Well, we could always start firing back with our own artillery -- I'm sure someone has 3D printer plans coming soon.

Microsoft is free to put whatever features they want in their products. And I'm free to not buy them.

On my current XBox, I'm free to ignore the on-line features. It sounds like in the next version, I won't be. In which case I will just ignore the entire platform.

You can buy anything you want to and use it how you like, and I won't give a shit either. But I'm not providing Microsoft with a channel for ads and marketing data.

Nah, they've been around longer than metal cartridges. Stone ammo is similarly ancient.

https://www.google.com/search?q=paper+cartridges&tbm=isch

I agree with you, but who the hell are you, statistically? And who the hell am I? We're just two people out of the masses of asses.

Statistically, you're right -- Microsoft has no reason whatsoever to care that I won't buy this, because I'm clearly not their target market. I'm a blip on the radar, and I'm well aware of that fact.

But that's the thing, most people are happy to suck down sports games with new rosters year by year, most people do want to watch TV. And Microsoft has seen how integration on cellphones drives use, and wants to bring the same concept to the console; I think it has a fair chance of being a good idea.

I agree it's a marketing force, but as someone who isn't obsessed with mobile phones and integrating them with every aspect of my life, I can tell you not everyone feels the same way. This is kind of like when marketing starts slapping "2.0" (and now "3.0" ) on everything and decides that everybody wants that thing in everything and we end up with the social media toilet or underpants which tweet you just before they start riding up. Some people want that, but not everyone, and foisting it on everyone just pisses people off.

For all of us who are casual gamers, who play exclusively single player games, and don't use any of these online features (and that's anywhere from a tiny fraction of user to a significant chunk, and I'm not sure anyone knows) ... what Microsoft is selling is something we don't want. But they better be awful certain before they decide people like me are an audience whose business they don't want -- though, from the sounds of it, it's a fait accompli.

But they're certainly free to decide that a segment of the gamer market is something they'll just ignore.

If you're serious about this, you need to take some steps now, like backing up and so on. Also, you should buy replacement optical drives for both your primary and backup console. That's what's most likely to go on a used machine which has demonstrated resistance to the RROD through simple longevity.

Well, I was thinking of just buying a new in-the-box retail unit and putting it on a shelf until this one dies. The actual save games, well, if I had to start over in Tiger Woods or my wife's dancing games for the Kinect, such is life. I don't have countless hours invested in save games (well, Skyrim) that I can't live without. I sure as hell haven't invested real money for in-game crap (something else I hate about modern games), so it's not like I'm out any additional investment.

If in the grand scheme of things I eventually find myself without a video game console ... well, it won't be the first time. But I definitely won't be finding myself with a game console which requires the ability to phone home when it pleases. Because there is no benefit to me in that scenario.

First, one of the prized features of the Xbox platform is the Xbox Live services.

To many people, to many it isn't something we use.

Second, pick up ANY smartphone or tablet and realize these devices are constantly online.

Neither my tablet nor my smart phone have data plans. They get wifi turned on and used as needed. So your assertion that ANY of these devices is always connected is bullshit and anecdotal. I don't use Twitter, and I sure as hell wouldn't let Facebook onto my phone.

So, its about people being naive and rebelling against a feature that, guess what, you have been supporting for the lat 8 years anyways everytime you turn on the Xbox360 and its signs you into the Live cloud.

My current Xbox 360 doesn't connect to the network now, and a replacement one definitely won't be connecting to the internet.

There's not a single on-line feature about the Xbox I have any interest in. I don't play on-line games, and I never have. My XBox doesn't even know any information about my wifi and has no network cable running to it.

You may use these features, and you may actually believe that 99% of all people use them as well, but of the people I know who own Xboxes, about 80% of them don't use the networking feature, and aren't connected to XBox Live. So, for me and my friends, this is a major enough change that most of us probably aren't interested.

I'm more likely to buy a spare XBox 360 than this. What you consider rare and improbable is what I consider the normal use case for it. I'm sure Microsoft won't have their feelings hurt if I don't buy this, because I'm just one guy.

But that doesn't change the fact that I won't be buying this. Because contrary to what you believe, not everyone currently does connect to XBox Live or use the network features.

So the system is built to work even if your Internet connection goes down, but you still have to be connected at least once a day to use it, according to Harrison. We're not sure exactly what would happen if you don't connect once per day - and that timeframe could change - but this doesn't sound good for anyone who was hoping to use Xbox One without an Internet connection.

No, not happening. The last update I took on my current Xbox changed the screen the awful thing it is now, and introduced ads -- both in games and in the home screen. That's why my current Xbox isn't connected to the network and never will be again.

I will connect it to the network when and if I choose, but if it requires the ability to call home once/day, it's simply not happening.

Microsoft may have visions of this being my entertainment center of the future, but it won't be. And if it is going to require this ability to connect to the internet at will (and from the sounds of it when I even have it turned off due to this low power napping), then this is a non-starter for me.

Microsoft needs to clarify some of this, because the chances of me replacing my current Xbox 360 with something which demands it be able to access the internet when it chooses is pretty much zero.

I don't care about the TV integration, I don't care about the skype integration, I don't care about the web integration, I don't care about enhanced sports watching ... I care about one thing, single player games with no internet requirement. This isn't it.

Now I'm more likely to buy another XBox360 as a spare so I can keep playing the games I have now, but I won't be buying this.

Even if only a third of the people stick around after din-din (and it's usually more), it's still the equivalent of getting more better than a 10% increase in manpower for the price of nine dinners (in bulk) per day per extra head - FAR less than the cost of hiring another head.

Did the math wrong: Make that about 17% more "heads" for the price of six dinners per night for one in three staying an extra half-shift..

FWIW, most "free food" programs encourage workers to come in earlier (for breakfast) or stay later (work past dinner time) or to not spend a long time off the company property over lunch. The extra time at work usually pays for the food costs.

It pays MUCH more than that. A typical thing that happens at startups is the company buys dinner - and the bulk of the engineers chow down and stick around another four hours. Not only do they get half-again as much time, but they get it in a block. For a programmer or other design engineer that means they haven't "lost state" and are even more productive than if they'd just worked three days instead of two.

Even if only a third of the people stick around after din-din (and it's usually more), it's still the equivalent of getting more better than a 10% increase in manpower for the price of nine dinners (in bulk) per day per extra head - FAR less than the cost of hiring another head.

And then there's an adminstrative pathology: The new management comes in, sees how much is spent on the food (but not how much is gained as a result), decides that their predecessors were stupid and the employees were looting the company, and stops the food. So come dinner time the employees go out (or home) to dinner and don't come back. Immediately it's like they lost somewhere between 10% and 33% of their work force without any reduction in payroll costs. (That's not counting how disgruntled some of the employees become.)

I've been at three companies where this happened, and observed several more. All but one of 'em folded shortly thereafter - and the one that survived went through a near-bankruptcy that destroyed the original investors' equity and left it in the hands of the bondholders before it recovered.

It could even keep a local part of the grid up while all others around them suffer power failures.

And that is a BIG no-no. Because it kills linemen trying to fix the outage.

Those transformers work both ways. Your little generator or inverter gets stepped up to maybe 8,000 or 12,000 volts. Then a lineman who thinks the power is down brushes against a wire (or comes within a quarter-inch of it) and is "burned" - to death.

Grid-connected inverters with a "sell" feature MUST monitor the network and shut down if they detect islanding - being cut off from the grid, with one or a collection of generators running autonomously. It's perfectly OK to feed power into the grid when it's up (if you're using UL approved equipment, connected according to code, inspected for compliance, and the utility knows you're doing it according to the rules.) It's perfectly OK to have things wired so your equipment still feed your house if the grid goes down, but it MUST cut itself off from the dying or dead grid and stay off until the grid comes back up and stabilizes at the nominal voltage and frequency.

5% more pop-ups per hour, yeaaah!

Homemade hovercraft used to be a big thing since at least the '50s or '60s (and for all I know still are). Typically made by putting a prop on a vertical-axle lawnmower engine and building a simple vehicle body with a fan shroud in the middle.

There was a classic disaster that happened to a LOT of people who did this:

After they'd played around on land with it for a while they'd decide to test how it would perform on water. So they'd take it down to the local park-on-a-lake, fire it up, and drive out onto the lake.

It would work fine ... for a few minutes. Just long enough to get maybe 20 feet or so, over well over-their-heads water...

Then the spray it was kicking up and sucking back around the motor on its way to the fan would finally short out the spark wiring. Oops!

Of course they usually hadn't included any floats...

No, flying isn't the correct word.

Story I heard, back in the '60s. (Don't know if it's true, unfortunately. But I think we have some Ann Arborites here who might check the city ordinances.)

Plans had been published for making homemade hovercraft with a salvaged lawnmower engine. Stand on it like a Segway and steer by leaning.

Kid had made one and decided to take it down the LOOOONG, somewhat steep, slope of Hill street one night. (I shiver at the thought of how fast that would be going near the bottom...)

Cops had a radar trap and clocked him at freeway speeds. Issued him a ticket.

He fought it, claiming that the cops had no jurisdiction because he was flying, not driving. Didn't touch the ground. Take it up with the FAA.

Traffic court judge (rightly or wrongly) agreed that this might be true and the cops hadn't proven jurisdiction, so he dismissed the ticket.

City Council banned hovercraft within the city limits shortly thereafter. B-b

If by "first", you mean, several decades after the highly influential The Weapon Shops of Isher (1951, but based on stories written starting in 1941), then yes. Though that's a funny definition of "first" you've got there. :)