As one of those "good" programmers with a reputation for getting things done, I must concur with your statement. In fact I've observed that the first thing cut from most project budgets, if it's even included in the first place, seems to be adequate technical QA. There's lots of emphasis on meeting business requirements/application feature goals, but very little on engineering quality under the hood.
Part of the problem is that enforcing best practices and doing techincal QA is both time consuming, and expensive, not to mention boring as all heck. So there isn't much motivation to do it. Bad, bad attitude and we're paying the price.
For me, the memories are Duke Nukem 3D and the build engine. I'd play so much, and build (shitty) levels so much, that when I actually got out of the house, I'd define everything in my field of vision in terms of build sectors. It got to a point that I was looking at some building and wondering how they managed to build a room above another room, but yet allow me to look into both at the same time. (If you're familiar with the d3d version of build, you'd know what I'm talking about)
1) It's "percentage of dialup users interested to switch to broadband", not "percentage of internet users using dialup"
2) In this case the absolute number of dialup users CAN decrease, yet the percentage of users remaining on dialup, who don't want to switch to broadband, can stay the same.
There's nothing wrong with the original poster's point.
And the games most played on mobile phones? 80's style arcade games. When you are waiting for a bus, or idling away a few minutes of break time, you don't want anything more involving.
And the games marketed as the draw to n-gage? Tomb Raider, FIFA Soccer, Rayman, etc.... Typical console titles.
So Nokia designs the n-gage. They equip it to play cel-phone (series 60, iirc) games. Then they market it as a mobile platform for playing typical console games.
If they want to commit to regular console games, re-orient the screen. If they don't then stop marketing it as a device targetted at the GBA (and therefore, typical console games) because it's a laughable comparison at the moment.
Otherwise I agree with your statements. Cel-phone gamers aren't looking for a full blown console gaming experience. They're looking for a time waster that doesn't require a lengthy time commitment. Get in to it, play for 10 minutes, go for the high score, then get on with life.
Man, Digital Fortress was his first novel. It's FULL of errors of all sorts, not just laughable technical research (it's almost as bad as "The 'Net"). I've read three of his books and the newer they are, the better they are. However, I've read his books in reverse chronological order, which happened to also mean reading the best books first. Had I read Digital Fortress first, I'd label him "king-of-hacks".
I "switched" last summer because of the combination of Unix power + Apple User Experience.
There's simply no fussing around. The environment fades into the background letting me concentrate on getting work done. XCode is a wonderful, comprehensive IDE and lets me develop OS X or Java apps (which I like) with the same set of great features.
My only beef with this arrangement is that a 1ghz G4 PB is no longer a speed demon. I'd really like to get a G5 PB... c'mon Steve, show us the love.
From the article:
So far, no one has found a road-and wheel combination in which the road has the same shape as the wheel. That's an intriguing challenge for mathematicians.
Proof that mathematicians are boring!
Re:They got something like that already...
on
Mobile Wifi Backpack
·
· Score: 2, Informative
(waitaminute - did an April 1 story just get out of the barn a wee bit early?)
I think that you have it there. It looks to me lika a joke in the vein of Dihydrogen Monoxide. Funny in a, "hahaha look at who fell for it, I'm so superior to you" kind of way, I guess.
Using VISA to buy your beer leaves more of a trail.
If I wanted to "out" a public figure, I'd go after their credit card statements, their "air miles", and their debit transaction statements. Then I'd correlate it with video surveillance data from the locations that the purchases were made. The last place I'd go was BudNET.
Right now, the insane variety of choices available is just a sign of the relative immaturity of the solutions. Unifying at this time would be detrimental to the overall efforts. I'm all for waiting for the right time. If that means losing the impatient opportunists along the way, then so be it.
For instance, when Linux is really truly ready for the mainstream desktop, when the office software has standardized and the features solidified (for instance), it should be because of an obvious evolutionary progression. There's no need to rush things.
Many statements, yours incluced, seem to make it sound like time is running out on OSS. This is not true. OSS will exist independently of active support and big monetary investment. It started from that state and will return to that state if necessary.
Okay, so the OSS community is not timeless. It would be nice to see OSS become the mainstream in our lifetimes, but that's not a reason to rush into things.
To mangle a famous quote: "Do you hear that, Mr. Gates? That is the sound of inevitability." -- Agent Tux
Maybe language is the barrier in this case, because the solution seems really straightforward. Heck you could even jazz up my suggestion above:
Instead of making the ballot-hardcopy reable only by computer, make it both human and computer readble.
Furthermore, create a whole ballot verification process. When the ballot is placed in the receptacle, a process compares the digital and the hardcopy and registers a valid/invalid status thus preventing tampering in the intermediary step.
Lots of options, but the basic premise remains the same: YOU DON'T GET TO KEEP YOUR BALLOT.
core_plexus said, "Until more people get involved in the political process, the majority will be subject to the will of the minority-those that actually get out and vote, and get involved in election campaigns, writing to their representatives, etc."
What you consider involvement is what's been shoved down the public's throat for years now. They're apathetic because they realize that real involvement is actualy through "lobbying" campaign contributions, and various other means of big-money influence (example: controlling the voting process through inauditable, poorly regulated, automated vote processing schemes).
Your vote doesn't count unless you have the money to back it up.
Slashdot Mirror
"obscure"? Hardly.
Look at me. I'm the flying pig!
As one of those "good" programmers with a reputation for getting things done, I must concur with your statement. In fact I've observed that the first thing cut from most project budgets, if it's even included in the first place, seems to be adequate technical QA. There's lots of emphasis on meeting business requirements/application feature goals, but very little on engineering quality under the hood.
Part of the problem is that enforcing best practices and doing techincal QA is both time consuming, and expensive, not to mention boring as all heck. So there isn't much motivation to do it. Bad, bad attitude and we're paying the price.
For me, the memories are Duke Nukem 3D and the build engine. I'd play so much, and build (shitty) levels so much, that when I actually got out of the house, I'd define everything in my field of vision in terms of build sectors. It got to a point that I was looking at some building and wondering how they managed to build a room above another room, but yet allow me to look into both at the same time. (If you're familiar with the d3d version of build, you'd know what I'm talking about)
Sad really.
If I could mod this to 6, I would.
/.
Funniest thing I've ever read on
As I always say: The future looks just like today, only better!
(I probably ripped that off of someone famous, I just don't know who.)
1) It's "percentage of dialup users interested to switch to broadband", not "percentage of internet users using dialup"
2) In this case the absolute number of dialup users CAN decrease, yet the percentage of users remaining on dialup, who don't want to switch to broadband, can stay the same.
There's nothing wrong with the original poster's point.
So did blinky the 3 eyed fish.
3 eyes!
Still, not as bad as mexican water.
So Nokia designs the n-gage. They equip it to play cel-phone (series 60, iirc) games. Then they market it as a mobile platform for playing typical console games.
If they want to commit to regular console games, re-orient the screen. If they don't then stop marketing it as a device targetted at the GBA (and therefore, typical console games) because it's a laughable comparison at the moment.
Otherwise I agree with your statements. Cel-phone gamers aren't looking for a full blown console gaming experience. They're looking for a time waster that doesn't require a lengthy time commitment. Get in to it, play for 10 minutes, go for the high score, then get on with life.
Man, Digital Fortress was his first novel. It's FULL of errors of all sorts, not just laughable technical research (it's almost as bad as "The 'Net"). I've read three of his books and the newer they are, the better they are. However, I've read his books in reverse chronological order, which happened to also mean reading the best books first. Had I read Digital Fortress first, I'd label him "king-of-hacks".
I "switched" last summer because of the combination of Unix power + Apple User Experience.
There's simply no fussing around. The environment fades into the background letting me concentrate on getting work done. XCode is a wonderful, comprehensive IDE and lets me develop OS X or Java apps (which I like) with the same set of great features.
My only beef with this arrangement is that a 1ghz G4 PB is no longer a speed demon. I'd really like to get a G5 PB... c'mon Steve, show us the love.
I bet this is just another "me too!" project.
(waitaminute - did an April 1 story just get out of the barn a wee bit early?)
I think that you have it there. It looks to me lika a joke in the vein of Dihydrogen Monoxide. Funny in a, "hahaha look at who fell for it, I'm so superior to you" kind of way, I guess.
Companies don't sell products, they sell images of what you will become if you own the product. Smater, faster, stronger, cooler, etc...
They sell dreams. The product is just the vehicle.
You know, I wish you had posted that with an account. Deffinately deserved a "+1 insightful".
Using VISA to buy your beer leaves more of a trail.
If I wanted to "out" a public figure, I'd go after their credit card statements, their "air miles", and their debit transaction statements. Then I'd correlate it with video surveillance data from the locations that the purchases were made. The last place I'd go was BudNET.
Good freaking grief.
Thanks for that link. That's a nice collection of bookmarklets.
Right now, the insane variety of choices available is just a sign of the relative immaturity of the solutions. Unifying at this time would be detrimental to the overall efforts. I'm all for waiting for the right time. If that means losing the impatient opportunists along the way, then so be it.
For instance, when Linux is really truly ready for the mainstream desktop, when the office software has standardized and the features solidified (for instance), it should be because of an obvious evolutionary progression. There's no need to rush things.
Many statements, yours incluced, seem to make it sound like time is running out on OSS. This is not true. OSS will exist independently of active support and big monetary investment. It started from that state and will return to that state if necessary.
Okay, so the OSS community is not timeless. It would be nice to see OSS become the mainstream in our lifetimes, but that's not a reason to rush into things.
To mangle a famous quote:
"Do you hear that, Mr. Gates? That is the sound of inevitability." -- Agent Tux
Maybe language is the barrier in this case, because the solution seems really straightforward. Heck you could even jazz up my suggestion above:
Instead of making the ballot-hardcopy reable only by computer, make it both human and computer readble.
Furthermore, create a whole ballot verification process. When the ballot is placed in the receptacle, a process compares the digital and the hardcopy and registers a valid/invalid status thus preventing tampering in the intermediary step.
Lots of options, but the basic premise remains the same: YOU DON'T GET TO KEEP YOUR BALLOT.
I mean seriously folks:
- Go to the machine
- Place vote
- Receive receipt; receipt has machine readble bardcode containing an ID back to the vote record. Place receipt in receptacle
- Receptacle scans receipt and checks barcode ID against DB and flags the DB record as having a valid receipt and therefore it's a legal vote.
- All receipts go into a big lock box that is only opened if fraud is suspected
Is that difficult to comprehend?No real point replying to this so late, but:
core_plexus said, "Until more people get involved in the political process, the majority will be subject to the will of the minority-those that actually get out and vote, and get involved in election campaigns, writing to their representatives, etc."
What you consider involvement is what's been shoved down the public's throat for years now. They're apathetic because they realize that real involvement is actualy through "lobbying" campaign contributions, and various other means of big-money influence (example: controlling the voting process through inauditable, poorly regulated, automated vote processing schemes).
Your vote doesn't count unless you have the money to back it up.