It may sound ridiculous, but the reason that the PS2's backwards compatibility was so good was because Sony actually built a miniaturized version of the PS1 hardware into the PS2. The PS2 firmware would simply run PS1 games off of that hardware when the time came.
There is reason to be concerned when it comes to the PS3. There is no indication that Sony is taking the same approach with regards to minaturized PS1/PS2 architectures inside the PS3. This would leave any backwards compatibility to be handled in software- just like the XBox360. And as we've seen, that hasn't been very complete or very robust.
The fact of the matter is that used games are HELPFUL to the gaming economy.
For one, used games help those who are addicted to having the newest games. How? Habitual new gamers will go out, buy a new game, play it, and sell it back to the store, used. They'll then use the (smallish) amount of money they get back towards the purchase of a newer one. So, in effect, used game sales are subsidizing the sales of new games.
Another way used games help is by expanding brand awareness. If I go into a store and see Series Game 3 on sale for $6, I might buy it on a whim. If it's particularly compelling, it might lead me to purchase Series Game 5 at full retail price. Sony hasn't lost any money in this series of transactions, and has effectively marketed its game to me.
Ahh, wish I hadn't posted, because I'd mod you insightful. I had forgotten about the ALT, of which my knowledge is limited. But you're probably right, I'm sure that they get caught in there somewhere.
I make about 2/3 of the industry average wage in my field. That puts me well above the poverty level- and indeed above 15% bracket in federal income tax- but for what I do, it is next to nothing. But that's really irrelevant.
If you'll check this chart, http://taxes.yahoo.com/rates.html, you'll see that people making between $30,000 and $70,000 a year are paying a federal tax rate of 25%. In that range is a good swath of middle class Americans.
So the point is that even people not making a lot of money are still paying a higher tax rate because of the manner in which they made their money. And lo and behold, those who make money through capital gains- which the wealthy are more likely to- pay a lower tax rate.
15% is paltry compared to the 35% those google boys would be paying if it was taxed through the federal income tax.
By what mechanism is the "Designer" in Intelligent Design supposed to operate?
What processes are invoked in order to create the designed structures, and at what point do these processes occur?
What is the point of having creatures with the ability to adapt and spawn new species, if to create descendent creatures, the 'designer' must continually intervene?
Is there a way to test for the influence of this designer?
Finally, if a designer exists, how were they designed? If the structures needed to create intelligence are too complex to occur by any method other than design, where did the designer come from?
How is ID different from creationism? Creationism states that the universe was created by God using divine powers. Intelligent Design states that the life was influenced by a designer using undetectable powers. Both assert the necessity and power of a presence that cannot be tested for and is entirely unknowable.
The problem with your argument is that random events do exist. Random mutations happen daily on Earth- even President Bush is suggesting we stockpile antivirals in the event that bird flu mutates. Bacterium have become more resistant to manmade antibiotics, which have only been in use for sixty years. People get cancer- a chance mutation of cells within their bodies.
If there is some 'supra-random' force at work, that would be a fascinating field of study. In fact, I believe that statistical analysis and other research would be a great place to start with that.
The debate over ID isn't really about whether or not God exists. It's about whether or not logical processes, of the sort that we as humans (and especially as programmers) use daily can operate -without the influence of the supernatural-. Occam's razor suggests that looking at the system without the influence of some supernatural being makes the most sense.
As an aside, are you sure you dont' see the connection between ID and creationism? You don't see that the people supporting ID have a vested interest in getting their ideology into classrooms? What I find fascinating from IDers is the foregone conclusion that the Designer in question is God.
I understand what you're saying and appreciate the well-reasoned response, but I don't think I agree with you.
The problem with accepting the bible as the literal word of God does lay in the contradictions. While the church may have edited the document for internal consitency, how can you be certain they made the right choice? If you believe, as many do, that Satan can take a direct role in the affairs of man, how do you know that he didn't insinuate one book into acceptance over another? How do you know that -your- decision to follow the book as written hasn't been influenced by the pre-selection that the church has laid out for you?
I do agree with you entirely that in order to really be religious, you have to investigate and to think for yourself. But I disagree that the fear of critical thinking and interpretation stems from a fear of science. Sad as it may seem, many churches are locked to dogma as a means of control. I guess that's the problem with having wordly churches...
Anyway, nice to read a post from an intelligible, rational, christian on slashdot.
I believe the Parent was referring not just to textual versions- although it could be argued that in creating 'new and more accurate' translations a certain amount of interpretation has taken place.
Instead, take a moment to look up the 'lost books' of the bible, such as the book of Thomas. These are books that the -church- chose to leave out of the bible- but why? If all of the bible is divinely inspired, why did the church exclude passages?
And if the bible has been culled, and edited, how do you know that what you have is really the truth? That the exclusion of certain books from the bible isn't a perversion of its message?
That's the difficulty with trying to literally read the bible...you're reading a story that has been carefully groomed down for you by a church. Doesn't that make you nervous? It seems to me that the only way you can really read the bible is to find the spirit of God that connects the books, because it would be the only portion immune to perversion by selective editing and other earthly pressures.
People in the army receive similar neural training.
Yet these people are allowed to return home and lead perfectly normal lives, for precisely the reason that they can separate that training from their everyday lives.
Besides, when the government starts telling me not to make certain types of neural connections, I will be very very scared...
You can't elect new officials in times of crisis. You can try, but they usually refer to things like that as 'rebellion.' Nevermind the fact that noone in New Orleans elected any of the officials now running their lives...
Yea, I agree with you, the military should be allowed to do their job. But I still say that building a community is important for these people who have just lost everything. And to be honest the whole situation sounds like Sour Grapes- it makes -sense- to deliver information by radio, but since none of the officials thought it up, they deny the whole effort.
Incidentally, what exactly would be wrong with a Puppet Show? Why shouldn't the people inside the dome be allowed to communicate with each other as they wish? And shit, if they happen to have their DVD sets of Three's Company and can get the TVs distributed to the people, what would be wrong with setting that up too? Of course, its a straw man argument, because thats not what these people were putting together.
You've got some good points, but the whole thing still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It just seems like the people in charge are trying to cut down the flow of information to include only information they like. Which is stupid, becuase people can still talk.
I just wish the people in charge would leverage useful resources, (a joint effort radio station run by officials, volunteers, and evacuees -would- be useful) and not, like some self-important school principal, deny things that do not suit their own immediate needs.
I'm also QUITE SURE that FEMA and the Military did not want one voice of resistance telling the people in the dome anything that would be off-message. Why allow some conduit for politics or whatever? It would just add chaos.
Whoa whoa...whoa!
The military and FEMA should have NO business telling people what to say over the radio in Houston. New Orleans may be a disaster area and under de facto martial law, but the military telling you what you can and cannot do elsewhere is a troubling idea.
IF the station was used to incite the mob, we have laws to deal with that. It's unfair and shameful to assume that the first thing these people would do with their radio station- AM or FM- would be to go 'off message' and 'add to the chaos'. Those people NEED a community now, and to deny it to them is unfair!
What's the deal here? Are they -trying- to shoot themselves in the foot?
Businesses already have almost -no- incentive to switch to Vista. Now, instead of just buying expensive licences, they have to upgrade the graphics cards on their vanilla work PCs??
Has someone at MS gone patently nuts?
Yes, I know you will say "Microsoft will pull support for XP, and thus force everyone to upgrade." Maybe. But I think there will be backlash here.
And if you think that Vista is going to be exclusively for consumers, please tell me how Dell will provide $400 dollar machines with such beefy video cards!! It defies logic!
If you want copyright protection, you MUST submit your work to the library of congress or the national archives.
When your copyright term is up, the public is free to acquire information from this resource.
There you go. The compensation they get is that they are granted a temporary monopoly on the reproduction of their work. The public is guaranteed their rights to it under public domain.
Its analogous to the way that patents are supposed to work. Of course, that system is also broken...
I assume you're hinting at future Chinese dominance and China's current attitude toward Intellectual Property?
There are two reasons to expect these protectionist IP trends to continue, even if the Western world loses its position in the front seat of global policy.
For one, countries will tend to use loose intellectual property standards to get the leg up on other countries if they feel they are "behind." The United States stole a good amount of British IP after divorcing themselves from the crown, but after the economy grew, they implemented more normal standards. Look for China, and other industrializing nations, to operate in the same way- IP rules and protections will come as their economy stabilizes.
Secondly, we're talking about multinational corporations here. The fate of these large conglomerates is not necessarily tied to the waning or waxing fortunes of the Western world. These companies will leverage politicians in all countries by appealing to greed, as they always do. Rest assured that they will try to keep themselves, and their oh-so-valuable IP, well-protected.
Our Western IP enforcers may disappear, but new ones will take their place.
There are many things you can do in 3D that you simply cant do in 2D.
For example, look at the Metal Gear series. In 2D, Metal Gear was a mind-numbingly difficult, if unique, experience.
In 3D, Metal Gear Solid created a really compelling gameplay experience, and was immensly creative. Being behind, below, or on top of objects made a huge difference in sneaking tactics. And, whether or not its your cup of tea, the game also had a very cinematic feel to it.
Going back to your argument as to the merits and ease of 2D gameplay- you just revealed the limitations of 2D gameplay. There are only so many ways that an enemy can attack you in 2 dimensions. This effectively -limits- gameplay and -limits- creativity. It also breaks the metaphor for games trying to provide an immersive experience- why the hell didnt Shinobi, being the elite ninja that he is, ever take two steps to his left and avoid dying?
Finally, it is not like every game released in 2D was unique. Quite the contrary. How many Street Fighter clones were there? How many side-scrollers? How many platformers? How many turn-based RPGs? Clones have always existed, this having more to do with the 'bandwagon' effect that exists in all mass media- be it music (quick! rap-metal!), movies (X-Men breeds Spiderman breeds Fantastic 4), or television (5 concurrent CSI spinoffs!?!).
I will grant you your final point though- 3D games -can- be expensive to produce. But I really think that there's a point where graphics are "good enough", and I think we may have surpassed it. Perhaps if there were very intelligent automated tools that could cut down on production time...
As a final disclaimer, I'll say this: I love 2D games. I've been praying for the day that they realease another Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. But I really think its unfair to say that 3D as a medium stifles creativity, because the good games that have come out in the 3D generation really prove otherwise.
Exactly how many games ever got made to make use of those?
Very few. Very very few.
Aside from that, most people, I think, envision the harddrive as being more functional than any of those addons- if its useless, why bother to get it at all?
All these new systems will fail for one reason: Porn.
Porn producers are very realistic, and very saavy. Do you think people are going to buy "Buttbandits 23" if they know that every time they queue it up, some manufacturer is getting a record of it?? Even those without tinfoil hats know this is a bad idea...
My prediction is that the pornographers will use a version of the high-def discs WITHOUT the phone-home feature, or will stick to DVDs.
Pornography: Saving Western Civilization since 1826.
I was under the impression that video camera footage was -the- major reason those would-be bombers were caught.
It's very easy to catch someone once they've done something AND you have a picture of their face.
I don't believe these kids were on some sort of watch-list.
I agree that preventing these attacks should be a primary concern. I just don't know how easy (or possible) that is, considering that -anyone- with the will and the time can build an improvised weapon.
Slashdot Mirror
It may sound ridiculous, but the reason that the PS2's backwards compatibility was so good was because Sony actually built a miniaturized version of the PS1 hardware into the PS2. The PS2 firmware would simply run PS1 games off of that hardware when the time came.
There is reason to be concerned when it comes to the PS3. There is no indication that Sony is taking the same approach with regards to minaturized PS1/PS2 architectures inside the PS3. This would leave any backwards compatibility to be handled in software- just like the XBox360. And as we've seen, that hasn't been very complete or very robust.
But hopefully they'll get it right.
Hmm, except that McCain is giving a speech at the opening for =Jerry Falwell's= new evangelical college...
That doesn't bode well for taking the party back from the lunatic "Katrina/9-11/everything bad is punishment for our gays" fringe.
Give me liberty or give me death!- Patrick Henry
If you're so afraid of being killed by terrorists that you will consistently choose safety before
your own personal freedoms...
then those who wish to destroy our nation have already won.
The fact of the matter is that used games are HELPFUL to the gaming economy.
For one, used games help those who are addicted to having the newest games. How? Habitual new gamers will go out, buy a new game, play it, and sell it back to the store, used. They'll then use the (smallish) amount of money they get back towards the purchase of a newer one. So, in effect, used game sales are subsidizing the sales of new games.
Another way used games help is by expanding brand awareness. If I go into a store and see Series Game 3 on sale for $6, I might buy it on a whim. If it's particularly compelling, it might lead me to purchase Series Game 5 at full retail price. Sony hasn't lost any money in this series of transactions, and has effectively marketed its game to me.
So...once again, Sony needs to chill out!
Ahh, wish I hadn't posted, because I'd mod you insightful. I had forgotten about the ALT, of which my knowledge is limited. But you're probably right, I'm sure that they get caught in there somewhere.
I make about 2/3 of the industry average wage in my field. That puts me well above the poverty level- and indeed above 15% bracket in federal income tax- but for what I do, it is next to nothing. But that's really irrelevant.
If you'll check this chart, http://taxes.yahoo.com/rates.html, you'll see that people making between $30,000 and $70,000 a year are paying a federal tax rate of 25%. In that range is a good swath of middle class Americans.
So the point is that even people not making a lot of money are still paying a higher tax rate because of the manner in which they made their money. And lo and behold, those who make money through capital gains- which the wealthy are more likely to- pay a lower tax rate.
15% is paltry compared to the 35% those google boys would be paying if it was taxed through the federal income tax.
Since Bush's tax cuts, Capital Gains tax on any stocks held over 1 year is a paltry 15%.
I make next to nothing, and I pay more income tax than that.
But why does that belong in a -science- class?
None of the faiths on this world have beliefs formed from the scientific method...
By what mechanism is the "Designer" in Intelligent Design supposed to operate?
What processes are invoked in order to create the designed structures, and at what point do these processes occur?
What is the point of having creatures with the ability to adapt and spawn new species, if to create descendent creatures, the 'designer' must continually intervene?
Is there a way to test for the influence of this designer?
Finally, if a designer exists, how were they designed? If the structures needed to create intelligence are too complex to occur by any method other than design, where did the designer come from?
How is ID different from creationism? Creationism states that the universe was created by God using divine powers. Intelligent Design states that the life was influenced by a designer using undetectable powers. Both assert the necessity and power of a presence that cannot be tested for and is entirely unknowable.
The problem with your argument is that random events do exist. Random mutations happen daily on Earth- even President Bush is suggesting we stockpile antivirals in the event that bird flu mutates. Bacterium have become more resistant to manmade antibiotics, which have only been in use for sixty years. People get cancer- a chance mutation of cells within their bodies.
If there is some 'supra-random' force at work, that would be a fascinating field of study. In fact, I believe that statistical analysis and other research would be a great place to start with that.
The debate over ID isn't really about whether or not God exists. It's about whether or not logical processes, of the sort that we as humans (and especially as programmers) use daily can operate -without the influence of the supernatural-. Occam's razor suggests that looking at the system without the influence of some supernatural being makes the most sense.
As an aside, are you sure you dont' see the connection between ID and creationism? You don't see that the people supporting ID have a vested interest in getting their ideology into classrooms? What I find fascinating from IDers is the foregone conclusion that the Designer in question is God.
What happens if it isn't...?
Actually, in this case, he's right.
2 1/
This (http://www.plotpatents.com/legal_analysis.htm/) is a link to a storyline patent website will show you that, in fact, someone -is- pushing for storyline patents.
And in case you missed it, slashdot has talked about this before: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/04/02392
It's not the Parent confusing Copyright and Patent, its things like Software patents blurring the line between the two.
I understand what you're saying and appreciate the well-reasoned response, but I don't think I agree with you.
The problem with accepting the bible as the literal word of God does lay in the contradictions. While the church may have edited the document for internal consitency, how can you be certain they made the right choice? If you believe, as many do, that Satan can take a direct role in the affairs of man, how do you know that he didn't insinuate one book into acceptance over another? How do you know that -your- decision to follow the book as written hasn't been influenced by the pre-selection that the church has laid out for you?
I do agree with you entirely that in order to really be religious, you have to investigate and to think for yourself. But I disagree that the fear of critical thinking and interpretation stems from a fear of science. Sad as it may seem, many churches are locked to dogma as a means of control. I guess that's the problem with having wordly churches...
Anyway, nice to read a post from an intelligible, rational, christian on slashdot.
I believe the Parent was referring not just to textual versions- although it could be argued that in creating 'new and more accurate' translations a certain amount of interpretation has taken place.
Instead, take a moment to look up the 'lost books' of the bible, such as the book of Thomas. These are books that the -church- chose to leave out of the bible- but why? If all of the bible is divinely inspired, why did the church exclude passages?
And if the bible has been culled, and edited, how do you know that what you have is really the truth? That the exclusion of certain books from the bible isn't a perversion of its message?
That's the difficulty with trying to literally read the bible...you're reading a story that has been carefully groomed down for you by a church. Doesn't that make you nervous? It seems to me that the only way you can really read the bible is to find the spirit of God that connects the books, because it would be the only portion immune to perversion by selective editing and other earthly pressures.
YMMV.
You're asking me? I plead the Fifth.
Remember when Nintendo said they are planning to re-release their back catalogue of games on this system?
Can someone tell me how I'm supposed to play Street Fighter 2 with so few buttons?
Or any number of other games from SNES or N64 that make use of all the keys that were so generously provided on those controllers?
Will I have to buy another controller to play these old games...??
People in the army receive similar neural training.
Yet these people are allowed to return home and lead perfectly normal lives, for precisely the reason that they can separate that training from their everyday lives.
Besides, when the government starts telling me not to make certain types of neural connections, I will be very very scared...
You can't elect new officials in times of crisis. You can try, but they usually refer to things like that as 'rebellion.' Nevermind the fact that noone in New Orleans elected any of the officials now running their lives...
Yea, I agree with you, the military should be allowed to do their job. But I still say that building a community is important for these people who have just lost everything. And to be honest the whole situation sounds like Sour Grapes- it makes -sense- to deliver information by radio, but since none of the officials thought it up, they deny the whole effort.
Incidentally, what exactly would be wrong with a Puppet Show? Why shouldn't the people inside the dome be allowed to communicate with each other as they wish? And shit, if they happen to have their DVD sets of Three's Company and can get the TVs distributed to the people, what would be wrong with setting that up too? Of course, its a straw man argument, because thats not what these people were putting together.
You've got some good points, but the whole thing still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It just seems like the people in charge are trying to cut down the flow of information to include only information they like. Which is stupid, becuase people can still talk.
I just wish the people in charge would leverage useful resources, (a joint effort radio station run by officials, volunteers, and evacuees -would- be useful) and not, like some self-important school principal, deny things that do not suit their own immediate needs.
I'm also QUITE SURE that FEMA and the Military did not want one voice of resistance telling the people in the dome anything that would be off-message. Why allow some conduit for politics or whatever? It would just add chaos.
Whoa whoa...whoa!
The military and FEMA should have NO business telling people what to say over the radio in Houston. New Orleans may be a disaster area and under de facto martial law, but the military telling you what you can and cannot do elsewhere is a troubling idea.
IF the station was used to incite the mob, we have laws to deal with that. It's unfair and shameful to assume that the first thing these people would do with their radio station- AM or FM- would be to go 'off message' and 'add to the chaos'. Those people NEED a community now, and to deny it to them is unfair!
What's the deal here? Are they -trying- to shoot themselves in the foot?
Businesses already have almost -no- incentive to switch to Vista. Now, instead of just buying expensive licences, they have to upgrade the graphics cards on their vanilla work PCs??
Has someone at MS gone patently nuts?
Yes, I know you will say "Microsoft will pull support for XP, and thus force everyone to upgrade." Maybe. But I think there will be backlash here.
And if you think that Vista is going to be exclusively for consumers, please tell me how Dell will provide $400 dollar machines with such beefy video cards!! It defies logic!
This is madness! Madness I say!
Howabout we go back to the old system-
If you want copyright protection, you MUST submit your work to the library of congress or the national archives.
When your copyright term is up, the public is free to acquire information from this resource.
There you go. The compensation they get is that they are granted a temporary monopoly on the reproduction of their work. The public is guaranteed their rights to it under public domain.
Its analogous to the way that patents are supposed to work. Of course, that system is also broken...
I assume you're hinting at future Chinese dominance and China's current attitude toward Intellectual Property?
There are two reasons to expect these protectionist IP trends to continue, even if the Western world loses its position in the front seat of global policy.
For one, countries will tend to use loose intellectual property standards to get the leg up on other countries if they feel they are "behind." The United States stole a good amount of British IP after divorcing themselves from the crown, but after the economy grew, they implemented more normal standards. Look for China, and other industrializing nations, to operate in the same way- IP rules and protections will come as their economy stabilizes.
Secondly, we're talking about multinational corporations here. The fate of these large conglomerates is not necessarily tied to the waning or waxing fortunes of the Western world. These companies will leverage politicians in all countries by appealing to greed, as they always do. Rest assured that they will try to keep themselves, and their oh-so-valuable IP, well-protected.
Our Western IP enforcers may disappear, but new ones will take their place.
tch. I meant co-exist.
Must remember to spellcheck next time.
(Note: Not actually spellchecking this message.)
I'm gonna have to disagree with you.
There are many things you can do in 3D that you simply cant do in 2D.
For example, look at the Metal Gear series. In 2D, Metal Gear was a mind-numbingly difficult, if unique, experience.
In 3D, Metal Gear Solid created a really compelling gameplay experience, and was immensly creative. Being behind, below, or on top of objects made a huge difference in sneaking tactics. And, whether or not its your cup of tea, the game also had a very cinematic feel to it.
Going back to your argument as to the merits and ease of 2D gameplay- you just revealed the limitations of 2D gameplay. There are only so many ways that an enemy can attack you in 2 dimensions. This effectively -limits- gameplay and -limits- creativity. It also breaks the metaphor for games trying to provide an immersive experience- why the hell didnt Shinobi, being the elite ninja that he is, ever take two steps to his left and avoid dying?
Finally, it is not like every game released in 2D was unique. Quite the contrary. How many Street Fighter clones were there? How many side-scrollers? How many platformers? How many turn-based RPGs? Clones have always existed, this having more to do with the 'bandwagon' effect that exists in all mass media- be it music (quick! rap-metal!), movies (X-Men breeds Spiderman breeds Fantastic 4), or television (5 concurrent CSI spinoffs!?!).
I will grant you your final point though- 3D games -can- be expensive to produce. But I really think that there's a point where graphics are "good enough", and I think we may have surpassed it. Perhaps if there were very intelligent automated tools that could cut down on production time...
As a final disclaimer, I'll say this: I love 2D games. I've been praying for the day that they realease another Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. But I really think its unfair to say that 3D as a medium stifles creativity, because the good games that have come out in the 3D generation really prove otherwise.
Can't 2D and 3D cooexist peacefully??
About the light gun, exercise pad, and ROB...
Exactly how many games ever got made to make use of those?
Very few. Very very few.
Aside from that, most people, I think, envision the harddrive as being more functional than any of those addons- if its useless, why bother to get it at all?
All these new systems will fail for one reason: Porn.
Porn producers are very realistic, and very saavy. Do you think people are going to buy "Buttbandits 23" if they know that every time they queue it up, some manufacturer is getting a record of it?? Even those without tinfoil hats know this is a bad idea...
My prediction is that the pornographers will use a version of the high-def discs WITHOUT the phone-home feature, or will stick to DVDs.
Pornography: Saving Western Civilization since 1826.
I was under the impression that video camera footage was -the- major reason those would-be bombers were caught.
It's very easy to catch someone once they've done something AND you have a picture of their face.
I don't believe these kids were on some sort of watch-list.
I agree that preventing these attacks should be a primary concern. I just don't know how easy (or possible) that is, considering that -anyone- with the will and the time can build an improvised weapon.