...is: No more fence-sitting for you Sun! They simply can't have things both ways. Yes, OOo is a terrific project, but on the other hand they are feeding the SCO troll. In press releases they now expound on the virtues of open source - but their flagship Java, isn't.
Consistency is what ESR is pointing to here. Maybe it isn't his business to make any demands of Sun, but he's seen their past corporate history which is chock-full of missed opportunities.
If Sun doesn't fully embrace open source, others will, and have. Whether or not this makes a huge difference depends on your own opinion. Personally, I think they're on the right road with this Java Desktop thing. They've already had some high profile wins and it's a great corporate counter-balance to Windows on the desktop.
Man, I'd pay real money for this! Imagine if you could build a Linux CD to scan Windows HD's for Spyware and Viruses! There'd be no need to even boot the host OS and install anything to do it.
Of course, I don't know of any software in Linux that will scan for Windows crapware. {sigh}
I went to my son's parent-teacher meeting yesterday and lo and behold - his classroom got a brand new iMac. So did a few others. Why doesn't this surprise me? Because much of the primary educational market is still Macintosh.
It's when you get into secondary schools and colleges that PCs take over. As long as there's K-6 they'll always be an Apple Computer.
I love my Tungsten T. I'll love a Tungsten even more with BEOS! Give me a 400+ MHz processor w/collapsable screen, wi-fi, bluetooth, and OS6 and I'll (once again) reach for my wallet.
I just hope that with all the doodads and gimmicks, they don't forget what keeps Palm in business - simplicity of operation. I start an app and it pops up immediately. Everything seems intuitive. Multitasking is great, but I still want the responsiveness.
I still have the piece of crap that is my Casiopeia CE PDA brick. It was the most unintuitive design (think Windows 3.1) I've ever seen and I cursed myself daily for giving up my old Palm Pilot. I ended up going for the 'T' when Casio refused to upgrade the version of CE on the thing.
One other thing Palm really needs to work on is corporate acceptance. It's currently a LOT easier to administer policies for CE PDAs than the various (and confusing) Palm incarnations across the network. Sounds like better integration with Outlook will help them in the Windows environment.
Well, that was half the story. The other half was legacy vs. future direction. For instance, there was nothing wrong with having a niche market - SGI and SUN had one for years. The problem was, C= was reaching (and the execs were undoubtedly expecting) for profits earned like the old days of the C64, and that wasn't ever going to happen again - for ANYONE.
At the time of C='s demise, they still leased that insanely HUGE building in West Chester at over $800,000 / MONTH. Most of it was unused due to having all of the manufacturing shipped to the Phillipenes.
Then you had the CEO earning 11 Million Dollars in 1992 - for no other reason then he could get it. His salary that year even beat IBM's CEO! To be fair, he 'lent' C= back a few million as a loan but it was clear that the company had bigger problems than simple marketing issues.
It's all water under the bridge now, but many of us dealers knew the score for YEARS. There were just a couple simple things that might have turned them around:
1) Put a COLOR composite out on the A500. Why Black and White? They saved.25 on a part. What a bonehead move. Companies like Scala could have sold 10 times as many A500's like that. The A600/A1200 fixed it, but it was too late.
2) Help support Newtek. Yeah, they did this in the end - but again, when it was WAY too late. People forget that C= feared Newtek in the beginning. Together, these guys could have been unstoppable in that market (and not a small one either).
3) Better product release timing. The next gen A1200 was a brilliant machine, but released too late as to avoid cannibalizing their A500 sales. But none of our customers wanted the A500 later on - all of them wanted the Next Big Thing. Announcements about future products killed Kaypro. C= should've known better.
4) They needed to stop building PCs and/or competing with IBM. They were still stuck in the home computing mode, even though it was clear for many years before the fall what was selling and what wasn't. HINT: 14 MHz 68020 A1200's sold like crazy, C= branded PC's grew dust.
For years C= refused to be boxed into any market, but as you observed, they eventually cozied up to anyone that could sell a box or two. It damaged their reputation and didn't help dealers much.
It was apparent to many of us in the know that C= was simply clueless about what made their product great and how to capitalize on it. I remember getting some demo discs from a sales rep once and all of them were virus-laden! This was the same rep who expounded on all the great business software the Amiga had. What a joke!
There's nothing wrong with selling the code in binary form - just as long as you can produce the GPL source code you used (as per the license).
Now IBM on the other hand is arguing an interesting point in their counterclaim. They are saying that SCO are not living up to their agreements because of the lawsuits. According to the GPL, SCO are not allowed to claim ownership on GPL'd code or sue to assert any sort of rights to it. IBM has therefore 'pulled' their right to use any code GPL'd by IBM (and there's a lot of it).
Now, 'pulled' is in quotes because obviously SCO is still distributing (or we can assume they are), some of IBM's GPL-based contributions. This is similar to the way SCO 'pulled' IBM's right to distribute AIX. IBM disputes that right due to wording of the license. SCO disputes the right of IBM's assertion by saying the GPL itself is invalid.
If the trial ever gets to the point of validating the GPL, it will be interesting to hear SCO's side of this one. To quote 'Airplane':
'They bought their tickets, they KNEW what they were getting into... I say, LET 'EM CRASH!'
SCO (previously Caldera) played by the same rules as everyone else when they willingly and actively contributed to the GPL. To all of a sudden claim that the GPL is invalid after YEARS of contribution to it is ridiculous! If SCO makes it through the lawsuit without losing their business it will be a miracle.
It's kind of a shame too because this has nothing to do with the programmers, dealers, users, and other stakeholders. This is about lawyers and corporate exec scumbags enjoying their retirement on some tropical paradise.
It's not as if the mainstream press seems to pay any attention to Slashdot anyway. If they did, we'd undoubtedly see more 'on-target' and useful articles (or at least a few repeated ones:) from the mainstream.
This site isn't there for them anyway. And it's no secret that Slashdot has a pro-Linux bias generally. Big fscking deal. Call it like you see it. It part of what won over this previously Microsoft-supporting user. Passion, when honest, isn't necessarily wrong. In fact, in today's mediocre world, where a single 'Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaahhh' speech can lose you a campaign, it's quite refreshing.
If having a SCO update every other day (hell, sometimes TWICE a day) isn't enough to prove this readership's general sense of injustice, then what is?
Most fellow geeks respect Asimov's quote from the Foundation series - you know, the one from Hardin that goes, "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." Nonetheless, I haven't seen so many tech people this pissed since the old C= days.
I worked for a dealer in PA and flew to Minneapolis, MN (home of MST3K no less), for a week-long Newtek training session. Kiki and Jim, and other Amiga luminaries were there and even taught some of the courses.
It was an amazing time. The Toaster was in use by almost every local station, school, and videographer here. When the A4000 and the Flyer came out, things were just starting to crest when...
***BOOM***
Commodore imploded. I was there for the funeral of that company (the auction in West Chester), and let me tell you - it was a sad, sad day. A lot of companies like Scala, Newtek, and others were suddenly cast adrift. Newtek's situation was particularly bad. What could Newtek do without the Amiga? How could it continue to support the product it had out there? It was the Amiga's architecture that enabled the toaster's abilities.
Fortunately for Newtek, they were able to keep it together with Lightwave - a 3D package which had really matured far beyond the original VT's intent. Newtek was also able to get a hold of spare parts and used units and kept things surprisingly afloat for quite a while.
But other companies weren't as fortunate. A few years later, the dealership I worked at closed down. The niche market they relied on simply disappeared.
It's hard to explain to non-Amiga people why Amigans continually hope to bring it all back. The Amiga truly represented a revolution in computing. That level of innovation didn't occur on the PC until the word 'multimedia' suddenly made it ok for businesspeople to have great graphics and stereo sound.
The Amiga provided the world's first affordable desktop video production. There was NO competition - NONE. It was an absolute crime that Commodore never took full advantage of their position. Instead, they played around with primitive PC designs that cost them millions in losses and made other huge, obvious mistakes.
This is why Amigans worldwide are still not able to accept the demise of their favorite machine / OS.
One good thing may happen with this code release. It would be interesting to see if the user interface could be salvaged. The VT sold a lot of videographers on the simplicity of it's use. It didn't look like it was cobbled together by computer geeks. It truly resembled a dedicated video production product.
BTW, I still have my Video Toaster training certification.:)
Just what do you think art is anyway? EVERYONE builds on each others art. Rock built off of blues and jazz, and those off of earlier forms still. There is no 'original artform'. We are products of an environment of prior art.
That's why copyright extensions will eventually be lifted. Not because 'we the people' don't want it.
Because in the end corporations will have restricted their OWN ability to market creativity with flexibility.
Something not often touched on is the fact that Palm are a pain in the ass to configure in a corporate environment. Every succeeding version has a different connection method / software and there's simply no easy way to roll out policies for usage. This is as compared to your average CE PDA.
That said, I love my Tungsten T - best handheld I've ever owned.
I laughed out loud when I read that - not because Zero Wing is funny anymore, but because people assume that everyone understands this phrase now and even use it in a serious discussion.
It always amazes me how quickly the Internet can change things - even the language we speak!
I suspect that IBM has been paying close attention to the 'subversive' activities at Groklaw, but I wonder if they'll ever get any direct credit for it. There's been a great deal of
PJ and her legal elves certainly deserve our thanks.
...I actually got my first taste of machine language programming as a kid on the...
MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY2 Game Console (complete with sync-sound action and lots of exclaimation points!)
OMFG. It was called, "Computer Intro." You had one line of 8 characters to program on, one 8 character line to use as a display. Basically, you could animate a few characters and make it 'buzz' annoyingly.
Incredibly primative, but it did in fact teach me the basics of assembly. One quote I remember from the manual referred to how 'microprocessors might someday fit as many as ONE MILLION transistors on ONE CHIP!' Heh.
More info here:
http://www.classicgaming.com/o2home/db/cart.asp? ma sterid=12&cartid=12
And that's not all. Do a 'Google' and look for 'adaware' or 'spybot' and you'll get more than you bargained for. A lot of these cretins are using the same names to link for their spyware.
Who knows which are legit, and which are scams? I'll tell you this though. Those Stop-Sign scumbags should be drawn and quartered. Not only does it introduce new spyware to a user's machine, but until you register it, all it does is FIND the spyware and tell you about it.
Most users think this crapware actually does something in its shareware form because of the sneaky way it's advertised.
And do you think this way of thinking won't change with MS and Sony at the helm? Give me a break! These people INVENTED DRM!
Anyway, the technical reason it works is unimportant - it works and it's cheap, and that's all that matters. Who masters the discs is also unimportant as NO console company can have a successful run without the support of the software industry. If they decide to be unreasonable, there are competitors.
The three major console companies will practically fall over themselves for exclusive sweetheart deals (ala Grand Theft Auto and HL II). No, a console's future is very dependant on the software manufacturer feeling 'da love'.
As Sony's design might prove to be difficult to code for, it might give MS and Nintendo an edge. OTOH, the PS/2 was a BITCH to code for with only 4 MB of GFX RAM and it was successful.
At any rate, it will be interesting to see if MS has backward compatability. If they don't do this, it may tip the balance as I believe it did for the PS/2.
...is update the fscking WEBSITE! When was the last update to the Team Fortress II section on www.valvesoftware.com?
HINT: Bill Clinton was still president. I believe the Macarena was #1 back then as well...
Don't get your hopes up for anything Valve does. Get on with your gaming lives and then perhaps we'll be surprised someday. As for me, I can wish for it, but that won't stop me from playing XMP right now.
It's worked for Nintendo. Look, has the GC been hacked yet? Not really. There have been lots of games floating around the ether but no existing mod will allow you to play copied games on the GC - NONE.
Meanwhile the PS 1/2, Dreamcast (with it's supposedly unbreakable protection), and the X-Box have been hacked to oblivion. Hell, even the newer N-Gage was hacked in a few days! Piracy is rampant on all of these platforms. It can be argued that this was the main reason why the Dreamcast died.
Meanwhile, the GC? It's a 'trusted' platform. If I were any of the competition I'd be looking at how IBM helped Nintendo create the world's first secure console. You betcha.
I'm sorry for you wannabe rich future stockholders but I'm pleased about this.
I won't go into the history of other dotcoms who have gone into the crapper after having IPO'd. I think it would be a DEATH SENTENCE for the quality we've all come to know and love about Google.
IPOs seem to be great ideas for most companies, but as it happens, tech companies get the most pressure to perform due to unrealistically high initial stock prices (See Yahoo!) And shares mean shareholders.
Shareholders care nothing for quality if they (or the scumbag CEOs/CFOs and other execs) can make a quick buck - especially when they had to borrow money from 2nd Mortgage/Grandchildren/Luigi to afford it. I certainly have no interest playing that silly-ass game or in seeing Google start to suck.
As it happens, I wonder if this isn't related to the SCO issue. Maybe this was also designed to throw off their timing?
1: Get a job at some faceless corporation with a name like 'Enron'. 2: Design kick-ass games after hours. 3: Get your work stolen by your sneaky co-worker. 4: Beat the Master Control Program for domination of your codez. 5: Become the newest exec (you even get your own helicopter!)
That's true, but I set my home page to Google News, and that appears to be cursor-friendly (for now). Most of what I liked about Yahoo!'s main page was the little news snippets.
Slashdot Mirror
...is: No more fence-sitting for you Sun! They simply can't have things both ways. Yes, OOo is a terrific project, but on the other hand they are feeding the SCO troll. In press releases they now expound on the virtues of open source - but their flagship Java, isn't.
Consistency is what ESR is pointing to here. Maybe it isn't his business to make any demands of Sun, but he's seen their past corporate history which is chock-full of missed opportunities.
If Sun doesn't fully embrace open source, others will, and have. Whether or not this makes a huge difference depends on your own opinion. Personally, I think they're on the right road with this Java Desktop thing. They've already had some high profile wins and it's a great corporate counter-balance to Windows on the desktop.
Man, I'd pay real money for this! Imagine if you could build a Linux CD to scan Windows HD's for Spyware and Viruses! There'd be no need to even boot the host OS and install anything to do it.
Of course, I don't know of any software in Linux that will scan for Windows crapware. {sigh}
I went to my son's parent-teacher meeting yesterday and lo and behold - his classroom got a brand new iMac. So did a few others. Why doesn't this surprise me? Because much of the primary educational market is still Macintosh.
It's when you get into secondary schools and colleges that PCs take over. As long as there's K-6 they'll always be an Apple Computer.
I love my Tungsten T. I'll love a Tungsten even more with BEOS! Give me a 400+ MHz processor w/collapsable screen, wi-fi, bluetooth, and OS6 and I'll (once again) reach for my wallet.
I just hope that with all the doodads and gimmicks, they don't forget what keeps Palm in business - simplicity of operation. I start an app and it pops up immediately. Everything seems intuitive. Multitasking is great, but I still want the responsiveness.
I still have the piece of crap that is my Casiopeia CE PDA brick. It was the most unintuitive design (think Windows 3.1) I've ever seen and I cursed myself daily for giving up my old Palm Pilot. I ended up going for the 'T' when Casio refused to upgrade the version of CE on the thing.
One other thing Palm really needs to work on is corporate acceptance. It's currently a LOT easier to administer policies for CE PDAs than the various (and confusing) Palm incarnations across the network. Sounds like better integration with Outlook will help them in the Windows environment.
Damn I love this level! Excellent design, and no camping allowed. Well, not much anyway. ;)
Going back to play it again.
"I said let them truckers roll, 10-4"
Well, that was half the story. The other half was legacy vs. future direction. For instance, there was nothing wrong with having a niche market - SGI and SUN had one for years. The problem was, C= was reaching (and the execs were undoubtedly expecting) for profits earned like the old days of the C64, and that wasn't ever going to happen again - for ANYONE.
.25 on a part. What a bonehead move. Companies like Scala could have sold 10 times as many A500's like that. The A600/A1200 fixed it, but it was too late.
At the time of C='s demise, they still leased that insanely HUGE building in West Chester at over $800,000 / MONTH. Most of it was unused due to having all of the manufacturing shipped to the Phillipenes.
Then you had the CEO earning 11 Million Dollars in 1992 - for no other reason then he could get it. His salary that year even beat IBM's CEO! To be fair, he 'lent' C= back a few million as a loan but it was clear that the company had bigger problems than simple marketing issues.
It's all water under the bridge now, but many of us dealers knew the score for YEARS. There were just a couple simple things that might have turned them around:
1) Put a COLOR composite out on the A500. Why Black and White? They saved
2) Help support Newtek. Yeah, they did this in the end - but again, when it was WAY too late. People forget that C= feared Newtek in the beginning. Together, these guys could have been unstoppable in that market (and not a small one either).
3) Better product release timing. The next gen A1200 was a brilliant machine, but released too late as to avoid cannibalizing their A500 sales. But none of our customers wanted the A500 later on - all of them wanted the Next Big Thing. Announcements about future products killed Kaypro. C= should've known better.
4) They needed to stop building PCs and/or competing with IBM. They were still stuck in the home computing mode, even though it was clear for many years before the fall what was selling and what wasn't. HINT: 14 MHz 68020 A1200's sold like crazy, C= branded PC's grew dust.
For years C= refused to be boxed into any market, but as you observed, they eventually cozied up to anyone that could sell a box or two. It damaged their reputation and didn't help dealers much.
It was apparent to many of us in the know that C= was simply clueless about what made their product great and how to capitalize on it. I remember getting some demo discs from a sales rep once and all of them were virus-laden! This was the same rep who expounded on all the great business software the Amiga had. What a joke!
There's nothing wrong with selling the code in binary form - just as long as you can produce the GPL source code you used (as per the license).
Now IBM on the other hand is arguing an interesting point in their counterclaim. They are saying that SCO are not living up to their agreements because of the lawsuits. According to the GPL, SCO are not allowed to claim ownership on GPL'd code or sue to assert any sort of rights to it. IBM has therefore 'pulled' their right to use any code GPL'd by IBM (and there's a lot of it).
Now, 'pulled' is in quotes because obviously SCO is still distributing (or we can assume they are), some of IBM's GPL-based contributions. This is similar to the way SCO 'pulled' IBM's right to distribute AIX. IBM disputes that right due to wording of the license. SCO disputes the right of IBM's assertion by saying the GPL itself is invalid.
If the trial ever gets to the point of validating the GPL, it will be interesting to hear SCO's side of this one. To quote 'Airplane':
'They bought their tickets, they KNEW what they were getting into... I say, LET 'EM CRASH!'
SCO (previously Caldera) played by the same rules as everyone else when they willingly and actively contributed to the GPL. To all of a sudden claim that the GPL is invalid after YEARS of contribution to it is ridiculous! If SCO makes it through the lawsuit without losing their business it will be a miracle.
It's kind of a shame too because this has nothing to do with the programmers, dealers, users, and other stakeholders. This is about lawyers and corporate exec scumbags enjoying their retirement on some tropical paradise.
It's not as if the mainstream press seems to pay any attention to Slashdot anyway. If they did, we'd undoubtedly see more 'on-target' and useful articles (or at least a few repeated ones :) from the mainstream.
This site isn't there for them anyway. And it's no secret that Slashdot has a pro-Linux bias generally. Big fscking deal. Call it like you see it. It part of what won over this previously Microsoft-supporting user. Passion, when honest, isn't necessarily wrong. In fact, in today's mediocre world, where a single 'Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaahhh' speech can lose you a campaign, it's quite refreshing.
If having a SCO update every other day (hell, sometimes TWICE a day) isn't enough to prove this readership's general sense of injustice, then what is?
Most fellow geeks respect Asimov's quote from the Foundation series - you know, the one from Hardin that goes, "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." Nonetheless, I haven't seen so many tech people this pissed since the old C= days.
Litigous Bastards? Damn right, and then some.
The person I was responding to was talking about his disgust for the customized books being talked about at the beginning of the thread.
He had mentioned sampling, which is what Rap uses. My argument was that if sampling entire books and changing a few things isn't art, than why is Rap?
Ultimately, it's up to the individual.
Well you say you're all for sampling - how much is considered too much?
:)
Do you go by the amount of lines, words, or syllables?
Personally I think what he's doing is interesting. Is it art? Is 'Billy the Singing Bass Fish' art? Dunno. To each his/her own I suppose.
Some people say art is that which provokes an emotional response. Based on your reaction I'd say it clears that definition!
I worked for a dealer in PA and flew to Minneapolis, MN (home of MST3K no less), for a week-long Newtek training session. Kiki and Jim, and other Amiga luminaries were there and even taught some of the courses.
:)
It was an amazing time. The Toaster was in use by almost every local station, school, and videographer here. When the A4000 and the Flyer came out, things were just starting to crest when...
***BOOM***
Commodore imploded. I was there for the funeral of that company (the auction in West Chester), and let me tell you - it was a sad, sad day. A lot of companies like Scala, Newtek, and others were suddenly cast adrift. Newtek's situation was particularly bad. What could Newtek do without the Amiga? How could it continue to support the product it had out there? It was the Amiga's architecture that enabled the toaster's abilities.
Fortunately for Newtek, they were able to keep it together with Lightwave - a 3D package which had really matured far beyond the original VT's intent. Newtek was also able to get a hold of spare parts and used units and kept things surprisingly afloat for quite a while.
But other companies weren't as fortunate. A few years later, the dealership I worked at closed down. The niche market they relied on simply disappeared.
It's hard to explain to non-Amiga people why Amigans continually hope to bring it all back. The Amiga truly represented a revolution in computing. That level of innovation didn't occur on the PC until the word 'multimedia' suddenly made it ok for businesspeople to have great graphics and stereo sound.
The Amiga provided the world's first affordable desktop video production. There was NO competition - NONE. It was an absolute crime that Commodore never took full advantage of their position. Instead, they played around with primitive PC designs that cost them millions in losses and made other huge, obvious mistakes.
This is why Amigans worldwide are still not able to accept the demise of their favorite machine / OS.
One good thing may happen with this code release. It would be interesting to see if the user interface could be salvaged. The VT sold a lot of videographers on the simplicity of it's use. It didn't look like it was cobbled together by computer geeks. It truly resembled a dedicated video production product.
BTW, I still have my Video Toaster training certification.
Just what do you think art is anyway? EVERYONE builds on each others art. Rock built off of blues and jazz, and those off of earlier forms still. There is no 'original artform'. We are products of an environment of prior art.
That's why copyright extensions will eventually be lifted. Not because 'we the people' don't want it.
Because in the end corporations will have restricted their OWN ability to market creativity with flexibility.
Something not often touched on is the fact that Palm are a pain in the ass to configure in a corporate environment. Every succeeding version has a different connection method / software and there's simply no easy way to roll out policies for usage. This is as compared to your average CE PDA.
That said, I love my Tungsten T - best handheld I've ever owned.
I laughed out loud when I read that - not because Zero Wing is funny anymore, but because people assume that everyone understands this phrase now and even use it in a serious discussion.
It always amazes me how quickly the Internet can change things - even the language we speak!
I suspect that IBM has been paying close attention to the 'subversive' activities at Groklaw, but I wonder if they'll ever get any direct credit for it. There's been a great deal of
PJ and her legal elves certainly deserve our thanks.
...I actually got my first taste of machine language programming as a kid on the...
? ma sterid=12&cartid=12
MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY2 Game Console (complete with sync-sound action and lots of exclaimation points!)
OMFG. It was called, "Computer Intro." You had one line of 8 characters to program on, one 8 character line to use as a display. Basically, you could animate a few characters and make it 'buzz' annoyingly.
Incredibly primative, but it did in fact teach me the basics of assembly. One quote I remember from the manual referred to how 'microprocessors might someday fit as many as ONE MILLION transistors on ONE CHIP!' Heh.
More info here:
http://www.classicgaming.com/o2home/db/cart.asp
And that's not all. Do a 'Google' and look for 'adaware' or 'spybot' and you'll get more than you bargained for. A lot of these cretins are using the same names to link for their spyware.
l er.com
What about these...
www.ada-ware.com
www.stopzilla.com
www.spykil
www.spybot-software.com
Etc...
Who knows which are legit, and which are scams? I'll tell you this though. Those Stop-Sign scumbags should be drawn and quartered. Not only does it introduce new spyware to a user's machine, but until you register it, all it does is FIND the spyware and tell you about it.
Most users think this crapware actually does something in its shareware form because of the sneaky way it's advertised.
And do you think this way of thinking won't change with MS and Sony at the helm? Give me a break! These people INVENTED DRM!
Anyway, the technical reason it works is unimportant - it works and it's cheap, and that's all that matters. Who masters the discs is also unimportant as NO console company can have a successful run without the support of the software industry. If they decide to be unreasonable, there are competitors.
The three major console companies will practically fall over themselves for exclusive sweetheart deals (ala Grand Theft Auto and HL II). No, a console's future is very dependant on the software manufacturer feeling 'da love'.
As Sony's design might prove to be difficult to code for, it might give MS and Nintendo an edge. OTOH, the PS/2 was a BITCH to code for with only 4 MB of GFX RAM and it was successful.
At any rate, it will be interesting to see if MS has backward compatability. If they don't do this, it may tip the balance as I believe it did for the PS/2.
...is update the fscking WEBSITE! When was the last update to the Team Fortress II section on www.valvesoftware.com?
HINT: Bill Clinton was still president. I believe the Macarena was #1 back then as well...
Don't get your hopes up for anything Valve does. Get on with your gaming lives and then perhaps we'll be surprised someday. As for me, I can wish for it, but that won't stop me from playing XMP right now.
It's worked for Nintendo. Look, has the GC been hacked yet? Not really. There have been lots of games floating around the ether but no existing mod will allow you to play copied games on the GC - NONE.
Meanwhile the PS 1/2, Dreamcast (with it's supposedly unbreakable protection), and the X-Box have been hacked to oblivion. Hell, even the newer N-Gage was hacked in a few days! Piracy is rampant on all of these platforms. It can be argued that this was the main reason why the Dreamcast died.
Meanwhile, the GC? It's a 'trusted' platform. If I were any of the competition I'd be looking at how IBM helped Nintendo create the world's first secure console. You betcha.
I'm sorry for you wannabe rich future stockholders but I'm pleased about this.
I won't go into the history of other dotcoms who have gone into the crapper after having IPO'd. I think it would be a DEATH SENTENCE for the quality we've all come to know and love about Google.
IPOs seem to be great ideas for most companies, but as it happens, tech companies get the most pressure to perform due to unrealistically high initial stock prices (See Yahoo!) And shares mean shareholders.
Shareholders care nothing for quality if they (or the scumbag CEOs/CFOs and other execs) can make a quick buck - especially when they had to borrow money from 2nd Mortgage/Grandchildren/Luigi to afford it. I certainly have no interest playing that silly-ass game or in seeing Google start to suck.
As it happens, I wonder if this isn't related to the SCO issue. Maybe this was also designed to throw off their timing?
1: Get a job at some faceless corporation with a name like 'Enron'.
2: Design kick-ass games after hours.
3: Get your work stolen by your sneaky co-worker.
4: Beat the Master Control Program for domination of your codez.
5: Become the newest exec (you even get your own helicopter!)
"Greetings Programs!"
Really? Wowsers! When did they do that - is that new to 1.3? Of course, it's not like trying to interoperate with a blinded format like .DOC.
.DOC deconstruction at OOo has in any way assisted other office competitors like KDE in providing filters.
I wonder if the
That's true, but I set my home page to Google News, and that appears to be cursor-friendly (for now). Most of what I liked about Yahoo!'s main page was the little news snippets.
I hope they never change that.
Hmmm.. GUESS.
Hint: Two initials: I... E...