game publishers? I won't spend $60 on a game. I won't spend $40 on a game. You'd be hard pressed to get me to spend $25 to play a game that has a storyline, because it's wasted money after the story is complete. I'll buy used games for far cheaper (if at all) if I'm looking to kill some time. I'm about as casual a gamer as you'll ever find, but the ever rising price of consoles and games means you've lost me as a customer. I bought a PS2 and an Xbox, both of which are gathering dust. I may break them out once a month (or far less frequently in the summer) but don't count on it. I've considered buying a Wii because it's almost affordable, but there's not a whole ton of games for it.
Consider this, I would LOVE to be able to buy a console that had games priced between $15 to $20. I don't really give a squat about the graphics, I want to be entertained. You'll have a customer for life if you make that happen, as I'll be able to justify buying a game or two a week. I realize you'd be hard pressed to put out that many quality titles, so chapterize them. Break the content up over a few games and I'll buy 'em one piece at a time, but don't make them updates, each would have to be a standalone title I'd be able to pick up and play for a few hours. At those prices you'd be competing with movies, and have my attention for at least twice as long.
an abacus. They're great for math, unless you've developed something against the ancient Babylonians while living under your rock. The fact is that you're looking at Chinese mad goods no matter what you buy, you said it yourself. You're either going to buy an OLPC when they're available (at only slightly less power than you've already got) or buying Chinese. Don't like it? Who do you think made that T20 for IBM before?
that three reasonably well educated grown adults sat around a table and come to the conclusion that a single button wasn't obvious?
Did they fall over with shock when this was presented before them? Had they gotten so used to the idea of multiple clicks that it was old hat to them? This is a load of crap, and I'd like to know exactly who the hell was in that meeting that can explain to me in simple terms how a single click isn't obvious, and why this obviously looks like a scam.
are they really going to be using this to look for terrorists? No, because terrorists don't act suspiciously. If they did, they probably would have been noticed before they stole four jets and crashed them. Ever spent time in a major city? Walk around, one of of every two people will look suspicious. Will this system be used against homeless people? They're some of the sketchiest people walking around, but I wouldn't call them a threat to national security. Same thing with skateboarding teenagers. How about a couple dressed in black walking together at night. That must be grounds for a DHS response team, no?
What this will eventually be used for is a major encroachment on civil liberties, which will be whitewashed in the name of security.
How long before we see Youtube clips of videos taken from this system of people having sex in cars, or if the cameras can pan and tilt, of people in their homes?
when you pry it out of my cold, dead hands. The day wireless can beat wired not just in theory but also in practice is the day I see how much copper I can get out of the building.
Functionality you don't use is still equity in the device. In two years time a laptop will hold more of its initial value than a phone or phone accessory. Or, put it simply, two years later, there's always plenty of people looking for a decent deal on a used laptop, how many people are looking for an internet enabled phone acessory?
it were 6 or 7 years ago. I'm sort of surprised nobody's been able to get anything out of them after all this time, maybe some type of suit will happen someday. It's the American way isn't it?
Agreed. I believe this is actually name number 3 for this project. I've been a fan of the idea since it was announced (if I recall, in 2004 if I recall correctly) having downloaded almost every initial beta. Unfortunately whatever name it's been under I've never been impressed by the execution. Considering it uses torrents for content delivery it severely chokes bandwidth locally.
Another gripe I've had with it is that downloaded content can be wrapped in order to let it expire from your machine. I'm sure it's viewed as a necessity, but it's an annoyance. I haven't used a recent version, but there was never much content I was interested in, and it had extremely slow delivery. Seriously, who wants to wait 19 hours for a music video? This on a 7mb connection.
Slow delivery via bloatware and drm? Keep it. A rose by any other name would still stink.
when I stop at the gas station/convenience store, I'll be able to buy a burrito that's 1/2 frozen coming out of the microwave, and fuel 1/2 frozen coming out of the microwave. How far we've come!
that Apple selling billions of dollars worth of ipods and accessories is all hype?
I'm sure there have been many decent players that have come to market, but no ipod killer. Why? Because the ipod does what it does very well, it's affordable, and there's a flood of accessories that go with it. I can go into damn near any record, computer, electronics, or fashion store in any mall or town and find at least an ipod skin or cover of some kind, odds that they'll have a gigabeat f40 or zune accessory?
I'd say the hype is all in articles talking about decent players being given away at pennies on the dollar, when you've got a similar player that can't be given away, hype is your best friend.
Agreed. Just another smoke and mirrors show that misses the point entirely. If Nintendo had come out with the controller set for the gamecube would the same critics be complaining about it being an outdated platform? I imagine so.
Yeah, I haven't seen the movie yet, and really hadn't planned on it, and it was due largely to the Blade Runner reference. Any time a movie is yardsticked to a better movie, it's a safe bet you'll be MUCH better off renting the better movie in the first place. Blade Runner of our times? Why not just rent Blade Runner? I remember Boiler Room (some Wall Street movie) had compared itself to Wall Street. The Wall Street of the 90's. I don't think so, rent the original, clones are usually just a money grab.
the MIT flea market? I don't know if you're in the northeast, but it's a geek flea market held the third sunday of every month between april and october. I've seen some really strange and archaic hardware there. Google Flea at MIT and it'll give you all the info you need. If you're not in the area, perhaps you can find someone who is, to shop for you, or find a similar thing in your own area. Keep in mind this is a flea market, NOT a computer show. I believe the strangest thing I saw was a 4k 3 foot long memory board from a 1977 Cray, new in box.
What kind of virus rule updates would you not want to download? Is there a particular virus you don't mind getting? Installing an antivirus scanner means you're trusting people with more experience than you to do what they promise and remove malware. It seems that people with your line of thinking can get a job at CNN... just saying
how to solder. Basic electronics is also a must. This all ties in together, because kids need to learn basic electronics, and nothing says fun like 20 kids with 40 watt irons.
Cringley's an idiot, and we're all dumber for having been exposed to this. Sinister? Creating a bandwidth shortage? How about anyone can see bandwidth usage is going up, and will likely do so further into the future. I don't really see how this can be considered anything other than gambling on a developing market. Sinister implies something evil. That can't be right, Google's credo is Do No Evil after all.
To sum it up: Cringley=bad, Google=business.
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game publishers? I won't spend $60 on a game. I won't spend $40 on a game. You'd be hard pressed to get me to spend $25 to play a game that has a storyline, because it's wasted money after the story is complete. I'll buy used games for far cheaper (if at all) if I'm looking to kill some time. I'm about as casual a gamer as you'll ever find, but the ever rising price of consoles and games means you've lost me as a customer. I bought a PS2 and an Xbox, both of which are gathering dust. I may break them out once a month (or far less frequently in the summer) but don't count on it. I've considered buying a Wii because it's almost affordable, but there's not a whole ton of games for it. Consider this, I would LOVE to be able to buy a console that had games priced between $15 to $20. I don't really give a squat about the graphics, I want to be entertained. You'll have a customer for life if you make that happen, as I'll be able to justify buying a game or two a week. I realize you'd be hard pressed to put out that many quality titles, so chapterize them. Break the content up over a few games and I'll buy 'em one piece at a time, but don't make them updates, each would have to be a standalone title I'd be able to pick up and play for a few hours. At those prices you'd be competing with movies, and have my attention for at least twice as long.
an abacus. They're great for math, unless you've developed something against the ancient Babylonians while living under your rock. The fact is that you're looking at Chinese mad goods no matter what you buy, you said it yourself. You're either going to buy an OLPC when they're available (at only slightly less power than you've already got) or buying Chinese. Don't like it? Who do you think made that T20 for IBM before?
that three reasonably well educated grown adults sat around a table and come to the conclusion that a single button wasn't obvious? Did they fall over with shock when this was presented before them? Had they gotten so used to the idea of multiple clicks that it was old hat to them? This is a load of crap, and I'd like to know exactly who the hell was in that meeting that can explain to me in simple terms how a single click isn't obvious, and why this obviously looks like a scam.
are they really going to be using this to look for terrorists? No, because terrorists don't act suspiciously. If they did, they probably would have been noticed before they stole four jets and crashed them. Ever spent time in a major city? Walk around, one of of every two people will look suspicious. Will this system be used against homeless people? They're some of the sketchiest people walking around, but I wouldn't call them a threat to national security. Same thing with skateboarding teenagers. How about a couple dressed in black walking together at night. That must be grounds for a DHS response team, no? What this will eventually be used for is a major encroachment on civil liberties, which will be whitewashed in the name of security. How long before we see Youtube clips of videos taken from this system of people having sex in cars, or if the cameras can pan and tilt, of people in their homes?
when you pry it out of my cold, dead hands. The day wireless can beat wired not just in theory but also in practice is the day I see how much copper I can get out of the building.
Functionality you don't use is still equity in the device. In two years time a laptop will hold more of its initial value than a phone or phone accessory. Or, put it simply, two years later, there's always plenty of people looking for a decent deal on a used laptop, how many people are looking for an internet enabled phone acessory?
it were 6 or 7 years ago. I'm sort of surprised nobody's been able to get anything out of them after all this time, maybe some type of suit will happen someday. It's the American way isn't it?
is that in the middle of all of infinite space, they've now found space without anything in it? Let me know when they build something exciting there.
Agreed. I believe this is actually name number 3 for this project. I've been a fan of the idea since it was announced (if I recall, in 2004 if I recall correctly) having downloaded almost every initial beta. Unfortunately whatever name it's been under I've never been impressed by the execution. Considering it uses torrents for content delivery it severely chokes bandwidth locally. Another gripe I've had with it is that downloaded content can be wrapped in order to let it expire from your machine. I'm sure it's viewed as a necessity, but it's an annoyance. I haven't used a recent version, but there was never much content I was interested in, and it had extremely slow delivery. Seriously, who wants to wait 19 hours for a music video? This on a 7mb connection. Slow delivery via bloatware and drm? Keep it. A rose by any other name would still stink.
when I stop at the gas station/convenience store, I'll be able to buy a burrito that's 1/2 frozen coming out of the microwave, and fuel 1/2 frozen coming out of the microwave. How far we've come!
Big chief no signal. You don't want coverage? No problem! Odds they sue to get coverage if they get cut off?
that Apple selling billions of dollars worth of ipods and accessories is all hype? I'm sure there have been many decent players that have come to market, but no ipod killer. Why? Because the ipod does what it does very well, it's affordable, and there's a flood of accessories that go with it. I can go into damn near any record, computer, electronics, or fashion store in any mall or town and find at least an ipod skin or cover of some kind, odds that they'll have a gigabeat f40 or zune accessory? I'd say the hype is all in articles talking about decent players being given away at pennies on the dollar, when you've got a similar player that can't be given away, hype is your best friend.
Agreed. Just another smoke and mirrors show that misses the point entirely. If Nintendo had come out with the controller set for the gamecube would the same critics be complaining about it being an outdated platform? I imagine so.
Yeah, I haven't seen the movie yet, and really hadn't planned on it, and it was due largely to the Blade Runner reference. Any time a movie is yardsticked to a better movie, it's a safe bet you'll be MUCH better off renting the better movie in the first place. Blade Runner of our times? Why not just rent Blade Runner? I remember Boiler Room (some Wall Street movie) had compared itself to Wall Street. The Wall Street of the 90's. I don't think so, rent the original, clones are usually just a money grab.
Hire someone else to code in assembly.
the MIT flea market? I don't know if you're in the northeast, but it's a geek flea market held the third sunday of every month between april and october. I've seen some really strange and archaic hardware there. Google Flea at MIT and it'll give you all the info you need. If you're not in the area, perhaps you can find someone who is, to shop for you, or find a similar thing in your own area. Keep in mind this is a flea market, NOT a computer show. I believe the strangest thing I saw was a 4k 3 foot long memory board from a 1977 Cray, new in box.
What kind of virus rule updates would you not want to download? Is there a particular virus you don't mind getting? Installing an antivirus scanner means you're trusting people with more experience than you to do what they promise and remove malware. It seems that people with your line of thinking can get a job at CNN... just saying
big domains hosted there that this will cause to expire? I could use a couple hundred-thou extra spending money.
how to solder. Basic electronics is also a must. This all ties in together, because kids need to learn basic electronics, and nothing says fun like 20 kids with 40 watt irons.
That's nothing, a single mp3 put my whole family in the poorhouse.
You worked for Dodge? Which one of the catastrocars did you work on?
holding your breath underwater for 5 minutes cures stupidity. I take full responsibility for all results of home trials.
the support center phone numbers all start in 976, and they charge $14.99 per minute.
Cringley's an idiot, and we're all dumber for having been exposed to this. Sinister? Creating a bandwidth shortage? How about anyone can see bandwidth usage is going up, and will likely do so further into the future. I don't really see how this can be considered anything other than gambling on a developing market. Sinister implies something evil. That can't be right, Google's credo is Do No Evil after all. To sum it up: Cringley=bad, Google=business.
Because linux users have no sense of humor.