The rover is now long past its theoretical life span, any other part my fail, and that would be the end of it. One failure is hard to fix or work around, two is nearly impossible.
Some people will never be happy...
Do you know how many/.ers would kill for a 20 Mb access + free national calls + free cable TV + cheap calls abroad? And all that for 30 euros/month...
A propriatory format has been successful before. The Gamecube's mini-DVDs seem to have been sufficient to protect it from widespread piracy. I still see Dreamcast games for download, but have yet to find gamecube ones.
Although the appearance of blank media is likely, it would be much more expensive to produce and sold at a higher price than a standard one, hence diminishing its appeal.
The phrase "[d]uring my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." appears spun to make it seem like he was responsible for the Internet's existence?
Obviously that's a long stretch from claiming to have invented it, however it seems obvious that Gore was impliedly trying to get the credit for the Internet's existence. It's bad spin that backfired...
The Master System was indeed slightly more powerful than the NES, but later. The PC Engine was less powerful than the SNES in everyway, although programmers got marvels out of the CD. It still was an impressive achivement, especially for an 8 bit machine (only the graphic chip was 16 bit).
Nintendo did not magically get a monopoly on consoles. It earned it with quality, affordable games. And it also used it to rip of third party developers, as you noted.
I agree entirely with your last paragraph.
You just me feel like an old geezer. I remember saying "I'm gonna play atari" for any game console. Reminds me that I've heard my little cousin use the phrase "I'm gonna play playstation" in the same sense.
History repeats, albeit in shorter cycles. Time flies faster within the tech industry.
Oh, and how could I have ever forgotten to mention the original Game Boy, with its crappy yellow and black graphics, yet offering amazing games and a staggering 12 hours of battery life. It kicked the ass out of the technically superior Game Gear, Lynx and PC Engine GT.
They have pulled the exact same trick for the N64 (remember the Ultra64?), Virtual Boy, Game Cube and DS. Meanwhile the consoles that left a significant mark on their generation were the NES and Super NES. What did they have that made a difference? Certainly not the fancy gadgets. Remember that NES robot that was promptly set aside?
What made them special is that they offered the best games and were the most powerful at the time. Mario and Zelda made the NES. They also made the Super NES, along with Street Fighter II and Mario Kart. We would almost cry at the inovation of the gameplay, quality of the graphics and music, and amazing fun they provided.
Today it's all about superficially good looking graphics. Gameplay and fun went the way of the dodo. Meanwhile Nintendo thinks it's okay to have consoles with non standard earphone plugs...
I miss those days spent with the old NES/GB/SNES...
Never (or barely never) to lose a project again while you're working on it and your computer crashes! It would be stored on a server, right? (or is this a fantasy?)
Fair point, however I never really saw any significant improvement between IE 3 and 6. Apart from the Google bar...
Office is such a bloated, frustrating, overbearing experience that I would say the door is as open as ever for a replacement to be successful.
That Open Source is successful in markets abandonned by other companies. Firefox took over where IE 3.0 had left. Open Office might be doing something similar. Users will only be milked for so long...
In France all blank writable media is subject to a special tax. The proceeds of this tax are distributed to the various copyright agencies. The idea is that since they are going to be used to rip music or videos anyway, the copyright holders should get some compensation. Uterly silly, but it has been effective since the first blank audio cassettes arrived on the market....
That is an unintended consequence of the Internet. It is now so easy to upgrade that companies don't even bother to release a finished product anymore.
Before everyone starts flaming me, I'll state that Firefox has become indispensable to me now. Mostly because the RSS bookmarks, tabbed browsing, and best of all, the extensions. Dictionary search, ad-block and the spell checker have all become indispensable to me now.
However explorer remains the superior browser with regard to resources and stability. If I want a fast and simple stable browser, explorer is the way I go. While Firefox is loaded with useful options, I find it interesting that I stayed not because it was technically superior to ie, but provided better and actually useful features.
I seriously doubt Al-Quaeda has any IT network as such. Which very possibly explains why they are so deadly: little trace.
The other three are probably sufficiently bright enough not to grant access to anything moderately important over the internet. The Pentagone's web servers won't actually allow you to unleash nuclear fire upon Canada, no matter how much we wished it was possible or have seen it in movies. You're far more likely to encounter the sysadmin's porn there.
These "flying" cars have been on display for the last 500 years. Even the air force made similar models when it was exploring VTOL possibilities.
The main problem, imho, remains fuel: how the hell to you fit enough jet fuel in that tiny skycar? Let alone a passenger?
Still, one day (this century or the next), it will all become a reality. It's a shame we won't be here to see it.
Back in 2001, decided to buy a CD burner for my portable VAIO. Since most of my hardware was Sony, and I had always felt that the superior price was worth the superior quality, I went for the pricy VAIO portable CD burner. Mind you, it was about 30% more expensive than the regular cheap brand.
A couple of months later came windows XP. After upgrading, I was surprised to find out that my burner would not work any more. Do not fear, I thought, you smartly bought the big name burner, you'll get support and everything will work out. Boy, was I mistaken.
After contacting Sony, they essentially told me that there was no upgraded driver and that they did not have any plan to make one. I bought a win 98 and 2000 compatible burner, and that was it. Needless to say, I was disguted: two months old and my burner was already obsolete... Thanks Sony!
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The rover is now long past its theoretical life span, any other part my fail, and that would be the end of it. One failure is hard to fix or work around, two is nearly impossible.
Or the next Genesis. Or Playstation.
Well, if you consider that millions of euros should be spent to give ADSL to this lone dude, than your point of view might seem reasonable.
Thanks for making another point in favor of the private sector.
Some people will never be happy... /.ers would kill for a 20 Mb access + free national calls + free cable TV + cheap calls abroad? And all that for 30 euros/month...
Do you know how many
A propriatory format has been successful before. The Gamecube's mini-DVDs seem to have been sufficient to protect it from widespread piracy. I still see Dreamcast games for download, but have yet to find gamecube ones.
Although the appearance of blank media is likely, it would be much more expensive to produce and sold at a higher price than a standard one, hence diminishing its appeal.
Sony might have something here.
The phrase "[d]uring my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." appears spun to make it seem like he was responsible for the Internet's existence?
Obviously that's a long stretch from claiming to have invented it, however it seems obvious that Gore was impliedly trying to get the credit for the Internet's existence. It's bad spin that backfired...
There is a small catch, you must prove that you have actually payed a dealer for your pirated copy.
No way you're getting a legit copy to replace that software you "borrowed" off your buddy, or snatched off kazaa.
Perhaps someone should tell them that a company called Free offers access up to 20 Megabits for 30/month in France.
Oh, and it comes with free local calls and ADSL "cable" television.
That's actually a consequence of the Europe induced forced deregulation of the telecom industry. Competition is good.
They should turn it into one huge Tesla weapon, Red Alert style. That should thwart off terrorists!
Is it really worth it to pay $100,000,000.00 to send billionaires into space?
The Master System was indeed slightly more powerful than the NES, but later. The PC Engine was less powerful than the SNES in everyway, although programmers got marvels out of the CD. It still was an impressive achivement, especially for an 8 bit machine (only the graphic chip was 16 bit). Nintendo did not magically get a monopoly on consoles. It earned it with quality, affordable games. And it also used it to rip of third party developers, as you noted. I agree entirely with your last paragraph.
You just me feel like an old geezer. I remember saying "I'm gonna play atari" for any game console. Reminds me that I've heard my little cousin use the phrase "I'm gonna play playstation" in the same sense.
History repeats, albeit in shorter cycles. Time flies faster within the tech industry.
Oh, and how could I have ever forgotten to mention the original Game Boy, with its crappy yellow and black graphics, yet offering amazing games and a staggering 12 hours of battery life. It kicked the ass out of the technically superior Game Gear, Lynx and PC Engine GT.
They have pulled the exact same trick for the N64 (remember the Ultra64?), Virtual Boy, Game Cube and DS. Meanwhile the consoles that left a significant mark on their generation were the NES and Super NES. What did they have that made a difference? Certainly not the fancy gadgets. Remember that NES robot that was promptly set aside?
What made them special is that they offered the best games and were the most powerful at the time. Mario and Zelda made the NES. They also made the Super NES, along with Street Fighter II and Mario Kart. We would almost cry at the inovation of the gameplay, quality of the graphics and music, and amazing fun they provided.
Today it's all about superficially good looking graphics. Gameplay and fun went the way of the dodo. Meanwhile Nintendo thinks it's okay to have consoles with non standard earphone plugs...
I miss those days spent with the old NES/GB/SNES...
Never (or barely never) to lose a project again while you're working on it and your computer crashes! It would be stored on a server, right? (or is this a fantasy?)
Fair point, however I never really saw any significant improvement between IE 3 and 6. Apart from the Google bar... Office is such a bloated, frustrating, overbearing experience that I would say the door is as open as ever for a replacement to be successful.
That Open Source is successful in markets abandonned by other companies. Firefox took over where IE 3.0 had left. Open Office might be doing something similar. Users will only be milked for so long...
In France all blank writable media is subject to a special tax. The proceeds of this tax are distributed to the various copyright agencies. The idea is that since they are going to be used to rip music or videos anyway, the copyright holders should get some compensation. Uterly silly, but it has been effective since the first blank audio cassettes arrived on the market....
That is an unintended consequence of the Internet. It is now so easy to upgrade that companies don't even bother to release a finished product anymore.
Am I the only shocked that the "worthile" list does not include RTSs? Ah, Broodwar, you stole my youth away.
Before everyone starts flaming me, I'll state that Firefox has become indispensable to me now. Mostly because the RSS bookmarks, tabbed browsing, and best of all, the extensions. Dictionary search, ad-block and the spell checker have all become indispensable to me now. However explorer remains the superior browser with regard to resources and stability. If I want a fast and simple stable browser, explorer is the way I go. While Firefox is loaded with useful options, I find it interesting that I stayed not because it was technically superior to ie, but provided better and actually useful features.
I seriously doubt Al-Quaeda has any IT network as such. Which very possibly explains why they are so deadly: little trace. The other three are probably sufficiently bright enough not to grant access to anything moderately important over the internet. The Pentagone's web servers won't actually allow you to unleash nuclear fire upon Canada, no matter how much we wished it was possible or have seen it in movies. You're far more likely to encounter the sysadmin's porn there.
That 500 should be read 50, still if you think about it and count "displays", it's still quite accurate. We're still working for a working model.
These "flying" cars have been on display for the last 500 years. Even the air force made similar models when it was exploring VTOL possibilities. The main problem, imho, remains fuel: how the hell to you fit enough jet fuel in that tiny skycar? Let alone a passenger? Still, one day (this century or the next), it will all become a reality. It's a shame we won't be here to see it.
Back in 2001, decided to buy a CD burner for my portable VAIO. Since most of my hardware was Sony, and I had always felt that the superior price was worth the superior quality, I went for the pricy VAIO portable CD burner. Mind you, it was about 30% more expensive than the regular cheap brand. A couple of months later came windows XP. After upgrading, I was surprised to find out that my burner would not work any more. Do not fear, I thought, you smartly bought the big name burner, you'll get support and everything will work out. Boy, was I mistaken. After contacting Sony, they essentially told me that there was no upgraded driver and that they did not have any plan to make one. I bought a win 98 and 2000 compatible burner, and that was it. Needless to say, I was disguted: two months old and my burner was already obsolete... Thanks Sony!