While the development sounds aweful, I think the result that came out of it is quite nice.
I hear two camps: minimalists and those who want do make every possible decision. One camp says just have one or two buttons. The other wants 10 buttons. I think the third option is the best. Make it easy do the two buttons but still have a way of doing the other options. This is what Microsoft has done. They have a power button and a lock button. The power button goes into a sleep/hibernation mode. The lock button goes into a lock/switch user mode. If you want the other choices, you need click on the menu arrow.
This seems like basic design. Make it simple to do common stuff. Make it possible but not as easy to do things that you do less often (more advanced).
While the taser might have been a bit extreme, the man deserved it. The cops made it real clear time after time.
"Leave or we will taser you." "Stand up or we will taser you again." "Stand up or we will taser you again."
They told the man what to do (very simple tasks) and what would be the consequences for not doing it. The man lied multiple times stating that he would leave and never did. The cops followed through with the consequences that were stated.
While a arrest may have been a better choice for a consequence, the actions taken by the cops were appropriate.
Lol, pretty funny. I wish that was the case. All I did was put it in my pocket (nothing else in there) to listen to one song. The case I got more than doubles the size of it, but I can read the screen.
Any word yet on if the new Nano scratches like the old one? I had to buy a big neoprene cover with acrylic to protect the screen on my old Nano as after five minutes of use the screen was almost destroyed. I'm hoping they've fixed this issue.
The other improvements (brighter screen, 8GB of memory, etc.) are all nice. The real issue, however, is the scratching.
I couldn't agree with you more. I'm an early adopted, especially with graphics stuff. I had a digital camera back when people didn't know what they were. I had a DVD player back when DVD's came in CD cases. I had been looking forward to the new DVD format but it has been so severly screwed up with DRM's, format wars, pricing, lack of contect, etc. that there's no way I'm going to buy one.
Give me a format that I can copy it to my computer by dragging and dropping. Then let me play it on my XBox 360 over the network. Don't require HDMI with super encryption and a connection to the Internet to disable my player. Let me put it on every TV, DVR, and computer in my house. Let me copy it down to my IPod, my Pocket PC, my phone. Make it easy for me to watch it. That's what I'll buy.
Higher resolution is a plus, but not a strong selling point without the basics. When you take away the basics, the picture quality really doesn't matter much if you aren't able to watch it.
Those light bulbs are less than 1/10th the brightness of a 60watt bulb. They are also very directional. This makes them good for reading lights but not a good general replacement for lighting. I have seen LED bulbs with 500+ lumens of output, but they are expensive (hundreds of dollars) and get very hot.
The technology for LED is not there yet, but I have to believe it is coming.
Why don't they just ban housing. That's where most child abuse takes place.
Seriously, though, the abuse, etc. should be a criminal offense, not something that might be related in some way. For example, guns should be legal; murder should not be. Credit cards should be legal; fraud should not be.
I have to agree. This appears to be a good thing. Reputable companies will now have a cost associated with mass e-mail. The zombie spam networks would continue to be blocked by the filter. This now puts real costs with e-mail advertising and further limits what non-reputable companies can do.
When we started out we were the United States of America. The states had the power. Since then the power has shifted to the federal government. With that shift states' rights have been taken over by Washington. The way to get into Washington and stay in Washington is by getting money from corporations or other large organizations. It is no longer at the local level. This puts large organizations in positions of extreme power over the people of the US. We are currently taxed at over 70% (through countless hidden taxes, income taxes, SS, Medicare, gas tax, sales tax, etc.) Typically countries have revolutionary wars at this point. Hopefully we can turn all of this around before it is too late.
Well, there goes the use of my LCD TV which convertes the analog signal from the satellite box and DVD player to digital to show it to me. I guess I won't be subscribing to any more broadcasts. I won't be buying any more DVD's either as I can't watch those.
Oh, my receiver uses digital processing. I guess I can't listen to any more CD's, tapes, or the radio as they are all converted to digital.
It sounds like all digital media is a thing of the past because at some point this analog world must be converted to digital to be stored on digital media and all of those devices will now be illegal. So much for making home videos on my camcorder. By the way, how's the music and movie industry going to get by?
Raising the price to $700 per console (premium edition) would have maid the same as selling 6 games for the unit (figuring $50 profit per game). While that might have increased their short term profit, I agree that it would be a bad decision in the long run.
What Microsoft did wrong was that they decided to do a near simultaneous world-wide release. This prevented them from having the supply needed for everywhere but Japan where the initial game lineup is so weak that they are having problems selling the 360's. They should have staggered the release of the 360 as all other consoles have done.
On another note, they should not have been selling the basic version for this initial release, at least not in the US. The people who are buying the 360's first are the die-hard gamers such as myself. None of us wants the basic edition. We all need the hard drive for updates, reverse compatibility, etc. Whoever decided to sell the basic editions for the release made a big mistake. They should have at least made enough hard drives available so that those with a basic edition could upgrade. Then they would have at least made a profit on that without upsetting the unfortunate people who ended up with a basic edition and no hard drive.
people who are stupid enough to believe that 'gravity generators' exist
'Gravity generators' do exist. They range in size from the extremely small (smaller than the tip of a pin) to the extremely large (bigger than a Volkswager. In fact, almost everything I have contains a gravity generator of one sort or other. The gravity generators often go unnoticed as they are relatively weak. I heard a scientist talking about these 'gravity generators' at one point. He refered to them as mass. I told him I wasn't Catholic.
I am very excited about having HD DVD's of some sort. However, I don't see the market there for at least two years.
With two formats it won't happen. I believe HD-DVD is a better format for movies but I'd rather have one format than two. If blu-ray wins, so be it. With that said, if blu-ray does win, my guess is it will fail when it comes to movies. The discs cost more than people want to pay. They will become unusable much easier than current DVD's (unless a special coating is put on that will make the discs even more expensive). The DRM surrounding blu-ray is outrageous, requiring an Internet connection, locking the disc to the player, and disabling the player. I'm not going to buy a blu-ray player. Not a chance in a million.
On the PC side the story is a bit different. Blu-ray looks like the better way to go. It will be available and will probably store more data. I can see it being a success there while the other format steps up and takes the movie portion of the market, fixing the problems with blu-ray (expensive, DRM, etc.). This leads us back to having two different formats, one for PC's and one for watching movies.
There have been websites warning about the adverse effects of water for years now, ever since a student did a high school science project on the chemical. The websites tend to use obscure names such as dihydrogen monoxide, or DHMO for short. Of course, there are always the extremists who advocate for this substance. They also like to use scientific names such as hydrogen hydroxide to confuse their opposition.
Can someone explain to me how quantum computers are going to take an O(n^2) problem and change it to O(n)? I don't see how a different type of computer changes the nature of the problem.
I kind of wonder about the statistics given for the cube (43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possibilities) in the article. By my calculates there should be less than 2,730,555,762,278,400 possibilities. This is taking the pieces and accounting for positioning and rotation. In the article they probably included imposibilities such as having a corner piece with all three sides being the same color.
"Coerced pray in schools" is not a "law respecting an establishment of religion". It is not even a law. Preventing students from praying is "prohibiting the free exercise thereof" as well as "abridging the freedom of speech."
Wow! I'm so used to the ACLU fighting on the other side saying that students don't have freedom of speech because it violates separation of church and state, mentions God, etc. It's a wonderful thing when they fight for the rights of the students and not against.
Before the web we had gopher, which was pretty much text based.
On another note, it is interesting that this document does not validate. There's an extra tag in there. No wonder it's hard to get web developer to write valid HTML.
The specs are only irrelevent if the systems specs are good enough. I agree to some extent that specs don't matter, and for the next generation (XBox 360, PS3, etc.) they are all close enough. While I'm curious because I'm a geek, they won't decide which system I buy. I can tell you, though, that I will buy an XBox360 because I want to play PGR3.
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Yeah, life's been great since they invented magic.
While the development sounds aweful, I think the result that came out of it is quite nice.
I hear two camps: minimalists and those who want do make every possible decision. One camp says just have one or two buttons. The other wants 10 buttons. I think the third option is the best. Make it easy do the two buttons but still have a way of doing the other options. This is what Microsoft has done. They have a power button and a lock button. The power button goes into a sleep/hibernation mode. The lock button goes into a lock/switch user mode. If you want the other choices, you need click on the menu arrow.
This seems like basic design. Make it simple to do common stuff. Make it possible but not as easy to do things that you do less often (more advanced).
While the taser might have been a bit extreme, the man deserved it. The cops made it real clear time after time.
"Leave or we will taser you."
"Stand up or we will taser you again."
"Stand up or we will taser you again."
They told the man what to do (very simple tasks) and what would be the consequences for not doing it. The man lied multiple times stating that he would leave and never did. The cops followed through with the consequences that were stated.
While a arrest may have been a better choice for a consequence, the actions taken by the cops were appropriate.
Lol, pretty funny. I wish that was the case. All I did was put it in my pocket (nothing else in there) to listen to one song. The case I got more than doubles the size of it, but I can read the screen.
Any word yet on if the new Nano scratches like the old one? I had to buy a big neoprene cover with acrylic to protect the screen on my old Nano as after five minutes of use the screen was almost destroyed. I'm hoping they've fixed this issue.
The other improvements (brighter screen, 8GB of memory, etc.) are all nice. The real issue, however, is the scratching.
Can't go to Mars. It's warming too.
I couldn't agree with you more. I'm an early adopted, especially with graphics stuff. I had a digital camera back when people didn't know what they were. I had a DVD player back when DVD's came in CD cases. I had been looking forward to the new DVD format but it has been so severly screwed up with DRM's, format wars, pricing, lack of contect, etc. that there's no way I'm going to buy one.
Give me a format that I can copy it to my computer by dragging and dropping. Then let me play it on my XBox 360 over the network. Don't require HDMI with super encryption and a connection to the Internet to disable my player. Let me put it on every TV, DVR, and computer in my house. Let me copy it down to my IPod, my Pocket PC, my phone. Make it easy for me to watch it. That's what I'll buy.
Higher resolution is a plus, but not a strong selling point without the basics. When you take away the basics, the picture quality really doesn't matter much if you aren't able to watch it.
Those light bulbs are less than 1/10th the brightness of a 60watt bulb. They are also very directional. This makes them good for reading lights but not a good general replacement for lighting. I have seen LED bulbs with 500+ lumens of output, but they are expensive (hundreds of dollars) and get very hot. The technology for LED is not there yet, but I have to believe it is coming.
Why don't they just ban housing. That's where most child abuse takes place.
Seriously, though, the abuse, etc. should be a criminal offense, not something that might be related in some way. For example, guns should be legal; murder should not be. Credit cards should be legal; fraud should not be.
I have to agree. This appears to be a good thing. Reputable companies will now have a cost associated with mass e-mail. The zombie spam networks would continue to be blocked by the filter. This now puts real costs with e-mail advertising and further limits what non-reputable companies can do.
When we started out we were the United States of America. The states had the power. Since then the power has shifted to the federal government. With that shift states' rights have been taken over by Washington. The way to get into Washington and stay in Washington is by getting money from corporations or other large organizations. It is no longer at the local level. This puts large organizations in positions of extreme power over the people of the US. We are currently taxed at over 70% (through countless hidden taxes, income taxes, SS, Medicare, gas tax, sales tax, etc.) Typically countries have revolutionary wars at this point. Hopefully we can turn all of this around before it is too late.
Well, there goes the use of my LCD TV which convertes the analog signal from the satellite box and DVD player to digital to show it to me. I guess I won't be subscribing to any more broadcasts. I won't be buying any more DVD's either as I can't watch those.
Oh, my receiver uses digital processing. I guess I can't listen to any more CD's, tapes, or the radio as they are all converted to digital.
It sounds like all digital media is a thing of the past because at some point this analog world must be converted to digital to be stored on digital media and all of those devices will now be illegal. So much for making home videos on my camcorder. By the way, how's the music and movie industry going to get by?
Raising the price to $700 per console (premium edition) would have maid the same as selling 6 games for the unit (figuring $50 profit per game). While that might have increased their short term profit, I agree that it would be a bad decision in the long run.
What Microsoft did wrong was that they decided to do a near simultaneous world-wide release. This prevented them from having the supply needed for everywhere but Japan where the initial game lineup is so weak that they are having problems selling the 360's. They should have staggered the release of the 360 as all other consoles have done.
On another note, they should not have been selling the basic version for this initial release, at least not in the US. The people who are buying the 360's first are the die-hard gamers such as myself. None of us wants the basic edition. We all need the hard drive for updates, reverse compatibility, etc. Whoever decided to sell the basic editions for the release made a big mistake. They should have at least made enough hard drives available so that those with a basic edition could upgrade. Then they would have at least made a profit on that without upsetting the unfortunate people who ended up with a basic edition and no hard drive.
people who are stupid enough to believe that 'gravity generators' exist
'Gravity generators' do exist. They range in size from the extremely small (smaller than the tip of a pin) to the extremely large (bigger than a Volkswager. In fact, almost everything I have contains a gravity generator of one sort or other. The gravity generators often go unnoticed as they are relatively weak. I heard a scientist talking about these 'gravity generators' at one point. He refered to them as mass. I told him I wasn't Catholic.
Please note, this is my humble attempt at humor.
I am very excited about having HD DVD's of some sort. However, I don't see the market there for at least two years.
With two formats it won't happen. I believe HD-DVD is a better format for movies but I'd rather have one format than two. If blu-ray wins, so be it. With that said, if blu-ray does win, my guess is it will fail when it comes to movies. The discs cost more than people want to pay. They will become unusable much easier than current DVD's (unless a special coating is put on that will make the discs even more expensive). The DRM surrounding blu-ray is outrageous, requiring an Internet connection, locking the disc to the player, and disabling the player. I'm not going to buy a blu-ray player. Not a chance in a million.
On the PC side the story is a bit different. Blu-ray looks like the better way to go. It will be available and will probably store more data. I can see it being a success there while the other format steps up and takes the movie portion of the market, fixing the problems with blu-ray (expensive, DRM, etc.). This leads us back to having two different formats, one for PC's and one for watching movies.
Yes, I think it will be a while before I buy.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have no choice but to advocate a total boycott of all Xbox 360.
Wrong article. I think you're looking for this one. :)
There have been websites warning about the adverse effects of water for years now, ever since a student did a high school science project on the chemical. The websites tend to use obscure names such as dihydrogen monoxide, or DHMO for short. Of course, there are always the extremists who advocate for this substance. They also like to use scientific names such as hydrogen hydroxide to confuse their opposition.
Can someone explain to me how quantum computers are going to take an O(n^2) problem and change it to O(n)? I don't see how a different type of computer changes the nature of the problem.
LOL, I must not be in it today. I only accounted for 8 side pieces. Thanks for the math DustMagnet.
I kind of wonder about the statistics given for the cube (43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possibilities) in the article. By my calculates there should be less than 2,730,555,762,278,400 possibilities. This is taking the pieces and accounting for positioning and rotation. In the article they probably included imposibilities such as having a corner piece with all three sides being the same color.
"Coerced pray in schools" is not a "law respecting an establishment of religion". It is not even a law. Preventing students from praying is "prohibiting the free exercise thereof" as well as "abridging the freedom of speech."
Wow! I'm so used to the ACLU fighting on the other side saying that students don't have freedom of speech because it violates separation of church and state, mentions God, etc. It's a wonderful thing when they fight for the rights of the students and not against.
Before the web we had gopher, which was pretty much text based.
On another note, it is interesting that this document does not validate. There's an extra tag in there. No wonder it's hard to get web developer to write valid HTML.
Try using the HTML for ampersand, &. This is standard practice for web development but even most web developers overlook this character.
The specs are only irrelevent if the systems specs are good enough. I agree to some extent that specs don't matter, and for the next generation (XBox 360, PS3, etc.) they are all close enough. While I'm curious because I'm a geek, they won't decide which system I buy. I can tell you, though, that I will buy an XBox360 because I want to play PGR3.