I am an extremely avid computer gamer. I spend 15+ hours a week playing computer games (TF2, Crysis, Sins of a Solar Empire, etc). I also work from home as a Sys admin and DBA. Having my game machine also double as my work machine made focusing on work extremely hard as I am expected to be available from 8-5 most days M-F. (old school corporate culture slowly creeping into 21st century).
When I first started doing this it was very difficult for me to resist the temptation for firing up TF2 while I was waiting for some SQL to finish exporting data or an application to finish rebuilding. The problem is as with any game. You get sucked in. 5 minutes can easily turn into 1.5 hours.
So unless you are going to spend your time wondering around everyones desk and making notes on how long they have been playing, I would listen to others ideas. Put the console in the lounge. Plan after hours lan parties or trips to the bar. I am sure that it would be ok to work through lunch one day and fire things up an hour early.
The problem would never be that your employees would be irresponsible with the console. The problem is that anyone that is a gamer knows it is very rare to spend just 5 minutes on a game. For me it is even harder on flash games like bookworm or tower defense much less a more engaging game like Halo or whatever else is popular at the moment on the 360.
I am a comcast customer (fortunately or unfortunately, take your pick). On the island where I live they are the only broadband internet provider. I haven't had any problems with speed or connectivity when using torrents and I will admit that while I do leave several legal torrents open at night and on the weekends there are those that are not so legal from time to time. I routinely can grab a CD's worth of data in an hour or two without any problems. Last night before going to bed I queued up over 4 GB worth of downloads and they were all finished by the time I got up 6 hours later.
I haven't experienced any of this slow down or even ask other comments have suggested the "end packets" or whatever that mess up my downloads. Perhaps it happens to be the fact that I live in a smaller metropolitan area that the rest of the/.'ers?
But in any case, what should I look for to see if it is happening to me? I admit I haven't had much interest in digging deeper since it doesn't seem to be happening for me, but would like to delve deeper if the signs of traffic shaping are more subtle.
If the information being discussed is so important to Sony's strategy or business, why discuss it with members of the MEDIA in the first place? It seems to me that if they wanted them to post a story or interview at a certain time or after a certain date they should have politely requested such an action.
Reacting the way that they did just isn't smart on any level. Something is really wrong with Sony. And I am not jumping on the Sony hating bandwagon either. With all of their problems (rootkits, batteries, flubbed product launches, etc) I don't see how any Sony investor could be happy with the way the company is headed. I would hate to see Sony go completely out of business. We all know that the more competition in the market the better. I honestly think that Sony has become to large. They need to split into separate entities and change their branding accordingly. The Sony name needs to refer to TVs, stereos, Walkmans, and other hardware since that is what Sony is/was originally known for.
I buy a ton of DVD's. And get this. I don't have a landline phone (I do have a cell but have you ever hooked up a cell to a modem and dialed into the internet *shudders*). I live in the country. No cable TV providers or DSL providers reach this far. And due to the fact that I also live in a wooded area satellite TV is not possible. So I watch a ton of DVD's on a SD TV. So there are people that are relatively unconnected to the net at home that still buy a boat load of DVD's, computer games, music, and console games (I love my Wii).
Granted there probably isn't a huge market but it is a market non the less.
For a moment lets ignore all of the dumb things Sony has done recently (rootkits, etc).
Why I wont' buy a PS3 in at least 3 years. Well first of all, believe it or not, I am married so any purchase I make as to be agreed upon by both the wifey and myself. Even though she does let me spend my fair share of money on toys, neither one of us can justify the costs here. To be able to use the PS3 and get the "full" experience requires and HDTV. I don't have an HDTV, I just got a new 35" tv about 8 months ago and we can't get HD cable tv where we live so there really isn't much point. So past the cost of a several thousand dollar TV (and don't mention the falling prices because I believe in spending more and having it last a long time...I hate disposable electronics) my wife and I would rather spend that money on a vacation.
The graphics on the PS3 are very very nice when viewed on a proper HD setup. The problem is there isn't much new past that. Sure the sixaxis is nice but I have played a Wii. The Wii is fun to play. I have played both thanks to friends with much more disposable income that I. The Wii is going to have some games that really change video game playing style. Plus being up on my feet while playing is nice (us computer geeks are oft prone to laziness).
I am not saying that the Wii is better than the PS3 but what I am saying is that there are probably more people in my situation. A situation where money is somewhat tight and don't enjoy a game on graphics alone isn't that rare. I wish I had to disposable income to get a full HD setup and all 3 next gen systems. But I can tell you that my first next gen system is going to be a Wii. I waited until all 3 systems were out and put in some serious play time on all of them. The Wii wins for me.
Your results may vary. Batteries not included. Void where prohibited.
Being serious I personally plan to wait until these discs and HDDVD have been out for a while before I will consider purchasing one. There is currently too much back and forth between these two formats right now and I prefer to wait. I did the same thing with DVD's, I waited until the format wars had been settled (settled being relative) and there were dual format burners. However if my understanding is corrrect dual format burners for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are a near impossibility at this point. I really don't want to buy into one format only to have to burn new hardware and recopy all of my media onto the new format. I am going to let the bleeding edge folks fight this one out for me.
The problem with DRM as I see it is not that it keeps people from doing something illegal but that it keeps me from doing something legal with the stuff that I own (read: copying something to another player to view/listen else where).
Keeping in theme with your analogy of a locked home. DRM on the locks on my home would allow the home owners association or city government to control when I could go into my house. I agree completely that artists/musicians/whatever should be able to reasonably control their works, but at the same time I bought the CD. As long as I don't distribute the contents of that CD to anyone else why should the musician care. I am listening aren't I?
On paper DRM is a nice idea but no one (to my knowledge) as developed a reasonable way in which to implement it.
I have never relied on a single software package to keep my computer virus/spyware/adware/whatever free. I use three products. AVG anti-virus is running right now and it updates at least once a day and does a scan every morning at 3am. Also through the course of the day I run Adaware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ which is free for personal use. Also installed on my computer is SpyBot S&D http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html another freebie.
Between these three products and routine updates from windows update and only using Firefox, I honestly cannot remember the last time I had a problem with adware etc. I find it rather disturbing that people put their trust in one single software package to keep their systems clean. Is it not good practice to keep backups in multiple locations? Why then would we not have redundant measures for cleaning a system? Other than the anti-virus running in the background these programs use system resources only when loaded and running. Otherwise they sit on my hard drive and take up a fraction of a fraction of my total space.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but didn't IBM do the same thing with the x86 processors. If so would we be looking at the potential for another "IBM clone" situation thereby making cell the next x86 architecture?
This is kind of relavant. I was watching 60 minutes the other evening when they did a spot on the porn industry. The porno biz has been a first or almost first adoptor of lots and lots of technologies in the past. VCR, mpeg codec, streaming video, secure internet sites, purchasing products/services over the internet.
i just have one question. how can you call this a battery? correct me if i am wrong but it wasnt until the 1700's that humans discovered electricity and began trying to control it and use it.
this priceless artifact sounds more like someone droped a spoon or fork into a bottle of vinegar and forgot to take it out until a couple of mellinia later.
well this certainly is a chance for apple to get some good press out of this. i mean they can surely boast that their machines can take a superior beating and still perform.
its very impressive that a processor could with stand that much heat and still function. i thought that procs would melt into nice little worthless blobs of silicon at temps much less than that.
really though what was that woman thinking when she put her laptop in the oven?!?!
actually the copyright laws have been extended to nearly a century because of a recent lawsuit involving disney and a couple of other corporations that had the problem of their copyrights running out. the story can be found here http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/01/15/scotus.copyright s.ap/
i dont find modding xboxen any different than hot rodding your honda civic. seems to me that microslut would be happy that ppl are taking there products and playing with them. that means two things in the long run.
1. people are buying their product and most likely breaking parts and/or modding parts and having to purchase replacements (look at all the specialty parts for cars that are available now) 2. "hackers" may find another use for them and create another niche market that M$ could hold completely (although this would be a bad thing) but it would mean more money
but just think about what it would be like if honda or some other car company didnt want people to trick out their vehicles. the average everyday person would be up in arms over it. but when it comes to computers people hear the word hackers and crawl under the bed and whimper and beg uncle gates to save them.
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I am an extremely avid computer gamer. I spend 15+ hours a week playing computer games (TF2, Crysis, Sins of a Solar Empire, etc). I also work from home as a Sys admin and DBA. Having my game machine also double as my work machine made focusing on work extremely hard as I am expected to be available from 8-5 most days M-F. (old school corporate culture slowly creeping into 21st century).
When I first started doing this it was very difficult for me to resist the temptation for firing up TF2 while I was waiting for some SQL to finish exporting data or an application to finish rebuilding. The problem is as with any game. You get sucked in. 5 minutes can easily turn into 1.5 hours.
So unless you are going to spend your time wondering around everyones desk and making notes on how long they have been playing, I would listen to others ideas. Put the console in the lounge. Plan after hours lan parties or trips to the bar. I am sure that it would be ok to work through lunch one day and fire things up an hour early.
The problem would never be that your employees would be irresponsible with the console. The problem is that anyone that is a gamer knows it is very rare to spend just 5 minutes on a game. For me it is even harder on flash games like bookworm or tower defense much less a more engaging game like Halo or whatever else is popular at the moment on the 360.
I am a comcast customer (fortunately or unfortunately, take your pick). On the island where I live they are the only broadband internet provider. I haven't had any problems with speed or connectivity when using torrents and I will admit that while I do leave several legal torrents open at night and on the weekends there are those that are not so legal from time to time. I routinely can grab a CD's worth of data in an hour or two without any problems. Last night before going to bed I queued up over 4 GB worth of downloads and they were all finished by the time I got up 6 hours later.
/.'ers?
I haven't experienced any of this slow down or even ask other comments have suggested the "end packets" or whatever that mess up my downloads. Perhaps it happens to be the fact that I live in a smaller metropolitan area that the rest of the
But in any case, what should I look for to see if it is happening to me? I admit I haven't had much interest in digging deeper since it doesn't seem to be happening for me, but would like to delve deeper if the signs of traffic shaping are more subtle.
If the information being discussed is so important to Sony's strategy or business, why discuss it with members of the MEDIA in the first place? It seems to me that if they wanted them to post a story or interview at a certain time or after a certain date they should have politely requested such an action.
Reacting the way that they did just isn't smart on any level. Something is really wrong with Sony. And I am not jumping on the Sony hating bandwagon either. With all of their problems (rootkits, batteries, flubbed product launches, etc) I don't see how any Sony investor could be happy with the way the company is headed. I would hate to see Sony go completely out of business. We all know that the more competition in the market the better. I honestly think that Sony has become to large. They need to split into separate entities and change their branding accordingly. The Sony name needs to refer to TVs, stereos, Walkmans, and other hardware since that is what Sony is/was originally known for.
I buy a ton of DVD's. And get this. I don't have a landline phone (I do have a cell but have you ever hooked up a cell to a modem and dialed into the internet *shudders*). I live in the country. No cable TV providers or DSL providers reach this far. And due to the fact that I also live in a wooded area satellite TV is not possible. So I watch a ton of DVD's on a SD TV. So there are people that are relatively unconnected to the net at home that still buy a boat load of DVD's, computer games, music, and console games (I love my Wii).
Granted there probably isn't a huge market but it is a market non the less.
Why I wont' buy a PS3 in at least 3 years. Well first of all, believe it or not, I am married so any purchase I make as to be agreed upon by both the wifey and myself. Even though she does let me spend my fair share of money on toys, neither one of us can justify the costs here. To be able to use the PS3 and get the "full" experience requires and HDTV. I don't have an HDTV, I just got a new 35" tv about 8 months ago and we can't get HD cable tv where we live so there really isn't much point. So past the cost of a several thousand dollar TV (and don't mention the falling prices because I believe in spending more and having it last a long time...I hate disposable electronics) my wife and I would rather spend that money on a vacation.
The graphics on the PS3 are very very nice when viewed on a proper HD setup. The problem is there isn't much new past that. Sure the sixaxis is nice but I have played a Wii. The Wii is fun to play. I have played both thanks to friends with much more disposable income that I. The Wii is going to have some games that really change video game playing style. Plus being up on my feet while playing is nice (us computer geeks are oft prone to laziness).
I am not saying that the Wii is better than the PS3 but what I am saying is that there are probably more people in my situation. A situation where money is somewhat tight and don't enjoy a game on graphics alone isn't that rare. I wish I had to disposable income to get a full HD setup and all 3 next gen systems. But I can tell you that my first next gen system is going to be a Wii. I waited until all 3 systems were out and put in some serious play time on all of them. The Wii wins for me.
Your results may vary. Batteries not included. Void where prohibited.Being serious I personally plan to wait until these discs and HDDVD have been out for a while before I will consider purchasing one. There is currently too much back and forth between these two formats right now and I prefer to wait. I did the same thing with DVD's, I waited until the format wars had been settled (settled being relative) and there were dual format burners. However if my understanding is corrrect dual format burners for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are a near impossibility at this point. I really don't want to buy into one format only to have to burn new hardware and recopy all of my media onto the new format. I am going to let the bleeding edge folks fight this one out for me.
The problem with DRM as I see it is not that it keeps people from doing something illegal but that it keeps me from doing something legal with the stuff that I own (read: copying something to another player to view/listen else where).
Keeping in theme with your analogy of a locked home. DRM on the locks on my home would allow the home owners association or city government to control when I could go into my house. I agree completely that artists/musicians/whatever should be able to reasonably control their works, but at the same time I bought the CD. As long as I don't distribute the contents of that CD to anyone else why should the musician care. I am listening aren't I?
On paper DRM is a nice idea but no one (to my knowledge) as developed a reasonable way in which to implement it.
I have never relied on a single software package to keep my computer virus/spyware/adware/whatever free. I use three products. AVG anti-virus is running right now and it updates at least once a day and does a scan every morning at 3am. Also through the course of the day I run Adaware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ which is free for personal use. Also installed on my computer is SpyBot S&D http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html another freebie.
Between these three products and routine updates from windows update and only using Firefox, I honestly cannot remember the last time I had a problem with adware etc. I find it rather disturbing that people put their trust in one single software package to keep their systems clean. Is it not good practice to keep backups in multiple locations? Why then would we not have redundant measures for cleaning a system? Other than the anti-virus running in the background these programs use system resources only when loaded and running. Otherwise they sit on my hard drive and take up a fraction of a fraction of my total space.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but didn't IBM do the same thing with the x86 processors. If so would we be looking at the potential for another "IBM clone" situation thereby making cell the next x86 architecture?
This is kind of relavant. I was watching 60 minutes the other evening when they did a spot on the porn industry. The porno biz has been a first or almost first adoptor of lots and lots of technologies in the past. VCR, mpeg codec, streaming video, secure internet sites, purchasing products/services over the internet.
i just have one question. how can you call this a battery? correct me if i am wrong but it wasnt until the 1700's that humans discovered electricity and began trying to control it and use it.
this priceless artifact sounds more like someone droped a spoon or fork into a bottle of vinegar and forgot to take it out until a couple of mellinia later.
...hey i wonder if when this thing comes out i can hack it and put windows xp on it (ducks)
well this certainly is a chance for apple to get some good press out of this. i mean they can surely boast that their machines can take a superior beating and still perform. its very impressive that a processor could with stand that much heat and still function. i thought that procs would melt into nice little worthless blobs of silicon at temps much less than that. really though what was that woman thinking when she put her laptop in the oven?!?!
D'OH! i particularly liked the episode about the flaming moe...dont remember when it came out but its an old one...
actually the copyright laws have been extended to nearly a century because of a recent lawsuit involving disney and a couple of other corporations that had the problem of their copyrights running out. the story can be found here http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/01/15/scotus.copyright s.ap/
i dont find modding xboxen any different than hot rodding your honda civic. seems to me that microslut would be happy that ppl are taking there products and playing with them. that means two things in the long run.
1. people are buying their product and most likely breaking parts and/or modding parts and having to purchase replacements (look at all the specialty parts for cars that are available now)
2. "hackers" may find another use for them and create another niche market that M$ could hold completely (although this would be a bad thing) but it would mean more money
but just think about what it would be like if honda or some other car company didnt want people to trick out their vehicles. the average everyday person would be up in arms over it. but when it comes to computers people hear the word hackers and crawl under the bed and whimper and beg uncle gates to save them.