Historically, id has never made technical or strategic decisions based on bribes/cash infusions, etc. The kind of work they do isn't insanely cash-intensive. In fact, you could argue that the *less* cash they have at any given point, the *better* their products would be. This was probably true in the older days, when they had to make games work on real computers, not the latest incarnation of the Pentium 4 Phallus Enhancer Plus.
For them, money is the result of good decisions, not the other way around. Arguably, no real "money" was involved in releasing an OpenGL-accelerated version of quake, as *nobody* at the time had 3D accelerator cards. They did it because it was the shit, and made people drool when they looked at it. Perhaps 3Dfx helped offset the dev costs, but they weren't an nVidia-level corporation at that time.
How did that decision pay off? Look at graphics hardware these days. It's pretty ridiculous. As the article states, they created an industry, they *were not* created BY an industry. id will always be one of those firms that people look up to, simply because it's privately owned and makes solid technological decisions.
No matter how much Doom III's gameplay or storyline could possibly suck, that's not really the point.
id is not known for making games that suck the player into a virtual world with a complicated storyline, complex plot folds, and exciting climaxes with spectacular resolutions. In fact, in that aspect, all their games have sucked. The acceleration, deathmatch, and graphic detail have always been years ahead of the curve, however.
The article isn't being metaphorical by stating that Carmack and Romero created an industry - they literally licensed their engines to the entire gaming industry for further development and increased revenue. Everyone wins, especially the hardware makers. I'd venture to say that id is single-handedly responsible for the proliferation of OpenGL drivers and hardware for consumer-level graphics cards. Remember the Voodoo pass-through accelerated 3D card?
But anyway, don't think of Doom III as a game that may not meet your expectations, but think of it as the technology that an entire generation of games will be based on, just like other id releases. Think of what half-life et al. did with enemy AI with the "old" Quake II engine.
I wonder how Princeton Law is going to come out of the woodwork on this one, and how RIAA will counter that sort of muscle. The endowment and funds at Princeton might be in jeopardy (since their computer networks facilitated the alleged action in the first place). If so... I'd expect them to bring out the big guns.
Perhaps some high profile Princeton Law lawyers will feel compelled to help their alma mater... perhaps the law school will take it upon themselves to defend their own?
Except for the fact that MS would have a very hard time proving any malfeasance on the part of the consumer.
Especially when said consumer was at a conference with several thousand witnesses that did the same thing. Then, concievably, a countersuit could be filed on the grounds of entrapment/false advertising/whatever, i'm not a lawyer, only stating the obvious.
It's totally up to Microsoft to determine how to license their software, and whom to license it to.
What's the fuss? They could license it for free use to recovering crack addicts that live on the 3000 block of 1st street that wear green pants if they wanted to.
As long as some marketing monkey at MS has the OK from the higher-ups, then it's all good.
Yes, it's very easy to make ridiculous amounts of horsepower, although it does take some major money (probably around $10,000 for a 600HP or so car), $2000 or so for the 450HP flavor. Add more if you want to build the motor. So far the record for a stock-engined Supra is right around 800RWHP. This is not a typo. Do some research.
To some of the other posts under this one: Not everyone likes racing the 1/4 mile. I don't recall ever seeing a road-race prepared Chevelle. My Supra is prep'd for performance street driving, which includes coilover suspension, basic performing upgrades, and yields about 450HP at the crank. I eat stock production cars like it ain't no fuckin' thang, even though my car is very mildly modified as far as performance goes (import or domestic).
I do, however, see road-race prep'd Camaros and Mustangs. Said Camaros and Mustangs have never beaten said Supra in impromptu street racing, however.:)
Race-prep'd classics are useless for everything but getting to the end of the track. Newer cars can be grocery getters as well as weekend racers.
I've got an InFocus LP330 XGA DLP projector that does VGA up to 1024x768 and S-Video, composite (NTSC and PAL).
I've been looking for something that will support higher resolutions in the future. But for now, the image quality from a panasonic DVD audio/video player is good enough for me. I live in a 2bd apartment, and project my image onto a bare wall. At night, with dolby digital surround, it's just like being in a theater. With a good pair of headphones on, it's a private screening room.
It's rated at only 650 ANSI lumens (newer projectors have up to 2000!!) so at night it's perfect but during the day it's not terribly bright. Getting a projection screen will help immensely, I don't have one because of my living situation right now.
Getting a high-res converter box (with HDTV, progressive, whatever) to transfer converted XGA signals to this projector would be awesome.
Headphones may be good for live monitoring and mixdown, or critical listening, but I can't really sit in front of a computer day in day out with a pair of cans on my head, and be teathered to my amp.
I only use headphones for live monitoring when I'm practicing drums or guitar. I can't stand not being able to hear anything that goes on around me when the volume is up:(
Oh yeah I also use the headphones at night when my neighbors are sleeping:)
Mackie, Alesis, M-audio, Roland, and MOTU (among others) also make professional audio interface equipment for recording and monitoring/listening.
There are a couple of Creative-licensed OEM products (Some of the Alesis stuff looks awfully familiar...) but most of these companies provide far better hardware and software for "real" sound applications. A nice audio interface w/ a pair of active studio monitors will sound worlds better than some cheap consumer surround sound system. The prices are pretty much comparable with Creative's "good" stuff.
The concept of blogging isn't new, by any means. It's basically the UNIX finger service adapted for mass use on the web/AIM/whatever. There were even finger-to-web CGI scripts in 1995 that accomplished this same exact thing. Hell, I even wrote one of them for my personal use.
Remember John Carmack's (of id software fame).plan files? Back at the height of Quake I/II/III development, I would suspect that the number of requests to his.plan files approached 100,000 a day. Many other notable people in the gaming industry had similar setups.
I suppose it's really a catch-22, since famous/notable people generally do not share personal information on the internet. But that's exactly what it would take to generate a substantial volume of hits/reads per day.
Legalese: Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, it is not an infringement Translation: Except for what's mentioned in section 106, it's not illegal...
for the owner of a copy of a computer program to make or authorize the making of another copy or adaptation of that computer program for the user to make a copy
provided: that such a new copy or adaptation is created as an essential step in the utilization of the computer program in conjunction with a machine if the act of making a copy is necessary to get the software to run on a computer
and that it is used in no other manner and the new copy isn't used in any other way.
My English isn't the best, but I'm not sure if that's the proper section you should be referring to.
Speaking also as a student, I cannot understand their reluctance to find a decent job so that they don't have to forgo food, shelter, and books for computing horsepower.
An operating system is a collection of specifically ordered instructions from a programming language defined by arbitrary symbols (low-level assembler, high-level C, for example)
A structural blueprint is a collection of specifically ordered instructions from a language defined by arbitrary symbols (low-level lines and letters, high-level beams, studs, poles, etc).
A novel is a collection of specifically ordered instructions from a language defined by arbitrary symbols (low-level language defined by the 26 letters of the alphabet, and a high-level language defined as English.)
To say the programming language (letters and numbers) is the same as the operating system is like saying structural blueprints are the same as shapes and lines and novels are the same as English.
You must keep in mind that many of the folks you interviewed were born and raised in China, and have now been injected into a completely foreign environment. They probably don't speak English too well, and that is a major hindrance to elevating to a managerial position. They probably came to the United States to give their children better lives.
My father has an M.D. and Ph.D., but refused to take on managerial/project lead positions at a major biotech firm - because the salary he got was sufficient (along with stock options) and he got to spend more time with me.
I am now pursuing a B.S. in EE at a top engineering school (whatever those rankings mean, heh), and have every desire to excel in the workplace and become a manager/project lead/etc. Plenty of work experience here (writing code, not flipping burgers). I am economically self-sufficient in America (I was born in China) at age 18. I decided to do this because my parents worked hard for their lives here and I don't want to be a parasite until I'm 24. They deserve a nice, early retirement.
You gotta keep it in perspective. Ask those interviewees if they've got children, and where they expect their children to go to school.
In other words, ask them where they expect their CHILDREN to be in 20 years instead of asking them where they want to be in 5 - it's sort of a moot point in the eyes of an immigrant family.
That's the idea of immigration - picking up your family and moving for infinitely better hopes of success down the family lineage, not simply selfish desires to abandon your progeny for a six-figure salary and a company car.
Of course, this only applies to the first couple of generations. After that, smooth sailing should be predicted...
Slashdot Mirror
Wouldn't it be ahh... against the NSA's true interests to tell people how to secure private machines better?
Historically, id has never made technical or strategic decisions based on bribes/cash infusions, etc. The kind of work they do isn't insanely cash-intensive. In fact, you could argue that the *less* cash they have at any given point, the *better* their products would be. This was probably true in the older days, when they had to make games work on real computers, not the latest incarnation of the Pentium 4 Phallus Enhancer Plus.
For them, money is the result of good decisions, not the other way around. Arguably, no real "money" was involved in releasing an OpenGL-accelerated version of quake, as *nobody* at the time had 3D accelerator cards. They did it because it was the shit, and made people drool when they looked at it. Perhaps 3Dfx helped offset the dev costs, but they weren't an nVidia-level corporation at that time.
How did that decision pay off? Look at graphics hardware these days. It's pretty ridiculous. As the article states, they created an industry, they *were not* created BY an industry. id will always be one of those firms that people look up to, simply because it's privately owned and makes solid technological decisions.
No matter how much Doom III's gameplay or storyline could possibly suck, that's not really the point.
id is not known for making games that suck the player into a virtual world with a complicated storyline, complex plot folds, and exciting climaxes with spectacular resolutions. In fact, in that aspect, all their games have sucked. The acceleration, deathmatch, and graphic detail have always been years ahead of the curve, however.
The article isn't being metaphorical by stating that Carmack and Romero created an industry - they literally licensed their engines to the entire gaming industry for further development and increased revenue. Everyone wins, especially the hardware makers. I'd venture to say that id is single-handedly responsible for the proliferation of OpenGL drivers and hardware for consumer-level graphics cards. Remember the Voodoo pass-through accelerated 3D card?
But anyway, don't think of Doom III as a game that may not meet your expectations, but think of it as the technology that an entire generation of games will be based on, just like other id releases. Think of what half-life et al. did with enemy AI with the "old" Quake II engine.
Read the article, people!
You can upgrade Apples pretty easily these days. This includes the "older" G3s.
Ever hear of the PCI bus? Or AGP?
Not like this every happened with...
i m
Sony
Nintendo
Philips
Sega
Atari
EA
Akkla
3dfx
id Software
I could go on, but I don't feel like searching Google right now.
I've got an HP LaserJet 4L from about 1996 or so.
I've changed the toner once in over 6 years of school.
Text quality is fantastic. Resumes and reports printed with toner on laser printers look more professional than ones printed with ink.
I wonder how Princeton Law is going to come out of the woodwork on this one, and how RIAA will counter that sort of muscle. The endowment and funds at Princeton might be in jeopardy (since their computer networks facilitated the alleged action in the first place). If so... I'd expect them to bring out the big guns.
Perhaps some high profile Princeton Law lawyers will feel compelled to help their alma mater... perhaps the law school will take it upon themselves to defend their own?
Interesting developments lay ahead!
Except for the fact that MS would have a very hard time proving any malfeasance on the part of the consumer.
Especially when said consumer was at a conference with several thousand witnesses that did the same thing. Then, concievably, a countersuit could be filed on the grounds of entrapment/false advertising/whatever, i'm not a lawyer, only stating the obvious.
It's totally up to Microsoft to determine how to license their software, and whom to license it to.
What's the fuss? They could license it for free use to recovering crack addicts that live on the 3000 block of 1st street that wear green pants if they wanted to.
As long as some marketing monkey at MS has the OK from the higher-ups, then it's all good.
What's your number? I'll give you a call..
m l
http://www.mvpmotorsports.com/merchant/8sec.sht
Not quite 8.77, but is 8.98 close enough? It did trap higher though, by around 2 or 3MPH.
I have a Supra, '97 TT.
:)
Yes, it's very easy to make ridiculous amounts of horsepower, although it does take some major money (probably around $10,000 for a 600HP or so car), $2000 or so for the 450HP flavor. Add more if you want to build the motor. So far the record for a stock-engined Supra is right around 800RWHP. This is not a typo. Do some research.
To some of the other posts under this one: Not everyone likes racing the 1/4 mile. I don't recall ever seeing a road-race prepared Chevelle. My Supra is prep'd for performance street driving, which includes coilover suspension, basic performing upgrades, and yields about 450HP at the crank. I eat stock production cars like it ain't no fuckin' thang, even though my car is very mildly modified as far as performance goes (import or domestic).
I do, however, see road-race prep'd Camaros and Mustangs. Said Camaros and Mustangs have never beaten said Supra in impromptu street racing, however.
Race-prep'd classics are useless for everything but getting to the end of the track. Newer cars can be grocery getters as well as weekend racers.
The head on the stick was a bitmap of John Romero's.
Romero later left id Software and founded Ion Storm.
Coincidence? I think not!
I don't know who's lamer...
you for writing that, or me for being able to read it just fine.
I've got an InFocus LP330 XGA DLP projector that does VGA up to 1024x768 and S-Video, composite (NTSC and PAL).
I've been looking for something that will support higher resolutions in the future. But for now, the image quality from a panasonic DVD audio/video player is good enough for me. I live in a 2bd apartment, and project my image onto a bare wall. At night, with dolby digital surround, it's just like being in a theater. With a good pair of headphones on, it's a private screening room.
It's rated at only 650 ANSI lumens (newer projectors have up to 2000!!) so at night it's perfect but during the day it's not terribly bright. Getting a projection screen will help immensely, I don't have one because of my living situation right now.
Getting a high-res converter box (with HDTV, progressive, whatever) to transfer converted XGA signals to this projector would be awesome.
Headphones may be good for live monitoring and mixdown, or critical listening, but I can't really sit in front of a computer day in day out with a pair of cans on my head, and be teathered to my amp.
:(
:)
I only use headphones for live monitoring when I'm practicing drums or guitar. I can't stand not being able to hear anything that goes on around me when the volume is up
Oh yeah I also use the headphones at night when my neighbors are sleeping
Mackie, Alesis, M-audio, Roland, and MOTU (among others) also make professional audio interface equipment for recording and monitoring/listening.
There are a couple of Creative-licensed OEM products (Some of the Alesis stuff looks awfully familiar...) but most of these companies provide far better hardware and software for "real" sound applications. A nice audio interface w/ a pair of active studio monitors will sound worlds better than some cheap consumer surround sound system. The prices are pretty much comparable with Creative's "good" stuff.
The concept of blogging isn't new, by any means. It's basically the UNIX finger service adapted for mass use on the web/AIM/whatever. There were even finger-to-web CGI scripts in 1995 that accomplished this same exact thing. Hell, I even wrote one of them for my personal use.
.plan files? Back at the height of Quake I/II/III development, I would suspect that the number of requests to his .plan files approached 100,000 a day. Many other notable people in the gaming industry had similar setups.
Remember John Carmack's (of id software fame)
I suppose it's really a catch-22, since famous/notable people generally do not share personal information on the internet. But that's exactly what it would take to generate a substantial volume of hits/reads per day.
Translation: Except for what's mentioned in section 106, it's not illegal...
for the owner of a copy of a computer program to make or authorize the making of another copy or adaptation of that computer program
for the user to make a copy
provided: that such a new copy or adaptation is created as an essential step in the utilization of the computer program in conjunction with a machine
if the act of making a copy is necessary to get the software to run on a computer
and that it is used in no other manner
and the new copy isn't used in any other way.
My English isn't the best, but I'm not sure if that's the proper section you should be referring to.
Speaking also as a student, I cannot understand their reluctance to find a decent job so that they don't have to forgo food, shelter, and books for computing horsepower.
Let's draw some analogies.
An operating system is a collection of specifically ordered instructions from a programming language defined by arbitrary symbols (low-level assembler, high-level C, for example)
A structural blueprint is a collection of specifically ordered instructions from a language defined by arbitrary symbols (low-level lines and letters, high-level beams, studs, poles, etc).
A novel is a collection of specifically ordered instructions from a language defined by arbitrary symbols (low-level language defined by the 26 letters of the alphabet, and a high-level language defined as English.)
To say the programming language (letters and numbers) is the same as the operating system is like saying structural blueprints are the same as shapes and lines and novels are the same as English.
Why don't they just hire some older folks to try their product and give them feedback, instead of putting a young Q&A person into the suit?
You can always turn your phone off.
Or leave it at home.
Sheesh.
These midwest farm people who weigh 300 pounds but do heavy work all day - what do they eat? I'm guessing:
Breakfast: Bacon, egg, ham, sausage, white bread, butter, syrup & pancakes, whole milk, etc.
Lunch: Burger, other meat, some veggies.
Dinner: Steak, various potatoes, burgers, pork chops, some veggies, gravy, etc.
Is it a surprise that they're overly beefy for the amount of physical work done during the day? (no pun intended).
The way I avoid viewing trailers and warnings is by putting the disc in, hitting Play, and then unwrapped some microwave popcorn.
But, the Apex DVD players are cheap, available (Circuit City, Best Buy, WalMart, Sears, etc) and are modifiable to be consumer-friendly.
You must keep in mind that many of the folks you interviewed were born and raised in China, and have now been injected into a completely foreign environment. They probably don't speak English too well, and that is a major hindrance to elevating to a managerial position. They probably came to the United States to give their children better lives.
My father has an M.D. and Ph.D., but refused to take on managerial/project lead positions at a major biotech firm - because the salary he got was sufficient (along with stock options) and he got to spend more time with me.
I am now pursuing a B.S. in EE at a top engineering school (whatever those rankings mean, heh), and have every desire to excel in the workplace and become a manager/project lead/etc. Plenty of work experience here (writing code, not flipping burgers). I am economically self-sufficient in America (I was born in China) at age 18. I decided to do this because my parents worked hard for their lives here and I don't want to be a parasite until I'm 24. They deserve a nice, early retirement.
You gotta keep it in perspective. Ask those interviewees if they've got children, and where they expect their children to go to school.
In other words, ask them where they expect their CHILDREN to be in 20 years instead of asking them where they want to be in 5 - it's sort of a moot point in the eyes of an immigrant family.
That's the idea of immigration - picking up your family and moving for infinitely better hopes of success down the family lineage, not simply selfish desires to abandon your progeny for a six-figure salary and a company car.
Of course, this only applies to the first couple of generations. After that, smooth sailing should be predicted...