There was a Cube Club in Phoenix but it ended last week. Oddly, the club was downtown in what seemed to be an abandoned church. Pretty cool looking but hard to find. The games were all displayed on Panasonic HDTVs (seemed to e running progressice scan) and a few games (SSBM, Rogue Leader, Luigis Mansion, Pikmin) were set up in seperate rooms with large screen displays and, in the case of Rogue Leader, surround sound. The games on display were Rogue Leader, Super Smash Brothers Melee, Madden 2002, Star Fox: Dinosaur Adventures, Luigi's Mansion, WaveRace: Blue Storm, Super Monkey Ball, Eternal Darkness, EA's NBA 2002, and Pikmin.
Personally I was very impressed, as were my friends (who are probably more objective than I.) The controller was GREAT, the graphics were great, and the games (particularly Rogue Leader and Super Monkey Ball) were fun IMO...
It is true that a contract requiring illegal action is unenforcable (i.e. a contract requiring me to kill Richard Simmons) as is a contract entered into under duress.
Also, it is true that no one can sign away their first amendment rights, but there are situations where speech can be legally limited. For instance, "nondisclosure" agreements, in which one party agrees (under penalty) to keep certain information secret, are commonplace. There's also the 'yelling fire in a crowded theatre' limitation, etc.
It seems as if Microsoft would have the right to limit your use of their products or logos (after all, unlike some open source software, you are paying for the right of usage, NOT for ownership). But that's just my lay opinion.
"Very straightforward, assuming the software works in a very high percentage of cases."
That's a big assumption. The article only says that "Visionics claims its match rate can be more than 99%," nothing about potential mismatches or the uniqueness of id's. Just hope your face doesn't match Johnny Klepto's or it'll make for a crappy shopping experience.
File this one with GPS speedometers in rental cars.
P.S. The summary didn't make this clear, but it sounds like they're only implementing the system in the European stores for now.
You think a big company with lots of $$ can't have problems? Sony's factory in Nagasaki had serious setbacks producing graphics chips (only a small percentage of the chips made were usable), leading to the PS2 shortage.
And you might want to tell all the console software developers, many whose profits are at an all-time-high, that the consoles are dying. While you're at it tell Microsoft, whose billion dollar R&D team must have missed something when they decided it was a good idea to enter a huge and growing industry.
There will certainly be some saturation when MS, Nintendo, and Sony are all in the ring, but the industry as a whole is expanding (in the States and Europe, shrinking slightly in Japan). Sega left the hardware industry because, as a rule, developers lose money on the hardware, and make it up in software licensing (Sony lost over $100 per PS2 sold). Only time will tell whether there's room for three seperate platforms, or who the loser will be if there's not.
Personally I hope it's Microsoft.
Actually, the average console gamer these days is around 22 years old. Many of the kids who grew up playing Atari (Combat!) still play consoles, so the market grows older every year. It also grows bigger--as you've probably heard, the video game industry is now as big as the movie industry, $wise. Gaming has become mainstream (largely due to the rise of the PS); your portrayal of the "unwashed masses" is inaccurate.
Theoretically, if you had all the information in the universe (i.e. exact position and velocity of every fundamental particle) at your disposal and unlimited computing power, you COULD determine everything that is to happen (or has happened). Then nothing would be random.
The only problem is Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, which basically states that you can't know an electron's position AND velocity at the same time (also commonly expressed as "you can't measure quantum phenomena without changing the results"). Sounds heady but the point is that there is randomness, there MUST be because it is impossible to know everything, even with unlimited processing power.
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There was a Cube Club in Phoenix but it ended last week. Oddly, the club was downtown in what seemed to be an abandoned church. Pretty cool looking but hard to find. The games were all displayed on Panasonic HDTVs (seemed to e running progressice scan) and a few games (SSBM, Rogue Leader, Luigis Mansion, Pikmin) were set up in seperate rooms with large screen displays and, in the case of Rogue Leader, surround sound. The games on display were Rogue Leader, Super Smash Brothers Melee, Madden 2002, Star Fox: Dinosaur Adventures, Luigi's Mansion, WaveRace: Blue Storm, Super Monkey Ball, Eternal Darkness, EA's NBA 2002, and Pikmin.
Personally I was very impressed, as were my friends (who are probably more objective than I.) The controller was GREAT, the graphics were great, and the games (particularly Rogue Leader and Super Monkey Ball) were fun IMO...
By Christmas GameCube and Xbox will be out. I'm sure you can have some fun with Bill's box...
I'm sorry, but if people are dumb enough to fall for a pathetic scam like this, it's their own fault.
There's a difference between losing your money in the latest pyramid scheme and getting blatantly ripped off.
On the other hand, if anyone's interested in a painting that's REALLY haunted, please contact me...
This is a sticky question:
It is true that a contract requiring illegal action is unenforcable (i.e. a contract requiring me to kill Richard Simmons) as is a contract entered into under duress.
Also, it is true that no one can sign away their first amendment rights, but there are situations where speech can be legally limited. For instance, "nondisclosure" agreements, in which one party agrees (under penalty) to keep certain information secret, are commonplace. There's also the 'yelling fire in a crowded theatre' limitation, etc.
It seems as if Microsoft would have the right to limit your use of their products or logos (after all, unlike some open source software, you are paying for the right of usage, NOT for ownership). But that's just my lay opinion.
"Very straightforward, assuming the software works in a very high percentage of cases."
That's a big assumption. The article only says that "Visionics claims its match rate can be more than 99%," nothing about potential mismatches or the uniqueness of id's. Just hope your face doesn't match Johnny Klepto's or it'll make for a crappy shopping experience.
File this one with GPS speedometers in rental cars.
P.S. The summary didn't make this clear, but it sounds like they're only implementing the system in the European stores for now.
We're both wrong, it's: "post hoc ergo propter hoc." Next time I'll doublecheck, so that I too can one day become an "ultimate badass."
Proof?
"post hoc ergo proper hoc"
Two events occurring in the same year does not imply causation.
You think a big company with lots of $$ can't have problems? Sony's factory in Nagasaki had serious setbacks producing graphics chips (only a small percentage of the chips made were usable), leading to the PS2 shortage. And you might want to tell all the console software developers, many whose profits are at an all-time-high, that the consoles are dying. While you're at it tell Microsoft, whose billion dollar R&D team must have missed something when they decided it was a good idea to enter a huge and growing industry. There will certainly be some saturation when MS, Nintendo, and Sony are all in the ring, but the industry as a whole is expanding (in the States and Europe, shrinking slightly in Japan). Sega left the hardware industry because, as a rule, developers lose money on the hardware, and make it up in software licensing (Sony lost over $100 per PS2 sold). Only time will tell whether there's room for three seperate platforms, or who the loser will be if there's not. Personally I hope it's Microsoft.
Actually, the average console gamer these days is around 22 years old. Many of the kids who grew up playing Atari (Combat!) still play consoles, so the market grows older every year. It also grows bigger--as you've probably heard, the video game industry is now as big as the movie industry, $wise. Gaming has become mainstream (largely due to the rise of the PS); your portrayal of the "unwashed masses" is inaccurate.
Theoretically, if you had all the information in the universe (i.e. exact position and velocity of every fundamental particle) at your disposal and unlimited computing power, you COULD determine everything that is to happen (or has happened). Then nothing would be random.
The only problem is Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, which basically states that you can't know an electron's position AND velocity at the same time (also commonly expressed as "you can't measure quantum phenomena without changing the results"). Sounds heady but the point is that there is randomness, there MUST be because it is impossible to know everything, even with unlimited processing power.