I think that moves toward proportional representation would make a really strong impact on moves away from a two party system. Although I don't believe a vote for a party which can't win is a wasted vote, proportional representation would definitely make it a more valuable vote.
Here in Britain, a small majority in numbers of votes tends to lead to a huge parliamentary majority, which is a real problem. The result is a very powerful governing party doing whatever it wants, and that in turn results in an opposition that tries to oppose everything.
I strongly disagree that the Lib Dems are struggling for impact though. The reason for a slide in poll results is the loss of a leader that plenty of people liked, whether or not he might have been a good prime minister, along with assorted other scandals, and some unliked policies. The Lib Dems going with or against the government on issues in parliament can swing the results. Not as much as the main parties but they certainly can't be discounted and their generally close alliance with Labour is often required on controversial bills.
Re:Pasting for the PS3 because it invents not copi
on
How the PS3 Hit $600
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· Score: 1
What percentage of people actually use their consoles as a primary movie player?
Well actually I seem to remember back when PS2 was new, pretty much everyone who had one used it as a DVD player. And except for playing Gladiator in black and white for some bizarre reason, it always looked like a good DVD player.
I think PS3 will do pretty well here in the UK. Due to the general lack of HD content over here until now, a lot of people have held off upgrading so far - I've kept my old 28" CRT until now, because until the proper release of content there was no point in upgrading.
Sky HD launched here a few weeks ago, so I'm planning to wait a few more months, then get the TV and new Sky service together once there's a bit more worthwhile content. Would be nice to have in time for the world cup, but I'll probably be down the pub for that anyway.
That just leaves the DVD player to upgrade. I definitely want to swap that out to make better use of a £1000 or so TV. So far the most logical (and economic) option looks like the PS3.
You say that the ability of a console to play HD discs will be irrelevant to most people, but I seriously disagree here. The opposite might be true (people buying a HD disc player may not want games), but most gamers I know are also into films. For people upgrading their whole TV setup in one go, the PS3 is a very nice option.
There's plenty of concern that the LSB platform is restrictive, but I think it's going to be a huge step forward for 'normal' users who don't want to know how to make an application work - we just want to run it. Linux is still an open model and so LSB is not compulsory, and if an application can be built better in an alternative way, great!
I've had plenty of hassle trying to get various packages to work on older Linux systems, spent endless hours trying unsuccessfully to get services for a wireless network running on the previous version of Fedora. I'm hoping LSB will allow a simple download of an executable that just works - the ability to download an exe and just run it seconds later is probably the biggest advantage of Windows v Linux IMHO.
The main problem with the web - and with GUIs in general - is that they assume that the designer knows better than the user how the user wants things.
It is a real shame that so many people think this as originally HTML was designed with exactly the opposite premise - that the user knows how they want things. Slashdot's 'Allowed HTML' bit when posting messages is a great example of how HTML was meant to work - the designer puts in breaks, paragraphs, lists, emphasis, bold text and so on. The browser has some default settings that render these fairly abstract ideas in pleasing ways but the user should be able to override them as they see fit.
Unfortunately, with a load of bolted on technology such as CSS, power has been leaking back to designers over time with hardcoded font sizes and table widths etc. The web undoubtedly looks better now, but for non-standard setups such as higher resolution monitors, it has lost some of it's original utility.
And what about desktop screens. I'd love a proper high resolution LCD to match what decent CRTs have done for ages. I had an Iiyama Vision Master Pro 454 - a 19" CRT (18" viewable) which worked well for me with a resolution of 1792x1344, although I did occasionally drop to 1600x1200. A 19" LCD is a bigger viewable screen with only 1280x1024 pixels.
So current LCDs are the total opposite of the higher pixel densities for desktops at least. A guy at work has a Sony laptop with a 17" widescreen, 1920x1200 screen and it really is fantastic. I just wish somebody would put the panel in a desktop monitor and I'd go out immediately and buy 2 to replace my current pais of 22" CRTs. But like Joce says, there's no industry interest at all, and I can't buy such a product, even though it is obviously feasible.
Remember I was talking here about England (I suppose Manchester to be specific), which is significantly less sunny than most of the US. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power for a quick map of available solar energy - most of US is 200+ watts per square metre, while England is around 100.
You say 1-4 years, while your reference actually gives 3-4 years based on current PV technology and with near-future manufacturing technology. 1-2 years are for future PV technology improvements.
Still it does look like the sums add up now, although for this dreary bit of the world I'd still believe closer to a decade to get back the production energy. Must be worth it though, while reading around I found the tallest tower in Manchester was recently covered in PV cells - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/3956 801.stm
Wrong target for that criticism#. At least here in Britain, wind turbines produce plenty more power than used to build them. It's solar power that has the problem you mention with panels not producing as much power as was required to build them.
A valid point is that most renewable energy sources need placing more carefully within the environment than conventional sources. Unfortunately the places most suited for generation of electricity are not where most people live.
This is very much the reverse of the true situation. The PS2 looked to have significantly less general purpose power than the Xbox, coming out a long way before. The weird hardware was pretty well suited for games though and I remember substantial improvements in graphics over the first few generations of PS2 games, presumably as developers learned to work with the hardware. That allowed it to keep pace with the newer Xbox and of course due to cheaper hardware, allowed Sony to make bucketloads of money.
I think if PS3 has more powerful hardware than Xbox360, but is harder to make use of, we'll see the PS3 struggle for a bit but my opinion is that second and third gen games will blow away what can be done with the Xbox360.
Slashdot Mirror
I think that moves toward proportional representation would make a really strong impact on moves away from a two party system. Although I don't believe a vote for a party which can't win is a wasted vote, proportional representation would definitely make it a more valuable vote. Here in Britain, a small majority in numbers of votes tends to lead to a huge parliamentary majority, which is a real problem. The result is a very powerful governing party doing whatever it wants, and that in turn results in an opposition that tries to oppose everything. I strongly disagree that the Lib Dems are struggling for impact though. The reason for a slide in poll results is the loss of a leader that plenty of people liked, whether or not he might have been a good prime minister, along with assorted other scandals, and some unliked policies. The Lib Dems going with or against the government on issues in parliament can swing the results. Not as much as the main parties but they certainly can't be discounted and their generally close alliance with Labour is often required on controversial bills.
Well actually I seem to remember back when PS2 was new, pretty much everyone who had one used it as a DVD player. And except for playing Gladiator in black and white for some bizarre reason, it always looked like a good DVD player.
I think PS3 will do pretty well here in the UK. Due to the general lack of HD content over here until now, a lot of people have held off upgrading so far - I've kept my old 28" CRT until now, because until the proper release of content there was no point in upgrading.
Sky HD launched here a few weeks ago, so I'm planning to wait a few more months, then get the TV and new Sky service together once there's a bit more worthwhile content. Would be nice to have in time for the world cup, but I'll probably be down the pub for that anyway.
That just leaves the DVD player to upgrade. I definitely want to swap that out to make better use of a £1000 or so TV. So far the most logical (and economic) option looks like the PS3.
You say that the ability of a console to play HD discs will be irrelevant to most people, but I seriously disagree here. The opposite might be true (people buying a HD disc player may not want games), but most gamers I know are also into films. For people upgrading their whole TV setup in one go, the PS3 is a very nice option.
Read TFA - there are specific exemptions for cordless power tools.
There's plenty of concern that the LSB platform is restrictive, but I think it's going to be a huge step forward for 'normal' users who don't want to know how to make an application work - we just want to run it. Linux is still an open model and so LSB is not compulsory, and if an application can be built better in an alternative way, great!
I've had plenty of hassle trying to get various packages to work on older Linux systems, spent endless hours trying unsuccessfully to get services for a wireless network running on the previous version of Fedora. I'm hoping LSB will allow a simple download of an executable that just works - the ability to download an exe and just run it seconds later is probably the biggest advantage of Windows v Linux IMHO.
It is a real shame that so many people think this as originally HTML was designed with exactly the opposite premise - that the user knows how they want things. Slashdot's 'Allowed HTML' bit when posting messages is a great example of how HTML was meant to work - the designer puts in breaks, paragraphs, lists, emphasis, bold text and so on. The browser has some default settings that render these fairly abstract ideas in pleasing ways but the user should be able to override them as they see fit.
Unfortunately, with a load of bolted on technology such as CSS, power has been leaking back to designers over time with hardcoded font sizes and table widths etc. The web undoubtedly looks better now, but for non-standard setups such as higher resolution monitors, it has lost some of it's original utility.
And what about desktop screens. I'd love a proper high resolution LCD to match what decent CRTs have done for ages. I had an Iiyama Vision Master Pro 454 - a 19" CRT (18" viewable) which worked well for me with a resolution of 1792x1344, although I did occasionally drop to 1600x1200. A 19" LCD is a bigger viewable screen with only 1280x1024 pixels.
So current LCDs are the total opposite of the higher pixel densities for desktops at least. A guy at work has a Sony laptop with a 17" widescreen, 1920x1200 screen and it really is fantastic. I just wish somebody would put the panel in a desktop monitor and I'd go out immediately and buy 2 to replace my current pais of 22" CRTs. But like Joce says, there's no industry interest at all, and I can't buy such a product, even though it is obviously feasible.
Remember I was talking here about England (I suppose Manchester to be specific), which is significantly less sunny than most of the US. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power for a quick map of available solar energy - most of US is 200+ watts per square metre, while England is around 100. You say 1-4 years, while your reference actually gives 3-4 years based on current PV technology and with near-future manufacturing technology. 1-2 years are for future PV technology improvements. Still it does look like the sums add up now, although for this dreary bit of the world I'd still believe closer to a decade to get back the production energy. Must be worth it though, while reading around I found the tallest tower in Manchester was recently covered in PV cells - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/3956 801.stm
Wrong target for that criticism#. At least here in Britain, wind turbines produce plenty more power than used to build them. It's solar power that has the problem you mention with panels not producing as much power as was required to build them. A valid point is that most renewable energy sources need placing more carefully within the environment than conventional sources. Unfortunately the places most suited for generation of electricity are not where most people live.
I think if PS3 has more powerful hardware than Xbox360, but is harder to make use of, we'll see the PS3 struggle for a bit but my opinion is that second and third gen games will blow away what can be done with the Xbox360.