Do you think that at that time, several manufacturers will continue to sell competing platforms, like movie cameras are now (to use another of your examples), or that they will all build a standardized platform, like what 3DO was trying to set up?
The record industry is doomed because we no longer need any industry to record data (musical or otherwise) thanks to personal computers which even using entirely free software can be better then entire recording studios few years ago.
I am so tired of seeing this mantra repeated over and over.
I am a university-schooled musician. Today's home studios are powerful in many ways, but they are still completely outclassed by a professional environment. There are several factors that are important to the equation that any reasonably-priced home studio will most likely not have:
- A good acoustic space. Your basement or a spare bedroom is hardly the ideal location to record live audio in.
- Quality microphones. There are some good - and relatively cheap - microphones out now, but they will not compare to the vast arsenal that a real studio has.
- Sound engineering experience. Professional studios have technicians whose job is to make recordings sounds good. They will almost always do a better job than someone who is trying to write the music, perform the music, and record the music all by themselves.
Even setting all of that aside, the real benefit of a label is their distribution network. The vast majority of sales are still in retail stores or mail-order. Those retailers need a handful of labels to order from, not 10,000 individuals.
I doubt that a warrant is necessary in order to confiscate $10,000 worth of illegal "mix discs."
Just because a store is independent doesn't suddenly make them immune to copyright laws. They were selling bootleg compilations produced by DJs from other people's albums. What did they expect?
You lose the moral high ground by pirating music instead of simply doing without it.
No one is forcing you to own music from RIAA-affiliated labels.
There is also no legal guarantee of being able to purchase media in the format you want it in. The "I'm only using illegal file sharing because major labels don't sell music online!" argument is like saying that if there's a movie I want that's only available on DVD and I prefer VHS, that it's somehow okay for me to copy an old tape from the library instead of either doing without it or buying the DVD version.
Kevin Warwick is really overrated by the media (and himself, IMO). The last time I checked, the extent of his "cybernetic implant" was a chip that did something like emit radio waves so that doors in his house would open automatically for him.
The real pioneers of this technology are the ones who go to Europe to have electrodes implanted in their brain to participate in artificial vision research that's currently illegal in the US. I am not a fan of animal experimentation, and a human that can verbally describe what they're seeing seems like a more useful way to gather data than trying to infer it from a monkey's behaviour.
In the case of this article, it seems like being able to tell someone "now try moving the robotic arm without moving your real one" is a lot more straightforward than waiting for a monkey to figure it out on their own.
I'm sure there are many people with disabilities (and even some without them) who would be interested in participating in research like this. I know I would, if I became blind or lost the use of a limb. I'm glad that the article mentions that human trials are now beginning.
Remember that the Xbox has a hard drive and ethernet as it ships, it has better video output capabilities, it has four controller ports. To get all this on your PS2, even priced at $99, will put it well above the Xbox's price.
Not everyone is interested in those features. I am not into multiplayer gaming (online or off), so ports for ethernet and more controllers are an unnecessary cost as far as I'm concerned.
The EB near where I work had two copies of Eternal Darkness for $14.99 when I went in to pre-order the new Legacy of Kain game, and I just bought an unused copy of Rogue Leader on eBay for about the same price.
Obviously newly-released games are still going to cost a lot, but that's a given on any platform.
"I really wish that these media outlets would stop pretending the N-Gage is a real game system."
But then they'd have to give back the wads of cash that Nokia doubtlessly gave them to add separate sections for the N-Gage to their sites well in advance of the launch.
Seriously, Nokia is desperate to sell these. They had an offer going to pay people to sit in public places, play games on an N-Gage, and try and convince others to buy one. What does that say about the quality of it as a gaming system, that they can't just depend on legitimate word of mouth?
Mention was also made in the road map of a new online update service (big whoop), and SmallFoot, which is a "Retail Hardened POS solution" (their words, not mine). When did "you want fries with that?" become associated with the five 9's of reliability?
I know that a lot of IT workers are out of touch with the retail industry, but this seems a little arrogant.
Designing a stable, reliable point-of-sale system for long-term use (because retail corporations tend to replace POS systems on the order of once every twenty years) is a huge challenge. I'm involved with a project like that now.
Cash registers are where the money comes into a retail corporation. If they're broken because the designer figured that 80% reliability was good enough, then you don't take in money that day, or you use a notepad, pen, and manual credit card imprinter. A lot of your customers will walk out your door and down the street to someone who bought a better system.
The POS system we're replacing was bought in 1983. The servers are the size of washing machines and have 8.5" disk drives. They're still running. How many of you are working on systems you expect to last that long?
I'm not saying that SCO's system is any good, just that I've noticed a tendency for tech geeks not to understand why making a good POS system is a challenge, and something you'd want to mention as an achievement.
I seriously doubt that a game developer would be willing to put up with the massive performance loss of using VMWare. We've got it here where I work (for app development, not gaming), and it's incredibly slow.
One big advantage that backward compatibility can have is the ability to improve the look of older games. The PS2 will smooth out textures on PS1 games, for example, and make them load much faster.
I also never owned a PS1, so being able to play games for it on my PS2 means I don't need to buy another Sony console for them.
nothing about peaceful assembly, establishment or exercise of religion, or freedom of the press.
Did you even read the article? It is all about freedom of the press. E.G. their ability to report on things while protecting confidential sources who wouldn't come forward otherwise.
The point of this article isn't about the rights of the accused (which is an important, but separate discussion), it's about the rights of the press.
If the press can't keep their sources confidential, they won't be able to report on many critical issues. Especially with the rapidly-expanding use of "anti-terrorism" legislation to prosecute virtually anything, potential sources will simply be too afraid to give any information to journalists.
Hey editors, obviously we need two new mods - (+1, Anti-Piracy) and (-1, Criticizing Me For Doing Something Illegal).
This isn't a troll, and neither are the hundreds of posts that criticize pirates that are also modded as trolls. It's a legitimate comment, because people who pirate music are going to come up with another excuse just as the parent is implying.
Most serious pirates are not like that. The ones I've known do things like fill entire 500 CD binders with bootleg Playstation and Dreamcast games, or build terabyte RAID arrays to hold the DivX films and mp3s that they refuse to buy the original CDs and DVDs for.
...and of course you're modded down as a troll for telling people something they don't want to hear.
Seriously, the mass of Slashdot readers who feel like they're entitled to all the media they can get their hands on whether they can pay for it or not really grate on my nerves.
On the one hand, so many of you expect media to be super-cheap (or free) and that "they shouldn't pay their workers so much," and on the other the same people freak out when tech jobs are exported to India for the same reason.
What level of quality to do moves/games/music/software have to achieve for pirates to say, "Okay, they're good enough to buy now. We'll stop pirating"?
Slashdot Mirror
Do you think that at that time, several manufacturers will continue to sell competing platforms, like movie cameras are now (to use another of your examples), or that they will all build a standardized platform, like what 3DO was trying to set up?
The record industry is doomed because we no longer need any industry to record data (musical or otherwise) thanks to personal computers which even using entirely free software can be better then entire recording studios few years ago.
I am so tired of seeing this mantra repeated over and over.
I am a university-schooled musician. Today's home studios are powerful in many ways, but they are still completely outclassed by a professional environment. There are several factors that are important to the equation that any reasonably-priced home studio will most likely not have:
- A good acoustic space. Your basement or a spare bedroom is hardly the ideal location to record live audio in.
- Quality microphones. There are some good - and relatively cheap - microphones out now, but they will not compare to the vast arsenal that a real studio has.
- Sound engineering experience. Professional studios have technicians whose job is to make recordings sounds good. They will almost always do a better job than someone who is trying to write the music, perform the music, and record the music all by themselves.
Even setting all of that aside, the real benefit of a label is their distribution network. The vast majority of sales are still in retail stores or mail-order. Those retailers need a handful of labels to order from, not 10,000 individuals.
I doubt that a warrant is necessary in order to confiscate $10,000 worth of illegal "mix discs."
Just because a store is independent doesn't suddenly make them immune to copyright laws. They were selling bootleg compilations produced by DJs from other people's albums. What did they expect?
You lose the moral high ground by pirating music instead of simply doing without it.
No one is forcing you to own music from RIAA-affiliated labels.
There is also no legal guarantee of being able to purchase media in the format you want it in. The "I'm only using illegal file sharing because major labels don't sell music online!" argument is like saying that if there's a movie I want that's only available on DVD and I prefer VHS, that it's somehow okay for me to copy an old tape from the library instead of either doing without it or buying the DVD version.
Kevin Warwick is really overrated by the media (and himself, IMO). The last time I checked, the extent of his "cybernetic implant" was a chip that did something like emit radio waves so that doors in his house would open automatically for him.
The real pioneers of this technology are the ones who go to Europe to have electrodes implanted in their brain to participate in artificial vision research that's currently illegal in the US. I am not a fan of animal experimentation, and a human that can verbally describe what they're seeing seems like a more useful way to gather data than trying to infer it from a monkey's behaviour.
In the case of this article, it seems like being able to tell someone "now try moving the robotic arm without moving your real one" is a lot more straightforward than waiting for a monkey to figure it out on their own.
I'm sure there are many people with disabilities (and even some without them) who would be interested in participating in research like this. I know I would, if I became blind or lost the use of a limb. I'm glad that the article mentions that human trials are now beginning.
...64% of readers surveyed agreed that the grass does appear to look greener on the other side of the fence.
Remember that the Xbox has a hard drive and ethernet as it ships, it has better video output capabilities, it has four controller ports. To get all this on your PS2, even priced at $99, will put it well above the Xbox's price.
Not everyone is interested in those features. I am not into multiplayer gaming (online or off), so ports for ethernet and more controllers are an unnecessary cost as far as I'm concerned.
2000 is the third release of NT. They started numbering it at 3.xx.
It's a little inaccurate to compare the PS2 and the XBox processors based only on their clock speed. The EE is a totally different architecture.
Also, I assume most people who are running Linux on a PS2 are coders. The MIPS assembly that the PS2 uses is much nicer than x86, IMO.
I think you're shopping at the wrong place(s).
The EB near where I work had two copies of Eternal Darkness for $14.99 when I went in to pre-order the new Legacy of Kain game, and I just bought an unused copy of Rogue Leader on eBay for about the same price.
Obviously newly-released games are still going to cost a lot, but that's a given on any platform.
Slashdot: where spammers sending you unwanted email are the scum of the earth, but media pirates are fighting the system of unfair prices.
It's like a dorky version of the middle east.
"I really wish that these media outlets would stop pretending the N-Gage is a real game system."
But then they'd have to give back the wads of cash that Nokia doubtlessly gave them to add separate sections for the N-Gage to their sites well in advance of the launch.
Seriously, Nokia is desperate to sell these. They had an offer going to pay people to sit in public places, play games on an N-Gage, and try and convince others to buy one. What does that say about the quality of it as a gaming system, that they can't just depend on legitimate word of mouth?
Mention was also made in the road map of a new online update service (big whoop), and SmallFoot, which is a "Retail Hardened POS solution" (their words, not mine). When did "you want fries with that?" become associated with the five 9's of reliability?
I know that a lot of IT workers are out of touch with the retail industry, but this seems a little arrogant.
Designing a stable, reliable point-of-sale system for long-term use (because retail corporations tend to replace POS systems on the order of once every twenty years) is a huge challenge. I'm involved with a project like that now.
Cash registers are where the money comes into a retail corporation. If they're broken because the designer figured that 80% reliability was good enough, then you don't take in money that day, or you use a notepad, pen, and manual credit card imprinter. A lot of your customers will walk out your door and down the street to someone who bought a better system.
The POS system we're replacing was bought in 1983. The servers are the size of washing machines and have 8.5" disk drives. They're still running. How many of you are working on systems you expect to last that long?
I'm not saying that SCO's system is any good, just that I've noticed a tendency for tech geeks not to understand why making a good POS system is a challenge, and something you'd want to mention as an achievement.
I seriously doubt that a game developer would be willing to put up with the massive performance loss of using VMWare. We've got it here where I work (for app development, not gaming), and it's incredibly slow.
6. It doesn't run the software I want.
7. I don't get to build it myself to my specs.
All the power in the world is meaningless if it doesn't have the apps and games I'm interested in using.
I am also not a big fan of buying off-the-shelf systems. I like to piece mine together using exactly the parts I want.
The austere aluminum look is too sterile for my taste, as well.
I would guess it's a phone number. 310 is an area code for Los Angeles.
One big advantage that backward compatibility can have is the ability to improve the look of older games. The PS2 will smooth out textures on PS1 games, for example, and make them load much faster.
I also never owned a PS1, so being able to play games for it on my PS2 means I don't need to buy another Sony console for them.
nothing about peaceful assembly, establishment or exercise of religion, or freedom of the press.
Did you even read the article? It is all about freedom of the press. E.G. their ability to report on things while protecting confidential sources who wouldn't come forward otherwise.
The point of this article isn't about the rights of the accused (which is an important, but separate discussion), it's about the rights of the press.
If the press can't keep their sources confidential, they won't be able to report on many critical issues. Especially with the rapidly-expanding use of "anti-terrorism" legislation to prosecute virtually anything, potential sources will simply be too afraid to give any information to journalists.
I actually posted a link to the Duality website back in this post, but I think that the ones with real stories like Broken Allegiance, The Dark Redemption, The Formula, and most recently Reciprocity (no relation to Duality that I'm aware of) destroy any FX-only project like Duality or AotS2.
Every version of Winamp since 3 supports Ogg Vorbis without any plugins.
Hey editors, obviously we need two new mods - (+1, Anti-Piracy) and (-1, Criticizing Me For Doing Something Illegal).
This isn't a troll, and neither are the hundreds of posts that criticize pirates that are also modded as trolls. It's a legitimate comment, because people who pirate music are going to come up with another excuse just as the parent is implying.
Most serious pirates are not like that. The ones I've known do things like fill entire 500 CD binders with bootleg Playstation and Dreamcast games, or build terabyte RAID arrays to hold the DivX films and mp3s that they refuse to buy the original CDs and DVDs for.
...and of course you're modded down as a troll for telling people something they don't want to hear.
Seriously, the mass of Slashdot readers who feel like they're entitled to all the media they can get their hands on whether they can pay for it or not really grate on my nerves.
On the one hand, so many of you expect media to be super-cheap (or free) and that "they shouldn't pay their workers so much," and on the other the same people freak out when tech jobs are exported to India for the same reason.
What level of quality to do moves/games/music/software have to achieve for pirates to say, "Okay, they're good enough to buy now. We'll stop pirating"?
Shh, they get defensive when you ask that.