I am waiting for my new HP laptop which will come with MS Vista Ultimate (I get a very good discount). Since I work with Linux and Unix machines I am going to make a recovery DVD set for MS Vista and then proceed to pirate a copy of Fedora 7 and put it on the machine (no dual booting), then using Xen I will proceed to install pirated copies of selected distributions of Linux including a pirated copy of Open Solaris.
My reason for making a recovery set is so when I sell my PC in a years time the buyer has the option of a legitimate copy of MS Vista or they can have my pirated but updated copies of Linux. I wonder what the buyer will pick?
Patents (love them or hate them) IMHO have reached the stage where in the US you can patent just about anything providing you can wrap up the application in legalese and make the claim sufficiently broad without being too obviously broad. It is interesting that patent legalese actually makes the reading of a patent almost incomprehensible to the professional engineer yet the patent lawyer rarely has a technical grasp of the invention.
I cannot comment on the Target patent since I have never read it but I think the term prior art or obviousness should be seriously looked at here. Some recent electrical and mechanical patents I have looked at IMHO are so obvious that if they were submitted as part of a thesis at any University they would be lucky to scrape a pass and yet they get a patent. I find it incomprehensible as to how can you get a patent if your patent is actually based on patents and is supposed to be innovative.
Still if Sony gets hit on this then the whole Blu-Ray consortium is vulnerable and combined they have a massive amount of money and are no strangers to litigation. I think all we can hope for is a speedy end of the litigation but things like this can drag on for years. I sort of liken this to a collection of pigs in barrister cloths with their snouts in the a pig trough of money.
Not sure about NTSC because I have a PAL PS3, however I still understand (can't prove it though) that all movies are still locked to regions as is PS1/2 games, which is why people in countries that have PAL get burnt if they import a PS3 from a country that uses NTSC. Of course if you know this and are willing to import PS2/1 games then ok. I know that PS3 games are supposed to region free but I am unsure if a US PS3 game would play on a PAL PS3 although the HD component should work. For me I would not bother because we get most of the games the US gets usually at the same time or a few weeks later and if you are willing to wait three to six months you can normally get the game at half price.
I tested the PS3 with some PS2 games that would not play or had "artifacts" (weird polygons) when I got home from work and they definitely have increased the number of PS2 games you can now play and it actually does quite a passable up-conversion to 720p and 1080i using component although I have not tried HDMI which my TV does have (I only have a 37" Sharp Aquos so component is good enough). Anyone got a larger HDTV that will do 1080p that can comment?
It must be noted that the PS1/2 game up-conversion does not compare with a naive PS3 game but it definitely improves the picture. Out of all my PS2 games only one does not work and the other one (The Bards Tale) has "artifacts".
I am also surprised that the N64 controller was picked since I found it to be so awkward to hold that in a game like Zelda I had to hold the middle "protrusion" and the right side. My hands got very sore quickly since it was really awkward. Zelda was a great game though.
I actually used a Logitech 2 wireless controller with my PS2 (the Xbox had one to) and found that using wireless was great in that you don't have cords trailing on the floor (my wife is notorious for tripping over them) and you can really move without yanking a cord. In fact now I have a PS3 I can still use this controller and if my PS1/2 games support rumble I have feel it and the batteries last a very long time (50+ hours with rumble on). Personally I have found that the PS1/2/3, SNES, Gamecube and Xbox (small) controllers are all quite comfortable for the games like I play since they are all very similar.
Note: I never tried the Wavebird wireless controller for the Gamecube (still got it and I still play it) but the normal controller was fine except for the cable.
IMHO the NES pad was an ergonomic disaster until you put on side sleeves which sort of made it like the Sega Megadrive controller. As for the buttons try playing an RPG and yes there are few.
The next step in controllers was the Sega Megadrive which was much more comfortable and great for fighting games, however when the SNES came out a few months later it's game-pad was surprisingly comfortable and basically set the standard for all other game pads (look down and compare against all the other console controllers).
You have been always able to play Blu-Ray movies on the PS3 (well at least the Australia/NZ, EU and UK ones do) up to 1080p if your HDTV supports this. What the 1.8 upgrade does is to allow video upscaling via HDMI of DVD movies to a HDTV that support 720p, 1080i or 1080p. In addition you can now display all PS1/2 games up to 1080p as well has the ability to smooth the picture, however you can use HDMI or component video to your HDTV to do this.
Smoothing a PS1 game on a PS2 has always been available but in many cases the soothing did not do much although to be fair a few games looked fantastic and some looked awful so you had to turn the feature off. I would assume this will be the case with the 1.8 PS3 upgrade except it would be applied to both PS2 and PS1 games. I have tried the new update on a PS1 game which I know needed smoothing and it did look quite nice (not fantastic but much more playable) but this is the only game I have had the time to try out the new feature on.
I have an Australian PS3 which means the machine uses software emulation. All my PS1 games (I have about 20) work, however not all my PS2 games work (most I have finished anyway) but all the ones I am currently playing do so I am quite happy.
The 1.8 download is over 100MB so you would need a decent high speed line or you could contact a "friend" (ie. work... etc) and get the download on a memory card (CF, SD or Memory Stick) or usb drive and then do the update which takes about 5 minutes.
It is amazing the number of times people get HDTV wrong it is really very simple. If you have a TV that has resolutions 1280x220 (720p or i) and 1920x1080 (1080p or i) then and only then do you have a HDTV. Other resolutions are 720x480 (NTSC) and 768x576 (PAL) which are standard definition (SDTV). There are other standards but lets not get too complicated. As for picking a HDTV it really depends on what you want to spend keeping in mind that under 40" you will get 720p (SDTV up to 1080i) and above 40" you can get 720p or 1080p which costs about 20% to 60% more.
There are many commercial organisations offering training in Linux and prices vary enormously, however from my personal experience I have found Redhat courses are excellent but pricey since you get both theory and hands on fault finding because the instructors do break your software and it is your job to fix it. It must be stressed that all the theory in world is not going to help you much unless you develop a comfortable attitude to faultfinding.
In my opinion the best way of learning Linux is to get a "dull bleeding edge" distribution like Fedora or even OpenSuSE and install it on a laptop. I will guarantee you are going to have issues however there are many forums that can help. In doing this you will either learn or just give up in disgust and if this is the case you can forget about the "bleeding edge" distributions which would be the next logical step after feeling comfortable with something like Fedora.
When picking a forum to subscribe to pick one that is about the same level or just a little higher (can be hard to judge) as your current expertise but please don't go to the advanced forums and bug the people there. In fairness to advanced users who will say "RTFM first" they are more interested in advanced or complex issues than trying to help a new user who wants to know how to "list files". Visualise yourself in the position of someone who has all the kids in the neighbourhood coming round to ask you how do you add 2 plus 2 and you can see why an advanced user is standoffish to new users.
Please note there are a huge number of Linux distributions, some easier and others harder to maintain. Just about all are almost boring to install. You do need to do some reading (ie RTFM before asking) and decide what path you wish to follow, keeping in mind that if one distribution does not work or is too hard for you there are many others that may be more suitable and the cost to you is minimal.
If you want to work on commercial Linux try CentOS which basically is Redhat. The latest version now has Xen setup to make virtualization much easier so you can play with more unstable distributions without having to blow away your base OS.
From what I have read and heard Ubuntu is the most stable Linux for the desktop. This is a excellent way of having a stable base OS and you can still use Xen to install and play around with other Linux distributions. I have heard that you can even install Open Solaris under Xen and this can be a very marketable skill in the future.
Actually 60GB to 80GB is not that much but looking at the 60GB to 20GB which is now defunct and not available in EU, UK, Australia and New Zealand it is unlikely that the US much less the world sees the 80GB PS3 anytime soon. In many ways this is not that much of a big deal. If you want a larger PS3 disk then go out an buy a 120GB or 160GB notebook drive and replace your PS3's disk with it then put the PS3's 60GB drive in a slimline case as a portable drive. You have win-win situation here.
The reason why I don't suggest a 200GB notebook drive is it much slower 4000 rpm compared to 5400 rpm and much more expensive.
Of course you could get a 320GB to 750GB or bigger drive (7200 rpm or better) and connect it to the PS3 via the USB connector. It is external but you can store a lot of data. Of course we now come to the problem of how you back this up.
One of the major problems in determining which fuel is best is getting everyone to agree. The simplest solution is to look at the energy equation and the amount of pollution the overall process produces. What I have described here applies to fossil and bio fuels as well as solar energy. Each of these have many positives and negatives so ideally you should look at something that is more positive, even this type of comparison has issues.
I will only cover Ethanol and biodiesel and even then I can only scratch the surface because politics gets involved as well. One important thing to be aware of here is you need to grow plants to produce the particular fuel and that means land which may be of better use in growing food crops. It is a question of balance between land for fuel and land for food crop and in populous countries this is a major dilemma.
Ethanol: Requires lots of water so countries like Brazil which have ample rainfall would find this attractive, however you have to still look at the energy equation and in Brazil's case this is positive but only just. For many countries this is not viable unless supported by politics.
Bio-diesel: Can be obtained from any plant capable of producing an oil. One advantage of growing oil producing plants over sugar producing plants is you can do this with less water, in addition the energy equation is much more positive since biodiesel has a higher calorific factor than ethanol fuel or mixed petrol and ethanol.
The pollution factor is important here as well since you need to look at the pollution left from growing, harvesting, distribution and consumption. Actually biodiesel has the lower pollution factor but you also need to look at the scale and technology in producing the fuels so in poor countries ethanol may be the better solution where in wealthy countries biodiesel may be better. Even the reverse can be true.
What I am trying to get across is there is no easy one-size fits all (where have we heard that before?) solution. Each county must hopefully make the right decision with regard to energy production and consumption. Unfortunately there are many vested interests involved which makes arriving at a sustainable energy solution very difficult.
I was waiting till late this year or even next year before making a decision if I was going to buy a PS3 or not. Basically with the exception of Oblivion I was not interested in most of the PS3 games although to be honest with the exception of Zelda (love those games) and Metroid is not out yet so I was not interested in the Wii either. As for the Xbox360 I could also say the same.
I was out shopping with my son when I noticed Games Wizards (I live in Australia) was offering PS3's (we only have the 60GB version) at AU$499 (US$410) when you trade in your working PS2 (mine is over 5 years old) plus 10 games. This was an offer too good to be true so I checked and it was true so I got one plus the game Oblivion (traded two old ps2 games for a 50% off price). I was curious so I asked if many people were buying and was informed that they were. I was the 5th at 10:00am and I had another person behind me.
Setting up the PS3 in my home was easy, even setting it up to talk to my wireless router was not difficult. Once I upgraded the firmware to 1.7 I can now play most of my PS2 and all of my PS1 games, some of which were not even mentioned in the website. I can even use my PS2 Logitech 2 dual shock wireless controller and get rumble from PS1 and PS2 games (if supported) as well as the ability to use a keyboard and mouse (all wireless). For those interested a PS1/2 game is Standard Def and a PS3 game is 720p up-to 1080p. You definitely can notice the difference in graphics quality but I still play my Gamecube and PS1/2 games since my HDTV does smooth out some games. There is also a rumour from some Game Sites that the Sony emulator programmers are looking at up-scaling PS1 and PS2 games to High Res but like I have said it is still a rumour.
It is far to early to make a call on the popularity of any of the new consoles and a cheaper console may not cut it if people don't buy the games. From what I have seen so far with Nintendo games there is little difference in price between the PS3 and Xbox360 games, people do notice this. In addition Nintendo games usually remain high long after equivalent games on the other consoles has fallen (usually by 50%). I have seen this with the Gamecube vs PS2 and Xbox and now I am seeing the same thing with the Wii games.
If games places start doing deals like the above and they are starting to since we are approaching the end of our financial year at the end of June, the PS3 is going to sell well even with similar deals on the Xbox and Wii since the PS3 is perceived as a very attractive item (ie. bragging rights) especially since HDTV's are selling really well in Australia and people do want HD movies to play on their HDTV's. The PS3 out of the box does just this. In fact some of our main department stores are not even stocking HD-DVD machines, just BD (Blu-Ray) only.
The only problem I have now is I have to share the HDTV with my wife and two sons and my eldest also likes the PS3 Oblivion game even though he is an avid PC gamer. Guess I will have to set up a time share system:)
While contests like this are excellent for the newcomer to possibly break into gaming design and programing I would recommend that each contestant look carefully at the conditions of entry since there is a possibility of this being abused to varying degrees. This does not just apply to the competition but design and innovation in general, since it is far to easy for a big company to steal your ideas even if it is unintentional.
Today it is just about impossible for any person with even a small amount of imagination to look at something and have varying ideas on how that something works and even to possibly improve on it. This is commonly called inspiration and innovation, however the degree of this does depend on the person education, skills and life experience. Unfortunately once a company gets hold of any inspiration they do have a tendency to wrap it up in Intellectual Property which actually suppresses outside innovation.
I have played Metroid on the Gamecube and Halo on the PC (much better graphics). My conclusion is Metroid Prime is a much more fun game but then again I have always liked action/adventure and RPG's so I am biased.
To be fair Halo was an adrenaline rush for the first hour but I kind of lost interest after that since it was like many FPS games. Metroid Prime on the other hand was an adrenaline rush but not as intense, however it is a huge game with lots of exploration which I really like. I know you had land vehicles in Halo but they were IMHO not that much fun to drive.
Since my son has moved back in with us and brought his Gamecube I am have fun playing Metroid Prime again on my 37in LCD TV and even though the game is not in high res graphics the graphics still look good on my HDTV and the game is still fun to play. Halo on the other hand has been consigned to collecting dust.
Of course for people who live for FPS games what I have said is sacrilegious but this is my opinion and as far as I am concerned if you like FPS games then good for you.
From the article it is the Government that wants to go Open Source not Business or the Home user. Since the Government is an elected body there is more scrutiny on their spending so it is a very good political move to make this proposal.
Many time we hear of "This year will be the year of Linux" but at the end of the year nothing has happened. The only way Linux will become acceptable by the general populous is when the countries' Government makes the switch. After this Businesses start to follow because they like it or not have to communicate with Government Departments. It is only after significant Businesses make the switch that you will see the Linux distributions appear in number on the Home users' PC.
I think the main tipping point for public Linux adoption will occur when native A1 games start to appear and Japan has excellent gaming houses to do just this. Of course you will see the dedicated gamer make the first move but casual gamers quickly follow.
If and when Linux gains momentum in Business and in the Home will you see Microsoft products start to magically integrate themselves with Linux products? It could happen but that would effectively trivialise Microsoft products and Microsoft definitely does not want this to happen since their revenue will be dramatically reduced due to massive competition.
You are going to see a massive increase in FUD and dirty ticks (patents anyone) being pulled by an ever increasing paranoid Microsoft to prevent or at least slow this happening.
Don't remember any priest or nun or even a lay worker coming round to my house and demanding money. Basically if you want to give to a religion then you do if you don't then you don't.
Yes I do know about "tithes" which was a sort of acceptable charitable giving based on your income to the appropriate church, temple, synagogue or mosque but this form of giving was practiced and sometimes enforced by nearly all religions.
Well you can also say that Microsoft looked at other Office productivity suites because they were around in the mid 1980's the only problem the ones I saw were running on Unix had floating licenses costing two to five times what Microsoft Office (got to love that innovative name) costs for one PC.
Most scientists, engineers, designers and artists always look to something for inspiration that is how human innovation works but to say that is wrong by actually using patents to suppress this (copyright is different) is IMHO morally wrong.
Using wine on simple?? MS Windows applications (ie. Notepad, Minesweeper, Solitare) normally works but try and install games like Balders Gate or Neverwinter Nights or even Guild Wars to name a few. If the installer does not stuff you up you may be ok, but this is not really for the general user because they may be frequenting many forums and even then they may not get the game working properly.
Anyway why try to make a Linux emulate MS Windows? If enough people started to use Linux you are going to see native games. After-all there are over 2 million registered Fedora users and that is just the tip of the Linux user base. My guess there is over 20 million and that is a huge potential gamer base but it requires game producers to make native games however this is also a big gamble for them. Still a bad game is just that "a bad game" and even targeted at Linux, MS Windows PS2/3, Wii, or Xbox360 it will sell poorly. A good game will always sell well.
I think Dell's not shipping Wine is an excellent idea leaving it is up to the user to install. As for installing Ubuntu I have heard nothing but good reports on it and how it provides a very stable desktop. This is definitely needed for a beginner. The problem I see here is marketing and this is an area where Microsoft (like it or not) excels.
It really depends on how far back you like to go. I suppose I could say why do PC's try to emulate workstations, because back in the early 1980's PC's were tty based and if they had graphics they were very clunky compared to the high resolution but expensive graphics of a workstation. If we go back even further I am sure mainframe people were saying the same against workstations.
The first time I ever saw a FPS game was Wolfenstein and it was running on a 1024x1024 Silicon Graphics Workstation and this was months before it came out on the PC.
You are right in saying "The *only* reason to use a console over a PC is because the games will be optimized for your specific set of hardware, so you can be sure that there are no compatibility issues and it will probably run pretty smooth".
Why do people prefer a console game over a PC game or the other way round really depends on the individual. For most people a console game is easy to get running or to quote "Just Works". On the other hand a PC game can have much better graphics and is really great for First Person Shooters (FPS), Strategy and Simulation games and it's on-lie capability is great.
Now the line between PC and Console is blurring although PC's can have a much higher resolution but smaller monitor so basically it really boils down to what games you like.
An example of console to PC FPS games is to compare Metroid (Gamecube) to Halo 1 on the PC. For Some the answer would be Metroid for others Halo.
It is usually appropropriate to market a product with a different name in a county where the English word can be misinterpreted, still that does not always stop the other country taking offence, real or imagined.
Communication is always a problem when you have different languages and cultures. This is why French became the language of Diplomacy since (I think) 1700's since the language was basically codified such that it was very difficult to misinterpret. Of course that did not stop some of the most horrendous wars in history it just made it easier to tell the other guy you did not like him and why.
I don't have a Wii but I do have a Gamecube and even though there are only a few games I am interested in, those games as far as I am concerned are fun. I do have a 720p 94cm (37in) LCD TV and while it is possible to notice graphical limitations the games are still fun to play, however if my TV was bigger you would really start to notice the graphical limitation although to be fair I don't know if this would be a major turn off.
So far I have resisted the urge to buy any next gen console since IMHO there are few games that tempt me. A very important factor in choosing a gaming console is the number and variety of games that you would personally like being available for it. Not everyone like FPS, fighters or even sport games with my personal preference going towards action adventure and roll playing. For me and I am sure for many other people the PS2 and to a limited extent the Gamecube have lots of games that are enjoyable compared to the next generation games.
As an example of graphical differences I have found that I would rather play the Metroid (Gamecube) game which is first person shooter/action adventure compared to playing Halo 1 (I have it for the PC). Even if I had a Wii I would still opt for next Metroid over Halo 3 even if the Wii's graphics are not as good. I can now imagine the fan-boys saying WTF!
Personally I have found that some of the old SNES, NES and even Sega games even though graphically challenged are still enjoyable. For those who like action adventure try playing the original NES Zelda or Metroid, even today those games are still challenging and fun to play.
Well they could call it BD (short for Bluray Disk) or would you prefer calling HD DVD "High Definition Digital Versatile Disc". I think you will find that many people are confused with HD DVD verses DVD but not with Bluray verses DVD since the Bluray PR people have really been out "informing" the people.
It must be noted that a good marketing campaign works well if you have some catch word that is relatively short and can be perceived as "cool", is easy to remember and can easily be abbreviated to a few relevant characters. At the moment Bluray fits that criteria.
As to which format will win, well it is far to early to tell which format will dominate, however the Bluray consortium does have more money. Still time will tell.
#!/usr/bin/perl $a='#!/usr/bin/perl #this program prints itself, with a prepended comment to explain what it does $a=%c%s%c; printf($a,39,$a,39) ';printf($a,39,$a,39);
Note the end quote
You realize we are both up for patent infringement:-)
Asinine "security updates" - have you ever tried to keep your Microsoft OS up to date?
If you want home-brew games on a portable machine then the PSP was never for you. In fact neither was any Nintendo handheld. As far as being over priced why did you even spend the money on one unless you never got one in the first place and are just trolling.
The PSP over-sized, really! you must have very small hands or have you forgotten the Nintendo Gameboy.
Storage - please name a portable gaming machine that has more storage. A PDA does come close but you don't have the gaming controls.
The UMD is a joke. In what way? How would you design something like the PSP and what cheap, reliable, robust portable media would you use keeping mind that the PSP was developed a few years ago when flash cards and micro disk drives of any significant size were not cheap if available? Even today selling movies on a cheap flash drive (I know the PSP uses Sony's memory stick) would be prohibitive. Forget about DVD (to big) or micro DVD they would get scratched so easily. I suppose you could go back to proprietary cartridges but these are like flash cards.
Personally I would find watching a movie or even playing a game on a small screen like the PSP's a pain (the DS IMHO is not any better) so I don't have one, still some people want that and that's fine with me.
Yes the PSP is a "failure" because it is second to the Nintendo DS so Sony is crying all the way to the bank. Please check the stock market share price on Sony if you don't believe me I personally would love to have that sort of failure.
If you come from a conventional Linux/Unix background and then start work on AIX you are in for a shock. While AIX really is Unix it is actually different from conventional Unix but all the standard Unix commands are there.
The way to get a fast track in AIX is to use SMIT (System Management Interface Tool) and then ask it what it did by pressing a function key. The commands can be cut and pasted into a script and you can then mod and run this. In fact you can do IMHO over 95% of what a System Admin needs to do. Of course once you get comfortable with some of the "odd"?? commands it is not a bad OS to work on.
With regard to why Quantas got rid of Linux for AIX machines, the article did not really say. I think the best phrase that comes to mind is the old "No one got fired by buying IBM". However I would assume that a cost benefit analysis was done because IBM mainframes (the one that comes to mid is the "p" series) are not cheap and if you have a central database you really should have a powerful machine (yes I know Linux can scale as well) and you can configure these machines as a number of physical machines each with their own CPU, Memory and PCI slots (called VPARS). This can be done in minutes but of course if you need to recover then you are limited by the disk subsystem. I do assume a decent SAN here.
Since IBM actually pushes Linux I would not be surprised if some VPARS are configured with Linux for those apps that would be difficult to port and the larger VPARS with AIX. In fact the VPAR controller PC runs Linux (last time I looked 2 years ago an IBM supported version of Redhat 9).
While PC's offer a cheap hardware solution they are not as reliable or scalable as something like a mainframe but you do pay for it. Still you really have to ask the question "What price do I put on my databases and applications". Costs in the order of 10's or even 100's of millions of dollars for IT are quite acceptable in large businesses and Quantas is a large business.
Try working for a Telco or bank. I am not talking a few thousand dollars for blades I am talking 100's of millions of dollars and that is just on mainframes with AIX, HP-UX, Solaris and even Linux operating systems. In the majority of cases these companies actually own their mainframes. Don't get me started on Storage Area Networks and Enterprise Backup Systems because these don't come cheap either.
All business (at least those that want to stay in business) have support contracts be it low (PC's and blades) through to high end (Mainframe) hardware and their respective operating systems.
In a Dormitory situation all you need is a wireless firewall (relatively cheap but pick one that has a reasonable range) to one connection port and then assuming all collaborating users have wireless you can setup a simple grey intranet with legitimate access to the University/Collage network. So you want to do file-sharing then connect to your friend's computer via share or ssh and all traffic is via the firewall and is not seen by the University/Collage network so you are actually doing the right thing by not loading their network. In addition you can lock-down access to stop unauthorised computers. This is great until someone blabs or until it becomes illegal (it may be in some Universities and Collages) to connect a wireless modem. Of course we all know the PR spin the RIAA would make of this.
Note I am not suggesting you do anything illegal in setting up a wireless network but sharing files is quite legal and reduces the load on the corporate network.
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I am waiting for my new HP laptop which will come with MS Vista Ultimate (I get a very good discount). Since I work with Linux and Unix machines I am going to make a recovery DVD set for MS Vista and then proceed to pirate a copy of Fedora 7 and put it on the machine (no dual booting), then using Xen I will proceed to install pirated copies of selected distributions of Linux including a pirated copy of Open Solaris.
My reason for making a recovery set is so when I sell my PC in a years time the buyer has the option of a legitimate copy of MS Vista or they can have my pirated but updated copies of Linux. I wonder what the buyer will pick?
Patents (love them or hate them) IMHO have reached the stage where in the US you can patent just about anything providing you can wrap up the application in legalese and make the claim sufficiently broad without being too obviously broad. It is interesting that patent legalese actually makes the reading of a patent almost incomprehensible to the professional engineer yet the patent lawyer rarely has a technical grasp of the invention.
I cannot comment on the Target patent since I have never read it but I think the term prior art or obviousness should be seriously looked at here. Some recent electrical and mechanical patents I have looked at IMHO are so obvious that if they were submitted as part of a thesis at any University they would be lucky to scrape a pass and yet they get a patent. I find it incomprehensible as to how can you get a patent if your patent is actually based on patents and is supposed to be innovative.
Still if Sony gets hit on this then the whole Blu-Ray consortium is vulnerable and combined they have a massive amount of money and are no strangers to litigation. I think all we can hope for is a speedy end of the litigation but things like this can drag on for years. I sort of liken this to a collection of pigs in barrister cloths with their snouts in the a pig trough of money.
Not sure about NTSC because I have a PAL PS3, however I still understand (can't prove it though) that all movies are still locked to regions as is PS1/2 games, which is why people in countries that have PAL get burnt if they import a PS3 from a country that uses NTSC. Of course if you know this and are willing to import PS2/1 games then ok. I know that PS3 games are supposed to region free but I am unsure if a US PS3 game would play on a PAL PS3 although the HD component should work. For me I would not bother because we get most of the games the US gets usually at the same time or a few weeks later and if you are willing to wait three to six months you can normally get the game at half price.
I tested the PS3 with some PS2 games that would not play or had "artifacts" (weird polygons) when I got home from work and they definitely have increased the number of PS2 games you can now play and it actually does quite a passable up-conversion to 720p and 1080i using component although I have not tried HDMI which my TV does have (I only have a 37" Sharp Aquos so component is good enough). Anyone got a larger HDTV that will do 1080p that can comment?
It must be noted that the PS1/2 game up-conversion does not compare with a naive PS3 game but it definitely improves the picture. Out of all my PS2 games only one does not work and the other one (The Bards Tale) has "artifacts".
I am also surprised that the N64 controller was picked since I found it to be so awkward to hold that in a game like Zelda I had to hold the middle "protrusion" and the right side. My hands got very sore quickly since it was really awkward. Zelda was a great game though.
I actually used a Logitech 2 wireless controller with my PS2 (the Xbox had one to) and found that using wireless was great in that you don't have cords trailing on the floor (my wife is notorious for tripping over them) and you can really move without yanking a cord. In fact now I have a PS3 I can still use this controller and if my PS1/2 games support rumble I have feel it and the batteries last a very long time (50+ hours with rumble on). Personally I have found that the PS1/2/3, SNES, Gamecube and Xbox (small) controllers are all quite comfortable for the games like I play since they are all very similar.
Note: I never tried the Wavebird wireless controller for the Gamecube (still got it and I still play it) but the normal controller was fine except for the cable.
IMHO the NES pad was an ergonomic disaster until you put on side sleeves which sort of made it like the Sega Megadrive controller. As for the buttons try playing an RPG and yes there are few.
The next step in controllers was the Sega Megadrive which was much more comfortable and great for fighting games, however when the SNES came out a few months later it's game-pad was surprisingly comfortable and basically set the standard for all other game pads (look down and compare against all the other console controllers).
You have been always able to play Blu-Ray movies on the PS3 (well at least the Australia/NZ, EU and UK ones do) up to 1080p if your HDTV supports this. What the 1.8 upgrade does is to allow video upscaling via HDMI of DVD movies to a HDTV that support 720p, 1080i or 1080p. In addition you can now display all PS1/2 games up to 1080p as well has the ability to smooth the picture, however you can use HDMI or component video to your HDTV to do this.
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... etc) and get the download on a memory card (CF, SD or Memory Stick) or usb drive and then do the update which takes about 5 minutes.
v ision as a good intro to HDTV.
Smoothing a PS1 game on a PS2 has always been available but in many cases the soothing did not do much although to be fair a few games looked fantastic and some looked awful so you had to turn the feature off. I would assume this will be the case with the 1.8 PS3 upgrade except it would be applied to both PS2 and PS1 games. I have tried the new update on a PS1 game which I know needed smoothing and it did look quite nice (not fantastic but much more playable) but this is the only game I have had the time to try out the new feature on.
I have an Australian PS3 which means the machine uses software emulation. All my PS1 games (I have about 20) work, however not all my PS2 games work (most I have finished anyway) but all the ones I am currently playing do so I am quite happy.
There are more changes and some of them are quite good, however you can read the following URL for more info http://www.us.playstation.com/PS3/Network/Updates
The 1.8 download is over 100MB so you would need a decent high speed line or you could contact a "friend" (ie. work
It is amazing the number of times people get HDTV wrong it is really very simple. If you have a TV that has resolutions 1280x220 (720p or i) and 1920x1080 (1080p or i) then and only then do you have a HDTV. Other resolutions are 720x480 (NTSC) and 768x576 (PAL) which are standard definition (SDTV). There are other standards but lets not get too complicated. As for picking a HDTV it really depends on what you want to spend keeping in mind that under 40" you will get 720p (SDTV up to 1080i) and above 40" you can get 720p or 1080p which costs about 20% to 60% more.
For more details see the following http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_tele
There are many commercial organisations offering training in Linux and prices vary enormously, however from my personal experience I have found Redhat courses are excellent but pricey since you get both theory and hands on fault finding because the instructors do break your software and it is your job to fix it. It must be stressed that all the theory in world is not going to help you much unless you develop a comfortable attitude to faultfinding.
In my opinion the best way of learning Linux is to get a "dull bleeding edge" distribution like Fedora or even OpenSuSE and install it on a laptop. I will guarantee you are going to have issues however there are many forums that can help. In doing this you will either learn or just give up in disgust and if this is the case you can forget about the "bleeding edge" distributions which would be the next logical step after feeling comfortable with something like Fedora.
When picking a forum to subscribe to pick one that is about the same level or just a little higher (can be hard to judge) as your current expertise but please don't go to the advanced forums and bug the people there. In fairness to advanced users who will say "RTFM first" they are more interested in advanced or complex issues than trying to help a new user who wants to know how to "list files". Visualise yourself in the position of someone who has all the kids in the neighbourhood coming round to ask you how do you add 2 plus 2 and you can see why an advanced user is standoffish to new users.
Please note there are a huge number of Linux distributions, some easier and others harder to maintain. Just about all are almost boring to install. You do need to do some reading (ie RTFM before asking) and decide what path you wish to follow, keeping in mind that if one distribution does not work or is too hard for you there are many others that may be more suitable and the cost to you is minimal.
If you want to work on commercial Linux try CentOS which basically is Redhat. The latest version now has Xen setup to make virtualization much easier so you can play with more unstable distributions without having to blow away your base OS.
From what I have read and heard Ubuntu is the most stable Linux for the desktop. This is a excellent way of having a stable base OS and you can still use Xen to install and play around with other Linux distributions. I have heard that you can even install Open Solaris under Xen and this can be a very marketable skill in the future.
Actually 60GB to 80GB is not that much but looking at the 60GB to 20GB which is now defunct and not available in EU, UK, Australia and New Zealand it is unlikely that the US much less the world sees the 80GB PS3 anytime soon. In many ways this is not that much of a big deal. If you want a larger PS3 disk then go out an buy a 120GB or 160GB notebook drive and replace your PS3's disk with it then put the PS3's 60GB drive in a slimline case as a portable drive. You have win-win situation here.
The reason why I don't suggest a 200GB notebook drive is it much slower 4000 rpm compared to 5400 rpm and much more expensive.
Of course you could get a 320GB to 750GB or bigger drive (7200 rpm or better) and connect it to the PS3 via the USB connector. It is external but you can store a lot of data. Of course we now come to the problem of how you back this up.
One of the major problems in determining which fuel is best is getting everyone to agree. The simplest solution is to look at the energy equation and the amount of pollution the overall process produces. What I have described here applies to fossil and bio fuels as well as solar energy. Each of these have many positives and negatives so ideally you should look at something that is more positive, even this type of comparison has issues.
I will only cover Ethanol and biodiesel and even then I can only scratch the surface because politics gets involved as well. One important thing to be aware of here is you need to grow plants to produce the particular fuel and that means land which may be of better use in growing food crops. It is a question of balance between land for fuel and land for food crop and in populous countries this is a major dilemma.
Ethanol: Requires lots of water so countries like Brazil which have ample rainfall would find this attractive, however you have to still look at the energy equation and in Brazil's case this is positive but only just. For many countries this is not viable unless supported by politics.
Bio-diesel: Can be obtained from any plant capable of producing an oil. One advantage of growing oil producing plants over sugar producing plants is you can do this with less water, in addition the energy equation is much more positive since biodiesel has a higher calorific factor than ethanol fuel or mixed petrol and ethanol.
The pollution factor is important here as well since you need to look at the pollution left from growing, harvesting, distribution and consumption. Actually biodiesel has the lower pollution factor but you also need to look at the scale and technology in producing the fuels so in poor countries ethanol may be the better solution where in wealthy countries biodiesel may be better. Even the reverse can be true.
What I am trying to get across is there is no easy one-size fits all (where have we heard that before?) solution. Each county must hopefully make the right decision with regard to energy production and consumption. Unfortunately there are many vested interests involved which makes arriving at a sustainable energy solution very difficult.
I was waiting till late this year or even next year before making a decision if I was going to buy a PS3 or not. Basically with the exception of Oblivion I was not interested in most of the PS3 games although to be honest with the exception of Zelda (love those games) and Metroid is not out yet so I was not interested in the Wii either. As for the Xbox360 I could also say the same.
:)
I was out shopping with my son when I noticed Games Wizards (I live in Australia) was offering PS3's (we only have the 60GB version) at AU$499 (US$410) when you trade in your working PS2 (mine is over 5 years old) plus 10 games. This was an offer too good to be true so I checked and it was true so I got one plus the game Oblivion (traded two old ps2 games for a 50% off price). I was curious so I asked if many people were buying and was informed that they were. I was the 5th at 10:00am and I had another person behind me.
Setting up the PS3 in my home was easy, even setting it up to talk to my wireless router was not difficult. Once I upgraded the firmware to 1.7 I can now play most of my PS2 and all of my PS1 games, some of which were not even mentioned in the website. I can even use my PS2 Logitech 2 dual shock wireless controller and get rumble from PS1 and PS2 games (if supported) as well as the ability to use a keyboard and mouse (all wireless). For those interested a PS1/2 game is Standard Def and a PS3 game is 720p up-to 1080p. You definitely can notice the difference in graphics quality but I still play my Gamecube and PS1/2 games since my HDTV does smooth out some games. There is also a rumour from some Game Sites that the Sony emulator programmers are looking at up-scaling PS1 and PS2 games to High Res but like I have said it is still a rumour.
It is far to early to make a call on the popularity of any of the new consoles and a cheaper console may not cut it if people don't buy the games. From what I have seen so far with Nintendo games there is little difference in price between the PS3 and Xbox360 games, people do notice this. In addition Nintendo games usually remain high long after equivalent games on the other consoles has fallen (usually by 50%). I have seen this with the Gamecube vs PS2 and Xbox and now I am seeing the same thing with the Wii games.
If games places start doing deals like the above and they are starting to since we are approaching the end of our financial year at the end of June, the PS3 is going to sell well even with similar deals on the Xbox and Wii since the PS3 is perceived as a very attractive item (ie. bragging rights) especially since HDTV's are selling really well in Australia and people do want HD movies to play on their HDTV's. The PS3 out of the box does just this. In fact some of our main department stores are not even stocking HD-DVD machines, just BD (Blu-Ray) only.
The only problem I have now is I have to share the HDTV with my wife and two sons and my eldest also likes the PS3 Oblivion game even though he is an avid PC gamer. Guess I will have to set up a time share system
While contests like this are excellent for the newcomer to possibly break into gaming design and programing I would recommend that each contestant look carefully at the conditions of entry since there is a possibility of this being abused to varying degrees. This does not just apply to the competition but design and innovation in general, since it is far to easy for a big company to steal your ideas even if it is unintentional.
Today it is just about impossible for any person with even a small amount of imagination to look at something and have varying ideas on how that something works and even to possibly improve on it. This is commonly called inspiration and innovation, however the degree of this does depend on the person education, skills and life experience. Unfortunately once a company gets hold of any inspiration they do have a tendency to wrap it up in Intellectual Property which actually suppresses outside innovation.
I have played Metroid on the Gamecube and Halo on the PC (much better graphics). My conclusion is Metroid Prime is a much more fun game but then again I have always liked action/adventure and RPG's so I am biased.
To be fair Halo was an adrenaline rush for the first hour but I kind of lost interest after that since it was like many FPS games. Metroid Prime on the other hand was an adrenaline rush but not as intense, however it is a huge game with lots of exploration which I really like. I know you had land vehicles in Halo but they were IMHO not that much fun to drive.
Since my son has moved back in with us and brought his Gamecube I am have fun playing Metroid Prime again on my 37in LCD TV and even though the game is not in high res graphics the graphics still look good on my HDTV and the game is still fun to play. Halo on the other hand has been consigned to collecting dust.
Of course for people who live for FPS games what I have said is sacrilegious but this is my opinion and as far as I am concerned if you like FPS games then good for you.
From the article it is the Government that wants to go Open Source not Business or the Home user. Since the Government is an elected body there is more scrutiny on their spending so it is a very good political move to make this proposal.
Many time we hear of "This year will be the year of Linux" but at the end of the year nothing has happened. The only way Linux will become acceptable by the general populous is when the countries' Government makes the switch. After this Businesses start to follow because they like it or not have to communicate with Government Departments. It is only after significant Businesses make the switch that you will see the Linux distributions appear in number on the Home users' PC.
I think the main tipping point for public Linux adoption will occur when native A1 games start to appear and Japan has excellent gaming houses to do just this. Of course you will see the dedicated gamer make the first move but casual gamers quickly follow.
If and when Linux gains momentum in Business and in the Home will you see Microsoft products start to magically integrate themselves with Linux products? It could happen but that would effectively trivialise Microsoft products and Microsoft definitely does not want this to happen since their revenue will be dramatically reduced due to massive competition.
You are going to see a massive increase in FUD and dirty ticks (patents anyone) being pulled by an ever increasing paranoid Microsoft to prevent or at least slow this happening.
Don't remember any priest or nun or even a lay worker coming round to my house and demanding money. Basically if you want to give to a religion then you do if you don't then you don't.
Yes I do know about "tithes" which was a sort of acceptable charitable giving based on your income to the appropriate church, temple, synagogue or mosque but this form of giving was practiced and sometimes enforced by nearly all religions.
Well you can also say that Microsoft looked at other Office productivity suites because they were around in the mid 1980's the only problem the ones I saw were running on Unix had floating licenses costing two to five times what Microsoft Office (got to love that innovative name) costs for one PC.
Most scientists, engineers, designers and artists always look to something for inspiration that is how human innovation works but to say that is wrong by actually using patents to suppress this (copyright is different) is IMHO morally wrong.
Could not agree more.
Using wine on simple?? MS Windows applications (ie. Notepad, Minesweeper, Solitare) normally works but try and install games like Balders Gate or Neverwinter Nights or even Guild Wars to name a few. If the installer does not stuff you up you may be ok, but this is not really for the general user because they may be frequenting many forums and even then they may not get the game working properly.
Anyway why try to make a Linux emulate MS Windows? If enough people started to use Linux you are going to see native games. After-all there are over 2 million registered Fedora users and that is just the tip of the Linux user base. My guess there is over 20 million and that is a huge potential gamer base but it requires game producers to make native games however this is also a big gamble for them. Still a bad game is just that "a bad game" and even targeted at Linux, MS Windows PS2/3, Wii, or Xbox360 it will sell poorly. A good game will always sell well.
I think Dell's not shipping Wine is an excellent idea leaving it is up to the user to install. As for installing Ubuntu I have heard nothing but good reports on it and how it provides a very stable desktop. This is definitely needed for a beginner. The problem I see here is marketing and this is an area where Microsoft (like it or not) excels.
It really depends on how far back you like to go. I suppose I could say why do PC's try to emulate workstations, because back in the early 1980's PC's were tty based and if they had graphics they were very clunky compared to the high resolution but expensive graphics of a workstation. If we go back even further I am sure mainframe people were saying the same against workstations.
The first time I ever saw a FPS game was Wolfenstein and it was running on a 1024x1024 Silicon Graphics Workstation and this was months before it came out on the PC.
You are right in saying "The *only* reason to use a console over a PC is because the games will be optimized for your specific set of hardware, so you can be sure that there are no compatibility issues and it will probably run pretty smooth".
Why do people prefer a console game over a PC game or the other way round really depends on the individual. For most people a console game is easy to get running or to quote "Just Works". On the other hand a PC game can have much better graphics and is really great for First Person Shooters (FPS), Strategy and Simulation games and it's on-lie capability is great.
Now the line between PC and Console is blurring although PC's can have a much higher resolution but smaller monitor so basically it really boils down to what games you like.
An example of console to PC FPS games is to compare Metroid (Gamecube) to Halo 1 on the PC. For Some the answer would be Metroid for others Halo.
It is usually appropropriate to market a product with a different name in a county where the English word can be misinterpreted, still that does not always stop the other country taking offence, real or imagined.
Communication is always a problem when you have different languages and cultures. This is why French became the language of Diplomacy since (I think) 1700's since the language was basically codified such that it was very difficult to misinterpret. Of course that did not stop some of the most horrendous wars in history it just made it easier to tell the other guy you did not like him and why.
I don't have a Wii but I do have a Gamecube and even though there are only a few games I am interested in, those games as far as I am concerned are fun. I do have a 720p 94cm (37in) LCD TV and while it is possible to notice graphical limitations the games are still fun to play, however if my TV was bigger you would really start to notice the graphical limitation although to be fair I don't know if this would be a major turn off.
So far I have resisted the urge to buy any next gen console since IMHO there are few games that tempt me. A very important factor in choosing a gaming console is the number and variety of games that you would personally like being available for it. Not everyone like FPS, fighters or even sport games with my personal preference going towards action adventure and roll playing. For me and I am sure for many other people the PS2 and to a limited extent the Gamecube have lots of games that are enjoyable compared to the next generation games.
As an example of graphical differences I have found that I would rather play the Metroid (Gamecube) game which is first person shooter/action adventure compared to playing Halo 1 (I have it for the PC). Even if I had a Wii I would still opt for next Metroid over Halo 3 even if the Wii's graphics are not as good. I can now imagine the fan-boys saying WTF!
Personally I have found that some of the old SNES, NES and even Sega games even though graphically challenged are still enjoyable. For those who like action adventure try playing the original NES Zelda or Metroid, even today those games are still challenging and fun to play.
Well they could call it BD (short for Bluray Disk) or would you prefer calling HD DVD "High Definition Digital Versatile Disc". I think you will find that many people are confused with HD DVD verses DVD but not with Bluray verses DVD since the Bluray PR people have really been out "informing" the people.
It must be noted that a good marketing campaign works well if you have some catch word that is relatively short and can be perceived as "cool", is easy to remember and can easily be abbreviated to a few relevant characters. At the moment Bluray fits that criteria.
As to which format will win, well it is far to early to tell which format will dominate, however the Bluray consortium does have more money. Still time will tell.
Minor error your code should be:
:-)
#!/usr/bin/perl
$a='#!/usr/bin/perl
#this program prints itself, with a prepended comment to explain what it does
$a=%c%s%c; printf($a,39,$a,39) ';printf($a,39,$a,39);
Note the end quote
You realize we are both up for patent infringement
Asinine "security updates" - have you ever tried to keep your Microsoft OS up to date?
If you want home-brew games on a portable machine then the PSP was never for you. In fact neither was any Nintendo handheld. As far as being over priced why did you even spend the money on one unless you never got one in the first place and are just trolling.
The PSP over-sized, really! you must have very small hands or have you forgotten the Nintendo Gameboy.
Storage - please name a portable gaming machine that has more storage. A PDA does come close but you don't have the gaming controls.
The UMD is a joke. In what way? How would you design something like the PSP and what cheap, reliable, robust portable media would you use keeping mind that the PSP was developed a few years ago when flash cards and micro disk drives of any significant size were not cheap if available? Even today selling movies on a cheap flash drive (I know the PSP uses Sony's memory stick) would be prohibitive. Forget about DVD (to big) or micro DVD they would get scratched so easily. I suppose you could go back to proprietary cartridges but these are like flash cards.
Personally I would find watching a movie or even playing a game on a small screen like the PSP's a pain (the DS IMHO is not any better) so I don't have one, still some people want that and that's fine with me.
Yes the PSP is a "failure" because it is second to the Nintendo DS so Sony is crying all the way to the bank. Please check the stock market share price on Sony if you don't believe me I personally would love to have that sort of failure.
If you come from a conventional Linux/Unix background and then start work on AIX you are in for a shock. While AIX really is Unix it is actually different from conventional Unix but all the standard Unix commands are there.
The way to get a fast track in AIX is to use SMIT (System Management Interface Tool) and then ask it what it did by pressing a function key. The commands can be cut and pasted into a script and you can then mod and run this. In fact you can do IMHO over 95% of what a System Admin needs to do. Of course once you get comfortable with some of the "odd"?? commands it is not a bad OS to work on.
With regard to why Quantas got rid of Linux for AIX machines, the article did not really say. I think the best phrase that comes to mind is the old "No one got fired by buying IBM". However I would assume that a cost benefit analysis was done because IBM mainframes (the one that comes to mid is the "p" series) are not cheap and if you have a central database you really should have a powerful machine (yes I know Linux can scale as well) and you can configure these machines as a number of physical machines each with their own CPU, Memory and PCI slots (called VPARS). This can be done in minutes but of course if you need to recover then you are limited by the disk subsystem. I do assume a decent SAN here.
Since IBM actually pushes Linux I would not be surprised if some VPARS are configured with Linux for those apps that would be difficult to port and the larger VPARS with AIX. In fact the VPAR controller PC runs Linux (last time I looked 2 years ago an IBM supported version of Redhat 9).
While PC's offer a cheap hardware solution they are not as reliable or scalable as something like a mainframe but you do pay for it. Still you really have to ask the question "What price do I put on my databases and applications". Costs in the order of 10's or even 100's of millions of dollars for IT are quite acceptable in large businesses and Quantas is a large business.
Try working for a Telco or bank. I am not talking a few thousand dollars for blades I am talking 100's of millions of dollars and that is just on mainframes with AIX, HP-UX, Solaris and even Linux operating systems. In the majority of cases these companies actually own their mainframes. Don't get me started on Storage Area Networks and Enterprise Backup Systems because these don't come cheap either.
All business (at least those that want to stay in business) have support contracts be it low (PC's and blades) through to high end (Mainframe) hardware and their respective operating systems.
In a Dormitory situation all you need is a wireless firewall (relatively cheap but pick one that has a reasonable range) to one connection port and then assuming all collaborating users have wireless you can setup a simple grey intranet with legitimate access to the University/Collage network. So you want to do file-sharing then connect to your friend's computer via share or ssh and all traffic is via the firewall and is not seen by the University/Collage network so you are actually doing the right thing by not loading their network. In addition you can lock-down access to stop unauthorised computers. This is great until someone blabs or until it becomes illegal (it may be in some Universities and Collages) to connect a wireless modem. Of course we all know the PR spin the RIAA would make of this.
Note I am not suggesting you do anything illegal in setting up a wireless network but sharing files is quite legal and reduces the load on the corporate network.