In a post-apocalyptic world where websites mysteriously drop from existance, server hardware is reduced to mere slag and ISP lawyers roam the shattered earth a hero shall rise.
Coming this summer from Forks Searchlight Entertainment: ths slashdotting
"Riders may wait slightly longer for the proper car"
To me, once you're riding time appears to go by quickly, it's the waiting for the damn thing in the first place that's frustrating.
Human nature I suppose.
Re:Absolutely: Web 2.0 is like XML but less so
on
Web 3.0
·
· Score: 1
First of all, the industry jerks off on buzzwords. So it shouldn't be surprising that free-range design patterns get labelled to explain things to managers. "AJAX" is just a way of saying "client-side object serialization via scripting langaguages via SOAP" (or whatever) so that the boss's eyes don't glaze over.
What's your beef with XML? Not everyone went gaga it when it first came out because they see it merely as a substitute for CSV (which, is wrong, wrong wrong). XML is a way of storing self-defining data, this is good for: communicating between two disparate systems, providing data in such a way that a data-consumer decides how it is presented (i.e. services) and flexible-style reports. XML is "exciting" because of its flexibility and its ease of use.
Back to topic though, Web 2.0 seems silly, but it's an attempt to think of ways to deliver more stable and interactive web applications. If you compare what you can do with a client-server app vs a web-based counterpart I'm sure you will find the client-server application easier to use and significantly more stable. So "Web 2.0" is all about addressing the problem of delivering good GUI and stability over the 'net. We used to have a solution for this, it was called Java but a certain Redmond based company decided that it wasn't good enough for us and crippled the virtual machine where it was supposed to live. (Not that that was the only reason Java failed on the web in the late-90s / early 00s, but to me that's what initially killed it).
I've developed web applications for more than six years on various platforms including Java, ASP and.NET and I have to say that in order to meet client requirements for front-end GUI usually requires heavy handed scripting and/or clever browser tricks. Sadly this narrows down the variety of browsers that these applications were functional with (but again, the client demandeth so do I deliver), but picture a world where there was a standard that fron the start was implemented to adhere to standards equally on every platform, that was designed to be flexible yet structured like a proper programming language, something that built in a lot of the junk (like client-side validation) that can be a pain in the butt with current design limitations this is the dream of Web 2.0.
The web could be delivering so much more if it was possible to transcend the current architecture.
Ok, so this site is trying to provide an impartial "scoreboard" system for determining if online retailers are trustworthy, but why should anyone trust these guys any more than any other merchant ranking site?
The site is up and down like a yoyo right now so I can't find out how they are gathering their information, I mean if it's all anecdotal how do they discern between legitimate issues, PO'ed customers or just plain ol' bad luck?
Personally, I only buy big ticket electronics and camera gear from local vendors because there is a bit less risk (i.e. no shipping) and I can put a human face on the store I'm buying from. I guess the other thing that makes me dubious about some online deals is when a vendor is claiming to sell something way below MSRP, that little "it's too good to be true" voice pipes up in my head.
What I want to know is what protects artists from dumb-ass corporate moves? I mean don't they feel the financial hurt if their publisher throws cash away so flagrantly? Or is that factored into "losses incurred by piracy" too.
Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 21st century?" Fry: Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games... and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts, and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams, no siree.
Serioulsy though, Microsoft will turn me into a Linux user before I support an AD supported operating system...
I think you should take 20 and search prior comments in this thread.
There will always be room for core and used RPG books in the local market (and therefore the stores that sell them).
Comic / Gaming stores have to be diverse to say alive. Getting undercut by online retailers over RPG supplements should not be able to crush a store.
If players can find a cheaper way of buying books they will, if the stores can't adjust to this then what good are they anyway?
Not all gamers / comic fans are like you and me, they don't bother hanging out the the good old comic shop. They don't care where they get the books from as long as they can get together and play. And after all, it's not the shop that makes RPGs fun, it's the game and the people who they play with.
I hope that the RPG market continues to grow wisely and not tank again. The 'net has been a positive force for this growth with many disaffected console or MMO players looking for something more than just paying for the privalege of increasing hollow character stats. If getting interested and purchasing online adds more gamers then who are we mere mortals to question the ethics of the free market?
Ok, just don't complain when your store closes and you can only get stuff from the Internet retailers
The likelyhood of that is virtually nil, if the bottom fell out of the RPG market again the only casualty would be new material, the used market has been thriving since forever and will continue to do so.
The majority of player griping came around when we made the switch to the D&D 3.5 ruleset, practically all of them found their books through Amazon or other online retailers with availability and prices local stores couldn't compete with. They placed bulk orders to save on shipping and ended up with all the books they wanted for a good 10 to 15% cheaper. Now me as the DM OTOH, I needed my books right away so I bought all my new books in store. They sold slightly higher than MSRP at most local gaming stores because of availability issues (distro snafu).
Next time would I buy my new D&D books online? Probably.
Would it hurt my local store? Probably not, I buy about ~$200 worth of RPG stuff a year, versus the ~$100 of comics and graphic novels I buy on a bi-weekly schedule. Not to mention used books.
Incedentally, in my experience; If a comic store is well managed it usually takes a combination of severe market failures to shut them down, sadly most comic stores that fail are not well managed;-)
Yes, I can order anything I want from the store, the point is it's cheaper to order online, especially in bulk.
Re:The games may be going strong, but...
on
Dungeons and Shadows
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I DM a large group, everything from first time RPG'ers to a few old hands and I hear things consistantly between all of them: "[we] can buy our books cheaper online".
Much as comics receeded from mass distribution to specialty comic shops in the 70s/80s I see new RPG material and supplements going into a catalog only system. Sure used stuff and core books will probably still be staples at most comic / gaming stores, but you don't strictly need every D&D supplement that comes out every X months, there's just no market for it. And sadly when a store owner has to choose shelf space between the next niche RPG supplement or something that's really in demand it's going to be an easy decisiion.
HOWEVER, most places that i frequent that carry a wide array of RPG stuff are usually that way because the owner or owners are passionate about the game and will try to have as many books on hand to attract the "serious" diceroller crowd. The store I purchase most of my comics and RPG stuff from (Warp 2 in Edmonton) is run by an RPG enthusiast and a couple real comic-heads and is probably one of the better places in the city to buy new material when it comes out, again, because the owner is passionate for the material he will make sure it's there.
Ok, so why people switch according to the quotes from the Article:
I just wanted to try something different
Ok, curiousity, check
because my best friend was a Gentoo-fan, he set up Gentoo for me
Ok, crammed down throat, check
I changed to Linux because of the Fiddle factor
Ok, nerd factor (this would be my factor too mostly I guess), check
It took me about a year to switch from W2K to Linux
Ok, this is a how not a why.
I first tried Linux out of curiousity mainly
Curiosity, check-check
windows 3.1 on 286 what a nightmare... Saw QNX and wanted it for years...Windows 95 (was) ok but lacked the ability I had on the VIC 20
Anti-Microsoft, check
Running a Windows enterprise was like working in the emergency room
Anti-Microsoft, check
Curiosity is a big factor, the tinkerability appeals to some, word of mouth (or in the quoted case force of hand) and of course "Microsoft is teh suck".
NOW, I've been reading/. since 1998 (and, yes, I am a Windork mostly because of work but also because of games) but even lowly I could have given you this list without even blinking.
The one post I'd like to see would be "I had to switch to Linux at work and turned out I love it and installed it at home".
Jules Verne thought that in the future man would get to the moon by being fired there in a bullet shaped craft from a gigantic canon, and for a time afterwards many scientists agreed that the easiest way to get something into orbit would be some form of "Verne canon". Of course then you get all those wacky guys in the 20s playing around with rockets with good results. Later some Germans sped up the research into these rockets to be used as weapons of war and the development of rocket systems well, skyrocketed. Several of their best rocket scientists went to the West after WWII and development continued, though this time the focus was split between missile design and space exploration. Meanwhile, in Canada a few nutty guys were involed in a little project called the High Altitude Research Program (HARP), the idea was that payloads could simply be fired into orbit by a huge canon, mind you the payloads would be inorganic (satellites, radar chaff, other innert material, etc) because the escape velocity would be too great for living creatures to widthstand.
At the time (the 60s) people were interested in sending people into space, not to mention the Canadian Gov't no longer had interest in the project it was killed off by 1967. Now, I think the focus has changed a bit (what with successful robotic expeditions and the desire for a cheap way to get material into orbit) that the Verne Canon might once again be relevant.
Slashdot Mirror
In a post-apocalyptic world where websites mysteriously drop from existance, server hardware is reduced to mere slag and ISP lawyers roam the shattered earth a hero shall rise.
Coming this summer from Forks Searchlight Entertainment:
ths slashdotting
Aren't they supposed to be paid minimum wage?
Trying is the first step toward failure...
Human nature I suppose.
First of all, the industry jerks off on buzzwords. So it shouldn't be surprising that free-range design patterns get labelled to explain things to managers. "AJAX" is just a way of saying "client-side object serialization via scripting langaguages via SOAP" (or whatever) so that the boss's eyes don't glaze over.
.NET and I have to say that in order to meet client requirements for front-end GUI usually requires heavy handed scripting and/or clever browser tricks. Sadly this narrows down the variety of browsers that these applications were functional with (but again, the client demandeth so do I deliver), but picture a world where there was a standard that fron the start was implemented to adhere to standards equally on every platform, that was designed to be flexible yet structured like a proper programming language, something that built in a lot of the junk (like client-side validation) that can be a pain in the butt with current design limitations this is the dream of Web 2.0.
What's your beef with XML? Not everyone went gaga it when it first came out because they see it merely as a substitute for CSV (which, is wrong, wrong wrong). XML is a way of storing self-defining data, this is good for: communicating between two disparate systems, providing data in such a way that a data-consumer decides how it is presented (i.e. services) and flexible-style reports. XML is "exciting" because of its flexibility and its ease of use.
Back to topic though, Web 2.0 seems silly, but it's an attempt to think of ways to deliver more stable and interactive web applications. If you compare what you can do with a client-server app vs a web-based counterpart I'm sure you will find the client-server application easier to use and significantly more stable. So "Web 2.0" is all about addressing the problem of delivering good GUI and stability over the 'net. We used to have a solution for this, it was called Java but a certain Redmond based company decided that it wasn't good enough for us and crippled the virtual machine where it was supposed to live. (Not that that was the only reason Java failed on the web in the late-90s / early 00s, but to me that's what initially killed it).
I've developed web applications for more than six years on various platforms including Java, ASP and
The web could be delivering so much more if it was possible to transcend the current architecture.
Just my 2 cents...
Start surfing pr0n!?
The Boss sez: "You're fired!."
The Constable sez: "What's all this then."
The Geek sez: Stay Tuned!
The ridiculously high DVD sales for Family Guy showed Fox that there was money to be made by bringing it back.
I'm sure the Futurama sales were good enough to make them at least consider bringing the show back.
Girl-gamers are an important technological breakthrough for gamers who want a mate that won't complain about multi-hour, semi-social gaming sessions.
How about put a stake in evil?
Ok, so this site is trying to provide an impartial "scoreboard" system for determining if online retailers are trustworthy, but why should anyone trust these guys any more than any other merchant ranking site?
The site is up and down like a yoyo right now so I can't find out how they are gathering their information, I mean if it's all anecdotal how do they discern between legitimate issues, PO'ed customers or just plain ol' bad luck?
Personally, I only buy big ticket electronics and camera gear from local vendors because there is a bit less risk (i.e. no shipping) and I can put a human face on the store I'm buying from. I guess the other thing that makes me dubious about some online deals is when a vendor is claiming to sell something way below MSRP, that little "it's too good to be true" voice pipes up in my head.
What I want to know is what protects artists from dumb-ass corporate moves? I mean don't they feel the financial hurt if their publisher throws cash away so flagrantly? Or is that factored into "losses incurred by piracy" too.
I know not all overlays are Flash based but the pros of uninstalling certain browser plug-ins far outweigh the cons.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock.
Serioulsy though, Microsoft will turn me into a Linux user before I support an AD supported operating system...
In my day we'd memorize everything as song or poetry. Books are dumbing down the next generation...
Not all gamers / comic fans are like you and me, they don't bother hanging out the the good old comic shop. They don't care where they get the books from as long as they can get together and play. And after all, it's not the shop that makes RPGs fun, it's the game and the people who they play with.
I hope that the RPG market continues to grow wisely and not tank again. The 'net has been a positive force for this growth with many disaffected console or MMO players looking for something more than just paying for the privalege of increasing hollow character stats. If getting interested and purchasing online adds more gamers then who are we mere mortals to question the ethics of the free market?
The likelyhood of that is virtually nil, if the bottom fell out of the RPG market again the only casualty would be new material, the used market has been thriving since forever and will continue to do so.
The majority of player griping came around when we made the switch to the D&D 3.5 ruleset, practically all of them found their books through Amazon or other online retailers with availability and prices local stores couldn't compete with. They placed bulk orders to save on shipping and ended up with all the books they wanted for a good 10 to 15% cheaper. Now me as the DM OTOH, I needed my books right away so I bought all my new books in store. They sold slightly higher than MSRP at most local gaming stores because of availability issues (distro snafu).
Next time would I buy my new D&D books online? Probably.
Would it hurt my local store? Probably not, I buy about ~$200 worth of RPG stuff a year, versus the ~$100 of comics and graphic novels I buy on a bi-weekly schedule. Not to mention used books.
Incedentally, in my experience; If a comic store is well managed it usually takes a combination of severe market failures to shut them down, sadly most comic stores that fail are not well managed
Yes, I can order anything I want from the store, the point is it's cheaper to order online, especially in bulk.
I DM a large group, everything from first time RPG'ers to a few old hands and I hear things consistantly between all of them: "[we] can buy our books cheaper online".
Much as comics receeded from mass distribution to specialty comic shops in the 70s/80s I see new RPG material and supplements going into a catalog only system. Sure used stuff and core books will probably still be staples at most comic / gaming stores, but you don't strictly need every D&D supplement that comes out every X months, there's just no market for it. And sadly when a store owner has to choose shelf space between the next niche RPG supplement or something that's really in demand it's going to be an easy decisiion.
HOWEVER, most places that i frequent that carry a wide array of RPG stuff are usually that way because the owner or owners are passionate about the game and will try to have as many books on hand to attract the "serious" diceroller crowd. The store I purchase most of my comics and RPG stuff from (Warp 2 in Edmonton) is run by an RPG enthusiast and a couple real comic-heads and is probably one of the better places in the city to buy new material when it comes out, again, because the owner is passionate for the material he will make sure it's there.
Isn't that the point of this service; detailed information gathering?
This is no different from many other counter services already provided on the web (well, it has more robust reporting considering it's free).
I do loathe the fact that it's a remote JS file, that has to change.
Ok, curiousity, check
Ok, crammed down throat, check
Ok, nerd factor (this would be my factor too mostly I guess), check
Ok, this is a how not a why.
Curiosity, check-check
Anti-Microsoft, check
Anti-Microsoft, check
Curiosity is a big factor, the tinkerability appeals to some, word of mouth (or in the quoted case force of hand) and of course "Microsoft is teh suck".
NOW, I've been reading
The one post I'd like to see would be "I had to switch to Linux at work and turned out I love it and installed it at home".
I have a pile of 286s you might be interested in, one owner, only used them on Sundays...
Attn: Console Competitors,
We are the Microsoft. We will add your technological and biological distinctiveness to our own. If that's okay with you.
Sicerely,
Microsoft Borg Collective.
Jules Verne thought that in the future man would get to the moon by being fired there in a bullet shaped craft from a gigantic canon, and for a time afterwards many scientists agreed that the easiest way to get something into orbit would be some form of "Verne canon". Of course then you get all those wacky guys in the 20s playing around with rockets with good results. Later some Germans sped up the research into these rockets to be used as weapons of war and the development of rocket systems well, skyrocketed. Several of their best rocket scientists went to the West after WWII and development continued, though this time the focus was split between missile design and space exploration. Meanwhile, in Canada a few nutty guys were involed in a little project called the High Altitude Research Program (HARP), the idea was that payloads could simply be fired into orbit by a huge canon, mind you the payloads would be inorganic (satellites, radar chaff, other innert material, etc) because the escape velocity would be too great for living creatures to widthstand.
At the time (the 60s) people were interested in sending people into space, not to mention the Canadian Gov't no longer had interest in the project it was killed off by 1967. Now, I think the focus has changed a bit (what with successful robotic expeditions and the desire for a cheap way to get material into orbit) that the Verne Canon might once again be relevant.