I'm just curious if anyone else felt the way I do about Farscape being yet another example of a Sci-Fi show with great potential, falling miserably short of being anything more than mindless derivative 'Sci-Fi for the mainstream' garbage.
It did get a lot more interesting towards the end, but never seemed to escape the dulling of intelligence that networks seem obligated to do in order to make shows more popular.
I think the number of people who own Modded consoles are very much in the minority. A small enough group that blaming a dip in sales for the PS2 and the XBox is simply rediculous.
The truth is, that neither the PS2 or the XBox has had a "Killer App" for the past several months. The way to tell, is when next Final Fantasy comes out, or when Fable or Halo 2 comes out for the XBox.
The GameCube's been selling quite nicely and so have the games. Of course, they've spread out their strong titles unlike Sony or Microsoft, but that had more to do with development schedules than planning.
This is the same thing the RIAA did, and is obviously written by someone who while has a pretty good understanding of computers is at an absolute loss with video games. This is not how the industry works, and the number of people with Mods (Both because of cost [$300-400 for a Pre-Modded console], and complex installations [15-25 solders]) are still a small enough minority that the lack of sales because of a lack of killer software and a fiercely competitive price market simply doesn't stand up to logic.
But we will see when the next batch of big titles come out for the console. But at this point, we can't start pointing fingers.
Great, the XBox now has a more competitive price-point. This thrust Nintendo into what was an increasing second-place lead over the XBox.
It's good to see Microsoft is still working to keep this generation and not abandoning it for the next round like Microsoft's CFO John Conner's seemed to be implying.
Now, Microsoft needs to work on what was more important all along and getting the quality of games higher. Microsoft has a lot of games, but still suffers from gaping genre holes and mediocrity.
One thing I don't understand is the level of media coverage that Sony/Microsoft get in comparison to Nintendo.
Let's not forget that Nintendo is still very much in this race and last time I checked, Nintendo was far ahead (and gaining) compared to Microsoft in World-wide Marketshare.
Yet the general media, still acts is if Nintendo is a non-player.
I have to wonder how much of Apple's continued pressure had to do with the fact that Starbright was copying Apple's interface design AND making a profit off it at $15 dollars a pop.
Apple after all expends a great deal of money and effort researching design and interfaces for their products. Should other companies be permitted to proft from them? I don't think so.
Should other companies be able to use another companies' intellectual property in ways that:
A. Aren't profitting directly from the creator's hard work.
B. Aren't competing with original companies own products.
I think then things become less clear cut, at least for me.
You don't know many people then. There are just as many if not more PC Zealots.
And while, the PC Zealot "group" can be divided into several camps: Windows R0xx0rz j00, Anti-Mac (These are the most prevelent), Pro-Performance. There is nonetheless just the same kind of fanaticism on both sides. The two sides, driven by whatever motivation serves to feed the other's passion. One would not exist without the other.
So either, you live a sheltered social existence in regards to other geeks or your turning a blind eye.
Chalk one up for Journalistic Integrity, Sheesh.
You don't have to be Anti or Pro anything to see the favoritism in that article. Sickeningly amatuerish. At least news outlets like CNN are better at being subtle with their agenda.
Well, it's perfectly obvious that Redmond is not experiencing the security problems that the rest of the world is because they were isolated from the changes in the timeline. In layman's terms they'd be in a 'paralell universe' mostly like caused by temporal wake. Obviously, the article got to us because of the excess Tachyon emissions. Don't read the article, fellow Slashdotters it could create Casuality paradoxes which would destroy the innocent Redmond from which this message came!
What they didn't tell you is the decline in successful intrusions can be attributed to the fact that most of the servers were down because of the latest virii attacks.
This system doesn't break into your home rifling through your belongings. It doesn't track your computer usage online by installing back doors.
It collects information, that as far as I am concerned until I hear otherwise is perfectly and completely legitimate for them to have.
Disagreeing with one of the above posts passionately speaking about these "tax cheater" who can't afford to live and therefor cheat on their taxes, is the biggest bald-faced lie I've ever heard. Most people who cheat on their taxes have more money, and a better education on how to get away with it. That's why it's considered a "white-collar" crime because it's mostly committed by the wealthy.
To prevent the poor from being smacked around by taxes it's why Massachusetts and the Federal Government taxes scale based on income.
I find myself wondering why this is being taken so seriously.
Looking at the URL and the article itself makes it more than obvious this is an Opinion Article. Nothing more than a commentary from a writer who has shown his own lack of understanding on how the vide game market works.
His only evidence for this immense price-drop comes from an analyst. Last time I checked analysts are not Gods and seem to be more often wrong then right.
But of course, anyone who is in the business of predicting an unpredictable future could you expect anything less?
This goes back to the old adage, just 'cause it's posted online don't make it anymore true. Of course, I don't know any better it could happen. But this is hardly much to go on.
This is not the first time MORE has been put on a DVD. Warner Brother's released a series of DVDs called "Short."
The one that has more is the 7th in the series called Short: Utopia. It's somewhat of a rarity, but all the DVDs in the collection are fantastic and have some truly amazing short movies and animations.
Amazon.com has a few used copies for sale still: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 03JRCL/002-9775621-7736809?v=glance
I think your example doesn't work. I would hope in a bank they would have a single land-line phone.
Also, if you were robbing a bank most people wouldn't bother pulling out their cell phone and punching in numbers because that would put them at risk. Besides, there are still plenty of issues with 911 and Cell Phones, so much so that most Emergency Response folks recommend finding if possible a land-line to report an emergency from.
Cell Phone blocking have more legitimate uses than non-legitimate ones. If they weren't so damn expensive I'd buy one and leave it on all the time as I walked about Boston. I'd feel no guilt robbing rude, loud, obnoxious self-important people of their stimulation for a short while.
I am too busy looking at the immense logic-defying hype surrounding the PSP. Sometimes I think they are selling the hype rather than an actual product.
I really wonder about it. It's too early to pass judgement either way when all we have is the PR machine churning out ambiguity and propaganda.
The fact that these machines are designed so carelessly and without regard for security is a danger, not to Liberals because of a vast right-wing conspiracy but to us all.
These machines were designed by people with little regard for Democracy. The Diebold Memos more than show that. What endangers the sanctity of Democracy hurts us all.
I think your analogy only partially works and with a little research you would have found that currently, with Nintendo extending it's price-drop almost world-wide it has furthered it's second place world-wide marketshare lead.
If U.S sales continue as they are into the Holiday (which is anyone's guess) they will have quite a lead over the XBox in this country.
So, Apple is about 3% of sold computers, the percentage is a bit higher when you consider the number of non-profits and other organizations who continue to use the older models but aren't buying new ones. This is a far cry from Nintendo, who has the biggest selling video-game system in the world (The GBA), and the second-best selling console in the world (The GameCube). And while the latter is trailing the PS2 by a sizeably chunk it is anywhere from being a "niche" player. Such statements can be chalked up to ignorance and lack of research, because a few Google Searches and statistics would tell you otherwise.
I think you giving the GameCube very little credit. By nearly stating that the GameCube is aimed primarily at kids you expose your lack of experience with the system and it's games yourself. As you say "Don't knoc ut 'til you've tried it." The GameCube's attraction is that it's middle of the road technology wise, is competitive price-wise, has strong franchises, and while having a small market of games prides itself on having some very strong titles. I know far more adults who play Mario games than I know kids. So just because it doesn't have tits doesn't mean it's not meant for kids, since on the other hand I know plenty of kids who play GTA.
The fundemental flaw with the XBox still is games. Especially for the non-sports crowd it is simply lacking in good titles. XBox live was quite enjoyable until I got sick of the idiots on it, which was the same thing that drove me from the majority of multiplayer on PC's too.
XBox sales have not grown, but undoubtedly will with some of the slated 2004 releases that XBox has. PS2 sales have dropped more than 17% and XBox sales have dropped 3%. Due to Nintendo's extremely competitive price-point their US marketshare has more than doubled to 37%.
Sony's the only loser in the recent market shuffles, but all things considered they are the biggest winner at the same time.
This place Nintendo AHEAD of the XBox for marketshare in North America. This also widens the worldwide Marketshare Gap that Nintendo was closely holding by only about 150,000 units.
The XBox is or isn't a failure depending on what measure you choose to look at it from. From Microsoft's perspective it's an abysmal failure. From Gamers it's a mixed bag. Personally, It's my least favorite of all three consoles and the console I play the least. But then again, I am getting into subjective measurement.
With all three companies beginning work on the next set of consoles it may not even matter who gets the over-hyped second place award anyways.
Sources:
http://www.xbox365.com/news/zcomment.cgi/article/E pyZAyVplycFfWoeMu
http://www.mcvuk.com/html/news/story.jsp?newsId=72 3521
It doesn't use the common MP3 format. Instead it uses the more proprietary and stiflying WMA format.
Which, in my experience has proven inferior to every other format available. (MP3, MP3Pro, Ogg, AAC, etc)
Though, to it's credit it does have a wider range of device support than Apple's AAC, but it was a mistake to not go with MP3 which would have provided even greater support and better quality.
This is sad to hear, being someone who has traveled to China several times in the past ten years it has been my experience that China has been very slowly opening up and becoming freer country.
This saddens me deeply considering the progress that has been slowly made since Tienanmen Square.
The internet still proves to be something that the Government is very sensitive about. Luckily there are many American Corporations who seem more than happy to help continue the cycle of information opression.
Slashdot Mirror
Hmmm, does this mean we can have "Wet" T-shirt contests without offending feminists?
I'm just curious if anyone else felt the way I do about Farscape being yet another example of a Sci-Fi show with great potential, falling miserably short of being anything more than mindless derivative 'Sci-Fi for the mainstream' garbage.
It did get a lot more interesting towards the end, but never seemed to escape the dulling of intelligence that networks seem obligated to do in order to make shows more popular.
I think the number of people who own Modded consoles are very much in the minority. A small enough group that blaming a dip in sales for the PS2 and the XBox is simply rediculous. The truth is, that neither the PS2 or the XBox has had a "Killer App" for the past several months. The way to tell, is when next Final Fantasy comes out, or when Fable or Halo 2 comes out for the XBox. The GameCube's been selling quite nicely and so have the games. Of course, they've spread out their strong titles unlike Sony or Microsoft, but that had more to do with development schedules than planning. This is the same thing the RIAA did, and is obviously written by someone who while has a pretty good understanding of computers is at an absolute loss with video games. This is not how the industry works, and the number of people with Mods (Both because of cost [$300-400 for a Pre-Modded console], and complex installations [15-25 solders]) are still a small enough minority that the lack of sales because of a lack of killer software and a fiercely competitive price market simply doesn't stand up to logic. But we will see when the next batch of big titles come out for the console. But at this point, we can't start pointing fingers.
Great, the XBox now has a more competitive price-point. This thrust Nintendo into what was an increasing second-place lead over the XBox.
It's good to see Microsoft is still working to keep this generation and not abandoning it for the next round like Microsoft's CFO John Conner's seemed to be implying.
Now, Microsoft needs to work on what was more important all along and getting the quality of games higher. Microsoft has a lot of games, but still suffers from gaping genre holes and mediocrity.
One thing I don't understand is the level of media coverage that Sony/Microsoft get in comparison to Nintendo. Let's not forget that Nintendo is still very much in this race and last time I checked, Nintendo was far ahead (and gaining) compared to Microsoft in World-wide Marketshare. Yet the general media, still acts is if Nintendo is a non-player.
I have to wonder how much of Apple's continued pressure had to do with the fact that Starbright was copying Apple's interface design AND making a profit off it at $15 dollars a pop.
Apple after all expends a great deal of money and effort researching design and interfaces for their products. Should other companies be permitted to proft from them? I don't think so.
Should other companies be able to use another companies' intellectual property in ways that:
A. Aren't profitting directly from the creator's hard work.
B. Aren't competing with original companies own products.
I think then things become less clear cut, at least for me.
Your second mistake was trusting anything in the New York Post. Your first mistake was reading that schlock in the first place.
You don't know many people then. There are just as many if not more PC Zealots. And while, the PC Zealot "group" can be divided into several camps: Windows R0xx0rz j00, Anti-Mac (These are the most prevelent), Pro-Performance. There is nonetheless just the same kind of fanaticism on both sides. The two sides, driven by whatever motivation serves to feed the other's passion. One would not exist without the other. So either, you live a sheltered social existence in regards to other geeks or your turning a blind eye.
That's great Verizon how about making my DSL suck less and quite being an infrastructure pirate and let some other service provider into my area.
Chalk one up for Journalistic Integrity, Sheesh. You don't have to be Anti or Pro anything to see the favoritism in that article. Sickeningly amatuerish. At least news outlets like CNN are better at being subtle with their agenda.
Well, it's perfectly obvious that Redmond is not experiencing the security problems that the rest of the world is because they were isolated from the changes in the timeline. In layman's terms they'd be in a 'paralell universe' mostly like caused by temporal wake. Obviously, the article got to us because of the excess Tachyon emissions. Don't read the article, fellow Slashdotters it could create Casuality paradoxes which would destroy the innocent Redmond from which this message came!
What they didn't tell you is the decline in successful intrusions can be attributed to the fact that most of the servers were down because of the latest virii attacks.
This system doesn't break into your home rifling through your belongings. It doesn't track your computer usage online by installing back doors. It collects information, that as far as I am concerned until I hear otherwise is perfectly and completely legitimate for them to have. Disagreeing with one of the above posts passionately speaking about these "tax cheater" who can't afford to live and therefor cheat on their taxes, is the biggest bald-faced lie I've ever heard. Most people who cheat on their taxes have more money, and a better education on how to get away with it. That's why it's considered a "white-collar" crime because it's mostly committed by the wealthy. To prevent the poor from being smacked around by taxes it's why Massachusetts and the Federal Government taxes scale based on income.
I find myself wondering why this is being taken so seriously. Looking at the URL and the article itself makes it more than obvious this is an Opinion Article. Nothing more than a commentary from a writer who has shown his own lack of understanding on how the vide game market works. His only evidence for this immense price-drop comes from an analyst. Last time I checked analysts are not Gods and seem to be more often wrong then right. But of course, anyone who is in the business of predicting an unpredictable future could you expect anything less? This goes back to the old adage, just 'cause it's posted online don't make it anymore true. Of course, I don't know any better it could happen. But this is hardly much to go on.
At least this time he's got over 60 years of Sci-Fi books, movies, and comics to back him up this time.
This is not the first time MORE has been put on a DVD. Warner Brother's released a series of DVDs called "Short." The one that has more is the 7th in the series called Short: Utopia. It's somewhat of a rarity, but all the DVDs in the collection are fantastic and have some truly amazing short movies and animations. Amazon.com has a few used copies for sale still: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 03JRCL/002-9775621-7736809?v=glance
I think your example doesn't work. I would hope in a bank they would have a single land-line phone. Also, if you were robbing a bank most people wouldn't bother pulling out their cell phone and punching in numbers because that would put them at risk. Besides, there are still plenty of issues with 911 and Cell Phones, so much so that most Emergency Response folks recommend finding if possible a land-line to report an emergency from. Cell Phone blocking have more legitimate uses than non-legitimate ones. If they weren't so damn expensive I'd buy one and leave it on all the time as I walked about Boston. I'd feel no guilt robbing rude, loud, obnoxious self-important people of their stimulation for a short while.
I am too busy looking at the immense logic-defying hype surrounding the PSP. Sometimes I think they are selling the hype rather than an actual product. I really wonder about it. It's too early to pass judgement either way when all we have is the PR machine churning out ambiguity and propaganda.
The fact that these machines are designed so carelessly and without regard for security is a danger, not to Liberals because of a vast right-wing conspiracy but to us all. These machines were designed by people with little regard for Democracy. The Diebold Memos more than show that. What endangers the sanctity of Democracy hurts us all.
I think your analogy only partially works and with a little research you would have found that currently, with Nintendo extending it's price-drop almost world-wide it has furthered it's second place world-wide marketshare lead. If U.S sales continue as they are into the Holiday (which is anyone's guess) they will have quite a lead over the XBox in this country. So, Apple is about 3% of sold computers, the percentage is a bit higher when you consider the number of non-profits and other organizations who continue to use the older models but aren't buying new ones. This is a far cry from Nintendo, who has the biggest selling video-game system in the world (The GBA), and the second-best selling console in the world (The GameCube). And while the latter is trailing the PS2 by a sizeably chunk it is anywhere from being a "niche" player. Such statements can be chalked up to ignorance and lack of research, because a few Google Searches and statistics would tell you otherwise.
Well, at least they aren't putting Tom Bombadil back in his place.
I think you giving the GameCube very little credit. By nearly stating that the GameCube is aimed primarily at kids you expose your lack of experience with the system and it's games yourself. As you say "Don't knoc ut 'til you've tried it." The GameCube's attraction is that it's middle of the road technology wise, is competitive price-wise, has strong franchises, and while having a small market of games prides itself on having some very strong titles. I know far more adults who play Mario games than I know kids. So just because it doesn't have tits doesn't mean it's not meant for kids, since on the other hand I know plenty of kids who play GTA. The fundemental flaw with the XBox still is games. Especially for the non-sports crowd it is simply lacking in good titles. XBox live was quite enjoyable until I got sick of the idiots on it, which was the same thing that drove me from the majority of multiplayer on PC's too.
XBox sales have not grown, but undoubtedly will with some of the slated 2004 releases that XBox has. PS2 sales have dropped more than 17% and XBox sales have dropped 3%. Due to Nintendo's extremely competitive price-point their US marketshare has more than doubled to 37%. Sony's the only loser in the recent market shuffles, but all things considered they are the biggest winner at the same time. This place Nintendo AHEAD of the XBox for marketshare in North America. This also widens the worldwide Marketshare Gap that Nintendo was closely holding by only about 150,000 units. The XBox is or isn't a failure depending on what measure you choose to look at it from. From Microsoft's perspective it's an abysmal failure. From Gamers it's a mixed bag. Personally, It's my least favorite of all three consoles and the console I play the least. But then again, I am getting into subjective measurement. With all three companies beginning work on the next set of consoles it may not even matter who gets the over-hyped second place award anyways. Sources: http://www.xbox365.com/news/zcomment.cgi/article/E pyZAyVplycFfWoeMu
http://www.mcvuk.com/html/news/story.jsp?newsId=72 3521
It doesn't use the common MP3 format. Instead it uses the more proprietary and stiflying WMA format. Which, in my experience has proven inferior to every other format available. (MP3, MP3Pro, Ogg, AAC, etc) Though, to it's credit it does have a wider range of device support than Apple's AAC, but it was a mistake to not go with MP3 which would have provided even greater support and better quality.
This is sad to hear, being someone who has traveled to China several times in the past ten years it has been my experience that China has been very slowly opening up and becoming freer country. This saddens me deeply considering the progress that has been slowly made since Tienanmen Square. The internet still proves to be something that the Government is very sensitive about. Luckily there are many American Corporations who seem more than happy to help continue the cycle of information opression.