George W Bush, the leader of the White House has written a letter that strongly supports terrorism, arguing that if it fails, the coalition of the willing will fall apart. "As the leader of the free world I wish to promote peace, safety and freedom, none of which is accomplished by fighting terrorism", he wrote. "The bottom line is that if we capture Osama Bin-Laden national security loses... The constant threat of terror benefits our goals as much as anyone else."
Dunno, that kind of deal would look too much like a scam to me, I'd be afraid to take it out of fear they're just planning to fuck me over with some hidden-for-anyone-except-a-lawyer term in the contract.
Yeah, though I think the other way around, "'tards" are more likely to buy a console than a PC, is true. An uninformed person won't even be able to tell if a PC game will run on his system or what a PC needs to be a gaming system (and even if you meet the specs there might be some hidden trap like a crappy copy protection that will make the game not run), with a console you just have to buy one and then get games with the matching logo*. Uninformed people are very common and even when the console owner is informed there may be an uninformed person buying a game for them, e.g. granny buying the grandson a game and picking the first one with a recognizeable children's character.
*= Cue Tepples listing the 3-4 semi-recent console games that had issues with certain revisions of the hardware.
PCs might have had higher bit counts but they lacked many of the game specific features console hardware had and thus ran much slower. Consoles have hardware support for sprites and scrolling, for the (IBM) PC you had to use hacks to even get decent scrolling and even so games like Commander Keen and Duke Nukem moved much less fluidly than Super Mario Bros. These days the PCs have the same game-specific hardware as the consoles.
BTW I don't recall PC gaming having more colors than consoles, while the modes may have been there games didn't really start using more than 8 bit palletted until much later (roughly during the N64 era IIRC).
It's only the British system that lets old people just die, not all are like that (and really, how do you expect a retired person to pay for health insurance anyway?). Besides, if you don't like the public system you can go to a private health insurance instead.
The Mini is a bottom-of-the-line computer that costs a lot more because of the case and tops out way too quickly. 4 GB RAM is pretty cheap, same for C2Ds that have more than 2GHz and larger harddrives. If you need a system with more performance the Mini doesn't fit and if you just need something for web browsing the Mini is too expensive.
I've had gigabit ethernet and SPDIF on totally cheap-ass mainboards (bottom of the range deals, I didn't look for the features because I have no gigabit router or large sound system), where did they find one that doesn't have those?
A lot better? Give me a break. I challenge you to put together a Dell for $650 (or $750 including monitor, since with a lot of their budget PCs you can't unbundle it) that matches the mini's specs. I challenge you.
It must have bluetooth, 802.11g wifi, firewire, at least 4 usb ports, gigabit, optical audio in and out, DVI video out, Core2Duo w/ 2MB cache, 1 GB of RAM.
An apple fanboy favourite: Expecting a spec-for-spec match of a computer, resulting in price increases over trivial features and often over-speccing (I've done a Mac Mini price match once, roughly matched the price but the specs matched an iMac). The problem is that you rarely if ever need a computer with the exact specs of a given Mac and a post pretty far up in this thread laments that, for a given requirement the matching Mac is often mis-specced, having a powerful and expensive CPU in a system meant for web browsing or requiring a workstation to get a good graphics card.
Sounds like your friend is a gamer, you are not. Obviously he'll do more hardware upgrades because he's runing software that simply needs hardware that wasn't available 1-2 years ago. My mother ran Windows 95 until last year on a Pentium 2, any computer can last you as long as you want if you don't need something better. Gamers need something better all the time. If you had used your Mac for gaming (and I'm not talking about Solitaire) you'd have had loads of upgrades as well.
Well, it is in the eye of the buyer but noone else will see the player when it's being used, only the earphones if you don't replace them (and it's strongly advised to avoid iPod earphones because they are like a bull's eye for muggers) and I doubt anyone could tell if you attached iPod earphones to a 20$ player.
The problem with black bars is that larger TVs are more expensive and it's annoying to waste money on TV area that doesn't get used. It's also annoying to switch to a really annoying widescreen TV (telling those things how to display the image is really annoying) and not even getting black-bar less movies for all that effort. Really, IMO it should have been 2.35:1 or 4:3, 16:9 just pisses me off.
I really think Dead Rising was the only game with that issue. Besides, a text that needs an HDTV to read is probably too small at average TV distances anyway.
You might get away with a bit less cost since you don't have to care about purty graphics so much, but I don't think it's really THAT much cheaper. We know that game dev costs are going up, and this is true for all consoles.
Dev costs are going up because hardware gets more powerful and the work needed to saturate that hardware with content increases greatly. If the hardware doesn't grow then costs don't go up, they might even go down due to more efficient middleware and other tools. Yes, the level of content DOES go up, it takes MUCH longer to create a PS3 spec character than a DS spec because you got about 100x as many polygons to worry about, much larger textures and the big time-eater normalmaps. With today's tools a DS spec game can be feasibly made by 3-4 people (can go lower if you really want to but someone who can do every job of game development well is not that easy to find) in a pretty short time, a PS3 spec game would take that team forever to make.
Slashdot Mirror
George W Bush, the leader of the White House has written a letter that strongly supports terrorism, arguing that if it fails, the coalition of the willing will fall apart. "As the leader of the free world I wish to promote peace, safety and freedom, none of which is accomplished by fighting terrorism", he wrote. "The bottom line is that if we capture Osama Bin-Laden national security loses... The constant threat of terror benefits our goals as much as anyone else."
Dunno, that kind of deal would look too much like a scam to me, I'd be afraid to take it out of fear they're just planning to fuck me over with some hidden-for-anyone-except-a-lawyer term in the contract.
I doubt OOXML was really designed to be used, it's just there so MS can say their formats are ISO certified.
The last time that topic came up many people mentioned that Office 2007's xml files don't match the OOXML standard so this isn't just "what if".
Yeah, though I think the other way around, "'tards" are more likely to buy a console than a PC, is true. An uninformed person won't even be able to tell if a PC game will run on his system or what a PC needs to be a gaming system (and even if you meet the specs there might be some hidden trap like a crappy copy protection that will make the game not run), with a console you just have to buy one and then get games with the matching logo*. Uninformed people are very common and even when the console owner is informed there may be an uninformed person buying a game for them, e.g. granny buying the grandson a game and picking the first one with a recognizeable children's character.
*= Cue Tepples listing the 3-4 semi-recent console games that had issues with certain revisions of the hardware.
PCs might have had higher bit counts but they lacked many of the game specific features console hardware had and thus ran much slower. Consoles have hardware support for sprites and scrolling, for the (IBM) PC you had to use hacks to even get decent scrolling and even so games like Commander Keen and Duke Nukem moved much less fluidly than Super Mario Bros. These days the PCs have the same game-specific hardware as the consoles.
BTW I don't recall PC gaming having more colors than consoles, while the modes may have been there games didn't really start using more than 8 bit palletted until much later (roughly during the N64 era IIRC).
Would mobility be useful for making wires transmit data faster or is that something else again?
I don't know many people who just wear whatever the fuck they want. It's sad.
Doesn't "clothing chosen with no regard for their effect on others" describe the geek uniform?
Naah, nobody can understand that name. Make it "Ministry of we-know-you-did-it".
According to Sturgeon's Law we just need to find the crap particle and got 90% solved.
Forty-two.
It's only the British system that lets old people just die, not all are like that (and really, how do you expect a retired person to pay for health insurance anyway?). Besides, if you don't like the public system you can go to a private health insurance instead.
But what about the company on the other end?
The Mini is a bottom-of-the-line computer that costs a lot more because of the case and tops out way too quickly. 4 GB RAM is pretty cheap, same for C2Ds that have more than 2GHz and larger harddrives. If you need a system with more performance the Mini doesn't fit and if you just need something for web browsing the Mini is too expensive.
I've had gigabit ethernet and SPDIF on totally cheap-ass mainboards (bottom of the range deals, I didn't look for the features because I have no gigabit router or large sound system), where did they find one that doesn't have those?
A lot better? Give me a break. I challenge you to put together a Dell for $650 (or $750 including monitor, since with a lot of their budget PCs you can't unbundle it) that matches the mini's specs. I challenge you.
It must have bluetooth, 802.11g wifi, firewire, at least 4 usb ports, gigabit, optical audio in and out, DVI video out, Core2Duo w/ 2MB cache, 1 GB of RAM.
An apple fanboy favourite: Expecting a spec-for-spec match of a computer, resulting in price increases over trivial features and often over-speccing (I've done a Mac Mini price match once, roughly matched the price but the specs matched an iMac). The problem is that you rarely if ever need a computer with the exact specs of a given Mac and a post pretty far up in this thread laments that, for a given requirement the matching Mac is often mis-specced, having a powerful and expensive CPU in a system meant for web browsing or requiring a workstation to get a good graphics card.
Sounds like your friend is a gamer, you are not. Obviously he'll do more hardware upgrades because he's runing software that simply needs hardware that wasn't available 1-2 years ago. My mother ran Windows 95 until last year on a Pentium 2, any computer can last you as long as you want if you don't need something better. Gamers need something better all the time. If you had used your Mac for gaming (and I'm not talking about Solitaire) you'd have had loads of upgrades as well.
This would be like saying if you don't need a rolls-Royce or a truck you should get a Trabant.
Well, it is in the eye of the buyer but noone else will see the player when it's being used, only the earphones if you don't replace them (and it's strongly advised to avoid iPod earphones because they are like a bull's eye for muggers) and I doubt anyone could tell if you attached iPod earphones to a 20$ player.
Try internet forums BTW. You could even exchange your codes on Slashdot.
The problem with black bars is that larger TVs are more expensive and it's annoying to waste money on TV area that doesn't get used. It's also annoying to switch to a really annoying widescreen TV (telling those things how to display the image is really annoying) and not even getting black-bar less movies for all that effort. Really, IMO it should have been 2.35:1 or 4:3, 16:9 just pisses me off.
I really think Dead Rising was the only game with that issue. Besides, a text that needs an HDTV to read is probably too small at average TV distances anyway.
Well, yeah, that's what the case is about.
You might get away with a bit less cost since you don't have to care about purty graphics so much, but I don't think it's really THAT much cheaper. We know that game dev costs are going up, and this is true for all consoles.
Dev costs are going up because hardware gets more powerful and the work needed to saturate that hardware with content increases greatly. If the hardware doesn't grow then costs don't go up, they might even go down due to more efficient middleware and other tools. Yes, the level of content DOES go up, it takes MUCH longer to create a PS3 spec character than a DS spec because you got about 100x as many polygons to worry about, much larger textures and the big time-eater normalmaps. With today's tools a DS spec game can be feasibly made by 3-4 people (can go lower if you really want to but someone who can do every job of game development well is not that easy to find) in a pretty short time, a PS3 spec game would take that team forever to make.
The console used to require meeting in person but they're increasingly going online now. Even Smash Bros is online when you're lucky.