Let me start by saying that I have a PSP1000G1CW (For the uninitiated, that's an original Japanese Ceramic White Gigapack), and I use it every day.
I would like to address the more common 'issues' people seem to have with the PSP...
The first being storage... You are right, it doesn't have 30-40gb of internal storage. This is something I have NEVER understood about the iPod and similar devices. My music collection is somewhere in the neighborhood of 200+ gigabytes. Yet, I'm never listening to more than 5 different albums in a given week. (This week, it is 'MY FOOT', 'Good Dreams', 'Fool on the Planet', 'Another morning, Another pillows', and 'FLCL Original Soundtrack 3', all by 'the pillows'.) Compressed with AAC, I have little problem carrying this around on my 1gb memorystick.
Why do you NEED to carry THIRTY GIGABYTES of music with you at all times? Nine times out of ten, if your plane crashes, you DIE. So don't worry about getting stranded on a desert island without tunes, okay?
My biggest gripe though, is with people attacking the UMD format. Complaining that it is proprietary strikes me as particularly stupid... Proprietary? As opposed to cartridges? I'm sorry, were they supposed to make it 3x the size and give it a DVD-ROM drive? Get over it. UMD Video was a mistake, but that was just Sony's movie division trying to capitalize... (In Japan, I've seen just as many UMD Video discs packaged WITH their DVD counterparts with little premium paid, so I think the whole 'make-you-buy-everything-twice' shtick was mostly western capitalism at work.)
The PSP is a fine multifunction device once you install a custom firmware... Now, I know someone's going to be like "So, it's no good unless you hack it, huh?" That statement is equal parts truth and loaded bullshit. Sony doesn't want people pirating games or running their own software... YES. Personally I think it's bad corporate policy to sell someone what amounts to a handheld computer, then tell them not to run anything on it...but hey, I imagine there's a REASON I'm not on the board of SCEI or SCEA.
With my PSP handy, with only a 1gb memorystick, I have never been bored. Between bookr for reading text files or PDFs, videos, music, and the vast library of great Japanese games at my fingertips (Not to mention all my old favorites via emulation), there has yet to be an instance where my PSP didn't give me something to do. Sony created something that, when properly utilized, becomes indispensable.
Typically, my PSP is loaded with one game UMD in the drive, two in my Hori Portable Style Pouch, 1-5 more game ISOs on the memstick depending on size, music, the latest episodes of all my shows, a bunch of ebooks, and some classic Super Famicom games in my emulator. (Granted, sometimes 1gb of space is a little stressed by all this, but a 4gb stick like I plan to buy soon is only $50)
Beyond its original purposes, a truly creative geek can find limitless uses for the PSP. I have my home network set up so I can download pre-packaged music, game ISOs, and videos, directly to my PSP through a web portal on my LAN. (As well as being able to stream any video directly from my computer to my PSP with Pimpstreamer...even stuff in 1080p) I can even use my PSP to control Media Player Classic via a web interface, or control the lights in the house...even check my caller ID. I don't even have the Chotto Shot camera or GPS unit yet and my PSP is more useful than any other handheld device I've ever owned, and has better games than some home consoles.
Sure, it doesn't hold 30gb of music or videos... But hey, the screen is about the SIZE of an iPod, and with games like Disgaea and the countless other great games I play on a regular basis, I have no complaints.
So I guess what I'm saying is... Could someone please explain Sony's failure to me in large type, with diagrams? Is it that the PSP is maybe TOO useful for a $280 device? Or is it supposed to be able to make me toast in the morning? I'M CONFUSED.
At home, my space is an utter disaster. We're talking 'can barely see floor' disaster. But I know where every last damned thing in the room is. I have had someone ask me for something, and I tell them that it's in the pile on their left, in the first dozen or so papers...only to have them run screaming from the room...but it was there!
I have had people attempt to clean the room 'for me', only for me to catch them in the act and chase them out... And it takes months for me to find everything they 'cleaned up'.
There's two kinds of mess; total omg wretched mess, and my mess. It may look like I'm eligible for federal disaster assistance, but it's not like I've got food kicking around. It's not like there's a month-old quarter of a sub with some chips, under a pile of things on my desk, no. It's just a mess of STUFF.
Now, in order to appease certain entities, I am indeed cleaning the apartment... But already, I feel like I did for the week or two after I built my new computer and hadn't gotten all my old stuff copied over yet... Really helpless and unable to access anything important. We shall see.
Come on people, take RESPONSIBILITY for your own shit. I can't be kind about this stuff, because it's this lack of personal responsibility and common sense that is destroying our country, and probably the species.
Any device that can access the internet can be used to access pornography. You know what? Your car can be used to drive off a GODDAMN CLIFF . Does that mean you go after Ford because you're a moron? (Unfortunately, this being America, the answer is probably 'Yes.')
Take responsibility for the shit that happens in your own home. If you don't like what the internet brings in, you have two options; either you put a filter on your connection, or you simply don't have internet access. Frankly, I would prefer it if you selected the latter, it keeps my blood pressure down.
...this guy is an idiot. He's an author, huh? Well then, let's hear what William Gibson has to say on the subject.
I share an emotional connection with the people on my computer screen, they are as much a part of my life as anyone else I know, and I've never met most of them. There are plenty of times I'm playing something old-school like Half-Life deathmatch against my local circle of friends, they're still not in the same room as me. (Thank god. Honest-to-goodness physical violence would likely ensue, the way some of us play. Call Jack Thompson!) But just as often, I'm hooking up with the people I hang out with online to squad up and go kick ass in a Battlefield game. (Or 'Ikuzo, doushi! Senjou e!' as is commonly yelled in my IRC channel as a rallying cry...) Long story short? Yeah, this guy is a tool...box. He needs to stop blogging, and go sit on his porch yelling at people to 'get the hell off' his lawn.
The Giant Pachinko Machine of Doom doesn't take kindly to such ignorance.
Paypal has all sorts of screwy policies, and overzealous pencil-pushers who follow them to the letter. I've heard of people selling airsoft guns (The real Japanese ones, not that sh*t you can buy in walmart now.) via buy/sell/trade sections of various boards, and then having paypal close their accounts and seize the funds because 'it is against paypal policy to sell firearms'. Yes, people have gotten their accounts yanked for BB gun-running.
So this kind of nonsense is hardly surprising, though I do feel that the headlines are attempts to exaggerate the situation.
Note: I wrote this moments after I sent an email to withdraw my Play-Asia affiliate money to paypal... Let's hope paypal doesn't decide that import videogames are illegal this week...it is a substantial sum.:O
One more country to add to the list of 'demonstrations of the might of the Giant Pachinko Machine of Doom' when I begin my reign of terror.
This is really damned stupid, and whoever came up with the idea should be shot, hung, drown, drawn, quartered, poisoned, stabbed, beheaded, and SET THE HELL ON FIRE.
I think New Zealand has lost their right to use the English language. When you make 'you' a one letter word, you've gone and done it. Lewis Black is right, if you're going to fly 18 hours to some place, they should have the common courtesy to speak a different language when you get there, and if not... They should all jump off their island and push it a little closer to one of the other English-speaking nations.
If this shit continues, the term 'Grammar Nazi' is going to take on new meaning, and we're not going to like it.
If, sometime next week, you roll out of bed amidst a bit of noise, pay it no mind. It just means that our beneficient leader has seen fit to deploy M1A1 tanks in your neighborhood to ensure your safety while on your way to vote republican this fine election day!
I wanted that to be funny, but obviously it isn't terribly. I'm moving to Japan. You poor bastards can deal with him, when he starts dicking around on the other side of the Pacific, the Japanese will deploy bipedal mecha and put this shit to rest once and for all. SIEG ZEON!,o/
I purchased my Ceramic White PSP Gigapack from Lik-Sang about this time last year. Normally, I import through Play-Asia, but they had more of the accessories I wanted in stock at the time. Lik-Sang closing its doors is a shame, but beyond that, Sony's claims are a sham. They claim to be protecting consumers...by denying them what they want. You don't import a game or console by ACCIDENT. You do it because you want it. Why don't consumers have the right to buy whatever the hell version they want? And the other parts of this claim are just ludicrous. The PSP, for instance, ships with a universal charger. If the charger doesn't carry the proper certifications (Which it does), that seems more like a Sony problem...since it's the same damned power supply they sell in EVERY LOCALE. Also, Lik-Sang provides with the merchandise, paperwork describing the certifications the product carries, for customs reasons.
I imported my PSP for two reasons: I liked the white one, and it wasn't out in the states. And I already had a bunch of anime on UMD (Included as a bonus with DVDs) that were Region 2. It made no sense for me not to import, and in fact, even if the white PSP had been available in the US at the time, and putting aside the UMD regions...I would have still paid a (slight) premium to import it. All my games are Japanese, and the US accessories suck. (My Hori Portable Pouch Style beats it all for PSP carrying.) Is Sony saying I don't deserve to buy their products?
When I get a Playstation 3-- which I am still going to do despite Sony's bullshit --it will be a Japanese model. If I have to buy it in fecking Akiba myself because they've shut down every importer, so be it. While I'm there, I'll pay the SCEJ offices a visit (Shopping bag still in-hand) and ask them about it.
Yeah, okay. This is patently false. I don't think I need to say more than that; I just installed the game. Also, not for nothing, everyone else reports this 'spyware' as being part of the game. (Which it is.) And the name of the game is Battlefield 2142, not Battlefield 2: 2142. I'd mod you to hell if I could.
Also, from the insert in the BF2142 case: (Their caps)
IF YOU DO NOT WANT IGA TO COLLECT, USE, STORE OR TRANSMIT THE DATA DESCRIBED IN THIS SECTION, DO NOT INSTALL OR PLAY THE SOFTWARE ON ANY PLATFORM THAT IS USED TO CONNECT TO THE INTERNET.
I smell a class-action suit. Can you imagine all those hapless people who buy this not knowing about the spyware, and are confronted with a piece of paper telling them not to play the game they paid $50 for, unless they want their browsing habits picked at by marketing bots?
Honestly, I don't really care. I mean, I do... It kinda bugs me, but I figure there's no way EA is getting out of this unscathed, and they will have to make amends. (On top of removing the spyware.) In the meantime, I like the game, so what the hell?
...when we were going to see people developing laser imaging systems, seeing as how there's now red green and blue lasers out there. Guess I wasn't crazy afterall.
I think it might be too early to tell how AM2 is doing, I mean...we're rolling into the first holiday season since it was introduced, and on top of that, a lot of people are probably keeping their distance until the second wave of AM2 mobos come out, to ensure a nice stable and compatible build. Nothing like being an early adopter and finding out nothing works. Other than that...who WOULDN'T want a nice 64-bit AMD chip and DDR2?! At this point, it's AM2, or a $2000 Socket-F 2000 or 8000 series opteron. (Did I mention the Socket-F boards cost more than half what the CPU does?) So yeah... I think it's too early to tell. And even the holiday season (And tax season.), might not be enough to judge.
Personally, I like AM2, and will probably build a system based on it...as soon as enough people tell me there's good motherboards out there that take the parts I want, and don't catch fire. (Any more than the rest of the rig, anyway.)
Look, I understand the importance of pointing out the rise of our future overlords, but this is, at the very least, the THIRD TIME this story has been posted.
DAI NIPPON BANZAI!...or should that be 'SIEG ZEON!'? Wait and see. We're getting about to the point where any possible future politicians have been exposed to Gundam in their formative years...could this be leading the way to a Japanese government that demands a 'ZOMG GIANT ROBOT' project from their mass of high tech industry? I think it is. Let them have space, I feel we may regret it if we don't...well, not us, so much as the Australians.
Devs at Insomniac have been quoted as saying that of all that space, something like 2-3gb is audio and video. (In multiple languages and video formats.) Try again.
...sources close to those in charge of Vista's user interface development say the startup sound will be that of '...[M]illions of computer users crying out, and suddenly silenced...'
Slashdot Mirror
Let me start by saying that I have a PSP1000G1CW (For the uninitiated, that's an original Japanese Ceramic White Gigapack), and I use it every day.
I would like to address the more common 'issues' people seem to have with the PSP...
The first being storage... You are right, it doesn't have 30-40gb of internal storage. This is something I have NEVER understood about the iPod and similar devices. My music collection is somewhere in the neighborhood of 200+ gigabytes. Yet, I'm never listening to more than 5 different albums in a given week. (This week, it is 'MY FOOT', 'Good Dreams', 'Fool on the Planet', 'Another morning, Another pillows', and 'FLCL Original Soundtrack 3', all by 'the pillows'.) Compressed with AAC, I have little problem carrying this around on my 1gb memorystick.
Why do you NEED to carry THIRTY GIGABYTES of music with you at all times? Nine times out of ten, if your plane crashes, you DIE. So don't worry about getting stranded on a desert island without tunes, okay?
My biggest gripe though, is with people attacking the UMD format. Complaining that it is proprietary strikes me as particularly stupid... Proprietary? As opposed to cartridges? I'm sorry, were they supposed to make it 3x the size and give it a DVD-ROM drive? Get over it. UMD Video was a mistake, but that was just Sony's movie division trying to capitalize... (In Japan, I've seen just as many UMD Video discs packaged WITH their DVD counterparts with little premium paid, so I think the whole 'make-you-buy-everything-twice' shtick was mostly western capitalism at work.)
The PSP is a fine multifunction device once you install a custom firmware... Now, I know someone's going to be like "So, it's no good unless you hack it, huh?" That statement is equal parts truth and loaded bullshit. Sony doesn't want people pirating games or running their own software... YES. Personally I think it's bad corporate policy to sell someone what amounts to a handheld computer, then tell them not to run anything on it...but hey, I imagine there's a REASON I'm not on the board of SCEI or SCEA.
With my PSP handy, with only a 1gb memorystick, I have never been bored. Between bookr for reading text files or PDFs, videos, music, and the vast library of great Japanese games at my fingertips (Not to mention all my old favorites via emulation), there has yet to be an instance where my PSP didn't give me something to do. Sony created something that, when properly utilized, becomes indispensable.
Typically, my PSP is loaded with one game UMD in the drive, two in my Hori Portable Style Pouch, 1-5 more game ISOs on the memstick depending on size, music, the latest episodes of all my shows, a bunch of ebooks, and some classic Super Famicom games in my emulator. (Granted, sometimes 1gb of space is a little stressed by all this, but a 4gb stick like I plan to buy soon is only $50)
Beyond its original purposes, a truly creative geek can find limitless uses for the PSP. I have my home network set up so I can download pre-packaged music, game ISOs, and videos, directly to my PSP through a web portal on my LAN. (As well as being able to stream any video directly from my computer to my PSP with Pimpstreamer...even stuff in 1080p) I can even use my PSP to control Media Player Classic via a web interface, or control the lights in the house...even check my caller ID. I don't even have the Chotto Shot camera or GPS unit yet and my PSP is more useful than any other handheld device I've ever owned, and has better games than some home consoles.
Sure, it doesn't hold 30gb of music or videos... But hey, the screen is about the SIZE of an iPod, and with games like Disgaea and the countless other great games I play on a regular basis, I have no complaints.
So I guess what I'm saying is... Could someone please explain Sony's failure to me in large type, with diagrams? Is it that the PSP is maybe TOO useful for a $280 device? Or is it supposed to be able to make me toast in the morning? I'M CONFUSED.
That is all. (God I'm lazy.)
At home, my space is an utter disaster. We're talking 'can barely see floor' disaster. But I know where every last damned thing in the room is. I have had someone ask me for something, and I tell them that it's in the pile on their left, in the first dozen or so papers...only to have them run screaming from the room...but it was there!
I have had people attempt to clean the room 'for me', only for me to catch them in the act and chase them out... And it takes months for me to find everything they 'cleaned up'.
There's two kinds of mess; total omg wretched mess, and my mess. It may look like I'm eligible for federal disaster assistance, but it's not like I've got food kicking around. It's not like there's a month-old quarter of a sub with some chips, under a pile of things on my desk, no. It's just a mess of STUFF.
Now, in order to appease certain entities, I am indeed cleaning the apartment... But already, I feel like I did for the week or two after I built my new computer and hadn't gotten all my old stuff copied over yet... Really helpless and unable to access anything important. We shall see.
...they have a better chance of getting people to pay for their software BEFORE they actually try it.
Drops out of your pocket? The damned things break if you drop it IN your pocket!
Come on people, take RESPONSIBILITY for your own shit. I can't be kind about this stuff, because it's this lack of personal responsibility and common sense that is destroying our country, and probably the species.
Any device that can access the internet can be used to access pornography. You know what? Your car can be used to drive off a GODDAMN CLIFF . Does that mean you go after Ford because you're a moron? (Unfortunately, this being America, the answer is probably 'Yes.')
Take responsibility for the shit that happens in your own home. If you don't like what the internet brings in, you have two options; either you put a filter on your connection, or you simply don't have internet access. Frankly, I would prefer it if you selected the latter, it keeps my blood pressure down.
...this guy is an idiot. He's an author, huh? Well then, let's hear what William Gibson has to say on the subject.
I share an emotional connection with the people on my computer screen, they are as much a part of my life as anyone else I know, and I've never met most of them. There are plenty of times I'm playing something old-school like Half-Life deathmatch against my local circle of friends, they're still not in the same room as me. (Thank god. Honest-to-goodness physical violence would likely ensue, the way some of us play. Call Jack Thompson!) But just as often, I'm hooking up with the people I hang out with online to squad up and go kick ass in a Battlefield game. (Or 'Ikuzo, doushi! Senjou e!' as is commonly yelled in my IRC channel as a rallying cry...) Long story short? Yeah, this guy is a tool...box. He needs to stop blogging, and go sit on his porch yelling at people to 'get the hell off' his lawn.
The Giant Pachinko Machine of Doom doesn't take kindly to such ignorance.
Of course it's not about preventing piracy. It's just that 'digital, economic enslavement of end users' isn't as sexy of a company line.
As I recall, this was before that thing called the internet, perhaps you've heard of it?
Paypal has all sorts of screwy policies, and overzealous pencil-pushers who follow them to the letter. I've heard of people selling airsoft guns (The real Japanese ones, not that sh*t you can buy in walmart now.) via buy/sell/trade sections of various boards, and then having paypal close their accounts and seize the funds because 'it is against paypal policy to sell firearms'. Yes, people have gotten their accounts yanked for BB gun-running.
:O
So this kind of nonsense is hardly surprising, though I do feel that the headlines are attempts to exaggerate the situation.
Note: I wrote this moments after I sent an email to withdraw my Play-Asia affiliate money to paypal... Let's hope paypal doesn't decide that import videogames are illegal this week...it is a substantial sum.
Stealing PlayStation 3s, on the other hand, DOES kill.l e?AID=/20061203/NEWS/612030440/1004/news01
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic
Oh fuck no.
One more country to add to the list of 'demonstrations of the might of the Giant Pachinko Machine of Doom' when I begin my reign of terror.
This is really damned stupid, and whoever came up with the idea should be shot, hung, drown, drawn, quartered, poisoned, stabbed, beheaded, and SET THE HELL ON FIRE.
I think New Zealand has lost their right to use the English language. When you make 'you' a one letter word, you've gone and done it. Lewis Black is right, if you're going to fly 18 hours to some place, they should have the common courtesy to speak a different language when you get there, and if not... They should all jump off their island and push it a little closer to one of the other English-speaking nations.
If this shit continues, the term 'Grammar Nazi' is going to take on new meaning, and we're not going to like it.
If, sometime next week, you roll out of bed amidst a bit of noise, pay it no mind. It just means that our beneficient leader has seen fit to deploy M1A1 tanks in your neighborhood to ensure your safety while on your way to vote republican this fine election day!
,o/
I wanted that to be funny, but obviously it isn't terribly. I'm moving to Japan. You poor bastards can deal with him, when he starts dicking around on the other side of the Pacific, the Japanese will deploy bipedal mecha and put this shit to rest once and for all. SIEG ZEON!
I purchased my Ceramic White PSP Gigapack from Lik-Sang about this time last year. Normally, I import through Play-Asia, but they had more of the accessories I wanted in stock at the time. Lik-Sang closing its doors is a shame, but beyond that, Sony's claims are a sham. They claim to be protecting consumers...by denying them what they want. You don't import a game or console by ACCIDENT. You do it because you want it. Why don't consumers have the right to buy whatever the hell version they want? And the other parts of this claim are just ludicrous. The PSP, for instance, ships with a universal charger. If the charger doesn't carry the proper certifications (Which it does), that seems more like a Sony problem...since it's the same damned power supply they sell in EVERY LOCALE. Also, Lik-Sang provides with the merchandise, paperwork describing the certifications the product carries, for customs reasons.
I imported my PSP for two reasons: I liked the white one, and it wasn't out in the states. And I already had a bunch of anime on UMD (Included as a bonus with DVDs) that were Region 2. It made no sense for me not to import, and in fact, even if the white PSP had been available in the US at the time, and putting aside the UMD regions...I would have still paid a (slight) premium to import it. All my games are Japanese, and the US accessories suck. (My Hori Portable Pouch Style beats it all for PSP carrying.) Is Sony saying I don't deserve to buy their products?
When I get a Playstation 3-- which I am still going to do despite Sony's bullshit --it will be a Japanese model. If I have to buy it in fecking Akiba myself because they've shut down every importer, so be it. While I'm there, I'll pay the SCEJ offices a visit (Shopping bag still in-hand) and ask them about it.
...I could use some money to build a new machine... ^^;
Also, from the insert in the BF2142 case: (Their caps)
I smell a class-action suit. Can you imagine all those hapless people who buy this not knowing about the spyware, and are confronted with a piece of paper telling them not to play the game they paid $50 for, unless they want their browsing habits picked at by marketing bots?
Honestly, I don't really care. I mean, I do... It kinda bugs me, but I figure there's no way EA is getting out of this unscathed, and they will have to make amends. (On top of removing the spyware.) In the meantime, I like the game, so what the hell?
...when we were going to see people developing laser imaging systems, seeing as how there's now red green and blue lasers out there. Guess I wasn't crazy afterall.
I think it might be too early to tell how AM2 is doing, I mean...we're rolling into the first holiday season since it was introduced, and on top of that, a lot of people are probably keeping their distance until the second wave of AM2 mobos come out, to ensure a nice stable and compatible build. Nothing like being an early adopter and finding out nothing works. Other than that...who WOULDN'T want a nice 64-bit AMD chip and DDR2?! At this point, it's AM2, or a $2000 Socket-F 2000 or 8000 series opteron. (Did I mention the Socket-F boards cost more than half what the CPU does?) So yeah... I think it's too early to tell. And even the holiday season (And tax season.), might not be enough to judge.
Personally, I like AM2, and will probably build a system based on it...as soon as enough people tell me there's good motherboards out there that take the parts I want, and don't catch fire. (Any more than the rest of the rig, anyway.)
Look, I understand the importance of pointing out the rise of our future overlords, but this is, at the very least, the THIRD TIME this story has been posted.
...or should that be 'SIEG ZEON!'? Wait and see. We're getting about to the point where any possible future politicians have been exposed to Gundam in their formative years...could this be leading the way to a Japanese government that demands a 'ZOMG GIANT ROBOT' project from their mass of high tech industry? I think it is. Let them have space, I feel we may regret it if we don't...well, not us, so much as the Australians.
DAI NIPPON BANZAI!
Devs at Insomniac have been quoted as saying that of all that space, something like 2-3gb is audio and video. (In multiple languages and video formats.) Try again.
...sources close to those in charge of Vista's user interface development say the startup sound will be that of '...[M]illions of computer users crying out, and suddenly silenced...'
I guess that depends on if the stands are in the New Orleans area.
(Hate me. I have it coming.)
...so we're buying Japanese toilets now, are we?
Eight? Holy shit. And I was like 'wtf?!' yesterday when I saw two junior high kids with skateboards talking on their cellphones in a bus shelter...
Now we must wait for our glorious leader Dice-K to take over the International Space Station and declare it the Principality of Zeon.
,o/
SIEG ZEON!