He didn't mention processing power; he mentioned graphical improvements, and that certainly can cost considerably.
Not only do higher resolution models and levels cost more in time, but you then have to deal with mapping the models and levels for new effects. Your animation also has to be of a higher quality to match the more realistic models. It's a big investment.
I'm not making a comment on this guy's stuff one way or the other, but having seen first hand exactly how government contractors/projects work, I'd say it's entirely possible and even probable that a private group or individual could beat them on specific types of projects.
Unless you've seen it, you wouldn't believe the level of miscommunication, ineptitude, petty politics, and flat out greed that can get in the way of actually getting a real product developed with the government.
Yeah, after his completely uncalled for attack on Micheal Crowley in Next and the very comprehensive response to his rantings from the the scientific community, I'm pretty much ignoring Micheal Crichton.
Which is a shame, because I quite like several of his books.
In fact, rootkits and kernel infesting malware have been on the rise in Windows the last few years, and are much more common than you seem to think.
Having kernel hooks wouldn't help AV programs detect this if the malware was well written and had already attached itself - you often need to get out of the environment to detect such problems, as with a live CD. After it was infected, anything the kernel reported would be suspect.
The trick to catching malware is covering the vectors through which it enters the system. No more, no less. The grandparent is spot on as far as I'm concerned.
Everyone I've seen using IE7 really hated the new layout.
Personally, I think it looks pretty decent in Vista, where the toolbars and window border sorta flow together, but in XP, they should have gone with the classic toolbar layout. It doesn't particularly look good in XP, and it's not what people are going to be expecting.
Also, Microsoft seems obsessed with removing the menubar in all of their latest apps (Office, most Vista components, IE7) , and I really don't think it's a good idea.
Firefox 2 will actually have a new theme as well, though it's more polish to existing stuff, rather than a completely new experience.
There is another option; there are enough various electronic payment systems out there now that artists could sell directly off their website, rather than going through a service such as iTunes.
I'm not suggesting that it'd be profitable (at least right now), just that there are alternatives to big distribution services.
That is more or less correct, though it may be a bit outdated. We're starting to see DS-slot flashcards that don't require redirection and also don't require you to flash the firmware.
Also, the encryption required for the DS to launch DS-slot software has been figured out, so you don't have to piggy-back a real game anymore even if you're going to use a GBA slot flashcart - the new pass devices are basically the same as real DS software.
Once a DS is flashed, it can run DS software from the GBA slot without needing a passcard of any sort in the DS slot.
Yes, it actually is worse than even Nvidia's NView bit, and though I use a Geforce, I'd happily admit that their NView config stuff is poorly done on Windows. It works okay most of the time, but the config panels are a mess.
I don't mind having.net installed - the point is that if you've actually used the control panel, you'd see that it's incredibly resource intensive and poorly designed.
For something that only requires the simplest of option panels, they instead have a themed window with video previews that is clunky and only gets in the way of what people actually want to do in driver control panels. I'm hardly the first person to complain about it.
Then you've not asked much of your hardware or you've been extremely lucky. I've owned a Rage3D, Rage128, and Radeon9600XT, and infuriatingly bad drivers were just par for the course.
Their Linux support has always been sub-par.
They did get somewhat reasonable in Windows towards the end with the Radeon, but then they introduced that insane.net based control panel in Windows - WTF were they thinking?
Doesn't matter to me - I went back to Nvidia and have enjoyed just not having to mess with things.
Funny, I've been running it all day, and my experience is just the opposite (on an Athlon64 3200+, Geforce 7600/w 256MB, 1GB ram).
The interface isn't as fast as I'd want (or as fast as XP), and seems to have about as many performance glitches as XGL (though of course, XGL does have some additional hurdles, too, with lack of hardware support for the extensions it uses).
It looks promising, and improved quite a bit from the build I looked at in December, but I would still put it at much more than 6 months off from really being ready.
Also, the security model has really been a major annoyance. Much more than in Dapper Drake, for instance. It sure does love you to confirm every little thing.
I'm not saying whether they did or not - it's really not a big issue - but most of your points really don't matter, either.
The blu-ray discs may not be ready yet, which might lead them to using DVDs if there was a time pinch (which, incidentally, is exactly what the original author suggested). If that's what they did, they'd probably just use whatever was around the office, same as you or me - and that would just as likely be Verbatim DVD+Rs as any other brand. The DVD+R wouldn't have a label, obviously.
The only thing we don't know is that it was really supposed to be a blu-ray demo machine. Considering he says he ejected it from a blu-ray drive, this seems reasonable, but not certain. As far as no one else reporting on it - well, not every reporter would've ejected the demo disks. And this is someone from PC Magazine - not Time or Wired, maybe, but not exactly unheard of.
All they're saying basically is that the actual blu-ray disks apparently weren't ready - that they were instead playing the content off of DVD+Rs. None of the points you raise really have anything to do with that.
Actually, it could be done - the audio takes up the vast majority of disk space, and could be converted to MP3 or another compressed format for the Wii - PC based emulation already has this option for TG-16 games like Castlevania, so I don't see why it wouldn't be possible for the Wii.
No, it's missing far more than just Wifi - no HDMI outputs would probably be a turn off for people who would be interested in BluRay, and some of the other omissions are just as bad. It's also $100 more expensive than the high-end 360 SKU.
At least with Microsoft the core system is the same, and it's just a matter of what's included - you can upgrade later if you want. With the PS3, as they're showing it now, it's not really upgradable if you decide you want the missing stuff later.
Yes, but the Art-X team behind the gamecube's graphics chip went on to be heavily involved in modern ATI GPUs. There's definitely a relationship between the two.
This isn't a case where ATI bought a team just to slap a sticker on the cube; they bought a team and actually integrated it into their development process, and actually used their tech.
Actually, it'll still have the DK games. The only Rare games that won't show up are for properties Rare actually owns, like Killer Instinct and Perfect Dark.
So, while I admit the loss of Killer Instinct is a blow, the DK games are safe, as they're Nintendo properties.
Actually, the most recent theory I've read is that Quasars are simply galaxies where the central black hole is actively consuming gas and other material at the center of the galaxy, creating a hot, energetic mass around the black hole..
They only appear as quasars to us when the galaxy is pointing in the right direction.
Slashdot Mirror
Hence the exclamation point, I'm sure. Strange as it sounds, I've seen both done - but not without bent pins and other effects.
Bigger in what way? If you're only talking about popularity, I daresay the two aren't really related in that sense.
He didn't mention processing power; he mentioned graphical improvements, and that certainly can cost considerably.
Not only do higher resolution models and levels cost more in time, but you then have to deal with mapping the models and levels for new effects. Your animation also has to be of a higher quality to match the more realistic models. It's a big investment.
I'm not making a comment on this guy's stuff one way or the other, but having seen first hand exactly how government contractors/projects work, I'd say it's entirely possible and even probable that a private group or individual could beat them on specific types of projects.
Unless you've seen it, you wouldn't believe the level of miscommunication, ineptitude, petty politics, and flat out greed that can get in the way of actually getting a real product developed with the government.
Yeah, after his completely uncalled for attack on Micheal Crowley in Next and the very comprehensive response to his rantings from the the scientific community, I'm pretty much ignoring Micheal Crichton.
Which is a shame, because I quite like several of his books.
From what I've seen, I'd say Slashdot is really more pro-net neutrality.
In fact, rootkits and kernel infesting malware have been on the rise in Windows the last few years, and are much more common than you seem to think.
Having kernel hooks wouldn't help AV programs detect this if the malware was well written and had already attached itself - you often need to get out of the environment to detect such problems, as with a live CD. After it was infected, anything the kernel reported would be suspect.
The trick to catching malware is covering the vectors through which it enters the system. No more, no less. The grandparent is spot on as far as I'm concerned.
I would have said a B-grade vampire soap opera.
Everyone I've seen using IE7 really hated the new layout.
Personally, I think it looks pretty decent in Vista, where the toolbars and window border sorta flow together, but in XP, they should have gone with the classic toolbar layout. It doesn't particularly look good in XP, and it's not what people are going to be expecting.
Also, Microsoft seems obsessed with removing the menubar in all of their latest apps (Office, most Vista components, IE7) , and I really don't think it's a good idea.
Firefox 2 will actually have a new theme as well, though it's more polish to existing stuff, rather than a completely new experience.
There is another option; there are enough various electronic payment systems out there now that artists could sell directly off their website, rather than going through a service such as iTunes.
I'm not suggesting that it'd be profitable (at least right now), just that there are alternatives to big distribution services.
That is more or less correct, though it may be a bit outdated. We're starting to see DS-slot flashcards that don't require redirection and also don't require you to flash the firmware.
Also, the encryption required for the DS to launch DS-slot software has been figured out, so you don't have to piggy-back a real game anymore even if you're going to use a GBA slot flashcart - the new pass devices are basically the same as real DS software.
Once a DS is flashed, it can run DS software from the GBA slot without needing a passcard of any sort in the DS slot.
Yes, it actually is worse than even Nvidia's NView bit, and though I use a Geforce, I'd happily admit that their NView config stuff is poorly done on Windows. It works okay most of the time, but the config panels are a mess.
I don't mind having .net installed - the point is that if you've actually used the control panel, you'd see that it's incredibly resource intensive and poorly designed.
For something that only requires the simplest of option panels, they instead have a themed window with video previews that is clunky and only gets in the way of what people actually want to do in driver control panels. I'm hardly the first person to complain about it.
Then you've not asked much of your hardware or you've been extremely lucky. I've owned a Rage3D, Rage128, and Radeon9600XT, and infuriatingly bad drivers were just par for the course.
.net based control panel in Windows - WTF were they thinking?
Their Linux support has always been sub-par.
They did get somewhat reasonable in Windows towards the end with the Radeon, but then they introduced that insane
Doesn't matter to me - I went back to Nvidia and have enjoyed just not having to mess with things.
Funny, I've been running it all day, and my experience is just the opposite (on an Athlon64 3200+, Geforce 7600/w 256MB, 1GB ram).
The interface isn't as fast as I'd want (or as fast as XP), and seems to have about as many performance glitches as XGL (though of course, XGL does have some additional hurdles, too, with lack of hardware support for the extensions it uses).
It looks promising, and improved quite a bit from the build I looked at in December, but I would still put it at much more than 6 months off from really being ready.
Also, the security model has really been a major annoyance. Much more than in Dapper Drake, for instance. It sure does love you to confirm every little thing.
Actually, Microsoft decried piracy as early as Altair Basic - their "An Open Letter to Hobbyists" is fairly famous for this.
I'm not saying whether they did or not - it's really not a big issue - but most of your points really don't matter, either.
The blu-ray discs may not be ready yet, which might lead them to using DVDs if there was a time pinch (which, incidentally, is exactly what the original author suggested). If that's what they did, they'd probably just use whatever was around the office, same as you or me - and that would just as likely be Verbatim DVD+Rs as any other brand. The DVD+R wouldn't have a label, obviously.
The only thing we don't know is that it was really supposed to be a blu-ray demo machine. Considering he says he ejected it from a blu-ray drive, this seems reasonable, but not certain. As far as no one else reporting on it - well, not every reporter would've ejected the demo disks. And this is someone from PC Magazine - not Time or Wired, maybe, but not exactly unheard of.
All they're saying basically is that the actual blu-ray disks apparently weren't ready - that they were instead playing the content off of DVD+Rs. None of the points you raise really have anything to do with that.
Actually, it could be done - the audio takes up the vast majority of disk space, and could be converted to MP3 or another compressed format for the Wii - PC based emulation already has this option for TG-16 games like Castlevania, so I don't see why it wouldn't be possible for the Wii.
No, it's missing far more than just Wifi - no HDMI outputs would probably be a turn off for people who would be interested in BluRay, and some of the other omissions are just as bad. It's also $100 more expensive than the high-end 360 SKU.
At least with Microsoft the core system is the same, and it's just a matter of what's included - you can upgrade later if you want. With the PS3, as they're showing it now, it's not really upgradable if you decide you want the missing stuff later.
Actually, that's not true - the slimline PS2 is the only one that's close.
Nintendo is the only company who has been consistently selling hardware at or above cost in recent generations.
I would almost say this has to be flawed.
Every report I've seen the last couple years lists apple as having one of the strongest brands in the country - not just in computers, but overall.
Yes, but the Art-X team behind the gamecube's graphics chip went on to be heavily involved in modern ATI GPUs. There's definitely a relationship between the two.
This isn't a case where ATI bought a team just to slap a sticker on the cube; they bought a team and actually integrated it into their development process, and actually used their tech.
RE4 is hardly on rails any more than MP2 is.
The original RE games were, sure, but 4 has just about as much of an open environment as the Metroid Prime games or most 3rd person adventures.
Actually, it'll still have the DK games. The only Rare games that won't show up are for properties Rare actually owns, like Killer Instinct and Perfect Dark.
So, while I admit the loss of Killer Instinct is a blow, the DK games are safe, as they're Nintendo properties.
Actually, the most recent theory I've read is that Quasars are simply galaxies where the central black hole is actively consuming gas and other material at the center of the galaxy, creating a hot, energetic mass around the black hole..
They only appear as quasars to us when the galaxy is pointing in the right direction.