Well, we're region 4 here, same as Mexico apparently. It's not exactly hard to get DVDs from outside the region, or getting a regionless player (I don't think they're sold in average consumer stores, though).
It's more to do with region 4 DVDs tend to have less features, but are priced similarly, as region 1 DVDs. So the average consumer, who went down to Target and bought a DVD player, gets less features and can't wise up and get a region 1 DVD without needing a new player.
There's little to no chance of getting Australia reclassified, as we're a PAL territory. I'd assume that the PAL territories would be lumped in with each other in the same regions, but then it's probably more a studio release thing anyway, with no consideration to what TV standard they're using.
Naturally the ACCC thinks this a bit dodge, but haven't done much about it because they'd get hammered. It may come into play in the US-Australia free-trade agreement, but then so will everthing probably.
* Open source the code. An ultimate reward is allowing programmers to allow others and employers to see their entire body of past work. If you want an incentive to do well, this is a big deal.
The thing that's always got me about open source, and especially the GPL, is that it's rather hard to feed yourself from it. Microsoft is in the business of turning code into dollars. They don't do it because they want the thrill of building a good operating system, they do it because they want to be able to eat something better than ramen.
There are a few ways of making money from open source products, but I doubt Microsoft is interested in exploring them. After all, it's not that profitable, no matter how it neat it would be for all of us (noting that Microsoft couldn't really give a crap about coders, as per sell-things-to-people-who-don't-know-computers strategy).
What may be interesting is to open small sections of Windows code, non-critical sections that wouldn't compromise security. Make these open source, but leave everything else closed and provide docs.
* The implementor of a feature should have design influence over that feature.
What happens when you have three coders working on one complicated feature? You need some communication.
I understand often on MS products each member of the team becomes the god of a certain section, and they're responsible for all the decisions on that area. As they're all coders, it's a bit easier to get another coder to see your point of view than a manager, and it scales up okay.
* Avoid ranks.
Snowball's chance in hell. I think this is more related to management philosophy more than anything else - the problem is that at some point managers need to concentrate on different things, not just coding. In some places MS apparently has a decent management culture, where the manager's stated job is to make the coders as comfortable as possible so they can code.
*Use open forums.
I whole-heartedly agree. It can be tough running an open forum because you're far more accountable, but it also makes people feel more like they're having an impact. Contrast something like Star Wars Galaxies and Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates, which are both closed-source MMORPGs (although Yohoho! is releasing source after development) but the community attitude has largely been dictated by the development team's treatment of the community. The SWG team can't show their face in-game and get heckled on the boards because they didn't listen to players in development and are paying for it now, while the Yohoho! team are treated with respect and friendliness, and there's very little l33t anywhere. Keeping people informed is good.
What do you mean, "arguably?" Let's not forget that the *ix flavours all seem to have an aversion to GUIs in the first place.
The only program I have installed on my Windows partition that doesn't even try for the standard look and feel and doesn't have a good reason (so games don't count) is the Gimp.
And I have a lot of programs.
I'd doubt this would be a flame so much - at the very least MS has taken it long enough. Let's bash *nix for a bit.
I think/. should have more mundane posts occasionally just to let people post off topic and kind of "mingle" just to see what the hot topics will be. It would certainly be more interesting than some of the stories that make front page, but then again, I'm pretty wacky.
What do you mean? Every man and his dog knows/.'s all about bashing Microsoft. All the other stuff's/. trying to get off-topic.
Cliff's Notes: Microsoft doesn't care about interoperability. That's a UNIX thing. Microsoft want people, regular people (you know, the ones with money?) to actually be able to use their product. Details confuse.
What's important in Windows world is standards and end-users. What's important in Windows world is ease of programming and predictability.
And then bucks says that even after this you still won't understand. That's in the article as well, BTW.
"slashdot-karma-whoring", in the article, seemed to be referencing that curious practise of bashing Windows whenever possible (see the other/. posting on this article, about 2 comments down) and having everyone else laugh. Of course this only applies:
1) When Microsoft is nowhere near the conversation (and thus someone actually thinks the conversation would benefit from some Microsoft bashing
2) When the article in question is in fact pointing out that Unix != Windows and stop judging it on your standards, dumbass (like this article, or the other one)
And as one of the beta testers for Puzzle Pirates, it's clear to all concerned that the game qualifies as 'independent', despite its budget (and quality). I honestly have no idea where these guys got their money from.
Trying to quantify independent, though, is difficult. Really.
Taken careful note of the e-mail address, destroyed it, waited a week or two, then e-mail them back and tell them how you've been waiting for God to reveal himself and kick your ass, and how it hasn't happened. Then launch into a standard athiest argument or what have you.
See, the beautiful part is, either God will kick your ass (thus providing final proof as to whether or not religious people are kidding themselves) or nothing will happen and you get to laugh at spammers.
Of course, his design was modified by a commitee mostly made up of the losers. Nevertheless, it shows a decent amount of foresight - the main arteries all have largish nature strips, perfect for slowing down cars and putting in light rails. Canberra has a largish park and a man-made lake just off the city centre (you've got to cross a bridge to reach the federal Parliament House, which has a grass roof that until recently tourists were allowed on). There's trees all over the place.
It's an interesting city to live in, though not to visit so much. Rush hour lasts for 15 minutes, the suburbs are apparently laid out according to Feng Shui principles (so naturally they're impossible to navigate) and the place is full of uni students and public servants - Australian ones, so that means pubs. The attractions are many and samey - very little is intended for the average resident, but then that's probably what the pubs and the shopping centres are for. Not much in the way of special events, but the population often either doesn't have time or has the uni organising things for them.
It's also it's own territory with a governing body that thinks much higher of itself than everyone else, but then Australians think fairly lowly of its politicians in the first place.
Coming from that perspective, I'm not surprised - the ACT is much less conservative than the states (I recall them legalising abortion last year) and would be keen to use something for free/little cash, even if it does mean putting the public servants into an uncomfortable computer environment.
"... with the ability to turn back time its a new kind of gameplay"
Seems like you didn't play Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask:)
Unlike Majora's, Sands of Time lets you turn back time at any point to any point, within about five seconds or so. Basically it means the end of tedious jumping puzzles, which of course was why it was done.
Majora's, on the other hand, used it as a 'Groundhog Day' device.
It's not revolutionary, but it's something someone had to come up with eventually.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, we're region 4 here, same as Mexico apparently. It's not exactly hard to get DVDs from outside the region, or getting a regionless player (I don't think they're sold in average consumer stores, though).
It's more to do with region 4 DVDs tend to have less features, but are priced similarly, as region 1 DVDs. So the average consumer, who went down to Target and bought a DVD player, gets less features and can't wise up and get a region 1 DVD without needing a new player.
There's little to no chance of getting Australia reclassified, as we're a PAL territory. I'd assume that the PAL territories would be lumped in with each other in the same regions, but then it's probably more a studio release thing anyway, with no consideration to what TV standard they're using.
Naturally the ACCC thinks this a bit dodge, but haven't done much about it because they'd get hammered. It may come into play in the US-Australia free-trade agreement, but then so will everthing probably.
Everything sounds fair, except for a few things:
* Open source the code. An ultimate reward is allowing programmers to allow others and employers to see their entire body of past work. If you want an incentive to do well, this is a big deal.
The thing that's always got me about open source, and especially the GPL, is that it's rather hard to feed yourself from it. Microsoft is in the business of turning code into dollars. They don't do it because they want the thrill of building a good operating system, they do it because they want to be able to eat something better than ramen.
There are a few ways of making money from open source products, but I doubt Microsoft is interested in exploring them. After all, it's not that profitable, no matter how it neat it would be for all of us (noting that Microsoft couldn't really give a crap about coders, as per sell-things-to-people-who-don't-know-computers strategy).
What may be interesting is to open small sections of Windows code, non-critical sections that wouldn't compromise security. Make these open source, but leave everything else closed and provide docs.
* The implementor of a feature should have design influence over that feature.
What happens when you have three coders working on one complicated feature? You need some communication.
I understand often on MS products each member of the team becomes the god of a certain section, and they're responsible for all the decisions on that area. As they're all coders, it's a bit easier to get another coder to see your point of view than a manager, and it scales up okay.
* Avoid ranks.
Snowball's chance in hell. I think this is more related to management philosophy more than anything else - the problem is that at some point managers need to concentrate on different things, not just coding. In some places MS apparently has a decent management culture, where the manager's stated job is to make the coders as comfortable as possible so they can code.
*Use open forums.
I whole-heartedly agree. It can be tough running an open forum because you're far more accountable, but it also makes people feel more like they're having an impact. Contrast something like Star Wars Galaxies and Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates, which are both closed-source MMORPGs (although Yohoho! is releasing source after development) but the community attitude has largely been dictated by the development team's treatment of the community. The SWG team can't show their face in-game and get heckled on the boards because they didn't listen to players in development and are paying for it now, while the Yohoho! team are treated with respect and friendliness, and there's very little l33t anywhere. Keeping people informed is good.
Although the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recognises this, they for some reaon still haven't done a damn thing about it.
Heh. They could easily ban DVDs if they wanted to. I don't know why they don't try scaring the MPAA like that.
Especially because region 4 DVDs suck ass compared to region 1 (they get less features, and everyone knows it.)
What do you mean, "arguably?" Let's not forget that the *ix flavours all seem to have an aversion to GUIs in the first place.
The only program I have installed on my Windows partition that doesn't even try for the standard look and feel and doesn't have a good reason (so games don't count) is the Gimp.
And I have a lot of programs.
I'd doubt this would be a flame so much - at the very least MS has taken it long enough. Let's bash *nix for a bit.
I think /. should have more mundane posts occasionally just to let people post off topic and kind of "mingle" just to see what the hot topics will be. It would certainly be more interesting than some of the stories that make front page, but then again, I'm pretty wacky.
What do you mean? Every man and his dog knows /.'s all about bashing Microsoft. All the other stuff's /. trying to get off-topic.
Hurrah! RTFA, dumbass.
Cliff's Notes: Microsoft doesn't care about interoperability. That's a UNIX thing. Microsoft want people, regular people (you know, the ones with money?) to actually be able to use their product. Details confuse.
What's important in Windows world is standards and end-users. What's important in Windows world is ease of programming and predictability.
And then bucks says that even after this you still won't understand. That's in the article as well, BTW.
"slashdot-karma-whoring", in the article, seemed to be referencing that curious practise of bashing Windows whenever possible (see the other /. posting on this article, about 2 comments down) and having everyone else laugh. Of course this only applies:
1) When Microsoft is nowhere near the conversation (and thus someone actually thinks the conversation would benefit from some Microsoft bashing
2) When the article in question is in fact pointing out that Unix != Windows and stop judging it on your standards, dumbass (like this article, or the other one)
I guess what I'm trying to say is, your mom.
I'd be surprised since GTA was banned for its sexual content.
Manhunt is, however, out on shelves. And Rockstar are indeed tools of the highest caliber.
And as one of the beta testers for Puzzle Pirates, it's clear to all concerned that the game qualifies as 'independent', despite its budget (and quality). I honestly have no idea where these guys got their money from.
Trying to quantify independent, though, is difficult. Really.
You know what I would have done?
Taken careful note of the e-mail address, destroyed it, waited a week or two, then e-mail them back and tell them how you've been waiting for God to reveal himself and kick your ass, and how it hasn't happened. Then launch into a standard athiest argument or what have you.
See, the beautiful part is, either God will kick your ass (thus providing final proof as to whether or not religious people are kidding themselves) or nothing will happen and you get to laugh at spammers.
Perfect!
Well, what the hell am I doing on /. then? I'm going to KFC, though lord knows what will happen if I drop some hot chicken oil on myself.
Interestingly, Atari is still a game company, having failed fairly convincingly at being a hardware company.
Isn't that how the slashdot effect comes about?
Then again, I guess people go look at the shiny webpage, then leave again.
Of course, his design was modified by a commitee mostly made up of the losers. Nevertheless, it shows a decent amount of foresight - the main arteries all have largish nature strips, perfect for slowing down cars and putting in light rails. Canberra has a largish park and a man-made lake just off the city centre (you've got to cross a bridge to reach the federal Parliament House, which has a grass roof that until recently tourists were allowed on). There's trees all over the place.
It's an interesting city to live in, though not to visit so much. Rush hour lasts for 15 minutes, the suburbs are apparently laid out according to Feng Shui principles (so naturally they're impossible to navigate) and the place is full of uni students and public servants - Australian ones, so that means pubs. The attractions are many and samey - very little is intended for the average resident, but then that's probably what the pubs and the shopping centres are for. Not much in the way of special events, but the population often either doesn't have time or has the uni organising things for them.
It's also it's own territory with a governing body that thinks much higher of itself than everyone else, but then Australians think fairly lowly of its politicians in the first place.
Coming from that perspective, I'm not surprised - the ACT is much less conservative than the states (I recall them legalising abortion last year) and would be keen to use something for free/little cash, even if it does mean putting the public servants into an uncomfortable computer environment.
"... with the ability to turn back time its a new kind of gameplay" Seems like you didn't play Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask :)
Unlike Majora's, Sands of Time lets you turn back time at any point to any point, within about five seconds or so. Basically it means the end of tedious jumping puzzles, which of course was why it was done.
Majora's, on the other hand, used it as a 'Groundhog Day' device.
It's not revolutionary, but it's something someone had to come up with eventually.