I have been wondering for a while if this was actually true. Consider the enormous quantity of land required to produce ethanol. You need a lot of spaces to grow all those crops. Since fuel is something you need everyday, there are a few important factors you have to take into consideration.
Your crops need to be abondant. Corn doesn't grow over a weekend, so you need a LOT of soil to grow it, and always make sure there's corn growing to meet the needs 6 months from now. As you know, in order to have reliable result, you will need to make rotations of the crops. Otherwise your soil will become poor and your following crops will be of less and less good quality. This means even more space is needed. Otherwise you'll end up with a lot of poor land that can't be used for years. This is not what you'd call good for the environment. Also, due to insects, viruses and such, you'd have to make sure that you CAN'T lose a crop due to these. Losing an entire crop would be dissastruous because you wouldn't have enough fuel. We all know what happens right now when this is an oil shortage. This means that you'd need to use some form of pesticide for your crops. Hopefully, the companies harvesting these crops will use bio pesticides, but given the nature of our buisinesses, there are good chances chemicals would be used instead. This means this would not only polute the soil, but any water that may be nearby. Remember you're doing this on a massive scale.
Considering all these factors, is this really such a good idea? There needs to be studies made about the environmental risks of taking this approach. In fact, there is already some that have been made. Obviously, oil companies so far have come with studies that show that your way of thiking is actually worse for the environment. Others prove your point. So who is right? I don't pretend to have the answer, or a means to get it. I am just making a statement that this situation isn't all black and white.
This reminds me of a funny thing with Virtual PC. Trying to install Virtual PC on a Windows virtual machine running under Virtual PC popped up "You can't run Virtual PC under Virtual PC. You just had to try, didn't you?"
Well, turns out it didn't matter that I got the 360. The unit's DVD drive sometimes mistook the game with a regular DVD and instead played the dvd track stating that this DVD is game and should be used in a 360. So I went to get a new copy of the game, but it still didn't work. So I was pissed and asked for a full refund from Futureshop/Best Buy and got it without problem. The problem is that the game I bought was bought somewhere else and obviously the store had a no refund policy, so I had to sell it as a used item to the same store, 40$. All in all, if the device had worked correctly, this was a wonderfull console to play with. The multimedia capabilities were incredible. But considering the lack of consideration to the consumer from Microsoft, hey just lost in me a very good client which bought a lot of stuff for his first xbox which never had any problem. Too bad for them, my money will be going to Nintendo next time. (Can't stand Sony:p)
Well, I didn't want to get into the details. Future Shop was recently bought by Best Buy. They are separate stores and they cater to slighly different consumers. Also, the store policies are different : while Futureshop workers get commissions on sales while Best Buy only pays you by the hour (I suppose the hourly pay is better in Best Buy tough).I never went to both at the same time, but I suppose the stuff they sell are not exactly the same, howdo they clearly have some overlaps, namely, games. I went to Futureshop this morning and got a 360. While they didn't have them online, Best Buy did (and sold their allotment of 70 in 10 minutes.) So there's clearly different priorities. But best of all, both don't force a bundle on you. (well, not since the apologised for it two weeks ago)
See, this guy's conclusion is traditional right-wing-rich-kid-thinking. Have the people who are willing to spend more spend more and leave the less fortunate not buy one. By pricing the console at 300$ instead of 700$, they are making sure that a lot more people (well, not everyone, but certainly more people) can afford it. Everything is about profit with them. I actually applaud Microsoft for selling such a powerfull piece of hardware for so "little", considering all you get. Whatever their end game is, they have guts. Maybe this is not what the market needs, but it's still great value for consumers.
Today, I walked into Futureshop (BestBuy in Canada). I asked for a 360. They received 62 of them this morning. Got it, the warranty, a controller and Project Gotham Racing 3. There's no trouble getting them. At least in downtown Montreal. The stored had been opened for 30 minutes and there were still some left, tough that might be because of the snowstorm outside.
MS has an uphill battle when it comes to breaking into a patriotic marketplace. If this was true, then how come PS2 sold so well over here? American's are as patriotic as Japanese people.
I did see it coming. Not because it's Microsoft. Doing an emulator for something like the SNES is hard. Imagine an Xbox. It's not surprising this happened, it was bound to happen, earlier or later.
Okay, so right off the bat we are pretty much sure it won't launch in March 2006 like a lot of people believed.
But where are the games? What will it look like? Six months before 360 launched we already knew what the console looked like, an idea of what games were in development. Microsoft slowly started advertising the thing more and more until it launched two weeks ago.
Now Sony on the other hand has shown pre-rendered movies of incredible quality, but no gameplay yet. Nobody is saying squat about how hard or easy it is to develop for (except that guy from Epic that said it was easy to code for, we haven't heard squat since, unless I'm mistaken).
Considering all this, it was clear to me that the thing would obviously not launch in March like a lot of people online seemed to believe. But still, Sony hasn't even made an event announcement where they would show the thing.
Also, on the developer side, I've heard about more people developping for the Revolution and commenting on it then the PS3. I'm not saying nobody is doing something for it, just that nobody seems to have something to say about it. Maybe it's NDAs...
Anyway, the lack of news from Sony except "We'll be better, Xbox 360 is Xbox 1 1/2, blah blah blah". And even if the thing does ship in June 2006, when will it get to North America?
I just went to three different stores, and none of them had any 360s for sale. That's in downtown Montreal. They had games, controllers, even a few HD's in Futureshop's case, but none of them had the box. I suppose it depends on the region.
Don't forget Xbox Live. Plus I bet Microsoft makes money of the extra controllers you buy for your console. Accessories are raking a lot of money. 60CAN$ for a controller, that's pretty high!
Have you guys ever considered testing all these Internet spam messages. Like "Enlarge you Penis", "Get a University Diploma for free" and so on? There seems to be endless materials on that subject. You could have an Internet Special.
Well, considering that a lot of people who are buying the 360 on day one are probably people who really liked the first one, then it's probably ok.
I really loved the first Xbox, and most games I owned were exclusive, but I fear none of these games spell must-have for me. Plus 500CAN$+Tx to own a box that doesn't even play games yet is just way to much.:)
What I'm concerned about Nintendo's stance on no HD is the possible lack on component output. I don't mind not having HD if I can at least have 480P. 480P looks waaaaaay better than S-Video, especially on HDTV's without a good deinterlacer.
Oh really? I didn't know that. At least I can blame my ignorance of the fact that the PBS documentary I saw a couple of months back gave the reason I just gave for calling it an entertainment system. Someone didn't do their homework it seems. Guess I shouldn't take everything I see on TV at face value. Who would have thought?;)
The reason why it sold the NES as an Entertainment system is because the video game industry had just suffered a terrible crash. They marketted the NES as an entertainment system, which, you might argue it's only words, which is a term that didn't have a negative spin to in.
Today, games are accepted and common, there's no need to shy away from what your console is doing. So Nintendo says it sells exactly what it sells, game consoles.
MS and Sony are going a different way, and they are right in calling their machines entertainment systems. Even games are at their core, you can now use them for games, video chat, watching movie trailers, and maybe even renting movies. (Who knows?)
Slashdot Mirror
Biodiesel also is much better for the environment
I have been wondering for a while if this was actually true. Consider the enormous quantity of land required to produce ethanol. You need a lot of spaces to grow all those crops. Since fuel is something you need everyday, there are a few important factors you have to take into consideration.
Your crops need to be abondant. Corn doesn't grow over a weekend, so you need a LOT of soil to grow it, and always make sure there's corn growing to meet the needs 6 months from now.
As you know, in order to have reliable result, you will need to make rotations of the crops. Otherwise your soil will become poor and your following crops will be of less and less good quality. This means even more space is needed. Otherwise you'll end up with a lot of poor land that can't be used for years. This is not what you'd call good for the environment.
Also, due to insects, viruses and such, you'd have to make sure that you CAN'T lose a crop due to these. Losing an entire crop would be dissastruous because you wouldn't have enough fuel. We all know what happens right now when this is an oil shortage. This means that you'd need to use some form of pesticide for your crops. Hopefully, the companies harvesting these crops will use bio pesticides, but given the nature of our buisinesses, there are good chances chemicals would be used instead. This means this would not only polute the soil, but any water that may be nearby. Remember you're doing this on a massive scale.
Considering all these factors, is this really such a good idea? There needs to be studies made about the environmental risks of taking this approach. In fact, there is already some that have been made. Obviously, oil companies so far have come with studies that show that your way of thiking is actually worse for the environment. Others prove your point. So who is right? I don't pretend to have the answer, or a means to get it. I am just making a statement that this situation isn't all black and white.
Not necessarily. I think I recall reading that Episode 3 was played in digital theathers in 1080p.
But your point is still valid. Most shops work with at least 2k plates for their shots when compositing stuff together.
This is a bug, plain and simple.
After all, this is Microsoft, plain and simple.
You're probably right!
This reminds me of a funny thing with Virtual PC. Trying to install Virtual PC on a Windows virtual machine running under Virtual PC popped up "You can't run Virtual PC under Virtual PC. You just had to try, didn't you?"
Well, turns out it didn't matter that I got the 360. The unit's DVD drive sometimes mistook the game with a regular DVD and instead played the dvd track stating that this DVD is game and should be used in a 360. So I went to get a new copy of the game, but it still didn't work. So I was pissed and asked for a full refund from Futureshop/Best Buy and got it without problem. The problem is that the game I bought was bought somewhere else and obviously the store had a no refund policy, so I had to sell it as a used item to the same store, 40$. All in all, if the device had worked correctly, this was a wonderfull console to play with. The multimedia capabilities were incredible. But considering the lack of consideration to the consumer from Microsoft, hey just lost in me a very good client which bought a lot of stuff for his first xbox which never had any problem. Too bad for them, my money will be going to Nintendo next time. (Can't stand Sony :p)
Well, I didn't want to get into the details. Future Shop was recently bought by Best Buy. They are separate stores and they cater to slighly different consumers. Also, the store policies are different : while Futureshop workers get commissions on sales while Best Buy only pays you by the hour (I suppose the hourly pay is better in Best Buy tough).I never went to both at the same time, but I suppose the stuff they sell are not exactly the same, howdo they clearly have some overlaps, namely, games. I went to Futureshop this morning and got a 360. While they didn't have them online, Best Buy did (and sold their allotment of 70 in 10 minutes.) So there's clearly different priorities. But best of all, both don't force a bundle on you. (well, not since the apologised for it two weeks ago)
See, this guy's conclusion is traditional right-wing-rich-kid-thinking. Have the people who are willing to spend more spend more and leave the less fortunate not buy one. By pricing the console at 300$ instead of 700$, they are making sure that a lot more people (well, not everyone, but certainly more people) can afford it. Everything is about profit with them. I actually applaud Microsoft for selling such a powerfull piece of hardware for so "little", considering all you get. Whatever their end game is, they have guts. Maybe this is not what the market needs, but it's still great value for consumers.
Today, I walked into Futureshop (BestBuy in Canada). I asked for a 360. They received 62 of them this morning. Got it, the warranty, a controller and Project Gotham Racing 3. There's no trouble getting them. At least in downtown Montreal. The stored had been opened for 30 minutes and there were still some left, tough that might be because of the snowstorm outside.
MS has an uphill battle when it comes to breaking into a patriotic marketplace.
If this was true, then how come PS2 sold so well over here? American's are as patriotic as Japanese people.
I did see it coming. Not because it's Microsoft. Doing an emulator for something like the SNES is hard. Imagine an Xbox. It's not surprising this happened, it was bound to happen, earlier or later.
Okay, so right off the bat we are pretty much sure it won't launch in March 2006 like a lot of people believed.
But where are the games? What will it look like? Six months before 360 launched we already knew what the console looked like, an idea of what games were in development. Microsoft slowly started advertising the thing more and more until it launched two weeks ago.
Now Sony on the other hand has shown pre-rendered movies of incredible quality, but no gameplay yet. Nobody is saying squat about how hard or easy it is to develop for (except that guy from Epic that said it was easy to code for, we haven't heard squat since, unless I'm mistaken).
Considering all this, it was clear to me that the thing would obviously not launch in March like a lot of people online seemed to believe. But still, Sony hasn't even made an event announcement where they would show the thing.
Also, on the developer side, I've heard about more people developping for the Revolution and commenting on it then the PS3. I'm not saying nobody is doing something for it, just that nobody seems to have something to say about it. Maybe it's NDAs...
Anyway, the lack of news from Sony except "We'll be better, Xbox 360 is Xbox 1 1/2, blah blah blah". And even if the thing does ship in June 2006, when will it get to North America?
Actually the GameCube launched with 700K consoles in the states : http://www.planetgamecube.com/news.cfm?action=item &id=1968
I just went to three different stores, and none of them had any 360s for sale. That's in downtown Montreal. They had games, controllers, even a few HD's in Futureshop's case, but none of them had the box. I suppose it depends on the region.
Exactly what I was thinking! Altought I haven't seen the play, I've seen some part of it in Curb Your Enthusiasm. The play episode was great!
Don't forget Xbox Live. Plus I bet Microsoft makes money of the extra controllers you buy for your console. Accessories are raking a lot of money. 60CAN$ for a controller, that's pretty high!
Have you guys ever considered testing all these Internet spam messages. Like "Enlarge you Penis", "Get a University Diploma for free" and so on? There seems to be endless materials on that subject. You could have an Internet Special.
Well, considering that a lot of people who are buying the 360 on day one are probably people who really liked the first one, then it's probably ok.
:)
I really loved the first Xbox, and most games I owned were exclusive, but I fear none of these games spell must-have for me. Plus 500CAN$+Tx to own a box that doesn't even play games yet is just way to much.
What I'm concerned about Nintendo's stance on no HD is the possible lack on component output. I don't mind not having HD if I can at least have 480P. 480P looks waaaaaay better than S-Video, especially on HDTV's without a good deinterlacer.
then we just all plug in to each other!
I want a pony!
I don't like how you used those two comments of after the other...
I dunno... maybe because they could be so easily stolen?
Oh really? I didn't know that. At least I can blame my ignorance of the fact that the PBS documentary I saw a couple of months back gave the reason I just gave for calling it an entertainment system. Someone didn't do their homework it seems. Guess I shouldn't take everything I see on TV at face value. Who would have thought? ;)
The reason why it sold the NES as an Entertainment system is because the video game industry had just suffered a terrible crash. They marketted the NES as an entertainment system, which, you might argue it's only words, which is a term that didn't have a negative spin to in.
Today, games are accepted and common, there's no need to shy away from what your console is doing. So Nintendo says it sells exactly what it sells, game consoles.
MS and Sony are going a different way, and they are right in calling their machines entertainment systems. Even games are at their core, you can now use them for games, video chat, watching movie trailers, and maybe even renting movies. (Who knows?)
They're called women.
... who from the gain developer community will throw a chair and scream that they'll kill google?