Considering there are ISPs that offer plans for less than 10$ per month, I fail to see the point? I think there are even advertisement-paid ISPs offering free connection...
This choice may be horrendous, but I'm still waiting for some sort of reaction somewhere. Posting angry comments on/. won't change a thing. If you're really THAT deceived, do something about it?
Was I American, I'd be very tempted to do so. Ugh, I was hoping this time the promises weren't empty...
Directly, yes. Indirectly? Heck no. Having control over the browser also means having control over the content: the Web. You can dictate how people work, what people use and such. Look at.NET; by investing in making new languages like C# then giving it away for free, Microsoft is effectively getting new and old programmers alike to depend on their proprietary coding language, engine and software. They can then fully exploit this to turn the programmer into a big money-maker.
The same could be said with IE. If you have control over the Web, you can decide to release something proprietary (let's call it Silverlight) and then imposing it on people by not supporting anything else. From that point onwards, anyone wanting to design a website is bound to either not use Silverlight or use Silverlight; there's not alternative way to make it. Profit ensues.
Now, of course this is a bit of an extreme case, but that's just to make a point. IE is not the source of cash, it's a tool that will help them create new projects which will be sources of cash. On top of that, IE is despised here on/. for having horrible standards support, crappy security, limited features and a lot of other BS that others can list:)
PHP, definitely. Although I've started with Java myself, I'd say PHP is an extremely simple (yet powerful) language to boot with. Its flexibility and rather clean code mean you don't have to delve right into more abstract concepts such as pointers or classes right away, but it does offer them if you need it. I also like things such as expandable arrays or dynamic typing. They might not be the best things to rely on to write clear code, but they have the advantage, again, of being simple to use. Arrays can get pretty messy when you need to determine their length and then initialize them.
I'd also suggest working with more than just programming. While some children will like it, I think there are other potentially interesting paths to take. For example, you could let them program robots. The Boe-Bot is a good start with basic features and a host of options if you want them. The language is a modification of Basic called PBasic. The main advantage of robots is that they get a goal. Programming software, when you have no specific need for something, can be hard; you look for a reason to make something, a plan, but you find nothing. With a robot, they'll immediately want to try to make tons of stuff with it so it can move around, react to movement, touch, sound, color, light, whatever... There can be quite a bit of fun to be had with that!
The more they say how secure OSX is, the more people might flock to it. In turn, that will increase the potential market of users on the system and will likely increase the number of hackers roaming through OSX's code for vulnerabilities. I don't believe OSX is THAT more secure (sure, UNIX is more secure than Windows, but not by the huge margin some are trying to push) and I'm sure a dedicated, interested person would find some exploits to use which would cause a huge panic among the OSX hordes.
But for the time being, OSX is pretty safe. It's all dependent on how far they grow! The larger they are, the bigger target they get...
The American government is shelling BILLIONS to save a naturally defective mortgage and banking system, to help stock markets get out of the pit they dug themselves and to get car manufacturers out of their stupidity, yet you all complain that Tesla Motors is asking for a $400M loan!?
You do know that a loan has to be paid back with interests, eh? The grants given to all those companies which shot themselves in the foot likely will never ever come back. Was the government to give GM some cash, they'd burn through it in a matter of months with flat out zero progress made. At least Tesla is trying something different and is having a sensible, possible plan. Obama said it himself: he wants the green cars to become a reality. Well, I guess Tesla is one way to go. The Roadster is already far more impressive than the Volt and I think their sedan will likely be their true grounding in the more general market. If you give cash to companies which basically ruined themselves by greed, you ought to give cash to companies which are trying to make things right. Otherwise, just take all the money back from those banks.
Here in Quebec, for a couple of years you would not be able to "fail" your year in elementary school. Were you to have marks under the passing grade, you would simply move on and would have to attend to some special stuff that supposedly made you able to pass the previous year's exams. Most likely, the person who flunk a session failed all successive ones and still passed to high school...
But hey, it appears over 60% of the students are failing here in 5th year of high school and at our "cegep" (which basically is a two-year bridge between high school and university). No wonder the government is trying to cover up the fact most people either don't want to work or had such a poor education earlier on that now they can't even solve basic problems. This is not restricted to science, either.
I also am 6'5'' and quite wide of shoulders and I have to say this news completely revolts me. I'm sickened not to have heard about it while it was still in process (this shows how nice news channels are...) and I believe if obese people are now considered as "disabled", then tall people should also have some compensation!
What's the thing with those people? "Oh, my fat is dangling off my pants, I'm too tired to exercise and I can't pay for a liposuction!" Pew, pew. Sad thing. THEY have all the possibilities to change. Tall people can't. We're the way we are and no, I'm not sawing myself in half just to remove some height!
So, what now? Will we have to bitch and fight to actually get some sort of relatively similar treatment? I doubt they'll move on their own. First class, definitely. I also happen to be struck with apraxia, a rare nervous disease which basically makes me useless in those emergency seats, so I'm struck with either being lucky and the carrier accepting to take me or being even more lucky and get a seat in front of the TV. Why can't I be considered "disabled" and be given something suitable to my "condition"?
This is really proving how retarded the whole system is.
I don't think this is the way to go. Doing this not only punishes EA, it punishes the studios that EA oversees, manages and works with. For example, I don't think the RA3 devs had ANYTHING to do with the SecuROM crap, yet by not buying their games you essentially cut off their fundings. If the studio disappears because of it, we'll all be crying because yet another good PC developer will have bitten the dust. Same goes for other games under the EA label; I, for one, don't want to miss out on some of their games; I just won't buy them on the PC. Sucks, I know, but I think lawsuits will hurt them more than any sort of boycotting will, since it targets their management directly and not the studios which only want to produce nice games.
The guy is clearly an attention whore who's trying to get all the media coverage he can for stupid lawsuits... Why don't we just ignore him and dismiss all cases he'd ever bring up?
Heck, isn't there a law for uselessly costing the state money?
I was referring to the Oblivion texture pack versus mods like Discovery, Shattered Worlds or Monkey Universe. I find this depressing to see a TEXTURE PACK be more praised than whole worlds.
I don't necessarily agree with Discovery (I personally hate the mod), but I do find it odd that Freelancer, a great game that was received pretty well by critics, has a very large amount of mods of often extremely high quality, yet just about no large gaming site speaks about the game. Sorry, but a texture pack will never beat a whole new world crafted from scratch in my mind.
I'd also point out that it doesn't really matter how the bug or exploit got in. What matters is how many did.
Considering this, I'd prefer to run on 10 willingly inserted exploits versus running on 100 unknown exploits inserted by mistake. Detecting exploits in OSS code is usually faster, since the ratio length of code to reviewers is higher. It doesn't really matter if the person can directly fix it; a little bug report on the OSS' site and the bug will most likely be in a hotfix the next day if it's serious enough. For closed-source stuff, however, the bug has to be reported first (that means the bug has to be exploited and someone must suffer from the backfire of it), then the developer must dig for it, and then fix it and release a patch. However, this developer doesn't have hundreds of programmers that are constantly scanning their code, and they often can't pay for top-level 20+ years of experience people. OSS projects often have those same people running around, since they are passionate about what they do.
All comes down to this, in the end: OSS is passion, CSS is profit. I believe passion is incredibly stronger, and looking at Firefox, Linux and others, this feeling seems shared.
Just looking at the state of the game out-of-the-box, it was clear that there would be multiple expansions. I believe we'll see at LEAST one expansion for each stage (in order to make them more "complete"), plus an outrageous amount of spare parts. The first expansion's a parts one, since that's easy to do. Second's a space overhaul, which is a given considering this is the game's best aspect right now.
What will we see next? A Spore: Sim City expansion for the Civ stage? A Spore: The Sims expansion for the Creature stage? Either way, I bought the game and now I'm feeling like I got a bit raped there. Was I to want to buy any of those expansions, I'd wait for the Deluxe pack that's bound to appear.
Oh and, what about a DRM-removing expansion? 5 bucks to get a DRM-free game... I'm sure people would buy into this wicked, twisted scheme right now, despite how evil and money-hungry it is.
Slashdot Mirror
Considering there are ISPs that offer plans for less than 10$ per month, I fail to see the point? I think there are even advertisement-paid ISPs offering free connection...
This choice may be horrendous, but I'm still waiting for some sort of reaction somewhere. Posting angry comments on /. won't change a thing. If you're really THAT deceived, do something about it?
Was I American, I'd be very tempted to do so. Ugh, I was hoping this time the promises weren't empty...
Directly, yes. Indirectly? Heck no. Having control over the browser also means having control over the content: the Web. You can dictate how people work, what people use and such. Look at .NET; by investing in making new languages like C# then giving it away for free, Microsoft is effectively getting new and old programmers alike to depend on their proprietary coding language, engine and software. They can then fully exploit this to turn the programmer into a big money-maker.
/. for having horrible standards support, crappy security, limited features and a lot of other BS that others can list :)
The same could be said with IE. If you have control over the Web, you can decide to release something proprietary (let's call it Silverlight) and then imposing it on people by not supporting anything else. From that point onwards, anyone wanting to design a website is bound to either not use Silverlight or use Silverlight; there's not alternative way to make it. Profit ensues.
Now, of course this is a bit of an extreme case, but that's just to make a point. IE is not the source of cash, it's a tool that will help them create new projects which will be sources of cash. On top of that, IE is despised here on
PHP, definitely. Although I've started with Java myself, I'd say PHP is an extremely simple (yet powerful) language to boot with. Its flexibility and rather clean code mean you don't have to delve right into more abstract concepts such as pointers or classes right away, but it does offer them if you need it. I also like things such as expandable arrays or dynamic typing. They might not be the best things to rely on to write clear code, but they have the advantage, again, of being simple to use. Arrays can get pretty messy when you need to determine their length and then initialize them.
I'd also suggest working with more than just programming. While some children will like it, I think there are other potentially interesting paths to take. For example, you could let them program robots. The Boe-Bot is a good start with basic features and a host of options if you want them. The language is a modification of Basic called PBasic. The main advantage of robots is that they get a goal. Programming software, when you have no specific need for something, can be hard; you look for a reason to make something, a plan, but you find nothing. With a robot, they'll immediately want to try to make tons of stuff with it so it can move around, react to movement, touch, sound, color, light, whatever... There can be quite a bit of fun to be had with that!
The more they say how secure OSX is, the more people might flock to it. In turn, that will increase the potential market of users on the system and will likely increase the number of hackers roaming through OSX's code for vulnerabilities. I don't believe OSX is THAT more secure (sure, UNIX is more secure than Windows, but not by the huge margin some are trying to push) and I'm sure a dedicated, interested person would find some exploits to use which would cause a huge panic among the OSX hordes.
But for the time being, OSX is pretty safe. It's all dependent on how far they grow! The larger they are, the bigger target they get...
The American government is shelling BILLIONS to save a naturally defective mortgage and banking system, to help stock markets get out of the pit they dug themselves and to get car manufacturers out of their stupidity, yet you all complain that Tesla Motors is asking for a $400M loan!?
You do know that a loan has to be paid back with interests, eh? The grants given to all those companies which shot themselves in the foot likely will never ever come back. Was the government to give GM some cash, they'd burn through it in a matter of months with flat out zero progress made. At least Tesla is trying something different and is having a sensible, possible plan. Obama said it himself: he wants the green cars to become a reality. Well, I guess Tesla is one way to go. The Roadster is already far more impressive than the Volt and I think their sedan will likely be their true grounding in the more general market. If you give cash to companies which basically ruined themselves by greed, you ought to give cash to companies which are trying to make things right. Otherwise, just take all the money back from those banks.
Oh wait, I forgot! They don't have it anymore...
Seems like it's an international issue...
Here in Quebec, for a couple of years you would not be able to "fail" your year in elementary school. Were you to have marks under the passing grade, you would simply move on and would have to attend to some special stuff that supposedly made you able to pass the previous year's exams. Most likely, the person who flunk a session failed all successive ones and still passed to high school...
But hey, it appears over 60% of the students are failing here in 5th year of high school and at our "cegep" (which basically is a two-year bridge between high school and university). No wonder the government is trying to cover up the fact most people either don't want to work or had such a poor education earlier on that now they can't even solve basic problems. This is not restricted to science, either.
I also am 6'5'' and quite wide of shoulders and I have to say this news completely revolts me. I'm sickened not to have heard about it while it was still in process (this shows how nice news channels are...) and I believe if obese people are now considered as "disabled", then tall people should also have some compensation!
What's the thing with those people? "Oh, my fat is dangling off my pants, I'm too tired to exercise and I can't pay for a liposuction!" Pew, pew. Sad thing. THEY have all the possibilities to change. Tall people can't. We're the way we are and no, I'm not sawing myself in half just to remove some height!
So, what now? Will we have to bitch and fight to actually get some sort of relatively similar treatment? I doubt they'll move on their own. First class, definitely. I also happen to be struck with apraxia, a rare nervous disease which basically makes me useless in those emergency seats, so I'm struck with either being lucky and the carrier accepting to take me or being even more lucky and get a seat in front of the TV. Why can't I be considered "disabled" and be given something suitable to my "condition"?
This is really proving how retarded the whole system is.
I don't think this is the way to go. Doing this not only punishes EA, it punishes the studios that EA oversees, manages and works with. For example, I don't think the RA3 devs had ANYTHING to do with the SecuROM crap, yet by not buying their games you essentially cut off their fundings. If the studio disappears because of it, we'll all be crying because yet another good PC developer will have bitten the dust. Same goes for other games under the EA label; I, for one, don't want to miss out on some of their games; I just won't buy them on the PC. Sucks, I know, but I think lawsuits will hurt them more than any sort of boycotting will, since it targets their management directly and not the studios which only want to produce nice games.
The guy is clearly an attention whore who's trying to get all the media coverage he can for stupid lawsuits... Why don't we just ignore him and dismiss all cases he'd ever bring up?
Heck, isn't there a law for uselessly costing the state money?
I was referring to the Oblivion texture pack versus mods like Discovery, Shattered Worlds or Monkey Universe. I find this depressing to see a TEXTURE PACK be more praised than whole worlds.
Sorry that I wasn't clear enough.
I don't necessarily agree with Discovery (I personally hate the mod), but I do find it odd that Freelancer, a great game that was received pretty well by critics, has a very large amount of mods of often extremely high quality, yet just about no large gaming site speaks about the game. Sorry, but a texture pack will never beat a whole new world crafted from scratch in my mind.
I'd also point out that it doesn't really matter how the bug or exploit got in. What matters is how many did.
Considering this, I'd prefer to run on 10 willingly inserted exploits versus running on 100 unknown exploits inserted by mistake. Detecting exploits in OSS code is usually faster, since the ratio length of code to reviewers is higher. It doesn't really matter if the person can directly fix it; a little bug report on the OSS' site and the bug will most likely be in a hotfix the next day if it's serious enough. For closed-source stuff, however, the bug has to be reported first (that means the bug has to be exploited and someone must suffer from the backfire of it), then the developer must dig for it, and then fix it and release a patch. However, this developer doesn't have hundreds of programmers that are constantly scanning their code, and they often can't pay for top-level 20+ years of experience people. OSS projects often have those same people running around, since they are passionate about what they do.
All comes down to this, in the end: OSS is passion, CSS is profit. I believe passion is incredibly stronger, and looking at Firefox, Linux and others, this feeling seems shared.
Just looking at the state of the game out-of-the-box, it was clear that there would be multiple expansions. I believe we'll see at LEAST one expansion for each stage (in order to make them more "complete"), plus an outrageous amount of spare parts. The first expansion's a parts one, since that's easy to do. Second's a space overhaul, which is a given considering this is the game's best aspect right now.
What will we see next? A Spore: Sim City expansion for the Civ stage? A Spore: The Sims expansion for the Creature stage? Either way, I bought the game and now I'm feeling like I got a bit raped there. Was I to want to buy any of those expansions, I'd wait for the Deluxe pack that's bound to appear.
Oh and, what about a DRM-removing expansion? 5 bucks to get a DRM-free game... I'm sure people would buy into this wicked, twisted scheme right now, despite how evil and money-hungry it is.