Your post and all of its replies make an assumption that is not true most of the time: They assume that when a developer uses a library/program to create a product and then discovers that it is GPL'd, that this develop goes along and GPL's his product as well. This is not how it works.
In reality, developers that are worth their money check the license beforehand, and when there's the GPL involved for a product that's not planned to be GPL'd, either the library/program is not used, or the whole project is scrapped. So everybody loses: The developer, because either the product can't be made, so there's no income, or a lot of functionality has to be implemented, raising the development costs and time, and the user, because there's either one less solution to choose from (which might mean that there are zero now), or the product is released later, buggier and perhaps more expensive (due to the increased development time).
I kinda miss the story and variability aspects of Diablo 2 in Tochlight... There is a story, but between every tiny bit of progress in it, you have to play some hours, and all of the dungeons look pretty much the same.
It's very similar to those mega-grindfests of the Korean MMOs.
It looks like they're trying to get the MMO out at the time Diablo 3 is released. Since Blizzard takes like forever to finish it, they have plenty of time.
Well, since they only supplied an update to the editor & the game engine (as opposed to a rewrite from scratch), it'd be crazy to switch the engine at that point.
I'd consider that a bug in the game engine. It should just run less cycles of the graphics service and more of the others (like input and physics). But Quake3 is probably too old for id software having considered these issues...
A standard LCD has 60Hz, which is about 1.67ms per frame. When your game requires 1.7ms to render a single frame, without vsync that's about 58.8fps, which isn't that bad (you wouldn't notice it).
When vsync is enabled, what happens is that the first frame isn't ready when the screen is refreshed, so the whole pipeline stalls until the next vertical sync. On the next one, you can finally display your image, and render again for 1.7ms. The whole cycle repeats. In the end, this means that you have a whooping 30fps, even though the graphics pipeline is idle nearly 50% of the time.
Of course, this doesn't make sense for the menu system, where the frame rendering doesn't take anywhere near 1.67ms, but it does make sense for the game itself, since it tends to lag a bit when the action is intense (esp. on creep).
There's an old rule: Never do something in hardware that can be done in software. Just imagine that you could put this stuff easily into cellphones, which would never include a image stabilization as it is used in DSLRs right now, because it's too bulky and too expensive. All just with a software update.
Adobe has assured its customers that Flash 10.1 will be able to "...make full use of the new machines. Flash will be able to utilize 100% of the 12 core hardware without fail.
No shit, Flash is the only non-game application on my last-year iMac that manages to get the fans blowing at maximum speed (1080p video fullscreen on YouTube).
Seeing as Apple has never bothered to provide official Windows driver support for their peripherals
That's not really true, they do provide support for their AirPort devices (in the form of a configuration app), and of course the whole iPad/iPhone/iPad range. That said, you're probably right about the trackpad. But I wouldn't rule out somebody whipping up an open source driver for Linux.
So, how do you move backward in the browser window history? You could navigate the mouse cursor to the toolbar, far away from where you just clicked a link on a web page and try to aim at the back-button, or you could press some arcane key combination, where you have to move your hands away from the tracking device and then back, or you could just put down a second finger and swipe to the left. Which option is the easiest/fastest?
How do you rotate or scale a picture? You could move your mouse to the toolbar and try to locate a button (if there is one there), you could navigate through the menu and try to remember whether you want CW or CCW rotation (same with a keyboard shortcut) / zoom in or out, or you could put down the thumb and just show what you want to do.
I don't quite see it that way. It has become a bit worse with the extensions ObjC 2.0 brought (proving the central point of the article), but the language is generally much easier to learn and master than C++ or Java. There are a lot fewer constructs, and it is identical to C99 for anything non-OOP. Nothing like that three-languages-in-one that C++ brought or the you-have-to-know-about-everything-when-writing-the-first-line-of-code Java brought.
Additionally, ObjC is much closer to scripting languages than those two (the whole reflection stuff Java hides away in a corner right there in the open and used excessively), but still keeping compile-time checks (mostly emitted as warnings, though).
Corporations aren't the uncaring robot beasts you seem to be convinced they are. Corporations are still run by people.
That's technically true, but it has been proven time and again that in order to get into a top management position in a huge company, you have to be mentally disturbed in a way that you'd be in mental hospital if you weren't in that important position. Thus, decisions by large companies tend to reflect that kind of psychological pattern.
Not true. I recently attended a small private LAN-party, where we played StarCraft 1 for some hours at a friend's company's conference room. I tried to show them the SC2 beta (it was up in phase 1 back then), but the network firewall there wouldn't let me log into battle.net, so that was a complete no-go.
I dunno how we should to be able to do the same thing we did here with SC1 without any issues with SC2 as well. I guess we have to stick with SC1 for those:/
I prefer to program in Objective-C over Java, C++, Python, or the.Net languages. (luckly, you left Ruby out of that list:) I'm not quite sure what the gripes about Xcode are, I've heard them multiple times already, though. I personally love Xcode, it's supporting me very well in my development efforts.
Most of the people complaining about Xcode I've talked to actually tried to use it for C++ or Java. It works, but that's not what it was designed for, and so there are many shortcomings that don't exist for Objective-C (in the area of autocompletion for example).
I've used Eclipse for Java development, and it comes nowhere near the ease-of-use of Xcode for Objective-C, still many people rave on about how great Eclipse is. I don't quite get it. (Oh, and Visual Studio without Visual Assist for C++ is completely awful. I don't know how anybody can actually use it.)
That's true, but only when you buy a PC specifically for gaming. I originally bought my PC for software development, all it would need right now is a better graphics card for maybe $100 and I'd be good to go.
Yes, Steam is pretty genius, but not just due to having "the right games". I started to use it recently (due to the Mac client). Every time you want to play a game, you have to start up the client first, and it presents you with a list of discounted games (only today for -50%!).
I'm really not susceptible to ads, but I already bought 3 games I wouldn't have otherwise. When they're at $5-$8, that's below my impulse-buy threshold.
I also own consoles, and the games are much more expensive there -- games that are a year old still sell for $40-$60! I'm seriously considering moving back to PC gaming right now, since the very same game usually costs half of that on PCs.
The Steam platform fixes the biggest issues with PC gaming --- automatic updates and online distribution.
If you hoard all your wealth in cash at home, there's a big physical security issue you have to worry about. It might not happen from a far-away country, but it's even more untraceable.
With the existence of the key bumping method, I'm actually more worried about that than online security.
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Your post and all of its replies make an assumption that is not true most of the time: They assume that when a developer uses a library/program to create a product and then discovers that it is GPL'd, that this develop goes along and GPL's his product as well. This is not how it works.
In reality, developers that are worth their money check the license beforehand, and when there's the GPL involved for a product that's not planned to be GPL'd, either the library/program is not used, or the whole project is scrapped. So everybody loses: The developer, because either the product can't be made, so there's no income, or a lot of functionality has to be implemented, raising the development costs and time, and the user, because there's either one less solution to choose from (which might mean that there are zero now), or the product is released later, buggier and perhaps more expensive (due to the increased development time).
Right now it's officially sometime in 2011, but it's usual to extend that once or twice, which they haven't done yet.
I kinda miss the story and variability aspects of Diablo 2 in Tochlight... There is a story, but between every tiny bit of progress in it, you have to play some hours, and all of the dungeons look pretty much the same.
It's very similar to those mega-grindfests of the Korean MMOs.
It looks like they're trying to get the MMO out at the time Diablo 3 is released. Since Blizzard takes like forever to finish it, they have plenty of time.
Well, since they only supplied an update to the editor & the game engine (as opposed to a rewrite from scratch), it'd be crazy to switch the engine at that point.
I'd consider that a bug in the game engine. It should just run less cycles of the graphics service and more of the others (like input and physics). But Quake3 is probably too old for id software having considered these issues...
The problem with enabling vsync is the following:
A standard LCD has 60Hz, which is about 1.67ms per frame. When your game requires 1.7ms to render a single frame, without vsync that's about 58.8fps, which isn't that bad (you wouldn't notice it).
When vsync is enabled, what happens is that the first frame isn't ready when the screen is refreshed, so the whole pipeline stalls until the next vertical sync. On the next one, you can finally display your image, and render again for 1.7ms. The whole cycle repeats. In the end, this means that you have a whooping 30fps, even though the graphics pipeline is idle nearly 50% of the time.
Of course, this doesn't make sense for the menu system, where the frame rendering doesn't take anywhere near 1.67ms, but it does make sense for the game itself, since it tends to lag a bit when the action is intense (esp. on creep).
There's an old rule: Never do something in hardware that can be done in software. Just imagine that you could put this stuff easily into cellphones, which would never include a image stabilization as it is used in DSLRs right now, because it's too bulky and too expensive. All just with a software update.
People losing money over your bad programming isn't really a risk for yourself, the question is, would you be held liable in this case?
Actually, Apple already posted Windows drivers for the trackpad for 32bit and 64bit.
They're labeled as BootCamp, but I guess they'd work on any PC (haven't tried it of course).
iPad :) There is no keyboard.
You're using your computer only for a web browser?
Hmm I never rest any hand on the keyboard when I'm browsing... Don't need it, since all can be done with a swipe of one or two fingers :)
Adobe has assured its customers that Flash 10.1 will be able to "...make full use of the new machines. Flash will be able to utilize 100% of the 12 core hardware without fail.
No shit, Flash is the only non-game application on my last-year iMac that manages to get the fans blowing at maximum speed (1080p video fullscreen on YouTube).
Seeing as Apple has never bothered to provide official Windows driver support for their peripherals
That's not really true, they do provide support for their AirPort devices (in the form of a configuration app), and of course the whole iPad/iPhone/iPad range. That said, you're probably right about the trackpad. But I wouldn't rule out somebody whipping up an open source driver for Linux.
It's pretty new, but you can be sure that any app that's going to be Mac OS X 10.6-only will make heavy use of it.
So, how do you move backward in the browser window history? You could navigate the mouse cursor to the toolbar, far away from where you just clicked a link on a web page and try to aim at the back-button, or you could press some arcane key combination, where you have to move your hands away from the tracking device and then back, or you could just put down a second finger and swipe to the left. Which option is the easiest/fastest?
How do you rotate or scale a picture? You could move your mouse to the toolbar and try to locate a button (if there is one there), you could navigate through the menu and try to remember whether you want CW or CCW rotation (same with a keyboard shortcut) / zoom in or out, or you could put down the thumb and just show what you want to do.
The list goes on...
I don't quite see it that way. It has become a bit worse with the extensions ObjC 2.0 brought (proving the central point of the article), but the language is generally much easier to learn and master than C++ or Java. There are a lot fewer constructs, and it is identical to C99 for anything non-OOP. Nothing like that three-languages-in-one that C++ brought or the you-have-to-know-about-everything-when-writing-the-first-line-of-code Java brought.
Additionally, ObjC is much closer to scripting languages than those two (the whole reflection stuff Java hides away in a corner right there in the open and used excessively), but still keeping compile-time checks (mostly emitted as warnings, though).
Corporations aren't the uncaring robot beasts you seem to be convinced they are. Corporations are still run by people.
That's technically true, but it has been proven time and again that in order to get into a top management position in a huge company, you have to be mentally disturbed in a way that you'd be in mental hospital if you weren't in that important position. Thus, decisions by large companies tend to reflect that kind of psychological pattern.
Not true. I recently attended a small private LAN-party, where we played StarCraft 1 for some hours at a friend's company's conference room. I tried to show them the SC2 beta (it was up in phase 1 back then), but the network firewall there wouldn't let me log into battle.net, so that was a complete no-go.
I dunno how we should to be able to do the same thing we did here with SC1 without any issues with SC2 as well. I guess we have to stick with SC1 for those :/
I prefer to program in Objective-C over Java, C++, Python, or the .Net languages. (luckly, you left Ruby out of that list :) I'm not quite sure what the gripes about Xcode are, I've heard them multiple times already, though. I personally love Xcode, it's supporting me very well in my development efforts.
Most of the people complaining about Xcode I've talked to actually tried to use it for C++ or Java. It works, but that's not what it was designed for, and so there are many shortcomings that don't exist for Objective-C (in the area of autocompletion for example).
I've used Eclipse for Java development, and it comes nowhere near the ease-of-use of Xcode for Objective-C, still many people rave on about how great Eclipse is. I don't quite get it. (Oh, and Visual Studio without Visual Assist for C++ is completely awful. I don't know how anybody can actually use it.)
There is also the pesky problem that there is no consensus on global warming.
Not by the ones that are actually qualified to do such a judgement.
I think that's at least one other point where GW differs drastically from Y2K.
Not really. I'm sure there were a lot of rednecks that called Y2K a lie manufactured by IT guys to get a job back then.
That's true, but only when you buy a PC specifically for gaming. I originally bought my PC for software development, all it would need right now is a better graphics card for maybe $100 and I'd be good to go.
Yes, Steam is pretty genius, but not just due to having "the right games". I started to use it recently (due to the Mac client). Every time you want to play a game, you have to start up the client first, and it presents you with a list of discounted games (only today for -50%!).
I'm really not susceptible to ads, but I already bought 3 games I wouldn't have otherwise. When they're at $5-$8, that's below my impulse-buy threshold.
I also own consoles, and the games are much more expensive there -- games that are a year old still sell for $40-$60! I'm seriously considering moving back to PC gaming right now, since the very same game usually costs half of that on PCs.
The Steam platform fixes the biggest issues with PC gaming --- automatic updates and online distribution.
If you hoard all your wealth in cash at home, there's a big physical security issue you have to worry about. It might not happen from a far-away country, but it's even more untraceable.
With the existence of the key bumping method, I'm actually more worried about that than online security.