You make a good point against those stating "Everyone complained about XP then the way they complain about Vista now." Yes, but XP saw immediate improvement and major acceptance after its first service pack. ME was never accepted, and I predict we'll see Vista suffer the same fate as ME.
I'm hoping, too, that by the time I need to upgrade my PC again (late 2009 maybe) that XP's successor will be out or that Linux desktops become more compatible with mainstream gaming and have the ease of use of OS X or XP.
I bought a new PC in February 2007 that came with Vista. I tried it for three hours once loaded. I could not get it to recognize both of my monitors, the interface reaction was sluggish (which it should not have been on a Core 2 Duo E6600 with 2GB RAM), Vista combined with IE7 brought my 15Mb fiber experience to a crawl and the UAC annoyed me the entire time. Formatted and loaded XP. I was up and running in an hour with both monitors and my internet speed back to normal.
I talked with several WoW players, local friends and customers who have purchased new PCs over the past year. One out of 12 of them kept Vista loaded. This one person did nothing but surf, e-mail and run Office applications (not a gamer). This same person did complain that they expected the upgrade from their three year old system to provide a faster experience. I informed them they would notice and appreciate the speed difference if they loaded XP. They're still slogging through Vista last I heard.
Like many, I'm toying with the idea of trying Ubuntu. As long as I can work with Office-like files (documents, spreadsheets and some desktop publishing), surf, e-mail and play WoW, I'd be satisfied.
By the list of fixes, isn't this equivalent to Microsoft admitting "Yes, Vista is broken."
Definitely does not sound as if these are enough improvements for me to try Vista again. I knew users and customers using Windows 98 until 2007. I'm sure XP will last until the next version of Windows that works.
1) I don't have an issue with DRM from the legitimate issues I've read about. Tinfoil hat wearers don't scare me.
2) As long as the player doesn't have to phone home to function, I'm fine with leaving it disconnected. I did this with my DirecTV. You plug in a phone line for pay-per-view and receiving local content. Neither mattered to me, so I left it disconnected.
3) THIS I do hate. All I want to do is watch the movie. I'm getting into the habit of putting the DVD into the player, starting it and spending the next 10 minutes getting snacks and drinks while I wait for the crap to finish and get me to the menu. All of the movie/studio/production company logos and animations in front of the actual movie are annoying enough. Show me what I paid for already! Interactive (i.e. animated and delayed) menus are annoying. The only extra content I ever care about is behind the scenes videos and deleted scenes. If I want to play a game, I use my computer.
The winner of my consumer dollars will be the company that delivers a movie when I pay for a movie. Right now VOD through my Verizon FiOS is winning hands-down.
Only part about copyright protection that annoys me are the freaking non-skippable warnings that prevent me from getting to the movie quicker.
Guess I can thank you and those wanting to "experience" the whole DVD for that.
Even when offered to me by a friend, I've never had a desire to copy a DVD or acquire pirated or copied content. The few times I watched a pirated, early release movie or a copy of a rental my reaction was "That was a waste of my time; now I have to pay for or wait to see the movie legitimately so I can see and hear it clearly and enjoy it."
Yeah, yeah. You'll respond with "It wasn't a good copy." When it's all said and done, is it really worth the time and effort it takes to do all that crap? All I want to do is pop a disc into my player, sit back and enjoy a movie in the privacy and convenience of my home.
What functionality and experience are you claiming to be hurt?
I have a 3 year old 50" DLP TV. Purchased Verizon FiOS service early this year. While I can easily see and enjoy the differences between the HD content, DVD content and standard TV broadcasts, I have no inclination to upgrade to HD or Blu-ray.
1) I know my 720 TV won't deliver the minute differences. I don't plan to upgrade anytime soon, though, because it exceeds current broadcast capabilities and still looks amazing, especially live hockey and football.
2) I've seen the demos of a standard DVD and HD/Blu-ray on the latest models of TVs; I could barely tell the difference. Definitely not $200-400 worth of upgrade for hardware and then purchasing new movies and re-purchasing movies I really like in HD/Blu-ray.
3) Live and recorded HD content from cable providers (at least Verizon) is currently quite sufficient and will continue to grow. We may not see that standard TV broadcast cutoff in a few years, but eventually, all broadcast content will be HD.
4) Choosing a format when two "standards" are competing is a crap shoot. I cannot afford to buy both or the dual nor do I wish to re-purchase movies. When a third, better format emerges or the two competitors realize their futility and missed profits and combine, I'll upgrade when it is cost effective and convenient.
I'll sit and watch with the majority on this one, too.
BTW, 6-8 feet is the optimal viewing distance for 50".:-)
Going on the basis of "network" equipment, I'm guessing a few posters are correct that you are not talking about servers, though their proximity to the network equipment is crucial.
1) Centrally located. The network room (often called the wiring closet) should be in the middle of the building/floor. Not only does this make it equidistant from the extents of the building attempting to avoid the 100m limit of ethernet requiring repeaters, but it's also the safest part of the building as far as storms, vehicles hitting the building, other exterior accidents or criminal activity are concerned. Your server room should be just across the wall if not in the same room.
2) Secure. It should be obvious that the door should remain locked and only a select few should have access.
3) ESD safe. Electrostatic discharge is bad for computers and wiring equipment. A bare concrete floor or one sealed and treated is the best surface. A vinyl/linoleum/tile floor is the next best. Carpet of any kind is right out. There is ESD friendly carpet, but I think it's quite expensive and usually reserved for workbenches.
4) Electrically isolated. Not only should you have ample electrical circuits and outlets to handle the full load at 50% capacity to allow for growth, but it should be on circuits not shared by any other devices and if possible, should be on an inline UPS with 30-60 minutes of run time capacity. Nothing quite like the janitor plugging in a vaccuum and bringing your core switch down.
Good luck with this. It's difficult to understand your circumstances fully, but having to share your office with any network/server equipment is not a good thing.
I didn't mean to insinuate that I endorse speeding at all. I do not. It sickens me that I have to break the law to keep from getting run over or being a trigger to an accident because the jerk going 10mph faster than me decided to swerve into another lane instead of slowing down to the limit.
I obey the laws whenever possible, but survival comes first.
It is definitely luck of the draw for getting pulled over if everyone is going 5-10 over, but around Dallas, you have to really stand out from the crowd (80+ or dodging in and out) for the highway patrol to notice. Add to this the fact that cities are relying more upon the intersection cameras to catch red light runners and I begin to notice that cops are only concerned with going after actual crimes not violations. This apparent attitude seems to give drivers that I see confidence in pushing the limits even further.
Only problem I have with speeders or slow drivers is the inconsiderate impact they have on the surrounding traffic.
When someone is going significantly over the speed limit and outpacing everyone around them and they then choose to make a sharp maneuver changing lanes, cutting someone off or running up on someone's rear bumper, it's no surprise that the "victims" around the speeder overreact, brake, swerve or do something else that causes an actual accident.
Slow drivers cause an interruption in the flow. One of my pet peaves is multiple drivers traveling side by side at the same speed on a highway. They've effectively formed a moving bottlenceck.
"Go with the flow" should be the rule of the road. I tried to obey the speed limits on the Dallas highways when I first moved here. Not only did people run up on me, honk at me and signal that I was #1, but I realized I was causing more of a backup and swerves.
I think it's fine to speed if everyone around you is going close to the same speed. Speeding simply to make up time or simply get ahead of someone should be ticketed.
Like any sales job, pitching is an art, one requiring a skill set that doesn't necessarily overlap with the one that produces good games.
Just as any developer builds their skills with coding, graphics engines, world builders, etc. they should work on their people/sales/pitch skills, too. This seems to be rampant through all industries, but sticks out like a sore thumb in IT. Part of the reason many people enter the IT field is because they don't want to deal with people. Putting a developer in front of a crowd and asking them to speak is like throwing the deer in front of the headlights.
It's been offered here before, but I'll offer it again for any of you would-be proposal spokespeople or anyone that simply wants to improve their confidence, communication and leadership skills: http://www.toastmasters.org/ It's inexpensive, doesn't take much time and can make a world of difference in just a few months.
Please, before you throw yourself to the wolves, find a club and let them help you.
Fruedian has already covered the repeat characters.
McKellan (Gandalf), Serkis (Gollum/Smeagol) and Weaving (Elrond) will all likely be there. I also expect John Rhys-Davies to slip in as Gloin, Gimli's father. Further, I expect a brief cameo by Bloom as Legolas when they're in the halls of the wood elves (or did I mistake Legolas' lineage to be some other wood elf king?).
As for Holm as Bilbo, I think he'd do a great job and if they make him look like he did in the flashback it would lend great continuity.
As for the sequel, supposedly it's the bridge between Hobbit and FotR: white council meeting, necromancer's (Sauron's) search for the ring and routing from south of Mirkwood among other events.
As much as I liked PJ's interpretations of LotR, I hope he resists modifying Hobbit at all. There is really nothing that needs to be added or removed. Can't wait to see Smaug, though. I hope they get a voice equivalent to Richard Boone's but not overused. -"I don't recall smelling you before."
Watch the slideshow presentation embedded in the article on theonering.net. It speculates that the first will be "The Hobbit" in it's entirety and the sequel will be the bridge story between "The Hobbit" and "The Fellowship of the Ring." This would include the meeting of the white council, more of Gollum's backstory, the routing of the necromancer and the pre-gathering of the Fellowship members. According to an earlier poster, this is material that the Professor intended to write, but Christopher has yet to piece together from his notes.
I think "The Hobbit" could be well-covered in three to four hours without removing or adding anything. Let's hope PJ stays truer to this book than the others. "Based on" always worries me.
As if we don't already have enough people that think they are experts at how a game should be done. Might as well hand everyone with an opinion a certificate of "Game Developer 101" completion.
Just because I've played computer games since they were words on a green CRT doesn't mean any game designer or company wants my opinion of how a game should be designed or executed. I voice my opinion by purchasing and playing what they do well, and beta-testing and ignoring what they do poorly.
Besides I'm not an all-around gamer, so I have a limited scope. I'm sure many fit into this category as well. I only have a limited amount of time for gaming, so I pick and choose carefully how I spend that time playing. No time/money/interest in consoles, no interest in FPS and no desire for any game that involves head-to-head against a person (PvP).
If they want my opinion on the evolution (and saturation) of the fantasy RPG since 1980, I'll gladly share it.
I think it's newsworthy that any magazine that covers reviews of Vista is openly bashing it just like the consumers. I think we've seen plenty of examples of Vista journalism that appeared bought and made you think "Did they try the same Vista that I did?"
PC World is owned by IDG who probably doesn't get nearly as much kickback as Ziff Davis publications. When a ZD rag truly bashes Vista or any Microsoft product that deserves it, THAT will be a major story.
Thanks to many voices, including the author of TFA, Microsoft will *hopefully* take their next OS seriously and design it to appeal to the users as well as being more stable, secure, digital rights friendly, etc.
The main theme I'm seeing from all the posts for and against Vista is inconsistency. How is it that multiple people with similar systems, all considered "Vista ready" can have such varied experiences? Windows has always had this to some degree. I recall mass deploying Windows 95 to 20 identically configured Compaq Deskpro's in 1996. Each machine had some little difference in the OS that was noticeable. I think Vista is the evolution of those little changes into some very big, very noticeable flaws.
I don't hate Vista; I actually wish it worked well enough for me to use it. I was looking forward to the "improved gaming experience." When I purchased a new PC in February 2007 and Vista immediately gave me difficulty recognizing two monitors, brought my 15Mb internet connection to a crawl and refused to allow me to use a voice program at the same time as running WoW, I gave up and immediately upgraded to XP and have had a wonderfully fast, error-free experience ever since.
When Windows 7 comes out, I'm predicting a real upgrade to the OS on all fronts, a near flawless deployment and everyone looking back at Vista wondering "WTF was that all about?"
"...a frightening picture of interstellar civilizations exterminating their neighbors with relativistic bombardments, not from malice, but simply because it is the most logical action."
I see this as our nearest neighbors saying "Turn off that damn radio and get the hell off my solor lawn, you young whippersnappers!"
Cue tales of "When I was at your evolutionary level..."
Of the numerous players I've met in virtual and real life since starting MMOs in 1997, I think every single one of them would jump at the chance to have something like this: a little piece of the virtual world you can touch. This will attract the same people who played and collected games with "feelies"(tokens included in RPGs to enhance your connection to the game) like the Infocom Wishbringer and Origin's Ultima series.
I'm quite certain this company will be overwhelmed with people waiting at the door for the opportunity to buy one, two or several characters from WoW or other games in the future. Those first few hundred people will hopefully provide sufficient funds for more equipment and more artists to meet the demand. You could see this product/service's end of life if they could possibly fulfill all orders, but just when everyone from the game-du-jour are satisfied, a new game comes out with new characters and people will want another one.
Any smart investors out there will jump on this opportunity and help the company get to mass production ASAP. I wish I had a lump of cash to invest because this is the first sure thing I've caught at its debut. Guess I'll have to watch for when they go public and grab some stock.
It wasn't connected or running, but standing next to it gave you a pretty good perspective of how much computer technlogy has shrunk over the years.
At Perot Systems where I worked most of this year, there's a courtyard containing many historical computer artifacts including one of these 305 disk cabinets. For contrast the curator of the "museum" placed a 40GB iPod (with the cover removed) within the case and there's a side by side comparison chart at the base of the cabinet. I forget all the statistics but it compared weight, cost, power consumption and of course, amount of data stored: 305 = 1 song, iPod = 2,000 songs. The actual character storage was extrapolated to provide more impressive numbers as well.
It made me curious whether or not it would run if it were connected today. I'd wager it would, but it would take some of the other machines in the museum to talk to it.
As someone who lives in the Dallas area, I have had the opportunity to shop at all of the stores being discussed here.
Computer City was good for the little things and gadgets: cables, CDs, accessories, books, etc. It was not a place from which anyone with any intelligence would purchase a computer. Good prices and decent customer service. When CompUSA bought them, it changed drastically. It still was not a place from which to buy a computer, but with CompUSA at the helm prices went up and service went down.
Best Buy, the running joke of technology stores. Poor choice of brands to sell, jacked up prices, the most ignorant computer salespeople I've ever encountered, close to the worst customer service I've ever experienced and protection plans for generating more income everywhere you turn. Let's not even talk about the useless-before-they-were-exposed-for-collecting-porn-and-personal-information Geek Squad.
Circuit City is less of a computer store than Office Depot. They carry a small variety of name brand computers which they buy straight from the manufacturer in bulk and then jack up the price. Besides being as ignorant as Best Buy salespeople, Circuit City people work on commission last I heard, so you get attacked as soon as you look at any high dollar item.
CompUSA used to be reliable and would provide good customer service... if you worked at a business that could afford it. Home users were SoL. As someone else posted if you were unfortunate enough to relinquish your PC to this store, when you got it back not only had two successor computers been released but the amount you paid for the repair could have bought you a brand new computer. They definitely fell behind the curve of every technology they tried to sell. As with most brick and mortar stores, they're structure doesn't allow them to stay ahead of the availability or price curve.
Microcenter makes CompUSA look affordable and friendly. Unless the item you want is on sale then you'll likely pay 25-50% more for it than you would if you bought it online. The only item I've found Microcenter to be useful for is books. They have an extensive selection of technology books and thankfully, they don't mark them up from the cover price.
Fry's, the current darling of geeks everywhere, is showing some of the worst practices of any of these stores mentioned above. Fry's must keep their shrinkwrap machines running at full speed. This mainly centers on computer components. It is rare to see the always-long return line populated by people carrying TVs or small appliances; they almost always have a computer component in their hands. I know that's what put me in that line three times last year until I finally learned my lesson. I suspect that since Fry's has its own computer service department that this group has free will over the components that come into the store. They "borrow" from inventory to troubleshoot and then package the item back up and put it on the shelf. Ever notice how *every* motherboard box on the shelf is only sealed by strapping? How easy is that to re-package? Aside from creating/allowing product defects, Fry's also has poor customer service. Good luck finding someone to help you in any department except printers and TVs where they obviously get commission. Read the fine print on the back of the receipt carefully and ignore it, because if you show any signs of frustration from your experience with them, they'll likely refuse your exchange/return and blow you off. I also feel Fry's deliberately causes store rushes by offering irresistable sales on items and only carrying a limited number per store. (I recall going to Fry's at lunch to check on a sale item. When I asked about it, the employee laughed and said, "Oh, you have to get here before we open for those items.") I strongly suspect that Fry's has a great many underhanded dealings going on as well, and I predict within the next five years they will be exposed.
What choice does that leave anyone who only has a choice of purchasing computers or components
This seems to be the standard practice of Fry's as well, at least for all the stores here in the Dallas, TX area. I've been burned too many times to ever buy any computer component from them. Most recently it was a motherboard with bent pins in the CPU socket. It looked like someone took a screwdriver and dragged it across the pins. Needless to say the Fry's person refused to take it back and accused me of damaging it. (which is impossible since the CPU for that board is flat on the bottom) Abit thankfully did replace it, though the replacement was a refurb that would not post. I'm working on RMA #2.
Caveat emptor for anything you buy from Fry's that could possibly be altered in any manner and shrink-wrapped. Open it up and look at it carefully before you leave the store.
I see this working for groups where collaboration is important, but where privacy or quiet is needed these areas are a major disruption. Everyone here is reacting differently, but not everyone is saying what it is they do for a job.
Jobs that are conducive to this environment:
- marketing
- pre-sales engineers
- artists (graphical, musical, etc.)
- people managers
- sales people (maybe). Depends if they are usually out in the field or taking calls from customers.
Jobs that should be conducive to this environment but the workers wouldn't enjoy it:
- human resources: easily accessible, able to really keep a pulse on morale but a constant need for privacy.
- desktop support: easily accessible, immediately aware of issues but unable to get proactive work done.
Jobs that absolutely cannot work in this environment:
- developer: needs absence of interruptions and quiet for concentration.
- security: no one should be able to peek at security information whether physical or logical.
- sysadmin: same as security plus during a failure the accessability and interruptions would be detrimental.
- accounting/payroll: security concerns as well as customer privacy issues.
I could see a hybrid environment working well - a handful of cubes and offices and 75% of the space as described above. Once you get past the job descriptions, then you must consider whether or not it's conducive for the company's industry. At Cisco and Intel where you have a high percentage of "idea" people and sales people, it works. I'm quite certain the engineers, IT and some back office functions will not and cannot be part of this experiment.
That's my suspicion. I don't expect consoles to be able to run and connect to the current live version of WoW; I wouldn't want them, too, anyway. There are enough juvenile-minded jerks as it is (just my experience with console players).
What I can see happening are the creation of console versions of WoW and WoW servers dedicated to console players. The PC and console versions would never meet. The interface could be dumbed down for limited controllers, but the general gameplay would likely stay the same. The artwork could stay the same as well and not have to be reduced for console limitations.
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I'm hoping, too, that by the time I need to upgrade my PC again (late 2009 maybe) that XP's successor will be out or that Linux desktops become more compatible with mainstream gaming and have the ease of use of OS X or XP.
I bought a new PC in February 2007 that came with Vista. I tried it for three hours once loaded. I could not get it to recognize both of my monitors, the interface reaction was sluggish (which it should not have been on a Core 2 Duo E6600 with 2GB RAM), Vista combined with IE7 brought my 15Mb fiber experience to a crawl and the UAC annoyed me the entire time. Formatted and loaded XP. I was up and running in an hour with both monitors and my internet speed back to normal.
I talked with several WoW players, local friends and customers who have purchased new PCs over the past year. One out of 12 of them kept Vista loaded. This one person did nothing but surf, e-mail and run Office applications (not a gamer). This same person did complain that they expected the upgrade from their three year old system to provide a faster experience. I informed them they would notice and appreciate the speed difference if they loaded XP. They're still slogging through Vista last I heard.
Like many, I'm toying with the idea of trying Ubuntu. As long as I can work with Office-like files (documents, spreadsheets and some desktop publishing), surf, e-mail and play WoW, I'd be satisfied.
Definitely does not sound as if these are enough improvements for me to try Vista again. I knew users and customers using Windows 98 until 2007. I'm sure XP will last until the next version of Windows that works.
1) I don't have an issue with DRM from the legitimate issues I've read about. Tinfoil hat wearers don't scare me.
2) As long as the player doesn't have to phone home to function, I'm fine with leaving it disconnected. I did this with my DirecTV. You plug in a phone line for pay-per-view and receiving local content. Neither mattered to me, so I left it disconnected.
3) THIS I do hate. All I want to do is watch the movie. I'm getting into the habit of putting the DVD into the player, starting it and spending the next 10 minutes getting snacks and drinks while I wait for the crap to finish and get me to the menu. All of the movie/studio/production company logos and animations in front of the actual movie are annoying enough. Show me what I paid for already! Interactive (i.e. animated and delayed) menus are annoying. The only extra content I ever care about is behind the scenes videos and deleted scenes. If I want to play a game, I use my computer.
The winner of my consumer dollars will be the company that delivers a movie when I pay for a movie. Right now VOD through my Verizon FiOS is winning hands-down.
Guess I can thank you and those wanting to "experience" the whole DVD for that.
Even when offered to me by a friend, I've never had a desire to copy a DVD or acquire pirated or copied content. The few times I watched a pirated, early release movie or a copy of a rental my reaction was "That was a waste of my time; now I have to pay for or wait to see the movie legitimately so I can see and hear it clearly and enjoy it."
Yeah, yeah. You'll respond with "It wasn't a good copy." When it's all said and done, is it really worth the time and effort it takes to do all that crap? All I want to do is pop a disc into my player, sit back and enjoy a movie in the privacy and convenience of my home.
What functionality and experience are you claiming to be hurt?
I have a 3 year old 50" DLP TV. Purchased Verizon FiOS service early this year. While I can easily see and enjoy the differences between the HD content, DVD content and standard TV broadcasts, I have no inclination to upgrade to HD or Blu-ray.
1) I know my 720 TV won't deliver the minute differences. I don't plan to upgrade anytime soon, though, because it exceeds current broadcast capabilities and still looks amazing, especially live hockey and football.
2) I've seen the demos of a standard DVD and HD/Blu-ray on the latest models of TVs; I could barely tell the difference. Definitely not $200-400 worth of upgrade for hardware and then purchasing new movies and re-purchasing movies I really like in HD/Blu-ray.
3) Live and recorded HD content from cable providers (at least Verizon) is currently quite sufficient and will continue to grow. We may not see that standard TV broadcast cutoff in a few years, but eventually, all broadcast content will be HD.
4) Choosing a format when two "standards" are competing is a crap shoot. I cannot afford to buy both or the dual nor do I wish to re-purchase movies. When a third, better format emerges or the two competitors realize their futility and missed profits and combine, I'll upgrade when it is cost effective and convenient.
I'll sit and watch with the majority on this one, too.
BTW, 6-8 feet is the optimal viewing distance for 50". :-)
1) Centrally located. The network room (often called the wiring closet) should be in the middle of the building/floor. Not only does this make it equidistant from the extents of the building attempting to avoid the 100m limit of ethernet requiring repeaters, but it's also the safest part of the building as far as storms, vehicles hitting the building, other exterior accidents or criminal activity are concerned. Your server room should be just across the wall if not in the same room.
2) Secure. It should be obvious that the door should remain locked and only a select few should have access.
3) ESD safe. Electrostatic discharge is bad for computers and wiring equipment. A bare concrete floor or one sealed and treated is the best surface. A vinyl/linoleum/tile floor is the next best. Carpet of any kind is right out. There is ESD friendly carpet, but I think it's quite expensive and usually reserved for workbenches.
4) Electrically isolated. Not only should you have ample electrical circuits and outlets to handle the full load at 50% capacity to allow for growth, but it should be on circuits not shared by any other devices and if possible, should be on an inline UPS with 30-60 minutes of run time capacity. Nothing quite like the janitor plugging in a vaccuum and bringing your core switch down.
Good luck with this. It's difficult to understand your circumstances fully, but having to share your office with any network/server equipment is not a good thing.
I obey the laws whenever possible, but survival comes first.
It is definitely luck of the draw for getting pulled over if everyone is going 5-10 over, but around Dallas, you have to really stand out from the crowd (80+ or dodging in and out) for the highway patrol to notice. Add to this the fact that cities are relying more upon the intersection cameras to catch red light runners and I begin to notice that cops are only concerned with going after actual crimes not violations. This apparent attitude seems to give drivers that I see confidence in pushing the limits even further.
When someone is going significantly over the speed limit and outpacing everyone around them and they then choose to make a sharp maneuver changing lanes, cutting someone off or running up on someone's rear bumper, it's no surprise that the "victims" around the speeder overreact, brake, swerve or do something else that causes an actual accident.
Slow drivers cause an interruption in the flow. One of my pet peaves is multiple drivers traveling side by side at the same speed on a highway. They've effectively formed a moving bottlenceck.
"Go with the flow" should be the rule of the road. I tried to obey the speed limits on the Dallas highways when I first moved here. Not only did people run up on me, honk at me and signal that I was #1, but I realized I was causing more of a backup and swerves.
I think it's fine to speed if everyone around you is going close to the same speed. Speeding simply to make up time or simply get ahead of someone should be ticketed.
Just as any developer builds their skills with coding, graphics engines, world builders, etc. they should work on their people/sales/pitch skills, too. This seems to be rampant through all industries, but sticks out like a sore thumb in IT. Part of the reason many people enter the IT field is because they don't want to deal with people. Putting a developer in front of a crowd and asking them to speak is like throwing the deer in front of the headlights.
It's been offered here before, but I'll offer it again for any of you would-be proposal spokespeople or anyone that simply wants to improve their confidence, communication and leadership skills: http://www.toastmasters.org/ It's inexpensive, doesn't take much time and can make a world of difference in just a few months.
Please, before you throw yourself to the wolves, find a club and let them help you.
Fruedian has already covered the repeat characters.
McKellan (Gandalf), Serkis (Gollum/Smeagol) and Weaving (Elrond) will all likely be there. I also expect John Rhys-Davies to slip in as Gloin, Gimli's father. Further, I expect a brief cameo by Bloom as Legolas when they're in the halls of the wood elves (or did I mistake Legolas' lineage to be some other wood elf king?).
As for Holm as Bilbo, I think he'd do a great job and if they make him look like he did in the flashback it would lend great continuity.
As for the sequel, supposedly it's the bridge between Hobbit and FotR: white council meeting, necromancer's (Sauron's) search for the ring and routing from south of Mirkwood among other events.
As much as I liked PJ's interpretations of LotR, I hope he resists modifying Hobbit at all. There is really nothing that needs to be added or removed. Can't wait to see Smaug, though. I hope they get a voice equivalent to Richard Boone's but not overused. -"I don't recall smelling you before."
Yes, but they'll turn to stone if they step out of their mothers' basements and into the sunlight. :-)
I think "The Hobbit" could be well-covered in three to four hours without removing or adding anything. Let's hope PJ stays truer to this book than the others. "Based on" always worries me.
Just because I've played computer games since they were words on a green CRT doesn't mean any game designer or company wants my opinion of how a game should be designed or executed. I voice my opinion by purchasing and playing what they do well, and beta-testing and ignoring what they do poorly.
Besides I'm not an all-around gamer, so I have a limited scope. I'm sure many fit into this category as well. I only have a limited amount of time for gaming, so I pick and choose carefully how I spend that time playing. No time/money/interest in consoles, no interest in FPS and no desire for any game that involves head-to-head against a person (PvP).
If they want my opinion on the evolution (and saturation) of the fantasy RPG since 1980, I'll gladly share it.
PC World is owned by IDG who probably doesn't get nearly as much kickback as Ziff Davis publications. When a ZD rag truly bashes Vista or any Microsoft product that deserves it, THAT will be a major story.
Thanks to many voices, including the author of TFA, Microsoft will *hopefully* take their next OS seriously and design it to appeal to the users as well as being more stable, secure, digital rights friendly, etc.
The main theme I'm seeing from all the posts for and against Vista is inconsistency. How is it that multiple people with similar systems, all considered "Vista ready" can have such varied experiences? Windows has always had this to some degree. I recall mass deploying Windows 95 to 20 identically configured Compaq Deskpro's in 1996. Each machine had some little difference in the OS that was noticeable. I think Vista is the evolution of those little changes into some very big, very noticeable flaws.
I don't hate Vista; I actually wish it worked well enough for me to use it. I was looking forward to the "improved gaming experience." When I purchased a new PC in February 2007 and Vista immediately gave me difficulty recognizing two monitors, brought my 15Mb internet connection to a crawl and refused to allow me to use a voice program at the same time as running WoW, I gave up and immediately upgraded to XP and have had a wonderfully fast, error-free experience ever since.
When Windows 7 comes out, I'm predicting a real upgrade to the OS on all fronts, a near flawless deployment and everyone looking back at Vista wondering "WTF was that all about?"
Cue tales of "When I was at your evolutionary level..."
I'm quite certain this company will be overwhelmed with people waiting at the door for the opportunity to buy one, two or several characters from WoW or other games in the future. Those first few hundred people will hopefully provide sufficient funds for more equipment and more artists to meet the demand. You could see this product/service's end of life if they could possibly fulfill all orders, but just when everyone from the game-du-jour are satisfied, a new game comes out with new characters and people will want another one.
Any smart investors out there will jump on this opportunity and help the company get to mass production ASAP. I wish I had a lump of cash to invest because this is the first sure thing I've caught at its debut. Guess I'll have to watch for when they go public and grab some stock.
At Perot Systems where I worked most of this year, there's a courtyard containing many historical computer artifacts including one of these 305 disk cabinets. For contrast the curator of the "museum" placed a 40GB iPod (with the cover removed) within the case and there's a side by side comparison chart at the base of the cabinet. I forget all the statistics but it compared weight, cost, power consumption and of course, amount of data stored: 305 = 1 song, iPod = 2,000 songs. The actual character storage was extrapolated to provide more impressive numbers as well.
It made me curious whether or not it would run if it were connected today. I'd wager it would, but it would take some of the other machines in the museum to talk to it.
Computer City was good for the little things and gadgets: cables, CDs, accessories, books, etc. It was not a place from which anyone with any intelligence would purchase a computer. Good prices and decent customer service. When CompUSA bought them, it changed drastically. It still was not a place from which to buy a computer, but with CompUSA at the helm prices went up and service went down.
Best Buy, the running joke of technology stores. Poor choice of brands to sell, jacked up prices, the most ignorant computer salespeople I've ever encountered, close to the worst customer service I've ever experienced and protection plans for generating more income everywhere you turn. Let's not even talk about the useless-before-they-were-exposed-for-collecting-porn-and-personal-information Geek Squad.
Circuit City is less of a computer store than Office Depot. They carry a small variety of name brand computers which they buy straight from the manufacturer in bulk and then jack up the price. Besides being as ignorant as Best Buy salespeople, Circuit City people work on commission last I heard, so you get attacked as soon as you look at any high dollar item.
CompUSA used to be reliable and would provide good customer service... if you worked at a business that could afford it. Home users were SoL. As someone else posted if you were unfortunate enough to relinquish your PC to this store, when you got it back not only had two successor computers been released but the amount you paid for the repair could have bought you a brand new computer. They definitely fell behind the curve of every technology they tried to sell. As with most brick and mortar stores, they're structure doesn't allow them to stay ahead of the availability or price curve.
Microcenter makes CompUSA look affordable and friendly. Unless the item you want is on sale then you'll likely pay 25-50% more for it than you would if you bought it online. The only item I've found Microcenter to be useful for is books. They have an extensive selection of technology books and thankfully, they don't mark them up from the cover price.
Fry's, the current darling of geeks everywhere, is showing some of the worst practices of any of these stores mentioned above. Fry's must keep their shrinkwrap machines running at full speed. This mainly centers on computer components. It is rare to see the always-long return line populated by people carrying TVs or small appliances; they almost always have a computer component in their hands. I know that's what put me in that line three times last year until I finally learned my lesson. I suspect that since Fry's has its own computer service department that this group has free will over the components that come into the store. They "borrow" from inventory to troubleshoot and then package the item back up and put it on the shelf. Ever notice how *every* motherboard box on the shelf is only sealed by strapping? How easy is that to re-package? Aside from creating/allowing product defects, Fry's also has poor customer service. Good luck finding someone to help you in any department except printers and TVs where they obviously get commission. Read the fine print on the back of the receipt carefully and ignore it, because if you show any signs of frustration from your experience with them, they'll likely refuse your exchange/return and blow you off. I also feel Fry's deliberately causes store rushes by offering irresistable sales on items and only carrying a limited number per store. (I recall going to Fry's at lunch to check on a sale item. When I asked about it, the employee laughed and said, "Oh, you have to get here before we open for those items.") I strongly suspect that Fry's has a great many underhanded dealings going on as well, and I predict within the next five years they will be exposed.
What choice does that leave anyone who only has a choice of purchasing computers or components
Caveat emptor for anything you buy from Fry's that could possibly be altered in any manner and shrink-wrapped. Open it up and look at it carefully before you leave the store.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stones_(song)
The links underneath take you to archives of various versions.
Jobs that are conducive to this environment:
- marketing
- pre-sales engineers
- artists (graphical, musical, etc.)
- people managers
- sales people (maybe). Depends if they are usually out in the field or taking calls from customers.
Jobs that should be conducive to this environment but the workers wouldn't enjoy it:
- human resources: easily accessible, able to really keep a pulse on morale but a constant need for privacy.
- desktop support: easily accessible, immediately aware of issues but unable to get proactive work done.
Jobs that absolutely cannot work in this environment:
- developer: needs absence of interruptions and quiet for concentration.
- security: no one should be able to peek at security information whether physical or logical.
- sysadmin: same as security plus during a failure the accessability and interruptions would be detrimental.
- accounting/payroll: security concerns as well as customer privacy issues.
I could see a hybrid environment working well - a handful of cubes and offices and 75% of the space as described above. Once you get past the job descriptions, then you must consider whether or not it's conducive for the company's industry. At Cisco and Intel where you have a high percentage of "idea" people and sales people, it works. I'm quite certain the engineers, IT and some back office functions will not and cannot be part of this experiment.
Brazil, Terry Gilliam's parody of 1984.
What I can see happening are the creation of console versions of WoW and WoW servers dedicated to console players. The PC and console versions would never meet. The interface could be dumbed down for limited controllers, but the general gameplay would likely stay the same. The artwork could stay the same as well and not have to be reduced for console limitations.