No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow.
Thursday, June 20
Thursday: Outlook Improving
It seems someone got hold of my credit card details and went on a short-lived spending spree, before my bank caught it and cut them off. Not sure how, because I'm pretty careful with it, but all it takes is one website that isn't careful and splat.
I wouldn't be too surprised if we hear in the next few days that some internet company or other got compromised.
Anyway, that's one of the things that messed up my Monday and Tuesday this week, though I only found out the cause of the mess today. New card is on the way now.
Of course, this happened right when I needed that card to pay important bills, but there's not much of the month when I don't need that card. So, ugh.
Also need to check that AVG and Ad-Aware are up to date and scan the hell out of my computer, in case I picked up a nasty. Just did a full AVG scan on the weekend, though (it runs Sunday night), and it came up clean.
My day job really came through for me here, letting me put some urgent bills on a company credit card. So I don't need to worry about the lights going out either virtually (one of them was for server hosting) or literally (the other was my electricity bill).
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
12:54 PM
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After being sandbagged by Sony at E3 last week, Microsoft has wised up and removed the requirement that the Xbox One connect to Microsoft to re-authenticate itself every 24 hours. They've also removed the restriction on selling or lending disc-based games.
Now if they just allow you to run it without the Kinect and cut the price by $100, they'll have a slower PS4 with less available memory...
They could also stop trying to bullshit everyone about the cloud, but there I'm not sure that they actually realise what they're doing; I suspect they may believe their own nonsense.
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It isn't so much that they believe their own B.S. about the cloud, it's that they fervently want the World to believe their B.S. about the cloud so they can rake in more money from those who sign up.
Reminds me of when they sent a pair of sales dweebs over to our office with a big pitcher of Vista-flavored Kool-aid back when it first launched. (Sadly for them, there were 4 or 5 of us there that day that did nothing but hammer them on Vista's failings. They were sweating when they left.)
Posted by: the Cyberwolfe at Thursday, June 20 2013 03:01 PM (CUkqs)
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No kidding! That was my degree in college as well. Good on her!
~I bet you thought this is where I'd say something like "None of the girls in my classes looked anything like her", but No! I will take the high road here.~
P.S. They didn't.
:-D
Posted by: Tommy at Wednesday, June 19 2013 07:37 AM (70H8v)
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If they take that prototype and go into production, I'll buy one! No matter how much it costs!
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Wednesday, June 19 2013 08:18 AM (+rSRq)
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I was all prepared to point out that his eyes should have blown out and all that sort of thing... except it's nowhere near vacuum, and I appear to just be a miserable b*st*rd.
And it's a toy friggin' train.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Tuesday, June 18 2013 01:22 PM (4qAlp)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
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Monday, June 17
The Moment Sony Returned To Relevance
Sony Electronics has not been a happy bunny the last few years. Though they've produced some fine products, they haven't been the trend-setter and status symbol they once were.
At E3 this year, in one shining moment, they turned around all those problems and made themselves relevant again. Not just relevant, but hugely important:
Note that all he really said was: We are not going to screw you over any more than we already do. And the response was just short of a standing ovation.
For those not following the story, Microsoft recently launched the third model of the Xbox, the Xbox One.* It requires an internet connection, and phones home once a day, and deactivates itself if it can't connect. All your games are attached to your account, so you can't simply lend the disk to a friend or sell it; you have to go to a registered second-hand game dealer and have the game de-registered from your account and registered to theirs - and that's if the developer has decided to allow that at all. Oh, and Kinect, the motion-sensor-camera-recorder-thingy, is now a core part of the system and must be connected and on to use the system. Though in theory you can deactivate some of its functions.
And to rub salt into the wound, the PS4 is 50% faster** and $100 cheaper. The difference in price is largely made up by the Kinect hardware; the Sony equivalent adds $60 to the price of the PS4. But the Sony one you can unplug.
I'll leave it to the gentle reader to discover the allegorical implications in this little tale.
Oh, and Sony? If you ship the Xperia Z Ultra as something like the rumours (1080p 6.44" screen, Snapdragon 800, 2GB RAM, 64GB flash, microSD, and a stylus), I'll likely buy two. You just nailed my wishlist.
* Yeah.
** Mileage may vary, but the PS4 and Xbox One have the exact same AMD graphics engine, except that the PS4 has 50% more cores - 1152 vs. 768.
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All this is purely marketing. Sony was sliding in Microsoft's direction for a while, with things like PSP Go. It's fairly obvious that digital distribution is the way to go. All Microsoft have to do is to correct their "phone home" silliness and voila, they are a generation ahead.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Monday, June 17 2013 03:24 AM (RqRa5)
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Yep, it's pure marketing, but it's brilliant marketing. It's a classic example of never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. All Sony needed to do was sit back while Microsoft told their customers to go fuck themselves, and then not do that.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Monday, June 17 2013 01:32 PM (PiXy!)
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But the point is, they are alrady doing "that". They only pretend they are somewhat different, for propaganda purposes.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tuesday, June 18 2013 02:37 AM (RqRa5)
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They are not doing that to prospective PS4 owners. Yet, anyway; tomorrow is another fish. And that's all that they needed. It's a low hurdle to jump, but the only other runner in the race decided to cut their own legs off.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, June 18 2013 09:01 AM (PiXy!)
If it's pretty but lacks functionality, make it ugly but functional.
If it's dull but functional, make it pretty but useless.
No you don't get a say in the matter. You will want what you have been told to want.
iOS 7 is just nasty. Must remember to update my iPad to iOS 6 at some point before 7 comes out.
The new Mac Pro Mini is interesting; the world's first high-end workstation that requires a desktop dock. (Available 5¼" drive bays: Zero. Available 3½" drive bays: Zero. Available 2½" drive bays: Zero. Available PCIe slots: Zero.) Up to 12 cores and 64GB RAM, which is exactly the same as the previous model. On the other hand, it's small and looks like an ashtray.
There's a lot of fuss going on about the Mac Pro Mini. If Apple had released it as a new product alongside a lightly updated (socket 2011) full-size Mac Pro, everyone would be ecstatic. But no.
Ask any Mac Pro users where "small size” sits on their list of workstation needs and they will tell you it's down at the bottom, squarely between "should make my bed in the morning” and "covered in fur.”
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tuesday, June 11 2013 01:09 PM (F7DdT)
2iOS 7. There are worse things on the internet, true, but it's pretty damn awful.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, June 11 2013 04:10 PM (PiXy!)
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I just took a look at the Mac Pro. What a weird design. At Ars Technica they describe it is a PC designed for Darth Vader, and started referring to it as the "Vader Pro".
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Wednesday, June 12 2013 03:09 AM (+rSRq)
And with a little flup on my doorstep, another Kickstarter project delivers the goods. This time, dice. In each of six colours (red, blue, green, yellow, black, and white): d4, d6, d7, d8, d10, d12, d14, d16, d18, d20, d22, d24, and d30.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, June 11 2013 12:19 PM (PiXy!)
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I finally lost my Kickstarter virginity this evening... not over a computer game, though. Ursula Vernon's "Digger" omnibus could not be denied, and since I was throwing away money anyway I sprinkled some in the direction of Patrick Rothfuss' "Name Of The Wind" playing cards project.
So, come year end I should have some neat new stuff. *wry grin*
Posted by: GreyDuck at Tuesday, June 11 2013 01:27 PM (CUkqs)
