This is quite true, and in my experience as a (former) game developer, this is one of the huge problems that EA and many other studios have. Most of the projects I worked on went like this...
Stage 1:
Coding begins with only a loose design, few or no detailed specifications, and an unrealistic initial schedule with a rigid end date (the game must be on the shelves for the Christmas shopping season). During this period of blissful ignorance, the team works 40-45 hour weeks. Stage 2:
As development continues, design flaws become apparent, often after they are coded. The publisher asks for changes, then the designers do "a little tweaking" which requires major changes to the code. Now the project is six months out and the team is working 60 hours a week. Stage 3:
A few months before delivery, heavy testing begins and defects are found. To fix the defects and stay on schedule, the developers ratchet up to 80-90 hour weeks. Tired programmers are now making stupid mistakes and creating two new defects for each one they fix. Stage 4:
It's the final crunch before the gold master has to be at the duplicator. The exhausted team is working 16-20 hour shifts every day. If the game is a PC title, generally whatever release is available at the due date will be dubbed the "gold master" as long as all the major bugs are gone; minor problems can be fixed with a post-release patch. If it's a console title, you have more stringent QA, including a detailed checklist that the console manufacturer requires you to pass before a game will be released. Of course, this means even more hours for the developers to work.
I believe most game producers and designers know nothing about software development processes, and many game programmers are young and have not experienced the benefits of applying a process to a complex development project. They don't realize that a few weeks of detailed design work early on can save a few months of rewriting code on the backend.
In my last game project before leaving the business, I was the lead programmer on a four-platform title that was expected to ship in 12 months. I tried to introduce a process with some success, but ultimately, management simply decided to follow the process only when it was convenient for them, and things fell apart. The PC version shipped a month late, I quit, PS2 shipped about three months late, and the XBOX and GC versions were taken by the publisher and handed off to another developer for completion.
Now I work for a government contractor. Though I miss the "fun factor" of working on games, I get better money and I get time with my wife and kids as I rarely work more than 40 hours a week.
Trader Joe's is a fantastic chain. I used to get almost all of my groceries there when I lived in California. No club card is needed, their store brand products are consistently excellent, their prices are outstanding for the quality of products that you get, and they treat (and pay) their employees well. Now that my wife and I live in Florida (and the nearest TJ's is several hundred miles away), we make a point to go to TJ's when we can and have our visiting relatives shop there for us as "payment" for vacation room & board. There are some products you simply can't get anywhere else.
And to keep it on-topic: At my local Winn-Dixie, I do not have a club card. So when I tell them I don't have one, the cashier usually just pulls a new one off the counter and scans it for me. Club card prices; no personal info given out.
I catch the sarcasm here, but you're making a REALLY good point. The biggest single problem with the PATRIOT Act is that we have almost no way of knowing when or if our government is abusing it. Because of the gag provisions riddled through the law, your librarian could get arrested for telling you that the FBI stopped by and asked for a list of books you have read recently.
The judicial subpoena system is a good balance of investigative power and accountability by law enforcement, and "investigation of terrorism" is no justification for bypassing this proven system.
AOL free trial CDs are a lot of fun to nuke. Put them in the microwave oven for 1-2 seconds, the foil inside the disc will spark and separate into a pleasing, unique pattern. You will also get a faint whiff of melting plastic when you open the oven. (Disclaimer: This will work with any CD, it's just more fun to do it at the expense of AOL.)
I believe this is a quick & easy way to almost completely destroy the contents of a CD. IANADRS (I am not a data recovery specialist), but I think it would be nearly impossible to recover any data from a CD destroyed in such a manner.
TJ Dawe is consistently one of the better directors/performers at the Orlando Fringe, where I saw One Man Star Wars and Tired Cliches a couple of months ago.
I am something of a Star Wars geek, while my wife has seen the movies (and that's it). We both laughed ourselves silly at One Man Star Wars.
I tell you, parents in the US love overbearing legislation, cause it means that someone else can be blamed for their failures as parents.
As both an American parent and a card-carrying member of the ACLU, I definitely do not love "overbearing legislation," and I resent the implication that I do. I was opposed to COPA when it passed, and I am opposed to it now. It is every parent's responsibility to monitor (as best they can) what their kids see and do. Tools are available to help us do this. It is just as important, though, that our constitutional right to free speech be protected, even if this free speech is considered by others to be objectionable. I'm sure that under such a system, sooner or later a minor will see a picture of two people having sex on the Internet. I saw a few of these as a child and (I think) I wasn't scarred too badly.
Much like our criminal justice system prefers releasing a guilty man over imprisoning an innocent one, this system should preserve the rights of parents AND all US citizens at the cost of making parents work a little harder to keep objectionable material out of their kids' hands.
I don't think it's always laziness. Sometimes you just have so many accounts that you use regularly, it is nearly impossible to remember a unique password for each.
Personally, I have about 4 passwords that I use across some 20-odd accounts (work, home, online bill payments, online bank account, nerd news web sites, etc. etc.). The only way to maintain unique passwords for each of these accounts and change them regularly would be to record all of this information in a single location (like an encrypted text file) - something I don't like to do.
Instead, I have different passwords which I use based on my trust of the system and how important that account is to me. For systems that contain financial or other sensitive info, I use passwords that are harder to remember but also harder to guess. For less important things, I have easier to remember (and thus easier to guess) passwords that I use - the logic being that if someone guesses one of those, my personal loss wouldn't be that big a deal. Finally, I have one more password that I use for systems I don't trust, and I could give a flip if anyone ever figures that one out.
Of course, I would never give any of them away, even for a free pen.
Slashdot Mirror
Stage 1: Coding begins with only a loose design, few or no detailed specifications, and an unrealistic initial schedule with a rigid end date (the game must be on the shelves for the Christmas shopping season). During this period of blissful ignorance, the team works 40-45 hour weeks.
Stage 2: As development continues, design flaws become apparent, often after they are coded. The publisher asks for changes, then the designers do "a little tweaking" which requires major changes to the code. Now the project is six months out and the team is working 60 hours a week.
Stage 3: A few months before delivery, heavy testing begins and defects are found. To fix the defects and stay on schedule, the developers ratchet up to 80-90 hour weeks. Tired programmers are now making stupid mistakes and creating two new defects for each one they fix.
Stage 4: It's the final crunch before the gold master has to be at the duplicator. The exhausted team is working 16-20 hour shifts every day. If the game is a PC title, generally whatever release is available at the due date will be dubbed the "gold master" as long as all the major bugs are gone; minor problems can be fixed with a post-release patch. If it's a console title, you have more stringent QA, including a detailed checklist that the console manufacturer requires you to pass before a game will be released. Of course, this means even more hours for the developers to work.
I believe most game producers and designers know nothing about software development processes, and many game programmers are young and have not experienced the benefits of applying a process to a complex development project. They don't realize that a few weeks of detailed design work early on can save a few months of rewriting code on the backend.
In my last game project before leaving the business, I was the lead programmer on a four-platform title that was expected to ship in 12 months. I tried to introduce a process with some success, but ultimately, management simply decided to follow the process only when it was convenient for them, and things fell apart. The PC version shipped a month late, I quit, PS2 shipped about three months late, and the XBOX and GC versions were taken by the publisher and handed off to another developer for completion.
Now I work for a government contractor. Though I miss the "fun factor" of working on games, I get better money and I get time with my wife and kids as I rarely work more than 40 hours a week.
And to keep it on-topic: At my local Winn-Dixie, I do not have a club card. So when I tell them I don't have one, the cashier usually just pulls a new one off the counter and scans it for me. Club card prices; no personal info given out.
The judicial subpoena system is a good balance of investigative power and accountability by law enforcement, and "investigation of terrorism" is no justification for bypassing this proven system.
I believe this is a quick & easy way to almost completely destroy the contents of a CD. IANADRS (I am not a data recovery specialist), but I think it would be nearly impossible to recover any data from a CD destroyed in such a manner.
I am something of a Star Wars geek, while my wife has seen the movies (and that's it). We both laughed ourselves silly at One Man Star Wars.
Much like our criminal justice system prefers releasing a guilty man over imprisoning an innocent one, this system should preserve the rights of parents AND all US citizens at the cost of making parents work a little harder to keep objectionable material out of their kids' hands.
Personally, I have about 4 passwords that I use across some 20-odd accounts (work, home, online bill payments, online bank account, nerd news web sites, etc. etc.). The only way to maintain unique passwords for each of these accounts and change them regularly would be to record all of this information in a single location (like an encrypted text file) - something I don't like to do.
Instead, I have different passwords which I use based on my trust of the system and how important that account is to me. For systems that contain financial or other sensitive info, I use passwords that are harder to remember but also harder to guess. For less important things, I have easier to remember (and thus easier to guess) passwords that I use - the logic being that if someone guesses one of those, my personal loss wouldn't be that big a deal. Finally, I have one more password that I use for systems I don't trust, and I could give a flip if anyone ever figures that one out.
Of course, I would never give any of them away, even for a free pen.
Schmendr1ck