Ah so YOU'RE the ONE who they are targeting that marketese at!
Seriously, are you really going to pay for movies a second time, just so you can watch them on your PSP? I can see using the PSP for an MP3 player, with the memory stick support and all, but this talk about a portable media center and not really a game console are stupid. Depending on the price point of the movies, they may sell a few, but that will pale in comparison to how many games they ship.
I think they know that can't beat Nintendo in the handheld market and are trying to spin the PSP as a filling a different "need".
Well, the problem with both your first and second ideas is that the DS is capable of displaying 3D on only one screen at a time, although it can be either screen.
A RTS game will be great on the DS. There are already a couple of good ones for PocketPC PDA's, showing that the touch screen interface is playable. However, I expect that rather than watch two locations at once, the 'norm' for RTS on the DS will be the touch screen for your standard view (showing troops, bases, etc) and the upper screen will have a mini-map and available actions for whatever units you have selected. Movement, targeting, and scrolling will be done via touch screen, and the D-Pad will let you quickly and simultaneously select what action icon you want.
That's basically what I think the DS games will look like, and I don't think that the dual screen is really the killer feature, anyways. There will be a FEW games that really use the second screen in a usefull and novel way, but mostly, the touch screen interface will be the innovator. Games will have an unprecidented (in a hand-held console) variety of interaction. The second screen will be a scoreboard, or, often, I feel, a chat interface for multiplayer games (when used with the touch screen for a virtual keyboard).
Anyways, all I am getting at is that the dual screen design in itself isn't going to be the greatest thing ever. It's an interesting means to an end; more screen space while also keeping costs down and allowing the system to fold up into a compact and sturdy design. The touch screen and the integrated wireless will be the real improvements. I for one am REALLY looking forward to it.
The problem as I see it is that patents like this DO stop Americans from taking part in projects like these, which in turn hampers the growth of opensourse community here in the States.
That's what worries me the most. Eventually, even the opensource projects will be outsourced, to places with less retarded patent laws.
I have no idea where you are getting this 26MPG with a V8 Hemi BS. It's pretty weak to make comments like "Not sure if YOU have any idea what YOUR talking about", when you clearly are very misinformed.
The SMALLEST Dodge truck with a V8 Hemi gets 17mpg HIGHWAY (14 City). See here.
A Mid-Sized SUV, the Durango, with the same V8 Hemi gets 14/19 (city/hwy) mpg. You can check that here.
For comparison, a 2004 Civic gets between 29 and 44 (!) mpg, depending on city or highway, and what trim level you get. See proof here.
I drive such a car, and my wife drives one with less power and more weight, and merging onto busy highway traffic is NEVER a problem. The only problem we have is with GIANT trucks riding our asses because they want to go 90 mph, so that they can be ABSOLUTELY SURE that they get less than 10mpg, even on the highway.
So the average Civic gets something like 34+ mpg, or about TWICE what even a modest sized truck/SUV gets. That doesn't even take into account the hybrid Civic, which gets upwards of 50 mpg!
So, before you call someone, in effect, an idiot, you should check your facts. Otherwise, you are the one who doesn't "have any idea what your talking about".
I've been hoping for Nintendo/Sega 'merger' since the Dreamcast was discontinued. Had they done it, and done it early, they may have been able to reclaim significant market share after the Sony-PS1 takeover.
In my opinion, alot of the older Sega games would have been prime, stylistically speaking, GameCube remakes. Ah well. Is it just me, btw, or have arcade games been seriously lagging in development the last 4 or 5 years? Seems like when I was younger, arcades were where you went to see the latest in amazing graphics and games. Now it feels like I am playing a GBA game on a big screen, technology wise.
It's not like you can use this stuff to buy oil, either.
Sure you can. Not directly, but that's not the point. Think of it like software. There are no raw materials for it, just some work and time. I can sell that software to you for $50 a shot, or whatever, and buy oil with that. You can make the comparison even closer buy looking at the amount of software sold via direct download, and paid for my credit card. There is absolutely no physical product changing hands at any point, but money is being transfered in exchange for some sort of work.
That's the closest 'real world' analogy I can think of.
On a semi-related note, I would be interested to see what the economy of these games was like if the company in charge DIDN'T regulate the sale of in-game money/eq. As it is now, with the outside sale of game goods being strictly 'illegal' there is of course an inflated value, since you are also paying for the risk of the operation, and also there is only a small portion of the total in game wealth up for sale. I have a feeling that legalizing the sales would reduce the overall real-world value, which in turn would make these auction sites and sweatshop operations unprofitable, and ultimately end the problem the were causing in the first place.
Actually, the GBA can easily play NES ROMs via an emulator. So if you develop for the NES you can still show it off on your GBA, if that's your thing.
Also, you can play NES ROMs on most modern PDAs, so you have even more platforms available to you. In the end, you should pick the system that has the features and development environment that suits your game.
Just my $.02, but I got an XBox when it launched (not usually one to play console games, especially when they are brand new, but I was working on a project out of town and, hence, living in a hotel for about 9 months. I didn't have a decent laptop at the time, and didn't need one. $300 was a good deal for a gaming system, DVD player, and music jukebox, compared to a laptop). Anyways, Halo was one of the couple games I grabbed when I got my XBox, and while compared to the standard PC FPS of the time, it wasn't really all that special, it did/does have a lot going for it besides marketing.
First, it was easily the best, in terms of graphics, control, gameplay, and every other measure, FPS for a console up to that point (with only the 007 for the N64 being comparable, but it falls short on graphics). That alone makes it worth the hype. Also, just as importantly, it had a great single player campaign. At a time when multiplayer FPS was THE thing, Halo succeeded on its single player game, which was a nice change of place. The enemies were moderately intelligent, the level design was good, without being too easy to get lost or stuck at any point, there was good variety in the missions and scenery, and lastly, the story, while a bit trite, was well executed.
I've since sold my XBox, after getting home to my PC, and am actually about to buy a GameCube (one of the side effects of switching over completely to Linux is not having as many games to play). But, I still say Halo was a pretty damn good game, on the XBox in 2001 (PC release 2+ years later did nothing for me). Hopefully Metroid Prime (and it's upcoming sequel) will be just as good to me!
Funny as that is, it is a valid point. I'm about 230lbs, and I'm not really that fat. I'm just a bigger guy, at 6'2" with a big frame, and, ya, some extra pounds. Even at my 'goal' weight, i'd still be hovering at the 200 level, right at the limit of these bikes.
While I could easily ride one then, and most likely now, the speed, acceleration, and max range would suffer immensely, making it much less appealing a vehicle.
Ya, that's exactly what I am talking about. Well, close. The design is EXACTLY what I am envisioning. However, I think that something based on a conventional gas engine would be a better choice, for now at least. Also, the top speed should be at least 65mph, for safety on the highways, at least here in the states. Finally, I would like to see them scrap the whole tilting concept and just use better performing conventional shocks, to both save money any weight.
Looks like they are estimating it at around US$10,000. Not bad, but wonder if they went with an existing motor design and scrapped the automatic tilting stuff if it would be cheaper, more powerful, and lighter (the last two resulting in a higher speed). Probably lose a bunch on efficiency, but even at less than half of their projected 188mpg, it would be a great product! (Esp. if said changes dropped the initial price to say US$7,000).
Thanks for the link tho, it's just what I was looking for.
The M16 you see on TV with the orange thing is a REAL FUNCTIONING M16. The orange bit is called a blank adaptor, which is there the provide sufficient back pressure to move the bolt back and load the next round into the chamber. Normally, the round being ejected from the barrel provides this back pressure.
I know this from my seemingly endless days in basic combat training.
You can get a standard PC to do all of these things, pretty easily. First take a reasonably powerful computer, add a video encoder, some PVR software, a DVD-RW drive, a broadband internet connection, and maybe Yahoo! Games on Demand and you can have all of that.
The trouble comes in that it is practically impossible to have one machine do lots of things well. It may do them all, but not as well as a machine designed just to do that single function would.
Examples: an actual TiVo is vastly superior to a PC w/ video capture and PVR software (with the notable exception that you can't burn shows to DVD... I'm talking strictly UI and stability). A DVD player may be great for watching movies, but the built in MP3 playback is usually pretty crappy.
I used to be an all-in-one kinda guy too... now I am starting to move towards a single machine for a single use philosophy. My TiVo is great, I am going to get a Gamecube soon, and just forget about dual booting XP so I can stick to Linux for all my desktop needs, etc.
This is slightly off-topic, but maybe someone will be able to point be in the right direction... I am envisioning a vehicle that is roughly 6-7ft long, 4ft wide, and about 4.5ft tall. It is shaped like a 'pod', i.e. very aerodynamic and egg like. It's got 3 or 4 wheels small, low rolling resistance tires, and is powered with a smallish motorcycle engine. The body is plastic with a minimal aluminum frame underneath. There is one seat, with basic controls. No A/C, heat could be added, utilizing 'wasted' heat energy from the the engine, of course. Gear it for maximum fuel efficiency, and a peak speed (in terms of good gas milage) of about 70mph
Don't these little motorcycles we have now get 60+mpg? And they are tuned for speed/acceleration, not fuel economy. So we should be able to get even more than that if tuned properly. The extra weight would drop it down some, but the addition of better aerodynamics and lower resistance tires will up it some as well.
I can't see how this would be anymore dangerous to the driver than a motorcycle is, and those are allowed everywhere. Plus you could drive it in the rain, and feasibly have some storage space inside.
I've been envisioning this for about a year now, and would buy one if it were under $6000, went at least 65mph getting 55-60mpg, were legal on the highway, and had a 7-9 gallon tank (400-550 miles per tank).
My question is if there is anything like this out there, of if I should go ahead and start building one?
This is kinda on the topic, so please don't mod me down to hard!
you are willing to pay a small fee (how about $1 dollar a download, size independent... or some sort of subscription service... I pay Disney Inc. directly to be able to download their verified and authenticated content).
Of course that works in theory, but clearly it doen't work in reality.
That's more or less what iTunes and thier competitors are doing. Appl doesn't make any real money from music sales, they are happy to break even and sell a few extra iPods at huge mark-ups.
The trouble with this is simply that it would break the RIAA/MPAA's monopoly on distribution via CD/DVD. They are terrified of that. That's the reason behind things like the DCMA, it is more profitable for them to pay congress (wo)men to right laws to protect their antiquated business models, and lawyers to sue you for breaking that law, then it is for them to move to a more modern system.
Things gets pretty simple when you can figure out how someone is making money off it.
The PlayStation 2 hasn't failed in the United States while never at any time being cheaper than the Nintendo GameCube. It's all about the titles, and as you mention, this handheld can apparently run some pretty good titles natively and emulate thousands more.
That's a good point. I think that the key difference is in the 'target audience'. The PS2 is aimed toward the older gaming crowed, say 16-32 or something. The GCN is typically thought to be *mainly* aimed at the younger crowd, say 7-18 or so. Of course there is plenty of overlap in who actually buys the system, but that's the *perception*.
The PSP and this "Moma Eve" or whatever it's called are going to be aimed at the same market. (One could guess that the GB DS is targeted at the GCN crowd and the PSP is going to be marketed at PS2's audience). This handheld x86 will probably a little complicated, as there will be software installs to deal with, etc, so *probably* be marketed for an older audience, as opposed to little kids.
My point is that the PS2 and GCN are fundamentally different audiences, where this new gadget and the PSP will be aimed at a similar groups.
But I do agree, titles will be a big question mark.
The key to this device's success is going to come down to 2 things, imho...
1) Price. If you can get a PSP cheaper, it's going to fail. Period. The PSP is probably going to start at, what, $200-250? So I'd say it'd better be around $150-175 MAX if it wants any chance at all.
2) Accessories. It was mentioned above that they intend to have a detachable game pad area, and I hope that it uses some sort of customized USB 2.0 connection for that so they can have a large array of easy to develop add-ons. Examples: A mini-keyboard, a stand with a built in USB HUB, so you can plug in a mouse/keyboard or external HD/DVD drive, or whatever you want. Also, a Wi-Fi add-on (or standard built in) would be an obvious must have.
A 533mhz cpu with 128mb ram will run some pretty decent games. If this GPU subsystem is decent at all, and they have some sort of widdled down version of widows running you could conceivably run Q3 based games, which is pretty nice for a handheld system.
Personally, I think that if this does make it to market, it will fail on both points 1 and 2. It will likely be in the $300-400 range, since they will have to actually make money on the hardware, as they don't get licensing fees from software sales like Sony and Nintendo. The accessories will likely be available, but will be either too expensive, reach market to late, or be just plain stupid (think GB camera and printer).
If it does manage to hit the shelves at a decent price and they improve the form factor some, it could be a very cool gadget. In all likelihood, however, I think I will be one the ones grabbing one of these as they get discontinued so I can turn it into a bathroom email/web browser!
128kbps doesn't cut it. It's an absolute lossy, disgusting bitrate, no matter what it's in. They should test similar file sizes instead of by bitrate, to determine whether something is good or not- this gives a better impression of quality vs size, instead of a purely comparison based test.
Uh, if the sample is the same length, and the but rate is the same, won't the file size be the same as well? A 10 second sample at 128 Kb Per Second should be 1280Kb regardless of the format, no?
And, just FYI, MOST people, something like 95% of listeners cannot tell the difference between 128kbps sample and the original. I generally can't, even with decent headphones on.
I think that all you compression elitist snobs work for HD manufacturers, trying to get me to buy a 250GB drive to store the same amount of music as my 60GB will hold!
Well, it takes a ton of power to emulate a SNES or PS1's hardware. However the idea here is that the XBox runs on the same CPU architecture, X86 - a P3 733Mhz to be specific, that your PC (probably) does. So there isn't a need to emulate that piece of hardware. Furthermore, the video subsystem is a customized video card from NVidia, and is more than likely extremely similar to their commercial cards. Hence, there is likely very little to be emulated there.
What it appears to come down to is developing some sort of middle layer that takes the XBox Direct-ish calls, and passes them to the appropriate DirectX 7/8/9 whatever functions, and then provides that result back to the XBox app as if it were coming directly from the XBox NT-based kernel. I would venture to say it's similar to what the WINE project has to do. Maybe not, I am not a developer for either group.
That should be doable, as all the hardware functions that the XBox needs SHOULD be supported by fairly standard PCs, except perhaps sound, which one would think that a CPU 2x as fast as the one in the Xbox will compensate for.
Off topic, but just in case you Windows hold outs didn't know it, Mac OSX's Safari, and every other Mac app, really, takes advantage of OSX's built in spell checker, so you too can have spelling error free/. posts.
Even further off topic, does anyone know of a way to something similar with Linux?
If I remember correctly, didn't Nintendo say that the DS is not a sequel to the GBA?
Regardless of wether that is the case or not, it is going to be perceived as the sequel to the GBA. It is going to have the GameBoy name, and be a new handheld from the Nintendo. People will naturally assume it is the next GB. As a comparison, look at the GBA SP and how many times you had to tell people it was EXACTLY the same inside as the GBA, just a different case w/ a backlight and built in batter.
Also, if this is NOT a 'sequel' to the GBA, then they are introducing a device that will directly compete with their other products. Wether this would be a negative factor I'm not sure. I'd be curious to see how non-SP GBAs are selling now.
Lastly, is there any info yet on the backward compatibility of the DS? I agree with the parent poster, that backwards compatibility will probably make or break the system. Remember the Virtual Boy? That wasn't a direct sequel to the GB, but an addition to the line, and it failed miserably, mostly because it was a radically different platform to develop for, and had 0 installed game base, which makes it hard to sell systems, which in turn make it hard to get developers to produce games, which in turn, etc etc...
In an already crowded video game market it is going to be rough to get a new system off the ground. If the DS is backward compatible with the GB/A, it will probably sell well, if priced right. If not, it's going to be a tough sell when there are so many other options out there.
The PSP will have success based on 1) (in the short term) Sony/PS fanboys who will buy it and all the launch games just because, and 2) (in the long run) how easy it ends up being to port PS games to it. If a developer can take a PS1 game, run it thru a magical Sony PSP compiler setup and have a nearly ready to ship PSP game, it will be an easy way to build up a library of good games fast, and put a huge dent into Nintendo's handheld market.
What isn't here, and probably never will be, is the SciFi "self-assembly" nanotech. Throw out some powder on a rock and watch it turn it into a new car. Or something equally silly.
Actually, I read an article about a new manufacturing process to make hi-res monitors/tvs where they essentially poor a liquid component over a backing material and it then 'grows' itself into crystalized tubes that will route light similar to fiber optic cabling, only much, much smaller.
They could make the tubes before, but the trouble was getting them all perfectly aligned to emit the light out in the same direction. With this process they would all grow 90 degrees from the mounting surface.
It will allow for the creation of monitors that are something like 3-4 times the pixel density of plasma HDTVs, and cost int he hundreds of dollars for a 42" rather than the thousands.
If I recall, the hold up was making the electronics to control it. I'm gonna see if I can find that article now...
Currently, your options are to either split the movie across 2 DVDs, or compress it so that it looks like ass.
You clearly have not used DVDShrink. I don't know about other software's re-compression, but the newer versions of DVDShrink (and the older ones for that matter) do an AMAZING job, all things considered. No one I have shown a backed up movie to can tell that it has been altered from the original.
The key is to get rid of or make as small as possible the useless junk. For example, most movies special features are junk anyways, and you watch them once and never again, so you can get rid of those, and since all that is left is the movie, you don't really need a menu anymore, do you? That alone will usually get a movie to ALMOST fit on a DVD-5.
Next is the extra audio tracks. Unless you are in a biligual home, and each member NEEDS a different audio track, then you can just pick one and get rid of the rest. Same goes for directors commentaries, MOST of the time. Then you have the AC3 and the PCM audio tracks. AC3 tends to be half the size of the PCM, and sounds just as good over non-31337 audio setups, so ditch the PCM.
After all that your movie will probably fit un-re-compressed, and not it will only need a little.
If you prefer to keep the menus/features, then you can get rid of the extraneous audio tracks, MASSIVELY compress the menus/features, (ya they look crappy, but it's still watchable and will improve your main movie quality) and then compress the main feature accordingly.
The last paragraph is what I tend to do, as on a regular TV (even my computer monitor, displaying the full DVD resolution) and thru my modest audio setup, I can't tell the main movie copy apart from the original. The menu's and features look like a DiVX movie you downloaded, watchable, but not DVD perfect. Not enough to concern me, tho.
According to DVDShrinks Author, 3.1 is the final version, with only bugfixes to be added in the future (and translations). He mentioned it in this post on the official forum.
If he doesn't add official support for DVD-9 drives, you can pretty easily change the target size in 3.1.x's preferences to give you a DVD-9 sized disc. Then just burn it with whatever software comes with the drive, or whatever it is you want to use. (The newer versions of DVDShrink work directly with Nero, if I recall, to automatically burn your ripped disc after it re-encodes, so once Nero supports DVD-9 DVDShrink will burn them as well).
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Rob
Seriously, are you really going to pay for movies a second time, just so you can watch them on your PSP? I can see using the PSP for an MP3 player, with the memory stick support and all, but this talk about a portable media center and not really a game console are stupid. Depending on the price point of the movies, they may sell a few, but that will pale in comparison to how many games they ship.
I think they know that can't beat Nintendo in the handheld market and are trying to spin the PSP as a filling a different "need".
A RTS game will be great on the DS. There are already a couple of good ones for PocketPC PDA's, showing that the touch screen interface is playable. However, I expect that rather than watch two locations at once, the 'norm' for RTS on the DS will be the touch screen for your standard view (showing troops, bases, etc) and the upper screen will have a mini-map and available actions for whatever units you have selected. Movement, targeting, and scrolling will be done via touch screen, and the D-Pad will let you quickly and simultaneously select what action icon you want.
That's basically what I think the DS games will look like, and I don't think that the dual screen is really the killer feature, anyways. There will be a FEW games that really use the second screen in a usefull and novel way, but mostly, the touch screen interface will be the innovator. Games will have an unprecidented (in a hand-held console) variety of interaction. The second screen will be a scoreboard, or, often, I feel, a chat interface for multiplayer games (when used with the touch screen for a virtual keyboard).
Anyways, all I am getting at is that the dual screen design in itself isn't going to be the greatest thing ever. It's an interesting means to an end; more screen space while also keeping costs down and allowing the system to fold up into a compact and sturdy design. The touch screen and the integrated wireless will be the real improvements. I for one am REALLY looking forward to it.
The problem as I see it is that patents like this DO stop Americans from taking part in projects like these, which in turn hampers the growth of opensourse community here in the States.
That's what worries me the most. Eventually, even the opensource projects will be outsourced, to places with less retarded patent laws.
The SMALLEST Dodge truck with a V8 Hemi gets 17mpg HIGHWAY (14 City). See here.
A Mid-Sized SUV, the Durango, with the same V8 Hemi gets 14/19 (city/hwy) mpg. You can check that here.
For comparison, a 2004 Civic gets between 29 and 44 (!) mpg, depending on city or highway, and what trim level you get. See proof here.
I drive such a car, and my wife drives one with less power and more weight, and merging onto busy highway traffic is NEVER a problem. The only problem we have is with GIANT trucks riding our asses because they want to go 90 mph, so that they can be ABSOLUTELY SURE that they get less than 10mpg, even on the highway.
So the average Civic gets something like 34+ mpg, or about TWICE what even a modest sized truck/SUV gets. That doesn't even take into account the hybrid Civic, which gets upwards of 50 mpg!
So, before you call someone, in effect, an idiot, you should check your facts. Otherwise, you are the one who doesn't "have any idea what your talking about".
In my opinion, alot of the older Sega games would have been prime, stylistically speaking, GameCube remakes. Ah well. Is it just me, btw, or have arcade games been seriously lagging in development the last 4 or 5 years? Seems like when I was younger, arcades were where you went to see the latest in amazing graphics and games. Now it feels like I am playing a GBA game on a big screen, technology wise.
Rob
As opposed to what the US currency is based on?
It's not like you can use this stuff to buy oil, either.
Sure you can. Not directly, but that's not the point. Think of it like software. There are no raw materials for it, just some work and time. I can sell that software to you for $50 a shot, or whatever, and buy oil with that. You can make the comparison even closer buy looking at the amount of software sold via direct download, and paid for my credit card. There is absolutely no physical product changing hands at any point, but money is being transfered in exchange for some sort of work.
That's the closest 'real world' analogy I can think of.
On a semi-related note, I would be interested to see what the economy of these games was like if the company in charge DIDN'T regulate the sale of in-game money/eq. As it is now, with the outside sale of game goods being strictly 'illegal' there is of course an inflated value, since you are also paying for the risk of the operation, and also there is only a small portion of the total in game wealth up for sale. I have a feeling that legalizing the sales would reduce the overall real-world value, which in turn would make these auction sites and sweatshop operations unprofitable, and ultimately end the problem the were causing in the first place.
Also, you can play NES ROMs on most modern PDAs, so you have even more platforms available to you. In the end, you should pick the system that has the features and development environment that suits your game.
First, it was easily the best, in terms of graphics, control, gameplay, and every other measure, FPS for a console up to that point (with only the 007 for the N64 being comparable, but it falls short on graphics). That alone makes it worth the hype. Also, just as importantly, it had a great single player campaign. At a time when multiplayer FPS was THE thing, Halo succeeded on its single player game, which was a nice change of place. The enemies were moderately intelligent, the level design was good, without being too easy to get lost or stuck at any point, there was good variety in the missions and scenery, and lastly, the story, while a bit trite, was well executed.
I've since sold my XBox, after getting home to my PC, and am actually about to buy a GameCube (one of the side effects of switching over completely to Linux is not having as many games to play). But, I still say Halo was a pretty damn good game, on the XBox in 2001 (PC release 2+ years later did nothing for me). Hopefully Metroid Prime (and it's upcoming sequel) will be just as good to me!
While I could easily ride one then, and most likely now, the speed, acceleration, and max range would suffer immensely, making it much less appealing a vehicle.
Looks like they are estimating it at around US$10,000. Not bad, but wonder if they went with an existing motor design and scrapped the automatic tilting stuff if it would be cheaper, more powerful, and lighter (the last two resulting in a higher speed). Probably lose a bunch on efficiency, but even at less than half of their projected 188mpg, it would be a great product! (Esp. if said changes dropped the initial price to say US$7,000). Thanks for the link tho, it's just what I was looking for.
I know this from my seemingly endless days in basic combat training.
I apologize if this is redundant.
The trouble comes in that it is practically impossible to have one machine do lots of things well. It may do them all, but not as well as a machine designed just to do that single function would.
Examples: an actual TiVo is vastly superior to a PC w/ video capture and PVR software (with the notable exception that you can't burn shows to DVD... I'm talking strictly UI and stability). A DVD player may be great for watching movies, but the built in MP3 playback is usually pretty crappy.
I used to be an all-in-one kinda guy too... now I am starting to move towards a single machine for a single use philosophy. My TiVo is great, I am going to get a Gamecube soon, and just forget about dual booting XP so I can stick to Linux for all my desktop needs, etc.
Just my $.02.
Don't these little motorcycles we have now get 60+mpg? And they are tuned for speed/acceleration, not fuel economy. So we should be able to get even more than that if tuned properly. The extra weight would drop it down some, but the addition of better aerodynamics and lower resistance tires will up it some as well.
I can't see how this would be anymore dangerous to the driver than a motorcycle is, and those are allowed everywhere. Plus you could drive it in the rain, and feasibly have some storage space inside.
I've been envisioning this for about a year now, and would buy one if it were under $6000, went at least 65mph getting 55-60mpg, were legal on the highway, and had a 7-9 gallon tank (400-550 miles per tank).
My question is if there is anything like this out there, of if I should go ahead and start building one?
This is kinda on the topic, so please don't mod me down to hard!
Of course that works in theory, but clearly it doen't work in reality.
That's more or less what iTunes and thier competitors are doing. Appl doesn't make any real money from music sales, they are happy to break even and sell a few extra iPods at huge mark-ups.
The trouble with this is simply that it would break the RIAA/MPAA's monopoly on distribution via CD/DVD. They are terrified of that. That's the reason behind things like the DCMA, it is more profitable for them to pay congress (wo)men to right laws to protect their antiquated business models, and lawyers to sue you for breaking that law, then it is for them to move to a more modern system.
Things gets pretty simple when you can figure out how someone is making money off it.
News for American nerds, I guess.
The PSP and this "Moma Eve" or whatever it's called are going to be aimed at the same market. (One could guess that the GB DS is targeted at the GCN crowd and the PSP is going to be marketed at PS2's audience). This handheld x86 will probably a little complicated, as there will be software installs to deal with, etc, so *probably* be marketed for an older audience, as opposed to little kids.
My point is that the PS2 and GCN are fundamentally different audiences, where this new gadget and the PSP will be aimed at a similar groups.
But I do agree, titles will be a big question mark.
1) Price. If you can get a PSP cheaper, it's going to fail. Period. The PSP is probably going to start at, what, $200-250? So I'd say it'd better be around $150-175 MAX if it wants any chance at all.
2) Accessories. It was mentioned above that they intend to have a detachable game pad area, and I hope that it uses some sort of customized USB 2.0 connection for that so they can have a large array of easy to develop add-ons. Examples: A mini-keyboard, a stand with a built in USB HUB, so you can plug in a mouse/keyboard or external HD/DVD drive, or whatever you want. Also, a Wi-Fi add-on (or standard built in) would be an obvious must have.
A 533mhz cpu with 128mb ram will run some pretty decent games. If this GPU subsystem is decent at all, and they have some sort of widdled down version of widows running you could conceivably run Q3 based games, which is pretty nice for a handheld system.
Personally, I think that if this does make it to market, it will fail on both points 1 and 2. It will likely be in the $300-400 range, since they will have to actually make money on the hardware, as they don't get licensing fees from software sales like Sony and Nintendo. The accessories will likely be available, but will be either too expensive, reach market to late, or be just plain stupid (think GB camera and printer).
If it does manage to hit the shelves at a decent price and they improve the form factor some, it could be a very cool gadget. In all likelihood, however, I think I will be one the ones grabbing one of these as they get discontinued so I can turn it into a bathroom email/web browser!
Uh, if the sample is the same length, and the but rate is the same, won't the file size be the same as well? A 10 second sample at 128 Kb Per Second should be 1280Kb regardless of the format, no?
And, just FYI, MOST people, something like 95% of listeners cannot tell the difference between 128kbps sample and the original. I generally can't, even with decent headphones on.
I think that all you compression elitist snobs work for HD manufacturers, trying to get me to buy a 250GB drive to store the same amount of music as my 60GB will hold!
What it appears to come down to is developing some sort of middle layer that takes the XBox Direct-ish calls, and passes them to the appropriate DirectX 7/8/9 whatever functions, and then provides that result back to the XBox app as if it were coming directly from the XBox NT-based kernel. I would venture to say it's similar to what the WINE project has to do. Maybe not, I am not a developer for either group.
That should be doable, as all the hardware functions that the XBox needs SHOULD be supported by fairly standard PCs, except perhaps sound, which one would think that a CPU 2x as fast as the one in the Xbox will compensate for.
Even further off topic, does anyone know of a way to something similar with Linux?
Rob
Regardless of wether that is the case or not, it is going to be perceived as the sequel to the GBA. It is going to have the GameBoy name, and be a new handheld from the Nintendo. People will naturally assume it is the next GB. As a comparison, look at the GBA SP and how many times you had to tell people it was EXACTLY the same inside as the GBA, just a different case w/ a backlight and built in batter.
Also, if this is NOT a 'sequel' to the GBA, then they are introducing a device that will directly compete with their other products. Wether this would be a negative factor I'm not sure. I'd be curious to see how non-SP GBAs are selling now.
Lastly, is there any info yet on the backward compatibility of the DS? I agree with the parent poster, that backwards compatibility will probably make or break the system. Remember the Virtual Boy? That wasn't a direct sequel to the GB, but an addition to the line, and it failed miserably, mostly because it was a radically different platform to develop for, and had 0 installed game base, which makes it hard to sell systems, which in turn make it hard to get developers to produce games, which in turn, etc etc...
In an already crowded video game market it is going to be rough to get a new system off the ground. If the DS is backward compatible with the GB/A, it will probably sell well, if priced right. If not, it's going to be a tough sell when there are so many other options out there.
The PSP will have success based on 1) (in the short term) Sony/PS fanboys who will buy it and all the launch games just because, and 2) (in the long run) how easy it ends up being to port PS games to it. If a developer can take a PS1 game, run it thru a magical Sony PSP compiler setup and have a nearly ready to ship PSP game, it will be an easy way to build up a library of good games fast, and put a huge dent into Nintendo's handheld market.
Or I could be full of shit, who knows.
Rob
Actually, I read an article about a new manufacturing process to make hi-res monitors/tvs where they essentially poor a liquid component over a backing material and it then 'grows' itself into crystalized tubes that will route light similar to fiber optic cabling, only much, much smaller.
They could make the tubes before, but the trouble was getting them all perfectly aligned to emit the light out in the same direction. With this process they would all grow 90 degrees from the mounting surface.
It will allow for the creation of monitors that are something like 3-4 times the pixel density of plasma HDTVs, and cost int he hundreds of dollars for a 42" rather than the thousands.
If I recall, the hold up was making the electronics to control it. I'm gonna see if I can find that article now...
Rob
Press release from a manufacturer
ZDNet article about the underlying NanoTube technology
Still can't find the original article I was referencing, tho. Oh well...
You clearly have not used DVDShrink. I don't know about other software's re-compression, but the newer versions of DVDShrink (and the older ones for that matter) do an AMAZING job, all things considered. No one I have shown a backed up movie to can tell that it has been altered from the original.
The key is to get rid of or make as small as possible the useless junk. For example, most movies special features are junk anyways, and you watch them once and never again, so you can get rid of those, and since all that is left is the movie, you don't really need a menu anymore, do you? That alone will usually get a movie to ALMOST fit on a DVD-5.
Next is the extra audio tracks. Unless you are in a biligual home, and each member NEEDS a different audio track, then you can just pick one and get rid of the rest. Same goes for directors commentaries, MOST of the time. Then you have the AC3 and the PCM audio tracks. AC3 tends to be half the size of the PCM, and sounds just as good over non-31337 audio setups, so ditch the PCM.
After all that your movie will probably fit un-re-compressed, and not it will only need a little.
If you prefer to keep the menus/features, then you can get rid of the extraneous audio tracks, MASSIVELY compress the menus/features, (ya they look crappy, but it's still watchable and will improve your main movie quality) and then compress the main feature accordingly.
The last paragraph is what I tend to do, as on a regular TV (even my computer monitor, displaying the full DVD resolution) and thru my modest audio setup, I can't tell the main movie copy apart from the original. The menu's and features look like a DiVX movie you downloaded, watchable, but not DVD perfect. Not enough to concern me, tho.
Rob
If he doesn't add official support for DVD-9 drives, you can pretty easily change the target size in 3.1.x's preferences to give you a DVD-9 sized disc. Then just burn it with whatever software comes with the drive, or whatever it is you want to use. (The newer versions of DVDShrink work directly with Nero, if I recall, to automatically burn your ripped disc after it re-encodes, so once Nero supports DVD-9 DVDShrink will burn them as well).