So, if you assume that people buy a new TV every 10 years (possibly a little conservative), that means that in 2004, 2.2% of existing US TV owners upgraded to HDTV, and in 2005, an additional 2.7% of existing US TV owners upgraded to HDTV, and in 2006, an additional projected 3.7% of existing US TV owners upgrade to HDTV.
So, by the time the Revolution is out, market penetration will be ~8.5% in the US. In Japan, market penetration will be a fair bit higher, because they're buying HDTV's at a faster rate. And note that not everyone who has a TV will buy a console, gamers tend to be more tech oriented, so the number of console users who own an HDTV will be a higher percentage.
See page 10 of this report. In the US, HDTVs are ~25% of total TV's. Not to mention that the amount of HDTV content s is quickly increasing, constantly increasing the incentive to buy an HDTV. It's a bit of a chicken-n-egg thing, but at some point, take-up is going to increase pretty quickly.
SD looks like crap on HDTV's. Seriously. If any of your friends have HDTV, ask them. And a lot of people are saying that production of HDTV's in 2006 will be much higher, ergo, the price will be lower, and a lot of people will be introduced to HDTV for the first time. BAD time to release a console that all those new HDTV owners will think looks like crap. You don't need 1080p, 1280x720 is the minimum that XBox 360 will do, and it wouldn't be so bad if Revolution at least said that they'd support that for some games. I guarantee you that 85% of HDTV owners, if they're choosing between the Revolution and a different console, will choose the other console.
Read the sordid tale at Wikipedia. It looks to be possibly legal currently. But it definitely seems to be in a legal gray area that could well be clarified as "illegal" soon.
*shrug* Pink Floyd's album "The Wall" is meant to be a cohesive whole, yet radio stations often play "Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)" by itself. I don't know, music is different. There are some intros to songs that I wouldn't mind hearing by themselves, without hearing the rest of the song.
That said, you're still right, most albums are much less of a cohesive whole.
More importantly, the current situation already encourages a large majority of people to turn to lawless behavior. By turning the screws tighter, companies are encouraging MORE people to turn to lawlessness. And that's bad (for the companies) because once people start to think it's acceptable for everyone to hack a company's product for X reason, it becomes much easier to justify hacking or otherwise acting lawlessly against all of the company's products, even in more minor cases that users wouldn't have thought there was enough incentive to act lawlessly before.
The point they were making was that some manufacturers might take a normal 480p game, with 480p textures, and simply upscale it to 720p, and claim it outputs 720p, but the game would have fuzzy textures, and fuzzy edges.
But they're not simply upscaling, the game is actually rendered at 720p, so it will have sharp edges, and sharp-to-semifuzzy-textures. It will look just as sharp as a PC playing at 1280x720.
The shortage thing is still potentially rumor. And this particular piece could be evidence against that rumor, and not necessarily facts that exist alongside it.
The fact that it was so big and chunky, not to mention limited in song capacity... I mean, you could literally tape a nano to the back of a RAZR and have a phone that had more functionality in a smaller package
... for a $200 increase in price, and a significantly longer manufacturing rollout, and a significantly higher risk of getting cut from the product lineup.
1) the community perception seems to be that Motorola isn't as capable of designing a UI as Apple is, 2) Motorola probably couldn't get permission from Apple to redesign their phone with the touch-cicle hardware and software interface, and 3) even if Motorola could get permission, it would have required a significantly higher investment for Motorola to redesign everything around that, and their return on investment could potentially be fairly small, because (per above) at best, Motorola would simply copy Apple's UI, and would release an Apple-clone.
1. MMO's have always cost extra, but that's not really for the network connection, it's more for the database servers (maintaining usability with record locks that span tons of players is indeed much more difficult than 16-player games) and for occasional content updates.
3. And how many people do you know who played Quake 2, etc. obsessively? Clearly, for the hard-core gamer who might game enough that their friends aren't always available to play, or they game more often than their friends do, then online play is an absolute must.
4. Blah blah, who cares about impersonal? Humans are still smarter and less predictable than AI, and so are still prefered.
5. Agreed on that point. I've seen too many games lost because one schlub drops, and then 30 seconds later someone else drops because of that. On MMO games I've played, if you join a team instance, you've just dedicated 2-3 hours of your life. Is it too much to ask that people stick around for a 5 minute game??
Try working in corporate software development, and never touching Windows. It can happen sometimes, but at least in my company, you definitely have to do Windows stuff from time to time. Once Intel/AMD virtualization comes along, hopefully I can actually ditch Windows for everything except that I'm really forced to, without impacting my work productivity and having my boss complain at me.
I spend 95% of my time using either PuTTY or Firefox as well. Nonetheless, you can't really be terribly productive anymore without an internet connection, so why tout local reliance?
Microsoft is bleeding for a good while because they choose to, because they believe it will net them greater profits long-term. Bleeding more isn't going to hurt them long term, unless everyone buys an XBox 360 and uses them as overpriced paperweights.
I'd say just don't buy this if they are going to toy with the buyers like this.
I wish it were that easy. You can similarly "just not use Windows", but that's not really a choice anymore either. XBox 360 is the only console that has a remotely cohesive online strategy. It has a lot of great game makers signed on, and for the hard-core gamer, outside of RPG's and weird games that Japanese obsess over, it has a better lineup of games than the PS3.
Most users (eg. programmers who want to scratch an itch) see DRM as more of an itch that should be removed than as a desirable feature. Furthermore, DRM and open source don't mix, since DRM usually involves obscuring the decryption code, and then securing the decrypted digital data until it gets to the output device. All of that is completely counter to open source.
Even people who enter a lot of information into Wikipedia don't often visit libraries. The huge bulk of it comes from Google. Surprise, people overwhelmingly prefer convenience, and are willing to sacrifice other things (quality, money) for it.
Agreed 110%, so why did you do something like that in the first place, if you KNOW it's childish?
Because it gave me a tiny little thrill.
Why the hell do you go out of your way, & nearly constantly make attempts that try to get my goat here
Because 1) you're trying to hide behind anonymity, which of course is just begging for someone to puncture that, and 2) I don't understand you as much as I'd like to. Nope, no past axe to grind, I swear on my mother's grave that the first time I ran into you was July 19, 2005. I want to grok everything in the universe, and you're one of the more unique people out there.
Copyright is increasingly being viewed as property. From the my.mp3.com ruling:
Copyright, however, is not designed to afford consumer protection or convenience but, rather, to protect the copyrightholders' property interests.
If the legislature and courts take the view that copyright is akin to property, then protecting it via technological means (akin to locking the doors on your house) just makes sense, and doesn't remove the owner's right to the property they're protecting.
As many others have said, "getting beaten up pretty badly" is really more accurately "getting bored of the sophomoric argument, and leaving".
There are several technical discussions that you've had with others where I didn't agree with your arguments 100%, but I don't wish to point out specific ones, lest you start another 278,923 pages of arguments over and over. Discussing non-technical things with you is irksome enough, thanks.
Why are you so repetitive? It gets boring after a while.
And what's going on in your normal life that's keeping you busy? You've been posting much more intermitently lately.
Well, once Microsoft's NGSCB ccomes along, games like Warcraft will have two choices:
live outside the trusted comping base, and be vulnerable to anybody who manages to crack the NGSCB and run their code in a place that can't be examined by Warcraft, or:
convince Microsoft to let WoW cheat-detectors run inside the NGSCB so they can detect everything
First4Internet vs. Warden seems like it's the only possible crazy example of this, but if NGSCB is vulnerable to either crackers or corporate influence, this will only be the beginning.
Slashdot Mirror
So, if you assume that people buy a new TV every 10 years (possibly a little conservative), that means that in 2004, 2.2% of existing US TV owners upgraded to HDTV, and in 2005, an additional 2.7% of existing US TV owners upgraded to HDTV, and in 2006, an additional projected 3.7% of existing US TV owners upgrade to HDTV.
So, by the time the Revolution is out, market penetration will be ~8.5% in the US. In Japan, market penetration will be a fair bit higher, because they're buying HDTV's at a faster rate. And note that not everyone who has a TV will buy a console, gamers tend to be more tech oriented, so the number of console users who own an HDTV will be a higher percentage.
See page 10 of this report. In the US, HDTVs are ~25% of total TV's. Not to mention that the amount of HDTV content s is quickly increasing, constantly increasing the incentive to buy an HDTV. It's a bit of a chicken-n-egg thing, but at some point, take-up is going to increase pretty quickly.
SD looks like crap on HDTV's. Seriously. If any of your friends have HDTV, ask them. And a lot of people are saying that production of HDTV's in 2006 will be much higher, ergo, the price will be lower, and a lot of people will be introduced to HDTV for the first time. BAD time to release a console that all those new HDTV owners will think looks like crap. You don't need 1080p, 1280x720 is the minimum that XBox 360 will do, and it wouldn't be so bad if Revolution at least said that they'd support that for some games. I guarantee you that 85% of HDTV owners, if they're choosing between the Revolution and a different console, will choose the other console.
Read the sordid tale at Wikipedia. It looks to be possibly legal currently. But it definitely seems to be in a legal gray area that could well be clarified as "illegal" soon.
That said, you're still right, most albums are much less of a cohesive whole.
More importantly, the current situation already encourages a large majority of people to turn to lawless behavior. By turning the screws tighter, companies are encouraging MORE people to turn to lawlessness. And that's bad (for the companies) because once people start to think it's acceptable for everyone to hack a company's product for X reason, it becomes much easier to justify hacking or otherwise acting lawlessly against all of the company's products, even in more minor cases that users wouldn't have thought there was enough incentive to act lawlessly before.
The point they were making was that some manufacturers might take a normal 480p game, with 480p textures, and simply upscale it to 720p, and claim it outputs 720p, but the game would have fuzzy textures, and fuzzy edges.
But they're not simply upscaling, the game is actually rendered at 720p, so it will have sharp edges, and sharp-to-semifuzzy-textures. It will look just as sharp as a PC playing at 1280x720.
The biggest limitation they talk about is not being able to instantly do a 180, but that seems semi-realistic anyway.
Magnetic containment field?
The shortage thing is still potentially rumor. And this particular piece could be evidence against that rumor, and not necessarily facts that exist alongside it.
1) the community perception seems to be that Motorola isn't as capable of designing a UI as Apple is, 2) Motorola probably couldn't get permission from Apple to redesign their phone with the touch-cicle hardware and software interface, and 3) even if Motorola could get permission, it would have required a significantly higher investment for Motorola to redesign everything around that, and their return on investment could potentially be fairly small, because (per above) at best, Motorola would simply copy Apple's UI, and would release an Apple-clone.
Only listen to podcasts while on the road, and cover your eyes.
Is that socket, erm... used?
3. And how many people do you know who played Quake 2, etc. obsessively? Clearly, for the hard-core gamer who might game enough that their friends aren't always available to play, or they game more often than their friends do, then online play is an absolute must.
4. Blah blah, who cares about impersonal? Humans are still smarter and less predictable than AI, and so are still prefered.
5. Agreed on that point. I've seen too many games lost because one schlub drops, and then 30 seconds later someone else drops because of that. On MMO games I've played, if you join a team instance, you've just dedicated 2-3 hours of your life. Is it too much to ask that people stick around for a 5 minute game??
Try working in corporate software development, and never touching Windows. It can happen sometimes, but at least in my company, you definitely have to do Windows stuff from time to time. Once Intel/AMD virtualization comes along, hopefully I can actually ditch Windows for everything except that I'm really forced to, without impacting my work productivity and having my boss complain at me.
I spend 95% of my time using either PuTTY or Firefox as well. Nonetheless, you can't really be terribly productive anymore without an internet connection, so why tout local reliance?
Most users (eg. programmers who want to scratch an itch) see DRM as more of an itch that should be removed than as a desirable feature. Furthermore, DRM and open source don't mix, since DRM usually involves obscuring the decryption code, and then securing the decrypted digital data until it gets to the output device. All of that is completely counter to open source.
What about Google's possible entry into the upscale ad-supported ketchup market? Has anyone heard anything to substantiate those rumors?
Even people who enter a lot of information into Wikipedia don't often visit libraries. The huge bulk of it comes from Google. Surprise, people overwhelmingly prefer convenience, and are willing to sacrifice other things (quality, money) for it.
Because it gave me a tiny little thrill.
Because 1) you're trying to hide behind anonymity, which of course is just begging for someone to puncture that, and 2) I don't understand you as much as I'd like to. Nope, no past axe to grind, I swear on my mother's grave that the first time I ran into you was July 19, 2005. I want to grok everything in the universe, and you're one of the more unique people out there.
Good to hear.
As many others have said, "getting beaten up pretty badly" is really more accurately "getting bored of the sophomoric argument, and leaving".
There are several technical discussions that you've had with others where I didn't agree with your arguments 100%, but I don't wish to point out specific ones, lest you start another 278,923 pages of arguments over and over. Discussing non-technical things with you is irksome enough, thanks.
Why are you so repetitive? It gets boring after a while.
And what's going on in your normal life that's keeping you busy? You've been posting much more intermitently lately.
- live outside the trusted comping base, and be vulnerable to anybody who manages to crack the NGSCB and run their code in a place that can't be examined by Warcraft, or:
- convince Microsoft to let WoW cheat-detectors run inside the NGSCB so they can detect everything
First4Internet vs. Warden seems like it's the only possible crazy example of this, but if NGSCB is vulnerable to either crackers or corporate influence, this will only be the beginning.Somebody is going to owe a LOT of people new monitors once they're all drenched in coke.