"Put bluntly, if I were PM I'd either shut down or ignore such petition sites and try and arrange a decent forum (slashcode based?) for online debate instead."
Wow, that'd be great, a government voting site with a dozen "Step 1... Step 2... Step 3, Profit!" and "In Soviet Russian..." jokes moderated +5 Funny.
I know I'm going to be slammed here for saying this but I think Digg would be a better design, least it let's everyone who agrees or disagrees with a individual posts rank them + or - so everyone gets a say, not just the few people that happen to have mod points that day.
"Don't be shocked as the tyrants find more ways to increase their power of tyranny. "
I'll probably be moderated down for this (burn karma burn) but after reading your rant (which I agree with) and reading about this cop killer who calls himself a 'chaotic patriot', I'm beginning to see why he calls himself that. Not saying what he did was right but what are we suppose to do? I can see how someone would believe they have no choice.
When I was reading through this article that was my thought too, that the author was nuts, but he's got a point. I'm no longer as excited about the Wii as I was in November/December when it was first introduced, when it was still brand new and cool. The commercials aren't on TV anymore, and even if i got one today and told my friend's I'd probably get responses like "So? My step brother's uncle's son had one 4 months ago, big deal".
The luster has diminished somewhat, I still want one but the strong desire isn't there anymore, it's like the 50th time sleeping with a girl compared to the 1st time, you still want it just not as much.
Wii does have one huge advantage: it's hardware is the cheapest of all the new consoles so they can drop their price the furthest. I wouldn't be surprised if they offer a "gamer's pack" someday including a Wii, two wiimotes, two nunchucks and Wii sports for $199 and we eventually see stripped consoles for under $150.
exactly, so why was this a final project for a PhD student? I seem to recall final projects to be rather complicated and inventive, looking at what he created seems to be very easy almost childish. A 12-yr-old doing this and I'd be interested, but an adult?
"Not really - the range on RFID chips is pretty small, you'd have to have readers installed everywhere"
Shhh!!! This is just a great excuse for us geeks to tell some girl trying to hide out that she should strip down and get in my shower for a full body scrub down!;)
I can so see that happening in the next great futuristic thriller suspense movie like Minority Report.
"Instead of paying $20 for a whole album where I only want select tunes, I'll use P2P. Then pops up itunes, which last I checked WAS MAKING A LOT OF MONEY. Maybe the studios should take a hint. Just because an artist slings together a couple good tracks doesn't mean you can cram with it 50 mins of filler and call it an album."
Exactly. RIAA needs to just shutup and deal more with iTunes.
Same with the movie studios. Hollywood will be fine, we'll always be willing to pay something to see our favorite actor in the newest movie, but the movie theaters are screwed. They're really the ones missing out. Hollywood will eventually have to move everything to a direct-download format if they plan on competing, but I think they'll actually make more money this way: which would you rather do, press "play now" and watch the latest movie for $5-$10, or get in your car, fight the crowds, pay $7 a ticket and $10 for popcorn and hear babies cry and teenagers shout vulgarity at the movie screen?
I think they'd double ticket sales if they allowed everyone to download movies to their DVRs. Those stuck with 25" TVs can still go to theaters, but the rest of us with our $2,000 52" LCDs and Dolby Digital would rather stay home.
Theaters will have to adapt if they want to stick around. My suggestion? Replay some classics. I went to a midnight showing of "The Crow" two years ago at the local theater and it was a blast, they did trivia for prizes and you got to hang out with other fans. Place was pretty full considering you can rent the same movie for a buck down the street and the theater charged full price.
No. Psychonauts was all over TV with flashy commercials and it still didn't sell. It did encourage me to download the game though and but it sucked, I'm glad it wasn't a success.
This will just result in more "Gold" and "Unrated" versions of games. There will be the the Walmart/Gamestop version with puppy dogs and lollipops and the Unrated versions sold by everyone else with hookers and 40s.
"The software justs compares the size of the label with the size of the object you're measuring. I'm not paying $99 for that."
I thought $99 was a little steep to start with, but after seeing your post and reading the website and determining you're right, you have to run up to the object, stick the label on, then run back to where you were to snap the picture. That makes the software darn near worthless, for $99 they could probably make an entire camera with built-in rangefinder to figure out distance from object then it's all trig from there without any stupid sticky labels.
Plus the fact they went with "iPhoto" makes me have serious doubts about the quality of the product. Any comany using i(Blank) for a product besides Apple is a poser trying to leech off Apple's success and 9 times out of 10 the product sucks.
I'm not an attorney and I would have given him the same advice. What shocks me is they came to this conclusion after a whole week of (supposedly) thinking about it:
"...I gave them two weeks notice in writing. They were really upset when I insisted on leaving and one week into my last two weeks the V.P. of Sales told me the company was suing me for leaving"
I could almost seeing some little immature manager getting pissy and going "waaaa, we're gonna sue you!" when you handed him the 2 week notice, but to sit down and think about it for a week and then the V.P. of Sales threatens a lawsuit? Trying to sue a employee for leaving seems so asinine to verge on colossal stupidity, just hearing that completely explains why you quit working there if management is that incredibly foolish.
But I really, really want them to sue you. If I was you I would have waited until getting the lawsuit papers before posting on slashdot. I know you're scared hearing that and what-not, but man would that be the butt of every Jay Leno joke for a week straight or what? It writes itself:
"A man in texas notified his job he was quitting and the company is suing... yes, suing... him for quitting his job. In other news McDonald's filed a lawsuit for a million billion dollars against everyone."
.... ok that wasn't funny but you get the idea. It'd be on every news program and every news paper and you'd get your 15 minutes of fame and they'd look like the asshole company of the year like Enron did.
Hey has anyone tried logging in as "guest" on their live chat and asking them while they're doing this? No? Well I am, gonna have a little fun with them;)
[11:11:55] Christina D : Hello slashdot how may I help you?
[11:12:43] slashdot : heard you guys are suing a employee that quit
[11:12:46] slashdot : why?
[11:12:57] slashdot : are you guys in prison?
[11:13:01] Christina D : We are awear of the issue and we have no comment
agreed, that'd definitely get me over too if the iPhone is as great as I'm hoping it is, but yeah, if I like the iPhone and they're willing to pay the disconnection and phone number transfer fees I'd go with cingular.
Don't you mean: Their current plan of releasing really shitty movies that nobody would want to waste drive space or blank DVDS hasn't worked because they underestimated how desperate people are for new releases.
Bring on the year of the sequel! The Hills Have Eyes 2, National Treasure 2, Saw IV (four?!), Alien vs Predator 2, Austin Powers 4, Daredevil 2, etc, all coming out in 2007
"I don't get your logic. Are you seriously saying that the existing coins should be withdrawn and new ones introduced, with all the hassle that would entail, even though most of the problems would be in withdrawing/replacing coins anyway?"
Um, no, i don't think he's saying that at all, and I don't understand why plastic pennies is difficult for someone to understand. He's saying stop paying 5 cents to make a 1 cent penny, just make future pennies out of plastic. Course we'd still have the old pennies in circulation but don't pay to make anymore, just like they did with coins in the past like the silver nickel
Example: You sell 50 cents worth of ice cream for $1. Every year the price you pay to make ice cream increases, 60 cents next year, 70 cents the following year, but you're still selling the same amount for $1. Eventually you're not making a profit, you're suddenly paying $1.10 for ice cream and selling it for $1! What do you do? Well I'd think it'd make sense to reduce the amount of ice cream you're giving away (i.e. less copper in the pennies?) or make the ice cream with less expensive ingredients (i.e. plastic pennies instead of copper).
"I'm not American..."
Ah! Good! Nice to know we American's aren't the only dimwitted people.
Stupid Question: Did you go back to the recruiter and ask him about the mix-up? You didn't say "I talked to the recruiter and he denied it" so I'm guessing you didn't. This all could be a huge misunderstanding and the recruiter might be able to fix it with a phone call instead of posting on slashdot.
Why? The answer is obvious: processed, fatty foods are cheaper than natural, organic health foods. Potato chips for 99 cents, pizzas for $4-$6 each, generic soda 24 cans for $5, 2-liter soda for 99 cents, McD's Dollar Menu, all you can eat pizza for $4.49. Compare that with the expensive foods at your local Health Food Store, soy milk, free-range eggs, growth-hormone free vegetables, etc. It's expensive to live a healthy lifestyle and the poor can not afford to do so so they're fatter than the rich who can afford $7 per gallon of Soy Milk compared to ~$2.50 for 1 gallon of regular milk.
"Huh? There's been growth in the housing market, but double and triple in value? Not quite."
Depends on your area. I know around here there's several condos and homes that were only 55k in 1999. Now they're appraising at 120k. But that's 8 years, not 6 years like the poster said, but that's not far off.
Cheaper homes and condos go up faster because it's easier to raise from 55 to 120 (only a 65k increase) than, say, 300k to 600k.
OJ didn't kill anyone yet was sued for wrongful death. The radio station is facing a huge wrongful death lawsuit. You can't have someone sign a wavier and then do things that will result in death. "Here, sign this wavier and jump off this building! And if you live, you get a Wii!" The station's lucky they didn't kill any other people with their stunt.
If I was that radio station I'd have a team of lawyers over to the survivor's house ASAP with a nice, small settlement because when this goes to court I'd hate to see the many millions they win.
Actually, I've come to the conclusion that this is impossible, that the backlash from consumers against the iPhone and money lost from 3rd party developers would be too great to not allow 3rd party applications.
I simply can not believe any company would be this stupid in this day and age. It's like coming out with a game system but not allowing 3rd party developers to make games for it. What if the PSP or DS only ran games made by Sony or Nintendo? You'd have what, 5 titles each maybe? How many millions of dollars would they lose?
They're trying to corner the top 1% of gadget geeks, those select few willing to blow $500 on a glorified cellphone. Gadget geeks will not be happy using only the few apps that are included. Apple will be forced to sweeten the pot, and doing means millions of dollars of profit in licensing fees.
I only have this to say: if Apple doesn't allow 3rd party developers on their cellphone than I'm sure either Microsoft or Google will.
"For all practical purposes you can expect no 3rd party apps."
Am I the only one that thinks Apple skipped shooting themselves in the foot and just shot themselves in the head with this one? The iPhone seems ripe with endless 3rd party app possibilities, it's counter-intuitive to not allow developers to create apps for it.
This isn't a iPod where it plays music and plays it well so there's no need for 3rd party apps, this is a convergence device that should have software that takes advantage of all it's functions. After all, what's the point of a fancy menu if you can't add anything to it?
Far as I know the iPhone will be the only $500+ cellphone that's doesn't have 3rd party apps. All the other ones I can recall are PocketPCs or Blackberries that allow 3rd party apps.
I think I speak for everyone when I say: Apple, get a clue, allow 3rd party apps. I'll admit it, I'm part of the 99% that has never bought a $400+ cellphone, but I have a PocketPC, cellphone and iPod and I was considering replacing all three, even my PSP and digital camera would likely get a lot less use depending on photo quality and 3rd party games. But hearing that there's no 3rd party apps is giving me serious reservations to the point that I'd have to say no, I will most likely not pay $500+ for a device knowing I'm locked into using only what few apps that are included.
Anyone else who considered buying a iPhone having second thoughts upon hearing there will be no 3rd party apps?
"Sometimes when 8 usd/hr is mentioned the applicant expects near zero experience to do the job. Five extra minutes of good PR time can help the image of your company/department."
I disagree to some extend. It depends on the applicant. If, like the article said, the applicant "is a danger to any code base" than he either probably already knows how bad he did or if he's truly so dumb to not know then definitely do NOT tell them they screwed up just so the moron can go down the street, pass the interview with his new found knowledge and screw up the next company's projects.
I say to be on the safe side and just say nothing. Let him continue to embarrass himself in interviews. Eventually he'll never get hired and end up in fast food where the only damage he could do is thinking extra pickles means only pickles.
However, if you really like the guy and think he could do well but he just made a little mistake or two, tell him to become more familiar with (insert technical thing he screwed up in interview), but never tell him exactly what he did wrong. Just point him in the right direction.
I'd rather see ApplePhone, honestly. Everyone's stolen the "i" since Apple made it popular. Sure Infogear got the trademark in 96 but Apple is the one that made "i(whatever)" what is it.
But there needs to be some kind of limit. What if McDonald's was a sponsor and complained because a game about the Burger King was a finalist and Burger King wasn't a sponsor? Who really deciding which games win, the sponsors or the judges?
The judges should have told the sponsor that complained that the judges decide which games win, not the sponsors. Of course the sponsors will complain, that's what they're suppose to do, of course they're going to watch out for their own best interests. Shame on you judges!
Now, who wants to submit a 9/11 game where players can hijack a plane and crash it into the towers? Anyone?
"The problem is that people insist that everything be as simple as a toaster"
I don't think that's the case. My biggest problems with software is when the programmer broke from the regular rules of programming. The recent review of Office 2007 on slashdot explains this perfectly: "In Word, Excel and PowerPoint, all of the menus are gone -- every one. None of the familiar toolbars have survived, either. In their place is a wide, tabbed band of icons at the top of the screen called the Ribbon."
No no no... this is very bad. For the last ump-teen years users have gotten use to the familiar toolbars in not only just Office but almost every application. The programs I've had the most problems with are the ones without the traditional drop-down menu interface we've all come to become familiar with. I once had a media player that was some funky oval design without any menu interface at all. It looked cool but it wasn't functional at all.
Slashdot Mirror
"Put bluntly, if I were PM I'd either shut down or ignore such petition sites and try and arrange a decent forum (slashcode based?) for online debate instead."
Wow, that'd be great, a government voting site with a dozen "Step 1... Step 2... Step 3, Profit!" and "In Soviet Russian..." jokes moderated +5 Funny.
I know I'm going to be slammed here for saying this but I think Digg would be a better design, least it let's everyone who agrees or disagrees with a individual posts rank them + or - so everyone gets a say, not just the few people that happen to have mod points that day.
"Don't be shocked as the tyrants find more ways to increase their power of tyranny. "
I'll probably be moderated down for this (burn karma burn) but after reading your rant (which I agree with) and reading about this cop killer who calls himself a 'chaotic patriot', I'm beginning to see why he calls himself that. Not saying what he did was right but what are we suppose to do? I can see how someone would believe they have no choice.
Why do tyrannts abuse their power?
"I'd say the excitement is still there."
When I was reading through this article that was my thought too, that the author was nuts, but he's got a point. I'm no longer as excited about the Wii as I was in November/December when it was first introduced, when it was still brand new and cool. The commercials aren't on TV anymore, and even if i got one today and told my friend's I'd probably get responses like "So? My step brother's uncle's son had one 4 months ago, big deal".
The luster has diminished somewhat, I still want one but the strong desire isn't there anymore, it's like the 50th time sleeping with a girl compared to the 1st time, you still want it just not as much.
Wii does have one huge advantage: it's hardware is the cheapest of all the new consoles so they can drop their price the furthest. I wouldn't be surprised if they offer a "gamer's pack" someday including a Wii, two wiimotes, two nunchucks and Wii sports for $199 and we eventually see stripped consoles for under $150.
"It's called fluidics, and it's decades old."
exactly, so why was this a final project for a PhD student? I seem to recall final projects to be rather complicated and inventive, looking at what he created seems to be very easy almost childish. A 12-yr-old doing this and I'd be interested, but an adult?
"Not really - the range on RFID chips is pretty small, you'd have to have readers installed everywhere"
;)
Shhh!!! This is just a great excuse for us geeks to tell some girl trying to hide out that she should strip down and get in my shower for a full body scrub down!
I can so see that happening in the next great futuristic thriller suspense movie like Minority Report.
"Instead of paying $20 for a whole album where I only want select tunes, I'll use P2P. Then pops up itunes, which last I checked WAS MAKING A LOT OF MONEY. Maybe the studios should take a hint. Just because an artist slings together a couple good tracks doesn't mean you can cram with it 50 mins of filler and call it an album."
Exactly. RIAA needs to just shutup and deal more with iTunes.
Same with the movie studios. Hollywood will be fine, we'll always be willing to pay something to see our favorite actor in the newest movie, but the movie theaters are screwed. They're really the ones missing out. Hollywood will eventually have to move everything to a direct-download format if they plan on competing, but I think they'll actually make more money this way: which would you rather do, press "play now" and watch the latest movie for $5-$10, or get in your car, fight the crowds, pay $7 a ticket and $10 for popcorn and hear babies cry and teenagers shout vulgarity at the movie screen?
I think they'd double ticket sales if they allowed everyone to download movies to their DVRs. Those stuck with 25" TVs can still go to theaters, but the rest of us with our $2,000 52" LCDs and Dolby Digital would rather stay home.
Theaters will have to adapt if they want to stick around. My suggestion? Replay some classics. I went to a midnight showing of "The Crow" two years ago at the local theater and it was a blast, they did trivia for prizes and you got to hang out with other fans. Place was pretty full considering you can rent the same movie for a buck down the street and the theater charged full price.
"Marketing."
No. Psychonauts was all over TV with flashy commercials and it still didn't sell. It did encourage me to download the game though and but it sucked, I'm glad it wasn't a success.
This will just result in more "Gold" and "Unrated" versions of games. There will be the the Walmart/Gamestop version with puppy dogs and lollipops and the Unrated versions sold by everyone else with hookers and 40s.
"The software justs compares the size of the label with the size of the object you're measuring. I'm not paying $99 for that."
I thought $99 was a little steep to start with, but after seeing your post and reading the website and determining you're right, you have to run up to the object, stick the label on, then run back to where you were to snap the picture. That makes the software darn near worthless, for $99 they could probably make an entire camera with built-in rangefinder to figure out distance from object then it's all trig from there without any stupid sticky labels.
Plus the fact they went with "iPhoto" makes me have serious doubts about the quality of the product. Any comany using i(Blank) for a product besides Apple is a poser trying to leech off Apple's success and 9 times out of 10 the product sucks.
I'm not an attorney and I would have given him the same advice. What shocks me is they came to this conclusion after a whole week of (supposedly) thinking about it:
.... ok that wasn't funny but you get the idea. It'd be on every news program and every news paper and you'd get your 15 minutes of fame and they'd look like the asshole company of the year like Enron did.
;)
"...I gave them two weeks notice in writing. They were really upset when I insisted on leaving and one week into my last two weeks the V.P. of Sales told me the company was suing me for leaving"
I could almost seeing some little immature manager getting pissy and going "waaaa, we're gonna sue you!" when you handed him the 2 week notice, but to sit down and think about it for a week and then the V.P. of Sales threatens a lawsuit? Trying to sue a employee for leaving seems so asinine to verge on colossal stupidity, just hearing that completely explains why you quit working there if management is that incredibly foolish.
But I really, really want them to sue you. If I was you I would have waited until getting the lawsuit papers before posting on slashdot. I know you're scared hearing that and what-not, but man would that be the butt of every Jay Leno joke for a week straight or what? It writes itself:
"A man in texas notified his job he was quitting and the company is suing... yes, suing... him for quitting his job. In other news McDonald's filed a lawsuit for a million billion dollars against everyone."
Hey has anyone tried logging in as "guest" on their live chat and asking them while they're doing this? No? Well I am, gonna have a little fun with them
[11:11:55] Christina D : Hello slashdot how may I help you?
[11:12:43] slashdot : heard you guys are suing a employee that quit
[11:12:46] slashdot : why?
[11:12:57] slashdot : are you guys in prison?
[11:13:01] Christina D : We are awear of the issue and we have no comment
"We'll be pining for more of those amazing images until the James Webb launches in 2013. "
I think I can wait...
"That would be really smart. I'd go for that."
agreed, that'd definitely get me over too if the iPhone is as great as I'm hoping it is, but yeah, if I like the iPhone and they're willing to pay the disconnection and phone number transfer fees I'd go with cingular.
Don't you mean: Their current plan of releasing really shitty movies that nobody would want to waste drive space or blank DVDS hasn't worked because they underestimated how desperate people are for new releases.
Bring on the year of the sequel! The Hills Have Eyes 2, National Treasure 2, Saw IV (four?!), Alien vs Predator 2, Austin Powers 4, Daredevil 2, etc, all coming out in 2007
"I don't get your logic. Are you seriously saying that the existing coins should be withdrawn and new ones introduced, with all the hassle that would entail, even though most of the problems would be in withdrawing/replacing coins anyway?"
Um, no, i don't think he's saying that at all, and I don't understand why plastic pennies is difficult for someone to understand. He's saying stop paying 5 cents to make a 1 cent penny, just make future pennies out of plastic. Course we'd still have the old pennies in circulation but don't pay to make anymore, just like they did with coins in the past like the silver nickel
Example: You sell 50 cents worth of ice cream for $1. Every year the price you pay to make ice cream increases, 60 cents next year, 70 cents the following year, but you're still selling the same amount for $1. Eventually you're not making a profit, you're suddenly paying $1.10 for ice cream and selling it for $1! What do you do? Well I'd think it'd make sense to reduce the amount of ice cream you're giving away (i.e. less copper in the pennies?) or make the ice cream with less expensive ingredients (i.e. plastic pennies instead of copper).
"I'm not American..."
Ah! Good! Nice to know we American's aren't the only dimwitted people.
Stupid Question: Did you go back to the recruiter and ask him about the mix-up? You didn't say "I talked to the recruiter and he denied it" so I'm guessing you didn't. This all could be a huge misunderstanding and the recruiter might be able to fix it with a phone call instead of posting on slashdot.
"Maybe, just maybe, the poor can't afford the fat cat lifestyles of suberbia."
Actually, the exact opposite is true: Poor people are fatter than rich people.
Why? The answer is obvious: processed, fatty foods are cheaper than natural, organic health foods. Potato chips for 99 cents, pizzas for $4-$6 each, generic soda 24 cans for $5, 2-liter soda for 99 cents, McD's Dollar Menu, all you can eat pizza for $4.49. Compare that with the expensive foods at your local Health Food Store, soy milk, free-range eggs, growth-hormone free vegetables, etc. It's expensive to live a healthy lifestyle and the poor can not afford to do so so they're fatter than the rich who can afford $7 per gallon of Soy Milk compared to ~$2.50 for 1 gallon of regular milk.
"Huh? There's been growth in the housing market, but double and triple in value? Not quite."
Depends on your area. I know around here there's several condos and homes that were only 55k in 1999. Now they're appraising at 120k. But that's 8 years, not 6 years like the poster said, but that's not far off.
Cheaper homes and condos go up faster because it's easier to raise from 55 to 120 (only a 65k increase) than, say, 300k to 600k.
"They are NOT Negligent..."
OJ didn't kill anyone yet was sued for wrongful death. The radio station is facing a huge wrongful death lawsuit. You can't have someone sign a wavier and then do things that will result in death. "Here, sign this wavier and jump off this building! And if you live, you get a Wii!" The station's lucky they didn't kill any other people with their stunt.
If I was that radio station I'd have a team of lawyers over to the survivor's house ASAP with a nice, small settlement because when this goes to court I'd hate to see the many millions they win.
Actually, I've come to the conclusion that this is impossible, that the backlash from consumers against the iPhone and money lost from 3rd party developers would be too great to not allow 3rd party applications.
I simply can not believe any company would be this stupid in this day and age. It's like coming out with a game system but not allowing 3rd party developers to make games for it. What if the PSP or DS only ran games made by Sony or Nintendo? You'd have what, 5 titles each maybe? How many millions of dollars would they lose?
They're trying to corner the top 1% of gadget geeks, those select few willing to blow $500 on a glorified cellphone. Gadget geeks will not be happy using only the few apps that are included. Apple will be forced to sweeten the pot, and doing means millions of dollars of profit in licensing fees.
I only have this to say: if Apple doesn't allow 3rd party developers on their cellphone than I'm sure either Microsoft or Google will.
"For all practical purposes you can expect no 3rd party apps."
Am I the only one that thinks Apple skipped shooting themselves in the foot and just shot themselves in the head with this one? The iPhone seems ripe with endless 3rd party app possibilities, it's counter-intuitive to not allow developers to create apps for it.
This isn't a iPod where it plays music and plays it well so there's no need for 3rd party apps, this is a convergence device that should have software that takes advantage of all it's functions. After all, what's the point of a fancy menu if you can't add anything to it?
Far as I know the iPhone will be the only $500+ cellphone that's doesn't have 3rd party apps. All the other ones I can recall are PocketPCs or Blackberries that allow 3rd party apps.
I think I speak for everyone when I say: Apple, get a clue, allow 3rd party apps. I'll admit it, I'm part of the 99% that has never bought a $400+ cellphone, but I have a PocketPC, cellphone and iPod and I was considering replacing all three, even my PSP and digital camera would likely get a lot less use depending on photo quality and 3rd party games. But hearing that there's no 3rd party apps is giving me serious reservations to the point that I'd have to say no, I will most likely not pay $500+ for a device knowing I'm locked into using only what few apps that are included.
Anyone else who considered buying a iPhone having second thoughts upon hearing there will be no 3rd party apps?
"Sometimes when 8 usd/hr is mentioned the applicant expects near zero experience to do the job. Five extra minutes of good PR time can help the image of your company /department."
I disagree to some extend. It depends on the applicant. If, like the article said, the applicant "is a danger to any code base" than he either probably already knows how bad he did or if he's truly so dumb to not know then definitely do NOT tell them they screwed up just so the moron can go down the street, pass the interview with his new found knowledge and screw up the next company's projects.
I say to be on the safe side and just say nothing. Let him continue to embarrass himself in interviews. Eventually he'll never get hired and end up in fast food where the only damage he could do is thinking extra pickles means only pickles.
However, if you really like the guy and think he could do well but he just made a little mistake or two, tell him to become more familiar with (insert technical thing he screwed up in interview), but never tell him exactly what he did wrong. Just point him in the right direction.
"So, ApplePhone, possibly."
I'd rather see ApplePhone, honestly. Everyone's stolen the "i" since Apple made it popular. Sure Infogear got the trademark in 96 but Apple is the one that made "i(whatever)" what is it.
Reminds me when Microsoft sued everyone for the use of "win" or "dows" on everything and won.
"If you don't cave to sponsors, you don't exist."
But there needs to be some kind of limit. What if McDonald's was a sponsor and complained because a game about the Burger King was a finalist and Burger King wasn't a sponsor? Who really deciding which games win, the sponsors or the judges?
The judges should have told the sponsor that complained that the judges decide which games win, not the sponsors. Of course the sponsors will complain, that's what they're suppose to do, of course they're going to watch out for their own best interests. Shame on you judges!
Now, who wants to submit a 9/11 game where players can hijack a plane and crash it into the towers? Anyone?
Why does this all sound a lot like Paris Hilton?
....
Step one: Release sex video
Step two: Complain/sue about "secretly" released sex video
Step three:
Step four: Profit!
"The problem is that people insist that everything be as simple as a toaster"
I don't think that's the case. My biggest problems with software is when the programmer broke from the regular rules of programming. The recent review of Office 2007 on slashdot explains this perfectly:
"In Word, Excel and PowerPoint, all of the menus are gone -- every one. None of the familiar toolbars have survived, either. In their place is a wide, tabbed band of icons at the top of the screen called the Ribbon."
No no no... this is very bad. For the last ump-teen years users have gotten use to the familiar toolbars in not only just Office but almost every application. The programs I've had the most problems with are the ones without the traditional drop-down menu interface we've all come to become familiar with. I once had a media player that was some funky oval design without any menu interface at all. It looked cool but it wasn't functional at all.