The only reason crap like this gets posted on/. is because it will generate flames. Idiots like Zonk know full well there is pretty much no useful content in a Dvorak column.
Posting articles simply to generate annoyance is bullshit.
I'm not in on the story behind it. Was this some crazy design thing that Steve demanded? Or is it just the usual "BLAME EVERYTHING ON STEVE JOBS" headline?
If an Apple delivery truck crashes will the headline be "STEVE JOBS' TRUCK CRASHES"
There are so many idiotic comments about Bladerunner in this thread there's no point in trying to set anyone straight. It's pretty clear the posters are not in the target audience for this DVD and would prefer to stay in the basement and watch 'Teletubbies.'
I tried Second Life but found it to be extraordinarily ugly, buggy, and ran like crap even on my system which is tuned for gaming horsepower. Even the supposedly "custom" player characters look like old Poser 3 models. The game world itself is mostly empty and has the appearance of a retro CG demo. Look! Blue sky! Look! Green ground! Lumpy green hills! I have played alot of online games but Second Life is so ferociously ugly and poorly made that it boggles my mind that it is so popular.
...because this device allows Republicans to win races they otherwise would lose. As long as their machines ensure Republican wins there will be no stopping them.
Note that this has nothing to do with whether or not the Republican candidate is the better or worse person. This is about a simple numbers game being played by our President and the corporations that wanted him in power. They want as many Republicans elected as possible to secure their power base and Diebold helps provide that.
Power works very hard to remain powerful and there's no saying that a Democratic government might not try the same dirty tricks. But right now this is a Republican Constitution-Bypass device.
Like the author I'm also 39. The first video game I put my hands on was the "Computer Space" arcade game at a Target in Oklahoma in 1972. It was in this big fiberglass case and no one knew what it is so they all just walked by. I probably just stood there for 15 minutes watching the attract mode. We got "Super" Pong for our 8 inch B&W Sony portable around 1976 and from that point on always had some kind of computer system in the house.
My father (68) is a Half Life 2 junky. Just yesterday he emailed a deathmatch screenshot to my brother and I to show how he came out with the top score. I introduced him to Doom and Duke Nukem 3D and he's been playing FPS online ever since.
Sometimes I feel a little pathetic for still being interested in video games but I grew up with them being a source of entertainment and don't see why I should pretend they don't exist. Playing video games has nothing to do with one's level of maturity or social skills, unless you choose to spend all your time doing it.
This is not about users installing software that actually helps them do their job. This is about users installing software that they find entertaining that then cause problems. It's my job to fix the problems.
It's simplistic to say "well we'll have a no-support policy for unapproved apps." And when the user hoses their machine, guess what happens? I.T. will STILL have to fix it. Your approach is about shifting blame when the inevitable meltdown occurs. Mine is about preventing or avoiding meltdowns in the first place.
If a user needs an app to do their job then it's my responsibility to research it and see what's required to get it implemented safely. Those types of apps are pretty much never at the heart of these discussions. It's the frivolous stuff.
I happen to enjoy frivolous stuff but I also recognize that there needs to be a clear demarcation in the workplace between apps that are work-related and those that are intended for more personal pursuits.
Bottom line: non work-related software does not belong on a company asset unless it has been researched and cleared by IT.
I just started as IT manager for a small advertising agency. The systems were wide open before and it seems like every machine has Limewire, skype, five different IM programs... and lots and lots of problems.
When these items cause problems that reduce productivity they have to go. It's that simple.
Due to unrestrained (and uninformed) users I now have to go over all 50 machines with a fine-tooth comb to scrub off the bad stuff. Several of these machines are probably going to have to be wiped. This is 100% due to user loaded "personal" software.
As I fix each machine they are getting locked down. I've been directed by management to prevent users from pirating music on company machines or using filesharing to share pirated music. I don't see anything unreasonable at all about that.
Any app that is well-behaved and does not expose the company to liability is fine with me. Otherwise it has to go.
I struggled with Second Life for a few days before becoming tired with the hideously bad performance. In addition to the player models looking ugly and out of date the game was slow as molasses even with alot of the settings turned down to nubs.
Oblivion runs fine on my machine with medium settings so there's no excuse for a game as ugly as Second Life to run so poorly.
You might want to read the tech forums at SWG some time. The problem is not only awful it is not client based. This is not an issue of PC speed and texture loading. My PC specs far exceed yours and I have been playing SWG since beta.
Nice try, we have some lovely parting gifts for you!;)
Lag is frequently so bad in SWG (even in semi-deserted areas) that combat can be a slideshow where you're suddenly dead from an enemy that never even showed up on your radar.
There is no way... NONE... that they can make this "real time" thing work unless there is a fundamental change to the way the servers run. Collision detection? Are they crazy? Just try driving your speeder through the cities around Coronet on pretty much any server and watch the screen jump and bob and snap as objects and house pop up and vanish. And that's just driving!:)
In WoW this kind of lag usually only appeared in a heavily populated area. In a battle with more than say 15 people things could slow down. In SWG lag is an ever present, mind-numbing pox.
It's the nature of the business. At any one time there can be only one really huge MMORPG, and right now it's WoW. Of course that will not last forever, just look at Everquest.
To a degree any MMORPG is frozen in place technologically. No matter how many expansion packs come out you can only upgrade an engine so much. Take a look at my beloved Anarchy Online for a good MMORPG that got completely left behind in time.
As long as MMORPG are popular this will be the pattern. There will always be something new on the horizon that will grab everyone's attention while leaving only a smaller population of die-hards behind.
Back in 1977 the Academy split in two: The Academy and The National Academy. The regular ol' ATAS is the one that organizes the primetime emmy awards and the creative arts emmys. These cover all the primetime shows for both in front of and behind the camera folks.
The national academy (NATAS) controls all the regional sites. These are the ones that give out "local" emmy awards for things like your local TV news show. They are supposed to run the Daytime emmys but they screwed it up so badly one year that ATAS has to manage it for them in their name. In order to make money they have also created other emmy shows like the sports and news emmys.
There is also in international academy but that's a staff of like 3 people responsible for the totally ignored international emmy awards.
Slashdot Mirror
After this story how many more reasons does Slashdot need to stop posting stories by or about Dvorak?
Just stop. There is plenty of tech news from legitimate sources.
The only reason crap like this gets posted on /. is because it will generate flames. Idiots like Zonk know full well there is pretty much no useful content in a Dvorak column.
Posting articles simply to generate annoyance is bullshit.
That reminds me, got 'Battle of Britain' on the TiVo. My own way of celebrating the Spitfire's 70th. ;)
I hope the bigwigs at Vonage held off on those Ferraris they were planning to buy... :D
Apparently questioning the troll-like subject line for this thread was enough to get me modded as a troll. :)
Please enjoy your anti-Apple hate thread. Don't worry, there will always be more, care of your friends at Slashdot.
I'm not in on the story behind it. Was this some crazy design thing that Steve demanded? Or is it just the usual "BLAME EVERYTHING ON STEVE JOBS" headline?
If an Apple delivery truck crashes will the headline be "STEVE JOBS' TRUCK CRASHES"
There are so many idiotic comments about Bladerunner in this thread there's no point in trying to set anyone straight. It's pretty clear the posters are not in the target audience for this DVD and would prefer to stay in the basement and watch 'Teletubbies.'
I tried Second Life but found it to be extraordinarily ugly, buggy, and ran like crap even on my system which is tuned for gaming horsepower.
Even the supposedly "custom" player characters look like old Poser 3 models. The game world itself is mostly empty and has the appearance of a retro CG demo. Look! Blue sky! Look! Green ground! Lumpy green hills!
I have played alot of online games but Second Life is so ferociously ugly and poorly made that it boggles my mind that it is so popular.
Do you actually play the guitar in this game, or is it just some weird pseudo-guitar controller with buttons on it?
If you actually play the guitar then it's kind of odd. Does it have a teaching aspect or can only already capable guitarists play it?
...because this device allows Republicans to win races they otherwise would lose. As long as their machines ensure Republican wins there will be no stopping them.
Note that this has nothing to do with whether or not the Republican candidate is the better or worse person. This is about a simple numbers game being played by our President and the corporations that wanted him in power. They want as many Republicans elected as possible to secure their power base and Diebold helps provide that.
Power works very hard to remain powerful and there's no saying that a Democratic government might not try the same dirty tricks. But right now this is a Republican Constitution-Bypass device.
Like the author I'm also 39. The first video game I put my hands on was the "Computer Space" arcade game at a Target in Oklahoma in 1972. It was in this big fiberglass case and no one knew what it is so they all just walked by. I probably just stood there for 15 minutes watching the attract mode.
We got "Super" Pong for our 8 inch B&W Sony portable around 1976 and from that point on always had some kind of computer system in the house.
My father (68) is a Half Life 2 junky. Just yesterday he emailed a deathmatch screenshot to my brother and I to show how he came out with the top score. I introduced him to Doom and Duke Nukem 3D and he's been playing FPS online ever since.
Sometimes I feel a little pathetic for still being interested in video games but I grew up with them being a source of entertainment and don't see why I should pretend they don't exist. Playing video games has nothing to do with one's level of maturity or social skills, unless you choose to spend all your time doing it.
This is not about users installing software that actually helps them do their job. This is about users installing software that they find entertaining that then cause problems. It's my job to fix the problems.
It's simplistic to say "well we'll have a no-support policy for unapproved apps." And when the user hoses their machine, guess what happens? I.T. will STILL have to fix it. Your approach is about shifting blame when the inevitable meltdown occurs. Mine is about preventing or avoiding meltdowns in the first place.
If a user needs an app to do their job then it's my responsibility to research it and see what's required to get it implemented safely. Those types of apps are pretty much never at the heart of these discussions. It's the frivolous stuff.
I happen to enjoy frivolous stuff but I also recognize that there needs to be a clear demarcation in the workplace between apps that are work-related and those that are intended for more personal pursuits.
Bottom line: non work-related software does not belong on a company asset unless it has been researched and cleared by IT.
I just started as IT manager for a small advertising agency. The systems were wide open before and it seems like every machine has Limewire, skype, five different IM programs... and lots and lots of problems.
When these items cause problems that reduce productivity they have to go. It's that simple.
Due to unrestrained (and uninformed) users I now have to go over all 50 machines with a fine-tooth comb to scrub off the bad stuff. Several of these machines are probably going to have to be wiped. This is 100% due to user loaded "personal" software.
As I fix each machine they are getting locked down. I've been directed by management to prevent users from pirating music on company machines or using filesharing to share pirated music. I don't see anything unreasonable at all about that.
Any app that is well-behaved and does not expose the company to liability is fine with me. Otherwise it has to go.
I struggled with Second Life for a few days before becoming tired with the hideously bad performance. In addition to the player models looking ugly and out of date the game was slow as molasses even with alot of the settings turned down to nubs.
Oblivion runs fine on my machine with medium settings so there's no excuse for a game as ugly as Second Life to run so poorly.
Idiots.
You might want to read the tech forums at SWG some time. The problem is not only awful it is not client based. This is not an issue of PC speed and texture loading. My PC specs far exceed yours and I have been playing SWG since beta.
;)
Nice try, we have some lovely parting gifts for you!
Lag is frequently so bad in SWG (even in semi-deserted areas) that combat can be a slideshow where you're suddenly dead from an enemy that never even showed up on your radar.
:)
There is no way... NONE... that they can make this "real time" thing work unless there is a fundamental change to the way the servers run. Collision detection? Are they crazy? Just try driving your speeder through the cities around Coronet on pretty much any server and watch the screen jump and bob and snap as objects and house pop up and vanish. And that's just driving!
In WoW this kind of lag usually only appeared in a heavily populated area. In a battle with more than say 15 people things could slow down. In SWG lag is an ever present, mind-numbing pox.
It's the nature of the business. At any one time there can be only one really huge MMORPG, and right now it's WoW. Of course that will not last forever, just look at Everquest.
To a degree any MMORPG is frozen in place technologically. No matter how many expansion packs come out you can only upgrade an engine so much. Take a look at my beloved Anarchy Online for a good MMORPG that got completely left behind in time.
As long as MMORPG are popular this will be the pattern. There will always be something new on the horizon that will grab everyone's attention while leaving only a smaller population of die-hards behind.
You broke the rules and got caught.
It's fine learn 2 play.
Good thing there's no way around this system. It's not like anyone could lie about their age on the internet.
Way to go Yahoo/Spitzer!
Back in 1977 the Academy split in two: The Academy and The National Academy. The regular ol' ATAS is the one that organizes the primetime emmy awards and the creative arts emmys. These cover all the primetime shows for both in front of and behind the camera folks.
The national academy (NATAS) controls all the regional sites. These are the ones that give out "local" emmy awards for things like your local TV news show. They are supposed to run the Daytime emmys but they screwed it up so badly one year that ATAS has to manage it for them in their name. In order to make money they have also created other emmy shows like the sports and news emmys.
There is also in international academy but that's a staff of like 3 people responsible for the totally ignored international emmy awards.
Can we have a special Slashdot category for stories about failed OSs that are still being flogged?
I mean, fer cripes sake people this thing was stillborn 15 years ago! Why would anyone seriously consider using it for anything?
This is not news. It is a curiousity, like a pig with two heads.
Nothing like a good accusation to get people stirred up.
Anything is possible, but an accusation is ceratinly easy to cook up.
Typical marketing stupidity.
...at least I now know the Finnish word for 'fragfest.'
Too bad there is no Finnish word for 'comedy.'