Every time MS does something stupid with windows, everyone cries out "LINUX HERE WE COME!"...given the number of times such a thing has happened, why isn't everyone using linux yet?
The answer is simple, and no...it's not games. (Though that IS a bigass market.) It's digital content creation. Okay, fine. GIMP is nice...but it's no Adobe Photoshop. So, what do people who don't like windows do? Use Macs. All the same software, less craposity. (Too bad the damn things cost too much for the horsepower you get.)
But just as many stick grudgingly to PCs, not wanting to give up their hardware freedom. (Or THAT much of their money.) I _love_ linux, but not enough to abandon my creative outputs, (Photoshop, Illustrator, and Lightwave 3D to name a few...) even for the length of time it takes to dual-boot.
If the users actually gave a damn, they'd start to try and convince Adobe, Newtek, and other content creation software developers to develop for Linux. (Frankly, it's much less of a hassle for me to just grin and bear windows.)
Seriously people. If you give a damn, TELL THE BIG COMPANIES THAT MAKE SOFTWARE PEOPLE USE. If they know they can actually SELL linux versions, they'll be overjoyed to dev for a platform that isn't as half-assed as windows, which I can guarantee is the root of 75% of their tech support issues. Even if they only certify compatibility or something with ONE distro, everyone's happy. They don't have to dev software for a shoddy operating system, the people who use the software will enjoy a more stable and smooth-running work environment, and everyone will be happy that MS is on it's way to hell.
The problem with this though, is that you need to get enough companies on board that whole workflows are covered. Many won't switch JUST for Adobe, and most won't switch JUST for a 3D package. Change IS NEEDED, but I don't see it happening any time soon unless a handful of companies step up, with or without our coaxing/prodding/bribing/threatening.
I think things like this are always going to happen, with high-profile entries, anyway. I primarily use wikipedia for basic informational stuff. Like say, the history of Canon, or old photographic techniques and technical terms... Sometimes I 'wikisurf' through the (comics) entries, too. Those entries seem to be some of the most detailed on the site...reading through a couple of character backgrounds is almost as good as reading the comics. Heck, I've even used it to look up information on medications I've been prescribed.
For the uninitiated, it's a $200 game you basically justify by telling yourself (Or significant other...but who am I kidding?) you're paying for the controller it comes with (Which consists of a three-foot-wide control panel with 44 buttons, 5 toggle switches, two joysticks, a radio tuner dial, a gear shift, and let us not forget the three foot pedals...also, most of this is lighted), and not the game.
I, however, despising the Xbox entirely, was forced to grudgingly buy one JUST for Steel Battalion.
So, I'm not really bothered by this, despite being broke most of the time. I mean, they're going to be GREAT goddamn games. A quantum leap in graphics and gameplay. And frankly, if the profit-per-unit goes up, chances are more developers are going to be able to take risks on edgy or niche titles.
Look at Steel Battalion. It cost $200, and is really a game only a mecha otaku could love. But they took the chance and made it because it was manufactured in limited quantites, and sold for a shitton.
Even without a fancy controller, I'd gladly pay upwards of $100 for a great game that hits my strikezone dead center, something that really resonates with my interests. At $60, it might not be reasonable for a game to be made for such an audience, see what I'm getting at?
Bastards did the same thing to me years ago, only reason I had AOHELL was because they were the exclusive place to play Kesmai's Multiplayer Battletech Online Solaris 7 once it left open beta... Eventually, they no longer were. BUHBYE. But yeah, they gave me the same treatment. Trying to get me to keep it, because, my god...what person can go without INTERNET WITH TRAINING WHEELS?!
The guy who comes up with a way to stab people in the face over the phone, will be a rich man. (Not as rich as the one who comes up with a way to do it over the internet though.)
"...don't play games that suck." Is what I'd like to say to the people who are complaining.
To be honest, I sympathize with both sides. The people who say the game is a grind of bullshittery and if you want to have a 'life' (Whatever that is...), AND have fun playing, you need to buy gold etc. etc. etc...as well as the people who say these people are idiots, and casual play is just as rewarding. Well, more power to the latter. They're having fun as it is. Good for them. But really, if you don't like the grind, and want a game that's more rewarding for casual players...PLAY SOMETHING THAT FITS THAT DESCRIPTION.
Frankly, I stopped playing FFXI because it had finally gotten to be too much BS for me. I like crafting, that's primarily what I do in MMOs, but there was no real merit to it. For character advancement, you STILL had to go kill beasties. And sometimes you'd have to level your character just to start crafting better items, despite the fact that crafting has levels and experience, too.
I guess I'm still living the dream of a new Ultima Online, without the suck, where your character could live out their life as a baker or just about anything you damn well please, without actually having to go kill monsters... Can you tell I'm more of a roleplayer?
In EVE Online, your character level is actually the sum total of all your skill training (In fact, they never even mention 'levels' anywhere in regards to character advancement...there aren't any.) and skills are trained simply by choosing the skill, and clicking 'Train', and you can continue whatever you were doing while it trains in the background. Even while you're offline.
The MMO I'm playing right now, a free MMO called Mabinogi http://mabinogi.jp/, uses a hybrid system. There are actual character levels, but your experience is the total of all experience gained in skills, plus general experience gained from mobs and as quest/job rewards. It's a fun game, and it doesn't really feel like a grind at all.
My character gains overall character level experience no matter what I'm doing; fishing, cooking, crafting, tailoring, or even fighting. Heck, I can make deliveries for the shops in town and get experience. (As well as gold and items.)
And being FREE it really appeals to the more casual MMO player in me. (Though for 500yen, or about $5, a month you get some added benefits, like double the bank inventory, the ability to run a player shop, etc...) Unfortunately for uninitiated, it's entirely in moonspeak.:3
Given what I know (and wish I didn't) about human nature, and by the behavior of some people I've encountered on the internet, I'd wager the chimp/human interbreeding has been going on a LOT more recently than that. (Just look at our president!)
Free entertainment by jackasses! \o/ I'd been wondering where Jackie-boy had gone. Nothing he ever says or does worries me in the slightest, he's an imbecilic ambulance chasing opportunist. But he sure is damned fun to watch making an ass of himself spewing FUD and bullshit. Besides, if he'd disappeared entirely from the scene, there was always the chance he'd be replaced by someone who isn't so obviously full of shit.
It should read 'Expensive Concerts = More Bootlegs'
These arguments are always so ridiculous. I know of NO ONE who isn't under the age of 18 who has $20 in their pocket (Or have they gotten up to $40 yet? I only buy Japanese CDs.) and spots an album they love/want, and go "Meh, I have it on my hard drive." NOT EVEN IF THEY HAVE IT IN LOSSLESS!
Most people like having THINGS. A CD is a thing. A hard drive is a thing. A dozen files on your hard drive are NOT a dozen additional things.
On the other hand, making concerts more expensive is stupid, because there's only SO much people are willing to pay to see someone perform in person. I mean, compound absurd prices with the hassles of getting there and all that, and who the hell _would_ but a bunch of insane diehards with the artist's name tatooed across their chests?
UMD is not dying, UMD _movies_ are. And when I say UMD _movies_ I mean _US/UK_ UMD movies.
And with good reason. No one's going to pay $25 for a movie they already have in a higher quality format, when they can just rip their DVD and transcode it for PSP playback. UMD video probably isn't going to fail as spectacularly in Japan though, where most of the time, you can get a UMD _with_ your DVD purchase (For a little extra) I should know, I have a couple. And I certainly wouldn't have bought them seperately, since I could have just as easily put my videos on the memstick for free (Though that is one of the two advantages of UMD video; it's encoded better than you could possibly do transcoding, and it doesn't take up any space on your memory stick.) As for this 'cavalcade of failed Sony formats'... Seriously, drink the koolaid. No one else is buying that crap.
Betamax? Still the top choice for many professional video applications.
Minidisc? While MP3 players have their advantages, the latest generation of MD player/recorders are still going strong, even outside of Japan. Also, minidisc recorders are pretty much the #1 device for bootlegging live performances for its blend of small size, and high fidelity.
Blu-Ray? Let's skip past the part where it ISN'T EVEN OUT YET, and get down to the facts. The Playstation 2 cemented DVD in Japan. It hadn't caught on until then, they were still using VCD! So, considering that the Xbox 360 had such an abysmal launch (Usually what happens when your product can't withstand the rigors of...well, WORKING), which do you think is going to win in Japan? HD-DVD, or Blu-Ray? And don't forget, a growing constituency in the US and abroad care more about the outcome of that battle than what format Universal is going to put their latest summer blockbusting crapfest on.
UMD was about putting software in the PSP, first and foremost. The fact that they never had plans to manufacture anything ELSE to play UMDs should speak for itself.
For starters, whoever modded up "ZOMGLOL YOUR CELLPHONE IS PART OF A GOVERNM3NT PLOT TO MAKE YOU STUPID!!!1111!111" may well be proof of these 'deadened brains'.
Secondly, this is the worst tripe I've ever heard. And that's saying something.
Third, I call bullshit. If all this stuff deadens our brains, how do you explain the fact that Japan, which I think we can safely say has the highest density of sophisticated consumer electronics on the face of the Earth (especially cellphones), has a higher literacy rate than the United States, despite a written language containing several THOUSAND complex ideograms? I've got a theory; Americans are stupid. Base any theory or premise on Americans as a baseline, and you'll fail. It's laziness. As a people, we're stupid and lazy. Richest country on the planet, and our literacy rate has been in steady decline for the quarter century I've been alive. Technology didn't make American high schools graduate people who would flunk out of any other educational system on the planet, laziness did. Now _there's_ something that deadens the brain.
Kindly return to tending your little conspiracy theory website before I sic the thought police on you. Or, if you insist on continuing to troll, might I suggest an elementary school playground as your next venue? The children would make a far better audience for your psuedo-intellectual paranoid delusions than the slashdot crowd.
Wow, a link to information on your geocities site. Yeah, you can get cancer from working a high powered radar system. Of course. You can get cancer from anything. Death is a side-effect of living. Pissing on modern convenience because it'll kill us just the same as everything else, is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Let's take this thinking a step further. Granted, something like the aforementioned high powered military radar isn't doing you any good, and probably speeds up the process. But so do phones, computers, radios, electricity, cars, EVERYTHING, with differing levels of efficacy. I think, if we all could live to be 200, barring accidents and illness, we'd all eventually die of cancer. Would I give up my computer, my phone, my DLP projector, my digital camera, my game consoles, and all the other things that are slowly killing me? No. You don't live longer, it just SEEMS longer.
Once again, I have no problem with those kinds of views...there's always going to be people who think like that. But when they start forcing their lifestyle on others, they need to be told in no uncertain terms that it is decidedly not cool. Nice suburban community is about to get free wifi internet from a local school, handful of these people come out of the woodwork and complain, bam! No free internet for anyone. Why? Because of the radio waves and stuff. Guess what? There's nowhere on the face of the Earth where the radio waves and magnetic fields won't get to you. ET IS WATCHING OUR TELEVISION PROGRAMMING.
Sounds like someone OD'd on granola. How does a member of the tinfoil hat set come to run a uni anyway? Friggin luddites... >_< I've got no problem with them barricading themselves in their tinfoil-clad homes, and dressing their kids up like baked potatoes while poisoning their minds with insane rantings about the evil radio waves and magnetic fields... But it pisses me off when their rampant insanity impacts others. Like those idiots who prevented a school from providing free broadband to the community via wifi because they were afraid it would melt their brains or something.
I blame their written language. It's made me want to at least hurt myself on countless occasions...
All my typical joking aside, when you have to know 3000 characters that are typically printed so small that 60% of them are basically impossible to tell apart, just to be able to read a college textbook (And god forbid you wanted to get into a GOOD college) suicide seems like a far less masochistic path. (Especially given the average Japanese teenager's outlook on life and its value.) It's that Japanese work ethic. I mean, they have a word for 'death from overwork'...and they don't mean that shit figuratively.
They really need to lighten up...but I'm terrified that if they do, all important advances in consumer electronics technology will cease. <_<
It seems a large quantity of people need to RTFA, or atleast do their research. It's going to be able to read jpg images, text files, PDF files, and-- OH MY GOD --a SINGLE DRM'd eBook format. (And probably other stuff, too.)
For the people crying 'Rootkit!', I have the same reply I give to people who say my purchase of a PSP is eroding my rights as a consumer or similar nonsense that I'd just as soon not dignify with a reply if not for the fact that it pisses me off beyond what is reasonable: SonyBMG isn't even the same as Sony Music let alone SCEI or their consumer electronics division, so why should I let what ONE part of a MASSIVE multinational corporation did, keep me from enjoying my PSP/eBook reader/headphones/home theatre receiver/Playstation 3? The answer is; I shouldn't. Leave the asinine and baseless arguments to people like Jack Thompson. Sony-bashing is no longer hip, get over it.
Someone made a nice bit of ebook reader software for the PSP, it'd clock the CPU and bus down to 1mhz so you'd get 10 hours of battery life even with the screen turned all the way up... Too bad it was rendered useless by not being able to run homebrew anymore. Oh well... I guess something like this is worth a look. (Though, minimizing the number of devices I carry around is always important to me...)
Screw the new formats, and screw the DRM that comes with it. I get my HD movies off usenet just fine, thanks. I _usually_ own the DVDs, too. (Sometimes I just want to check something out, and can't be bollocksed to traipse to the video store through a foot of snow.) But then, DVDs don't look as impressive and 'secksiful' on a ten foot screen anyway.
I have to agree with what someone above said, there's not going to be any more 'formats'... It's all about portability and access of the 'files'. We're at a point now, where sooner rather than later, buying movies and music is really going to be a matter of licensing rather than owning something tangible.
This will be both good and bad. There are some people, me included, who aren't really going to notice the difference... I've actually downloaded DVD ISOs of discs I own, because I couldn't find the damned thing, or downloaded anime preformatted for my PSP. (Or at least, a DVD rip I can transcode.) So, with that becoming sort of the norm, I won't lose much sleep over it. (Besides, I treat physical media terribly to begin with.) But for some people, this will just break them, on a fundamental level. Sucks to be them, but they're simply not fit for the digital world. And I won't lose much sleep over them, either.
Now if only I had Verizon FIOS, and its 15mbps downstram for $40 a month.:P Between that and my unlimited download, unlimited speed, 70+ day multipart binary retention, premium usenet feed... I COULD DOWNLOAD ENTIRE INTERNETS!
No wait, better yet... If only I lived in Japan and could share a 1gbit fiber line with twenty other people for $50 a month....damn, the very thought brings a tears to my eyes... *wrings out his eyepatch*
I could be wrong, but isn't this the first time the word 'penis' has actually shown up on the/. frontpage? (Not counting polls and the comments slashbox) I'm bored, can't you tell? (Tired actually, was heading off to bed. Happy New Year, everyone!)
Slashdot Mirror
Every time MS does something stupid with windows, everyone cries out "LINUX HERE WE COME!"...given the number of times such a thing has happened, why isn't everyone using linux yet?
The answer is simple, and no...it's not games. (Though that IS a bigass market.) It's digital content creation. Okay, fine. GIMP is nice...but it's no Adobe Photoshop. So, what do people who don't like windows do? Use Macs. All the same software, less craposity. (Too bad the damn things cost too much for the horsepower you get.)
But just as many stick grudgingly to PCs, not wanting to give up their hardware freedom. (Or THAT much of their money.) I _love_ linux, but not enough to abandon my creative outputs, (Photoshop, Illustrator, and Lightwave 3D to name a few...) even for the length of time it takes to dual-boot.
If the users actually gave a damn, they'd start to try and convince Adobe, Newtek, and other content creation software developers to develop for Linux. (Frankly, it's much less of a hassle for me to just grin and bear windows.)
Seriously people. If you give a damn, TELL THE BIG COMPANIES THAT MAKE SOFTWARE PEOPLE USE. If they know they can actually SELL linux versions, they'll be overjoyed to dev for a platform that isn't as half-assed as windows, which I can guarantee is the root of 75% of their tech support issues. Even if they only certify compatibility or something with ONE distro, everyone's happy. They don't have to dev software for a shoddy operating system, the people who use the software will enjoy a more stable and smooth-running work environment, and everyone will be happy that MS is on it's way to hell.
The problem with this though, is that you need to get enough companies on board that whole workflows are covered. Many won't switch JUST for Adobe, and most won't switch JUST for a 3D package. Change IS NEEDED, but I don't see it happening any time soon unless a handful of companies step up, with or without our coaxing/prodding/bribing/threatening.
I think things like this are always going to happen, with high-profile entries, anyway. I primarily use wikipedia for basic informational stuff. Like say, the history of Canon, or old photographic techniques and technical terms... Sometimes I 'wikisurf' through the (comics) entries, too. Those entries seem to be some of the most detailed on the site...reading through a couple of character backgrounds is almost as good as reading the comics. Heck, I've even used it to look up information on medications I've been prescribed.
_I_ _own_ _Steel_ _Battalion_
For the uninitiated, it's a $200 game you basically justify by telling yourself (Or significant other...but who am I kidding?) you're paying for the controller it comes with (Which consists of a three-foot-wide control panel with 44 buttons, 5 toggle switches, two joysticks, a radio tuner dial, a gear shift, and let us not forget the three foot pedals...also, most of this is lighted), and not the game.
I, however, despising the Xbox entirely, was forced to grudgingly buy one JUST for Steel Battalion.
So, I'm not really bothered by this, despite being broke most of the time. I mean, they're going to be GREAT goddamn games. A quantum leap in graphics and gameplay. And frankly, if the profit-per-unit goes up, chances are more developers are going to be able to take risks on edgy or niche titles.
Look at Steel Battalion. It cost $200, and is really a game only a mecha otaku could love. But they took the chance and made it because it was manufactured in limited quantites, and sold for a shitton.
Even without a fancy controller, I'd gladly pay upwards of $100 for a great game that hits my strikezone dead center, something that really resonates with my interests. At $60, it might not be reasonable for a game to be made for such an audience, see what I'm getting at?
Bastards did the same thing to me years ago, only reason I had AOHELL was because they were the exclusive place to play Kesmai's Multiplayer Battletech Online Solaris 7 once it left open beta... Eventually, they no longer were. BUHBYE. But yeah, they gave me the same treatment. Trying to get me to keep it, because, my god...what person can go without INTERNET WITH TRAINING WHEELS?!
The guy who comes up with a way to stab people in the face over the phone, will be a rich man. (Not as rich as the one who comes up with a way to do it over the internet though.)
"...don't play games that suck." Is what I'd like to say to the people who are complaining.
:3
To be honest, I sympathize with both sides. The people who say the game is a grind of bullshittery and if you want to have a 'life' (Whatever that is...), AND have fun playing, you need to buy gold etc. etc. etc...as well as the people who say these people are idiots, and casual play is just as rewarding. Well, more power to the latter. They're having fun as it is. Good for them. But really, if you don't like the grind, and want a game that's more rewarding for casual players...PLAY SOMETHING THAT FITS THAT DESCRIPTION.
Frankly, I stopped playing FFXI because it had finally gotten to be too much BS for me. I like crafting, that's primarily what I do in MMOs, but there was no real merit to it. For character advancement, you STILL had to go kill beasties. And sometimes you'd have to level your character just to start crafting better items, despite the fact that crafting has levels and experience, too.
I guess I'm still living the dream of a new Ultima Online, without the suck, where your character could live out their life as a baker or just about anything you damn well please, without actually having to go kill monsters... Can you tell I'm more of a roleplayer?
In EVE Online, your character level is actually the sum total of all your skill training (In fact, they never even mention 'levels' anywhere in regards to character advancement...there aren't any.) and skills are trained simply by choosing the skill, and clicking 'Train', and you can continue whatever you were doing while it trains in the background. Even while you're offline.
The MMO I'm playing right now, a free MMO called Mabinogi http://mabinogi.jp/, uses a hybrid system. There are actual character levels, but your experience is the total of all experience gained in skills, plus general experience gained from mobs and as quest/job rewards. It's a fun game, and it doesn't really feel like a grind at all.
My character gains overall character level experience no matter what I'm doing; fishing, cooking, crafting, tailoring, or even fighting. Heck, I can make deliveries for the shops in town and get experience. (As well as gold and items.)
And being FREE it really appeals to the more casual MMO player in me. (Though for 500yen, or about $5, a month you get some added benefits, like double the bank inventory, the ability to run a player shop, etc...) Unfortunately for uninitiated, it's entirely in moonspeak.
Given what I know (and wish I didn't) about human nature, and by the behavior of some people I've encountered on the internet, I'd wager the chimp/human interbreeding has been going on a LOT more recently than that. (Just look at our president!)
Free entertainment by jackasses! \o/ I'd been wondering where Jackie-boy had gone. Nothing he ever says or does worries me in the slightest, he's an imbecilic ambulance chasing opportunist. But he sure is damned fun to watch making an ass of himself spewing FUD and bullshit. Besides, if he'd disappeared entirely from the scene, there was always the chance he'd be replaced by someone who isn't so obviously full of shit.
It should read 'Expensive Concerts = More Bootlegs'
These arguments are always so ridiculous. I know of NO ONE who isn't under the age of 18 who has $20 in their pocket (Or have they gotten up to $40 yet? I only buy Japanese CDs.) and spots an album they love/want, and go "Meh, I have it on my hard drive." NOT EVEN IF THEY HAVE IT IN LOSSLESS!
Most people like having THINGS. A CD is a thing. A hard drive is a thing. A dozen files on your hard drive are NOT a dozen additional things.
On the other hand, making concerts more expensive is stupid, because there's only SO much people are willing to pay to see someone perform in person. I mean, compound absurd prices with the hassles of getting there and all that, and who the hell _would_ but a bunch of insane diehards with the artist's name tatooed across their chests?
Gamers buy prebuilts?! I WAS UNAWARE! Dell once again proves themselves smarter than me!
UMD is not dying, UMD _movies_ are. And when I say UMD _movies_ I mean _US/UK_ UMD movies.
And with good reason. No one's going to pay $25 for a movie they already have in a higher quality format, when they can just rip their DVD and transcode it for PSP playback. UMD video probably isn't going to fail as spectacularly in Japan though, where most of the time, you can get a UMD _with_ your DVD purchase (For a little extra) I should know, I have a couple. And I certainly wouldn't have bought them seperately, since I could have just as easily put my videos on the memstick for free (Though that is one of the two advantages of UMD video; it's encoded better than you could possibly do transcoding, and it doesn't take up any space on your memory stick.) As for this 'cavalcade of failed Sony formats'... Seriously, drink the koolaid. No one else is buying that crap.
Betamax? Still the top choice for many professional video applications.
Minidisc? While MP3 players have their advantages, the latest generation of MD player/recorders are still going strong, even outside of Japan. Also, minidisc recorders are pretty much the #1 device for bootlegging live performances for its blend of small size, and high fidelity.
Blu-Ray? Let's skip past the part where it ISN'T EVEN OUT YET, and get down to the facts. The Playstation 2 cemented DVD in Japan. It hadn't caught on until then, they were still using VCD! So, considering that the Xbox 360 had such an abysmal launch (Usually what happens when your product can't withstand the rigors of...well, WORKING), which do you think is going to win in Japan? HD-DVD, or Blu-Ray? And don't forget, a growing constituency in the US and abroad care more about the outcome of that battle than what format Universal is going to put their latest summer blockbusting crapfest on.
UMD was about putting software in the PSP, first and foremost. The fact that they never had plans to manufacture anything ELSE to play UMDs should speak for itself.
Now it's my turn to point some things out.
For starters, whoever modded up "ZOMGLOL YOUR CELLPHONE IS PART OF A GOVERNM3NT PLOT TO MAKE YOU STUPID!!!1111!111" may well be proof of these 'deadened brains'.
Secondly, this is the worst tripe I've ever heard. And that's saying something.
Third, I call bullshit. If all this stuff deadens our brains, how do you explain the fact that Japan, which I think we can safely say has the highest density of sophisticated consumer electronics on the face of the Earth (especially cellphones), has a higher literacy rate than the United States, despite a written language containing several THOUSAND complex ideograms? I've got a theory; Americans are stupid. Base any theory or premise on Americans as a baseline, and you'll fail. It's laziness. As a people, we're stupid and lazy. Richest country on the planet, and our literacy rate has been in steady decline for the quarter century I've been alive. Technology didn't make American high schools graduate people who would flunk out of any other educational system on the planet, laziness did. Now _there's_ something that deadens the brain.
Kindly return to tending your little conspiracy theory website before I sic the thought police on you. Or, if you insist on continuing to troll, might I suggest an elementary school playground as your next venue? The children would make a far better audience for your psuedo-intellectual paranoid delusions than the slashdot crowd.
Good day to you, sir.
Wow, a link to information on your geocities site. Yeah, you can get cancer from working a high powered radar system. Of course. You can get cancer from anything. Death is a side-effect of living. Pissing on modern convenience because it'll kill us just the same as everything else, is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Let's take this thinking a step further. Granted, something like the aforementioned high powered military radar isn't doing you any good, and probably speeds up the process. But so do phones, computers, radios, electricity, cars, EVERYTHING, with differing levels of efficacy. I think, if we all could live to be 200, barring accidents and illness, we'd all eventually die of cancer. Would I give up my computer, my phone, my DLP projector, my digital camera, my game consoles, and all the other things that are slowly killing me? No. You don't live longer, it just SEEMS longer.
Once again, I have no problem with those kinds of views...there's always going to be people who think like that. But when they start forcing their lifestyle on others, they need to be told in no uncertain terms that it is decidedly not cool. Nice suburban community is about to get free wifi internet from a local school, handful of these people come out of the woodwork and complain, bam! No free internet for anyone. Why? Because of the radio waves and stuff. Guess what? There's nowhere on the face of the Earth where the radio waves and magnetic fields won't get to you. ET IS WATCHING OUR TELEVISION PROGRAMMING.
Sounds like someone OD'd on granola. How does a member of the tinfoil hat set come to run a uni anyway? Friggin luddites... >_< I've got no problem with them barricading themselves in their tinfoil-clad homes, and dressing their kids up like baked potatoes while poisoning their minds with insane rantings about the evil radio waves and magnetic fields... But it pisses me off when their rampant insanity impacts others. Like those idiots who prevented a school from providing free broadband to the community via wifi because they were afraid it would melt their brains or something.
Sure wouldn't want to defrag one of these things... My 40gb system/application drive takes long enough...stupid windows...
I blame their written language. It's made me want to at least hurt myself on countless occasions...
All my typical joking aside, when you have to know 3000 characters that are typically printed so small that 60% of them are basically impossible to tell apart, just to be able to read a college textbook (And god forbid you wanted to get into a GOOD college) suicide seems like a far less masochistic path. (Especially given the average Japanese teenager's outlook on life and its value.) It's that Japanese work ethic. I mean, they have a word for 'death from overwork'...and they don't mean that shit figuratively.
They really need to lighten up...but I'm terrified that if they do, all important advances in consumer electronics technology will cease. <_<
'True' video iPod? Already got a Sony PSP, thanks. ^_- b (In white even, god bless Japan.)
Shigeru Miyamoto kicks both their asses.
;)
You don't see Gates or Jobs on a tshirt, now do you?
btw, it's my bday (25 years of gaming, baby!) incase anyone wants to do some well-wishing.
Christ! And people complain about the length of the URL for MY site! <_<
Imagine typing that bastard in while browsing with the PSP!
It seems a large quantity of people need to RTFA, or atleast do their research. It's going to be able to read jpg images, text files, PDF files, and-- OH MY GOD --a SINGLE DRM'd eBook format. (And probably other stuff, too.)
For the people crying 'Rootkit!', I have the same reply I give to people who say my purchase of a PSP is eroding my rights as a consumer or similar nonsense that I'd just as soon not dignify with a reply if not for the fact that it pisses me off beyond what is reasonable: SonyBMG isn't even the same as Sony Music let alone SCEI or their consumer electronics division, so why should I let what ONE part of a MASSIVE multinational corporation did, keep me from enjoying my PSP/eBook reader/headphones/home theatre receiver/Playstation 3? The answer is; I shouldn't. Leave the asinine and baseless arguments to people like Jack Thompson. Sony-bashing is no longer hip, get over it.
Wait wait... There's AMERICAN WoW players who can type a couple sentences in English without grammar or spelling errors?!?
Let the flaming begin! *pulls out the BBQ sauce*
Someone made a nice bit of ebook reader software for the PSP, it'd clock the CPU and bus down to 1mhz so you'd get 10 hours of battery life even with the screen turned all the way up... Too bad it was rendered useless by not being able to run homebrew anymore. Oh well... I guess something like this is worth a look. (Though, minimizing the number of devices I carry around is always important to me...)
I'll see you all in he^h^hprison.
Screw the new formats, and screw the DRM that comes with it. I get my HD movies off usenet just fine, thanks. I _usually_ own the DVDs, too. (Sometimes I just want to check something out, and can't be bollocksed to traipse to the video store through a foot of snow.) But then, DVDs don't look as impressive and 'secksiful' on a ten foot screen anyway.
:P Between that and my unlimited download, unlimited speed, 70+ day multipart binary retention, premium usenet feed... I COULD DOWNLOAD ENTIRE INTERNETS!
I have to agree with what someone above said, there's not going to be any more 'formats'... It's all about portability and access of the 'files'. We're at a point now, where sooner rather than later, buying movies and music is really going to be a matter of licensing rather than owning something tangible.
This will be both good and bad. There are some people, me included, who aren't really going to notice the difference... I've actually downloaded DVD ISOs of discs I own, because I couldn't find the damned thing, or downloaded anime preformatted for my PSP. (Or at least, a DVD rip I can transcode.) So, with that becoming sort of the norm, I won't lose much sleep over it. (Besides, I treat physical media terribly to begin with.) But for some people, this will just break them, on a fundamental level. Sucks to be them, but they're simply not fit for the digital world. And I won't lose much sleep over them, either.
Now if only I had Verizon FIOS, and its 15mbps downstram for $40 a month.
No wait, better yet... If only I lived in Japan and could share a 1gbit fiber line with twenty other people for $50 a month....damn, the very thought brings a tears to my eyes... *wrings out his eyepatch*
Actually, they're tripping over the inordinately large power supply.
*Recalls a rather humorous picture of '360-tan' straining against the cord of the massive powerbrick she's attached to*
I could be wrong, but isn't this the first time the word 'penis' has actually shown up on the /. frontpage? (Not counting polls and the comments slashbox) I'm bored, can't you tell? (Tired actually, was heading off to bed. Happy New Year, everyone!)