When you're not in a room to have hot'n'heavy multiplayer action, Xbox Live! is the only way to go. No PC game has 100% support for buddy-lists and voice chat the way Live! does. None of the PC games have an easy update way for new content like the console Live! games do. And, most of the PC games are way, way buggier than the console games.
If you still like the idea of a LAN party, Xbox has system link. GCN is also getting a form of system link support if you have the BBA and apropos games for it (currently only the Mario Kart game is annouced to support this). Console games beat the pants off of the PC for this, too, since you don't have to reinstall the OS and every game to get to the same patch level as everyone else.
Less maintenance, more features, more games -- I love gaming consoles.
Only raving fan boys on eBay keep any prices high. They don't affect real market prices at a store for current games, which are dropped over time.
Sony still has Greatest Hits for its PS2 line, and has had it since 2001. Microsoft just launched its Platinum Hits line, which follows the same pricing plan and sales goals. Nintendo has its Players Choice line, which is lame because they still cost 49.99 CDN (versus GHits/PHits 29.99 CDN).
If you wait and it isn't sold out, most good retailers (EB, Gamestop, etc) will drop prices on their items until they're no longer made, as a way of clearing out the inventory. Console games don't follow the same HUGE price drops that PC games do, but they do drop constantly.
the console tie-in rate, which is the average number of games purchase for a console. Since Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony all get a percentage of every GCN, Xbox, and PS2 title sold, they want the tie-in rate to be high.
The tie rate for each system so far this year is 9.8:1 for GameCube and 8.5:1 for Xbox. The overall tie ratios since launch are 12.1 for GameCube and 10.0 for Xbox. This means that GameCube owners are buying more games for their system. Since most of the "good" GCN titles are made by Nintendo, they get double the money back (since they get the part that'd normally go to the 3rd party, as well as their cut). I don't have any PS2 numbers:(
Wether or not the systems are sold at a loss is not important: the system with the highest tie-in rate will win, at least for the company behind it:)
This is as interesting as someone bragging they like to have sex bareback, with the only bad experience being some time they tried a condom and got crabs.
There's no reason to mod dumb luck up, only to tell FueledByRamen to go buy lottery tickets.
If you're running a home SMTP server off of a non-business link, you are barking up the wrong tree. Until everyone raises the expense bar on spamming efforts, spamming won't seem any less interesting to spammers.
Get a business connection, they're only 95$ CDN a month.
"4) Canada benefits more than other countries from global warming"
No, we don't. Because we are higher above the equator, we have the two worst extremes. In the winter, all the sunlight is at a very acute angle from the south, leading to intense cold. In the summer, all the sunlight is directly overhead, for many hours, with little to no angle to dillute it. This is how Saskatchewan can be -42 C in winter and +45 C in summer, beating temperature records in Texas for heat.
Global warming doesn't help in the slighest. All it does is ensure that wind storms and other weather anomalies become more frequent and potent.
What kind of crazy setup you'd need to justify such an expensive remote. I went to the Sony store and grabbed a learning remote for 60$ CAD. If I wanted macros (one touch on button would be the only benefit over my non-macro one, which does have a macro for turning everything off), that would only be another 20-30$ CAD.
For very nearly 2800 CAD, I think you'd be better off buying a laptop.
Online spam can't be opted out of, nor is there a cost to the spammer for sending it.
I think the greater weirdness is how/.ers hate spam, but when AOL fights spam (by blocking netblocks and sueing spammers), most/.ers who are moderated up are against it.
So which is it? Do we support the largest ISP's action against spam, or do we suck up the spam?
I'm so sure Sony's going to pull a Sega and dillute their market by producing a whole bunch of subtly incompatible and feature-different consoles.
Why do you think there was the backlash against Sega? Ooh, look, I can get Sega CD, Sega 32X, or Sega Saturn all within the space of a couple of years.
Any time a company has tried to change the 5-year cycle of console development, they've only killed off the platforms involved. People will adopt a wait-and-see approach if they think something new is coming out. If MS had said that Xbox 2 was coming in fall of 2002, no Xboxes would've sold. Nintendo kept away from mentioning the GBA SP so they didn't kill off their sales, either. And that redesign doesn't even add any new features, it just improves on the base design.
If you really want upgradability and incompatibility, go play on the PC. Then you can spend 400$ a year getting new video cards, CPUs, motherboards, and RAM. For those of us who have lives and don't want to be constantly babysitting a PC with a crappy OS just to play games, we'll continue to use our nice, reliable game consoles.
Go look at the backs of games. Only a teeny fraction of PS2 games do it, but it's there. This is just so that the firmware DVD player will also produce progressive scan video, an important feature since Microsoft dropped the ball when the Xbox didn't do progressive scan DVD.
The GBA and SNES are as alike as the SNES and Genesis.
The GBA is more powerful, has more sprite rotatation and scaling modes, has more colour display, can address larger cartridge space, has an ARM processer (instead of a 65C816), and happens to have a very shitty 8-bit sound processor. They are not very similar except that they both play games that are 16-bit.
No. The PSX/N64 are first gen, DC and PS2 are 2nd gen, and Xbox/GCN are 3rd gen. Saying that a PS2 or DC is like an Xbox or GCN is like saying that the Geforce 2 is like a Voodoo 2 because both can run Quake 2.
"You can argue all you want about whether MI is good, but can you do something with interfaces that you can't with abstract base classes?"
Make most interface implementation compile-time checked, and ensure that the programmer has thought things through in a way which discourages ambigious inheritance chains.
"Events can be implemented very cleanly without language support, as in libsigc++."
I could use assembler, too, but I want the language to work for me as much as possible.
I'm of the computer science bent that languages properly designed will reduce my workload towards only working on specific abstractions, not figuring out how to implement X or Y with only basic building blocks. I could write C with a vague form of class support through structures and function pointers, or I could use C++ and get it compile time type checked or warned. I could write C++ with events, or I could just use a language which implements them natively.
I prefer native support, because it leaves less open to creative interpretation (how many string classes were there in the mid 1990s?).
One of the big reasons I've never liked IE, is because its core behaviour has felt different. When I was trying out IE4 along side NS4, back in 1998, I hated smooth scrolling as much as I do today.
Whenever I've had to use a computer with IE, that I could just plonk Mozilla on, I've removed smooth scrolling. All it did was un-smooth it (IMO) since I couldn't use the mouse wheel or keys in the same way as I'd used them in every-other application since I started using a computer. It breaks how the interface feels.
"I currently teach science fiction at the high-school level, this is my first semester teaching the course and I have been shocked by the lack of resources available."
How many high-quality, well-written books are there an the various chroniton particles used in Star Trek? About how the force works at a cellular level? There are far, far too few science fiction resources available to teach young people how to properly understand the technobabble in their favourite science fiction shows and books.
Connected to my TV is the NES, SNES, TG16, SMS, Xbox, PS2, Dreamcast, GameCube, N64, and computer.
I have the Xbox and GC connected via component video to my Sony DE-585. I have the PS2, N64, computer, Dreamcast connected via Svideo to my switcher, which connects to my DE-585 consoles channel. The SMS/TG16 use RF to channel 3 on the TV. The NES and SNES use composite (one to the switcher, one to the TV front panel as I used up the switcher's 5 ports).
Everything is single push button, except that I have to switch between video 1 (svideo/composite input), video 4 (component input), and TV (RF input) on the TV.
I have all my consoles stacked carefully under my coffee table with a Monster Cable power bar (30$ CDN) -- it handles the wall-warts of my NES/SNES, as well as the smarter brick and brick-less ones (PS2/GC/etc). The Xbox and PS2 both have optical inputs, while the GC uses PL2 over the red/white analog stereo. If I move my coffee table, it's like I have a giant, dead, electric spider under it.
Why don't you go back and reread it. Unless you have a better solution to getting back revenue lost to piracy, I don't think you're making a positive contribution.
Slashdot Mirror
When you're not in a room to have hot'n'heavy multiplayer action, Xbox Live! is the only way to go. No PC game has 100% support for buddy-lists and voice chat the way Live! does. None of the PC games have an easy update way for new content like the console Live! games do. And, most of the PC games are way, way buggier than the console games.
If you still like the idea of a LAN party, Xbox has system link. GCN is also getting a form of system link support if you have the BBA and apropos games for it (currently only the Mario Kart game is annouced to support this). Console games beat the pants off of the PC for this, too, since you don't have to reinstall the OS and every game to get to the same patch level as everyone else.
Less maintenance, more features, more games -- I love gaming consoles.
Only raving fan boys on eBay keep any prices high. They don't affect real market prices at a store for current games, which are dropped over time.
Sony still has Greatest Hits for its PS2 line, and has had it since 2001. Microsoft just launched its Platinum Hits line, which follows the same pricing plan and sales goals. Nintendo has its Players Choice line, which is lame because they still cost 49.99 CDN (versus GHits/PHits 29.99 CDN).
If you wait and it isn't sold out, most good retailers (EB, Gamestop, etc) will drop prices on their items until they're no longer made, as a way of clearing out the inventory. Console games don't follow the same HUGE price drops that PC games do, but they do drop constantly.
the console tie-in rate, which is the average number of games purchase for a console. Since Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony all get a percentage of every GCN, Xbox, and PS2 title sold, they want the tie-in rate to be high.
:(
:)
The tie rate for each system so far this year is 9.8:1 for GameCube and 8.5:1 for Xbox. The overall tie ratios since launch are 12.1 for GameCube and 10.0 for Xbox. This means that GameCube owners are buying more games for their system. Since most of the "good" GCN titles are made by Nintendo, they get double the money back (since they get the part that'd normally go to the 3rd party, as well as their cut). I don't have any PS2 numbers
Wether or not the systems are sold at a loss is not important: the system with the highest tie-in rate will win, at least for the company behind it
This is as interesting as someone bragging they like to have sex bareback, with the only bad experience being some time they tried a condom and got crabs.
There's no reason to mod dumb luck up, only to tell FueledByRamen to go buy lottery tickets.
If you're running a home SMTP server off of a non-business link, you are barking up the wrong tree. Until everyone raises the expense bar on spamming efforts, spamming won't seem any less interesting to spammers.
Get a business connection, they're only 95$ CDN a month.
"4) Canada benefits more than other countries from global warming"
No, we don't. Because we are higher above the equator, we have the two worst extremes. In the winter, all the sunlight is at a very acute angle from the south, leading to intense cold. In the summer, all the sunlight is directly overhead, for many hours, with little to no angle to dillute it. This is how Saskatchewan can be -42 C in winter and +45 C in summer, beating temperature records in Texas for heat.
Global warming doesn't help in the slighest. All it does is ensure that wind storms and other weather anomalies become more frequent and potent.
What kind of crazy setup you'd need to justify such an expensive remote. I went to the Sony store and grabbed a learning remote for 60$ CAD. If I wanted macros (one touch on button would be the only benefit over my non-macro one, which does have a macro for turning everything off), that would only be another 20-30$ CAD.
For very nearly 2800 CAD, I think you'd be better off buying a laptop.
There should be real laws about this to stop them from harrasing you.
Online spam can't be opted out of, nor is there a cost to the spammer for sending it.
/.ers hate spam, but when AOL fights spam (by blocking netblocks and sueing spammers), most /.ers who are moderated up are against it.
I think the greater weirdness is how
So which is it? Do we support the largest ISP's action against spam, or do we suck up the spam?
I'm so sure Sony's going to pull a Sega and dillute their market by producing a whole bunch of subtly incompatible and feature-different consoles.
Why do you think there was the backlash against Sega? Ooh, look, I can get Sega CD, Sega 32X, or Sega Saturn all within the space of a couple of years.
Any time a company has tried to change the 5-year cycle of console development, they've only killed off the platforms involved. People will adopt a wait-and-see approach if they think something new is coming out. If MS had said that Xbox 2 was coming in fall of 2002, no Xboxes would've sold. Nintendo kept away from mentioning the GBA SP so they didn't kill off their sales, either. And that redesign doesn't even add any new features, it just improves on the base design.
If you really want upgradability and incompatibility, go play on the PC. Then you can spend 400$ a year getting new video cards, CPUs, motherboards, and RAM. For those of us who have lives and don't want to be constantly babysitting a PC with a crappy OS just to play games, we'll continue to use our nice, reliable game consoles.
Go look at the backs of games. Only a teeny fraction of PS2 games do it, but it's there. This is just so that the firmware DVD player will also produce progressive scan video, an important feature since Microsoft dropped the ball when the Xbox didn't do progressive scan DVD.
I wouldn't. Oh, you suddenly say you lied to protect your access for 12 years, but now you're telling the truth?
...
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice,
It's funny, laugh.
"But with a few accidents, a lack of cache and the fact that it has *always* been a money looser,"
One accident. You mean cash. You mean loser.
Damn, how do you screw up so many homonyms in one sentence?
The GBA and SNES are as alike as the SNES and Genesis.
The GBA is more powerful, has more sprite rotatation and scaling modes, has more colour display, can address larger cartridge space, has an ARM processer (instead of a 65C816), and happens to have a very shitty 8-bit sound processor. They are not very similar except that they both play games that are 16-bit.
That had the C4 chip, which (last I checked) no one emulated.
Now annoying audio and video codecs that are too lossy, and sound like crap on the big screen.
Single-pass, multi-texturing is so 2nd gen :p
No. The PSX/N64 are first gen, DC and PS2 are 2nd gen, and Xbox/GCN are 3rd gen. Saying that a PS2 or DC is like an Xbox or GCN is like saying that the Geforce 2 is like a Voodoo 2 because both can run Quake 2.
"You can argue all you want about whether MI is good, but can you do something with interfaces that you can't with abstract base classes?"
Make most interface implementation compile-time checked, and ensure that the programmer has thought things through in a way which discourages ambigious inheritance chains.
"Events can be implemented very cleanly without language support, as in libsigc++."
I could use assembler, too, but I want the language to work for me as much as possible.
I'm of the computer science bent that languages properly designed will reduce my workload towards only working on specific abstractions, not figuring out how to implement X or Y with only basic building blocks. I could write C with a vague form of class support through structures and function pointers, or I could use C++ and get it compile time type checked or warned. I could write C++ with events, or I could just use a language which implements them natively.
I prefer native support, because it leaves less open to creative interpretation (how many string classes were there in the mid 1990s?).
I rather thank that C# and Java have language features that C++ doesn't have, like a working garbage collector, interfaces, events, etc.
The auto-select thing is a nightmare to X11 users, as it blows away the DnD clipboard.
:)
That said, I much prefer the select, hit crtl+u, then type s of X11 input widgets
Not everyone likes smooth scrolling.
One of the big reasons I've never liked IE, is because its core behaviour has felt different. When I was trying out IE4 along side NS4, back in 1998, I hated smooth scrolling as much as I do today.
Whenever I've had to use a computer with IE, that I could just plonk Mozilla on, I've removed smooth scrolling. All it did was un-smooth it (IMO) since I couldn't use the mouse wheel or keys in the same way as I'd used them in every-other application since I started using a computer. It breaks how the interface feels.
"I currently teach science fiction at the high-school level, this is my first semester teaching the course and I have been shocked by the lack of resources available."
How many high-quality, well-written books are there an the various chroniton particles used in Star Trek? About how the force works at a cellular level? There are far, far too few science fiction resources available to teach young people how to properly understand the technobabble in their favourite science fiction shows and books.
Connected to my TV is the NES, SNES, TG16, SMS, Xbox, PS2, Dreamcast, GameCube, N64, and computer.
:)
I have the Xbox and GC connected via component video to my Sony DE-585. I have the PS2, N64, computer, Dreamcast connected via Svideo to my switcher, which connects to my DE-585 consoles channel. The SMS/TG16 use RF to channel 3 on the TV. The NES and SNES use composite (one to the switcher, one to the TV front panel as I used up the switcher's 5 ports).
Everything is single push button, except that I have to switch between video 1 (svideo/composite input), video 4 (component input), and TV (RF input) on the TV.
I have all my consoles stacked carefully under my coffee table with a Monster Cable power bar (30$ CDN) -- it handles the wall-warts of my NES/SNES, as well as the smarter brick and brick-less ones (PS2/GC/etc). The Xbox and PS2 both have optical inputs, while the GC uses PL2 over the red/white analog stereo. If I move my coffee table, it's like I have a giant, dead, electric spider under it.
Here's an old picture from December. You can't see the TG16 or SMS well in it, but it's all there
Why don't you go back and reread it. Unless you have a better solution to getting back revenue lost to piracy, I don't think you're making a positive contribution.