...but all the crazy things happened to me all the time before I started playing ED.
I do agree, though, that the only way to play is in the dark. I was playing ED once with all of the lights on in the house, and I was about to enter combat when my TV turned itself off. Eh? So I'm in the dark, looking at my TV, trying to work out what's going on: my Gamecube and VCR have power, so what's wrong with the... FLASH! Back to the game.
My brother says his Cube blue-screened while playing ED; I personally liked the ad for the sequel, a splash screen that could have come from any Shareware game preview on a PC. Oh, but the bathtub, the bathtub... I can still see that one. I've really enjoyed this game so far.
Is "taking a break" something that computer science people can afford?
No, it's just a common excuse^H^H^H^Hplanation for reading Slashdot. In fact, it's probably the most commonly-offered explanation, just ahead of "there might be a flame war about freedom of speech or open source", and a long way ahead of "I'm reading news about IT and science".
Of course, it's not convincing when you're "taking a break" for the first hour of every workday...
Um...
I have to go now.
Procrastination: when you really don't need a reason.
If this had been a bug for a MS product, you'd be slamming MS hard. But now all I see is a mountain of whiny, hypocritical comments when it is in the non-MS camp.
Well, there is actually a difference.
It might have taken eight years for someone to notice the bug and release a security advisory. However, once that was done, it only took the developers a week to release a patch.
Had it been in a Microsoft product, it would have taken a week to get a security advisory, and eight years to get the patch.
PayPal has been used for quite a while in the grey market...
I've heard rumours that money is almost always directly involved with buying drugs, and is often a motive in other crimes. Perhaps money should be made illegal.
There's a lot of this about, though. I was all for strict gun control at one stage in my life. Then I discovered that it was actually people, not guns, that kill people. I now think we should nip that problem in the bud and just remove all of the people.
Maybe everything will soon be illegal, by similar arguments. That said, if we try to outlaw everything, then only outlaws will have everything. Since that's already the case, it's hardly worth bothering with laws at all.
The conclusion to the article was very blunt, IMNSHO:
Your next portable electronic device should definitely be a Nintendo Gameboy Advance SP.
...unless what you actually want is a camera, in which case, the camera is more suitable...
...but the camera doesn't play games, and if what you actually want is a portable games machine, then the portable games machine is a far better deal...
...but you might just want to take photographs, and if what you actually want is a device that takes photographs, then the device that takes photographs is the one for you...
...but Advance Wars and Metroid Fusion are really, really good games, so if what you actually want is to play Advance Wars or Metroid Fusion...
etc.
Slashdot welcomes reader features. For better or for worse.
Re:I have Office 2003 and this article is BS
on
Office 2003 and XML
·
· Score: 1
Opened up the XML document in Word and it looks EXACTLY like the original.DOC format.
Ah, but if it's nothing but styled XML, you should be able to open it in a browser, and it should look the same as the.DOC copy. If you're using an XML-capable Web browser, that is.
Why people are opposed to Flash
on
Opencroquet
·
· Score: 1
why are people so opposed to Flash on the net?
Put simply, it's because Flash makes Web sites harder to use. For most sites, it's superfluous, over-complicated and annoying. Furthermore, because Flash breaks a lot of Web conventions (Back, font sizes, accessibility), it's unintuitive.
While I still agree that advertising is the worst thing about Flash - just ahead of the Macromedia site so longer working in Opera - I generally hate sites that use Flash at all, because things just take so much longer. Of course, there are a few shining examples.
Shigeru Miyamoto: For me, the most interesting thing about video games is taking the controller and using it to move something around on the screen.
Hmmm, indeed. Is everybody sure this is the actual genius behind the classics like SMB?
Actually, Super Monkey Ball was a Sega game, and you actually move the screen around your character. (Insert joke about Soviet Russia here.)
Yes, I know that's not what you were talking about, but here's to another game that proves Miyamoto's point: good controls are fundamental to making a good game.
It's alarming how few game designers are well-known, even within video game circles. Miyamoto-san is probably the best-known because he's been there from the (new) beginning in the early 1980s. How many others are known by name? Nagoshi? Suzuki? Kojima? Spector? Garriott?
I mean, do we really want the second coming to occur during in some long post about Natalie Portman and the basalt content of her nude body?
If the post had pictures, nobody here would notice the second coming. In fact, how would any of us know that the second coming hasn't already happened while we've been surfing the Web?
Task 1: Replacement BIOS - $55,000
Task 2: Kernel and XFree drivers - 25,000
Task 3: Kernel logic: FATX and miscellaneous - 10,000
Task 4: XBE bootloader $10,000
Run unsigned code on an Xbox without any hardware modification - $100,000
Making Microsoft sell streamlined Linux boxes below cost, and making the Xbox developers see their own horrified looks reflected in the surface of the Xbox-Linux CD you made: priceless.
Since [the Xbox price cut on 26 April], XBOX sales are neck and neck with PS2 sales.
Isn't there something missing from the MSN report? Something along the lines of "MSN Money is a Microsoft service"? Or perhaps "this article is a paid advertisement"? Something, at least, to mention that Microsoft have their own news site as well.
Of course, here in Australia, we haven't seen the half of it yet. Xbox sales were slow, Microsoft announced a 40% price drop, Xbox has outsold Playstation 2 fairly easily for two weeks. The Beeb was reporting a similar phenomenon in Europe. Then again, Nintendo are reporting "record-breaking" pre-orders for Gamecube - the machine gets released this Friday - and promised a price drop of nearly 25%. We'll have to wait and see how that pans out.
None of this is helping Xbox in Japan, where there is no price decrease in effect - and where Xbox is being outsold by just about everything, including Dreamcast, and where things would have been disastrous without Dead Or Alive 3. Also, Xbox is (apparently) starting to fall behind Gamecube in the States, in terms of sales figures and thus installed base. Expect announcements sooner rather than later.
Two months of a several thousand developers = 60 days * 8 hours per day (being generous and throwing in weekends) * 9,000 coders = ~ 500 man-years. Not too shabby!
We seem to forget that not only do people not always work on weekends, but that they don't spend eight hours a day reviewing source code. I've just been on a Code Inspection course, so I know everything about this now. (Sort of.)
Firstly, code reviews often involve two to four people, and sometimes more, rather than just one. Secondly, the code inspection takes 30-50 minutes for a 200-line module or class. Thirdly, on the assumption that source code is neither easy nor enjoyable to read, you can't realistically expect to do more than about three or four of these a day without going utterly mad. Fourthly and finally, code reviews are performed to find errors in code, and somebody always has to go away and fix them, right?
(To correct, 8 weeks * 5 days/week * 2 hours/day * 3,000 teams of reviewers would be closer to 30 man-years - whatever that means.)
Even removing the questionable maths from the discussion, jdbo hits the nail square on the head:
The reality is that secure development takes _time_ and _experience_ as well as eyeballs. Not everything is repaired correctly the first time, and the corrections themselves often need further review and correction.
The chief aim of performing code reviews is not to have to review code in the future. Consider also that security holes aren't the only problems with Microsoft's code - Windows XP, for all its uniformity, is still a buggy and disjointed mess.
Given that Microsoft bug reports appearing in the media at about the same rate as always, and given that Microsoft's track record for writing stellar, secure, efficient and bug-free code is not a good one, it's difficult to see the point. I know they're on higher moral ground now, but none of it seems to be working any better. Two months was never going to be enough, but how much time have they got?
Slashdot Mirror
(...being less powerful than a modern-day pocket calculator...)
I do agree, though, that the only way to play is in the dark. I was playing ED once with all of the lights on in the house, and I was about to enter combat when my TV turned itself off. Eh? So I'm in the dark, looking at my TV, trying to work out what's going on: my Gamecube and VCR have power, so what's wrong with the... FLASH! Back to the game.
My brother says his Cube blue-screened while playing ED; I personally liked the ad for the sequel, a splash screen that could have come from any Shareware game preview on a PC. Oh, but the bathtub, the bathtub... I can still see that one. I've really enjoyed this game so far.
No, it's just a common excuse^H^H^H^Hplanation for reading Slashdot. In fact, it's probably the most commonly-offered explanation, just ahead of "there might be a flame war about freedom of speech or open source", and a long way ahead of "I'm reading news about IT and science".
Of course, it's not convincing when you're "taking a break" for the first hour of every workday...
Um...
I have to go now.
Procrastination: when you really don't need a reason.
Don't click on the link in the parent post if you're at work. In fact, it's best not to click on it at all, unless you have a fetish for defecation.
There's a moderation rating for Off-Topic, but unfortunately, not for Pornography. At least the FARKers bother to label things Not Safe For Work.
Well, there is actually a difference.
It might have taken eight years for someone to notice the bug and release a security advisory. However, once that was done, it only took the developers a week to release a patch.
Had it been in a Microsoft product, it would have taken a week to get a security advisory, and eight years to get the patch.
I've heard rumours that money is almost always directly involved with buying drugs, and is often a motive in other crimes. Perhaps money should be made illegal.
There's a lot of this about, though. I was all for strict gun control at one stage in my life. Then I discovered that it was actually people, not guns, that kill people. I now think we should nip that problem in the bud and just remove all of the people.
Maybe everything will soon be illegal, by similar arguments. That said, if we try to outlaw everything, then only outlaws will have everything. Since that's already the case, it's hardly worth bothering with laws at all.
The conclusion to the article was very blunt, IMNSHO:
...unless what you actually want is a camera, in which case, the camera is more suitable...
...but the camera doesn't play games, and if what you actually want is a portable games machine, then the portable games machine is a far better deal...
...but you might just want to take photographs, and if what you actually want is a device that takes photographs, then the device that takes photographs is the one for you...
...but Advance Wars and Metroid Fusion are really, really good games, so if what you actually want is to play Advance Wars or Metroid Fusion...
etc.
Slashdot welcomes reader features. For better or for worse.
Ah, but if it's nothing but styled XML, you should be able to open it in a browser, and it should look the same as the .DOC copy. If you're using an XML-capable Web browser, that is.
Put simply, it's because Flash makes Web sites harder to use. For most sites, it's superfluous, over-complicated and annoying. Furthermore, because Flash breaks a lot of Web conventions (Back, font sizes, accessibility), it's unintuitive.
While I still agree that advertising is the worst thing about Flash - just ahead of the Macromedia site so longer working in Opera - I generally hate sites that use Flash at all, because things just take so much longer. Of course, there are a few shining examples.
Actually, Super Monkey Ball was a Sega game, and you actually move the screen around your character. (Insert joke about Soviet Russia here.)
Yes, I know that's not what you were talking about, but here's to another game that proves Miyamoto's point: good controls are fundamental to making a good game.
It's alarming how few game designers are well-known, even within video game circles. Miyamoto-san is probably the best-known because he's been there from the (new) beginning in the early 1980s. How many others are known by name? Nagoshi? Suzuki? Kojima? Spector? Garriott?
If the post had pictures, nobody here would notice the second coming. In fact, how would any of us know that the second coming hasn't already happened while we've been surfing the Web?
It supports voice recognition as well. Every time I tell IE to fuck off, it crashes and disappears. Proof positive!
Isn't there something missing from the MSN report? Something along the lines of "MSN Money is a Microsoft service"? Or perhaps "this article is a paid advertisement"? Something, at least, to mention that Microsoft have their own news site as well.
Of course, here in Australia, we haven't seen the half of it yet. Xbox sales were slow, Microsoft announced a 40% price drop, Xbox has outsold Playstation 2 fairly easily for two weeks. The Beeb was reporting a similar phenomenon in Europe. Then again, Nintendo are reporting "record-breaking" pre-orders for Gamecube - the machine gets released this Friday - and promised a price drop of nearly 25%. We'll have to wait and see how that pans out.
None of this is helping Xbox in Japan, where there is no price decrease in effect - and where Xbox is being outsold by just about everything, including Dreamcast, and where things would have been disastrous without Dead Or Alive 3. Also, Xbox is (apparently) starting to fall behind Gamecube in the States, in terms of sales figures and thus installed base. Expect announcements sooner rather than later.
We seem to forget that not only do people not always work on weekends, but that they don't spend eight hours a day reviewing source code. I've just been on a Code Inspection course, so I know everything about this now. (Sort of.)
Firstly, code reviews often involve two to four people, and sometimes more, rather than just one. Secondly, the code inspection takes 30-50 minutes for a 200-line module or class. Thirdly, on the assumption that source code is neither easy nor enjoyable to read, you can't realistically expect to do more than about three or four of these a day without going utterly mad. Fourthly and finally, code reviews are performed to find errors in code, and somebody always has to go away and fix them, right?
(To correct, 8 weeks * 5 days/week * 2 hours/day * 3,000 teams of reviewers would be closer to 30 man-years - whatever that means.)
Even removing the questionable maths from the discussion, jdbo hits the nail square on the head:
The chief aim of performing code reviews is not to have to review code in the future. Consider also that security holes aren't the only problems with Microsoft's code - Windows XP, for all its uniformity, is still a buggy and disjointed mess.
Given that Microsoft bug reports appearing in the media at about the same rate as always, and given that Microsoft's track record for writing stellar, secure, efficient and bug-free code is not a good one, it's difficult to see the point. I know they're on higher moral ground now, but none of it seems to be working any better. Two months was never going to be enough, but how much time have they got?