> Vista is basically still playing catch up to OS X
And the closer it gets the more annoying it will be to use... In fact, considering the job Microsoft are doing, it will most likely get more annoying *whether or not* you find the OSX one good or bad! Personally, I find the OSX interface far too cumbersome and inefficient. Enough with the colourful bouncing and animationed transitions already!
And yes, I run XP with themes and things like the auto-hiding of less used menu items switched off (i.e. very little different to 2K, NT4, or even 9x interface).
They have a 14 day trial in the shops now for somethign like just two euro. I'm tempted, but then I think of the whole "the first one is free" thing...
Besides, even without WoW there are plenty of videogames to get addicted to, even in non-MMO group of computer RPGs. Titan Quest is currently sucking globs of my time despite really just being Diablo 2 for 2006.
Windows XP Pro SP2, in my experience of three separate PCs I use (work, home, laptop) will automatically open up an explorer window of the files when I insert a SD card. In fact, if the card has photos only, it offers to start a slideshow of photos.
That is autorun behaviour. I had not considered the implications, but I presume if an SD card with a valid autorun.inf was inserted, then it would autorun in the conventional fashion.
On the two desktops I am using a USB SD card reader. The laptop has a built in non-USB memory card adaptor.
On the crummy HD-ready TVs people have bought - I sure won't be thinking "what quality".
The HD-ready logo used here is not very helpful - all it tells you is that if you stick in a HD signal, you get a picture. So many of the models being sold here for 1000 and more are crummy low-res sets, that don't even handle normal TV (not good on the interlaced PAL) and rescale *both* 720p and 1080i. For some, the only way you would get native res is to feed it with a low-res signal from your PC.
Samsung have a nice CRT HDTV that seems pretty genuine (it properly changes the picture geometry for widescreen for example - no rescaling, and handles interlaced signals - i.e. normal TV); unfortunately the large size models aren't readily available here in Ireland.
There are some decent LCD ones too, but they are all several grand, and sit alongside models of the same price that are rubbish. Try figuring out from the salesperson's answers which set is good, and which bad. (Oh, and they are fed with analogue Antenna input - so much for judging based on the picture; although it'll let you know how the set handles basic TV I guess).
It's hard to keep a straight face at the proud owners of HD ready TVs showing them off as one looks at a horribly rescaled picture with action smearing across the low-response LCD screen.
Wait a couple years before buying HD TV, blu ray players, HD DVD players or PS3s. I still think the Xbox 360 is bad value too (you probably have to own a PC anyways - so adding the cost of a basic PC to the cost of Xbox 360 = PC that will do you for years of gameplaying unless you are a quality-crazed tech follower).
WGA isn't a big deal - you can still choose not to install the WGA *notifier* (it appears as a separate update once you've installed WGA and accessed Windows Update again). WGA notifier is the thing that will annoy you if you have either an invalid licence, or your licenced copy of Windows has not been recognised.
Well... here in Ireland we got the same kit. We didn't use them after the report against them by Commission for Electronic Voting that the govt. set up (with the intention of quelling dissent by having it agree that the machines were fit for purpose).
However, we didn't have a vote about keeping them. The govt. has just been storing them, at a cost of millions. There isn't yet a clear plan - although hopefully with this latest publicity the possibility of their ever being used is nil.
Yup - that's what people decided here in Ireland - that the proposed e-voting while having the appearance of being progressive, was a regressive step (our paper voting works well apart from the potential for final results not being set for a week with recounts and our use of transferable votes). We are currently spending millions of Euro every year *storing* machines of this type that were bought here and fortunately not used in the end.
The guys in the Netherlands apparently made reference to the document produced by our Commission for Electronic Voting - which suggested the hardware was OK but the software a joke (the govt. had set up the committee to stifle dissent by having an independant body give a stamp of approval - it didn't quite work out like that:) Of course, the fun thing about this story is that we now know that the hardware is totally insecure too.
Not a hope of us using these machines in Ireland now - we should try flog them off to some fledgling democracy or something.
Ireland does not have any US military bases, or anything approaching it. There are no NATO bases either.
We hypocritically are happy to charge them for the use of our airport facilities by the US military for who knows what - but that is a far cry from having military bases. Make no mistake, there are plenty who complain about US policy but are content enough with this situation - *even* those who complain about the govt. are basically using them as a scapegoat. The govt. wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't for general support/moral ambivalence. Mind you, the government would be as happy to charge anyone else who wished to use them (that is what our version of neutrality is) and in fact did for the Soviets during the Cold War (the Russians still own the oil depot at Shannon that refuels the US planes - the irony of it is mildly amusing).
I probably will have to visit the US again sometime. I sincerely hope that the Visa Waiver scheme says in place; coming from Ireland it's been the one thing not turning the air travel thing into a complete nightmare. Especially as we have pre-clearance at our local simple and friendly small airport at Shannon - even if the US immigration people are a tad intimidating, it's reassuring being in a familiar place on home ground. Dublin airport is a nightmare though because it is overcrowded - so security takes an age. Shannon is nice and relaxed always - very soothing for air travel. If you are travelling to somewhere in Europe requiring a change when coming from the US, and there are flights from Shannon to your local destination (there often aren't of course!), I *highly* recommend it rather than somewhere like Heathrow for changing plane.
The idea of always-armed police scares the pants off me.
I'm very tempted to just do my best to never have to leave Ireland. Mind you, airport security and the government are trying hard to help me in this (for the latter, privatising and selling off shares in our national airline which currently has preferential treatment in say, landing at Heathrow - and to date has pretty much provided an essential public service. And also ineptly not building a second terminal at Dublin airport so as the place is sometimes unsafe with the numbers using the building).
Finally here in Ireland we are starting to do something other than dump everything. We've implemented the EU WEEE directive, so now there is a charge for every item sold to cover its recycling or waste handling. Also there are now decent modern recycle depots being run by the local councils, where in some places, you can bring just about anything. The city I'm in doesn't have an all-encompassing one though - so the council pay a scrap merchant instead for them to administer it (they have a big free yard). It's kind of odd going there and seeing the big piles of cookers, washing machines, TVs, PCs and monitors.
The local council outside the city has a brand spanking new depot (in the main county town) that cost XX million - you can bring just about anything there, and it costs something like just 4 ($5) for an entire carload!
Oh - and it makes sense for people not to just chuck stuff out, because the local bin services charge people by weight for the ordinary "landfill" bin. Dry recyclables are collected too - but they only take simple stuff like newspaper, cartons, cardboard, glass, plastic bottles.
I don't recollect paying a WEEE charge on the Dell I bought online though. I wonder what the situation is. A bunch of muppets like Amazon couldn't figure things out for a while, and ended up not selling electronics to Ireland *at all* over the Internet for a while. I don't know that it is necessary for them to add the WEEE charge when they are based outside Ireland - but all I really care about is that they are selling here again.
No - I believe the UK is better than the US. But it's a) getting worse, and b) isn't that great compared to my home country of Ireland.
Mind you - I wouldn't pick Ireland for comparison either. Admittedly, we don't have enough police per head of population for it to be a police state even if the govt. wanted it. But there are non-normal security measures even today; the single biggest threat to the state remains the private army that recruits, trains and maintains readiness within the state. Still - as long as you have nothing to do with groups falsely styling themselves "Óglaigh na hÉireann" (the name used by the Irish Army, as well as the illegal IRA groups - not co-incidentally) you are not going to be that scrutinised by the authorities - as they even today have their hands full.
We do have an "Offences against the State Act" (as part of these measures) allowing prolonged detention - but it is days not weeks like the UK. It is used in some criminal cases that have nothing to do with action against the state though - and trials are jury-less (three judges in the "Special Criminal Court").
But no - the UK is not a remotely sane place either - even if better than the US.
Britain of 2006 is a police state, complete with pervasive CCTV and ASBOs banning you from doing anything at all. They are not used to ban people from doing *illegal* acts - as why would that be necessary - if it is illegal to begin with then you can't do it. Nope - although in theory just to stop people doing annoying things (making it illegal for them to break the ASBO) - it can be used to ban you from anything - the conditions for an ASBO are entirely subjective.
No - the UK is not a good place to compare to the US.
A lot of new houses here in Ireland are built using cavity walls, i.e. a wall of "breeze blocks" (ugly concrete blocks) with an exterior wall of brick or pebble-dashed/plastered breeze block. Insulation such as aeroboard, and damp-coursing is used between the walls. I believe this is common in the UK too.
Pretty authentically brick as far as I'm concerned. The breeze blocks are laid in the same fashion as the far smaller traditional bricks.
Usually cast concrete is used for the first floor in the standard two-storey semi-detached or whatever (I don't think it's usually steel re-enforced though for small buildings, just with apartments and offices). Apartments and offices often have re-enforced cast concrete walls too, quite often with the insulation tacked on and a facade wall of brick, pebble-dashed breeze block, glass, plastic, etc. built around them.
At my Uni we get the year's notes for anything between 4 and 10. Some lecturers choose not to go this route, and for others, the content is pretty incomprehensible without being at the lectures where it's explained.
But I've always thought those at other Unis that have to take down mountains of notes *in addition* to paying attention to the lecturer are losing out.
Yeah - I didn't bother saying anything more about plasmas though due to the dimming problem.
I know you can get reasonable HDTV LCDs, but they are fearsomely expensive (any of the models below about 1800 seem pretty rubbish at displaying bog standard PAL TV - i.e. what we will be using here for quite some time more in conjunction with new and expensive HD services/media).
More importantly - it's nigh on impossible to get a decent TV now, HD or not, for anything but silly money. Almost all the tellys on sale here in Ireland are now LCD or plasma. You have a choice of cheap and rubbish, expensive and rubbish, or really expensive and probably just about acceptable (if you choose well).
The plasmas are rather silly due to the halving in brightness every X months/years. The LCDs have massive problems with resampling - they are designed for one native resolution (Usually one of 576, 720, 1080 lines here in Ireland, or else some random PC resolution just to make everything look crap). Only the good ones do the resampling well. Also, apart from the really decent ones, they do not cope with displaying interlaced content, i.e. our SDTV (PAL) or 1080i (which looks likely to be more common here in Europe - 720 just isn't that big an increase over 576). Also it is only the really good ones that have decent response, a lot of them smear fast-moving content.
Samsung are about the only people doing a CRT HDTV, it's a clever "slim" tube too. But certainly here in Ireland they are hard to come by, and impossible for the larger sizes (needed for displaying 4:3 TV at a decent size on a widescreen). As regards SDTV CRTs, there are fewer and fewer in the shops now, usually only small models (and I can't see those staying long, as the LCD panels are handier - albeit rubbish - and as cheap for people buying small TVs - and people thing LCD panels are "cool").
Anyways - for buying TVs it is really pretty grim at the moment.
Yeah? And is it going to stay at $600? And are there not plenty of crazy people out there who'll fork out $600 to have it on release or shortly thereafter (mainly just because of the name)?
Sony may not make it quite the success with such a high start-off price, but if there are enough of the cash-laden pioneers (who get the arrows in the back) out there, then they may laugh more than Microsoft in the long run (albeit a kind of Mwah hah hah evil laugh).
The launch price is not as important as how easily they can afford to drop the price subsequently, and how quickly. People thought the PS2 launch price was outrageous, and it was. Didn't stop it being a massive success, with both early adopters paying silly money, and then the plebs buying it after the price drops. The Xbox 360 is overpriced too - Microsoft seem to be doing okay enough even if it isn't quite selling like hot cakes.
I think the PS3 will be slow to sell at the start - but then, the Xbox360 is not yet outselling the PS2, so you know, Sony don't need to worry so much about the short term, more the medium and long term. A lot depends on the components, particularly Blu-ray, going down in cost as production ramps up and the tech matures. Barring screw-ups (and they could happen) that'll probably be the scheme of things.
The dark horse is of course the Wii - if Nintendo can pull off a DS lite on it... well, we know who'll be the winner of the next-gen consoles:)
They are cumulatively $13.53 now. There isn't that much content (i.e. although almost a quarter of the main game price, it is but a fraction of the main game content). In the long run, the plebs who can't work out the economics and faithfully buy each little scrap of content will be very shortchanged.
What is worst about this, is that if the model is successful (and it probably will be), we will see far less actual game releases (eventually it would be a case of why would the game company release the "main" game at all - if they can essentially move a subscription model). The entire thing is insideous, and is entirely arranged for Microsoft to have more people using and paying for their Live service. Don't be surprised when having a Live subscription becomes not only a must for Xbox360 gaming, but also PC gaming.
Nah - Vista will be the true Windows ME of the 21st century. XP Pro is the patched version of 2K (albeit with silly stuff chucked in like the fisher-price interface - but what sensible person uses that?!)
Interestingly, I haven't had Windows bluescreen on me since way back when I used Win 95 and NT4. The latter only did so a handful of times, and it was likely due to poor hardware support (read, the OS didn't cope with crappy hardware).
It's annoying how long it takes to sanitise XP after install mind you. I don't mind using 2K, but as you say, they are much the same. I'm happier with the more up-to-date OS considering it's not costing me money (came with new PCs in work + home, so all I had to do was make sure I didn't get the Home version or even more worringly, XP "Media Centre Edition").
Slashdot Mirror
> Vista is basically still playing catch up to OS X
And the closer it gets the more annoying it will be to use... In fact, considering the job Microsoft are doing, it will most likely get more annoying *whether or not* you find the OSX one good or bad! Personally, I find the OSX interface far too cumbersome and inefficient. Enough with the colourful bouncing and animationed transitions already!
And yes, I run XP with themes and things like the auto-hiding of less used menu items switched off (i.e. very little different to 2K, NT4, or even 9x interface).
Yeah, but you can buy more games then. I have a back log of games to play.
The advantage is that it is more variation than playing WoW month after month.
They have a 14 day trial in the shops now for somethign like just two euro. I'm tempted, but then I think of the whole "the first one is free" thing...
Besides, even without WoW there are plenty of videogames to get addicted to, even in non-MMO group of computer RPGs. Titan Quest is currently sucking globs of my time despite really just being Diablo 2 for 2006.
Windows XP Pro SP2, in my experience of three separate PCs I use (work, home, laptop) will automatically open up an explorer window of the files when I insert a SD card. In fact, if the card has photos only, it offers to start a slideshow of photos.
That is autorun behaviour. I had not considered the implications, but I presume if an SD card with a valid autorun.inf was inserted, then it would autorun in the conventional fashion.
On the two desktops I am using a USB SD card reader. The laptop has a built in non-USB memory card adaptor.
On the crummy HD-ready TVs people have bought - I sure won't be thinking "what quality".
The HD-ready logo used here is not very helpful - all it tells you is that if you stick in a HD signal, you get a picture. So many of the models being sold here for 1000 and more are crummy low-res sets, that don't even handle normal TV (not good on the interlaced PAL) and rescale *both* 720p and 1080i. For some, the only way you would get native res is to feed it with a low-res signal from your PC.
Samsung have a nice CRT HDTV that seems pretty genuine (it properly changes the picture geometry for widescreen for example - no rescaling, and handles interlaced signals - i.e. normal TV); unfortunately the large size models aren't readily available here in Ireland.
There are some decent LCD ones too, but they are all several grand, and sit alongside models of the same price that are rubbish. Try figuring out from the salesperson's answers which set is good, and which bad. (Oh, and they are fed with analogue Antenna input - so much for judging based on the picture; although it'll let you know how the set handles basic TV I guess).
It's hard to keep a straight face at the proud owners of HD ready TVs showing them off as one looks at a horribly rescaled picture with action smearing across the low-response LCD screen.
Wait a couple years before buying HD TV, blu ray players, HD DVD players or PS3s. I still think the Xbox 360 is bad value too (you probably have to own a PC anyways - so adding the cost of a basic PC to the cost of Xbox 360 = PC that will do you for years of gameplaying unless you are a quality-crazed tech follower).
WGA isn't a big deal - you can still choose not to install the WGA *notifier* (it appears as a separate update once you've installed WGA and accessed Windows Update again). WGA notifier is the thing that will annoy you if you have either an invalid licence, or your licenced copy of Windows has not been recognised.
Well... here in Ireland we got the same kit. We didn't use them after the report against them by Commission for Electronic Voting that the govt. set up (with the intention of quelling dissent by having it agree that the machines were fit for purpose).
However, we didn't have a vote about keeping them. The govt. has just been storing them, at a cost of millions. There isn't yet a clear plan - although hopefully with this latest publicity the possibility of their ever being used is nil.
Yup - that's what people decided here in Ireland - that the proposed e-voting while having the appearance of being progressive, was a regressive step (our paper voting works well apart from the potential for final results not being set for a week with recounts and our use of transferable votes). We are currently spending millions of Euro every year *storing* machines of this type that were bought here and fortunately not used in the end.
:) Of course, the fun thing about this story is that we now know that the hardware is totally insecure too.
The guys in the Netherlands apparently made reference to the document produced by our Commission for Electronic Voting - which suggested the hardware was OK but the software a joke (the govt. had set up the committee to stifle dissent by having an independant body give a stamp of approval - it didn't quite work out like that
Not a hope of us using these machines in Ireland now - we should try flog them off to some fledgling democracy or something.
hmmm... does an LCD with slow response time have the same effect? :)
Ireland does not have any US military bases, or anything approaching it. There are no NATO bases either.
We hypocritically are happy to charge them for the use of our airport facilities by the US military for who knows what - but that is a far cry from having military bases. Make no mistake, there are plenty who complain about US policy but are content enough with this situation - *even* those who complain about the govt. are basically using them as a scapegoat. The govt. wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't for general support/moral ambivalence. Mind you, the government would be as happy to charge anyone else who wished to use them (that is what our version of neutrality is) and in fact did for the Soviets during the Cold War (the Russians still own the oil depot at Shannon that refuels the US planes - the irony of it is mildly amusing).
I probably will have to visit the US again sometime. I sincerely hope that the Visa Waiver scheme says in place; coming from Ireland it's been the one thing not turning the air travel thing into a complete nightmare. Especially as we have pre-clearance at our local simple and friendly small airport at Shannon - even if the US immigration people are a tad intimidating, it's reassuring being in a familiar place on home ground. Dublin airport is a nightmare though because it is overcrowded - so security takes an age. Shannon is nice and relaxed always - very soothing for air travel. If you are travelling to somewhere in Europe requiring a change when coming from the US, and there are flights from Shannon to your local destination (there often aren't of course!), I *highly* recommend it rather than somewhere like Heathrow for changing plane.
The idea of always-armed police scares the pants off me.
I'm very tempted to just do my best to never have to leave Ireland. Mind you, airport security and the government are trying hard to help me in this (for the latter, privatising and selling off shares in our national airline which currently has preferential treatment in say, landing at Heathrow - and to date has pretty much provided an essential public service. And also ineptly not building a second terminal at Dublin airport so as the place is sometimes unsafe with the numbers using the building).
Finally here in Ireland we are starting to do something other than dump everything. We've implemented the EU WEEE directive, so now there is a charge for every item sold to cover its recycling or waste handling. Also there are now decent modern recycle depots being run by the local councils, where in some places, you can bring just about anything. The city I'm in doesn't have an all-encompassing one though - so the council pay a scrap merchant instead for them to administer it (they have a big free yard). It's kind of odd going there and seeing the big piles of cookers, washing machines, TVs, PCs and monitors.
The local council outside the city has a brand spanking new depot (in the main county town) that cost XX million - you can bring just about anything there, and it costs something like just 4 ($5) for an entire carload!
Oh - and it makes sense for people not to just chuck stuff out, because the local bin services charge people by weight for the ordinary "landfill" bin. Dry recyclables are collected too - but they only take simple stuff like newspaper, cartons, cardboard, glass, plastic bottles.
I don't recollect paying a WEEE charge on the Dell I bought online though. I wonder what the situation is. A bunch of muppets like Amazon couldn't figure things out for a while, and ended up not selling electronics to Ireland *at all* over the Internet for a while. I don't know that it is necessary for them to add the WEEE charge when they are based outside Ireland - but all I really care about is that they are selling here again.
No - I believe the UK is better than the US. But it's a) getting worse, and b) isn't that great compared to my home country of Ireland.
Mind you - I wouldn't pick Ireland for comparison either. Admittedly, we don't have enough police per head of population for it to be a police state even if the govt. wanted it. But there are non-normal security measures even today; the single biggest threat to the state remains the private army that recruits, trains and maintains readiness within the state. Still - as long as you have nothing to do with groups falsely styling themselves "Óglaigh na hÉireann" (the name used by the Irish Army, as well as the illegal IRA groups - not co-incidentally) you are not going to be that scrutinised by the authorities - as they even today have their hands full.
We do have an "Offences against the State Act" (as part of these measures) allowing prolonged detention - but it is days not weeks like the UK. It is used in some criminal cases that have nothing to do with action against the state though - and trials are jury-less (three judges in the "Special Criminal Court").
But no - the UK is not a remotely sane place either - even if better than the US.
Britain of 2006 is a police state, complete with pervasive CCTV and ASBOs banning you from doing anything at all. They are not used to ban people from doing *illegal* acts - as why would that be necessary - if it is illegal to begin with then you can't do it. Nope - although in theory just to stop people doing annoying things (making it illegal for them to break the ASBO) - it can be used to ban you from anything - the conditions for an ASBO are entirely subjective.
No - the UK is not a good place to compare to the US.
A lot of new houses here in Ireland are built using cavity walls, i.e. a wall of "breeze blocks" (ugly concrete blocks) with an exterior wall of brick or pebble-dashed/plastered breeze block. Insulation such as aeroboard, and damp-coursing is used between the walls. I believe this is common in the UK too.
Pretty authentically brick as far as I'm concerned. The breeze blocks are laid in the same fashion as the far smaller traditional bricks.
Usually cast concrete is used for the first floor in the standard two-storey semi-detached or whatever (I don't think it's usually steel re-enforced though for small buildings, just with apartments and offices). Apartments and offices often have re-enforced cast concrete walls too, quite often with the insulation tacked on and a facade wall of brick, pebble-dashed breeze block, glass, plastic, etc. built around them.
The 8 platforms thing is pretty cool though.
That should be €4 - €10 per subject. Argh - why can't slashdot comment box handle euro symbols entered into it!
At my Uni we get the year's notes for anything between 4 and 10. Some lecturers choose not to go this route, and for others, the content is pretty incomprehensible without being at the lectures where it's explained.
But I've always thought those at other Unis that have to take down mountains of notes *in addition* to paying attention to the lecturer are losing out.
Yeah - I didn't bother saying anything more about plasmas though due to the dimming problem.
I know you can get reasonable HDTV LCDs, but they are fearsomely expensive (any of the models below about 1800 seem pretty rubbish at displaying bog standard PAL TV - i.e. what we will be using here for quite some time more in conjunction with new and expensive HD services/media).
More importantly - it's nigh on impossible to get a decent TV now, HD or not, for anything but silly money. Almost all the tellys on sale here in Ireland are now LCD or plasma. You have a choice of cheap and rubbish, expensive and rubbish, or really expensive and probably just about acceptable (if you choose well).
The plasmas are rather silly due to the halving in brightness every X months/years. The LCDs have massive problems with resampling - they are designed for one native resolution (Usually one of 576, 720, 1080 lines here in Ireland, or else some random PC resolution just to make everything look crap). Only the good ones do the resampling well. Also, apart from the really decent ones, they do not cope with displaying interlaced content, i.e. our SDTV (PAL) or 1080i (which looks likely to be more common here in Europe - 720 just isn't that big an increase over 576). Also it is only the really good ones that have decent response, a lot of them smear fast-moving content.
Samsung are about the only people doing a CRT HDTV, it's a clever "slim" tube too. But certainly here in Ireland they are hard to come by, and impossible for the larger sizes (needed for displaying 4:3 TV at a decent size on a widescreen). As regards SDTV CRTs, there are fewer and fewer in the shops now, usually only small models (and I can't see those staying long, as the LCD panels are handier - albeit rubbish - and as cheap for people buying small TVs - and people thing LCD panels are "cool").
Anyways - for buying TVs it is really pretty grim at the moment.
Yeah? And is it going to stay at $600? And are there not plenty of crazy people out there who'll fork out $600 to have it on release or shortly thereafter (mainly just because of the name)?
:)
Sony may not make it quite the success with such a high start-off price, but if there are enough of the cash-laden pioneers (who get the arrows in the back) out there, then they may laugh more than Microsoft in the long run (albeit a kind of Mwah hah hah evil laugh).
The launch price is not as important as how easily they can afford to drop the price subsequently, and how quickly. People thought the PS2 launch price was outrageous, and it was. Didn't stop it being a massive success, with both early adopters paying silly money, and then the plebs buying it after the price drops. The Xbox 360 is overpriced too - Microsoft seem to be doing okay enough even if it isn't quite selling like hot cakes.
I think the PS3 will be slow to sell at the start - but then, the Xbox360 is not yet outselling the PS2, so you know, Sony don't need to worry so much about the short term, more the medium and long term. A lot depends on the components, particularly Blu-ray, going down in cost as production ramps up and the tech matures. Barring screw-ups (and they could happen) that'll probably be the scheme of things.
The dark horse is of course the Wii - if Nintendo can pull off a DS lite on it... well, we know who'll be the winner of the next-gen consoles
They are cumulatively $13.53 now. There isn't that much content (i.e. although almost a quarter of the main game price, it is but a fraction of the main game content). In the long run, the plebs who can't work out the economics and faithfully buy each little scrap of content will be very shortchanged.
What is worst about this, is that if the model is successful (and it probably will be), we will see far less actual game releases (eventually it would be a case of why would the game company release the "main" game at all - if they can essentially move a subscription model). The entire thing is insideous, and is entirely arranged for Microsoft to have more people using and paying for their Live service. Don't be surprised when having a Live subscription becomes not only a must for Xbox360 gaming, but also PC gaming.
I didn't bother seeing it partly *because* of the web hype.
Nah - Vista will be the true Windows ME of the 21st century. XP Pro is the patched version of 2K (albeit with silly stuff chucked in like the fisher-price interface - but what sensible person uses that?!)
Interestingly, I haven't had Windows bluescreen on me since way back when I used Win 95 and NT4. The latter only did so a handful of times, and it was likely due to poor hardware support (read, the OS didn't cope with crappy hardware).
It's annoying how long it takes to sanitise XP after install mind you. I don't mind using 2K, but as you say, they are much the same. I'm happier with the more up-to-date OS considering it's not costing me money (came with new PCs in work + home, so all I had to do was make sure I didn't get the Home version or even more worringly, XP "Media Centre Edition").