The question is, at what point does 'drawing on experience' cross the line and invade others IP?
NEVER!! this one of the fundamental flaws with IP in general. My experience is my own if I can't use my experience and knowledge at my job what good is it?? my resume may aswell be blank. Fact is I use my experience use the same methods to solve problems at my new job that I used at my old job, do I have to figure out a new way around the same problem everytime I switch jobs? should I be concerned that I'm possibly violating someone's IP everytime I write a line of code? I was hired to do the work I've got experience doing and that's what I'll do.
well this can depend on how the game was written, way back in the day the execution of the realtime engine would be so costly that you wouldn't have enough cpu cycles to calculate anything of significance with what was left. Now since processor speed varies like crazy you can't make a game without a realtime engine. I imagine they'd come up with some way so that the apps know what the cpu is running at and can adjust accordingly, they'll probably also add the ability to force the cpu to a particular speed while a certain app or function (whatever) is running... This would be cool (speaking as a game programmer), the programmer could force the cpu to the exact clock speed he wanted the game to run at and could do away with a realtime engine altogether! let's just hope these new handhelds won't do multitasking as well, that'd throw a monkey wrench into the whole thing:(
there are some fairly recent games that still have some processor dependant functions... warcraft2 (yes 2, t.w.o.) had processor depend map scrolling... go ahead load it up on your 2Ghz machine and watch that screen scroll!!!! the rest of the game is realtime though.
and I SHOULD be able to have a billion dollars tax free just for scratching my own ass!! well I haven't been diagnosed with manic depression, nor am I gothboy, and I've been out on my own for years. Fact is I have a great job that I love, I'm a programmer for a great game company, and I've made copromises to get here. I've had horrible jobs where I was exploited to no end, but needed for experience and such, and where I am now, I've sacrificed my own time (I work crazy long hours and weekends) but it's what I love to do, and TS for me cause I can't go in just 8 hours a day, and have weekends to myself, I'm expected to work long hours. You can't have your cake and eat it too, that's a fact of life. I said I don't agree with what happens to artists (funny it comes back to that reading thing), but that's the way the system works. I don't always like that a ton of my own time is spent at work. Yes their hard work lines the pockets of fat execs. (fact is just about everyone's does) but that is the nature of capitalism! it will change, it just takes time, till the next big system comes in to exploit the people. If you love doing something, or want it bad enough you make the compromises and the hard decisions to get it, don't start bitching when you knew the costs going in. Yes the system sucks, but it's what you're stuck with till enough people care enough to change it. I do care, I'd like to change, but it'll take time.
Ah right, I shouldn't complain, because I have a choice (to compare to AT&T and using your phone, I suppose the alternative would be walkietalkies or tin-cans?) in avoiding a monopoly.
some people just don't read do they... he didn't say anything about avoiding the monopoly geez, he said you don't have to take the first offer!!!! you don't have to take the most expensive plan, you can take the cheaper one or go to the competition to see if there's a better option. god! besides if people truly want to share their music, they don't need a record contract at all! that's only necessary if you want to be a 'rock star.' Which is a WANT! you don't have to be a rock star, you can do tons of other crap to make a living! If you CHOOSE!! to be a rock star and the only way to do that is to sign away your rights well TS it's your CHOICE to do that to be a rock star!!
Now I don't agree with what happens to the artists, It's not fair, it should be different, they should have control over their creations, but that's not how it is! and for the life of me I can't feel bad for them, they make far more money than I ever will, get to travel around, have fame and popularity. would they have this if they didn't sign their contracts?
um... you don't read correctly, this really won't make much difference to mac gaming... All this does is make a 3d graphics programmer life a little easier. If he's making windows or mac games it's pretty irrelevent they both get easier, this isn't any incentive to start making a mac game instead of a windows (or whatever) one.
This is rediculous, memorizing the periodic table doesn't give you an understanding of it, nor does memorizing what a sine curve looks like. If you had a calculator since the first grade you wouldn't be able to do simple arithmatic, christ I know people today my own age (25) who can't figure out how much change they should get from a mcdonalds combo! Fact is sitting there punching numbers and having the answer fed to you doesn't teach you the process, and it doesn't make you any better at anything except pushing buttons. The only way to learn these things is to do these things. When you understand what the graph means or how a mathmatical process works, then using a calculator becomes a means to only aleviate yourself of the mundane task of actually calculating the answer by hand.
Unless you can figure some way to do this without their knowledge or without requiring them to do anything, or even not do anything, it will always depend on the users in some way. Tbe best case is if you automate the process over night or something like that, but then you've got to depend on users to not turn their computers off. If you want users to simply copy their stuff to the server somewhere, well then you're depending on them to do this regularly, and they won't! especially if they've had no backup procedure or policy before. The sysadmin is always in the crappiest of positions, you depend on the users to do their part but if they don't it's your resposibility to fix it. The easiest way would probably be to give everyone they're own directory on the server that their login script maps to, and constantly urge them to copy their important files to it then you've got control of the backup If you're real savvy you can have a script run daily that checks the newest file in each directory and if the newest file in there is more than X number of days old send out an automatic e-mail or something to that user urging them to back up. Also educating people on the importance and reasons for it, this should be easy in your case if they've lost so much data already. If people understand the reason, and it's easy for them to do, and are gently urged/reminded they will usually do what you ask. You'll still have people who won't do it though, be very aware of that!
You'd be amazed at how some corporate types just don't get how some things are just free... free seems like a simple enough concept right?! if you want it, it's yours, simple right... well I remember at one of my old jobs, there was some talk about using linux for some server stuff, and it was decided they'd use it. Well the manager said "alright go out and buy it", we told the manager, "hey it's free we can download and install it." but the manager wanted a paper trail. so we said "alright give use some paper we'll write up a report or whatever." "A receipt" the manager said, "but it's free?!?!" "I'll write up a receipt for you" said one of the guys. "Look just go to the store and buy it guys!" the manager said... so finally we went and we purchased a copy of redhat and the manager was happy that money was spent. some people really just don't get the whole "it's free" when it comes to business stuff.
I'm guessing by "their own way" you mean illegal or illicit way. It seems everyone on here bitches just because everything isn't free, fact is most agreements bar you from doing illegal stuff or things that the machine wasn't intended to do. When you buy a VCR you agree not to make copies of copyrighted movies and sell them with it... now we all know you can easily wire up two VCR's and copy like crazy, the problem now is that with technology, companies can actually do something about it now.
now I'm not saying it's wrong to save a tv show, or cut out the comercials, I think those are totally legitamate uses. I also don't think it's wrong to share a tv show with others, but if your subscription agreement with the company to not alter the hardware, well then change it and lose your subscription. Also don't break the law or lose your subsciption, simple!
Most people probably also don't realize that they're probably trying to cover their own ass more than anything else, this agreement basically absolves them of any wrong doing in the even that people do break the law with it. Agreements aren't just to screw customers, you should probably read the agreement that comes with other things too, you might not wany any appliances in your house.
well this will probably get moded as a troll or flamebait by ignorant, selfish people but the original poster in this thread had a very valid point, I would think the open minded people would see that.
Well I hope to god this is intentional flamebait. Being blacklisted causes no damage to any equipment, most of what these guys are after is rediculous.
$7,907 (AU$14,000) for replacing blocked or compromised IP numbers, $2,683 (AU$4,750) for labor costs of technicians to establish an alternative e-mail system, $2,824 (AU$5,000) to purchase a new server computer and $11,296 (AU$20,000) for loss of income it claims to have incurred over a 20-day waiting period
hmm last I knew it didn't cost $8k to get a new ip?!?! technicians?!? for what changing an ip on a server, nevermind about buying a new server, and if their isp takes 20 days to issue a new ip, they should be sueing their isp! I've worked at a company that got blackballed for relaying mail way back when spammers just started bouncing mail around, once we discovered the problem it was literally, turn off relaying - 5 minutes(max), get new ip from isp - one phone call (about 10 minutes), reassign ip and reboot server - 10 minutes. This is a ton of horsecrap, nevermind the fact that they're stealling people's bandwidth for sending unsolicited unwanted e-mail, I pay for it and get your crap off of it!!
does anyone find it ironic that the RIAA, which is essentially a monopoly (not technically, but definitely in behaviour) in distribution, is complaining about any other kind of monopoly?
record companies(along with most replication and distribution businesses) are quickly becomming obsolete with everying being digital and the internet hard copies are becomming less and less necessary... especially when they're also becomming more of a pain in the ass to use (cd copy protection anyone). It also seem like many of these companies are now too big to change, and are just trying to keep the status quo with new legislation and technology well all their customers pay for it and will eventually get too pissed and not bother.
The 2nd and 3rd gen Xbox games will be the same as the first... the Xbox is not new tech therfore there is no learning curve associated with it. Developpers don't have to 'learn' this system they way they would with a PS2 or (to a lesser extent) GC. Xbox is a PC in a box essentially, since PC games have been around forever there won't be much difference between generations of games. Developpers know the inner workings and there isn't much new territory to discover here or tricks to figure out.
Are you kidding?!?! most of these 500 companies you're talking about would like to get rid of MS from their offices... they don't enjoy dealing with MS any more than DELL and Co. do.
Regardless, MS's big advantage and the reason they're monopoly is so strong is that Windows is forced down your throat, you can't buy a new PC without it. If this stopped the MS monopoly would lose power. MS can't force a hard product down your throat, and competition would open up. I believe MS is testing the waters with Xbox and that they do want to control and take over some of the more mundane devices in our homes (VCR's DVD's etc.). The reason is simple, the PC market is drying up, that's probably also the reason their switch to a subscription plan for software. They're trying to use Xbox to work their way into the home entertainment market, since they can't sustain the growth that they've had recently in the PC market. The problem MS doesn't seem to see with this is that when it comes to these home devices consumers aren't exactly loyal to a brand name. I know I've got a Panasonic TV, a JVC VCR, a Sony stereo, etc. Even if people were to buy the MS top box, when it's obsolete they're not necessarily going to buy MS again... it's a totally different market that can't be leveraged the way MS does with their OS.
I don't think MS wants out of the PC/OS business it's their bread and butter and they own it. It would be the most rediculous move on their part to switch totally to their own devices, they would instantly make competitors out of their old partners. MS is like an arms dealer, all the OEM's and other company's that sell products with MS software are fighting a war, and MS is just selling munitions to both sides. They only stand to lose by declaring war on all of their customers.
Well that's an easy one Unreal Championship is probably going to be one of the flagship titles for MS's online service, and probably won't get ported anywhere, at least not soon.
I can't stand this god damn crap anymore!! why do corporate types insist on using stupid terms that aren't words, or not used in the correct context! what follows are a list of phrases and words that I'm sick of!!!
Paradigm
synergy
making words into verbs that aren't verbs! (eg. 'task,' 'tasked' isn't a god damn word!!!!)
pro-active
mission statements (alright not really the same thing, but so damn useless!!)
any women's lib terminology eg. herstory instead of history (please note I'm not sexist and this has nothing to do with my opinion of of this movement, the terminology just gets on my nerves)
um buddy this did happen and it wasn't the mod chip, it's called Bleem! and was deemed perfectly legal by the courts. It was software that ran on a computer and played PSX games (essentially a commercial emulator)... I'm not sure about burns and imports though, but since it was running on PC hardware there probably wasn't much way for it to tell the difference, not sure though.
I really don't get why they're going after this so badly. I mean so many other companies have embraced the communities that come up around their games. They add tons of longevity to them, someone pointed out half-life which is a perfect example. People also still play quake and quake2 for god sake!! Why would they want to alienate their fans?? I guess blizzard is just another big company now, owned by an even bigger company, more concerned with the bottom line than actually caring about their products and customers. This sort of thing would never happen with an ID game I'm sure.
I can't possibly see how reverse engineering a protocol then writing an app to support that protocol is illegal. It's been stated that reverse engineering by packet sampling isn't illegal, so why is writing a program that supports it? I can understand the gripe that people are playing the war3 beta who shouldn't, but that's where my understanding of it ends. Blizzard and Vivendi are just pissed cause they're gonna lose ad revenue from b.net and the possibility of charging people for it in the future. Even if bentd did charge for it's software I still don't see how it would be illegal?
When they say 'applied retroactively' they refer to any works that still have an active copyright and not just new works. So if something is about to move into the public domain and copyright is extended retroactively then this works copyright is extended, but something that has already passed into the public domain doesn't have it's copyright reinstated. If copyright is extended non-retroactively then only new copyrights benefit and old works wouldn't change their expiration date.
Having a 95 year long copyright is rediculous! 75 is also way way way too long, there is no way copyright is now intended to reward creativity, it's now used for control. There is no way for an actual person to benefit for the full 95 years!
anyone else notice that the recent change to 95 year long copyright from 75 years seems to be awful close to the 75th aniversary of disney??
The fact that anyone is trying to get away with raping every consumer in the world is reason enough to make this more common knowledge and make it "front and center."
You're a perfect example of the effects of propaganda, and blind patriotism. You think that just because your country does something that it's somehow justified and morally correct, you've got a very self centered and extreme nationalist attitude. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with being proud of who you are and where you're from, but just because you're from one place doesn't make you any better than anyone else. It also doesn't mean that everything your country does is right. The fact is if the US govt. kept their god damn noses out of everyone's business there wouldn't have been a sept. 11th attack and the US wouldn't be in a 'war' right now. Bush is a warmonging idiot of a president, since he's been in power it's been one international incident after another. US foreign policy has always been horrendous, The US set up and financed Bin Laden and the Taliban when they were fighting the russians. The US also financed Hussein during the Iran Iraq conflict. In both cases the US left them high and dry after the US's agenda was satisfied.
As for Isreal well that whole thing has been a mess since day one, you can't have a third party cut up a country and give part of it to someone else without problems... and quite frankly why is this any kind of important issue to the US? There are far worse problems in other countries, christ there have been 30 year revolutions happening in African countries that change political power and names faster than Rand McNally can print maps! Yet you don't hear a damn thing about them anywhere on any US channel. It would seem the US public doesn't care what happens there, so why should they care what happens in Isreal? The Palestinians have never been a threat to the US, they just want what they believe (and rightly so) is their land back, land that is holy to jews, christians and Islamics.
Fact is the US is not liked by the vast majority of the world, and with your swelled propaganda filled head, you'd probably think it's because everyone is jealous of 'the best country on earth' which is not the case, everyone is just sick of being dictated to by the US and have to suffer with US meddling. The US is only concerned with it's own interests and has no problems stepping on others to meet it's own ends.
It got read I just hope you read mine... I don't post much on here, I've read it for years but only post the occasional comment, it's mostly entertainment for me. You're probably right for some game series' the history does make a difference, though not nearly as much as it does for movies... I mean FFX wasn't that spectacular compared to 6 or 7 but sold far more copies than either... on the other hand before metal gear solid 2 (well maybe metal gear solid) how many people even knew there were others in the series? fact is this series dates back to the NES days there were two or three on the NES alone. and no amount of sequels helped them sell more till MGS2. all I was saying is that comparing the best selling games on two different platforms is perfectly valid comparison regardless of any history they may have.
as for the part about including all system when doing a comparison... well all systems aren't on the market right now, and I thought I was very clear that I was only taking the here and now into consideration... but if you want to then fine, in actuallility it's the PSX that has the most games but since you can play PSX games on the PS2 you could include all of them in the PS2 library plus all the PS2 games... well that gives the PS2 the most ever.
well there are lots of ways to determine which system is better, from a technical stand point yes the X-box is better. However from a game standpoint the PS2 has more good game than the x-box. which people prefer is of course up to the individual. now as for which looks best... well that depends greatly on the game (both from a technical and art stand point). MGS2 looks far better than anything I've seen on the X-box thus far, though the overall quality of the prettyness of games on the x-box would be much higher. For me though the overall quality of the games, and not their prettyness is what matters, and X-box doesn't have that many good games (alot suck actually). Additionally as for your HDTV bit, well there hasn't been a game released that I'm aware of that even supports HDTV (Yes the machine supports itself supports it, but if the games don't it' doesn't matter), not to mention you must be one of the like 1% of people that own an HDTV, since you are and if graphics are that important to you, then the X-box might be the way to go. broadband would be nice if microsoft ever get around to creating the network, but that's been put off several times, I do have some insider info on this, it's gonna be a while. besides MS' enormously generous prediction of only 10% of the people will actually go online, and that's based on how many people play PC games online, which is not the same demographic for a huge part. The controller... are you serious?? you should have never brought this up, multi-system support? hmm I think I'd like to hear more buzz-words please... and what other system does it support anyway? and surround sound is possible with the PS2 (if you have the patience to code it)... but X-box does a much better job of supporting this, it's essentially inherent to any game that uses direct sound for it's sound engine, and you'd be an idiot not to use it on an X-box.
you're right let the people buy whatever console they want, I won't complain, the only thing I miss by not having an X-box is DOA3, and that's not enough to make me buy it (doa2 and virtua fighter and enough for me). that's just my opinion about the games that are available for it, many of the guys at my office loved halo, I thought it was alright, certainly not the 'killer app' it was hyped to be though. Well if you like the X-box that's perfectly acceptable to me, frankly at the moment I don't think any of the consoles out there are that bad, and if you own an x-box all the better. You're just one more potential customer for the product I'm helping develop.
signed: an X-box developper;) xavier@nospam.digitalextremes.com feel free to e-mail me
"First, to refute your example, the Final Fantasy games are a best selling series that have been around for 15+ years. Halo is a single game with nowhere near that amount of history behind it."
So?? you're saying it's unfair to compare the best selling titles from two competing platforms?? that's rediculous, of course you can, the history of a game series isn't relevant when it comes to sales figures, you could compare how many where sold vs. how many consoles and get a percentage, that could be used for compariason, and essentaily eliminates the "history" part of it. It's still weak though, it's perfectly valid to compare two competing products.
"Second, to be honest it's pointless from either perspective to compare current PS2 and XBox sales. If they'd had anywhere near the same launch date it would be an entirely different story..."
People say this crap all the time, this is the most rediculous thing in the world... now if you want to compare the success of a console in retrospect, then this is the way to go... but doing it now... for a consumer wanting to buy one, this is pointless! I don't care if in a year from now the X-box may or may not have a better library at 2 then the PS2 did at 2. fact is when the X-box is 2 the PS2 will be 3 and have even more games. I want the one that gives me the most choice, and the best selection of good games. The fact that the PS2 is a year older IS an advantage and a very valid reason to choose it over the X-box, an extra year of games! Yes after two years X-box might have good games, but by then the PS2 will have 3 years worth of games, getting better every year. I don't give a crap if in 10 years someone does a comparison and says after 2 years on the market the PS2 had this, and the X-box had this... who cares?!?! I want the best games now, fact is PS2 has them, and will always have the year advantage. Anyone wanting to go now to buy a console can easily look at the library and see more PS2, and better PS2, that's what matters. In a year yeah the 2nd gen X-box titles will be out, and while you're buying those, I'll be buying my 3rd gen PS2 titles.
"Bottom line, if the world were perfect and people wanted to compare PS2 to XBox, they'd need to compare PS2's library and sales figures from last year to XBox's from this year. Unfortunately the economy and consumer preferences (along with everything else on this planet) are in a constant state of flux."
This is stupid point, yeah the market fluctuates, so what? you want to compare both completely independantly of several key variables! like release date, market conditions, disposable income... that's rediculous, you can't do any kind of reasonable analysis with so many variable ignored, besides a market analysis should compare the products in the current economy at their current state... yes the overall numbers will be higher if one has a significant head start, but so what... that's their advantage, and shouldn't be compared to the market today. Fact is there are tons more PS2's who cares why, there are more and more good PS2 games, again who cares why. The fact that there's more consoles attracts more developers and publishers (bigger market) thus more games, and thus more good quality games. So whose inerested in compariasons?? I want the console with the best games that I can buy now, and in the future, with more consoles in the market, that means more games, simple!
Yes they should! a warning isn't taking away anyone's rights, all it's doing is saying you shouldn't do something, and if you do we're not responsible for the consequences. You're whole homosexual reference is so rediculous, it's not even a warning, all it says is certain people can't shop there? what are warning them of? a better analogy would be "don't drink the drano" now according to you this deprives you of your legal right to drink drano... well no you can drink it (and when it comes do you, I recommend it). It's just saying bad stuff will happen if you do. By all means go ahead drink the drano, if you survive sue the crap out of them because you know you want to.
This society sickens me, nobody ever takes resposibility for anything, they can always blame someone for something and get away with it. My son killed several people at school and himself, wait I found these video games in his room, they must have made him do it! there's no way my son had any social or psychological problems after all I'm a good parent, and there was never any signs before this. Oh I slipped, fell and broke my leg for no apparent reason, it must be the city's fault! after all it's not my fault I can't walk. Oh I'm fat it must be all those fast food places chaing my ass to a pole in the back room and force feeding me greasy burgers. After all I'm not a gluttonous pig who doesn't get exercise and just sits around all day eating shit that would kill a horse. Fuck grow up and take some responsibility for your lives people!
I don't think an NDA would be enforcable on anything that's available in the public domain, whether it says "property of microsoft" in it or not is totally irrelevant. Also once something is public property how on earth can it be considered a trade secret, it's freely available to all, including the corporate competition?? NDA's work because the information is the property of whomever is requiring the NDA, it's not a lock on the information, it's an agreement not to disclose the IP that doesn't belong to you. Once it belongs to the public any and all NDA's with regard to that information would become useless, there is nothing illegal about giving public information to the public. The Originating company no longer owns the IP. Posession is 9 10ths of the law, once you don't own something you have no legal right to determine who can know about it.
sounds like you've been a manager? and people are as dumb as you think.
well that depends on what kind of manager we're talking about... if this person is your PHB and is always there regardless of what project you're working on then, he really shouldn't be "managing" the project, he should managing the people in his section... that means making sure the people working there are doing their job, staying on track, doing performance appraisals (and other manager bs), keeping track that mary has already taken 6 of her 10 vacation days. It also means that they should make sure that his/her employees are happy, their needs are met, their skills are being put to proper use and to keep the rest of the goings on that don't affect the section out of the section. A manager should worry more about the people he manages than the company that employs him/her.
now if that's a project manager, that's totally different, they're responsible for the project getting done on time and as wanted, problem is lots of companies think they're one and the same.
I think we should all send an e-mail to blizzard letting them know how we all feel about this sort of thing. various e-mails are available, support@blizzard.com sales@blizzard.com the probable marketing@blizzard.com and broper@blizzard.com or would it be bill.roper@blizzard.com or billroper@blizzard.com whatever we can all add an extra address on that 'to' line. Blizzard was a well liked successful game company, this is definitely proof of their corruption, it seems for our once loved blizzard nothing but the almighty dollar is all that is important, well I've got several they won't be getting... on any product of theirs. I own virtually every blizzard product they've released up this point (everything from war1 up to diablo2 exp.) but I guess that will be it, warcraft2 is to this day one of my favourite games why did you have to do this blizzard?
Well I work for a company that does expect some long hours out of me, frankly most companies are expecting it from their computer people, whether it's programmer, support, admin or whatever. This is becomming the norm in the corporate world these days, am I being exploited? I don't know, I guess I could come in at 9 leave at 5, and only think of my job as nothing more than a means to money so I can live, I hope I never get that cynical. Besides it just leads to a poor relationship between you and your work, my work is my passion. If you're work isn't yours do something else. The fact is people who are expected to work longer, and need to work longer (adding more people isn't necessarily the answer, something about chefs in the kitchen?!) are much more willing to work longer if their environment is comfortable and enjoyable. It also keeps people happy when they actually enjoy where they work, and yes being happy is key to having good employees. I have no problem working hard for a company that I feel appreciates my work, and goes out of their way to make me happy and comfortable in my work environment.
My old job was bad, and it became a 9 to 5 chore and I hated it (yes it's in the same industry, video games). So much so that I up and moved 500km for a new job. Here, I come when I want I leave when I want, there's a stack of game consoles, a pool table, and a stocked fridge. Fact is I'm here about 12 hours a day, it's 7pm and I'm still here. I enjoy it, we work here and we play here, I don't get hassled if I play a game 10 minutes after lunch is over, actually I can play whenever I want;) I know long hours are expected of me, and longer hours will be expected in the future, but I don't care... I like being here, my work is appreciated am I exploited? I don't think so... I get to do what I love, in an environment I enjoy. You need to watch Office Space!
Slashdot Mirror
NEVER!! this one of the fundamental flaws with IP in general. My experience is my own if I can't use my experience and knowledge at my job what good is it?? my resume may aswell be blank. Fact is I use my experience use the same methods to solve problems at my new job that I used at my old job, do I have to figure out a new way around the same problem everytime I switch jobs? should I be concerned that I'm possibly violating someone's IP everytime I write a line of code? I was hired to do the work I've got experience doing and that's what I'll do.
there are some fairly recent games that still have some processor dependant functions... warcraft2 (yes 2, t.w.o.) had processor depend map scrolling... go ahead load it up on your 2Ghz machine and watch that screen scroll!!!! the rest of the game is realtime though.
and I SHOULD be able to have a billion dollars tax free just for scratching my own ass!! well I haven't been diagnosed with manic depression, nor am I gothboy, and I've been out on my own for years. Fact is I have a great job that I love, I'm a programmer for a great game company, and I've made copromises to get here. I've had horrible jobs where I was exploited to no end, but needed for experience and such, and where I am now, I've sacrificed my own time (I work crazy long hours and weekends) but it's what I love to do, and TS for me cause I can't go in just 8 hours a day, and have weekends to myself, I'm expected to work long hours. You can't have your cake and eat it too, that's a fact of life. I said I don't agree with what happens to artists (funny it comes back to that reading thing), but that's the way the system works. I don't always like that a ton of my own time is spent at work. Yes their hard work lines the pockets of fat execs. (fact is just about everyone's does) but that is the nature of capitalism! it will change, it just takes time, till the next big system comes in to exploit the people. If you love doing something, or want it bad enough you make the compromises and the hard decisions to get it, don't start bitching when you knew the costs going in. Yes the system sucks, but it's what you're stuck with till enough people care enough to change it. I do care, I'd like to change, but it'll take time.
some people just don't read do they... he didn't say anything about avoiding the monopoly geez, he said you don't have to take the first offer!!!! you don't have to take the most expensive plan, you can take the cheaper one or go to the competition to see if there's a better option. god! besides if people truly want to share their music, they don't need a record contract at all! that's only necessary if you want to be a 'rock star.' Which is a WANT! you don't have to be a rock star, you can do tons of other crap to make a living! If you CHOOSE!! to be a rock star and the only way to do that is to sign away your rights well TS it's your CHOICE to do that to be a rock star!!
Now I don't agree with what happens to the artists, It's not fair, it should be different, they should have control over their creations, but that's not how it is! and for the life of me I can't feel bad for them, they make far more money than I ever will, get to travel around, have fame and popularity. would they have this if they didn't sign their contracts?
um... you don't read correctly, this really won't make much difference to mac gaming... All this does is make a 3d graphics programmer life a little easier. If he's making windows or mac games it's pretty irrelevent they both get easier, this isn't any incentive to start making a mac game instead of a windows (or whatever) one.
This is rediculous, memorizing the periodic table doesn't give you an understanding of it, nor does memorizing what a sine curve looks like. If you had a calculator since the first grade you wouldn't be able to do simple arithmatic, christ I know people today my own age (25) who can't figure out how much change they should get from a mcdonalds combo! Fact is sitting there punching numbers and having the answer fed to you doesn't teach you the process, and it doesn't make you any better at anything except pushing buttons. The only way to learn these things is to do these things. When you understand what the graph means or how a mathmatical process works, then using a calculator becomes a means to only aleviate yourself of the mundane task of actually calculating the answer by hand.
Unless you can figure some way to do this without their knowledge or without requiring them to do anything, or even not do anything, it will always depend on the users in some way. Tbe best case is if you automate the process over night or something like that, but then you've got to depend on users to not turn their computers off. If you want users to simply copy their stuff to the server somewhere, well then you're depending on them to do this regularly, and they won't! especially if they've had no backup procedure or policy before. The sysadmin is always in the crappiest of positions, you depend on the users to do their part but if they don't it's your resposibility to fix it. The easiest way would probably be to give everyone they're own directory on the server that their login script maps to, and constantly urge them to copy their important files to it then you've got control of the backup If you're real savvy you can have a script run daily that checks the newest file in each directory and if the newest file in there is more than X number of days old send out an automatic e-mail or something to that user urging them to back up. Also educating people on the importance and reasons for it, this should be easy in your case if they've lost so much data already. If people understand the reason, and it's easy for them to do, and are gently urged/reminded they will usually do what you ask. You'll still have people who won't do it though, be very aware of that!
You'd be amazed at how some corporate types just don't get how some things are just free... free seems like a simple enough concept right?! if you want it, it's yours, simple right... well I remember at one of my old jobs, there was some talk about using linux for some server stuff, and it was decided they'd use it. Well the manager said "alright go out and buy it", we told the manager, "hey it's free we can download and install it." but the manager wanted a paper trail. so we said "alright give use some paper we'll write up a report or whatever." "A receipt" the manager said, "but it's free?!?!" "I'll write up a receipt for you" said one of the guys. "Look just go to the store and buy it guys!" the manager said... so finally we went and we purchased a copy of redhat and the manager was happy that money was spent. some people really just don't get the whole "it's free" when it comes to business stuff.
now I'm not saying it's wrong to save a tv show, or cut out the comercials, I think those are totally legitamate uses. I also don't think it's wrong to share a tv show with others, but if your subscription agreement with the company to not alter the hardware, well then change it and lose your subscription. Also don't break the law or lose your subsciption, simple!
Most people probably also don't realize that they're probably trying to cover their own ass more than anything else, this agreement basically absolves them of any wrong doing in the even that people do break the law with it. Agreements aren't just to screw customers, you should probably read the agreement that comes with other things too, you might not wany any appliances in your house.
well this will probably get moded as a troll or flamebait by ignorant, selfish people but the original poster in this thread had a very valid point, I would think the open minded people would see that.
$7,907 (AU$14,000) for replacing blocked or compromised IP numbers, $2,683 (AU$4,750) for labor costs of technicians to establish an alternative e-mail system, $2,824 (AU$5,000) to purchase a new server computer and $11,296 (AU$20,000) for loss of income it claims to have incurred over a 20-day waiting period
hmm last I knew it didn't cost $8k to get a new ip?!?! technicians?!? for what changing an ip on a server, nevermind about buying a new server, and if their isp takes 20 days to issue a new ip, they should be sueing their isp! I've worked at a company that got blackballed for relaying mail way back when spammers just started bouncing mail around, once we discovered the problem it was literally, turn off relaying - 5 minutes(max), get new ip from isp - one phone call (about 10 minutes), reassign ip and reboot server - 10 minutes. This is a ton of horsecrap, nevermind the fact that they're stealling people's bandwidth for sending unsolicited unwanted e-mail, I pay for it and get your crap off of it!!
record companies(along with most replication and distribution businesses) are quickly becomming obsolete with everying being digital and the internet hard copies are becomming less and less necessary... especially when they're also becomming more of a pain in the ass to use (cd copy protection anyone). It also seem like many of these companies are now too big to change, and are just trying to keep the status quo with new legislation and technology well all their customers pay for it and will eventually get too pissed and not bother.
The 2nd and 3rd gen Xbox games will be the same as the first... the Xbox is not new tech therfore there is no learning curve associated with it. Developpers don't have to 'learn' this system they way they would with a PS2 or (to a lesser extent) GC. Xbox is a PC in a box essentially, since PC games have been around forever there won't be much difference between generations of games. Developpers know the inner workings and there isn't much new territory to discover here or tricks to figure out.
Regardless, MS's big advantage and the reason they're monopoly is so strong is that Windows is forced down your throat, you can't buy a new PC without it. If this stopped the MS monopoly would lose power. MS can't force a hard product down your throat, and competition would open up. I believe MS is testing the waters with Xbox and that they do want to control and take over some of the more mundane devices in our homes (VCR's DVD's etc.). The reason is simple, the PC market is drying up, that's probably also the reason their switch to a subscription plan for software. They're trying to use Xbox to work their way into the home entertainment market, since they can't sustain the growth that they've had recently in the PC market. The problem MS doesn't seem to see with this is that when it comes to these home devices consumers aren't exactly loyal to a brand name. I know I've got a Panasonic TV, a JVC VCR, a Sony stereo, etc. Even if people were to buy the MS top box, when it's obsolete they're not necessarily going to buy MS again... it's a totally different market that can't be leveraged the way MS does with their OS.
I don't think MS wants out of the PC/OS business it's their bread and butter and they own it. It would be the most rediculous move on their part to switch totally to their own devices, they would instantly make competitors out of their old partners. MS is like an arms dealer, all the OEM's and other company's that sell products with MS software are fighting a war, and MS is just selling munitions to both sides. They only stand to lose by declaring war on all of their customers.
Well that's an easy one Unreal Championship is probably going to be one of the flagship titles for MS's online service, and probably won't get ported anywhere, at least not soon.
I can't stand this god damn crap anymore!! why do corporate types insist on using stupid terms that aren't words, or not used in the correct context! what follows are a list of phrases and words that I'm sick of!!!
- Paradigm
- synergy
- making words into verbs that aren't verbs! (eg. 'task,' 'tasked' isn't a god damn word!!!!)
- pro-active
- mission statements (alright not really the same thing, but so damn useless!!)
- any women's lib terminology eg. herstory instead of history (please note I'm not sexist and this has nothing to do with my opinion of of this movement, the terminology just gets on my nerves)
- Action item
- bipolar
- Solution (when refering to software or hardware)
- Think outside the box
- outsourcing
- new economy
- re-purposing
I think you get the point...um buddy this did happen and it wasn't the mod chip, it's called Bleem! and was deemed perfectly legal by the courts. It was software that ran on a computer and played PSX games (essentially a commercial emulator)... I'm not sure about burns and imports though, but since it was running on PC hardware there probably wasn't much way for it to tell the difference, not sure though.
I really don't get why they're going after this so badly. I mean so many other companies have embraced the communities that come up around their games. They add tons of longevity to them, someone pointed out half-life which is a perfect example. People also still play quake and quake2 for god sake!! Why would they want to alienate their fans?? I guess blizzard is just another big company now, owned by an even bigger company, more concerned with the bottom line than actually caring about their products and customers. This sort of thing would never happen with an ID game I'm sure.
I can't possibly see how reverse engineering a protocol then writing an app to support that protocol is illegal. It's been stated that reverse engineering by packet sampling isn't illegal, so why is writing a program that supports it? I can understand the gripe that people are playing the war3 beta who shouldn't, but that's where my understanding of it ends. Blizzard and Vivendi are just pissed cause they're gonna lose ad revenue from b.net and the possibility of charging people for it in the future. Even if bentd did charge for it's software I still don't see how it would be illegal?
Having a 95 year long copyright is rediculous! 75 is also way way way too long, there is no way copyright is now intended to reward creativity, it's now used for control. There is no way for an actual person to benefit for the full 95 years!
anyone else notice that the recent change to 95 year long copyright from 75 years seems to be awful close to the 75th aniversary of disney??
The fact that anyone is trying to get away with raping every consumer in the world is reason enough to make this more common knowledge and make it "front and center."
You're a perfect example of the effects of propaganda, and blind patriotism. You think that just because your country does something that it's somehow justified and morally correct, you've got a very self centered and extreme nationalist attitude. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with being proud of who you are and where you're from, but just because you're from one place doesn't make you any better than anyone else. It also doesn't mean that everything your country does is right. The fact is if the US govt. kept their god damn noses out of everyone's business there wouldn't have been a sept. 11th attack and the US wouldn't be in a 'war' right now. Bush is a warmonging idiot of a president, since he's been in power it's been one international incident after another. US foreign policy has always been horrendous, The US set up and financed Bin Laden and the Taliban when they were fighting the russians. The US also financed Hussein during the Iran Iraq conflict. In both cases the US left them high and dry after the US's agenda was satisfied.
As for Isreal well that whole thing has been a mess since day one, you can't have a third party cut up a country and give part of it to someone else without problems... and quite frankly why is this any kind of important issue to the US? There are far worse problems in other countries, christ there have been 30 year revolutions happening in African countries that change political power and names faster than Rand McNally can print maps! Yet you don't hear a damn thing about them anywhere on any US channel. It would seem the US public doesn't care what happens there, so why should they care what happens in Isreal? The Palestinians have never been a threat to the US, they just want what they believe (and rightly so) is their land back, land that is holy to jews, christians and Islamics.
Fact is the US is not liked by the vast majority of the world, and with your swelled propaganda filled head, you'd probably think it's because everyone is jealous of 'the best country on earth' which is not the case, everyone is just sick of being dictated to by the US and have to suffer with US meddling. The US is only concerned with it's own interests and has no problems stepping on others to meet it's own ends.
as for the part about including all system when doing a comparison... well all systems aren't on the market right now, and I thought I was very clear that I was only taking the here and now into consideration... but if you want to then fine, in actuallility it's the PSX that has the most games but since you can play PSX games on the PS2 you could include all of them in the PS2 library plus all the PS2 games... well that gives the PS2 the most ever.
well there are lots of ways to determine which system is better, from a technical stand point yes the X-box is better. However from a game standpoint the PS2 has more good game than the x-box. which people prefer is of course up to the individual. now as for which looks best... well that depends greatly on the game (both from a technical and art stand point). MGS2 looks far better than anything I've seen on the X-box thus far, though the overall quality of the prettyness of games on the x-box would be much higher. For me though the overall quality of the games, and not their prettyness is what matters, and X-box doesn't have that many good games (alot suck actually). Additionally as for your HDTV bit, well there hasn't been a game released that I'm aware of that even supports HDTV (Yes the machine supports itself supports it, but if the games don't it' doesn't matter), not to mention you must be one of the like 1% of people that own an HDTV, since you are and if graphics are that important to you, then the X-box might be the way to go. broadband would be nice if microsoft ever get around to creating the network, but that's been put off several times, I do have some insider info on this, it's gonna be a while. besides MS' enormously generous prediction of only 10% of the people will actually go online, and that's based on how many people play PC games online, which is not the same demographic for a huge part. The controller... are you serious?? you should have never brought this up, multi-system support? hmm I think I'd like to hear more buzz-words please... and what other system does it support anyway? and surround sound is possible with the PS2 (if you have the patience to code it)... but X-box does a much better job of supporting this, it's essentially inherent to any game that uses direct sound for it's sound engine, and you'd be an idiot not to use it on an X-box.
you're right let the people buy whatever console they want, I won't complain, the only thing I miss by not having an X-box is DOA3, and that's not enough to make me buy it (doa2 and virtua fighter and enough for me). that's just my opinion about the games that are available for it, many of the guys at my office loved halo, I thought it was alright, certainly not the 'killer app' it was hyped to be though. Well if you like the X-box that's perfectly acceptable to me, frankly at the moment I don't think any of the consoles out there are that bad, and if you own an x-box all the better. You're just one more potential customer for the product I'm helping develop.
signed: an X-box developper ;) xavier@nospam.digitalextremes.com feel free to e-mail me
So?? you're saying it's unfair to compare the best selling titles from two competing platforms?? that's rediculous, of course you can, the history of a game series isn't relevant when it comes to sales figures, you could compare how many where sold vs. how many consoles and get a percentage, that could be used for compariason, and essentaily eliminates the "history" part of it. It's still weak though, it's perfectly valid to compare two competing products.
"Second, to be honest it's pointless from either perspective to compare current PS2 and XBox sales. If they'd had anywhere near the same launch date it would be an entirely different story..."
People say this crap all the time, this is the most rediculous thing in the world... now if you want to compare the success of a console in retrospect, then this is the way to go... but doing it now... for a consumer wanting to buy one, this is pointless! I don't care if in a year from now the X-box may or may not have a better library at 2 then the PS2 did at 2. fact is when the X-box is 2 the PS2 will be 3 and have even more games. I want the one that gives me the most choice, and the best selection of good games. The fact that the PS2 is a year older IS an advantage and a very valid reason to choose it over the X-box, an extra year of games! Yes after two years X-box might have good games, but by then the PS2 will have 3 years worth of games, getting better every year. I don't give a crap if in 10 years someone does a comparison and says after 2 years on the market the PS2 had this, and the X-box had this... who cares?!?! I want the best games now, fact is PS2 has them, and will always have the year advantage. Anyone wanting to go now to buy a console can easily look at the library and see more PS2, and better PS2, that's what matters. In a year yeah the 2nd gen X-box titles will be out, and while you're buying those, I'll be buying my 3rd gen PS2 titles.
"Bottom line, if the world were perfect and people wanted to compare PS2 to XBox, they'd need to compare PS2's library and sales figures from last year to XBox's from this year. Unfortunately the economy and consumer preferences (along with everything else on this planet) are in a constant state of flux."
This is stupid point, yeah the market fluctuates, so what? you want to compare both completely independantly of several key variables! like release date, market conditions, disposable income... that's rediculous, you can't do any kind of reasonable analysis with so many variable ignored, besides a market analysis should compare the products in the current economy at their current state... yes the overall numbers will be higher if one has a significant head start, but so what... that's their advantage, and shouldn't be compared to the market today. Fact is there are tons more PS2's who cares why, there are more and more good PS2 games, again who cares why. The fact that there's more consoles attracts more developers and publishers (bigger market) thus more games, and thus more good quality games. So whose inerested in compariasons?? I want the console with the best games that I can buy now, and in the future, with more consoles in the market, that means more games, simple!
This society sickens me, nobody ever takes resposibility for anything, they can always blame someone for something and get away with it. My son killed several people at school and himself, wait I found these video games in his room, they must have made him do it! there's no way my son had any social or psychological problems after all I'm a good parent, and there was never any signs before this. Oh I slipped, fell and broke my leg for no apparent reason, it must be the city's fault! after all it's not my fault I can't walk. Oh I'm fat it must be all those fast food places chaing my ass to a pole in the back room and force feeding me greasy burgers. After all I'm not a gluttonous pig who doesn't get exercise and just sits around all day eating shit that would kill a horse. Fuck grow up and take some responsibility for your lives people!
Can't someone else do it? The garbage man can!
I don't think an NDA would be enforcable on anything that's available in the public domain, whether it says "property of microsoft" in it or not is totally irrelevant. Also once something is public property how on earth can it be considered a trade secret, it's freely available to all, including the corporate competition?? NDA's work because the information is the property of whomever is requiring the NDA, it's not a lock on the information, it's an agreement not to disclose the IP that doesn't belong to you. Once it belongs to the public any and all NDA's with regard to that information would become useless, there is nothing illegal about giving public information to the public. The Originating company no longer owns the IP. Posession is 9 10ths of the law, once you don't own something you have no legal right to determine who can know about it.
now if that's a project manager, that's totally different, they're responsible for the project getting done on time and as wanted, problem is lots of companies think they're one and the same.
I think we should all send an e-mail to blizzard letting them know how we all feel about this sort of thing. various e-mails are available, support@blizzard.com sales@blizzard.com the probable marketing@blizzard.com and broper@blizzard.com or would it be bill.roper@blizzard.com or billroper@blizzard.com whatever we can all add an extra address on that 'to' line. Blizzard was a well liked successful game company, this is definitely proof of their corruption, it seems for our once loved blizzard nothing but the almighty dollar is all that is important, well I've got several they won't be getting... on any product of theirs. I own virtually every blizzard product they've released up this point (everything from war1 up to diablo2 exp.) but I guess that will be it, warcraft2 is to this day one of my favourite games why did you have to do this blizzard?
My old job was bad, and it became a 9 to 5 chore and I hated it (yes it's in the same industry, video games). So much so that I up and moved 500km for a new job. Here, I come when I want I leave when I want, there's a stack of game consoles, a pool table, and a stocked fridge. Fact is I'm here about 12 hours a day, it's 7pm and I'm still here. I enjoy it, we work here and we play here, I don't get hassled if I play a game 10 minutes after lunch is over, actually I can play whenever I want ;) I know long hours are expected of me, and longer hours will be expected in the future, but I don't care... I like being here, my work is appreciated am I exploited? I don't think so... I get to do what I love, in an environment I enjoy. You need to watch Office Space!