I thought I'd throw a little off-topic note in here about The Way In. Is it just me, or do advertising campaigns that start with "Don't believe the hype!" and "Do not believe the articles; they are not trustworthy" do more harm than good?
While it is great that I can run Linux on my old packard smell 486sx[33mhz] w/ 4 megs of ram. I have often wondered if I'm loosing out on my high end servers because of this legacy compliance?
I admit, IANAKH, nor have I seen assembly code in over 6 years, but it seems to me that the kernel might be going out of it's way in some obscure (to me) way to support these platforms? Have CPUs not really changed all that much? Is one kernel source for all CPUs the best approach?
I understand that their are compiler options applicable depnding on your CPU, but is their legacy code that could be removed to make a leaner, meaner, faster(?) kernel?
It's sad, but you're probably right. Just in case anyone wants to archive this stuff, I thought I'd dig out links to all the software they reviewed in the article...;)
...Even more challenging are ``Terminator''-type applications that would allow the minds of healthy individuals to meld with machines--allowing drivers to ``think'' their way through traffic, for example, or granting pilots the ability to navigate the skies with their mind....
I can see it now... "Pilot falls asleep at the wheel.. Dreams of 20,000 leagues under the sea... 300 dead..."
This article lacks details, but I don't understand how they're going to turn moving a cursor into piloting a 20-ton rocket-powered tin can...
These films make a mockary of a timeless classic. And as such, they mock the dreams and aspirations of young male teenagers (like myself) who wanted to drive fast cars, have laser watches and get all the hot chics....
Now, they certainly got the hot chic stuff right in Austin powers though... But it's a good thing they did, otherwise I would have vomited at the utter lack of taste in these poor ripoffs.
Sorry Mike, you're just not as groooooooovy as you think.
Or does the Loki email imply the release of Loki game source code? And how much of it?
This is probably wishful thinking, of course it is, but the impact it would have on the Linux gaming world would be awesome. Heh, Loki would do more for Linux gaming dead that it ever did alive...
If you're unfortunate enough to be running Windows. You will need to protect yourself.
Lavasoft is helping you wage your war against the marketing droids. Support them! Let them, and the rest of the world, know that you won't stand for these kinds of privacy intrusions.
Obviously, experience prevails above all. The thing you must consider is what role you wish to play.
For various reasons, games are segmented into pieces. You've got the engine, the AI, the content (graphics, sounds, etc. etc.), environment (worlds, maps, game boards, etc. ).
I do not work in the game industry, I wish I did. I've read up on it quite a bit and I've talked with several hiring managers with game companies.
The core of any game is the engine. It is responsible for talking to the user. It displays the graphics, plays the sounds, handles input, and lots of other details that are mostly product dependant. If you enjoy writing 3d engines, dealing with the corrupt MicroSux API, tweaking the abilities of the hardware and writing the smallest, fastest code possible - this is the place for you. Learn C/C++ and Assembly. The AI of most games is also incorporated into this piece, but not always.
The content of the game (or media) is just as important as any other part. You can have the best 3d engine ever but if you're textures look like they were made with M$ Paint you've got serious problems. If your sounds aren't of the highest quality (no screaming mom in the background ordering you to your homework) your game will be a joke. Are you a talented artist? I sure hope so.
The game environment is probably the funnest job. If you enjoy making maps for Doom, CS, Quake 3, Wolf 3D, etc. etc. you'll enjoy this job. Design the worlds the people play in. It is difficult to study for this though. The qualities software companies look for in this position cannot be expressed directly. It's the little things that count. Did you use crates in your CS level or did you actually build objects to create a unique environment? If you drop that egg, does the yoke spill on the floor or does it just crack open and disappear.
If you want to get started, get involved with a project. Start writing your own game, or join an existing project. Most projects die long before completion because of lack of resources, by joining a team you are adding to your skills and increasing the probability that the game will actually finish.
If you decide to do your own thing, don't worry about areas you're not looking for a job in. If you're an artist, use one of those pre-made game engines. They won't be judging your game engine, or your AI system they'll be looking at the astetics of it all. If you're skills reside in coding don't worry so much about the artwork, most programmers couldn't draw to save their lives and most companies realize this.
Once again, I'm not in the game industry. But I've got two cents for sale so here they are.
A lot of NT admins do not install the current servicepacks on purpose. If I recall correctly, SP1,SP2 and SP4 for NT 4 were highly unstable and most admins stuck with SP3 even after SP4 because it had been proven stable.
I guess that's the tradeoff with Micro$oft, stability or security... but never both. Bud as an added bonus, they'll give you a dozen certified MONKEYs to help you run your box.
Ok, let's assume you can actually find a SAFE use for this thing - obviously you couldn't drive wearing this, and you wouldn't want to walk around with it (you'd get shot or laughed at). Besides, how do you input? I didn't see any keyboards and a stylus would be kinda annoying I think.
I think it'd be cooler to throw another viewport for the other eye and do some stereoscopic VR.. Forget the wearable computer, do I wanna look like a borg? (Where's gates? He's involved somehow....) Ahem... I made my point.
The market here really isn't the consumer with no cable / dsl access - the limited range on these really prevents much use there.
But inner city networks, neighborhood networks and companies with dozens of buildings sitting around eachother (Microsoft, Sprint, IBM...) who need this most.
I would think these would be difficult to setup though - microwave is rather picky about aim.. I'll bet these lasers aren't much nicer.
Now, load-share a few of these puppies for some REAL speed - YEAH! Perhaps the next internet backbone would be a large hollow pipe will lots of little lasers blasting through it instead of expensive fiber.
Obviously this will happen again and obviously the chances for human survival are less than positive.. So forget that useless line of thought - won't happen in your lifetime anyway.
I just like the pictures, take this site - the astroid depicted is about half the size of the United States - hardly the 3-7mile wide "pebal" these guys are actually talking about. They're really trying to drive home this thought of mass destruction aren't they?
Ohh well, maybe the next "intellegect" species to rule this planet won't be as greedy as the last.
Is this another ego battle between BSD geeks and Linux dorks?
If you think Micro$loth has made the PDA a "toy" then you haven't seen a Unix (ie clone) powered pda have you? No PDA has an adaquate interface to make frequently using one feasable - and that's withOUT a Unixclone running on it. Put Unix on there (even worse interface even w/ X) and you've got yourself an expensive paper-weight.
(Take none of this for fact - it's just my opinion)
Slashdot Mirror
Dude, why would you want to r00t Snuffleupagus? That's disgusting...
OTOH, take a picture. We can make snuffle.cx
Mods: -55555 Grotesque
I thought I'd throw a little off-topic note in here about The Way In. Is it just me, or do advertising campaigns that start with " Don't believe the hype! " and " Do not believe the articles; they are not trustworthy " do more harm than good?
Sweet, first the military creates the internet. Not to be out-done the DOE creates the... electronet? Does this sound familiar to anyone else though?
I suppose it wouldn't have the same reach, as it isn't grounded with scientists / universities as the original. Wishful thinking I suppose.
While it is great that I can run Linux on my old packard smell 486sx[33mhz] w/ 4 megs of ram. I have often wondered if I'm loosing out on my high end servers because of this legacy compliance?
I admit, IANAKH, nor have I seen assembly code in over 6 years, but it seems to me that the kernel might be going out of it's way in some obscure (to me) way to support these platforms? Have CPUs not really changed all that much? Is one kernel source for all CPUs the best approach?
I understand that their are compiler options applicable depnding on your CPU, but is their legacy code that could be removed to make a leaner, meaner, faster(?) kernel?
It's sad, but you're probably right. Just in case anyone wants to archive this stuff, I thought I'd dig out links to all the software they reviewed in the article... ;)
IsoBuster
feurio!
Exact Audio Copy (EAC)
Clone CD
From the article:
...Even more challenging are ``Terminator''-type applications that would allow the minds of healthy individuals to meld with machines--allowing drivers to ``think'' their way through traffic, for example, or granting pilots the ability to navigate the skies with their mind....
I can see it now... "Pilot falls asleep at the wheel.. Dreams of 20,000 leagues under the sea... 300 dead..."
This article lacks details, but I don't understand how they're going to turn moving a cursor into piloting a 20-ton rocket-powered tin can...
These films make a mockary of a timeless classic. And as such, they mock the dreams and aspirations of young male teenagers (like myself) who wanted to drive fast cars, have laser watches and get all the hot chics....
Now, they certainly got the hot chic stuff right in Austin powers though... But it's a good thing they did, otherwise I would have vomited at the utter lack of taste in these poor ripoffs.
Sorry Mike, you're just not as groooooooovy as you think.
Or does the Loki email imply the release of Loki game source code? And how much of it?
This is probably wishful thinking, of course it is, but the impact it would have on the Linux gaming world would be awesome. Heh, Loki would do more for Linux gaming dead that it ever did alive...
Ohh well, it's only karma..
... and in other news, RMS renounces the use of XML as a standard as not all parsers are free...
If you're unfortunate enough to be running Windows. You will need to protect yourself.
Lavasoft is helping you wage your war against the marketing droids. Support them! Let them, and the rest of the world, know that you won't stand for these kinds of privacy intrusions.
Support lavasoft in their mission, buy their stuff!!
[Disclaimer: I do not work for them, I just like my rights granted by being human.]
Obviously, experience prevails above all. The thing you must consider is what role you wish to play.
For various reasons, games are segmented into pieces. You've got the engine, the AI, the content (graphics, sounds, etc. etc.), environment (worlds, maps, game boards, etc. ).
I do not work in the game industry, I wish I did. I've read up on it quite a bit and I've talked with several hiring managers with game companies.
The core of any game is the engine. It is responsible for talking to the user. It displays the graphics, plays the sounds, handles input, and lots of other details that are mostly product dependant. If you enjoy writing 3d engines, dealing with the corrupt MicroSux API, tweaking the abilities of the hardware and writing the smallest, fastest code possible - this is the place for you. Learn C/C++ and Assembly. The AI of most games is also incorporated into this piece, but not always.
The content of the game (or media) is just as important as any other part. You can have the best 3d engine ever but if you're textures look like they were made with M$ Paint you've got serious problems. If your sounds aren't of the highest quality (no screaming mom in the background ordering you to your homework) your game will be a joke. Are you a talented artist? I sure hope so.
The game environment is probably the funnest job. If you enjoy making maps for Doom, CS, Quake 3, Wolf 3D, etc. etc. you'll enjoy this job. Design the worlds the people play in. It is difficult to study for this though. The qualities software companies look for in this position cannot be expressed directly. It's the little things that count. Did you use crates in your CS level or did you actually build objects to create a unique environment? If you drop that egg, does the yoke spill on the floor or does it just crack open and disappear.
If you want to get started, get involved with a project. Start writing your own game, or join an existing project. Most projects die long before completion because of lack of resources, by joining a team you are adding to your skills and increasing the probability that the game will actually finish.
If you decide to do your own thing, don't worry about areas you're not looking for a job in. If you're an artist, use one of those pre-made game engines. They won't be judging your game engine, or your AI system they'll be looking at the astetics of it all. If you're skills reside in coding don't worry so much about the artwork, most programmers couldn't draw to save their lives and most companies realize this.
Once again, I'm not in the game industry. But I've got two cents for sale so here they are.
A lot of NT admins do not install the current servicepacks on purpose. If I recall correctly, SP1,SP2 and SP4 for NT 4 were highly unstable and most admins stuck with SP3 even after SP4 because it had been proven stable. I guess that's the tradeoff with Micro$oft, stability or security... but never both. Bud as an added bonus, they'll give you a dozen certified MONKEYs to help you run your box.
Laptops... Now they'll be even smaller! Great, I can't stand typing on one as it is..
Ok, let's assume you can actually find a SAFE use for this thing - obviously you couldn't drive wearing this, and you wouldn't want to walk around with it (you'd get shot or laughed at). Besides, how do you input? I didn't see any keyboards and a stylus would be kinda annoying I think. I think it'd be cooler to throw another viewport for the other eye and do some stereoscopic VR.. Forget the wearable computer, do I wanna look like a borg? (Where's gates? He's involved somehow....) Ahem... I made my point.
The market here really isn't the consumer with no cable / dsl access - the limited range on these really prevents much use there.
But inner city networks, neighborhood networks and companies with dozens of buildings sitting around eachother (Microsoft, Sprint, IBM...) who need this most.
I would think these would be difficult to setup though - microwave is rather picky about aim.. I'll bet these lasers aren't much nicer.
Now, load-share a few of these puppies for some REAL speed - YEAH! Perhaps the next internet backbone would be a large hollow pipe will lots of little lasers blasting through it instead of expensive fiber.
Obviously this will happen again and obviously the chances for human survival are less than positive.. So forget that useless line of thought - won't happen in your lifetime anyway.
I just like the pictures, take this site - the astroid depicted is about half the size of the United States - hardly the 3-7mile wide "pebal" these guys are actually talking about. They're really trying to drive home this thought of mass destruction aren't they?
Ohh well, maybe the next "intellegect" species to rule this planet won't be as greedy as the last.
---
This massage was prevewwed for inacccuracy.
And tomorrow they're going to tell us the earth is round - shea right.
Is this another ego battle between BSD geeks and Linux dorks?
If you think Micro$loth has made the PDA a "toy" then you haven't seen a Unix (ie clone) powered pda have you? No PDA has an adaquate interface to make frequently using one feasable - and that's withOUT a Unixclone running on it. Put Unix on there (even worse interface even w/ X) and you've got yourself an expensive paper-weight.
(Take none of this for fact - it's just my opinion)