Is it possible for the US Government and Microsoft to come together on this? I wonder whether it's not just an attempt at (1) giving the public a while to calm down and (2) affording Microsoft the opportunity to operate in its standard mode for a longer period. Every day Microsoft puts off a major revamping of their processes, if that's what's in store, means several million dollars a day and a company a week in their hoard.
The MUCKs, MOOs, etc are a good place. I met my girlfriend on a MUCK about two and a half years ago; she's finishing college before moving to be with me, and in the mean time we're flying to see each other, going on vacations together, etc.
The nice thing here is that it's not just a chatting environment. There's a lot of room to be inventive; your programming skills can be used to actually add interesting, new concepts to the environment. It's also easy to show off writing skills in adding new places to the environment. (Ever seen an OSS world?) My girlfriend had created an unusual Eastern palace and was programming an immersive Clue game within.
The most interesting aspects of your personality really shine through in a place like this. Even if you're not creating things, in the spaces everyone else has created, there's a lot more room to just break loose and play.
Generally the furry MUCK crowd (there are quite a few - telnet muck.org:6300, svansmoj.ctrl-c.liu.se:23 or furry.org:8888 for smallest to largest) is a pretty bizarre/fun set. Most here have characters formed after some animal which they think represent their personalities. (Kind of like walking cartoon characters, but they'd kill you for saying that.) Having already stepped out of the mainstream enough to accept the notion of these strange characters, most are pretty open to, and nonjudgemental about alternate lifestyles too.
Leave the latest and greatest release to the hobbyists. Commercial users don't/shouldn't want the bleeding edge release on their desk. Better to go with something guaranteed to be working and secure.
amazon.com - please reference account "brian@pobox.com" - I've personally ordered hundreds of books from you to the tune of about ten thousand dollars.
Reference this account because you just lost it. And I doubt it's the only one. (If I have my say, sizeable work accounts will migrate as well.)
I wrote Amazon about this previously. I suggested that one of their larger customer bases, such as any who had purchased a Linux or BSD book in the past, would not take kindly to their abusing this patent.
Barnes and Noble seems a likely next choice of bookstore. I'd like to know if others have good experience with other online booksellers.
For one, I'm not even interested in wireless mail &c for as along as there's a per-message charge.
Pagers and cell phones were the same way. They never entered mainstream culture until economically priced calling packs are available with more messages or minutes than anyone would use.
The imposition of having to consider the charge of each and every communication, or of having to select which friends 'deserve' your number or e-mail simply keeps it from blending into comfortable, everyday use.
I've placed just shy of 100 orders with Amazon, totaling somewhere around $9,000. (This doesn't count books ordered by/for my employer. - These are personal purchases over the last 3 years.)
The day I hear about Amazon actually enforcing one of their patents to limit another site is the day they've seen my last order.
In the long run, can you see a merger of Hollywood and the game industry? As television and movies (in the long-term) strive to become more interactive and games struggle to become more real, what's left to differentiate these forms of entertainment?
Can you see a time when different providers offer different portions of what me might now term a game, using interchangeable components?
Networking and distributed object technologies seem to make this feasible. Quake might have only been simple rules for movement and scoring for a game played in an existing online environment.
Where would this technology come from? Have you heard of suitable standards efforts under way?
Surely you're looking ten, twenty years, perhaps even further down the line. What do you see as the coming fundamental changes in gaming? Five and ten years ago, I don't think anyone could have believed that 3D or networking could become ubiquitous gaming concepts. What's next?
Much of my work involves console games. When publishing a Nintendo or a Playstation title, let me tell you - you will NOT get a major bug out the door. They don't give a damn if you're missing Christmas with your hot, new title. If something corrupts a memory card or locks up the game mid way through, you're not shipping. Nintendo and Sony won't allow it. You're going to fix the problem and wait for testing all over again. Period.
Consumers need to demand a similar approach with commercial software. (Pick an OS)-certified should mean that it's been tested extensively under the given OS by some third party who hasn't got a strong stake in whether the product ships on time.
Becoming certified would become a sellable marketing point, and in time, major bugs would be a thing of the past.
In the mean-time, it would be nice if PC Labs or another of the ultravisible PC media companies would publish a monthly table of major products and a respective danger level. "UNTESTED" the first month, followed by graduation to one of "STABLE," "UNSTABLE," or "DANGEROUS", the ranking of which would be updated with each subsequent patch level. This would finally pressure Microsoft et al to stabilize each release before jumping back into adding shiny, new, sellable features.
Barrons had an interesting piece on Intel this week, entitled "Intel NOT Inside."
In that article as well, Intel claimed that it was targeting the internet economy. The implied reasoning was that the profit ratio is about the same on the $500 chips as the $100 Celeron, so they're about five times as lucrative. The article estimates that one server-class machine is needed for every ten consumer machines on the Internet.
If consumer hardware is getting cheaper while server hardware is staying steady or even advancing in cost, we can see where the safe money's going to be for Intel.
Given the above, and the article's further declaration that Intel has already made/is trying to make further inroads into the embedded controller market where switches, hubs, etc are concerned, we can determine that Internet Economy is obscure jargon for the Internet server and networking hardware market.
--
My question for Intel is whether it's prudent to explicitly remove emphasis from lower end systems (if that's what they truly intend). By Intel's admission, the $100 chips still make the same percentage profit. Wouldn't it make more sense to get on the ball and start pushing Microsoft and game developers to make use of SMP in consumer products, and to then push its low-end SMP-capable processors?
Imagine the benefit to Intel (and us) if they let companies continue to make these sub-$1000-PCs, but if each had 3 spaces free for candy-colored $200 cartridge with another processor and a bit of RAM inside. Average consumers can finally buy that PC that lasts them 5 years, and Intel still gets (eventually) the full price of a server-class chip when people finally upgrade. (And I'll wager quite a few will if they can do it in sub $200 increments!)
According to the article, the chip will be able to emulate a fair number of different processors. That the initial focus of their emulation software is on the largest market is neither a surprise nor disappointing. It's good business.
I just hope we see a version of Linux running in processor native mode or at least under some microcode without all the legacy baggage that Intel's 80x86 family brings.
There were a number of programs on the Apple ][ and C-64 which played music by stepping the drive heads at various frequencies.
I had one that played In the Hall of the Mountain King which got more and more insane as it went. Kind of a test to see what level of abuse you'd let your drive go through.
I was used to realigning those damned 1541s anyway.
I'll second Xing with its VBR. I've encoded about 450 CDs with AudioCatalyst, all with VBR. The only place I hear noticable loss is in some breathy lyrics (Sarah McLaughlan, Enya), a couple wild flute pieces and sharp sawtooth waveforms (lots of early 80s synth pop).
Only in some of the Sarah pieces was the loss actually bad enough to deter from enjoyment of the music, which is okay - Sarah's not so interesting these days anyway.
My sense of the absurd looks forward to the point where we're ordering from Mexico and Canada to avoid these taxes. Way to kill a fast-growing US industry, guys.
Slashdot Mirror
Is it possible for the US Government and Microsoft to come together on this? I wonder whether it's not just an attempt at (1) giving the public a while to calm down and (2) affording Microsoft the opportunity to operate in its standard mode for a longer period. Every day Microsoft puts off a major revamping of their processes, if that's what's in store, means several million dollars a day and a company a week in their hoard.
The MUCKs, MOOs, etc are a good place. I met my girlfriend on a MUCK about two and a half years ago; she's finishing college before moving to be with me, and in the mean time we're flying to see each other, going on vacations together, etc.
The nice thing here is that it's not just a chatting environment. There's a lot of room to be inventive; your programming skills can be used to actually add interesting, new concepts to the environment. It's also easy to show off writing skills in adding new places to the environment. (Ever seen an OSS world?) My girlfriend had created an unusual Eastern palace and was programming an immersive Clue game within.
The most interesting aspects of your personality really shine through in a place like this. Even if you're not creating things, in the spaces everyone else has created, there's a lot more room to just break loose and play.
Generally the furry MUCK crowd (there are quite a few - telnet muck.org:6300, svansmoj.ctrl-c.liu.se:23 or furry.org:8888 for smallest to largest) is a pretty bizarre/fun set. Most here have characters formed after some animal which they think represent their personalities. (Kind of like walking cartoon characters, but they'd kill you for saying that.) Having already stepped out of the mainstream enough to accept the notion of these strange characters, most are pretty open to, and nonjudgemental about alternate lifestyles too.
Leave the latest and greatest release to the hobbyists. Commercial users don't/shouldn't want the bleeding edge release on their desk. Better to go with something guaranteed to be working and secure.
amazon.com - please reference account "brian@pobox.com" - I've personally ordered hundreds of books from you to the tune of about ten thousand dollars.
Reference this account because you just lost it. And I doubt it's the only one. (If I have my say, sizeable work accounts will migrate as well.)
I wrote Amazon about this previously. I suggested that one of their larger customer bases, such as any who had purchased a Linux or BSD book in the past, would not take kindly to their abusing this patent.
Barnes and Noble seems a likely next choice of bookstore. I'd like to know if others have good experience with other online booksellers.
Games have been taking bits of Windows down for YEARS!
For one, I'm not even interested in wireless mail &c for as along as there's a per-message charge.
Pagers and cell phones were the same way. They never entered mainstream culture until economically priced calling packs are available with more messages or minutes than anyone would use.
The imposition of having to consider the charge of each and every communication, or of having to select which friends 'deserve' your number or e-mail simply keeps it from blending into comfortable, everyday use.
I've placed just shy of 100 orders with Amazon, totaling somewhere around $9,000. (This doesn't count books ordered by/for my employer. - These are personal purchases over the last 3 years.)
The day I hear about Amazon actually enforcing one of their patents to limit another site is the day they've seen my last order.
Games are fast approaching Hollywood scale.
In the long run, can you see a merger of Hollywood and the game industry? As television and movies (in the long-term) strive to become more interactive and games struggle to become more real, what's left to differentiate these forms of entertainment?
Discounting your own projects, what's your favorite game of all time?
What games have strongly influenced you?
In your daily work, where outside of the game industry do you draw the most inspiration, the most fresh ideas?
Can you see a time when different providers offer different portions of what me might now term a game, using interchangeable components?
Networking and distributed object technologies seem to make this feasible. Quake might have only been simple rules for movement and scoring for a game played in an existing online environment.
Where would this technology come from? Have you heard of suitable standards efforts under way?
If you could change one thing about the direction of the software industry as a whole, not just the gaming industry, what would that be?
Are operating systems keeping up with the fast growth of hardware technology, or is there something fundamental that's got us throwing away potential?
Surely you're looking ten, twenty years, perhaps even further down the line. What do you see as the coming fundamental changes in gaming? Five and ten years ago, I don't think anyone could have believed that 3D or networking could become ubiquitous gaming concepts. What's next?
From a development standpoint, what do you see as the greatest hurdles to Linux becoming a viable gaming platform?
Which have been your greatest Linux development hurdles, and which of these still stand?
Much of my work involves console games. When publishing a Nintendo or a Playstation title, let me tell you - you will NOT get a major bug out the door. They don't give a damn if you're missing Christmas with your hot, new title. If something corrupts a memory card or locks up the game mid way through, you're not shipping. Nintendo and Sony won't allow it. You're going to fix the problem and wait for testing all over again. Period.
Consumers need to demand a similar approach with commercial software. (Pick an OS)-certified should mean that it's been tested extensively under the given OS by some third party who hasn't got a strong stake in whether the product ships on time.
Becoming certified would become a sellable marketing point, and in time, major bugs would be a thing of the past.
In the mean-time, it would be nice if PC Labs or another of the ultravisible PC media companies would publish a monthly table of major products and a respective danger level. "UNTESTED" the first month, followed by graduation to one of "STABLE," "UNSTABLE," or "DANGEROUS", the ranking of which would be updated with each subsequent patch level. This would finally pressure Microsoft et al to stabilize each release before jumping back into adding shiny, new, sellable features.
Barrons had an interesting piece on Intel this week, entitled "Intel NOT Inside."
In that article as well, Intel claimed that it was targeting the internet economy. The implied reasoning was that the profit ratio is about the same on the $500 chips as the $100 Celeron, so they're about five times as lucrative. The article estimates that one server-class machine is needed for every ten consumer machines on the Internet.
If consumer hardware is getting cheaper while server hardware is staying steady or even advancing in cost, we can see where the safe money's going to be for Intel.
Given the above, and the article's further declaration that Intel has already made/is trying to make further inroads into the embedded controller market where switches, hubs, etc are concerned, we can determine that Internet Economy is obscure jargon for the Internet server and networking hardware market.
--
My question for Intel is whether it's prudent to explicitly remove emphasis from lower end systems (if that's what they truly intend). By Intel's admission, the $100 chips still make the same percentage profit. Wouldn't it make more sense to get on the ball and start pushing Microsoft and game developers to make use of SMP in consumer products, and to then push its low-end SMP-capable processors?
Imagine the benefit to Intel (and us) if they let companies continue to make these sub-$1000-PCs, but if each had 3 spaces free for candy-colored $200 cartridge with another processor and a bit of RAM inside. Average consumers can finally buy that PC that lasts them 5 years, and Intel still gets (eventually) the full price of a server-class chip when people finally upgrade. (And I'll wager quite a few will if they can do it in sub $200 increments!)
According to the article, the chip will be able to emulate a fair number of different processors. That the initial focus of their emulation software is on the largest market is neither a surprise nor disappointing. It's good business.
I just hope we see a version of Linux running in processor native mode or at least under some microcode without all the legacy baggage that Intel's 80x86 family brings.
Just as Redhat let some of the best open source contributors in at the opening price via etrade, I say take the top n karma holders and... ;)
Vaguely related...
There were a number of programs on the Apple ][ and C-64 which played music by stepping the drive heads at various frequencies.
I had one that played In the Hall of the Mountain King which got more and more insane as it went. Kind of a test to see what level of abuse you'd let your drive go through.
I was used to realigning those damned 1541s anyway.
Bill's manic laughter.
Once there were no words...
I'll second Xing with its VBR. I've encoded about 450 CDs with AudioCatalyst, all with VBR. The only place I hear noticable loss is in some breathy lyrics (Sarah McLaughlan, Enya), a couple wild flute pieces and sharp sawtooth waveforms (lots of early 80s synth pop).
Only in some of the Sarah pieces was the loss actually bad enough to deter from enjoyment of the music, which is okay - Sarah's not so interesting these days anyway.
My sense of the absurd looks forward to the point where we're ordering from Mexico and Canada to avoid these taxes. Way to kill a fast-growing US industry, guys.