Posts by Highlander

Part of the problem or solution

I think the time has come for Wikilieaks to look carefully at this episode and figure out which side it's on, terrorism, or not terrorism.

Basically you're either part of the solution, or part of the problem. So quit being part of the problem!

Come the revolution!

Come the revolution, these creeps should be first against the wall along with politicians, lawyers, bank and insurance executives and all other manner of evil weasels.

If this is an 'arms race' be waged with the criminals, they are winning. We need to do something with our infrastructure to harden it against botnets and the attacks that spawn them. Certainly we need to have a better way of tracing individual IPs and foiling spooking attempts.

Definitely time for a change on the internet.

So, why not before?

So, why in heaven's name hasn't this been done before? Since the inception of Windows NT windows has had the capability to run tasks in a virtual environment - the old DOS box and Windows on Windows subsystems managed that trick.

Both Internet explorer and Outlook ought to join Firefox in the sandbox along with a quarantine instance for passing, and inspecting attachments and downloads so that they cannot auto-run,. and are inspected before arriving on your nice clean machine.

Design patent my arse

Why the hell 'patent' this? What the hell is wrong with copyrights and trademarks?

A patent is/was intended to cover physical inventions. the expansion of patents into areas traditionally covered by trademark or copyright has been a boon to attorney fees and corporate bully-boy tactics, but hasn't helped anyone.

I can see the point of patenting new ideas that have an implementation in software, but copyright covers the actual code. The only thing that should be patented is the algorithm itself. And that patent needs to be a fairly short lived one since most ideas in computing are based on the work of others down the years anyway.

But design patents? Oh come on. Did someone at the US patent office owe their attorney a favor and so they came up with this idea as a quid pro quo?

I see that someone has pointed out that a design patent isn't really a patent, ut more of a registered design. Alright, but here's a question. What separates a 'registered design' from a trademark or copyright? Google could have trademarked the design, that would have protected it. They could have copyrighted it as well. Patents are governed by a different set of laws and expectations. Design patent or no, a patent is a patent and in the minds of most the word patent carries the same meaning even if it's prefixed by design. This is an unnecessary distinction in the US copyright/trademark and patent system.

What a load of f&^ked up f*&ks these f&$kers are!

who the f*^k cares what kind of language Gordon f86cking Ramsey uses on his show after the watershed? He's world renowned for shouting and swearing, did anyone seriously expect anything different?

As for those f*&kers who think that using words like f*&k weakens one's vocabulary or shows an inability to express anger, what a bunch of twaddle you f*&kers do come up with. For a f*&king start, words like f*&k only carry the power we, the listener, give them. It's just a f*&king word, it's not like he's hitting you in the face. F*&king hell people get a f*&king grip will you? Sure you can use other words or other forms of expression to express exasperation, but words like f*&k are universally recognized as signs of extreme frustration, annoyance or exasperation.

Let's try an experiment shall we....

You know, I'm really exasperated right now. I can't believe how frustrated I am that you can't prepare even a simple garden salad. My, how incredible it is, you are really incompetent if that's the best you can do.

or

Oh for f*&ks sake you f*&king moron, can't you f*&king well make a f*&king garden f*&king salad? You f*&king c*&k s*&king moron, f*&k off so I can avoid losing my f*&king mind because of your f*&king stupidity you donkey!

Which of these conveys more effectively the sheer frustration and annoyance felt by an experienced chef that's just watched a supposedly experienced chef totally bollocks-up a simple salad and finds that the gormless morong doesn't even know what he's done wrong.?

Pathetic.

This is all a load of ball-cocks

I understand the whole advertisement / fee / subscription argument. However anyone of you that's followed tech news for a couple of year or more should be aware of a quite large number of compromises to ad serving sites that have led to banner and pop-up ads that contain malware. There is no argument any of the apologists for advertising can use that will convince me, or anyone else with a modicom of common sense to unblock these potentially dangerous services.

I don't pretend to have an answer, however, if I buy a print magazine, there are print ads in there that support the publishing of the magazine. I have no issue with that, but you know what happens in print (take a lesson Internet publishers)? With a print magazine ads are not a problem when they are facing pages or half page ads that are clearly deliniated. When they become an issue is when frak-wit advertising geniuses start making their ads look like mock articles with very small 'advertisement' banners to set them apart, or the classif special feature that's really a 12 page long commercial. My least favorite print ad tactic is the one that killed publications such as Byte which is when a two page article ends up getting scatter-gunned across 8 pages with a piece here and there hidden among the ads. That tactic really pisses people off because it makes it a chore to read the article. In the end I'm buying a magazine to read the articles not the bloody ads. Once the ads take up more space and are more prominent than the actual content, things have crossed the line.

Sadly the marketing geniuses who rule on the Internet appear to believe that they can do no wrong and intrusive advertising is the rule. Had Internet ads not been the animated, multi-media floating image fake content malware ridden crap that they are, then I could have put up with them. Web sites that use static images in a side column or banner are acceptable for advertisements, but clickable images with some hacked ad server along for the ride are not. I understand that it's easier for advertisers and google to count clicks and that clicks mean fees. Fine, I get that. Perhaps it's just Web 1.0 of me to think that an ad image with a clickable link in plain text at the foot of the image is just as effective as any number of highly intrusive and annoying pop-ups? Certainly folks who use ad blockers would be less inclined to block a static image. The use of static images to the side of the main site's content would mirror the way in which print ads work.

Either way, don't expect anyone to give up control of their computer or browser any time soon, for every counter measure that advertisers come up with, ad blockers will become more sophisticated and block even more.

Timeframe is ludicrous

This is an utterly ludicrous timescale that Sony is discussing here. The PSP is already 3+ years into it's life. And yet according to Sony's man it'll be 3-5 years before digital distribution comes of age on it? That's forever in the gaming industry, not to mention the fact that it's already standard in Japan.

Are we in the US so fracking stone age that we can't have the same as the Japanese gamers? Or is it that Sony US is populated by techno-phobic dweebs who would be more comfortable balancing a checkbook than playing a handheld game?

Reaching....James, Reaching

The most one can conclude from this is that a Metal Gear Solid title of some kind *may* or may not, be coming to the 360. MGS4 is **highly** unlikely to be that title. But does that mean that Konami wouldn't want to bring the Metal Gear Solid online game to 360?

GameGear? Nope.

Sega's last memorable entry in the hand held market was the battery munching and yet oh-so-very good Game Gear. Granted it was huge, and ate batteries faster than a taser set on 'extra crispy'. But it had a nice back-lit color screen, which compared to the dinky and rather dingy Nintendo of the time was a triumph. Sadly it was expensive and Sega simply couldn't compete with Nintendo.

In fact the PSP is the natural successor to the Game Gear, it's structural form is similar. It's build around the screen, you hold it at the sides and the controls are at each side of the screen.

But this 'new' device from Sega looks for all the world like a souped up handheld TV. The TV is presumably analogue so it's not like that will sell well in the US come Feb 2009. But come on, java based minigames? Between ElReg and the INQ the amount of pointless, heavily spun articles always picking away at Sony is just plain tiresome. This device from Sega is not and will not be a PSP beater. For a start it's not a game console, it's a pocket TV that also plays JAVA based minigames. The PSP is a handheld game console that also plays movies and music. These devices aren't even aiming at the same market.

I wonder when it is that small minded fanbo....er...journalists can put their bias away and start reporting facts and providing real analysis. Honestly the standard of journalism here is no better than the partisan journalism seen in the US analyzing the vice presidential debate.

Perhaps the author of this piece can look once again at the information being reported and do the factual and objective analysis, and edit this piece into something that actually reports without applying the author's own personal anti-Sony bias?

Amazon.com sales indications?

As of right this moment, Amazon.com's 1hourly sales figures show PS3 (80GB) ar #5, Wii at #9 and the first 360 model being the Elite at #34 which is interestingly enough lower than the DS Lite or PSP-2000 as well.

With the price cuts, you might expect the Arcade and Pro systems to be doing better? The Xbox360 with 60GB HDD (aka Pro) is sitting at #48 and the core arcade bundle all the way down at 50.

It's a spot check of course, but interesting none the less.

Looking at the UK version of Amazon is even more interesting. The UK likes them some Wii, it's the only console I could see in the top 50 best sellers in their PC & videogames list. When I limited the seach to console hardware I found that Wii was #1, PS3 was #2 followed by three models of DS Lite and then finally the 60GB Xbox360. Again these are updated hourly, so it's just a snap shot.

Still interesting, ain't it?

Reasons?

Good grief, some of you appear to think that a new revision of something should be a drastically different reworking. It's a revision people, not a new console.

As for reasons to get this. Hmmm, OK, perhaps the MB has a bit more security to prevent homebrew and...um stealing software. Oh wait, the freetards will want their emblem on that, let's call it pirating? Still to close to the nub? OK, taking/using without consent? There, factual and without emotion. Perfect.

No, apart from anything else, an enhanced screen is great, anti-reflective coating on the screen, also good. Wonder if the backlight and screen are more power efficient? Wonder if the chipset and processor eat less juice. I'd bet that the whole unit is a little more economical. Oh, look a microphone as well, so it will do Skype, and any games that want audio input will no doubt be possible now. Still the PSP is pretty much defined by the button layout of a standard Sony game controller and the size of the screen. I'd love to see how anyone else could redesign the PSP and come up with something that is relatively comfortable in your hands like the PSP is.

IIg wireless ethernet would have been a nice update without in any way hurting users of older PSPs.

Too many people got use to complaining about Sony on reflex, they've lost an semblance of objectivity.

Regarding batteries on the move, get a second battery, and/or a third party charger that doesn't require you to carry the PSU around. It's not exactly rocket science. Battery life is already pretty good I get 4-6 hours from a full charge on my PSP-2000 and about the same on the older PSP-1000. Perhaps the PSP-4000 will see an OLED screen with touchscreen capability and IIg networking.

@PaulM

Hold your horses there sonny.

The revisions to Cell have helped double precision performance and overall performance (computational and thermal) of the processor. The revisions have not focused on adding more SPEs.

Take note from the design of IBMs Cell based super computers. They run multiple cells in parallel. Cell is designed especially to do this, allowing multiple cells in parallel to work together. Something that is not so far-fetched in a 4-5 year timescale is a single die package that fits as many as 8 Cells on a single die along with the appropriate interconnects.

In fact a PS4 based on a multi-Cell design would be great for Sony since backwards compatibility would be a walk in the park and developers would be able to build directly on existing Cell based PS3 libraries and skills. It would be a heck of a lot cheaper to go this way as well, since the new system would be an evolution of the existing design instead of a radical redesign.

It may not be 100s of SPEs, but an 8 Cell package with 8 groups of 8 SPEs plus 8 Power cores, would be a hefty amount of computing power for any consumer product - right now it would qualify as a real super computer.

@Bronek Kozicki

Indeed. That is why I mourned the passing of the Windows on Windows and the VDM functionality that Microsoft sto...er...borr...er copied from OS/2. It used to be that 16 bit windows apps ran quite happily on NT without any thread to the OS because the apps were inside a VDM running inside a WOW wrapper. At some point the concepts of virtualization that MS espoused in the early days of NT were forgotten and everything was once again integrated into the core OS forcing the poor thing to consume memory like a half starved super-model consumes Vodka and cigarettes.

I see Tony's still spinning as ever.

Tony, you'd be better off writing for The Inquirer, at least they admit that they add their personal bias and spin to supposed news articles.

Seems like somewhere you forgot to mention the launch in June of the PS3 system selling MGS4 which shipped something over 3 million units during launch. A decent proportion of their total units were bundle packs sold with PS3s, so much so that they sold out in some places. You might also want to tie that in with the recent announcement by Sony of the upgrade from 40GB to 80GB in their core unit which also indicated that Sony was running down the remaining 40GB stock. I don't know, perhaps those factors had something ot do with the drop in unit sales?

Gee, ya think?

MS is probably doing something similar with it's 20GB Pro units since they have their 60GB unit coming soon as well, so no doubt they are running down their 20GB stock, which I imagine has an impact on their over all stock and sales in the market.

Perhaps the bigger story is in the trend lines. Nintendo Wii has seen month on month decreases in unit sales despite Nintendo claims that supply is better than ever. Both Xbox360 and PS3 are on the up, their sales in July are up from May. PS3 clearly had a significant game release in June that skews it's figures, so June is impossible to use for comparisons. Looking at the trend lines the story might be better phrased as "Sony PS3 and MS Xbox360 sales hold steady as Nintendo Wii Continues Decrease".

Lastly, I'm actually heartily sick of articles comparing Wii and PS3/360 as if they are the same market segment or hardware generation. Wii is massively successful, yes. But it's not in the same segment as 360/PS3. It's hardware isn't in the same class as 360/PS3. The majority of multi-platform releases on PS3/360 don't arrive on Wii. If they do arrive on Wii, it's in a scaled back form or with a different kind of gameplay that the Wii can handle.

We don't compare handheld sales to those of the home consoles, do we? Why do we compare Wii/PS2 with PS3/360? The market segments each sells to are different. The age and economic profiles of the two groups are markedly different, as are the gaming histories of those buying each console. And yet we persist in comparing Wii, PS3 and Xbox360 like it's an apples to apples comparison. Which it clearly is not.

Weasel Words? In a bill of Rights?

Oh yeah, adding weasel words to a bill of rights. Talk about Epic Fail. Honestly. A Bill of rights is a guarantee that says this is the line in the sand beyond which no one can step. But as soon as you start using language that allows wiggle room or ambiguity you shatter the guarantee and open it up to exceptions. The kind of exception I'm talking about is jot the kind of exception that allows a police man to obtain a search warrant from a court, that is more of an explicit exception. No I'm referring to implicit exceptions. You know the kind that can be granted by a civil servant in secret with a simple statutory instrument that redefines what is appropriate now. For example, a right to appropriate health care free from cost at the point of delivery. Well, sounds great until some twit in Whitehall decides that it's no longer appropriate to cover heart disease treatments for any more than 2% over the ideal BMI or past the age of 50.

Nope, a Bill of rights has to be a shining example of clear speech and thought. The more concise and precise the words, the better. Strong and categorical terms need to be used. It must be constructed with the absolute minimum of weasel words and wiggle room for any. A bill of rights must be an unequivocal, clear, explicit, statement of the guaranteed rights. The rights enshrined in a Bill of Rights can not be narrowly defined. Instead they have to be as broad as possible. If a mistake is made, or a freedom too broad, then the Bill of Rights can be amended through a process of legislation requiring a full vote in whatever passes for a parliament with a positive vote of at least 2/3 or perhaps 3/4 of the democratically elected representatives required for an amendment to the Bill of Rights. Basically once it's granted it should be difficult to change.

But, I expect that the Brown Bill (if such a thing happens) will be full of mealy words, muttered and softly spoken into one's collar so that no one else can hear. That way no one knows what their rights are. So it's far easier to take them away again if need be.

Seems like somewhere over the last 20 years or so, people forgot the lessons of the last century or two. Perhaps it's not forgotten, simply ignored. I really hope that we are not doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. I thought that we were better than that.

@multipharious

What planet do you live on?

Explain please what huge windfall AMD invested when they built their nice new FAB and bought ATI?

AMD has been in a financial hole for years, and had dug and dug, seemingly using every effort to dig deeper. In the last two years, how many profitable quarters did they have? In the last 4 years? In th last 6? How much profit did they make in those profitable quarters? Now, how much of a loss have they made in the remainder? In the last couple of years they've lost nearly as much money as they used to buy ATI. Let's look at it for a moment $4bn on a fab, $5.4bn on ATI. Another $4bn in losses over the last couple of years (approximation). $13.4bn. That my friend is a lot of red ink.

Holy crap man, they lost almost as much in the quarter as they took in revenue! What's their market valuation these days? $0.25

Get the full story before commenting, please

The new 80GB system is functionally identical to the 40GB unit, with the inclusion of a bigger HDD and DualShock3. It's not the same model as the existing 80GB PS3. That PS3 has more USB ports, and PS2 compatibility, to name but two of the distinguishing features. There was no indication what would happen to the existing 80GB.

This is not a price drop of the 80GB system, at all. It's an increase in the specification of the existing 40GB system, with no change in price.

Holy Crap

Talk about a buzz kill. Good God, you're never invited to any my parties!

BTW, I have been asking why in hell Hector Ruiz is still running anything for nearly two years. A year ago I wrote an article on another site poking the financial house of cards that is AMD and pointing out that they paid more for ATI than their own annual revenues right after investing a similar sum in new FAB and for about the last two years have been losing more money per quarter than Intel spends on R&D. How anyone in their right mind is still sending money in the general direction of AMD is beyond me.