Lightning

^ A video of the hardware running Xubuntu and Firefox. I'm more of a Fedora guy myself, but that can come later =)

...the Pandora has a PowerVR chip. Top left of the page. Whether or not it's similar enough to the DC's to allow for any sort of higher-level emulation is still up for question, however.

there's a hint-of-a-possibility. the GPU, like that of the dreamcast, is by PowerVR. so if there are any major similarities, there could be the potential of some high-level rendering emulation there... can't be too sure until we experiment a bit with it of course. but it is very exciting nonetheless =)

But most laptops don't fit in my pocket or have a gamepad+touchscreen =| If nothing else, I'll probably use this to replace my laptop for taking notes in class; rather than lugging my laptop around in a bag, I can just have this in my pocket (where I normally have my DS anyway). That is, assuming I can bring myself to stop coding and go to class once I get my hands on it =P Obviously it's not for everyone though.

For some perspective: it's approximately as powerful as the Wii. I wouldn't call it doomed, considering its main draw is homebrew and open-source support =) And as we can see with the Dreamcast, even a dead console's homebrew scene doesn't like to stop. Some people call this the "spiritual successor" to the GP2X, which was the successor to the GP32. Both of which did good enough, at any rate.

I remember seeing some video on youtube comparing the footage we had from GCN kirby's adventure and levels, enemies etc. in SSE. And how the gameplay was similar, etc. Searching for it again now, I can only find a 5 minute long boring video with some idiot narrating over the kirby trailer itself without actually showing SSE clips for comparison. Le sigh. =(

Weren't a lot of the concepts, levels, etc. from the canned Kirby game re-used in SSBB's adventure mode?

http://openpandora.org/ Sexy little handheld that's almost exactly the size of a fat DS. Has a 800x480 pixel touchscreen, a QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth, WiFi, USB, SVideo, two SDHC slots, gamepad + analog nubs, fairly powerful CPU/GPU. Ships with a Linux-based (Debian-based specifically, I think) firmware. Perfect for emulating stuff on the go, like PSX, SNES, GBA, probably DS, etc.. Or just using it as a tiny laptop. Apparently preorders will be going until Sunday and they're going to try to get that many made (originally, they only planned on letting 3000 people make pre-orders). Everyone else will have to wait until 2009 =) I personally am very excited. Surprised I didn't see any threads about it on a quick search of the boards.

The thing is, it does have this ease of use. It's easier, even, and more sensible in design. The hardware problems you have had are a result of the problem I mentioned before; Microsoft makes sure vendors don't support Linux so they can remain dominant. Working around these problems is possible, and it's what we've been doing, but it takes time. Windows is a bitch to set up if you're missing drivers too, and even moreso, since much of it is undocumented or uncleanly implemented (and it is allowed to be that way thanks to its closed-source nature). Or did you just read "Oh, Lightning mentioned Linux again, time to skip reading his post and whine about my own problems" =P

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html tl;dr: remember Sony's rootkits? Vista comes with some of those standard. Avoid it like the plague. Warranties are a joke anyway. Pretty much. I'm waiting for the world to realize what a terrible hacked-together piece of spaghetti code Windows is, and move on to cleaner, more sensible programs and operating systems (I'm not talking about Mac, though it would at least be a start). Microsoft is clearly in bed with Hollywood and couldn't give two shits about its customers at this point, since their monopoly position in the industry guarantees that they can just threaten to cut off the OEMs that don't conform to their will, forcing the consumers to buy whatever Microsoft wants them to buy. It's a damn shame gamers, "familiars," and the like are tied to such an obsolete system when there are much better alternatives widely (and freely) available. Sadly, Microsoft does what it can to damage the computer/gaming industry unless the industry does what it wants it to. I certainly do commend WINE for the tremendous progress it has made in implementing the Windows and Direct X APIs on UNIX-based systems (GNU/Linux, *BSD, Mac OS X, etc.), which helps to bridge the gap created by these business practices. It is very well done when you consider what an overwhelming task it is, and they have a great many complicated programs and games working flawlessly or near-flawlessly. But yeah, fuck Windows. Fuck Vista even more though. If you can help it, stay on XP. Vista is a step in the wrong direction.

http://images.lightning.cjb.net/CubefulOfEmulation.png This was a while ago when I decided "hey let's rape my processor for all it's worth and take a screenshot of it." This was on Xgl and compiz, before AIGLX and beryl came around. The window decorations were just some generic thing I made in cgwd. Fedora 5 by the way. http://images.lightning.cjb.net/Desktops/2007-01-02_LinuxFedora6.png This is what my desktop is now. I enabled beryl and spun the cube a little for the picture because it's fun to show off =( Normally I use metacity, and my use of the heliodor window decorator for beryl demonstrates this. Theme is classic Bluecurve for window decorations, Clearlooks for controls, and ordinary GNOME icons, if I recall correctly. Fedora 6.

http://devkitpro.org/

That has to do with the older methods of passthrough--the PassMe, in particular. Nintendo made those not work any more when they released the colored DSes with newer firmware (the DS Lite has newer firmware as well). Like I said, you don't have to worry about that any more. The PassCard 3 you find bundled with M3 adapters all over the place will work fine.

yes If you see the M3 being offered bundled with a PassCard, you're fine. The type of passthrough you use typically doesn't matter, as long as it works on your DS. It's kinda hard to go wrong nowadays in the area of passthroughs, because most of them work just the same. One thing people might want to note is the pending availability of new DS-slot flash adapters for microSD cards and such which eliminate the need for passthroughs and patching--however, these lack the double-functionality that you get with a GBA slot flash adapter (which can usually play GBA games on any GBA-compatible hardware as well)

Most of them do the same thing. I'd just get a PassCard 3 in a bundle with the M3 Lite if available, so you save a bit of money.