I was on Ameritech/SBC/AT&T DSL for 5 years and the speed was okay. But I finally decided to switch because the service became extremely unreliable after they attempted to increase the speed to 2Mbps. And over the last 5 years, there are more and more things I want to do on the net where DSL speeds are just insufficient. Still, the unreliability and the likelihood that SBC was not going to do anything to address my complaints, pushed me over to Comcast. So far Comcast is working great with the only slowdowns coming during peak usage in the early evening. Those slowdowns though beat the heck out of the outright disconnects I was getting on DSL. Oh, best of all, the Comcast regular rate is lower than I was being charged for DSL by SBC! More speed, less money? Oh of course that's irrelevant, silly me!
> Aging Workers, Automation Portend IT Hiring Problems > Microsoft security chief to step down > Government offshore report becomes political hot potato > Senate Bill Seeks to Raise H-1B Visa Cap to 115,000 > Dell will double staff in India to 20,000
I especially like the last two which seems to say that if you want to lower the odds of being outsourced closer to zero, then stay out of IT! Of course the young don't need to hear that from me, they're already avoiding IT like the plague compared to years ago.
Sony just cannot seem to cut a break these days. I suppose when they officially pronounce UMD movies dead, they'll blame those darn pirates who have given people the idea that they should be able download movies or rip them from their own DVDs to play on anything they like. Darn pirates! Seriously, digital distribution is the big threat to physical media of any current format.
Hmmm, with so many goods coming from China these days, your TV and DVD player may be spying on you too, or in the near future, especially with the growth of home networks. Seriously, trying to buy any kind of electronics that don't come from China is getting harder and harder. Do it yourselfers aren't much safer, afterall, would anyone notice if the network chip on that Chinese made motherboard have some extra functionality? My, isn't paranoia fun?
Come on everyone, just calm down. My guess is that Steve was just joking. It is fairly safe to say that Ballmer's kids have access to a lot more disposable income than the average kid, so if they are of age (or when), you can bet that they'll have and use whatever tech toys are hip and available. Not only will they have iPods and use Google, they'll be using a bunch of stuff we can only imagine right now. And Steve will be glad that they are, if he's smart.
I spend a lot of time keeping up with new tech as part of my job and my hobbies, but still my kids manage to find all sorts of new things I haven't heard about. So what better way to keep up with trends and the competition than one's kids? So don't let Ballmer's joking around lull anyone into a false sense of security, his kids and Gates' kids may turn out to be among Microsoft's greatest assets.
Hmm, party like it's 1995...uh not exactly. But it does seem that the venture capital tends to follow whatever is hot at the moment. And for better or worse, the success of WoW has probably raised the profile of virtual worlds, hence the VC interest in things like Second Life. Now obviously, SL and WoW are quite different, but the social networking aspect of SL and an above board real money trade for virtual items probably makes SL particularly attractive.
I don't know if SL has profit potential or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if some giant media corp like Viacom or News Corp came aknockin' with big fist fulls of cash. A buyout like that may be what the VCs are angling for.
Actually, this all sounds pretty good to me! I actually hate all of the menu popping in battle. And I mainly play FF games for the story. So I'll be grabbing XII asap.
The next step will be to flash quick subliminal messages on the screen when you mouse-over selected pixels in the search results...Urgh, actually that's my plan...never mind!
Awesome! Now it won't be so much trouble to play all of those console based dating sim games that never get translated! Not so sure that's a good thing, but it really was the first thing I thought of... In any case, I think an announcement like this is meant to keep the PS3 in the news and hardcore gamers interested until November since region issues generally are no concern of mainstream/casual gamers. Though I must wonder if breaking down the regional barriers will result in tougher standards for PS3 game approval. There are a lot of "wacky" Japanese titles that never escape Japan and thus are unlikely to cause trouble abroad for Sony. But without the regional lockout, the world becomes one big market and we all know that we can't have little Johnny in the U.S. getting his hands on some wacky Japanese game, right? The threat of this kind of trouble might cause Sony to take a Nintendo-like approach to controlling game content allowed on the console.
I agree with the professor, but rather than a ban, why not remove the incentive to bring the laptop. That is, make your class notes available in digital form. If possible make the notes available ahead of time, or maybe give access instructions at the end of class. Then in class, gently request that people put away their laptops during portions where you desire more interactivity with the students. Heck, if she really wants to go all the way, record the class as a podcast too!
Hmmm, looks like another IT BS article to me. The CEOs are just bemoaning the fact that they cannot fool enough people in the U.S. to go into IT so that they'll have a nice pool of cannon fodder. If people ignored the all too real offshoring of IT jobs, then the companies would have a deep pool of well qualified candidates to hire. These people would then be hired, work hard on big projects which once completed could be handled by far cheaper overseas hires. The domestic workers would then be laid off and go back into the talent pool so that we can repeat the cycle. Nevermind all of the hardship and disruption this causes to the cyclically unemployed and having to climb the ladder over and over again. The companies would love us all to do that, to follow their script.
The problem though is that most people are smarter than that, and don't want to play the lay off game. So they avoid careers that will put them through the kind of meat grinder I've described. As a result the pool of talent may have fallen below the critical mass needed by the companies who want to play this game. They always say it's not about the money, but that's just BS, it's always about the money which means U.S. employees simply cannot compete.
I actually love how Kutaragi-san is putting it all on the line. Global launch, standard hard drive, free online service... Oooh Weee! Sony is either going to astound the analysts with one of the most successful product launches ever, or go out in a blaze of glory that may cripple the company. Either way, you gotta love the balls to the wall attitude. This is going to be really interesting to watch.
It's probably been said before, but this seems to be just more proof of the broken gameplay of most current generation MMORPGs. This is the same thing that ultimately supports the MMORPG real money trade and "Chinese" farmers. There really needs to be a way for these games to be fun without having to give your life over to them or pay money so that someone else's job becomes playing your game. Unfortunately, as long as Blizzard makes good money even as broken as things are, I wouldn't expect much change. I would guess that one of their competitors will be the first to offer a game that is deep, fun, and breaks the grind cycle. When that happens, watch out! Because even your grandma will want to play!
It's kind of funny that they are blaming the delay in part on the DRM. If that's all it was then they might have launched with something provisional and then do a firmware upgrade later. Of course I know nothing of BluRay DRM, so just take that as talking out of my butt. Of more interest now are a couple of questions.
1. Will they launch first in Japan or the U.S.?
2. Will they miss Christmas in the U.S.?
In the seemingly unlikely case that they go with a U.S. launch first, a couple of things could be noted. It could mean that Sony really _is_ worried about the Xbox 360 getting too far ahead in the U.S.. To add some more pain to this though is the prospect of a Nintendo launch in the U.S. in the same time frame. Even if Sony isn't worried about falling behind the 360, Nintendo is another matter.
As for missing Christmas in the U.S., that's a real danger. But again, hard to gauge. The 3rd parties would definitely be pissed along with retailers. But Sony still has a strong brand, and let's face it, the PS3 is likely to sell well whenever it is released. So maybe they should just calm down and formulate a sane launch plan that releases the new console when it and its games are ready to go. I think we've all seen enough crap get released too early to meet generally artificial deadlines. And heck, doesn't Mr. Gates deserve a little happiness occasionally too?
Heh, heh, maybe the freedom to be irresponsible on occasion is part of the whole point (and risk) of a free press. After all, once the truth was known, the story was corrected. I'm not so sure that mistakes would be corrected with a less than free press. It's funny, many seem to think that freedom means making the right choices all of the time. But in fact most of the time it means screwing up and falling flat on your face whether that be choosing the wrong party or president to lead your country or just choosing an SUV with really bad gas mileage. What governments and societies around the world need to come to grips with is allowing people the freedom screw up. There can be no success without the risk of failure.
Actually, if the PS2 sales are still strong as some other posters have noted, then that tends to lend weight to the arguement that the PS3 is launching earlier than Sony would have liked. Afterall, why transition if your current console continues to sell well and by this time, probably at a profit on the hardware? It is likely that Sony would like to continue to milk the PS2 revenue stream, who wouldn't? But with a new console coming out, that is going to be harder to do. Granted, the PS2 is not going to disappear when the PS3 comes out, but Sony will probably not be opening pushing developers to continue developing for it, though they will gladly continue to accept the royalties.
One thing that has become apparent, at least to me, is Sony's attempt to repeat the history of the successful PS2 launch which was buoyed by the console's ability to play DVDs. The problem this time around though is that Blu-Ray is not established the way that DVDs were when the PS2 launched. I remember that I finally got tired of waiting for the PS2 to come out and went out and bought a Sony DVD player when the prices became more attractive. This time though, not only are there not Blu-Ray players available, there aren't any movies in the format either.
I think the Xbox 360 launch pushed up the PS3 launch a year or even two ahead of where Sony wanted it to be. They really needed that time to get Blu-Ray established with movies and stand alone players. Then the PS3 would come along as a great game machine and a probably lower cost alternative to play Blu-Ray movies. Unfortunately, Microsoft has ruined that script. Now the Playstation 3 is going to have to live or die on gaming alone at launch, something that its predecessor would have had a hard time doing given the so so launch titles of that time (especially in Japan).
I'm not saying that Sony has no chance to prevail against the competition, only that their attempt to repeat history has failed. They might have been better served by a more Nintendo-like attitude of releasing things when they are ready rather than being too worried about the competition and building so much hype. Of course, Sony probably has a lot of reasons that they really can't wait, especially since the Playstation brand is basically carrying the company these days.
I agree, the Dreamcast was a great little machine that saw its end too soon IMHO. And when one takes into account the graphics limitations inherent in standard televisions, this becomes more apparent. Without going to HDTV, or PC monitors, you really cannot do much better than DC quality graphics. And by much better, I mean noticeably better for the average gamer. XBox 360 graphics are great, but you really need to upgrade your TV to get the full effect. And yes, I know, PC's have been able to display better graphics for a long time, but these days PC gaming is becoming a bit of a niche, a fun niche, but a niche nonetheless.
Heh heh! I just dumped all of the McAfee stuff on my daughter's laptop last Friday in favor of another AV package. I guess sometimes it just pays to be lucky! In light of recent news about McAfee's financial state (flat) and the employee data leak, this cannot be good news for them at all.
Hmmm, if the format war drags out too long it will be a moot point. Networked DVRs with broadband internet connections and large hard drives are going to make physical media a thing of the past for many people. When I can easily rent a movie and download it to my TiVo in just a few minutes, I won't care about DVD formats at all. And over time, I won't really care to own the movie either as long as I can see it any time I want at some reasonable cost. I think the current iTunes model would work pretty well for what I have in mind. So the Sony and Toshiba camps would be smart to settle their differences quickly before the consumer moves on.
Suddenly I'm all nostalgic for those days spent playing hours and hours of ping pong at the Y in the summer time. So heck, this game could have some legs. And I agree that it could be a hit in Asia, assuming of course that MS sells enough 360s there. Wouldn't it be strangely cool if this game ended up being a system seller in Asia?
Well at least the luggables are cheaper than buying a new place. I generally prefer the white box PCs I've built myself because they can be upgraded as necessary very easily. But now, I'm facing the problem of needing to carve out another room in my place. So I'm thinking of desktop replacements that can be used anywhere in the house and turning the white box machines into servers and putting them in the closet. If I upgrade the home network as well, I might even be able to use the laptops as decent remote terminals to the servers for graphics intensive applications that I'd rather run on the servers. This would all not be cheap, but still much cheaper than buying a new, bigger, place and moving. So if the U.S. home market does cool off, maybe there'll be a little blip in sales of desktop replacements as more people choose to do more with less.
As others have noted here already, Square Enix has managed to get Final Fantasy XI to work well across the PS2, PC, and 360, so the notion that they'd have to compromise a lot is just plain bogus. The work may not be easy, but it is possible. So it really comes down to money. Blizzard isn't going to make a whole lot more than the 6 million subscribers are already bringing in, by doing the 360 right now. But they've got to be worried that that 6 million is the peak.
Sooner or later, the WoW numbers are going to slide. It could be the arrival of the next big thing, or maybe a serious crack down on online games in China and Korea because of player addiction. Either way, when those numbers start to slide, WoW will likely make an appearance on the 360 and/or the PS3. With sales of both next gen consoles likely to enter the tens of millions within the next few years, Blizzard would be crazy to snub consoles in the face of declining subscriptions. And of course if either Sony or Microsoft writes a big enough check, or just outright buys Blizzard, then you can bet WoW will show up on a console. It's all about the Benjamins.
It seems that everything is subject to the tyranny of the bell-shaped curve. Institutes of higher education that have smart and effective leadership and staffing will weigh all of their options carefully and deploy a mix of OSS and proprietary software appropriate to their environment. But the bell-shaped curve tells us that it is likely that places like this are few in number. Most of what we'll see will be in the big bump in the middle and will be heavily influenced by marketing and FUD to "play it safe" and get locked into particular vendors, even when it doesn't really make sense with respect to their available resources and goals. But at least with a single vendor, you always have someone to blame/sue. I'm sure that even within Microsoft, for example, there are people who realize that the Microsoft solution is not always the most appropriate. But since they are not in the business of selling other people's products or promoting OSS, when appropriate, they can only sell/push their own branded solutions.
So in the end, to make the best use of all that's available, you have to be smart, very smart. And sadly, above average smartness is in short supply.
Actually, I primarily had free email services in mind such as the offerings of Yahoo! and Hotmail. Still, even accounting for paying an ISP, one way or another, being able to send unlimited bulk mail without additional cost doesn't make sense. Just imagine if we all paid a flat monthly rate to send postal mail regardless of how much mail we sent. We wouldn't be able to even get into our homes without wading through knee deep piles of AOL CDs, chain letters, and generic junk mail. The postal system would completely break down. Imposing a cost in addition to rules is necessary to keep the system running over and above the support that tax dollars and legislation already give the postal system.
Slashdot Mirror
I was on Ameritech/SBC/AT&T DSL for 5 years and the speed was okay. But I finally decided to switch because the service became extremely unreliable after they attempted to increase the speed to 2Mbps. And over the last 5 years, there are more and more things I want to do on the net where DSL speeds are just insufficient. Still, the unreliability and the likelihood that SBC was not going to do anything to address my complaints, pushed me over to Comcast. So far Comcast is working great with the only slowdowns coming during peak usage in the early evening. Those slowdowns though beat the heck out of the outright disconnects I was getting on DSL. Oh, best of all, the Comcast regular rate is lower than I was being charged for DSL by SBC! More speed, less money? Oh of course that's irrelevant, silly me!
I find the Related to links interesting here
Related to this topic
> Aging Workers, Automation Portend IT Hiring Problems
> Microsoft security chief to step down
> Government offshore report becomes political hot potato
> Senate Bill Seeks to Raise H-1B Visa Cap to 115,000
> Dell will double staff in India to 20,000
I especially like the last two which seems to say that if you want to lower the odds of being outsourced closer to zero, then stay out of IT! Of course the young don't need to hear that from me, they're already avoiding IT like the plague compared to years ago.
Sony just cannot seem to cut a break these days. I suppose when they officially pronounce UMD movies dead, they'll blame those darn pirates who have given people the idea that they should be able download movies or rip them from their own DVDs to play on anything they like. Darn pirates! Seriously, digital distribution is the big threat to physical media of any current format.
Anyway, I suppose we should start seeing some fire sales of UMD movies to clear existing stock. Here's my own semi-lame attempt to have some fun with this! Bring on the B movies and go out in blaze of cheesecake!
Hmmm, with so many goods coming from China these days, your TV and DVD player may be spying on you too, or in the near future, especially with the growth of home networks. Seriously, trying to buy any kind of electronics that don't come from China is getting harder and harder. Do it yourselfers aren't much safer, afterall, would anyone notice if the network chip on that Chinese made motherboard have some extra functionality? My, isn't paranoia fun?
Come on everyone, just calm down. My guess is that Steve was just joking. It is fairly safe to say that Ballmer's kids have access to a lot more disposable income than the average kid, so if they are of age (or when), you can bet that they'll have and use whatever tech toys are hip and available. Not only will they have iPods and use Google, they'll be using a bunch of stuff we can only imagine right now. And Steve will be glad that they are, if he's smart.
I spend a lot of time keeping up with new tech as part of my job and my hobbies, but still my kids manage to find all sorts of new things I haven't heard about. So what better way to keep up with trends and the competition than one's kids? So don't let Ballmer's joking around lull anyone into a false sense of security, his kids and Gates' kids may turn out to be among Microsoft's greatest assets.
Hmm, party like it's 1995...uh not exactly. But it does seem that the venture capital tends to follow whatever is hot at the moment. And for better or worse, the success of WoW has probably raised the profile of virtual worlds, hence the VC interest in things like Second Life. Now obviously, SL and WoW are quite different, but the social networking aspect of SL and an above board real money trade for virtual items probably makes SL particularly attractive.
I don't know if SL has profit potential or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if some giant media corp like Viacom or News Corp came aknockin' with big fist fulls of cash. A buyout like that may be what the VCs are angling for.
Actually, this all sounds pretty good to me! I actually hate all of the menu popping in battle. And I mainly play FF games for the story. So I'll be grabbing XII asap.
The next step will be to flash quick subliminal messages on the screen when you mouse-over selected pixels in the search results...Urgh, actually that's my plan...never mind!
Awesome! Now it won't be so much trouble to play all of those console based dating sim games that never get translated! Not so sure that's a good thing, but it really was the first thing I thought of... In any case, I think an announcement like this is meant to keep the PS3 in the news and hardcore gamers interested until November since region issues generally are no concern of mainstream/casual gamers. Though I must wonder if breaking down the regional barriers will result in tougher standards for PS3 game approval. There are a lot of "wacky" Japanese titles that never escape Japan and thus are unlikely to cause trouble abroad for Sony. But without the regional lockout, the world becomes one big market and we all know that we can't have little Johnny in the U.S. getting his hands on some wacky Japanese game, right? The threat of this kind of trouble might cause Sony to take a Nintendo-like approach to controlling game content allowed on the console.
I agree with the professor, but rather than a ban, why not remove the incentive to bring the laptop. That is, make your class notes available in digital form. If possible make the notes available ahead of time, or maybe give access instructions at the end of class. Then in class, gently request that people put away their laptops during portions where you desire more interactivity with the students. Heck, if she really wants to go all the way, record the class as a podcast too!
Hmmm, looks like another IT BS article to me. The CEOs are just bemoaning the fact that they cannot fool enough people in the U.S. to go into IT so that they'll have a nice pool of cannon fodder. If people ignored the all too real offshoring of IT jobs, then the companies would have a deep pool of well qualified candidates to hire. These people would then be hired, work hard on big projects which once completed could be handled by far cheaper overseas hires. The domestic workers would then be laid off and go back into the talent pool so that we can repeat the cycle. Nevermind all of the hardship and disruption this causes to the cyclically unemployed and having to climb the ladder over and over again. The companies would love us all to do that, to follow their script.
The problem though is that most people are smarter than that, and don't want to play the lay off game. So they avoid careers that will put them through the kind of meat grinder I've described. As a result the pool of talent may have fallen below the critical mass needed by the companies who want to play this game. They always say it's not about the money, but that's just BS, it's always about the money which means U.S. employees simply cannot compete.
I actually love how Kutaragi-san is putting it all on the line. Global launch, standard hard drive, free online service... Oooh Weee! Sony is either going to astound the analysts with one of the most successful product launches ever, or go out in a blaze of glory that may cripple the company. Either way, you gotta love the balls to the wall attitude. This is going to be really interesting to watch.
It's probably been said before, but this seems to be just more proof of the broken gameplay of most current generation MMORPGs. This is the same thing that ultimately supports the MMORPG real money trade and "Chinese" farmers. There really needs to be a way for these games to be fun without having to give your life over to them or pay money so that someone else's job becomes playing your game. Unfortunately, as long as Blizzard makes good money even as broken as things are, I wouldn't expect much change. I would guess that one of their competitors will be the first to offer a game that is deep, fun, and breaks the grind cycle. When that happens, watch out! Because even your grandma will want to play!
It's kind of funny that they are blaming the delay in part on the DRM. If that's all it was then they might have launched with something provisional and then do a firmware upgrade later. Of course I know nothing of BluRay DRM, so just take that as talking out of my butt. Of more interest now are a couple of questions.
1. Will they launch first in Japan or the U.S.?
2. Will they miss Christmas in the U.S.?
In the seemingly unlikely case that they go with a U.S. launch first, a couple of things could be noted. It could mean that Sony really _is_ worried about the Xbox 360 getting too far ahead in the U.S.. To add some more pain to this though is the prospect of a Nintendo launch in the U.S. in the same time frame. Even if Sony isn't worried about falling behind the 360, Nintendo is another matter.
As for missing Christmas in the U.S., that's a real danger. But again, hard to gauge. The 3rd parties would definitely be pissed along with retailers. But Sony still has a strong brand, and let's face it, the PS3 is likely to sell well whenever it is released. So maybe they should just calm down and formulate a sane launch plan that releases the new console when it and its games are ready to go. I think we've all seen enough crap get released too early to meet generally artificial deadlines. And heck, doesn't Mr. Gates deserve a little happiness occasionally too?
Heh, heh, maybe the freedom to be irresponsible on occasion is part of the whole point (and risk) of a free press. After all, once the truth was known, the story was corrected. I'm not so sure that mistakes would be corrected with a less than free press. It's funny, many seem to think that freedom means making the right choices all of the time. But in fact most of the time it means screwing up and falling flat on your face whether that be choosing the wrong party or president to lead your country or just choosing an SUV with really bad gas mileage. What governments and societies around the world need to come to grips with is allowing people the freedom screw up. There can be no success without the risk of failure.
Actually, if the PS2 sales are still strong as some other posters have noted, then that tends to lend weight to the arguement that the PS3 is launching earlier than Sony would have liked. Afterall, why transition if your current console continues to sell well and by this time, probably at a profit on the hardware? It is likely that Sony would like to continue to milk the PS2 revenue stream, who wouldn't? But with a new console coming out, that is going to be harder to do. Granted, the PS2 is not going to disappear when the PS3 comes out, but Sony will probably not be opening pushing developers to continue developing for it, though they will gladly continue to accept the royalties.
One thing that has become apparent, at least to me, is Sony's attempt to repeat the history of the successful PS2 launch which was buoyed by the console's ability to play DVDs. The problem this time around though is that Blu-Ray is not established the way that DVDs were when the PS2 launched. I remember that I finally got tired of waiting for the PS2 to come out and went out and bought a Sony DVD player when the prices became more attractive. This time though, not only are there not Blu-Ray players available, there aren't any movies in the format either.
I think the Xbox 360 launch pushed up the PS3 launch a year or even two ahead of where Sony wanted it to be. They really needed that time to get Blu-Ray established with movies and stand alone players. Then the PS3 would come along as a great game machine and a probably lower cost alternative to play Blu-Ray movies. Unfortunately, Microsoft has ruined that script. Now the Playstation 3 is going to have to live or die on gaming alone at launch, something that its predecessor would have had a hard time doing given the so so launch titles of that time (especially in Japan).
I'm not saying that Sony has no chance to prevail against the competition, only that their attempt to repeat history has failed. They might have been better served by a more Nintendo-like attitude of releasing things when they are ready rather than being too worried about the competition and building so much hype. Of course, Sony probably has a lot of reasons that they really can't wait, especially since the Playstation brand is basically carrying the company these days.
I agree, the Dreamcast was a great little machine that saw its end too soon IMHO. And when one takes into account the graphics limitations inherent in standard televisions, this becomes more apparent. Without going to HDTV, or PC monitors, you really cannot do much better than DC quality graphics. And by much better, I mean noticeably better for the average gamer. XBox 360 graphics are great, but you really need to upgrade your TV to get the full effect. And yes, I know, PC's have been able to display better graphics for a long time, but these days PC gaming is becoming a bit of a niche, a fun niche, but a niche nonetheless.
Heh heh! I just dumped all of the McAfee stuff on my daughter's laptop last Friday in favor of another AV package. I guess sometimes it just pays to be lucky! In light of recent news about McAfee's financial state (flat) and the employee data leak, this cannot be good news for them at all.
Hmmm, if the format war drags out too long it will be a moot point. Networked DVRs with broadband internet connections and large hard drives are going to make physical media a thing of the past for many people. When I can easily rent a movie and download it to my TiVo in just a few minutes, I won't care about DVD formats at all. And over time, I won't really care to own the movie either as long as I can see it any time I want at some reasonable cost. I think the current iTunes model would work pretty well for what I have in mind. So the Sony and Toshiba camps would be smart to settle their differences quickly before the consumer moves on.
Suddenly I'm all nostalgic for those days spent playing hours and hours of ping pong at the Y in the summer time. So heck, this game could have some legs. And I agree that it could be a hit in Asia, assuming of course that MS sells enough 360s there. Wouldn't it be strangely cool if this game ended up being a system seller in Asia?
Well at least the luggables are cheaper than buying a new place. I generally prefer the white box PCs I've built myself because they can be upgraded as necessary very easily. But now, I'm facing the problem of needing to carve out another room in my place. So I'm thinking of desktop replacements that can be used anywhere in the house and turning the white box machines into servers and putting them in the closet. If I upgrade the home network as well, I might even be able to use the laptops as decent remote terminals to the servers for graphics intensive applications that I'd rather run on the servers. This would all not be cheap, but still much cheaper than buying a new, bigger, place and moving. So if the U.S. home market does cool off, maybe there'll be a little blip in sales of desktop replacements as more people choose to do more with less.
As others have noted here already, Square Enix has managed to get Final Fantasy XI to work well across the PS2, PC, and 360, so the notion that they'd have to compromise a lot is just plain bogus. The work may not be easy, but it is possible. So it really comes down to money. Blizzard isn't going to make a whole lot more than the 6 million subscribers are already bringing in, by doing the 360 right now. But they've got to be worried that that 6 million is the peak.
Sooner or later, the WoW numbers are going to slide. It could be the arrival of the next big thing, or maybe a serious crack down on online games in China and Korea because of player addiction. Either way, when those numbers start to slide, WoW will likely make an appearance on the 360 and/or the PS3. With sales of both next gen consoles likely to enter the tens of millions within the next few years, Blizzard would be crazy to snub consoles in the face of declining subscriptions. And of course if either Sony or Microsoft writes a big enough check, or just outright buys Blizzard, then you can bet WoW will show up on a console. It's all about the Benjamins.
It seems that everything is subject to the tyranny of the bell-shaped curve. Institutes of higher education that have smart and effective leadership and staffing will weigh all of their options carefully and deploy a mix of OSS and proprietary software appropriate to their environment. But the bell-shaped curve tells us that it is likely that places like this are few in number. Most of what we'll see will be in the big bump in the middle and will be heavily influenced by marketing and FUD to "play it safe" and get locked into particular vendors, even when it doesn't really make sense with respect to their available resources and goals. But at least with a single vendor, you always have someone to blame/sue. I'm sure that even within Microsoft, for example, there are people who realize that the Microsoft solution is not always the most appropriate. But since they are not in the business of selling other people's products or promoting OSS, when appropriate, they can only sell/push their own branded solutions.
So in the end, to make the best use of all that's available, you have to be smart, very smart. And sadly, above average smartness is in short supply.
Actually, I primarily had free email services in mind such as the offerings of Yahoo! and Hotmail. Still, even accounting for paying an ISP, one way or another, being able to send unlimited bulk mail without additional cost doesn't make sense. Just imagine if we all paid a flat monthly rate to send postal mail regardless of how much mail we sent. We wouldn't be able to even get into our homes without wading through knee deep piles of AOL CDs, chain letters, and generic junk mail. The postal system would completely break down. Imposing a cost in addition to rules is necessary to keep the system running over and above the support that tax dollars and legislation already give the postal system.