Employment agreements like this are all too common these days - especially in technology related industries (and even more so in the game development industry). Most companies I've worked at have wanted something like this signed, with a lot having even worse terms (one even being described as "the worst they've ever seen" by a government pro-employee agency which I forget the name of now).
The general rule is that they include these terms mostly to scare you, and partly "just in case" they actually get held up in court (which is very unlikely, but their lawyers tell them that it can't hurt, so it gets included). As has been already stated, you can always cross out the paragraphs you don't like, initial them, sign the contract and hand it back to them. The contract probably wouldn't be legally binding at that point anyway (unless they also initial the alterations), in which case it's a moot point, no?
You're kidding right? OpenGL is dying, and has been for years. DirectX, especially with DirectX 10, is so far ahead of OpenGL in terms of its architecture, far cleaner interface, and very standardized features (yes OpenGL has them all with extensions.. oh what a great solution!) that OpenGL is truely like coding a game in the 90s. Oh wait, that's when OpenGL was designed, and it's barely changed since. I loved OpenGL back in the day but, like most 15 year-old things in Computer Science, it's time has passed.
Yes, I'm a graphics programmer at a major game developer. Yes, I'm shipping one of (possibly the) first DirectX 10 games. Yes, Vista SUCKS. But DirectX 10? It's been done right, finally.
You may actually want to hit your local library before signing up for Books24x7 - most libraries that I've been to in recent years have subscriptions there as part of their online presence.
If you have a library card, you have a free subscription!
He never said that IE is not part of the OS - he posted a follow-up blog entry here: http://blogs.msdn.com/DMassy/archive/2005/03/24/40 1567.aspx
"I did not say that IE was not part of Windows. IE is an essential part of windows, as parts of the OS and other applications rely on the functionality."
The answer is very simple - audio drivers are *SO* incredibly bad that they can't be relied upon for anything more than the absolute bare minimum functions.
Working at a well known PC game studio, we (and many other studios) have had to implement all audio mixing in software, only using the soundcard for raw playback.
That wonderful audio card you have? It's no more useful than on-board audio. Don't like the situation? Neither do we - blame Creative and the other manufacturers who constantly pump out junk drivers.
I do (I'm probably one of the few people who has ever spent over 2 hours in that tiny store, hehe).:) Even then though I find I still can't get some of the more specific parts there (I do have a big storage box full of components I *did* find there though). Ah digikey, Futurlec, and Arrow, my saviours.;)
Actually, I find that if you go in there with a specific list of components, parts, etc that you need, you'll be lucky to find even half of the 'common' components. They have a lot of stuff, but are missing even more.
You're completely right about just going in there to browse, rummage, and scour their bins - it's my favourite store in Toronto for that very reason; you never know what you're going to find. Last time I was there, I came out with a massager and a squeaky rubber duck..:) For electronic components (transistors, ICs, etc) though, they're not much good.
I know you're not reinventing the Blender wheel, but you are reinventing another one - Open Architect 3D, which will be a professional (it's been in full time, paid development for about a year now) open source 3D modeller. I urge you to have a look into it before you get too far into your project as it's been designed very, very well, and it'd be hard to beat something like this as it already has quite a substantial developer list lined up to support it when it's released. http://www.openarchitect3d.org
The one issue with it is that for the first release it will not be cross platform (because it was basically a lot quicker for the guy to do it Windows-specific than cross platform), but I'm quite sure that will be fixed soon after its release by someone else. Perhaps it's something you could even do as you have been doing this research into cross-platform GUI's.:)
A real RC car doesn't have to be 1/10 scale, there's plenty of "real" mini RC cars - the smallest (and coolest) is the Yokomo Puchimaru. There's also the Kyosho Mini-Z's, the HPI Micro RS-4's, and several others.
And $500? Talk about cheap.;) 1/8 off-road cars can cost well over $1500, even each of my 1/10 off-road cars have about $1000 in them..
umm.. No link to Losi? No link to Yokomo? C'mon, you even linked to Tamiya, HPI, and Traxxas.. you've gotta link to the good manufacturers too. (Yea, I'm just kidding, Tamiya, HPI, and Traxxas all make some decent products);) LosiYokomoTraxxas (you have the wrong link)
RC racing definately has the perception of a geeky hobby, but I do consider it to be the one non-geek thing I do - being covered in dirt, oil, and fuel isn't very geeky imo.:)
I'm glad to see that there's other RC racers here on/.
As a complete R/C addict, I'm quite happy to see some spam that I'm actually interested in for once. Although I'd never buy the junk that RadioShack or other such places are trying to pass off as RC cars - Yokomo make a mini RC car called the Puchimaru, which is of far higher quality. http://www.yokomousa.com/kits/puchimaru/ index.html
So what's the problem with spam being used to sell RC cars anyway? It's not like it's the first thing to be advertised via spam, and it certainly won't be the last. After all, if they're getting 1/3 of the people who recieve the spam to buy the cars, people must actually not mind recieving this certain spam, right?
Well as a former Australian game programmer (I moved to Canada), I can tell you we sure do!:)
There's several decent sized game developers in Australia, one of the most known would be Ratbag Games who target mainly the US racing-game market. PowerSlide was their first title, others include Dirt Track Racing 1 & 2, Dirt Track Racing Sprint Cars, Leadfoot, and World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars (PS2).
Not very useful for people like me who are lucky to take 1 photo a year.. I think I've got a grand total of a few dozen photos from when I was born to now (that's 22 years, no wise cracks please!:P).
Email might be a little better, but considering my best reply time is in the order of 2-4 weeks, I don't get a whole lot of that either..
Tell me when they can download my real memories, then I'll be impressed.
-Nutter
I don't know how people can say that SG-1 should go off-air! C'mon, the show's not meant to be die-hard SciFi, it's meant to be funny; just look at Anderson's character (Jack) - his sarcasm is one of the best things in the show! Then there's also his honesty "I do speak what's on my mind.. that's why I don't say a whole lot" (or something like that). You've gotta love Jack O'Neil! T'ulk is great too, as is Samantha.. a matter of fact, I think they're all great actors and truely just "fit" and make the show one of the funniest, yet most intreguing shows in TV currently.
Long live SG-1!! (Live long and prosper my friend)
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Employment agreements like this are all too common these days - especially in technology related industries (and even more so in the game development industry). Most companies I've worked at have wanted something like this signed, with a lot having even worse terms (one even being described as "the worst they've ever seen" by a government pro-employee agency which I forget the name of now).
The general rule is that they include these terms mostly to scare you, and partly "just in case" they actually get held up in court (which is very unlikely, but their lawyers tell them that it can't hurt, so it gets included). As has been already stated, you can always cross out the paragraphs you don't like, initial them, sign the contract and hand it back to them. The contract probably wouldn't be legally binding at that point anyway (unless they also initial the alterations), in which case it's a moot point, no?
You're kidding right? OpenGL is dying, and has been for years. DirectX, especially with DirectX 10, is so far ahead of OpenGL in terms of its architecture, far cleaner interface, and very standardized features (yes OpenGL has them all with extensions.. oh what a great solution!) that OpenGL is truely like coding a game in the 90s. Oh wait, that's when OpenGL was designed, and it's barely changed since. I loved OpenGL back in the day but, like most 15 year-old things in Computer Science, it's time has passed.
Yes, I'm a graphics programmer at a major game developer. Yes, I'm shipping one of (possibly the) first DirectX 10 games. Yes, Vista SUCKS. But DirectX 10? It's been done right, finally.
You may actually want to hit your local library before signing up for Books24x7 - most libraries that I've been to in recent years have subscriptions there as part of their online presence.
If you have a library card, you have a free subscription!
He never said that IE is not part of the OS - he posted a follow-up blog entry here: http://blogs.msdn.com/DMassy/archive/2005/03/24/40 1567.aspx
"I did not say that IE was not part of Windows. IE is an essential part of windows, as parts of the OS and other applications rely on the functionality."
The answer is very simple - audio drivers are *SO* incredibly bad that they can't be relied upon for anything more than the absolute bare minimum functions.
Working at a well known PC game studio, we (and many other studios) have had to implement all audio mixing in software, only using the soundcard for raw playback.
That wonderful audio card you have? It's no more useful than on-board audio.
Don't like the situation? Neither do we - blame Creative and the other manufacturers who constantly pump out junk drivers.
I do (I'm probably one of the few people who has ever spent over 2 hours in that tiny store, hehe). :) Even then though I find I still can't get some of the more specific parts there (I do have a big storage box full of components I *did* find there though). Ah digikey, Futurlec, and Arrow, my saviours. ;)
Actually, I find that if you go in there with a specific list of components, parts, etc that you need, you'll be lucky to find even half of the 'common' components. They have a lot of stuff, but are missing even more.
:)
You're completely right about just going in there to browse, rummage, and scour their bins - it's my favourite store in Toronto for that very reason; you never know what you're going to find. Last time I was there, I came out with a massager and a squeaky rubber duck..
For electronic components (transistors, ICs, etc) though, they're not much good.
I know you're not reinventing the Blender wheel, but you are reinventing another one - Open Architect 3D, which will be a professional (it's been in full time, paid development for about a year now) open source 3D modeller. I urge you to have a look into it before you get too far into your project as it's been designed very, very well, and it'd be hard to beat something like this as it already has quite a substantial developer list lined up to support it when it's released. http://www.openarchitect3d.org
:)
The one issue with it is that for the first release it will not be cross platform (because it was basically a lot quicker for the guy to do it Windows-specific than cross platform), but I'm quite sure that will be fixed soon after its release by someone else. Perhaps it's something you could even do as you have been doing this research into cross-platform GUI's.
-Nutter
And $500? Talk about cheap. ;) 1/8 off-road cars can cost well over $1500, even each of my 1/10 off-road cars have about $1000 in them..
-Nutter
Losi Yokomo Traxxas (you have the wrong link)
RC racing definately has the perception of a geeky hobby, but I do consider it to be the one non-geek thing I do - being covered in dirt, oil, and fuel isn't very geeky imo. :)
I'm glad to see that there's other RC racers here on /.
-Nutter
As a complete R/C addict, I'm quite happy to see some spam that I'm actually interested in for once. Although I'd never buy the junk that RadioShack or other such places are trying to pass off as RC cars - Yokomo make a mini RC car called the Puchimaru, which is of far higher quality./ index.html
http://www.yokomousa.com/kits/puchimaru
So what's the problem with spam being used to sell RC cars anyway? It's not like it's the first thing to be advertised via spam, and it certainly won't be the last. After all, if they're getting 1/3 of the people who recieve the spam to buy the cars, people must actually not mind recieving this certain spam, right?
-Nutter
Well as a former Australian game programmer (I moved to Canada), I can tell you we sure do! :)
There's several decent sized game developers in Australia, one of the most known would be Ratbag Games who target mainly the US racing-game market. PowerSlide was their first title, others include Dirt Track Racing 1 & 2, Dirt Track Racing Sprint Cars, Leadfoot, and World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars (PS2).
Not very useful for people like me who are lucky to take 1 photo a year.. I think I've got a grand total of a few dozen photos from when I was born to now (that's 22 years, no wise cracks please! :P).
Email might be a little better, but considering my best reply time is in the order of 2-4 weeks, I don't get a whole lot of that either..
Tell me when they can download my real memories, then I'll be impressed.
-Nutter
I don't know how people can say that SG-1 should go off-air! C'mon, the show's not meant to be die-hard SciFi, it's meant to be funny; just look at Anderson's character (Jack) - his sarcasm is one of the best things in the show! Then there's also his honesty "I do speak what's on my mind.. that's why I don't say a whole lot" (or something like that). You've gotta love Jack O'Neil!
T'ulk is great too, as is Samantha.. a matter of fact, I think they're all great actors and truely just "fit" and make the show one of the funniest, yet most intreguing shows in TV currently.
Long live SG-1!! (Live long and prosper my friend)