Let's have a close look at these claims of yours...
What has been lost on the PS3: - Emotion Engine (hardware) First gen PS3 was very expensive, people bitched about the price and Sony responded by removing the PS2 compatibility. Sony still sells the PS2 console so there was no need to punish people who wanted a PS3 by forcing them to subsidize the PS2 owners. Less hardware = cheaper console.
- SACD playback (software) Did anyone actually want this? While it's likely that a PS3 owner would have an HDTV, it's unlikely they would own a high end audio setup to take advantage of SACD. Anyone serious about this functionality would own a proper standalone SACD player. Less hardware = cheaper console.
- USB 2.0 ports (hardware) Not sure if reducing the number of ports counts as a "lost feature". Two ports is likely plenty for most people, and it's easy to add your own hub to increase the number of ports. Less hardware = cheaper console.
- Full PS2 backwards compatibility (software) PS3 never had full PS2 compatibility in software, purely a myth perpetuated by the un-informed. First generation PS3 had full hardware PS2 support; second generation had a mix of hardware and software emulation. Made the PS3 expensive and added redundant capabilities as the PS2 was (and is) still being sold. Less hardware = cheaper console.
- Other OS Linux (software): retroactively disabled on older hardware as well now with the new update Debatable whether this was a usable feature or not. Linux on the PS3 was horrible and Sony's removal of the option on the slim models was met with little but a yawn and "so what?" It wasn't until Geohot paraded around his so called PS3 hack and thousands of pirates perked up with the hope of finally getting their hands on some free PS3 games did anyone care about the OtherOS option. Sony acted to protect their platform and the pirates raised a ruckus. Anyone who used the old model PS3 for Cell programming couldn't care less, they didn't use the PS3 for games or playing blu-ray.
If you're one of those people still pissed off over having to choose between OtherOS or games/PSN, direct your anger to Geohot for pissing in your pool.
- SD and CF slots (hardware Redundant hardware, PS3 already had USB ports and there was no need to provide multiple ports for the same function. Less hardware = cheaper console.
- Media bar in-game - Trophies - Divx - PlayStation Home - Dynamic themes - Netflix - Photo Gallery - Life with PlayStation - and so on.....
At this point I went the Wikipedia page for PS3 software updates and did a quick tally...
"removed" appears four times
"added" appears 97 times
"modified" appears 4 times.
Not too shabby for a console that "who started off with a decent system has been systematically removing features with little to no return" as you claim.
I think saying that the Hypervisor is "fundamentally broken" is a gross exaggeration. Geohot's hack did little more than make a dent in the outer ring of security and was nothing more than a PR stunt to inflate his reputation.
People have been trying to hack the PS3 for years in an attempt to pirate games and failed miserably. Geohot claims to have "broken" the PS3 encryption, leading to a flood of interest in hacking the PS3 to enable pirating. Sony decides having the Linux OS option isn't worth risking the PS3 turning into another Dreamcast and removes the feature.
If you want to blame someone for losing the OS option, aim your attacks straight at Geohot. Thanks to him and him alone you've lost the OS functionality.
A car manufacture advertised a feature where by you could connect a cappuccino machine to the cars cooling system and make coffee while you were driving. After a few years the car manufacture became concerned that misuse of this feature may cause performance problems and so removed the feature from their newer model. Later they had reports of a few customers misusing the feature on the older models and possibly leading to warranty and road safety problems. So the car manufacturer issued a fix to the mechanics to disable the feature on the older models.
A small minority of car owners raise a bloody furor over not being able to froth their milk while driving, claim their basic human rights have been violated and insist on being compensated for their suffering.
A "respecable" hacker that took credit for other peoples hard work for the iphone crack, and failed to do anything more than dent the outer ring of the PS3 security?
Without fail, every time there is a PS3 firmware update the forums light up with post about "bricked my PS3" or "Yellow light of death" or "Can't play games WTF?"
And it's the same people over and over again, making the same claims they did the last update and the ones before. I'm certain there is a rabid anti-PS3 community out there that's in a state of perpetual pissed off about the existence of the PS3 and their inability to crack& pirate PS3 games. They make outrageous claims about massive number of bricked consoles and an epidemic of the YLD, but it's all FUD and trolling.
The fact that this even became a Slashdot article is just sad, but deliberate trolling does generate page hits...
Can you give me one example of this "Upscaled DVD to Blu-Ray" business? Unless you are referring to those so called blu-ray rips from the Pirate Bay, in which case you get what you pay for
An equally wise American once said "..and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
The tyranny you speak of is really the tyranny of the public and those who seek to destroy the foundations of government are in fact engaged in a war against their fellow Americans.
But I would assume fair-weather Libertarians would find this quite reasonable, every man for himself after all...
Holy Crap, that's the funniest thing I've read today. You don't actually believe that the pirate community would give up a single penny to support this do you?
How about the defendant is an idiot, the defence lawyers are fools and the judges don't care for grandstanding morons trying to turn a clear cut case of copyright infringement into a reboot of the Rosa Parks case.
Bit I like you thinking, sounds much more exciting.
Quite correct. Deliberately depriving someone of income from their work by forcing the value of their product to zero and willfully distributing it without license to do so still counts as theft in my book, even if nothing physical is involved.
Wow, the "Google is just as bad" story get's run up the flagpole every time a torrent site gets into legal trouble.
If a company dealing in fake passports by mail is found to be in violation of the law, does the Post office get served with a summons? Torrent sites exist for the sole purpose of aiding and abetting the violation of copyright. Google is just a search engine and does not actively catalog, rate and organize torrents for use by pirates.
Google has a history in cooperating with the legal community in removing infringing or libellous material, torrent sties have a long history of being obstinate and downright childish when requested to deal with the same.
When you say "customers" you do realize that unless you are a Musician/Artist then you are not technically a customer of the RIAA or MPAA.
These organizations exist to serve the marketing and distribution needs of their true clients, which are the content corporations and individual Artists who sign with them. I believe that to date they have only concerned themselves with legal action against those people or websites who distribute material in violation of the exclusive agreements they hold with their clients.
Bottom line, if you feel that you've been treated unfairly by the MPAA or RIAA, contact your favorite band, actor or movie producer and let them know you demand justice. Targeting the MPAA/RIAA in this case is like blaming the supermarket for the declining quality of your Pop-Tarts.
Once upon a time, consensus in the science community was that.. Man could not travel faster than sound Light propagated through waves in the ether Disease was caused by fetid humors and not bacteria Organic compounds were impossible to create through artificial means
Of course science is all about consensus, if only those pesky facts wouldnt keep getting in the way.
Indeed, the thin-client + mainframe solution is the perpetual zombie of enterprise IT, just when you think youve beaten the damn thing to death it rises from the grave yet again to eat the brains of the living
Acknowledged, I already had a PS2 before I bought a PS3 so backwards compatibility wasn't a big deal for me. I've heard of nothing but problems with the XBOX software emulation so I think hardware would still be the ideal option for 100% compatibility.
The pass-through idea is interesting, I wonder if it would be possible to design a PS3 with a docking port of some kind that would take the PS2 console power/video/controller inputs and feed them through the PS3.
The install other OS option was utterly useless, only one cell was supported and you had no access to any of the advanced hardware. No reason for Sony to continue to support a feature that was used by only a very tiny fraction of PS3 owners.
People who pick this above all others as a reason not to buy a PS3 are just being petulant.
Sony will however sell you a PS2 compatibility kit to go with your PS3. It's 100% compatible with all PS2 games and even comes with an original PS2 controller.
You can't honestly believe that, Ive no doubt Windows 7 was being developed long before netbooks were even popular. And Windows XP has worked just fine. Can't really say the same for the Linux netbooks
As well, I seem to recall a number of posts in the past that claimed netbooks would be the death of Microsoft, as they were obviously too slow and stupid to be able to take advantage of the new market. And now were claiming the opposite?
BTW the Vista perception problems were just that, a perception held by a misinformed public propagated by anti-M$ zealots who wanted Vista to fail.
Both Microsoft and Apple both have big OS releases arriving on the market soon, dont see anything new from the Linux community in the pipeline. Perhaps waiting for their competitors to release new products so they can copy the good bits for themselves?
Indeed, and you've missed a major point that the majority of posters here seem to forget (or are just unwilling to remember)
The fine has nothing to do with DOWNLOADING copyrighted material, he was found guilty of DISTRIBUTING copyrighted material.
Bottom line, if you're silly enough to be using bittorrent and not acknowledging that you're not only DOWNLOADING but also DISTRIBUTING, then admit in court that yes you were in fact DISTRIBUTING copyrighted material that you did not have a right to, then yes you are going to get the book thrown at you.
Frankly, I don't think the RIAA gives a damn if you download a few songs for your own use, but start getting into the distribution business and you may as well paint a big target on your forehead.
Why is this concept so difficult for the "Fuck the MPAA/RIAA" crowd to get into their heads ?
When I realized I was paying $85 a month for a service that had little if anything I was interested in watching for months at a time, I cancelled it.
That was a year ago, with a Blu-ray player and CBC-HD on the antenna I get all the HD content I need and at a much better quality than anything Bell or Rogers offers. And with a Usenet subscription I watch whatever TV shows interest me whenever I want.
To date, I don't miss subscription TV at all. I actually watch less TV than before and read & listen to music more often. I still get little "we miss you" cards from Rogers tucked under my door every now and then, no thanks.
Slashdot Mirror
Let's have a close look at these claims of yours...
What has been lost on the PS3:
- Emotion Engine (hardware)
First gen PS3 was very expensive, people bitched about the price and Sony responded by removing the PS2 compatibility. Sony still sells the PS2 console so there was no need to punish people who wanted a PS3 by forcing them to subsidize the PS2 owners. Less hardware = cheaper console.
- SACD playback (software)
Did anyone actually want this? While it's likely that a PS3 owner would have an HDTV, it's unlikely they would own a high end audio setup to take advantage of SACD. Anyone serious about this functionality would own a proper standalone SACD player. Less hardware = cheaper console.
- USB 2.0 ports (hardware)
Not sure if reducing the number of ports counts as a "lost feature". Two ports is likely plenty for most people, and it's easy to add your own hub to increase the number of ports. Less hardware = cheaper console.
- Full PS2 backwards compatibility (software)
PS3 never had full PS2 compatibility in software, purely a myth perpetuated by the un-informed. First generation PS3 had full hardware PS2 support; second generation had a mix of hardware and software emulation. Made the PS3 expensive and added redundant capabilities as the PS2 was (and is) still being sold. Less hardware = cheaper console.
- Other OS Linux (software): retroactively disabled on older hardware as well now with the new update
Debatable whether this was a usable feature or not. Linux on the PS3 was horrible and Sony's removal of the option on the slim models was met with little but a yawn and "so what?" It wasn't until Geohot paraded around his so called PS3 hack and thousands of pirates perked up with the hope of finally getting their hands on some free PS3 games did anyone care about the OtherOS option. Sony acted to protect their platform and the pirates raised a ruckus. Anyone who used the old model PS3 for Cell programming couldn't care less, they didn't use the PS3 for games or playing blu-ray.
If you're one of those people still pissed off over having to choose between OtherOS or games/PSN, direct your anger to Geohot for pissing in your pool.
- SD and CF slots (hardware
Redundant hardware, PS3 already had USB ports and there was no need to provide multiple ports for the same function. Less hardware = cheaper console.
- Media bar in-game
- Trophies
- Divx
- PlayStation Home
- Dynamic themes
- Netflix
- Photo Gallery
- Life with PlayStation
- and so on.....
At this point I went the Wikipedia page for PS3 software updates and did a quick tally...
"removed" appears four times
"added" appears 97 times
"modified" appears 4 times.
Not too shabby for a console that "who started off with a decent system has been systematically removing features with little to no return" as you claim.
I think saying that the Hypervisor is "fundamentally broken" is a gross exaggeration. Geohot's hack did little more than make a dent in the outer ring of security and was nothing more than a PR stunt to inflate his reputation.
People have been trying to hack the PS3 for years in an attempt to pirate games and failed miserably. Geohot claims to have "broken" the PS3 encryption, leading to a flood of interest in hacking the PS3 to enable pirating. Sony decides having the Linux OS option isn't worth risking the PS3 turning into another Dreamcast and removes the feature.
If you want to blame someone for losing the OS option, aim your attacks straight at Geohot. Thanks to him and him alone you've lost the OS functionality.
Ok, how about this
A car manufacture advertised a feature where by you could connect a cappuccino machine to the cars cooling system and make coffee while you were driving. After a few years the car manufacture became concerned that misuse of this feature may cause performance problems and so removed the feature from their newer model. Later they had reports of a few customers misusing the feature on the older models and possibly leading to warranty and road safety problems. So the car manufacturer issued a fix to the mechanics to disable the feature on the older models.
A small minority of car owners raise a bloody furor over not being able to froth their milk while driving, claim their basic human rights have been violated and insist on being compensated for their suffering.
A "respecable" hacker that took credit for other peoples hard work for the iphone crack, and failed to do anything more than dent the outer ring of the PS3 security?
Sad indeed.
Without fail, every time there is a PS3 firmware update the forums light up with post about "bricked my PS3" or "Yellow light of death" or "Can't play games WTF?"
And it's the same people over and over again, making the same claims they did the last update and the ones before. I'm certain there is a rabid anti-PS3 community out there that's in a state of perpetual pissed off about the existence of the PS3 and their inability to crack& pirate PS3 games. They make outrageous claims about massive number of bricked consoles and an epidemic of the YLD, but it's all FUD and trolling.
The fact that this even became a Slashdot article is just sad, but deliberate trolling does generate page hits...
In either case it's the PS3 owner that has to make that decision, keep the OtherOS functionality or use it for PSN/Games.
Technically the PS3 still does everything it could do before the update, just not at the same time.
Can you give me one example of this "Upscaled DVD to Blu-Ray" business? Unless you are referring to those so called blu-ray rips from the Pirate Bay, in which case you get what you pay for
An equally wise American once said "..and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
The tyranny you speak of is really the tyranny of the public and those who seek to destroy the foundations of government are in fact engaged in a war against their fellow Americans.
But I would assume fair-weather Libertarians would find this quite reasonable, every man for himself after all...
Holy Crap, that's the funniest thing I've read today. You don't actually believe that the pirate community would give up a single penny to support this do you?
How about the defendant is an idiot, the defence lawyers are fools and the judges don't care for grandstanding morons trying to turn a clear cut case of copyright infringement into a reboot of the Rosa Parks case.
Bit I like you thinking, sounds much more exciting.
The only reason you have "free" stuff to download is because people like me are paying for it and in turn subsidizing your habit.
When people like me disappear, there will be no media of any kind for people like you to download.
Period.
Quite correct. Deliberately depriving someone of income from their work by forcing the value of their product to zero and willfully distributing it without license to do so still counts as theft in my book, even if nothing physical is involved.
Why?
You posted only once, I don't see why you should get credit in perpetuity for work you performed once.
Wow, the "Google is just as bad" story get's run up the flagpole every time a torrent site gets into legal trouble.
If a company dealing in fake passports by mail is found to be in violation of the law, does the Post office get served with a summons? Torrent sites exist for the sole purpose of aiding and abetting the violation of copyright. Google is just a search engine and does not actively catalog, rate and organize torrents for use by pirates.
Google has a history in cooperating with the legal community in removing infringing or libellous material, torrent sties have a long history of being obstinate and downright childish when requested to deal with the same.
When you say "customers" you do realize that unless you are a Musician/Artist then you are not technically a customer of the RIAA or MPAA.
These organizations exist to serve the marketing and distribution needs of their true clients, which are the content corporations and individual Artists who sign with them. I believe that to date they have only concerned themselves with legal action against those people or websites who distribute material in violation of the exclusive agreements they hold with their clients.
Bottom line, if you feel that you've been treated unfairly by the MPAA or RIAA, contact your favorite band, actor or movie producer and let them know you demand justice. Targeting the MPAA/RIAA in this case is like blaming the supermarket for the declining quality of your Pop-Tarts.
That should read "Redhat and Novell sure don't make a dime selling media of their Enterprise releases."
They make their money from support and service contracts, the actual software has no worth.
Once upon a time, consensus in the science community was that..
Man could not travel faster than sound
Light propagated through waves in the ether
Disease was caused by fetid humors and not bacteria
Organic compounds were impossible to create through artificial means
Of course science is all about consensus, if only those pesky facts wouldnt keep getting in the way.
Indeed, the thin-client + mainframe solution is the perpetual zombie of enterprise IT, just when you think youve beaten the damn thing to death it rises from the grave yet again to eat the brains of the living
Acknowledged, I already had a PS2 before I bought a PS3 so backwards compatibility wasn't a big deal for me. I've heard of nothing but problems with the XBOX software emulation so I think hardware would still be the ideal option for 100% compatibility.
The pass-through idea is interesting, I wonder if it would be possible to design a PS3 with a docking port of some kind that would take the PS2 console power/video/controller inputs and feed them through the PS3.
The install other OS option was utterly useless, only one cell was supported and you had no access to any of the advanced hardware. No reason for Sony to continue to support a feature that was used by only a very tiny fraction of PS3 owners.
People who pick this above all others as a reason not to buy a PS3 are just being petulant.
Sony will however sell you a PS2 compatibility kit to go with your PS3. It's 100% compatible with all PS2 games and even comes with an original PS2 controller.
You can't honestly believe that, Ive no doubt Windows 7 was being developed long before netbooks were even popular. And Windows XP has worked just fine. Can't really say the same for the Linux netbooks
As well, I seem to recall a number of posts in the past that claimed netbooks would be the death of Microsoft, as they were obviously too slow and stupid to be able to take advantage of the new market. And now were claiming the opposite?
BTW the Vista perception problems were just that, a perception held by a misinformed public propagated by anti-M$ zealots who wanted Vista to fail.
Both Microsoft and Apple both have big OS releases arriving on the market soon, dont see anything new from the Linux community in the pipeline. Perhaps waiting for their competitors to release new products so they can copy the good bits for themselves?
Indeed, and you've missed a major point that the majority of posters here seem to forget (or are just unwilling to remember)
The fine has nothing to do with DOWNLOADING copyrighted material, he was found guilty of DISTRIBUTING copyrighted material.
Bottom line, if you're silly enough to be using bittorrent and not acknowledging that you're not only DOWNLOADING but also DISTRIBUTING, then admit in court that yes you were in fact DISTRIBUTING copyrighted material that you did not have a right to, then yes you are going to get the book thrown at you.
Frankly, I don't think the RIAA gives a damn if you download a few songs for your own use, but start getting into the distribution business and you may as well paint a big target on your forehead.
Why is this concept so difficult for the "Fuck the MPAA/RIAA" crowd to get into their heads ?
Really??? Are you using a TRS-80 by chance ? What you described is pretty much non-existant for any hardware made in the last few decades.
When I realized I was paying $85 a month for a service that had little if anything I was interested in watching for months at a time, I cancelled it.
That was a year ago, with a Blu-ray player and CBC-HD on the antenna I get all the HD content I need and at a much better quality than anything Bell or Rogers offers. And with a Usenet subscription I watch whatever TV shows interest me whenever I want.
To date, I don't miss subscription TV at all. I actually watch less TV than before and read & listen to music more often. I still get little "we miss you" cards from Rogers tucked under my door every now and then, no thanks.