And thanks for the interesting conversation. Mini-Disc and BetaMax were good products (I owned more than one MD player) unfortunately Sony kept a very tight reign on who could use them and I think that killed them. That and actually loading a MD with music could be quite painful.
Very true and like people companies can change. Change the people in charge, change the corporate culture, or just plain stop trying to fuck people without their consent. Which is why the central source idea has merit. It lets you take a diverse set of screw ups by individuals in the name of the company and collect them together. It also lets you set up a timeline that includes relevant details such as what happened, when it happened, and what if anything has been done to correct the issue. It would also let you note if the company was making an effort to change should they have a track record like Sony's.
The most amazing thing to me is that Sony went from just screwing it up (Betamax, Mini-disc, etc...) to trying to fuck the people buying their products (rootkit, removing functionality after the sale) and then when they have a good thing going they show they have no clue what they're doing (the whole PSN fiasco, PS3 and PSP Private keys...).
There is a significant difference between personal screw-ups and a multi-national organization demonstrating gross incompetence, actively removing features sold, or intentionally acting maliciously.
If I do something bad the people who need to forgive me is pretty limited. If I have a pattern of doing bad things people stop associating with me. There isn't a website detailing what I've done wrong because the potential audience is limited and probably already has or has access to the information.
Sony has millions and millions of customers and millions (or billions) or potential customers. Many of which aren't even aware of the history and track record Sony has. So people may forgive Sony but they shouldn't forget. Sony has succeeded by having people forget their past transgressions, which is why they get to repeat them in a new form with alarming regularity.
Taking something that works and running with it isn't a bad way to go. The difference is Nintendo has managed to do it without completely screwing the game underneath. SE takes the core game then completely changes everything above it. They throw out good and bad mechanics and world environments with little or no logical purpose. The GP argues that there needs to be an evolutionary approach not a wholesale slaughter every generation or no change at all (your examples are perfect) which is what the Japanese game industry seems to do with little or no middle ground.
Very nicely written. Their single console mentality of the previous generation also didn't help and while they've relaxed on that a bit it still seems like anything not Japanese in origin is an afterthought. I owned an original XBox and loved it, the ONLY reason I ever considered a PS2 was for FF and it's relatives. There could have easily been a large number of sales had they taken a truly multi-platform approach and I think that would have improved this generation of games by forcing them to expand their horizons outside of Japan. The US market isn't their target yet, maybe this will be the kick that cracks the ethnocentric wall they've been hiding behind for a couple thousand years.
Maybe the new Nintendo system will spark some intelligent development and progress but I'm not holding my breath.
Honestly this seems like something that would still have a place in modern applications that require very high reliability. I know it's horribly slow compared to what we have today but I wonder if it could have ever been fast enough to be useful in a modern system. Say for safety systems on reactors, in flight, and some labs...
So XBL users pay to have their information compromised?
Your argument is that since the service cost nothing the liability should be nothing. The sad part if I think you might make a stellar politician. Expect a call from your local party office shortly.
It makes for a decent PR move regardless of anything being taken and helps reinforce the story that it was a theft operation. I'm not passing judgement on the validity of either theory.
I don't think you quite understand the effort/reward balance here. Sony's console wasn't even a target until Other OS was removed, there was no real effort to crack it and it has since become obvious that it's protection had several very significant issues and would likely have been broken before if anyone cared. When a blackhat is trying to decide what to target a console that requires almost bottom up work is very low on the list especially since there is relatively limited pool of possible reward.
When that work was made almost trivial, especially with the developer hack that was released, then it becomes one of the low hanging fruit that the blackhats will try to pick. The fact that it seems like Sony didn't/doesn't know HOW they got in just makes it that much worse.
Actually it is a fairly reasonable (though at this point unsubstantiated) assumption. The PS3 went without hack, crack, or compromise until they removed Other OS then within a short period of time has been completely compromised and that would have potentially opened a door on to the network.
You mean since Sony was Johnny Come Lately to the console and gaming markets? I doubt Sony has much of substance in console patents outside of Cell. They didn't do anything first much less innovative enough to get significant patents.
You could probably use the heated oil for making the popcorn too... But honestly if you can't shutdown your system in the amount of time it takes to heat up that oil then you are doing something seriously wrong.
Actually since the mineral oil is so thin it's fairly trivial to deal with. It makes it more complex to pull the hardware and bring it to a test station because you need to account for dripping oil but other than that there isn't nearly as big a difference or problem as you seem to believe.
Oh this would be fun! I could flip off my email and have it automatically respond to the spam email I get! Either that or have it solicit more penis enlargement ads...
Slashdot Mirror
They already DO post record profits. ATT posted 19.9 billion USD profit in 2010...
Wow...
I missed that, thanks.
Amen
@bvimo & ColdWetDog: I suppose that was way too open but thanks for the good laugh.
And thanks for the interesting conversation. Mini-Disc and BetaMax were good products (I owned more than one MD player) unfortunately Sony kept a very tight reign on who could use them and I think that killed them. That and actually loading a MD with music could be quite painful.
Very true and like people companies can change. Change the people in charge, change the corporate culture, or just plain stop trying to fuck people without their consent. Which is why the central source idea has merit. It lets you take a diverse set of screw ups by individuals in the name of the company and collect them together. It also lets you set up a timeline that includes relevant details such as what happened, when it happened, and what if anything has been done to correct the issue. It would also let you note if the company was making an effort to change should they have a track record like Sony's.
The most amazing thing to me is that Sony went from just screwing it up (Betamax, Mini-disc, etc...) to trying to fuck the people buying their products (rootkit, removing functionality after the sale) and then when they have a good thing going they show they have no clue what they're doing (the whole PSN fiasco, PS3 and PSP Private keys...).
I suspect the most common malware in the PC world works the same way.
There is a significant difference between personal screw-ups and a multi-national organization demonstrating gross incompetence, actively removing features sold, or intentionally acting maliciously.
If I do something bad the people who need to forgive me is pretty limited. If I have a pattern of doing bad things people stop associating with me. There isn't a website detailing what I've done wrong because the potential audience is limited and probably already has or has access to the information.
Sony has millions and millions of customers and millions (or billions) or potential customers. Many of which aren't even aware of the history and track record Sony has. So people may forgive Sony but they shouldn't forget. Sony has succeeded by having people forget their past transgressions, which is why they get to repeat them in a new form with alarming regularity.
Taking something that works and running with it isn't a bad way to go. The difference is Nintendo has managed to do it without completely screwing the game underneath. SE takes the core game then completely changes everything above it. They throw out good and bad mechanics and world environments with little or no logical purpose. The GP argues that there needs to be an evolutionary approach not a wholesale slaughter every generation or no change at all (your examples are perfect) which is what the Japanese game industry seems to do with little or no middle ground.
Very nicely written. Their single console mentality of the previous generation also didn't help and while they've relaxed on that a bit it still seems like anything not Japanese in origin is an afterthought. I owned an original XBox and loved it, the ONLY reason I ever considered a PS2 was for FF and it's relatives. There could have easily been a large number of sales had they taken a truly multi-platform approach and I think that would have improved this generation of games by forcing them to expand their horizons outside of Japan. The US market isn't their target yet, maybe this will be the kick that cracks the ethnocentric wall they've been hiding behind for a couple thousand years.
Maybe the new Nintendo system will spark some intelligent development and progress but I'm not holding my breath.
Honestly this seems like something that would still have a place in modern applications that require very high reliability. I know it's horribly slow compared to what we have today but I wonder if it could have ever been fast enough to be useful in a modern system. Say for safety systems on reactors, in flight, and some labs...
Sometimes flights of fancy are just that though.
So XBL users pay to have their information compromised?
Your argument is that since the service cost nothing the liability should be nothing. The sad part if I think you might make a stellar politician. Expect a call from your local party office shortly.
It makes for a decent PR move regardless of anything being taken and helps reinforce the story that it was a theft operation. I'm not passing judgement on the validity of either theory.
Especially now that they're saying the PSN attack was actually the second attack so I'm pretty much ready to concede the point.
I don't think you quite understand the effort/reward balance here. Sony's console wasn't even a target until Other OS was removed, there was no real effort to crack it and it has since become obvious that it's protection had several very significant issues and would likely have been broken before if anyone cared. When a blackhat is trying to decide what to target a console that requires almost bottom up work is very low on the list especially since there is relatively limited pool of possible reward.
When that work was made almost trivial, especially with the developer hack that was released, then it becomes one of the low hanging fruit that the blackhats will try to pick. The fact that it seems like Sony didn't/doesn't know HOW they got in just makes it that much worse.
Actually it is a fairly reasonable (though at this point unsubstantiated) assumption. The PS3 went without hack, crack, or compromise until they removed Other OS then within a short period of time has been completely compromised and that would have potentially opened a door on to the network.
Sony fucked their reputation long ago, this just removed the last area of credibility they had...
They do! It's called an airplane...
You mean since Sony was Johnny Come Lately to the console and gaming markets? I doubt Sony has much of substance in console patents outside of Cell. They didn't do anything first much less innovative enough to get significant patents.
No but it will be fucking hilarious in the duty hut...
You could probably use the heated oil for making the popcorn too... But honestly if you can't shutdown your system in the amount of time it takes to heat up that oil then you are doing something seriously wrong.
Actually since the mineral oil is so thin it's fairly trivial to deal with. It makes it more complex to pull the hardware and bring it to a test station because you need to account for dripping oil but other than that there isn't nearly as big a difference or problem as you seem to believe.
The oil holds 1200 times as much heat as air so it would be MUCH slower to heat up...
It is also to buy devices that will allow you to change that peddle feel yourself if the car doesn't come with that feature by default...
Oh this would be fun! I could flip off my email and have it automatically respond to the spam email I get! Either that or have it solicit more penis enlargement ads...