Perhaps assembler is necessary to understand exactly how a processor works. But understanding exactly how a processor works is not necessary for development of most applications. Heck, understanding the underlying frameworks/libraries you are utilizing often isn't.
Some company wants a great website. They want to hire you to make it. 'How a processor works' as more than a vague understanding isn't going to help you make a great website.
And casual gamers are more cost effective than hardcore gamers. Spendings 20 hours a day on the server and paying $15 per month isn't as beneficial to the game company as someone who plays 5 hours a week and pays $15 per month.
First, I've already got a large collection of songs downloaded to fill my mp3 player with. Yes, some new stuff comes out, maybe I get it. But I no longer have a backlog of things to download.
Second, streaming music is available in lots of forms. I don't need to download music to bring to work; I just listen to Pandora on my cell phone.
That only 'effectively' bans him if he deletes it and tries to install.
This is more akin to having paid for an hour of laser tag (online access to features, content, ability to reinstall from server) and then getting thrown out for being a d-bag (trolling the forums) after only 10 minutes. Yes, you lose out on 50 more minutes. Sorry.
He could still play the installed game on his desktop. He was banned from online activities that also prevented him from re-downloading the game. If I buy something from Best-Buy, then get banned from the store for running around naked, I lose the ability to exchange my item for store credit and shop at the store. I still have the product I purchased.
People don't understand what 'non-profit' means. All it means, is that it meets certain requirements as declared by the IRS that affects how it pays taxes.
There are employees who make MILLIONS OF DOLLARS while working for a non-profit organization. There are non-profit organizations that use hard-sale tactics. There are certainly public universities that do this. That employee people whose sole job is to market the school and/or the degree they are selling to CHILDREN.
My public university actually decided to bull-doze parking lots because someone did some math and declared that, 'If we had less parking, more students would park illegally, and we'd net $x million of dollars over y years.' So they tore it out. I'm also 100% convinced the average starting salaries for my major were grossly inflated. I even worked at our 'telefund' while I was a student. That was the Universities calling center that would call up former students and try to get them to give us money. We were even instructed on how to 'Get them talking about the old 'ol days' so they'd be less likely to say No. And, if you have a transcript mailed to any address (that isn't another university) - even if it's not yours - they will send junk mail to that address trying to get donations and sell homecoming tickets and alumni vacation packages. You can't stop the mailings. Even when you say, 'Look, I don't live there, the people that do were just friends who let me crash there for a few weeks while I was trying to get a job. They don't want the junk mail. Stop sending it. Please. Here is my new address, send it here'.
It's all about $$$. For-profit colleges and universities just haven't jumped through enough hoops (ahem, $$$) to get recognized as a 'real' school yet. The accreditation bodies are even worse than the universities. And thanks to Federal Student Loans, anyone can get as much money as they want. 'You want to major in Art History? And you want 70k in loans each year? Sure!'.
Do you really want to go around suing 16 year old kids and their parents? Certainly, it's a lot harder and less effective to go after individual downloaders.
The reality of the situation is that very, very, very people have the knowledge required to do things like 'Hack a PS3'. Take 1000 PS3 gamers and, odds are, 0 can do it. Sure, lots of them can Google and follow instructions, but to actually do it, from scratch? Good luck.
And, while there might be legitimate reasons to 'hack' a PS3 99.9% of the people using a hack are using it to either pirate games or cheat in games where other people are unable to cheat.
Going after a handful of high-profile hackers will do significantly more than going after 10,000 high school kids.
As for the educational aspect, I'm not sure it really exists. The amount of pre-req knowledge you'd need to hack a PS3 means you are already at an elite level of knowledge. You aren't a curious youngster, regardless of age, you know what you are doing.
They aren't copying Google's results. They are recording which particular, individual result, of possibly thousands returned, the user actually found relevant. And, from what I understand, it's not specific to Google.
I'm 100% sure Google's search-ranking gives consideration to the number of clicks a link gets. IE - you search for CAT and click on result #2....Google records that. Over time, if everyone clicks on result #2, result #2 becomes result #1.
MS is allowing users to submit data on THEIR surfing patterns so that MS can make it's offerings better.
I can't speak for the OP; but when Bing first came out I found a website that would perform your search on Yahoo, Google and Bing; displaying the results in an identical format on either the left, center, or right of your screen.
The catch was; you didn't know which was which until after you clicked indicating which had the best results.
I used it for a good three weeks. Prior to that, I was a Google fanboy. After that, I realized Google's search results weren't any better for me. They were all remarkably close; Yahoo was my #1, followed by Bing, followed by Google.
A lot of it depends on your carrier. Phone companies are well known for being dicks to their customers.
As an example; my girlfriend (on Verizon) wanted to renew her contract and get a new phone. I don't remember the exact model but she had the 'V2' and wanted to get the 'V3'.
Verizon wouldn't give her the V3, unless she purchased a data plan. The V3 was considered a smart phone (but it was crap by smart-phone standards). Even after several phone calls and eventually, cancelling her service; they still refused to let us upgrade to the V3 without modifying her contract to include a data plan. Even though she didn't want to use data.
I'm a cheap bastard, so I told her to cancel, and I moved her onto my Sprint plan. She would have just gotten the smallest data plan and said, 'Oh well, it's only another $8'
Asking someone to work overtime is almost the same as asking to barrow money. It's actually worse, because not only are you taking that potential income; you are also screwing up their personal time/schedule. I'm not a high-paid exec or anything; but I figure if my boss asks me to come in for eight hours on a Saturday - that is, literally, the CEO asking me to bum $320 or so.
If my CEO asked me to donate $320 to the company, most people would think that CEO insane. But, with time? People seem to put up with it.
Anyway, it's easy to be an internet tough guy; but I'm young and don't have children/responsibilities and, I'm pretty cheap. So it's not hard for me to draw a line in the sand. I wish more people would do it. Still, I'm very direct about it - when I'm asked to work OT, I will do it; but I will take an equal amount of time off that following week. Maybe someday some boss of mine will call me on it and I'll either have to do what they say or quit. So far, no problems. Oddly enough, it's the same e-mail I write when I'm running late or have to leave or some reason.
"Hey $Boss - I'm running a bit late today, probably won't be in until this afternoon. Will make up the time next week"
When I work OT, it's typically something like
"Hey $Boss - Coming in this weekend on Saturday to work on the XYZ needed for Monday. Will make up the time next week".
Except RB3 has a pro-mode that uses a real guitar.....so it really will be a real guitar. And people who play RB3 with the real guitar will be able to play a real guitar without RB3.
RB3 will teach you to play a real guitar. And if you can 'play' a song in pro-mode with the Fender RB3 controller; you'll be able to play that song on any guitar you want. Because it's a real guitar.
Yes, it will still take time and effort to learn guitar - but RB3 is going to make it significantly more welcoming to new comers. It will be a game, with easy to visualize progress, rewards, and immediate feedback on how well you are playing. And if you play enough, you'll learn real songs and be able to play them on any guitar you want.
To elaborate; what this software does is basically the same thing as the Fender guitar. Notice that they have a Roland Gk-3 Pickup on their guitar. That will, effectively, turn any guitar into a Midi guitar.
While it's really 'cool' in a DIY sense; you'd still need to go out and buy a regular guitar. Then you'd need to modify it to use the GK-3 Pickup (which will run you $199 - on the first site I found it). And you still need the RB3 game and midi adapter. And you've got to deal with the additional complexity of running the software and the potential bugs it'll have.
If you are already an avid guitar player and have several guitars and know how to replace pickups and all that; maybe this would for you - but it seems like a waste for me.
I'm not sure if you are serious or trolling; but that's pretty much exactly what Rock Band 3 does.
There hasn't been nearly as much buzz about this as I would have expected (probably because the guitar, being made by Fender, isn't out yet). Anyway, if you buy RB3 and a midi adapter and the special guitar from Fender - you can play the game in 'pro mode'. When I say 'special guitar' I want to emphasize that this is not a 5 button or even 125 button 'fake' guitar. It is a real guitar. It has six strings (you can buy/replace from any guitar shop). You can tune the the strings, use a capo, and plug that bad boy into whatever amp you already have and it will play exactly like you expect.
The 'special' part of the guitar is some internal electronics that give additional information to the game.
The game does have various training modes to teach you the basics, and it has songs that range in difficulty. The notes displayed on screen are *exactly the same* notes you'd play when you aren't playing the game to play the song. You can even play the game while plugged into an amp and the song coming out of the amp will be exactly what you expect (provided you are passing the song/playing well enough). When you make mistakes, it is shown in real time; whether it be the wrong note played or playing the correct note at the wrong time.
The special guitar is not available yet - pre-order was scheduled to start Jan 1st - I think they opened it up sooner though. You can get more info about it on Fender.com's website. The guitar was $279.99 the last time I checked. That, along with the $40-50 midi adapter and the RB3 game itself means you are looking at a significant investment; but yeah - it's pretty much what you want.
I don't mean any disrespect; but I find that hard to believe.
Depending on the state/laws where you live, I know many companies will only disclose whether or not you worked for them and your dates of employment. Anything beyond that opens them up to giant lawsuits.
If you did something that was criminal, and you were convicted, and it was a felony; then, certainly, it could limit your employment options. But I know of plenty of smaller and even mid-sized companies that don't perform background checks/drug tests prior to employment.
Sure, it could cause some problems; but I really think you'd be able to still have a career.
But it is possible that what I consider a career would be a dead-end job to you....so maybe I'm just thinking about it on a different level.
I think it they estimated that a one-way trip could be ready in as little as 20 years.
If the guy has three kids right now, and his youngest is 1; his kids would all be grown adults by the time he left. That's pretty much the worst case; it's likely his kids are older and would be well into adulthood by the time he left.
Of course, if the guy is 30 now, in 20 years he's probably going to be considered too old.
I'm sure it depends on the game; maybe indie games have more active/vocal users....but a commercial, successful game tends to get something like 1% of it's active users on the forums.
That 1% suffers from sample bias. They are more informed, more serious, more obsessed with the game that the average player. Even still, that 1% rarely agrees on much of *anything*.
Flat-out bugs are pretty easy; but highly subjective stuff like 'class balance' and 'how cool your pet looks' is a nightmare. Check out WoW's forums and you'll find people in EACH class forums *loudly* proclaiming that their class is underpowered. 'Blizz hates Warriors!' 'Blizz hates Shamans', etc, etc....
90% of them want to pirate games. 9.9% of them want to do it cause it's 'cool', but will only run what others have created..1% will actually do 'something' with it. Of this.1% 90% of the people developing/hacking the box will be working on things that allow themselves and others to pirate games.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps assembler is necessary to understand exactly how a processor works. But understanding exactly how a processor works is not necessary for development of most applications. Heck, understanding the underlying frameworks/libraries you are utilizing often isn't.
Some company wants a great website. They want to hire you to make it. 'How a processor works' as more than a vague understanding isn't going to help you make a great website.
Swimming in my neighbor's pool might be a crime. But stealing really isn't it.
The only level of input that matters is $$$.
And casual gamers are more cost effective than hardcore gamers. Spendings 20 hours a day on the server and paying $15 per month isn't as beneficial to the game company as someone who plays 5 hours a week and pays $15 per month.
I believe it.
First, I've already got a large collection of songs downloaded to fill my mp3 player with. Yes, some new stuff comes out, maybe I get it. But I no longer have a backlog of things to download.
Second, streaming music is available in lots of forms. I don't need to download music to bring to work; I just listen to Pandora on my cell phone.
That only 'effectively' bans him if he deletes it and tries to install.
This is more akin to having paid for an hour of laser tag (online access to features, content, ability to reinstall from server) and then getting thrown out for being a d-bag (trolling the forums) after only 10 minutes. Yes, you lose out on 50 more minutes. Sorry.
He could still play the installed game on his desktop. He was banned from online activities that also prevented him from re-downloading the game. If I buy something from Best-Buy, then get banned from the store for running around naked, I lose the ability to exchange my item for store credit and shop at the store. I still have the product I purchased.
People don't understand what 'non-profit' means. All it means, is that it meets certain requirements as declared by the IRS that affects how it pays taxes.
There are employees who make MILLIONS OF DOLLARS while working for a non-profit organization. There are non-profit organizations that use hard-sale tactics. There are certainly public universities that do this. That employee people whose sole job is to market the school and/or the degree they are selling to CHILDREN.
My public university actually decided to bull-doze parking lots because someone did some math and declared that, 'If we had less parking, more students would park illegally, and we'd net $x million of dollars over y years.' So they tore it out. I'm also 100% convinced the average starting salaries for my major were grossly inflated. I even worked at our 'telefund' while I was a student. That was the Universities calling center that would call up former students and try to get them to give us money. We were even instructed on how to 'Get them talking about the old 'ol days' so they'd be less likely to say No. And, if you have a transcript mailed to any address (that isn't another university) - even if it's not yours - they will send junk mail to that address trying to get donations and sell homecoming tickets and alumni vacation packages. You can't stop the mailings. Even when you say, 'Look, I don't live there, the people that do were just friends who let me crash there for a few weeks while I was trying to get a job. They don't want the junk mail. Stop sending it. Please. Here is my new address, send it here'.
It's all about $$$. For-profit colleges and universities just haven't jumped through enough hoops (ahem, $$$) to get recognized as a 'real' school yet. The accreditation bodies are even worse than the universities. And thanks to Federal Student Loans, anyone can get as much money as they want. 'You want to major in Art History? And you want 70k in loans each year? Sure!'.
There are a lot of reasons, honestly.
Do you really want to go around suing 16 year old kids and their parents? Certainly, it's a lot harder and less effective to go after individual downloaders.
The reality of the situation is that very, very, very people have the knowledge required to do things like 'Hack a PS3'. Take 1000 PS3 gamers and, odds are, 0 can do it. Sure, lots of them can Google and follow instructions, but to actually do it, from scratch? Good luck.
And, while there might be legitimate reasons to 'hack' a PS3 99.9% of the people using a hack are using it to either pirate games or cheat in games where other people are unable to cheat.
Going after a handful of high-profile hackers will do significantly more than going after 10,000 high school kids.
As for the educational aspect, I'm not sure it really exists. The amount of pre-req knowledge you'd need to hack a PS3 means you are already at an elite level of knowledge. You aren't a curious youngster, regardless of age, you know what you are doing.
There is a lot of grey area. That first 'M' is pretty subjective.
If I play WoW on a private server, is it still an MMORPG? What if I'm the only player? What if there are 10,000 other players?
They aren't copying Google's results. They are recording which particular, individual result, of possibly thousands returned, the user actually found relevant. And, from what I understand, it's not specific to Google.
I'm 100% sure Google's search-ranking gives consideration to the number of clicks a link gets. IE - you search for CAT and click on result #2....Google records that. Over time, if everyone clicks on result #2, result #2 becomes result #1.
MS is allowing users to submit data on THEIR surfing patterns so that MS can make it's offerings better.
Sorry - it is:
http://blindsearch.fejus.com/
I can't speak for the OP; but when Bing first came out I found a website that would perform your search on Yahoo, Google and Bing; displaying the results in an identical format on either the left, center, or right of your screen.
The catch was; you didn't know which was which until after you clicked indicating which had the best results.
I used it for a good three weeks. Prior to that, I was a Google fanboy. After that, I realized Google's search results weren't any better for me. They were all remarkably close; Yahoo was my #1, followed by Bing, followed by Google.
A lot of it depends on your carrier. Phone companies are well known for being dicks to their customers.
As an example; my girlfriend (on Verizon) wanted to renew her contract and get a new phone. I don't remember the exact model but she had the 'V2' and wanted to get the 'V3'.
Verizon wouldn't give her the V3, unless she purchased a data plan. The V3 was considered a smart phone (but it was crap by smart-phone standards). Even after several phone calls and eventually, cancelling her service; they still refused to let us upgrade to the V3 without modifying her contract to include a data plan. Even though she didn't want to use data.
I'm a cheap bastard, so I told her to cancel, and I moved her onto my Sprint plan. She would have just gotten the smallest data plan and said, 'Oh well, it's only another $8'
I've had bosses who consistently put in 10 hours more than me each week. That approach would not help.
Asking someone to work overtime is almost the same as asking to barrow money. It's actually worse, because not only are you taking that potential income; you are also screwing up their personal time/schedule. I'm not a high-paid exec or anything; but I figure if my boss asks me to come in for eight hours on a Saturday - that is, literally, the CEO asking me to bum $320 or so.
If my CEO asked me to donate $320 to the company, most people would think that CEO insane. But, with time? People seem to put up with it.
Anyway, it's easy to be an internet tough guy; but I'm young and don't have children/responsibilities and, I'm pretty cheap. So it's not hard for me to draw a line in the sand. I wish more people would do it. Still, I'm very direct about it - when I'm asked to work OT, I will do it; but I will take an equal amount of time off that following week. Maybe someday some boss of mine will call me on it and I'll either have to do what they say or quit. So far, no problems. Oddly enough, it's the same e-mail I write when I'm running late or have to leave or some reason.
"Hey $Boss - I'm running a bit late today, probably won't be in until this afternoon. Will make up the time next week"
When I work OT, it's typically something like
"Hey $Boss - Coming in this weekend on Saturday to work on the XYZ needed for Monday. Will make up the time next week".
Except RB3 has a pro-mode that uses a real guitar.....so it really will be a real guitar. And people who play RB3 with the real guitar will be able to play a real guitar without RB3.
Ummm, I think you are a bit behind the times.
RB3 will teach you to play a real guitar. And if you can 'play' a song in pro-mode with the Fender RB3 controller; you'll be able to play that song on any guitar you want. Because it's a real guitar.
Yes, it will still take time and effort to learn guitar - but RB3 is going to make it significantly more welcoming to new comers. It will be a game, with easy to visualize progress, rewards, and immediate feedback on how well you are playing. And if you play enough, you'll learn real songs and be able to play them on any guitar you want.
I think you are missing the point.
You can play real guitars (in every sense of the world) with games like Rock Band.
I'd much rather have a guitar that was designed for that purpose and is played by pressing a string against a fret instead of pressing a button.
Thankfully Fender has that exact thing coming out in March
To elaborate; what this software does is basically the same thing as the Fender guitar. Notice that they have a Roland Gk-3 Pickup on their guitar. That will, effectively, turn any guitar into a Midi guitar.
While it's really 'cool' in a DIY sense; you'd still need to go out and buy a regular guitar. Then you'd need to modify it to use the GK-3 Pickup (which will run you $199 - on the first site I found it). And you still need the RB3 game and midi adapter. And you've got to deal with the additional complexity of running the software and the potential bugs it'll have.
If you are already an avid guitar player and have several guitars and know how to replace pickups and all that; maybe this would for you - but it seems like a waste for me.
I'm not sure if you are serious or trolling; but that's pretty much exactly what Rock Band 3 does.
There hasn't been nearly as much buzz about this as I would have expected (probably because the guitar, being made by Fender, isn't out yet). Anyway, if you buy RB3 and a midi adapter and the special guitar from Fender - you can play the game in 'pro mode'. When I say 'special guitar' I want to emphasize that this is not a 5 button or even 125 button 'fake' guitar. It is a real guitar. It has six strings (you can buy/replace from any guitar shop). You can tune the the strings, use a capo, and plug that bad boy into whatever amp you already have and it will play exactly like you expect.
The 'special' part of the guitar is some internal electronics that give additional information to the game.
The game does have various training modes to teach you the basics, and it has songs that range in difficulty. The notes displayed on screen are *exactly the same* notes you'd play when you aren't playing the game to play the song. You can even play the game while plugged into an amp and the song coming out of the amp will be exactly what you expect (provided you are passing the song/playing well enough). When you make mistakes, it is shown in real time; whether it be the wrong note played or playing the correct note at the wrong time.
The special guitar is not available yet - pre-order was scheduled to start Jan 1st - I think they opened it up sooner though. You can get more info about it on Fender.com's website. The guitar was $279.99 the last time I checked. That, along with the $40-50 midi adapter and the RB3 game itself means you are looking at a significant investment; but yeah - it's pretty much what you want.
I don't mean any disrespect; but I find that hard to believe.
Depending on the state/laws where you live, I know many companies will only disclose whether or not you worked for them and your dates of employment. Anything beyond that opens them up to giant lawsuits.
If you did something that was criminal, and you were convicted, and it was a felony; then, certainly, it could limit your employment options. But I know of plenty of smaller and even mid-sized companies that don't perform background checks/drug tests prior to employment.
Sure, it could cause some problems; but I really think you'd be able to still have a career.
But it is possible that what I consider a career would be a dead-end job to you....so maybe I'm just thinking about it on a different level.
I think it they estimated that a one-way trip could be ready in as little as 20 years.
If the guy has three kids right now, and his youngest is 1; his kids would all be grown adults by the time he left. That's pretty much the worst case; it's likely his kids are older and would be well into adulthood by the time he left.
Of course, if the guy is 30 now, in 20 years he's probably going to be considered too old.
I've always, always ordered my burgers plain. As in, buns + meat....nothing else.
Granted, the meat is still seasoned.
Regardless, a double quarter pounder from McDonalds is still pretty good.
I'm sure it depends on the game; maybe indie games have more active/vocal users....but a commercial, successful game tends to get something like 1% of it's active users on the forums.
That 1% suffers from sample bias. They are more informed, more serious, more obsessed with the game that the average player. Even still, that 1% rarely agrees on much of *anything*.
Flat-out bugs are pretty easy; but highly subjective stuff like 'class balance' and 'how cool your pet looks' is a nightmare. Check out WoW's forums and you'll find people in EACH class forums *loudly* proclaiming that their class is underpowered. 'Blizz hates Warriors!' 'Blizz hates Shamans', etc, etc....
90% of them want to pirate games. .1% will actually do 'something' with it. Of this .1% 90% of the people developing/hacking the box will be working on things that allow themselves and others to pirate games.
9.9% of them want to do it cause it's 'cool', but will only run what others have created.