If I recall correctly, Microsoft has mentioned in the past about releasing Kinect for the PC. Still, by its very nature, Kinect is designed to be used in a Living room, in front of a Large TV for best results. Now, I know that most of us don't have 42" monitors and a 6x6m space in our offices, so perhaps that's the real reason why Microsoft is focusing on the causal gaming market. They've put a lot of research into this, so I wouldn't be surprised if we see the technology applied elsewhere eventually.
I can think of many reasons why it might be hidden. For example, it may be hidden because the cost of supporting it would outweigh the benefits of admitting the "feature" is there. I don't just mean in terms of documenting it and releasing that info for developers, I mean in termins of testing it for security reasons. Plus, let us say that a theoretical bug is found that creates a hole someone can exploit - is it patchable? It's a whole can of worms AMD may be right to avoid opening.
Sony doesn't have the developer support? Rewind back to the launch of the DS - Nintendo had the gamecube, Sony had the PS2 - which of those do you think had more developer support? The PS2 had hundreds more developers releasing titles on it than the Gamecube ever had.
Sure, that has pretty much reversed itself these days when you compare the PS3 to the Wii and DSi/3DS, but what's to say that with a successful product launch, the same couldn't happen again?
The last time I had to use Blizzard's updater software, I found that DISABLING P2P actually sped up my overall download speed. It seems that if you're willing to let them use your bandwidth, they're unwilling to supply you with some of theirs. Net result? Doing Blizzard a favour means you get shafted.
Just to clarify, the 50Meg service from Virgin doesn't have traffic management (I.e. if you download too much, your speeds wont get slowed down), unlike their 10 or 20meg service, however ALL of their connections have a "fair use" policy, which is for the ones that download non-stop, through traffic management, all night long, all week long. I have the 50meg service, I've regularly downloaded 60, 70, 80Gb per day for weeks at a time and I have never ever been contacted over "fair use" and more often than not, the people that do get contacted about it are Zombies distributing SPAM or being used as part of a DDOS network.
As many people have already stated, DAB Digital Radio has a plethora of issues. The radios themselves aren't that cheap, especially portable ones. There's no real benefit to owning one, you get a couple of extra stations that you probably wont listen to and the reception is terrible in most places. For years, I've wanted the technology to take off and be good, a bit like Freeview OTA Digital TV, but it never happened. Now, for me, technology has moved on. I have a pretty decent android phone and use an app called Streamfurious. With this, I can listen to thousands of radio stations from all around the world, including just about every station you'll get on digital radio, in better quality and over 3G as well. It works surprisingly well, less cut outs than I ever did get with DAB.
Sadly, there are very few ISPs who don't have some kind of "fair use" or "traffic management" policy. Generally, it's a tossup between monthly bandwidth restrictions (which don't often exceed 30 or 40GB per month) that incur additional charges if you hit them, or traffic management as Virgin does it. Swings and roundabouts, really.
I'd just like to add that I'm a Virgin Media customer with the 50meg connection he speaks of and I quite regularly max the hell out of it, at peak times. 6MB/s downloads are no problem. However, he's right in that some areas have massive congestion problems and will suffer from issues, but unlike DSL, it wont have anything to do with how far away you are, if you're in a Virgin supplied area, you can get the 50meg.
I don't see why they're bothering at all, especially when Android 2.2 is going to have Wireless tethering as standard. Essentially all they've done is opt for a proprietary, limited connection interface when there's at least 3 universal ones out there that could be used (USB, Wifi and Bluetoth).
I know! Heaven forbid that we actually use all that extra bandwidth, processing power and memory that we have just lying around these days. Oh Lordy, it will be a disaster having to download a few hundred kbs on your ~4Meg connection, especially compared to downloading 1kb on a 56k modem of old.
And if that bout of sarcasm wasn't enough, how about a bit of Irony to go with it? You're moaning about the switch from newsgroups to a web-based system ON a web-based commenting system that shares all of the same aspects as any online forum.
I have an eyesight condition that seems to prevent me from being able to "enjoy" 3D films at all. The condition I have is called Nystagmus, basically my eyes "Wobble". My left eye is considerably worse than my right eye and I have apparently compensated by concentrating on my right eye. The End result? My left eye contributes almost nothing to my vision, just a bit of peripheral vision. When I close my right eye, I can't even read size 72 font on a screen less than 1ft from my face.
This also means I don't have proper depth perception. Apparently, my brain has compensated for this as well so it isn't much of an issue - I can still tell when things are closer or further away and I have no issues picking up cups without knocking them over or anything like that. A fully productive member of society (or at least I would be, if I wasn't so lazy).
Anyhoo, I digress. The side effect of this is that the 3D tech doesn't work. It all looks the same to me. Without the glasses, it's a blurry image, with the Glasses, it's just like watching a normal film. So 3D makes no impact on me what so ever. But I'm not upset or angry about it, I'm actually quite happy. When 3D becomes all the rage, if it ever does, I'll be able to get a nice cheap, good quality "non" 3D TV on the cheap. I'll be able to settle for the regular, "not 3D" versions of films and such. And when people question me about it, I simply tell them that watching ANY film gives me the same exact experience as watching any 3D film, so the way I see it, at no cost to me and for longer than anyone else, I've already been enjoying 3D with every film I've ever watched. It's just MY 3D.
The most successful "spiritual sequels" I've seen have generally been Open Source equivalents. Obviously you wont be able to open source anything from the Xbox360 SDK for legal reasons, but if you wanted to do it in XNA to get it on the 360, there's no reason why you couldn't. However, a good ol' C++/OpenGL PC version would be ideal, that way if it's successful enough, it can live on through various homebrew ports to past, present and future games consoles alike.
Geohot never actually released anything relating to GameOS other than pictures of him modifying a theme file - something that can be done to little effect on the PSP (Theme files aren't signed and modifying them doesn't lead anywhere fun, just different themes).
What exactly did he ruin? Sony locked down their Linux support in the first place (No direct access to the GPU, among other things), all he wanted to do was unlock the possibilities within Linux, that alone would have kept everyone happy. The PS3 is an OK media centre, but it has a long way to go to compare to the likes of XBMC. Having something as simple as GPU support would have meant that homebrew for the PS3 could have stayed happily within Linux, but with basically crippled support, it was practically ignored, useless for anything other than large floating point calculations.
Enter Geohot, who finds a small, still pretty obscure bug that doesn't do much other than unlock some more potential (Still entirely within Linux) and suddenly Sony cuts off the whole thing. Geohot specifically didn't release anything that could directly target GameOS (The PS3 OS) in order to not piss off Sony or promote Piracy, but apparently that was still too much for Sony. Now, all they've done is piss off the few people that could actually break the PS3 wide open, allowing piracy and all sorts. Before, they "had" linux and had fewer reasons to "hack" it, but now they have every reason and, dare I say it, every right to.
Says on the Box of my PS3 that it supports installing of Other Operating Systems. I paid for that feature when I bought the console, I'd like to keep it.
Slashdot Mirror
If I recall correctly, Microsoft has mentioned in the past about releasing Kinect for the PC.
Still, by its very nature, Kinect is designed to be used in a Living room, in front of a Large TV for best results. Now, I know that most of us don't have 42" monitors and a 6x6m space in our offices, so perhaps that's the real reason why Microsoft is focusing on the causal gaming market. They've put a lot of research into this, so I wouldn't be surprised if we see the technology applied elsewhere eventually.
I can think of many reasons why it might be hidden. For example, it may be hidden because the cost of supporting it would outweigh the benefits of admitting the "feature" is there. I don't just mean in terms of documenting it and releasing that info for developers, I mean in termins of testing it for security reasons. Plus, let us say that a theoretical bug is found that creates a hole someone can exploit - is it patchable? It's a whole can of worms AMD may be right to avoid opening.
That's a bit like saying Mice are the most commonly used pointing devices used to download pirated/copyright software.
That's a bit like saying LCDs are the most commonly used displays to watch pirated content.
That's a bit like saying air is the most commonly inhaled gas when people watch pirated content.
VLC makes it no more easier to download and watch pirated content than FFDShow, Quicktime, Windows Media Player, Winamp, etc.
Sony doesn't have the developer support?
Rewind back to the launch of the DS - Nintendo had the gamecube, Sony had the PS2 - which of those do you think had more developer support? The PS2 had hundreds more developers releasing titles on it than the Gamecube ever had.
Sure, that has pretty much reversed itself these days when you compare the PS3 to the Wii and DSi/3DS, but what's to say that with a successful product launch, the same couldn't happen again?
How dare you defend Twitter! OHhh I'm so angry at you right now, I'm going to write about it on my Livejournal!
The last time I had to use Blizzard's updater software, I found that DISABLING P2P actually sped up my overall download speed. It seems that if you're willing to let them use your bandwidth, they're unwilling to supply you with some of theirs. Net result? Doing Blizzard a favour means you get shafted.
Just to clarify, the 50Meg service from Virgin doesn't have traffic management (I.e. if you download too much, your speeds wont get slowed down), unlike their 10 or 20meg service, however ALL of their connections have a "fair use" policy, which is for the ones that download non-stop, through traffic management, all night long, all week long. I have the 50meg service, I've regularly downloaded 60, 70, 80Gb per day for weeks at a time and I have never ever been contacted over "fair use" and more often than not, the people that do get contacted about it are Zombies distributing SPAM or being used as part of a DDOS network.
Surely the fact that you actively avoid the products mentioned within the advertisements means that you are influenced by them?
My "unlimited" internet has a 1000Mb fair usage policy and with heavy usage I barely use more than 400Mb a month.
As many people have already stated, DAB Digital Radio has a plethora of issues.
The radios themselves aren't that cheap, especially portable ones. There's no real benefit to owning one, you get a couple of extra stations that you probably wont listen to and the reception is terrible in most places. For years, I've wanted the technology to take off and be good, a bit like Freeview OTA Digital TV, but it never happened.
Now, for me, technology has moved on. I have a pretty decent android phone and use an app called Streamfurious. With this, I can listen to thousands of radio stations from all around the world, including just about every station you'll get on digital radio, in better quality and over 3G as well. It works surprisingly well, less cut outs than I ever did get with DAB.
Sadly, there are very few ISPs who don't have some kind of "fair use" or "traffic management" policy. Generally, it's a tossup between monthly bandwidth restrictions (which don't often exceed 30 or 40GB per month) that incur additional charges if you hit them, or traffic management as Virgin does it.
Swings and roundabouts, really.
I'd just like to add that I'm a Virgin Media customer with the 50meg connection he speaks of and I quite regularly max the hell out of it, at peak times. 6MB/s downloads are no problem.
However, he's right in that some areas have massive congestion problems and will suffer from issues, but unlike DSL, it wont have anything to do with how far away you are, if you're in a Virgin supplied area, you can get the 50meg.
I don't see why they're bothering at all, especially when Android 2.2 is going to have Wireless tethering as standard. Essentially all they've done is opt for a proprietary, limited connection interface when there's at least 3 universal ones out there that could be used (USB, Wifi and Bluetoth).
I meant IE6 standard.
The markup language hasn't changed, though, just the adresses. Even a 100% arabic website is still going to have standard HTML inside it.
I know! Heaven forbid that we actually use all that extra bandwidth, processing power and memory that we have just lying around these days. Oh Lordy, it will be a disaster having to download a few hundred kbs on your ~4Meg connection, especially compared to downloading 1kb on a 56k modem of old.
And if that bout of sarcasm wasn't enough, how about a bit of Irony to go with it? You're moaning about the switch from newsgroups to a web-based system ON a web-based commenting system that shares all of the same aspects as any online forum.
I have an eyesight condition that seems to prevent me from being able to "enjoy" 3D films at all.
The condition I have is called Nystagmus, basically my eyes "Wobble". My left eye is considerably worse than my right eye and I have apparently compensated by concentrating on my right eye. The End result? My left eye contributes almost nothing to my vision, just a bit of peripheral vision. When I close my right eye, I can't even read size 72 font on a screen less than 1ft from my face.
This also means I don't have proper depth perception. Apparently, my brain has compensated for this as well so it isn't much of an issue - I can still tell when things are closer or further away and I have no issues picking up cups without knocking them over or anything like that. A fully productive member of society (or at least I would be, if I wasn't so lazy).
Anyhoo, I digress. The side effect of this is that the 3D tech doesn't work. It all looks the same to me. Without the glasses, it's a blurry image, with the Glasses, it's just like watching a normal film. So 3D makes no impact on me what so ever.
But I'm not upset or angry about it, I'm actually quite happy. When 3D becomes all the rage, if it ever does, I'll be able to get a nice cheap, good quality "non" 3D TV on the cheap. I'll be able to settle for the regular, "not 3D" versions of films and such.
And when people question me about it, I simply tell them that watching ANY film gives me the same exact experience as watching any 3D film, so the way I see it, at no cost to me and for longer than anyone else, I've already been enjoying 3D with every film I've ever watched. It's just MY 3D.
"the geeks at /."
As opposed to who else at /.?
^ This
The most successful "spiritual sequels" I've seen have generally been Open Source equivalents. Obviously you wont be able to open source anything from the Xbox360 SDK for legal reasons, but if you wanted to do it in XNA to get it on the 360, there's no reason why you couldn't.
However, a good ol' C++/OpenGL PC version would be ideal, that way if it's successful enough, it can live on through various homebrew ports to past, present and future games consoles alike.
Geohot never actually released anything relating to GameOS other than pictures of him modifying a theme file - something that can be done to little effect on the PSP (Theme files aren't signed and modifying them doesn't lead anywhere fun, just different themes).
What exactly did he ruin? Sony locked down their Linux support in the first place (No direct access to the GPU, among other things), all he wanted to do was unlock the possibilities within Linux, that alone would have kept everyone happy.
The PS3 is an OK media centre, but it has a long way to go to compare to the likes of XBMC. Having something as simple as GPU support would have meant that homebrew for the PS3 could have stayed happily within Linux, but with basically crippled support, it was practically ignored, useless for anything other than large floating point calculations.
Enter Geohot, who finds a small, still pretty obscure bug that doesn't do much other than unlock some more potential (Still entirely within Linux) and suddenly Sony cuts off the whole thing. Geohot specifically didn't release anything that could directly target GameOS (The PS3 OS) in order to not piss off Sony or promote Piracy, but apparently that was still too much for Sony.
Now, all they've done is piss off the few people that could actually break the PS3 wide open, allowing piracy and all sorts. Before, they "had" linux and had fewer reasons to "hack" it, but now they have every reason and, dare I say it, every right to.
Says on the Box of my PS3 that it supports installing of Other Operating Systems. I paid for that feature when I bought the console, I'd like to keep it.
You're not the only one, apparently all the other ISPs in the area brought up the same issue with the ASA and were all told that Virgin is allowed.
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/3391-asa-rules-on-virgin-fibre-optic-broadband-claims.html
I guess this means I can get a 3cm wire of fibre, selotape it to an ethernet cable and have a "hybrid-fibre network" in my own home.
Make it so!
Oh right, in that case feel free to mod me +1 whoosh!
I always get her name wrong, my bad entirely.
Should be Tricia Helfer.