For people, business and government it seems that ethics are only important when they are convenient. It seems that they are not convenient very often anymore.
Yeah, for those of us who know what we are doing a recovery disk is not needed. But that's only about 5-10% of the computer buying population. Most users haven't a clue how to fix even the simplest computer problem and they need that two step process to fix their computer because that's about as much as they can handle:
Step 1) Insert "Magic Computer Fixing" Restore Disk Step 2) Turn on computer and hope it works
Granted restore disks aren't a cure all, but for most users its the one and only shot they have to fix it themselves.
From what I've read its quite easy for a developer to develop to the Wii, since its essentially an evolutionary improvement over the previous generation. So if they developed to the Gamecube or even the XBox they won't have a huge leap to make to develop to the Wii.
Sure the controls are going to be different, but how much development time would it take to program in using WiiMote vs a stock controller as a percentage of development time? Maybe 10% is controls? I don't know as I'm not a games developer - but I would think it wouldn't be more than that.
In reality the 3rd parties are going to want to develop to the platforms with the most users, hence most potential customers. Right now the Wii and 360 are the leaders so they are going to be the primary targets. Plus PS3 is playing catch in sales and everything I've read says its very hard to develop for. So, I'd think we'll see more Wii and 360 games under development than PS3 games in the future.
Selling computers without a recovery disk is just not smart IMO. Once you have sufficient problem to warrant restoring the computer, you're already pissed that its broken. Maybe your not pissed at the manufacturer of the PC at that point, because its not necessarily their fault.
But once you find out that its now NOT fixable because they were too cheap to give you a 25 cent to make recovery disk with your $400+ PC you WILL be pissed at them.
... I'm the buyer and the coder didn't deliver ANYTHING. We've been in "arbitration" for two weeks. The "arbitrator" is telling me _I'm_ at risk of losing the funds because I offered to allow 2 more days for the coder to deliver. How the hell am I supposed to be at fault for offering more time, and recieving NO FINISHED PRODUCT AT ALL? No code, no demos, no anything. How is that my fault exactly?
I will not be using RAC again. If I don't get my money back I will contact AMEX first, since I paid with AMEX and second a lawyer. What a racket. Stay away. FAR AWAY. Use a free coder service, a bunch have been recommended here. Negotiate a pay scale and work direct with the coders. The whole "escrow" business at RAC is a scam. If they were really an escrow I would have gotten my money back 2 weeks ago.
I bought KOTOR 2 pre-order. Played it through in 2 weeks or so after I got it. Great game until you reach the level of being about 85% through the game. Then it just goes to hell.
I was SO SO SO excited about this project. I figured 6 months or so, they'd release a patch "fixing" as much of the end game story as could be done. I checked back daily for a while, then weekly, then monthly...
While they talk a lot about progress, and show some screenshots, etc - there is no download available. Hell I'd PAY for a download of it. But there isn't one. There hasn't been anything but a couple minor patch downloads available for more than a year.
By the time they release it no one will care anymore because KOTOR 3 will be out. Its a shame that KOTOR 2 was butchered at the end. Its a double shame that the ones who seem to have fixed most of it won't share it with the world. (Not that I'm saying they have to - its their work - but why do the work to keep it to yourself?)
No one wants DRM music. That was a primary reason everyone used AllofMP3.com. That and the price of course. Now instead of AllofMP3 customers paying a small fee for music, I bet a lof of them will hit Shareaza and the file share networks again.
... which means that Google has a LOT of money to hire lawyers and fight cases brought against them. I'd be surprised if Google ever paid a big award for Copyright infringement, even when its happening on Google Video and Youtube. All they would have to do is take it down when asked and there is no basis for suit.
Google is a smart company if nothing else. I'm 100% sure they have this base covered.
I agree. I've worked from home most of the past 3 years. Its bliss. No one bothers you. If you're called into a meeting, you can still do other tasks. When I go into the office (1 week/month) - I find I'm a lot less productive. Everyone stops by, wants to talk, do long lunches, drag you into meetings...
It is good to have some face time to keep up with the group, but I do get more work done working remotely.
I did wonder though, if these were designed to look like the moisture farming gear Uncle Owen used in Star Wars. That would be pretty cool. But then again Lucasfilm would probably want royalties for the design...
If doing a little surfing at work makes workers more productive then I'm all for it. Taking a short 2-3 minute break every hour or so helps me keep focused. So I can certainly see the benefit to it.
Think about smokers at work. They take 5-10 minute smoke breaks every hour or two. Some of the most productive people I work with are smokers. They get their nicotine, have time to step away from their work, think a bit and come back clear headed. Not that I'm for smoking, but the short break does them wonders.
Bottom line for me is, if a little recreational surfing at work will ultimately mean more productivity, hell let them do it. We NEED as much productivity from the government as we can get.
I stopped watching Star Trek about the end of STTNG and the 3rd or so season of DS9.
I caught a couple episodes of Voyager years ago I don't think I watched to the end. DS9 was alright, but never held my interest. I never made it through an Enterprise episode either...
Did I miss anything worth seeing? I'd like to like Star Trek again but I didn't see much to like past STTNG...
Wow, I wish I had mod points. Parent is right on. We are totally screwing our own econony just because we're all cheap.
Quality is non-existent in almost everything now. Even "high quality" consumer goods like iPods break 6 months. If we weren't so cheap, we would pay the difference in price for US made goods, help support our own economy and stop sending our jobs (good and bad) overseas.
Oh Really? What if you cannot afford that house/car/whatever and its worth a whole lot less than you owe on it? That's me. I own 4 houses that are all worth a whole lot less than I paid for them. I cannot sell them, because I cannot pay the loans off that I bought them with. I cannot keep paying for all of them either. So what do you do then, eh? You pay for what you can and stop paying the rest. Sucks, but there is life for you.
Rather than one of those complex schemes, why not just enter a free giveaway? We give away a free iPod Shuffle once per month to our newsletter subscribers. All you have to do is subscribe to our very low volume newseletter announcing our specials:
Slashdot - please fix your HTML!
on
How Tomcat Works
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
I'm posting this in IE - which I had to open just to read this writeup. Slashdot's HTML is flaky and when viewed in Mozilla Firefox, it blows out the table to 3x screen width (1024) and puts black text on black background.
Please fix your code. A lot of us use Mozilla around here!
Comment's been on Slashdot all of two minutes and BANG!
You have been redirected to this page during a temporary period of planned downtime. We apologise for any inconvenience this work may have caused you. silicon.com should be available shortly and we encourage you to visit us again soon.
-The silicon.com Team
You've got to give them props for a nice, deceptive/informative error page though!
I've actively used TWiki (http://www.twiki.org/) for a while now and its pretty slick. Its a Perl Implementation and it has a built in versioning system, so it saves all of the revisions of the TWiki docs.
I definitely recommend it for anyone looking at running a Wiki.:-)
Looks like someone drew the lines in
on
Making Tracks on Mars
·
· Score: 0, Flamebait
Looking at the raw images, I don't see even the slightest trace of the items they point out. Seems to me someone just penciled in the tracks and other stuff on the marked up image.
Slashdot Mirror
For people, business and government it seems that ethics are only important when they are convenient. It seems that they are not convenient very often anymore.
Yeah, for those of us who know what we are doing a recovery disk is not needed. But that's only about 5-10% of the computer buying population. Most users haven't a clue how to fix even the simplest computer problem and they need that two step process to fix their computer because that's about as much as they can handle:
Step 1) Insert "Magic Computer Fixing" Restore Disk
Step 2) Turn on computer and hope it works
Granted restore disks aren't a cure all, but for most users its the one and only shot they have to fix it themselves.
From what I've read its quite easy for a developer to develop to the Wii, since its essentially an evolutionary improvement over the previous generation. So if they developed to the Gamecube or even the XBox they won't have a huge leap to make to develop to the Wii.
Sure the controls are going to be different, but how much development time would it take to program in using WiiMote vs a stock controller as a percentage of development time? Maybe 10% is controls? I don't know as I'm not a games developer - but I would think it wouldn't be more than that.
In reality the 3rd parties are going to want to develop to the platforms with the most users, hence most potential customers. Right now the Wii and 360 are the leaders so they are going to be the primary targets. Plus PS3 is playing catch in sales and everything I've read says its very hard to develop for. So, I'd think we'll see more Wii and 360 games under development than PS3 games in the future.
Selling computers without a recovery disk is just not smart IMO. Once you have sufficient problem to warrant restoring the computer, you're already pissed that its broken. Maybe your not pissed at the manufacturer of the PC at that point, because its not necessarily their fault.
But once you find out that its now NOT fixable because they were too cheap to give you a 25 cent to make recovery disk with your $400+ PC you WILL be pissed at them.
Its just bad business practice to me.
Ya, but is it the kind of advertising you want? To me it seems like its $100K spent advertising to the world you are a fool.
... I'm the buyer and the coder didn't deliver ANYTHING. We've been in "arbitration" for two weeks. The "arbitrator" is telling me _I'm_ at risk of losing the funds because I offered to allow 2 more days for the coder to deliver. How the hell am I supposed to be at fault for offering more time, and recieving NO FINISHED PRODUCT AT ALL? No code, no demos, no anything. How is that my fault exactly?
I will not be using RAC again. If I don't get my money back I will contact AMEX first, since I paid with AMEX and second a lawyer. What a racket. Stay away. FAR AWAY. Use a free coder service, a bunch have been recommended here. Negotiate a pay scale and work direct with the coders. The whole "escrow" business at RAC is a scam. If they were really an escrow I would have gotten my money back 2 weeks ago.
I bought KOTOR 2 pre-order. Played it through in 2 weeks or so after I got it. Great game until you reach the level of being about 85% through the game. Then it just goes to hell.
I was SO SO SO excited about this project. I figured 6 months or so, they'd release a patch "fixing" as much of the end game story as could be done. I checked back daily for a while, then weekly, then monthly...
While they talk a lot about progress, and show some screenshots, etc - there is no download available. Hell I'd PAY for a download of it. But there isn't one. There hasn't been anything but a couple minor patch downloads available for more than a year.
By the time they release it no one will care anymore because KOTOR 3 will be out. Its a shame that KOTOR 2 was butchered at the end. Its a double shame that the ones who seem to have fixed most of it won't share it with the world. (Not that I'm saying they have to - its their work - but why do the work to keep it to yourself?)
Take care,
Brian
--
SiteChanged.com - Monitor web sites for changes in content
No one wants DRM music. That was a primary reason everyone used AllofMP3.com. That and the price of course. Now instead of AllofMP3 customers paying a small fee for music, I bet a lof of them will hit Shareaza and the file share networks again.
Great move RIAA...
Take care,
Brian
... which means that Google has a LOT of money to hire lawyers and fight cases brought against them. I'd be surprised if Google ever paid a big award for Copyright infringement, even when its happening on Google Video and Youtube. All they would have to do is take it down when asked and there is no basis for suit.
Google is a smart company if nothing else. I'm 100% sure they have this base covered.
Take care, Brian
--
HoldEmToolShed.com - Poker Software, News and Tips
I agree. I've worked from home most of the past 3 years. Its bliss. No one bothers you. If you're called into a meeting, you can still do other tasks. When I go into the office (1 week/month) - I find I'm a lot less productive. Everyone stops by, wants to talk, do long lunches, drag you into meetings...
It is good to have some face time to keep up with the group, but I do get more work done working remotely.
Take care,
Brian
--
SiteChanged.com -- Track your favorite web sites
No sorry sure didn't.
I did wonder though, if these were designed to look like the moisture farming gear Uncle Owen used in Star Wars. That would be pretty cool. But then again Lucasfilm would probably want royalties for the design...
Take care,
Brian
--
SiteChanged.com - Track your favorite web sites
Yes, I bet your right.
If doing a little surfing at work makes workers more productive then I'm all for it. Taking a short 2-3 minute break every hour or so helps me keep focused. So I can certainly see the benefit to it.
Think about smokers at work. They take 5-10 minute smoke breaks every hour or two. Some of the most productive people I work with are smokers. They get their nicotine, have time to step away from their work, think a bit and come back clear headed. Not that I'm for smoking, but the short break does them wonders.
Bottom line for me is, if a little recreational surfing at work will ultimately mean more productivity, hell let them do it. We NEED as much productivity from the government as we can get.
Take care, Brian
--
SiteChanged.com - Web Site Change Tracking
I stopped watching Star Trek about the end of STTNG and the 3rd or so season of DS9.
I caught a couple episodes of Voyager years ago I don't think I watched to the end. DS9 was alright, but never held my interest. I never made it through an Enterprise episode either...
Did I miss anything worth seeing? I'd like to like Star Trek again but I didn't see much to like past STTNG...
Take care,
Brian
--
SiteChanged.com: Web Site Tracking
Wow, I wish I had mod points. Parent is right on. We are totally screwing our own econony just because we're all cheap.
Quality is non-existent in almost everything now. Even "high quality" consumer goods like iPods break 6 months. If we weren't so cheap, we would pay the difference in price for US made goods, help support our own economy and stop sending our jobs (good and bad) overseas.
Take care,
Brian
--
Current Project: SiteChanged.com - Free Web Site Monitoring
Oh Really? What if you cannot afford that house/car/whatever and its worth a whole lot less than you owe on it? That's me. I own 4 houses that are all worth a whole lot less than I paid for them. I cannot sell them, because I cannot pay the loans off that I bought them with. I cannot keep paying for all of them either. So what do you do then, eh? You pay for what you can and stop paying the rest. Sucks, but there is life for you.
Wow, I should patent something completely obvious too. $100 million for a hierarchical menu on an iPod?
Seriously when are we going to fix the patent laws in this country? This is just plain stupid.
Take care,
Brian
--
http://www.holdemtoolshed.com/
God damn it, why don't I have mod points. That's the first time in a year I LOL'd at a Slashdot comment. :-)
Aloha,
Brian
Rather than one of those complex schemes, why not just enter a free giveaway? We give away a free iPod Shuffle once per month to our newsletter subscribers. All you have to do is subscribe to our very low volume newseletter announcing our specials:
http://www.assortedinternet.com/specials/
Take care,
Brian
Damn it! I needed mod points for this!
+1 Funny
+1 Holy Grail Reference
I'm posting this in IE - which I had to open just to read this writeup. Slashdot's HTML is flaky and when viewed in Mozilla Firefox, it blows out the table to 3x screen width (1024) and puts black text on black background.
Please fix your code. A lot of us use Mozilla around here!
Thank you,
Brian
--
http://www.assortedinternet.com/
I don't have mod points, but damn it, that is funny. Therefore:
+1 Funny
Take care,
Brian
--
Linux Web Hosting
Comment's been on Slashdot all of two minutes and BANG!
You have been redirected to this page during a temporary period of planned downtime. We apologise for any inconvenience this work may have caused you. silicon.com should be available shortly and we encourage you to visit us again soon.
-The silicon.com Team
You've got to give them props for a nice, deceptive/informative error page though!
Brian
--
Linux Web Hosting
I've actively used TWiki (http://www.twiki.org/) for a while now and its pretty slick. Its a Perl Implementation and it has a built in versioning system, so it saves all of the revisions of the TWiki docs.
I definitely recommend it for anyone looking at running a Wiki. :-)
Take care,
Brian
--
Linux Web Hosting
Looking at the raw images, I don't see even the slightest trace of the items they point out. Seems to me someone just penciled in the tracks and other stuff on the marked up image.
Take care,
Brian
--
Linux Web Hosting
'nuff said. :-)