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Comment Re:MS Gets Points for Innovation??? (Score 1) 135

Haha yeah I had a first gen PSP and all the later revisions really pissed me off. In the end my netbook replaced it as my cheap travel companion because it wasn't a hassle. It didn't require converting movie formats, it didnt require almost weekly updates (which if you used custom firmware became a chore) and could play better games.

Comment Re:MS Gets Points for Innovation??? (Score 1) 135

Is it though? both new additions are both coping motion yes, but they both went about it in different ways. Playstation used a similar device to the wii, but added a light and camera to improve accuracy. So it technically should be an improvement over the Wiimote. MS went a different way and purchased a company that dealt with cheap motion detection systems. This made their system controller-less and different. Yes both Sony and MS jumped on movement based gaming, but both used different approaches which could turn out to be better. Both companies are bending to demand so obviously the Wii isn't meeting the expectations of some gamers. Gamers are asking for a new solution, why is that bad? Its like saying Porche copied GM.

Comment An Impressive Try (Score 4, Interesting) 135

Its well known that MS actually bought the tech from an over seas company. Either way though its an impressive piece of machinery for a company first try. I picked one up after reading mixed reviews, and being a guy that must have the latest gadgets I decided not to fight my inner geek. I actually love this thing. My only complaint is the most common. LAG! But what I found was despite the fact you have to adjust to the lag, you do. 10mins after turning it on, I was use to doing everything 1/3 of a second early. I wonder if its a USB limitation, or the lack of an onboard processor. The voice commands actually work well, as Im a person that cant enunciate my R's very well, this was a bit of a surprise. Some complaints about unresponsiveness have gone unnoticed by me. When I do something, even in fast succesion it happens on screen (nothing like making your avatar jerk off). I think Kinect was a good step to controller-less gaming, and albeit not perfect, is definitely fun. I have a Wii that I have only used a few times, a PS3 I love for offline gaming (but no Move) and a 360 now with Kinect. I'll still have to get the Move before I make a verdict. But i enjoy bowling/boxing more on the 360 than on the Wii. Not to mention ping pong is a blast!

I went 3 days after launch expecting to find a ton of Kinects in store after the mixed reviews, but when I went to futureshop there was only a single unit left. I was shooting the shit with the guy in the game/movie section, and he said demand was far higher than they predicted. Interesting considering the device is far from perfect. In the end though, I have had a ton of fun so far. I just dont know when the novelty will wear off (like it did with the Wii) but this is just my 2 cents on the Kinect after a few days use. I really like it, but time and games will tell if it can be a Wii killer, just like the PS Move also hopes to be. At least sales wise I dont think initially this can be classified a failure, and use wise I also wouldn't call it a failure, just not a complete success. Solve the lag issues, get some longer lasting games, give a better menu system than holding your hand over a button (have you ever tried pausing with Kinect while playing?!?! you have to stand still for like 2 seconds) and extend the Kinect use to incorperate voice commands at all times, and it could be.

Comment Re:Anti-Depressants to lose weight (Score 2, Insightful) 258

Im on Citalopram for anxiety (had bad anxiety since I was a kid, but recently my doctor noticed my blood pressure is too erratic because of it). When I first started it I ended up losing 20 pounds due to the nausea. But once the side effects from starting the meds were gone, my weight returned to normal. I eat the same amount since the side effects stopped and personally dont think Citalopram would be responsible. But everyone is different, and I think its more personality that affects how you change with the drug. I drink more than I did before because I was so anxious about drinking. Same could go with people for eating. I dont think its the drug that does it, its how people who have dealt with anxiety/depression deal without it.

Comment Something doesn't sound right (Score 4, Interesting) 107

He blames a "balky download system" but when you buy something on xbox live. It doesn't not matter if the download completes. The item is tied to your account when you buy it, and you can download it and redownload it whenever you want. As the article points out this lawyer also seems a little shady (suing a Casino because a drunk attacked him).

One thing the article did mention that I liked was that MS is considering doing away with points. I know I always have an odd number of points on my account because of so many different denominations of DLC prices. Thats one thing I like about my PS3, it charges my credit card directly OR I can chose to add a certain amount of money to my account. Not trying to incite a flamewar between PS3/360, I have both and love them both for different reasons.

Comment This is bad??? (Score 2, Interesting) 79

For such a positive article, there are nothing but negative comments... Its good to see that technology made for gaming can in turn be used to help the disabled. For all the bad press games/gamers get, there is now something really promising that we can say came from gaming. Natal, if it turns out as well as they claim it will, is a impressive piece of technology. To reach a broad audience it will have to be affordable. Makes you wonder what the comments would be like had Sony, Apple, IBM or any other company for that matter had created it.
Government

Trick Used To Pass French "Three Strikes" 488

Glyn Moody writes "France's 'Loi Hadopi' — better known as 'three strikes and you're out' — was passed by the National Assembly late last night when only 16 deputies were present (the vote was 12 in favor, 4 against). Most politicians had left because it was expected that the vote would take place next week. In this way, President Sarkozy has sneaked his controversial legislation through the French parliament — and shown his contempt for the democratic process. So now what?"

Comment Re:Number of reasons to make a console difficult (Score 1) 616

You mean 200 dollars for the stripped down model. Right now you can get the 60gig model for 270, and the 120gig model for 360 at futureshop. But yes, the initial release was more expensive, just not as expensive as the PS3's. I think Sony needs to reconsider its pricing though, especially in todays economy. Last month according to NPD numbers the 360 outsold the PS2 and PS3 combined. Pricing may not affect sales to adults/university students, but it sure as hell affects parents who are struggling in todays economy but still want to give their child a next gen console. When you go into a store and see a 200 dollar 360, a 280 dollar Wii and a 400 dollar PS3, the 360 is going to look mighty attractive. I personally own a 360 and have been waiting (in vain) for a significant PS3 price drop. But the only games I want for PS3 are Little Big Planet and Killzone, so 400dollars for 2 games isn't worth it.
Science

Hadron Collider Relaunch Delayed 223

SpuriousLogic writes "There's been another delay in the schedule announced for getting the Large Hadron Collider switched back on — now it's September 2009, a year after it shut down due to a malfunction. Scientists had said they expected the $5.4B machine to be repaired by November 2008, but then pushed the date back to June 2009, before the latest delay."

Comment Re:Won't Help Big Three (Score 3, Insightful) 740

Yep exactly, 4 vouchers means 4 scrapped cars. He almost had the point, but got caught up in thinking the cars could be resold. A, B, and C could go out and buy used cars which may not be much better on fuel, and A buys new. But thats 3 used cars being scrapped, and 3 current market used being purchased. It IS good economics though because its ridding the market of used cars. If there are 3 million people driving used cars, and 1 million used cars on the market, all 3 million can't use the voucher on a used car obviously.

Now I have no clue of the actual numbers or averages, but I cant see this being bad. Even if everyone goes out and buys a used car with their vouchers you are still ridding the market of their previous used cars, and there is a good chance some would(or would have) to get a newer car. If you think of it, the only people that will go after the vouchers are people that will profit from it. For example they can get more money from the vouchers than selling the car. This means you will be getting rid of very low value cars which are most likely the bottom of the barrel for fuel usage (excluding vintage cars).

Anyways going back to the GP if you want to keep that example it would be A uses a voucher and buys off B, who in turns upgrades and buys off C, which pushes D to buy a new car. That would be 1 voucher for 2500-4500, and 1 car being scrapped, with 1 new car sale.

Comment Re:BluRay's Amazing Success (Score 1) 171

Because if you cant back up what you say with references, then you are just blowing smoke out your ass. It really comes down to what you were taught in grade 3 when you did your first research report and had to cite sources. Every fact had to be cited, and what wasn't was deemed to be fabricated. So it doesn't matter whether you care or not, you took the time to post a "fact" and should defend it.

That said a biased report was just released at CES 2009 showing that Blue-Rays 3 year adoption rate is actually 3% higher than the DVD at the 3 year mark. Good news for Blue Ray right? Well the problem comes when comparing DVD Movie sales to Blue Ray Movie Sales and the results aren't so close. The number of Blue Ray movies sold is 30 million after 3 years of sales. DVD movie sales however were at just under 130million movies sold after 3years. Why the difference in numbers?

Well I couldn't really find too many reliable explanations, most point out the fact (along with other posters in this thread) is that Blue Ray hardware is being given away for almost free. Buying an LCD TV? Take a Blue Ray player for 50bucks with 3 movies. The PS3 includes a Blue Ray player which COUNTS under the Blue Ray associations numbers. Much like the PS2 counted under the DVD sales numbers. Anyways this is all just speculation, but just thought Id do the GGP's homework for him/her as I was interested to see if he/she was actually correct.

Comment Re:Oh God... (Score 2, Insightful) 206

Guess you missed NPD numbers for the month of November.
Wii - 2.04 million
DS - 1.57 million
Xbox 360 - 836, 000
PSP - 421,000
PS3 - 378,000
PS2 - 206, 000

Gimmick or not, the Wii is still selling overwhelmingly well. Cant argue that. And the attach rate for the Wii is slightly higher than the PS3's (5.5 to 5.3) Personally I have played my Wii a total of 31 hours in 1.5 years, but it still sells well, so its not nearly a failure

The PS3 isn't bad, but like the parent said, Sony expected to ride the PS2 wave, and didn't spend nearly enough time getting a decent launch catalog. This wouldn't have been a problem, but the 360 had a year head start, so it became a determining factor for the early months of the PS3. I was able to easily buy my PS3 2 days before Christmas a month after launch. The only game I bought was Resistance (22 launch titles, but barely any exclusives that I couldn't have already gotten for my 360)

The 360 itself had fewer launch titles than the PS3 at 18 (22 for PS3) but over the course of the year, had an extensive library. The attach rate for the 360 is 8.1, but that's also because of the year head start. Its strong showing last month could be attributed to the massive price cuts, but even then November is the start of holiday shopping and could be a bad sign for the PS3. It will be interesting to see the holiday sales difference between the 2 consoles.

Sadly Im a tech nerd that "needs" to have the latest gadgets, and has a job that can support my habit haha. I personally like all 3 consoles, but the Wii is more of a party console, the PS3's online service sucks and Home just made it worse and forced installs bug me, and the 360 always has me fearing the RROD. That said I spend much more time on my 360 than the other two, but that could change when Heavy Rain comes out (previews look awsome, guess we'll know more as it comes closure to launch). But sadly there just aren't that many more exclusives coming out for it. All of my co-workers have 360's and only a few ps3's so part of the reason my 360 gets more use, is due to playing online with them. So all multi-console game releases that I buy, I buy for the 360.

This is just my take on all 3 consoles, I own all 3 and play all 3 (although mostly just the PS3 and 360). Im sorry I dont like Home, and you will probably call me a fanboy of Nintendo/MS for saying that. But lets face it, Home is a pretty large letdown, and the loss of many exclusive series for the PS3 is also a large hit (Resident evil for example). So from one PS3 owner to another, lets not pretend the PS3 has already won the generation, and just admit Sony hasn't been perfect.

Comment Re:28 MPH is not fast enough for realistic street. (Score 3, Insightful) 173

The article says there are 4 other models planned, with one reaching speeds of 70mph... It also seems to hint that the initial models are being used as maintenance vehicles and such. Their first major test buyer is Air France. Its more like their initial models are looking to replace electric cars in the workplace, not for high way driving. But of course you knew all of this, because no one comments without first reading the article.

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