Google desktop search had this feature long before iPhone came along. A search box on the windows desktop that searched both the local drive and the computer. Migrating this feature to mobile seems obvious.
Is there anything more to this patent? Otherwise, this is the perfect examples of how the patent system can be easily abused for software patents
You missed the point entirely. We will sell the products to OURSELVES. While at the same time enjoying the income from manufacturing them, too.
This is a stupid argument. The US Economy consists of 1.8 Trillion Dollars in exports vs 2.5 Trillion in imports. Thats 42% of the economy in exports. On top of that nearly 40% of the total income of all US Businesses (and by extension of the employees and shareholders) is based on their foreign investments and sales.
So if US closes themselves off US will lose 40% of its total economic output. If you reduce your imports by 50% you will also hurt your exports gained after years of negotiations for free trade. Not only will everything in the US be "slightly expensive" millions of people who work in the export industry will lose their jobs and pay more for locally manufactured goods. And yes, outsourcing or labor export/import is also a way trade.
In all, trade benifts the US. Reducing trade will cost big in terms of jobs and standard of living. Saying that get all manufacturing home will fix things ignores exports completely and is downright stupid. More so, when the US markets are growing at 2-4% a year while developing markets are growing at 10% an year meaning in the next few decades the potential for exports in many many times higher than the savings from imports.
Trade and economics are not a zero sum game. Even for the mostly technical crowd here at slashdot, think of the major revenue loss Microsoft, Google, IBM, Apple etc. will have if they are hit with tit-for-tat duties in taxes in foreign countries that make them less competitive.
Actually, due to the huge amount of affirmative action, upper cast people often try to be identified as lower cast.
In India 50% of all university seats, government jobs, and other opportunities are reserved from people identified to be from the under-privileged castes. The lower castes are also one of the strongest political blocks with huge electoral powers.
If anything the lower caste people want it to be easier to prove they are in fact lower class so they can get all the benefits there in.
The social stigma exists, but is not dependent on or impacted by the government. Its going to remain till a few generations of Indians have lived and ancient truths on this matter have ceased to be the standard.
They reversed their decision on Rumble when that became available. Thats your one example.
They have also changed prices and SKU's much more frequently than they have admitted to trying to fit the markets needs in the price that they need to achieve.
I don't own the wii so I am not familiar with it. As I have said earlier it is obviously done just right.
I think if the BC issue becomes as important as some here believe it will, Sony will re-introduce the 60 or 80G versions. Just like this is a reaction to the market's demand for lower price, that will come as well. And for an extra 50 Euro you can get the higher version... it's going to happen.
It's real money. Each purchase is spelled out in dollars. You go through shopping carts like any other site.
My experience with the Wii has been little so I will concede to you there. I do believe that it is a cool device which is going to be one of the big successes for Nintendo.
As for your last point. PSN downloads in the background too, has lots of vintage arcade titles, good number of ports and plenty of independent items. It's not as many as the XBox and that is, as I mentioned in my earlier post, the main strike against the PS3 - the lack of content. I do think they have been adding content on the PSN reasonably fast and I didn't really expect more than 1 or 2 every week in any case.
I think integrating the store into the XMB will be cool as that is clearly a successful UI style. Browsing the store like any other online store is equally good. In XBox Live I get completely lost sometimes through the menu's. It's like nothing else and just doesn't seem as familiar as the PSN.
While I agree with you on the PSP, Sony's reasoning is quite obvious - they want to control usage of their products like every other company. However I have to say Sony has done more than ANY other gaming company to support open platforms without hurting itself. PS3 has standard hard drives, wireless, USB peripherals, Bluetooth etc. MS and Nintendo have completely locked in systems.
On the Sony Online Store I complete disagree with you. Maybe it is because I am a late comer to XBox Live (I bought one with Halo 3 last weekend) but I hate how MS has done online except for gamer points. I don't want to pay to use live, I hate their points system (why don't they just use real money?), I hate the way the interface is done. I love how simple the Sony Store is. Except that they don't have as many games yet, but for online store that is changing fast.
Frankly, I think people who have been used to Xbox Live hate the way PSN is different. I however, having started out on PSN, hate the XBox Live.
In all, as long as they can deliver on good games, I think Sony has made good bets with the PS3 as well as the PSN.
On the topic of this thread, I am certain they will offer two SKU's : one with and one w/o BC eventually on all markets to satisfy everyone.
As a PC Gamer I am happy that MS is pushing for games on the PC. Hopefully, we won't have to pay membership fees for Gears of War online. I had bet on the fact that with Vista out, most great games on XBox will find their way to the PC and had thus bought a PS3.... yay to me.
Anyways, with few new announcements that wasn't a very successful press conference. I was hoping for a few new games, or a price drop on the elite, or anything else that would push me into convincing my wife to let me buy a 360
You ought to. Even without the games it's a complete media center and an amazing piece of hardware. If you can afford it, it will easily beat any expectation that you have from it. I just wish there were more games available NOW rather than later but I bought it knowing that I'll have to wait.:)
I agree with you. Especially with the buzzzz Apple gets with a 500$ iPhone. If millions of people can buy a 500$ phone, I am sure the PS3 is worth the 600$.
It's just bad press combined with the fact that most games are in the "coming soon" category. That looks like it's going to change come holiday season.
Not to burst your bubble but I think the India Today rankings are bull. In all that matters the top few IIT's are more equal than not and are hard to rank against each other.
Having said that, IITK is indeed ranked first in this years rankings. Also, while all IITs have been up and down the rankings IITK has been first more times than all the others and has always remained in the top 2 except once when it was third. All the other IITs have seen lower rankings. India Today is a subscription only website so I can't give you the link but you can check on that information easily.
Anyways, the "IIT is India's MIT" is meant more for all the IITs taken together as a system rather than for a single IIT. Even then it is only a fair comparison in terms of the prestige that IITs carry in India against the prestige that MIT carries in the US.
Thank you for writing this. I wish I had mod points for you.
Of the 200 or so comments posted yours is the only one I found with praises for the boy. Kudos to the kids for coming with something and aspiring to be great. I wish I could say the same for people here on Slashdot. Breaks my heart that only a rare comment praises achievement here and 200 or so others point out the negatives.
Which is an acceptable theory as long as those who have faith understand that god reveals himself to different people in lots of different ways and accept that those other ways are equal to their own. Which is why we have religions that are so different.
The western concept of God as being capable of taking on a human form and revealing himself is completely alien to my own religion. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panentheism. As long as all believers accept that while religions talk about god in human terms to make the idea easy to understand, if god really exists its form transcends our own understanding and thus all forms of faith are equal, our world will be a better place.
India's Minister of Communications & Information Technology recently launched the Re.1 OneIndia scheme where all telephone calls originating and ending in India (local and long distance, mobile and landline) will cost only Re 1. (2 Cents) During the press conference he was asked if a similar scheme is possible for net connectivity and he said the vision is to:
1. Start web hosting with MTNL and BSNL (The govt owned telecom companies) so that most Indian pages are hosted within India. 2. Once most Indian internet traffic terminates within India, reduce cost of internet connectivity in a big way, possibly even make it free.
When asked how long it will take to implement this, he said he still has 2 years to make something happen which is to mean the 2 years left in his term as the minister till the next general election.
There is no formal plan as of now and the story as posted on Slashdot is vastly exaggerated. Even the long goal in his comments was to offer free Broadband connection to subscribers with a land-line connection from BSNL or MTNL. Essentially, a free upgrade in competition against other providers.
There is no plan to provide internet connectivity to every person in India. I do hope, however, that someday it is possible to provide free internet access to every village for the vast benefits it could and would bring.
I finally bought a PS3 two days ago after sitting on the fence between 360 and PS3 for a long time.
For me the Blu Ray drive was a big selling point as I have a 50" 1080p TV and Blu-Ray seems to be getting the movies I would want in the near future. With a lack of interesting HD content on the cable, a High Def player is a godsend.
The other clincher was the fact that many of the 360 exclusives do come out on the PC as well and I have a fairly powerful gaming PC. With MS making noise about XBL connecting to windows and increased support for vista as a gaming platform, PC seems like a good choice for those games. PS3 compliments the PC well.
Anyways.. The first few days have been great. There were two main issues, text input and no background downloading.
I have bought a wireless Logitech USB keyboard and it works great to fix the first problem. So much so that I hope a few game developers think of allowing keyboard keys to be bound to game controls in the future. Hopefully, Sony will soon fix the background downloads problem as well.
I have been playing COD3 and it looks and plays great. I have more games I like on the platform for now than I can possibly play. Resistance, F1, COD3, NFS Carbon, Marvel, Full Auto 2, Blazing Angels are the one's I am looking forward to, may be even Motorstorm. If I liked fighting or RPG games the list would have been longer. I am also excited about Home especially now that I own a PS3.
My point is there is more than enough going on for the PS3, who cares what the company said or did or promised or feels. I don't particularly care for Microsoft either. It's the system that matters and I think both PS3 and 360 are very comparable systems, both of which will, depending on the requirements, appeal to lots of people.
For the PS3 I am hoping for the following changes: 1. I hope the PSN gets more content soon and all the features of Home are accessible from a non-3D interface as well. 2. The photo/video uploading works great and in inbuilt editor to crop/improve photos and slice/edit videos would make that in itself a killer application for me. 3. Background downloading. 4. Ability to pick up stuff from my PC Hard drive over the wireless network. (Windows Sharing, Samba, FTP, Sony's software anything.) 5. Ability to transfer out free content I download to the PS3 to my PC. 6. DVD Upscaling.
And the great things are: 1. It is truly a media center machine more than a gaming machine and I love that. 2. The interface is slick especially for web browsing (Youtube? flickr?), viewing my own videos and photos and a few other things. 3. Blu Ray playback 4. The games look awesome
Price wasn't a big issue for me, but I do hope they eventually reduce it. I think the PS3 is a great machine and with some blockbuster games and improved PSN it could be a must have for anyone.
I am amazed how good news for Sony is ridiculed in post after post and bad news for Nintendo is dismissed with complete one sidedness. While Sony Home may not be the greatest thing, it is definitely a big announcement and a good step forward. Similarly, the rant against Nintendo probably arises from a disgruntled company but it is something to think about.
There is an utter lack of objectivity in gaming related discussions on Slashdot. With what I would expect the demographics here to be, it definitely surprises me. For someone like me, who is trying to decide which console to buy, these discussions are extremely frustrating for their lack of objective analysis.
It is truly sad that a good post about PS3 is tagged "fanboy" just because it is about PS3
As I have pointed out elsewhere, this is separate from the debate on how many H1Bs should be allowed. This is about people who have already been allowed and approved and are on the path to becoming green card holders/citizens. They have to wait for over 5 to 10 years without being able to change jobs or having their spouses work.
You have misread that statement. H1B Visa holders can in fact transfer to other jobs without going through the quota. It's not even an issue.
The article is talking about Green Card applicants not allowed to change jobs. Essentially, people whose Green Card (immigration) applications have been approved wait for the "Priority Date" which is when there turn will come. This is typically a wait of 5-10 years during which a person who has qualified for being a permanent US resident cannot change jobs and has several other issues. You might want to read http://immigrationvoice.org/index.php?option=com_c ontent&task=view&id=56&Itemid=25 if you are interested.
I have posted this elsewhere on the thread but I find that people are in general unaware of this issue. This is completely separate from the debate on how many H1B's to allow. This is about people who the US has already allowed to become permanent residents. But rules ask that the person stay in the same job without promotion, without the spouse being permitted to work for nearly 5-10 years. It benefits no one and only hurts future residents and citizens. If lesser people should be brought into the US, that should be done. But once someone has been offered residency, I do not understand how making his/her life painful for several years helps anyone's interests.
The TFS is talking about people in the green card process. After applying for your green card it can take from 5 to 10 years to actually receive it. During that period the person cannot change job without restarting the application process and his dependents (children/spouse) cannot work. There are exceptions to this but it is without doubt an extremely painful process.
With increasing opportunities in the rest of the world, including third world countries, I would imagine that fewer of the best people would like to jump through so many hoops to get immigration.
Based on domestic needs, whatever immigration policy the US decides on... once the country has decided how many immigrants it needs and of what type, it must treat those it selects with value and compassion. Else they will lose most except the ones ready to go through the grueling process.
While I understand the debate regarding visa numbers, I do not understand how making it more painful for those that you do allow helps anyone at all. The opposition to making life easier for those who the country has selected to be on the path to legal immigration and citizenship boggles my mind.
You are correct. However, the facts, that life can survive in an alien planet and/or that lifeforms can be seeded across space, in themselves make it more likely that there might be life somewhere else in the universe.
The possibility that life on alien planets may have common origin is interesting in it's own way beyond the possibility that life may exist. It would be fascinating to even imagine the possibility that humans (or life as on earth) may exist on that distant start...
The bottom line remains that discovery of any life on Mars would be a significant victory for those who search for alien life.
Actually it IS a big deal. It's been said by someone that if their exist two of something than there probably exist several of it.
If primitive life forms are discovered on any planet other than Earth, there would be an astronomically higher chance of there being primitive life on several planets across the universe and thus an astronomically higher chance of intelligent life out there.
It would, I hope, motivate a renewed search for life in the universe.
Actually, at times it's surprising to see how many people will stand in a queue for the tickets when there is no queue in front of a self service machine in plain sight.
It always baffles me that those hundreds of people do not know how to use the automated check-in on airports or the automated ticket sales machines at movie theaters. Even worse, most of these machines have a large sign explaining what they do in clear easy steps.
I don't think it's the ease of use... it's just that new things are hard to adapt to and people are scared of unfamiliar things.
Now that someone has successfully installed linux on a PS3... http://ps3.ign.com/articles/748/748255p1.html, I think it becomes a very attractive machine for a geek. Of the top of my head : Mythtv, photo editing and so much else that it could do.
Having a browser will be the least of Microsoft's issues. I am sure PS3's with pre-installed Linux could sell has attractive home entertainment solutions.
Just saw this: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/748/748255p1.html. They managed to successfully install and run linux on a PS3. If someone can get a Myth TV client to install on a PS3... I think that would tilt me to the PS3 side from being a fence sitter between 360 and PS3.
In fact if I could get my hands on one... I might try to do it myself. A Mythtv solution in a PS3 makes it a must have... I wonder what else I could make it do.
1. I don't think Wii has "Game Makers engaged". As a PC Gamer I don't recognize most titles on a Wii. There isn't going to be a GTA4 or a Halo 3 or an Oblivion or any of those games that have cutting edge graphics and cutting edge gameplay on the Wii.
2. There is in fact a market for a High End console if there is a market for "Gaming PCs" where a graphics card could cost half the price of the console itself.
3. I am not disagreeing with you about Sony. I am still on the fence between PS3 and 360 so I am not a "Sony Fanboy" by far, in fact I am considering going in for the 360 instead of waiting for PS3 to become more than it is now. I am just not sold on Wii at all, and I don't see how it is a threat to XBox360 or PS3.
4. Wii may be usable with a regular controller, but the fact is, it's USP is the motion sensing. Take that away and I would rather go for a PS2 over a Wii - better and bigger game collection and cheaper price. Unless you can enjoy all kinds of games with motion sensing... Wii doesn't make any sense as your only gaming console. It can only be a second console for gamers or the primary console for those people who don't play regularly and don't spend hours and hours on games. Now that may be a market in itself, but it's a different market.
5. It's not about nostalgia at all. While motion sensing is cool, I am putting it second behind games with good gameplay AND good graphics. Hopefully, the next gen will have Wii's motion sensing with PS3/360 kind of graphics at medium price. That's the ultimate console.
Slashdot Mirror
Google desktop search had this feature long before iPhone came along. A search box on the windows desktop that searched both the local drive and the computer. Migrating this feature to mobile seems obvious.
Is there anything more to this patent? Otherwise, this is the perfect examples of how the patent system can be easily abused for software patents
You missed the point entirely. We will sell the products to OURSELVES. While at the same time enjoying the income from manufacturing them, too.
This is a stupid argument. The US Economy consists of 1.8 Trillion Dollars in exports vs 2.5 Trillion in imports. Thats 42% of the economy in exports. On top of that nearly 40% of the total income of all US Businesses (and by extension of the employees and shareholders) is based on their foreign investments and sales. So if US closes themselves off US will lose 40% of its total economic output. If you reduce your imports by 50% you will also hurt your exports gained after years of negotiations for free trade. Not only will everything in the US be "slightly expensive" millions of people who work in the export industry will lose their jobs and pay more for locally manufactured goods. And yes, outsourcing or labor export/import is also a way trade. In all, trade benifts the US. Reducing trade will cost big in terms of jobs and standard of living. Saying that get all manufacturing home will fix things ignores exports completely and is downright stupid. More so, when the US markets are growing at 2-4% a year while developing markets are growing at 10% an year meaning in the next few decades the potential for exports in many many times higher than the savings from imports. Trade and economics are not a zero sum game. Even for the mostly technical crowd here at slashdot, think of the major revenue loss Microsoft, Google, IBM, Apple etc. will have if they are hit with tit-for-tat duties in taxes in foreign countries that make them less competitive.
Actually, due to the huge amount of affirmative action, upper cast people often try to be identified as lower cast. In India 50% of all university seats, government jobs, and other opportunities are reserved from people identified to be from the under-privileged castes. The lower castes are also one of the strongest political blocks with huge electoral powers. If anything the lower caste people want it to be easier to prove they are in fact lower class so they can get all the benefits there in. The social stigma exists, but is not dependent on or impacted by the government. Its going to remain till a few generations of Indians have lived and ancient truths on this matter have ceased to be the standard.
They reversed their decision on Rumble when that became available. Thats your one example.
They have also changed prices and SKU's much more frequently than they have admitted to trying to fit the markets needs in the price that they need to achieve.
I don't own the wii so I am not familiar with it. As I have said earlier it is obviously done just right. I think if the BC issue becomes as important as some here believe it will, Sony will re-introduce the 60 or 80G versions. Just like this is a reaction to the market's demand for lower price, that will come as well. And for an extra 50 Euro you can get the higher version... it's going to happen.
It's real money. Each purchase is spelled out in dollars. You go through shopping carts like any other site.
:).
My experience with the Wii has been little so I will concede to you there. I do believe that it is a cool device which is going to be one of the big successes for Nintendo.
As for your last point. PSN downloads in the background too, has lots of vintage arcade titles, good number of ports and plenty of independent items. It's not as many as the XBox and that is, as I mentioned in my earlier post, the main strike against the PS3 - the lack of content. I do think they have been adding content on the PSN reasonably fast and I didn't really expect more than 1 or 2 every week in any case.
I think integrating the store into the XMB will be cool as that is clearly a successful UI style. Browsing the store like any other online store is equally good. In XBox Live I get completely lost sometimes through the menu's. It's like nothing else and just doesn't seem as familiar as the PSN.
To each his own though
While I agree with you on the PSP, Sony's reasoning is quite obvious - they want to control usage of their products like every other company. However I have to say Sony has done more than ANY other gaming company to support open platforms without hurting itself. PS3 has standard hard drives, wireless, USB peripherals, Bluetooth etc. MS and Nintendo have completely locked in systems.
On the Sony Online Store I complete disagree with you. Maybe it is because I am a late comer to XBox Live (I bought one with Halo 3 last weekend) but I hate how MS has done online except for gamer points. I don't want to pay to use live, I hate their points system (why don't they just use real money?), I hate the way the interface is done. I love how simple the Sony Store is. Except that they don't have as many games yet, but for online store that is changing fast.
Frankly, I think people who have been used to Xbox Live hate the way PSN is different. I however, having started out on PSN, hate the XBox Live.
In all, as long as they can deliver on good games, I think Sony has made good bets with the PS3 as well as the PSN.
On the topic of this thread, I am certain they will offer two SKU's : one with and one w/o BC eventually on all markets to satisfy everyone.
As a PC Gamer I am happy that MS is pushing for games on the PC. Hopefully, we won't have to pay membership fees for Gears of War online. I had bet on the fact that with Vista out, most great games on XBox will find their way to the PC and had thus bought a PS3.... yay to me.
Anyways, with few new announcements that wasn't a very successful press conference. I was hoping for a few new games, or a price drop on the elite, or anything else that would push me into convincing my wife to let me buy a 360
You ought to. Even without the games it's a complete media center and an amazing piece of hardware. If you can afford it, it will easily beat any expectation that you have from it. I just wish there were more games available NOW rather than later but I bought it knowing that I'll have to wait. :)
I agree with you. Especially with the buzzzz Apple gets with a 500$ iPhone. If millions of people can buy a 500$ phone, I am sure the PS3 is worth the 600$.
It's just bad press combined with the fact that most games are in the "coming soon" category. That looks like it's going to change come holiday season.
Not to burst your bubble but I think the India Today rankings are bull. In all that matters the top few IIT's are more equal than not and are hard to rank against each other.
Having said that, IITK is indeed ranked first in this years rankings. Also, while all IITs have been up and down the rankings IITK has been first more times than all the others and has always remained in the top 2 except once when it was third. All the other IITs have seen lower rankings. India Today is a subscription only website so I can't give you the link but you can check on that information easily.
Anyways, the "IIT is India's MIT" is meant more for all the IITs taken together as a system rather than for a single IIT. Even then it is only a fair comparison in terms of the prestige that IITs carry in India against the prestige that MIT carries in the US.
Thank you for writing this. I wish I had mod points for you.
Of the 200 or so comments posted yours is the only one I found with praises for the boy. Kudos to the kids for coming with something and aspiring to be great. I wish I could say the same for people here on Slashdot. Breaks my heart that only a rare comment praises achievement here and 200 or so others point out the negatives.
Which is an acceptable theory as long as those who have faith understand that god reveals himself to different people in lots of different ways and accept that those other ways are equal to their own. Which is why we have religions that are so different.
The western concept of God as being capable of taking on a human form and revealing himself is completely alien to my own religion. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panentheism. As long as all believers accept that while religions talk about god in human terms to make the idea easy to understand, if god really exists its form transcends our own understanding and thus all forms of faith are equal, our world will be a better place.
Oh, what the hell. Just a rant.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/29315.html
There is no such plan.
India's Minister of Communications & Information Technology recently launched the Re.1 OneIndia scheme where all telephone calls originating and ending in India (local and long distance, mobile and landline) will cost only Re 1. (2 Cents) During the press conference he was asked if a similar scheme is possible for net connectivity and he said the vision is to:
1. Start web hosting with MTNL and BSNL (The govt owned telecom companies) so that most Indian pages are hosted within India.
2. Once most Indian internet traffic terminates within India, reduce cost of internet connectivity in a big way, possibly even make it free.
When asked how long it will take to implement this, he said he still has 2 years to make something happen which is to mean the 2 years left in his term as the minister till the next general election.
There is no formal plan as of now and the story as posted on Slashdot is vastly exaggerated. Even the long goal in his comments was to offer free Broadband connection to subscribers with a land-line connection from BSNL or MTNL. Essentially, a free upgrade in competition against other providers.
There is no plan to provide internet connectivity to every person in India. I do hope, however, that someday it is possible to provide free internet access to every village for the vast benefits it could and would bring.
I finally bought a PS3 two days ago after sitting on the fence between 360 and PS3 for a long time.
For me the Blu Ray drive was a big selling point as I have a 50" 1080p TV and Blu-Ray seems to be getting the movies I would want in the near future. With a lack of interesting HD content on the cable, a High Def player is a godsend.
The other clincher was the fact that many of the 360 exclusives do come out on the PC as well and I have a fairly powerful gaming PC. With MS making noise about XBL connecting to windows and increased support for vista as a gaming platform, PC seems like a good choice for those games. PS3 compliments the PC well.
Anyways.. The first few days have been great. There were two main issues, text input and no background downloading.
I have bought a wireless Logitech USB keyboard and it works great to fix the first problem. So much so that I hope a few game developers think of allowing keyboard keys to be bound to game controls in the future. Hopefully, Sony will soon fix the background downloads problem as well.
I have been playing COD3 and it looks and plays great. I have more games I like on the platform for now than I can possibly play. Resistance, F1, COD3, NFS Carbon, Marvel, Full Auto 2, Blazing Angels are the one's I am looking forward to, may be even Motorstorm. If I liked fighting or RPG games the list would have been longer. I am also excited about Home especially now that I own a PS3.
My point is there is more than enough going on for the PS3, who cares what the company said or did or promised or feels. I don't particularly care for Microsoft either. It's the system that matters and I think both PS3 and 360 are very comparable systems, both of which will, depending on the requirements, appeal to lots of people.
For the PS3 I am hoping for the following changes:
1. I hope the PSN gets more content soon and all the features of Home are accessible from a non-3D interface as well.
2. The photo/video uploading works great and in inbuilt editor to crop/improve photos and slice/edit videos would make that in itself a killer application for me.
3. Background downloading.
4. Ability to pick up stuff from my PC Hard drive over the wireless network. (Windows Sharing, Samba, FTP, Sony's software anything.)
5. Ability to transfer out free content I download to the PS3 to my PC.
6. DVD Upscaling.
And the great things are:
1. It is truly a media center machine more than a gaming machine and I love that.
2. The interface is slick especially for web browsing (Youtube? flickr?), viewing my own videos and photos and a few other things.
3. Blu Ray playback
4. The games look awesome
Price wasn't a big issue for me, but I do hope they eventually reduce it. I think the PS3 is a great machine and with some blockbuster games and improved PSN it could be a must have for anyone.
I am amazed how good news for Sony is ridiculed in post after post and bad news for Nintendo is dismissed with complete one sidedness.
While Sony Home may not be the greatest thing, it is definitely a big announcement and a good step forward. Similarly, the rant against Nintendo probably arises from a disgruntled company but it is something to think about.
There is an utter lack of objectivity in gaming related discussions on Slashdot. With what I would expect the demographics here to be, it definitely surprises me. For someone like me, who is trying to decide which console to buy, these discussions are extremely frustrating for their lack of objective analysis.
It is truly sad that a good post about PS3 is tagged "fanboy" just because it is about PS3
Here is the specific link http://immigrationvoice.org/index.php?option=com_c ontent&task=view&id=56&Itemid=25 to the article describing the issues in detail.
As I have pointed out elsewhere, this is separate from the debate on how many H1Bs should be allowed. This is about people who have already been allowed and approved and are on the path to becoming green card holders/citizens. They have to wait for over 5 to 10 years without being able to change jobs or having their spouses work.
You have misread that statement. H1B Visa holders can in fact transfer to other jobs without going through the quota. It's not even an issue.
c ontent&task=view&id=56&Itemid=25 if you are interested.
The article is talking about Green Card applicants not allowed to change jobs. Essentially, people whose Green Card (immigration) applications have been approved wait for the "Priority Date" which is when there turn will come. This is typically a wait of 5-10 years during which a person who has qualified for being a permanent US resident cannot change jobs and has several other issues. You might want to read http://immigrationvoice.org/index.php?option=com_
I have posted this elsewhere on the thread but I find that people are in general unaware of this issue. This is completely separate from the debate on how many H1B's to allow. This is about people who the US has already allowed to become permanent residents. But rules ask that the person stay in the same job without promotion, without the spouse being permitted to work for nearly 5-10 years. It benefits no one and only hurts future residents and citizens. If lesser people should be brought into the US, that should be done. But once someone has been offered residency, I do not understand how making his/her life painful for several years helps anyone's interests.
The TFS is talking about people in the green card process. After applying for your green card it can take from 5 to 10 years to actually receive it. During that period the person cannot change job without restarting the application process and his dependents (children/spouse) cannot work. There are exceptions to this but it is without doubt an extremely painful process.
c ontent&task=view&id=56&Itemid=25
Here is a link that discusses this problem: http://immigrationvoice.org/index.php?option=com_
With increasing opportunities in the rest of the world, including third world countries, I would imagine that fewer of the best people would like to jump through so many hoops to get immigration.
Based on domestic needs, whatever immigration policy the US decides on... once the country has decided how many immigrants it needs and of what type, it must treat those it selects with value and compassion. Else they will lose most except the ones ready to go through the grueling process.
While I understand the debate regarding visa numbers, I do not understand how making it more painful for those that you do allow helps anyone at all. The opposition to making life easier for those who the country has selected to be on the path to legal immigration and citizenship boggles my mind.
You are correct. However, the facts, that life can survive in an alien planet and/or that lifeforms can be seeded across space, in themselves make it more likely that there might be life somewhere else in the universe.
The possibility that life on alien planets may have common origin is interesting in it's own way beyond the possibility that life may exist. It would be fascinating to even imagine the possibility that humans (or life as on earth) may exist on that distant start...
The bottom line remains that discovery of any life on Mars would be a significant victory for those who search for alien life.
Actually it IS a big deal. It's been said by someone that if their exist two of something than there probably exist several of it.
If primitive life forms are discovered on any planet other than Earth, there would be an astronomically higher chance of there being primitive life on several planets across the universe and thus an astronomically higher chance of intelligent life out there.
It would, I hope, motivate a renewed search for life in the universe.
Actually, at times it's surprising to see how many people will stand in a queue for the tickets when there is no queue in front of a self service machine in plain sight.
It always baffles me that those hundreds of people do not know how to use the automated check-in on airports or the automated ticket sales machines at movie theaters. Even worse, most of these machines have a large sign explaining what they do in clear easy steps.
I don't think it's the ease of use... it's just that new things are hard to adapt to and people are scared of unfamiliar things.
Now that someone has successfully installed linux on a PS3... http://ps3.ign.com/articles/748/748255p1.html, I think it becomes a very attractive machine for a geek. Of the top of my head : Mythtv, photo editing and so much else that it could do. Having a browser will be the least of Microsoft's issues. I am sure PS3's with pre-installed Linux could sell has attractive home entertainment solutions.
Just saw this: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/748/748255p1.html. They managed to successfully install and run linux on a PS3. If someone can get a Myth TV client to install on a PS3... I think that would tilt me to the PS3 side from being a fence sitter between 360 and PS3.
In fact if I could get my hands on one... I might try to do it myself. A Mythtv solution in a PS3 makes it a must have... I wonder what else I could make it do.
1. I don't think Wii has "Game Makers engaged". As a PC Gamer I don't recognize most titles on a Wii. There isn't going to be a GTA4 or a Halo 3 or an Oblivion or any of those games that have cutting edge graphics and cutting edge gameplay on the Wii.
2. There is in fact a market for a High End console if there is a market for "Gaming PCs" where a graphics card could cost half the price of the console itself.
3. I am not disagreeing with you about Sony. I am still on the fence between PS3 and 360 so I am not a "Sony Fanboy" by far, in fact I am considering going in for the 360 instead of waiting for PS3 to become more than it is now. I am just not sold on Wii at all, and I don't see how it is a threat to XBox360 or PS3.
4. Wii may be usable with a regular controller, but the fact is, it's USP is the motion sensing. Take that away and I would rather go for a PS2 over a Wii - better and bigger game collection and cheaper price. Unless you can enjoy all kinds of games with motion sensing... Wii doesn't make any sense as your only gaming console. It can only be a second console for gamers or the primary console for those people who don't play regularly and don't spend hours and hours on games. Now that may be a market in itself, but it's a different market.
5. It's not about nostalgia at all. While motion sensing is cool, I am putting it second behind games with good gameplay AND good graphics. Hopefully, the next gen will have Wii's motion sensing with PS3/360 kind of graphics at medium price. That's the ultimate console.
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