This is probably going to get modded off topic, but I was thinking last night that Linus really did prove that he's still got it with git.
People have been building DVCSs for a while now, and then Linus decides he'd like something that did it the way he wanted, hacked it together quickly, and it created something that a large number of people seem to prefer to anything else.
This sort of thing can be done autonomously in all the Japanese car factories that I know. And much faster.
The difference between the Mars lander and a car building robot is one of function.
The car building robot is programmed to do one task. It spends all day, every day, welding specific spots, on a car which is in a specific location.
The Mars landers have to content with an unknown environment, where they could be asked to do a wide variety of things, with any number of possible consequences.
I think he may be talking out of his arse (or at least being optimistic). I've not seen any word of this from the gaming press, who I think Microsoft would be a little more likely to tell about this then random Best Buy employees.
I don't know about everyone else, but I think of casual gamers as people who want to dip into a game for half an hour here and there, instead of sitting down for an epic experience that's going to eat their lives for several weeks.
What hurts Viacom is user-generated content: eyeballs going to watch stuff that is produced totally outside the normal distribution model.
While it would be nice to think that was the case, I don't think it's really happening yet. Sure, people will go and watch a few user created videos when there's nothing new to read on Slashdot during their lunch break, but I can't see the family gathering round the computer to watch "Jim's Low Budget Talent Show" in the same way as they would for "The X-Factor".
That might change at some point in the future, but from my highly unscientific surveys, most people browsing YouTube are doing it to watch clips from Top Gear and the like.
Re:Ah but does it run Linux?!?
on
Linux 2.6.26 Out
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· Score: 3, Funny
Sure, just install Xen, and then you can indeed make it run Linux.
If you're feeling really masochistic, you could even create a beowulf cluster of Linux boxes, running Linux, with Linux running on them./me watches his head explode.
If this was the government we were talking about, then I'd share your opinion, but I think people still need to have a bit of perspective.
Valve have no data that goes beyond your taste in games, and how you play them, other then the name and address on your credit card.
If they were to sell or give that to another company without your permission, then Visa and Mastercard would be less then happy, and they have the right to demand an audit of Valve's code at any time.
Lets face it, how long it took you to finish the middle section of HL2:Ep2, and what percentage of the time you were using a shotgun are hardly highly private information you wouldn't want anyone to see.
I'm of the opinion that if it really is just game play data, then the company is welcome to it. Bungee have got some real impressive stats for Halo 3, which I'm sure have led to some rebalancing to improve the game.
However, if it's actual real world information, then I want to be asked for permission to send it, and I want to know what information is being sent.
AT&T does strange things with IP addresses; before I got a static ip from them, I got a new Ip every time the router reset itself after a power failure and what not
Uhhh... yeah. That's what a dynamic IP address will do.
I'm sure AT&T have their problems, but delivering the service you paid for is probably not one of them.
I'll second Zyxels as being excellent little routers.
I work for an ISP that hands them out on all consumer and small business grade lines, and they're rock solid. You're right in them not being the nicest thing you can get, but Cisco's cost quite a lot more, and for most environments it would just be overkill anyway.
Yes. There are strict standards that you have to adhere to if you want to process credit cards, and if you breach them then the company will either fine you, or in extreme situations revoke your rights to process credit cards.
More accurate would be to say they were going to release subscriber-only content - the last time I looked they'd so far released a new area to play in.
Oh, and you got a chest to keep stuff in for your other characters.
As far as I can tell, that is the sum total of what you get for subscribing to the game. I can't say I'm surprised by them not being able to sustain the business model, but I'll be sad to see them go.
Management OTOH are complete fucking idiots, they'll always go with the inferior solution from the hardworking salesman.
You should get some better managers;)
I'm quite lucky to be working for an ISP where management have almost all come up from being either sysadmins or developers - even the CEO started out racking servers, and taking 2am support calls.
Over here our managers love nothing more then booking an afternoon meeting with a salesman for a company that claims to have the Holy Grail, and then making them sweat as they get asked questions they can't answer without someone with a technical background with them.
Just make them good. I have no problem with paying for my games (I do so for every game I have a copy of), but I'm not going to go out and buy a crap game if I can help it.
Of course the industry needs to stop crying wolf as well. While sales from brick and morter stores are going down like a brick, a lot of that is being picked up by services like Steam, because Valve seems to have realised that attempting to screw your customers just doesn't work.
Essentially, it's cheaper for an IT company to run a dozen IT departments than it is for a dozen separate widgets companies to run their own IT department.
I think you've got to the meat of the issue here. In all likelihood the OP is going to end up not only working for DHL, but for several other company's IT departments as well.
Personally I think that's a really good thing. You get experience of how other company's are setup, and potentially get to play with things that you wouldn't have otherwise.
There's also the advantage of working for a company that makes it's money from IT, rather then a company that sees IT as a money sink, which generally leads to a much nicer environment to be working in.
Your attitude to code review is painfully immature.
How about you take the criticism of your code (is it as full of single letter variable names as your example?) like a man, and make an effort to write better code in the future.
Believe me, it's not the fact that you criticised Joe's code a few months ago that makes him hate you, it's your attitude of "I'm not going to have to maintain it, so why should I make an effort to write readable code?"
I've never used Perforce before - what does it get you that SVN or Git doesn't?
Everywhere I've worked in the past has used SVN with plenty of success, although our team are starting to use git-svn to give us the flexibility of Git without having to completely change the company's source control infrastructure, and are loving the sane branching support, and the ability to batch commit code once a feature is considered ready for production.
The big thing I'd suggest is to get involved in some Open Source development - find some software that you like, but could be better, and get to work making it better.
I think that was the biggest thing thats got me into the jobs I've had so far, and especially the first one where I'd otherwise have had no evidence I knew what I was doing.
It was also the big selling point when I started my current job, at an ISP which is almost entirely running on Open Source software. I still can't quite believe that I get paid to work here;)
Working support will be useful to you as well (it's where several of the people on my team here came from), so long as you sell it right. It may not have taught you how to write software, but it does mean that you have a far better perspective on what users want, and what things cause problems for them.
As for moving, it might be neccesary, I had the problem that my home town just doesn't seem to have any decent development jobs around, so I took the approach that wherever I could find a job, I'd move there. It certainly opens up a lot more possibilities if you're not tied down to a particular location, and can also be a lot of fun if you find the right place.
You're totally right that once you've got that first job, things become a lot easier. Good luck finding it:)
Slashdot Mirror
Go on then, that's something I'd like to see!
Your two days start... NOW!
This is probably going to get modded off topic, but I was thinking last night that Linus really did prove that he's still got it with git.
People have been building DVCSs for a while now, and then Linus decides he'd like something that did it the way he wanted, hacked it together quickly, and it created something that a large number of people seem to prefer to anything else.
The difference between the Mars lander and a car building robot is one of function.
The car building robot is programmed to do one task. It spends all day, every day, welding specific spots, on a car which is in a specific location.
The Mars landers have to content with an unknown environment, where they could be asked to do a wide variety of things, with any number of possible consequences.
No it's not. It's like an animal not gnawing off its arm to get out of a trap in a better state later.
Your friend who works for Best Buy?
I think he may be talking out of his arse (or at least being optimistic). I've not seen any word of this from the gaming press, who I think Microsoft would be a little more likely to tell about this then random Best Buy employees.
I don't know about everyone else, but I think of casual gamers as people who want to dip into a game for half an hour here and there, instead of sitting down for an epic experience that's going to eat their lives for several weeks.
And if I were to send an e-mail using my personal address to arrange a drug deal right now, it would involve my employer's resources.
It wouldn't however make my employer guilty of attempting to supply controlled substances.
While it would be nice to think that was the case, I don't think it's really happening yet. Sure, people will go and watch a few user created videos when there's nothing new to read on Slashdot during their lunch break, but I can't see the family gathering round the computer to watch "Jim's Low Budget Talent Show" in the same way as they would for "The X-Factor".
That might change at some point in the future, but from my highly unscientific surveys, most people browsing YouTube are doing it to watch clips from Top Gear and the like.
Sure, just install Xen, and then you can indeed make it run Linux.
If you're feeling really masochistic, you could even create a beowulf cluster of Linux boxes, running Linux, with Linux running on them. /me watches his head explode.
If this was the government we were talking about, then I'd share your opinion, but I think people still need to have a bit of perspective.
Valve have no data that goes beyond your taste in games, and how you play them, other then the name and address on your credit card.
If they were to sell or give that to another company without your permission, then Visa and Mastercard would be less then happy, and they have the right to demand an audit of Valve's code at any time.
Do you honestly care?
Lets face it, how long it took you to finish the middle section of HL2:Ep2, and what percentage of the time you were using a shotgun are hardly highly private information you wouldn't want anyone to see.
I'm of the opinion that if it really is just game play data, then the company is welcome to it. Bungee have got some real impressive stats for Halo 3, which I'm sure have led to some rebalancing to improve the game.
However, if it's actual real world information, then I want to be asked for permission to send it, and I want to know what information is being sent.
Uhhh... yeah. That's what a dynamic IP address will do.
I'm sure AT&T have their problems, but delivering the service you paid for is probably not one of them.
I'll second Zyxels as being excellent little routers.
I work for an ISP that hands them out on all consumer and small business grade lines, and they're rock solid. You're right in them not being the nicest thing you can get, but Cisco's cost quite a lot more, and for most environments it would just be overkill anyway.
If I had modpoints, you could have them all for that.
Yes. There are strict standards that you have to adhere to if you want to process credit cards, and if you breach them then the company will either fine you, or in extreme situations revoke your rights to process credit cards.
PCI-DSS on Wikipedia
Business as usual then?
More accurate would be to say they were going to release subscriber-only content - the last time I looked they'd so far released a new area to play in.
Oh, and you got a chest to keep stuff in for your other characters.
As far as I can tell, that is the sum total of what you get for subscribing to the game. I can't say I'm surprised by them not being able to sustain the business model, but I'll be sad to see them go.
You should get some better managers ;)
I'm quite lucky to be working for an ISP where management have almost all come up from being either sysadmins or developers - even the CEO started out racking servers, and taking 2am support calls.
Over here our managers love nothing more then booking an afternoon meeting with a salesman for a company that claims to have the Holy Grail, and then making them sweat as they get asked questions they can't answer without someone with a technical background with them.
Just make them good. I have no problem with paying for my games (I do so for every game I have a copy of), but I'm not going to go out and buy a crap game if I can help it.
Of course the industry needs to stop crying wolf as well. While sales from brick and morter stores are going down like a brick, a lot of that is being picked up by services like Steam, because Valve seems to have realised that attempting to screw your customers just doesn't work.
It ain't so...
I think you've got to the meat of the issue here. In all likelihood the OP is going to end up not only working for DHL, but for several other company's IT departments as well.
Personally I think that's a really good thing. You get experience of how other company's are setup, and potentially get to play with things that you wouldn't have otherwise.
There's also the advantage of working for a company that makes it's money from IT, rather then a company that sees IT as a money sink, which generally leads to a much nicer environment to be working in.
Did you just call Word a development tool?
You're not in management by any chance are you?
Wow, I'm glad I don't work with you.
Your attitude to code review is painfully immature.
How about you take the criticism of your code (is it as full of single letter variable names as your example?) like a man, and make an effort to write better code in the future.
Believe me, it's not the fact that you criticised Joe's code a few months ago that makes him hate you, it's your attitude of "I'm not going to have to maintain it, so why should I make an effort to write readable code?"
I've never used Perforce before - what does it get you that SVN or Git doesn't?
Everywhere I've worked in the past has used SVN with plenty of success, although our team are starting to use git-svn to give us the flexibility of Git without having to completely change the company's source control infrastructure, and are loving the sane branching support, and the ability to batch commit code once a feature is considered ready for production.
The big thing I'd suggest is to get involved in some Open Source development - find some software that you like, but could be better, and get to work making it better.
I think that was the biggest thing thats got me into the jobs I've had so far, and especially the first one where I'd otherwise have had no evidence I knew what I was doing.
It was also the big selling point when I started my current job, at an ISP which is almost entirely running on Open Source software. I still can't quite believe that I get paid to work here ;)
Working support will be useful to you as well (it's where several of the people on my team here came from), so long as you sell it right. It may not have taught you how to write software, but it does mean that you have a far better perspective on what users want, and what things cause problems for them.
As for moving, it might be neccesary, I had the problem that my home town just doesn't seem to have any decent development jobs around, so I took the approach that wherever I could find a job, I'd move there. It certainly opens up a lot more possibilities if you're not tied down to a particular location, and can also be a lot of fun if you find the right place.
You're totally right that once you've got that first job, things become a lot easier. Good luck finding it :)