Sneak a hangup in? Do you have some overactive politeness gene or something? See my previous posts, obviously I have some kneejerk liberal sympathy for the person so down on their luck or whatever that they're stuck with such a crappy job...these people suffer a lot of abuse from people like you, and I don't even think that picking on them gets back to the people making the financial decisions.
The dirty little secret of telemarketing is that it effectively targets people who lack the mental and emotional resources to deal with a sales pitch that takes the form of a personal conversation.
Hmmm..interesting how that ties into the concept of assuming people are "rational economic actors" or whatever, from the next Slashdot frontpage story...
They argue that the number of sales they get, even to people who assume they don't like telemarketing, shows the value of what they offer. In other words, they say that people don't realize that they don't really mind telemarketing all that much.
I'm not sure how I feel about that call machine they use, that puts in a delay before talking to a real person; on the one hand I'm dismayed at the increase in effeciency, on the other hand I'm greatful that I can so often sneak a hangup into there...
I'd have more sympathy for the anti-DNC list contigent's argument that it helps create jobs for the disadvantaged if I didn't suspect that hoardes of companies are looking to ship this crap to India. (Hearing tales about Indians being trained to pick up american accents...) Darn it, if I'm gonna be bugged to help the unfortunate, I went them to be OUR unfortunate.
Look, I'm not defending it as a reasonable belief, but for some reason the "planets and people both following the same pattern" seems less egregiously wacky to me than "planets influencing people".
For the record, I think people who are trying to put forward astrology in the modern age don't argue that the stars are affecting you, but the stars and planets are responding to the same kind of underlying (presumambly cosmic) forces that control your environment.
I don't believe that either, but it seems more plausible. Most likely it's a big rosarch blot.
The other point I'm kind of willing to accept about astrology, at least with its origins, is that maybe once upon a time, when a kid was born relative to the harvest cycle would influence what kind of nutrition he or she got, and thus what kind of person they ended up. Still, it seems like other factors, especially nowadays, would greatly outweigh that influence.
Re:Display some adaptability.
on
Quicksilver
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· Score: 1
Funny, the one catchprase from that book that sticks out in my mind at work is "increase shareholder value".
Seriously...tying in with "the dilbert principle's" advice to avoid activities that are secondary to the business' core goals, I often wonder how many of what managment has us do is actually "increasing shareholder value".
Yeah templates are good, but sometimes JSPs just feel like the right solution.
And just a side note, one thing you have to watch out for in an application like yours is over-customizability. People want a bit of flexibility, but mostly they want defaults that just are good and usable without having to think about it too much. (Though to be fair, I have underestimated the popularity of stuff like skins before...)
"Sorry, but J2EE is Javas killer app"--yeah, I've seen it kill many otherwise promising projects.
Too much overhead for too little benefit.
Never very portable...hard enough to get working well on one platform! In particular, EJBs. (That's actually my main focus of loathing for Java right now.)
But many of us can't think like that (or at least, we don't have the discipline or desire to learn). It takes me a lot longer to develop an elegant solution to a real-world problem in a functional language than to just bang it out in Perl or BASIC.
I'm still a Lisp skeptic, after having a semester of it back in the day. (Same with Prolog.) It seems like, in the same way massively parallel processing only seems good for a small subset of tasks that seem custom made for it, Lisp is only good for specific applications, and all the ordinary stuff is difficult.
Yes, I might seem bitter but I can see no real reason to use JSP. The only argument I can get from anyone on for it is "You don't have to recompile and deploy it".
Really? No one tries to argue that it's nice not to bend through hoops to escape out all your HTML, have a lot of HTML embedded in your Java code?
I'm not saying it's the perfect reasoning either, but it is a point.
I've written software in C that has been ported with little effort from one hardware platform to another with less effort than I have seen of many Java applications. I might suggest C is the language of choice for programmers. Hell, even one Java server to another can be a huge chore. Admittedly, these are usually trying to do complicatedish things, but still.
I guess I'm not seeing the point of the same byte code running on different platforms as much as I used to...
I just bought an Optimus Prime, the new Armada figure, 25% off at KayBee.
Anyway, I think this is some excellent thinking...at work I use a laptop (long story, really I just wanted a damn flatscreen monitor, but those were considered luxury items...) but the laptops on a breakfast tray and I type on a seperate ergonomic keyboard beneath. What they're doing is aiming for a hyperportable desktop. The biggest sacrifice is possibly ease of setup.
Heh, whatever happened to that fold out butterfly keyboard? That was a pretty good idea for its time as well.
Anyway, it's funny hearing 'em talk about a consistency of visual design ala Porsche. One thing about thinkpads, they've been consistently ugly for a decade. Usually sturdy, but always ugly, just something about the flat black, squared edges, and bright red.
* Nintendo's D-pad Too bad they shrunk it so much on the GC...
* Sony's analog sticks Eh, they're ok. I like that they press in but I think GC's is more comfy now. (I'd really like one with a rotating top, so I could play oldschool paddle-controller games or Ikari warrior type things:-)
* Sony's buttons What the latest ones? Are you CRAZY? Those are the mushiest pieces of crap ever. That's way to small an amount to "click" for 256 values...and to make sure I have the things fully pressed (ala for the gas in GTA:VC) it kills my fingers. Yuck.
* Sony's DualShock control layout on the front-face (the controls are placed about perfectly for me).
Like many others, I find the sticks horribly placed. "Thumb-cramping" is the phrase that comes to mind.
* Microsoft's Controller-S case and extra-long cable Yeah, long cable's good. Dunno much about the case. What about gas pedal buttons? DC and GC had it all over PS2.
Funny...I read the whole thing without problem, except for "ceehiro"--probably because my linguistics tend to be sound based and I think of "ch" as one thing.
I think what you're missing bout GTA3's open-endedness takes place when the mission isn't going on...they've created a strong eough physics and NPC/gunplay environent that people enjoy just tooling around with it, figuring out what stunts can be done, seeing if they can steal a tank without cheating, etc. And what's cool about the missions is there's relatively little that's special in the world per mission, each mission is engaging and fairly unique, yet built with the same basic physics engine.
I think GTA gained a great deal with its 3D engine. To be fair, I didn't play 1 and 2 that that much, but a decent physics engine has added so much to the game: you can do more entertaining things in vehicles (and to vehicles, using weapons). It's not "2D-hating" to appreciate how much got added with that.
Plus, you could see like further than 30 yards in front of your car, which definately added to the gameplay...
Maybe I was too quick to play it with a guide by my side, but Zelda felt pretty linear to me. Or rather, not so much linear, but it felt like everything in the game was obviously put there for Link to interact with.
GTA3 and GTA:VC do a better job at making it feel like you're just a maniac in a city that pretty much has its own agenda. It's not like it tries to model a virtual economy or anything (and it does have that irritating habit of disappering and appearing things when your back is turned) but it was cool that it wasn't completely blatantly a universe that existed only for the sake of an adventure.
Elite was pretty open-ended indeed...but (in some versions at least) it was pretty difficult to find the story that was in there, and to stay on it once you found it.
Frontier was even more interesting. I'm amazed they were able to generate that kind of Universe from a 1.4 floppy...but they overdid the realism. Yes, space travel would be all intertial, with combat done from miles and miles away, but that's not neccesarily what I want to play...
Some almost completely scripted games like Wing Commander made up for it a bit with things like the "Simulator" in the Pilot's Lounge, letting you just pick up and play...but compared to GTA3, (not that it's a fair comparison) you're still just doing one thing, flying a ship and fighting bad guys.
GTA3+VC are interesting, not only is it a story plus an open ended world, the world has both a physics model for vehicles and another model for shootin' fun. And then they use those models in lots of interesting ways, like the Arena games in VC for example, or the RC cars...
Slashdot Mirror
Sneak a hangup in? Do you have some overactive politeness gene or something?
See my previous posts, obviously I have some kneejerk liberal sympathy for the person so down on their luck or whatever that they're stuck with such a crappy job...these people suffer a lot of abuse from people like you, and I don't even think that picking on them gets back to the people making the financial decisions.
The dirty little secret of telemarketing is that it effectively targets people who lack the mental and emotional resources to deal with a sales pitch that takes the form of a personal conversation.
Hmmm..interesting how that ties into the concept of assuming people are "rational economic actors" or whatever, from the next Slashdot frontpage story...
They argue that the number of sales they get, even to people who assume they don't like telemarketing, shows the value of what they offer. In other words, they say that people don't realize that they don't really mind telemarketing all that much.
I'm not sure how I feel about that call machine they use, that puts in a delay before talking to a real person; on the one hand I'm dismayed at the increase in effeciency, on the other hand I'm greatful that I can so often sneak a hangup into there...
I'd have more sympathy for the anti-DNC list contigent's argument that it helps create jobs for the disadvantaged if I didn't suspect that hoardes of companies are looking to ship this crap to India. (Hearing tales about Indians being trained to pick up american accents...) Darn it, if I'm gonna be bugged to help the unfortunate, I went them to be OUR unfortunate.
Never played Diablo, but with my coworkers, we'd imitate the scottish sounding shopkeep going "wut kin I dewwww fer ya?"
"Valkyrie needs sex, badly.
Valyrie is about to cry!"
Though I always thought the "underground theme" from the 2nd level was the very best, the way it kind of stumbles over itself is great.
Look, I'm not defending it as a reasonable belief, but for some reason the "planets and people both following the same pattern" seems less egregiously wacky to me than "planets influencing people".
For the record, I think people who are trying to put forward astrology in the modern age don't argue that the stars are affecting you, but the stars and planets are responding to the same kind of underlying (presumambly cosmic) forces that control your environment.
I don't believe that either, but it seems more plausible. Most likely it's a big rosarch blot.
The other point I'm kind of willing to accept about astrology, at least with its origins, is that maybe once upon a time, when a kid was born relative to the harvest cycle would influence what kind of nutrition he or she got, and thus what kind of person they ended up. Still, it seems like other factors, especially nowadays, would greatly outweigh that influence.
Funny, the one catchprase from that book that sticks out in my mind at work is "increase shareholder value".
Seriously...tying in with "the dilbert principle's" advice to avoid activities that are secondary to the business' core goals, I often wonder how many of what managment has us do is actually "increasing shareholder value".
Yeah, I really respected that Ganon in WIndWaker wasn't yet another giant floating boss--just an amazingly talented swordsman.
Kind of like that Karateka boss the article talks about.
"There's no situation so bad that it can't get worse. So be glad that it isn't. At least, not yet."
Ah, sorry.
Yeah templates are good, but sometimes JSPs just feel like the right solution.
And just a side note, one thing you have to watch out for in an application like yours is over-customizability. People want a bit of flexibility, but mostly they want defaults that just are good and usable without having to think about it too much. (Though to be fair, I have underestimated the popularity of stuff like skins before...)
"Sorry, but J2EE is Javas killer app"--yeah, I've seen it kill many otherwise promising projects.
Too much overhead for too little benefit.
Never very portable...hard enough to get working well on one platform! In particular, EJBs. (That's actually my main focus of loathing for Java right now.)
Phillip Greenspun == Hot air balloon of programming pundits
Clearly your anagram generation routine is broken. Here's one:
Phillip Greenspun = Gel slipper, hip nun
or
Phillip Greenspun = grep hep ills, unpin!
But many of us can't think like that (or at least, we don't have the discipline or desire to learn). It takes me a lot longer to develop an elegant solution to a real-world problem in a functional language than to just bang it out in Perl or BASIC.
I'm still a Lisp skeptic, after having a semester of it back in the day. (Same with Prolog.) It seems like, in the same way massively parallel processing only seems good for a small subset of tasks that seem custom made for it, Lisp is only good for specific applications, and all the ordinary stuff is difficult.
Yes, I might seem bitter but I can see no real reason to use JSP. The only argument I can get from anyone on for it is "You don't have to recompile and deploy it".
Really? No one tries to argue that it's nice not to bend through hoops to escape out all your HTML, have a lot of HTML embedded in your Java code?
I'm not saying it's the perfect reasoning either, but it is a point.
I've written software in C that has been ported with little effort from one hardware platform to another with less effort than I have seen of many Java applications. I might suggest C is the language of choice for programmers.
Hell, even one Java server to another can be a huge chore. Admittedly, these are usually trying to do complicatedish things, but still.
I guess I'm not seeing the point of the same byte code running on different platforms as much as I used to...
I just bought an Optimus Prime, the new Armada figure, 25% off at KayBee.
Anyway, I think this is some excellent thinking...at work I use a laptop (long story, really I just wanted a damn flatscreen monitor, but those were considered luxury items...) but the laptops on a breakfast tray and I type on a seperate ergonomic keyboard beneath. What they're doing is aiming for a hyperportable desktop. The biggest sacrifice is possibly ease of setup.
Heh, whatever happened to that fold out butterfly keyboard? That was a pretty good idea for its time as well.
Anyway, it's funny hearing 'em talk about a consistency of visual design ala Porsche. One thing about thinkpads, they've been consistently ugly for a decade. Usually sturdy, but always ugly, just something about the flat black, squared edges, and bright red.
* Nintendo's D-pad
:-)
Too bad they shrunk it so much on the GC...
* Sony's analog sticks
Eh, they're ok. I like that they press in but I think GC's is more comfy now. (I'd really like one with a rotating top, so I could play oldschool paddle-controller games or Ikari warrior type things
* Sony's buttons
What the latest ones? Are you CRAZY? Those are the mushiest pieces of crap ever. That's way to small an amount to "click" for 256 values...and to make sure I have the things fully pressed (ala for the gas in GTA:VC) it kills my fingers. Yuck.
* Sony's DualShock control layout on the front-face (the controls are placed about perfectly for me).
Like many others, I find the sticks horribly placed. "Thumb-cramping" is the phrase that comes to mind.
* Microsoft's Controller-S case and extra-long cable
Yeah, long cable's good. Dunno much about the case.
What about gas pedal buttons? DC and GC had it all over PS2.
Funny...I read the whole thing without problem, except for "ceehiro"--probably because my linguistics tend to be sound based and I think of "ch" as one thing.
I think what you're missing bout GTA3's open-endedness takes place when the mission isn't going on...they've created a strong eough physics and NPC/gunplay environent that people enjoy just tooling around with it, figuring out what stunts can be done, seeing if they can steal a tank without cheating, etc. And what's cool about the missions is there's relatively little that's special in the world per mission, each mission is engaging and fairly unique, yet built with the same basic physics engine.
I think GTA gained a great deal with its 3D engine. To be fair, I didn't play 1 and 2 that that much, but a decent physics engine has added so much to the game: you can do more entertaining things in vehicles (and to vehicles, using weapons). It's not "2D-hating" to appreciate how much got added with that.
Plus, you could see like further than 30 yards in front of your car, which definately added to the gameplay...
Maybe I was too quick to play it with a guide by my side, but Zelda felt pretty linear to me. Or rather, not so much linear, but it felt like everything in the game was obviously put there for Link to interact with.
GTA3 and GTA:VC do a better job at making it feel like you're just a maniac in a city that pretty much has its own agenda. It's not like it tries to model a virtual economy or anything (and it does have that irritating habit of disappering and appearing things when your back is turned) but it was cool that it wasn't completely blatantly a universe that existed only for the sake of an adventure.
Elite
Elite was pretty open-ended indeed...but (in some versions at least) it was pretty difficult to find the story that was in there, and to stay on it once you found it.
Frontier was even more interesting. I'm amazed they were able to generate that kind of Universe from a 1.4 floppy...but they overdid the realism. Yes, space travel would be all intertial, with combat done from miles and miles away, but that's not neccesarily what I want to play...
Some almost completely scripted games like Wing Commander made up for it a bit with things like the "Simulator" in the Pilot's Lounge, letting you just pick up and play...but compared to GTA3, (not that it's a fair comparison) you're still just doing one thing, flying a ship and fighting bad guys.
GTA3+VC are interesting, not only is it a story plus an open ended world, the world has both a physics model for vehicles and another model for shootin' fun. And then they use those models in lots of interesting ways, like the Arena games in VC for example, or the RC cars...