"The vendor announced the player in the US only with a banner on its website, and stated that it is getting the word out through employees and customer focus groups. Dell has also launched a special multimedia site targeting young buyers."
Hmm. This works if you can get the trendsetters to adopt your brand. Good luck with that, Dell. The huge frickin "DELL" on the side won't help. The name won't help either.
Sounds to me like Dell is just trying to get rid of some hardware. Not investing in marketing and advertising tells me that they're not too concerned about the product, and don't have high hopes for it, no matter how they spin it.
"Killing Google"? I think you misspelled "not competing effectively with Google, by purchasing a struggling enterprise with massive consumer illwill that adds to Microsoft's bloat and lack of focused direction."
Dell is trying to establish branding for a personal accessory that has a four-syllable name? Especially "DJ Ditty," which sounds like it's being marketed to kids? I can just imagine how that's going to play out.
What about UI? Will it have a proprietary UI? Will it be as easy to use as iTunes?
"This tells us nothing that isn't already known. Of COURSE proteins with related functions share specific patterns of amino acid selection rules or they wouldn't work""
This cannot be assumed; while logical on the surface, that's like saying that porpoises and sharks must be from the same family because they both swim in the ocean and have the same body shape. The scientific method DEMANDS that a hypothesis like that is tested.
"He sounds like he's talking to a little kid.
"
In terms of protein chemistry, he probably is talking to to little kids. This article is basically a publicity press release, and is not intended for the scientific community -- their papers in Nature are intended for the scientific community.
and how did it do this?
While you're at it, why don't you ask that any articles about scientific research include the entirety of the published paper(s)? What is important to the casual reader (which is the intended audience) is not the how, but the what and the why.
"One can only assume that these guys chose proteins that don't undergo post-translational modification."
No, one can't assume that. One must read their published papers before leaping to conclusions. Think a bit: if the DNA was expressed in the bacteria, could the proteins not undergo the same post-translational modification as naturally occurring proteins? The research conducted did not test to see what happened during expression, it just tested the form and functionality of the end result, as far as I can tell FTA.
You shouldn't get all worked up because an article intended for the general public isn't detailed enough for you. Many people wouldn't even bother to read TFA (even if they could understand it) if it was written in anything other than plain english.
Someone like you, who wants better information (which is a good thing) should go down to the library at the end of the month and read the published papers in Nature.
"As for hijackings, you don't need to worry about it because IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN. I can't believe people still think that terrorists will try again to hijack a commercial airliner and use it as a missile--it was a one-time trick and it will NEVER work again"
Unless, of course, we grow complacent and allow people to forget the lessons of 9/11.
Or, if the intent is not to use the plane as a missile, but instead just crash it, or use the threat of crashing it to take hostages.
At any rate, having the ability for pilots get earlier and better information cannot be a bad thing.
"The main improvement I can see in the next gen consoles is the increased RAM available, which should give developers scope for more open-ended, persistent game worlds.
"
They don't want the world to be hosted locally. They want us to pay for their subscription service so that we can access those open-ended, persistent game worlds on their servers.
Post the source, instead of inaccurate blogs
on
Games Can Make Us Cry
·
· Score: 2, Informative
FTA:"More than two thirds of all video gamers feel that video games already surpass, or will soon at least equal movies, music and books in delivering an emotional impact."
This is a survey of a subset of gamers, whom Bowen was able to survey online. "Surveyed gamers" cannot be extrapolated to "all gamers."
66% is not more than 2/3. For that matter, "has the potential to equal or surpass" != "will soon be at least equal".
Guardian Gamesblog needs some help getting their facts straight. They should have also referenced the source of their blog entry.
I would also guess that two-thirds of avid book readers think books have a greater potential for emotional stimulation. Ditto for movies amongst avid movie-watchers.
"the combined countries of the EU are a much bigger economic power than the US and it's bad laws by foolish Eurocrats that are the only things stopping that unity working as well as it should."
Your phrasing is more than a bit off -- how about 'the combined economies of EU member-states, if they operated coherently, would be more powerful than the US economy.'
Just because something is larger does not make it more powerful -- power is the ability to wield that size.
Also, the size and power of the European economy has little to do with this issue -- it's the size of the market for a particular product. The market, and the threat of denying access to it, is the only weapon the EC can use to influence MS's activities.
FTA: "Ms Kroes [EC Competition Commissioner] has declared herself "determined" that open source developers should have access to the information, and Microsoft appealed to the Court of First Instance recently to get a legal decision on whether it should be required to share communications source code with open source software vendors."
This is about whether or not MS meets interoperability standards mandated by the EC as part of the last action against MS.
It seems crystal-clear to me: Either the standards are open, and therefore fully interoperable, or they're not.
For MS to say that their standards fulfill interoperability requirements, without allowing anyone (especially the Open Source community) to see those standards, is complete hogwash.
"the two sides still cannot agree on whether interoperability information should be made available to open source software suppliers"
The two sides? One is a private corporation, the other is a government entity. There is only one side with legal authority, and MS had better be prepared to shape up when their appeal result comes next year.
"On the other hand, the computer business is not an environment in which bureaucracies survive for very long. At least, not without radical change."
You've hit the nail on the head here.
MS brought in the stifling management-types who the "Deep Throat" lambasts in order to preserve market cap (stock price) -- they wanted to bring in some visible measure of stability in order to shore up investor confidence.
The problem with this approach is that stability does not serve well in an industry that changes so quickly. I have no problem with the size of Microsoft. The problem is that their approach to generating revenues is too focused on past sources. The underlying assumption is that what has worked in the past will continue to work -- but the market changes faster than MS can get its considerable bulk moving.
Two possible solutions that I can see:
(1) Do what Blogger X has suggested and trim the fat. Refocus on the most profitable products and get rid of the rest. Do a couple things really well, and get rid of managerial constraints on development.
(2) Let loose the hounds. Give creative control over to divisions. Do not mandate innovation, but mandate an innovation-friendly environment. Still, MS will have to make sure that their core business is attended to.
"Now, what I would like to see is a portable video projection unit the size of an iPod, or similar device. " (emphasis mine)
Video projection produces a large amount of heat -- without adding on fans or other cooling mechanism, plus energy supply for the projector and the cooling mechanism (see where I'm going in re: size?), you'd soon have an iSludge sitting on top of your projector stand.
I think that MS and Sony both are making a pretty large mistake with their new consoles.
When new consoles were released in the past, they offered an incredible upgrade in game quality. Graphics, sound, gameplay capabilities (like better controllers, games with more depth, etc) were all significantly better than the previous generation.
Because of the remarkable upgrade in gaming experience, people were willing to part with tons of cash in order to play the newest games.
I don't see this happening quite so much now. Will gameplay on these new consoles be so much better that I have to get one?
The only place I see these consoles being remarkably different is with online play being better utilized. Is that enough to swing enough buyers, especially considering monthly fees?
I'm not a Nintendo fanboy -- but a cheaper system better reflects the smaller incremental increase in game tech.
Also, for those of us who bought PS/PS2/Xbox but not N64 or Gamecube, the re-release of classic Nintendo games allows us to experience content that we may have missed.
For those entering the console market for the first time, however, the Xbox 360 and PS3 may have more appeal.
"The taboo sense of a word, Dr. Burridge said, 'always drives out any other senses it might have had.' How does he explain, then, the new Direct TV ads built around use of the word "sucks"? In this case, it appears the accepted meaning of the word (is of poor quality) has driven [out] the taboo sense"
As a curse word becomes used quite commonly, it loses its taboo sense -- that is, it becomes more acceptable. The taboo sense no longer being in play, the original, or even a different meaning, can then fill the vopid left by the faded taboo sense.
So I'm guessing that gimlet-eyed cunning is the kind of witty intelligence we all spout when drunk up to our eyeballs, but that no one else finds quite as hilarious.
Ludlow may feel that he was doing a service by bringing to the public eye what some users of TSO were up to.
My feeling is that he was doing a disservice, by publicizing an avenue by which some people could do things that society at large feels is unethical -- and where to find that avenue.
The correct course of action, the method of greatest benefit and least harm, would have been to make his concerns known privately to the operators of the server(s) in question. If that produced no effect, he should have brought it to the attention of authorities.
Only if legal authorities did not take action should he have set up his broadcast antenna.
My opinion? Ludlow is an attention-whore. He revels in the attention that people give him when he publishes his shrill opinions.
The best solution would be for him to be ignored by the public. Unfortunately, as we've seen with recent action against adult game content, this isn't going to happen.
The only plus I see from his outcries is thatparents maypay more attention to what their kids are doing -- but this doesn't apply to Second Life, since that kind of content is only allowed on the AO server(s).
What the gamer community, and the freedom-of-speech community, need to do is to expose him for what he is -- a sensationalist. We need to publicly scoff at his petty tirades, and ridicule his luddite attitude.
"I guess I'm just pretty cynical, and relying upon other Joes to send me their movies in a reasonalble timeframe with reasonable quality."
I'm pretty certain that there will be a peer review system, if not a penalty system.
(1) Don't send the movie on time? You won't get full credit.
(2) Peer ratings, a la Ebay
(3) Don't ship a DVD, or habitually late? Bannination.
The thing is, you can't get a DVD until you've shipped one or more out.
I'm sure the initiation fee will cover cost of replacement for "lost in the mail" discs.
"And movies are assigned "peerbux" ratings, so you can't offer up a bunch of Clint Eastwood movies from the 70s and expect to get the complete Sopranos in return? How does that work? You need to build up a library of good movies so you can give them away? I'm not understanding."
I've got a shelf of DVDs that I have no desire to watch again, but others might value highly. They just collect dust, and you don't see many stores that have used DVD trade-in policies... and even if they do, they don't give anything close to one-to-one value.
The value of this service over Netflix is that you get to get good value for DVDs you don't care about anymore.
"So, does this 99 cents cover the cost of your disc in case it is never returned? Basicly their service is a 'loaner's insurance' not a distribution cost."
You're not lending out the disc; you are trading it for peerbux, which you can use to purchase movies on your want list -- provided you pay the admin fee.
The $0.99 is to cover administrative costs for the transaction (and to pay the owners of the company and their lawyers).
This, other than the fact that it (1) is trading physical products; and (2) costs a nominal fee is exactly how upload/download used to work on tons of BBSs in a bygone era.
Upload a new file? Get credit to download file(s). Ship out a DVD? Get credit to be shipped a DVD.
I'm not saying that AV software is the solution to all security issues. I'm saying that no one, on any OS or with any browser, should consider themselves immune to malware.
And if patches to browsers and updates to AV software happen fast enough, then they can help prevent replication and transmission.
I could see them implementing something like this for registered guilds/clans/what-have-you. I don't see it happening for individuals, since there are a TON of people who play, and that might be considered unfair.
How about a guild being responsible for saving the world? The cure being 'viral' as well, so the guild would have to expose themselves (not literally) to as many people as possible... by traveling to as many locations as possible. If they succeed (say, 95% inoculation within 7 days), then they get rewarded and something changes in the world. If they fail, an NPC delivers the cure and something bad happens (like a town is temporarily depopulated for a month).
On the plus side, this would encourage guild-play for more than just PKing. I could really get into set-ups like that.
"They've already said why they don't want to make events like this. Every major change they make affects all the new players just joining, and balancing content for all levels equally is pretty much impossible.
"
I'm not talking about changing game mechanics or skill sets or anything like that, which is what they were referring to. How about places that change over time? Or NPCs that change?
When their base shrinks and they need to keep people motivated to play, you'll bet they roll out something like this.
Slashdot Mirror
"The vendor announced the player in the US only with a banner on its website, and stated that it is getting the word out through employees and customer focus groups. Dell has also launched a special multimedia site targeting young buyers."
Hmm. This works if you can get the trendsetters to adopt your brand. Good luck with that, Dell. The huge frickin "DELL" on the side won't help. The name won't help either.
Sounds to me like Dell is just trying to get rid of some hardware. Not investing in marketing and advertising tells me that they're not too concerned about the product, and don't have high hopes for it, no matter how they spin it.
"Dude, you're getting a Ditty!"
The phrase just conjures up some nasty speculative images.
"Is AOL the Key to Microsoft Killing Google?"
"Killing Google"? I think you misspelled "not competing effectively with Google, by purchasing a struggling enterprise with massive consumer illwill that adds to Microsoft's bloat and lack of focused direction."
"I was honestly planning to go to Wal-Mart... Now that there is a new version, I won't look quite so much like a goon buying ancient hardware."
Umm, sorry to mention this, but if you're concerned about looking like a goon while shopping at Wal-Mart... you've got other problems.
Dell is trying to establish branding for a personal accessory that has a four-syllable name? Especially "DJ Ditty," which sounds like it's being marketed to kids? I can just imagine how that's going to play out.
What about UI? Will it have a proprietary UI? Will it be as easy to use as iTunes?
"This tells us nothing that isn't already known. Of COURSE proteins with related functions share specific patterns of amino acid selection rules or they wouldn't work""
This cannot be assumed; while logical on the surface, that's like saying that porpoises and sharks must be from the same family because they both swim in the ocean and have the same body shape. The scientific method DEMANDS that a hypothesis like that is tested.
"He sounds like he's talking to a little kid. "
In terms of protein chemistry, he probably is talking to to little kids. This article is basically a publicity press release, and is not intended for the scientific community -- their papers in Nature are intended for the scientific community.
and how did it do this?
While you're at it, why don't you ask that any articles about scientific research include the entirety of the published paper(s)? What is important to the casual reader (which is the intended audience) is not the how, but the what and the why.
"One can only assume that these guys chose proteins that don't undergo post-translational modification."
No, one can't assume that. One must read their published papers before leaping to conclusions. Think a bit: if the DNA was expressed in the bacteria, could the proteins not undergo the same post-translational modification as naturally occurring proteins? The research conducted did not test to see what happened during expression, it just tested the form and functionality of the end result, as far as I can tell FTA.
You shouldn't get all worked up because an article intended for the general public isn't detailed enough for you. Many people wouldn't even bother to read TFA (even if they could understand it) if it was written in anything other than plain english.
Someone like you, who wants better information (which is a good thing) should go down to the library at the end of the month and read the published papers in Nature.
"As for hijackings, you don't need to worry about it because IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN. I can't believe people still think that terrorists will try again to hijack a commercial airliner and use it as a missile--it was a one-time trick and it will NEVER work again"
Unless, of course, we grow complacent and allow people to forget the lessons of 9/11.
Or, if the intent is not to use the plane as a missile, but instead just crash it, or use the threat of crashing it to take hostages.
At any rate, having the ability for pilots get earlier and better information cannot be a bad thing.
"The main improvement I can see in the next gen consoles is the increased RAM available, which should give developers scope for more open-ended, persistent game worlds. "
They don't want the world to be hosted locally. They want us to pay for their subscription service so that we can access those open-ended, persistent game worlds on their servers.
FTA:"More than two thirds of all video gamers feel that video games already surpass, or will soon at least equal movies, music and books in delivering an emotional impact."
Here's a link to Bowen's write-up of the research:
http://www.bowenresearch.com/studies.php?d=3
This is a survey of a subset of gamers, whom Bowen was able to survey online. "Surveyed gamers" cannot be extrapolated to "all gamers."
66% is not more than 2/3. For that matter, "has the potential to equal or surpass" != "will soon be at least equal".
Guardian Gamesblog needs some help getting their facts straight. They should have also referenced the source of their blog entry.
I would also guess that two-thirds of avid book readers think books have a greater potential for emotional stimulation. Ditto for movies amongst avid movie-watchers.
"the combined countries of the EU are a much bigger economic power than the US and it's bad laws by foolish Eurocrats that are the only things stopping that unity working as well as it should."
Your phrasing is more than a bit off -- how about 'the combined economies of EU member-states, if they operated coherently, would be more powerful than the US economy.'
Just because something is larger does not make it more powerful -- power is the ability to wield that size.
Also, the size and power of the European economy has little to do with this issue -- it's the size of the market for a particular product. The market, and the threat of denying access to it, is the only weapon the EC can use to influence MS's activities.
FTA: "Ms Kroes [EC Competition Commissioner] has declared herself "determined" that open source developers should have access to the information, and Microsoft appealed to the Court of First Instance recently to get a legal decision on whether it should be required to share communications source code with open source software vendors."
This is about whether or not MS meets interoperability standards mandated by the EC as part of the last action against MS.
It seems crystal-clear to me: Either the standards are open, and therefore fully interoperable, or they're not.
For MS to say that their standards fulfill interoperability requirements, without allowing anyone (especially the Open Source community) to see those standards, is complete hogwash.
"the two sides still cannot agree on whether interoperability information should be made available to open source software suppliers"
The two sides? One is a private corporation, the other is a government entity. There is only one side with legal authority, and MS had better be prepared to shape up when their appeal result comes next year.
"On the other hand, the computer business is not an environment in which bureaucracies survive for very long. At least, not without radical change."
You've hit the nail on the head here.
MS brought in the stifling management-types who the "Deep Throat" lambasts in order to preserve market cap (stock price) -- they wanted to bring in some visible measure of stability in order to shore up investor confidence.
The problem with this approach is that stability does not serve well in an industry that changes so quickly. I have no problem with the size of Microsoft. The problem is that their approach to generating revenues is too focused on past sources. The underlying assumption is that what has worked in the past will continue to work -- but the market changes faster than MS can get its considerable bulk moving.
Two possible solutions that I can see:
(1) Do what Blogger X has suggested and trim the fat. Refocus on the most profitable products and get rid of the rest. Do a couple things really well, and get rid of managerial constraints on development.
(2) Let loose the hounds. Give creative control over to divisions. Do not mandate innovation, but mandate an innovation-friendly environment. Still, MS will have to make sure that their core business is attended to.
"Now, what I would like to see is a portable video projection unit the size of an iPod, or similar device. " (emphasis mine)
Video projection produces a large amount of heat -- without adding on fans or other cooling mechanism, plus energy supply for the projector and the cooling mechanism (see where I'm going in re: size?), you'd soon have an iSludge sitting on top of your projector stand.
I think that MS and Sony both are making a pretty large mistake with their new consoles.
When new consoles were released in the past, they offered an incredible upgrade in game quality. Graphics, sound, gameplay capabilities (like better controllers, games with more depth, etc) were all significantly better than the previous generation.
Because of the remarkable upgrade in gaming experience, people were willing to part with tons of cash in order to play the newest games.
I don't see this happening quite so much now. Will gameplay on these new consoles be so much better that I have to get one?
The only place I see these consoles being remarkably different is with online play being better utilized. Is that enough to swing enough buyers, especially considering monthly fees?
I'm not a Nintendo fanboy -- but a cheaper system better reflects the smaller incremental increase in game tech.
Also, for those of us who bought PS/PS2/Xbox but not N64 or Gamecube, the re-release of classic Nintendo games allows us to experience content that we may have missed.
For those entering the console market for the first time, however, the Xbox 360 and PS3 may have more appeal.
"The taboo sense of a word, Dr. Burridge said, 'always drives out any other senses it might have had.' How does he explain, then, the new Direct TV ads built around use of the word "sucks"? In this case, it appears the accepted meaning of the word (is of poor quality) has driven [out] the taboo sense"
As a curse word becomes used quite commonly, it loses its taboo sense -- that is, it becomes more acceptable. The taboo sense no longer being in play, the original, or even a different meaning, can then fill the vopid left by the faded taboo sense.
"WHAT THE F%@k IS 'gimlet-eyed cunning'!?""
Well, a vodka gimlet is vodka and Rose's Lime.
So I'm guessing that gimlet-eyed cunning is the kind of witty intelligence we all spout when drunk up to our eyeballs, but that no one else finds quite as hilarious.
Ludlow may feel that he was doing a service by bringing to the public eye what some users of TSO were up to.
My feeling is that he was doing a disservice, by publicizing an avenue by which some people could do things that society at large feels is unethical -- and where to find that avenue.
The correct course of action, the method of greatest benefit and least harm, would have been to make his concerns known privately to the operators of the server(s) in question. If that produced no effect, he should have brought it to the attention of authorities.
Only if legal authorities did not take action should he have set up his broadcast antenna.
My opinion? Ludlow is an attention-whore. He revels in the attention that people give him when he publishes his shrill opinions.
The best solution would be for him to be ignored by the public. Unfortunately, as we've seen with recent action against adult game content, this isn't going to happen.
The only plus I see from his outcries is thatparents maypay more attention to what their kids are doing -- but this doesn't apply to Second Life, since that kind of content is only allowed on the AO server(s).
What the gamer community, and the freedom-of-speech community, need to do is to expose him for what he is -- a sensationalist. We need to publicly scoff at his petty tirades, and ridicule his luddite attitude.
"I guess I'm just pretty cynical, and relying upon other Joes to send me their movies in a reasonalble timeframe with reasonable quality."
I'm pretty certain that there will be a peer review system, if not a penalty system.
(1) Don't send the movie on time? You won't get full credit.
(2) Peer ratings, a la Ebay
(3) Don't ship a DVD, or habitually late? Bannination.
The thing is, you can't get a DVD until you've shipped one or more out.
I'm sure the initiation fee will cover cost of replacement for "lost in the mail" discs.
"And movies are assigned "peerbux" ratings, so you can't offer up a bunch of Clint Eastwood movies from the 70s and expect to get the complete Sopranos in return? How does that work? You need to build up a library of good movies so you can give them away? I'm not understanding."
I've got a shelf of DVDs that I have no desire to watch again, but others might value highly. They just collect dust, and you don't see many stores that have used DVD trade-in policies... and even if they do, they don't give anything close to one-to-one value.
The value of this service over Netflix is that you get to get good value for DVDs you don't care about anymore.
"So, does this 99 cents cover the cost of your disc in case it is never returned? Basicly their service is a 'loaner's insurance' not a distribution cost."
You're not lending out the disc; you are trading it for peerbux, which you can use to purchase movies on your want list -- provided you pay the admin fee.
The $0.99 is to cover administrative costs for the transaction (and to pay the owners of the company and their lawyers).
This, other than the fact that it
(1) is trading physical products; and
(2) costs a nominal fee
is exactly how upload/download used to work on tons of BBSs in a bygone era.
Upload a new file? Get credit to download file(s).
Ship out a DVD? Get credit to be shipped a DVD.
"How about just buy a missile from DPRK, blow up the Moon and catch pieces with a butterfly net? "
No fair, you used gravity to move the samples. I used a lasso.
"The article does make a good point when it says that these competitions let everyone compete on a level playing field. "
There are playing fields on the moon? I knew about the golf course where Shepard teed off, but what team sport do they play there?
I'm not saying that AV software is the solution to all security issues. I'm saying that no one, on any OS or with any browser, should consider themselves immune to malware.
And if patches to browsers and updates to AV software happen fast enough, then they can help prevent replication and transmission.
I agree with you on preferentially funding alternative energy sources.
Unfortunately, that doesn't have quite the drama of a moon landing, nor as many political benefits.
I'd like to see both -- and I fully believe we have the resources for both.
I could see them implementing something like this for registered guilds/clans/what-have-you. I don't see it happening for individuals, since there are a TON of people who play, and that might be considered unfair.
How about a guild being responsible for saving the world? The cure being 'viral' as well, so the guild would have to expose themselves (not literally) to as many people as possible... by traveling to as many locations as possible. If they succeed (say, 95% inoculation within 7 days), then they get rewarded and something changes in the world. If they fail, an NPC delivers the cure and something bad happens (like a town is temporarily depopulated for a month).
On the plus side, this would encourage guild-play for more than just PKing. I could really get into set-ups like that.
"They've already said why they don't want to make events like this. Every major change they make affects all the new players just joining, and balancing content for all levels equally is pretty much impossible. "
I'm not talking about changing game mechanics or skill sets or anything like that, which is what they were referring to. How about places that change over time? Or NPCs that change?
When their base shrinks and they need to keep people motivated to play, you'll bet they roll out something like this.