Posts by Highlander

AMD cries foul over Intel's 'river of cash' flowing to Dell

@Mark

You don't appear to give Intel much credit for the redesign work done on the Core2. Core 2 is not the P3 core, it's a complete redesign. It resembles the P3 in that it has a shorter pipe than the NetBust chips, but it is not a P3 with a make over. The Nehalem chips coming will be a further evolution/revolution of the Intel X86 architecture.

You seem to be making the mistake of thinking that the Penitum M was nothing more than a P3, and that the new Core and Core2 chips are Pentium with go faster stripes. In case you were asleep over the last two/three years, the thing that woke the sleeping giant was AMD making inroads into the server space and the continued demonstration that NetBust was a bust technologically speaking. It wasn't a failure by the marketing team that prompted Intel to adopt the Tick/Tock strategy. Like many AMD fanboys (which is how you are coming across) you are downplaying the Core 2 architecture and ignoring the speedy move from 90 to 65 and then 45nm and now the Nehalem generation. All of which has put Intel significantly ahead in terms of technology and performance.

In the same time period AMD has had what exactly? K8 and iterative improvements of K8.

This is strong stuff?

AMD makes many allegations here, the majority of which would appear to be of a kind that are open and shut cases if you have the contracts. There doesn't seem to be a lot of suggestion that they have the contract, or at least no sign of them using the documents which I'm sure they got through discovery. It's inevitable for court documents to be full of word-play, but that doesn't mean you can't read between the lines. In fact you can, even more so because of the very verbosity of the documents presented.

For example, the article quote AMD's documents;

"The evidence also supports AMD's claim that Intel paid IBM to delay and then to refrain from branding or marketing its AMD blade server."

Evidence supports. Supports, not shows. I'm surprised they didn't just use suggests. Shows would indicate that they have what they believe to be direct evidence. Support indicates to me that they have something that they think they can use to patch together circumstances to fit their allegation, in other words indirect evidence.

I also find it entertaining how they quote Intel;'s CEO out of context trying to come over all humble, but deplore Intel's use of their own head man's comments in the same way. Then try to characterize Intel in a bad light because the took Henri out of context. Clearly they've never heard "Pot, Kettle, meet black."

I almost laughed my butt off when they actually said in their document something that amounted to "Oh yes, we at AMD offer all sorts of discounts and incentives too, it's part of the normal business in this industry, but Intel did even more than we did, and that's unfair!" Sounds like a toys out of pram situation.

What about the whole river of cash thing? Let's analyze for a moment. If Intel is offering such ridiculously good terms in return for exclusivity and offering incentives to the point where people can use the phrase 'river of cash'. Then how in the name of the wee man are they making such huge ass profits? They almost spend more on R&D than AMD has revenue, and yet they make a very healthy profit. Something doesn't add up there. If they're cutting their own throat in order to offer such incredible terms in exchange for exclusivity, then where are their profits coming from?

One last amusing thing is this quote; "Yet, in the face of those facts Intel still attempts to characterize AMD as a bumbling competitor beset by lousy products, a poor reputation, bad planning, and terrible execution; in short, a company nobody would want to do business with,"

You know, in the last three years AMD has been exactly that. Bumbling. They spent wildly on new fabs and then spend a pointlessly gargantuan price for ATI. Their new product lines are way behind schedule, their new manufacturing processes are late, they're nearly a generation of silicon behind Intel, and their own attempts at exclusivity with Dell fell flat when they couldn't make enough chips to satisfy their commitments with Dell *and* the retail channel, screwing the retail customer in the process. They do have a poor reputation in light of these things, and some may not want to do business with them. Ironic then that AMD would make such a statement when it's easier than shooting fish in a barrel to illustrate each element they complain about.

AMD : Intel is bad, they offered discounts on their stuff, we can't compete.

Judge : You offer discounts as well don't you?

AMD : Yes your honor, but that is different. Their discounts are HUGE!

Judge : Oh, so their discounts were bigger than your discounts?

AMD : Yes your honor.

Judge : So, you say they acted unfairly and bought the business.

AMD : Yes you honor.

Judge : Alright then, please show me where they sold their product at a loss in order to force you out of the deal.

AMD : Uh...erm...well, they just sort of pressured IBM and Dell and others into doing what they want.

Judge : Yes, but show me how their discounts were any different from your own, show me how it is that they bought the business.

AMD : Well, you see, it's like this, here's a picture of their CEO apologizing for being bad. See, he's apologizing for it, they must have done something!

Judge : I see from the filings that your own Henri Richards said some things....

AMD : Ah, but you see those things are quoted entirely out of context, his remarks were just in the way of a good natured joke.

Judge : I see. Show me again how you claim Intel bought the business, please.

....

I know someone will come in and claim I'm an Intel shill, but I can honestly say I have an interest in neither company. I just don't see much validity in this kind of case unless there is crystal clear evidence of wrong doing, it's all a case of sour grapes and trying to compete through litigation.

PS3 update fails to fix Grand Theft Auto IV woes

@b166er

Sorry folks, I just can't resist a minor troll......

No, they're just like Xbot360 fanboys who managed to escape electro-shock treatment, testosterone overdose and a traumatic frontal lobotomy.

:-P

Set-top box modders sent to prison

Forbidden knowledge?

So, is it actually clear here that the two were jailed for having and teaching Forbidden Knowledge(TM), or did they actually sell some hardware that breaks the law?

I wasn't aware that UK law had prison terms for copyright offenses, or even patent infringement. Ordinarily this would be civil law or perhaps a fine wouldn't it? Why are they going to jail? Was it the 27 grand that they got through donations over time? I could see someone making a case that the two were either operating a business or making personal gain from some kind of Intellectual property theft. Perhaps they should have done more to separate the 'donations'?

Either way, this is a really dangerous case because it's another step towards the days when there really will be Forbidden Knowledge. Someone already mentioned Farenheit 451. How poor a society we will become if knowledge can be forbidden by corporate or government direction. Freedom of thought and communication must be fundamental rights that cannot under any circumstances be restricted in a free society. I can't think of a more dangerous road to travel than governmental control of our thought or communication by threat of criminalization and imprisonment. How is sending someone to jail for knowing how to hack a system and teaching those techniques any different from imprisoning someone for knowing about political systems and teaching others radical politics? The offense is not in the possession of knowledge or the teaching of it to others. The offense, the crime, comes in the form of actions taken by people. By the logic employed here, if I taught a class on marksmanship and then a year later one of my students (all of whom paid me for my tuition) commits a mass murder, then I could easily be prosecuted and jailed for simply teaching a person how to shoot targets.

The knowledge isn't bad. Teaching the knowledge isn't bad. It's what people do with that knowledge. Frankly I can't control what people do with anything I teach them. What next? Prosecute children for the crimes of their parents because they have knowledge of them?

AMD now has 'more than allegations' against Intel

@AC

I do not choose to absolve anyone of anything. I am however mindful of a few things. AMD is in competition with Intel. Their allegations of Intel wrong doing bear examination with a critical eye as they are hardly impartial. I simply chose to put forward a few rather obvious points that nullify most of the whining that AMD is indulging in. Frankly had AMD spent more time and money on R&D and less on questionable ventures such as acquiring ATI, then their designs would be more competitive with Intel's. Had they spent more time and money on materials science with their partners their manufacturing would be more mature. However, they did not, they rested on their Opteron laurels and the result is their impending failure in the market. AMD had several key markets in the palm of their hand, and frittered them away. They had a major deal with Dell that resulted in them screwing the retail channel and enthusiast market. AMD's own poor decisions are not the fault of Intel. Very little of what AMD accuse Intel of doing is anything that AMD would not do/has not done themselves. This case has the look and feel of a huge case of sour grapes. The compiler allegations are particularly stupid to me. it would be so easily proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, and yet where is the analysis in the Industry press to confirm it? Where are the headlines about it? The only time we hear about it is when AMD wants us too. That stinks. If Intel's compiler is crap on AMD is anyone actually surprised? Besides that, does anyone care? Is Intel the sole supplier of x86 compiler technology? Of course not. Doesn't AMD have it's own specially optimized compiler technology that makes it's chips look super ace? Yep, they do. So, does it matter if Intel nerfed their own compiler to make it work better for their chips? Not really. Oh, but let's all wave our hands over our heads like it's the end of the world instead of looking at the accusation critically and trying to figure out why AMD is even bothering with the allegation.

@Mark

Any competent developer would know almost immediately if a compiler was nerfing apps running on AMD chips specifically. It would show up immediately during any level of compatibility tests. This is ludicrous, if the compiler intentionally kills or breaks apps on AMD chips, a simple debug will show immediately where and why the app fails. It's not that easy to hide that kind of thing. The developer community is not so stupid that a bad compiler from Intel would continue to be used if it intentionally borks apps on AMD chips. This is easily the most stupid allegation, and the one that should be the easiest to prove. If all that AMD can do on this one is bleat and whine, then they should shut up now. If they have evidence then it's literally the IT equivalent of child's play for them to show it, and it would be almost as easy for any competent IT journal to do an expose showing the compiler in question and exactly how it farts in AMDs face.

I really wish people would think this kind of thing through before posting.

@AC

Sounds like you are the one with a financial interest in the case. Did you bet the farm on Intel losing? I have neither financial, nor career interest in either company.

Regarding discounts and volume contracts, Diane got the point, but you didn't. I wrote 'reaches the degree of exclusivity' because if I were framing a contract and wanted an exclusive deal but didn't want to spell that out in the contract (because I have smart lawyers and what not). Then I would build the contract to apply an escalating discount based on the likely 100% volume where the maximum discount was significantly better than the next best and therefore encouraged a volume purchase that was functionally identical to an exclusive deal without the necessity of a contract stipulating exclusivity. Which is what I'm suspecting Intel tried to do with it's contracts. AMD for it's part appears to want to have the court see it's own attempts at buying business as simply another example of Intel's manipulation because HP didn't take their 'free' chips. Frankly 1 million AMD processors is a pretty big chunk of change to hand out for free, so I fail to see how AMD can bitch the big one about Intel when they're engaging in the same aggressive business tactics, but hey, you obviously have your side picked out on this one. And I'm certain that you think you know which side I support - as it happens I could care less about either of them

Regarding the compiler functionality, I'm not sure that it would matter if Intel had written a function into the compiler to make executables flip on their back with their legs in the air on an AMD chip. Intel writes a compiler for it's product, not that of someone else. the fact that AMD have an x86 chip of their own design does not mean that an Intel compiler will produce code that works well (or at all ) on it. Unless the AMD chip is functionally identical to the Intel chip(s) that the compiler is targeted at there can be no expectation that it would work unless it's explicitly stated that it will work.

Ed Rose

Sure if you have a contract the demands exclusivity like that. However if your contract simply promises certain discount levels based on your volume and your annual sales are say 50 million units and you can achieve maximum discount by taking a volume of at least 49 million, that is a perfectly fair volume discount program, isn't it? If Intel knows what a customer's likely volume is in the coming year, then they can structure their volume discounts to be most attractive at the point where the business is effectively exclusive. I don't see how that can be a problem, it's simply using the volume discount to reward high volume customers. Giving away a million processors would seem to be something of a gift, perhaps even an incentive. Possibly even anti-competitive.

Oh boy...

Kinda seems like this case comes down to a couple of things.

a) Intel has deals with customers that reward volume purchasing including clauses that offer significant discounts where the volume of sales reaches the degree of an exclusive supply deal. AMD doesn't like this and fails to see the irony in them giving away a million processors for free, presumably as an incentive? Sounds like a potential multi-million dollar discount on a contract to me. Which seems to be what Intel were offering. Perhaps HP didn't like selling chips that had terrible problems, or perhaps the product line incorporating them simply didn't sell. Who knows? Who cares. It seems that AMD is pissed off be cause they failed to successfully use the same sales techniques that Intel succeeds with.

b) AMD claims that Intel's compiler doesn't work well with their chips. Short of there literally being functionality inserted in an executable compiled by the compiler that looks at the CPU and borks the program if it's an AMD, they haven't got a leg to stand on. If Intel makes a compiler for x86 processors, they are naturally going to make it work best on their own chips. I would go so far as to say they will make no effort to optimize for AMD processors, nor would they have much interest in fixing any issues in the compiler that relate specifically to AMD chips, especially if the issues relate to errata in the AMD processor itself. So AMD complaining that an Intel compiler doesn't work that well for their processors seems rather an empty complaint unless they can point to some kind of legally binding contract or court order that forces Intel to make a compiler that is as good on AMD as it is on Intel chips. Frankly that's ludicrous and as long as I have worked with PCs and AMD has been trying to take on Intel there have always been instances where compiler optimizations favored one brand or the other, just as certain bench marks favor one or the other.

AMD fails as far as I am concerned. Their arguments seem weak, and their motivation appears to come from the simple fact that their own poor decision making in the past few years has left them trailing Intel significantly. Legal action is a poor substitute for good products and good business decisions.

OpenOffice.org 3 beta lands

Hope they've fixed the database

Have they fixed the Access-a-like yet? Last time I rtied to evaluate the quite, the database stank, and regularly broke.

How to destroy 60 hard drives an hour

A few ways that come to mind....

Drill the casing, insert a largish firecracker, light the fuse and retire to a safe distance.

Drill the casing and insert a lit sparkler, bloody hot that.

Drill the casing and drop in some of that wonderful magnesium we used to burn at school, light and watch the destruction

Sledge hammer, second step may require wire cutters to finish the platter(s)

Pick axe, pointy end, straight through, a couple of hits should do it.

Take the casing apart and shred the platter, or take the wire-cutters mentioned earlier to it.

Drop the thing in a kiln.

Drop the thing in a furnace - there's a reason to get to know your local blacksmith.

Take the pile of useless drives to a local crematoria and see what happens when a coffin load of them gets the treatment.

Take the platters out and fire up your grill/charcoal grill (BBQ for UK readers), that should be warm enough to destroy the platter pretty effectively.

If you simply want to make sure that information on the drive can't be recovered unless the people have the resources of the NSA, you could always low level format the sucker, format it and install Vista, then enable volume compression and encryption and fill the drive with junk.

I still like the idea someone posted of a good heavy hammer and cold chisel. Personally I favor the dismantling and shredding approach, though I have used the low level format/re-install windows approach with moderate success against casual snoopers;

My wife's ex-husband stole her computer during their divorce. I had previously guided her through a simple wipe operation on the drive, then a low level format and windows re-install. The twit and his lawyer employed a data recovery service and they got nothing. No that there was anything to get, but it's still an invasion of privacy. That said, there was also a spare HDD supplied by Gateway as a 'new' replacement for a secondary HDD in the system. It was found to have some interesting images on it, but it was still in it's packaging so no harm there...

HD media future may be Blu, but it's not rosy

Tony, Tony, Tony,....

You know, if we exclude all articles written by you about the positives of BluRay, and if we ignore any analysis of the upside of the PS3, then we don't have to exclude any of your output. I'm sorry, but you do come across as having rather a one track mind on this topic and your analysis regularly shows bias and slant. What the hell ever happened to objectivity? This isn't politics it's technology, how in the hell did technology reporting become so slanted and political?

I really wish you would simply leave this topic alone Tony, your bias continually contaminates your articles making anything you say suspect in the eyes of a lot of the readers here. Surely someone else on the staff there can approach this topic without the agenda you appear to bring with you? Perhaps you can find something you're less opinionated about to report on? Either way, it's hard to read your article as analysis when it comes across as very loaded.

Anti-Scientology crusader vaporized from YouTube

Someone says scientologists are nice?? So is the viollage idiot.

Scientology is the biggest load of crap I've ever encountered disguising itself as a 'religion'.

I call BS on the whole group. L Ron Hubbard was a crap author who wrote mildly entertaining (to some, I found them boring as hell) science fiction stories. He once made a statement to the effect that if a man wanted to be rich, he should start his own religion.

Strangely enough, he later did start his own religion, and then backed it up with pseudo-psycho-babble and B-grade pulp science fiction. Utter BS. Oh but we're supposed to be tolerant of others beliefs? Screw that you morons. What, as we supposed to respect the beliefs of Star Wars fans trying to start a Jedi academy? Or should we laugh at their fanboy folly? How about Trek fans who believe that one day man will live in a utopian future without need for money? Or better still the ones speaking Klingon. You know that a university in California actually ran a Klingon language course, right? No suprise then that California also provided the tolerant and fertile ground that has allow Hubbard's weak minded followers to prosper with their scam.

Why do we tolerate this crap? Why do we apologize for calling it crap? Why are we stupid enough to give these idiots respect by calling them a religion in the first bloody place? Scientology is little more than a group of L Ron Hubbard fanboys who get together on a regular basis to sell trinkets and over priced literature and devices that are as effective as Star Trek props for $$$$. Holy crap, if you've ever been to the big Star Trek or Star Wars conventions you know what I mean. There you'll find 1000s of people willing to use their vacation time to be there and spend hard earned dollars on fiction. Guest appearances take on the air of evangelical meetings. You can buy any amount of literature and garb from the various resellers, not to forget the promotional video materials and any number of prop reproductions, some even with powered internals. Hell, you can buy communicators that are really cell phones and tricorders and phasers with lights and sound effects.

How does any of that differ from the BS that $cientology does? It's all based on science fiction, it's followers (fanboys) give up their time and hard earned dollars to be at meetings. Guest speakers are no doubt treated to enthusiastic welcomes and rapt attention. People pay $1000s for the literature and video material and then even the mystical e-meters, which frankly have nothing to differentiate from a Star Trek tricorder with a set of lights and sound effects.

Yet we give $cientology respect and call it faith? How is it any different to rabid Star Trek fans or Star Wars fans? How? I challenge anyone to show a meaningful or valid difference between slightly unhinged Trek or SW fans, and $cientologists - well apart from the propensity of $scientologists to sue people.

I don't care if someone wants to tell me I'm intolerant, I'm not, but I don't see how or why this group of scam artists and fools is given the status and respect of a religion when it's nothing of the sort. Some claim that it's no different to Christianity. I think you're wrong. Unless you want to compare it to the Catholic church of several hundred years ago that was run for the benefit of the priests and which used tools or persecution to keep opposers silent - typically by declaring them heretics and having them killed. Scientology attempts to do the same thing today only their tools of choice are the courts and laws never intended to protect an organization such as the Fans of Hubbard.

You Tube is obviously full of it, if the guy posted no copyright material on the account they most recently removed, then they have no reason or excuse for removing it. All they're doing is participating in suppressing him and his views. I guess that means that both You Tube and by implication Google are within the grasp to some extent at least of $cientology. Timfoil hats on ladies and gentlemen. Can you imagine if several key figures in Google became $cientologist? Would you really trust that Google would remain as squeaky clean as it claims? Perhaps it's already happening? I don't know, but I do know that You Tube is acting in the best interests of the Fans of Hubbard. Interesting.

Office 2007 fails OXML test

Um...inevitable?

Did I say this would happen when they shoved the standard through the ISO approval? It figures that MS can't even make it's own product conform to it's own freakin' standard,

PS3 firmware adds HD audio

@PIB

I was just thinking the same thing. Sony gets slammed for not supporting this that and the other audio on the pS3, so they add two and get slammed for it. WTF?

The same thing happened when they dropped the 40GB system on the market. The exact same people bitching that Sony didn't need the backwards compatibility and should drop the PS2 chipset and drop the PS3 price, were the first ones in line to bitch-slap Sony again for doing exactly what they'd be bitch-slapping Sony for NOT doing before.

Sometimes,I wish people would just chose a position and stick with it.

World Bank chief: Ethanol cars run on human misery

You know....

To quote the great one, (P)Rick from The Young Ones.

"He's bloomin' right you know!"

IBM hopes to patent 'dealing with chaos'

Perhaps

the patent is a) designed to show how stupid the system is, and b) a case of patenting something utterly obvious pre-emptively to prevent some twit from patenting the 'process' and suing IBM and the rest of the world for doing what seems right. As someone mentioned IBM maintains a portfolio of patents that are 'open', this could join that group.

IBM have show in recent times that they really do 'get' that the patent system is broken, but they have also shown forethought in dealing with the challenges presented by such a broken system, this seems like an instance of that.

Toshiba samples Cell-based HD GPU

Slow memory access?

Say what now? Cell as implemented in the PS3 has something like 23GB/s bandwidth. How is that slow exactly?

Toshiba might want to consider repurposing

According to Intel - at least - real time ray tracing is the way to go on graphics. The Cell chip is a monster for ray tracing as IBM has shown previously with it's tech demos. I'm just wondering whether this card with the aid of a well optimized ray tracing library and perhaps a second Spurs chip on board might make a heck of a ray tracing engine for PCs?

Alienware Area 51 ALX CrossFireX gaming PC

Sorry folks, HOW much?

And people still wonder why PC gaming is declining....?

Hackers target outsourced app development

Hands up!

Hands up anyone who's been saying this since the outsourcing trend started?

Can't say I'm surprised by it. Finance companies in particular are prone to trust third party consultants more than their own people. The same principle would extend to out sourced code development.

Personally I think that if you're paying a group of well qualified people to develop your IT strategy or applications, you should bloody well trust them more than a bunch of external yahoos who have no direct interest in seeing your business thrive. From a security point of view you pay your employees, they're under direct contract, you know where they live. So if one of them does something stupid, you have some recourse. How are you supposed to go after some semi-anonymous programmer working for an outsourcing company when he/she creates a backdoor into your system and steals information?

Outsourcing security sensitive applications is simply asking for trouble, as is ignoring the implications of compromised security and not following good procedures for process and code review during development.

Sony bullish on Blu-ray dominance

Lack of content on BluRay?

Say what now?

What is it with people? Are you the same folks that bleat on and on about PSP not having enough games? Or perhaps you're the ones still bashing on about how PS3 doesn't have any games?

Do you get out much? Do you even go to the major online retailers? What the hell are you smoking?

Just as PSP has a huge variety of titles available for it. PS3 of course has all the major multi-platform titles and a great crop of exclusives that's growing rapidly this year.

BluRay, no films? Really? I mean, Amazon has hundreds and hundreds of titles available. Do you mean that BluRay doesn't have as many titles available as DVD? Is that a surprise? Just as VHS had zillions more titles than DVD a couple of years into DVDs life, DVD has far more titles than BluRay just a couple of years into BluRay's life. That said, there is a great choice of new and old titles on BluRay that grows with every week. As someone else mentioned, there is a growing trend of simultaneous release with DVD. You speak as though the introduction of a new format brings an instantaneous release of all existing titles in the new format.

Sooty

PS3 upscales as good or better than most upscaling DVD players available. Now it also incorporates Mosquito noise reduction to reduce the visible compression artifacts present on some DVD presentations. Making it even better.

Not sure what you think is so special about Toshiba's upscaling, there is nothing inherent in Toshiba's upscaling players that's particularly special or unique (nor in Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Mitsubishi, LG, Sharp, Samsung, Philips, etc...).

Microsoft denies Lite-On Blu-ray rumour

@Anonymous Coward

Regarding DSL bit rates and HD video. If you knew anything about the topic you'd have kept silent on the matter. 1) VC-1 compression is employed on BD movies to get the movie onto the Blu-Ray disc. Further compression cannot be performed without loss of quality. In order to get a Blu-Ray movie into a form that can be streamed over DSL, or downloaded in a reasonable timeframe you have to increase your compression ratio by about another 8 times. That is to say, you need to take that 30GB movie and drop it to something more like 4GB.

That said, how many people can download a 4GB file in a reasonable time? Even a 1GB downloadable game takes hours, and I have a decent DSL connection. As usual you (as many other have done in the past) are attempting to apply the utterly narrow focus of your personal experience to the whole world. Even if I were to accept that you had a DSL connection capable of Blu-Ray bitrates (which I don't), I'd be obliged to point out that your connection would be representative of less than 1% of all Internet connections in the western world. Proponents of Download hate it when someone starts applying logic, math and knowledge of networking and storage architectures. They hate it because they are on a hiding to nothing and they know it.

Regarding the reliability of Xbox360, according to the reports that keep emerging from the warranty repair industry and other industry insiders, Microsoft really hasn't fixed their reliability problem. It's better. However even if they cut their number of failures in half that would still mean a failure rate of nearly 17% (based on the widely quoted and accepted 33% failure rate). But let's be charitable and say they cut their failure rate by two thirds. That's still 10% of all Xboxes sold sine they 'solved' (your word) their problem. Still not very good odds, are they?

@Iain

Thank you for making my point. Microsoft stated categorically that 1080p was meaningless. Here's a link;

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3152866

The fact that Microsoft no only added hdmi in order to support 1080p in movies and games, but also got games out on the 360 further emphasizes the utter BS that they were talking when they dismissed HDMI. It's obvious now (as it was then) that their dismissal of HDMI had more to do with Sony using it and Microsoft not using it. Whether or not Xbox could push 1080p resolution through VGA is neither here nor there.

Denials, Denial, and projection

Xbox360 commenting on allegations of a tryst with a Blu-Ray player:

I did not have handshaking with that interface. We may have flirted with USB ports, but I did not handshake with that drive's interface.

As usual denials can take on an air of unreality, especially when they're proven false shortly thereafter. Microsoft and Sony are both so guilty of this it's hard to take any denial from either of them seriously.

You know Mark really made some excellent points about the 360 (though was probably a little enthusiastic with the failure rate). I don't remember seeing him even mention Sony's console, so all those bashing him and his comment for being PS3 fanboyism need to worry more about their own projection than about his supposed fanboyism.

As others have pointed out, The 360 suffers an atypically high failure rate. CE industry accepted norms for failure rate are approximately 3% or less. Not 17%, 20%, 33%, or whatever double digit % people which to assert today.

360 was stripped down prior to launch with the removal of the HDD from the base platform. MS stated this was not a problem and that no games would require the HDD. Sadly, this is not true, some games do, and some games require the HDD for any online play. XBL Arcade games are limited to 150MB mostly because the potential lack of HDD presents a problem for storing large downloadable games locally.

HDMI was dismissed by Microsoft as irrelevant time and again. Microsoft actually came out and stated categorically that no game would ever run at 1080p, and that it wasn't necessary to have HDMI. In the end though, MS added HDMI, and some truly 1080p games have arrived on the PS3, though 720p is clearly the standard. If HDMI is so unimportant, why bother adding it?

The point isn't a comparison of Microsoft and Sony, the point is that Microsoft have made some key statements and then performed total 180 subsequently claiming that they never made such statements. It's all BS.

It's like this attempt to distract the HD market post HD-DVD. While HD-DVD was engaged with Blu-Ray, digital downloads were not the flavor of the day. Suddenly with the demise of HD-DVD they become all the rage. The trouble is that with the exception of a tiny, and I mean truly tiny, minority of US, Japanese and UK Internet customers no one has the bandwidth needed to perform HD streaming or downloads. The solutions so far are to compress the living crap out of the content (thus negating the HD nature of it) or to perform silly math and claim that in just a couple of years we'll be able to download an HD movie in mere minutes.

The truth is that most people's peak bandwidth wouldn't be sufficient for even the compressed 'HD' downloads, and even if they were, if millions of customers all started streaming HD movies over the net rather than buying the disk, the net would fail almost immediately. The amount of investment needed in even the elite western nations to make truly high speed broadband Internet universal is colossal and not something that ISPs are going to undertake out of the goodness of their hearts. Look at Comcast, they have a new 50Mbit/second service in one metro area in the US. It starts (starts!!) at $150. And this all supposes that we are all going to suddenly have multi-terabyte disk arrays in our living rooms to host our HD video library. Yep, I can see all of this just springing up in a coupe of years. Oh yeah, I can see it all now. Oh, wait, there's some pigs flying past me....

In the end I still think that Microsoft has a big problem on their hands with the integration of a BluRay player into the 360. I don't see how they can integrate one without alienating their existing customers. So they have to make an add-on. An add-on is pointless since it's movies only and stand alone players will ultimately be cheaper and more capable. Then again, downloads are not the answer in the short to medium term, and so Microsoft are left without a good option from an operational or tactical point of view. Strategically downloads is a sound direction to take -long term. Sony sees this too, but then Sony includes an HDD in every system, where MS doesn't. So one has to wonder who really sees download as a strategy....

US allows visual inspections of nipple rings

The land of the free and the home of the brave?

When the hell will the US wake up and realize that the nightmare is not a nightmare, but a reality? How many more persona freedoms do we have to lose before someone in office wakes up to the fact that all the bull-crap that they have enacted since September 2001 has done nothing to enhance the freedom of the citizenry of the US and has done more to further the aims of the f*cking terrorists than anything the f*cking terrorists have done themselves?

How dangerous is a nipple ring anyway? Is it so threatening that it could being down a plane? What a load of bull. The TSA already pats us down before boarding a plane, we remove our belts and shoes. If their metal detecting wand has found a metal source in a womans cleavage why on earth does the woman have to remove it? Why the hell should she have to strip and allow some voyeuristic TSA agent to oggle her breasts? Isn't it already invasive enough to wave the metal detector and pad the poor passenger down? The female TSA agents already have authorization to perform this type of search on female passengers. Are we afraid that some woman might try to smuggle through a weapon of mass distraction in her cleavage?

I can just see it now, a female hijacker takes the plane by flashing her illicit nipple rings at the passengers and crew to subdue them. Yes, very likely.

What's next? A body cavity search to make sure women aren't smuggling explosives aboard in places that would make even a TSA agent blush?

If this is truly the home of the brave, why are we so afraid of the terrorists that we are willing to give up freedoms and put up with indignities? Perhaps it's time to show how brave we are rather than how shit scared we are?

OOXML approved as international standard?

My BS detector has exploded.

OFFS! This is the same BS that Microsoft pulled when Toshiba needed votes in the DVD forum to get HD-DVD ratified.

Microsoft have a terrible reputation and it appears that with the departure of the Gates, their reputation is headed further and faster into the sewer system than ever before. It's like the slide to the dark side of the force. I picture Microsoft operatives talking to Shouting Steve and the conversation going something like this.

"My lord, the forces of open-ness are advancing before us. They control the vote, they control the standard."

"Yessss. I have foreseen it, all is going according to my plan."

"B...b..but my lord, the vote goes against us."

"Does it? Does it really? Contact our reserve delegates, and transmit the key code phrase - 'money for nothing', using the emergency band. It is time."

"M...m...money for.....?"

"Just do it! Or face my wrath! With my force powers I could use my voice to crack your eardrums, or hurl that chair with a mere flick of my wrist. Do you dare defy me? Begone, and do my bidding!"

"Yes my Lord Steve. I do thy bidding, of course. Excuse your humble servant."

"I said, begone!"

Exec sounds death knell for games consoles

Hmmm...I see.

So, just who do you suspect might benefit from the migration of games to download friendly set top boxes? Company name begins with M and ends with T, has a couple of Os in there too?

Come on, Microsoft can do better than this. They've been trying to push things in this direction for years and so far apart from a sadly large number of sheep in the US few people are falling for it.

The Microsoft model is as follows.

Commodity hardware running Microsoft software. Microsoft software locks users in to Microsoft online experience. Microsoft online experience funnels all revenue to Microsoft. Games will be broken up into components under the pretext of offering gamers ultimate choice. Now you will be able to buy only those portions of the game you want. So you'll be nickel and dime'd to death. EA has already shown this with their Need for Speed ProStreet game. EA sold you codes for cars that were already in the game, you simply had to purchase a code from them that would unlock that car in the game. That's double dipping in my mind, you already paid for the disc and what's on it, why have to pay a second time for something you already bought?

But that's the way. Microsoft wants us all to be hooked up to their network so that they can sell us downloads of all kinds.

Personally I find this kind of pronouncement has about as much going for it as the statements by Nokia that N-Gage is the new wave of mobile gaming. You just have to wonder how they think that they can oevrtake the PSP, nevermind the DS.

Nvidia drivers named as lead Vista crash cause in 2007

Not that I'm sticking up for Nvidia....

But, I do remember reading several reports on the topic of Nvidia and Vista that suggested that Microsoft's changing goal posts effectively yanked the carpet right out from under Nvidia. The result was that the drivers that were apparently working well(ish) had to be redone, quickly, and much unreliability followed.

Some of the documents that have already surfaces in the Vista capable lawsuit paint a picture that sheds some light on the problems that Nvidia and others have had with their drivers. According to internal presentations from Dell "Late OS code changes broke drivers and applications, forcing key commodities to miss launch or limp out with issues".

http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_002570DE00740E18002573FE006B7266.html?ref=technology

So Microsoft made changes to the driver model just before launch and then blamed everyone else for the resulting failures? Smart.

BBC Micro creators meet to TRACE machine's legacy

Memories....

Elite, Revs, Aviator, Sentinel, Citadel, etc....

Magic Mushrooms ruled, especially that effect where they somehow managed to make the screen shake when you fell to your doom.

For all those 'remembering' BBC Basic, many seem to be forgetting things. Someone talked of using gotos for modular programming. IIRC BBC Basic was pretty advanced for BASIC mostly on account of using Functions and Procedures rather than abusing the GOTO or the GOSUB.

I still have one, Model B, with a 2nd processor (6502) and dual disk drives and a music 500. Got the ROM board, though I can't remember all the ROMS i have. The DFS for the 2nd processor loads off a disc image into Sideways RAM, and Elite runs great with that second 6502 and it's memory to play with. Analog joysticks too! Woo hoo!

The Beeb Micro was responsible for my interest in computers, I learned programming using BBC Basic, Pascal, BCPL and even a touch of assembly. By the time I hit university I was ready for more. Great days.

Sony pledges Blu-ray Profile 2.0 PS3 update this month

Mosquito Noise Reduction

Refers specifically to a technique that removes 'noise' from the video image. Basically compression artifacts that are hard to remove with traditional noise reduction are eliminated by Mosquito Noise Reduction. This will help DVD and to a lesser extend BD image quality. It will be interesting to see if this NR makes it to DivX and other video formats that the PS3 handles. Even better would be if this makes it into the PS2 game play on the 20, 60 and 80GB models. Their already good upscaling could be further improved by this.

It was inevitable that Sony would support Profile 2.0 in the PS3, one of the aspects of BD Live is the ability to include a mobile version of the main feature on the BD disk for transfer to a portable player such as the PSP. With each major update Sony really is improving and extending the relationship between the PSP and PS3 systems, so much so that the PSP is becoming far more valuable to PS3 owners that it was before.

Without turning this into a fanboy flame fest, I really do have to wonder why the PSP is still not seen as an incredible value proposition when taken against the far more limited function of the DS. It's not like there is a lack of games any more.

Arthur C. Clarke dead at 90

Words to live by....

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My God, it's full of stars!

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'Freetard ? more like advert programmed PAYTARDS!'

@Richard Kay

WTF? What the hell is wrong with you? I don't give a sh1t is people want to write open source software and give it away, hey more power to you. Ditto is someone wants to record music and hand it out on a website in MP3 format for free. Fine, no problem. The problem is freetards who think that because open source software is a workable concept that every form of digital content ought to be free of charge.

That is simply never going to work. There is no possible libertarian future where professional musicians are simply going to give away the fruits of their labor for free. Nor should they. The same goes for software engineers and anyone else producing digital content. If you believe otherwise then you're a fool.

Free open source software is a world of difference away from music, movies and other digital content.

Honestly, some of the open source community really make me want to shoot a stuffed penguin out of pure frustration. You know I'm about as tired of Microsoft as anyone, but I'm equally tired of people who try to distract from the issue. Bill Gates and Microsoft do not present an ever valid excuse for people to bitch, whine and moan about pay content online. Nor does Microsoft's abuse of its' market power provide a complete argument against the commercial software model. Once again if you believe otherwise you're a fool.

I'm going to take it from your comments that you would consider yourself a freetard. The article is very clear and concise, so I guess you'll be enjoying the drip tray.

Beer analogy

DRM for beer.

Bottled beer that requires an opener. You can only get the opener from the bar tender. Without the opener it's no beer for you. Once you open the beer it must be consumed before it gets too warm and the fizz fades.

The freetards who think why pay simply find an unattended keg and help themselves. The freetards who are taking a principled stand against DRM have their own opener which has allows them to open their beer whenever they like, they can open you beer for you too. Most of the time this is fine because you bought the beer so does it matter if it was the bar tender that opened it? The trouble is that ever now and again one of the opener possessing freetards starts taking bottles without paying and cracking the DRM with their opener. Thus ruining the party for everyone when the brewery changes the bottle top and opener in response to the rogue openers.

Copyright infringement has zilch to do with open source software, the two arguments are not one and the same, people should stop treating them like they are. If we confine this to software alone and Linux vs Windows then there still is no argument. Microsoft have a product that they sell at a price, we can all complain it's too expensive and crap, but we have no right to expect them to give the software away. Linux is free and you can download it anywhere. That doesn't make Microsoft inherently bad, nor does it make Linux inherently superior. Microsoft or any other company selling their software does not restrict people's choice, people can choose Linux if they wish, or they can choose to pay. Microsoft's bullying tactics is not justification for copying Windows or Office from some website and using it without paying. There is no valid argument based in the merits of open source software that makes that theft alright. I'm tired of people who say that there is, because in the end it always comes down to some dogmatic ideology that claims that Microsoft is evil and open source is good therefore it's OK to steal from Microsoft since they're just big bad bullies anyway. If it's wrong to steal from the nice guys, it's just as wrong to steal from the bad guys.

And there, ladies and gentlemen....

....is the perfect illustration of the problem that the content industry faces. According to the freetards people who pay for something are fools. And yet somewhere we seem to have lost the plot. For you see when I grew up, there was this thing I was taught about.

Commonly called theft, it was something along the lines of taking without paying. I'm sure I remember it. There were even these things in stored, CDs. People actually paid for them. Apparently we must all have been under the impression that it cost money to record music, make a CD and ship it to the store and then sell it. Somewhere in there I seem to remember we also thought that the artists and other performers and technicians deserved to be paid for their work.

Imagine that, paying for the product of someone else's labor. Wow.

Now comes the freetard who thinks that paying for something that they can download for free is stupid. I guess it's not theft to them, where as it sure as hell looks like they're taking the product without paying for the product. Now, sure I agree that downloads are over priced poorly encoded mush compared to the full bit rate CD version, so they should be cheaper. But I do think that anyone who believe that because you can download it it should be free, probably doesn't need to be allowed out on their own.

Microsoft denies Xbox 360 is Blu-ray bound

Downloads? Again? When will they come clean?

MS is in a bind, a big, bad bind.

They are claiming that a supply shortage is preventing better sales of the 360 in North America. OK, what caused that shortage, and why do I still see plenty of units in stores? If supply is a problem, where's the out of stock sign at Amazon? MS has already attempted to discount the NPD numbers for February (just in time as well) and have pre-emptively dismissed the March numbers acknowledging that PS3 will sell better in North America during March as well.

I have news for MS, we can see through your smoke screen. Your sales of 360 units have been declining for a year now. The death of HD-DVD did nothing to help and the confusion over a Blu-Ray drive for the 360 won't help you in the future. Worldwide sales of console units have seen the 360 slip into third place for monthly sales for a few months now. Nintendo still leads the way by a considerable margin, but Microsoft is trailing both nintendo and Sony in worldwide console sales. Many people see the Wii as being in a different market segment to the 360/PS3. Certainly from the point of view of consoles capable of HDTV resolution (720p) gaming the PS3 is comfortably outselling the 360 worldwide. 360 still has a greater installed user base, but quoting that fact is akin to sitting on your laurels.

Microsoft claim that Blu-Ray is not part of the Xbox future and instead point to digital downloads. If Digital Downloads were the future why did MS spend so much time and money attempting to have HD-DVD win the HD format war?

Digital downloads are undeniably the future for video - long term. Long term as in 10 years or so. The real problem is that current broadband market penetration is not even close to 100%. Of the customers who have 'broadband' the number with a sufficiently fast typical connection speed is not very large. There are some urban areas where fiber has been installed, and some cable providers quote really good numbers for *peak* bandwidth, but typically the real world sustained bandwidth is no where near this peak. Most DSL customers get between 1.5 and 3 Mbits/second, at best. This is not high enough to handle streaming video at HD resolution, nor even DVD resolution. For downloads to win truly high speed broadband has to become a universally available commodity, just as you can get plain old telephones to work just about anywhere as long as there is a pair of wet strings connecting you. That is simply not going to happen in the short-medium term. There is too much infrastructure to put in place and too much market penetration to be done, especially at a time of economic uncertainty. So downloads, regardless of arguments over quality, are not currently practical for the majority of customers. I'd argue that since the quality of even the best pseudo-HD content available for download is in reality no much better than a well encoded DVD, it's not entirely honest to call it high definition. Granted Apple's HD downloads look better than most of the horribly over-compressed HD pay-per-view movie feeds. Still they aren't HD, and they don't equate to Blu-Ray or HD-DVD.

Last, Microsoft may have a bigger problem with Blu-Ray than the obvious one of not wanting to support anything Sony. Profile 1.1 of Blu-Ray requires certain things. You need to be able to handle two video streams to do the PiP, and you must have at least 256MB of storage available to the Blu-Ray player. Otherwise you're not going to make it as a Profile 1.1 player. Profile 2.0 takes the local storage thing a little further still, mandating 1GB. Microsoft's problem here may be two fold. Can they write a Blu-Ray player for the 360 that can handle the two video streams and do PiP? Can they honestly say that every 360 has 256MB (or 1GB) of local storage for Blu-Ray? The old Core system sure doesn't. Microsoft may literally be in a position where they have to have an almost complete Blu-Ray player as an external add on that simply feeds the processed video via USB to the 60 for display, making the Blu-Ray drive a more complicated add-on to produce than the HD-DVD one ever was.

So there may be both political and technical hurdles for a Blu-Ray Xbox360 add-on. We'll never know, Microsoft aren't telling, and they sure aren't going to admit that the 360 can't handle it, nor will they willingly release a BD add-on that can only manage Profile 1.0.

Like I say, they're in a bind, and it may be a really big, bad bind.

32nd Carry On film is go

Hmm.m..

Limos, London, laughs?

They need Clarkson and friends from Top Gear along with their 'stretch limos' from the show. Hammond's lotus deserves a cameo on it's own.

Northrop: battlefield rayguns to demo this year

Power problems?

Um...laser scientists correct me where I go wrong, but....if their laser is a pulse laser, then their power requirement isn't nearly so nasty as it would be for continuous output. They just have to find a way to hold the charge needed to pulse the lasers at their highest performance. Perhaps some ultra-cap technology would be handy here? For example for a half second pulse of a 100 killowatt laser you need those 100kilo watts for only half a second. If it's 20% efficient, then you need half a mega watt. If you can generate the required charge over a minute, you only need to be generating 1% of the energy needed to fire the laser. in other words the continuous generation capacity need only be about 5000 watts. Say you can generate four times this amount at any given moment, Then you can fire your 100 kilowatt pulse several times a second for a relatively modest generating capacity.

Paris, because she'd say it was hot. So very hot.

@ Mike Richards

How about a fairly annoyed Pike with a laser-pointer glued to it's head?

Nyko beats Sony to PS3 rumble controller release

Lazy crap from Nyko

Oh goodie yet another IR dongle to lose. Did these people even realize that the 40GB model only has two USB ports?

Seriously, how hard can it be to do Bluetooth in a game controller? Every frickin' cheap ass bluetooth headset works just fine. What's so hard about a bluetooth enabled controller? Logitech? What you can't do it? Are you serious? Nyko? ditto. Sheer laziness.

Man webcams butt in Burnout Paradise prang rage

@SkipEU

Did you read the story? Twit.

The story quite clearly states genitalia were shown. That's not simply an arse, though that would certainly be an apt description for the moron who did this. I suspect that it might fit you as well since you apparently feel a need to defend the idiot.

I realize that you may be more immune to the shock value than most, but perhaps you'd like to explain how having someones huge smelly arse shoved in your face can be anything other than offensive? You mention nude beaches. Fine, there's topless ones as well. However it's all about context. You go to a nude beach or a topless beach and you know what you are going to see, you know what is expected. However you don't expect to be flashed by some twit when you're walking along the street, or looking out your window, or playing a video game. I dare say that if you wandered up to someone's home anywhere in the western world and plastered your bare buttocks against their living room window while the family were settling in to watch TV, you would at least be fined, and in some of the more draconian countries you might find a nasty sounding conviction on your record.

Tell you what, why don't you go try that? Then try your arguments about nude beaches on the judge. Go on, see how far you get.

It's not about the fear of nudity, it's about context. In the same nations that have nude beaches you can most definitely be arrested for flashing people. Just because a nation has nude/topless beaches and topless models on page three of their daily newspapers, does that mean that flashers are not committing a crime? Why not whip yourself out on the train on the way home and see what happens? Or do you fear the consequences?

As it happens in this case this idiot was almost certainly using a picture of a bare arse rather than jumping up and downing trou in time for the camera to snap a picture. There's simply not enough time to do that. Besides I know someone who took the time to obtain the PSN-ID in question, added the freak as a friend and manages to capture a takedown picture to see what the fuss was about. It's definitely a situation where the person has their PSEye focused on a picture of someone mooning. Wasn't you by any chance was it?

Perspective

1) yes the game points out that the online experience is unrated, specifically because the webcam/headset make it impossible to govern what happens online.

2) Yes you can turn off your own camera. I can't remember whether you can turn off the incoming smug shots, Definitely a question for Criterion.

3) Exposing yourself in a public or private setting to a minor actually constitutes a sex crime in most western nations. It doesn't matter whether you do it by webcam or in public, the offense will be the same.

4) A brief note for budding exhibitionists Playstation Network IDs are fixed and registered. You can create a sub account that has a different screen name to your actual master account, but the two tie back together. The system maintains a list of those people you've played against, and Burnout Paradise keeps a cache of the most recent smug shots and takedown images along with the players PSN tag. So It's a pretty simple matter to establish that a) someone did this and b) who it was (screenname/PSN id). Sony will then be more than happy to comply with any court backed request for the identity behind the PSN-id. End result? Any twit stupid enough to expose themselves on a public Playstation Network webcam feed runs the risk of being branded a sex criminal.

We have Burnout Paradise (my wife is almost as much of a regular playing it as I am) and my wife collects Barbie Dolls (the collectible variety). So we set up a 'Take Down' sign and a couple of cheer-leading Barbies so that we can send a harmless image to people. The reaction of other players is often hilarious. I set up my cheer-leader with a Barbie sized Washington Redskins jersey featuring the current QBs number. We have had people describe them as 'sexy' Cheerleaders (we think that players in question need to get out more). That wasn't quite the aim, we just wanted some funny image to send.

I have a feeling that you can restrict camera feeds to friends only, so the 'answer' to this, both on PS3 and 360 I suspect, is to alter the settings on the camera feeds.

Paris, because I have a great new idea for a "take-down" image...

Jodrell Bank offloaded on eBay

After the fall of Empire...

...Comes the vanishing without a trace.

Jodrell Bank is/was one of the most famous, if not renowned, names in radio astronomy and an icon to the British science community. It's featured in countless science fiction tales and now because of a lack of imagination and ambition shown by the junior PM appointed to replace the Blair it is to be lost, forever.

Pathetic. I left the UK in 2001 having married an American. When I got here I was continually amazed and disillusioned by the innumerable petty ways in which I considered the US to be beneath contempt. Over the last two or three years the pace of my disillusionment with the US has fallen to almost nothing as the UK has time after time out done the 'achievments' of the Dubya Years in the US. It actually makes me both angry and very sad to read stories about the rapidly fading light that was once the United Kingdom.

Gordon Brown, well what do you expect? Is it any wonder that a man of finance doesn't bat an eyelid at bailing out a bank with 10's of billions, and yet can't even consider a tiny fraction of that to save fundamental aspects of scientific research? Gordon Brown, a man who makes even John f*cking Major look dynamic and interesting. John Major at very least had the distinction of actually being a nice guy. Gordon Brown's only distinction appears to be the ability to sound pompous while announcing a budget. What a disaster as PM.

Paris, because a vapid heiress with highly questionable morals still has more principle than Gordon Brown and the rest of the Blair cronies running what passes for a government on the eastern side of the big pond.

US gives thumbs up to OOXML for ISO standard

Sad thing

The sad thing is that the fix was in before they debated a thing, and no I don't mean that any money changed hands or anything. Anyone who thinks that the US delegation wouldn't side with MS has simply not been paying attention. The choice between the MS standard and the commie pinko Euro-standard is clear. Why would the US back a non-US standard controlled and specified by a non-US body?

Anytime anything like this comes up, if you want to know who the US delegates will side with regardless of technical merit, look to the US side.

Taking the piste: Wii to bring skiing to the living room

@Tom

I didn't say it was any good, and as I remember it IGN's problems with the game centered around only having two courses and their dislike of motion control with Sixaxis...

The point? Innovation. Smell it. Taste it. It tastes like Chicken.

I do believe that fanboi flambe will be among my favorites now. Do I smell something burning?

shameless fanboi flamebait

But....didn't....PS3...already...do..a..ski game?

Nintendo are *so* innovative.

Paris - because innovation may or may not start with "Bend ze kneez".

Asus to offer Linux-less Eee PCs globally

Interesting

Asus have done something that might be considered significant.

When was the last time that a motherboard maker or generic box maker was able to call the shots with Microsoft? Do you really think Microsoft saw the Eee PC and thought that their chums at Intel and HP and Dell would be delighted by the prospect of these things running Windows? So then, the sight of a sub compact notebook running Linux being a success in the market made their head snap round. Suddenly that 'soon to be end of line' product XP is available on the Eee PC. Think perhaps XP is not so soon to be end of line? Microsoft certainly had to do something or else see potentially millions of young and geeky users using Linux daily.

Actually, this thing running XP might be a very good value prospect, and decently functional to boot.

Paris, because we need a shop'd image of a gold encrusted Paris with an Eee PC.

US dairyman inaugurates bovine biogas plant

Not close enough?

Why is that a problem? Smaller scale or more remote operations simply have a wind powered compressor to collect the gas and store it ready for collection by their gas company. Heck re-package it as the new propane and sell it at convenience stores to folks needing something to power their huge gas grills and patio heaters.

Paris, because.

Sony exec confirms arrival of in-game PS3 messaging

@ Mark Jones + others

Mark, so you need DTS-HD so badly that your life will be ruined without it eh? Well, here's what you do, go buy a stand alone Blu-Ray player that supports it. Good grief, PS3 pretty much does it all. the 80GB model p[lays about 80% of PS2 games, all PS1 games, All PS3 games, CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Rays. You can have MP3s, photos, streamed media, MP4s, DivX, etc... Yet the lack of DTS-HD is going to ruin the party? Whatever.

'Course Sony might add it in a future update, along with many other features they've already added. PS3 is like the gift that keeps on giving, it's gotten better and better over the months. Best of all, other than the purchase price it's free.

@AC and others flapping away at the usual flamebait - boring. Let's sum it up. Xboxers say PS3 is only now catching up and is crap because of that. PS3ers say that Xbox is crap because it costs $$ and still doesn't work and besides All this extra stuff is coming for free, it's just taking a little while to arrive.

Here's what I say. Xboxers - shut up, this is a PS3 article, who the hell cares about how this compares to Xbox? PS3ers - shut up, this is a PS3 article, who the hell cares about how this compares to Xbox? Got it? Good.

Now, anyone who is still bitching about the lack of in-game cross game messaging so I can talk to my buddy playing Warhawk while I tear it up in Burnout Paradise. My question is this, apart from being able to send a message to each other, for example to tell my friend to hurry up and get himself out of Warhawk so I can cane his ass in Burnout. Apart from that, why would I need voice chat with him? Voice chat from one game to another is simply one distraction too far. If I want to talk to my friend, there's this thing called a phone. It's been around for years and is really quite easy to use and relatively inexpensive to operate.

Look, it's nice that Sony are adding these features, but there is entirely too much emphasis placed on them. In game chat, in game video messaging, in-game custom music, etc... None of these are life changing. Besides PS3 already supports messaging from the XMB. It also supports custom sound tracks, it's in the OS, it can be done, but the game developer has to use it. People amaze me when they complain that's not enough and want Sony to provide the custom sound track regardless of the game. Most game devs provide a choice of tracks selected particularly for their game. Some games have specific music to set the mood and mark events. Game independent custom soundtracks have just never made sense to me. Some games and some game modes would benefit from custom sound. Great. Now, can the devs please do it? Other than that, let the game creator and director have their artistic license.