The indie game/solo programmer reemergence phenomena has only come about in the past 5+ years. My experience is based on when I was in college and had to make a decision on what I wanted to do with my life (circa late 90's). At the time there really wasn't any large scale indie game programming unless you want to count shareware which isn't a viable career path. Maybe if I was graduating now I would do things differently.
My interest ended when it was no longer possible for a single programmer (or a very small group) to make games anymore. When I was a kid growing up with my Atari 400 and Apple II I dreamed of possibly being able to come up with a new game idea, programming it, and getting it published somewhere. However by the time I was in college and getting my computer science degree I realized that those days were long over and games were far too complex to make by yourself. Not to mention the whole industry had changed drastically by that time becoming the meat grinder it is today.
Personally I don't know why anyone would want to make games for a living anymore. Even if you don't mind the grueling hours, crappy management, and relatively low pay, it sucks the fun out of what you used to enjoy.
The whole trend with movie theaters losing ground to home theaters reminds me of what happened to arcades. Back in the 80's and early 90's they were the place to be because you could only experience the latest and greatest games at the arcade. But once home consoles caught up with the arcade machines they completely died out because of the convenience of having the latest and greatest at home meant you didn't have to put up with all the obnoxiousness of arcades (not to mention the gang fights).
Unless you're into the theater 'experience' (being around tons of people, gigantic screens, loud sound system) there's really no reason not to just wait for it to come out on DVD or Netflix and watch it home where you can choose when to watch, pause/rewind the movie, eat what you want, and not have to deal with obnoxious people for a fraction of the cost. Unless movie theaters do some serious innovating (3-D part duex seems to have fizzled) they're going to disappear in the next decade or so except for a small few for those who still want the 'experience'.
When I was a lowly stock boy at Kmart many many moons ago, I had to listen to the same loop of music and advertisements for hours on end. After a while I didn't even hear the music as it became background noise, but since the music stopped when their pre-recorded ads played it always caught my attention as I had to listen for managers calling me over the PA and whatnot. For months afterwords I could mouth the ads word for word and occasionally heard them in my sleep (there was a particularly obnoxious one with Fuzzy Zoeller pimping something that I can still kind of remember). Thankfully I don't think places like Starbucks put ads in their music, but I imagine places like Walmart still do.
Actually you'd be surprised at the number of people who try to harass or destroy someone's life for the most petty of reasons. Doesn't have to be someone famous or someone in the spotlight. Irrational people (IE. those who would be willing to do something like this) aren't rational by definition. All bets are off when it comes to what they might do.
I suppose you could say that the internet is more 'civil' than in the past, but the reasons why aren't what you think. If my small circle of friends is any guide, it's because everyone is scared to death to say ANYTHING that can be considered 'non-PC' or taken the wrong way by the internet lynch mobs. So they just keep their comments private among a chosen few or don't bother saying anything at all. Why risk saying something, even the most benign comment, that can be used to get you fired or destroy your life by a bunch of nameless people on the internet looking for trouble? It's just not worth it anymore, so the sane people just drop out. Even my 'woke' friends (hate that term, but they seriously do use it) walk on eggshells these days.
So yes I guess the internet is more civil than in the past, but only because a small but vocal group of people have effectively silenced the rest (this isn't a left/right conservative/liberal thing, this is something much more sinister). I really had hoped that people would eventually start getting tired of the latest outrage de jour, but people just seem to feed on it so it continues to grow to ever larger and more bizarre forms of outrage. After all, outrage and victimhood is power these days. Who would willing give that up?
Oh I know that. Buying in CA is a pipe dream, but even renting a modest place is expensive without two incomes (not to mention having to have the job in place first). I was willing to go 'all in' on a move, but my wife won't take that kind of risk (perhaps she's right though, she's the more level headed of the two of us). Unfortunately saving a large enough cushion for something like this without resorting to living like broke college kids in your mid 40's is kind of tough or takes a very long time.
No kidding. My wife is originally from California, but moved to Michigan to marry me. She's been wanting to move back for a long time now (she has an aging mother she wants to be near) but the cost of moving across country is insane, even if we get rid of everything but the essentials. Not to mention having to have a job already lined up (I'm in IT, but over 40), find affordable housing somewhere (even outside of SV it's insane), and leave something in savings in case everything goes tits up. As much we'd like to move to where we want to be, we just can't.
Anything that quickens the inevitable decline and destruction of Facebook is A-OK in my book. The faster Facebook destroys itself the better the world will be.
Has no one ever dealt with the Indian government before? There's way too much corruption to make this a realistic goal by 2022. Will they eventually get into space? Sure, but it's going to take longer then four years. It will take that long just to grease the proper palms to get the paperwork approved much less build anything.
I cut the cord earlier this year after Charter decided to raise the price on my extremely basic cable package (the standard channels plus 10 of my choice) and went with Playstation Vue. Vue is nice, I like the free DVR feature and the basic package has all the channels I wanted and more (more than what Charter gave me with that 10 channel thing), but now that I'm not subsidizing my internet connection with the cable bundle it ends up being about the same price that I was paying. I still think it's worth it though as I can use my PS4, PS3, and Fire Sticks to stream instead of needing a separate cable box for each one.
Eventually the cable companies are going to raise the internet price so high if you don't have a cable subscription with them that you'll almost be forced to do it. They're not going to go quietly into that good night.
Honestly I don't get why they even have to have all these silly code names. Maybe for internal stuff, but once it hits the streets I'm fine with names like 10.14 or 18.04. Otherwise you get people asking 'Does this run on Mavericks or do you need Sierra?" which means nothing to me. "Does it run on 10.9 or does it require 10.12?" makes more sense to me as I have no idea if a Sierra is better than a El Capitan or if a Yakkity Yak beats a Gusty Gibbon or whatever other nonsense code names they use.
Wasn't that the name of the fake Windows 8 version that they were trying to fool people into liking on those obnoxious commercials a few years back? Why would anyone want to bring back those memories?
I can see this being useful in specific circumstances like places without street signs. Around here there are numerous streets that seem to be without street signs for some reason (either stolen, fallen down and not replaced, or so faded they're illegible) so when the directions say "Turn left on West St." but the sign for West St. hasn't existed in 5 years, that's a problem. Of course the odds that something like a Burger King is going to be there forever are pretty slim, so maybe they'll have to update it to "Turn left at the thing that used to be a Burger King but is now a Coney Island" or something like that.
Well in any case you *should* be able to live just fine without access to broadband. Unfortunately more and more companies seem to think that if you don't have broadband access you're not worth dealing with. But I digress...
My mother in-law still only has dial up internet. At best she gets 56K speeds although I sometimes doubt it's better than 28K, but she seems to survive just fine. She can still use e-mail when she absolutely has to, but does everything else 'the old fashioned way'. No broadband, no smart phone, limited cable TV (only because OTA stations in her area are practically non-existent), and yet she survives. I honestly admire the simplicity of it all.
Same here. I don' game on my PC so I don't need anything fancy, just an average graphics card and some RAM (12GB because it was cheap). Everything runs just fine (Windows 10 and Ubuntu). We're long past the 'need to upgrade every 3-4 years or be left in the dust' thing.
I too use their app so I can listen to the radio when I walk. Too bad their app sucks so bad that it crashes all the time. Not to mention it drains my battery like mad.
Oh and you can thank our corrupt as sh*t road commission for the crumbling roads. It doesn't matter who is in charge, Republican or Democrat, the road commission will continue to do the absolute minimum they can as cheaply as they can. Budget doesn't matter, that all goes into kickbacks and contractor pockets.
Depends on your definition of 'god awful' is. Sure we get snow but we don't get blizzards or a foot of snow dumped on us at a time like some other parts of the state. SE Michigan is actually a micro-climate of sorts. Check any planting map and you'll see it listed a zone 5a instead of just zone 5. The lack of sunshine for much of the winter is a killer though. We get a lot of gray overcast days, but if that were that big of a deterrent to people then Seattle would be a ghost town.
>>Also I think most people would rather live where you can grow orange and lemon trees in your yard rather than where you have to shovel snow. (although if I didn't have to work for a living I would love to live on the lakeshore in West Michigan)
Actually I grow lemons in my house, so it is possible to grow lemons in Michigan.:) The snow isn't so bad, but the oppressive humidity in the summers are what gets me. It's like being in Florida, only without the huge cockroaches and alligators.
Slashdot Mirror
The indie game/solo programmer reemergence phenomena has only come about in the past 5+ years. My experience is based on when I was in college and had to make a decision on what I wanted to do with my life (circa late 90's). At the time there really wasn't any large scale indie game programming unless you want to count shareware which isn't a viable career path. Maybe if I was graduating now I would do things differently.
My interest ended when it was no longer possible for a single programmer (or a very small group) to make games anymore. When I was a kid growing up with my Atari 400 and Apple II I dreamed of possibly being able to come up with a new game idea, programming it, and getting it published somewhere. However by the time I was in college and getting my computer science degree I realized that those days were long over and games were far too complex to make by yourself. Not to mention the whole industry had changed drastically by that time becoming the meat grinder it is today.
Personally I don't know why anyone would want to make games for a living anymore. Even if you don't mind the grueling hours, crappy management, and relatively low pay, it sucks the fun out of what you used to enjoy.
The whole trend with movie theaters losing ground to home theaters reminds me of what happened to arcades. Back in the 80's and early 90's they were the place to be because you could only experience the latest and greatest games at the arcade. But once home consoles caught up with the arcade machines they completely died out because of the convenience of having the latest and greatest at home meant you didn't have to put up with all the obnoxiousness of arcades (not to mention the gang fights).
Unless you're into the theater 'experience' (being around tons of people, gigantic screens, loud sound system) there's really no reason not to just wait for it to come out on DVD or Netflix and watch it home where you can choose when to watch, pause/rewind the movie, eat what you want, and not have to deal with obnoxious people for a fraction of the cost. Unless movie theaters do some serious innovating (3-D part duex seems to have fizzled) they're going to disappear in the next decade or so except for a small few for those who still want the 'experience'.
When I was a lowly stock boy at Kmart many many moons ago, I had to listen to the same loop of music and advertisements for hours on end. After a while I didn't even hear the music as it became background noise, but since the music stopped when their pre-recorded ads played it always caught my attention as I had to listen for managers calling me over the PA and whatnot. For months afterwords I could mouth the ads word for word and occasionally heard them in my sleep (there was a particularly obnoxious one with Fuzzy Zoeller pimping something that I can still kind of remember). Thankfully I don't think places like Starbucks put ads in their music, but I imagine places like Walmart still do.
Actually you'd be surprised at the number of people who try to harass or destroy someone's life for the most petty of reasons. Doesn't have to be someone famous or someone in the spotlight. Irrational people (IE. those who would be willing to do something like this) aren't rational by definition. All bets are off when it comes to what they might do.
I suppose you could say that the internet is more 'civil' than in the past, but the reasons why aren't what you think. If my small circle of friends is any guide, it's because everyone is scared to death to say ANYTHING that can be considered 'non-PC' or taken the wrong way by the internet lynch mobs. So they just keep their comments private among a chosen few or don't bother saying anything at all. Why risk saying something, even the most benign comment, that can be used to get you fired or destroy your life by a bunch of nameless people on the internet looking for trouble? It's just not worth it anymore, so the sane people just drop out. Even my 'woke' friends (hate that term, but they seriously do use it) walk on eggshells these days.
So yes I guess the internet is more civil than in the past, but only because a small but vocal group of people have effectively silenced the rest (this isn't a left/right conservative/liberal thing, this is something much more sinister). I really had hoped that people would eventually start getting tired of the latest outrage de jour, but people just seem to feed on it so it continues to grow to ever larger and more bizarre forms of outrage. After all, outrage and victimhood is power these days. Who would willing give that up?
And unfortunately unless you have some unique or high in demand skills that isn't going to happen.
Oh I know that. Buying in CA is a pipe dream, but even renting a modest place is expensive without two incomes (not to mention having to have the job in place first). I was willing to go 'all in' on a move, but my wife won't take that kind of risk (perhaps she's right though, she's the more level headed of the two of us). Unfortunately saving a large enough cushion for something like this without resorting to living like broke college kids in your mid 40's is kind of tough or takes a very long time.
No kidding. My wife is originally from California, but moved to Michigan to marry me. She's been wanting to move back for a long time now (she has an aging mother she wants to be near) but the cost of moving across country is insane, even if we get rid of everything but the essentials. Not to mention having to have a job already lined up (I'm in IT, but over 40), find affordable housing somewhere (even outside of SV it's insane), and leave something in savings in case everything goes tits up. As much we'd like to move to where we want to be, we just can't.
Anything that quickens the inevitable decline and destruction of Facebook is A-OK in my book. The faster Facebook destroys itself the better the world will be.
Burn baby burn!
Has no one ever dealt with the Indian government before? There's way too much corruption to make this a realistic goal by 2022. Will they eventually get into space? Sure, but it's going to take longer then four years. It will take that long just to grease the proper palms to get the paperwork approved much less build anything.
I cut the cord earlier this year after Charter decided to raise the price on my extremely basic cable package (the standard channels plus 10 of my choice) and went with Playstation Vue. Vue is nice, I like the free DVR feature and the basic package has all the channels I wanted and more (more than what Charter gave me with that 10 channel thing), but now that I'm not subsidizing my internet connection with the cable bundle it ends up being about the same price that I was paying. I still think it's worth it though as I can use my PS4, PS3, and Fire Sticks to stream instead of needing a separate cable box for each one.
Eventually the cable companies are going to raise the internet price so high if you don't have a cable subscription with them that you'll almost be forced to do it. They're not going to go quietly into that good night.
Have they actually SEEN Mojave? I wouldn't want to name an OS for it.
Honestly I don't get why they even have to have all these silly code names. Maybe for internal stuff, but once it hits the streets I'm fine with names like 10.14 or 18.04. Otherwise you get people asking 'Does this run on Mavericks or do you need Sierra?" which means nothing to me. "Does it run on 10.9 or does it require 10.12?" makes more sense to me as I have no idea if a Sierra is better than a El Capitan or if a Yakkity Yak beats a Gusty Gibbon or whatever other nonsense code names they use.
Wasn't that the name of the fake Windows 8 version that they were trying to fool people into liking on those obnoxious commercials a few years back? Why would anyone want to bring back those memories?
Actually it makes me think of the drawer that keeps lettuce cool in a refrigerator.
Maybe they were talking about a flasher or something? The Exposer was arrested for illegal Exposure.
I can see this being useful in specific circumstances like places without street signs. Around here there are numerous streets that seem to be without street signs for some reason (either stolen, fallen down and not replaced, or so faded they're illegible) so when the directions say "Turn left on West St." but the sign for West St. hasn't existed in 5 years, that's a problem. Of course the odds that something like a Burger King is going to be there forever are pretty slim, so maybe they'll have to update it to "Turn left at the thing that used to be a Burger King but is now a Coney Island" or something like that.
We use it at my office all the time for weekly status meetings.
Well in any case you *should* be able to live just fine without access to broadband. Unfortunately more and more companies seem to think that if you don't have broadband access you're not worth dealing with. But I digress...
My mother in-law still only has dial up internet. At best she gets 56K speeds although I sometimes doubt it's better than 28K, but she seems to survive just fine. She can still use e-mail when she absolutely has to, but does everything else 'the old fashioned way'. No broadband, no smart phone, limited cable TV (only because OTA stations in her area are practically non-existent), and yet she survives. I honestly admire the simplicity of it all.
Same here. I don' game on my PC so I don't need anything fancy, just an average graphics card and some RAM (12GB because it was cheap). Everything runs just fine (Windows 10 and Ubuntu). We're long past the 'need to upgrade every 3-4 years or be left in the dust' thing.
I too use their app so I can listen to the radio when I walk. Too bad their app sucks so bad that it crashes all the time. Not to mention it drains my battery like mad.
Oh and you can thank our corrupt as sh*t road commission for the crumbling roads. It doesn't matter who is in charge, Republican or Democrat, the road commission will continue to do the absolute minimum they can as cheaply as they can. Budget doesn't matter, that all goes into kickbacks and contractor pockets.
Depends on your definition of 'god awful' is. Sure we get snow but we don't get blizzards or a foot of snow dumped on us at a time like some other parts of the state. SE Michigan is actually a micro-climate of sorts. Check any planting map and you'll see it listed a zone 5a instead of just zone 5. The lack of sunshine for much of the winter is a killer though. We get a lot of gray overcast days, but if that were that big of a deterrent to people then Seattle would be a ghost town.
>>Also I think most people would rather live where you can grow orange and lemon trees in your yard rather than where you have to shovel snow. (although if I didn't have to work for a living I would love to live on the lakeshore in West Michigan)
:) The snow isn't so bad, but the oppressive humidity in the summers are what gets me. It's like being in Florida, only without the huge cockroaches and alligators.
Actually I grow lemons in my house, so it is possible to grow lemons in Michigan.