You can store WiiWare and Virtual Console games on any SD card you put in the slot. They were digitally signed, however, when you downloaded them from Nintendo at the time of purchase, tying them to your machine, so you can't SneakerNet your friend a copy of Ocarina of Time.
I have a FAT backwards compatible PS3 and have SD/CF/MS slots as well as four USB slots. Later release PS3's have only two USB slots however with cheap adaptors you can easily backup to SD, CF or MS devices, heck you can even backup too and recover from any USB connected hard disk or flash device. You can even use any USB storage device as an addition storage device for photos, films or music. In fact all you need to do is rip any video and put it in an MP4 container on a flash card or even a USB hard disk and you can display it via your PS3. Of course making the PS3 act as media server is much better.
If you purchase a downloadable game you can backup and recover but only to the PS3 you originally purchased the game for. This is the main reason why I don't like purchasing downloadable games. If you have to get your PS3 repaired you will have to download your game again but the only cost will be the charge from your Service Provider. PS1 (all PS3's will play these) and PS2 (not on the newer PS3's) game saves can be backed up to card or any USB device and recovered to any PS3. I am not sure about PS3 game saves being put back on a different PS3 though although can definitely back them up and recover them to your own PS3.
Exactly. Consoles have always been a locked down device versus the openness of PC. I dont know why people are surprised when this kind of stuff happens.
While I prefer a console gaming over PC gaming if you want the latest state of art gaming then PC's may be the best way of going, however it is going to cost you much more than what it costs for a console. Even stating that you can get monitors that have a much higher resolution than 1080p (1920x1080) they are much more expensive and lets be honest here how many gamers have monitors that are more then 24" and have a better resolution than 1080p? Note: 1680x1050 is actually not as good a resolution as 1080p.
It would be fair to say that many households that purchase a HD console (PS3 or Xbox360) also have purchased a HDTV varying in size from 32" (82cm) to over 50" (127cm), how many PC gamers can honestly say they have screens of this size or even connect their PC to the family HD TV? Ok there may be a few but not that many.
As to "openness of a PC" well if you use open software then I would agree with you but most PC gamers are using a Microsoft OS which is not very open. Even if you ignore the fact that you are locked into Microsoft you may have to upgrade your hardware just to play more advanced or resource hungry games. With consoles you just put your CD/DVD (or BD if you have a PS3) disk in and play. If you have a PS3 or Xbox360 (I am talking about HD gaming so the Wii is not considered) you can even play some games from your hard disk.
Of all the consoles and I am including the Wii here the PS3 is probably the most open in that you can put in any 2.5" SATA disk without voiding your warranty in fact the instruction manual shows you how to do this. If you have the FAT PS3 you can even put Linux on it although to be fair very few people would do this.
I think "A Texas company" says it all. I could be wrong but it seems that too many Patent Trolls love Texas. Unfortunately I think trial by jury may not backfire since many cases that go before a jury in Texas do find for the plaintive.
No I won't read the patent numbered 5,299,313 which was issued in 1994 to 3Com and should have expired by now since I don't want a headache and maybe I just dreamed I was using 10base5 Ethernet in 1982, then 10base2 in 1984 and 10baseT in 1986 although I am fairly sure these existed before those dates.
Actually if you don't like PulseAudio you can remove it and just use other audio packages like Alsa. I found PulseAudio was painful to use since it was like you had to fill up a bucket before the sound was acceptable, unfortunately I got pops and drop-outs which were annoying so I just removed it and stuck with Alsa which does have some latency issues but nothing like PulseAudio. Still if you use Fedora 11 like I do I can't really complain since these are the sort of things you expect when you are on a cutting edge release..
My main complaint at the moment is ZSNES and GENS which use SDL. The sound worked well in Fedora 10 but since Fedora 11 sound does not work for these applications even after removing PuseAudio. I don't have any issue with Xine or VLC providing I select Alsa or just remove PuseAudio. This is not a big problem for me but one day I would like to get this fixed. I am hoping this is going to be fixed in Fedora 12 although I won't hold my breath.
A patent should be defined as a solution to a problem. Define a problem, give it to someone with no prior knowledge of the solution, ask for a solution, then compare the answers (if there are any) to the one the patent came up with. You should be able to present the problem it to peers in a field and determine if it is obvious or not based on their answers (or lack of).
I can see were you are coming at but what you have said actually reinforces software or any abstract idea as patentable. What is really needed is to define what can and cannot be patentable and that is not going to be easy since patents are defined according to how the law perceives patents and to make things even more difficult it is very easy to misinterpret what is ment in one language to what the translation means in another. It becomes even more difficult when your own language (in my case English) can also be interpreted in different ways in the eyes of the Law.
To ask a peer to look at whether a patent is obvious or not is commendable but not really practical since it would be just about impossible to get a peer review since money is usually involved and the cost of getting a patent revoked once issued no matter how stupid or trivial can be very expensive.
I think the best way of getting rid of stupid patents is not to allow abstract ideas or mathematical concepts but to insist on physical results. However when I look at some physical electrical patents (I am an Electrical Engineer) I am appalled, since some of these are actually based on a minor change to an existing system and IMHO this should never be patentable. At least getting rid of software patents could go a long way to fixing what is really a complex issue.
The kids don't need to hack the computer to play a game, many according to some Australian newspapers are just using the machine to access Facebook and Twitter and in some schools they are employing the "Great Australian Educational Firewall" to stop this type of thing happening with the added consequence that most students just loose interest in their net-book. Even some teachers are insisting that net-books are switched off since they can be disruptive during lessons. Lets not mention that 10.1" screens can be a little hard on the eyes during extended use and the Opposition is having a field day with this.
Yes this is just "Bread and Circuses" and us Australian taxpayers are paying for this. At least the Government can now go to the people and say "We have given your children net-book computers, they are now part of the Smart Society". Guess who I aren't voting for this next election, not that I did last time.
ReactOS is currently version 3.1 (no really) and hope very soon to bring out 3.11 (their words not mine). I have used version 3.1 and it seems to be working although I never have installed a game on it but I did install Firefox 3.0.11 and it works fine but the font's (my eyes!). The OS does start very quickly and no virus protection warnings like MS XP when running virtualised. What did surprised me was this OS has multiple sessions. It does run solitaire and minesweeper from it's menu though.
Translation: Major industry vendors will be able to get together, trash and make threats against real Open Source projects, all under the banner of OSS.
Having a quick browse of the web site it reads like "Open Source - designed by committee and sponsored by Microsoft".
The only problem with the site is there is no code and there is no Board of Directors. I can understand a steering committee but "Board of Directors" for an open source site? Forcing myself to read further I found this gem:
We don't have it all figured out yet. We know that commercial software developers are under-represented on open source projects. We know that commercial software companies face very specific challenges in determining how to engage with open source communities. We know that there are misunderstandings on both sides. Our aim is to advance the IT industry for both commercial software companies and open source communities by helping to meet these challenges.
I am sure people are clamouring to sign up especially since I could not find what type of license is being recommended although to be honest I could not be bothered reading any further.
When reading what Sony said about removing Linux support they really are reneging on another promise which also include PS2 backwards compatibility. The so called tech speak of "Unfortunately in this case the cost of OtherOS install did not fit with the wider objective to offer a lower cost PS3" is highly debatable since the PS3 is a console and even though the components have been reduced the basic hardware infrastructure remains the same. If I can take a x86_64 or even i386 Linux Distribution DVD and install it on a PC the OS will basically work since all drivers have been provided then a Linux Distribution for the power PC should also work on the PS3 in fact I would go as far as saying that most of the work done on the distributions that will intall on a PS3 has been done by the Linux community not Sony.
Having had my rant having the ability of installing Linux would only be done by a few people and those people who have done this already have the "fat" PS3 so in some ways this ability would hardly be used so I can understand Sony removing the capability but to say this significantly costs Sony is total BS. All you need is one person on an irregular basis to update any new drivers for the new firmware and everyone benefits.
I do have a "fat" PS3 which is PS2 backwards compatible (I do use this feature) however I have never installed Linux on it preferring to put Linux on my PC instead. Is this being hypocritical well no since I have the choice and in this case my PC won but at least I have the choice however now with the slim PS3 you don't. Some people will care however the majority won't.
I am however on my 5th PS2. Sony fanboys are quick to point out the 360's 3rod issue (and yes I know its real and exists) and claim that rebuy's is why the 360 is ahead, but are just as quick to brag about the 100 million PS2 sales without taking into account the rebuy's there.
Well I purchased a PS2 in March of 2000 and it lasted about 18 months before the disk died. The only reason why my PS2 failed was my wife accidentally kicked it (she was not looking at the time) which to both my sons was what is called a "Kodak moment". I got a free PS2 when my wife wanted a new mobile and this one lasted me over 5 years without any problems until I traded it for a backwards compatible PS3.
My reason for not liking Microsoft (no I don't use M$) is the fact I have worked with Microsoft OS's for years and found them to extremely annoying, preferring Unix and Linux. In addition I don't like their ethics so I won't buy their products. If people don't like that stiff!
You are right if you wish to believe the article however if you read the article they actually took a sampling of 5000 people with Xbox360's which is something like 0.016% of the total population of Xbox360's. It would be interesting to see the methodology used by the people who arrived at the 50% plus failure rate. If I handed a statistical paper to any stats teacher with conclusions like that from such a small population I would fail.
No I am not apologising for Microsoft but even if there was an all over failure rate of 20% (even 10% is bad) this is still an indictable offence and from what I can gather (this article may be a bit old) Microsoft may be facing litigation on this.
Note I arrived at 20% using a crystal ball and hearsay from some of my neighbours who don't have an Xbox360;)
Yeah, the Wii controllers are far more precise for aiming and shooting than a standard gamepad. Not necessarily better; but they're the closest thing a console has to a mouse. The Wii should be the console of choice for FPS; I think it isn't, mainly because FPS fans tend to be absolute graphic whores.
Using a pointing device is only one aspect of a FPS game. Having a keyboard and the ability to set up macros can also be a huge advantage and this is one area the Wii controller fails in. Even the PS1, Ps2 and original Xbox controllers have more buttons than the Wii. Using the Wii controller as pointing device would still be next to useless against a high quality mouse.
Consider this, a person with a Wii pointing device basically has to point the device and that means picking the controller up and pointing (resting is not an option if you want to be quick) and this is going to get tiring really quick. The person with the mouse only has to rest their hand on the mouse and move it and at the same time get a high degree of accuracy from fairly simple movements as well as having the ability to continue doing this for quite long periods without tiring.
For a short time the person using a Wii controller may have a small advantage over the person using a mouse in a FPS but after a few minutes they are going to tire and the person using the mouse will trounce them.
As for a console having a mouse, with the PS3 you can easily add a mouse and keyboard (wireless or wired). I think the Xbox360 can also do this but I am not sure.
It's a video game console. How many PS3 owners do you think actually set up a dual-boot?
I swear, some people will find anything to whine about it.
For those who have already purchased a PS3 this is a moot point since they can still dual boot, however you are correct very few would do it. Obviously I am not privy to why Sony took dual booting off in the "Slim" off but I have a feeling DRM rears it ugly head here since if you can put on a Linux distro you can easily put on applications such as FakeNES, Gens, ZSNES and even MAME to name a few emulators. Leaving the dual boot on would not cost Sony anything since it is done in firmware which is already available to all original FAT PS3's. Rapidly puts of "tin-foil hat":)
Actually there are unconfirmed rumors that the hardware runs at a higher clock rate.
Even if the rumours are true, which I doubt, any games produced will still have to work across all the PS3 consoles so nothing really has changed. Nothing would piss off your customer base than if the vendor allowed gaming houses to produce games that would only work on the higher spec PS3 console. This also applies to Xbox360 and Wii as well. I know this type of thing does occur on PC's with games produced that have a maximum and minimum PC hardware spec, however consoles are different.
Basically with the exception of PS2 backwards compatibility and the ability to boot an alternative OS the basic specs of the PS3 have not really changed since the machine was first produced. Ok they dropped SD, MS and compact flash support but you can still get that with an adaptor and even only having 2 USB ports (original was 4) you can still extend for a small dollar outlay, ditto with hdmi and component cables. As for the hard drive you can change it yourself for a much larger one if you want and this has not changed from the original PS3. The original 20GB PS3 did not have WiFi however this was later dropped and all PS3's came with WiFi, however the choice of not having WiFi was up to the early adopters and all they saved was a few dollars.
If you want rumble on your controller you have to buy a new controller (Dualshock 3), however this still does not stop a player playing any game with the basic six-axis controller. Again the basics have remained the same so changing the clock frequency will not really change the basics.
I only run an anti-virus once every six months or so... I still have never gotten a virus.
Anti-virus? I can't find that on my Fedora laptop and I leave my machine on 24x7. In addition I update on a regular basis (once or twice a week) and only reboot when I get a new kernel (about twice a month) if I feel like it. Total updates per month come to approx 200 MB when using delta rpms. I do make sure each member of my family has a separate login and no one works as root, so I have yet to see or experience a Linux virus.
Oh you mean anti-virus for MS Windows? Well I do have virtualised MS XP SP2 but for the life of me I can't work out what to use this for.:)
My HD TV is three years old, and it supports 480i, 480p, and 1080i only. Many TVs function in this way, including many made by Sony! An HD TV is a large purchase, and most purchasers are hoping to get something close to a decade of use from their TV.
Sorry you don't have a HDTV, you basically have a Standard Def TV. Look at the following for more HDTV information (see the two tables). Even TV's advertised as 1080i where only "HDTV ready" which is IMHO a con (yes I did get one of these over 6 years ago). If you want a real HDTV your TV must support 720p and/or 1080p as well as having backwards compatible SDTV support of 480i/p (NTSC) or 576i/p (PAL) depending which country you are living in. HDMI input is an option although preferred but component input is mandatory. If all you have is composite, S-video or even SCART inputs then you definitely will not display HD content.
Actually saying HDTV's are expensive is not right. For large (say 50" plus) costs are high but smaller (32") HDTV's are reasonably cheap. In fact you can get a 24" 1080p monitor with HDMI input for less than US$200 all you need is either a HD set top box or a HD HDD recorder (better value for your money) or even use it on your PC (great for gaming as well). Personally I don't really care for HD or even SD tuners in my HDTV since I only teat my TV as a monitor.
You know you can get a PS2 new for $100 or a used one for around $50 right?
Yes but a PS2 does not up-scale and smooth a PS2 game to 720p or 1080p. Ok you can get an up-scaling amplifier but they are not that cheap. Personally I would rather have one device that can play PS1, PS2 and PS3 games and I do:)
If you read the article they surveyed 5000 people although they did not say what was the breakup of the number of PS3, Xbox360 and Wii owners surveyed. Assuming say approx 1,600 per console (3 way equal split) that is not a very good population statistically speaking. I wonder what their demographic (geographical, console age... etc) and confidence factor were and how did they actually extrapolate the results? Sounds like poor statical analysis techniques, still if you get more readers then I suppose they have done their job. Too bad that these results will be quoted verbatim as "truth" by other bloggers with an axe to grind.
For mysterious reasons, Sony is slugging those of us in the EU and Australia an extra US$120 for the honour of buying their console.
I suppose you have not looked at what the Xbox360 and Wii costs in Australia. Hint, they all do it.:)
I actually brought my BC PS3 from "Game" for the equivalent of US$400 (retail at the time was over US$800) over two years ago including trading my old "fat" PS2 and 10 games. I have never regretted doing this.
While I am on a roll here have you looked at the price of Games in Australia compared to the US? It actually is cheaper to import a game, in fact it is sometimes better especially since our "nanny state" minded politicians have deemed that R18 classifications for so called adult games will hurt our "young adults" and may be used by under aged gamers. That however is a rant for another day.
Actually PS3 and Xbox360 games do have a tendency to drop dramatically in price (usually by 50% to 60%) after about six months but with the exception of shovel-ware most so called AAA games on the Wii have kept nearly the same price even after two years.
I'm guessing they are removing support for this as it made ripping blu-ray movies very easy, if you knew how.
Just a guess, wouldn't want Sony's own product ripping a Sony owned format!
If you want to rip Blu-ray movies you can do this now on your PC and then burn the movie to your Blu-ray media on your Blu-ray burner which can be got for under US$200. I am not sure if this would work though and it could be expensive to find out since the media is not as cheap as DVD yet. If you can get a HD movie into a format that the PS3 supports and put that onto a USB Hard Disk or USB key and it will play on your PS3. My son downloaded an "avi" formatted TV show and it played and looked really nice on our HDTV via our PS3.
Take a look at the back of the original PS1 and PS2 and you will see they have same figure "8" AC 240/110V connectors. In fact many appliances have that type of connector for AC. The Wikipedia article has been changed and there is now no reference to the so called "power-brick".
sigh no PS2 no Linux next they will remove the Blu-Ray
Removing Blu-ray would be totally stupid for Sony and won't happen. One of the main reasons for choosing Blu-ray in the first place was to push a High-Definition media format for movies and games (ie. 25 GB and 50 GB). So far this appears to be working quite well since the price of Blu-ray burners and media has dropped significantly and if you want you can compare this to the price of DVD player/recorders and media back in 2000.
I personally think PS2 BC should be brought back (I have a 60GB PAL BC PS3) although I have not looked at the statistics of the people who did not care. Personally I have a feeling the majority of people asked about this did not even know what BC was and where not informed. For a correct survey the people surveyed should have some clue or be informed properly, not doing this is what I call "Hedge Statistics".
It's also not clear yet how hard it'll be to upgrade the HD in the 'slim' model, if it's possible at all.
The Hard Disk access slot is in the front of the machine at the bottom. In fact you can easily change the disk just like the "fat" PS3 and not void your warranty. There are pictures on You-Tube that show you how to do this on the "slim" PS3.
No doubt they *can* make it stop working on my existing PS3 if I choose to install their update. But it doesn't say anywhere that they are planning to remove it. I highly doubt they are, since the cost of maintenance on leaving it there is zero.
In the case of choosing an alternate OS (ie. a Linux Distribution) it is rather pointless to remove the option while still supporting the previous PS3's. I did read that a John Koller, Sony's director of hardware marketing stated that they are only concerned with the PS3 OS but I have a feeling he had no real technical expertise since the same person stated that the PS3 slim would have a power brick which is clearly untrue.
I love this quote from John re PS2 backwards compatibility. "It's not coming back, so let me put that on the table, Koller says with an air of finality. But it's all people ever talk about!" - You have got to be kidding me, what arrogance or is this the reporter quoting out of context. If allot of people are talking about BC then wouldn't it be a good idea to implement it and get more people interested in purchasing a PS3. Many original PS2 owners do have games that they would still love to play on a BC PS3.
I have a BC PS3 (PAL version so it's predominately software emulation) which support well over 85% of PS2 games (6 out 60 of my PS2 games have artefacts - all work). One of the nice things about BC on the PS3 is your PS2 games are up-scaled to 720p and/or 1080p and smoothed. The difference between PS1 and PS2 games is quite significant while the difference between a PS2 game and PS3 game while not as detailed graphically is not as significantly between the graphics of a PS1 compared to the graphics of a PS2 game. I find that playing a PS2 game on my PS3 is retro gaming with very good graphics that is not hugely different and just as much fun as playing PS3 games.
Personally I do play PS2 games on my PS3 and do save a considerable amount of money. I have over 20 PS3 titles but I still like playing many of my PS2 games. As for playing PS1 games I rarely do that now, finding the graphics even though up-scaled and smoothed are nothing like what a good PS2 game looks like on my HDTV.
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The new update never removed support for Linux on the FAT PS3. It is only on the Slim that the other OS feature has been removed.
You can store WiiWare and Virtual Console games on any SD card you put in the slot. They were digitally signed, however, when you downloaded them from Nintendo at the time of purchase, tying them to your machine, so you can't SneakerNet your friend a copy of Ocarina of Time.
I have a FAT backwards compatible PS3 and have SD/CF/MS slots as well as four USB slots. Later release PS3's have only two USB slots however with cheap adaptors you can easily backup to SD, CF or MS devices, heck you can even backup too and recover from any USB connected hard disk or flash device. You can even use any USB storage device as an addition storage device for photos, films or music. In fact all you need to do is rip any video and put it in an MP4 container on a flash card or even a USB hard disk and you can display it via your PS3. Of course making the PS3 act as media server is much better.
If you purchase a downloadable game you can backup and recover but only to the PS3 you originally purchased the game for. This is the main reason why I don't like purchasing downloadable games. If you have to get your PS3 repaired you will have to download your game again but the only cost will be the charge from your Service Provider. PS1 (all PS3's will play these) and PS2 (not on the newer PS3's) game saves can be backed up to card or any USB device and recovered to any PS3. I am not sure about PS3 game saves being put back on a different PS3 though although can definitely back them up and recover them to your own PS3.
Exactly. Consoles have always been a locked down device versus the openness of PC. I dont know why people are surprised when this kind of stuff happens.
While I prefer a console gaming over PC gaming if you want the latest state of art gaming then PC's may be the best way of going, however it is going to cost you much more than what it costs for a console. Even stating that you can get monitors that have a much higher resolution than 1080p (1920x1080) they are much more expensive and lets be honest here how many gamers have monitors that are more then 24" and have a better resolution than 1080p? Note: 1680x1050 is actually not as good a resolution as 1080p.
It would be fair to say that many households that purchase a HD console (PS3 or Xbox360) also have purchased a HDTV varying in size from 32" (82cm) to over 50" (127cm), how many PC gamers can honestly say they have screens of this size or even connect their PC to the family HD TV? Ok there may be a few but not that many.
As to "openness of a PC" well if you use open software then I would agree with you but most PC gamers are using a Microsoft OS which is not very open. Even if you ignore the fact that you are locked into Microsoft you may have to upgrade your hardware just to play more advanced or resource hungry games. With consoles you just put your CD/DVD (or BD if you have a PS3) disk in and play. If you have a PS3 or Xbox360 (I am talking about HD gaming so the Wii is not considered) you can even play some games from your hard disk.
Of all the consoles and I am including the Wii here the PS3 is probably the most open in that you can put in any 2.5" SATA disk without voiding your warranty in fact the instruction manual shows you how to do this. If you have the FAT PS3 you can even put Linux on it although to be fair very few people would do this.
I think "A Texas company" says it all. I could be wrong but it seems that too many Patent Trolls love Texas. Unfortunately I think trial by jury may not backfire since many cases that go before a jury in Texas do find for the plaintive.
No I won't read the patent numbered 5,299,313 which was issued in 1994 to 3Com and should have expired by now since I don't want a headache and maybe I just dreamed I was using 10base5 Ethernet in 1982, then 10base2 in 1984 and 10baseT in 1986 although I am fairly sure these existed before those dates.
Actually if you don't like PulseAudio you can remove it and just use other audio packages like Alsa. I found PulseAudio was painful to use since it was like you had to fill up a bucket before the sound was acceptable, unfortunately I got pops and drop-outs which were annoying so I just removed it and stuck with Alsa which does have some latency issues but nothing like PulseAudio. Still if you use Fedora 11 like I do I can't really complain since these are the sort of things you expect when you are on a cutting edge release..
My main complaint at the moment is ZSNES and GENS which use SDL. The sound worked well in Fedora 10 but since Fedora 11 sound does not work for these applications even after removing PuseAudio. I don't have any issue with Xine or VLC providing I select Alsa or just remove PuseAudio. This is not a big problem for me but one day I would like to get this fixed. I am hoping this is going to be fixed in Fedora 12 although I won't hold my breath.
A patent should be defined as a solution to a problem. Define a problem, give it to someone with no prior knowledge of the solution, ask for a solution, then compare the answers (if there are any) to the one the patent came up with. You should be able to present the problem it to peers in a field and determine if it is obvious or not based on their answers (or lack of).
I can see were you are coming at but what you have said actually reinforces software or any abstract idea as patentable. What is really needed is to define what can and cannot be patentable and that is not going to be easy since patents are defined according to how the law perceives patents and to make things even more difficult it is very easy to misinterpret what is ment in one language to what the translation means in another. It becomes even more difficult when your own language (in my case English) can also be interpreted in different ways in the eyes of the Law.
To ask a peer to look at whether a patent is obvious or not is commendable but not really practical since it would be just about impossible to get a peer review since money is usually involved and the cost of getting a patent revoked once issued no matter how stupid or trivial can be very expensive.
I think the best way of getting rid of stupid patents is not to allow abstract ideas or mathematical concepts but to insist on physical results. However when I look at some physical electrical patents (I am an Electrical Engineer) I am appalled, since some of these are actually based on a minor change to an existing system and IMHO this should never be patentable. At least getting rid of software patents could go a long way to fixing what is really a complex issue.
The kids don't need to hack the computer to play a game, many according to some Australian newspapers are just using the machine to access Facebook and Twitter and in some schools they are employing the "Great Australian Educational Firewall" to stop this type of thing happening with the added consequence that most students just loose interest in their net-book. Even some teachers are insisting that net-books are switched off since they can be disruptive during lessons. Lets not mention that 10.1" screens can be a little hard on the eyes during extended use and the Opposition is having a field day with this.
Yes this is just "Bread and Circuses" and us Australian taxpayers are paying for this. At least the Government can now go to the people and say "We have given your children net-book computers, they are now part of the Smart Society". Guess who I aren't voting for this next election, not that I did last time.
ReactOS is currently version 3.1 (no really) and hope very soon to bring out 3.11 (their words not mine). I have used version 3.1 and it seems to be working although I never have installed a game on it but I did install Firefox 3.0.11 and it works fine but the font's (my eyes!). The OS does start very quickly and no virus protection warnings like MS XP when running virtualised. What did surprised me was this OS has multiple sessions. It does run solitaire and minesweeper from it's menu though.
Translation: Major industry vendors will be able to get together, trash and make threats against real Open Source projects, all under the banner of OSS.
Having a quick browse of the web site it reads like "Open Source - designed by committee and sponsored by Microsoft".
The only problem with the site is there is no code and there is no Board of Directors. I can understand a steering committee but "Board of Directors" for an open source site? Forcing myself to read further I found this gem:
We don't have it all figured out yet. We know that commercial software developers are under-represented on open source projects. We know that commercial software companies face very specific challenges in determining how to engage with open source communities. We know that there are misunderstandings on both sides. Our aim is to advance the IT industry for both commercial software companies and open source communities by helping to meet these challenges.
I am sure people are clamouring to sign up especially since I could not find what type of license is being recommended although to be honest I could not be bothered reading any further.
When reading what Sony said about removing Linux support they really are reneging on another promise which also include PS2 backwards compatibility. The so called tech speak of "Unfortunately in this case the cost of OtherOS install did not fit with the wider objective to offer a lower cost PS3" is highly debatable since the PS3 is a console and even though the components have been reduced the basic hardware infrastructure remains the same. If I can take a x86_64 or even i386 Linux Distribution DVD and install it on a PC the OS will basically work since all drivers have been provided then a Linux Distribution for the power PC should also work on the PS3 in fact I would go as far as saying that most of the work done on the distributions that will intall on a PS3 has been done by the Linux community not Sony.
Having had my rant having the ability of installing Linux would only be done by a few people and those people who have done this already have the "fat" PS3 so in some ways this ability would hardly be used so I can understand Sony removing the capability but to say this significantly costs Sony is total BS. All you need is one person on an irregular basis to update any new drivers for the new firmware and everyone benefits.
I do have a "fat" PS3 which is PS2 backwards compatible (I do use this feature) however I have never installed Linux on it preferring to put Linux on my PC instead. Is this being hypocritical well no since I have the choice and in this case my PC won but at least I have the choice however now with the slim PS3 you don't. Some people will care however the majority won't.
I am however on my 5th PS2. Sony fanboys are quick to point out the 360's 3rod issue (and yes I know its real and exists) and claim that rebuy's is why the 360 is ahead, but are just as quick to brag about the 100 million PS2 sales without taking into account the rebuy's there.
Well I purchased a PS2 in March of 2000 and it lasted about 18 months before the disk died. The only reason why my PS2 failed was my wife accidentally kicked it (she was not looking at the time) which to both my sons was what is called a "Kodak moment". I got a free PS2 when my wife wanted a new mobile and this one lasted me over 5 years without any problems until I traded it for a backwards compatible PS3.
My reason for not liking Microsoft (no I don't use M$) is the fact I have worked with Microsoft OS's for years and found them to extremely annoying, preferring Unix and Linux. In addition I don't like their ethics so I won't buy their products. If people don't like that stiff!
You are right if you wish to believe the article however if you read the article they actually took a sampling of 5000 people with Xbox360's which is something like 0.016% of the total population of Xbox360's. It would be interesting to see the methodology used by the people who arrived at the 50% plus failure rate. If I handed a statistical paper to any stats teacher with conclusions like that from such a small population I would fail.
;)
No I am not apologising for Microsoft but even if there was an all over failure rate of 20% (even 10% is bad) this is still an indictable offence and from what I can gather (this article may be a bit old) Microsoft may be facing litigation on this.
Note I arrived at 20% using a crystal ball and hearsay from some of my neighbours who don't have an Xbox360
Yeah, the Wii controllers are far more precise for aiming and shooting than a standard gamepad. Not necessarily better; but they're the closest thing a console has to a mouse. The Wii should be the console of choice for FPS; I think it isn't, mainly because FPS fans tend to be absolute graphic whores.
Using a pointing device is only one aspect of a FPS game. Having a keyboard and the ability to set up macros can also be a huge advantage and this is one area the Wii controller fails in. Even the PS1, Ps2 and original Xbox controllers have more buttons than the Wii. Using the Wii controller as pointing device would still be next to useless against a high quality mouse.
Consider this, a person with a Wii pointing device basically has to point the device and that means picking the controller up and pointing (resting is not an option if you want to be quick) and this is going to get tiring really quick. The person with the mouse only has to rest their hand on the mouse and move it and at the same time get a high degree of accuracy from fairly simple movements as well as having the ability to continue doing this for quite long periods without tiring.
For a short time the person using a Wii controller may have a small advantage over the person using a mouse in a FPS but after a few minutes they are going to tire and the person using the mouse will trounce them.
As for a console having a mouse, with the PS3 you can easily add a mouse and keyboard (wireless or wired). I think the Xbox360 can also do this but I am not sure.
It's a video game console. How many PS3 owners do you think actually set up a dual-boot?
I swear, some people will find anything to whine about it.
For those who have already purchased a PS3 this is a moot point since they can still dual boot, however you are correct very few would do it. Obviously I am not privy to why Sony took dual booting off in the "Slim" off but I have a feeling DRM rears it ugly head here since if you can put on a Linux distro you can easily put on applications such as FakeNES, Gens, ZSNES and even MAME to name a few emulators. Leaving the dual boot on would not cost Sony anything since it is done in firmware which is already available to all original FAT PS3's. Rapidly puts of "tin-foil hat" :)
Actually there are unconfirmed rumors that the hardware runs at a higher clock rate.
Even if the rumours are true, which I doubt, any games produced will still have to work across all the PS3 consoles so nothing really has changed. Nothing would piss off your customer base than if the vendor allowed gaming houses to produce games that would only work on the higher spec PS3 console. This also applies to Xbox360 and Wii as well. I know this type of thing does occur on PC's with games produced that have a maximum and minimum PC hardware spec, however consoles are different.
Basically with the exception of PS2 backwards compatibility and the ability to boot an alternative OS the basic specs of the PS3 have not really changed since the machine was first produced. Ok they dropped SD, MS and compact flash support but you can still get that with an adaptor and even only having 2 USB ports (original was 4) you can still extend for a small dollar outlay, ditto with hdmi and component cables. As for the hard drive you can change it yourself for a much larger one if you want and this has not changed from the original PS3. The original 20GB PS3 did not have WiFi however this was later dropped and all PS3's came with WiFi, however the choice of not having WiFi was up to the early adopters and all they saved was a few dollars.
If you want rumble on your controller you have to buy a new controller (Dualshock 3), however this still does not stop a player playing any game with the basic six-axis controller. Again the basics have remained the same so changing the clock frequency will not really change the basics.
I only run an anti-virus once every six months or so... I still have never gotten a virus.
Anti-virus? I can't find that on my Fedora laptop and I leave my machine on 24x7. In addition I update on a regular basis (once or twice a week) and only reboot when I get a new kernel (about twice a month) if I feel like it. Total updates per month come to approx 200 MB when using delta rpms. I do make sure each member of my family has a separate login and no one works as root, so I have yet to see or experience a Linux virus.
:)
Oh you mean anti-virus for MS Windows? Well I do have virtualised MS XP SP2 but for the life of me I can't work out what to use this for.
My HD TV is three years old, and it supports 480i, 480p, and 1080i only. Many TVs function in this way, including many made by Sony! An HD TV is a large purchase, and most purchasers are hoping to get something close to a decade of use from their TV.
Sorry you don't have a HDTV, you basically have a Standard Def TV. Look at the following for more HDTV information (see the two tables). Even TV's advertised as 1080i where only "HDTV ready" which is IMHO a con (yes I did get one of these over 6 years ago). If you want a real HDTV your TV must support 720p and/or 1080p as well as having backwards compatible SDTV support of 480i/p (NTSC) or 576i/p (PAL) depending which country you are living in. HDMI input is an option although preferred but component input is mandatory. If all you have is composite, S-video or even SCART inputs then you definitely will not display HD content.
Actually saying HDTV's are expensive is not right. For large (say 50" plus) costs are high but smaller (32") HDTV's are reasonably cheap. In fact you can get a 24" 1080p monitor with HDMI input for less than US$200 all you need is either a HD set top box or a HD HDD recorder (better value for your money) or even use it on your PC (great for gaming as well). Personally I don't really care for HD or even SD tuners in my HDTV since I only teat my TV as a monitor.
You know you can get a PS2 new for $100 or a used one for around $50 right?
Yes but a PS2 does not up-scale and smooth a PS2 game to 720p or 1080p. Ok you can get an up-scaling amplifier but they are not that cheap. Personally I would rather have one device that can play PS1, PS2 and PS3 games and I do :)
The failure rates were published on joystiq a couple of days ago: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/17/game-informer-xbox-360-at-54-2-
If you read the article they surveyed 5000 people although they did not say what was the breakup of the number of PS3, Xbox360 and Wii owners surveyed. Assuming say approx 1,600 per console (3 way equal split) that is not a very good population statistically speaking. I wonder what their demographic (geographical, console age ... etc) and confidence factor were and how did they actually extrapolate the results? Sounds like poor statical analysis techniques, still if you get more readers then I suppose they have done their job. Too bad that these results will be quoted verbatim as "truth" by other bloggers with an axe to grind.
For mysterious reasons, Sony is slugging those of us in the EU and Australia an extra US$120 for the honour of buying their console.
I suppose you have not looked at what the Xbox360 and Wii costs in Australia. Hint, they all do it. :)
I actually brought my BC PS3 from "Game" for the equivalent of US$400 (retail at the time was over US$800) over two years ago including trading my old "fat" PS2 and 10 games. I have never regretted doing this.
While I am on a roll here have you looked at the price of Games in Australia compared to the US? It actually is cheaper to import a game, in fact it is sometimes better especially since our "nanny state" minded politicians have deemed that R18 classifications for so called adult games will hurt our "young adults" and may be used by under aged gamers. That however is a rant for another day.
Actually PS3 and Xbox360 games do have a tendency to drop dramatically in price (usually by 50% to 60%) after about six months but with the exception of shovel-ware most so called AAA games on the Wii have kept nearly the same price even after two years.
I'm guessing they are removing support for this as it made ripping blu-ray movies very easy, if you knew how.
Just a guess, wouldn't want Sony's own product ripping a Sony owned format!
If you want to rip Blu-ray movies you can do this now on your PC and then burn the movie to your Blu-ray media on your Blu-ray burner which can be got for under US$200. I am not sure if this would work though and it could be expensive to find out since the media is not as cheap as DVD yet. If you can get a HD movie into a format that the PS3 supports and put that onto a USB Hard Disk or USB key and it will play on your PS3. My son downloaded an "avi" formatted TV show and it played and looked really nice on our HDTV via our PS3.
Take a look at the back of the original PS1 and PS2 and you will see they have same figure "8" AC 240/110V connectors. In fact many appliances have that type of connector for AC. The Wikipedia article has been changed and there is now no reference to the so called "power-brick".
sigh no PS2 no Linux next they will remove the Blu-Ray
Removing Blu-ray would be totally stupid for Sony and won't happen. One of the main reasons for choosing Blu-ray in the first place was to push a High-Definition media format for movies and games (ie. 25 GB and 50 GB). So far this appears to be working quite well since the price of Blu-ray burners and media has dropped significantly and if you want you can compare this to the price of DVD player/recorders and media back in 2000.
I personally think PS2 BC should be brought back (I have a 60GB PAL BC PS3) although I have not looked at the statistics of the people who did not care. Personally I have a feeling the majority of people asked about this did not even know what BC was and where not informed. For a correct survey the people surveyed should have some clue or be informed properly, not doing this is what I call "Hedge Statistics".
It's also not clear yet how hard it'll be to upgrade the HD in the 'slim' model, if it's possible at all.
The Hard Disk access slot is in the front of the machine at the bottom. In fact you can easily change the disk just like the "fat" PS3 and not void your warranty. There are pictures on You-Tube that show you how to do this on the "slim" PS3.
No doubt they *can* make it stop working on my existing PS3 if I choose to install their update. But it doesn't say anywhere that they are planning to remove it. I highly doubt they are, since the cost of maintenance on leaving it there is zero.
In the case of choosing an alternate OS (ie. a Linux Distribution) it is rather pointless to remove the option while still supporting the previous PS3's. I did read that a John Koller, Sony's director of hardware marketing stated that they are only concerned with the PS3 OS but I have a feeling he had no real technical expertise since the same person stated that the PS3 slim would have a power brick which is clearly untrue.
I love this quote from John re PS2 backwards compatibility. "It's not coming back, so let me put that on the table, Koller says with an air of finality. But it's all people ever talk about!" - You have got to be kidding me, what arrogance or is this the reporter quoting out of context. If allot of people are talking about BC then wouldn't it be a good idea to implement it and get more people interested in purchasing a PS3. Many original PS2 owners do have games that they would still love to play on a BC PS3.
I have a BC PS3 (PAL version so it's predominately software emulation) which support well over 85% of PS2 games (6 out 60 of my PS2 games have artefacts - all work). One of the nice things about BC on the PS3 is your PS2 games are up-scaled to 720p and/or 1080p and smoothed. The difference between PS1 and PS2 games is quite significant while the difference between a PS2 game and PS3 game while not as detailed graphically is not as significantly between the graphics of a PS1 compared to the graphics of a PS2 game. I find that playing a PS2 game on my PS3 is retro gaming with very good graphics that is not hugely different and just as much fun as playing PS3 games.
Personally I do play PS2 games on my PS3 and do save a considerable amount of money. I have over 20 PS3 titles but I still like playing many of my PS2 games. As for playing PS1 games I rarely do that now, finding the graphics even though up-scaled and smoothed are nothing like what a good PS2 game looks like on my HDTV.