He also says: "Is a Ph.D. a near-guarantee of a spot in a skunkworks type of job (Microsoft Research and the like)? Is a M.S. just as good for this?"
If you're doing a Phd because you want to work on cutting edge research, then you're possibly going to be dissapointed. A Phd would certainly help open the door for an interview at one of those places, but won't immediately mean you'll get hired. It's one thing being able to digest the latest research papers, but it's another thing entirely to implement them in a production environment. Are you proficient with the latest GPGPU techniques? (cuda/direct compute/openCL). How is your 3D graphics knowledge? How much do you know about the latest SIMD / threading optimisation techniques? Have you ever looked into FPGA's? How much experience have you had developing cross platform applications? Have you had experience writing code for distruted computing environments? If you have most of those covered, and you have a Phd, then there will be plenty of doors open to you. If you have a Phd, but none of the above, then the Phd will be of limited help.
A large number (though not all) of Phd grads I've worked with are great at solving problems, but not very good at putting that into practice on a large codebase (where maintainablity, sanity, and efficiency, inevitably take priority over being cutting edge).
How does the 'letter of recommendation' requirement work if you haven't kept in touch with your professors?"
It's of little consequence. Your research portfolio will be the thing of most interest to employers. If they get to the point of asking for references, then you've already got the job. The tutors will not stand in the way of that (graduate recruitment is an important statistic for universities these days - the tutors get moore out of you getting a job than you may realise!)
The enforcement is done from sales of TV equiplement. Next time you buy a TV, or TV tuner card, you'll probably notice that the shop will take down your name and address. This is always passed to the TV license people to double check you've got a license. Shortly after purchase of your TV, you'll normally recieve a reminder to make sure you pay for a license. This happens even if you already have a license. The TV enforcement people usually turn up shortly afterwards if no license is registered at the property. A few years ago, I made the mistake of buying a TV tuner as a present. I then had the TV licensing people turning up at my flat every other week (even though I didn't have a license). After about the 20th visit, they were happy to accept I didn't have a TV.....
No it isn't. Take a look at the iPlayer app for iPhone. You'll notice that it's not possible to view live TV, however it is possible to view recorded programs. You do not need a TV license to watch the iPlayer on your phone. You do not need a TV license to view the recorded programs on PC either. The only thing that requires a TV license is if you have TV receiving equipment in your home, or you watch live streams online. I imagine the loophole will be closed sooner or later, but for now, it's one way of avoiding the TV license. Mind you, I have no problem with paying the license. It's nice being able to watch TV programs without any Ad breaks. Infact, I'd probably pay a subscription to Channel4 to avoid the adverts (if they offered one).
No it really isn't. Guns are designed to kill. By owning a gun you are declaring that at somepoint you intend to kill *something* (or someone). A claim of 'but I only have it for self defence!' is still saying that you'd be prepared to kill someone, someday, in the right circumstances. A sane, rational, gun owner, is still a potential killer, no matter how you try to dress it up. Most people can let emotions get the better of them, at some point. Most people can get angry, at some point. Most people have lapses of concentration, at some point. Most people can make terrible mistakes they regret for the rest of their lives. If there is a gun close to hand, then it, in combination with the human condition, can and do cause fatalities.
Now, someone could potentially kill whilst driving a car (through lapse of concentration etc), however it is very unlikely that the death occured because the car was being used as a weapon (yes, there will always be exceptions). Cars have been gradually refined in order to make them safer. Whether it's air bags, whether it's crumple zones, whether it's seatbelts, whether it's breathalyzers on the dashboard, whether it's ABS, whether it's traction control, it really doesn't matter. The point is that the design is continually refined in order to improve safety. Guns on the other hand are refined to make them more lethal.
In my town, we have a complete network of cycle lanes to allow cyclists to get around the city without sharing the roads with cars. There are by-laws that make sure you must use lights at night, and also laws saying that you must always wear a helmet. I cycle to work, and by doing so, I am reducing the possibility that I will be killed in a car accident - I don't share the tarmac with any cars. I also happen to live in a country in which gun ownership is banned. I'm not sure how I will die, but I'm 100% certain it won't be due to a gun. If there are no guns, then guns cease to cause the form of irrational fear that leads to people buying guns in the first place. I know it may sound crazy to you guys on the other side of the pond, but really, you would be much safer if you banned guns.
Terminology! Direct3D does 3D graphics, and is more or less the same as OpenGL. DirectX does audio/video/input/server stuff (and includes Direct3D). For those components, there are alternative libraries, and audio is actually one of the easiest to deal with (just use fmod or OpenAL). It's only realy a problem if you're a sloppy developer working on a sloppy codebase. Most people would have wrapped the API dependent layers (eg games that already run on both the PS3 and 360). If you've littered platform specific code through your codebase, then it's going to be a nightmare.
. And oh, the crap about joypads, etc is epic bullshit. OpenGL is graphics _only_ and does not provide an interface for getting a window or other system specific crap... or audio for that matter.
It would help if you tried reading. It'll take you what, a day at most to get the linux joystick lib up and running? You'll also note I specified OpenAL or fmod for audio.
Porting D3D code to GL is non-trivial and painful.
To quote my original post, It's a ball ache, and a time sink.
There is more profit from those 1-2$ games than from those dozens of dollars games. Try raising some VC money for a console/PC game, and you will fail in the current economic climate. Raising VC money for an iPhone game? Is it going to be a hideous freemium title, with questionable ethics, with adverts for Wall-Mart all over it, that spams peoples contact lists with Junk e-mail? Here's the money you need..... (I've just left the games industry, because well, it's become more cynical than I ever imagined possible)
You are behind the times, and should really be firing your complaints at Nvidia. For the last couple of years I've used ATI cards for GL development exclusively. Unlike Nvidia cards they actually implement the GL spec to the letter. With Nvidia cards you can pretty much call any old combination of GL functions, and something will appear on screen. They never fail! This is a problem because you never find out errors in your GL code until after you've shipped the product. With ATI, if you pass an invalid arg, or call a method at the wrong time, they will generate the correct error. This sadly leads to a situation where a developer uses an NVidia card for development, ships, and then it won't run on ATI or Intel cards. The upshot is that people incorrectly assume that ATI drivers suck. They don't. Nvidia drivers are the ones that suck!
Direct3D and OpenGL are basically identical these days. OpenGL is more flexible, but to be honest that flexibility just ends up shooting yourself in the foot. Most GL developers simply create GL wrapper classes that are either based on the D3D classes, or they've grouped relevent items from the GL spec (and ended up with exactly the same result, although they'd have taken much longer to get there). OpenGL doesn't really have an equivalent for D3D FX files, so that ends up being a mammoth chunk of work you could do without. Mind you, if you're also targetting console, you'll be writing your own form of FX in all likelyhood.
Joypads aren't too much of an issue. The AV components of DirectX would be a little bit more involved, but not impossible (OpenAL / fmod / whatever). The biggest problems you're likely to encounter is if people have built their code with heavy dependencies on things like X files, Pix, FX files, game server components, etc. Again, it's not impossible to roll your own (or use a middleware component), it's just a massive ball ache, and a bit of a time sink.....
Who cares unless he will be your boss in that future time.
I've seen someone rage quit, declare his boss a moron, before starting work at a rival company. Six months later the two companies merged, and he got his old boss back. Funnily enough, he was made redundant during the restructing process.
Rule #4: Thou shalt not post a link to dancing hamsters on thou'st geocities page.
Rule #5: Thou shouldst use Altavista search, for it is the finest search engine there is.
Or have you hipsters been trying to instagram the original rules or something?
I think I'd prefer the google translate version + original text, tbh. When was the last time you ever heard of someone attending the princes ball in a glass slipper? I think the editors did the right thing here. Stick a link to the original, and give us a google translation. I haven't got a clue what the original japanese says, so I don't think I should be attempting to correct it to what sounds right to me. I might accidentally mis-translate 'felt' for 'glass' for example.....
I don't know why you say that, Microsoft have had an extremely good record supporting the installation of free software on their systems. Just look back at how easy they made it to install such common packages as the blaster virus, the chernobyl virus, conflicker, et al. Anyone who claims microsoft tries to stifle free software, hasn't really been looking at the facts.....
It works like a normal cpu, runs x86 and memory access is not gpu-like retarded.
define 'normal' ? Memory access was GPU-like retarded. It reminded me of the cell....
I don't really see why anyone would buy it, unless it bumps the core count to like 32/64 and adds a lot of cache.
Knights corner was originally quoted as being ~48 cores, each core could do 4 way hyperthreading, and each thread could process 16 floats instead of your usual 8 (with AVX). That was all backed up by 2Gb DDR5 memory. The hardware prototypes they've shown, certainly seem to be in that ball park, so I don't imagine the specs have got any worse over the last year or so. I'd buy one, for no other reason than it looks like it would be quite an enjoyable platform to target.
Slashdot Mirror
If you spent your time working, instead of posting on slashdot, you wouldn't need to work a 12 hour day. Now get back to work slacker! :p
If you're doing a Phd because you want to work on cutting edge research, then you're possibly going to be dissapointed. A Phd would certainly help open the door for an interview at one of those places, but won't immediately mean you'll get hired. It's one thing being able to digest the latest research papers, but it's another thing entirely to implement them in a production environment. Are you proficient with the latest GPGPU techniques? (cuda/direct compute/openCL). How is your 3D graphics knowledge? How much do you know about the latest SIMD / threading optimisation techniques? Have you ever looked into FPGA's? How much experience have you had developing cross platform applications? Have you had experience writing code for distruted computing environments? If you have most of those covered, and you have a Phd, then there will be plenty of doors open to you. If you have a Phd, but none of the above, then the Phd will be of limited help.
A large number (though not all) of Phd grads I've worked with are great at solving problems, but not very good at putting that into practice on a large codebase (where maintainablity, sanity, and efficiency, inevitably take priority over being cutting edge).
How does the 'letter of recommendation' requirement work if you haven't kept in touch with your professors?"
It's of little consequence. Your research portfolio will be the thing of most interest to employers. If they get to the point of asking for references, then you've already got the job. The tutors will not stand in the way of that (graduate recruitment is an important statistic for universities these days - the tutors get moore out of you getting a job than you may realise!)
I mean, your country has to have more than two guys who want the job, right?
2 guys + Hillary.
Plot points aren't exactly Michael Bay's MO...
FTFY
I know of people that DONT have a TV and DONT watch BBC but because he owns a laptop he is forced to pay the "tax".
Then they're stupid for paying the TV license when they don't need to.
The enforcement is done from sales of TV equiplement. Next time you buy a TV, or TV tuner card, you'll probably notice that the shop will take down your name and address. This is always passed to the TV license people to double check you've got a license. Shortly after purchase of your TV, you'll normally recieve a reminder to make sure you pay for a license. This happens even if you already have a license. The TV enforcement people usually turn up shortly afterwards if no license is registered at the property. A few years ago, I made the mistake of buying a TV tuner as a present. I then had the TV licensing people turning up at my flat every other week (even though I didn't have a license). After about the 20th visit, they were happy to accept I didn't have a TV.....
No it isn't. Take a look at the iPlayer app for iPhone. You'll notice that it's not possible to view live TV, however it is possible to view recorded programs. You do not need a TV license to watch the iPlayer on your phone. You do not need a TV license to view the recorded programs on PC either. The only thing that requires a TV license is if you have TV receiving equipment in your home, or you watch live streams online. I imagine the loophole will be closed sooner or later, but for now, it's one way of avoiding the TV license. Mind you, I have no problem with paying the license. It's nice being able to watch TV programs without any Ad breaks. Infact, I'd probably pay a subscription to Channel4 to avoid the adverts (if they offered one).
It's Nine. I found you phone on your chair, and I've been hanging it around my neck as a way to ward off hipsters.
No it really isn't. Guns are designed to kill. By owning a gun you are declaring that at somepoint you intend to kill *something* (or someone). A claim of 'but I only have it for self defence!' is still saying that you'd be prepared to kill someone, someday, in the right circumstances. A sane, rational, gun owner, is still a potential killer, no matter how you try to dress it up. Most people can let emotions get the better of them, at some point. Most people can get angry, at some point. Most people have lapses of concentration, at some point. Most people can make terrible mistakes they regret for the rest of their lives. If there is a gun close to hand, then it, in combination with the human condition, can and do cause fatalities.
Now, someone could potentially kill whilst driving a car (through lapse of concentration etc), however it is very unlikely that the death occured because the car was being used as a weapon (yes, there will always be exceptions). Cars have been gradually refined in order to make them safer. Whether it's air bags, whether it's crumple zones, whether it's seatbelts, whether it's breathalyzers on the dashboard, whether it's ABS, whether it's traction control, it really doesn't matter. The point is that the design is continually refined in order to improve safety. Guns on the other hand are refined to make them more lethal.
In my town, we have a complete network of cycle lanes to allow cyclists to get around the city without sharing the roads with cars. There are by-laws that make sure you must use lights at night, and also laws saying that you must always wear a helmet. I cycle to work, and by doing so, I am reducing the possibility that I will be killed in a car accident - I don't share the tarmac with any cars. I also happen to live in a country in which gun ownership is banned. I'm not sure how I will die, but I'm 100% certain it won't be due to a gun. If there are no guns, then guns cease to cause the form of irrational fear that leads to people buying guns in the first place. I know it may sound crazy to you guys on the other side of the pond, but really, you would be much safer if you banned guns.
Terminology! Direct3D does 3D graphics, and is more or less the same as OpenGL. DirectX does audio/video/input/server stuff (and includes Direct3D). For those components, there are alternative libraries, and audio is actually one of the easiest to deal with (just use fmod or OpenAL). It's only realy a problem if you're a sloppy developer working on a sloppy codebase. Most people would have wrapped the API dependent layers (eg games that already run on both the PS3 and 360). If you've littered platform specific code through your codebase, then it's going to be a nightmare.
. And oh, the crap about joypads, etc is epic bullshit. OpenGL is graphics _only_ and does not provide an interface for getting a window or other system specific crap... or audio for that matter.
It would help if you tried reading. It'll take you what, a day at most to get the linux joystick lib up and running? You'll also note I specified OpenAL or fmod for audio.
Porting D3D code to GL is non-trivial and painful.
To quote my original post, It's a ball ache, and a time sink.
To infinity and beyond! (Is it just me, or have they actually built Buzz Lightyear?)
There hundreds of thousand Java apps that are not desktop apps, like e.g. every Android app.
With the exception of those using the NDK, i.e. most of them.....
There is more profit from those 1-2$ games than from those dozens of dollars games. Try raising some VC money for a console/PC game, and you will fail in the current economic climate. Raising VC money for an iPhone game? Is it going to be a hideous freemium title, with questionable ethics, with adverts for Wall-Mart all over it, that spams peoples contact lists with Junk e-mail? Here's the money you need..... (I've just left the games industry, because well, it's become more cynical than I ever imagined possible)
You are behind the times, and should really be firing your complaints at Nvidia. For the last couple of years I've used ATI cards for GL development exclusively. Unlike Nvidia cards they actually implement the GL spec to the letter. With Nvidia cards you can pretty much call any old combination of GL functions, and something will appear on screen. They never fail! This is a problem because you never find out errors in your GL code until after you've shipped the product. With ATI, if you pass an invalid arg, or call a method at the wrong time, they will generate the correct error. This sadly leads to a situation where a developer uses an NVidia card for development, ships, and then it won't run on ATI or Intel cards. The upshot is that people incorrectly assume that ATI drivers suck. They don't. Nvidia drivers are the ones that suck!
Direct3D and OpenGL are basically identical these days. OpenGL is more flexible, but to be honest that flexibility just ends up shooting yourself in the foot. Most GL developers simply create GL wrapper classes that are either based on the D3D classes, or they've grouped relevent items from the GL spec (and ended up with exactly the same result, although they'd have taken much longer to get there). OpenGL doesn't really have an equivalent for D3D FX files, so that ends up being a mammoth chunk of work you could do without. Mind you, if you're also targetting console, you'll be writing your own form of FX in all likelyhood.
Joypads aren't too much of an issue. The AV components of DirectX would be a little bit more involved, but not impossible (OpenAL / fmod / whatever). The biggest problems you're likely to encounter is if people have built their code with heavy dependencies on things like X files, Pix, FX files, game server components, etc. Again, it's not impossible to roll your own (or use a middleware component), it's just a massive ball ache, and a bit of a time sink.....
or maybe just 8:5?
Who cares unless he will be your boss in that future time.
I've seen someone rage quit, declare his boss a moron, before starting work at a rival company. Six months later the two companies merged, and he got his old boss back. Funnily enough, he was made redundant during the restructing process.
Rule #4: Thou shalt not post a link to dancing hamsters on thou'st geocities page.
Rule #5: Thou shouldst use Altavista search, for it is the finest search engine there is.
Or have you hipsters been trying to instagram the original rules or something?
I think I'd prefer the google translate version + original text, tbh. When was the last time you ever heard of someone attending the princes ball in a glass slipper? I think the editors did the right thing here. Stick a link to the original, and give us a google translation. I haven't got a clue what the original japanese says, so I don't think I should be attempting to correct it to what sounds right to me. I might accidentally mis-translate 'felt' for 'glass' for example.....
Right click, and select the app name, third up from bottom of the menu.
I don't know why you say that, Microsoft have had an extremely good record supporting the installation of free software on their systems. Just look back at how easy they made it to install such common packages as the blaster virus, the chernobyl virus, conflicker, et al. Anyone who claims microsoft tries to stifle free software, hasn't really been looking at the facts.....
..... because they definitely won't have a policy covering USB thumb drives.
It works like a normal cpu, runs x86 and memory access is not gpu-like retarded.
define 'normal' ? Memory access was GPU-like retarded. It reminded me of the cell....
I don't really see why anyone would buy it, unless it bumps the core count to like 32/64 and adds a lot of cache.
Knights corner was originally quoted as being ~48 cores, each core could do 4 way hyperthreading, and each thread could process 16 floats instead of your usual 8 (with AVX). That was all backed up by 2Gb DDR5 memory. The hardware prototypes they've shown, certainly seem to be in that ball park, so I don't imagine the specs have got any worse over the last year or so. I'd buy one, for no other reason than it looks like it would be quite an enjoyable platform to target.
When you were a kid, you thought they were the heaviest badasses on the planet
I kinda thought the dinobots sucked compared to Optimus Prime.