It might be, unless you purchased this a while ago or we're talking Canadian or Aussie dollars. This is a good example of why I don't do business with local shops anymore. Their prices are usually too high, and the quality of some of the components (RAM, especially) tends to be lower. It's not their fault; most people are happier with $10 less on their RAM versus a name brand and the quality associated with it.
Outside of all of that, though, the AMD factory HSF is a fine piece of equipment, and it should work fine.
Yes, on the retail models. In that case, you should be using the included HSF combo. Of course, if you're planning on using any other HSF setup, you should be buying an OEM model anyway. Those are typically only warrantied through the seller, not AMD themselves, and then usually for 30 days.
In short, buy the retail box if you're truly concerned about a warranty. Short of physically crushing the CPU or an electrical issue (both of which aren't covered anyway), a processor is probably the least likely component in your system to fail. Therefore, I'm not usually terribly concerned about a 30 day warranty versus a 3-year warranty, especially when the pricing on that same CPU 3 years from now will be about the same as a replacement mouse.
Let's hope that quieting my computer doesn't make it like these guys' server.
Seriously, though, system noise can be reduced pretty easily.
1) Get a heavy case. I was always surprised at the fact that my ex-girlfriend's Aluminum case was much noisier than my steel case, given that I have many more things in my case. Thicker materials (obviously) cut down on noise levels.
2) Get a good PSU. Besides the stability and reliability increase, it pretty much stands to reason that Random-Taiwan-Tech isn't going to be terribly concerned with the sound levels on a $35 PSU if it adds to the cost at all. Antec produces some cool thermal-sensing PSUs that will throttle PSU fan speed based on thermal levles. They also have special fan-only molexes that allow them to do the same thing to any other fans in the case.
3) Switch to the biggest fans you can. It takes fewer RPMs on an 80mm or 120mm fan for it to move the same amount of air as a 60mm fan. This goes for case fans AND CPU fans. Zalman makes some intriguing CPU cooling solutions that separate the fan from the heatsink, and thus use huge, slow, quiet fans. If you want to get fancy, rewire the fans so they operate on 7V or 5V input.
4) Never ever buy a mainboard with a fan on the northbridge. I absolutely hate this design concept. For one, the fans are very small and thus usually noisy. But most importantly, these things are the cheapest designs available, as the mobo manufacturers aren't looking to add major costs to their product. Consequently, they fail much more quickly than many other things. If you're lucky, they'll just up and stop spinning. If you're unlucky, they'll continue spinning, but with a strange squeek or hum as they march toward death. The counterpart to this is your videocard. If you're not planning on gaming, look at one of the lower-end videocards that use a heatsink only.
5) Cut down on vibration. Hard drives are kind of noisy, yes. In my experience, though, it's really the vibrations that contribute to the noise levels. Try to wedge some thin rubber washers between the HDD and the case when you're screwing it in. Some newer case designs actually use a system like this by default, and the noise level reduction is quite impressive.
Outside of these five is when you start getting into specialty areas: Putting noise-absorbing material in the case, using large heat-pipe coolers in place of fans on your video card, moving the computer to a closet and running long cables, etc. Honestly, though, if you follow the above recommendations, you should get something quiet enough that you don't need to worry.
Err, yeah, you'll enjoy it anyway. Unfortunately, it's not perfect, or even worthy of being at the top of a stack.
A game with little replay value is still capable of being fun while you play it. Is it worthy of a perfect score?
A game with frustrating controls is still capable of being fun. Is it worthy of a perfect score?
My point there was that I'm still capable of enjoying a flawed game, just like I'm still capable of enjoying a flawed movie, book, or even a website that routinely posts duplicate news stories.
What about a game that is both fun AND has good control or an excellent replay factor? What would it score in this world where simply being "fun" is grounds for a perfect score? On top of all of that, how do I quantify "Fun" into a 5 or 10 point scale? Is it replayability? Is it pleasant, non-irritating controls? Is it creativity and innovation? Hey, those are the sorts of things reviewers already figure into their scale.
Despite what you probably think, I agree with you in almost every respect; I just voiced it differently. A game can be flawed and still be fun, but people see anything below 7.5/10 and are immediately turned off, which means that reviewers are pressured to "shorten" the scale. I've got some definite 10/10 games in my rack, but I also spend plenty of time with my 6/10 games.
I am an English teacher. This is a perfect example, though, of why I rarely jump on anyone about grammar or spelling when it comes to/. If I feel something is a truly important piece of writing, I'll take the time to go through it repeatedly for errors. This is not a truly important piece of writing.
The first sentence is a case of an unnecessary comma; it ended up there because I occasionally decide to reword a sentence without correcting the punctuation that was previously there.
The second example is the only one I feel bad about. That is carelessness on my part.
The third example has nothing wrong with it as far as I can see. Care to enlighten me on that one?
As a teacher, I frequently deal with student complaints about why a particular paper was a "C" or "B" paper. "Because," I'll answer them, "your paper was merely average. It fulfilled the requirements of the assignment, but did nothing more."
Similarly, game scores seem to evoke this feeling among fans of particular games. Anything below an 8/10 is perceived as "crap."
In reality, I own games that I would rate as a 6/10 which are still enjoyable. These games may be merely average, but if certain aspects are present, they can still be anjoyable. "Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds" would fall into that category. The game received in the 6.5/10 range all over, and it's a score I would agree with. The camera is lousy, and the controls are inferior to the original in almost all respects. Despite this, the story is entertaining, the voice acting is pretty good (with the exception of the knock-off Willow), and the subject matter is entertaining to me. It is a 6.5 game, and I don't believe anything to the contrary, but it's still entertaining.
Dead or Alive 3 is another great example. It's probably a 7/10 game. The graphics are beautiful, yes, but the game wasn't really substantial change from DOA2. Weakening the counters improved the battle system, but the new characters were universally dull (except for Hitomi), and the game was otherwise nothing more than the second. It doesn't really deserve anything spectacular as far as scores are concerned, but it's a favorite with my friends and I when we get together at my place.
EGM was one of the few magazines I discovered that was willing to make this stand. a 5/10 game was AVERAGE. You might enjoy it if it had a particular point that really appealed to you. If you were a huge RPG fan, a 6/10 RPG would be worth buying if you'd already finished the last three 8/10 games. The 6/10 was not crap. Games at 3/10 and below were crap. And a game had to be spectacular to get into the 9 range. Unfortunately, people don't seem to be willing to accept that scale; everything needs to be between a 6 and 10. The problem is that it just dilutes the actually worthwhile games. Gamepro was notorious for this. They gave straight 4.5/5 and 5/5 to Starfox64. The game was good, but it was not worthy of that level of score. When compared to something that truly was, it served to make the worthy game's scores "lesser."
Do scores matter? In EGM's case, I'd certainly agree. Back when I still kept up with that sort of thing for professional reasons (I was an assistant manager at a game store), they were generally pretty trustworthy. In a case like Gamepro's, which unfortunately seems to be more the standard than the exception, it makes the scores completely inconsequential. At that point, I learn to just ignore the score and read betweeen the lines of the reviewer's euphamisms.
But how much exatcly does it take to send a proper HDTV signal?
Anywhere from 4 to 37mbps. 4 mbps would assume the low end of a DTV (that's SD signal), encoded using the normal MPEG-2 DTV standard. 37mbps is the highest HD feed I know of; it's the bitrate found on the D-Theater D-VHS source tapes. More realistically, a proper HD (720p or 1080i) signal over the airwaves is between 20 and 27 mbps. So we are talking about a decent amount of bandwidth here.
Of course, it's more likely that they're encoding in an MPEG-4 or Windows Media 9 format, given that the use of a set-top box eliminates the need for maintaining the HD standard of MPEG-2 video plus Dolby Digital audio.
His receiver is a 1 year-old Pioneer unit. Not terribly old, but good quality.
Alpine's compatible head units run anywhere from $220 to over $1,000. Assuming you're not itching to hook up screens, five amps, and a kitchen sink, you can go with the CDA-9827, which runs just over $200. Add the $100 interface, an ~$200 sat system (including install here), and an iPod. Of course, the iPod is multi-purpose here; grab and go if you want to take it to the gym or whatever.
You're right, I don't anticipate Apple making such a beast. You need a way to effectively control it from the deck, and Alpine's unit is the only thing that comes close (and I still don't like parts of the system). Either that, or Apple needs to make a stereo, which we all know isn't going to happen.
The MyFi fiasco occurred in San Marcos, TX. It's about 25 miles south of Austin and about 35 miles north of San Antonio. With the exception of college radio, all FM stations are picked up from one of those two cities, so we are talking a bit of a distance.
My dad's car system, that cuts out at gas stations, is in Houston, TX. As in the 4th largest city in the US. As in a city with almost no hills to speak of. And these cuts aren't just in downtown, where skyscrapers can be blamed for problems. They're in areas 15 miles from downtown, where interference should be minimal.
As for the CarPod, such a thing pretty much already exists. Go get an Alpine head unit with sat capability, get the $100 KCA-420i which allows for direct iPod audio and control from the deck via the CD changer connection, and go to town.
Eh, I wasn't hinting at pollution here. I think a satellite-enhanced iPod would be great, provided it worked. Thing is, that's a big "if."
I disagree with your statements, though.
The Mini was the fastest-selling product in Apple's history. While you (and I) may disagree with the price/capacity point, it's obvious that a lot of consumers did not. I learned long ago that in most cases, Apple knows what people want far better than I.
The U2 edition is a limited edition. The $50 does get you a different case, but it also gets you a credit toward the U2 uber-Box set on iTunes. I've never even seen one in a store (although I guess Apple stores probably have one). It seems more like the kind of thing that a U2 fan would actively seek out. It's there, it's $50 more, you're welcome to buy it if you want.
The iPod photo is an asinine product, IMHO, but see above. Apple usually knows people better than I do. I could see buying the $599 model to get the 60GB drive, though.
Apple probably won't do a $199 shuffle. What they will do is the same thing they've been doing with the iPod since day one: Same price, bigger capacity. The $99 price point would get you 1GB, the $149, 2GB. Oh, yeah, and the iPod mini would probably bump to 6 or 8GB as hard drive capacity marches right along. We won't even get into the fact that the mini has many things consumers want (screen, colors, etc.) Again, see above: Apple knows what people want better than I do.
Perhaps Steve's just seen what some people ran into with the MyFi.
Right before I graduated from college, I was working at a large consumer electronics store to pay the bills. As frequently happened, we were given the opportunity to purchase XM equipment directly from a manufacturer at ludicrously low prices. This sort of thing is common in certain sections of electronics retailers; car audio and home audio traditionally have a huge markup, and manufacturers offer direct purchase plans that end up being better than the normal employee discount, all in the hope that an employee will fall in love with the product and recommend it to customers.
This time, we were offered the XM MyFi for 6 months of service. That was it. We paid shipping on the player and prepaid six months of service. That meant $60 for a player that was retailing in the mid to high- $300s. Several guys jumped on it.
AND HATED THEM.
These things were wretched. I'm not sure if we got a crappy batch (although some personal online reviews at the time were similar to our experiences), but these things couldn't hold onto a signal if the fate of the earth depended on it.
One guy actually walked outside with his MyFi while it was hooked to a small set of portable speakers for purpose of demonstrating the new utter crappiness to the rest of us. He held it out from his body. The unit played fine. He held a small stack of about 15 papers above it. The signal died completely.
Most of us simply sold them on eBay. The profit was reasonable, but given the amount of problems, I was just glad I never purchased one.
Indirectly, it confirms what I'd already seen with my father's car satellite radio system. Terrestrial rebroadcast is great in some areas. In others, pulling into a gas station cuts out audio entirely.
iPods work damned well. The iTunes sync system is great, the interface is nearly as simple as it gets, and unless you have a peculiar niche desire for your player, it does everything most people want. Now imagine the same player randomly cutting out when you walk under trees by the sidewalk, or when you walk into the gym because rebroadcast isn't reaching the area you're in, or when you stick it in your pocket (if it behaves like some of our MyFi's). If and when Sirius or XM can demonstrate a 99% effective coverage system for a player that can't guarantee free view of the sky, then we'll talk.
Until then, Steve, don't pollute an otherwise great player.
Nearly every review seems to place Antec at the top of the pack in terms of being able to actually output the rated wattage. That fact alone speaks for quality, in my opinion.
Additionally, reviews that place heavy/out-of-spec loads or nasty input power on PSUs tend to arrive at a similar conclusion.
On top of all of that, anecdotal evidence does tend to place Antec's products at the top of the pack, in terms of reliability.
Enermax also seems to do quite well in "round-up" reviews.
I have recently seen the HL-1440 advertised for $120 at Office Depot/Max, etc. I have one, and I've got to completely second that claim. In addition to being extremely reliable, Brother seems to be actively resisting the urge to gouge on consumer-line laser toner.
As laser printers have gotten cheaper, "razor blading" on the consumer-line units has become more and more common. My brother made the unfortunate decision to purchase one of Samsung's consumer-level units. It's a very reliable printer, but Samsung ships it with a 1,000 page toner and has an MSRP of $79.99 on a 3,000 page toner. Comparatively, the HL-1440 ships with the normal 3,000 page toner, and replacement units carry an MSRP of $49.99 (and can be found for $35).
Random note: That error code showed up on my folks' 1440. In addition to indicating total fuser failure it's also triggered more frequently by a firmware bug. Brother's FAQs specifically address this issue, and tell you how to hard reset the printer. Worked fine for theirs.
Unfortunately, that's not always the case. This assumption was a pet peeve of mine, when I used to work in the computer repair business. I'd have some guy talking up the specs on his computer, and they would usually be impressive up until he bragged about the 450 Watt PSU that he picked up for $35.
Not only do cheap PSUs introduce stability issues, but a lot of PSUs take things down with them when they blow.
My favorite example is an absolutely spectacular one involving my brother's friend. He had a 1.4Ghz Athlon (back when that was impressive), along with the requisite DVD, CD-Burner, brand new GeForce 3; the whole nine yards. The PSU blew. Both optical drives ejected and shot sparks from inside. HDDs presumably lost their motors (they never spun up again). Mobo died, CPU died, sound card died. The only thing that survived was the video card, which was at least a small consolation since it was still top-of-the-line.
PSU replacements did tend to be my second most common hardware repair (HDDs were first), and most of the time they didn't damage anything, but I saw enough problems then that I'll only buy reputable PSUs now.
No, I was being serious, although I obviously remembered the actual cause incorrectly.
My point wasn't about the cracks or mismouldings or anything like that. I wouldn't have had a problem with them if I had owned a cube (as it is, I own three macs). My problem was the way Apple handled it. Along with admitting that it was a problem, they threw out this crackpot "it-gives-your-Mac-character" line, which only served to anger people. If they had simply said, "hey, it's a limited problem on a small run of the product, it doesn't affect the functionality, and if it's really bugging you, we'll fix it," then I wouldn't have considered it a blunder. Additionally, I suspect that it was simply one of those things people liked to bitch about, and Apple might have ultimately ended up replacing a few hundred of the "defective" cubes while gaining even more of a reputation as a company that takes care of its customers.
Thus, my issue's not with the cracks, it's with Apple straying from their usual policy of erring on the side of caution.
I dunno, I honestly thought the cube "cracks" could take the place of something as lame as the asinine iMac colors.
For those who don't remember, the Cubes would occasionally develop these "cracks," for lack of a better term. IIRC, owners started to see hairline fissures slowly appear underneath the ploycarbonate surface. Apple played it off by saying it added to the "personality" of the cubes, since each set of cracks was unique.
Heck, I love the cubes and I'd probably put them in that blunder list; if Apple could've figured out a way to make them a bit more powerful or a bit cheaper, they may have been succesful. As it was, their exorbitant pricing simply reinforced the notion that "macs are too expensive."
No need to emulate; they'll probably accomplish backwards compatability by putting a PS2 in there.
The original PS1 chips were eventually consolidated onto a single processor, which ultimately became the processor used to control I/O for the controllers and Memory cards in the PS2. When a PS1 game is inserted, the I/O controller simply takes over and starts doing the work, and I presume I/O duties are handled by the main PS2 CPU.
The PS2 CPU and EE have since been combined into a single, lower-power version of the original two-chip PS2 design. Given how cheap it will probably be to produce by '06, I don't doubt that a similar scenario will play out with the PS3.
In fact, other existing movies are probably closer to Doom than this movie is now.
Very true; I once had a guy loosely involved in Hollywood claim that Event Horizon originally began life as one of the scripts for the then-optioned Quake movie (and since Quake is nearly the same, plot-wise, as Doom...). When the option fell through, the writer changed the script up a huge amount and it eventually became Event Horizon
Of course, he could've just been blowing smoke, but the timing does sound feasible. Besides all that, EH is probably closer to Doom (Story-wise) than this movie might be.
Right, which is why you use it for a final copy. Because MPEG-2 compresses based on the frames before and after a given frame, though, it makes video quality progressively worse each time you edit. You want to shoot in DV, edit in DV, then compress to MPEG-2 or -4.
The story asked if tape-based players would be going away, and I expressed my sincere hope that they never would, then backed it up with a fairly good reason. Canon and Sony have both produced absolutely miniscule camcorders based on DV tapes, so it's not as though there's a huge amount gained by dropping to a CF-sized card, which is probably only 1/4 the size of the already tiny DV tape. Miniaturization is a good thing, but JVC is focusing on the wrong part. Additionally, while smaller camcorders might initially seem appealing, they also exaggerate every movement of the hand that much more, and it's difficult to operate them while filming (smaller buttons that have to be located in weird areas, etc.)
A) These camcorders use 4GB microdrives to shoot MPEG-2 video. The only reason they're doing this is for the size. MPEG-2 is inferior to DV for almost every scenario.
B) Having tapes makes for a nice method of archiving video. Blank DV tapes can run less than $5 a pop in reasonable bulk (six packs or so), which is a pretty small price to pay for a fairly inexpensive archiving system. Granted, it's not super durable compared to data archival tapes, but it's certainly fine for inexpensive storage. I shoot my video on DV, edit, then dump back out to another two DV Tapes with the finished product (always have two copies...).
C) JVC, while not lousy, frequently loses in comparisons with Canon or Sony DV Cams. I won't be surprised if that's the same with this camera.
It's not the HDDs are bad ideas, but JVC is using this unit to market based on the size advantage, and nothing else. I don't doubt that there's a definite market for those people who just want a tiny camcorder, but I don't think that this camcorder in any way marks the beginning of the end for tape-based camcorders.
No, I think you're mistaking the world's attitude towards videogames today for the one ten years ago.
College campuses are full of people, not guys, people, who play games. It is a fully acceptable hobby for people other than geeks now. And while it's not the sort frequented by Hell's Angels, it's not anything other than an ordinary college town bar.
My local bar had a sign proclaiming the upcomign Halo 2 tournament. You know, a bar, in the US, where you'd need to be 21 to walk in the door (at most bars).
High School teachers I work with mention having played Grand Theft Auto.
Whatever statistic you believe, gaming is an extraorinarily succesful mass media, and it's not getting there on the backs of eight year-olds alone. An enormous amount of the success is driven by the kids that grew up with the Ataris, Colecos, and Nintendos, and they are perfectly comfortable playing these "mature" games.
Kids connect these M-rated games with maturity, rather than the fact that it takes maturity to logically understand these games. It's unfortunate, but the only people that can counter it are the parents and interested third parties. The store I work at throws a warning on the register when an "M" game is being checked out, and prompts us to ask for ID. Failure to follow through can result in termination. More and more stores are following this process, and we're going to be at a point very soon where we can't continue to simply foist the blame off on others. "M" games exist because there's an enormous market for them. 13 year-old kids shouldn't be playing them unless that child's parent is sure that the kid is capable of handling that game. In the meantime, let those of us who can legally drink, smoke, gamble, and be drafted buy Half-Life 2 if wish.
One point: AAC is not DRMed. The iTunes Music Store AAC files are wrapped in FairPlay DRM, but iTunes is perfectly capable of ripping to non-DRMed AAC. It gives better quality at the same bitrate as MP3, which would likely explain why the poster uses it.
Best Buy's policy (like most other retailers) specifically states that they match local competitors with the item in-stock. That eliminates internet competition (which is honestly unverifiable in a lot of circumstances), as well as stores that had three of the product in stock the day the sale began.
Essentially, BBY views these people as devils because they ignore everything in the "low price guarantee" other than the words "low price guarantee." If they're anything like people I've run into while working retail, the "slapping down" indicates that they're prepared to argue about all of the fine print, which does indeed make them a "devil."
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It might be, unless you purchased this a while ago or we're talking Canadian or Aussie dollars. This is a good example of why I don't do business with local shops anymore. Their prices are usually too high, and the quality of some of the components (RAM, especially) tends to be lower. It's not their fault; most people are happier with $10 less on their RAM versus a name brand and the quality associated with it.
Outside of all of that, though, the AMD factory HSF is a fine piece of equipment, and it should work fine.
Yes, on the retail models. In that case, you should be using the included HSF combo. Of course, if you're planning on using any other HSF setup, you should be buying an OEM model anyway. Those are typically only warrantied through the seller, not AMD themselves, and then usually for 30 days.
In short, buy the retail box if you're truly concerned about a warranty. Short of physically crushing the CPU or an electrical issue (both of which aren't covered anyway), a processor is probably the least likely component in your system to fail. Therefore, I'm not usually terribly concerned about a 30 day warranty versus a 3-year warranty, especially when the pricing on that same CPU 3 years from now will be about the same as a replacement mouse.
Let's hope that quieting my computer doesn't make it like these guys' server.
Seriously, though, system noise can be reduced pretty easily.
1) Get a heavy case. I was always surprised at the fact that my ex-girlfriend's Aluminum case was much noisier than my steel case, given that I have many more things in my case. Thicker materials (obviously) cut down on noise levels.
2) Get a good PSU. Besides the stability and reliability increase, it pretty much stands to reason that Random-Taiwan-Tech isn't going to be terribly concerned with the sound levels on a $35 PSU if it adds to the cost at all. Antec produces some cool thermal-sensing PSUs that will throttle PSU fan speed based on thermal levles. They also have special fan-only molexes that allow them to do the same thing to any other fans in the case.
3) Switch to the biggest fans you can. It takes fewer RPMs on an 80mm or 120mm fan for it to move the same amount of air as a 60mm fan. This goes for case fans AND CPU fans. Zalman makes some intriguing CPU cooling solutions that separate the fan from the heatsink, and thus use huge, slow, quiet fans. If you want to get fancy, rewire the fans so they operate on 7V or 5V input.
4) Never ever buy a mainboard with a fan on the northbridge. I absolutely hate this design concept. For one, the fans are very small and thus usually noisy. But most importantly, these things are the cheapest designs available, as the mobo manufacturers aren't looking to add major costs to their product. Consequently, they fail much more quickly than many other things. If you're lucky, they'll just up and stop spinning. If you're unlucky, they'll continue spinning, but with a strange squeek or hum as they march toward death. The counterpart to this is your videocard. If you're not planning on gaming, look at one of the lower-end videocards that use a heatsink only.
5) Cut down on vibration. Hard drives are kind of noisy, yes. In my experience, though, it's really the vibrations that contribute to the noise levels. Try to wedge some thin rubber washers between the HDD and the case when you're screwing it in. Some newer case designs actually use a system like this by default, and the noise level reduction is quite impressive.
Outside of these five is when you start getting into specialty areas: Putting noise-absorbing material in the case, using large heat-pipe coolers in place of fans on your video card, moving the computer to a closet and running long cables, etc. Honestly, though, if you follow the above recommendations, you should get something quiet enough that you don't need to worry.
Err, yeah, you'll enjoy it anyway. Unfortunately, it's not perfect, or even worthy of being at the top of a stack.
A game with little replay value is still capable of being fun while you play it. Is it worthy of a perfect score?
A game with frustrating controls is still capable of being fun. Is it worthy of a perfect score?
My point there was that I'm still capable of enjoying a flawed game, just like I'm still capable of enjoying a flawed movie, book, or even a website that routinely posts duplicate news stories.
What about a game that is both fun AND has good control or an excellent replay factor? What would it score in this world where simply being "fun" is grounds for a perfect score? On top of all of that, how do I quantify "Fun" into a 5 or 10 point scale? Is it replayability? Is it pleasant, non-irritating controls? Is it creativity and innovation? Hey, those are the sorts of things reviewers already figure into their scale.
Despite what you probably think, I agree with you in almost every respect; I just voiced it differently. A game can be flawed and still be fun, but people see anything below 7.5/10 and are immediately turned off, which means that reviewers are pressured to "shorten" the scale. I've got some definite 10/10 games in my rack, but I also spend plenty of time with my 6/10 games.
I am an English teacher. This is a perfect example, though, of why I rarely jump on anyone about grammar or spelling when it comes to /. If I feel something is a truly important piece of writing, I'll take the time to go through it repeatedly for errors. This is not a truly important piece of writing.
The first sentence is a case of an unnecessary comma; it ended up there because I occasionally decide to reword a sentence without correcting the punctuation that was previously there.
The second example is the only one I feel bad about. That is carelessness on my part.
The third example has nothing wrong with it as far as I can see. Care to enlighten me on that one?
As a teacher, I frequently deal with student complaints about why a particular paper was a "C" or "B" paper. "Because," I'll answer them, "your paper was merely average. It fulfilled the requirements of the assignment, but did nothing more."
Similarly, game scores seem to evoke this feeling among fans of particular games. Anything below an 8/10 is perceived as "crap."
In reality, I own games that I would rate as a 6/10 which are still enjoyable. These games may be merely average, but if certain aspects are present, they can still be anjoyable. "Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds" would fall into that category. The game received in the 6.5/10 range all over, and it's a score I would agree with. The camera is lousy, and the controls are inferior to the original in almost all respects. Despite this, the story is entertaining, the voice acting is pretty good (with the exception of the knock-off Willow), and the subject matter is entertaining to me. It is a 6.5 game, and I don't believe anything to the contrary, but it's still entertaining.
Dead or Alive 3 is another great example. It's probably a 7/10 game. The graphics are beautiful, yes, but the game wasn't really substantial change from DOA2. Weakening the counters improved the battle system, but the new characters were universally dull (except for Hitomi), and the game was otherwise nothing more than the second. It doesn't really deserve anything spectacular as far as scores are concerned, but it's a favorite with my friends and I when we get together at my place.
EGM was one of the few magazines I discovered that was willing to make this stand. a 5/10 game was AVERAGE. You might enjoy it if it had a particular point that really appealed to you. If you were a huge RPG fan, a 6/10 RPG would be worth buying if you'd already finished the last three 8/10 games. The 6/10 was not crap. Games at 3/10 and below were crap. And a game had to be spectacular to get into the 9 range. Unfortunately, people don't seem to be willing to accept that scale; everything needs to be between a 6 and 10. The problem is that it just dilutes the actually worthwhile games. Gamepro was notorious for this. They gave straight 4.5/5 and 5/5 to Starfox64. The game was good, but it was not worthy of that level of score. When compared to something that truly was, it served to make the worthy game's scores "lesser."
Do scores matter? In EGM's case, I'd certainly agree. Back when I still kept up with that sort of thing for professional reasons (I was an assistant manager at a game store), they were generally pretty trustworthy. In a case like Gamepro's, which unfortunately seems to be more the standard than the exception, it makes the scores completely inconsequential. At that point, I learn to just ignore the score and read betweeen the lines of the reviewer's euphamisms.
But how much exatcly does it take to send a proper HDTV signal?
Anywhere from 4 to 37mbps. 4 mbps would assume the low end of a DTV (that's SD signal), encoded using the normal MPEG-2 DTV standard. 37mbps is the highest HD feed I know of; it's the bitrate found on the D-Theater D-VHS source tapes. More realistically, a proper HD (720p or 1080i) signal over the airwaves is between 20 and 27 mbps. So we are talking about a decent amount of bandwidth here.
Of course, it's more likely that they're encoding in an MPEG-4 or Windows Media 9 format, given that the use of a set-top box eliminates the need for maintaining the HD standard of MPEG-2 video plus Dolby Digital audio.
His receiver is a 1 year-old Pioneer unit. Not terribly old, but good quality.
Alpine's compatible head units run anywhere from $220 to over $1,000. Assuming you're not itching to hook up screens, five amps, and a kitchen sink, you can go with the CDA-9827, which runs just over $200. Add the $100 interface, an ~$200 sat system (including install here), and an iPod. Of course, the iPod is multi-purpose here; grab and go if you want to take it to the gym or whatever.
You're right, I don't anticipate Apple making such a beast. You need a way to effectively control it from the deck, and Alpine's unit is the only thing that comes close (and I still don't like parts of the system). Either that, or Apple needs to make a stereo, which we all know isn't going to happen.
The MyFi fiasco occurred in San Marcos, TX. It's about 25 miles south of Austin and about 35 miles north of San Antonio. With the exception of college radio, all FM stations are picked up from one of those two cities, so we are talking a bit of a distance.
My dad's car system, that cuts out at gas stations, is in Houston, TX. As in the 4th largest city in the US. As in a city with almost no hills to speak of. And these cuts aren't just in downtown, where skyscrapers can be blamed for problems. They're in areas 15 miles from downtown, where interference should be minimal.
As for the CarPod, such a thing pretty much already exists. Go get an Alpine head unit with sat capability, get the $100 KCA-420i which allows for direct iPod audio and control from the deck via the CD changer connection, and go to town.
Eh, I wasn't hinting at pollution here. I think a satellite-enhanced iPod would be great, provided it worked. Thing is, that's a big "if."
I disagree with your statements, though.
The Mini was the fastest-selling product in Apple's history. While you (and I) may disagree with the price/capacity point, it's obvious that a lot of consumers did not. I learned long ago that in most cases, Apple knows what people want far better than I.
The U2 edition is a limited edition. The $50 does get you a different case, but it also gets you a credit toward the U2 uber-Box set on iTunes. I've never even seen one in a store (although I guess Apple stores probably have one). It seems more like the kind of thing that a U2 fan would actively seek out. It's there, it's $50 more, you're welcome to buy it if you want.
The iPod photo is an asinine product, IMHO, but see above. Apple usually knows people better than I do. I could see buying the $599 model to get the 60GB drive, though.
Apple probably won't do a $199 shuffle. What they will do is the same thing they've been doing with the iPod since day one: Same price, bigger capacity. The $99 price point would get you 1GB, the $149, 2GB. Oh, yeah, and the iPod mini would probably bump to 6 or 8GB as hard drive capacity marches right along. We won't even get into the fact that the mini has many things consumers want (screen, colors, etc.) Again, see above: Apple knows what people want better than I do.
Perhaps Steve's just seen what some people ran into with the MyFi.
Right before I graduated from college, I was working at a large consumer electronics store to pay the bills. As frequently happened, we were given the opportunity to purchase XM equipment directly from a manufacturer at ludicrously low prices. This sort of thing is common in certain sections of electronics retailers; car audio and home audio traditionally have a huge markup, and manufacturers offer direct purchase plans that end up being better than the normal employee discount, all in the hope that an employee will fall in love with the product and recommend it to customers.
This time, we were offered the XM MyFi for 6 months of service. That was it. We paid shipping on the player and prepaid six months of service. That meant $60 for a player that was retailing in the mid to high- $300s. Several guys jumped on it.
AND HATED THEM.
These things were wretched. I'm not sure if we got a crappy batch (although some personal online reviews at the time were similar to our experiences), but these things couldn't hold onto a signal if the fate of the earth depended on it.
One guy actually walked outside with his MyFi while it was hooked to a small set of portable speakers for purpose of demonstrating the new utter crappiness to the rest of us. He held it out from his body. The unit played fine. He held a small stack of about 15 papers above it. The signal died completely.
Most of us simply sold them on eBay. The profit was reasonable, but given the amount of problems, I was just glad I never purchased one.
Indirectly, it confirms what I'd already seen with my father's car satellite radio system. Terrestrial rebroadcast is great in some areas. In others, pulling into a gas station cuts out audio entirely.
iPods work damned well. The iTunes sync system is great, the interface is nearly as simple as it gets, and unless you have a peculiar niche desire for your player, it does everything most people want. Now imagine the same player randomly cutting out when you walk under trees by the sidewalk, or when you walk into the gym because rebroadcast isn't reaching the area you're in, or when you stick it in your pocket (if it behaves like some of our MyFi's). If and when Sirius or XM can demonstrate a 99% effective coverage system for a player that can't guarantee free view of the sky, then we'll talk.
Until then, Steve, don't pollute an otherwise great player.
Nearly every review seems to place Antec at the top of the pack in terms of being able to actually output the rated wattage. That fact alone speaks for quality, in my opinion.
Additionally, reviews that place heavy/out-of-spec loads or nasty input power on PSUs tend to arrive at a similar conclusion.
On top of all of that, anecdotal evidence does tend to place Antec's products at the top of the pack, in terms of reliability.
Enermax also seems to do quite well in "round-up" reviews.
I have recently seen the HL-1440 advertised for $120 at Office Depot/Max, etc. I have one, and I've got to completely second that claim. In addition to being extremely reliable, Brother seems to be actively resisting the urge to gouge on consumer-line laser toner.
As laser printers have gotten cheaper, "razor blading" on the consumer-line units has become more and more common. My brother made the unfortunate decision to purchase one of Samsung's consumer-level units. It's a very reliable printer, but Samsung ships it with a 1,000 page toner and has an MSRP of $79.99 on a 3,000 page toner. Comparatively, the HL-1440 ships with the normal 3,000 page toner, and replacement units carry an MSRP of $49.99 (and can be found for $35).
Random note: That error code showed up on my folks' 1440. In addition to indicating total fuser failure it's also triggered more frequently by a firmware bug. Brother's FAQs specifically address this issue, and tell you how to hard reset the printer. Worked fine for theirs.
Unfortunately, that's not always the case. This assumption was a pet peeve of mine, when I used to work in the computer repair business. I'd have some guy talking up the specs on his computer, and they would usually be impressive up until he bragged about the 450 Watt PSU that he picked up for $35.
Not only do cheap PSUs introduce stability issues, but a lot of PSUs take things down with them when they blow.
My favorite example is an absolutely spectacular one involving my brother's friend. He had a 1.4Ghz Athlon (back when that was impressive), along with the requisite DVD, CD-Burner, brand new GeForce 3; the whole nine yards. The PSU blew. Both optical drives ejected and shot sparks from inside. HDDs presumably lost their motors (they never spun up again). Mobo died, CPU died, sound card died. The only thing that survived was the video card, which was at least a small consolation since it was still top-of-the-line.
PSU replacements did tend to be my second most common hardware repair (HDDs were first), and most of the time they didn't damage anything, but I saw enough problems then that I'll only buy reputable PSUs now.
No, I was being serious, although I obviously remembered the actual cause incorrectly.
My point wasn't about the cracks or mismouldings or anything like that. I wouldn't have had a problem with them if I had owned a cube (as it is, I own three macs). My problem was the way Apple handled it. Along with admitting that it was a problem, they threw out this crackpot "it-gives-your-Mac-character" line, which only served to anger people. If they had simply said, "hey, it's a limited problem on a small run of the product, it doesn't affect the functionality, and if it's really bugging you, we'll fix it," then I wouldn't have considered it a blunder. Additionally, I suspect that it was simply one of those things people liked to bitch about, and Apple might have ultimately ended up replacing a few hundred of the "defective" cubes while gaining even more of a reputation as a company that takes care of its customers.
Thus, my issue's not with the cracks, it's with Apple straying from their usual policy of erring on the side of caution.
I dunno, I honestly thought the cube "cracks" could take the place of something as lame as the asinine iMac colors.
For those who don't remember, the Cubes would occasionally develop these "cracks," for lack of a better term. IIRC, owners started to see hairline fissures slowly appear underneath the ploycarbonate surface. Apple played it off by saying it added to the "personality" of the cubes, since each set of cracks was unique.
Heck, I love the cubes and I'd probably put them in that blunder list; if Apple could've figured out a way to make them a bit more powerful or a bit cheaper, they may have been succesful. As it was, their exorbitant pricing simply reinforced the notion that "macs are too expensive."
No need to emulate; they'll probably accomplish backwards compatability by putting a PS2 in there.
The original PS1 chips were eventually consolidated onto a single processor, which ultimately became the processor used to control I/O for the controllers and Memory cards in the PS2. When a PS1 game is inserted, the I/O controller simply takes over and starts doing the work, and I presume I/O duties are handled by the main PS2 CPU.
The PS2 CPU and EE have since been combined into a single, lower-power version of the original two-chip PS2 design. Given how cheap it will probably be to produce by '06, I don't doubt that a similar scenario will play out with the PS3.
In fact, other existing movies are probably closer to Doom than this movie is now.
Very true; I once had a guy loosely involved in Hollywood claim that Event Horizon originally began life as one of the scripts for the then-optioned Quake movie (and since Quake is nearly the same, plot-wise, as Doom...). When the option fell through, the writer changed the script up a huge amount and it eventually became Event Horizon
Of course, he could've just been blowing smoke, but the timing does sound feasible. Besides all that, EH is probably closer to Doom (Story-wise) than this movie might be.
Right, which is why you use it for a final copy. Because MPEG-2 compresses based on the frames before and after a given frame, though, it makes video quality progressively worse each time you edit. You want to shoot in DV, edit in DV, then compress to MPEG-2 or -4.
The story asked if tape-based players would be going away, and I expressed my sincere hope that they never would, then backed it up with a fairly good reason. Canon and Sony have both produced absolutely miniscule camcorders based on DV tapes, so it's not as though there's a huge amount gained by dropping to a CF-sized card, which is probably only 1/4 the size of the already tiny DV tape. Miniaturization is a good thing, but JVC is focusing on the wrong part. Additionally, while smaller camcorders might initially seem appealing, they also exaggerate every movement of the hand that much more, and it's difficult to operate them while filming (smaller buttons that have to be located in weird areas, etc.)
A) These camcorders use 4GB microdrives to shoot MPEG-2 video. The only reason they're doing this is for the size. MPEG-2 is inferior to DV for almost every scenario.
B) Having tapes makes for a nice method of archiving video. Blank DV tapes can run less than $5 a pop in reasonable bulk (six packs or so), which is a pretty small price to pay for a fairly inexpensive archiving system. Granted, it's not super durable compared to data archival tapes, but it's certainly fine for inexpensive storage. I shoot my video on DV, edit, then dump back out to another two DV Tapes with the finished product (always have two copies...).
C) JVC, while not lousy, frequently loses in comparisons with Canon or Sony DV Cams. I won't be surprised if that's the same with this camera.
It's not the HDDs are bad ideas, but JVC is using this unit to market based on the size advantage, and nothing else. I don't doubt that there's a definite market for those people who just want a tiny camcorder, but I don't think that this camcorder in any way marks the beginning of the end for tape-based camcorders.
No, I think you're mistaking the world's attitude towards videogames today for the one ten years ago.
College campuses are full of people, not guys, people, who play games. It is a fully acceptable hobby for people other than geeks now. And while it's not the sort frequented by Hell's Angels, it's not anything other than an ordinary college town bar.
My local bar had a sign proclaiming the upcomign Halo 2 tournament. You know, a bar, in the US, where you'd need to be 21 to walk in the door (at most bars).
High School teachers I work with mention having played Grand Theft Auto.
Whatever statistic you believe, gaming is an extraorinarily succesful mass media, and it's not getting there on the backs of eight year-olds alone. An enormous amount of the success is driven by the kids that grew up with the Ataris, Colecos, and Nintendos, and they are perfectly comfortable playing these "mature" games.
Kids connect these M-rated games with maturity, rather than the fact that it takes maturity to logically understand these games. It's unfortunate, but the only people that can counter it are the parents and interested third parties. The store I work at throws a warning on the register when an "M" game is being checked out, and prompts us to ask for ID. Failure to follow through can result in termination. More and more stores are following this process, and we're going to be at a point very soon where we can't continue to simply foist the blame off on others. "M" games exist because there's an enormous market for them. 13 year-old kids shouldn't be playing them unless that child's parent is sure that the kid is capable of handling that game. In the meantime, let those of us who can legally drink, smoke, gamble, and be drafted buy Half-Life 2 if wish.
One point: AAC is not DRMed. The iTunes Music Store AAC files are wrapped in FairPlay DRM, but iTunes is perfectly capable of ripping to non-DRMed AAC. It gives better quality at the same bitrate as MP3, which would likely explain why the poster uses it.
Best Buy's policy (like most other retailers) specifically states that they match local competitors with the item in-stock. That eliminates internet competition (which is honestly unverifiable in a lot of circumstances), as well as stores that had three of the product in stock the day the sale began.
Essentially, BBY views these people as devils because they ignore everything in the "low price guarantee" other than the words "low price guarantee." If they're anything like people I've run into while working retail, the "slapping down" indicates that they're prepared to argue about all of the fine print, which does indeed make them a "devil."