Are you serious. Why in the world would anyone market a software platform to the Chinese: the most pirating, copyright infringing, knock-off producing nation on the entire planet?
It doesn't matter how cheap you make this thing. People won't develop for it because the Chinese will hack and mod the thing in less than a week. Guaranteed.
This is so true. In fact the BlackBerry already provides a breadth of cryptography APIs. Making an app that allows secure communication, even on an insecure network, is effortless.
What are some examples of innovative games that are fun to play? When I look for new games I look for games that interest me due to themes, graphics, or gameplay. Innovation isn't on my list of requirements.
Our right to take panoramic snapshots, for instance, or to take photographs in public spaces, both base laws which determine that one may photograph those things that are visible from public streets and places.
Is a photo of your lawn, outside of home, and garden a private affair? When people drive by your home do you chase them away like a barking dog? No (reply if you do). Then why should you shoo away the Google car?
OK. But does that give you the right to aggregate those photos, organize them by location, creating a photo map of the entire planet?
On the one hand: Location based services are increasingly being incorporated into photographic devices. It's only a matter of time before the planet is completely photo-mapped with location information. Attempts to prevent this are only by scaremongers who have an idealistic view of privacy.
On the other hand: People have a right to privacy and it's unreasonable for one corporation to destroy it.
One of my university english profs discouraged the use of 'their' when referring to either sex. Fuck that. I'm not writing 'his or her'. Invent a new pronoun or suck it up.
I would say no under certain circumstances. When developing you often don't know how a function will work until it's "completed". I'll often write a whole class and only write the tests and documentation once I feel it's completed. When I write both tests and docs while developing I find that I end up rewriting the tests and docs. The functionality has changed from what I first imagined. Of course this wouldn't be too much of a problem with good design.
I'm a test developer right now, so this may skew my opinion. When I develop any code, whether it's tests, frameworks, utilities, or actual development, I always consider testing of my own code a stimulating factor. Do you enjoy knowing that your code works as you intended? I do. In my opinion good design is reflected by good testing. If your tests are bad then you won't know if your design is good either. This includes performance testing.
Try this: do no testing at all for a month and see how annoyed you get by receiving a million defect reports.
Developing for Android is a breeze but it has little, if nothing to do with their "Java" implementation.
It more has to do with their great development tools, extensive guides, and excellent activity-based application framework. The fact that it's all open source is a bonus because if you ever wonder "How did they get their list to look like that?" you can just open up the files and take a gander. This is further bolstered by the large development community.
Give developers all of those things and they won't care what language you shackle them to.
This is why most games provide a reset/extra lives/resurrection feature where you don't lose all of you equipment, skills, or attributes when you die.
Diablo II multiplayer had a hardcore mode where once you died you could no longer continue with that character. I played it and got to level 30 where I lagged in a dungeon. When my connection came back I was dead. I never played hardcore after that.
The point is that a lot of time is wasted when a game doesn't have decent reset features. In this case, 6 years.
I'm a fan of the genre - I played through D1 and D2 several times - but Torchlight just didn't cut it for me. It was literally Diablo with different graphics. I got bored after a few dungeon levels. If Torchlight had advanced the genre in any way my opinion might be different. Unfortunately I didn't feel like playing the same game I played five years ago.
I know that many other games are repeats of previous ones with different graphics, mechanics, or story. Somehow those games do a better job of hiding their heritage.
one will use a cached response from the last time the app was run if no connection to the Market is available
Which doesn't sound like the train wreck that you make it out to be:
from users' perspective: you'll have to pre-open such apps that you'd want to use on a plane before taking off (or going off-roading, camping, hiking, etc.) - for example, you don't usually play a certain game (but you will on a plane), so cached response could have expired - better remember to pre-open and re-cache everything before taking off! Users shouldn't have to deal with this crap.
It doesn't sound to me like the cached responses expire. Where did you get that information from?
why not just validate the license at install time, and "cache" the encrypted license forever for that specific apk
If there ever was a problem with the DRM then it could never be fixed unless users reinstalled their apps. This method is more secure. The cached response from last run seems like the best solution possible.
If something is illegal because it is generally used for illegal purposes, I have no problem with governments disallowing it. These game copying cards are most likely used to illegally copy games. Some people might buy the cards to legally backup their games, but most people are buying them to illegally copy the games.
*reader of this comment pulls out the "You need proof that it is used for illegal purposes!" card*
Well, show me the proof that it is generally used for legal purposes. If a government allows guns and finds that people start killing each other more often, why is disallowing guns so wrong?
While it is possible simply to attend a local school in person, I would much prefer an online environment as it seems to be a more natural medium considering the content of my studies.
When you deal with people in nearly any industry it will often be far more intimate than online discussions. I would suggest taking courses in person so at least you learn skills in an environment that will apply in your future career. Think about it: most customers would rather discuss their web designs (which you'll be making) in person rather than someone at the end of a phone line, chat room, or email thread. Taking offline courses helps you in so many ways. You'll discuss ideas with classmates, learn how to debate about best practices with others, and learn to learn through many different methods.
Many gaming sites have that line on their review scores. The graphics or voice acting may have been crap, but did it affect the gameplay? Maybe the gameplay was great, but it had horrible DRM, so it gets a lower score. Maybe a game even had amazing graphics but it failed to make up for the shallow mechanics. There's many things that go into review scores and I don't really think this is hurting the industry as the article states.
When I was in high school I found that I liked playing video games and I liked programming. I naturally wanted to put the two together and I took computer engineering in university.
Point is that soon later I found that the game industry has tight deadlines resulting in extreme overtime hours. In the games industry people seem to accept these insane work regiments. I wasn't willing to accept that. I'll work my 8 hours a day. I'll work a little more if I'm passionate about a project. But in no way am I going to work 12 hours a day for months straight just to get a game out the door. To be frank: fuck that shit.
There's something in the games industry that breaks people down. It's not that testing != gaming. It's the acceptance of free overtime hours that gets to people.
Meh. If you look at statistics of gun violence between countries where gun ownership is a right (US) and countries that heavily regulate gun use (Canada, Britain, Australia, any other country) you'll see that there's far more gun violence, and violence in general, in the US. The number of legal uses for guns isn't any excuse for allowing people to be killed by them over and over and over again.
The problem is that most medical practices won't recommend weed even though it is a valid solution to many illnesses. Instead they'll just recommend whatever pharmaceutical + the side effects it comes with. Weed is taboo: doctors don't recommend it for fear of being prosecuted or losing patients; patients don't ask for it because it isn't mainstream and they fear rejection by the doctor.
I think if weed was more mainstream and accepted, which it is becoming, we would have more people legitimately asking for medical marijuana.
Slashdot Mirror
Are you serious. Why in the world would anyone market a software platform to the Chinese: the most pirating, copyright infringing, knock-off producing nation on the entire planet?
It doesn't matter how cheap you make this thing. People won't develop for it because the Chinese will hack and mod the thing in less than a week. Guaranteed.
This venture is futile.
Yup, you have no idea what you're talking about.
This is so true. In fact the BlackBerry already provides a breadth of cryptography APIs. Making an app that allows secure communication, even on an insecure network, is effortless.
I dunno. I did assembly programming on a Motorola 68K. We put stuff into registers, used gotos, bit oring and all that jazz.
Point is I don't think the hardware we used was that old, but we still learned the basics of computing.
What are some examples of innovative games that are fun to play? When I look for new games I look for games that interest me due to themes, graphics, or gameplay. Innovation isn't on my list of requirements.
Our right to take panoramic snapshots, for instance, or to take photographs in public spaces, both base laws which determine that one may photograph those things that are visible from public streets and places.
Is a photo of your lawn, outside of home, and garden a private affair? When people drive by your home do you chase them away like a barking dog? No (reply if you do). Then why should you shoo away the Google car?
OK. But does that give you the right to aggregate those photos, organize them by location, creating a photo map of the entire planet?
On the one hand: Location based services are increasingly being incorporated into photographic devices. It's only a matter of time before the planet is completely photo-mapped with location information. Attempts to prevent this are only by scaremongers who have an idealistic view of privacy.
On the other hand: People have a right to privacy and it's unreasonable for one corporation to destroy it.
One of my university english profs discouraged the use of 'their' when referring to either sex. Fuck that. I'm not writing 'his or her'. Invent a new pronoun or suck it up.
I call slashvertisement.
I would say no under certain circumstances. When developing you often don't know how a function will work until it's "completed". I'll often write a whole class and only write the tests and documentation once I feel it's completed. When I write both tests and docs while developing I find that I end up rewriting the tests and docs. The functionality has changed from what I first imagined. Of course this wouldn't be too much of a problem with good design.
I'm a test developer right now, so this may skew my opinion. When I develop any code, whether it's tests, frameworks, utilities, or actual development, I always consider testing of my own code a stimulating factor. Do you enjoy knowing that your code works as you intended? I do. In my opinion good design is reflected by good testing. If your tests are bad then you won't know if your design is good either. This includes performance testing.
Try this: do no testing at all for a month and see how annoyed you get by receiving a million defect reports.
Developing for Android is a breeze but it has little, if nothing to do with their "Java" implementation.
It more has to do with their great development tools, extensive guides, and excellent activity-based application framework. The fact that it's all open source is a bonus because if you ever wonder "How did they get their list to look like that?" you can just open up the files and take a gander. This is further bolstered by the large development community.
Give developers all of those things and they won't care what language you shackle them to.
Apple's marketing is fairly unremarkable for the most part.
Gone!
This is why most games provide a reset/extra lives/resurrection feature where you don't lose all of you equipment, skills, or attributes when you die.
Diablo II multiplayer had a hardcore mode where once you died you could no longer continue with that character. I played it and got to level 30 where I lagged in a dungeon. When my connection came back I was dead. I never played hardcore after that.
The point is that a lot of time is wasted when a game doesn't have decent reset features. In this case, 6 years.
But Linux is a pretty decent OS on its own merits, and it's free- something that ought to appeal to poor starving college students.
I'm sure that college students buying cash money $$$ Macs are going to give a damn that Linux is free.
I'm a fan of the genre - I played through D1 and D2 several times - but Torchlight just didn't cut it for me. It was literally Diablo with different graphics. I got bored after a few dungeon levels. If Torchlight had advanced the genre in any way my opinion might be different. Unfortunately I didn't feel like playing the same game I played five years ago.
I know that many other games are repeats of previous ones with different graphics, mechanics, or story. Somehow those games do a better job of hiding their heritage.
From the article:
one will use a cached response from the last time the app was run if no connection to the Market is available
Which doesn't sound like the train wreck that you make it out to be:
from users' perspective: you'll have to pre-open such apps that you'd want to use on a plane before taking off (or going off-roading, camping, hiking, etc.) - for example, you don't usually play a certain game (but you will on a plane), so cached response could have expired - better remember to pre-open and re-cache everything before taking off! Users shouldn't have to deal with this crap.
It doesn't sound to me like the cached responses expire. Where did you get that information from?
why not just validate the license at install time, and "cache" the encrypted license forever for that specific apk
If there ever was a problem with the DRM then it could never be fixed unless users reinstalled their apps. This method is more secure. The cached response from last run seems like the best solution possible.
If something is illegal because it is generally used for illegal purposes, I have no problem with governments disallowing it. These game copying cards are most likely used to illegally copy games. Some people might buy the cards to legally backup their games, but most people are buying them to illegally copy the games.
*reader of this comment pulls out the "You need proof that it is used for illegal purposes!" card*
Well, show me the proof that it is generally used for legal purposes. If a government allows guns and finds that people start killing each other more often, why is disallowing guns so wrong?
If I hear them describe their tech a magical one more time I'm gonna...
... roast their ass with a level 5 firebolt.
While it is possible simply to attend a local school in person, I would much prefer an online environment as it seems to be a more natural medium considering the content of my studies.
When you deal with people in nearly any industry it will often be far more intimate than online discussions. I would suggest taking courses in person so at least you learn skills in an environment that will apply in your future career. Think about it: most customers would rather discuss their web designs (which you'll be making) in person rather than someone at the end of a phone line, chat room, or email thread. Taking offline courses helps you in so many ways. You'll discuss ideas with classmates, learn how to debate about best practices with others, and learn to learn through many different methods.
"This is an overall score, not an average."
Many gaming sites have that line on their review scores. The graphics or voice acting may have been crap, but did it affect the gameplay? Maybe the gameplay was great, but it had horrible DRM, so it gets a lower score. Maybe a game even had amazing graphics but it failed to make up for the shallow mechanics. There's many things that go into review scores and I don't really think this is hurting the industry as the article states.
When I was in high school I found that I liked playing video games and I liked programming. I naturally wanted to put the two together and I took computer engineering in university.
Point is that soon later I found that the game industry has tight deadlines resulting in extreme overtime hours. In the games industry people seem to accept these insane work regiments. I wasn't willing to accept that. I'll work my 8 hours a day. I'll work a little more if I'm passionate about a project. But in no way am I going to work 12 hours a day for months straight just to get a game out the door. To be frank: fuck that shit.
There's something in the games industry that breaks people down. It's not that testing != gaming. It's the acceptance of free overtime hours that gets to people.
Honestly your comment is just an uninformed, unsourced rant.
Meh. If you look at statistics of gun violence between countries where gun ownership is a right (US) and countries that heavily regulate gun use (Canada, Britain, Australia, any other country) you'll see that there's far more gun violence, and violence in general, in the US. The number of legal uses for guns isn't any excuse for allowing people to be killed by them over and over and over again.
The problem is that most medical practices won't recommend weed even though it is a valid solution to many illnesses. Instead they'll just recommend whatever pharmaceutical + the side effects it comes with. Weed is taboo: doctors don't recommend it for fear of being prosecuted or losing patients; patients don't ask for it because it isn't mainstream and they fear rejection by the doctor.
I think if weed was more mainstream and accepted, which it is becoming, we would have more people legitimately asking for medical marijuana.
It's a shame that your comment is way down here at the bottom of the page. Move that shit upwards!