"Cherish what few freedoms you have left. You won't have them for long."
We've never had them in the UK, but then we have an urbane approach to the law. We consider them mostly optional, which is unfortunate for any government that wants to emulate the American model.
We have this propensity to riot at the drop of a hat, and the rumblings have already started again, simply because of the number of things that have been waved through since 9/11, however, the vast majority are being doped up with worry at the moment because of the quasi-fictional recession the world has been on the brink of for the past couple of decades.
"The U.K. seems about as close to an Orwellian society as any "enlightened" country on the planet."
Cheeba hits 'Class C' (categorised alongside steroids) on January 29th. Confiscation and a telling off for personal possession, although they've raised the penalties for dealers.
Given societal penetration of at least 72%, it's pretty much the only way to reduce the statistics for drug abuse in this country without engaging in an ultimately futile war on drugs.
"The UK, after all, is the nation which decided to pass a law requiring you to hand over your encryption keys without due process when asked, upon penalty of jail when you fail to do so -- and it doesn't matter if you actually have the encryption keys or not."
The horrific portion of this is that the RIP Bill regulatory instruments hasn't been written yet and they're still levering things in on top of that.
"also the nation that supports the U.S."
Yeah, well, for all our sins we are allies. In that particular case there was an agenda pushed that did leave us quite distasteful of some aspects, and I suspect that this government will get elected around the time hell reaches absolute zero.
"nobody gives a flying fuck about liberty, freedom, rights"
Funnily enough, I've always found that it's best to work within the system rather than against it, which is why the local police are receiving a complaint about the local council flouting the law regarding camera placement. Should be good for a giggle.
"This game sends the wrong message to young people. It is actually glorifying speed and power. It is clearly an inappropriate depiction of speed behavior. If I had my way I would ban it."
Someone call Bernie Ecclestone and cancel the next Australian Grand Prix.
Why is it that idiots like this get a soap box on Slashdot?
"You don't need to worry about getting sued by the Recording Industry Assocation of America [riaa.org] or arrested by the FBI if you download legal music."
Are you personally supplying this warranty, because the RIAA is a runaway train right now, and I doubt piddling technicalities like them not representing a given artist will actually matter.
Certainly they don't seem to be slowed by the idea that suing your customers is a business plan born out of Pre-2000 internet incubators.
Seriously, if people are going to mobilise on this matter, find out what your local senator has received from the entertainment industry and ask them if they feel comfortable being paid for by a cartel. Tell them why they won't receive your vote. Ask them when they stopped representing the interests of individuals and why lobby groups are so important. Ask those questions, collate and put the answers up on the web.
I'm sure that there would be an amount of collective shame there.
"Besides, what is Joe Sixpack going to do without WMP? Search around for other solutions?"
So you suspect that people who don't have software that they desire just nod off in desperation for Microsoft to integrate the ability to connect their toaster to the computer? That they're tapping a foot waiting for the codec download in WMP to actually work? That nobody uses anything that isn't supplied with the OS?
I feel for you. I had the same problems with Outlook Express once and it's a lot harder to deinstall than an external piece of software because 'it's part of the OS'. Caveat Emptor
I must admit that when I went on a hunt for codecs to try and figure the variability of quality in media players, I found an absolute rat's nest of stuff going on. A program called Gspot is good for checking media files and whether you have the right codecs.
See if there's a newer version of BSPlayer and slap a reference file through Gspot to check it first. You might have a crufty codec somewhere.
"then you've been going to some very poor conferences and lectures"
Microsoft ISV architecture day was the last one, funnily enough.
You just don't get the quality control these days.
"Can't you see that Powerpoint can be useful to display figures or charts?"
Not really. As you pointed out, you can produce OHPs from excel a good deal easier and quicker, and at some point you have to ask what Powerpoint actually brings to a presentation that didn't used to be fulfilled by a big binder.
So please, tell me, do you really need transitions in a presentation?
"I agree with everything you wrote except for, "the customer knows what they want"."
They do. That they frequently can't describe what they want isn't necessarily their failing, it's because they aren't in our industry and they may be picking up ideas, but not know the ramifications.
I frequently have to talk people out of popups and email spamming...they've seen it done and they think it's a good idea; I ask whether they've ever bought anything from either, and do they consider it a nuisance...that usually turns them around.
Someone else in the thread pointed out that the customer likes to feel good about themselves; yes, that's a valid marketing point, but leave the warm'n'fuzzies to the marketing department and concentrate on supplying something that does the job rather than telling them they're studmuffins. It's a short term solution that'll work, but unless you supply something that does the job they won't be coming back.
"The idea that "most people" using Windows are using an outside multimedia viewer/player when the software that comes with the system works fine is laughable."
Keep laughing. My visual media needs are met by BSPlayer; nice thin client which starts up in a jiffy and has so far refused to try and send data anywhere but the monitor. Winamp 2 for the audio duties.
Windows Media Player is a monolithic piece of crap in the stable of Word, Outlook and Excel
"The electronics are pretty durable, so even if the part can't be bought new, something ripped from a junked vehicle should work."
Not all the time; the first generation of ECUs/management units were martyrs to stray spikes, undervoltage and overvoltage. The Ford 'Montego' was renowned for wiping the EPROMs because of piss-poor earthing in the engine bay.
"but since there was a ton of space in front of the engine, where a part that will fail several times in the lifetime of the car could have been mounted, it really pissed me off."
The front of the engine is considered a lot more hostile than the back, and they moved the coils from the front to the back quite a long time ago because of the temperature shock (radiators and blowy stuff I like to call 'wind') and the occasional puddle that gets thrown up.
The time I learned all about this was when my Ford Fiesta (UK Car. Small, feisty, can be repaired by the roadside with a hammer) decided to stop doing the internal combustion thing in the middle of a 6' deep lake masquerading as a puddle. The coil was saturated because it was mounted low in front of the radiator.
If you think the location of the coil is bad, go check your starter motor (now with crunchy plastic vanes) or the water pump.
"This is an insanely large, untapped market just waiting to be satiated with games"
As are:
Pensioners
The under fives
Amputees ...
What is this unholy obsession with 'markets', FFS. If nothing has been exposed over the past couple of decades, it's that the old rules of marketing are beginning to crumble and targetting things at specific markets is leading to some real confusion, especially when trying to apply those rules across cultural boundaries.
What happened to making a game with broad bloody appeal?
"Ok, there's Dead or Alive beach volleyball, but there's no nudity"
I did read somewhere that the next WWF/E game will have a mode where you disrobe your opponent, but I don't like wrestling and I doubly dislike wrestling games.
"Typically inanimate objects don't have moral affiliations."
Occasionally they do, if there is comedic value to be had from it.
"And the fact that people misuse Powerpoint and create awful presentations does not mean that Powerpoint should be abandoned"
I'd point to it being a really good reason for it to be abandoned; I've never attended a presentation where the powerpoint 'slideshow' wasn't a tacked on visual representation of what was being said, usually in a 'bulletpoint' fashion that only echoes what's being said. If you get chance to see the Royal Institute Christmas lectures, then take a look at their powerpoint presentations; they're conspicuous by their absence.
Which brings me to one major and almost on-topic point; if you create tools that allow people to produce dross, then they'll produce dross. Usually in staggering amounts; check out what the desktop publishing 'revolution' produced, or what the current fashion for blogging has wrought upon the English language. We should be able to run a significant portion of the grid from the rapidly spinning incumbents of graves around the world.
"Or is he thinking that all the components will be in the OS, and thus third party programmers could be eliminated and the OS vendor and the user would be the only parts of the transaction?"
.NET? Having the base classes as part of the operating system so you can truthfully tell the judge that the programming language is 'Part of the Operating System'?
"The problem is programmers are not known for their empathy for users"
Oh, I don't know...my customers and I often share amusing stories of stuff that's Blue screened just before you meant to save it. If you mean that some Programmers consider themselves godlike because of years of hubris and the certain knowledge that you couldn't be found out if you cloaked as much as you could in jargon, then you might have a point.
The customer knows what they want, and they'll express it to you in their terms; you have to translate their ideas into something workable, which can be a ballache, but if you've started from a position of billable hours rather than a fixed cost, you're already ahead of the game simply because you can work on milestones rather than having to constantly rehash.
The idea of having a high-level language that 'anyone' can use has largely already happened with HTML. As a result we have some outrageously bad HTML out there because of the complete lack of understanding of abstraction. Put simply, Decamino wouldn't look through Galileo's telescope because he _knew_ that Galileo is wrong; the paradigm that allowed for the earth to move out of the center of the universe hadn't yet come to pass.
Although OO is currently viewed with some suspicion because it may not be the best way to do _everything_, everyone involved in commercial programming has at least started to view things in the terms of objects; that concept may take a while to filter down to a public that thinks animated cursors on the web are the dog's back wheels, or seem surprised when you have to keep AV software updated.
Slashdot Mirror
"Cherish what few freedoms you have left. You won't have them for long."
We've never had them in the UK, but then we have an urbane approach to the law. We consider them mostly optional, which is unfortunate for any government that wants to emulate the American model.
We have this propensity to riot at the drop of a hat, and the rumblings have already started again, simply because of the number of things that have been waved through since 9/11, however, the vast majority are being doped up with worry at the moment because of the quasi-fictional recession the world has been on the brink of for the past couple of decades.
"The U.K. seems about as close to an Orwellian society as any "enlightened" country on the planet."
Cheeba hits 'Class C' (categorised alongside steroids) on January 29th. Confiscation and a telling off for personal possession, although they've raised the penalties for dealers.
Given societal penetration of at least 72%, it's pretty much the only way to reduce the statistics for drug abuse in this country without engaging in an ultimately futile war on drugs.
"The UK, after all, is the nation which decided to pass a law requiring you to hand over your encryption keys without due process when asked, upon penalty of jail when you fail to do so -- and it doesn't matter if you actually have the encryption keys or not."
The horrific portion of this is that the RIP Bill regulatory instruments hasn't been written yet and they're still levering things in on top of that.
"also the nation that supports the U.S."
Yeah, well, for all our sins we are allies. In that particular case there was an agenda pushed that did leave us quite distasteful of some aspects, and I suspect that this government will get elected around the time hell reaches absolute zero.
"nobody gives a flying fuck about liberty, freedom, rights"
Funnily enough, I've always found that it's best to work within the system rather than against it, which is why the local police are receiving a complaint about the local council flouting the law regarding camera placement. Should be good for a giggle.
"This game sends the wrong message to young people. It is actually glorifying speed and power. It is clearly an inappropriate depiction of speed behavior. If I had my way I would ban it."
Someone call Bernie Ecclestone and cancel the next Australian Grand Prix.
Why is it that idiots like this get a soap box on Slashdot?
"You don't need to worry about getting sued by the Recording Industry Assocation of America [riaa.org] or arrested by the FBI if you download legal music."
Are you personally supplying this warranty, because the RIAA is a runaway train right now, and I doubt piddling technicalities like them not representing a given artist will actually matter.
Certainly they don't seem to be slowed by the idea that suing your customers is a business plan born out of Pre-2000 internet incubators.
Seriously, if people are going to mobilise on this matter, find out what your local senator has received from the entertainment industry and ask them if they feel comfortable being paid for by a cartel. Tell them why they won't receive your vote. Ask them when they stopped representing the interests of individuals and why lobby groups are so important. Ask those questions, collate and put the answers up on the web.
I'm sure that there would be an amount of collective shame there.
"And come the next versions, when that's no longer an option?"
I firewalled it. *cackle*
"It's a good program."
It's nearly Panto season, so 'Oh no it isn't!'
"Besides, what is Joe Sixpack going to do without WMP? Search around for other solutions?"
So you suspect that people who don't have software that they desire just nod off in desperation for Microsoft to integrate the ability to connect their toaster to the computer? That they're tapping a foot waiting for the codec download in WMP to actually work? That nobody uses anything that isn't supplied with the OS?
"Last time I tried BSPlayer"
I feel for you. I had the same problems with Outlook Express once and it's a lot harder to deinstall than an external piece of software because 'it's part of the OS'. Caveat Emptor
I must admit that when I went on a hunt for codecs to try and figure the variability of quality in media players, I found an absolute rat's nest of stuff going on. A program called Gspot is good for checking media files and whether you have the right codecs.
See if there's a newer version of BSPlayer and slap a reference file through Gspot to check it first. You might have a crufty codec somewhere.
"then you've been going to some very poor conferences and lectures"
Microsoft ISV architecture day was the last one, funnily enough.
You just don't get the quality control these days.
"Can't you see that Powerpoint can be useful to display figures or charts?"
Not really. As you pointed out, you can produce OHPs from excel a good deal easier and quicker, and at some point you have to ask what Powerpoint actually brings to a presentation that didn't used to be fulfilled by a big binder.
So please, tell me, do you really need transitions in a presentation?
"disagree at all with oddly drac and he'll mark you as a foe"
Actually, I read your journal.
"I agree with everything you wrote except for, "the customer knows what they want"."
They do. That they frequently can't describe what they want isn't necessarily their failing, it's because they aren't in our industry and they may be picking up ideas, but not know the ramifications.
I frequently have to talk people out of popups and email spamming...they've seen it done and they think it's a good idea; I ask whether they've ever bought anything from either, and do they consider it a nuisance...that usually turns them around.
Someone else in the thread pointed out that the customer likes to feel good about themselves; yes, that's a valid marketing point, but leave the warm'n'fuzzies to the marketing department and concentrate on supplying something that does the job rather than telling them they're studmuffins. It's a short term solution that'll work, but unless you supply something that does the job they won't be coming back.
"The real power is held by the Comission and the minister council (which consists of the leaders of every member state (Blair, Scroeder, etc..))"
On behalf of the United Kingdom, I'd just like to apologise.
Sorry.
"Windows Media Player" vs "MusicMatch"
Real battle of the titans, that one. I take it that your main criterion for a media player is a chunky interface and processor usage?
"The idea that "most people" using Windows are using an outside multimedia viewer/player when the software that comes with the system works fine is laughable."
Keep laughing. My visual media needs are met by BSPlayer; nice thin client which starts up in a jiffy and has so far refused to try and send data anywhere but the monitor. Winamp 2 for the audio duties.
Windows Media Player is a monolithic piece of crap in the stable of Word, Outlook and Excel
Olympus Iglasses are one, but try this site and scroll down to 'Displays (Commercial)'
"The electronics are pretty durable, so even if the part can't be bought new, something ripped from a junked vehicle should work."
Not all the time; the first generation of ECUs/management units were martyrs to stray spikes, undervoltage and overvoltage. The Ford 'Montego' was renowned for wiping the EPROMs because of piss-poor earthing in the engine bay.
YMMV.
"but since there was a ton of space in front of the engine, where a part that will fail several times in the lifetime of the car could have been mounted, it really pissed me off."
The front of the engine is considered a lot more hostile than the back, and they moved the coils from the front to the back quite a long time ago because of the temperature shock (radiators and blowy stuff I like to call 'wind') and the occasional puddle that gets thrown up.
The time I learned all about this was when my Ford Fiesta (UK Car. Small, feisty, can be repaired by the roadside with a hammer) decided to stop doing the internal combustion thing in the middle of a 6' deep lake masquerading as a puddle. The coil was saturated because it was mounted low in front of the radiator.
If you think the location of the coil is bad, go check your starter motor (now with crunchy plastic vanes) or the water pump.
"This is an insanely large, untapped market just waiting to be satiated with games"
...
As are:
Pensioners
The under fives
Amputees
What is this unholy obsession with 'markets', FFS. If nothing has been exposed over the past couple of decades, it's that the old rules of marketing are beginning to crumble and targetting things at specific markets is leading to some real confusion, especially when trying to apply those rules across cultural boundaries.
What happened to making a game with broad bloody appeal?
They go the same way as Accrington Stanley.
"Novell bought out SuSE. (one down)"
IBM also invested $50 million in Novell.
"Redhat won't be messing with the desktop anymore."
Scroll down the front page to 'Fedora'.
"Sun Microsystems has all but said "Linux is for the birds". The'll ship boxes with it if you want, but don't reccomend it."
They have a competing product called 'Solaris' you might like to take a look at.
"Novell's out, since they just got SuSE."
I've heard they have around $600 million in the bank. That's what we call here 'a big pile of wonger'.
"This sounds to me the beginning of the end"
That was months ago, we're in the atrium of the end and heading for the lobby of the end.
Seriously, I'm going to start a campaign of grinning at Americans. For a free democracy, they sure have a bundle of rules.
"I think the operative term is hacking a model 'internet' not a machine on the internet."
Ah, machines > 1. Cute idea, be interesting to see how it scales up against the real one.
Particularly the increasing quantity of worm 'noise'.
"Ok, there's Dead or Alive beach volleyball, but there's no nudity"
I did read somewhere that the next WWF/E game will have a mode where you disrobe your opponent, but I don't like wrestling and I doubly dislike wrestling games.
"Typically inanimate objects don't have moral affiliations."
Occasionally they do, if there is comedic value to be had from it.
"And the fact that people misuse Powerpoint and create awful presentations does not mean that Powerpoint should be abandoned"
I'd point to it being a really good reason for it to be abandoned; I've never attended a presentation where the powerpoint 'slideshow' wasn't a tacked on visual representation of what was being said, usually in a 'bulletpoint' fashion that only echoes what's being said. If you get chance to see the Royal Institute Christmas lectures, then take a look at their powerpoint presentations; they're conspicuous by their absence.
Which brings me to one major and almost on-topic point; if you create tools that allow people to produce dross, then they'll produce dross. Usually in staggering amounts; check out what the desktop publishing 'revolution' produced, or what the current fashion for blogging has wrought upon the English language. We should be able to run a significant portion of the grid from the rapidly spinning incumbents of graves around the world.
"Or is he thinking that all the components will be in the OS, and thus third party programmers could be eliminated and the OS vendor and the user would be the only parts of the transaction?"
.NET? Having the base classes as part of the operating system so you can truthfully tell the judge that the programming language is 'Part of the Operating System'?
"The problem is programmers are not known for their empathy for users"
Oh, I don't know...my customers and I often share amusing stories of stuff that's Blue screened just before you meant to save it. If you mean that some Programmers consider themselves godlike because of years of hubris and the certain knowledge that you couldn't be found out if you cloaked as much as you could in jargon, then you might have a point.
The customer knows what they want, and they'll express it to you in their terms; you have to translate their ideas into something workable, which can be a ballache, but if you've started from a position of billable hours rather than a fixed cost, you're already ahead of the game simply because you can work on milestones rather than having to constantly rehash.
The idea of having a high-level language that 'anyone' can use has largely already happened with HTML. As a result we have some outrageously bad HTML out there because of the complete lack of understanding of abstraction. Put simply, Decamino wouldn't look through Galileo's telescope because he _knew_ that Galileo is wrong; the paradigm that allowed for the earth to move out of the center of the universe hadn't yet come to pass.
Although OO is currently viewed with some suspicion because it may not be the best way to do _everything_, everyone involved in commercial programming has at least started to view things in the terms of objects; that concept may take a while to filter down to a public that thinks animated cursors on the web are the dog's back wheels, or seem surprised when you have to keep AV software updated.
...just for saying;
"Software should be as easy to edit as a PowerPoint presentation,"
Powerpoint is _evil_ and should be destroyed, and the ground that it rested on salted.