A few years ago, a new console might have a life. But since Microsoft entered the market, the only consoles that have a chance of survival are those that were big already. Any new console will be crushed. Crushed like a bug.
Vectors use a contiguous memory area to hold data, so they have immediate random access to all the elements, but the tradeoff is that inserting elements in the middle of the vector means data is going to have to be moved around. Linked lists, on the other hand
That's my point: it's a technical difference, not a functional one. In a language such as C, which is low-level, I understand that such differences must be taken into account. Java, however, pretends to be a high-level language. So I would expect one of two things: Either there is one class, and a parameter controls the storage method, or there are two classes, which have exactly the same interface (easier, and therefore probably preferable). Vector and LinkedList, however, use completely different method names for their interface. Which is stupid, because their functionality is the same. That is what I mean by bad design.
Please give an example, because I couldn't program in Perl to save my life
I forget the exact method name (I think ReplaceStr, but don't pin me down on it), but in the String class there is a method to replace substrings with other substrings -- check it out.
In my experience, things are considered cool (by geeks) when they are difficult to use. If that is the case, Java should be cool. Perhaps it is not as cryptic as Perl, but it comes pretty close.
I have learned and programmed in about 15 different programming languages (professionally in 5 of them), and designed a couple of special-purpose languages myself (also professionally).
My experience with Java is that it is tremendously difficult to learn. True, it is fairly easy to read and understand a Java program by someone else. It is also fairly easy to kludge something together. But if you try to program elegantly in Java, you are suddenly confronted with a huge number of standard classes which seem to have been designed by dozens of people who did not communicate with each other. Learning Java is like learning several different languages at once.
Java is the only language I know that makes a distinction between 'int' and 'Integer'. It is the only language I know that requires you to be fairly fluent in a completely different language (Perl) to use some of its default methods. It is the only language I know that has two different standard classes for the same functionality (Vector and LinkedList).
The idea behind Java was OK. The execution was terrible.
The only reason I can see why Java is not cool despite the fact that it is difficult to use, is the fact that it isn't elegant. Probably that was in the article, but slashdotting prevented me from reading it.
Microsoft are filing 3000 patents a Year, that is 8.21 a day, and each one can take MONTHS to work over.
As I understand it, it takes a period of months to come to a judgement on a patent application, but it only takes the USPTO a day or two of actual work for each patent.
Actually, since they grant ridiculous patents, perhaps they really need a few months to get their knowledge up-to-date.
Brian Sheppard wrote the Scrabble-playing program Maven. Maven consistently beats human Scrabble world champions. And the fun part is: the program is based mainly on statistical values for letter occurrences. This means that the English Maven can be converted into a foreign-language Maven, simply by loading the dictionary and let the computer generate the statistics for the dictionary. At his
Ph.D. defense, Sheppard demonstrated this by loading a Dutch dictionary into the program, and let the program play against the Dutch Scrabble champions. The humans were wiped off the board.
For me, this only goes to show that Scrabble is not a very interesting game...
It is not illegal and never has been. However, DVD publishers seem to feel they have a right to put all kinds of blockage up to make it difficult for you to use the product (i.e. the DVD, not the movie) you bought. Personally, I'd say that such behaviour is actually close to being illegal.
The article draws an apt parallel with the movies. Unfortunately, if movie design is like game design, coming up with a unique concept is a surefire way to have troubles getting funding. Remember the opening scene of "The Player", where Tim Robbins' character, a movie producer, gets pitched many ideas? They all start with statements like "It's like Die Hard meets Pretty Woman". Publishers like what they know works. Publishers hate new concepts. True, a new concept might bring lots of money, but chances are it will be a terrific dud. Only publishers that have money to spare (in your dreams) dare to invest in original concepts. And they will only give money for an original concept to a development studio that has a successful record. Yeah, I too wish it were different.
I fully agree with the assessment that Morrowind was flawed with respect to the PC's integration in the world. And it would be great if Fable would solve this problem. However, I predict that it won't. The first review gives a clear indication for that. It relates how a player murders a whole village, then buys the property cheap, and becomes megarich when people start moving in again. I ask you: how the hell is it possible to murder a whole village and then just quietly get away with buying the property? Some law-enforcement agency must take a hint of who the killer is, no? I'll give you the answer: because the developers didn't think that far: they install certain mechanisms and as a player you can use or misuse them to your liking. Trouble is, with a game with much freedom, the limits of what is logical and intelligent are breached fairly quickly. That doesn't mean Fable will be a bad game, but it does mean that if you expect that it will provide you with an alternate reality, you are going to be sorely disappointed.
When I read the reviews, I cannot help thinking Fable will be a LOT like Morrowind. Perhaps with a few extras, like the ability to marry and changing appearances, but also with a lot missing, like Morrowind's ability to create your own spells and a toolset to add to the game.
Of course, Morrowind is already 2 years old, so we might expect some advancements. But on the whole, I get the feeling that Fable will be not as revolutionary as it is hyped up to be.
Several LucasArts adventures have aged very well:
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island 1, 2 and 3 (I don't mention Grim Fandango because it is too recent to say it has "aged" - but it is a brilliant game). Of course, the reason they have aged well is that nowadays the rare adventures that get produced generally suck.
It's one of my favorite games of all time, but unfortunately it hasn't aged well, since it seems impossible get it to run on a Windows machine. Now where is the Exult version of System Shock?
Old text adventures had mazes. As a rule of thumb, the bigger the maze, the more boring the adventure. Later on adventure makers caught on, and either delivered games without a maze, or put in "a maze with a twist".
Unfortunately, when some nincompoop license holder thinks it is a good idea to create an adventure game based on his license, he invariably seems to give the assignment to a game developers that know squat-all about adventures. And thus, we see "Star Trek DS9: Harbinger". Not only a terribly boring and unattractive game, but also the game with the biggest, saddest, slowest, and most irritating 3D maze it has ever been my misfortune to wade through.
I stopped playing "Myst" when I got in the underground maze, came to a dead end, and realised I had to track back for at least 10 minutes to get to the right path again. Can't say Myst is a boring game on the whole, but in the maze it sank to the pits.
Strangely, some games that were fun to play 15-20 years ago are terribly boring nowadays. Who remembers "The Bard's Tale"? Who enjoyed it? And who would loathe to play it today?
From the article: The results of the test are bad news for photography processing services... Around eight out of 10 digital pictures are thought to never make it into printed form at all.
My parents have about 50 baby photo's of me. I have about 2000 digital baby photo's of my daughter. However, if I am lucky 25 of those are really worthy of printing. If 2 out of 10 digital pictures really make it to actual print, I consider that a great deal. I would say that translates to booming business for the printing services.
Valid maybe, but all the same ridiculous. We all know that you can sort data. We all know that you can store data. We all know that you can sort using data fields. We have sorted on keys, on alphabetical order, on dates, on names, on what-have-you-not. And now Microsoft gets a patent on storing a specific type of information and then sorting on it. Where is the invention? Where is the non-obviousness? Where the hell is the USPTO's brain?
Here in Europe the 15Gb iPod is about 450 euros, or more than $500. Remember that the salaries here are much lower than in the US, and the taxes much higher. So, to compare, I should ask you if you would think that $1000 for a 15Gb iPod is overpriced or not. I thought so.
Overpriced, compared to the value of the components. Apple would make a very nice profit when selling them at half-price, especially considering the huge number of sales.
Hopefully the sale of a new iPod will make the price of the older versions drop considerably. I really want one, but I think they currently are ridiculously overpriced. Especially here in the Old World. Is a 15Gb iPod for 100 euros too much to ask?
he said, adding: 'I am betting we can take Sony in the next generation.'
Ballmer in the footsteps of Bill Gates on his honeymoon: all he did was sit on the edge of the bed and tell her how good it was going to be when she would finally get it.
The difference: Ballmer does not sit on the edge of the bed, but is busy throwing huge wads of cash at buying dildo's, lubes, leatherwares, and copies of the Kama Sutra. In the meantime, in the bedroom there is only snoring.
Slashdot Mirror
A few years ago, a new console might have a life. But since Microsoft entered the market, the only consoles that have a chance of survival are those that were big already. Any new console will be crushed. Crushed like a bug.
That would be the ladies' restroom.
OK, I'll tell you. The UN is bad without evil intentions. MS is bad with evil intentions. Pick the one you think is worse.
That's my point: it's a technical difference, not a functional one. In a language such as C, which is low-level, I understand that such differences must be taken into account. Java, however, pretends to be a high-level language. So I would expect one of two things: Either there is one class, and a parameter controls the storage method, or there are two classes, which have exactly the same interface (easier, and therefore probably preferable). Vector and LinkedList, however, use completely different method names for their interface. Which is stupid, because their functionality is the same. That is what I mean by bad design.
Please give an example, because I couldn't program in Perl to save my life
I forget the exact method name (I think ReplaceStr, but don't pin me down on it), but in the String class there is a method to replace substrings with other substrings -- check it out.
I have learned and programmed in about 15 different programming languages (professionally in 5 of them), and designed a couple of special-purpose languages myself (also professionally).
My experience with Java is that it is tremendously difficult to learn. True, it is fairly easy to read and understand a Java program by someone else. It is also fairly easy to kludge something together. But if you try to program elegantly in Java, you are suddenly confronted with a huge number of standard classes which seem to have been designed by dozens of people who did not communicate with each other. Learning Java is like learning several different languages at once.
Java is the only language I know that makes a distinction between 'int' and 'Integer'. It is the only language I know that requires you to be fairly fluent in a completely different language (Perl) to use some of its default methods. It is the only language I know that has two different standard classes for the same functionality (Vector and LinkedList).
The idea behind Java was OK. The execution was terrible.
The only reason I can see why Java is not cool despite the fact that it is difficult to use, is the fact that it isn't elegant. Probably that was in the article, but slashdotting prevented me from reading it.
As I understand it, it takes a period of months to come to a judgement on a patent application, but it only takes the USPTO a day or two of actual work for each patent.
Actually, since they grant ridiculous patents, perhaps they really need a few months to get their knowledge up-to-date.
Brian Sheppard wrote the Scrabble-playing program Maven. Maven consistently beats human Scrabble world champions. And the fun part is: the program is based mainly on statistical values for letter occurrences. This means that the English Maven can be converted into a foreign-language Maven, simply by loading the dictionary and let the computer generate the statistics for the dictionary. At his Ph.D. defense, Sheppard demonstrated this by loading a Dutch dictionary into the program, and let the program play against the Dutch Scrabble champions. The humans were wiped off the board.
For me, this only goes to show that Scrabble is not a very interesting game...
It is not illegal and never has been. However, DVD publishers seem to feel they have a right to put all kinds of blockage up to make it difficult for you to use the product (i.e. the DVD, not the movie) you bought. Personally, I'd say that such behaviour is actually close to being illegal.
The article draws an apt parallel with the movies. Unfortunately, if movie design is like game design, coming up with a unique concept is a surefire way to have troubles getting funding. Remember the opening scene of "The Player", where Tim Robbins' character, a movie producer, gets pitched many ideas? They all start with statements like "It's like Die Hard meets Pretty Woman". Publishers like what they know works. Publishers hate new concepts. True, a new concept might bring lots of money, but chances are it will be a terrific dud. Only publishers that have money to spare (in your dreams) dare to invest in original concepts. And they will only give money for an original concept to a development studio that has a successful record. Yeah, I too wish it were different.
I fully agree with the assessment that Morrowind was flawed with respect to the PC's integration in the world. And it would be great if Fable would solve this problem. However, I predict that it won't. The first review gives a clear indication for that. It relates how a player murders a whole village, then buys the property cheap, and becomes megarich when people start moving in again. I ask you: how the hell is it possible to murder a whole village and then just quietly get away with buying the property? Some law-enforcement agency must take a hint of who the killer is, no? I'll give you the answer: because the developers didn't think that far: they install certain mechanisms and as a player you can use or misuse them to your liking. Trouble is, with a game with much freedom, the limits of what is logical and intelligent are breached fairly quickly. That doesn't mean Fable will be a bad game, but it does mean that if you expect that it will provide you with an alternate reality, you are going to be sorely disappointed.
Of course, Morrowind is already 2 years old, so we might expect some advancements. But on the whole, I get the feeling that Fable will be not as revolutionary as it is hyped up to be.
Several LucasArts adventures have aged very well: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island 1, 2 and 3 (I don't mention Grim Fandango because it is too recent to say it has "aged" - but it is a brilliant game). Of course, the reason they have aged well is that nowadays the rare adventures that get produced generally suck.
It's one of my favorite games of all time, but unfortunately it hasn't aged well, since it seems impossible get it to run on a Windows machine. Now where is the Exult version of System Shock?
Unfortunately, when some nincompoop license holder thinks it is a good idea to create an adventure game based on his license, he invariably seems to give the assignment to a game developers that know squat-all about adventures. And thus, we see "Star Trek DS9: Harbinger". Not only a terribly boring and unattractive game, but also the game with the biggest, saddest, slowest, and most irritating 3D maze it has ever been my misfortune to wade through.
I stopped playing "Myst" when I got in the underground maze, came to a dead end, and realised I had to track back for at least 10 minutes to get to the right path again. Can't say Myst is a boring game on the whole, but in the maze it sank to the pits.
Strangely, some games that were fun to play 15-20 years ago are terribly boring nowadays. Who remembers "The Bard's Tale"? Who enjoyed it? And who would loathe to play it today?
My parents have about 50 baby photo's of me. I have about 2000 digital baby photo's of my daughter. However, if I am lucky 25 of those are really worthy of printing. If 2 out of 10 digital pictures really make it to actual print, I consider that a great deal. I would say that translates to booming business for the printing services.
Valid maybe, but all the same ridiculous. We all know that you can sort data. We all know that you can store data. We all know that you can sort using data fields. We have sorted on keys, on alphabetical order, on dates, on names, on what-have-you-not. And now Microsoft gets a patent on storing a specific type of information and then sorting on it. Where is the invention? Where is the non-obviousness? Where the hell is the USPTO's brain?
Dammit! I tested the link, but it seems MobyGames discovered the hotlinking and made a change. Try this one for a small sample.
Of course, the cover of Spellcasting 301: Spring Break is not to be missed either.
Here in Europe the 15Gb iPod is about 450 euros, or more than $500. Remember that the salaries here are much lower than in the US, and the taxes much higher. So, to compare, I should ask you if you would think that $1000 for a 15Gb iPod is overpriced or not. I thought so.
Overpriced, compared to the value of the components. Apple would make a very nice profit when selling them at half-price, especially considering the huge number of sales.
Hopefully the sale of a new iPod will make the price of the older versions drop considerably. I really want one, but I think they currently are ridiculously overpriced. Especially here in the Old World. Is a 15Gb iPod for 100 euros too much to ask?
But Elvis is alive! I just saw him leaving the building!
So zero hours for Max Payne 1... That IS fast.
Ballmer in the footsteps of Bill Gates on his honeymoon: all he did was sit on the edge of the bed and tell her how good it was going to be when she would finally get it.
The difference: Ballmer does not sit on the edge of the bed, but is busy throwing huge wads of cash at buying dildo's, lubes, leatherwares, and copies of the Kama Sutra. In the meantime, in the bedroom there is only snoring.
Rephrase this: "...for the sake of more special effects."