I suppose it depends if you are writing systems that can kill people if something goes wrong. The best way to avoid bugs in that case would be for the developers to test the systems themselves - then they'd be a lot more careful! Plus it helps natural selection to weed out the sloppy coders:) In that case you'd probably want to write all the code from scratch though to ensure that nobody else's bugs kill you.
Oh, there's also the fact that I get a blu-ray player built into the PS3, which though it was one of the major deciding factors, isn't even necessary to justify it compared to the XBox, so I had forgotten about it;) If your post wasn't just pure flamebait or trolling, you don't seem to understand what 'better' or 'any' mean.
'any measure'. Hmm lets see, how about the quieter and more effective cooling, the fact that Gran Turismo has always been PS only, that I lost interest in Halo (which was originally going to be Mac only) as soon as MS took over, and the fact that the PS3 has a more powerful processor (and probably more powerful GPU though I haven't looked into that). Can you install Linux on an Xbox 360 (I honestly don't know, nor do I care beyond using it in a "my penis is bigger than your penis" contest since you're talking of measurements).
Sony may be jerks sometimes (like how they always try to push their proprietary formats), but at least they make good (though usually a little overpriced) products. My Sony Cybershot W1 is an excellent little compact camera. My uncle is a total Sony fanboy and always gets VAIOs, Sony TVs, projectors and entertainment systems and has always been the first person I know to have each generation of PlayStation, bought an AIBO, etc. Of course he's also loaded, so not very representative of the general populous.
Anyway, I don't feel I've lost out at all with my PS3, it's an excellent product. Sony is a company that actually has very few bad products, compared to MS who have very few good products.
As for Microsoft, they do make some darn good keyboards and mice. They also make some horrific ones. The wireless keyboards and mice that someone in our office bought for themselves and reception are pathetic, not even sending the right letters to the computer from the keyboard. Give me logitech peripherals anyday (though again they are not infallible, I used to have a logitech headset that fell apart after a couple of months).
The end goal is great technology and happy people. How we get there is much less important. Don't put politics before the people we're supposedly trying to help. Microsoft have had pretty limited success in creating 'great technology' over the years. You can tell by looking at the alternatives that are out there, and the crappy products that they have produced when they try to get into new market segments - witness the RROD fiasco with the 360 (though people seem to be stupid enough to keep getting replacements or buying another one more for some reason..), and the pathetic sales of Zunes. Then there's the joke that Windows has become by being infused with plenty of DRM, just when things were starting to head in the right direction with 2000/XP and Windows Server, etc. Microsoft just try to get away with whatever they think the market will take up its ass. Some companies out there, believe it or not, try to benefit their customers - while still looking to make a profit of course. But when you put profits ahead of your customers, your profits are going to suffer in the long run anyway, aren't they? I don't think I'm too naieve in saying that.
Hence why I've never even considered an XBox, 360 or Zune.. and never will consider any MS product as long as there is a reasonable alternative. I have never bothered with the whole DVR/TiVo scene, I mostly watch DVDs/Blu-Rays and a few regularly scheduled programs (I don't try to fit my life around those programs, I just watch them if I'm at home and not doing anything else). I may consider MythTV at some point - I could do with a decent media server anyway to make better use of my NAS box and PS3.
You are right that the rise of the free press and the internet and so on has led to a proliferation of information, but a lot of that 'information' is just lightly disguised advertising, or corporate funded studies and such. There are indepent reviews and such out there which is good, but there is absolutely no reason for corporations to stop advertising as long as idiots^H people keep buying based on ads they see rather than searching for themselves and then going and buying a product. I don't like adverts, but I see no incentive for businesses to stop advertising just because consumers have the ability to seek out products themselves. A lot of consumers will still be lazy and only go for what they already know or have heard is good. I think a good example of that market would be in buying cars. I almost went for a Mitsubishi Colt CZT as my company car but after a lot of looking around for similar priced cars and ended up finding the Skoda Fabia vRS, which has a great price/performance/toys ratio (especially after I added a few options and remapped it).
Nope, but he sends a lot of email. He has plenty of funds, unfortunately due to some arcane banking proviso, he can't actually withdraw any of it without paying in £20000 at a time.
many, many works of fiction, often in Hollywood, such as the Die-Hard series, portray terrorism related plots, often in such detail it's a wonder that terrorists don't study and copy them in even more detail. Obviously the terrorists are too scared to copy those plots because Bruce Willis would be in just the wrong place at the wrong time to kick their ass;) You've made a lot of good points, I guess I should have said it wasn't something that naturally occurs to me rather than "other people" as there are quite a lot of other people.
That's pretty much why I don't like playing online.. the other person could just input your moves into a Chess sim. If there is a time limit then that should mostly stop that (unless they have some bot/plugin to play for them). Most likely I just have sucked at chess compared to anyone I played online.
Similar story for me and Solitaire.. when installing stuff on a really slow machine, or the other day when I was waiting for some pictures to render on a not-quite-so-slow machine, I was playing Sol.. kind of embarrassed to be contributing to this statistic, it's a bit depressing.
I can see it now.. in a strange Twist of fate, Twitter turns out to be CmdrTaco! In fact, he could be everyone on/. apart from yourself, Mr Anonymous Coward.
Yep, my dad used to be a cop, and I know a couple and have immense respect for what they do. I was slightly kidding, as well as making a point that there usually is a bit too much paperwork. If someone died in an arrest then you'd definitely want an investigation into what went on, but if the cops are scared to use tasers or force to apprehend someone then that's limiting their effectiveness. I used to not want to be a policeman just because I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle myself in a violent situation (and no doubt there would be lots of them if I were a police constable on the streets of Scotland), then after I learned about all the paperwork you have to do as well as being in dangerous situations, it just really didn't seem worth it to me. I respect the people that risk their lives like that for the protection of others.
Those are terrorist acts yes, but invading a country is no way to stop terrorism. Terrorists usually operate in small groups and don't really have idealistic ties to any country, but rather have ties to ideology, religion, or sometimes just money.
America was doing nothing about all this until it happened to them too, and then they went waaaaay too overboard on upping their security policies. I don't want to make little of the lives that were lost on 9/11 and the proceeding days, it was tragic, but there really isn't a way of making sure that something like this will never happen again. There have been a few American terrorists (and just plain old homicidal maniacs) as well as those from other countries. Even with a heavy police state there will always be ways of causing problems, many that nobody ever really thinks about (like hijacking a plane and doing a suicide run). You are more likely to catch terrorists early if everyone is being carefully monitored, but what would you rather - live in America of the 90s, or live in a 1984 style "Big Brother is Watching You" dystopia?
PS there have been a couple of terrorist attacks in the UK since September the 11th, one even in the place where I was born (Glasgow), and there was at least one in London. I usually do casually dismiss that kind of thing, you can't just live in fear your whole life. If someone close to me was hurt by terrorist I would be angry and sad as hell, but you really can't "fight" that. You don't know when the next lunatic, fanatic, psychopath or drunken idiot will snap and cause terror in someone's life.
he dreads pulling his taser because it means staying back 3 hours after work filling out a report and taking statements. So he basically avoids doing anything which would mean he has to do work?:p That's one very messed up system. I can understand that they should have to fill out some amount of paperwork, but if he's hesitating at all because taking action is going to mean paperwork, that seems pretty dangerous to me:/ Not blaming your friend here, more the people that have put the system into place. I've considered joining the police in the past but I couldn't be bothered with all that paperwork, not for how much cops get paid anyway!
I would have thought the point was more to take out the stock exchange and screw up America's economy, but I guess taking out people working in the towers would have been a bit more of a setback than just taking out the computers, as the computers have backups (I wonder if the terrorists even knew that!). Just killing thousands of people seems to be a bit of a pointless exercise in itself.
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I have received a message from the T-Rays, they say "We ain't gettin on no shark, sucka!"
Oh, there's also the fact that I get a blu-ray player built into the PS3, which though it was one of the major deciding factors, isn't even necessary to justify it compared to the XBox, so I had forgotten about it ;) If your post wasn't just pure flamebait or trolling, you don't seem to understand what 'better' or 'any' mean.
'any measure'. Hmm lets see, how about the quieter and more effective cooling, the fact that Gran Turismo has always been PS only, that I lost interest in Halo (which was originally going to be Mac only) as soon as MS took over, and the fact that the PS3 has a more powerful processor (and probably more powerful GPU though I haven't looked into that). Can you install Linux on an Xbox 360 (I honestly don't know, nor do I care beyond using it in a "my penis is bigger than your penis" contest since you're talking of measurements).
Sony may be jerks sometimes (like how they always try to push their proprietary formats), but at least they make good (though usually a little overpriced) products. My Sony Cybershot W1 is an excellent little compact camera. My uncle is a total Sony fanboy and always gets VAIOs, Sony TVs, projectors and entertainment systems and has always been the first person I know to have each generation of PlayStation, bought an AIBO, etc. Of course he's also loaded, so not very representative of the general populous.
Anyway, I don't feel I've lost out at all with my PS3, it's an excellent product. Sony is a company that actually has very few bad products, compared to MS who have very few good products.
Hence why I've never even considered an XBox, 360 or Zune.. and never will consider any MS product as long as there is a reasonable alternative. I have never bothered with the whole DVR/TiVo scene, I mostly watch DVDs/Blu-Rays and a few regularly scheduled programs (I don't try to fit my life around those programs, I just watch them if I'm at home and not doing anything else). I may consider MythTV at some point - I could do with a decent media server anyway to make better use of my NAS box and PS3.
You didn't really need to ask the last bit :p
You are right that the rise of the free press and the internet and so on has led to a proliferation of information, but a lot of that 'information' is just lightly disguised advertising, or corporate funded studies and such. There are indepent reviews and such out there which is good, but there is absolutely no reason for corporations to stop advertising as long as idiots^H people keep buying based on ads they see rather than searching for themselves and then going and buying a product. I don't like adverts, but I see no incentive for businesses to stop advertising just because consumers have the ability to seek out products themselves. A lot of consumers will still be lazy and only go for what they already know or have heard is good. I think a good example of that market would be in buying cars. I almost went for a Mitsubishi Colt CZT as my company car but after a lot of looking around for similar priced cars and ended up finding the Skoda Fabia vRS, which has a great price/performance/toys ratio (especially after I added a few options and remapped it).
Nope, but he sends a lot of email. He has plenty of funds, unfortunately due to some arcane banking proviso, he can't actually withdraw any of it without paying in £20000 at a time.
I'm surprised you haven't been modded as insightful yet!
I meant instead of a war on terror. The amount you guys spend on your military is insaaaane..!
Ironic jibes will get you nowhere, friend of friend.
Guitarist :)
That's pretty much why I don't like playing online.. the other person could just input your moves into a Chess sim. If there is a time limit then that should mostly stop that (unless they have some bot/plugin to play for them). Most likely I just have sucked at chess compared to anyone I played online.
Similar story for me and Solitaire.. when installing stuff on a really slow machine, or the other day when I was waiting for some pictures to render on a not-quite-so-slow machine, I was playing Sol.. kind of embarrassed to be contributing to this statistic, it's a bit depressing.
I can see it now.. in a strange Twist of fate, Twitter turns out to be CmdrTaco! In fact, he could be everyone on /. apart from yourself, Mr Anonymous Coward.
More dexterity but probably less stability and more chance of being nervous, or getting pumped up on adrenaline and shaking? That kind of thing.
Yep, my dad used to be a cop, and I know a couple and have immense respect for what they do. I was slightly kidding, as well as making a point that there usually is a bit too much paperwork. If someone died in an arrest then you'd definitely want an investigation into what went on, but if the cops are scared to use tasers or force to apprehend someone then that's limiting their effectiveness. I used to not want to be a policeman just because I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle myself in a violent situation (and no doubt there would be lots of them if I were a police constable on the streets of Scotland), then after I learned about all the paperwork you have to do as well as being in dangerous situations, it just really didn't seem worth it to me. I respect the people that risk their lives like that for the protection of others.
Those are terrorist acts yes, but invading a country is no way to stop terrorism. Terrorists usually operate in small groups and don't really have idealistic ties to any country, but rather have ties to ideology, religion, or sometimes just money.
America was doing nothing about all this until it happened to them too, and then they went waaaaay too overboard on upping their security policies. I don't want to make little of the lives that were lost on 9/11 and the proceeding days, it was tragic, but there really isn't a way of making sure that something like this will never happen again. There have been a few American terrorists (and just plain old homicidal maniacs) as well as those from other countries. Even with a heavy police state there will always be ways of causing problems, many that nobody ever really thinks about (like hijacking a plane and doing a suicide run). You are more likely to catch terrorists early if everyone is being carefully monitored, but what would you rather - live in America of the 90s, or live in a 1984 style "Big Brother is Watching You" dystopia?
PS there have been a couple of terrorist attacks in the UK since September the 11th, one even in the place where I was born (Glasgow), and there was at least one in London. I usually do casually dismiss that kind of thing, you can't just live in fear your whole life. If someone close to me was hurt by terrorist I would be angry and sad as hell, but you really can't "fight" that. You don't know when the next lunatic, fanatic, psychopath or drunken idiot will snap and cause terror in someone's life.
I'd quite like to see George Bush fight a war on malnutrition, disease and lack of medical care rather than a war on 'terror'..
I would have thought the point was more to take out the stock exchange and screw up America's economy, but I guess taking out people working in the towers would have been a bit more of a setback than just taking out the computers, as the computers have backups (I wonder if the terrorists even knew that!). Just killing thousands of people seems to be a bit of a pointless exercise in itself.