Is that $10 million total, or $10 million just for Gears of War? It's been built using Unreal Engine 3, which Epic have also been working on simultaneously, and I believe using Gears to demo the tech. Separating the cost of developing that engine from Gears' cost is fair enough, but it's also pretty deceptive.
The fact that it's not allowed at the moment might also have something to do with the fact that the electromagnetic radiation from cellphones have been proven to be capable of induction of current in aircraft electronics, which in turn can interfere with instruments. You know, like the computer that handles the autopilot that flies the plane most of the time.
Yes, I know that this is one of the major reasons why they put shielding all over all the sensitive wiring, so it shouldn't happen. That doesn't mean it won't happen, though - they said that the Titanic could never sink too. There's been a few aircraft anomolies and accidents recently which are suspected of being caused by cellphones, and there's the fact that a lot of the commercial aircraft flying at the moment are quite old, perhaps making them more susceptible to interference.
It may be statistically a small chance, but there is a reason why they have regulations against using cellphones in commercial aircraft.
It's probably worth noting that this is also completely irrelevant to the system being discussed in TFA, but this is slashdot after all.
It's not just Sakaguchi either. Nobuo Uematsu on the music, and the character art by Akira Toriyama. You've basically got a combination of the people behind the two largest RPG franchises in Japan - Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. If it doesn't make a splash, then I'd be extremely surprised.
First we'll have the gCar, and it will cost far more than it's actually worth, but investors will cough up the money anyway. Apple will follow suit with their iCar, which will be made out of translucent white plastic, but will only run certain fuels. After making a suitable amount of money selling their iCar, they will begin to market successively smaller iCars, and charge more to get them in black.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Redmond, Steve Ballmer will be plotting to 'fucking kill' them both. Unfortunately by this stage he'll have put his back out throwing chairs, so he'll instead switch to 'fucking kill'ing them with a motorised chair with wheels, which Microsoft will market it as the Zume.
Microsoft seem to be more likely to push out their consoles at a faster pace. Xbox lasted four years, and they basically forced Sony's hand by pushing out the 360 early - Sony had little recourse but to follow suit and develop their own replacement ahead of when they would have ideally liked to do it. Left to their own devices, I imagine PS3 would have been heading for a 2007 release rather than 2006.
Anyway, Xbox 360 has been out for a year already. We're not seeing games yet that really push the limits of Dual-Layer DVDs yet, and I imagine we won't see games begin to actually use the Blu-Ray capacity until at least the second or third generation of games on the PS3. By that stage, Xbox 360 will have aged about three years in the marketplace. MS can then simply spend a year developing a new console, this time with a proper HD-DVD drive, and Sony will be in even greater trouble. They either end up losing the initiative in the marketplace, playing second fiddle to whatever MS does, or they get out of the market altogether.
That said, by that stage the HD format war should have been decided, so MS may be stuck indirectly paying Sony royalties for Blu-Ray. I suspect that the stalemate will have continued though, and by 2009 I'd imagine that HD-DVD / Blu-Ray drives for data will be quite common. They should even have hybrid drives by then.
What's more, with this delay Sony have basically given MS an even bigger head start. If I was developing AAA PS3-exclusive software I'd be pretty worried about now. Having Sony front up that nice bit of cash is a good incentive, but if it's going to be another year and a half before you can realistically expect to have a big enough market to actually turn a profit off your game, then losing the exclusivity to have it on two platforms suddenly doesn't seem like that bad an idea. I'm sure MS would happily pony up some cash for certain AAA franchises too *cough*MGS*cough*FF*cough*.
The problem is that the patents are for the actual compression and decompression algorithms. These can and often are patented - MP3 is not an isolated case. Here's a list of the patents involved.
The whole thing's actually quite a mess, with several different companies claiming patents on bits and pieces of the codec. This is one of the reasons why you don't usually see MP3 codecs in the free Linux distributions as standard.
The problem for SanDisk is that they're a US-based company, and the US allows software patents. Sisvel would struggle to be able to pull this on an EU-based company.
The person I'm thinking of actually asked a college level, calculus-based physics-for-engineers professor to explain how 3x = 2x + 10 became 5x = 10, x=2
I would ask that too, since it should become x = 10.
I was on my way home from Adelaide and I was running late - plane was pretty much boarded - so naturally just as I'm grabbing my bag off the scanner and about to dash the last few yards to the gate when I get a hand on the shoulder and a "you've been randomly selected to be searched" or something. This is after I'd been farted around for several minutes because I had a bit of tinfoil in my pocket (leftover wrapping for something) and been divested of my shoes, watch, jacket and belt.
What amused me about this 'random' test was that the guy doing it asked for permission. I'm not sure if it's some kind of legal thing or something, but it's kind of a moot question, isn't it? If they select you for a 'random search' and then ask your permission to do so, then you're hardly going to say no. It's more of a 'can I search you here, or do you want to do it in the comfort of a holding cell?'
I was in such a rush after that that I ended up forgetting to grab my belt. Didn't even realise it until I got home.:(
This ranks right up there with the scores of malware programs that pretend to be malware removers. I assume the original poster would have us believe that all those are really written by the likes of Symantec and McAfee?
What, like Norton Antivirus? It's often installed without you asking for it, it consumes vast amounts of resources, it embeds itself into your operating system's interface, it hides itself from other programs, it phones home regularly, and it's extremely difficult to remove.
This is as bad as a bank deciding that they didn't want to cash valid checks for some people because "we don't like your kind around here."
It's more like a bank closing someone's check account and confiscating all the money they have in there. When Paypal suspend an account, they basically sieze all the money within and most of the time you never get it back.
There are some recent games which come to mind that really encourage this sort of thing - one person playing while other people watch, with watching being just as interesting a prospect as actually playing it. Two that come to mind are Shadow of the Colossus and Guitar Hero. The former is an incredibly visually impressive game, and I've found that whenever I've played it it's drawn in an audience - even just my family members. The latter is basically designed to be played with a group of friends.
I'd also argue that it's the social aspect that made Halo such a runaway success on the Xbox. A lot of people voiced their dislike of the single player, however the game lasted for ages simply because of the incredibly fun social aspect of being able to haul your box over to a friend's place and play in large groups. I've played a lot of FPSes and been to a lot of LANs, yet somehow playing 8-16 player Halo multiplayer over system link has a very different and far more social feel to it. Oddly, it didn't seem quite so prevalent in the sequel.
I notice that Japan isn't included in these figures. Odd that Australia and New Zealand have been shoved in with Asia, yet one of the major countries in the consumer technology sector is absent. Their tally should be reasonably high, I'd imagine.
While I agree with you, if there's any weapon that needs tweaking, IMO it's the Rocket Launcher. Specifically, the ability to lock on to targets. It basically makes getting in a vehicle in a deathmatch game suicidal. Especially the Banshee. Maybe if there was some way to actually dodge the things once they're locked on, it wouldn't be quite as nasty.
And while we're complaining about the game mechanics, the current dual wielding system is crap. If you're holding two single-handed weapons, you should be able to hold Y to dual, rather than having to pick up an off-handed weapon and drop it and pick it up and drop it all the time.
Slashdot Mirror
Is that $10 million total, or $10 million just for Gears of War? It's been built using Unreal Engine 3, which Epic have also been working on simultaneously, and I believe using Gears to demo the tech. Separating the cost of developing that engine from Gears' cost is fair enough, but it's also pretty deceptive.
Speaking of danger zones... according to wikipedia, those F-35s they're making way for could have frickin' laser beams attached.
Communism and Terrorism? All we need now is a flimsy excuse for protecting our fish from the horrors of child pornography and we'll be set!
Does this mean that if you go fishing you're aiding terrorism?
The fact that it's not allowed at the moment might also have something to do with the fact that the electromagnetic radiation from cellphones have been proven to be capable of induction of current in aircraft electronics, which in turn can interfere with instruments. You know, like the computer that handles the autopilot that flies the plane most of the time.
Yes, I know that this is one of the major reasons why they put shielding all over all the sensitive wiring, so it shouldn't happen. That doesn't mean it won't happen, though - they said that the Titanic could never sink too. There's been a few aircraft anomolies and accidents recently which are suspected of being caused by cellphones, and there's the fact that a lot of the commercial aircraft flying at the moment are quite old, perhaps making them more susceptible to interference.
It may be statistically a small chance, but there is a reason why they have regulations against using cellphones in commercial aircraft.
It's probably worth noting that this is also completely irrelevant to the system being discussed in TFA, but this is slashdot after all.
It's not just Sakaguchi either. Nobuo Uematsu on the music, and the character art by Akira Toriyama. You've basically got a combination of the people behind the two largest RPG franchises in Japan - Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. If it doesn't make a splash, then I'd be extremely surprised.
It was a poorly concieved reference to the German Army in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. I guess no one got it. :(
The way we do everything in the Slashdot army: from the book of instructions.
Ever tried to listen to Ogg Vorbis on your iPod?
It's his greatest invention: a chair that throws itself
First we'll have the gCar, and it will cost far more than it's actually worth, but investors will cough up the money anyway. Apple will follow suit with their iCar, which will be made out of translucent white plastic, but will only run certain fuels. After making a suitable amount of money selling their iCar, they will begin to market successively smaller iCars, and charge more to get them in black.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Redmond, Steve Ballmer will be plotting to 'fucking kill' them both. Unfortunately by this stage he'll have put his back out throwing chairs, so he'll instead switch to 'fucking kill'ing them with a motorised chair with wheels, which Microsoft will market it as the Zume.
I don't see what the big deal in using an Xbox for this is. Wouldn't it be easier to just use an old PC with Linux on it?
Microsoft seem to be more likely to push out their consoles at a faster pace. Xbox lasted four years, and they basically forced Sony's hand by pushing out the 360 early - Sony had little recourse but to follow suit and develop their own replacement ahead of when they would have ideally liked to do it. Left to their own devices, I imagine PS3 would have been heading for a 2007 release rather than 2006. Anyway, Xbox 360 has been out for a year already. We're not seeing games yet that really push the limits of Dual-Layer DVDs yet, and I imagine we won't see games begin to actually use the Blu-Ray capacity until at least the second or third generation of games on the PS3. By that stage, Xbox 360 will have aged about three years in the marketplace. MS can then simply spend a year developing a new console, this time with a proper HD-DVD drive, and Sony will be in even greater trouble. They either end up losing the initiative in the marketplace, playing second fiddle to whatever MS does, or they get out of the market altogether. That said, by that stage the HD format war should have been decided, so MS may be stuck indirectly paying Sony royalties for Blu-Ray. I suspect that the stalemate will have continued though, and by 2009 I'd imagine that HD-DVD / Blu-Ray drives for data will be quite common. They should even have hybrid drives by then. What's more, with this delay Sony have basically given MS an even bigger head start. If I was developing AAA PS3-exclusive software I'd be pretty worried about now. Having Sony front up that nice bit of cash is a good incentive, but if it's going to be another year and a half before you can realistically expect to have a big enough market to actually turn a profit off your game, then losing the exclusivity to have it on two platforms suddenly doesn't seem like that bad an idea. I'm sure MS would happily pony up some cash for certain AAA franchises too *cough*MGS*cough*FF*cough*.
It's not the file format that's patented.
The problem is that the patents are for the actual compression and decompression algorithms. These can and often are patented - MP3 is not an isolated case. Here's a list of the patents involved.
The whole thing's actually quite a mess, with several different companies claiming patents on bits and pieces of the codec. This is one of the reasons why you don't usually see MP3 codecs in the free Linux distributions as standard.
The problem for SanDisk is that they're a US-based company, and the US allows software patents. Sisvel would struggle to be able to pull this on an EU-based company.
The person I'm thinking of actually asked a college level, calculus-based physics-for-engineers professor to explain how 3x = 2x + 10 became 5x = 10, x=2
I would ask that too, since it should become x = 10.
I was on my way home from Adelaide and I was running late - plane was pretty much boarded - so naturally just as I'm grabbing my bag off the scanner and about to dash the last few yards to the gate when I get a hand on the shoulder and a "you've been randomly selected to be searched" or something. This is after I'd been farted around for several minutes because I had a bit of tinfoil in my pocket (leftover wrapping for something) and been divested of my shoes, watch, jacket and belt.
:(
What amused me about this 'random' test was that the guy doing it asked for permission. I'm not sure if it's some kind of legal thing or something, but it's kind of a moot question, isn't it? If they select you for a 'random search' and then ask your permission to do so, then you're hardly going to say no. It's more of a 'can I search you here, or do you want to do it in the comfort of a holding cell?'
I was in such a rush after that that I ended up forgetting to grab my belt. Didn't even realise it until I got home.
This ranks right up there with the scores of malware programs that pretend to be malware removers. I assume the original poster would have us believe that all those are really written by the likes of Symantec and McAfee?
What, like Norton Antivirus? It's often installed without you asking for it, it consumes vast amounts of resources, it embeds itself into your operating system's interface, it hides itself from other programs, it phones home regularly, and it's extremely difficult to remove.
This is as bad as a bank deciding that they didn't want to cash valid checks for some people because "we don't like your kind around here."
It's more like a bank closing someone's check account and confiscating all the money they have in there. When Paypal suspend an account, they basically sieze all the money within and most of the time you never get it back.
There are some recent games which come to mind that really encourage this sort of thing - one person playing while other people watch, with watching being just as interesting a prospect as actually playing it. Two that come to mind are Shadow of the Colossus and Guitar Hero. The former is an incredibly visually impressive game, and I've found that whenever I've played it it's drawn in an audience - even just my family members. The latter is basically designed to be played with a group of friends.
I'd also argue that it's the social aspect that made Halo such a runaway success on the Xbox. A lot of people voiced their dislike of the single player, however the game lasted for ages simply because of the incredibly fun social aspect of being able to haul your box over to a friend's place and play in large groups. I've played a lot of FPSes and been to a lot of LANs, yet somehow playing 8-16 player Halo multiplayer over system link has a very different and far more social feel to it. Oddly, it didn't seem quite so prevalent in the sequel.
I notice that Japan isn't included in these figures. Odd that Australia and New Zealand have been shoved in with Asia, yet one of the major countries in the consumer technology sector is absent. Their tally should be reasonably high, I'd imagine.
If you're incapable of depression, and you're always happy, how do you know if you really are happy?
While I agree with you, if there's any weapon that needs tweaking, IMO it's the Rocket Launcher. Specifically, the ability to lock on to targets. It basically makes getting in a vehicle in a deathmatch game suicidal. Especially the Banshee. Maybe if there was some way to actually dodge the things once they're locked on, it wouldn't be quite as nasty.
And while we're complaining about the game mechanics, the current dual wielding system is crap. If you're holding two single-handed weapons, you should be able to hold Y to dual, rather than having to pick up an off-handed weapon and drop it and pick it up and drop it all the time.
The Silent Catographer was the 'beach segment'.
So goldfish are able to jump out of their bowls... but what we really need to know in order to sort this out is can they run Linux?
The gaming system in 20-40 years may have no buttons whatsoever.
"You mean you used to use your hands to play games, Grandpa?"