I can only speak for myself, but I go through an average of 15 CD-R's a month making weekly backups of my source code (I'm a software contractor), backups of any necessary data files, and my own installation CD's I send to my clients. So yeah, I'm buying probably 2 or maybe 3 100 CD-R spindles a year, as some disks inevitably become frisbees... and this has *no* effect on my music CD purchases.
While I don't boycott the RIAA completely, generally I only buy around 3 CD's a year as I think most music nowadays is pure shit.
This year has been the exception though as I've actually bought probably 10 CD's, but that's only because Ozzy has rereleased some of his old CD's with bonus tracks.
Man those graphics are killer. As far as game innovation, since it's a retelling of the original DOOM storyline, I would imagine that it's much more immersive, like Deus Ex or System Shock 2.
That imp(?) looks a lot more threatening then the old scaled jpegs from back in the day..
/me patiently awaiting Sept 15th when I can go get a Radeon 9700...
While I feel somewhat* sorry for the person that lost all their music files, at least they (presumably) didn't pay for them, so really it's just an inconvenience to re-copy their cd's to their hard drive.
But what if they had paid for them? Even a trivial amount like 25 cents adds up extremely quick. At least in their case, though, they still have the files. Hard drives fail.. the Windows Registry can be corrupted.. what then? Do you re-purchase all the files you've already bought once?
This should be yet another compelling reason to dump Windows in favor of Linux on your PC's.
* I can't feel too sorry for anyone using Windows Media Player Spyware.. Is it really Microsoft's business that I spend a large part of my work day writing code and listening to (legal) mp3 rips of my Ozzy Osbourne cd's?
You know, between these "Hellion Electric Eyes" (Judas Priest reference for the non-headbangers out there) watching us, and the way the media portrays the mythical "Religious Right" organization as a villian of Emmanuel Goldstein proportions, we're getting closer and closer to 1984.
I've said this before, and I'll say it again: The sole responsibility for monitoring your child's safety is yours. Technology like this is merely a false sense of security. In the case of companies using it on employees, it's a disgusting invasion of privacy, and I'm surprised that it's legal here in the states. (Of course, I'm also upset that companies, under threat of terminating your employment, can extract bodily fluids from you in the name of a "drug test".)
Even more of a kick in the teeth is the cost.. $400 bucks to lose all privacy of where I'm at at any given time? No thanks. If I run an errand during my lunch hour, it's nobody's business but my own.
I hope this takes off. Then we won't have to listen to the same inane liberal comments from Hollywood stars who think they know better then you because they're a celebrity.
If Julia Roberts, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, and Rob Reiner never open up their mouth to spew liberal garbage again, that's fine with me.
GamePro Magazine has an article in it's latest issue speculating that these.1 micron chips IBM is producing will be cell based and will form the basis of the PlayStation 3.
Joe Biden is up for re-election this November. Send him a message by voting for his Republican opponent. Throw his ass out of office. He's a career politician talking out of both sides of his mouth. He's been there 3 decades. DO THE RIGHT THING! FIRE HIM!
C'mon - someone in Delaware register DefeatJoeBiden.org or something and DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS JACKASS... And - idiotic DRM bills shouldn't be the only reason to toss him out of office... see for yourself.
The author's right, QT is far superior to MFC. Cross platform support and a nice, easy to use slot / signal architecture makes my life as an application developer much easier.
However,
MFC isn't that bad. If you're developing a Windows application in C++, and you're forced into using MS only technology cause your boss won't pay the $1000+ per developer license for QT, and your choices are between using MFC and the base Win32 API, then MFC is the way to go. Granted, the Document / View Architecture is uh... well it's *odd*, but once you get the hang of it you can whip out a reasonably good GUI quickly.
MFC does do some nice things for you, mainly serialization and treating controls as objects, and the Message Maps are a vast improvement over the 10 page switch statements for Message Handling in Win32..
However, since MFC is "dead", I'd rather see a comparision between C# and Windows Forms vs. C++ and QT.. (and a lot of this I posted on Microsoft's own news groups.. hehehehe)
Seriously,
If you want to see something that's godawful, look at C# and Windows Forms.
The below is from a post I submitted to Microsoft's own news groups.. to date, I have not gotten any kind of response from Microsoft. A couple of "Wait for Borland C++ Builder.NET" responses.. but nothing from Microsoft. Since MFC is "dead" and.NET is the "way" for Microsoft now, it makes sense to post this..
Especially if you have an option between QT and.NET... PICK QT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.
While trying to develop a dockable tool window (much like the ones
found in Visual Studio.NET) I've done a lot of research and had a lot
of grief. Out of the box, you can't create a dockable window.
No one seems to know of any royalty free, open source solutions, and
the.NET Magic library doesn't count. Look closely at the source and
you'll find that there's an awful lot of Win32 API calls being made
via PInvoke, which, per Petzold on page 237 of "Programming Windows
with C#", is "no longer writing managed code, and certainly not
platform-independent code."
So for the.NET Magic library users, what's the point of even
bothering to use C# and Winforms if all you're using it for is to wrap
Win32 API calls? Why not just use C++ compiled as a Win32 app and get
the performance increase and greater toolset? I know that making it a
dockable window is just a window style, (FWS_something, too lazy to
look it up right now, which you would think would just be a property
of a Control type, since Control seems to Map 1 to 1 to a Window.)
Which brings me to the largest gripe I have about the.NET framework:
The Winforms really suck. The overly simple UI controls it exposes are
simply not acceptable in today's enviroment. First, I'll give
Microsoft credit: Visual Studio.NET's UI is absolutely stunning, and
the C# language has some nice features....
However, it is seemingly
impossible to create any form of advanced UI unless you derive your
own controls or use PInvoke to create GenericPane window classes. And
according to Spy++, those nice dockable, resizable windows are of
Window Class GenericPane. Seriously, take Docking toolbars for example
- we've been able to do this in MFC for years, so using "pure" C#
really seems like two steps back instead of the leap forward the PR
machine would have you believe. For any kind of advanced UI are we
really forced to pony up money for third party libraries or roll our
own? (And again, for the goal of "pure" C#, using PInvoke doesn't
count.)
What's really maddening is that there's so many other language / RAD
toolkits that do this much better. C++ / MFC, C++ / QT (for cross
platform), Java / Swing, to name a few.
Even the Menus aren't dockable / moveable. What's the point of using
managed code if the only applications you can quickly produce look
like crap?
it does have value.. the companies that collect the oil from a grease trap (for a fee) then filter it and sell it to cosmetics companies...:) French Fries one day, Eye Liner the next!
Why would they use water instead of something that *wouldn't* conduct electricity?
I know there's got to be at least one liquid that doesn't conduct electricity that would be suitable for this.. hey - materials engineers, little help?
You're either a troll, or a prepubescent who just doesn't know any better. The government has no ulterior motives? What about the kind, loving, altrustic government witholding treatment to African Americans with syphilis? Intentionally using SmallPox against Native Americans? What about all of our troops who have Gulf War Syndrome? What about the vietnam troops that were exposed to Agent Orange? My father still bears the scars from this.
The best policy when dealing with Government is a Russian proverb quoted by Ronald Reagan. Trust, but verify.
As far as a "greedy" corporation, let me ask you something. Have you ever gotten a job from a poor person? Some corporations are definately bad, (cough cough microsoft cough cough) but others offer quality products at competitive prices without screwing over everyone they can. Now do me a favor: STEP AWAY FROM THE KARL MARX BOOK!
As far as the Apache fix.. it was all over the net. There was a multitude of sites you could get it from.
If any thing, the Government almost ALWAYS has an ulterior motive.
For the record, I'm a "he", in case that wasn't glaringly obvious.
As far as running for the U.S. House, I'm old enough, but I'm not nearly rich enough to be able to fund a campaign like that. Also, I'd have to move to a district where they have a liberal goof in office before it would even be worth my while. That, and I refuse to cut my hair.
Though.. it would be kind of fun to go to the house floor and totally go off on some of the absolute stupidity in DC. Like making every day a freaking holiday. Actually, that gives me an idea. For the liberals: National Bedwetters Day.:)
This is really not a big threat to your credit cards. If anything, the more people that are duped in to using this service will actually help you out by lowering the mathematical odds that it's your card number that's stolen.
Seriously, you have a bigger risk of getting your credit card number stolen when you pay for your dinner at a restaurant with it then by submitting it to a website using SSL. Not only does the waiter/waitress handle your card, but in a lot of places they'll swipe it in a magnetic card reader that sends it unencrytped over a phone line, or worse, they'll use a POS system that stores the entire swipe data in an unencrypted text file on their local server's hard drive... which will later send it out over a phone line unencrypted.
Microsoft is evil, but they aren't stupid. If they screw this up the class action lawsuit that will result would likely put them out of business. Wait, maybe we should all sign up, and get Johnnie Cochran on retainer, before Microsoft hires him and we lose to the Chewbacca defense;)
Sorry Microsoft, but what I do with a piece of hardware once I've purchased it is my own damned business. Unlike software, hardware is SOLD. Or is Microsoft selling hardware use licenses when they sell an XBOX? Would that make it illegal to take a sledge hammer to an XBOX when the cheap-ass controllers break on you?
Here's a scary thought: What if Microsoft *was* selling Hardware Use Licenses..
"You may not use this pointing device to click on any hyperlink on a non-microsoft approved site."
As far as home brew games, just change the code a bit and release it for free or sell it or rent it or whatever for the PC. Preferably a PC running Linux, to really flip MS the bird on this one.
Sadly, yes, I was a "salaried exempt" employee, so I did not get overtime pay all.
And I fully understand the nature of the software industry, and how in some cases you need to put in extra effort to get something done to land a sale, and I have no problem with doing that for a week.
The problem at my old job was that we were on 15 hours a week of mandatory, unpaid overtime with no vacation requests accepted for 10 months, and I finally got a new job and quit after 8 months... which is partially my fault for not getting a different job sooner.
In case you're wondering... I'll never work salaried again. I'm now an hourly contractor, so not only do I make more money, but if I work overtime I get time and a half for it. I also get 12 days of vacation a year - and they can't fire me without a months notice unless I do something illegal. It's not for everybody, but I'm much happier as a contractor then I ever was as a slave.
It's not just 1.0 versions of software that suck, in at least one case (because I worked there) it's later versions.
As a developer, I've seen this happen first hand, but in most cases to blame the engineer is incorrect. In my case, pointy-haired boss types pull a deadline out of their asses and expect the Engineering team to hit the deadline. What happens then? Well here's one quick anecdote.
The company I used to work for decided in February of last year that we would ship version X.2 (where X is greater then 4) of our software package at the end of June. Only problem was, there were still approximately 10,000 known bugs, and the only reason to ship in June was to announce the release at the company sponsored trade show. That, and there wasn't a single engineer asked for an esitmate, unless you count the moron owner who thought he was a developer and was notorious for being way too aggressive in estimates (among other bad habits, like not even building his code before checking it in to the source control system).
Clearly, there was no chance in hell we were going to hit the deadline. Management's solution? Mandatory unpaid overtime. 15 hours a week. All requests for vacation were denied until the product shipped.
To make a long story short, 2 developers quit (myself being one of them), 2 were laid off because they didn't have a new version to sell because X.0 was such a piece of garbage for a lot of the same reasons.. and the company finally trotted out version X.2 to very little fanfare with 3000 known serious defects still not addressed.
And, like X.0 before it, it's a POS - a piece of shit. Engineers get burned out when they are overworked just like anyone else, and are forced under threat of termination to make poor decisions to keep their jobs. Management then oversees the creation of a poor product and then are completely oblivious that they are the root cause of the problem. Instead, the development department gets blamed and in this case the director got canned. (When really all he did was take his marching orders from the owner. No authority to make decisions, and yet they held him accountable.)
The truly sad thing is, all this can be avoided if management would just back off and let developers do their job without micromanaging and shoving their nose to the grindstone, spending the investment capital to pay your employees overtime when appropriate, staffing up your Quality Assurance department (5 Analysts testing code put out by 10 engineers is not enough by a long shot) and not releasing it until it's ready.
One excellent software release can make your company very rich. One poor software release can kill your company. (And in the case of the company I used to work for, I must admit I hope that happens. The world would be a better place without that third rate company run by a fourth rate pompous jack-ass developer who thinks he's above you just because he went to an Ivy League school, and you just went to the local University.)
And don't even ask me to name the company or the product, I won't, I still have close friends that work there. Even if I do wish they'd quit drinking the Kool-Aid..
I hope Craig whoops Hollywood's ass on this one.
First I'm going to state the obvious:
When an advertiser buys time on a network program, they're trying to "buy eyeballs". The networks charge a rate based on the ratings, which is a statistic of approximately how many people are watching.
However, it's not accurate as people get up, go to the bathroom, grab a snack, change the channel, etc, or if taping the show (which Nielsen accounts for) people fast forward through the commercials. The notion that you're required to watch the commercials is offensive and ridiculous.
Now I can see why the ability to skip commercials might be frightening to networks, but it's nothing new for the reasons I've described above. The worst that can happen is that there's no money to be made in traditional commercials, so advertisers are forced to pay for product placement. For example, instead of a 30 second add with a poorly written, poorly sung "Diet Coke" commercial, maybe Jennifer Aniston drinks a Diet Coke and talks about how much she loves it on Friends. You know.. this is how advertising is still done in places.
The big problem I have with Hollywood also is the notion that SonicBlue should be FORCED to collect usage statistics. It's nobody's business that I watched Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs (go Red Wings) unless I want it to be, meaning I agree to fill out one of those stupid Nielsen books or otherwise agree to be a Nielsen Household.
And this should be a lesson: When your current business model is out of date, CHANGE THE MODEL. Too often big corporations try to legislate profits rather then be innovative.
Slashdot Mirror
You've motivated me. In 2004 I'm running for the U.S. House of Representatives.
RAILGUNNER FOR CONGRESS!!
The only candidate with the balls to beat these jackass politicians over the head with the proverbial CLUE STICK!
While I don't boycott the RIAA completely, generally I only buy around 3 CD's a year as I think most music nowadays is pure shit.
This year has been the exception though as I've actually bought probably 10 CD's, but that's only because Ozzy has rereleased some of his old CD's with bonus tracks.
That imp(?) looks a lot more threatening then the old scaled jpegs from back in the day..
But what if they had paid for them? Even a trivial amount like 25 cents adds up extremely quick. At least in their case, though, they still have the files. Hard drives fail.. the Windows Registry can be corrupted.. what then? Do you re-purchase all the files you've already bought once?
This should be yet another compelling reason to dump Windows in favor of Linux on your PC's.
* I can't feel too sorry for anyone using Windows Media Player Spyware.. Is it really Microsoft's business that I spend a large part of my work day writing code and listening to (legal) mp3 rips of my Ozzy Osbourne cd's?
I've said this before, and I'll say it again: The sole responsibility for monitoring your child's safety is yours. Technology like this is merely a false sense of security. In the case of companies using it on employees, it's a disgusting invasion of privacy, and I'm surprised that it's legal here in the states. (Of course, I'm also upset that companies, under threat of terminating your employment, can extract bodily fluids from you in the name of a "drug test".)
Even more of a kick in the teeth is the cost.. $400 bucks to lose all privacy of where I'm at at any given time? No thanks. If I run an errand during my lunch hour, it's nobody's business but my own.
If Julia Roberts, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, and Rob Reiner never open up their mouth to spew liberal garbage again, that's fine with me.
GamePro Magazine has an article in it's latest issue speculating that these .1 micron chips IBM is producing will be cell based and will form the basis of the PlayStation 3.
C'mon - someone in Delaware register DefeatJoeBiden.org or something and DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS JACKASS... And - idiotic DRM bills shouldn't be the only reason to toss him out of office... see for yourself.
http://www.issues2002.org/Senate/Joe_Biden.htm
Needed: One chicken breast, 4 ounces of Monterrey Jack Cheese, 3 ounces of chedder cheese, 4 tbsp diced tomatoes, 2 tbsp diced red onion, 1/8 tsp diced cilantro, 1/8 tsp jalepeno.. garlic powder, salt, pepper.. and 2 flour tortilla's
Step 1 - Grate the cheeses, put into a ziploc bag.
Step 2 - put the diced tomato, onion, cilantro, jalepeno and a pinch of salt, pepper, and garlic powder into a ziploc bag
Step 3 - Close the ziploc bag and shake like hell
Step 4 - Grill the chicken breast, then cut into 1 cm cubes.
Step 5 - on a griddle, place have of the contents of the mixture on an area of one half of the tortilla, then place half the chicken..
Step 6 - lightly fold the tortilla, and flip a few times until the cheese is all melted and gooey..
Step 7 - serve with corona
Quick, easy, and tasty. Perfect geek food.
Requires no utensils to eat!
However, MFC isn't that bad. If you're developing a Windows application in C++, and you're forced into using MS only technology cause your boss won't pay the $1000+ per developer license for QT, and your choices are between using MFC and the base Win32 API, then MFC is the way to go. Granted, the Document / View Architecture is uh... well it's *odd*, but once you get the hang of it you can whip out a reasonably good GUI quickly.
MFC does do some nice things for you, mainly serialization and treating controls as objects, and the Message Maps are a vast improvement over the 10 page switch statements for Message Handling in Win32..
However, since MFC is "dead", I'd rather see a comparision between C# and Windows Forms vs. C++ and QT.. (and a lot of this I posted on Microsoft's own news groups.. hehehehe)
Seriously, If you want to see something that's godawful, look at C# and Windows Forms.
The below is from a post I submitted to Microsoft's own news groups.. to date, I have not gotten any kind of response from Microsoft. A couple of "Wait for Borland C++ Builder.NET" responses.. but nothing from Microsoft. Since MFC is "dead" and .NET is the "way" for Microsoft now, it makes sense to post this..
Especially if you have an option between QT and .NET... PICK QT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.
While trying to develop a dockable tool window (much like the ones found in Visual Studio.NET) I've done a lot of research and had a lot of grief. Out of the box, you can't create a dockable window.
No one seems to know of any royalty free, open source solutions, and the .NET Magic library doesn't count. Look closely at the source and
you'll find that there's an awful lot of Win32 API calls being made
via PInvoke, which, per Petzold on page 237 of "Programming Windows
with C#", is "no longer writing managed code, and certainly not
platform-independent code."
So for the .NET Magic library users, what's the point of even
bothering to use C# and Winforms if all you're using it for is to wrap
Win32 API calls? Why not just use C++ compiled as a Win32 app and get
the performance increase and greater toolset? I know that making it a
dockable window is just a window style, (FWS_something, too lazy to
look it up right now, which you would think would just be a property
of a Control type, since Control seems to Map 1 to 1 to a Window.)
Which brings me to the largest gripe I have about the .NET framework:
The Winforms really suck. The overly simple UI controls it exposes are
simply not acceptable in today's enviroment. First, I'll give
Microsoft credit: Visual Studio.NET's UI is absolutely stunning, and
the C# language has some nice features....
However, it is seemingly impossible to create any form of advanced UI unless you derive your own controls or use PInvoke to create GenericPane window classes. And according to Spy++, those nice dockable, resizable windows are of Window Class GenericPane. Seriously, take Docking toolbars for example - we've been able to do this in MFC for years, so using "pure" C# really seems like two steps back instead of the leap forward the PR machine would have you believe. For any kind of advanced UI are we really forced to pony up money for third party libraries or roll our own? (And again, for the goal of "pure" C#, using PInvoke doesn't count.)
What's really maddening is that there's so many other language / RAD toolkits that do this much better. C++ / MFC, C++ / QT (for cross platform), Java / Swing, to name a few.
Even the Menus aren't dockable / moveable. What's the point of using managed code if the only applications you can quickly produce look like crap?
it does have value.. the companies that collect the oil from a grease trap (for a fee) then filter it and sell it to cosmetics companies... :) French Fries one day, Eye Liner the next!
I know there's got to be at least one liquid that doesn't conduct electricity that would be suitable for this.. hey - materials engineers, little help?
You're either a troll, or a prepubescent who just doesn't know any better. The government has no ulterior motives? What about the kind, loving, altrustic government witholding treatment to African Americans with syphilis? Intentionally using SmallPox against Native Americans? What about all of our troops who have Gulf War Syndrome? What about the vietnam troops that were exposed to Agent Orange? My father still bears the scars from this.
The best policy when dealing with Government is a Russian proverb quoted by Ronald Reagan. Trust, but verify.
As far as a "greedy" corporation, let me ask you something. Have you ever gotten a job from a poor person? Some corporations are definately bad, (cough cough microsoft cough cough) but others offer quality products at competitive prices without screwing over everyone they can. Now do me a favor: STEP AWAY FROM THE KARL MARX BOOK!
As far as the Apache fix.. it was all over the net. There was a multitude of sites you could get it from.
If any thing, the Government almost ALWAYS has an ulterior motive.
For the record, I'm a "he", in case that wasn't glaringly obvious.
As far as running for the U.S. House, I'm old enough, but I'm not nearly rich enough to be able to fund a campaign like that. Also, I'd have to move to a district where they have a liberal goof in office before it would even be worth my while. That, and I refuse to cut my hair.
Though.. it would be kind of fun to go to the house floor and totally go off on some of the absolute stupidity in DC. Like making every day a freaking holiday. Actually, that gives me an idea. For the liberals: National Bedwetters Day. :)
I think the translation might be "A moose once bit my sister".. obscure enough Monty Python reference?
Seriously, you have a bigger risk of getting your credit card number stolen when you pay for your dinner at a restaurant with it then by submitting it to a website using SSL. Not only does the waiter/waitress handle your card, but in a lot of places they'll swipe it in a magnetic card reader that sends it unencrytped over a phone line, or worse, they'll use a POS system that stores the entire swipe data in an unencrypted text file on their local server's hard drive... which will later send it out over a phone line unencrypted.
Microsoft is evil, but they aren't stupid. If they screw this up the class action lawsuit that will result would likely put them out of business. Wait, maybe we should all sign up, and get Johnnie Cochran on retainer, before Microsoft hires him and we lose to the Chewbacca defense ;)
The answer is amazingly simple, though the joke loses humor.
The reason is that it's easier to just manufacture ALL buttons with braille, rather then just the buttons for walk-up ATM's...
I'm jealous of you. I have to run XP at work, and wish I could downgrade to Windows 2000.
Here's a scary thought: What if Microsoft *was* selling Hardware Use Licenses..
"You may not use this pointing device to click on any hyperlink on a non-microsoft approved site."
As far as home brew games, just change the code a bit and release it for free or sell it or rent it or whatever for the PC. Preferably a PC running Linux, to really flip MS the bird on this one.
They've done it before - remember Windows used to intentionally not run on top of DR-DOS...
And I fully understand the nature of the software industry, and how in some cases you need to put in extra effort to get something done to land a sale, and I have no problem with doing that for a week.
The problem at my old job was that we were on 15 hours a week of mandatory, unpaid overtime with no vacation requests accepted for 10 months, and I finally got a new job and quit after 8 months... which is partially my fault for not getting a different job sooner.
In case you're wondering... I'll never work salaried again. I'm now an hourly contractor, so not only do I make more money, but if I work overtime I get time and a half for it. I also get 12 days of vacation a year - and they can't fire me without a months notice unless I do something illegal. It's not for everybody, but I'm much happier as a contractor then I ever was as a slave.
As a developer, I've seen this happen first hand, but in most cases to blame the engineer is incorrect. In my case, pointy-haired boss types pull a deadline out of their asses and expect the Engineering team to hit the deadline. What happens then? Well here's one quick anecdote.
The company I used to work for decided in February of last year that we would ship version X.2 (where X is greater then 4) of our software package at the end of June. Only problem was, there were still approximately 10,000 known bugs, and the only reason to ship in June was to announce the release at the company sponsored trade show. That, and there wasn't a single engineer asked for an esitmate, unless you count the moron owner who thought he was a developer and was notorious for being way too aggressive in estimates (among other bad habits, like not even building his code before checking it in to the source control system).
Clearly, there was no chance in hell we were going to hit the deadline. Management's solution? Mandatory unpaid overtime. 15 hours a week. All requests for vacation were denied until the product shipped.
To make a long story short, 2 developers quit (myself being one of them), 2 were laid off because they didn't have a new version to sell because X.0 was such a piece of garbage for a lot of the same reasons.. and the company finally trotted out version X.2 to very little fanfare with 3000 known serious defects still not addressed.
And, like X.0 before it, it's a POS - a piece of shit. Engineers get burned out when they are overworked just like anyone else, and are forced under threat of termination to make poor decisions to keep their jobs. Management then oversees the creation of a poor product and then are completely oblivious that they are the root cause of the problem. Instead, the development department gets blamed and in this case the director got canned. (When really all he did was take his marching orders from the owner. No authority to make decisions, and yet they held him accountable.)
The truly sad thing is, all this can be avoided if management would just back off and let developers do their job without micromanaging and shoving their nose to the grindstone, spending the investment capital to pay your employees overtime when appropriate, staffing up your Quality Assurance department (5 Analysts testing code put out by 10 engineers is not enough by a long shot) and not releasing it until it's ready.
One excellent software release can make your company very rich. One poor software release can kill your company. (And in the case of the company I used to work for, I must admit I hope that happens. The world would be a better place without that third rate company run by a fourth rate pompous jack-ass developer who thinks he's above you just because he went to an Ivy League school, and you just went to the local University.)
And don't even ask me to name the company or the product, I won't, I still have close friends that work there. Even if I do wish they'd quit drinking the Kool-Aid..
When an advertiser buys time on a network program, they're trying to "buy eyeballs". The networks charge a rate based on the ratings, which is a statistic of approximately how many people are watching.
However, it's not accurate as people get up, go to the bathroom, grab a snack, change the channel, etc, or if taping the show (which Nielsen accounts for) people fast forward through the commercials. The notion that you're required to watch the commercials is offensive and ridiculous.
Now I can see why the ability to skip commercials might be frightening to networks, but it's nothing new for the reasons I've described above. The worst that can happen is that there's no money to be made in traditional commercials, so advertisers are forced to pay for product placement. For example, instead of a 30 second add with a poorly written, poorly sung "Diet Coke" commercial, maybe Jennifer Aniston drinks a Diet Coke and talks about how much she loves it on Friends. You know.. this is how advertising is still done in places.
The big problem I have with Hollywood also is the notion that SonicBlue should be FORCED to collect usage statistics. It's nobody's business that I watched Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs (go Red Wings) unless I want it to be, meaning I agree to fill out one of those stupid Nielsen books or otherwise agree to be a Nielsen Household.
And this should be a lesson: When your current business model is out of date, CHANGE THE MODEL. Too often big corporations try to legislate profits rather then be innovative.
This gives a whole new meaning to Blue Screen of Death..
Descent: FreeSpace
FreeSpace 2, which I cannot recommend enough, I love this game.
Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator (yeah, yeah, I hate Microsoft but that's still a fun game)
Any EA Sports games, NHL 2001 gets high personal recommendations
Heroes of Might and Magic 2 and 3
And on an encouraging note: What a great idea to do this. Maybe more schools will follow suit.