I was thinking along the lines of "cutting edge" components getting cheaper, being able to lose a few ASICs and replace with a single cheaper one as tech improved (saving a few dollars there) etc.
That plus improved manufacturing efficiency seemed to be within the range of a US$30 price drop.
Not necessarily. They may have been able to reduce manufacturing costs. (I'd hope at *some* point Moore's Law was able to affect Xbox component prices).
If that's the case they may simply be maintaining the same loss while hoping to pull in yet another slice of the bell curve of consumers.
Not that I'm one of them. I'm boycotting MS best I can. Finally got Mozilla Firefox installed on my Winboxen. Slowly I purge my home of All Things Microsoft. (Still require WinOS for work projects, unfortunately, but Firefox is great!)
Hmmm. Right. Because Microsoft's.NET roadmap has proven to be a real winner. Where would we have been without that roadmap?!? Whew! "We're betting everything on.NET! Oh... never mind."
So many of these roadmaps seem to be little more than packets of high grade "smoke up your ass". They're like parsley. Nobody can figure out why it always seems to end up on the dinner plate, but dammit it better be there. We can't tell if it has a chance in hell of being viable, but we'd better see one from you!
Here's a freakin' roadmap I want to see: "We'll make it more secure, we'll make it suck less."
"I love sadaam. I liked him when he cut out my tongue , I loved the acid chamber and the meat grinder!"
And so did the US government. Or did you miss the part where Rumsfeld was over there shaking his hand in 1983(?), right around the time he was gassing his own population?
Exact same mudering torturing bastard. We supported him. Supplies. Intelligence. Even WMD-capable infrastructure. Our bud. We merely got tired of him not doing our bidding.
"Diplomacy is for the weak. The US has the military and economic muscle to take what they want."
Funny, I'll bet the American Colonists were hearing the exact same thing from England about the time they got really pissed off and lauched the Revolution.
Irony and foreshadowing all in one yummy sandwich of Doomed To Repeat It.
Why can't the Extreme Programming crowd just call it Extreme Programming (or even 'EP') and not 'XP'?
Otherwise even ignoring the obvious confusion with WinXP, it makes it seem like the concept is being marketed by some lame-ass over-hyped sports drink company.
"It's programming... Xtreeeeeeeeeem!"
Here's one for them:
"Extreme Programming - It's slightly better... TO THE MAX!"
"You need CMYK? CODE it or PAY someone to do it for you."
But isn't that what he's doing by paying for a commerical application (Photoshop in this case)?
"Open source is not about getting stuff for free, but giving and receiving."
At the risk of being called flamebait, that won't do spit of good toward a true Desktop Linux end-user solution. Those of us developing software can give as well as take. But Joe End-User just wants to get their job done. Take take take. The mantra of the end-user.
And that's exactly what desktop linux is going to have to address, heck embrace.
"According to this daring young thinker, our whole silly idea of time being a continuum from past thru present onto the future may be bunk."
Great theory! And it also goes to show why sometimes a relative outsider or unknown can be best at uncovering truly novel solutions.
Those too well-versed in a certain field have often, by definition, already "drank the Kool-Aid" and bought into the belief system prevalent in said field at the time. As such their views and investigations are already prejudiced and pre-directed.
Those who dare stray are then likely to be quickly herded back into place by colleagues who "know better".
For example this guy, who went through all kinds of hell from his peers who "knew" that a bacteria could not possibly cause ulcers.
"I have to admit it was convenient as there are drawbacks to having to remember every online service logon that you subscribe to."
Every service I use "remembers" my account when I visit the site (except for my bank, which I would NEVER want to have auto-login).
So why not just use the same login/password for every non-critical service you use? Pick a unique name that's unlikely to be in use by others, and if you ever need to wipe you drive for a reinstall, you don't have to sift through a ton of login/password records to get re-cookied or whatever. (Now there's an awkward non-verb...)
"Let's just say it MIGHT cost $1 trillion. I have always wondered, where/how exactly is all that money spent?"
Easy. All you have to do is award a no-bid contract to Halliburton....
But seriously.. wait, I take that back.. Still being serious, $1 trillion sounds about right. If it cost around $100 billion for all the tech/infracstructure that led to the short hops (and no extended stay) to the moon, that's a trickle compared to manning and supplying a manned Mars station.
Mars is a much stickier problem than the moon. And it's a long time getting them back.
"When he wanted to watch the Super Bowl, the expectation was that she was letting her son watch a football game, not some washed-up "musician's" saggy boob."
It stopped being football when it became the Halftime Show.
Now let me get this straight - the same parents who were offended by their child seeing a nipple (missed if he blinked) had NO problem with him seeing Janet and BackStreet Boy grinding all over each other? Or with the commercial where the guy was suckling at the teat of a dog?
Sounds like your friends have serious nipple issues. Either that or they have NO idea what their kid sees on TV, only what makes the headlines the following day.
"As an European I find this view quite perplexing : you object to swearing and naked breasts on TV, but don't mind orgies in violence and killings."
As many others of us here in the States have said, we don't understand it either. Makes no sense at all.
Yesterday police in a midwestern town just barely managed to stop another school massacre - the student had 20+ homemade bombs in the trunk of his car, rifle or two, and was liquoring up prior to starting the killing spree. Today you'll read nothing of it.
And yet everyone is still screaming about a nipple.
What never ceases to amaze me in our country (US) is the extreme differences in reaction to violence vs. nudity.
Make a list of all the parents who were "horrified" that their kids were exposed to a nipple during the Super Bowl.
Now from that list see how many of those kids were allowed, even encouraged, to watch TV/movies depicting violent deaths, gun fights, explosions with flying bodies, etc.
"It's really nice to know there are still parents out there who think like I do and believe it's the responsibility of the parents to teach and or protect their children. Unfortunately, we're in a sad minority on those views."
What drives me nuts is this: When did what you, my wife, friends and I see as basic parenting skils, obvious parenting skills, become such a freakin' Lost Art?
"It's too easy to make children, then let the schools and the TV babysit them... practically effortless."
Very true. Sadly true. Some people seem to think parenting is a hobby. I've always seen it as Job 1. Breed 'em? Better be damn sure you're ready to invest the time and energy to raise 'em. *sigh*
" If I plan on watching something like the Grammy's or some other award shows (or the Super Bowl halftime show) I don't at all expect to be seeing or hearing some of the crap I have seen."
I'm not being a troll, I'm completely serious. Kill your television. OK, but keep the TiVO...;-) TV in America has become this incredible addiction. I've seen people actually get edgy if a TV wasn't around. Read a book. Play a game. Go outside and plant something, even if it's just your ass on the grass.
TV offers some great things. PBS' Nova series is excellent, and even the really raw stuff can be a lot of fun. But too often it seems like folks focus on the dreaded box as their only outlet in this world.
I'm not speaking of you specifically, but folks as a whole.
Turn the damn thing off. Go a week without it. Seriously.
" As a father with children, or just a human being for that matter, it's disturbing how society continues to slide towards being more disrespectful and crass toward each other."
And as a father who is raising our kids to understand that words are merely words, and that some are extremely offensive to others, and to have both the maturity and restraint to know WHEN such cases apply, allow me to say that the FCC can go fuck themselves.
This is a MAJOR problem in the US. We keep expecting society to "protect" our children from themselves. Whatever happened to parents actually parenting? Bad things on TV? TURN THE DAMN THING OFF! Read a freakin' book! Play a game with them! Take them hiking! And instill in them a BASIC FREAKIN' MORAL COMPASS and the ability to think critically!
"The thing is, on some of the things (Crystal Worm, face) we simply won't know for sure until there are actual close-up examinations done. Period."
And so, what then? Spend half a billion for a dedicated Crystal Worm mission? When ANY result that doesn't confirm the existence of a magical hugiferous Crystal Worm is only more fodder for nuts screaming "COVER UP! CONSPIRACY!"?
No thanks, they can wait their turn to board the 'B' Ark like all the others of their ilk.
Slashdot Mirror
"Moore's Law does not apply to pricing.
I was thinking along the lines of "cutting edge" components getting cheaper, being able to lose a few ASICs and replace with a single cheaper one as tech improved (saving a few dollars there) etc.
That plus improved manufacturing efficiency seemed to be within the range of a US$30 price drop.
But perhaps not.
Not necessarily. They may have been able to reduce manufacturing costs. (I'd hope at *some* point Moore's Law was able to affect Xbox component prices).
If that's the case they may simply be maintaining the same loss while hoping to pull in yet another slice of the bell curve of consumers.
Not that I'm one of them. I'm boycotting MS best I can. Finally got Mozilla Firefox installed on my Winboxen. Slowly I purge my home of All Things Microsoft. (Still require WinOS for work projects, unfortunately, but Firefox is great!)
"3) Lack of roadmap"
Hmmm. Right. Because Microsoft's
So many of these roadmaps seem to be little more than packets of high grade "smoke up your ass". They're like parsley. Nobody can figure out why it always seems to end up on the dinner plate, but dammit it better be there. We can't tell if it has a chance in hell of being viable, but we'd better see one from you!
Here's a freakin' roadmap I want to see: "We'll make it more secure, we'll make it suck less."
"I love sadaam. I liked him when he cut out my tongue , I loved the acid chamber and the meat grinder!"
And so did the US government. Or did you miss the part where Rumsfeld was over there shaking his hand in 1983(?), right around the time he was gassing his own population?
Exact same mudering torturing bastard. We supported him. Supplies. Intelligence. Even WMD-capable infrastructure. Our bud. We merely got tired of him not doing our bidding.
"Diplomacy is for the weak. The US has the military and economic muscle to take what they want."
Funny, I'll bet the American Colonists were hearing the exact same thing from England about the time they got really pissed off and lauched the Revolution.
Irony and foreshadowing all in one yummy sandwich of Doomed To Repeat It.
"Iraq will soon be a democracy because you didn't like dictatorships. Chile became a dictatorship because you didn't like a left-wing president."
How the heck did this get to be flamebait? Maybe you moderators can adjust.
It's a damn sad day when simply knowing well-established history is flamebait.
It's not like our government is trying to prevent the EU from taking action against Microsoft.
Oh wait.
OK. Well it's not like our government would ever force a country to accept narcotics or anything.
Oh wait.
Damn. If we were another country we'd hate our guts too.
"Though far more valuable would be folks who can spot trouble BEFORE you ink a deal."
Poor guy must've done his SCO searches on MSN.com....
Why can't the Extreme Programming crowd just call it Extreme Programming (or even 'EP') and not 'XP'?
Otherwise even ignoring the obvious confusion with WinXP, it makes it seem like the concept is being marketed by some lame-ass over-hyped sports drink company.
"It's programming... Xtreeeeeeeeeem!"
Here's one for them:
"Extreme Programming - It's slightly better... TO THE MAX!"
"It's simple... just switch out loyalty cards with someone you know"
And then proceed to buy every possible embarrassing item you can with it.
Photoshop still rocks it
No doubt to mask the pronounced adam's apple and large knuckles that didn't seem nearly as apparent when s/he approached after the third beer.
"You need CMYK? CODE it or PAY someone to do it for you."
But isn't that what he's doing by paying for a commerical application (Photoshop in this case)?
"Open source is not about getting stuff for free, but giving and receiving."
At the risk of being called flamebait, that won't do spit of good toward a true Desktop Linux end-user solution. Those of us developing software can give as well as take. But Joe End-User just wants to get their job done. Take take take. The mantra of the end-user.
And that's exactly what desktop linux is going to have to address, heck embrace.
"According to this daring young thinker, our whole silly idea of time being a continuum from past thru present onto the future may be bunk."
Great theory! And it also goes to show why sometimes a relative outsider or unknown can be best at uncovering truly novel solutions.
Those too well-versed in a certain field have often, by definition, already "drank the Kool-Aid" and bought into the belief system prevalent in said field at the time. As such their views and investigations are already prejudiced and pre-directed.
Those who dare stray are then likely to be quickly herded back into place by colleagues who "know better".
For example this guy, who went through all kinds of hell from his peers who "knew" that a bacteria could not possibly cause ulcers.
It's kind of an ugly plaid corduroy, with elbow patches.
"I have to admit it was convenient as there are drawbacks to having to remember every online service logon that you subscribe to."
Every service I use "remembers" my account when I visit the site (except for my bank, which I would NEVER want to have auto-login).
So why not just use the same login/password for every non-critical service you use? Pick a unique name that's unlikely to be in use by others, and if you ever need to wipe you drive for a reinstall, you don't have to sift through a ton of login/password records to get re-cookied or whatever. (Now there's an awkward non-verb...)
"Let's just say it MIGHT cost $1 trillion. I have always wondered, where/how exactly is all that money spent?"
Easy. All you have to do is award a no-bid contract to Halliburton....
But seriously.. wait, I take that back.. Still being serious, $1 trillion sounds about right. If it cost around $100 billion for all the tech/infracstructure that led to the short hops (and no extended stay) to the moon, that's a trickle compared to manning and supplying a manned Mars station.
Mars is a much stickier problem than the moon. And it's a long time getting them back.
"All your means of production belong to us!"
OK, half a day late but *someone* might enjoy it.
"Are we going to blame the President for this one as well?"
Heck no, that would smack of accountability. I know! Let's blame Canada!
"When he wanted to watch the Super Bowl, the expectation was that she was letting her son watch a football game, not some washed-up "musician's" saggy boob."
It stopped being football when it became the Halftime Show.
Now let me get this straight - the same parents who were offended by their child seeing a nipple (missed if he blinked) had NO problem with him seeing Janet and BackStreet Boy grinding all over each other? Or with the commercial where the guy was suckling at the teat of a dog?
Sounds like your friends have serious nipple issues. Either that or they have NO idea what their kid sees on TV, only what makes the headlines the following day.
Pretty messed up either way there.
"As an European I find this view quite perplexing : you object to swearing and naked breasts on TV, but don't mind orgies in violence and killings."
As many others of us here in the States have said, we don't understand it either. Makes no sense at all.
Yesterday police in a midwestern town just barely managed to stop another school massacre - the student had 20+ homemade bombs in the trunk of his car, rifle or two, and was liquoring up prior to starting the killing spree. Today you'll read nothing of it.
And yet everyone is still screaming about a nipple.
Unbelievable.
What never ceases to amaze me in our country (US) is the extreme differences in reaction to violence vs. nudity.
Make a list of all the parents who were "horrified" that their kids were exposed to a nipple during the Super Bowl.
Now from that list see how many of those kids were allowed, even encouraged, to watch TV/movies depicting violent deaths, gun fights, explosions with flying bodies, etc.
A breast. Panic.
A beheading. Cheer.
No wonder we're so fucked up as a nation.
"It's really nice to know there are still parents out there who think like I do and believe it's the responsibility of the parents to teach and or protect their children. Unfortunately, we're in a sad minority on those views."
What drives me nuts is this: When did what you, my wife, friends and I see as basic parenting skils, obvious parenting skills, become such a freakin' Lost Art?
"It's too easy to make children, then let the schools and the TV babysit them... practically effortless."
Very true. Sadly true. Some people seem to think parenting is a hobby. I've always seen it as Job 1. Breed 'em? Better be damn sure you're ready to invest the time and energy to raise 'em. *sigh*
Keep the faith.
" If I plan on watching something like the Grammy's or some other award shows (or the Super Bowl halftime show) I don't at all expect to be seeing or hearing some of the crap I have seen."
I'm not being a troll, I'm completely serious. Kill your television. OK, but keep the TiVO... ;-) TV in America has become this incredible addiction. I've seen people actually get edgy if a TV wasn't around. Read a book. Play a game. Go outside and plant something, even if it's just your ass on the grass.
TV offers some great things. PBS' Nova series is excellent, and even the really raw stuff can be a lot of fun. But too often it seems like folks focus on the dreaded box as their only outlet in this world.
I'm not speaking of you specifically, but folks as a whole.
Turn the damn thing off. Go a week without it. Seriously.
" As a father with children, or just a human being for that matter, it's disturbing how society continues to slide towards being more disrespectful and crass toward each other."
And as a father who is raising our kids to understand that words are merely words, and that some are extremely offensive to others, and to have both the maturity and restraint to know WHEN such cases apply, allow me to say that the FCC can go fuck themselves.
This is a MAJOR problem in the US. We keep expecting society to "protect" our children from themselves. Whatever happened to parents actually parenting? Bad things on TV? TURN THE DAMN THING OFF! Read a freakin' book! Play a game with them! Take them hiking! And instill in them a BASIC FREAKIN' MORAL COMPASS and the ability to think critically!
"The thing is, on some of the things (Crystal Worm, face) we simply won't know for sure until there are actual close-up examinations done. Period."
And so, what then? Spend half a billion for a dedicated Crystal Worm mission? When ANY result that doesn't confirm the existence of a magical hugiferous Crystal Worm is only more fodder for nuts screaming "COVER UP! CONSPIRACY!"?
No thanks, they can wait their turn to board the 'B' Ark like all the others of their ilk.
Occam's Razor is the nemesis of the nutball.