Re:Man who mistook his wife for a hat
on
Mapping the Mind
·
· Score: 1
Amazing stuff. I'd love to know what those numbers communicated to them.
Perhaps in some way like getting images from a fractal, they saw entire episodes of their lives in those numbers. To them it may have been like watching a video.
Or they were pulling one hell of a prank on everyone.
The rule of thumb you are refering to no longer exists because software is less often actually written for specific hardware.
The more modern the system becomes, the higher the level the software is normally coded for, and the easier it becomes to emulate (from a system requirements stand point). This sounds counter-intuitive, but rest assured in at least many modern cases it is certainly true.
Take the N64 for example. Ultra LHE was able to run Mario 64 fairly accurately using nothing more than a Pentium 400 and a Voodoo 2. The emulator was even tweaked years after it's release (without any new code, and only INI modifications) to run many other games that were released after the Emulator itself.
Because modern software is written to take advantage of libraries functions more frequently than hardware functions, it is becoming easier and easier to (simply?) reimpliment those libs and retarget their function calls to the host system. The advent of other modern emulation techniques such as dynamic recompiling also helps. Please don't mistake this as me implying that it's easy to emulate modern systems, because it's certainly not any easier. It does however mean that long gone are the days when a system 10 times the power of the emulated system will be required.
With the right software, there is no reason to bleieve that a modern PC couldn't run XBox software at a decent speed. On the flip side, the emulator is almost certainly going to have to be more complex. This may explain why progress has been moving so slowly on XBox, PS2, and GC Emulators.
That might be the case, except as far as I can tell there aren't even any really usable XBox emulators for the PC yet. One sort of functions, and another will run Halo, though I don't know how well.
Given how long these two emulators have been in the works, there's no reason to expect the XBox 2/Next/Xenon will be emulated any day soon.
But if it does happen, yes, I would think it would appear on the Mac first.
So how much improvement will the new PowerPC cpu chip be over the piece of sh*t 700mhz celeron that the oiginal X-Box has?
Quite a bit, actually, and the ATI chip will be an improvement as well. So the new XBox gets a boost in power and specs, but loses backwards compatibility, the hard drive, and shakes off a few more 3rd party developers.
Where are the Netcraft confirms XBox is dying posts?
Anything great worth watching will be worth buying the DVD Box set for.
I don't watch the Sopranos, but if I did, I would just buy it on DVD if/when it came out. It's cheaper than a monthly cable bill and I'd get to watch it whenever I like.
I did buy Dead Like Me on DVD. Great show. Worth the $30 or so I paid for the Box Set. Also bought Firefly.
And I didn't have to pay for cable. Or Sat. Or put up with thought pollution (commercials). Or any of that crap.
I don't watch Television. Period. Ever. I don't have cable. I don't have sat. I have nothing. I bought a 32 inch Sony Vvega for the sole purpose of hooking up my TG16, SNES, GENESIS, SATURN, N64, DREAMCAST, PS2, XBOX, and GAMECUBE.
With that much quality entertainment, I never miss reality television.
(One exception; the visual animations for the guide itself are very well done for the time, and prophetic of the multimedia/information overload of the 1990s onwards)
Actually, I choose to look at it in the reverse direction.
The original movie is outstanding except for those really bad live action bits in between.
You see, the Guide Entries are the ENTIRE reason to watch the original BBS series. In fact, something I always thought would be a cool project would be for someone to take the original series and make an animated replacement for all of the live actor segments.
It's a show were the dialog is definately superior to the on screen performance, and as you pointed out the guide animations are fantastic.
I often play the DVD of the movie, or the original radio series on CD for background noise. Even after several dozens of listenings I still get a laugh or two out of some of them.
"Well wait.. the dude has to 'hitchhike', right? People do this by raising their thumb. The audience may not get right away that he isn't actually holding a dildo."
Some changes make sense. The one you mentioned, of course being one of them.
Marvin, however, doesn't make any sense. Nor does the Heart of Gold. Nor does a half dozen other things. I won't even get into Ford Prefect, because a lot of people who want to think being politically correct is more important than artistic interpretation will start to insult me, throw some stupid counter-arguments out, and basically just make themselves look as idiotic as the directors of this film.
In the end all I have to say is that the original BBS TV Show was bad because it was on a very low budget, so I don't see any reason why this interpretation couldn't have been outstanding considering it's on a high budget. Instead, what I think we are going to find is that the new one is much worse, just prettier on the screen.
It was my understanding that HOW it got to be that shape was never a mystery. The real mystery was who in the hell was holding that huge spatula, and where did they get it in the first place?
If enough people were bothered by protected AAC, then iTunes wouldn't be so popular.
You seem to be forgetting all those people who like to yoink the DRM right out of iTunes using Hymn.
I hate DRM. I like iTunes. I use Hymn. Oh, and thanks to Pepsi and Mountain Dew, I have downloaded well over 100 songs for free and my co-workers who do not use iTunes just keep giving me more and more caps.:)
Reluctantly, being that I've seen it written many times how this company or that company won't support Memory Stick format, and then when 3rd party MS formats do come out, they are very few in numbers.
Amazing, isn't it, that everybody loves to throw the name SanDisk around, but it's the only one being thrown out there? There is a reason for that.
I do plan on buying a 1 gig MS card. I just wish I could have used one of my existing CF cards instead.
The front of the chassis is well designed and looks beautiful -- the back looks like it was done by a totally different designer.
Your complains are very similar to mine, but I would also say that the front of the chassis only looks beautiful.
The front of the display is too easily scratched, and the black front is actually painted on the inside, meaning that the entire front face has that plastic glossy look that easily attracts dust and fingerprints, scratches easily, and goes from looking like it's worth the full $250 to $20 in just a few days. I've already seen a few people who have PSPs that look like they're over a year old.
I had to return an unreasonably high number of units for exchanges and refunds due to dead pixels, drives, dust and fingerprings in the screens and so on, but My final good unit is great. Having learned what I had about the previous units, the first thing I did with mine after taking it out of the box was bolting on one of the full face covers. You can find them at most game stores. The one I went with looks like a totally clear replica of the entire front of the unit, with holes cut away for the controler areas. It has two thumb screws you use to screw it into the top of the PSP and it forms a custom fit shield over the entire PSP keeping it free of dust, fingerprints, and scratches.
Because it is a better quality plastic than the front of the PSP (which was obviously chosen for gloss, not durability) it resists blemishes instead of attacts them.
The plastic chosen for the front of the PSP, in my opinion was a totally retarded decision. It would have been better for them to go with a two piece front design. A hard solid black plastic front, with a cut away for a hard clear plastic (or glass) screen. Their decision to go with the cheap, weak, glossy plastic they went with is so bad I fully expect them to release a slightly modified version that fixes the problem. Possibly sooner than later.
Also, one thing I noticed was that the plastic they used has some kind of serious electrostatic properties which draw in dust like a magnet. It's so bad, that my final PSP which finally had no dead pixels and no dust inside the screen became contaminated with dust inside the screen after a few days. It's not too bad, but there is a serious design issue going on if the system can just attract dust to the point that it gets inside the screen if it's just left out.
These are just my thoughts. Overall, I love the system though. I hope an SDK comes out. Also, I see some serious potential for some ground-breaking multiplayer games. Too bad I've lost faith in most video game developer's abilities to innovate.
For another, there are no plans for writable UMDs, and even if there were, the drives would certainly cost more than a MS.
The DRIVES would, but the MEDIA would not.
There probably isn't any more than $2 worth of materials and workmanship going into a single UMD. Blanks would probably be about that price.
I'd pay $500 for a UMD writer WAY before I'd pay for $500 worth of memory sticks.
And for your information, the Memory Stick format IS proprietary, Sony controls the format, and the third party manufactured Memory Sticks have been less popular (as you pointed out) for exactly that reason. Even though 3rd parties (reluctantly) make Memory Sticks, they do so under strict conditions set out by Sony.
The Memory Stick and it's relatives are not at all industry accepted standards. I would have much rather liked to have seen any of the other existing memory formats used.
I think the biggest reason Sony has always loved to force Memory Stick down people's throat is because it can be used to employ some kind of DRM, but I believe many of the other formats can as well, so once again this is just Sony being their usual prick selves.
Ranked from most common faults to least common faults, all nine had at least one of the following, most had more than one.
1. Dead Pixels (Glaringly obvious, solid white, prominantly displayed near center of screen). 2. Dust INSIDE the display. 3. Fingerprints INSIDE the display. 4. A few had fingerprints on the outside, fresh out of the sealed box. This would normally not be an issue since it could be cleaned, but the fingerprints seemed to have been some kind of thick oil or other residue that could not easily be wiped off. Any attempt to clean it off resulted in scratching or etching the surface of the PSP. 5. A few had Memory-Stick doors that broke off easily or were hanging loose (wouldn't close and stay closed) right out of the box.
It is my theory that all of the stores in my area recieved PSPs from the same factory, manufacture date, and possibly even say consecutive batch.
THANKS for the pointer! I really liked REZ and I really do like Lumines. In fact, Lumines is the very reason I haven't totally given up on the PSP. I would have kept trying, but the Wal-mart stores I kept buying/returning the systems to ran out of stock due to people returning them. The stores in my area must have all gotten a bum-batch. Every one of them has annoyingly visible dead pixels, fingerprints inside the screens, dust inside the screens, missing or broken Memory-Slot doors, and other such obvious reasons for exchange.
Honestly, there's just not a hell of a lot either of the two new handhelds have to offer me.
I felt the same way. I already had a GBA and an SP. Then I played the 4 player battle in Mario 64 and was hooked. There are more than 10 people where I work who regularly duke it out before, durring (on break of course), and after work. Plus replaying Mario 64 seemed like a chore I didn't want to get into but I found myself playing it through again and realizing why I liked it so much. 150 stars later I finally decided it really was/is a great game, and the added features made the game worthy of a replay even almost 10 years later.
Those of my co-workers who never played the original thoroughly loved playing Mario 64 through to the end, and some of them are still working on it. I figure this is probably the case for many people. Many people missed out on Mario 64, and this is their second chance to see what made this game so great.
And for what it's worth, Yoshi Touch And Go is so unique (and actually fun) that while I was skeptical at first, I have actually found myself playing it more than I expected I would. It's not just that it's a unique control concept, but the fact that it's really just good addictive fun that keeps me playing it.
Ignoring that Mario 64 is still a great game (and still fun, even if dated), I wonder how it is some people seem to ignore the fact that there are still countless great GBA games that will play on a DS.
Even if they are ignored for simply not being specifically for the DS, that's still more good games than are available for the PSP.
In fact, I personally only really consider Lumines to be the only good game for the PSP. I can't play my copy though. I've had to return NINE PSPs for being defective (in several different ways) and am currently now without a PSP.
Funny "PSP" and "Replacement" were in the same sentence. After now having returned four PSPs and settled for a full refund (though I am stuck with the games I purchased) I was actually considering buying an iPod (or other music palyer).
They aren't really in the same league, no, but at least I can be reasonably sure a music player won't break on me.
My luck with the PSP has been less than perfect, I suppose you could say.
What kind of ass monke decided that they didn't need at least a low level clean room to assemble these packages?
The same ass-monkey that allowed the factory workers to touch the LCD with bare hands.
In another post, I explained how one of my PSPs had fingerprints on the INSIDE of the screen. Wal-Mart took that one back, of course. They also took back the one with pink and white pixels, and the one with an unsightly amount of dust inside the screen.
Number 4 only has one errant pixel, but I was starting to come to the conclusion that it might just be a tiny spec of dust, as it appears to be above the LCD, not in it. I'd care if it weren't all the way over to the leftmost side.
Re:Anarchy isn't crime or destruction
on
Inside the PSP
·
· Score: 1
"Disassemble! No!!!! Number 5 no disassemble."
I am on my 4th PSP because the first three had unacceptably dead screens. Thank goodness for Wal-Mart's return policy.
If for some reason I do have to return this one, I think I will do just as this guy has done before I return it.
FUSE: "I'd like to return this." DESK: "What seems to be the problem sir?" FUSE: (Pours a pile of parts onto the counter) "It just stopped working."
Re:Sony still focusing on the wrong things
on
Inside the PSP
·
· Score: 1
Nintendo DS which is lacking serious mainstream attention.
Sales figures, and more importantly the key demographics of those buying the system, would tend to disagree with you.
The DS has SOLD very well, and continues to sell well. The part that people are having the hardest time trying to understand is why such a large percentage of those people buying the DS are typically not game players, and older than most previous groups of game players.
The PSP isn't selling as well as Sony had hoped, but considering it's high price tag for a handheld, that's not a shocker. The PS2 launched when the US economy was doing a whole lot better, and it launched after a whole lot of fanfare. It also had a huge library of games ready to play on it. The high price, lack of quality games, and high defect rate are all working against Sony this time. That isn't to say that the machine won't overcome all of this on it's own merit in time.
However, considering the Nintendo DS has already sold numbers that the game developers consider "Critical Mass" and the PSP hasn't even shipped that many yet, I would say the DS is slated to do just fine.
(Just for the record, I know dozens of DS owners, most of which not even considering a PSP yet.)
Slashdot Mirror
Amazing stuff. I'd love to know what those numbers communicated to them.
Perhaps in some way like getting images from a fractal, they saw entire episodes of their lives in those numbers. To them it may have been like watching a video.
Or they were pulling one hell of a prank on everyone.
I thought the rule of thumb
The rule of thumb you are refering to no longer exists because software is less often actually written for specific hardware.
The more modern the system becomes, the higher the level the software is normally coded for, and the easier it becomes to emulate (from a system requirements stand point). This sounds counter-intuitive, but rest assured in at least many modern cases it is certainly true.
Take the N64 for example. Ultra LHE was able to run Mario 64 fairly accurately using nothing more than a Pentium 400 and a Voodoo 2. The emulator was even tweaked years after it's release (without any new code, and only INI modifications) to run many other games that were released after the Emulator itself.
Because modern software is written to take advantage of libraries functions more frequently than hardware functions, it is becoming easier and easier to (simply?) reimpliment those libs and retarget their function calls to the host system. The advent of other modern emulation techniques such as dynamic recompiling also helps. Please don't mistake this as me implying that it's easy to emulate modern systems, because it's certainly not any easier. It does however mean that long gone are the days when a system 10 times the power of the emulated system will be required.
With the right software, there is no reason to bleieve that a modern PC couldn't run XBox software at a decent speed. On the flip side, the emulator is almost certainly going to have to be more complex. This may explain why progress has been moving so slowly on XBox, PS2, and GC Emulators.
That might be the case, except as far as I can tell there aren't even any really usable XBox emulators for the PC yet. One sort of functions, and another will run Halo, though I don't know how well.
Given how long these two emulators have been in the works, there's no reason to expect the XBox 2/Next/Xenon will be emulated any day soon.
But if it does happen, yes, I would think it would appear on the Mac first.
So how much improvement will the new PowerPC cpu chip be over the piece of sh*t 700mhz celeron that the oiginal X-Box has?
Quite a bit, actually, and the ATI chip will be an improvement as well. So the new XBox gets a boost in power and specs, but loses backwards compatibility, the hard drive, and shakes off a few more 3rd party developers.
Where are the Netcraft confirms XBox is dying posts?
If humans are on multiple planets the race will survive one being destroyed.
The Earthlings as a whole may not be aware of it but that doesn't mean that it isn't already the case.
Marvin is described as being high tech looking, though not seeming to fit together just right, probably due to how he holds himself.
I don't consider anything high tech or sleek about that giant head.
The Illustrated HHG has a rendition of Marvin, which is probably more in line with what Adams had in mind. LINK
Anything great worth watching will be worth buying the DVD Box set for.
I don't watch the Sopranos, but if I did, I would just buy it on DVD if/when it came out. It's cheaper than a monthly cable bill and I'd get to watch it whenever I like.
I did buy Dead Like Me on DVD. Great show. Worth the $30 or so I paid for the Box Set. Also bought Firefly.
And I didn't have to pay for cable. Or Sat. Or put up with thought pollution (commercials). Or any of that crap.
Incidently, no, I don't miss reality.
I don't watch Television. Period. Ever. I don't have cable. I don't have sat. I have nothing. I bought a 32 inch Sony Vvega for the sole purpose of hooking up my TG16, SNES, GENESIS, SATURN, N64, DREAMCAST, PS2, XBOX, and GAMECUBE.
With that much quality entertainment, I never miss reality television.
Hell, some people function just fine without one.
:)
How can you verify that?
Can we take a poll?
How many people here have voices in their heads? Raise your hands, please.
(One exception; the visual animations for the guide itself are very well done for the time, and prophetic of the multimedia/information overload of the 1990s onwards)
Actually, I choose to look at it in the reverse direction.
The original movie is outstanding except for those really bad live action bits in between.
You see, the Guide Entries are the ENTIRE reason to watch the original BBS series. In fact, something I always thought would be a cool project would be for someone to take the original series and make an animated replacement for all of the live actor segments.
It's a show were the dialog is definately superior to the on screen performance, and as you pointed out the guide animations are fantastic.
I often play the DVD of the movie, or the original radio series on CD for background noise. Even after several dozens of listenings I still get a laugh or two out of some of them.
The new movie won't even be good for that.
"Well wait.. the dude has to 'hitchhike', right? People do this by raising their thumb. The audience may not get right away that he isn't actually holding a dildo."
Some changes make sense. The one you mentioned, of course being one of them.
Marvin, however, doesn't make any sense. Nor does the Heart of Gold. Nor does a half dozen other things. I won't even get into Ford Prefect, because a lot of people who want to think being politically correct is more important than artistic interpretation will start to insult me, throw some stupid counter-arguments out, and basically just make themselves look as idiotic as the directors of this film.
In the end all I have to say is that the original BBS TV Show was bad because it was on a very low budget, so I don't see any reason why this interpretation couldn't have been outstanding considering it's on a high budget. Instead, what I think we are going to find is that the new one is much worse, just prettier on the screen.
That saddens me.
It was my understanding that HOW it got to be that shape was never a mystery. The real mystery was who in the hell was holding that huge spatula, and where did they get it in the first place?
If enough people were bothered by protected AAC, then iTunes wouldn't be so popular.
:)
You seem to be forgetting all those people who like to yoink the DRM right out of iTunes using Hymn.
I hate DRM. I like iTunes. I use Hymn. Oh, and thanks to Pepsi and Mountain Dew, I have downloaded well over 100 songs for free and my co-workers who do not use iTunes just keep giving me more and more caps.
I'd rather have my money in a bank that's recently had such an incident and caught the perps, than one that's still oblivious to the hazard.
Which is why they staged the whole thing. fnord
Reluctantly, being that I've seen it written many times how this company or that company won't support Memory Stick format, and then when 3rd party MS formats do come out, they are very few in numbers.
Amazing, isn't it, that everybody loves to throw the name SanDisk around, but it's the only one being thrown out there? There is a reason for that.
I do plan on buying a 1 gig MS card. I just wish I could have used one of my existing CF cards instead.
The front of the chassis is well designed and looks beautiful -- the back looks like it was done by a totally different designer.
Your complains are very similar to mine, but I would also say that the front of the chassis only looks beautiful.
The front of the display is too easily scratched, and the black front is actually painted on the inside, meaning that the entire front face has that plastic glossy look that easily attracts dust and fingerprints, scratches easily, and goes from looking like it's worth the full $250 to $20 in just a few days. I've already seen a few people who have PSPs that look like they're over a year old.
I had to return an unreasonably high number of units for exchanges and refunds due to dead pixels, drives, dust and fingerprings in the screens and so on, but My final good unit is great. Having learned what I had about the previous units, the first thing I did with mine after taking it out of the box was bolting on one of the full face covers. You can find them at most game stores. The one I went with looks like a totally clear replica of the entire front of the unit, with holes cut away for the controler areas. It has two thumb screws you use to screw it into the top of the PSP and it forms a custom fit shield over the entire PSP keeping it free of dust, fingerprints, and scratches.
Because it is a better quality plastic than the front of the PSP (which was obviously chosen for gloss, not durability) it resists blemishes instead of attacts them.
The plastic chosen for the front of the PSP, in my opinion was a totally retarded decision. It would have been better for them to go with a two piece front design. A hard solid black plastic front, with a cut away for a hard clear plastic (or glass) screen. Their decision to go with the cheap, weak, glossy plastic they went with is so bad I fully expect them to release a slightly modified version that fixes the problem. Possibly sooner than later.
Also, one thing I noticed was that the plastic they used has some kind of serious electrostatic properties which draw in dust like a magnet. It's so bad, that my final PSP which finally had no dead pixels and no dust inside the screen became contaminated with dust inside the screen after a few days. It's not too bad, but there is a serious design issue going on if the system can just attract dust to the point that it gets inside the screen if it's just left out.
These are just my thoughts. Overall, I love the system though. I hope an SDK comes out. Also, I see some serious potential for some ground-breaking multiplayer games. Too bad I've lost faith in most video game developer's abilities to innovate.
For another, there are no plans for writable UMDs, and even if there were, the drives would certainly cost more than a MS.
The DRIVES would, but the MEDIA would not.
There probably isn't any more than $2 worth of materials and workmanship going into a single UMD. Blanks would probably be about that price.
I'd pay $500 for a UMD writer WAY before I'd pay for $500 worth of memory sticks.
And for your information, the Memory Stick format IS proprietary, Sony controls the format, and the third party manufactured Memory Sticks have been less popular (as you pointed out) for exactly that reason. Even though 3rd parties (reluctantly) make Memory Sticks, they do so under strict conditions set out by Sony.
The Memory Stick and it's relatives are not at all industry accepted standards. I would have much rather liked to have seen any of the other existing memory formats used.
I think the biggest reason Sony has always loved to force Memory Stick down people's throat is because it can be used to employ some kind of DRM, but I believe many of the other formats can as well, so once again this is just Sony being their usual prick selves.
Ranked from most common faults to least common faults, all nine had at least one of the following, most had more than one.
1. Dead Pixels (Glaringly obvious, solid white, prominantly displayed near center of screen).
2. Dust INSIDE the display.
3. Fingerprints INSIDE the display.
4. A few had fingerprints on the outside, fresh out of the sealed box. This would normally not be an issue since it could be cleaned, but the fingerprints seemed to have been some kind of thick oil or other residue that could not easily be wiped off. Any attempt to clean it off resulted in scratching or etching the surface of the PSP.
5. A few had Memory-Stick doors that broke off easily or were hanging loose (wouldn't close and stay closed) right out of the box.
It is my theory that all of the stores in my area recieved PSPs from the same factory, manufacture date, and possibly even say consecutive batch.
THANKS for the pointer! I really liked REZ and I really do like Lumines. In fact, Lumines is the very reason I haven't totally given up on the PSP. I would have kept trying, but the Wal-mart stores I kept buying/returning the systems to ran out of stock due to people returning them. The stores in my area must have all gotten a bum-batch. Every one of them has annoyingly visible dead pixels, fingerprints inside the screens, dust inside the screens, missing or broken Memory-Slot doors, and other such obvious reasons for exchange.
I will definately have to pick up Meteos.
Honestly, there's just not a hell of a lot either of the two new handhelds have to offer me.
I felt the same way. I already had a GBA and an SP. Then I played the 4 player battle in Mario 64 and was hooked. There are more than 10 people where I work who regularly duke it out before, durring (on break of course), and after work. Plus replaying Mario 64 seemed like a chore I didn't want to get into but I found myself playing it through again and realizing why I liked it so much. 150 stars later I finally decided it really was/is a great game, and the added features made the game worthy of a replay even almost 10 years later.
Those of my co-workers who never played the original thoroughly loved playing Mario 64 through to the end, and some of them are still working on it. I figure this is probably the case for many people. Many people missed out on Mario 64, and this is their second chance to see what made this game so great.
And for what it's worth, Yoshi Touch And Go is so unique (and actually fun) that while I was skeptical at first, I have actually found myself playing it more than I expected I would. It's not just that it's a unique control concept, but the fact that it's really just good addictive fun that keeps me playing it.
Ignoring that Mario 64 is still a great game (and still fun, even if dated), I wonder how it is some people seem to ignore the fact that there are still countless great GBA games that will play on a DS.
Even if they are ignored for simply not being specifically for the DS, that's still more good games than are available for the PSP.
In fact, I personally only really consider Lumines to be the only good game for the PSP. I can't play my copy though. I've had to return NINE PSPs for being defective (in several different ways) and am currently now without a PSP.
Funny "PSP" and "Replacement" were in the same sentence. After now having returned four PSPs and settled for a full refund (though I am stuck with the games I purchased) I was actually considering buying an iPod (or other music palyer).
They aren't really in the same league, no, but at least I can be reasonably sure a music player won't break on me.
My luck with the PSP has been less than perfect, I suppose you could say.
What kind of ass monke decided that they didn't need at least a low level clean room to assemble these packages?
The same ass-monkey that allowed the factory workers to touch the LCD with bare hands.
In another post, I explained how one of my PSPs had fingerprints on the INSIDE of the screen. Wal-Mart took that one back, of course. They also took back the one with pink and white pixels, and the one with an unsightly amount of dust inside the screen.
Number 4 only has one errant pixel, but I was starting to come to the conclusion that it might just be a tiny spec of dust, as it appears to be above the LCD, not in it. I'd care if it weren't all the way over to the leftmost side.
"Disassemble! No!!!! Number 5 no disassemble."
I am on my 4th PSP because the first three had unacceptably dead screens. Thank goodness for Wal-Mart's return policy.
If for some reason I do have to return this one, I think I will do just as this guy has done before I return it.
FUSE: "I'd like to return this."
DESK: "What seems to be the problem sir?"
FUSE: (Pours a pile of parts onto the counter) "It just stopped working."
Nintendo DS which is lacking serious mainstream attention.
Sales figures, and more importantly the key demographics of those buying the system, would tend to disagree with you.
The DS has SOLD very well, and continues to sell well. The part that people are having the hardest time trying to understand is why such a large percentage of those people buying the DS are typically not game players, and older than most previous groups of game players.
The PSP isn't selling as well as Sony had hoped, but considering it's high price tag for a handheld, that's not a shocker. The PS2 launched when the US economy was doing a whole lot better, and it launched after a whole lot of fanfare. It also had a huge library of games ready to play on it. The high price, lack of quality games, and high defect rate are all working against Sony this time. That isn't to say that the machine won't overcome all of this on it's own merit in time.
However, considering the Nintendo DS has already sold numbers that the game developers consider "Critical Mass" and the PSP hasn't even shipped that many yet, I would say the DS is slated to do just fine.
(Just for the record, I know dozens of DS owners, most of which not even considering a PSP yet.)