One thing I always loved about the 12" Powerbook is that it is almost exactly the dimensions of an 8.5" x 11" standard sheet of paper - which meant it fit into any space a typical binder would fit. The 13" is nice, as is the aspect ratio, but I cannot help but mourn the loss of what I considered 'perfect' ultraportable laptop size.
You make some fine points, I just wanted to point something out:
Selection will be similar to UMD, and we know how well that does.
UMD has been weirdly successful so far, which kind of mystifies me (and I do have a PSP; never bought a UMD movie though). Do a quick google for 'UMD sales' and you will see what I mean - they've actually had to boost production numbers due to demand. Its nothing like DVD of course but for a single system (i.e. only one player, PSP) its quite amazing.
Apparently you missed the thundering herd of people abandoning their PS3 plans in favor of Wii and Xbox 360. Who is wearing the horse blinders again? Also I find it rather amusing that you write SONY with all caps. I smell a plant.
You smell the marijuana you are smoking. What thundering herds? The Wii hasn't shipped yet! Slashdot is hardly a large demographic. Go outside. (And by the way, "SONY" is how the brand name is traditionally written.)
Both HD-DVD and BluRay are a waste of time, but nonetheless, HD-DVD is already off to a big head start. The prices will drop faster than BluRay, and let's not forget that M$ has an add-on device for X360 which will still keep the price lower than PS3. Atleast with the X360 route you have a CHOICE whether to be flogged or not.
Ah, yes, of course. The choice to buy the additional HD-DVD drive, the optional WiFi, the optional digital output for video. This is a choice, I'm not being facetious. But you're gonna pay either way, BluRay or HD-DVD. It nets out the same if you ask me.
Let's also not forget that NEC backs HD-DVD while Sony backs BluRay. NEC is a true technology leader and pioneer, they will outweigh the cash-strapped Sony in this fight.
NEC vs SONY? Are you for real? WTF has NEC ever done that is innovative in this area?
How about: let's not forget, 4 of the 5 major studios have gone with BluRay, and that includes Disney (and Pixar). That fight is far from over.
Don't put the cart in front of the horse just yet. Sony has only announce plans, they don't have anything to show for it yet. If precedent is any indication, they will come up short against Xbox Live.
You speak nonsense. There is no precedent. Sony has never launched a service like this before. Cart before horse indeed.
That's quite an assumption. For $600 people could get a Wii and 8 games, or an X360 with 6 games.
Again, you make your own point without knowing it. You don't know the price of the Wii, it isn't announced. Its probably true but you are assuming and that is not a good way to make such an argument.
OK, by now it's obvious that you are a lunatic fanboy, or an astroturfer. The unique games will be on Wii, not PS3. The best looking games will be on X360, as we learned from this E3. For all of Sony's hype, they won't be able to surpass X360, because X360 developers are a generation ahead and most Japanese devs haven't figured out how to use a pixel shader yet.
Haven't figured out...... wow. Just... wow. I need to walk that off.
I dont even know what to say to that. Now I feel stupid for having wasted so much text on a ambulatory leafblower such as yourself. Look, I'm glad you like your Xbox 360, I like mine too, but clearly you weren't paying attention or lack the capacity to do so.
This is a very interesting technique for realistic terrain, but I wonder what advantage this approach would have over procedurally rendered textures? I very much like the idea of being able to (effectively) zoom infinitely into a texture being 'generated' as opposed to 'drawn'... and the strengths of modern consoles play to this procedural generation quite well (PowerPC chips, Cell chips). Maybe thats why Carmack isn't so interested?
Taco is accepting designs that use other colours. I quite like this design in blue by Lukasz Lukasiewicz. Taco just favour thins that have more links with the original design, and thus better continuity for Slashdot in general.
I like this design much better than the 'favourites' so far. Its extremely elegant. It will never win. Thanks for the link.
This seems utterly bizarre. Over the course of the PS3's development, Sony has promised quite a bit, and yes they did include most of what they said (Cell, Blu Ray), but one of the biggest bits of HD. And now the president says there aren't enough TV's to warrant putting HDMI on the low end PS3?
You are right to chide Hirai for those comments. But just as an additional data point - HDMI is just DVI + optical 5.1 audio. If you hook up a picture with those outputs, or even decent component inputs + digital audio... the picture looks the same. The real question is, will studios cripple non-HDMI output on highdef media, and the answer is not yet known but probably "yes at some point".
Does this mean a deathknell for Nintendo? Not at all. At their core, Moore, Allard, etc. are gamers. They're MS businessmen, but they're gamers.
If you peel them back further, you will find that underneath the biz exterior of Moore, Allard, etc, and through the false gamer core, there is a third layer beneath that.... of pure hatred.
First, the Wii is more powerful then an X-Box or a PS2. The Gamecube already is on par with or passes both systems and the fact that Wii has more powerful hardware pretty much guarantees it to be better then that. Remember, Nintendo took a bunch of hardware most people thought would make a poor system and turned it into a Gamecube. The PS2 reminds me of many things, but power is not one of them. All three (that is right three) of the last generation of consoles were more powerful then the PS2. For those missing one, it is the Dreamcast.
Screw the consoles, I bet the most fun is to smoke whatever it is that you've just had....
An aspiring young designer gets the chance to say "Hey, they chose my design for one of the highest traffic sites on the net.". I think that's probably worth slightly more than a laptop. =)
A good point. The only problem with this kind of contra deal is, there are places that rely on the perpetual grind of new design students each year to get cheap work out of them. Happens up here at Sheridan College (Oakville Ontario, just outside Toronto) every year - MuchMusic comes by and offers them all a chance to do a free bumper for them! They take the best three and the prize is, they get shows. Student gets to say he made a MM bumper, just like last year's students, and the year before...
Ok, joking aside... how often are you seriously going to get completely free reign? Companies/website/whatever are going to have an identity and there is significant value to that. Everyone has bounds to work within.
Almost never, but that's exactly why they should do it now. At least to SEE. The Slashdot crew is getting a very cheap redesign - for a site like this I'd personally charge more than the cost of a laptop - may as well let some of 'em run wild and do something really new with it. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.. but we'll never know if submissions are automatically disqualified. I know that's why I didn't attempt it.
We're not talking Coke or Nike here, its Slashdot. There's no global brand presence to dilute really. In fact, I'd go so far as to say the Coliseo wordmark is probably not recognized very well. You know what is?
Disclaimer: I clearly have work-related baggage in regards to this topic.
All three of these are valiant attempts at a Slashdot redesign. What hinders them is the Slashdot Coliseo wordmark and the goddamn stupid fucking green colour.
Which I gotta put on you, Taco. When clients do that to me (I am a graphic designer by trade), I know what I am getting into, which is a client who has nonsensical, nostalgic attachment to elements that simply do not work. That stuff doesn't typically end up in my portfolio.
Why don't you create a sub-category (for kicks at least) where the designers get free reign. You might be pleasantly surprised.
$199 in 1984 dollars is $368.34 in 2005 dollars according to this inflation calculator.
That's an interesting link... just for kicks I plugged in the 'typical' launch price for a console, $299, at year 2000 inflation... this is what I got back:
What cost $299 in 2000 would cost $332.05 in 2005.
That's what the low end PS3 should cost. All other things being equal. $330 and $399 for low and high-end configs respectively would have looked pretty good.
I revere the scientific method and the advances it has brought to human civilization. If something proves true I don't care if it was discovered at a university, a corporation or by the local dog catcher. I admire the work of the many people required to test, retest, refine and prove the idea. However I don't think that the mere fact that the researcher, in this case, works at a university is any reason to raise my expectation level of technological success.
Fair enough, thanks for the response. I don't quite understand what you are getting at with this angle, these are human foibles, but fair enough.
Like Pons & Fleishman's cold fusion? Like the recent Korean cloning fiasco? Like the forestry research papers that were pulled because of political and corporate pressure? Like so many others that have been in the recent news?
Yes, just like those. The statement by MadUndergrad was, 'this gives me hope', not 'this must be true'.
You make a good point, that science is always evolving, and that we should not stop questioning.... but in a very antagonistic way... could it be...
Problem is that scientists and researchers can be corrupted by fame, fortune or pressure just like other humans.
Ahhhh! I get it, you're one of those! "I hear the jury's still out on this Science thing." Tell me, which is your particular axe: is it Darwinism, or climate change? And by all means, set me straight if I have this wrong somehow. We are interested in the truth here, after all.
"Microsoft and Rockstar have entered into an exclusive deal to privide episodic content via Xbox Live Marketplace."
so additional content will be only available on the 360 if I understand this correctly.
It certainly reads that way, but I'd be shocked if it wasn't for both consoles. It probably just means the deal is inked with MS already, because Sony is still shaking out whatever their Live service is. Rockstar wants that money from the biggest pool of players.
Anyway, back to the HDMI output, I thought HD-DVD and Blu-ray had to have either DVI or HDMI output? Does that mean the core PS3 won't be able to play Blu-ray discs unless you upgrade? Sounds a lot like the Xbox DVD fiasco, where you had to buy the dongle/remote to enable playing DVDs, whereas it worked right out of the box for the PS2.
Not even DVI, just HDMI. Technically, you are correct. This is the deal: currently the hardware manufacturers are agreeing in principle to only send the highest-resolution signal over a so-called protected wire, which is HDMI (which is a DVI cable wrapped in an optical audio cable, and smothered with secret sauce). Any analog connection, including the more-than-capable component connection, would theoretically be downsampled to a lower resolution, in order for the content companies to achieve High Asshole status.
However... what we can read between the lines here is that perhaps Sony, in light of having to drop an HDMI port on the base model, will not be so stingy with the signals and allow full resolution to travel via component inputs. Thats a hell of a big Perhaps, but their hand is somewhat constrained by market realities in televisions - HDMI ports are simply not very widely used yet.
The Basic PS3 is crippled, it has almost no peripheral support, not even memory stick. And these items CANNOT be upgrade or added on later, so you HAVE TO BUY the upper end PS3 to get the full use of it and things like HDMI.
Untrue. The PSP didn't ship with a camera or a GPS, and yet, here they come. I direct your attention to the USB ports - they work pretty much like the ones on your PC. Unless of course, Sony has suddenly decided that it doesn't like to make add-on peripherals for their toys, like they have forever.
WiFi can be added, cardreaders can be added, HD is removable. HDMI can NOT be added, but you don't get HDMI at all with X360/Wii so I consider that moot.
So which company is actually trying to make the unit affordable and yet not lock the user into a model they have to trade in or pitch when they decide they want the upper end unit?
Answer is all three. MS wants you to buy crap on Live, Sony wants you to buy crap on whatever their Live is as well as more hardware (PSP connectivity), Nintendo wants you to buy add-on parts for the Wii remote and old skool games online. Don't be naive.
Sony has so lost their minds, and not only with the PS3. The whole Blu-Ray catastrophy,
Stop right there. The BluRay camp has 4 of the 5 big studios on board, and Sony is about to flood the market by trojaning BluRay into what will certainly be (at least initially) a big console release - and they will do it for less than the $1k that either a HD-DVD or BluRay standalone player goes for today. There is no catastrophe other than your fricking ignorant post.
As for games, they can't even hold developers to the PS3 platform because of the lack of developer support and CRAP development tools for it.
Really. Cite something.
In comparison to XBox360, developers can use OpenGL and DirectX (XNA) technologies and still get the most out of the multiprocessor system without being specialists in multi-cpu game design. Let alone the fact that one development process can produce a PC and XBox title without having to port the title or develop textures and meshes at lower levels between the platforms to get the games to work.
Ahhh, now I see where you are coming from. Please elucidate for us why this advantage does not translate to the Wii and PS3 as well, since they also employ OpenGL?
You can have your PS3, just make sure you buy the more expensive one, so you don't have to chuck the 'basic' model later on when you find you want to watch HD movies...
I will have to chuck my X360 if I want to watch HD movies since it has no HDMI port.
Slashdot Mirror
Man, I wish I was back in college. Such nice laptops to play with now, and you can even major in Counterstrike. The future is now.
One thing I always loved about the 12" Powerbook is that it is almost exactly the dimensions of an 8.5" x 11" standard sheet of paper - which meant it fit into any space a typical binder would fit. The 13" is nice, as is the aspect ratio, but I cannot help but mourn the loss of what I considered 'perfect' ultraportable laptop size.
Selection will be similar to UMD, and we know how well that does.
UMD has been weirdly successful so far, which kind of mystifies me (and I do have a PSP; never bought a UMD movie though). Do a quick google for 'UMD sales' and you will see what I mean - they've actually had to boost production numbers due to demand. Its nothing like DVD of course but for a single system (i.e. only one player, PSP) its quite amazing.
You smell the marijuana you are smoking. What thundering herds? The Wii hasn't shipped yet! Slashdot is hardly a large demographic. Go outside. (And by the way, "SONY" is how the brand name is traditionally written.)
Both HD-DVD and BluRay are a waste of time, but nonetheless, HD-DVD is already off to a big head start. The prices will drop faster than BluRay, and let's not forget that M$ has an add-on device for X360 which will still keep the price lower than PS3. Atleast with the X360 route you have a CHOICE whether to be flogged or not.
Ah, yes, of course. The choice to buy the additional HD-DVD drive, the optional WiFi, the optional digital output for video. This is a choice, I'm not being facetious. But you're gonna pay either way, BluRay or HD-DVD. It nets out the same if you ask me.
Let's also not forget that NEC backs HD-DVD while Sony backs BluRay. NEC is a true technology leader and pioneer, they will outweigh the cash-strapped Sony in this fight.
NEC vs SONY? Are you for real? WTF has NEC ever done that is innovative in this area?
How about: let's not forget, 4 of the 5 major studios have gone with BluRay, and that includes Disney (and Pixar). That fight is far from over.
Don't put the cart in front of the horse just yet. Sony has only announce plans, they don't have anything to show for it yet. If precedent is any indication, they will come up short against Xbox Live.
You speak nonsense. There is no precedent. Sony has never launched a service like this before. Cart before horse indeed.
That's quite an assumption. For $600 people could get a Wii and 8 games, or an X360 with 6 games.
Again, you make your own point without knowing it. You don't know the price of the Wii, it isn't announced. Its probably true but you are assuming and that is not a good way to make such an argument.
OK, by now it's obvious that you are a lunatic fanboy, or an astroturfer. The unique games will be on Wii, not PS3. The best looking games will be on X360, as we learned from this E3. For all of Sony's hype, they won't be able to surpass X360, because X360 developers are a generation ahead and most Japanese devs haven't figured out how to use a pixel shader yet.
Haven't figured out...... wow. Just... wow. I need to walk that off.
I dont even know what to say to that. Now I feel stupid for having wasted so much text on a ambulatory leafblower such as yourself. Look, I'm glad you like your Xbox 360, I like mine too, but clearly you weren't paying attention or lack the capacity to do so.
Don't forget the skulls. Gotta push minimum 50+ skulls-per-room decorating motif or it ain't 'dark'.
I want the option. Not specifically for the gore, but to know that level of detail is possible.
This is a very interesting technique for realistic terrain, but I wonder what advantage this approach would have over procedurally rendered textures? I very much like the idea of being able to (effectively) zoom infinitely into a texture being 'generated' as opposed to 'drawn'... and the strengths of modern consoles play to this procedural generation quite well (PowerPC chips, Cell chips). Maybe thats why Carmack isn't so interested?
You'd best be careful when tossing around links to overtly racist organizations.
Damn you and your devastatingly accurate portrayal of our deeply cynical studio system.
What ends up in my portfolio has always satisfied the client; of course I pick my favourites for inclusion.
And the artistes wonder why everyone is so down on them.
I don't really wonder about the presence of assholes who use words like 'artistes'.
I like this design much better than the 'favourites' so far. Its extremely elegant. It will never win. Thanks for the link.
You are right to chide Hirai for those comments. But just as an additional data point - HDMI is just DVI + optical 5.1 audio. If you hook up a picture with those outputs, or even decent component inputs + digital audio... the picture looks the same. The real question is, will studios cripple non-HDMI output on highdef media, and the answer is not yet known but probably "yes at some point".
If you peel them back further, you will find that underneath the biz exterior of Moore, Allard, etc, and through the false gamer core, there is a third layer beneath that.... of pure hatred.
Screw the consoles, I bet the most fun is to smoke whatever it is that you've just had....
A good point. The only problem with this kind of contra deal is, there are places that rely on the perpetual grind of new design students each year to get cheap work out of them. Happens up here at Sheridan College (Oakville Ontario, just outside Toronto) every year - MuchMusic comes by and offers them all a chance to do a free bumper for them! They take the best three and the prize is, they get shows. Student gets to say he made a MM bumper, just like last year's students, and the year before...
Heh, you think? :)
Ok, joking aside... how often are you seriously going to get completely free reign? Companies/website/whatever are going to have an identity and there is significant value to that. Everyone has bounds to work within.
Almost never, but that's exactly why they should do it now. At least to SEE. The Slashdot crew is getting a very cheap redesign - for a site like this I'd personally charge more than the cost of a laptop - may as well let some of 'em run wild and do something really new with it. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.. but we'll never know if submissions are automatically disqualified. I know that's why I didn't attempt it.
We're not talking Coke or Nike here, its Slashdot. There's no global brand presence to dilute really. In fact, I'd go so far as to say the Coliseo wordmark is probably not recognized very well. You know what is?
"/."
That's the logo.
All three of these are valiant attempts at a Slashdot redesign. What hinders them is the Slashdot Coliseo wordmark and the goddamn stupid fucking green colour.
Which I gotta put on you, Taco. When clients do that to me (I am a graphic designer by trade), I know what I am getting into, which is a client who has nonsensical, nostalgic attachment to elements that simply do not work. That stuff doesn't typically end up in my portfolio.
Why don't you create a sub-category (for kicks at least) where the designers get free reign. You might be pleasantly surprised.
That's an interesting link... just for kicks I plugged in the 'typical' launch price for a console, $299, at year 2000 inflation... this is what I got back:
What cost $299 in 2000 would cost $332.05 in 2005.
That's what the low end PS3 should cost. All other things being equal. $330 and $399 for low and high-end configs respectively would have looked pretty good.
Fair enough, thanks for the response. I don't quite understand what you are getting at with this angle, these are human foibles, but fair enough.
Yes, just like those. The statement by MadUndergrad was, 'this gives me hope', not 'this must be true'.
You make a good point, that science is always evolving, and that we should not stop questioning.... but in a very antagonistic way... could it be...
Problem is that scientists and researchers can be corrupted by fame, fortune or pressure just like other humans.
Ahhhh! I get it, you're one of those! "I hear the jury's still out on this Science thing." Tell me, which is your particular axe: is it Darwinism, or climate change? And by all means, set me straight if I have this wrong somehow. We are interested in the truth here, after all.
Hah, I wondered... no worries, cheers. That *is* odd about the disappearing post. Shenanigans.
Defensive much? You wanna tell me what the issue is, or are you just going to cry?
so additional content will be only available on the 360 if I understand this correctly.
It certainly reads that way, but I'd be shocked if it wasn't for both consoles. It probably just means the deal is inked with MS already, because Sony is still shaking out whatever their Live service is. Rockstar wants that money from the biggest pool of players.
Not even DVI, just HDMI. Technically, you are correct. This is the deal: currently the hardware manufacturers are agreeing in principle to only send the highest-resolution signal over a so-called protected wire, which is HDMI (which is a DVI cable wrapped in an optical audio cable, and smothered with secret sauce). Any analog connection, including the more-than-capable component connection, would theoretically be downsampled to a lower resolution, in order for the content companies to achieve High Asshole status.
However... what we can read between the lines here is that perhaps Sony, in light of having to drop an HDMI port on the base model, will not be so stingy with the signals and allow full resolution to travel via component inputs. Thats a hell of a big Perhaps, but their hand is somewhat constrained by market realities in televisions - HDMI ports are simply not very widely used yet.
Untrue. The PSP didn't ship with a camera or a GPS, and yet, here they come. I direct your attention to the USB ports - they work pretty much like the ones on your PC. Unless of course, Sony has suddenly decided that it doesn't like to make add-on peripherals for their toys, like they have forever.
WiFi can be added, cardreaders can be added, HD is removable. HDMI can NOT be added, but you don't get HDMI at all with X360/Wii so I consider that moot.
So which company is actually trying to make the unit affordable and yet not lock the user into a model they have to trade in or pitch when they decide they want the upper end unit?
Answer is all three. MS wants you to buy crap on Live, Sony wants you to buy crap on whatever their Live is as well as more hardware (PSP connectivity), Nintendo wants you to buy add-on parts for the Wii remote and old skool games online. Don't be naive.
Sony has so lost their minds, and not only with the PS3. The whole Blu-Ray catastrophy,
Stop right there. The BluRay camp has 4 of the 5 big studios on board, and Sony is about to flood the market by trojaning BluRay into what will certainly be (at least initially) a big console release - and they will do it for less than the $1k that either a HD-DVD or BluRay standalone player goes for today. There is no catastrophe other than your fricking ignorant post.
As for games, they can't even hold developers to the PS3 platform because of the lack of developer support and CRAP development tools for it.
Really. Cite something.
In comparison to XBox360, developers can use OpenGL and DirectX (XNA) technologies and still get the most out of the multiprocessor system without being specialists in multi-cpu game design. Let alone the fact that one development process can produce a PC and XBox title without having to port the title or develop textures and meshes at lower levels between the platforms to get the games to work.
Ahhh, now I see where you are coming from. Please elucidate for us why this advantage does not translate to the Wii and PS3 as well, since they also employ OpenGL?
You can have your PS3, just make sure you buy the more expensive one, so you don't have to chuck the 'basic' model later on when you find you want to watch HD movies...
I will have to chuck my X360 if I want to watch HD movies since it has no HDMI port.