Of course there is the whole morals and ethics thing, but why let that slow you down... If someone comes over and kills you and the local law doesn't do anything about it then I guess that would be ok also. I guess we as a society shouldn't be surprised with a post like this when a secular progressive agenda has been embraced for a couple of decades now.
Also, I somehow get the suspicion that you hate DRM, yet it is people like you that bring it on. So please don't start bitching when every developer goes to a WoW type of system because it is almost impossible to steal. Don't complain when we get DRM filled Blue-Ray movies that require separate CPU's just to do the decryption; while they and constantly change keys to make life hell for those of us that do choose not to steal.
By the way what business are you in? I am sure that you wouldn't have a problem with people stealing your stuff... Granted I am making a HUGE assumption that you currently DO work and don't live in your mothers basement.
If by buying Apple products that makes me a "Mac Guy" then I guess I am. However, I also run Linux and Windows. So I guess that makes me a mutt. I like the Apple hardware and software, but in no way will I EVER want to learn a proprietary language that only runs on a small number of the worlds computers again. Have you ever coded for a Commadore Amiga, TSR-80, Apple IIe, Motorolla Z80, or and IBM Mainframe? I have and they all were great for their time but they eventually died (mainframe is the lone exception). Now "if" I can write an Application that runs in Java on the Iphone and for some reason the Iphone/Apple goes out of business (Steve Jobs dies or leaves the company again). Then that code is portable to the Google phone or even a Microsoft phone or whatever phone is hot in the next few years. That code probably won't support things like touch screen or voice commands, but for a BUNCH of applications that is fine.
Now as far as me learning yet another freaking language and it being so great that I want to dump Java, that language better be able to read my mind and code automatically from UML diagrams because the Java tools of today are almost there. Even then there better be some compelling reason for me to want to switch and learn it over the others I mentioned. A language that only runs on one platform, even Microsoft Windows isn't going to gain my interest unless I have no choice. Scala seems cool and I need to learn better Javascript/Ajax development, along with better JSF. I might also mess with Ruby a bit, now that the developer tools are coming around.
Lastly, I believe Apple and Sun will work this thing out. I personally believe that Apple doesn't want full blown applications running from the Web (Flash, Applets etc) and causing problems with their phone. However, I don't believe Apple really cares about a true Java application running on the phone, but they would want to "bless" or "certify" that application. It seems a bit weird given that I can download any application for my Macintosh... I can only assume that they want to make sure that the first few years the iphone has only "quality" applications.
What I and many others have said is that we won't specifically target the Macintosh platforms. That includes the iphone. Now we will write an application in J2ME/J2SE (which is very portable) and "if" there isn't any major issues then we will run it on the iphone/OSX. Just because "your" application requires touch and no "buttons" doesn't mean that EVERY application is that way. There are a TON of business applications that would work great on the iphone/java as is, but without Java they will never be there. The Apple fanboys can jump up and down and scream that it isn't that hard to learn yet another proprietary programming language (objective c) and that it doesn't cost that much, but if they were asked to pay the salaries of developers and testers for a market that isn't there yet (and will probably never be); then those fanboys get quiet. Take the word Apple and replace it with Microsoft and see if you still believe what you have written. I would say the exact same thing if Microsoft was pushing their smartphone and C#. Would you?
And no I wouldn't learn Objective C, or C# for any specific platform unless it was for a very very very specific business reason. I have lived through vendor lock in long enough to know better. You "could" make an argument for plain C, or an interpreted language but the iphone won't even allow those, so the point is moot.
I write code for a living and I generally buy Apple products but in no way will I or a lot of people write an application that can ONLY run on the iphone. Vendor lock in is vendor lock in weather it is proprietary UNIX, IBM, Microsoft or even Apple.
Lastly, I don't wish Apple anything bad, but in my opinion they could benefit a ton from opening up the platform a bit more. I do believe this issue will be addressed in the future.
The ONLY language that runs on over 80% of the smart phones out there now and Apple doesn't support it. In fact they go out of their way to stop it. A language, that by most parts is one of the top programming languages used.
So, I as a programmer of Java and owner of one Iphone am expected to want to learn a new language; one that is proprietary to Apple just to have the privilege of running my application one one phone vendor.
I like the Iphone, and will use it, but to be honest the next phone I buy for myself (Iphone was for a family member), will probably not be an Iphone, but an Android (Google) phone. I own almost exclusive Apple equipment otherwise and would LOVE to jump in and start working with Java on the Iphone, but as it is now.... It isn't going to happen.
It is my "hope" that Apple gets a clue and allows Java to run on the Iphone. Even our business who makes software for phones (not my specific area) has said that they will NOT work on an Iphone port. Yet if the Iphone supported Java then someone like me who actually kind of likes Apple (company hates Apple), could have a shot of getting the code running (if it was written in Java), then show our company that it runs without any major issues. Lastly the company could then support the phone, but as it sits now, well... Apple better garner 80% of the entire smart phone market, and that isn't going to happen and even if they somehow managed to do that our company, like many others probably won't support it.
As for your write once, test and certify everywhere comment.... you need to go back to 1995. Thanks to Microsoft no longer supporting a JVM, and the certification process growing over 1,000 times more complex, those days are behind us. It isn't perfect but it is by far and above the best portable code out there.
I would even understand "if" Apple said there can be a JVM but they won't allow Applets AND they would still need to certify every application. I have to believe that the only thing holding Java back on the Iphone is Steve Jobs hate rid of anything that he is not in control of.
Will I learn Objective C? Why? I would rather focus on Scala or one of the other more interesting languages than one that runs on a very small amount of the worlds systems. In my case I plan on learning Scala next and also far more Javascript/Ajax.
Is this AFTER the Muslims came in and killed anyone not Muslim that was a male and then threw out the rest of the families in the street so a "true Muslim" could live in the house? A very good friend of mine got the honor of living in a "public" park for a year while she and her daughter tried to flee to the U.S.A. So, you had tons of "anyone not Muslim" being killed or forced out of their homes, most of which were and are Christians. Some of those Christians united and fought back. Christianity does not promote this and actually con dims this action.
I will say that generally people that hate each other tend to use religion as a motivating factor to get people to rally around their cause and war. I can't speak for Muslims, but Christians, specifically Catholics are opposed to almost any war. The last Pope (John Paul II) who lived through WWII and saw many horrible things even mentioned that it was ok to fight in a war but he had never seen an instance of a time when it was warranted. This coming from a man who saw Hitlers army crush Poland and kill many innocent people. Granted there are many different sects of Christianity and I will concede that almost every religion has their weird splinter groups, but the VAST majority of Christians (and I bet Muslims) do not promote violence in any way. Just the opposite they promote peace, sometimes at the sacrifice of their own lives.
first you need to decide how painful it will be to migrate. Is this some mainframe application that has had 20+ years of refinement and bug patches behind it, that happens to be in the millions of lines of code size? If that is the case then you keep kicking the dead horse for a while.
Is this some scientific/complex application that is written in a language that just isn't popular today, but isn't too large? Well then you "might" consider migrating it over time.
Obviously this isn't something to be taken lightly, because the expense of migration/bug testing and possible validation can be HUGE for large systems.
I only have a small amount of data that you provided, so I can say that I "might" look at trying to expose as much of the legacy system as possible via a web service or some other "normal" RPC call and then look at having another system start to use the business logic in the core system, but have in written in a more modern and common language (Java). You "might" be able to start and pull off parts of the system over time that way.
While I am against war in general, your comments sound very similar to those statements that kept the U.S.A. out of WWII until it was attacked.
I have no clue how many people have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since the war started, nor do I know how many were killed by mustard gas by Saddam after Iraq failed in their attempt to take Kuwait in the first gulf war. You throw out numbers, but one thing I am sure of is that those numbers are pretty much made up. I do know that one (of many) safe havens for radical Muslims no longer exist and a leader who thought he had a nuclear program for weapons to wipe out Israel (and hurt the U.S.A.) is gone.
So in short, I guess neither one of us know how many people would be dead if the U.S.A. (and others) didn't go to war. Would it be more? Would it be Israel, U.S.A. and European people that would be dead as opposed to those that are dead now? Is the world a safer place now than it would have been? What exactly happens if Israel gets destroyed? I am sure of the fact that you and I would disagree on the above answers much like those in the past that thought Hitler would be fine with Poland, and those who didn't. I am positive that you and I would also agree about how to handle Iran, but that is a topic for another day...
Now, back on topic.
I personally hope that Apple responds to Rush and helps him with this problem. Apple can use all the help it can get and I would hope that a company that appears to love diversity as much as Apple does (transvestite days...) will respect the views of others and still help them out. If I was Apple I would use this as an opportunity for some free advertising, and "fix" the apparent problem and perhaps even have some PR person do a talk on his show. Obviously I wouldn't have them talk politics, but about Apple products and how they are customer focused. A ton of people that listen to his show are "stuck" with Windows machines and if they see great support and hear about alternatives they may give Apple a shot. It isn't that hard to turn this small negative experience into a huge plus for Apple.
Lastly, I want to say again that I am in no way a fan of war, but when the enemies of the U.S.A. are mad, that probably means the U.S.A. is doing the write thing. Also, I am not a Muslim, and would rather die than convert to that faith, so I guess, by those in power in some middle eastern countries I AM already at war. That being the case, it is a war that I don't intend on loosing. I like our freedom of religion, and woman having EQUAL rights.
I agree. I'm a Catholic and I think it's safe to say that the current papacy is an absolute joke.
You know that you are not chained to the Catholic faith? I am also a Catholic and have never had a gun held to my head forcing me to be a Catholic. Did he torque off some of the Muslim faith? Yes, but was what he said incorrect to a Christian/Catholic? Come to think of it he appears to have a very good understanding of the Catholic teachings (shocker!).
So lets summarize this a bit. The Pope was ASKED to go and talk at a school and there were "instructors" that didn't want him there. He isn't going to be there and they are now apparently mad because he will look like he is trying to get pity from people. So what exactly did they want him to do again? These guys sound like some of my old psycho girlfriend... Come to think of it I wonder if they are teaching there?:-)
He didn't exactly shake the sand of his shoes and curse these guys. He just isn't going to be there now. However, at the end of the day they can protest whomever they want to and people can choose "if" they want to send their kids to this place of "higher learning".
1. Show EVERYONE that Ron Paul only got around 4% of the vote, and still expect the Nintendo errr I mean Paul fanboys to say it was some sort of conspiracy that kept him out of the office.
2. Implement a flat national tax. Along with this make tax day one week before elections. This tax would be what EVERYONE would pay and be a national sales tax. Only home purchases would be excluded.
3. Set ALL government programs at a 1% across the board reduction and then have that program "grow" at a -1% inflation for the next 10 years. Explain to the American people what services will now be cut and why.
4. Set mandates on the size of local and state governments. In now way should the size of government ever exceed 1% of the U.S.A working population. (Excludes military)
5. Start the process of eliminating Social Security. If someone who is 20ish doesn't want in then they don't have to be. Those who are 50 and older and continue and be given a portion of what they would have gotten. Those 60 and older will be given what they current would get.
6. End the war when Iraq and Afghanistan if they are able to defend themselves from a radical Islamic takeover. Defeat would not be an option and anything or anyone (Iran) that impedes the success will be treated as an enemy of the U.S.A.
7. Kill the "free trade" agreement that was made during the Clinton years and continued through the Bush years.
8. Impose a "tax" on any service done outside the U.S. and used by a U.S. company. It doesn't really make sense that a car imported in to the U.S.A. gets taxed but code or support done outside the U.S.A. gets nothing.
9. Define when an unborn child is a citizen of the U.S.A.
10. Build a wall and make it very difficult for Mexican people to become illegal citizens. Create very stiff laws on any company hiring these illegal people. However, greatly increase the number of people allowed to come here and work legally. Those that are here illegally can stay here but must pay a penalty (extra tax) for the remainder of their lives.
11. Mandate open source software for all government systems.
12. Reduce the barriers for Nuclear energy in the U.S.A.
13. Look at completely replacing our education system. At this I would look at outside people, but it is obvious that we can do better.
14. Make PBS earn it's money. No more government funding for it or NPR. They are both just sounding boards for the democratic party.
15. Move cigarettes under the control of the FDA. Along with this either lower the drinking age down to 18 OR lower the minimum age for people in the military up to 21.
I've used Java on a PC, and I'd much rather not have it on my DVD player."
Two points here. 1. You would rather have a Microsoft controlled language?
2. What Java APPLICATIONS did you run and would you care to elaborate on why you "believe" Java would be bad. Specifically what would make it bad for a set top box? Also, then tell me what language you would choose for this type of device.
It is all about the software. In the HD-DVD it uses Microsofts software. In BR it can use Java, and soon it will be required to use Java. "If" Sony would have used Microsofts language then Sony would be a stupid as IBM was back in the day.
You missed my first sentence. "VHS was good enough..."
When the first DVDs came out the content quality wasn't near what it was today.
If you watch something like Planet Earth on a 1080P set then I believe you will notice a large difference. Then again, you may not notice a difference, but I am willing to be that a majority of people will concede that "if" they could afford it they would prefer to have that picture. So then it all comes down to getting the price "affordable" and making sure the consumer doesn't buy a format that will not be around. It appears that Blu-Ray will be the winner here and the price of a player is currently around $400.
Yes and VHS was "good enough" for most people as well. Remember that a 25" TV was HUGE back then...
Most people that have a good HDTV can tell a large difference in good HD content. Please note that I am not saying many of the movies that have come out on either format, but "some" of the movies there is a HUGE difference in quality.
The fact is that Microsoft isn't a content provider and because of that they can't leverage any monopoly this time to win this format dispute. The real issue is all about Java on these players. I bet you can guess which player has Java and which one doesn't:-)
The HD-DVD camp just pulled their talk tonight at CES and that comes as no surprise, also it now has come out that Universal has an "escape clause", so this could be over sooner than most thought. The only real question is "if" Microsoft wants to dump a LOT more money at Universal to try and continue this dispute. I would imagine that now it would take a lot more than 150 million.
Again, don't get confused about any company caring about the consumer, Sony used the PS3 to cement Blu-Ray and Microsoft HATES Java and will do a lot to make sure it doesn't gain a significant foothold in the living room. At the end of the day I would much rather deal with Sony, because I can easily use someone else's player but if Microsoft controls the software in the living room then history shows we will be in for decades of crap.
"Despite rampant pirating of comics, somehow new models are successfully created and used. Excuse me if I don't cry into my soup for the old fuddy duddies that refuse to adapt."
And they did a model that was very close to what I suggested, but you use the term successful, and I would use the term barely surviving. Also, I don't expect you to cry at all but concede two facts. The first is that without funding or near zero funding the content providers will not produce content (unless we go to a socialist system, and with Hillary that is unfortunately a possibility, but that is another story) and second is that comics are in no way stolen or ever have been stolen to the degree of music and video.
So when these "kids" grow up and believe that stealing any content is "ok" and they start to steal other stuff should those companies also "find a new business model"?
Most on Slashdot hate DRM, but few if any come up with an alternative that protects against stealing but yet allows the consumer the freedom to do with the content they want to.
magine though, a world where recording studios spend their time headhunting TALENT and then marketing that talent to artists. I'm not just talking about the musicians themselves, but the mixers, the choreographers, every step in between. A company that was a firm reputed to have power content creating talent and just needed someone to insert content would always have tremendous value to humanity until art is officially dead. You can pretty much s/recording studios/movie industry/ as well.
The problem with this is it would invert the power structure. This would put tremendous control into the hands of the actual content creators...
This sounds great on the surface, but then when you think about the fact that the content creators will spend a large amount of time creating their content to an audience that will pay nothing. When 2 out of 500 customers believe it is wrong to steal your content then you will never make any money in the content creation business. Please understand that you and I agree in the fact that the if things don't change, the content providers will be the last to go, but they will go none the less.
I wish I had a solution to this problem, but the only thing I can come up with is some sort of download and play on the fly, but then you have to be connected all the time, and that probably isn't a great solution. At the end of the day though, if this business is to survive at all something will need to be done. It is bad in the U.S.A, but in countries like Thailand it is crazy.
Ok, to continue the "record" my coworkers kid broke their wiimote while playing a game and tossing it at the TV. In my day, I would have done this in a fit of rage because of how bad Mortal Kombat 1 played, but this kid was playing the game correctly:-).
There are two major factors that is helping the Wii. 1. Cost - People believe that this is a next gen system (it can be argued that it is just a Gamecube 1.5 with a new controller)
2. It has games that target the entire family, and a lot of families like that. They don't exactly want to buy Halo 3 or Resistance Fall of Man for their 12 year old kid.
Lastly, there are the Nintendo fanboys that will buy anything Nintendo, and they will guarantee 10 million consoles sold. The Wii is currently at around 15 million, and it will be very interesting to see how well it does next year. It may do fine, but then again Nintendo has a real problem in dealing with 3rd party support. By problem I mean they generally love to kill them. That coupled with the fact that Microsoft could lower the price of the 360 and "POSSIBLY" get the quality up to above a 35% failure rate could pose a threat. Then there is Sony... Sony has some mega bombs dropping next year with Metal Gear, Little Big Planet, Home, GT5 and possibly FFXIII. If Sony gets serious they could (probably won't) drop the price again before next Christmas and thus put more pressure on Nintendo. A $300 PS3 could put some heat on Nintendo if Nintendo continues to treat 3rd parties like Peterson treats wives.
Having said all this it is apparent that the Nintendo DS AND PSP are killing normal console sales when you factor in world wide sales. It isn't inconceivable that developers will start to shy away from the consoles and focus more on handhelds. Specifically in Japan. As "HOT" as the Wii is, it still can't hold a candle to DS sales OR PSP sales.
Last time I checked there are freaking TONS of people literally dieing to get in to this country. So many that the U.S. is building a wall to stem the flow of illegal immigration. Yes those are generally lower educated people but there are still far more "high tech" people wanting in the county than H1Bs.
That's true. That's yet another problem with the US... they were dependent on the uneducated but industrious illegals to harvest food, and now that they're locking things down and throwing immigrants into concentration camps in the hundreds of thousands, food is rotting in the fields.
Excuse me? Care you provide some hard facts to back up what you say? Relax guy, trying to control a GIANT problem of having an open boarder for 20+ years is difficult to solve and it will take time. It is going to happen and as always the U.S. will do an honorable thing and help the vast majority of illegals become citizens. The U.S. has done it before and will do it again, but you seem to have glossed over the fact that the H1B's are still being filled in record time.
You seriously want people to believe that the U.S. is run by a bunch of "Religious Fanatics"? The same country that based its laws off of Christian values and religious freedoms (not freedom from religion) has morphed into a country that kids can't pray public schools, certain retailers were scared to say "Merry Christmas" and if anyone wants to teach children that "MOST" people in the U.S.A/World believe that the universe/time et all began by God, they will probably be fighting the ACLU in court.
Teachers are being fired for teaching science instead of creationism. The people in power were put there because the general population, or at least 49% of them, are so soft in the head that they swallowed all the religious rights rhetoric and elected a madman. Do you think a few insulting paintings written by attention seekers looking to tweak the nose of the religious establishment changes the nature of things? It doesn't... it's superficial
A teacher is almost killed in another country and one or two teachers are threatened to loose their job if they don't teach that the majority of people have a "theory" that life began from God. You honestly want to compare a teacher almost getting killed for naming a stuffed animal "Mohammad" (probably mis-spelled), and that... You also seem to miss the point that the VAST majority of teachers can't mention God in the classroom at all, less have the ACLU come down and threaten a lawsuit. Again the great news is that this is changing and people in the U.S. are finding common ground (liberals and conservatives). You quote of "electing a madman".... As I said before relax, take a deep breath and don't let all this hate consume you. As for your point of obscene acts against Christianity often found in San Francisco; I will point to the fact that "IF" those were done against say Muslims in the middle east the "artist" would be killed. Here in the U.S.A. they are allowed and protected to do those things. Hence the U.S.A. Care to take a Christian Bible in to China during the Olympics? Have fun.
All in all the U.S. isn't looking too bad. Granted our taxes are ridiculous, but a hard working person in poverty can still become one of the richest people on earth and that can't be said for to many countries.
Hard work doesn't get you rich in the US. Scheming, conspiracy, underhanded tactics, economic exploitation of your fellow man, fraudulent accounting practices, exploitation of loopholes for personal gain... these are how a person in the US gets ahead. How naive are you?
Hard work will get you a LOT further in the U.S.A. than in most other countries. I have no clue how old you are and again, you seem very angry. I would suggest loosing your bitterness and you might actually further your life some more. I think most people on this site that work in the U.S.A. will concede that people that they work with, that are very hard workers and do a great job, ha
Last time I checked there are freaking TONS of people literally dieing to get in to this country. So many that the U.S. is building a wall to stem the flow of illegal immigration. Yes those are generally lower educated people but there are still far more "high tech" people wanting in the county than H1Bs.
You seriously want people to believe that the U.S. is run by a bunch of "Religious Fanatics"? The same country that based its laws off of Christian values and religious freedoms (not freedom from religion) has morphed into a country that kids can't pray public schools, certain retailers were scared to say "Merry Christmas" and if anyone wants to teach children that "MOST" people in the U.S.A/World believe that the universe/time et all began by God, they will probably be fighting the ACLU in court.
Now lets compare the U.S.A. to say.... oh I don't know Saudi Arabia, Iran, or many other middle east countries. One teacher lets her second grade class name a stuffed animal after their God and they want her dead. Lets compare that to some of the "art" that has Jesus in it displayed in San Fransisco. Or lets look over at Ireland with the fighting in norther Ireland over the last few decades.
All in all the U.S. isn't looking too bad. Granted our taxes are ridiculous, but a hard working person in poverty can still become one of the richest people on earth and that can't be said for to many countries.
Now to get this back on topic. I honestly don't know what this guys motive is at Sun. Sun sends out a ton of different messages and at the end of the day they are a company that needs to make money. I can say that I think money going to pay developers is a good thing. If it makes OpenOffice better and a great open JDK then I am all for it. The ONLY fear I have is that some 3rd world country might use this little bit of money and chain coders to their desk (slave labor). Given the little amount of money they are offering and the skill required to fix the code I have little concern about this though.
I want Apple to GIVE Sun the code that makes SWING run on the Mac OSX and look good. Sun could then opensource that code as well as the Open JDK project.
The guy that did the JDK 6 for OSX (awesome guy), has used the BSD version and it requires X to run Swing applications. These applications will look bad compared to the near native look and feel of SWING applications run on Apples 1.5 JVM. Apple put a lot of time in to making Java applications look and feel great on their platform, but they just haven't kept up.
Yeah, and lets add a few more to the list. No PHP crap. Slow, and it is only for script kiddies. No Ruby crap. Way too new and it is a fad. No games... they just cause systems to crash. Who needs cool games. No C or C++, only that crappy C variant that Apple makes. Heck, now that I think about it, no programming languages at all. Make it just like they wanted to with the iPhone.
Obviously I am kidding... I own a Mac and run most (not all) of the stuff mentioned above. I game on a console. I do wish that Apple would release their GUI Java stuff under GPL, so people like this guy could get Java 6 with SWING out there ASAP. I would love to do my Java development on my Mac without using Parallels and XP.
Some have suggested that Sun should be the one making a VM for Apple, and I would agree BUT Apple should have come to Sun two years ago and said that they were out of the JVM business and worked with Sun to insure a modern VM was on their platform. It is in both parties interest to see a good JVM on the Macintosh.... Hopefully one that doesn't require a freaking OS upgrade to get the latest version of Java.
Please Apple, finish Java 6 for the Macintosh and then hand the code over to Sun to make Java 7. Sun take that code and open source it as well.
It isn't like he lied to a grand jury under oath:-) (That is a joke so settle down)
Also, I am going to assume that you are a citizen of the U.S.A. and a liberal. If I am wrong then I apologize, but there is something that the Democratic party needs to hear to guarantee a victory in the next presidential election. Nominate some moderate "normal" democrat like a Liberman or Evan Bahy. The Democrats puzzle me because a year when nominating a moderate traditional candidate would assure them victory they go and strongly back Hillary. What the heck are Democrats thinking? She "might" win, but there is a great chance that she will loose because the people in the middle generally don't like her. Most flat out hate her. It would be like the Republicans putting up Pat Buchanan as their candidate.
Next stop all the "911 was an inside job", and shouting/screaming/interrupting political figures talks. This makes you look like lunatics to that same "Middle America" that you need, given that it appears that Hillary is going to be the candidate. When you act like a lunatic you hurt your side as much as the right wing lunatics like Timothy McVeigh did for the extreme right. You may disagree with the war, and that is cool, but don't go and put blood on your hands and rush in to someone giving a talk.
One last request/suggestion - Stop bashing America most of the time. Speaking as someone who has been to quite a few countries, I can say that there are far far far worse countries, but more importantly those "middle Americans" generally like their country and get very tired of hearing the same people say how bad the U.S.A is. You may "think" you are influencing those people to your views but most of them just tune you off... This is perhaps the number one reason the Fox News has done so well in such a short time. They generally don't bash America 24/7 like say CNN.
Just some suggestions, from someone who lives in a state that will more than likely influence the election.
While I think this was a mistake, and have posted on it before. Here is my take on what "might" have happened.
Capcom, EA and others development shops came to Sony and told them (some out loud), that the price of the PS3 is too high and that because the sales are not picking up they will focus all tier one development on the Wii and then the 360, then the PS2 then the PS3. I know second hand that EA basically said this to Sony. The PS3 was dead last on their "New" development and they would do crappy ports of 360 games over to it.
So Sony probably had a gun held to their head and had to do whatever it took to get the cost down to below $400 this year in the U.S.A. (guessing on price), without pulling an Apple and pissing off all their early adopters. They knew that they would catch a bunch of heat over the backward compatibility but at the end of the day they could line up this new PS3 next to a 360 and show that you get more for your money with the PS3 on the hardware side and all the early adopters know they have backward compatibility on their older systems. Those early adopters are happy, new buyers can still get the 80GB version if they "demand" BC, and the vast majority of people that don't care don't have to pay for it.
"If" they would have left out the wireless and kept in the BC, then that would make them look bad on the spec sheet when compared to the 360 Elite ($450). Now it is painfully obvious that the PS3 is better and actually cheaper, thus probably forcing Microsoft to lower the price of the elite down to $400 as well. At the worst case it makes potential customers of the elite this year look long and hard at the PS3 without some EB guy saying "Yeah, it is nice, but it cost $600".
So, the only remaining large issues for Sony are: 1080i issue Home Beta out ASAP. Little Big Planet out ASAP. Better development tools. More exclusives if at all possible. Pray that MGS4, HOME, GT5 and Ratchet and Clank are great games.
Lastly, Sony is definitely different than Microsoft and Nintendo in the gaming space. Nintendo focuses totally on the "kids" games and Microsoft appears stuck in the FPS teenager to 30 year old males demographic. There doesn't appear to be a "typical" Sony buyer. You will have some that say MGS, others GT, others Resistance, others Uncharted, others FF, and a bunch like games like Ratchet and Clank and Ape Escape and Kingdom Hearts. Then there are the dance dance revolution types and the puzzle game fans. Nintendo is trying hard to get in to a broader market but the way they treat 3rd party developers makes me and others wonder if Nintendo will ever be a company that really wants 3rd party support.
At the end of the day though, a $400 PS3 is better than a $600 PS3 if you are an average customer buying a console this Christmas.
More people eat McDonalds hamburgers than Ruth Chris New York strip steaks, but does that make McDonalds better?
What people like this about the Wii: Cost - much like McDonalds hamburgers.... Controller/Remote - Gets the "casual" gamers in because it doesn't look confusing. Mario/kids games.
Nintendo has a hit on their hand no doubt, but by no means to people want crappy graphics and crummy AI. Those same people would LOVE most games with better graphics and better AI.
I know I would LOVE the same Zelda/Mario at 1080P 60FPS with more creatures and better AI. That isn't a knock on Zelda (a great game for the Wii), but just the way most people play games.
Now, to get back on topic. Isn't the real issue with DX10, that it only runs on Vista? Vista sales have been very poor by most accounts and thus developers are reluctant to adopt it as their primary API base?
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Of course there is the whole morals and ethics thing, but why let that slow you down... If someone comes over and kills you and the local law doesn't do anything about it then I guess that would be ok also. I guess we as a society shouldn't be surprised with a post like this when a secular progressive agenda has been embraced for a couple of decades now.
Also, I somehow get the suspicion that you hate DRM, yet it is people like you that bring it on. So please don't start bitching when every developer goes to a WoW type of system because it is almost impossible to steal. Don't complain when we get DRM filled Blue-Ray movies that require separate CPU's just to do the decryption; while they and constantly change keys to make life hell for those of us that do choose not to steal.
By the way what business are you in? I am sure that you wouldn't have a problem with people stealing your stuff... Granted I am making a HUGE assumption that you currently DO work and don't live in your mothers basement.
So what percentage of the above do each race participate? Now take that list and throw it away because nobody cares.
If by buying Apple products that makes me a "Mac Guy" then I guess I am. However, I also run Linux and Windows. So I guess that makes me a mutt. I like the Apple hardware and software, but in no way will I EVER want to learn a proprietary language that only runs on a small number of the worlds computers again. Have you ever coded for a Commadore Amiga, TSR-80, Apple IIe, Motorolla Z80, or and IBM Mainframe? I have and they all were great for their time but they eventually died (mainframe is the lone exception). Now "if" I can write an Application that runs in Java on the Iphone and for some reason the Iphone/Apple goes out of business (Steve Jobs dies or leaves the company again). Then that code is portable to the Google phone or even a Microsoft phone or whatever phone is hot in the next few years. That code probably won't support things like touch screen or voice commands, but for a BUNCH of applications that is fine.
Now as far as me learning yet another freaking language and it being so great that I want to dump Java, that language better be able to read my mind and code automatically from UML diagrams because the Java tools of today are almost there. Even then there better be some compelling reason for me to want to switch and learn it over the others I mentioned. A language that only runs on one platform, even Microsoft Windows isn't going to gain my interest unless I have no choice. Scala seems cool and I need to learn better Javascript/Ajax development, along with better JSF. I might also mess with Ruby a bit, now that the developer tools are coming around.
Lastly, I believe Apple and Sun will work this thing out. I personally believe that Apple doesn't want full blown applications running from the Web (Flash, Applets etc) and causing problems with their phone. However, I don't believe Apple really cares about a true Java application running on the phone, but they would want to "bless" or "certify" that application. It seems a bit weird given that I can download any application for my Macintosh... I can only assume that they want to make sure that the first few years the iphone has only "quality" applications.
What I and many others have said is that we won't specifically target the Macintosh platforms. That includes the iphone. Now we will write an application in J2ME/J2SE (which is very portable) and "if" there isn't any major issues then we will run it on the iphone/OSX. Just because "your" application requires touch and no "buttons" doesn't mean that EVERY application is that way. There are a TON of business applications that would work great on the iphone/java as is, but without Java they will never be there. The Apple fanboys can jump up and down and scream that it isn't that hard to learn yet another proprietary programming language (objective c) and that it doesn't cost that much, but if they were asked to pay the salaries of developers and testers for a market that isn't there yet (and will probably never be); then those fanboys get quiet. Take the word Apple and replace it with Microsoft and see if you still believe what you have written. I would say the exact same thing if Microsoft was pushing their smartphone and C#. Would you?
And no I wouldn't learn Objective C, or C# for any specific platform unless it was for a very very very specific business reason. I have lived through vendor lock in long enough to know better. You "could" make an argument for plain C, or an interpreted language but the iphone won't even allow those, so the point is moot.
I write code for a living and I generally buy Apple products but in no way will I or a lot of people write an application that can ONLY run on the iphone. Vendor lock in is vendor lock in weather it is proprietary UNIX, IBM, Microsoft or even Apple.
Lastly, I don't wish Apple anything bad, but in my opinion they could benefit a ton from opening up the platform a bit more. I do believe this issue will be addressed in the future.
Are you serious?
The ONLY language that runs on over 80% of the smart phones out there now and Apple doesn't support it. In fact they go out of their way to stop it. A language, that by most parts is one of the top programming languages used.
So, I as a programmer of Java and owner of one Iphone am expected to want to learn a new language; one that is proprietary to Apple just to have the privilege of running my application one one phone vendor.
I like the Iphone, and will use it, but to be honest the next phone I buy for myself (Iphone was for a family member), will probably not be an Iphone, but an Android (Google) phone. I own almost exclusive Apple equipment otherwise and would LOVE to jump in and start working with Java on the Iphone, but as it is now.... It isn't going to happen.
It is my "hope" that Apple gets a clue and allows Java to run on the Iphone. Even our business who makes software for phones (not my specific area) has said that they will NOT work on an Iphone port. Yet if the Iphone supported Java then someone like me who actually kind of likes Apple (company hates Apple), could have a shot of getting the code running (if it was written in Java), then show our company that it runs without any major issues. Lastly the company could then support the phone, but as it sits now, well... Apple better garner 80% of the entire smart phone market, and that isn't going to happen and even if they somehow managed to do that our company, like many others probably won't support it.
As for your write once, test and certify everywhere comment.... you need to go back to 1995. Thanks to Microsoft no longer supporting a JVM, and the certification process growing over 1,000 times more complex, those days are behind us. It isn't perfect but it is by far and above the best portable code out there.
I would even understand "if" Apple said there can be a JVM but they won't allow Applets AND they would still need to certify every application. I have to believe that the only thing holding Java back on the Iphone is Steve Jobs hate rid of anything that he is not in control of.
Will I learn Objective C? Why? I would rather focus on Scala or one of the other more interesting languages than one that runs on a very small amount of the worlds systems. In my case I plan on learning Scala next and also far more Javascript/Ajax.
Is this AFTER the Muslims came in and killed anyone not Muslim that was a male and then threw out the rest of the families in the street so a "true Muslim" could live in the house? A very good friend of mine got the honor of living in a "public" park for a year while she and her daughter tried to flee to the U.S.A. So, you had tons of "anyone not Muslim" being killed or forced out of their homes, most of which were and are Christians. Some of those Christians united and fought back. Christianity does not promote this and actually con dims this action.
I will say that generally people that hate each other tend to use religion as a motivating factor to get people to rally around their cause and war. I can't speak for Muslims, but Christians, specifically Catholics are opposed to almost any war. The last Pope (John Paul II) who lived through WWII and saw many horrible things even mentioned that it was ok to fight in a war but he had never seen an instance of a time when it was warranted. This coming from a man who saw Hitlers army crush Poland and kill many innocent people. Granted there are many different sects of Christianity and I will concede that almost every religion has their weird splinter groups, but the VAST majority of Christians (and I bet Muslims) do not promote violence in any way. Just the opposite they promote peace, sometimes at the sacrifice of their own lives.
first you need to decide how painful it will be to migrate. Is this some mainframe application that has had 20+ years of refinement and bug patches behind it, that happens to be in the millions of lines of code size? If that is the case then you keep kicking the dead horse for a while.
Is this some scientific/complex application that is written in a language that just isn't popular today, but isn't too large? Well then you "might" consider migrating it over time.
Obviously this isn't something to be taken lightly, because the expense of migration/bug testing and possible validation can be HUGE for large systems.
I only have a small amount of data that you provided, so I can say that I "might" look at trying to expose as much of the legacy system as possible via a web service or some other "normal" RPC call and then look at having another system start to use the business logic in the core system, but have in written in a more modern and common language (Java). You "might" be able to start and pull off parts of the system over time that way.
While I am against war in general, your comments sound very similar to those statements that kept the U.S.A. out of WWII until it was attacked.
I have no clue how many people have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since the war started, nor do I know how many were killed by mustard gas by Saddam after Iraq failed in their attempt to take Kuwait in the first gulf war. You throw out numbers, but one thing I am sure of is that those numbers are pretty much made up. I do know that one (of many) safe havens for radical Muslims no longer exist and a leader who thought he had a nuclear program for weapons to wipe out Israel (and hurt the U.S.A.) is gone.
So in short, I guess neither one of us know how many people would be dead if the U.S.A. (and others) didn't go to war. Would it be more? Would it be Israel, U.S.A. and European people that would be dead as opposed to those that are dead now? Is the world a safer place now than it would have been? What exactly happens if Israel gets destroyed? I am sure of the fact that you and I would disagree on the above answers much like those in the past that thought Hitler would be fine with Poland, and those who didn't. I am positive that you and I would also agree about how to handle Iran, but that is a topic for another day...
Now, back on topic.
I personally hope that Apple responds to Rush and helps him with this problem. Apple can use all the help it can get and I would hope that a company that appears to love diversity as much as Apple does (transvestite days...) will respect the views of others and still help them out. If I was Apple I would use this as an opportunity for some free advertising, and "fix" the apparent problem and perhaps even have some PR person do a talk on his show. Obviously I wouldn't have them talk politics, but about Apple products and how they are customer focused. A ton of people that listen to his show are "stuck" with Windows machines and if they see great support and hear about alternatives they may give Apple a shot. It isn't that hard to turn this small negative experience into a huge plus for Apple.
Lastly, I want to say again that I am in no way a fan of war, but when the enemies of the U.S.A. are mad, that probably means the U.S.A. is doing the write thing. Also, I am not a Muslim, and would rather die than convert to that faith, so I guess, by those in power in some middle eastern countries I AM already at war. That being the case, it is a war that I don't intend on loosing. I like our freedom of religion, and woman having EQUAL rights.
I agree. I'm a Catholic and I think it's safe to say that the current papacy is an absolute joke.
:-)
You know that you are not chained to the Catholic faith? I am also a Catholic and have never had a gun held to my head forcing me to be a Catholic. Did he torque off some of the Muslim faith? Yes, but was what he said incorrect to a Christian/Catholic? Come to think of it he appears to have a very good understanding of the Catholic teachings (shocker!).
So lets summarize this a bit. The Pope was ASKED to go and talk at a school and there were "instructors" that didn't want him there. He isn't going to be there and they are now apparently mad because he will look like he is trying to get pity from people. So what exactly did they want him to do again? These guys sound like some of my old psycho girlfriend... Come to think of it I wonder if they are teaching there?
He didn't exactly shake the sand of his shoes and curse these guys. He just isn't going to be there now. However, at the end of the day they can protest whomever they want to and people can choose "if" they want to send their kids to this place of "higher learning".
1. Show EVERYONE that Ron Paul only got around 4% of the vote, and still expect the Nintendo errr I mean Paul fanboys to say it was some sort of conspiracy that kept him out of the office.
2. Implement a flat national tax. Along with this make tax day one week before elections. This tax would be what EVERYONE would pay and be a national sales tax. Only home purchases would be excluded.
3. Set ALL government programs at a 1% across the board reduction and then have that program "grow" at a -1% inflation for the next 10 years. Explain to the American people what services will now be cut and why.
4. Set mandates on the size of local and state governments. In now way should the size of government ever exceed 1% of the U.S.A working population. (Excludes military)
5. Start the process of eliminating Social Security. If someone who is 20ish doesn't want in then they don't have to be. Those who are 50 and older and continue and be given a portion of what they would have gotten. Those 60 and older will be given what they current would get.
6. End the war when Iraq and Afghanistan if they are able to defend themselves from a radical Islamic takeover. Defeat would not be an option and anything or anyone (Iran) that impedes the success will be treated as an enemy of the U.S.A.
7. Kill the "free trade" agreement that was made during the Clinton years and continued through the Bush years.
8. Impose a "tax" on any service done outside the U.S. and used by a U.S. company. It doesn't really make sense that a car imported in to the U.S.A. gets taxed but code or support done outside the U.S.A. gets nothing.
9. Define when an unborn child is a citizen of the U.S.A.
10. Build a wall and make it very difficult for Mexican people to become illegal citizens. Create very stiff laws on any company hiring these illegal people. However, greatly increase the number of people allowed to come here and work legally. Those that are here illegally can stay here but must pay a penalty (extra tax) for the remainder of their lives.
11. Mandate open source software for all government systems.
12. Reduce the barriers for Nuclear energy in the U.S.A.
13. Look at completely replacing our education system. At this I would look at outside people, but it is obvious that we can do better.
14. Make PBS earn it's money. No more government funding for it or NPR. They are both just sounding boards for the democratic party.
15. Move cigarettes under the control of the FDA. Along with this either lower the drinking age down to 18 OR lower the minimum age for people in the military up to 21.
Man I would LOVE to be Sun at the table on that discussion.
I've used Java on a PC, and I'd much rather not have it on my DVD player."
Two points here.
1. You would rather have a Microsoft controlled language?
2. What Java APPLICATIONS did you run and would you care to elaborate on why you "believe" Java would be bad. Specifically what would make it bad for a set top box? Also, then tell me what language you would choose for this type of device.
It is all about the software. In the HD-DVD it uses Microsofts software. In BR it can use Java, and soon it will be required to use Java. "If" Sony would have used Microsofts language then Sony would be a stupid as IBM was back in the day.
You missed my first sentence. "VHS was good enough..."
When the first DVDs came out the content quality wasn't near what it was today.
If you watch something like Planet Earth on a 1080P set then I believe you will notice a large difference. Then again, you may not notice a difference, but I am willing to be that a majority of people will concede that "if" they could afford it they would prefer to have that picture. So then it all comes down to getting the price "affordable" and making sure the consumer doesn't buy a format that will not be around. It appears that Blu-Ray will be the winner here and the price of a player is currently around $400.
Yes and VHS was "good enough" for most people as well. Remember that a 25" TV was HUGE back then...
:-)
Most people that have a good HDTV can tell a large difference in good HD content. Please note that I am not saying many of the movies that have come out on either format, but "some" of the movies there is a HUGE difference in quality.
The fact is that Microsoft isn't a content provider and because of that they can't leverage any monopoly this time to win this format dispute. The real issue is all about Java on these players. I bet you can guess which player has Java and which one doesn't
The HD-DVD camp just pulled their talk tonight at CES and that comes as no surprise, also it now has come out that Universal has an "escape clause", so this could be over sooner than most thought. The only real question is "if" Microsoft wants to dump a LOT more money at Universal to try and continue this dispute. I would imagine that now it would take a lot more than 150 million.
Again, don't get confused about any company caring about the consumer, Sony used the PS3 to cement Blu-Ray and Microsoft HATES Java and will do a lot to make sure it doesn't gain a significant foothold in the living room. At the end of the day I would much rather deal with Sony, because I can easily use someone else's player but if Microsoft controls the software in the living room then history shows we will be in for decades of crap.
"Despite rampant pirating of comics, somehow new models are successfully created and used. Excuse me if I don't cry into my soup for the old fuddy duddies that refuse to adapt."
And they did a model that was very close to what I suggested, but you use the term successful, and I would use the term barely surviving. Also, I don't expect you to cry at all but concede two facts. The first is that without funding or near zero funding the content providers will not produce content (unless we go to a socialist system, and with Hillary that is unfortunately a possibility, but that is another story) and second is that comics are in no way stolen or ever have been stolen to the degree of music and video.
So when these "kids" grow up and believe that stealing any content is "ok" and they start to steal other stuff should those companies also "find a new business model"?
Most on Slashdot hate DRM, but few if any come up with an alternative that protects against stealing but yet allows the consumer the freedom to do with the content they want to.
magine though, a world where recording studios spend their time headhunting TALENT and then marketing that talent to artists. I'm not just talking about the musicians themselves, but the mixers, the choreographers, every step in between. A company that was a firm reputed to have power content creating talent and just needed someone to insert content would always have tremendous value to humanity until art is officially dead. You can pretty much s/recording studios/movie industry/ as well.
The problem with this is it would invert the power structure. This would put tremendous control into the hands of the actual content creators...
This sounds great on the surface, but then when you think about the fact that the content creators will spend a large amount of time creating their content to an audience that will pay nothing. When 2 out of 500 customers believe it is wrong to steal your content then you will never make any money in the content creation business. Please understand that you and I agree in the fact that the if things don't change, the content providers will be the last to go, but they will go none the less.
I wish I had a solution to this problem, but the only thing I can come up with is some sort of download and play on the fly, but then you have to be connected all the time, and that probably isn't a great solution. At the end of the day though, if this business is to survive at all something will need to be done. It is bad in the U.S.A, but in countries like Thailand it is crazy.
Ok, to continue the "record" my coworkers kid broke their wiimote while playing a game and tossing it at the TV. In my day, I would have done this in a fit of rage because of how bad Mortal Kombat 1 played, but this kid was playing the game correctly :-).
There are two major factors that is helping the Wii.
1. Cost - People believe that this is a next gen system (it can be argued that it is just a Gamecube 1.5 with a new controller)
2. It has games that target the entire family, and a lot of families like that. They don't exactly want to buy Halo 3 or Resistance Fall of Man for their 12 year old kid.
Lastly, there are the Nintendo fanboys that will buy anything Nintendo, and they will guarantee 10 million consoles sold. The Wii is currently at around 15 million, and it will be very interesting to see how well it does next year. It may do fine, but then again Nintendo has a real problem in dealing with 3rd party support. By problem I mean they generally love to kill them. That coupled with the fact that Microsoft could lower the price of the 360 and "POSSIBLY" get the quality up to above a 35% failure rate could pose a threat. Then there is Sony... Sony has some mega bombs dropping next year with Metal Gear, Little Big Planet, Home, GT5 and possibly FFXIII. If Sony gets serious they could (probably won't) drop the price again before next Christmas and thus put more pressure on Nintendo. A $300 PS3 could put some heat on Nintendo if Nintendo continues to treat 3rd parties like Peterson treats wives.
Having said all this it is apparent that the Nintendo DS AND PSP are killing normal console sales when you factor in world wide sales. It isn't inconceivable that developers will start to shy away from the consoles and focus more on handhelds. Specifically in Japan.
As "HOT" as the Wii is, it still can't hold a candle to DS sales OR PSP sales.
Last time I checked there are freaking TONS of people literally dieing to get in to this country. So many that the U.S. is building a wall to stem the flow of illegal immigration. Yes those are generally lower educated people but there are still far more "high tech" people wanting in the county than H1Bs.
That's true. That's yet another problem with the US... they were dependent on the uneducated but industrious illegals to harvest food, and now that they're locking things down and throwing immigrants into concentration camps in the hundreds of thousands, food is rotting in the fields.
Excuse me? Care you provide some hard facts to back up what you say? Relax guy, trying to control a GIANT problem of having an open boarder for 20+ years is difficult to solve and it will take time. It is going to happen and as always the U.S. will do an honorable thing and help the vast majority of illegals become citizens. The U.S. has done it before and will do it again, but you seem to have glossed over the fact that the H1B's are still being filled in record time.
You seriously want people to believe that the U.S. is run by a bunch of "Religious Fanatics"? The same country that based its laws off of Christian values and religious freedoms (not freedom from religion) has morphed into a country that kids can't pray public schools, certain retailers were scared to say "Merry Christmas" and if anyone wants to teach children that "MOST" people in the U.S.A/World believe that the universe/time et all began by God, they will probably be fighting the ACLU in court.
Teachers are being fired for teaching science instead of creationism. The people in power were put there because the general population, or at least 49% of them, are so soft in the head that they swallowed all the religious rights rhetoric and elected a madman. Do you think a few insulting paintings written by attention seekers looking to tweak the nose of the religious establishment changes the nature of things? It doesn't... it's superficial
A teacher is almost killed in another country and one or two teachers are threatened to loose their job if they don't teach that the majority of people have a "theory" that life began from God. You honestly want to compare a teacher almost getting killed for naming a stuffed animal "Mohammad" (probably mis-spelled), and that... You also seem to miss the point that the VAST majority of teachers can't mention God in the classroom at all, less have the ACLU come down and threaten a lawsuit. Again the great news is that this is changing and people in the U.S. are finding common ground (liberals and conservatives). You quote of "electing a madman".... As I said before relax, take a deep breath and don't let all this hate consume you. As for your point of obscene acts against Christianity often found in San Francisco; I will point to the fact that "IF" those were done against say Muslims in the middle east the "artist" would be killed. Here in the U.S.A. they are allowed and protected to do those things. Hence the U.S.A. Care to take a Christian Bible in to China during the Olympics? Have fun.
All in all the U.S. isn't looking too bad. Granted our taxes are ridiculous, but a hard working person in poverty can still become one of the richest people on earth and that can't be said for to many countries.
Hard work doesn't get you rich in the US. Scheming, conspiracy, underhanded tactics, economic exploitation of your fellow man, fraudulent accounting practices, exploitation of loopholes for personal gain... these are how a person in the US gets ahead. How naive are you?
Hard work will get you a LOT further in the U.S.A. than in most other countries. I have no clue how old you are and again, you seem very angry. I would suggest loosing your bitterness and you might actually further your life some more. I think most people on this site that work in the U.S.A. will concede that people that they work with, that are very hard workers and do a great job, ha
Someone has a case of the "Mondays" :-)
Last time I checked there are freaking TONS of people literally dieing to get in to this country. So many that the U.S. is building a wall to stem the flow of illegal immigration. Yes those are generally lower educated people but there are still far more "high tech" people wanting in the county than H1Bs.
You seriously want people to believe that the U.S. is run by a bunch of "Religious Fanatics"? The same country that based its laws off of Christian values and religious freedoms (not freedom from religion) has morphed into a country that kids can't pray public schools, certain retailers were scared to say "Merry Christmas" and if anyone wants to teach children that "MOST" people in the U.S.A/World believe that the universe/time et all began by God, they will probably be fighting the ACLU in court.
Now lets compare the U.S.A. to say.... oh I don't know Saudi Arabia, Iran, or many other middle east countries. One teacher lets her second grade class name a stuffed animal after their God and they want her dead. Lets compare that to some of the "art" that has Jesus in it displayed in San Fransisco. Or lets look over at Ireland with the fighting in norther Ireland over the last few decades.
All in all the U.S. isn't looking too bad. Granted our taxes are ridiculous, but a hard working person in poverty can still become one of the richest people on earth and that can't be said for to many countries.
Now to get this back on topic. I honestly don't know what this guys motive is at Sun. Sun sends out a ton of different messages and at the end of the day they are a company that needs to make money. I can say that I think money going to pay developers is a good thing. If it makes OpenOffice better and a great open JDK then I am all for it. The ONLY fear I have is that some 3rd world country might use this little bit of money and chain coders to their desk (slave labor). Given the little amount of money they are offering and the skill required to fix the code I have little concern about this though.
I am sorry but I wasn't clear.
I want Apple to GIVE Sun the code that makes SWING run on the Mac OSX and look good. Sun could then opensource that code as well as the Open JDK project.
The guy that did the JDK 6 for OSX (awesome guy), has used the BSD version and it requires X to run Swing applications. These applications will look bad compared to the near native look and feel of SWING applications run on Apples 1.5 JVM. Apple put a lot of time in to making Java applications look and feel great on their platform, but they just haven't kept up.
Yeah, and lets add a few more to the list.
No PHP crap. Slow, and it is only for script kiddies.
No Ruby crap. Way too new and it is a fad.
No games... they just cause systems to crash. Who needs cool games.
No C or C++, only that crappy C variant that Apple makes.
Heck, now that I think about it, no programming languages at all. Make it just like they wanted to with the iPhone.
Obviously I am kidding... I own a Mac and run most (not all) of the stuff mentioned above. I game on a console. I do wish that Apple would release their GUI Java stuff under GPL, so people like this guy could get Java 6 with SWING out there ASAP. I would love to do my Java development on my Mac without using Parallels and XP.
Some have suggested that Sun should be the one making a VM for Apple, and I would agree BUT Apple should have come to Sun two years ago and said that they were out of the JVM business and worked with Sun to insure a modern VM was on their platform. It is in both parties interest to see a good JVM on the Macintosh.... Hopefully one that doesn't require a freaking OS upgrade to get the latest version of Java.
Please Apple, finish Java 6 for the Macintosh and then hand the code over to Sun to make Java 7. Sun take that code and open source it as well.
Settle down now...
:-) (That is a joke so settle down)
It isn't like he lied to a grand jury under oath
Also, I am going to assume that you are a citizen of the U.S.A. and a liberal. If I am wrong then I apologize, but there is something that the Democratic party needs to hear to guarantee a victory in the next presidential election. Nominate some moderate "normal" democrat like a Liberman or Evan Bahy. The Democrats puzzle me because a year when nominating a moderate traditional candidate would assure them victory they go and strongly back Hillary. What the heck are Democrats thinking? She "might" win, but there is a great chance that she will loose because the people in the middle generally don't like her. Most flat out hate her. It would be like the Republicans putting up Pat Buchanan as their candidate.
Next stop all the "911 was an inside job", and shouting/screaming/interrupting political figures talks. This makes you look like lunatics to that same "Middle America" that you need, given that it appears that Hillary is going to be the candidate. When you act like a lunatic you hurt your side as much as the right wing lunatics like Timothy McVeigh did for the extreme right. You may disagree with the war, and that is cool, but don't go and put blood on your hands and rush in to someone giving a talk.
One last request/suggestion - Stop bashing America most of the time. Speaking as someone who has been to quite a few countries, I can say that there are far far far worse countries, but more importantly those "middle Americans" generally like their country and get very tired of hearing the same people say how bad the U.S.A is. You may "think" you are influencing those people to your views but most of them just tune you off... This is perhaps the number one reason the Fox News has done so well in such a short time. They generally don't bash America 24/7 like say CNN.
Just some suggestions, from someone who lives in a state that will more than likely influence the election.
While I think this was a mistake, and have posted on it before. Here is my take on what "might" have happened.
Capcom, EA and others development shops came to Sony and told them (some out loud), that the price of the PS3 is too high and that because the sales are not picking up they will focus all tier one development on the Wii and then the 360, then the PS2 then the PS3. I know second hand that EA basically said this to Sony. The PS3 was dead last on their "New" development and they would do crappy ports of 360 games over to it.
So Sony probably had a gun held to their head and had to do whatever it took to get the cost down to below $400 this year in the U.S.A. (guessing on price), without pulling an Apple and pissing off all their early adopters. They knew that they would catch a bunch of heat over the backward compatibility but at the end of the day they could line up this new PS3 next to a 360 and show that you get more for your money with the PS3 on the hardware side and all the early adopters know they have backward compatibility on their older systems. Those early adopters are happy, new buyers can still get the 80GB version if they "demand" BC, and the vast majority of people that don't care don't have to pay for it.
"If" they would have left out the wireless and kept in the BC, then that would make them look bad on the spec sheet when compared to the 360 Elite ($450). Now it is painfully obvious that the PS3 is better and actually cheaper, thus probably forcing Microsoft to lower the price of the elite down to $400 as well. At the worst case it makes potential customers of the elite this year look long and hard at the PS3 without some EB guy saying "Yeah, it is nice, but it cost $600".
So, the only remaining large issues for Sony are:
1080i issue
Home Beta out ASAP.
Little Big Planet out ASAP.
Better development tools.
More exclusives if at all possible.
Pray that MGS4, HOME, GT5 and Ratchet and Clank are great games.
Lastly, Sony is definitely different than Microsoft and Nintendo in the gaming space. Nintendo focuses totally on the "kids" games and Microsoft appears stuck in the FPS teenager to 30 year old males demographic. There doesn't appear to be a "typical" Sony buyer. You will have some that say MGS, others GT, others Resistance, others Uncharted, others FF, and a bunch like games like Ratchet and Clank and Ape Escape and Kingdom Hearts. Then there are the dance dance revolution types and the puzzle game fans. Nintendo is trying hard to get in to a broader market but the way they treat 3rd party developers makes me and others wonder if Nintendo will ever be a company that really wants 3rd party support.
At the end of the day though, a $400 PS3 is better than a $600 PS3 if you are an average customer buying a console this Christmas.
More people eat McDonalds hamburgers than Ruth Chris New York strip steaks, but does that make McDonalds better?
What people like this about the Wii:
Cost - much like McDonalds hamburgers....
Controller/Remote - Gets the "casual" gamers in because it doesn't look confusing.
Mario/kids games.
Nintendo has a hit on their hand no doubt, but by no means to people want crappy graphics and crummy AI. Those same people would LOVE most games with better graphics and better AI.
I know I would LOVE the same Zelda/Mario at 1080P 60FPS with more creatures and better AI. That isn't a knock on Zelda (a great game for the Wii), but just the way most people play games.
Now, to get back on topic. Isn't the real issue with DX10, that it only runs on Vista? Vista sales have been very poor by most accounts and thus developers are reluctant to adopt it as their primary API base?