PeterScott 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: DailyDirt: Who Has Time To Exercise?

    PeterScott ( profile ), 27 Jun, 2013 @ 07:04pm

    HIIT over-rated.

    I have do occasional HIIT workouts and you need to separate the hype from the reality.

    They don't count warmup time, which is critical if you are going to do an all out intervals. So add about 4 mins. Also the rest periods often aren't counted. Add 1-2 minutes per interval, and likely another 4 minutes to cool down.

    I did a peak 8 type interval workout today. Here is what it looked like:
    4 Min warmup
    8 X intervals(20 sec all out + 100 sec rest) 16 minutes total
    4 minute cooldown.

    Total Interval time is only 160 seconds. Less that 3 minutes of Work. This is how it often gets hyped.

    But it takes 24 minutes of real time.

    Also if you are really going all out on your intervals, you won't enjoy the "rest" part. You will be deep in oxygen debt, and gasping to catch your breath.

    If you ever watch video of anyone doing these workouts, the moderate aerobic control group is left on their own to relax and go at moderate pace, while the interval group is coached to: "Go!, Go!, Go!".

    Are you going to have a coach at home, or are you highly motivated to push yourself very hard over and over like you were being coached?

    Intervals have their place, but be aware the are quite overhyped in general.

  • On the post: Microsoft's Attack On Used Game Sales Asks Customers To Sacrifice Their Rights To Save An Industry

    PeterScott ( profile ), 04 Jun, 2013 @ 12:20pm

    .

    I honestly see this as accelerating big game studio demise.

    First: Less consoles will sell, because of alienated buyers.

    Less consoles, less game sales.

    Second: Selling games used, recovers cash to buy more new games.

    Killing second hand sales will not increase the sale of new anymore than killing second hand car sales would increase the sale of new cars.

    If you couldn't sell your old car, you would only buy a new one when you finished driving the old one into the ground. Most of us would likely be driving around in 14 year old cars.

    Finally, didn't they make the same industry killing/saving claims about Piracy, isn't game console piracy virtually non-existent. Why are they rolling in bucks and selling us cheaper games?

    Declaring war on your customer is not a good business model.

    Instead:
    1) Make games on reasonable budget, so you don't go broke from one sub-million seller.
    2) Bend over backwards to treat your customer with respect, so they want you to succeed.

    I remember when I wanted Bioware to keep making great games I would buy anything they made. They had great after sale service and treated customers with respect. I own more (old school) Bioware games than anything else.

    Then they sold out to EA and they can go rot in a hole now. I haven't bought anything from them since.

  • On the post: Xbox One Release: Tons Of Questions, Very Few Answers

    PeterScott ( profile ), 27 May, 2013 @ 10:51am

    Re: Re: The original topic...

    @"DON'T BUY IT.."

    I won't.

    Further to that we should warn others away from it as well.

    Just another attack on the "First Sale Doctrine".

  • On the post: Xbox One Release: Tons Of Questions, Very Few Answers

    PeterScott ( profile ), 24 May, 2013 @ 07:32pm

    There can be no question that what Microsoft means by "enabling" used game sales, means controlling it completely to their benefit. They are only taking more time to tweak the exact terms and work on their spin.

    But you won't simply be able to swap with friends or other normal things back when you actually owned games and they worked on any console.

    The have killed that and hopefully they pay a price in lower sales.

  • On the post: SimCity: The Backlash

    PeterScott ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2013 @ 05:57am

    "Whether or not this backlash/implosion will hurt EA in the long run remains to be seen. "

    It won't. As a mob, people are stupid with short memories.

    I swore off EA back in the Spore days:
    http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080924/1831242364.shtml

    But that didn't slow down EA any more than this will. Because while they might lose a few, the Mobs keep buying the EA sequels.

  • On the post: What The Tesla / NY Times Fight Teaches Us About The Media

    PeterScott ( profile ), 15 Feb, 2013 @ 03:31pm

    Re: The Accuracy of Battery Life

    " the central issue, that the mileage given decreased a lot faster than the driver expected it to..."

    That isn't what resulted in the Flatbed. He would have learned that lesson on his close call driving to Milford. He arrived with 0 Miles left, so he just made it.

    Then when Tesla advised him to fully charge here, he didn't, instead, charging to only 70% capacity.

    It was on the next leg of the journey after first short charging car (against Tesla advice) and then parked it overnight in freezing temps unplugged (the car itself warns you to plug it in when cold, every time you put it in park).

    So it was short charging, parking overnight, unplugged in freezing temps, that resulted in the flatbed.

    This was self inflicted against the advice of Tesla support and the car itself.

    Elon did a questionable attack, but the tester is still at fault.

  • On the post: How Not To Innovate: Trying To Create An Exact Replica Of Another Service

    PeterScott ( profile ), 03 Jul, 2012 @ 05:00pm

    Fails for a different reason.

    Actually copying works fine. Samsung does great business essentially copying the iPhone.

    But copying facebook fails because facebook depends on critical mass, and that critical mass is already at facebook and going nowhere.

  • On the post: Old Habits Or New Envy? Microsoft Bans 3rd Party Browsers On Windows RT

    PeterScott ( profile ), 11 May, 2012 @ 07:26am

    Avoid the ARM verions.

    It may not be common knowledge, but Intel with Medfield, has pretty much caught up with ARM for Perf/watt.

    Avoid the Win-ARM tablets and get one with Medfield.

    The Medfield tablets are wide open. Run all your old desktop software, let you install anything you want. Run all the new Metro stuff too.

    The ARM tablets are a locked down subset. Pretty much Metro only, you can only install approved apps from the app store, you can't even install a browser plugin like Flash on these tablets.

    Win8 on ARM is essentially Microsofts walled garden apple clone.

    Win8 on Medfield will work with that same apps store and run those walled garden metro apps, but it isn't limited to them. You can install run anyhting, get full browser plugins, use any browser (full desktop FF/Chrome).

  • On the post: Apple's Music Match: Innovation By (Record Label) Committee

    PeterScott ( profile ), 06 Jun, 2011 @ 03:13pm

    Important clarification. If you bought your music from itunes there is no fee, so there is no re-buy.

    This is only for music of unknown provenance. You could have 16GB of MP3 you picked up at Piratebay and the Apple will scan and match them in the cloud with pristine 256K itunes files that you can then play on any of your machines.

    At least that is what it looks like to me.

  • On the post: Canadian Broadband Regulators Annoyed That People Are Pointing Out They Don't Understand What They're Regulating

    PeterScott ( profile ), 08 Feb, 2011 @ 09:03am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Where are rates going down? For years after leaving bell I had unlimited GB for under $40 month.

    Fibe rates aren't better, they are just more money for more BW. They still have $1-$2/GB overage charges.

    Top Bell plan is something like $61/75GB.

    Teksavvy: $32/200GB. More than double the cap for less than half the price.

    You really have to be shilling to say Bell is offering a deal.

  • On the post: Canadian Broadband Regulators Annoyed That People Are Pointing Out They Don't Understand What They're Regulating

    PeterScott ( profile ), 08 Feb, 2011 @ 07:36am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Clearly you are Bell shill. All the "insurance" does is return the Cap to where it was before Bell cut it recently.

    Here is a direct link to Bells page showing the $2/GB overage charges:

    http://internet.bell.ca/index.cfm?method=content.view&content_id=17737&language=en&CFID=132348948&CFTOKEN=96051369
    "Usage overage charge (up to $60)1 $2.50/GB $2.00/GB"

  • On the post: Canadian Broadband Regulators Annoyed That People Are Pointing Out They Don't Understand What They're Regulating

    PeterScott ( profile ), 08 Feb, 2011 @ 07:29am

    Re: Re:

    Oh look, shilling comes to town.

    Bell cut the packages from 60GB down to 25GB and are willing to sell that missing cap to you for $5. This is only a deal if you are severely confused, or if you are shilling for Bell. Exceed that cap and your price/GB is:

    Direct quote from Bells page:
    Usage overage charge (up to $60) $2.00/GB