There's nothing like kids and a mortgage to make you a more discerning game player. I swore that I'd never 'grow up' and stop playing games, but no one ever told me how much fun you can have making and growing babies. Nowadays I'm lucky if I get a couple of hour-long online gaming sessions in each week - hence my preference for the speed and ease of playing online using XBox Live.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not some wife-harried, tired old fuck, it's just that interacting directly with humans seems to hold more interest for me these days. Plus molding an almost 1-year-old into a functioning individual (not to mention playing RL games with cool toys), is a heck of a lot more fun than pwning fools in Halo 2.
I'm really interested to see how the whole industry matures as 'hardcore' computer gamers hit 40, 50 and 60. Shit, I'll be looking for interesting games to play when I'm retired in 25-30 years - will there be a new peak of gamers when we all retire? Will the studios rely on tweenies to constantly fill the gap, or will they direct development at that emerging market?
However, anyone else's efforts to curb it haven't exactly worked well.
Ummmm, how about Northern Ireland? A largely sucessful social/political solution to what used to be one of the prime terrorism hotspots in the world?
It takes a long time sure, but talking and politicking can work. Sure it takes a hell of a lot of time, and a f*ckload of courage (more than Dubya posesses obviously) to sit down with Israel, Palestine, Osama, et al and try to find a middle ground (yes, while suicide bombers and plane crashers continue), than it does to simply wade into another country guns blazing.
Don't try to tell me that the extremists are 'too extreme' to talk. Osama wasn't too extreme when the CIA were funding him against the USSR in Afghanistan was he?
There is only one way to photoblog these days, and that way is flickr.com.
Flickr is sooo far ahead of any other photo/mobile blog out there, that it is just not funny.
Try it, you'll love it.
It's the installation stupid
on
Java 1.5 vs C#
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· Score: 3, Informative
I've done enterprise-level Java and C# implementations for financial institutions, and reckon there is one thing that people always miss when comparing the two languages: installation.
C#, despite any other flaws, Just Works(tm). Install Visual Studio, write some code, click the run button. Sure it takes a bit of thinking to get a n-tier implementation up and running properly, but the installation of the back-end stuff (IIS, db connections, remoting) is incredibly simple.
On the other hand, to get enterprise Java (J2EE, although some would argue that a class library is easier and more versatile), you need to learn how to install an app server (JBoss, Orion, or god forbid WebSphere), and how to configure that system for database connections, performance, session and object permanence, etc..
None of this really matters in a 'big-iron' enterprise environment, because there's room to hire a websphere monkey to look after the cat-herding. In anything below a mega-corp or mega-bank however, the overhead of running Java can sometimes be a burden that developers just don't want to think about.
I see it kinda like using Firefox over IE. They both do pretty much the same thing, and one does it 'better', but at the same time requires some effort to implement. Some people just can't be bothered with the effort.
Come to lovely New Zealand where government regulated 'broadband' is defined as a pokey 256kbps ADSL connection provided by the monopoly lines company. The same company that undercuts its 'competitors' by offering 2Mbps at the same cost as their 'wholesale' 256kbps offering. We call Telecom NZ our own little Microsoft Minime.
Come to lovely New Zealand where we swamp towns with hydro dams, but still can't get enough electricity in high-demand (or low rainfall) years, because our one-size-fits-all "No Nukes" policy extends to harmless power stations, not just nu-cu-lar weapons and ships. (And yes, it was a New Zealander that first intentionally split the atom).
Still, it's a bloody lovely place to live. I just wish our government would get on the modern technology cluetrain once in a while.
Please for the love of gods no! Just say no George.
Makes me start to think favourably about all those stupid "Peter Jackson should do the next Star Wars movie" jokes.
Seriously, if King Kong turns out to be not totally crap, then I reckon PJ could have a serious go at repairing our broken childhood memories of Star Wars.
OK good point... maybe it should have been "...so you will have to pay an 'at fault' excess of $2000 and you will not retain your no-claims bonus..."
My point was simply that if this system provides information that the insurance company can use to incrimitate you in any way, allowing them to revoke the 'no-fault' section of your policy, then rest assured they will use it.
Yeah good point actually. Always amazes me when people complain about insurance companies, yet the very same people will happily blow $100 at the local casino.
Same thing in my book: how the heck to the big insurance companies and casinos exist if they're not totally shafting their clients?
I think the best type of insurance 'company' I have seen is the old 'mutual society' type, whereby all premiums are invested, and investmen returns over and above a certain safety buffer (after covering costs) are returned to clients. In reality, you don't get any returns, but it's a bit nicer than knowing your premiums are going to some mega corporate.
"...but our GPS log show that you were travelling at 56 mph moments before the accident. We're going to have to decline your claim..."
People don't seem to realise that an insurance company's sole purpose in existence is to NOT pay out on claims. Otherwise how do they increase their profits?! Anything that can help them reduce the percentage of claims that are paid out will be snapped up.
Riiight. And so it should be up to me to put all my contact info in exactly the right order so I can sort by address or phone number? What!?
It's a sad day when you're such a GMail fanboy that you have to turn an obvious deficiency in their (beta yes, yes I know) system into some sort of user problem.
I figure with a gig to spare, I don't really give a toss. As I've said, this gmail account is basically disposable. No IMAP, no POP... considering I do most of my email via GPRS it's pretty useless for me.
It's more because I consider my gmail account fairly disposable. Important stuff goes to one of my other accounts. I've started using gmail for forums, lists, slashdot, and whatever I don't care whether I receive or not.
Gmail is a *huge* improvement over Hotmail on the user interface level. And the Gmail spam filter is pretty awesome.
I'm sorry, but I've got to politely disagree with you here. Gmail (as it stands) is nothing more than an exercise in mild javascript goodness. You can't even say that it's a load-test, due to the closed beta.
The spam filtering is okay - not awesome. I've had one or two legitimate list emails (as in I asked for them, regardless of how commercial they are) noted incorrectly as spam. I shouldn't have to have the list emails in my address book. Nothing new here.
Forum reply notifications get lumped under one big conversation because Google thinks they are part of a conversation. Err, bzzzzt wrong! Plus the funky javascript preview thing cuts off the most important part of those emails (the link to the forum thread).
The contacts system is an abomination. You can enter a name and an email and some notes. No room for address, phone or anything.
Sure it's a beta, but IMHO it's like a 0.4 rather than a 0.9 version. Nothing to be particularly excited about over a lot of other webmail systems currently available (fastmail, oddpost, hotmail).
(Yes, I do have Gmail, and I do understand it is a beta. Just stating current facts as I see them. Gmail may very well kick everyone else's asses once it is complete.)
I wouldn't worry about it. I've got gmail, (bgracewood@gmail.com) and to tell the absolute truth, it really is not all that exciting.
The spam filtering is okay. I've had one or two legitimate list emails noted as false positives. Nothing new here.
Forum reply notifications get lumped under one big conversation because Google thinks they are part of a conversation. Err, bzzzzt wrong! Plus the funky javascript preview thing cuts off the most important part of those emails (the link to the forum thread).
The contacts system is an abomination. You can enter a name and an email and some notes. No room for address, phone or anything.
Sure it's a beta, but IMHO it's like a 0.4 rather than a 0.9 version.
Right, and because Google says so, then wi-fi causes cancer? As many other people have stated, there doesn't seem to be a heck of a lot of evidence linking non-ionizing, non-heating radiation to any form of cancer.
Heck, I love it when I hear people screaming bloody murder about the dangers of 'electromagnetic radiation'. Hello? Light bulbs? I'll respect this sort of scaremongering a lot more if the mongerers would at least focus on a particular area of the spectrum.
I meant 'hovering' your fingers above those bottom buttons. I imagine if you put enough pressure on them in order to grip the thing, then surely you'd be pressing the buttons constantly?
Hrrm true... but don't you just stick your keyboard in your lap for those hardcord coding sessions? I suppose you do get interrupted when leaning for the mouse all the time.
When I look at the pictures of that thing, I can't help but wonder how you're meant to grip it and type at the same time.
Similar to the problem I have with a mousewheel (I get a sore hand/finger from holding my finger above the wheel), I can imagine holding my fingers above the AlphaGrip's buttons while at the same time trying to grip the whole thing would be tendonitis city.
Anyone actually seen one of these in use and can confirm this for me?
Those with large hands may not achieve the same typing speed as users with small to average sized hands.
I guess this is the opposite of the giant XBox controller fiasco then?
Seriously though, this would be great for a hacked XBox or PS2 Linux, but do they honestly think deskbound users will use it because "the AlphaGrip allows you to shift your body position frequently or even constantly without affecting your data input." I meam come on people, take a 5 minute break for gods' sake. Just get up and walk around or stretch. You don't need a $100 device to do it for you.
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Oh my gods no... our one ate raisins last night... that shit in the nappy this morning should be illegal.
Amen brother.
There's nothing like kids and a mortgage to make you a more discerning game player. I swore that I'd never 'grow up' and stop playing games, but no one ever told me how much fun you can have making and growing babies. Nowadays I'm lucky if I get a couple of hour-long online gaming sessions in each week - hence my preference for the speed and ease of playing online using XBox Live.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not some wife-harried, tired old fuck, it's just that interacting directly with humans seems to hold more interest for me these days. Plus molding an almost 1-year-old into a functioning individual (not to mention playing RL games with cool toys), is a heck of a lot more fun than pwning fools in Halo 2.
I'm really interested to see how the whole industry matures as 'hardcore' computer gamers hit 40, 50 and 60. Shit, I'll be looking for interesting games to play when I'm retired in 25-30 years - will there be a new peak of gamers when we all retire? Will the studios rely on tweenies to constantly fill the gap, or will they direct development at that emerging market?
Ummmm, how about Northern Ireland? A largely sucessful social/political solution to what used to be one of the prime terrorism hotspots in the world?
It takes a long time sure, but talking and politicking can work. Sure it takes a hell of a lot of time, and a f*ckload of courage (more than Dubya posesses obviously) to sit down with Israel, Palestine, Osama, et al and try to find a middle ground (yes, while suicide bombers and plane crashers continue), than it does to simply wade into another country guns blazing.
Don't try to tell me that the extremists are 'too extreme' to talk. Osama wasn't too extreme when the CIA were funding him against the USSR in Afghanistan was he?
There is only one way to photoblog these days, and that way is flickr.com.
Flickr is sooo far ahead of any other photo/mobile blog out there, that it is just not funny.
Try it, you'll love it.
I've done enterprise-level Java and C# implementations for financial institutions, and reckon there is one thing that people always miss when comparing the two languages: installation.
C#, despite any other flaws, Just Works(tm). Install Visual Studio, write some code, click the run button. Sure it takes a bit of thinking to get a n-tier implementation up and running properly, but the installation of the back-end stuff (IIS, db connections, remoting) is incredibly simple.
On the other hand, to get enterprise Java (J2EE, although some would argue that a class library is easier and more versatile), you need to learn how to install an app server (JBoss, Orion, or god forbid WebSphere), and how to configure that system for database connections, performance, session and object permanence, etc..
None of this really matters in a 'big-iron' enterprise environment, because there's room to hire a websphere monkey to look after the cat-herding. In anything below a mega-corp or mega-bank however, the overhead of running Java can sometimes be a burden that developers just don't want to think about.
I see it kinda like using Firefox over IE. They both do pretty much the same thing, and one does it 'better', but at the same time requires some effort to implement. Some people just can't be bothered with the effort.
Come on down!
Come to lovely New Zealand where government regulated 'broadband' is defined as a pokey 256kbps ADSL connection provided by the monopoly lines company. The same company that undercuts its 'competitors' by offering 2Mbps at the same cost as their 'wholesale' 256kbps offering. We call Telecom NZ our own little Microsoft Minime.
Come to lovely New Zealand where we swamp towns with hydro dams, but still can't get enough electricity in high-demand (or low rainfall) years, because our one-size-fits-all "No Nukes" policy extends to harmless power stations, not just nu-cu-lar weapons and ships. (And yes, it was a New Zealander that first intentionally split the atom).
Still, it's a bloody lovely place to live. I just wish our government would get on the modern technology cluetrain once in a while.
P.S. can anyone access the New Scientist article? Surely it can't have been slashdotted this quickly!
Maybe it has been taken offline by some mysterious FTL alien death ray? Kinda like a planetary Chinese firewall?
I for one welcome our new intelligent extra terrestrial overlords!
(Sorry, it had to be done...)
It's just munchkins warmed over again. Until someone actually gets these things mass produced, I'm not biting.
Seriously, it's a great idea, but I need to see some serious prototypes before I get excited.
Please for the love of gods no! Just say no George.
Makes me start to think favourably about all those stupid "Peter Jackson should do the next Star Wars movie" jokes.
Seriously, if King Kong turns out to be not totally crap, then I reckon PJ could have a serious go at repairing our broken childhood memories of Star Wars.
OK good point... maybe it should have been "...so you will have to pay an 'at fault' excess of $2000 and you will not retain your no-claims bonus..."
My point was simply that if this system provides information that the insurance company can use to incrimitate you in any way, allowing them to revoke the 'no-fault' section of your policy, then rest assured they will use it.
Yeah good point actually. Always amazes me when people complain about insurance companies, yet the very same people will happily blow $100 at the local casino.
Same thing in my book: how the heck to the big insurance companies and casinos exist if they're not totally shafting their clients?
I think the best type of insurance 'company' I have seen is the old 'mutual society' type, whereby all premiums are invested, and investmen returns over and above a certain safety buffer (after covering costs) are returned to clients. In reality, you don't get any returns, but it's a bit nicer than knowing your premiums are going to some mega corporate.
"...but our GPS log show that you were travelling at 56 mph moments before the accident. We're going to have to decline your claim..."
People don't seem to realise that an insurance company's sole purpose in existence is to NOT pay out on claims. Otherwise how do they increase their profits?! Anything that can help them reduce the percentage of claims that are paid out will be snapped up.
Nice. That made me literally LOL. Everyone is giving me funny looks now.
Riiight. And so it should be up to me to put all my contact info in exactly the right order so I can sort by address or phone number? What!?
It's a sad day when you're such a GMail fanboy that you have to turn an obvious deficiency in their (beta yes, yes I know) system into some sort of user problem.
Honestly, are you being serious?
Got it in one buddy. Surprised no one else spotted my gratuitous name dropping.
Plus I just love to troll the GMail fanboys.
I figure with a gig to spare, I don't really give a toss.
As I've said, this gmail account is basically disposable. No IMAP, no POP... considering I do most of my email via GPRS it's pretty useless for me.
Fastmail kicks GMail's arse for versatility.
It's more because I consider my gmail account fairly disposable. Important stuff goes to one of my other accounts. I've started using gmail for forums, lists, slashdot, and whatever I don't care whether I receive or not.
I'm sorry, but I've got to politely disagree with you here. Gmail (as it stands) is nothing more than an exercise in mild javascript goodness. You can't even say that it's a load-test, due to the closed beta.
The spam filtering is okay - not awesome. I've had one or two legitimate list emails (as in I asked for them, regardless of how commercial they are) noted incorrectly as spam. I shouldn't have to have the list emails in my address book. Nothing new here.
Forum reply notifications get lumped under one big conversation because Google thinks they are part of a conversation. Err, bzzzzt wrong! Plus the funky javascript preview thing cuts off the most important part of those emails (the link to the forum thread).
The contacts system is an abomination. You can enter a name and an email and some notes. No room for address, phone or anything.
Sure it's a beta, but IMHO it's like a 0.4 rather than a 0.9 version. Nothing to be particularly excited about over a lot of other webmail systems currently available (fastmail, oddpost, hotmail).
(Yes, I do have Gmail, and I do understand it is a beta. Just stating current facts as I see them. Gmail may very well kick everyone else's asses once it is complete.)
I wouldn't worry about it. I've got gmail, (bgracewood@gmail.com) and to tell the absolute truth, it really is not all that exciting.
The spam filtering is okay. I've had one or two legitimate list emails noted as false positives. Nothing new here.
Forum reply notifications get lumped under one big conversation because Google thinks they are part of a conversation. Err, bzzzzt wrong! Plus the funky javascript preview thing cuts off the most important part of those emails (the link to the forum thread).
The contacts system is an abomination. You can enter a name and an email and some notes. No room for address, phone or anything.
Sure it's a beta, but IMHO it's like a 0.4 rather than a 0.9 version.
Right, and because Google says so, then wi-fi causes cancer?
As many other people have stated, there doesn't seem to be a heck of a lot of evidence linking non-ionizing, non-heating radiation to any form of cancer.
Heck, I love it when I hear people screaming bloody murder about the dangers of 'electromagnetic radiation'. Hello? Light bulbs? I'll respect this sort of scaremongering a lot more if the mongerers would at least focus on a particular area of the spectrum.
I meant 'hovering' your fingers above those bottom buttons. I imagine if you put enough pressure on them in order to grip the thing, then surely you'd be pressing the buttons constantly?
Hrrm true... but don't you just stick your keyboard in your lap for those hardcord coding sessions? I suppose you do get interrupted when leaning for the mouse all the time.
When I look at the pictures of that thing, I can't help but wonder how you're meant to grip it and type at the same time.
Similar to the problem I have with a mousewheel (I get a sore hand/finger from holding my finger above the wheel), I can imagine holding my fingers above the AlphaGrip's buttons while at the same time trying to grip the whole thing would be tendonitis city.
Anyone actually seen one of these in use and can confirm this for me?
I guess this is the opposite of the giant XBox controller fiasco then?
Seriously though, this would be great for a hacked XBox or PS2 Linux, but do they honestly think deskbound users will use it because "the AlphaGrip allows you to shift your body position frequently or even constantly without affecting your data input." I meam come on people, take a 5 minute break for gods' sake. Just get up and walk around or stretch. You don't need a $100 device to do it for you.