It’s hard to say yet how large a problem this really is, but it could be seriously bad news for Microsoft. Most users reporting problems are playing on default settings. Surely those defaults shouldn’t be too much for the system to handle.
Nintendo has seen an overwhelming response to it’s first game with online multiplayer support. And why wouldn’t they?
On Nov. 14, Mario Kart DS became the first game to use Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Through the end of Sunday, more than 112,000 people in the United States had purchased the game. In the same time frame, nearly 52,000 unique users had logged onto Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to play against people from all over the country.
That’s roughly 46 percent. In the first week. That’s an excellent sign for Nintendo’s Wi-Fi service; it means that even those less than tech savvy people were comfortable enough to use the service almost immediately. It also means that there are tons of people out there wanting to play Mario Kart. I know I’m looking forward to it, because for the first time I’ll be able to compete against people anywhere, not just the ones who live close enough to invite over. So watch out (Sheena, Dylan, jirkstore). It’s only a matter of time.
I’ve been in class all day, and since it’s not the most exciting subject material in the world I’ve been browsing. Some people started discussing the Xbox 360 in our Gaming discussion folder. Surprisingly very were actually enthusiastic about the new system at all, let alone running out tonight to get one. Then someone mentioned eBay. I watched an auction come to a close this morning with a winning bid of $3,350. What? For a gaming console that costs $400? I saw one later go for $5,100. For no particular reason. The consoles are available today, and shortages can’t be bad enough yet to make them worth that much money. Pe0ple are just stupid.
Most of the people here that commented in the discussion folder said they were at least waiting to buy a 360, if not skipping it altogether. I was pretty surprised by that, and even more surprised when most of them said they were waiting specifically for the Revolution. Only one person said they were going to wait for the PS3 to come out before deciding what to do.
I stand firm with the Revolution camp. The Xbox 360 looks nice, it really does. I played one the other day: the controller felt good in my hand, the game looked great in Hi Def, but it wasn’t enough to make me want to buy one. Especially not for the $400 it would take to get a fully functional system. And what about the games? The launch titles are nothing special, many of them even sound underwhelming.
Can you imagine a single disc that could hold your entire music and movie libraries combined? It sounds like something out of Star Trek, but it’s not as far away as you might think. In fact, it’s already here. Maxell has introduced a new type of disc that can get it done – holographic media. The first generation discs will hold 300GB with a 20MBPs transfer rate.
“Holographic media makes it possible for millions of pages of information and high definition images to be held on one small, relatively inexpensive disc,” said Steven Pofcher, senior marketing manager at Maxell. “Imagine having a person’s entire medical history, complete with MRI images, or storing a broadcast network’s entire HD Library on a single disc. These are both possible with holographic technology, which has such large capacity that approximately a half million 300-page books can be stored on a single disc.”
Now how “relatively inexpensive” will each disc be?
It sounds like the company will be renamed at&t as part of a deal between SBC and AT&T. They’ll get a new “updated” logo (it looks silly) and go back to a boring name. Why they can’t stick with something mildly original, I have no idea.
I’ll admit I’m a fan of lights on houses during the holidays, but this might be a little overboard. Did I mention awesome?
I found an interesting article that explains what Google plans to do with all their dark fiber. This whole thing is pretty incredible. It’s a really interesting read. I wonder how accurate this really is?
Update: Here’s a little expansion on Cringely’s article.
With all the extra work I’ve been doing from home I’ve gotten really behind on a lot of the news I usually follow. I haven’t been watching the Daily Show as much (there’s a new supreme court nominee, what?), and I’ve been missing out on some tech news stories I might otherwise have talked about. So here’s where I catch up.
Whew! I hate getting so far behind.
I’ve been trying to earn some extra cash at work by getting certified in some other small applications. It was a good plan, except that after a point they expect you to study and do projects outside of your regular hours. I’ve spent time in the evenings over the last two weeks getting this project wrapped up so I would be better prepared for a test tomorrow. I finally finished it about five minutes ago. I’ve gotten behind on some other stuff in that time so maybe now I can catch up a little bit. Just one more class, project, and test after this one tomorrow (for a while anyway). Woohoo.
Update: I passed the test.
So I’m sitting at work listening to my iPod when a Something Corporate song comes on. I started wondering if they had a new album coming out anytime soon, so I went to their official site only to find out that their lead singer was diagnosed with Acute Lymphatic Leukemia back in June. That really sucks, but they say he is expected to make a full recovery. I also found out he’s the lead singer for another band called Jack’s Mannequin that released a new album in
August. I’m gonna have to check it out while I wait for his recovery so he can go back to making awesome music.