Erm no, that's not true. The look of their machines means just as much too. Otherwise why spend money on the hardware design and just stick it in a generic PC case.
Macs generally run smoother too and that is down to Apple controlling the hardware and what goes in the machine. A Mac is not a mac just because of the OS.
If your software isn't the cause then it's not really your fault. That said, if there were some sort of law in place that held everyone to the same standard then maybe you wouldn't be wasting as much time working around other people's bugs and therefore can spend more time refining your code without an additional cost.
World of Goo was released on more platforms than most games and less buggy than some big name games release on one platform. 2D Boy is much smaller than the likes of Epic or EA.
What will probably happen is there will be less the acceptable coders that get the sack and good coders will probably see better wages but that's the way it should be.
That's a load of shit. Even given exact hardware on consoles they still pump out shit.
Yet there are companies like Nintendo have managed to pump out quality built software that doesn't need patching upon its release.
Blizzard manages to make games of a superior quality on the PC without specifying very exact hardware. The difference is they put money into testing and quality time into developing rather than acting like it's some kind of race to pump out games faster than anyone else.
It's no surprise that it's companies like Nintendo and Blizzard that don't really have financial problems despite maybe releasing fewer games because each game is of a higher quality than what most other's release.
If you're dealing with an OS or non-entertainment software, the shoddy workmanship can lead to a person losing personal items like family photos or worse yet financial information which will have a huge effect on their life. So there is no reason people should not expect software to be of a high quality.
For ages publishers have fucked people over with ridiculous terms & conditions that say they're not responsible for anything despite the fact they made the damn software. No other industry gets away with that. What's worse is often the T&C are inside the box, you have to open it and if you disagree and try to take it back to the shop you're labelled a pirate and told to fuck off and if you're lucky you deal with the hassle of mailing the disc back to the publisher and maybe seeing your month in a couple months. It's a hassle and they know it will stop people from doing it. Instead they'll just live with the shoddy workmanship. So quite rightly it's about time they're held to a higher standard and release something decent in the first place.
Who knows maybe they'll actually start hiring quality developers again rather than paying peanuts for some inexperienced off-shore guy. BTW, not all off-shoring people are inexperienced but from my experience companies don't care as much about a developer's experience when they're paying less than the company's home country's minimum wage.
Until the advent of internet connections for consoles, there was always a vast difference in the quality of console games and PC games. PC game devs took the attitude of just meeting a deadline and patching it later. Console devs didn't have that option.
Now console have internet connections and a lot of those PC devs with their shitty attitudes moved over to consoles.
The thing is a buggy game or OS doesn't work as it should can cause you to lose time invested. It's broken and you should have the right to return it rather than being treated like a criminal when you walk into a shop asking to return a game.
Game reviews rarely mention bugs and to be fair it's because more often they're given a very limited amount of time to play the game which the publisher obviously does to cover up problems or so reviewers don't realise that actually it's a really boring game after the initial shine wears off of it being new.
Consoles are all the same hardware. There is very little that should cause problems. The biggest problem is that devs simply aren't given the time and instead expected to pump out annual sequels to the same boring ass games. Maybe if people are allowed to start returning games for being buggy, they'll take more time to work on a game and as a by-product, spend a bit more time on the story and gameplay as well.
Exactly, medical insurance is a must because the cost is too high and, imo, it's not worth gambling your life over some cash. With most electronics that's not the case and you can set aside money in a replacement fund in a savings account, have the money you would have spent on the warranty plus interest.
Alternatively save at least $70 yourself in a replacement fund. Luckily I've never had to replace a phone. Had I done that I would have $560 not including interest for the past 8 years.
An HTC droid with no contract is $469.99 so I could afford a brand new phone and have money left over. That's just for one warranty plan. If you set aside the money you'd pay into every warranty plan, that money would build up faster and you'll earn more interest faster.
Sure some phones that come of the manufacturing line will be faulty and if you started this you may only save $70, the phone will break and it would seem like you're screwed but you'll make out in the long run and you'd have to be pretty unlucky to have that continually happen to you phone after phone in make it not work in your favor.
Not all insurance is stupid. Paying a few hundred per month as opposed to a hundred thousand for an operation and hospital visit makes sense. Plus you're dealing with your life, so while some people (with dedication) probably could save enough through their life to cover medical costs rather than buying insurance, it's not really worth gambling when it's your life rather than a TV.
Paying out a few hundred to protect a TV is dumb. The money would be better spent on a quality UPS to protect your hardware.
Yes, it is unfortunately that some people do get stuck with a bad product that dies early but in most cases that won't happen.
You'd be better off putting money into a savings account. If you TV fails, buy a new one. If not, you have that money and interest to do whatever you want. It's a huge money maker for the people offering the extended warranty which is why companies like Best Buy wanted employees to sell so many of them.
I'm not sure if this is still the case but last time I lived in the US you had to pay to receive a call which is a scam in itself. But seems in most cases you're tied to a 2 year contract, you still often have to pay something for the phone and then at least sometimes the cost of data, calling and texting is separated. That would be fine if it could work out cheaper but it certainly doesn't seem that way.
Take the very popular iPhone.
For 2 years, I could get a 16gig iPhone 3Gs with 1200 minutes, 500 texts and unlimited data. The phone is free and per month I'm paying £44.05.
AT&T offer an 8gig iphone for $99.00. You have to take the $30 per month unlimited data plan. For 900 minutes per month (closest offer without going over) is $60.00 with apparently a one-time set-up fee of $36.00 and then add $5.00 on top for 200 texts per month.
That's $104.94 (calculated with PA 6% sales tax) for the phone and $94.99. That's £58.37 per month which makes it more expensive than the UK despite our higher tax rates.
Then compare that to what T-mobile gave me - a free G1 for 24 months, unlimited texts, unlimited data and 800 free minutes for £25. I'll be able to get my phone unlocked for free and take it to any other network at the end for a sim-only package that will be cheaper.
The only reason I can think of it being this way is because Americans think it's acceptable to get shafted by mobile phone providers.
The difference being when I had a phone with a 450mhz processor, the phone wasn't much bigger than the 450 mhz processor in my previously owned desktop machine. It costs money to shrink that stuff down.
You're right that management has to share responsibility. Off-shoring exposes management incompetency. If you get Off-shore programmers that lack experience because they were shoved through some quick schooling to meet demand then they simply won't be able to do the job right even if he were a local.
The manager should stop the shoddy product from coming out but he won't because he was never good at his job. The difference is when they had to hirer locals at a decent wage they're more likely to be qualified enough to help cover up management incompetency.
You don't even need HTML knowledge when most message boards have their own basic code which will generally be generated by some TinyMCE-like javascript pop-up that anyone can use.
That's the nice thing about freedom of choice. You can use the ones you would like to use. I for one will probably use it just for the sole reason Google won't go out of business anytime soon and I don't use url shortening for anything questionable so I don't care if they know. The only group I'd really be concerned with snooping at my data is the government and they can get that data from any one of those services.
Everyone feels their dollar is worth more now that the economy is crap. So they think they're doing the smart thing by protection their already expensive purchase but they're just wasting their money.
Extended warranties are like lottery tickets in that the poor and stupid buy 'em up like they're going out of style.
Americans need to get it through their head that they've always been dependant upon the government doing things for them and if it weren't for the government in the past ensuring the country had plenty of rail lines, everyone had electricity and a phone, the US would probably be no better off than Mexico. The only reason the US' education system is as good as it is comes down to government control. Unfortunately there is now also too much pressure to not make kids feel stupid, standards are lowered and the subsidised education is being wasted.
The only issue is when the government is full of poor politicians voted in by morons. With competition like John Kerry, Al Gore, George Bush, John McCain and Sarah Palin, it's no wonder the US is in a sad state.
Perhaps too much government is the government allowing everyone to vote. I'd rather see some people have to take an intelligence and history test to earn their right to vote.
Once something serious happens to you then you're choice is going to go out the window. Why should surviving cancer effectively rule you out of every getting health insurance?
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Erm no, that's not true. The look of their machines means just as much too. Otherwise why spend money on the hardware design and just stick it in a generic PC case.
Macs generally run smoother too and that is down to Apple controlling the hardware and what goes in the machine. A Mac is not a mac just because of the OS.
If your software isn't the cause then it's not really your fault. That said, if there were some sort of law in place that held everyone to the same standard then maybe you wouldn't be wasting as much time working around other people's bugs and therefore can spend more time refining your code without an additional cost.
World of Goo was released on more platforms than most games and less buggy than some big name games release on one platform. 2D Boy is much smaller than the likes of Epic or EA.
What will probably happen is there will be less the acceptable coders that get the sack and good coders will probably see better wages but that's the way it should be.
That's a load of shit. Even given exact hardware on consoles they still pump out shit.
Yet there are companies like Nintendo have managed to pump out quality built software that doesn't need patching upon its release.
Blizzard manages to make games of a superior quality on the PC without specifying very exact hardware. The difference is they put money into testing and quality time into developing rather than acting like it's some kind of race to pump out games faster than anyone else.
It's no surprise that it's companies like Nintendo and Blizzard that don't really have financial problems despite maybe releasing fewer games because each game is of a higher quality than what most other's release.
If you're dealing with an OS or non-entertainment software, the shoddy workmanship can lead to a person losing personal items like family photos or worse yet financial information which will have a huge effect on their life. So there is no reason people should not expect software to be of a high quality.
For ages publishers have fucked people over with ridiculous terms & conditions that say they're not responsible for anything despite the fact they made the damn software. No other industry gets away with that. What's worse is often the T&C are inside the box, you have to open it and if you disagree and try to take it back to the shop you're labelled a pirate and told to fuck off and if you're lucky you deal with the hassle of mailing the disc back to the publisher and maybe seeing your month in a couple months. It's a hassle and they know it will stop people from doing it. Instead they'll just live with the shoddy workmanship. So quite rightly it's about time they're held to a higher standard and release something decent in the first place.
Who knows maybe they'll actually start hiring quality developers again rather than paying peanuts for some inexperienced off-shore guy. BTW, not all off-shoring people are inexperienced but from my experience companies don't care as much about a developer's experience when they're paying less than the company's home country's minimum wage.
Until the advent of internet connections for consoles, there was always a vast difference in the quality of console games and PC games. PC game devs took the attitude of just meeting a deadline and patching it later. Console devs didn't have that option.
Now console have internet connections and a lot of those PC devs with their shitty attitudes moved over to consoles.
The thing is a buggy game or OS doesn't work as it should can cause you to lose time invested. It's broken and you should have the right to return it rather than being treated like a criminal when you walk into a shop asking to return a game.
Game reviews rarely mention bugs and to be fair it's because more often they're given a very limited amount of time to play the game which the publisher obviously does to cover up problems or so reviewers don't realise that actually it's a really boring game after the initial shine wears off of it being new.
Consoles are all the same hardware. There is very little that should cause problems. The biggest problem is that devs simply aren't given the time and instead expected to pump out annual sequels to the same boring ass games. Maybe if people are allowed to start returning games for being buggy, they'll take more time to work on a game and as a by-product, spend a bit more time on the story and gameplay as well.
What happened there is something that could have easily happened in the US. She shouldn't have been surprised.
The correct procedure, when coming in contact with a Mac, is to shoot it at least 5 times.
The thing is that it's not all of them. I would guess the emails people really want to see won't be found.
Considering how much copyright infringement goes on in China, it's pretty safe to assume they don't execute people for it.
Exactly, medical insurance is a must because the cost is too high and, imo, it's not worth gambling your life over some cash. With most electronics that's not the case and you can set aside money in a replacement fund in a savings account, have the money you would have spent on the warranty plus interest.
Alternatively save at least $70 yourself in a replacement fund. Luckily I've never had to replace a phone. Had I done that I would have $560 not including interest for the past 8 years.
An HTC droid with no contract is $469.99 so I could afford a brand new phone and have money left over. That's just for one warranty plan. If you set aside the money you'd pay into every warranty plan, that money would build up faster and you'll earn more interest faster.
Sure some phones that come of the manufacturing line will be faulty and if you started this you may only save $70, the phone will break and it would seem like you're screwed but you'll make out in the long run and you'd have to be pretty unlucky to have that continually happen to you phone after phone in make it not work in your favor.
Not all insurance is stupid. Paying a few hundred per month as opposed to a hundred thousand for an operation and hospital visit makes sense. Plus you're dealing with your life, so while some people (with dedication) probably could save enough through their life to cover medical costs rather than buying insurance, it's not really worth gambling when it's your life rather than a TV.
Paying out a few hundred to protect a TV is dumb. The money would be better spent on a quality UPS to protect your hardware.
Yes, it is unfortunately that some people do get stuck with a bad product that dies early but in most cases that won't happen.
You'd be better off putting money into a savings account. If you TV fails, buy a new one. If not, you have that money and interest to do whatever you want. It's a huge money maker for the people offering the extended warranty which is why companies like Best Buy wanted employees to sell so many of them.
I'm not sure if this is still the case but last time I lived in the US you had to pay to receive a call which is a scam in itself. But seems in most cases you're tied to a 2 year contract, you still often have to pay something for the phone and then at least sometimes the cost of data, calling and texting is separated. That would be fine if it could work out cheaper but it certainly doesn't seem that way.
Take the very popular iPhone.
For 2 years, I could get a 16gig iPhone 3Gs with 1200 minutes, 500 texts and unlimited data. The phone is free and per month I'm paying £44.05.
AT&T offer an 8gig iphone for $99.00. You have to take the $30 per month unlimited data plan. For 900 minutes per month (closest offer without going over) is $60.00 with apparently a one-time set-up fee of $36.00 and then add $5.00 on top for 200 texts per month.
That's $104.94 (calculated with PA 6% sales tax) for the phone and $94.99. That's £58.37 per month which makes it more expensive than the UK despite our higher tax rates.
Then compare that to what T-mobile gave me - a free G1 for 24 months, unlimited texts, unlimited data and 800 free minutes for £25. I'll be able to get my phone unlocked for free and take it to any other network at the end for a sim-only package that will be cheaper.
The only reason I can think of it being this way is because Americans think it's acceptable to get shafted by mobile phone providers.
The difference being when I had a phone with a 450mhz processor, the phone wasn't much bigger than the 450 mhz processor in my previously owned desktop machine. It costs money to shrink that stuff down.
You're right that management has to share responsibility. Off-shoring exposes management incompetency. If you get Off-shore programmers that lack experience because they were shoved through some quick schooling to meet demand then they simply won't be able to do the job right even if he were a local.
The manager should stop the shoddy product from coming out but he won't because he was never good at his job. The difference is when they had to hirer locals at a decent wage they're more likely to be qualified enough to help cover up management incompetency.
I've seen a documentary about an Australian called Michael Dundee. He went to New York and just couldn't live in a civilized world.
Basically the whole island is full of bad genes from all the old British criminals. Give them a bit of freedom and they live like animals.
They have beer cans and knives much larger than any normal human would need. You just can't trust people like that.
I think it's pretty safe to assume it's a joke.
You don't even need HTML knowledge when most message boards have their own basic code which will generally be generated by some TinyMCE-like javascript pop-up that anyone can use.
How else are you going to send people to goatse or a rickroll?
That's the nice thing about freedom of choice. You can use the ones you would like to use. I for one will probably use it just for the sole reason Google won't go out of business anytime soon and I don't use url shortening for anything questionable so I don't care if they know. The only group I'd really be concerned with snooping at my data is the government and they can get that data from any one of those services.
Everyone feels their dollar is worth more now that the economy is crap. So they think they're doing the smart thing by protection their already expensive purchase but they're just wasting their money.
Extended warranties are like lottery tickets in that the poor and stupid buy 'em up like they're going out of style.
Why not just charge the higher price and give everyone a longer warranty?
It's because that warranty isn't necessary, the lower price has enough profit and they can get enough suckers buying an extended warranty anyway.
You'd be better off putting that money towards a decent UPS which will actually do something to protect your electronics.
That is not too much government.
Americans need to get it through their head that they've always been dependant upon the government doing things for them and if it weren't for the government in the past ensuring the country had plenty of rail lines, everyone had electricity and a phone, the US would probably be no better off than Mexico. The only reason the US' education system is as good as it is comes down to government control. Unfortunately there is now also too much pressure to not make kids feel stupid, standards are lowered and the subsidised education is being wasted.
The only issue is when the government is full of poor politicians voted in by morons. With competition like John Kerry, Al Gore, George Bush, John McCain and Sarah Palin, it's no wonder the US is in a sad state.
Perhaps too much government is the government allowing everyone to vote. I'd rather see some people have to take an intelligence and history test to earn their right to vote.
Gaming suffers from too many analysts talking shit to justify their job.
Once something serious happens to you then you're choice is going to go out the window. Why should surviving cancer effectively rule you out of every getting health insurance?