Scott's Blog

It's always fun to make some predictions so you can make a fool of yourself in 12 months time. So here it goes: The Nintendo Wii will outsell the XBox 360, although it may take all year. Most XBox 360 owners will also have a Wii. The US economy will do worse in 2007 than in 2006. A part of the reason will be because of lowered housing prices. Brazil will do marginally better in 2007 than 2006. The OLPC will have a rough start mostly because of political reasons and an extended smear campaign but will be an utter success as 2008 rolls around. We'll start seeing more machines with Linux pre-installed on it instead of Windows in 2007 or with a sticker saying "linux ready" or some such. We'll slowly start seeing companies putting Linux on their employees desktops instead of windows because it is easier to administer and catches less viruses. People will start understanding that DRM is evil and will actively try to avoid it, despite the lack of legal choices. Some s...

I forgot to post that I managed to get a Wii. For a while I tried from Amazon, even wrote a python program to check the various Amazon pages periodically and put it in my shopping basket the minute it's available. It was finally through the XP Bargains Wii tracker that I was able to find one available via gamestop.com . It came with 6 games and an extra remote. The extras games besides Wii Sports are Zelda , Trauma Center , Red Steel , Marvel Ultimate Alliance , Super Monkey Ball , and Madden NFL - it's not a bad list of games. I ordered it on 24th of November and it arrived at my mom's on 6th of December. I had a colleague who was at Mountain View who was able to bring it to me the 11th of December (17 long days since I order it). So this was my first wiikend with the Wii. Basically, Victor and I played Zelda until our eyes bled. Looks like I was pretty lucky, people are still queuing up all night to get one. That link points out the sad tale of 200 people lining u...

This post has some problems with the Wii launch information. Scanning the comments below it shows that a lot of other people have issues with Nintendo as well. Here's my take on the whole issue: $250.00 should include two remotes with nunchucks partly because the Wii is supposed to be a family console and a family has more than one person! The remotes are probably very expensive: Bluetooth wireless, 3D motion detection, 3D spacial coordinates, speaker, and memory. Yet $60.00 for the pair is expensive. They should sell these things at a loss if it comes to it. November 19th launch. It's very odd that they are launching after the Sony PS3 (although only by a few days). It may be a brilliant move since Sony will spend tons of money for advertising and perhaps all the parents remember is that there's a new gaming console coming out. Also as it they both come out the press will be all over it comparing and contrasting the two (more free advertising). The article complains...

The latest news is that the Wii will come out November 17th 19th and cost USD$250.00. This is a little different from my predictions which was late October and $200.00. I realized after the fact that I based my prediction on wishful thinking. I'm going to be in the US in October, so naturally I wanted it released in October. I thought they would offer a more expensive version with two Wiimotes, despite all the ads I saw on the internet with only one wiimote. It's obvious now that I just wanted to play together with my son, more wishful thinking. What I'll probably buy right off the bat: Nintendo Wii ($250.00) Extra remote ($35.00) Classic Controller ($15.00) Extra nunchuck ($15.00) Wii Sports (included) The Legend of Zelda ($60.00) Red Steel ($50.00?) Total $465.00 so more than $500.00 with shipping tax etc. Possibles Metal Slug Anthology ($50.00?) Rayman Raving rabbits ($50.00?) The Wii will also include some interesting internet applications. A news and weath...