It has out-sold the PS2 in it's first 7 months, compared to the PS2's first 7 months.
That is rediculously false. The PS2 sold in only one region for its first eight months, and it sold 900,000 units in its first week. It was also sold out in all regions for the entire duration of the year. That's March 6th - December 31st. Within the first year, the PS2 sold over 6 million units, something the X360 isn't even coming close to, with only about 5.5 million shipped and an installed base of less than 4 million.
Microsoft is doing excellent this round, and the X360 is a nice piece of hardware. But don't delude yourself, they are by no means setting any records, or standards for the industry.
Would that be like "New NT Technology"?
(For the uninitiated, NT was an acronym inside Microsoft which stood for "New Technology", and Microsoft turned it into a brand.)
How about the fact that when they were developing SP2, they discovered that it crashed a specific type of Intel chipset on boot. My computer literally cannot upgrade to SP2 because they, very stealthily, stopped support for my chipset on XP between SP1 and SP2.
I was talking about the price, I was talking about the product, what they are getting. Consumers have been hearing FUD about what their $600 will and will not buy for the last 6 months. Is it any wonder then when the retailers turn around and try to sell it to them, they are somewhat skeptical?
It's going to be ugly, there is no way this launch is going to go well.
But that's retailers fault more than Sony's. Even if Sony supplies enough quantity, and it does what they say it will, Gamestop and EB have been selling the short game, what they have on their shelves, all year long, and as a result, consumers have been hearing mostly baseless FUD about a potential $600 purchase.
In addition to that, Microsoft fucked up whatever trust the retailers ever had in suppliers int he industry.
I was going to retort on how you clearly are trying to use an excess of morals to make up for a deficincy of economics... then I noticed your sig... "Libertarian Wingnuts".... why don't you leave economics policies to the big kids.
I think your comparison would be more accurate if GM made a car that got 5 miles per gallon on gasoline and 50 miles per gallon on 'GM signature gasoline', then told the oil companies that they were just trying to provide their customers with better fuel efficiency.
I agree my "defense" wasn't what it should've been as it was emotionally charged, but I don't feel Belgians or any other nation is "worth nothing" or is dull.
Well that's certianly understandable. There is nothing wrong with taking a little bit of pride in the way your country goes about things. Or in how prominent your country is.
Don't forget, it was a Belgian court ordering Microsofts' a fine of about $357 million but then you probably would've applauded it. Anti-Microsoft = houray. 1 newspaper (guess what, we have dozens of them) coming up for their copyrights against google = boooh dull country!
It's that cocky US chauvenistic attitude that makes the world not like you. Stay on your island, lardass.
How you ever got modded informative for that, I don't know.
Americans are no more chauvenistic than any Europeon is. In fact, ironically, you disparage Americans for being chauvenistic, then you do the exact thing you disparaged them for:
as well consider the US to have a much bigger population compared to Belgium. I'm quite proud of us Belgians, to make a mark on the map and produce so many fine scientists and engineers in such a small population. For the US to match that, there has to be a much smaller ratio in the population to achieve that.
Rule number 1. If you are going to attack a group for being X then don't be X yourself.
Belgium is just a country. So is the US. The fact that this is a stupid ruling is independent of any weirdness or greatness Belgium may entail. The Belgian courts made a wrong decision here, and honestly, I'm surprised the Google response was so measured.
Japan has no real bias against American technology firms, nor American companies in general. The American concept of "pop culture" dictates a lot of what is popular in Japan, and the Japanese have no hate for American driven culture in the public sense.
Point and case: the iPod has been wildly successful in Japan, and is the number one selling MP3 player in Japan by a wide margin, despite the fact that Apple is VERY much an American company.
The problem for Microsoft is two-fold:
1. They don't understand the Japanese consumer. Japanese consumers are VERY different from American consumers. American consumers, more often than not, follow one of two basic buying templates: they buy based on hype, or they buy based on function. Japanese consumers, generally speaking, buy on these three principals, in this order: 1. Brand (has this company sold quality products in the past) 2. Form & Community (Will it look cool wearing it/Will I easily be able to use this with other people I know) 3. Function (Does it have all of the features I am looking for).
Microsoft fails all three counts drastically with the 360, which brings me to the second problem for Microsoft.
2. Microsoft faces a very negative connotation in Japan. Most Japanese people see Windows for what it is: a bulky, bloated, lazy piece of insecure code that isn't worth a fourth as much as Microsoft charges for it, and only survives because of strongarm techniques and an active monopoly.
Well as long as we're talking about reality here, it's a reality that society will never be without guns. So basing an argument off of the idealistic, not realistic, fact that society would be better off without firearms is a farce.
Society would be better off without guns. But guns aren't a cause, they are a tool. What you are trying to say is that society would be better off without violence, and that guns merely make violence more efficient. Violence is a problem of the human condition though... it is an intrinsic part of the human psyche, and you will no sooner gain traction with the idea of outlawing guns on the basis that they enable violence, than outlawing marriage on the basis that it enables love.
As for your arguments about the usefulness of a firearm... if we had the type of education we have devoted to safe sex for safe gun handling, it would be a non-issue. But, of course, that would run counter to the utopian progressive concept of society.
But you see, a gun can be used to defend yourself against an assailant. How will violent pornography save you from such a fate?
Comparing the two in scope is stupid, but their purpose is, as you pointed out, in essence, the same. The difference is that guns have a functional purpose and (violent) porn has a recreational purpose. Both cross-over a little bit, but for the most part, this is the main difference between the two.
I completely agree. Speaking from first hand experience, (reporter for a "game rag"), the controls made sense. They enhanced play instead of defining it, like the Wii's control system does.
For instance, using a vague "right to privacy" not ennumerated, but apparantly implied by the constitution to justify allowing the federal government to overrule state laws regarding abortion
Actually, the 4th Amendment does provide a right to be secure in your person and effects... specifically from searches and seizures, but it is generally accepted that the 4th Amendment also implied a certain amount of Constitutional privacy.
Also, it was the 14th Amendment, not the 4th, which legalized abortion. The 14th Amendment was originally passed in order to grant equal rights to freed slaves and make Jim Crow laws unconstitutional, (not that it helped). I agree that it should have been a 10th Amendment issue, but SCOTUS basically ruled that because a fetus isn't a "person", the 14th Amendment allows them to be killed at the liesure of their mother.
You can use whatever label you want. Even classical Liberals are concerned with things like social welfare and security, which are the business of society, not government.
She deals with the administration's 4th amendment exceptions arguments by -- almost completely ignoring them.
See, the thing is that the "exceptions" to the 4th amendment have basically been, "trust me, we think this is important stuff".
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The 4th Amendment protects citizens from searches unless they have either given permission for the search to occur, (oath or affirmation), or a probable cause has been found. The thing is that the Constitution requires a probable cause for searches without consent, and without a warrant, there is little way to show probable cause before the search.
I'm Libertarian... I'm not some teenage Liberal who's been brainwashed by the school system into believing that Republicans are the fourth sign of the apocolypse. But I completely disagree with the administration on this issue. A big part of Libertarianism is being secure in your person, effects and belongings, and this particular policy undermines that right.
However, how long will it take before Judge Taylor becomes just another of then "activist" judges?
If this case goes before the Supreme Court, I can almost guarantee that the SCOTUS will also declare it unconstitutional. The Administration is directly marginalizing the oversight powers of the very branch of the government which these people represent. It won't be an activist judge thing.
I already use Opera over Firefox because of, among many other things, the excessive memory footprint of Firefox. I don't think bundling it with bloated software like RealPlayer is the best way to improve that perception or problem.
The article seemed to indicate that Real player = Mozilla but Mozilla != Real Player, which would be the right move IMO.
Stop hyperventellating long enough to realize that what you really want is an even, full democracy. I would now like to introduce you to the four sociologically impossible forms of government for humans to successfully implement on a federal scale:
Communism
Democracy
Fascism
Anarchy
All four of these are perfect forms of government. All four of these are impossible to correctly implement with human beings. We are not a democracy. If you want your vote for the [INSERT FRINGE SINGLE ISSUE PARTY] party to count, move to the UK.
Now see, that's just your apathetic goth self talking.
Legally you have to be older than 35 to be President... barring an amendment, they will always be middleaged.
But the reality is that the whole executive branch could represent nothing but the suburban/city areas, and the entire rest of the United States would be screwed. You think environmental concerns are bad now? Try handing them directly to the 80+% of the United States which work in the middle of a city in which their monetary benefit and/or job security is directly related to how poorly the rest of the US is managed, or how much they are allowed to clear cut, or what the price of electricity is.
Slashdot Mirror
It has out-sold the PS2 in it's first 7 months, compared to the PS2's first 7 months.
That is rediculously false. The PS2 sold in only one region for its first eight months, and it sold 900,000 units in its first week. It was also sold out in all regions for the entire duration of the year. That's March 6th - December 31st. Within the first year, the PS2 sold over 6 million units, something the X360 isn't even coming close to, with only about 5.5 million shipped and an installed base of less than 4 million.
Microsoft is doing excellent this round, and the X360 is a nice piece of hardware. But don't delude yourself, they are by no means setting any records, or standards for the industry.
Would that be like "New NT Technology"? (For the uninitiated, NT was an acronym inside Microsoft which stood for "New Technology", and Microsoft turned it into a brand.)
Seriously... there's been at least five SL articles in the alst three days... all over a virtual world?
How about the fact that when they were developing SP2, they discovered that it crashed a specific type of Intel chipset on boot. My computer literally cannot upgrade to SP2 because they, very stealthily, stopped support for my chipset on XP between SP1 and SP2.
I was talking about the price, I was talking about the product, what they are getting. Consumers have been hearing FUD about what their $600 will and will not buy for the last 6 months. Is it any wonder then when the retailers turn around and try to sell it to them, they are somewhat skeptical?
Retailers dug their own graves on this one.
But that's retailers fault more than Sony's. Even if Sony supplies enough quantity, and it does what they say it will, Gamestop and EB have been selling the short game, what they have on their shelves, all year long, and as a result, consumers have been hearing mostly baseless FUD about a potential $600 purchase.
In addition to that, Microsoft fucked up whatever trust the retailers ever had in suppliers int he industry.
I was going to retort on how you clearly are trying to use an excess of morals to make up for a deficincy of economics... then I noticed your sig... "Libertarian Wingnuts".... why don't you leave economics policies to the big kids.
I think your comparison would be more accurate if GM made a car that got 5 miles per gallon on gasoline and 50 miles per gallon on 'GM signature gasoline', then told the oil companies that they were just trying to provide their customers with better fuel efficiency.
Americans are no more chauvenistic than any Europeon is. In fact, ironically, you disparage Americans for being chauvenistic, then you do the exact thing you disparaged them for:
Rule number 1. If you are going to attack a group for being X then don't be X yourself.
Belgium is just a country. So is the US. The fact that this is a stupid ruling is independent of any weirdness or greatness Belgium may entail. The Belgian courts made a wrong decision here, and honestly, I'm surprised the Google response was so measured.
Well as long as we're talking about reality here, it's a reality that society will never be without guns. So basing an argument off of the idealistic, not realistic, fact that society would be better off without firearms is a farce.
Society would be better off without guns. But guns aren't a cause, they are a tool. What you are trying to say is that society would be better off without violence, and that guns merely make violence more efficient. Violence is a problem of the human condition though... it is an intrinsic part of the human psyche, and you will no sooner gain traction with the idea of outlawing guns on the basis that they enable violence, than outlawing marriage on the basis that it enables love.
As for your arguments about the usefulness of a firearm... if we had the type of education we have devoted to safe sex for safe gun handling, it would be a non-issue. But, of course, that would run counter to the utopian progressive concept of society.
But you see, a gun can be used to defend yourself against an assailant. How will violent pornography save you from such a fate?
Comparing the two in scope is stupid, but their purpose is, as you pointed out, in essence, the same. The difference is that guns have a functional purpose and (violent) porn has a recreational purpose. Both cross-over a little bit, but for the most part, this is the main difference between the two.
I completely agree. Speaking from first hand experience, (reporter for a "game rag"), the controls made sense. They enhanced play instead of defining it, like the Wii's control system does.
Backup all my documents (mostly pics) to a dvd monthly
:O
Perhaps it's your "pics" which cause the viruses.
For instance, using a vague "right to privacy" not ennumerated, but apparantly implied by the constitution to justify allowing the federal government to overrule state laws regarding abortion
Actually, the 4th Amendment does provide a right to be secure in your person and effects... specifically from searches and seizures, but it is generally accepted that the 4th Amendment also implied a certain amount of Constitutional privacy.
Also, it was the 14th Amendment, not the 4th, which legalized abortion. The 14th Amendment was originally passed in order to grant equal rights to freed slaves and make Jim Crow laws unconstitutional, (not that it helped). I agree that it should have been a 10th Amendment issue, but SCOTUS basically ruled that because a fetus isn't a "person", the 14th Amendment allows them to be killed at the liesure of their mother.
Ah... I was thinking 1950s "classical", not 1850s "classical. My mistake.
You can use whatever label you want. Even classical Liberals are concerned with things like social welfare and security, which are the business of society, not government.
Over Kerry? Of course I voted for him the second time. I mean... c'mon... Kerry was the alternative.
See, the thing is that the "exceptions" to the 4th amendment have basically been, "trust me, we think this is important stuff".
The 4th Amendment protects citizens from searches unless they have either given permission for the search to occur, (oath or affirmation), or a probable cause has been found. The thing is that the Constitution requires a probable cause for searches without consent, and without a warrant, there is little way to show probable cause before the search.
I'm Libertarian... I'm not some teenage Liberal who's been brainwashed by the school system into believing that Republicans are the fourth sign of the apocolypse. But I completely disagree with the administration on this issue. A big part of Libertarianism is being secure in your person, effects and belongings, and this particular policy undermines that right.
However, how long will it take before Judge Taylor becomes just another of then "activist" judges?
If this case goes before the Supreme Court, I can almost guarantee that the SCOTUS will also declare it unconstitutional. The Administration is directly marginalizing the oversight powers of the very branch of the government which these people represent. It won't be an activist judge thing.
And FYI, I voted for this guy.
I already use Opera over Firefox because of, among many other things, the excessive memory footprint of Firefox. I don't think bundling it with bloated software like RealPlayer is the best way to improve that perception or problem.
The article seemed to indicate that Real player = Mozilla but Mozilla != Real Player, which would be the right move IMO.
- Communism
- Democracy
- Fascism
- Anarchy
All four of these are perfect forms of government. All four of these are impossible to correctly implement with human beings. We are not a democracy. If you want your vote for the [INSERT FRINGE SINGLE ISSUE PARTY] party to count, move to the UK.Now see, that's just your apathetic goth self talking.
Legally you have to be older than 35 to be President... barring an amendment, they will always be middleaged.
But the reality is that the whole executive branch could represent nothing but the suburban/city areas, and the entire rest of the United States would be screwed. You think environmental concerns are bad now? Try handing them directly to the 80+% of the United States which work in the middle of a city in which their monetary benefit and/or job security is directly related to how poorly the rest of the US is managed, or how much they are allowed to clear cut, or what the price of electricity is.
/sarcasm
Let's enact this system now and watch 90% of the United States go unrepresented forever in the executive branch. Grrreeeaat...