You can get installed (or buy and install yourself) security film, like VehicleGard.
Then, you won't have to worry about smath and grab with such film. (Downside is that you can't easily break out if you're underwater but I think for most people the chance of someone breaking in is a lot higher than going underwater....)
As an embedded systems software engineer who's worked on the Cell (PS3) processor for 3.5 years as a Toshiba employee, I thought I would have an easy entry into Game business -- and so did a lot of my coworkers. I even got references from a Sony engineer to get my name in front of the hiring managers.
Today, I haven't gone anywhere in game business: I've had several phone interviews and even one on site interview but nothing panned out. Interviewing process for game business is different from embedded systems since I'm able to get jobs (have been for the past 18+ years). I was unemployed for one month (Sep'05) as I tried to focus on a game job but I ended up right back into my area of expertise [where I am getting my pay check]. The biggest jolt I got was when I was told I would have to be hired as a mid-level programmer rather than a senior one. All because I wasn't in the game business before?
I see some of the "we're different here" attitude in embedded systems (like knowing certain communications protocols as a requirement for getting hired -- which to me is just as bad as requiring specific, trademarked development tool experience), but in general basic skills are transferable and specific details can always be (and is) learned on the fly. Granted, I haven't done math recently but with my Math B.A. degree (on top of my B.S. and M.A. degrees in C.S.) I didn't think it was a big deal. They also wanted C++ experience which I was rusty in but I had previous experience before (ironically, with my current job, I had no serious problem porting a C++ program from AT&T Standard Component library to C++ Standard (STL) Library -- it wasn't easy but it wasn't impossible either). Now, I won't even bother to apply to game openings and the only way I'd get involved is if I write my own game or game tool [as if I was working on one in my spare time... yeah, right].
Slightly off track but if you haven't read "Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream," I'd highly recommend it. I picked it up while I was unemployed and felt that the author got the right feel of the job hunt process. I don't agree with her proposals on how to fix the system [more government intervention] but she did go into the job hunt process herself far more than I ever had to do [she never did get a white collar job, though].
"SO i _seriously_ doubt "the entire world" will be using power in 10 years. They can be happy if the keep their market share."
With PS3, Xbox 360 and Revolution containing some flavor of POWER5 (Cell certainly has inherited POWER5 technologies), I'm pretty sure "the entire world" would have these powerful capabilities. Unlike workstations and PCs, these game machines won't be so hacker friendly but then I doubt if most people of "the entire world" would care less....
"This generates more code than reusing someone else's library, but may save development time."
This may make business sense if one can count on the ever expanding virtual memory.
On the other hand, if you are forced to work with minimal memory or even fixed memory (e.g., embedded systems with limited ROM or Flash memory), you can't afford to generate more code for faster development. You may have to rewrite to share better, but you won't get extra ROM/memory space to keep generating more code (some devices like smart cards can't have added memory while for other systems, adding more memory means more real dollars per kilo or megs of memory -- multipling that with thousands or multi-million devices will easily kill the profitability of a product).
With Cell (which I've worked on for 3.5 years until last month), its Power core supports virtualization feature (or "hypervisor" mode as IBM likes to call it) as documented in Power Architecture V2.02.
This allows companies (I won't be surprised see if all 3 game consoles will support this) to allow game programmers to create RTOS (real-time operating system) like programs so that they have very refined control over program behavior (even OS like control) while the hypervisor SW (like Xen) will prevent any critical resources of games from clobbering each other (just as hypervisor supported OS will not hurt other OS running under hypervisor). Virtualization will give more control to the game programmer (more power and more responsibility) while the game console maker would retain minimal but critical control over the resources (mainly IO and memory). Pretty exciting world ahead for game developers in my opinion....
What excited me the most (as I've commented before) is, if news.com report is accurate, the chance for joe blow to start a small team and create a new game on a console with a new interface. If Nintendo provides support and enough push for these small guys, then the chance for out-of-the-box thinking and games would be possible (hard to do with PS and Xbox franchise today).
If Nintendo would open source their tools and get game developers involved, they may have a unique opportunity which Sony and Microsoft might miss.
And if they provide tools for their GB and DS franchise, then synergistic products (handhelds tied to Revolution somehow) might be realized that big name game companies have failed to imagine so far....
Iwata also said he hoped Revolution would give small developers an opportunity to create games for a next-generation console without the multimillion dollar budgets and years of development time required for today's top titles.
"Small developers can compete on creativity, not on scale or staff size...Nintendo is willing to help bring these ideas to life," Iwata said.
Iwata said he was looking forward to seeing how developers will use the pointer, which can be used for both quick action or slow, precise motion. A Nintendo video during the keynote even showed one player using the controller as a dentists' drill.
So maybe small teams or even individual developers can get into the "game" of Revolution? With the risk of all kinds of trashy games being made available, I'd rather have the market decide who's better not some game console maker. If you look at sourceforge, you can see all kinds of odd ball projects but only the very few gain steam to wide spread usage and that's the way it should be. Let the customers decide what's good, not some central "authority." Communism didn't work and trying to impose similar controls with (game) software won't work either. Great ideas will almost always come from those who think outside the box: big companies are too often stuck in the group-think mode. (Companies like Apple may be able to take the oddball and run with it and be successful but note that Apple didn't come up with the first ever mp3 player or even commercial GUI OS/computer -- the latter honor belongs to Xerox Star.)
I'd second the programming specialty comment. As someone who's been programming in the embedded systems market for about 18 years, I'd say that there are plenty of opportunities for those who want to get into more hardware-ish market. Companies which traditionally do only hardware are realizing that testing (HW verification) is more software like than hardware. Even more advanced companies will realize that design/development is more software like than hardware but that may not take place any time soon.... (I write this as someone who worked for a tool company, Cynergy System Design, which went under so it can be a tough sell)
You can delete old email if you're that hard up for space, just have a rock-solid deletion policy you can prove you adhered to in a court of law.
But if the law requires 3 year retention, no company policy will trumpt Fed law. I'm no lawyer but I would think that court cases will enforce it, too, starting with this one.
I suppose one could encrypt old email and claim that the key was lost (or completely random) but then the court will probably make you PAY to crack the encrypted email....
"We have been teaching Smalltalk to children since the Spring of 1974" (Smalltalk in the Classroom by Adele Goldberg)
And on another document (Methods for Teaching Smalltalk, Goldberg & Kay, 1977), there is a picture of what looks like a MacPaint program -- written by a student between the ages of 9 and 15 (granted the program is an extension of code written by adults) up to 3 years before 1977! Note that Mac was originally released (with MacPaint) in 1984!
So you can say that Apple learned a thing or two from junior highschool students (with guidance from Xerox PARC staff) years before Lisa or Mac was available.
Even though I have Master's in Computer Science and a Bachelor's in Math and another in CS, I don't think that the degrees are needed per se. Granted, if you want to work for a public company or gov. job then it will usually be a prerequisite. When people buy/download software, how many people check to see what degrees are behind the product? You try and see if how it works, or hopefully you read some reviews (if it's paid software) and go from there. (Did (do) people stop buying from MSFT, Apple or Dell, when they find out that Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or Michael Dell dropped out of college?)
As for those who point out the marvel of socialization or learning a new way to think or solve problems, I'd say baloney! You don't need a college degree. There are many ways to get educated -- the school path happens to be one way. Or as a teacher loved to remind me, "don't let school get in the way of your education." (I've learned to program on my own since I was in high school (back when I was programming on PDP-11's for self eduation, while using PET computers for playing games), which eventually convinced me that schooling isn't such a big deal and, hence, homeschooling is the best way to educate children, but this belongs in another thread:-)
In my 14 years of full time work experience (I'm 37), I've met programmers without college degrees who were great coders while those with even graduate degrees not able to code anything more than a simple algorithm. As a side note, I was amazed to see some of my classmates who didn't have a good grasp of programming end up with degrees -- I realize that not everyone can self teach how to program but it sure made me wonder (about them and the companies that hired them).
What does it boil down to? Years of work experience and how well the person deals with coworkers/bosses/customers. Those are the stuff I'd look for, if I ever become a hiring manager and the company I work for doesn't mandate certain degrees and/or certificates.
Smalltalk (e.g., http://www.squeak.org/) is a classic language for children to learn programming. Xerox PARC did extensive research in the 70's (almost 30 years ago) with Palo Alto students (6th grade or so). A good summary about it can be found at: http://www.rheingold.com/texts/tft/11.html
(Adele Goldberg and Alan Kay's research papers are even better, but I haven't found them on the web (yet)....)
Logo is always another alternative: http://el.www.media.mit.edu/groups/logo-foundation /
Disclaimer: Although I work for one of the biggest smart card makers in the world and the inventor of Java Card (Java on smart card), as far as I know AmEx is not using our cards.
As for Blue, Frost and Sullivan's analysis is a good place to start. Personally, I think it is a good thing: get consumers used to idea of smart cards and making everything free at first really helps. And if they use Java Card based smart card, they'll be able to roll out new features in the future. Besides, free card, free reader and 0% APR are hard to beat (unless they start cutting checks, I guess). At least I've applied for the Blue card.
Linux support probably can be found at: http://www.linuxnet.com/ (I say probably because AmEX is highly likely to use one of the well known readers, much of them supported by MUSCLE project)
As for security: much of the first 40 posting I've read are either wrong or misinformed. I'd recommed that you read some smart card introduction before posting here:
Slashdot Mirror
You can get installed (or buy and install yourself) security film, like VehicleGard.
Then, you won't have to worry about smath and grab with such film. (Downside is that you can't easily break out if you're underwater but I think for most people the chance of someone breaking in is a lot higher than going underwater....)
As an embedded systems software engineer who's worked on the Cell (PS3) processor for 3.5 years as a Toshiba employee, I thought I would have an easy entry into Game business -- and so did a lot of my coworkers. I even got references from a Sony engineer to get my name in front of the hiring managers.
Today, I haven't gone anywhere in game business: I've had several phone interviews and even one on site interview but nothing panned out. Interviewing process for game business is different from embedded systems since I'm able to get jobs (have been for the past 18+ years). I was unemployed for one month (Sep'05) as I tried to focus on a game job but I ended up right back into my area of expertise [where I am getting my pay check]. The biggest jolt I got was when I was told I would have to be hired as a mid-level programmer rather than a senior one. All because I wasn't in the game business before?
I see some of the "we're different here" attitude in embedded systems (like knowing certain communications protocols as a requirement for getting hired -- which to me is just as bad as requiring specific, trademarked development tool experience), but in general basic skills are transferable and specific details can always be (and is) learned on the fly. Granted, I haven't done math recently but with my Math B.A. degree (on top of my B.S. and M.A. degrees in C.S.) I didn't think it was a big deal. They also wanted C++ experience which I was rusty in but I had previous experience before (ironically, with my current job, I had no serious problem porting a C++ program from AT&T Standard Component library to C++ Standard (STL) Library -- it wasn't easy but it wasn't impossible either). Now, I won't even bother to apply to game openings and the only way I'd get involved is if I write my own game or game tool [as if I was working on one in my spare time... yeah, right].
Slightly off track but if you haven't read "Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream," I'd highly recommend it. I picked it up while I was unemployed and felt that the author got the right feel of the job hunt process. I don't agree with her proposals on how to fix the system [more government intervention] but she did go into the job hunt process herself far more than I ever had to do [she never did get a white collar job, though].
"SO i _seriously_ doubt "the entire world" will be using power in 10 years. They can be happy if the keep their market share."
With PS3, Xbox 360 and Revolution containing some flavor of POWER5 (Cell certainly has inherited POWER5 technologies), I'm pretty sure "the entire world" would have these powerful capabilities. Unlike workstations and PCs, these game machines won't be so hacker friendly but then I doubt if most people of "the entire world" would care less....
"This generates more code than reusing someone else's library, but may save development time."
This may make business sense if one can count on the ever expanding virtual memory.
On the other hand, if you are forced to work with minimal memory or even fixed memory (e.g., embedded systems with limited ROM or Flash memory), you can't afford to generate more code for faster development. You may have to rewrite to share better, but you won't get extra ROM/memory space to keep generating more code (some devices like smart cards can't have added memory while for other systems, adding more memory means more real dollars per kilo or megs of memory -- multipling that with thousands or multi-million devices will easily kill the profitability of a product).
With Cell (which I've worked on for 3.5 years until last month), its Power core supports virtualization feature (or "hypervisor" mode as IBM likes to call it) as documented in Power Architecture V2.02.
This allows companies (I won't be surprised see if all 3 game consoles will support this) to allow game programmers to create RTOS (real-time operating system) like programs so that they have very refined control over program behavior (even OS like control) while the hypervisor SW (like Xen) will prevent any critical resources of games from clobbering each other (just as hypervisor supported OS will not hurt other OS running under hypervisor). Virtualization will give more control to the game programmer (more power and more responsibility) while the game console maker would retain minimal but critical control over the resources (mainly IO and memory). Pretty exciting world ahead for game developers in my opinion....
What excited me the most (as I've commented before) is, if news.com report is accurate, the chance for joe blow to start a small team and create a new game on a console with a new interface. If Nintendo provides support and enough push for these small guys, then the chance for out-of-the-box thinking and games would be possible (hard to do with PS and Xbox franchise today).
If Nintendo would open source their tools and get game developers involved, they may have a unique opportunity which Sony and Microsoft might miss.
And if they provide tools for their GB and DS franchise, then synergistic products (handhelds tied to Revolution somehow) might be realized that big name game companies have failed to imagine so far....
So maybe small teams or even individual developers can get into the "game" of Revolution? With the risk of all kinds of trashy games being made available, I'd rather have the market decide who's better not some game console maker. If you look at sourceforge, you can see all kinds of odd ball projects but only the very few gain steam to wide spread usage and that's the way it should be. Let the customers decide what's good, not some central "authority." Communism didn't work and trying to impose similar controls with (game) software won't work either. Great ideas will almost always come from those who think outside the box: big companies are too often stuck in the group-think mode. (Companies like Apple may be able to take the oddball and run with it and be successful but note that Apple didn't come up with the first ever mp3 player or even commercial GUI OS/computer -- the latter honor belongs to Xerox Star.)
I'd second the programming specialty comment. As someone who's been programming in the embedded systems market for about 18 years, I'd say that there are plenty of opportunities for those who want to get into more hardware-ish market. Companies which traditionally do only hardware are realizing that testing (HW verification) is more software like than hardware. Even more advanced companies will realize that design/development is more software like than hardware but that may not take place any time soon.... (I write this as someone who worked for a tool company, Cynergy System Design, which went under so it can be a tough sell)
You can delete old email if you're that hard up for space, just have a rock-solid deletion policy you can prove you adhered to in a court of law.
But if the law requires 3 year retention, no company policy will trumpt Fed law. I'm no lawyer but I would think that court cases will enforce it, too, starting with this one.
I suppose one could encrypt old email and claim that the key was lost (or completely random) but then the court will probably make you PAY to crack the encrypted email....
According to Apple,
they were incorp. in 1977.
While I have a Xerox PARC document that states:
"We have been teaching Smalltalk to children since the Spring of 1974" (Smalltalk in the Classroom by Adele Goldberg)
And on another document (Methods for Teaching Smalltalk, Goldberg & Kay, 1977), there is a picture of what looks like a MacPaint program -- written by a student between the ages of 9 and 15 (granted the program is an extension of code written by adults) up to 3 years before 1977! Note that Mac was originally released (with MacPaint) in 1984!
So you can say that Apple learned a thing or two from junior highschool students (with guidance from Xerox PARC staff) years before Lisa or Mac was available.
I had to respond to this post:
:-)
Even though I have Master's in Computer Science and a Bachelor's in Math and another in CS, I don't think that the degrees are needed per se. Granted, if you want to work for a public company or gov. job then it will usually be a prerequisite. When people buy/download software, how many people check to see what degrees are behind the product? You try and see if how it works, or hopefully you read some reviews (if it's paid software) and go from there. (Did (do) people stop buying from MSFT, Apple or Dell, when they find out that Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or Michael Dell dropped out of college?)
As for those who point out the marvel of socialization or learning a new way to think or solve problems, I'd say baloney! You don't need a college degree. There are many ways to get educated -- the school path happens to be one way. Or as a teacher loved to remind me, "don't let school get in the way of your education." (I've learned to program on my own since I was in high school (back when I was programming on PDP-11's for self eduation, while using PET computers for playing games), which eventually convinced me that schooling isn't such a big deal and, hence, homeschooling is the best way to educate children, but this belongs in another thread
In my 14 years of full time work experience (I'm 37), I've met programmers without college degrees who were great coders while those with even graduate degrees not able to code anything more than a simple algorithm. As a side note, I was amazed to see some of my classmates who didn't have a good grasp of programming end up with degrees -- I realize that not everyone can self teach how to program but it sure made me wonder (about them and the companies that hired them).
What does it boil down to? Years of work experience and how well the person deals with coworkers/bosses/customers. Those are the stuff I'd look for, if I ever become a hiring manager and the company I work for doesn't mandate certain degrees and/or certificates.
Danny
Smalltalk (e.g., http://www.squeak.org/) is a classic language for children to learn programming. Xerox PARC did extensive research in the 70's (almost 30 years ago) with Palo Alto students (6th grade or so). A good summary about it can be found at: http://www.rheingold.com/texts/tft/11.html
n /
(Adele Goldberg and Alan Kay's research papers are even better, but I haven't found them on the web (yet)....)
Logo is always another alternative: http://el.www.media.mit.edu/groups/logo-foundatio
See my comment above/below for details... Danny
See my posting above/below.... Danny
Disclaimer: Although I work for one of the biggest smart card makers in the world and the inventor of Java Card (Java on smart card), as far as I know AmEx is not using our cards.
As for Blue, Frost and Sullivan's analysis is a good place to start. Personally, I think it is a good thing: get consumers used to idea of smart cards and making everything free at first really helps. And if they use Java Card based smart card, they'll be able to roll out new features in the future. Besides, free card, free reader and 0% APR are hard to beat (unless they start cutting checks, I guess). At least I've applied for the Blue card.
Linux support probably can be found at: http://www.linuxnet.com/ (I say probably because AmEX is highly likely to use one of the well known readers, much of them supported by MUSCLE project)
As for security: much of the first 40 posting I've read are either wrong or misinformed. I'd recommed that you read some smart card introduction before posting here:
Smart card industry association: http://www.scia.org/
Smart card forum: http://www.smartcrd.com/
Java Card (but lots of general smart card info) http://members.xoom.com/javacard/
-----
More misc.: AmEx are working on a web page: www.blueamex.com (www.blueamex.net, too)
Danny (shameless ad: Java Card was invented here: www.cyberflex.slb.com)
You can find many readers supported at:
www.linuxnet.com
I won't be surprised if AmEx reader is already supported. (I'll find out as soon as I get mine.)
Danny