Sorry to reply to self, but as for the "No guts, no glory" comment, one could say I didn't have guts because I didn't quit a job I was unhappy in until I had at least something lined up...which may be true. I didn't have *that* much guts.
However, it is still gutsy (if i may say so myself) because: I am married, have three children (fourth is due any day now), one of which has a genetic disorder, and my wife stays at home...working her tail off but earning no income.
My situation is a recipe for disaster. If I fail, we're fucked. My son could end up w/o insurance never to be covered again because once he loses insurance, no insurance company will pick him back up. Is it risky? Tremendously so. Is it worth it? The jury's still out on that one...but it's going well so far.
As I've said to my children, "If you're going to gamble on anything in life, gamble on yourself. It's the only thing you've got any control over."
I quit my full-time position in September for many reasons I won't go into...and one reason I will: I've always wanted to work for myself.
Back in August, a former employer approached me about some contract work. We negotiated a minimum six month contract. I would be out of here end of March. We just extended the work to cover additional projects and it is now open-ended. I am implementing enterprise software/systems for them in a more economical way than they could get from purchased packages that would then need customized anyway.
After quitting, my previous employer has become my second customer. I still do contract work for them on an hourly basis. I have the advantage of now being paid for exactly the hours I work (no 60-80 hour work weeks being paid for 40), having complete autonomy, only having one "boss" to answer to there, and having the right to refuse work if it does not appeal to me.
Additionally, another former employer contacted me in December and since January, they've become my third customer. I jut recently told each of these companies that I would need to raise my rates because I'm simply not charging them enough to cover my burn rate (w/ taxes, insurance, etc. figured in). Not only did they understand, they didn't blink, and they told me they were very happy with the work I've done and can't wait to implement future projects.
I have translated Mr. Foley's comments into PlainSpeak(TM), if anyone is interested:
Like most things that are spread by rumor, the facts about me, UltraCade Technologies, and the M.A.M.E. emulation system are quite distorted.
STFU, morons.
I will try and educate anyone who cares to listen about the reality of our marketplace and what we are doing and what we are not.
I will now spin this story to put me in the most positive light without discussing what I'm really doing or why.
Simply put, we are making an effort to stamp out the commercial sales of M.A.M.E. based systems that advertise the ability to play thousands of games while relying on the customer to obtain the ROMs which can not legally be obtained.
We are trying to compete in the court room since we aren't doing so hot lately in the open market. And what do you expect? Our competitors are mean...and fat...and crooks. It's not fair!
What we are not doing is trying to claim ownership of the M.A.M.E. open source emulator or sue its authors.
These are not the droids you are looking for. Move along.
We are concerned about the commercial marketplace, and not the readers of the many M.A.M.E. user groups and forums.
We only care about how much money we can make. We couldn't care less about you bunch of losers sitting in your mothers' basements typing on your blogs and chatting with other adolescent dipshits.
I have been working on emulation technology since the mid 80's when I did work on an emulation project in college. In 1994, while working on games for companies like Sega and Williams, we developed an emulation of the arcade games Joust, Defender and Robotron that ran on a Sega Genesis. In 1996, we started the Lucky 8 project which turned into the UltraCade project. In 1998 we were one of the first companies to acquire the rights to classic arcade games from various publishers.
I am awesome.
We have licensed games from several manufacturers including Capcom, Jaleco, Taito, Stern, Incredible Technologies, Midway, Atari and more.
We can sell you a bunch of cool games! Sale ends soon! Buy today!
We have started several projects and built prototypes for companies like Sega, based on technology that was licensed from authors from the emulation community. We have licensed technology from many of the communities programmers, paying them to use their code in our products and demonstrations. We have been the leader of the retro arcade movement, and have invested millions of dollars creating a market for retro games. UltraCade was the first successful multi-game arcade machine combining many of the old classics. We further enhanced the market by creating Arcade Legends, our consumer version of the UltraCade product.
Did I mention I was awesome? Well, I am.
We have also paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees to have the right to sell our games.
Even though I'm awesome, I'm also a bit of a sucker.
In the past couple of years, there has been a huge wave of resellers competing with our UltraCade and Arcade Legends products. They build a similar style cabinet, install a PC in the machine, load M.A.M.E., and sell it for a very low price. Lower than we could ever offer our machines for sale. How? Quite Simple. They profit by stealing others work.
No Fair! Other people didn't play by our rules and now we can't make as much money! It's not fair, I tell you! They're STEALING! (Well, not really stealing...more like...infringing copyrights...but, that just doesn't have that same ring to it.)
If you look at the web sites, and read the eBay ads they offer machines that "Play o
When anything is installed that hit the list, pop up a big "POTENTIAL SPYWARE - ARE YOU SURE?" box.
This is not the proper tactic. This would actually make things worse. The problem is, this would pop up so many times that it would effectively numb them to the warnings and they'd either (a) turn the crap off so it would stop bugging them and just let them do what they're trying to do OR (b) just start answering "YES" to all of those to get it to stop buggin them and just let them do what they're trying to do.
The main point is, people just want to do what they're trying to do. Recurring popup dialog boxes are a horrible solution.
I know people who hate and in fact refuse to use products like Zone Alarm because of the time it takes to get it set right on what to allow and what not to.
And isn't this part of the problem anyway? How many people just answer "YES" to the "Run this ActiveX Component?" questions and click the "Always trust..." option just to get the damn thing to STFU?
Believe me, more dialog boxes won't solve a thing.
Actually, it is. I know, you think it's insane. To each his own.
Until recently, I worked in a medical billing office. Their legacy app was written in Clipper in the 80's. As of last year, they were still using it. I don't know about now. The office was still an old Novell server and DOS 6.22 clients.
Many corporate environments believe you don't fix something that isn't broken. This system worked for them. When I first started working there (several years ago) I was tasked with giving these people (still running 486 PCs in the year 2004) access to e-mail from the same DOS systems they accessed their medical billing applications.
Now, guess which product worked under DOS 6.22 with packet drivers for TCP/IP and supported IMAP to access our corporate e-mail system. If you guessed PC-PINE, you guessed correctly.
Certainly, you will be asked a lot of questions for this "interview" but I think the first one any of us should ask and the only one we should be interested in hearing an answer to before we go any further is this:
For what reason should I trust you? You are a Microsoft employee. I'm not suggesting you're a liar. I'm suggesting it is your job to defend Microsoft's position and products. You are not an objective third party. In simple terms, the party that signs your paychecks automatically biases you.
From where I sit, you cannot overcome this obvious truth. Thus, any answer you give to any question otherwise posed is suspect. So, again, why should I trust you?
This is what I don't get about it. It's quite often the fansub activity that the original content producers use to guage popularity and whether or not it makes sense to release a series abroad or not.
If Naruto had not garnered the huge following that it has, how motivated would the makers be to license it in North America?
Yes, the desicion to be in business. Most companies I work with still consider Microsoft (I'm quoting verbatim words I've heard from CEOs, CFOs, CIOs and the like) "the cost of doing business."
Regardless of the existence of acceptable replacements, there is still a belief by senior management that Microsoft is like the government: you avoid giving them as much money as you can get away with but sooner or later you have to pay them. It's literally factored in as part of the rules if you want to be in the game.
Now, the good news is the times, they are a changin'...
Which is precisely why the times are fairly prosperous...for the companies that no longer have to pay their salaries...and for the burgeoning middle class in India.
This is why you buy something like a Medion MD 7457 DVD player. I wouldn't buy from Sony, Phillips, Panasonic or Samsung before and gee, this really makes me want one now.
All this crap'll do is increase the market share of the manufacturers that AREN'T foisting "features" their customers didn't ask for and FLAT OUT DON'T WANT.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry to reply to self, but as for the "No guts, no glory" comment, one could say I didn't have guts because I didn't quit a job I was unhappy in until I had at least something lined up...which may be true. I didn't have *that* much guts.
However, it is still gutsy (if i may say so myself) because: I am married, have three children (fourth is due any day now), one of which has a genetic disorder, and my wife stays at home...working her tail off but earning no income.
My situation is a recipe for disaster. If I fail, we're fucked. My son could end up w/o insurance never to be covered again because once he loses insurance, no insurance company will pick him back up. Is it risky? Tremendously so. Is it worth it? The jury's still out on that one...but it's going well so far.
As I've said to my children, "If you're going to gamble on anything in life, gamble on yourself. It's the only thing you've got any control over."
I quit my full-time position in September for many reasons I won't go into...and one reason I will: I've always wanted to work for myself.
Back in August, a former employer approached me about some contract work. We negotiated a minimum six month contract. I would be out of here end of March. We just extended the work to cover additional projects and it is now open-ended. I am implementing enterprise software/systems for them in a more economical way than they could get from purchased packages that would then need customized anyway.
After quitting, my previous employer has become my second customer. I still do contract work for them on an hourly basis. I have the advantage of now being paid for exactly the hours I work (no 60-80 hour work weeks being paid for 40), having complete autonomy, only having one "boss" to answer to there, and having the right to refuse work if it does not appeal to me.
Additionally, another former employer contacted me in December and since January, they've become my third customer. I jut recently told each of these companies that I would need to raise my rates because I'm simply not charging them enough to cover my burn rate (w/ taxes, insurance, etc. figured in). Not only did they understand, they didn't blink, and they told me they were very happy with the work I've done and can't wait to implement future projects.
No guts, no glory. YMMV.
The simple fact is, I know^H^H^H^Hhave heard FTP is big in the copyright violating community.
I, er, that is, they just hope legislators don't decide to ban NNTP.
Hey, given the current $0.00 per song, I don't care if they triple it.
I saw nothing about rates going up here.
Er... Because the CEO of MGM Records needs a new swimming pool for his third vacation home... yeah!
STFU, morons.
I will now spin this story to put me in the most positive light without discussing what I'm really doing or why.
We are trying to compete in the court room since we aren't doing so hot lately in the open market. And what do you expect? Our competitors are mean...and fat...and crooks. It's not fair!
These are not the droids you are looking for. Move along.
We only care about how much money we can make. We couldn't care less about you bunch of losers sitting in your mothers' basements typing on your blogs and chatting with other adolescent dipshits.
I am awesome.
We can sell you a bunch of cool games! Sale ends soon! Buy today!
Did I mention I was awesome? Well, I am.
Even though I'm awesome, I'm also a bit of a sucker.
No Fair! Other people didn't play by our rules and now we can't make as much money! It's not fair, I tell you! They're STEALING! (Well, not really stealing...more like...infringing copyrights...but, that just doesn't have that same ring to it.)
Is BSD on the list?
The main point is, people just want to do what they're trying to do. Recurring popup dialog boxes are a horrible solution.
I know people who hate and in fact refuse to use products like Zone Alarm because of the time it takes to get it set right on what to allow and what not to.
And isn't this part of the problem anyway? How many people just answer "YES" to the "Run this ActiveX Component?" questions and click the "Always trust..." option just to get the damn thing to STFU?
Believe me, more dialog boxes won't solve a thing.
Actually, it is. I know, you think it's insane. To each his own.
Until recently, I worked in a medical billing office. Their legacy app was written in Clipper in the 80's. As of last year, they were still using it. I don't know about now. The office was still an old Novell server and DOS 6.22 clients.
Many corporate environments believe you don't fix something that isn't broken. This system worked for them. When I first started working there (several years ago) I was tasked with giving these people (still running 486 PCs in the year 2004) access to e-mail from the same DOS systems they accessed their medical billing applications.
Now, guess which product worked under DOS 6.22 with packet drivers for TCP/IP and supported IMAP to access our corporate e-mail system. If you guessed PC-PINE, you guessed correctly.
...how do you really feel?
Knew I'd fuck it up.
If only we could call out to an old Jedi to come light saber some political asshats into vapor...
Certainly, you will be asked a lot of questions for this "interview" but I think the first one any of us should ask and the only one we should be interested in hearing an answer to before we go any further is this:
For what reason should I trust you? You are a Microsoft employee. I'm not suggesting you're a liar. I'm suggesting it is your job to defend Microsoft's position and products. You are not an objective third party. In simple terms, the party that signs your paychecks automatically biases you.
From where I sit, you cannot overcome this obvious truth. Thus, any answer you give to any question otherwise posed is suspect. So, again, why should I trust you?
Just did a quick comparison of search.msn.com, google.com and www.yahoo.com. Here are my results:
Search term: microsoft sucks
Google: results about 862,000
Yahoo: results about 762,000
MSN: results about 1,856,364
There's a joke in there somewhere dying to get out.
This is what I don't get about it. It's quite often the fansub activity that the original content producers use to guage popularity and whether or not it makes sense to release a series abroad or not.
If Naruto had not garnered the huge following that it has, how motivated would the makers be to license it in North America?
Regardless of the existence of acceptable replacements, there is still a belief by senior management that Microsoft is like the government: you avoid giving them as much money as you can get away with but sooner or later you have to pay them. It's literally factored in as part of the rules if you want to be in the game.
Now, the good news is the times, they are a changin'...
Which is precisely why the times are fairly prosperous...for the companies that no longer have to pay their salaries...and for the burgeoning middle class in India.
YES! Thankfully I can get a new, proper wide-screen formatted version of BIODOME. Full screen just ruins that movie (not to mention the cast).
Actually, the one question you've got to ask yourself is this:
Do I feel lucky?
Well, do ya punk?
Me too. But, just to be safe, I do it twice.
This is why you buy something like a Medion MD 7457 DVD player. I wouldn't buy from Sony, Phillips, Panasonic or Samsung before and gee, this really makes me want one now.
All this crap'll do is increase the market share of the manufacturers that AREN'T foisting "features" their customers didn't ask for and FLAT OUT DON'T WANT.