Europe is just on average is most taxed place: we have taxes on imported good of all kinds, we have taxes on any kind of sales and we have thick layer of customer protection (unconditionally - whether customer wants that or not). You cannot do a thing here - and not pay a tax. Worst: you most likely cannot do a thing - unless some bureaucrat(s) give(s) you a nod.
From some calculations I have seen, even simple logistic can drive good prices as much as 10-20% up, since fuel highly taxed here: about 1,00-1,10€ per liter - google calculator says $4.16 per gallon.
Then add here that Europeans enjoy extended warranties: in Germany all goods are covered by mandatory 2 year warranty and I can bring back to shop anything what broke within the 2 years and they have to give me my money back.
Then add highest in the world business taxes - ranging from 25% to 40%.
And do not forget that Europe on average has most expensive real estate, what adds into more or less every single cost here. (Think: offices, warehouses, logistic centers, retail space and so on).
Is that not enough to explain the hiked European prices?
For business to earn in Europe the same it earns in Asia/N.America, it has to make twice/thrice more deals. Since the market is very saturated/inertial/stagnant and most consumers are of age 40+, rate of acceptance of new things here is relatively low. End result, is that easier to make a buck in US and then save another buck by NOT making business in Europe.:(
My point is that both HD formats have long road ahead. Regardless of "last month sales figures" of RTFA. I think it would take about 2 years to really find who would be a winner. Probably both - with demoed combo-discs. Probably technically superior BD. Probably cheaper HD DVD. (My bet would be later. I know myself and if I can get something cheaper I would do precisely that.)
I stopped reading RTFA the moment I have seen the sentence:
[...] We had to create Word and PowerPoint documents [...]
Shortly, another guy complaining that Linux as it turned out is NOT Windows. And it took him 10 years to reach the conclusion. Brilliant. Do we have "The Idiot of Decade" award ready for him?
Seriously speaking, new platform == new way of doing things. And if one problem with one particular application stops him from using the whole platform, I can conclude that he doesn't really want to use it. As if everything works well under Windows </thinking::wishful>
But even now, ten years later, I couldn't get Evolution to work with our Exchange server [...]
I can recommend him to ask M$ to release specifications for all IMAP extensions it had put into Exchange server. Plus all the undocumented Windows crap APIs they have for authentication. What?? M$ told to f*ck off??? Then please don't bug us either. Or alternatively use what you have at hand: postfix/sendmail/etc or Zimbra or PHPGroupWare or whatever fits your needs. But please stop whining that products from strategical competitors don't work. (It's actually "strategical competition" one way: FLOSS is seen by M$ as competitor, while FLOSS largely doesn't care about M$ since it (FLOSS) is not a software business.)
P.S. "And I've seen it before, and I'll see it again." -- Propellerheads, from "History Repeating".
How dare Microsoft sue companies who don't pay for their software!
We are talking about opposite - what about companies which are paying for their software? and yet threatened with the "audit" thing.
As it is said about tax police (IRS in US), just let them check you books - and they will always find some tax unpaid. The same applies here: BSA is basically made to find what is unpaid/improperly licensed. They are pros at that - give them little time and they would prove any license was nullified long time ago by customer's own conduct. And modern EULAs include enough clauses to find something fishy.
Again, they are not about helping you complying with licenses. Nor about helping you paying up properly to software producers. BSA is about finding what you did wrong and calculating damages your conduct caused to BSA' client.
Dreds of hums or companies? I'm already thrilled.;)
Do you smart ass actually have the Windows installed? And the "add-ons for MS products"? The answer seems to me "NO". Because if you have ever experienced pains of managing M$Windows with the all 3rd party add-ons installed you wouldn't be here commenting on Slashdot - you would be in your IT room managing all the crap and make it working. Last you would recommending that.
The main rule of running successful M$Windows environment - is to ban ALL 2nd/3rd party software. It's the only way for M$ crapware to actually work reliably. I have seen in past such M$-only shops and surprisingly all-Windows/all-M$ environment works good. It just you are barely able to do anything with system - beyond what your employer had in mind. What is not that bad thing - for employer of course.
When Linux has as much third-party support as MS, then you all can go "a few".
In my experience, if something is said to work under Linux or Mac OS X - then "It Just Works" (c) Unknown. No support is required, though reading HOW-TOs/FAQs/mail-lists/forums is strongly advised.
On other side, in my experience, it is M$Windows which requires all the infamous expensive "third-party support" - constantly telling you to... back up all your data and reinstall Windows. HA-HA-HA. Very funny. Because nobody except M$ knows how that damm Wind0ze works - everybody of the "third-party support" only guesses. Sometimes they guess it right - but most of the time... yeah, you have to... back up all your data and reinstall Windows. HA-HA-HA. Very funny. Sorry, when talking about Windows support, I cannot keep my sarcasm under control.
M$ has little motivation to do that IMHO. They already have exclusive OEM deals everywhere. The content protection does little for its sacred/cash cow - M$Office. Windows is more like tax on PC industry - it is already well enforced and few have chance to escape paying it.
On other side, winning party IMNSHO is storage and recordable media producers. They are the sole benefiters of cracked media protection. There are also lots of bystanders who would benefit - like CPU/GPU/RAM vendors: HD content would be more accessible/affordable what would lead people to upgrading their PCs for HD playback. Of course, in short term, standalone HD players would be losers - but I expect that improved sales of PCs HD drives would compensate for that. It's the same producers anyway.
And well of course customers are winners too. I'm sure DVD prices would have remained high for much longer without help of "DVD John" and his DeCSS. I think everybody recalls the flood of cheap chinese DVD players - the unlicensed ones. HD at moment too pricy to be target of pirates: DVDs haven't took over the world yet and Asia is filled up with even cheaper VCDs.
Being OK with gambling doesn't mean being OK with cheating.
When I compared eBay to gambling I meant precisely that. And also of course that all fraud applicable (and actually used) to gambling would be also applicable to gambling.
Now look how strict gambling regulated - and compare to how lax regulated eBay is. (Honestly I doubt that it is regulated at all). eBay now does whatever it wants and whenever it wants.
Holy crap. Did I miss anything? Really, I'm working with OSs from M$ for last decade and half - and not yet encountered the aforementioned "disaster recovery" functionality.
Simple broken driver with couple of dependencies brings Windows down - try to recover that. Spending N days cleaning registry of all the crap installed along with driver (often automatically w/o even asking for user consent) - or spending one day on new installation? Choice is all yours. And not that M$ gives you tool to repair borked Windows - you have to buy them separately.
Windows doesn't have any "recovery" - all it has some excuses M$ made up so it can blame all on user later.
P.S. Compare that to Linux which I (without any backups) have been routinely brining up from totaled hard drives in under two hours. Not that Linux does have any dedicated tools for that - standard one do the job perfectly. My last record (with backup) was 15 minutes: copy all data to new hard drive (tar -C $oldroot cf - | tar -C $newroot xf -), repair installed software (rpm --verify --root=$newroot), validate checked out source code (cvs update). All was done by N-liner shell script I wrote before going to lunch. After lunch I just rebooted system and went on working as before. Duh...
I have tried it only once, but it was recommended to me as "server distro".
The guy who introduced me to Gentoo, used it in his company on several servers. He had two configurations (think two types of servers) and software was compiled correspondently on two of the servers and then replicated to other servers. Strictly speaking, he had Gentoo only on two servers - while other servers used some kind of compiled/bundled internal versions produced by the two Gentoos. He didn't seem to experience any kind of problems.
P.S. The same guy actually recommended me also more accessible option for servers: OpenPKG. Gentoo is Linux, but if you need stable services running variety of Unices, OpenPKG is strongly advised. I believe he had used some parts of OpenPKG along with Gentoo.
Gates Proclaims Internet to Revolutionize TV in 5 Years
What that "TV" thing he is talking about? Is that thing where you can't select what you watch and is also contaminated by unstoppable stream of commercials??
P.S. Frankly, I have bought my first TV three month ago (LCD one), but it would be too optimistic to say that I watch it even once per week. Even state-supported channels here in Germany are infested with ads/etc. And finding something decent to watch on TV now is as complicated as it was decade ago - when I still lived with my parents. Bookshelf, PC with games and internet - replaced the antique in my life completely long time ago.
As programmer, I can tell that it work both ways. Any deficiency (or bug) can be blamed on poor implementation. At the same time, big companies which actually looked and benchmarked development process (e.g. IBM) claim that 75% bugs are caused by erroneous specifications.
IOW, players were implemented as good as AACS has told what/how to implement.
Somehow, I doubt that documentation from AACS would be much better than that of Microsoft.
Well if any software house wishes to buy/get a license to play WMA and/or Microsoft PlaysforSure on Linux they can, Microsoft gives it to you.
And one of the conditions of such contract with Microsoft, is that you will support WMA & MP3 only. Few have managed to get better conditions out of Redmond. Most (e.g. Creative, Philips) are out of luck and stuck with MP3 or WMA. Some (e.g. iRiver) didn't bowed to M$ conditions at all (what allow them to support e.g. OGG).
In the end, M$ would try to cripple Linux experience (just like it tried with Win2k to "unsupport" e.g. AVIs) so that it can later brag about how wonderful Wind0ze is.
The problem is if you want to do the same with Apple DRM u just cant, period. [...] I love windows much as u do, but comparing what Apple is doing to anything else like PlayForSure ( for example... ) is just plain stupid sorry...
I'd rather have a clear "NO" from Apple, rather than fuzzy "YEAH" Microsoft is infamous for.
... playsforsure is compatible with all sorts of hardware.
Where from the "all" remark comes from? Last time I checked it is only available on hardware from manufacturers who have sold their souls to The Beast of Redmond. And if you have soldyour soul to M$ - you are also by contract forbidden to look into competing music formats (e.g. MP4 or OGG or MPC or FLAC or whatever).
At least Apple with its DRM is open and honest that they want world domination...
PS3 not yet available in Europe but already got incredible amount of bad press. Worst: most of the bad press comes right out of the Sony PR.
European prices + game availability (all good games are published half/year later in Europe) are enough to make the European launch to be a non-event.
BD player you say? - Amazon.de lists precisely 53 titles. And the number didn't changed since advent.
20 promised games at launch, 53 BDs... well not much value for 600€ I'd say. Add here mentioned above general poor availability of video-games in Europe. Then add spring launch - because it's precisely spring when families start saving seriously for summer vacations.
Well, we have all the components for disaster - instead of European launch. Without price drop, there will be no European market for PS3. Next Christmas - not sooner. And I expect retailers and game producers to be well aware of the market seasonal fluctuations - with Sony's assurance of price remaining high in near future - would delay affordable European PS3 even further.
The news just came after I have started noticing iPods around me more often than before. I guess with iPod Nano and its price Apple had finally nabbed European market. I welcome M$ to challenge the 150€ price of 4GB iPod Nano.
I have had two non-iPods before and have to confess that iPod is most invisible of all: SanDisk Sansa does often needs to be booted up and boot takes ~10-15 seconds (important to add that sound quality - just like on recent Creatives - sucks big time) and Philips SA117 had just too inconvenient menu which forced you to do N clicks for no apparent reason all the time (and it didn't supported anything beside MP3/WMA - no NG (e.g. AAC or OGG) formats).
iPod? Turn off "Hold" and it is instantly ready - right were you left it week ago - for you commands. Doesn't support OGG - but does AAC. Much better than that "PlaysForSure" crap. OMG! STOP. Didn't M$ dropped support for "PlaysForSure" with Zune? Oh yeah, well, what ever, what ever. I'll stick with iPod - for the time being.
P.S. As Eropean customer, I can say several things. Most important, people here are not that "computerized" when compared to Asia or North America: traditions prevail and computers for what little they can do are too expensive. (Hint: loading/charging with computer only == hard sell.) Also price is very sensitive issue and player above 300€ has few chances to be popular: preserving traditions takes its toll - normally in form of exaggregated taxes (all around Europe). And of course artist lobby groups who have lobbied themselves into state laws long time ago would want to have a share of the feast too - just like they did with most of storage media already. Would M$ be still competitive to Apple which have ironed all the problems in past three years? Wir werden sehen.
The M$' PR guys of course target the people who haven't read the original paper.
What PR says is in fact in direct contradiction of purpose the DRM/HDCP was implemented in Vista: to close analogue hole. As long as any kind of unsecured channel remains - and can be used simultaneously with secure one - data could be leaked.
On other side, if the guy isn't lying, then M$ didn't really closed the analogue hole - and hacks are to be expected soon. Somehow, I find that more probable. Blood of innocent bystanders (and that's all industries minus RIAA/MPAA) in the DRM/HDCP vs. analogue hole battle is too be expected.
DRM is especially idiotic because it only annoys paying customers. Pirates get a better experience than people who paid for the product!!!
Worse part, the remark is made my Microsofty - the worker of M$ itself. Just try to imaging the gap between management and normal workers present in M$ right now.
Games condense huge amount of information into one easily accessible piece. And kids are naturally like to consume any information they cross. That was whole grounding of (fortunately at large failed) Edutainment.
I think it is less about games - but more about technology penetration. And games - from kids' stand point - is natural use for new technology.
One thing you get with a PSP is a nice homebrew scene. You can play PS1 games on a PSP or almost any other pre-N64 console with ease. It's actually quite a versatile little system once you get around Sony's manhandling of it;).
Sony politicizing of PSP is one of its biggest minuses. I didn't wanted to end-up with locked down device like their Mylo - potentially powerful, but by Sony's corporate will turned into calculator.
On other side, DS has no additional capabilities - IOW, nothing Nintendo can be political about. Check the option to automatically load game after power on - and one would never suspect existence of something else on DS (e.g. Picochat - which is funnily enough works. (I used to PC M$-ware with promotional features which stop working next day after launch - so I was really surprised to find inside DS something working w/o game cartridge)).
Also, you'd only need to use WPA if you didn't have a DS:P. Nintendo dropped the ball on wireless encryption support in that case and made people have to stick with the very insecure WEP protocol. Albeit, it'd still be easier typing in a WPA key on a DS, but let me tell you... it's much easier typing in a passcode on a PSP than 32 hex characters:P.
But if you happen to have access point which is somehow incompatible with PSP - WPA does not work. That's the case of my friends and their NetGear. WEP sucks - but they were forced to downgrade (and reconfigure everything) to WEP for PSP to connect to internet at all. Update to 2.82/3.0 didn't helped.
[ Though I liked that games requiring particular firmware version actually had the firmware on UMD bundled. So in a way, WiFi is optional. ]
I remember trying to play one of them (I think Sudoku Mania!) and the game would not recognize a '5' at all.
Sudoku Mania didn't made into worst games list just because it sucks so much that nobody recognizes it as a game. More or less everybody who tried it rated it as "unplayable".
Anyway, I want Sony to allow (probably DRMed) games from MemoryStick (or even to "cache" game on stick) and to have touch screen. With the two, I think PSP would be bearable. And hell, Sony shall go and license Tetris after all. Then I would consider PSP. (Admittedly, even with current feature set, PSP is well worth more than its price - it's just doesn't fit me (and my decade old Tetris addiction) well.)
P.S. "Lumines". WOW. So PSP has after all normal puzzle games?! I honestly digging thru IGN/GameSpot/GameSpy got tired of all the hyped up 3D crap games with no single decent *user* review. Now, "Lumines" look very interesting to me - but I haven't seen it before, though I have studies complete list of top rated games for PSP. (Actually I know less DS games, for I have stopped right after I have found Tetris.) Thanks for recommendation.
One Russian on-line newspaper published data on "iPod Nano 2GB" Index (the one priced in US $150) from Australian Commonwealth Bank - though I can't find Engrish translation. Link to Russian one. In fact, Britain doesn't look all so bad, when compared: Europe in whole is overvalued.
Worst ever feat DS games are trying to pull - is using mic. "Whistle" or even worse "Say that" - followed "try again" hell. By far I found that feature of DS being most terrifying.
Luckily few games use it by now.
In contrast, DS touch-screen does miracles. Just check Metroid or Brain Age. E.g. Lost Magic - mage oriented RPG - does uses touch screen for actually drawing a spell on arcane circle to cast it: player really experience all the tire of casting complicated spell;)
Probably because Sony forced PSP-owners to wait longer for good games? [/sarcasm]
Most reviews for PSP I have seen - they are all made as if the game in question was for real console. DS is really more portable one. IMHO DS is much more portable than PSP. In some sense, PSP and DS are incomparable.
My friends have PSP and I have DS. Most PSP games are very spectacular - but do not have that much of "portable" aspect. Most DS games are easy and often fit to fill a 5/10/15 minute gap one might happened to have - regardless of where you are. Pausing game on DS is as easy as closing lid - PSP's "hold" takes more effort. After closing lid, you can put DS in pocket and forget it - that's also plus. By contrast, PSP needs to be put in protective case since its screen is open.
PSP/its games are cooler. That's for sure. You can play them instead of PC/console-based ones. But I will not give up on my standard Tetris/Meteos/BrainAge/MarioCarts inroad game pack anytime soon. And I do not know any games (and my friends do not have such games) one can easily play underway. Tetris isn't available on PSP for sure - and that's sucks. (In fact for me Tetris was decisive factor in favor of DS.)
P.S. Also, battery life of PSP suck. My DS is easily pulling 10+ hours. PSP - is 4-6 hours. That again hurts portability. I think Sony made mistake by going with disk media instead of cartridge.
P.P.S. And DS' touch-screen rules. Brain Age' hand writing stuff rules. Typing WEP128 key into PSP takes lots of patience - on DS' touch screen that just... easy.
I live in Beijing and before I ever saw a system they had the games copied and on sale for a dollar fifty.
Well, game publishers had showed flexibility on several occasion.
As an example, many PC game titles can be bought in Russia for about $5-7.50 - with big holo sticker "Not for sale outside of Russia". You can go to black market and get same game for $2.50.
Western companies were really surprised to find that games are actually started selling in Russia. Even if people can get them on black market twice/thrice cheaper. Good price - competitive to black market one.
It was another example that no people want to be pirates - it all comes down to right price. Let's hope that MS would set right price for Xbox games in China. I think Chinese too would buy official games - but provided price would be affordable. With average monthly salary around $50 (if I'm not mistaken) you can't sell them games for... the same $50.
P.S.
... ad on every Coca-Cola can in China...
ZOMG!???!?!?!? Ad???? On Coca-Cola can????? Are we still speaking of the same communist China?????
Then the World is definitely coming to its end...
Slashdot Mirror
Europe is just on average is most taxed place: we have taxes on imported good of all kinds, we have taxes on any kind of sales and we have thick layer of customer protection (unconditionally - whether customer wants that or not). You cannot do a thing here - and not pay a tax. Worst: you most likely cannot do a thing - unless some bureaucrat(s) give(s) you a nod.
From some calculations I have seen, even simple logistic can drive good prices as much as 10-20% up, since fuel highly taxed here: about 1,00-1,10€ per liter - google calculator says $4.16 per gallon.
Then add here that Europeans enjoy extended warranties: in Germany all goods are covered by mandatory 2 year warranty and I can bring back to shop anything what broke within the 2 years and they have to give me my money back.
Then add highest in the world business taxes - ranging from 25% to 40%.
And do not forget that Europe on average has most expensive real estate, what adds into more or less every single cost here. (Think: offices, warehouses, logistic centers, retail space and so on).
Is that not enough to explain the hiked European prices?
For business to earn in Europe the same it earns in Asia/N.America, it has to make twice/thrice more deals. Since the market is very saturated/inertial/stagnant and most consumers are of age 40+, rate of acceptance of new things here is relatively low. End result, is that easier to make a buck in US and then save another buck by NOT making business in Europe. :(
My favorite source of statistics - Amazon.com
Blu-ray - 257 hits.
HD DVD - 342 hits.
DVD - 170749 hits.
My point is that both HD formats have long road ahead. Regardless of "last month sales figures" of RTFA. I think it would take about 2 years to really find who would be a winner. Probably both - with demoed combo-discs. Probably technically superior BD. Probably cheaper HD DVD. (My bet would be later. I know myself and if I can get something cheaper I would do precisely that.)
+1 ;-)
I stopped reading RTFA the moment I have seen the sentence:
Shortly, another guy complaining that Linux as it turned out is NOT Windows. And it took him 10 years to reach the conclusion. Brilliant. Do we have "The Idiot of Decade" award ready for him?
Seriously speaking, new platform == new way of doing things. And if one problem with one particular application stops him from using the whole platform, I can conclude that he doesn't really want to use it. As if everything works well under Windows </thinking::wishful>
I can recommend him to ask M$ to release specifications for all IMAP extensions it had put into Exchange server. Plus all the undocumented Windows crap APIs they have for authentication. What?? M$ told to f*ck off??? Then please don't bug us either. Or alternatively use what you have at hand: postfix/sendmail/etc or Zimbra or PHPGroupWare or whatever fits your needs. But please stop whining that products from strategical competitors don't work. (It's actually "strategical competition" one way: FLOSS is seen by M$ as competitor, while FLOSS largely doesn't care about M$ since it (FLOSS) is not a software business.)
P.S. "And I've seen it before, and I'll see it again." -- Propellerheads, from "History Repeating".
We are talking about opposite - what about companies which are paying for their software? and yet threatened with the "audit" thing.
As it is said about tax police (IRS in US), just let them check you books - and they will always find some tax unpaid. The same applies here: BSA is basically made to find what is unpaid/improperly licensed. They are pros at that - give them little time and they would prove any license was nullified long time ago by customer's own conduct. And modern EULAs include enough clauses to find something fishy.
Again, they are not about helping you complying with licenses. Nor about helping you paying up properly to software producers. BSA is about finding what you did wrong and calculating damages your conduct caused to BSA' client.
Are you trying to tell the guys can come anywhere they wish and start audit?
I am bit skeptical about that. IMHO, they need a well founded reason for an involuntary audit. That's too much - even for police state.
IIRC, as it was rumored, in many cases (ex)employees are selling out their own employers.
Dreds of hums or companies? I'm already thrilled. ;)
Do you smart ass actually have the Windows installed? And the "add-ons for MS products"? The answer seems to me "NO". Because if you have ever experienced pains of managing M$Windows with the all 3rd party add-ons installed you wouldn't be here commenting on Slashdot - you would be in your IT room managing all the crap and make it working. Last you would recommending that.
The main rule of running successful M$Windows environment - is to ban ALL 2nd/3rd party software. It's the only way for M$ crapware to actually work reliably. I have seen in past such M$-only shops and surprisingly all-Windows/all-M$ environment works good. It just you are barely able to do anything with system - beyond what your employer had in mind. What is not that bad thing - for employer of course.
In my experience, if something is said to work under Linux or Mac OS X - then "It Just Works" (c) Unknown. No support is required, though reading HOW-TOs/FAQs/mail-lists/forums is strongly advised.
On other side, in my experience, it is M$Windows which requires all the infamous expensive "third-party support" - constantly telling you to ... back up all your data and reinstall Windows. HA-HA-HA. Very funny. Because nobody except M$ knows how that damm Wind0ze works - everybody of the "third-party support" only guesses. Sometimes they guess it right - but most of the time ... yeah, you have to ... back up all your data and reinstall Windows. HA-HA-HA. Very funny. Sorry, when talking about Windows support, I cannot keep my sarcasm under control.
M$ has little motivation to do that IMHO. They already have exclusive OEM deals everywhere. The content protection does little for its sacred/cash cow - M$Office. Windows is more like tax on PC industry - it is already well enforced and few have chance to escape paying it.
On other side, winning party IMNSHO is storage and recordable media producers. They are the sole benefiters of cracked media protection. There are also lots of bystanders who would benefit - like CPU/GPU/RAM vendors: HD content would be more accessible/affordable what would lead people to upgrading their PCs for HD playback. Of course, in short term, standalone HD players would be losers - but I expect that improved sales of PCs HD drives would compensate for that. It's the same producers anyway.
And well of course customers are winners too. I'm sure DVD prices would have remained high for much longer without help of "DVD John" and his DeCSS. I think everybody recalls the flood of cheap chinese DVD players - the unlicensed ones. HD at moment too pricy to be target of pirates: DVDs haven't took over the world yet and Asia is filled up with even cheaper VCDs.
When I compared eBay to gambling I meant precisely that. And also of course that all fraud applicable (and actually used) to gambling would be also applicable to gambling.
Now look how strict gambling regulated - and compare to how lax regulated eBay is. (Honestly I doubt that it is regulated at all). eBay now does whatever it wants and whenever it wants.
You are not alone - count me in.
To me, eBay was always a gambling site. There is NO other point in auctioning.
I personally look only at "Buy It Now" marked wares. Rest? Not for me. If I wanted to gamble, I'd rather went to arcade/game center/whatever.
Holy crap. Did I miss anything? Really, I'm working with OSs from M$ for last decade and half - and not yet encountered the aforementioned "disaster recovery" functionality.
Simple broken driver with couple of dependencies brings Windows down - try to recover that. Spending N days cleaning registry of all the crap installed along with driver (often automatically w/o even asking for user consent) - or spending one day on new installation? Choice is all yours. And not that M$ gives you tool to repair borked Windows - you have to buy them separately.
Windows doesn't have any "recovery" - all it has some excuses M$ made up so it can blame all on user later.
P.S. Compare that to Linux which I (without any backups) have been routinely brining up from totaled hard drives in under two hours. Not that Linux does have any dedicated tools for that - standard one do the job perfectly. My last record (with backup) was 15 minutes: copy all data to new hard drive (tar -C $oldroot cf - | tar -C $newroot xf -), repair installed software (rpm --verify --root=$newroot), validate checked out source code (cvs update). All was done by N-liner shell script I wrote before going to lunch. After lunch I just rebooted system and went on working as before. Duh...
I have tried it only once, but it was recommended to me as "server distro".
The guy who introduced me to Gentoo, used it in his company on several servers. He had two configurations (think two types of servers) and software was compiled correspondently on two of the servers and then replicated to other servers. Strictly speaking, he had Gentoo only on two servers - while other servers used some kind of compiled/bundled internal versions produced by the two Gentoos. He didn't seem to experience any kind of problems.
P.S. The same guy actually recommended me also more accessible option for servers: OpenPKG. Gentoo is Linux, but if you need stable services running variety of Unices, OpenPKG is strongly advised. I believe he had used some parts of OpenPKG along with Gentoo.
What that "TV" thing he is talking about? Is that thing where you can't select what you watch and is also contaminated by unstoppable stream of commercials??
P.S. Frankly, I have bought my first TV three month ago (LCD one), but it would be too optimistic to say that I watch it even once per week. Even state-supported channels here in Germany are infested with ads/etc. And finding something decent to watch on TV now is as complicated as it was decade ago - when I still lived with my parents. Bookshelf, PC with games and internet - replaced the antique in my life completely long time ago.
As programmer, I can tell that it work both ways. Any deficiency (or bug) can be blamed on poor implementation. At the same time, big companies which actually looked and benchmarked development process (e.g. IBM) claim that 75% bugs are caused by erroneous specifications.
IOW, players were implemented as good as AACS has told what/how to implement.
Somehow, I doubt that documentation from AACS would be much better than that of Microsoft.
And one of the conditions of such contract with Microsoft, is that you will support WMA & MP3 only. Few have managed to get better conditions out of Redmond. Most (e.g. Creative, Philips) are out of luck and stuck with MP3 or WMA. Some (e.g. iRiver) didn't bowed to M$ conditions at all (what allow them to support e.g. OGG).
In the end, M$ would try to cripple Linux experience (just like it tried with Win2k to "unsupport" e.g. AVIs) so that it can later brag about how wonderful Wind0ze is.
I'd rather have a clear "NO" from Apple, rather than fuzzy "YEAH" Microsoft is infamous for.
Where from the "all" remark comes from? Last time I checked it is only available on hardware from manufacturers who have sold their souls to The Beast of Redmond. And if you have sold your soul to M$ - you are also by contract forbidden to look into competing music formats (e.g. MP4 or OGG or MPC or FLAC or whatever).
At least Apple with its DRM is open and honest that they want world domination...
It's not really funny.
PS3 not yet available in Europe but already got incredible amount of bad press. Worst: most of the bad press comes right out of the Sony PR.
European prices + game availability (all good games are published half/year later in Europe) are enough to make the European launch to be a non-event.
BD player you say? - Amazon.de lists precisely 53 titles. And the number didn't changed since advent.
20 promised games at launch, 53 BDs ... well not much value for 600€ I'd say. Add here mentioned above general poor availability of video-games in Europe. Then add spring launch - because it's precisely spring when families start saving seriously for summer vacations.
Well, we have all the components for disaster - instead of European launch. Without price drop, there will be no European market for PS3. Next Christmas - not sooner. And I expect retailers and game producers to be well aware of the market seasonal fluctuations - with Sony's assurance of price remaining high in near future - would delay affordable European PS3 even further.
The news just came after I have started noticing iPods around me more often than before. I guess with iPod Nano and its price Apple had finally nabbed European market. I welcome M$ to challenge the 150€ price of 4GB iPod Nano.
I have had two non-iPods before and have to confess that iPod is most invisible of all: SanDisk Sansa does often needs to be booted up and boot takes ~10-15 seconds (important to add that sound quality - just like on recent Creatives - sucks big time) and Philips SA117 had just too inconvenient menu which forced you to do N clicks for no apparent reason all the time (and it didn't supported anything beside MP3/WMA - no NG (e.g. AAC or OGG) formats).
iPod? Turn off "Hold" and it is instantly ready - right were you left it week ago - for you commands. Doesn't support OGG - but does AAC. Much better than that "PlaysForSure" crap. OMG! STOP. Didn't M$ dropped support for "PlaysForSure" with Zune? Oh yeah, well, what ever, what ever. I'll stick with iPod - for the time being.
P.S. As Eropean customer, I can say several things. Most important, people here are not that "computerized" when compared to Asia or North America: traditions prevail and computers for what little they can do are too expensive. (Hint: loading/charging with computer only == hard sell.) Also price is very sensitive issue and player above 300€ has few chances to be popular: preserving traditions takes its toll - normally in form of exaggregated taxes (all around Europe). And of course artist lobby groups who have lobbied themselves into state laws long time ago would want to have a share of the feast too - just like they did with most of storage media already. Would M$ be still competitive to Apple which have ironed all the problems in past three years? Wir werden sehen.
The M$' PR guys of course target the people who haven't read the original paper.
What PR says is in fact in direct contradiction of purpose the DRM/HDCP was implemented in Vista: to close analogue hole. As long as any kind of unsecured channel remains - and can be used simultaneously with secure one - data could be leaked.
On other side, if the guy isn't lying, then M$ didn't really closed the analogue hole - and hacks are to be expected soon. Somehow, I find that more probable. Blood of innocent bystanders (and that's all industries minus RIAA/MPAA) in the DRM/HDCP vs. analogue hole battle is too be expected.
P.S. I'd rather have M$ PR drones to answer that DRM related question:
Worse part, the remark is made my Microsofty - the worker of M$ itself. Just try to imaging the gap between management and normal workers present in M$ right now.
I thought that trend was clearly apparent before.
Games condense huge amount of information into one easily accessible piece. And kids are naturally like to consume any information they cross. That was whole grounding of (fortunately at large failed) Edutainment.
I think it is less about games - but more about technology penetration. And games - from kids' stand point - is natural use for new technology.
Sony politicizing of PSP is one of its biggest minuses. I didn't wanted to end-up with locked down device like their Mylo - potentially powerful, but by Sony's corporate will turned into calculator.
On other side, DS has no additional capabilities - IOW, nothing Nintendo can be political about. Check the option to automatically load game after power on - and one would never suspect existence of something else on DS (e.g. Picochat - which is funnily enough works. (I used to PC M$-ware with promotional features which stop working next day after launch - so I was really surprised to find inside DS something working w/o game cartridge)).
But if you happen to have access point which is somehow incompatible with PSP - WPA does not work. That's the case of my friends and their NetGear. WEP sucks - but they were forced to downgrade (and reconfigure everything) to WEP for PSP to connect to internet at all. Update to 2.82/3.0 didn't helped.
[ Though I liked that games requiring particular firmware version actually had the firmware on UMD bundled. So in a way, WiFi is optional. ]
Sudoku Mania didn't made into worst games list just because it sucks so much that nobody recognizes it as a game. More or less everybody who tried it rated it as "unplayable".
Anyway, I want Sony to allow (probably DRMed) games from MemoryStick (or even to "cache" game on stick) and to have touch screen. With the two, I think PSP would be bearable. And hell, Sony shall go and license Tetris after all. Then I would consider PSP. (Admittedly, even with current feature set, PSP is well worth more than its price - it's just doesn't fit me (and my decade old Tetris addiction) well.)
P.S. "Lumines". WOW. So PSP has after all normal puzzle games?! I honestly digging thru IGN/GameSpot/GameSpy got tired of all the hyped up 3D crap games with no single decent *user* review. Now, "Lumines" look very interesting to me - but I haven't seen it before, though I have studies complete list of top rated games for PSP. (Actually I know less DS games, for I have stopped right after I have found Tetris.) Thanks for recommendation.
Do we need new PS3 Index?
One Russian on-line newspaper published data on "iPod Nano 2GB" Index (the one priced in US $150) from Australian Commonwealth Bank - though I can't find Engrish translation. Link to Russian one. In fact, Britain doesn't look all so bad, when compared: Europe in whole is overvalued.
OMG. You do not seem to actually own DS?
Worst ever feat DS games are trying to pull - is using mic. "Whistle" or even worse "Say that" - followed "try again" hell. By far I found that feature of DS being most terrifying.
Luckily few games use it by now.
In contrast, DS touch-screen does miracles. Just check Metroid or Brain Age. E.g. Lost Magic - mage oriented RPG - does uses touch screen for actually drawing a spell on arcane circle to cast it: player really experience all the tire of casting complicated spell ;)
Probably because Sony forced PSP-owners to wait longer for good games? [/sarcasm]
Most reviews for PSP I have seen - they are all made as if the game in question was for real console. DS is really more portable one. IMHO DS is much more portable than PSP. In some sense, PSP and DS are incomparable.
My friends have PSP and I have DS. Most PSP games are very spectacular - but do not have that much of "portable" aspect. Most DS games are easy and often fit to fill a 5/10/15 minute gap one might happened to have - regardless of where you are. Pausing game on DS is as easy as closing lid - PSP's "hold" takes more effort. After closing lid, you can put DS in pocket and forget it - that's also plus. By contrast, PSP needs to be put in protective case since its screen is open.
PSP/its games are cooler. That's for sure. You can play them instead of PC/console-based ones. But I will not give up on my standard Tetris/Meteos/BrainAge/MarioCarts inroad game pack anytime soon. And I do not know any games (and my friends do not have such games) one can easily play underway. Tetris isn't available on PSP for sure - and that's sucks. (In fact for me Tetris was decisive factor in favor of DS.)
P.S. Also, battery life of PSP suck. My DS is easily pulling 10+ hours. PSP - is 4-6 hours. That again hurts portability. I think Sony made mistake by going with disk media instead of cartridge.
P.P.S. And DS' touch-screen rules. Brain Age' hand writing stuff rules. Typing WEP128 key into PSP takes lots of patience - on DS' touch screen that just ... easy.
Well, game publishers had showed flexibility on several occasion.
As an example, many PC game titles can be bought in Russia for about $5-7.50 - with big holo sticker "Not for sale outside of Russia". You can go to black market and get same game for $2.50.
Western companies were really surprised to find that games are actually started selling in Russia. Even if people can get them on black market twice/thrice cheaper. Good price - competitive to black market one.
It was another example that no people want to be pirates - it all comes down to right price. Let's hope that MS would set right price for Xbox games in China. I think Chinese too would buy official games - but provided price would be affordable. With average monthly salary around $50 (if I'm not mistaken) you can't sell them games for ... the same $50.
P.S.
ZOMG!???!?!?!? Ad???? On Coca-Cola can????? Are we still speaking of the same communist China?????
Then the World is definitely coming to its end...