Of course Microsoft is going to endorse Nintendo over Sony, because the Wii is not as much of a direct competitor to the 360 as the PS3 will be. So MS pushes a "360 for the bling, Wii for the party games" solution.
I have one of these sitting in a junk bin in my basement: the old Microsoft Sidewinder Freestyle Pro. This thing has the exact same accelerometer-based movement detection as the "innovative" new PS3 motion sensitivity, and it is hideous; think the non-auto-centering joysticks of the Atari 5200. Of course, if you love having to hold your arms at one exact position constantly, I suppose it's wonderful.
Sony didn't just drop the ball on this one. They detonated the ball with high explosives and then fed the ball's remains to a goat.
The coolest laptop bag is the one that doesn't look like a typical laptop bag, and is thus less a target for theft. My wife's looks somewhat like a large diaper bag; that can certainly keep thieves at bay.
I've had a TiVo for nearly as long as you've stated, and I believe that the percentage of people who "just want to have the data in their home" is far higher than most people estimate. I don't want giant media corporations telling me when and where I can watch things; I want to possess the data so I can view it whenever and wherever I desire. Likewise, consider the number of people who purchase DVDs of television series, many of which are still rerunning in syndication today; people do this because they want their own copy.
On the other hand, consider "personal" video recorders that store the content upstream, at the provider's location. They choose when and which content is available. They choose whether you can fast-forward through commercials in it. They choose how many times you can view it, or how long it is available. And, of course, if you cancel your subscription, you lose it all.
This seems like a very interesting shift in their marketing. Originally, they were using the PSP to get people to buy UMDs; now it appears they're trying to do the opposite.
Maybe they should focus on creating actually decent games for the PSP (that aren't more tired gangsta, racing, or sports simulators) to get people to buy them. I know the only game that interests me on it is Lumines, but I'm sure as heck not going to buy one just for that...
Silly commenter! The senators and congresspeople will get free HDTVs with HDMI inputs from the lobbyists, disguised thinly so it doesn't look like a bribery attempt.
But yeah, early adopters buying HDTVs now had better be sure they have HDMI interfaces or they may as well be buying $500 paperweights. The whole point of HDCP is that there is never an unencrypted signal accessible along the signal path. There will never be a (legal) set-top box that decodes an HDCP signal, because this is precisely what the standard was designed to avoid.
At least that's the theory. I give it three months before some company in a country that doesn't care less about so-called "intellectual property rights" to create a pirate HDMI-to-component video device, in which case you'd better believe the MPAA will be lobbying for insanely excessive sentences for people convicted of possessing one.
Agreed... wouldn't this be criminally prosecutable? In the infamous "Black Sunday" case when DirecTV self-destructed a bunch of pirated access cards, those cards were the property of DirecTV so they were allowed to do with them as they pleased. But if we purchase our own hardware, they'll be allowed to destroy it? What if the provider is hacked, and some script kiddie sends out death codes to millions of players worldwide?
Damn, and I was getting excited about Blu-Ray, too...
Look, I duct-taped an oscilloscope to a poodle! Of course there's a lot to be done on the software side, but in the meantime it's a very interesting canine modification!
this is just another "Overhead projectors with LCD panels make big ugly projectors that you cannot use anywhere but a darkened room" story
Which makes them perfect for a makeshift basement theater: plenty of room, very little (if any) light that can't be blocked, and the whole thing is relatively cheap to implement. If I could find a used or refurbished overhead projector for cheap, I'd be all over this solution. Yeah, you're probably not going to get 1080i out of a cheap LCD panel, but if it does at least 1024x768 you can do 720i. Throw in a computer with a Hauppauge WinTV-HD and maybe a WinTV-PVR or two and you've got a pretty respectable system. Maybe not hyper-theaterphile quality, but I'd sure enjoy it in my basement.
My only question has to do with the ramifications of enclosing the projector in a box; what about air flow, heat dissipation, and the like? I'd be throwing in a 120 CFM fan or two, noise or not. Better to have to turn the volume up than to start a fire!
I absolutely agree with you on the subject of conformity; however, I'd like to recommend that you purchase a Chilton's manual and poke around in your car (if you have one) sometime -- not to be a "Car Guy", but to gain some knowledge of how it all works. It really comes in handy after your warranty runs out, especially in these days where most owners' manuals recommend you take your car to a garage to get a headlight changed.
Of course, we all know the eventual solution to closing the "Analog Hole"... make everyone deaf. Everybody wins... until they start imposing DRM on sign language.
If someone gets an electronic imprint of your finger print, you'll be chasing down fraudulent purchases FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE because you CAN'T change your finger print.
Which is why you use it in addition to a passphrase or number, making it a combination of something you know and something you are -- far more secure than just one or the other.
Of course, these days computers reduce all three of the security pillars -- "know", "have", and "are" -- to raw data that can be intercepted and/or stolen, so that's the point in the network we as a society need to ensure is the most secure.
#3. The way things are going, if the EU gets its act together in the next generation or two, we'll be on our way to wistfully quoting "the sun never sets on the American Empire"...
I beg to differ... embedded outsourcing within the country is precisely what the company I work for does. Our clients either tend to be large ones that need us to implement an entire black-box section of a project (and do actually send us mostly-complete requirements documents and interface specifications), or small ones that have some good ideas, and perhaps a good grasp of the hardware involved, but little or no software experience.
The important thing to remember is that outsourced portions of a project should compliment in-house programmers, not replace them. It's true that you wouldn't want both in-house and contract programmers working simultaneously on some Atmel AVR code -- it's far too low-level and tightly-integrated, as you pointed out. But more powerful embedded systems can be split up fairly cleanly; one of my current projects involves writing the device drivers for an ARM-based hardware platform, while the client writes the high-level code that will run on top of them.
Having said that, I'm strongly against outsourcing out of the country -- or even out of the state -- due to difficulties in communications and management. Teleconferences only go so far; often you need face-to-face meetings and physical collaboration to get things working properly. Plus, I believe that the more skilled workers we lose to other nations, the more of us will be vying for those greeter jobs at WalMart.
Yeah, as if it really matters these days. Films and reruns on television are subjected to so much time compression and hacking to bits, you're basically watching the film at 30fps anyway, with the audio corrected for frequency shift. (Ever wonder why orchestral scores have weird rhythmic popping noises in the background? Artifacts from the compression algorithms.)
It's a good thing, too, or else the networks wouldn't have time to cram in another CortiSlim ad.
I have to point out the incredibly useful Atmel AVR series of microcontrollers. Inexpensive ($2 to $8 each), easy to program (there's a GCC port readily available), entirely Flash-based, and pretty powerful for eight-bit microcontrollers. There's a large hobby development community over at AVRFreaks; if you're interested in homebrewing some great projects, check it out!
BENDER: So you guys don't believe in Robot Jesus? RABBIBOT: We believe that he was built, and that he was a very well-programmed robot, but he was not our Messiah.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course Microsoft is going to endorse Nintendo over Sony, because the Wii is not as much of a direct competitor to the 360 as the PS3 will be. So MS pushes a "360 for the bling, Wii for the party games" solution.
Whoa, an "urban simulator" on the XBox?
How innovative!
I have one of these sitting in a junk bin in my basement: the old Microsoft Sidewinder Freestyle Pro. This thing has the exact same accelerometer-based movement detection as the "innovative" new PS3 motion sensitivity, and it is hideous; think the non-auto-centering joysticks of the Atari 5200. Of course, if you love having to hold your arms at one exact position constantly, I suppose it's wonderful.
Sony didn't just drop the ball on this one. They detonated the ball with high explosives and then fed the ball's remains to a goat.
I wish I could find this comment funny. I really, really do.
(sigh)
The coolest laptop bag is the one that doesn't look like a typical laptop bag, and is thus less a target for theft. My wife's looks somewhat like a large diaper bag; that can certainly keep thieves at bay.
I've had a TiVo for nearly as long as you've stated, and I believe that the percentage of people who "just want to have the data in their home" is far higher than most people estimate. I don't want giant media corporations telling me when and where I can watch things; I want to possess the data so I can view it whenever and wherever I desire. Likewise, consider the number of people who purchase DVDs of television series, many of which are still rerunning in syndication today; people do this because they want their own copy.
On the other hand, consider "personal" video recorders that store the content upstream, at the provider's location. They choose when and which content is available. They choose whether you can fast-forward through commercials in it. They choose how many times you can view it, or how long it is available. And, of course, if you cancel your subscription, you lose it all.
No thank you.
This seems like a very interesting shift in their marketing. Originally, they were using the PSP to get people to buy UMDs; now it appears they're trying to do the opposite.
Maybe they should focus on creating actually decent games for the PSP (that aren't more tired gangsta, racing, or sports simulators) to get people to buy them. I know the only game that interests me on it is Lumines, but I'm sure as heck not going to buy one just for that...
Everybody knows that the Right only see things in black and white!
(Funny, or Troll? What's it going to be? YOU DECIDE!)
Silly commenter! The senators and congresspeople will get free HDTVs with HDMI inputs from the lobbyists, disguised thinly so it doesn't look like a bribery attempt.
But yeah, early adopters buying HDTVs now had better be sure they have HDMI interfaces or they may as well be buying $500 paperweights. The whole point of HDCP is that there is never an unencrypted signal accessible along the signal path. There will never be a (legal) set-top box that decodes an HDCP signal, because this is precisely what the standard was designed to avoid.
At least that's the theory. I give it three months before some company in a country that doesn't care less about so-called "intellectual property rights" to create a pirate HDMI-to-component video device, in which case you'd better believe the MPAA will be lobbying for insanely excessive sentences for people convicted of possessing one.
milker$ mount -t cattle
mount: can't find
milker$
Agreed... wouldn't this be criminally prosecutable? In the infamous "Black Sunday" case when DirecTV self-destructed a bunch of pirated access cards, those cards were the property of DirecTV so they were allowed to do with them as they pleased. But if we purchase our own hardware, they'll be allowed to destroy it? What if the provider is hacked, and some script kiddie sends out death codes to millions of players worldwide?
Damn, and I was getting excited about Blu-Ray, too...
Look, I duct-taped an oscilloscope to a poodle! Of course there's a lot to be done on the software side, but in the meantime it's a very interesting canine modification!
"It will be real."
Thank goodness. I'm glad we cleared that up.
Yes, and European-invented HTTP will be extremely exciting without the U.S.-invented graphical browser!
I'm not trying to be flamebait, I'm just trying to point out the inanity of that comment.
My only question has to do with the ramifications of enclosing the projector in a box; what about air flow, heat dissipation, and the like? I'd be throwing in a 120 CFM fan or two, noise or not. Better to have to turn the volume up than to start a fire!
I absolutely agree with you on the subject of conformity; however, I'd like to recommend that you purchase a Chilton's manual and poke around in your car (if you have one) sometime -- not to be a "Car Guy", but to gain some knowledge of how it all works. It really comes in handy after your warranty runs out, especially in these days where most owners' manuals recommend you take your car to a garage to get a headlight changed.
Of course, we all know the eventual solution to closing the "Analog Hole"... make everyone deaf. Everybody wins... until they start imposing DRM on sign language.
Which is why you use it in addition to a passphrase or number, making it a combination of something you know and something you are -- far more secure than just one or the other.
Of course, these days computers reduce all three of the security pillars -- "know", "have", and "are" -- to raw data that can be intercepted and/or stolen, so that's the point in the network we as a society need to ensure is the most secure.
...Slashdot just became a humor site.
In other news, the random fortune chosen on the page is extremely pertinent:
You are not a fool just because you have done something foolish -- only if the folly of it escapes you.
#3. The way things are going, if the EU gets its act together in the next generation or two, we'll be on our way to wistfully quoting "the sun never sets on the American Empire"...
You mean this guy? He's a member of Anime Central's security staff. There's even a bobblehead doll made of him.
There's nothing like a giant bearded man in a sailor suit to install some serious fear in a convention attendee.
I beg to differ... embedded outsourcing within the country is precisely what the company I work for does. Our clients either tend to be large ones that need us to implement an entire black-box section of a project (and do actually send us mostly-complete requirements documents and interface specifications), or small ones that have some good ideas, and perhaps a good grasp of the hardware involved, but little or no software experience.
The important thing to remember is that outsourced portions of a project should compliment in-house programmers, not replace them. It's true that you wouldn't want both in-house and contract programmers working simultaneously on some Atmel AVR code -- it's far too low-level and tightly-integrated, as you pointed out. But more powerful embedded systems can be split up fairly cleanly; one of my current projects involves writing the device drivers for an ARM-based hardware platform, while the client writes the high-level code that will run on top of them.
Having said that, I'm strongly against outsourcing out of the country -- or even out of the state -- due to difficulties in communications and management. Teleconferences only go so far; often you need face-to-face meetings and physical collaboration to get things working properly. Plus, I believe that the more skilled workers we lose to other nations, the more of us will be vying for those greeter jobs at WalMart.
Yeah, as if it really matters these days. Films and reruns on television are subjected to so much time compression and hacking to bits, you're basically watching the film at 30fps anyway, with the audio corrected for frequency shift. (Ever wonder why orchestral scores have weird rhythmic popping noises in the background? Artifacts from the compression algorithms.)
It's a good thing, too, or else the networks wouldn't have time to cram in another CortiSlim ad.
I have to point out the incredibly useful Atmel AVR series of microcontrollers. Inexpensive ($2 to $8 each), easy to program (there's a GCC port readily available), entirely Flash-based, and pretty powerful for eight-bit microcontrollers. There's a large hobby development community over at AVRFreaks; if you're interested in homebrewing some great projects, check it out!
BENDER: So you guys don't believe in Robot Jesus?
RABBIBOT: We believe that he was built, and that he was a very well-programmed robot, but he was not our Messiah.