I received TechTV up until right before the whole G4 shakeup, and by the continually worsening news it sounds like I'm not missing much.
Seeing Extended Play turn into the crappy X-play was bad enough. Adam Sessler used to be genuinely funny, and they used to put out a decent amount of reviews...then somebody decided the show needed breasts, and it all went downhill from there.
(On that note, I fail to see why anyone finds Morgan Webb attractive. She looks so decisively average it hurts, add in her ridiculous bias against 2d gaming...and the conclusion is that the only way I'd hit it is in the head with a lead pipe.)
...when will you learn? Any minor product leaks are easily worth the tons of press and hype you get from your supporters, far more hype than your dumb little product unveilings generate on average.
It's 2006. Time to stop fighting the internet and start embracing it.
Oh man, Take Two is in big trouble! What are they going to do?! It's not like they have a cash cow series like Grand Theft Auto to keep raking in the money until 2070...oh wait.
The market should decide, not a single retailer...
And of course, by "the market", he means the record companies. Note that he doesn't think that some songs should cost less than 99 cents, only more. That's not market forces at work, that's the record companies being greedy tools yet again.
It's called the post-launch black hole. Launch titles get pushed out, and then there is a period of time where quality games are just lacking because they are still being programmed. Nearly every (if not every) video game system suffers this, the DS just recently got over the hump. Give the programmers time to work their magic, and eventually the PSP will have a more consistent release schedule.
This should get amusing when MTV starts charging for some (or all) content, and the population starts dwindling. I know a lot of Neopets addicts, so seeing how this plays out should prove humorous.
The big bucks record companies realize their inevitable doom, I think. Today's mainstream music isn't cutting it, while smarter, better artists are promoting themselves and joining smaller, fairer labels.
So what do we have left? Yup, the music back catalogue. I'm sure the labels will milk that cash cow until their dying day.
The answer is definitely cheaper prices, even if it's just on physical CD's. There will always be people that will buy the CD's they want no matter what, and there will always be people that will pirate 'till the day they die. The key is making prices attractive enough to the large grey area, those that wouldn't mind paying $5 or $8 for a full album, but shake their heads and fire up the p2p search engines when they see the new album they want is selling for $17.
However, the record industry has always been an industry of greed, so plans like this will never happen. They will stand by screwing over all but the biggest artists on profits, as well as the consumers that buy from them. Even now, they're still pressuring Apple to raise prices last I heard.
The problem is that the record industry doesn't have a clue about the open system business model. Like it or not, they have an impact on the world around them and an image that stems from it. All the profit maximization and bean counting in the world won't save them, if they do nothing but bite the hand that feeds them.
I know the shot at him was just a joke, but I'd rather Jack Chick be locked in a closet. There's something even more frightening than him out there, people in power that are stupid enough to listen to him. Don't give him ideas.
Cydoor definitely is installed, however, the reason you're not seeing any activity from it yet is because there's no ads yet. See those ad-sized black boxes in Exeem? Those will only be empty until Exeem finds some companies to advertise with. Then you will see activity. This will likely happen closer to the release of 1.0.
From what I understand, Cydoor is pretty much harmless, but I suppose we'll see what happens. I'm planning on reformatting my rig very soon, so I took the chance.
So wait, Sony publishing unique sequels to awesome games is a bad thing? Well, I guess you love the fact that Nintendo re-released every single 2d Mario on the GBA without ever making a new one.
Myself, I love the older Mario games, but I'd like something new to play, thanks.
Hey, can you lend me your preview copy of Doom 3? Since, you know, I'm sure you're not so dumb that you'd go ripping on id's writers and Doom 3's plot without playing the game yourself.
I wouldn't hold my breath. Mac versions of games usually wind up with higher system requirements than their PC counterparts. My guess is that the minimum CPU for the Mac version will need to be 2.0Ghz, and 32mb cards aren't even supported in the PC version, so in short, no.
I feel bad for the man, considering he called Bush "borderline retarded", he probably won't exactly be welcomed with open arms.
Now, whether Bush deserves such a label, that's a whole 'nother story, but that is one flame war I don't want to start, so I'll just keep my mouth shut.:x
As a fairly large fan of Quake 3, I keep hoping for a glimpse under the hood of the next sequel, despite the fact that I recall hearing it'll be much more focused on single-player action.
The SL-6000L has a VASTLY better screen than any PocketPC. It is VASTLY more ruggedized than any PocketPC. It has VASTLY more features (USB host, 802.11b) than any PocketPC. It's made in VASTLY smaller quantities than any PocketPC.
Just a quick nitpick, 802.11b isn't exactly a feature exclusive to these handhelds.
Dude, 3rd party memory cards? Come on. "Thou shalt not buy 3rd Party memory cards unless thou is asking for trouble" is practically the 11th commandment by now. Controllers and other things you can sometimes get away with, but never, ever buy 3rd party memory cards, unless you're completely willing to lose all your data. It's been this way since the PSX, and I don't see the trend stopping any time soon.
If these people can't be bothered to get their own computer (in fact, considering what they need to run, they could probably pick up an older system off Ebay dirt cheap), perhaps you should point them to the computer labs on-campus?
Sorry, but if I can manage to piece together a mid-range gaming system on nothing but a minimum-wage job, these people have little excuse why they can't go take an on-campus job for oh, say, two weeks, and pick up an old Pentium 2/3 that can handle the basics.
My advice to you is to give them a good idea of why they would want their own computer, before they take a mile, and they're eating your food and making tyou clean for them too (assuming this isn't the case already).
Looks nice indeed, but LCD technology is still too expensive in my opinion. It's hard to justify $539 for 17-inches of screen estate, when I can get excellent 19-inch CRT's for a hair under $200. Mind you, I know that the way these monitors are measured, the actual screen estate you get on the CRT isn't much more at all, but you're still paying an extra $239 to pretty much save space and look nice.
When I can get a nicely-sized, gaming-capable LCD for under $300, then I might bite. It'd certainly be nice to own an LCD for their portability compared to CRT's. For now though, I think I'll stick with the "old and clunky" CRT technology.
Beta testers, how decent is Gmail's filtering system? Does it allow for fairly complex rulesets? I'm paranoid about false positives, so I like making my filter rules fairly complex to avoid mishaps.
Hmm...isn't there a version of FireFox for Linux? I definitely have seen reports of Gmail working on it, though honestly I'm not 100% sure if it also applies to the Linux version. I can't see why not, though.
Why not just add Gmail to your list of trusted sites, and only allow active scripting and ActiveX for those? I definitely know you can do so in IE, and I can't imagine why there wouldn't be similar options in other browsers.
See, the problem with your argument is that you're pidgeonholing everyone into the bleeding edges of flash-based vs. hard-drive-based stereotypes. Not everyone who buys a hard-drive-based player is looking to make it into their personal music archive.
I'll put myself in for this example. I'm a commuting college student, that spends a lot of time on campus. So, in general, I'm going to be walking, driving, or riding in a shuttle. This means that a well-designed hard-drive player seems perfectly reasonable from a wear-and-tear standpoint. I love music, and I too cannot stand mp3's at 128kbps. But I don't think I could listen to 20 of even my shortest mix CD's in an average day on campus. After all, there's classes to attend and people to be social with. So to me, having my entire music collection along for the ride seems a little silly. Don't get me wrong, I can see the lure of having everything at your fingertips, but my tastes in music vary enough that I always keep a wide selection of tunes on my players. While I can understand not wanting to change compact CD's every time you want to hear a new album, to me, having to change the music around once a week is hardly a chore, especially when one considers the savings of not having to buy a huge-capacity player.
On the other hand though, picking up a 256mb flash-based player is downright ridiculous for my needs, because I'll quickly go through that small amount of music in the span of a day, and I have no need for the wear-and-tear protection of a lack of moving parts.
There's also the option of a CD/MP3 based player, but I find it a bit too bulky to carry around, and I don't particularly like any of the better players' remotes, so backpacking it isn't in my interest either.
Now, I hardly think I'm an exclusive case in this regard. There's plenty of college students out there that have a similar situation to mine, and I'm sure there's plenty of other people aside from college students that could benefit.
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I received TechTV up until right before the whole G4 shakeup, and by the continually worsening news it sounds like I'm not missing much.
Seeing Extended Play turn into the crappy X-play was bad enough. Adam Sessler used to be genuinely funny, and they used to put out a decent amount of reviews...then somebody decided the show needed breasts, and it all went downhill from there.
(On that note, I fail to see why anyone finds Morgan Webb attractive. She looks so decisively average it hurts, add in her ridiculous bias against 2d gaming...and the conclusion is that the only way I'd hit it is in the head with a lead pipe.)
...when will you learn? Any minor product leaks are easily worth the tons of press and hype you get from your supporters, far more hype than your dumb little product unveilings generate on average.
It's 2006. Time to stop fighting the internet and start embracing it.
Oh man, Take Two is in big trouble! What are they going to do?! It's not like they have a cash cow series like Grand Theft Auto to keep raking in the money until 2070...oh wait.
And of course, by "the market", he means the record companies. Note that he doesn't think that some songs should cost less than 99 cents, only more. That's not market forces at work, that's the record companies being greedy tools yet again.
...record companies recognized as greedy scum-sucking bastards. In other news, large sky expanse deemed to blue in color...
It's called the post-launch black hole. Launch titles get pushed out, and then there is a period of time where quality games are just lacking because they are still being programmed. Nearly every (if not every) video game system suffers this, the DS just recently got over the hump. Give the programmers time to work their magic, and eventually the PSP will have a more consistent release schedule.
This should get amusing when MTV starts charging for some (or all) content, and the population starts dwindling. I know a lot of Neopets addicts, so seeing how this plays out should prove humorous.
The big bucks record companies realize their inevitable doom, I think. Today's mainstream music isn't cutting it, while smarter, better artists are promoting themselves and joining smaller, fairer labels.
So what do we have left? Yup, the music back catalogue. I'm sure the labels will milk that cash cow until their dying day.
The answer is definitely cheaper prices, even if it's just on physical CD's. There will always be people that will buy the CD's they want no matter what, and there will always be people that will pirate 'till the day they die. The key is making prices attractive enough to the large grey area, those that wouldn't mind paying $5 or $8 for a full album, but shake their heads and fire up the p2p search engines when they see the new album they want is selling for $17.
However, the record industry has always been an industry of greed, so plans like this will never happen. They will stand by screwing over all but the biggest artists on profits, as well as the consumers that buy from them. Even now, they're still pressuring Apple to raise prices last I heard.
The problem is that the record industry doesn't have a clue about the open system business model. Like it or not, they have an impact on the world around them and an image that stems from it. All the profit maximization and bean counting in the world won't save them, if they do nothing but bite the hand that feeds them.
I know the shot at him was just a joke, but I'd rather Jack Chick be locked in a closet. There's something even more frightening than him out there, people in power that are stupid enough to listen to him. Don't give him ideas.
Cydoor definitely is installed, however, the reason you're not seeing any activity from it yet is because there's no ads yet. See those ad-sized black boxes in Exeem? Those will only be empty until Exeem finds some companies to advertise with. Then you will see activity. This will likely happen closer to the release of 1.0.
From what I understand, Cydoor is pretty much harmless, but I suppose we'll see what happens. I'm planning on reformatting my rig very soon, so I took the chance.
So wait, Sony publishing unique sequels to awesome games is a bad thing? Well, I guess you love the fact that Nintendo re-released every single 2d Mario on the GBA without ever making a new one.
Myself, I love the older Mario games, but I'd like something new to play, thanks.
I know Nethack is the more popular cousin...does Rogue get any tournament love, though?
Hey, can you lend me your preview copy of Doom 3? Since, you know, I'm sure you're not so dumb that you'd go ripping on id's writers and Doom 3's plot without playing the game yourself.
I wouldn't hold my breath. Mac versions of games usually wind up with higher system requirements than their PC counterparts. My guess is that the minimum CPU for the Mac version will need to be 2.0Ghz, and 32mb cards aren't even supported in the PC version, so in short, no.
I feel bad for the man, considering he called Bush "borderline retarded", he probably won't exactly be welcomed with open arms.
:x
Now, whether Bush deserves such a label, that's a whole 'nother story, but that is one flame war I don't want to start, so I'll just keep my mouth shut.
As a fairly large fan of Quake 3, I keep hoping for a glimpse under the hood of the next sequel, despite the fact that I recall hearing it'll be much more focused on single-player action.
The SL-6000L has a VASTLY better screen than any PocketPC. It is VASTLY more ruggedized than any PocketPC. It has VASTLY more features (USB host, 802.11b) than any PocketPC. It's made in VASTLY smaller quantities than any PocketPC.
Just a quick nitpick, 802.11b isn't exactly a feature exclusive to these handhelds.
Dude, 3rd party memory cards? Come on. "Thou shalt not buy 3rd Party memory cards unless thou is asking for trouble" is practically the 11th commandment by now. Controllers and other things you can sometimes get away with, but never, ever buy 3rd party memory cards, unless you're completely willing to lose all your data. It's been this way since the PSX, and I don't see the trend stopping any time soon.
If these people can't be bothered to get their own computer (in fact, considering what they need to run, they could probably pick up an older system off Ebay dirt cheap), perhaps you should point them to the computer labs on-campus?
Sorry, but if I can manage to piece together a mid-range gaming system on nothing but a minimum-wage job, these people have little excuse why they can't go take an on-campus job for oh, say, two weeks, and pick up an old Pentium 2/3 that can handle the basics.
My advice to you is to give them a good idea of why they would want their own computer, before they take a mile, and they're eating your food and making tyou clean for them too (assuming this isn't the case already).
Looks nice indeed, but LCD technology is still too expensive in my opinion. It's hard to justify $539 for 17-inches of screen estate, when I can get excellent 19-inch CRT's for a hair under $200. Mind you, I know that the way these monitors are measured, the actual screen estate you get on the CRT isn't much more at all, but you're still paying an extra $239 to pretty much save space and look nice.
When I can get a nicely-sized, gaming-capable LCD for under $300, then I might bite. It'd certainly be nice to own an LCD for their portability compared to CRT's. For now though, I think I'll stick with the "old and clunky" CRT technology.
Beta testers, how decent is Gmail's filtering system? Does it allow for fairly complex rulesets? I'm paranoid about false positives, so I like making my filter rules fairly complex to avoid mishaps.
Also, does it have whitelisting?
Hmm...isn't there a version of FireFox for Linux? I definitely have seen reports of Gmail working on it, though honestly I'm not 100% sure if it also applies to the Linux version. I can't see why not, though.
Why not just add Gmail to your list of trusted sites, and only allow active scripting and ActiveX for those? I definitely know you can do so in IE, and I can't imagine why there wouldn't be similar options in other browsers.
See, the problem with your argument is that you're pidgeonholing everyone into the bleeding edges of flash-based vs. hard-drive-based stereotypes. Not everyone who buys a hard-drive-based player is looking to make it into their personal music archive.
I'll put myself in for this example. I'm a commuting college student, that spends a lot of time on campus. So, in general, I'm going to be walking, driving, or riding in a shuttle. This means that a well-designed hard-drive player seems perfectly reasonable from a wear-and-tear standpoint. I love music, and I too cannot stand mp3's at 128kbps. But I don't think I could listen to 20 of even my shortest mix CD's in an average day on campus. After all, there's classes to attend and people to be social with. So to me, having my entire music collection along for the ride seems a little silly. Don't get me wrong, I can see the lure of having everything at your fingertips, but my tastes in music vary enough that I always keep a wide selection of tunes on my players. While I can understand not wanting to change compact CD's every time you want to hear a new album, to me, having to change the music around once a week is hardly a chore, especially when one considers the savings of not having to buy a huge-capacity player.
On the other hand though, picking up a 256mb flash-based player is downright ridiculous for my needs, because I'll quickly go through that small amount of music in the span of a day, and I have no need for the wear-and-tear protection of a lack of moving parts.
There's also the option of a CD/MP3 based player, but I find it a bit too bulky to carry around, and I don't particularly like any of the better players' remotes, so backpacking it isn't in my interest either.
Now, I hardly think I'm an exclusive case in this regard. There's plenty of college students out there that have a similar situation to mine, and I'm sure there's plenty of other people aside from college students that could benefit.