I know that has been a popular sentiment ont his board for some time and that im not in particularly new....... But, I still have a bad taste in my mouth from YEARS of Blockbuster / Viacom screwing me (and everyone else) royally.
The late fees. The bad selection. The late fees. Changing the rental system to somehow appease a lawsuit they lost and at the same time still trick people into paying more late fees.....
And then Netflix came along, and the first few times you saw it in print was wondering if they could ever even get the attention of the Blockbuster juggernaught (anyone besides me remember the college football Blockbuster Bowl?). Well yeah, I guess they got Viacoms attention finally. After their entire business had been decimated. How long was this in the making?
After Blockbuster ran EVERY Mom and Pop video rental store off the planet they want to somehow play the underdog? They didnt have a chance to see what Netflix saw and ditch the brick and ortar stores? Yeah I know thats expensive, but the real estate they built those stores on would have recouped most of the money, and firing everyone else would have them squarely in the black, a place they havent been for a hot minute now...
So to recap, screw Blockbuster, but only because in their hubris they screwed (and are actively screwing) themselves.
I always use/. for cheap market research. I know the crowd, I am the crowd. I looked at this story and was very interested to see what the comunity thought. Not to hop on the bandwagon, after reading the initial write-up (and not RTFA) I was clearly marked "morally ambiguous" myself. But glancing over to "Read more.." I saw that there were only 35 or so comments.
On an Apple post. On the front page. With all kinds of stories around and above it actually garnering attention.
Its not that this story isnt flamebait, it is. But the telling sing is that no one really knows how to take it. It does suck. Apple has a _shit_ license (as I am now reading) but it is still miles ahead of the rest of the industry....
IMHO I think they are right to protest. Apple has the power now, and Apple is much more susceptible to publicity than any other... hell, almost any other company period. Getting in Apples face for just _a few_ of our rights back would be worth it at this point.
And maybe Apple would even be happy to acquiesce to such a request at this point.
Google.com and gmail were down sporadicaly all day. My company is currently talking to google about training, i would have loved to have been in that office today watching them flip. Beijing will make you respect their power, if google doesnt want to play nice alibaba, yahoo, MSN and many others will. Remember that companies are not run by public opinion, they are run by stockholders - if I owned google stock i would be furious if they werent doing everything tay could to corner China.
Also of note I saw a message that all of our favorite proxy hosts have been busted by the great firewall as of today (on some news service). I havent bothered to check myself but tey were explicitly named and it was pretty obvious that it was just a matter of time. Good thing there are alternatives...
About 200 days into my trip living and working in Beijing you get a different feel for things. Now I am not saying in any way that Chinese isnt the language to learn and that China isnt going to run the global economy for the forseeable future. I dont have room to start on that complex matter. But... ill relate all ive learned and say "Yes" to both sides..
There is a construction army here that I am listening to build the next generation of high rises (inculding the tallest building in Beijing about 1 mile away) at 2;28 am. It never stops. And its everywhere within a twenty mile radius. An amazing thing to watch unfold.
One the one hand.
On the other hand I walk past and through these crews everyday and see the same amount of laying back that I see on a typical highway crew in the States except horrendously worse. Office workers on a whole appear to have the same rep: lotsa hours, same amount fo work. I dont think they are inherently (or culturaly or otherwise) more productive / less lazy than anyone else ive met - but seriously, and think about this - there are that many more. China is a beast, it has been for the last 3000 years, and unified riding a wave of nationalistic expansion there isnt a lot it cant do. And its doing it, now.
IMHO, from what I have seen. But in my defense I have been looking pretty hard through a variety of different lenses.
Who started the Personal Computer business? I think its safe to say IBM and Apple...
Well IBM sold their PC business last year to my (current) home team Lenovo.
and..
Apple is a 'digital lifestyle' company, selling high end hardware / software _solutions_ to their pro base and ipods to everyone else on the planet.
I know im over simplifying but i find it very interesting that the first two players in the game now feel the need to either get the hell out or diversify. Let Lenovo and the next round of Chinese manufacturers duke it out on zero margins. The $150 PC is already a reality in China - in two years you will be able to get a PC for $100 in the states at the supermarket - and 2 years after that....
SGI I shed a tear for thee. The Cray merger was a last gasp and last nail I guess - but you never know.
Would the added overhead for performance be a problem if it was actually built knowing the underlying architecture or taking into the incredible gains in processor speeds since this argument first arose? I mean (and im being quite honest) if this argument began on x386's and im typing this on a dual core 2ghz machine there has to be a usable system somewhere in this mix of code and hardware.
An earlier poster mentioned QNX - and maybe that is theoretical mix I am referring to in practice.
I hate talking about these things but being a laowai here in beijing I feel like I have to.....
I am currently residing in the good old PR of C and its just so much more complicated than all these "activists" make it out to be. Yes, being technically inclined I figured out ways to see things that get blocked here and there - and I have been passed sites and progs that can also do the trick by locals ive met. But like someone said earlier "becuase i am a foreginer I probably wouldnt get into any trouble - especially if i just wanted to fact check on a certain website (wiki) that has been blocked." But what if im not.
What if I am actually using these proxies to view things that the government explicitly doesnt want me to see?
What if I am a citizen and not to keen about possibly going to jail?
What if I am reading these things so that I can _change_ things, tell people about all this new knowledge, plant the seeds of a better way in China?
Puleez. Yeah I get these proxy progs and if they arent given out by the government then the government is the one running the hosts. If the government is catching these dissidents by going through unsent webmail drafts I think they might have some pros on the job. And none of this even touches on the fucking societal implications. Try walking in another mans shoes before you decide "He needs to be freed! Its the American way!" Ever since I got here all ive heard is about how the NSA and the pres finally turned out great idea for a country into 1984 - meanwhile in China all I have to do is not start a fucking democ movement and no one bothers me - ever.
Im sorry that im rambling and not replying to the parent but I feel like people need to take a second look at the situation. China will change, it is changing, and everyone (including the bosses) know it - but even the _people_ will tell you that running the show for 1.5 BILLION PEOPLE requires some checks and balances.
But seriously , you see me dance around words in this reply here and there - there are things I will not mention, im not selling out, im just getting by. The kids over here know whats going on, they dont need a program, and they dont need someone from the other side fo the planet (and safely out of the Politburo's loving arms) to tell them to break the law and revolt.
This will all be moot in twenty years when they are the superpower and the US is relegated to a failed experiment and police state;)
I dont know who said it but it has become a mantra of mine when discussing this administration and periodin our history:
"History will not be kind."
We lost the ground war in Vietnam but since they sell Coke there now I guess everything is kosher in the long run. Our policy in the middle east has brought us the first real atack on American soil since..... when? And repaid this in kind by destroying a country not responsible while giving Iran and DPRK all the time they needed to shore up their systems.
I think the contributor needs to check his sources....
Walking into the supermarket tonight I bought "V for Vendetta" for five RMB, currently thats about 60 cents. He's obviously a tourist.
It really is that bad here - but ive noticed that some studios are already doing this. Ive seen 60 RMB ($7) movie packs that are what we would see in the states - but who the hell would think of buying that when the best movies are not only cheaper but on every corner and more convenient. That said I have seen some maor releases (Harry Potter for one IIRC) that were on sale for only 20 kuai ($3) but still - when I can get it for 60 cents and its just around the corner.....
Its funny, a few weeks ago there were (almost) no bootleg DVD's for sale in Beijing. Apparently the government randomly declares "No Illegal Wares" weeks like twice a year. Who knows. The more I stay here the more it makes sense - and that is the scary part;)
1. Tone down the rhetoric - there are better ways to express your opinion.
But....
2. Slashdot - wake up: no one cares about.ogg. There is no reason to post in every/. discussion that mentions the iPod that it has no ogg support. Because no one cares - and I have (how many million now?) credit card signatures to prove it.
That said _maybe_ discussing ogg support when we are speaking of replacing the firmware just might be the _one_ acceptable time to do so.
Flame on guys - im waiting for the true video ipod anyways.
The game is much different this time. This is not any kind of repeat from the initial IBM PC clone days.... For example:
- Apple never had an 80% and growing stranglehold of a marketshare - across multiple product categories no less.
- The "clones" were just that - all making the same thing. Here we have a couple different clones all keeping closed systems and fighting each other.
- The integration between content and player and where the money comes from is much trickier this time. Everyone having to license from the record companies for content - or shipping a player as-is and in effect sending them to piratebay - a clusterfuck to deal with. There were no dinosoar calculator paper companies besieging the early PC market.
- The content providers havent caught up with technology - while the culture has. There was no war between what a device can do and how we need to limit it.
- Imagine if Apple was allowed to sell the iPod we want. Bluetooth and/or WIFI music sharing, FM tuner and line-in. Step 2. sell a few hundred million - its would just be that easy if it werent for factors holding the entire industry back.
Just a few points to consider when comparing today to the PC (not Mac) clone days.
I am actually reading this froim China right now - and im kind of surprised.
The censors are always shutting things down./. hasnt been blocked totally but discussions and linked articles have.
I agree with the sentiments that publishing these ideas are a double edged sword. Its good to inform and have things coming from enough sources to get to the people and bypass the censors but it does give the gov. a heads up.
I have seen so many articles here on China since I moved and have really been torm most times as to what I could uniquely add. Sometimes my silence was all I could add as I have been blocked from a couple articles/discussions - but not the front page.
From what I have experienced the censorship is annoying. And that is it. Any information you _really_ need are out there and anyone who wants to find something given enough time in a haystack will. There have been a few stories that I have seen that at first set off the filters and then slowly be released and/or fall over and around the net as it were but those didnt truly affect me.
What most people forget is that the people this censorship affects is the average Chinese citizen. Not you, and not even a Beijing laowai like myself. Ther is an inherent view that we have been raised with that makes censorship mean different things to us and I really cant stress this enough. I dont want to justify anything but I do want to put forth the average persons view that what the government is doing is _not_ inherently wrong.
First off a disclaimer: I own a DS, no PSP and am a total Nintendo fanboy.
That said....
The PSP has its distinct andvantages. The screen is just brilliant and it lends itself to being a great media viewer _in addition to_ a game system. Now here a the point of contention. Which is its primary position? If it is truly supposed to capture the video game and not media view space then I think its fair to say Sony really needs to get their shit straight. If that means headhunting Nintendo employees and turning out some 1st class in house wares it certainly wont be the first time we have seen someone buy their way back into things. But again the PSP still has its overwhelming edge as a personal media viewer that is unmatched.
The DS is an amazing machine and does what it is designed to do almost perfectly. But it does not have the built in added bonus of being a media reader although it has the physical capacity to do so. I know of movie players from lik-sang and the like but it is confusing and clunky even to someone like myself and not in the minds of the average gamer when looking at this purchase. Now in japan there is a movie media cart for the GBA SP I believe - and they already sell the official Big N wireless adapter for the DS. They NEED to fill this gap with what they already have and just sell the SD reader / software etc done with Nintendo quality and at least take back some of that market. For a cheaper price than the PSP you get games that are unmatchable and 90% of the PSP's function. While you certainly dont have the PSP screen you still the best of the media reader value by not being hampered by disk drive movement and size while using SD cards.
I mean they have to see this too right? Sell it in a crispy package right next to the broadband adapter. $100 for the software to convert down movies to DS screen dimensions - use the tap screen for the menus, use the internal headphones for mp3, and a 256? meg SD card that fints into the GBA slot cartidge. They can sell it at shitty margins and they will still win in the long run by taking market from sony. Its the one thing the ds doesnt do and its huge.
As a Doctor of Metaphysics from the United Life Church I will hvae to respectfully disagree.
Hell, just making everyone call me Doctor (I of course have a well rehearsed spiel on metaphysics ready) was worth the $30 I spent on a diploma. My doctorate is of course next to my real degree [marketing] from a respected east coast university on my wall.
To my friends I liken it to a hat that I enjoy wearing out. So apart from the original discussion point (no my Doctorate will never get me anything and isnt on my resume) these online degrees do have their proper uses.
When I tell my friends about wikipedia these days I fell like I did during the hotbot, scour net and google early days:
Me: "Dude there is this whole repository of information at your fingertips totally changing the way we think and collaborate! Just google something factual and add "wiki" at the beginning of the string at your there."
Them: "Uhhmmm, a wiki-what?"
Only to be followed by them explaining wikipedia (google-hotbot, scour-napster, ) bacl to me a year or so later. Despite its flaws the wiki is a truly amazing tool.
Nothing is perfect - wikipedia is useful. Therefore it is good (enough for me).
"Will that mean an end to our little plastic toys/trinkets?"
No, but it will _eventually_ mean the end of Taiwan's democraticaly elected government. The US government is trying to straddle the delicate line of appeasing both countries - but US corporations are kowtowing to the Big C every time. It will be interesting to see how far this divide goes.....
Actually being that it will be sold by ISP's which are now often cable companies I think it might be supposed to hook to your television before your preexisting monitor (like the Mac Mini).....
I flipped on this issue so fast that my head is still spinning. Aside from having the iPod and a huge cash reserve to keep them afloat I am honestly worried that piracy will crush the mac platform on intel.
And in all honesty I want my platform to continue living - I need Apple to stay proftiable in the computer business because I want to continue to buy their computers. Sadly this means that I now support any kind of gestapo like tactic that they use to keep the OS locked to their hardware.
Hopefully they can find a middle ground but the past few years have taught me that technology cannot build a wall that technology cannot also knock down - it will be a long uphill battle - I hope the FSB on the new powerbooks is worth it.
This article made me think of an oft neglected factoid between the United States and Russia. Oddly enough in the official Anti-Ballistic-Missile-Treaty there is a clause that states that America is not allowed to use / deploy their weather changing weapons including HAARP against the old Soviet Union. There is also a UN treaty circa 1976 that basically says the same thing but in more general terms, while again naming the US and Russia. Now I hate to be 'that guy' but knowing that in all the: legalese, time, preperation, and double checking that went into the ABM treaty that the inclusion of a weather weapon cant be purely speculative or coincidental.
Ok, im taking off the tinfoil hat now (but it does make me wonder sometimes why Bush is so sure that global wearming isnt due to greenhouse gas emission.....)
Now no matter what you think of the situation with Mr. Rove - it is kind of obvious that as all that was about to blow the next day Bush nominates Roberts for the Supreme Court and all of a sudden you have to pry trhough the paper to find mention of it....
Apple had a hot product / topic that they were sitting on and is using it to change what the press is talking about. Absolute marketing genius if you ask me (but then I guess Apple is kind of known for that).
I mean honestly, as I read the/. story yestreday I could almost feel the Apple marketing people (and hell maybe even Steve) reading and taking notes. We are the technocrati - our opinions shape many users. Would Apple have us talking about how they finally capitulated and brought the multibutton mouse to the unwashed masses or Palladium DRM that will lock down your computer.
Slashdot Mirror
I give my 2 cents with every comment I leave on this site (username ;)
XP had just come out and I "lost" my old account. I figured if it was anything like win98 that I would end up hating it for years to come.....
Thanks for not proving me wrong Microsoft! (Ive used mac's at home since 1999 but by day I trouble shoot windows boxen).
Fuck Blockbuster.
I know that has been a popular sentiment ont his board for some time and that im not in particularly new....... But, I still have a bad taste in my mouth from YEARS of Blockbuster / Viacom screwing me (and everyone else) royally.
The late fees. The bad selection. The late fees. Changing the rental system to somehow appease a lawsuit they lost and at the same time still trick people into paying more late fees.....
And then Netflix came along, and the first few times you saw it in print was wondering if they could ever even get the attention of the Blockbuster juggernaught (anyone besides me remember the college football Blockbuster Bowl?). Well yeah, I guess they got Viacoms attention finally. After their entire business had been decimated. How long was this in the making?
After Blockbuster ran EVERY Mom and Pop video rental store off the planet they want to somehow play the underdog? They didnt have a chance to see what Netflix saw and ditch the brick and ortar stores? Yeah I know thats expensive, but the real estate they built those stores on would have recouped most of the money, and firing everyone else would have them squarely in the black, a place they havent been for a hot minute now...
So to recap, screw Blockbuster, but only because in their hubris they screwed (and are actively screwing) themselves.
Sorry in advance,
/. for cheap market research. I know the crowd, I am the crowd. I looked at this story and was very interested to see what the comunity thought. Not to hop on the bandwagon, after reading the initial write-up (and not RTFA) I was clearly marked "morally ambiguous" myself. But glancing over to "Read more.." I saw that there were only 35 or so comments.
I always use
On an Apple post. On the front page. With all kinds of stories around and above it actually garnering attention.
Its not that this story isnt flamebait, it is. But the telling sing is that no one really knows how to take it. It does suck. Apple has a _shit_ license (as I am now reading) but it is still miles ahead of the rest of the industry....
IMHO I think they are right to protest. Apple has the power now, and Apple is much more susceptible to publicity than any other... hell, almost any other company period. Getting in Apples face for just _a few_ of our rights back would be worth it at this point.
And maybe Apple would even be happy to acquiesce to such a request at this point.
Well the story we got in China today was quite different....
404 error. Server stopped responding. Blah blah generic (but obvious) "Great Firewall" block.
Google.com and gmail were down sporadicaly all day. My company is currently talking to google about training, i would have loved to have been in that office today watching them flip. Beijing will make you respect their power, if google doesnt want to play nice alibaba, yahoo, MSN and many others will. Remember that companies are not run by public opinion, they are run by stockholders - if I owned google stock i would be furious if they werent doing everything tay could to corner China.
Also of note I saw a message that all of our favorite proxy hosts have been busted by the great firewall as of today (on some news service). I havent bothered to check myself but tey were explicitly named and it was pretty obvious that it was just a matter of time. Good thing there are alternatives...
Let me chime in.
About 200 days into my trip living and working in Beijing you get a different feel for things. Now I am not saying in any way that Chinese isnt the language to learn and that China isnt going to run the global economy for the forseeable future. I dont have room to start on that complex matter. But... ill relate all ive learned and say "Yes" to both sides..
There is a construction army here that I am listening to build the next generation of high rises (inculding the tallest building in Beijing about 1 mile away) at 2;28 am. It never stops. And its everywhere within a twenty mile radius. An amazing thing to watch unfold.
One the one hand.
On the other hand I walk past and through these crews everyday and see the same amount of laying back that I see on a typical highway crew in the States except horrendously worse. Office workers on a whole appear to have the same rep: lotsa hours, same amount fo work. I dont think they are inherently (or culturaly or otherwise) more productive / less lazy than anyone else ive met - but seriously, and think about this - there are that many more. China is a beast, it has been for the last 3000 years, and unified riding a wave of nationalistic expansion there isnt a lot it cant do. And its doing it, now.
IMHO, from what I have seen. But in my defense I have been looking pretty hard through a variety of different lenses.
Look at it like this,
Who started the Personal Computer business? I think its safe to say IBM and Apple...
Well IBM sold their PC business last year to my (current) home team Lenovo.
and..
Apple is a 'digital lifestyle' company, selling high end hardware / software _solutions_ to their pro base and ipods to everyone else on the planet.
I know im over simplifying but i find it very interesting that the first two players in the game now feel the need to either get the hell out or diversify. Let Lenovo and the next round of Chinese manufacturers duke it out on zero margins. The $150 PC is already a reality in China - in two years you will be able to get a PC for $100 in the states at the supermarket - and 2 years after that....
SGI I shed a tear for thee. The Cray merger was a last gasp and last nail I guess - but you never know.
So to again go the "In Theory" route:
Would the added overhead for performance be a problem if it was actually built knowing the underlying architecture or taking into the incredible gains in processor speeds since this argument first arose? I mean (and im being quite honest) if this argument began on x386's and im typing this on a dual core 2ghz machine there has to be a usable system somewhere in this mix of code and hardware.
An earlier poster mentioned QNX - and maybe that is theoretical mix I am referring to in practice.
I hate talking about these things but being a laowai here in beijing I feel like I have to.....
;)
I am currently residing in the good old PR of C and its just so much more complicated than all these "activists" make it out to be. Yes, being technically inclined I figured out ways to see things that get blocked here and there - and I have been passed sites and progs that can also do the trick by locals ive met. But like someone said earlier "becuase i am a foreginer I probably wouldnt get into any trouble - especially if i just wanted to fact check on a certain website (wiki) that has been blocked." But what if im not.
What if I am actually using these proxies to view things that the government explicitly doesnt want me to see?
What if I am a citizen and not to keen about possibly going to jail?
What if I am reading these things so that I can _change_ things, tell people about all this new knowledge, plant the seeds of a better way in China?
Puleez. Yeah I get these proxy progs and if they arent given out by the government then the government is the one running the hosts. If the government is catching these dissidents by going through unsent webmail drafts I think they might have some pros on the job. And none of this even touches on the fucking societal implications. Try walking in another mans shoes before you decide "He needs to be freed! Its the American way!" Ever since I got here all ive heard is about how the NSA and the pres finally turned out great idea for a country into 1984 - meanwhile in China all I have to do is not start a fucking democ movement and no one bothers me - ever.
Im sorry that im rambling and not replying to the parent but I feel like people need to take a second look at the situation. China will change, it is changing, and everyone (including the bosses) know it - but even the _people_ will tell you that running the show for 1.5 BILLION PEOPLE requires some checks and balances.
But seriously , you see me dance around words in this reply here and there - there are things I will not mention, im not selling out, im just getting by. The kids over here know whats going on, they dont need a program, and they dont need someone from the other side fo the planet (and safely out of the Politburo's loving arms) to tell them to break the law and revolt.
This will all be moot in twenty years when they are the superpower and the US is relegated to a failed experiment and police state
(im kidding im kidding)
I dont know who said it but it has become a mantra of mine when discussing this administration and periodin our history:
"History will not be kind."
We lost the ground war in Vietnam but since they sell Coke there now I guess everything is kosher in the long run. Our policy in the middle east has brought us the first real atack on American soil since..... when? And repaid this in kind by destroying a country not responsible while giving Iran and DPRK all the time they needed to shore up their systems.
Amazing. And after all this Osama is still alive.
I think the contributor needs to check his sources....
;)
Walking into the supermarket tonight I bought "V for Vendetta" for five RMB, currently thats about 60 cents. He's obviously a tourist.
It really is that bad here - but ive noticed that some studios are already doing this. Ive seen 60 RMB ($7) movie packs that are what we would see in the states - but who the hell would think of buying that when the best movies are not only cheaper but on every corner and more convenient. That said I have seen some maor releases (Harry Potter for one IIRC) that were on sale for only 20 kuai ($3) but still - when I can get it for 60 cents and its just around the corner.....
Its funny, a few weeks ago there were (almost) no bootleg DVD's for sale in Beijing. Apparently the government randomly declares "No Illegal Wares" weeks like twice a year. Who knows. The more I stay here the more it makes sense - and that is the scary part
As a third part let me say you are both correct.
.ogg. There is no reason to post in every /. discussion that mentions the iPod that it has no ogg support. Because no one cares - and I have (how many million now?) credit card signatures to prove it.
1. Tone down the rhetoric - there are better ways to express your opinion.
But....
2. Slashdot - wake up: no one cares about
That said _maybe_ discussing ogg support when we are speaking of replacing the firmware just might be the _one_ acceptable time to do so.
Flame on guys - im waiting for the true video ipod anyways.
I do.
.org - not ,org
its
This is the first sentence of the post -c'mon don't make it so easy - I swear I am not a spelling nazi.
The game is much different this time. This is not any kind of repeat from the initial IBM PC clone days.... For example:
- Apple never had an 80% and growing stranglehold of a marketshare - across multiple product categories no less.
- The "clones" were just that - all making the same thing. Here we have a couple different clones all keeping closed systems and fighting each other.
- The integration between content and player and where the money comes from is much trickier this time. Everyone having to license from the record companies for content - or shipping a player as-is and in effect sending them to piratebay - a clusterfuck to deal with. There were no dinosoar calculator paper companies besieging the early PC market.
- The content providers havent caught up with technology - while the culture has. There was no war between what a device can do and how we need to limit it.
- Imagine if Apple was allowed to sell the iPod we want. Bluetooth and/or WIFI music sharing, FM tuner and line-in. Step 2. sell a few hundred million - its would just be that easy if it werent for factors holding the entire industry back.
Just a few points to consider when comparing today to the PC (not Mac) clone days.
I am actually reading this froim China right now - and im kind of surprised.
/. hasnt been blocked totally but discussions and linked articles have.
;)
The censors are always shutting things down.
I agree with the sentiments that publishing these ideas are a double edged sword. Its good to inform and have things coming from enough sources to get to the people and bypass the censors but it does give the gov. a heads up.
We will see. Or maybe yuou guys will and I wont
I have seen so many articles here on China since I moved and have really been torm most times as to what I could uniquely add. Sometimes my silence was all I could add as I have been blocked from a couple articles/discussions - but not the front page.
From what I have experienced the censorship is annoying. And that is it. Any information you _really_ need are out there and anyone who wants to find something given enough time in a haystack will. There have been a few stories that I have seen that at first set off the filters and then slowly be released and/or fall over and around the net as it were but those didnt truly affect me.
What most people forget is that the people this censorship affects is the average Chinese citizen. Not you, and not even a Beijing laowai like myself. Ther is an inherent view that we have been raised with that makes censorship mean different things to us and I really cant stress this enough. I dont want to justify anything but I do want to put forth the average persons view that what the government is doing is _not_ inherently wrong.
First off a disclaimer: I own a DS, no PSP and am a total Nintendo fanboy.
That said....
The PSP has its distinct andvantages. The screen is just brilliant and it lends itself to being a great media viewer _in addition to_ a game system. Now here a the point of contention. Which is its primary position? If it is truly supposed to capture the video game and not media view space then I think its fair to say Sony really needs to get their shit straight. If that means headhunting Nintendo employees and turning out some 1st class in house wares it certainly wont be the first time we have seen someone buy their way back into things. But again the PSP still has its overwhelming edge as a personal media viewer that is unmatched.
The DS is an amazing machine and does what it is designed to do almost perfectly. But it does not have the built in added bonus of being a media reader although it has the physical capacity to do so. I know of movie players from lik-sang and the like but it is confusing and clunky even to someone like myself and not in the minds of the average gamer when looking at this purchase. Now in japan there is a movie media cart for the GBA SP I believe - and they already sell the official Big N wireless adapter for the DS. They NEED to fill this gap with what they already have and just sell the SD reader / software etc done with Nintendo quality and at least take back some of that market. For a cheaper price than the PSP you get games that are unmatchable and 90% of the PSP's function. While you certainly dont have the PSP screen you still the best of the media reader value by not being hampered by disk drive movement and size while using SD cards.
I mean they have to see this too right? Sell it in a crispy package right next to the broadband adapter. $100 for the software to convert down movies to DS screen dimensions - use the tap screen for the menus, use the internal headphones for mp3, and a 256? meg SD card that fints into the GBA slot cartidge. They can sell it at shitty margins and they will still win in the long run by taking market from sony. Its the one thing the ds doesnt do and its huge.
IMHO
Give me some mod points and we can find out!
As a Doctor of Metaphysics from the United Life Church I will hvae to respectfully disagree.
Hell, just making everyone call me Doctor (I of course have a well rehearsed spiel on metaphysics ready) was worth the $30 I spent on a diploma. My doctorate is of course next to my real degree [marketing] from a respected east coast university on my wall.
To my friends I liken it to a hat that I enjoy wearing out. So apart from the original discussion point (no my Doctorate will never get me anything and isnt on my resume) these online degrees do have their proper uses.
When I tell my friends about wikipedia these days I fell like I did during the hotbot, scour net and google early days:
Me: "Dude there is this whole repository of information at your fingertips totally changing the way we think and collaborate! Just google something factual and add "wiki" at the beginning of the string at your there."
Them: "Uhhmmm, a wiki-what?"
Only to be followed by them explaining wikipedia (google-hotbot, scour-napster, ) bacl to me a year or so later. Despite its flaws the wiki is a truly amazing tool.
Nothing is perfect - wikipedia is useful. Therefore it is good (enough for me).
Dr.O
"Will that mean an end to our little plastic toys/trinkets?"
No, but it will _eventually_ mean the end of Taiwan's democraticaly elected government. The US government is trying to straddle the delicate line of appeasing both countries - but US corporations are kowtowing to the Big C every time. It will be interesting to see how far this divide goes.....
Dr.O
Question: Who does Google stand to make more money off of?
Google already knows the answer to this and that is why "Taiwan" is listed as such.
End of story. (For Taiwan at least)
Dr.O
Actually being that it will be sold by ISP's which are now often cable companies I think it might be supposed to hook to your television before your preexisting monitor (like the Mac Mini).....
- Dr. O
I flipped on this issue so fast that my head is still spinning. Aside from having the iPod and a huge cash reserve to keep them afloat I am honestly worried that piracy will crush the mac platform on intel.
And in all honesty I want my platform to continue living - I need Apple to stay proftiable in the computer business because I want to continue to buy their computers. Sadly this means that I now support any kind of gestapo like tactic that they use to keep the OS locked to their hardware.
Hopefully they can find a middle ground but the past few years have taught me that technology cannot build a wall that technology cannot also knock down - it will be a long uphill battle - I hope the FSB on the new powerbooks is worth it.
This article made me think of an oft neglected factoid between the United States and Russia. Oddly enough in the official Anti-Ballistic-Missile-Treaty there is a clause that states that America is not allowed to use / deploy their weather changing weapons including HAARP against the old Soviet Union.
There is also a UN treaty circa 1976 that basically says the same thing but in more general terms, while again naming the US and Russia.
Now I hate to be 'that guy' but knowing that in all the: legalese, time, preperation, and double checking that went into the ABM treaty that the inclusion of a weather weapon cant be purely speculative or coincidental.
Ok, im taking off the tinfoil hat now (but it does make me wonder sometimes why Bush is so sure that global wearming isnt due to greenhouse gas emission.....)
Its all misdirection.
/. story yestreday I could almost feel the Apple marketing people (and hell maybe even Steve) reading and taking notes. We are the technocrati - our opinions shape many users. Would Apple have us talking about how they finally capitulated and brought the multibutton mouse to the unwashed masses or Palladium DRM that will lock down your computer.
Now no matter what you think of the situation with Mr. Rove - it is kind of obvious that as all that was about to blow the next day Bush nominates Roberts for the Supreme Court and all of a sudden you have to pry trhough the paper to find mention of it....
Apple had a hot product / topic that they were sitting on and is using it to change what the press is talking about. Absolute marketing genius if you ask me (but then I guess Apple is kind of known for that).
I mean honestly, as I read the