the fact that the Xbox is basically a PC ina Box Again, what makes the XBox a PC? Can you word process on it? Can you install an IRC client? Can you crack RC5 keys? How is the XBox a general purpose PC?
Its not a "general purpose" PC, but according to game developers I've spoken to, its a breeze to program for Xbox because you devellop on a PC and the Xbox's hardware is almost the same. I'm talking about the difference between the Xbox's PC-like hardware and the PS2's special, unique hardware.
Size/Weight: Yes, it's big. Yes it's heavy. But my entertainment center hasn't bitched at me yet. Good thing there's 10 foot cords on the controllers so I don't have to move the box out whenever I wish to enjoy a game.
I like to take my console to play at friend's house...
DVD: Don't most people own real DVD players anyway?
Nope.
From what I've read on newsgroups, you get what you pay for when playing DD movies on the PS2 considering it cuts out a few times a movie (Saving Private Ryan is one example I can remember).
Well, IGN had started a list about that... I don't think they're very serious about it though...anyway, I personally have only had trouble with one movie, and even "real" DVD players have their bad moments. And it also applies to the Xbox, so shaddup.
Also, how enjoyable is it using a corded gamepad to control video playback? I thought that kind of a thing went out in the early 1970's when IR and RF was invented *cough*. XBox made me pony up $30 for the DVD playback. I'm guessing you $bought$ a DVD remote for your PS2, unless they were free.
Its very enjoyable, thank you very much. You're guessing wrong. I already have the controller on my couch full-time, duh! Why would I want to buy a battery-eating remote. Maybe you need your phallic remote in your hand when you watch a movie, but personally, after I've pressed play, I'm set. Anything else I need to do I can do with the controller. If I wanted a remote, I could have one, and I'm not limited to the Sony controller, I got cheaper 2nd-3rd party choices. I cannot believe that people could possibly say that being FORCED to buy a remote is better than being given the choice. What kind of brainwashing did they put you through? Sheesh
My hands would always hurt after a marathon PS1 session with the dual shock controller
Well, how shocking! You used the controller for a marathon, and your hands hurt? Wow!
What's the primary purpose of a game console? To play games.
Go buy a Gamecube...
What's the usual thing to do when one plays a game? Save your progress.
Er...if you say so...I'd have gone with "play the stupid game"...but whatever;-)
Which system comes built-in with next to unlimited storage for saved games (hard drive)? Xbox
Yeah, and man, its a bitch to have to rip out the whole HD everytime I want to go play at a friend's house...
Which system requires you to buy a memory card (bringing it to the same price as Xbox with DVD playback)? PS2
And the GameCube AND the Xbox!!! (yeah yeah yeah, I know you don,t HAVE to buy it on the Xbox, but then, WHY is it there? Huh? HUH? HUH?)
So, did MS make the right choice in including storage instead of DVD playback with the system?
Instead? Instead??? Come on!
I think you can tell by this post where I stand.
Yeah, you stand in the hysterically loyal place of a "fan". Someone suffering from acute brand-loyalty. Its a mental disease spread by advertising campaigns. I think there's a cure but its illegal under the DMCA;-)
Seriously man, don't go ape crazy defending "your" console. My major beef with the Xbox is the controller: its big, uncomfortable. The rest are details. (FYI, I hated the dreamcast for the same reason, and the genesis, and the N64). So you're happy to have a HD in your console, good for you, I'm glad to have a DVD player in my console, if you don't need one, again, good for you.
Let's see... PS2 came out in a virtual next-gen void. DC was winding down, publishers wanted to go with the known commodity, Playstation's follow-on. [...] XBox started with PS2 having 1 year lead and another top console, the Gamecube, a week away from launch.
Ok, so, when the DreamCast was a year ahead of the PS2, it was "winding down", but when the same situation is described with the PS2 and the Xbox, its a PS2 adavantage? And when talking about the known commodity, the fact that the Xbox is basically a PC ina Box doesn't give it an advantage over the complicated "Emotion Engine + 2 other weird chips" of the Sony machine?
A huge head-start is never easy to compete with, but it isn't a reason to write off the underdog Oh dear god! Did you just refer to Microsoft as the underdog?
If you were to replace "Playstation 2" with "Windows", and replace "XBox" with "Linux" Yeah, because Linux and Windows sell to the same market and has the same pricetag...
(I like to think of myself as objective, but I do own an XBox and 6 games, so I may be biased) :) At least you know you're biased.
And about the superior visuals and audio: Visuals: Kinda, yeah, a tiny little bit. If you have both images next to each other and you take time to compare, a trained eye can see that the textures (especially "wet" reflective textures) are a tad better on the Xbox and that it gets less jagegd contour lines...but to my dad, there is NO difference whatsoever. Sound: Well, seing as about 99.99999% (wild estimate/wishfull gess) of people are hooking the sound with the RCA cables direct in the TV, the better 5.1 support ins't that impressive. Yeah, the Xbox has true 5.1 sound in-game and the PS2 only supports 5.1 for movies and cut-scenes, but like you said, Xbox had a whole year to work on it and "do better" than the damned competition.
The thing is, to tech heads, the Xbox is a bit superior, to normal consumers (normal as in clueless), the Xbox is the same except that its bigger, heavier, uglier, and makes you pay extra $$$ for DVD playback.
Ya know, people actually think about where they are gonna put that box when they get back home, the small PS2 fits snugly in most places (I swear they measured the average empty space in people's TV and audio-video furnniture before designing it, it just fits too nicely), the Xbox is actually bigger than most DVD players and VCR. Its the little things... And don't forget the freaking controller...man that Box's controller is a BEAST! Its freakin' huge! The PS2 controller is very ergonomic, very comfy.
Ok...I'm done ranting now...I just disagreed:) (Oh, and I'm biased too: I have a PS2 and 2 games)
So, you were NOT eating the good good brown bread that lowers the chances of myopia? And you've been wearing glasses since 2nd grade? How unexplicable!
Its not the white bread that has evil stuff in, its the brown bread that has good stuff. And, no, genetics can't be thrown out the window, nor does indoor living. Myopia is probably caused by a mixture of many different things.
The other 22 pairs of chromosomes may be X-shaped, but they most assuredly not what biologists refer to as X chromosomes
Ok... Now that you mention it...I vaguely remember one of my college teacher saying something to that effect... I often have trouble expressing to people why I left science classes and went fort art college instead...I think I'll user this example from now on. Its just cute enough:)
I just saw Céline and her manger/husband on TV speak of this (lucky me, I was zapping around on tv and just stumbled on a rerun of her press conference).
It was mostly René Angelil doing the talking (the manager/husband), and he was...not clear.
What he said is that the CDs sold in europe can break your computer (to wich Céline said "Ouch, that's gonna cost 'em"), its only sold that way in europe, for now, but might come to america soon. Then he said there are two sides to this story, the first part is that music makes you feel a lot of emotions are is very important in people's lives and not everyone can afford CDs because they are a bit expensive, especially for teenagers. The second part is that authors and singers and producers need to get paid, and the big companies meet every year and they are working on technology for music that can be downloaded that will get paid for, but the technology isn't ready. So in europe they are much more agressive, but this technology might come to america soon.
So, he's not being clear at all...and this is loosely translated from french, but that's pretty much what they said about it.
So, to summerise: These copy-protected CDs might break their fan's computer, and they feel this is harsh. They wished that people could listen to their emotionally-charged songs for free, but they want to get paid.
So...if people actually PAY for the CDs, its ok to break their expensive computers?
the Welsh baby had is "X-linked", caused by a fault in a gene on the X chromosome that makes an immune protein called interleukin-2. The disease affects boys because they only have one X chromosome.
Well, some people kinda are addicted to getting high on pot, I knew a couple of them back in college...of course, I know plenty of people addicted to watching hockey, and some people addicted to dancing...the thing is, you can get addicted to ANYTHING.
So what we need to do, obviously, is blame everything, and put warning labels on absolutely everything in existance, manufactured or not.
If I type in my last name in google, the first result on page one is my page on Elfwood. I like that.
On teoma, I used to get lesbian porn as a first resulst, now I get a listing of cheap Rio hotels, with a link to elfwood somewhere down there...Guess wich search engine is the Big Big Winner in my little subjective test.
As far as I can tell, teoma breaks down my name into separate words it uses in its search, while google first gives results for the whole word and THEN list resulst for broken down versions of my name, the lesbian porn and hotels are still listed by google, but ranked much lower, as they should be.
apparently the crystals are able to behave as both a solid and a liquid. neat."
WOW! This is revolutionary! This could create such incredible technologies as digital watches and even colour Liquid Crystal Displays! This is new and exciting! Never heard of this before!;-) Imagine, we could make computer screen that would be flat...or even small portable computing devices with coulour displays...maybe even videogames that could fit in your pockets!
I resent this. When elephants dance (or try to stomp on everybody), I say take them out with a tranquilizer gun. And if that's not possible, be sure that if you go down, you go down fighting.
I never thought I'd say this, but: You need to watch more "when animals attack" specials on Fox. When elephants are on the rampage, get out f their freaking way and tranqualise them from a safe distance.
Quote from Roger: Why do people grab music off the Net and download it to CDs, iPods, and other storage devices? Because they like it. They like it a lot. They like it enough to go to the trouble of obtaining it despite the various roadblocks. They are fans. Would they rather have a mint CD from Virgin or Tower, with the original cover art? Of course. Will they eventually be paying customers for the music they are currently sampling? In most cases, yes. Technically they are stealing, but in fact they are an instrumental part of the process by which a lot of real CDs get sold.
And you could do that just as well on a pc. No console required.
Touché But I rarely play on a computer, I'm a console kinda guy...that had not even ocurred to me.
On the plus side for my idea (despite your cynical demolition of it): beta testing for consoles is much easier for consoles, you don't need to do compatibility testing for all the possible video/sound card, OSs, etc. So that's a plus for my utopic small operation. (I want the small operations to exist, I want mre original games, less cookie-cutter crap-o-rama...you may sayayyyyayayy I'm a dreamer...) :)
Simple awnser: for the money. With this kit a small operation can start creating a game, get far enough to prove to investors that they have a good product underway, get more money, get the real develloper kit, finish the game, release the game, get rich.
The evil Xbox's main attraction to devellopers is the fact that you can make games that will be a breeze to port back and forth from the PC to that console and vice versa.
Sony fights back with something that makes it as easy to port to and from linux and the PS2!
Wouldn't it be nice if game companies would sell their games along with a dumbed-down linux distro now? With instructions on how to make a partition on your windows formatted machine so "normal" users could cross over...
"Pirates seek to profit off the enormous popularity of DVDs by using the latest in technology to illegally manufacture DVD copies of Hollywood films, and again dupe consumers into purchasing a wholly inferior product,"
Indeed. People, don't be duped by inferior hollywood products! Buy Japanime! Buy Hong Kong action flicks! Buy the original french movies instead of their inferior US remakes!
Yes, and violinists are a bunch of wrist mutants, using their wrist more dexterously than non-violinists.
In other news, body-building causes physical mutations! Body builders have been observed with muscles far more voluminous than those of non-body builders, a clear case of physical mutations.
In related news, train track cause physical mutations! Many children living near train tracks have been observed exhibiting a lack of lower apendages! The advance of mechanical transportation having rendered the function of legs as a primary locomotive means useless, the legs of some people are falling off in an incredible example of physical mutations!
Other mutations in recent history include the apparition of a new human tissue composed of a polymer envelopped filled with either silicon or a saline solution in the region of Los Angeles. These mutations are thought to be cause by the proximity of large amounts of cellulose films used in movie production. The difference in content of these new physical mutations are thought to be two separate evolutionary branches. Scientists expect the saline variant to be the more sucessfull evolutionary track.
Slashdot Mirror
Does it look ergonmic at ALL?
Have you ever seen an ergonomic fencing handle?
the fact that the Xbox is basically a PC ina Box
Again, what makes the XBox a PC? Can you word process on it? Can you install an IRC client? Can you crack RC5 keys? How is the XBox a general purpose PC?
Its not a "general purpose" PC, but according to game developers I've spoken to, its a breeze to program for Xbox because you devellop on a PC and the Xbox's hardware is almost the same. I'm talking about the difference between the Xbox's PC-like hardware and the PS2's special, unique hardware.
Size/Weight: Yes, it's big. Yes it's heavy. But my entertainment center hasn't bitched at me yet. Good thing there's 10 foot cords on the controllers so I don't have to move the box out whenever I wish to enjoy a game.
I like to take my console to play at friend's house...
DVD: Don't most people own real DVD players anyway?
Nope.
From what I've read on newsgroups, you get what you pay for when playing DD movies on the PS2 considering it cuts out a few times a movie (Saving Private Ryan is one example I can remember).
Well, IGN had started a list about that... I don't think they're very serious about it though...anyway, I personally have only had trouble with one movie, and even "real" DVD players have their bad moments.
And it also applies to the Xbox, so shaddup.
Also, how enjoyable is it using a corded gamepad to control video playback? I thought that kind of a thing went out in the early 1970's when IR and RF was invented *cough*. XBox made me pony up $30 for the DVD playback. I'm guessing you $bought$ a DVD remote for your PS2, unless they were free.
Its very enjoyable, thank you very much.
You're guessing wrong. I already have the controller on my couch full-time, duh! Why would I want to buy a battery-eating remote. Maybe you need your phallic remote in your hand when you watch a movie, but personally, after I've pressed play, I'm set. Anything else I need to do I can do with the controller. If I wanted a remote, I could have one, and I'm not limited to the Sony controller, I got cheaper 2nd-3rd party choices. I cannot believe that people could possibly say that being FORCED to buy a remote is better than being given the choice. What kind of brainwashing did they put you through? Sheesh
My hands would always hurt after a marathon PS1 session with the dual shock controller
Well, how shocking! You used the controller for a marathon, and your hands hurt? Wow!
What's the primary purpose of a game console? To play games.
;-)
;-)
Go buy a Gamecube...
What's the usual thing to do when one plays a game? Save your progress.
Er...if you say so...I'd have gone with "play the stupid game"...but whatever
Which system comes built-in with next to unlimited storage for saved games (hard drive)? Xbox
Yeah, and man, its a bitch to have to rip out the whole HD everytime I want to go play at a friend's house...
Which system requires you to buy a memory card (bringing it to the same price as Xbox with DVD playback)? PS2
And the GameCube AND the Xbox!!!
(yeah yeah yeah, I know you don,t HAVE to buy it on the Xbox, but then, WHY is it there? Huh? HUH? HUH?)
So, did MS make the right choice in including storage instead of DVD playback with the system?
Instead? Instead???
Come on!
I think you can tell by this post where I stand.
Yeah, you stand in the hysterically loyal place of a "fan". Someone suffering from acute brand-loyalty. Its a mental disease spread by advertising campaigns. I think there's a cure but its illegal under the DMCA
Seriously man, don't go ape crazy defending "your" console. My major beef with the Xbox is the controller: its big, uncomfortable. The rest are details. (FYI, I hated the dreamcast for the same reason, and the genesis, and the N64).
So you're happy to have a HD in your console, good for you, I'm glad to have a DVD player in my console, if you don't need one, again, good for you.
Let's see... PS2 came out in a virtual next-gen void. DC was winding down, publishers wanted to go with the known commodity, Playstation's follow-on. [...]
:) At least you know you're biased.
:)
XBox started with PS2 having 1 year lead and another top console, the Gamecube, a week away from launch.
Ok, so, when the DreamCast was a year ahead of the PS2, it was "winding down", but when the same situation is described with the PS2 and the Xbox, its a PS2 adavantage?
And when talking about the known commodity, the fact that the Xbox is basically a PC ina Box doesn't give it an advantage over the complicated "Emotion Engine + 2 other weird chips" of the Sony machine?
A huge head-start is never easy to compete with, but it isn't a reason to write off the underdog
Oh dear god! Did you just refer to Microsoft as the underdog?
If you were to replace "Playstation 2" with "Windows", and replace "XBox" with "Linux"
Yeah, because Linux and Windows sell to the same market and has the same pricetag...
(I like to think of myself as objective, but I do own an XBox and 6 games, so I may be biased)
And about the superior visuals and audio:
Visuals: Kinda, yeah, a tiny little bit. If you have both images next to each other and you take time to compare, a trained eye can see that the textures (especially "wet" reflective textures) are a tad better on the Xbox and that it gets less jagegd contour lines...but to my dad, there is NO difference whatsoever.
Sound: Well, seing as about 99.99999% (wild estimate/wishfull gess) of people are hooking the sound with the RCA cables direct in the TV, the better 5.1 support ins't that impressive. Yeah, the Xbox has true 5.1 sound in-game and the PS2 only supports 5.1 for movies and cut-scenes, but like you said, Xbox had a whole year to work on it and "do better" than the damned competition.
The thing is, to tech heads, the Xbox is a bit superior, to normal consumers (normal as in clueless), the Xbox is the same except that its bigger, heavier, uglier, and makes you pay extra $$$ for DVD playback.
Ya know, people actually think about where they are gonna put that box when they get back home, the small PS2 fits snugly in most places (I swear they measured the average empty space in people's TV and audio-video furnniture before designing it, it just fits too nicely), the Xbox is actually bigger than most DVD players and VCR.
Its the little things...
And don't forget the freaking controller...man that Box's controller is a BEAST! Its freakin' huge! The PS2 controller is very ergonomic, very comfy.
Ok...I'm done ranting now...I just disagreed
(Oh, and I'm biased too: I have a PS2 and 2 games)
So, you were NOT eating the good good brown bread that lowers the chances of myopia? And you've been wearing glasses since 2nd grade? How unexplicable!
Its not the white bread that has evil stuff in, its the brown bread that has good stuff. And, no, genetics can't be thrown out the window, nor does indoor living. Myopia is probably caused by a mixture of many different things.
The other 22 pairs of chromosomes may be X-shaped, but they most assuredly not what biologists refer to as X chromosomes
:)
Ok...
Now that you mention it...I vaguely remember one of my college teacher saying something to that effect...
I often have trouble expressing to people why I left science classes and went fort art college instead...I think I'll user this example from now on. Its just cute enough
sheesh...
I just saw Céline and her manger/husband on TV speak of this (lucky me, I was zapping around on tv and just stumbled on a rerun of her press conference).
It was mostly René Angelil doing the talking (the manager/husband), and he was...not clear.
What he said is that the CDs sold in europe can break your computer (to wich Céline said "Ouch, that's gonna cost 'em"), its only sold that way in europe, for now, but might come to america soon. Then he said there are two sides to this story, the first part is that music makes you feel a lot of emotions are is very important in people's lives and not everyone can afford CDs because they are a bit expensive, especially for teenagers. The second part is that authors and singers and producers need to get paid, and the big companies meet every year and they are working on technology for music that can be downloaded that will get paid for, but the technology isn't ready. So in europe they are much more agressive, but this technology might come to america soon.
So, he's not being clear at all...and this is loosely translated from french, but that's pretty much what they said about it.
So, to summerise: These copy-protected CDs might break their fan's computer, and they feel this is harsh. They wished that people could listen to their emotionally-charged songs for free, but they want to get paid.
So...if people actually PAY for the CDs, its ok to break their expensive computers?
the Welsh baby had is "X-linked", caused by a fault in a gene on the X chromosome that makes an immune protein called interleukin-2. The disease affects boys because they only have one X chromosome.
I'm so tired of the press saying crap like that!
I'm sorry people, but boys have 45 X cromosomes and one Y chromosome. The girls have 23 pairs of X chromosomes.
Maybe journalist have only 2 chromosomes...
Well, some people kinda are addicted to getting high on pot, I knew a couple of them back in college...of course, I know plenty of people addicted to watching hockey, and some people addicted to dancing...the thing is, you can get addicted to ANYTHING.
;-)
So what we need to do, obviously, is blame everything, and put warning labels on absolutely everything in existance, manufactured or not.
Hell...warning labels are highly addictive
Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday April 01, @12:13PM
from the tightening-our-belts dept.
Ok, this has GOT to be an april's fools article kinda thing...
This has GOT to be...
Please say its an april fools, pretty please?
If I type in my last name in google, the first result on page one is my page on Elfwood. I like that.
On teoma, I used to get lesbian porn as a first resulst, now I get a listing of cheap Rio hotels, with a link to elfwood somewhere down there...Guess wich search engine is the Big Big Winner in my little subjective test.
As far as I can tell, teoma breaks down my name into separate words it uses in its search, while google first gives results for the whole word and THEN list resulst for broken down versions of my name, the lesbian porn and hotels are still listed by google, but ranked much lower, as they should be.
Resistance is futile...
apparently the crystals are able to behave as both a solid and a liquid. neat."
;-) Imagine, we could make computer screen that would be flat...or even small portable computing devices with coulour displays...maybe even videogames that could fit in your pockets!
WOW! This is revolutionary! This could create such incredible technologies as digital watches and even colour Liquid Crystal Displays! This is new and exciting! Never heard of this before!
The futur is now indeed!
(Ok, ok, I'll stop now...)
I resent this. When elephants dance (or try to stomp on everybody), I say take them out with a tranquilizer gun. And if that's not possible, be sure that if you go down, you go down fighting.
I never thought I'd say this, but: You need to watch more "when animals attack" specials on Fox.
When elephants are on the rampage, get out f their freaking way and tranqualise them from a safe distance.
the plural would be an "i" if it were latin. Octo is greek for 8.
For some odd reason, people use the octopi bastard version enough that its gotten in dictionaries.
why a messy desk is a sign of productivity
:)
WOHOO!
My room is super productive!
Hey, next time I have a slow day at work, I'll just make a mess to make sure my day was a productive one!
i did see blade 2 the other night though, so i guess i'm supporting evil (MPAA) somehow anyway.
Funny, I saw it too, and I got the feeling I was supporting the WWF...
Quote from Roger: Why do people grab music off the Net and download it to CDs, iPods, and other storage devices? Because they like it. They like it a lot. They like it enough to go to the trouble of obtaining it despite the various roadblocks. They are fans. Would they rather have a mint CD from Virgin or Tower, with the original cover art? Of course. Will they eventually be paying customers for the music they are currently sampling? In most cases, yes. Technically they are stealing, but in fact they are an instrumental part of the process by which a lot of real CDs get sold.
He actually gets it!
Wow!
And you could do that just as well on a pc. No console required.
Touché
But I rarely play on a computer, I'm a console kinda guy...that had not even ocurred to me.
On the plus side for my idea (despite your cynical demolition of it): beta testing for consoles is much easier for consoles, you don't need to do compatibility testing for all the possible video/sound card, OSs, etc. So that's a plus for my utopic small operation. (I want the small operations to exist, I want mre original games, less cookie-cutter crap-o-rama...you may sayayyyyayayy I'm a dreamer...)
:)
"Bother" running games?
Simple awnser: for the money.
With this kit a small operation can start creating a game, get far enough to prove to investors that they have a good product underway, get more money, get the real develloper kit, finish the game, release the game, get rich.
this is definitely for personal amusement and not for "real" gaming.
;-)
Yeah, when I play games, personnal amusement is the farthest thing from my mind!
So that's the plan!
;-)
The evil Xbox's main attraction to devellopers is the fact that you can make games that will be a breeze to port back and forth from the PC to that console and vice versa.
Sony fights back with something that makes it as easy to port to and from linux and the PS2!
Wouldn't it be nice if game companies would sell their games along with a dumbed-down linux distro now? With instructions on how to make a partition on your windows formatted machine so "normal" users could cross over...
that's it...I'm starting a game company!
You must have one of these new fangled matter compilers to download DVDs...
;-)
"Pirates seek to profit off the enormous popularity of DVDs by using the latest in technology to illegally manufacture DVD copies of Hollywood films, and again dupe consumers into purchasing a wholly inferior product,"
.sig ;-)
Indeed.
People, don't be duped by inferior hollywood products! Buy Japanime! Buy Hong Kong action flicks! Buy the original french movies instead of their inferior US remakes!
(and yes, I know about my
Yes, and violinists are a bunch of wrist mutants, using their wrist more dexterously than non-violinists.
In other news, body-building causes physical mutations! Body builders have been observed with muscles far more voluminous than those of non-body builders, a clear case of physical mutations.
In related news, train track cause physical mutations! Many children living near train tracks have been observed exhibiting a lack of lower apendages! The advance of mechanical transportation having rendered the function of legs as a primary locomotive means useless, the legs of some people are falling off in an incredible example of physical mutations!
Other mutations in recent history include the apparition of a new human tissue composed of a polymer envelopped filled with either silicon or a saline solution in the region of Los Angeles. These mutations are thought to be cause by the proximity of large amounts of cellulose films used in movie production. The difference in content of these new physical mutations are thought to be two separate evolutionary branches. Scientists expect the saline variant to be the more sucessfull evolutionary track.