Anybody in the computing industry who thinks CS research has been stagnent for 20 years is most likely one of those moronic "computer engineers" that's still trying to get their heads around 1980s concepts, and ignoring all the new stuff. The sad state of commercial products today is fair testament to that.
In times of budget shortfalls and spiralling national debt, long-term research is the last thing you want to cut. To use a programming analogy, if you have a project that is running late, and you're starting to hurt for cash, you don't cut the programming team in half...
It's not a QC issue -- it's off-center by design. If you look at an open PSP, you'll see that moving the contact any further to the left (to line it up with the button), is impossible because the screen is in the way. Moving the button pad further to the right would put it too close to the edge, so you'd have to make the PSP larger.
Re:Sony still focusing on the wrong things
on
Inside the PSP
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· Score: 1
I never said it does. The OP claimed that Sony had a trend of focusing on the wrong things when designing a game console. That cannot be true, because the PS2 was so popular, and popularity is exactly what Sony *should* focus on when designing a console, since popularity equals sales.
Re:Sony still focusing on the wrong things
on
Inside the PSP
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· Score: 1
But that won't stop the PSP apologists from saying it already has been.
Why bother apologizing? I've got one, I just played Wipeout for 2 hours, and I didn't notice it *at all*. From the ArsTechnica review: "The buttons are responsive and have a nice click to them, although the square button still has a slight catch where it hits the screen. I only notice it when I look for it though, and contrary to reports, it doesn't feel any less responsive than the others." The Gamespot review doesn't mention it, the PC World review doesn't mention it, EGM doesn't mention it.
Have you even used one? The only people I hear bitching about the square button (in the US), are the people who don't even have one.
Re:Sony still focusing on the wrong things
on
Inside the PSP
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· Score: 1
Of course XBox was able to gain a foothold in the market. Microsoft is a $40bn a year company! Even still, Microsoft still doesn't have a foothold in the Japanese market, which is a huge portion of the overall market. By any measure, the PS2 is a smashing success. It has sold 80 million units worldwide, and is projected to top 100 million over its lifetime. The XBox has only sold 19 million units to date. That's a huge difference.
Have you actually used one? I don't notice it on mine, and the reviews never mention it (see ArsTechnica's review on its main page), but I always see it on Slashdot.
Re:Sony still focusing on the wrong things
on
Inside the PSP
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· Score: 5, Informative
There are a number of inaccuracies in your post.
I feel that the PSP continues Sony's trend of focusing on the wrong things when designing a game console. Yes, because Sony was *so* off base with the PS2...
Developers are already complaining about the slow transfer rates, and the load times are VERY long compared to other handhelds.
There are already games in Japan (Tales of Eternia), that have no load time. The PSP has a large amount of RAM. Developers *can* use it to minimize load time.
The physical placement of the square button sacrifices gameplay for aesthetics, something which former-sony-head Ken Kutaragi admitted.
I have a PSP in front of me right now. The square button feels the same as every other button. It was a problem in the Japanese consoles, but it's fixed in the 1001 revision.
Thirdly, the short battery life is a major downside, which is related to the UMD itself.
The UMD, if it is descended from the Minidisc, is not the problem. I have a minidisc player that gets 40 hours on a single AA battery. The UMD disc is even smaller and lighter, and should thus use even less power. It's the heavy-graphics that cause shorter battery life (see IGN's battery-life review). Of course, if you want longer battery lives, you can always play games with DS-level graphics.
Finally, the system spits out the UMD when you slightly twist the console, so be careful in public places or anywhere there is a distance between the system and the ground.
No it doesn't. Again, I have one right here. The PSP is very rigid --- I just tried to twist it, and nothing happened. If you really do manage to eject the disc by twisting it, then you're doing it hard enough to cause serious damage to the console. There is no way you can get that sort of torsion in regular use.
It's not age group propoganda. Lot's of people just don't find "colorful" games all that appealing. For example, I found the mechanics of Wind Waker to be great, but the game itself to be quite boring, becuase the world it portrayed just wasn't very engrossing. Let me use an analogy. I don't watch romantic comedies. They can be perfectly entertaining and good movies in their own right, but I still don't find them enjoyable, mainly because of their subject-matter. The same is true for me and "kiddie" games.
I don't know how true this is. You don't really need a pointing device to browse the web. Ask anyone using Links (or w3m or Lynx). Iterating over links is really more effective than you'd expect, especially if you have a good skip function. Further, I don't see the analog puck being any worse than a pointing nub, and I'm using that on my laptop right now. Overall, I'd trade the touch-screen for the PSP's larger screen --- it's the first portable device with a screen large enough, in my opinion, to make for comfortable web browsing.
"Analogue" is only correct if you're writing British English. I have a hard time believing that all the people that I see using "analogue" are British, especially since I see them spell other words (eg: color) in the American style. It is, if not incorrect, at least poor style to use the two conventions inconsistently.
Okay, I see this all the time. The word is "analog", not "analogue". "Analogue" is something that is analagous to something else. "Analog" is the opposite of "digital".
In any case, the PSP players MP3s and MPEG4 --- not proprietory formats. The data portion of UMD is being opened up, so in theory manufacturers should be able to make UMD writers that can store music and movies (though not games).
The Enterprise crew comes across the USS Defiant (from TOS) that has somehow been pulled through time and space and universes from the TOS timeline into the ENT Mirror timeline via a Tholian Web.
In one sentence you summed up why Enterprise and Voyager sucked so much nut.
That battery journal is a terrible one. They've got a much better one where they run one thing until the system gives out. From what I remember, it breaks down like this:
High intensity game: 3.5 hours Low intensity game: 5 hours Gaming with Wi-Fi on: 2.75 hours Listening to MP3: 10.5 hours
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Interesting, it was around quite a bit before OS X.
And 1989 isn't in the last 20 years?
Anybody in the computing industry who thinks CS research has been stagnent for 20 years is most likely one of those moronic "computer engineers" that's still trying to get their heads around 1980s concepts, and ignoring all the new stuff. The sad state of commercial products today is fair testament to that.
Yes, because defense contractors are known for being punctual.
In times of budget shortfalls and spiralling national debt, long-term research is the last thing you want to cut. To use a programming analogy, if you have a project that is running late, and you're starting to hurt for cash, you don't cut the programming team in half...
The error message needs to be improved, but that's trivial. The authentication only needs to be done once, so that's no problem.
The whole point of designing a game console is making money. If your design decisions lead to making more money, then you focused on the right things.
To use your example: the whole point of investing is to make money. If your investment makes money, you focused on the right thing.
It's not a QC issue -- it's off-center by design. If you look at an open PSP, you'll see that moving the contact any further to the left (to line it up with the button), is impossible because the screen is in the way. Moving the button pad further to the right would put it too close to the edge, so you'd have to make the PSP larger.
I never said it does. The OP claimed that Sony had a trend of focusing on the wrong things when designing a game console. That cannot be true, because the PS2 was so popular, and popularity is exactly what Sony *should* focus on when designing a console, since popularity equals sales.
But that won't stop the PSP apologists from saying it already has been.
Why bother apologizing? I've got one, I just played Wipeout for 2 hours, and I didn't notice it *at all*. From the ArsTechnica review: "The buttons are responsive and have a nice click to them, although the square button still has a slight catch where it hits the screen. I only notice it when I look for it though, and contrary to reports, it doesn't feel any less responsive than the others." The Gamespot review doesn't mention it, the PC World review doesn't mention it, EGM doesn't mention it.
Have you even used one? The only people I hear bitching about the square button (in the US), are the people who don't even have one.
Of course XBox was able to gain a foothold in the market. Microsoft is a $40bn a year company! Even still, Microsoft still doesn't have a foothold in the Japanese market, which is a huge portion of the overall market. By any measure, the PS2 is a smashing success. It has sold 80 million units worldwide, and is projected to top 100 million over its lifetime. The XBox has only sold 19 million units to date. That's a huge difference.
That was the implication of the score-0 post I replied to.
How is the PSP any more proprietory than the DS?
Have you actually used one? I don't notice it on mine, and the reviews never mention it (see ArsTechnica's review on its main page), but I always see it on Slashdot.
There are a number of inaccuracies in your post.
I feel that the PSP continues Sony's trend of focusing on the wrong things when designing a game console.
Yes, because Sony was *so* off base with the PS2...
Developers are already complaining about the slow transfer rates, and the load times are VERY long compared to other handhelds.
There are already games in Japan (Tales of Eternia), that have no load time. The PSP has a large amount of RAM. Developers *can* use it to minimize load time.
The physical placement of the square button sacrifices gameplay for aesthetics, something which former-sony-head Ken Kutaragi admitted.
I have a PSP in front of me right now. The square button feels the same as every other button. It was a problem in the Japanese consoles, but it's fixed in the 1001 revision.
Thirdly, the short battery life is a major downside, which is related to the UMD itself.
The UMD, if it is descended from the Minidisc, is not the problem. I have a minidisc player that gets 40 hours on a single AA battery. The UMD disc is even smaller and lighter, and should thus use even less power. It's the heavy-graphics that cause shorter battery life (see IGN's battery-life review). Of course, if you want longer battery lives, you can always play games with DS-level graphics.
Finally, the system spits out the UMD when you slightly twist the console, so be careful in public places or anywhere there is a distance between the system and the ground.
No it doesn't. Again, I have one right here. The PSP is very rigid --- I just tried to twist it, and nothing happened. If you really do manage to eject the disc by twisting it, then you're doing it hard enough to cause serious damage to the console. There is no way you can get that sort of torsion in regular use.
Yeah, it resembles it alright. Since Windows installers are a step down from just "point, click, and install" in Synaptic, that's not a good thing...
It's not age group propoganda. Lot's of people just don't find "colorful" games all that appealing. For example, I found the mechanics of Wind Waker to be great, but the game itself to be quite boring, becuase the world it portrayed just wasn't very engrossing. Let me use an analogy. I don't watch romantic comedies. They can be perfectly entertaining and good movies in their own right, but I still don't find them enjoyable, mainly because of their subject-matter. The same is true for me and "kiddie" games.
I don't know how true this is. You don't really need a pointing device to browse the web. Ask anyone using Links (or w3m or Lynx). Iterating over links is really more effective than you'd expect, especially if you have a good skip function. Further, I don't see the analog puck being any worse than a pointing nub, and I'm using that on my laptop right now. Overall, I'd trade the touch-screen for the PSP's larger screen --- it's the first portable device with a screen large enough, in my opinion, to make for comfortable web browsing.
How was I advocating using the two conventions inconsistently? In American English, "analogue" is a consistent spelling, just for a different word.
"Analogue" is only correct if you're writing British English. I have a hard time believing that all the people that I see using "analogue" are British, especially since I see them spell other words (eg: color) in the American style. It is, if not incorrect, at least poor style to use the two conventions inconsistently.
Except hard-drive players don't skip when you run. The iPod has a really big buffer (32MB), and you can jog with it, as long as you don't drop it.
Okay, I see this all the time. The word is "analog", not "analogue". "Analogue" is something that is analagous to something else. "Analog" is the opposite of "digital".
In any case, the PSP players MP3s and MPEG4 --- not proprietory formats. The data portion of UMD is being opened up, so in theory manufacturers should be able to make UMD writers that can store music and movies (though not games).
$319 buys you a package at CompUSA with the value pack (PSP, carry case, charger, 32MB memory stick) plus 2 games of your choice.
Scanning a document and posting it to your website does infringe on the original copyright.
The Enterprise crew comes across the USS Defiant (from TOS) that has somehow been pulled through time and space and universes from the TOS timeline into the ENT Mirror timeline via a Tholian Web.
In one sentence you summed up why Enterprise and Voyager sucked so much nut.
That battery journal is a terrible one. They've got a much better one where they run one thing until the system gives out. From what I remember, it breaks down like this:
High intensity game: 3.5 hours
Low intensity game: 5 hours
Gaming with Wi-Fi on: 2.75 hours
Listening to MP3: 10.5 hours