I do agree that it is scarily on the border for a linux doggie. After reading dheera's other comment, I think you could be right that he is serious. I really, really, really hope he is joking. For a typical child to even want to learn perl or C++ is a pretty narrow-minded view of the world; not all kids aspire to be 1337.
Well you could actually blame Sony more than Microsoft for this trend. The PS2 was remarkably difficult to develop for, especially compared to the cross-platform compatibility of the MS DirectX architecture. The PS3 suffers from the same pitfall; it's a great piece of hardware, but it's just not incrementally beneficial. It is five steps sideways instead of one step forward. By the time the common developer is experienced and patient enough to develop tight code for a PS3, the PS4 will be out with another completely new and non-standard architecture. In the meantime, X360 code will simply be recompiled for XP/Vista.
The game industry was taken over by middleware arguably because the hardware became too complex.
That's why I got a 50" 1080p DLP: the micromirrors can flip thousands of times a second (LCD doesn't help, and plasma as it's own different pros/cons). 1600x1200 is 1.92Mpxl, at 24bit is 46.08Mb per image. 30Hz refresh would be 1.3824Gbps. But the HDMI cable delivering the image to the DLP is 10.2Gbps, so that's over 200FPS. Please call me when the bottleneck of digital signal transmission is the maximum ideal bandwidth of the digital cable connector or data transport. 802.11b is rated at 11Mbps, so why can't I sustain a 1.375MB/s file transfer? I don't understand what you're trying to do with your statement other than distract the readers with overwhelming numbers.
I'll share a little secret with you from the broadcast and film industry... In order for a broadcast to be considered true HD, only 51% of its content has to be > SD. Uncompressed 1080p is incredible and breathtaking when it enters the editing room, but it usually leaves on a DVD. You can make the argument that big budget networks have the money to spend on the latest and greatest cameras, but the truth is that they will not spend $100k on processing if they can sell you a $10k picture for the same price.
1080p is awesome, but unfortunately it's already outdated. 2K, 4K,...
The poster has a background in software engineering, but not necessarily his cousin. There are many, many jobs in the game industry where you may never see a single line of machine code: distribution, publishing, marketing, QA, graphic design, and even layers of management. Only if the cousin is seeking a programming job would I not fully recommend a 4-yr degree. Coding is one of the few engineering-related fields where you can experiment to your heart's content FOR FREE (i.e. no cost of materials or assembly).
I doubt the cousin will be able to say for sure what field he wants to be in for the rest of his life, so I recommend he go to as prestigious a 4-yr engineering college he can find, try several things through academic internships, and work/play hard. College is also about networking, so he can more easily find a job by playing frisbee with a publisher's son than mailing resumes to a brick and mortar HR department.
Those online degrees can be very helpful to the right people, but a generalizing statement is that they prepare you for entry-level work without the credentials necessary for upward movement. I know people who've spun off from these degrees to become very successful, but I don't attribute that to the degree as much as to their personality. Your cousin will know very quickly if he enjoys the game industry; let him learn the hard way:)
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I do agree that it is scarily on the border for a linux doggie. After reading dheera's other comment, I think you could be right that he is serious. I really, really, really hope he is joking. For a typical child to even want to learn perl or C++ is a pretty narrow-minded view of the world; not all kids aspire to be 1337.
Your sarcasm gauge is working really well!!!!
Well you could actually blame Sony more than Microsoft for this trend. The PS2 was remarkably difficult to develop for, especially compared to the cross-platform compatibility of the MS DirectX architecture. The PS3 suffers from the same pitfall; it's a great piece of hardware, but it's just not incrementally beneficial. It is five steps sideways instead of one step forward. By the time the common developer is experienced and patient enough to develop tight code for a PS3, the PS4 will be out with another completely new and non-standard architecture. In the meantime, X360 code will simply be recompiled for XP/Vista.
The game industry was taken over by middleware arguably because the hardware became too complex.
The poster has a background in software engineering, but not necessarily his cousin. There are many, many jobs in the game industry where you may never see a single line of machine code: distribution, publishing, marketing, QA, graphic design, and even layers of management. Only if the cousin is seeking a programming job would I not fully recommend a 4-yr degree. Coding is one of the few engineering-related fields where you can experiment to your heart's content FOR FREE (i.e. no cost of materials or assembly). I doubt the cousin will be able to say for sure what field he wants to be in for the rest of his life, so I recommend he go to as prestigious a 4-yr engineering college he can find, try several things through academic internships, and work/play hard. College is also about networking, so he can more easily find a job by playing frisbee with a publisher's son than mailing resumes to a brick and mortar HR department. Those online degrees can be very helpful to the right people, but a generalizing statement is that they prepare you for entry-level work without the credentials necessary for upward movement. I know people who've spun off from these degrees to become very successful, but I don't attribute that to the degree as much as to their personality. Your cousin will know very quickly if he enjoys the game industry; let him learn the hard way :)