With all the rumors as-of-late about Opera being acquired by Google or Microsoft, I'd like to ask you the question of what you would consider a realistic price tag for Opera would be?
Many of us non-IE web browsing enthusiasts would like to see the best features and code of both Opera and Firefox put together into a single open source offering. A sale to Google could make this a possibility, depending upon how restrictive the pre-existing licensing agreements your company has with various mobile phone manufacturers (which you probably cannot discuss legally).
So, with that having been said, what's your price and would you remain aboard such a project post-sale if given such room in a contract?
"So on one side you have Sun and Sony (which supports Blu-Ray) and on the other you have Microsoft and Intel."
Don't forget Matsushita (Panasonic) and Apple are both on the Blu-Ray side... Although it would be in Apple's best interest to put out the feelers to the HD-DVD camp if only to bring Sony back to the table on ditching the Sony Connect online store in favor of a broad-based licensing agreement that would make iTunes the standard for the Playstation3, the PSP, all the Walkmans, and Sony Vaio computers. Not only would Apple get some serious cash, but it would also reduce the chance of an anti-trust complaint that Apple has monopolized the iPod/iTunes combo by opening the platform up to a competitor.
"For 2004, it was "Lost", and this year it was certainly not Battlestar."
Not original [Lost]. It is a riff off a pitched television series (of the same name) ABC passed on back in the 70s. And there's a lawsuit over it too...
Besides, stuck on an island that does not make sense has been done before. Back in the 60s in fact. A little 17 episode gem known as *The Prisoner*.
"That's not too surprising, being that an Athlon XP is going to be considerably faster than any G4 based eMac."
But it shouldn't be. The Athlon XP 1600 if I do recall is only about 1.2 GHZ in actuality. Thus, it should not outperform a 1Ghz G4 by all that much...and certainly not at the speed levels at which I am speaking of. Plus, considering how much of a memory hog FireFox is, the eMac's 768 megs should give it better performance than the AthlonXP machine which I stated only had 512 megs.
"One of the key concerns about a missile-defense system is control (or lack of it) and the effect it has on the principle of mutually assured destruction. The rest of the world don't want to be in a situation where the US is free to use nuclear weapons without the treat of retaliation (nor would we like China, Russia or any other nuclear power to be in the same situation)."
That's comforting. I'm sure that sits well with countries like Taiwan that depend upon the American military to protect them from totalitarian aggressors like China. Without a missile defense system, America's ability to protect a democratic regime such as Taiwan from a hostile large neighbor (who is also nuclear capable) is seriously degraded.
"Apparently, whoever modded you flamebait never had to use IE for the mac. It is a horrid wretched peice of software that should die like the rotting beast of Golgamathea that it is."
Have you ever tried running FireFox on a 1Ghz eMac with 768 megs of memory? Let me tell you, it is no speed demon either. FireFox runs better on my old pc with an AMD AthlonXP 1600 with 512 megs than the eMac...
I haven't found Safari to run fast either. Maybe on a G5, I guess.
"Ok, it has impressive accuracy and stop ratio, but it fails because in real conflict there would be far too many targets. And even if US would be able to shoot down the nukes, they are made so that they can triggered to detonate when shot. Which would mean that just the fallout would be bad enough to make the target country and rest of the globe unliveable."
How do you figure there'd be too many targets to shoot down? I'm not talking about a full-scale nuclear conflict with Russia's 5,000 + nuclear missiles; I'm talking about shooting down at-the-most 20 nuclear missiles from a country like Iran. That makes it completely possible to achieve...not much more difficult than Atari's old arcade classic *Missile Command*...:)
As for fallout, me thinks there are plenty of people living in Hiroshima today, despite having suffered an atomic explosion in WWII. Shouldn't they be living under the threat of giant cockroaches or awaking Godzilla? Aside from China, the only threat Japan has to worry about is an aging population sinking their retirement system because they aren't reproducing in sufficient numbers (much like most of Western Europe except for Ireland). Get to frakking, people!:)
"Interesting point. Wouldn't you also say in most Anglo-American legal jurisdictions that there is a presumption of innocense until *proven* guilty?"
The "innocent until proven guilty" is when the person goes to trial. That's not the concern at arrest. So under that scenario and applying Anglo-American criminal law to the Iraqi invasion, there would still be reason for invading and then putting Saddam on trial to sort out the details thereafter. Which is kinda what is happening now, although the trial has nothing to do with WMD and Saddam is just grandstanding. Perhaps he should be taking Charles I's rather dignified approach to being placed on trial instead of making a show of it. I would imagine that Saddam's fate is going to be similar to Charles I. After all, both men were responsible for inflicting much harm on their subjects...
"The more interesting part of the story is the difference in accuracy between GPS and Galileo. By the time Galileo has enough birds in the sky in 2014, GPS will have included L1C ( GPS Modernization ) which will have accuracy on par with the galileo satellites. Having gone to the planning meetings on the L1C project almost 18 months ago, I can tell you that Galileo was a big topic of conversation and that it drove the choice of signal modulation for the new code."
Is there a possibility that Galileo technology could be easier to implement in a future refinement of GSM mobile phone tech than existing GPS standards?
"Treaties are supposed to be iron clad, written in stone contracts. The US government has broken so many treaties, why would any one trust them again?"
What treaties? If you are referring to treaties with Native American tribes, then yes, we are guilty. If you are referring to treaties with transnational organizations of dubious respectibility, then maybe so as well. But with bilateral treaties? Name one.* The US didn't even violate the ABM Treaty because it withdrew from it, which Russia consented to after grumbling about it publically.
*and if the Canadian "soft lumber" argument is actually brought up, I will refer the reader to the fact that Canada is violating the Kyoto Treaty it signed in terms of the current rate of carbon emissions it is producing. The same treaty that the U.S. refused to sign because it claimed the treaty was unenforceable which is being proven to be factual since Canada is violating it. The US does pay its fines when the WTO rules against it.
"Well, your post (and others) actually makes it very clear that americans are still scary people and that we should build our own positioning system."
If America is so scary to you Europeans, why don't you support building a missle-defense system to protect yourself against stray American nuclear missiles? After all, with the exception of the U.K., the rest of the EU pretty much does not want a missile-defense system built to protect itself (and America) from those traditionally freedom-loving Russians...not to mention the Chinese. Heck, if anyone should be concerned about Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, it should be the European Union countries because Iran's missile technology is only capable of striking Europe (and of course, Israel), not the United States. Gosh, why does it seem like America (and the U.K.) are the only countries that are concerned with protecting Europe from a nuclear strike?
"do you mind adding "thank you europe" for financing all those years of discount ? If you don't like Europe, please get out of it and pull the plug on your tiny island."
I'm American so your statement about my "tiny island" only would be an insult to my ancestors. The whole point of the BBQ/Rebate was to make up for the excess monies the U.K. had to pay into the EU budget due to the CAP which the U.K. objected to. The rest of the EU wants the U.K. to do away with the rebate without any reform to the CAP which is the very thing the U.K. wants done and will then surrender the rebate. So if you want to place blame somewhere about the British rebate, lay it at the door of the French government who is responsible for the lack of reform of the CAP.
As for losing the U.K., considering it is the world's fifth largest economy (as well as one of the best performing European economies as of late), it would be more of a loss for the EU than the other way around. Much like if California were to leave the rest of the United States. So perhaps you should be thanking the U.K. for staying part of your rather stagnating supranational economy that it does not receive much back from other than criticism of its foreign policy and illegal immigration.
I'd like to nominate France. Considering they supposedly issued French passports to leading Ba'ath Party members to escape from the Coalition Forces, I think they should be listed as an enemy regime and should suffer the consequences. Maybe it is time for the Sixth Republic, or a return to a constitutional monarchy under an Orleanist regime. Come to think of it, the Second French Empire seemed to behave itself with the Anglo-American world so perhaps we should find another Bonaparte to lead them.
But in all seriousness, North Korea has not/cannot be(en) attacked because that would require the consent of China. Which is something the United States would not receive without selling out democratic Taiwan in the process.
Iran just needs a little smacking around (sanctions and some carefully targeted installations destroyed for demonstration purposes). Their youth will not tolerate their regime for much longer. Perhaps covertly aiding the interest in the Zorastrian religion (the native religion of Persia) might bring about change within Iran by decoupling the country from the whole Middle Eastern issues surrounding Islam, and without a full-scale military solution.
"According to your own president, this isn't true. Even though they now know there was no WMD, the invasion was still needed because some day Saddam might have decided to maybe make more WMD."
I'd say that in most Anglo-American legal jurisdictions, if you have the *intent* to inflict harm/kill someone, you can be charged with that as a crime and receive punishment. Saddam had the *intent* to acquire WMD and that alone was enough justification. France, Germany, and Russia all protested against an invasion not based upon humanitarian grounds or international law but upon their own greed in the fact that they did not want to lose Saddam's regime which had been operating as a client-state of those three countries for many years and in fact owed those three countries most of its foreign debt. Had France and Russia obstained (like China did) from the vote at the Security Council, the invasion/occupation/overthrowing of Saddam's regime would have been completely "legal" and "valid" in the eyes of the United Nations. This is a concept that is lost upon the majority of the kneejerk peaceniks/anti-Iraq war people.
"I think that this is a good move by the Europeans. The USA (who controls GPS) can shut it down whenever they please. The European counterpart is governed by an independant organization, so no government can shut it down without notice."
That is, unless Torchwood actually operates it in secret.:)
"I am sure you have a demonstration at hand, so I shall wait for it. As a european, I have grown accustomed to people telling us that free trade was the solution for us, while taking severe protectionist measures from their own side, Japan and USA included. "Do what I say, not what I do !" ?"
That's funny considering its been the French Government that has been the obstacle to better transatlantic trade and cooperation over the past 25 years, not the U.S. France and its love/dependence upon CAP farm subsidies is the very reason why the U.S. and the formerly E.C. did not come to a free-trade agreement back in the early 90s. Certainly the U.K. and others within the E.C. wanted it but France had to kick up its heels because it wants to believe that it will control the destiny of the Continent despite the fact that the Germans are the actual paymasters. We are talking about the same French government that tries to counter *Anglo-American* influence in the EU every chance it can get, whether it means subsidizing "European" (aka "French") cinema/television, replacing commonly accepted words/phrases like "email" with French equivalents, launching a government-funded French language version of CNN, trying to create a "Euro" army independent (aka "French" dominated) of NATO and in competition with NATO, trying to block Iraqi debt forgiveness because most of Saddam's foreign debt was owed to France (to pay for weaponry and such) and not to mention the whole Iraq war because of the fear of losing Saddam's client-state status, and responding to Google's digital library plans with another government sponsored program in opposition. Oh yeah, not to mention that French intelligence in the 80s and 90s was mainly concerned with spying on American and British corporations and providing French companies (many of which were state owned "national champions") with trade secrets instead of, oh, I dunno, helping to win the Cold War? I had to mention that since France has been known since the time of the Clinton Administration to complain about Echelon and Carnivore snooping on French/EU business when turnabout is considered to be fairgame.
"A significant shortcoming of the EU in my very humble opinion is that it lacks the will to do things other than pass directives and laws. When it comes to spending money on infrastructure, it will come down to either Germany funding it, or endless debate."
Or reform the bloated Common Agriculture Policy, the very source of contention with the U.K. and the BBQ/Budget Rebate that the rest of Europe wants them to surrender, with or without those crucial reforms the U.K. wants implemented.
"Iraq: "Dude, We don't have any! You've had people here looking for 10 years! We'd gladly turn them over if we had them but we don't. PLEASE DON'T BOMB US!!!!"
I really dislike this viewpoint. If Saddam had no WMD, why did he not fully cooperate with the weapons inspectors over the years? He defied them all throughout the Clinton Administration. If he had no WMD, why didn't he cooperate?
Look at the world's scientific community. They've spent half a century trying to look for/discover a cure for cancer. They still haven't found it though, after all of these years and billions (upon billions) of dollars spent. Using the "no WMD/anti-Iraq War" formula, one would have to conclude that the whole process has been a waste of time and no cure for cancer exists. I'm not willing to accept that hypothesis, nor the faulty one involving an enlightened Iraq under Saddam's rule that not only had no WMD but also no intent to acquire such technology.
"Kid Icarus - Created by Nintendo. Not a very likely candidate for porting."
I didn't remember that being a Nintendo developed game. But I'll take your word for it.
"Paperboy - An Atari game ported to pretty much every system exception the 7800. Way to go Atari! (rolls eyes)"
Paperboy was a 1984 Atari arcade game and as such, the rights to the game belonged to Atari Games Corp. (Tengen) and not Atari Corp. Atari Corp. owned the rights to all Atari arcade games pre-1984 before the breakup/spin-off/sell-off of the formerly unified company. That is why it did not appear on the 7800.
"Megaman - Megaman was a title created by a Japanese company for both the Japanese and American markets. Atari had pathetic Japanese penetration in comparison to the Nintendo/Famicom, which had penetration in both markets."
Penetration of the Japanese market had nothing to do with the quality of Atari's products. It had all to do with the complex distribution system the Japanese market created to ensure employment for three layers of distributors which has confounded American businesses up until the collapse of the Japanese economy in the mid-90s when the country finally opened up (with the exception of the Xbox/Xbox360) to non-Japanese goods. Thus any Japanese videogame company had the added benefit of surviving in a protectionist-racket economy while the U.S. game industry did not receive such a benefit and protection. The Atari 2600/2800 did not do well in Japan because of the distribution system, which enabled Nintendo to become "big in Japan" in contrast. If you want to talk quality, I'll bring up Nintendo's "Game & Watch" stuff which they seemed to have based the latest version of the GameBoy on. I will refrain from commenting on that decision.
"Tetris - Exclusive title produced by Nintendo. Atari (Tengen) thought they had the rights, but didn't."
That wasn't Atari's (Atari Games/Tengen, not Atari Corp.) fault. That was Robert Maxwell and the myriad of companies that falsely sold rights to the game which they did not own. The Atari Games (arcade)/Tengen (home version) was actually superior to the Nintendo version. And that's not just my opinion. Plenty of people were paying $90 for the Tengen NES copy when the lawsuit removed them from the store shelves.
"After Burner - Just about every system except the 7800. Sega was a direct competitor to Atari and probably just didn't care."
So was Nintendo. So using your logic, why would *After Burner* show up on a non-Sega machine during the time period when Sega still made consoles?
"Considering that the Jaguar didn't do so hot itself, I'd say the problem was that the games sucked."
Uhm, no. *Tempest 2000* was awesome. *Alien vs. Predator* was ground breaking. *Doom* was the best console port of that title. *Wolfenstein 3D* kicked. *RayMan* was supposed to be groundbreaking (and it was) but UbiSoft took the Sony cash bribe and held the release up for half a year until it debuted with the Playstation release along with the CD-Rom advantages to give the Jaguar a giant pimp slap. The good games on the Jaguar were great, but the bad ones were really bad.
"Microsoft always has been and always be a Gates/Ballmer-led company, and that's not about engineering, and that's not about design."
One could hope J Allard takes over the company at some point... Pragmatic, visionary, and picks a pretty decent design when you consider the Xbox360... Perhaps Allard could transition Microsoft into a company that makes quality products that are actually cool*... Maybe he better work on his chair-hurling techniques to ready himself for a management coup.:)
*and no, I am not making a crack about the Xbox360's power supply or statements concerning defective rates...
"Sure, it could pump a hundred sprites or so, but that didn't help when it was compared to the quality of the graphics on the Nintendo."
Yes, the NES had better sound than the 7800. No doubt. Doesn't matter if one is deaf...but the pixel pushing certainly does!:) I have no idea why other than for cost Atari kept even the Pokey sound chip (used in the 8 bit line) from coming standard with the 7800. They later had to add it by embedding it inside the cartridge for games like *BallBlazer* which to me means it cost them more to do it that way than simply bundling it standard.
"As for the actual games, the Nintendo had such popular new games as Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Excite Bike, Megaman, Punch Out, 1942, Castlevania, Contra, Gradius, and Hogan's Alley. And that was just the early batch! As the NES gained popularity, we also got Super Mario Bros. 3, Ninja Gaiden, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, Duck Tales, Paperboy, Rad Racer, Final Fantasy, TMNT II & III, five more Mega Mans, Smash TV, Tetris, After Burner, Galaxy 5000, and many more! Suffice it to say, we were kept well in good games for more than long enough for the (even better!) SuperNES to be released."
To which Kid Icarus, Megaman, 1942, Castlevania, Contra, Gradius, Ninja Gaiden, Chip & Dale, Ducktales, Paperboy, Rad Racer, Final Fantasy, TMNT II/III, the other MegaMan titles, SmashTV, Tetris, After Burner, and Galaxy 5000 were prevented from being ported over to the 7800 because of Nintendo's exclusivity contracts on those very third-party licensees. Thus illustrating my point. As you stated, those companies probably would not have directly ported the titles themselves, but Nintendo's exclusivity contracts prevented them from licensing those titles (to which Atari would hire some other company to port the title) to Atari either. It was amazing when Atari was able to license *Commando* from DataEast and was able to port that title (which was better on the 7800 than on the NES, aside from sound).
"In the case of the NeoGeo it had a massive library of arcade games to pull from. People got tired of beat-em-ups. In the case of the 3DO, it had hundreds of computer gaming companies to pull from. The games were representative of that period of PC gaming, which is to say that they mostly sucked."
Ode to the NeoGeo. I wouldn't say that their arcade library was massive, considering it only included SNK titles, but those titles were excellent. I loved *Samurai Showdown*, but that was not enough to justify an entire console in my book; especially at that price. As for the 3D0, its whole downfall was due to the fact that the Atari Jaguar beat its graphics capabilities at a much lower cost level which deflated the whole 3D0 platform. Of course, the problem with the Jaguar was that Atari brought it out with a concentration on price instead of debuting it at a $500 price range with the CD-Rom included (instead of $250 CD-less) and allowed market forces to reduce the price of the unit over time and before the debut of the Playstation. Consequently, the cartridge based wonder system lost out because CD-Rom based media was so much cheaper than the carts and had a cost advantage as long as the console company was willing to lose money on the console at the start, which Sony was. Add to the fact that Sony "encouraged" companies like UbiSoft to delay completed titles for the Jaguar like *RayMan* (for over 6 months) until the Playstation debuted, and its easy to understand how the console collapsed in the process. Dirty tricks. But I digress. 3D0 was lame...:)
Slashdot Mirror
"They have the most computing power of anyone on earth. They're trying to sort the world's information. What better to do that with than strong AI?"
How about coding a program that could rival the NSA/FBI's "Carivore" system? Or an "Echelon" owned by Google?
Dear Mr. von Tetzchner:
With all the rumors as-of-late about Opera being acquired by Google or Microsoft, I'd like to ask you the question of what you would consider a realistic price tag for Opera would be?
Many of us non-IE web browsing enthusiasts would like to see the best features and code of both Opera and Firefox put together into a single open source offering. A sale to Google could make this a possibility, depending upon how restrictive the pre-existing licensing agreements your company has with various mobile phone manufacturers (which you probably cannot discuss legally).
So, with that having been said, what's your price and would you remain aboard such a project post-sale if given such room in a contract?
"So on one side you have Sun and Sony (which supports Blu-Ray) and on the other you have Microsoft and Intel."
Don't forget Matsushita (Panasonic) and Apple are both on the Blu-Ray side... Although it would be in Apple's best interest to put out the feelers to the HD-DVD camp if only to bring Sony back to the table on ditching the Sony Connect online store in favor of a broad-based licensing agreement that would make iTunes the standard for the Playstation3, the PSP, all the Walkmans, and Sony Vaio computers. Not only would Apple get some serious cash, but it would also reduce the chance of an anti-trust complaint that Apple has monopolized the iPod/iTunes combo by opening the platform up to a competitor.
"For 2004, it was "Lost", and this year it was certainly not Battlestar."
Not original [Lost]. It is a riff off a pitched television series (of the same name) ABC passed on back in the 70s. And there's a lawsuit over it too...
Besides, stuck on an island that does not make sense has been done before. Back in the 60s in fact. A little 17 episode gem known as *The Prisoner*.
"I'm surprised that neither Stargate SG-1 nor Atlantis are on the list.
:)
Personally, Stargate beats BSG anyday."
What? Wait a sec....hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
I hope you meant that statement to be funny....
"That's not too surprising, being that an Athlon XP is going to be considerably faster than any G4 based eMac."
But it shouldn't be. The Athlon XP 1600 if I do recall is only about 1.2 GHZ in actuality. Thus, it should not outperform a 1Ghz G4 by all that much...and certainly not at the speed levels at which I am speaking of. Plus, considering how much of a memory hog FireFox is, the eMac's 768 megs should give it better performance than the AthlonXP machine which I stated only had 512 megs.
"One of the key concerns about a missile-defense system is control (or lack of it) and the effect it has on the principle of mutually assured destruction. The rest of the world don't want to be in a situation where the US is free to use nuclear weapons without the treat of retaliation (nor would we like China, Russia or any other nuclear power to be in the same situation)."
That's comforting. I'm sure that sits well with countries like Taiwan that depend upon the American military to protect them from totalitarian aggressors like China. Without a missile defense system, America's ability to protect a democratic regime such as Taiwan from a hostile large neighbor (who is also nuclear capable) is seriously degraded.
Granted, that does not stop us savvy net users here in the States from watching it... Sunday's "The Christmas Invasion" was a great episode...
"Apparently, whoever modded you flamebait never had to use IE for the mac. It is a horrid wretched peice of software that should die like the rotting beast of Golgamathea that it is."
Have you ever tried running FireFox on a 1Ghz eMac with 768 megs of memory? Let me tell you, it is no speed demon either. FireFox runs better on my old pc with an AMD AthlonXP 1600 with 512 megs than the eMac...
I haven't found Safari to run fast either. Maybe on a G5, I guess.
"Ok, it has impressive accuracy and stop ratio, but it fails because in real conflict there would be far too many targets. And even if US would be able to shoot down the nukes, they are made so that they can triggered to
:)
:)
detonate when shot. Which would mean that just the fallout would be bad enough to make the target country and rest of the globe unliveable."
How do you figure there'd be too many targets to shoot down? I'm not talking about a full-scale nuclear conflict with Russia's 5,000 + nuclear missiles; I'm talking about shooting down at-the-most 20 nuclear missiles from a country like Iran. That makes it completely possible to achieve...not much more difficult than Atari's old arcade classic *Missile Command*...
As for fallout, me thinks there are plenty of people living in Hiroshima today, despite having suffered an atomic explosion in WWII. Shouldn't they be living under the threat of giant cockroaches or awaking Godzilla? Aside from China, the only threat Japan has to worry about is an aging population sinking their retirement system because they aren't reproducing in sufficient numbers (much like most of Western Europe except for Ireland). Get to frakking, people!
"Interesting point. Wouldn't you also say in most Anglo-American legal jurisdictions that there is a presumption of innocense until *proven* guilty?"
The "innocent until proven guilty" is when the person goes to trial. That's not the concern at arrest. So under that scenario and applying Anglo-American criminal law to the Iraqi invasion, there would still be reason for invading and then putting Saddam on trial to sort out the details thereafter. Which is kinda what is happening now, although the trial has nothing to do with WMD and Saddam is just grandstanding. Perhaps he should be taking Charles I's rather dignified approach to being placed on trial instead of making a show of it. I would imagine that Saddam's fate is going to be similar to Charles I. After all, both men were responsible for inflicting much harm on their subjects...
"The more interesting part of the story is the difference in accuracy between GPS and Galileo. By the time Galileo has enough birds in the sky in 2014, GPS will have included L1C ( GPS Modernization ) which will have accuracy on par with the galileo satellites. Having gone to the planning meetings on the L1C project almost 18 months ago, I can tell you that Galileo was a big topic of conversation and that it drove the choice of signal modulation for the new code."
Is there a possibility that Galileo technology could be easier to implement in a future refinement of GSM mobile phone tech than existing GPS standards?
"Treaties are supposed to be iron clad, written in stone contracts. The US government has broken so many treaties, why would any one trust them again?"
What treaties? If you are referring to treaties with Native American tribes, then yes, we are guilty. If you are referring to treaties with transnational organizations of dubious respectibility, then maybe so as well. But with bilateral treaties? Name one.* The US didn't even violate the ABM Treaty because it withdrew from it, which Russia consented to after grumbling about it publically.
*and if the Canadian "soft lumber" argument is actually brought up, I will refer the reader to the fact that Canada is violating the Kyoto Treaty it signed in terms of the current rate of carbon emissions it is producing. The same treaty that the U.S. refused to sign because it claimed the treaty was unenforceable which is being proven to be factual since Canada is violating it. The US does pay its fines when the WTO rules against it.
"Well, your post (and others) actually makes it very clear that americans are still scary people and that we should build our own positioning system."
If America is so scary to you Europeans, why don't you support building a missle-defense system to protect yourself against stray American nuclear missiles? After all, with the exception of the U.K., the rest of the EU pretty much does not want a missile-defense system built to protect itself (and America) from those traditionally freedom-loving Russians...not to mention the Chinese. Heck, if anyone should be concerned about Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, it should be the European Union countries because Iran's missile technology is only capable of striking Europe (and of course, Israel), not the United States. Gosh, why does it seem like America (and the U.K.) are the only countries that are concerned with protecting Europe from a nuclear strike?
"do you mind adding "thank you europe" for financing all those years of discount ? If you don't like Europe, please get out of it and pull the plug on your tiny island."
I'm American so your statement about my "tiny island" only would be an insult to my ancestors. The whole point of the BBQ/Rebate was to make up for the excess monies the U.K. had to pay into the EU budget due to the CAP which the U.K. objected to. The rest of the EU wants the U.K. to do away with the rebate without any reform to the CAP which is the very thing the U.K. wants done and will then surrender the rebate. So if you want to place blame somewhere about the British rebate, lay it at the door of the French government who is responsible for the lack of reform of the CAP.
As for losing the U.K., considering it is the world's fifth largest economy (as well as one of the best performing European economies as of late), it would be more of a loss for the EU than the other way around. Much like if California were to leave the rest of the United States. So perhaps you should be thanking the U.K. for staying part of your rather stagnating supranational economy that it does not receive much back from other than criticism of its foreign policy and illegal immigration.
"OK, who do we attack next?"
I'd like to nominate France. Considering they supposedly issued French passports to leading Ba'ath Party members to escape from the Coalition Forces, I think they should be listed as an enemy regime and should suffer the consequences. Maybe it is time for the Sixth Republic, or a return to a constitutional monarchy under an Orleanist regime. Come to think of it, the Second French Empire seemed to behave itself with the Anglo-American world so perhaps we should find another Bonaparte to lead them.
But in all seriousness, North Korea has not/cannot be(en) attacked because that would require the consent of China. Which is something the United States would not receive without selling out democratic Taiwan in the process.
Iran just needs a little smacking around (sanctions and some carefully targeted installations destroyed for demonstration purposes). Their youth will not tolerate their regime for much longer. Perhaps covertly aiding the interest in the Zorastrian religion (the native religion of Persia) might bring about change within Iran by decoupling the country from the whole Middle Eastern issues surrounding Islam, and without a full-scale military solution.
"According to your own president, this isn't true. Even though they now know there was no WMD, the invasion was still needed because some day Saddam might have decided to maybe make more WMD."
I'd say that in most Anglo-American legal jurisdictions, if you have the *intent* to inflict harm/kill someone, you can be charged with that as a crime and receive punishment. Saddam had the *intent* to acquire WMD and that alone was enough justification. France, Germany, and Russia all protested against an invasion not based upon humanitarian grounds or international law but upon their own greed in the fact that they did not want to lose Saddam's regime which had been operating as a client-state of those three countries for many years and in fact owed those three countries most of its foreign debt. Had France and Russia obstained (like China did) from the vote at the Security Council, the invasion/occupation/overthrowing of Saddam's regime would have been completely "legal" and "valid" in the eyes of the United Nations. This is a concept that is lost upon the majority of the kneejerk peaceniks/anti-Iraq war people.
"I think that this is a good move by the Europeans. The USA (who controls GPS) can shut it down whenever they please. The European counterpart is governed by an independant organization, so no government can shut it down without notice."
:)
That is, unless Torchwood actually operates it in secret.
"I am sure you have a demonstration at hand, so I shall wait for it. As a european, I have grown accustomed to people telling us that free trade was the solution for us, while taking severe protectionist measures from their own side, Japan and USA included. "Do what I say, not what I do !" ?"
That's funny considering its been the French Government that has been the obstacle to better transatlantic trade and cooperation over the past 25 years, not the U.S. France and its love/dependence upon CAP farm subsidies is the very reason why the U.S. and the formerly E.C. did not come to a free-trade agreement back in the early 90s. Certainly the U.K. and others within the E.C. wanted it but France had to kick up its heels because it wants to believe that it will control the destiny of the Continent despite the fact that the Germans are the actual paymasters. We are talking about the same French government that tries to counter *Anglo-American* influence in the EU every chance it can get, whether it means subsidizing "European" (aka "French") cinema/television, replacing commonly accepted words/phrases like "email" with French equivalents, launching a government-funded French language version of CNN, trying to create a "Euro" army independent (aka "French" dominated) of NATO and in competition with NATO, trying to block Iraqi debt forgiveness because most of Saddam's foreign debt was owed to France (to pay for weaponry and such) and not to mention the whole Iraq war because of the fear of losing Saddam's client-state status, and responding to Google's digital library plans with another government sponsored program in opposition. Oh yeah, not to mention that French intelligence in the 80s and 90s was mainly concerned with spying on American and British corporations and providing French companies (many of which were state owned "national champions") with trade secrets instead of, oh, I dunno, helping to win the Cold War? I had to mention that since France has been known since the time of the Clinton Administration to complain about Echelon and Carnivore snooping on French/EU business when turnabout is considered to be fairgame.
"A significant shortcoming of the EU in my very humble opinion is that it lacks the will to do things other than pass directives and laws. When it comes to spending money on infrastructure, it will come down to either Germany funding it, or endless debate."
Or reform the bloated Common Agriculture Policy, the very source of contention with the U.K. and the BBQ/Budget Rebate that the rest of Europe wants them to surrender, with or without those crucial reforms the U.K. wants implemented.
"Iraq: "Dude, We don't have any! You've had people here looking for 10 years! We'd gladly turn them over if we had them but we don't. PLEASE DON'T BOMB US!!!!"
I really dislike this viewpoint. If Saddam had no WMD, why did he not fully cooperate with the weapons inspectors over the years? He defied them all throughout the Clinton Administration. If he had no WMD, why didn't he cooperate?
Look at the world's scientific community. They've spent half a century trying to look for/discover a cure for cancer. They still haven't found it though, after all of these years and billions (upon billions) of dollars spent. Using the "no WMD/anti-Iraq War" formula, one would have to conclude that the whole process has been a waste of time and no cure for cancer exists. I'm not willing to accept that hypothesis, nor the faulty one involving an enlightened Iraq under Saddam's rule that not only had no WMD but also no intent to acquire such technology.
"Kid Icarus - Created by Nintendo. Not a very likely candidate for porting."
I didn't remember that being a Nintendo developed game. But I'll take your word for it.
"Paperboy - An Atari game ported to pretty much every system exception the 7800. Way to go Atari! (rolls eyes)"
Paperboy was a 1984 Atari arcade game and as such, the rights to the game belonged to Atari Games Corp. (Tengen) and not Atari Corp. Atari Corp. owned the rights to all Atari arcade games pre-1984 before the breakup/spin-off/sell-off of the formerly unified company. That is why it did not appear on the 7800.
"Megaman - Megaman was a title created by a Japanese company for both the Japanese and American markets. Atari had pathetic Japanese penetration in comparison to the Nintendo/Famicom, which had penetration in both markets."
Penetration of the Japanese market had nothing to do with the quality of Atari's products. It had all to do with the complex distribution system the Japanese market created to ensure employment for three layers of distributors which has confounded American businesses up until the collapse of the Japanese economy in the mid-90s when the country finally opened up (with the exception of the Xbox/Xbox360) to non-Japanese goods. Thus any Japanese videogame company had the added benefit of surviving in a protectionist-racket economy while the U.S. game industry did not receive such a benefit and protection. The Atari 2600/2800 did not do well in Japan because of the distribution system, which enabled Nintendo to become "big in Japan" in contrast. If you want to talk quality, I'll bring up Nintendo's "Game & Watch" stuff which they seemed to have based the latest version of the GameBoy on. I will refrain from commenting on that decision.
"Tetris - Exclusive title produced by Nintendo. Atari (Tengen) thought they had the rights, but didn't."
That wasn't Atari's (Atari Games/Tengen, not Atari Corp.) fault. That was Robert Maxwell and the myriad of companies that falsely sold rights to the game which they did not own. The Atari Games (arcade)/Tengen (home version) was actually superior to the Nintendo version. And that's not just my opinion. Plenty of people were paying $90 for the Tengen NES copy when the lawsuit removed them from the store shelves.
"After Burner - Just about every system except the 7800. Sega was a direct competitor to Atari and probably just didn't care."
So was Nintendo. So using your logic, why would *After Burner* show up on a non-Sega machine during the time period when Sega still made consoles?
"Considering that the Jaguar didn't do so hot itself, I'd say the problem was that the games sucked."
Uhm, no. *Tempest 2000* was awesome. *Alien vs. Predator* was ground breaking. *Doom* was the best console port of that title. *Wolfenstein 3D* kicked. *RayMan* was supposed to be groundbreaking (and it was) but UbiSoft took the Sony cash bribe and held the release up for half a year until it debuted with the Playstation release along with the CD-Rom advantages to give the Jaguar a giant pimp slap. The good games on the Jaguar were great, but the bad ones were really bad.
"Microsoft always has been and always be a Gates/Ballmer-led company, and that's not about engineering, and that's not about design."
:)
One could hope J Allard takes over the company at some point... Pragmatic, visionary, and picks a pretty decent design when you consider the Xbox360... Perhaps Allard could transition Microsoft into a company that makes quality products that are actually cool*... Maybe he better work on his chair-hurling techniques to ready himself for a management coup.
*and no, I am not making a crack about the Xbox360's power supply or statements concerning defective rates...
"Further, his own page, which was linked to from the article, states that he will be working at Microsoft Research."
:)
Quick, someone find 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino California using Google Earth and we might be able to see this guy's new office!
"Sure, it could pump a hundred sprites or so, but that didn't help when it was compared to the quality of the graphics on the Nintendo."
:) I have no idea why other than for cost Atari kept even the Pokey sound chip (used in the 8 bit line) from coming standard with the 7800. They later had to add it by embedding it inside the cartridge for games like *BallBlazer* which to me means it cost them more to do it that way than simply bundling it standard.
:)
Yes, the NES had better sound than the 7800. No doubt. Doesn't matter if one is deaf...but the pixel pushing certainly does!
"As for the actual games, the Nintendo had such popular new games as Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Excite Bike, Megaman, Punch Out, 1942, Castlevania, Contra, Gradius, and Hogan's Alley. And that was just the early batch! As the NES gained popularity, we also got Super Mario Bros. 3, Ninja Gaiden, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, Duck Tales, Paperboy, Rad Racer, Final Fantasy, TMNT II & III, five more Mega Mans, Smash TV, Tetris, After Burner, Galaxy 5000, and many more! Suffice it to say, we were kept well in good games for more than long enough for the (even better!) SuperNES to be released."
To which Kid Icarus, Megaman, 1942, Castlevania, Contra, Gradius, Ninja Gaiden, Chip & Dale, Ducktales, Paperboy, Rad Racer, Final Fantasy, TMNT II/III, the other MegaMan titles, SmashTV, Tetris, After Burner, and Galaxy 5000 were prevented from being ported over to the 7800 because of Nintendo's exclusivity contracts on those very third-party licensees. Thus illustrating my point. As you stated, those companies probably would not have directly ported the titles themselves, but Nintendo's exclusivity contracts prevented them from licensing those titles (to which Atari would hire some other company to port the title) to Atari either. It was amazing when Atari was able to license *Commando* from DataEast and was able to port that title (which was better on the 7800 than on the NES, aside from sound).
"In the case of the NeoGeo it had a massive library of arcade games to pull from. People got tired of beat-em-ups. In the case of the 3DO, it had hundreds of computer gaming companies to pull from. The games were representative of that period of PC gaming, which is to say that they mostly sucked."
Ode to the NeoGeo. I wouldn't say that their arcade library was massive, considering it only included SNK titles, but those titles were excellent. I loved *Samurai Showdown*, but that was not enough to justify an entire console in my book; especially at that price. As for the 3D0, its whole downfall was due to the fact that the Atari Jaguar beat its graphics capabilities at a much lower cost level which deflated the whole 3D0 platform. Of course, the problem with the Jaguar was that Atari brought it out with a concentration on price instead of debuting it at a $500 price range with the CD-Rom included (instead of $250 CD-less) and allowed market forces to reduce the price of the unit over time and before the debut of the Playstation. Consequently, the cartridge based wonder system lost out because CD-Rom based media was so much cheaper than the carts and had a cost advantage as long as the console company was willing to lose money on the console at the start, which Sony was. Add to the fact that Sony "encouraged" companies like UbiSoft to delay completed titles for the Jaguar like *RayMan* (for over 6 months) until the Playstation debuted, and its easy to understand how the console collapsed in the process. Dirty tricks. But I digress. 3D0 was lame...
Oh, and *Batman Begins* ruled...