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| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=11325 |  RedRay (345) Jul 25, 2006 - 06:02 am
| ATI support for the Intel platform will wane, regardless of what AMD/ATI say in the interview. Intel was never an easy partner to work with, just ask Nvidia! By the next chipset generation (post 975) AMD/ATI won't be getting enough info from Intel to complete a chipset. Crossfire on post 975? Forget it.
That leaves a big chunk of market share open on Intel boxes. Nvidia has a big opportunity here. The question is will Intel let Nvidia take it? Let's face it, Intel hates Nvidia. Will Intel get over that and make nice? Or will Intel keep on trying to box out Nvidia and grab market share for its own crappy, yet unit market share leading GPUs? That's the $64 question. Nightmare for Nvidia would be if Intel reacts by buying the GPU division of SiS or VIA, leaving it as the third wheel out in the cold. For its part Nvidia now needs to at least think about what its response would be if Intel asks it if it wants to be acquired. I'm guessing the answer would be: "No, but..." Flag this | Edit this post |
| Siteseeing Link » /news/siteseeingarticle.asp?searchid=3120 | RedRay (345) Jul 24, 2006 - 06:44 pm
| | Saw a documentary one time where Armstrong was talking about the landing and how due to bad terrain they had to overshoot the intended landing area and were thus so low on fuel that they had seconds before they would have an uncontrolled (and undoubtably fatal) landing. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=11267 | RedRay (345) Jul 21, 2006 - 11:28 am
| | You say no brainer, I say Sony has zero chance of producing let alone selling 15mm boxes by June '07. I've repeatedly stated that the console battle for this generation will not really begin unitl Summer '07. It is only at that point that Sony's production will outstrip built in demand from hardcore fans - just as it took until about now for X360 to reach that same stage. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=11267 | RedRay (345) Jul 21, 2006 - 09:44 am
| Double? Seems like triple (user base) to me. But we all know that with these new systems the production ramp can be very steep. Still I don't think Halo 3 can drive that 15mm by 1H '07 number, since release time frame for that ti*tle is probably 2H '07.
But if MSFT can get to those sorts of numbers, Sony is in trouble. Deep trouble. We'll see. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=11245 | RedRay (345) Jul 21, 2006 - 09:39 am
| | You make the mistake of assuming that CPU power is a function ONLY of gaming fps. It is not. But I will bet you that a non-GPU constrained gaming FPS test is a better predictor of how well the CPU performs on number crunching, video coding/decoding, etc. than a GPU constrained gaming FPS test. And for that reason FS' CPU tests are more relevant than HOCP's. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=11245 | RedRay (345) Jul 20, 2006 - 01:17 pm » Edited on Jul 20, 2006 - 01:17 pm
| | HardOCP is a good site, but in this case they are 99% wrong. They are hiding behind a very sl*im truth: that in a GPU constrained test you will not see a difference between Core2 and AMD FX. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=11239 | RedRay (345) Jul 20, 2006 - 09:07 am
| >incorrect reports that jeopardize its relationships with clients
Translation: these rumors that we will be shipping soon got Sony all creamy wet, but we actually dont think we can go that soon if we cant get it done they'll fire us. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=11236 | RedRay (345) Jul 20, 2006 - 08:06 am
| | The X360 racing genre already has a number of decent ti*tles, so that may explain the desire to opt for lower pricing. Then again that hasn't stopped devs with shooter ti*tles from sticking to higher pricing on the X360... Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=11194 | RedRay (345) Jul 18, 2006 - 08:59 pm
| | Despite being a die hard PC gamer, this patch later phenomenon is really one of the biggest reasons why console gaming has surpassed PC gaming. The creeping patch later behavior is however starting to seep into X360 games and probably will into PS3 games as well. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=11113 | RedRay (345) Jul 13, 2006 - 10:45 am
| >PingThrottle Technology – allows gamers to adjust ping their Ping higher or lower depending on game play.
Haha, yeah you can adjust your ping to be higher than standard and from that level you can adjust it back down to where it was originally. That's LOWER! Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=11111 | RedRay (345) Jul 13, 2006 - 07:38 am
| | They'll still have a pre-Xmas launch, but the units will be lower than anticipated. Sony has a stated objective of 1mm units produced per month after launch (and 1mm units available at launch). That always seemed rather aggressive. Now we know it is. My guess is that they ship 5mm units (back end loaded of course) by the Summer of 2007. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=11069 | RedRay (345) Jul 11, 2006 - 09:40 am » Edited on Jul 11, 2006 - 09:43 am
| | The problem with Turbine MMOs is that they are way understaffed relative to the number of projects they work on. Thus their ti*tles, while having some great features are unfinished, lacking content (D&D Online) or having poor game balance (Asheron's Call) or both (Asheron's Call 2). Once they get everything nailed down they can make a great game (Asheron's Call), but why pay while waiting when there are already good MMOs out there? Flag this | Edit this post |
| Siteseeing Link » /news/siteseeingarticle.asp?searchid=3048 | RedRay (345) Jul 07, 2006 - 08:15 am
| | Title is misleading. Nowhere in the article does it state that the woman was a teacher. As we all know from historical incident there is at least a 50% chance of the female teacher in these incidents of being a hottie. But in this case it seems she was just (literally) trailer trash. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=10998 | RedRay (345) Jul 06, 2006 - 06:58 am
| Not that academic grades are the end-all-be-all of "smart determination", but let's not forget that Bush was a "gentleman's C" student all thru Yale (a place where just showing up guarantees you a C).
Bush V2.0 isn't a dunce like Dan Quayle, but his intelligence is clearly below the population average. Odd since his father seemed smarter. But then again geneticists claim that male children inherit almost all of the intelligence from the female parent. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=10989 | RedRay (345) Jul 06, 2006 - 05:50 am
| You need to rethink your numbers. In no way shape or form will Sony be able to ship 20 mm PS3 units in the year. X360 won't even ship 10mm units in its first year and it has a lower transistor count. And you WILL get manufacturing efficiencies with a 10mm/yr run rate. The question is how well will Blu-Ray production scale. We know from the DVD product cycle that 50% cost declines were triggered well before 4mm units were achieved on an industry wide scale. Given PS3's production will be concentrated with a more limited number of contractors, its logical to assume the cost decline will occur at least as soon.
And certainly Sony and more importantly Sony shreholders have shown in the past an ability to stomach losses. In 2004 the firm lost about US$1 billion and stock finished up on the year. With a market cap of about US$50 bln, a $1 bln loss to defend market share in a critical product would be acceptable. $2 bln? There would be unhappy campers, but Sony would not be "gone". Far from it.
P.S. Sony hypes the system because that's what businesses do. Fear has nothing to do with it. They'd hype it just as much if they knew (rather than thought) it'd be a success. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Siteseeing Link » /news/siteseeingarticle.asp?searchid=3034 | RedRay (345) Jul 05, 2006 - 07:50 pm
| | The story behind the story is that Koby had eat back down his vomit in order not to lose by disqualification. This is the unwritten rule of eating contests. If it comes up, it doesn't count. Everything must be in the stomach at the same time. We had a eating contest (solo) one time where the contestant had the food come back up and she tried to put it back in, but just couldn't. We had about $5k in private wagers on that one. Epic. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=10989 | RedRay (345) Jul 05, 2006 - 07:44 pm
| | Irrelevant. First few months production will sell out regardless. If Sony finds that excess demand exists only for the high end unit, then they simply target production ramp there. The hard thing to ramp will be the CPUs and Blu-Ray. Those exist on both SKUs. It's not like it will be hard to ramp 60GB HDs instead of 20GB HDs. But we are talking about massive $ losses at the necessary price points. If Sony gets overconfident (and arguably they have demonstrated that trait already), they won't lower prices fast enough and they'll get pasted. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=10989 | RedRay (345) Jul 05, 2006 - 05:48 pm
| Sony can still succeed with PS3. Initially it will sell out even at these high prices, tho as much due to low unit supply as high demand. After supply gets ramped up, if Sony drops the price to say $399, it will sell well. Very well. But we are now talking about massive $ losses for Sony at that price point. It all depends on how willing they are to bleed in order to defend their market share.
If they aren't aggressive in lowering the price, then sometime around mid-07 I would expect PS3 plateau at lower unit sales than X360 (which by then should be priced at $299 for the premium system). And that's not good given PS3 will start with about a 5mm lower installed base.
MSFT has some challenges remaining too. It can deny all it wants, but the failure rate on early X360 units IS higher than normal. Maybe later steppings will be more reliable. But we don't know yet. My X360 (initial production batch) failed at the 8 month mark. We just haven't seen the latter production batches in operation long enough to tell if they will experience a high fail rate.
Wii the winner? Only if people just get too fed up with both PS3 and X360. But on the other hand the downside for Wii is also lower. At its MUCH lower transistor count, Nintendo just doesn't need as many units to drive down average unit cost. So it could get 20% market share and actually be profitable. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Siteseeing Link » /news/siteseeingarticle.asp?searchid=3016 | RedRay (345) Jul 03, 2006 - 08:16 am
| | I've actually seen this event and its pretty funny. It's gotten kind of "big" in Northeastern Europe and so now its more commercial. It used to be just a great excuse to get together and drink beer. The "reverse Estonian" position has been proven over the years to be the most efficient way to carry a smaller person. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=10945 | RedRay (345) Jun 30, 2006 - 01:51 pm
| Sony needs to have two things happen:
1) Have production ramp up rapidly so they have a ton of units to sell come Summer '07. With higher unit production, unit costs go down and they can then more easily justify a price cut in this time frame.
2) Blue-Ray is a commercial success come Summer '07. X360 and possibly Wii will see price cuts by mid '07, so even with a PS3 price cut, you still need to have something justify a higher PS3 price. The only possibility is the Blue-Ray drive.
Prior to Summer '07, unit production of PS3 will be so limited that Sony can simply sell whatever they make at the higher price. But come Summer '07 Sony MUST begin to catch up to the larger installed base of X360. So that is the do or die time for them. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=10864 | RedRay (345) Jun 27, 2006 - 01:23 pm
| | Said, it once, will say it again: the outcome of this battle will not be decided until around May-ish 2007. Until that time PS3 supply will be so limited that Sony can sell out even at these price levels. By early summer everyone (maybe not Nintendo) will be cutting prices and trying to get to the largest installed base. By then we should also have better visability on HD v. Blue-Ray. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Siteseeing Link » /news/siteseeingarticle.asp?searchid=2990 | RedRay (345) Jun 27, 2006 - 01:11 pm » Edited on Jun 27, 2006 - 01:16 pm
| These kinds of lists always miss the best jobs. The BEST opportunities have the highest ratio of pay/difficulty. For you youngsters still trying to figure out what to do with your lives, my top 2:
1) Bond salesperson. Make a million/yr by age 27. Spend the whole day on the phone talking with your friends. After the work day is over, full expense account to take your friends to whatever city/bar/sporting event you want. Only two skills required - the ability to smooze and high school level mathematics. Only downside is it can be hard to enter the field. But once in, easy to advance and prosper.
2) Pharmaceutical salesperson. 200k/yr 18 months out of college. Build your own business, good expense account (but not nearly as good as #1 above). Working hrs revolve around taking doctors to dinner/golf. Skills - high school level biology/chemistry, must be able to smooze, should be reasonably good looking. If you meet the requirements, super easy to find a job. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=10859 | RedRay (345) Jun 27, 2006 - 07:41 am
| | Your comments runs in the face of reality and all you can reply with is a lame insult. By definition the number of buyers with 2 PCs capable of running a title is lower than that with 1 PC capable of running the same title. Flag this | Edit this post |
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