actually, the.mp4 file extension is the only official one, AFAIK. The.m4a and.m4v extensions are iTunes things, although you see them used elsewhere as well.
I admittedly only know around 5 people with 360s, and the only thing we all have in common is that we really dig our 360s. Sorry you're so worried, because this is a pretty nice console. I understand there is a problem with their reliability, but so far none of us have been bitten. If I am... then I'm short a 360 for a few weeks. Not a big deal - you're short a 360 52-weeks a year! Don't you miss playing all the good games?
Microsoft has the same installed base as the "highly successful" Wii, with a console twice as expensive, and a MUCH higher attachment rate for games. So much so that most of the top 10 video games over any given period for the past year have been 360 titles. On top of that, they're GOOD games (which can't be said for Wii, sadly...)
Also, last quarter their games division posted a profit, for the first time. So from my perspective, things are looking pretty rosy. Either way, I'm really enjoying my 360. (I also enjoy my Wii... before i get accused of fanboyism).
An embedded system for driving medical equipment, which definitely software development, is very different than say, developing even a medium-complexity GUI application with a database backend. I hope you aren't suggesting that the same tool (ASM) is the right tool for both. You'd be coding for years and years, and probably never catch all the bugs you introduce, by doing it in ASM. I can have a clean, bug-free application ready and on user's desktops in a week or two by doing it in C#.
C isn't the right tool either, after a certain level of complexity is reached. Great language for speed-sensitive things like CODECs and kernels, but shitty for asynchronous GUI applications. You can always spot them, because they don't support threading very well (the GUI frequently stops responding), suffer memory leaks, and crash a lot. When they do crash, you can't tell why, because error handling without exceptions is such a pain no one implements it. Who gives a rat's ass if they shave 10MB off their memory footprint?
Object models let the developer keep his/her sanity when dealing with large amounts of code, because its modular. Sure, some objects can be reused, but mostly its about the high-level architects being able to ignore the inner workings of objects, and just worry about how they interact.
Ever go back and try to understand your old ASM? Even when well-commented, its pretty painful.
Pascal was mostly a teaching language, and your point escapes me anyhow. As a (presumably) non-developer, you do realise that time is a scarce resource for any project, right? I'm sick of non-coders assuming that just because we don't do everything in assembly means we're lazy. No... it means we have more important things to implement. Cycles are cheap, programmers are expensive. Back in the day, the opposite was true.
And pretty much the entire medical profession agrees that high GI carbs are bad for you. They tell us to eat fewer calories in general, and to focus on lots of low-GI carbs (ie veggies and whole grains). Sorry, article author - there is LOTS of evidence that high-cholesterol diets are bad for you. LOTS. Just because you don't WANT to excercise doesn't mean excercise doesn't work.
Conversely, it allows developers to write programs that are easier to debug, faster to develop, and easier to add features to (that yes, take up more CPU cycles than an obfuscated, buggy "optimized" application).
what?? we were TALKING about Vista and XP, not Server 2003 and 2008. And anyhow, how is "all consumer OSes" a very, very specific set of criteria? Yeesh. Actually, I don't even know why i'm responding.
Okay, fair enough. I was referring to consumer operating systems, not server installations. I'm sure IBM is still supporting installations from the 80s.
For reference, MS offers 10 years of support for business and server products.
For consumer OSes, I don't think MS can be beat support-wise. Certainly they shouldn't be criticised on this front. There is plenty of valid stuff to pick on them for, but legacy support isn't one of them.
That's true, and its why Microsoft has (in good faith) extended the original support period for XP. That doesn't change the fact that they're still supporting it, however.
that's a kernel, not an operating system. The NT kernel is still in development too... your point? Good luck getting support from Red Hat for the distro that shipped with kernel 2.4.
They actually tried to fix a perfectly broken API, full of gaping security holes left over from the innocent, pre-internet days of the early 90s. This work started with XP SP2, which you may recall also broke a lot of software.
A lot of that is the BIOS though, you have to admit. EFI should fix that, but it'll be a while before boards start to support it. My understanding is that support is (Finally) included in SP1, on x86-64 architectures.
The gamer's games aren't selling. Metroid 3 has done poorly, and Mario Galaxy is doing poorly in Japan. The games that are selling well are party games, even the shitty ones.
I'm concerned developers are just going to give up trying, after loosing money on a few titles.
The newer black-edition athlon X2s have unlocked multipliers at very affordable prices (~$130). Other than that, yes - only the highest end models have an unlocked multiplier. I picked up a black-edition at that price, and am running it at a clean 3200 MHz.
Bus-overclocking has gotten so much easier though anyhow, since most chipsets let you do it without altering the PCI bus, for example. That used to be the issue back in the day - peripherals would start to flake out.
Its quite clear in the article that they forgot to unregister their "deleted" objects from events. Since they were still registered, they weren't garbage collected. And rightly so. This was THEIR programming mistake, and has nothing to do with a GC bug in C# or any such thing. Fuck slashdot is pissing me off these days... as soon as they see a story that could be spun as "Microsoft screwed up!", they publish it withouth any fact-checking (or even reading the goddamn article!).
It's a troll, because it brings absolutely nothing to the discussion, but is designed to provoke responses. I disagree too, but will provide an actual ARGUMENT: The Wii is clearly going to sell the most consoles, because it has the mass-market mindshare. The north american GAMERS are going to buy the 360 (unless Sony smartens up), and Japanese gamers are going to go PS3 (unless Sony drops the ball even harder).
I think 3rd party publishers are quickly learning that they need to market to gamers, because they're the ones who buy games (rather than trendy appliances) so their money will be made on the 360/PS3.
We probably listen to music very differently. I usually pay full attention to it, so I primarily listen while driving or working out. Can't study, or read, or program, because I'm distracted by the tunes.
Conversely, Movies, or at least a lot of movies, are just background while I'm eating, making out, surfing the internet, or otherwise chilling on the couch.
Video games I think we can agree are 100% involved, but I think on a dollar/hour basis, CDs can't be beat. Probably why I own hundreds of CDs, dozens of movies, and a handful of games.
I generally agree with you - not sure why you say i'm "wrong". I was responding to a parent who implied it would be easier to terraform Venus than Mars. I'm sure, given enough time for technology to develop, that both are possible, but Mars is far, far more hospitable in the near-term.
As far as your oxygen/kindling argument goes though, earth only has both because life creates it. But the upper limit for oxygen is only something like 25% at 1 atmosphere, after which you start getting spontanious combustion events. Now tell me what we'll do with 100 atmospheres of pure oxygen.
Anyhow, humans can't safely live in that kind of atmosphere either. You'd have people going into seizures all over the place.
You can't just precipiate it out... I remember reading in (I think) some Carl Sagan book long ago, that if we did so, they'd end up with a layer of charcoal a few feet deep, plus around a hundred atmospheres of pure oxygen. Someone lights a match, and you're back to square one.
His best analysis was that we'd have to blow the atmosphere off by hitting the planet with asteroids. Not exactly as easy feat.
Slashdot Mirror
actually, the .mp4 file extension is the only official one, AFAIK. The .m4a and .m4v extensions are iTunes things, although you see them used elsewhere as well.
I admittedly only know around 5 people with 360s, and the only thing we all have in common is that we really dig our 360s. Sorry you're so worried, because this is a pretty nice console. I understand there is a problem with their reliability, but so far none of us have been bitten. If I am... then I'm short a 360 for a few weeks. Not a big deal - you're short a 360 52-weeks a year! Don't you miss playing all the good games?
Nope, just smaller than half a wavelength of light.
Microsoft has the same installed base as the "highly successful" Wii, with a console twice as expensive, and a MUCH higher attachment rate for games. So much so that most of the top 10 video games over any given period for the past year have been 360 titles. On top of that, they're GOOD games (which can't be said for Wii, sadly...)
Also, last quarter their games division posted a profit, for the first time. So from my perspective, things are looking pretty rosy. Either way, I'm really enjoying my 360. (I also enjoy my Wii... before i get accused of fanboyism).
An embedded system for driving medical equipment, which definitely software development, is very different than say, developing even a medium-complexity GUI application with a database backend. I hope you aren't suggesting that the same tool (ASM) is the right tool for both. You'd be coding for years and years, and probably never catch all the bugs you introduce, by doing it in ASM. I can have a clean, bug-free application ready and on user's desktops in a week or two by doing it in C#.
C isn't the right tool either, after a certain level of complexity is reached. Great language for speed-sensitive things like CODECs and kernels, but shitty for asynchronous GUI applications. You can always spot them, because they don't support threading very well (the GUI frequently stops responding), suffer memory leaks, and crash a lot. When they do crash, you can't tell why, because error handling without exceptions is such a pain no one implements it. Who gives a rat's ass if they shave 10MB off their memory footprint?
Object models let the developer keep his/her sanity when dealing with large amounts of code, because its modular. Sure, some objects can be reused, but mostly its about the high-level architects being able to ignore the inner workings of objects, and just worry about how they interact.
Ever go back and try to understand your old ASM? Even when well-commented, its pretty painful.
So you're saying that americans just aren't smart enough to have successful public institutions like Europe and Canada? Interesting position...
Pascal was mostly a teaching language, and your point escapes me anyhow. As a (presumably) non-developer, you do realise that time is a scarce resource for any project, right? I'm sick of non-coders assuming that just because we don't do everything in assembly means we're lazy. No... it means we have more important things to implement. Cycles are cheap, programmers are expensive. Back in the day, the opposite was true.
Now assume our best friend is a talking pie, and we have to travel back in time for some reason.
And pretty much the entire medical profession agrees that high GI carbs are bad for you. They tell us to eat fewer calories in general, and to focus on lots of low-GI carbs (ie veggies and whole grains). Sorry, article author - there is LOTS of evidence that high-cholesterol diets are bad for you. LOTS. Just because you don't WANT to excercise doesn't mean excercise doesn't work.
Conversely, it allows developers to write programs that are easier to debug, faster to develop, and easier to add features to (that yes, take up more CPU cycles than an obfuscated, buggy "optimized" application).
And what credentials give you the right to speak on behalf of Japan in this way?
what?? we were TALKING about Vista and XP, not Server 2003 and 2008. And anyhow, how is "all consumer OSes" a very, very specific set of criteria? Yeesh. Actually, I don't even know why i'm responding.
Okay, fair enough. I was referring to consumer operating systems, not server installations. I'm sure IBM is still supporting installations from the 80s.
For reference, MS offers 10 years of support for business and server products.
For consumer OSes, I don't think MS can be beat support-wise. Certainly they shouldn't be criticised on this front. There is plenty of valid stuff to pick on them for, but legacy support isn't one of them.
That's true, and its why Microsoft has (in good faith) extended the original support period for XP. That doesn't change the fact that they're still supporting it, however.
that's a kernel, not an operating system. The NT kernel is still in development too... your point? Good luck getting support from Red Hat for the distro that shipped with kernel 2.4.
Oh shut up. Name another software vendor still supporting and releasing updates for a 6-year-old operating system.
They actually tried to fix a perfectly broken API, full of gaping security holes left over from the innocent, pre-internet days of the early 90s. This work started with XP SP2, which you may recall also broke a lot of software.
A lot of that is the BIOS though, you have to admit. EFI should fix that, but it'll be a while before boards start to support it. My understanding is that support is (Finally) included in SP1, on x86-64 architectures.
The gamer's games aren't selling. Metroid 3 has done poorly, and Mario Galaxy is doing poorly in Japan. The games that are selling well are party games, even the shitty ones.
I'm concerned developers are just going to give up trying, after loosing money on a few titles.
The newer black-edition athlon X2s have unlocked multipliers at very affordable prices (~$130). Other than that, yes - only the highest end models have an unlocked multiplier. I picked up a black-edition at that price, and am running it at a clean 3200 MHz.
Bus-overclocking has gotten so much easier though anyhow, since most chipsets let you do it without altering the PCI bus, for example. That used to be the issue back in the day - peripherals would start to flake out.
Its quite clear in the article that they forgot to unregister their "deleted" objects from events. Since they were still registered, they weren't garbage collected. And rightly so. This was THEIR programming mistake, and has nothing to do with a GC bug in C# or any such thing. Fuck slashdot is pissing me off these days... as soon as they see a story that could be spun as "Microsoft screwed up!", they publish it withouth any fact-checking (or even reading the goddamn article!).
I wonder is MS could sue Slashdot for slander?
It's a troll, because it brings absolutely nothing to the discussion, but is designed to provoke responses. I disagree too, but will provide an actual ARGUMENT: The Wii is clearly going to sell the most consoles, because it has the mass-market mindshare. The north american GAMERS are going to buy the 360 (unless Sony smartens up), and Japanese gamers are going to go PS3 (unless Sony drops the ball even harder).
I think 3rd party publishers are quickly learning that they need to market to gamers, because they're the ones who buy games (rather than trendy appliances) so their money will be made on the 360/PS3.
I don't expect any of them to fold.
We probably listen to music very differently. I usually pay full attention to it, so I primarily listen while driving or working out. Can't study, or read, or program, because I'm distracted by the tunes.
Conversely, Movies, or at least a lot of movies, are just background while I'm eating, making out, surfing the internet, or otherwise chilling on the couch.
Video games I think we can agree are 100% involved, but I think on a dollar/hour basis, CDs can't be beat. Probably why I own hundreds of CDs, dozens of movies, and a handful of games.
I generally agree with you - not sure why you say i'm "wrong". I was responding to a parent who implied it would be easier to terraform Venus than Mars. I'm sure, given enough time for technology to develop, that both are possible, but Mars is far, far more hospitable in the near-term.
As far as your oxygen/kindling argument goes though, earth only has both because life creates it. But the upper limit for oxygen is only something like 25% at 1 atmosphere, after which you start getting spontanious combustion events. Now tell me what we'll do with 100 atmospheres of pure oxygen.
Anyhow, humans can't safely live in that kind of atmosphere either. You'd have people going into seizures all over the place.
You can't just precipiate it out... I remember reading in (I think) some Carl Sagan book long ago, that if we did so, they'd end up with a layer of charcoal a few feet deep, plus around a hundred atmospheres of pure oxygen. Someone lights a match, and you're back to square one.
His best analysis was that we'd have to blow the atmosphere off by hitting the planet with asteroids. Not exactly as easy feat.