This is not going away, and only going to get more prevalent online. The real problem right now is the lack of mature, high level APIs and components to develop these types of interfaces. Basically, it requires a lot of nuts and bolts programming to build. Coming soon (watch for it), desktop application like development tools that allow you to build rich, dynamic interfaces, using these technologies.
Yah the leading system vendors have realized there's a crisis. How else are they going to sell more systems if the ones in place now aren't dangerously unstable? They could probably explode at any minute, are toxic, and will probably delete all my data at any second.
I'm reading lots of detailed analysis on how Dell is planning this or that, putting pressure on MS, etc etc. In actuality, there's a very simple equation. If they sell lots of Linux boxes, they'll offer more. If the cost of developing a standard install and supporting them is too high, they'll stop offering the system.
Contrary to Slashdot belief, there's no huge pent-up demand for Linux desktop systems. There will be no stampede. But maybe their margins will be high enough to keep offering them.
The real problem is supply and demand for workers. Many, many young programmers really want a career in game development. It sounds fun, exciting and creative. So there's always other programmers willing to step in and work for lower wages than what they'd be making doing mainframe apps or something. This creates some problems - wages are held down by huge labor supply, and the most experienced qualified programmers and project managers go to some other field where they can make real money.
Absolutely I need instant response. I want HDTV video conferencing at 60fps with CD quality sound. I want clicking a link to respond like clicking a button on a local application with video quality GUI elements. I want to monitor 4 different channels of HDTV in windows on my computer at the same time. I could go on and on and on.
There's always someone who says 'you don't need more' - but it shows a sad lack of foresight. Plenty of people thought a gig of RAM was ridiculous for desktop PCs 20 years ago.
We need to get to the point where the only limiting factor is the human in front of the computer. I hate waiting for my computer, whether its downloading a file or waiting 2 seconds for a web browser to start. Everything should be instant - I am excited for the day that nothing happens on a computer slower than I can think about it. A 2 hour HDTV movie is about 20 gigabytes - download it to me in less than a second and prompt me what to do next.
Sun doesn't have the R&D to keep up in this space. By the time 2006 rolls around, AMD, Intel and IBM will be closing any performance gap with this chip, and their higher volumes will ensure that they blow this out of the water in terms of price/performance. Sun is clinging to an image of itself that no longer works as a business model - hence years of huge losses and layoffs.
As their staggering losses continue to mount, I believe its pretty well proven that Sun doesn't belong in the processor design business any longer. They simply can't achieve the volume required to support the massive R&D investments required. Even nifty tech as described, the majority of business applications don't care what processor is running underneath - its all a matter of price/performance. Sun isn't going to win price/performance against intel and AMD.
For those not in the know, GURPS is a great platform for building your own pen and paper RPG. Especially fun is crafting your character's personality from a huge list of positive and negative traits - nothing quite like playing a one-eyed kleptomaniac midget with a high IQ
A new protocol that's 150,000 times the speed of current modems? Uh...I think the reviewer got a little mixed up here. There's the max theoretical speed of the transmission line, and then there's the speed at which the protocol can transmit over that line. While I'm sure it can make modems faster by transmitting more bytes, its not going to make modems 150,000 times faster.
The US Patent Office has changed dramatically over the last few years, becoming much smarter about issuing technology patents. Business process patents are out, and companies are being held to a much higher standard than previously.
The reason it seems worse now than ever before is because of older patents when all the "computer stuff" was relatively new (still is, in the big scheme of things). The Patent office guaranteed to lag in times of rapid technilogical change.
At some point I'm sure autostarting after media insertion WAS a big innovation. Just like a "automatic starter motor" was a big innovation on internal combustion engines at one time.
Why would you want to have backwards compatability anyways? I've never played a PS1 game on my PS2, and never been chagrined I couldn't fire up my N64 games on the gamecube. By definition, old games are...old. And crappy. In any case, if I have a stack of old games, why wouldn't I still have the console?
About once every couple years, a game comes out that convinces me to go spend another $1000 on computer upgrades. So much for the GeForce Ti 4600 I bought for $400 a year ago - gotta have DirectX 9 support now. Between Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 this Xmas season is going to cost me a FORTUNE!
Free is a very good price - especially when TOTALLY BROKE. Nice coup for Linux and all that, but the honest truth is that their economy is shrinking 10% a year and they couldn't afford M$ if they wanted it...
I see lots of angry condemations here - but this is actually very typical price negotiation. Microsoft didn't go to Dell and tell them they couldn't sell PCs with other OSes or they wouldn't sell them Windows any more. Microsoft went to Dell and offered them huge discounts to Windows if they signed an exclusive offer. Dell saw the dollar signs and agreed.
Dell has done a pretty good job with their letter blaming MS...but MS would be ignoring basic business practices if it didn't offer and option like this. I'm sure Dell is happy with the deal and laughing all the way to the bank.
If Blizzard wants people to pay for their games, they need to continue to create software that blows away the competition - they need to make something so Cool that you have to have it, and are willing to pay.
Unfortunately, piracy has always been a major drain on gaming companies. It isn't just about competition, Battle.net is Blizzard's way of incentifying users to actually PAY for the software so many people steal. If someone wants to compete, go ahead and make a multimillion dollar client application. That's where the real value to consumers is.
Slashdot Mirror
"A website doesn't really have much business selecting particular named fonts"
There's about a million Web designers that think you're crazy.
This is not going away, and only going to get more prevalent online. The real problem right now is the lack of mature, high level APIs and components to develop these types of interfaces. Basically, it requires a lot of nuts and bolts programming to build. Coming soon (watch for it), desktop application like development tools that allow you to build rich, dynamic interfaces, using these technologies.
It happened to me, it can happen to you.
mmmmmmm....
Yah the leading system vendors have realized there's a crisis. How else are they going to sell more systems if the ones in place now aren't dangerously unstable? They could probably explode at any minute, are toxic, and will probably delete all my data at any second.
I better go buy a new computer.
I'm reading lots of detailed analysis on how Dell is planning this or that, putting pressure on MS, etc etc. In actuality, there's a very simple equation. If they sell lots of Linux boxes, they'll offer more. If the cost of developing a standard install and supporting them is too high, they'll stop offering the system.
Contrary to Slashdot belief, there's no huge pent-up demand for Linux desktop systems. There will be no stampede. But maybe their margins will be high enough to keep offering them.
The real problem is supply and demand for workers. Many, many young programmers really want a career in game development. It sounds fun, exciting and creative. So there's always other programmers willing to step in and work for lower wages than what they'd be making doing mainframe apps or something. This creates some problems - wages are held down by huge labor supply, and the most experienced qualified programmers and project managers go to some other field where they can make real money.
but much of this 'vision' is implemented in Microsoft's .Net Framework and Visual Studio!
Absolutely I need instant response. I want HDTV video conferencing at 60fps with CD quality sound. I want clicking a link to respond like clicking a button on a local application with video quality GUI elements. I want to monitor 4 different channels of HDTV in windows on my computer at the same time. I could go on and on and on.
There's always someone who says 'you don't need more' - but it shows a sad lack of foresight. Plenty of people thought a gig of RAM was ridiculous for desktop PCs 20 years ago.
We need to get to the point where the only limiting factor is the human in front of the computer. I hate waiting for my computer, whether its downloading a file or waiting 2 seconds for a web browser to start. Everything should be instant - I am excited for the day that nothing happens on a computer slower than I can think about it. A 2 hour HDTV movie is about 20 gigabytes - download it to me in less than a second and prompt me what to do next.
I'll be dead.
Sun doesn't have the R&D to keep up in this space. By the time 2006 rolls around, AMD, Intel and IBM will be closing any performance gap with this chip, and their higher volumes will ensure that they blow this out of the water in terms of price/performance. Sun is clinging to an image of itself that no longer works as a business model - hence years of huge losses and layoffs.
As their staggering losses continue to mount, I believe its pretty well proven that Sun doesn't belong in the processor design business any longer. They simply can't achieve the volume required to support the massive R&D investments required. Even nifty tech as described, the majority of business applications don't care what processor is running underneath - its all a matter of price/performance. Sun isn't going to win price/performance against intel and AMD.
You decided to chronicle a list of the semi-nudity . Dooood. Get out more!
For those not in the know, GURPS is a great platform for building your own pen and paper RPG. Especially fun is crafting your character's personality from a huge list of positive and negative traits - nothing quite like playing a one-eyed kleptomaniac midget with a high IQ
A new protocol that's 150,000 times the speed of current modems? Uh...I think the reviewer got a little mixed up here. There's the max theoretical speed of the transmission line, and then there's the speed at which the protocol can transmit over that line. While I'm sure it can make modems faster by transmitting more bytes, its not going to make modems 150,000 times faster.
Institutional investors don't have much sway over Microsoft - Gates and others own enough stock to ensure control.
This happened to me - check the lmhosts file.
The US Patent Office has changed dramatically over the last few years, becoming much smarter about issuing technology patents. Business process patents are out, and companies are being held to a much higher standard than previously.
The reason it seems worse now than ever before is because of older patents when all the "computer stuff" was relatively new (still is, in the big scheme of things). The Patent office guaranteed to lag in times of rapid technilogical change.
At some point I'm sure autostarting after media insertion WAS a big innovation. Just like a "automatic starter motor" was a big innovation on internal combustion engines at one time.
Why would you want to have backwards compatability anyways? I've never played a PS1 game on my PS2, and never been chagrined I couldn't fire up my N64 games on the gamecube. By definition, old games are...old. And crappy. In any case, if I have a stack of old games, why wouldn't I still have the console?
About once every couple years, a game comes out that convinces me to go spend another $1000 on computer upgrades. So much for the GeForce Ti 4600 I bought for $400 a year ago - gotta have DirectX 9 support now. Between Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 this Xmas season is going to cost me a FORTUNE!
Free is a very good price - especially when TOTALLY BROKE. Nice coup for Linux and all that, but the honest truth is that their economy is shrinking 10% a year and they couldn't afford M$ if they wanted it...
I see lots of angry condemations here - but this is actually very typical price negotiation. Microsoft didn't go to Dell and tell them they couldn't sell PCs with other OSes or they wouldn't sell them Windows any more. Microsoft went to Dell and offered them huge discounts to Windows if they signed an exclusive offer. Dell saw the dollar signs and agreed.
Dell has done a pretty good job with their letter blaming MS...but MS would be ignoring basic business practices if it didn't offer and option like this. I'm sure Dell is happy with the deal and laughing all the way to the bank.
Sounds like you worked closely with a bunch of clowns who had no idea how to run Exchange.
If Blizzard wants people to pay for their games, they need to continue to create software that blows away the competition - they need to make something so Cool that you have to have it, and are willing to pay.
Unfortunately, piracy has always been a major drain on gaming companies. It isn't just about competition, Battle.net is Blizzard's way of incentifying users to actually PAY for the software so many people steal. If someone wants to compete, go ahead and make a multimillion dollar client application. That's where the real value to consumers is.