JonCole

Yeah, I've been watching it. The graphics are pretty damn corny, but I can see why they would be, considering it's a television show and not a movie. They probably didn't want to invest a ton of capital into special effects for a series revival that's essentially a gamble. The reason for the hiatus was that they only made the first four episodes for ABC... only after the success of those first four episodes did ABC decide to order a whole season.

I agree with everyone else, as seems to be the trend. All I can say is if you're not used to companies pinning "green" marketing on cost-cutting procedure yet, you will be. This is the standard - using cheap recyclables to justify lower build quality, cutting out any non-essential excess for the cause of "preserving natural resources", etc. But to swivel back from the overly cynical, at least they're right on some level, even if their primary motives may be a little less savory.

This argument feels pretty damn old at this point. This is my parting shot, because I just feel like anything past this is going to be a waste of time. - Say what you will about Microsoft PR, there are many reasons that Windows 7 has sold nearly 100 million copies in this short of time and I can guarantee you that two of them are quality and marketing. - You're often conflating your word (interface) with my word (usability). Usability amounts to more than just the interface. Battery life, software, hardware design, and such also contribute to usability. iTunes may not be heralded as the most reigned in, optimal program now, but back then it was fairly progressive. - I never said the iPod's interface was "revolutionary". I don't have much use for hyperbole like that. Looking at the very example you present, most contemporary MP3 players look like a total mess. The simple fact that Apple boiled down the interface to fewer disparate buttons was a huge step in the right direction at the time. - You bring up the iPod's compatibility with Windows in 2003... regardless of how good Apple's PR is, have you considered the fact that people were probably more comfortable buying a product with a four-year pedigree than an untested device in 2006? Anyways, sorry for the wall of text, just had a lot of points to address there. When it comes down to it, though, I honestly just think that Apple deserves their success even if marketing drives the brunt of their sales. Microsoft has both the resources and the experience to put a good marketing push out on any product they'd like (note my previous example, Windows 7, and other things like the Xbox 360). I think I've only seen quality advertisement for their Zune Pass stuff in the past year or so, but beyond that nothing else supporting the Zune. If they'd only have faith in their own product, I'm sure other people would too.

I'm getting 124, but my internet performance has been inexplicably acting up today, so I wouldn't take that number too seriously. Nonetheless, it's not particularly bad or anything.

Seconded, definitely. Moon was probably my favorite movie of 2009. On the topic of Netflix Instant View, Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan is also on there, I hear. KHAAAAAAAANNNNN! Also, just burned through season 3 of Burn Notice in a single day. Really entertaining show.

I feel like you're overemphasizing my points... Apple will be more successful due to their marketing, but they will also be more successful because their execution will be that much better, as well. The simple fact that they're using low-powered hardware to achieve limited goals at a very high level of quality shows their prowess at targeting average consumers - most people don't give two shits about what specs a machine has, rather how easy it is to use and how good it feels to use it. Don't get me wrong, the Apple marketing machine is powerful. But it wasn't always powerful... the early generation iPods didn't have tons of advertising muscle behind them. But there's a fairly distinct reason that the iPod succeeded among contemporary fledgling MP3 players and other formats like MiniDisc - usability.

No, I didn't miss that. What I'm saying is the iPod Touch's interface isn't translatable to the Zune's. I don't really know how to address what you linked me... if you're saying you don't care about apps, it's hard to ignore them if you own a Touch. That's what I was commenting on... having a list (in the style of the Zune) of hundreds of apps simply doesn't work. If you're saying the Zune came out before the Touch, so what? They both exist now and you were making the comparison by saying that the Zune has the better interface. That's like saying - "Well, you can't say Mac OS 10 is better than Windows 95 because they weren't released at the same time!" Just because it's an unfair comparison doesn't mean you can't compare them at all.

N'gai tears him apart: http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/levelup/archive/2007/07/30/croal-vs-ebert-vs-barker-on-whether-video games-can-be-high-art-round-1.aspx

Jon Stewart asks the simple question... what if his whole audience was made up of wizards? Tracy Morgan gives his two cents. http://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/2010/04/16/tobey-maguire-owes-tracy-morgan-75/

I believe Chris used the word "nutso" twice in this podcast. I haven't heard the word nutso since watching various nineties teen movies. For some reason this fact jumped out at me.

I've been recently playing with the idea of switching from wired to wireless peripherals... it's not that I'm not satisfied with what I've got as far as performance goes, but the appeal of wireless shit taking out... well, the wires, is increasingly appealing. The only thing I'm considering is how I'm going to offload what I've got already. So, not looking to do this anytime in the immediate future, but would anyone in the US be interested in buying a Logitech G15 keyboard or G9 laser mouse? I'd be selling them greatly reduced from retail simply because they're used, the only other thing to keep in mind would be shipping. As to not clog up this thread, just shoot me a PM if you'd consider it.

It's sort of difficult to compare the Zune interface with the iPod Touch interface, considering they're trying to do completely different things. I think that 100 or more apps listed in pure text with only 6-8 apps showing at a time would be pretty goddamn horrendous.

This is pretty fucked, but I think this doesn't have much to do with Mythic. Anyways, isn't Mythic essentially dissolved and integrated into Bioware?

I'm not going to listen to the podcast again, but I don't think that anyone said anything like that. I have enough confidence in Chris to assume he knows even the most basic elements of Statistics 101. It was never claimed that one has the confidence to know the outcome of a game, rather that the psychological (read: not confidence levels, etc) confidence of winning a previous game might sabotage the next. I don't think I'd listen to a podcast where a host thought the rule of averages could apply to two games of Starcraft. Edit: Chris types much faster than me, apparently.

This. And on top of Windows 7 Home Premium, as well. I agree completely. Every time I hear someone discuss "full featured operating systems" on a tablet, I picture Windows Mobile devices. And then I cringe.

3GS, iPod Touch 3rd Generation (circa 2009), iPad.

Blow me away with your huge list of features that the iPhone is lacking, please. Otherwise, I think that my comment that most of the major gaps have been closed is still fairly accurate.

Yeah, there's nothing more I want to see than a picture taken of Cage on the toilet for a half-hour.

That is precisely the card I have, hope you enjoy it!

So, iPhone OS 4.0 looks pretty rad. Multitasking, folders, custom backgrounds... at this point, Apple reclosed most of the major gaps that I could see between their competitors. What do you guys think?

I've just recently gotten into Radiolab, but I definitely think they're different in subtle ways. Radiolab tends to have much stronger presence of the interviewer, whereas TAL is a bit more passive and I feel is more about the people than the "message". Both are pretty high on the scale as far as podcasts go, though.

Fair enough! I didn't know you were delving through the backlog. I've been doing it recently, which has been a ton of fun. That app is absolutely a godsend for TAL lovers.

I have a Radeon 5770 and I'd definitely recommend it. As far as power consumption goes, it's definitely the pick of the two... I remember reading several reviews before I bought it that said it's one of the most efficient cards out there. I also don't really know where you got that 15% better performance number for the GTX 260, Quanta, as I distinctly remember that they were fairly well matched for the most part. In terms of features, I ultimately chose DX11 over PhysX because there are far more possibilities with the former while the latter is almost purely cosmetic. So far, I've played two games with DX11 support (Call of Pripyat, Bad Company 2) and they both run as smooth as butter. Finally, I love the multi-monitor support. I have two monitors on my desk and a television not too far away, all hooked up at once. It support up to three monitors running concurrently and provides audio over HDMI. ATI makes it easy with their software, too, as simply enabling the television automatically switches the audio to the HDMI. Usually I can get up and running in a few seconds.

I honestly think that Apple thinks almost purely in PR as far as app rejection goes. This is both the blessing and curse of mainstream appeal - I can guarantee that most people who use the iPhone don't recognize a huge distinction between Apple and the app developers. This is why Apple runs so much marketing on the various good apps via television ads and such... anything that bolsters the platform makes them look good in general. On the other hand, anything that might cause stability problems, report inaccurate information, or make their own software look bad is subject to rejection, it seems. Essentially, wipe away all the bad eggs and false positives, and you're guaranteed successes despite the unnecessary casualties.

Have you ever used a 1024 x 600 resolution screen? Also, read the second half of that microparagraph (rebolded for emphasis):