Indeed, I think part of the studios' strategy is to kill off physical media. Didn't Gates recently say that this will be the last ever format war before everything is distributed electronically?
The thing that's wrong with those displays at Walmart is that they let some kid set them up. LCD TVs need a certain amount of finesse to configure and get looking right. Combined with the options built into the xbox 360, it's amazing any of them got set up correctly and unsurprising that so many have been disastrous.
But I'm not sure what series of PR disasters you're referring to. As far as I can tell, everything is going swimmingly for Microsoft and the Xbox 360. Ok, so they didn't put the best games on those demo units. Ok, so there aren't enough 360s to satisfy global demand.
If you want to talk PR disasters, let's look at the PS3. There was a lot of noise lately that the PS3 isn't coming out until 2007. And those buggers don't have ANYTHING to dispute it with. I bet that's the EMEA release. Japan will get a few in early Summer, the States for Xmas 2006. All we've seen since E3 is a few tech demos and a picture of a console (with no holes for ventilation). When Microsoft was four months from launch, it was showing previews all over the place. Developers were showing screen shots so amazing that people believed they were photographs. So, unless Sony is intending to go nuts with the marketing sometime over the next two weeks, it really seems to be against the ropes. I mean, why on earth are they so quiet so close to the 360 launch? This is the time to shut that toy down, even if it's going to be 2007 before the PS3 makes it out the door, Sony has to plant that seed. It worked for the Dreamcast, after all.
I might be forced to eat those words if Sony pulls its finger out. And I hope so because I'm DYING to see what this PS3 is really capable of. And not just smoke-and-mirrors demo that echos the PS2 launch. I want real games and real screenshots. And a real controller.
Sun could have the best friends in the whole world and they wouldn't get software licenses for free.
Maya, Renderman, and Shake licenses (very often used on grids) cost more than the machine they are run on. If a potential Sun Grid user has to negotiate and buy licenses for each of the CPUs they are renting from Sun, this will be a big flop.
And that's one of the biggest issues for grid deployment: the predominent licensing structure - aka software company revenues - isn't prepared for distributed computing.
So until someone breaks ranks and offers a sane model for licensing, only the most influential customers will be able to wring temporary licensing deals.
It is certainly in Sun's interest to facilitate this effort.
Doesn't a giant spy balloon defeat the purpose? I mean, you'd always know where it is!
World governments (including China) count on the fact that the population does not know if they are being watched at any given moment. This is a (not so) subtle method of control that forces social behavior.
Quite simply, governments can no longer put a gun to your head to direct your actions. They want you to do it for them. And what better way to create a paranoid society than to (supposedly) launch 100 observation satellites?
Michael Moore is willing to sacrifice an Oscar to get his movie shown on television. From www.michaelmoore.com:
The only problem with my desire to get this movie in front of as many Americans as possible is that, should it air on TV, I will NOT be eligible to submit "Fahrenheit 9/11" for Academy Award consideration for Best Documentary. Academy rules forbid the airing of a documentary on television within nine months of its theatrical release (fiction films do not have the same restriction).
Although I have no assurance from our home video distributor that they would allow a one-time television broadcast -- and the chances are they probably won't -- I have decided it is more important to take that risk and hope against hope that I can persuade someone to put it on TV, even if it's the night before the election.
The only problem is that you have to agree to stick with DirecTV for another 12 months when you activate a new receiver.
Not really a problem, but still something to keep in mind.
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Indeed, I think part of the studios' strategy is to kill off physical media. Didn't Gates recently say that this will be the last ever format war before everything is distributed electronically?
Luddite! That's what people said about the original walkman.
The thing that's wrong with those displays at Walmart is that they let some kid set them up. LCD TVs need a certain amount of finesse to configure and get looking right. Combined with the options built into the xbox 360, it's amazing any of them got set up correctly and unsurprising that so many have been disastrous.
But I'm not sure what series of PR disasters you're referring to. As far as I can tell, everything is going swimmingly for Microsoft and the Xbox 360. Ok, so they didn't put the best games on those demo units. Ok, so there aren't enough 360s to satisfy global demand.
If you want to talk PR disasters, let's look at the PS3. There was a lot of noise lately that the PS3 isn't coming out until 2007. And those buggers don't have ANYTHING to dispute it with. I bet that's the EMEA release. Japan will get a few in early Summer, the States for Xmas 2006. All we've seen since E3 is a few tech demos and a picture of a console (with no holes for ventilation). When Microsoft was four months from launch, it was showing previews all over the place. Developers were showing screen shots so amazing that people believed they were photographs. So, unless Sony is intending to go nuts with the marketing sometime over the next two weeks, it really seems to be against the ropes. I mean, why on earth are they so quiet so close to the 360 launch? This is the time to shut that toy down, even if it's going to be 2007 before the PS3 makes it out the door, Sony has to plant that seed. It worked for the Dreamcast, after all.
I might be forced to eat those words if Sony pulls its finger out. And I hope so because I'm DYING to see what this PS3 is really capable of. And not just smoke-and-mirrors demo that echos the PS2 launch. I want real games and real screenshots. And a real controller.
Sun could have the best friends in the whole world and they wouldn't get software licenses for free. Maya, Renderman, and Shake licenses (very often used on grids) cost more than the machine they are run on. If a potential Sun Grid user has to negotiate and buy licenses for each of the CPUs they are renting from Sun, this will be a big flop. And that's one of the biggest issues for grid deployment: the predominent licensing structure - aka software company revenues - isn't prepared for distributed computing. So until someone breaks ranks and offers a sane model for licensing, only the most influential customers will be able to wring temporary licensing deals. It is certainly in Sun's interest to facilitate this effort.
Sun wants us to run an app on their powerful grid, but what do software vendors think about us running their single lincense across, say, 100 CPUs?
So now, on top of the $1/CPU/hr, we have to buy a license for each of those CPUs.
Or else this will be very good for open source.
what does a consumption-oriented society have to do with being brief?
Doesn't a giant spy balloon defeat the purpose? I mean, you'd always know where it is! World governments (including China) count on the fact that the population does not know if they are being watched at any given moment. This is a (not so) subtle method of control that forces social behavior. Quite simply, governments can no longer put a gun to your head to direct your actions. They want you to do it for them. And what better way to create a paranoid society than to (supposedly) launch 100 observation satellites?
Sorry for my ignorance, but which country is more diplomatically influential than the United States?
Michael Moore is willing to sacrifice an Oscar to get his movie shown on television. From www.michaelmoore.com:
The only problem with my desire to get this movie in front of as many Americans as possible is that, should it air on TV, I will NOT be eligible to submit "Fahrenheit 9/11" for Academy Award consideration for Best Documentary. Academy rules forbid the airing of a documentary on television within nine months of its theatrical release (fiction films do not have the same restriction).
Although I have no assurance from our home video distributor that they would allow a one-time television broadcast -- and the chances are they probably won't -- I have decided it is more important to take that risk and hope against hope that I can persuade someone to put it on TV, even if it's the night before the election.
Yay. A souped up WMA player coming in the 2nd half of 2004. Seems a little early to be getting excited about that.
The only problem is that you have to agree to stick with DirecTV for another 12 months when you activate a new receiver. Not really a problem, but still something to keep in mind.