I response to the article and your developer comments, I've got a few myself:
18. Don't use online play as an excuse to bleed us dry So for example, you might have a game with 10 2-hour long episodes, each of which sells for $10-20. Wouldn't this really be preferable if they were released every 3 months or so? NO! $200 for a video game??? That's the #2 reason I never play MMORPG games. I just want to plunk down my $55 and be done with it - not have to add an entry to my monthly budget for "$20 - Episode 7: The Search for More Money"
19. NO MORE JUMPING PUZZLES IN FPS GAMES I'll take this one step further and argue that jumping puzzles aren't fun *anywhere*.
Wow, I must be in the minority here, but I like the jumping puzzles as long as there is a "save-anywhere" function so I don't have to go back and repeat the same damn thing over and over and over...
As soon as people stop rushing out to by the next Halo or the next Half-life or the next Doom, or Quake (or Unreal), (or a game based on one of those engines), then I'll have a little more faith that I can make a game with a more modest and reasonable budget that will be successful.
As someone who bought Halo, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, Unreal 2, etc. I'm anxiously waiting for the next titles.
I do think Valve's Steam will revolutionize how games are distributed and will allow more "niche" games to be developed. In the recent copy of PC Gamer, an article on Valve talked about how they will be putting out more "episodes" for Half-Life 2 via Steam in the next few months. They compared it to taking 12+ months to "put a box on a shelf" in the local store. That means less distribution costs, etc.
I'm upset because people choose to break the law and steal the movie and revenue from Lucasfilm and that is "Flamebait?" Grow up - nothing is made for free in life and stealing just discourages innovation, invention, and creation.
I just saw it in DLP and it was AWESOME!!! The movie was filmed entirely in digital like AOTC and there is so much CGI that you have got to see in on a digital display.
As for the fucking assholes who stole this great movie and put it online and for the equally same fucking assholes who downloaded the movie, I hope Lucasfilm prosecutes them to the fullest extent of the law. It is crap like this that gives the MPAA creditability to invade our privacy and regulate our property.
One asshole wrote that "I downloaded the movie because it's not worth the $10." I'd like to smash his face in! You don't steal something just because you don't agree with the price. Our entire great capitalistic country will come to a halt if the fruit of many years of hard labor are stolen every time.
If you read the article you posted, you would see that it's Linux, not "GNU/Linux." There is no such thing as "GNU/Linux" that is being offered by HP. The more you zealots throw in other technical terms, the more everyday Joe & Jane America will turn away from it. Stick with Linux. I have never, ever, not even once heard our executives call it "GNU/Linux".
The "next great advancement" in databases will be when I can setup 2 or more linux servers and have them act as a single database server.
i.e. Out of the box, I can setup a database cluster. I'm talking about costs for HA. If I can dump the big iron for 2- or 4-way x86 servers, I'd save money. But if I need to pay a lot for support for Oracle's RAC, or a custom setup/installation, etc., then I'm not saving money. It all comes down to the bottom line.
I want clustered databases for high-availability
on
The Future of Databases
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
The "next great advancement" in databases will be when I can setup 2 or more linux servers and have them act as a single database server. Our database server is the most expensive item in our datacenter because it's an N-way IBM server.
I've read up on I.D. and their thesis is interesting. Why all the fuss over religion?
The most interesting part of I.D. is that the randomness (genetic mutations) in evolution which has created all of the diverse life we see today is not possible. Each form of life on earth is quite complex and has to have the right sequence of DNA to be formed. Randomly changing DNA won't result in different life forms.
The analogy that all of us on/. can understand is that randomly changing bits in an executable (or image or HTML, etc.) will not change that application to be something else. There is absolutely no way to change/add/delete bits to, say, a J2EE EAR file for a B2B business app and get, say, Half-Life 2.
In any case, I.D. is an interesting concept and leads to higher questions such as how/what/who created the universe, etc. Why are some people so afraid to discuss this topic without spewing forth their religious/non-religious bias?
The only reason I use Firefox and not IE is due to middle-clicking for tabbed browsing. Once MS adds that into IE, I'm going back. All of my video plug-ins work instantly with IE, but not without some tweaking for Firefox. I already switched from Thunderbird to Outlook 2003, so I'm excited to see what bells & whistles MS can put in IE7.
Plain Eclipse is not really suited for real development: you need several other plugins (such as myeclipseide.com) for it to be useful.
The only other (free) plug-in that we use is SQLExplorer. We use Eclipse for enterprise-level J2EE development for Java source, JSPs, etc. Yes, "plain Eclipse" is very much suited for real development.
Every one of my classmates had already beat the game but me. I would play and get up to level 4 or so and then die and have to start all over. When I finally - finally! - finished the game, my palms were so sweaty and I was thrilled that I had accomplished it. I then packed up the NES and spent the rest of the summer playing ball with my friends.
I guess it's my age & maturity now, but I never got that same thrill again completing a game. I mean, it's just a game and there's so much more out there. Now I get a rush when I make $$$ on a big trade. You can say I graduated to the adult version of computer hand-eye coordination.
It's such nonsense that because a person likes to do disgusting things with other men that they both somehow deserve "special treatment." The only "special treatment" they should get is a visit to the psychiatric ward for their disorders.
Before you whine and complain, this is the viewpoint of the MAJORITY of Americans who helped elect Bush to his second term. What helped the Bush victory was all of this gay "rights" crap being advertised nonstop by the liberals. That angered us conservatives so much and forced us to not sit down but to go out and vote.
So keep it up, liberals. Keep advertising your rainbows flags and men kissing other men. That only adds more conservative votes come election time. If you don't like it, there are plenty of gay-friendly countries like Canada, Australia, and France.
at my company. They think they are gods for getting us clients and we should worship them. But the reason they got the clients is because they promised them impossible deadlines and throw the shit to us to finish. Naturally, there are bugs when we release the software to the clients because there wasn't enought time to develop and/or test. But the sales guys don't give a shit because they already got their commission and are moving on to selling their next load of bullshit to potential clients. Every single client that they've dealt with has ended up with lowered expectations and frustations (at IT!) because their software did not work like the sales group promised. Fuck, if I wasn't such a whore for the money, I'd already have quit.
Good riddence to this "anarchist" trying to disrupt the US. Haven't people learned that you need to work within the system to get anything done? If you work for corporate America, you know what I'm talking about.
From his infoshop.com website's frontpage, I see material posted on how to stop military recruiting. Our brave men & women are fighting for our freedoms just so he can post this crap. Protesting the war is one thing, interfering with military operations (including recruitment) is grounds for sedition, especially during times of war.
I say the Feds should throw the book at this guy and make an example of him so other "anarchists" will cease-and-desist with their "hate-america" nonsense. Our military and federal agencies are already busy enough tracking down the real terrorists. They don't need their time (or my tax dollars) wasted on morons like this guy.
I can say that I will most definately not be switching to Linux until (if ever) it can be a true multi-media desktop OS. I've got WinDVD running hooked into SB Audigy 2 ZS with 7.1 surround sound, and BFG's 6800 Ultra. All multi-media components run perfectly under Windows XP.
Why is the incentive for me, or anyone else, to switch to Linux where I will have to give up my 7.1 surround sound and fumble around with manually setting up drivers, etc.? The average PC user is like the average car driver - just turn the thing on and it works. For myself, and 99% of the other computer users out there, Windows XP is the gamer OS. There is no comparison to Linux.
We have this shit at work. My login password for dev environment #1, dev env #2, Q/A, prod, timesheet, human resources, etc. is different and I am forced to change it every 30 days. To keep it easy, I would always use my favorite beers as passwords. They then also added that you can't use the most recent 3 passwords, an if you enter 3 bad passwords, the system locks you out, plus it has to be alphanumeric. So there goes my beer names! I end up writing all of my passwords on a Post-It note stuck of my monitor.
This is yet another example of know-nothing management making an executive decision to fool their shareholders (and themselves) that our systems are now more secure from hackers. In fact, we even had started to share the same user accounts because it makes it simpler to remember passwords instead of each one forgetting it once a week or sooner.
Of course it's against corporate policy. But while managament makes the rules, they don't know how to enforce it because us uber-geeks know how to get around all of the firewalls and network-monitoring.:-)
Seriously, I daytrade stocks and futures at the office. Been doing okay. Once I'm making more doing that compared to my IT job, I'm quitting.
I've played the latest games FarCry, Doom3, Half-Life 2 all at 1600x1200 @ 60Hz on my 21.3" LCD via DVI and never had any issues. Maybe it's the CRT. I remember when I used to have a 21" CRT and GTA:VC was locked @ 60Hz. I would have a headache after an hour or so of playing due to the flickering. But I can play Half-Life 2 for hours w/o any headaches, other than the rest of the family complaining that they haven't seen me in a few days.:-)
why is Crunch Time even part of the project budget
on
A College Guide to EA
·
· Score: 1
This makes no sense. I work in IT for only 40 hour/week and make damn good money.
We organize all projects based on EIGHT HOUR work days and also pad project timelines by a couple of weeks. There have only been a couple of times where management came back and insisted on an earlier release date so that meant either working on a Saturday or doing 10-hour days that week (Mon - Fri).
How can a legitimate IT shop even put "Crunch Time" into the project plan? If those programmers are working 80 hours/week, then that means that the shop needs to double its staff ASAP. And why would anyone even want to work in a place like that? There are other IT jobs out there that pay the same salary. Think of it this way - by working 80 hour/weeks, their HOURLY rate is HALF of their stated salary. Talk about the "I live to work" syndrome.
Besides, the last EA game I bought was American McGee's Alice. Once they stopped releasing Rated M games, I stopped buying their crap.
Actually, I only have 1 vote just like everyone else in my state. I really like the electoral college. It keeps high-population areas like Los Angeles and New York from automatically determining the next president.
get in trouble for having a motorized "vehicle"
on
E-bike E-xperiences?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I think you might get into trouble for operating a motorized vehicle without the proper license or registration. Since you stated that you want to commute to work, why not get a scooter? You can ride legally on all of the same roads as a car can and not have to worry about cars passing (and nearly hitting) you on busy streets while on a bicycle.
I ride a motorcycle to work and it is the funnest thing! I blow past all of the cars and cut in front of everyone at stop lights.
We were attacked on 9/11 by Osama bin Laden and Al Quada. These are people that Saddam Hussein did not care for anyways and did not cooperate with. What's your point? Read my very first post. We need to be in Iraq for strategic military reasons and to ensure a supply of oil for the US. I have no problems with that.
Who do you think funds Al Qaeda? Countries do not want to get into a direct conflict with the US so they instead fund terrorist organizations to attack us. It's sort of like money-laundering. And where do you think those countries (Iran) reside? Yup, flanked on the west (Afghanistan) and east (Iraq) by US forces. I say that is smart planning by Bush and the Pentagon.
Actually, the US did invade Mexico and take oil fields. Today it's called Texas. And California.
Wow, you really don't know history, do you. Those states are called the Texas Republic and the California Republic because they were separate nations. Both Texas and California voluntarily joined the United States.
That is the US. Damn it, how many times does this have to be said: WE WERE ATTACKED ON 9/11. The WTC was attacked once before with a bomb in the parking garage. In the past decades, Americans were the ones held hostage by fundamental Muslims.
A dog doesn't hate a man until that man kicks him.
We were attacked and now it is time to defend ourselves.
If he continues to kick the dog, he only pisses off Fido and Spot down the block too.
Thank you England and Poland and the other nations in our coalition. Together, we will root out and wipe out terrorism anywhere, anytime, in any country that threatens us.
what makes your life more valuable than a non-American's life
Me. Honestly, that's the way the world has been operating for the past 10,000+ years. Any civilization that has shown weakness has been taken over and destroyed by a strong one.
With the mentality that you and lot of others have, we would have lost World War II. Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in a horrible loss of life, but it was necessary to end the war. Were our American civilian lives more important than the Japanese civilian lives? You damn well better believe so!
Welcome to the real world, not the sugar- & candy-coated ones you are presented in high school and college. Every successful nation, every successful cilization, is always trying to stay ahead. Did you know that in all of recorded history, we humans have spent more years at war than that peace? Do you honestly think we are going to change now? No, we aren't. So since there will be war, we better make sure we are victorious. "You are either with us, or against us."
Slashdot Mirror
I response to the article and your developer comments, I've got a few myself:
18. Don't use online play as an excuse to bleed us dry
So for example, you might have a game with 10 2-hour long episodes, each of which sells for $10-20. Wouldn't this really be preferable if they were released every 3 months or so?
NO! $200 for a video game??? That's the #2 reason I never play MMORPG games. I just want to plunk down my $55 and be done with it - not have to add an entry to my monthly budget for "$20 - Episode 7: The Search for More Money"
19. NO MORE JUMPING PUZZLES IN FPS GAMES
I'll take this one step further and argue that jumping puzzles aren't fun *anywhere*.
Wow, I must be in the minority here, but I like the jumping puzzles as long as there is a "save-anywhere" function so I don't have to go back and repeat the same damn thing over and over and over...
As soon as people stop rushing out to by the next Halo or the next Half-life or the next Doom, or Quake (or Unreal), (or a game based on one of those engines), then I'll have a little more faith that I can make a game with a more modest and reasonable budget that will be successful.
As someone who bought Halo, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, Unreal 2, etc. I'm anxiously waiting for the next titles.
I do think Valve's Steam will revolutionize how games are distributed and will allow more "niche" games to be developed. In the recent copy of PC Gamer, an article on Valve talked about how they will be putting out more "episodes" for Half-Life 2 via Steam in the next few months. They compared it to taking 12+ months to "put a box on a shelf" in the local store. That means less distribution costs, etc.
I'm upset because people choose to break the law and steal the movie and revenue from Lucasfilm and that is "Flamebait?" Grow up - nothing is made for free in life and stealing just discourages innovation, invention, and creation.
I just saw it in DLP and it was AWESOME!!! The movie was filmed entirely in digital like AOTC and there is so much CGI that you have got to see in on a digital display.
As for the fucking assholes who stole this great movie and put it online and for the equally same fucking assholes who downloaded the movie, I hope Lucasfilm prosecutes them to the fullest extent of the law. It is crap like this that gives the MPAA creditability to invade our privacy and regulate our property.
One asshole wrote that "I downloaded the movie because it's not worth the $10." I'd like to smash his face in! You don't steal something just because you don't agree with the price. Our entire great capitalistic country will come to a halt if the fruit of many years of hard labor are stolen every time.
Anyways, great movie this is!!!
If you read the article you posted, you would see that it's Linux, not "GNU/Linux." There is no such thing as "GNU/Linux" that is being offered by HP. The more you zealots throw in other technical terms, the more everyday Joe & Jane America will turn away from it. Stick with Linux. I have never, ever, not even once heard our executives call it "GNU/Linux".
My original post said:
The "next great advancement" in databases will be when I can setup 2 or more linux servers and have them act as a single database server.
i.e. Out of the box, I can setup a database cluster. I'm talking about costs for HA. If I can dump the big iron for 2- or 4-way x86 servers, I'd save money. But if I need to pay a lot for support for Oracle's RAC, or a custom setup/installation, etc., then I'm not saving money. It all comes down to the bottom line.
The "next great advancement" in databases will be when I can setup 2 or more linux servers and have them act as a single database server. Our database server is the most expensive item in our datacenter because it's an N-way IBM server.
I've read up on I.D. and their thesis is interesting. Why all the fuss over religion?
/. can understand is that randomly changing bits in an executable (or image or HTML, etc.) will not change that application to be something else. There is absolutely no way to change/add/delete bits to, say, a J2EE EAR file for a B2B business app and get, say, Half-Life 2.
The most interesting part of I.D. is that the randomness (genetic mutations) in evolution which has created all of the diverse life we see today is not possible. Each form of life on earth is quite complex and has to have the right sequence of DNA to be formed. Randomly changing DNA won't result in different life forms.
The analogy that all of us on
In any case, I.D. is an interesting concept and leads to higher questions such as how/what/who created the universe, etc. Why are some people so afraid to discuss this topic without spewing forth their religious/non-religious bias?
The only reason I use Firefox and not IE is due to middle-clicking for tabbed browsing. Once MS adds that into IE, I'm going back. All of my video plug-ins work instantly with IE, but not without some tweaking for Firefox. I already switched from Thunderbird to Outlook 2003, so I'm excited to see what bells & whistles MS can put in IE7.
Plain Eclipse is not really suited for real development: you need several other plugins (such as myeclipseide.com) for it to be useful.
The only other (free) plug-in that we use is SQLExplorer. We use Eclipse for enterprise-level J2EE development for Java source, JSPs, etc. Yes, "plain Eclipse" is very much suited for real development.
Every one of my classmates had already beat the game but me. I would play and get up to level 4 or so and then die and have to start all over. When I finally - finally! - finished the game, my palms were so sweaty and I was thrilled that I had accomplished it. I then packed up the NES and spent the rest of the summer playing ball with my friends.
I guess it's my age & maturity now, but I never got that same thrill again completing a game. I mean, it's just a game and there's so much more out there. Now I get a rush when I make $$$ on a big trade. You can say I graduated to the adult version of computer hand-eye coordination.
It's such nonsense that because a person likes to do disgusting things with other men that they both somehow deserve "special treatment." The only "special treatment" they should get is a visit to the psychiatric ward for their disorders. Before you whine and complain, this is the viewpoint of the MAJORITY of Americans who helped elect Bush to his second term. What helped the Bush victory was all of this gay "rights" crap being advertised nonstop by the liberals. That angered us conservatives so much and forced us to not sit down but to go out and vote. So keep it up, liberals. Keep advertising your rainbows flags and men kissing other men. That only adds more conservative votes come election time. If you don't like it, there are plenty of gay-friendly countries like Canada, Australia, and France.
at my company. They think they are gods for getting us clients and we should worship them. But the reason they got the clients is because they promised them impossible deadlines and throw the shit to us to finish. Naturally, there are bugs when we release the software to the clients because there wasn't enought time to develop and/or test. But the sales guys don't give a shit because they already got their commission and are moving on to selling their next load of bullshit to potential clients. Every single client that they've dealt with has ended up with lowered expectations and frustations (at IT!) because their software did not work like the sales group promised. Fuck, if I wasn't such a whore for the money, I'd already have quit.
Good riddence to this "anarchist" trying to disrupt the US. Haven't people learned that you need to work within the system to get anything done? If you work for corporate America, you know what I'm talking about.
From his infoshop.com website's frontpage, I see material posted on how to stop military recruiting. Our brave men & women are fighting for our freedoms just so he can post this crap. Protesting the war is one thing, interfering with military operations (including recruitment) is grounds for sedition, especially during times of war.
I say the Feds should throw the book at this guy and make an example of him so other "anarchists" will cease-and-desist with their "hate-america" nonsense. Our military and federal agencies are already busy enough tracking down the real terrorists. They don't need their time (or my tax dollars) wasted on morons like this guy.
I can say that I will most definately not be switching to Linux until (if ever) it can be a true multi-media desktop OS. I've got WinDVD running hooked into SB Audigy 2 ZS with 7.1 surround sound, and BFG's 6800 Ultra. All multi-media components run perfectly under Windows XP.
Why is the incentive for me, or anyone else, to switch to Linux where I will have to give up my 7.1 surround sound and fumble around with manually setting up drivers, etc.? The average PC user is like the average car driver - just turn the thing on and it works. For myself, and 99% of the other computer users out there, Windows XP is the gamer OS. There is no comparison to Linux.
you insensitive clod!
We have this shit at work. My login password for dev environment #1, dev env #2, Q/A, prod, timesheet, human resources, etc. is different and I am forced to change it every 30 days. To keep it easy, I would always use my favorite beers as passwords. They then also added that you can't use the most recent 3 passwords, an if you enter 3 bad passwords, the system locks you out, plus it has to be alphanumeric. So there goes my beer names! I end up writing all of my passwords on a Post-It note stuck of my monitor.
This is yet another example of know-nothing management making an executive decision to fool their shareholders (and themselves) that our systems are now more secure from hackers. In fact, we even had started to share the same user accounts because it makes it simpler to remember passwords instead of each one forgetting it once a week or sooner.
Of course it's against corporate policy. But while managament makes the rules, they don't know how to enforce it because us uber-geeks know how to get around all of the firewalls and network-monitoring. :-)
Seriously, I daytrade stocks and futures at the office. Been doing okay. Once I'm making more doing that compared to my IT job, I'm quitting.
I've played the latest games FarCry, Doom3, Half-Life 2 all at 1600x1200 @ 60Hz on my 21.3" LCD via DVI and never had any issues. Maybe it's the CRT. I remember when I used to have a 21" CRT and GTA:VC was locked @ 60Hz. I would have a headache after an hour or so of playing due to the flickering. But I can play Half-Life 2 for hours w/o any headaches, other than the rest of the family complaining that they haven't seen me in a few days. :-)
This makes no sense. I work in IT for only 40 hour/week and make damn good money.
We organize all projects based on EIGHT HOUR work days and also pad project timelines by a couple of weeks. There have only been a couple of times where management came back and insisted on an earlier release date so that meant either working on a Saturday or doing 10-hour days that week (Mon - Fri).
How can a legitimate IT shop even put "Crunch Time" into the project plan? If those programmers are working 80 hours/week, then that means that the shop needs to double its staff ASAP. And why would anyone even want to work in a place like that? There are other IT jobs out there that pay the same salary. Think of it this way - by working 80 hour/weeks, their HOURLY rate is HALF of their stated salary. Talk about the "I live to work" syndrome.
Besides, the last EA game I bought was American McGee's Alice. Once they stopped releasing Rated M games, I stopped buying their crap.
I think you might get into trouble for operating a motorized vehicle without the proper license or registration. Since you stated that you want to commute to work, why not get a scooter? You can ride legally on all of the same roads as a car can and not have to worry about cars passing (and nearly hitting) you on busy streets while on a bicycle.
I ride a motorcycle to work and it is the funnest thing! I blow past all of the cars and cut in front of everyone at stop lights.
We were attacked on 9/11 by Osama bin Laden and Al Quada. These are people that Saddam Hussein did not care for anyways and did not cooperate with. What's your point? Read my very first post. We need to be in Iraq for strategic military reasons and to ensure a supply of oil for the US. I have no problems with that.
Who do you think funds Al Qaeda? Countries do not want to get into a direct conflict with the US so they instead fund terrorist organizations to attack us. It's sort of like money-laundering. And where do you think those countries (Iran) reside? Yup, flanked on the west (Afghanistan) and east (Iraq) by US forces. I say that is smart planning by Bush and the Pentagon.
With the mentality that you and lot of others have, we would have lost World War II. Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in a horrible loss of life, but it was necessary to end the war. Were our American civilian lives more important than the Japanese civilian lives? You damn well better believe so!
Welcome to the real world, not the sugar- & candy-coated ones you are presented in high school and college. Every successful nation, every successful cilization, is always trying to stay ahead. Did you know that in all of recorded history, we humans have spent more years at war than that peace? Do you honestly think we are going to change now? No, we aren't. So since there will be war, we better make sure we are victorious. "You are either with us, or against us."