Your mention of DirectX 10 reminded me of something I've been wondering for a while. Isn't the Vista transition the perfect time for game developers to jump ship to a platform like, say, the new Mac Pros?
Vista appears to aim at using more CPU and graphics resources than ever before. While this may give us some pleasing eye candy, and enhanced security (really) for those browsing the web and using e-mail, what does this overhead do to games?
In the PC world, gamers have long been early adopters for new hardware. But Vista, at least initially, will take back a big chunk out of that new hardware investment. Linux often changes too quickly in some areas, and too slowly in others (drivers) to be a good general choice for game deployment. But the Mac Pro is a bit of a different beast. You've got 2 Intel Core 2 Duo's even with the minimum configuration, you've got an NVidia card in there with a minimum level of RAM. You don't have DirectX, but I'm wondering if OpenGL or equivalent libraries would be enticing enough for developers to leave the Microsoft camp. I suppose the XBox will keep many in the Windows / DirectX camp. Any game developers out there who've considered this and can share their reasons why or why not?
In order to play tag now you have to say "I waive all liability, tag, you're the party of the first part." Kind of like saying "They're coming right for us," before pulling the trigger while hunting.
Right. China remembers what U.S. politicians so often forget: The economy is a tool, in war and in peace. Societies have economies, economies are not societies.
Under Clinton, you couldn't do any research on ESC using federal funds-- at all. This is a bill that Clinton signed into law in 1995. In fact, Bush's rules are less stringent than Clinton's, and yet all we do is demonize Bush for his stance on stem cells. Why is that?
Allow me to use the newly redefined word in a sentence: "We disenfranchised a single cell from the embryo to create a stem cell line that will allow us to grow extra nose tissue for Michael Jackson."
Let me take your troll at face value for a moment... You want to execute those responsible for initiating a program intended to protect American citizens. And you call it "treason," how ironic. From Article Three of the U.S. Constitution:
Section 3: Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.... (Power of Congress paragraph ommitted)
By this definition, it is those giving the enemies of the U.S. "aid and comfort" that begin to meet that standard. Given that the wiretaps were specifically aimed at people who made calls to or received calls from known terrorist phone numbers, I think it shocking that the EFF is squandering money tilting at this windmill rather than amplifying their agenda against things like DRM. They've abandoned logic and the pursuit of important issues for a straight party-line political action. Shame on them for this.
...have a clear, predictable, and demonstrable scientific benefit no matter what the outcome of the experiment.
Experimentation is as much about what we don't expect as it is about finding predicted results. The discovery of penicillin is the obvious example of this. In the long run, selecting scientific experiments for economic value over scientific value would destroy the pursuit of science. Investing only in "safe" and "predictable" outcomes means only reaping small, predictable returns.
Sounds like gambling, doesn't it? The payouts to society increase exponentially with the outlay. But, I forget; economics isn't about culture or society.
If you must take the short-sighted view: big projects mean lots of jobs.
"...yes, that's right Katie... Here comes President Gates now... He's just stepping out of Air Force One... It looks like he's giving some sort of modified Peace sign... That's right, two fingers and a thumb... That's right... It's some sort of three-fingered salute..."
Grinding noise... Grinding noise...
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America....
That is the word "floating" with a "flamboyant British" modifier applied. For example: "I couldn't poossibly be expected to knoow that!" In Europe, this sort of over-the-top pronunciation is represented with an umlaut.
Let's take a step back and look at the real problem. Here are the facts as I understand them:
Phone companies keep records of who calls whom and when (call content is not kept).
The NSA obtained these records from three phone companies and added it to the data they already had (it appears this was done in exchange for tax breaks, so we can probably say the NSA "bought" this data).
The NSA used this data to correlate call patterns that matched known terrorist call patterns on 911 to generate leads for possible terrorist activity.
One problem with this is that a high percentage of these leads are false positives.
The NSA isn't "data mining against" any U.S. citizen. I'd submit that our privacy hasn't actually been invaded, either. The real problem is that they're using an ineffective technique to generate leads.
Keep in mind, please, that the phone companies also sell these records to marketers. Marketers can know far more about any single individual than the NSA can learn from phone call source, target, time and duration. The real invasion of privacy comes from people trying to sell you something, not from the NSA doing its job (although perhaps poorly).
Data mining techniques are a tool that belongs in the NSA's toolkit. If you're worried about how they use the technique, worry more about the people you vote into office. These people set the agendas, and good people tend to set good agendas.
I'm not talking IDE use, I'm talking open source tools platform. While I personally prefer the Eclipse IDE to the NetBeans IDE, having actually coded for each as a platform, I can offer an opinion from experience: the Eclipse programming model makes just makes it easier to get things done. Most vendors seem to agree, which is why, with the exception of Sun, all the major Java vendors are Eclipse Foundation members (including my employer--naturally my opinions are my own).
Compare NetBeans on this footing and you'll see the difference.
There are many more upgrade paths from the Eclipse IDE than WSAD. But buying the for-pay IDE atop Eclipse isn't actually the point. Look at the technology underneath Eclipse: dynamic extensible plug-ins and OSGi service bundles. It is a platform where one tool can easily extend and integrate with others.
Yes, you can take the same NetBeans jar file and run the installer on Linux and Windows with equal ease. So what? I can download the correct Eclipse SDK for either of those platforms just like you'd have to download the correct Java SDK. What I get in return in a far more reponsive GUI with the native platform look and feel. NetBeans has made great strides in this department, but it hasn't caught up to Eclipse yet.
Eclipse as an open source platform (not simply an IDE) has far more vendor weight and more potential than NetBeans, as a platform, does.
The NetBeans tools may be great, but NetBeans' time has passed. Eclipse now has very strong momentum. Eclipse is the non-Microsoft market, sparked by IBM, that tool vendors can come to, play in, and profit from. I don't think Sun can recapture industry focus from Eclipse; that focus is the Eclipse Foundation's to lose.
Looking at it from the developer's standpoint; use the tools that best fit the job, when you can. But this move is about battling ecosystems. Sun ought to join in and work with Eclipse.
..it's a way for a different industry (marketing, analysis, and general business operations) to invoke shared abstractions without having to spell out the complexities on the spot.
I disagree. It is most often used as a way to escape verbs. Corporate or market-speak dilutes statements with adjectives until any action or direct conviction has been removed. After all, direct conviction might offend, a call for direct action might shock.
Corporate-speak does not abstract. Abstraction allows for more powerful expression. Corporate-speak hides the truth. Whether the truth be that the speaker doesn't really have anything relevant to say, or that the truth is distasteful and offensive when clearly understood, the speaker excuses him or herself with imprecise, indirect phrasing.
You are right in one sense. Corporate-speak is designed to form a kind of secret handshake, separating employees from employers, executives from workers. But its primary purpose is to muddle meaning.
For example, "Our value-added processes empower communication." This is an empty phrase; cotton-candy for the mind. It feels good to spin, great to eat, but leaves one with an empty, dull nausea. When did it become more effective to hide the truth than to operate with a strong grasp of it?
The worst part is that so many do confuse corporate-speak for a system of abstractions and brandish it as though they were accomplishing actual work. They string together more and more words and say less and less. In the end, they will accomplish nothing, while droning on endlessly about ROI.
(grumble, grumble...)
Personally, I'd much prefer speech that used metaphor and nuance, beauty and artistry, to increase the impact of the truth and meaning it presents.
Slashdot Mirror
Your mention of DirectX 10 reminded me of something I've been wondering for a while. Isn't the Vista transition the perfect time for game developers to jump ship to a platform like, say, the new Mac Pros?
Vista appears to aim at using more CPU and graphics resources than ever before. While this may give us some pleasing eye candy, and enhanced security (really) for those browsing the web and using e-mail, what does this overhead do to games?
In the PC world, gamers have long been early adopters for new hardware. But Vista, at least initially, will take back a big chunk out of that new hardware investment. Linux often changes too quickly in some areas, and too slowly in others (drivers) to be a good general choice for game deployment. But the Mac Pro is a bit of a different beast. You've got 2 Intel Core 2 Duo's even with the minimum configuration, you've got an NVidia card in there with a minimum level of RAM. You don't have DirectX, but I'm wondering if OpenGL or equivalent libraries would be enticing enough for developers to leave the Microsoft camp. I suppose the XBox will keep many in the Windows / DirectX camp. Any game developers out there who've considered this and can share their reasons why or why not?
--SlowMovingTargetIn order to play tag now you have to say "I waive all liability, tag, you're the party of the first part." Kind of like saying "They're coming right for us," before pulling the trigger while hunting.
Right. China remembers what U.S. politicians so often forget: The economy is a tool, in war and in peace. Societies have economies, economies are not societies.
For a moment there I thought you were going to start talking about sodium pentathol suppositories.
Actually, in the new CGI "enhanced" version, that would be: "JAAAAAARRRRRRJAAAAAAAARRRRR!"
Because it's fashionable and popular?
How about "disenfranchised"?
Allow me to use the newly redefined word in a sentence: "We disenfranchised a single cell from the embryo to create a stem cell line that will allow us to grow extra nose tissue for Michael Jackson."
Let me take your troll at face value for a moment... You want to execute those responsible for initiating a program intended to protect American citizens. And you call it "treason," how ironic. From Article Three of the U.S. Constitution:
By this definition, it is those giving the enemies of the U.S. "aid and comfort" that begin to meet that standard. Given that the wiretaps were specifically aimed at people who made calls to or received calls from known terrorist phone numbers, I think it shocking that the EFF is squandering money tilting at this windmill rather than amplifying their agenda against things like DRM. They've abandoned logic and the pursuit of important issues for a straight party-line political action. Shame on them for this.
WRT the subject, it seems you took the blue pill.
OMGWTFBBQ! Microsoft == The Shadows! --> true
Does that make IBM the Vorlons?...
To RMS: "You have a hole in your mind..."
Experimentation is as much about what we don't expect as it is about finding predicted results. The discovery of penicillin is the obvious example of this. In the long run, selecting scientific experiments for economic value over scientific value would destroy the pursuit of science. Investing only in "safe" and "predictable" outcomes means only reaping small, predictable returns.
Sounds like gambling, doesn't it? The payouts to society increase exponentially with the outlay. But, I forget; economics isn't about culture or society.
If you must take the short-sighted view: big projects mean lots of jobs.
"...electric chair? Shoot. You remember Earl three cells over? They blew 'im to death."
I believe those are called Emperor Gnus.
"...yes, that's right Katie... Here comes President Gates now... He's just stepping out of Air Force One... It looks like he's giving some sort of modified Peace sign... That's right, two fingers and a thumb... That's right... It's some sort of three-fingered salute..."
Grinding noise... Grinding noise...
That is the word "floating" with a "flamboyant British" modifier applied. For example: "I couldn't poossibly be expected to knoow that!" In Europe, this sort of over-the-top pronunciation is represented with an umlaut.
Let's take a step back and look at the real problem. Here are the facts as I understand them:
The NSA isn't "data mining against" any U.S. citizen. I'd submit that our privacy hasn't actually been invaded, either. The real problem is that they're using an ineffective technique to generate leads.
Keep in mind, please, that the phone companies also sell these records to marketers. Marketers can know far more about any single individual than the NSA can learn from phone call source, target, time and duration. The real invasion of privacy comes from people trying to sell you something, not from the NSA doing its job (although perhaps poorly).
Data mining techniques are a tool that belongs in the NSA's toolkit. If you're worried about how they use the technique, worry more about the people you vote into office. These people set the agendas, and good people tend to set good agendas.
With regards, SMT
Shome things in here don't react well to inshert shtatementsh.
It's actually pronounced "Sholid Information Technology."
I'm not talking IDE use, I'm talking open source tools platform. While I personally prefer the Eclipse IDE to the NetBeans IDE, having actually coded for each as a platform, I can offer an opinion from experience: the Eclipse programming model makes just makes it easier to get things done. Most vendors seem to agree, which is why, with the exception of Sun, all the major Java vendors are Eclipse Foundation members (including my employer--naturally my opinions are my own).
Compare NetBeans on this footing and you'll see the difference.
There are many more upgrade paths from the Eclipse IDE than WSAD. But buying the for-pay IDE atop Eclipse isn't actually the point. Look at the technology underneath Eclipse: dynamic extensible plug-ins and OSGi service bundles. It is a platform where one tool can easily extend and integrate with others.
Yes, you can take the same NetBeans jar file and run the installer on Linux and Windows with equal ease. So what? I can download the correct Eclipse SDK for either of those platforms just like you'd have to download the correct Java SDK. What I get in return in a far more reponsive GUI with the native platform look and feel. NetBeans has made great strides in this department, but it hasn't caught up to Eclipse yet.
Eclipse as an open source platform (not simply an IDE) has far more vendor weight and more potential than NetBeans, as a platform, does.
The NetBeans tools may be great, but NetBeans' time has passed. Eclipse now has very strong momentum. Eclipse is the non-Microsoft market, sparked by IBM, that tool vendors can come to, play in, and profit from. I don't think Sun can recapture industry focus from Eclipse; that focus is the Eclipse Foundation's to lose.
Looking at it from the developer's standpoint; use the tools that best fit the job, when you can. But this move is about battling ecosystems. Sun ought to join in and work with Eclipse.
(Grin) Nice.
EEEEEeeeeeewwwww... A zit so big Hubble could see it...
I disagree. It is most often used as a way to escape verbs. Corporate or market-speak dilutes statements with adjectives until any action or direct conviction has been removed. After all, direct conviction might offend, a call for direct action might shock.
Corporate-speak does not abstract. Abstraction allows for more powerful expression. Corporate-speak hides the truth. Whether the truth be that the speaker doesn't really have anything relevant to say, or that the truth is distasteful and offensive when clearly understood, the speaker excuses him or herself with imprecise, indirect phrasing.
You are right in one sense. Corporate-speak is designed to form a kind of secret handshake, separating employees from employers, executives from workers. But its primary purpose is to muddle meaning.
For example, "Our value-added processes empower communication." This is an empty phrase; cotton-candy for the mind. It feels good to spin, great to eat, but leaves one with an empty, dull nausea. When did it become more effective to hide the truth than to operate with a strong grasp of it?
The worst part is that so many do confuse corporate-speak for a system of abstractions and brandish it as though they were accomplishing actual work. They string together more and more words and say less and less. In the end, they will accomplish nothing, while droning on endlessly about ROI.
(grumble, grumble...)
Personally, I'd much prefer speech that used metaphor and nuance, beauty and artistry, to increase the impact of the truth and meaning it presents.
Later versions will include a feature that automatically votes for the "Cowboy Neal" option in Slashdot polls.
Future Stargate SG-1 episode:
Sam (slightly exasperated): "Think of the universe as a giant browser..."