The auto industry could build a car for under $3000 , but it would not sell. Who in the western world is going to buy a tin box on a lawn mower for a car. These same companies could build large, long lasting, quality, safe 150 MPG cars that we would all love to own, but who is going to pay $500K for a SUV made from graphite and titanium?
Software companies could build a rock solid word processor or PIM , even MS, but no one will pay for it. We all scream that the retail price of MS Office is far too much. The corporate world looks at the per seat cost of MS and say, "I wish we could switch to something less expensive." Every product has a price point and software has a very low price point.
The odd part of the problem is the marginal cost of production. As we all know, once the development is done it cost next to nothing to produce. Once a producer has a product that the market will pay for there is little incentive to keep droping millions into making it much better. We would all love to use
perfect" software. If "perfect" software can only be done using "traditional" engineering approachs such as is used in aircraft design that means putting massive teams on a word processor. Each team does one function including the code, hand checking the machine output from the compilier, checking it's performance againsta massive design document. We all know the story of how this kind of effort almost sunk IBM. Computer science has progressed to the point where massive effort should be able to be implimented, but no one would be willing to pay for it.
IWIRBDWFM I work in Redmond, But Don't Work For Microsoft.
MS if well know in town for hiring an army of temps. I'm sure many of them are relegated to writing simpler code or even acting as a code librarian, but getting back to the internal logic of the article MS does not maintain a secure DoD like environment. I'm sure that MS uses a firm to do a criminal background check and I'm sure they check your professional references. I'm also sure that MS does not have the FBI do a security check where they interview your family, neighbors, dorm mates, etc. I would suggest that MS's development environment is not really up to the level of security that the article says is required for critical systems.
In fact, what's to stop some kid fresh out of school from getting a temp gig as a revision control librarian at MS and inserting a malicious code into the code base? Do you think MS is going to pay for the level of background checking required to ferret-out a foreign agent? No, they are a commercial entity engaged in commercial development.
If systems require a high level of assurance DoD has, I assume, several OSs they can supply or they can hire their own secure team to review an OSS effort and qualify that code. I find it unlikely that MS will hand their code over to a government contractor for review and qualification.
Thousands of unknown Microsoft programmers??!
on
ADTI Whitepaper Released
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
How many thousands of unknown contract programmers have worked on MS code? Does MS do any federal background security checks? No!
If we blindly take the assumptions of this article then only some DoD funded Unix should be used for Mission/Life critical systems.
I don't see every product from Microsoft reported here in sacred tones. And for good reason, it's sub-par product being shoved down out throats with media hype and strong arm tactics. So why is this big media schlock being reported here, on a daily basis, as if it were the second coming? Look at the owners here AOL/Time-Warner, Disney, Sony, etc.
Hello! These are the same conglomerates that fund MPIA and RIAA (Sure you remember these acronyms these are the acronyms that brought you other fun acronyms such as DMCA, COPA and others). Lets drop the "free media" for the fat-cat media conglomerates and expand our horizons on shashdot to truly innovative arts and letters.
Format: NINTENDO GAMECUBETM Launch Date: August 26, 2002 ESRB: RP (Rating Pending) Game Type: Action Accessories: Memory Card Players: 1 MSRP: $49.95
Game Summary Seeking well-deserved rest and relaxation, MarioTM and Princess Peach travel to a beautiful remote island. It is said the local citizens are friendly and the weather forecast suggests year-round sunshine. However, when they get to the island, they quickly find out that the peaceful paradise has been polluted by a mysterious stranger. Worse still, the individual bears a striking resemblance to Mario! Determined to clear his reputation and clean up the island, Mario sets off on his greatest adventure yet.
Features
Discover the first Mario title for NINTENDO GAMECUBE, developed by a team under the supervision of Mario's celebrated creator Shigeru Miyamoto.
Explore the game's colorful 3-D world, filled with expansive environments.
Restore the power of Shine to keep the island clean.
Wash away island mess to restore the community to its pristine condition using Mario's new water pump device.
Perform a number of different jumps, bounce off walls, run, slide, climb, and fly to the highest reaches - more mobility than ever before.
Bask in cheery graphics, real-time lighting effects and stunning reflections that bathe the island in sunshine.
Visit Yoshi, Toad and a host of other friends as Mario encounters a collection of enemies bent on foiling his efforts to restore the island.
Fact Sheet - Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
Format: NINTENDO GAMECUBETM Launch Date: June 24, 2002 ESRB: M - Mature Game Type: Psychological Thriller Accessories: Memory Card Players: 1 MSRP: $49.95
Game Summary In a story that spans space and time, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem(TM) introduces 12 controllable characters through the last 2000 years of history, from ancient Rome to modern day. The story revolves around a young woman, Alexandra Rovias, who travels to Rhode Island to investigate the mysterious death of her grandfather. As the game unfolds, Alexandra experiences events through the game's other characters and eventually discovers the secret of human history.
Features
A smart and compelling storyline stretching through 20 centuries, intended for players 17 and older
Play as 12 different characters, each with their own special abilities
Sanity System - adds new levels of unpredictability to the game play experience, causing the player to question each step taken in the game
Each character battles enemies with historically accurate weapons and a unique enemy targeting system
Game features a groundbreaking animation engine; brings characters to life with emotional responses based on current situations
Superior 3D engine, including: bump-mapping, radiosity lightmaps, ray-traced lightmaps, volumetric fogging, 24-bit color, and 640x480 resolution running at 60 frames per second
Haunting musical score to completely envelope the players' experience
Music, sound effects, artwork, technology, story and game play combine in a way never before attempted in a video game
Character Preview List
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is deep in story and character development. Below is a sample of the diverse characters players experience through the journey.
Alexandra Roivas - Student, 2000 AD, Rhode Island A headstrong and independent spirit, Alexandra intends to further the field of numbers theory through her uncanny intellect. She is the type of woman who will never quit, and generally succeeds in her goals through sheer determination. A very intelligent and creative woman, Alexandra?s only weakness, perhaps, is her confidence, which often lands her in situations that, although she can handle, are probably in her best interests to leave alone.
Pious Augustus - Roman Centurion, 26 BC Persia A nobleman conscripted into the army of the Roman Empire, Pious is a Centurion, a commander during the Empire?s campaigns in Persia. He is in his mid to late twenties, and is in good health, with features shaped by the grim horror of the wars he has fought. The conquest has taken its toll on him, and although still a loyal soldier, the novelty of his profession is beginning to wear tiresome. He believes there is more to his life than being a soldier.
Ellia - Dancer of the Court of Suryavarman II, 1152 AD Cambodia Ellia was born into servitude during the 12th century in the dank jungles of Cambodia. As part Khmer working class, she was destined to be a dancing/slave girl in the City Temple that had been built to honor the Hindu gods. Now a teenager in the employ of the Priesthood of the Temple, she witnesses things she is not meant to. Discovering this, she desperately wants no part of it and attempts to escape.
Fact Sheet - Metroid Prime
Format: NINTENDO GAMECUBE(TM) Launch Date: November 18, 2002 ESRB: RP (Rating Pending) Game Type: Action/Adventure Accessories: Memory Card Players: 1 MSRP: $49.95
Game Summary Samus first stopped the evil Space Pirates and Mother Brain from amassing an army of Metroids on the planet Zebes. Then she was called on to finish the job on SR388, ultimately ridding the universe of all but a single Metroid larva. In Super Metroid, for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Samus thwarted Mother Brain's attempt to snatch the captive Metroid larva from the scientists on Ceres. Now, Samus is once again called to investigate Space Pirate activities on the unexplored Tallon IV. Her adventure begins as she enters a mysterious derelict spaceship.
Features
Traverse a crippled spaceship and explore the vast worlds of Tallon IV in an all-new first-person perspective!
Take advantage of Samus's many powers using new suits that enable her to gain new abilities and revisit earlier worlds to uncover many hidden secrets.
Master Samus's combat, scan, and visors -- elements crucial to your success.
Explore each area to find many familiar weapons, such as the Wave Beam and Freeze Beam, and some all-new ones as well.
Choose the right weapon or ability carefully for the situation at hand. Samus will need to use all of the suit and visor abilities as well as many specialized weapons to navigate deadly Tallon IV!
Fact Sheet - Star Fox Adventures
Format: NINTENDO GAMECUBE(TM) Launch Date: September 30, 2002 ESRB: RP (Rating Pending) Game Type: Action/Adventure Accessories: Memory Card Players: 1 MSRP: $49.95
Game Summary Nintendo and Rare® Ltd. join forces to bring Fox McCloud and friends to NINTENDO GAMECUBE. Eight years after the defeat of Andross, the Star Fox team discovers a beautiful prehistoric planet ruled by a sinister tyrant known as General Scales. Players take charge of Star Fox team leader Fox McCloud to free inhabitants from Scales's evil clutches and restore peace to the primal paradise.
Features
Step out of Fox's Arwing and explore a vast, 3-D world lush in forestry, animals, puzzles and adventure.
Learn the secrets of a mystical staff to fend off enemies and use it to cast a variety of spells.
Battle enemies without skipping a beat with the game's intuitive targeting system that locks combat action.
Traverse land and water or fight through space using Fox's trusty Arwing fighter.
Build clever strategies to defeat huge boss enemies.
Witness technologically advanced graphics with Rare's fur-rendering techniques and lavish effects including shimmering water, real-time lighting, depth-of-field blurring and a sophisticated facial animation system.
Enjoy in-depth, life-like voice-overs and an atmospheric musical score that enhance this whimsical story.
Fact Sheet - Mario Party 4
Format: NINTENDO GAMECUBE(TM) Launch Date: October 28, 2002 ESRB: RP (Rating Pending) Game Type: Board Game/Multiple Genre Accessories: Memory Card Players: 1-4 MSRP: $49.95
Game Summary Multi-player pandemonium hits NINTENDO GAMECUBE with Mario Party 4, which includes 50 all-new mini-games and multiple fully rendered 3-D game boards. Nintendo's favorite bunch of characters is back; Koopa, Toad and the others have prepared many maps inside the Party Cube. By rolling the virtual dice and advancing through mini-game trickery, you'll play for the hidden stars.
Features
Choose favorite Nintendo video game characters and compete in a series of contests to win the birthday present.
Take advantage of the Mini-Giant system - players can use items on the boards to grow larger or smaller in order to access different areas of the game boards and trigger special events.
Bump, whack and bang away in the newly introduced Tag Battle, which lets players pair up in two-man teams and compete at collecting stars.
Set a handicap that allows players of all ages and abilities to compete against each other.
Dash through an unmatched variety of game play with challenges that pit one player against three, two against two, each player against each other or four players against a common enemy.
Format: NINTENDO GAMECUBE(TM) Launch Date: August 2002 ESRB: E (Everyone) Game Type: Adventure Accessories: NINTENDO GAMECUBE Game Boy Advance cable Memory Card Players: 1 MSRP: $49.95
Game Summary Everyone's favorite character, Mickey Mouse, makes his NINTENDO GAMECUBE debut in this interactive story. Trapped in a magical mirror, he finds himself in an alternate universe that strangely resembles his house. Mickey yearns to get through the mirror, back to his bed and his peaceful dreams! Getting there won't be easy though, because he will need to recover the broken mirror pieces strewn about the house by a mischievous, troublemaking ghost.
Features
Join Mickey Mouse in his starring role in a video game exclusively on the NINTENDO GAMECUBE.
Guide Mickey from room to room and solve puzzles, trick enemies and pull gags to locate the scattered mirror pieces.
Rebuild the broken mirror and stop the ghosts' tomfoolery to get Mickey home.
Collect souvenirs - such as Pluto's collar or Minnie's bow - which are all displayed in Mickey's room at the end of the game.
Connect with Disney's Magical Quest Starring Mickey and Minnie for Game Boy Advance using the NINTENDO GAMECUBE Game Boy Advance cable to find some extra help for Mickey on his adventures.
Product names, images, features and release dates relate to product in development and may be subject to changes.
It just boggles the mind to look at the list of folks filing AMICI CURIAE briefs in the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act case. Here is just a random sampling of the names:
Eagle Forum/Phyllis Schlafly
Milton Friedman
Hal Roach Studios
Intel
Wendell Berry
Ursula K. Leguin
Barry Lopez
Peter Matthiessen
David Foster Wallace
National Writers Union
The United States Public Policy Committee for the Association of Computing Machinery
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
The Apache Software Foundation
The Domain Name Rights Coalition
The Center for The Public Domain
Public Knowledge, The Digital Future Coalition
The Public Domain Research Corporation
The Center for Book Culture
The Computer and Communications Industry Association
Or are we likely to all be forced down to a "safe" common denominator. At work will you company restrict you to "safe" sites so they don't get sued for creating a dangerous workplace.
1. GRANT OF LICENSE. [snip]... If this Software Product was purchased in some other manner than as a retail product, the license may have a term commencing on the Delivery Date of a Product and continuing for an extended period of time as otherwise ndicated in your purchase order or as set forth in a separate and complementing Software License Agreement to which this End User License agreement is subject to. [emphasis mine]
If you write a PO that says you want only a three year license you get what you pay for.
You need to ask your self what profit do these people add to the business? I do not mean that as a troll. IS departments are overhead. They often grow all out of proportion to their real need in a business. Most IS bosses are empire builders and TRY to grow their empires. As a cost center IS deptments should be telling the rest of the company how to get teh job done for less, not write a new database program everytime a user asks for a new field.
If you work in an IS department that is moe than 2% of your company's head count expect to see pink slips. Look how those armies of well paid middle managers have been sacked and replaced by a few admins if you doubt the bean counters will not catch on.
Different rules apply to departments that make products that are sold and MAKE money for the firm.
Good point. I'll bet they are buying the fallout from a multiple disk product line (fallout = drives with too many failures to sell as 10G drives) . It's the simplest way for them to get cheep drives. Most of the drives will have odd capacity, but still in excess of the minimum. Seagate can then set the max space on the HDD to the standard 8G in the drive flash at the final step of manufacturing. Drive mfgs do this all the time already. It's often cheeper to make a single product and then cripple it and sell them at different price points than it is to have several production lines.
Sure MS can make some multi-billion dollar bets if they win. If they loose the bet you can be sure the product boss is dead at MS. After softies see a few big wigs get the axe for taking risk how long before MS starts looking like any other big biz.
Remember a billion here, a billion there and you start talking real money.
The real killer for X Box is the HDD. Sure HDD capacity keep increasing, but HDD cost never does becuse they are mechanical devices. It take a great deal a labor to make a HDD. And right now MS is getting some sweetheart HDD deals because PC sales are down. Seagate will stick it to them when PC sales start picking-up. The real customers that the HDD companies care about are HPQ, Dell and Gateway. MS jist does not do enough volume even with X to get their attention.
Open an X Box. Looks like about $360 even at $200K units per month pricing. When PC sales take off MS will get squeezed on HDD costs. Do the math, even if they sell 3 games per box they are in a workd of hurt. GCN & PS2 OTOH don't have to pay for the HDD and GCN doesn't even have to pay for DVD patents. Big N can keep cutting costs and still make money. At the end of the day it's profits not sales that matter.
I'd like to see the SSSCA stuff solved by market forces and sanity too. Let the Hollywood folks make themselves an antitamper PCI or USB2 hardware card that has only encrypted data in, a smartcard slot for per user rights management and an SVGA analogue overlay/analogue out. If the market is right they can sell/give away such hardware and make a profit on the films. No software system will survive a cracker long, and indeed things like vmware already make a mockery of software only stuff like windows digital media protection since people can record the audio output of the virtual pc trivially.
The real problem is that Hollywood wants their cake and to eat it too. They want to use commodity PC hardware (DVDs). They should kill the DVD, create a propritary platform (players only) and NEVER aloow it to run on a PC. Geez, I publish something in a public format I then I'm surprised the public can share it? Get real.
This whole screw-up is Hollywoods fault. Don't let them stick it to us for their mistakes.
I wonder what percent of $116 is going to squash free software? Isn't about time we stop going to the slopp that Hollywood hands out when all that it does it hut us.
Forgot to mention. MSN people will never give you their name so you can never prove that you spoke with them. For a little fun, call them up and then ask you you are speaking with. Then ask to speak with a supervisor, rinse and repeat. They will then hang-up on you. QWest always answered with the full name of the tech/sales rep.
With a fist full of T1s at work the thought of dial up a home had lost it's attraction, but my girl friend needed dial-up for work so she signed us up for Qwest. It was only $13 so no big deal. Their tech support turned out to be good and fast for Win platforms. Well, MSN made them a deal they couldn't refuse. QWest said move to MSN or go dark. In a moment of weekness I hit the button to transfer to MSN. After a month of tech support hell and their unwillingness to support win95/Netscape I pulled the plug. Because they were billing my phone account it took 3 weeks of daily phone calls and a director level person at QWest to terminate my account. I did learn one very usefull technique to use on stonewalling service reps: guilt. Just ask them, "how does working for a company that behaves this way make you feel?" The other is to keep them on hold. When they ask for information tell them you're looking for it and then pop back to the phone every 5 minutes and sweetly say, "I'm still looking." One day I kept MSN on the phone for over an hour that way. I finally found Eskimo.com They are cheep and support linux, but their pop provides seem to go out of business every other month. So their dial up numbers keep changing.
The way a biometric database *Should* work is to take some data points from the image and then create a hashfrom the data points. This should be done for the same reason you should NOT store passwords, but rather their hash. The other reason for hashing the data is that is going to be much smaller and quicker to search. OTOH drives are cheap and...
Budget for a lot of travel on short notice. You will need "face time." Expect the trave to exceed what you will save in salary for such a small project. If you are hiring 20 or 20 programmers you might see a real savings if it comes out right. Also, plan on switching your US team to the graveyard shift so you can have enless phone calls with them. Been there, done that.
I believe that your are wrong in your basic assumption. The reason the big chip vendors have armies of Verilog sluggers is that they are trying to extend and optimize a static architecture with out taking advantage of significant possible performance advances in radical new designs. There is no way Intel is going to ship a design for the desktop that would not be x86 compatable. On the other hand, consider some radical designs such as:
256 very simple 8 bit CPUs on a chip
8K bit length instruction work CPUs
Both of these designs are within reach of current gate counts.
Slashdot Mirror
Software companies could build a rock solid word processor or PIM , even MS, but no one will pay for it. We all scream that the retail price of MS Office is far too much. The corporate world looks at the per seat cost of MS and say, "I wish we could switch to something less expensive." Every product has a price point and software has a very low price point.
The odd part of the problem is the marginal cost of production. As we all know, once the development is done it cost next to nothing to produce. Once a producer has a product that the market will pay for there is little incentive to keep droping millions into making it much better. We would all love to use perfect" software. If "perfect" software can only be done using "traditional" engineering approachs such as is used in aircraft design that means putting massive teams on a word processor. Each team does one function including the code, hand checking the machine output from the compilier, checking it's performance againsta massive design document. We all know the story of how this kind of effort almost sunk IBM. Computer science has progressed to the point where massive effort should be able to be implimented, but no one would be willing to pay for it.
P2P packet radio is an old idea. Check out the old Aloha and AX25 protocols. One of the best sites for amature packet radio is Tucson Amateur Packet Radio or Packet Primer.
MS if well know in town for hiring an army of temps. I'm sure many of them are relegated to writing simpler code or even acting as a code librarian, but getting back to the internal logic of the article MS does not maintain a secure DoD like environment. I'm sure that MS uses a firm to do a criminal background check and I'm sure they check your professional references. I'm also sure that MS does not have the FBI do a security check where they interview your family, neighbors, dorm mates, etc. I would suggest that MS's development environment is not really up to the level of security that the article says is required for critical systems.
In fact, what's to stop some kid fresh out of school from getting a temp gig as a revision control librarian at MS and inserting a malicious code into the code base? Do you think MS is going to pay for the level of background checking required to ferret-out a foreign agent? No, they are a commercial entity engaged in commercial development.
If systems require a high level of assurance DoD has, I assume, several OSs they can supply or they can hire their own secure team to review an OSS effort and qualify that code. I find it unlikely that MS will hand their code over to a government contractor for review and qualification.
If we blindly take the assumptions of this article then only some DoD funded Unix should be used for Mission/Life critical systems.
Hello! These are the same conglomerates that fund MPIA and RIAA (Sure you remember these acronyms these are the acronyms that brought you other fun acronyms such as DMCA, COPA and others). Lets drop the "free media" for the fat-cat media conglomerates and expand our horizons on shashdot to truly innovative arts and letters.
For that matter who do you think the AOLs, MSN etc buy much of their dial up capacity from. Teleco!
Fact Sheet - Super Mario Sunshine
Format: NINTENDO GAMECUBETM
Launch Date: August 26, 2002
ESRB: RP (Rating Pending)
Game Type: Action
Accessories: Memory Card
Players: 1
MSRP: $49.95
Game Summary
Seeking well-deserved rest and relaxation, MarioTM and Princess Peach travel to a beautiful remote island. It is said the local citizens are friendly and the weather forecast suggests year-round sunshine. However, when they get to the island, they quickly find out that the peaceful paradise has been polluted by a mysterious stranger. Worse still, the individual bears a striking resemblance to Mario! Determined to clear his reputation and clean up the island, Mario sets off on his greatest adventure yet.
Features
Discover the first Mario title for NINTENDO GAMECUBE, developed by a team under the supervision of Mario's celebrated creator Shigeru Miyamoto.
Explore the game's colorful 3-D world, filled with expansive environments.
Restore the power of Shine to keep the island clean.
Wash away island mess to restore the community to its pristine condition using Mario's new water pump device.
Perform a number of different jumps, bounce off walls, run, slide, climb, and fly to the highest reaches - more mobility than ever before.
Bask in cheery graphics, real-time lighting effects and stunning reflections that bathe the island in sunshine.
Visit Yoshi, Toad and a host of other friends as Mario encounters a collection of enemies bent on foiling his efforts to restore the island.
Fact Sheet - Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
Format: NINTENDO GAMECUBETM
Launch Date: June 24, 2002
ESRB: M - Mature
Game Type: Psychological Thriller
Accessories: Memory Card
Players: 1
MSRP: $49.95
Game Summary
In a story that spans space and time, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem(TM) introduces 12 controllable characters through the last 2000 years of history, from ancient Rome to modern day. The story revolves around a young woman, Alexandra Rovias, who travels to Rhode Island to investigate the mysterious death of her grandfather. As the game unfolds, Alexandra experiences events through the game's other characters and eventually discovers the secret of human history.
Features
A smart and compelling storyline stretching through 20 centuries, intended for players 17 and older
Play as 12 different characters, each with their own special abilities
Sanity System - adds new levels of unpredictability to the game play experience, causing the player to question each step taken in the game
Each character battles enemies with historically accurate weapons and a unique enemy targeting system
Game features a groundbreaking animation engine; brings characters to life with emotional responses based on current situations
Superior 3D engine, including: bump-mapping, radiosity lightmaps, ray-traced lightmaps, volumetric fogging, 24-bit color, and 640x480 resolution running at
60 frames per second
Haunting musical score to completely envelope the players' experience
Music, sound effects, artwork, technology, story and game play combine in a way never before attempted in a video game
Character Preview List
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is deep in story and character development. Below is a sample of the diverse characters players experience through the journey.
Alexandra Roivas - Student, 2000 AD, Rhode Island
A headstrong and independent spirit, Alexandra intends to further the field of numbers theory through her uncanny intellect. She is the type of woman who will never quit, and generally succeeds in her goals through sheer determination. A very intelligent and creative woman, Alexandra?s only weakness, perhaps, is her confidence, which often lands her in situations that, although she can handle, are probably in her best interests to leave alone.
Pious Augustus - Roman Centurion, 26 BC Persia
A nobleman conscripted into the army of the Roman Empire, Pious is a Centurion, a commander during the Empire?s campaigns in Persia. He is in his mid to late twenties, and is in good health, with features shaped by the grim horror of the wars he has fought. The conquest has taken its toll on him, and although still a loyal soldier, the novelty of his profession is beginning to wear tiresome. He believes there is more to his life than being a soldier.
Ellia - Dancer of the Court of Suryavarman II, 1152 AD Cambodia
Ellia was born into servitude during the 12th century in the dank jungles of Cambodia. As part Khmer working class, she was destined to be a dancing/slave girl in the City Temple that had been built to honor the Hindu gods. Now a teenager in the employ of the Priesthood of the Temple, she witnesses things she is not meant to. Discovering this, she desperately wants no part of it and attempts to escape.
Fact Sheet - Metroid Prime
Format: NINTENDO GAMECUBE(TM)
Launch Date: November 18, 2002
ESRB: RP (Rating Pending)
Game Type: Action/Adventure
Accessories: Memory Card
Players: 1
MSRP: $49.95
Game Summary
Samus first stopped the evil Space Pirates and Mother Brain from amassing an army of Metroids on the planet Zebes. Then she was called on to finish the job on SR388, ultimately ridding the universe of all but a single Metroid larva. In Super Metroid, for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Samus thwarted Mother Brain's attempt to snatch the captive Metroid larva from the scientists on Ceres. Now, Samus is once again called to investigate Space Pirate activities on the unexplored Tallon IV. Her adventure begins as she enters a mysterious derelict spaceship.
Features
Traverse a crippled spaceship and explore the vast worlds of Tallon IV in an all-new first-person perspective!
Take advantage of Samus's many powers using new suits that enable her to gain new abilities and revisit earlier worlds to uncover many hidden secrets.
Master Samus's combat, scan, and visors -- elements crucial to your success.
Explore each area to find many familiar weapons, such as the Wave Beam and Freeze Beam, and some all-new ones as well.
Choose the right weapon or ability carefully for the situation at hand. Samus will need to use all of the suit and visor abilities as well as many specialized weapons to navigate deadly Tallon IV!
Fact Sheet - Star Fox Adventures
Format: NINTENDO GAMECUBE(TM)
Launch Date: September 30, 2002
ESRB: RP (Rating Pending)
Game Type: Action/Adventure
Accessories: Memory Card
Players: 1
MSRP: $49.95
Game Summary
Nintendo and Rare® Ltd. join forces to bring Fox McCloud and friends to NINTENDO GAMECUBE. Eight years after the defeat of Andross, the Star Fox team discovers a beautiful prehistoric planet ruled by a sinister tyrant known as General Scales. Players take charge of Star Fox team leader Fox McCloud to free inhabitants from Scales's evil clutches and restore peace to the primal paradise.
Features
Step out of Fox's Arwing and explore a vast, 3-D world lush in forestry, animals, puzzles and adventure.
Learn the secrets of a mystical staff to fend off enemies and use it to cast a variety of spells.
Battle enemies without skipping a beat with the game's intuitive targeting system that locks combat action.
Traverse land and water or fight through space using Fox's trusty Arwing fighter.
Build clever strategies to defeat huge boss enemies.
Witness technologically advanced graphics with Rare's fur-rendering techniques and lavish effects including shimmering water, real-time lighting, depth-of-field blurring and a sophisticated facial animation system.
Enjoy in-depth, life-like voice-overs and an atmospheric musical score that enhance this whimsical story.
Fact Sheet - Mario Party 4
Format: NINTENDO GAMECUBE(TM)
Launch Date: October 28, 2002
ESRB: RP (Rating Pending)
Game Type: Board Game/Multiple Genre
Accessories: Memory Card
Players: 1-4
MSRP: $49.95
Game Summary
Multi-player pandemonium hits NINTENDO GAMECUBE with Mario Party 4, which includes 50 all-new mini-games and multiple fully rendered 3-D game boards. Nintendo's favorite bunch of characters is back; Koopa, Toad and the others have prepared many maps inside the Party Cube. By rolling the virtual dice and advancing through mini-game trickery, you'll play for the hidden stars.
Features
Choose favorite Nintendo video game characters and compete in a series of contests to win the birthday present.
Take advantage of the Mini-Giant system - players can use items on the boards to grow larger or smaller in order to access different areas of the game boards and trigger special events.
Bump, whack and bang away in the newly introduced Tag Battle, which lets players pair up in two-man teams and compete at collecting stars.
Set a handicap that allows players of all ages and abilities to compete against each other.
Dash through an unmatched variety of game play with challenges that pit one player against three, two against two, each player against each other or four players against a common enemy.
Fact Sheet - Disney's Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse
Format: NINTENDO GAMECUBE(TM)
Launch Date: August 2002
ESRB: E (Everyone)
Game Type: Adventure
Accessories: NINTENDO GAMECUBE Game Boy Advance cable
Memory Card
Players: 1
MSRP: $49.95
Game Summary
Everyone's favorite character, Mickey Mouse, makes his NINTENDO GAMECUBE debut in this interactive story. Trapped in a magical mirror, he finds himself in an alternate universe that strangely resembles his house. Mickey yearns to get through the mirror, back to his bed and his peaceful dreams! Getting there won't be easy though, because he will need to recover the broken mirror pieces strewn about the house by a mischievous, troublemaking ghost.
Features
Join Mickey Mouse in his starring role in a video game exclusively on the NINTENDO GAMECUBE.
Guide Mickey from room to room and solve puzzles, trick enemies and pull gags to locate the scattered mirror pieces.
Rebuild the broken mirror and stop the ghosts' tomfoolery to get Mickey home.
Collect souvenirs - such as Pluto's collar or Minnie's bow - which are all displayed in Mickey's room at the end of the game.
Connect with Disney's Magical Quest Starring Mickey and Minnie for Game Boy Advance using the NINTENDO GAMECUBE Game Boy Advance cable to find some extra help for Mickey on his adventures.
Product names, images, features and release dates relate to product in development and may be subject to changes.
Eagle Forum/Phyllis Schlafly
Milton Friedman
Hal Roach Studios
Intel
Wendell Berry
Ursula K. Leguin
Barry Lopez
Peter Matthiessen
David Foster Wallace
National Writers Union
The United States Public Policy Committee for the Association of Computing Machinery
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
The Apache Software Foundation
The Domain Name Rights Coalition
The Center for The Public Domain
Public Knowledge, The Digital Future Coalition
The Public Domain Research Corporation
The Center for Book Culture
The Computer and Communications Industry Association
The Consumer Electronics Association
Or are we likely to all be forced down to a "safe" common denominator. At work will you company restrict you to "safe" sites so they don't get sued for creating a dangerous workplace.
If you write a PO that says you want only a three year license you get what you pay for.
If you work in an IS department that is moe than 2% of your company's head count expect to see pink slips. Look how those armies of well paid middle managers have been sacked and replaced by a few admins if you doubt the bean counters will not catch on.
Different rules apply to departments that make products that are sold and MAKE money for the firm.
I've had the pleasure of hiring ex-apple industrial designers/mechanical engineers. It was a real pleasure working with such talented engineers.
Good point. I'll bet they are buying the fallout from a multiple disk product line (fallout = drives with too many failures to sell as 10G drives) . It's the simplest way for them to get cheep drives. Most of the drives will have odd capacity, but still in excess of the minimum. Seagate can then set the max space on the HDD to the standard 8G in the drive flash at the final step of manufacturing. Drive mfgs do this all the time already. It's often cheeper to make a single product and then cripple it and sell them at different price points than it is to have several production lines.
Remember a billion here, a billion there and you start talking real money.
The real killer for X Box is the HDD. Sure HDD capacity keep increasing, but HDD cost never does becuse they are mechanical devices. It take a great deal a labor to make a HDD. And right now MS is getting some sweetheart HDD deals because PC sales are down. Seagate will stick it to them when PC sales start picking-up. The real customers that the HDD companies care about are HPQ, Dell and Gateway. MS jist does not do enough volume even with X to get their attention.
Open an X Box. Looks like about $360 even at $200K units per month pricing. When PC sales take off MS will get squeezed on HDD costs. Do the math, even if they sell 3 games per box they are in a workd of hurt. GCN & PS2 OTOH don't have to pay for the HDD and GCN doesn't even have to pay for DVD patents. Big N can keep cutting costs and still make money. At the end of the day it's profits not sales that matter.
I'd like to see the SSSCA stuff solved by market forces and sanity too. Let the Hollywood folks make themselves an antitamper PCI or USB2 hardware card that has only encrypted data in, a smartcard slot for per user rights management and an SVGA analogue overlay/analogue out. If the market is right they can sell/give away such hardware and make a profit on the films. No software system will survive a cracker long, and indeed things like vmware already make a mockery of software only stuff like windows digital media protection since people can record the audio output of the virtual pc trivially.
The real problem is that Hollywood wants their cake and to eat it too. They want to use commodity PC hardware (DVDs). They should kill the DVD, create a propritary platform (players only) and NEVER aloow it to run on a PC. Geez, I publish something in a public format I then I'm surprised the public can share it? Get real.
This whole screw-up is Hollywoods fault. Don't let them stick it to us for their mistakes.
I wonder what percent of $116 is going to squash free software? Isn't about time we stop going to the slopp that Hollywood hands out when all that it does it hut us.
FDISK
Forgot to mention. MSN people will never give you their name so you can never prove that you spoke with them. For a little fun, call them up and then ask you you are speaking with. Then ask to speak with a supervisor, rinse and repeat. They will then hang-up on you. QWest always answered with the full name of the tech/sales rep.
With a fist full of T1s at work the thought of dial up a home had lost it's attraction, but my girl friend needed dial-up for work so she signed us up for Qwest. It was only $13 so no big deal. Their tech support turned out to be good and fast for Win platforms. Well, MSN made them a deal they couldn't refuse. QWest said move to MSN or go dark. In a moment of weekness I hit the button to transfer to MSN. After a month of tech support hell and their unwillingness to support win95/Netscape I pulled the plug. Because they were billing my phone account it took 3 weeks of daily phone calls and a director level person at QWest to terminate my account. I did learn one very usefull technique to use on stonewalling service reps: guilt. Just ask them, "how does working for a company that behaves this way make you feel?" The other is to keep them on hold. When they ask for information tell them you're looking for it and then pop back to the phone every 5 minutes and sweetly say, "I'm still looking." One day I kept MSN on the phone for over an hour that way. I finally found Eskimo.com They are cheep and support linux, but their pop provides seem to go out of business every other month. So their dial up numbers keep changing.
Templates and all are way cool and I often find myself wishing Java had them, but what is the performance hit to using them?
The way a biometric database *Should* work is to take some data points from the image and then create a hashfrom the data points. This should be done for the same reason you should NOT store passwords, but rather their hash. The other reason for hashing the data is that is going to be much smaller and quicker to search. OTOH drives are cheap and...
Budget for a lot of travel on short notice. You will need "face time." Expect the trave to exceed what you will save in salary for such a small project. If you are hiring 20 or 20 programmers you might see a real savings if it comes out right. Also, plan on switching your US team to the graveyard shift so you can have enless phone calls with them. Been there, done that.
256 very simple 8 bit CPUs on a chip
8K bit length instruction work CPUs
Both of these designs are within reach of current gate counts.