Frankly, blocking of the whole domains can be attributed to incompetence of someone who was given a list. A friend told me that such problems are very common when someone tries to block selective content from some domain.
It might be easy to criticize this from outside but people need to understand a few things.
1. They want to block access to sites that can potentially give rise to violence.
2. India has a huge muslim population and some of them are fundamentalists. The patience of the rest usually is very volatile after such attacks. Hatred preaching websites can be extremely effective to trigger violence from any side as seen in the past.
3. If #2 happens, the number of casualties is a lot more than the event that triggered it (also proved by recent history).
4. The chances of people reacting to such sites greatly reduce as time goes on. I will not be surprised if all the bans are lifted soon.
5. If they decide to ban websites that preach violence, I do not see any problem with that. It is not like they want to shield people from what is going on in the outside world. They just want to prevent more casualties. Equating this action with what China does is ignorance.
I regularly call 911 to make sure it works, especially when I get a new phone/phone service. Don't you take your car for a test drive before buying it? Don't you double check your knots when rappelling off the edge of a mountain?
Blind trust of a government service is ignorant.
Do you also go to the ER periodically and check how quickly they can get you into surgery? Do you regularly measure the strength of the structure you work/live at? I can understand dialling 911 after changing service to make sure it works but calling it regularly?? That should be treated as abuse.
The service is used by so many people that there will be an instant red flag the moment something is wrong. I am sure you are not the only subscriber using that service.
But they have a finite number of operators and you could be making the last one busy.
What he said is very true as someone I know had to go through this trauma recently (they still are going through it). She is alive but lost part of her brain functionality. The ambulance did come as fast as possible but this is just to underline the importance of a few seconds in these situations.
Hardly surprising, there are what - 22 million Xbox units out there compared with maybe 4 million 360s?
Wrong stats to use. The ones that we can use are:
#1. So there you have it. 4 million consoles (let's be generous, the figures are a little old), and "more than half" are connected to Live.
#2. I seem to remember the Live attach rate for Xbox 1 being around 10%, so figure another couple of million there.
So 2 million Live subscribers on 360 and 2 million Live subscribers on original xbox. A level field. Is it still not surprising that a 18 month old game on original xbox is still more popular on Live than any other title on 360?
After it had been released for 2 weeks I called them and asked what exactly "short wait" meant if it had been 2 weeks. The BB employee stated they wait 90 days before shipping new releases.
That is strange. I hope it is not dependent on geographical location.
I double checked just now. The DVD released on Feb 28th and I received it on March 7th ( I was planning to rent it from the store so had 2-3 days delay in adding it to my queue). Either that employee did not know the policy or the policy varies in areas with high demand.
The 360 still has the best games sold/console ratio in the history of games.
Given the average price an XBOX360 has been sold at since its launch, this is hardly surprising. Most of the people who bought one are also the ones with lots of disposable income. The ones that don't (and are not fanboys) are waiting to have a look at PS3 and Revolution/Wii.
Lets see where the ratio is when xbox360 touches the 15 million mark.
Blockbuster will not send you a new release until it has been released for 90 days.
?? You need to double check that. Blockbuster shipped me "Walk the Line" 2 or 3 days after it was released.
If they had not, I would have used my in-store coupon to get the DVD that weekend. Blockbuster works out much better than Netflix for me.
According to a Govt of India report released in 2004:
Penetration of Broadband, Internet and Personal Computer (PC) in the country was 0.02%, 0.4% and 0.8% respectively at the end of December, 2003. This is just to give an idea of how important xbox360s biggest selling point(IMO) is to the Indian market.
I grew up in India. My first console was the mini-Atari 2600 in 1988. That was the "in" thing then, very few kids had them. My next console was one of the NES knock-offs. I did not know about Nintendo then but I used to play Mario and Baseball and Ping Pong. (I had a 24 ball games in 1 cartridge that noone in my city had... ah those days.) Even fewer kids had these systems. I could feel the negative vibes in the background if I played for more than 30 min or so. In the 90s, Only one kid in few blocks in a metro had a Playstation. I used to love it, but for some reason most kids never cared that they did not own a console. (not enough marketing was one big reason)
Even if they do market aggressively, it is extremely difficult for a console maker to convince parents in India to buy a video game "machine", something that will occupy the family TV, is very expensive(games too) and addictive enough to mess the study time of your child. They are not gamers and this is the biggest problem that I see. Very few of the "earners and spenders" have played Mario/Zelda.
You can do somewhat better in metros where people like to compete with neighbours with some good marketing. But there is no way you will see xboxes selling well in medium sized cities. Even in places like Mumbai, the current xbox is a perceived as a costly toy. It still costs about $300 and games cost about $40-$55.
Compare that with other options in toy shops, a cheap cricket bat and ball or a soccer ball.
Also compare that with movies. Hollywood DVDs are typically available at USD11 - USD18. That is a good amount of money there. Spending three times that amount every other month might not be a practical thing.
There are a lot of factors, both social and financial, that spell doom for penetration of something like xbox360 in Indian market. And I have not even started on the possible public reactions on GTA and Manhunt. Surely, they can launch it there but the Indian market is not ready for it, yet.
The Philips DVP642 is cheap, players PAL, NTSC, and I think region free DVDs as well. It also players XviD and DivX movies as well as a few other popular video formats.
Philips DVP642 is not region-free out of the box but you need to press certain buttons on the remote (with the DVD tray out for some reason) to make it region free. Let me google to find the button combo.
Ok here are the instructions:
1. Turn on the player.
2. Open the tray.
3. Press the following sequence on the remote:
7 8 9 OK 0
4. The number 0 will appear on the lower left side of your screen.
5. It is now region free.
"Who wants to pay $400 for an XBox 360 now when they can wait about 6 months and get it for half price?"
TFA says that in one year xbox360 would be selling at half price of PS3 (PS3's launch price in all probabilities) and this is not the same as its price dropping to half given the predicted difference in the launch prices.
Australia: Winner of ashes for x times before this year.
Australia: Current World Champions of Cricket.
Australia: Leading the Cricket Test and ODI ICC tables.
Good teams are remembered for their victories (Eng Ashes 2005).
Great teams are remembered for their losses (Aus Ashes 2005). Similar is the case with Rugby.
So, a 100 dollars will get you a 20 Gb hard disk, wireless controller, wireless headset, Ethernet cable and remote control? Not a bad deal. I do wonder how many people would actually get the "no hard disk" version.
Actually, it is only extra $60. You will need to get at least a memory card with the core system, right? And they cost $40
The current Xbox already has these types of ads...they seem more like news to me then ads "oh the new forza game is out"
2004 Superbowl day they had a message in there to play xbox during halftime. I read that and I played my xbox (new then) during halftime( I distinctly remember I played TopSpin).
I will never forget the message that made me miss the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction.
I am sure they will figure out a way to deal with the nVidia legal issue.
Xbox360 will be backwards compatible for:
1. They want to sell a lot of xbox360 before PS3 launches.
2. Many good games are coming for the current xbox before the holiday season (I am waiting for Lockdown, Godfather). They want to sell those games also. They don't want to give a choice to parents between a $150 system that can keep a child occupied for at least 1 year with the current library and a $298+ system that has a few games available (maybe $50+).
Why not buy the new system that can play all the current Halos and SplinterCells as well.
3. Xbox production rumored to be in its last stages. The last thing they would want is xbox hurting the sale figures of xbox360.
It WILL be backwards compatible if these games release for current xbox, which looks like the most probable case.
Slashdot Mirror
'There's lots of the feel of the original Halo, where you'll find yourself in a huge (dangerous) and intrinsically fascinating environment
More libraries perhaps?
Frankly, blocking of the whole domains can be attributed to incompetence of someone who was given a list. A friend told me that such problems are very common when someone tries to block selective content from some domain.
It might be easy to criticize this from outside but people need to understand a few things.
1. They want to block access to sites that can potentially give rise to violence.
2. India has a huge muslim population and some of them are fundamentalists. The patience of the rest usually is very volatile after such attacks. Hatred preaching websites can be extremely effective to trigger violence from any side as seen in the past.
3. If #2 happens, the number of casualties is a lot more than the event that triggered it (also proved by recent history).
4. The chances of people reacting to such sites greatly reduce as time goes on. I will not be surprised if all the bans are lifted soon.
5. If they decide to ban websites that preach violence, I do not see any problem with that. It is not like they want to shield people from what is going on in the outside world. They just want to prevent more casualties. Equating this action with what China does is ignorance.
I regularly call 911 to make sure it works, especially when I get a new phone/phone service. Don't you take your car for a test drive before buying it? Don't you double check your knots when rappelling off the edge of a mountain?
Blind trust of a government service is ignorant.
Do you also go to the ER periodically and check how quickly they can get you into surgery? Do you regularly measure the strength of the structure you work/live at? I can understand dialling 911 after changing service to make sure it works but calling it regularly?? That should be treated as abuse.
The service is used by so many people that there will be an instant red flag the moment something is wrong. I am sure you are not the only subscriber using that service.
You know, they have more than one operator.
But they have a finite number of operators and you could be making the last one busy.
What he said is very true as someone I know had to go through this trauma recently (they still are going through it). She is alive but lost part of her brain functionality. The ambulance did come as fast as possible but this is just to underline the importance of a few seconds in these situations.
So how many of the target audience have actually seen the extent of printed material in the LoC to actually say "Wow!! THAT much??"
Hardly surprising, there are what - 22 million Xbox units out there compared with maybe 4 million 360s?
Wrong stats to use. The ones that we can use are:
#1. So there you have it. 4 million consoles (let's be generous, the figures are a little old), and "more than half" are connected to Live.
#2. I seem to remember the Live attach rate for Xbox 1 being around 10%, so figure another couple of million there.
So 2 million Live subscribers on 360 and 2 million Live subscribers on original xbox. A level field. Is it still not surprising that a 18 month old game on original xbox is still more popular on Live than any other title on 360?
After it had been released for 2 weeks I called them and asked what exactly "short wait" meant if it had been 2 weeks. The BB employee stated they wait 90 days before shipping new releases.
That is strange. I hope it is not dependent on geographical location.
I double checked just now. The DVD released on Feb 28th and I received it on March 7th ( I was planning to rent it from the store so had 2-3 days delay in adding it to my queue). Either that employee did not know the policy or the policy varies in areas with high demand.
The 360 still has the best games sold/console ratio in the history of games.
Given the average price an XBOX360 has been sold at since its launch, this is hardly surprising. Most of the people who bought one are also the ones with lots of disposable income. The ones that don't (and are not fanboys) are waiting to have a look at PS3 and Revolution/Wii.
Lets see where the ratio is when xbox360 touches the 15 million mark.
Blockbuster will not send you a new release until it has been released for 90 days.
?? You need to double check that. Blockbuster shipped me "Walk the Line" 2 or 3 days after it was released.
If they had not, I would have used my in-store coupon to get the DVD that weekend. Blockbuster works out much better than Netflix for me.
I think this is... Oh SHOOT! [Runs off to lock the car that has some copyrighted CDs]
According to a Govt of India report released in 2004:
Penetration of Broadband, Internet and Personal Computer (PC) in the country was 0.02%, 0.4% and 0.8% respectively at the end of December, 2003.
This is just to give an idea of how important xbox360s biggest selling point(IMO) is to the Indian market.
I grew up in India. My first console was the mini-Atari 2600 in 1988. That was the "in" thing then, very few kids had them. My next console was one of the NES knock-offs. I did not know about Nintendo then but I used to play Mario and Baseball and Ping Pong. (I had a 24 ball games in 1 cartridge that noone in my city had... ah those days.) Even fewer kids had these systems. I could feel the negative vibes in the background if I played for more than 30 min or so. In the 90s, Only one kid in few blocks in a metro had a Playstation. I used to love it, but for some reason most kids never cared that they did not own a console. (not enough marketing was one big reason)
Even if they do market aggressively, it is extremely difficult for a console maker to convince parents in India to buy a video game "machine", something that will occupy the family TV, is very expensive(games too) and addictive enough to mess the study time of your child. They are not gamers and this is the biggest problem that I see. Very few of the "earners and spenders" have played Mario/Zelda.
You can do somewhat better in metros where people like to compete with neighbours with some good marketing. But there is no way you will see xboxes selling well in medium sized cities. Even in places like Mumbai, the current xbox is a perceived as a costly toy. It still costs about $300 and games cost about $40-$55.
Compare that with other options in toy shops, a cheap cricket bat and ball or a soccer ball. Also compare that with movies. Hollywood DVDs are typically available at USD11 - USD18. That is a good amount of money there. Spending three times that amount every other month might not be a practical thing.
There are a lot of factors, both social and financial, that spell doom for penetration of something like xbox360 in Indian market. And I have not even started on the possible public reactions on GTA and Manhunt. Surely, they can launch it there but the Indian market is not ready for it, yet.
The Philips DVP642 is cheap, players PAL, NTSC, and I think region free DVDs as well. It also players XviD and DivX movies as well as a few other popular video formats.
:P
Philips DVP642 is not region-free out of the box but you need to press certain buttons on the remote (with the DVD tray out for some reason) to make it region free. Let me google to find the button combo.
Ok here are the instructions:
1. Turn on the player.
2. Open the tray.
3. Press the following sequence on the remote:
7 8 9 OK 0
4. The number 0 will appear on the lower left side of your screen.
5. It is now region free.
PS: you paid $12 more than I did
supply and demand.
Stack Overflow. Stick to the word limit next time.
There aren't enough xboxes around either it seems.
Is the "demand going to exceed the supply" or is MS going to make sure that "Supply would be less than the demand."
I still do not feel like buying a 360. Have to extract a lot of juice from my xbox. No must-haves so far.
"Who wants to pay $400 for an XBox 360 now when they can wait about 6 months and get it for half price?"
TFA says that in one year xbox360 would be selling at half price of PS3 (PS3's launch price in all probabilities) and this is not the same as its price dropping to half given the predicted difference in the launch prices.
Except at cricket & rugby
S /SCORECARDS/AUS_ICC-XI_SUPERS_ODI1_05OCT2005.html
:)
http://live.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005-06/SUPER
Australia: Winner of ashes for x times before this year.
Australia: Current World Champions of Cricket.
Australia: Leading the Cricket Test and ODI ICC tables.
Good teams are remembered for their victories (Eng Ashes 2005).
Great teams are remembered for their losses (Aus Ashes 2005). Similar is the case with Rugby.
Funny, I always get the impression the BB sales staff is pretending they know what they are doing so that I won't take advantage of them.
Spot on. I walked out BBuy the other day when a guy tried to sell me a TV that supported 760p that had the native resolution of "480 or 840"
So, a 100 dollars will get you a 20 Gb hard disk, wireless controller, wireless headset, Ethernet cable and remote control? Not a bad deal. I do wonder how many people would actually get the "no hard disk" version.
Actually, it is only extra $60. You will need to get at least a memory card with the core system, right? And they cost $40
They have announced the price drop already. DS will be USD129.99 now.
1) Not enough space to store my pr0n
2) Not enough space to store my bittorrent downloads
These are different??
A little more descriptive:
i =2424&p=4
http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?
The current Xbox already has these types of ads...they seem more like news to me then ads "oh the new forza game is out"
2004 Superbowl day they had a message in there to play xbox during halftime. I read that and I played my xbox (new then) during halftime( I distinctly remember I played TopSpin).
I will never forget the message that made me miss the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction.
I am sure they will figure out a way to deal with the nVidia legal issue.
Xbox360 will be backwards compatible for:
1. They want to sell a lot of xbox360 before PS3 launches.
2. Many good games are coming for the current xbox before the holiday season (I am waiting for Lockdown, Godfather). They want to sell those games also. They don't want to give a choice to parents between a $150 system that can keep a child occupied for at least 1 year with the current library and a $298+ system that has a few games available (maybe $50+).
Why not buy the new system that can play all the current Halos and SplinterCells as well.
3. Xbox production rumored to be in its last stages. The last thing they would want is xbox hurting the sale figures of xbox360.
It WILL be backwards compatible if these games release for current xbox, which looks like the most probable case.