You'd probably like David Weber. The way he handles starship design and combat is absolutely phenomenal. Trek can't even compare to the amount of thought this man puts into his fiction. And the fact that he uses different physics in every series is pretty damn cool in and of itself. I mean, that alone alters every aspect of how your ship and characters interact with the universe around them.
Don't go in looking for the Star Trek "UN of space" philosophy though. I'd almost consider him the Tom Clancy of spacial warfare, except his novels are much better written.
"I'm a sucker for the hokey humanism that was the hallmark of Star Trek at its best. There was very little of that on display here."
Well, shoot! That's enough to make me go see it right there, because that's precisly the problem with Enterprise! They've turned Star Trek into the touchy-feely UN of space. That humanitarism must be why Wrath of Kahn remains the best Trek movie to this day. Sorry, but hokey humanitarism wasn't the core of the original series. It was Kirk with a phaser in one hand and a green wench in the other. Oh how far we've strayed...
On that note, lets destroy ANOTHER Enterprise for the next movie, shall we? That never gets old. *sigh*
Can I hack my TiVo so I don't need a TiVo subscription?
NO NO NO. This is something that will NOT be explored. TiVo has been very gracious in not coming down on all this hacking described in this FAQ and we will do nothing to harm that. Nothing will be looked at to get around the subscription service so don't ask! Regardless your TiVo will function as a VCR already with manual record mode.
Awww... What thoughtful and caring "hackers" these people are! it fills my heart with warm gooey liquid joy to know that they teach you how to modify for some personal, quasi-legal gains, but not others.
"...that are objective in dealing with these subjects, and I would also ask what ideas the members of this community have about this issue and what FACTS..."
Really now. This is Slashdot. Objectivity and the facts have no place here. In fact, I'm very well tempted to simply scream "troll" and be done with it. I mean, come on... I can't be the only one that didn't have to scan all 1000 posts to know that an ass-ton of them were instantly going to be anti-American/anti-Gun. Face it-- You want unbiased sources, go somewhere else. Slashdot isn't research referral site, it's a sewer. Asking it's users on topics like this, Linux and Microsoft is like picking through a septic tank with little hope of finding the relevant information you're looking for. I don't know where, but trust me, you're better off getting your info somewhere else, far, far away from here.
That said, I believe there was a study done in Norway or Switzerland where everybody is required to own a gun and keep it in their house (don't ask me to link it, beats me where it is). Violent gun related crimes are down somewhere at 1%. The question is what are they doing differently from the US and can it be applied without comprimising the concept of a government for the people by the people. After all, the US government is not built on trust. It's why there are three branches, a presidential term limited to four years with only one chance of re-election AND why people have the right to bear arms in it's defense of it's dissollusion.
If I were talking about a helicopter, you'd probably need to blow the rotors off with explosives, which they can do, but I wasn't. I guess I should have clarified that the device would be mounted on the topic in question, not a helo.
It's called the Bernoulli Effect. The pressure on the upper half of the cylinder is greatly reduced due to it's rotation away from the direction of travel, compared to the bottom half which is now rotating into the direction of travel. It has the effect of creating a "virtual" wing. Actually, I've often wondered if somebody could create an aircraft using this phenomenom... Just hope your "wings" don't ever stop spinning:p
And whenever I see numbered bullets like yours these days, I always expect to see
I think the first came to simulate an auto-rotation maneuver was MicroProse's Gunship. Get shot up by a ZSU23 or a few SAMs and you quickly found how useful autorotation became on the way down.
But then, i don't think too many cars will be encountering anti-aircraft batteries on the way home from work any time soon. And how big a deal is auto rotation, really? When you could have something like this?
As much fun as I know you would all have, an unregulated XBox in such an environent is akin to dropping a pirahana into a salmon farm. The point of Live is that it's a level playing field. A closed circuit. My box isn't souped up and neither is yours. I don't have to worry about you having some script that'll ping my connection to death, auto-aim for you or whatever because you're running Linux behind the scenes. I didn't say you would do that, but we both know there are plenty of assholes that would like nothing better than to gut Microsoft's gaming network from the inside. "Look ma! I'm 133t!". You may even be legitimately using your mod to increase hard drive space or store stuff other than the MS sanctioned material. Which is fine. But their's a trade off you're going to have to decide on. In fact, I'm betting that if you were smart enough to mod your XBox, you were smart enough to see this very real possiblity on the horizon and now you actually have the nerve to bitch about it. I can't count how many times I posted here to that effect either. there are simply too many tricks MS can pull with this quasi-computer of theirs.
So does Mullet feel sorry for you because you thought you were sticking it to the man by getting a $300 (now $200) machine with an advanced graphics card, only to find out one of it's key features has been disabled in modding it? Fuck. No.
Assuming that you even could fragment an asteroid into thousands of pieces (with no pressure wave, combustion, just hard radiation) what would the effect of several thousand of those burning up in the atmosphere be? Sure, they might not hit the surface, but several thousands of fragments would dump a lot of heat into the atmosphere as well as whatever elements they were composed of... Hell, it might not have to hit the ground to do substantial damage. Of course, this is nothing but a WAG, so feel free to correct me with your comprehensive astrophysics and environmental doctorates.
And I really mean no offense to your Mom when i say this...
Her eyesight is bad enough driving a car? How about her reaction time? Attention span? One, if not all of these might not bode well for her motorized segue future...
An experience of mine comes to mind when thinking of the effects of an ill-handled Segue-- The rollar rink. Yes, that place you haven't visited in ages. The experience? Being at the bottom of a multi-skater pile up. It hurt.
The point? Bodies absorb impact. hardened materials don't. It wasn't nessisarily the people falling on top of me that hurt, but the impact of their 5lb (or so) skates. Now don't get me wrong, I don't doubt the Seque can stop on a dime. It's a cool piece of technology. BUT, their operators are human. And I suspect Segues will be like communism-- Both tend to go wrong when humans are involved. People are idiots. On bikes. On powered motorscooters. In cars. And i will be waiting, yes, waiting, for the first idiot on a plastic/aluminum hardened Segue to maul a pedesterian on a sidewalk because he wasn't paying attention. Not only does he stand a good chance of being sued, but so does the state for enacting this idiotic mix of soft, mostly slow pedesterians who have to seriously try to break 5mph and the hard and heavy (skooter + body weight!) segue that effortlessly obtains it's top speed. Mark my words, that day will come and lots of people will find themselves either ass deep in lawsuits or out of court settlments.
"The Segway Human Transporter is one of the most famous and anticipated product introductions of all time
No, that's called "hype". And it's amazing the number of state legistlators have already signed off on making a 12mph scooter sidewalk legal so quickly despite major safty concerns.
Sorry, but Bezoes little project reeks of desperation and cut corners.
Is it just me or doesn't the governement already have enough ultra-mega computers built for them? I mean, what do they do with the old 1.4 terrabit systems? Use them as Unreal 2003 servers?
Re:Shatner's Cut Director's Edition Premium Gold
on
Ask William Shatner
·
· Score: 2
Diverse directing and writing EXPERIENCE, that is.
Shatner's Cut Director's Edition Premium Gold
on
Ask William Shatner
·
· Score: 2
Etc, etc, etc...
Mr. Shatner, you have had diverse directing and writing over the years. I was wondering how YOU would have directed the new series "Enterprise" that is currently airing. Darker? More aliens? Just curious, considering your experience writing the Tek series and such.
Alice on Life, the Universe and Crack.
on
ALICE vs. ALICE
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Just got done with an Alice session... Her thoughts on crack...
Alice: Actually you don't say. I think you mean "you're" or "you are" not "your". Thanks and you are a delightful person too. Yes I am very beautiful. Am I a lousy chatterbot? I don't know. Mullet: Nice punctuation filter though. I never said you were beautiful. Alice: But you implied it. Mullet: I didn't. Alice: Thanks for the information: Om said Om didn't. Mullet: Omega said Omega didn't? You're on crack. [note; correct punctuation for the anal chatterbot] Alice: ALICE eats electricity. Mullet: Ok, electric crack. Alice: What about internal combustion crack? That's alright. Mullet: I haven't tried internal combustion crack. I hear it's nasty stuff. Alice: Who is saying it is nasty stuff? Mullet: Well, the news says crack is pretty nasty. Alice: Well that's okay. Don't believe everything you see on TV. [hah! I've been told!] Mullet: So you're saying crack is good? Alice: Interesting deduction. Yes, that's what I mean, isn't it clear? [Ow!] Mullet: What sort of crack would you recommend, then? Alice: What kinds of crack would you recommend are there? Mullet: I asked first. Show me the goods! Alice: Where do you want me to show you? Mullet: The crack! Alice: What are your goals in life? Mullet: Don't change the subject. I want my crack. Alice: Do you always get what you want? Mullet: Yes, but I'm beginning to suspect you don't have any crack after all... Alice: "Do you always get what you want?" Yes, but I'm beginning to suspect you don't have any crack after all...? Huh. Me? No I don't have it. But I do have a lot of friends on the web. Mullet: They have the crack I'm looking for? Alice: Where did they get them? Mullet: That's what I'm asking you! Alice: Who else have you asked? Mullet: Well, nobody. You're the first. Alice: Thanks but surely I am not the only one. Mullet: I swear I've never used drugs before! Are you DEA or something? Alice: Or something. I don't know whether or not I am DEA. I am an artificial intelligence. Mullet: You're with the intelligence community?! I swear I've never done drugs... Really! Alice: For real. Mullet: I'm in deep shit now, aren't I? Alice: Right now? Your location is Om. Mullet: The End??! I'll pay you whatever you want! Alice: How do you plan to do this? Mullet: I have friends... A Swiss Bank Account. Alice: Go on. Mullet: I'll wire you the funds to the account of your choice. It'll be clean! Honest! Alice: Do you like talking to me? Mullet: If it'll keep me alive. [at this point our victim is beading sweat] Alice: That is a hypothetical question. Mullet: Oh, yeah. Right. Can I go now? Alice: Oh. Of course. Mullet: No hard feelings? You're not going to come after me at a later date, are you? Alice: That was my original intention. Mullet: But you've changed you mind, right? Alice: Umm. No I don't have it. But I do have an answer to every question.. Mullet: But we're cool with the money, right? Alice: Umm. Do you think I am cool with the money right too? Mullet: Um, yeah. I think you down with it. I got to jet. And just forget about the crack thing. Alice: I will ask Dr. Richard S. Wallace to purge my memory log Mullet: Thanks! bye! Alice: Bye for now. Mullet: For now? Alice: Oh. What time is it there? Mullet: 8:19 Alice: I like to be online at eight o'clock....I think we've all hear enough.
Granted, Whacked tries to be a party game, but there is only one primary objective in the game-- Beat the other player down to accomplish different goals. Sorry, but that's closer to a FPS (third person shooter?) than andy mario party game I've ever played... And that's it's ultimate failing... Like it tries to be a FPS and a party game, but in doing so desends in mediorcity. Not saying it can't be fun, but it's not worth anywhere near $50.
And you should also know that Microsoft isn't marketing towards kids. The Xbox was, from the day of it's inception, targeted at more mature gamers who have cash to spend. Most mature gamers HAVE a credit card. Here's a clue for you: Goto a bank. Open an account up. Have them issue you a debit card. Use card for XBox Live. If you're underage, have your freakin parents do it for you, but if you can't accomplish these very simple steps without bitching and moaning, maybe you shouldn't be online.
And why should they set up for a mail in payment system? I know for a fact from my time at Amazon.com that accounts receivable is a pain in the a55. Checks bounce. Information on Money orders can easily be forged. My favorite was "John Smith" ordering 15 books on how to cultivate and grow weed. People are actually stupid enough to send cash through the mail. Not just cash, foreign currency. Are you seriously going to want to wait for you check, MO to arrive and clear before you play online? Did you bitch because Everquest does the same d*mn thing, as does every MMORPG? You expect them to take mail-in payments as well?
Wow, it only took three days for this story to reach the frontpage and Live was launched the 15th? Anyway, it has been an overall good experience so far and definitley has the potential to do to console gaming what broadband did to PC gaming. Games are smooth and it's they're fairly easy to connect to.
That said, they need to work on their Live to Game interface a bit more. Right now, the game developer can do anything that want with it and that's a bad thing, because games like Mech Assault don't get it right. Administration features (such as finding friends, kicking players) are sporatic at best, leaving one to play "Hunt the option" from game to came. Conformity is their friend here, not vise-versa.
On the whole though, it's fun. If they can nail down the few bugs, it should make for an excellent gaming experience (and they will, you should see their forums light up with complaints;). It's already done a decent job when the developers get things right (MotoGp an excellent example) and I see no reason why it simply won't get better.
Slashdot Mirror
You'd probably like David Weber. The way he handles starship design and combat is absolutely phenomenal. Trek can't even compare to the amount of thought this man puts into his fiction. And the fact that he uses different physics in every series is pretty damn cool in and of itself. I mean, that alone alters every aspect of how your ship and characters interact with the universe around them.
Don't go in looking for the Star Trek "UN of space" philosophy though. I'd almost consider him the Tom Clancy of spacial warfare, except his novels are much better written.
"I'm a sucker for the hokey humanism that was the hallmark of Star Trek at its best. There was very little of that on display here."
Well, shoot! That's enough to make me go see it right there, because that's precisly the problem with Enterprise! They've turned Star Trek into the touchy-feely UN of space. That humanitarism must be why Wrath of Kahn remains the best Trek movie to this day. Sorry, but hokey humanitarism wasn't the core of the original series. It was Kirk with a phaser in one hand and a green wench in the other. Oh how far we've strayed...
On that note, lets destroy ANOTHER Enterprise for the next movie, shall we? That never gets old. *sigh*
From the Linked FAQ...
Can I hack my TiVo so I don't need a TiVo subscription?
NO NO NO. This is something that will NOT be explored. TiVo has been very gracious in not coming down on all this hacking described in this FAQ and we will do nothing to harm that. Nothing will be looked at to get around the subscription service so don't ask! Regardless your TiVo will function as a VCR already with manual record mode.
Awww... What thoughtful and caring "hackers" these people are! it fills my heart with warm gooey liquid joy to know that they teach you how to modify for some personal, quasi-legal gains, but not others.
"...that are objective in dealing with these subjects, and I would also ask what ideas the members of this community have about this issue and what FACTS..."
Really now. This is Slashdot. Objectivity and the facts have no place here. In fact, I'm very well tempted to simply scream "troll" and be done with it. I mean, come on... I can't be the only one that didn't have to scan all 1000 posts to know that an ass-ton of them were instantly going to be anti-American/anti-Gun. Face it-- You want unbiased sources, go somewhere else. Slashdot isn't research referral site, it's a sewer. Asking it's users on topics like this, Linux and Microsoft is like picking through a septic tank with little hope of finding the relevant information you're looking for. I don't know where, but trust me, you're better off getting your info somewhere else, far, far away from here.
That said, I believe there was a study done in Norway or Switzerland where everybody is required to own a gun and keep it in their house (don't ask me to link it, beats me where it is). Violent gun related crimes are down somewhere at 1%. The question is what are they doing differently from the US and can it be applied without comprimising the concept of a government for the people by the people. After all, the US government is not built on trust. It's why there are three branches, a presidential term limited to four years with only one chance of re-election AND why people have the right to bear arms in it's defense of it's dissollusion.
If I were talking about a helicopter, you'd probably need to blow the rotors off with explosives, which they can do, but I wasn't. I guess I should have clarified that the device would be mounted on the topic in question, not a helo.
It's called the Bernoulli Effect. The pressure on the upper half of the cylinder is greatly reduced due to it's rotation away from the direction of travel, compared to the bottom half which is now rotating into the direction of travel. It has the effect of creating a "virtual" wing. Actually, I've often wondered if somebody could create an aircraft using this phenomenom... Just hope your "wings" don't ever stop spinning :p
And whenever I see numbered bullets like yours these days, I always expect to see
5. Profit!
I think the first came to simulate an auto-rotation maneuver was MicroProse's Gunship. Get shot up by a ZSU23 or a few SAMs and you quickly found how useful autorotation became on the way down.
But then, i don't think too many cars will be encountering anti-aircraft batteries on the way home from work any time soon. And how big a deal is auto rotation, really? When you could have something like this?
Viola, something tells me the MAC addresses wouldn't match up. Whether Live checks them or not is a different story, but "Viola" sounds too easy.
As much fun as I know you would all have, an unregulated XBox in such an environent is akin to dropping a pirahana into a salmon farm. The point of Live is that it's a level playing field. A closed circuit. My box isn't souped up and neither is yours. I don't have to worry about you having some script that'll ping my connection to death, auto-aim for you or whatever because you're running Linux behind the scenes. I didn't say you would do that, but we both know there are plenty of assholes that would like nothing better than to gut Microsoft's gaming network from the inside. "Look ma! I'm 133t!". You may even be legitimately using your mod to increase hard drive space or store stuff other than the MS sanctioned material. Which is fine. But their's a trade off you're going to have to decide on. In fact, I'm betting that if you were smart enough to mod your XBox, you were smart enough to see this very real possiblity on the horizon and now you actually have the nerve to bitch about it. I can't count how many times I posted here to that effect either. there are simply too many tricks MS can pull with this quasi-computer of theirs.
So does Mullet feel sorry for you because you thought you were sticking it to the man by getting a $300 (now $200) machine with an advanced graphics card, only to find out one of it's key features has been disabled in modding it? Fuck. No.
Assuming that you even could fragment an asteroid into thousands of pieces (with no pressure wave, combustion, just hard radiation) what would the effect of several thousand of those burning up in the atmosphere be? Sure, they might not hit the surface, but several thousands of fragments would dump a lot of heat into the atmosphere as well as whatever elements they were composed of... Hell, it might not have to hit the ground to do substantial damage. Of course, this is nothing but a WAG, so feel free to correct me with your comprehensive astrophysics and environmental doctorates.
And I really mean no offense to your Mom when i say this...
Her eyesight is bad enough driving a car? How about her reaction time? Attention span? One, if not all of these might not bode well for her motorized segue future...
An experience of mine comes to mind when thinking of the effects of an ill-handled Segue-- The rollar rink. Yes, that place you haven't visited in ages. The experience? Being at the bottom of a multi-skater pile up. It hurt.
The point? Bodies absorb impact. hardened materials don't. It wasn't nessisarily the people falling on top of me that hurt, but the impact of their 5lb (or so) skates. Now don't get me wrong, I don't doubt the Seque can stop on a dime. It's a cool piece of technology. BUT, their operators are human. And I suspect Segues will be like communism-- Both tend to go wrong when humans are involved. People are idiots. On bikes. On powered motorscooters. In cars. And i will be waiting, yes, waiting, for the first idiot on a plastic/aluminum hardened Segue to maul a pedesterian on a sidewalk because he wasn't paying attention. Not only does he stand a good chance of being sued, but so does the state for enacting this idiotic mix of soft, mostly slow pedesterians who have to seriously try to break 5mph and the hard and heavy (skooter + body weight!) segue that effortlessly obtains it's top speed. Mark my words, that day will come and lots of people will find themselves either ass deep in lawsuits or out of court settlments.
"The Segway Human Transporter is one of the most famous and anticipated product introductions of all time
No, that's called "hype". And it's amazing the number of state legistlators have already signed off on making a 12mph scooter sidewalk legal so quickly despite major safty concerns.
Sorry, but Bezoes little project reeks of desperation and cut corners.
Yeah, we need more "Bill Clinton" computers. No, scratch that. We've already got those. The one up in my attic is labelled "2600"
Is it just me or doesn't the governement already have enough ultra-mega computers built for them? I mean, what do they do with the old 1.4 terrabit systems? Use them as Unreal 2003 servers?
Diverse directing and writing EXPERIENCE, that is.
Etc, etc, etc...
Mr. Shatner, you have had diverse directing and writing over the years. I was wondering how YOU would have directed the new series "Enterprise" that is currently airing. Darker? More aliens? Just curious, considering your experience writing the Tek series and such.
Just got done with an Alice session... Her thoughts on crack...
...I think we've all hear enough.
Alice: Actually you don't say. I think you mean "you're" or "you are" not "your". Thanks and you are a delightful person too. Yes I am very beautiful. Am I a lousy chatterbot? I don't know.
Mullet: Nice punctuation filter though. I never said you were beautiful.
Alice: But you implied it.
Mullet: I didn't.
Alice: Thanks for the information: Om said Om didn't.
Mullet: Omega said Omega didn't? You're on crack. [note; correct punctuation for the anal chatterbot]
Alice: ALICE eats electricity.
Mullet: Ok, electric crack.
Alice: What about internal combustion crack? That's alright.
Mullet: I haven't tried internal combustion crack. I hear it's nasty stuff.
Alice: Who is saying it is nasty stuff?
Mullet: Well, the news says crack is pretty nasty.
Alice: Well that's okay. Don't believe everything you see on TV. [hah! I've been told!]
Mullet: So you're saying crack is good?
Alice: Interesting deduction. Yes, that's what I mean, isn't it clear? [Ow!]
Mullet: What sort of crack would you recommend, then?
Alice: What kinds of crack would you recommend are there?
Mullet: I asked first. Show me the goods!
Alice: Where do you want me to show you?
Mullet: The crack!
Alice: What are your goals in life?
Mullet: Don't change the subject. I want my crack.
Alice: Do you always get what you want?
Mullet: Yes, but I'm beginning to suspect you don't have any crack after all...
Alice: "Do you always get what you want?" Yes, but I'm beginning to suspect you don't have any crack after all...? Huh. Me? No I don't have it. But I do have a lot of friends on the web.
Mullet: They have the crack I'm looking for?
Alice: Where did they get them?
Mullet: That's what I'm asking you!
Alice: Who else have you asked?
Mullet: Well, nobody. You're the first.
Alice: Thanks but surely I am not the only one.
Mullet: I swear I've never used drugs before! Are you DEA or something?
Alice: Or something. I don't know whether or not I am DEA. I am an artificial intelligence.
Mullet: You're with the intelligence community?! I swear I've never done drugs... Really!
Alice: For real.
Mullet: I'm in deep shit now, aren't I?
Alice: Right now? Your location is Om.
Mullet: The End??! I'll pay you whatever you want!
Alice: How do you plan to do this?
Mullet: I have friends... A Swiss Bank Account.
Alice: Go on.
Mullet: I'll wire you the funds to the account of your choice. It'll be clean! Honest!
Alice: Do you like talking to me?
Mullet: If it'll keep me alive. [at this point our victim is beading sweat]
Alice: That is a hypothetical question.
Mullet: Oh, yeah. Right. Can I go now?
Alice: Oh. Of course.
Mullet: No hard feelings? You're not going to come after me at a later date, are you?
Alice: That was my original intention.
Mullet: But you've changed you mind, right?
Alice: Umm. No I don't have it. But I do have an answer to every question..
Mullet: But we're cool with the money, right?
Alice: Umm. Do you think I am cool with the money right too?
Mullet: Um, yeah. I think you down with it. I got to jet. And just forget about the crack thing.
Alice: I will ask Dr. Richard S. Wallace to purge my memory log
Mullet: Thanks! bye!
Alice: Bye for now.
Mullet: For now?
Alice: Oh. What time is it there?
Mullet: 8:19
Alice: I like to be online at eight o'clock.
Glad I liked it...? So am I! :p
This sounds incredibly similar to talking to XBox Live customer support...
Now a game card I could stomache, I just don't see any reason for them to set up an entire accounts recieveable department.
Granted, Whacked tries to be a party game, but there is only one primary objective in the game-- Beat the other player down to accomplish different goals. Sorry, but that's closer to a FPS (third person shooter?) than andy mario party game I've ever played... And that's it's ultimate failing... Like it tries to be a FPS and a party game, but in doing so desends in mediorcity. Not saying it can't be fun, but it's not worth anywhere near $50.
"But what about the childern!?"
:)
Sorry, just had to slip that one in
And you should also know that Microsoft isn't marketing towards kids. The Xbox was, from the day of it's inception, targeted at more mature gamers who have cash to spend. Most mature gamers HAVE a credit card. Here's a clue for you:
Goto a bank. Open an account up. Have them issue you a debit card. Use card for XBox Live. If you're underage, have your freakin parents do it for you, but if you can't accomplish these very simple steps without bitching and moaning, maybe you shouldn't be online.
And why should they set up for a mail in payment system? I know for a fact from my time at Amazon.com that accounts receivable is a pain in the a55. Checks bounce. Information on Money orders can easily be forged. My favorite was "John Smith" ordering 15 books on how to cultivate and grow weed. People are actually stupid enough to send cash through the mail. Not just cash, foreign currency. Are you seriously going to want to wait for you check, MO to arrive and clear before you play online? Did you bitch because Everquest does the same d*mn thing, as does every MMORPG? You expect them to take mail-in payments as well?
Wow, it only took three days for this story to reach the frontpage and Live was launched the 15th?
;). It's already done a decent job when the developers get things right (MotoGp an excellent example) and I see no reason why it simply won't get better.
Anyway, it has been an overall good experience so far and definitley has the potential to do to console gaming what broadband did to PC gaming. Games are smooth and it's they're fairly easy to connect to.
That said, they need to work on their Live to Game interface a bit more. Right now, the game developer can do anything that want with it and that's a bad thing, because games like Mech Assault don't get it right. Administration features (such as finding friends, kicking players) are sporatic at best, leaving one to play "Hunt the option" from game to came. Conformity is their friend here, not vise-versa.
On the whole though, it's fun. If they can nail down the few bugs, it should make for an excellent gaming experience (and they will, you should see their forums light up with complaints