Goddamn, this sucks. Even if I hadn't sworn a boycott of all EA Games (which I have), Sega NFL 2K5 is a superior game IMHO. This has effectively killed it, I would guess. (Though I'd still buy it if you put out a version with "fake" teams... e.g., the Yello Bay Crammers, with Brent Farve at QB)...
The problem is neither unconcerned nor incompetent managers; the managers there knew *exactly* what was going on, and were complicit. In hindsight, they knew the only way to accomplish the schedule mandated was by burning people out, and they did it anyway.
OK, good point. It's true that it's anonymous, but I don't agree that it's vague.... especially in light of the now-huge amount of corroboration that has been posted. And while it's certainly true that the employee *could* be boinking his admin, it certainly isn't the most obvious explanation in light of everything...
I worked at EA Pacific (now part of EA LA) for 1.5 years as a lead programmer on Command & Conquer: Generals.
Those were, by far, the worst years of my professional life, and seriously damaged my mental health -- no joke. A year and a half later, I am still bitter.
EA expects outrageous working hours, on the order of 80-100 hour weeks, for months on end. If you desire to have absolutely, positively, no life whatsoever outside of work, and are willing to completely sacrifice your mental and physical health to be able to write games -- then by all means, go for it. (This is only partly a facetious comment, as I know people who are willing to make that sacrifice.)
Let's add to that the complete moral bankruptcy of the production staff. I was recruited there by a former friend (emphasis on former) to help revive the C&C franchise.... former versions had been fun, tongue-in-cheek wargames, but outrageous in many ways and clearly divorced from reality. The new version kind of stumbled around for a while... until shortly after Sept 11 2001, when suddenly the game shifted to be all about middle-eastern terrorism. The game was later promoted with the tagline, "Leaders in the modern world need to have a command of words... words like "Scud Missile", "Carpet Bombing", etc." (I asked m management who hired the sociopaths for our ad campaign, but somehow they didn't listen to me.) Oh, and then there was the mission in the game where your objective was to play the terrorist side, and use their anthrax-spewing tanks to kill 200 civilians (!). (This mission had to be cut at the last minute after the European offices rejected it as being certain to get a "Mature" rating. Yes, I had tried pointing out the... unsavory... nature of the mission months earlier.)
As soon as the product shipped, I quit, as did most of the development team. (That is, the ones who weren't fired for refusing to work 80-hour weeks, or for insisting on taking Christmas off. No, I am not making this up.) In hindsight, I should have quit much earlier; I only stayed on because I wanted my name in the credits, in case I wanted to work on other games in the future (thinking it would be good on my resume). The joke is on me, as there's really no way I ever want to work in that industy again.
While I was there, Fortune magazine listed EA as one of their top companies to work for. This was a particularly bad joke to everyone in our office, except that it wasn't very funny. When the CEO of EA sent an email to everyone in the company stating how proud he was of this, I forwarded it to my wife, who responded directly to him, stating that he should be ashamed, as she had hardly seen me for months, and the working conditions were abysmal. He (or more likely, one of his minions) responded that "sacrifices were necessary" to make great games. Sheez.
Shortly after I left EA, I happened to meet someone who has just started at EA-Maxis. I tried to diplomatically warn him that things could get unpleasant, but he reassured me that he knew what he was doing. One year later, he contacted me asking if my current employer was looking for help, as he had to quit -- similar conditions had destroyed his life (and cost him a girlfriend, as well).
Take this for what you will, but I cannot emphasize strongly enough: EA is, perhaps, an acceptable place for crazed workaholics in upper management... but for any other position in the company, no, no, no, no no.....
Writers use "caver" because it's the term that cavers use to refer to themselves. Using the term "spelunker" is a dead giveaway that you aren't a caver.
From http://www.umsl.edu/~joellaws/ozark_caving/cavesln g.htm
Spelunker - person who goes into caves without proper equipment or the desire to learn/practice proper safety/conservation techniques.
The difference between a Spelunker and a Caver is: Cavers rescue Spelunkers!
Yeah, NSS grottos (as local groups are called) are great places for geeks, and most tend to welcome newcomers. Check out the caves.org website he mentions to find a group near you.
Sounds funny, but it's not. As a caver in California, I frequently find that I have to spend longer to hike to get to a cave than I do in the cave itself.
Of course, California has a lot of fairly small caves, remotely placed. Other parts of the world have huge caves you can drive right up to...
The Hulk - For president? The Hulk doesn't give a flying fuck about anything but being left alone.
<comic-book-guy> Depends on which Hulk you mean. He's oscillated between being "Hulk Smash!" dumb and Bruce Banner intelligent over the years. The Hulk of Peter David's run would work, IMHO... </comic-book-guy>
We're spending $2 billion a day to continue the war.
If we were to rewind two years, imagine if we offered a $2 billion reward -- in gold, or currency of your choice -- for Hussein's head. No questions asked. Witness Relocation Program included.
Somehow I think we would have had a dripping head on Bush's desk within a few days.
I live in Alameda County, and no way in hell am I using those damn things. I have now registered as a Permanent Absentee Voter, and plan on doing so until I can have some assurance that whatever e-voting machines in use aren't riddled with bugs...
Actually, when programming in (new) languages without strong typing, you still never run into the issue that you have the wrong type for something.
Um, wrong. I guarantee that Python won't know how to auto-convert a String into a MyCustomClass object if I mistakenly pass the former where the latter is expected. With Java, C++, etc., I can set up constraints such that I know that it's the right type. With Python, all I can do is fail at runtime. Unit testing to ensure that such a situation *won't* ever happen is all well and good, but why not also ensure that it *can't* ever happen?
You should try it before buying it.
Be careful with your assumptions. I've programmed a wide gamut of languages, from strongly to weakly typed, including those under discussion here. In my 20+ years of coding experience, it's easier to write and maintain reliable code with strong typing.
There are thousands of developers that would disagree with your myopic viewpoint.
No need to get personal here. There are thousands who would agree with my "myopic" viewpoint as well.
Why waste time building an application that is going to be bullet proof - when you will only use it once or twice or for a clearly defined purpose?
I contend that these are not mutually exclusive. Static type checking is not a detriment to "quick and dirty" programs, and in fact, is even more helpful in such cases, because it's less likely that extensive testing will be done on them.
There's nothing "so-called" benefits of static typing. Mr. Eckel seems to have the attitude that strong testing is more important that strong typing, and thus the former more than makes up for the lack of the latter... but this is like saying that if a car has airbags, it doesn't need brakes, especially since it will make the driver that much more cautious.
Strong testing is great. I'm all in favor of it. But give me strong typing too... to borrow a phrase from a source I can't remember, proper use of strong typing will allow me to eliminate a huge subclass of errors at compiletime rather than runtime. I'd be foolish to ignore such a tool.
Slashdot Mirror
Goddamn, this sucks. Even if I hadn't sworn a boycott of all EA Games (which I have), Sega NFL 2K5 is a superior game IMHO. This has effectively killed it, I would guess. (Though I'd still buy it if you put out a version with "fake" teams... e.g., the Yello Bay Crammers, with Brent Farve at QB)...
I can think of 119 good reasons...
For those of us who are geeks but not linux users:
someone want to define (or at least provide a link) to wtf "sarge" is in this context?
Yes, I could google for it, but (1) I'm too lazy and (2) that's really the editor's job, isn't it?
Dang, used all my mod points. But he nailed it.
Those of on the west coast haven't seen this episode yet.
Those of us on the West Coast with TiVo won't see it for hours yet.
Thanks, I've been following this for months, now you spoil it.
Pinheads.
The problem is neither unconcerned nor incompetent managers; the managers there knew *exactly* what was going on, and were complicit. In hindsight, they knew the only way to accomplish the schedule mandated was by burning people out, and they did it anyway.
OK, good point. It's true that it's anonymous, but I don't agree that it's vague.... especially in light of the now-huge amount of corroboration that has been posted. And while it's certainly true that the employee *could* be boinking his admin, it certainly isn't the most obvious explanation in light of everything...
You're way off base here. Look at my comment. I'll stand behind it, and name names, if necessary.
...it's all true.
I worked at EA Pacific (now part of EA LA) for 1.5 years as a lead programmer on Command & Conquer: Generals.
Those were, by far, the worst years of my professional life, and seriously damaged my mental health -- no joke. A year and a half later, I am still bitter.
EA expects outrageous working hours, on the order of 80-100 hour weeks, for months on end. If you desire to have absolutely, positively, no life whatsoever outside of work, and are willing to completely sacrifice your mental and physical health to be able to write games -- then by all means, go for it. (This is only partly a facetious comment, as I know people who are willing to make that sacrifice.)
Let's add to that the complete moral bankruptcy of the production staff. I was recruited there by a former friend (emphasis on former) to help revive the C&C franchise.... former versions had been fun, tongue-in-cheek wargames, but outrageous in many ways and clearly divorced from reality. The new version kind of stumbled around for a while... until shortly after Sept 11 2001, when suddenly the game shifted to be all about middle-eastern terrorism. The game was later promoted with the tagline, "Leaders in the modern world need to have a command of words... words like "Scud Missile", "Carpet Bombing", etc." (I asked m management who hired the sociopaths for our ad campaign, but somehow they didn't listen to me.) Oh, and then there was the mission in the game where your objective was to play the terrorist side, and use their anthrax-spewing tanks to kill 200 civilians (!). (This mission had to be cut at the last minute after the European offices rejected it as being certain to get a "Mature" rating. Yes, I had tried pointing out the... unsavory... nature of the mission months earlier.)
As soon as the product shipped, I quit, as did most of the development team. (That is, the ones who weren't fired for refusing to work 80-hour weeks, or for insisting on taking Christmas off. No, I am not making this up.) In hindsight, I should have quit much earlier; I only stayed on because I wanted my name in the credits, in case I wanted to work on other games in the future (thinking it would be good on my resume). The joke is on me, as there's really no way I ever want to work in that industy again.
While I was there, Fortune magazine listed EA as one of their top companies to work for. This was a particularly bad joke to everyone in our office, except that it wasn't very funny. When the CEO of EA sent an email to everyone in the company stating how proud he was of this, I forwarded it to my wife, who responded directly to him, stating that he should be ashamed, as she had hardly seen me for months, and the working conditions were abysmal. He (or more likely, one of his minions) responded that "sacrifices were necessary" to make great games. Sheez.
Shortly after I left EA, I happened to meet someone who has just started at EA-Maxis. I tried to diplomatically warn him that things could get unpleasant, but he reassured me that he knew what he was doing. One year later, he contacted me asking if my current employer was looking for help, as he had to quit -- similar conditions had destroyed his life (and cost him a girlfriend, as well).
Take this for what you will, but I cannot emphasize strongly enough: EA is, perhaps, an acceptable place for crazed workaholics in upper management... but for any other position in the company, no, no, no, no no.....
Hey, I would have joined a union in a heartbeat when I was at EA. Wish someone had come calling. Union organizers, you are missing a big chance.
Writers use "caver" because it's the term that cavers use to refer to themselves. Using the term "spelunker" is a dead giveaway that you aren't a caver.
n g.htm
From http://www.umsl.edu/~joellaws/ozark_caving/cavesl
Spelunker - person who goes into caves without proper equipment or the desire to learn/practice proper safety/conservation techniques.
The difference between a Spelunker and a Caver is: Cavers rescue Spelunkers!
Yes, but the 1830 meters wasn't a single open room. Golondrinas has a single open room that large....
Nah, caving ("spelunking" to those of you who aren't cavers) is actually quite safe when done prudently.
Now, cave diving is just batshit-insane.
Wow, another NSS member on here.
Yeah, NSS grottos (as local groups are called) are great places for geeks, and most tend to welcome newcomers. Check out the caves.org website he mentions to find a group near you.
NSS#49562
Sounds funny, but it's not. As a caver in California, I frequently find that I have to spend longer to hike to get to a cave than I do in the cave itself.
Of course, California has a lot of fairly small caves, remotely placed. Other parts of the world have huge caves you can drive right up to...
<comic-book-guy>
Depends on which Hulk you mean. He's oscillated between being "Hulk Smash!" dumb and Bruce Banner intelligent over the years. The Hulk of Peter David's run would work, IMHO...
</comic-book-guy>
So what's your point?
We're spending $2 billion a day to continue the war.
If we were to rewind two years, imagine if we offered a $2 billion reward -- in gold, or currency of your choice -- for Hussein's head. No questions asked. Witness Relocation Program included.
Somehow I think we would have had a dripping head on Bush's desk within a few days.
Ya know, this is modded "funny", but it would be pretty interesting to see something like this in practice...
And so, in light of this new knowledge, possession of Bic pens must now also be illegal....
Look, PDF is all well and good for some purposes, but this document is NOT one of them!
Really: this is a nine-page, all-text document, using only one font, and a tad of bold and italic.
A plain text file would have been adequate, and HTML just dandy.
Better yet, it wouldn't have taken 30+ seconds to loadthe freaking PDF Reader just to see that.
I live in Alameda County, and no way in hell am I using those damn things. I have now registered as a Permanent Absentee Voter, and plan on doing so until I can have some assurance that whatever e-voting machines in use aren't riddled with bugs...
> you can add a 1 Gig SD card
Not nearly enough. My 20GB iPod is already too small. When I can get a 40+GB SD card, then we'll talk.
Um, wrong. I guarantee that Python won't know how to auto-convert a String into a MyCustomClass object if I mistakenly pass the former where the latter is expected. With Java, C++, etc., I can set up constraints such that I know that it's the right type. With Python, all I can do is fail at runtime. Unit testing to ensure that such a situation *won't* ever happen is all well and good, but why not also ensure that it *can't* ever happen?
You should try it before buying it.
Be careful with your assumptions. I've programmed a wide gamut of languages, from strongly to weakly typed, including those under discussion here. In my 20+ years of coding experience, it's easier to write and maintain reliable code with strong typing.
No need to get personal here. There are thousands who would agree with my "myopic" viewpoint as well.
Why waste time building an application that is going to be bullet proof - when you will only use it once or twice or for a clearly defined purpose?
I contend that these are not mutually exclusive. Static type checking is not a detriment to "quick and dirty" programs, and in fact, is even more helpful in such cases, because it's less likely that extensive testing will be done on them.
There's nothing "so-called" benefits of static typing. Mr. Eckel seems to have the attitude that strong testing is more important that strong typing, and thus the former more than makes up for the lack of the latter... but this is like saying that if a car has airbags, it doesn't need brakes, especially since it will make the driver that much more cautious.
Strong testing is great. I'm all in favor of it. But give me strong typing too... to borrow a phrase from a source I can't remember, proper use of strong typing will allow me to eliminate a huge subclass of errors at compiletime rather than runtime. I'd be foolish to ignore such a tool.