> XBox 360 games cost 75 euros, compared to 50 euros for PS2/XBox/GC/PC titles.
Console launch games seem to always do that, then come down. Although still seems damn stupid, there's several games I've now either outright not bought, or bought for the PC, because they're not worth the (extra) cost of the XBox 360 version.
Tell them to imagine something constructed from LOC pieces of Lego.
More usefully, try explaining why code is complex. Focus on the idea that you have an insane number of moving parts (effectively), but modifying is nearly free, which is why it works at all. Also mention things like spending most of your time writing error handling (well, I do, anyway:) )...
Disagree - I haven't yet seen a computer based video player that does as good a job as my stand-alone upscaling DVD player, and most are considerably worse. MPlayer is fairly close, but forget about anything else...
Counter prediction: Both formats fail; I don't think either format is going to sell well at all. I think they're too expensive for the improved performance, and that most people have most of the content they want, already on DVD. PS3 is stuck with an over expensive drive that plays a format nothing else uses, nobody could care less that the XBox 360 drive doesn't play DVDs, HD-DVD add-on disappears without a trace.
How about, it follows the standards? You may not care, but my job as a web developer would be hell of a lot easier if all browsers did! Having to write "And if the browser is IE, use this horribly broken method of doing things instead because the IE devs didn't read the spec" code is a real nuisance.
Also, irrespective of number of flaws, while the number of people using IE stays so high, my chances of browsing a page with a security exploit for my browser is dramatically higher when using IE (I should add here, I don't want to see Firefox, IE, or any other browser having most of the market; I'd love to see the market split into fairly equal slices between at least three different browsers).
Apple call up a few of the really big ISPs, and arrange to co-locate a couple of servers, with unlimited bandwidth to that ISPs customers. Should be brilliantly cost effective, and save both parties money.
Don't get me wrong, BitTorrent is a great way of getting files around, but not for something as big or well funded as Apple...
Excluding the points other people have made; that's great for this generation. However, if I want my graphics to improve over the next 5 years, I'm going to be getting PCs...
> I think patch day the servers were down all day, but thats to be expected.
Why, though? If they scheduled all day, and were up after an hour, fine, because it means when something goes horribly wrong with an update, they've scheduled the time to fix it. What I don't see is why patches take so long, or why they need to have weekly maintenance.
> Should I have some inherent right to earn money as a result? No, but you have the inherent right to stop other people using your shed, or to charge them for using your shed.
> Just because something takes time and effort, doesn't necessarily mean you have a right to earn money from doing it, or even a chance to earn money from it. So... we'll motivate people to create easily copyable material by... declaring how great music/movies/books are, and we'd like to see some?
> Next scenario: Software. Without copyrights, what would keep MS from taking Linux and running with it?
Dang good point, need to remember that one. It's interesting seeing the same community that _screams_ with outrage at the very thought that some company may have GPLed code in their product without releasing the source (which is bad, and all, but I think there is too much assumption it's some sort of company policy, rather than a lazy programmer who's about to be fired. From a cannon, into the sun), declaring that copyrights are a terrible idea and shouldn't exist...
Exactly. I'd hate to be stuck with a player for a format no-one uses, but that's eclipsed by how much I really don't want to risk buying HD content that in a format that nothing will support for much longer.
Oh, and none of the launch titles are exactly tempting me.
Personally, I have a $150 upscaling DVD player, which looks just great, and is what I'll be using until this mess sorts itself out one way or another.
> I can buy a game for $50 and play it for 4 or 5 years.
Yeah - I'm kinda puzzled by this idea of "Of course you'll want to complete the game you paid for, as quickly as possible."; if a game lasts me a month or two, it's a good thing! In particular, when I hear episodic gaming, I think Half-Life 2, and I think SiN. I don't know how SiN will turn out, but the idea of buying something shorter than Half-Life 2 is absurd - I completed the game in 3 days, and would neither consider myself particularly skilled at games, or as having significant amounts of free time to devote to games!
What I really want out of games is more things like Marble Blast Ultra (off XBox Live marketplace), that I can pick up, play a level of (or fail repeatedly a level of), and then put down. Or Burnout, where I can do a couple of races when I have time.
What I'm really looking for is the ability to feel I've done something, in 30 minutes or less, and in 10 minutes or less for some games (which are ideal if I have dead-time between things I have to do). This doesn't mean making the game short, it means ensuring that save points are frequent, and levels are not too long. Games with parts that take more than 30 minutes are fine, as along as they're exceptional (so, maybe a major mission), and it's made obvious they'll involve a reasonable time committment, so I'm not going to make a start then have to put them down half way through.
Beyond that; Ubuntu is a desktop distro. Not to mention, why does Oracle need to _buy_ a Linux distro? Beyond that; does Oracle (database server) even run on Ubuntu? 'cos last time I checked, it was a nightmare to get running on Debian, and I seem to remember they're fairly similar...
> Why would anyone bother buying a Dell now? For the same reason people still eat at McDonalds? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm planning on buying a Intel PowerMac (whatever they call them) for my next desktop PC, and dual-booting, but that's because I can afford to do this, and it's worth it for the time saved not wrestling with my PC. However, cheap commodity PCs aren't going anywhere, and neither is absolute cutting-edge overclockers stuff, it's the market in between that Apple can really win at here...
This would be an version of "just right" that involves spending 6-9 months fixing bugs that should have never got past QA? I can't remember all the bugs I've hit so far, but the most recent one is hilarious:
My character was being used as bait for someone to ambush... the ambush springs, my backup leaps into action... At this point, two Imperial Guards come around the corner and start mashing my attacker as well. This makes me happy. Finally, they defeat my attacker, and start pureeing my backup. Eek, glad I didn't need them for anything important!
Beyond that; game balance is poor, and clearly intended that you play a combat-primary character. Playing a stealth-orientated character is a painful joke - sure, I can do 3x/6x more damage on my first hit, but I'm still being slaughtered by single opponents while travelling. This is particularly frustrating when I've just fought my way through HELL, got back, recovered, walk outside town and am torn to pieces by a passing WOLF!!! Other times I've become so bored of combat against a single, random encounter opponent, that I've just given up entirely on the game and done something else.
In several places missions don't provide options that should be fairly obvious , or doors are plot-locked (*cough* Dark Brotherhood haven *cough*) because they couldn't be bothered dealing with a good stealth character breaking into them.
Did I mention that the entire stealth system seems to depend on your footware more than anything else? Not to mention, many places don't provide enough cover to creep around, or you are expected to deal with dodging guards that go in and out of zone breaks (as in, doors which do not open, but instead NPCs simply materialise infront of).
Oh, and you can't kill the plot NPCs, they're merely rendered unconscious, which makes the escort missions a joke. Although the fact that you can fast-travel while escorting someone doesn't really help that either.
Then there's the points where the game engine holds your character in place so you can't interfere while a character is killed (the start being the obvious example, but there are others).
Hmmm... found some weird stuff too... broke into the Imperial Palace, pulled a key off a guard, walked down to the entrance to the main chamber, and unlocked the door infront of the guard. Okay, I can accept he didn't stop me there, just about. So I pull my bow out, and try assassinating the head guy whose name escapes me now. You know what happened?
The arrow goes straight through his head, and sticks in the chair. He continues to ignore me. I empty a few more arrows into the chair, before finally realising that whatever I do, the game won't let me hit someone sitting down.
Personally, I'd consider Oblivion "barely acceptable" in terms of polish. If Bethesda didn't produce such incredible freeform, diverse games I'd have given up on them years ago. As it is, I'm mostly incredibly frustrated by the wasted potential.
Is it also just me (and I'll accept that it is) who has a hell of a lot more space in their office (even given it's shared), than their house? I mean, I have a bedroom, not an office, at home, and it's somewhere under half the size of my office at work...
And if I had a budget of $1000 for photography equipment, that might matter to me.
Look; yes, cell phone cameras suck. With one of the best on the market (SE K750i), I get photos that are best described as "acceptable". However, if it's a choice between an "okayish" picture, and none at all (because carrying a camera regularly isn't something I do), I'll take okayish.
I would never suggets replacing a good camera with a phone camera, nor would I consider it a critical feature in a phone, but I do think they're a useful thing to have...
> You should obviously know how that you could use truss/strace to find out what file or directory is "missing."
Could I also suggest beating the responsible developer upside the head with something? I mean, seriously, I could forgive:
open: No such file or directory
Or similar (as in, perror output), but that's just useless. Ranting aside, it sounds like you're looking far more for a C/C++ developer with sys-admin experience, than someone who is primarily a sys-admin? I mean, it sounds more like you want them to be doing debugging and QA, than actual administration...
> For instance, many so-called "Linux experts" did not know that the command to list the kernel modules loaded into a running kernel is 'lsmod'.
While that's fairly bad, particularly from the point of view of debugging problems, it occurs that I've never really dealt with modules on server systems, only on desktop. On the servers, it's handled by the Linux distro, and we then don't touch anything, whereas on my own desktop installing new hardware with freaky module requirements isn't at all odd.
> Most thought you could find out that information by reading/etc/modules.conf! (No, I'm not kidding.) I dunno, if I didn't know about lsmod,/etc/modules.conf would seem a good guess...
Purely out of curiousity, what other sort of questions are you asking?
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> XBox 360 games cost 75 euros, compared to 50 euros for PS2/XBox/GC/PC titles.
Console launch games seem to always do that, then come down. Although still seems damn stupid, there's several games I've now either outright not bought, or bought for the PC, because they're not worth the (extra) cost of the XBox 360 version.
> but if i was able to find something like "10. A girlfriend"
Who says it has to be your girlfriend. You're thinking too literally!
Tell them to imagine something constructed from LOC pieces of Lego.
:) )...
More usefully, try explaining why code is complex. Focus on the idea that you have an insane number of moving parts (effectively), but modifying is nearly free, which is why it works at all. Also mention things like spending most of your time writing error handling (well, I do, anyway
Nah, it's just like American spam... in no small part because a hell of a lot of is American spam. More or less the half that's not from China...
> Easiest way to test: Your own computer.
Disagree - I haven't yet seen a computer based video player that does as good a job as my stand-alone upscaling DVD player, and most are considerably worse. MPlayer is fairly close, but forget about anything else...
Exactly!
:)
I can tell the difference. If, y'know, I look hard at a TV almost twice the size of my own. Now ask me if I care enough to replace my DVD collection
Counter prediction: Both formats fail; I don't think either format is going to sell well at all. I think they're too expensive for the improved performance, and that most people have most of the content they want, already on DVD. PS3 is stuck with an over expensive drive that plays a format nothing else uses, nobody could care less that the XBox 360 drive doesn't play DVDs, HD-DVD add-on disappears without a trace.
How about, it follows the standards? You may not care, but my job as a web developer would be hell of a lot easier if all browsers did! Having to write "And if the browser is IE, use this horribly broken method of doing things instead because the IE devs didn't read the spec" code is a real nuisance.
Also, irrespective of number of flaws, while the number of people using IE stays so high, my chances of browsing a page with a security exploit for my browser is dramatically higher when using IE (I should add here, I don't want to see Firefox, IE, or any other browser having most of the market; I'd love to see the market split into fairly equal slices between at least three different browsers).
I care, BTW.
I wish they'd put it in a different window, and call it CSS console, but I care anyway!
Apple call up a few of the really big ISPs, and arrange to co-locate a couple of servers, with unlimited bandwidth to that ISPs customers. Should be brilliantly cost effective, and save both parties money.
Don't get me wrong, BitTorrent is a great way of getting files around, but not for something as big or well funded as Apple...
Excluding the points other people have made; that's great for this generation. However, if I want my graphics to improve over the next 5 years, I'm going to be getting PCs...
> I think patch day the servers were down all day, but thats to be expected.
Why, though? If they scheduled all day, and were up after an hour, fine, because it means when something goes horribly wrong with an update, they've scheduled the time to fix it. What I don't see is why patches take so long, or why they need to have weekly maintenance.
Anyone?
> Should I have some inherent right to earn money as a result?
No, but you have the inherent right to stop other people using your shed, or to charge them for using your shed.
> Just because something takes time and effort, doesn't necessarily mean you have a right to earn money from doing it, or even a chance to earn money from it.
So... we'll motivate people to create easily copyable material by... declaring how great music/movies/books are, and we'd like to see some?
> Next scenario: Software. Without copyrights, what would keep MS from taking Linux and running with it?
Dang good point, need to remember that one. It's interesting seeing the same community that _screams_ with outrage at the very thought that some company may have GPLed code in their product without releasing the source (which is bad, and all, but I think there is too much assumption it's some sort of company policy, rather than a lazy programmer who's about to be fired. From a cannon, into the sun), declaring that copyrights are a terrible idea and shouldn't exist...
> all this during his probationary period and they still kept him on full-time.
:)
So, erm, is your company hiring?
Exactly. I'd hate to be stuck with a player for a format no-one uses, but that's eclipsed by how much I really don't want to risk buying HD content that in a format that nothing will support for much longer.
Oh, and none of the launch titles are exactly tempting me.
Personally, I have a $150 upscaling DVD player, which looks just great, and is what I'll be using until this mess sorts itself out one way or another.
> I can buy a game for $50 and play it for 4 or 5 years.
Yeah - I'm kinda puzzled by this idea of "Of course you'll want to complete the game you paid for, as quickly as possible."; if a game lasts me a month or two, it's a good thing! In particular, when I hear episodic gaming, I think Half-Life 2, and I think SiN. I don't know how SiN will turn out, but the idea of buying something shorter than Half-Life 2 is absurd - I completed the game in 3 days, and would neither consider myself particularly skilled at games, or as having significant amounts of free time to devote to games!
What I really want out of games is more things like Marble Blast Ultra (off XBox Live marketplace), that I can pick up, play a level of (or fail repeatedly a level of), and then put down. Or Burnout, where I can do a couple of races when I have time.
What I'm really looking for is the ability to feel I've done something, in 30 minutes or less, and in 10 minutes or less for some games (which are ideal if I have dead-time between things I have to do). This doesn't mean making the game short, it means ensuring that save points are frequent, and levels are not too long. Games with parts that take more than 30 minutes are fine, as along as they're exceptional (so, maybe a major mission), and it's made obvious they'll involve a reasonable time committment, so I'm not going to make a start then have to put them down half way through.
Beyond that; Ubuntu is a desktop distro. Not to mention, why does Oracle need to _buy_ a Linux distro? Beyond that; does Oracle (database server) even run on Ubuntu? 'cos last time I checked, it was a nightmare to get running on Debian, and I seem to remember they're fairly similar...
> Why would anyone bother buying a Dell now?
For the same reason people still eat at McDonalds? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm planning on buying a Intel PowerMac (whatever they call them) for my next desktop PC, and dual-booting, but that's because I can afford to do this, and it's worth it for the time saved not wrestling with my PC. However, cheap commodity PCs aren't going anywhere, and neither is absolute cutting-edge overclockers stuff, it's the market in between that Apple can really win at here...
>The new formats are a simple evolution of DVD, and most users will simply evolve into it over time
In the same way, say, that they moved across to DVD-Audio? Just a thought...
This would be an version of "just right" that involves spending 6-9 months fixing bugs that should have never got past QA? I can't remember all the bugs I've hit so far, but the most recent one is hilarious:
u t-gender-in-oblivion/
My character was being used as bait for someone to ambush... the ambush springs, my backup leaps into action... At this point, two Imperial Guards come around the corner and start mashing my attacker as well. This makes me happy. Finally, they defeat my attacker, and start pureeing my backup. Eek, glad I didn't need them for anything important!
Beyond that; game balance is poor, and clearly intended that you play a combat-primary character. Playing a stealth-orientated character is a painful joke - sure, I can do 3x/6x more damage on my first hit, but I'm still being slaughtered by single opponents while travelling. This is particularly frustrating when I've just fought my way through HELL, got back, recovered, walk outside town and am torn to pieces by a passing WOLF!!! Other times I've become so bored of combat against a single, random encounter opponent, that I've just given up entirely on the game and done something else.
Oh, talking of balance: http://acidforblood.net/2006/04/09/the-debate-abo
In several places missions don't provide options that should be fairly obvious , or doors are plot-locked (*cough* Dark Brotherhood haven *cough*) because they couldn't be bothered dealing with a good stealth character breaking into them.
Did I mention that the entire stealth system seems to depend on your footware more than anything else? Not to mention, many places don't provide enough cover to creep around, or you are expected to deal with dodging guards that go in and out of zone breaks (as in, doors which do not open, but instead NPCs simply materialise infront of).
Oh, and you can't kill the plot NPCs, they're merely rendered unconscious, which makes the escort missions a joke. Although the fact that you can fast-travel while escorting someone doesn't really help that either.
Then there's the points where the game engine holds your character in place so you can't interfere while a character is killed (the start being the obvious example, but there are others).
Hmmm... found some weird stuff too... broke into the Imperial Palace, pulled a key off a guard, walked down to the entrance to the main chamber, and unlocked the door infront of the guard. Okay, I can accept he didn't stop me there, just about. So I pull my bow out, and try assassinating the head guy whose name escapes me now. You know what happened?
The arrow goes straight through his head, and sticks in the chair. He continues to ignore me. I empty a few more arrows into the chair, before finally realising that whatever I do, the game won't let me hit someone sitting down.
Personally, I'd consider Oblivion "barely acceptable" in terms of polish. If Bethesda didn't produce such incredible freeform, diverse games I'd have given up on them years ago. As it is, I'm mostly incredibly frustrated by the wasted potential.
Is it also just me (and I'll accept that it is) who has a hell of a lot more space in their office (even given it's shared), than their house? I mean, I have a bedroom, not an office, at home, and it's somewhere under half the size of my office at work...
> because I can plop a $1000.00 lens on it.
And if I had a budget of $1000 for photography equipment, that might matter to me.
Look; yes, cell phone cameras suck. With one of the best on the market (SE K750i), I get photos that are best described as "acceptable". However, if it's a choice between an "okayish" picture, and none at all (because carrying a camera regularly isn't something I do), I'll take okayish.
I would never suggets replacing a good camera with a phone camera, nor would I consider it a critical feature in a phone, but I do think they're a useful thing to have...
> You should obviously know how that you could use truss/strace to find out what file or directory is "missing."
Could I also suggest beating the responsible developer upside the head with something? I mean, seriously, I could forgive:
open: No such file or directory
Or similar (as in, perror output), but that's just useless. Ranting aside, it sounds like you're looking far more for a C/C++ developer with sys-admin experience, than someone who is primarily a sys-admin? I mean, it sounds more like you want them to be doing debugging and QA, than actual administration...
> For instance, many so-called "Linux experts" did not know that the command to list the kernel modules loaded into a running kernel is 'lsmod'.
/etc/modules.conf! (No, I'm not kidding.) /etc/modules.conf would seem a good guess...
While that's fairly bad, particularly from the point of view of debugging problems, it occurs that I've never really dealt with modules on server systems, only on desktop. On the servers, it's handled by the Linux distro, and we then don't touch anything, whereas on my own desktop installing new hardware with freaky module requirements isn't at all odd.
> Most thought you could find out that information by reading
I dunno, if I didn't know about lsmod,
Purely out of curiousity, what other sort of questions are you asking?