[Asterisk-Users] xbox asterisk?

[Colin Anderson]

> interesting comment this week about the Xbox – any intelligent thoughts
> here? 

Semi-intelligent:

xbox, as with any pc hardware, is commoditized to the point of absurdity.
The shift of the pc industry has changed from hardware driving the industry
forward, to software, and specifically IP (Intellectual Property) in the
form of specific functionality (Skype, for example is more Hype than Tech,
but it is a more or less recognizable and bankable name brand. Ditto
Napster,Itunes, sort of.) The hardware simply becomes the medium. Hardware
these days is simply meatspace TCP/IP to deliver services that the meat will
spend money on. Microsoft and Sony are pursuing the console platform as a
means of delivery for next-gen services, ostensibly as a means of delivering
a better gaming experience. Xbox Live is a means for Microsoft to shake out
how such a service will work. Seems to me, the guy that delivers 50 to 100
million consoles with an Ethernet port and a hard drive to north american
households will automatically have a huge premade installed base for any
other service they choose to market on that console. Microsoft has *not*
gone after the guys who ran arbitrary code on xbox thru the buffer overrun
in the James Bond game and later put out the modchips as much as they
*could* have, because they want to learn more about how the best and
brightest minds reverse engineer encryption down at the bus level, and take
those lessons and apply them to Xbox 360, make it so tight that there's no
way anyone will be able to run arbitrary code on it. Other lessons, you will
see when the console is released. It will be smaller. It will run cooler.
There will be decent controllers. They will stop using crappy Mitsumi drives
that flake out. One thing Microsoft is absolutely brilliant at, is taking a
turd and polishing it until it shines (precedent and disclaimer: I bought MS
Access 2.0 / I own an xbox)

Now, let's see: An industry giant, markets a console that they loose tons of
money on. They don't seem to care, which is unlike them, because Microsoft
cutting bait is legion (BOB, Cairo, WinFS, I could go on for days) instead,
they come out with ANOTHER box that they will loose even MORE money on. It
will be as good as, or better than Cell, run on broadband, and locked up
internally tighter than Warren Buffet's sphincter before he announces a full
point rate hike. Oh yeah, it also happens to be a kick ass PC. That runs on
your TV. And only Microsoft code (or duly appointed licensees) will run on
it. And everyone in North America will have one. Unlike 3Com's stupid
fantasizing about Audrey, the games on the Xbox will make people *want* to
have one. 

This is probably the best way to stage your service rollout. 

You have a captive audience, with hardware they already own, which is not a
specific purpose console, but a general purpose turing machine that just
*happens* to run games. They *know* how to do an online service, with
lessons learned from Xbox Live. They *know* how to mess with
reverse-engineering attempts, so they can lock out any attempt at running
any code that they don't get a piece of. At that point, you come out with
your entire service offering. VoIP? check. Tivo? check. Movies on demand?
check. MSN portal? check. Need Word for a weekend? check. All for $14.95 a
month X installed base = lots of dough coming in for little effort outlaid.
No boxes. No shrinkwrap. No CD's. Just bits going from 1 server to 1 box,
that'll be $2.99 please. 

I hate to say it, but it's pretty damned smart. 

PS I read somewhere that Mark has Asterisk running on his Xbox with USB FXO
adapters. Good luck on the 360, though.