I think people wouldn't be as pissed about the PSP if it weren't for the UMD format being hamstrung by Sony. Since Sony has acknowledged that the UMD format has failed in the video arena, I think it's time to open up the UMD format to allow for video, audio, and jpg playback only. I know Sony is paranoid about piracy of it's games, (and it should be), so open up UMD to sell UMD writer drives, blank media, and accessories to support the writable format. Make them RW, and you have a great economic engine. MiniDisc only survived as long as it did because it was writable. Perhaps Sony could learn it's lesson again and make lemonade out of dog poop.
Again, exit polls are usually a good tool at gauging what the outcome is going to be. Only in cases where there is suspected fraud the exit polls typically show a measurable discrepancy between the actual vote and the exit polls.
Also it doesn't hurt when a company like Diebold is a heavy Republican supporter... I'm no fan of the Democrats either, so I would say the same thing if this was a Democratic ploy. It's dirty behaviour no matter which party you belong to.
Let me correct my above statement... Rather than "Removing accountability and oversight is essential to effective government", I meant to say "Ensuring accountability and oversight is essential to effective government"
There's a strong debate going on right now whether or not there was election fraud with the electronic voting machines. Hell, there's no effective way to audit them. If the election exit polls aren't matching the voting record, then there's obviously something wrong in the states of America.
Once again, Bush declares himself dictator and he and his Executive Branch above the law. Not good for the American people. Additionally, if some major event happens and Bush declares Martial Law, every American is screwed because the Constitution would likely be suspended and everyone would lose their most treasured rights. Removing accountability and oversight is essential to effective government, and the US government is now the most ineffective at allowing oversight than it's ever been.
Based on your argument, this man was more of a terrorist to the US than al-Qeada ever has been. I think though, there's nothing wrong with having feelings on both sides... hate the man for what he did, and feel bad for the family that lost a dad. We can do both... just see the truth for what it is, and acknowledge both.
For the record, I believe what he and others did was EXTREMELY EVIL and SELFISH, and there are THOUSANDS of people's lives now SMASHED by his immoral and corrupt behaviour. They will undoubtedly be feeling some supernatural justice out of all of this.
I happen to think this is all too much of a coincidence... perhaps some "supernatural force" did intervene, wanting to collect it's pension, or saw to it to silence someone who turned out to be too dangerous to live because of what he knew and what he could tell others about.
Dude, although this makes sense, it's also mighty inconvenient, even for a hardware geek (which I am). Firewire would do the trick much better I think. Your method involves opening up both PCs, connecting the ribbons to the other computer. Firewire method involves taking a cable, plug it in to the ports on both machines, and it's ready to go. I think simplicity wins personally, IMHO.
Why I think Nintendo will re-emerge as a leader of the video game console "war" is because they will sell the crap out of the console, parents and people looking to guard their pocketbook will see the Wii as a great alternative to the PS3 and XBox 360. The ability to give people a more intuitive interface to play games will be a big drawing point when grandmas get their hands on it. When the sales numbers are in by Christmas, the 3rd parties will see that investing in a very popular platform to develop games is a no-brainer. 3rd parties will lose money if they don't support the Wii in that kind of sales climate. It's a chicken-egg-chicken argument. Lots of consoles = lots of games = lots of gamers.
I take your point about the 3rd party support, but I think the press is reporting that Nintendo is doing a good job with the Wii.
Sony won the last two rounds because it did better than what Nintendo did traditionally. Nintendo has smartly identified that innovation in gameplay will compell users to their platform, not just raw hardware specs. I think Sony will play a close second to Nintendo, although I am a die-hard Sony PS2 and PSP fan, I am very much looking forward to buying my Wii and integrating it with my newly purchased DS.
Even my wife likes the DS and wants a Wii. And she hates most videogames.
I asked my Chinese co-worker who lived in Beijing all of her life, and she said that $50US/month (400 yuan) is very little money. She said that welfare (social assistance for the politically correct) in china pays roughly around 400 yuan/month. She said it's also possible that the workers come from rural areas, where farming pays very little. The women may earn more money in this situation than by working on their farm.
However, she said absolutely she thought the numbers would indicate that this was a sweatshop, and the term she was more inclined to use was "slave labour".
We know that native assembly and low-level compiled code always tends to be faster. We know that JIT/interpreted languages provide a great tool-set to work with (reuse, reuse, recycle). Sure one could make arguments on both sides why these aren't true, and why one truth could apply to the other. The real questions aren't being asked here. These questions need to be asked:
1) What added value does the JIT/interpreted code base bring to the table for end-users (not programmers)? 2) What added value does the native code base bring to the table for end-users (not programmers)?
I think there are many value-added propositions when both questions are answered. The truth I think is that we can't live without EITHER model. IT benefits from the JIT/interpreted codebase, and mathematical computation applications (games, science, etc.) benefit from native code.
There is a place for both in our world. Let's just accept this and move on.
I know I know... it's not LAMP, but the lessons I've learned using ASP.NET and using code separation are: do it. Having done a lot of inline coding, I think code separation really works better in the long run. I also looked at Ruby on Rails, and I have to say that I am impressed with level of separation that it fosters in your code as well. If you separate it, it's easier to read and maintain later on when you haven't seen it in 6-12 months. I am still maintaining legacy ASP code and it's way harder to recall functionality because you have to trace through the page to figure out the behaviour. Stuff like separated ASP.NET or Ruby is much easier because you just look at the events or functions without any extra fluff padding your code.
Keep your code separate if at all possible. You or future others will thank you.
I drink the Original V-8 instead of pop now at work. It has 3 servings of vegtables in the can, and no added sugar. If you need it to be smoother, than there's V-8 Go, which incorporates white grape juice.
That's if you can stomach it. I like it luke-warm, as it is not as savoury cold imho.
I'm on Rogers, I use Azureus, and I am now, after a bit of research, getting good Torrent traffic rates after getting crummy experiences with BitComet.
Here's what I do with my Azureus client:
Use RC4 header compression
limit my connections to other encrypted users
don't allow for fail-over to unencrypted connections
use nonstandard port # with port forwarding through my firewall
Use plugins:
SpeedScheduler - limiting my heavy torrent seeds to overnight use only
SafePeer - blocks questionable IPs from leeching off of me and collecting stats they have no right getting from me
I find that by using these settings and plugins, Roger's datashaping devices (that they won't publicly admit to) haven't kill my fullspeed torrent traffic yet. I'll wait for the next countermeasure, but I might just maneuver my port onto the VoIP port since their Home Phone service is too expensive.
You're absolutely right. The industry doesn't have to do anything it doesn't want to. However, it loses a potential revenue stream if the format flushes itself down the toilet cuz companies got greedy. Get the consumers hooked on a media format, and they will be like flies to poop.
I myself did trade in the only two UMD movies I ever bought. I wanted the credit so I could buy a new game for my PSP:) Blockbuster gave me $9CDN for each movie that I bought for $10CDN. Pretty sweet deal actually:)
In regards to your article "Wal-Mart Quiting UMD Movies", I wanted to say that I have given quite some thought to the UMD movie problem that the movie industry is having. The problem is not that the PSP is not movie machine and only a gaming machine. Those are statements that people say who haven't used the device consistently every day for the last year. The PSP is most aptly a gaming AND movie device, lesser a music device (iPod still beats it hands down). The problem isn't that consumers don't want to watch movies on the PSP. The problem is that UMD movies are priced so high that a PSP owner will look at a game vs. a movie and rather blow $40US on a game that they would probably play a lot, rather than spend $20US on a movie they may only watch a couple of times.
The problem I see with this is that UMD movies do not provide enough value for consumers to purchase at the pricepoint retailers are asking for. Granted there was market analysis done on the kinds of UMD movies people were watching, and mostly it was comedies and action, two known generes that have HIGH replayability factor. When you start selling movies like "Rent" on UMD, who the heck is going to watch it more than once? You're not going to buy a boring drama that you might only watch once every 6 months. Granted there are collectors of UMD movies, but they represent the minority. Comedies and action movies have higher value than other genres, and consumers want the best bang for their buck. UMD games currently offer this proposition.
If Sony and the other movie studios were to reduce their pricing for UMDs to something more reasonable like $8-10US per UMD, I think consumers would feel better about parting with their money for a UMD movie, and probably feel inclined to buy a movie they might not otherwise at $20US. I know when I saw a sale on for UMD movies at Blockbuster where selected titles were $8US each if I bought 2, I snatched 2 titles up IMMEDIATELY. Granted I wanted stuff I could watch again and again, but you get the picture.
I write this to you because you guys get this industry. It seems that the industry is not getting the consumer in this particular case. Before we close the door completely on the UMD movie business, lets look at how we can price the UMD movie back into the entertainment market, not out of it. It might be valuable to discuss this further from the consumer standpoint.
Regards,
Cory Koski
As you can read, its very similar to my other UMD movie blog post. The industry HAS to reduce the price of this format, or it's doomed to obscurity, just like MiniDisc and BetaMax.
We were using AT&T a few years back for our business connectivity in Florida and they were always having problems, going up and down like a yo-yo. It sounds like their reliability hasn't changed at all. I'm glad we don't use them anymore.
DJing/producing/composing
on
Learning to DJ?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I'm sure there are lots of different kinds of terminology for what you're looking to do. Some people call it "DJing", some people call it producing, and some people call it composing. Whatever you call it, I have a very good notion of what you're looking for in terms of software. Even though I have 10 years of piano lessons, it doesn't necessarily prepare you for all the other interesting aspects of electronic composition (constructing and mixing beats, learing how to use effects, mixing and engineering your instrument tracks, sampling, VST plug-ins, etc.), including music gear.
For picking a software package to get started with, it depends on how hands on you want to get with constructing the melodies and configuring instruments. You can either use a MIDI sequencing tool, or a loop-based sequencing tool. Most modern day sequencing tools have both MIDI and loops sequencing features, but some are more tuned to one way or another.
A MIDI sequencer requires a good foundation in understanding how to construct melodies, baselines, drumbeats, and effect tracks with MIDI or VST instruments plugged into the sequencer. It's a lot of work, but gives you the ultimate flexibility.
A loop sequencer is more for people who want to dive in and get constructing music right away, and is more rapid than MIDI sequencing. For the power that loop sequencing gives you in the "pick-up-and-go" category, it sometimes lacks in flexibility, depending on your tool.
My recommendation is that if you want to just start working on music in the next 5 minutes after you install your music sequencer, try a loop-based tool. As I said before, most tools nowadays have the best of both worlds to offer you some flexibility, but in reality the best tools for loops sequencing are gounded in their history as loop-based sequencers.
My suggestion for a loop-based sequencing program is something like FruityLoops or Sony's Acid to get started. Even eJay is a very easy to purchase from the local software store and start using right away. I personally use Acid since I've been using it for years. It has a slick interface, easy MIDI integration, execellent loop handing, and a ton of other features that make your loops less canned. Acid's loops are just specially tagged.WAV files that often have beat and pitch integration. One of the nice features of Acid is that with proper WAV loops, all of your loops are perfectly synced and in key with each other automatically. The ease of using Acid comes from "painting" the instrument loops into the timeline and breaking it up to add variety. There are also effects gallore you can introduce to your instrument tracks, and various other wonderful tools to use.
Whatever tool you choose, explore it's features and try creating a few tracks with it. You'll find as you use the software, you'll get better (like most software packages) over time, and your tracks will reflect your skill with the tool. If you find that the software just doesn't feel right, try another package and work with that. Eventually you'll find something that works for you and your approach to "DJing".
I view DJing as like Beck says: "I got two turntables and a microphone"... everything else is just making music to me.
Every time a new Internet technology comes out that is a "killer app", industry tries to monetize it (it makes sense). See what I think's happening is that they looked at the Web and wanted to be able to do the same with every other technology, like IM and now blogs. These are new mediums in their own unique way. Not every medium can be monetized like the web or VoIP, or others. Some work, some don't. That doesn't mean that another generation of individuals won't eventually come up with a way. Podcasting is one that is struggling even like Blogs even though it is much less mature than the Blog (we haven't even come near the base of podcasting yet, let alone the tip). Eventually someone will figure this out... it may just take another "killer app" technology to turn it around. Patience I say.
I'm not a game designer, but I own this book based on personal interest. I would say this book is more useful in a classroom and a theoretical sense than in front of a keyboard. It's hard to read, but as some level, there are very few other places where you can get this sort of high-level theory regarding game patterns.
If MS reveals an incredible folding computer into a breifcase and patent's it, I'm going to cite prior art from the Jetsons! Oh wait nevermind... that's a laptop (I mean notebook) computer!
Slashdot Mirror
- Leaflets
- Food and medical supplies
- A bomb
- Starbucks coffee for the boys
- Non-lethal weapons - like a sound generator
- A spy - like James Bond
- A mini-nuke
- Chemical weapons
- Leaflets
- A "laser" (think Austin Powers)
- Temporary Wi-Fi mesh hotspot
- Pornography for the troops for those long and lonely nights
There's more I'm sure...I think people wouldn't be as pissed about the PSP if it weren't for the UMD format being hamstrung by Sony. Since Sony has acknowledged that the UMD format has failed in the video arena, I think it's time to open up the UMD format to allow for video, audio, and jpg playback only. I know Sony is paranoid about piracy of it's games, (and it should be), so open up UMD to sell UMD writer drives, blank media, and accessories to support the writable format. Make them RW, and you have a great economic engine. MiniDisc only survived as long as it did because it was writable. Perhaps Sony could learn it's lesson again and make lemonade out of dog poop.
Or headbutt him when he insults your mother... either way, it will do the trick. :)
Again, exit polls are usually a good tool at gauging what the outcome is going to be. Only in cases where there is suspected fraud the exit polls typically show a measurable discrepancy between the actual vote and the exit polls.
Also it doesn't hurt when a company like Diebold is a heavy Republican supporter... I'm no fan of the Democrats either, so I would say the same thing if this was a Democratic ploy. It's dirty behaviour no matter which party you belong to.
Let me correct my above statement... Rather than "Removing accountability and oversight is essential to effective government", I meant to say "Ensuring accountability and oversight is essential to effective government"
My bad...
There's a strong debate going on right now whether or not there was election fraud with the electronic voting machines. Hell, there's no effective way to audit them. If the election exit polls aren't matching the voting record, then there's obviously something wrong in the states of America.
Once again, Bush declares himself dictator and he and his Executive Branch above the law. Not good for the American people. Additionally, if some major event happens and Bush declares Martial Law, every American is screwed because the Constitution would likely be suspended and everyone would lose their most treasured rights. Removing accountability and oversight is essential to effective government, and the US government is now the most ineffective at allowing oversight than it's ever been.
I'm glad I'm not American...
Based on your argument, this man was more of a terrorist to the US than al-Qeada ever has been. I think though, there's nothing wrong with having feelings on both sides... hate the man for what he did, and feel bad for the family that lost a dad. We can do both... just see the truth for what it is, and acknowledge both.
For the record, I believe what he and others did was EXTREMELY EVIL and SELFISH, and there are THOUSANDS of people's lives now SMASHED by his immoral and corrupt behaviour. They will undoubtedly be feeling some supernatural justice out of all of this.
I happen to think this is all too much of a coincidence... perhaps some "supernatural force" did intervene, wanting to collect it's pension, or saw to it to silence someone who turned out to be too dangerous to live because of what he knew and what he could tell others about.
Dude, although this makes sense, it's also mighty inconvenient, even for a hardware geek (which I am). Firewire would do the trick much better I think. Your method involves opening up both PCs, connecting the ribbons to the other computer. Firewire method involves taking a cable, plug it in to the ports on both machines, and it's ready to go. I think simplicity wins personally, IMHO.
Why I think Nintendo will re-emerge as a leader of the video game console "war" is because they will sell the crap out of the console, parents and people looking to guard their pocketbook will see the Wii as a great alternative to the PS3 and XBox 360. The ability to give people a more intuitive interface to play games will be a big drawing point when grandmas get their hands on it. When the sales numbers are in by Christmas, the 3rd parties will see that investing in a very popular platform to develop games is a no-brainer. 3rd parties will lose money if they don't support the Wii in that kind of sales climate. It's a chicken-egg-chicken argument. Lots of consoles = lots of games = lots of gamers.
I take your point about the 3rd party support, but I think the press is reporting that Nintendo is doing a good job with the Wii.
Sony won the last two rounds because it did better than what Nintendo did traditionally. Nintendo has smartly identified that innovation in gameplay will compell users to their platform, not just raw hardware specs. I think Sony will play a close second to Nintendo, although I am a die-hard Sony PS2 and PSP fan, I am very much looking forward to buying my Wii and integrating it with my newly purchased DS.
Even my wife likes the DS and wants a Wii. And she hates most videogames.
I asked my Chinese co-worker who lived in Beijing all of her life, and she said that $50US/month (400 yuan) is very little money. She said that welfare (social assistance for the politically correct) in china pays roughly around 400 yuan/month. She said it's also possible that the workers come from rural areas, where farming pays very little. The women may earn more money in this situation than by working on their farm.
However, she said absolutely she thought the numbers would indicate that this was a sweatshop, and the term she was more inclined to use was "slave labour".
We know that native assembly and low-level compiled code always tends to be faster. We know that JIT/interpreted languages provide a great tool-set to work with (reuse, reuse, recycle). Sure one could make arguments on both sides why these aren't true, and why one truth could apply to the other. The real questions aren't being asked here. These questions need to be asked:
1) What added value does the JIT/interpreted code base bring to the table for end-users (not programmers)?
2) What added value does the native code base bring to the table for end-users (not programmers)?
I think there are many value-added propositions when both questions are answered. The truth I think is that we can't live without EITHER model. IT benefits from the JIT/interpreted codebase, and mathematical computation applications (games, science, etc.) benefit from native code.
There is a place for both in our world. Let's just accept this and move on.
I know I know... it's not LAMP, but the lessons I've learned using ASP.NET and using code separation are: do it. Having done a lot of inline coding, I think code separation really works better in the long run. I also looked at Ruby on Rails, and I have to say that I am impressed with level of separation that it fosters in your code as well. If you separate it, it's easier to read and maintain later on when you haven't seen it in 6-12 months. I am still maintaining legacy ASP code and it's way harder to recall functionality because you have to trace through the page to figure out the behaviour. Stuff like separated ASP.NET or Ruby is much easier because you just look at the events or functions without any extra fluff padding your code.
Keep your code separate if at all possible. You or future others will thank you.
I drink the Original V-8 instead of pop now at work. It has 3 servings of vegtables in the can, and no added sugar. If you need it to be smoother, than there's V-8 Go, which incorporates white grape juice.
That's if you can stomach it. I like it luke-warm, as it is not as savoury cold imho.
I'm on Rogers, I use Azureus, and I am now, after a bit of research, getting good Torrent traffic rates after getting crummy experiences with BitComet.
Here's what I do with my Azureus client:
I find that by using these settings and plugins, Roger's datashaping devices (that they won't publicly admit to) haven't kill my fullspeed torrent traffic yet. I'll wait for the next countermeasure, but I might just maneuver my port onto the VoIP port since their Home Phone service is too expensive.
You're absolutely right. The industry doesn't have to do anything it doesn't want to. However, it loses a potential revenue stream if the format flushes itself down the toilet cuz companies got greedy. Get the consumers hooked on a media format, and they will be like flies to poop.
:) Blockbuster gave me $9CDN for each movie that I bought for $10CDN. Pretty sweet deal actually :)
I myself did trade in the only two UMD movies I ever bought. I wanted the credit so I could buy a new game for my PSP
Thanks dude... I get that ALL THE TIME!
Originally posted on my blog http://pspexperience.blogspot.com/
e nt&task=view&id=2626&Itemid=2. Please check it out, and read my email to them that I sent as a reaction to the article:
I wrote an email to Next-Generation Magazine in regards to this article http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_cont
In regards to your article "Wal-Mart Quiting UMD Movies", I wanted to say that I
have given quite some thought to the UMD movie problem that the movie
industry is having. The problem is not that the PSP is not movie
machine and only a gaming machine. Those are statements that people
say who haven't used the device consistently every day for the last
year. The PSP is most aptly a gaming AND movie device, lesser a music
device (iPod still beats it hands down). The problem isn't that
consumers don't want to watch movies on the PSP. The problem is that
UMD movies are priced so high that a PSP owner will look at a game vs.
a movie and rather blow $40US on a game that they would probably play a
lot, rather than spend $20US on a movie they may only watch a couple of
times.
The problem I see with this is that UMD movies do not provide enough
value for consumers to purchase at the pricepoint retailers are asking
for. Granted there was market analysis done on the kinds of UMD movies
people were watching, and mostly it was comedies and action, two known
generes that have HIGH replayability factor. When you start selling
movies like "Rent" on UMD, who the heck is going to watch it more than
once? You're not going to buy a boring drama that you might only watch
once every 6 months. Granted there are collectors of UMD movies, but
they represent the minority. Comedies and action movies have higher
value than other genres, and consumers want the best bang for their
buck. UMD games currently offer this proposition.
If Sony and the other movie studios were to reduce their pricing for
UMDs to something more reasonable like $8-10US per UMD, I think
consumers would feel better about parting with their money for a UMD
movie, and probably feel inclined to buy a movie they might not
otherwise at $20US. I know when I saw a sale on for UMD movies at
Blockbuster where selected titles were $8US each if I bought 2, I
snatched 2 titles up IMMEDIATELY. Granted I wanted stuff I could watch
again and again, but you get the picture.
I write this to you because you guys get this industry. It seems that
the industry is not getting the consumer in this particular case.
Before we close the door completely on the UMD movie business, lets
look at how we can price the UMD movie back into the entertainment
market, not out of it. It might be valuable to discuss this further
from the consumer standpoint.
Regards,
Cory Koski
As you can read, its very similar to my other UMD movie blog post. The industry HAS to reduce the price of this format, or it's doomed to obscurity, just like MiniDisc and BetaMax.
We were using AT&T a few years back for our business connectivity in Florida and they were always having problems, going up and down like a yo-yo. It sounds like their reliability hasn't changed at all. I'm glad we don't use them anymore.
I'm sure there are lots of different kinds of terminology for what you're looking to do. Some people call it "DJing", some people call it producing, and some people call it composing. Whatever you call it, I have a very good notion of what you're looking for in terms of software. Even though I have 10 years of piano lessons, it doesn't necessarily prepare you for all the other interesting aspects of electronic composition (constructing and mixing beats, learing how to use effects, mixing and engineering your instrument tracks, sampling, VST plug-ins, etc.), including music gear.
.WAV files that often have beat and pitch integration. One of the nice features of Acid is that with proper WAV loops, all of your loops are perfectly synced and in key with each other automatically. The ease of using Acid comes from "painting" the instrument loops into the timeline and breaking it up to add variety. There are also effects gallore you can introduce to your instrument tracks, and various other wonderful tools to use.
For picking a software package to get started with, it depends on how hands on you want to get with constructing the melodies and configuring instruments. You can either use a MIDI sequencing tool, or a loop-based sequencing tool. Most modern day sequencing tools have both MIDI and loops sequencing features, but some are more tuned to one way or another.
A MIDI sequencer requires a good foundation in understanding how to construct melodies, baselines, drumbeats, and effect tracks with MIDI or VST instruments plugged into the sequencer. It's a lot of work, but gives you the ultimate flexibility.
A loop sequencer is more for people who want to dive in and get constructing music right away, and is more rapid than MIDI sequencing. For the power that loop sequencing gives you in the "pick-up-and-go" category, it sometimes lacks in flexibility, depending on your tool.
My recommendation is that if you want to just start working on music in the next 5 minutes after you install your music sequencer, try a loop-based tool. As I said before, most tools nowadays have the best of both worlds to offer you some flexibility, but in reality the best tools for loops sequencing are gounded in their history as loop-based sequencers.
My suggestion for a loop-based sequencing program is something like FruityLoops or Sony's Acid to get started. Even eJay is a very easy to purchase from the local software store and start using right away. I personally use Acid since I've been using it for years. It has a slick interface, easy MIDI integration, execellent loop handing, and a ton of other features that make your loops less canned. Acid's loops are just specially tagged
Whatever tool you choose, explore it's features and try creating a few tracks with it. You'll find as you use the software, you'll get better (like most software packages) over time, and your tracks will reflect your skill with the tool. If you find that the software just doesn't feel right, try another package and work with that. Eventually you'll find something that works for you and your approach to "DJing".
I view DJing as like Beck says: "I got two turntables and a microphone"... everything else is just making music to me.
Good luck!
I think we should all contact NC Soft and tell them how we feel about paying for ads in our games!
NC Soft's recent press release regarding Auto Assault mentions subscription pricing to be determined.
Here's how to contact NC Soft in North America:
prna@plaync.com
Email away!
Every time a new Internet technology comes out that is a "killer app", industry tries to monetize it (it makes sense). See what I think's happening is that they looked at the Web and wanted to be able to do the same with every other technology, like IM and now blogs. These are new mediums in their own unique way. Not every medium can be monetized like the web or VoIP, or others. Some work, some don't. That doesn't mean that another generation of individuals won't eventually come up with a way. Podcasting is one that is struggling even like Blogs even though it is much less mature than the Blog (we haven't even come near the base of podcasting yet, let alone the tip). Eventually someone will figure this out... it may just take another "killer app" technology to turn it around. Patience I say.
I'm not a game designer, but I own this book based on personal interest. I would say this book is more useful in a classroom and a theoretical sense than in front of a keyboard. It's hard to read, but as some level, there are very few other places where you can get this sort of high-level theory regarding game patterns.
If MS reveals an incredible folding computer into a breifcase and patent's it, I'm going to cite prior art from the Jetsons! Oh wait nevermind... that's a laptop (I mean notebook) computer!