As an audiophile and someone who sells equipment and music to audiophiles, I can vouch that this is EXACTLY what they want.
You just defined the product in a way that will guarantee that it isn't a mass market winner. No niche product marketed to a select few with arguably better ears and money to burn will ever gain the "couch throne" (or whatever equally ridiculous faux title the article used).
I've used both FogBugz and CityDesk professionally. They're both well written applications that fulfill a need and do their jobs well.
That you and your close circle of friends/co-workers haven't heard of the software doesn't really mean anything. It could be that none of you have needed a professional bug tracking sytem or a content management system. Or, it could be that none of you have researched such systems.
FogBugz, as I understand it, has sold extremely well and has gone through four releases. CityDesk has done well enough to warrant a 2.0 release.
They also have Copilot coming out later this summer. It's an interesting product and project. The entire application is being written by summer interns in one summer.
Joel's whole ethos is essentially, "Find a need, design a solution, and hire the best people you can to create the end product." It must be working for him as he own his own business, makes enough money to hire good talent, has a nice office setup in NYC, and is well known enough to talk at conferences, publish books, and influence the industry.
I find it interesting, and short sighted, that you feel the need to put his achievements in some sort of "long-forgotten historical" context, though. If we're only supposed to judge the credibility of people by their past achievements then how would anyone ever be able to make a name for themselves?
Sveasoft invests time and effort into extending the Linksys firmware. They charge a minor amount for a year of access to their beta work. Their finished work is freely available.
TheInduhvidual takes their protected beta work, hacks out the protection, and gives it away. Now who exactly is the criminal in this scenario?
No, in this instance that has no relevance whatsoever. Her grandson is fourteen. She bought either an M (17+) or AO (18+) game. Either way he was below the minimum recommended age.
She can't possibly argue that a 17+ game was acceptable to a 14 year old but the same game rated 18+ wasn't. The games industry warned her. She ignored the warning. She's at fault.
I wrote about this on my blog yesterday. Here are the important bits
She's suing not only for herself, but for "everyone else who purchased the game." Since I purchased it I am someone she thinks she is protecting. So let me talk to Ms. Florence Cohen of NY directly for a second...
Hey, Flo, I don't need your protection. I can read the labels on the box just fine by myself.
Yes, GTA:SA is a mature game. That's why it was sold with an ESRB rating of "M" (now "AO" for adults only). "M" games are sales limited to people who are seventeen years of age or older. Rockstar, Take Two, the reseller, and the clerk at the store did nothing wrong by selling Ms. Cohen GTA:SA. That is, unless she is only sixteen yet has managed to have two generations of Cohens come after her. Her mistake was her own. She gave an "M" title to a person under the age of seventeen. If the government wants laws to punish clerks who sell titles to people outside of the posted age ranges shouldn't there also be punishments for people who traffic these games to children? She, either intentionally or not, was corrupting her grandson by giving him a game that the game industry reviewed, rated, and clearly labeled as not suitable for him.
Outside of Ms. Cohen no one is at fault here. The voluntary rating worked, the box was clearly labeled with the restriction, and the store didn't sell the game to anyone under the proper age.
I'll close by suggesting a new title for the article, "Ignorant Grandmother who bought 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' without reading the label is suing the manufacturer instead of taking responsibility for her mistake".
However, for my local LUG's webpage, I can just tell IE users to switch browsers or go fuck themselves.
I've never understood why people join user groups if they aren't willing to be helpful to new users.
If I was a Windows user interested in Linux, went to your site, encounterd a problem, asked for help, and was told to go **** myself I'd never bother with Linux or the LUG again. You're not doing anyone any favors with your apparent attitude.
100% agree. My thoughts on the game are identical to yours.
I also hated how you needed to pull your population from level to level but there was no ability to move large numbers of people into the vortex at once. I amassed a *huge* population on Level 3. At the end of the level I was expected to eiter drag hundreds of people to the vortex one at a time or start Level 4 with a small population.
I chose the third option, I uninstalled the game and never looked back.
I agree with you. I think the idea of having everyone try to install every program they can get their hands on is misguided in the extreme. At the end of that endeavor all they will have accomplished is ensuring WINE is compatible with a handful of installer utilities.
They've concentrated on Office and gotten that running. I would think a better next step would be to focus on another class of applications and get all of the programs in that set working. Like, for instance, get all Windows personal finance software working, then move on to graphic apps, or sound apps, etc... To me that would be a more logical progression than the shotgun approach they want to take.
Right, ok. I understand that reference. But 0.42 != 42. Either the developers are missing 41.58 of something or they're saying that the program is 1/100th of what it should be.
Wow, thanks for your civil answer. It should have been extremely clear to me that he meant developers when he used phrases like, "community of people who try Wine", and "the experience when you go to run an application is 'Oh hey! It installs.'"
How dumb of me not to interpret those phrase as "community of developers" and "the experience when developers to to try an application is 'Oh hey, I have some work to do."
If it wasn't for you, your gutter language, bad attitude, and your omniscient understanding of the sublimininal messages buried deep inside of that article where would I be?
We're not making promises yet around your app working, okay? Let me be clear, it's not as wonderful a thing as it sounds. But this is sort of step one, once we get everything to install, then hopefully the community of people who try Wine or try CrossOver will grow dramatically because suddenly the experience when you go to run an application is "Oh hey! It installs." You can get in the game at least.
I don't think that having a bunch of people try their favorite app in WINE only to have it install but not run will do much to grow the WINE community. What does he expect these people to do, wait around patiently, every few months running the installer again, and thinking, "Gee, that's cool, it installs. This WINE thing is awesome!"?
I would think that if someone tries their app in wine just to have install but then crash they'll just go back to running it on Windows and not give WINE a second (or third) thought.
If personal and professional finances are off-limits, how else can politicians determine whether a complex statistical report has been "paid for" by an interested party?
There is no "if" about it. There is no need for a congressman to have the personal financial data of these people. There is no investigation of a crime and there is no court order. It's a 4th amendment violation.
Benchmark results would be quantitative not qualatative, which is the word I used. Benchmark programs supply a numeric result, a quantity, that can be compared empirically.
I was refering to my own subjective views on the quality of my machine with different OSs on them. I might have done benchmarks on the machine with different OSs installed. If I did I don't have that quantitative data at hand. Hence, a qualitative analysis of how they felt.
Using the proper English words to describe something is not the same as using "weasel words".
I upgraded for application requirements. 3ds Max (v3 or 4) required NT because it used the NT memory allocation system (which was different from 9x). I upgraded to XP because Premiere Pro utilized aspects of XP and wouldn't run on anything earlier.
I don't just upgrade because a new shiny OS comes out. I will upgrade if a compeling update to my toolset requires it, though.
I think 32MBs of memory was the bare minimum supported for Win98.
Running an OS on a machine well below the manufacturer's specs and then complaining that it is running slow compared to an OS that fits the machine's hardware loadout isn't a valid performance analysis. To answer your question, yes I did run 98 and XP on the same machine. It was a 1.4GHz Athon with 768 MBs of memory. On that machine there was no qualitative speed difference between the OSs on the applications (content creation) that I normally use.
What performance hit from Win98 -> XP were you expecting? Could you post the quantitative speed analysis numbers, please?
I find it odd that an IT department would willingly purchase a "sizable chunk" of OS licenses for an OS that hasn't been available for license as a retail product for 15.5 months.(http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/default.mspx)
While it's only been 3.5 months since system builders could license it it is still, by Microsoft's documentation, an unlicensable product at this point in time.
Having used 98, NT4.x, 2K, and XP at work (digital content creation) and at home since about '97 I can say that I've not noticed any appreciable performance hit in XP compared to the previous versions. Certainly not enough to warrant buying a product that lost mainstream support six weeks ago. (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;%5Bln%5D;LifeWin)
While there will be some CGI, the Doom monsters like the Baron, the Imp and the Pinky Demon will mostly be real monsters created by the Stan Winston Studios
I had no idea that Stan Winston had gotten into genetic engineering and Frankensteinian experimentation.
For one, you have no idea what you are talking about.
Hot Coffee for the PC is a 41KB executable file that changes a bit flag in a save game file. it doesn't touch the installation folder or any data installed off of the CD. The sex scenes/mini-games are in the product but turned off by a boolean flag.
There is no way a 41KB executable that only touches a save game file integrates any code, data, animation, art, or sound into the game.
It should be noted this story came at almost the same time as Sony announced they dropped the PS3's router functionality.
It should also be noted that there is no connection whatsoever between the the statements/actions of either company and there is no point in the above sentence being in the article summary.
Besides, the Nintendo USB2.0 WiFi device is a bridge, not a router.
Slashdot Mirror
Works fine on my dual monitor setup. Launches on the left screen and runs smoothly.
You just defined the product in a way that will guarantee that it isn't a mass market winner. No niche product marketed to a select few with arguably better ears and money to burn will ever gain the "couch throne" (or whatever equally ridiculous faux title the article used).
Why would I be more interested in that than, say, a $99 Tivo that can stream MP3s, has an accessible UI, and can also record video.
That you and your close circle of friends/co-workers haven't heard of the software doesn't really mean anything. It could be that none of you have needed a professional bug tracking sytem or a content management system. Or, it could be that none of you have researched such systems.
FogBugz, as I understand it, has sold extremely well and has gone through four releases. CityDesk has done well enough to warrant a 2.0 release.
They also have Copilot coming out later this summer. It's an interesting product and project. The entire application is being written by summer interns in one summer.
Joel's whole ethos is essentially, "Find a need, design a solution, and hire the best people you can to create the end product." It must be working for him as he own his own business, makes enough money to hire good talent, has a nice office setup in NYC, and is well known enough to talk at conferences, publish books, and influence the industry.
I find it interesting, and short sighted, that you feel the need to put his achievements in some sort of "long-forgotten historical" context, though. If we're only supposed to judge the credibility of people by their past achievements then how would anyone ever be able to make a name for themselves?
What story? He found the author(s), contacted them, and asked permission. Not really a page turner, that.
TheInduhvidual takes their protected beta work, hacks out the protection, and gives it away. Now who exactly is the criminal in this scenario?
She can't possibly argue that a 17+ game was acceptable to a 14 year old but the same game rated 18+ wasn't. The games industry warned her. She ignored the warning. She's at fault.
She's suing not only for herself, but for "everyone else who purchased the game." Since I purchased it I am someone she thinks she is protecting. So let me talk to Ms. Florence Cohen of NY directly for a second...
Hey, Flo, I don't need your protection. I can read the labels on the box just fine by myself.
Yes, GTA:SA is a mature game. That's why it was sold with an ESRB rating of "M" (now "AO" for adults only). "M" games are sales limited to people who are seventeen years of age or older. Rockstar, Take Two, the reseller, and the clerk at the store did nothing wrong by selling Ms. Cohen GTA:SA. That is, unless she is only sixteen yet has managed to have two generations of Cohens come after her. Her mistake was her own. She gave an "M" title to a person under the age of seventeen. If the government wants laws to punish clerks who sell titles to people outside of the posted age ranges shouldn't there also be punishments for people who traffic these games to children? She, either intentionally or not, was corrupting her grandson by giving him a game that the game industry reviewed, rated, and clearly labeled as not suitable for him.
Outside of Ms. Cohen no one is at fault here. The voluntary rating worked, the box was clearly labeled with the restriction, and the store didn't sell the game to anyone under the proper age.
I'll close by suggesting a new title for the article, "Ignorant Grandmother who bought 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' without reading the label is suing the manufacturer instead of taking responsibility for her mistake".
I've never understood why people join user groups if they aren't willing to be helpful to new users.
If I was a Windows user interested in Linux, went to your site, encounterd a problem, asked for help, and was told to go **** myself I'd never bother with Linux or the LUG again. You're not doing anyone any favors with your apparent attitude.
I also hated how you needed to pull your population from level to level but there was no ability to move large numbers of people into the vortex at once. I amassed a *huge* population on Level 3. At the end of the level I was expected to eiter drag hundreds of people to the vortex one at a time or start Level 4 with a small population.
I chose the third option, I uninstalled the game and never looked back.
They've concentrated on Office and gotten that running. I would think a better next step would be to focus on another class of applications and get all of the programs in that set working. Like, for instance, get all Windows personal finance software working, then move on to graphic apps, or sound apps, etc... To me that would be a more logical progression than the shotgun approach they want to take.
Right, ok. I understand that reference. But 0.42 != 42. Either the developers are missing 41.58 of something or they're saying that the program is 1/100th of what it should be.
If it wasn't for you, your gutter language, bad attitude, and your omniscient understanding of the sublimininal messages buried deep inside of that article where would I be?
Is there some unexplained significance to the number 0.42 in reference to this program?
I don't think that having a bunch of people try their favorite app in WINE only to have it install but not run will do much to grow the WINE community. What does he expect these people to do, wait around patiently, every few months running the installer again, and thinking, "Gee, that's cool, it installs. This WINE thing is awesome!"?
I would think that if someone tries their app in wine just to have install but then crash they'll just go back to running it on Windows and not give WINE a second (or third) thought.
There is no "if" about it. There is no need for a congressman to have the personal financial data of these people. There is no investigation of a crime and there is no court order. It's a 4th amendment violation.
I was refering to my own subjective views on the quality of my machine with different OSs on them. I might have done benchmarks on the machine with different OSs installed. If I did I don't have that quantitative data at hand. Hence, a qualitative analysis of how they felt.
Using the proper English words to describe something is not the same as using "weasel words".
To which word or phrase are you refering? Linking to an old Slashdot article that is itself full of links doesn't convey any useful information.
I don't just upgrade because a new shiny OS comes out. I will upgrade if a compeling update to my toolset requires it, though.
I think 32MBs of memory was the bare minimum supported for Win98.
Running an OS on a machine well below the manufacturer's specs and then complaining that it is running slow compared to an OS that fits the machine's hardware loadout isn't a valid performance analysis. To answer your question, yes I did run 98 and XP on the same machine. It was a 1.4GHz Athon with 768 MBs of memory. On that machine there was no qualitative speed difference between the OSs on the applications (content creation) that I normally use.
I find it odd that an IT department would willingly purchase a "sizable chunk" of OS licenses for an OS that hasn't been available for license as a retail product for 15.5 months.(http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle /default.mspx)
While it's only been 3.5 months since system builders could license it it is still, by Microsoft's documentation, an unlicensable product at this point in time.
Having used 98, NT4.x, 2K, and XP at work (digital content creation) and at home since about '97 I can say that I've not noticed any appreciable performance hit in XP compared to the previous versions. Certainly not enough to warrant buying a product that lost mainstream support six weeks ago. (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh ;%5Bln%5D;LifeWin)
I had no idea that Stan Winston had gotten into genetic engineering and Frankensteinian experimentation.
For one, you have no idea what you are talking about. Hot Coffee for the PC is a 41KB executable file that changes a bit flag in a save game file. it doesn't touch the installation folder or any data installed off of the CD. The sex scenes/mini-games are in the product but turned off by a boolean flag.
There is no way a 41KB executable that only touches a save game file integrates any code, data, animation, art, or sound into the game.
Rockstar blatantly lied.
Oh, wait, you said he was a "LUGger...
It should also be noted that there is no connection whatsoever between the the statements/actions of either company and there is no point in the above sentence being in the article summary.
Besides, the Nintendo USB2.0 WiFi device is a bridge, not a router.