I'll put it out there as a prediction that the greatest barrier to piracy in the next few years, will not be any form of DRM, but will instead be the danger of infecting malware into your system with pirated copies of the software. Anti-virus vendors for years has been stringing the public along with subscriptions and downloadable signatures, that today the top anti-virus software isn't able to detect 5% of custom coded trojans. They've completely slacked in developing true heuristic scanning and detection, and a certified system image.
I remember way back in the mid-90s, when I used to code virus, that anti-virus vendors were starting to go beyond checking executables for virus signatures, and checking executables to match a known good hash value.
I quit programming entirely years ago, but if these vendors would simply focus their code on user-intervention when applications try to perform different categories of tasks common to virus, trojans, droppers, bots, and rootkits and forcing the user to certify their executables and system files and detect changes and attempts to modify binary files they could go alot farther than simply creating signatures for each malware they detect in the wild.
It's amazing that with even all the latest anti-virus software and sindows security policies in effect at an internet cafe, a quick trip to sysinternals and a glance at some diagnostic tools for open sockets and applications running under a windows process name in the wrong directory can identify malware long undetected.
According to TFA, programming for the Wii involves lots of motion capture data (which means lots of time testing each input) and several attempts at coding. Optimizing code for mutli-core instead of single-core processing only requires learning new programming methods. Like I said before: there will be a learning curve for the PS3, but it will force programmers to re-think how they program for multi-core systems. This seems inevitable to benefit AMD's new quad-core systems to release in 2007 (Say hello to code optimized for dual-quadcore opterons or even quad-sli configurations), and the future of parallel computing. I just hope there's as much innovation in their compiler as their PS3.
Re:How about some more *durable* flash drives?
on
16GB Flash USB Dongle
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· Score: 0
Actually larger drives will become more reliable simply for the wear averaging algorithims the drives use having more fresh space to wear across.
Re:For PS3, it depends on how you define failure
on
Ten Gaming Myths Debunked
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· Score: 2, Insightful
So the Wii will be a smashing success, because it's hurdle is the 12% marketshare the Gamecube enjoys, and the PS3 will be a total failure because their hurdle is the PS2's 62% marketshare. Great argument.
People will inevitably look at figures like the sheer number of consoles manufactured and sold by each respective companies and make useless predictions about which console is king. Of course, that will be a mere five months into the PS3 and Wii's production and nearly two years into the Xbox 360's production. If we are going to use market penetration (instead of developer support) as a key indicator of console success, let us neither gaze into crystal balls nor compare unmatched data.
I'd like to see how the Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3 will sell in their first three months by region as a fair indicator. I'd like to see how many games sell over 100,000 copies in the first six months for each console. What I don't want to see is that Sony PS3 has 11% of the market share (because they did not start manufacturing when Microsoft did) so it's declared a failure in the first six months, or that the Wii is spectacular because it has hundreds of games at a $30 price point. Just look at the Xbox arcade if you want plentiful, cheap, "fun" games.
The Wii is a toy, that's why it is so cheap. It will be cheap and simply to manufacture, and any chinese electronics factory will be able to crank them out by the millions. There's no scarcity of the outdated technology being used to build this console.. in seems they could probably refurbish N64s into Wiis.
The Xbox 360 seems only a halfstep, it's added some horespower, improved (but not perfected) their copyprotection, and imitated the PS2 controller a bit more. Other than that, they've really only improved their interface and software.
The PS3 will introduce a new high-density media, and will be the only console capable of 1080p play. It will also be the driving force behind optimizing code for multi-core gaming, and every PC gamer who plans on owning a quad-core AMD system next year should be thanking Sony for that. There's alot of innovation behind the PS3, and Sony doesn't seem to be getting any pre-release love for it. I think in the end, it will be like a medicine that's hard to swallow, but works wonders when everything is said and done.
Then again, it's so hard to judge a console before it has launched.
I remember as a child visiting Cape Canaveral twice, and being there for one shuttle launch. I don't remember the details too well, as it must have been about 15-20 years ago, but I remember standing behind a fence probably about 1.5km from the launch pad. I do remember feeling like I was really close, and being able to clearly see the launch pad without binoculars or anything like that. It was truly magnificent watching the shuttle launch from that close.
The only other shuttle launch I remember watching so vividly as a child was the Challenger explosion as seen from Tampa Bay. I can still remember the feel of grabbing the wooden picnic table I was sitting on when it exploded. As a child, I watched dozens of shuttle launches. Even 100 miles away, you'll still be able to watch them go up. However, closer is definately better and night launches are also great.
There's certainly enough crap out there, no doubt about that. I get thousands of demo tapes sent to our office in a year, and alot of the stuff we think is worth playing never passes one of the many levels of protectionist boundaries created by the music industry. On the other hand, there's also more than enough people who listen to music to listen to all the crap and help emerge the truly talented. Alot of good music is stifled by the "system" that generates multi-million dollar revenues from each of their catalogue artists by keeping the supply of music artifically scarce.
Actually, the 'free market' for music allows you the choice of music provided to you by commercial entities. It's like political elections for a communist government. Central to a democratic system would be a "free and open exchange" of music.
Seems to be the central theme to just about every post in this bonerfied flamewar ignited by a tabloid article and a blog comment. Sony's core market for selling consoles is Asia, not the United States.
As far as the "all my friends are talking about buying the Wii" comments, I'll see your comment and raise you a "no one I know is talking about buying a Wii."
This entire thread is wasted on opinionated trolling. Regardless of your personal regard for the PS3, I have little doubt that Sony will sell every PS3 it manufactures in the first year.
Not because of all the news you and a few hundred other thousand people may have read on the intarweb, but because of the hundred million people who own a PS2.
Given the presented variables, there are serveral ways to still make money.
1. Distribute the product yourself for free, request donations.
2. Merchandise goods that do not meet the same criteria.
3. Recreate the initial (creative creation) stage in live venues.
4. Control physical access to content.
Given the current "stage" with no shortage of supply of talented musicians, cheap manufacturing, and distribution mechanisms available, I'd personally like to see a revolution of internet radio where artists upload their tracks for free, stations stream their tracks to users, users rate their favorite tracks, and the station's advertising revenue distributes royalities to the artists and station manager. It creates like a democratic system of which artists get paid the most on which stations, and creates a very populist system for music completely destroying the 'mainstream' or even 'indy' model where station managers pick and choose their playlist and present that as the only options. As someone in the executive side of the music industry there's just way too much good talent and cheap processes for the ivory tower industries to remain standing. The business model is going to have to shift and adapt, or the people will throw everyone out of the ivory towers. No amount of intellectual property laws and drm is going to stop that.
I wouldn't count the US ability out so fast, this would not be a war of occupation and there are several options being considered. First is merely a regional power like Israel launching a precision strike on Iran's nuclear facility, and using the US presence in Iraq as a buffer zone to prevent counterstrike against Israel. The second plan involves using US aerial bombardment to eliminate several nuclear facilities, and perhaaps key military command and control structures, as well as aerial defense sites. The third plan involves using a campaign of aerial bombardment to completely destroy Iran's nuclear and military infrastructure.
In all three of these scenarios, the US military would simply have to hold their presence in Iraq, and repel any Iranian military forces from crossing the Iraq border or mobolizing their missiles to strike into Iraqi military bases where we are operating.
The good news is, this is far more along the lines of the cold-war deterrance and defense that the military's almost entire command and arsenal has been built around. Fighting insurgencies has proved to be quite a challenge due to the asymmetrical nature of the campaigns, however blowing the living shit out of Iran's military may prove to be quite an easier task for our military forces.
Re:Confusion About Abbie Hoffman
on
Steal This Film
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· Score: 1
Aren't one-sided documentaries more commonly referred to as "propaganda"?
Except educating the general public on privacy isn't an easy reason as to why they shouldn't play the latest version of Madden. There needs to be a pointed attack on EA by the media and lobbying firms for movements like this. Simply "boycot" solutions are non-solutions. Madden is probably one of the best selling games in the United States, and while I find it deplorable that an online service would take advantage of consumer confidence to literally spy on them in means for more invasive than any New York Times article about Bush. Certainly, it's a sad day for privacy as the leaders of the industry use their mass appeal to break the resistance of the people more interested in protecting the historical wall of online privacy than playing video games.
I've often criticized that anyone that would have a feasible success with a system for purchasing using biometeric identification will be one of the major credit card companies. Also, what I find discouraging, is that the system offers no apparent form of biometeric confirmation. A fingerprint and pin number would be far more desirable than simply a biometeric reading. What happens in the event of a false positive? Fraud? Lifting fingerprints is easily done, and the technology exists for even hobbyists to forge a biometeric fingerprint scan.
For a system like this to be feasible there needs to be a centralized, secure storage of financial information by a large, secure, and reputable financial institution with nationwide access to merchants and customers. The system itself also needs to be exponentially better protected from fraud and theft than the current system, and at least equally convenient.
There's many reasons I suspect this program is destined for failure, but most obviously, the threat of a middle man attack by a malicious website. I mean, if you want to be a major financial institution, then why bother storing login information for websites?
Actually, there are several field uses for the "future soldier" to employ wireless technology. Two that are most obvious to me are:
The military plans to relay video from the individual soldier's rifle scope to the C2 (Command and Control).
The military plans to relay GPS and operational data from soldiers and vehicles.
Currently, the military relies on radio broadcasting and satellite feeds for this, however enabling a flexible wireless networking device in vehicles would be far more cost effective and flexible.
Also, assuming a limited range of wireless devices to which would link to a base transmitting station (Think air support, Satellite linkup on a humvee, etc.) for the enemy to attempt to jam the signal instead of suprise attacking the unit would only reveal their position. Of course there would be ways to develop traps and counter-espionage the element of suprise is lost when the enemy decides to attack the transmission instead of the transmiter.
Everyone that thinks the controller is innovative and is the key to the Wii's success needs to remember (Chances are, they probably weren't even born then) that Nintendo tried this exact same approach nearly 15 years ago with the http://individual.utoronto.ca/roninkengo/pictures/ powerglove.jpgPowerglove. They even marketed a movie about it ffs. This was the most embarassing device ever released for the NES, followed closely by the Rob the Robot. Seriously, thank G-d that there was still an option to use a brick controller with a 4 way direction pad and two red buttons, it was like a hundred times better than the glove.
Well, I'm glad your expert analysis was fabricated completely from your imagination, combined with a scorn for market researchers who make 6 figure incomes for providing accurate guidance to billions of investment dollars by major institutions.
Nintendo is expected to sell 6,000 times as many Wiis as the Gamecube? Don't be a slave to the hype. People are creatures of habit. Sony buyers will mostly remain Sony buyers, and so on. I'll be switching from the Xbox to the PS3, simply because I follow the greatest technology. The Xbox offered a far more innovative platform than the PS2, and disrupted the gaming industry. The PS3 picked up on these innovations, and added some of their own. Microsoft, opted to make a few minor adjustments and add horsepower. It fell out of the saddle, if you ask me.
Like it or not, PS2 still is outselling the Xbox 360 in terms of games sold and Nintendo? I think more board games were sold last year than Nintendo games. Of course, Nintendo currently looks to add a few percent to their market share with a device that wasn't even cutting edge technology four years ago. Simply competing on the "New and Cheap" factor. However, if history is any lesson in marketing, "New" quickly loses it's novelty, and "cheap" quickly becomes a hard arena to compete.
Like most teenage boys, I liked watching some bubbly blonde cheerleader on youtube, but that's hardly compelling me to buy a Nintendo instead of a PS3, I mean seriously, Nintendo hasn't really made much progress past the N64, and if I want to play games like that, I've got emulators for my xbox.
Whoever modified the fanciful imaginings of a nintendo fanboy's sensational "Wii will get 70% marketshare!!" should be shot. As the PP stated, he doesn't know "anything aside from making shocking statistics to grab headlines." A casual look at current marketshare divisions would completely invalidate their assertions.
Of course, for not being a nintendo fanboi, this will be modded over-rated or troll. Probably both.
This is for video, not for gaming. The Blue-Ray is the ONLY high capacity optical disc that will be used for console gaming in the next 5 years, which gives it a serious advantage when you're talking about 30 gig games developed for PS3 vs 8 gig games of the same title developed for the Xbox 360 or Wii. Of course, the native format also playing high-def movies and having HDMI connectors are only iceing on the cake for the largest segment of gamers (21-29) who could give a shit about paying an extra hundred bucks. The PS3 is going to own the living room.
Thin client is a much better solution. I devised a kiosk system to serve a web based application to multiple branch offices for the Dept of Finance in NYC. They have about 1,200 thin clients across four burroughs that connect to a handful of windows terminal servers, and it works like magic. The cost of the thin clients is cheap, you can find them for around $200, and they perform just fine at 100mbit. The trick is managing memory and cpu limitations when using a windows solution, but with the new 4x4s, larger cpu caches, and expansive memory of 64 bit computing I think this will be far less of a problem than the systems I created in 2003 using loaded dell 8 way servers. This solves your centralization and user administration headaches, allows you to create a stable and uncorruptable image to boot from and is a suitable solution for many business computing environments. I keep seeing this as the future of corporate computing. A locked in stable and secure image to boot from, and network connected storage that is secure, accessible to corporate users, and routinely backed up.
The day when people stop taking laptops home with half a million social security numbers I will sleep better.
AMD has publically stated that they are not going to get into a cost slashing war with Intel, they have no reason to. Intel is heavily overstocked on unsold chips that they need to liquidate to remain profitable. AMD has responded with some price cuts on some chips, but has signalled that they would not reduce any more prices in response to Intel price cuts. Intel needs a price war to regain ground, AMD is willing to concede a few points of the ten they've gained in recent years to NOT slash prices and maintain their profitibility on newly manufactured chips, while keeping inventories low.
Slashdot Mirror
You need the optional 103A modem attachment for that,
I'll put it out there as a prediction that the greatest barrier to piracy in the next few years, will not be any form of DRM, but will instead be the danger of infecting malware into your system with pirated copies of the software. Anti-virus vendors for years has been stringing the public along with subscriptions and downloadable signatures, that today the top anti-virus software isn't able to detect 5% of custom coded trojans. They've completely slacked in developing true heuristic scanning and detection, and a certified system image.
I remember way back in the mid-90s, when I used to code virus, that anti-virus vendors were starting to go beyond checking executables for virus signatures, and checking executables to match a known good hash value.
I quit programming entirely years ago, but if these vendors would simply focus their code on user-intervention when applications try to perform different categories of tasks common to virus, trojans, droppers, bots, and rootkits and forcing the user to certify their executables and system files and detect changes and attempts to modify binary files they could go alot farther than simply creating signatures for each malware they detect in the wild.
It's amazing that with even all the latest anti-virus software and sindows security policies in effect at an internet cafe, a quick trip to sysinternals and a glance at some diagnostic tools for open sockets and applications running under a windows process name in the wrong directory can identify malware long undetected.
According to TFA, programming for the Wii involves lots of motion capture data (which means lots of time testing each input) and several attempts at coding. Optimizing code for mutli-core instead of single-core processing only requires learning new programming methods. Like I said before: there will be a learning curve for the PS3, but it will force programmers to re-think how they program for multi-core systems. This seems inevitable to benefit AMD's new quad-core systems to release in 2007 (Say hello to code optimized for dual-quadcore opterons or even quad-sli configurations), and the future of parallel computing. I just hope there's as much innovation in their compiler as their PS3.
Actually larger drives will become more reliable simply for the wear averaging algorithims the drives use having more fresh space to wear across.
So the Wii will be a smashing success, because it's hurdle is the 12% marketshare the Gamecube enjoys, and the PS3 will be a total failure because their hurdle is the PS2's 62% marketshare. Great argument.
People will inevitably look at figures like the sheer number of consoles manufactured and sold by each respective companies and make useless predictions about which console is king. Of course, that will be a mere five months into the PS3 and Wii's production and nearly two years into the Xbox 360's production. If we are going to use market penetration (instead of developer support) as a key indicator of console success, let us neither gaze into crystal balls nor compare unmatched data.
I'd like to see how the Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3 will sell in their first three months by region as a fair indicator. I'd like to see how many games sell over 100,000 copies in the first six months for each console. What I don't want to see is that Sony PS3 has 11% of the market share (because they did not start manufacturing when Microsoft did) so it's declared a failure in the first six months, or that the Wii is spectacular because it has hundreds of games at a $30 price point. Just look at the Xbox arcade if you want plentiful, cheap, "fun" games.
The Wii is a toy, that's why it is so cheap. It will be cheap and simply to manufacture, and any chinese electronics factory will be able to crank them out by the millions. There's no scarcity of the outdated technology being used to build this console.. in seems they could probably refurbish N64s into Wiis.
The Xbox 360 seems only a halfstep, it's added some horespower, improved (but not perfected) their copyprotection, and imitated the PS2 controller a bit more. Other than that, they've really only improved their interface and software.
The PS3 will introduce a new high-density media, and will be the only console capable of 1080p play. It will also be the driving force behind optimizing code for multi-core gaming, and every PC gamer who plans on owning a quad-core AMD system next year should be thanking Sony for that. There's alot of innovation behind the PS3, and Sony doesn't seem to be getting any pre-release love for it. I think in the end, it will be like a medicine that's hard to swallow, but works wonders when everything is said and done.
Then again, it's so hard to judge a console before it has launched.
I just rediscovered the joy of my PSP when I learned I could install a PSone emulator on it and play FFVII all over again 3
I remember as a child visiting Cape Canaveral twice, and being there for one shuttle launch. I don't remember the details too well, as it must have been about 15-20 years ago, but I remember standing behind a fence probably about 1.5km from the launch pad. I do remember feeling like I was really close, and being able to clearly see the launch pad without binoculars or anything like that. It was truly magnificent watching the shuttle launch from that close.
The only other shuttle launch I remember watching so vividly as a child was the Challenger explosion as seen from Tampa Bay. I can still remember the feel of grabbing the wooden picnic table I was sitting on when it exploded. As a child, I watched dozens of shuttle launches. Even 100 miles away, you'll still be able to watch them go up. However, closer is definately better and night launches are also great.
Of course, this just means an emergence of VHS and DVD recorders DRM-free "FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT USE ONLY"
There's certainly enough crap out there, no doubt about that. I get thousands of demo tapes sent to our office in a year, and alot of the stuff we think is worth playing never passes one of the many levels of protectionist boundaries created by the music industry. On the other hand, there's also more than enough people who listen to music to listen to all the crap and help emerge the truly talented. Alot of good music is stifled by the "system" that generates multi-million dollar revenues from each of their catalogue artists by keeping the supply of music artifically scarce.
Actually, the 'free market' for music allows you the choice of music provided to you by commercial entities. It's like political elections for a communist government. Central to a democratic system would be a "free and open exchange" of music.
As far as the "all my friends are talking about buying the Wii" comments, I'll see your comment and raise you a "no one I know is talking about buying a Wii."
This entire thread is wasted on opinionated trolling. Regardless of your personal regard for the PS3, I have little doubt that Sony will sell every PS3 it manufactures in the first year.
Not because of all the news you and a few hundred other thousand people may have read on the intarweb, but because of the hundred million people who own a PS2.
This was posted last week here: http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/26/ 1732257
1. Distribute the product yourself for free, request donations.
2. Merchandise goods that do not meet the same criteria.
3. Recreate the initial (creative creation) stage in live venues.
4. Control physical access to content.
Given the current "stage" with no shortage of supply of talented musicians, cheap manufacturing, and distribution mechanisms available, I'd personally like to see a revolution of internet radio where artists upload their tracks for free, stations stream their tracks to users, users rate their favorite tracks, and the station's advertising revenue distributes royalities to the artists and station manager. It creates like a democratic system of which artists get paid the most on which stations, and creates a very populist system for music completely destroying the 'mainstream' or even 'indy' model where station managers pick and choose their playlist and present that as the only options. As someone in the executive side of the music industry there's just way too much good talent and cheap processes for the ivory tower industries to remain standing. The business model is going to have to shift and adapt, or the people will throw everyone out of the ivory towers. No amount of intellectual property laws and drm is going to stop that.
In all three of these scenarios, the US military would simply have to hold their presence in Iraq, and repel any Iranian military forces from crossing the Iraq border or mobolizing their missiles to strike into Iraqi military bases where we are operating.
The good news is, this is far more along the lines of the cold-war deterrance and defense that the military's almost entire command and arsenal has been built around. Fighting insurgencies has proved to be quite a challenge due to the asymmetrical nature of the campaigns, however blowing the living shit out of Iran's military may prove to be quite an easier task for our military forces.
Aren't one-sided documentaries more commonly referred to as "propaganda"?
Forget dropping the civil case, persue both.
Except educating the general public on privacy isn't an easy reason as to why they shouldn't play the latest version of Madden. There needs to be a pointed attack on EA by the media and lobbying firms for movements like this. Simply "boycot" solutions are non-solutions. Madden is probably one of the best selling games in the United States, and while I find it deplorable that an online service would take advantage of consumer confidence to literally spy on them in means for more invasive than any New York Times article about Bush. Certainly, it's a sad day for privacy as the leaders of the industry use their mass appeal to break the resistance of the people more interested in protecting the historical wall of online privacy than playing video games.
For a system like this to be feasible there needs to be a centralized, secure storage of financial information by a large, secure, and reputable financial institution with nationwide access to merchants and customers. The system itself also needs to be exponentially better protected from fraud and theft than the current system, and at least equally convenient.
There's many reasons I suspect this program is destined for failure, but most obviously, the threat of a middle man attack by a malicious website. I mean, if you want to be a major financial institution, then why bother storing login information for websites?
The military plans to relay video from the individual soldier's rifle scope to the C2 (Command and Control).
The military plans to relay GPS and operational data from soldiers and vehicles.
Currently, the military relies on radio broadcasting and satellite feeds for this, however enabling a flexible wireless networking device in vehicles would be far more cost effective and flexible. Also, assuming a limited range of wireless devices to which would link to a base transmitting station (Think air support, Satellite linkup on a humvee, etc.) for the enemy to attempt to jam the signal instead of suprise attacking the unit would only reveal their position. Of course there would be ways to develop traps and counter-espionage the element of suprise is lost when the enemy decides to attack the transmission instead of the transmiter.
and I didn't see a big screen tv or an xbox 360! No wonder it's so cheap!
Everyone that thinks the controller is innovative and is the key to the Wii's success needs to remember (Chances are, they probably weren't even born then) that Nintendo tried this exact same approach nearly 15 years ago with the http://individual.utoronto.ca/roninkengo/pictures/ powerglove.jpgPowerglove. They even marketed a movie about it ffs. This was the most embarassing device ever released for the NES, followed closely by the Rob the Robot. Seriously, thank G-d that there was still an option to use a brick controller with a 4 way direction pad and two red buttons, it was like a hundred times better than the glove.
Well, I'm glad your expert analysis was fabricated completely from your imagination, combined with a scorn for market researchers who make 6 figure incomes for providing accurate guidance to billions of investment dollars by major institutions. Nintendo is expected to sell 6,000 times as many Wiis as the Gamecube? Don't be a slave to the hype. People are creatures of habit. Sony buyers will mostly remain Sony buyers, and so on. I'll be switching from the Xbox to the PS3, simply because I follow the greatest technology. The Xbox offered a far more innovative platform than the PS2, and disrupted the gaming industry. The PS3 picked up on these innovations, and added some of their own. Microsoft, opted to make a few minor adjustments and add horsepower. It fell out of the saddle, if you ask me. Like it or not, PS2 still is outselling the Xbox 360 in terms of games sold and Nintendo? I think more board games were sold last year than Nintendo games. Of course, Nintendo currently looks to add a few percent to their market share with a device that wasn't even cutting edge technology four years ago. Simply competing on the "New and Cheap" factor. However, if history is any lesson in marketing, "New" quickly loses it's novelty, and "cheap" quickly becomes a hard arena to compete. Like most teenage boys, I liked watching some bubbly blonde cheerleader on youtube, but that's hardly compelling me to buy a Nintendo instead of a PS3, I mean seriously, Nintendo hasn't really made much progress past the N64, and if I want to play games like that, I've got emulators for my xbox. Whoever modified the fanciful imaginings of a nintendo fanboy's sensational "Wii will get 70% marketshare!!" should be shot. As the PP stated, he doesn't know "anything aside from making shocking statistics to grab headlines." A casual look at current marketshare divisions would completely invalidate their assertions. Of course, for not being a nintendo fanboi, this will be modded over-rated or troll. Probably both.
This is for video, not for gaming. The Blue-Ray is the ONLY high capacity optical disc that will be used for console gaming in the next 5 years, which gives it a serious advantage when you're talking about 30 gig games developed for PS3 vs 8 gig games of the same title developed for the Xbox 360 or Wii. Of course, the native format also playing high-def movies and having HDMI connectors are only iceing on the cake for the largest segment of gamers (21-29) who could give a shit about paying an extra hundred bucks. The PS3 is going to own the living room.
Thin client is a much better solution. I devised a kiosk system to serve a web based application to multiple branch offices for the Dept of Finance in NYC. They have about 1,200 thin clients across four burroughs that connect to a handful of windows terminal servers, and it works like magic. The cost of the thin clients is cheap, you can find them for around $200, and they perform just fine at 100mbit. The trick is managing memory and cpu limitations when using a windows solution, but with the new 4x4s, larger cpu caches, and expansive memory of 64 bit computing I think this will be far less of a problem than the systems I created in 2003 using loaded dell 8 way servers. This solves your centralization and user administration headaches, allows you to create a stable and uncorruptable image to boot from and is a suitable solution for many business computing environments. I keep seeing this as the future of corporate computing. A locked in stable and secure image to boot from, and network connected storage that is secure, accessible to corporate users, and routinely backed up. The day when people stop taking laptops home with half a million social security numbers I will sleep better.
AMD has publically stated that they are not going to get into a cost slashing war with Intel, they have no reason to. Intel is heavily overstocked on unsold chips that they need to liquidate to remain profitable. AMD has responded with some price cuts on some chips, but has signalled that they would not reduce any more prices in response to Intel price cuts. Intel needs a price war to regain ground, AMD is willing to concede a few points of the ten they've gained in recent years to NOT slash prices and maintain their profitibility on newly manufactured chips, while keeping inventories low.