You know, the most influential (and richest) industries of the country are controlled by families who had relations with Putin or KGB/army in the 90s. Putin designed his Deputy Prime Minister to become the presidential candidate , Putin left the presidence to become Prime Minister, the former Putin's Prime Minister now is Deputy Prime Minister...
at least until some clever pirates think about the fact that the code should be unencrypted in memory and you only need two steam account to compare where the 'unique ID' is...
Those DRM warriors should start thinking that the guys who break their systems aren't teenagers with too much spare time. They do what they do for money (possibly for more money than the developers get) and while valve have to make a system that works for everyone, pirates only have to find ONE flaw to get the game cracked.
while accusing them of everything from theft to supporting terrorism
Those info is ok for people who would shoot a policeman. And then steal his helmet. And would go to the toilet in his helmet. And then send it to the policeman's grieving widow. And then steal it again!
Wow, you should rent your non-existent dog as engineer. Because being able to understand that the audio comes modulated in the frequency of the carrier is not the same than knowing how to resolve the Nth Bessel function necessary to implement a dsp processor, or how to calculate the adecuate bandwith of your filter without using the just-use-the-approximation that give the Carson's rule.
Is this the first time the US goverment give helps to replace old cars? In Europe is a common practice and I though it was a worldwide routine.
(If I recall correctly, it started here in mid 80s to help the transition from leaded to unleaded gas and to improve the general safety of the cars - you know, in those days people drove those 70's tiny tin-'cubic'-car with sharp edges and no safety belt)
He is one of those f*** bastards who use the tool that best fits him (for example being free, if it is really a gift from microsoft) instead of "what he should use"!
(or better)
He is one of those f*** bastards who only want to listen mp3 ignoring how stylish is his player!!
not worldwide. Maybe I shock you, but outside the US apple is a niche market that its only used for graphics design- you know, a heritage of the 80s. In the old Europe you would find much more projects for linux than for OSX (and both are a minimal percentage of the total projects, because everyone still use some version of Windows). Even the ipod is a rare avis in the mp3 market. Of course Apple started an agressive campaing to catch the academic world few years ago, financing laptops for teachers and student, but it's too early to move the trend.
So, no. I work in a mid-size software factory and I can assure you developers aren't going anywhere.
Recently I've rented the PC version of GoW and I was little dissapointed. I played it after finishing call of duty 4 and crysis, and I feel the gameplay is so simplified (when gaming with traditional WASD+mouse) that you end playing with walk->hide behind a column->zoom->fire->walk->repeat. Of course, it's a perfect combination for a gamepad but PC gamers expect a slightly more elaborated controls (ie. _something_ more to do) to enjoy a game. Moreover, its linearity is what killed the fun; when you master the technique of hidding+fire you can play mindlessly because you doesnt have any mision apart from kill every beast that moves.
Of course, graphics, sound and ambient in general are still superb, but I returned the gamed a couple of days after the rental.
You only have to make yourself responsible of your work, as its done in every other career. I don't see medics, architects or civil engeeners working with highly mutable specifications, changing departament every two weeks or excusing a bug because "it's impossible to make a program bug-free". And they are respected and suffer near zero intrusion in their work (until something goes terrible wrong, of course)
Until somebody took responsabilities for an IT work, bussineses will not have any reason to not outsourcing or hire just-left-college guys to get the work done. It's simply cheaper and they get the same chances that nobody will make responsible of failures.
PS: obviously there are experienced workers that could make a difference in a project, but they are highly outnumbered by those who couldn't, and unions only give advantages for the later ones.
Because the last time a hurricane hit the Netherladns was... uhh... never? The fact that it's deep below sea level is not what makes new orleans problematic, but its proximity to one of the few places in the world that have big big storms.
Ok, katrina was the first big one, but now is coming the second one, and maybe in five years we'll see the third and so on. I call it basic survival instinct to leave and put your family in other place.
Handmade work is still in use, but good designing practices has taught us that it's easier to reduce 'common mistakes' with the use of automated tools at some stages. You can't make all step of modern microelectronics by hand and still be competitive (you'd use much more manpower and your product certainly will be delivered too late), as you can't use a rule and a pencil to design a modern building.
The perfect workflow (or perhaps the more efficient) is to use the best tools available to reach an advanced point of your design- the same point that your competitors can reach with the same tool, and then use your expertise/handwork/experience to refine it and differentiate your product from others.
OTOH, modern CAD software is very complex and saying that working with it is 'less creative' is a kick in the ass to those great engineers who have created authentic pieces of electronic art with it.
This can be implemented in many ways, none of them requiring 'strong AI'. For example you make the game with a normal storyline (ascending to mafia boss and the like), and you only have to give the NPCs scripts more execution paths depending what missions you have completed before and whom did you talked to. You robbed the bank killing more than X civilians? Ok, you're a hard guy and the next NPC will give you the mission of collect the 'protection fees' from the bartenders. If instead you managed to win the drug deal without firing a single shot, well, you're perfect for this 'transport the wallet' mission. This way you've reduced a lot the "you can't continue the game untill you complete that mission" points.
Sure, it increases the work of the writers and the QA guys, but once you have the game engine polished adding new stories would be pretty easy.
When Pluto lost its status of planet a couple of years ago I was shocked reading that the USA was lobying against that definition just because Pluto is the only planet discovered by an american scientist. Please, oh please, tell me that IAU hasn't produced this new denomination just for political reasons. It would be very sad...
we have licensed the engine of the GTAIV or something similar and we only have to change buildings with sand dunes and arab palaces, and make the storyline to say "from poor to Prince" instead of "from drugdealer to Organized Crime Capo"
Its banned to have images with real children, as it should be. Now they want to ban just a drawing. Then, they will want to ban writings talking about child abuse; think of it, not only adult/porn books but every novel in which any of the characters had been abused. After that it will be illegal to talk about sex with children. Results? child abuse will be an undeground thing again, flying below the radar of the society (as it was 30-40 years ago) and the govt/media will have to find the next ScaryThing(tm). Somebody should tell them that a mental illness cannot be fixed with a ban...
Not only that. The graphic card is one of the few components for which we don't have any clue about its internals (yes, we've heard about its shaders, the pipelines, etc, but only in powerpoints released by the company). Memory? If I'm interested I can find info about DDR voltage, timing diagrams and everything else. Processor? Intel can send you a 400-pages printed copy of their manual. BIOS? Hard disk? Same. Sure, if you use their drivers everything will work smoothly, but those drivers are given as a plus not as "the only way to get our product running".
Some big company should realize that if nvidia/ati shutdown it bussines, there will be no way to "revive" their old workstations, and nobody will release patches for coming bugs... some big company or some govt department, of course.
Talking about another uses... what about putting that techniques and the "enormous computing power" to some useful (for the society) jobs? It can be used to find mineral ores (maybe correlating aerial images with geological data?) or medical analisys (skin cancer? tissue identification?). It wouldn't give much direct economical revenue, but it will surely increases the Google "coolness" a lot (and from a shareholder point of view, it can be very very attractive)
We, at Creative, are unable to mass produce chips that differentiates themselves by its design as we used to do. A few years ago we throw all of our money making a single chip design and our bussines since then has been to ship it with a simple eeprom saying what version of our card had you bought, and enable/disable features only at driver level. So please please please stop hacking our drivers to allow the advanced functionalities work in the low level cards, because in that way nobody will buy our multihundred bucks cards.
Slashdot Mirror
You know, the most influential (and richest) industries of the country are controlled by families who had relations with Putin or KGB/army in the 90s. Putin designed his Deputy Prime Minister to become the presidential candidate , Putin left the presidence to become Prime Minister, the former Putin's Prime Minister now is Deputy Prime Minister...
Yes, it sounds like an autocracy.
at least until some clever pirates think about the fact that the code should be unencrypted in memory and you only need two steam account to compare where the 'unique ID' is...
Those DRM warriors should start thinking that the guys who break their systems aren't teenagers with too much spare time. They do what they do for money (possibly for more money than the developers get) and while valve have to make a system that works for everyone, pirates only have to find ONE flaw to get the game cracked.
And if Sony cuts down the PS3 price EA and Blizzard are going to stop selling games at $70 each? I doubt it.
while accusing them of everything from theft to supporting terrorism
Those info is ok for people who would shoot a policeman. And then steal his helmet. And would go to the toilet in his helmet. And then send it to the policeman's grieving widow. And then steal it again!
Wow, you should rent your non-existent dog as engineer. Because being able to understand that the audio comes modulated in the frequency of the carrier is not the same than knowing how to resolve the Nth Bessel function necessary to implement a dsp processor, or how to calculate the adecuate bandwith of your filter without using the just-use-the-approximation that give the Carson's rule.
If parents cannot be trusted to mind their children online, they cannot be trusted to vote you in the next elections...
Is this the first time the US goverment give helps to replace old cars? In Europe is a common practice and I though it was a worldwide routine.
(If I recall correctly, it started here in mid 80s to help the transition from leaded to unleaded gas and to improve the general safety of the cars - you know, in those days people drove those 70's tiny tin-'cubic'-car with sharp edges and no safety belt)
that means no more embarrasing CSI: NY chapters? ;)
He is one of those f*** bastards who use the tool that best fits him (for example being free, if it is really a gift from microsoft) instead of "what he should use"!
(or better)
He is one of those f*** bastards who only want to listen mp3 ignoring how stylish is his player!!
Impeachment now!!
not worldwide. Maybe I shock you, but outside the US apple is a niche market that its only used for graphics design- you know, a heritage of the 80s. In the old Europe you would find much more projects for linux than for OSX (and both are a minimal percentage of the total projects, because everyone still use some version of Windows). Even the ipod is a rare avis in the mp3 market. Of course Apple started an agressive campaing to catch the academic world few years ago, financing laptops for teachers and student, but it's too early to move the trend.
So, no. I work in a mid-size software factory and I can assure you developers aren't going anywhere.
Recently I've rented the PC version of GoW and I was little dissapointed. I played it after finishing call of duty 4 and crysis, and I feel the gameplay is so simplified (when gaming with traditional WASD+mouse) that you end playing with walk->hide behind a column->zoom->fire->walk->repeat. Of course, it's a perfect combination for a gamepad but PC gamers expect a slightly more elaborated controls (ie. _something_ more to do) to enjoy a game. Moreover, its linearity is what killed the fun; when you master the technique of hidding+fire you can play mindlessly because you doesnt have any mision apart from kill every beast that moves.
Of course, graphics, sound and ambient in general are still superb, but I returned the gamed a couple of days after the rental.
You only have to make yourself responsible of your work, as its done in every other career. I don't see medics, architects or civil engeeners working with highly mutable specifications, changing departament every two weeks or excusing a bug because "it's impossible to make a program bug-free". And they are respected and suffer near zero intrusion in their work (until something goes terrible wrong, of course)
Until somebody took responsabilities for an IT work, bussineses will not have any reason to not outsourcing or hire just-left-college guys to get the work done. It's simply cheaper and they get the same chances that nobody will make responsible of failures.
PS: obviously there are experienced workers that could make a difference in a project, but they are highly outnumbered by those who couldn't, and unions only give advantages for the later ones.
Because the last time a hurricane hit the Netherladns was... uhh... never? The fact that it's deep below sea level is not what makes new orleans problematic, but its proximity to one of the few places in the world that have big big storms.
Ok, katrina was the first big one, but now is coming the second one, and maybe in five years we'll see the third and so on. I call it basic survival instinct to leave and put your family in other place.
Can you explain your point of view with a car analogy, please?
Handmade work is still in use, but good designing practices has taught us that it's easier to reduce 'common mistakes' with the use of automated tools at some stages. You can't make all step of modern microelectronics by hand and still be competitive (you'd use much more manpower and your product certainly will be delivered too late), as you can't use a rule and a pencil to design a modern building.
The perfect workflow (or perhaps the more efficient) is to use the best tools available to reach an advanced point of your design- the same point that your competitors can reach with the same tool, and then use your expertise/handwork/experience to refine it and differentiate your product from others.
OTOH, modern CAD software is very complex and saying that working with it is 'less creative' is a kick in the ass to those great engineers who have created authentic pieces of electronic art with it.
This can be implemented in many ways, none of them requiring 'strong AI'. For example you make the game with a normal storyline (ascending to mafia boss and the like), and you only have to give the NPCs scripts more execution paths depending what missions you have completed before and whom did you talked to. You robbed the bank killing more than X civilians? Ok, you're a hard guy and the next NPC will give you the mission of collect the 'protection fees' from the bartenders. If instead you managed to win the drug deal without firing a single shot, well, you're perfect for this 'transport the wallet' mission. This way you've reduced a lot the "you can't continue the game untill you complete that mission" points.
Sure, it increases the work of the writers and the QA guys, but once you have the game engine polished adding new stories would be pretty easy.
if the german game bussines plays in the same league than the america's one, that reviews can be caused by
a) the game sucks.
b) atari refuses to pay to obtain that relaxes critics that some crappy games get by big editorials.
It would be interesting when the game get finally published...
When Pluto lost its status of planet a couple of years ago I was shocked reading that the USA was lobying against that definition just because Pluto is the only planet discovered by an american scientist. Please, oh please, tell me that IAU hasn't produced this new denomination just for political reasons. It would be very sad...
we have licensed the engine of the GTAIV or something similar and we only have to change buildings with sand dunes and arab palaces, and make the storyline to say "from poor to Prince" instead of "from drugdealer to Organized Crime Capo"
Its banned to have images with real children, as it should be. Now they want to ban just a drawing. Then, they will want to ban writings talking about child abuse; think of it, not only adult/porn books but every novel in which any of the characters had been abused. After that it will be illegal to talk about sex with children. Results? child abuse will be an undeground thing again, flying below the radar of the society (as it was 30-40 years ago) and the govt/media will have to find the next ScaryThing(tm). Somebody should tell them that a mental illness cannot be fixed with a ban...
Not only that. The graphic card is one of the few components for which we don't have any clue about its internals (yes, we've heard about its shaders, the pipelines, etc, but only in powerpoints released by the company). Memory? If I'm interested I can find info about DDR voltage, timing diagrams and everything else. Processor? Intel can send you a 400-pages printed copy of their manual. BIOS? Hard disk? Same. Sure, if you use their drivers everything will work smoothly, but those drivers are given as a plus not as "the only way to get our product running".
Some big company should realize that if nvidia/ati shutdown it bussines, there will be no way to "revive" their old workstations, and nobody will release patches for coming bugs... some big company or some govt department, of course.
Talking about another uses... what about putting that techniques and the "enormous computing power" to some useful (for the society) jobs? It can be used to find mineral ores (maybe correlating aerial images with geological data?) or medical analisys (skin cancer? tissue identification?). It wouldn't give much direct economical revenue, but it will surely increases the Google "coolness" a lot (and from a shareholder point of view, it can be very very attractive)
We, at Creative, are unable to mass produce chips that differentiates themselves by its design as we used to do. A few years ago we throw all of our money making a single chip design and our bussines since then has been to ship it with a simple eeprom saying what version of our card had you bought, and enable/disable features only at driver level. So please please please stop hacking our drivers to allow the advanced functionalities work in the low level cards, because in that way nobody will buy our multihundred bucks cards.
Sincerely yours.