Having read that post, I can see why he's acting like some people consider to be "an asshole".
He's been fucked over by Stallman/GNU, hence his reluctance to fix bugs that he does not want to fix.
Have a read of the stuff linked to by the parent, and read between the lines.
Not to get into a religious flamewar on licensing, but what he says with regards to the GNU license makes sense to protect your own code from hostile takeover by RMS (by putting out a new version of the GPL).
I don't think he's an asshole per se`, he's acting like one because of reasons that (to him) are justified.
Agree, algorithm choice is important. This is not what I was referring to. I was referring to the CODING (never write "code" that runs slow in the first place) statement. Code and algorithm selection are different aspects of programming....
Pick the correct algorithm, write it in an easily understood manner in a high level language, and THEN get tricky with optimisation tricks...
If you posted it to something like "freebsd-kernel" then i can totally understand the bollocking you got.
But, again - FreeBSD (core) is not X.org. Contact the port/package maintainer and see whats up.
Just because you're incapable of obtaining support due to using incorrect channels, doesn't mean freebsd is crap. Disclaimer: I've been using it for 9 years.
... 15 years after my first encounter with autorun annoyed the shit out of me (about 15 minutes after installing windows 95 for the first time), microsoft has finally acknowledged what the rest of the world has known forever is a bad idea.
No. You should never write code that runs like a dog in the first place.
Being initially correct is far more important for nailing down what you are trying to do than being FAST.
Premature optimisation is a sure fire way to shoot yourself in the foot. Who cares if a function that is called on a rather minimal basis is slow but understandable and easily verifiable as CORRECT?
Write a prototype, *profile it*, THEN put on your optimisation hat.
I don't care how fast your code gives me incorrect output.
Whilst that's fair enough, it just leaves you open to Apple's programmer laziness, not Adobe's. Don't take this as trashing Apple/Macs (I have a mini myself) - ALL programmers are lazy. The laziness is a driving force to make them automate things...:D
Windows/Microsoft got bitten in a major way by a preview-thumbnail bug in explorer a few years back, don't think apple are somehow magically immune...
Having said all that, if the previewer has no javacsript support, its probably a heap more secure than Adobe reader...
If you're a home user, figure it out yourself.
If you're on a corporate LAN, you should be using WSUS to control updates yourself anyway. its a free download with minimal updates, all you need is a domain controller or copy of regedit to push your workstations to the WSUS server's IP instead of microsoft directly.
but... fact still remains, i want games suitable to portable gaming. i'm not interested in playing tekken 6 in tiny-o-vision when i can do so on my ps2 or ps3 or whatever at home in full 42 inch (or larger) hi-def.
i want something to keep me occupied for short stints, on the bus, waiting for people, on plane trips, etc.
Erm... before you start - by "off the shelf" i mean standardised, vendor supported software. Whether it is downloaded or purchased in a box whatever is not the point i'm trying to make.
It needs to be standardised so that any clue wielding tech can look at it and instantly be familiar with it. As opposed to having to wade through custom LDAP schemas, non-standard script names, locations, etc before they figure out what's up.
Support remote software install across several hundred pcs with a single click
Run office version X properly
Run on ALL new hardware
plug and play with active directory, on an equivalent industry standard directory service
Then it will be a starter for large corporate networks (as in, beyond say 30-50 desktops).
Yes, I love unix too, and maybe all of those issues are solvable with custom scripts, etc - but in the real world there are other things to do than hack shell scripts.
If the solutions to all of the above problems are available and easily implemented (with OFF THE SHELF software), then there needs to be one hell of a publicity campaign, because I've been using/administering various flavours of Free *nix and Solaris since 1996 and don't know about it yet.
So, that's two games that I can play on my PS2 anyway (yes, they're "special" versions. same basic gameplay)?
I own a PSP - i don't want the same content I have already played on PS2/other console.
Take a leaf out of nintendo's book and offer a half decent platformer, vertical shooter, puzzle games, etc.
I don't *want* some drawn out epic while I have 5 minutes to an hour to kill while I'm on the bus/plane, etc.
Sure, I'll buy a couple of that sort of game, but every time I go looking for something to buy for my PSP, there's nothing I actually want because I haven't played 15 different variants of the same game on various other platforms.
Oh don't get me wrong, the hardware does rock, that's why i bought one. Just the example didn't really depend on processing power that much.
As you say, the hardware is certainly not a problem. Its got all the ingredients there - plenty of flash storage capacity, cheap optical media for content, wifi, impressive colour display, good audio, HEAPS of processing power, etc - and good enough battery life (6hrs straight is plenty of time to be playing a portable on a single battery)... its the software that is holding it back.
There's these things called "disks" and "files" that can store a lot more than RAM. Yes, retrieving data from them constantly is slow. It doesn't mean its not possible.
Consider that Jurassic Park was modeled and rendered on SGI Indigo workstations with a MIPS R4000 CPU running at 90 MHz, and that the PSP has two MIPS R4000 CPUs, each running at up to 333 MHz...
Jurassic Park was not rendered in *real time*. It could have been rendered on a 286 running at 8mhz if you were to wait long enough...
I get decent battery life (6 hrs), which is pretty impressive considering the screen, 3d hardware, etc. Better than some laptops, with a battery WAY smaller.
I'll gladly take 6 hr battery life and a decent amount of cheap optical storage for media over ROM based storage and an hour or two more battery life any day.
The PSP has a "UMD cache" feature that you can turn on that will reduce the disc access.
DON'T make my life harder for having purchased the game. As stated many times on here (by myself previously, too), all DRM does is fuck over your PAYING customers. History has shown that no protection scheme is invulnerable. Spend the money on online/printed content instead, and I'll gladly pay for it.
Disclaimer: I own a psp with a library of legal games (about 6 or 7). No bootlegs of *PSP* games on it.
Problem i see with the PSP is the shortage of actual software I want for the platform.
I recently hacked mine for the following purposes:
homebrew
MAME / emulators
running my collection of old (original) PSX games via the converter
If they provide software i'm interested in for mobile gaming, I will (and have) purchased it. But more often than not, I walk out of a shop empty handed or with a game for another platform.
The PSP hardware is great. Good battery, awesome screen, decent audio, etc. As a portable video player, its great. As a console (in my opinion) it is lacking appropriate games. Mobile versions of the same stuff i have on PS2/PC/etc is not really what I'm after.
It's possible that the term of copyright IS too long, but that's not what's at issue in the Pirate's Bay trial, and pretending that it is is a transparent attempt to obscure the fact that the theft of much more recent works is taking place.
Actually, the issue is that these dudes are being prosecuted for LINKING to illegal material (NOT HOSTING, and NOT actively infringing any copyright themselves).
When are the MPAA/RIAA going after google? When are they going after microsoft (live search). When are they going after other indexes?
Slashdot Mirror
Having read that post, I can see why he's acting like some people consider to be "an asshole".
He's been fucked over by Stallman/GNU, hence his reluctance to fix bugs that he does not want to fix.
Have a read of the stuff linked to by the parent, and read between the lines.
Not to get into a religious flamewar on licensing, but what he says with regards to the GNU license makes sense to protect your own code from hostile takeover by RMS (by putting out a new version of the GPL).
I don't think he's an asshole per se`, he's acting like one because of reasons that (to him) are justified.
Pick the correct algorithm, write it in an easily understood manner in a high level language, and THEN get tricky with optimisation tricks...
Which mailing list did you post to?
If you posted it to something like "freebsd-kernel" then i can totally understand the bollocking you got.
But, again - FreeBSD (core) is not X.org. Contact the port/package maintainer and see whats up.
Just because you're incapable of obtaining support due to using incorrect channels, doesn't mean freebsd is crap. Disclaimer: I've been using it for 9 years.
Windows 7 is likely expected to be used for 5-10 years.
Spend the 50 bucks on another 2gigs of ram and get over it :)
All VMs share a hypervisor. A successful attack on the hypervisor... well, you get the picture...
Being initially correct is far more important for nailing down what you are trying to do than being FAST.
Premature optimisation is a sure fire way to shoot yourself in the foot. Who cares if a function that is called on a rather minimal basis is slow but understandable and easily verifiable as CORRECT?
Write a prototype, *profile it*, THEN put on your optimisation hat.
I don't care how fast your code gives me incorrect output.
Whilst that's fair enough, it just leaves you open to Apple's programmer laziness, not Adobe's. Don't take this as trashing Apple/Macs (I have a mini myself) - ALL programmers are lazy. The laziness is a driving force to make them automate things... :D
Windows/Microsoft got bitten in a major way by a preview-thumbnail bug in explorer a few years back, don't think apple are somehow magically immune...
Having said all that, if the previewer has no javacsript support, its probably a heap more secure than Adobe reader...
^^ this. I had no idea recent versions (or even old ones) of adobe reader even had javascript. Why?
Its considered by most people to be a static document format, leave interactivity to HTML or other formats.
Dunno what rates as a "large" dinosaur in your book, chickens certainly don't cut it in mine.
oh awesome, i'm rated troll because i'm a PSP owner with a decent game library who wants something more suited to actual portable gaming....
err, by "minimal updates" i meant "minimal footprint". bah. i even previewed that post too.
If you're a home user, figure it out yourself.
If you're on a corporate LAN, you should be using WSUS to control updates yourself anyway. its a free download with minimal updates, all you need is a domain controller or copy of regedit to push your workstations to the WSUS server's IP instead of microsoft directly.
i want something to keep me occupied for short stints, on the bus, waiting for people, on plane trips, etc.
It needs to be standardised so that any clue wielding tech can look at it and instantly be familiar with it. As opposed to having to wade through custom LDAP schemas, non-standard script names, locations, etc before they figure out what's up.
Then it will be a starter for large corporate networks (as in, beyond say 30-50 desktops).
Yes, I love unix too, and maybe all of those issues are solvable with custom scripts, etc - but in the real world there are other things to do than hack shell scripts.
If the solutions to all of the above problems are available and easily implemented (with OFF THE SHELF software), then there needs to be one hell of a publicity campaign, because I've been using/administering various flavours of Free *nix and Solaris since 1996 and don't know about it yet.
So, that's two games that I can play on my PS2 anyway (yes, they're "special" versions. same basic gameplay)?
I own a PSP - i don't want the same content I have already played on PS2/other console.
Take a leaf out of nintendo's book and offer a half decent platformer, vertical shooter, puzzle games, etc.
I don't *want* some drawn out epic while I have 5 minutes to an hour to kill while I'm on the bus/plane, etc.
Sure, I'll buy a couple of that sort of game, but every time I go looking for something to buy for my PSP, there's nothing I actually want because I haven't played 15 different variants of the same game on various other platforms.
Oh don't get me wrong, the hardware does rock, that's why i bought one. Just the example didn't really depend on processing power that much.
As you say, the hardware is certainly not a problem. Its got all the ingredients there - plenty of flash storage capacity, cheap optical media for content, wifi, impressive colour display, good audio, HEAPS of processing power, etc - and good enough battery life (6hrs straight is plenty of time to be playing a portable on a single battery)... its the software that is holding it back.
There's these things called "disks" and "files" that can store a lot more than RAM. Yes, retrieving data from them constantly is slow. It doesn't mean its not possible.
Jurassic Park was not rendered in *real time*. It could have been rendered on a 286 running at 8mhz if you were to wait long enough...
Why is it a disaster?
I get decent battery life (6 hrs), which is pretty impressive considering the screen, 3d hardware, etc. Better than some laptops, with a battery WAY smaller.
I'll gladly take 6 hr battery life and a decent amount of cheap optical storage for media over ROM based storage and an hour or two more battery life any day.
The PSP has a "UMD cache" feature that you can turn on that will reduce the disc access.
Give me a frickin' manual worth shit!
Give me an on-line account/multiplayer/community!
DON'T make my life harder for having purchased the game. As stated many times on here (by myself previously, too), all DRM does is fuck over your PAYING customers. History has shown that no protection scheme is invulnerable. Spend the money on online/printed content instead, and I'll gladly pay for it.
Disclaimer: I own a psp with a library of legal games (about 6 or 7). No bootlegs of *PSP* games on it.
Problem i see with the PSP is the shortage of actual software I want for the platform.
I recently hacked mine for the following purposes:
If they provide software i'm interested in for mobile gaming, I will (and have) purchased it. But more often than not, I walk out of a shop empty handed or with a game for another platform.
The PSP hardware is great. Good battery, awesome screen, decent audio, etc. As a portable video player, its great. As a console (in my opinion) it is lacking appropriate games. Mobile versions of the same stuff i have on PS2/PC/etc is not really what I'm after.
Actually, the issue is that these dudes are being prosecuted for LINKING to illegal material (NOT HOSTING, and NOT actively infringing any copyright themselves).
When are the MPAA/RIAA going after google? When are they going after microsoft (live search). When are they going after other indexes?