I actually could mod you down, but I'm posting this because there is some confusion that you are having and I would rather inform than just smite.

The word that you're missing is "bootloader". When you apply power to the pi, the boot process starts by the GPU running some closed source binary blob which eventually get around to doing things like turning on the CPU and letting you run your OS.

Yes, you actually do have to use the closed-source video even if you use ssh or run completely headless.

I'm not saying that you should never use a pi, you just should be aware of what it is and what it is not, and it is not completely open.

I'm one of the people who is still mad about the OtherOS removal. Yes, I'm aware that due to how the PS3 hypervisor limits the system that running Linux on a PS3 is comparable to running it on a Raspberry Pi. Heck, you've got more usable RAM on the current Pi than on the PS3. That's not the point.

The end result of the SCEA v. Hotz fiasco is that once the warranty period is up, Sony can do whatever the hell they want to your console. Any feature is fair game. Sony could legally push an update that turns it into a paperweight if they desired and you would have no recourse. As an addendum, the warranty isn't transferable so this could legally kill the used system market if they so desired.

The warranty time used to be a safe period at the beginning of a piece of consumer electronics usable life where if it broke you would be able to get a replacement. Now, it should be seen as the entirety of the devices usable life.

If you are planning on buying a PS4, make sure that you buy the extended (2yr) warranty. Make sure that you get your $450 worth over then next 3 years. Go into this with eyes wide open.

Yes, this doesn't just apply to Sony but they are the ones specifically have it in their warranty clause, went to court to confirm the legality of it, and are otherwise actively hostile to their customers.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/02/otheros-class-action-lawsuit-geohot-sony-now-share-same-charge/
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20110218181557455

Games, just like any other art ever produced, are subject to criticism. Some of this criticism is constructive and some is not. Some of it is downright insipid. The difference between games and most other art is that the audience is well versed in Internet-fu and sadly, is usually immature.

Just like any other artists, developers need to have somewhat thick skins when it comes to taking their criticism. Some like Phil Fish will either start or escalate a flame war and then try to play a victim afterwards. I'm definitely not justifying the comments made against him or his game, but he was not completely blameless in how the events went down.

Like I said, the gaming audience is often immature. Many pieces have been written about how it needs to grow up and how bullying needs to stop but it's not going to change overnight, if ever.

So how about this devs, stop making the violence porn that keeps the gaming audience in its immature larval state and start making more games like Spec Ops: The Line that forces the gamer to think. Bully wasn't flawless but at least it tried. Those are the only two games that I would consider to be mature out of the thousands that the ESRB has rated M.

Don't blame Intel for dropping AHCI on XP. Don't blame AMD for dropping it either. Developing drivers for an OS that Microsoft has been telling people to move away from for over 5 years now is a bad business decision. Driver updates cost money. Not just in developer time but in QA time as well. In AMD's case, it's a completely different model (Kernel vs. WDDM).

Microsoft has always been about poor UI choices. Do you not remember Microsoft Bob or Clippy? Do you not remember a time when people complained about how candy coated XP was when compared to Windows 2000 Workstation? Now there was an OS you could be set your watch to, or at least you could until 2007 when Microsoft decided not to release the time zone change patch for it. If you ask me they didn't get bored of "the old way", they embraced it and said "Let's make this look like old Windows!" Everything in 16 colors and only runs fullscreen.

My advice would be to start using Linux. At least with that, you can continue using what you're used to well after the original authors have moved on to relieve their boredom. If you don't like GNOME3 then go fork GNOME2, mate. Take the months that you would have spent ranting and start doing something productive. The idea with Open Source Software is that people can't take it away from you.

There are plenty of Lego clones on the market, Mega Bloks being the easiest one to find in the USA. They are often cheaper than Lego products, both in cost and quality. If all that you care about is cost, go with the them.

The cross-licensing deals are what keeps the products on store shelves (as they do sell very well) at major retailers instead of just hobby shops. If you think that Lego products are expensive now, you really wouldn't like the price if they didn't have the licensed sets.

So everyone, enjoy your Mindstorms. I know I will! But know that these wouldn't exist without Lego also producing licensed stuff, average video games, and other geek reviled products (Bionicle/Hero Factory, Lego Friends, etc.)

I wish I knew about the "one-time showing" bullshit going into this. The other news sites never even mentioned it.

I hop on the Xbox this morning and all it says is that it will start at 8PM. I spend the rest of the day with family/friends ('tis the season) and then before bed I realize that it's after 8 so I should grab it. After downloading their stupid app I get a screen saying that it's over. Huzzah!

I have had a DVR for about 14 years now, and even though I watch considerably less TV now than back then, I am certain of one thing: I watch on my time, not yours. Nielsen data is showing that other people do too.

The really sad thing is that if this was on normal TV, I could have recorded it and watched it when I damn well felt to. Microsoft, this was a pre-recorded film not an event. There was nothing that needed to be streamed live, and nothing that needed to have me schedule time during a holiday weekend outside of some pretty viewer numbers that you can report immediately instead of waiting a nominal time to also include time-shift viewers.

Know this that if you want to replace the usual set-top boxes and be the TV device of choice that you better not have less functionality than a simple DVR. If you do, then you lose the battle. Nintendo, I'd say that you should be paying attention as well, but I've used your hardware and you clearly don't have a clue.

Dear Dice,

Take a look at the history of Digg to see what happens when you mess with a community site. You have a choice to make. If you screw it up, people will leave.

The certs issues from the Terminal Server Licensing Service were intended to be used only for connections and not code signing. This is Microsoft's blunder. They weren't actually licensing malicious certificates but they were giving people tools to issue what appeared to be valid certs coming from MS.

The fixes are going to be changing TSLS so that its certs can no longer be used to sign code and revoking the intermediate CA certs that are affected.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/msrc/archive/2012/06/03/microsoft-releases-security-advisory-2718704.aspx

Except of course for the fact that it hasn't always been this way. Sure, 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and 10.7 (Mountain Lion) may be $30 but previous versions have been much more. Excluding 10.1 which was given away to appease the users of the broken 10.0, OS X has been similarly priced with home versions of Windows. Leopard (10.5) and Tiger (10.4) were both $129. The window between releases there was only two and a half years. If you want to compare Apples to oranges, those two upgrades are practically as much as your Windows 7 Ultimate quoted price.

Also, if you happened to purchase Windows XP back in the day you wouldn't have to upgrade if you didn't want to. Windows XP is still supported with security updates coming until 2014. Apple's support is usually about only three years after release, forcing you to upgrade. On the Windows side you could skip Vista if you wanted to. You may even make it to Windows 8.

Don't get me wrong, I like the Mac. This post was composed on a Mac! I know these prices because I have rode the Mac upgrade train that you are talking about. I just have a problem with posts like yours which are clearly wrong being modded to a +5 informative.

Once you start selling it, you have distributed it into the public. Copyright is a limited time after initial distribution where the copyright holder is the only one who can control the distribution for the purposes of profit. The reason others cannot distribute it for free is because it would affect the copyright holders profit. Copyright is not a right, it is a limited privilege granted for the purpose of furthering the creation of more works.

Public domain is a right. It is the shared cultural knowledge that moves humanity forward. If you don't want to participate in the public domain then keep your works to yourself! You can't take your ball and go home because once you've distributed it from that first sale, it is now the public's ball not yours.

RAID 10 used to refer to RAID 1+0 which was a striped set of multiple mirrored sets. Conversely, RAID 0+1 referred to a mirrored set of multiple stripe sets. RAID 0+1 (or RAID 01) has actually been rolled into RAID 10 as they both offered the same level of failure resistance. Either setup would be considered a "proper" RAID 10.

Since the device in question is performing its own striping of internal disks, you could just treat it as a single disk for whatever applications you need. Assuming the manufacturer's performance and reliability data is correct then you build your array with that in mind. It's not like you can replace a failed individual disk inside the device anyway.

Please tell me that you are joking.

If a game only uses 200MB of the 1GB disc then shoehorning it into a 700MB CD isn't going to be much of a problem. Most games were well under the size of a CD; those that weren't had extraneous stuff like demos removed to fit. I've been told that sound (simple audio streams) and graphics (really, how the hell would this suffer?) were spot on with a retail release.

I played around with the Utopia disc for homebrew purposes only. Looking back I find it funny (although not so much at the time) as I bought a mod chip that would make my Dreamcast region free and the boot discs basically gave that functionality with the ability to play CD-Rs. Yes, the mod chip wouldn't even play backup discs on it's own.

The Z button on the Gamecube controller can go straight to hell. From the way the analog R slider is designed you either have to use a different finger/thumb to operate Z (very awkward) or you can repeatedly scrape your finger raw on the plastic lip of the R slider (ouch!) or you can press it with your index finger's knuckle (good way to get RSI) or you can say screw it and use your middle finger on the R slider, your index finger on the Z (and the other two fingers left holding the controller will give you a hand charlie horse after only 10 minutes of play).

The controller was designed to be very ergonomic and then the Z button was thrown on as a last minute to appease some jackass. The fact that 9 out of 10 games that used it wouldn't let you configure your buttons made it all the more infuriating. For every game like Pikmin which only used it to change the camera, there was a SSB:M which had two buttons for jump, two buttons for shield, but only one button (Z natch) for drop the item you're carrying. I can see why people play with no items!

Fuck you Z button. You ruined an otherwise good design.

There, I feel better.

According to Marc Franklin, Nintendo of America's Director of Public Relations, it will not play GameCube games.

Link is down at the moment but this is where I got the news.

Yes, the Wii was based on GameCube architecture so it could theoretically still be possible. The Wii U does not have any GameCube controller ports or memory card slots so they would have to be provided via USB or Bluetooth and associated IO processing would have to performed. It's unknown as to whether or not the slot loading drive on the Wii U will accept the smaller GameCube discs or not.

Not to mention that Nintendo's backwards compatibility usually lasts only one generation. Look at Gameboy/Color games on the Gameboy Advance (gone on the DS) or Gameboy Advance games on the DS (gone on the DSi/3DS)

tl;dr - I wouldn't get your hopes up.