My god look at just about any fricking gaming site that tracks this stuff. Neither fo them is going to wait until fall next year to launch in japan, heck for quite awhile alot of people in the industry (EA included) stated that PS3 would be launched this year in japan! Now from the latest rumors (because Sony doesn't discuss new product before an official announcment is all rumor til E3) they say spring launch in japan.
Nintendo has several comments where they stated quite specifically that they would launch in 2005 and it seems they are only delaying it because they only feel Sony competes with them (or at least the Tokyo office feels that way, from their statements) and Sony had issues getting their new console ready.
Anyways I have my own sources as I work in the game industry and they seem to agree with what I've said and most of the gaming news sites say. Anyways go ahead and don't believe me, but I'm fairly interested in where your proof is since you seem so determined to undermine me... What makes you think you know better?
I don't want Sony or MS to win... And as long as they are fighting it out tooth and nail, neither of them will win... In the long run I think things will even out with MS taking 45% of the market and Sony taking 45% of the market... and if Nintendo hangs in their it will take the remaining 10%... With them stablizied like that I don't think either will have the muscle to screw us over completely...
I still loved those original Xbox controllers, they were masterpieces of design (and never made my hands hurt after a few hours of gaming). People like you who bitched and whined because it wasn't like any other controller you'd seen are what killed it, not that it was a bad design. I can't believe how many peopel ahve been brainwahsed by Sony into believing those hand crunching nightmares they call controllers are the ultimate in gaming controller goodness, it's absurb...
Um you do realize the PS3 and the Revolution will both be launched (in japan) early next year right? That means they have maybe 3 or 4 months to modify their hardware after seeing what MS does... But see 3 months is the lead time from ordering parts to having consoles to sell, so really this won't give them time to do much of anything... They can't change the hardware that they will launch in the US a year after the Xbox 360 hits the market, because that would make it difficult to work with the japanese titles.
This won't give Sony or Nintendo any real advantage except for the people who will wait to see what those companies will launch. And even so I predict good holiday sales this coming christmas for MS's Xbox 360 console, based on the fact it will be the newest coolest thing in the console industry for a year stateside.
Actually if you read another article on slashdot a bit later than this one you'd see they simply block competing VOIP services from using their networks. Then they offer their own VOIP... Inf act I wouldn't be suprised if VOIP is used between their own facilities in some way to reduce costs of using conventional POTS equipment (actually I'd swear I've already heard about that starting awhile ago). At that point offering their own VOIP service is the simplist of things for them to do.
And each of those merged companies provides cellular, so they won't be hurting due to cellular service replacing POTS for alot of people... In fact they make more off of celular than PTS atm and so focus much mroe energy on it...
I'm going to be the only one currently to oppose your view, not completely, but in part...
See for years people wanted better quality and less issues than tapes were and do cause (tapes wear out, quality was never great to begin with, etc). People boought into DVD because it raised the bar and brought the expensive 'movie theatre experience' into their home. It looked awfully good at first, since initially things like region codes and CSS didn't matter to most (I know originally I didn't buy any DVD's from japan or france, or wherever and the player handled CSS so it was transparent). It wasn't until later that most people realized the problems with it... By then really it was much much to late. Heck most people still don't see a problem with it. I know my parents don't.
Anyways so most people were part of the problem yes... Does that mean they shouldn't complain now that they realize the errors of their ways? I'd hope not, you need all the disgruntled people you can get if you want any hope of turning things around...
Oh and btw Macrovision existed before DVD's and if you'll remember correctly was introduced initially to stop VHS to VHS copying... The DVD-CCA only decided to continue using it in the format past VHS since it did work fairly well at hindering 'piracy'.
Small issue though is your average customer doens't want just an OS, they want all those little apps as well... They really don't want choice, choice just confuses the dumb computer users... I see this every single day, over and over. Heck alot of people think MS Office is windows, because that's most of what they use and they don't understand the difference...
The only way this would work is if MS added an options to download additional components if desired, but even then alot of people are to cheap or don't have broadband and would jsut be pissed they couldn't get a PC with apps they want already installed...
Actually their has been a Mecha MMO... In fact two maybe even three now, though neither has relied much on stat building like most MMORPG's do...
The first was hosted by Genie (a sort of ISP from before the net was big) hosted Battletech Online (I was big into that as a kid til I 'accidently' got an $80 monthly bill from them...
FASA had a company working on a sequal in the late 90's to Battletech Online... I don't think they ever finished though...
& MS just released Mechassault 2 with a MMO component using Xbox live... I just got this awhile ago & haven't yet had the chance to really play with it yet...
Each one had PvP combat that determined the section of the galaxy each house owned and this was constantly in flux based on the players actions...
Ya know the funny thing is that back in the MU* days that's how we did magic... I wanted to create a spell so I'd code a message to be displayed and any other options needed to give it the effect I wanted... Now not every MU* gave you unlimited access to perform actions, but those that did tended to reward creativity more than anything modern does...
simple, I want multiple devices because I know at least one of those will stop working eventually and it's much much easier to replace one fairly inexpensive device that does one thing than one expensive device that did them all...
Maybe if we had some fancy tech that converged everything and would last 5-10 years I coudl see it, but with problems with just about anything electronic these days I'd rather keep them all seperate... That way if my PVR breaks I'll still have CD/DVD, etc functional in the mean time whiel the other part is fixed/replaced...
Uh why would you need a terrestrial rebroadcast for a gas station? It takes about 10 feet of concrete to block my XM signal to my car reciever & my market is so small their isn't a chance that it would have rebroadcasting equipment within 100 miles... Well maybe at 100 miles with cleveland, Buffalo, & Pittsburgh all being roughtly that far away... Either way it's not going to help me where I am...
I will also mention the store I work for has a working MyFi that is inside the building and has no signal problems. None. We are doing any rebroadcasting either. So that's a bunch of steel beams, wiring, and building material between any sort of open air and the MyFi itself... I think your coworkers got a defective batch...
XM has the Delphi made 'MyFi' for a few months now and it doens't seem to have battery life, reception, or any other issues to really make anyone complain... So far... It doesn't have mp3 support, but it can cache songs so it does have some internal storage space... Not quite as small as an Ipod though, at least so far...
& yes both services are pretty much North American in nature only, since currently all the sats for them are over North America... And a dual stage sat reciever/mp3 player would at least keep the mp3 aspect abroad...
Your system is suspicously close to mine with some notable exceptions... TTGI 550W PSU rather than Antec, ATI AIW Radeon 9800 Pro rather than 6800GT and I 'only' have a Athlon XP 3200+ rather than the A64... Though I'm about to add another HDD to my list to...
Strangely I did use to run it all on a 350W, but all my power was low for each rail so I decided I needed to change it out...;)
Uh how exactly do you get: "You seem to assume that your adversary will always attack with excessive force"
When I specifically say: "But I also know if the government takes a dislike to me they normally don't start out dropping bombs or bringing in tanks, they send in a few troopers instead figuring that a few troops are enough for one person."
I don't quite get that...
But as for: "but the reality is that if you pose no obvious threat, you'll have a greater chance of walking away from the confrontation."
That depends entirely on what they are ordered to do... If it's shot to kill then being 'no obvious threat' isn't gonna help much... And to a 'heavily armed soldier wearing full body armour' a guy with an SMG isn't a big hulking target any more than a guy with a rock... But I'd still rather have the gun than the rock... I'd have to get an awful lot closer to do more damage with the rock than the SMG and I'd most likely be better off doing alot of other things than using a gun or a rock in such a case anyways... But my thinking is fairly military in that I'd rather have a gun when fighting someone with a gun than sending in someone with a stick against a gun and really I'd rather have a bigger gun than the other guy (which btw is standard military doctrine and has been for centuries)...
Against a government as one individual I know I'm never going to have the bigger gun these days so the doctrine of minimizing your disadvantage comes into play... And that says exactly what I said, which is I'd rather have a fairly modern gun in a gun fight rather than a rock...
I'd rather have something at least... What happens if I dont' even have a gun? Throw rocks at the tank/missile? No the odds aren't good of taking out a tank with any of the legally owned weapons in the US, but it's better than throwing rocks at them (of course the better option with what would be available would be moltov coktails vs the tank rather than most legal weapons)... And not being where the airstrike occurs is better than having a gun when hit with an airstrike. But 1 on 1 me versus a guy with a gun I'd rather have a gun as well...
I also mention their is no reason I couldn't have military or para-military training... In point of fact I do have some of that and even hunters have sniper style training (all be it without counter-sniper training as deer don't shoot back). It's a matter of degrees, I know I'm not likely to be able to legally own EM scramblers (anti-missile/guided bomb devices) or Anti-tank weapons (though I bet I could build an AMR or primitive rocket weapon of some sort given enough time)... But I also know if the government takes a dislike to me they normally don't start out dropping bombs or bringing in tanks, they send in a few troopers instead figuring that a few troops are enough for one person. So If I'm armed and they are armed I at least have a fighting chance... But if I have a stick and some rocks and they have M16A1's I'm going to assing myself some awfully low odds of being able to do more than piss them off... Which would you prefer? nearly a billion to one odds or hundred to one odds? I'll take hundreds thanks.
How about one reason I'd rather keep my right to bear arms?
I don't trust my government to do diddly squat for me.
In fact if the only ones with guns are the government it's very very easy to keep the populace in line. No thanks I'll take a higher rate of deaths by firearms to not being able to make sure I can reliably defend myself if things ever do get that bad... That is why it was a constitutional right to begin with. Those original americans didn't trust the government any more than I do...
You know what you need is Bungie to make Linux games... It's sort of their forte now... First kit was in making a Mac a suitable gaming platform with Marathon and now Halo for the xbox, it's a trend for them... Not sure how you'd convince them to do it these days since they partnered with MS to strengthen their market...
But anotehr Bungie is what the Linux gaming world really needs to make it practical...
I was startign to think I was the only one who noticed the word 'gloud'... Though in my case I'm finding it hard to stop laughing over that word and I'm not sure why... 0_o
Uh their are 'Smartphones' using the latest version of the Pocket PC OS that combine PDA & Cellphone capabilities... Lots of them in fact... But I have to ask you quite a few questions because some of what you say just doens't make much sense...
"that is to be smaller"
You realy want an even tinier screen?!? PDA's these days are pretty much teh right size to still be functional... If you'd look at smartphones you'd see their are generally two types with Palm opting for a inbetween unit (Treo 600 & 650), one is PDA sized (with complete PDA functionality) the other is cellphone sized (with less PDA functions)... I'd rather they not try to shrink them as that would hurt what they can do as the 'smartphone' that is cellphone sized shows...
"have a longer battery duration"
Uh haven't tried any newer PDA's like the HP Ipaq RX3115 have you? Besides the fact that HP sells a double powered battery that fits the RX3115 even the standard battery is enough to last 8 hours of general use or 3-4 hours of WIFI use... Doubling that gives enough battery life for most people & adding things like wall & car chargers makes them easy to charge wherever you are if you do get low...
"instant messaging support"
Um while I know it's not quite AIM or Yahoo's IM client all the new ones do come with MSN Messenger... Unless you don't count that as IM support?
"by that definitely Edge/GPRS/UMTS or other 3G telephony and data transfer capability"
I'd rather they expand those 3G style networks first to make it worthwhile & for the US at least this would only be a bad thing as it would tie certain 'PDA's' to certain Cell service providers... Heck it already does with smartphones with this ability... For instance Verizon (I work right next to a verizon kiosk so I know what they carry) carries an LG smartphone, two Samsung Smartphones, Black Berries, & Treo 600 & 650 models... But they won't let you use any other smartphone with their network and not every provider in the US uses some sort of 3G network anyways... Maybe a 'phone expansion' slot or something that ties the PDA to a certain network might appeal, but that would seem to put it to close to just changing Sim cards for most US cellphone providers to like...
All in all I think you need to take a look at the current models of PDA's before you comment, things have significantly changed in the last 5 years... Heck a RX3115 for instance adds the ability to act as an extension of a desktop computer over wireless and control most electronics that use a remote in your house which is a big jump from the self-contained days 5 years ago... & Smartphones are obviously a big priority since most smartphones already do what you want, so you may want to go take a look at them...
"Like many of the responses I've got today, providing one counterexample where something didn't happen doesn't in any way prove that it can NEVER happen. It's hard to prove a negative, and tossing out example after example won't make it easier."
Go ahead fell whatever way you want decide we are trying to 'prove something', we aren't trying to do that... We are giving clear examples were fansubs have been a huge help to any possibel future sales, which don't seem to be in a hurry to happen from the lack of support from Anime Distributors... Visit an Anime Convention sometime and listen to the fans, most find out what looks good from looking at fansubs available online these days due to the limits on what gets released by the big companies... Now most are glad for the big companies, but some things will just never get carried by the big players regardless of fan desires for them... This is the big niche for Fansubs...
"IF that's true, and IF there are enough other people like that to make a substantial boost to sales, then fansubs are still not needed. The producers can easily authorize the release of 1-3 subtitled episodes on the internet as a way to promote and gauge interest."
Your rather thick headed has anyone ever told you that? The distributors don't care to do that... Their subs are half-assed anyways and they've been more interested in creating dubs than subs for years... DVD's brought out the easy option for them to hold off on subs entirely to instead complete Dub work before releasing the OVA/Movie/Series beign carried over... Let me repeat that: They don't care about subs. Why is that important? Because it's what alot of fans prefer... I remember nearly a decade ago when soem companies decided they didn't need subs of certain series (this was the VHS era and all VHS was either sub or dub) the complaints forced them to release both in alot fo cases which they really really didn't want to do... They weren't all that thrilled with DVD early on either...
"They're not rare anymore. In fact they're planned up front, rather than as surprises after the first run ends, so you won't hear about it as much anymore. Regardless, fansubbers did release copies of Big-O's 2nd season."
Ok I'm calling you out on this, where is the proof you are correct here? Except Big O I can't recall a series that has been a bigger hit state-side than in Japan to the same degree... Even Pokemon and the numerous card dueling shows are planned ahead of time for japan and then US release and the interest is fairly equal...
"No. ADV pays attention to fan input for almost everything they decide to release. Or are you accusing them of being complete fools who can't even think to troll a few message-boards to keep the pulse of the audience?"
Maybe the other poster won't, but I will... Have you looked at what they are releasing currently? It sure as heck looks pretty half-assed to me... Having said that I should also say I'm on a Aniem COnvention staff and we've had some dealings with ADV that give me insider info and I'm still saying that. I'm not saying they are completely dumb, but their rather single minded lately and practically myopic about what to release... I'm not sure about what they've licensed for their Anime Network as I can't get that channel currently to see what they actually play, but their DVD releases have bene fairly lackluster as of late...
"Or maybe I didn't want to launch into meaningless digressions into trivialities of Japanese trademark law. (I could go off about Trigun versus Trigun Maximum, for example, if anybody actually cared about details like that). I'm not confused at all. If you think I'm wrong, then you might not know exactly what "series" is defined as. ("series, n. things that come out one after another")"
Except that in a good number of past cases differing seasons of the same series (ie YUA! Season 1, YUA! season 2) and or differing additions to the same title (ie Macross Plus, Macross 7, Macross 0) have in fact been license
Well you asked for a list of titles not available in the US yet available in Japan (& since we are talkign about fansubs I'll add in only ones with fansubs)... Oh & 'only from this decade' will have to include things from 95 on to make a complete decade... Oh & I checked Amazon and a few other anime DVD carrying sites, just to make sure none have been released yet...
Rizerumain Maria-sama ga miteru Rozen Maiden Alexander Senki Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou Kokoro Library Whistle (btw never try searching store websites for 'Whistle' bad bad idea) Melody Of Oblivion
I could go on, but I've spent almost an hour now just verifying whether or not they are currently available... I never even got through more than 50 entries on my favorite fansub torrent site either (& right now their is more OST's & 'Manga' than anime on it)... & yes some of it is available now in the US, but the site I use allows anyone that's a member to upload anything... So it's not like they ask people to post things that are already published... In fact their are rules against posting such things, not that the few SysOps have an easy time sifting through it all to check either...
I hope you understand my point, alot of things still aren't available from a licensed agent of the japanese companies producing anime which implies their is still a rather large market for fansubs for things that may or may not ever come here...
Some shows still never make it and some of those shows are good! I constantly find new shows as fansubs that the US distrobutors haven't mentioned and no one is yet talking about... How many releases have all the US companies put out this year? How many Anime series have come out this year? If you answered that they are equal you are stupider than you look already. We see a handful of the releases japan sees, some good, some bad... But we never see more than that handful of the total without fansubs...
Well seeing as how I'm a big aniem fan and I always seem to be forced to find fansubs because the most popular japanese anime takes 5 years (5 years!) to come to the US, I'll answer some of your questions...
"JP-only cartoons that are dubbed/titled in english" Actually as the name implies they are 'subbed' (subtitled) in english by groups of fansubbers (people who donate time and resources for their anime hobby)... I'm also tempted to start the royal 'their not cartoons!' argument as well, btu I'll hold my tongue for now...
"we release commercial products, and certainly i dont want anyone to give them away for free, but if i found out someone had DIVX ripped my latest DVD release and subtitled it in japanese, it wouldnt exactly break my heart. in fact, i'd probably be excited, because if we had any sort of widespread downloading success in japan, those people [who dubbed my videos] would actually just be growing a potential market for me" The problem is the US anime distributors like ADV more than the japanese companies who have for years treated it just as you suggest. Now I shoudl start by saying I own alot of stuff done by ADV, but some of their choices I'd rahter were quite diferent... Peopel like myself don't tend to really want english dubs first of all, which is what the most time and money gets spent on... If they stuck to subs rather than dubs most likely they could release just as fast as fansubbers do (months not years). Now naturally english dubs appeal to a broader market (my parents still wonder why I watch 'cartoons' with subtitles for instance where as they thought 'Spirited Away' was an ok 'cartoon' and fairly entertaining). The problem is they treat us all as one market, I'd prefer an 'early' subbed release and a followup english dub release to getting them both years later. The other big problem (more so lately) is they pick and choose a handful of title to bring over, and I might think they are mostly crap (lately I've thought that of ADV's choices because I haven't wanted to watch any of them). I'd rather be able to pick and choose from the whole selection...
I have to say the choices of the companies and the appeal for their content is higher than the english distributors can take equal to a market for fansubs which they helped creat and now frankly they have to live with it...
History sidenote alot of early anime distributors were fansub groups that decided to go 'legit' like ADV... Their are alot that you won't find anymore as well, because they didn't get enough titles the public wanted or didn't get them to market fast enough...
Slashdot Mirror
My god look at just about any fricking gaming site that tracks this stuff. Neither fo them is going to wait until fall next year to launch in japan, heck for quite awhile alot of people in the industry (EA included) stated that PS3 would be launched this year in japan! Now from the latest rumors (because Sony doesn't discuss new product before an official announcment is all rumor til E3) they say spring launch in japan.
Nintendo has several comments where they stated quite specifically that they would launch in 2005 and it seems they are only delaying it because they only feel Sony competes with them (or at least the Tokyo office feels that way, from their statements) and Sony had issues getting their new console ready.
Anyways I have my own sources as I work in the game industry and they seem to agree with what I've said and most of the gaming news sites say. Anyways go ahead and don't believe me, but I'm fairly interested in where your proof is since you seem so determined to undermine me... What makes you think you know better?
I don't want Sony or MS to win... And as long as they are fighting it out tooth and nail, neither of them will win... In the long run I think things will even out with MS taking 45% of the market and Sony taking 45% of the market... and if Nintendo hangs in their it will take the remaining 10%... With them stablizied like that I don't think either will have the muscle to screw us over completely...
I still loved those original Xbox controllers, they were masterpieces of design (and never made my hands hurt after a few hours of gaming). People like you who bitched and whined because it wasn't like any other controller you'd seen are what killed it, not that it was a bad design. I can't believe how many peopel ahve been brainwahsed by Sony into believing those hand crunching nightmares they call controllers are the ultimate in gaming controller goodness, it's absurb...
Um you do realize the PS3 and the Revolution will both be launched (in japan) early next year right? That means they have maybe 3 or 4 months to modify their hardware after seeing what MS does... But see 3 months is the lead time from ordering parts to having consoles to sell, so really this won't give them time to do much of anything... They can't change the hardware that they will launch in the US a year after the Xbox 360 hits the market, because that would make it difficult to work with the japanese titles.
This won't give Sony or Nintendo any real advantage except for the people who will wait to see what those companies will launch. And even so I predict good holiday sales this coming christmas for MS's Xbox 360 console, based on the fact it will be the newest coolest thing in the console industry for a year stateside.
Actually if you read another article on slashdot a bit later than this one you'd see they simply block competing VOIP services from using their networks. Then they offer their own VOIP... Inf act I wouldn't be suprised if VOIP is used between their own facilities in some way to reduce costs of using conventional POTS equipment (actually I'd swear I've already heard about that starting awhile ago). At that point offering their own VOIP service is the simplist of things for them to do.
And each of those merged companies provides cellular, so they won't be hurting due to cellular service replacing POTS for alot of people... In fact they make more off of celular than PTS atm and so focus much mroe energy on it...
I'm going to be the only one currently to oppose your view, not completely, but in part...
See for years people wanted better quality and less issues than tapes were and do cause (tapes wear out, quality was never great to begin with, etc). People boought into DVD because it raised the bar and brought the expensive 'movie theatre experience' into their home. It looked awfully good at first, since initially things like region codes and CSS didn't matter to most (I know originally I didn't buy any DVD's from japan or france, or wherever and the player handled CSS so it was transparent). It wasn't until later that most people realized the problems with it... By then really it was much much to late. Heck most people still don't see a problem with it. I know my parents don't.
Anyways so most people were part of the problem yes... Does that mean they shouldn't complain now that they realize the errors of their ways? I'd hope not, you need all the disgruntled people you can get if you want any hope of turning things around...
Oh and btw Macrovision existed before DVD's and if you'll remember correctly was introduced initially to stop VHS to VHS copying... The DVD-CCA only decided to continue using it in the format past VHS since it did work fairly well at hindering 'piracy'.
Small issue though is your average customer doens't want just an OS, they want all those little apps as well... They really don't want choice, choice just confuses the dumb computer users... I see this every single day, over and over. Heck alot of people think MS Office is windows, because that's most of what they use and they don't understand the difference...
The only way this would work is if MS added an options to download additional components if desired, but even then alot of people are to cheap or don't have broadband and would jsut be pissed they couldn't get a PC with apps they want already installed...
Actually their has been a Mecha MMO... In fact two maybe even three now, though neither has relied much on stat building like most MMORPG's do...
The first was hosted by Genie (a sort of ISP from before the net was big) hosted Battletech Online (I was big into that as a kid til I 'accidently' got an $80 monthly bill from them...
FASA had a company working on a sequal in the late 90's to Battletech Online... I don't think they ever finished though...
& MS just released Mechassault 2 with a MMO component using Xbox live... I just got this awhile ago & haven't yet had the chance to really play with it yet...
Each one had PvP combat that determined the section of the galaxy each house owned and this was constantly in flux based on the players actions...
Ya know the funny thing is that back in the MU* days that's how we did magic... I wanted to create a spell so I'd code a message to be displayed and any other options needed to give it the effect I wanted... Now not every MU* gave you unlimited access to perform actions, but those that did tended to reward creativity more than anything modern does...
simple, I want multiple devices because I know at least one of those will stop working eventually and it's much much easier to replace one fairly inexpensive device that does one thing than one expensive device that did them all...
Maybe if we had some fancy tech that converged everything and would last 5-10 years I coudl see it, but with problems with just about anything electronic these days I'd rather keep them all seperate... That way if my PVR breaks I'll still have CD/DVD, etc functional in the mean time whiel the other part is fixed/replaced...
Uh why would you need a terrestrial rebroadcast for a gas station? It takes about 10 feet of concrete to block my XM signal to my car reciever & my market is so small their isn't a chance that it would have rebroadcasting equipment within 100 miles... Well maybe at 100 miles with cleveland, Buffalo, & Pittsburgh all being roughtly that far away... Either way it's not going to help me where I am...
I will also mention the store I work for has a working MyFi that is inside the building and has no signal problems. None. We are doing any rebroadcasting either. So that's a bunch of steel beams, wiring, and building material between any sort of open air and the MyFi itself... I think your coworkers got a defective batch...
XM has the Delphi made 'MyFi' for a few months now and it doens't seem to have battery life, reception, or any other issues to really make anyone complain... So far... It doesn't have mp3 support, but it can cache songs so it does have some internal storage space... Not quite as small as an Ipod though, at least so far...
& yes both services are pretty much North American in nature only, since currently all the sats for them are over North America... And a dual stage sat reciever/mp3 player would at least keep the mp3 aspect abroad...
Your system is suspicously close to mine with some notable exceptions... TTGI 550W PSU rather than Antec, ATI AIW Radeon 9800 Pro rather than 6800GT and I 'only' have a Athlon XP 3200+ rather than the A64... Though I'm about to add another HDD to my list to...
;)
Strangely I did use to run it all on a 350W, but all my power was low for each rail so I decided I needed to change it out...
TTGI is also good (it's what I'm running right now) and not all that expensive... But they weren't in the test either...
Uh how exactly do you get:
"You seem to assume that your adversary will always attack with excessive force"
When I specifically say:
"But I also know if the government takes a dislike to me they normally don't start out dropping bombs or bringing in tanks, they send in a few troopers instead figuring that a few troops are enough for one person."
I don't quite get that...
But as for:
"but the reality is that if you pose no obvious threat, you'll have a greater chance of walking away from the confrontation."
That depends entirely on what they are ordered to do... If it's shot to kill then being 'no obvious threat' isn't gonna help much... And to a 'heavily armed soldier wearing full body armour' a guy with an SMG isn't a big hulking target any more than a guy with a rock... But I'd still rather have the gun than the rock... I'd have to get an awful lot closer to do more damage with the rock than the SMG and I'd most likely be better off doing alot of other things than using a gun or a rock in such a case anyways... But my thinking is fairly military in that I'd rather have a gun when fighting someone with a gun than sending in someone with a stick against a gun and really I'd rather have a bigger gun than the other guy (which btw is standard military doctrine and has been for centuries)...
Against a government as one individual I know I'm never going to have the bigger gun these days so the doctrine of minimizing your disadvantage comes into play... And that says exactly what I said, which is I'd rather have a fairly modern gun in a gun fight rather than a rock...
I'd rather have something at least... What happens if I dont' even have a gun? Throw rocks at the tank/missile? No the odds aren't good of taking out a tank with any of the legally owned weapons in the US, but it's better than throwing rocks at them (of course the better option with what would be available would be moltov coktails vs the tank rather than most legal weapons)... And not being where the airstrike occurs is better than having a gun when hit with an airstrike. But 1 on 1 me versus a guy with a gun I'd rather have a gun as well...
/guided bomb devices) or Anti-tank weapons (though I bet I could build an AMR or primitive rocket weapon of some sort given enough time)... But I also know if the government takes a dislike to me they normally don't start out dropping bombs or bringing in tanks, they send in a few troopers instead figuring that a few troops are enough for one person. So If I'm armed and they are armed I at least have a fighting chance... But if I have a stick and some rocks and they have M16A1's I'm going to assing myself some awfully low odds of being able to do more than piss them off... Which would you prefer? nearly a billion to one odds or hundred to one odds? I'll take hundreds thanks.
I also mention their is no reason I couldn't have military or para-military training... In point of fact I do have some of that and even hunters have sniper style training (all be it without counter-sniper training as deer don't shoot back). It's a matter of degrees, I know I'm not likely to be able to legally own EM scramblers (anti-missile
How about one reason I'd rather keep my right to bear arms?
I don't trust my government to do diddly squat for me.
In fact if the only ones with guns are the government it's very very easy to keep the populace in line. No thanks I'll take a higher rate of deaths by firearms to not being able to make sure I can reliably defend myself if things ever do get that bad... That is why it was a constitutional right to begin with. Those original americans didn't trust the government any more than I do...
You know what you need is Bungie to make Linux games... It's sort of their forte now... First kit was in making a Mac a suitable gaming platform with Marathon and now Halo for the xbox, it's a trend for them... Not sure how you'd convince them to do it these days since they partnered with MS to strengthen their market...
But anotehr Bungie is what the Linux gaming world really needs to make it practical...
I was startign to think I was the only one who noticed the word 'gloud'... Though in my case I'm finding it hard to stop laughing over that word and I'm not sure why... 0_o
Uh their are 'Smartphones' using the latest version of the Pocket PC OS that combine PDA & Cellphone capabilities... Lots of them in fact... But I have to ask you quite a few questions because some of what you say just doens't make much sense...
"that is to be smaller"
You realy want an even tinier screen?!? PDA's these days are pretty much teh right size to still be functional... If you'd look at smartphones you'd see their are generally two types with Palm opting for a inbetween unit (Treo 600 & 650), one is PDA sized (with complete PDA functionality) the other is cellphone sized (with less PDA functions)... I'd rather they not try to shrink them as that would hurt what they can do as the 'smartphone' that is cellphone sized shows...
"have a longer battery duration"
Uh haven't tried any newer PDA's like the HP Ipaq RX3115 have you? Besides the fact that HP sells a double powered battery that fits the RX3115 even the standard battery is enough to last 8 hours of general use or 3-4 hours of WIFI use... Doubling that gives enough battery life for most people & adding things like wall & car chargers makes them easy to charge wherever you are if you do get low...
"instant messaging support"
Um while I know it's not quite AIM or Yahoo's IM client all the new ones do come with MSN Messenger... Unless you don't count that as IM support?
"by that definitely Edge/GPRS/UMTS or other 3G telephony and data transfer capability"
I'd rather they expand those 3G style networks first to make it worthwhile & for the US at least this would only be a bad thing as it would tie certain 'PDA's' to certain Cell service providers... Heck it already does with smartphones with this ability... For instance Verizon (I work right next to a verizon kiosk so I know what they carry) carries an LG smartphone, two Samsung Smartphones, Black Berries, & Treo 600 & 650 models... But they won't let you use any other smartphone with their network and not every provider in the US uses some sort of 3G network anyways... Maybe a 'phone expansion' slot or something that ties the PDA to a certain network might appeal, but that would seem to put it to close to just changing Sim cards for most US cellphone providers to like...
All in all I think you need to take a look at the current models of PDA's before you comment, things have significantly changed in the last 5 years... Heck a RX3115 for instance adds the ability to act as an extension of a desktop computer over wireless and control most electronics that use a remote in your house which is a big jump from the self-contained days 5 years ago... & Smartphones are obviously a big priority since most smartphones already do what you want, so you may want to go take a look at them...
Ok you are just really hopeless... Do you actually read everything I type or just pick and choose what you want to look at?
Sigh...
"Like many of the responses I've got today, providing one counterexample where something didn't happen doesn't in any way prove that it can NEVER happen. It's hard to prove a negative, and tossing out example after example won't make it easier."
Go ahead fell whatever way you want decide we are trying to 'prove something', we aren't trying to do that... We are giving clear examples were fansubs have been a huge help to any possibel future sales, which don't seem to be in a hurry to happen from the lack of support from Anime Distributors... Visit an Anime Convention sometime and listen to the fans, most find out what looks good from looking at fansubs available online these days due to the limits on what gets released by the big companies... Now most are glad for the big companies, but some things will just never get carried by the big players regardless of fan desires for them... This is the big niche for Fansubs...
"IF that's true, and IF there are enough other people like that to make a substantial boost to sales, then fansubs are still not needed. The producers can easily authorize the release of 1-3 subtitled episodes on the internet as a way to promote and gauge interest."
Your rather thick headed has anyone ever told you that? The distributors don't care to do that... Their subs are half-assed anyways and they've been more interested in creating dubs than subs for years... DVD's brought out the easy option for them to hold off on subs entirely to instead complete Dub work before releasing the OVA/Movie/Series beign carried over... Let me repeat that: They don't care about subs. Why is that important? Because it's what alot of fans prefer... I remember nearly a decade ago when soem companies decided they didn't need subs of certain series (this was the VHS era and all VHS was either sub or dub) the complaints forced them to release both in alot fo cases which they really really didn't want to do... They weren't all that thrilled with DVD early on either...
"They're not rare anymore. In fact they're planned up front, rather than as surprises after the first run ends, so you won't hear about it as much anymore. Regardless, fansubbers did release copies of Big-O's 2nd season."
Ok I'm calling you out on this, where is the proof you are correct here? Except Big O I can't recall a series that has been a bigger hit state-side than in Japan to the same degree... Even Pokemon and the numerous card dueling shows are planned ahead of time for japan and then US release and the interest is fairly equal...
"No. ADV pays attention to fan input for almost everything they decide to release. Or are you accusing them of being complete fools who can't even think to troll a few message-boards to keep the pulse of the audience?"
Maybe the other poster won't, but I will... Have you looked at what they are releasing currently? It sure as heck looks pretty half-assed to me... Having said that I should also say I'm on a Aniem COnvention staff and we've had some dealings with ADV that give me insider info and I'm still saying that. I'm not saying they are completely dumb, but their rather single minded lately and practically myopic about what to release... I'm not sure about what they've licensed for their Anime Network as I can't get that channel currently to see what they actually play, but their DVD releases have bene fairly lackluster as of late...
"Or maybe I didn't want to launch into meaningless digressions into trivialities of Japanese trademark law. (I could go off about Trigun versus Trigun Maximum, for example, if anybody actually cared about details like that). I'm not confused at all. If you think I'm wrong, then you might not know exactly what "series" is defined as. ("series, n. things that come out one after another")"
Except that in a good number of past cases differing seasons of the same series (ie YUA! Season 1, YUA! season 2) and or differing additions to the same title (ie Macross Plus, Macross 7, Macross 0) have in fact been license
Well you asked for a list of titles not available in the US yet available in Japan (& since we are talkign about fansubs I'll add in only ones with fansubs)... Oh & 'only from this decade' will have to include things from 95 on to make a complete decade... Oh & I checked Amazon and a few other anime DVD carrying sites, just to make sure none have been released yet...
Rizerumain
Maria-sama ga miteru
Rozen Maiden
Alexander Senki
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou
Kokoro Library
Whistle (btw never try searching store websites for 'Whistle' bad bad idea)
Melody Of Oblivion
I could go on, but I've spent almost an hour now just verifying whether or not they are currently available... I never even got through more than 50 entries on my favorite fansub torrent site either (& right now their is more OST's & 'Manga' than anime on it)... & yes some of it is available now in the US, but the site I use allows anyone that's a member to upload anything... So it's not like they ask people to post things that are already published... In fact their are rules against posting such things, not that the few SysOps have an easy time sifting through it all to check either...
I hope you understand my point, alot of things still aren't available from a licensed agent of the japanese companies producing anime which implies their is still a rather large market for fansubs for things that may or may not ever come here...
Some shows still never make it and some of those shows are good! I constantly find new shows as fansubs that the US distrobutors haven't mentioned and no one is yet talking about... How many releases have all the US companies put out this year? How many Anime series have come out this year? If you answered that they are equal you are stupider than you look already. We see a handful of the releases japan sees, some good, some bad... But we never see more than that handful of the total without fansubs...
Well seeing as how I'm a big aniem fan and I always seem to be forced to find fansubs because the most popular japanese anime takes 5 years (5 years!) to come to the US, I'll answer some of your questions...
"JP-only cartoons that are dubbed/titled in english"
Actually as the name implies they are 'subbed' (subtitled) in english by groups of fansubbers (people who donate time and resources for their anime hobby)... I'm also tempted to start the royal 'their not cartoons!' argument as well, btu I'll hold my tongue for now...
"we release commercial products, and certainly i dont want anyone to give them away for free, but if i found out someone had DIVX ripped my latest DVD release and subtitled it in japanese, it wouldnt exactly break my heart. in fact, i'd probably be excited, because if we had any sort of widespread downloading success in japan, those people [who dubbed my videos] would actually just be growing a potential market for me"
The problem is the US anime distributors like ADV more than the japanese companies who have for years treated it just as you suggest. Now I shoudl start by saying I own alot of stuff done by ADV, but some of their choices I'd rahter were quite diferent... Peopel like myself don't tend to really want english dubs first of all, which is what the most time and money gets spent on... If they stuck to subs rather than dubs most likely they could release just as fast as fansubbers do (months not years). Now naturally english dubs appeal to a broader market (my parents still wonder why I watch 'cartoons' with subtitles for instance where as they thought 'Spirited Away' was an ok 'cartoon' and fairly entertaining). The problem is they treat us all as one market, I'd prefer an 'early' subbed release and a followup english dub release to getting them both years later. The other big problem (more so lately) is they pick and choose a handful of title to bring over, and I might think they are mostly crap (lately I've thought that of ADV's choices because I haven't wanted to watch any of them). I'd rather be able to pick and choose from the whole selection...
I have to say the choices of the companies and the appeal for their content is higher than the english distributors can take equal to a market for fansubs which they helped creat and now frankly they have to live with it...
History sidenote alot of early anime distributors were fansub groups that decided to go 'legit' like ADV... Their are alot that you won't find anymore as well, because they didn't get enough titles the public wanted or didn't get them to market fast enough...