Let's face it, they're a business. They do X and they do Y. If X generates more business, more companies will jump on the bandwagon and do X, and les and less will do Y (if any remain at all, it becomes a niche market). Eventually, all you can find is X.
I see a fundamental problem with claiming that gaming media is immature but gamers aren't. If that were true, they wouldn't pay for pretty colours and x-treme 'tude, they would buy more cerebral publications, and eventually smarter gaming mags would become X, and the current trend Y.
That's not happening. In fact, IMO the content is getting progressively more dumbed down. Looking past Mr. Sakey's petulant attitude, I don't see a company that didn't hire him because he said something that hurt their feelings, I see a company that didn't hire him because he doesn't get what the market wants.
Do I like the fact that most gaming mags are tech-porn? No, I would actually like a magazine similar to what he described. But I'm not conceited enough to think that the global gaming market agrees with me. Let Mr. Sakey find like-minded people and they can publish their introspective gaming mag - if he's right that people are starving for it, he should be on his way to getting rich by now, not bitching on the internet about the job he didn't get.
... and CodeWarrior gives 0. Undefined behaviour is undefined behaviour.
However, in your case, this may have been a good question. If Java specifies that post-increment is done "atomically" (which, IIRC, it does), asking this question may be a good way to test just how well the applicant knows the ins and outs of Java. It may not be good programming practice, but that's not what the question is testing.
But the minute you start trying to guess what will happen in C or C++, as in:
Incorrect, this invokes undefined behaviour in C++ (see here).
I don't know why you would expect that this should give 1, or what else you think it should give (0?), nor do I know what Java or most other languages would do with this. The key problem rests on how you interpret "i++". Does it mean "return the value of i and immediately increment before doing anything else (ie, returning the value of i and incrementing is an atomic operation)", or does it mean "return the value of i and increment after the statement is complete but before the next statement", or something else? 10 programmers will give you 11 different answers on what it should do.
It's all well and good if the language specifies the behaviour enough to make this statement clearly defined, but even then I'd smack the punk that handed in code like this.
The first order of business would be to bring the local population around to accepting the new order of things. This would mostly involve chasing the birds, fishs and crabs around with the hatchet while screaming obscenties at them - I expect the berries and coconuts will acquiesce to my dominion, as they are known to be sanguine in nature.
Once the locals have been frightened into disorder, the next order of business would be setting up a hierarchy of power. The most loyal and strongest of the flora and fauna would be granted titles, such as Marquis, Earl or Chuck. Those that show signs of causing trouble must be controlled, so a prison will be built near the sulfur by hammering four nails into the ground and tying the rope around them to form guard walls. Burly Sgt. Coconuts will be placed at each corner, and a sadistic Chuck Berry in charge. Prisoners will be forced to work in my sulfur mines.
By this point, I shall be undisputed Lord of the Island. So to celebrate that fact, I shall begin construction of a 100m tall effigy of myself in copper and obsidian (for the sake of morale and artistic freedom, certain physical attributes may be emphasized or diminished, as necessary). The sail will serve as a cover to prevent the work from being seen before it is finished.
Of course, during construction, I will begin to create my armed forces. Mostly this will involve drilling the birds (air force), fish (navy) and crabs (marines) until I am satisfied that they show military spit and polish.
After years of rule, I imagine some passing ship will notice a 100m tall copper statue on a supposedly deserted island. By this time my rule will be assured. I will not leave the island, instead declaring my domain a sovereign nation and offering to host affluent guests from around the world - for a fee. I will also create a website, offering the services of the elite of my armed forces as mercenaries for hire, again for a fee. Eventually, I will pass on the throne, and retire to the mainland to live large off of the book deals, and movie revenue.
Just to put the numbers in perspective, this article from last year gives News Corp's value at $31.4B. Although this is a fair bit bigger than EA's - it's not that much bigger, which does say a lot.
...by listening to Nolan Bushnell, you'll find out about Atari's game behind the game: Atari contracted chip houses to develop a lot of different graphics chips as busywork to prevent competitors from developing their own consoles.
more interesting than the game, although the technical aspects of the article were ok. I wonder what games Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo play these days...
...in order to write software properly, you need to get a good look at the data you're working with.
No you don't. All you need is a sample dataset that looks like the real data. Creating suitable simulation data and final testing with real data can be done by a small core of cleared personnel.
...the hard work on a project like this is adapting it to the particular requirements of the customer.
Bullshit. That's overpaid consultant-speak. If the requirements are clear, they can be met. It would be the job of the core cleared group to find out what those requirements are, and articulate them in a form they can pass on to the OSS developers. They can be your overpriced consultants if you like. All the OSS people need to know is what they're making and how it's supposed to look in the end.
Now I'll grant you this - it would be much harder to communally develop software without an existing model. Linux had minix et al, Firefox had IE et al, etc. All that means is that the inner circle has to be smarter about communicating the requirements - giving as much as possible without compromising security.
The problems involved... [include] getting a gazillion people to all buy off on a data format, and convincing them that they really can share information without violating their security requirements (which is really just code-speak for "if I let you have this information I won't be the only one with it, and therefore I become less important.")
Festering bullshit. This is not a commercial project, this is the goddamn FBI's data base. You don't choose between it and some other option. You either use the damn software as is or you don't have access to the FBI's information sharing network. That is all.
Irrespective of the quality of the software, how long do you think a police chief would last if it became known that he refused to use the FBI's information-sharing software because [insert self-serving, job-maintaining excuse here]?
No, the only difficulty I can see in making this an OSS project is communication. With good facilitators, this is quite doable. There may be a few segments of code that cannot be publicly developed, but those could be localized to a single module (which, if done, could even make the software MORE secure, because you could just replace that single module whenever the network is suspected to be compromised).
This sounds like a perfect project for the open source community! We should get Richard Stallman to submit a quote.
Or better yet, Bram Cohen (inventor of BitTorrent) or Jed McCaleb (inventor of eDonkey). Those guys have experience writing file sharing programs after all, and isn't that really what the FBI is asking for?
Two wrongs do not a right make. EVERY crime has a victim - most have many. In this example:
...robbed while buying drugs...
it depends on what was stolen (do insurance companies come into it? do they have to pay out?), if the buyer was hurt in the theft (health insurance now, plus one less spot available in over-busy hospitals), etc. etc.
Posting corrupted/nonsense files disguised as copyrighted media wastes bandwidth that we all share, and makes it that much more difficult for the authorities to track down the real pirates. Posting spyware-infected media files does all of the above, plus provides examples of how to do it to more vicious crackers.
The logic of Overpeer - "we'll hurt them cause they're hurting us, and maybe if they're hurt enough they'll stop" - is the same ass-idiot logic that justifies all retributive crimes, from the genocides in Rwanda, to the violence in Iseal, to the terrorist attacks on the US (depending on whether you believe that religion is the source of the hate or just a convenient way to recruit dumbfucks ready to kill themselves). It didn't stop the killing in Rwanda (which is now spilling into the Congo), it didn't end the violence in Isreal (which has finally petered out only because of a natural-selection "regime change"), and there are more terrorists now than ever (and the body count climbs and climbs). It will not stop pirates. Overpeer is not part of any solution, they are simply sanctioned criminals.
Yeah it sucks that you got 0wn3d while downloading warez but who the hell are you going to complain to and have anything done about it?
Who to complain to? Your congressman would be a nice start. The FBI would be another interesting choice. You don't need to incriminate yourself to report a crime. If the FBI asks how you got an Overpeer-infected file by doing something legal, just tell them that you were doing their damn job - as they seem too busy, you did your patriotic duty to collect evidence for them. The fifth is your friend.
A few replies to this posting have expressed surprise that SS agents use commercial wireless accounts, but how else could they send information to and from the field wirelessly? A few more have suggested that the compromised SS data may just be intra-agency chit-chat, but a couple things suggest that may not be so.
First of all, the nature of the documents that were leaked in the IRC chat - one is described as an "internal memo", and the other is probably a treaty with the Russians to share criminal information. No details are given re the content of the memo, but it could have been extremely damaging to a case in progress. And the treaty is probably not sensitive in and of itself, but its presence could tip off Russian computer criminals to watch their backs.
Now, the guy whose account was raided for this info is a recent celebrity for taking out a previous hacker. It would probably be extremely embarassing to the agency for his goof to be exposed like this.
And then there's the fact that this MASSIVE series of criminal acts is being written down to just a single felony... and they're giving the guy a job!
Now I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but it seems likely to me that this dude got off (and got a job!) so light not for his m4d-l33t h4x0r skills, but because of the potential embarrasment to the service, and the damage the publicity might do to other cases. It seems the lesson here is that it doesn't matter what crime you commit online, or on what scale, as long as you:
Do not make a spectacle of yourself (ex. by altering google's start page to display your hacker handle, or making a massively infectious trojan/worm/virus).
Embarass or otherwise compromise the investigators.
The precedent that these two points set is worrying. Crackers are annoying when they deface websites, bring down servers or spread virus-like software - but it's only a few hours annoyance (a week at the most), then the problem passes (for most people). Once crackers get the message that the clowns get stiff fines and the real dangerous people get off light (plus get a lot more out of it if they don't get caught), it would seem to make sense to stop "tagging" or writing viruses and go for the big game. Furthermore, the cops become a very attractive target, which could compromise many more, unrelated cases.
So the message as I read it is: "Don't be a script kiddie, crack the FBI! If you get away with it you get rich, and if you get caught you get a job."
Both the Secret Service and T-Mobile should be publicly shamed for the debacle, and the response, if only it wouldn't risk compromising other cases.
Considering this is the same company that famously did not include a headphone jack on the GBA SP (opting instead to charge me $$ to buy a custom jack, play in silence or piss people off), I have to ask if there's going to be any practical way to get your MIDI compositions off the DS (as opposed to sharing between DS's) once they're done.
Now if there was just a way to transfer songs over a wireless ethernet card to a computer we would be in business.
Ah... another adapter to come, I assume.
Seriously though, without that ability (or the ability to input MIDI data), saying this game has full MIDI composition capabilities is a bit misleading.
I think the porn industry will have little or no influence on this fight. Unlike with Betamax/VHS, the porn producers already have a cheap, ubiquitous format, and there's no way that porn is stretching the limits of DVD.
I think computer users will influence the decision. Given a penny or two's difference in medium cost, a computer user will most likely opt for the bigger storage medium. I doubt many will have any qualms about a $50 difference between a Blu-Ray-ROM and a HD/DVD-ROM, considering the huge size difference. A number of game companies are already endorsing Blu-Ray, because they have no problem packing in extra content (the game itself and associated media, possibly in many resolutions, artwork, story boards, sound files, desktop themes etc. etc.).
The entertainment industry is leaning towards HD/DVD for the moment, but I think that the sheer volume of Blu-Ray discs that computer users would consume (movie consumers don't buy stacks of 100 discs at a time) would force the price down to compete or beat HD/DVD. The entertainment insudtry would probably have to follow the crowd, assuming they don't jump on the bandwagon early. The porn industry would probably follow later.
Many people are aware that the porn industry has been a major driving force in the adoption of new entertainment technologies. However, the next-gen DVD isn't exactly a new technology per se, it's just an upgrade to an existing technology. It offers pretty much nothing new to porn producers except more space, which they don't need. DVD's already have scene-selection, menus, multiple angles, soundtracks, etc. What really does the next-gen format have to offer?
... and didn't recover in time to catch the rush, in my opinion. They had a wicked cool advertising campaign that was designed to help crack the perception that the GC was just for kids (remember the ones that compare Nintendo to crack?), and it wasn't until later that they tacked on a few ads describing the games. Meanwhile Sony had those "vacation's over, Game_X, your performance has made you a Greatest Hit" and MS blitzed us with Halo 2 and Fable ads.
The lesson here may be that if you want to attract a gamer crowd, branding the system is a complete waste of time - what you want to do is convince players that your system has the most and best games. I thought those Nintendo ads were cool, but honestly, to this day I don't think I can name 5 games that are GC-only off the top of my head. Coincidently, I don't feel a pressing need to get a GC.
Another lesson may be that it doesn't matter whether you try to sell quality or quantity. MS did well focusing on just a couple games. The actual quality of the games themselves is debatable *cough*fable*cough*, but the ad campaign sure did let the world know they were big and they were on the X-Box. Meanwhile Sony went the other way and bragged about quantity, and they did fine, too. (Although, I suspect that MS's numbers are inflated by the fact that the market is already so saturated with PS2's. Probably most X-Box sales were to PS2 owners who finally considered the system mature enough to invest in (like myself). I can't prove this though.)
Gamers have always been saying focus on the games, but maybe these numbers will convince the people that make the decisions. With luck it may spur Nintendo to action and convince them to get serious about making games (or about finding 3rd parties that will) instead of pretty coloured consoles and edgy ads. Seems to me like MS beat them to the punch and already figured that out...
More public awareness needs to be made about pirated GBA carts. They're everywhere.
I agree, that was the point I was making. Hard core gamers may be aware that there are a lot of fakes out there, but even they may be fooled (I probably would have been by that cart, until I turned it on). And what about when the gamer is not the one buying the game?
Buying from eBay is always risky, and if you don't bother to check whether or not the cart is real that's really your own fault for being a dumbass. But how many people are wary about places like Electronics Boutique or Microplay? Did you examine the last used cart you bought from EB? They don't even show it to you at the one near my place - you just take the box off the display rack, and they put the game in the box and the box in the bag while they ring it up.
And do you really trust a place like EB to do the right thing and be vigilant on behalf of the consumer?
While there's no doubt that the Sun was entirely at fault here for their poor handling of the affair, it's not hard to see how they could believe that Disney let a swear word slip by. Even ignoring simple accidents like the infamous penis-columns on the Little Mermaid artwork and debatably subjective interpretations like the hidden word "SEX" in the Lion King, there have been a number of cases where "offensive material" appeared in Disney films.
For instance, they had to change the lyrics to the Aladdin title song because Arab-American groups complained. Someone snuck in shots of Baby Herman flipping the bird, and a topless woman in The Rescuers.
How many consumers in western nations are aware that cartridges can be forged? (Software is one thing, CD's/DVD's also, but cartridges?) Given the cutthroat pace of modern media, it's hardly surprising that the Sun rushed to print with this one, once making that assumption.
I think the real story here is not that the Sun screwed up. I think the real story lies in finding out where that pirated game came from, and more importantly, how many pirated cartridges are out there. One would hope the Sun would lead the charge on this investigation.
Actually, for a good critique of the foolishness behind profanity concerns, I would recommend the Penn & Teller: Bullshit! episode called Profanity before South Park. I imagine that, judging by the name of the show, their position won't come as a shock. South Park is funny and all, but if you want people to actually consider your point analytically, it helps if you don't have a singing and dancing log of shit on your show.
The network will also enable the rural folk to access video-conferencing
One wonders what the average Indian hillbilly would need video-conferencing for.
No one has mentioned it so I thought I should, but the thought having this much bandwidth for this little money available in villages in India is probably giving pirates wet dreams. I'm not familiar with how much pirated software/media or spam comes out of Andhra Pradesh (or all of India for that matter), or with how the authorities deal with it, but I'd be willing to bet no one will be jumping to honour a US court order based on a copyright violation.
On the other hand maybe good will come out of it all. Maybe the spam czars and pirate groups will organize a program where they provide computers with internet access to schools and local businesses in exchange for allowing them to set up a porn/warez/spam server on their premises. That wouldn't be such a bad thing would it? Hell I'd sign up for it, but I'll be damned if I'm going to share my bandwidth with anyone.
I don't disagree with you when you say it probably wouldn't be that difficult to make a better media player than WMP, but the rest of your argument is fundamentally flawed.
You suggest that if 3rd parties stop putting ads in the players, creating new proprietary media formats, etc., that they will have better luck positioning themselves as a WMP replacement. Fair enough. But then, assuming they're offering the player for free (otherwise, why prefer it over WMP), how will they make any money? Shareware registration revenue?
In fact, this litigation may well spark innovation, since a company that before saw it infeasible to compete with MS's free and ubiquitous player may now decide there's a chance to scoop a slice of the market.
Slashdot Mirror
Let's face it, they're a business. They do X and they do Y. If X generates more business, more companies will jump on the bandwagon and do X, and les and less will do Y (if any remain at all, it becomes a niche market). Eventually, all you can find is X.
I see a fundamental problem with claiming that gaming media is immature but gamers aren't. If that were true, they wouldn't pay for pretty colours and x-treme 'tude, they would buy more cerebral publications, and eventually smarter gaming mags would become X, and the current trend Y.
That's not happening. In fact, IMO the content is getting progressively more dumbed down. Looking past Mr. Sakey's petulant attitude, I don't see a company that didn't hire him because he said something that hurt their feelings, I see a company that didn't hire him because he doesn't get what the market wants.
Do I like the fact that most gaming mags are tech-porn? No, I would actually like a magazine similar to what he described. But I'm not conceited enough to think that the global gaming market agrees with me. Let Mr. Sakey find like-minded people and they can publish their introspective gaming mag - if he's right that people are starving for it, he should be on his way to getting rich by now, not bitching on the internet about the job he didn't get.
... and CodeWarrior gives 0. Undefined behaviour is undefined behaviour.
However, in your case, this may have been a good question. If Java specifies that post-increment is done "atomically" (which, IIRC, it does), asking this question may be a good way to test just how well the applicant knows the ins and outs of Java. It may not be good programming practice, but that's not what the question is testing.
But the minute you start trying to guess what will happen in C or C++, as in:
... you are wrong.
Incorrect, this invokes undefined behaviour in C++ (see here).
I don't know why you would expect that this should give 1, or what else you think it should give (0?), nor do I know what Java or most other languages would do with this. The key problem rests on how you interpret "i++". Does it mean "return the value of i and immediately increment before doing anything else (ie, returning the value of i and incrementing is an atomic operation)", or does it mean "return the value of i and increment after the statement is complete but before the next statement", or something else? 10 programmers will give you 11 different answers on what it should do.
It's all well and good if the language specifies the behaviour enough to make this statement clearly defined, but even then I'd smack the punk that handed in code like this.
The first order of business would be to bring the local population around to accepting the new order of things. This would mostly involve chasing the birds, fishs and crabs around with the hatchet while screaming obscenties at them - I expect the berries and coconuts will acquiesce to my dominion, as they are known to be sanguine in nature.
Once the locals have been frightened into disorder, the next order of business would be setting up a hierarchy of power. The most loyal and strongest of the flora and fauna would be granted titles, such as Marquis, Earl or Chuck. Those that show signs of causing trouble must be controlled, so a prison will be built near the sulfur by hammering four nails into the ground and tying the rope around them to form guard walls. Burly Sgt. Coconuts will be placed at each corner, and a sadistic Chuck Berry in charge. Prisoners will be forced to work in my sulfur mines.
By this point, I shall be undisputed Lord of the Island. So to celebrate that fact, I shall begin construction of a 100m tall effigy of myself in copper and obsidian (for the sake of morale and artistic freedom, certain physical attributes may be emphasized or diminished, as necessary). The sail will serve as a cover to prevent the work from being seen before it is finished.
Of course, during construction, I will begin to create my armed forces. Mostly this will involve drilling the birds (air force), fish (navy) and crabs (marines) until I am satisfied that they show military spit and polish.
After years of rule, I imagine some passing ship will notice a 100m tall copper statue on a supposedly deserted island. By this time my rule will be assured. I will not leave the island, instead declaring my domain a sovereign nation and offering to host affluent guests from around the world - for a fee. I will also create a website, offering the services of the elite of my armed forces as mercenaries for hire, again for a fee. Eventually, I will pass on the throne, and retire to the mainland to live large off of the book deals, and movie revenue.
His Imperial Majesty,
King Indi I of Indiland
Just to put the numbers in perspective, this article from last year gives News Corp's value at $31.4B. Although this is a fair bit bigger than EA's - it's not that much bigger, which does say a lot.
Are you sure you're reading that right? What I'm reading is that Activision has a cap value of $3B, where EA has $19B.
Frankly I find this:
more interesting than the game, although the technical aspects of the article were ok. I wonder what games Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo play these days...
I disagree.
No you don't. All you need is a sample dataset that looks like the real data. Creating suitable simulation data and final testing with real data can be done by a small core of cleared personnel.
Bullshit. That's overpaid consultant-speak. If the requirements are clear, they can be met. It would be the job of the core cleared group to find out what those requirements are, and articulate them in a form they can pass on to the OSS developers. They can be your overpriced consultants if you like. All the OSS people need to know is what they're making and how it's supposed to look in the end.
Now I'll grant you this - it would be much harder to communally develop software without an existing model. Linux had minix et al, Firefox had IE et al, etc. All that means is that the inner circle has to be smarter about communicating the requirements - giving as much as possible without compromising security.
Festering bullshit. This is not a commercial project, this is the goddamn FBI's data base. You don't choose between it and some other option. You either use the damn software as is or you don't have access to the FBI's information sharing network. That is all.
Irrespective of the quality of the software, how long do you think a police chief would last if it became known that he refused to use the FBI's information-sharing software because [insert self-serving, job-maintaining excuse here]?
No, the only difficulty I can see in making this an OSS project is communication. With good facilitators, this is quite doable. There may be a few segments of code that cannot be publicly developed, but those could be localized to a single module (which, if done, could even make the software MORE secure, because you could just replace that single module whenever the network is suspected to be compromised).
This sounds like a perfect project for the open source community! We should get Richard Stallman to submit a quote.
Or better yet, Bram Cohen (inventor of BitTorrent) or Jed McCaleb (inventor of eDonkey). Those guys have experience writing file sharing programs after all, and isn't that really what the FBI is asking for?
Two wrongs do not a right make. EVERY crime has a victim - most have many. In this example:
it depends on what was stolen (do insurance companies come into it? do they have to pay out?), if the buyer was hurt in the theft (health insurance now, plus one less spot available in over-busy hospitals), etc. etc.
Posting corrupted/nonsense files disguised as copyrighted media wastes bandwidth that we all share, and makes it that much more difficult for the authorities to track down the real pirates. Posting spyware-infected media files does all of the above, plus provides examples of how to do it to more vicious crackers.
The logic of Overpeer - "we'll hurt them cause they're hurting us, and maybe if they're hurt enough they'll stop" - is the same ass-idiot logic that justifies all retributive crimes, from the genocides in Rwanda, to the violence in Iseal, to the terrorist attacks on the US (depending on whether you believe that religion is the source of the hate or just a convenient way to recruit dumbfucks ready to kill themselves). It didn't stop the killing in Rwanda (which is now spilling into the Congo), it didn't end the violence in Isreal (which has finally petered out only because of a natural-selection "regime change"), and there are more terrorists now than ever (and the body count climbs and climbs). It will not stop pirates. Overpeer is not part of any solution, they are simply sanctioned criminals.
Who to complain to? Your congressman would be a nice start. The FBI would be another interesting choice. You don't need to incriminate yourself to report a crime. If the FBI asks how you got an Overpeer-infected file by doing something legal, just tell them that you were doing their damn job - as they seem too busy, you did your patriotic duty to collect evidence for them. The fifth is your friend.
A few replies to this posting have expressed surprise that SS agents use commercial wireless accounts, but how else could they send information to and from the field wirelessly? A few more have suggested that the compromised SS data may just be intra-agency chit-chat, but a couple things suggest that may not be so.
First of all, the nature of the documents that were leaked in the IRC chat - one is described as an "internal memo", and the other is probably a treaty with the Russians to share criminal information. No details are given re the content of the memo, but it could have been extremely damaging to a case in progress. And the treaty is probably not sensitive in and of itself, but its presence could tip off Russian computer criminals to watch their backs.
Now, the guy whose account was raided for this info is a recent celebrity for taking out a previous hacker. It would probably be extremely embarassing to the agency for his goof to be exposed like this.
And then there's the fact that this MASSIVE series of criminal acts is being written down to just a single felony... and they're giving the guy a job!
Now I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but it seems likely to me that this dude got off (and got a job!) so light not for his m4d-l33t h4x0r skills, but because of the potential embarrasment to the service, and the damage the publicity might do to other cases. It seems the lesson here is that it doesn't matter what crime you commit online, or on what scale, as long as you:
The precedent that these two points set is worrying. Crackers are annoying when they deface websites, bring down servers or spread virus-like software - but it's only a few hours annoyance (a week at the most), then the problem passes (for most people). Once crackers get the message that the clowns get stiff fines and the real dangerous people get off light (plus get a lot more out of it if they don't get caught), it would seem to make sense to stop "tagging" or writing viruses and go for the big game. Furthermore, the cops become a very attractive target, which could compromise many more, unrelated cases.
So the message as I read it is: "Don't be a script kiddie, crack the FBI! If you get away with it you get rich, and if you get caught you get a job."
Both the Secret Service and T-Mobile should be publicly shamed for the debacle, and the response, if only it wouldn't risk compromising other cases.
Considering this is the same company that famously did not include a headphone jack on the GBA SP (opting instead to charge me $$ to buy a custom jack, play in silence or piss people off), I have to ask if there's going to be any practical way to get your MIDI compositions off the DS (as opposed to sharing between DS's) once they're done.
Ah... another adapter to come, I assume.
Seriously though, without that ability (or the ability to input MIDI data), saying this game has full MIDI composition capabilities is a bit misleading.
I think the porn industry will have little or no influence on this fight. Unlike with Betamax/VHS, the porn producers already have a cheap, ubiquitous format, and there's no way that porn is stretching the limits of DVD.
I think computer users will influence the decision. Given a penny or two's difference in medium cost, a computer user will most likely opt for the bigger storage medium. I doubt many will have any qualms about a $50 difference between a Blu-Ray-ROM and a HD/DVD-ROM, considering the huge size difference. A number of game companies are already endorsing Blu-Ray, because they have no problem packing in extra content (the game itself and associated media, possibly in many resolutions, artwork, story boards, sound files, desktop themes etc. etc.).
The entertainment industry is leaning towards HD/DVD for the moment, but I think that the sheer volume of Blu-Ray discs that computer users would consume (movie consumers don't buy stacks of 100 discs at a time) would force the price down to compete or beat HD/DVD. The entertainment insudtry would probably have to follow the crowd, assuming they don't jump on the bandwagon early. The porn industry would probably follow later.
Many people are aware that the porn industry has been a major driving force in the adoption of new entertainment technologies. However, the next-gen DVD isn't exactly a new technology per se, it's just an upgrade to an existing technology. It offers pretty much nothing new to porn producers except more space, which they don't need. DVD's already have scene-selection, menus, multiple angles, soundtracks, etc. What really does the next-gen format have to offer?
... and didn't recover in time to catch the rush, in my opinion. They had a wicked cool advertising campaign that was designed to help crack the perception that the GC was just for kids (remember the ones that compare Nintendo to crack?), and it wasn't until later that they tacked on a few ads describing the games. Meanwhile Sony had those "vacation's over, Game_X, your performance has made you a Greatest Hit" and MS blitzed us with Halo 2 and Fable ads.
The lesson here may be that if you want to attract a gamer crowd, branding the system is a complete waste of time - what you want to do is convince players that your system has the most and best games. I thought those Nintendo ads were cool, but honestly, to this day I don't think I can name 5 games that are GC-only off the top of my head. Coincidently, I don't feel a pressing need to get a GC.
Another lesson may be that it doesn't matter whether you try to sell quality or quantity. MS did well focusing on just a couple games. The actual quality of the games themselves is debatable *cough*fable*cough*, but the ad campaign sure did let the world know they were big and they were on the X-Box. Meanwhile Sony went the other way and bragged about quantity, and they did fine, too. (Although, I suspect that MS's numbers are inflated by the fact that the market is already so saturated with PS2's. Probably most X-Box sales were to PS2 owners who finally considered the system mature enough to invest in (like myself). I can't prove this though.)
Gamers have always been saying focus on the games, but maybe these numbers will convince the people that make the decisions. With luck it may spur Nintendo to action and convince them to get serious about making games (or about finding 3rd parties that will) instead of pretty coloured consoles and edgy ads. Seems to me like MS beat them to the punch and already figured that out...
I agree, that was the point I was making. Hard core gamers may be aware that there are a lot of fakes out there, but even they may be fooled (I probably would have been by that cart, until I turned it on). And what about when the gamer is not the one buying the game?
Buying from eBay is always risky, and if you don't bother to check whether or not the cart is real that's really your own fault for being a dumbass. But how many people are wary about places like Electronics Boutique or Microplay? Did you examine the last used cart you bought from EB? They don't even show it to you at the one near my place - you just take the box off the display rack, and they put the game in the box and the box in the bag while they ring it up.
And do you really trust a place like EB to do the right thing and be vigilant on behalf of the consumer?
While there's no doubt that the Sun was entirely at fault here for their poor handling of the affair, it's not hard to see how they could believe that Disney let a swear word slip by. Even ignoring simple accidents like the infamous penis-columns on the Little Mermaid artwork and debatably subjective interpretations like the hidden word "SEX" in the Lion King, there have been a number of cases where "offensive material" appeared in Disney films.
For instance, they had to change the lyrics to the Aladdin title song because Arab-American groups complained. Someone snuck in shots of Baby Herman flipping the bird, and a topless woman in The Rescuers.
How many consumers in western nations are aware that cartridges can be forged? (Software is one thing, CD's/DVD's also, but cartridges?) Given the cutthroat pace of modern media, it's hardly surprising that the Sun rushed to print with this one, once making that assumption.
I think the real story here is not that the Sun screwed up. I think the real story lies in finding out where that pirated game came from, and more importantly, how many pirated cartridges are out there. One would hope the Sun would lead the charge on this investigation.
Actually, for a good critique of the foolishness behind profanity concerns, I would recommend the Penn & Teller: Bullshit! episode called Profanity before South Park. I imagine that, judging by the name of the show, their position won't come as a shock. South Park is funny and all, but if you want people to actually consider your point analytically, it helps if you don't have a singing and dancing log of shit on your show.
One wonders what the average Indian hillbilly would need video-conferencing for.
No one has mentioned it so I thought I should, but the thought having this much bandwidth for this little money available in villages in India is probably giving pirates wet dreams. I'm not familiar with how much pirated software/media or spam comes out of Andhra Pradesh (or all of India for that matter), or with how the authorities deal with it, but I'd be willing to bet no one will be jumping to honour a US court order based on a copyright violation.
On the other hand maybe good will come out of it all. Maybe the spam czars and pirate groups will organize a program where they provide computers with internet access to schools and local businesses in exchange for allowing them to set up a porn/warez/spam server on their premises. That wouldn't be such a bad thing would it? Hell I'd sign up for it, but I'll be damned if I'm going to share my bandwidth with anyone.
I don't disagree with you when you say it probably wouldn't be that difficult to make a better media player than WMP, but the rest of your argument is fundamentally flawed. You suggest that if 3rd parties stop putting ads in the players, creating new proprietary media formats, etc., that they will have better luck positioning themselves as a WMP replacement. Fair enough. But then, assuming they're offering the player for free (otherwise, why prefer it over WMP), how will they make any money? Shareware registration revenue? In fact, this litigation may well spark innovation, since a company that before saw it infeasible to compete with MS's free and ubiquitous player may now decide there's a chance to scoop a slice of the market.