How can they do a comparison with a single number? We need upload AND download speeds to do a comparison....
Or perhaps, that is their whole angle. A 384/384 DSL connection is slower than a 800/20 cable connection? Which, in theory, would be true for downloads -- but I personally run a server.
People need to understand statistics before they start writing articles about them. It is like that new cable commercial where they said "In a study of auto accidents, 1/3rd of all those tested were under the influence of Marijuana"... Ok, but how many were not tested? How many were also under the influence of alchohol, crank, PCP, etc? How many of them were under age? How many were.....
IMHO, that article used completely useless statistics. If you really want to know, use dslreports
If you go to your local city center (sometimes where utilities are paid), you can ask them. The last time I registered a home-based programming company, I simply told them I would have no walk-in traffic as a result of the business, due to all business being conducted over the internet. They were fine with that. Zoning restrictions are almost always based around the amount of traffic that will be generated (walk-in and drive-up) by said business.
As a side note, the part that confused me when I was registering was that I had to check which counties I would be conducting business in. Upon questioning the receptionists, I found that I was supposed to list all counties that would see my advertisements. That is not realistic for internet-based businesses. They told me just to mark the ones where I might physically meet with clients.
It is a little hard to tell from the article... Are they planning on taking the open-source OpenOffice and modifying it to be their own product?
Sounds like them. Not like Websphere has any Apache code or anything.
Why do they always feel the need to compete with open-source instead of helping the movement. Very irritating since the open-source versions usually work better than IBM's versions.
You should always let them know if they are making a bad decision. They may not always take your recommendation, and may even get to the point where they EXPECT you to argue (like they did with me) -- but otherwise you are just a seat filler.
You are hired for your technical expertise. If they say, "It must be done like this", then I have no problem speaking up with a "that will be extremely slow".
But here's the key: Be prepared to provide an alternative. If you critisize, but don't provide a solution, they may just see your comment as non-productive. However, if you get in the habit of providing better solutions, they may start asking you to find a solution to begin with.
Wow. What responses. Definitely did not expect to get marked as a Troll since I was relating the RECENT experience of using it and testing it for the job -- but what the hell.
Perhaps it is important to talk about editors for a moment. I have used JBuilder, NetBeans, Visual Age Micro Edition, etc. What do I normally use? JCreator. Why? Because the 2 minutes that you spent above clicking here and there are summed up into:
Click New Type in filename type in:
public class HelloWorld {
public static void main(String[] args)
{
System.out.println("Hello World!");
} }
Anyone want to explain to me why it should be a good thing to take 2 minutes to type THAT????
So you found it easy and convenient. That's great. That doesn't change the fact that it slowed me down dramatically. I could have done your 2 minutes in 10 seconds in Notepad! IE: Not efficient or intuitive.
As to the other comments... I am not going to comment about my intelligence or any of that. I have been posting on slashdot about Java since my comments were outcast just for mentioning Java. I'm the reason my old college now teaches Java, and I don't personally care what anyone thinks about my choice.
As far as Eclipse looking like their native OS -- I would have to ask for screenshots to prove that. Upon launching Elipse, the first and blatenly obvious thing is that the tabs don't look anything like any other program on my entire system. Let's put it this way, at a brief glance, the company decided to go with Swing and the Kunstoff look and feel because it looked MORE like Windows than SWT.
Yes, that's right, an IBM Partner said they weren't going to use Eclipse or SWT because it 1) doesn't look like Windows, and 2) isn't cross-platform.
I challenge you to show me a picture of the Eclipse IDE that looks like the rest of the Windows programs. The people who responded in retaliation were either amateurs, didn't notice the big glaring differences, or just arguing to flame.
As far as the cross-platform bit. I don't care who you are (IBM, for example) -- if you have to distribute.dll or.so files with your java program, it can no longer be considered either pure-Java or cross-platform. Why? Because I can not take my directory from the Windows box and run it on my BSD box. I can't believe how many people out there said it is still cross-platform even though it requires native libraries. Have any of you tried to do that? Did you look at the list of platforms it will work on from Eclipse's website? You can't download eclipse.jar and run it on multiple platforms -- you have to download a DIFFERENT version for each platform, IF they support it. Thus, NOT CROSS-PLATFORM!
As a side note, I thank Latent Heat for defending my troll-status with their own personal experience. It is interesting to note that with 3 different people moderating the above article, it only took one to mark Troll to make me a troll. Sux.
I don't see in that MI legislation where VPN and/or NAT is disallowed. I have 5 machines running on my connection -- but I am not concealing the origin of the message, since the origin is still my house. I could see that this might ban wireless offloading of bandwidth -- but how does it prevent me from using VPN or NAT?
I tried Eclipse a month ago, and was severly disappointed. First off, I had to read the tutorial to figure out how to build HelloWorld with their system. Not intuitive. Also, the SWT library is a complete joke -- it doesn't look like the host OS, and requires native code. No java program using SWT is cross-platform, so what's the point?
I just wish I had my SDSL again. I had 802/802 for $40/month(telocity) -- now I have 384/384 for $40(isp)+$40(verizon) and Verizon says it can never get faster because of the cabling between me and the CO.
Or, perhaps, someone could start a new ISP and work a deal with World Wide Fiber (goal: fiber to the end-user).
Very odd.... In 1993, after I switch from Gopher to a pre-release of Mosaic, I saw a few banner ads. In fact, I designed one for my ISP and put it on my main page and got free ISP access for 6 years. Don't remember seeing Amazon back then. When did they go online?
And yeah, even if it wasn't for people like Prodigy, Genie, and (there was a third, wasn't there?) -- didn't AOL have advertisements all along?
I realize that you are an anonymous coward, but let me clear this misconception up for everyone else, since you obviously know nothing about Java.
The JVM is written in C (C++ actually - but let's keep it simple for you).
That depends on which implementation. SUN's does, yes -- but the spec does not require it, and there have in fact been versions written in Java. I also have two pieces of hardware that ONLY understand Java bytecodes, no C involved. And, just FYI, SUN's version also has ASM code, you dolt.
Any exploit that can cause the JVM to get an undesirable behavior is a valid exploit
That would depend. I can launch something like Visual C++ (yech) and attach to the process, and screw with the memory of the running JVM, and screw it -- is that a JVM exploit? NO! That is an OS exploit.
how would a would-be exploit be able to run foreign java code in the almighty JVM sandbox
This can only happen if YOU have not configured the box correctly. I had made the comment that you could disable the JNI, but, let's take it a step further. How about you install a version of Java that doesn't support JNI at all, since it is an optional add-on and not required per the spec? If you don't setup security on your box, then it is your fault if it isn't secure.
But, let's be realistic here. I am sure everyone on/. knows that your can write damaging code in C (or C++, or ASM, or...). The vulnerability is there because Java (SUN's version) let's you run C code -- but it is still a C exploit, even if it is being launched from Java. Or are you saying that one little C program is a Java exploit, as opposed to an Apache exploit, or Windows exploit or... even though it would work in ALL of them? To be a true Java exploit, you would have to write something in pure-Java that is an exploit. AND, you would have to get THROUGH the Security Manager (which means you forgetting to set up your security doesn't count). That's like saying that a firewall has a security exploit if you configured it wrong.
I watched the power-point, because I was really curious how to provide this exploit. Looking at his example, I was really curious when I saw his Java code contained the line "for each pointer p of type A"... Pointer? You don't have direct access to pointers. What is he doing?
Watch further and it all makes sense. He said that Java is vulnerable to these memory errors, and that you can prove it by adding some non-Java code. Well, no S*&t! Has anyone ever doubted that you can do whatever the hell you want from C or ASM?
If you are really worried about it, disable JNI. Not only is it an optional package, but you can force it to always be disabled in the Security Manager.
As a side comment, if you are going to post a nice exploit of Java, please write it in Java.
"John G. Malcolm, deputy assistant attorney general in the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice did say there seems to be some connection between illegal copying and organized crime"
Does anyone remember the rules about statistics? Or specifically about correlations and cause-effects?
"These groups will not hesitate to threaten or injure those who tend to interfere with their operations,"
Wait, are we talking about P2P users, or M$ themselves?
"Illegally copied materials can have markups of 900 percent"
Get real. That is what the LEGAL versions do. I used to work at a major retail chain. The MOST expensive DVD we bought was $1.69. Most were less. The cheapest we sold was $40. Some, like Caligula, we bought for $1 and sold for $100! P2P users, on the other hand, usually get 0% markup, as it is shared free. Sometimes, it even COSTS them (time, energy, hard drive space).
"For too long, people engaged in piracy believed that if they were outside the borders of the United States , they could violate our intellectual property laws with impunity," Malcolm added. "They were wrong. This indictment and the extradition sends a clear and unequivocal message to everybody involved in illegal piracy that regardless of where you are, the Justice Department will find you, investigate you, arrest you, prosecute you, and incarcerate you."
BS. If this were true, big companies (like M$) couldn't get patents on things that are in common usage. People like AOL couldn't force pengaol to loose their domain. You only get persecuted (yes, persecuted) if you are the one with lower-paid lawyers. Not to mention, even if NO ONE made illegal copies of M$ software, they could STILL claim a 20% loss - due to the law assuming pirating is taking place.
"I can't help but sit here and wonder... if parents fully understand the ramifications of what it is to steal a movie or pirate a song,"
Why don't we ask the recording label? I am sure that many artists feel like they have no rights over what they created. An artist (musical artist, author, whatever) is not ALLOWED to give you permission to use their work -- because they don't own it. They loose all rights to it to get it published.
"Jack Valenti, president and chief executive officer of the MPAA, described a couple examples of copying operations that had been raided outside the U.S. , and he said 26 copying factories in Russia can copy 300 million DVDs and CDs a year. He claimed his industry is losing billions of dollars a year to piracy,"
The MPAA's entire industry is based off doing exactly that! You think the artist gets full price per DVD/CD? Many artists claim (in interviews) that they receive NO MONEY from cd sales, just from gigs and memorabilia. Sounds like the MPAA is pissed off that the people are fighting back against their piracy.
"I think it'd be a good idea to go out and actually bust a couple of these college kids," Carter said. "If you want to see college kids duck and run, you let them read the papers and somebody's got a 33-month sentence in the federal penitentiary for downloading copyrighted materials."
If that was true, no one in college would do drugs now, would they?
All in all, my solution? Don't let the government take advice from M$ or the MPAA -- everyone knows they are bigger crooks than the people they complain about.
Re:Assuming it unusable quite soon...
on
Opencroquet
·
· Score: 1
>> The whole situation sucks. We have all this powerful hardware yet system responsiveness and application speed is the same as it was 15 years ago. Stupid.
Well, perhaps it has something to do with the fact that our current 64-bit machines still use 4-bit IRQs???
After reading the article, I was prepared to just close the link since I have no interest in paying to visit ANY site. Hell, at least I registered with/., I still won't do that for the NYTimes articles that keep getting posted -- I just ignore every single one.
And pay to PARTIALLY disable banners? Very lame. I never see them anyways, since I have gotten so accustomed to ignoring them... It's amazing at how trained you can get at ignoring pretty much all graphics on all sites.
But, to top it off, I read ALL of the comments to this article so far. Not a single good one -- doesn't that hint at something?
Yes, I know everyone is commenting on the same aspect of your post.... but I chose to reply to you instead of to one of the derivatives below...
I would have to argue that everything has NOT been done. For example, when Piers Anthony made his Incarnations of Immortality series -- that was a very unique writing style. We STILL haven't seen that in Movies. Global Chess was a very unique approach to Chess. The only similar games I have seen are ones that were made as direct rip-offs of theirs. And Uplink, as far as I can tell, is a fairly unique computer game. Though it gets redundant after awhile, I found that I (and even my girlfriend) quickly became addicted to it.
I don't think we can say everything has been done. That just makes us feel pessimistic about our ideas. Even taking two current ideas and mixing them together can be unique.
Personally, I think the biggest problem standing in the way of great games is the fact that most developers who have an interest in writing games don't have a financial situation that allows it -- ie: we have to work in the real world instead of writing games. I live in the Portland, Oregon area -- and we have HUNDREDS (probably actually THOUSANDS) of unemployment developers here. If a "good" game company were to start up here, I am sure they could come out with some great AND unique games.
The problem is simply the finances. If we don't have enough money coming in so that we can go off and write games, we spend all of our time working for someone else.
Personally, I really like the BSD Ports Collection. Sometimes it feels like it isn't updated often enough, but it sure is a nice distribution mechanism.
What the hell? I would understand if they were investigating for fraud, but telling me I can't practice geology should get every boyscout and student busted. Idiots.
Slashdot Mirror
How can they do a comparison with a single number? We need upload AND download speeds to do a comparison....
Or perhaps, that is their whole angle. A 384/384 DSL connection is slower than a 800/20 cable connection? Which, in theory, would be true for downloads -- but I personally run a server.
People need to understand statistics before they start writing articles about them. It is like that new cable commercial where they said "In a study of auto accidents, 1/3rd of all those tested were under the influence of Marijuana"... Ok, but how many were not tested? How many were also under the influence of alchohol, crank, PCP, etc? How many of them were under age? How many were.....
IMHO, that article used completely useless statistics. If you really want to know, use dslreports
Malachi
If you go to your local city center (sometimes where utilities are paid), you can ask them. The last time I registered a home-based programming company, I simply told them I would have no walk-in traffic as a result of the business, due to all business being conducted over the internet. They were fine with that. Zoning restrictions are almost always based around the amount of traffic that will be generated (walk-in and drive-up) by said business.
As a side note, the part that confused me when I was registering was that I had to check which counties I would be conducting business in. Upon questioning the receptionists, I found that I was supposed to list all counties that would see my advertisements. That is not realistic for internet-based businesses. They told me just to mark the ones where I might physically meet with clients.
Malachi
Personally, I learned much more playing Robot Odyssey as a child than in all the digital electronics classes I took in college.
I recently found a simulator and ROM for it, and had my fiancee try it. She was building circuits to navigate sentried mazes within about 5 minutes.
Malachi
I know you are A.C., but I just tried that - doesn't work.
Malachi
Offtopic, I know, but direct reply to your sig.
I personally don't care if people link to them or not. As soon as I see "NYTimes", I skip to the next article.
Malachi
Malachi
It is a little hard to tell from the article... Are they planning on taking the open-source OpenOffice and modifying it to be their own product?
Sounds like them. Not like Websphere has any Apache code or anything.
Why do they always feel the need to compete with open-source instead of helping the movement. Very irritating since the open-source versions usually work better than IBM's versions.
Malachi
At first, we were very tempted to not watch it, given the western look-n-feel. We watched the pilot, however, and didn't miss an episode since.
If they want to know why no one is watching it, perhaps they should consider that it hasn't been on in months?
Malachi
You should always let them know if they are making a bad decision. They may not always take your recommendation, and may even get to the point where they EXPECT you to argue (like they did with me) -- but otherwise you are just a seat filler.
You are hired for your technical expertise. If they say, "It must be done like this", then I have no problem speaking up with a "that will be extremely slow".
But here's the key: Be prepared to provide an alternative. If you critisize, but don't provide a solution, they may just see your comment as non-productive. However, if you get in the habit of providing better solutions, they may start asking you to find a solution to begin with.
Malachi
TOMSRTBT is actually Minix. It can be installed onto a floppy or onto the boot partition of a CDR(W).
I definitely have to agree that it is my first choice.
Malachi
Wow. What responses. Definitely did not expect to get marked as a Troll since I was relating the RECENT experience of using it and testing it for the job -- but what the hell.
.dll or .so files with your java program, it can no longer be considered either pure-Java or cross-platform. Why? Because I can not take my directory from the Windows box and run it on my BSD box. I can't believe how many people out there said it is still cross-platform even though it requires native libraries. Have any of you tried to do that? Did you look at the list of platforms it will work on from Eclipse's website? You can't download eclipse.jar and run it on multiple platforms -- you have to download a DIFFERENT version for each platform, IF they support it. Thus, NOT CROSS-PLATFORM!
Perhaps it is important to talk about editors for a moment. I have used JBuilder, NetBeans, Visual Age Micro Edition, etc. What do I normally use? JCreator. Why? Because the 2 minutes that you spent above clicking here and there are summed up into:
Click New
Type in filename
type in:
public class HelloWorld
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
System.out.println("Hello World!");
}
}
Anyone want to explain to me why it should be a good thing to take 2 minutes to type THAT????
So you found it easy and convenient. That's great. That doesn't change the fact that it slowed me down dramatically. I could have done your 2 minutes in 10 seconds in Notepad! IE: Not efficient or intuitive.
As to the other comments... I am not going to comment about my intelligence or any of that. I have been posting on slashdot about Java since my comments were outcast just for mentioning Java. I'm the reason my old college now teaches Java, and I don't personally care what anyone thinks about my choice.
As far as Eclipse looking like their native OS -- I would have to ask for screenshots to prove that. Upon launching Elipse, the first and blatenly obvious thing is that the tabs don't look anything like any other program on my entire system. Let's put it this way, at a brief glance, the company decided to go with Swing and the Kunstoff look and feel because it looked MORE like Windows than SWT.
Yes, that's right, an IBM Partner said they weren't going to use Eclipse or SWT because it 1) doesn't look like Windows, and 2) isn't cross-platform.
I challenge you to show me a picture of the Eclipse IDE that looks like the rest of the Windows programs. The people who responded in retaliation were either amateurs, didn't notice the big glaring differences, or just arguing to flame.
As far as the cross-platform bit. I don't care who you are (IBM, for example) -- if you have to distribute
As a side note, I thank Latent Heat for defending my troll-status with their own personal experience. It is interesting to note that with 3 different people moderating the above article, it only took one to mark Troll to make me a troll. Sux.
I don't see in that MI legislation where VPN and/or NAT is disallowed. I have 5 machines running on my connection -- but I am not concealing the origin of the message, since the origin is still my house. I could see that this might ban wireless offloading of bandwidth -- but how does it prevent me from using VPN or NAT?
Malachi
Malachi
I tried Eclipse a month ago, and was severly disappointed. First off, I had to read the tutorial to figure out how to build HelloWorld with their system. Not intuitive. Also, the SWT library is a complete joke -- it doesn't look like the host OS, and requires native code. No java program using SWT is cross-platform, so what's the point?
Malachi
Looked at the article, copied-pasted the first bit into Google, and wooha! It works.
Google search: "There Inc."
I just wish I had my SDSL again. I had 802/802 for $40/month(telocity) -- now I have 384/384 for $40(isp)+$40(verizon) and Verizon says it can never get faster because of the cabling between me and the CO.
Or, perhaps, someone could start a new ISP and work a deal with World Wide Fiber (goal: fiber to the end-user).
Mal
Very odd.... In 1993, after I switch from Gopher to a pre-release of Mosaic, I saw a few banner ads. In fact, I designed one for my ISP and put it on my main page and got free ISP access for 6 years. Don't remember seeing Amazon back then. When did they go online?
And yeah, even if it wasn't for people like Prodigy, Genie, and (there was a third, wasn't there?) -- didn't AOL have advertisements all along?
Malachi
The JVM is written in C (C++ actually - but let's keep it simple for you).
That depends on which implementation. SUN's does, yes -- but the spec does not require it, and there have in fact been versions written in Java. I also have two pieces of hardware that ONLY understand Java bytecodes, no C involved. And, just FYI, SUN's version also has ASM code, you dolt.
Any exploit that can cause the JVM to get an undesirable behavior is a valid exploit
That would depend. I can launch something like Visual C++ (yech) and attach to the process, and screw with the memory of the running JVM, and screw it -- is that a JVM exploit? NO! That is an OS exploit.
how would a would-be exploit be able to run foreign java code in the almighty JVM sandbox
This can only happen if YOU have not configured the box correctly. I had made the comment that you could disable the JNI, but, let's take it a step further. How about you install a version of Java that doesn't support JNI at all, since it is an optional add-on and not required per the spec? If you don't setup security on your box, then it is your fault if it isn't secure.
But, let's be realistic here. I am sure everyone on /. knows that your can write damaging code in C (or C++, or ASM, or...). The vulnerability is there because Java (SUN's version) let's you run C code -- but it is still a C exploit, even if it is being launched from Java. Or are you saying that one little C program is a Java exploit, as opposed to an Apache exploit, or Windows exploit or... even though it would work in ALL of them? To be a true Java exploit, you would have to write something in pure-Java that is an exploit. AND, you would have to get THROUGH the Security Manager (which means you forgetting to set up your security doesn't count). That's like saying that a firewall has a security exploit if you configured it wrong.
I watched the power-point, because I was really curious how to provide this exploit. Looking at his example, I was really curious when I saw his Java code contained the line "for each pointer p of type A"... Pointer? You don't have direct access to pointers. What is he doing?
Watch further and it all makes sense. He said that Java is vulnerable to these memory errors, and that you can prove it by adding some non-Java code. Well, no S*&t! Has anyone ever doubted that you can do whatever the hell you want from C or ASM?
If you are really worried about it, disable JNI. Not only is it an optional package, but you can force it to always be disabled in the Security Manager.
As a side comment, if you are going to post a nice exploit of Java, please write it in Java.
Malachi
Does anyone remember the rules about statistics? Or specifically about correlations and cause-effects?
"These groups will not hesitate to threaten or injure those who tend to interfere with their operations,"
Wait, are we talking about P2P users, or M$ themselves? "Illegally copied materials can have markups of 900 percent"
Get real. That is what the LEGAL versions do. I used to work at a major retail chain. The MOST expensive DVD we bought was $1.69. Most were less. The cheapest we sold was $40. Some, like Caligula, we bought for $1 and sold for $100! P2P users, on the other hand, usually get 0% markup, as it is shared free. Sometimes, it even COSTS them (time, energy, hard drive space).
"For too long, people engaged in piracy believed that if they were outside the borders of the United States , they could violate our intellectual property laws with impunity," Malcolm added. "They were wrong. This indictment and the extradition sends a clear and unequivocal message to everybody involved in illegal piracy that regardless of where you are, the Justice Department will find you, investigate you, arrest you, prosecute you, and incarcerate you."
BS. If this were true, big companies (like M$) couldn't get patents on things that are in common usage. People like AOL couldn't force pengaol to loose their domain. You only get persecuted (yes, persecuted) if you are the one with lower-paid lawyers. Not to mention, even if NO ONE made illegal copies of M$ software, they could STILL claim a 20% loss - due to the law assuming pirating is taking place.
"I can't help but sit here and wonder ... if parents fully understand the ramifications of what it is to steal a movie or pirate a song,"
Why don't we ask the recording label? I am sure that many artists feel like they have no rights over what they created. An artist (musical artist, author, whatever) is not ALLOWED to give you permission to use their work -- because they don't own it. They loose all rights to it to get it published.
"Jack Valenti, president and chief executive officer of the MPAA, described a couple examples of copying operations that had been raided outside the U.S. , and he said 26 copying factories in Russia can copy 300 million DVDs and CDs a year. He claimed his industry is losing billions of dollars a year to piracy,"
The MPAA's entire industry is based off doing exactly that! You think the artist gets full price per DVD/CD? Many artists claim (in interviews) that they receive NO MONEY from cd sales, just from gigs and memorabilia. Sounds like the MPAA is pissed off that the people are fighting back against their piracy.
"I think it'd be a good idea to go out and actually bust a couple of these college kids," Carter said. "If you want to see college kids duck and run, you let them read the papers and somebody's got a 33-month sentence in the federal penitentiary for downloading copyrighted materials."
If that was true, no one in college would do drugs now, would they?
All in all, my solution? Don't let the government take advice from M$ or the MPAA -- everyone knows they are bigger crooks than the people they complain about.
>> The whole situation sucks. We have all this powerful hardware yet system responsiveness and application speed is the same as it was 15 years ago. Stupid.
Well, perhaps it has something to do with the fact that our current 64-bit machines still use 4-bit IRQs???
Mal
After reading the article, I was prepared to just close the link since I have no interest in paying to visit ANY site. Hell, at least I registered with /., I still won't do that for the NYTimes articles that keep getting posted -- I just ignore every single one.
And pay to PARTIALLY disable banners? Very lame. I never see them anyways, since I have gotten so accustomed to ignoring them... It's amazing at how trained you can get at ignoring pretty much all graphics on all sites.
But, to top it off, I read ALL of the comments to this article so far. Not a single good one -- doesn't that hint at something?
Malachi
"Everything's already been done"
Yes, I know everyone is commenting on the same aspect of your post.... but I chose to reply to you instead of to one of the derivatives below...
I would have to argue that everything has NOT been done. For example, when Piers Anthony made his Incarnations of Immortality series -- that was a very unique writing style. We STILL haven't seen that in Movies. Global Chess was a very unique approach to Chess. The only similar games I have seen are ones that were made as direct rip-offs of theirs. And Uplink, as far as I can tell, is a fairly unique computer game. Though it gets redundant after awhile, I found that I (and even my girlfriend) quickly became addicted to it.
I don't think we can say everything has been done. That just makes us feel pessimistic about our ideas. Even taking two current ideas and mixing them together can be unique.
Personally, I think the biggest problem standing in the way of great games is the fact that most developers who have an interest in writing games don't have a financial situation that allows it -- ie: we have to work in the real world instead of writing games. I live in the Portland, Oregon area -- and we have HUNDREDS (probably actually THOUSANDS) of unemployment developers here. If a "good" game company were to start up here, I am sure they could come out with some great AND unique games.
The problem is simply the finances. If we don't have enough money coming in so that we can go off and write games, we spend all of our time working for someone else.
Personally, I really like the BSD Ports Collection. Sometimes it feels like it isn't updated often enough, but it sure is a nice distribution mechanism.
Malachi
"practicing geology without a license"???
What the hell? I would understand if they were investigating for fraud, but telling me I can't practice geology should get every boyscout and student busted. Idiots.
Malachi