I think they said that only because that was the one major gripe about Metroid Prime 1 & 2... a lot of people think the Gamecube controller sucks at FPS.
So, in a sense they're saying... "The one major flaw in the game that annoyed like 3/4 of you is gone... the new controller for the Revolution will work a lot better."
Then why do they sue people making pre-annoucements about their products, sue people who leak versions of their OS (these are customers of theirs since they have purchased an Apple computer).
I like Apple products as much as the next guy. However, I don't look at the company with rose-colored glasses like some zealots. They're in it to make money.
However, with the whole sue people making pre-annoucements about their products thing... they were like 75% in the right. The real problem was it was a David v Goliath scenario.
The information most-likely came from a someone who knew what they were talking about; the leak was too correct and specific. So, everyone who knew anything had signed an NDA at some point. This leak violated the NDA which means they needed to can their ass.
Unfortunately, the poor blogger didn't want to turn in his contact, so they tried turning the screws on him to find out who they needed to fire (or sue). This was really bad PR.
They were rightfully concerned. If some guy gave some tech info to a blogger, who's to say he hasn't or won't decide to sell some info to company B?
Their reasons were good, it's just that they went a little too far to get the blogger to give up the name. If this wasn't Apple vs the blogger, but a small Apple Software developer it would be no big deal.
It currently is an option. In fact, it's an option in quick-prefences, so with 2 mouse-clicks you can change your identity to Opera, Mozilla, or IE.
They're talking about the "default" option, which is set when you install. After all, Joe Sixpack probably has no idea what that option would do for him.
But as others have said, they're losing both ways. I've been to sites that won't allow me to access their forms if I'm ID'd as Opera, but ID'd as IE and it's ok.
I realize many of the specs are different. However, as a Mac newbie some of those you listed I didn't know (I assumed Firewire 800, pcmcia slots, and gigabit ethernet were standard on the iBook).
Still, I'd like a larger gap again. I was one of those hopeful fools that wished Apple would finally release a G5 Powerbook but I guess the power / heat contraints were too high.
Here's to hoping that when they go "Intel" they widen the CPU gap a little more.
I think the solution is a new ratings classification. Either P (Pornographic), or X (eXplicit).
I agree that they should fine-tune the upper-tier of classifications, but I don't really agree with your examples. However "Mature" should be enough.
At home I have digital Cable which comes with On-Demand. It's a neat thing to have, especially if you have premium channels because then you get A LOT of On-Demand content for free. Now, I happen to have Cinemax, Showtime, etc (the whole Platinum package). When I first got it I decided to see what it offered and was pretty shocked as to how far they go.
Most of the premium channels have a whole section dedicated to "late night" movies. Like 75% of them are rated "Mature", the "softer" stuff is rated "R".
You see everything except fluids and usually no wood. Other than that though, they're just porn. Bad acting, actors with funny names, no plot, and a scene every few minutes.
People need to realize that when talking about media, "Mature" doesn't mean "my son is mature for the age of 12" but late teens to adulthood.
Seriously, if you're running your own biased survey, you've loaded the dice in your favour, and you still only get 58% of the vote for something most people can't tell apart anyway, something is wrong.
Wow, I know people don't usually read the article, but at least read the post. You're forgetting the hefty "undecided" number.
According to the survey: Blu-Ray: 58% HD-DVD: 16% Undecided: 26%
58 trounces 16 no matter how you cut it.
Then again, you being skepticaly of an unbiased survey isn't exactly wrong.
You mean *gasp* the kind of games people who buy the PSP expect to play because that's the entire reason they got the PSP over a GBA/DS in the first place?
I was responding to the grandparent.
He was (more or less) saying how the load times of the PSP make it impractical to play quick-to-play games (like a hypothetical Kirby) because by the time the game would load it would defeat the purpose of a "quick" game. He was suggesting the the UD format doesn't really allow for quick loading.
I was saying the for the most part the load times are pretty benign. Lumines, Wipeout, and Mercury don't take THAT long to load. Midnight Club 3 is the exception (with a couple of other high graphic games with large maps).
Personally I'd gladly take a little load time to play something hefty.
But it's been my experience that a quick-and-dirty game is usually a little more primitive; kind of like a mini game or at least not bleeding edge graphics and maps. A game like that probably wouldn't take long too load. Unfortunately the PSP doesn't really have any so it's hard to say.
I have a PSP. In all honestly, the load times are only really bad in big 3D games (like Midnight Club 3). Games like Lumines are pretty short even Wipout Pure isn't bad.
If you're going ot make a quick-play game it isn't going to be a Midnight Club type of a game, but a typical Gameboy or DS game which requires very little load time.
I just bought a full season of Alias for like $50 USD. Like was like 20 something episodes with 4 episodes per disc. Without commercials, each episode falls to about 45 minutes (with credits).
Now, there are a few anime series I'd like to start buying, but for some reason the box sets only have 4 episodes per disc. What's wrong here? Each anime episode is like 20-something minutes so they should be able to fit at LEAT 8 episodes per disc.
But no, if you want a season of a series it practically breaks your wallet. I'm sorry but I'm not going to drop that much money on various series.
I'm not saying downloading anime is kosher; I sure as heck don't do it. But I can't blame some people from doing it, there's only so much you can buy at that point.
If the pro-morser had been forced to enter morse on a phone keypad instead of his $200 morsing 'bug' then I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have won. It takes several keypresses to send a single character in morse and just because it's morse, it doesn't mean that you can press the keys any quicker. He could only key quicker because of the equipment he was using.
While the "experiment" was flawed, it holds some merit.
In my mind, the teenage still has to move his finger around to get at the different letters, while the "morse coder" could theoretically just keep hitting the "5" button is succession to send out a message. But that's assuming someone builds a phone with morse capability.
It's kind of like the argument for DVORAK keyboards versus QWERTY keyboards, only tothe 3rd power. With a normal phone not only do you have to move your finger around but the keys are usually really small so some people with large fingers may hit the wrong key. With the theoretical Morse-code messenger phone you just hit Homer Simpson's favorite key: the "any key."
When I visited the US I noticed that there were almost no passenger trains. Indeed, I wish there were, because I far prefer trains to planes and driving.
Depends on where you live.
I live in NJ and trains cover a large portion of my area. On the Eastern coast of the US (particularly north east) there are a lot of rails you can take. Unfortunately I've rarely had to venture out West so I don't know much about that.
Case-in-point, Amtrack covers a lot of New York and new Jersey, and I use it whenever I have to go to New York City. It spans around a lot so you can get to many places (nice suburbs) besides the major hubs (NYC, Hoboken, etc).
Then there are the rails that go up the coast. I take the train whenever I go to our Boston site because it's cheaper and less of a hassle than flying. I could take the same train and go down to Washington DC as well.
Personally, I take the Acela Express whenever I have to travel along the coast. It's nowhere near a Europe or Japan class high-speed train, but it's pretty fast. However the northern tracks it runs on are so crummy it almost never reaches full speed (you have to go down to DC for that).
One of the reasons my family moved where they did was because we're 2 blocks away from the town train station, which is 2 stops away from an intersecting hub. It's perfect for commuting. Alas, I don't work conveniently close to any train stations so I drive to work. But when I went to college (and lived at home for 2 years) I took the train every day.
I see that you're claiming that Indians are unable to produce quality software and hardware designs.
I don't believe programmers in India are "worse" than programmers here. It's mostly a difference in communication and coding style.
I know a couple people from different companies that have had to work with contractors in India; sending pieces of a project back-and-forth electronically. The common theme I hear them talk about is the different in coding style and the like. That alone makes it a real p.i.t.a.
However, some have worked with firms that were just horrible (which could have easily happened if they went with a US firm).
One friend's company handed off a project they were working on in-house to a group in India because they were getting swamped with work. The contract stated that they'd own the code and what-not, which was a biggie since this was a project that was going to evolve in the coming years. While the product worked, the actual source was useless to them; they didn't follow the company's IT section's normal routine of documentation and there was a lot of spagetti code.
However, this sounds like an issue with a specific companies/contractors/etc and not with the country. The idea that some IT have that India is "sub-par" comes from stories of the occasional bad firm along with people's experience with the culture/language/algorithm barrier.
At least, that's been my experience with Skype on PC and Mac behind a NAT. And my NAT usually interferes with most stuff unless I do port-forwarding (which Skype doesn't need).
I know I'm joing the discussion late, but I totally agree with the article.
The only thing I like about the theater is watching with friends, which occurs more often at a theater than at home. Nothing's better than watching a comedy with a bunch of your pals or a chick-flick on a date.
Beyond that there's nothing redeeming about theaters. You have to deal with jerks that won't shut up, parents taking their 4-year-old kid to the 11PM showing of a horror flick, "burn" marks on the film, crappy seats, etc.
Me, I finally broke down and bought a nice HDTV. It's not HUGE but it's plenty big for the room it's in. I'd rather go rent a movie and watch from the comfort of my old couch in peace and quiet than wonder if I'm going to be sitting next to a cub scout troop.
I do not know what reselling laws are in other countries, but last I checked once I purchased a product, whether it be a pizza, car or Computer I am now OWNER of said product. Therefore I can do whatever the hell I want with it.
Depends. Retailers don't just go onto a webpage and order x-thousand PSP's so they can sell them at various outlets. They usually contact a distributor (perhaps Sony itself) and hash out an agreement to sell PSP's. These agreements are in the form of contracts with stipulations that must be followed.
For example:
Retail chain A decides it wants to sell PSP's
Retail chain B contacts Sony and lets them know of their intent.
Sony agrees, but makes them sign a contract.
Contract states the quantity or pricing scale for PSP units.
Term 1 says Retailer A cannot sell to certain countries where PSP has not been officially released.
MAYBE Term 2 says Retailer cannot sell en-masse to a 3rd party retailer. That 3rd party retailer must contact an official distributor or Sony itself.
Retail A sells PSP's to 3rd party B in another country
Sony gets pissy because selling to certain countries is in breach of contract.
I'm not saying this is the case here. But retailers have to jump through hoops where-as consumers just have to shell out the cash.
And all I can ask myself is, "wtf, who needs eleven cars?"
Well, there's him and his 2 parents. That makes 3 people. While I wait until my car is a heap of rust, I know some people that replace their car every 5 years just so tehy don't have to worry about heavier maintenance down the line.
His mom and dad could have been buying cars before he was old enough to drive (or even born) from a particular dealer. On top of which, they may have each needed a car.
So, let's say said person is now 22, and he decided to buy his second car from that same dealer (his first car being of the "used" variety because it was his starter-car) and he now wants a new/reliable car to drive him to his new full-time job.
Kid = 2 cars Mom = 4 cars Dad = 5 cars
5 x 5 years = 25 Meaning they could have been buying cars there for 20 or 25 years.
Heck, if he has an older brother or grandparents that also shopped there the number becomes even more realistic.
No way they are going away, unless you can get no motion-blur on LCD's, gamers and people who can't stand blur (me) will still want CRT's
Some manufacturers are making laptops with higher response times. For example Viewsonic has/had a line of pro models with pretty fast response times on anything smaller than 19" (19+ was back to normal). It was a pro model of some sort.
Maybe it's just me. But I can't stand LCDs for general computer use. They're harsher and grittier on the eyes, and they still-- even after all these years of development-- tend to suffer from ghosting.
Am I the only one?
Yes and no.
If you use a DVI connection and run at the native resolution a half-way decent LCD looks perfectly clear. Add to that antialiased fonts and you're in for a winner on the eyes.
However, at work we have analog connectors for our LCD monitors (actually, the monitors have DVI inputs but our desktops only have analog out). Even after "auto-calibrarting" the monitor like 20 times I get ghosting.
DVI on an LCD can make all the difference in the world. Most people at work don't notice the oddities experienced with teh analog connections, but some of us can. Fortunately my new work machine will have a DVI out on the video card:)
But if you run analog, or MOST IMPORTANTLY the non-native resolution it can look like utter garbage. DVI is pretty common on video cards now a days, and I believe it's getting more common on LCDs too.
Then I suggest that you get off your ass and sue Comcast. Apparently television and Internet service is less valuable to the population than phones and putting up with downtime.
My family has Comcast Digital Cable. But we knew from our experiences with Comcast that there was no way in Hell we'd want to trust them with keeping our Internet connection up.
When it came time to get broadband, we went with Verizon DSL. Granted, it was a lot slower until the 3Mb connection came out way, at least our uptime is close to 100%. Heck, if our terrain wasn't so satellite un-friendly my family would probably ditch Comcast alltogether.
As for the town, they have my sympathies. Most of my town qualifies for 3Mb DSL which is around the same price as Comcast High-Speed cable, but they're hoping they improve.
I say "good luck, you're gonna need it." Personally, I wouldn't mind our town suing. Maybe they'll finally get their act together.
Slashdot Mirror
There is no sanctuary!!
I think they said that only because that was the one major gripe about Metroid Prime 1 & 2... a lot of people think the Gamecube controller sucks at FPS.
So, in a sense they're saying... "The one major flaw in the game that annoyed like 3/4 of you is gone... the new controller for the Revolution will work a lot better."
I like Apple products as much as the next guy. However, I don't look at the company with rose-colored glasses like some zealots. They're in it to make money.
However, with the whole sue people making pre-annoucements about their products thing... they were like 75% in the right. The real problem was it was a David v Goliath scenario.
The information most-likely came from a someone who knew what they were talking about; the leak was too correct and specific. So, everyone who knew anything had signed an NDA at some point. This leak violated the NDA which means they needed to can their ass.
Unfortunately, the poor blogger didn't want to turn in his contact, so they tried turning the screws on him to find out who they needed to fire (or sue). This was really bad PR.
They were rightfully concerned. If some guy gave some tech info to a blogger, who's to say he hasn't or won't decide to sell some info to company B?
Their reasons were good, it's just that they went a little too far to get the blogger to give up the name. If this wasn't Apple vs the blogger, but a small Apple Software developer it would be no big deal.
It currently is an option. In fact, it's an option in quick-prefences, so with 2 mouse-clicks you can change your identity to Opera, Mozilla, or IE.
They're talking about the "default" option, which is set when you install. After all, Joe Sixpack probably has no idea what that option would do for him.
But as others have said, they're losing both ways. I've been to sites that won't allow me to access their forms if I'm ID'd as Opera, but ID'd as IE and it's ok.
Thanks for the info.
I realize many of the specs are different. However, as a Mac newbie some of those you listed I didn't know (I assumed Firewire 800, pcmcia slots, and gigabit ethernet were standard on the iBook).
Still, I'd like a larger gap again. I was one of those hopeful fools that wished Apple would finally release a G5 Powerbook but I guess the power / heat contraints were too high.
Here's to hoping that when they go "Intel" they widen the CPU gap a little more.
Don't get me wrong, I love it when Apple announces a product update.
But with Widescreens, there's now even less difference between the iBook and PowerBook.
Both already have G4 CPUs
Both have Superdrives
Both have DVI out
I know there are some minor arch differences, but they're getting a little too close for comfort.
I agree that they should fine-tune the upper-tier of classifications, but I don't really agree with your examples. However "Mature" should be enough.
At home I have digital Cable which comes with On-Demand. It's a neat thing to have, especially if you have premium channels because then you get A LOT of On-Demand content for free. Now, I happen to have Cinemax, Showtime, etc (the whole Platinum package). When I first got it I decided to see what it offered and was pretty shocked as to how far they go.
Most of the premium channels have a whole section dedicated to "late night" movies. Like 75% of them are rated "Mature", the "softer" stuff is rated "R".
You see everything except fluids and usually no wood. Other than that though, they're just porn. Bad acting, actors with funny names, no plot, and a scene every few minutes.
People need to realize that when talking about media, "Mature" doesn't mean "my son is mature for the age of 12" but late teens to adulthood.
Wow, I know people don't usually read the article, but at least read the post. You're forgetting the hefty "undecided" number.
According to the survey:
Blu-Ray: 58%
HD-DVD: 16%
Undecided: 26%
58 trounces 16 no matter how you cut it.
Then again, you being skepticaly of an unbiased survey isn't exactly wrong.
I was responding to the grandparent.
He was (more or less) saying how the load times of the PSP make it impractical to play quick-to-play games (like a hypothetical Kirby) because by the time the game would load it would defeat the purpose of a "quick" game. He was suggesting the the UD format doesn't really allow for quick loading.
I was saying the for the most part the load times are pretty benign. Lumines, Wipeout, and Mercury don't take THAT long to load. Midnight Club 3 is the exception (with a couple of other high graphic games with large maps).
Personally I'd gladly take a little load time to play something hefty.
But it's been my experience that a quick-and-dirty game is usually a little more primitive; kind of like a mini game or at least not bleeding edge graphics and maps. A game like that probably wouldn't take long too load. Unfortunately the PSP doesn't really have any so it's hard to say.
I have a PSP. In all honestly, the load times are only really bad in big 3D games (like Midnight Club 3). Games like Lumines are pretty short even Wipout Pure isn't bad.
If you're going ot make a quick-play game it isn't going to be a Midnight Club type of a game, but a typical Gameboy or DS game which requires very little load time.
You're preaching to the choir.
I just bought a full season of Alias for like $50 USD. Like was like 20 something episodes with 4 episodes per disc. Without commercials, each episode falls to about 45 minutes (with credits).
Now, there are a few anime series I'd like to start buying, but for some reason the box sets only have 4 episodes per disc. What's wrong here? Each anime episode is like 20-something minutes so they should be able to fit at LEAT 8 episodes per disc.
But no, if you want a season of a series it practically breaks your wallet. I'm sorry but I'm not going to drop that much money on various series.
I'm not saying downloading anime is kosher; I sure as heck don't do it. But I can't blame some people from doing it, there's only so much you can buy at that point.
While the "experiment" was flawed, it holds some merit.
In my mind, the teenage still has to move his finger around to get at the different letters, while the "morse coder" could theoretically just keep hitting the "5" button is succession to send out a message. But that's assuming someone builds a phone with morse capability.
It's kind of like the argument for DVORAK keyboards versus QWERTY keyboards, only tothe 3rd power. With a normal phone not only do you have to move your finger around but the keys are usually really small so some people with large fingers may hit the wrong key. With the theoretical Morse-code messenger phone you just hit Homer Simpson's favorite key: the "any key."
Depends on where you live.
I live in NJ and trains cover a large portion of my area. On the Eastern coast of the US (particularly north east) there are a lot of rails you can take. Unfortunately I've rarely had to venture out West so I don't know much about that.
Case-in-point, Amtrack covers a lot of New York and new Jersey, and I use it whenever I have to go to New York City. It spans around a lot so you can get to many places (nice suburbs) besides the major hubs (NYC, Hoboken, etc).
Then there are the rails that go up the coast. I take the train whenever I go to our Boston site because it's cheaper and less of a hassle than flying. I could take the same train and go down to Washington DC as well.
Personally, I take the Acela Express whenever I have to travel along the coast. It's nowhere near a Europe or Japan class high-speed train, but it's pretty fast. However the northern tracks it runs on are so crummy it almost never reaches full speed (you have to go down to DC for that).
One of the reasons my family moved where they did was because we're 2 blocks away from the town train station, which is 2 stops away from an intersecting hub. It's perfect for commuting. Alas, I don't work conveniently close to any train stations so I drive to work. But when I went to college (and lived at home for 2 years) I took the train every day.
I don't believe programmers in India are "worse" than programmers here. It's mostly a difference in communication and coding style.
I know a couple people from different companies that have had to work with contractors in India; sending pieces of a project back-and-forth electronically. The common theme I hear them talk about is the different in coding style and the like. That alone makes it a real p.i.t.a.
However, some have worked with firms that were just horrible (which could have easily happened if they went with a US firm).
One friend's company handed off a project they were working on in-house to a group in India because they were getting swamped with work. The contract stated that they'd own the code and what-not, which was a biggie since this was a project that was going to evolve in the coming years. While the product worked, the actual source was useless to them; they didn't follow the company's IT section's normal routine of documentation and there was a lot of spagetti code.
However, this sounds like an issue with a specific companies/contractors/etc and not with the country. The idea that some IT have that India is "sub-par" comes from stories of the occasional bad firm along with people's experience with the culture/language/algorithm barrier.
I would say it's more like this:
MS Office for Mac is to MS Office for Windows
as
Cadillac is to Geo
The Mac and Windows versions are as different as night and day.
However while Cadillac's are nice cars, they're not the best.
That's part of the allure of Skype... it's easy to set up out of the box and works perfectly behind NATs.
How-to:
1. Install Skype
2. Register for account (pretty simple)
3. You're done
At least, that's been my experience with Skype on PC and Mac behind a NAT. And my NAT usually interferes with most stuff unless I do port-forwarding (which Skype doesn't need).
I know I'm joing the discussion late, but I totally agree with the article.
The only thing I like about the theater is watching with friends, which occurs more often at a theater than at home. Nothing's better than watching a comedy with a bunch of your pals or a chick-flick on a date.
Beyond that there's nothing redeeming about theaters. You have to deal with jerks that won't shut up, parents taking their 4-year-old kid to the 11PM showing of a horror flick, "burn" marks on the film, crappy seats, etc.
Me, I finally broke down and bought a nice HDTV. It's not HUGE but it's plenty big for the room it's in. I'd rather go rent a movie and watch from the comfort of my old couch in peace and quiet than wonder if I'm going to be sitting next to a cub scout troop.
Yeh, there were a lot of stinkers in there. But there werew a few in there I liked:
Firefly (obviously)
Greg the Bunny
and Dark Angel
Sorry, but it's pretty similar to the movie.
Hint: Doctor Doom's origins are majorly revamped for the movie.
Depends. Retailers don't just go onto a webpage and order x-thousand PSP's so they can sell them at various outlets. They usually contact a distributor (perhaps Sony itself) and hash out an agreement to sell PSP's. These agreements are in the form of contracts with stipulations that must be followed.
For example:
I'm not saying this is the case here. But retailers have to jump through hoops where-as consumers just have to shell out the cash.
Well, there's him and his 2 parents. That makes 3 people. While I wait until my car is a heap of rust, I know some people that replace their car every 5 years just so tehy don't have to worry about heavier maintenance down the line.
His mom and dad could have been buying cars before he was old enough to drive (or even born) from a particular dealer. On top of which, they may have each needed a car.
So, let's say said person is now 22, and he decided to buy his second car from that same dealer (his first car being of the "used" variety because it was his starter-car) and he now wants a new/reliable car to drive him to his new full-time job.
Kid = 2 cars
Mom = 4 cars
Dad = 5 cars
5 x 5 years = 25
Meaning they could have been buying cars there for 20 or 25 years.
Heck, if he has an older brother or grandparents that also shopped there the number becomes even more realistic.
Some manufacturers are making laptops with higher response times. For example Viewsonic has/had a line of pro models with pretty fast response times on anything smaller than 19" (19+ was back to normal). It was a pro model of some sort.
Yes and no.
If you use a DVI connection and run at the native resolution a half-way decent LCD looks perfectly clear. Add to that antialiased fonts and you're in for a winner on the eyes.
However, at work we have analog connectors for our LCD monitors (actually, the monitors have DVI inputs but our desktops only have analog out). Even after "auto-calibrarting" the monitor like 20 times I get ghosting.
DVI on an LCD can make all the difference in the world. Most people at work don't notice the oddities experienced with teh analog connections, but some of us can. Fortunately my new work machine will have a DVI out on the video card
But if you run analog, or MOST IMPORTANTLY the non-native resolution it can look like utter garbage. DVI is pretty common on video cards now a days, and I believe it's getting more common on LCDs too.
My family has Comcast Digital Cable. But we knew from our experiences with Comcast that there was no way in Hell we'd want to trust them with keeping our Internet connection up.
When it came time to get broadband, we went with Verizon DSL. Granted, it was a lot slower until the 3Mb connection came out way, at least our uptime is close to 100%. Heck, if our terrain wasn't so satellite un-friendly my family would probably ditch Comcast alltogether.
As for the town, they have my sympathies. Most of my town qualifies for 3Mb DSL which is around the same price as Comcast High-Speed cable, but they're hoping they improve.
I say "good luck, you're gonna need it." Personally, I wouldn't mind our town suing. Maybe they'll finally get their act together.