There are some studies related to that sort of thing from Georgia Tech's contextual computing group. You're probably most interested in "An Empirical Study of Typing Rates on mini-QWERTY Keyboards," although the Twiddler studies are also interesting since they present a 3x4 button interface much like a normal phone.
The answer to how fast on a mini-qwerty looks to average about 60 wpm, and on a Twiddler the speeds average 47 wpm.
"And yeah, these great hackers, oddly enough, tend to have a lot of overlap with those sysadmin-y perl-y type people."
Was there a source where you got that information, or just your personal observations? I'll agree that sourceforge isn't perfect for measuring what great hackers use, but it gives what I'd consider a better overall heuristic to predict what the great hackers might like.
Windows automatic updating doesn't work well enough. It only updates a few Microsoft products. This leaves a ton of programs unupdated while giving a sense of security since the end user just sees updates being installed and probably has no clue that it isn't updating everything.
Redhat does a better job, but the same problem still exists if you're not using a program they've included in their list.
Just slowing it down by itself won't help. If the patches were all listed at some very convenient central location and everyone knew that the first of the month was patch day, maybe people would remember to patch. If it were some set day, each OS could pop up a little message saying to go get all of this month's patches.
Additionally, if the patch schedule is random like it is now, then the exploiters are much more likely to hear about the patch than the average computer user. Having a set day might eliminate that advantage, assuming users do go get the patches on the right day.
Hmm, math would be a good thing to use for me. I guess it's more likelyt o be people from Europe on right now, in the late night. Which would mean more people than I had thought, but is it still nearly as many as in the U.S.?
Yes, but what percentage of people who cause Slashdottings are from the U.S.? In addition, how many people from Asia and Australia visit Slashdot. It was an honest question to try to find out percents.
There was a lot of places that concerns were addressed. Balancing is actually important to games. Diversity makes RPG's a lot more fun. I'm not sure if EverQuest is really even a RPG though, cause I'm pretty sure the only character development that ever occurs is stat increases, at least from what I've seen.
Yes, Sony does need to answer the players, but there is also some responsibility on the players to act responsibly as well. Before whining because something doesn't help them be more powerful, they should try to look at why it was done. If nobody can figure out why the changes were made, then they should ask Sony. Part of RPG's are supposed to be exploration anyways. Players shouldn't expect to be walked hand-in-hand by Sony through every change.
Yes, I know it's a lot to ask of players, but it's a lot less than they're asking of Sony.
Most of these complaints are the same ones that have been around for a lot longer than EverQuest has been. GemStone III had people whining about the same things. "my sword of death got weaker", "I can't use uber-ability to kill everything now", "there aren't enough of the easy-to-kill creature around", "the GM's are too slow/incompetent". Having quit the game and looking back, I think those things are actually for the better.
Nerfing items makes perfect sense if the item is too powerful. Weakening over-powerful abilities also makes sense. If they don't do that, you'll end up with a world of everyone being the exact same character. Imagine the fun of having everyone be the exact same. Also, ask anyone who uses the item or ability that was weakened, before it was weakened, if it was too strong, and they will say no. Ask every person in the game if their strongest ability in the game is more powerful than any other, and every person will say that it's not the most powerful. They may stand there using an ability over and over because of its power to kill things they shoulnd't be able to, but they'll deny it's too powerful.
If they have too many of an easy creature, then you end up with everyone killing the same thing at the same place, and half of the game sits empty cause it's a little bit harder than the ridiculous easy area. They don't want everyone cramming into one tiny area, so they add scarcity.
What do you expect from the GM's really? You want them to look in depth at every claim. You whined the waits were too long already, but if they looked into as much depth as you want for every call, they would make the waits into several months for a single request. While hiring more GM's might make the situation a bit better, Sony is a company that wants to make a profit, and each person they hire takes some chunk of money Sony wants for itself. The only real solution is to not whine to the GM's every time something bad happens. If, another guild brings you a bunch of creatures, kill the creatures or run away. Weren't you whining there weren't enough earlier? Where did the guild find all of these exotic creatures?
At this point there are two choices: Get over it or quit playing. Pick one, but please quit whining.
I think the surgeon reference is a bit off. A surgeon's job, for the most part, is following a set procedure. You cut open a certain part of the body to do procedure X. If Y goes wrong, you do Z. It's all relatively predictable. Start being creative, and you've got a lot of danger to your patients (gee, what if I cut the neck open to get to the heart today...another ridiculous stretch though). I'm not saying that surgery is easy though, I would never do it because it is complex and I wouldn't trust myself to remember every detail.
Computer programming is much more creative, as far as I see. Seeing problem x may have several million possible solutions. The art of programming is being able to pick one of the better solutions to the problem.
Now yes, I know that I too am stretching out what I'm saying to extremes. Oftentimes a programmer may very well be doing little more than writing a for loop for a method, which is far less creative than a surgeon. But as a whole, a programmer will probably be thinking of much more original solutions than a surgeon.
As for the writing novels vs. writing code, I think that saying one is easier is just silly. Quantity doesn't mean difficulty. How many people are raising goldfish to eat? None, I'd guess. Is raising goldfish harder than writing a novel or code? No. But even though the argument you chose to prove novels are more difficult than code, I agree that writing a novel is not a braindead task. It may even be more creative than code, if it's a high quality novel (meaning it has a unique world and unique characters and such).
Slashdot Mirror
There are some studies related to that sort of thing from Georgia Tech's contextual computing group. You're probably most interested in "An Empirical Study of Typing Rates on mini-QWERTY Keyboards," although the Twiddler studies are also interesting since they present a 3x4 button interface much like a normal phone.
The answer to how fast on a mini-qwerty looks to average about 60 wpm, and on a Twiddler the speeds average 47 wpm.
The studies are available at: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/ccg/publications.html
Wouldn't the TV claim mean that cars parked in the street are allowed to be taken too? I'm not sure it quite works.
"And yeah, these great hackers, oddly enough, tend to have a lot of overlap with those sysadmin-y perl-y type people."
Was there a source where you got that information, or just your personal observations? I'll agree that sourceforge isn't perfect for measuring what great hackers use, but it gives what I'd consider a better overall heuristic to predict what the great hackers might like.
Windows automatic updating doesn't work well enough. It only updates a few Microsoft products. This leaves a ton of programs unupdated while giving a sense of security since the end user just sees updates being installed and probably has no clue that it isn't updating everything. Redhat does a better job, but the same problem still exists if you're not using a program they've included in their list.
Just slowing it down by itself won't help. If the patches were all listed at some very convenient central location and everyone knew that the first of the month was patch day, maybe people would remember to patch. If it were some set day, each OS could pop up a little message saying to go get all of this month's patches. Additionally, if the patch schedule is random like it is now, then the exploiters are much more likely to hear about the patch than the average computer user. Having a set day might eliminate that advantage, assuming users do go get the patches on the right day.
Wow, you must be the only person I've ever met who writes worms in Java.
Hmm, math would be a good thing to use for me. I guess it's more likelyt o be people from Europe on right now, in the late night. Which would mean more people than I had thought, but is it still nearly as many as in the U.S.?
Yes, but what percentage of people who cause Slashdottings are from the U.S.? In addition, how many people from Asia and Australia visit Slashdot. It was an honest question to try to find out percents.
Is slashdotting still an effective weapon even at 6 a.m. Eastern Time Zone (in the U.S.)?
There was a lot of places that concerns were addressed. Balancing is actually important to games. Diversity makes RPG's a lot more fun. I'm not sure if EverQuest is really even a RPG though, cause I'm pretty sure the only character development that ever occurs is stat increases, at least from what I've seen. Yes, Sony does need to answer the players, but there is also some responsibility on the players to act responsibly as well. Before whining because something doesn't help them be more powerful, they should try to look at why it was done. If nobody can figure out why the changes were made, then they should ask Sony. Part of RPG's are supposed to be exploration anyways. Players shouldn't expect to be walked hand-in-hand by Sony through every change. Yes, I know it's a lot to ask of players, but it's a lot less than they're asking of Sony.
Most of these complaints are the same ones that have been around for a lot longer than EverQuest has been. GemStone III had people whining about the same things. "my sword of death got weaker", "I can't use uber-ability to kill everything now", "there aren't enough of the easy-to-kill creature around", "the GM's are too slow/incompetent". Having quit the game and looking back, I think those things are actually for the better.
Nerfing items makes perfect sense if the item is too powerful. Weakening over-powerful abilities also makes sense. If they don't do that, you'll end up with a world of everyone being the exact same character. Imagine the fun of having everyone be the exact same. Also, ask anyone who uses the item or ability that was weakened, before it was weakened, if it was too strong, and they will say no. Ask every person in the game if their strongest ability in the game is more powerful than any other, and every person will say that it's not the most powerful. They may stand there using an ability over and over because of its power to kill things they shoulnd't be able to, but they'll deny it's too powerful.
If they have too many of an easy creature, then you end up with everyone killing the same thing at the same place, and half of the game sits empty cause it's a little bit harder than the ridiculous easy area. They don't want everyone cramming into one tiny area, so they add scarcity.
What do you expect from the GM's really? You want them to look in depth at every claim. You whined the waits were too long already, but if they looked into as much depth as you want for every call, they would make the waits into several months for a single request. While hiring more GM's might make the situation a bit better, Sony is a company that wants to make a profit, and each person they hire takes some chunk of money Sony wants for itself. The only real solution is to not whine to the GM's every time something bad happens. If, another guild brings you a bunch of creatures, kill the creatures or run away. Weren't you whining there weren't enough earlier? Where did the guild find all of these exotic creatures?
At this point there are two choices: Get over it or quit playing. Pick one, but please quit whining.
I think the surgeon reference is a bit off. A surgeon's job, for the most part, is following a set procedure. You cut open a certain part of the body to do procedure X. If Y goes wrong, you do Z. It's all relatively predictable. Start being creative, and you've got a lot of danger to your patients (gee, what if I cut the neck open to get to the heart today...another ridiculous stretch though). I'm not saying that surgery is easy though, I would never do it because it is complex and I wouldn't trust myself to remember every detail.
Computer programming is much more creative, as far as I see. Seeing problem x may have several million possible solutions. The art of programming is being able to pick one of the better solutions to the problem.
Now yes, I know that I too am stretching out what I'm saying to extremes. Oftentimes a programmer may very well be doing little more than writing a for loop for a method, which is far less creative than a surgeon. But as a whole, a programmer will probably be thinking of much more original solutions than a surgeon.
As for the writing novels vs. writing code, I think that saying one is easier is just silly. Quantity doesn't mean difficulty. How many people are raising goldfish to eat? None, I'd guess. Is raising goldfish harder than writing a novel or code? No. But even though the argument you chose to prove novels are more difficult than code, I agree that writing a novel is not a braindead task. It may even be more creative than code, if it's a high quality novel (meaning it has a unique world and unique characters and such).