Just like to point out that the last part (Desk Accessories) is as tenuous an argument as saying that all this stuff was really a rip-off of real-life desk accessories sitting on your real-life desk.
While this may or may not be true (I don't have a traffic cam on my real-life desk), the point that this argument misses is that Konfabulator made some substantial leaps beyond what Desk Accessories or desk accessories were able to offer. Perhaps most importantly, Apple's original Desk Accessories were not at all something that users were intended to create or modify. Their similiarity to Konfabulator Widgets is primarily technical. Dashboard on the other hand, clearly copied the essense of what made Konfabulator so popular (along with some of the nomenclature and basic structure).
But, all this is in the past... so no point in dwelling on it. Now Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo! have some version of Widgets as part of their web offerings... and apparently, coming soon to your cell phones, thanks to Yahoo! or Konfabulator or the inventor of the desk, or something.
Who said it was called Dashboard? Besides the misleading headline of this article...
Engadget implied it was a Yahoo Dashboard, which of course it looks like, because it is the Yahoo! Widget Engine 'Heads-Up Display' (http://widgets.yahoo.com/), which is the re-branded Konfabulator 'Konspose Mode' (Yahoo! bought Konfabulator last year), which is what 'inspired' Apple to make the 'Dashboard' in the first place.
Is this really going to be called 'Yahoo! Go' when 'Yahoo! Widgets' move to cell phones, as Endgadget states? People should be more careful with brand/product names...
"Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime."
This could not be more true than in it is in this case. Teach people to build open/free infrastructures and everyone benefits. Give them a dependancy on Microsoft products and only Microsoft benefits.
-- From the Musical 'Gypsy' (about the life of famous stripper, Gypsy Rose Lee)
Yes, Sony, the DS screen is a gimmick. Yes, that is part of what sets it apart from previous handhelds and the PSP. Yes, that gimmick is part of what we like about it.
Took away one analog controller and didn't replace it with a touch screen? Shame on you Sony. Shame on you for failing to innovate. Shame on you for failing to come up with a compelling gimmick yourself.
When the most exciting thing about your game platform is that people can run a web browser on it (or run home-brew apps instead), you have failed. Better luck next time. Lets hope the gimmicks of the PS3 live up to our expectations...
"Get yourself a gimmick and you can be a star too."
If by that, you mean that you heard someone in a pub humming a catchy but unfinished tune over a beer mug, then you sat at the bar stool next to them and chatted about their grand idea for a piece of music that they have never gotten around to finishing because they are too busy feeling sorry for themselves -- then you went home, used their ideas to write a piece of music and a song to go along with it, recorded it, published it, and got a call from your lawyer after the drunk sobered up and went to the RIAA screaming your name and "Kazaa!" with a wild eyed expression on his face... then yeah, that's pretty much what happened with Apple and Xerox.
The full answer is "not yet, but..." it is in the plan, according to the Director of Widget Technology, as quoted in some of the press releases.
Dashboard will likely fade into obscurity. I already turned it off on my Mac. Why bother depending on desktop tools that I can only use when I am on my Mac when there are alternatives available for all my computers?
Dashboard will remain a part of OS X for the Mac fan(boy)s, but Konfabulator is (and soon will even more so be) the Widget engine for everyone. Most people work/play on multiple platforms. Tying yourself to functionality available only on one, is...well...silly.
By the time Microsoft announces their innovative (read: complete ripoff) Widget engine for Vista, Konfabulator will already be ubiquitous. Mac, Windows, Linux, cell phones...
In other words, get rid of Daylight Savings Time. Its absurd. Businesses still change their hours at different times of the year (summer hours, holiday hours, etc), with or without Daylight Savings Time. As we become more of an International 24/7 community, Daylight Savings time simply makes no sense.
Changing it (other than eliminating it) makes even less sense, considering the cost!
There seems to be an implicit assumption in this article that PC gaming is all about first person shooters and other graphics intensive games. This is a questionable assumption, at best. While the core-gamer market that enjoys these games is a strong and vocal component of the market, it is a very small part of the total PC game playing market.
Games that are much less sexy and don't require uber-hardware upgrades, are far more common with 'regular' people. The web based and tiny downloadable puzzle games available on sites like MSN, Yahoo! and such are not going to be threatened by the Next Gen consoles. While they may also find a place there, no one is going to run out and buy a new console to play Bejeweled, anymore than they would run out to buy a PC to play Solitaire.
Most regular people (otherwise known as the Mass Market) don't consider themselves gamers, yet an ever growing number of them is playing games on their PCs, without really thinking about it. Next-gen consoles are hardly on their radar and wont kill anything for them.
Will the next-gen consoles kill the hard-core PC game market? No, clearly the people that are willing to buy a $400 graphics card to play Half-Life 2 on their customized Alienware-like powerhouse with lighted USB cables are still going to create a demand for a PC SKU of the latest FPS games -- as they will help spread buzz and drive demand of the cash cows on the consoles.
What we can expect to see die off the PC market are the middle-ground games that are somewhere between the big budget FPS titles and the tiny viral puzzle games. Games that fall somewhere in between are going to find an easier home on the consoles, where platform testing is reduced to its simpliest form and where the semi-casual gamers will invest in their best hardware and peripherals. Not everyone that does consider themselves a gamer can afford to upgrade to a new $5000 PC every year -- in fact, most people will have to choose between which $400 next-gen console to bring into their home. A box which will completely overshadow their hand-me-down Pentium III computer they currently play Unreal Tournament on. It is for this segment of the gaming population, the gamer equivalent of the upper-middle-class, that the next-gen consoles will have the biggest impact on PC gaming.
The console makers, are clearly hoping it is this segment that will grow -- while it is clear that it is the Mass Market segment that still has a largest growth potential and will remain the hardest to reach with custom gaming hardware.
Heh, yes it is, but...it is certainly a possible way to solve any game specific problems that might be too difficult or messy to solve through an emulation layer.
Windows XP may offer 'backwards compatiblilty' with Windows 98 programs, but there were not an insignificant number of those programs that had to be patched for Windows XP...
Obviously the x86 can be emulated in software, just as VirtualPC does for Mac OS X and the PS2 does to support PSone games...
Remember also, the XBOX uses a version of DirectX, which is a layer above hardware specifics inside the ATI or Nvidia chipsets.
Creating an environment that will allow XBOX games to play on the Xenon will be a challege for Microsoft, but certainly not as hard as getting DirectX to work on all of the different video cards and proessors it has to run on for PCs...
Consider: Nintendo announced at the Game Developer's Conference in SF last month that the Nintendo Revolution (codename) will be backwards compatible with the GameCube...
Consider: development of XBOX software through at least 2007 provides opportunity for gateway games (like the new Zelda game that is coming out for the GameCube shortly before Revolution comes out; those that see the new Zelda on friend's GameCube may run out and purchase a Revolution to play it)...
Consider: all of the hard drives in the original XBOXes will eventually fail, in a few short years -- guaranteed (moving parts and all). Which is easier to imagine: backwards compatibility, or repairing millions of old XBOXes?
Imagine: the marketing nightmare that lack of XBOX backwards compatibility would generate, in face of the competition...
The lack of a hard-drive is not a significant problem for backwards compatibility, but the lack of the white/black buttons on the new controller may be. While few games use them well, some games depend on them, including Bioware's Knights of the Old Republic. Perhaps backwards compatibility will require software updates/patches for the games?
They also run a popular forum site that covers multiple notebook vendors (Sager, Alienware, Dell, etc.), and has an active general area for discussion about running Linux on notebooks:
The story is bogus. The IMAX theaters around here don't bother with educational fare, because they can fill the seats better by showing Star Wars, the Matrix, Harry Potter, the Incredibles, Polar Express (in 3d) or Robots.
Chances are, the IMAX nearest you is showing it too, because people flock to it. As a kid, I often wondered what it would be like to watch action movies on IMAX (like many, my first exposure to IMAX was at science centers). Now that people have tried it, it should not be much of a surprise that it is more profitable to put science-fiction on the screen, rather than science.
For the IMAX theaters like the 3 closest to me that are in malls, I don't see what the problem with that is. For the ones in science centers and museums, it seems like you should be complaining to your local science center, rather than about IMAX in general.
IMAX is just a company that licenses a technology. What people choose to do with it, is really up to the individuals or communities.
Could it simply be that these films are not expected to be as profitable as other films they could show?
The two IMAX theaters closest to me are in malls, next to regular theaters, NOT in science centers or museums. The IMAX theaters near where I live (Los Angeles at the Bridge and in Valencia) show things like Harry Potter, the Matrix, Star Wars, the Incredibles, and Polar Express.
Can you blame them for passing on more scientifically factual fare, if it doesn't sell as many tickets as science-fiction?
HyperBowl first hit upscale arcades like Metreon's Airtight Garage back in '99 and has since spread all over. The original version plays on a 9 foot tall screen with a regular sized bowling ball as a trackball. This fall two versions came out for the home PC (Plus! and Arcade). This is a simple game, but surprisingly fun to play. Not exactly a Half-life substitute, but maybe a good replacement for soliaire.
HyperBowl Plus! Edition that is in Micro$oft Plus! for Windows XP only has two lanes in it (Roman Aqueduct and Classic), but HyperBowl Arcade Edition has six wacky lanes to play in (think mini-golf meets bowling - Classic, Roman Aqueduct, Yosemite Forest, Ship on High Seas, Streets of San Francisco, and Tokyo). Right now you can only buy it online at: http://www.hyperbowl.com
This is nothing more than a PR move. Anyone who has seen the XP previews or read the press release carefully will know that Microsoft has simply changed their opinion on desktop icons in general.
They have decided, through user studies, that too many desktop icons are confusing. So, the default installation only installs 1 (one). Software developers are required NOT to install icons automatically on the desktop in order to pass the Windows compliance testing. Now they change the OEM license to reflect their change of opinion.
The reason they are making an announcement out of this, is to get public support and 'kudos' for supposedly making a positive step towards resolution of the law suit.
This is neither a good or a bad thing. It is really a non-issue which they deserve neither praise or admonishment for.
Slashdot Mirror
Just like to point out that the last part (Desk Accessories) is as tenuous an argument as saying that all this stuff was really a rip-off of real-life desk accessories sitting on your real-life desk.
... so no point in dwelling on it. Now Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo! have some version of Widgets as part of their web offerings ... and apparently, coming soon to your cell phones, thanks to Yahoo! or Konfabulator or the inventor of the desk, or something.
While this may or may not be true (I don't have a traffic cam on my real-life desk), the point that this argument misses is that Konfabulator made some substantial leaps beyond what Desk Accessories or desk accessories were able to offer. Perhaps most importantly, Apple's original Desk Accessories were not at all something that users were intended to create or modify. Their similiarity to Konfabulator Widgets is primarily technical. Dashboard on the other hand, clearly copied the essense of what made Konfabulator so popular (along with some of the nomenclature and basic structure).
But, all this is in the past
Who said it was called Dashboard? Besides the misleading headline of this article...
Engadget implied it was a Yahoo Dashboard, which of course it looks like, because it is the Yahoo! Widget Engine 'Heads-Up Display' (http://widgets.yahoo.com/), which is the re-branded Konfabulator 'Konspose Mode' (Yahoo! bought Konfabulator last year), which is what 'inspired' Apple to make the 'Dashboard' in the first place.
Is this really going to be called 'Yahoo! Go' when 'Yahoo! Widgets' move to cell phones, as Endgadget states? People should be more careful with brand/product names...
As the saying goes:
"Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime."
This could not be more true than in it is in this case. Teach people to build open/free infrastructures and everyone benefits. Give them a dependancy on Microsoft products and only Microsoft benefits.
-- From the Musical 'Gypsy' (about the life of famous stripper, Gypsy Rose Lee)
Yes, Sony, the DS screen is a gimmick. Yes, that is part of what sets it apart from previous handhelds and the PSP. Yes, that gimmick is part of what we like about it.
Took away one analog controller and didn't replace it with a touch screen? Shame on you Sony. Shame on you for failing to innovate. Shame on you for failing to come up with a compelling gimmick yourself.
When the most exciting thing about your game platform is that people can run a web browser on it (or run home-brew apps instead), you have failed. Better luck next time. Lets hope the gimmicks of the PS3 live up to our expectations...
"Get yourself a gimmick and you can be a star too."
If by that, you mean that you heard someone in a pub humming a catchy but unfinished tune over a beer mug, then you sat at the bar stool next to them and chatted about their grand idea for a piece of music that they have never gotten around to finishing because they are too busy feeling sorry for themselves -- then you went home, used their ideas to write a piece of music and a song to go along with it, recorded it, published it, and got a call from your lawyer after the drunk sobered up and went to the RIAA screaming your name and "Kazaa!" with a wild eyed expression on his face ... then yeah, that's pretty much what happened with Apple and Xerox.
The full answer is "not yet, but..." it is in the plan, according to the Director of Widget Technology, as quoted in some of the press releases.
Dashboard will likely fade into obscurity. I already turned it off on my Mac. Why bother depending on desktop tools that I can only use when I am on my Mac when there are alternatives available for all my computers?
Dashboard will remain a part of OS X for the Mac fan(boy)s, but Konfabulator is (and soon will even more so be) the Widget engine for everyone. Most people work/play on multiple platforms. Tying yourself to functionality available only on one, is...well...silly.
By the time Microsoft announces their innovative (read: complete ripoff) Widget engine for Vista, Konfabulator will already be ubiquitous. Mac, Windows, Linux, cell phones...
In other words, get rid of Daylight Savings Time. Its absurd. Businesses still change their hours at different times of the year (summer hours, holiday hours, etc), with or without Daylight Savings Time. As we become more of an International 24/7 community, Daylight Savings time simply makes no sense.
Changing it (other than eliminating it) makes even less sense, considering the cost!
There seems to be an implicit assumption in this article that PC gaming is all about first person shooters and other graphics intensive games. This is a questionable assumption, at best. While the core-gamer market that enjoys these games is a strong and vocal component of the market, it is a very small part of the total PC game playing market.
Games that are much less sexy and don't require uber-hardware upgrades, are far more common with 'regular' people. The web based and tiny downloadable puzzle games available on sites like MSN, Yahoo! and such are not going to be threatened by the Next Gen consoles. While they may also find a place there, no one is going to run out and buy a new console to play Bejeweled, anymore than they would run out to buy a PC to play Solitaire.
Most regular people (otherwise known as the Mass Market) don't consider themselves gamers, yet an ever growing number of them is playing games on their PCs, without really thinking about it. Next-gen consoles are hardly on their radar and wont kill anything for them.
Will the next-gen consoles kill the hard-core PC game market? No, clearly the people that are willing to buy a $400 graphics card to play Half-Life 2 on their customized Alienware-like powerhouse with lighted USB cables are still going to create a demand for a PC SKU of the latest FPS games -- as they will help spread buzz and drive demand of the cash cows on the consoles.
What we can expect to see die off the PC market are the middle-ground games that are somewhere between the big budget FPS titles and the tiny viral puzzle games. Games that fall somewhere in between are going to find an easier home on the consoles, where platform testing is reduced to its simpliest form and where the semi-casual gamers will invest in their best hardware and peripherals. Not everyone that does consider themselves a gamer can afford to upgrade to a new $5000 PC every year -- in fact, most people will have to choose between which $400 next-gen console to bring into their home. A box which will completely overshadow their hand-me-down Pentium III computer they currently play Unreal Tournament on. It is for this segment of the gaming population, the gamer equivalent of the upper-middle-class, that the next-gen consoles will have the biggest impact on PC gaming.
The console makers, are clearly hoping it is this segment that will grow -- while it is clear that it is the Mass Market segment that still has a largest growth potential and will remain the hardest to reach with custom gaming hardware.
Heh, yes it is, but...it is certainly a possible way to solve any game specific problems that might be too difficult or messy to solve through an emulation layer.
Windows XP may offer 'backwards compatiblilty' with Windows 98 programs, but there were not an insignificant number of those programs that had to be patched for Windows XP...
Obviously the x86 can be emulated in software, just as VirtualPC does for Mac OS X and the PS2 does to support PSone games...
Remember also, the XBOX uses a version of DirectX, which is a layer above hardware specifics inside the ATI or Nvidia chipsets.
Creating an environment that will allow XBOX games to play on the Xenon will be a challege for Microsoft, but certainly not as hard as getting DirectX to work on all of the different video cards and proessors it has to run on for PCs...
Consider: Nintendo announced at the Game Developer's Conference in SF last month that the Nintendo Revolution (codename) will be backwards compatible with the GameCube...
/ 1517232...
Consider: It has been previously confirmed that the PS3 will be backwards compatible: http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/02
Consider: development of XBOX software through at least 2007 provides opportunity for gateway games (like the new Zelda game that is coming out for the GameCube shortly before Revolution comes out; those that see the new Zelda on friend's GameCube may run out and purchase a Revolution to play it)...
Consider: all of the hard drives in the original XBOXes will eventually fail, in a few short years -- guaranteed (moving parts and all). Which is easier to imagine: backwards compatibility, or repairing millions of old XBOXes?
Imagine: the marketing nightmare that lack of XBOX backwards compatibility would generate, in face of the competition...
The lack of a hard-drive is not a significant problem for backwards compatibility, but the lack of the white/black buttons on the new controller may be. While few games use them well, some games depend on them, including Bioware's Knights of the Old Republic. Perhaps backwards compatibility will require software updates/patches for the games?
PC Torque (a Sager notebook reseller) lets you choose to purchase with or without the Microsoft tax.
http://www.pctorque.com/
They also run a popular forum site that covers multiple notebook vendors (Sager, Alienware, Dell, etc.), and has an active general area for discussion about running Linux on notebooks:
http://notebookforums.com/
The story is bogus. The IMAX theaters around here don't bother with educational fare, because they can fill the seats better by showing Star Wars, the Matrix, Harry Potter, the Incredibles, Polar Express (in 3d) or Robots.
In fact, all of the IMAX theaters nearest me are currently showing Robots, along with many of the theaters across the country: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050303/nyth050_1.html
Chances are, the IMAX nearest you is showing it too, because people flock to it. As a kid, I often wondered what it would be like to watch action movies on IMAX (like many, my first exposure to IMAX was at science centers). Now that people have tried it, it should not be much of a surprise that it is more profitable to put science-fiction on the screen, rather than science.
For the IMAX theaters like the 3 closest to me that are in malls, I don't see what the problem with that is. For the ones in science centers and museums, it seems like you should be complaining to your local science center, rather than about IMAX in general.
IMAX is just a company that licenses a technology. What people choose to do with it, is really up to the individuals or communities.
Could it simply be that these films are not expected to be as profitable as other films they could show?
The two IMAX theaters closest to me are in malls, next to regular theaters, NOT in science centers or museums. The IMAX theaters near where I live (Los Angeles at the Bridge and in Valencia) show things like Harry Potter, the Matrix, Star Wars, the Incredibles, and Polar Express.
Can you blame them for passing on more scientifically factual fare, if it doesn't sell as many tickets as science-fiction?
HyperBowl first hit upscale arcades like Metreon's Airtight Garage back in '99 and has since spread all over. The original version plays on a 9 foot tall screen with a regular sized bowling ball as a trackball. This fall two versions came out for the home PC (Plus! and Arcade). This is a simple game, but surprisingly fun to play. Not exactly a Half-life substitute, but maybe a good replacement for soliaire.
HyperBowl Plus! Edition that is in Micro$oft Plus! for Windows XP only has two lanes in it (Roman Aqueduct and Classic), but HyperBowl Arcade Edition has six wacky lanes to play in (think mini-golf meets bowling - Classic, Roman Aqueduct, Yosemite Forest, Ship on High Seas, Streets of San Francisco, and Tokyo). Right now you can only buy it online at: http://www.hyperbowl.com
Give it a try, for a change of pace.
-GXW is watching you.
(there is also a download version, but it apparently only works if you have Plus! for Windows XP: http://www.hyperbowl.com/plus/download.html)
This is nothing more than a PR move. Anyone who has seen the XP previews or read the press release carefully will know that Microsoft has simply changed their opinion on desktop icons in general.
They have decided, through user studies, that too many desktop icons are confusing. So, the default installation only installs 1 (one). Software developers are required NOT to install icons automatically on the desktop in order to pass the Windows compliance testing. Now they change the OEM license to reflect their change of opinion.
The reason they are making an announcement out of this, is to get public support and 'kudos' for supposedly making a positive step towards resolution of the law suit.
This is neither a good or a bad thing. It is really a non-issue which they deserve neither praise or admonishment for.
GXW is watching you.