.. from all Radio Shacks in North America (long story - but that's what the manager told me with a straight face), I can honestly say this sucks.
The policy of annoying customers, combined with the policy of overcharging for every single useless item in the store, was *THIS* close to driving my most hated of retail franchises into extinction.
Re:I am sure Gates will be real upset about this o
on
XBOX Media Player 2.0
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Hundred million loss from the whole home entertainment division.
Down from a projected half-billion. Slashdot didn't mention that.
MSFT expected xbox to turn a profit in 4 years. At this rate, it's only going to take 2.
>> Wake up. Stop being blinded by your hate for MS.
I'm impressed that Microsoft found a way to turn that hatred into cold, hard cash.
People actually believe they're "screwing" Microsoft when they buy their products, be it a modded xbox, or formatting the hard drive on their Dell to install linux.
Of all the business tactics they've ever used - I have to say I'm thoroughly impressed with this one.
Re:I am sure Gates will be real upset about this o
on
XBOX Media Player 2.0
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· Score: 1
Show me proof they sell it at a 'huge loss', and not some kids website that assumes they do, or some speculation from some newspaper.
Show me a red line item in MSFT's budget.
And then go buy a Mustang at "prices so they're giving them away!!" - but don't drive it. That'll really screw Ford.
Even if they did, the more sold, the more produced, and the cheaper they can produce em. Eventually they'll get 'in the black'. And the larger installed base entices developers.
MSFT would lose much more with them sitting in a warehouse collecting dust.
But, I doubt they do. It's an old industry myth - and one the industry doesn't want to die.
I see it kind of like the local used car dealership advertising "prices so low, we're practically giving them away!!"
Ok, I've said it before, I'll say it again.. This deserves a little redundancy.
Why all the free publicity for xbox, when you can get a PS2, install linux, and use that as your media centre - no modding required? Even w/o linux, there's a ton of homebrewed PS2 stuff out there.
Which hurts MSFT more? Buying an xbox, or buying a PS2?
The more xboxes are sold, the more profitable the xbox division becomes, regardless of what they're used for.
This is what they want:
"Hey [developer], we have a larger installed user base than PS2 or GameCube."
Re:I am sure Gates will be real upset about this o
on
XBOX Media Player 2.0
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· Score: 2, Funny
Oh yeah, flamebait.
I'm so sorry mods.
Yeah! We R l337! W R fuxoring Gates! He dumb ass! Me xbox mod! Me buy 6 xboxes and mod them all! Gates be sorry!
Me buy 20 copies of XP and not install them! Gates extra sorry. Me show him!
Y'all are idiots.
I am sure Gates will be real upset about this one.
on
XBOX Media Player 2.0
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Why? The more they sell, the more they produce, they cheaper they produce 'em, and the closer they get to turning a profit on every piece of hardware.
The more consoles they can show sold, the more they can entice developers, and the more software they can make a royalty on.
Media Player or Linux or no, 99.9% of xbox owners eventually want to buy or rent a game.
If you really want to screw Gates, build yourself a 300$ PC, and quit it with this "I'm stickin it to the man" crap.
BTW, Xbox media player is developed illegally with the leaked XBOX SDK from MicroSoft. Thanks for the warez tip, though. Any idea when Doom III final going to hit my local fserves?
The Lindows case, in my mind, is wholly different. This is another company offering a directly competing product, purposely named similarly. In that case, Lindows is clearly trying to cash in on the name recognition that MS has built up around their Windows OS line. Thats what trademarks are designed to prevent.
It could be construed that Lindows is deliberately trying to trick computer illiterates into thinking it's somehow a MS operating system, or otherwise approved by them.
It'd be like me marketing a GrayStation 2 or a FameCube.
I know everyone hates MS, but they do have a leg to stand on.
>> Now, you can argue that Visa shouldn't be allowed to trademark dictionary words, and you're probably right
Of course you can trademark dictionary words, or combinations of them.
Are you saying every company should make up some gibberish string of characters for every product or service they want to offer?
How would you like a alvnernmpal digelflorp?
A trademark only applies to the specific product or service, though. And it's only being violated if someone uses it for a similar product or service.
Trademarks are valuable not only to corporations, but to you. If you buy a Ford Explorer, you're getting a Ford Explorer. If I sold you a mo-ped and told you it was a Ford Explorer, I'd be guilty of fraud - because I misrepresented it as a trademarked good. If not for the trademark, I'd be innocent so long as there was a sticker on it saying 'Ford Explorer'.
In this case, if evisa offers credit, or some other financial services, they'd be fraudulently tricking people into thinking they're Visa.
But the name of the company doesnt matter. If you go to the website to apply for a credit card, you quickly realize that it's not the same company at all.
They aren't going to trick you into booking a vacation thinking that there's a gold card waiting in Tahiti for you.
I'd like to add to that.. For all the people who think 300+ FPS is a waste, since your monitor only refreshes at 60-125hz.
They don't think about minimizing the effects of tearing, when you're turning or strafing in a game. With vsync off, there will always be tearing, but with the extra horsepower, it'll be less noticable.
At 300 fps, there will be 5 tears as your turning, each stepped a little behind the other. This is much less noticable than the one wide tear you'd see at 60fps.
People always slam new tech. Hell, I remember people bitching that 16 bit color was a waste, the 256 colors they got in MCGA mode was all that was needed.
>> So, no, buying a laptop for gaming is pointless.
While I do agree, buying a laptop specifically for gaming, ie; lugging it to LAN parties, is still pointless. You're better off with a flex atx form factor box and a light monitor, be it LCD or whatever.
But embedded video chipsets have evolved to the point that they can play a game, although it's nothing to write home about - there actually is true 3D accelleration from the Radeon Mobiles, nForce, and intel 845G chipsets.
I guess the advantage is that you can pass the business flights playing NOLF instead of Solitaire. Provided the flight isn't much longer than an hour or two.
>> Sounds like good scientific practice to me. Granted, "'We can't prove that this was strange quark matter, but that is the only explanation that has been offered so far,' Herrin says."
Sounds like bad scientific practice to me. These guys started with a conclusion, then went poring over millions of millions of pages of data to find something to support it.
I thought the scientific method worked the other way.
And noone's come up with a better explanation of where my car keys went than aliens from outer space, so that must be true too, right?
>> They searched the world's seismographic records for so-called "unassociated events". They looked at more than a million records collected by the US Geological Survey between 1990 to 1993
Generally when you go looking through enough data, expecting to find something, you do.
An alternate theory, perhaps. Some drunken teenagers kicked the seismographs?
Not that this is something that really matters to anyone, alive or dead, either way.
>> I figure the only way the goverment would send out a search party the size and scale that they did for John Jr, would be if I had actually hit a Kennedy on the way down.
Don't be so bitter.
I think every punk fan would jump at a chance to see the Dead Kennedys
Slashdot Mirror
Hmm..
Guess thats why the clerks never batted an eye as I had 'em enter stuff like "Sailorman, Popeye", and all the members of the Simpson clan.
.. from all Radio Shacks in North America (long story - but that's what the manager told me with a straight face), I can honestly say this sucks.
The policy of annoying customers, combined with the policy of overcharging for every single useless item in the store, was *THIS* close to driving my most hated of retail franchises into extinction.
Hundred million loss from the whole home entertainment division.
Down from a projected half-billion. Slashdot didn't mention that.
MSFT expected xbox to turn a profit in 4 years. At this rate, it's only going to take 2.
That's an industry myth.
If I can build a P3 733 based PC for about 200-300 bucks - you're telling me MSFT cant mass produce them for less?
>> Wake up. Stop being blinded by your hate for MS.
I'm impressed that Microsoft found a way to turn that hatred into cold, hard cash.
People actually believe they're "screwing" Microsoft when they buy their products, be it a modded xbox, or formatting the hard drive on their Dell to install linux.
Of all the business tactics they've ever used - I have to say I'm thoroughly impressed with this one.
Show me proof they sell it at a 'huge loss', and not some kids website that assumes they do, or some speculation from some newspaper.
Show me a red line item in MSFT's budget.
And then go buy a Mustang at "prices so they're giving them away!!" - but don't drive it. That'll really screw Ford.
It's the same mentality as the kid who orders a Dell, and installs linux on it to 'screw microsoft'.
He already payed for Windows.. So why would MSFT give a rats ass?
Even if they did, the more sold, the more produced, and the cheaper they can produce em. Eventually they'll get 'in the black'. And the larger installed base entices developers.
MSFT would lose much more with them sitting in a warehouse collecting dust.
But, I doubt they do. It's an old industry myth - and one the industry doesn't want to die.
I see it kind of like the local used car dealership advertising "prices so low, we're practically giving them away!!"
Ok, I've said it before, I'll say it again.. This deserves a little redundancy.
Why all the free publicity for xbox, when you can get a PS2, install linux, and use that as your media centre - no modding required? Even w/o linux, there's a ton of homebrewed PS2 stuff out there.
Which hurts MSFT more? Buying an xbox, or buying a PS2?
Is it? Then my mistake, I'll take that back.
If it's legal now, good for them. I just know it *was* illegal.
The mods still are, though, being no more than hacked versions of MS's bios.
Frankly, I don't see why people dont just buy a PS2, install Linux for PS2, and use that as the basis for their media player.
That'd go a whole lot farther in the "I'm screwing Gates" catagory.
No modding required.
They dont get it.
The more xboxes are sold, the more profitable the xbox division becomes, regardless of what they're used for.
This is what they want:
"Hey [developer], we have a larger installed user base than PS2 or GameCube."
Oh yeah, flamebait.
I'm so sorry mods.
Yeah! We R l337! W R fuxoring Gates! He dumb ass! Me xbox mod! Me buy 6 xboxes and mod them all! Gates be sorry!
Me buy 20 copies of XP and not install them! Gates extra sorry. Me show him!
Y'all are idiots.
Why? The more they sell, the more they produce, they cheaper they produce 'em, and the closer they get to turning a profit on every piece of hardware.
The more consoles they can show sold, the more they can entice developers, and the more software they can make a royalty on.
Media Player or Linux or no, 99.9% of xbox owners eventually want to buy or rent a game.
If you really want to screw Gates, build yourself a 300$ PC, and quit it with this "I'm stickin it to the man" crap.
BTW, Xbox media player is developed illegally with the leaked XBOX SDK from MicroSoft. Thanks for the warez tip, though. Any idea when Doom III final going to hit my local fserves?
The Lindows case, in my mind, is wholly different. This is another company offering a directly competing product, purposely named similarly. In that case, Lindows is clearly trying to cash in on the name recognition that MS has built up around their Windows OS line. Thats what trademarks are designed to prevent.
It could be construed that Lindows is deliberately trying to trick computer illiterates into thinking it's somehow a MS operating system, or otherwise approved by them.
It'd be like me marketing a GrayStation 2 or a FameCube.
I know everyone hates MS, but they do have a leg to stand on.
>> I thought words in the dictionary weren't copyrightable?
They aren't, but they are valid trademarks. And they should be.
>> I'm sure visas (the passport related ones) were around before Visa was, and this business is using the word with a minor adjustment.
Where do you think they got the name?
The credit card is international, it gets you 'in' anywhere. Like a visa. Get it yet? Same thing with 'American Express', or 'Master Card'.
It's not like the company was founded by Philmore Visa, esquire.
The point isnt to win.
What they want is for every time you hear the word 'Visa', you think of their credit card, and not something else.
This means doing everything they can to quash alternate uses of the word.
It's the way the system works, and frankly I'm bored of people getting excited every time something like this happens.
I mean, sure, you could go ahead and open a donut shop called "Radio Shack", but you'd just be asking for it.
>> Now, you can argue that Visa shouldn't be allowed to trademark dictionary words, and you're probably right
Of course you can trademark dictionary words, or combinations of them.
Are you saying every company should make up some gibberish string of characters for every product or service they want to offer?
How would you like a alvnernmpal digelflorp?
A trademark only applies to the specific product or service, though. And it's only being violated if someone uses it for a similar product or service.
Trademarks are valuable not only to corporations, but to you. If you buy a Ford Explorer, you're getting a Ford Explorer. If I sold you a mo-ped and told you it was a Ford Explorer, I'd be guilty of fraud - because I misrepresented it as a trademarked good. If not for the trademark, I'd be innocent so long as there was a sticker on it saying 'Ford Explorer'.
In this case, if evisa offers credit, or some other financial services, they'd be fraudulently tricking people into thinking they're Visa.
But the name of the company doesnt matter. If you go to the website to apply for a credit card, you quickly realize that it's not the same company at all.
They aren't going to trick you into booking a vacation thinking that there's a gold card waiting in Tahiti for you.
And you wake me up when your 21 inch CRT can provide the same gaming experience as my 40 inch HDTV and dolby digital surround system.
I'd like to add to that.. For all the people who think 300+ FPS is a waste, since your monitor only refreshes at 60-125hz.
They don't think about minimizing the effects of tearing, when you're turning or strafing in a game. With vsync off, there will always be tearing, but with the extra horsepower, it'll be less noticable.
At 300 fps, there will be 5 tears as your turning, each stepped a little behind the other. This is much less noticable than the one wide tear you'd see at 60fps.
People always slam new tech. Hell, I remember people bitching that 16 bit color was a waste, the 256 colors they got in MCGA mode was all that was needed.
>> So, no, buying a laptop for gaming is pointless.
While I do agree, buying a laptop specifically for gaming, ie; lugging it to LAN parties, is still pointless. You're better off with a flex atx form factor box and a light monitor, be it LCD or whatever.
But embedded video chipsets have evolved to the point that they can play a game, although it's nothing to write home about - there actually is true 3D accelleration from the Radeon Mobiles, nForce, and intel 845G chipsets.
I guess the advantage is that you can pass the business flights playing NOLF instead of Solitaire. Provided the flight isn't much longer than an hour or two.
Say it aint so, Joe! Say it aint so!
>> Sounds like good scientific practice to me. Granted, "'We can't prove that this was strange quark matter, but that is the only explanation that has been offered so far,' Herrin says."
Sounds like bad scientific practice to me. These guys started with a conclusion, then went poring over millions of millions of pages of data to find something to support it.
I thought the scientific method worked the other way.
And noone's come up with a better explanation of where my car keys went than aliens from outer space, so that must be true too, right?
>> They searched the world's seismographic records for so-called "unassociated events". They looked at more than a million records collected by the US Geological Survey between 1990 to 1993
Generally when you go looking through enough data, expecting to find something, you do.
An alternate theory, perhaps. Some drunken teenagers kicked the seismographs?
Not that this is something that really matters to anyone, alive or dead, either way.
>> I figure the only way the goverment would send out a search party the size and scale that they did for John Jr, would be if I had actually hit a Kennedy on the way down.
Don't be so bitter.
I think every punk fan would jump at a chance to see the Dead Kennedys