I think "garbage hacker" would be appropriate if, instead of taking it to the dump, you did something interesting with it... Like a large-scale model of Ballmer, for some zozobra-like action. You know, to commemorate his years of (dis)service to Microsoft.
What you have are two conflicting interests and no data to support either side.
The interests of the manufacturer. EA is in it to make money, and they have seen that with the big name titles comes the need for more "protection from theft" in the panacea known as DRM. The are still blind to the fact that their approach does not work and only serves to piss off the paying customers
The interests of the consumer. Many will want to support the product by buying it, there's no other way to show the manufacturer that there is demand. However, in doing so the consumer also gives a thumbs up to the DRM or other nonsense that comes with it
I would argue that a reasonable and intelligent (i.e. not a cheapass) would purchase the game, then be incredibly vocal about any issues they have with the game and start getting more voices heard. Start forum posts, give Amazon reviews, give metacritic reviews, something that people can rally togethor and get the discontent shown to the manufacturer. Maybe then they'll realize that Steam, while still DRM, doesn't hinder the user. Or that, because it costs next to nothing to copy bits (as opposed to CD's), they could sell digital versions for less and make money by quantity. Hell, look at Humble Bundle, many folks pay $5 for the 5-6 games, others pay $10k for them, and send the money off to charity.
The suggestion that Nintendo should release on iOS and Android would be suicide.... The Wii's success was mostly a fluke caused by MS and Sony raising prices too much, and a couple of gimmicks that were worth some attention by some: motion controls, and wii fit.
I agree that releasing outside the Nintendo-sphere would be suicide. Apple's lock-in to high-priced hardware for all their stuff is why they are able to throw in high margins ($600 for a phone that costs $150 in parts) and make money hand over fist.
I disagree that the Wii's success is a fluke. Lets just look at the first party titles:
According to Wikipedia's entry on the Wii the console has sold over 100.04 consoles worldwide as of June 30, 2013. I'd hardly call that a fluke. Also note that the games referenced above don't necessarily make use of the "gimmicky" wii-mote (though Zelda does).
If these idiot mayors want to encourage bicycling, they need to build real bike roads, like they have in Copenhagen, where the bikes are the only thing on the road, not cars, and not pedestrians either. That's the only way to do it.
It takes more than this, it takes some sort of culture change as well. Seattle is an incredibly pedestrian friendly city, drivers will slam on their brakes to let you cross the road. Santa Fe is the complete opposite, the drivers would rather flatten you and get where they're going then even think about touching the brake. You can put all the bike paths/trails/roads you want, and as soon as you get pedestrians/kids/pets out there, the die-hard cyclists will be right back next to the cars.
Where I grew up there were bike trails everywhere, and yet most cyclists steered clear for the fear that there be one pedestrian in a 2-mile stretch of the 8-foot wide paved trail. Instead they don't even bother riding on the shoulder (which is a good 8-10 feet too), they ride right on the white line... in a 50mph road. On a side note, the funniest thing I ever saw was a cyclist get pulled over for going through a red light... The best part was he would have been in the clear had he been on the bike trail, 2 feet to his right.
I'd rather have banner ads than have 3 or 4 ads at the top that are almost indistinguishable from the search results.
I'd rather have banner ads than 3-4 indistinguishable ads, that aren't targeted to me just because I happen to be signed in or from a "familiar IP address". I'm okay with a search for Southwest Airlines and getting a Southwest ad. When I do the same search and start getting music/movie recommendations, bring out the AdBlock.
I honestly don't know what the big push for 4k displays really is. It all breaks down to the 'resolution' of your eye and the resolution of the screen. The human eye works based off of arcseconds for your vision. There are a few good charts out there that have the breakdown in a person with 20/20 vision's ability to distinguish between pixels on a display. I have a 60" 1080p tv and my couch is approximately 11 feet away. Assuming my vision was 20/20 (it isn't), in order for me to distinguish between pixels on a 4k display, the display would have to be over 120 inches corner-to-corner. Conversely, in order to distinguish the pixels on my 60" 1080p display requires me to sit closer than 4 feet to it. At that point, I'm moving my head to see everything, instead of just eyes going back and forth. HD was developed for you to sit about 3 x display height away from the screen. 4k allows you to sit closer before seeing the pixels, but do you really want to? Do you plan on sitting 3 feet away from your 60" display?
There's more discussion here.
What's the appeal of spending massive amounts of money on something that isn't visually distinguishable from something less than half the price?
The feature that comes to mind that some companies have been hammering at for years is raytracing. I remember a project that intel was doing some years ago with the Return to Castle Wolfenstein source (way back when) to make the engine completely ray traced. I also remember it took a good $10k+ computer to render in less than real time (numbers escape me, and the site appears to be down now). While it did create some pretty unbelievable graphics for the time with true reflections on solid surfaces such as glass and metal, it was completely unapproachable for consumers due to cost, and unusable for gamers because it wasn't real-time yet. Intel does seem to be continuing the work though.
There will always be folks using the cards for password cracking and other "simple" massively parallel tasks. My vote goes for increasing the speed that they can generate more realistic imagery. Then that same 100k (guesstimating) render farm over at Pixar or Dreamworks will give us movies that further blur the line between real and fantasy.
It will only lure people into using non-free programs distributed through Steam.
It will also allow you to run free programs.
This point exactly. So with steamOS (and the right hardware) I can play Left 4 Dead 2 at a blazing 300 fps. Well, what happens when I just paid my rent and don't have the $50 to blow on Arkham Origins? Maybe I'll start looking at what I can get for free. That's when your normal (i.e. non linux nerd) folks will start to notice Tremulous or any of the other Id Tech derived games. They may even dig deeper and find some reborn classics like FreeDOOM. I doubt seriously that any of the free offerings will cause some uprising in gamers, but in the search of free through the SteamOS "software center", they'll be sure to stumble on all sorts of things they didn't realize had free/open alternatives. Maybe word will spread that LibreOffice will save that $90 for a student (read: Limited) version of Office or $400 for the full thing.
Gamers are a picky and often very vocal group. Once some catch on to something, they can start an avalanche.
To put simply, Windows runs a bunch of services and people have done the homework. Just look at windowsservices you can disable. These are all for Windows 7, but there aren't that much different than Vista or XP. The latter 2 have a Win 7 equivalent, but my 15 seconds of searching are up.
The reason Java is still alive and well is because it is the OO language most schools, universities and colleges teach in their CS classes.
Which is both a blessing and a curse. I went through my programming undergrad classes in the last round they offered C and C++. It worked out well because my employer needed those languages and for me to be able to learn others quickly, such as Java and C#. My experience with classes in C++ and lower level bit-bashing in C gave me the knowledge in being able to create custom libraries and handle oddly defined standard binary blobs, such as DTED data.
This same employer stopped looking at my school afterwards simply because Java was the dominant language. The graduates being churned out had knowledge of data structures and libraries, but knew very little of the ins and outs of binary data streams, binary blobs, memory management, and all those other things that you need in C and C++ that Java gives you for free.
Yes, it's good to have an approachable basis for such a complicated field as programming (computer science/software engineering/development/etc..). However, going from C/C++ to Java is a lot easier than the other way around. There's a reason my professor called Java a "Training Wheels Language"
False, sorta. What you are talking about is the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice), which is an overlay of sorts, but takes precedence over any civil cases.
To use your example, if they commit a robbery in Virginia Beach, the can/will be tried under the UCMJ first. Should the case not be heard under the UCMJ, then state or city can pick it up. Take a look at Article 122 for Robbery.
Kit it up a notch, such as armed robbery or murder, then they can and will be tried under the UCMJ. The punishment will be carried out under the UCMJ, and the state/city cannot touch it, this gets into that whole "cannot be tried for the same crime more than once" thing, Article 14 has the details. What's more is that any retired service member is still able to be tried under the UCMJ, they can be brought back to active service then tried in a military court (Article 2, sections 1, 4, 5)
This law basically makes it criminal to have two religions that have opposing beliefs.
False. It makes it illegal to make public statements about either that may offend the other. In reality, that can be a beautiful thing. As George Carlin once said "Though Shalt Keep They Religion To Thyself." What better way to do that than to cut off religious demonstrations at the knees, effectively forbidding them to happen in the first place, while still allowing peaceful assembly in a non-religious context?
I suspect (but do not know) that once we see the actual emails there's no way on earth anyone with an IQ above retarded would believe it was real. Have you ever seen one of these campaigns? Even imbeciles know they're fake.
I wouldn't be so sure of that. Do you remember this story?
Or how about this one?
I don't contest that Toyota's tactics are shady at best here, but like the old saying goes: "Make something idiot proof, and someone will build a better idiot"
When you're in prison, do you want to piss off the prison staff? Do you know what happens when you do that? Idiot.
Think of the flip side. You're in prison, do you really want the other inmates knowing you helped the enemy? I'd much rather the warden be upset with me than the whole prison yard. At least the warden can't have me killed with a sharpened toothbrush.
Ads are a time tested method of subsidizing the price of a game that you may otherwise have to pay BIG bucks for.
It's the same reason that newspapers are so damned cheap.
Time will tell if this applies. Some part of me thinks that subsidized advertisements in a game won't drop the price of the game. Instead they'll be making up "lost profits due to piracy". However, if there was a $20 ad-laden version of a game as opposed to a $60 ad-free version, we might see a change in purchasing behavior. I bet more people would drop the $20 to test out a game, even if it sucks it's not a big loss. Besides, we/.'ers know how to set up port blocking on our routers/systems. As long as they don't do some DRM-like phone-home on the same port, we'll be home free for cheap.
It's not a bad idea - but it can be really bad if done incorrectly.
I can see it now, a WoW loading screen: "This instance brought to you by McDonalds, why not fight Onyxia while chowing down on our new Quadruple Big-Mac? And how about you wash it down with one of our gallon cups of Mountain Dew, Game Fuel?"
Or we could have every flight master attach a different banner to their bat/gryphon. That way when people are flying around, the rest of us can see "Enjoy Coca-Cola" flying by in the distance.
Doom 3: "Let me pull out my Dell PDA and see if I can open this door"
Don't get me wrong, the idea you have for "real" coke cans coming out of vending machines is sound. Games are designed to create an alternate reality and break our illusion of our own. Games like GTA or even Max Payne can be done well, since they are set in a world not too different from our own (if you think hooker killing is normal, that is). Games like WoW, Doom3, Unreal Tournament, etc... are just different enough that if I see an "Intel Inside" logo on my plasma rifle or level 250 "Electro-Mace of the Allmighty", I'm likely to just go back to the good ol' days of gaming, without ads.
Judging from the pain of patch days and server down times due to crashes (post-maintenance errors and restarts), I'd say that the "Online" part has some trouble as well.
For a solid prior art that's an IEEE standard, look no further than DIS. Used for distributed wargaming since 1993. While it doesn't need a client-server connection per se, there generally is one or more "servers" to keep timing consistent between all the players.
There will always be those people that have very specific needs (3ds Max, Maya, Photoshop), but for a majority of the number-crunching, presentation making masses, Linux would be perfectly fine. It comes down to the best tool for the job, and MS has spent billions of dollars to get the message out that they provide those tools. Either people are too lazy to look for alternatives, or too intimidated by something that doesn't have the happy Windows logo in the corner.
Perhaps if the FSF went on a campaign saying "Windows has this, Linux has that... and it's free" campaign, they could get somewhere. They still aren't likely to win over those people that have specific needs, such as Point of Sale software, 3rd party development tools, or medical applications, but they can at least raise awareness of a cheaper alternative. Now if only we could get OEM's to take the OS out of the purchase price of a new computer and treat it as an accessory...
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I think "garbage hacker" would be appropriate if, instead of taking it to the dump, you did something interesting with it... Like a large-scale model of Ballmer, for some zozobra-like action. You know, to commemorate his years of (dis)service to Microsoft.
My first thought was "How did he get so much information about Kentucky?" But then I realized that's only a fraction of the numbers he has.
I would argue that a reasonable and intelligent (i.e. not a cheapass) would purchase the game, then be incredibly vocal about any issues they have with the game and start getting more voices heard. Start forum posts, give Amazon reviews, give metacritic reviews, something that people can rally togethor and get the discontent shown to the manufacturer. Maybe then they'll realize that Steam, while still DRM, doesn't hinder the user. Or that, because it costs next to nothing to copy bits (as opposed to CD's), they could sell digital versions for less and make money by quantity. Hell, look at Humble Bundle, many folks pay $5 for the 5-6 games, others pay $10k for them, and send the money off to charity.
I thought this was news for nerds dammit?!?!
I thought this was nudes for nerds.
Imagine my disappointment.
It is, here's one example, without covers
The suggestion that Nintendo should release on iOS and Android would be suicide. ... The Wii's success was mostly a fluke caused by MS and Sony raising prices too much, and a couple of gimmicks that were worth some attention by some: motion controls, and wii fit.
I agree that releasing outside the Nintendo-sphere would be suicide. Apple's lock-in to high-priced hardware for all their stuff is why they are able to throw in high margins ($600 for a phone that costs $150 in parts) and make money hand over fist.
I disagree that the Wii's success is a fluke. Lets just look at the first party titles:
According to Wikipedia's entry on the Wii the console has sold over 100.04 consoles worldwide as of June 30, 2013. I'd hardly call that a fluke. Also note that the games referenced above don't necessarily make use of the "gimmicky" wii-mote (though Zelda does).
If these idiot mayors want to encourage bicycling, they need to build real bike roads, like they have in Copenhagen, where the bikes are the only thing on the road, not cars, and not pedestrians either. That's the only way to do it.
It takes more than this, it takes some sort of culture change as well. Seattle is an incredibly pedestrian friendly city, drivers will slam on their brakes to let you cross the road. Santa Fe is the complete opposite, the drivers would rather flatten you and get where they're going then even think about touching the brake. You can put all the bike paths/trails/roads you want, and as soon as you get pedestrians/kids/pets out there, the die-hard cyclists will be right back next to the cars.
Where I grew up there were bike trails everywhere, and yet most cyclists steered clear for the fear that there be one pedestrian in a 2-mile stretch of the 8-foot wide paved trail. Instead they don't even bother riding on the shoulder (which is a good 8-10 feet too), they ride right on the white line... in a 50mph road. On a side note, the funniest thing I ever saw was a cyclist get pulled over for going through a red light... The best part was he would have been in the clear had he been on the bike trail, 2 feet to his right.
I'd rather have banner ads than have 3 or 4 ads at the top that are almost indistinguishable from the search results.
I'd rather have banner ads than 3-4 indistinguishable ads, that aren't targeted to me just because I happen to be signed in or from a "familiar IP address". I'm okay with a search for Southwest Airlines and getting a Southwest ad. When I do the same search and start getting music/movie recommendations, bring out the AdBlock.
I honestly don't know what the big push for 4k displays really is. It all breaks down to the 'resolution' of your eye and the resolution of the screen. The human eye works based off of arcseconds for your vision. There are a few good charts out there that have the breakdown in a person with 20/20 vision's ability to distinguish between pixels on a display. I have a 60" 1080p tv and my couch is approximately 11 feet away. Assuming my vision was 20/20 (it isn't), in order for me to distinguish between pixels on a 4k display, the display would have to be over 120 inches corner-to-corner. Conversely, in order to distinguish the pixels on my 60" 1080p display requires me to sit closer than 4 feet to it. At that point, I'm moving my head to see everything, instead of just eyes going back and forth. HD was developed for you to sit about 3 x display height away from the screen. 4k allows you to sit closer before seeing the pixels, but do you really want to? Do you plan on sitting 3 feet away from your 60" display?
There's more discussion here.
What's the appeal of spending massive amounts of money on something that isn't visually distinguishable from something less than half the price?
The feature that comes to mind that some companies have been hammering at for years is raytracing. I remember a project that intel was doing some years ago with the Return to Castle Wolfenstein source (way back when) to make the engine completely ray traced. I also remember it took a good $10k+ computer to render in less than real time (numbers escape me, and the site appears to be down now). While it did create some pretty unbelievable graphics for the time with true reflections on solid surfaces such as glass and metal, it was completely unapproachable for consumers due to cost, and unusable for gamers because it wasn't real-time yet. Intel does seem to be continuing the work though.
There will always be folks using the cards for password cracking and other "simple" massively parallel tasks. My vote goes for increasing the speed that they can generate more realistic imagery. Then that same 100k (guesstimating) render farm over at Pixar or Dreamworks will give us movies that further blur the line between real and fantasy.
I'm going to quote a bumpersticker that I think is fitting here: "I'll beleive corporations are people when Texas executes one"
It will only lure people into using non-free programs distributed through Steam.
It will also allow you to run free programs.
This point exactly. So with steamOS (and the right hardware) I can play Left 4 Dead 2 at a blazing 300 fps. Well, what happens when I just paid my rent and don't have the $50 to blow on Arkham Origins? Maybe I'll start looking at what I can get for free. That's when your normal (i.e. non linux nerd) folks will start to notice Tremulous or any of the other Id Tech derived games. They may even dig deeper and find some reborn classics like FreeDOOM. I doubt seriously that any of the free offerings will cause some uprising in gamers, but in the search of free through the SteamOS "software center", they'll be sure to stumble on all sorts of things they didn't realize had free/open alternatives. Maybe word will spread that LibreOffice will save that $90 for a student (read: Limited) version of Office or $400 for the full thing.
Gamers are a picky and often very vocal group. Once some catch on to something, they can start an avalanche.
To put simply, Windows runs a bunch of services and people have done the homework. Just look at windows services you can disable. These are all for Windows 7, but there aren't that much different than Vista or XP. The latter 2 have a Win 7 equivalent, but my 15 seconds of searching are up.
The reason Java is still alive and well is because it is the OO language most schools, universities and colleges teach in their CS classes.
Which is both a blessing and a curse. I went through my programming undergrad classes in the last round they offered C and C++. It worked out well because my employer needed those languages and for me to be able to learn others quickly, such as Java and C#. My experience with classes in C++ and lower level bit-bashing in C gave me the knowledge in being able to create custom libraries and handle oddly defined standard binary blobs, such as DTED data.
This same employer stopped looking at my school afterwards simply because Java was the dominant language. The graduates being churned out had knowledge of data structures and libraries, but knew very little of the ins and outs of binary data streams, binary blobs, memory management, and all those other things that you need in C and C++ that Java gives you for free.
Yes, it's good to have an approachable basis for such a complicated field as programming (computer science/software engineering/development/etc..). However, going from C/C++ to Java is a lot easier than the other way around. There's a reason my professor called Java a "Training Wheels Language"
I've maintained it's not good Mexican food unless it burns twice...
False, sorta. What you are talking about is the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice), which is an overlay of sorts, but takes precedence over any civil cases.
To use your example, if they commit a robbery in Virginia Beach, the can/will be tried under the UCMJ first. Should the case not be heard under the UCMJ, then state or city can pick it up. Take a look at Article 122 for Robbery.
Kit it up a notch, such as armed robbery or murder, then they can and will be tried under the UCMJ. The punishment will be carried out under the UCMJ, and the state/city cannot touch it, this gets into that whole "cannot be tried for the same crime more than once" thing, Article 14 has the details. What's more is that any retired service member is still able to be tried under the UCMJ, they can be brought back to active service then tried in a military court (Article 2, sections 1, 4, 5)
This law basically makes it criminal to have two religions that have opposing beliefs.
False. It makes it illegal to make public statements about either that may offend the other. In reality, that can be a beautiful thing. As George Carlin once said "Though Shalt Keep They Religion To Thyself." What better way to do that than to cut off religious demonstrations at the knees, effectively forbidding them to happen in the first place, while still allowing peaceful assembly in a non-religious context?
I suspect (but do not know) that once we see the actual emails there's no way on earth anyone with an IQ above retarded would believe it was real. Have you ever seen one of these campaigns? Even imbeciles know they're fake.
I wouldn't be so sure of that. Do you remember this story?
Or how about this one?
I don't contest that Toyota's tactics are shady at best here, but like the old saying goes: "Make something idiot proof, and someone will build a better idiot"
When you're in prison, do you want to piss off the prison staff? Do you know what happens when you do that? Idiot.
Think of the flip side. You're in prison, do you really want the other inmates knowing you helped the enemy? I'd much rather the warden be upset with me than the whole prison yard. At least the warden can't have me killed with a sharpened toothbrush.
Ads are a time tested method of subsidizing the price of a game that you may otherwise have to pay BIG bucks for.
It's the same reason that newspapers are so damned cheap.
Time will tell if this applies. Some part of me thinks that subsidized advertisements in a game won't drop the price of the game. Instead they'll be making up "lost profits due to piracy". However, if there was a $20 ad-laden version of a game as opposed to a $60 ad-free version, we might see a change in purchasing behavior. I bet more people would drop the $20 to test out a game, even if it sucks it's not a big loss. Besides, we /.'ers know how to set up port blocking on our routers/systems. As long as they don't do some DRM-like phone-home on the same port, we'll be home free for cheap.
It's not a bad idea - but it can be really bad if done incorrectly.
Don't get me wrong, the idea you have for "real" coke cans coming out of vending machines is sound. Games are designed to create an alternate reality and break our illusion of our own. Games like GTA or even Max Payne can be done well, since they are set in a world not too different from our own (if you think hooker killing is normal, that is). Games like WoW, Doom3, Unreal Tournament, etc... are just different enough that if I see an "Intel Inside" logo on my plasma rifle or level 250 "Electro-Mace of the Allmighty", I'm likely to just go back to the good ol' days of gaming, without ads.
Somewhere in here is a Microsoft Sewage Treatment Plant joke... i just know it...
Judging from the pain of patch days and server down times due to crashes (post-maintenance errors and restarts), I'd say that the "Online" part has some trouble as well.
For a solid prior art that's an IEEE standard, look no further than DIS. Used for distributed wargaming since 1993. While it doesn't need a client-server connection per se, there generally is one or more "servers" to keep timing consistent between all the players.
There will always be those people that have very specific needs (3ds Max, Maya, Photoshop), but for a majority of the number-crunching, presentation making masses, Linux would be perfectly fine. It comes down to the best tool for the job, and MS has spent billions of dollars to get the message out that they provide those tools. Either people are too lazy to look for alternatives, or too intimidated by something that doesn't have the happy Windows logo in the corner.
Perhaps if the FSF went on a campaign saying "Windows has this, Linux has that... and it's free" campaign, they could get somewhere. They still aren't likely to win over those people that have specific needs, such as Point of Sale software, 3rd party development tools, or medical applications, but they can at least raise awareness of a cheaper alternative. Now if only we could get OEM's to take the OS out of the purchase price of a new computer and treat it as an accessory...
Maybe they'll find a genetic predisposition of attraction to LCD screens and avoidance of sunlight.