You'd have to be living under a rock not to have heard about this game in the first place. It's been a long time since they starting hyping it, and it's finally out. It should be no surprise that a franchise like that would make a lot of money initially.
I've been playing since Beta 3. Initially, I was most worried about the graphics performance of the game, seeing how bad it was near the end of Beta 3. I was pretty happy to see they seem to have cleared most of that up.
I've been playing for a week now (off and on...mostly off, since I have a real life), and initially I was pretty happy with it.
But right now, I'm sitting here wondering... "Well, what next"? I'm not sure how they're going to maintain people's interest in this game. I've made my way to the first tier of exp in the game, (one of initial professions you have to start with), and now I'm on my second tier.
Unlike Everquest, in which it was pretty clear what getting more experienced in something would get you, it's not all that clear in SWG.
They've always said that this was a game where you could "live Star Wars". Well, I can tell ya, it must be pretty damn boring most of the time down on Tatooine....
I've seen this set up twice, at the same place (it was a big place), by two different groups of people. Both seminar series ended with frustration.
My advice would be:
1) Don't make it an open-ended seminar series. By that I mean, don't say "We're doing them from now on". The reason I say this is that sooner or later you're going to run into a roadblock to where either you can't figure out a topic, or you won't have someone to do it, or both. If you're starting off, do about four topics, then end it. Then find out what people thought of it.
2) Come up with a list of topics that people can find out about well in advance. Nothing's worse than finding out that an interesting topic was coming up, and not being able to go because of other schedule conflicts.
3) Serve food/beverages. If you do this at lunch, order pizza for people.
Definately do #1 and #2, but don't underestimate the power of drawing people in with #3.
----------- Back to the real question:
1) Wireless (802.11x) 2) Setting up a PHP website (phpNuke, postNuke, etc) 3) RSS 4) XML
X Mosaic source was available, and free for non-commercial use. Windows Mosaic source wasn't generally available, and you had to jump through some hoops to get it.
Next they'll be saying the Decopauge is the 1970s technology revival of those potters from way back when.
This article is a biiiiiiig stretch; sounds like someone read an article about nano-tech somewhere and decided that just because they found some dust someplace it's related....geesh.
Inventions developed because of the space program, are (among others): sat dishes, barcoding, ear thermometers, vision screening, fire fighter equipment, invisible braces, advanced plastics, and more.
First, sorry for the swipe at the end of the posting. Shouldn't have added that.
And actually, I think we're both wrong. The lawsuit wasn't part of the original case (as I said), but it also wasn't Sun suing a second time (like you seem to be saying). The remedy was because of the Federal lawsuit brought by the states see here for a reference. Sun made the request for the injunction in May, 1998, and it was granted after the first lawsuit was settled after the first lawsuit was settled. Sun didn't initiate all this after the first one was settled. So we were both wrong. While, "strategic litigation" is a pretty stupid title to give a division of lawyers (and you have to think they thought that one up themselves), it wasn't what Sun was doing in this case, as you imply.
Java on the desktop and Java in the browser are two different (although related) issues. Java on the desktop was weakened by Microsoft's release of the incompatible Java, simply because of everything they did. The lower courts found that to be true.
However, I would lay the blame at Netscape's feet for giving people the bad impression about Java on the browser. It always ran incredibly badly. Hell, even HotJava ran applets better than Netscape ever did, at least until the plug-ins came along. That was the first impression that most people got of Java. Not through HotJava, but through Netscape. I still meet people to this day that complain about Java's speed, and when pressed is usually because of some dumb applet they tried to write back in the early days.
Microsoft's JVM did allow people to write applications, See here for a J++ guide which talks about it in Chapter 7.
The COM interfacing thing, if you'll also recall is something that Microsoft was saying way back then, they intended for DCOM to work across ALL platforms. Here's something that talks about that search for Macintosh. So, yes, I do think that Sun believed that people were eating what Microsoft was feeding them, and further, that by not telling people the special "features" they were adding to "improve" Java, if further locked them in.
You completely miss the point of the lower court ruling. Microsoft licensed Java. They didn't adhere to the contract they signed with Sun. This was part of the remedy of that lawsuit. It was thrown out today.
The "monopoly" refers to Microsoft. Geesh.
The "chilling reminder" is that, is you do ANY business with Microsoft, prepared to be screwed, with no legal recourse.
Just gotta love those Microsoft apologists.... Geesh.
Since the HP and Dell announcements, this is pretty much a moot point anyway.
The real problem of all this is that Microsoft has walked away from the whole "let's release an incompatible version of Java", with only a "don't do that" slap on the wrist. The monopoly remains intact, and unpunished.
This should be a chilling reminder to anyone that does ANYTHING with Microsoft. If they're gonna screw you, don't expect them to be punished for it, no matter what happens.
But the reason they were told to do this by the lower court was because of what Microsoft had tried to do with Java in the first place, which is splinter the market by shipping a version of Java that would only create programs that would only Windows systems.
I know this feeling. When I was much younger, I had a lot of company loyalty and was convinced that if I worked hard, I would be treated right. I watched layoff after layoff at two companies before i finally got caught up in one, and it was like a punch in the gut.
That was a giant wake-up call to look out for #1, because if you don't, all you'll get is #2.
Numbers 1 and 2 will be addressed by the threading libraries of Doug Lee's going into JDK 1.5. You can get a version of that download on his website. They're getting great performance numbers from this stuff, and that's across all platforms. I'm not saying that better locking and threading wouldn't help further this... I'm just saying the not only has Sun recognized this whole area is in need of help, but they're doing something about it. About damn time too.
On Number 3....well, what can I say. I'm getting great performance from my apps under RH 9.0 with JDK 1.4.2, and that's using Java 2D. That's using full frame video at native speed *and* Swing. Maybe other people are having problems, but if you know what you're doing (and I'm not saying you don't) you can get pretty damn good performance by not doing stupid things in code.
And just a point (really nothing to do with this discussion, but it fits since you brought up games), check out the JOGL stuff from java.net that Sun's working on. Amazingly great performance for OpenGL apps. They just have two demos up now, but the other demos they were showing at JavaOne were pretty damn nice.
Man, just as soon as SCO shoots itself in both feet during the past couple of weeks, it finds a third foot, and shoots that........oh wait... that's not a foot........ouch....
Java is certainly not failing to evolve. The generics package has been out for a couple of years and passed JCP (along with the other changes going into JDK 1.5), and that's evolution. Read that again...it's going through the JCP; it's not something Sun's doing solo.
What you're saying is that Microsoft tried to do; add crap into the language and still call it Java. Bzzzzt! Sorry, but that's the wrong answer.
That's like saying "I'll change the GCC to accept these bitchin new keywords I added", and trying to foist it off onto the community as if it's C or C++. Just because you make changes to it, doesn't make it the real deal.
Having an open source version of java would enable Red Hat to ship "ready to run" web application servers to enterprise customers.
Wouldn't take an OS version of Java to do that. All it would take would be for Sun to allow Red Hat to distribute their current Java release for Linux.
The key thing is, whether or not Red Hat would have to pay for it. That's the real bottom line here.
Sun should let them do that distro, and not charge 'em. I have a feeling that's not what's going down though, and Red Hat balked enough to declare it wants to do an OS version.
C# isn't poised to sky rocket as much as you think.
Think about this: I recently talked to a publisher at a tradeshow. He told me that there were getting to be more C# books than Java books. Only problem is, *they're not moving*. Java books are still in demand, and they're looking for more. Not so with C#.
Don't know about #1 or #2, but I'd be interested in hearing what those are and how they'd improve the Linux apps you're running.
I have to say that #3 is completely wrong though...
I run high speed 2D graphics through their code under Linux, and it runs like a bat outta hell, even under 1.4.1. I expect further improvements when I go to 1.4.2, considering all the performance enhancements I've seen. You can't even tell it's not native code running, because it runs that well. I'm not talking little blips here and there, I'm talking up to full frame changes and the whole bit.
As for #4, sound works great for me under Linux, so I'm not sure what the beef is there.
Only thing I can think of is that you're getting your code from Blackdown still and not direct from Sun.
Stagnation on the desktop maybe, but the J2ME and J2EE stuff has been humming right along. They made a big point about getting J2SE humming along at the last JavaOne, and you're right...the DELL and HP announcement is just one part of that.
Ok on the first two points, but complete FUD on the last one. It shows a complete lack of understanding of how Java was created, why some of the design decisions were made. If you don't like Java, fine, program in whatever the hell language you want.
Don't blame your bias on the language design, especially when you don't name anything to back it up.
What's the "much more modern approach to networked programming than Java?"
And don't say.NET, because that blows your whole argument.
Slashdot Mirror
You folks must not be reading the same gaming magazines I do, because I've seen ads for this game, and "previews" for nearly a year now.
You'd have to be living under a rock not to have heard about this game in the first place. It's been a long time since they starting hyping it, and it's finally out. It should be no surprise that a franchise like that would make a lot of money initially.
I've been playing since Beta 3. Initially, I was most worried about the graphics performance of the game, seeing how bad it was near the end of Beta 3. I was pretty happy to see they seem to have cleared most of that up.
I've been playing for a week now (off and on...mostly off, since I have a real life), and initially I was pretty happy with it.
But right now, I'm sitting here wondering... "Well, what next"? I'm not sure how they're going to maintain people's interest in this game. I've made my way to the first tier of exp in the game, (one of initial professions you have to start with), and now I'm on my second tier.
Unlike Everquest, in which it was pretty clear what getting more experienced in something would get you, it's not all that clear in SWG.
They've always said that this was a game where you could "live Star Wars". Well, I can tell ya, it must be pretty damn boring most of the time down on Tatooine....
I've seen this set up twice, at the same place (it was a big place), by two different groups of people. Both seminar series ended with frustration.
My advice would be:
1) Don't make it an open-ended seminar series. By that I mean, don't say "We're doing them from now on". The reason I say this is that sooner or later you're going to run into a roadblock to where either you can't figure out a topic, or you won't have someone to do it, or both. If you're starting off, do about four topics, then end it. Then find out what people thought of it.
2) Come up with a list of topics that people can find out about well in advance. Nothing's worse than finding out that an interesting topic was coming up, and not being able to go because of other schedule conflicts.
3) Serve food/beverages. If you do this at lunch, order pizza for people.
Definately do #1 and #2, but don't underestimate the power of drawing people in with #3.
-----------
Back to the real question:
1) Wireless (802.11x)
2) Setting up a PHP website (phpNuke, postNuke, etc)
3) RSS
4) XML
X Mosaic source was available, and free for non-commercial use. Windows Mosaic source wasn't generally available, and you had to jump through some hoops to get it.
Next they'll be saying the Decopauge is the 1970s technology revival of those potters from way back when.
This article is a biiiiiiig stretch; sounds like someone read an article about nano-tech somewhere and decided that just because they found some dust someplace it's related....geesh.
Inventions developed because of the space program, are (among others): sat dishes, barcoding, ear thermometers, vision screening, fire fighter equipment, invisible braces, advanced plastics, and more.
And actually, I think we're both wrong. The lawsuit wasn't part of the original case (as I said), but it also wasn't Sun suing a second time (like you seem to be saying). The remedy was because of the Federal lawsuit brought by the states see here for a reference. Sun made the request for the injunction in May, 1998, and it was granted after the first lawsuit was settled after the first lawsuit was settled. Sun didn't initiate all this after the first one was settled. So we were both wrong. While, "strategic litigation" is a pretty stupid title to give a division of lawyers (and you have to think they thought that one up themselves), it wasn't what Sun was doing in this case, as you imply.
Java on the desktop and Java in the browser are two different (although related) issues. Java on the desktop was weakened by Microsoft's release of the incompatible Java, simply because of everything they did. The lower courts found that to be true.
However, I would lay the blame at Netscape's feet for giving people the bad impression about Java on the browser. It always ran incredibly badly. Hell, even HotJava ran applets better than Netscape ever did, at least until the plug-ins came along. That was the first impression that most people got of Java. Not through HotJava, but through Netscape. I still meet people to this day that complain about Java's speed, and when pressed is usually because of some dumb applet they tried to write back in the early days.
Microsoft's JVM did allow people to write applications, See here for a J++ guide which talks about it in Chapter 7.
The COM interfacing thing, if you'll also recall is something that Microsoft was saying way back then, they intended for DCOM to work across ALL platforms. Here's something that talks about that search for Macintosh. So, yes, I do think that Sun believed that people were eating what Microsoft was feeding them, and further, that by not telling people the special "features" they were adding to "improve" Java, if further locked them in.
You completely miss the point of the lower court ruling. Microsoft licensed Java. They didn't adhere to the contract they signed with Sun. This was part of the remedy of that lawsuit. It was thrown out today.
The "monopoly" refers to Microsoft. Geesh.
The "chilling reminder" is that, is you do ANY business with Microsoft, prepared to be screwed, with no legal recourse.
Just gotta love those Microsoft apologists.... Geesh.
But that's what the lower court did!
At the time this was going on, Microsoft was still distributing their version. The courts response was, ship the compatible one instead.
The damage already done, Microsoft said "well, we won't ship any at all".
Fortunately, Dell and HP have already picked up the ball and will be distributing it anyway.
Since the HP and Dell announcements, this is pretty much a moot point anyway.
The real problem of all this is that Microsoft has walked away from the whole "let's release an incompatible version of Java", with only a "don't do that" slap on the wrist. The monopoly remains intact, and unpunished.
This should be a chilling reminder to anyone that does ANYTHING with Microsoft. If they're gonna screw you, don't expect them to be punished for it, no matter what happens.
Taken alone, that's true...however...
But the reason they were told to do this by the lower court was because of what Microsoft had tried to do with Java in the first place, which is splinter the market by shipping a version of Java that would only create programs that would only Windows systems.
Everquest Legends, their "premium service" is $39.95 a month.
I know this feeling. When I was much younger, I had a lot of company loyalty and was convinced that if I worked hard, I would be treated right. I watched layoff after layoff at two companies before i finally got caught up in one, and it was like a punch in the gut.
That was a giant wake-up call to look out for #1, because if you don't, all you'll get is #2.
Numbers 1 and 2 will be addressed by the threading libraries of Doug Lee's going into JDK 1.5. You can get a version of that download on his website.
They're getting great performance numbers from this stuff, and that's across all platforms. I'm not saying that better locking and threading wouldn't help further this... I'm just saying the not only has Sun recognized this whole area is in need of help, but they're doing something about it. About damn time too.
On Number 3....well, what can I say. I'm getting great performance from my apps under RH 9.0 with JDK 1.4.2, and that's using Java 2D. That's using full frame video at native speed *and* Swing. Maybe other people are having problems, but if you know what you're doing (and I'm not saying you don't) you can get pretty damn good performance by not doing stupid things in code.
And just a point (really nothing to do with this discussion, but it fits since you brought up games), check out the JOGL stuff from java.net that Sun's working on. Amazingly great performance for OpenGL apps. They just have two demos up now, but the other demos they were showing at JavaOne were pretty damn nice.
I'll check out ALSA...thanks for the tip!
If that's the best you can come up with...you're right! I did! =)
Man, just as soon as SCO shoots itself in both feet during the past couple of weeks, it finds a third foot, and shoots that.... ....oh wait... that's not a foot.... ....ouch....
No, it's called non-conformance to the standard.
Java is certainly not failing to evolve. The generics package has been out for a couple of years and passed JCP (along with the other changes going into JDK 1.5), and that's evolution. Read that again...it's going through the JCP; it's not something Sun's doing solo.
What you're saying is that Microsoft tried to do; add crap into the language and still call it Java. Bzzzzt! Sorry, but that's the wrong answer.
That's like saying "I'll change the GCC to accept these bitchin new keywords I added", and trying to foist it off onto the community as if it's C or C++. Just because you make changes to it, doesn't make it the real deal.
How much can you, as an individual participate in ISO standards? Not at all...dude.
Pure FUD, and spoken like someone who hasn't tried participating in it.
You'll have a helluva lot more influence actively participating in a JCP project then you EVER will in .NET or anything else like this (like WWW, etc).
As for whether or not we can rely on Java: WE can. If YOU can't, that's up to you. The rest of us that are doing real work with it are happy to do so.
Wouldn't take an OS version of Java to do that. All it would take would be for Sun to allow Red Hat to distribute their current Java release for Linux.
The key thing is, whether or not Red Hat would have to pay for it. That's the real bottom line here.
Sun should let them do that distro, and not charge 'em. I have a feeling that's not what's going down though, and Red Hat balked enough to declare it wants to do an OS version.
Whether or not it happens, remains to be seen.
C# isn't poised to sky rocket as much as you think.
Think about this: I recently talked to a publisher at a tradeshow. He told me that there were getting to be more C# books than Java books. Only problem is, *they're not moving*. Java books are still in demand, and they're looking for more. Not so with C#.
That's not a good sign for C#.
Don't know about #1 or #2, but I'd be interested in hearing what those are and how they'd improve the Linux apps you're running.
I have to say that #3 is completely wrong though...
I run high speed 2D graphics through their code under Linux, and it runs like a bat outta hell, even under 1.4.1. I expect further improvements when I go to 1.4.2, considering all the performance enhancements I've seen. You can't even tell it's not native code running, because it runs that well. I'm not talking little blips here and there, I'm talking up to full frame changes and the whole bit.
As for #4, sound works great for me under Linux, so I'm not sure what the beef is there.
Only thing I can think of is that you're getting your code from Blackdown still and not direct from Sun.
Stagnation on the desktop maybe, but the J2ME and J2EE stuff has been humming right along. They made a big point about getting J2SE humming along at the last JavaOne, and you're right...the DELL and HP announcement is just one part of that.
Ok on the first two points, but complete FUD on the last one. It shows a complete lack of understanding of how Java was created, why some of the design decisions were made. If you don't like Java, fine, program in whatever the hell language you want.
.NET, because that blows your whole argument.
Don't blame your bias on the language design, especially when you don't name anything to back it up.
What's the "much more modern approach to networked programming than Java?"
And don't say