That's odd. I swore I replied to the parent; but in any case, a breach of contract can effectively place you in limbo, preventing you from being able to take a job elsewhere. I believe Microsoft tried this recently with an employee that left to go to Google.
There are forms of employment of which you cannot quit under any circumstances, military service is the best example. Note, you cannot quit the military until the government says you can, and in certain circumstances, you can be forced to stay in the service even after you have formally retired. Also, even after retiring, you can be called back into service regardless of whether you've started a new life and career.
I brought up the at-will doctrine because the freedom to look for work is intrinsic to the right to quit your job. If you can't do the former, doing the later is next to impossible. Of course, this is just legal philosophy.
There is one truly universal rule governing employment in the United States, the "at-will" doctrine. Just as your employer is free to fire you at anytime minus a contractual obligation, you are free to quit your employment at anytime minus a contractual obligation. There are only a few laws at Federal level protecting you against wrongful termination or harassment with the purpose of forcing you to quit, and those few laws are related mostly to whistle-blowing and discrimination based on race, gender, and disability. At state level, most state laws merely echo Federal laws, but with additional punishments. Depending on your jurisdiction and the level of the retaliation, you could have a wrongful termination lawsuit if you are forced out.
But seriously, that's not what's truly important. If you're pretty sure your employer will retaliate against you for having a wandering eye; then you need to start sending that resume out to even more places because chances are, your work environment is not very good, and you're likely not very happy where you are.
Of course, you might understandably not want to injure your employer, but in certain circumstances, I wouldn't even bother concealing the fact that I am looking for new employment, such as if my employer:
- runs the company like a private kingdom, and you'll need to marry into the royal family in order to get a promotion...
- buys high-priced luxury toys for himself, then screams at your entire division for turning down the thermostat or allegedly stealing sugar packets and coffee...
- has created an uncertain work environment where all your goals are short-term and involve just getting to the end of the day without getting fired or laid off...
Finding new work is a lot easier than reviving that part of you that has died inside after putting up with a mentally tortuous workplace.
"If true, this project will mark the first American Shadowrun video game in over twelve years..."
There's not really much rumor or myth to it, the game IS coming, according to Team Xbox. Gamespot.com has a placemarker up for it, which probably isn't saying much alone.
Another Team Xbox story mentions that a game artist's resume revealed that he had been working on high-poly count characters for Shadowrun for the last five years.
I have just enough karma pool and an Armtech grenade launcher that says the game will be here soon.
Add to that the requirement that whatever Linux distro the big hardware vendor chooses to market with must itself be a major player with a highly recognizable brand that will impress consumers of all types. This leaves Gentoo, Debian, Ubuntu, Slackware, and pretty much anything French out of the running. Red Hat is the most obvious choice. I would have liked to see IBM pull it off too. I even liked Corel. I thought for sure HP might do a Linux distro.
The reason for this isn't software quality or even delivery. It's the fact that consumers like seeing big brand names written on their products. Look at PC hardware commercials. They always remind the viewer that the computer runs Windows - either the powerful media operating system, Windows XP or "the unstoppable" Windows 2000. There's no practical reason for this since there is zero confusion in the marketplace that *any* doesn't run Windows, except the Machintosh.
Remember the days of the 200-page MS-DOS 5.0 user manual showing off all the commands with examples? What happened to that? For $300 [full XP pro] you think they could include a 100-page primer on using Windows.
Better than that, I remember the days of the Microsoft DOS technical manuals - the green books that had the original Microsoft logo on them. The books explained every command just as the white books did, but also provided detailed technical info to include assembly language examples and caveats. Yes penguins, there was a time when Microsoft inundated you with useful documentation!
I have an idea of what happened. DOS (and later Windows) became ubiquitous. Non-technical users became the most common kind of users, and they would report issues that were clearly addressable with a read of the manual. Producing those manuals was costly, so it was a major annoyance for the company to catch flak for things that were really non-issues.
Microsoft discovered that many consumers flatly refuse to read any manuals. Maybe while dumpster-diving for tech, Microsofties discovered chaches of DOS manuals, but no diskettes. Since consumers tend to respond more favorably to full color thin pamphlets (ie, they read them), MS went with those. So now, we get a thin guide to get us started and a lot of marketing speak to make us feel smart for buying the product, and we look to the computer book after market for support.
Congratulations Library of Congress. You now understand what we in the international community of pop historians and computer archivists have known for years; that our electronic culture, diversions and all, is fragile and worth preserving. I sincerely hope copyright and patents issues won't in any way hinder you the way they have us.
As you embark to build a collection of arcade, home console, and home computer components that I'm sure will one day surpass my own, please remember to maintain a proper image file backup of any software media as well as of actual ROM chips.
Also, please consider creating high-resolution digital images from the original documentation, artwork, and arcade cabinets, but especially the artwork - open formats only please. There have been many great artists who have contributed works to video games such as Roger Dean for many of the Psygnosis' releases, and the commercial artwork used in software is really reflective of our cultural heritage; and they should be enjoyed for their own merits.
Finally, please consider lending support to hardware emulation projects that exist in the public domain, as these are the best means for revisiting our past without impacting the original hardware or software media itself.
Oh, and uh, just between us, if you could get me a save state for the final level of Tengen's Gauntlet, I'd appreciate it. Oh, and an original Death Race arcade cabinet would really be cool too. Oh, and while your at it, there was this very nice DOS hex editor called "Auto" that I used to use to get $20,000 in Sim City 2000. If you see it somewhere, give me a call.;-)
When I think of "Playstation" I still can't help but think of a kid's playroom set. I've always been iffy about Xbox, but only because I'm tired of seeing 'X' everywhere and I have an irrational need to write it as "XBox".
Are we sure it's pronounced "wee" and not "why" (but not implying a question)? Maybe as the author of the Gamasutra article joked, it is pronounced "vee" - V for Victory. That would make it cool. Maybe the name change is saying less about Nintendo and more about the console formally known as Revolution. What if Revolution isn't quite what the name implies, and Nintendo knows this, and so has decided to change the name now rather than address the disappointed public later?
Maybe the Japanese having May 1st confused with April Fool's Day. Kids will joke. People will talk. I will say "Nintendo Weeeeeeeee" for at least two months just to piss people off; but in the end if there's a new Zelda, a new Super Mario Bros., and a new Resident Evil, and all at a budget price, it won't matter.
Amen to that, mod up. I also have far too much software installed for streaming video. I am a Mac user, and until Microsoft licensed Flip4Mac WMV and distributed it for free, I was expected to pay in order to view Windows Media. Microsoft has a port of its Media Player, but it's a generation (or more) behind. I like QuickTime MOV for high quality archival video, but most of the stuff out there really doesn't need to be that format. I'd like to standardize on DivX or 3ivx, but that's not been possible. By doing it all in Flash, I only need to ensure that I have the latest Flash player and nothing more.
The 360 still has the best games sold/console ratio in the history of games.
Can you post some sources for that? I'm not challenging; you just sparked my interest. I would have figured that a machine with relatively few launch titles, an initial supply problem, a pretty high price tag, and following a predecessor that still generates software sales, would mean less success. Hell, I would have thought Intellivision had the best ratio of games to console sales.
Apple ads have always had a sense of humor that's made them worth viewing again, but we're not supposed to take them too seriously. They're cheeky fun. Look at the little jabs Apple has made at IBM with "1984" and "Welcome IBM, Seriously", or Microsoft with "C:\NGRTLNS.W95".
PC vendors went from being serious and boring to overexcited and a bit melodramatic. At least HP added some quirkiness to their commercials. Dell's "Dude, you're getting a Dell" ads were just annoying. My favorite PC ads however came from Gateway and Midwest Micro during the original Computer Shopper magazines days.
The only slightly off-putting Apple ads I have ever seen were the "Switch" ads that featured Jeff Goldblum. I am a fan, and I accept that he is personally capable of porting a virus over to an alien spacecraft from a Mac, but still.
Even the older Apple ][ ads were entertaining. PCs fans shouldn't get offended. Look at it this way, PC vendors get far more advertising in during a day of television with all those Best Buy, Circuit City, and CompUSA ads than does You have the Dell goth chick. We have Ellen Feiss.:)
I still fail to see the benefits of "open sourcing" Java. How will it be improved? It's not as if the engineers at Sun are stupid and don't know how to engineer enterprise software.
Maybe the benefit of open sourcing Java isn't in improving the platform itself, but in the creation of other technologies evolving from Java that Sun would not otherwise create because it's either not enterprise focused or isn't profitable.
I was considering Java for a web app project of my own recently, but decided against it because of the cost and the added complexity (PHP and Python are cheaper for me). Maybe open sourcing Java can lead to the creation of an ultra-light, uber-fast Java that works great in a commodity web hosting environment alongside the LAMP stack. I think I wouldn't mind seeing a Java based personal blog app.
I've met a lot people that chased cert after cert who can regurgitate software commands in their sleep, but who lack the ability to think abstractly and apply logic to scenarios outside their immediate comfort zone. And the flipside is that I've seen many people shmooze and sleepwalk through degree programs, graduate, then do a complete core dump the moment they get that paper. It can be really frustrating either way.
I still prefer degree programs though. Degrees don't directly equate to excellent programmer, true. Most of my degrees have nothing to do with programming, but I feel that many of those "other" courses I took enabled me to approach programming problems from different perspectives, a vice versa. I'd still like to see every university replace undergrad foreign language requirements with a programming language requirement.
It's an Associated Press story, actually; but I've really grown skeptical of the relationship between AP and cable news. The story might as well have been written by someone at MSNBC.
I hate to be the one to bring it up here, but consider the attention MSNBC gives MySpace.com.
It's certainly not the only social networking website, and there's nothing special about it. It's really just a behavioral aggregator for every social activity that already occurs throughout the Internet and in every mall in America; and yet MSNBC pumps up every MySpace story with complete glee and schadenfreude.
It didn't start happening until News Corp.'s purchase of the site was public, although MySpace was still popular enough to merit stories. MSNBC doesn't talk about CampusHook or BangMe.net, a site that would really get the Nielsen ratings up. Fox's coverage of MySpace stories is much lighter, much more careful. I once watched Fox pundit Bill O'Reilly with an uncharacteristic quiet calm discuss MySpace with a talking head who was would lead you to believe that prior to MySpace, kids never did things like take risque pics of themselves to show off to boys and girls they hardly know.
The only difference between Apple and MS/Bill Gates and Steve Jobs is cash. If history had run differently and it had been Apple that gotten to be the giant then there really wouldn't be that much change.
I think they are really two very different personalities. Bill Gates is competitive to the point of being a bit mental. He's still fairly pragmatic, but he has a win-at-all costs attitude. Steve Jobs is idealistic and dismissive. Had Apple won the war - even with Steve Jobs at the helm rather than Apple's other captains, I think the personal computer market would be far more balanced. We'd still have Amiga, C64, Atari, and TI in addition to the PC with all its OSen. Steve did hate the clones though, and he did put an end to them.
Apple is very litigious, true. A lot of it has to do with animosity Apple has had with Microsoft and the anger the company has with PC vendors that have copied Apple's innovations while simultaneously trashing Apple. Yeah, at some point it gets childish. I think Apple was an angry, misdirected, company for a while, but it wasn't like SCO or Microsoft - companies that sue in order to gain strategic ground.
How many of you believe that is the media part of Sony that has been crippling the company by insisting on DRM that hardware consumers don't want?
I wanted to buy miniDisc but was overwhelmed with all that ATRAC mess. Grrrrr. I think even here though you've got a company that has more in common with Apple than it does with Microsoft. Sony does wierd things sometimes just cause it's Sony. Like Apple, Sony certainly doesn't care whether everyone uses their products, but they're so obsessed with their brand, the loyalist customers often get bit in the ass.
No-one can deny that with growing popularity of OS X that it becomes an increasingly attractive target.
I can try!:)
I think the biggest motivation in writing a virus is to send a $2 million "screw you" to Shelbyville - I mean, virus writers want to watch the ensuing chaos that follows after a couple of Fortune 500s get screwed, causing a bubbly cable news anchor to scream the sky is falling. Virus writers likely aren't content alone with prophetic warnings based on cream curdling and Aldebaran moving in the sky.
I'd say, virus writers really want to target infrastructure - that means Windows, UNIX, and Linux. I do think that if Macs were far more prevalent in the corporate work place, then that would really make targetting Macs worthwhile.
Sadly, I agree with you that running Windows on a Mac would likely cause people to equate Windows vulnerabilities with Macintosh and Apple cause they don't realize that a Mac ceases to be a Mac once it's running another OS regardless of the Apple logo. My mother for instance, relates all Windows problems as being PC problems.
Right, and with the ability to download a fresh nightly build of WebKit at any time while waiting for official Safari updates, I am that much safer with respect to bugs and vulnerabilities than I would be were I using Internet Explorer.
I use NightShift to automatically download WebKit builds.
That's a good point. I believe that (thankfully) the lowered barriers that virtual machines create hasn't significantly impacted virus development.
Sheepshaver and PearPC have been available for about a couple of years now. Performance issues and inconveniences aside, virus devs can easily *try* to write viruses for Mac OS X, and yet nothing's really come of it.
Maybe virtual machines are facilitating more virus devs using Linux to create viruses on VMWare'd Windows installations.:)
Apple's iconic status, growing market share and adoption of same microprocessors used in machines running Windows are making Macs a bigger target, some experts warn.
Sadly those "experts" could not be reached for explanation because they were out buying antivirus software for Linux and FreeBSD - cause, you know, they're both iconic, have a growing market share, and run on the same microprocessors as Windows.
"They didn't know how to deal with security, and I think Apple is in the same situation now," said Ferris, himself a Mac user.
Sure, being a minority OS does mean fewer virus writers targeting the Mac, but Mac OS X has been cool for a few years now, and I'm still waiting for those dangerous viruses. I'd say Apple knows a little something about dealing with security - certainly enough not to pawn off the responsibility to the antivirus aftermarket.
The Mac's vulnerability could also increase as Apple transitions to a product line that uses microprocessors made by Intel Corp., security experts said.
With new Macs running the same processor that powers Windows-based machines, far more people will know how to exploit weaknesses in Apple machines than in the past, when they ran on the PowerPC chips made by IBM Corp. and Motorola Corp. spinoff Freescale Semiconductor Inc.
Who are these security experts, and do they work weddings and bar-mitzvahs too? Since when did familiarity with a microprocessor lead to intimacy with an operating system. There's so much I still don't know about BeOS and I've written assembly on PowerPC and x86.
The vulnerabilities described in the article may be found here. For the most part, it looks like flaws in the way Safari and Preview handle GIFs, TIFFs, BMPs, and bad ZIPs can cause an application crash, and *possibly* allow code execution (even via certain malformed HTML tags). I've had corrupt graphics files and zip archives crash Preview and Safari in the past, but never any virus-like behavior.
Still, it's a good thing to note, but the reporting could have been much better.
For web apps I think Python. Then I try to do what I can with mod_python. Then the fear and loathing people have of Apache 2 kicks in. Then I have to move on to Cherry Py, Twisted, etc. etc. Then I get frustrated and go with PHP although all I want is mod_python 3.
For the desktop, Win32 API if I have to do Windows. I simply was never able to adapt to MFC. My code has the benefit of running on every Win32 platform without fail and with better performance.
On the Mac I just go with Cocoa because I'm "not supposed" to use Carbon anymore. SDL/Open GL for games and graphics. Never DirectX (although I like it a lot). Sometimes Allegro. Maybe one day ClanLib out of curiosity.
The Philips CD-i used a very generic Gravis gamepad, but only two of the four buttons were mapped. Interfacing with the game wouldn't have been pleasant even if the CD-i had a better controller. Magnavox Odyssey 2 had an ugly brick-like single button joystick controller like the Atari, but it was a pain to hold.
I also hated the rectangular Sega Master System and classic NES controllers. Tubo Grafx 16 didn't thrill me either, but it wasn't quite as bad as the NES controller which game me blisters.
Apple has always been a "consumer" company, not a business player.
You're kidding right? Apple used to be a big competitor in business, some would argue it still is. I still have all the old articles about the magic the Apple II and (someday) the Lisa could do in business. Some game designers even argued that Jobs discouraged game software on Apple computers precisely because he wanted IBM PC (DOS), Amiga, and C64 to be seen as the platforms for gaming, making those manufacturers decidedly consumer players. Several fields of business standardized on Apple.
Apple is definitely getting that consumer brand image now with the iPod as you say, not to mention the iBook line, but it does an injustice to say they were always a "consumer company."
He hopes his "long-time nemesis" improves and becomes more like Apple? Why?
Does he realize that if Microsoft improves their image and becomes more like Apple it is only going to hurt Apple?
Yes, he does. However Woz is a good sport. Read the article over again and see his comments about the team he played against. That is classic Woz. Woz has never been driven by the same sense of revolution that Jobs was or competition that Bill Gates was, so he's not the sort to want to destroy his competitors. He just likes friendly games where the best man wins. And actually, Microsoft being more like Apple wouldn't hurt Apple. It might even benefit Apple as it would Windows users.
Re:The future is DigiScent iSmell!
on
What is Next-Gen?
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· Score: 1
There any many reasons why people play video games; realism has always been one of them. Some gamers are content with smashing the green dots deep within the mysterious red square - I'm one of them, but there are serious gamers that want to push realism as far as technology will make possible. I'm not even talking about the diehard simulationist camp that play games that allow them to pretend to do things they only wish they could do.
I promise you there are gamers that would enjoy a more physical reaction from a boxing game than what a vibrating controller will bring. You are right. There are lines that can never be crossed, but that's only because of technology, and not because gamers put a ceiling on sensory immersion. Downloading the stench of a sewer would indeed suck. Even if iSmell could deliver the goods, game designers and game players would still want to use the technology in a way that satisfies.
Here's an idea I had a few years back that I thought iSmell would be great for, a zombie survival horror game. A device like iSmell could force gamers to rely on more than just audio and visual cues. The game downloading the simulated foul stench of a corpse will warn the gamer he is not alone.
Koders.com is good. I enjoy writing code for dead systems, so I still use Google and many scattered websites in order to find code and documentation. Krugle will be for modern open-source projects. Is there a similar existing site for old platforms like DOS, Amiga, Apple ][, and C64 containing everything from specs to API docs and code?
I see what you mean. I am looking at the issue like a programmer trying to get the most out of 8K of memory, and within that context I feel dial-up users with my pattern of usage are decidedly not amateurs at managing their bandwidth. Whenever I'm on ethernet I do a lot more, but I believe that was your point already.
Slashdot Mirror
That's odd. I swore I replied to the parent; but in any case, a breach of contract can effectively place you in limbo, preventing you from being able to take a job elsewhere. I believe Microsoft tried this recently with an employee that left to go to Google.
There are forms of employment of which you cannot quit under any circumstances, military service is the best example. Note, you cannot quit the military until the government says you can, and in certain circumstances, you can be forced to stay in the service even after you have formally retired. Also, even after retiring, you can be called back into service regardless of whether you've started a new life and career.
I brought up the at-will doctrine because the freedom to look for work is intrinsic to the right to quit your job. If you can't do the former, doing the later is next to impossible. Of course, this is just legal philosophy.
There is one truly universal rule governing employment in the United States, the "at-will" doctrine. Just as your employer is free to fire you at anytime minus a contractual obligation, you are free to quit your employment at anytime minus a contractual obligation. There are only a few laws at Federal level protecting you against wrongful termination or harassment with the purpose of forcing you to quit, and those few laws are related mostly to whistle-blowing and discrimination based on race, gender, and disability. At state level, most state laws merely echo Federal laws, but with additional punishments. Depending on your jurisdiction and the level of the retaliation, you could have a wrongful termination lawsuit if you are forced out.
But seriously, that's not what's truly important. If you're pretty sure your employer will retaliate against you for having a wandering eye; then you need to start sending that resume out to even more places because chances are, your work environment is not very good, and you're likely not very happy where you are.
Of course, you might understandably not want to injure your employer, but in certain circumstances, I wouldn't even bother concealing the fact that I am looking for new employment, such as if my employer:
- runs the company like a private kingdom, and you'll need to marry into the royal family in order to get a promotion...
- buys high-priced luxury toys for himself, then screams at your entire division for turning down the thermostat or allegedly stealing sugar packets and coffee...
- has created an uncertain work environment where all your goals are short-term and involve just getting to the end of the day without getting fired or laid off...
Finding new work is a lot easier than reviving that part of you that has died inside after putting up with a mentally tortuous workplace.
Another Team Xbox story mentions that a game artist's resume revealed that he had been working on high-poly count characters for Shadowrun for the last five years.
I have just enough karma pool and an Armtech grenade launcher that says the game will be here soon.
Add to that the requirement that whatever Linux distro the big hardware vendor chooses to market with must itself be a major player with a highly recognizable brand that will impress consumers of all types. This leaves Gentoo, Debian, Ubuntu, Slackware, and pretty much anything French out of the running. Red Hat is the most obvious choice. I would have liked to see IBM pull it off too. I even liked Corel. I thought for sure HP might do a Linux distro.
The reason for this isn't software quality or even delivery. It's the fact that consumers like seeing big brand names written on their products. Look at PC hardware commercials. They always remind the viewer that the computer runs Windows - either the powerful media operating system, Windows XP or "the unstoppable" Windows 2000. There's no practical reason for this since there is zero confusion in the marketplace that *any* doesn't run Windows, except the Machintosh.
I have an idea of what happened. DOS (and later Windows) became ubiquitous. Non-technical users became the most common kind of users, and they would report issues that were clearly addressable with a read of the manual. Producing those manuals was costly, so it was a major annoyance for the company to catch flak for things that were really non-issues.
Microsoft discovered that many consumers flatly refuse to read any manuals. Maybe while dumpster-diving for tech, Microsofties discovered chaches of DOS manuals, but no diskettes. Since consumers tend to respond more favorably to full color thin pamphlets (ie, they read them), MS went with those. So now, we get a thin guide to get us started and a lot of marketing speak to make us feel smart for buying the product, and we look to the computer book after market for support.
Congratulations Library of Congress. You now understand what we in the international community of pop historians and computer archivists have known for years; that our electronic culture, diversions and all, is fragile and worth preserving. I sincerely hope copyright and patents issues won't in any way hinder you the way they have us.
;-)
As you embark to build a collection of arcade, home console, and home computer components that I'm sure will one day surpass my own, please remember to maintain a proper image file backup of any software media as well as of actual ROM chips.
Also, please consider creating high-resolution digital images from the original documentation, artwork, and arcade cabinets, but especially the artwork - open formats only please. There have been many great artists who have contributed works to video games such as Roger Dean for many of the Psygnosis' releases, and the commercial artwork used in software is really reflective of our cultural heritage; and they should be enjoyed for their own merits.
Finally, please consider lending support to hardware emulation projects that exist in the public domain, as these are the best means for revisiting our past without impacting the original hardware or software media itself.
Oh, and uh, just between us, if you could get me a save state for the final level of Tengen's Gauntlet, I'd appreciate it. Oh, and an original Death Race arcade cabinet would really be cool too. Oh, and while your at it, there was this very nice DOS hex editor called "Auto" that I used to use to get $20,000 in Sim City 2000. If you see it somewhere, give me a call.
When I think of "Playstation" I still can't help but think of a kid's playroom set. I've always been iffy about Xbox, but only because I'm tired of seeing 'X' everywhere and I have an irrational need to write it as "XBox".
Are we sure it's pronounced "wee" and not "why" (but not implying a question)? Maybe as the author of the Gamasutra article joked, it is pronounced "vee" - V for Victory. That would make it cool. Maybe the name change is saying less about Nintendo and more about the console formally known as Revolution. What if Revolution isn't quite what the name implies, and Nintendo knows this, and so has decided to change the name now rather than address the disappointed public later?
Maybe the Japanese having May 1st confused with April Fool's Day. Kids will joke. People will talk. I will say "Nintendo Weeeeeeeee" for at least two months just to piss people off; but in the end if there's a new Zelda, a new Super Mario Bros., and a new Resident Evil, and all at a budget price, it won't matter.
Amen to that, mod up. I also have far too much software installed for streaming video. I am a Mac user, and until Microsoft licensed Flip4Mac WMV and distributed it for free, I was expected to pay in order to view Windows Media. Microsoft has a port of its Media Player, but it's a generation (or more) behind. I like QuickTime MOV for high quality archival video, but most of the stuff out there really doesn't need to be that format. I'd like to standardize on DivX or 3ivx, but that's not been possible. By doing it all in Flash, I only need to ensure that I have the latest Flash player and nothing more.
Apple ads have always had a sense of humor that's made them worth viewing again, but we're not supposed to take them too seriously. They're cheeky fun. Look at the little jabs Apple has made at IBM with "1984" and "Welcome IBM, Seriously", or Microsoft with "C:\NGRTLNS.W95".
:)
PC vendors went from being serious and boring to overexcited and a bit melodramatic. At least HP added some quirkiness to their commercials. Dell's "Dude, you're getting a Dell" ads were just annoying. My favorite PC ads however came from Gateway and Midwest Micro during the original Computer Shopper magazines days.
The only slightly off-putting Apple ads I have ever seen were the "Switch" ads that featured Jeff Goldblum. I am a fan, and I accept that he is personally capable of porting a virus over to an alien spacecraft from a Mac, but still.
Even the older Apple ][ ads were entertaining. PCs fans shouldn't get offended. Look at it this way, PC vendors get far more advertising in during a day of television with all those Best Buy, Circuit City, and CompUSA ads than does You have the Dell goth chick. We have Ellen Feiss.
Ellen Feiss commercial (warning, opens to Google's streaming video service)
A short history of Apple ads
I've met a lot people that chased cert after cert who can regurgitate software commands in their sleep, but who lack the ability to think abstractly and apply logic to scenarios outside their immediate comfort zone. And the flipside is that I've seen many people shmooze and sleepwalk through degree programs, graduate, then do a complete core dump the moment they get that paper. It can be really frustrating either way.
I still prefer degree programs though. Degrees don't directly equate to excellent programmer, true. Most of my degrees have nothing to do with programming, but I feel that many of those "other" courses I took enabled me to approach programming problems from different perspectives, a vice versa. I'd still like to see every university replace undergrad foreign language requirements with a programming language requirement.
It's an Associated Press story, actually; but I've really grown skeptical of the relationship between AP and cable news. The story might as well have been written by someone at MSNBC.
I hate to be the one to bring it up here, but consider the attention MSNBC gives MySpace.com.
It's certainly not the only social networking website, and there's nothing special about it. It's really just a behavioral aggregator for every social activity that already occurs throughout the Internet and in every mall in America; and yet MSNBC pumps up every MySpace story with complete glee and schadenfreude.
It didn't start happening until News Corp.'s purchase of the site was public, although MySpace was still popular enough to merit stories. MSNBC doesn't talk about CampusHook or BangMe.net, a site that would really get the Nielsen ratings up. Fox's coverage of MySpace stories is much lighter, much more careful. I once watched Fox pundit Bill O'Reilly with an uncharacteristic quiet calm discuss MySpace with a talking head who was would lead you to believe that prior to MySpace, kids never did things like take risque pics of themselves to show off to boys and girls they hardly know.
I'd say, virus writers really want to target infrastructure - that means Windows, UNIX, and Linux. I do think that if Macs were far more prevalent in the corporate work place, then that would really make targetting Macs worthwhile.
Sadly, I agree with you that running Windows on a Mac would likely cause people to equate Windows vulnerabilities with Macintosh and Apple cause they don't realize that a Mac ceases to be a Mac once it's running another OS regardless of the Apple logo. My mother for instance, relates all Windows problems as being PC problems.
Right, and with the ability to download a fresh nightly build of WebKit at any time while waiting for official Safari updates, I am that much safer with respect to bugs and vulnerabilities than I would be were I using Internet Explorer.
I use NightShift to automatically download WebKit builds.
That's a good point. I believe that (thankfully) the lowered barriers that virtual machines create hasn't significantly impacted virus development.
:)
Sheepshaver and PearPC have been available for about a couple of years now. Performance issues and inconveniences aside, virus devs can easily *try* to write viruses for Mac OS X, and yet nothing's really come of it.
Maybe virtual machines are facilitating more virus devs using Linux to create viruses on VMWare'd Windows installations.
For web apps I think Python. Then I try to do what I can with mod_python. Then the fear and loathing people have of Apache 2 kicks in. Then I have to move on to Cherry Py, Twisted, etc. etc. Then I get frustrated and go with PHP although all I want is mod_python 3.
For the desktop, Win32 API if I have to do Windows. I simply was never able to adapt to MFC. My code has the benefit of running on every Win32 platform without fail and with better performance.
On the Mac I just go with Cocoa because I'm "not supposed" to use Carbon anymore. SDL/Open GL for games and graphics. Never DirectX (although I like it a lot). Sometimes Allegro. Maybe one day ClanLib out of curiosity.
The Philips CD-i used a very generic Gravis gamepad, but only two of the four buttons were mapped. Interfacing with the game wouldn't have been pleasant even if the CD-i had a better controller. Magnavox Odyssey 2 had an ugly brick-like single button joystick controller like the Atari, but it was a pain to hold.
I also hated the rectangular Sega Master System and classic NES controllers. Tubo Grafx 16 didn't thrill me either, but it wasn't quite as bad as the NES controller which game me blisters.
Apple has always been a "consumer" company, not a business player.
You're kidding right? Apple used to be a big competitor in business, some would argue it still is. I still have all the old articles about the magic the Apple II and (someday) the Lisa could do in business. Some game designers even argued that Jobs discouraged game software on Apple computers precisely because he wanted IBM PC (DOS), Amiga, and C64 to be seen as the platforms for gaming, making those manufacturers decidedly consumer players. Several fields of business standardized on Apple.
Apple is definitely getting that consumer brand image now with the iPod as you say, not to mention the iBook line, but it does an injustice to say they were always a "consumer company."
He hopes his "long-time nemesis" improves and becomes more like Apple? Why?
Does he realize that if Microsoft improves their image and becomes more like Apple it is only going to hurt Apple?
Yes, he does. However Woz is a good sport. Read the article over again and see his comments about the team he played against. That is classic Woz. Woz has never been driven by the same sense of revolution that Jobs was or competition that Bill Gates was, so he's not the sort to want to destroy his competitors. He just likes friendly games where the best man wins. And actually, Microsoft being more like Apple wouldn't hurt Apple. It might even benefit Apple as it would Windows users.
There any many reasons why people play video games; realism has always been one of them. Some gamers are content with smashing the green dots deep within the mysterious red square - I'm one of them, but there are serious gamers that want to push realism as far as technology will make possible. I'm not even talking about the diehard simulationist camp that play games that allow them to pretend to do things they only wish they could do.
I promise you there are gamers that would enjoy a more physical reaction from a boxing game than what a vibrating controller will bring. You are right. There are lines that can never be crossed, but that's only because of technology, and not because gamers put a ceiling on sensory immersion. Downloading the stench of a sewer would indeed suck. Even if iSmell could deliver the goods, game designers and game players would still want to use the technology in a way that satisfies.
Here's an idea I had a few years back that I thought iSmell would be great for, a zombie survival horror game. A device like iSmell could force gamers to rely on more than just audio and visual cues. The game downloading the simulated foul stench of a corpse will warn the gamer he is not alone.
Koders.com is good. I enjoy writing code for dead systems, so I still use Google and many scattered websites in order to find code and documentation. Krugle will be for modern open-source projects. Is there a similar existing site for old platforms like DOS, Amiga, Apple ][, and C64 containing everything from specs to API docs and code?
I see what you mean. I am looking at the issue like a programmer trying to get the most out of 8K of memory, and within that context I feel dial-up users with my pattern of usage are decidedly not amateurs at managing their bandwidth. Whenever I'm on ethernet I do a lot more, but I believe that was your point already.