Burn out Paradise, is the poster boy for free Downloadable Content (which is all that time you're spending updating the game).
After the game came out, it seemed like every other month I was hearing about some new free DLC. Including a few very significant updates like the Bikes pack.
For nearly the first year all DLC was given away for free. Yes, eventually they started offering paid for DLC but they have given away as much, if not more, and definately more than most any other company.
The solution I've found to play with friends is to use the Public Test realms when they are up.
Now, obviously this isn't a perfect solution.
1. It only works when the PTR is up. 2. You have to co-ordinate ahead of time with all of your friends to do it. 3. You don't get to transfer anything back to your main. 4. Still doesn't help if you and your friends play different factions.
Not that I think this world would be very easy to make into a fun video game,
But I hope that if they actually do put the game out, that they pull off getting you truly attached to your character and then somewhere in the middle of the story they unexpectadly kill your character, and make you take up playing a different character. Maybe even the one that killed you.
And I speak from experience, I finished school in early 2002, during the previous IT downturn.
You might not get the same starting wage as someone did 1 or 2 years ago, and you might need to relocate, but when the market takes off again, you will be much better positioned to get a better job (either in an area you care about more, or something just for more money), if you have 2 or 3 years of experience, vs. having a Masters Degree.
My suggestion is, regardless of whether you decide to get a Master's degree, get an internship or a Co-op over the summer. Especially if you decide not to get your Masters. Even that 1 summer of experience will help to differentiate yourself from any other graduates that have no experience.
One of the Senior Programers on my team is a woman, and has been in the field for 30+ years.
I remember one conversation with her, while she was getting adjusted to using mixed case in unix vs the all caps that she always used on the mainframe, that one of the reasons she took a CS degree was because she didn't want to spend the rest of her life typing.
That brought on the topic that for her back in the early to mid 70's that she didn't want to be a receptionist, a teacher or a nurse. She learned about this new and exciting degree that wasn't one of those things and thats why she enrolled. She also really had no clue what computer science was at the time either, because at home knowledge of computers was non-existant, and the few depictions of computers in movies had nothing to do with actual Computers.
Plus programming did not become a lucrative career until the 90's. In the 70's and 80's developers did not command a much higher percentage that other jobs. It wasn't till the 90's were developer salaries really started taking off.
Her daughter is in high school, and my coworked has said that if she had all of the options her daughter has today, she probably never would have choosen computer science.
Granted this is just 1 anectdotal story. But I wouldn't be shocked if the opening of more doors, particularily more tech type degrees is why CS has fallen for women.
> won't allow you to transfer something you claim you own to someone else.
False.
When Orange box came out, not only did they allow the transfer of your old versions of Half Life 2 and Half Life 2 Episode 1. They actively marketed it to make sure that people knew that they could transfer their copies to friends.
Now some of the other games distributed via steam are not owned by Valve, so they don't have the right to offer that for all games.
> 9 out of 10 (my guess, might be higher) businesses out there will never consider an OS that is entirely dependent on a working internet connection
But many more would be willing to do use it if all they need is a network connection, and the servers are controlled by that specific company. And I'm sure MS is more than willing to sell super expensive server licenses to support those companies.
WoW will probably never have 40 man instances again.
That said, serious raiding is stronger because of that change.
They now tune their 25 man fights to be much more technical than they ever did their 40 mans. All 25 people need to be paying attention, and performing their role. No longer can you have 5 or more players just along for the ride.
As to cookie-cutter specs: While yes, do do still need to spec for your role with a viable PVE raid spec, there are many, many more choices and roles any individual class can pick. Shadow Priests, Moonkins, Prot Pallies, Feral Druids, DPS warriors have important roles to fill. Classes that can't fill multiple roles, do have different viable PVE raid specs.
Now there are still specs that are pure PVP and not optimal for raiding. But even some of those are decent enough for raiding. And some can actually be used for both with no detriment to either.
Within that, there are even more options among a certain tree that you can pick.
If you're someone who wants to be truly unique and pick something completly random, then no you won't be good for raiding. But you'll pretty much suck at everything else too.
> By forcing smaller groups, they caused both an increase in smaller, tighter cliques of players, alienating many on the outside.
Going from a larger number to a smaller number obviously some people had to be excluded. But in reality that wasn't why many guilds impleded. Instead it was because many raiding guilds were not equipped to become leveling guilds, and the difference in character interaction.
On top of that you had to go from a large guild that could fill a 25 man raid, but were forced to do multiple groups in 10 mans. (That was more the issue than picking 25 man as the top number size of a raid). Whch as you pointed out created cliques, and often unhealthy competition, feeling of being an outcast that came with multiple groups.
Blizzard isn't making that mistake again, in WotLK if your guild wants to progress along the 25 man route, they can do that from the first raid instance to the last. (There will also be a 10 man tuned version of all instances as well for smaller guilds that don't want to fill 25 man raids).
> Drunk driving is a choice, a violent crime and it is also 100 percent preventable.
It is, and RockStar even makes that clear, when the first Drunk Driving Mission occurs.
After you stumble out of the bar, the game pops up a note telling you that you are drunk, and maybe you should think about taking a cab home (which you can do in the game).
If you decide to break the law, and not take a cab, the police are automatically notified and after you (unlike real life where they most likely won't notice until you break another law).
Another thing I had about "magic materials" is that it never explained what they were
This was done on purpose in 3E. And if it does change in 4E, my guess is it will go in the direction that you don't need magic materials at all anymore.
It's all part of stream lining the Magic system.
In 1E and 2E, spells listed what exactly what material component that you needed for spells. Which just added to the book-keeping of playing a spell caster.
Nothing worse then memorizing 3 fireballs for the day, and then when you go to cast the 3rd one against the final encounter of the day to realize, you'd used up all of your bat shit. (And yes bat shit and sulfer were the material components for fireball).
But don't worry, the rest of the party will have no problem stopping the adventure, so that you can go find a cave, and look for bat droppings...
1974 - D&D is released 1979 - AD&D is released (1st Edition)
1985 - Unearthed Arcana (Major Optional core rule update for 1E) 1989 - 2nd Edition AD&D is released
1995 - Player's Options Books Released (Major Optional core rule update for 2E) 2000 - 3rd Edition D&D is released
2003 3.5 Edition D&D is released (Major core rule update for 3rd edition) 2008 - 4th Edition will be released.
Each Edition release (starting in 79) was around for 8 to 10 years. Each Edition had a major rule update approximately in the middle of the life cycle.
Now the 8-10 year cycle is a bit misleading, because 1E and 2E were each about 10 years, and 3E was 8 years. But when 3E was initially published the 8 to 10 years was touted as how long it would be around as well so this shouldn't be a huge suprise.
Also, 3.5 did come slightly before the mid point of 3E. And was much less optional than the major revisions to the previous ones. But the changes were actually much more minor to the edition than the changes in UA or the Player's Option line of books.
1) As mentioned by others get a co-op or internship at a company in a field related to what you think you want to do after school. In general, you'll get more experience working at a smaller company. This is because they are more apt to actually notice you, and if you're motivated more apt to give you responsibility real work.
On the other hand, if you apply to a larger company that has a good co-op/internship program, that can work as well.
2) Learn to socialize. Make sure you spend time out side of studies and have a good time. Become friends with others that are not CS/CE students. Go out and meet new people at bars or cafes and just chat them up.
Make sure to network with people at school that you think can help land you a job, either soon, or in the future. Keep in contact with them. Basically look for people your age that have their shit together. Chances are, they'll still have it together when they're working. Make sure you keep in touch with them after school is over as well.
3) If you drink, really learn to drink. Not necessarily how to drink a lot, but more to learn where your tolerance line is. Learn to keep up intelligent conversations even though you're slightly drunk, or even very drunk. Know when to stop drinking, before you're at the point that you should have stopped. That requires going beyond that point in an environment where you're not putting your career at stake. Know how not to act like a stumbling jackass when you're drunk.
4) Learn about clothes. Learn the difference between a good fitting suit and a poor fitting suit. Learn how to put together a good wardrobe. Learn how to shine your shoes, and tie a tie. Learn the difference between good fitting shirts and crappy fitting shirts.
5) After you have those taken care of, you can worry about your actual technical skills. Worry more about theory than a particular skillset. If you know 1 or 2 things real deep great. If not, as long as you can pick things up quickly, and you can do the above things, you can find a job, and learn the specifics there.
Slashdot Mirror
EA realized this and as of June of 2009, all new games will not have software DRM and replaced it with a cd key check.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/06/eas-new-motto-please-pirate-our-games-er-storefronts.ars
Burn out Paradise, is the poster boy for free Downloadable Content (which is all that time you're spending updating the game).
After the game came out, it seemed like every other month I was hearing about some new free DLC. Including a few very significant updates like the Bikes pack.
For nearly the first year all DLC was given away for free. Yes, eventually they started offering paid for DLC but they have given away as much, if not more, and definately more than most any other company.
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/WATCHBLOG/60115
Is a story about the white guy with the gun in question.
The solution I've found to play with friends is to use the Public Test realms when they are up.
Now, obviously this isn't a perfect solution.
1. It only works when the PTR is up.
2. You have to co-ordinate ahead of time with all of your friends to do it.
3. You don't get to transfer anything back to your main.
4. Still doesn't help if you and your friends play different factions.
> Also, doors should be always pulled when you go in and pushed when you go out.
Depends where you live.
If you live in climates that have heavy snowfall, and your door only opens out, you're probably going to get locked in on occasion.
Hopefully now that actual citizens of East Texas are being targeted, the citizens will start to vote these types of judges out of office.
50 million sold with software sales of 200 million is hardly a failure
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=208211%3Fcid&skip=yes
Not that I think this world would be very easy to make into a fun video game,
But I hope that if they actually do put the game out, that they pull off getting you truly attached to your character and then somewhere in the middle of the story they unexpectadly kill your character, and make you take up playing a different character. Maybe even the one that killed you.
There's already some great advice about why or why not to get your Master degree now.
However, the people that are suggesting that this is a poor market to get your first job are wrong.
First off, hiring is not down that much (and in many instances it is up)
http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/107040/Bright-Spot-in-Downturn-New-Hiring-Is-Robust
And I speak from experience, I finished school in early 2002, during the previous IT downturn.
You might not get the same starting wage as someone did 1 or 2 years ago, and you might need to relocate, but when the market takes off again, you will be much better positioned to get a better job (either in an area you care about more, or something just for more money), if you have 2 or 3 years of experience, vs. having a Masters Degree.
My suggestion is, regardless of whether you decide to get a Master's degree, get an internship or a Co-op over the summer. Especially if you decide not to get your Masters. Even that 1 summer of experience will help to differentiate yourself from any other graduates that have no experience.
One of the Senior Programers on my team is a woman, and has been in the field for 30+ years.
I remember one conversation with her, while she was getting adjusted to using mixed case in unix vs the all caps that she always used on the mainframe, that one of the reasons she took a CS degree was because she didn't want to spend the rest of her life typing.
That brought on the topic that for her back in the early to mid 70's that she didn't want to be a receptionist, a teacher or a nurse. She learned about this new and exciting degree that wasn't one of those things and thats why she enrolled. She also really had no clue what computer science was at the time either, because at home knowledge of computers was non-existant, and the few depictions of computers in movies had nothing to do with actual Computers.
Plus programming did not become a lucrative career until the 90's. In the 70's and 80's developers did not command a much higher percentage that other jobs. It wasn't till the 90's were developer salaries really started taking off.
Her daughter is in high school, and my coworked has said that if she had all of the options her daughter has today, she probably never would have choosen computer science.
Granted this is just 1 anectdotal story. But I wouldn't be shocked if the opening of more doors, particularily more tech type degrees is why CS has fallen for women.
http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/bbdp/ford-wont-sell-65-mpg-fiesta-in-us/164929
> won't allow you to transfer something you claim you own to someone else.
False.
When Orange box came out, not only did they allow the transfer of your old versions of Half Life 2 and Half Life 2 Episode 1. They actively marketed it to make sure that people knew that they could transfer their copies to friends.
Now some of the other games distributed via steam are not owned by Valve, so they don't have the right to offer that for all games.
> 9 out of 10 (my guess, might be higher) businesses out there will never consider an OS that is entirely dependent on a working internet connection
But many more would be willing to do use it if all they need is a network connection, and the servers are controlled by that specific company. And I'm sure MS is more than willing to sell super expensive server licenses to support those companies.
WoW will probably never have 40 man instances again.
That said, serious raiding is stronger because of that change.
They now tune their 25 man fights to be much more technical than they ever did their 40 mans. All 25 people need to be paying attention, and performing their role. No longer can you have 5 or more players just along for the ride.
As to cookie-cutter specs: While yes, do do still need to spec for your role with a viable PVE raid spec, there are many, many more choices and roles any individual class can pick. Shadow Priests, Moonkins, Prot Pallies, Feral Druids, DPS warriors have important roles to fill. Classes that can't fill multiple roles, do have different viable PVE raid specs.
Now there are still specs that are pure PVP and not optimal for raiding. But even some of those are decent enough for raiding. And some can actually be used for both with no detriment to either.
Within that, there are even more options among a certain tree that you can pick.
If you're someone who wants to be truly unique and pick something completly random, then no you won't be good for raiding. But you'll pretty much suck at everything else too.
> By forcing smaller groups, they caused both an increase in smaller, tighter cliques of players, alienating many on the outside.
Going from a larger number to a smaller number obviously some people had to be excluded. But in reality that wasn't why many guilds impleded. Instead it was because many raiding guilds were not equipped to become leveling guilds, and the difference in character interaction.
On top of that you had to go from a large guild that could fill a 25 man raid, but were forced to do multiple groups in 10 mans. (That was more the issue than picking 25 man as the top number size of a raid). Whch as you pointed out created cliques, and often unhealthy competition, feeling of being an outcast that came with multiple groups.
Blizzard isn't making that mistake again, in WotLK if your guild wants to progress along the 25 man route, they can do that from the first raid instance to the last. (There will also be a 10 man tuned version of all instances as well for smaller guilds that don't want to fill 25 man raids).
Please do.
Here's the link to the first 9/11 story on Slashdot:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?threshold=-1&mode=nested&commentsort=0&op=Change&sid=21541
Be sure to browse at -1.
It's chock full of idiotic jokes, complaints about this not being 'tech', ignorant nonsense about politics.
I guess not that much has changed.
> Drunk driving is a choice, a violent crime and it is also 100 percent preventable.
It is, and RockStar even makes that clear, when the first Drunk Driving Mission occurs.
After you stumble out of the bar, the game pops up a note telling you that you are drunk, and maybe you should think about taking a cab home (which you can do in the game).
If you decide to break the law, and not take a cab, the police are automatically notified and after you (unlike real life where they most likely won't notice until you break another law).
While it is a very good thing that we have people actively investigating and reporting on the accuracy of the new voting machines.
Are there any good reports as to how accurate paper ballot counting really is? And how far off do the two diverge?
RMS truly is a visionary.
Northern England, isn't in the Northern part of Britain either.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Blackjack_Team#Strategic_Investments.2C_1992-1993
(look at reference articles as well as the wiki page).
Kaplan was one of the founders along with Chang of Strategic Investments.
Kaplan also helped trained Chang in a previous incarnation of the team.
So I guess you don't know as much as you'd like to think you do.
Now whether the character is based on Kaplan or Chang, I have no clue.
Another thing I had about "magic materials" is that it never explained what they were
This was done on purpose in 3E. And if it does change in 4E, my guess is it will go in the direction that you don't need magic materials at all anymore.
It's all part of stream lining the Magic system.
In 1E and 2E, spells listed what exactly what material component that you needed for spells. Which just added to the book-keeping of playing a spell caster.
Nothing worse then memorizing 3 fireballs for the day, and then when you go to cast the 3rd one against the final encounter of the day to realize, you'd used up all of your bat shit. (And yes bat shit and sulfer were the material components for fireball).
But don't worry, the rest of the party will have no problem stopping the adventure, so that you can go find a cave, and look for bat droppings...
What Interesting Accounting?
1974 - D&D is released
1979 - AD&D is released (1st Edition)
1985 - Unearthed Arcana (Major Optional core rule update for 1E)
1989 - 2nd Edition AD&D is released
1995 - Player's Options Books Released (Major Optional core rule update for 2E)
2000 - 3rd Edition D&D is released
2003 3.5 Edition D&D is released (Major core rule update for 3rd edition)
2008 - 4th Edition will be released.
Each Edition release (starting in 79) was around for 8 to 10 years. Each Edition had a major rule update approximately in the middle of the life cycle.
Now the 8-10 year cycle is a bit misleading, because 1E and 2E were each about 10 years, and 3E was 8 years. But when 3E was initially published the 8 to 10 years was touted as how long it would be around as well so this shouldn't be a huge suprise.
Also, 3.5 did come slightly before the mid point of 3E. And was much less optional than the major revisions to the previous ones. But the changes were actually much more minor to the edition than the changes in UA or the Player's Option line of books.
> as the rich/poor divide gets wider kids on the lower end have less and less hope.
If the rich/poor divide was truly widening, and if these kids were truly on the poor side, you wouldn't have this issue.
If they were in true poverty, they wouldn't have free time to hang out and cause trouble.
They'd be too busy trying to find a way to feed themselves. (Which may or may not involve violent crime).
What good is having an Onyxia cloak when EVERYONE has one
It was useful because you needed it to Complete BWL.
1) As mentioned by others get a co-op or internship at a company in a field related to what you think you want to do after school. In general, you'll get more experience working at a smaller company. This is because they are more apt to actually notice you, and if you're motivated more apt to give you responsibility real work.
On the other hand, if you apply to a larger company that has a good co-op/internship program, that can work as well.
2) Learn to socialize. Make sure you spend time out side of studies and have a good time. Become friends with others that are not CS/CE students. Go out and meet new people at bars or cafes and just chat them up.
Make sure to network with people at school that you think can help land you a job, either soon, or in the future. Keep in contact with them. Basically look for people your age that have their shit together. Chances are, they'll still have it together when they're working. Make sure you keep in touch with them after school is over as well.
3) If you drink, really learn to drink. Not necessarily how to drink a lot, but more to learn where your tolerance line is. Learn to keep up intelligent conversations even though you're slightly drunk, or even very drunk. Know when to stop drinking, before you're at the point that you should have stopped. That requires going beyond that point in an environment where you're not putting your career at stake. Know how not to act like a stumbling jackass when you're drunk.
4) Learn about clothes. Learn the difference between a good fitting suit and a poor fitting suit. Learn how to put together a good wardrobe. Learn how to shine your shoes, and tie a tie. Learn the difference between good fitting shirts and crappy fitting shirts.
5) After you have those taken care of, you can worry about your actual technical skills. Worry more about theory than a particular skillset. If you know 1 or 2 things real deep great. If not, as long as you can pick things up quickly, and you can do the above things, you can find a job, and learn the specifics there.