So it only works on old firmware, huh? My wife recently bought LocoRoco, the first really good PSP game in a long while. It forces you to upgrade the firmware (included on the disc) to play the game.
So as long as you never plan to play any new PSP games ever again, this emulator is totally awesome!
...not without strings attached. Look, the scenario goes like this:
New student: "Yippee! I got $5000 from the state to pay for college!"
College: "What a coincidence! We just raised tuition $5000!"
Giving people the money to buy a product just encourages the supplier to raise prices, since he knows the money is there. The only exception is when there is some other force keeping prices down, and nothing seems to be keeping tuition down. In fact, the major reason tuition climbs so high is that the institutions know people will find a way to pay it.
Any government program to provide free tuition to everyone would have be combined with some regulation that tuition will not increase more than "so much" faster than the rate of inflation.
(like put a load of MP3 files onto your device... how hard is that? Well, you have to create a new playlist, import the MP3 files onto the playlist, and then copy the playlist onto the device... why can't I just put them on directly? Who knows?!)
What the hell are you talking about? To copy songs to your iPod, you highlight them in your iTunes library and drag them to your iPod. One step, done.
As a general rule nothing is difficult with Apple software. If you're finding something difficult, you're either "overthinking" it, or you want to do complicated nerd stuff, like refusing to let the iTunes library database keep track of your music files (which can be anywhere on any number of hard drives, BTW).
I have a Mac and it's great. Unfortunately the majority of Mac users are an embarrassment. I sometimes cringe when I read the comments on Mac blogs - the Mac users make Linux fans look humble and Windows users look intelligent.
"Comments on Mac blogs" != "majority of Mac users"
Repeat with me, once again: TCP/DRM does NOT work. [...]
Simple. Even if your audio output is digital and encrypted, you pry open your digital loudspeaker, reverse-engineer the digital datapaths till you find the DAC and plug some wires there. Even if it is completely integrated in the same IC, you rip off the coil from the speaker, and wire your ADC there so you have a reasonably-high-quality analog input.
If there's a better argument for why DRM does work, I've yet to hear it.
Remember: Security is not about making stuff impossible to steal, it's about making it so difficult to steal that it's not worth it. The fight against piracy is being waged in two ways: first, make it so hard to make copies that only the elitist of techo-geeks will bother, and second, drive file-sharing sites far underground to avoid the law. You can't eliminate piracy, but you can push it so far out of the mainstream that 90% of your market doesn't know how to do it.
I'm part of the Open Voting Consortium and we've been proposing a system in which the voter uses a machine to produce a paper ballot. That ballot *is* the ballot, not some copy, not some receipt, but the actual ballot. And it isn't good until stuffed into a ballot box.
In Summit County, Ohio we are using an electronic system which comes close to this. The "electronic" portion of the voting is a device which validates the paper ballot. It indicates overvotes and gives the voter the opportunity to get a fresh ballot and correct his or her vote. Once validated, the vote is counted and the paper ballot is returned to the voter, who puts it into a box for future use, if necessary. At the end of the day, the machine produces a paper-tape readout of the days' activity.
I like this system, because it restricts itself to solving the one, single problem there was -- the "hanging chad" problem with punchcards. The machine detects unclear votes as they happen and allows the voter to fix it. Other than than, it's just a counting utility, and hand recounts are simple to do.
There's the big difference between Apple and Microsoft. Apple keeps a tight rein on all information until the day they spring the finished and available product on the unexpecting masses. Microsoft leaks, leaks, leaks, building up hype that the actual product inevitable fails to live up to.
Leaking makes sense when you own a market and can freeze competitors' sales via FUD and vaporware announcements. It's idiotic when you're a distant back-marker and are just giving Apple the information they need to make Microsoft's product irrelevant before they even release it.
------RM
I used to have severe allergies. Let's see... dust, mold, cats, dogs, phenol, ethanol, and I think wheat. When I was a teenager, I went through desensitization treatments. These treatments consisted of shots at first, then drops that I would place under my tongue, hold for a minute, and swallow. It was nothing more than a solution of what I was allergic to, just barely under the level at which I showed symptoms. By the time I reached my 20's, my allergies were reduced to mild sniffles.
Well, it occurs to me that a kid running around and getting dirty gets the same treatment naturally!
Most of my mileage is low traffic highway driving, so a hybrid vehicle would never pay off for me in the form of gas savings.
I dunno. I'm buying a Prius, and maybe half my driving is rural highway. From the reviews I read, I still expect to roughly double my gas mileage. With a fine touch on the accelerator, the Prius can cruise 40MPH on level ground on electric-only. The gas savings plus the $3100 tax credit should make up the "hybrid premium" within a year or two.
I'm sorry, but some of the complaints you dismiss I find valid:
1. Worries about not getting enough miles out of one charge. What folks find hard to picture is that you plug your EV in every night.
I'd agree with you if all I did with my car was commute. But I like to take trips. I like to take day trips to destinations across the state, or visit my wife's parents an 8-hour drive away. This simply wouldn't work for that. Now, I know I could rent a car for those occasions, but that's a pain in the butt and adds extra expense.
2. Worries about being stranded without a charge. Remember, the miles-per-day numbers are based on charging the car at night and driving it during the day without plugging in anywhere all day. If you can get a charge at your place of work, or a service station, a hotel, wherever, your range goes up.
How likely is that? How many places of work have charging terminals, or even electrical outlets anywhere nearby? Look, you respond by alleviating the problem, but it doesn't go away. If I run out of gas on the freeway, I get out my cellphone, call AAA and they come with a little tank to get me to the next gas station. What's my option with an electric car?
7. Hybrids! Hybrids are even more complex than current ICE vehicles. Enjoy the same great high cost and maintenance work you now have with ICE vehicles, only now you've got to go to the dealer for repairs because of how complicated the darn thing is. And you've still gotta stop at the gas pump to refill.
My shiny new Toyota Prius should be arriving any day now. My understanding is that it is very reliable, and the hybrid components are all warrantied for longer than I expect to own the thing. As for repairs, the shop I go to is sending its people to training to learn to work with hybrids. Yeah, I'll have to stop for gas, but the worst-case estimate is that I'll stop half as much as I do now. Once I get the hang of driving it, I expect to drop that to a third. Gas savings plus the $3100+ I'm saving on my taxes pay for the "hybrid premium".
Don't get me wrong, I would love to own an electric car, if only I could be guaranteed the same freedom I get with a conventional car. The EV1 was an incredible car for tooling around a city. But most people want to able to go a great distance in their cars, even if they don't do it every day.
Slashdot Mirror
"Yet" being the operative word, my naive little friend...
The point is that Sony has a perfect vector to shut this down, by implementing incompatible changes to firmware and requiring them with all new games.
That's what he said. Entropy always increases, but a "Big Crunch" would cause a sudden, massive decrease in entropy right at the very end.
So as long as you never plan to play any new PSP games ever again, this emulator is totally awesome!
------RM
New student: "Yippee! I got $5000 from the state to pay for college!"
College: "What a coincidence! We just raised tuition $5000!"
Giving people the money to buy a product just encourages the supplier to raise prices, since he knows the money is there. The only exception is when there is some other force keeping prices down, and nothing seems to be keeping tuition down. In fact, the major reason tuition climbs so high is that the institutions know people will find a way to pay it.
Any government program to provide free tuition to everyone would have be combined with some regulation that tuition will not increase more than "so much" faster than the rate of inflation.
------RM
As a general rule nothing is difficult with Apple software. If you're finding something difficult, you're either "overthinking" it, or you want to do complicated nerd stuff, like refusing to let the iTunes library database keep track of your music files (which can be anywhere on any number of hard drives, BTW).
------RM
Remember: Security is not about making stuff impossible to steal, it's about making it so difficult to steal that it's not worth it. The fight against piracy is being waged in two ways: first, make it so hard to make copies that only the elitist of techo-geeks will bother, and second, drive file-sharing sites far underground to avoid the law. You can't eliminate piracy, but you can push it so far out of the mainstream that 90% of your market doesn't know how to do it.
I like this system, because it restricts itself to solving the one, single problem there was -- the "hanging chad" problem with punchcards. The machine detects unclear votes as they happen and allows the voter to fix it. Other than than, it's just a counting utility, and hand recounts are simple to do.
There's the big difference between Apple and Microsoft. Apple keeps a tight rein on all information until the day they spring the finished and available product on the unexpecting masses. Microsoft leaks, leaks, leaks, building up hype that the actual product inevitable fails to live up to. Leaking makes sense when you own a market and can freeze competitors' sales via FUD and vaporware announcements. It's idiotic when you're a distant back-marker and are just giving Apple the information they need to make Microsoft's product irrelevant before they even release it. ------RM
I used to have severe allergies. Let's see... dust, mold, cats, dogs, phenol, ethanol, and I think wheat. When I was a teenager, I went through desensitization treatments. These treatments consisted of shots at first, then drops that I would place under my tongue, hold for a minute, and swallow. It was nothing more than a solution of what I was allergic to, just barely under the level at which I showed symptoms. By the time I reached my 20's, my allergies were reduced to mild sniffles.
Well, it occurs to me that a kid running around and getting dirty gets the same treatment naturally!
Most of my mileage is low traffic highway driving, so a hybrid vehicle would never pay off for me in the form of gas savings. I dunno. I'm buying a Prius, and maybe half my driving is rural highway. From the reviews I read, I still expect to roughly double my gas mileage. With a fine touch on the accelerator, the Prius can cruise 40MPH on level ground on electric-only. The gas savings plus the $3100 tax credit should make up the "hybrid premium" within a year or two.
I'd agree with you if all I did with my car was commute. But I like to take trips. I like to take day trips to destinations across the state, or visit my wife's parents an 8-hour drive away. This simply wouldn't work for that. Now, I know I could rent a car for those occasions, but that's a pain in the butt and adds extra expense.
How likely is that? How many places of work have charging terminals, or even electrical outlets anywhere nearby? Look, you respond by alleviating the problem, but it doesn't go away. If I run out of gas on the freeway, I get out my cellphone, call AAA and they come with a little tank to get me to the next gas station. What's my option with an electric car?
My shiny new Toyota Prius should be arriving any day now. My understanding is that it is very reliable, and the hybrid components are all warrantied for longer than I expect to own the thing. As for repairs, the shop I go to is sending its people to training to learn to work with hybrids. Yeah, I'll have to stop for gas, but the worst-case estimate is that I'll stop half as much as I do now. Once I get the hang of driving it, I expect to drop that to a third. Gas savings plus the $3100+ I'm saving on my taxes pay for the "hybrid premium".
Don't get me wrong, I would love to own an electric car, if only I could be guaranteed the same freedom I get with a conventional car. The EV1 was an incredible car for tooling around a city. But most people want to able to go a great distance in their cars, even if they don't do it every day.
------RM