We run Unity for an embedded gaming solution (electronic gaming, think slots and similar machines). When I approached Unity at G2E they said they had it working on Linux (I suspect IGT or another big player in class 3 asked for it) but it wasn't released to the general masses. Linux is so much easier to manage than the alternatives and is much more cost effective.
This also means you can run Unity games on the RaspberryPi or similar. Can't wait to make myself a Unity arcade cabinet based off the Pi or Rikomagic.
I'd second the minimal or almost nothing. I tend to target Android (and am extremely excited to target Linux, as we may move some embedded stuff to it) and have 0 problems targeting Win/Mac desktop or even web for testing. With a different screen aspect ratio I may have to tweak things a little (as we have stuff set up for the android tablet aspect) but other than that stuff just works.
When I purchased my Core 2 duo series macbook things were comparable. I went to buy a 15" MBP recently (2nd gen i7) and ended up with a Samsung instead. I even talked myself down to a refurb 15" MBP ($1500 CAD) as the Mac option. For $700 before tax I got a thin Samsung (np700) with same processor, same screen resolution, more ram and bigger hd. That's less than half the price. If I was talking full retail on both it would have still been at least a $600 difference ($1800 vs $1200). Of course I doubt the Samsung ever sells at full retail.
I'm happy with the laptop as it serves its purpose perfectly. No OS X, but I needed Windows 7 for the majority of its use (was planning on using vmware fusion which I use on my old Mac). In the rare case I need OS X (e.g. targeting iOS with Unity3d), I have a couple older Macs that are more than capable of doing that.
The new retina display MBP is tempting, but I'll wait for some trickle down on that. I love high resolution laptop displays (900 lines was the min I would accept and I really wanted a 1080P 15"). For coding I just can't deal with the run of the mill consumer 720P displays. They are horrid for productivity.
Congratulations on growing up middle class. Many kids, especially inner city kids, don't have responsible parents to pack their lunch for them, let alone the money to buy twinkies or fruit-roll-ups. Many schools in the US also serve breakfast, and many kids qualify to receive both for free.
Exactly. I spent most of my childhood in Canada (capital of BC) where there weren't any hot or prepared lunches supplied by the school. Then we moved to the US (Montana) where they had a hot lunch program. Lunches were subsidized or free for some people (depending on income level). Unfortunately they got different colored punch cards, so it was doubly easy to pick out the "poor kids" (i.e. lower income families). I ended up eating the prepared lunches as it was easier, helped me fit in as a "foreigner" (almost everyone ate the lunches) and even at full price it was quite affordable (possibly cheaper than making your own lunches).
The program was definitely needed where I lived in Montana otherwise there are plenty of kids that would have gone hungry. I was only a kid, but I don't think it would have been needed in the neighbourhood I grew up in Canada. I don't remember anyone not having a lunch (and as kids anything that makes someone stand out is noticed quickly). It appears now schools that have a lunch program are either private schools or in poorer areas (so it's either a feature of the elite or a support system). Apparently the middle class must fend for themselves.
Well it's a lobby group, so you have to look for the source of the funding.
I really think there need to be tighter laws on funding lobbyists (preferable it weren't legal, but that's never going to happen). How much of the money funding this group is foreign? It's one thing having Canadian companies spend money to have their political views "better heard" and completely different if this is being funded by outside (e.g. US) sources. Another country should not be able to shape our laws and legislation. It's bad enough companies within our country can push their agendas via money, but at least (if they are Canadian owed) it's Canadian agendas. The whole IP reform does not seem Canadian.
Good point. And as the law currently stands we are still allowed to rip our own CDs (something the RIAA and Conservatives were trying to stop), so showing up to court with CDs that contain the tracks in question should be enough of a defence. Actually, since borrowing and copying a work is still OK under fair dealing (to the best of my knowledge.. it's basically the same as taping a friend's LP which was protected), showing up with a burned CD (claiming it was the source) should suffice as well. But don't quote me on that since IANAL.
Of course the various copyright holders are still free to send out threats (something Telus passes on to their customers.. one of the reasons I'm not a customer). It's similar to me sending a letter to someone stating "I think you trespassed on my property, if you do it again I'll sue." When in fact they didn't trespass at all and I have no intents on suing. That hardly irks me. What I really hate is sitting through the "Downloading is theft" ads at the theatre. I paid to watch a film not American propaganda. Aside from the whole "copyright infringement != theft" aspect they are telling me something is illegal that isn't. That is absurd. If I put forth a "No right turns on red lights" campaign claiming making a right turn on a red light is not only illegal but attempted murder the motor vehicle branch or similar would put a stop to it.
Those are meaningless threats. They are never followed through on the the better ISPs won't even bother forwarding them to the customer. Basically it's more propaganda.
IP enforcement in Canada chases after the seeders, because that part is still illegal.
Citation needed. Have you heard about any uploading cases in the last 5-8 years?
Seems like the prolific US propaganda and lobbying on the subject has skewed your view (as with many Canadians). A precedent was set saying it was not illegal (BMG Canada Inc. v. JohnDoe). The appeal (which passed) stated that the legality still needs to be decided in court. To my knowledge it hasn't been tested yet (most likely due to the current legislation giving it a chance to go through as legal).
The Royal Canadian Mounted police's policy is: "Piracy for personal use is no longer targeted".
We covered this quickly in a law class (back in 2007) and the current state then was "not illegal". In order to make it illegal would require a risky court case (which I haven't heard of to date) or legislation (which the RIAA keeps trying to push in Canada and the Conservatives address periodically).
In conclusion: you have no excuse to be a leecher. Start seeding like the rest of us;).
Excellent point. When I had a private office with a door I had the choice of having the door open to the general R&D area (keep up on what's happening), closing the door for quite concentration and wearing headphones if I liked (some things headphones were good for, some times I need absolute quite to focus on the problem.. depends on a lot of factors).
We ran out of space for private offices so I ended up sharing a single office. We could still close the door however headphones were the only option if my office-mate was discussing something with another employee.
Move forward and there was even less space. The solution? Tear out the offices in favour of an 'open concept' office which would 'improve communication' among team members. I ended up having to wear headphones daily regardless of whether I wanted to.
I ended up leaving for another opportunity and work from home (mainly). Sometimes I play music, sometimes I don't but no headphones (I run proper stereo components). I find it so much more productive because I have the quiet I need for complex problems whenever I want without having to get up and shut a door. Plus I have better lighting (natural daylight!!), better chair (because I'm not a cheap ass and recognize the benefits of a good chair), better keyboard (same deal again). There are a lot of factors in productivity (many of which are environmental), but I'm quite certain any decent dev can tell you want they need to be productive. Not giving them things like a good chair or mechanical keyboard (if that's what they want) due to 'budget' is pure bullshit. If a good developer thinks they need it, they probably do and it will pay back in productivity quickly. Sometimes providing something like a door isn't realistic under the circumstances but if that's the case then why you are providing a sub par work environment needs to be investigated. If you want nothing but the best from your employees then the right environment needs to be provided for those results.
I'm also curious in salaried positions if you're expected to put in 50 hours per week for a "40 hour schedule", then what does 60% of schedule even mean, like you no longer work Monday and Friday at all, or you're still expected to put in 50 hours per week, except now on a imaginary "24 hour schedule"?
I'm curious as well. It's not like IBM employees bill for every minute of overtime (especially where I live which falls under legislation lobbied by EA that excludes software developers from requiring overtime pay). My wife, a nurse, gets overtime in 15 minute increments (works 1-15 extra minutes gets paid for 15, 16-30 gets paid for 30 etc). If she was on a 60% schedule it would be explicit and any overtime would be paid out. Maybe they'll work a 3 day week? Sounds good to me, plus I put money you'd get a lot more bang for your buck. People tend to be more efficient when they work less hours and are better relaxed (from 4 days off).
So please don't judge a tool by a subset of its users. There are plenty of us out there that actually write reusable, testable, readable code using Visual Studio and C# (for the love of god I wish VB.Net would die in a fire) - and we do it very quickly and effortlessly thanks to the ease of use of VS (and Resharper:)
It also generally helps when your team does not *completely* drink the Microsoft Koolaid. Their source control and CI tools are just plain garbage. Use git, with a proper diff tool and some level of CI. Encourage constant refactoring and TDD. <-- generally these techniques are not practiced in Microsoft shops as MS does not preach this kind of stuff very loudly or very well, and some managers are deaf to everything but what MS has to say.
Agreed. Plus with the latest versions of Visual Studio there are some pretty cool testing options available.
I use Hg not Git, but same deal. Refactoring is not painful. The built in tools in VS11 are good (in VS2008 I couldn't live without resharper). Back in the day of Source Safe (arrrghhh kill me now!!) yeah that would have been hell and my experience with non distributed systems (CVS, SVN) has not been the best either. In this day and era there is no excuse to not switch to a distributed versioning system.
Languages are the least of our worries. Projects like wine will become downright illegal in the US.
FTFY. If this dangerous precedent is set it is set in the US I'm sure some of the weaker minded countries will follow suit, but many will recognize the idiocy of this.
What if my public API has something like Save()? Did I violate the first person to copyright that interface name? Do I now need to name every function MyTrademarkNameSave()?
Also if APIs are copyrightable I'm certain that much of the Java API was already falls under copyright to previous languages.
Therein likely lies the problem. Monochrome is pretty decently looking in dark theme, especially since people who use it want to focus on the code in the first place in any case (and the point of monochrome is really to let you do that - let the editor be the focal point due to its syntax highlighting being the only blot of color in the IDE). But have you tried the light theme for any considerable period of time?
I have to admit I never did spend much time in the light theme. I was hit by the bug where I ended up with a light editor window though. Easy enough work around and I was motivated to change it quick as I'm not a fan of sitting in front a white screen of long periods. Dark is so much easier on the eyes. When you are in front of a computer all day the little things make a difference (treating your eyes well, , having a good keyboard (such as a mechanical to ease strain) etc).
For VS2010, there was this. It doesn't do all, but at least it lets you change colors. Matthew said in a comment there that he'll try to find the time to update it for VS11 sometime after the release.
Thanks for pointing out the "Visual Studio Color Theme Editor". I'll keep an eye out for when that's updated. Hopefully Matthew gets a chance to work on it before RTM.
As one of the guys who works on it (and especially the "smooth" part... I hope you do like the new background solution load experience!), I'm really glad to hear it. Just keep filing those bugs for when it's not stable, or when performance is not on par with what you'd expect in some specific scenario, or when you see something obviously silly in the UI - especially the new or revamped stuff (e.g. like this).
Kudos to the VS11 team. I'm using VS11 on two machines right now. One is an old desktop with a Pentium Dual-Core E6700 which was running 2008 Pro and 2010 express. VS11 feels quicker and smoother than the previous version on that machine. It absoluteness flies on my laptop (i7-2670qm). So far I haven't found any real bugs, but if I do I'll be sure to file reports (and attempt to file good ones, as we know how rare those are).
It's funny. Straight out of University I was pretty anti-MS. I ran linux primarily through University and even after graduating my wife (girlfriend at the time) and I ran Ubuntu and OS X at home exclusively. I ended up having to use Windows and MS tools when I took a job doing.Net development (some embedded, some desktop, some server). I ended up really loving Visual Studio and.Net. At the time we were targeting 2.0CF (for embedded) and I pushed them into 3.5 on the desktop so I could use linq. Now with projects I'm working on (my own company) we're targeting 4.5 and it's great..Net just keeps getting better and better. It amazing what I'm able to do with less code (which means less bugs) and yet still have it readable and maintainable.
I'll admit I'm still not a big fan of Windows, but Win7 is pretty usable and leaves little to complain about (lack of built-in virtual desktop solution is a bummer). I just view windows as a necessary evil if I want to use VS (just as MonoDevelop is necessary if I want to set breakpoints for Unity3d).
Who knows what caused the crashing. I just know that 2008 on the same machine was way more stable (no reimage or anything like that), so I blamed it on VS2005.
I'd question how much time was put into changing the looks as it seems to be pretty close to 2010 other than their questionable color choices (which appear to be motivated by Win8/metro). It would be nice if they listed what their priorities were and what's being worked on. I'm sure CLR languages like F# are getting more attention than something like C99. I recently started using Entity framework. I'm using 4.3 since it's the current 'stable' but it's not until 5 that they support enums (something most other ORM systems have had for a while). So EF has a ways to go along with a lot of other stuff in their dev tools. That being said, I do really enjoy using code-first EF development with sql 2012 localDb. Just picked it up for my latest project and once I got over the learning curve I was flying.
True, but it generally crashed just in the editor when writing code not when attached to the process on the device. 2005 was especially bad for that. I'd boot my machine up fresh in the morning, write code half the day then boom crash.With 2008 (on the same machine) that kind of behavior was a rarity (comparatively).
My biggest issue was moving from XP to Win 7. MS dropped Active Sync and replaced it with Windows Mobile device center. Active sync would always recognize the device first time. WMDC was hit or miss. Funny thing is running Active Sync under XP mode within Win7 worked fine. Of course WMDC didn't officially support WinCE 6. Having dev's spend more than a minute trying to get their damn devices to connect is a definite productivity killer.
I don't understand all the screaming. I use VS11 on a daily basis using the dark theme. Works fine for me and is nice and easy on the eyes. Though I guess that's what people are complaining about (not enough contrast). What's needed is a theme configuration tool. That way people can create whatever they want and I can have an elflord style colorscheme.
As a side-note: I've been impressed with how stable VS11 is (used dev preview now beta). My previous job we used 2005 targetting CF 2.0 for WinCE. It was was not very stable. We moved up to 2008 which was better but still crashed periodically. 2010 was out at the time but we weren't able to use it (no support for WinCE device deploy/debug IIRC.. at least at the time). VS11 has been quick and smooth. Mind you I'm not trying to live debug on a WinCE 6 device anymore so it's kind of apples to oranges.
The cable company already lost my business cable-wise (to Netflix et al.) and won't get it back until they offer programs a la carte. Shaw cable has partially/fully realized this (as my plan with them is internet only) and is now supplying me with full (non hd) cable free. It has been this way for years now actually (6 months at a time free, then I drop it, then they offer it again). This most recent offer is 12 months of no cost cable plus a bump up in internet service (50Mbps/3Mbps up from 20/0.5) for less than I was paying for the previous connection. Either they get a kickback on viewership (and it's no/little cost to supply it to me) or they are hoping I'll use less bandwidth on my internet connection. Yes the norm would be, "Oh at some point he'll just continue the service and pay the higher rate." But at this point (years) I think it's pretty obvious I have no intention on paying for cable television.
In all honesty I don't even have have the cable box attached to a tv right now (moved the tv a week ago and didn't bother hooking it back up). I'll take a service that's free, but don't expect me to use it.
The music industry used to offer exposure. That's what a record label bought you (with the huge cut they take in sales). Instead of taking a cut of future sales the Pirate bay is offering exposure for free. I think it's a huge win for artists.
I'd like to correct myself. The music industry offered a few things to artists (not just exposure) in exchange for a hefty cut of all sales:
Exposure (as mentioned before)
Recording facilities/expenses
Distribution
With the internet and modern tech these are all irrelevant. Bands can get exposure online through various avenues online. Recording can be done in a basement. Distribution is trivial if online and there are services for physical distribution that don't take anywhere near the cut the labels do.
Did you even read the summary? I know RTFA is frowned upon, but 5000 artists selected this as a way to get their music out.
Since pretty any person can now record their own music with quite high quality with minimal investment (which used to be limited to studios with many thousands of $$ invested in equipment) we are finding more and more free music. And it makes sense. Music is about creativity and sharing. If you want to get your music out there how do you? You might luck out with getting local radio play, but the internet is now the definitive way to get yourself noticed. You aren't going to get noticed charging for people to listen to you.
All the new music I discover is either:
1. found online
2. through friends (which discovered it one of these two ways.. yay recursion)
Once I hear about a band what do I do? I download some music via p2p, bittorrent, off their site.. some free medium. IF I like it and want to listen to it long term I buy (vinyl which usually comes with high quality mp3 rips as well) and add it to my collection. If they are in town I'd buy a ticket to a show. I'll probably subscribe to their youtube channel to watch new videos and hear new releases (which generates some add revenue) and if singles come out I like and need now I'll buy via iTunes or similar. The key is I need a free avenue for me to move into any payment type scenario or I'm not interested.
Look at how well the 'pay what you want' model has worked for music and games. It's impressive. People want to reward others for their creativity but also want low risk. Yes there will be leaches in the system, but it all works out in the end. I don't endlessly complain about people on welfare because of my tax bracket.
Kickstarter is a great example of how people want to support creativity but want low risk. I just discovered it a few months ago and have already supported 2 projects. The best part is you aren't limited to some kind of MSRP (kickstarter and pay-what-you-want). If you really like what someone is doing you can support them as much as you want.
I honestly believe people want to reward others for their creativity, but it seems quite honestly a heavy fisted middle man (such as the US record industry) isn't required to do that. The music industry used to offer exposure. That's what a record label bought you (with the huge cut they take in sales). Instead of taking a cut of future sales the Pirate bay is offering exposure for free. I think it's a huge win for artists.
The artists have spoken, the consumers have spoken the music industry is evolving. Either the RIAA and big music evolve with the rest of the industry or face inevitable extinction.
Not to sound like a fan boi, but those two aren't completely comparable. Sony wears rubber gloves while they put your balls in a vice while Apple clearly uses velvet gloves.
Slashdot Mirror
We run Unity for an embedded gaming solution (electronic gaming, think slots and similar machines). When I approached Unity at G2E they said they had it working on Linux (I suspect IGT or another big player in class 3 asked for it) but it wasn't released to the general masses. Linux is so much easier to manage than the alternatives and is much more cost effective.
This also means you can run Unity games on the RaspberryPi or similar. Can't wait to make myself a Unity arcade cabinet based off the Pi or Rikomagic.
I'd second the minimal or almost nothing. I tend to target Android (and am extremely excited to target Linux, as we may move some embedded stuff to it) and have 0 problems targeting Win/Mac desktop or even web for testing. With a different screen aspect ratio I may have to tweak things a little (as we have stuff set up for the android tablet aspect) but other than that stuff just works.
When I purchased my Core 2 duo series macbook things were comparable. I went to buy a 15" MBP recently (2nd gen i7) and ended up with a Samsung instead. I even talked myself down to a refurb 15" MBP ($1500 CAD) as the Mac option. For $700 before tax I got a thin Samsung (np700) with same processor, same screen resolution, more ram and bigger hd. That's less than half the price. If I was talking full retail on both it would have still been at least a $600 difference ($1800 vs $1200). Of course I doubt the Samsung ever sells at full retail.
I'm happy with the laptop as it serves its purpose perfectly. No OS X, but I needed Windows 7 for the majority of its use (was planning on using vmware fusion which I use on my old Mac). In the rare case I need OS X (e.g. targeting iOS with Unity3d), I have a couple older Macs that are more than capable of doing that.
The new retina display MBP is tempting, but I'll wait for some trickle down on that. I love high resolution laptop displays (900 lines was the min I would accept and I really wanted a 1080P 15"). For coding I just can't deal with the run of the mill consumer 720P displays. They are horrid for productivity.
Congratulations on growing up middle class. Many kids, especially inner city kids, don't have responsible parents to pack their lunch for them, let alone the money to buy twinkies or fruit-roll-ups. Many schools in the US also serve breakfast, and many kids qualify to receive both for free.
Exactly. I spent most of my childhood in Canada (capital of BC) where there weren't any hot or prepared lunches supplied by the school. Then we moved to the US (Montana) where they had a hot lunch program. Lunches were subsidized or free for some people (depending on income level). Unfortunately they got different colored punch cards, so it was doubly easy to pick out the "poor kids" (i.e. lower income families). I ended up eating the prepared lunches as it was easier, helped me fit in as a "foreigner" (almost everyone ate the lunches) and even at full price it was quite affordable (possibly cheaper than making your own lunches).
The program was definitely needed where I lived in Montana otherwise there are plenty of kids that would have gone hungry. I was only a kid, but I don't think it would have been needed in the neighbourhood I grew up in Canada. I don't remember anyone not having a lunch (and as kids anything that makes someone stand out is noticed quickly). It appears now schools that have a lunch program are either private schools or in poorer areas (so it's either a feature of the elite or a support system). Apparently the middle class must fend for themselves.
Well it's a lobby group, so you have to look for the source of the funding.
I really think there need to be tighter laws on funding lobbyists (preferable it weren't legal, but that's never going to happen). How much of the money funding this group is foreign? It's one thing having Canadian companies spend money to have their political views "better heard" and completely different if this is being funded by outside (e.g. US) sources. Another country should not be able to shape our laws and legislation. It's bad enough companies within our country can push their agendas via money, but at least (if they are Canadian owed) it's Canadian agendas. The whole IP reform does not seem Canadian.
Good point. And as the law currently stands we are still allowed to rip our own CDs (something the RIAA and Conservatives were trying to stop), so showing up to court with CDs that contain the tracks in question should be enough of a defence. Actually, since borrowing and copying a work is still OK under fair dealing (to the best of my knowledge.. it's basically the same as taping a friend's LP which was protected), showing up with a burned CD (claiming it was the source) should suffice as well. But don't quote me on that since IANAL.
Of course the various copyright holders are still free to send out threats (something Telus passes on to their customers.. one of the reasons I'm not a customer). It's similar to me sending a letter to someone stating "I think you trespassed on my property, if you do it again I'll sue." When in fact they didn't trespass at all and I have no intents on suing. That hardly irks me. What I really hate is sitting through the "Downloading is theft" ads at the theatre. I paid to watch a film not American propaganda. Aside from the whole "copyright infringement != theft" aspect they are telling me something is illegal that isn't. That is absurd. If I put forth a "No right turns on red lights" campaign claiming making a right turn on a red light is not only illegal but attempted murder the motor vehicle branch or similar would put a stop to it.
Those are meaningless threats. They are never followed through on the the better ISPs won't even bother forwarding them to the customer. Basically it's more propaganda.
IP enforcement in Canada chases after the seeders, because that part is still illegal.
Citation needed. Have you heard about any uploading cases in the last 5-8 years?
;).
Seems like the prolific US propaganda and lobbying on the subject has skewed your view (as with many Canadians). A precedent was set saying it was not illegal (BMG Canada Inc. v. JohnDoe). The appeal (which passed) stated that the legality still needs to be decided in court. To my knowledge it hasn't been tested yet (most likely due to the current legislation giving it a chance to go through as legal).
The Royal Canadian Mounted police's policy is: "Piracy for personal use is no longer targeted".
We covered this quickly in a law class (back in 2007) and the current state then was "not illegal". In order to make it illegal would require a risky court case (which I haven't heard of to date) or legislation (which the RIAA keeps trying to push in Canada and the Conservatives address periodically).
In conclusion: you have no excuse to be a leecher. Start seeding like the rest of us
Excellent point. When I had a private office with a door I had the choice of having the door open to the general R&D area (keep up on what's happening), closing the door for quite concentration and wearing headphones if I liked (some things headphones were good for, some times I need absolute quite to focus on the problem.. depends on a lot of factors).
We ran out of space for private offices so I ended up sharing a single office. We could still close the door however headphones were the only option if my office-mate was discussing something with another employee.
Move forward and there was even less space. The solution? Tear out the offices in favour of an 'open concept' office which would 'improve communication' among team members. I ended up having to wear headphones daily regardless of whether I wanted to.
I ended up leaving for another opportunity and work from home (mainly). Sometimes I play music, sometimes I don't but no headphones (I run proper stereo components). I find it so much more productive because I have the quiet I need for complex problems whenever I want without having to get up and shut a door. Plus I have better lighting (natural daylight!!), better chair (because I'm not a cheap ass and recognize the benefits of a good chair), better keyboard (same deal again). There are a lot of factors in productivity (many of which are environmental), but I'm quite certain any decent dev can tell you want they need to be productive. Not giving them things like a good chair or mechanical keyboard (if that's what they want) due to 'budget' is pure bullshit. If a good developer thinks they need it, they probably do and it will pay back in productivity quickly. Sometimes providing something like a door isn't realistic under the circumstances but if that's the case then why you are providing a sub par work environment needs to be investigated. If you want nothing but the best from your employees then the right environment needs to be provided for those results.
So, in other words, same old Slashdot as always...
Not at all. It's totally different now.
I pine for the return of hot grits and Natalie Portman. Those were the good old days.
Came across this looking for 12" Adnroid tablets for a project we're working on: http://www.ectworks.com/en/product1.asp?id=3
It even has a built-in stand. Here's a pic of the unit: http://www.ectworks.com/upfile/201061151416.jpg
Are you crazy?! That's like referring to GNU/Linux as just Linux! Think of the confusion it would cause!
I'm also curious in salaried positions if you're expected to put in 50 hours per week for a "40 hour schedule", then what does 60% of schedule even mean, like you no longer work Monday and Friday at all, or you're still expected to put in 50 hours per week, except now on a imaginary "24 hour schedule"?
I'm curious as well. It's not like IBM employees bill for every minute of overtime (especially where I live which falls under legislation lobbied by EA that excludes software developers from requiring overtime pay). My wife, a nurse, gets overtime in 15 minute increments (works 1-15 extra minutes gets paid for 15, 16-30 gets paid for 30 etc). If she was on a 60% schedule it would be explicit and any overtime would be paid out. Maybe they'll work a 3 day week? Sounds good to me, plus I put money you'd get a lot more bang for your buck. People tend to be more efficient when they work less hours and are better relaxed (from 4 days off).
So please don't judge a tool by a subset of its users. There are plenty of us out there that actually write reusable, testable, readable code using Visual Studio and C# (for the love of god I wish VB.Net would die in a fire) - and we do it very quickly and effortlessly thanks to the ease of use of VS (and Resharper :)
It also generally helps when your team does not *completely* drink the Microsoft Koolaid. Their source control and CI tools are just plain garbage. Use git, with a proper diff tool and some level of CI. Encourage constant refactoring and TDD. <-- generally these techniques are not practiced in Microsoft shops as MS does not preach this kind of stuff very loudly or very well, and some managers are deaf to everything but what MS has to say.
Agreed. Plus with the latest versions of Visual Studio there are some pretty cool testing options available.
I use Hg not Git, but same deal. Refactoring is not painful. The built in tools in VS11 are good (in VS2008 I couldn't live without resharper). Back in the day of Source Safe (arrrghhh kill me now!!) yeah that would have been hell and my experience with non distributed systems (CVS, SVN) has not been the best either. In this day and era there is no excuse to not switch to a distributed versioning system.
Which is more notable as Dalvik is supposed to be quicker than the Sun^H^H^H Oracle JVM.
Languages are the least of our worries. Projects like wine will become downright illegal in the US.
FTFY. If this dangerous precedent is set it is set in the US I'm sure some of the weaker minded countries will follow suit, but many will recognize the idiocy of this.
What if my public API has something like Save()? Did I violate the first person to copyright that interface name? Do I now need to name every function MyTrademarkNameSave()?
Also if APIs are copyrightable I'm certain that much of the Java API was already falls under copyright to previous languages.
Therein likely lies the problem. Monochrome is pretty decently looking in dark theme, especially since people who use it want to focus on the code in the first place in any case (and the point of monochrome is really to let you do that - let the editor be the focal point due to its syntax highlighting being the only blot of color in the IDE). But have you tried the light theme for any considerable period of time?
I have to admit I never did spend much time in the light theme. I was hit by the bug where I ended up with a light editor window though. Easy enough work around and I was motivated to change it quick as I'm not a fan of sitting in front a white screen of long periods. Dark is so much easier on the eyes. When you are in front of a computer all day the little things make a difference (treating your eyes well, , having a good keyboard (such as a mechanical to ease strain) etc).
For VS2010, there was this. It doesn't do all, but at least it lets you change colors. Matthew said in a comment there that he'll try to find the time to update it for VS11 sometime after the release.
Thanks for pointing out the "Visual Studio Color Theme Editor". I'll keep an eye out for when that's updated. Hopefully Matthew gets a chance to work on it before RTM.
As one of the guys who works on it (and especially the "smooth" part... I hope you do like the new background solution load experience!), I'm really glad to hear it. Just keep filing those bugs for when it's not stable, or when performance is not on par with what you'd expect in some specific scenario, or when you see something obviously silly in the UI - especially the new or revamped stuff (e.g. like this).
Kudos to the VS11 team. I'm using VS11 on two machines right now. One is an old desktop with a Pentium Dual-Core E6700 which was running 2008 Pro and 2010 express. VS11 feels quicker and smoother than the previous version on that machine. It absoluteness flies on my laptop (i7-2670qm). So far I haven't found any real bugs, but if I do I'll be sure to file reports (and attempt to file good ones, as we know how rare those are).
.Net development (some embedded, some desktop, some server). I ended up really loving Visual Studio and .Net. At the time we were targeting 2.0CF (for embedded) and I pushed them into 3.5 on the desktop so I could use linq. Now with projects I'm working on (my own company) we're targeting 4.5 and it's great. .Net just keeps getting better and better. It amazing what I'm able to do with less code (which means less bugs) and yet still have it readable and maintainable.
It's funny. Straight out of University I was pretty anti-MS. I ran linux primarily through University and even after graduating my wife (girlfriend at the time) and I ran Ubuntu and OS X at home exclusively. I ended up having to use Windows and MS tools when I took a job doing
I'll admit I'm still not a big fan of Windows, but Win7 is pretty usable and leaves little to complain about (lack of built-in virtual desktop solution is a bummer). I just view windows as a necessary evil if I want to use VS (just as MonoDevelop is necessary if I want to set breakpoints for Unity3d).
Who knows what caused the crashing. I just know that 2008 on the same machine was way more stable (no reimage or anything like that), so I blamed it on VS2005.
I'd question how much time was put into changing the looks as it seems to be pretty close to 2010 other than their questionable color choices (which appear to be motivated by Win8/metro). It would be nice if they listed what their priorities were and what's being worked on. I'm sure CLR languages like F# are getting more attention than something like C99. I recently started using Entity framework. I'm using 4.3 since it's the current 'stable' but it's not until 5 that they support enums (something most other ORM systems have had for a while). So EF has a ways to go along with a lot of other stuff in their dev tools. That being said, I do really enjoy using code-first EF development with sql 2012 localDb. Just picked it up for my latest project and once I got over the learning curve I was flying.
lol it's not the same at all!!
True, but it generally crashed just in the editor when writing code not when attached to the process on the device. 2005 was especially bad for that. I'd boot my machine up fresh in the morning, write code half the day then boom crash.With 2008 (on the same machine) that kind of behavior was a rarity (comparatively).
My biggest issue was moving from XP to Win 7. MS dropped Active Sync and replaced it with Windows Mobile device center. Active sync would always recognize the device first time. WMDC was hit or miss. Funny thing is running Active Sync under XP mode within Win7 worked fine. Of course WMDC didn't officially support WinCE 6. Having dev's spend more than a minute trying to get their damn devices to connect is a definite productivity killer.
I don't understand all the screaming. I use VS11 on a daily basis using the dark theme. Works fine for me and is nice and easy on the eyes. Though I guess that's what people are complaining about (not enough contrast). What's needed is a theme configuration tool. That way people can create whatever they want and I can have an elflord style colorscheme.
As a side-note: I've been impressed with how stable VS11 is (used dev preview now beta). My previous job we used 2005 targetting CF 2.0 for WinCE. It was was not very stable. We moved up to 2008 which was better but still crashed periodically. 2010 was out at the time but we weren't able to use it (no support for WinCE device deploy/debug IIRC.. at least at the time). VS11 has been quick and smooth. Mind you I'm not trying to live debug on a WinCE 6 device anymore so it's kind of apples to oranges.
The cable company already lost my business cable-wise (to Netflix et al.) and won't get it back until they offer programs a la carte. Shaw cable has partially/fully realized this (as my plan with them is internet only) and is now supplying me with full (non hd) cable free. It has been this way for years now actually (6 months at a time free, then I drop it, then they offer it again). This most recent offer is 12 months of no cost cable plus a bump up in internet service (50Mbps/3Mbps up from 20/0.5) for less than I was paying for the previous connection. Either they get a kickback on viewership (and it's no/little cost to supply it to me) or they are hoping I'll use less bandwidth on my internet connection. Yes the norm would be, "Oh at some point he'll just continue the service and pay the higher rate." But at this point (years) I think it's pretty obvious I have no intention on paying for cable television.
In all honesty I don't even have have the cable box attached to a tv right now (moved the tv a week ago and didn't bother hooking it back up). I'll take a service that's free, but don't expect me to use it.
The music industry used to offer exposure. That's what a record label bought you (with the huge cut they take in sales). Instead of taking a cut of future sales the Pirate bay is offering exposure for free. I think it's a huge win for artists.
I'd like to correct myself. The music industry offered a few things to artists (not just exposure) in exchange for a hefty cut of all sales:
With the internet and modern tech these are all irrelevant. Bands can get exposure online through various avenues online. Recording can be done in a basement. Distribution is trivial if online and there are services for physical distribution that don't take anywhere near the cut the labels do.
Did you even read the summary? I know RTFA is frowned upon, but 5000 artists selected this as a way to get their music out.
Since pretty any person can now record their own music with quite high quality with minimal investment (which used to be limited to studios with many thousands of $$ invested in equipment) we are finding more and more free music. And it makes sense. Music is about creativity and sharing. If you want to get your music out there how do you? You might luck out with getting local radio play, but the internet is now the definitive way to get yourself noticed. You aren't going to get noticed charging for people to listen to you.
All the new music I discover is either:
1. found online
2. through friends (which discovered it one of these two ways.. yay recursion)
Once I hear about a band what do I do? I download some music via p2p, bittorrent, off their site.. some free medium. IF I like it and want to listen to it long term I buy (vinyl which usually comes with high quality mp3 rips as well) and add it to my collection. If they are in town I'd buy a ticket to a show. I'll probably subscribe to their youtube channel to watch new videos and hear new releases (which generates some add revenue) and if singles come out I like and need now I'll buy via iTunes or similar. The key is I need a free avenue for me to move into any payment type scenario or I'm not interested.
Look at how well the 'pay what you want' model has worked for music and games. It's impressive. People want to reward others for their creativity but also want low risk. Yes there will be leaches in the system, but it all works out in the end. I don't endlessly complain about people on welfare because of my tax bracket.
Kickstarter is a great example of how people want to support creativity but want low risk. I just discovered it a few months ago and have already supported 2 projects. The best part is you aren't limited to some kind of MSRP (kickstarter and pay-what-you-want). If you really like what someone is doing you can support them as much as you want.
I honestly believe people want to reward others for their creativity, but it seems quite honestly a heavy fisted middle man (such as the US record industry) isn't required to do that. The music industry used to offer exposure. That's what a record label bought you (with the huge cut they take in sales). Instead of taking a cut of future sales the Pirate bay is offering exposure for free. I think it's a huge win for artists.
The artists have spoken, the consumers have spoken the music industry is evolving. Either the RIAA and big music evolve with the rest of the industry or face inevitable extinction.
Not to sound like a fan boi, but those two aren't completely comparable. Sony wears rubber gloves while they put your balls in a vice while Apple clearly uses velvet gloves.