This is pretty ridiculous. MicroSoft wages a constant war against open-source applications, and they've obviously begun to realize that FOSS is potentially useful in games, too. The mod community in Half-Life is probably the most obvious example - some originally free mods wound up getting commercial releases (although still were free to download), and returned in HL2 as paid products.
But of course, rather than just make your console that much more appealing by letting developers jump on, a move that would get lots of talent from people who want to show off for XBox 360 fans as well as PC gamers, MS is actively charging anybody who wants to give them free intellectual property, and making it harder for that property to distribute anyways. (TFA: "The games created with XNA Game Studio Express will not initially be available to regular Xbox 360 users" but may eventually enjoy a wider release, or at least the popular ones will.)
So the monolithic overlords of Windows, and now gaming (they hope), want us to pay them a subscription to make games for their platform, and even if we do, nobody but other devs will be able to play them? Sounds like somebody's combined a great money-making scheme with a shitty implimentation of game development.
I think there's a point being missed here - I'm taken to understand that you have to pay a monthly fee to play games online? I've never run into that problem on the PC, with the exception of MMO games. Should I be looking forward to that with the new wave of MS-owned FPS games?
Red Faction had a riot shield, and Call of Duty had a similar spawning system. And the majority of your compliments about the menus are applicable only because prior games on consoles required the whole game to stop for one person to adjust his settings - that just doesn't happen in multiplayer PC games.
And at the risk of starting a flame war, you sound like a corporate shill. With all the talk recently (http://www.penny-arcade.com/), that's a little weird. Unless I missed some wild sarcasm there.
And that means she was just doing her job, which she was paid to do by a large, wealthy corporation. Of course it is logical for us to assume that we want people who will work for whoever pays them the most, to become members of the Supreme Court, who in some ways act as the moral compass for the entire United States, for their entire term. Which would be their entire lives. I can totally trust someone who can put aside moral considerations for enough money to help examine a government filled with bribery and corruption! Maybe she'll take that keen sense of money over morals in her job and do what all/. readers want, help give away information instead of profiting off of it! Yay!
I use both dvorak and qwerty. Since I'm at home, I'm typing on a dvorak keyboard right now. I would say that frequent switching makes you look at the keys a lot when you start to type (for obvious reasons) but then you pretty much can type on either layout.
As for the claims that dvorak is faster, more accurate, and helps ease typing fatigue, I would say that they are perhaps 30% true. I do notice a very slight increase in my speed while typing on a dvorak, but this could easily be explained by the fact that it's my home keyboard and I'm most comfortable using it, etc, and may have nothing to do with the layout. I do NOT notice a drastic increase in speed between the two layouts.
The idea that the dvorak layout reduces spelling errors is not only BS, it may in fact be the opposite. I have noticed especially that the famous home row with all the vowels in it causes no end of problems. You are hitting keys there so often, that you are bound to mess up. I mix up 'a' and 'o' frequently.
There is some truth in the claim that dvorak is more comfortable. This makes sense, given that the vowels are under your fingers and the keys are spaced so the most common ones are also the easiest to reach. I definitely notice after a while that typing on a qwerty starts to hurt in the muscles in my hands, and it happens far more easily on a qwerty than on my dvorak. I would say that the main thing that keeps me on a dvorak is that it's simply more comfortable to type on for an extended peroid of time.
Switching to dvorak takes about 50 hours, no BS involved. At first, it will really screw you up to reach for a key that's been in the same place for decades, to have it moved to a different place. I advise a lot of instant messaging and long college-style papers. If this sounds like fun, then go for it. If you are switching because it's going to be easier on your hands, then you are spending a lot of time and effort for it, and you will get some return on that. However, do not go into dvorak expecting a miracle keyboard.
Mostly, dvorak is simply different. As a dvorak user, I would argue that it's better and more comfortable, but mostly it's just a preference. Much like linux, it's a different way of doing the same thing.
Those are my rates. I have a dozen or so linux users that I've created right now, and I feel it is sort of my obligation to them to render free service, being that they are sort of experimental. This is all freelance, mostly for friends and family.
If anyone's wondering, the majority of my linux users are your typical computer user, and are happy with linux.
What about something like planmaker, which is designed to be as Excel-compatible as possible? It's only $50, too. Excel et al are hideously expensive. Even the STUDENT copy of Office 2003 standard is $130 and a full (non-student) standard version is $300! I don't have that kind of money to spend, especially when OO is free. And nobody say to pirate it, because I hate that. You're just helping MS more.
I'll come out of lurking to answer those - yes, it was in theaters and yes, you missed it. Yes, it will be on DVD, you can already pre-order at amazon.com. It will be out in May.
Slashdot Mirror
I know another device that can be whatever it wants - it's called the PC.
This is pretty ridiculous. MicroSoft wages a constant war against open-source applications, and they've obviously begun to realize that FOSS is potentially useful in games, too. The mod community in Half-Life is probably the most obvious example - some originally free mods wound up getting commercial releases (although still were free to download), and returned in HL2 as paid products. But of course, rather than just make your console that much more appealing by letting developers jump on, a move that would get lots of talent from people who want to show off for XBox 360 fans as well as PC gamers, MS is actively charging anybody who wants to give them free intellectual property, and making it harder for that property to distribute anyways. (TFA: "The games created with XNA Game Studio Express will not initially be available to regular Xbox 360 users" but may eventually enjoy a wider release, or at least the popular ones will.) So the monolithic overlords of Windows, and now gaming (they hope), want us to pay them a subscription to make games for their platform, and even if we do, nobody but other devs will be able to play them? Sounds like somebody's combined a great money-making scheme with a shitty implimentation of game development.
Aside from the other comments, I think OnStar already does this.
At least we correctly modded him as 'insightful.'
I think there's a point being missed here - I'm taken to understand that you have to pay a monthly fee to play games online? I've never run into that problem on the PC, with the exception of MMO games. Should I be looking forward to that with the new wave of MS-owned FPS games?
Red Faction had a riot shield, and Call of Duty had a similar spawning system. And the majority of your compliments about the menus are applicable only because prior games on consoles required the whole game to stop for one person to adjust his settings - that just doesn't happen in multiplayer PC games. And at the risk of starting a flame war, you sound like a corporate shill. With all the talk recently (http://www.penny-arcade.com/), that's a little weird. Unless I missed some wild sarcasm there.
Grammar nazis need to be extra-careful when posting :)
And that means she was just doing her job, which she was paid to do by a large, wealthy corporation. Of course it is logical for us to assume that we want people who will work for whoever pays them the most, to become members of the Supreme Court, who in some ways act as the moral compass for the entire United States, for their entire term. Which would be their entire lives. I can totally trust someone who can put aside moral considerations for enough money to help examine a government filled with bribery and corruption! Maybe she'll take that keen sense of money over morals in her job and do what all /. readers want, help give away information instead of profiting off of it! Yay!
I'm sticking my neck out here, but I believe it's "little or no language skill" (singular) or, possibly, "few language skills" (plural).
I use both dvorak and qwerty. Since I'm at home, I'm typing on a dvorak keyboard right now. I would say that frequent switching makes you look at the keys a lot when you start to type (for obvious reasons) but then you pretty much can type on either layout.
As for the claims that dvorak is faster, more accurate, and helps ease typing fatigue, I would say that they are perhaps 30% true. I do notice a very slight increase in my speed while typing on a dvorak, but this could easily be explained by the fact that it's my home keyboard and I'm most comfortable using it, etc, and may have nothing to do with the layout. I do NOT notice a drastic increase in speed between the two layouts.
The idea that the dvorak layout reduces spelling errors is not only BS, it may in fact be the opposite. I have noticed especially that the famous home row with all the vowels in it causes no end of problems. You are hitting keys there so often, that you are bound to mess up. I mix up 'a' and 'o' frequently.
There is some truth in the claim that dvorak is more comfortable. This makes sense, given that the vowels are under your fingers and the keys are spaced so the most common ones are also the easiest to reach. I definitely notice after a while that typing on a qwerty starts to hurt in the muscles in my hands, and it happens far more easily on a qwerty than on my dvorak. I would say that the main thing that keeps me on a dvorak is that it's simply more comfortable to type on for an extended peroid of time.
Switching to dvorak takes about 50 hours, no BS involved. At first, it will really screw you up to reach for a key that's been in the same place for decades, to have it moved to a different place. I advise a lot of instant messaging and long college-style papers. If this sounds like fun, then go for it. If you are switching because it's going to be easier on your hands, then you are spending a lot of time and effort for it, and you will get some return on that. However, do not go into dvorak expecting a miracle keyboard.
Mostly, dvorak is simply different. As a dvorak user, I would argue that it's better and more comfortable, but mostly it's just a preference. Much like linux, it's a different way of doing the same thing.
Those are my rates. I have a dozen or so linux users that I've created right now, and I feel it is sort of my obligation to them to render free service, being that they are sort of experimental. This is all freelance, mostly for friends and family. If anyone's wondering, the majority of my linux users are your typical computer user, and are happy with linux.
"Just launch the five shuttles" - "Three shuttles, sir!" - "Right, three shuttles..."
I always hear the same thing on Slashdot: "We need more mirrors!"
What about something like planmaker, which is designed to be as Excel-compatible as possible? It's only $50, too. Excel et al are hideously expensive. Even the STUDENT copy of Office 2003 standard is $130 and a full (non-student) standard version is $300! I don't have that kind of money to spend, especially when OO is free. And nobody say to pirate it, because I hate that. You're just helping MS more.
My mp3 box uses one. They're nice chips.
I'll come out of lurking to answer those - yes, it was in theaters and yes, you missed it. Yes, it will be on DVD, you can already pre-order at amazon.com. It will be out in May.