Does anyone know if the service will work in China? The web-page says that for the period of the beta it is "For users in North America and Europe" only; the service would be particularly useful in China where net connections to the rest of the world are notoriously slow. My suspicion is it won't work, as currently all connections to the Google cached pages are blocked, but if it did it would be incredibly useful.
Before everyone goes mental saying "what is there to patent on a vibrating controller" you should have a better understand of what Immersion's patents (and thus suit) covers. Immersion's patents relate to giving developers very fine-grained control over the motors driving the "vibration units" in things such as pagers, mobile phones, and yes game controllers. In particular they allow you to do more than just have "off/on" control. Play a game like Gran Turismo and you'll see what I mean - you really can feel the terrain (and your car's grip or lack of) through the Dual Shock controllers - they aren't simply in an on-off mode.
That is what the patents cover, and you'll notice that Microsoft have already settled with Immersion over a similar suit.
14.4kbps? Paah! I remember running my own BBS (on a C64 no less) with a 300 baud modem. You were _extra_ cool if, like me, you had hacked it to 450 baud. 1200 baud was a luxury mere teenagers like myself could not afford.
One problem is that a large percentage of business users use Windows because of Outlook. I can certainly say for myself that although there are reasonable Linux (and Mac) replacements for Word, PowerPoint, and even Excel, I have not yet seen any other application that duplicates the functionality (breadth and depth) of Outlook.
As a "knowledge worker" I'd estimate I spend 50% of my day in Outlook. Outlook really is aimed at managing your working information - emailing or calling someone in your address book, filing the notes you make on that contact, making an appointment in your calendar for that contact, etc. Plus, it integrates perfectly with Exchange server, which like it or not runs a lot of businesses.
Don't get me wrong, I hate a lot of Outlook, but having tried various replacements (Linux-based and Windows) I keep coming back to Outlook. Its the lesser of the various evils.
Because of this, I think it is admirable for folks to have another try at beating Outlook. Evolution, etc haven't done that yet, but perhaps one day Chandler, Evolution, or one of the others will do so. I will happily switch from Outlook when that day comes.
Maybe it's just me, but Slashdot is fast becoming a table-of-contents for Wired magazine. As soon as articles (from the magazine) are posted, they immediately show up as stories in Slashdot.
I understand linking to the odd interesting article, but in the last week of Slashdot we've had:
Geek-Chic Power Houses
Hardware Manufacturing in China's 'Hot Zone'
See Ya.su
Could I just suggest each week Slashot post an article called "This month's Wired magazine TOC"? Or, maybe someone has written a screenscraper that autmatically submits all Wired articles?
I remember nearly two years ago at the Tokyo Games Show, shortly after the release of the GBA, that Nintendo (and games developers) had banks of GBA's with a special cartridge that displayed the GBA screen simultaneously on large overhead displays. This made sense when large numbers of people were wanting to see the games and how they looked. Anyone else remember this?
So what did you really think...
on
Review: U-571
·
· Score: 1
...about the movie. Please, don't hold back.
Wildly popular in Britain
on
Enigma
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I hate to nitpick and complain (well, I guess I don't or I wouldn't be doing this) but I can assure you all that the film was not "wildly" popular here in Britain. While it may not have been a flop exactly, it was as close to "straight to video" as you can get...
Yeah, I noticed the Vader "heavy breathing" about 3/4s of the way through the trailer, and wondered if that was part of the plot of this episode as well. Or is it just a bit of "foreshadowing"?
Agreed completely. The problem is that they do not have a viable business model. The only reason Locust have existed as long as they have is that Orange had a billing plan that was good for them. Orange was essentially funding the existance of this company, as Orange were not making any revenue (let alone profit) from the SMS's sent by the users.
Unfortunately, the business plan was flawed, and it is time for the company to die unless they can find another way to monetize the community. Slashdot figured that out, and succeeded at transitioning.
"There are so many advantages for the purveyors of pop culture, ranging from never gets arrested for drunk driving to never demands salary increases, that I think it's inevitable."
Readers of Gibson's (in my view prescient) novels will disagree. What about "runs away with a real person to get married"....
I thought it was the Campbells you couldn't trust?
Re:wireless battery power the heart ?
on
Inventions of 2001
·
· Score: 1
I believe it will probably be done through induction, similar as to the way your electric toothbrush is charged.
If I remember correctly from another article on this, the main heart power comes from an external (but portable) power pack. The heart has its own internal battery that can power it for a short period of time if the main power unit fails.
I am leaving some out. I forgot the Motorola Accompli A008 with Java OS. And don't even get me started on fact that dual-band is not what I (or any other handset manufacturer) would call World Phone.
I think as well people need to realize the market WAP is, and has been, aimed at. We are talking about consumer devices (GSM phones generally) that cost (subsidized) about US$50 at the low end. There is no way you are going to be able to get a HTML microbrowser into this type of device at this price point.
WAP's purpose in life is to present small pieces of information, and subsets of interactivity, to people using these sorts of devices. WAP is not meant to replace your favorite browser on your favorite PC OS. That people ever thought this was the case was due to massive overhyping from the mobile industry. All players share some responsibility, but I believe the majority goes to the network operators (hello BT Cellnet) that wowed us with the idea of surfing the Internet on your mobile phone.
This should give some of you young whippersnappers a bit of perspective.
Cue the usual reminisces from (not that) old people like myself. "You kids today have it easy. I remember when assembling your own PC wasn't an option - it was a requirement!" and "I remember being the coolest kid in the school 'cause my modem could be pushed to 450 baud instead of the usual 300!"
I have to agree wholeheartedly with the previous poster regarding the fact that Japan is certainly one of the leaders of creative media and culture.
This is not a new phenomenon - look at the Godzilla movies! More recently, several fads such as Mighty Morphing Power Rangers and Pokemon were exported from Japan.
IPO is not the only way to convert equity in a private company into "Real Money". Being acquired by a (generally) larger company is another way, either converting your options (or stocks) into options or stocks in the acquiring company, or into cash.
Not just pirates chip their PlayStations. I regularly travel back and forth between Japan and the UK. Purchasing games in Japan was a way to get games before they came out elsewhere, on the PS1...
Bluetooth - necessary in 802.11 world?
on
Bluetooth Bombs
·
· Score: 3
I work in the mobile industry (where Bluetooth is heralded as a great technology), but I honestly don't see a need for Bluetooth in a world where we already have a great short distance wireless technology - 802.11
I think the delays involved in launching Bluetooth (we've been hearing about it for a few years now) have caused it to become a great technology looking for a problem to solve. It is a nice technology - low power, inexpensive chipsets, etc. But, I don't believe it is a long term viable technology.
Having said that, I still predict that lots of first adopters will buy Bluetooth enabled pens, phones, laptops, etc.
Actually, playing games on mobile phones is not as stupid as it sounds... The Nokia 51xx/61xx was Nokia's best selling phone ever. Why? At least partly because they included three silly games, such as Snake...
When the average person is bored and wanting to play a game (say, you're waiting for the bus), do you really think they'll pull out (or even have with them) a PDA or Gameboy? Probably not. But, you can basically assume that in 5 years pretty much everyone will have a mobile, and will be willing to play a game on it.
Slashdot Mirror
Hello,
Does anyone know if the service will work in China? The web-page says that for the period of the beta it is "For users in North America and Europe" only; the service would be particularly useful in China where net connections to the rest of the world are notoriously slow. My suspicion is it won't work, as currently all connections to the Google cached pages are blocked, but if it did it would be incredibly useful.
--Kristan
Before everyone goes mental saying "what is there to patent on a vibrating controller" you should have a better understand of what Immersion's patents (and thus suit) covers. Immersion's patents relate to giving developers very fine-grained control over the motors driving the "vibration units" in things such as pagers, mobile phones, and yes game controllers. In particular they allow you to do more than just have "off/on" control. Play a game like Gran Turismo and you'll see what I mean - you really can feel the terrain (and your car's grip or lack of) through the Dual Shock controllers - they aren't simply in an on-off mode.
That is what the patents cover, and you'll notice that Microsoft have already settled with Immersion over a similar suit.
14.4kbps? Paah! I remember running my own BBS (on a C64 no less) with a 300 baud modem. You were _extra_ cool if, like me, you had hacked it to 450 baud. 1200 baud was a luxury mere teenagers like myself could not afford.
One problem is that a large percentage of business users use Windows because of Outlook. I can certainly say for myself that although there are reasonable Linux (and Mac) replacements for Word, PowerPoint, and even Excel, I have not yet seen any other application that duplicates the functionality (breadth and depth) of Outlook.
As a "knowledge worker" I'd estimate I spend 50% of my day in Outlook. Outlook really is aimed at managing your working information - emailing or calling someone in your address book, filing the notes you make on that contact, making an appointment in your calendar for that contact, etc. Plus, it integrates perfectly with Exchange server, which like it or not runs a lot of businesses.
Don't get me wrong, I hate a lot of Outlook, but having tried various replacements (Linux-based and Windows) I keep coming back to Outlook. Its the lesser of the various evils.
Because of this, I think it is admirable for folks to have another try at beating Outlook. Evolution, etc haven't done that yet, but perhaps one day Chandler, Evolution, or one of the others will do so. I will happily switch from Outlook when that day comes.
I understand linking to the odd interesting article, but in the last week of Slashdot we've had: Geek-Chic Power Houses
Hardware Manufacturing in China's 'Hot Zone'
See Ya .su
Could I just suggest each week Slashot post an article called "This month's Wired magazine TOC"? Or, maybe someone has written a screenscraper that autmatically submits all Wired articles?
I remember nearly two years ago at the Tokyo Games Show, shortly after the release of the GBA, that Nintendo (and games developers) had banks of GBA's with a special cartridge that displayed the GBA screen simultaneously on large overhead displays. This made sense when large numbers of people were wanting to see the games and how they looked.
Anyone else remember this?
...about the movie. Please, don't hold back.
I hate to nitpick and complain (well, I guess I don't or I wouldn't be doing this) but I can assure you all that the film was not "wildly" popular here in Britain. While it may not have been a flop exactly, it was as close to "straight to video" as you can get...
Yeah, I noticed the Vader "heavy breathing" about 3/4s of the way through the trailer, and wondered if that was part of the plot of this episode as well. Or is it just a bit of "foreshadowing"?
--K
A friend in custome support recently told me of a new acronym, to replace RTFM. It is, apparently, JDASOGFFS, or:
Just Do A Search On Google, For F*** Sake!
Agreed completely. The problem is that they do not have a viable business model. The only reason Locust have existed as long as they have is that Orange had a billing plan that was good for them. Orange was essentially funding the existance of this company, as Orange were not making any revenue (let alone profit) from the SMS's sent by the users.
Unfortunately, the business plan was flawed, and it is time for the company to die unless they can find another way to monetize the community. Slashdot figured that out, and succeeded at transitioning.
"There are so many advantages for the purveyors of pop culture, ranging from never gets arrested for drunk driving to never demands salary increases, that I think it's inevitable."
Readers of Gibson's (in my view prescient) novels will disagree. What about "runs away with a real person to get married"....
I thought it was the Campbells you couldn't trust?
I believe it will probably be done through induction, similar as to the way your electric toothbrush is charged.
If I remember correctly from another article on this, the main heart power comes from an external (but portable) power pack. The heart has its own internal battery that can power it for a short period of time if the main power unit fails.
I am leaving some out. I forgot the Motorola Accompli A008 with Java OS. And don't even get me started on fact that dual-band is not what I (or any other handset manufacturer) would call World Phone.
Great product, nice to see more Smartphones, but first? You could have bought (months ago in some cases):
Ericsson R320 (Symbian)
Nokia 9210 (Symbian)
Mitsubishi Trium Mondon (PocketPC)
Sagem WA 3050 (PocketPC)
Kyocera QCP 6035 (Palm)
Qualcomm PDQ phones (Palm)
I'm probably leaving some out. So, great idea yes, first, no.
I think as well people need to realize the market WAP is, and has been, aimed at. We are talking about consumer devices (GSM phones generally) that cost (subsidized) about US$50 at the low end. There is no way you are going to be able to get a HTML microbrowser into this type of device at this price point.
WAP's purpose in life is to present small pieces of information, and subsets of interactivity, to people using these sorts of devices. WAP is not meant to replace your favorite browser on your favorite PC OS. That people ever thought this was the case was due to massive overhyping from the mobile industry. All players share some responsibility, but I believe the majority goes to the network operators (hello BT Cellnet) that wowed us with the idea of surfing the Internet on your mobile phone.
This is great, and I will of course purchase it, but what I'm really waiting for is the long-promised DVD of the adventures of Buckaroo Banzai across the 8th dimension.
This should give some of you young whippersnappers a bit of perspective.
Cue the usual reminisces from (not that) old people like myself. "You kids today have it easy. I remember when assembling your own PC wasn't an option - it was a requirement!" and "I remember being the coolest kid in the school 'cause my modem could be pushed to 450 baud instead of the usual 300!"
Most new games have a demo available from the publisher's web site. Usually the demo is available before the game is even released...
I have to agree wholeheartedly with the previous poster regarding the fact that Japan is certainly one of the leaders of creative media and culture.
This is not a new phenomenon - look at the Godzilla movies! More recently, several fads such as Mighty Morphing Power Rangers and Pokemon were exported from Japan.
IPO is not the only way to convert equity in a private company into "Real Money". Being acquired by a (generally) larger company is another way, either converting your options (or stocks) into options or stocks in the acquiring company, or into cash.
Not just pirates chip their PlayStations. I regularly travel back and forth between Japan and the UK. Purchasing games in Japan was a way to get games before they came out elsewhere, on the PS1...
I work in the mobile industry (where Bluetooth is heralded as a great technology), but I honestly don't see a need for Bluetooth in a world where we already have a great short distance wireless technology - 802.11
I think the delays involved in launching Bluetooth (we've been hearing about it for a few years now) have caused it to become a great technology looking for a problem to solve. It is a nice technology - low power, inexpensive chipsets, etc. But, I don't believe it is a long term viable technology.
Having said that, I still predict that lots of first adopters will buy Bluetooth enabled pens, phones, laptops, etc.
Actually, playing games on mobile phones is not as stupid as it sounds... The Nokia 51xx/61xx was Nokia's best selling phone ever. Why? At least partly because they included three silly games, such as Snake...
When the average person is bored and wanting to play a game (say, you're waiting for the bus), do you really think they'll pull out (or even have with them) a PDA or Gameboy? Probably not. But, you can basically assume that in 5 years pretty much everyone will have a mobile, and will be willing to play a game on it.