Fortunately, it won't kill us, but it may disrupt some electrical systems, like satellites or maybe Ontario could get another solar blackout (I use "black" figuratively because a lot of crazy electrical activity happened that day). Sounds like fun! Too bad I'm too close to the equator to see the auroras that'll emerge from this...
does it come out today? IGN lists today as the release date but neither Gamestop or EBGames says anything about it and Gamestop hasn't called me to say that it's in. just wondering if anybody knows anything about it.
Quote:"At a NASDAQ event in London, chief financial officer Chris Liddell reiterated Microsoft's forecast for 10 million consoles by the end of the Christmas season. "
...
"Reaching the 10 million goal is just now a matter of sales: about a week ago the company shipped its ten millionth console. And from the looks of things, hitting the mark may not be that difficult."
Their original estimates were to have 10 million sold to consumers by the time the competition launched...looks like they missed that by a bit. Good sales in any case.
Xbox 360 sold 511,000 units in N.A. according to NPD. They're on track to sell even more in December.[Link]
I saw this on a "future tech" style show some time ago. Looks like it's finally been approved for actual use.
Read the article, but here's a basic run down. This device concentrates strong light that is "longer than x-rays but shorter than microwaves" (which is great, that only leaves a MASSIVE area of the spectrum, including visible light, infrared, and ultraviolet, that it could be within, below visible is not cancer causing, at a short point above visible, it starts becoming a risk).
Basically, it's for breaking up crowds. You shine this beam at them and it causes pain to the skin, but due to the fact it doesn't penetrate, that's ALL it does. It also is not in the visible wavelength so it won't blind people. So, severe sunburns at worst, but the pain gets people scattering pretty quickly. Apparently it turns people into basic instinct machines. No matter how bad arse you imagine yourself to be, no matter how noble. Even if you are trying to save children and you know they will die if you don't run in there and do it, this WILL make you abandon any scruples you ever had to make the pain stop as soon as possible, meaning even the most religious of zealots will RUN when the thing is turned on. Nothing like pain to expose our animal selves eh? :D
Anyway, yeah I'm all in favor of using force when it is immediately needed to end a riot, self defense and defense of others. This is basically far more effective tear gas and pellet guns. This is as close to a phaser set to stun (or... run! HILARITY! IT RHYMED WITH THE WORD STUN AND THAT IS FUNNY TO ME!) as they are going to get. At the same time, there's no such thing as a "perfect" nonlethal weapon. Let's say some elderly or otherwise very weak people get caught up in this. Maybe for them a heavy sunburn may be too much for their body to handle. "Wrong place at the wrong time" sure, but still it's a possible scenario... At any rate, that said this may be the best we've got for the moment.
I just hope it doesn't fall into the wrong hands... I'd hate to see it used to "extract information", or to just plain hurt people for enjoyment. Imagine some very mean spirited kids running around after making their own from a kit 20 years from now and riding around town hurting people with it.
Think your 60hz TV is going to make a lick of difference to your Virtual Console experience, PAL users? If your answer is "yes", PREPARE FOR DISAPPOINTMENT.
To get around the performance difference between PAL & NTSC, for years now PAL TVs have had the option of running at 60hz. A ton of last-gen games, Nintendo ones included, even gave you specific options for this feature. So it would have been natural to assume that in 2006, the Virtual Console & Wii would have accommodated this.
WRONG.
With PAL consoles in the hands of a select few, people are reporting that some VC titles (though not all) are running slower and have black on-screen borders, even when the Wii itself is set to 60hz. If you recall, these are the deficiencies PAL gamers had to put up with during the 80s and 90s, and that we were meant to be well past.
What does this mean? Well, for starters, PAL gamers are getting shafted by Nintendo. No surprises there. What it also hints at, though, is the reason why each region has had a different VC launch list. If digitally downloaded titles are maintaining the same regional differences they had in the 80s and 90s 9which is stupid when it's a download), it looks like Nintendo are directly sourcing each region's specific version of a title. So if your 1991 British version of Sonic was letterboxed and slower, then your 2006 British VC version is going to be the same game, even when a superior English-language version exists in the US.
Weak, Nintendo. It's cool you're preserving the authenticity of VC titles, but you don't need to be so meticulate that you sell PAL customers an inferior product when you no longer have to. Luke Plunkett
PAL Wii warning - [some] Virtual Console games are 50hz only with borders [Lyris Lite]
