Adobe wins because, as mentioned before, they save on development costs and don't lose much in sales anyway.
China wins because if they do want to use Adobe products (pirated or otherwise) they have to use the English version, and anything that reinforces the de facto standard of English in the IT world is a good thing. You'll understand if you ever have to deal with a mixed-language environment of Simplified Chinese (PRC), Traditional Chinese (Taiwan/HK) and English versions of software, none of which really "play nice" with each other.
Plus, it's especially hard to port technical documents to Chinese, which isn't an alphabet- or syllable-based language. So, to translate something technical, they have to either use homophones (Chinese characters that sound like their English equivalents, but mean something completely different), or string together two or more characters to create a very loose, easily misinterpreted translation.
Hey, working in China, I hope more companies follow Adobe's example... =)
Folks, for some of these projects, ten thousands for OS licenses is NOT a factor.
True.
Having a custom-written support contract, with phone numbers you can call at four o'clock in the morning that WILL be answered by YOUR technical account manager, who's ONLY PURPOSE IN LIFE is to keep you happy with his parent company, however, IS a factor.
Uh, no. Now, if only that were true...folks, these people are just like you and me. At the end of the day, it's just a job, not the reason to go on living.
Any problem which you can't solve from looking at the knowledge base, the company rep sure as hell isn't going to be able to figure out over the phone at four in the morning. It might make you feel better if you can scream at the poor guy for a bit, but I don't think that was worth the money paid for "platinum" support.
Sure, some free servers will allow everyone to run rampant; on the other hand, I'd prefer a dedicated GM who _chooses_ who's allowed to play on his server, over the apathetic Verant GM being paid $8 a hour.
At its core, Shadowrun isn't about the megacorps, and being discarded, downsized or re-engineered as a result of "flexible" management philosophies and ever-shifting marketing goals; it's about guns, more guns, hand razors, explosives, and all the other goodies that make for violent conflict.
Katz does fine when he uses Shadowrun's backstory as a "prophecy" of the future, but comparing the amoral, armed-to-the teeth Shadowrunner to today's mildly rebellious, dissatisfied corporate peon is quite a stretch.
It was almost an experiment, to see if it was theoretically possible: Can you make a Unix systems administrator into a fictional character who people will find compelling?
I enjoyed Cryptonomicon in spite of Randy Waterhouse, not because of him. Randy's grandfather, Lawrence, is a compelling character. Bobby Shaftoe, Gunter Bischoff, et al are compelling characters.
Randy, on the other hand, is a bland little fellow who could be redeemed only through death or excruciatingly painful torture. The Jar Jar Binks of Cryptonomicon...
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Adobe wins because, as mentioned before, they save on development costs and don't lose much in sales anyway.
China wins because if they do want to use Adobe products (pirated or otherwise) they have to use the English version, and anything that reinforces the de facto standard of English in the IT world is a good thing. You'll understand if you ever have to deal with a mixed-language environment of Simplified Chinese (PRC), Traditional Chinese (Taiwan/HK) and English versions of software, none of which really "play nice" with each other.
Plus, it's especially hard to port technical documents to Chinese, which isn't an alphabet- or syllable-based language. So, to translate something technical, they have to either use homophones (Chinese characters that sound like their English equivalents, but mean something completely different), or string together two or more characters to create a very loose, easily misinterpreted translation.
Hey, working in China, I hope more companies follow Adobe's example... =)
True.
Uh, no. Now, if only that were true...folks, these people are just like you and me. At the end of the day, it's just a job, not the reason to go on living.
Any problem which you can't solve from looking at the knowledge base, the company rep sure as hell isn't going to be able to figure out over the phone at four in the morning. It might make you feel better if you can scream at the poor guy for a bit, but I don't think that was worth the money paid for "platinum" support.
Sure, some free servers will allow everyone to run rampant; on the other hand, I'd prefer a dedicated GM who _chooses_ who's allowed to play on his server, over the apathetic Verant GM being paid $8 a hour.
Sometimes the best things in life are free...
At its core, Shadowrun isn't about the megacorps, and being discarded, downsized or re-engineered as a result of "flexible" management philosophies and ever-shifting marketing goals; it's about guns, more guns, hand razors, explosives, and all the other goodies that make for violent conflict.
Katz does fine when he uses Shadowrun's backstory as a "prophecy" of the future, but comparing the amoral, armed-to-the teeth Shadowrunner to today's mildly rebellious, dissatisfied corporate peon is quite a stretch.
It was almost an experiment, to see if it was theoretically possible: Can you make a Unix systems administrator into a fictional character who people will find compelling?
I enjoyed Cryptonomicon in spite of Randy Waterhouse, not because of him. Randy's grandfather, Lawrence, is a compelling character. Bobby Shaftoe, Gunter Bischoff, et al are compelling characters.
Randy, on the other hand, is a bland little fellow who could be redeemed only through death or excruciatingly painful torture. The Jar Jar Binks of Cryptonomicon...
From hiwaay.net's Web Server FAQ:
/. effect might speed up the process ;)
When will HiWAAY move to a new web server for individual accounts?
We just don't know exactly. It is not needed right now and is not expected to be needed for a long time... MONTHS!
The