The project, though a commercial one, wants to become a true community project and encourages experts and everyone who have good ideas to add to the development process
Hehe, I always knew that there was a better alternative to outsourcing the manual labour to cheaper countries (like ATI & Nvidia do). All you have to do is convince people it's good for the whole of mankind, and you'll even get the R&D for free. What's next, the open-source Nike equivalent? Beats the PR-hassle you get with child-labour any day!
All jokes aside, I would encourage the project, as long as it does not follow the current gaming hype. The power of ATI/Nvidia is that they work closely with gaming companies, and even bundle their products and research. That is a huge competitive advantage over any newcomer! (Industry) Power comes in great numbers... So it would be a good idea if the OS gfx-card would target current OS applications and games and collaborate with them. That could stimulate potential spin-offs of further games and apps designed for this card and create a whole new industry.
Btw. is there any hardware which is currently being developed in an OS environment... and successful?
Incidentally, probably the only thing the movie Armageddon has to contribute to society, is the answer to this question. The typical person who would most likely take on an assignment in space, like drilling into an astroid or setting up base there, would have to have little ties like family, be very well paid (at those odds) and more than slightly suicidal. This is not a scientist's (or nerd's) type of job. It involves following instructions to the letter (like: drill here) and very hard and continuous manual labour. After that part is done, people can start to think about *living* in space, at far better odds.
You want to hear people rave about sound, then it will have to be sold to them. In movies this already happens in the cinema, which makes people want their own home-entertainment system. Since there's no similar event for gaming (appart from cult-gatherings, etc), how many people will consider it an issue? At the same time, the integration of game-consoles into existing entertainment systems has raised the attention-level a bit. There's also the matter of soundtracks, which is an underused option in games. A great soundtrack will make me want to see a movie and vice versa.
All that being said, I have not really found sound in games lacking, even though I have $7 pc-speakers. I find wearing earphones actually gives me an advantage in games like counterstrike, in which hearing the enemy approach is of vital importance.
For those that don't know how to access these options: -type "about:config" in the URL-bar, -right-click anywhere in the appearing window, -select "new", -"bolean" -and write/paste "config.trim_on_minimize", -with as value "false".
"Isn't this discrimination to multi-lingual people living in the targeted market? And isn't it unfair to impose such restrictions on software that is required to use hardware?" Is this the best you came up with? This is is Ask Slashdot, i.e. a tech-crowd. A better question would be:"So did anyone manage, or is planning, to find a way around it, either through some kind of emulation, or possibly by hacking the device/software?"
As for your questions, Sony is a company which is both global and fascist, in the sense that it considers it's own vision, of complete vertical integration, superior to what customers actually want or need. The company does very little market-research, does most of it's R&D and development in Japan, and offers standardised products across the globe. Most decisions regarding products are also made at the top (i.e. Japan, sometimes US) and feedback from the market takes weeks, if not months, to be filtered back after going through dozens of managers. Even so, Sony is under intense pressure to change it's tactics, not from customers directly, but because of better and cheaper competition. For any real change to happen, however, will take a long-long time.
How will the RIAA respond? As more users move to this type of technology to avoid the P2P lawsuits, how will the music industry respond?"
Well if you hadn't published a story about it, they might have been left in the dark. But now... we gotta to find cutting-edge piracy methods, which the RIAA does NOT yet know about.
How will they respond? If it's serious, then more lawsuits, some sites get closed down, and even less privacy.
Isn't the current distribution-model via the internet much more efficient then some dusty old cd in a library? Of course a counter-argument would be that not everyone is connected. In that case a burning-station would be a good idea, I guess.
Do you have one? I would rate long-term prospects over job stability. No the two are not the same. A job can be beneficial to your development, even if it doesn't last very long, and vice versa.
I've worked two jobs and juggled a university-education on the side and thought it was worth it because I was getting something out of it. What I got (appart from my degree) was a massive mental and physical breakdown. I'm still a little traumatised by it.
Two jobs may bring you money and stability during times of uncertainty, but these may continue for a while! And in the end you will have to find something more substainable anyway. Why not do that now?
I think a more interesting and honest question is 'Why do people not leave the house?'. Is is related to past experiences? Is it a result or cause of social phobia? Is it related to the satisfying of short-term objectives? Is it related to intelligence or laziness? Is there a correlation between any variable (e.g. happiness) and time spent ouside? So does the good of outside-activity outweigh the bad, or vice versa? The relationship between obesity and inmobility has already been discussed numerous times.
In my opinion, there are lots of reasons to leave the house, which outweigh spending time inside. The best answer was already given: Life is out there! Nothing beats the sweet smell/feel/taste of... (fill in gap yourself)!
Maybe a bit off-topic, but any great community will always revolve around some higher purpose. Site-design fades in comparison to that. I'm sure there are some great ready-made solutions available, many technical and financial problems to overcome, etc., but I just want to stress that without a great idea, it does not matter how well designed it is, except if you want to put it on your CV maybe.
It is the nature of an idea that is important! A great idea is original, meaning it was there 1st or does not clone another already existing idea. For every already existing alternative, your idea looses a bit of value. Even so, limited server capacity makes the possibility of several similar communities to co-exist side-by-side possible.
A second characteristic is the time-frame. People lose interest fast, so a system of self-renewal, preferably automatic, needs to be put in place. This can be external, e.g. the news, or internal, giving members the freedom and inspiration to contribute something to the site. The second, however, usually only follows the first, with small exceptions.
Finally, people have varying competencies and strengths, as well as weaknesses. In a project like this, it may be wise to build up a team of people who have skills in different areas. Some people are very creative and can help with the themes and ideas, others are technical and can help with the programming and hardware. As a community grows bigger, both areas need work, which can be too much for 1 person to handle.
All other issues fade in comparison to a great idea. With that, you can inspire people to help you out in the weaker areas. Just my free advice...
...I may be looking at this from a man's perspective, but most printers are simple, non-complex machines with 1-5 buttons on average and a very straightforward manual and installation-procedure. The software to run it, however, is the one that preplexes most new and inexperienced users. That this would be a gender-issue is another ridiculous statement. It may very well be that some people prefer more style in their machinery at home, in which case the printer in question may have some appeal, but please don't tell me that it is more user-or genderfriendly.
I hate spam so much that I wish the worst, most painful death onto the person that sends it to me. If ads were to ever to ruin my clear starry nights, I won't hesitate to join any army that wants to wage war against the country/government that legalised it.
Not that I believe this will actually happen!
Btw. I think if it does work, it is a great invention. It would have many applications useful to humanity. Such as "Watch out! Big boulder comming your way!". I'm saddened that the inventor couldn't come up with something better than trying to make tons of money.
...And advertising. That was far, far lower than X-Box and Sony, which are atm it's no. 1 competitors. Most likely the result of too low a budget, too high dependance on it's name, and using too a similar strategy to the mobile-phone market. With mobiles, advertising is not as important, as there are a limited number of competitors and Nokia pretty much holds the top spot.
In the game-console market, however, it is a _completely_ different picture.
Sorry I did not have time to read the article, but here is my view on the name issue:
Sony is a company that uses the same name on all it's product, indicating quality, with the exception of products aimed at the low-price market, which it carries under a different brand.
A name brings the advantage of association, with quality, class, price, etc. A new name lacks this and thus already deals with a disadvantage.
Why did N-Gage fail? My view only here and having only see the device, I can only say look, feel, quality, price and game-assortment. These are values, which I associate with a game console. If N-Gage failed, it was most likely because the product did not perform, not because it carried the Nokia-name.
In retrospect, it is easy to say "hey, the product failed. Should have never carried the Nokia-name..." It's not a black & white issue however. The name does hold value, but only as long as the product does too. IMO Nokia blew it in that department.
I don't know if the last 300 comments (or so) mentioned it, but installing a remote desktop-sharing application like RealVNC enabled me to save my parents/brother's PC a no. of times.
That, and having daily scheduled runs of AV (with auto-updates), Adaware (with auto-updates) and a registry-fixer (" " ") running, fixing and closing themself non-obtrusively, aswell as making a stable Mozilla-firebird (not-fox) nightly the default browser on a MS-machine.
Let's just say that the need to train and fix has been minimalised because of this.;-)
Similar studies into cultural differences have been undertaken by, for example, Geert Hofstede et al. He identifies 5 dimensions by which cultures may differ. For instance some countries, like the US, score high on the individualistic scale, while countries like Germany or China score higher on the collectivist scale. Power distance indicates the need, or lack of, for structure in an organisational context. Cultures with high Uncertainty Avoidance will be take less risk and vice versa, etc, etc. Anyway... his summary explains it way better than I ever could. A country-by-country-chart can be found here.
In conclusion, according to this study, yes, where you are from may affect your fragging-routines, i.e. "storm the front" or "camp and defend". But it will certainly not be the only factor affecting performance!
They can if you use a loyalty-card!
Which is the actual reason they were created of course, to track your behaviour and match your taste. In the end, what it means is that if 40 % of beer-shoppers likes to buy Bud, at least 40 % of shelf-space will be allocated to Bud. No more empty shelves, no more disappointed customers.
Of course the downside is, that they can check the shopping hehaviour when prices are raised or lowered, and continue to bleed customers dry as long as they keep buying.
Slashdot Mirror
The project, though a commercial one, wants to become a true community project and encourages experts and everyone who have good ideas to add to the development process
Hehe, I always knew that there was a better alternative to outsourcing the manual labour to cheaper countries (like ATI & Nvidia do). All you have to do is convince people it's good for the whole of mankind, and you'll even get the R&D for free. What's next, the open-source Nike equivalent? Beats the PR-hassle you get with child-labour any day!
All jokes aside, I would encourage the project, as long as it does not follow the current gaming hype. The power of ATI/Nvidia is that they work closely with gaming companies, and even bundle their products and research. That is a huge competitive advantage over any newcomer! (Industry) Power comes in great numbers... So it would be a good idea if the OS gfx-card would target current OS applications and games and collaborate with them. That could stimulate potential spin-offs of further games and apps designed for this card and create a whole new industry.
Btw. is there any hardware which is currently being developed in an OS environment... and successful?
"guys come up to me and tell me that it's their first time touching a girl."
Incidentally, probably the only thing the movie Armageddon has to contribute to society, is the answer to this question. The typical person who would most likely take on an assignment in space, like drilling into an astroid or setting up base there, would have to have little ties like family, be very well paid (at those odds) and more than slightly suicidal. This is not a scientist's (or nerd's) type of job. It involves following instructions to the letter (like: drill here) and very hard and continuous manual labour. After that part is done, people can start to think about *living* in space, at far better odds.
You want to hear people rave about sound, then it will have to be sold to them. In movies this already happens in the cinema, which makes people want their own home-entertainment system. Since there's no similar event for gaming (appart from cult-gatherings, etc), how many people will consider it an issue? At the same time, the integration of game-consoles into existing entertainment systems has raised the attention-level a bit.
There's also the matter of soundtracks, which is an underused option in games. A great soundtrack will make me want to see a movie and vice versa.
All that being said, I have not really found sound in games lacking, even though I have $7 pc-speakers. I find wearing earphones actually gives me an advantage in games like counterstrike, in which hearing the enemy approach is of vital importance.
I already did. I think that enki guy is probably the smartest one in the group.
up to 81 now (I really wonder how high the price will go :-p)
For those that don't know how to access these options:
-type "about:config" in the URL-bar,
-right-click anywhere in the appearing window,
-select "new",
-"bolean"
-and write/paste "config.trim_on_minimize",
-with as value "false".
don't know if it actually works though!
"Isn't this discrimination to multi-lingual people living in the targeted market? And isn't it unfair to impose such restrictions on software that is required to use hardware?"
Is this the best you came up with? This is is Ask Slashdot, i.e. a tech-crowd. A better question would be:"So did anyone manage, or is planning, to find a way around it, either through some kind of emulation, or possibly by hacking the device/software?"
As for your questions, Sony is a company which is both global and fascist, in the sense that it considers it's own vision, of complete vertical integration, superior to what customers actually want or need. The company does very little market-research, does most of it's R&D and development in Japan, and offers standardised products across the globe. Most decisions regarding products are also made at the top (i.e. Japan, sometimes US) and feedback from the market takes weeks, if not months, to be filtered back after going through dozens of managers. Even so, Sony is under intense pressure to change it's tactics, not from customers directly, but because of better and cheaper competition. For any real change to happen, however, will take a long-long time.
Student edition? Is that like the pirated version? I want that one too! ;-)
Not to forget, what if the weapon was a machine-gun? Then you'd have like 100ms to take care of 30 bullets. ;-)
How will the RIAA respond? As more users move to this type of technology to avoid the P2P lawsuits, how will the music industry respond?"
Well if you hadn't published a story about it, they might have been left in the dark. But now... we gotta to find cutting-edge piracy methods, which the RIAA does NOT yet know about.
How will they respond? If it's serious, then more lawsuits, some sites get closed down, and even less privacy.
Isn't the current distribution-model via the internet much more efficient then some dusty old cd in a library? Of course a counter-argument would be that not everyone is connected. In that case a burning-station would be a good idea, I guess.
Personally I'd settle for being ablt to view Real files using VLC.
Realplayer and Quicktime files can be viewed on other players using Real Alternative and Quicktime Alternative respectively.
Do you have one? I would rate long-term prospects over job stability. No the two are not the same. A job can be beneficial to your development, even if it doesn't last very long, and vice versa.
I've worked two jobs and juggled a university-education on the side and thought it was worth it because I was getting something out of it. What I got (appart from my degree) was a massive mental and physical breakdown. I'm still a little traumatised by it.
Two jobs may bring you money and stability during times of uncertainty, but these may continue for a while! And in the end you will have to find something more substainable anyway. Why not do that now?
I think a more interesting and honest question is 'Why do people not leave the house?'. Is is related to past experiences? Is it a result or cause of social phobia? Is it related to the satisfying of short-term objectives? Is it related to intelligence or laziness? Is there a correlation between any variable (e.g. happiness) and time spent ouside? ... (fill in gap yourself)!
So does the good of outside-activity outweigh the bad, or vice versa? The relationship between obesity and inmobility has already been discussed numerous times.
In my opinion, there are lots of reasons to leave the house, which outweigh spending time inside. The best answer was already given: Life is out there! Nothing beats the sweet smell/feel/taste of
Maybe a bit off-topic, but any great community will always revolve around some higher purpose. Site-design fades in comparison to that. I'm sure there are some great ready-made solutions available, many technical and financial problems to overcome, etc., but I just want to stress that without a great idea, it does not matter how well designed it is, except if you want to put it on your CV maybe.
It is the nature of an idea that is important! A great idea is original, meaning it was there 1st or does not clone another already existing idea. For every already existing alternative, your idea looses a bit of value. Even so, limited server capacity makes the possibility of several similar communities to co-exist side-by-side possible.
A second characteristic is the time-frame. People lose interest fast, so a system of self-renewal, preferably automatic, needs to be put in place. This can be external, e.g. the news, or internal, giving members the freedom and inspiration to contribute something to the site. The second, however, usually only follows the first, with small exceptions.
Finally, people have varying competencies and strengths, as well as weaknesses. In a project like this, it may be wise to build up a team of people who have skills in different areas. Some people are very creative and can help with the themes and ideas, others are technical and can help with the programming and hardware. As a community grows bigger, both areas need work, which can be too much for 1 person to handle.
All other issues fade in comparison to a great idea. With that, you can inspire people to help you out in the weaker areas. Just my free advice...
...I may be looking at this from a man's perspective, but most printers are simple, non-complex machines with 1-5 buttons on average and a very straightforward manual and installation-procedure. The software to run it, however, is the one that preplexes most new and inexperienced users. That this would be a gender-issue is another ridiculous statement. It may very well be that some people prefer more style in their machinery at home, in which case the printer in question may have some appeal, but please don't tell me that it is more user-or genderfriendly.
I didn't know that, How did the principal find that out? Did he try it? If so, what does that make the principal? Hmmm...
;-)
[/joke] It was probably just written on the back of the box or something.
I hate spam so much that I wish the worst, most painful death onto the person that sends it to me. If ads were to ever to ruin my clear starry nights, I won't hesitate to join any army that wants to wage war against the country/government that legalised it.
Not that I believe this will actually happen!
Btw. I think if it does work, it is a great invention. It would have many applications useful to humanity. Such as "Watch out! Big boulder comming your way!". I'm saddened that the inventor couldn't come up with something better than trying to make tons of money.
...And advertising. That was far, far lower than X-Box and Sony, which are atm it's no. 1 competitors. Most likely the result of too low a budget, too high dependance on it's name, and using too a similar strategy to the mobile-phone market. With mobiles, advertising is not as important, as there are a limited number of competitors and Nokia pretty much holds the top spot.
In the game-console market, however, it is a _completely_ different picture.
Sorry I did not have time to read the article, but here is my view on the name issue:
Sony is a company that uses the same name on all it's product, indicating quality, with the exception of products aimed at the low-price market, which it carries under a different brand.
A name brings the advantage of association, with quality, class, price, etc. A new name lacks this and thus already deals with a disadvantage.
Why did N-Gage fail? My view only here and having only see the device, I can only say look, feel, quality, price and game-assortment. These are values, which I associate with a game console. If N-Gage failed, it was most likely because the product did not perform, not because it carried the Nokia-name.
In retrospect, it is easy to say "hey, the product failed. Should have never carried the Nokia-name..." It's not a black & white issue however. The name does hold value, but only as long as the product does too. IMO Nokia blew it in that department.
My 2 cents...
I don't know if the last 300 comments (or so) mentioned it, but installing a remote desktop-sharing application like RealVNC enabled me to save my parents/brother's PC a no. of times.
;-)
That, and having daily scheduled runs of AV (with auto-updates), Adaware (with auto-updates) and a registry-fixer (" " ") running, fixing and closing themself non-obtrusively, aswell as making a stable Mozilla-firebird (not-fox) nightly the default browser on a MS-machine.
Let's just say that the need to train and fix has been minimalised because of this.
Similar studies into cultural differences have been undertaken by, for example, Geert Hofstede et al. He identifies 5 dimensions by which cultures may differ. For instance some countries, like the US, score high on the individualistic scale, while countries like Germany or China score higher on the collectivist scale. Power distance indicates the need, or lack of, for structure in an organisational context. Cultures with high Uncertainty Avoidance will be take less risk and vice versa, etc, etc. Anyway... his summary explains it way better than I ever could. A country-by-country-chart can be found here.
In conclusion, according to this study, yes, where you are from may affect your fragging-routines, i.e. "storm the front" or "camp and defend". But it will certainly not be the only factor affecting performance!
just in case... ;-)
'System Properties' can be found in the control panel under 'System' or by right-clicking 'My Computer'.
They can if you use a loyalty-card!
Which is the actual reason they were created of course, to track your behaviour and match your taste. In the end, what it means is that if 40 % of beer-shoppers likes to buy Bud, at least 40 % of shelf-space will be allocated to Bud. No more empty shelves, no more disappointed customers.
Of course the downside is, that they can check the shopping hehaviour when prices are raised or lowered, and continue to bleed customers dry as long as they keep buying.