I didn't even think it was funny. For the first time in my slashdotting life, I had the opportunity to say it before anyone else... on a topic that might actually make sense.
I had to take it. =)
But, I agree. The fact that it actually got +5 funny before being modded down? Silly and unworthy.
The team has built a controlled NOT (CNOT) gate, a fundamental building block for quantum computing in the same way that a NAND gate is for classical computing.
Research into quantum computers is still in its early days and experts predict it will be at least 10 years before a viable quantum computer is developed. But if they can be developed, quantum computers hold the potential to revolutionize some aspects of computing because of their ability to calculate in a few seconds what might take a classical supercomputer millions of years to accomplish.
The team reporting the breakthrough is headed by Tsai Jaw-Shen and jointly funded by NEC Corp. and Japan's Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN). Tsai said his team has successfully demonstrated a CNOT gate in a two-qubit (quantum bit) solid-state device.
The CNOT gate is one of two gates used with quantum bits (qubits) that are the basic building blocks required for a quantum computer. The other, a one-qubit rotation gate, was demonstrated by Tsai's team in 1999. Now that both have been demonstrated, Tsai says one of his goals is to combine them to create something called a universal gate which is a basic unit of a quantum computer.
"Another goal is to do some quantum algorithms based on this," he said.
One of the biggest tasks Tsai says he faces is extending the time for which the two qubits are coupled together in a state known as quantum entanglement. In this state, which is one of several exotic properties associated with qubits and crucial to quantum computing, the two qubits act together even though they are not physically connected.
Tsai announced in February this year that his team has succeeded in entangling a pair of qubits.
Among the startling properties of qubits is that they do not just hold either binary 1 or binary 0, but can hold a superposition of the two states simultaneously. As the number of qubits grows, so does the number of distinct states which can be represented by entangled qubits. Two qubits can hold four distinct states which can be processed simultaneously, three qubits can hold eight states, and so on in an exponential progression.
So a system with just 10 qubits could carry out 1,024 operations simultaneously as though it were a massively parallel processing system. A 40-qubit system could carry out one trillion simultaneous operations. A 100-qubit system could carry out one trillion trillion simultaneous operations.
That means calculations, such as working out the factors of prime numbers, which present problems for even the fastest supercomputers could be trivialized by a quantum computer. As an example Tsai estimated that using the Shor Algorithm to factor a 256-bit binary number, a task that would take 10 million years using something like IBM Corp.'s Blue Gene supercomputer, could be accomplished by a quantum computer in about 10 seconds.
However, there are numerous hurdles which need to be overcome before anything like that becomes possible. The largest problem Tsai faces at present is keeping the qubit pair in entanglement for as long as possible before decoherence sets in.
"Fighting the decoherence time is the largest problem," he said. "For other problems there are some solutions and lots of possibilities but the decoherence is more difficult."
"The decoherence time (observed in the experiment) is rather short," he said. "We didn't optimize it so its roughly a few hundred picoseconds. (A picosecond is a trillionth of a second) A CNOT time pulse is about 15 picoseconds so within that time we can do a few operations, maybe two or something."
A research team in Japan says it has successfully demonstrated for the first time in the world in a solid-state device one of the two basic building blocks that will be needed to construct a viable quantum computer.
Despite the hurdles, Tsai's research is going well, said Eiichi Maruyama, director of the Frontier Research System at RIKEN. He said its still hard to estimate when a viable quantum computer might be developed however. "Our guess is anywhere between 10 years and 100 years from now," he said.
Full details of Tsai's experiment are included in the Oct. 30 edition of the British scientific journal Nature.
I agree with the overall sentiment posted above concerning GoLive (and the fallout that other WYSIWYG editors receive by proxy). And as Adobe has adopted to make PHP a third party modular add-on, I think I won't be updating GoLive again. So, no arguments from me there...
What I find truly ironic is the inclusion of FrontPage as a sales pitch. Jesus, Frontpage?!? egads... I've always found FrontPage to be just about the clunkiest P.O.S. around. I know, I know... FrontPage means FrontPage extensions and god knows how much we need those (like more holes in our heads). But then again, think about it... it makes sense.
If claiming marketshare is the point, then that comparison is a great tool to pull part time web jockeys and designers (note: not developers) into the Linux fold. Sure, you can code in vi, emacs or pico... but John in accounting may not. Now... we can tempt him with OpenOffice + NVU as an (approaching) respectable MS Office replacement.
However, as long as Photoshop/ImageReady, Flash, Fireworks, etc... remain only Mac/Windows products, don't expect Web developers to jump ship from their current platform.
As far as it all goes, I'll probably not replace my Dreamweaver on the desktop and pico during ssh sessions anytime soon... Just like I'll probably not be replacing my Windows box for studio work, my Mac as my Linux box (now that iTunes hit windows, I don't really need to bugger my old G4 400 down w/ OS X anymore...;) ) or my XBox/PS2 for games any time soon, either.
And Audio Hijack Pro for OS X also allows you to save the file as an MP3.
But, er, uhm... what exactly is your point?
How much time am I saving by (timed using my cable connection):
1. Buy and download an album (or a cd's worth of music) from ITMS. (1 min 34 seconds)
2. Play said album and hihack the audio to save/convert. (64 minutes)
3. Convert said audio (if necessary). (3 minutes)
4. ****
5. Profit! Er, sorry. Wrong post.
Okay, so... I can spend 68 minutes "intercepting" an album that would take me approximately 7 minutes to do otherwise (download, burn and import as MP3 -- or, non-DRM'd AAC).
Parent makes a good point. Don't believe it? Well...
I once came dangerously close to losing a job over suggesting the use of GIMP.
I worked for an NPO that provides essential living services (as well as group home services) for persons suffering from Cerebral Palsy. Like many NPO's, budgetary cutbacks were always sources of stress. So, during a roundtable where we were discussing switching as many departments as possible to open source alternatives, GIMP came up. This never went beyond the meeting table, but I was summarily written up for insentivity.
And I am one of the very last "Thalidomide Children" (early 70's). For those that don't know, thalidomide caused birth defects (usually related to extremeties). Missing a hand, since birth, over here and I was severely reprimanded and nearly canned over suggesting a software title.
It may seem silly, but people put alot into a name.
Okay, I've got the following old workhorses up and running in my lab/studio.
Apples
1 Apple ][c w/ 9" monochrome Apple monitor
1 Apple ][e w/ all the trimmings (ext. 80 coll
card, mockingboard, super serial card, etc...)
1 Apple ][gs w/ transwarp GS & RamFast SCSI card
2 Apple ImageWriter//'s
Fat Mac, Mac//, Mac Color Classic, Performa 6360 & 6400
NeXT
1 non-adb Cube '040 33 MHz, 64 MB, n4000a monitor
1 Color Slab ('040 25 MHz)
x86
1 286 (Dos)
1 386 (Dos)
3 486 (Dos, WFWG 3.11 & NS 3.3)
and... a Compaq Portable w/ the 8087 math coprocessor. =)
Commodore
1 C64
3 Amigas (500, 2000, 2500)
1 TI-994a
These don't include the newer G4, PB G3 (which are both getting up in age) the new AMD XP3000+, or the systems that I'm restoring.
And yes, all the old systems work and have a use. (Be it word processing, music notation, web server, file server, etc...
If you ask me, outside of vintage instruments (guitars, amps, synths, etc...) and bikes (Indians and Harley's), there's not much cooler than old computers.
Okay, no surprise that we've already got the obligatory: "CLI or DIE" posts. This is/. afterall. But, if we can put away the over zealous uberlinux advocacy for a minute, I'd like to offer some a positive defense for Webmin.
As a cat who occasionally works with at risk youth and adult computer literacy -- I personally find Webmin very useful for a simple reason... uhm, it's kind of simple. Especially when your target group is accustomed to working within Windows (and often nothing else).
Taking a kid (with a short attention span) and expecting him/her to gain immediate appreciation for a command line is like asking a republican to join you at a Pro Hemp rally -- it rarely happens, and almost never for the reasons you hope.
The same can be said for many small to mid-size business owners. They understand what they know and what they know is graphical representations of the underlying system that they use on a daily basis. Many would like to delve deeper, but simply don't have the immediate understanding of how to.
Trust me, it's far easier to take someone who thinks of linux as: that really hard to get OS, to take a shot when you can present many of the deeper OS configurations in a safe, understandable environment -- and what could be more understandable for the MTV generation than a browser?
I find it ironic that a user base as dedicated to expanding desktop acceptance and market share growth for their preferred OS would want to exclude and deride a product that provides growth potential.
Please Note: Let us reassure you that none of this information will be shared with anyone outside of our company. Members or No Members, your contact information will remain solely in our hands.
Doesn't say much for conviction of one's trade, does it?
As you stated; this is not an outline for "three to beam up, Mr. LaForge" (Can't help it... I'm a TNG fan myself). But what does interest me is what bearing teleportation may have on quantum computers (accepting that both ideas have quite a distance to travel (sorry) before finally coming to fruition).
I'm sure that M$ has already begun to develop project models adapting these ideas to.NET
Microsoft (actually, S.B.) also called Linux (and, by proxy, open-source software) a cancer. So, are you suggesting that at Ballmer's suspicion of techno-contagion that I erradicate all non-MS related software/operating systems from my drives?
Let's put the corporate propaganda aside, shall we? In the end there are four things that will ensure the XBox's survival:
1. Top quality exclusive games. 2. Increased quantity of timely released (mid to high range) titles. 3. Competitive consumer level marketing. 4. Giving me a sandwich. (Wait, er no...)
Competitive pricing.
To even suggest that M$ business model, in this situation, is going to be trumped by a handful of modders is ludicrous. The content we are talking about is not in direct conflict with published gaming content... Nor directed at consumers whose only desire is to purchase and play published games (Unless the mod is aimed at illegal duplication of copyrighted material). So, unless you can prove that the development of alternative media players (for example), or a web browser is going to somehow destroy the desirability of EA's sports franchise -- then your point is moot.
If Microsoft loses money in the console war; it's because they've made erroneous decisions. Not because someone has decided to install Mandrake on their XBox. Want to make money? Then compel loyalty in your consumer base. Provide them with excellent content & unparalleled support. Give them a reason to continue to buy your products (as you update them) and to support your partners.
I'll stress this again... unless the Mod in question conflicts with the desirability of published content... it is a non-factor. If MS is losing financial ground from the production of their system; then that should be addressed; not the legal use of the system once it is in the hands of the end-consumer. Geeks take electronic goodies apart to make more electronic goodies... if anyone understands that, it should be another geek. How would you feel if Saturn began issuing blanket remarks against after-market add-ons? Say XM radio, radar detectors and little fuzzy dice that squeek when you hit bumps. No one would pay any attention... nor should they.
Finally, Sega's business model is the only reason that the Dreamcast is a dead console (the same as the Genesis, Saturn, etc...). To imply that the modding community was responsible for the death of Sega's console division (instead of horrible timing in product release) is akin to claiming that Apple purchasing NeXT killed Be. Be died because of arrogance and a substandard business model (unfortunately, they had great product). If anything, the DC mod community has kept the Dreamcast alive long after Sega turned it's back on its customers. The Dreamcast was not killed by DCDivx, Frotz and DCGen -- it was killed because Sega absolutely rots as a console (hardware) competitor.
>> There will be no reason for XBox owners to buy official software because they can be happy with running various Linux distros or homebrewed games instead.
You're kidding, right?
The average consumer could care less about running homebrew games. Do you really believe that little Johnny SixPack is going to choose a homebrew Apple ][ emulator over Shenmue II... or that a port of Quake II is going to kill potential revenues of Halo 2?
The notion that Homebrew and indy developers are going to manage to usurp the established gaming market is just silly (at least in the near future). Don't believe me? Then send me a picture of your store bought InDreama.
This is where the/. crew amazes me at times. Just because 90% of us have multiple distro's installed on our boxes doesn't mean that the entire world feels the same. Little Suzy Puff'n Stuff will play a hundred Malice rip-offs before she ever considers installing some tricked out Debian package on her XBox. And MacroSloth (sorry) is going to make mad cash off of every copy sold.
The only thing that XBox hacking (much like PS2 and DC) hacking does is give the geeks something to do once the novelty of crap-can games wears off.
And as a DC enthusiast, I've seen it happen... over and over. The fact that I play Zork on my DC (or have the entire 3 season run of UCB playing via DCDivx) makes my friends chuckle uncomfortably... Why? Because they don't get it. When I run my Alvarez accoustic through mutliple processors and make their ears bleed w/ the sounds of Slayer... they buy be beers and call me a rock god. People like what they understand: Go figure.
AFAIK neither Basilisk nor Fusion do a proper job emulating X. Which doesn't leave much in the way of a stable, robust emulation option. Sorry, I know that doesn't really help -- but it might dispell anyone suggesting either of those two.
However, my knowledge emulation enivornments works the other way around (Linux on Mac systems over here).
If I run across anything -- I'll let you know.
----- (The new and improved alcohol fueld UncleRage)
The PMRC declared today that so called "Rap Music" and it's distantly related cousin "Heavy Metal" have been known to have undesirable consequences on certain (if not) all young listeners.
Included adverse side effects are (but not limited to):
Drug induced orgiastic naughtiness Unclean pagan rituals Lack of parental respect Lackluster hygiene And a complete irreverent attitude towards the right wing status quo.
Won't someone please think about the children?!?
[This, and other, fine bits of off topic nonsense brought to you by the new and improved alcohol fueled UncleRage.] ----
It's possible I haven't really considered the larger picture here. After reading your post -- and taking looking around (from a different view point), I suppose I can see what you're talking about.
Of course, I also view it from a slightly different point anyhow (running YDL on PPC) -- so I don't often pay heavy attention to the angst of the x86 world. Maybe I should open my eyes once in awhile, eh?
Slashdot Mirror
I didn't even think it was funny. For the first time in my slashdotting life, I had the opportunity to say it before anyone else... on a topic that might actually make sense.
I had to take it. =)
But, I agree. The fact that it actually got +5 funny before being modded down? Silly and unworthy.
The team has built a controlled NOT (CNOT) gate, a fundamental building block for quantum computing in the same way that a NAND gate is for classical computing.
Research into quantum computers is still in its early days and experts predict it will be at least 10 years before a viable quantum computer is developed. But if they can be developed, quantum computers hold the potential to revolutionize some aspects of computing because of their ability to calculate in a few seconds what might take a classical supercomputer millions of years to accomplish.
The team reporting the breakthrough is headed by Tsai Jaw-Shen and jointly funded by NEC Corp. and Japan's Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN). Tsai said his team has successfully demonstrated a CNOT gate in a two-qubit (quantum bit) solid-state device.
The CNOT gate is one of two gates used with quantum bits (qubits) that are the basic building blocks required for a quantum computer. The other, a one-qubit rotation gate, was demonstrated by Tsai's team in 1999. Now that both have been demonstrated, Tsai says one of his goals is to combine them to create something called a universal gate which is a basic unit of a quantum computer.
"Another goal is to do some quantum algorithms based on this," he said.
One of the biggest tasks Tsai says he faces is extending the time for which the two qubits are coupled together in a state known as quantum entanglement. In this state, which is one of several exotic properties associated with qubits and crucial to quantum computing, the two qubits act together even though they are not physically connected.
Tsai announced in February this year that his team has succeeded in entangling a pair of qubits.
Among the startling properties of qubits is that they do not just hold either binary 1 or binary 0, but can hold a superposition of the two states simultaneously. As the number of qubits grows, so does the number of distinct states which can be represented by entangled qubits. Two qubits can hold four distinct states which can be processed simultaneously, three qubits can hold eight states, and so on in an exponential progression.
So a system with just 10 qubits could carry out 1,024 operations simultaneously as though it were a massively parallel processing system. A 40-qubit system could carry out one trillion simultaneous operations. A 100-qubit system could carry out one trillion trillion simultaneous operations.
That means calculations, such as working out the factors of prime numbers, which present problems for even the fastest supercomputers could be trivialized by a quantum computer. As an example Tsai estimated that using the Shor Algorithm to factor a 256-bit binary number, a task that would take 10 million years using something like IBM Corp.'s Blue Gene supercomputer, could be accomplished by a quantum computer in about 10 seconds.
However, there are numerous hurdles which need to be overcome before anything like that becomes possible. The largest problem Tsai faces at present is keeping the qubit pair in entanglement for as long as possible before decoherence sets in.
"Fighting the decoherence time is the largest problem," he said. "For other problems there are some solutions and lots of possibilities but the decoherence is more difficult."
"The decoherence time (observed in the experiment) is rather short," he said. "We didn't optimize it so its roughly a few hundred picoseconds. (A picosecond is a trillionth of a second) A CNOT time pulse is about 15 picoseconds so within that time we can do a few operations, maybe two or something."
A research team in Japan says it has successfully demonstrated for the first time in the world in a solid-state device one of the two basic building blocks that will be needed to construct a viable quantum computer.
Despite the hurdles, Tsai's research is going well, said Eiichi Maruyama, director of the Frontier Research System at RIKEN. He said its still hard to estimate when a viable quantum computer might be developed however. "Our guess is anywhere between 10 years and 100 years from now," he said.
Full details of Tsai's experiment are included in the Oct. 30 edition of the British scientific journal Nature.
Imagine a beowulf cluster of those!
You know it was coming.
...unfortunately for all of you, I'll try. ;)
;) ) or my XBox/PS2 for games any time soon, either.
I agree with the overall sentiment posted above concerning GoLive (and the fallout that other WYSIWYG editors receive by proxy). And as Adobe has adopted to make PHP a third party modular add-on, I think I won't be updating GoLive again. So, no arguments from me there...
What I find truly ironic is the inclusion of FrontPage as a sales pitch. Jesus, Frontpage?!? egads... I've always found FrontPage to be just about the clunkiest P.O.S. around. I know, I know... FrontPage means FrontPage extensions and god knows how much we need those (like more holes in our heads). But then again, think about it... it makes sense.
If claiming marketshare is the point, then that comparison is a great tool to pull part time web jockeys and designers (note: not developers) into the Linux fold. Sure, you can code in vi, emacs or pico... but John in accounting may not. Now... we can tempt him with OpenOffice + NVU as an (approaching) respectable MS Office replacement.
However, as long as Photoshop/ImageReady, Flash, Fireworks, etc... remain only Mac/Windows products, don't expect Web developers to jump ship from their current platform.
As far as it all goes, I'll probably not replace my Dreamweaver on the desktop and pico during ssh sessions anytime soon... Just like I'll probably not be replacing my Windows box for studio work, my Mac as my Linux box (now that iTunes hit windows, I don't really need to bugger my old G4 400 down w/ OS X anymore...
Ugh, all those words. Need coffee now.
Just had to write a message to clear it up.
Don't you hate it when Slashdot gives dumbasses like myself mod points?
----
And Audio Hijack Pro for OS X also allows you to save the file as an MP3.
But, er, uhm... what exactly is your point?
How much time am I saving by (timed using my cable connection):
1. Buy and download an album (or a cd's worth of music) from ITMS. (1 min 34 seconds)
2. Play said album and hihack the audio to save/convert. (64 minutes)
3. Convert said audio (if necessary). (3 minutes)
4. ****
5. Profit! Er, sorry. Wrong post.
Okay, so... I can spend 68 minutes "intercepting" an album that would take me approximately 7 minutes to do otherwise (download, burn and import as MP3 -- or, non-DRM'd AAC).
Thanks for suggesting that I waste my time!
----
Parent makes a good point. Don't believe it? Well...
I once came dangerously close to losing a job over suggesting the use of GIMP.
I worked for an NPO that provides essential living services (as well as group home services) for persons suffering from Cerebral Palsy. Like many NPO's, budgetary cutbacks were always sources of stress. So, during a roundtable where we were discussing switching as many departments as possible to open source alternatives, GIMP came up. This never went beyond the meeting table, but I was summarily written up for insentivity.
And I am one of the very last "Thalidomide Children" (early 70's). For those that don't know, thalidomide caused birth defects (usually related to extremeties). Missing a hand, since birth, over here and I was severely reprimanded and nearly canned over suggesting a software title.
It may seem silly, but people put alot into a name.
----
Open Windows... Look at weather.
Sorry, but somebody had to say it.
----
The file server is a 486 66 MHz and the webserver is a rescued Compaq Presario (500 MHz AMD K6)and they're Linux boxes, just like the XP3000+.
------
Apples
1 Apple ][c w/ 9" monochrome Apple monitor
1 Apple ][e w/ all the trimmings (ext. 80 coll card, mockingboard, super serial card, etc...)
1 Apple ][gs w/ transwarp GS & RamFast SCSI card
2 Apple ImageWriter
Fat Mac, Mac //, Mac Color Classic, Performa 6360 & 6400
NeXT
1 non-adb Cube '040 33 MHz, 64 MB, n4000a monitor
1 Color Slab ('040 25 MHz)
x86
1 286 (Dos) 1 386 (Dos) 3 486 (Dos, WFWG 3.11 & NS 3.3)
and... a Compaq Portable w/ the 8087 math coprocessor. =)
Commodore
1 C64
3 Amigas (500, 2000, 2500)
1 TI-994a
These don't include the newer G4, PB G3 (which are both getting up in age) the new AMD XP3000+, or the systems that I'm restoring.
And yes, all the old systems work and have a use. (Be it word processing, music notation, web server, file server, etc...
If you ask me, outside of vintage instruments (guitars, amps, synths, etc...) and bikes (Indians and Harley's), there's not much cooler than old computers.
----------
Okay, no surprise that we've already got the obligatory: "CLI or DIE" posts. This is /. afterall. But, if we can put away the over zealous uberlinux advocacy for a minute, I'd like to offer some a positive defense for Webmin.
As a cat who occasionally works with at risk youth and adult computer literacy -- I personally find Webmin very useful for a simple reason... uhm, it's kind of simple. Especially when your target group is accustomed to working within Windows (and often nothing else).
Taking a kid (with a short attention span) and expecting him/her to gain immediate appreciation for a command line is like asking a republican to join you at a Pro Hemp rally -- it rarely happens, and almost never for the reasons you hope.
The same can be said for many small to mid-size business owners. They understand what they know and what they know is graphical representations of the underlying system that they use on a daily basis. Many would like to delve deeper, but simply don't have the immediate understanding of how to.
Trust me, it's far easier to take someone who thinks of linux as: that really hard to get OS, to take a shot when you can present many of the deeper OS configurations in a safe, understandable environment -- and what could be more understandable for the MTV generation than a browser?
I find it ironic that a user base as dedicated to expanding desktop acceptance and market share growth for their preferred OS would want to exclude and deride a product that provides growth potential.
----
From the "Join the Fun" page:
Please Note: Let us reassure you that none of this information will be shared with anyone outside of our company. Members or No Members, your contact information will remain solely in our hands.
Doesn't say much for conviction of one's trade, does it?
redundant.
/ 22 3248&mode=thread&tid=109&tid=111
7 21 3&mode=thread&tid=111
/ 20 28250&mode=thread&tid=111
/ 20 28250&mode=thread&tid=111
/ 01 25250&mode=thread&tid=111&tid=95&tid=1 20
5 22 6&mode=thread&tid=111
3 /0 3/03/1528247&mode=thread&tid=111&tid=9 5
5 25 7&mode=thread&tid=111
/ 21 53201&mode=thread&tid=111
./ articles specifically related to spam, this month alone.
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/11
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/09/144
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/06
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/06
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/06
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/05/054
http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=0
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/02/141
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/01
The above are
Will someone please come up w/ a Slashdot Spam Article Filter?
As you stated; this is not an outline for "three to beam up, Mr. LaForge" (Can't help it... I'm a TNG fan myself). But what does interest me is what bearing teleportation may have on quantum computers (accepting that both ideas have quite a distance to travel (sorry) before finally coming to fruition).
.NET
I'm sure that M$ has already begun to develop project models adapting these ideas to
----
I love animals, they are delicious.
Microsoft (actually, S.B.) also called Linux (and, by proxy, open-source software) a cancer. So, are you suggesting that at Ballmer's suspicion of techno-contagion that I erradicate all non-MS related software/operating systems from my drives?
Let's put the corporate propaganda aside, shall we? In the end there are four things that will ensure the XBox's survival:
1. Top quality exclusive games.
2. Increased quantity of timely released (mid to high range) titles.
3. Competitive consumer level marketing.
4. Giving me a sandwich. (Wait, er no...)
Competitive pricing.
To even suggest that M$ business model, in this situation, is going to be trumped by a handful of modders is ludicrous. The content we are talking about is not in direct conflict with published gaming content... Nor directed at consumers whose only desire is to purchase and play published games (Unless the mod is aimed at illegal duplication of copyrighted material). So, unless you can prove that the development of alternative media players (for example), or a web browser is going to somehow destroy the desirability of EA's sports franchise -- then your point is moot.
If Microsoft loses money in the console war; it's because they've made erroneous decisions. Not because someone has decided to install Mandrake on their XBox. Want to make money? Then compel loyalty in your consumer base. Provide them with excellent content & unparalleled support. Give them a reason to continue to buy your products (as you update them) and to support your partners.
I'll stress this again... unless the Mod in question conflicts with the desirability of published content... it is a non-factor. If MS is losing financial ground from the production of their system; then that should be addressed; not the legal use of the system once it is in the hands of the end-consumer. Geeks take electronic goodies apart to make more electronic goodies... if anyone understands that, it should be another geek. How would you feel if Saturn began issuing blanket remarks against after-market add-ons? Say XM radio, radar detectors and little fuzzy dice that squeek when you hit bumps. No one would pay any attention... nor should they.
Finally, Sega's business model is the only reason that the Dreamcast is a dead console (the same as the Genesis, Saturn, etc...). To imply that the modding community was responsible for the death of Sega's console division (instead of horrible timing in product release) is akin to claiming that Apple purchasing NeXT killed Be. Be died because of arrogance and a substandard business model (unfortunately, they had great product). If anything, the DC mod community has kept the Dreamcast alive long after Sega turned it's back on its customers. The Dreamcast was not killed by DCDivx, Frotz and DCGen -- it was killed because Sega absolutely rots as a console (hardware) competitor.
----
I love animals... they are delicious.
Man, you gotta stop that. I just laughed so hard I'm seeing stars.
----
>> There will be no reason for XBox owners to buy official software because they can be happy with running various Linux distros or homebrewed games instead.
/. crew amazes me at times. Just because 90% of us have multiple distro's installed on our boxes doesn't mean that the entire world feels the same. Little Suzy Puff'n Stuff will play a hundred Malice rip-offs before she ever considers installing some tricked out Debian package on her XBox. And MacroSloth (sorry) is going to make mad cash off of every copy sold.
You're kidding, right?
The average consumer could care less about running homebrew games. Do you really believe that little Johnny SixPack is going to choose a homebrew Apple ][ emulator over Shenmue II... or that a port of Quake II is going to kill potential revenues of Halo 2?
The notion that Homebrew and indy developers are going to manage to usurp the established gaming market is just silly (at least in the near future). Don't believe me? Then send me a picture of your store bought InDreama.
This is where the
The only thing that XBox hacking (much like PS2 and DC) hacking does is give the geeks something to do once the novelty of crap-can games wears off.
And as a DC enthusiast, I've seen it happen... over and over. The fact that I play Zork on my DC (or have the entire 3 season run of UCB playing via DCDivx) makes my friends chuckle uncomfortably... Why? Because they don't get it. When I run my Alvarez accoustic through mutliple processors and make their ears bleed w/ the sounds of Slayer... they buy be beers and call me a rock god. People like what they understand: Go figure.
----
My personal favorites were: .crash .gotcha .sucker .allyourprocessesarebelongtous
and of course
But it saved all the pictures to my desktop... and now my wife's leaving me.
Thanks Apple!!!
----
All sarcasm in this post is intended, unless unintentional.
AFAIK neither Basilisk nor Fusion do a proper job emulating X. Which doesn't leave much in the way of a stable, robust emulation option. Sorry, I know that doesn't really help -- but it might dispell anyone suggesting either of those two.
However, my knowledge emulation enivornments works the other way around (Linux on Mac systems over here).
If I run across anything -- I'll let you know.
-----
(The new and improved alcohol fueld UncleRage)
The PMRC declared today that so called "Rap Music" and it's distantly related cousin "Heavy Metal" have been known to have undesirable consequences on certain (if not) all young listeners.
Included adverse side effects are (but not limited to):
Drug induced orgiastic naughtiness
Unclean pagan rituals
Lack of parental respect
Lackluster hygiene
And a complete irreverent attitude towards the right wing status quo.
Won't someone please think about the children?!?
[This, and other, fine bits of off topic nonsense brought to you by the new and improved alcohol fueled UncleRage.]
----
Quarantine this troll quickly -- before it runs rampant!
Brin (screaming at Hollywood):
Pay no attention to the hobbits & trolls!
The spaceship flying dolphins are will take the people where they want to go!!!
(Don't get me wrong, I like Brin's work... it's good fun -- just like Tolkein's work is.)
----
Michael, did you really read that article -- or just cite it?
----
It's possible I haven't really considered the larger picture here. After reading your post -- and taking looking around (from a different view point), I suppose I can see what you're talking about.
Of course, I also view it from a slightly different point anyhow (running YDL on PPC) -- so I don't often pay heavy attention to the angst of the x86 world. Maybe I should open my eyes once in awhile, eh?
*Opens eyes for the first time*
OMG! Bill Gates is a dick!
----