Hmm, last time I checked, US had a GNP of $11,351 billion USD versus the UK's $1,647 billion USD (converted). We have about 4.5 times the available military man power, and 4 times as many currently enlisted soldiers. In 2002 (latest results I could find) we also had roughly 30 times the number of active nuclear warheads than our now-allies. Yeah, I'd say we've won.
I know everyone's talking about downloadable content as the next stage, but I really hope it isn't. DRM is bad enough as it is- if and when the movie companies succumb to downloads, those things are going to be way too hard to do anything with. Personally, I'd like to see the new holographic media thats supposed to hit the PC market next year. It promises an extremely high data density, and functions as a raw medium just like CD's do, so DRM will still be semi-controlled.
While I agree that the jokes may die down across the internet eventually, that doesn't mean they and the name that spurned them won't create a lasting reaction that will hurt non-fanboy sales immensely. Nintendo already has to play a bit of catch up after this past generation, and they don't need to have more reasons for people to ignore their products. So I created a petition here http://www.petitiononline.com/revnowii/petition.ht ml to ask Nintendo to change the name, if not to Revolution, to something besides "Wii." Please check it out, and if you agree, sign it and tell your friends about it. Also, the petition suggests that everybody continue to call the system the "Revolution" instead of the "Wii," both to support the petition and to nip the bad jokes in the bud. Please help me out with this!!!
Although I don't think the anti-trust laws would protect against not using a patent, I do think that it is unlikely they would buy up the patent. OLED's are already being used in other areas, and power and lighting companies have taken part in the research. I have a feeling they would use the patent if they got it, because if I remember correctly, OLED's are cheaper to manufacture than light bulbs are.
Ha you make good points, although I disagree with most of them.
For instance, whether you like it or not, adding Mario makes a game sell much better than it would have. They added him to the GCN version of NBA Street, and I remember talking to several ADULT gamer friends and reading several more people post online that the only reason they bought and enjoy the game is because they can play as Mario. It's that simple. Yes, they have 80 different Mario Parties, but the first one was innovative, the next one or two were still widely successful, and the others old their own sales-wise. I myself only bought the first three, but whatever.
As far as the classics things go, I'll be frank. i don't plan to download any of the games I played when they were new. But I (and my many friends) are aching to be able to play those games we never got around to purchasing while we could. The reason I don't use emulation is simply because I got sick and tired of having to dig for whatever I was looking for, making my way through layers of ad-ridden pages, only to end up with a dud file and some enterprising piece of spyware that made it through my layers of filters. But again, whatever, it's just preference.
I will agree with you on the experience bit, although I don't really enjoy games like GTA3 and the lesser Spider-Man 2. I don't really care about having to wander around and find the mission. As an honors student, I only have so much time to game, and I want to use it "productively." And I don't have the money to afford the latest hi-def tech or even a solid home theater sound system, so it matters little to me whether one system can pump out hi-def or not. And fter playing Metroid Prime and Call of Duty on the 360 (at a friend's house), I found that I enjoyed the style in Metroid much more than Call of Duty. I can't quite place it, but though the graphics are very stunning on CoD, it seems almost plasticy to me- the light reflects too much, and the dust clouds and such are a little too defined. I ended up having an easier time getting past the "kiddie" graphics of WW than the plasticy style of CoD.
And when it comes right down to it, I enjoy the "game" part of it more than the "immersion." I enjoyed double dash and MKDS much more than any other racing game. I don't enjoy just moving around tracks in a ferari. I find it aggravating that I can't launch things at the guy stubbornly staying in front of me. And I guess if I enjoy "kiddie" plumbers more than a faceless driver, so be it.
Besides, if you want immersion, the rev controller is your best bet. No matter how great the world onscreen looks, you're still holding a joypad in real life. The motion gun will add more immersion than graphics will imho.
Actually, Nintendo is using new chips- albeit extensions of their GCn architectures. The 360 actually used off-the-shelf materials. The problem they had was that they modified the Power PC architecture enough to take IBM a long time to produce chips, which is what led to the shortages. Power PC chips, from what I've heard, are inefficient to make to begin with, and I imagine jury-rigging the chips to suit Microsoft's needs only made them more complex and inefficient.
Actually, sources are saying the rev games will use proprietary discs the same size (and probably with the same physical properties) as DVD's. But there will be a big enough difference in the way the data is coded to create difficulty to pirate. That is why you will need a seperate dongle to enable DVD movie playback- the software to read standard DVD's and the video codecs will not be added to the main board to save cost per unit (at least according to information released a while back, there are rumors that they will remove the need for the dongle).
dude, the post is serious, but the articles it's talking about are not. Wisps are NOT going to be the new WoW race. Night Elves turn into wisps instead of normal ghosts when they die. Besides, even if they did, permanent death would not go over well, especially if the only bonus is that everyone around you loses 50 mana. 50 mana is nothing once you pass like level 5. They're just fooling around with the players.
And if you know anything about WoW, you'll know the 1.11 patch notes are a bunch of inside jokes based on things that people find annoying. for instance, "Night Elves will now lose a small percentage of experience after jumping." Players get annoyed that NE's jump all the time.
and "In order to assist with various upkeep costs, at a designated time NPC vendors will now give players an amount of gold based upon their level. This is currently slated to occur every Tuesday from 6:00 AM to 11:00 AM PST." The timeslot mentioned is when WoW brings all their servers down for maintenance and realm cleanup. Nobody can log on to get the free gold.
So although the post itself seems serious, the articles it's talking about are 100% Grade A Farce.
It seems to be the misconception that AMD's chips use substantially more power than their intel counterparts. In reality, the average difference during normal usage is marginal, even in laptop terms. And the power usage doesn't fluctuate up as much as Intel's when the processor is under heavy loads. Besides, AMD chips tend to be less bang for the same or more buck, and if you're that concerned with battery life, you can opt for two battery slots in your laptop, and carry a third so you can swap out. But I use a widescreen HP media laptop running an AMD 64 processor, and I can carry enough juice to get me through an average business week. Granted I don't rely on the laptop exclusively, but I still end up logging upwards of 12 hours between charges.
Well it could bery well be that a good majority of Apply tech support reps are also Apple nuts (not derogatory). I mean a serious apple user is in my experience very gung ho about his computer, and wants to spread the gospel of Mac to the uneducated user. Most pc gurus are jaded due to people who use their CD-ROM's as cupholders. Then add to that the fact that many PC companies are outsourcing, and as far I've seen Apple isn't. I have a hard time understanding people over the phone sometimes, and it doesn't help when the person has a strange accent and is talking a mile a minute. I like Apple's style, but I don't like the lack of mainstream software, and the high cost. If I could buy a Mac with comparable stats as the PC I built for myself, and have the cost fall reasonably close to my PC, I would probly go out and buy a Mac to tinker with. But I just don't feel right tinkering with a $1500 dollar computer, and the Mini seems a little underpowered. But I digress...
It would be pretty cool to have all the appliances connected via, IP, but it would definetly have it's downfalls. Everytime something happens to confuse the router (which is quite frequent in my house, what with the power and cable modem going down for no reason), my oven would stop working!
What an odd thing to say, that humans are becoming increasingly dependant on technology. Even if we were to throw away everything electronic, we would still depend on technology to do anything. Everything a human has created to carry out a purpose is technology. The wheel? technology. Pencils? Technology. Even things such as baseballs and shirts are technology. the sharp pointy sticks our ancestors used to kill animals were technology as well. We humans don't have the corner on any market. Our eyes, ears, noses, and tounges are less sensitive than most animals. Our reflexes are pretty slow. Shoot, pound for pound, the common sugar ant has us whipped in weightlifting. Our only strengths are opposable thumbs and our intelligence. So throughout our entire existence we have found the need to put both to work to shape things in new and creative ways in order to carry out the same tasks other animals can do naturally. We couldn't bite our prey to death like the predatory cats, so we created pointy things to do it for us. As our needs have evolved, our technology evolved with it. And as technology evolved, it lessened our workload enough to develop culture. We then created technology to assist us in culture. That's why we have such "unproductive" things as mp3 players and video games. In a way we're addicted to technology of all kinds, just like lions are addicted to their teeth and elephants their trunks. They can't survive without them, and we cant survive without tech.
...to sue someone for the dissemination of information you provide for free on your own website, where any ding dong can find it in about 5 seconds. What's the difference between a bunch of people printing the picture you offer, and a bunch of people saving an iPod compatible picture on their 'pod? The guy didn't charge anyone anything for the maps. He's not disrupting the subway's business by distributing it. In fact, if anything, he's actually supporting MTA by providing people with a map they can check at any time, whether they're on a train, or not even around the station. The lawsuit doesn't make sense, and if they were to "be refunded the money equal to the retail cost of each download" (paraphrase), they wouldn't make a dime.
The case isn't even the same as someone distributing free music online. With music, the file is the end product, a song that someone is listening to without paying for. But the subway maps (which cost nothing to purchase normally) have no purpose unless they're used in conjunction with the transit system, which you still have to purchase tickets for. Whatever.
Slashdot Mirror
Hmm, last time I checked, US had a GNP of $11,351 billion USD versus the UK's $1,647 billion USD (converted). We have about 4.5 times the available military man power, and 4 times as many currently enlisted soldiers. In 2002 (latest results I could find) we also had roughly 30 times the number of active nuclear warheads than our now-allies. Yeah, I'd say we've won.
I know everyone's talking about downloadable content as the next stage, but I really hope it isn't. DRM is bad enough as it is- if and when the movie companies succumb to downloads, those things are going to be way too hard to do anything with. Personally, I'd like to see the new holographic media thats supposed to hit the PC market next year. It promises an extremely high data density, and functions as a raw medium just like CD's do, so DRM will still be semi-controlled.
While I agree that the jokes may die down across the internet eventually, that doesn't mean they and the name that spurned them won't create a lasting reaction that will hurt non-fanboy sales immensely. Nintendo already has to play a bit of catch up after this past generation, and they don't need to have more reasons for people to ignore their products. So I created a petition here http://www.petitiononline.com/revnowii/petition.ht ml to ask Nintendo to change the name, if not to Revolution, to something besides "Wii." Please check it out, and if you agree, sign it and tell your friends about it. Also, the petition suggests that everybody continue to call the system the "Revolution" instead of the "Wii," both to support the petition and to nip the bad jokes in the bud. Please help me out with this!!!
Sorry, when I hit preview, it must have cleared the log in fields. I posted the parent to this.
Although I don't think the anti-trust laws would protect against not using a patent, I do think that it is unlikely they would buy up the patent. OLED's are already being used in other areas, and power and lighting companies have taken part in the research. I have a feeling they would use the patent if they got it, because if I remember correctly, OLED's are cheaper to manufacture than light bulbs are.
Ha you make good points, although I disagree with most of them. For instance, whether you like it or not, adding Mario makes a game sell much better than it would have. They added him to the GCN version of NBA Street, and I remember talking to several ADULT gamer friends and reading several more people post online that the only reason they bought and enjoy the game is because they can play as Mario. It's that simple. Yes, they have 80 different Mario Parties, but the first one was innovative, the next one or two were still widely successful, and the others old their own sales-wise. I myself only bought the first three, but whatever. As far as the classics things go, I'll be frank. i don't plan to download any of the games I played when they were new. But I (and my many friends) are aching to be able to play those games we never got around to purchasing while we could. The reason I don't use emulation is simply because I got sick and tired of having to dig for whatever I was looking for, making my way through layers of ad-ridden pages, only to end up with a dud file and some enterprising piece of spyware that made it through my layers of filters. But again, whatever, it's just preference. I will agree with you on the experience bit, although I don't really enjoy games like GTA3 and the lesser Spider-Man 2. I don't really care about having to wander around and find the mission. As an honors student, I only have so much time to game, and I want to use it "productively." And I don't have the money to afford the latest hi-def tech or even a solid home theater sound system, so it matters little to me whether one system can pump out hi-def or not. And fter playing Metroid Prime and Call of Duty on the 360 (at a friend's house), I found that I enjoyed the style in Metroid much more than Call of Duty. I can't quite place it, but though the graphics are very stunning on CoD, it seems almost plasticy to me- the light reflects too much, and the dust clouds and such are a little too defined. I ended up having an easier time getting past the "kiddie" graphics of WW than the plasticy style of CoD. And when it comes right down to it, I enjoy the "game" part of it more than the "immersion." I enjoyed double dash and MKDS much more than any other racing game. I don't enjoy just moving around tracks in a ferari. I find it aggravating that I can't launch things at the guy stubbornly staying in front of me. And I guess if I enjoy "kiddie" plumbers more than a faceless driver, so be it. Besides, if you want immersion, the rev controller is your best bet. No matter how great the world onscreen looks, you're still holding a joypad in real life. The motion gun will add more immersion than graphics will imho.
Actually, Nintendo is using new chips- albeit extensions of their GCn architectures. The 360 actually used off-the-shelf materials. The problem they had was that they modified the Power PC architecture enough to take IBM a long time to produce chips, which is what led to the shortages. Power PC chips, from what I've heard, are inefficient to make to begin with, and I imagine jury-rigging the chips to suit Microsoft's needs only made them more complex and inefficient.
Actually, sources are saying the rev games will use proprietary discs the same size (and probably with the same physical properties) as DVD's. But there will be a big enough difference in the way the data is coded to create difficulty to pirate. That is why you will need a seperate dongle to enable DVD movie playback- the software to read standard DVD's and the video codecs will not be added to the main board to save cost per unit (at least according to information released a while back, there are rumors that they will remove the need for the dongle).
dude, the post is serious, but the articles it's talking about are not. Wisps are NOT going to be the new WoW race. Night Elves turn into wisps instead of normal ghosts when they die. Besides, even if they did, permanent death would not go over well, especially if the only bonus is that everyone around you loses 50 mana. 50 mana is nothing once you pass like level 5. They're just fooling around with the players. And if you know anything about WoW, you'll know the 1.11 patch notes are a bunch of inside jokes based on things that people find annoying. for instance, "Night Elves will now lose a small percentage of experience after jumping." Players get annoyed that NE's jump all the time. and "In order to assist with various upkeep costs, at a designated time NPC vendors will now give players an amount of gold based upon their level. This is currently slated to occur every Tuesday from 6:00 AM to 11:00 AM PST." The timeslot mentioned is when WoW brings all their servers down for maintenance and realm cleanup. Nobody can log on to get the free gold. So although the post itself seems serious, the articles it's talking about are 100% Grade A Farce.
It seems to be the misconception that AMD's chips use substantially more power than their intel counterparts. In reality, the average difference during normal usage is marginal, even in laptop terms. And the power usage doesn't fluctuate up as much as Intel's when the processor is under heavy loads. Besides, AMD chips tend to be less bang for the same or more buck, and if you're that concerned with battery life, you can opt for two battery slots in your laptop, and carry a third so you can swap out. But I use a widescreen HP media laptop running an AMD 64 processor, and I can carry enough juice to get me through an average business week. Granted I don't rely on the laptop exclusively, but I still end up logging upwards of 12 hours between charges.
He said 15GB in a CD case. You can hit 15 GB in about 22 CD's at 700MB per disc.
Well it could bery well be that a good majority of Apply tech support reps are also Apple nuts (not derogatory). I mean a serious apple user is in my experience very gung ho about his computer, and wants to spread the gospel of Mac to the uneducated user. Most pc gurus are jaded due to people who use their CD-ROM's as cupholders. Then add to that the fact that many PC companies are outsourcing, and as far I've seen Apple isn't. I have a hard time understanding people over the phone sometimes, and it doesn't help when the person has a strange accent and is talking a mile a minute. I like Apple's style, but I don't like the lack of mainstream software, and the high cost. If I could buy a Mac with comparable stats as the PC I built for myself, and have the cost fall reasonably close to my PC, I would probly go out and buy a Mac to tinker with. But I just don't feel right tinkering with a $1500 dollar computer, and the Mini seems a little underpowered. But I digress...
It would be pretty cool to have all the appliances connected via, IP, but it would definetly have it's downfalls. Everytime something happens to confuse the router (which is quite frequent in my house, what with the power and cable modem going down for no reason), my oven would stop working!
What an odd thing to say, that humans are becoming increasingly dependant on technology. Even if we were to throw away everything electronic, we would still depend on technology to do anything. Everything a human has created to carry out a purpose is technology. The wheel? technology. Pencils? Technology. Even things such as baseballs and shirts are technology. the sharp pointy sticks our ancestors used to kill animals were technology as well. We humans don't have the corner on any market. Our eyes, ears, noses, and tounges are less sensitive than most animals. Our reflexes are pretty slow. Shoot, pound for pound, the common sugar ant has us whipped in weightlifting. Our only strengths are opposable thumbs and our intelligence. So throughout our entire existence we have found the need to put both to work to shape things in new and creative ways in order to carry out the same tasks other animals can do naturally. We couldn't bite our prey to death like the predatory cats, so we created pointy things to do it for us. As our needs have evolved, our technology evolved with it. And as technology evolved, it lessened our workload enough to develop culture. We then created technology to assist us in culture. That's why we have such "unproductive" things as mp3 players and video games. In a way we're addicted to technology of all kinds, just like lions are addicted to their teeth and elephants their trunks. They can't survive without them, and we cant survive without tech.
...to sue someone for the dissemination of information you provide for free on your own website, where any ding dong can find it in about 5 seconds. What's the difference between a bunch of people printing the picture you offer, and a bunch of people saving an iPod compatible picture on their 'pod? The guy didn't charge anyone anything for the maps. He's not disrupting the subway's business by distributing it. In fact, if anything, he's actually supporting MTA by providing people with a map they can check at any time, whether they're on a train, or not even around the station. The lawsuit doesn't make sense, and if they were to "be refunded the money equal to the retail cost of each download" (paraphrase), they wouldn't make a dime. The case isn't even the same as someone distributing free music online. With music, the file is the end product, a song that someone is listening to without paying for. But the subway maps (which cost nothing to purchase normally) have no purpose unless they're used in conjunction with the transit system, which you still have to purchase tickets for. Whatever.