Surprisingly, I actually found this to be a really good study. I was about to spout off with the usual response that "Correlation is not causality", when I found that the study's authors already had!
From the discussion: "The primary limitation of this study is its correlational nature. It does not provide evidence for the possible causal relations among the variables studied. It is certainly possible that pathological gaming causes poor school performance, and so forth, but it is equally likely that children who have trouble at school seek to play games to experience feelings of mastery, or that attention problems cause both poor school performance and an attraction to games."
What I take from the study is that "pathological" gaming provides a pretty good predictive indicator of other issues with the child. This is what parents need to know; don't just take away video games and think "yay, I'm being a good parent!"
Figure out why the child is playing too much and address those issues.
Ask how the producers of Spider Man feel about copyright when it caused them to be sued because billboards were visible on the streets they filmed there and then sued for modifying the billobard owners works when they replaced the images digitally.
That had nothing to do with copyright law, it had to do with some advertising companies trying to make a quick buck. Keep in mind that people can sue for ANY reason. Dismissal usually means that you don't even have grounds for a case.
Wow, it certainly seems that a lot of people think that coal power plants are the prime emitters of mercury. Care to show some citations that say otherwise?
A lot of people don't know what Firewire is, sure. They buy the cheap laptop thinking it doesn't matter. But then they scratch their heads and complain when it tasks an order of magnitude longer for their files to copy to a device.
USB 2.0: 480 Mb/s Firewire 800: 786 Mb/s order of magnitude: I don't think those words mean what you think they mean.
WTF? I use my 2.1 GHz 2GB dual-core Athlon machine to run Visual Studio 2008, Open Office, Gimp and Visio simultaneously and it works flawlessly and fast (this machine is almost 3 years old) I'm betting the issue the "windows users" mention is due to something other than the machine or the OS.
Sometimes I think that we here on slashdot forget that there is a room full of economists, market analysts and manufacturing experts at apple that help shape the nature of the mac line. If a mid range tower was going to help apples bottom line significantly, then they would be making one.
Yes, and there is another roomful of economits, market analysts, and manufacturing experts at Dell. And one at Sony. And one at Asus, and HP, etc. And for some reason, they have ALL decided that a mid range tower does help their bottom line.
Why could that be? Oh yeah, competition. We here at slashdot need to remember that Apple has pretty much NO competition in the OS X hardware realm, so of course they can pick and choose the markets they want to operate in without regard to consumers.
Hi, can I have an article with that posting please?
No? How about some facts...like which DLL was replaced, what audio card they tested with, some steps on how to replicate the "being locked out of your own local settings folder?"
Oh, wait...another high-quality kdawson posting. Move along, nothing to see here.
The people who come up with these franchise cash-in games should be fired.
Alas, they went with the guaranteed seller that will no doubt create an impressive revenue spreadsheet, netting the project manager a bonus and a shot at doing another cash-in game next quarter.
So, apparently these people designed a "guaranteed seller that will no doubt create an impressive revenue", and yet should be fired?!?!
Remind me to stay far away from any financial ventures that you choose to start up, thank you.
I've been in the same situation...but a few suggestions:
1) If you do it, do it on your own time. Your boss isn't paying you to add a "personal touch" to the software.
2) Inform your boss before doing it. If they say no, don't.
3) Inform your testers before doing it. If they say no, don't
4) Make it simple, secure and easy to test.
5) Test it.
6) Make it easy to remove.
7) Document how to remove it.
As much as you may love the code, it isn't yours. If the software is reasonably useful and well-written, it will likely stay at that company longer that you. 12 years down the line, the company shouldn't have to find out that the code doesn't compile in "JavaBuilder.NET++ 2020" due to an easter egg that uses an API call from some defunct OS company.
In fact, Godel proved the exact opposite: that you can make a list of all true statements of mathematics
You must be using some obscure meaning of "true" I am not aware of.
Godel proved that the set of true statements is uncountable. There is no countable set of axioms that can be added to number theory that make it complete. If the truths of mathematics were countable, this would not be so.
As Wikipedia put's it: "Gödel's theorem shows that, in theories that include a small portion of number theory, a complete and consistent finite list of axioms can never be created, or even an infinite list that can be enumerated by a computer program. " here
IIRC, the set of provable statements in mathematics is countable...
A. the universe always existed B. it popped into existence due to something, we don't know what - we may never find out C. it was created by someone, and we call that someone God. D. it popped into existence. There is no point in trying to establish cause as the "start" of the universe precludes cause and effect.
Asking what caused the universe is like asking what's the square root of blue. The concepts just don't mesh. As far as we can tell, physical law as we know it (including all our "common sense" notions about time, cause/effect, etc) came into being in the first hundreths of a milliseconds of it's existence.
Is it just me, or are a large number of the people writing the Amazon reviews hypocrites?
As far as I can tell, you must have PURCHASED a copy of Spore via Amazon in order to review it. I cannot believe that the majority of these people are vehemently opposed to DRM, but then didn't bother to check the numerous sites that have indicated for MONTHS that Spore would include online DRM. Sure there may be a few people who got caught, but not the 400-500 1 star DRM related reviews.
So basically it seems they are saying "Sure, I got my copy, but nobody ELSE should enjoy this game cause EA should be punished. Of couse I don't have the balls to actually not buy & play the game myself...I'll just try to convince all you other poor saps to do so."
If you don't like DRM, don't buy the game. Don't be a whiney crybaby & try and convice others to support the values that you lack the convictions to uphold.
Of course I could be entirely wrong, maybe there is some weird backdoor that let's you write a review without purchasing the game. In that case, I have a whole other set of issues with such a "review".
As someone else who has done both, I can say that either you worked on much more complicated games than I did or much simpler business apps.
Engineering simulation apps, market forecasting or resource trading systems can all be far more complicated than the average game.
I find the big difference to be when making a game you need to know far more about the PC. When making a business app you need to know far more about the business. The difference is the info about the various API's, memory management, & language constraints are usually pretty well documented & stable. Business rules often need to be optimized or modified, and are often hard to get a clear understanding of.
I agree with the GP. Business app code isn't necisarrily harder, just different.
Because they're doing it wrong. You need to outsource the project management and a level of QA too, you can't go half-way.
Once you've got enough that they can effectively run the project on their own time in their own language, all that's left to do in the States is a final QA check to make sure what was created matches the requirements.
The 90's called. They want their development methodology back.
But seriously, when the heck was the last time you worked on a project where the client had any reasonable clue what the end requirements would look like? Why do you think there has been an insane increase in interest in Agile & other "client-intensive" methodologies.
Exactly because the situation you describe doesn't work. You can't just send a set of requirements over to a dev shop, wait six months and do a final QA check. Situations change, opinions change, financial situations change, communication is often ambiguous or uncertain...especially when one party is technical and the other non-technical.
Also, if you worry so much about language being an issue that you feel the entire PM and QA teams ned to be outsourced as well, how do you expect this team to create a UI & system that is at all understandable to the target audience?
There's a heck of a lot of advantages to regular "face time" (even if it's virtual face-time), that foreign outsourcing just cannot provide.
What's wrong with a GMA card inside a nice cheap intel board, 60GB hard drive and 512-1GB memory? You can get that and put it inside a nice looking $20 PC case for well under $200. Or you could go in the VIA direction, which makes things incredibly cheap. I just put together a nice, compact gaming machine with a fast geforce 8 card for a relative for $600 lcd monitor and all, and it does more than enough. Inf fact she bought a copy of Assassin's Creed, and it runs flawlessly.
I'll totally agree that the initial costs of PC gaming vs. console gaming aren't that different, especially when you consider that a PC can be used for much more than just gaming.
My issue is that the incremental cost of being able to play the latest games drove me out of PC gaming. I was finding that I was upgrading my video card every 2 - 3 years for $200-$300, and my processor/motherboard every 4 years or so for another $200-$300. That, combined with the stupid changes in memory / video card formats meant that I often could not re-use old hardware when I did upgrade my motherboard.
I wouldn't say that console gaming is tremendously cheaper than PC gaming, but I still figure that it is approx 20-30% cheaper to maintain a console & office PC than it is to maintain a gaming PC alone.
Also, I'm a more than a little surprised about your relatives ability to play Assasin's creed on a $600 PC given the MINIMUM system requirements below:
* Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended) * RAM: 2 GB (3 GB recommended) * Video Card: 256 MB DirectX 10.0-compliant video card or DirectX 9.0-compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (512 MB video card recommended) (see supported list)* * Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0 compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended) * Hard Drive Space: 12 GB
You must have gotten some pretty good deals on HW...
If all you care about is your stupid baseball game, then I can't blame mom for not being interested. If you had actual interesting hobbies or real accomplishments to be proud of, then maybe Mom is being a bitch.
Please, never have children.
Apparently you think someone voted and made you the supreme overlord of "interesting hobbies". Baseball: boring. AMD vs. Intel Processors: interesting!
On another note this is her child, not some casual acquaitance. The mother should be interested in how she is developing to ensure she turns into a happy functioning member of society. I'll go out on some crazy limb here and claim it is even her responsibility to do so!
Parents should encourage and help guide their children until adulthood. It seems to me that when kids hit the teenage years far too many parents think: hey, they're old enough to look after themselves, I'm going to leave them the hell alone and only provide things like food and housing. The problem is teenagers are "newbies" with real-world grown up rights & responsibilities, but have the drive and desire to take on as many of those rights responsibilities as they can.
This is a very important time to let children try things, monitor, and discuss outcomes with them. The fact that this woman finds some ficticious world of elves & dragons more interesting is pathetic.
1) I've worked hard, my parents worked hard, and their parents worked hard to earn the lifestyle we have now. Screw you if you want to throw all their hard work in the dumpster and live the exact same way people lived in 1920. The reason the US pollutes is because the US makes and trades things. (We actually pollute less than our due, if you consider our contribution to the world GNP.)
2) Changing people's behavior is very, very, very hard-- much harder than finding new sources of energy. It's inefficient and a waste of resources to even try.
I agree with both points to a degree, but using less energy does not necessarily mean a change in lifestyle.
I'm currently changing out the windows in my 10 year old house. The old ones were horribly energy inneficient, and basically fell apart after 7 years. Why is such crap allowed to be installed in the first place? Likely because it was cheaper. (I bought my house used, I didn't have this stuff installed) Governments could subsidize energy efficient housing, electronics, heating, cars etc. in order to encourage a change in behaviour.
I have a similar situation with my home electronics. Most of my electronics still use power (sometimes substantial) when turned "off". When did electronics manufacturers decide that "off" means "on, but less-functional"?
Yes, the marketplace will eventually provide economic pressure for these items anyways, but it may be advisable to buffer some of the effects of rising fuel costs by encouraging some more efficient choices earlier.
Efficiency in engineering is a good thing. It doesn't mean using candles for light & burning dung for heating.
On and the "we pollute less than they do" is schoolyard mentality. I suppose if all the other countries jumped of a cliff, then the US should too?
He was a science writer at MIT. Pons and Fleischmann's work was at the U of Utah.
He was NOT an active researcher into alternative energy. He was the editor publisher of a magazine promoting numerous "fringe" energy production theories (including the notorious Zero Point Energy).
He was also a member of the International Friends of Aetherometry, and trust me, science doesn't get much more fringe than Aetherometry.
Sorry, but if I have to choose between literally hundreds of mainstream scientists who are unable to reproduce Pons and Fleishmann's work, and this guy, I know who I'm gonna believe.
Unfortunately, people seem drive to look for the conspiracy in everthing, to cheer for the underdog, to believe the things we hope for, however unlikely.
"In Canada we see shows being blocked from recording using that flag all the time. Yes, its ok for a broadcaster here to stop us from recording a program."
Bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit by a typical AC on Slashdot.
I've been using a home-built PVR (based on SageTV) for three years now in Canada, and I have NEVER come across a broadcaster flag that prevents the recording of standard def television.
Media Center might have a problem with certain flags, but if so it's a media center problem, NOT a problem with some special recording flag in Canada.
Please, can the melodrama. You show me someone who's been in IT for any length of time and lives in the ghetto, I'll show you an idiot. The GP post isn't saying quit his job and go work at McD's, he's saying take a low-paying job that he loves.
There is nothing wrong with earning less than the next guy. If you attitude is that it takes money to be happy, then I truly feel sorry for you. Trust me, I know from experience, once you have the money you'll realize that wasn't why you were unhappy at all. And you'll have spent all this time away from your wife & kids in order to get it.
And if you make a whole lot of money then you leave that excess money to your offspring who actually will get the option to do what they love.
Doing what you love should not require a lot of money. If it does then you have your priorities seriously screwed up.
I feel sorry for you children if you are raising them with this attitude.
Slashdot Mirror
Surprisingly, I actually found this to be a really good study. I was about to spout off with the usual response that "Correlation is not causality", when I found that the study's authors already had!
From the discussion:
"The primary limitation of this study is its correlational nature. It does not provide evidence for the possible causal relations among the variables studied. It is certainly possible that pathological gaming causes poor school performance, and so forth, but it is equally likely that children who have trouble at school seek to play games to experience feelings of mastery, or that attention problems cause both poor school performance and an attraction to games."
What I take from the study is that "pathological" gaming provides a pretty good predictive indicator of other issues with the child. This is what parents need to know; don't just take away video games and think "yay, I'm being a good parent!"
Figure out why the child is playing too much and address those issues.
Oh please, the case was dismissed.
That had nothing to do with copyright law, it had to do with some advertising companies trying to make a quick buck. Keep in mind that people can sue for ANY reason. Dismissal usually means that you don't even have grounds for a case.
I'll call your bullshit and raise you a citation please:
http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/promotions/change_light/downloads/Fact_Sheet_Mercury.pdf
http://www.sierraclub.org/cleanair/factsheets/power.asp
http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/mercury/sources.asp
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/oarpg/t3/fact_sheets/fs_util.pdf
Wow, it certainly seems that a lot of people think that coal power plants are the prime emitters of mercury. Care to show some citations that say otherwise?
No? Then please keep your BS to yourself.
USB 2.0: 480 Mb/s
Firewire 800: 786 Mb/s
order of magnitude: I don't think those words mean what you think they mean.
WTF? I use my 2.1 GHz 2GB dual-core Athlon machine to run Visual Studio 2008, Open Office, Gimp and Visio simultaneously and it works flawlessly and fast (this machine is almost 3 years old) I'm betting the issue the "windows users" mention is due to something other than the machine or the OS.
So you are comparing your experience with EIGHT different mac's with TWO PC's?!?
Methings someone needs a remedial course in statistics.
Yes, and there is another roomful of economits, market analysts, and manufacturing experts at Dell. And one at Sony. And one at Asus, and HP, etc. And for some reason, they have ALL decided that a mid range tower does help their bottom line.
Why could that be? Oh yeah, competition. We here at slashdot need to remember that Apple has pretty much NO competition in the OS X hardware realm, so of course they can pick and choose the markets they want to operate in without regard to consumers.
You couldn't understand the halo storyline?
Tell me, do you also have troubles with the instructions on shampoo bottles?
The fact that this comment got a +30% "Insightful" scares me. A lot.
Slashdot's going to have to change their slogan to "News for idiots. Stuff that's simple." if this trend keeps up.
Hi, can I have an article with that posting please?
No? How about some facts...like which DLL was replaced, what audio card they tested with, some steps on how to replicate the "being locked out of your own local settings folder?"
Oh, wait...another high-quality kdawson posting. Move along, nothing to see here.
So, apparently these people designed a "guaranteed seller that will no doubt create an impressive revenue", and yet should be fired?!?!
Remind me to stay far away from any financial ventures that you choose to start up, thank you.
I don't know that!!!! AAAAIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
No no no...the unit to use is obviously...
wait for it...
cents!
I've been in the same situation...but a few suggestions:
1) If you do it, do it on your own time. Your boss isn't paying you to add a "personal touch" to the software.
2) Inform your boss before doing it. If they say no, don't.
3) Inform your testers before doing it. If they say no, don't
4) Make it simple, secure and easy to test.
5) Test it.
6) Make it easy to remove.
7) Document how to remove it.
As much as you may love the code, it isn't yours. If the software is reasonably useful and well-written, it will likely stay at that company longer that you. 12 years down the line, the company shouldn't have to find out that the code doesn't compile in "JavaBuilder.NET++ 2020" due to an easter egg that uses an API call from some defunct OS company.
You must be using some obscure meaning of "true" I am not aware of.
Godel proved that the set of true statements is uncountable. There is no countable set of axioms that can be added to number theory that make it complete. If the truths of mathematics were countable, this would not be so.
As Wikipedia put's it:
"Gödel's theorem shows that, in theories that include a small portion of number theory, a complete and consistent finite list of axioms can never be created, or even an infinite list that can be enumerated by a computer program. " here
IIRC, the set of provable statements in mathematics is countable...
There are actually 4 options:
A. the universe always existed
B. it popped into existence due to something, we don't know what - we may never find out
C. it was created by someone, and we call that someone God.
D. it popped into existence. There is no point in trying to establish cause as the "start" of the universe precludes cause and effect.
Asking what caused the universe is like asking what's the square root of blue. The concepts just don't mesh. As far as we can tell, physical law as we know it (including all our "common sense" notions about time, cause/effect, etc) came into being in the first hundreths of a milliseconds of it's existence.
Is it just me, or are a large number of the people writing the Amazon reviews hypocrites?
As far as I can tell, you must have PURCHASED a copy of Spore via Amazon in order to review it. I cannot believe that the majority of these people are vehemently opposed to DRM, but then didn't bother to check the numerous sites that have indicated for MONTHS that Spore would include online DRM. Sure there may be a few people who got caught, but not the 400-500 1 star DRM related reviews.
So basically it seems they are saying "Sure, I got my copy, but nobody ELSE should enjoy this game cause EA should be punished. Of couse I don't have the balls to actually not buy & play the game myself...I'll just try to convince all you other poor saps to do so."
If you don't like DRM, don't buy the game. Don't be a whiney crybaby & try and convice others to support the values that you lack the convictions to uphold.
Of course I could be entirely wrong, maybe there is some weird backdoor that let's you write a review without purchasing the game. In that case, I have a whole other set of issues with such a "review".
As someone else who has done both, I can say that either you worked on much more complicated games than I did or much simpler business apps.
Engineering simulation apps, market forecasting or resource trading systems can all be far more complicated than the average game.
I find the big difference to be when making a game you need to know far more about the PC. When making a business app you need to know far more about the business. The difference is the info about the various API's, memory management, & language constraints are usually pretty well documented & stable. Business rules often need to be optimized or modified, and are often hard to get a clear understanding of.
I agree with the GP. Business app code isn't necisarrily harder, just different.
The 90's called. They want their development methodology back.
But seriously, when the heck was the last time you worked on a project where the client had any reasonable clue what the end requirements would look like? Why do you think there has been an insane increase in interest in Agile & other "client-intensive" methodologies.
Exactly because the situation you describe doesn't work. You can't just send a set of requirements over to a dev shop, wait six months and do a final QA check. Situations change, opinions change, financial situations change, communication is often ambiguous or uncertain...especially when one party is technical and the other non-technical.
Also, if you worry so much about language being an issue that you feel the entire PM and QA teams ned to be outsourced as well, how do you expect this team to create a UI & system that is at all understandable to the target audience?
There's a heck of a lot of advantages to regular "face time" (even if it's virtual face-time), that foreign outsourcing just cannot provide.
People marked it as informative that Mexico has bank cards?
Ok, that's just Funny.
I'll totally agree that the initial costs of PC gaming vs. console gaming aren't that different, especially when you consider that a PC can be used for much more than just gaming.
My issue is that the incremental cost of being able to play the latest games drove me out of PC gaming. I was finding that I was upgrading my video card every 2 - 3 years for $200-$300, and my processor/motherboard every 4 years or so for another $200-$300.
That, combined with the stupid changes in memory / video card formats meant that I often could not re-use old hardware when I did upgrade my motherboard.
I wouldn't say that console gaming is tremendously cheaper than PC gaming, but I still figure that it is approx 20-30% cheaper to maintain a console & office PC than it is to maintain a gaming PC alone.
Also, I'm a more than a little surprised about your relatives ability to play Assasin's creed on a $600 PC given the MINIMUM system requirements below:
* Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended)
* RAM: 2 GB (3 GB recommended)
* Video Card: 256 MB DirectX 10.0-compliant video card or DirectX 9.0-compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (512 MB video card recommended) (see supported list)*
* Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0 compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended)
* Hard Drive Space: 12 GB
You must have gotten some pretty good deals on HW...
Please, never have children.
Apparently you think someone voted and made you the supreme overlord of "interesting hobbies". Baseball: boring. AMD vs. Intel Processors: interesting!
On another note this is her child, not some casual acquaitance. The mother should be interested in how she is developing to ensure she turns into a happy functioning member of society. I'll go out on some crazy limb here and claim it is even her responsibility to do so!
Parents should encourage and help guide their children until adulthood. It seems to me that when kids hit the teenage years far too many parents think: hey, they're old enough to look after themselves, I'm going to leave them the hell alone and only provide things like food and housing. The problem is teenagers are "newbies" with real-world grown up rights & responsibilities, but have the drive and desire to take on as many of those rights responsibilities as they can.
This is a very important time to let children try things, monitor , and discuss outcomes with them. The fact that this woman finds some ficticious world of elves & dragons more interesting is pathetic.
I agree with both points to a degree, but using less energy does not necessarily mean a change in lifestyle.
I'm currently changing out the windows in my 10 year old house. The old ones were horribly energy inneficient, and basically fell apart after 7 years. Why is such crap allowed to be installed in the first place? Likely because it was cheaper. (I bought my house used, I didn't have this stuff installed) Governments could subsidize energy efficient housing, electronics, heating, cars etc. in order to encourage a change in behaviour.
I have a similar situation with my home electronics. Most of my electronics still use power (sometimes substantial) when turned "off". When did electronics manufacturers decide that "off" means "on, but less-functional"?
Yes, the marketplace will eventually provide economic pressure for these items anyways, but it may be advisable to buffer some of the effects of rising fuel costs by encouraging some more efficient choices earlier.
Efficiency in engineering is a good thing. It doesn't mean using candles for light & burning dung for heating.
On and the "we pollute less than they do" is schoolyard mentality. I suppose if all the other countries jumped of a cliff, then the US should too?
How exactly was he "right in the middle of it?"
He was a science writer at MIT. Pons and Fleischmann's work was at the U of Utah.
He was NOT an active researcher into alternative energy. He was the editor publisher of a magazine promoting numerous "fringe" energy production theories (including the notorious Zero Point Energy).
He was also a member of the International Friends of Aetherometry, and trust me, science doesn't get much more fringe than Aetherometry.
Sorry, but if I have to choose between literally hundreds of mainstream scientists who are unable to reproduce Pons and Fleishmann's work, and this guy, I know who I'm gonna believe.
Unfortunately, people seem drive to look for the conspiracy in everthing, to cheer for the underdog, to believe the things we hope for, however unlikely.
Bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit by a typical AC on Slashdot.
I've been using a home-built PVR (based on SageTV) for three years now in Canada, and I have NEVER come across a broadcaster flag that prevents the recording of standard def television.
Media Center might have a problem with certain flags, but if so it's a media center problem, NOT a problem with some special recording flag in Canada.
Please, can the melodrama. You show me someone who's been in IT for any length of time and lives in the ghetto, I'll show you an idiot. The GP post isn't saying quit his job and go work at McD's, he's saying take a low-paying job that he loves.
There is nothing wrong with earning less than the next guy. If you attitude is that it takes money to be happy, then I truly feel sorry for you. Trust me, I know from experience, once you have the money you'll realize that wasn't why you were unhappy at all. And you'll have spent all this time away from your wife & kids in order to get it.
Doing what you love should not require a lot of money. If it does then you have your priorities seriously screwed up.
I feel sorry for you children if you are raising them with this attitude.