You obviously do no serious development on consumer apps.
You realize there are over many billions of combinations of hw/drivers/settings, right? Even if you limit yourself to the most popular hardware, you are talking about thousands of combinations or more.
Of course, you can just say "whatever, it works on my machine", and put your code out there have things break.
Obviously, you knowledge of economics goes about as deep as a Newsweek article.
If you actually took time to read or learn about this subject, then you would know that there is a huge difference between unnatural (oil baron) and natural monopolies (Microsoft).
If you took even further time, then you would read many studies that even unnatural monopolies bring many benenfits (sometimes even more beneficial than open competitive market) in certain situations.
At least do some research before you spew out something that you obviously know nothing about...
Smartest thing I've read on this thread!!!
Insightful+5!!!
It is amazing to hear crap like "if there were more OS's applications would be more platform independent". What a crock of BS!!!
Obviously this guy never produced a shrink wrapped product in his life. It is a NIGHTMARE just to support Windows and maybe one other platform (Just think about it - it takes 4 to 8 weeks to run a complete suite of tests for a typical "small" product. Now multiply that by the number of platforms). Do you seriously think that we would have the plethora of application companies if they ALL had to support 3 or more platforms???
I think you are confusing repressing free speech and stopping illegal activities.
It does not matter if it is a public university, if you are conducting illegal activity (and the university has reasonable evidence to that effect), they are obligated to shut you down.
That is just idiotic!!!
If you followed your own logic, then you wouldn't have made such a stupid statement.
If Bin Laden believed that US citizens do not have the stomach take light casualty while involved in actions far away countries that they know little about that they care even less about, then yes that is true.
But this means that you needed to keep the same kind of attacks in places that Americans do not CARE ABOUT!!! Most places in Middle East or Africa fits the bill and they could have waged this type of battle for years with much effectiveness.
But that is not just what they wanted to do. They wanted to make a statement to the Americans that they are not safe, even at home. Because that is what "terrorism" is all about.
When some play ground nearby your home is vandalized, you may get mad, but you may not be motivated enough to do something about it. However, if your HOME is vandalized, you sure are going to act on it, no matter what.
That is EXACTLY the response that Bin Laden was counting on when they attacked US. And we have played right into his hand. Just look at Iraq and middle east in general right now. It is even more of a disaster than it was before. It is even EASIER now to recruit and train future terrorists.
THAT is EXACTLY what Bin Laden needed to wage his holy war.
He knew and found out exactly what he was looking for, much to our chagrin.
The grandparent post has no idea what he is talking about, and I can't believe that it has +5 Insightful.
College networks are private networks and are not Common Carriers. It is like saying people who work for Ford abusing their Internet previleges, but saying that Ford has no part in it whatsoever. There is a reason why all corporations have policies on what you can do with their networks.
Your argument would only be valid if current implementation of copyright was a balanced contract between artists and consumers as it was in the beginning (when first copyright laws were adopted).
Copyright laws are not just for the creators, it is also for consumers. It is a social bargain struck to balance the need to protect and promote creativity while ensuring free exchange of ideas.
To achieve these goals, the original copyright was structured so that after a relatively short period of time (20years), the original work would be available free through public domain.
The problem is, while consumers are getting forced to accept more and more onerous terms where no work has joined the public domain in 100 years, the punishment for the infringement has goteen harsher and harsher; thus breaking the covenant orignially set.
Consumers have no incentive to abide by copyright anymore. They have no benefits whatsoever. To increase the punishment for infringement while doing nothing to balance the benefit, I would CERTAINLY agree with the sentiment that our right as consumers are dying indeed.
I call BS.
Vast majority of the CEO's in a public company have either one of these two things (or in most cases both).
1. A board made entirely of their friends and comrades who can be easily greased for any raises or bonuses you want.
2. A FAT contract that guarantees you will be able to make a SHIT load of money no matter how you perform. Even if you get fired.
How could you lose with setup like that?
Please, CEO's have it WAAAAYYY to good these days.
There are plenty of places in US where you can live a relatively "comfortable" life with 30K/year. It just ain't going to be anywhere that has nice weather and ocean close by.
The housing market is all about supply and demand. Obviously there are PLENTY of people who can afford to pay a lot more than what you are willing/able to pay for those houses. It is not like few rich guys are buying up all the houses in SD area.
Just give it up, don't blame others for your choices. Sure life isn't fair and rich people are always going to make more than you and get more than what they deserve, but hey, that's life. Nobody said it is fair.
You are living in one of the richest area in the world. Either adapt to it or move.
Dude, I am a flaming liberal, so take this to heart...
Stop blaming Bush for EVERYTHING!!!
The main reason why China has so many of our "chips" is because of trade imbalance, not deficit. Sure, not having such a huge deficit would make things easier, but at some point, you have to put the blame where the blame lies; American consumers who are so willing and able to buy EVERYTHING on lay-a-way or on credit. People who spend thousands of dollars (that they do not have) on things that they do not need.
And that includes you, me, and every American on this board. Not just Bush.
Did you (and every other fools who has this view point) every think about what will happen if China DID float Yuan?
You haven't? Well, this is the likely scenario.
China floating Yuan will be an economic catastrophic event that will do a GREAT deal of damage (immediately) to US then any effects of trade imbalance.
China is doing US as HUGE favor by selling goods to US as a very low price (via fixing Yuan to the dollar), in exchange for our ever increasing IOU's (US Treasuries).
As soon as Yuan is floated, thoses trillions of dollars of IOU's instantly lose significant value. To compensate for that Chian will stop buying so much treasury notes (which would be worthless), and invest in other avenues.
Which would be disastrous for the US as we will not be able to sell our IOU's as easily as we do now (billions sold every week), and would have to increase our interest rate up and up and up to make dollar more attractive.
At which point, the dollar would crash, many of our bubble economies would pop (espcially real-estate), and the depression the likes of which we have not seen in close to a century will begin.
US and China both know this scenario well and how disastrous this is for both nations. And is the main reason why there is a delicate dance between US and China right now.
Be careful what you are wishing for, because you may well get it.
The WHOLE POINT of having anti-trust laws is to protect CONSUMERS from REAL detrimental effects of monopoly - namely, price gouging.
The consumer does not care because there is no REAL detrimental effect. You can talk till your blue in the face about how it stifles competition, but that is not what anti-trust law is about.
Sure, the reduced competition can easily lead to gouging prices, but that has to happen FIRST!!! Until you can prove that MS is gouging prices, which you can't since WMP is free (sure it is added to the overall cost of the OS, but last time I checked Tiger is not much cheaper than XP).
You really need to re-adjust your point of view. It is the CONSUMERS who need protection, not some corporations with enough money to defend themselves.
What hand-eye coordination are geeks known for??? Computer games? C'mon that is barely a finger-eye coordination.
If nerds are so goal-driven, then that means that nerds are not so goal-driven to score with a girl, which then would invalidate this whole article...
First, Michelle Wie is a FREAK!!! There is like ONE OF HER in the entire world. And still Tiger Woods can hit a ball 30% longer than her (which is harder than it sounds since the wind resistance increases exponentially).
What "world-class hand-eye coordination" are geeks known for? Nerds are harrassed in grade school for not being able to catch a ball, shoot a basket, throw a pass, etc.. And no, masturbation (nor writing a code) does not require any hand-eye coordination.
Dude, this guy can tell a difference between balls that weighs differ less than 1% in compression just by feel.
Only in NY Daily News' bizzaro world would a 6'2" guy with rippling muscles, can hit a ball 350 yards with a driver, has WORLD-CLASS hand-eye-coordination, and was routinely named as the MOST AVAILABLE BACHELOR IN THE WORLD (before he got married) would be described as "nerdy".
Yeah, and I hear Brad Pitt is practically a hermit.
If you do not have tuner, you are not a PVR, you are just a capture device. Using an external tuner is clunky and uneven experience at best, and setup is a bitch.
But then again, you know NOTHING about PVR - for GOD sakes, you think PVR's don't even stay on all the time!!!
Do yourself a FAVOR, get a freaking Tivo box. It is NOT that expensive. Get it. Use it.
AFTER you have used it for awhile, get back to me.
Otherwise, you are just shooting off your ass about a subject you have no idea about.
First, the European market never drives the game console design. Japanese and US market does.
If the incoming signal is coming through USB, then yes you can view, but that ain't a PVR. That is a capture device. If you don't know the difference, then you need to read up.
And if you have not noticed, XBox is a HD device. HD signals are HUGE (7GB/Hour). And that is not going to fit in the puny USB (or SCART) interface. And if you are talking about SD - (WHO CARES???!!).
The HDTV tuners sell for $150. You can reject all you want. But that is the reality. Even if you get a volume discount, it is going to add at least $75/each to the cost of the Xbox.
There is a reason why HD PVR boxes are selling for $1000. You are basically asking for the same capabilities AND 1 trillion calculation/sec capability for less than half than that.
Well, we can all dream, but that doesn't me you are going to get it.
Having to stream from a PC to an XBox is quite obviously an exercise in pointlessness. No one in their right mind is going to leave a PC on, on the off-chance that they might want to record a programme from their main TV on it.
You have never seen a PVR or HTPC have you? I have a MCE box, it is FREAKIN GREAT! It is on ALL THE TIME! Why? Because YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO RECORD!!! Tivo works the same way. It never is turned off. And when you have a MCE Extender, it can access the recorded files just like any network PC's can.
It is PATENTLY obvious that you know NOTHING about PVR or HTPC. Maybe you should buy one and live with it for awhile before asking for the capabilities on the Xbox.
C'mon, based on your post, PVR's must only cost 20 Euros. Go ahead, splurge a little...
It seems rather stupid that you are faulting MS for not making Xbox 360 a PVR machine.
For Xbox to become a PVR, you will need 2 HDTV tuners, 2 SD tuners (probably a same card that will do all), and at least 160GB in hard drive (anything less is a waste of time for HDTV PVR).
Do you even have any idea how much that would add to the base price???
As it is Xbox price is going to be closer to $500 than $200 and you need to be close to $200 for a mass adoption.
Basically, you are arguing that Xbox should have made the machine hundreds of dollars more expensive (losing millions of customers), so that it can satisfy few thousand customers.
Yeah, that makes sense.
And no, Sony is not going to make PS3 a PVR - they are not that stupid.
P.S. As it is, Xbox360 will be a MCE Extender. Which means, as long as you have an MCE box at home, you can use Xbox360 just like a PVR. Pretty neat stuff (without adding too much cost)!
"Soccer Mom" has been a buzz word since the 80's. The kids who grew up in 80's are now full grown, sports watching adults.
Sure, those moms also take kids to other sports, but soccer is the majority - but when they become adults soccer is not even a decent minority sport - why is that?
Those teams are every bit well coached as any little league (or any other sport) team. Which is not that much but then again, it is just a red herring (I never played football - the American kind, but I still love it) anyway.
The alpha males (best athletes) in start drifting toward pro-related sports by the time they get to high school, why? Because every kid with half-decent talent thinks he can be a pro and they go where the money is. Once the alpha males make a move, all other kids follow.
Slashdot Mirror
You realize there are over many billions of combinations of hw/drivers/settings, right? Even if you limit yourself to the most popular hardware, you are talking about thousands of combinations or more.
Of course, you can just say "whatever, it works on my machine", and put your code out there have things break.
Most big time developers can't take that chance.
Obviously, you knowledge of economics goes about as deep as a Newsweek article.
If you actually took time to read or learn about this subject, then you would know that there is a huge difference between unnatural (oil baron) and natural monopolies (Microsoft).
If you took even further time, then you would read many studies that even unnatural monopolies bring many benenfits (sometimes even more beneficial than open competitive market) in certain situations.
At least do some research before you spew out something that you obviously know nothing about...
Smartest thing I've read on this thread!!! Insightful+5!!! It is amazing to hear crap like "if there were more OS's applications would be more platform independent". What a crock of BS!!! Obviously this guy never produced a shrink wrapped product in his life. It is a NIGHTMARE just to support Windows and maybe one other platform (Just think about it - it takes 4 to 8 weeks to run a complete suite of tests for a typical "small" product. Now multiply that by the number of platforms). Do you seriously think that we would have the plethora of application companies if they ALL had to support 3 or more platforms???
Would like to site these "well-studied" subject papers?
Or are you just pulling that out of your ass like the article?
I am not a big fan of DRM, but your excuse for justifying P2P has to be the LAMEST excuse I have ever heard.
If you do not believe that current copyright law is fair, then just state it so.
The fact that you are $400 in debt should have no bearing on it.
And that IS life.
That's nice, except...
You do realize there are people who would PAY to be in games industry, don't you?
You are basically talking about giving these criminals a shot at 2 years of apprenticeship at top game companies.
Yeah, that will REALLY deter these people.
I think you are confusing repressing free speech and stopping illegal activities.
It does not matter if it is a public university, if you are conducting illegal activity (and the university has reasonable evidence to that effect), they are obligated to shut you down.
That is just idiotic!!! If you followed your own logic, then you wouldn't have made such a stupid statement. If Bin Laden believed that US citizens do not have the stomach take light casualty while involved in actions far away countries that they know little about that they care even less about, then yes that is true. But this means that you needed to keep the same kind of attacks in places that Americans do not CARE ABOUT!!! Most places in Middle East or Africa fits the bill and they could have waged this type of battle for years with much effectiveness. But that is not just what they wanted to do. They wanted to make a statement to the Americans that they are not safe, even at home. Because that is what "terrorism" is all about. When some play ground nearby your home is vandalized, you may get mad, but you may not be motivated enough to do something about it. However, if your HOME is vandalized, you sure are going to act on it, no matter what. That is EXACTLY the response that Bin Laden was counting on when they attacked US. And we have played right into his hand. Just look at Iraq and middle east in general right now. It is even more of a disaster than it was before. It is even EASIER now to recruit and train future terrorists. THAT is EXACTLY what Bin Laden needed to wage his holy war. He knew and found out exactly what he was looking for, much to our chagrin.
Mod this up!
The grandparent post has no idea what he is talking about, and I can't believe that it has +5 Insightful.
College networks are private networks and are not Common Carriers. It is like saying people who work for Ford abusing their Internet previleges, but saying that Ford has no part in it whatsoever. There is a reason why all corporations have policies on what you can do with their networks.
+5 Insightful my ass.
Your argument would only be valid if current implementation of copyright was a balanced contract between artists and consumers as it was in the beginning (when first copyright laws were adopted).
Copyright laws are not just for the creators, it is also for consumers. It is a social bargain struck to balance the need to protect and promote creativity while ensuring free exchange of ideas.
To achieve these goals, the original copyright was structured so that after a relatively short period of time (20years), the original work would be available free through public domain.
The problem is, while consumers are getting forced to accept more and more onerous terms where no work has joined the public domain in 100 years, the punishment for the infringement has goteen harsher and harsher; thus breaking the covenant orignially set.
Consumers have no incentive to abide by copyright anymore. They have no benefits whatsoever. To increase the punishment for infringement while doing nothing to balance the benefit, I would CERTAINLY agree with the sentiment that our right as consumers are dying indeed.
I call BS. Vast majority of the CEO's in a public company have either one of these two things (or in most cases both). 1. A board made entirely of their friends and comrades who can be easily greased for any raises or bonuses you want. 2. A FAT contract that guarantees you will be able to make a SHIT load of money no matter how you perform. Even if you get fired. How could you lose with setup like that? Please, CEO's have it WAAAAYYY to good these days.
No, you still don't get it.
There are plenty of places in US where you can live a relatively "comfortable" life with 30K/year. It just ain't going to be anywhere that has nice weather and ocean close by.
The housing market is all about supply and demand. Obviously there are PLENTY of people who can afford to pay a lot more than what you are willing/able to pay for those houses. It is not like few rich guys are buying up all the houses in SD area.
Just give it up, don't blame others for your choices. Sure life isn't fair and rich people are always going to make more than you and get more than what they deserve, but hey, that's life. Nobody said it is fair.
You are living in one of the richest area in the world. Either adapt to it or move.
Dude, I am a flaming liberal, so take this to heart...
Stop blaming Bush for EVERYTHING!!!
The main reason why China has so many of our "chips" is because of trade imbalance, not deficit. Sure, not having such a huge deficit would make things easier, but at some point, you have to put the blame where the blame lies; American consumers who are so willing and able to buy EVERYTHING on lay-a-way or on credit. People who spend thousands of dollars (that they do not have) on things that they do not need.
And that includes you, me, and every American on this board. Not just Bush.
Did you (and every other fools who has this view point) every think about what will happen if China DID float Yuan?
You haven't? Well, this is the likely scenario.
China floating Yuan will be an economic catastrophic event that will do a GREAT deal of damage (immediately) to US then any effects of trade imbalance.
China is doing US as HUGE favor by selling goods to US as a very low price (via fixing Yuan to the dollar), in exchange for our ever increasing IOU's (US Treasuries).
As soon as Yuan is floated, thoses trillions of dollars of IOU's instantly lose significant value. To compensate for that Chian will stop buying so much treasury notes (which would be worthless), and invest in other avenues.
Which would be disastrous for the US as we will not be able to sell our IOU's as easily as we do now (billions sold every week), and would have to increase our interest rate up and up and up to make dollar more attractive.
At which point, the dollar would crash, many of our bubble economies would pop (espcially real-estate), and the depression the likes of which we have not seen in close to a century will begin.
US and China both know this scenario well and how disastrous this is for both nations. And is the main reason why there is a delicate dance between US and China right now.
Be careful what you are wishing for, because you may well get it.
That is just IDIOTIC.
The WHOLE POINT of having anti-trust laws is to protect CONSUMERS from REAL detrimental effects of monopoly - namely, price gouging.
The consumer does not care because there is no REAL detrimental effect. You can talk till your blue in the face about how it stifles competition, but that is not what anti-trust law is about.
Sure, the reduced competition can easily lead to gouging prices, but that has to happen FIRST!!! Until you can prove that MS is gouging prices, which you can't since WMP is free (sure it is added to the overall cost of the OS, but last time I checked Tiger is not much cheaper than XP).
You really need to re-adjust your point of view. It is the CONSUMERS who need protection, not some corporations with enough money to defend themselves.
Man mod the parent up!!!
+5 Insightful
What hand-eye coordination are geeks known for??? Computer games? C'mon that is barely a finger-eye coordination. If nerds are so goal-driven, then that means that nerds are not so goal-driven to score with a girl, which then would invalidate this whole article...
First, Michelle Wie is a FREAK!!! There is like ONE OF HER in the entire world. And still Tiger Woods can hit a ball 30% longer than her (which is harder than it sounds since the wind resistance increases exponentially).
What "world-class hand-eye coordination" are geeks known for? Nerds are harrassed in grade school for not being able to catch a ball, shoot a basket, throw a pass, etc.. And no, masturbation (nor writing a code) does not require any hand-eye coordination.
Dude, this guy can tell a difference between balls that weighs differ less than 1% in compression just by feel.
Many machines have trouble detecting that.
You sir, are either a sham or an impostor.
Only in NY Daily News' bizzaro world would a 6'2" guy with rippling muscles, can hit a ball 350 yards with a driver, has WORLD-CLASS hand-eye-coordination, and was routinely named as the MOST AVAILABLE BACHELOR IN THE WORLD (before he got married) would be described as "nerdy".
Yeah, and I hear Brad Pitt is practically a hermit.
You just don't get it, do you?
Capture device is NOT a PVR!!!
If you do not have tuner, you are not a PVR, you are just a capture device. Using an external tuner is clunky and uneven experience at best, and setup is a bitch.
But then again, you know NOTHING about PVR - for GOD sakes, you think PVR's don't even stay on all the time!!!
Do yourself a FAVOR, get a freaking Tivo box. It is NOT that expensive. Get it. Use it.
AFTER you have used it for awhile, get back to me.
Otherwise, you are just shooting off your ass about a subject you have no idea about.
If the incoming signal is coming through USB, then yes you can view, but that ain't a PVR. That is a capture device. If you don't know the difference, then you need to read up.
And if you have not noticed, XBox is a HD device. HD signals are HUGE (7GB/Hour). And that is not going to fit in the puny USB (or SCART) interface. And if you are talking about SD - (WHO CARES???!!).
The HDTV tuners sell for $150. You can reject all you want. But that is the reality. Even if you get a volume discount, it is going to add at least $75/each to the cost of the Xbox.
There is a reason why HD PVR boxes are selling for $1000. You are basically asking for the same capabilities AND 1 trillion calculation/sec capability for less than half than that.
Well, we can all dream, but that doesn't me you are going to get it.
Having to stream from a PC to an XBox is quite obviously an exercise in pointlessness. No one in their right mind is going to leave a PC on, on the off-chance that they might want to record a programme from their main TV on it.
You have never seen a PVR or HTPC have you? I have a MCE box, it is FREAKIN GREAT! It is on ALL THE TIME! Why? Because YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO RECORD!!! Tivo works the same way. It never is turned off. And when you have a MCE Extender, it can access the recorded files just like any network PC's can.
It is PATENTLY obvious that you know NOTHING about PVR or HTPC. Maybe you should buy one and live with it for awhile before asking for the capabilities on the Xbox.
C'mon, based on your post, PVR's must only cost 20 Euros. Go ahead, splurge a little...
It seems rather stupid that you are faulting MS for not making Xbox 360 a PVR machine.
For Xbox to become a PVR, you will need 2 HDTV tuners, 2 SD tuners (probably a same card that will do all), and at least 160GB in hard drive (anything less is a waste of time for HDTV PVR).
Do you even have any idea how much that would add to the base price???
As it is Xbox price is going to be closer to $500 than $200 and you need to be close to $200 for a mass adoption.
Basically, you are arguing that Xbox should have made the machine hundreds of dollars more expensive (losing millions of customers), so that it can satisfy few thousand customers.
Yeah, that makes sense.
And no, Sony is not going to make PS3 a PVR - they are not that stupid.
P.S. As it is, Xbox360 will be a MCE Extender. Which means, as long as you have an MCE box at home, you can use Xbox360 just like a PVR. Pretty neat stuff (without adding too much cost)!
"Soccer Mom" has been a buzz word since the 80's. The kids who grew up in 80's are now full grown, sports watching adults.
Sure, those moms also take kids to other sports, but soccer is the majority - but when they become adults soccer is not even a decent minority sport - why is that?
Those teams are every bit well coached as any little league (or any other sport) team. Which is not that much but then again, it is just a red herring (I never played football - the American kind, but I still love it) anyway.
The alpha males (best athletes) in start drifting toward pro-related sports by the time they get to high school, why? Because every kid with half-decent talent thinks he can be a pro and they go where the money is. Once the alpha males make a move, all other kids follow .
Bzzzt! Try again.
In America, we have a very common term "soccer moms" for moms who drive their kids to various practices/lessons all day.
If soccer was not so popular, you would hear more about "football moms" or "baseball moms".
Soccer is VERY popular among kids, they just grow out of it by the time they go to high school since there is no money in it (at least in US).