I enjoy those as well (looking forward to NWN2 like crazy!)... and I do understand what you mean by dialog.
I guess I just haven't spent all that much time listening to dialog... instead I'm off doing stuff. But now that I've started playing the main storyline I do kind of understand what you mean, because you end up talking to people a lot more.
As for the persuasion mini-game... I rather enjoy it. It's nice that even if I play a Dark-Elf character I can get people to like me even if they originally don't like the look of me. It's atleast better than certain people just being off-limits if your personality/charisma isn't high enough...
For me, it comes down to a huge world I can play in without the interference from other human players (ala MMO's). The cost of that freedom is that player interactions are fairly mechanical, but atleast for me it didn't get in the way of enjoying everything else about the game.
I guess I'm just the type of person they were targeting with this game, because I absolutely love it.
I just got done with another 2 hour long session... which brings my total game-play hours up to 112! Yes, that's what it actually says on the save game loading screen... I really have played that long, just with one character... and _no_ I haven't finished the main storyline yet (in fact, I didn't start it until I was _90_ hours into the game!)
So what the hell have I been doing with my time? Mostly working my way up through the fighters guild and the mages guild (I'm a custom class WarMage)... and doing every damn side quest I can get my hands on. I've also (of course) fought through the arena. I also enjoy working on obscure skills (alchemy?) and becoming expert/master with all kinds of weapons.
I guess I just love the open-endedness of it all. If I want to run around and pick flowers for a while I can do that. If I want to go climb that mountain over there (and discover another shrine with its own quest line) I can do that too.
I know I'm probably in the minority on this... but I love being able to be a packrat. I have chests _full_ of gear (where it even takes a couple of seconds to open the chest because it's trying to load the list!) and more chests full of ingredients... and still more chests full of books and scrolls.
Sure the NPCs aren't much to talk to, but I do enjoy the fact that they have much more realistic daily routines (sleeping, waking, eating, working, eating, sleeping etc). They might not be perfect, but I believe they add just that little bit extra.
But I'm not going to convince a bunch of people on slashdot.... I just thought there should be someone to post a positive experience with the game.
If you are looking for a world to explore, and love open-ended games then you really should check this one out....
Just being realistic here... do you _really_ think that if the dems were in charge that this wouldn't be happening?
The RIAA has everyone in their pockets... the dems and republicans... even if a Democrat is elected president next time around I can assure you that this behaviour will _not_ stop.
I second the recommendation of Sony DVD Architect.
I bought the Sony Vegas Movie Studio + DVD Architect bundle and have been very satisfied. I use Vegas Movie Studio to import from my DV Camera (a fairly inexpensive entry level JVC) and edit everything together. You then "Render" your final movie... and then fire up DVD Architect.
DVD Architect allows you to create all of the menus and add media to the disk (including moving menus, stills galleries (for jpegs), and easy Chapter menus). Then you just hit "burn" and it takes care of the rest.
The quality is superb... I can't tell any difference between the video on the DVD and the video I watch while I'm editing the raw DV footage.
The whole bundle is fairly inexpensive ($80-$100)... and I highly recommend it.
I sampled _lots_ of editing software (most all have free trials) before I bought Vegas... I went with Vegas because it had the most professional "feel"... meaning that it didn't dumb down the features or do too much hand holding. It also has a great help system that walks you through some of the more difficult editing tasks (it actually uses your own video clips and points to things on the screen to show you how to get the job done... you should atleast grab the trial version and see what I mean.)
I also like the capture program that Vegas uses the best... it actually catalogs everything (including searchable tag fields) you import. It can also remove the actual avi files while retaining the clip information... and then when you need that clip it will ask you to put in the correct tape and it will recapture it. This is great because the raw footage can take up a lot of space, so I always tell it to remove the media (and retain clip information) after I finish a project. But it's good to know that if I want to go back and change something it still remembers the clips and can recapture them.
Anyway... enough with the free advertising... I've just been really happy with the product! Here's the website:
Don't forget that _lots_ of people use Linux to get work done... and a whole crapload of that work is graphical in nature (including CAD and 3D rendering).
At my job we all have huge dual-processor Xeons running the absolute fastest videocards we can get our hands on (which right now are some variant of Nvidia Quadro cards)... and not a single one is using windows.
Now why aren't we running ATi cards? well... because their linux drivers suck.
So what's the incentive for writing good drivers for linux? Oh yeah... because a lot of people will use them... even if they're not gaming.
"I would never spend that much time listening to what he has to say."
Interesting, since you state that you DID just watch the video...
"does that mean it went even longer?" YES... much longer. He always sticks around for an extended question and answer session. This year's session went on for quite a while. There were a lot of good topics (like the Wii which I posted on down below) that came up in the question and answer session.
I actually didn't stay until the end of the QA session myself... I mean, I was at Quakecon... and there were games to be played! I am glad that I went to hear him speak though, this was my fourth Quakecon... and only the first time I've heard him speak live (I missed last year's speech, and one of the year's he gave his address via DVD as his child was being born).
Why is there so much hatred toward Carmack? Are most of these people just trolling? I'm not sure what he's done to offend anyone lately... and I thought most people around here atleast respected him for his Armadillo Airspace work. Can someone point me to a recent falling out between Slashdot and Carmack? I mean Carmack even mentioned Slashdot in his speech and posts here frequently.
Just thought that since I was there I would give my take on it....
As a computer scientist that works on large scale parallel code... I found his comments about parallelism to be spot on. I don't think most people understand just how difficult it is to write parallel code... especially for things running in real time.
It sounds to me like the PS3 is going to be a bitch to write for... the "acceleration engine" philosophy is just too far out there. From what Carmack was saying it seems that Microsoft went in the right direction with 3 identical cores. This gives some amount of parallelism while not being over the top... allowing for a smoother transition from the serial code that most programmers are used to writing. We'll see how this plays out in the market next year.
I was somewhat dissapointed by his statements about the Wii... basically he just doesn't like Nintendo (because of a prior falling out)... so we probably won't be seing id software games on the Wii anytime soon (which is a bummer... because I know Carmack could do some awesome stuff with the motion sensing technology).
Finally... I will say that I got to play with some of the cell-phone games that Carmack created... and man they were really cool. Specifically Doom RPG looked really good and played well. They are the first cell-phone games that have ever made me really want to do something on my phone besides use it to talk. He talked about possibly porting them to the Nintendo DS (probably through a third party) which sounds like a great idea.
Maybe I am overly harsh towards the children. My coldness only comes from the current state of our welfare system which, as I pointed out, tends to reinforce the anti-social behavior instead of lifting the children out of the loop.
Like you mention, I have no idea about what _should_ be done... all I know is that the current system sucks. It sucks for the children who are stuck in it... and it sucks for the tax payers who are paying for lazy parents to continue to make poor choices. The thought of giving even a single dollar to the people leeching off the system just boils my blood.
And the reason I make statements like I do is because I'm not convinced that giving them money so they can raise the next generation of leechers is better for the children and for the rest of society than _not_ giving them money. But, I guess I can see both sides of that argument (how could you just _ignore_ a child... even with all of my talk, I can't).
It also feels like the leechers and excusionists have started to overrun society to the point where people like me who just want what we work for, and want others to work for what they get are considered (as many other posters in this thread put it): Dicks.
"If you're working in the software industry, media, anything like that, you're, by definition, not "working class"."
Definitions can differ... but I concede that most often "working class" is associated with manual labor... and seeing as how I haven't done any in a long time you are probably right in not allowing me to classify myself as "working class". But my point was that I'm not rich by any stretch of the imagination... and put in my 40 hours for a salary like everyone else... and for now am living mostly paycheck to paycheck.
They are taking my bread money when they want things they didn't work for... and instead use the government to take my money from me and give it to them (maybe not directly...).
Yes... someone always has to be at the bottom... but I do believe that anyone who is serious about changing their station in life can do so through hard work.
You give an extreme example of all "shit-work" people simultaneously trying to better themselves... and not getting anywhere. The thing is that wouldn't ever happen. In my experience there are ample people all around us who are just fine with where they're at (or don't care to do the work to change it), these people will always be there.
My problem with people comes in when they are in the position they're in because of decisions they have made... but they want to blame everyone else in the world for it instead. My attitude is that no matter your position in life is you can always work harder (or smarter!) to rise above those around you.
Don't worry about calling me a dick... many others before you have done the same when this topic has come up. I know that I can sound a bit cold at times... I just wish people would take some responsibility for their own actions. Yes, there are sometimes events that are beyond our control... but I really do believe that any mostly responsible person with a good work ethic can/will get the things they need/want in this society.
I do see what you're saying with the grocery store selling to the upper 75% remark. I do agree that having a pool of people with the ability to pay more does limit the choices of the people who don't.
(Note, I'm going to use your statistics throughout... just to make things easy... I honestly don't know what the actual percentage of people who have been reasonably responsible yet still find themselves unable to buy milk actually is)
My first response is that there is no way around this... beyond instituting extreme socialistic policies which require everyone to be given the same allotment of goods/services. In our society there will _always_ be a lower 25% and taking money from the upper 75% and giving it to the lower 25% won't help the situation... and neither would raising minumum wage by a couple of bucks.
My second response is that in our society there are special provisions set aside just for the purpose of making sure that fairly responsible people that find themselves in the lower 25% can still get the basic necessities of life. This comes in the form of housing incentives, food programs, etc. I'm not talking about welfare or food stamps either... there are food programs which make common foods that are deemed "necessary" cheap enough for the lower 25% (you'll see a little sticker by them in your grocery store that says something like "WIPA Approved"... sorry I can't think of the actual acronym). In the same way there are _many_ different housing assistance programs that any well-intentioned person who finds themselves at the lower end of the scale can avail themselves of. No, these things don't pay for steak dinners or scenic views... but they do try to provide goods and services to the lower 25%.
My third response is that the irresponsible people in the lower 25% who have just made poor choices and are in the lower 25% because of them... well... I don't feel sorry for them. If the above mentioned programs aren't enough then that's not my problem. I realize that might sound cold... but you can't help everyone. There really are people in this world who are straight up leeching off society... they _know_ they are doing it... and they keep wanting more and more. It's this portion of the population that burns my ass.
I'm all about helping a fellow citizen who has fallen on hard times... like I said in another post... it could happen to any of us at any time. I just believe that the cases of an actual well intentioned person falling through the cracks is a statistical outlier compared to the number of people who are at the bottom because of their own poor decision making.
"you descend into the usual "blame the victim" attitude which is a rampant disease in our society"
I don't know about that. The most "rampant disease" I see in our society is the "blame everyone else but myself" disease. It's the one where people don't want to take responsibility for their own actions... and instead blame society. I think the rise in frivolous lawsuits bares out this general line of thinking fairly well...
And as for Ayn Rand... well, I just found out about her a couple of weeks ago (not exactly true... I have heard of Atlas Shrugged and a bit about it's basic premise, but I just found out more about her actual philosophical views recently)... and all of her books are already on my Amazon wishlist;-) So while you were spot on that my thinking is very much in line with some of her writings... I haven't actually read anything of hers yet!
And sadly... yes, I haven't had as much economics as it sounds like you have. It's alarming that it's so apparent!;-)
Rich? Why do people have to be either rich or poor around here?
Having children actually has nothing to do with _money_ in the strictest sense... but it has everything to do with your ability to provide the things necessary for your child... which in our society most often translates into money.
If you are living on a farm... and you grow your own food and can provide everything that's necessary for raising your child without any money at all... then that's great. The fact of the matter is, you're doing work by tilling the land and whatnot in order to provide for your child.... and the responsible thing to do is to make sure the land is fertile enough to provide for the child before you ever make one...
But that isn't the norm in our society. Most people in our society don't live on farms... and as such we work to make money to buy ourselves and our families the things we need/want. A responsible person makes sure that they can provide for another human being before creating one. You don't have to be _rich_! But if raising a family was your goal in life, then you should have made decisions along the way in order to make sure you had enough income to be able to provide for that family... anything else isn't being a responsible parent.
Further, expecting the responsible citizens in society to bail you out doesn't make any sense. Why should money that I make for my family be taken away and given to another family that wasn't responsible enough to do the right things along the way? It simply makes no sense... and further cements in people's minds that they aren't responsible for their own actions.
Flaimbait? Maybe. After re-reading my post it was obvious that I did use inflamatory phrasing... and I apologize for that!
At any rate... thanks to everyone for the good discussion! Now that this has dropped to 0 there probably won't be as much traffic.
It was good to see some people with supporting remarks... I wasn't expecting that! And the opinions that ran counter to my own generated several well thought out responses.
I enjoyed reading them all! And as I said in another post... don't let my ramblings turn anyone off from this site! Just "foe" me and move on;-) Or don't... as I'm not always so preachy!
I am no where close to royalty... and the social barriers that existed back during that time have been largely thrown down.
I am speaking as one of the working class... who doesn't appreciate my hard earned dollars flowing to those who don't earn it. This is hardly "letting them eat cake"... it's more like "quit taking my bread money!".
I'm still in Grad school and as such we don't have much money right now (even though I did work my ass off in undergrad so I could get a good job that sent me away to Grad school and is paying me a stipend while I'm here... like I say work for what you want)... but my wife is still working on her degree.
Seeing as how we don't have much money we decided that she could do a lot of her classes at community college until we can pay for better. She has been going to CC for the better part of 3 years now (there was some break in there so she could work full time because she wanted to pay for a nice wedding [and both of our parents are fairly poor and couldn't help us out]... working for what you want... what a great idea!).
At any rate she has made many acquaintances along the way, whom I both get to meet and hear about.... and my (admittedly un-scientific) statistical sampling has led to the above conclusions.
Not too mention that I had lots of high-school friends who went down (are still going down?!?!) this same path...
Regardless of what your kid brother used to say... it _doesn't_ take one to know one. Just pay attention to the people around you...
Don't quit slashdot because of me! I might come off sounding a little harsh... but that's only because what I usually read on slashdot (and other news outlets) is the other way around! There is a very excusionist attitude that runs rampent not only on this site, but in our society in general.
I will concede that some people get screwed by the system (Enron!)... I will also concede that some people get lucky. The thing is, I believe that both of those situations are outliers.
Yes, there should be programs in place to temporarily help people out who have fallen on bad times. Our economy is a tumultuous one... and it could happen to any of us... and it's in all of our best interest to help eachother out during these times. The problem is that, as much as people would like to believe it, this is only a _fraction_ of the cases that actually put people in minimum wage type positions. In the vast majority of cases people can do better... and have just made poor life decisions.
I've worked at fast food joints (Everyone should have to for a little while... if for nothing else than just to feel like what it's like to be on the other side of the counter!)... and as others have mentioned in this thread I saw a rampent laziness that was just unfathomable... especially from the people who actually needed the money (because they made poor decisions like popping out children when they couldn't support them). I've also worked construction jobs and saw similar. It also seemed to me, that the people who bitched the most about what they "deserved" were often the people lounging around when there was work to do. In my daily life I am constantly encountering these same type of people at all stations in life... from minimum wage all the way up through upper-middleclass... and I'm just tired of it. People get what they work for... and should work for what they get and that should be the end of it (with the above caveats of genuinely bad luck).
I know, I know... I'm just one data point and all that.... whatever. Go read some of the other comments around here and start to open your mind to the possibility that a good portion of our society is just too damn lazy (or deliberately slacking) to work for what they want/need. I know it's not a popular stance (especially around here), but that doesn't make it any less true.
At any rate... keep reading slashdot... but feel free to "foe" me! I'm not always on my soapbox, but it feels like lately someone needs to be...
Firstly, I'm not saying that everyone needs to be rich... or should even want to be. We all have different goals in life, some people would love to work a part-time minimum wage job as that would afford them lots of free time to devote to their hobbies and friends.
Others would like to purchase things to make our lives more comfortable/easier. A place to live (with air conditioning! Man it's hot this summer!), a T.V. to be entertained by, good food to make our tongues happy... and so on. These people work harder (or should) at gaining more capital for the purposes of buying the things we cannot make ourselves. That doesn't mean we're greedy, it just means we want some things that we don't have, so we do something for someone else (work!) and in return we recieve the ability to get what we want.
That process doesn't "push other people into poverty"... it just gives me the ability to get what I want... everyone else has the same opportunity (or they already have a headstart because someone in their past worked... and decided to pass that capital on... which is their perogative and shouldn't be held against the current recipients).
The problem comes when some people don't want to do the work to give themselves what they want. They work the same minimum wage job as the happy hobbiest above... but blame "the system" for screwing them... when in reality it was their own decisions that led them to this point. They yell and scream that they don't have enough money for [insert whatever good/service you like] and that they are "entitled" to that good/service and the government needs to provide it for them... which in our current culture happens fairly often.
But where does all the money come from to provide these people who don't work with things they don't deserve? Oh, that's right, from us people who actually made responsible decisions with their lives and are doing well at providing both the things we want and the things [we/our families] need. Now how is that right?
"Two parents working two full time minimum wage jobs have trouble supporting a family."
I knew this would come up (it always does). I have absolutely _zero_ sympathy for either the parents or the children in this case. If the parents couldn't support children they should have made the right decisions and (gasp!) _not had kids_! Responsible decisions? What the hell are those? It is not my job to go around and fix everyone else's problems because they weren't responsible with their lives.
"But think of the children," everyone cries... the problem is that by artificially propping up families that shouldn't have happened in the first place we are teaching the children that they don't have to make responsible decisions either.... because the government will bail them out. This creates a vicious cycle where people become more and more dependent upon the government... leading us toward a complete socialism.
(Also note, that I don't necessarily think that socialism is bad... it's just not the society _I_ want to live in... and there are plenty of socialist societies to go around... so stop messing with my capitilistic society!)
"not everyone is born with a bevy of opportunities"
You don't know anything about me. My parents both just barely finished high-school... they worked their asses off to give my sister and I what we had... but it wasn't much. _I_ worked my ass off to do better and rise above what my parents had done, and I hope to instill that same work ethic into my kids so they can continue to increase their quality of life. When all of my comrades in high-shcool were off getting drunk and making babies I was studying and making good grades so I could have the things I wanted in life... which is the way it should be...
30 Million People live on minimum wage because they are too lazy to do anything else. Seriously... anyone over the age of 18 that is still making minimum wage has made a conscious decision to just sit on their asses. If you want to make more money do better in High School... or sign up for a couple community college classes _and actually do the work_ (I see a lot of people sign up for those classes and _still_ be lazy and end up back on their asses at McDonalds)... or, in general, just make better decisions in life.
I don't think there should be _any_ minimum wage at all... let people work for what they're willing to work for. If the work and pay suck then people will try to do better... and if they're too lazy to do better then that's their own damn problem.
I'm so damn tired of this crap... people need to take responsibility for their lives... that's part of the reason we're in this mess. People have become so lazy and complacent that they want the Government to do everything for them... including figuring out a way to make them money. If we all took care of our own shit this wouldn't be a problem.
All of these comments from people on the inside of Target are confirming what I alreadys suspected: That I like to shop at Target.
It just seems that every time I go in there I have a pleasant experience... and now I can see that it's not just happenstance. I'll probably shopping there even more now.
Thank you for the enlightening comment! I appreciate your novel additions to this conversation!
I actually believe it to be the other way around... smart people can both figure how to use self-checkout efficiently and when to use it (which for me is usually when I only have a couple of things and there is no one else there).
"Fucking morons," as you put, it would be someone who would stand in line with one thing to buy while the self-checkout sits empty...
Slashdot Mirror
I enjoy those as well (looking forward to NWN2 like crazy!)... and I do understand what you mean by dialog.
I guess I just haven't spent all that much time listening to dialog... instead I'm off doing stuff. But now that I've started playing the main storyline I do kind of understand what you mean, because you end up talking to people a lot more.
As for the persuasion mini-game... I rather enjoy it. It's nice that even if I play a Dark-Elf character I can get people to like me even if they originally don't like the look of me. It's atleast better than certain people just being off-limits if your personality/charisma isn't high enough...
For me, it comes down to a huge world I can play in without the interference from other human players (ala MMO's). The cost of that freedom is that player interactions are fairly mechanical, but atleast for me it didn't get in the way of enjoying everything else about the game.
Friedmud
I guess I'm just the type of person they were targeting with this game, because I absolutely love it.
I just got done with another 2 hour long session... which brings my total game-play hours up to 112! Yes, that's what it actually says on the save game loading screen... I really have played that long, just with one character... and _no_ I haven't finished the main storyline yet (in fact, I didn't start it until I was _90_ hours into the game!)
So what the hell have I been doing with my time? Mostly working my way up through the fighters guild and the mages guild (I'm a custom class WarMage)... and doing every damn side quest I can get my hands on. I've also (of course) fought through the arena. I also enjoy working on obscure skills (alchemy?) and becoming expert/master with all kinds of weapons.
I guess I just love the open-endedness of it all. If I want to run around and pick flowers for a while I can do that. If I want to go climb that mountain over there (and discover another shrine with its own quest line) I can do that too.
I know I'm probably in the minority on this... but I love being able to be a packrat. I have chests _full_ of gear (where it even takes a couple of seconds to open the chest because it's trying to load the list!) and more chests full of ingredients... and still more chests full of books and scrolls.
Sure the NPCs aren't much to talk to, but I do enjoy the fact that they have much more realistic daily routines (sleeping, waking, eating, working, eating, sleeping etc). They might not be perfect, but I believe they add just that little bit extra.
But I'm not going to convince a bunch of people on slashdot.... I just thought there should be someone to post a positive experience with the game.
If you are looking for a world to explore, and love open-ended games then you really should check this one out....
Friedmud
"Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers (for some reason, I read Crystal Beers)"
;-)
Hmmm... I read that as _Crystal Beavers_... I'll let others tell us what this means...
Friedmud
"Too bad the republicans are in charge"
Just being realistic here... do you _really_ think that if the dems were in charge that this wouldn't be happening?
The RIAA has everyone in their pockets... the dems and republicans... even if a Democrat is elected president next time around I can assure you that this behaviour will _not_ stop.
Friedmud
I second the recommendation of Sony DVD Architect.
d uct.asp?PID=977
I bought the Sony Vegas Movie Studio + DVD Architect bundle and have been very satisfied. I use Vegas Movie Studio to import from my DV Camera (a fairly inexpensive entry level JVC) and edit everything together. You then "Render" your final movie... and then fire up DVD Architect.
DVD Architect allows you to create all of the menus and add media to the disk (including moving menus, stills galleries (for jpegs), and easy Chapter menus). Then you just hit "burn" and it takes care of the rest.
The quality is superb... I can't tell any difference between the video on the DVD and the video I watch while I'm editing the raw DV footage.
The whole bundle is fairly inexpensive ($80-$100)... and I highly recommend it.
I sampled _lots_ of editing software (most all have free trials) before I bought Vegas... I went with Vegas because it had the most professional "feel"... meaning that it didn't dumb down the features or do too much hand holding. It also has a great help system that walks you through some of the more difficult editing tasks (it actually uses your own video clips and points to things on the screen to show you how to get the job done... you should atleast grab the trial version and see what I mean.)
I also like the capture program that Vegas uses the best... it actually catalogs everything (including searchable tag fields) you import. It can also remove the actual avi files while retaining the clip information... and then when you need that clip it will ask you to put in the correct tape and it will recapture it. This is great because the raw footage can take up a lot of space, so I always tell it to remove the media (and retain clip information) after I finish a project. But it's good to know that if I want to go back and change something it still remembers the clips and can recapture them.
Anyway... enough with the free advertising... I've just been really happy with the product! Here's the website:
http://psp.sonymediasoftware.com/Products/ShowPro
Friedmud
Don't forget that _lots_ of people use Linux to get work done... and a whole crapload of that work is graphical in nature (including CAD and 3D rendering).
At my job we all have huge dual-processor Xeons running the absolute fastest videocards we can get our hands on (which right now are some variant of Nvidia Quadro cards)... and not a single one is using windows.
Now why aren't we running ATi cards? well... because their linux drivers suck.
So what's the incentive for writing good drivers for linux? Oh yeah... because a lot of people will use them... even if they're not gaming.
Friedmud
"I would never spend that much time listening to what he has to say."
Interesting, since you state that you DID just watch the video...
"does that mean it went even longer?" YES... much longer. He always sticks around for an extended question and answer session. This year's session went on for quite a while. There were a lot of good topics (like the Wii which I posted on down below) that came up in the question and answer session.
I actually didn't stay until the end of the QA session myself... I mean, I was at Quakecon... and there were games to be played! I am glad that I went to hear him speak though, this was my fourth Quakecon... and only the first time I've heard him speak live (I missed last year's speech, and one of the year's he gave his address via DVD as his child was being born).
Why is there so much hatred toward Carmack? Are most of these people just trolling? I'm not sure what he's done to offend anyone lately... and I thought most people around here atleast respected him for his Armadillo Airspace work. Can someone point me to a recent falling out between Slashdot and Carmack? I mean Carmack even mentioned Slashdot in his speech and posts here frequently.
Friedmud
He didn't say specifically...
Just that id had worked on doing a title for a nintendo platform... and the deal kind of went sour and left bad taste in his mouth.
I have no idea what it was... but it wasn't just an ideological difference...
Friedmud
Just thought that since I was there I would give my take on it....
As a computer scientist that works on large scale parallel code... I found his comments about parallelism to be spot on. I don't think most people understand just how difficult it is to write parallel code... especially for things running in real time.
It sounds to me like the PS3 is going to be a bitch to write for... the "acceleration engine" philosophy is just too far out there. From what Carmack was saying it seems that Microsoft went in the right direction with 3 identical cores. This gives some amount of parallelism while not being over the top... allowing for a smoother transition from the serial code that most programmers are used to writing. We'll see how this plays out in the market next year.
I was somewhat dissapointed by his statements about the Wii... basically he just doesn't like Nintendo (because of a prior falling out)... so we probably won't be seing id software games on the Wii anytime soon (which is a bummer... because I know Carmack could do some awesome stuff with the motion sensing technology).
Finally... I will say that I got to play with some of the cell-phone games that Carmack created... and man they were really cool. Specifically Doom RPG looked really good and played well. They are the first cell-phone games that have ever made me really want to do something on my phone besides use it to talk. He talked about possibly porting them to the Nintendo DS (probably through a third party) which sounds like a great idea.
Anyway... that's my take!
Friedmud
Ah, thanks... couldn't remember.
Friedmud
Wow... thank you for the enlightening post!
Maybe I am overly harsh towards the children. My coldness only comes from the current state of our welfare system which, as I pointed out, tends to reinforce the anti-social behavior instead of lifting the children out of the loop.
Like you mention, I have no idea about what _should_ be done... all I know is that the current system sucks. It sucks for the children who are stuck in it... and it sucks for the tax payers who are paying for lazy parents to continue to make poor choices. The thought of giving even a single dollar to the people leeching off the system just boils my blood.
And the reason I make statements like I do is because I'm not convinced that giving them money so they can raise the next generation of leechers is better for the children and for the rest of society than _not_ giving them money. But, I guess I can see both sides of that argument (how could you just _ignore_ a child... even with all of my talk, I can't).
It also feels like the leechers and excusionists have started to overrun society to the point where people like me who just want what we work for, and want others to work for what they get are considered (as many other posters in this thread put it): Dicks.
Friedmud
"If you're working in the software industry, media, anything like that, you're, by definition, not "working class"."
Definitions can differ... but I concede that most often "working class" is associated with manual labor... and seeing as how I haven't done any in a long time you are probably right in not allowing me to classify myself as "working class". But my point was that I'm not rich by any stretch of the imagination... and put in my 40 hours for a salary like everyone else... and for now am living mostly paycheck to paycheck.
They are taking my bread money when they want things they didn't work for... and instead use the government to take my money from me and give it to them (maybe not directly...).
Friedmud
Yes... someone always has to be at the bottom... but I do believe that anyone who is serious about changing their station in life can do so through hard work.
You give an extreme example of all "shit-work" people simultaneously trying to better themselves... and not getting anywhere. The thing is that wouldn't ever happen. In my experience there are ample people all around us who are just fine with where they're at (or don't care to do the work to change it), these people will always be there.
My problem with people comes in when they are in the position they're in because of decisions they have made... but they want to blame everyone else in the world for it instead. My attitude is that no matter your position in life is you can always work harder (or smarter!) to rise above those around you.
Don't worry about calling me a dick... many others before you have done the same when this topic has come up. I know that I can sound a bit cold at times... I just wish people would take some responsibility for their own actions. Yes, there are sometimes events that are beyond our control... but I really do believe that any mostly responsible person with a good work ethic can/will get the things they need/want in this society.
Friedmud
"Actually, everyone who has read your last few posts knows quite a bit about you."
;-) I don't hold a lot of cards close to my chest...
Heh... you're probably right there
Friedmud
"That's a very interesting and astute post"
;-) So while you were spot on that my thinking is very much in line with some of her writings... I haven't actually read anything of hers yet!
;-)
Thank you... your post was also well struck.
I do see what you're saying with the grocery store selling to the upper 75% remark. I do agree that having a pool of people with the ability to pay more does limit the choices of the people who don't.
(Note, I'm going to use your statistics throughout... just to make things easy... I honestly don't know what the actual percentage of people who have been reasonably responsible yet still find themselves unable to buy milk actually is)
My first response is that there is no way around this... beyond instituting extreme socialistic policies which require everyone to be given the same allotment of goods/services. In our society there will _always_ be a lower 25% and taking money from the upper 75% and giving it to the lower 25% won't help the situation... and neither would raising minumum wage by a couple of bucks.
My second response is that in our society there are special provisions set aside just for the purpose of making sure that fairly responsible people that find themselves in the lower 25% can still get the basic necessities of life. This comes in the form of housing incentives, food programs, etc. I'm not talking about welfare or food stamps either... there are food programs which make common foods that are deemed "necessary" cheap enough for the lower 25% (you'll see a little sticker by them in your grocery store that says something like "WIPA Approved"... sorry I can't think of the actual acronym). In the same way there are _many_ different housing assistance programs that any well-intentioned person who finds themselves at the lower end of the scale can avail themselves of. No, these things don't pay for steak dinners or scenic views... but they do try to provide goods and services to the lower 25%.
My third response is that the irresponsible people in the lower 25% who have just made poor choices and are in the lower 25% because of them... well... I don't feel sorry for them. If the above mentioned programs aren't enough then that's not my problem. I realize that might sound cold... but you can't help everyone. There really are people in this world who are straight up leeching off society... they _know_ they are doing it... and they keep wanting more and more. It's this portion of the population that burns my ass.
I'm all about helping a fellow citizen who has fallen on hard times... like I said in another post... it could happen to any of us at any time. I just believe that the cases of an actual well intentioned person falling through the cracks is a statistical outlier compared to the number of people who are at the bottom because of their own poor decision making.
"you descend into the usual "blame the victim" attitude which is a rampant disease in our society"
I don't know about that. The most "rampant disease" I see in our society is the "blame everyone else but myself" disease. It's the one where people don't want to take responsibility for their own actions... and instead blame society. I think the rise in frivolous lawsuits bares out this general line of thinking fairly well...
And as for Ayn Rand... well, I just found out about her a couple of weeks ago (not exactly true... I have heard of Atlas Shrugged and a bit about it's basic premise, but I just found out more about her actual philosophical views recently)... and all of her books are already on my Amazon wishlist
And sadly... yes, I haven't had as much economics as it sounds like you have. It's alarming that it's so apparent!
Friedmud
Rich? Why do people have to be either rich or poor around here?
Having children actually has nothing to do with _money_ in the strictest sense... but it has everything to do with your ability to provide the things necessary for your child... which in our society most often translates into money.
If you are living on a farm... and you grow your own food and can provide everything that's necessary for raising your child without any money at all... then that's great. The fact of the matter is, you're doing work by tilling the land and whatnot in order to provide for your child.... and the responsible thing to do is to make sure the land is fertile enough to provide for the child before you ever make one...
But that isn't the norm in our society. Most people in our society don't live on farms... and as such we work to make money to buy ourselves and our families the things we need/want. A responsible person makes sure that they can provide for another human being before creating one. You don't have to be _rich_! But if raising a family was your goal in life, then you should have made decisions along the way in order to make sure you had enough income to be able to provide for that family... anything else isn't being a responsible parent.
Further, expecting the responsible citizens in society to bail you out doesn't make any sense. Why should money that I make for my family be taken away and given to another family that wasn't responsible enough to do the right things along the way? It simply makes no sense... and further cements in people's minds that they aren't responsible for their own actions.
Friedmud
Troll? I don't know about that!
;-) Or don't... as I'm not always so preachy!
Flaimbait? Maybe. After re-reading my post it was obvious that I did use inflamatory phrasing... and I apologize for that!
At any rate... thanks to everyone for the good discussion! Now that this has dropped to 0 there probably won't be as much traffic.
It was good to see some people with supporting remarks... I wasn't expecting that! And the opinions that ran counter to my own generated several well thought out responses.
I enjoyed reading them all! And as I said in another post... don't let my ramblings turn anyone off from this site! Just "foe" me and move on
Friedmud
I am no where close to royalty... and the social barriers that existed back during that time have been largely thrown down.
I am speaking as one of the working class... who doesn't appreciate my hard earned dollars flowing to those who don't earn it. This is hardly "letting them eat cake"... it's more like "quit taking my bread money!".
But whatever...
Friedmud
Well... let's see.
I'm still in Grad school and as such we don't have much money right now (even though I did work my ass off in undergrad so I could get a good job that sent me away to Grad school and is paying me a stipend while I'm here... like I say work for what you want)... but my wife is still working on her degree.
Seeing as how we don't have much money we decided that she could do a lot of her classes at community college until we can pay for better. She has been going to CC for the better part of 3 years now (there was some break in there so she could work full time because she wanted to pay for a nice wedding [and both of our parents are fairly poor and couldn't help us out]... working for what you want... what a great idea!).
At any rate she has made many acquaintances along the way, whom I both get to meet and hear about.... and my (admittedly un-scientific) statistical sampling has led to the above conclusions.
Not too mention that I had lots of high-school friends who went down (are still going down?!?!) this same path...
Regardless of what your kid brother used to say... it _doesn't_ take one to know one. Just pay attention to the people around you...
Friedmud
Don't quit slashdot because of me! I might come off sounding a little harsh... but that's only because what I usually read on slashdot (and other news outlets) is the other way around! There is a very excusionist attitude that runs rampent not only on this site, but in our society in general.
I will concede that some people get screwed by the system (Enron!)... I will also concede that some people get lucky. The thing is, I believe that both of those situations are outliers.
Yes, there should be programs in place to temporarily help people out who have fallen on bad times. Our economy is a tumultuous one... and it could happen to any of us... and it's in all of our best interest to help eachother out during these times. The problem is that, as much as people would like to believe it, this is only a _fraction_ of the cases that actually put people in minimum wage type positions. In the vast majority of cases people can do better... and have just made poor life decisions.
I've worked at fast food joints (Everyone should have to for a little while... if for nothing else than just to feel like what it's like to be on the other side of the counter!)... and as others have mentioned in this thread I saw a rampent laziness that was just unfathomable... especially from the people who actually needed the money (because they made poor decisions like popping out children when they couldn't support them). I've also worked construction jobs and saw similar. It also seemed to me, that the people who bitched the most about what they "deserved" were often the people lounging around when there was work to do. In my daily life I am constantly encountering these same type of people at all stations in life... from minimum wage all the way up through upper-middleclass... and I'm just tired of it. People get what they work for... and should work for what they get and that should be the end of it (with the above caveats of genuinely bad luck).
I know, I know... I'm just one data point and all that.... whatever. Go read some of the other comments around here and start to open your mind to the possibility that a good portion of our society is just too damn lazy (or deliberately slacking) to work for what they want/need. I know it's not a popular stance (especially around here), but that doesn't make it any less true.
At any rate... keep reading slashdot... but feel free to "foe" me! I'm not always on my soapbox, but it feels like lately someone needs to be...
Friedmud
Firstly, I'm not saying that everyone needs to be rich... or should even want to be. We all have different goals in life, some people would love to work a part-time minimum wage job as that would afford them lots of free time to devote to their hobbies and friends.
Others would like to purchase things to make our lives more comfortable/easier. A place to live (with air conditioning! Man it's hot this summer!), a T.V. to be entertained by, good food to make our tongues happy... and so on. These people work harder (or should) at gaining more capital for the purposes of buying the things we cannot make ourselves. That doesn't mean we're greedy, it just means we want some things that we don't have, so we do something for someone else (work!) and in return we recieve the ability to get what we want.
That process doesn't "push other people into poverty"... it just gives me the ability to get what I want... everyone else has the same opportunity (or they already have a headstart because someone in their past worked... and decided to pass that capital on... which is their perogative and shouldn't be held against the current recipients).
The problem comes when some people don't want to do the work to give themselves what they want. They work the same minimum wage job as the happy hobbiest above... but blame "the system" for screwing them... when in reality it was their own decisions that led them to this point. They yell and scream that they don't have enough money for [insert whatever good/service you like] and that they are "entitled" to that good/service and the government needs to provide it for them... which in our current culture happens fairly often.
But where does all the money come from to provide these people who don't work with things they don't deserve? Oh, that's right, from us people who actually made responsible decisions with their lives and are doing well at providing both the things we want and the things [we/our families] need. Now how is that right?
Friedmud
"Two parents working two full time minimum wage jobs have trouble supporting a family."
I knew this would come up (it always does). I have absolutely _zero_ sympathy for either the parents or the children in this case. If the parents couldn't support children they should have made the right decisions and (gasp!) _not had kids_! Responsible decisions? What the hell are those? It is not my job to go around and fix everyone else's problems because they weren't responsible with their lives.
"But think of the children," everyone cries... the problem is that by artificially propping up families that shouldn't have happened in the first place we are teaching the children that they don't have to make responsible decisions either.... because the government will bail them out. This creates a vicious cycle where people become more and more dependent upon the government... leading us toward a complete socialism.
(Also note, that I don't necessarily think that socialism is bad... it's just not the society _I_ want to live in... and there are plenty of socialist societies to go around... so stop messing with my capitilistic society!)
"not everyone is born with a bevy of opportunities"
You don't know anything about me. My parents both just barely finished high-school... they worked their asses off to give my sister and I what we had... but it wasn't much. _I_ worked my ass off to do better and rise above what my parents had done, and I hope to instill that same work ethic into my kids so they can continue to increase their quality of life. When all of my comrades in high-shcool were off getting drunk and making babies I was studying and making good grades so I could have the things I wanted in life... which is the way it should be...
Friedmud
30 Million People live on minimum wage because they are too lazy to do anything else. Seriously... anyone over the age of 18 that is still making minimum wage has made a conscious decision to just sit on their asses. If you want to make more money do better in High School... or sign up for a couple community college classes _and actually do the work_ (I see a lot of people sign up for those classes and _still_ be lazy and end up back on their asses at McDonalds)... or, in general, just make better decisions in life.
I don't think there should be _any_ minimum wage at all... let people work for what they're willing to work for. If the work and pay suck then people will try to do better... and if they're too lazy to do better then that's their own damn problem.
I'm so damn tired of this crap... people need to take responsibility for their lives... that's part of the reason we're in this mess. People have become so lazy and complacent that they want the Government to do everything for them... including figuring out a way to make them money. If we all took care of our own shit this wouldn't be a problem.
Sigh.
Friedmud
All of these comments from people on the inside of Target are confirming what I alreadys suspected: That I like to shop at Target.
It just seems that every time I go in there I have a pleasant experience... and now I can see that it's not just happenstance. I'll probably shopping there even more now.
Thanks!
Friedmud
Thank you for the enlightening comment! I appreciate your novel additions to this conversation!
I actually believe it to be the other way around... smart people can both figure how to use self-checkout efficiently and when to use it (which for me is usually when I only have a couple of things and there is no one else there).
"Fucking morons," as you put, it would be someone who would stand in line with one thing to buy while the self-checkout sits empty...
Friedmud