Actually, I would LOVE to see this in a game like Diablo II. You learn spells, and then you cast them by making gestures with your mouse over your enemies. Being a magic user might actually take some talent then.
Grab UAE or dust off your Amiga and search for a copy of Tower's Curse.
Bring aboard some folks who're not only used to writing good maintainable code, but used to writing good maintainable code that compiles on a whole bunch of architectures, and you might be able to give "the community" more than just a couple paychecks.
If your codebase becomes more portable, the expense and difficulty of ports to new platforms is greatly reduced. How many games does Midway offer for Linux these days? If new games could be offered for Linux without having to move mountains, would they be?
Of course, I'm saying this out of personal bias, since I loved the original "Gauntlet" and would gladly pay good money if "Gauntlet: Dark Legacy" could be had for Linux...
I'd have to know more about the sales of existing Linux game titles and corporate's reaction to the above to make any comments here. I suspect that if there were a demonstrated demand for Linux games from Midway, Midway would be only too happy to oblige. Many of our products are maintained on multiple platforms already, and we certainly have enough Linux enthusiasts internally to make ports happen.
And before someone proposes it - please - a letter writing campaign isn't the best way to make game companies support Linux. Buying the existing titles from Loki and the likes is.
As an ex-Midway employee I suggest you examine their standard employee agreements - basically everything you ever thought of, they claim as theirs. You would have to get the fine legal staff their to write up specials for everyone who still wanted to do open-source stuff.
Midway's ownership of intellectual property is the default, yes. I'd venture a guess that this is the case for every game, movie and music contract in the country.
That said, and I verified this before posting the article, you don't need anything but management's approval to start off on your own software. So long as your intended project/area of projects doesn't go against Midway's interests, you're clear to proceed. Encouraged, even. If you're pretty much reimplementing your current work project for the public domain, you're not going to get approval.
"Hiring from a pool of open/free developers guarantees that I've found someone motivated, which is the toughest thing to quantify up front" Why would you think that someone who writes free software in their spare time is more motivated than someone who is actively courting you with resumes and interviews? I'd say the guy who sends you resumes and make appointments and shows up on time and gives a good interview and show you examples of his/her work is much more motivated than some fat slob who sits in his parent's basement all day writing code (that for all you know can be complete garbage). Don't mistake free software for good software, experience, or determination...
The guy who sends a resume and shows up for the interview is more motivated to find a job. The slob you describe seems the motivated and determined type. If it looks like he's got a solid background, a good personality and scads of potential, I'll hire him over the punctual guy in the perfectly pressed suit.
Or do you personally want to give back? If it's just your personal interest, I'd like to suggest a different criterion -- please, please make a concerted attempt to hire a woman. Seriously. You owe a lot more to the female gender than you do to open source programmers, bucko, and Corrine Yu could count the percentage of female game programmers on her pinkie. Don't tell me that's too hard, because this is an entry-level job and like you said, it's an attractive field and you have thousands of resumes at your disposal.
Interesting response, and I'm all for hiring a female who meets the qualifications. But it's not an entry-level job. And experienced and strong female programmers with an interest in sports games are few and far between. If you know any, by all means send their resumes my way. Midway/Chicago pays exceptionally well, and has a very, very diverse environment.
...with companies hiring open-source authors is those companies' looking to subsume the programmers' projects. If you let people keep their current code, and especially if you let them keep working on their projects on their own time, I think you'll have trouble picking from all the competent people who will apply.
I verified with the higher ups that this would not be a problem before I posted the article. An employee needs to clear his area of work with management to ensure that there's no conflict. If there is none - shoot for the moon.
Make your candidate pool as wide as possible, and do not filter it based on your own biases. If you think there's a lot of talent in the Open Source and Free Software communities, then by all means encourage applicants - but encourage the standard channels as well.
Filtering based on whether or not the candidates share your philosophies on IP is just as bad as, say, giving all of your friends the first shot at the interviews. You'd be arbitrarily ignoring (discriminating against) a wide pool of skilled applicants who would be just as good at the job.
I'm Brian, the guy who submitted this article.
Your point is well-taken. But no matter where I go looking for resumes, I'll get more resumes than I can ever respond to. I can get literally dozens of resumes weekly from any recruiter I contact. Game programming is an attractive field.
What I see in common with free software hobbyists is the motivation to write code. Philosophical points aside, if I can hire from a pool of people more likely to be motivated to write code, I'm ahead.
Among free software developers at large, I'm expecting that I'll find people with more different perspectives on coding. People dealing with mostly Microsoft products usually only have a handful of fixed solutions in mind. Technical creativity and breadth of perspective are invaluable when trying to do as much as possible with as few system resources as possible.
Many people may have a bone to pick with Microsoft for some really annoying things, but DirectX was one of their better ideas.
As a game developer, I feel uniquely qualified to ask just what brand of crack you are smoking.
Seriously - It's taken years for Direct3D to basically adopt OpenGL with different names for the same functions. That's an oversimplification, but not much of one. If MS had adopted OpenGL and stayed the course, hardware/software would be much farther along today.
What I'd be interested to know is whether this is a publisher fee-free console. If manufacturers can publish games without payment to Nokia, many of them (us) should give the console a second look.
Typically, console hardware is sold at break-even or even loss pricing. The intention is that the hardware manufacturer makes their money back by charging publishers a fee for every title sold. If Nokia intends to make their money on the hardware, network connectivity or another service, and if they intend to leave the publishers to do as they please (and if this thing has good 3D - they don't name the chipset) it could mean a ready supply of game titles, which would help push the system into market.
Allowing someone to work half time but still maintain full time benefits and half salary is unlikely.
The cost of your office space, support personel, assorted types of liability insurance, etc are still a constant. For most workers, salary is less than half the cost of keeping them on board.
Why not ask about working as a consultant for your company instead? You don't even need to pitch the half-hours angle. Work out of your home, and work efficiently, and you can get what you need done and spend the hours you'd have spent on office antics any way you like.
Is CORBA implemented with directly callable methods, or must all calls be made via sockets? If it works purely via sockets, there's huge overhead, and a fundamental programming paradigm shift if resources need to be retained by the CORBA server object.
I agree, while they point out there is no standard, they do not back up their reasoning for using RPM as the supposedly "de facto" standard.
From dictionary.com -
de factoadj : existing in fact whether with lawful authority or not
There's no "supposedly" about it - RPM is the de facto standard.
And yes -.debs rock my world and yours. And if they hadn't named the fool things after the distribution, more Linux distros would probably have picked them up by now.
In a nutshell, the problem is that there are thousands of virtual function tables with the attendant address fixups, and the proposed hack solution - spawning every KDE app from a common process - is pretty ugly indeed.
The problem KDE is having was likely part of the reasoning behind Windows COM. COM objects are essentially virtual classes which are constructed in an optimized fashion at DLL load time, and I believe the most common DLLs have already been built to unique addresses to minimize the need for relocation/redundant copies.
There are three problems with the COM approach. First, it forces all functions to be virtual. This results in a small performance hit. KDE developers may have elected to take this route anyway, as it does introduce some extra flexibility. (Anyone know enough about KDE to comment?) Second problem - it introduces compiler dependencies. In a decade of C++ use, I haven't seen a compiler which handles VFTs differently from another, but that doesn't mean we won't - the VFT format, location and ordering are not part of the C++ specification. Third, COM is not a transparent solution. Applications would need to be altered to acquire objects through a broker. Again, I don't know KDE well enough to comment, but I very much doubt that this is currently required, or KDE likely wouldn't be having the problem it is.
You can find the Apple Studio LCD all over the net for $399 apiece.
These displays are DVI, and work on a PC with a $97 Geforce 2 MX card. So $500 and shipping gets you a 1024x768 all digital display with a fast video card.
The only downside to these, as compared to non-Apple DVI displays, is that they're soft-powered, so the power button has no effect. I set my systems up to use power management after 3 minutes, so I need only get up and walk away, and the things shut themselves off.
Most companies blend the game designer position into another position: programming lead, producer, or design may even be democratically handled by the whole team. It's unusual to find a dedicated game designer.
The few people I have run across as dedicated game designers are typically expierienced industry people working on epic-scale RPGs or games with a lot of movie footage which need scripts.
You're also unlikely to start out as game designer. You'll need to prove yourself in another position first. To do that, put together a killer demo game or two on your own (preferable), or get a degree with strong marks and practice the hell out of your interviewing skills. The demo is preferred, as it shows genuine interest and understanding of the field - most college kids I interview want to reinvent everything we do without having a clue about what we're already doing, or are pure academics who don't have a grasp of resource-limited development.
No, it's not exactly what you were talking about. You said,
"Nobody's forcing you to go digital"
Either you don't understand the issue or you are being economical with the truth. Unfortunately if you want to watch TV in the UK after 2005, you will be forced to buy into digital TV because analog TV transmission will cease in 2005.
No, you'll be forced to buy a tuner. You can bet there will be 1,001 set-top products available that receive and rebroadcast on channel 2/3/whatever.
Also with 'make menuconfig' - some modules aren't even listed if other modules/options aren't selected.
An example that comes to mind is the bt848 device, which isn't listed until i2c is enabled. Both are on different pages, and there is no indication that one will enable the other.
I'd love to see a standard MPA or OGA format. That would be an MP3 Album or Ogg Album format. This could simply be a tar containing the songs processed at a standard bitrate by a standard compressor with a standard descriptor file containing CRCs, titles, the copyright holder and the relevant CDDB entry if any.
the best thing to do with 800 number spam is call the number It's costs the spammers money and their time especially if you leave your name and number and they call you back thats when you tell them how much you hate spam just imagine if 1000 people called their number every time they sent out spam it would totaly screw them up
Most spammers use 800 answering services these days. They only get charged if you leave a message with the answering representative. Leaving a legitimate sounding message is what it takes to make them pay, and it has the bonus of wasting their time.
As an internet businessman, and entrepeneur, I frequently use bulk e-mail as a way of informing my customers about new products and specials. There is nothing immoral or dishonest about this practice, and I am in full compliance with US Congress e-mail regulations.
Hey, dipshit - I can't help but notice that you don't list a public e-mail address. You're afraid of being inconvenienced by spammers harvesting it off Slashdot?
Slashdot Mirror
Grab UAE or dust off your Amiga and search for a copy of Tower's Curse.
Telnet on over and start an unhealthy obsession.
I'd have to know more about the sales of existing Linux game titles and corporate's reaction to the above to make any comments here. I suspect that if there were a demonstrated demand for Linux games from Midway, Midway would be only too happy to oblige. Many of our products are maintained on multiple platforms already, and we certainly have enough Linux enthusiasts internally to make ports happen.
And before someone proposes it - please - a letter writing campaign isn't the best way to make game companies support Linux. Buying the existing titles from Loki and the likes is.
Midway's ownership of intellectual property is the default, yes. I'd venture a guess that this is the case for every game, movie and music contract in the country.
That said, and I verified this before posting the article, you don't need anything but management's approval to start off on your own software. So long as your intended project/area of projects doesn't go against Midway's interests, you're clear to proceed. Encouraged, even. If you're pretty much reimplementing your current work project for the public domain, you're not going to get approval.
The guy who sends a resume and shows up for the interview is more motivated to find a job. The slob you describe seems the motivated and determined type. If it looks like he's got a solid background, a good personality and scads of potential, I'll hire him over the punctual guy in the perfectly pressed suit.
Interesting response, and I'm all for hiring a female who meets the qualifications. But it's not an entry-level job. And experienced and strong female programmers with an interest in sports games are few and far between. If you know any, by all means send their resumes my way. Midway/Chicago pays exceptionally well, and has a very, very diverse environment.
I verified with the higher ups that this would not be a problem before I posted the article. An employee needs to clear his area of work with management to ensure that there's no conflict. If there is none - shoot for the moon.
The author's (my) e-mail address would be a good guess, eh?
I'm Brian, the guy who submitted this article.
Your point is well-taken. But no matter where I go looking for resumes, I'll get more resumes than I can ever respond to. I can get literally dozens of resumes weekly from any recruiter I contact. Game programming is an attractive field.
What I see in common with free software hobbyists is the motivation to write code. Philosophical points aside, if I can hire from a pool of people more likely to be motivated to write code, I'm ahead.
Among free software developers at large, I'm expecting that I'll find people with more different perspectives on coding. People dealing with mostly Microsoft products usually only have a handful of fixed solutions in mind. Technical creativity and breadth of perspective are invaluable when trying to do as much as possible with as few system resources as possible.
As a game developer, I feel uniquely qualified to ask just what brand of crack you are smoking.
Seriously - It's taken years for Direct3D to basically adopt OpenGL with different names for the same functions. That's an oversimplification, but not much of one. If MS had adopted OpenGL and stayed the course, hardware/software would be much farther along today.
Typically, console hardware is sold at break-even or even loss pricing. The intention is that the hardware manufacturer makes their money back by charging publishers a fee for every title sold. If Nokia intends to make their money on the hardware, network connectivity or another service, and if they intend to leave the publishers to do as they please (and if this thing has good 3D - they don't name the chipset) it could mean a ready supply of game titles, which would help push the system into market.
The cost of your office space, support personel, assorted types of liability insurance, etc are still a constant. For most workers, salary is less than half the cost of keeping them on board.
Why not ask about working as a consultant for your company instead? You don't even need to pitch the half-hours angle. Work out of your home, and work efficiently, and you can get what you need done and spend the hours you'd have spent on office antics any way you like.
Is CORBA implemented with directly callable methods, or must all calls be made via sockets? If it works purely via sockets, there's huge overhead, and a fundamental programming paradigm shift if resources need to be retained by the CORBA server object.
I'll wager that even half of the Slash editors never see the pages not appearing on the front page. Hence this very recent duplicate.
From dictionary.com -
There's no "supposedly" about it - RPM is the de facto standard.
And yes - .debs rock my world and yours. And if they hadn't named the fool things after the distribution, more Linux distros would probably have picked them up by now.
The problem KDE is having was likely part of the reasoning behind Windows COM. COM objects are essentially virtual classes which are constructed in an optimized fashion at DLL load time, and I believe the most common DLLs have already been built to unique addresses to minimize the need for relocation/redundant copies.
There are three problems with the COM approach. First, it forces all functions to be virtual. This results in a small performance hit. KDE developers may have elected to take this route anyway, as it does introduce some extra flexibility. (Anyone know enough about KDE to comment?) Second problem - it introduces compiler dependencies. In a decade of C++ use, I haven't seen a compiler which handles VFTs differently from another, but that doesn't mean we won't - the VFT format, location and ordering are not part of the C++ specification. Third, COM is not a transparent solution. Applications would need to be altered to acquire objects through a broker. Again, I don't know KDE well enough to comment, but I very much doubt that this is currently required, or KDE likely wouldn't be having the problem it is.
These displays are DVI, and work on a PC with a $97 Geforce 2 MX card. So $500 and shipping gets you a 1024x768 all digital display with a fast video card.
The only downside to these, as compared to non-Apple DVI displays, is that they're soft-powered, so the power button has no effect. I set my systems up to use power management after 3 minutes, so I need only get up and walk away, and the things shut themselves off.
Most companies blend the game designer position into another position: programming lead, producer, or design may even be democratically handled by the whole team. It's unusual to find a dedicated game designer.
The few people I have run across as dedicated game designers are typically expierienced industry people working on epic-scale RPGs or games with a lot of movie footage which need scripts.
You're also unlikely to start out as game designer. You'll need to prove yourself in another position first. To do that, put together a killer demo game or two on your own (preferable), or get a degree with strong marks and practice the hell out of your interviewing skills. The demo is preferred, as it shows genuine interest and understanding of the field - most college kids I interview want to reinvent everything we do without having a clue about what we're already doing, or are pure academics who don't have a grasp of resource-limited development.
No, you'll be forced to buy a tuner. You can bet there will be 1,001 set-top products available that receive and rebroadcast on channel 2/3/whatever.
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My opinions are mine.
An example that comes to mind is the bt848 device, which isn't listed until i2c is enabled. Both are on different pages, and there is no indication that one will enable the other.
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My opinions are mine.
What would you add to/remove from the above?
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My opinions are mine.
Most spammers use 800 answering services these days. They only get charged if you leave a message with the answering representative. Leaving a legitimate sounding message is what it takes to make them pay, and it has the bonus of wasting their time.
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My opinions are mine.
Here's the best thing that every came from DigiScents. Also appearing here.
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My opinions are mine.
Hey, dipshit - I can't help but notice that you don't list a public e-mail address. You're afraid of being inconvenienced by spammers harvesting it off Slashdot?
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My opinions are mine.
More interesting than the ethernet intercom, I think: Are there ethernet based phones available?
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My opinions are mine.