I hope for the same future as you--and it seems to be heading that way, interestingly, as far more people are seeking out independent music than ever. Anecdotal, but: when I was in high school, I said the words "independent music" and my peers would say "wtf". Now, my youngest brother, who is six years younger than me, is in high school, and it seems as though most of his friends listen to independent music, whether or not they're realizing it (at least, according to Myspace music lists). He's not in a niche, either; he's a popular kid, with a wide range of friends in a wide range of social groups.
However, the change you mention probably won't happen for some time. Again, anecdotal, but: I work at a locally owned computer repair place that services mainly home user Windows PCs. We service a few hundred computers a month. Business has its ups and downs, but the lines of computers awaiting repair are consistently pretty long. Most of them are botched Windows installs, and some of them have problems as a direct result of the Sony rootkit. However, only one of our customers has actually researched Sony's rootkit and attempted to contact them. She's a 40-something mother of two for whom the rootkit wrought havok, and when we worked on her computer, I noticed not only some bookmarked sites that involved the Sony rootkit, but also some sites that went into the RIAA's bullying tactics. This is one PC out of a few thousand in, say, the last year. Only one average-Joe computer owner is socially aware enough to read about the RIAA's crap in our area (suburban metro Atlanta). It seems as though most people are blissfully unaware of social issues like these, and they're perfectly happy buying thier Creed or New Found Glory or whatever. Despite buying trends away from the RIAA's companies, it's going to take awhile for people to "get it". And when they do, it's not going to be current consumers; it's going to be the consumers who are graduating high school right now, and probably even younger.
Despite buying trends, though, the RIAA is a massive organization with huge legal clout. They're going to prolong this as much as possible and make it hurt as long as possible. Hopefully we're seeing a behemoth in its death throes, as many predict, but I don't think it's that far yet. Maybe in a few years, but for now, it's just heating up, and all we can do is spread the word to help keep our fellow, uninformed consumers from taking the RIAA's baseball bat up the butt.
You're right. One man's trash. In fact, I've had people say that same thing about my music.
But there is music that's just bad. And those are two examples. Those two artists try to emulate rock of old--we're talking genre-defining, social-movement-leading music--and at the same time, fly in the face of the artists they think they sound like by virtue of the fact that they're making pop music for mass consumption. Lavigne presented an award, on national television, and mis-pronounced "Bowie". As in, David Bowie. Rock legend David Friggin' Bowie. She's not a musician. She's a pop star.
And yeah, their music is crap. New Age music is similar in many ways to classical. Sum 41 and Avril Lavigne are similar in many ways to the sounds of diarrhea.
Here in suburban Georgia, you don't expect too many people to think outside the box--or, for that matter, outside of what the major radio stations feed them. However, college radio stations, which play indie music, are soaring in popularity--and, as you pointed out, tech-savvy young people are actively seeking new music on the Internet. Friends of mine and people I knew in high school, some of whom I never would have thought could open their minds enough to actively find new and different music, are. In suburban friggin' Georgia.
It seems as though the independent music movement is starting in the north--parts of Canada, Seattle, New York, etc--and making its way here to the south. And with major artists like these speaking out against RIAA tactics (not to mention the fact that their rottenness is gaining more and more publicity as they sue dead people and innocents who don't own computers), people are bound to take notice.
Incidentally, in 2000, Courtney Love wrote a (surprisingly clear and comprehensive) speech which speaks out against the recording industry in general--and accuses industry big-wigs of stealing music, not file sharers. That article is a really good read, as it says specifically how the RIAA shafts its artists even before they're popular enough to have their music "stolen".
I might not like Avril, or Sarah, or BNL, but they all have a huge fanbase. And the more people in the know, the better, regardless of where the information comes from.
I think HD support will play into this upcoming race more than Nintendo plans for it to--but HD hardware will remain expensive until several years down the road, when the HDDVD/Blu-ray battle has been decided. The HD decision won't be a matter of people actually wanting HD content, since most general consumers don't really know the difference anyway, but companies are pushing HD pretty hard, making consumers think they need that HDTV.
Anyway, the HD support is kind of a moot point once you get into gameplay. For instance: I played a friend's copy of Perfect Dark Zero on a nice HD LCD, and although the game was fun, and the graphics were beautiful, the difference wasn't really that huge, simply because it played like any other first person shooter. We played multiplayer for awhile, but it got old quickly; so what's the point of all those nice high-resolution textures if the game isn't particularly interesting or fun? If Nintendo makes good games, then that whole lack of HD is pretty insignificant.
Moz la Punk got ahold of details on the Game Informer article from which this news emerged, and that includes the control mechanism. Check it out. You actually use the controller to push obstacles down to use for cover. You nod your head or shake it in order to interact with NPCs. How awesome is that?
Apparently the game uses the controller's assets in the most obvious way--that is, sword and gunplay--but from what I've read so far, it's hardly gimmicky. The gameplay appears to be pretty deep.
The summary is biased and stupid, by the way, in an attempt to get a reaction from Nintendo people. Nice job, Slashdot.
He just flamed the parent, accusing him of not backing up his statements, while none of his statemens themselves were proven. Seems he's railing against creationists as zealously and blindly as they rail against the 'heresy' of evolutionary theory.
...in short, simple sentences and words of few syllables so that even creationists can understand them.
It's nice to see that educated, scientific people have evolved beyond discrimination based on religious or social beliefs.
The Beatles were fantastic musicians, so they got popular. But, in their popularity, they unintentionally produced a paradigm that left record execs looking for another cash cow, and mainstream music suffered (and continues to suffer) horribly. An unfortunate side effect indeed.
And, thank heavens, there are still people with taste in music these days; as such, good music gets popular. Just not mainstream--and yes, there is a distinct difference between what is popular and what is mainstream.
Take, for instance, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Go 'head. Click the link and give them a listen. Truly a different sound (some have compared them to the Talking Heads). What's special about this band (besides their addictive rock and that singer with the crazy voice) is the fact that they are UNSIGNED. Totally unsigned. No label. They put out their debut themselves, to wild popularity and praise. They might not reach audiences of tens of millions the way mainstream musicians do, and they might not play shows to crowds of 20,000, but hey. They're making money--for themselves, not for a big label. They were in a blurb in Rolling Stone a few months ago that said that they produced their record for about $10,000, and at the time of that writing, had made $150,000--all of which they get to keep, instead of paying off some label. They just got back from a tour in Europe. I wonder how much they've made now.
Point is, there's lots and lots of really great music out there that doesn't need the deep pockets of a huge record label to get heard--because of the Internet--and that music awaits listening ears. The good stuff acquires plenty of ears, which does NOT necessarily mean mainstream. A listener is a listener, and anymore, artists don't need labels to get them. You, the listener, just have to know where to look to find the good stuff; people are learning not to trust what's farted out by ClearChannel.
(That said, the major labels have an aging and cracking business model. They're losing business to smaller, grassroots movements--fueled by easy (near-free) distribution of music and young people with specific sets of interests. I don't think the Internet is going to be the death of major label music any more than I think blogging is going to be the end of mainstream news, but there is something to be said for the popularity of grassroots media, and music is no exception. Kinda makes me wonder where those huge, multinational multiplatinum albums are going to be in, say, ten years, when the mainstream has the knowledge and skill to seek things specific to their interests and to reject the music that's fed to them over the airwaves.)
Funny you mention this, as I have a similar experience.
I have a friend who is a sommelier, and she hosts a wine tasting every year, wherein guests bring their wine--whether they make it or buy it--and each bottle is numbered, sampled, and anonymously rated. The one that won last year was actually just a simple, store-bought $12 bottle of wine, though I don't remember the particulars.
It's funny how much of the wine tasting seems like a racket. So much of it is image; without a doubt, there are 'professional' tasters who love to throw around words like 'bouquet' to convince the uninitiated that they know what they're talking about.
On the other hand, there are wines that are rated highly across a wide number of tasters. Yellow Tail wine, for instance, is widely renowned for being a delicious, reasonably-priced wine. I'm sure there are other wines that are unanimously delicious (or, for that matter, revolting), regardless of price. There are, in fact, people who know what they're talking about when it comes to 'good' wine or 'bad' wine, despite the fact that such an opinion seems objective (and despite what beer drinkers would have you believe! I beer as much as the next guy, but wine's good too, snobbery and all).
I ripped and encoded (into Ogg Vorbis, of course) a Sony-distributed CD that had the rootkit on it (My Morning Jacket's Z) on my Ubuntu box without a hitch. It's currently living on both my HD and my MP3 player. Zero problems--just popped the CD in, told it to rip and where, and it's done. Easy. No rootkit issues, no security issues, just music I enjoy however the hell I want to enjoy it, thank you very much. Twelve bucks well-spent.
I have some Shure E4s that I bought used, and I absolutely love them. They're expensive though--retail for close to $300, though I got mine for $150--but that depends on your priorities. Mine block out outside noises flawlessly (when music is playing, even when people shout at me, it looks like they're just moving their lips), meaning I don't need as much volume to hear every single little detail in the sound. With the E4s, however, it takes a bit more volume to be able to feel all the bass--at least, with the foam tips. But that's fine by me, I like to hear the treble. Ultimately, though, you can hear the most with the least volume, saving you precious battery power and even more precious hearing. And, if you get something more expensive like the Shures, they can handle whatever you throw at 'em, should you decide to turn the volume up. (I've had my volume on my X5 up to close to maximum and couldn't hear any distortion whatsoever with my E4s.);)
I found the people at the head-fi forums were of great assistance when it came to earbud choice. It's a forum full of audiophiles, but they're not jerks about it. Tell 'em your price range and what you're looking for (do you like a bassier sound? A higher, brighter sound? etc), and they will undoubtedly help you out.
Once you hear some names and model numbers, google for reviews. But, if possible, it's best to actually hear your choices; no matter what peoples' opinion is of any earphone, it comes down to your listening preferences. If you find a sound that you like and it's in your price range, go for it.
I work at a computer repair store, and you'd be surprised at the number of people who own more than one (Windows) computer which is junked up and crapping out on them, despite having (supposedly) computer literate relatives or they themselves being somewhat literate. We're talking small business owners and families, some of whom own and network many computers, not just three or four. These are people that are technologically savvy enough to install, say, a driver, but not technologically savvy enough to protect themselves with any sort of encryption--let alone PeerGuardian or anything of the sort.
Ironically, TFA mentions that Paramount is accusing him of the "crime" based on evidence that he wiped his drive recently. At my store, when we get Windows machines on the bench, that's usually the best option--image HD if customer so desires, wipe the HD and reinstall Windows and any programs, and restore legal data. Windows gets so junked up while these people use their computers that antivirus isn't an option, so many drives get wiped every single day.
So it wouldn't surprise me at all if he actually does own four computers, networks them wirelessly, and has no idea what he's doing. I help people in similar situations all the time.
I guess he's learned to secure his WiFi. Paramount has no case, and the industry continues its downward, anti-consumer spiral.
They sent some photographs and then samples to Stromberg, who spotted tiny silica structures called phytoliths.
"It's indisputable that these are from grasses. The shape of these phytoliths indicate that they are from grasses," said Dolores Piperno...
They didn't find whole blades. They found remnants from several different types of grasses. Which suggests to these paleontologists (not Slashdot) that 1: the dinosaurs ate grass; and 2: that the grass had been around for a long enough time to adapt and diversify.
People are taking what Hollywood classifies as geeky and running with it. Tighter jeans, dark-rimmed glasses, etc.
The result is a large group of poseurs who call themselves geeks but know nothing truly geeky. It happens with lots of subcultures, as a previous poster brought out. It just so happens that the stereotypes of 'geek' that people are capitalizing on are among the least accurate stereotypes around. For awhile it was punk, then grunge, and pop culture is transitioning from nerd to emo. That doesn't mean geek has gone mainstream; I have yet to meat a fellow Linux user here in suburban GA.
By the way, it's "Vote for Pedro", not "Save Pedro".
Nah, no hybrids, I bet. His are rotary engines built to run off of pretty much anything--including alcohol and biofuel. I remember reading a Time Life thing about him in the eighties that said the engine could run off of peanut oil. And on the site, it mentions the idea of running off of vegetable oil with small conversion efforts.
So that means low to no emissions there. Supposedly.
I read that too actually about Nintendo targeting small developers, and I agree totally. I'm looking forward to seeing what an indie company can do with this thing; people are worried about third-party support, but with an easy platform to develop for, the need for large third-party companies is seriously discounted. So worries of that nature are pretty unfounded; there'll be plenty of support for this thing.
This system is going to change quite a few things, and I won't be surprised if Nintendo has invented another new standard by which we interact with machines.
Point taken. I must admit, I never actually got to play the mystical VB. So, I lack the experience to back that sentence or two up.
However, one could argue that the VB could succeed today were it based on current, existing technology, whereas technological limitations of yesteryear severely crippled any potential the VB actually had, crappy design and color choice aside.
Regardless of the poor VB's fate, the point was that the Revolution means quite a bit more than a gaming system. It means we might just be waving goodbye to our traditional mice and the like, quite a bit sooner than at least I expected, based on the progress of current gestural interaction technologies.
Actually, I'm pretty sure the amount of movement is limited. The IGN video exaggerated a bit; in the 1up hands-on write-up, one of the demos actually lets the user know when the controller leaves the controllable area. Although I suppose this would be scalable through software.
Either way, I just don't see people wildly swinging their controllers around in that epic battle with Ganondorf. Although that would be fun, and I can honestly say I hope that it actually IS that way. Despite the potential for lawsuits against the big N.
The Revolution is actually mainstreaming gestural interfacing.
Recent advances in gestural technology have allowed programmers semi-Minority Report style interfacing with computers. But it's incomplete and inefficient at this point, and requires hardware (and software, for that matter) that the casual user is afraid of. But here Nintendo introduces the very first mainstream, real-time, 3-D, gesture-based interface for use every single day in the home.
The idea isn't necessarily new, nor is the technology, but until now, very few people use simple hand gestures to interface with machines they use every day. Some time next year, though, yes, we can have a near-actual swordfight, and yes, we can go fishing, but how will we navigate menus in the game? How will we navigate menus from within the Rev's own dashboard, for that matter?
This has the potential to revolutionize, not just gaming, but the way everyday people interact with their machines. Nintendo will be sure to keep the IP rights to their (wonderful--I'm drooling here) controller, to be sure, but the implications of this in technology in general are huge, and that cannot be overstated. Especially considering how much mainstream computing borrows from the gaming industry.
The Virtual Boy was too ambitious--ahead of its time for the technology available then--but I'd say the Rev is right on time, folks.
Slashdot Mirror
I hope for the same future as you--and it seems to be heading that way, interestingly, as far more people are seeking out independent music than ever. Anecdotal, but: when I was in high school, I said the words "independent music" and my peers would say "wtf". Now, my youngest brother, who is six years younger than me, is in high school, and it seems as though most of his friends listen to independent music, whether or not they're realizing it (at least, according to Myspace music lists). He's not in a niche, either; he's a popular kid, with a wide range of friends in a wide range of social groups.
However, the change you mention probably won't happen for some time. Again, anecdotal, but: I work at a locally owned computer repair place that services mainly home user Windows PCs. We service a few hundred computers a month. Business has its ups and downs, but the lines of computers awaiting repair are consistently pretty long. Most of them are botched Windows installs, and some of them have problems as a direct result of the Sony rootkit. However, only one of our customers has actually researched Sony's rootkit and attempted to contact them. She's a 40-something mother of two for whom the rootkit wrought havok, and when we worked on her computer, I noticed not only some bookmarked sites that involved the Sony rootkit, but also some sites that went into the RIAA's bullying tactics. This is one PC out of a few thousand in, say, the last year. Only one average-Joe computer owner is socially aware enough to read about the RIAA's crap in our area (suburban metro Atlanta). It seems as though most people are blissfully unaware of social issues like these, and they're perfectly happy buying thier Creed or New Found Glory or whatever. Despite buying trends away from the RIAA's companies, it's going to take awhile for people to "get it". And when they do, it's not going to be current consumers; it's going to be the consumers who are graduating high school right now, and probably even younger.
Despite buying trends, though, the RIAA is a massive organization with huge legal clout. They're going to prolong this as much as possible and make it hurt as long as possible. Hopefully we're seeing a behemoth in its death throes, as many predict, but I don't think it's that far yet. Maybe in a few years, but for now, it's just heating up, and all we can do is spread the word to help keep our fellow, uninformed consumers from taking the RIAA's baseball bat up the butt.
Braziiiiilll blah blah blah blee blee blee blooo. The lyrics to the song escape me. But you get the point.
But there is music that's just bad. And those are two examples. Those two artists try to emulate rock of old--we're talking genre-defining, social-movement-leading music--and at the same time, fly in the face of the artists they think they sound like by virtue of the fact that they're making pop music for mass consumption. Lavigne presented an award, on national television, and mis-pronounced "Bowie". As in, David Bowie. Rock legend David Friggin' Bowie. She's not a musician. She's a pop star.
And yeah, their music is crap. New Age music is similar in many ways to classical. Sum 41 and Avril Lavigne are similar in many ways to the sounds of diarrhea.
Here in suburban Georgia, you don't expect too many people to think outside the box--or, for that matter, outside of what the major radio stations feed them. However, college radio stations, which play indie music, are soaring in popularity--and, as you pointed out, tech-savvy young people are actively seeking new music on the Internet. Friends of mine and people I knew in high school, some of whom I never would have thought could open their minds enough to actively find new and different music, are. In suburban friggin' Georgia.
It seems as though the independent music movement is starting in the north--parts of Canada, Seattle, New York, etc--and making its way here to the south. And with major artists like these speaking out against RIAA tactics (not to mention the fact that their rottenness is gaining more and more publicity as they sue dead people and innocents who don't own computers), people are bound to take notice.
Incidentally, in 2000, Courtney Love wrote a (surprisingly clear and comprehensive) speech which speaks out against the recording industry in general--and accuses industry big-wigs of stealing music, not file sharers. That article is a really good read, as it says specifically how the RIAA shafts its artists even before they're popular enough to have their music "stolen".
I might not like Avril, or Sarah, or BNL, but they all have a huge fanbase. And the more people in the know, the better, regardless of where the information comes from.
I suppose the title uses the term "music" loosely.
I think HD support will play into this upcoming race more than Nintendo plans for it to--but HD hardware will remain expensive until several years down the road, when the HDDVD/Blu-ray battle has been decided. The HD decision won't be a matter of people actually wanting HD content, since most general consumers don't really know the difference anyway, but companies are pushing HD pretty hard, making consumers think they need that HDTV.
Anyway, the HD support is kind of a moot point once you get into gameplay. For instance: I played a friend's copy of Perfect Dark Zero on a nice HD LCD, and although the game was fun, and the graphics were beautiful, the difference wasn't really that huge, simply because it played like any other first person shooter. We played multiplayer for awhile, but it got old quickly; so what's the point of all those nice high-resolution textures if the game isn't particularly interesting or fun? If Nintendo makes good games, then that whole lack of HD is pretty insignificant.
I think not.
Moz la Punk got ahold of details on the Game Informer article from which this news emerged, and that includes the control mechanism. Check it out. You actually use the controller to push obstacles down to use for cover. You nod your head or shake it in order to interact with NPCs. How awesome is that?
Apparently the game uses the controller's assets in the most obvious way--that is, sword and gunplay--but from what I've read so far, it's hardly gimmicky. The gameplay appears to be pretty deep.
The summary is biased and stupid, by the way, in an attempt to get a reaction from Nintendo people. Nice job, Slashdot.
If I had mod points, I'd mod that comment down for trolling; nobody here even likes OpenOffice.
How the hell did this get modded insightful?
He just flamed the parent, accusing him of not backing up his statements, while none of his statemens themselves were proven. Seems he's railing against creationists as zealously and blindly as they rail against the 'heresy' of evolutionary theory.
It's nice to see that educated, scientific people have evolved beyond discrimination based on religious or social beliefs.
Jerk.
It was probably also a good way to figure out how to commit suicide, since there were no ropes back then.
And, thank heavens, there are still people with taste in music these days; as such, good music gets popular. Just not mainstream--and yes, there is a distinct difference between what is popular and what is mainstream.
Take, for instance, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Go 'head. Click the link and give them a listen. Truly a different sound (some have compared them to the Talking Heads). What's special about this band (besides their addictive rock and that singer with the crazy voice) is the fact that they are UNSIGNED. Totally unsigned. No label. They put out their debut themselves, to wild popularity and praise. They might not reach audiences of tens of millions the way mainstream musicians do, and they might not play shows to crowds of 20,000, but hey. They're making money--for themselves, not for a big label. They were in a blurb in Rolling Stone a few months ago that said that they produced their record for about $10,000, and at the time of that writing, had made $150,000--all of which they get to keep, instead of paying off some label. They just got back from a tour in Europe. I wonder how much they've made now.
Point is, there's lots and lots of really great music out there that doesn't need the deep pockets of a huge record label to get heard--because of the Internet--and that music awaits listening ears. The good stuff acquires plenty of ears, which does NOT necessarily mean mainstream. A listener is a listener, and anymore, artists don't need labels to get them. You, the listener, just have to know where to look to find the good stuff; people are learning not to trust what's farted out by ClearChannel.
(That said, the major labels have an aging and cracking business model. They're losing business to smaller, grassroots movements--fueled by easy (near-free) distribution of music and young people with specific sets of interests. I don't think the Internet is going to be the death of major label music any more than I think blogging is going to be the end of mainstream news, but there is something to be said for the popularity of grassroots media, and music is no exception. Kinda makes me wonder where those huge, multinational multiplatinum albums are going to be in, say, ten years, when the mainstream has the knowledge and skill to seek things specific to their interests and to reject the music that's fed to them over the airwaves.)
I have a friend who is a sommelier, and she hosts a wine tasting every year, wherein guests bring their wine--whether they make it or buy it--and each bottle is numbered, sampled, and anonymously rated. The one that won last year was actually just a simple, store-bought $12 bottle of wine, though I don't remember the particulars.
It's funny how much of the wine tasting seems like a racket. So much of it is image; without a doubt, there are 'professional' tasters who love to throw around words like 'bouquet' to convince the uninitiated that they know what they're talking about.
On the other hand, there are wines that are rated highly across a wide number of tasters. Yellow Tail wine, for instance, is widely renowned for being a delicious, reasonably-priced wine. I'm sure there are other wines that are unanimously delicious (or, for that matter, revolting), regardless of price. There are, in fact, people who know what they're talking about when it comes to 'good' wine or 'bad' wine, despite the fact that such an opinion seems objective (and despite what beer drinkers would have you believe! I beer as much as the next guy, but wine's good too, snobbery and all).
I ripped and encoded (into Ogg Vorbis, of course) a Sony-distributed CD that had the rootkit on it (My Morning Jacket's Z) on my Ubuntu box without a hitch. It's currently living on both my HD and my MP3 player. Zero problems--just popped the CD in, told it to rip and where, and it's done. Easy. No rootkit issues, no security issues, just music I enjoy however the hell I want to enjoy it, thank you very much. Twelve bucks well-spent.
I found the people at the head-fi forums were of great assistance when it came to earbud choice. It's a forum full of audiophiles, but they're not jerks about it. Tell 'em your price range and what you're looking for (do you like a bassier sound? A higher, brighter sound? etc), and they will undoubtedly help you out.
Once you hear some names and model numbers, google for reviews. But, if possible, it's best to actually hear your choices; no matter what peoples' opinion is of any earphone, it comes down to your listening preferences. If you find a sound that you like and it's in your price range, go for it.
I really feel bad for him in that clip. Poor guy. I dislike MS just as much as the next guy, but he didn't deserve this.
Ironically, TFA mentions that Paramount is accusing him of the "crime" based on evidence that he wiped his drive recently. At my store, when we get Windows machines on the bench, that's usually the best option--image HD if customer so desires, wipe the HD and reinstall Windows and any programs, and restore legal data. Windows gets so junked up while these people use their computers that antivirus isn't an option, so many drives get wiped every single day.
So it wouldn't surprise me at all if he actually does own four computers, networks them wirelessly, and has no idea what he's doing. I help people in similar situations all the time.
I guess he's learned to secure his WiFi. Paramount has no case, and the industry continues its downward, anti-consumer spiral.
They didn't find whole blades. They found remnants from several different types of grasses. Which suggests to these paleontologists (not Slashdot) that 1: the dinosaurs ate grass; and 2: that the grass had been around for a long enough time to adapt and diversify.
The scientists made the leap, not slashdot. RTFA.
The result is a large group of poseurs who call themselves geeks but know nothing truly geeky. It happens with lots of subcultures, as a previous poster brought out. It just so happens that the stereotypes of 'geek' that people are capitalizing on are among the least accurate stereotypes around. For awhile it was punk, then grunge, and pop culture is transitioning from nerd to emo. That doesn't mean geek has gone mainstream; I have yet to meat a fellow Linux user here in suburban GA.
By the way, it's "Vote for Pedro", not "Save Pedro".
So that means low to no emissions there. Supposedly.
This system is going to change quite a few things, and I won't be surprised if Nintendo has invented another new standard by which we interact with machines.
However, one could argue that the VB could succeed today were it based on current, existing technology, whereas technological limitations of yesteryear severely crippled any potential the VB actually had, crappy design and color choice aside.
Regardless of the poor VB's fate, the point was that the Revolution means quite a bit more than a gaming system. It means we might just be waving goodbye to our traditional mice and the like, quite a bit sooner than at least I expected, based on the progress of current gestural interaction technologies.
Either way, I just don't see people wildly swinging their controllers around in that epic battle with Ganondorf. Although that would be fun, and I can honestly say I hope that it actually IS that way. Despite the potential for lawsuits against the big N.
Recent advances in gestural technology have allowed programmers semi-Minority Report style interfacing with computers. But it's incomplete and inefficient at this point, and requires hardware (and software, for that matter) that the casual user is afraid of. But here Nintendo introduces the very first mainstream, real-time, 3-D, gesture-based interface for use every single day in the home.
The idea isn't necessarily new, nor is the technology, but until now, very few people use simple hand gestures to interface with machines they use every day. Some time next year, though, yes, we can have a near-actual swordfight, and yes, we can go fishing, but how will we navigate menus in the game? How will we navigate menus from within the Rev's own dashboard, for that matter?
This has the potential to revolutionize, not just gaming, but the way everyday people interact with their machines. Nintendo will be sure to keep the IP rights to their (wonderful--I'm drooling here) controller, to be sure, but the implications of this in technology in general are huge, and that cannot be overstated. Especially considering how much mainstream computing borrows from the gaming industry.
The Virtual Boy was too ambitious--ahead of its time for the technology available then--but I'd say the Rev is right on time, folks.
/first post :)