That's what happens when you rapid-fire iterate on new content in the same template with no significant innovations for extended periods of time.
Sad thing is, from a business perspective, they did a great job and probably wouldn't change a thing if they could go back and do it over. At least not besides somehow managing to get those significant innovations magically and without significant investment to impact their bottom line in the short term.
Okay Harmonix, that one's done. What's the next cool design epiphany?
Social interaction correlates with sex? Get out!
on
Sex Drugs and Texting
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· Score: 1
The Associated Press reports that teens who talk frequently are three and a half times more likely to have sex. A survey of 4,200 public high school students in the Cleveland area found that one in five students uttered more than 120 sentences a day. Students in this group were much more likely to have sex. Alcohol and drug use also correlate with frequent talking and heavy use of neck movements.
Mod parent up for beating me to it. This is the standard link I give to every person who tells me "You are in the industry? Help me get rich from my awesome idea!"
I would love it if we could tear out Javascript and replace it with something better designed and better performing in every major browser. Unfortunately we're stuck with it for the near future. In 7-10 years, maybe all browsers will be running Python. That would be pretty sweet in my book at least. =)
Correct and I mostly agree with you. I am a big fan of both jQuery and Crockford's work (and I own his book and second your recommendation for anyone driven insane by Javascript itself), and they go a long way toward making things easier.
The problem is that libraries like jQuery and Dojo only completely solve cross-browser issues if you can limit yourself to the interfaces they support and also avoid the elements of HTML/CSS that aren't regulated by your library and happen to cause popular browsers to barf. Your scripts are protected, but not your markup, and unfortunately in practice you often end up with requirements that run you up against markup issues despite your having the best of intentions compatibility-wise.
"I hate iframes and don't want to use one, but it's the fastest way to get this feature out." You use jQuery for all of your scripting and DOM manipulation, and everything is beautiful. Then you discover fifty compatibility issues with iframes in Browser AYIII involving style changes not propagating as a result of the iframe being moved/shown and child elements of the document not showing up properly as a result. Stuff like this.
In The Future, when we can avoid the markup as well, I will be a happy monkey.
Yep, I've experimented with pyjs and with GWT itself. This and other similar projects are incredibly exciting. The missing link for rich content is being able to reliably do with the resultant browser code what an standalone game can do with its graphics/sound/IO libraries. Widespread HTML5 adoption plus a good framework to support using it would hopefully get us all the way there. I can't wait, personally. Thanks for the link.
If "ha ha your outlandish prediction will never come true" is what you are trying to say, I'm not sure how you got that from my post. I described the problem with rich web application development as I see it from my own experience, and the way I would love to see the web evolve in order to fix it. It's a dream, as I said. There are definitely a lot of other ways this could go.
One possibility is that Adobe adds a ton of new capabilities to Flash and either (1) Adobe's SDK is good enough by itself and everyone writes for Flex/Actionscript directly, or (2) the same thing I described above happens with developers compiling to Actionscript as the world's new assembly language. In either case, Adobe continues to rule the world. It could happen. I'd much rather not have them as a middle-man in the space I'm working in, but it would be better than today's status quo.
What other possibilities are left? Rich web content being a passing fad and everyone moving on to something else? The games industry would love for this one to be the case, but they don't believe it. For evidence, ask EA who they just bought or who they're buying next.
In the short term, obviously nothing changes. More than 80% of my users are on IE7 and IE8, and that's probably not going to budge until the next major release of Windows. So, again, this is a dream. But damn, it would be nice to have it come true sooner rather than later.
It may be hard to understand the significance of this if you are not immersed in the hell that is web front-end engineering. Javascript in isolation is not as bad a language as people make it out to be, but supporting common browsers and fixing all bugs as you're writing it is terrible. It is an incredibly hostile development environment.
The dream, from a developer's perspective, is this: In 3-5 years (this is the dream part given how fast the web changes), Javascript is an assembly language. You don't write it unless you really need to dig down to the "bare metal" of the browser itself. You compile to it from your language of choice. Your compiler spits out Javascript and any HTML/CSS containers required to skin your app and allow it to render in the browser. Your application can be linked to and run directly in the browser with no Flash, no Unity3d, no JavaFX, no plugins or installation required.
That no plugins are required is incredibly significant from the perspective of a company trying to distribute a product to as many people as they can, as cheaply as they can. Losing 20% of potential users because you required an installation of them is unacceptable--this increases your marketing costs by at least 25% and dampens the spread of your application via word of mouth, email, Facebook sharing, or whatever viral channels you happen to be using. This is why new 3D browser plugins are not succeeding. Unless it's Flash, no one has the plugin you need and you can't get them to install it reliably enough.
As someone who is frequently made miserable by having to support stupid browser oddities, I would kill to be able to write an application in Python, C#, or Java and know that I can compile to a package supported by >90% of people on the web. Yes, running complex stuff in Javascript is slow. But as seen in Chrome and Firefox, it's getting faster. Much like writing in assembly versus higher-level languages, writing Javascript directly will always be faster than compiling from another language. But at what cost to your time and sanity?
In 2010, my real options for rich content on the web are (1) Javascript/Browser Support Hell and (2) write a Flash application instead. That #1 is so miserable is one of many reasons for Flash's continuing success. The dream shown by this demo and others is that we will get a real Option 3.
Absolutely love Chrome's UI design and how it's centered around the idea of using new tabs for everything. That fits in perfectly with how I use browsers myself. Love the hell out of the new tab page and wish other browsers would do the same thing. Love the stability and ability for pieces to crash without taking out the whole thing. Love the fact that they stuck with keyboard shortcuts I've already got in muscle memory and didn't reinvent everything just to be different.
Hate the absence of my Firefox extensions, particularly Adblock and Greasemonkey. So I switched back.
Give me ad blocking functionality, even without extensions in general, and I would probably stick with Chrome.
"What's that, Mr. Manager? You're still talking about development methodology? Waterfall? Scrum?"
"Uh, I finished this piece last week. No, there wasn't a spec. Yeah, I think it does what we need. We can iterate on it in any case and get you what you want in a week or two. Here's my first version. Check it out. Send it to test. Get back to me with any issues."
News Flash: "Agile" is no revelation for real game developers, and "agile" software engineering methods like Scrum typically aren't agile enough.
Slashdot Mirror
That's what happens when you rapid-fire iterate on new content in the same template with no significant innovations for extended periods of time.
Sad thing is, from a business perspective, they did a great job and probably wouldn't change a thing if they could go back and do it over. At least not besides somehow managing to get those significant innovations magically and without significant investment to impact their bottom line in the short term.
Okay Harmonix, that one's done. What's the next cool design epiphany?
The Associated Press reports that teens who talk frequently are three and a half times more likely to have sex. A survey of 4,200 public high school students in the Cleveland area found that one in five students uttered more than 120 sentences a day. Students in this group were much more likely to have sex. Alcohol and drug use also correlate with frequent talking and heavy use of neck movements.
Mod parent up for beating me to it. This is the standard link I give to every person who tells me "You are in the industry? Help me get rich from my awesome idea!"
Specifically, article 1: http://www.sloperama.com/advice/idea.htm
Blinkin: Oh Master Robin! You lost your arms in battle! But you grew some nice boobs.
Robin Hood: Blinkin, I'm over here.
Completely agreed, especially on actually compiling to bytecode. Fortunately we're already getting past even that, in some browsers at least: http://webkit.org/blog/214/introducing-squirrelfish-extreme/
I would love it if we could tear out Javascript and replace it with something better designed and better performing in every major browser. Unfortunately we're stuck with it for the near future. In 7-10 years, maybe all browsers will be running Python. That would be pretty sweet in my book at least. =)
Correct and I mostly agree with you. I am a big fan of both jQuery and Crockford's work (and I own his book and second your recommendation for anyone driven insane by Javascript itself), and they go a long way toward making things easier.
The problem is that libraries like jQuery and Dojo only completely solve cross-browser issues if you can limit yourself to the interfaces they support and also avoid the elements of HTML/CSS that aren't regulated by your library and happen to cause popular browsers to barf. Your scripts are protected, but not your markup, and unfortunately in practice you often end up with requirements that run you up against markup issues despite your having the best of intentions compatibility-wise.
"I hate iframes and don't want to use one, but it's the fastest way to get this feature out." You use jQuery for all of your scripting and DOM manipulation, and everything is beautiful. Then you discover fifty compatibility issues with iframes in Browser AYIII involving style changes not propagating as a result of the iframe being moved/shown and child elements of the document not showing up properly as a result. Stuff like this.
In The Future, when we can avoid the markup as well, I will be a happy monkey.
Yep, I've experimented with pyjs and with GWT itself. This and other similar projects are incredibly exciting. The missing link for rich content is being able to reliably do with the resultant browser code what an standalone game can do with its graphics/sound/IO libraries. Widespread HTML5 adoption plus a good framework to support using it would hopefully get us all the way there. I can't wait, personally. Thanks for the link.
If "ha ha your outlandish prediction will never come true" is what you are trying to say, I'm not sure how you got that from my post. I described the problem with rich web application development as I see it from my own experience, and the way I would love to see the web evolve in order to fix it. It's a dream, as I said. There are definitely a lot of other ways this could go.
One possibility is that Adobe adds a ton of new capabilities to Flash and either (1) Adobe's SDK is good enough by itself and everyone writes for Flex/Actionscript directly, or (2) the same thing I described above happens with developers compiling to Actionscript as the world's new assembly language. In either case, Adobe continues to rule the world. It could happen. I'd much rather not have them as a middle-man in the space I'm working in, but it would be better than today's status quo.
What other possibilities are left? Rich web content being a passing fad and everyone moving on to something else? The games industry would love for this one to be the case, but they don't believe it. For evidence, ask EA who they just bought or who they're buying next.
In the short term, obviously nothing changes. More than 80% of my users are on IE7 and IE8, and that's probably not going to budge until the next major release of Windows. So, again, this is a dream. But damn, it would be nice to have it come true sooner rather than later.
It may be hard to understand the significance of this if you are not immersed in the hell that is web front-end engineering. Javascript in isolation is not as bad a language as people make it out to be, but supporting common browsers and fixing all bugs as you're writing it is terrible. It is an incredibly hostile development environment.
The dream, from a developer's perspective, is this: In 3-5 years (this is the dream part given how fast the web changes), Javascript is an assembly language. You don't write it unless you really need to dig down to the "bare metal" of the browser itself. You compile to it from your language of choice. Your compiler spits out Javascript and any HTML/CSS containers required to skin your app and allow it to render in the browser. Your application can be linked to and run directly in the browser with no Flash, no Unity3d, no JavaFX, no plugins or installation required.
That no plugins are required is incredibly significant from the perspective of a company trying to distribute a product to as many people as they can, as cheaply as they can. Losing 20% of potential users because you required an installation of them is unacceptable--this increases your marketing costs by at least 25% and dampens the spread of your application via word of mouth, email, Facebook sharing, or whatever viral channels you happen to be using. This is why new 3D browser plugins are not succeeding. Unless it's Flash, no one has the plugin you need and you can't get them to install it reliably enough.
As someone who is frequently made miserable by having to support stupid browser oddities, I would kill to be able to write an application in Python, C#, or Java and know that I can compile to a package supported by >90% of people on the web. Yes, running complex stuff in Javascript is slow. But as seen in Chrome and Firefox, it's getting faster. Much like writing in assembly versus higher-level languages, writing Javascript directly will always be faster than compiling from another language. But at what cost to your time and sanity?
In 2010, my real options for rich content on the web are (1) Javascript/Browser Support Hell and (2) write a Flash application instead. That #1 is so miserable is one of many reasons for Flash's continuing success. The dream shown by this demo and others is that we will get a real Option 3.
If there's an exotic or unfamiliar name, rephrase for clarity.
"Drupal 7 Interview With Developer Dries Buytaert" is just one idea.
"Most websites are still using unencrypted HTTP." ...and should be unless security is specifically required as a priority. Pick the right tool.
Mod parent up. I use Lazarus and it has saved me hours of typing.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=%22Where+do+babies+come+from%3F%22
*opens dashboard, presses "Upgrade to 2.8.4" button*
Fixed. :D
Absolutely love Chrome's UI design and how it's centered around the idea of using new tabs for everything. That fits in perfectly with how I use browsers myself. Love the hell out of the new tab page and wish other browsers would do the same thing. Love the stability and ability for pieces to crash without taking out the whole thing. Love the fact that they stuck with keyboard shortcuts I've already got in muscle memory and didn't reinvent everything just to be different.
Hate the absence of my Firefox extensions, particularly Adblock and Greasemonkey. So I switched back.
Give me ad blocking functionality, even without extensions in general, and I would probably stick with Chrome.
"What's that, Mr. Manager? You're still talking about development methodology? Waterfall? Scrum?"
"Uh, I finished this piece last week. No, there wasn't a spec. Yeah, I think it does what we need. We can iterate on it in any case and get you what you want in a week or two. Here's my first version. Check it out. Send it to test. Get back to me with any issues."
News Flash: "Agile" is no revelation for real game developers, and "agile" software engineering methods like Scrum typically aren't agile enough.
No, I think I can pretty much guarantee you that it's not the 42nd largest prime. I'll leave the proof as an exercise for the reader.
Here's an Exclusive Binary Preview!
11111111111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111...
--Your free demo has expired. For access to the rest of this content, please subscribe!--
...and the odds of suffering mental trauma, being hit by shrapnel, or dying at work are about the same.
(*duck*)
Or maybe it was a buttplug?
Sorry, just be careful with the use of "backside" 'round these parts...
To Ballmer:
Sure. Now build me an OS that'll run well on it.
Gee, real specific there.
"Mebius" is the Japanese rendition of mobius. So they did.