"Can real fish tell the difference? Do they react like they would to another fish...assuming real fish DO react to other fish, I mean. I don't know anything about fish but at least I'm anonymous."
I don't know either. It really depends on what the fish react to. If these 'robo fish' make different noises (i.e. gears, etc..) the fish may dodge them simply for that. (I'm curious about what fish are aware of with regards to their enviornment... anybody have any insight to share?)
I remember once I brought a stuffed cat toy home and set it on the floor. My real cat took one look of that and went "oh shit!! Who the hell is that?!" After some sniffing the fear went away and the stuffed cat was largely ignored.
"The problem that I have had with Wikipedia is that in editing articles on which I am a recognized expert, I have had my edits and entries entirely removed by others who "feel" that these edits were somehow inappropriate, even when I referenced those entries along with results from peer reviewed journals."
Wow! That sounds just like another website I frequently visit!
"They may not require an HD but...the game could be crippled without one. Imagine when all the new maps come out for Halo3 and you're the one that can't play with your friends on Live because you don't have the HD to download the map-pack."
Um... so? Not having a net connection would 'cripple' Halo, as well. Is Microsoft supposed to provide that for you, too?
Enough of the dipshitted belly aching. Microsoft made the system upgradable and offered a cheaper version of the system. As an added bonus, a hard drive failure won't mean replacing the whole unit. As yet another added bonus, the drives are removable so you can physically carry them to a friend's house. Oh those evil bastards at Microsoft.
Of all the things you could be bitching about with regards to the XBOX360, this is the stupidest by a rather large margin. Bitch about the controller being almost exactly like the PS2's. Bitch about the high price tag. (ready to cast your stones at Sony over that, too.) Bitch about the screenshots not looking all that advanced. Bitch about the same ol humdrum games being made for it. Bitch about EA supporting it. Bitch about Microsoft being a bunch of assholes. These are all great reasons to bitch. But a removable hard drive? Lighten up.
"I know a very long list of technologies that MS claims to have invented... but buying a company that invented something and inventing something isn't the same thing."
What I found absolutely hilarious about this comment is that Slashdot sports a woody whenever there's news about FireFox, OpenOffice, KDE, or any other product that copies an MS product. Is the real problem here that MS isn't innovating, or that a bunch of you want to strip MS of a word that they really love?
I'm not kidding, it's really hard to take comments like this seriously. Security hole in IE? Tar and feather Microsoft over their shitty code. Security hole in FireFox? Give the team a medal for the great code they've written. Playstation 3 may be really expensive? Sony sucks. XBOX360 offers a cheaper alternative? Microsoft sucks. Eolas successfully sues MS with an overly broad patent? That's great! Lindows intentionally infringes on the Windows trademark? Suddenly the trademark that Microsoft's had for 20 years should be invalid! Consumer confusion be damned!! Monopolies suck because competition is important! Oh no! Microsoft's making a competing product, they shouldn't be allowed to do that!
You'll pardon me for taking these broadly painted highly modded comments with a grain of salt. Slashdot's comments on Microsoft are about as credible as a Star Wars fan's advice on picking up chicks.
"I am curious how the DS will respond to SSIDs and excryption keys and so forth though.'
I think that's the point of the wireless adapter. I imagine it broadcasts a DS friendly wireless signal from the net connection your computer is connected on. (fine with me. I prefer that over trying to type in a bunch of SSIDs + passwords or opening my wireless to the world...)
Well that could all be baloney, but I did read a Nintendo interview somewhere that said that they were going to address SSID and encryption specifically.
I don't know if Rhapsody does ripping or not, but I can add my own local music collection to it as well. I imagine nobody's mentioned it because it's a standard feature.
"I can't wrap my mind around the subscription concept. I have a ton of music allready, and add maybe an album a month. I just can't see paying for the same music over and over again for the rest of my life. $4.99 a month sounds good, but for how long?"
I can tell you why I prefer a subscription service over 'owning' the music.
- When I hear about a new song I may like, 10-15 seconds later I'm listening to the whole song. As a result, my collection's always growing.
- I have 3 different computers I use nearly every day. (Home computer, laptop, machine at work.) Keeping them all in sync is a bitch. With the subscription service, I don't need to keep gigs of data round. I just install the client, log in, and play.
- I have a playlist of around 700 songs right now. If I never deleted any of the songs, that list would be considerably longer. Some songs I just like for a while and then I'm not interested in them anymore.
- I've found a LOT of new music. I'm a lot pickier than most about music. Finding the right songs for me is tough. Sometimes I have to hear the songs a few times before I really get into them. (I've actually purchased a few songs based on the 30 second clip, only to find that the short clip was good but the rest of the song wasn't...)
- The playlist is the same on all the machines I use since it's centralized to the server. If I find a new song at home, it's there at work.
- I use Rhapsody and they have comedy albums as well. Personally, I'm not all that interested in hearing a comedy routine more than once or twice. I've listened to a lot of comedy on Rhapsody, but if I would have purchased it through iTunes or on CD, I would have been paying for something I only listen to once or twice then I'm done.
- If I do get a music player, Rhapsody will let me download these songs to it. It's not that interesting to me right now, but who's to say how I'll feel around Christmas time?
Somtimes cheapest isn't always the best. Really, it just depends on what your interests are.
"There is way to much overlap between Maya and Max for them to carry both product lines forward forever and I doubt they will ditch Max in favor of Maya."
This isn't strictly true. The reason why multiple 3D packages exist in the market today isn't that each one has special abilities, but rather because each one has a different focus in mind. Lightwave, for example, has far less tools to do the high end stuff that Maya does, but its implicity offers a much shorter development time for a shot. (i.e. TV FX deadlines...) There may be overlap between Maya and Max, but all they really have to do is gear Maya towards character animation and Max towards game development. That's already where the line is today so it's not like they'd have to suddenly change course. It's not like choosing between Opera and FireFox, it's more like using Windows because you're a gamer and using Linux because you're security conscience.
What's really irritating about that dude's post is that he hasn't thought about what it'd be like in a situation like that. Humans can't see where the bullets came from. The best they can do is make an assumption about where the shot came from based on where the bullet struck. In this case, shots fired, everybody ducks, Robot sits there looking in the direction of where the shot came from. Even if the robot doesn't cap the camping faggot, they know where the dude was and they can quickly get out of his way or open fire into the second story windows of the building it came from.
This story could be tragic or have a happy ending, either way, it's a fair sight better than everybody looking around going "Where'd that come from?!" until the second shot rings out.
"The DS isn't really appealing to me, this is. When playing a portable system, simplicity is really the main thing for me. The stylus stuck me as something I would lose while jumping from the train after having almost missed my stop because I was too engrossed in the damn game."
Figured I'd chime in since I'm a DS owner: The stylus fits rather snugly with a 'snap' into the DS. Also, most of the games I've played work more by 'touching' than tapping. I rarely use the stylus on it. Also, the DS comes with an extra stylus *and* they're cheap to replace. So if you lost one, you could still play it, and use your replacement at home or something.
That said, I'm not challenging your choice of the PSP over the DS, just pointing out that I don't think that little factor would have bothered you as much as it'd seem. It's pretty clear Nintendo thought a lot about this.
I have a question, if you don't mind: On the games you're playing, are the loading times a problem? This isn't a thinly veiled attack on Sony or anything like that, rather the reason I *didn't* buy a PSP was that the demo unit I played took a LONG time to load up and get going. I don't mean the title screen, I mean when the game started the level... loading.... I just want to know if that was a case of demoing the wrong game to find this out or if it's something that plagues the system.
Boy I wish you could get PSP and a big ol memory stick and have the games 'install' themselves to it in order to save on battery life and loading times.
"They have a history of marketing "repackaged" old stuff with the new. They made the top load NES when they did SNES. They did the Newer gameboy style at the same time as the gameboy color. Etc, Etc. It seems to work for them."
Well, to be fair, this is partly because of demand. Portable systems, for example, have differing requirements depending on the user's individual needs. The Game Boy Pocket, for example, was considerably smaller than the original Game Boy. (plus it had a better screen.) It was still B&W and it had a slightly higher price tag. If you wanted to save a few bucks, get the bigger one. If you wanted a more mobile one, pony up the extra $10. The Game Boy Color introduced 'color', and the games started to take advantage of it. If you were getting a new Game Boy (considering 100 million or so were sold over the last like 15 years, it was easy to find new customers...) then this was an attractive option. The Game Boy Advance was great because it had SuperNES like capabilities. The SP had a backlight and had a different form factor which was more appealing to some. (in my case, I bought the SP and then gave my sister the original GBA...) And, finally, the Micro. That thing is much smaller with a much better screen.
To answer the question of "why?", the answer is simple: Existing customers have a reason to buy it since it has a smaller size and a better screen. New customers have another choice that may better suit them. In the case of the Game Boy, choice is good. I don't want a Micro, but I don't play my GBA on the go. It doesn't appeal to me, but I can think of a handful of people off the top of my head that'd love it.
As for the top-loading Nintendo, there were two reasons that was launched: 1.) People were still buying NES's and this system was much cheaper to build. 2.) The top loading feature was less prone to 'blinking'.
I think what the gpp isn't considering is that these are mass-market products being sold to people with a wide variety of tastes. If I had to summarize my point down to one sentence, I'd just say "supply & demand."
"Neither the rain nor the wind nor consumer opinion will stop Nintendo(TM) from trying to sell us ANOTHER copy of an already existing product it seems..."
This may seem surprising, but lots of sales of the GameBoy Micro is actually an expression of consumer opinion.
On a side note, your definition of 'copy' is a little too broad.
I'm a 3D artist. My resume is my demo reel. As a result, I keep all the work I've done (i.e. 3D objects, textures, animations, etc..) plus I have uncompressed.AVIs I can quickly compose a demo reel of. There are gigabytes of info here. I have to keep that data around. If my apartment was suddenly destroyed, I'd be in trouble. So, yeah, I want to keep that data around and today a flash drive (today) won't do it. So what am I to do? Well, these recent hurricanes have me thinking about this problem. Newegg has USB 2.0 enclosures for laptop drives. For $100ish, you can get an 80 gig laptop drive. If you have about $120 to spend, this may not be a bad alternative for those with gigs of data they don't want to lose. I'm actually kicking around the idea of packaging one up and sending it to my family. They live in another state so it's unlikely we'd both have our homes wiped out. For somebody in my position.. well actually I should start on that tonight.
"3. Does anyone actually have a use for all these Windows "Tablet PCs"? I mean, the idea seems nice, but I haven't seen any real-world uses for them that laptops don't already meet."
Yes. I like to doodle on mine. I also like being able to use it while standing up, something you just plain cannot do with a traditional laptop. I did a project not too long ago where I had to go from office to office collecting data about the machines we have. I just carried it in, tapped in a few notes, and was done. Didn't even need to set it down. I also like browsing the web on the couch with it. I can't stand precariously balancing a laptop on my knees. The Tablet PC slate mode is a much better form factor for this. Also, the rotating/folding screen makes it lots easier to do things like set the laptop next to my bed so I can watch something before going to sleep. (This is hard to picture without actually doing it, though.)
I can't tell you that you should go buy one right now. I don't know what your requirements are. You may not even care. I can tell you though that I love mine and am quite sure that my next one will be Tablet PC based as well. These things are actually portable in ways that a typical laptop can never be. For me, that's absolutely wonderful. For somebody using a laptop primarily as a desktop replacement, it's a tougher sell.
Slashdot Mirror
"Can real fish tell the difference? Do they react like they would to another fish...assuming real fish DO react to other fish, I mean. I don't know anything about fish but at least I'm anonymous."
I don't know either. It really depends on what the fish react to. If these 'robo fish' make different noises (i.e. gears, etc..) the fish may dodge them simply for that. (I'm curious about what fish are aware of with regards to their enviornment... anybody have any insight to share?)
I remember once I brought a stuffed cat toy home and set it on the floor. My real cat took one look of that and went "oh shit!! Who the hell is that?!" After some sniffing the fear went away and the stuffed cat was largely ignored.
"Yeah, their job is nuts."
My grumpy roommate had one of those jobs. He always came home all teste.
"A rebuttal to what, your whining?"
..."
To the point that others got but you don't want to hear.
"Technicality? Not answering the question and whining is a tehnicality?"
Let me put it this way: If my post had been about Microsoft Apologists, you would not have demanded I answer the question.
"Like minded? You mean people who like the truth
You'd think that somebody who was so into 'the truth' wouldn't oversimplify and dismiss that lengthy paragraph that I wrote.
Tit for tat sucks, doesn't it?
"MS already talks out of both sides of its mouth on the matter of patents...and for the reasons cited in the parent."
They like patents when they work to their advantage. They hate patents when they work against them. How dubious.
"Uh... you didn't answer the question... what has Microsoft invented?
If you can't answer a question you simply go after the entire community? "
Uh... you didn't respond to my point... what does this have to do with Slashdot's lack of credibility?
If you can't offer a rebuttal, you simply go after a technicality that only a like minded person would see any value in.
Would you like some crow to go with that?
"NANOG has been on fire with posts about this issue over the past few days."
WHat?! No! I haven't said a word about it!
"The problem that I have had with Wikipedia is that in editing articles on which I am a recognized expert, I have had my edits and entries entirely removed by others who "feel" that these edits were somehow inappropriate, even when I referenced those entries along with results from peer reviewed journals."
Wow! That sounds just like another website I frequently visit!
"How do you track the same bug across multiple versions of a product?"
Fix it as soon as it's reported!!!
"They may not require an HD but...the game could be crippled without one. Imagine when all the new maps come out for Halo3 and you're the one that can't play with your friends on Live because you don't have the HD to download the map-pack."
Um... so? Not having a net connection would 'cripple' Halo, as well. Is Microsoft supposed to provide that for you, too?
Enough of the dipshitted belly aching. Microsoft made the system upgradable and offered a cheaper version of the system. As an added bonus, a hard drive failure won't mean replacing the whole unit. As yet another added bonus, the drives are removable so you can physically carry them to a friend's house. Oh those evil bastards at Microsoft.
Of all the things you could be bitching about with regards to the XBOX360, this is the stupidest by a rather large margin. Bitch about the controller being almost exactly like the PS2's. Bitch about the high price tag. (ready to cast your stones at Sony over that, too.) Bitch about the screenshots not looking all that advanced. Bitch about the same ol humdrum games being made for it. Bitch about EA supporting it. Bitch about Microsoft being a bunch of assholes. These are all great reasons to bitch. But a removable hard drive? Lighten up.
"Stick it to the customer, very microsoft."
Gee, they made the same decision that Apple, IBM, Sony, Nintendo, Dell, and OCP would have made. How uniquely evil of Microsoft.
"I know a very long list of technologies that MS claims to have invented... but buying a company that invented something and inventing something isn't the same thing."
What I found absolutely hilarious about this comment is that Slashdot sports a woody whenever there's news about FireFox, OpenOffice, KDE, or any other product that copies an MS product. Is the real problem here that MS isn't innovating, or that a bunch of you want to strip MS of a word that they really love?
I'm not kidding, it's really hard to take comments like this seriously. Security hole in IE? Tar and feather Microsoft over their shitty code. Security hole in FireFox? Give the team a medal for the great code they've written. Playstation 3 may be really expensive? Sony sucks. XBOX360 offers a cheaper alternative? Microsoft sucks. Eolas successfully sues MS with an overly broad patent? That's great! Lindows intentionally infringes on the Windows trademark? Suddenly the trademark that Microsoft's had for 20 years should be invalid! Consumer confusion be damned!! Monopolies suck because competition is important! Oh no! Microsoft's making a competing product, they shouldn't be allowed to do that!
You'll pardon me for taking these broadly painted highly modded comments with a grain of salt. Slashdot's comments on Microsoft are about as credible as a Star Wars fan's advice on picking up chicks.
"The movie industry still doesn't get "it". People won't buy something that is crippled. "
Not if they position and price it as a rental.
"I am curious how the DS will respond to SSIDs and excryption keys and so forth though.'
I think that's the point of the wireless adapter. I imagine it broadcasts a DS friendly wireless signal from the net connection your computer is connected on. (fine with me. I prefer that over trying to type in a bunch of SSIDs + passwords or opening my wireless to the world...)
Well that could all be baloney, but I did read a Nintendo interview somewhere that said that they were going to address SSID and encryption specifically.
I don't know if Rhapsody does ripping or not, but I can add my own local music collection to it as well. I imagine nobody's mentioned it because it's a standard feature.
"I can't wrap my mind around the subscription concept. I have a ton of music allready, and add maybe an album a month. I just can't see paying for the same music over and over again for the rest of my life. $4.99 a month sounds good, but for how long?"
I can tell you why I prefer a subscription service over 'owning' the music.
- When I hear about a new song I may like, 10-15 seconds later I'm listening to the whole song. As a result, my collection's always growing.
- I have 3 different computers I use nearly every day. (Home computer, laptop, machine at work.) Keeping them all in sync is a bitch. With the subscription service, I don't need to keep gigs of data round. I just install the client, log in, and play.
- I have a playlist of around 700 songs right now. If I never deleted any of the songs, that list would be considerably longer. Some songs I just like for a while and then I'm not interested in them anymore.
- I've found a LOT of new music. I'm a lot pickier than most about music. Finding the right songs for me is tough. Sometimes I have to hear the songs a few times before I really get into them. (I've actually purchased a few songs based on the 30 second clip, only to find that the short clip was good but the rest of the song wasn't...)
- The playlist is the same on all the machines I use since it's centralized to the server. If I find a new song at home, it's there at work.
- I use Rhapsody and they have comedy albums as well. Personally, I'm not all that interested in hearing a comedy routine more than once or twice. I've listened to a lot of comedy on Rhapsody, but if I would have purchased it through iTunes or on CD, I would have been paying for something I only listen to once or twice then I'm done.
- If I do get a music player, Rhapsody will let me download these songs to it. It's not that interesting to me right now, but who's to say how I'll feel around Christmas time?
Somtimes cheapest isn't always the best. Really, it just depends on what your interests are.
"There is way to much overlap between Maya and Max for them to carry both product lines forward forever and I doubt they will ditch Max in favor of Maya."
This isn't strictly true. The reason why multiple 3D packages exist in the market today isn't that each one has special abilities, but rather because each one has a different focus in mind. Lightwave, for example, has far less tools to do the high end stuff that Maya does, but its implicity offers a much shorter development time for a shot. (i.e. TV FX deadlines...) There may be overlap between Maya and Max, but all they really have to do is gear Maya towards character animation and Max towards game development. That's already where the line is today so it's not like they'd have to suddenly change course. It's not like choosing between Opera and FireFox, it's more like using Windows because you're a gamer and using Linux because you're security conscience.
Sorry to reply to my own post, but an AC thoughtfully pointed out that I misread the post I was replying to. (Thanks, man!)
I would, however like to extend my question about the PSP loading times to any PSP owners out there.
"The sniper might run away? Wow such insight!"
What's really irritating about that dude's post is that he hasn't thought about what it'd be like in a situation like that. Humans can't see where the bullets came from. The best they can do is make an assumption about where the shot came from based on where the bullet struck. In this case, shots fired, everybody ducks, Robot sits there looking in the direction of where the shot came from. Even if the robot doesn't cap the camping faggot, they know where the dude was and they can quickly get out of his way or open fire into the second story windows of the building it came from.
This story could be tragic or have a happy ending, either way, it's a fair sight better than everybody looking around going "Where'd that come from?!" until the second shot rings out.
"The DS isn't really appealing to me, this is. When playing a portable system, simplicity is really the main thing for me. The stylus stuck me as something I would lose while jumping from the train after having almost missed my stop because I was too engrossed in the damn game."
Figured I'd chime in since I'm a DS owner: The stylus fits rather snugly with a 'snap' into the DS. Also, most of the games I've played work more by 'touching' than tapping. I rarely use the stylus on it. Also, the DS comes with an extra stylus *and* they're cheap to replace. So if you lost one, you could still play it, and use your replacement at home or something.
That said, I'm not challenging your choice of the PSP over the DS, just pointing out that I don't think that little factor would have bothered you as much as it'd seem. It's pretty clear Nintendo thought a lot about this.
I have a question, if you don't mind: On the games you're playing, are the loading times a problem? This isn't a thinly veiled attack on Sony or anything like that, rather the reason I *didn't* buy a PSP was that the demo unit I played took a LONG time to load up and get going. I don't mean the title screen, I mean when the game started the level... loading.... I just want to know if that was a case of demoing the wrong game to find this out or if it's something that plagues the system.
Boy I wish you could get PSP and a big ol memory stick and have the games 'install' themselves to it in order to save on battery life and loading times.
"They have a history of marketing "repackaged" old stuff with the new. They made the top load NES when they did SNES. They did the Newer gameboy style at the same time as the gameboy color. Etc, Etc. It seems to work for them."
Well, to be fair, this is partly because of demand. Portable systems, for example, have differing requirements depending on the user's individual needs. The Game Boy Pocket, for example, was considerably smaller than the original Game Boy. (plus it had a better screen.) It was still B&W and it had a slightly higher price tag. If you wanted to save a few bucks, get the bigger one. If you wanted a more mobile one, pony up the extra $10. The Game Boy Color introduced 'color', and the games started to take advantage of it. If you were getting a new Game Boy (considering 100 million or so were sold over the last like 15 years, it was easy to find new customers...) then this was an attractive option. The Game Boy Advance was great because it had SuperNES like capabilities. The SP had a backlight and had a different form factor which was more appealing to some. (in my case, I bought the SP and then gave my sister the original GBA...) And, finally, the Micro. That thing is much smaller with a much better screen.
To answer the question of "why?", the answer is simple: Existing customers have a reason to buy it since it has a smaller size and a better screen. New customers have another choice that may better suit them. In the case of the Game Boy, choice is good. I don't want a Micro, but I don't play my GBA on the go. It doesn't appeal to me, but I can think of a handful of people off the top of my head that'd love it.
As for the top-loading Nintendo, there were two reasons that was launched: 1.) People were still buying NES's and this system was much cheaper to build. 2.) The top loading feature was less prone to 'blinking'.
I think what the gpp isn't considering is that these are mass-market products being sold to people with a wide variety of tastes. If I had to summarize my point down to one sentence, I'd just say "supply & demand."
"Neither the rain nor the wind nor consumer opinion will stop Nintendo(TM) from trying to sell us ANOTHER copy of an already existing product it seems..."
This may seem surprising, but lots of sales of the GameBoy Micro is actually an expression of consumer opinion.
On a side note, your definition of 'copy' is a little too broad.
"Logs structures are suceptible to termites, carpenter ants, and various forms of rot."
I always wondered what file system the Windows Registry uses. Learn something new every day!
"who analy raped netscape when i wasent looking? seriously i used it in 1997 and it was good but every new version just seems more bloated and slow"
That sounds more like marriage than anal rape.
I'm a 3D artist. My resume is my demo reel. As a result, I keep all the work I've done (i.e. 3D objects, textures, animations, etc..) plus I have uncompressed .AVIs I can quickly compose a demo reel of. There are gigabytes of info here. I have to keep that data around. If my apartment was suddenly destroyed, I'd be in trouble. So, yeah, I want to keep that data around and today a flash drive (today) won't do it. So what am I to do? Well, these recent hurricanes have me thinking about this problem. Newegg has USB 2.0 enclosures for laptop drives. For $100ish, you can get an 80 gig laptop drive. If you have about $120 to spend, this may not be a bad alternative for those with gigs of data they don't want to lose. I'm actually kicking around the idea of packaging one up and sending it to my family. They live in another state so it's unlikely we'd both have our homes wiped out. For somebody in my position.. well actually I should start on that tonight.
"3. Does anyone actually have a use for all these Windows "Tablet PCs"? I mean, the idea seems nice, but I haven't seen any real-world uses for them that laptops don't already meet."
Yes. I like to doodle on mine. I also like being able to use it while standing up, something you just plain cannot do with a traditional laptop. I did a project not too long ago where I had to go from office to office collecting data about the machines we have. I just carried it in, tapped in a few notes, and was done. Didn't even need to set it down. I also like browsing the web on the couch with it. I can't stand precariously balancing a laptop on my knees. The Tablet PC slate mode is a much better form factor for this. Also, the rotating/folding screen makes it lots easier to do things like set the laptop next to my bed so I can watch something before going to sleep. (This is hard to picture without actually doing it, though.)
I can't tell you that you should go buy one right now. I don't know what your requirements are. You may not even care. I can tell you though that I love mine and am quite sure that my next one will be Tablet PC based as well. These things are actually portable in ways that a typical laptop can never be. For me, that's absolutely wonderful. For somebody using a laptop primarily as a desktop replacement, it's a tougher sell.