yeah I did notice that actually. You can extend that standards compliance to bluetooth devices like headsets, as well as flash media, wi-fi, etc.
I really like that direction and the PS3 makes a great media device for those reason IMO. I'd own one except I don't need a media device and there's nothing on the console yet that excites me as a game machine.
The number of people looking for a media device and game machine wrapped into one at a price to reflect that I would suspect is much smaller then the number of people looking for just a media device or just a game machine and not wanting to pay for things they don't need.
That's right XBMC is for the Xbox 1 NOT the Xbox 360.
From what I've heard part of the reason they're working on a Linux port is so that they can have this fine software running on the Xbox 360 (seeing as it's possible to run Linux on a limited number of Xbox 360 consoles) as well as the PS3 which can run Linux out of the box.
I've been using XBMC at home for years now and it really is fantastic and gets frequent and useful updates. Here's hoping that a Linux port will not only provide us with LEGAL binaries (being homebrew on the Xbox 1 means that the binaries are technically illegal) but support for some video capture devices and DVR/PVR functionality... which IMO was the only major feature missing from XBMC as it wasn't possible using the Xbox 1's too slow for video v1.1 USB ports.
There are really two problems at the root here. One is the human drive to push all of that crap on anyone and everyone on the internet for some kind of personal gain. And the other is a combination of user stupidity to unknowingly accept it combined with software that doesn't always make it easy for your average user to understand what it is they're accepting.
The way I've solved this problem.
1. Use Firefox as your default browser with adblock and Noscript, ditch IE.
2. Use a router with a firewall and ditch the Windows firewall.
3. Ditch Norton AV or whatever else and use NOD32
4. Switch to webmail system for sending/receiving your email.
5. Don't install any software you get "free" with anything unless you actually intend to use it.
Of course these only work if you're starting with a clean install.... I never see more then a small fraction of my resources being dedicated to background tasks and every few months or so I'll run Ad Aware or Spybot just to see if anything pops up only to find nothing more then a handful of cookies in the browser cache.
Linux is great and so are Macs, I actually have a Linux box, but neither Linux nor Macs can run/don't have viable alternatives to a lot of the applications I use on a day to day basis. If web-browsing, word processing, and media playback were all I needed a computer for then they'd be great. Unfortunately I need it for a lot more then just that.
That being said, I have one friend that is the complete opposite. He works in IT, but, when he leaves work, it is like he cannot stand to touch a computer at home. He actually gets a bit uptight on emails for trying to plan things, etc...he insists on phone calls in person. It is actually a PITA for me with him at times, as that my other friends do quite well with email planning, etc.
Send him "text messages" instead. Most carriers include an email address that you can write to and the message body arrives on the cell in the form of a text message.
after a few lengthy messages you'll either have an easy way of communicating with him or he'll decided he'd rather get emails. Either way you win.
I actually use this on my own phone quite a bit. I'll setup various tasks on my home computer and they'll shoot off a txt to my cell phone when they complete or an error occurs.
you're absolutely right, I completely forgot about that. I thought the Xbox 1 dpads were bad but the 360's is way worse. Nintendo D-pads seem to be the best. Sony's are OK but they're usually too stiff and the separation of the directions makes for easily chewing up your thumb.
Playing SFII in the XBLA I end up using the analog stick because the d-pad is just flat out useless.
Thankfully, with the exception of the occasional XBLA game I don't have much need for the d-pad.
I'd agree that the 360 is the best controller of all time. it's damn comfortable and has pretty much every function you'd ever want. If they included a Dreamcast like VMU screen it would be "perfect" IMO.
I bet there are little stickers inside the 360 that tells you if the Xbox was opened before being sent for repair. Since you have to open the 360 in order to mod it, it's pretty safe to say that Microsoft probably didn't even fix the console since the sticker protection was broken, so there's no risk of them sending a modded console to another person.
To improve turn around times they generally just receive your console, give it a once over and ship you back someone else console that had been repaired. Then your console gets repaired and put in the queue to get sent to someone else.
There are two stickers on the console that supposedly break when it's opened... however it's so incredibly stupid easy to remove the stickers and replace them when your done (I've seen it done with a hair dryer + razor blade + wax paper) unless they're actually checking the firmware they don't know if the console has been modified or not.
But at the end of the day a console that is modded (regardless of who CURRENTLY owns it) is still a modded console. They are not FALSE POSITIVES. They are 2nd hand modded consoles - thus M$ has every right to knock them off of XB Live.
I absolutely agree with that, but we don't know if that's the case (it was simply my own speculation). Even still MS sets procedures for gamestores that sell used consoles to ensure that they have not been modified and of course if MS is shipping out refurbished units to customers who sent their console in for repair they should ensure that they're not sending out modified consoles.
So while I agree that no matter who moded it and who owns it now, the console should be banned I think it's safe to say that keeping those moded consoles out of the hands of the innocent is very much MS's problem.
One might say that using a modified XBox could mean hacked console firmware to gain unfair advantages, like visual aids, gfx drivers clip hacks, aimbots, tricks with skins, etc.
Another one might say that this is FUD applied to online gaming. After all, we're talking about Microsoft.
AFAIK only the executable is signed... so you're still free to modify the rest of the game assets. I've see people on PGR3 driving cars capable of 600MPH and with enough traction to never leave the course even at those speeds. It was done by modifying data on the disc and booting the modified disc with the hacked firmware.
At this point I think most of that kind of cheating is limited to the gifted few who are capable of knowing what to tweak themselves, but the potential is there, all it would take is someone to release a "tool" to make it easy for Joe-wannabe-hacker and you'll find yourself playing Halo 3 with someone who has infinite ammo, perfect aim, can see through walls, jump twice as high, run twice as fast, takes no damage, etc. etc. etc.
It's good that they did this, though the number of reported False Positives is appalling. I would suspect a great many of them are due to people who unknowingly purchased used or received refurbished consoles that had previously been modified... those people really don't have any proof that they didn't mod it themselves and their console might actually be modified. There are also some reports of unmodified consoles purchased on launch day (meaning there is no way they were refurbished) getting banned, though it's difficult to tell if the claims are genuine or just some pirate crying wolf.
While that's true that anyone could dust for prints in an area where I've been I don't suspect that a typical office would have a fingerprint lifting kit lying around. Something about having to go down to the police station and having my fingerprints put on file is just a bit too big brother for by tastes. Most employees and middle management probably don't think anything of it, but if upper management has decided they NEED to have all employees submit their prints to local officials that speaks volumes to me about how much they trust their own employees and the level of control they feel they should have. It's not so much the act of getting my prints taken but the principal behind why I'm being asked.
I supposed I might feel different depending on the context too. For instance if it were a high security job and my employer were took the prints themselves for their own internal records, that would be one thing. Records kept by public government organizations, for a relatively low security type of job is another matter altogether.
Finger printing is the limit for me... I've turned down two jobs in the past that required I be finger printed. Both companies seemed appalled that I would turn them down for something so "petty". One of them seemed to understand when I explained that I felt the measure was a severe violation of my personal privacy and decided to wave the need for the finger printing. I this was a smaller company though, I would suspect any company of reasonable size with those kinds of policies in place wouldn't have the flexibility to bend the rules like that.
not a bad idea... while we're at it maybe it has to sit in a chair and move the pieces on the board itself using an arm resembling that of a human's. While that shouldn't be a very difficult task it would do much to take away from the the other more important calculations it will be running.
It's always been my opinion that management can make or break anything, good management can take a mediocre team and a mediocre product and turn out something much better then expected, making the right discissions and pulling the team together to work at levels above what they're used to...
Poor management can take the best ideas and the best team and turn out a complete turd of a product.
The real problems start when a poor manager finds himself with a project that does well despite his best efforts at failure. Then gets pegged as a good manager that can do no wrong.
It's been my experience that while good management is one of the most important factors to delivering quality products on time... it's also one of the rarest things you'll ever come by in the workplace.
oh I agree completely, I never really liked halo personally, despite owning a few Xbox consoles I never owned Halo 1 and only owned Halo 2 because I received it as a gift. I was simply stating that contrary to the GGP it WAS a wildly popular game despite it mediocrity.
Keep in mind this is all platforms for all time, competing against greats like Mario Bros on the NES, Tetris on the Gameboy, The Sims on the PC, and Grand Theft Auto on the PS2. Ranking 16 and 25th for all time is no small feat.
My sentiments exactly. I use the lights on routers and switches all the time. My main router and cable modem sit out of sight completely but in my office I've got a switch that I use when I do video game console/computer repairs. If I'm having trouble connecting to the network All I need to do is glance at the switch to see if it's connecting or not.
AT the same time I have a tiny USB 2.0 port on the wall behind my couch that I use to charge Xbox 360 controllers. Walk into that room with the lights off and you'd swear there was a flashlight behind the thing.
What the need is to offer a "night mode" most high end AV equipment can be put in night mode which will shut off all lights and displays save one very dim red light to let you know it's still on. It'd be perfect for something like a router.
If I recall correctly, they're making it easier to mute people in Halo 3. In fact, I think slashdot covered a story on it.
The mute system from Halo 2 has been implemented console wide on the Xbox 360... in other words if someone is being annoying you can mute that person permanently with just a few button pushes (Guide button -> recent players -> select the annoying one -> Mute).
So all the kiddies I muted while playing Gears of War are still muted when I play Halo 3... before the disc even enters the console. It's really a nice system.
I agree that there are benefits of a standard OS... but this can be achieved without a Monopoly. For instance if Linux was the standard OS users would have the choice of any number of distributions. Would it be so bad if Windows became Open source and allowed anyone to tweak it and provide their own distributions and flavors? Obviously that wont ever happen "naturally" but I think that is one way we could have mass market OS standardization without a monopoly.
As for the case of Google... their monopoly is by user choice. switching from google to yahoo MS's Live is as simple as typing a different word in your browser (those alternatives have less text to type too). It's not like swapping from Windows to say OSX where you'd have to buy all new hardware and all new applications and then the interface is completely foreign and you can't use half of your files from the old machine, etc.
It boggles the mind when you see overwhelming success from a company or tech like Google and the reaction from competitors is to kill it rather then take notes and figure out why users like it so much better then what they offer.
I enjoy playing games for the same reason I enjoy a book or a movie... it takes me someplace else; away from the daily grind. Sharing that experience with friends is good too.
If I'm used to good looking graphics no amount of motion control is going to make up for graphics that do more to push me out of the experience then pull me in. Resolution actually has little to do with it. Low res textures, jaggies that cut my eyes and other hallmarks of an underpowered graphics hardware really take me out of the experience. It's the difference between getting lost in a masterpiece painting by Michelangelo and trying to figure out what's going on with the crayon stick figure drawing your kid just handed you.
Even worse then graphics is the lack of decent surround sound support which I find unforgivable. It really wouldn't have added much if any cost to the system but it would have done much to help enrich the experience. Graphics are just flat images, hardly a replacement for the world we see around us. Surround Sound however is a much closer facsimile of the surrounding world that we hear, even with poor graphics a solid and believable surround sound experience can make up for it and then some. Unfortunately the Wii fails on this front as well.
I don't "obsess" over graphics but at the same time I see video games as a virtual world... to fully enjoy and appreciate it you need that world to pull you in in the same way a good book or movie would. without a strong connection you're on the outside looking in, the controller is only half of that connection, the other half is the sights and the sounds. The controller is useless without the Graphical feedback and the graphics are soulless without audio to enrich it.
Slashdot Mirror
yeah I did notice that actually. You can extend that standards compliance to bluetooth devices like headsets, as well as flash media, wi-fi, etc.
I really like that direction and the PS3 makes a great media device for those reason IMO. I'd own one except I don't need a media device and there's nothing on the console yet that excites me as a game machine.
The number of people looking for a media device and game machine wrapped into one at a price to reflect that I would suspect is much smaller then the number of people looking for just a media device or just a game machine and not wanting to pay for things they don't need.
That's right XBMC is for the Xbox 1 NOT the Xbox 360.
From what I've heard part of the reason they're working on a Linux port is so that they can have this fine software running on the Xbox 360 (seeing as it's possible to run Linux on a limited number of Xbox 360 consoles) as well as the PS3 which can run Linux out of the box.
I've been using XBMC at home for years now and it really is fantastic and gets frequent and useful updates. Here's hoping that a Linux port will not only provide us with LEGAL binaries (being homebrew on the Xbox 1 means that the binaries are technically illegal) but support for some video capture devices and DVR/PVR functionality... which IMO was the only major feature missing from XBMC as it wasn't possible using the Xbox 1's too slow for video v1.1 USB ports.
There are really two problems at the root here. One is the human drive to push all of that crap on anyone and everyone on the internet for some kind of personal gain. And the other is a combination of user stupidity to unknowingly accept it combined with software that doesn't always make it easy for your average user to understand what it is they're accepting.
The way I've solved this problem.
1. Use Firefox as your default browser with adblock and Noscript, ditch IE.
2. Use a router with a firewall and ditch the Windows firewall.
3. Ditch Norton AV or whatever else and use NOD32
4. Switch to webmail system for sending/receiving your email.
5. Don't install any software you get "free" with anything unless you actually intend to use it.
Of course these only work if you're starting with a clean install.... I never see more then a small fraction of my resources being dedicated to background tasks and every few months or so I'll run Ad Aware or Spybot just to see if anything pops up only to find nothing more then a handful of cookies in the browser cache.
Linux is great and so are Macs, I actually have a Linux box, but neither Linux nor Macs can run/don't have viable alternatives to a lot of the applications I use on a day to day basis. If web-browsing, word processing, and media playback were all I needed a computer for then they'd be great. Unfortunately I need it for a lot more then just that.
after a few lengthy messages you'll either have an easy way of communicating with him or he'll decided he'd rather get emails. Either way you win.
I actually use this on my own phone quite a bit. I'll setup various tasks on my home computer and they'll shoot off a txt to my cell phone when they complete or an error occurs.
you're absolutely right, I completely forgot about that. I thought the Xbox 1 dpads were bad but the 360's is way worse. Nintendo D-pads seem to be the best. Sony's are OK but they're usually too stiff and the separation of the directions makes for easily chewing up your thumb.
Playing SFII in the XBLA I end up using the analog stick because the d-pad is just flat out useless.
Thankfully, with the exception of the occasional XBLA game I don't have much need for the d-pad.
I'd agree that the 360 is the best controller of all time. it's damn comfortable and has pretty much every function you'd ever want. If they included a Dreamcast like VMU screen it would be "perfect" IMO.
There are two stickers on the console that supposedly break when it's opened... however it's so incredibly stupid easy to remove the stickers and replace them when your done (I've seen it done with a hair dryer + razor blade + wax paper) unless they're actually checking the firmware they don't know if the console has been modified or not.
No mod points for the reference? ... BOGUS
So while I agree that no matter who moded it and who owns it now, the console should be banned I think it's safe to say that keeping those moded consoles out of the hands of the innocent is very much MS's problem.
At this point I think most of that kind of cheating is limited to the gifted few who are capable of knowing what to tweak themselves, but the potential is there, all it would take is someone to release a "tool" to make it easy for Joe-wannabe-hacker and you'll find yourself playing Halo 3 with someone who has infinite ammo, perfect aim, can see through walls, jump twice as high, run twice as fast, takes no damage, etc. etc. etc.
It's good that they did this, though the number of reported False Positives is appalling. I would suspect a great many of them are due to people who unknowingly purchased used or received refurbished consoles that had previously been modified... those people really don't have any proof that they didn't mod it themselves and their console might actually be modified. There are also some reports of unmodified consoles purchased on launch day (meaning there is no way they were refurbished) getting banned, though it's difficult to tell if the claims are genuine or just some pirate crying wolf.
Sounds like they subscribe to the Art of Demotivation.
they expanded the beta 4 days to make up for the 15 hour delay
While that's true that anyone could dust for prints in an area where I've been I don't suspect that a typical office would have a fingerprint lifting kit lying around. Something about having to go down to the police station and having my fingerprints put on file is just a bit too big brother for by tastes. Most employees and middle management probably don't think anything of it, but if upper management has decided they NEED to have all employees submit their prints to local officials that speaks volumes to me about how much they trust their own employees and the level of control they feel they should have. It's not so much the act of getting my prints taken but the principal behind why I'm being asked.
I supposed I might feel different depending on the context too. For instance if it were a high security job and my employer were took the prints themselves for their own internal records, that would be one thing. Records kept by public government organizations, for a relatively low security type of job is another matter altogether.
Finger printing is the limit for me... I've turned down two jobs in the past that required I be finger printed. Both companies seemed appalled that I would turn them down for something so "petty". One of them seemed to understand when I explained that I felt the measure was a severe violation of my personal privacy and decided to wave the need for the finger printing. I this was a smaller company though, I would suspect any company of reasonable size with those kinds of policies in place wouldn't have the flexibility to bend the rules like that.
not a bad idea... while we're at it maybe it has to sit in a chair and move the pieces on the board itself using an arm resembling that of a human's. While that shouldn't be a very difficult task it would do much to take away from the the other more important calculations it will be running.
It's always been my opinion that management can make or break anything, good management can take a mediocre team and a mediocre product and turn out something much better then expected, making the right discissions and pulling the team together to work at levels above what they're used to...
Poor management can take the best ideas and the best team and turn out a complete turd of a product.
The real problems start when a poor manager finds himself with a project that does well despite his best efforts at failure. Then gets pegged as a good manager that can do no wrong.
It's been my experience that while good management is one of the most important factors to delivering quality products on time... it's also one of the rarest things you'll ever come by in the workplace.
oh I agree completely, I never really liked halo personally, despite owning a few Xbox consoles I never owned Halo 1 and only owned Halo 2 because I received it as a gift. I was simply stating that contrary to the GGP it WAS a wildly popular game despite it mediocrity.
Halo 1 for the Xbox ranks 25th for lifetime sales in the US since with 4.91million units sold= &publisher=&sort=America
Halo 2 for the Xbox ranks 16th with 6.11million units sold
Metroid Prime ranks 147th with 1.92 units sold
http://vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=&console
Keep in mind this is all platforms for all time, competing against greats like Mario Bros on the NES, Tetris on the Gameboy, The Sims on the PC, and Grand Theft Auto on the PS2. Ranking 16 and 25th for all time is no small feat.
My sentiments exactly. I use the lights on routers and switches all the time. My main router and cable modem sit out of sight completely but in my office I've got a switch that I use when I do video game console/computer repairs. If I'm having trouble connecting to the network All I need to do is glance at the switch to see if it's connecting or not.
AT the same time I have a tiny USB 2.0 port on the wall behind my couch that I use to charge Xbox 360 controllers. Walk into that room with the lights off and you'd swear there was a flashlight behind the thing.
What the need is to offer a "night mode" most high end AV equipment can be put in night mode which will shut off all lights and displays save one very dim red light to let you know it's still on. It'd be perfect for something like a router.
they got it mixed up... they rate the Hummer in gallons per mile.
So all the kiddies I muted while playing Gears of War are still muted when I play Halo 3... before the disc even enters the console. It's really a nice system.
I agree that there are benefits of a standard OS... but this can be achieved without a Monopoly. For instance if Linux was the standard OS users would have the choice of any number of distributions. Would it be so bad if Windows became Open source and allowed anyone to tweak it and provide their own distributions and flavors? Obviously that wont ever happen "naturally" but I think that is one way we could have mass market OS standardization without a monopoly.
As for the case of Google... their monopoly is by user choice. switching from google to yahoo MS's Live is as simple as typing a different word in your browser (those alternatives have less text to type too). It's not like swapping from Windows to say OSX where you'd have to buy all new hardware and all new applications and then the interface is completely foreign and you can't use half of your files from the old machine, etc.
It boggles the mind when you see overwhelming success from a company or tech like Google and the reaction from competitors is to kill it rather then take notes and figure out why users like it so much better then what they offer.
I enjoy playing games for the same reason I enjoy a book or a movie... it takes me someplace else; away from the daily grind. Sharing that experience with friends is good too.
If I'm used to good looking graphics no amount of motion control is going to make up for graphics that do more to push me out of the experience then pull me in. Resolution actually has little to do with it. Low res textures, jaggies that cut my eyes and other hallmarks of an underpowered graphics hardware really take me out of the experience. It's the difference between getting lost in a masterpiece painting by Michelangelo and trying to figure out what's going on with the crayon stick figure drawing your kid just handed you.
Even worse then graphics is the lack of decent surround sound support which I find unforgivable. It really wouldn't have added much if any cost to the system but it would have done much to help enrich the experience. Graphics are just flat images, hardly a replacement for the world we see around us. Surround Sound however is a much closer facsimile of the surrounding world that we hear, even with poor graphics a solid and believable surround sound experience can make up for it and then some. Unfortunately the Wii fails on this front as well.
I don't "obsess" over graphics but at the same time I see video games as a virtual world... to fully enjoy and appreciate it you need that world to pull you in in the same way a good book or movie would. without a strong connection you're on the outside looking in, the controller is only half of that connection, the other half is the sights and the sounds. The controller is useless without the Graphical feedback and the graphics are soulless without audio to enrich it.
I heard he lost his booklet and got put in "Pirate Jail".