I've been in Japan for about six months now and I've wrote some iAppli; for games in particular, it's tough. The jar size has a 10k restriction (I kid you not), there is a really bizzare file you have to carefully write (called a.jam... yum) in order to download the applet, and the DoCoMo API is almost useful (I have some severe critisms of that, but I suspect it was rushed so what can you do?).
The jar size is the most limiting factor. That 10k holds everything you don't want to d/l from the net while playing your game; class files, graphics, music, data; everything. If you choose to d/l your content from the net, that limits where you can play your game and (at least here in Japan where we are billed by the PACKET) can REALLY jack up your bill- most of the "commercial" games for iMode phones do this, and it gets super-annoying FAST (but even a few extra k really boost the experience).
All this sounds dark, but it is so incredibly cool to play a game or use an app you've written while waiting for the train, that it's worth it. Well, sort of.;)
Re:From someone who has never hacked a kernel:
on
Linus Does Not Scale
·
· Score: 1
That's true. I use the term a bit too freely. An OS isn't much without a kernel though, and I usually end up generalizing when thinking about one or the other... bad tanuki. Usually no one makes an issue of it, but then again usually I don't talk about it on Slashdot.
Anyway, I hope that if the RMS ever steams my way, it will be for a much better reason than inappropriate terminology.:)
From someone who has never hacked a kernel:
on
Linus Does Not Scale
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Well, I'm really surprised at all this.
I think I'm not alone when I say that, when I came to linux a few years ago, I was very impressed. Stability, speed, tons of functions, and a lot of configuration...
whoa... you get to compile your own kernel, man!
Well, that was all well and good. What was not all well and good is that, like so many others, I didn't actually write anything for the kernel. I assumed it was in good, and (as I have no real OS-level programming experience) more capable hands. I know that was what I was thinking when I explained to others why linux was so cool, and would always keep getting better. People would keep on sending in improvements, and these improvements, when approved for absolute stabiity (Alan Cox's old job mentioned in the leter, wasn't it?), they would be integrated into the sacred source.
Sigh. Well, that assumes the improvements get accepted or even seen in the first place, doesn't it? Linux is a huge development project (I mean, come on, it's an OS), and anything made in last I don't know how many years of development of any significant size had ought to have a tighter system of management; human or not. I'm a little worried that Linus has any opposition to these sorts of things. I'm actually amazed that linux got this far without more- I always assumed there were some definite mechanisms of the sort involved (hence my regret for never messing with the "sacred source"). I always just assumed there were.
Now I am surprised there wasn't a call to action before this. In a project of this nature, with so many people, projects, and significant economic forces putting their investments of time, money, and effort into this, you'd think that something would have been done when good patches started getting dropped. If that is the case something has to be done now.
Like I said, I never messed with the source. I never fixed anything; I never submitted patches; therefore I never had this problem. In short, I never knew. I was never involved, and never felt I had to be- I mean, better heads than mine were on the job, right (I said the source was "sacred")? Well, not all heads are better at everything, and I think that the more heads invoved, the better off this would be (at the very least, we would have reached this crisis point sooner and come to some decision on how to handle it). Maybe if some of the right people got in on it earlier, an appropriate management system would have been advocated and introduced- and these problems would have been minimized.
Possibly not. But more has to be done on this. Linus' counterpoints are well argued, but if lots of valuable code patches are really being (uneccesarily) lost due to the current system, are they good enough?
...but unfortunately it misses one vital aspect about the US culture vs Europe. In the US, it is true there is a lot of trash- but what shines really shines. This is true everywhere from our bizarre public education system to the wildly individual-centric sports culture (both of which I admit do get to grating on your nerves eventually).
While you're off bellyaching about how grand the EU is and how the US is a complete greed-oriented-and-idealistically-bankrupt-society -of-unsophisticated-boors-who-leave-no-room-for-th e-demo-scene-to-thrive, I feel the need to point you to my favorite demo scene musician, Andrew Sega, formerly known as Necros of the Five Musicians, and now the Alpha Conspiracy. I've been in love with mods ever since they were just mods, and it was only recently that I discovered that my long-favorite it-tracker Necros was an American. What can I say? His stuff is nearly always amazing, both in terms of composition and innovation. And the important aspect about this is that he isn't slavishly devoted to just one type of sound or tinny dance format as many (ahem) European trackers are.
Peanut Gallery:whoa, tanuki- you're a little off track here, slamming on the EU and ranting about tracking instead of the full demo scene!
tanuki_x: Wow, what a politically aware, scene-literate peanut gallery! Well, as I am more inclined toward the music scene that's what I pay the most attention to. Sorry about the apparent EU bashing, I didn't want to come across like that. I actually really like the EU. Don't forget other tracking giants like Skaven, Joegir Liljedahl (an astounding guy), and Nightbeat are all from the EU (not sure on Nightbeat, think he was...) and are all very accomplished. I was just making a point on the differences between American and European creative leaders as I have observed them.
Peanut Gallery:Uh... right.
Incidentally, the movements of free software, open source, and a great host of others things aren't all dominated by the FSF ("strident political organizations?"), and can hardly be dismissed as idealistically devoid. Besides... what side of the ocean does the fabled linux come from (hey, no fair saying "the internet!"...that's not my point!)?
Also, kudos to Slashdot for even mentioning the demo scene! I'm confident that geeks everywhere will enjoy this unrecognized genre of music (sorry demo-only guys, but as the animations die, the music stays...). To get a good start on all this brouhaha, jump on over to the Mod Archive, and start sampling away!
Well the first thing I'd ask him is how to recompile my kernel under RedHat 7.1 without incident, but I guess that would be too much.:)
Seriously, though, I wonder how many interviews for technical positions have been for the education of the interviewer on the position's subject matter rather than the applicant... I know I've gone to a few suspect sessions...
The court should at least insist on one change to MS's practices: Microsoft should rename that item in the Edit menu with the control-z shortcut to "Appeal." It will always work, and is of course unlimited in its application.
With an unlimited "Appeal" operation, users may simply sit back and watch their control-z-initiated laywers "revisit" all those annoying unwanted automatic modifications to their Word documents and the like, and keep on "appealing" until they end up with document they had in mind in the first place.
hmm... BeOs is a single user, extremely GUI-oriented OS that was supposed to be so friendly that it would be the perfect choice for novice users. Oh yeah, and the multimedia stuff is integrated with the OS, iirc.
Slashdot Mirror
The jar size is the most limiting factor. That 10k holds everything you don't want to d/l from the net while playing your game; class files, graphics, music, data; everything. If you choose to d/l your content from the net, that limits where you can play your game and (at least here in Japan where we are billed by the PACKET) can REALLY jack up your bill- most of the "commercial" games for iMode phones do this, and it gets super-annoying FAST (but even a few extra k really boost the experience).
All this sounds dark, but it is so incredibly cool to play a game or use an app you've written while waiting for the train, that it's worth it. Well, sort of. ;)
Anyway, I hope that if the RMS ever steams my way, it will be for a much better reason than inappropriate terminology. :)
I think I'm not alone when I say that, when I came to linux a few years ago, I was very impressed. Stability, speed, tons of functions, and a lot of configuration...
Well, that was all well and good. What was not all well and good is that, like so many others, I didn't actually write anything for the kernel. I assumed it was in good, and (as I have no real OS-level programming experience) more capable hands. I know that was what I was thinking when I explained to others why linux was so cool, and would always keep getting better. People would keep on sending in improvements, and these improvements, when approved for absolute stabiity (Alan Cox's old job mentioned in the leter, wasn't it?), they would be integrated into the sacred source.
Sigh. Well, that assumes the improvements get accepted or even seen in the first place, doesn't it? Linux is a huge development project (I mean, come on, it's an OS), and anything made in last I don't know how many years of development of any significant size had ought to have a tighter system of management; human or not. I'm a little worried that Linus has any opposition to these sorts of things. I'm actually amazed that linux got this far without more- I always assumed there were some definite mechanisms of the sort involved (hence my regret for never messing with the "sacred source"). I always just assumed there were.
Now I am surprised there wasn't a call to action before this. In a project of this nature, with so many people, projects, and significant economic forces putting their investments of time, money, and effort into this, you'd think that something would have been done when good patches started getting dropped. If that is the case something has to be done now.
Like I said, I never messed with the source. I never fixed anything; I never submitted patches; therefore I never had this problem. In short, I never knew. I was never involved, and never felt I had to be- I mean, better heads than mine were on the job, right (I said the source was "sacred")? Well, not all heads are better at everything, and I think that the more heads invoved, the better off this would be (at the very least, we would have reached this crisis point sooner and come to some decision on how to handle it). Maybe if some of the right people got in on it earlier, an appropriate management system would have been advocated and introduced- and these problems would have been minimized.
Possibly not. But more has to be done on this. Linus' counterpoints are well argued, but if lots of valuable code patches are really being (uneccesarily) lost due to the current system, are they good enough?
If you want more portable games, why not write them using SDL? It seems perfect for the job...
Now we can see how these "unix" thingies work and write one that works on PCs!
While you're off bellyaching about how grand the EU is and how the US is a complete greed-oriented-and-idealistically-bankrupt-society -of-unsophisticated-boors-who-leave-no-room-for-th e-demo-scene-to-thrive, I feel the need to point you to my favorite demo scene musician, Andrew Sega, formerly known as Necros of the Five Musicians, and now the Alpha Conspiracy. I've been in love with mods ever since they were just mods, and it was only recently that I discovered that my long-favorite it-tracker Necros was an American. What can I say? His stuff is nearly always amazing, both in terms of composition and innovation. And the important aspect about this is that he isn't slavishly devoted to just one type of sound or tinny dance format as many (ahem) European trackers are.
Incidentally, the movements of free software, open source, and a great host of others things aren't all dominated by the FSF ("strident political organizations?"), and can hardly be dismissed as idealistically devoid. Besides... what side of the ocean does the fabled linux come from (hey, no fair saying "the internet!" ...that's not my point!)?
Also, kudos to Slashdot for even mentioning the demo scene! I'm confident that geeks everywhere will enjoy this unrecognized genre of music (sorry demo-only guys, but as the animations die, the music stays...). To get a good start on all this brouhaha, jump on over to the Mod Archive, and start sampling away!
Seriously, though, I wonder how many interviews for technical positions have been for the education of the interviewer on the position's subject matter rather than the applicant... I know I've gone to a few suspect sessions...
Hey, the patch to fix this has been out there for a while, right? :)
With an unlimited "Appeal" operation, users may simply sit back and watch their control-z-initiated laywers "revisit" all those annoying unwanted automatic modifications to their Word documents and the like, and keep on "appealing" until they end up with document they had in mind in the first place.
Hmm. What an "appealing" idea...
That sounds a lot like linux, right?