Please point out the spelling mistakes, I try to make my posts at least pass the grammer nazi test and I'd be curious to know where I apparently failed. Halo is a terribly over-rated game, please don't associate my posts with it again.
No, I named the 2 games which appeal to the single player demographic, maybe Okami as well but that has been completed on the PS2 and Madworld isn't getting rave reviews either.
As somone who doesn't live in the states, I can tell you now, we don't want goddamn Hulu either. I wish there was a greasemonkey script to completely and utterly remove the word from the internet for me, it completely goes against the principles of the internet as far as I'm concerned
IP region locking is a deplorable act, please don't mention Hulu again. - seriously, let them die.
This is worse than the plague or sudden infant death.
Who are adobe kidding? Seriously, I just heard one of my co-workers shoot himself when I sent him the link here. I DETEST flash video, the vast, vast majority of sites get it 'wrong' few of them work well, the buffering system is horrible and it's an added expense to my television to boot.
The quality sucks, I hate having to start a movie, then hit pause to get it to stream some ahead. Bandwidth just isn't there for this, sure it works sometimes but I would never consider paying for flash video.
Adobe might be well regarded by mac users but I for one loathe most of their products, look at foxit reader - it actually makes PDF usable.
To exaggerate the point, most of adobes software is like digital aids and I would like to register my strong 'no' vote right here please.
Maybe so but I play single player games for a great storyline, I play my PC and PS3 extensively. The wii caters for the casual, party casual crowd with very very few games for a regular single player gamer (Mario and Zelda aside) The controller is downright infuriatingly inaccurate and I honestly present to you, just how many bloody Wii games can be clocked, simply by putting the controller in the dryer on a spin cycle? (seriously!)
There's little to no element of skill in using it and that translates to a lack of 'seriousness' in the gaming that FAT NERDS I ADMIT like myself appreciate. The direct motion plus feel would've been badass, I could've looked past 480p, I could've looked past no internal storage or shitty SHITTy online matchmaking, naming etc I could look past a plethora of other technical issues with the thing if at least the games, gameplay and controls were at least cool, badass or downright fun.
I happily maintain and I will stand by calling it a toy, the vast VAST majority of Wii purchasers are buying it to put it in the loungeroom as a guitar hero and Wii play / Wii sports machine, it's like a kareoke machine to an extent, it really doesn't have the feel, design or user experience as a 'proper console' and I feel, besides the controllers unique angle, it's comfortably living in the late 90's - right down to the terrible online experience.
Yes I owned one but sorry I would not again, I don't even rate the 360, yet it's 348$ AUD and the Wii is 399$ AUD - that's a 60gb 'pro' 360 mind you. Really, this thing is over-rated and the least of my complaints should be the terrible controller which could've been right from the get go.
Flame me away and enjoy your Wii (although much like many internet bandwagon products, I wonder how many of the defenders here actually own AND use the product)
Are you taking the piss here or something? You link to 'gyroscope prices' this is like linking me to newegg.com/blurayreaders and insisting that's what it costs to put the bluray in the PS3.
This is a mass purchased product, it's not sold as a toy like the ones you've linked (the individual gyroscopes I'm referring to) and again the motion plus is TWENTY DOLLARS and gyroscopes have been around for years, I mean really, we KNOW it's 20$ - what, was the tech inside the motion plus 25$ before? 250$? is the contents of the motion plus 2000$ worth of hardware only 2 years ago?
The motion plus is a small chunk of plastic with 'stuff' in it, it is packaged, tested, includes profit, it's to be marketed, manufactured, researched all for 20$ If anything, if it was done 'in the first place' it might have been 10$ more cost to the Wii, maybe 20$, EVEN 30$! back then - considering their total sales and profit margins can you not see where I'm coming from.
Also, I'm in no way even remotely the first person to say this, there's a large backlash brewing against the motion plus online as 'how it should've been' also sales are tapering in Japan as the fad is finally wearing off.
Who cares if you care if I buy another Wii? Who cares if the 360 is a piece of unreliable shit? Who cares if my PS3's fan turns on in heavily GPU intensive games? Who cares if I sold my Wii and found it to be an unwise purchase. The whole point of slashdot is commentary, I'm expressing my opinion, people are happy to agree, disagree, flame, moderate, laugh, cheer or sneer, I don't care too much but really half your posts sounds as if there shouldn't be any posts at all, why don't we just disabled comments?
If you can provide me with a link, clearly stating what parts are used (or similar ones) how they differ from thesixasxis, iphone and regular Wii controller, how much they cost I'd be curious to read it.
Why I'm replying to an AC, I don't entirely know, your post is mostly invalidated around here without a username as it is in most peoples eyes.
How is it that you can ask me to find the value of each individual component when we know the SUM of the addon itself is 20$ ? That answers all the relevant information required. Furthermore, you take the oppourtunity to bash the Xbox 360 on a completely unrelated topic (which I don't deny, if you were smart enough to see my slashdot history, you'll see I've been a long time, cynic of anyone who stuffs up, no matter the brand - the 360's flaws I've outline many a time)
What does poor build quality but half decent games and NOT seggerating the market with a new peripheral (Microsoft) have to do with Nintendo seggergating their market with a peripheral which should've been released in the first place.
If you're going to try and school me, do some research.
How is 20$ individually, 10$ in a bundle (the bundled version costs a bit more than the unbundled one) a throwaway item?
How is 20$ NOT a throwaway item when a game itself is 50 or 60$ US? How is 20$ compared to a 250$ US RRP for the product such a huge increase that it simply wasn't an option at the time, it's only 8% more, they make up money on the games anyhow.
I've purchased one, had it for 7 months and sold it. Played Super Mario Galaxy and Zelda, the system simply did not compete (in my eyes) with the 360 and PS3 it shared a TV cabinet with.
I have to overall agree with your post. I prefer 7 to Vista, there's several "UI neatening" things going on making it overall easier on the eye (for classic users, we're a dying breed)
I won't rant for hours passionately as I normally do, I end up a with a +5 and sense of accomplishment that others feel the same but this isn't the place for it, Microsoft need to hear my rants, not poor/. readers.
I will say one thing though, while win7 is overall actually,.. seemingly usable thus far, for christs @#%ing sakes can they stop doing UI design 'randomly' by changing shit then running it by the oblivious testers? The god damned status bar in Windows explorer no longer displays drive free space. WHO would remove that? Why? This to me shows a clear disconnection with the development team and the real world. Sure it's only small but it's like blocking 20% of the windscreen out on a new car for no reason.... WHY? http://members.iinet.net.au/~scottylans/Statusbarfail.jpg
While I'm in only half rant, for christs sakes, let me optionally turn off the breadcrumbs, it's like aids for Windows Explorer. Otherwise - some good moves, especially on the 'named' 'date modified' 'size' etc bars on the right, no longer have that dopey, messy downarrow on them.
Please don't give me 'the tech wasn't available' or 'the tech was too expensive at the time'
Firstly, Nintendo was making a profit on the Wii hardware from the get go! They should've put it in even if it reduced that margin, other manufacturers make a loss out of the gate. Secondly, the Wii motion plus is rumoured to be a 20$ item or included with several upcoming Wii motion plus games, so how can it go from being 'too expensive' only a few years ago to being a 'throwaway item' now?
This was simply a case of either lazyness or greed and it should've been implimented in originally anyhow, the way that it appeared to be advertised in the first place! Now you've gone and you're going to seggregate the market, the ONLY way to now handle this properly is to price the Wii motion plus at a sensible price (slim profit margin) and bundle it in for free from now on, if not re-release the Wii remote with motion plus, effectively making the 'non motion plus' model impossible to buy.
I realise the Wii is still highly defended on slashdot, since we like to defy the norm here but having been an owner of a 360, PS3 and a Wii in the past 12 months, I can assure you that if you're a 'traditional' gamer rather than a party or social gamer, that little white box is a nasty, overhyped little fad and I look forward to it going where it belongs and what it's being sold as. (in the bookshelf cupboard sitting next to monopoly, to be pulled out at xmas since grandma and the family like it so much)
In conclusion, you guys damn well should've got it right in the first place, you've lost me as a customer and no, I won't be buying a Wii again.
Microsoft rushed the Xbox 360 to market for a plethora of reasons I've covered before.
The long story short is the Xbox 1 was costing them money, due to intel and nvidia being assholes about the licensing of the chips used in the system. They also wanted to beat the PS3 and Nintendo offering AND they wanted to reach the Xmas audience (06 iirc?)
It was a smart move to an extent, that full year got quite the jump on Sony and of course let them 'flush out' the Xbox 1 which was a huge cost to them (at the expense of some bitterness of Xbox 1 owners, sadly a console ended before its time)
Personally, I am quite the fussy consumer, I try to research before buying consumer goods so I skipped initially on the 360 and seemed I made the right decision. I ended up getting the falcon revision about 14 months ago but I sold it 8 months ago due to excessive noise and fear it would break anyhow.
I've stuck with my PS3 in the long run, as people CONTINUE to forget is the vast majority of good games on 360!!! just so happen to be bloody cross platform, like COD4, Bioshock, Oblivion, Rockband, Guitar Hero, DMC4, GTA4, Burnout Paradise, Fallout 3 (do I need to keep going?) None the less, 360 supporters on the web continue to claim the PS3 has 'no games' In their mind, these games don't exist on the PS3 because they have them on 360 anyhow.
Well if you only want to own a single console this might shock them but they work on the PS3 also Furthermore, the PS3 exclusive games are not ported to PC, unlike the 360 Gears, Fable, Halo have all been ported to PC and I wouldn't be surprised if F2, Gears2 and Halo 3 do eventually make it to PC.
What about Uncharted, God of War, MGS3 / 4, Little Big planet, Pixel Junk Monsters, Resistence, Killzone, Motorstorm...... these do not make it to PC. So in my not so humble opinion, the smart buy is actually a high end gaming PC and a PS3, NOT a high end gaming PC and a 360.
Furthermore, I don't need to buy a wireless adaptor, I don't need to purchase a 'special dongle' do to HDMI and optical audio out, I have a 320gb drive in my PS3 for 70$ US, I have Ubuntu on my PS3, I have PS3 media server on my PC making HD MKV's look lovely, I can charge my controllers with a 2$ USB cable not a 20$ play and charge kit, my console is quieter, I can play back blu ray movies, I can play online for free (and no, PSN isn't garbage or TERRIBLE, it's lacking one or two XBL features) I could probably go on and on but ultimately, I paid my money and now I just buy games, I don't pay 70$ AUD a year for online or anything, I feel I got the better deal.
Before people come back with the fanboy response, oddly enough I prefer my Xbox 1 to my PS2, so no I'm not some long time Sony fanboy, maybe I just naturally lean towards the underdog, who knows but the PS3 IS going to pick up steam and I am damned happy the PS2 is still here, it gives me confidence my 688$ PS3 will still have games released for it in 2,3 4 and maybe even 5 years from now - unlike my 500$ Xbox which was 'dumped' by Microsoft after 4 years.
Playstion! Please consider. (nah I don't work for Sony)
3 years ago Google snapped up youtube during part of the economic boom where companies threw around money like it was nothing.
At that point in time, youtube was filled with mostly 'video blogs' and inane rubbish, very few genuinely funny, original or interesting things were posted. I said then that I could not possibly understand how youtube is worth 1.6billion dollars.
Don't get me wrong, it's blossomed and it's cool, it's funny, it's entertaining and it has potential - it's reliable and HD mode even looks half decent but as I said then, WHERE IS THE BUSINESS MODEL?
I mean we're talking some serious, serious gigabytes of data, in hard disk space and bandwidth (obviously, duh) There's a tonne of content which is also very likely duplicated, an absoloute tonne! Do they even have an algorithm which checks if an uploaded video matches the same CRC as another to save space?
Honestly, youtube is fantastic but I don't see how they can make money. I like the service but I'm a tightass, most of us geeks are, the difference between what I'll use for free and what I'll spend my money on are massive. The second I'm paying a cent, I have expectations, I don't want to wait for some bullshit stream to come in, I don't want hickups, I don't want sound out of sync with video, I want service and I want it now.
So advertisements certainly make a bit of cash but they need something more and extracting money from people has always been difficult on the internet. Good luck to them - I hope they keep youtube going but I can't imagine in this financial climate that google will start bleeding cash wildly.
Unlike processors, memory, DVD drives, monitors or the vast majority of parts in a computer, SSD's are just breaking the infant stage of introduction. This is why you see an Intel X25M at 700$ 5 months ago, being 400$ now.
The whole industry moves fast but the next 2 years SSD's will be catching up to the more 'reasonable' pace of hardware today. Therefore it's prudent to probably wait only a small amount of time for huge increases.
Based on your examination of the situation along with anandtechs and the fact that both OCZ and Intel seem to be aggressively improving these products, it seems to me it might be silly to even consider the X25-M or the Vertex.
Something tells me the SSD scene is moving so fast that within literally 6 months one of these 2 companies (or a competitor taking note) will have a product superior in size, speed and price to those 2 very very soon.
It's a good time to have a little bit of patience I think. - Scott
Get all over the OCZ please, we need as much info as possible. We're right at the cusp of SSD's becoming reasonably priced for enthusiasts now (not just ultra-rich enthusiasts) and I for one would like to know about the 120 and 240gb OCZ drives anand has dabbled with.
Also future products might be nice too, I am almost positive OCZ will have learnt a lot in the past month, we'll see some seriously good products come out within 3 to 6 months in the SSD scene, I'm sure of it
Stupidest post I've seen on/. in a very long time. Don't even try the 'second hand smoke isn't bad' routine, it's the most inane argument I've ever heard.
even IF it didn't hurt you, it still smells bad and people shouldn't be 'forced' to endure it thanks to idiot co-workers with shitty habits.
I class 'smoking isn't PROVEN to hurt you' people in the same category as 9/11 deniers.
I'd just like to say I have always liked these kind of articles which get stories out of other/.'ers There's always some interesting folk posting here, not just the 18 - > 35 crowd but some of the older veterans with some great war stories of older hardware, cramped conditions and IT in it's infancy, those stories are often great.
More please. (I'm only 31, the worst working conditions I've ever had was after the dotcom crash, I went from 24$ an hour and 30 minutes work a day literally, to 17$ an hour no internet access and working my ass off, they wanted me to WORK for the money, it was horrific!)
I find women in the workplace a genuine distraction. I know it sounds ridiculous but when I was 'in my prime' from 18 to about 27 or so and all I could focus on was sex, whenever I was in a job with remotely attractive women I was more interested in how to chat to them, flirt, look good for them or whatever it is we silly males do to get them, than actually focus on my job.
Now that I'm 31 and my penis is essentially deceased, I can focus more on my job. (I don't though of course, I'm too busy browsing the internet) but if I had to! I could focus more than I used to, without those soft juicy bouncing distractions in the office. (I'm in a male only geek environment now)
So you've purchased machines with 32bit only CPU's in the past 12 months now have you, on a desktop PC or laptop I assume? Please, if so - name the CPU which is only 32bit for me.
It varies from brain to brain of course but caffeine addiction is quite horrible, you just often don't realise you have it.
Ever get those weekend light headaches? Your body wants the caffeine you have each day but neglect to have at work. It makes me very up and down, depressed / happy / depressed / happy - my evenings are normally horrible and morbid. I realise it's different for others but much like many drugs, different people get different reactions.
I quit from caffeine for 5 months at one point and then had 2 in a single day with some friends. They were quite shocked at my behaviour, quite seriously it was like I was on amphetamines (as someone who has had amphetamines in moderation, I can assure you the feeling was identical) I was excitable, happy, couldn't stop talking, couldn't stop moving, had to look at things in my mates house, pick things up, hold a conversation constantly. My mind was absoloutely racing, it was completely and utterly identical to taking a small amount of speed.
I've been on and off coffee at least 5 or 6 times in my life now, for stints of 4 weeks to 6 months. There's something 'warm, happy and comforting' about a nice warm, sweet coffee - it's also social with friends.
The thing is, without coffee (and infact most processed foods, sugars) I'm generally more stable, more relaxed, my energy level maintain a more regular constant. I feel healthier, I feel 'better' overall - but it takes about 3 weeks to properly wean off it and the temptation is often there.
I find I eat badly with coffee, I don't know why but coffee goes well with carbs (I'm an endomorph) I emplore all of you to try it just for 6 weeks, go without - bear with the first 2 and see how you feel, if you don't see the benefit, you can always go back to coffee and enjoy it. Some of you may not even know it's screwing you up, I didn't realise how bad the stuff is until I'd been having it for years.
Oh and finally, moderation is not an option for me, once I'm on it I have to up and up the dose until I'm at least at 3 strong cups a day, just to survive.
"Aero is faster than GDI on systems with 512MB or more GPU RAM. GDI uses the CPU, Aero uses the GPU = lower resource usage."
Rubbish. 2D acceleration has been around for donkeys years. Also, I don't need to wait for bullshit to animate. I can't believe you'd even POST that, seriously, cmon man.
With all menus set to 0ms delay under classic it's very very fast - substantially faster than aero.
It might use less CPU time (aero) somehow, due to GPU acceleration in 3D but really, using.05% of my CPU to draw a window, vs 1.5% - I still don't notice, the point is, no animation, just "control esc" and I get the start menu in about 10ms.
I firmly believe any upgrade from Vista should be substantially discounted, if not 50% or more. If you got suckered into buying Vista Ultimate for 300$ or 400$ US (whatever it was) you should get the top end Windows 7 version for no more than 199$ US, even then that seems to be stretching it.
Vista itself was overpriced (not just because it was a major flop but because XP, iirc was cheaper before hand) I would actually not be that surprised if Microsoft did actually try and be the good guys here and drop the price for Vista owners, even if it's an upgrade edition or something, they need to get people back in their favour.
Between XP, Mac and increased linux popularity, Vista has taken a real beating for a new MS OS. (in my opinion, rightfully so)
Slashdot Mirror
I'll bite,..
Please point out the spelling mistakes, I try to make my posts at least pass the grammer nazi test and I'd be curious to know where I apparently failed.
Halo is a terribly over-rated game, please don't associate my posts with it again.
No, I named the 2 games which appeal to the single player demographic, maybe Okami as well but that has been completed on the PS2 and Madworld isn't getting rave reviews either.
As somone who doesn't live in the states, I can tell you now, we don't want goddamn Hulu either.
I wish there was a greasemonkey script to completely and utterly remove the word from the internet for me, it completely goes against the principles of the internet as far as I'm concerned
IP region locking is a deplorable act, please don't mention Hulu again. - seriously, let them die.
This is worse than the plague or sudden infant death.
Who are adobe kidding? Seriously, I just heard one of my co-workers shoot himself when I sent him the link here.
I DETEST flash video, the vast, vast majority of sites get it 'wrong' few of them work well, the buffering system is horrible and it's an added expense to my television to boot.
The quality sucks, I hate having to start a movie, then hit pause to get it to stream some ahead.
Bandwidth just isn't there for this, sure it works sometimes but I would never consider paying for flash video.
Adobe might be well regarded by mac users but I for one loathe most of their products, look at foxit reader - it actually makes PDF usable.
To exaggerate the point, most of adobes software is like digital aids and I would like to register my strong 'no' vote right here please.
Maybe so but I play single player games for a great storyline, I play my PC and PS3 extensively.
The wii caters for the casual, party casual crowd with very very few games for a regular single player gamer (Mario and Zelda aside)
The controller is downright infuriatingly inaccurate and I honestly present to you, just how many bloody Wii games can be clocked, simply by putting the controller in the dryer on a spin cycle? (seriously!)
There's little to no element of skill in using it and that translates to a lack of 'seriousness' in the gaming that FAT NERDS I ADMIT like myself appreciate.
The direct motion plus feel would've been badass, I could've looked past 480p, I could've looked past no internal storage or shitty SHITTy online matchmaking, naming etc I could look past a plethora of other technical issues with the thing if at least the games, gameplay and controls were at least cool, badass or downright fun.
I happily maintain and I will stand by calling it a toy, the vast VAST majority of Wii purchasers are buying it to put it in the loungeroom as a guitar hero and Wii play / Wii sports machine, it's like a kareoke machine to an extent, it really doesn't have the feel, design or user experience as a 'proper console' and I feel, besides the controllers unique angle, it's comfortably living in the late 90's - right down to the terrible online experience.
Yes I owned one but sorry I would not again, I don't even rate the 360, yet it's 348$ AUD and the Wii is 399$ AUD - that's a 60gb 'pro' 360 mind you.
Really, this thing is over-rated and the least of my complaints should be the terrible controller which could've been right from the get go.
Flame me away and enjoy your Wii (although much like many internet bandwagon products, I wonder how many of the defenders here actually own AND use the product)
Are you taking the piss here or something?
You link to 'gyroscope prices' this is like linking me to newegg.com/blurayreaders and insisting that's what it costs to put the bluray in the PS3.
This is a mass purchased product, it's not sold as a toy like the ones you've linked
(the individual gyroscopes I'm referring to) and again the motion plus is TWENTY DOLLARS
and gyroscopes have been around for years, I mean really, we KNOW it's 20$ - what, was the tech inside the motion plus 25$ before? 250$? is the contents of the motion plus 2000$ worth of hardware only 2 years ago?
The motion plus is a small chunk of plastic with 'stuff' in it, it is packaged, tested, includes profit, it's to be marketed, manufactured, researched all for 20$
If anything, if it was done 'in the first place' it might have been 10$ more cost to the Wii, maybe 20$, EVEN 30$! back then - considering their total sales and profit margins can you not see where I'm coming from.
Also, I'm in no way even remotely the first person to say this, there's a large backlash brewing against the motion plus online as 'how it should've been' also sales are tapering in Japan as the fad is finally wearing off.
Who cares if you care if I buy another Wii? Who cares if the 360 is a piece of unreliable shit? Who cares if my PS3's fan turns on in heavily GPU intensive games? Who cares if I sold my Wii and found it to be an unwise purchase.
The whole point of slashdot is commentary, I'm expressing my opinion, people are happy to agree, disagree, flame, moderate, laugh, cheer or sneer, I don't care too much but really half your posts sounds as if there shouldn't be any posts at all, why don't we just disabled comments?
If you can provide me with a link, clearly stating what parts are used (or similar ones) how they differ from thesixasxis, iphone and regular Wii controller, how much they cost I'd be curious to read it.
Why I'm replying to an AC, I don't entirely know, your post is mostly invalidated around here without a username as it is in most peoples eyes.
How is it that you can ask me to find the value of each individual component when we know the SUM of the addon itself is 20$ ? That answers all the relevant information required.
Furthermore, you take the oppourtunity to bash the Xbox 360 on a completely unrelated topic (which I don't deny, if you were smart enough to see my slashdot history, you'll see I've been a long time, cynic of anyone who stuffs up, no matter the brand - the 360's flaws I've outline many a time)
What does poor build quality but half decent games and NOT seggerating the market with a new peripheral (Microsoft) have to do with Nintendo seggergating their market with a peripheral which should've been released in the first place.
If you're going to try and school me, do some research.
How is 20$ individually, 10$ in a bundle (the bundled version costs a bit more than the unbundled one) a throwaway item?
How is 20$ NOT a throwaway item when a game itself is 50 or 60$ US?
How is 20$ compared to a 250$ US RRP for the product such a huge increase that it simply wasn't an option at the time, it's only 8% more, they make up money on the games anyhow.
I've purchased one, had it for 7 months and sold it.
Played Super Mario Galaxy and Zelda, the system simply did not compete (in my eyes) with the 360 and PS3 it shared a TV cabinet with.
I have to overall agree with your post.
I prefer 7 to Vista, there's several "UI neatening" things going on making it overall easier on the eye (for classic users, we're a dying breed)
I won't rant for hours passionately as I normally do, I end up a with a +5 and sense of accomplishment that others feel the same but this isn't the place for it, Microsoft need to hear my rants, not poor /. readers.
I will say one thing though, while win7 is overall actually,.. seemingly usable thus far, for christs @#%ing sakes can they stop doing UI design 'randomly' by changing shit then running it by the oblivious testers?
The god damned status bar in Windows explorer no longer displays drive free space.
WHO would remove that? Why? This to me shows a clear disconnection with the development team and the real world.
Sure it's only small but it's like blocking 20% of the windscreen out on a new car for no reason.... WHY?
http://members.iinet.net.au/~scottylans/Statusbarfail.jpg
While I'm in only half rant, for christs sakes, let me optionally turn off the breadcrumbs, it's like aids for Windows Explorer.
Otherwise - some good moves, especially on the 'named' 'date modified' 'size' etc bars on the right, no longer have that dopey, messy downarrow on them.
- Scott
Wait till you see the medical bills now *that's* a lot of ipods! :(
Please don't give me 'the tech wasn't available' or 'the tech was too expensive at the time'
Firstly, Nintendo was making a profit on the Wii hardware from the get go! They should've put it in even if it reduced that margin, other manufacturers make a loss out of the gate.
Secondly, the Wii motion plus is rumoured to be a 20$ item or included with several upcoming Wii motion plus games, so how can it go from being 'too expensive' only a few years ago to being a 'throwaway item' now?
This was simply a case of either lazyness or greed and it should've been implimented in originally anyhow, the way that it appeared to be advertised in the first place!
Now you've gone and you're going to seggregate the market, the ONLY way to now handle this properly is to price the Wii motion plus at a sensible price (slim profit margin) and bundle it in for free from now on, if not re-release the Wii remote with motion plus, effectively making the 'non motion plus' model impossible to buy.
I realise the Wii is still highly defended on slashdot, since we like to defy the norm here but having been an owner of a 360, PS3 and a Wii in the past 12 months, I can assure you that if you're a 'traditional' gamer rather than a party or social gamer, that little white box is a nasty, overhyped little fad and I look forward to it going where it belongs and what it's being sold as. (in the bookshelf cupboard sitting next to monopoly, to be pulled out at xmas since grandma and the family like it so much)
In conclusion, you guys damn well should've got it right in the first place, you've lost me as a customer and no, I won't be buying a Wii again.
Microsoft rushed the Xbox 360 to market for a plethora of reasons I've covered before.
The long story short is the Xbox 1 was costing them money, due to intel and nvidia being assholes about the licensing of the chips used in the system.
They also wanted to beat the PS3 and Nintendo offering AND they wanted to reach the Xmas audience (06 iirc?)
It was a smart move to an extent, that full year got quite the jump on Sony and of course let them 'flush out' the Xbox 1 which was a huge cost to them (at the expense of some bitterness of Xbox 1 owners, sadly a console ended before its time)
Personally, I am quite the fussy consumer, I try to research before buying consumer goods so I skipped initially on the 360 and seemed I made the right decision.
I ended up getting the falcon revision about 14 months ago but I sold it 8 months ago due to excessive noise and fear it would break anyhow.
I've stuck with my PS3 in the long run, as people CONTINUE to forget is the vast majority of good games on 360!!! just so happen to be bloody cross platform, like COD4, Bioshock, Oblivion, Rockband, Guitar Hero, DMC4, GTA4, Burnout Paradise, Fallout 3 (do I need to keep going?)
None the less, 360 supporters on the web continue to claim the PS3 has 'no games'
In their mind, these games don't exist on the PS3 because they have them on 360 anyhow.
Well if you only want to own a single console this might shock them but they work on the PS3 also
Furthermore, the PS3 exclusive games are not ported to PC, unlike the 360
Gears, Fable, Halo have all been ported to PC and I wouldn't be surprised if F2, Gears2 and Halo 3 do eventually make it to PC.
What about Uncharted, God of War, MGS3 / 4, Little Big planet, Pixel Junk Monsters, Resistence, Killzone, Motorstorm...... these do not make it to PC.
So in my not so humble opinion, the smart buy is actually a high end gaming PC and a PS3, NOT a high end gaming PC and a 360.
Furthermore, I don't need to buy a wireless adaptor, I don't need to purchase a 'special dongle' do to HDMI and optical audio out, I have a 320gb drive in my PS3 for 70$ US, I have Ubuntu on my PS3, I have PS3 media server on my PC making HD MKV's look lovely, I can charge my controllers with a 2$ USB cable not a 20$ play and charge kit, my console is quieter, I can play back blu ray movies, I can play online for free (and no, PSN isn't garbage or TERRIBLE, it's lacking one or two XBL features)
I could probably go on and on but ultimately, I paid my money and now I just buy games, I don't pay 70$ AUD a year for online or anything, I feel I got the better deal.
Before people come back with the fanboy response, oddly enough I prefer my Xbox 1 to my PS2, so no I'm not some long time Sony fanboy, maybe I just naturally lean towards the underdog, who knows but the PS3 IS going to pick up steam and I am damned happy the PS2 is still here, it gives me confidence my 688$ PS3 will still have games released for it in 2,3 4 and maybe even 5 years from now - unlike my 500$ Xbox which was 'dumped' by Microsoft after 4 years.
Playstion! Please consider.
(nah I don't work for Sony)
3 years ago Google snapped up youtube during part of the economic boom where companies threw around money like it was nothing.
At that point in time, youtube was filled with mostly 'video blogs' and inane rubbish, very few genuinely funny, original or interesting things were posted.
I said then that I could not possibly understand how youtube is worth 1.6billion dollars.
Don't get me wrong, it's blossomed and it's cool, it's funny, it's entertaining and it has potential - it's reliable and HD mode even looks half decent but as I said then, WHERE IS THE BUSINESS MODEL?
I mean we're talking some serious, serious gigabytes of data, in hard disk space and bandwidth (obviously, duh)
There's a tonne of content which is also very likely duplicated, an absoloute tonne! Do they even have an algorithm which checks if an uploaded video matches the same CRC as another to save space?
Honestly, youtube is fantastic but I don't see how they can make money.
I like the service but I'm a tightass, most of us geeks are, the difference between what I'll use for free and what I'll spend my money on are massive.
The second I'm paying a cent, I have expectations, I don't want to wait for some bullshit stream to come in, I don't want hickups, I don't want sound out of sync with video, I want service and I want it now.
So advertisements certainly make a bit of cash but they need something more and extracting money from people has always been difficult on the internet.
Good luck to them - I hope they keep youtube going but I can't imagine in this financial climate that google will start bleeding cash wildly.
Unlike processors, memory, DVD drives, monitors or the vast majority of parts in a computer, SSD's are just breaking the infant stage of introduction.
This is why you see an Intel X25M at 700$ 5 months ago, being 400$ now.
The whole industry moves fast but the next 2 years SSD's will be catching up to the more 'reasonable' pace of hardware today.
Therefore it's prudent to probably wait only a small amount of time for huge increases.
Based on your examination of the situation along with anandtechs and the fact that both OCZ and Intel seem to be aggressively improving these products, it seems to me it might be silly to even consider the X25-M or the Vertex.
Something tells me the SSD scene is moving so fast that within literally 6 months one of these 2 companies (or a competitor taking note) will have a product superior in size, speed and price to those 2 very very soon.
It's a good time to have a little bit of patience I think.
- Scott
Get all over the OCZ please, we need as much info as possible.
We're right at the cusp of SSD's becoming reasonably priced for enthusiasts now (not just ultra-rich enthusiasts) and I for one would like to know about the 120 and 240gb OCZ drives anand has dabbled with.
Also future products might be nice too, I am almost positive OCZ will have learnt a lot in the past month, we'll see some seriously good products come out within 3 to 6 months in the SSD scene, I'm sure of it
Stupidest post I've seen on /. in a very long time.
Don't even try the 'second hand smoke isn't bad' routine, it's the most inane argument I've ever heard.
even IF it didn't hurt you, it still smells bad and people shouldn't be 'forced' to endure it thanks to idiot co-workers with shitty habits.
I class 'smoking isn't PROVEN to hurt you' people in the same category as 9/11 deniers.
I'd just like to say I have always liked these kind of articles which get stories out of other /.'ers
There's always some interesting folk posting here, not just the 18 - > 35 crowd but some of the older veterans with some great war stories of older hardware, cramped conditions and IT in it's infancy, those stories are often great.
More please.
(I'm only 31, the worst working conditions I've ever had was after the dotcom crash, I went from 24$ an hour and 30 minutes work a day literally, to 17$ an hour no internet access and working my ass off, they wanted me to WORK for the money, it was horrific!)
I find women in the workplace a genuine distraction.
I know it sounds ridiculous but when I was 'in my prime' from 18 to about 27 or so and all I could focus on was sex, whenever I was in a job with remotely attractive women I was more interested in how to chat to them, flirt, look good for them or whatever it is we silly males do to get them, than actually focus on my job.
Now that I'm 31 and my penis is essentially deceased, I can focus more on my job.
(I don't though of course, I'm too busy browsing the internet) but if I had to! I could focus more than I used to, without those soft juicy bouncing distractions in the office.
(I'm in a male only geek environment now)
Something 2x slower is still fine if it's .01ms vs .02ms.
Especially when I need not wait for some pointless animation.
I'd put money hands down I could beat anyone at explorer operations in Windows classic mode to Aero, Luna or any other fluffy 3D thing.
So you've purchased machines with 32bit only CPU's in the past 12 months now have you, on a desktop PC or laptop I assume?
Please, if so - name the CPU which is only 32bit for me.
It varies from brain to brain of course but caffeine addiction is quite horrible, you just often don't realise you have it.
Ever get those weekend light headaches? Your body wants the caffeine you have each day but neglect to have at work.
It makes me very up and down, depressed / happy / depressed / happy - my evenings are normally horrible and morbid.
I realise it's different for others but much like many drugs, different people get different reactions.
I quit from caffeine for 5 months at one point and then had 2 in a single day with some friends.
They were quite shocked at my behaviour, quite seriously it was like I was on amphetamines (as someone who has had amphetamines in moderation, I can assure you the feeling was identical)
I was excitable, happy, couldn't stop talking, couldn't stop moving, had to look at things in my mates house, pick things up, hold a conversation constantly.
My mind was absoloutely racing, it was completely and utterly identical to taking a small amount of speed.
I've been on and off coffee at least 5 or 6 times in my life now, for stints of 4 weeks to 6 months.
There's something 'warm, happy and comforting' about a nice warm, sweet coffee - it's also social with friends.
The thing is, without coffee (and infact most processed foods, sugars) I'm generally more stable, more relaxed, my energy level maintain a more regular constant.
I feel healthier, I feel 'better' overall - but it takes about 3 weeks to properly wean off it and the temptation is often there.
I find I eat badly with coffee, I don't know why but coffee goes well with carbs (I'm an endomorph)
I emplore all of you to try it just for 6 weeks, go without - bear with the first 2 and see how you feel, if you don't see the benefit, you can always go back to coffee and enjoy it.
Some of you may not even know it's screwing you up, I didn't realise how bad the stuff is until I'd been having it for years.
Oh and finally, moderation is not an option for me, once I'm on it I have to up and up the dose until I'm at least at 3 strong cups a day, just to survive.
"Aero is faster than GDI on systems with 512MB or more GPU RAM. GDI uses the CPU, Aero uses the GPU = lower resource usage."
Rubbish.
2D acceleration has been around for donkeys years.
Also, I don't need to wait for bullshit to animate.
I can't believe you'd even POST that, seriously, cmon man.
With all menus set to 0ms delay under classic it's very very fast - substantially faster than aero.
It might use less CPU time (aero) somehow, due to GPU acceleration in 3D but really, using .05% of my CPU to draw a window, vs 1.5% - I still don't notice, the point is, no animation, just "control esc" and I get the start menu in about 10ms.
I firmly believe any upgrade from Vista should be substantially discounted, if not 50% or more.
If you got suckered into buying Vista Ultimate for 300$ or 400$ US (whatever it was) you should get the top end Windows 7 version for no more than 199$ US, even then that seems to be stretching it.
Vista itself was overpriced (not just because it was a major flop but because XP, iirc was cheaper before hand)
I would actually not be that surprised if Microsoft did actually try and be the good guys here and drop the price for Vista owners, even if it's an upgrade edition or something, they need to get people back in their favour.
Between XP, Mac and increased linux popularity, Vista has taken a real beating for a new MS OS.
(in my opinion, rightfully so)