4 years ago, I (Mechanical Engineer, major in Design Engineering) was involved in a bigger software project: Building a modular simulation system for vehicles, based on a database and a Multi-body code with output to Excel and lots of fancy stuff in between to make it all work.
Since the customers and users were the people from our Design Dept, i.e. Engineers, I asumed that they would have thought through all the specs and that we basically just had to start. Big mistake! Being good and great Design Engineers in the mechanical and electrical domain, regarding software they were as clueless as any Marketing Drone. Whenever we tried to extract specifications, all we got was "make it work like that old APL code we have, but better and more modern and let is calculate/simulate more correct results". Aaaarrrrggggghhh... Unnecessarily to mention, that only very few actually knew how the old system worked and under what assumptions it was built.
Well, we boxed our way through and today I am the only person in the company that has the total insight (the other 2 left). Unfortunately, we were never given time to properly document the system (of course the code itself is quite well documented but there is more to do than just that). In my naïvité I thought that the Design Dept with their fixation on drawings and Supplier Specs and Purchase Reservations and Engineering Change Notices should understand the value of proper documentation...
A reflection I can now make: Hiring us Design Engineers to make the work instead of professional Software Engineers was probably the only way for the company to get the job done within reasonable time & budget. Non-existent specs, poorly understood assumptions for certain calculations - what a nightmare for any professional software developer!
Don't confuse font type with the way the font is displayed. Linus is not very good at displaying the fonts, unfortunately. Anti-aliasing is far off the Windows standard.
However, even the best font would be affected that way. So, getting professional help with designing new fonts for Linux is great news. Just read this story and attached comments again, in case you do not agree at once.
Technology and media companies, such as Microsoft, Sony, Philips and Real Networks, are looking to build a business out of securing copyright protections across the Internet and other digital media.
Micrososft has discussed plans for an upcoming operating system, code-named "Palladium," that will seek to put user controls on all bits of information they store on a computer document, from medical records to billing information.
Yes, I think we are able to do something like this. The question is whether this will ever be a big hit outside the geek scene.
Free Software/Open Source is one thing: You program once, have fun, and then release the compiled files together with the source. Of which the latter will be gladly ignored by the masses. But that's OK. They use the compiled version and are happy. And you are happy that your program is being used. That you also share the compiled version doesn't add extra cost for you because it's digital stuff that can be copied effortlessly.
But with hardware it's a different game, IMO. Even if you offer the schematics for such a multimedia all-purpose entertainment thing, someone still has to compile... ehh build it. This time it's physical so easy copying is not possible (unless you have access to a replicator somewhere). So, who is going to do this? People won't be willing to assemble stuff for themselves. Heck, even *I* used to do more myself when I was younger (and had more time and enthusiasm). Nowadays I buy quite a lot... But maybe it's the chance for some garage company to just build the stuff based on open sourced layouts? Hmmm... Not sure that this will work either. What about distribution channels? One reason why Free Software/OSS has been so successful is that almost everybody has access to the Internet somehow and if a person knows the right address, he/she can download all that is needed. So, the distribution is more or less just a matter of getting people to know where to look. Physical things however have to be shipped, to be physically delivered by any means. And people will want to have a look at them in some kind of shop before they are going to buy them. (The gateway business model)
So the bottomline of my reasoning is, that I am quite sceptical whether it will be a big success. But it could be a reasonable (moral) succes within the geek community, so why not try? Just don't expect to see the equivalent of RedHat or SuSE anytime soon.
Sorry to disappoint you but to me it seems like an absolute impossible task to write an emulator for demos.
We are not talking about more or less nicely compiled programs, this is weird assembler stuff using all possible coding tricks. Like uploading MOD-file samples into the memory of the soundcard (had to be a Gravis UltraSound) and letting the GUS playing the song on it's own, thus freeing the CPU from that task. Or using a fraction of the GUS-memory as RAM-disk for faster loading (1MB memory preferred). Or tweaking the VGA card for GFX tricks like in "2nd Reality" or...
If you were active with assembler on the C64, then think of IRQ, raster time and all that and double the effort. I am still impressed and can't wait to get my hands on the DVD.
Actually, I think I will fetch my 386-40 from the basement, mount the GUS back in and run some demos. Right now. Oh yeah...
Well, I see your point and have to admit that it seems to be valid... unless one is a cynic (like me) and assumes that things in the short term only get more expensive, they never get cheaper. What Apple most likely would do is to sustain the price as it is now (but without the software) and sell the iApps for some additional bucks.
Yes, some of you pointed out that right now only the *updates* are mentioned. I am not sure that Apple will not in some near future exclude all iApps and sell them seperately. Think ".mac". But hey, I'm a PC-luser who has SuSE 8.1 only as secondary OS and only played around with some freind's "fruit machines". What the hell do I know...?;-)
No man, I can't agree. Several of my friends bought Macs/iMacs because they are easy to use, no driver mess but ALSO because with the iMacs you get "everything" you need right from the start. Calculating this into the somewhat stiff original price, they decided to go for Apple. Now this company is doing an "180 degree" (as they already did with.Mac last year). Stupid, IMHO...
The **AA doesn't give a damn what the general public thinks--this is all PR for bought-and-paid-for politicians. The lobbyists will show up, wave around these silly statistics, flash some money and boom! suddenly there will be more laws/levies/taxes on recordable media faster than you can type 'cdrecord'
Hmm... Now let's try this: *clickety-click*
c-d-r-c-^H-e-c-o... d'oh!
To ban cheaters more easily is the only reason why I would accept that model. I play online quite regularily and am always pissed by that folks who just found some new cheater kit and now try it out with an alt character. Which might be banned by the company running the show, but the actual account wil almost never be terminated. The reasoning is always "Who knows, it might be a whole family playing here...". But one of this rotten family has just ruined the game for a lot of others, for christ's sake! So, if in SWG they would charge us an entry fee, than the just banned cheater had to open a new account and pay once again. At least a certain punishment...
Yeah, baby! I was going to write something about collecting all the cool DarkForces MODs (which I still have on a couple of 3.5" disks somewhere)... and I really hope they will do this. But then I discovered a link to this site: http://darkforces.jediknightii.net. This is almost too cool to be true. Hope, they will do a great job. And why not re-creating DFII / Jedi Knight as a MOD for Jedi Knight II? The graphics of DFII/JK really sucked. Guess, it was too early for using real 3D, back then. But now... Hmmmm, storm troopers...
My style used to be to rely upon my wife for tracking every bit of important info.
Well, if it works for you. I am not so lucky as having a wife that works with the same company, at the same department and that has time to bear the things in her mind, that mine isn't capable of remembering. For me it's not a question of style, but of practicality. The point is, some people don't like to be organized and others do.. I guess, every boss requires you to be organized. What works for 95% of the world may not work for you which is why we have options. I agree. Not having one of these big-brain, all-remembering wives, I chose the next best thing, a PDA. (No, I have not proposed to it. Yet.)
I think, it all comes down to what you are do for a living. Having a PDA just for playing games is certainly not the right reason. First step is to store lots of telephone numbers, sort them, categorize them, etc. A big leap forward then is to replace your calendar. Having been a project leader at occasion, the one and only thing that I ever needed and ever had with me was my trusty Palm V. I synchronized it with Outlook and never got too late (or nbot at all) to any meeting.
Next step was to have serveral version of our project time schedule in the PDA and synchronize it with MS Project.
I could go on forever, it seems. The bottom line is, that I have owned my Palm V for 3 years now and not one single day I regretted the money I spent. It's not only a cool thing, but really really useful. And helps me being effective at my job.
Cool. What I really want to have is a distributed solver for dynamic simulations. But a dream scenario would be to do the setup, pre- and postprocessing in any simulation program (like ADAMS, LMS or even block-scheme based like EASY5 or AMESIM or good old Simulink). For the solving part, however, I'd like to just export the equation sets (implicit or explicit) and let a distributed solver take care of this. As I understand, it could be possible to use the Mathematica solver as it exists today. Maybe not very efficiently though, but this could be compensated by quantity. I would love to install such baby in our company...
Silmarillion is the only book I've ever quit in the middle of...
Man, you reliefe me of great pain. I actually thought that something inside my head must be wrong, since I could never get past the first few chapters of Silmarillion. And I love & adore Lord of the Rings as the book that made the biggest impression on me, ever.
To get back to the new Dune novels: They are OK. Not great, but certainly worth a read. However, I am more looking forward to the 7th part of Dune, since I read somewhere that half of the book had already been completed by Frank Herbert. Or at least important and detailed sketches. I really hope that Dune will not be blown up to inflationary many preludes and sequels, but looking at the official timeline, it might just be the case...
Yes, I know that others have already pointed to this but it seemed not to have been come trough. New try: At www.dunenovels.com you can download a free short story which takes place before The Butlerian Jihad. It includes no spoilers whatsoever and can be read at any time, since it is not tightly connected to the main book.
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4 years ago, I (Mechanical Engineer, major in Design Engineering) was involved in a bigger software project: Building a modular simulation system for vehicles, based on a database and a Multi-body code with output to Excel and lots of fancy stuff in between to make it all work. Since the customers and users were the people from our Design Dept, i.e. Engineers, I asumed that they would have thought through all the specs and that we basically just had to start.
Big mistake! Being good and great Design Engineers in the mechanical and electrical domain, regarding software they were as clueless as any Marketing Drone. Whenever we tried to extract specifications, all we got was "make it work like that old APL code we have, but better and more modern and let is calculate/simulate more correct results". Aaaarrrrggggghhh...
Unnecessarily to mention, that only very few actually knew how the old system worked and under what assumptions it was built.
Well, we boxed our way through and today I am the only person in the company that has the total insight (the other 2 left). Unfortunately, we were never given time to properly document the system (of course the code itself is quite well documented but there is more to do than just that). In my naïvité I thought that the Design Dept with their fixation on drawings and Supplier Specs and Purchase Reservations and Engineering Change Notices should understand the value of proper documentation...
A reflection I can now make: Hiring us Design Engineers to make the work instead of professional Software Engineers was probably the only way for the company to get the job done within reasonable time & budget. Non-existent specs, poorly understood assumptions for certain calculations - what a nightmare for any professional software developer!
a robotic vacuum using infrared sensors
;-)
Wow, you mean something like a killer cloud (only inverted)? No wonder that your spook lab was being held so secret!
Someone get the company e-mail address and send them Chapter 11 paperwork now.
;-)
Never heard about the Paperless Office? Here you go: http://www.uscourts.gov/bankform/
Linus is not very good at displaying the fonts, unfortunately.
;-)
On the other hand, Bill isn't too good at this, either.
(Just making fun of my own typo.)
Don't confuse font type with the way the font is displayed. Linus is not very good at displaying the fonts, unfortunately. Anti-aliasing is far off the Windows standard. However, even the best font would be affected that way. So, getting professional help with designing new fonts for Linux is great news. Just read this story and attached comments again, in case you do not agree at once.
Technology and media companies, such as Microsoft, Sony, Philips and Real Networks, are looking to build a business out of securing copyright protections across the Internet and other digital media.
Micrososft has discussed plans for an upcoming operating system, code-named "Palladium," that will seek to put user controls on all bits of information they store on a computer document, from medical records to billing information.
Interesting, while M$ is still denying any connection of DRM and Palladium, their own joint venture MSNBC is making the connection lightheartedly... Maybe they bypassed their marketing drones and read the truth on the net...
Yes, I think we are able to do something like this. The question is whether this will ever be a big hit outside the geek scene.
Free Software/Open Source is one thing: You program once, have fun, and then release the compiled files together with the source. Of which the latter will be gladly ignored by the masses. But that's OK. They use the compiled version and are happy. And you are happy that your program is being used. That you also share the compiled version doesn't add extra cost for you because it's digital stuff that can be copied effortlessly.
But with hardware it's a different game, IMO. Even if you offer the schematics for such a multimedia all-purpose entertainment thing, someone still has to compile... ehh build it. This time it's physical so easy copying is not possible (unless you have access to a replicator somewhere). So, who is going to do this? People won't be willing to assemble stuff for themselves. Heck, even *I* used to do more myself when I was younger (and had more time and enthusiasm). Nowadays I buy quite a lot...
But maybe it's the chance for some garage company to just build the stuff based on open sourced layouts? Hmmm... Not sure that this will work either. What about distribution channels? One reason why Free Software/OSS has been so successful is that almost everybody has access to the Internet somehow and if a person knows the right address, he/she can download all that is needed. So, the distribution is more or less just a matter of getting people to know where to look. Physical things however have to be shipped, to be physically delivered by any means. And people will want to have a look at them in some kind of shop before they are going to buy them. (The gateway business model)
So the bottomline of my reasoning is, that I am quite sceptical whether it will be a big success. But it could be a reasonable (moral) succes within the geek community, so why not try? Just don't expect to see the equivalent of RedHat or SuSE anytime soon.
Sorry to disappoint you but to me it seems like an absolute impossible task to write an emulator for demos.
We are not talking about more or less nicely compiled programs, this is weird assembler stuff using all possible coding tricks. Like uploading MOD-file samples into the memory of the soundcard (had to be a Gravis UltraSound) and letting the GUS playing the song on it's own, thus freeing the CPU from that task. Or using a fraction of the GUS-memory as RAM-disk for faster loading (1MB memory preferred). Or tweaking the VGA card for GFX tricks like in "2nd Reality" or...
If you were active with assembler on the C64, then think of IRQ, raster time and all that and double the effort. I am still impressed and can't wait to get my hands on the DVD.
Actually, I think I will fetch my 386-40 from the basement, mount the GUS back in and run some demos. Right now. Oh yeah...
Sorry, but I tried some variants:
Nick Cave -- where is Einstürzende Neubauten?
Sisters of Mercy -- where is The Mission?
Ebba Grön -- where are all the other projects of Joakim Thåström??
Naa... nice try, but....
Sounds like somebody is making a commission off of new subscriptions to "Science".
Yeah, but since I've had no occasion for brain-growing activities lately, a subscription to "Science" would be a waste of my money...
Well, I see your point and have to admit that it seems to be valid... unless one is a cynic (like me) and assumes that things in the short term only get more expensive, they never get cheaper. What Apple most likely would do is to sustain the price as it is now (but without the software) and sell the iApps for some additional bucks. ;-)
Yes, some of you pointed out that right now only the *updates* are mentioned. I am not sure that Apple will not in some near future exclude all iApps and sell them seperately. Think ".mac".
But hey, I'm a PC-luser who has SuSE 8.1 only as secondary OS and only played around with some freind's "fruit machines". What the hell do I know...?
No man, I can't agree. Several of my friends bought Macs/iMacs because they are easy to use, no driver mess but ALSO because with the iMacs you get "everything" you need right from the start. Calculating this into the somewhat stiff original price, they decided to go for Apple. Now this company is doing an "180 degree" (as they already did with .Mac last year). Stupid, IMHO...
Na, I think the calculation got messed up by using fuzzy numbers...Speaking of it, I feel a litte fuzzy myself...
And in related news:
"Scientist don't re-calculate the numbers they cite"
"156 fast CD-burners are equivalent to 421 normal ones"
The **AA doesn't give a damn what the general public thinks--this is all PR for bought-and-paid-for politicians. The lobbyists will show up, wave around these silly statistics, flash some money and boom! suddenly there will be more laws/levies/taxes on recordable media faster than you can type 'cdrecord'
Hmm... Now let's try this: *clickety-click* c-d-r-c-^H-e-c-o... d'oh!
Oh, and I read "Beowulf Cluster"... Lucky you, I was ready to fire up a Troll-mod... ;-)
To ban cheaters more easily is the only reason why I would accept that model. I play online quite regularily and am always pissed by that folks who just found some new cheater kit and now try it out with an alt character. Which might be banned by the company running the show, but the actual account wil almost never be terminated. The reasoning is always "Who knows, it might be a whole family playing here...". But one of this rotten family has just ruined the game for a lot of others, for christ's sake!
So, if in SWG they would charge us an entry fee, than the just banned cheater had to open a new account and pay once again. At least a certain punishment...
Ever read Stanislav Lem's "Peace on Earth"?
Yeah, baby! I was going to write something about collecting all the cool DarkForces MODs (which I still have on a couple of 3.5" disks somewhere)... and I really hope they will do this. But then I discovered a link to this site: http://darkforces.jediknightii.net. This is almost too cool to be true. Hope, they will do a great job. And why not re-creating DFII / Jedi Knight as a MOD for Jedi Knight II? The graphics of DFII/JK really sucked. Guess, it was too early for using real 3D, back then. But now... Hmmmm, storm troopers...
My style used to be to rely upon my wife for tracking every bit of important info.
Well, if it works for you. I am not so lucky as having a wife that works with the same company, at the same department and that has time to bear the things in her mind, that mine isn't capable of remembering. For me it's not a question of style, but of practicality.
The point is, some people don't like to be organized and others do.. I guess, every boss requires you to be organized.
What works for 95% of the world may not work for you which is why we have options. I agree. Not having one of these big-brain, all-remembering wives, I chose the next best thing, a PDA. (No, I have not proposed to it. Yet.)
I think, it all comes down to what you are do for a living. Having a PDA just for playing games is certainly not the right reason.
First step is to store lots of telephone numbers, sort them, categorize them, etc.
A big leap forward then is to replace your calendar. Having been a project leader at occasion, the one and only thing that I ever needed and ever had with me was my trusty Palm V. I synchronized it with Outlook and never got too late (or nbot at all) to any meeting.
Next step was to have serveral version of our project time schedule in the PDA and synchronize it with MS Project.
I could go on forever, it seems. The bottom line is, that I have owned my Palm V for 3 years now and not one single day I regretted the money I spent. It's not only a cool thing, but really really useful. And helps me being effective at my job.
Have you ever played Deus Ex? A big step towards games like you described.
Cool. What I really want to have is a distributed solver for dynamic simulations. But a dream scenario would be to do the setup, pre- and postprocessing in any simulation program (like ADAMS, LMS or even block-scheme based like EASY5 or AMESIM or good old Simulink). For the solving part, however, I'd like to just export the equation sets (implicit or explicit) and let a distributed solver take care of this. As I understand, it could be possible to use the Mathematica solver as it exists today. Maybe not very efficiently though, but this could be compensated by quantity. I would love to install such baby in our company...
Silmarillion is the only book I've ever quit in the middle of...
Man, you reliefe me of great pain. I actually thought that something inside my head must be wrong, since I could never get past the first few chapters of Silmarillion. And I love & adore Lord of the Rings as the book that made the biggest impression on me, ever.
To get back to the new Dune novels: They are OK. Not great, but certainly worth a read. However, I am more looking forward to the 7th part of Dune, since I read somewhere that half of the book had already been completed by Frank Herbert. Or at least important and detailed sketches. I really hope that Dune will not be blown up to inflationary many preludes and sequels, but looking at the official timeline, it might just be the case...
Yes, I know that others have already pointed to this but it seemed not to have been come trough. New try: At www.dunenovels.com you can download a free short story which takes place before The Butlerian Jihad. It includes no spoilers whatsoever and can be read at any time, since it is not tightly connected to the main book.