...and an Xbox title of any kind is, sadly, nowhere to be seen in the Top 30.
I'm not sure why this described as sad - I would characterize it as entirely predictable. We have all read about the many struggles that Microsoft has had in gaining acceptance in the Japanese market. Despite its best efforts, Microsoft's console has remained in last place, embarrassingly outsold even by the rebranded original PlayStation, the PSOne.
Part of the problem is the physically large design of the Xbox hardware itself, in a country where space in the typical home is at a premium and a small PS2 or GameCube is far preferable to the bulky Xbox.
Part of the problem is undoubtedly related to an allegiance to the domestic console manufacturers - Sony and Nintendo - over the foreign Microsoft.
But the biggest problem may be a cultural one. If the Xbox provided titles that appeal to the Japanese market, the Xbox would have better sales and better game sales. But it doesn't. Without the titles to back up the platform, there isn't - and the shouldn't be - any expectation of strong sales.
Splashy marketing and hype only buy you the attention of Japanese gamers (or any gamers for that matter). The question is: Can the Xbox deliver on the content?
So far - in Japan - the answer to that question is a resounding NO.
I've noticed a lot of generally negative reaction to Roland's blog entries that are often on Slashdot, primarily due to his shameless self-promotion and some high-noise/low-content posts. The funniest reply I have ever seen to Roland Piquepaille is over at John Wiseman's lemondor. Read the Comments thread. Now to address some of the points in one of Roland's typical posts:
'Wireless expectations rose in 2003, but growth was hobbled by security concerns and unproven business models.' It's much worse than you think and I'm going to tell you why Wi-Fi will still not be broadly used in 2004 in this column [MY BLOG!!!].
Roland: why don't you just tell us the main thrust of your blog entry? That's the whole idea of the Slashdot SUMMARY. It's obvious from your many posts all over the place (not just Slashdot -- although we now know at least 60% of your traffic comes from here) that you are constantly trying to drive traffic to your blog. Anyone who is interested in what you have to say will click through anyway, so why not just call it what it is? Your BLOG.
Technology columnists are usually looking at their own part of the world, in Silicon Valley or on the East Coast of the U.S. And obviously, their opinions are largely biased. Our world is much bigger than that. My arguments are based on real-world examples, both in Greece and in Paris.
Roland can compare himself to technology columnists instead of bloggers if he likes, but how does Roland's obviously biased opinion in his obviously biased blog entry make him any different from the people he criticizes and accuses of geographic bias?
Roland may not be aware of it, but Silicon Valley is 3000 miles (that's about 4800 kilometres) from the US East Coast. They are part of the same country but they are also distinct geographic regions. And they are no less "real-world" than Roland's home (France) and favorite vacation spot(?) (Greece). Roland's geographic bias and the implicit superiority of his argument smacks of snobbery.
If that's his argument, I have to agree with Wingchild's assessment of Roland's post as nothing more than self-indulgent whining.
Since Roland is someone who used to work in the technology industry he should know that any new technology will have its growing pains, especially when it is adopted at a rapid pace. Roland's bias does not make the rapid growth of wireless networking any less explosive or disruptive, and we will probably see accelerating adoption of wireless networking everywhere -- not just in North America, but in developing and impoverished parts of the world that lack a vast wireline infrastructure to support a traditional Internet/telecom environment. The low cost and rapid ease-of-deployment make wireless networks an obvious choice for these regions.
Europe has always had a pay-per-use model. For example, it is the dominant model for mobile phone use in Europe. It was the dominant model for Internet access (is it still? I haven't checked lately). Flat-rate pricing is the dominant model in North America. Internet and mobile phone packages all started out as pay-per-use but are now dominated by flat-fee pricing. It is a cultural difference.
If the culture is something Roland dislikes so intensely, Roland can:
Tolerate it
Do something to change it
Go somewhere where the culture is more to his liking
Is Wi-Fi access worth $10/hour? That depends on how much you need it. Especially to business users, the convenience of fast, reliable wireless Internet access may be worth every penny.
The Medium is the Message Re:Difficult not impossi
on
Software Archaeology
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· Score: 1
The difficulty of future generations being able to deipher our data without a guide is high but not impossible. The best example is hieroglyphics. Until the discovery of the Rosetta stone, Egyptian hieroglyphics were impossible to read
The difference is that the Rosetta stone and the hieroglyphics were written and "stored" in a medium that was able to survive for millenia. The media that software is stored in barely survives for dozens, let alone thousands of years.
If we assume that the primary gamers are young, then what's the point of this? I somehow can't imagine an eight year kid with a long list of contacts and the need to have a datebook.
The statements above completely undercut your argument. The assumption that gamers are children is wrong.
With that in mind, the Tapwave Helix gaming PDA is aimed at the adults, not the children. Adults earn money and have disposable income. The average core gamer is in his mid-20s -- who do you think it is who buys the Voodoo, Falcon and Alienware rigs? Those are the same people who will buy the Helix provided the software titles are present.
Roland Piquepaille: "This column details the special constraints applying to the design of these applications: special interfaces, lack of power and memory, and interoperability between heterogeneous networks. In this longer column, you'll find a selection of stories, including links, abstracts and illustrations."
TRANSLATION:
"I am a shameless karma-whore and copyright violator... OK, I'm just dancing around what I really mean: thief! This column [IT'S MY BLOG! AGAIN! DID I FOOL YOU THIS TIME?] details the special constraints applying to the design of these applications: special interfaces, lack of power and memory, and interoperability between heterogeneous networks. I STOLE all of it directly from the articles -- that's right, I plagiarized it as if it was my own work and added no value or original thought. In this longer column [MY BLOG YET AGAIN! DID I FOOL YOU THIS TIME?], you'll find a selection of stories, including links, abstracts and illustrations. All of that is stolen, too! The images, the text... copyright infringement is what I do best! Then I post it to Slashdot to build myself up as a technology pundit!
Somehow, I don't think the first part of "Liberte, egalite, fraternite" meant freedom to steal intellectual content that isn't yours. It's free as in speech, not free as in beer. As this poster (whose highlighting/linking of the issues has inspired me to do the same) pointed out, plagiarism and copyright infringement are serious matters that end up hurting us all. Rule one of trying to become an authority on anything is not to deceive, steal or otherwise break laws. Doing so ensures you have no credibility.
Roland Piquepaille: "This sidebar contains a photograph of a student waltzing with the robot, MS DanceR (Mobile Smart Dance Robot), coming from another short story carried by Ananova."
TRANSLATION: This sidebar [MY BLOG] is completely irrelevant and redundant, but I'm including it anyway so I can mislead you to believe it is a sidebar to the original article and you will click on the link and drive up my traffic. It contains a photograph [BY ASSOCIATED PRESS] -- which I took without authorization [OK, I STOLE IT] -- of a student waltzing with the robot, MS DanceR (Mobile Smart Dance Robot), coming from another short story carried by Ananova. [THAT'S WHERE I STOLE THE AP PHOTO FROM]
Tune in next time to see if I ever plainly say that the mysterious blog I keep linking in my posts is mine! I bet I won't!:)
... especially if they are an integral part of a destructive subculture that is detrimental to society at large.
I like games and I'm all for letting kids and adults play age-appropriate games and engage in age-appropriate social activity.
Is it really such a bad thing to remove children from an environment that encourages them to participate in vice -- drinking and gambling -- instead of going to school as the article mentions?
We're talking about a country that has seen its culture and heritage destroyed, and remains essentally lawless as a result of over two deades of brutal war and occupation. There is no infrastructure of any kind to speak of -- governmental, social, utility or otherwise -- and heavily-armed private militias still control the majority of the country and are still the predominant opportunity to earn an income and obtain food, clothing and shelter.
Would you really want a bunch of uneducated, underage alcoholic gamblers traumatized by war -- who have daily witnessed how cheap life is, have easy access to guns, and view the world through the latest first-person shooter -- running wild in the streets?
The other thing I'll say about this ban is that it's not for us to dictate to another culture the kinds of entertainments and pastimes they should engage in.
And before anyone gets too up in arms about this ban and starts making disparaging comments about anyone's faith or culture, I'll remind everyone that we have a LOT of efforts in America to ban minors from buying or playing video games, and none of it has to do with anything as serious as kids skipping school to get drunk and bet on the games they play.
Here's a recent post I submitted that was rejected:
A federal
judge has temporarily blocked a Washington state law that bans selling violent games to minors under 17 , and would fine retailers $500 for each game sold to minors that depicts violence against law-enforcement officials. U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik said the law (slated to take effect July 27) is too all-encompassing and too targeted, and seems to violate free-speech rights since games' complex plots, original musical scores and detailed art deserve the same free speech protection as other types of media.
The point is that in Afghanistan the games seem to be concretely linked to a subculture and environment that is detrimental to society at large and the efforts to rebuild civil society. Unless and until they can figure out a way to put games in a more appropriate social setting and context, banning them seems like a logical step.
Mitch Kapor says it will be around 2007 it right in the article:
On the consumer and worker productivity side, large-scale adoption is unlikely before 2007, Kapor said, particularly as the breadth of applications available on Linux today is lacking
Please provide your definition of Piracy and your definition of Sharing with respect to software and to music.
In the past, piracy was considered the illegal duplication and resale of software for profit. The key word there is RESALE because money was changing hands.
Sharing was just what it sounds like: sharing copies of software -- where no money changed hands -- which was considered a legitimate marketing vehicle by software companies because it gave them an increased market share and propagated proprietary file formats, even though they didn't immediately realize revenues based on a sale. Instead the model was get people to use it and maybe they would pay for the next version of the software.
Now sharing has transformed into piracy through industry campaigns and media (mis)use of the term, even though no money ever changes hands on file-sharing networks like Kazaa and the ill-fated Napster, or when you load copies of the same software package on two computers.
Can you explain this? I don't recall the courts being used to prosecute for sharing in the past, although the practice has now become common.
By the same token he also says that the greatest weakness of the BSDs "for those seeking an everyday operating system, is the lack of good desktop applications." Then he turns around and says that "if you really want a BSD-based system that has an excellent--maybe even the best--desktop and user application environment, there's always Mac OS X, which is based on BSD."
Interesting analysis and opinion piece. But it's pretty clear that he's a BSD proponent.
I'd tell 'em to classify it all they want, just looks BETTER on the resume...
Spoken as someone who:
Has never dealt with classified or sensitive material
Does not understand the requirements of academia
Is clearly arguing just for the sake of arguing
Has nothing better to do than post on Slashdot all day (take a look at the timestamps for Tuesday July 08)
All of the above
The answer is clearly Option 5. All of the above (sorry, no CowboyNeal option just like the Polls as of late!):)
Seriously for a moment, anthony says:
The title and subject matter are not being classified.
... So like I said, this information will not be classified. Not yet, not ever.
How do you know what the government will or will not classify or when it will choose to do it?
A resume full of CLASSIFIED means nothing. It doesn't look "better" - it looks COOL to ignorant Vin Diesel TripleX wannabes. Classified academic work means that there is no way to prove any of your work so it's useless. In other words, he won't be able to get a job as an academic and pursue research because he can't prove any of his prior research or put it up for scrutiny by other academics.
Ever dealt with government intelligence agencies? Clearly not. They often don't even acknowledge anyone works there, even after you have spoken with their staff several times or you're returning their calls.
Their Internet use is high for their per capita income, and the law they passed is certainly forward-looking. But securitas's summary is flat-out wrong.
If you want to cherry-pick you're welcome to, but the summary is a fair reflection of the article. By your own admissions above, the summary can't be "flat-out wrong".
Last year only 1/3 of the population used the Internet, so clearly 80% of the people aren't using online banking. What the article said is that "Estonians do 80 percent of their banking on the internet." This could mean that a tiny fraction who do a ton of transactions (medium-size business, for example) are doing it online.
It depends on how you select the sample. It could just as easily mean that a large number of people are doing a few transactions each. Does every member of the population have a bank account? Doubtful. But of the adult population who do have bank accounts, is it reasonable to infer that 80% use online banking? Why not? It could just as easily be that the same 1/3 who access the Internet, are the ones doing online banking. The article isn't specific enough about the data for us to know who is using what. That part of the summary could have been worded better, but the gist of it is the same: unusually high use of online banking.
"...broadband penetration rates are comparable to Western Europe" is another hot one. The article says that "Internet usage and broadband access are approaching West European levels." Hell, all that means is that Estonian rates are (a) lower, and (b) increasing relative to WE levels.
"Comparable" does not mean equal, which is what you seem to be implying. Comparable means just that: you can reasonably compare the statistics, even though one sum is less than the other. "Approaching" and "comparable" are similar in meaning. One indicates a direction of growth as well as quantity, and the other indicates a quantity alone. So you can add that Estonian rates are (c) comparable to WE levels.
The article itself gives information that conveys almost nothing about usage: "Farmers are ordering broadband lines, and motorists on rural roads frequently pass blue information signs pointing them to the nearest place to access the Web." Wow, so at least 2 farmers have ordered broadband. And there are at least two signs on country highways - of course motorists frequently pass them, people drive down those roads all the time!
I don't know where you live, but rural areas in the West tend not to have broadband availability because the population densities are too low to make it cost-effective. The fact that farmers in rural Estonia have broadband says something about the infrastructure, even taking into account Estonia's relatively small size. Someone else mentioned that there are free public Internet terminals and kiosks around Estonia, and the signs on the highways are an indication of how much a part of Estonian life the Internet has become.
Try to see the other side of things instead of being so quick to criticize. The article is about a forward-looking society in transformation that in some ways has surpassed societies in the West despite 50 years of Soviet occupation.
Why no VoIP? In the West QoS and revenues rule all
on
VoIP Booming in Africa
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· Score: 2, Insightful
It's not ironic at all and it shouldn't be surprising either.
Historically Africa has had a whole series of problems that we aren't going to get deep into here, including the legacy of colonialism, wars (part of the legacy), famine and disease. These problems have prevented African nations from reaching their full potential and resulted in an underdeveloped telecom infrastructure (among other things, but that's for another discussion).
In the West, which has had relative stability for the last 60 years, the conditions were right to put ito place a vast and sophisticated telecom infrastructure.
We, as users, now can't conceive of picking up the phone and NOT hearing a dial tone. Think: when was the last time you DIDN'T get a dial tone?
We are also used to superior voice quality and in most cases we won't settle for less. That is one reason why we don't have widespread VoIP deployment in the West.
The traditional metric in telecom for the last few years is an 80/20 split. That means 80% of network traffic is data and 20% is voice traffic. Now invert that to get the revenue numbers. That means 80% of your revenues come from the 20% of voice traffic. That is the main reason why we don't have widespread VoIP deployment in the West.
The numbers are now probably closer to a 90/10 split, or at least moving towards that ratio. This is the reason that carriers are now moving (or planning to move) to an all-IP network. The catch is that you can't jeopardize that 80%+ revenue stream due to voice traffic. We won't see widespread VoIP in the West until the QoS is sufficiently high enough that we can't distinguish between a regular voice call and a VoIP call.
Leased lines, Internet backbone, VoIP QoS
on
VoIP Booming in Africa
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
but as a professional business tool I don't think VoIP is there yet for rock solid stability and clear communciation
As a professional business tool, as it's discussed in the article, companies like Newmont (the second largest gold producer in the world) will most likely use dedicated or leased lines (and probably VPN for security) to get to the Internet backbone, at which point VoIP's QoS has a much higher likelihood of being stable and clear.
A company like Newmont will not allow critical corporate communications to be transmitted with a technology that can't perform to the high levels that it is accustomed to. Newmont can afford the best, so this seems to be an indication that whatever VoIP solution Newmont is using is more than capable of handling the task.
Re:Er, no.. Sensationalist and idiotic to boot
on
Does Google = God?
·
· Score: 1
When I was a kid, I thought I knew everything and I connected to other people without wires. It's called a paper-cup-and-string telephone. I guess that makes me a little bit like God, too. An idiotic argument, but I hope you see my point.
Scroll back a little, because Tommy-boy is very sensationalist.
Since this Alan Cohen, a V.P. of Airespace fellow ascribes omniscience as a quality of Google, let's examine that.
I take your point about the "little bit" caveat. The only problem is that you can't be a "little bit" omniscient. You either are or you aren't.
Omniscience also implies sentience, which Google is not. At some point down the road some artificial intelligence resembling sentience may be added as a feature, but that still doesn't make the cut.
Omniscience is a Divine quality by definition (note the capital D, distinguishing it from a simple adjective). Google is a creation of mere mortals so it cannot be omniscient by that standard either.
Omniscience is an infinite knowledge, understanding, awareness and insight into all things in their totality. Google's domain is restricted only to the Internet, so it once again falls far short of the mark.
The last thing we need is more idiotic, pin-head technologists like Cohen and sensationalist disseminators of said idiotic nonsense like Tommy Friedman. They make anyone who works in the technology industry sound like a moron, which makes it that much more difficult when serious people without a big platform need to be heard.
I'm not taking the rap for that "undiscusssed" comment!;) Here is my original post:
PC Magazine takes a look inside the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Mythic Entertainment's Dark Age of Camelot. Camelot, it turns out, is in Fairfax, Virginia where Mythic keeps 120 dual-processor Pentium servers running Linux for its 225,000 players. Each group of six servers runs what Mythic calls a gamespace. An additional 30 servers handle customer support (character data, stats,etc). Mythic claims that it can handle up to 20,000 simultaneous players per server but limits them to 4,000 per server for a better customer experience. The software is written so that most of the code runs on the servers, including artificial intelligence, combat calculations, and character data, resulting in a mere 10 Kbps data stream that lets dial-up modem customers join in the fun.
There's no reason why the ESRB couldn't have given Quake III: TA a similar -- or the same -- rating. The "animated" seems redundant since all games are animated. But with the increasing levels of detail and realism, the industry will have to do something to make it clearer what is and what isn't suitable for kids, and how graphic the visuals and levels of violence are, or else it will suffer a backlash. If the previews are an accurate reflection of the game, I have no idea what they're going to do when Doom III comes out.
Now that the new ESRB violence descriptors provide more detailed ratings (presumably to keep up with advancing graphics technology), this should help defang some of the critics who want to prevent mature-themed games from being made. It's still amazing that a parent won't let their kids see an R-rated or NC-17-rated movie but have no problem with buying them games that are intended for adults, and are clearly marked as such.
Now that domestic game revenues are comparable to -- or surpassing -- Hollywood, what better way to get the big games-industry dollars than by praising the very industry he railed against the last time around?
If it's karma-whoring, go ahead, because that's not uncommon on Slashdot, but why pretend that you aren't submitting your own review by writing the submission in the third person?
Now let's re-write that first line:
Valour [THAT'S ME!!!!!!] writes "The Jem Report [THAT'S MY SITE!!!!!!] has just published an in-depth review and installation guide for the new Iwill ZPC, a cool little Pentium4 ultra small formfactor PC. There have been similar designs in the past, but nothing with this kind of power."
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005'
[Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] The Microsoft Jet database engine stopped the process because you and another user are attempting to change the same data at the same time.
/include/left.inc, line 139
Sorry. Didn't mean to change you at the same time. Maybe they should change the name from "Jet engine" to "Rubber-band engine":)
Why does this remind me of an Oliver and Hardy film where they both try to go through the door at the same time and just get stuck.
I can buy an Xbox or PS2 already, and they provide better gaming experiences.
Really? That depends on what experience you're looking for. I play both PC and console games and I generally prefer PC games to consoles for the exact reason you cited: Better gaming experiences.
I like the available titles better. I like the graphics better. I even like the controls better. For example, playing an FPS with an Xbox or PS2 controller doesn't come close to the keyboard/mouse or keyboard/controller-of-choice combination on a PC.
What if I want to play a strategy game or a deep RPG? There are far more PC titles out there than consoles in both of those genres. Consoles are good for certain types of games, but PCs can offer the complete range. The fact is that most games aren't developed for consoles. That may change, but it's not the case right now.
I've played Halo. For a console game it's amazing. It understandably blew the minds of console-first gamers but I wasn't impressed. Halo was originally supposed to be a PC game with Internet online teamplay, then Microsoft bought Bungie. Now Xboxers have to wait for Halo 2 on Xbox Live to get the online experience, and PC gamers will get Halo as it was originally intended later this year, with all the online play they want and much better graphics (that's the plan anyway).
Why should I view my visuals on a TV that has fuzzy 320x240 resolution (or 640x480 for "high-definition") when I can view better visuals at a crisp 1024x768 or higher on my monitor?
Until recently, the only way you could have a reasonable online gaming experience at midnight was with a PC and the Internet (LAN doesn't do it unless you live in a dorm with dozens of other people, or head out to a LAN gaming center). I don't have to pay an extra subscription fee (Xbox Live) just so I can play online games. I just connect to servers or set up my own through my high-speed line which I needed for work anyway.
If I want to play some of EA's great sports titles, I can't get them on a console and I definitely can't play them online with a console - EA said no dice.
As for Windows not using 3D on the desktop, a 3D card makes for faster 2D renders, probably because the chip-makers put their latest technology (both 2D and 3D) into them. If you view or edit video or images, if you use spreadsheets or a word processor, if you browse the Web (there are of heavy sites out there), having a better graphics card will make a discernable difference.
So you really have to be careful and clear about what you mean when you say that consoles offer "better gaming experiences." Different? Yes. Better? Not necessarily.
If the site originally hosted tech manuals for the games and not the actual game ROMs themselves, it doesn't appear that the site would have to be taken down. The letter appears to refer only to the software, not information about the software.
Then again, this could be the operative phrase:
any such game titles, copies, listings and/or other depictions of, or references to, any
contents of such game product, are hereinafter referred to as "Infringing Material"
If the IDSA was smart they would sponsor the site instead of trying to shut it down. There are a couple of concepts known as good faith and goodwill. It would behoove them to start practising both.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not sure why this described as sad - I would characterize it as entirely predictable. We have all read about the many struggles that Microsoft has had in gaining acceptance in the Japanese market. Despite its best efforts, Microsoft's console has remained in last place, embarrassingly outsold even by the rebranded original PlayStation, the PSOne.
Part of the problem is the physically large design of the Xbox hardware itself, in a country where space in the typical home is at a premium and a small PS2 or GameCube is far preferable to the bulky Xbox.
Part of the problem is undoubtedly related to an allegiance to the domestic console manufacturers - Sony and Nintendo - over the foreign Microsoft.
But the biggest problem may be a cultural one. If the Xbox provided titles that appeal to the Japanese market, the Xbox would have better sales and better game sales. But it doesn't. Without the titles to back up the platform, there isn't - and the shouldn't be - any expectation of strong sales.
Splashy marketing and hype only buy you the attention of Japanese gamers (or any gamers for that matter). The question is: Can the Xbox deliver on the content?
So far - in Japan - the answer to that question is a resounding NO.
gardel: at least have the courtesy to admit that Voxilla IS YOUR SITE.
Check gardel's previous posts if you don't believe me.
If you're going to self-promote, be up front about it.
I've noticed a lot of generally negative reaction to Roland's blog entries that are often on Slashdot, primarily due to his shameless self-promotion and some high-noise/low-content posts. The funniest reply I have ever seen to Roland Piquepaille is over at John Wiseman's lemondor . Read the Comments thread. Now to address some of the points in one of Roland's typical posts:
Roland: why don't you just tell us the main thrust of your blog entry? That's the whole idea of the Slashdot SUMMARY. It's obvious from your many posts all over the place (not just Slashdot -- although we now know at least 60% of your traffic comes from here) that you are constantly trying to drive traffic to your blog. Anyone who is interested in what you have to say will click through anyway, so why not just call it what it is? Your BLOG.
Roland can compare himself to technology columnists instead of bloggers if he likes, but how does Roland's obviously biased opinion in his obviously biased blog entry make him any different from the people he criticizes and accuses of geographic bias?
Roland may not be aware of it, but Silicon Valley is 3000 miles (that's about 4800 kilometres) from the US East Coast. They are part of the same country but they are also distinct geographic regions. And they are no less "real-world" than Roland's home (France) and favorite vacation spot(?) (Greece). Roland's geographic bias and the implicit superiority of his argument smacks of snobbery.
If that's his argument, I have to agree with Wingchild's assessment of Roland's post as nothing more than self-indulgent whining.
Since Roland is someone who used to work in the technology industry he should know that any new technology will have its growing pains, especially when it is adopted at a rapid pace. Roland's bias does not make the rapid growth of wireless networking any less explosive or disruptive, and we will probably see accelerating adoption of wireless networking everywhere -- not just in North America, but in developing and impoverished parts of the world that lack a vast wireline infrastructure to support a traditional Internet/telecom environment. The low cost and rapid ease-of-deployment make wireless networks an obvious choice for these regions.
Europe has always had a pay-per-use model. For example, it is the dominant model for mobile phone use in Europe. It was the dominant model for Internet access (is it still? I haven't checked lately). Flat-rate pricing is the dominant model in North America. Internet and mobile phone packages all started out as pay-per-use but are now dominated by flat-fee pricing. It is a cultural difference.
If the culture is something Roland dislikes so intensely, Roland can:
Is Wi-Fi access worth $10/hour? That depends on how much you need it. Especially to business users, the convenience of fast, reliable wireless Internet access may be worth every penny.
The difference is that the Rosetta stone and the hieroglyphics were written and "stored" in a medium that was able to survive for millenia. The media that software is stored in barely survives for dozens, let alone thousands of years.
If we assume that the primary gamers are young, then what's the point of this? I somehow can't imagine an eight year kid with a long list of contacts and the need to have a datebook.
The statements above completely undercut your argument. The assumption that gamers are children is wrong.
Most gamers are adults. According to the recently renamed Entertainment Software Association (formerly the IDSA -- Interactive Digital Software Assoc.) the average gamer is 29 years old. About 2/3 of gamers are over the age of 18.
With that in mind, the Tapwave Helix gaming PDA is aimed at the adults, not the children. Adults earn money and have disposable income. The average core gamer is in his mid-20s -- who do you think it is who buys the Voodoo, Falcon and Alienware rigs? Those are the same people who will buy the Helix provided the software titles are present.
Roland Piquepaille: "This column details the special constraints applying to the design of these applications: special interfaces, lack of power and memory, and interoperability between heterogeneous networks. In this longer column, you'll find a selection of stories, including links, abstracts and illustrations."
Somehow, I don't think the first part of "Liberte, egalite, fraternite" meant freedom to steal intellectual content that isn't yours. It's free as in speech, not free as in beer. As this poster (whose highlighting/linking of the issues has inspired me to do the same) pointed out, plagiarism and copyright infringement are serious matters that end up hurting us all. Rule one of trying to become an authority on anything is not to deceive, steal or otherwise break laws. Doing so ensures you have no credibility.
OH, THE HUMANITY! ;)
(I joke, but it really is a serious issue.)
Ars Technica Interviews 970 Designers
970 designers! Holy nerd-fest Batman! That's where Gotham's entire supply of throat lozenges disppeared to!
TRANSLATION:
This sidebar [MY BLOG] is completely irrelevant and redundant, but I'm including it anyway so I can mislead you to believe it is a sidebar to the original article and you will click on the link and drive up my traffic. It contains a photograph [BY ASSOCIATED PRESS] -- which I took without authorization [OK, I STOLE IT] -- of a student waltzing with the robot, MS DanceR (Mobile Smart Dance Robot), coming from another short story carried by Ananova. [THAT'S WHERE I STOLE THE AP PHOTO FROM]
Tune in next time to see if I ever plainly say that the mysterious blog I keep linking in my posts is mine! I bet I won't! :)
I like games and I'm all for letting kids and adults play age-appropriate games and engage in age-appropriate social activity.
Is it really such a bad thing to remove children from an environment that encourages them to participate in vice -- drinking and gambling -- instead of going to school as the article mentions?
We're talking about a country that has seen its culture and heritage destroyed, and remains essentally lawless as a result of over two deades of brutal war and occupation. There is no infrastructure of any kind to speak of -- governmental, social, utility or otherwise -- and heavily-armed private militias still control the majority of the country and are still the predominant opportunity to earn an income and obtain food, clothing and shelter.
Would you really want a bunch of uneducated, underage alcoholic gamblers traumatized by war -- who have daily witnessed how cheap life is, have easy access to guns, and view the world through the latest first-person shooter -- running wild in the streets?
The other thing I'll say about this ban is that it's not for us to dictate to another culture the kinds of entertainments and pastimes they should engage in.
And before anyone gets too up in arms about this ban and starts making disparaging comments about anyone's faith or culture, I'll remind everyone that we have a LOT of efforts in America to ban minors from buying or playing video games, and none of it has to do with anything as serious as kids skipping school to get drunk and bet on the games they play.
Here's a recent post I submitted that was rejected:
And that's only the latest example. Here are a few of many more:
Violent Video Game Restriction Struck Down
Congress To Consider Age Limits On Violent Games
Indianapolis Bans Violent Video Games
The point is that in Afghanistan the games seem to be concretely linked to a subculture and environment that is detrimental to society at large and the efforts to rebuild civil society. Unless and until they can figure out a way to put games in a more appropriate social setting and context, banning them seems like a logical step.
Mitch Kapor says it will be around 2007 it right in the article:
Please provide your definition of Piracy and your definition of Sharing with respect to software and to music.
In the past, piracy was considered the illegal duplication and resale of software for profit. The key word there is RESALE because money was changing hands.
Sharing was just what it sounds like: sharing copies of software -- where no money changed hands -- which was considered a legitimate marketing vehicle by software companies because it gave them an increased market share and propagated proprietary file formats, even though they didn't immediately realize revenues based on a sale. Instead the model was get people to use it and maybe they would pay for the next version of the software.
Now sharing has transformed into piracy through industry campaigns and media (mis)use of the term, even though no money ever changes hands on file-sharing networks like Kazaa and the ill-fated Napster, or when you load copies of the same software package on two computers.
Can you explain this? I don't recall the courts being used to prosecute for sharing in the past, although the practice has now become common.
In a recent eWeek analysis/opinion piece, ZDNet's Technical Director Jim Rapoza argues the case for BSD. He talks about some of the history of BSD, and says that "FreeBSD is probably the most Linux-like of the three, with good third-party application packages and user utilities."
By the same token he also says that the greatest weakness of the BSDs "for those seeking an everyday operating system, is the lack of good desktop applications." Then he turns around and says that "if you really want a BSD-based system that has an excellent--maybe even the best--desktop and user application environment, there's always Mac OS X, which is based on BSD."
Interesting analysis and opinion piece. But it's pretty clear that he's a BSD proponent.
anthony_dipierro (543308) says:
Spoken as someone who:
The answer is clearly Option 5. All of the above (sorry, no CowboyNeal option just like the Polls as of late!) :)
Seriously for a moment, anthony says:
How do you know what the government will or will not classify or when it will choose to do it?
A resume full of CLASSIFIED means nothing. It doesn't look "better" - it looks COOL to ignorant Vin Diesel TripleX wannabes. Classified academic work means that there is no way to prove any of your work so it's useless. In other words, he won't be able to get a job as an academic and pursue research because he can't prove any of his prior research or put it up for scrutiny by other academics.
Ever dealt with government intelligence agencies? Clearly not. They often don't even acknowledge anyone works there, even after you have spoken with their staff several times or you're returning their calls.
Gutboy Barrelhouse wrote:
Their Internet use is high for their per capita income, and the law they passed is certainly forward-looking. But securitas's summary is flat-out wrong.
If you want to cherry-pick you're welcome to, but the summary is a fair reflection of the article. By your own admissions above, the summary can't be "flat-out wrong".
Last year only 1/3 of the population used the Internet, so clearly 80% of the people aren't using online banking. What the article said is that "Estonians do 80 percent of their banking on the internet." This could mean that a tiny fraction who do a ton of transactions (medium-size business, for example) are doing it online.
It depends on how you select the sample. It could just as easily mean that a large number of people are doing a few transactions each. Does every member of the population have a bank account? Doubtful. But of the adult population who do have bank accounts, is it reasonable to infer that 80% use online banking? Why not? It could just as easily be that the same 1/3 who access the Internet, are the ones doing online banking. The article isn't specific enough about the data for us to know who is using what. That part of the summary could have been worded better, but the gist of it is the same: unusually high use of online banking.
"...broadband penetration rates are comparable to Western Europe" is another hot one. The article says that "Internet usage and broadband access are approaching West European levels." Hell, all that means is that Estonian rates are (a) lower, and (b) increasing relative to WE levels.
"Comparable" does not mean equal, which is what you seem to be implying. Comparable means just that: you can reasonably compare the statistics, even though one sum is less than the other. "Approaching" and "comparable" are similar in meaning. One indicates a direction of growth as well as quantity, and the other indicates a quantity alone. So you can add that Estonian rates are (c) comparable to WE levels.
The article itself gives information that conveys almost nothing about usage: "Farmers are ordering broadband lines, and motorists on rural roads frequently pass blue information signs pointing them to the nearest place to access the Web." Wow, so at least 2 farmers have ordered broadband. And there are at least two signs on country highways - of course motorists frequently pass them, people drive down those roads all the time!
I don't know where you live, but rural areas in the West tend not to have broadband availability because the population densities are too low to make it cost-effective. The fact that farmers in rural Estonia have broadband says something about the infrastructure, even taking into account Estonia's relatively small size. Someone else mentioned that there are free public Internet terminals and kiosks around Estonia, and the signs on the highways are an indication of how much a part of Estonian life the Internet has become.
Try to see the other side of things instead of being so quick to criticize. The article is about a forward-looking society in transformation that in some ways has surpassed societies in the West despite 50 years of Soviet occupation.
It's not ironic at all and it shouldn't be surprising either.
Historically Africa has had a whole series of problems that we aren't going to get deep into here, including the legacy of colonialism, wars (part of the legacy), famine and disease. These problems have prevented African nations from reaching their full potential and resulted in an underdeveloped telecom infrastructure (among other things, but that's for another discussion).
In the West, which has had relative stability for the last 60 years, the conditions were right to put ito place a vast and sophisticated telecom infrastructure.
We, as users, now can't conceive of picking up the phone and NOT hearing a dial tone. Think: when was the last time you DIDN'T get a dial tone?
We are also used to superior voice quality and in most cases we won't settle for less. That is one reason why we don't have widespread VoIP deployment in the West.
The traditional metric in telecom for the last few years is an 80/20 split. That means 80% of network traffic is data and 20% is voice traffic. Now invert that to get the revenue numbers. That means 80% of your revenues come from the 20% of voice traffic. That is the main reason why we don't have widespread VoIP deployment in the West.
The numbers are now probably closer to a 90/10 split, or at least moving towards that ratio. This is the reason that carriers are now moving (or planning to move) to an all-IP network. The catch is that you can't jeopardize that 80%+ revenue stream due to voice traffic. We won't see widespread VoIP in the West until the QoS is sufficiently high enough that we can't distinguish between a regular voice call and a VoIP call.
but as a professional business tool I don't think VoIP is there yet for rock solid stability and clear communciation
As a professional business tool, as it's discussed in the article, companies like Newmont (the second largest gold producer in the world) will most likely use dedicated or leased lines (and probably VPN for security) to get to the Internet backbone, at which point VoIP's QoS has a much higher likelihood of being stable and clear.
A company like Newmont will not allow critical corporate communications to be transmitted with a technology that can't perform to the high levels that it is accustomed to. Newmont can afford the best, so this seems to be an indication that whatever VoIP solution Newmont is using is more than capable of handling the task.
... plllez eddyt obveeus spalyng erurrz. Carbon :)
When I was a kid, I thought I knew everything and I connected to other people without wires. It's called a paper-cup-and-string telephone. I guess that makes me a little bit like God, too. An idiotic argument, but I hope you see my point.
Scroll back a little, because Tommy-boy is very sensationalist.
Since this Alan Cohen, a V.P. of Airespace fellow ascribes omniscience as a quality of Google, let's examine that.
I take your point about the "little bit" caveat. The only problem is that you can't be a "little bit" omniscient. You either are or you aren't.
Omniscience also implies sentience, which Google is not. At some point down the road some artificial intelligence resembling sentience may be added as a feature, but that still doesn't make the cut.
Omniscience is a Divine quality by definition (note the capital D, distinguishing it from a simple adjective). Google is a creation of mere mortals so it cannot be omniscient by that standard either.
Omniscience is an infinite knowledge, understanding, awareness and insight into all things in their totality. Google's domain is restricted only to the Internet, so it once again falls far short of the mark.
The last thing we need is more idiotic, pin-head technologists like Cohen and sensationalist disseminators of said idiotic nonsense like Tommy Friedman. They make anyone who works in the technology industry sound like a moron, which makes it that much more difficult when serious people without a big platform need to be heard.
... can the mosquitoes infect you with the West Nile Virus? ;)
PC Magazine takes a look inside the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Mythic Entertainment's Dark Age of Camelot. Camelot, it turns out, is in Fairfax, Virginia where Mythic keeps 120 dual-processor Pentium servers running Linux for its 225,000 players. Each group of six servers runs what Mythic calls a gamespace. An additional 30 servers handle customer support (character data, stats ,etc). Mythic claims that it can handle up to 20,000 simultaneous players per server but limits them to 4,000 per server for a better customer experience. The software is written so that most of the code runs on the servers, including artificial intelligence, combat calculations, and character data, resulting in a mere 10 Kbps data stream that lets dial-up modem customers join in the fun.
There's no reason why the ESRB couldn't have given Quake III: TA a similar -- or the same -- rating. The "animated" seems redundant since all games are animated. But with the increasing levels of detail and realism, the industry will have to do something to make it clearer what is and what isn't suitable for kids, and how graphic the visuals and levels of violence are, or else it will suffer a backlash. If the previews are an accurate reflection of the game, I have no idea what they're going to do when Doom III comes out.
Now that the new ESRB violence descriptors provide more detailed ratings (presumably to keep up with advancing graphics technology), this should help defang some of the critics who want to prevent mature-themed games from being made. It's still amazing that a parent won't let their kids see an R-rated or NC-17-rated movie but have no problem with buying them games that are intended for adults, and are clearly marked as such.
As for Lieberman and his supposed anti-violence stance, being the political opportunist (source) he is, he sees the writing on the wall. All Lieberman wants is big, fat campaign donations from the entertainment industry elite he disingenuously eschewed during the last election.
Now that domestic game revenues are comparable to -- or surpassing -- Hollywood, what better way to get the big games-industry dollars than by praising the very industry he railed against the last time around?
Valour writes "The Jem Report has just published an in-depth review....
Valour/Jem, I don't understand why you are hiding the fact that YOU ARE Valour, and YOU ARE the OWNER and writer of TheJemReport.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that valour@herotale.com is the same person as valour@thejemreport.com - it's on the front page of your site.
If it's karma-whoring, go ahead, because that's not uncommon on Slashdot, but why pretend that you aren't submitting your own review by writing the submission in the third person?
Now let's re-write that first line:
Valour [THAT'S ME!!!!!!] writes "The Jem Report [THAT'S MY SITE!!!!!!] has just published an in-depth review and installation guide for the new Iwill ZPC, a cool little Pentium4 ultra small formfactor PC. There have been similar designs in the past, but nothing with this kind of power."
:)
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005'
[Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] The Microsoft Jet database engine stopped the process because you and another user are attempting to change the same data at the same time.
/include/left.inc, line 139
Sorry. Didn't mean to change you at the same time. Maybe they should change the name from "Jet engine" to "Rubber-band engine" :)
Why does this remind me of an Oliver and Hardy film where they both try to go through the door at the same time and just get stuck.
"That's another fine mess you've gotten us into!"
I can buy an Xbox or PS2 already, and they provide better gaming experiences.
Really? That depends on what experience you're looking for. I play both PC and console games and I generally prefer PC games to consoles for the exact reason you cited: Better gaming experiences.
I like the available titles better. I like the graphics better. I even like the controls better. For example, playing an FPS with an Xbox or PS2 controller doesn't come close to the keyboard/mouse or keyboard/controller-of-choice combination on a PC.
What if I want to play a strategy game or a deep RPG? There are far more PC titles out there than consoles in both of those genres. Consoles are good for certain types of games, but PCs can offer the complete range. The fact is that most games aren't developed for consoles. That may change, but it's not the case right now.
I've played Halo. For a console game it's amazing. It understandably blew the minds of console-first gamers but I wasn't impressed. Halo was originally supposed to be a PC game with Internet online teamplay, then Microsoft bought Bungie. Now Xboxers have to wait for Halo 2 on Xbox Live to get the online experience, and PC gamers will get Halo as it was originally intended later this year, with all the online play they want and much better graphics (that's the plan anyway).
Why should I view my visuals on a TV that has fuzzy 320x240 resolution (or 640x480 for "high-definition") when I can view better visuals at a crisp 1024x768 or higher on my monitor?
Until recently, the only way you could have a reasonable online gaming experience at midnight was with a PC and the Internet (LAN doesn't do it unless you live in a dorm with dozens of other people, or head out to a LAN gaming center). I don't have to pay an extra subscription fee (Xbox Live) just so I can play online games. I just connect to servers or set up my own through my high-speed line which I needed for work anyway.
If I want to play some of EA's great sports titles, I can't get them on a console and I definitely can't play them online with a console - EA said no dice.
As for Windows not using 3D on the desktop, a 3D card makes for faster 2D renders, probably because the chip-makers put their latest technology (both 2D and 3D) into them. If you view or edit video or images, if you use spreadsheets or a word processor, if you browse the Web (there are of heavy sites out there), having a better graphics card will make a discernable difference.
So you really have to be careful and clear about what you mean when you say that consoles offer "better gaming experiences." Different? Yes. Better? Not necessarily.
If the site originally hosted tech manuals for the games and not the actual game ROMs themselves, it doesn't appear that the site would have to be taken down. The letter appears to refer only to the software, not information about the software.
Then again, this could be the operative phrase:
any such game titles, copies, listings and/or other depictions of, or references to, any contents of such game product, are hereinafter referred to as "Infringing Material"
If the IDSA was smart they would sponsor the site instead of trying to shut it down. There are a couple of concepts known as good faith and goodwill. It would behoove them to start practising both.