There are always going to be two kinds of developers:
The developers who are creative and try to build new, interesting games every time in the interest of having fun and helping others have fun.
And the developers who are in an 'arms race' to make the most flashy eye candy possible in the name of capturing market share.
Gosh, wonder where EA fits in? I have a lot of respect for the way Shiny produced a decade of great games. As did Microprose. Blizzard is arguably doing the same thing now. Nintendo has spent a decade being a developer of quality.
EA, well, they're a good distributor. Sometimes........... erm. No. Never mind. Their games have gotten better implemented recently, but I've never played a groundbreaking EA game. So yeah, since they're just racing the competition to build the best game within the lines given to them, it's going to be expensive. And I have zero pity on them for high dev costs; that's the segment of the market they are going after...
If there's anything about America I have faith in, it's the ability of the financial system to perpetuate itself. The only thing that could possibly drag it down (short term) at this point would be Microsoft going rogue and having a back door into everything they used to rip the entire system apart...
Fortunately/unfortunately enough, I don't think they're organizationally capable of this.
Might not happen or might not be profitable? There's a difference. If you're a major multinational corporation, sometimes- out of habit- you spend a few billion dollars. Amusing and sad at the same time.
Over the last fifty years the incredible level of inefficiency has increasingly been a big part of the reason for the lack of debate. A big part of the reason American government seems so immutable is because it's close to impossible for people to get anything done once they are in the system. Beyond, of course, business as usual with extremely minor modifications.
What do you want out of your government? A giant spending machine that regularly screws over its entire populace at the expense of extremely small minorities, to the point where noone benefits? This is supposedly a democracy, and given effective leadership government should benefit all involved as much as possible with the least cost possible. I feel that this would be a result of efficiency and open dealings rather than what I have seen recently. If you think differently you're welcome to vote too.
I just wish you wouldn't spew such negative crud to relate to your fellow citizens. It means the ones that have something to lose and a bit of a conscience refuse to stand up and do what they think is right.
Good government is reasonable and thinks and debates until it's time to do something, then goes out and does it. "Inefficiency" and "Debate" are two completely different things, and equating them is like equating "debating the war in Iraq" with "not supporting our troops..." They are two completely different things that look somewhat alike to the unaware observer. I guess the real problem with our government is the people it has come to represent. Let me put it this way:
The seventh most visited site in the US is run by less than 50 people.
If that isn't a small number of people doing something beneficial for an extremely large number, I don't know what is. That's what I want out of government - run the water, run the electricity, run the courts system so it's fair, provide a social safety net, create an armed force that can defend our interests at home as effectively as necessary as cheaply as possible, push the economy to a high rate of growth, etc. And do it with as small a portion of the population and the population's resources as possible. The way our government is run now is completely purpose-less and the majority of it is done out of either sheer habit or the self-interest of politicians.
Maybe twenty years ago. Now I'm more behind Craig Newmark for president. If our government ran a fifth as efficient as his website does, I'd be ten times as happy as I am now with it.
Part of the reason for the difference is also that Microsoft has a virtual monopoly on support contracts for their own software. Sure, there's lots of help out there, but generally if politicians buy M$ software they assume they're going to get some M$ support. This is directly opposite in standing from Linux; there's so much in common between the various distros that basic support can be cross trained. Resultingly, there is a much more competitive market, and the support acquired per dollar is probably much higher quality.
I remember times when people I worked with have been paying hundreds of dollars for sets calls to M$ on the same topic where they didn't get the answer they needed. In a truly competitive market that just wouldn't fly.
My stepbrother is 18 and an extremely casual gamer. Perfect target market. I'm 27 and a former addictive gamer. We both want a Wii more than the other options, and he's already got one. He loves the thing. I'm picking the Wii as a winner.
Wouldn't that also defeat the purpose of the whole promotion though? I mean, if you're giving away a hundred x-boxes to drag as many people as possible to your site, and all you get out of them is 100 xBox sales, you've lost cash. It's the continued shopping that you're hoping for....
Not considering what O'Reilly is saying is not foolish. His well, in an argumentative sense, is poisoned. As in, "Killed Entire Cultures," poisoned. He is not rational, therefore paying heed to his advice is extraneous.
I wish he were a hardcore gamer so I could both blow him up AND not have to exist in a world where his drivel was mass-distributed.
It's the most difficult and expensive hobby I have ever had. However, I find it the most rewarding, as well.
I have to openly state that as a person who wishes to get to the point where I can break even, I'm not a good guy to ask about it. The market's getting flooded, operation costs are high and getting higher, and the time it will take you to acquire experience will be prohibitively rough on your bank account. But then, if you try it and can take the high temperatures, I'm sure you'd enjoy it.
There are some electronics manufactured in the states. EX: Apcon and Intel both have some kind of manufacturing 'plants' (apcon's not so big, really) in the Portland Metro area. Just because the majority of it is done elsewhere does not mean none of it is done here.
The coolest thing (despite my dislike for other portions of the tech, I do like some of it....) about my RAZR is that when I hit the button on the side and say, "Call Dad Cell Home" (yeah, it's not quite perfect) it asks me whether it's got the right result and then dials the goober. Same with any number of others. It even gets my friend Octavius' name right about half the time. Speaking of impressive.
Yes, I will buy an iPhone, but that's just because I want to be cool. And the Motorola isn't as reliable as I'd like. (go ahead, agree with people that think glassblowing with it in my back pocket is unkind treatment... Plus, the whole "Verizon doesn't want you to add music you pull out of your MP3 library as a ringtone, so we disabled that" thing makes me grumpy)
I love the 'quasi socialism' rants. They're just great. Hey, why don't you go ask the average person in a laissez-faire economy whether they're better off than someone in, say, Finland.... Greed is a fine thing in some ways, but saying that it's a great idea to build a stratified economy based upon the luck of the born is just silly.
If I'm paying for pirating music before I do so, it's now ethical for me to pirate however much music I want.
The amusing thing here is that the 'prepaid pirating fee' doesn't go anywhere near the artists. Ever. It's just an inter-company corporate bribe. Between monopolistic organisations. Man, can't you feel that capitalistic efficiency?
Nothing's stopping you from going down to the bookstore and buying the textbooks once a term, reading them, and then eventually saying you are a particle physicist. You may even be a particle physicist. However, you're just a crackpot until you publish a peer-reviewed paper. Which will be hard to do. The difference is that it's a lot easier to become a programmer because programming jobs are much easier to come by. And publishing a website / program is a lot easier to do than a peer-reviewed paper.
Some of the people putting together Myspace pages might even be considered programmers. Not, of course, the majority of them, but some.
Slashdot Mirror
There are always going to be two kinds of developers:
The developers who are creative and try to build new, interesting games every time in the interest of having fun and helping others have fun.
And the developers who are in an 'arms race' to make the most flashy eye candy possible in the name of capturing market share.
Gosh, wonder where EA fits in? I have a lot of respect for the way Shiny produced a decade of great games. As did Microprose. Blizzard is arguably doing the same thing now. Nintendo has spent a decade being a developer of quality.
EA, well, they're a good distributor. Sometimes........... erm. No. Never mind. Their games have gotten better implemented recently, but I've never played a groundbreaking EA game. So yeah, since they're just racing the competition to build the best game within the lines given to them, it's going to be expensive. And I have zero pity on them for high dev costs; that's the segment of the market they are going after...
No, but just because it isn't a law doesn't mean it's not wrong.
Even for Republicans.
If there's anything about America I have faith in, it's the ability of the financial system to perpetuate itself. The only thing that could possibly drag it down (short term) at this point would be Microsoft going rogue and having a back door into everything they used to rip the entire system apart...
/unfortunately enough, I don't think they're organizationally capable of this.
Fortunately
I bet that pen drive is against regulations as well....
Might not happen or might not be profitable? There's a difference. If you're a major multinational corporation, sometimes- out of habit- you spend a few billion dollars. Amusing and sad at the same time.
Seconded. Even I know he doesn't know what he's talking about. And he's never touched VBScript, if he's lauding how wonderful MS languages are.
Over the last fifty years the incredible level of inefficiency has increasingly been a big part of the reason for the lack of debate. A big part of the reason American government seems so immutable is because it's close to impossible for people to get anything done once they are in the system. Beyond, of course, business as usual with extremely minor modifications.
What do you want out of your government? A giant spending machine that regularly screws over its entire populace at the expense of extremely small minorities, to the point where noone benefits? This is supposedly a democracy, and given effective leadership government should benefit all involved as much as possible with the least cost possible. I feel that this would be a result of efficiency and open dealings rather than what I have seen recently. If you think differently you're welcome to vote too.
I just wish you wouldn't spew such negative crud to relate to your fellow citizens. It means the ones that have something to lose and a bit of a conscience refuse to stand up and do what they think is right.
Um.....
No.
Good government is reasonable and thinks and debates until it's time to do something, then goes out and does it. "Inefficiency" and "Debate" are two completely different things, and equating them is like equating "debating the war in Iraq" with "not supporting our troops..." They are two completely different things that look somewhat alike to the unaware observer. I guess the real problem with our government is the people it has come to represent. Let me put it this way:
The seventh most visited site in the US is run by less than 50 people.
If that isn't a small number of people doing something beneficial for an extremely large number, I don't know what is. That's what I want out of government - run the water, run the electricity, run the courts system so it's fair, provide a social safety net, create an armed force that can defend our interests at home as effectively as necessary as cheaply as possible, push the economy to a high rate of growth, etc. And do it with as small a portion of the population and the population's resources as possible. The way our government is run now is completely purpose-less and the majority of it is done out of either sheer habit or the self-interest of politicians.
Maybe twenty years ago. Now I'm more behind Craig Newmark for president. If our government ran a fifth as efficient as his website does, I'd be ten times as happy as I am now with it.
Part of the reason for the difference is also that Microsoft has a virtual monopoly on support contracts for their own software. Sure, there's lots of help out there, but generally if politicians buy M$ software they assume they're going to get some M$ support. This is directly opposite in standing from Linux; there's so much in common between the various distros that basic support can be cross trained. Resultingly, there is a much more competitive market, and the support acquired per dollar is probably much higher quality.
I remember times when people I worked with have been paying hundreds of dollars for sets calls to M$ on the same topic where they didn't get the answer they needed. In a truly competitive market that just wouldn't fly.
My stepbrother is 18 and an extremely casual gamer. Perfect target market. I'm 27 and a former addictive gamer. We both want a Wii more than the other options, and he's already got one. He loves the thing. I'm picking the Wii as a winner.
Wouldn't that also defeat the purpose of the whole promotion though? I mean, if you're giving away a hundred x-boxes to drag as many people as possible to your site, and all you get out of them is 100 xBox sales, you've lost cash. It's the continued shopping that you're hoping for....
Um.
Not considering what O'Reilly is saying is not foolish. His well, in an argumentative sense, is poisoned. As in, "Killed Entire Cultures," poisoned. He is not rational, therefore paying heed to his advice is extraneous.
I wish he were a hardcore gamer so I could both blow him up AND not have to exist in a world where his drivel was mass-distributed.
:)
I like to get some validation. I'm really into it at this point, and hope to keep doing it for a long time.
It's the most difficult and expensive hobby I have ever had. However, I find it the most rewarding, as well.
I have to openly state that as a person who wishes to get to the point where I can break even, I'm not a good guy to ask about it. The market's getting flooded, operation costs are high and getting higher, and the time it will take you to acquire experience will be prohibitively rough on your bank account. But then, if you try it and can take the high temperatures, I'm sure you'd enjoy it.
It's all crap so far. However, if you're really that interested, This is the flickr account I made in ten minutes of browsing my photos folder on my HD.
There are some electronics manufactured in the states. EX: Apcon and Intel both have some kind of manufacturing 'plants' (apcon's not so big, really) in the Portland Metro area. Just because the majority of it is done elsewhere does not mean none of it is done here.
The coolest thing (despite my dislike for other portions of the tech, I do like some of it....) about my RAZR is that when I hit the button on the side and say, "Call Dad Cell Home" (yeah, it's not quite perfect) it asks me whether it's got the right result and then dials the goober. Same with any number of others. It even gets my friend Octavius' name right about half the time. Speaking of impressive.
Yes, I will buy an iPhone, but that's just because I want to be cool. And the Motorola isn't as reliable as I'd like. (go ahead, agree with people that think glassblowing with it in my back pocket is unkind treatment... Plus, the whole "Verizon doesn't want you to add music you pull out of your MP3 library as a ringtone, so we disabled that" thing makes me grumpy)
Logic is by its very nature an abstraction of reality, so from a certain viewpoint any time you apply logic it is illogical to do so.
Yes, I majored in Philosophy. It made me a much better programmer. This isn't saying much, but there you go.
Better than some of mine, actually. At least you're giving it a shot.
Yeah, but does it run...
Blu-Ray?
I love the 'quasi socialism' rants. They're just great. Hey, why don't you go ask the average person in a laissez-faire economy whether they're better off than someone in, say, Finland.... Greed is a fine thing in some ways, but saying that it's a great idea to build a stratified economy based upon the luck of the born is just silly.
If I'm paying for pirating music before I do so, it's now ethical for me to pirate however much music I want.
The amusing thing here is that the 'prepaid pirating fee' doesn't go anywhere near the artists. Ever. It's just an inter-company corporate bribe. Between monopolistic organisations. Man, can't you feel that capitalistic efficiency?
Nothing's stopping you from going down to the bookstore and buying the textbooks once a term, reading them, and then eventually saying you are a particle physicist. You may even be a particle physicist. However, you're just a crackpot until you publish a peer-reviewed paper. Which will be hard to do. The difference is that it's a lot easier to become a programmer because programming jobs are much easier to come by. And publishing a website / program is a lot easier to do than a peer-reviewed paper.
Some of the people putting together Myspace pages might even be considered programmers. Not, of course, the majority of them, but some.