I assumed that the majority of people that have need of something like this are likely to not be running Windows at home, but probably are at school or at the office or what have you, which is precisely why they need a Windows app on a USB drive. Just a thought.
I think plenty of kids get PCs from Mom and Dad as often as they get $400-600 game consoles, possibly more often. Or at least they have access to a PC more often. Maybe it is still a matter of PC versus console when you look at the maturity level; maybe age has less to do with it. The only time companies start getting sued, though, is when a 12-year-old finds something (sexual, racist, whatever) in a game that 12-year-olds shouldn't even be playing. (Sometimes I wish ESRB would just adopt the MPAA rating system; people know that "R" means "not for kids," but don't seem to understand that "M" means the same. I'm not sure why, since most retailers check ID when selling M-rated games.) If Dad buys 12-year-old Johnny an M-rated game, he should expect that Johnny will see the same things he might see in an R-rated movie: blood/violence, drug use, the word "fuck," nudity, sex scenes, etc. So if Johnny downloads a "white power map" (it was mentioned in TFA...I can't say I've ever seen such a thing personally), Dad shouldn't really be too upset since racism could be just as present in an R-rated film (though depending on context, it may not be very popular, but that's beside the point). So really, if the legal system wouldn't cave in, allowing suits and forcing re-ratings all the damn time, parents might learn to pay more attention to what might be in a game based on its rating, rather than what they think is too much.
Not exactly. Kinetic = motion. If you'll read the Wikipedia entry you linked to, it explains it quite simply. You could put a kinetic watch on a frequently-used doorknob and it would work just as well.
Nintendo has always tried to innovate. This time, they've succeeded, and their fans want to hate them for it. Oh well. I don't think Nintendo cares very much if they lose their hardcore followers (and they haven't lost all of them, I'm part of the proof of that). They more than make up for it with the ex-non-gamers they've picked up. Hundreds of thousands (maybe millions?) of people who did not generally play video games before are out there buying Wii. Look at the numbers and tell me if you think Nintendo is scared:
Total units sold (approx., in millions):
360: 11.5
Wii: 8.9
PS3: 3.8 Units sold 1Q 2007 (approx., in thousands)
Wii: 1029
360: 721
PS3: 501
Oh, and just for the record, DS sales more than doubled PSP sales in 1Q 2007. I take these numbers to indicate that Nintendo's current strategy is working very well for them.
I wouldn't say Nintendo was ever really in the hardcore market. They tried to get into it with the SNES, but censored versions of Doom and MK didn't cut it; the N64 got some titles that weren't expected on a Nintendo system (i.e. Goldeneye); I think the Gamecube kept up the best in that area. But I wouldn't say they're letting go of the small hold they have in that market.
...hardcore focus to the PC market where it belongs in the first place.
Damn right. I don't know anyone who calls himself a "hardcore gamer" and counts on Nintendo for his favorites; anyone who considers theirself "hardcore" is going to have multiple consoles and probably a PC as well. They do not and will never expect GTA or Halo on a Nintendo system.
Good points; however, I think that most of us (gamers) who are serious about it have systems that don't even flinch at Vista. I'm running a dual-core Athlon 2.8 GHz, 2 GB DDR2, and a GeForce 7900, and Vista runs pretty much as well as XP on my machine. I'm dual-booting XP Pro (x86) and Vista Ult (x64), so it's easy to compare; the only noticeable performance difference is that Vista takes significantly longer to load initially.
I think the problem is that today's population of computer users is different than it was when XP was released (6 years ago?), and even the average user is now becoming annoyed at things like Vista's incessant "are you sure you want to run this program?" whereas before we upgraded to XP, the average user had just learned to live with "are you sure you want to quit?" Vista's default settings are incredibly annoying, and the average user will probably not know how to change them. Also, as you mentioned, the DRM situation is annoying to many. There are a number of things that the seasoned user will not like about Vista, and others the average user will not. As a result, few people are bothering, and bad publicity is spreading.
Yep, pretty much. While I firmly believe that the better range and quality of, say, a CD makes for a vastly superior recording, I do also feel that some things just sound better on vinyl. It's not a matter of better quality, it's the simple fact that when vinyl was THE medium for music, the sounds were, to an extent, mixed to sound good on that medium. While remastering and transferring to a digital medium produces a recording with greater range and clarity, it doesn't always retain that "warm" feeling it had on vinyl.
This is coming from someone with little more than a basic technical knowledge of recordings; I don't consider myself a full-fledged audiophile. But I am a big fan of many types of music with a huge collection, and I have to admit that some things are just more pleasant on the original vinyl. Indeed, listening to a newer recording on vinyl can often have the same effect.
Cool idea. I hadn't heard about the guy using a scanner to do something like this, so this was a new one to me. If they're successful in the effort to reduce the hiss, this could indeed mean a lot in terms of preserving recordings (as a previous commenter mentioned, and TFA implied).
Since a lot of people (who obviously didn't RTFA) are confusing this idea with laser turntables, I'm assuming a number of you have experience with them. I am, of course, familiar with the concept, but I've never had the opportunity to play with one. Does anyone have a recording from such a unit, or know where one is posted? I'd be interested to hear a comparison on that type of machine.
Look at what happened to Computer Shopper! It used to be thick as a phone book for $2.99, and filled with ads for "the little guys," the independents and smaller companies that listed their prices for the hardware and software they carried. Besides the articles being worth something, even the ads were useful! About ten years ago, I did my first PC build with stuff bought right out of those ads for less than $300. Now, the magazine is just another PC World, if you can even find it anymore. Half articles, half Dell ads, for $8.
I guess this is kind of off-topic, but your Ziff-Davis comment reminded me of that. But really, it's an example of a good printed resource that probably got killed by websites such as Pricewatch and Dealtime. Now we're seeing real websites killed by average bloggers, which is kind of scary. If more proper companies put their sites into blog format, will they survive? Or will we be left in the hands of the amateur to present us with our news?
Sure, not everyone cares about this. As a gamer with a PC on the high side of "affordable," I'm not even sure I care that much. But it is interesting. It's nice to know about the new developments, whether or not I'm going to use them anytime soon.
If more people could self-police their PC like me, it would put a dent in both the virus and anti-virus businesses and as a result, it would slow the evolution of malware.
Yeah, I did things that way for a long time myself. It's gotten to the point, however, at which things I trusted in the past are becoming littered with infectious software. I had no problems for years until fairly recently.
If two kids are fighting over a silly toy, when you take away the toy, they find something else to occupy them. Virus authors are no different.
By that logic, if we all "self-police" our PCs and "slow the evolution" of malicious programs as you predict, then the "virus authors" will simply find another way of doing things. Perhaps they'd focus their attention on more legitimate-looking fronts. Then even more people would be forced to run software for fear of a virus imitating or hijacking something like a device driver or a critical Windows update.
Anyway, call me paranoid, but I've long suspected that the anti-virus companies themselves are the ones releasing the malicious code, or at least exposing known security flaws (we already know that happens within other companies), so I doubt it would make a difference either way.
Oh yeah, I didn't even notice that. I think Newegg had some DL ones before, though. Maybe they pulled them due to the fact that no one was buying them, as no one has a DL burner.;-)
But seriously, I haven't even seen a single-layer burner myself (and a DL would be barely better than a SL Blu-Ray drive anyway), so I totally agree with you. I'm just wondering why I seem to see the media occasionally, but never the drives.
Honestly, I would love to upgrade to 15 from 9, but not at those prices. I have used very few DL DVDs, because I can't justify the cost for most things, but a 15 GB disc would be very useful if it wasn't quite $10. Not to mention the theoretical burner being who-knows-how-much...somebody show me one?
I haven't seen one either. Just the [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp x?Submit=ENE&N=2010100071+1087425858&name=HD+DVD-R ]media.[/url] Staples carries them as well, so I have seen the discs in person.
"That part where you grind and work hard for something in the game to earn it and get pissed when I buy it is not you feeling the effects. That is just you being an asshole."
No, that is me not having pockets as deep as yours. When being able to succeed in a game is based on who can fork over more cash, it becomes very much like gambling. I do like to gamble now and then, but that's not why i play(ed) WoW. I got irritated and ultimately bored with the need to play for hours on end just to earn enough gold for a simple weapon upgrade, all due to the fact that someone with as much spare cash as you can simply buy it for real money. I work very hard for my real money, and i can't justify spending more than the already pricey $15/month on a video game, and i'm not the only one. If that means the play balance is tipped out of our favor, then so be it; we'll stop playing. Not all of us are that addicted.
Besides the in-game inflation it provokes, there's a more indirect way of these things affecting other players as well. If someone i enjoy playing with discontinues their own playing after becoming fed up with such activities as RMT, i'll be irritated by that person's absence. If a large number of my friends do the same thing, i might decide it's not worth playing anymore.
Another place i've seen indirect effects is on RP (Role-Playing) servers. Many of my "real-life" friends who play WoW have moved their characters to RP servers because they are less populated and less plagued by RMT/farming. However, the "rules" of a RP server can't be strictly enforced, and people such as my friends who abuse RP servers (i.e., don't actually role-play) contribute immensely to the already existent degradation of gameplay quality. Again, players looking for RP may begin canceling their accounts in favor of other games.
I know i'm not the only one who feels that way; i know personally a number of people who have stated that they don't play anymore due to activities like this. I would think the threat/possibility of losing a large portion of their customer base should bother publishers more than anything. That is why the clause in question exists in the TOS; it IS to promote fairness, but the motive is profit. I suppose the publishers would take more action if their profitability was more seriously threatened.
But, if "Web 2.0" (can't stand that term, by the way) is already in existence, can we really say that it's the future? If something exists, is it not in the present? Wouldn't that mean the future is "Web 3.0," or maybe something other than the Internet alltogether?
I don't know that "burning through" objects is very practical for normal, everyday communication with devices. However, i do like the part about destroying enemies with it. "Hey, Joe, something's wrong the printer...can you look and see if a light's blinking or something?" "Um, let's see...no, it looks like *bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt* AAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!!"
Slashdot Mirror
So, will this explode, killing everyone in a 5 foot radius if an incorrect password is typed in?
That would be sweet as hell. I'd buy one if it did.
I assumed that the majority of people that have need of something like this are likely to not be running Windows at home, but probably are at school or at the office or what have you, which is precisely why they need a Windows app on a USB drive.
Just a thought.
I think plenty of kids get PCs from Mom and Dad as often as they get $400-600 game consoles, possibly more often. Or at least they have access to a PC more often. Maybe it is still a matter of PC versus console when you look at the maturity level; maybe age has less to do with it. The only time companies start getting sued, though, is when a 12-year-old finds something (sexual, racist, whatever) in a game that 12-year-olds shouldn't even be playing. (Sometimes I wish ESRB would just adopt the MPAA rating system; people know that "R" means "not for kids," but don't seem to understand that "M" means the same. I'm not sure why, since most retailers check ID when selling M-rated games.) If Dad buys 12-year-old Johnny an M-rated game, he should expect that Johnny will see the same things he might see in an R-rated movie: blood/violence, drug use, the word "fuck," nudity, sex scenes, etc. So if Johnny downloads a "white power map" (it was mentioned in TFA...I can't say I've ever seen such a thing personally), Dad shouldn't really be too upset since racism could be just as present in an R-rated film (though depending on context, it may not be very popular, but that's beside the point). So really, if the legal system wouldn't cave in, allowing suits and forcing re-ratings all the damn time, parents might learn to pay more attention to what might be in a game based on its rating, rather than what they think is too much.
Not exactly. Kinetic = motion. If you'll read the Wikipedia entry you linked to, it explains it quite simply. You could put a kinetic watch on a frequently-used doorknob and it would work just as well.
Nintendo has always tried to innovate. This time, they've succeeded, and their fans want to hate them for it. Oh well. I don't think Nintendo cares very much if they lose their hardcore followers (and they haven't lost all of them, I'm part of the proof of that). They more than make up for it with the ex-non-gamers they've picked up. Hundreds of thousands (maybe millions?) of people who did not generally play video games before are out there buying Wii. Look at the numbers and tell me if you think Nintendo is scared:
Total units sold (approx., in millions):360: 11.5
Wii: 8.9
PS3: 3.8
Units sold 1Q 2007 (approx., in thousands)
Wii: 1029
360: 721
PS3: 501
Oh, and just for the record, DS sales more than doubled PSP sales in 1Q 2007. I take these numbers to indicate that Nintendo's current strategy is working very well for them.
I wouldn't say Nintendo was ever really in the hardcore market. They tried to get into it with the SNES, but censored versions of Doom and MK didn't cut it; the N64 got some titles that weren't expected on a Nintendo system (i.e. Goldeneye); I think the Gamecube kept up the best in that area. But I wouldn't say they're letting go of the small hold they have in that market.
Damn right. I don't know anyone who calls himself a "hardcore gamer" and counts on Nintendo for his favorites; anyone who considers theirself "hardcore" is going to have multiple consoles and probably a PC as well. They do not and will never expect GTA or Halo on a Nintendo system.
Why? Microsoft has been building desktop environments on buggy web browsers for years, and they seem to be doing pretty well for themselves.
Heh...um, yeah.
From TFA mentioned here:
"Although the laptops were not the celebrated OLPCs that will soon be manufactured for distribution throughout the developing world..."
Note the word "NOT." Also note that TFA the OP links to says NOTHING about OLPCs.
Good points; however, I think that most of us (gamers) who are serious about it have systems that don't even flinch at Vista. I'm running a dual-core Athlon 2.8 GHz, 2 GB DDR2, and a GeForce 7900, and Vista runs pretty much as well as XP on my machine. I'm dual-booting XP Pro (x86) and Vista Ult (x64), so it's easy to compare; the only noticeable performance difference is that Vista takes significantly longer to load initially.
I think the problem is that today's population of computer users is different than it was when XP was released (6 years ago?), and even the average user is now becoming annoyed at things like Vista's incessant "are you sure you want to run this program?" whereas before we upgraded to XP, the average user had just learned to live with "are you sure you want to quit?" Vista's default settings are incredibly annoying, and the average user will probably not know how to change them. Also, as you mentioned, the DRM situation is annoying to many. There are a number of things that the seasoned user will not like about Vista, and others the average user will not. As a result, few people are bothering, and bad publicity is spreading.
Yep, pretty much. While I firmly believe that the better range and quality of, say, a CD makes for a vastly superior recording, I do also feel that some things just sound better on vinyl. It's not a matter of better quality, it's the simple fact that when vinyl was THE medium for music, the sounds were, to an extent, mixed to sound good on that medium. While remastering and transferring to a digital medium produces a recording with greater range and clarity, it doesn't always retain that "warm" feeling it had on vinyl.
This is coming from someone with little more than a basic technical knowledge of recordings; I don't consider myself a full-fledged audiophile. But I am a big fan of many types of music with a huge collection, and I have to admit that some things are just more pleasant on the original vinyl. Indeed, listening to a newer recording on vinyl can often have the same effect.
Cool idea. I hadn't heard about the guy using a scanner to do something like this, so this was a new one to me. If they're successful in the effort to reduce the hiss, this could indeed mean a lot in terms of preserving recordings (as a previous commenter mentioned, and TFA implied).
Since a lot of people (who obviously didn't RTFA) are confusing this idea with laser turntables, I'm assuming a number of you have experience with them. I am, of course, familiar with the concept, but I've never had the opportunity to play with one. Does anyone have a recording from such a unit, or know where one is posted? I'd be interested to hear a comparison on that type of machine.
Look at what happened to Computer Shopper! It used to be thick as a phone book for $2.99, and filled with ads for "the little guys," the independents and smaller companies that listed their prices for the hardware and software they carried. Besides the articles being worth something, even the ads were useful! About ten years ago, I did my first PC build with stuff bought right out of those ads for less than $300. Now, the magazine is just another PC World, if you can even find it anymore. Half articles, half Dell ads, for $8.
I guess this is kind of off-topic, but your Ziff-Davis comment reminded me of that. But really, it's an example of a good printed resource that probably got killed by websites such as Pricewatch and Dealtime. Now we're seeing real websites killed by average bloggers, which is kind of scary. If more proper companies put their sites into blog format, will they survive? Or will we be left in the hands of the amateur to present us with our news?
Sure, not everyone cares about this. As a gamer with a PC on the high side of "affordable," I'm not even sure I care that much. But it is interesting. It's nice to know about the new developments, whether or not I'm going to use them anytime soon.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamil y/windowshomeserver/default.mspx
If more people could self-police their PC like me, it would put a dent in both the virus and anti-virus businesses and as a result, it would slow the evolution of malware.
Yeah, I did things that way for a long time myself. It's gotten to the point, however, at which things I trusted in the past are becoming littered with infectious software. I had no problems for years until fairly recently.
If two kids are fighting over a silly toy, when you take away the toy, they find something else to occupy them. Virus authors are no different.
By that logic, if we all "self-police" our PCs and "slow the evolution" of malicious programs as you predict, then the "virus authors" will simply find another way of doing things. Perhaps they'd focus their attention on more legitimate-looking fronts. Then even more people would be forced to run software for fear of a virus imitating or hijacking something like a device driver or a critical Windows update.
Anyway, call me paranoid, but I've long suspected that the anti-virus companies themselves are the ones releasing the malicious code, or at least exposing known security flaws (we already know that happens within other companies), so I doubt it would make a difference either way.
The "story" is about 2003 vs 2000. You've made an irrelevant comment on someone's uninformed prediction. Your mother must be proud.
But seriously, I haven't even seen a single-layer burner myself (and a DL would be barely better than a SL Blu-Ray drive anyway), so I totally agree with you. I'm just wondering why I seem to see the media occasionally, but never the drives.
Honestly, I would love to upgrade to 15 from 9, but not at those prices. I have used very few DL DVDs, because I can't justify the cost for most things, but a 15 GB disc would be very useful if it wasn't quite $10. Not to mention the theoretical burner being who-knows-how-much...somebody show me one?
Sorry about the URL.
I haven't seen one either. Just the [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp x?Submit=ENE&N=2010100071+1087425858&name=HD+DVD-R ]media.[/url] Staples carries them as well, so I have seen the discs in person.
I'm not positive, but i'm assuming it refers to the electronics company. You know, the ones who sell about a thousand different things, from cell phones to refrigerators. I'm basing that on articles like this one: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/lg-a nd-microsoft-launch-stand+alone-dvr-139115.php
As a side note, their DVD burners are apparently pretty quirky.
"That part where you grind and work hard for something in the game to earn it and get pissed when I buy it is not you feeling the effects. That is just you being an asshole."
No, that is me not having pockets as deep as yours. When being able to succeed in a game is based on who can fork over more cash, it becomes very much like gambling. I do like to gamble now and then, but that's not why i play(ed) WoW. I got irritated and ultimately bored with the need to play for hours on end just to earn enough gold for a simple weapon upgrade, all due to the fact that someone with as much spare cash as you can simply buy it for real money. I work very hard for my real money, and i can't justify spending more than the already pricey $15/month on a video game, and i'm not the only one. If that means the play balance is tipped out of our favor, then so be it; we'll stop playing. Not all of us are that addicted.
Besides the in-game inflation it provokes, there's a more indirect way of these things affecting other players as well. If someone i enjoy playing with discontinues their own playing after becoming fed up with such activities as RMT, i'll be irritated by that person's absence. If a large number of my friends do the same thing, i might decide it's not worth playing anymore.
Another place i've seen indirect effects is on RP (Role-Playing) servers. Many of my "real-life" friends who play WoW have moved their characters to RP servers because they are less populated and less plagued by RMT/farming. However, the "rules" of a RP server can't be strictly enforced, and people such as my friends who abuse RP servers (i.e., don't actually role-play) contribute immensely to the already existent degradation of gameplay quality. Again, players looking for RP may begin canceling their accounts in favor of other games.
I know i'm not the only one who feels that way; i know personally a number of people who have stated that they don't play anymore due to activities like this. I would think the threat/possibility of losing a large portion of their customer base should bother publishers more than anything. That is why the clause in question exists in the TOS; it IS to promote fairness, but the motive is profit. I suppose the publishers would take more action if their profitability was more seriously threatened.
Feh. Sorry, i guess the joke went right over my head. I get it now.
"Absolutely could" doesn't sound definite to me. More like a "definite maybe."
But, if "Web 2.0" (can't stand that term, by the way) is already in existence, can we really say that it's the future? If something exists, is it not in the present? Wouldn't that mean the future is "Web 3.0," or maybe something other than the Internet alltogether?
I don't know that "burning through" objects is very practical for normal, everyday communication with devices. However, i do like the part about destroying enemies with it. "Hey, Joe, something's wrong the printer...can you look and see if a light's blinking or something?" "Um, let's see...no, it looks like *bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt* AAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!!"