Comment Sounded pretty good... (Score 5, Insightful) 337
...until the "with Vista Ultimate 64" part.
Comment Re:Ill-fated? (Score 1, Interesting) 81
I find it amazing that Sony is still around actually. Nintendo always makes money on their console and they're the only one of the three to consistently turn large profits from the gaming industry. By comparison, its two competitors spend their time either sinking into the red and losing money or going back and forth between making and losing money.
If anyone was to survive in this industry, it would be Nintendo because they've proven time and again that they can profit from anything (even Gamecube-esqe sales). At this point, it's a wonder that Sony's stakeholders aren't raising more complaints about Sony's business model of selling their console for a heavy loss. If the PS3 fails any harder than it already has been so far, the future of a PS4 looks mighty grim. Sadly, most of this is due to shoehorning their BluRay format into the console which forced the price to skyrocket even to the point where they would sacrifice functionality of the unit to keep the costs down.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is finally starting to post gains with their gaming division which is practically unheard of. If they could overhaul the 360 to get rid of the costs and negative PR added by continuously having to deal with RRoDs, it's likely that the 360 would stay in the black.
All in all, Nintendo will continue on its merry way making Mario and Zelda games until the end of time. Microsoft will continue attempting to take over your home media center and continue trying to kick Sony in the balls at every opportunity. Sony will continue pushing their BluRay player even as it destroys their games division.
If anyone was to survive in this industry, it would be Nintendo because they've proven time and again that they can profit from anything (even Gamecube-esqe sales). At this point, it's a wonder that Sony's stakeholders aren't raising more complaints about Sony's business model of selling their console for a heavy loss. If the PS3 fails any harder than it already has been so far, the future of a PS4 looks mighty grim. Sadly, most of this is due to shoehorning their BluRay format into the console which forced the price to skyrocket even to the point where they would sacrifice functionality of the unit to keep the costs down.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is finally starting to post gains with their gaming division which is practically unheard of. If they could overhaul the 360 to get rid of the costs and negative PR added by continuously having to deal with RRoDs, it's likely that the 360 would stay in the black.
All in all, Nintendo will continue on its merry way making Mario and Zelda games until the end of time. Microsoft will continue attempting to take over your home media center and continue trying to kick Sony in the balls at every opportunity. Sony will continue pushing their BluRay player even as it destroys their games division.
Submission + - IBM beats Microsoft over the head with own code (networkworld.com)
bednarz writes: "IBM added a delicious twist on its new commitment to help OpenOffice.org battle Microsoft Office by donating code that was originally derived in part from a Microsoft-developed technology.
IBM's iAccessible2, code-named Project Missouri, is a specification for technology used to help the visually impaired interact with Open Document Format (ODF)-compliant applications and was developed in part using Microsoft Active Accessibility (MAA)."
Submission + - Record Company Collusion a Defense to RIAA Case?
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "Is collusion by the record companies a defense to an RIAA case? We're about to find out, because the RIAA has made a motion to strike the affirmative defense of Marie Lindor, who alleged that "the plaintiffs, who are competitors, are a cartel acting collusively in violation of the antitrust laws and of public policy, by tying their copyrights to each other, collusively litigating and settling all cases together, and by entering into an unlawful agreement among themselves to prosecute and to dispose of all cases in accordance with a uniform agreement, and through common lawyers, thus overreaching the bounds and scope of whatever copyrights they might have" in UMG v. Lindor. The motion will be decided by the same judge who agreed with legal scholars in sustaining another affirmative defense of Ms. Lindor, in which she alleges (pdf) that the RIAA's $750-per-song-file statutory damages theory is "unconstitutionally excessive and disproportionate to any actual damages that may have been sustained, in violation of the Due Process Clause"."
Submission + - Diebold rebrands what noone wants.
Irvu writes: Diebold has apparently failed in their bid to sell their tainted elections systems unit. Unable to find a buyer the CEO of Diebold promised that the system will be run more "openly and independently." To prove that they are serious, they renamed it. Diebold Election Systems is now Premiere Election Solutions. They still sell GEMS, AccuVote OS and the ever-unpopular AccuVote-TSX which performed so disastrously in California's Top-to-Bottom Review under the same names. Apparently their rebranding effort only goes so far.
Submission + - Bandwidth crunch looms for cable companies (arstechnica.com)
coax4life writes: While Verizon and AT&T lay fiber, cable companies are looking at a huge bandwidth crunch according to a new report. Increased demand for high-def programming on the TV side and faster download speeds on the ISP side of the business will leave cable companies in a rough spot — after spending over $100 billion in the last decade on infrastructure improvements. Jumping on the fiber bandwagon may help. 'Upgrading to a fiber infrastructure is a much more expensive proposition, and one more likely to occur in areas where the cable companies are facing more competition. It can happen, though — several years ago, Comcast's predecessor on the northwest side of Chicago laid fiber on top of its existing coaxial installation. The payoff is good for both cable companies and users, as it can result in more programming choices and faster Internet access.' Moving to switched digital video solutions will also help.
Cross-Platform Microsoft 348
willdavid sends us to the ZDNet blogs for a provocative opinion piece by John Carroll. He points to Microsoft's evident cross-platform strategy with Silverlight, and wonders whether the company couldn't make money — and win friends — by extending its excellent development ecosystem cross-platorm. "Microsoft, apparently, is helping the folks at Mono to port Silverlight to Linux. This is good news, as the primary fear I've heard from developers is that Silverlight will be locked to Microsoft platforms and products. Microsoft has already committed to supporting Silverlight cross-browser on Windows, and has a version that runs on Mac OS X (which is even available from the Apple web site). The last step is Linux, and Microsoft is working with Novell and Mono to make this happen."
Submission + - Bad Movie Physics Hurt Scientific Understanding (physorg.com)
eldavojohn writes: "A paper published by UCF researchers claims that bad movie physics hurt students' understanding of real world physics. From the article, "Some people really do believe a bus traveling 70 mph can clear a 50-foot gap in a freeway, as depicted in the movie Speed." The professors published this paper out of fear that society will pay the price. One of the authors commented on advancements in the past years "All the luxuries we have today, the modern conveniences, are a result of the science research that went on in the '60s during the space race. It didn't just happen. It took people doing hard science to do it." I commented on the physics of the most recent Die Hard having problems detracting from my enjoyment of the movie but is it really the root of a growing problem of poor science & math among students?"
Ubuntu Servers Hacked 330
An anonymous reader noted that "Ubuntu had to shutdown 5 of 8 production servers that are sponsored by Canonical, when they started attacking other systems. Canonical blames the community, saying they were community hosted, and were poorly maintained. However, kernel upgrades couldn't be done because of poor backwards compatibility with the very hardware that Canonical had sponsored! While people point fingers at each other it is pretty clear that both sides are equally to blame, the community administrators for practicing bad security practices, such as using unencrypted FTP transfers with accounts, not properly maintaining the system. However Canonical should have been well aware of what they are hosting. The question remains, if any of the files distributed to users have been compromised. A major blow for Canonical though who are attempting to enter the business market with Ubuntu Server."
Verizon vs. the Needham Fire Department 195
netbuzz writes "At issue is whether — or not — there was a minor fire in a house on Pine Grove Street in Needham, Mass., caused by a Verizon employee drilling through an electrical main. Everyone agrees that whatever happened — or didn't happen — was indeed the fault of the Verizon employee; it's "fire or no fire" that is at issue. Verizon says no fire, not even smoke. The Needham Fire Department begs to differ. New eye-witness reports are emerging ... and it's not looking good for Verizon."
Submission + - Red Hat Developer Studio first contact (blogspot.com)
juanignaciosl writes: "First beta of Red Hat Developer Studio has just been published. This IDE is a bunch of Eclipse plugins which comes out from JBoss IDE and Exadel Studio fusion. The main advantages it offers are: JSF development improved, specially integrating RichFaces and Ajax4JSF libraries; Seam (next J2EE middleware standard?) integration; it also includes plugins for JBoss, Hibernate...
RHDS seems promising. Is finally the time Java development meets Visual Whatever integration?
If anybody wants to read on first impressions you can check my software engineering blog post on Red Hat Developer Studio installation."
RHDS seems promising. Is finally the time Java development meets Visual Whatever integration?
If anybody wants to read on first impressions you can check my software engineering blog post on Red Hat Developer Studio installation."
RIAA Short on Funds? Fails to Pay Attorney Fees 341
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Can it be that the RIAA, or the "Big 4" record companies it represents, are short on funds? It turns out that despite the Judge's order, entered a month ago, telling them to pay Debbie Foster $68,685.23 in attorneys fees, in Capitol v. Foster, they have failed to make payment. Ms. Foster has now had to ask the Court to enter Judgment, so that she can commence 'post judgment collection proceedings'. According to Ms. Foster's motion papers (pdf), her attorneys received no response to their email inquiry about payment. Perhaps the RIAA should ask their lawyers for a loan?"
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