What is this DirectX? On most games today it says "runs on either Nvidia card xxx or ATI card yyy". Portability doesn't exist. I bought a new PC and new games won't run on it. Heck, old games won't run on it either:
Please... Any modern game will work fine on any modern card using DX or Open GL. Any game that says "works best with nvidia/ati" is either fulfilling a marketing deal or trying to cut support issues (having problems with the game? oh you're running a matrox, sorry we only support ati/nvidia..."
About the only issue that can arise between different brands is with the latest cutting edge features that haven't been incorporated into DX or Open GL yet. But even with those kinds of issues, it's a far cry from not being able to run today's games on other cards.
I didn't say this was an end all be all of parenting or stoping them from doing stupid things. I'm just saying this can be used as part of parenting....
Doing stupid things can be an important part of growing up. How do you learn not to do stupid things if you don't go through some of that experience yourself? And hearing your parents say "don't do that" isn't learning...
People always end up talking about the "high" unemployment rate and the "high" taxes, but they always wistfully look on the health care and 3x vacation....but then they drive home in their 2nd or 3rd car (sometimes an SUV) to a home that's twice as big as they need to their big screen TV that they paid for with a bonus check that could have been put to retirement....
As long as we Americans want our toys and things, we'll never get get 6 weeks vacation....
I agree with that last statement, though keep in mind that for a great many people in this country, that big screen TV and home that's twice as big as they need isn't paid for with a bonus check, but instead with increasing debt. It's not neccessarily that pepole in this country just make a lot of money and like our toys. A lot of people really spend more money than they can comfortably afford.
I have seen many people house shop by figuring the maximum amount they could spend per month on a mortgage, then go out and buy the biggest house that will cost them that much. And then you get a 3 person family (with little to no intent to grow) living in a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom house.
And that big screen TV was likely bought because Best Buy was offering "0 payments, 0% interest for 12 months!!!", and they just couldn't pass it up.
But I agree, our mentality of wanting toys tends to override our want for lower stress in our lives, even if it means spending more than we can afford. For a lot of peple, toys are simply a higher priority than low stress...
I stand by my previous assertion that there are legitimate lessons related to software engineering to be had from this exercise.
I completely agree. Where I work, we have functional specialists who gather and create functional requirements (use case flows, UI design, etc). This gets handed off to a senior engineer who translates the requirements into a technical design (class diagrams, etc). Sometimes the same engineer will implement it, but often the design goes to a less experienced engineer for actual implementation.
I could see a benefit in introducing this concept in college. It's natural and easy to write design and specs in a way that only you can understand, but learning to overcome that early could be a great help coming out of college.
But this begs the question, would the code inspection have found the bug in the first place? How did the bug escape testing and end up in production software? Any process that relies on code inspections to find 100% of the bugs is faulty. Humans can only be so good at reading through code and running through the myriad of ways a particular piece of code could be wrong.
Some types of bugs are easily found during testing, others are not; some are easily found in code reviews, others are not. It's easy for developers to make assumptions that are always valid during in-house testing but may on rare occasions fail in the field, which can sometimes be caught by experienced reviewers.
Plus, code reviews are useful because they connect (or they should) experienced developers with less experienced ones. I can't count the number of times I've learned (and taught) something new in a review. No amount of testing can reproduce the benefit of having a more experienced developer say, "I see you did x to solve y, but z works even better."
"You are absolutely correct. I long for the days when the only keyboard available was one of these."
They may not be the only keyboard available, but similar styled buckling spring keyboards are still available. I just recieved mine this week from www.pckeyboards.com
I love mine so far, though the $50 price tag is a bit much for a "no frills" keyboard. But as far as I'm concerned, the buckling spring is far better as a frill than 20 useless hot keys. You can even get a model with the windows keys, though it's not worth the extra $10 IMO.
Slashdot Mirror
Please... Any modern game will work fine on any modern card using DX or Open GL. Any game that says "works best with nvidia/ati" is either fulfilling a marketing deal or trying to cut support issues (having problems with the game? oh you're running a matrox, sorry we only support ati/nvidia..."
About the only issue that can arise between different brands is with the latest cutting edge features that haven't been incorporated into DX or Open GL yet. But even with those kinds of issues, it's a far cry from not being able to run today's games on other cards.
Doing stupid things can be an important part of growing up. How do you learn not to do stupid things if you don't go through some of that experience yourself? And hearing your parents say "don't do that" isn't learning...
I agree with that last statement, though keep in mind that for a great many people in this country, that big screen TV and home that's twice as big as they need isn't paid for with a bonus check, but instead with increasing debt. It's not neccessarily that pepole in this country just make a lot of money and like our toys. A lot of people really spend more money than they can comfortably afford.
I have seen many people house shop by figuring the maximum amount they could spend per month on a mortgage, then go out and buy the biggest house that will cost them that much. And then you get a 3 person family (with little to no intent to grow) living in a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom house.
And that big screen TV was likely bought because Best Buy was offering "0 payments, 0% interest for 12 months!!!", and they just couldn't pass it up.
But I agree, our mentality of wanting toys tends to override our want for lower stress in our lives, even if it means spending more than we can afford. For a lot of peple, toys are simply a higher priority than low stress...
[ end rant on US debt culture :) ]
I completely agree. Where I work, we have functional specialists who gather and create functional requirements (use case flows, UI design, etc). This gets handed off to a senior engineer who translates the requirements into a technical design (class diagrams, etc). Sometimes the same engineer will implement it, but often the design goes to a less experienced engineer for actual implementation.
I could see a benefit in introducing this concept in college. It's natural and easy to write design and specs in a way that only you can understand, but learning to overcome that early could be a great help coming out of college.
No, the $20 cut is being introduced cause I just bought one a week ago. Enjoy the price cut!
grumble...
Some types of bugs are easily found during testing, others are not; some are easily found in code reviews, others are not. It's easy for developers to make assumptions that are always valid during in-house testing but may on rare occasions fail in the field, which can sometimes be caught by experienced reviewers.
Plus, code reviews are useful because they connect (or they should) experienced developers with less experienced ones. I can't count the number of times I've learned (and taught) something new in a review. No amount of testing can reproduce the benefit of having a more experienced developer say, "I see you did x to solve y, but z works even better."
They may not be the only keyboard available, but similar styled buckling spring keyboards are still available. I just recieved mine this week from www.pckeyboards.com
I love mine so far, though the $50 price tag is a bit much for a "no frills" keyboard. But as far as I'm concerned, the buckling spring is far better as a frill than 20 useless hot keys. You can even get a model with the windows keys, though it's not worth the extra $10 IMO.
Robert Duvall plays Lt. Frank Grimes...
Ok, who's first thought was the simpsons?