For a statically-linked proprietary C++ application? Everything. You have to allow the user to re-link against a different version of the library, which basically means distributing object files for each of your source files. It's terrible.
For things like java that always link libraries dynamically, it's fine. If the library you are linking against is a dll or shared object, it's fine. Otherwise, it's terribly annoying.
My example: I was developing a homebrew game for Gameboy Advance. In that case, everything gets linked into one single rom image. The music library I considered using was LGPL. If I had used it, I would have had to distribute object files for my whole game, instead of simply distributing the rom image. So that library got disqualified because of the LGPL license.
Do you also avoid driving because there are billboards? Never look at magazines? (or do you close your eyes and rip out the ads?)
I agree that obnoxious advertising is just that: obnoxious. But why all the hate of all forms of advertising?
Me, I'm all for advertising. I figure it's a tax on people who buy name-brand products and go see the newest movies. I'll keep buying my generic soda, but I don't mind if Coke drinkers help pay for the radio station I want to listen to.
The funny thing is I wasn't that impressed with MythTV. Sure it had a lot of functionality, but the user interface wasn't very good, and it broke down regularly.
First it was that the database got corrupted and shows wouldn't fast forward properly. Then it was that one of the channels mysteriously couldn't record sound (although it could with other apps on my system). Then it was something after that. It seems like I was messing with the configuration every 3 or 4 months.
Sadly (as I liked the idea of a free Linux-based solution) I switched to Beyond TV on windows, and now everything just works.
There's nothing in the announcement that states they're disallowing spawning. Nor is there anything to suggest you won't be allowed to play with others on the same LAN
Thank you for being one of the few sane people on this thread. I can't believe the amount of blah blah blah about this. Sure, it sucks a little. But it's not like you CAN'T play with people on your LAN. It's just that you have to have an internet connection to set up the game.
According to the wikipedia article about this game, it has less emphasis on "skill and strategy." I got my beta key a couple months ago and found that to be true.
Most battles in the game turned into little more than a painfully slow circle strafe duel. Even if you hid and got a first surprise attack in, the default weapons are so weak that the surprise attack helps very little -- your opponent will turn around, find you, start shooting you back, and you'll stand there for awhile shooting each other hoping that the other guy dies first.
For FPS games, fast twitch games are fun -- where your characters move fast and dodge quickly. Those games are all about timing, twitch, dodging, and aim. I also like some slower-paced games, where you carefully move in, sneak around, and kill your enemies before they know where you are. Those are fun because it's all about stealth and getting the first shot.
Unfortunately, Battlefield heroes is slow, but the weapons are so underpowered that stealth doesn't matter much. So somehow it sits in the middle -- slow, but not strategic. I found it, overall, to be rather dull -- I _like_ skill and strategy.
Instead, it seems they are putting the emphasis on buying/earning powerups. You can buy additional gear using real-world money, or by earning money in-game. Of course, by doing so, you only unlock the gear for a limited amount of time, which makes it seems a lot less worthwhile.
So if you want to play a first-person shooter that is slow, de-emphasizes skill and strategy, and instead emphasizes buying the best powerups, then this is the game for you. It's not for me.
i would rather take a slower speed with no cap then a super fast speed and 250gb month cap. what is the point of say 20mbit download if you can only avg 8gb a day, and max speed dl speed that is only 1 hour and its used up.
I, on the other hand, would rather have a faster speed and a cap. I don't download much stuff from home -- some email, some light web browsing. When I do, I want it to be fast. If I'm not planning on BTing a bunch of stuff, or watching tons of online video, then why sacrifice speed for a cap that I'll never hit?
Although the mighty mouse isn't REALLY a 2-button mouse -- it's a one-button mouse with a weird touch sensor that detects where your fingers are when you click, and tries to guess whether it should send a left-click or a right-click signal.
Don't believe me? Rest your index finger in the left-click position on the mighty mouse and try right-clicking. Good luck.
Interesting that its not hatred itself that you want to get rid of (you seem happy to hate people), but beliefs that give other people comfort that you refuse to accept.
I, on the other hand, would prefer a world without hate to a world without faith.
LGPL is fine for java and other languages that don't statically link things. It's almost as bad as the GPL for things like C.
One of the clauses of the LGPL is that you have to make it possible to relink your application with a different version of the LGPL'd library. So in C, this means you have to provide object files that users can re-link against. Which starts to make it look a lot less appealing.
Too often it issues a standard click instead of a right-click, even though I'm pushing to the right of the scroll wheel. Guess I'm not pushing it far enough to the right of the scroll wheel...and that's just asinine.
No, but the truth is even worse. I had the same problems as you and so did a little research to figure out why my mighty mouse wouldn't right-click properly. The truth is that it doesn't matter where you push it -- instead, it has a touch sensor where your left finger should go, and if your left finger is touching the mouse, then clicks count as left clicks. If your left finger isn't touching it, they count as right-clicks. So if you're like me, and tend to rest your left finger on the mouse while you right-click, then you're not going to have much luck with the mighty mouse.
To make it even worse, it's a known problem that when your batteries are running low in them, the touch sensor gets less accurate, so it starts registering clicks improperly. (right vs left).
I'm generally not a regular mac user, so this stupid mouse really makes me wonder about Apple, and how everyone says they have such well-designed products. If this thing is typical of the wonderful Apple design, then I just don't get it.
Sigh. Let's all yell and shout instead of reading and using our brains. The article was a worthless blog post referring to a real article. The real article explains further. Looking at your list, you COULD run all of those things:
1. Windows Explorer -- this doesn't count againt your 3 2. (web browser of choice) 3. Java VM 4. Anti-Virus -- antivirus programs generally don't count against your limit either 5. IM
And this is why I changed back to windows. I used windows for 2 years on my fast dual-core, 4gb machine. It sped along. I switched to ubuntu with gnome. It CRAWLED. Opening nautilus took a few seconds each time. Unacceptable.
So I played with other "lightweight" file browsers -- thunar and such. They were nice and snappy, but were missing useful features that I had in nautilus and windows -- network file browsing, proper drag/drop support, etc.
Most importantly their is a decent working vim-like editor plugin (jVi), and yes this is a killer feature.
I agree entirely (the killer feature). I use eclipse, because our product is built up of eclipse plugins. But I completely hated it until I convinced the boss to buy me a copy of viPlugin for eclipse. Unfortunately, it's not free, is quite buggy, and doesn't implement all the vi features I'd want. But it was the difference between hating Eclipse and being generally happy with it.
When VCRs first came out, buying a movie on videotape cost what? $50? $60? It took Hollywood years to learn that they made a lot more money selling a very large number of movies at $20 apiece than they made selling a small number of movies at $50 each. One has to wonder why it's taking the game industry so long to learn the same lesson.
While I don't necessarily disagree, there a number of factors that make this case at least slightly different. First, movies tend to have a broader appeal then most video games do. Second, the number of hours of entertainment provided from each one -- with games, I won't buy a new one until I'm done or mostly done with the first (yes, some people are different, but I'm an example). I'm just not going to buy hundreds of games because I will never play them all. But movies only last 2 hours -- I will buy more DVDs because I WILL likely watch them all.
So it's possible (I'm not saying it's necessarily true) that DVDs have the potential for more sales than games, independent of the price. This may or may not really be the case, but it should be enough to make it obvious that the economics of game sales are not exactly like the economics of DVD/VHS sales, and shouldn't be treated as EXACTLY the same.
They're about networking, social skills, and shameless self-promotion.
People like me, and I suspect most geeks on slashdot, want to be judged on our merits, but the fact is in most cases we won't be. So yes, nice engineers do finish last.
Two things: 1. Networking and social skills ARE merits to be judged by. Your social skills directly impact how effective you will be at your job. If I was hiring a programmer, the two most important things I'd look for are programming ability and social/communication skills.
2. I'm your standard "nice guy" who just does his job. I guess I'm decent at what I do -- I write code (I'm not an amazing uber-programmaer, but not bad -- I keep impressing my bosses everywhere I go, so I guess I'm good enough?). I don't play political games, don't do much self-promotion. I just be friendly and do my job. And every job I've been in, my managers have looked out for me, and worked hard to keep me around and happy.
So sure, there are dumb jerk managers out there. But it's not the rule -- plenty of managers recognize talent and do a good job of keeping productive workers happy. There's a general cynicism here on slashdot that says the opposite is true. I'm still not sure whether it's coming from antisocial difficult-to-work-with techies who are bitter that people don't like them, or whether all the people with bad managers are the only ones talking. But I do know that it's not my experience.
People here will help you solve the problem you mentioned, and most problems are eventually solvable, (and caused by either "doing it wrong" or by having unsupported or weird hardware), but your experience is similar to mine. I've used Linux off and on for 10 years now, installing it on probably 15 different machines. And it seems like I'm always in the group of problems that "don't count." Hardware that doesn't work. Installations that mostly work, but are goofy in some way. Desiring features that "most people" don't need.
I have no beef against linux overall, but that seems to be the way of it -- you'll often have some problem with something not working right.
There was one of the Ace Combat games (ace combat 4 I believe) where all the cutscenes were telling the story of a boy in a town, and this war hero that he idolized. It was confusing, because it had nothing to do with the missions you were playing. Until near the end, where you found out that that war hero was your main opponent. It was very interesting, and very well done. I actually felt bad as I shot the guy's plane down.
I did this...went to China to work for an outsourcing company for 2 years. It was a great experience! I got to learn about the Chinese way of business, as well as the whole language/culture. It's amazing how culture effects how you do business, and it was extremely interesting to throw yourself into the middle of that and learn by doing.
Working for a software company paid peanuts by US standards, but was a fairly good income there, so we got to live in a beautiful modern apartment complex, and didn't feel financial burdens. I'd highly recommend the experience to others; it was great.
It is goofy, but you can use XP home's remote administration tool without knowing the IP address, if you connect using MSN messenger, and the request is generated from your father's side.
Inside MSN messenger there is an option for "Ask for remote assistance." Doing it this way works even if he is behind NAT or doesn't have a publicly accessible ip address.
Slashdot Mirror
What is wrong with LGPL?
For a statically-linked proprietary C++ application? Everything. You have to allow the user to re-link against a different version of the library, which basically means distributing object files for each of your source files. It's terrible.
For things like java that always link libraries dynamically, it's fine. If the library you are linking against is a dll or shared object, it's fine. Otherwise, it's terribly annoying.
My example: I was developing a homebrew game for Gameboy Advance. In that case, everything gets linked into one single rom image. The music library I considered using was LGPL. If I had used it, I would have had to distribute object files for my whole game, instead of simply distributing the rom image. So that library got disqualified because of the LGPL license.
Do you also avoid driving because there are billboards? Never look at magazines? (or do you close your eyes and rip out the ads?)
I agree that obnoxious advertising is just that: obnoxious. But why all the hate of all forms of advertising?
Me, I'm all for advertising. I figure it's a tax on people who buy name-brand products and go see the newest movies. I'll keep buying my generic soda, but I don't mind if Coke drinkers help pay for the radio station I want to listen to.
The funny thing is I wasn't that impressed with MythTV. Sure it had a lot of functionality, but the user interface wasn't very good, and it broke down regularly.
First it was that the database got corrupted and shows wouldn't fast forward properly. Then it was that one of the channels mysteriously couldn't record sound (although it could with other apps on my system). Then it was something after that. It seems like I was messing with the configuration every 3 or 4 months.
Sadly (as I liked the idea of a free Linux-based solution) I switched to Beyond TV on windows, and now everything just works.
Yes, I was hoping someone would mention that game. Creepiest/scariest game I've ever played.
There's nothing in the announcement that states they're disallowing spawning. Nor is there anything to suggest you won't be allowed to play with others on the same LAN
Thank you for being one of the few sane people on this thread. I can't believe the amount of blah blah blah about this. Sure, it sucks a little. But it's not like you CAN'T play with people on your LAN. It's just that you have to have an internet connection to set up the game.
Who really beat Contra without the code?
It wasn't really that hard, actually. A decent gamer should be able to beat the original contra without dying.
According to the wikipedia article about this game, it has less emphasis on "skill and strategy." I got my beta key a couple months ago and found that to be true.
Most battles in the game turned into little more than a painfully slow circle strafe duel. Even if you hid and got a first surprise attack in, the default weapons are so weak that the surprise attack helps very little -- your opponent will turn around, find you, start shooting you back, and you'll stand there for awhile shooting each other hoping that the other guy dies first.
For FPS games, fast twitch games are fun -- where your characters move fast and dodge quickly. Those games are all about timing, twitch, dodging, and aim. I also like some slower-paced games, where you carefully move in, sneak around, and kill your enemies before they know where you are. Those are fun because it's all about stealth and getting the first shot.
Unfortunately, Battlefield heroes is slow, but the weapons are so underpowered that stealth doesn't matter much. So somehow it sits in the middle -- slow, but not strategic. I found it, overall, to be rather dull -- I _like_ skill and strategy.
Instead, it seems they are putting the emphasis on buying/earning powerups. You can buy additional gear using real-world money, or by earning money in-game. Of course, by doing so, you only unlock the gear for a limited amount of time, which makes it seems a lot less worthwhile.
So if you want to play a first-person shooter that is slow, de-emphasizes skill and strategy, and instead emphasizes buying the best powerups, then this is the game for you. It's not for me.
i would rather take a slower speed with no cap then a super fast speed and 250gb month cap. what is the point of say 20mbit download if you can only avg 8gb a day, and max speed dl speed that is only 1 hour and its used up.
I, on the other hand, would rather have a faster speed and a cap. I don't download much stuff from home -- some email, some light web browsing. When I do, I want it to be fast. If I'm not planning on BTing a bunch of stuff, or watching tons of online video, then why sacrifice speed for a cap that I'll never hit?
Although the mighty mouse isn't REALLY a 2-button mouse -- it's a one-button mouse with a weird touch sensor that detects where your fingers are when you click, and tries to guess whether it should send a left-click or a right-click signal.
Don't believe me? Rest your index finger in the left-click position on the mighty mouse and try right-clicking. Good luck.
Interesting that its not hatred itself that you want to get rid of (you seem happy to hate people), but beliefs that give other people comfort that you refuse to accept.
I, on the other hand, would prefer a world without hate to a world without faith.
Wow, I wish I had mod points. Well said.
LGPL is fine for java and other languages that don't statically link things. It's almost as bad as the GPL for things like C.
One of the clauses of the LGPL is that you have to make it possible to relink your application with a different version of the LGPL'd library. So in C, this means you have to provide object files that users can re-link against. Which starts to make it look a lot less appealing.
Too often it issues a standard click instead of a right-click, even though I'm pushing to the right of the scroll wheel. Guess I'm not pushing it far enough to the right of the scroll wheel...and that's just asinine.
No, but the truth is even worse. I had the same problems as you and so did a little research to figure out why my mighty mouse wouldn't right-click properly. The truth is that it doesn't matter where you push it -- instead, it has a touch sensor where your left finger should go, and if your left finger is touching the mouse, then clicks count as left clicks. If your left finger isn't touching it, they count as right-clicks. So if you're like me, and tend to rest your left finger on the mouse while you right-click, then you're not going to have much luck with the mighty mouse.
To make it even worse, it's a known problem that when your batteries are running low in them, the touch sensor gets less accurate, so it starts registering clicks improperly. (right vs left).
I'm generally not a regular mac user, so this stupid mouse really makes me wonder about Apple, and how everyone says they have such well-designed products. If this thing is typical of the wonderful Apple design, then I just don't get it.
Sigh. Let's all yell and shout instead of reading and using our brains. The article was a worthless blog post referring to a real article. The real article explains further. Looking at your list, you COULD run all of those things:
1. Windows Explorer -- this doesn't count againt your 3
2. (web browser of choice)
3. Java VM
4. Anti-Virus -- antivirus programs generally don't count against your limit either
5. IM
And this is why I changed back to windows. I used windows for 2 years on my fast dual-core, 4gb machine. It sped along. I switched to ubuntu with gnome. It CRAWLED. Opening nautilus took a few seconds each time. Unacceptable.
So I played with other "lightweight" file browsers -- thunar and such. They were nice and snappy, but were missing useful features that I had in nautilus and windows -- network file browsing, proper drag/drop support, etc.
So I switched back to windows. It's a shame.
Most importantly their is a decent working vim-like editor plugin (jVi), and yes this is a killer feature.
I agree entirely (the killer feature). I use eclipse, because our product is built up of eclipse plugins. But I completely hated it until I convinced the boss to buy me a copy of viPlugin for eclipse. Unfortunately, it's not free, is quite buggy, and doesn't implement all the vi features I'd want. But it was the difference between hating Eclipse and being generally happy with it.
Wow, that's EXACTLY why I don't use linux! You just hit the nail on the head!
I agree, I was hoping for a list of quality games. Here's some of my favorites for GBA and DS:
GBA:
DS:
Now I just need to see if I can find my list of quality homebrew NES and Dreamcast games....
When VCRs first came out, buying a movie on videotape cost what? $50? $60? It took Hollywood years to learn that they made a lot more money selling a very large number of movies at $20 apiece than they made selling a small number of movies at $50 each. One has to wonder why it's taking the game industry so long to learn the same lesson.
While I don't necessarily disagree, there a number of factors that make this case at least slightly different. First, movies tend to have a broader appeal then most video games do. Second, the number of hours of entertainment provided from each one -- with games, I won't buy a new one until I'm done or mostly done with the first (yes, some people are different, but I'm an example). I'm just not going to buy hundreds of games because I will never play them all. But movies only last 2 hours -- I will buy more DVDs because I WILL likely watch them all.
So it's possible (I'm not saying it's necessarily true) that DVDs have the potential for more sales than games, independent of the price. This may or may not really be the case, but it should be enough to make it obvious that the economics of game sales are not exactly like the economics of DVD/VHS sales, and shouldn't be treated as EXACTLY the same.
They're about networking, social skills, and shameless self-promotion.
People like me, and I suspect most geeks on slashdot, want to be judged on our merits, but the fact is in most cases we won't be. So yes, nice engineers do finish last.
Two things:
1. Networking and social skills ARE merits to be judged by. Your social skills directly impact how effective you will be at your job. If I was hiring a programmer, the two most important things I'd look for are programming ability and social/communication skills.
2. I'm your standard "nice guy" who just does his job. I guess I'm decent at what I do -- I write code (I'm not an amazing uber-programmaer, but not bad -- I keep impressing my bosses everywhere I go, so I guess I'm good enough?). I don't play political games, don't do much self-promotion. I just be friendly and do my job. And every job I've been in, my managers have looked out for me, and worked hard to keep me around and happy.
So sure, there are dumb jerk managers out there. But it's not the rule -- plenty of managers recognize talent and do a good job of keeping productive workers happy. There's a general cynicism here on slashdot that says the opposite is true. I'm still not sure whether it's coming from antisocial difficult-to-work-with techies who are bitter that people don't like them, or whether all the people with bad managers are the only ones talking. But I do know that it's not my experience.
But which handheld platform marketed in the United States should homebrewers who live in the United States be developing for instead?
Alas, there isn't one.
People here will help you solve the problem you mentioned, and most problems are eventually solvable, (and caused by either "doing it wrong" or by having unsupported or weird hardware), but your experience is similar to mine. I've used Linux off and on for 10 years now, installing it on probably 15 different machines. And it seems like I'm always in the group of problems that "don't count." Hardware that doesn't work. Installations that mostly work, but are goofy in some way. Desiring features that "most people" don't need.
I have no beef against linux overall, but that seems to be the way of it -- you'll often have some problem with something not working right.
There was one of the Ace Combat games (ace combat 4 I believe) where all the cutscenes were telling the story of a boy in a town, and this war hero that he idolized. It was confusing, because it had nothing to do with the missions you were playing. Until near the end, where you found out that that war hero was your main opponent. It was very interesting, and very well done. I actually felt bad as I shot the guy's plane down.
I did this...went to China to work for an outsourcing company for 2 years. It was a great experience! I got to learn about the Chinese way of business, as well as the whole language/culture. It's amazing how culture effects how you do business, and it was extremely interesting to throw yourself into the middle of that and learn by doing.
Working for a software company paid peanuts by US standards, but was a fairly good income there, so we got to live in a beautiful modern apartment complex, and didn't feel financial burdens. I'd highly recommend the experience to others; it was great.
Because part of the fun is developing on a platform that has users. Does anybody actually buy things like the Pandora other than homebrew developers?
It is goofy, but you can use XP home's remote administration tool without knowing the IP address, if you connect using MSN messenger, and the request is generated from your father's side.
Inside MSN messenger there is an option for "Ask for remote assistance." Doing it this way works even if he is behind NAT or doesn't have a publicly accessible ip address.