The only two you mention that are at all unreasonable are "some materials are designated obscene," and "using postal mail to describe immoral acts." All the rest relate to fraud/slander/libel, breach of contract, releasing private information regarding a third party, etc. Making threats against anybody, for instance, can get you in trouble...they just take it a LOT more seriously when it's the President of the US. But those other two are real killers, because at some point somebody gets to decide what is "immoral" or "obscene."
Just to point out - the PS2 has downloadable content as well. It can't be very large, for obvious reasons, but MGS3 has downloadable camo patterns which are stored on the memory card.
I guess I should mention it's been many, many moons since I actually fired up my PS2:). Sounds like it's gotten a bit better since I jumped ship for the GC/Xbox combo.
And while downloadable content for the PS2 is probably pretty spiff, I doubt it compares to the kinds of maps and other content you get from XBL (of course, you have to pay for XBL, so it's a double-edged sword). The size of the Xbox downloadable content would probably make it pretty difficult to store on memory cards.
Though, to be fair, that HD in the Xbox cuts both ways...unless I'm mistaken, the Xbox was the first console in history to have patches for games. That's certainly an "advantage" of the HD I could do without.
And I had both the FourScore for the NES and the Multitap for the PSX (didn't bother with the PS2 one, after the lackluster support on the PSX). I was just amazed that Sony didn't go ahead and do 4 controller ports on the PS2, after both the N64 and Dreamcast had them. Just proves how bad add-ons fare, too, because I guarantee you can find some cross-platform games that are 4 player on the Xbox and/or Gamecube, but STILL don't bother to implement multitap support on PS2.
And yeah, almost all of those failed add-ons were from my collection of things I had bought and regretted (due to the small number of games that supported them). The only ones I hadn't owned were the HDD for the PS2 and the 32X.
For more than just a place to save games instead of the memory card? It's probably a lot closer to 10%. Not many games actually use HD caching. Hell, even Halo doesn't use it.
Had the hard drive been an optional feature, though, only 10% of games would have bothered to save data to it, and we'd be stuck buying memory cards even if we bought the HD. But you're right, the HD in the Xbox is a horribly underutilized feature. I think more than 10% might use the HD for non-saving, though, if you factor in games that feature custom soundtracks and/or additional content downloaded from Live (some of which was accessible outside of Live as well), neither of which would have been really feasible without the HD. Granted, I'm also referring to the number of games that implemented these features, not the number of users that bothered to take advantage of them. But again, even fewer games would have even implemented those features (both of which I like) had the HD been an optional accessory.
The basic point remains...any feature that isn't included in the base console* will never be used by more than a few select games. Any feature that is built-in will tend to be used by a large number of games (if not a majority).
* - You could even add at launch in there. Making it standard a couple years later still means that a vast majority of your customers won't have it, so most publishers won't waste their time (and money) programming features for it. Adding hardware features after launch has always been risky at best. It has rarely helped much (the only exception I can think of is the Dual Shock controller [analog sticks/force feedback] for the PSX...and possibly the broadband adapter for the PS2)...look at the laundry list of failed hardware add-ons: HDD for the PS2, Broadband adapter for the GC, Expansion Pack for the N64, Multi-tap for both PSX and PS2, Sega CD, 32X, FourScore/Satellite for NES....I'm sure I missed a few in there. Few of these saw implementation in more than a handful of titles. The console that ships at launch is going to be the console that 90% of your customers are playing games on when it finally becomes obsolete. It's that simple. Oh, and if any of you really liked any of the add-ons above, don't be offended; I owned a few of them myself. But let's be honest with ourselves and admit all of them were pretty much flops.
The only changes I favor making in the middle of a console's lifecycle are cosmetic: I liked the PSOne, I liked the later revisions of the Genesis, and I like the new PS2. Nintendo's revisions never impressed me (on home consoles, that is...Gameboy Pocket and GBA:SP were great revisions). But adding features mid-cycle defeats the entire purpose of console gaming. If I wanted to add hardware to my console, I'd be playing the game on a PC.
Exactly what do the races of the people involved have to do with it being 'wrong'?
One could argue that when porn is marketed specifically as being "interracial" then that creates the impression that the race of those involved somehow matters, and that could be wrong. But no, interracial sex in general isn't particularly right or wrong.
You can add the HDD and ethernet expansions to any PS2. It's like requiring gnucon or a driving wheel for speciality games. It's been done since the NES. Welcome to 1985!
Wrong-o. The new-model PS2 cannot take the HDD expansion, thus rendering it more or less obsolete. THAT is what happens when a feature isn't built in...it gets ignored and/or abandoned.
And of the hundreds of NES games produced, how many used the light gun? Or the power pad? Of all the games produced for the PS2, what percentage use the hard drive expansion? Or the multi-tap (or whatever they called it for the PS2)?
Now what percentage of Xbox games use the hard drive? Oh wait, that's probably about 100%. What percentage include some form of networked play (either Live OR local area network)? While nowhere near 100%, I'm sure it's quite a bit higher than the PS2's.
And to not pick on the PS2 specifically, what percentage of games for the GameCube use the broadband adapter?
It's the business of business to make profit. If you want to save the world, join a non-profit and put your money and energy behind a cause. It's the job of a CEO to make money in any legal way he can. Period. While it'd be nice for them not to exploit workers and political situations in China (or in America for that matter), it's not his obligation to do it.
To an extent, you are right. I don't LIKE this philosophy, but it is very true. Which is why I bolded the word "legal" up there. You want the situation in China to change? Rather than expect every company in America (and elsewhere) to stop doing business with them on their own, which is highly unlikely, perhaps we should apply a bit more pressure on our government to do so. I think an absolute embargo on any goods produced in China would hit them where it hurts.
Would this hurt the Chinese people as well? Of course. But maybe, just maybe, the poverty and starvation that ensued would be the catalyst required to spark some change over there. Then again, it hasn't worked for Cuba yet.
All it would take it making our business relationship with China a "real" election issue. As it stands, Americans are much more worried about securing tax cuts for themselves and keeping homosexuals from getting married.
Well, the way most people would say it is, "It's only bad if they profit from it." Says basically the same thing, but emphasizes the benefit the company is recieving for the infraction in question.
Also, in the case of Linux, there isn't any realistic way to stop a government from using it to violate the human rights of their people...it's easily duplicated and freely available. But make a physical product, then sell that product to the same government, it's a whole different animal.
because you have to pay, on an ongoing basis, to enable that feature on your box.
Not for LAN play...only for XBL. Perhaps my view of Xbox networking usage is skewed, however, because for the last 3 years I have been in environments where it probably sees a lot more usage than in the general population (on a college campus, and on a deployment with the military). I wasn't referring exclusively to Xbox Live, but rather to networking capabilities in general. Add LAN users in, and I think the PS2's lead in networked gaming starts to get much smaller, especially when you consider how much larger the PS2 userbase is.
And while I don't have the ability to look this up at the moment, it seems that a larger portion of titles for the Xbox have some sort of network functionality (whether Live or local) than the PS2...and that would probably be because for a majority of the PS2's lifetime, networking was an optional feature.
And of course the PS2's online service being free helps it's marketshare...then again, from everybody I know who has used both I've heard XBL is definitely the better service. Unless I'm mistaken, the PS2 doesn't even have a unified online service, but rather it's left to individual publishers to implement their own online service...but I could be wrong there.
... there's nothing so bright as selling a console where some users have different capabilities than others.
Potential to fragment and confuse the XBox 360 market.
The funny part is that in the current generation they were the only one of the three that DIDN'T fracture their market this way...by shipping all Xboxes with ethernet and a hard drive standard, they made sure that everybody had the same console, so that software publishers could target those features knowing that they'd be aiming for the -entire- market. There's a reason networking never really took off for PS2 and GameCube in this generation, and I'll be interested to see how successful HD-DVD is for the Xbox in the next.
Sure, there's only a dozen (give or take) games for the 'cube, but I can't find any really unique games for the other systems. Well... there is that PS2 game where you roll the ball and absorb everything you pass over... what's it called?... oh well.
Actually the PS2 has had some good original games, as well as a few unique ones, released for it...they just easily get lost in the pile of crap. Personally it's only the Xbox I can't name anything unique or original for...at least nothing that didn't come out for PC or another console first (such as Monkey Ball). Though personally I think Xbox Live was a major evolution in console gaming that the Xbox can claim, and they earn a lot of points in my book there. If you can keep a pretty good friend list going, and thus stay out of the games that are filled with dumbasses, XBL is a truly excellent experience. Before Live voice comms were generally more of a novelty in the PC world, and having a level playing field, hardware-wise, made it different as well.
Though I'd say my favorite console gaming experiences still involve having several guys in a room all talking crap to each other and kicking the crap out of each other in games like Smash Bros., or Monkey Ball.
I bought the PS2 for Burnout 3, and so far, thats the only thing thats been worth it. I regret buying the PS2.
Go find a copy of Ico. That should help. No, really...go.
And yes, my Cube easily sees more play that the other two consoles...the only reason the Xbox ever came close was XBL. And yes, I think most reasonable people will agree that Sunshine blew.
POTS is damn near 100% reliable (short of drunk guy hitting pole outside your house)
I live in a college-heavy neighborhood, in a DUI-heavy state...you'd be surprised just how often this can happen (though I lose power more often than phone).
I once had drunk drivers crash into some box two houses down that apparently my home power runs through twice in three weeks. Same box. Different cars. No joke. And it wasn't even the snowy season.
Of course, this has nothing to do with VoIP security...:)
(and the rest of what you said was good)
It's a good deal compared to powerbooks; going from the 12" combo-drive to super-drive model costs you $200.
Except with the Mini upgrade, you're only upgrading the optical drive (for $100). With the Powerbook upgrade, you're also adding 20 more gig of HD space (for $200). Still not a good price:value ratio, but not as bad as you were making out.
For reference, you pay $150 on a 12" Combo-drive machine to go from 60GB to 100GB, so on the Super-drive model you probably are just paying $100 for the super-drive, and $100 for the hard drive.
Though to me, $100 for 20GB of hard drive space is the very definition of diminishing returns. Bleh.
What are you talking about? 5 years before Intel gets a foothold? Within a year *most* new Macs will be Intel based. Most folks upgrade every 3 years; so within 3 years you will see mostly Intel Macs.
You mean most geeks...or maybe most companies. Most home users shoot for more like 5 years, if that. My stepdad just replaced a Pentium this last year. It was still doing everything he needed it to do. My mom also upgraded hers, but only because she was starting to do professional photography, and needed somthing with a little more muscle in Photoshop. I bought her her old computer in 1999. In my own house, my wife currently uses a computer bought in 1999, with only a memory upgrade (to 512MB) and a hard drive upgrade (40 gig, to hold music) under its belt. Generally, unless you're using them for gaming, you can easily squeeze 5-6 years of good usability out of a computer, with only minor upgrades. And plenty of people do.
So who's going to buy Macs right now? Probably me...I'll probably get my wife a new mini to celebrate landing her first "real" job. And I fully expect she'll be using it to browse the web, read email, and edit office documents for about 5 or 6 years. The only other option I'm really considering is picking up a cheap used G4 PowerMac of similar specs, for better upgradability.
To summarize: most home users are on longer upgrade cycles than geeks and corps. And from what I've heard (I'm new to the group), most Mac users are on even longer ones.
It's such an incremental upgrade that you'd have to be a spec-pert to have any idea what's changed.
Not really. The bump to 512MB standard makes both much more useable out of the box...and it's a difference anybody who sat down at one would notice. Also, the inclusion of wireless on the 599 Mini standard is a noticable difference.
With the Minis they basically tried to add in all the features that people were choosing as add-on upgrades, thus making them more attractive as standard models...which is bound to help sales (I know I'll probably be picking one up now). It seems on the iBook they are trying to bridge the gap between the iBook and PowerBook line, making it a smoother transition in specs. All this will do, I think, is make it harder for students to choose between the 14" iBook and the 12" PowerBook.
Again, across the board these changes make the computers much more functional and much less of a "discount" option. Especially on the Mini. But why the hell did they pull the modem out (on two of the minis)?! Cheap basterds!
What, I'm going to voluntarily buy a copy of the album I've pirated, or go see the band in concert? Not bloody likely.
Piracy hurts album sales, no doubt about it...though the effect is not as direct as the record companies would have you think. In the golden days of Napster, many people were buying CD's they had "sampled" online. Some, like myself and several of my friends, actually bought more music, because we had the opportunity to, from the comfort of our homes, listen to a huge variety of music that we might otherwise not have heard.
I am not, however, trying to argue that P2P doesn't hurt album sales as you said...it does.
But concert attendance? Not a chance. Most people who go see a concert already own the band's CD's. Downloading an album in MP3 is no subsitute for a live show...even downloading a FLAC of an entire concert set is not a substitute for being there. You'd have a hard time convincing most people that illegal downloading hurts ticket sales...and you'd have a relatively easy time showing that it might help ticket sales. People go see the bands because they heard, and liked, the albums...it doesn't matter if they heard it in legal or illegal form.
From what I understand, the order goes like this: radio airplay is just an advertisement for the album (to the record company), and the album is just an advertisement for the concert (to the band).
I suppose I could write a script that I could run before and after syncing the shuffle to put the songs whose play counts have changed into a "recent shuffled" playlist, but I think I've already spent way too much time on fine-tuning my iTunes settings.
...one of the few complaints I have about the iPod Shuffle is that it's too small. I actually paid for a little protective skin for it, not because I was worried about it getting scratched, but to make it a little larger and thus fit in my hand better. Go figure.
And these guys are shooting to be smaller than a Shuffle? No thanks...especially with a shape that awkward.
Yup, the shuffle is easier to pocket, but a display screen, nested folders, WMA playback and an FM tuner kick in features Apple is to elitist to include. (PS, I'm writing this missive on my Powerbook...but I do think Apple is elitist.)
Nested folders (or just seperate playlists) is the only thing I really think the Shuffle needs. I actually kinda like not having a display...less distraction from just listening to music. WMA playback? If you're talking about WMAs with DRM, I try to avoid DRM as much as possible (thank you, Hmyn project!)...if you're talking about getting music from friends who use WMA to rip their stuff...I look at such people as naughty puppies who just need a smack on the nose and pointed in the direction of a better codec. And FM tuner? Good god no...that's a feature that would not even be worth 5 extra dollars tacked onto the price for me. Too many people (myself included) live in areas where the radio selection sucks...those that are fortunate enough to have good radio in their area just need to pony up the 10 bucks to get themselves a portable FM radio.
Multiple playlists though...god, that would make a 1GB Shuffle so much more useful. 240 songs is great, but being able to seperate them into two playlists of 120 would be so much better. Wouldn't necessarily require extra buttons...just use some combination of what's there (holding the skip button for 3 seconds while paused, for example, to bump forward to the next playlist).
I used to use a similar scheme for a few playlists on my full-sized iPod. Imagine my surprise when songs I had played in my Shuffle weren't showing up in my "Recently Played" playlist. I guess it's great they it still bumps the playcount, but date-stamping is something I really do miss from my full iPod. Even if it just stamped all played songs with the time you updated the Shuffle.
Now I'm stuck using only star ratings and play counts to create the smart playlist(s) that I use to fill my shuffle. Oh well.
Why bring up Dashboard to then get the itunes widget to click "next" when you could just click on itunes
It's nice to have if you want to go ahead and close the iTunes window (to save both desktop space and dock space...especially on something like a 12" PowerBook), while leaving it playing. That way instead of having to bring up the iTunes window (which I usually leave in full-size mode, rather than minimized) I can just bring it up in the dashboard.
Not saying it's the most useful thing in the world...but there are situations where it is nice to have.
Personally I think multiple desktops would be more useful...that is probably the feature I miss the most from Linux. I basically use the dashboard as a half-assed second desktop, and it would be really nice just to have the real thing.
So in effect your saying tiger's not selling, or going to sell and in 2 years we're stuck with all these Panther users?
And it's not too unreasonable to expect PPC Mac users to upgrade to Tiger+ for continued support...asking a customer to upgrade their OS is a lot more reasonable that expecting them to buy an entirely new Intel-based computer.
Actually, it is...but it is far from dead. Seems to Mac users have grown accustomed to slower (hardware) upgrade treadmills than Wintel users, so I think a lot of new and recent Mac buyers will very much expect their PPC Macs to still be useful for at least 3 more years. Probably more like 4. And for the most part I think they will be...sure, some of your small-time software producers might start getting lazy and just putting out Mactel software...but I'd bet money* that software like Office, Photoshop, Final Cut, Pro Tools, etc. will continue to be produced for both platforms...it's just good business.
Will _everything_ be produced for both platforms? Nope...but I'm guess pretty much everything that matters will. I wouldn't be surprised if about 2-3 years after the first Intel-based Macs hit the stores you start seeing the big software packages drop legacy support...but 2-3 years is a pretty long time in computer terms.
* - You might say I have bet money on this...I've purchased a new PowerBook since the Intel announcement...and if I like the specs on the new Mini my wife will probably be getting one of those as well.
Slashdot Mirror
The only two you mention that are at all unreasonable are "some materials are designated obscene," and "using postal mail to describe immoral acts." All the rest relate to fraud/slander/libel, breach of contract, releasing private information regarding a third party, etc. Making threats against anybody, for instance, can get you in trouble...they just take it a LOT more seriously when it's the President of the US. But those other two are real killers, because at some point somebody gets to decide what is "immoral" or "obscene."
Just to point out - the PS2 has downloadable content as well. It can't be very large, for obvious reasons, but MGS3 has downloadable camo patterns which are stored on the memory card.
:). Sounds like it's gotten a bit better since I jumped ship for the GC/Xbox combo.
I guess I should mention it's been many, many moons since I actually fired up my PS2
And while downloadable content for the PS2 is probably pretty spiff, I doubt it compares to the kinds of maps and other content you get from XBL (of course, you have to pay for XBL, so it's a double-edged sword). The size of the Xbox downloadable content would probably make it pretty difficult to store on memory cards.
Though, to be fair, that HD in the Xbox cuts both ways...unless I'm mistaken, the Xbox was the first console in history to have patches for games. That's certainly an "advantage" of the HD I could do without.
And I had both the FourScore for the NES and the Multitap for the PSX (didn't bother with the PS2 one, after the lackluster support on the PSX). I was just amazed that Sony didn't go ahead and do 4 controller ports on the PS2, after both the N64 and Dreamcast had them. Just proves how bad add-ons fare, too, because I guarantee you can find some cross-platform games that are 4 player on the Xbox and/or Gamecube, but STILL don't bother to implement multitap support on PS2.
And yeah, almost all of those failed add-ons were from my collection of things I had bought and regretted (due to the small number of games that supported them). The only ones I hadn't owned were the HDD for the PS2 and the 32X.
For more than just a place to save games instead of the memory card? It's probably a lot closer to 10%. Not many games actually use HD caching. Hell, even Halo doesn't use it.
Had the hard drive been an optional feature, though, only 10% of games would have bothered to save data to it, and we'd be stuck buying memory cards even if we bought the HD. But you're right, the HD in the Xbox is a horribly underutilized feature. I think more than 10% might use the HD for non-saving, though, if you factor in games that feature custom soundtracks and/or additional content downloaded from Live (some of which was accessible outside of Live as well), neither of which would have been really feasible without the HD. Granted, I'm also referring to the number of games that implemented these features, not the number of users that bothered to take advantage of them. But again, even fewer games would have even implemented those features (both of which I like) had the HD been an optional accessory.
The basic point remains...any feature that isn't included in the base console* will never be used by more than a few select games. Any feature that is built-in will tend to be used by a large number of games (if not a majority).
* - You could even add at launch in there. Making it standard a couple years later still means that a vast majority of your customers won't have it, so most publishers won't waste their time (and money) programming features for it. Adding hardware features after launch has always been risky at best. It has rarely helped much (the only exception I can think of is the Dual Shock controller [analog sticks/force feedback] for the PSX...and possibly the broadband adapter for the PS2)...look at the laundry list of failed hardware add-ons: HDD for the PS2, Broadband adapter for the GC, Expansion Pack for the N64, Multi-tap for both PSX and PS2, Sega CD, 32X, FourScore/Satellite for NES....I'm sure I missed a few in there. Few of these saw implementation in more than a handful of titles. The console that ships at launch is going to be the console that 90% of your customers are playing games on when it finally becomes obsolete. It's that simple. Oh, and if any of you really liked any of the add-ons above, don't be offended; I owned a few of them myself. But let's be honest with ourselves and admit all of them were pretty much flops.
The only changes I favor making in the middle of a console's lifecycle are cosmetic: I liked the PSOne, I liked the later revisions of the Genesis, and I like the new PS2. Nintendo's revisions never impressed me (on home consoles, that is...Gameboy Pocket and GBA:SP were great revisions). But adding features mid-cycle defeats the entire purpose of console gaming. If I wanted to add hardware to my console, I'd be playing the game on a PC.
Exactly what do the races of the people involved have to do with it being 'wrong'?
One could argue that when porn is marketed specifically as being "interracial" then that creates the impression that the race of those involved somehow matters, and that could be wrong. But no, interracial sex in general isn't particularly right or wrong.
You can add the HDD and ethernet expansions to any PS2. It's like requiring gnucon or a driving wheel for speciality games. It's been done since the NES. Welcome to 1985!
Wrong-o. The new-model PS2 cannot take the HDD expansion, thus rendering it more or less obsolete. THAT is what happens when a feature isn't built in...it gets ignored and/or abandoned.
And of the hundreds of NES games produced, how many used the light gun? Or the power pad? Of all the games produced for the PS2, what percentage use the hard drive expansion? Or the multi-tap (or whatever they called it for the PS2)?
Now what percentage of Xbox games use the hard drive? Oh wait, that's probably about 100%. What percentage include some form of networked play (either Live OR local area network)? While nowhere near 100%, I'm sure it's quite a bit higher than the PS2's.
And to not pick on the PS2 specifically, what percentage of games for the GameCube use the broadband adapter?
It's the business of business to make profit. If you want to save the world, join a non-profit and put your money and energy behind a cause. It's the job of a CEO to make money in any legal way he can. Period. While it'd be nice for them not to exploit workers and political situations in China (or in America for that matter), it's not his obligation to do it.
To an extent, you are right. I don't LIKE this philosophy, but it is very true. Which is why I bolded the word "legal" up there. You want the situation in China to change? Rather than expect every company in America (and elsewhere) to stop doing business with them on their own, which is highly unlikely, perhaps we should apply a bit more pressure on our government to do so. I think an absolute embargo on any goods produced in China would hit them where it hurts.
Would this hurt the Chinese people as well? Of course. But maybe, just maybe, the poverty and starvation that ensued would be the catalyst required to spark some change over there. Then again, it hasn't worked for Cuba yet.
All it would take it making our business relationship with China a "real" election issue. As it stands, Americans are much more worried about securing tax cuts for themselves and keeping homosexuals from getting married.
So, it's only bad if they charge for it?
Well, the way most people would say it is, "It's only bad if they profit from it." Says basically the same thing, but emphasizes the benefit the company is recieving for the infraction in question.
Also, in the case of Linux, there isn't any realistic way to stop a government from using it to violate the human rights of their people...it's easily duplicated and freely available. But make a physical product, then sell that product to the same government, it's a whole different animal.
because you have to pay, on an ongoing basis, to enable that feature on your box.
Not for LAN play...only for XBL. Perhaps my view of Xbox networking usage is skewed, however, because for the last 3 years I have been in environments where it probably sees a lot more usage than in the general population (on a college campus, and on a deployment with the military). I wasn't referring exclusively to Xbox Live, but rather to networking capabilities in general. Add LAN users in, and I think the PS2's lead in networked gaming starts to get much smaller, especially when you consider how much larger the PS2 userbase is.
And while I don't have the ability to look this up at the moment, it seems that a larger portion of titles for the Xbox have some sort of network functionality (whether Live or local) than the PS2...and that would probably be because for a majority of the PS2's lifetime, networking was an optional feature.
And of course the PS2's online service being free helps it's marketshare...then again, from everybody I know who has used both I've heard XBL is definitely the better service. Unless I'm mistaken, the PS2 doesn't even have a unified online service, but rather it's left to individual publishers to implement their own online service...but I could be wrong there.
... there's nothing so bright as selling a console where some users have different capabilities than others.
Potential to fragment and confuse the XBox 360 market.
The funny part is that in the current generation they were the only one of the three that DIDN'T fracture their market this way...by shipping all Xboxes with ethernet and a hard drive standard, they made sure that everybody had the same console, so that software publishers could target those features knowing that they'd be aiming for the -entire- market. There's a reason networking never really took off for PS2 and GameCube in this generation, and I'll be interested to see how successful HD-DVD is for the Xbox in the next.
Sure, there's only a dozen (give or take) games for the 'cube, but I can't find any really unique games for the other systems. Well... there is that PS2 game where you roll the ball and absorb everything you pass over... what's it called?... oh well.
Actually the PS2 has had some good original games, as well as a few unique ones, released for it...they just easily get lost in the pile of crap. Personally it's only the Xbox I can't name anything unique or original for...at least nothing that didn't come out for PC or another console first (such as Monkey Ball). Though personally I think Xbox Live was a major evolution in console gaming that the Xbox can claim, and they earn a lot of points in my book there. If you can keep a pretty good friend list going, and thus stay out of the games that are filled with dumbasses, XBL is a truly excellent experience. Before Live voice comms were generally more of a novelty in the PC world, and having a level playing field, hardware-wise, made it different as well.
Though I'd say my favorite console gaming experiences still involve having several guys in a room all talking crap to each other and kicking the crap out of each other in games like Smash Bros., or Monkey Ball.
I bought the PS2 for Burnout 3, and so far, thats the only thing thats been worth it. I regret buying the PS2.
Go find a copy of Ico. That should help. No, really...go.
And yes, my Cube easily sees more play that the other two consoles...the only reason the Xbox ever came close was XBL. And yes, I think most reasonable people will agree that Sunshine blew.
POTS is damn near 100% reliable (short of drunk guy hitting pole outside your house)
:)
(and the rest of what you said was good)
I live in a college-heavy neighborhood, in a DUI-heavy state...you'd be surprised just how often this can happen (though I lose power more often than phone).
I once had drunk drivers crash into some box two houses down that apparently my home power runs through twice in three weeks. Same box. Different cars. No joke. And it wasn't even the snowy season.
Of course, this has nothing to do with VoIP security...
- Apple has no interest in having the OS running on other hardware. They are a hardware company, this is how they run their business.
Not to mention that looking at recent numbers, this way of doing business is really starting to work for them.
It's a good deal compared to powerbooks; going from the 12" combo-drive to super-drive model costs you $200.
Except with the Mini upgrade, you're only upgrading the optical drive (for $100). With the Powerbook upgrade, you're also adding 20 more gig of HD space (for $200). Still not a good price:value ratio, but not as bad as you were making out.
For reference, you pay $150 on a 12" Combo-drive machine to go from 60GB to 100GB, so on the Super-drive model you probably are just paying $100 for the super-drive, and $100 for the hard drive.
Though to me, $100 for 20GB of hard drive space is the very definition of diminishing returns. Bleh.
What are you talking about? 5 years before Intel gets a foothold? Within a year *most* new Macs will be Intel based. Most folks upgrade every 3 years; so within 3 years you will see mostly Intel Macs.
You mean most geeks...or maybe most companies. Most home users shoot for more like 5 years, if that. My stepdad just replaced a Pentium this last year. It was still doing everything he needed it to do. My mom also upgraded hers, but only because she was starting to do professional photography, and needed somthing with a little more muscle in Photoshop. I bought her her old computer in 1999. In my own house, my wife currently uses a computer bought in 1999, with only a memory upgrade (to 512MB) and a hard drive upgrade (40 gig, to hold music) under its belt. Generally, unless you're using them for gaming, you can easily squeeze 5-6 years of good usability out of a computer, with only minor upgrades. And plenty of people do.
So who's going to buy Macs right now? Probably me...I'll probably get my wife a new mini to celebrate landing her first "real" job. And I fully expect she'll be using it to browse the web, read email, and edit office documents for about 5 or 6 years. The only other option I'm really considering is picking up a cheap used G4 PowerMac of similar specs, for better upgradability.
To summarize: most home users are on longer upgrade cycles than geeks and corps. And from what I've heard (I'm new to the group), most Mac users are on even longer ones.
It's such an incremental upgrade that you'd have to be a spec-pert to have any idea what's changed.
Not really. The bump to 512MB standard makes both much more useable out of the box...and it's a difference anybody who sat down at one would notice. Also, the inclusion of wireless on the 599 Mini standard is a noticable difference.
With the Minis they basically tried to add in all the features that people were choosing as add-on upgrades, thus making them more attractive as standard models...which is bound to help sales (I know I'll probably be picking one up now). It seems on the iBook they are trying to bridge the gap between the iBook and PowerBook line, making it a smoother transition in specs. All this will do, I think, is make it harder for students to choose between the 14" iBook and the 12" PowerBook.
Again, across the board these changes make the computers much more functional and much less of a "discount" option. Especially on the Mini. But why the hell did they pull the modem out (on two of the minis)?! Cheap basterds!
What, I'm going to voluntarily buy a copy of the album I've pirated, or go see the band in concert? Not bloody likely.
Piracy hurts album sales, no doubt about it...though the effect is not as direct as the record companies would have you think. In the golden days of Napster, many people were buying CD's they had "sampled" online. Some, like myself and several of my friends, actually bought more music, because we had the opportunity to, from the comfort of our homes, listen to a huge variety of music that we might otherwise not have heard.
I am not, however, trying to argue that P2P doesn't hurt album sales as you said...it does.
But concert attendance? Not a chance. Most people who go see a concert already own the band's CD's. Downloading an album in MP3 is no subsitute for a live show...even downloading a FLAC of an entire concert set is not a substitute for being there. You'd have a hard time convincing most people that illegal downloading hurts ticket sales...and you'd have a relatively easy time showing that it might help ticket sales. People go see the bands because they heard, and liked, the albums...it doesn't matter if they heard it in legal or illegal form.
From what I understand, the order goes like this: radio airplay is just an advertisement for the album (to the record company), and the album is just an advertisement for the concert (to the band).
I suppose I could write a script that I could run before and after syncing the shuffle to put the songs whose play counts have changed into a "recent shuffled" playlist, but I think I've already spent way too much time on fine-tuning my iTunes settings.
:)
s p=updateshufflelastplayed
Or you could let somebody do it for you!
http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?
Haven't used it yet, but something you might want to check out. Looks like it does exactly what you're talking about doing.
Assuming this script works, thanks Google!
...one of the few complaints I have about the iPod Shuffle is that it's too small. I actually paid for a little protective skin for it, not because I was worried about it getting scratched, but to make it a little larger and thus fit in my hand better. Go figure.
And these guys are shooting to be smaller than a Shuffle? No thanks...especially with a shape that awkward.
Yup, the shuffle is easier to pocket, but a display screen, nested folders, WMA playback and an FM tuner kick in features Apple is to elitist to include. (PS, I'm writing this missive on my Powerbook...but I do think Apple is elitist.)
Nested folders (or just seperate playlists) is the only thing I really think the Shuffle needs. I actually kinda like not having a display...less distraction from just listening to music. WMA playback? If you're talking about WMAs with DRM, I try to avoid DRM as much as possible (thank you, Hmyn project!)...if you're talking about getting music from friends who use WMA to rip their stuff...I look at such people as naughty puppies who just need a smack on the nose and pointed in the direction of a better codec. And FM tuner? Good god no...that's a feature that would not even be worth 5 extra dollars tacked onto the price for me. Too many people (myself included) live in areas where the radio selection sucks...those that are fortunate enough to have good radio in their area just need to pony up the 10 bucks to get themselves a portable FM radio.
Multiple playlists though...god, that would make a 1GB Shuffle so much more useful. 240 songs is great, but being able to seperate them into two playlists of 120 would be so much better. Wouldn't necessarily require extra buttons...just use some combination of what's there (holding the skip button for 3 seconds while paused, for example, to bump forward to the next playlist).
Hey Apple...once again, are you listening?
I used to use a similar scheme for a few playlists on my full-sized iPod. Imagine my surprise when songs I had played in my Shuffle weren't showing up in my "Recently Played" playlist. I guess it's great they it still bumps the playcount, but date-stamping is something I really do miss from my full iPod. Even if it just stamped all played songs with the time you updated the Shuffle.
Now I'm stuck using only star ratings and play counts to create the smart playlist(s) that I use to fill my shuffle. Oh well.
Hey Apple, you listening?
Why bring up Dashboard to then get the itunes widget to click "next" when you could just click on itunes
It's nice to have if you want to go ahead and close the iTunes window (to save both desktop space and dock space...especially on something like a 12" PowerBook), while leaving it playing. That way instead of having to bring up the iTunes window (which I usually leave in full-size mode, rather than minimized) I can just bring it up in the dashboard.
Not saying it's the most useful thing in the world...but there are situations where it is nice to have.
Personally I think multiple desktops would be more useful...that is probably the feature I miss the most from Linux. I basically use the dashboard as a half-assed second desktop, and it would be really nice just to have the real thing.
Invest in underground bunkers and stockpile cans of food and MREs!
MREs or death.......I choose death.
So in effect your saying tiger's not selling, or going to sell and in 2 years we're stuck with all these Panther users?
And it's not too unreasonable to expect PPC Mac users to upgrade to Tiger+ for continued support...asking a customer to upgrade their OS is a lot more reasonable that expecting them to buy an entirely new Intel-based computer.
The PPC platform isn't dying.
Actually, it is...but it is far from dead. Seems to Mac users have grown accustomed to slower (hardware) upgrade treadmills than Wintel users, so I think a lot of new and recent Mac buyers will very much expect their PPC Macs to still be useful for at least 3 more years. Probably more like 4. And for the most part I think they will be...sure, some of your small-time software producers might start getting lazy and just putting out Mactel software...but I'd bet money* that software like Office, Photoshop, Final Cut, Pro Tools, etc. will continue to be produced for both platforms...it's just good business.
Will _everything_ be produced for both platforms? Nope...but I'm guess pretty much everything that matters will. I wouldn't be surprised if about 2-3 years after the first Intel-based Macs hit the stores you start seeing the big software packages drop legacy support...but 2-3 years is a pretty long time in computer terms.
* - You might say I have bet money on this...I've purchased a new PowerBook since the Intel announcement...and if I like the specs on the new Mini my wife will probably be getting one of those as well.