system
Latest
Joystiq: How the star system works
Have you been a long-time poster at Joystiq or one of its awesome network-affiliated sites, only to see others have stars placed next to their name (or negatives) and wonder what exactly dictates that rewarding or stripping of star(s)? Well, Joystiq's Vlad Cole has broken down the star system to show you exactly how it works. These guidelines apply to all the Joystiq network sites: Value: Does the comment enhance the topic at hand and add new perspective to the discussion? Is it a good question or interesting insight? Impartiality: This is hard, especially for Fanboy sites such as this, but as much as we loudly proclaim this system to be the superior, it detracts from the discussion at hand. It's OK to be touched with Fanboyitis, however try to curb it as best as you can as to not damage the topic at hand whilst commenting. Civility: This is just common sense. We all have opinions and want to share them, however as human beings we have the ability to exercise civility, even during the most heated debate. Other: Humor, wit, and bribes of cold, fresh chocolate milk. We like chocolate milk. As such, these are the guidelines followed when hiring Bloggers for the network (you have no idea how much chocolate milk it took for me to get the job), so keep that in mind should you one day wish to kill me and take my place. Vlad is answering as many questions as he can over at Joystiq, but if you post any questions here, we'll try as best we can to answer.
Service Scrubber is Universal
I'm not sure when it turned, but Service Scrubber has become a Universal Binary. We've mentioned this slick utility before, but in case you're unfamiliar, Service Scrubber allows you to do three fundamental things with that powerful, but seldom used, Services menu underneath your active Application menu in the menubar: restructure the services menu change service keyboard shortcuts disable services It's a very handy utility, especially for those of you who like to tinker with lots of different apps and utilities and suddenly find yourselves overrun with services.Service Scrubber is donationware and available from Peter Maurer's site.
Cheaper PS3 loses HDMI, slots, Wi-Fi, 40GB
As you can see above, there are a few things different between the two PS3 SKUs planned. (Hint: the obvious alterations concern high-def output and wireless connectivity -- though Bluetooth controllers should work just fine with both, with or without any chrome case highlighting.)So what's HDMI, built-in multimedia card-reader slots, wireless internet connectivity, and an extra 40 gigabytes' hard disk space worth to you? $100? Now that Sony's gone with the 2-SKU approach with its next-gen hardware (a la the Xbox 360's premium and "Core" systems), we can expect some tough consumer choices after six months -- with console shortages possibly for another six months after that -- as $100 separates the base $499 and premium $599 versions of Sony's "Clear Black" hope.HDMI is important to those who want to take full advantage of Blu-ray high def and have the new screens to use it; MemoryStick, SD, and CompactFlash slots would be nice for the PS3 memory-card users and those will run multimedia on the system; Wi-Fi's the only way to avoid stringing ethernet cables for online access; and 360 owners might appreciate the full 60GB available to potential buyers of the premium PS3 model. Neither model comes with a second HDMI port; thankfully, one should hopefully be all most users need. The details are laid out in a feature-comparison table at the end of Sony's official PS3 hardware press release, available in both Adobe Reader and Microsoft Word formats. Determine what's most important to your PS3 ambitions there.[Image pieced together from the PlayStation.com forums; thanks, Guru]
Sharp Internet AQUOS LCD TV and PC systems
Today Sharp loosed their new Internet AQUOS TV / PC combo systems. At the top end is the LD-37SP1 LCD and PC-AX50M mini-PC kit capable of pumping out (and recording) those Hi-Vision (Japanese high def) broadcast pixels onto a 37-inch LCD with 1200:1 contrast ratio, 6ms response, 176-degree viewing angle, and HDMI and HDCP DVI ports. A wireless (RF) keyboard and remote are perfect for getting all potato-like up on the couch. The PC manages to eke out 500GB of SATA disk for hi-def recordings and such, up to 1GB DDR2 RAM, a DVD combo drive, and SD and xD picture card slots with direct-to-card MPEG-4 recordings -- all powered by a 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo T2300 CPU and XP Home. The kit is also available with a 32-inch LCD (LD-32SP1) and PC sporting a terrestrial analog tuner and a 250GB disk (PC-AX50M) all of which you can mix-n-match to your heart’s desire. No doubt, we like the design, but these systems are kept out of the high-end game with their Intel graphics cards, LCD resolutions of just 1366 x 768, and lack of a Windows Media Center Edition install option. Expect these to hit shelves in Japan sometime in May for an undisclosed price.[Via Akihabara News]
Playstation 3 hands-on....is 1080p gaming in the cards?
Gaming site Kikizo claim to have gotten some seat time with a PS3 development kit running on near final hardware and have found out some very nice tidbits of information from three separate (unnamed) developers.Among other things, they note that the hardware designs we've seen will likely change before launch, native 1080p games with full effects are unlikely, and that launch games are being designed with a 10x DVD drive in mind. There is also much praise for Sony's machine, with developers noting that it will probably be capable of handling more effects and geometry than the Xbox 360. These statements aren't surprising, 720p will likely be the sweet spot for gaming this generation, anything more than that increases memory needs to an almost impossible level, but the PS3 should be able to scale to match whatever your TV accepts just like the 360.Also worth noting is that the developers they spoke to are targeting a fall launch as most likely. Other recent PS3 news from Joystiq has suggested the 2x Blu-ray drive it is most likely to feature will be the same speed as a 12x DVD player. If developers actually do make a 20GB game we could be looking at loading screens for quite a while. The development kit Kikizo looked at had no Blu-ray drive so they couldn't test those capabilities at all.[Via Evil Avatar forums]
Widget Watch: SysStat nano
SysStat Nano is a great little system monitoring widget (similar to MiniStat 2) that gives you a quick, birds-eye view of various system statistics. Your processor, used memory, hard drive usage, IP and (very handy) external IP, amongst other things, are all at the press of a key.While SysStat Nano offers an overview of various stats (pictured), it doesn't offer quite as much information as the aforementioned MiniStat 2. Either way, it's a darn handy widget, doesn't seem to hog too many cycles and, best of all, it's free.
iPod plus iTrip = FM payment system?
Ok I realize innovation is great and all, but innovation with a purpose is even better. Unfortunately, this new "iPod-based payment system" that Engadget found doesn't quite seem to reach the "hey I'd use that!" mark.Ingenico, a French company, has devised a way of embedding payment information in an MP3, and they're even working on boarding passes and biometric information. Now I don't know much about the inner workings of FM, but isn't it a broadcast technology? Meaning: wouldn't anyone be able to receive anything you transmit out through your iTrip?Minor complications aside, at least Ingenico recognizes the pointlessness of this, as stated in a press release: "While this demonstration may not be a sign of what the future holds, it certainly proves Ingenico's ability to innovate for the benefit of its current and future customers." Translation: "This is completely useless but hey, aint we%uFFFD cool?" Hopefully, we won't hear anything like this out of Apple again anytime soon (*ahem*, ROKR).
Help Dori Smith get her System alerts back
Check out this post over at Backup Brain. Dori Smith is having a very odd problem where her System Alerts aren't playing, although every other sound on her computer sings like a charm. It's like a troubleshooter's puzzle for the holidays. She even posted a Flickr set of her settings to serve as clues. Checking in on the comments reveals a few helpful suggestions like playing with the MIDI settings and zapping the PRAM, but no word on whether any of that has helped yet or not.For those of you who are about to flame this post, asking, "Why is this on TUAW?" The answer: Because I needed to get a post up by 12:30, I like Dori's blog, and it actually stumped me and I thought the phrasing of the whole thing was very mind-bender puzzle-esque. :-b
