You are right it is possible to design devices that take a few milliwatts in standby however you have to realise that the power for the detection device (infrared, Blutooth, Wireless) comes from a transformer which has a low voltage tap that has to be converted to DC. Doing this does consume power even though it can be quite small however that plus the detection circuitry consumption does add up. Most commercial products have been designed to consume 1W or less and all the entertainment equipment I have has this specification. Of course once you switch all this on you don't have to worry about heating the living room in winter:-)
Just about all electronic equipment has what I would call useless add-ons such as digital clocks. Manufacturers are not stupid they want to sell their product and if they feel a clock or other non-essential add-on will make their product more attractive they will add this in as long as the total standby consumption is less than 1W.
The best way to switch off your entertainment system is via central isolator but do you want to keep reseting your timer clocks every time you power it up? You can switch off non-essential equipment by throwing the main power switch on each device that does not have a clock but this gets tedious.
This post actually sparked my curiosity on the latest consoles standby modes and surprisingly the PS3 came out well under 1W. The Wii came out at 8W (wow!) and the Xbox360 came out at 2W. However when the consoles were doing something the PS3 runs at approx 200W to the Wii's 17W and the Xbox360's 160W http://www.digitaldisplacement.com/?p=1907. If you only have a Wii then yes you can say the PS3 sucks for running power, however we are comparing a machine (Wii) that outputs Standard Def graphics compared to a machine that outputs to 1080p so the Xbox360 owners can take comfort that their machine does not use as much power (of course that does not include the hard drive or the HD-DVD so consumption could be much higher). If you have a gaming PC it is not advisable to say anything about any of the console running costs, "least ye be stoned to death":-)
The problem with any electronic device is they (to state the obvious) consume power so manufactureres have opted for approx 1W in standby mode. Unfortunately if you take a stereo amp plus active woofer a TV, HDD DVD recorder, set-top box (if you have one) and a least one game console (assuming they also consume 1W in standby) and you have a total of 7W consumption. Now extrapolate that to 10M people (I am being very conservative here) and that is 70MW overall consumption just for your entertainment system to do nothing.
Of course once you turn on your entertainment system the power consumption (taking the above example) can easily jump to 7GW even with fairly conservative systems. Now try the same simple maths with your fridge, microwave oven, oven clock (in fact any clock) and anything else that consumes power in standby. Add in lights even low wattage ones and your hot water heater (assume electrical off-peak not gas or solar) and the power consumption is massive. With regard to PC's and laptops consumption is dependent on what you have and can vary between 20W to over 1000W, It is possible to put a laptop in standby or sleep mode but this depends on if you are using your laptop as a standalone machine.
So what are we going to do about all that wastage? Well if you pay for your electricity and you want convenience then absolutely nothing and this is what most people will do.
By using 65nm technology or even smaller you don't necessarily produce a cpu (in this case a triple core) that runs at a lower temperature unless you can run the device at a lower voltage and current (Note: Power = Voltage x Current), if the power is equal then the overall surface area of the chip will be hotter requiring a much more efficient heat dissipation system.
The main reason for reducing a chip by using 65 nm technology is to produce more working chips from a single wafer and this translates to cost saving. Shrinking electronics is a cost saving in real estate but you normally end up trying to dissipate the same heat of the original device which could lead to a more unstable system and to-date Microsoft's Q&A on their Xbox360 has not been good, still time will tell.
I actually got my Australian PS3 for US$407 with a trade-in of my 5 year old PS2 and 10 old games and I definitely don't feel screwed. Still even though there are not many PS3 games I like at the moment I have huge selection of PS2 games to pick from and upscaled PS2 and even PS1 games give a good game a new lease of life. The difficulty I have now is deciding which PS2 games to play. I can even use my Logitech 2 PS2 wireless (even has rumble) controller with the PS2 to PS3 USB adapter.
On a slight aside if you did not know already, you don't need your PS3 to charge your sixaxis controller just plug it into any working PC USB port, it will flash all leds while charging and all go off when it is finished. Saves leaving the PS3 running all night unless you are running Folding@Home.
Ok HD-DVD has had the "shit cracked out of it". Sounds like a ripper's dream except I don't think you are going to get much content since all the movie companies will drop the HD-DVD format as their preferred distribution media since like it or not they want DRM. Basically this would be to Blu-ray's advantage.
Still to rip a Blu-ray or HD-DVD movie you have to have a Blu-ray or HD-DVD player on your PC and the requisite software to rip the disk. From what I can gather High Def player/recorder devices will be available for approx US$300 in the next few months. If there is a ripper available I hope you have a huge amount of disk storage unless you are going shrink the movie down to a manageable size which will most likely loose it's HD capability so you would most likely be better off getting a DVD and ripping that.
Personally I don't like DRM since it makes it difficult for me to play legitimately purchased DVD's on my laptop running Fedora 7 although I can play recorded DVD's from my HDD recorder. As an aside I can play the recorded DVD on my PS3 and upscale it via HDMI as well (looks impressive). Well back to the forums to find out how to circumvent this annoyance.
The minidisk was first introduced in 1992 and had to compeat against pre-recorded music on tape cassettes and CD's. The minidisk was initially more expensive although technically superior since you could record on it over and over again compared to the cassette as well as storing more music than a standard CD, still the player and recorder were much more expensive and this made adoption by the public very slow. The MP3 player did not get introduced till 1997 which was 5 years later and it still took a few more years to kill off cassettes. It may be possible that music pay for down load-will kill the CD but that has not happened yet.
> UMD sucks
In what way does UMB suck? Just because it is a proprietary format and as I stated in my original post it will most likely never get used outside of the PSP but from an engineering perspective it is quite a practical format. Ask your self what media would you use on a hand portable device to put games or movies on keeping in mind that when the PSP came out a 2GB or more flash card was not cheap (if you could get one).
If you want to complain about proprietary formats look at all the game makers, none of their formats are open and they are limited to their own devices. Actually Sony's PSP and PS3 are probably more open than all other other game consoles since you can put Linux on the PS3 and even use third party flash cards. You can even do home-brew on the PSP although to be fair I don't think Sony expected that but in a rather strange way it has helped them.
I am not sure what you mean the PSP never took off. If you mean that the Nintendo DS is about 44M to the PSP's 22M http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=DS®1=All& cons2=PSP®2=All&cons3=GC®3=All then then relative to the DS the PSP is a failure, however numbers don't tell the full story. There is a huge home brew market for the PSP and hundreds of UMD games which normally means that software houses are supporting it which is a very good indication that Sony is making a profit. Since the PSP is almost twice the price of a DS the overall retail sales are on par.
The PSP is targeted at the mid teen to adult, while the DS targets children up to adults although you would need to see the statistics and those would be very difficult to get. All I can say that the PSP has more of an adult audience than the DS since it can do so much more than just play games. In addition the PSP can use the PS3 as a media server and that alone makes it a high end multimedia device.
Nintendo has had incredible luck with their portables (marketing??, public perception?? and games??). A good example is the original gameboy (monochrome display) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy which dominated the market for years even when other technically superior full colour hand-held devices appeared in the market and failed. It was not till a few years later that Nintendo came out with the colour gameboy. For the Sony PSP to even approach half the sales of the DS is not what I would call a failure.
Now if you want failure take a look at the Xbox vs the Gamecube. Both sold approx 11M to 10M respectively however Microsoft lost over US$5 billion while Nintendo made a profit. From my own personal perspective I don't have anything against Nintendo (I have a Gamecube, N64, SNES and NES) or Sony (PS1, PS2 and now a PS3). I could not give a fig for Microsoft (this is Slashdot anyway) although I do have a Microsoft wireless mouse which is very good.
I used to spoof my browser but don't do it anymore. If I end up at a site that requires Microsoft IE I don't care I go elsewhere, however I know that just by doing this I have left information to say that that a non IE browser has tried to connect and they have just lost a potential customer. If enough people did this then maybe the site's management and web designers would get the message. IMHO if you feel that a site is not supporting your browser then don't use that site. If that site is a banking institution then change banks, after all this attitude from your bank shows how much they value you as a customer. You may actually save money, still it is your call.
Where I work it is mandatory that all internal web designs support both IE and Firefox. When this started we use to see Firefox break often but after a while and some complaining we are now seeing IE break as our web designers stick to web standards with minor tweaking for Firefox but a major pain for IE.
We even have a work policy allowing the user to have Linux on the desktop providing they can do their work. Some have taken this up but unfortunately this will take time since management has not come up with recommended distributions. What slows down adoption is the fact that there is a considerable amount of Microsoft centric software that make a compleat switch difficult. A dual boot is possible but from my experience it is far to easy to backslide back to MS Windows. For my home laptop I only have Fedora 7 on it so I cannot revert back to MS Windows and it does everything I want except for playing the latest Games for MS Windows. Still that is what I have a PS3 and Gamecube for since I have never been that interested in PC games.
The PS3 can do so much more then play Blu-ray movies although I do have to admit a Blu-ray movie played to a HDTV looks great. Even DVD movies are upscaled via the PS3 to a HDTV via HDMI and the result is impressive. My son has a PSP and he can put MP4 movies onto his 2GB Memory Stick, ripped from his DVD's and play them back via his PSP though the PS3 and the output is also upscaled with impressive results. We have not played with this much so although I think it is possible to put the MP4 directly to the PS3.
As many know you can put Linux on the PS3 and this means you have all the Linux emulators (NES, SNES, Mame... etc) to play your old (cough!) rom games. In fact what you can do with linux you can do on the PS3 although you don't have full access to all the hardware yet.
The PS3 can act as a media server although you may be better off using your PC as the server and the PS3 as the display device. You can even upgrade the PS3's 2.5" disk disk with a standard 2.5" disk without voiding your warranty. If you like you can use SD, Memory Stick or Compact Flash cards to transport your data, which could be from a camera, music files or even MP4 files. I have not played with MP4's yet so I cannot advise.
I do have the Australian 60GB PS3 that has WiFi which works well with my wireless router (Netgear WTG624). Took me 5 minutes to setup and makes it easy to do on-line gaming or surfing the web (worth getting a wireless keyboard and mouse but you should get one that has a 3+ meter (approx 3 yard) range) if you are interested in that. You can even print your photographs to a printer (limited support at the moment) if you want.
What else? Well you can play games on it. What's this I hear there aren't many PS3 games yet, well there are thousands of PS2 and PS1 (if you can get them) and more PS2 games are coming out unlike other later release consoles and although I have an Australian PS3 I can play between 85% and over 90% of games and newer games do work. In fact I only have one game (Wizardry - sigh!) that does not work. What is really nice is the fact that most games (PS2 especially) are upscaled to 720p, 1080i or 1080p (configurable) via component or HDMI and the result makes a good game even better. As for PS1/2 memory cards you can create as many as you want as well as the ability to save your PS1/2 game saves to your flash cards if you want. You want rumble? you can use your existing wired or wireless PS2 dual shock controller (you do need a PS2 to USB adapter) with PS1/2 games if they support rumble.
I have only touched on the parts of the PS3 I have played with, for more information see the forums (caution some rabid fan-boys) and make up your own mind. If you think the Wii or the Xbox360 offers the best bang for your dollar over the PS3 then it's your money. IMHO the PS3 offers the best value for my money but it may not be the same for you.
The only downside of the PS3 I have found is my wife likes the ability to play HD and upscaled DVD movies and my son likes Oblivion (it is lucky he is also an avid PC gamer as well) so we have to time-share the HDTV. I have a Linux laptop that my wife can surf the web with so she does not need to use the PS3 to do this.
Actually the Minidisk was a very practical format when it first came out since it had a lower form factor and was much more robust than CD or tape cassette, unfortunately since it was competing against the cheaper CD's and cassettes it was not as popular. Actually Sony licensed the technology to numerous companies, but once MP3 players appeared this made the Minidisk even less attractive, of course the MP3 player also killed off the cassette player as well. For more information on the Minidisk see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniDisc.
The Memory Stick is a Sony format and is also licensed to other manufacturers so you can get Memory Sticks from Sony and other flash card manufactures. The price difference between SD flash card and a Memory Stick of the same capacity can vary from 10% to 100% more expensive, however this depends on the manufacturer.
As for choosing a camera, all camera manufacturers require you to use either SD, Compact Flash, MMC, XD or Memory Stick although I have personally found the Memory Stick is more expensive. Still if you want a PSP you do need a Memory Stick and i suppose you could call that vendor lock-in, however the PS3 allows you to use SD, Memory Stick or Compact Flash.
Nearly all manufactured products have some vendor lock-in because this means more profit for them, however most manufacturers realise that vendor lock-in can backfire on them so they license their products to other manufacturers so that they still make a profit although not as much as they would like if they kept it in-house. An example of licensing is CD's and DVD's, if you buy these items you actually are contributing to Sony who is actually part of the CD and DVD consortium's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_Forum#Founding_me mbers. So if you don't want anything to do with Sony then you should not buy CD's or DVD's.
Keeping on topic, the UMD like the Minidisk is also a practical format in that it is a cheap, small robust disk with a reasonable capacity (1.8GB) and is very suitable for the PSP and most likely restricted to it. It is debatable if it could replace the CD player (a few years too late) since MP3 payers are also dominating that market. Since you can get 2GB and 4GB Memory Sticks it is possible to put avi files (ripped from your "cough!" purchased DVD's) on them and play them on your PSP and you can even play these files via your PSP to your PS3 and the result can be quite impressive on a HDTV.
If you just want a console for games and are on a tight budget get a Wii, however you realize that the games you buy if you can afford them are only a few dollars cheaper than a comparable PS3 or Xbox360 game and will normally hold that price long after the other console games have dropped in price sometimes by a half. You only have to look at Gamecube games to determine this and even the Wii games that came out with the release of the console.
Why do people buy a PS3 over an Xbox or a Wii well the simple answer is they have the money and they can. Granted there are few PS3 games at the moment but there are well over a thousand PS2 games (even PS1 games if you can get them) and new games are still being produced for the PS2 (unlike the Xbox and the Gamecube), in addition the PS3 can play PS1/2 games as well as smoothing and upscaling them to 720p, 1080i or 1080p via component or HDMI cable. The PS3 will also play Blu-ray movies but it is also is one of the best upscaling DVD players in the market (do a Google search if you don't believe me). Networking and media services are also quite good although the Xbox360 has the better on-line gaming if you are interested in that (I am not), of course you pay for that.
Comparing any of the consoles is rather mute if you don't have a HDTV at 32" and 720p minimum and the bigger the better depending on your budget. IMHO a Standard Definition TV is rubbish compared to a HDTV although this depends on what you want to display on it. While the Wii does look good on a good quality 32" HDTV it does not look as good on a larger HDTV compared to what an Xbox360 and a PS3 can display. Before I hear "the game-play is more important then graphics", this is correct but "good game-play and good graphics" do add considerably to the enjoyment of playing a game. Personally I have found that PS3 smoothing and upscaling of some of my old PS1 games actually give those games a new lease on life.
I know there will be more games coming out for the PS3, but at the moment I have lots of PS2 and even PS1 games that I am enjoying playing again. In fact I have started to buy some later release PS2 games that I have wanted to buy but did not have the time to play them and I now find that I can get them quite cheaply so I am quite content to wait for a larger PS3 library. As for backwards compatibility for my Australian PS3 I have only one game that does not work (sob!) although approx 85% to 90% of PS3 games work with the release of V1.8 firmware and I know the newer release PS2 games also work.
For the Wii I am only interested in Zelda and Metroid games and since I have a Gamecube the Wii is not an attractive option yet. As for the Xbox360 (reliability issues aside) there are only 2 games I am interested in so overall I can live without one. With regard to the PS3 I have over 50 PS2 games and 20 PS1 games, many of them I really do like and have excellent replay value.
Picking the best of the next gen consoles is really difficult since it really depends on what features you want and what you can afford. With regard to games this depends on what you like, not everyone likes FPS, sports or racing games. You should also look at the long term view since consoles should have a life of at least 6 to 10 years. I personally like what the PS3 offers (the reader may have different ideas and thats ok with me) especially since I also got my PS3 legitimately from a major Games shop in Sydney for approx US$407 with the trade in of my 5 year PS2 and 10 old (to me they were) games. Not bad when you consider the PS3 sells in Australia for AU$999 (approx US$850). Actually at the moment the PS3 is doing quite well in Australia as are the sales of HDTV's but we only have a population of 21 million.
Don't think you deserve "flamebait". I would not like the annoyance of sending my console away for repair either (once inconveniently acceptable but more then that no way). Of course any mechanical device will eventually fail as will any electronic device although this will normally take longer.
Taking game controllers for example. I have always been impressed with Nintendo (SNES, N64 and Gamecube), Sega and even Sony controllers since I would expect a life of no more than a few hundred hours but all of the controllers I own still work well after years of use. I have found that I prefer to pay for the genuine controller even though it is more expensive since all my third party controllers failed after about 50 hours of use. The exception being my wireless dual shock from Logitech (excellent product which works well on my PS3). I can't comment on the reliability of the Microsoft controllers although I do have a wireless Microsoft mouse that I find very reliable.
All Manufacturer's when they make a product allow for approx less than 1% (usually a lot less) failure in the first year and hopefully less then 10% over 5 years although this does depend on the product. If any company wants the customer to purchase their products then those products must be seen as reliable hence they invest in quality control and use statistical analysis to extrapolate reliability since failures must be taken into account when setting the price of a product. This is standard business practice and even a 2% to 3% failure rate over a year is unacceptable.
It appears that Microsoft has not even taken into account Manufacturing reliability testing 101 and IMHO have appeared to treat their console the same way they treat their software, however having a failure rate of over 10% is ridiculous (over 30% is insane) no company except Microsoft could afford this type of failure rate, in fact a failure of this scale would drive most companies out of business. One billion dollar my be small change to Microsoft but it is still a considerable amount of money that must leave many share holders fuming.
Granted that Microsoft is now offering a three year warranty although I am not sure if this is on the full Xbox360 package but it is very annoying if you keep having to send your machine in for repair or swap. Eventually you are going to loose customer confidence and they will go elsewhere.
I realise that this may seem strange to some but many customers' do want reliable products and are willing to pay for them. An extended warranty is peace of mind but only if a product is perceived as reliable in the first place. When you are still paying a reasonable sum of money for an Xbox360 you would like it to last more than three years. On a PC a three year lifetime may be acceptable but on a console it is not.
Still got my PS1 and it still works although I hardly use it since all my PS1 games work on my PS3. I can even use my PS1 dual shock controller but I prefer the 6 axis one although for rumble if supported on the PS1 or PS2 game I would use the dual shock (PS1 or PS2). Even though my N64 still works I find that the controllers are IMHO horrible and one of our controllers has an issue with it's analog stick. I still have my original SNES but some of my sons friends thought it would be fun to take a hammer to the controller (boy was I pissed).
At the moment the CD is not obsolete since it is now predominately used to put music on it to play in your CD player. It is very fortunate that companies in the DVD consortium which includes Sony and Toshiba http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_Forum decided that the DVD would be the same size as the CD. When Blu-ray and HD-DVD were proposed it was again decided that the size of the disk would be the same size as the CD disk.
The reason for the original size from the article "both Sony and Philips compromised on the standard sampling rate of 44.1 kHz, and the choice to use 16-bit audio. The disc diameter was changed from 115m to 120mm to allow for 74 minutes of playback with the sampling rate (44.1kHz) and quality chosen (16 bit)". The CD actually had a significant impact on the sizes of DVD, HD=DVD, Blu-ray and even HVD (Hologrphic Versatile Disk), however there are smaller sized disks but the 120mm is the accepted standard.
Over time the CD will become obsolete but how soon and by what will replace it remains to be seen. A very import thing in Engineering is to make things that a human can interact with, after all when you look at the LP or the Video disk these were too large and had limited portability and at the other end if you look at something like a micro SD card this is very small and can be easily lost so a standard SD card is more practical for portability than its micro cousin. This is were the CD size comes in since it is a reasonable size, human hand and eye (most people do like to read what is on the disk) acceptable and is fairly robust.
Say you shrink the CD to the same size as the Nintendo Gamecube disk. If this becomes a preferred size you need to change the format to DVD which would result in massive changes to CD players this would not be acceptable in the short term although it would be more more acceptable than purchasable music albums on Flash RAM cards.
If you want a disk that is very robust a small size and is relatively cheap then you have to look at the UMD, however like I have said before this involves a massive change in players although again you still have moving parts which like any CD player will eventually fail. Lets not have the Sony sucks! hysteria look from an engineering perspective and the UMD is actually a very good practical format for the PSP since even a the Nintendo sized disk is still to big for a portable game machine. However until Flash RAM is as cheap as a CD (less than $1/GB) you are going to have CD sized media.
On a slightly different note:
If you believe Microsoft the DVD will be obsolete soon since video on demand will replace it. To further insult the customer they even predict that Blu-ray and HD-DVD will be dead in five years http://www.about-electronics.eu/2007/06/13/blu-ray -hd-dvd-obsolete-in-5-years-says-microsoft/ and that should say something to Toshiba (HD-DVD) who they currently support with HD-DVD. Personally I still think physical media is better since you play immediately rather than wait for a download buffer to fill. You can even loan physical media to your friends or even borrow the physical media. Of course the DRM people don't like that. I hope that physical media will remain with us far into the future but only time will tell.
Well it may be April Fool in the US but in Australia this type of course is available as a one semester subject (the costs seems to be similar to the US course). Doing a course like this can lead to a job in the mining or demolition industry, however jobs like this are quite dangerous and the locations can be quite remote, that is why these people are well paid.
Suicide bombers are normally not trained in the manufacture of explosive devices and in many cases all that is required of them is devotion (fanaticism) to press a button or throw a switch to set the explosive off. I would even go as far to say that they don't really have any idea what the explosive will do to their body assuming you can find all the body parts.
It is usually a skilled technician or chemist who is the one who actually oraganises the manufacture of the explosive for the suicide bomber and it would be rare for them to actually use the product themselves. Of course they would most likely take the attitude that their part in the jihad is too important for them to actually kill themselves.
If you are willing to look around you can probably do a deal for a PS3 although the same could be said for the Xbox360 and Wii. I got my PS3 (Australian) for AU$499 (approx US$407 at the time) with the trade in of a 5 year old working PS2 plus 10 old (to me) games. So far I have only one PS3 game (Oblivion) but I have over 50 PS2 and over 20 PS1 games and I find since version 1.8 of the firmware video upscaling to 720p (my HDTV) and 1080p (a friend of mine) makes PS2 games look so much better that I have started to play them again. Since more good (IMHO) PS2 games are coming out I can wait a long time because they look so much better than playing them on a PS2. In addition you can also play DVD's upscaled via HDMI as well and the result is excellent and if you really want you can play Blu-ray movies as well:-)
Of course you can also make it into a media center/player and/or install Linux on it. Don't like the 60GB disk then swap it for a 160GB disk or even bigger. If you have a PSP (you can get some good deals here as well although get one with a minimum of 2GB memory card) you can do some interesting things with this as well. My son can play his movie and TV downloads via the PSP to the PS3 and the result is very good. Home brew for the PSP is really popular but if you get one make sure it has version 3.5 or less. You can even convert movie or TV downloads to a form suitable for the PS3 or serve from your media center.
I would definitely say that Sony has done something with the PS3 it is just that the people who don't have one don't know or don't want to know. To find out more go to some of the forums or blogs (caution some rabid fan-boys) but some of the rants/blogs are really good and informative. Don't just take my word do some research and if after that you feel the Xbox360 or Wii is better then go for it after all it is your money.
One final word definitely get a HDTV fist and the bigger the better although this depends on what you can afford. All the new consoles particularly the PS3 and Xbox360 look good on a HDTV.
Sorry I have not played Psychonauts yet since I have too many games I am trying to catch up on but from what I have read it appears to be a unusual game that really made for excellent game play. This is the sort of game I like so at sometime in the future I will get it and play it on my PS3. I have checked it does play on my Australian PS3 so while there are few games at the moment for the PS3 there are hundreds of good games (far to many IMHO to play) for the PS2 with more games coming so I can wait.
Unfortunately picking which game is the best is difficult since this does depend on the individual's tastes so what to one is a fantastic game to another the same game is boring or worse. Personally I have always liked action/adventurer and RPG's with Zelda and Metroid games close to the top of my favorates but I would not say that the "Ocarina of time" was the best of the Zelda series although IMHO is was good.
I supposed the best way of picking a game's popularity is by sales but from what I have gathered Psychonauts was not all that popular (approx 400,000 sold) even though it got good reviews but it made up for this by its quirkiness in that it gathered a cult following. This to me is a form of success although this does not make for profits for the developer.
> Depending on your distro, you may have KDE but not Gnome, or Gnome but not KDE.
Sorry but you are wrong you can install both, although you can only run one per session.
On my machine which is a HP laptop running Fedora 7 and is not dual booted I give my family the choice of either Gnome or KDE or if they really want FVWM (great if you have limited memory). Actually if they want they can login with Gnome then login again (switch user) with KDE. All applications are fully available if needed which includes Development, Office suit, Multimedia, Database and anything else they want. If they want they can even use Beryl which IMHO makes MS Windows Vista look very plain and boring. I normally will set Beryl up initially since it can be quite daunting (so many options) and to quote Microsoft "The WOW starts now", although to be honest I still prefer KDE.
The problem for Linux in the Corporate sector is the conservative nature of Businesses. Most managers take the path of least resistance and have little if any IT knowledge. To them what Microsoft says is gospel to the extent if you try and show any desktop that is not like Microsoft or what they perceive the latest offering to be, they say "Oh it is not like Microsoft". When you hear this you are talking to someone who is very naive (I am being nice here). I know all the excuses and can counter then on why the corporate won't look at Linux and as far as I am concerned it is their problem and won't loose any sleep over it. Still as I have said before, the fist step of Linux adoption will come from the Government and not from the corporate sector.
Actually one corporate sector that is adopting Linux are the Telco's with billions of dollars being spent on Software (normally Redhat) and hardware. Unfortunately this does not translate to the desktop although IBM, HP and SUN are allowing some people (mainly the Technical ones) to actually replace MS Windows with Linux. The clerical people don't like it but that is their problem since it is corporate policy to support both Mozilla (Firefox) and MS IE6 (IE7 and even Vista are not allowed). We are very vocal when a web page breaks because of laziness although in a turn about we are actually seeing IE6 break more often. Actually some of us run Beryl just to annoy the clerical people who are very let down when they are informed that Vista much less XP won't do what they are seeing.
Yes Google has already done this but like any business Microsoft is looking into ways of making money by offering this service although from the article I would assume the first 500MB is free or until they get enough subscribers to nickel and dime them for additional storage. You really don't think Microsoft would do this out of the goodness of their hearts do you? It must be noted that this is not an evil plan in-fact it is actually quite a good service "but".
Now this brings up a can of worms:
- Who actually owns your data?
- Can other parties look at your data without your permission?
- Is your data secure?
- Do you trust Microsoft for confidentiality or any other data storage service for that matter?
- What is it going to cost me over the life of my data?
The few trivial questions I have raised are not just important for the average home user but all business in general. All computer users should be aware that any physical device will eventually fail and unless you have backups and the knowledge to restore from them you are eventually going to loose your data. Unfortunately most people including business don't think along these lines until the inevitable happens and then they are severely embarrassed if not out of pocket.
As more and more data is generated people or business must put a price on their data and spend appropriately on computer disaster recovery. For the home user this is a dilemma because it is not difficult to have over a Terra byte of data when you have a media center and the only reasonably viable solution is to have a separate and equal sized disk or disk array to duplicate that data. This is viable and reasonably cheap but "fire" and "theft" makes your backups worthless. Of course the same can be said for any backup strategy if you keep your backups in your house or on-site.
Even if dual layer Blu-Ray disks were the same price as a single sided DVD's backing up a Terra byte would take 20 Disks (forget about DVD). Holographic Versatile Disk burners and Tape systems acceptable for business but they are not cheap. Still you need to have off-site storage (eg. friends or relations place) to provide a reasonable level of protection for your data.
If you have valuable but a small amount of data it would be best to save it off-site and even though Google does provide approx 2.5GB of personal mail storage you are at least free to opt for Microsoft when they start their service, which I would assume would integrate quite nicely with your existing Microsoft OS. I would even go as far as saying that Microsoft may even provide a backup service for non Microsoft OS's. If if generates an income why not.
Now this also brings up the question of DRM and the law. What happens when you save your DVD's, or HD movies (legitimately purchased of course - cough!) to your media center disk(s) then backup this data and send it off-site to a "trusted" person such as a relation or Google or Microsoft. Are these providers breaking the law? To prevent this these providers must vet your data but is this not breaking your trust in them?
I would assume the strongest selling point for the Wii is it's perceived fun factor with it's unusual movement sensing controller, not the ability to mod it which would void it's warranty.
As far as cracking the PS3 copy protection which will be done sooner or later I assume you have a cheap collection of Blu-Ray disks that you can afford to copy your games to. That and that alone makes copying PS3 games expensive. This was one of the reasons why the PS2 had DVD since coping games to a DVD was expensive in 2000. Over time as Blu-Ray disks come down in price you will start to see pirating of games but this becomes a none event when you can get second-hand games and even some newer games fairly cheap.
When people buy electronic equipment (taking consoles as an example) they try to get an extended warranty of an additional one to four years and chipping a console voids the warranty. People who do this while under warranty and the PS3 and the Wii are still under standard warranty around the world have IMHO more money then sense, still what they do with their money is their business.
The average consumer has no knowledge of electronics so unless they pay to get their console modded for what I see is very little gain and are willing to void their warranty the number of consoles being modded will remain very small, since the average consumer will not take that risk.
With regard to cracking DVD movies (not sure about games) just use any number of good cracking tools on your PC (Microsoft your friendly pirating platform:-) - sorry could not resist) and convert them to MP4's and put them on a PSP or SD or USB drive, Memory Stick or even a 320GB hard USB drive or bigger and you can then play them back via the PS3 which actually up-scales the MP4 movie to at least 720p via component cable and it really looks quite good. Why bother taking a chance voiding your warranty when your PC can do all the work for you, in fact the un-modded PS3 and PSP can double as a media center client to your PC.
If you wish to play the stock market then you cannot afford to get attached to your stock, as well as taking advice from a competent stockbroker or adviser, of course it helps if you are one. In addition you also have to be prepared to loose money but with good advise you can make quite a considerable amount of money.
From the Article: For all the positives surrounding Nintendo right now, though, Koyama cautioned that investors need to be very careful with the stock. "This is one of those companies that is not exactly making daily necessities. One negative factor and shares could take a dive. We need to be careful in dealing with shares like this," he said.
Also from the Article:
Sony in fact has been doing quite well despite recent struggles with the PS3. The company's shares have increased 66 percent over the past two years, outperforming the Nikkei average, which rose 57 percent. It's just that Nintendo has been doing much, much better. Nintendo shares have skyrocketed nearly fourfold over the same period.
Like any shares it pays to do your homework and don't over extend but I have to admit it would have been nice to invested in Nintendo early. I may be wrong but now may be a good time to reinvest in other shares while Nintendo is doing well, of course that is your call. Still I don't have Sony or Nintendo shares but the shares I do have have doubled and even tripled in the last few years so I am quite happy.
Not everyone lives is the US. In Australia the latest release CD of a popular artist can cost AU$30 (US$25). In addition the latest release DVD movie approx AU$30 and the same movie on Blu-Ray or HD-DVD approx AU$35 to AU$50 (good idea to shop around). Of course this also includes Government Sales Tax.
I have posted on this before but why don't you try PS2 or even (shock horror) PS1 games. If you are in the US then you have Hardware emulation while I living in Australia have software emulation. Since V1.8 of the firmware nearly all my games work properly although I have one that does not (Wizardry - oh well) the other two have what is called artifacts which are annoying however I still have well over 40 PS2 and 20 PS1 games that work.
With V1.8 all my PS1/2 games scale to 720p, 1080i and 1080p although I only have a HDTV that will support 720p and 1080i (found 720p looks nicer on my TV). Sill because of the upscaling PS2 games get a new lease of life since they look so much better and even my old PS1 games are graphically acceptable, something the PS2 could not do very well. Even playing DVD's look so much better via HDMI on my HDTV.
Just saying you are hanging out for PS3 games on your PS3 is rather short-sighted since there are a huge amount of PS2 games that you can get for the PS3 and at bargain prices. The PS2 is still a supported console and many games are being developed for it so why not play them on your PS3 while you are waiting for native PS3 games, which are going to be more expensive on initial release. Baring that why don't you set up your PS3 as a media center.
If you don't have a HDTV you really should get one that is 32" or bigger (depends what you can afford) with HDMI and component video because that is what the Xbox360 and PS3 display best on.
I just recently purchased a HP multi-media laptop which came standard with MS Vista Ultimate. My first impressions were this is more glitzy than XP and the application switching looks interesting (sort of like a rolerdex) but my overall impression of Visa was is that "it is like Windows XP with a floral dress on".
Except for the multi-media part there was next to nothing in Vista that I wanted since I rarely play games on a PC preferring console games instead. Ok maybe I am being a bit harsh but I really did not buy the laptop for Vista anyway since my work requires me to have knowledge on Unix and Linux machines and as far as I was concerned I was going to put Fedora 7 on it and virtualise other versions of Linux and possibly Solaris. In addition I normally sell my laptop after about a year so I made up a recovery DVD (2 off) which will enable me to put Vista back on if the buyer wants.
Even though Microsoft is pushing Vista I cannot see any reason for upgrading from XP and if you have seen Beryl on Linux you can have a much more interesting (not necessarily practical but the Wow factor is priceless) desktop than MS Vista. I have put Fedora 7 on my laptop (no dual boot) and I was pleasantly surprised how just about everything on my laptop works including parts of my multi-media controller and the things that don't work I have not put any effort to getting them to work since I don't really need them. I have found Xen virtulisation does work but it is not as easy as Vmware, still it is interesting.
Of course I would not recommend Fedora for a beginner so a distro like Ubuntu would probably be the best one to start with although I have not tried it myself. For those who want to make the move try a live CD then if you like it install a dual boot but (and many would disagree with me) after a few weeks providing you are comfortable then get rid of MS Windows partition otherwise you will back-slide. Gaming IMHO is the only reason for dual booting. If you have a work PC you are dependent on work policy. I do know that HP has a policy of allowing Linux desktops and friends of mine have taken this up.
Slashdot Mirror
You are right it is possible to design devices that take a few milliwatts in standby however you have to realise that the power for the detection device (infrared, Blutooth, Wireless) comes from a transformer which has a low voltage tap that has to be converted to DC. Doing this does consume power even though it can be quite small however that plus the detection circuitry consumption does add up. Most commercial products have been designed to consume 1W or less and all the entertainment equipment I have has this specification. Of course once you switch all this on you don't have to worry about heating the living room in winter :-)
:-)
Just about all electronic equipment has what I would call useless add-ons such as digital clocks. Manufacturers are not stupid they want to sell their product and if they feel a clock or other non-essential add-on will make their product more attractive they will add this in as long as the total standby consumption is less than 1W.
The best way to switch off your entertainment system is via central isolator but do you want to keep reseting your timer clocks every time you power it up? You can switch off non-essential equipment by throwing the main power switch on each device that does not have a clock but this gets tedious.
This post actually sparked my curiosity on the latest consoles standby modes and surprisingly the PS3 came out well under 1W. The Wii came out at 8W (wow!) and the Xbox360 came out at 2W. However when the consoles were doing something the PS3 runs at approx 200W to the Wii's 17W and the Xbox360's 160W http://www.digitaldisplacement.com/?p=1907. If you only have a Wii then yes you can say the PS3 sucks for running power, however we are comparing a machine (Wii) that outputs Standard Def graphics compared to a machine that outputs to 1080p so the Xbox360 owners can take comfort that their machine does not use as much power (of course that does not include the hard drive or the HD-DVD so consumption could be much higher). If you have a gaming PC it is not advisable to say anything about any of the console running costs, "least ye be stoned to death"
The problem with any electronic device is they (to state the obvious) consume power so manufactureres have opted for approx 1W in standby mode. Unfortunately if you take a stereo amp plus active woofer a TV, HDD DVD recorder, set-top box (if you have one) and a least one game console (assuming they also consume 1W in standby) and you have a total of 7W consumption. Now extrapolate that to 10M people (I am being very conservative here) and that is 70MW overall consumption just for your entertainment system to do nothing.
Of course once you turn on your entertainment system the power consumption (taking the above example) can easily jump to 7GW even with fairly conservative systems. Now try the same simple maths with your fridge, microwave oven, oven clock (in fact any clock) and anything else that consumes power in standby. Add in lights even low wattage ones and your hot water heater (assume electrical off-peak not gas or solar) and the power consumption is massive. With regard to PC's and laptops consumption is dependent on what you have and can vary between 20W to over 1000W, It is possible to put a laptop in standby or sleep mode but this depends on if you are using your laptop as a standalone machine.
So what are we going to do about all that wastage? Well if you pay for your electricity and you want convenience then absolutely nothing and this is what most people will do.
By using 65nm technology or even smaller you don't necessarily produce a cpu (in this case a triple core) that runs at a lower temperature unless you can run the device at a lower voltage and current (Note: Power = Voltage x Current), if the power is equal then the overall surface area of the chip will be hotter requiring a much more efficient heat dissipation system.
The main reason for reducing a chip by using 65 nm technology is to produce more working chips from a single wafer and this translates to cost saving. Shrinking electronics is a cost saving in real estate but you normally end up trying to dissipate the same heat of the original device which could lead to a more unstable system and to-date Microsoft's Q&A on their Xbox360 has not been good, still time will tell.
I actually got my Australian PS3 for US$407 with a trade-in of my 5 year old PS2 and 10 old games and I definitely don't feel screwed. Still even though there are not many PS3 games I like at the moment I have huge selection of PS2 games to pick from and upscaled PS2 and even PS1 games give a good game a new lease of life. The difficulty I have now is deciding which PS2 games to play. I can even use my Logitech 2 PS2 wireless (even has rumble) controller with the PS2 to PS3 USB adapter.
On a slight aside if you did not know already, you don't need your PS3 to charge your sixaxis controller just plug it into any working PC USB port, it will flash all leds while charging and all go off when it is finished. Saves leaving the PS3 running all night unless you are running Folding@Home.
Ok HD-DVD has had the "shit cracked out of it". Sounds like a ripper's dream except I don't think you are going to get much content since all the movie companies will drop the HD-DVD format as their preferred distribution media since like it or not they want DRM. Basically this would be to Blu-ray's advantage.
Still to rip a Blu-ray or HD-DVD movie you have to have a Blu-ray or HD-DVD player on your PC and the requisite software to rip the disk. From what I can gather High Def player/recorder devices will be available for approx US$300 in the next few months. If there is a ripper available I hope you have a huge amount of disk storage unless you are going shrink the movie down to a manageable size which will most likely loose it's HD capability so you would most likely be better off getting a DVD and ripping that.
Personally I don't like DRM since it makes it difficult for me to play legitimately purchased DVD's on my laptop running Fedora 7 although I can play recorded DVD's from my HDD recorder. As an aside I can play the recorded DVD on my PS3 and upscale it via HDMI as well (looks impressive). Well back to the forums to find out how to circumvent this annoyance.
The minidisk was first introduced in 1992 and had to compeat against pre-recorded music on tape cassettes and CD's. The minidisk was initially more expensive although technically superior since you could record on it over and over again compared to the cassette as well as storing more music than a standard CD, still the player and recorder were much more expensive and this made adoption by the public very slow. The MP3 player did not get introduced till 1997 which was 5 years later and it still took a few more years to kill off cassettes. It may be possible that music pay for down load-will kill the CD but that has not happened yet.
& cons2=PSP®2=All&cons3=GC®3=All then then relative to the DS the PSP is a failure, however numbers don't tell the full story. There is a huge home brew market for the PSP and hundreds of UMD games which normally means that software houses are supporting it which is a very good indication that Sony is making a profit. Since the PSP is almost twice the price of a DS the overall retail sales are on par.
> UMD sucks
In what way does UMB suck? Just because it is a proprietary format and as I stated in my original post it will most likely never get used outside of the PSP but from an engineering perspective it is quite a practical format. Ask your self what media would you use on a hand portable device to put games or movies on keeping in mind that when the PSP came out a 2GB or more flash card was not cheap (if you could get one).
If you want to complain about proprietary formats look at all the game makers, none of their formats are open and they are limited to their own devices. Actually Sony's PSP and PS3 are probably more open than all other other game consoles since you can put Linux on the PS3 and even use third party flash cards. You can even do home-brew on the PSP although to be fair I don't think Sony expected that but in a rather strange way it has helped them.
I am not sure what you mean the PSP never took off. If you mean that the Nintendo DS is about 44M to the PSP's 22M http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=DS®1=All
The PSP is targeted at the mid teen to adult, while the DS targets children up to adults although you would need to see the statistics and those would be very difficult to get. All I can say that the PSP has more of an adult audience than the DS since it can do so much more than just play games. In addition the PSP can use the PS3 as a media server and that alone makes it a high end multimedia device.
Nintendo has had incredible luck with their portables (marketing??, public perception?? and games??). A good example is the original gameboy (monochrome display) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy which dominated the market for years even when other technically superior full colour hand-held devices appeared in the market and failed. It was not till a few years later that Nintendo came out with the colour gameboy. For the Sony PSP to even approach half the sales of the DS is not what I would call a failure.
Now if you want failure take a look at the Xbox vs the Gamecube. Both sold approx 11M to 10M respectively however Microsoft lost over US$5 billion while Nintendo made a profit. From my own personal perspective I don't have anything against Nintendo (I have a Gamecube, N64, SNES and NES) or Sony (PS1, PS2 and now a PS3). I could not give a fig for Microsoft (this is Slashdot anyway) although I do have a Microsoft wireless mouse which is very good.
I used to spoof my browser but don't do it anymore. If I end up at a site that requires Microsoft IE I don't care I go elsewhere, however I know that just by doing this I have left information to say that that a non IE browser has tried to connect and they have just lost a potential customer. If enough people did this then maybe the site's management and web designers would get the message. IMHO if you feel that a site is not supporting your browser then don't use that site. If that site is a banking institution then change banks, after all this attitude from your bank shows how much they value you as a customer. You may actually save money, still it is your call.
Where I work it is mandatory that all internal web designs support both IE and Firefox. When this started we use to see Firefox break often but after a while and some complaining we are now seeing IE break as our web designers stick to web standards with minor tweaking for Firefox but a major pain for IE.
We even have a work policy allowing the user to have Linux on the desktop providing they can do their work. Some have taken this up but unfortunately this will take time since management has not come up with recommended distributions. What slows down adoption is the fact that there is a considerable amount of Microsoft centric software that make a compleat switch difficult. A dual boot is possible but from my experience it is far to easy to backslide back to MS Windows. For my home laptop I only have Fedora 7 on it so I cannot revert back to MS Windows and it does everything I want except for playing the latest Games for MS Windows. Still that is what I have a PS3 and Gamecube for since I have never been that interested in PC games.
The PS3 can do so much more then play Blu-ray movies although I do have to admit a Blu-ray movie played to a HDTV looks great. Even DVD movies are upscaled via the PS3 to a HDTV via HDMI and the result is impressive. My son has a PSP and he can put MP4 movies onto his 2GB Memory Stick, ripped from his DVD's and play them back via his PSP though the PS3 and the output is also upscaled with impressive results. We have not played with this much so although I think it is possible to put the MP4 directly to the PS3.
... etc) to play your old (cough!) rom games. In fact what you can do with linux you can do on the PS3 although you don't have full access to all the hardware yet.
As many know you can put Linux on the PS3 and this means you have all the Linux emulators (NES, SNES, Mame
The PS3 can act as a media server although you may be better off using your PC as the server and the PS3 as the display device. You can even upgrade the PS3's 2.5" disk disk with a standard 2.5" disk without voiding your warranty. If you like you can use SD, Memory Stick or Compact Flash cards to transport your data, which could be from a camera, music files or even MP4 files. I have not played with MP4's yet so I cannot advise.
I do have the Australian 60GB PS3 that has WiFi which works well with my wireless router (Netgear WTG624). Took me 5 minutes to setup and makes it easy to do on-line gaming or surfing the web (worth getting a wireless keyboard and mouse but you should get one that has a 3+ meter (approx 3 yard) range) if you are interested in that. You can even print your photographs to a printer (limited support at the moment) if you want.
What else? Well you can play games on it. What's this I hear there aren't many PS3 games yet, well there are thousands of PS2 and PS1 (if you can get them) and more PS2 games are coming out unlike other later release consoles and although I have an Australian PS3 I can play between 85% and over 90% of games and newer games do work. In fact I only have one game (Wizardry - sigh!) that does not work. What is really nice is the fact that most games (PS2 especially) are upscaled to 720p, 1080i or 1080p (configurable) via component or HDMI and the result makes a good game even better. As for PS1/2 memory cards you can create as many as you want as well as the ability to save your PS1/2 game saves to your flash cards if you want. You want rumble? you can use your existing wired or wireless PS2 dual shock controller (you do need a PS2 to USB adapter) with PS1/2 games if they support rumble.
I have only touched on the parts of the PS3 I have played with, for more information see the forums (caution some rabid fan-boys) and make up your own mind. If you think the Wii or the Xbox360 offers the best bang for your dollar over the PS3 then it's your money. IMHO the PS3 offers the best value for my money but it may not be the same for you.
The only downside of the PS3 I have found is my wife likes the ability to play HD and upscaled DVD movies and my son likes Oblivion (it is lucky he is also an avid PC gamer as well) so we have to time-share the HDTV. I have a Linux laptop that my wife can surf the web with so she does not need to use the PS3 to do this.
Actually the Minidisk was a very practical format when it first came out since it had a lower form factor and was much more robust than CD or tape cassette, unfortunately since it was competing against the cheaper CD's and cassettes it was not as popular. Actually Sony licensed the technology to numerous companies, but once MP3 players appeared this made the Minidisk even less attractive, of course the MP3 player also killed off the cassette player as well. For more information on the Minidisk see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniDisc.
e mbers. So if you don't want anything to do with Sony then you should not buy CD's or DVD's.
The Memory Stick is a Sony format and is also licensed to other manufacturers so you can get Memory Sticks from Sony and other flash card manufactures. The price difference between SD flash card and a Memory Stick of the same capacity can vary from 10% to 100% more expensive, however this depends on the manufacturer.
As for choosing a camera, all camera manufacturers require you to use either SD, Compact Flash, MMC, XD or Memory Stick although I have personally found the Memory Stick is more expensive. Still if you want a PSP you do need a Memory Stick and i suppose you could call that vendor lock-in, however the PS3 allows you to use SD, Memory Stick or Compact Flash.
Nearly all manufactured products have some vendor lock-in because this means more profit for them, however most manufacturers realise that vendor lock-in can backfire on them so they license their products to other manufacturers so that they still make a profit although not as much as they would like if they kept it in-house. An example of licensing is CD's and DVD's, if you buy these items you actually are contributing to Sony who is actually part of the CD and DVD consortium's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_Forum#Founding_m
Keeping on topic, the UMD like the Minidisk is also a practical format in that it is a cheap, small robust disk with a reasonable capacity (1.8GB) and is very suitable for the PSP and most likely restricted to it. It is debatable if it could replace the CD player (a few years too late) since MP3 payers are also dominating that market. Since you can get 2GB and 4GB Memory Sticks it is possible to put avi files (ripped from your "cough!" purchased DVD's) on them and play them on your PSP and you can even play these files via your PSP to your PS3 and the result can be quite impressive on a HDTV.
If you just want a console for games and are on a tight budget get a Wii, however you realize that the games you buy if you can afford them are only a few dollars cheaper than a comparable PS3 or Xbox360 game and will normally hold that price long after the other console games have dropped in price sometimes by a half. You only have to look at Gamecube games to determine this and even the Wii games that came out with the release of the console .
Why do people buy a PS3 over an Xbox or a Wii well the simple answer is they have the money and they can. Granted there are few PS3 games at the moment but there are well over a thousand PS2 games (even PS1 games if you can get them) and new games are still being produced for the PS2 (unlike the Xbox and the Gamecube), in addition the PS3 can play PS1/2 games as well as smoothing and upscaling them to 720p, 1080i or 1080p via component or HDMI cable. The PS3 will also play Blu-ray movies but it is also is one of the best upscaling DVD players in the market (do a Google search if you don't believe me). Networking and media services are also quite good although the Xbox360 has the better on-line gaming if you are interested in that (I am not), of course you pay for that.
Comparing any of the consoles is rather mute if you don't have a HDTV at 32" and 720p minimum and the bigger the better depending on your budget. IMHO a Standard Definition TV is rubbish compared to a HDTV although this depends on what you want to display on it. While the Wii does look good on a good quality 32" HDTV it does not look as good on a larger HDTV compared to what an Xbox360 and a PS3 can display. Before I hear "the game-play is more important then graphics", this is correct but "good game-play and good graphics" do add considerably to the enjoyment of playing a game. Personally I have found that PS3 smoothing and upscaling of some of my old PS1 games actually give those games a new lease on life.
I know there will be more games coming out for the PS3, but at the moment I have lots of PS2 and even PS1 games that I am enjoying playing again. In fact I have started to buy some later release PS2 games that I have wanted to buy but did not have the time to play them and I now find that I can get them quite cheaply so I am quite content to wait for a larger PS3 library. As for backwards compatibility for my Australian PS3 I have only one game that does not work (sob!) although approx 85% to 90% of PS3 games work with the release of V1.8 firmware and I know the newer release PS2 games also work.
For the Wii I am only interested in Zelda and Metroid games and since I have a Gamecube the Wii is not an attractive option yet. As for the Xbox360 (reliability issues aside) there are only 2 games I am interested in so overall I can live without one. With regard to the PS3 I have over 50 PS2 games and 20 PS1 games, many of them I really do like and have excellent replay value.
Picking the best of the next gen consoles is really difficult since it really depends on what features you want and what you can afford. With regard to games this depends on what you like, not everyone likes FPS, sports or racing games. You should also look at the long term view since consoles should have a life of at least 6 to 10 years. I personally like what the PS3 offers (the reader may have different ideas and thats ok with me) especially since I also got my PS3 legitimately from a major Games shop in Sydney for approx US$407 with the trade in of my 5 year PS2 and 10 old (to me they were) games. Not bad when you consider the PS3 sells in Australia for AU$999 (approx US$850). Actually at the moment the PS3 is doing quite well in Australia as are the sales of HDTV's but we only have a population of 21 million.
Don't think you deserve "flamebait". I would not like the annoyance of sending my console away for repair either (once inconveniently acceptable but more then that no way). Of course any mechanical device will eventually fail as will any electronic device although this will normally take longer.
Taking game controllers for example. I have always been impressed with Nintendo (SNES, N64 and Gamecube), Sega and even Sony controllers since I would expect a life of no more than a few hundred hours but all of the controllers I own still work well after years of use. I have found that I prefer to pay for the genuine controller even though it is more expensive since all my third party controllers failed after about 50 hours of use. The exception being my wireless dual shock from Logitech (excellent product which works well on my PS3). I can't comment on the reliability of the Microsoft controllers although I do have a wireless Microsoft mouse that I find very reliable.
All Manufacturer's when they make a product allow for approx less than 1% (usually a lot less) failure in the first year and hopefully less then 10% over 5 years although this does depend on the product. If any company wants the customer to purchase their products then those products must be seen as reliable hence they invest in quality control and use statistical analysis to extrapolate reliability since failures must be taken into account when setting the price of a product. This is standard business practice and even a 2% to 3% failure rate over a year is unacceptable.
It appears that Microsoft has not even taken into account Manufacturing reliability testing 101 and IMHO have appeared to treat their console the same way they treat their software, however having a failure rate of over 10% is ridiculous (over 30% is insane) no company except Microsoft could afford this type of failure rate, in fact a failure of this scale would drive most companies out of business. One billion dollar my be small change to Microsoft but it is still a considerable amount of money that must leave many share holders fuming.
Granted that Microsoft is now offering a three year warranty although I am not sure if this is on the full Xbox360 package but it is very annoying if you keep having to send your machine in for repair or swap. Eventually you are going to loose customer confidence and they will go elsewhere.
I realise that this may seem strange to some but many customers' do want reliable products and are willing to pay for them. An extended warranty is peace of mind but only if a product is perceived as reliable in the first place. When you are still paying a reasonable sum of money for an Xbox360 you would like it to last more than three years. On a PC a three year lifetime may be acceptable but on a console it is not.
Still got my PS1 and it still works although I hardly use it since all my PS1 games work on my PS3. I can even use my PS1 dual shock controller but I prefer the 6 axis one although for rumble if supported on the PS1 or PS2 game I would use the dual shock (PS1 or PS2). Even though my N64 still works I find that the controllers are IMHO horrible and one of our controllers has an issue with it's analog stick. I still have my original SNES but some of my sons friends thought it would be fun to take a hammer to the controller (boy was I pissed).
At the moment the CD is not obsolete since it is now predominately used to put music on it to play in your CD player. It is very fortunate that companies in the DVD consortium which includes Sony and Toshiba http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_Forum decided that the DVD would be the same size as the CD. When Blu-ray and HD-DVD were proposed it was again decided that the size of the disk would be the same size as the CD disk.
y -hd-dvd-obsolete-in-5-years-says-microsoft/ and that should say something to Toshiba (HD-DVD) who they currently support with HD-DVD. Personally I still think physical media is better since you play immediately rather than wait for a download buffer to fill. You can even loan physical media to your friends or even borrow the physical media. Of course the DRM people don't like that. I hope that physical media will remain with us far into the future but only time will tell.
The reason for the original size from the article "both Sony and Philips compromised on the standard sampling rate of 44.1 kHz, and the choice to use 16-bit audio. The disc diameter was changed from 115m to 120mm to allow for 74 minutes of playback with the sampling rate (44.1kHz) and quality chosen (16 bit)". The CD actually had a significant impact on the sizes of DVD, HD=DVD, Blu-ray and even HVD (Hologrphic Versatile Disk), however there are smaller sized disks but the 120mm is the accepted standard.
Over time the CD will become obsolete but how soon and by what will replace it remains to be seen. A very import thing in Engineering is to make things that a human can interact with, after all when you look at the LP or the Video disk these were too large and had limited portability and at the other end if you look at something like a micro SD card this is very small and can be easily lost so a standard SD card is more practical for portability than its micro cousin. This is were the CD size comes in since it is a reasonable size, human hand and eye (most people do like to read what is on the disk) acceptable and is fairly robust.
Say you shrink the CD to the same size as the Nintendo Gamecube disk. If this becomes a preferred size you need to change the format to DVD which would result in massive changes to CD players this would not be acceptable in the short term although it would be more more acceptable than purchasable music albums on Flash RAM cards.
If you want a disk that is very robust a small size and is relatively cheap then you have to look at the UMD, however like I have said before this involves a massive change in players although again you still have moving parts which like any CD player will eventually fail. Lets not have the Sony sucks! hysteria look from an engineering perspective and the UMD is actually a very good practical format for the PSP since even a the Nintendo sized disk is still to big for a portable game machine. However until Flash RAM is as cheap as a CD (less than $1/GB) you are going to have CD sized media.
On a slightly different note:
If you believe Microsoft the DVD will be obsolete soon since video on demand will replace it. To further insult the customer they even predict that Blu-ray and HD-DVD will be dead in five years http://www.about-electronics.eu/2007/06/13/blu-ra
Well it may be April Fool in the US but in Australia this type of course is available as a one semester subject (the costs seems to be similar to the US course). Doing a course like this can lead to a job in the mining or demolition industry, however jobs like this are quite dangerous and the locations can be quite remote, that is why these people are well paid.
Suicide bombers are normally not trained in the manufacture of explosive devices and in many cases all that is required of them is devotion (fanaticism) to press a button or throw a switch to set the explosive off. I would even go as far to say that they don't really have any idea what the explosive will do to their body assuming you can find all the body parts.
It is usually a skilled technician or chemist who is the one who actually oraganises the manufacture of the explosive for the suicide bomber and it would be rare for them to actually use the product themselves. Of course they would most likely take the attitude that their part in the jihad is too important for them to actually kill themselves.
If you are willing to look around you can probably do a deal for a PS3 although the same could be said for the Xbox360 and Wii. I got my PS3 (Australian) for AU$499 (approx US$407 at the time) with the trade in of a 5 year old working PS2 plus 10 old (to me) games. So far I have only one PS3 game (Oblivion) but I have over 50 PS2 and over 20 PS1 games and I find since version 1.8 of the firmware video upscaling to 720p (my HDTV) and 1080p (a friend of mine) makes PS2 games look so much better that I have started to play them again. Since more good (IMHO) PS2 games are coming out I can wait a long time because they look so much better than playing them on a PS2. In addition you can also play DVD's upscaled via HDMI as well and the result is excellent and if you really want you can play Blu-ray movies as well :-)
Of course you can also make it into a media center/player and/or install Linux on it. Don't like the 60GB disk then swap it for a 160GB disk or even bigger. If you have a PSP (you can get some good deals here as well although get one with a minimum of 2GB memory card) you can do some interesting things with this as well. My son can play his movie and TV downloads via the PSP to the PS3 and the result is very good. Home brew for the PSP is really popular but if you get one make sure it has version 3.5 or less. You can even convert movie or TV downloads to a form suitable for the PS3 or serve from your media center.
I would definitely say that Sony has done something with the PS3 it is just that the people who don't have one don't know or don't want to know. To find out more go to some of the forums or blogs (caution some rabid fan-boys) but some of the rants/blogs are really good and informative. Don't just take my word do some research and if after that you feel the Xbox360 or Wii is better then go for it after all it is your money.
One final word definitely get a HDTV fist and the bigger the better although this depends on what you can afford. All the new consoles particularly the PS3 and Xbox360 look good on a HDTV.
Sorry I have not played Psychonauts yet since I have too many games I am trying to catch up on but from what I have read it appears to be a unusual game that really made for excellent game play. This is the sort of game I like so at sometime in the future I will get it and play it on my PS3. I have checked it does play on my Australian PS3 so while there are few games at the moment for the PS3 there are hundreds of good games (far to many IMHO to play) for the PS2 with more games coming so I can wait.
Unfortunately picking which game is the best is difficult since this does depend on the individual's tastes so what to one is a fantastic game to another the same game is boring or worse. Personally I have always liked action/adventurer and RPG's with Zelda and Metroid games close to the top of my favorates but I would not say that the "Ocarina of time" was the best of the Zelda series although IMHO is was good.
I supposed the best way of picking a game's popularity is by sales but from what I have gathered Psychonauts was not all that popular (approx 400,000 sold) even though it got good reviews but it made up for this by its quirkiness in that it gathered a cult following. This to me is a form of success although this does not make for profits for the developer.
> Depending on your distro, you may have KDE but not Gnome, or Gnome but not KDE.
Sorry but you are wrong you can install both, although you can only run one per session.
On my machine which is a HP laptop running Fedora 7 and is not dual booted I give my family the choice of either Gnome or KDE or if they really want FVWM (great if you have limited memory). Actually if they want they can login with Gnome then login again (switch user) with KDE. All applications are fully available if needed which includes Development, Office suit, Multimedia, Database and anything else they want. If they want they can even use Beryl which IMHO makes MS Windows Vista look very plain and boring. I normally will set Beryl up initially since it can be quite daunting (so many options) and to quote Microsoft "The WOW starts now", although to be honest I still prefer KDE.
The problem for Linux in the Corporate sector is the conservative nature of Businesses. Most managers take the path of least resistance and have little if any IT knowledge. To them what Microsoft says is gospel to the extent if you try and show any desktop that is not like Microsoft or what they perceive the latest offering to be, they say "Oh it is not like Microsoft". When you hear this you are talking to someone who is very naive (I am being nice here). I know all the excuses and can counter then on why the corporate won't look at Linux and as far as I am concerned it is their problem and won't loose any sleep over it. Still as I have said before, the fist step of Linux adoption will come from the Government and not from the corporate sector.
Actually one corporate sector that is adopting Linux are the Telco's with billions of dollars being spent on Software (normally Redhat) and hardware. Unfortunately this does not translate to the desktop although IBM, HP and SUN are allowing some people (mainly the Technical ones) to actually replace MS Windows with Linux. The clerical people don't like it but that is their problem since it is corporate policy to support both Mozilla (Firefox) and MS IE6 (IE7 and even Vista are not allowed). We are very vocal when a web page breaks because of laziness although in a turn about we are actually seeing IE6 break more often. Actually some of us run Beryl just to annoy the clerical people who are very let down when they are informed that Vista much less XP won't do what they are seeing.
Your point being?
The single red light means the PS3 is in standby mode and I guess you have not updated the firmware to version 1.82. Still that's your loss.
Yes Google has already done this but like any business Microsoft is looking into ways of making money by offering this service although from the article I would assume the first 500MB is free or until they get enough subscribers to nickel and dime them for additional storage. You really don't think Microsoft would do this out of the goodness of their hearts do you? It must be noted that this is not an evil plan in-fact it is actually quite a good service "but".
Now this brings up a can of worms:
- Who actually owns your data?
- Can other parties look at your data without your permission?
- Is your data secure?
- Do you trust Microsoft for confidentiality or any other data storage service for that matter?
- What is it going to cost me over the life of my data?
The few trivial questions I have raised are not just important for the average home user but all business in general. All computer users should be aware that any physical device will eventually fail and unless you have backups and the knowledge to restore from them you are eventually going to loose your data. Unfortunately most people including business don't think along these lines until the inevitable happens and then they are severely embarrassed if not out of pocket.
As more and more data is generated people or business must put a price on their data and spend appropriately on computer disaster recovery. For the home user this is a dilemma because it is not difficult to have over a Terra byte of data when you have a media center and the only reasonably viable solution is to have a separate and equal sized disk or disk array to duplicate that data. This is viable and reasonably cheap but "fire" and "theft" makes your backups worthless. Of course the same can be said for any backup strategy if you keep your backups in your house or on-site.
Even if dual layer Blu-Ray disks were the same price as a single sided DVD's backing up a Terra byte would take 20 Disks (forget about DVD). Holographic Versatile Disk burners and Tape systems acceptable for business but they are not cheap. Still you need to have off-site storage (eg. friends or relations place) to provide a reasonable level of protection for your data.
If you have valuable but a small amount of data it would be best to save it off-site and even though Google does provide approx 2.5GB of personal mail storage you are at least free to opt for Microsoft when they start their service, which I would assume would integrate quite nicely with your existing Microsoft OS. I would even go as far as saying that Microsoft may even provide a backup service for non Microsoft OS's. If if generates an income why not.
Now this also brings up the question of DRM and the law. What happens when you save your DVD's, or HD movies (legitimately purchased of course - cough!) to your media center disk(s) then backup this data and send it off-site to a "trusted" person such as a relation or Google or Microsoft. Are these providers breaking the law? To prevent this these providers must vet your data but is this not breaking your trust in them?
I would assume the strongest selling point for the Wii is it's perceived fun factor with it's unusual movement sensing controller, not the ability to mod it which would void it's warranty.
:-) - sorry could not resist) and convert them to MP4's and put them on a PSP or SD or USB drive, Memory Stick or even a 320GB hard USB drive or bigger and you can then play them back via the PS3 which actually up-scales the MP4 movie to at least 720p via component cable and it really looks quite good. Why bother taking a chance voiding your warranty when your PC can do all the work for you, in fact the un-modded PS3 and PSP can double as a media center client to your PC.
As far as cracking the PS3 copy protection which will be done sooner or later I assume you have a cheap collection of Blu-Ray disks that you can afford to copy your games to. That and that alone makes copying PS3 games expensive. This was one of the reasons why the PS2 had DVD since coping games to a DVD was expensive in 2000. Over time as Blu-Ray disks come down in price you will start to see pirating of games but this becomes a none event when you can get second-hand games and even some newer games fairly cheap.
When people buy electronic equipment (taking consoles as an example) they try to get an extended warranty of an additional one to four years and chipping a console voids the warranty. People who do this while under warranty and the PS3 and the Wii are still under standard warranty around the world have IMHO more money then sense, still what they do with their money is their business.
The average consumer has no knowledge of electronics so unless they pay to get their console modded for what I see is very little gain and are willing to void their warranty the number of consoles being modded will remain very small, since the average consumer will not take that risk.
With regard to cracking DVD movies (not sure about games) just use any number of good cracking tools on your PC (Microsoft your friendly pirating platform
If you wish to play the stock market then you cannot afford to get attached to your stock, as well as taking advice from a competent stockbroker or adviser, of course it helps if you are one. In addition you also have to be prepared to loose money but with good advise you can make quite a considerable amount of money.
From the Article:
For all the positives surrounding Nintendo right now, though, Koyama cautioned that investors need to be very careful with the stock. "This is one of those companies that is not exactly making daily necessities. One negative factor and shares could take a dive. We need to be careful in dealing with shares like this," he said.
Also from the Article:
Sony in fact has been doing quite well despite recent struggles with the PS3. The company's shares have increased 66 percent over the past two years, outperforming the Nikkei average, which rose 57 percent. It's just that Nintendo has been doing much, much better. Nintendo shares have skyrocketed nearly fourfold over the same period.
Like any shares it pays to do your homework and don't over extend but I have to admit it would have been nice to invested in Nintendo early. I may be wrong but now may be a good time to reinvest in other shares while Nintendo is doing well, of course that is your call. Still I don't have Sony or Nintendo shares but the shares I do have have doubled and even tripled in the last few years so I am quite happy.
Not everyone lives is the US. In Australia the latest release CD of a popular artist can cost AU$30 (US$25). In addition the latest release DVD movie approx AU$30 and the same movie on Blu-Ray or HD-DVD approx AU$35 to AU$50 (good idea to shop around). Of course this also includes Government Sales Tax.
I have posted on this before but why don't you try PS2 or even (shock horror) PS1 games. If you are in the US then you have Hardware emulation while I living in Australia have software emulation. Since V1.8 of the firmware nearly all my games work properly although I have one that does not (Wizardry - oh well) the other two have what is called artifacts which are annoying however I still have well over 40 PS2 and 20 PS1 games that work.
With V1.8 all my PS1/2 games scale to 720p, 1080i and 1080p although I only have a HDTV that will support 720p and 1080i (found 720p looks nicer on my TV). Sill because of the upscaling PS2 games get a new lease of life since they look so much better and even my old PS1 games are graphically acceptable, something the PS2 could not do very well. Even playing DVD's look so much better via HDMI on my HDTV.
Just saying you are hanging out for PS3 games on your PS3 is rather short-sighted since there are a huge amount of PS2 games that you can get for the PS3 and at bargain prices. The PS2 is still a supported console and many games are being developed for it so why not play them on your PS3 while you are waiting for native PS3 games, which are going to be more expensive on initial release. Baring that why don't you set up your PS3 as a media center.
If you don't have a HDTV you really should get one that is 32" or bigger (depends what you can afford) with HDMI and component video because that is what the Xbox360 and PS3 display best on.
I just recently purchased a HP multi-media laptop which came standard with MS Vista Ultimate. My first impressions were this is more glitzy than XP and the application switching looks interesting (sort of like a rolerdex) but my overall impression of Visa was is that "it is like Windows XP with a floral dress on".
Except for the multi-media part there was next to nothing in Vista that I wanted since I rarely play games on a PC preferring console games instead. Ok maybe I am being a bit harsh but I really did not buy the laptop for Vista anyway since my work requires me to have knowledge on Unix and Linux machines and as far as I was concerned I was going to put Fedora 7 on it and virtualise other versions of Linux and possibly Solaris. In addition I normally sell my laptop after about a year so I made up a recovery DVD (2 off) which will enable me to put Vista back on if the buyer wants.
Even though Microsoft is pushing Vista I cannot see any reason for upgrading from XP and if you have seen Beryl on Linux you can have a much more interesting (not necessarily practical but the Wow factor is priceless) desktop than MS Vista. I have put Fedora 7 on my laptop (no dual boot) and I was pleasantly surprised how just about everything on my laptop works including parts of my multi-media controller and the things that don't work I have not put any effort to getting them to work since I don't really need them. I have found Xen virtulisation does work but it is not as easy as Vmware, still it is interesting.
Of course I would not recommend Fedora for a beginner so a distro like Ubuntu would probably be the best one to start with although I have not tried it myself. For those who want to make the move try a live CD then if you like it install a dual boot but (and many would disagree with me) after a few weeks providing you are comfortable then get rid of MS Windows partition otherwise you will back-slide. Gaming IMHO is the only reason for dual booting. If you have a work PC you are dependent on work policy. I do know that HP has a policy of allowing Linux desktops and friends of mine have taken this up.