spot them right away, so far behind they talk with complete follish babble, they think they know more becasue they are up on PC technology - but it is a different ball game in home entertainment...
The number of defects means nothing, the poor customer service means nothing, as long as Microsoft is allowed to use it's Monopoly power to force sales in new markets. Get used to it, this is the time of monoplies and giant powerful corporations and when either type goes belly up, such as ENRON and destroys thousands of Americans lives, just forget which politicians helped make these giant corporations so powerful. Without a stong DOJ enforcing anti trust laws people are stuck with whatever they can get, just go on, wave your flag and be happy, but don't ever question what they are doing because that is unpatriotic and helping the enemy....
The latest rumor is Sony promised retailers in USA they would not lower prices any time before or during this Christmas season. However, some speculate there will be a price drop by summer.
Personally I would rather see Sony offer $100.00 instant rebates towards any games purchased at the time the console is purchased. This would allow the PS2 to be purchased with 2 quality games for the same price as the console today. It would help the sale of PS2 and also help the game developers.
Will these hypocrites ever stop? Soon they will claim it is unpatriotic to question anything Microsoft does and millions of mushrooms calling themselves patriotic Americans will agree. Ahhh, to go back to the good ol days when Americans actually had a voice and their votes were counted, seems like forever.
I wasn't sure, but what the heck, after reading your review I will give it a try.
In a fair and open market PS2 and Nintendo would be the only resonable choices. However, with the past history of Microsoft using it's monopoly power to further it's market share in new markets, anything could happen. I am sure Microsoft is already putting pressure on developers that need to license information from Microsoft to develop for the xbox; and the retailers to keep shelf space available. Likewise the old shills and munchins as John Dvorak called them, the people paid to act like ordinary citizens while they write negative stuff about Microsoft's competitors and promote Microsoft. Everyone knows that advertising dollars buy better reviews so look out there as well.
Yes, all this is going on, it's only a matter of time to see if it works or not - I guess they call it agressive marketing, but many of us believe it is illegal use of a monopoly power. Of course , unless Microsoft goes down in flames like ENRON, no one with any influence cares.Wait, come to think of it no one really cares about ENRON either or they would be asking the guy in the white house about his involvment with ENRON - no although a far greater scandal than Whitewater, we won't here much, it is declared unpatriotic to question anything the white house does these days.
I am ready to buy, already have a PS2 that works great - ok - I confess, I am not too good at many games so I cheat, I use the Gameshark ( "Gameshark" should have discounts for ARRP members :) ). We already had a dedicated DVD player so we don't use the PS2 too much for watching DVDs .
BTW the new Sony remote includes a software update that greatly improves the dvd player capabilities in the PS2 ( the older version was region selectable, not sure if the new version is the same). The only problem I had was hooking up the PS2 with the dolby digital sound, my DD receiver only had one optical input, and the dedicated dvd player was already selected becasue it had a better remote. However,recently, I learned that radio Shack has a cheap 4 way adapter for digital optical input. I already ordered extra digital cable from Gameshark ( cheaper there) and ready to go with the PS2 fully intrigated into our home entertainment system with digital sound. I am looking forward to MGS2 and others using 5.1 sound.
Linux is the icing on the cake, already happy with the PS2! Two of my favorites in one package Linux and the PS2.
One of the first and most important recommendations will be to outlar open source software, everyone in America must use Microsoft supported products for security reasons. Microsoft will impliment backdoors so every computer can be viewed easily by Askkkroft and his group. No computer can be left untouched, they need to know who you are and what you are foing every minute of the day. Open Source can be hacked to easily and users could remove back doors- this is no good, it is unpatriotic to not allow the governement to snoop around your computers at will.