The problem with such an approach is that cultural differences will likely cause numerous rifts between the marketability of a game and its ultimate appeal. Not only is guy outsourcing game programmers, but he's also outsourcing game designers, which usually has disastrous results. Games are highly subjective, and you can't have one part of the world design a game for another part of the world and expect it do well with no exceptions. Examples abound. At least 80% of all Japanese video games never make it stateside. Most every FPS in existence has little to no appeal in any part of Asia. The most popular MMO in the world, Lineage (soon to be surpassed by its sequel), is virtually unknown in the western hemisphere. Ad infinitum. These methods to save a quick buck rarely pan out in the end, though they look good on paper.
"We're really close to finding out what really strikes consumers as the most relevant search results," said Karen Redetzki, an MSN product manager.
Tranalation: After several years of weekly strategy meetings with high-paid analysts and consultants we have discovered that people do not, in fact, want advertisements to be displayed with search results.
I don't really understand what the point of this is, aside from bragging rights. Ideally, the whole point of having scale models is to convey to the viewer the dimensions of space involved. If you have an Earth globe and a Sun globe attached to a pair of strings in a dimly-lit room, you immediately know that perhaps our insignificant little planet isn't quite as large as we had believed.
But what happens when you visit the location of, say, the Jupiter location somewhere northeast of Paris? Its a completely isolated experience; you have nothing to compare it to. You know, intellectually, that Saturn is a couple hundred miles south, but that does absolutely nothing for you appreciation of the grandeur and sheer distance involved. The human mind can't comprehend on a conscious level the breadth of France unless they drive across it (and even then its more vestigial than anything).
I honestly don't understand this American concern for human life in such insular situations. Instead of asking for volunteers to rescue the Hubble, NASA has to spend some inordinate amount of money to reduce the risk factor by an impressive tally of 0.01%. There is no shortage of people who would be willing to risk their lives for the advancement of scientific discovery and human knowledge as a whole, yet apparently their passion to actually do something is nothing but vestigial barbaric brovado. Deaths that transpire under mundane circumstances (car accidents, drug-addiction deaths, gang shootings) are shrugged off as just a "fact of life," whereas sacrifices made for the selfless pursuit of nobility are deemed unnecessary and wasteful. Its absurd. There are people in the world who would end their lives forty years before their time in return for the chance to look out into the inky void and see a lone blue-green planet from a vantage point that few others have even dreamed of scaling, yet they are held back because of the terrible national tragedy that might occur if a nameless, faceless human were to die contently in one location rather than despairingly in another.
I dunno. I suppose I'm still bitter about the whole Columbia thing. Millions of people who a week ago didn't know of either the mission or the astronouts on the flight suddenly took it upon themselves to be morally outraged. The astronouts became greater heroes in death rather than life, and even then only to the masses who two months down the line wouldn't be able to remember a single, solitary name.
Go ahead and do it!! Instead of doing something like certification courses (CCNA, MSCE, etc.) that might or might not be accepted, try and get into a MS degree program somewhere. And to do something like this is definitely possible... from where I worked at a couple of years ago, I had one person in my group who went from being a heart surgeon to a software engineer and someone else who went from a city cop to a chip designer. Sure, its not easy but at the end of the day, you will have what counts.
Bingo. Don't do it, unless you really, really like computers and/or ramen. The economy just can't support more tech guys right now.
I wish we'd stop having a daily SCO story every time they do something despicable. All of this self-righteous indignation is completely irrelevent. SCO doesn't care if they're wrong. Considering how smart their lawyers are, they probably know they're wrong. What they are trying to achieve is progress based solely on the ponderosity of their own momentum, which we are helping to propagate with all this nonsensical rambling.
Well, what do you expect? The most important aspect of any government is the method by which the leaders are chosen. Because we only have a two-party system and the party in power has much more sway over what information is given to the public than any other official or unofficial body, they are able to weasel their way out of most circumstances simply by controlling the masses. In a democracy It doesn't matter if you do something wrong and people find out about it. You need the majority of people to find out about it, you need a majority of people to believe it, you need a majority of people to even care about it, and you need a majority of people to do something because of it. Otherwise you stay in office forever. Or at least until the next guy shows up with lies that are most seductive than yours.
I always wondered what would happen when a government able to fall back on religion in an argument and Microsoft lawyer doublespeak would clash in an epic battle of obstinance.
Its a matter of money and will to the people involved in the execution of the project. To our august leader, it is a matter of appearance and prestige. Maybe I'm simply overly suspicious, but I have a hard time believing that his motives for this are based on some sort of belated pro bono philanthropy and dedication to the noble purposes strived for by humankind. Such a project would be an effort that would extend over many years, and the likelihood of something tangible coming out of it that he can exploid during his second term is unlikely. I highly suspect that this is simply a publicity stunt close to election time thats designed to play off the romantic image of space flight. If the proposal fails, he gets props for at least attempting to foster academic pursuits. If it succeeds in launching a new space program, he doesn't care if it fails in landing on Mars as he's out of office.
Again, I have nothing to back this up with outside a long record of Bush being openly hostile to NASA (until the deaths of the astronauts and it became fashionable to mourn their deaths instead of celebrating their lives), and several bills enacted to stifle space exploration. Take it as you will.
Or better yet, GTA: Canada.
Why even bother waiting for Bush to invade? We can kill the entire moose-loving population before our forces even cross the border! Remember: The US is at war with Canada. The US has always been at war with Canada.
Population of San Andreas = 2115
Copies of GTA sold since October = 8.5 million
Number of pedestrians killed per gamer = ~250
Assuming the same number of people buy the sequel, that computes to each San Andreas citizen being blown up, decapitated, and mutilated roughly 10047281.32 times. Imagine the anti-violence propaganda...:)
The US Treasure seems to be inviting all sorts of dangerous abuses with this current ideology. Obligatory perspective paradigm:
"Battle not with monsters, lest you become a monster. For if you gaze in the Abyss, the Abyss gazes into you.":)
Slashdot Mirror
The problem with such an approach is that cultural differences will likely cause numerous rifts between the marketability of a game and its ultimate appeal. Not only is guy outsourcing game programmers, but he's also outsourcing game designers, which usually has disastrous results. Games are highly subjective, and you can't have one part of the world design a game for another part of the world and expect it do well with no exceptions. Examples abound. At least 80% of all Japanese video games never make it stateside. Most every FPS in existence has little to no appeal in any part of Asia. The most popular MMO in the world, Lineage (soon to be surpassed by its sequel), is virtually unknown in the western hemisphere. Ad infinitum. These methods to save a quick buck rarely pan out in the end, though they look good on paper.
Only if the astronouts were not aware of the risks. If I spend all my money gambling and lose it all, is it the casino's fault I'm now bankrupt?
"We're really close to finding out what really strikes consumers as the most relevant search results," said Karen Redetzki, an MSN product manager.
Tranalation: After several years of weekly strategy meetings with high-paid analysts and consultants we have discovered that people do not, in fact, want advertisements to be displayed with search results.
I don't really understand what the point of this is, aside from bragging rights. Ideally, the whole point of having scale models is to convey to the viewer the dimensions of space involved. If you have an Earth globe and a Sun globe attached to a pair of strings in a dimly-lit room, you immediately know that perhaps our insignificant little planet isn't quite as large as we had believed.
But what happens when you visit the location of, say, the Jupiter location somewhere northeast of Paris? Its a completely isolated experience; you have nothing to compare it to. You know, intellectually, that Saturn is a couple hundred miles south, but that does absolutely nothing for you appreciation of the grandeur and sheer distance involved. The human mind can't comprehend on a conscious level the breadth of France unless they drive across it (and even then its more vestigial than anything).
I honestly don't understand this American concern for human life in such insular situations. Instead of asking for volunteers to rescue the Hubble, NASA has to spend some inordinate amount of money to reduce the risk factor by an impressive tally of 0.01%. There is no shortage of people who would be willing to risk their lives for the advancement of scientific discovery and human knowledge as a whole, yet apparently their passion to actually do something is nothing but vestigial barbaric brovado. Deaths that transpire under mundane circumstances (car accidents, drug-addiction deaths, gang shootings) are shrugged off as just a "fact of life," whereas sacrifices made for the selfless pursuit of nobility are deemed unnecessary and wasteful. Its absurd. There are people in the world who would end their lives forty years before their time in return for the chance to look out into the inky void and see a lone blue-green planet from a vantage point that few others have even dreamed of scaling, yet they are held back because of the terrible national tragedy that might occur if a nameless, faceless human were to die contently in one location rather than despairingly in another.
I dunno. I suppose I'm still bitter about the whole Columbia thing. Millions of people who a week ago didn't know of either the mission or the astronouts on the flight suddenly took it upon themselves to be morally outraged. The astronouts became greater heroes in death rather than life, and even then only to the masses who two months down the line wouldn't be able to remember a single, solitary name.
Go ahead and do it!! Instead of doing something like certification courses (CCNA, MSCE, etc.) that might or might not be accepted, try and get into a MS degree program somewhere. And to do something like this is definitely possible... from where I worked at a couple of years ago, I had one person in my group who went from being a heart surgeon to a software engineer and someone else who went from a city cop to a chip designer. Sure, its not easy but at the end of the day, you will have what counts.
Bingo. Don't do it, unless you really, really like computers and/or ramen. The economy just can't support more tech guys right now.
He hailed search technology firm Google as a "great company"; its approach reminded him of Microsoft 20 years ago.
I could say something witty right now but, really, there is no point. Bill Gates has done it for me.
I wish we'd stop having a daily SCO story every time they do something despicable. All of this self-righteous indignation is completely irrelevent. SCO doesn't care if they're wrong. Considering how smart their lawyers are, they probably know they're wrong. What they are trying to achieve is progress based solely on the ponderosity of their own momentum, which we are helping to propagate with all this nonsensical rambling.
Well, what do you expect? The most important aspect of any government is the method by which the leaders are chosen. Because we only have a two-party system and the party in power has much more sway over what information is given to the public than any other official or unofficial body, they are able to weasel their way out of most circumstances simply by controlling the masses. In a democracy It doesn't matter if you do something wrong and people find out about it. You need the majority of people to find out about it, you need a majority of people to believe it, you need a majority of people to even care about it, and you need a majority of people to do something because of it. Otherwise you stay in office forever. Or at least until the next guy shows up with lies that are most seductive than yours.
I can just imagine the conversations at NASA:
"Hey, this gizmo thingy is pretty nifty."
"You shouldn't fiddle with that, its highly delica-"
"Dude, this thing has fourwheel drive! Can I go offroad? Please?"
"Damnit, you can't just wa-"
"Watch me do a barrel roll! Weeeee!!!"
Pfffft. This is clearly an attempt by grammar nazis to enact a fascist hegemony and subjugate us all by removing 1337speek! Infidels!
The more power you give to mindless morons the less is left for normal people.
In the airline industry, the mindless morons are the only ones stupid enough to actually want power.
I always wondered what would happen when a government able to fall back on religion in an argument and Microsoft lawyer doublespeak would clash in an epic battle of obstinance.
Its a matter of money and will to the people involved in the execution of the project. To our august leader, it is a matter of appearance and prestige. Maybe I'm simply overly suspicious, but I have a hard time believing that his motives for this are based on some sort of belated pro bono philanthropy and dedication to the noble purposes strived for by humankind. Such a project would be an effort that would extend over many years, and the likelihood of something tangible coming out of it that he can exploid during his second term is unlikely. I highly suspect that this is simply a publicity stunt close to election time thats designed to play off the romantic image of space flight. If the proposal fails, he gets props for at least attempting to foster academic pursuits. If it succeeds in launching a new space program, he doesn't care if it fails in landing on Mars as he's out of office.
Again, I have nothing to back this up with outside a long record of Bush being openly hostile to NASA (until the deaths of the astronauts and it became fashionable to mourn their deaths instead of celebrating their lives), and several bills enacted to stifle space exploration. Take it as you will.
Something like half the Silicon Valley IT population visits slashdot yet we don't have an edit button. That isn't supposed to be bolded. Grrr....
Or better yet, GTA: Canada. Why even bother waiting for Bush to invade? We can kill the entire moose-loving population before our forces even cross the border! Remember: The US is at war with Canada. The US has always been at war with Canada.
Population of San Andreas = 2115 Copies of GTA sold since October = 8.5 million Number of pedestrians killed per gamer = ~250 Assuming the same number of people buy the sequel, that computes to each San Andreas citizen being blown up, decapitated, and mutilated roughly 10047281.32 times. Imagine the anti-violence propaganda... :)
The US Treasure seems to be inviting all sorts of dangerous abuses with this current ideology. Obligatory perspective paradigm: "Battle not with monsters, lest you become a monster. For if you gaze in the Abyss, the Abyss gazes into you." :)