Notepad is what it is. And it's perfect for what it is. Sometimes you want a text editor with zero features, and knowing that you can open just about any file to see what is inside is important.
Why is it better for OEMs to decide what software I should get on a new computer? Have you ever bought a new computer? I've never seen an OEM machine that wasn't full of absolutely worthless crap.
The fact that the IE market share is declining is enough to demonstrate to reasonable people that the public IS aware that there are alternatives to using IE, and they ARE able to use these alternatives.
I've read your posts in this thread, and your whining is incredible annoying. You compare Microsoft's web browser to a murderer killing people.
You also repeat over and over that Microsoft is keeping us 8 years behind in website technology. That's a load of crap. Who added the non-standard features to their browser that makes AJAX possible?
It was the ubiquity of a browser included in Windows that opened up the web to most of the world. People now realize that there are other browsers available, and they are branching out, no problem.
If Internet Explorer blocked people from downloading other browsers, I would see the point. But otherwise it's just a bunch of complaining from a few also-rans.
So if you had access to all of today's technology, and you were designing a software distribution mechanism....
You would put the software on little plastic disks that can't be updated after they are written... Put those disks in expensive packaging. Put those disks on consignment with a company that will truck/fly those disks around the country. To other companies that will put the disks on shelves in stores where consumers can buy them (during business hours).
After using NXE for a few hours, it was obvious that the entire system is just better. The navigation, the organization, the amount of information displayed....everything is better.
Despite what the first poster said, Arcade games are easier to get to. AND, you can remove demos/zero gamerscore games from your history. Just that alone is worth the download.
The statement: "If Microsoft, one of the more closed companies on the planet can do it..."
Obviously the author knows nothing about business.
Software companies are some of the most OPEN businesses on the planet. Few other companies give out the type of information that a software company does. And Microsoft, while not embracing open source, is actually fairly open for a software company.
Go to an insurance company, or a bank, or a gambling operation, or a hotel...or just about anything else. You'll find that Microsoft is CRAZY open in comparison.
This is an excellent example of a project with an end date. The game ships, and then you're done. No updating.
I've been working at the same place for 8 years, not a long time, but not just a blip on a resume either.
We are still working on the same projects from 8 years ago. Some of them were built using a framework, some were not. We ran into a lot of problems with frameworks. Honestly, if the projects had end dates, everything would have been fine, but they didn't.
We found that as time went on, the framework may or may not be upgraded along with the software it sits on. If it doesn't get upgraded, then you may have a problem where you cannot upgrade the underlying software. Sitting on an OS that is 2 versions old because the framework uses that particular API is not fun.
Another problem I ran into, was when the framework WAS kept up to date. As another poster said, we 'massaged' the heck out of the code. A new version comes out, and there are incompatibilities. The new framework can't just be dropped in. We need to re-do all of our work.
The stuff we have coded ourselves is easier to maintain. On the downside, any new features need to be written by us. On the upside, that is never a problem. We had developed 18 separate projects in the first 4 years I worked at this place. Now we've been able to morph them all into 1 project. That meant taking them off of the frameworks they were on (3 different frameworks) and code everything ourselves.
Coding it ourselves ensures that everything works together. If we had re-used a lot of code, then the systems just couldn't be integrated together nearly as easily.
I've tried it both ways, and for my situation, writing my own makes more sense.
Thanks for expressing this ACCURATELY. The problem is that you can't 'unlearn' PC controls- NOT that the console controller is bad.
I was a hard-core PC gamer for many years. When the Xbox came out, I played Halo at a friends house. I thought he was a chump because the control was horrible for an FPS.
A few months later I bought my own Xbox. It took a while to figure out the controls, but once I did, there was no looking back.
I *hate* playing an FPS on keyboard/mouse. It's disorienting, and I can't move the way I want to.
Neither control scheme is bad. It's just a matter of what you are used to.
I'd rather pull my car over to the nearest 7-11, and use a pay phone to connect to the Internet through a 300 baud acoustic modem than get 3mbps through a Sprint product.
I made the HUGE mistake of switching to Sprint 18 months ago. I've regretted it ever since. Their customer service is 100% atrocious. Their policies are horrible (and deemed illegal in California*).
Sending photos to another cell phone is ridiculous (via e-mail?!?! WTF? Tons of phones are capable of receiving SMS with media, but not nearly as many can receive e-mail)
The phone selection is crap. The website sucks. (Anyone who has an account there can attest to that...how many times do I need to log in just to view my bill, like 3?)
Generally, every single thing I have to say about Sprint is that the company is bad. I switched from AT&T because I had the impression that they sucked. But on the scale of suck, AT&T is like a peck on the cheek compared to the 24 hour airport bathroom glory hole that is Sprint.
**** The illegal part: My daughter had 3 phone through Sprint, she canceled 2 of them 2 months prior to her contract ending. These phones cost $9.99 each per month. Sprint charged a $400 early termination fee, even though they would have only received $40 in service fees...that is what has been deemed illegal- the fee is punitive. (Fee doesn't just cover costs, it punishes the consumer)
I also have a sneaking suspicion that MOST people on Slashdot aren't the ones doing any of the hiring.
I do hire people. And while I do look for a somewhat broad knowledge base, depth is far more important to me.
Why?
Because when Mr. Broad gets hired, he wants to do everything differently. "We should use this, we should use that..."
Great for Mr. Broad, because he is planning on moving on in 2 years and using 17 different languages looks good on his resume. Then I am stuck with the problem of replacing him with someone else who has the same combination of skills. But unfortunately that combination doesn't exist much.
I would rather have someone who REALLY understands the language/platform we are using. Someone who isn't excited to bring in a ton of nifty 3rd party tools they found last month (and will stop being supported in a year)...someone who understands that long-term thinking is far more important to business than constantly running to 'the next cool thing'.
It's just the difference between seeing tech as a toy, or tech as a tool for business. When I am dealing with code that is older than 10 years, I need people that truly understand what is going on. Not someone who wants to just replace everything with something new all the time.
We rely on users being able to support themselves a lot.
But we don't rely on them to manage the servers.
Once a computer is set up, users don't really need too much help. We try to have a person in each office who at least can do things like powercycle a router, but that's it. They aren't technical people, just people who can tell us if 'the little blue light is on'.
We just don't have the resources to have a lot of support people.
But as far as server support- only the City of San Francisco would be stupid enough to only have ONE person to manage their servers or network.
I'm not sure where you are...but in California right now the entire State government is in a major financial crisis. We still don't have a budget passed this year (supposed to be passed by July 1) and the main reason for it is that our state budget is in the crapper.
So this year we either need to raise taxes, which is not popular with the Republicans- even though Arnie is for it...or we need to cut services, which is not popular with the democrats.
On top of that, add the many different audits of the University of California Office of the President (due to 'compensation issues' with high level administrators), and we have some fairly severe problems.
Lastly, where I work has absolutely nothing to do with students at all- so enrollment could triple, and it wouldn't matter to us.
I work in a 2,000 person unit of a larger organization (like a freaking enormous University System) but we handle all of our own tech support, servers, networks, etc.
We have: 3 server admins 3 network admins 3 programmers 2 desktop support/help desk staff
That's it. We're pretty thin, but this makes us fairly recession-proof, which right now in California is a VERY good thing.
This is just a STUPID plan that nobody could have forseen.
If you do design software, unfortunately this comes up all the time, and it hurts, even when you are expecting it. This just happened to me recently:
"Okay, new federal regulations state that we need to track the number of miles travelled for all trips." "Okay, but we only store mileage on auto travel, because that is how they get reimbursed." "We need it for air travel, and train travel if there was any." "Umm...okay, I guess I could use mapping software to determine distances." "But we only will track air travel on US based carriers. We also only want business class travel." "We don't store that information." "Well, you need to get it."
The PS2 is far more similar to the Will than the 360. The biggest problem is storage capacity. Followed by processor/graphics ability...then you have the whole issue of downloadable content http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/02/nintendo-will-b.html
The Wii is NOT in the same class as the 360/PS3. Pretending that the reason for a crappy version of Rock Band is due to 'lazy developers' is just a matter of sticking your head in the sand.
No, it just proves that a lot of people like the Nintendo products.
The Billboard 100 is full of music *most* people don't like. In fact, Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers sell a heck of a lot more records than anything I would consider listening to.
That doesn't mean that Miley Cyrus is what 'normal' people listen to.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest made more money than almost any other film in history. That doesn't mean that 'normal people want to watch idiotic sequels, rather than see a good movie.' It just means that a lot of people paid to see the movie.
Sometimes a system's capabilities DO make a difference!
Just read any review of Rock Band for the Wii. Pretty much every reviewer says it is a crippled, inferior version of the game due to the lower hardware capabilities of the Wii.
Engineering of software doesn't really have anything to do with the language used, it has to do with an intelligent plan, architecture, systematic solution to problems, etc. etc.
Using the cool language of the day doesn't mean that the outcome will be the best.
In fact, the decline of ColdFusion as the language du jour means that the people who are using it now are much more likely to have the experience to make the right decisions that would lead to a well constructed application. I've been using ColdFusion for 9 years, and I know the right way to do things, and the wrong way to do things. I have expert skills in a very mature language/platform, so the software I produce now is rock-solid.
I run into a lot of situations where I meet a programmer who gives me a lot of shit for using ColdFusion. Typically it is someone who has less than 2 years of real-world experience. They're working on the latest and greatest language/platform and suddenly they think they have all of the answers.
These guys never really get a chance to mature in their skills. Sure they can job-hop, but I've seen the messes they create - because I've cleaned a lot of them up. If I was running a business, would I really want to trust my mission critical applications to people who have been using a programming language for two years or less? No. (Amazingly, people do this all the time because the buzzwords sound so cool! (Ruby On Rails will change the WORLD!!!) )
I'm very comfortable with my decision to keep my programming team on ColdFusion. It is my job to make sure that good maintainable software is created, and that's what we're doing.
What if you died tomorrow...who would add the extra code to make this work?
A better method would be to deliver the standards version by default, unless you made specific conditions. So you could have an IE 5 version, IE 6 version, IE 7 version, etc.
Then, when IE 8 came out, you could do nothing...and it would deliver the 'proper' version.
Slashdot Mirror
So you have a lot of hate for Microsoft.
Notepad is what it is. And it's perfect for what it is. Sometimes you want a text editor with zero features, and knowing that you can open just about any file to see what is inside is important.
Why is it better for OEMs to decide what software I should get on a new computer? Have you ever bought a new computer? I've never seen an OEM machine that wasn't full of absolutely worthless crap.
You're on crack...
The fact that the IE market share is declining is enough to demonstrate to reasonable people that the public IS aware that there are alternatives to using IE, and they ARE able to use these alternatives.
I've read your posts in this thread, and your whining is incredible annoying. You compare Microsoft's web browser to a murderer killing people.
You also repeat over and over that Microsoft is keeping us 8 years behind in website technology. That's a load of crap. Who added the non-standard features to their browser that makes AJAX possible?
It was the ubiquity of a browser included in Windows that opened up the web to most of the world. People now realize that there are other browsers available, and they are branching out, no problem.
If Internet Explorer blocked people from downloading other browsers, I would see the point. But otherwise it's just a bunch of complaining from a few also-rans.
So if you had access to all of today's technology, and you were designing a software distribution mechanism....
You would put the software on little plastic disks that can't be updated after they are written...
Put those disks in expensive packaging.
Put those disks on consignment with a company that will truck/fly those disks around the country.
To other companies that will put the disks on shelves in stores where consumers can buy them (during business hours).
That doesn't seem very efficient.
Wait...
You got where you are based on luck...but you are in a warzone?
Was that bad luck?
I'm not sure why all the Apple fans feel the need to 'educate' me on the OS X updates. I know how it works.
My only point was that there have been 4 non-free Mac updates in the same time that Windows had one.
Over the last 5 years, keeping up with Windows releases would mean that a person would pay for one upgrade- XP to Vista.
On the Mac, the same time period would have a person upgrading from 10.1 to 10.2 to 10.3 to 10.4 to 10.5.
You *could* merge all OS X releases, if they were free.
Microsoft does give a lot more away.
A more direct comparison would be Zune updates.
Someone who bought the first Zune has all of the functionality of the current Zunes...because the updates are free.
How much does each OS X update cost - vs. a Windows update/service pack?
Exactly.
I was tired of digging deep down into menus that no longer made sense.
The original interface was created before the Marketplace expanded.
It was time for a change.
After using NXE for a few hours, it was obvious that the entire system is just better. The navigation, the organization, the amount of information displayed....everything is better.
Despite what the first poster said, Arcade games are easier to get to. AND, you can remove demos/zero gamerscore games from your history. Just that alone is worth the download.
Good post. Except for the part where you predict this won't happen.
I just bought Gears of War 2 on Friday. It came with codes for me to download maps. These are single use codes.
Now these maps are 'old', but it is a huge amount of content nonetheless.
If I do sell the game, the person who buys it from me will have 9 maps instead of 14.
(Personally, I think this whole idea is great.)
Even more than yawn...
The statement: "If Microsoft, one of the more closed companies on the planet can do it..."
Obviously the author knows nothing about business.
Software companies are some of the most OPEN businesses on the planet. Few other companies give out the type of information that a software company does. And Microsoft, while not embracing open source, is actually fairly open for a software company.
Go to an insurance company, or a bank, or a gambling operation, or a hotel...or just about anything else. You'll find that Microsoft is CRAZY open in comparison.
The planet does not consist of just software.
This is an excellent example of a project with an end date. The game ships, and then you're done. No updating.
I've been working at the same place for 8 years, not a long time, but not just a blip on a resume either.
We are still working on the same projects from 8 years ago. Some of them were built using a framework, some were not. We ran into a lot of problems with frameworks. Honestly, if the projects had end dates, everything would have been fine, but they didn't.
We found that as time went on, the framework may or may not be upgraded along with the software it sits on. If it doesn't get upgraded, then you may have a problem where you cannot upgrade the underlying software. Sitting on an OS that is 2 versions old because the framework uses that particular API is not fun.
Another problem I ran into, was when the framework WAS kept up to date. As another poster said, we 'massaged' the heck out of the code. A new version comes out, and there are incompatibilities. The new framework can't just be dropped in. We need to re-do all of our work.
The stuff we have coded ourselves is easier to maintain. On the downside, any new features need to be written by us. On the upside, that is never a problem. We had developed 18 separate projects in the first 4 years I worked at this place. Now we've been able to morph them all into 1 project. That meant taking them off of the frameworks they were on (3 different frameworks) and code everything ourselves.
Coding it ourselves ensures that everything works together. If we had re-used a lot of code, then the systems just couldn't be integrated together nearly as easily.
I've tried it both ways, and for my situation, writing my own makes more sense.
Drakkenmensch,
Thanks for expressing this ACCURATELY. The problem is that you can't 'unlearn' PC controls- NOT that the console controller is bad.
I was a hard-core PC gamer for many years. When the Xbox came out, I played Halo at a friends house. I thought he was a chump because the control was horrible for an FPS.
A few months later I bought my own Xbox. It took a while to figure out the controls, but once I did, there was no looking back.
I *hate* playing an FPS on keyboard/mouse. It's disorienting, and I can't move the way I want to.
Neither control scheme is bad. It's just a matter of what you are used to.
I'd rather pull my car over to the nearest 7-11, and use a pay phone to connect to the Internet through a 300 baud acoustic modem than get 3mbps through a Sprint product.
I made the HUGE mistake of switching to Sprint 18 months ago. I've regretted it ever since. Their customer service is 100% atrocious. Their policies are horrible (and deemed illegal in California*).
Sending photos to another cell phone is ridiculous (via e-mail?!?! WTF? Tons of phones are capable of receiving SMS with media, but not nearly as many can receive e-mail)
The phone selection is crap. The website sucks. (Anyone who has an account there can attest to that...how many times do I need to log in just to view my bill, like 3?)
Generally, every single thing I have to say about Sprint is that the company is bad. I switched from AT&T because I had the impression that they sucked. But on the scale of suck, AT&T is like a peck on the cheek compared to the 24 hour airport bathroom glory hole that is Sprint.
**** The illegal part: My daughter had 3 phone through Sprint, she canceled 2 of them 2 months prior to her contract ending. These phones cost $9.99 each per month. Sprint charged a $400 early termination fee, even though they would have only received $40 in service fees...that is what has been deemed illegal- the fee is punitive. (Fee doesn't just cover costs, it punishes the consumer)
I hear this a lot on Slashdot.
I also have a sneaking suspicion that MOST people on Slashdot aren't the ones doing any of the hiring.
I do hire people. And while I do look for a somewhat broad knowledge base, depth is far more important to me.
Why?
Because when Mr. Broad gets hired, he wants to do everything differently. "We should use this, we should use that..."
Great for Mr. Broad, because he is planning on moving on in 2 years and using 17 different languages looks good on his resume. Then I am stuck with the problem of replacing him with someone else who has the same combination of skills. But unfortunately that combination doesn't exist much.
I would rather have someone who REALLY understands the language/platform we are using. Someone who isn't excited to bring in a ton of nifty 3rd party tools they found last month (and will stop being supported in a year)...someone who understands that long-term thinking is far more important to business than constantly running to 'the next cool thing'.
It's just the difference between seeing tech as a toy, or tech as a tool for business. When I am dealing with code that is older than 10 years, I need people that truly understand what is going on. Not someone who wants to just replace everything with something new all the time.
We rely on users being able to support themselves a lot.
But we don't rely on them to manage the servers.
Once a computer is set up, users don't really need too much help. We try to have a person in each office who at least can do things like powercycle a router, but that's it. They aren't technical people, just people who can tell us if 'the little blue light is on'.
We just don't have the resources to have a lot of support people.
But as far as server support- only the City of San Francisco would be stupid enough to only have ONE person to manage their servers or network.
I'm not sure where you are...but in California right now the entire State government is in a major financial crisis. We still don't have a budget passed this year (supposed to be passed by July 1) and the main reason for it is that our state budget is in the crapper.
So this year we either need to raise taxes, which is not popular with the Republicans- even though Arnie is for it...or we need to cut services, which is not popular with the democrats.
On top of that, add the many different audits of the University of California Office of the President (due to 'compensation issues' with high level administrators), and we have some fairly severe problems.
Lastly, where I work has absolutely nothing to do with students at all- so enrollment could triple, and it wouldn't matter to us.
Not a bad stab at real world staffing ratios.
I work in a 2,000 person unit of a larger organization (like a freaking enormous University System) but we handle all of our own tech support, servers, networks, etc.
We have:
3 server admins
3 network admins
3 programmers
2 desktop support/help desk staff
That's it. We're pretty thin, but this makes us fairly recession-proof, which right now in California is a VERY good thing.
I agree completely.
This is just a STUPID plan that nobody could have forseen.
If you do design software, unfortunately this comes up all the time, and it hurts, even when you are expecting it. This just happened to me recently:
"Okay, new federal regulations state that we need to track the number of miles travelled for all trips."
"Okay, but we only store mileage on auto travel, because that is how they get reimbursed."
"We need it for air travel, and train travel if there was any."
"Umm...okay, I guess I could use mapping software to determine distances."
"But we only will track air travel on US based carriers. We also only want business class travel."
"We don't store that information."
"Well, you need to get it."
F me.
Insightful?
The PS2 is far more similar to the Will than the 360. The biggest problem is storage capacity. Followed by processor/graphics ability...then you have the whole issue of downloadable content http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/02/nintendo-will-b.html
The Wii is NOT in the same class as the 360/PS3. Pretending that the reason for a crappy version of Rock Band is due to 'lazy developers' is just a matter of sticking your head in the sand.
No, it just proves that a lot of people like the Nintendo products.
The Billboard 100 is full of music *most* people don't like. In fact, Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers sell a heck of a lot more records than anything I would consider listening to.
That doesn't mean that Miley Cyrus is what 'normal' people listen to.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest made more money than almost any other film in history. That doesn't mean that 'normal people want to watch idiotic sequels, rather than see a good movie.' It just means that a lot of people paid to see the movie.
Sometimes a system's capabilities DO make a difference!
Just read any review of Rock Band for the Wii. Pretty much every reviewer says it is a crippled, inferior version of the game due to the lower hardware capabilities of the Wii.
Not only did he sell to his parents...but he knowingly sold them crappy monitors.
Son of the year!
God I hate these ignorant statements.
Engineering of software doesn't really have anything to do with the language used, it has to do with an intelligent plan, architecture, systematic solution to problems, etc. etc.
Using the cool language of the day doesn't mean that the outcome will be the best.
In fact, the decline of ColdFusion as the language du jour means that the people who are using it now are much more likely to have the experience to make the right decisions that would lead to a well constructed application. I've been using ColdFusion for 9 years, and I know the right way to do things, and the wrong way to do things. I have expert skills in a very mature language/platform, so the software I produce now is rock-solid.
I run into a lot of situations where I meet a programmer who gives me a lot of shit for using ColdFusion. Typically it is someone who has less than 2 years of real-world experience. They're working on the latest and greatest language/platform and suddenly they think they have all of the answers.
These guys never really get a chance to mature in their skills. Sure they can job-hop, but I've seen the messes they create - because I've cleaned a lot of them up. If I was running a business, would I really want to trust my mission critical applications to people who have been using a programming language for two years or less? No. (Amazingly, people do this all the time because the buzzwords sound so cool! (Ruby On Rails will change the WORLD!!!) )
I'm very comfortable with my decision to keep my programming team on ColdFusion. It is my job to make sure that good maintainable software is created, and that's what we're doing.
I use a local feed aggregator:
http://thepile.net/woodland
That's it.
Your plan is fairly good, but not perfect.
What if you died tomorrow...who would add the extra code to make this work?
A better method would be to deliver the standards version by default, unless you made specific conditions. So you could have an IE 5 version, IE 6 version, IE 7 version, etc.
Then, when IE 8 came out, you could do nothing...and it would deliver the 'proper' version.