I can't speak for everyone here, but I know my interest in computers was sparked by playing games. (Amiga 1000 baby!) It has since led to college at a fairly good university, and now a *real* job where I sit in a rolly chair and read slashdot while hacking out some code.
Yes, games are a waste of time, but it provides 1) a social outlet; and 2) a desire to use and understand technology.
Shane M. Kluskowski, 16, leaned over the row of empty caffeine drink bottles that separated him from Victor and said that he was washing dishes 20 hours a week at a nearby diner to pay off his own $2,100 laptop.
"It's the best investment ever," Shane declared. "I am going to keep it for the rest of my life, probably, because I won't be able to afford another one."
Thats what I said about my 266mhz K6 laptop I bought in 1998....
I think every geek felt that way once, when the world was shiny and new.
Moderator Bernard Yee has managed product development of computer games in Asia and the United States, most notably at Sony Online Entertainment, developers and publishers of EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies.
Let's fix the 10 minute wait at the starports before worrying about a seminar, mmmkay? SWG players know what I mean.
They need it, can't live without it, and love what they can do with it. They just hate it's performance.
That about sums it up! It is so useful, though, that the business value overrides the poor performance in most instances.
That being said (and to get this back on topic), my dual Xeon workstation is a pretty darn good GIS machine. Mine has a gig of ram and a 250gig scsi drive, which is more than adequate for most high end use. It would be nice to have an extra stick of ram for some of the big datasets.
Also, a dual monitor video card does wonders for GIS, because you can have your map on one screen and your tables on the other.
I guess I should quantify a little bit: It's the best there is on the market (I am actually a GIS consultant/ESRI vendor/etc).
The new 8.x implementation has been totally rewritten in VB, with the goals of looking pretty and being user friendly. The software runs pretty good, per se, but the performance is much slower than the previous GIS packages (command line ArcInfo 7 and ArcView 3.x).
Also, they have changed many of the menu interfaces, such that it is harder than it should be to migrate from the older software packages. For those of us 'old guard' GIS guys, who can do virtually anything using a combination of the command line interface and some AML scripts, it is much less productive to work in the new environment.
In short, if your staff doesn't have GIS experience, you will be perfectly happy using 8.x, and would be better off with it in the long run. And (mercifully) they are still including the command prompt functionality when you purchase an ArcInfo license.
If you only plan on using ArcView (the lesser license), you would probably actually prefer the new software.
An additional noteworthy feature of the new software (and by far the coolest aspect of it), is that ESRI finally figured out how to integrate ArcSDE into the core GIS package. SDE basically allows you to store all your GIS data in an enterprise database (Oracle and SQL Server primarily, I'm not sure about OS packages). The data load times are incredible, particularly for raster data (imagery). If you are a big company, or have numerous users, this is the way to go. Not cheap, but the performance is off the hook.
Let me know if you have specific questions, or if you don't like your current consultants:)
I'm runnning dual xeon (2.66) on XP to do some pretty serious image processing stuff, and the performance is pretty good. All my bottlenecks are a result of crappy GIS software.
I agree. We used to have this elaborate cardboard and blanket shield that we would put up next to the TV, so that we couldn't look at the other players' screens to determine their location. I can't imagine going to such lengths over any other game.
It was pretty competitive, and really defined what a fun video game should be. If you don't agree, you might set off the proximity mine that I put down earlier.
Slashdot Mirror
rot13
Its funny because the article I linked to was written by ESR, generally considered the #2 guy in the Linux religion (along with Linus and RMS)
Disclaimer: don't really work for ESR, just trying to be funny
My PHB says it's too hard to install printers
I can't speak for everyone here, but I know my interest in computers was sparked by playing games. (Amiga 1000 baby!) It has since led to college at a fairly good university, and now a *real* job where I sit in a rolly chair and read slashdot while hacking out some code.
Yes, games are a waste of time, but it provides 1) a social outlet; and 2) a desire to use and understand technology.
Shane M. Kluskowski, 16, leaned over the row of empty caffeine drink bottles that separated him from Victor and said that he was washing dishes 20 hours a week at a nearby diner to pay off his own $2,100 laptop.
"It's the best investment ever," Shane declared. "I am going to keep it for the rest of my life, probably, because I won't be able to afford another one."
Thats what I said about my 266mhz K6 laptop I bought in 1998....
I think every geek felt that way once, when the world was shiny and new.
Thats a pretty good link, thanks!
I had to assemble my own cubicle. I died a little bit that day.
Although never positively identified, it was thought to be a piece of Kapton tape - an adhesive used often in aerospace applications.
Reminds me of an old joke: The surest sign of poor engineering is wrinkles in the duct tape.
Amoebic dysentery is a pretty good deterrent for widespread acceptance of your idea, all legislative matters aside.
Sorry...
two distinguished gentlemen Strumpf and Oberholzer-Gee have most likely made RIAA executives choke on their lunches
Thats all you have to do to be distinguished around here...
Moderator Bernard Yee has managed product development of computer games in Asia and the United States, most notably at Sony Online Entertainment, developers and publishers of EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies.
Let's fix the 10 minute wait at the starports before worrying about a seminar, mmmkay? SWG players know what I mean.
(just teasing - good games, good panel)
Are you referring to my Gamecube monitor?
billing, security, and matchmaking being made available to Windows developers...
Money, secure computing, and chicks - man, I want to be a windows developer! MS sure does take good care of their employees.
they have gateway at office depot, that's the only 3rd party i've seen them at
I moved to tulsa post-OU, making decent $. Not 100k, but enough to eat meat every day
It's not too late to change that name to OklaSoft, the domain is still available...
The one thing keeping me from switching to Linux has a topic, but no one has posted any information there.
Does linux gaming work, or do you just have to play Neverwinter Nights over and over? (reply some good stuff here, and stick it in the wiki, too).
In Oklahoma?!?
If you get a wrangler (I wouldn't own anything else), then here's what to look for:
Soft top, but hard doors - Those soft half doors totally suck, you have to unzip the windows.
6 cylinder - the 4 is too weak to drive up hills and get on the interstate
manual transmission - 2000 and newer wranglers have a really stout manual transmission
Dana 44 rear axle - if you like off roading, this is the heavy duty axle (less likely to break)
vinyl seats - cloth seats get wet, and it takes like 12 hours for them to dry in full sun. not pleasant to ride around on.
Aftermarket:
get a locking glove box. trust me - people think jeeps are places to pick up free stuff.
They need it, can't live without it, and love what they can do with it. They just hate it's performance.
That about sums it up! It is so useful, though, that the business value overrides the poor performance in most instances.
That being said (and to get this back on topic), my dual Xeon workstation is a pretty darn good GIS machine. Mine has a gig of ram and a 250gig scsi drive, which is more than adequate for most high end use. It would be nice to have an extra stick of ram for some of the big datasets.
Also, a dual monitor video card does wonders for GIS, because you can have your map on one screen and your tables on the other.
I guess I should quantify a little bit: It's the best there is on the market (I am actually a GIS consultant/ESRI vendor/etc).
:)
The new 8.x implementation has been totally rewritten in VB, with the goals of looking pretty and being user friendly. The software runs pretty good, per se, but the performance is much slower than the previous GIS packages (command line ArcInfo 7 and ArcView 3.x).
Also, they have changed many of the menu interfaces, such that it is harder than it should be to migrate from the older software packages. For those of us 'old guard' GIS guys, who can do virtually anything using a combination of the command line interface and some AML scripts, it is much less productive to work in the new environment.
In short, if your staff doesn't have GIS experience, you will be perfectly happy using 8.x, and would be better off with it in the long run. And (mercifully) they are still including the command prompt functionality when you purchase an ArcInfo license.
If you only plan on using ArcView (the lesser license), you would probably actually prefer the new software.
An additional noteworthy feature of the new software (and by far the coolest aspect of it), is that ESRI finally figured out how to integrate ArcSDE into the core GIS package. SDE basically allows you to store all your GIS data in an enterprise database (Oracle and SQL Server primarily, I'm not sure about OS packages). The data load times are incredible, particularly for raster data (imagery). If you are a big company, or have numerous users, this is the way to go. Not cheap, but the performance is off the hook.
Let me know if you have specific questions, or if you don't like your current consultants
I'm runnning dual xeon (2.66) on XP to do some pretty serious image processing stuff, and the performance is pretty good. All my bottlenecks are a result of crappy GIS software.
invisible, but talkative digital agents
I've been dating her for years!
Vous avez ete rediriges suite a un trop grand nombre de connexion a cette news.
BF Translation:
You were redirected following a too great number of connection to this news.
French-style slashdotting!!
I agree. We used to have this elaborate cardboard and blanket shield that we would put up next to the TV, so that we couldn't look at the other players' screens to determine their location. I can't imagine going to such lengths over any other game.
It was pretty competitive, and really defined what a fun video game should be. If you don't agree, you might set off the proximity mine that I put down earlier.