Go to GameSpot then. The review talks more about the roughs spots of the gaming. It's still an excellent review, but they talk more about some issues with the storyline (not revealing spoilers) and things such as the frame rate issue.
I don't know how it works in the United States, but I live in Canada, and over here, even tough there is a unique number for each ballot, there is no way you can identify who voted for who. I have worked twice in the election process, being the person who at the end of the day, manipulates and decides the validity of each ballot for a certain voting area, and I can garantee you that there is no way for me or anyone else to know who voted for who. Even tough the votes are numbered uniquely, the grid used to indicate who voted does not include that number, not does any other list. This number is only used to know where the vote came from if there is a fraud.
Maybe you should have more faith in the election system. But then, seeing the Florida debacle, and with the fact less than 25% of the US elected Bush as president, I can see why you have some resentment towards the election process.
I don't know much about encryption, but wouldn't signing the vote with the user information be a big mistake because you'd be able to know who voted for who by using all the user infos with all the candidates ID, then do a comparison with the votes received?
If that's the case, then it's a step backward because a vote is supposed to be secret.
If the case and power supply really cost 20$ then I'm sure your system will break in a matter of months. Cheap parts make cheap computers. XBOX is not cheap hardware.
Also, you forgot to add a keyboard (5$), a floppy drive (10$), a CD drive(I dunno, maybe 25$), a network card or modem (10$). I'm sure the sound quality on that Soyo board is nothing compared to what the Xbox is capable of. Also, you might want to reconsider the use of a TV-Out to do anything other than playing games under Windows because Windows is not meant to be displayed on a TV screen at any resolution and the text is hardly redeable unless you make it bigger or use a tool like Magnifier.
So yeah, the Xbox is a pretty good deal at 180$. I don't believe you can get better then a modded Xbox to use as a cheap Linux box. Even tought you need to mod it right now, soon you'll probably be able to buy a memory card on eBay or in some stores with the hacks loaded on them. And then all you'll have to do is load you rented copy of 007, put the memory card in the controler, load the game, change the 007 CD for the Linux CD and Voilà, you have Linux. No need even to mod the box.
I mean, it says that you wil still have to pay less for you games. Ok, so I'll throw some numbers around. Right now 200$ for an XBOX. if you buy 5 games each year, you'll end up paying about 225$ dollars a year for games. Let's say you use it 4 years. In total, you'll have spent about 1100$ for your 4 years of fun.
Now do the game math with their system. 400$ for the machine, add to the subscription fee for 4 years (essentially 9.99$ a month), you get and you get 880$. You are now left with 130$ dollars. Now, if they still want to beat XBOX on price, they are to charge maximum 6$ per games if you still want to own 20 games after 4 years. It said in the article that you would still have to buy the games at first, then rent them. He compared the idea to buying an arcade, and then putting quarters in it, which I find kinda dumb, but still, let's go on with our calculations.
Sooooooo. Even if they do sell the games 3$ (yeah right...), now that most consoles games ships on a DVD and may be bout 3 or 4 gigs (or if they're not, they'll be real soon), how the hell am I supposed to pay all the extra bandwidth these games will require to my ISP? For my part, I can download 10 gigs a month with my ISP. But a lot of people I know have only 5 gigs. So let's say you want that new Star Wars game with a hundred hours of FMV and it's 6 gigs. Then I guess you f***ed for one month and can't use the Internet, unless you want to pay more money for the bandwidth you used over your limit. (8.95$ CAN/Gig where I live, so about 5$US/Gig)
So this thing will make money unless a) the games are unbelievably good and only on their console (not likely) or b) it's customers are not well educated (or stupid if you prefer to put it that way)
Even tough I think that scenario b) has a lot more of chances to happen that a), I don't think that this will work.
I'd almost be willing to put my hand in a fire if did succeed, but judging from the popularity of some products (none come to mind right now, but you know, there's something each week that you see on TV and you tell yourself "Are people really buying those? Am I the only one who doesn't?"), I won't.
... you don't need mod-chip to run the exploit but somehow you need to get some hacked files on your memory card first. Something tells me you need a modded Xbox to get the files on the memory card first. Sooooo...... why are they saying you don't need a mod chip? Obviously, you don't need to mod your Xbox to get Linux on it, but someone you know must have done so in order to get the files on the memory card, unless you buy one with the exploit already on it from eBay or something..
Come on, ever tried to put a Ferari engine into a Civic? (I don't mean to compare the quality of the engines, just the way you "plug" them in the car.) Well you can't. (unless you do some pretty clever engeniering, but that's not the point here) Linux and Windows kernel are like apple and oranges. Both are fruit, but they're not the same. So you can't just rip stuff from your competitor, since a lot of stuff doesn't work the same under Linux and Windows at the Kernel level.
... there is no way to make your own Intellivision cartridges. I still have my Intellivision I and II (the brown one and the gray one) and they're still working! I'd be nice to try this on a real Intellivision.
Mario Cart Advance supposedly already does this. Link 4 GBA together and you only need one catridge to play with your friends. I wonder if there are other games who support this tough.
In your dreams. People can identify themselves to an actor or comedian. You can even read gossip about them in the newspaper if your into that sort of stuff. You can't do that with virtual actors Kids look up to some actors. If Lara Croft is your role model, then we live in a sad world indeed.
Slashdot Mirror
Since I've become an editor at Games Are Fun [gamesarefun.com] ;-)
Shameless plug, heh?
I'll check it out.
Go to GameSpot then. The review talks more about the roughs spots of the gaming. It's still an excellent review, but they talk more about some issues with the storyline (not revealing spoilers) and things such as the frame rate issue.
I don't know how it works in the United States, but I live in Canada, and over here, even tough there is a unique number for each ballot, there is no way you can identify who voted for who. I have worked twice in the election process, being the person who at the end of the day, manipulates and decides the validity of each ballot for a certain voting area, and I can garantee you that there is no way for me or anyone else to know who voted for who. Even tough the votes are numbered uniquely, the grid used to indicate who voted does not include that number, not does any other list. This number is only used to know where the vote came from if there is a fraud.
Maybe you should have more faith in the election system. But then, seeing the Florida debacle, and with the fact less than 25% of the US elected Bush as president, I can see why you have some resentment towards the election process.
I don't know much about encryption, but wouldn't signing the vote with the user information be a big mistake because you'd be able to know who voted for who by using all the user infos with all the candidates ID, then do a comparison with the votes received?
If that's the case, then it's a step backward because a vote is supposed to be secret.
If the case and power supply really cost 20$ then I'm sure your system will break in a matter of months. Cheap parts make cheap computers. XBOX is not cheap hardware.
Also, you forgot to add a keyboard (5$), a floppy drive (10$), a CD drive(I dunno, maybe 25$), a network card or modem (10$). I'm sure the sound quality on that Soyo board is nothing compared to what the Xbox is capable of. Also, you might want to reconsider the use of a TV-Out to do anything other than playing games under Windows because Windows is not meant to be displayed on a TV screen at any resolution and the text is hardly redeable unless you make it bigger or use a tool like Magnifier.
So yeah, the Xbox is a pretty good deal at 180$. I don't believe you can get better then a modded Xbox to use as a cheap Linux box. Even tought you need to mod it right now, soon you'll probably be able to buy a memory card on eBay or in some stores with the hacks loaded on them. And then all you'll have to do is load you rented copy of 007, put the memory card in the controler, load the game, change the 007 CD for the Linux CD and Voilà, you have Linux. No need even to mod the box.
Now that's cheap!
I mean, it says that you wil still have to pay less for you games. Ok, so I'll throw some numbers around. Right now 200$ for an XBOX. if you buy 5 games each year, you'll end up paying about 225$ dollars a year for games.
Let's say you use it 4 years. In total, you'll have spent about 1100$ for your 4 years of fun.
Now do the game math with their system.
400$ for the machine, add to the subscription fee for 4 years (essentially 9.99$ a month), you get and you get 880$. You are now left with 130$ dollars. Now, if they still want to beat XBOX on price, they are to charge maximum 6$ per games if you still want to own 20 games after 4 years. It said in the article that you would still have to buy the games at first, then rent them. He compared the idea to buying an arcade, and then putting quarters in it, which I find kinda dumb, but still, let's go on with our calculations.
Sooooooo. Even if they do sell the games 3$ (yeah right...), now that most consoles games ships on a DVD and may be bout 3 or 4 gigs (or if they're not, they'll be real soon), how the hell am I supposed to pay all the extra bandwidth these games will require to my ISP? For my part, I can download 10 gigs a month with my ISP. But a lot of people I know have only 5 gigs. So let's say you want that new Star Wars game with a hundred hours of FMV and it's 6 gigs. Then I guess you f***ed for one month and can't use the Internet, unless you want to pay more money for the bandwidth you used over your limit. (8.95$ CAN/Gig where I live, so about 5$US/Gig)
So this thing will make money unless
a) the games are unbelievably good and only on their console (not likely)
or
b) it's customers are not well educated (or stupid if you prefer to put it that way)
Even tough I think that scenario b) has a lot more of chances to happen that a), I don't think that this will work.
I'd almost be willing to put my hand in a fire if did succeed, but judging from the popularity of some products (none come to mind right now, but you know, there's something each week that you see on TV and you tell yourself "Are people really buying those? Am I the only one who doesn't?"), I won't.
... and I'm gonna say it again : this is gonna suck, that's why I call it a Phantom Menace.
I'd rather rate this comment Insightfull than Funny if I had some moderator points.
"640k underflow should be enough to hack an Xbox."
... you don't need mod-chip to run the exploit but somehow you need to get some hacked files on your memory card first. Something tells me you need a modded Xbox to get the files on the memory card first. Sooooo...... why are they saying you don't need a mod chip? Obviously, you don't need to mod your Xbox to get Linux on it, but someone you know must have done so in order to get the files on the memory card, unless you buy one with the exploit already on it from eBay or something..
Come on, ever tried to put a Ferari engine into a Civic? (I don't mean to compare the quality of the engines, just the way you "plug" them in the car.) Well you can't. (unless you do some pretty clever engeniering, but that's not the point here) Linux and Windows kernel are like apple and oranges. Both are fruit, but they're not the same. So you can't just rip stuff from your competitor, since a lot of stuff doesn't work the same under Linux and Windows at the Kernel level.
Are you planning to try the OS with it?
... there is no way to make your own Intellivision cartridges. I still have my Intellivision I and II (the brown one and the gray one) and they're still working! I'd be nice to try this on a real Intellivision.
Or you can also call it "watching a DVD"
... to the device you put on your roof to heat the water of your pool, but this ones takes the idea all backward! Nice thinking!
... on icy roads in winter. You're more likelly to get an accident with this car. That system is doomed to failed.
I'm not american, but I hope that he'll read it anyway...
Senator Hatch,
I've recently read a AP story where you were quoted saying that you would be ready to pass a law that grants the power to a copyright owner to destroy the computer of someone who downloads copyrighted material off the Internet. While I totally agree with you that copyright infrigement has to be dealt with, I believe that your stance on the situation is an ill-informed one.
First of all, computers aren't used by only one person. Most of the time a computer is shared by a whole family. They are also used shared by thousands of students in schools. Why does the wrong actions of only one person has to have negative repercusions on the rest of the people?
Also, I'm sure you are aware that the Internet is a highly volatile and impredictable place, where the identity of a user cannot always be 100% sure. Don't you think that such drastic measures are dangerous? You might target the computer of an innocent person. Or target a computer that has been hijacked by an hacker. I don't think you'd want innocent people to be harmed in any way.
Third, even if that law would pass IN THE United States, do you really think you have the right to attack computers around the globe based on your US law? I would have thought better from a man who is representing a state. You don't have the right to impose your law on the rest of the world.
Lastly, as you may have seen, I am not from the United States. In fact, I'm from Québec, Canada. I write to you, even tought you don't represent my province or my country, because I think that in this case, you are advocating something that is wrong and that would set a dangerous precedent if it were to happen.
I sincerely hope that you were misquoted, or that you have since then reconsidered your position on the issue.
Regards,
Mario Cart Advance supposedly already does this. Link 4 GBA together and you only need one catridge to play with your friends. I wonder if there are other games who support this tough.
Man, why would I buy that, Windows is already at 5.0 and Red Hat Linux at 8.0! ;)
Oh, and the headphone adapter. What the hell is up with that?
Don't you read Penny-Arcade?
You filthies little slashdotters... you bings the server down... Gollum, gollum!
We have that over here in Québec. Videotron, the biggest cable provider it offering just that : video on demand where they stream the movie to your box. You can fast forward, rewind, pause as you want. You get the movie for a full day. And if you have the ENP600 or something, you get to save it to your HD and have infinite playback.
and stick effortlessly to the ceiling like a spider
Better start here then.
or allowing robots to climb walls
Fudge them! I want to climb the walls!
In your dreams. People can identify themselves to an actor or comedian. You can even read gossip about them in the newspaper if your into that sort of stuff. You can't do that with virtual actors Kids look up to some actors. If Lara Croft is your role model, then we live in a sad world indeed.