There are concerns have already stopped thinking for themselves but this "complaint" seem a bit overboard. One of the most monotonous, most error prone, and rarely deadly common activities people in the US do is drive to and from work. Its boring but requires our focused attention. This means the 30 to hour minute drive is often a lost time activity that we do twice a day. A repetitious activity that can easily bore a human and has to be done to time and safety tolerances? These are all of the hallmarks of something that a machine should be able to handle better than humans.
I'm not sure I'd want all cars to be self driving but as a "work car" then why not? Complaining how people abducted their choice to a nanny state because cars drive them to work belies the fact that most people don't seriously or rigorously plan their drive to work anyway.
It should be noted that things like "resources" and "netcode" are dramatically different between the three platforms in question. File handling semantics maybe similar across platforms but the details are a bit different with the side effects that are dramatically different where in particular permission is wildly different. What kind of network resources you have are dramatically different between all three platforms where on WP7 it may cost the user money to access it.
I don't think anyone doubts that Microsoft does an excellent job with the tools making their systems portable between hardware and software platforms but they are still different hardware and software platforms. This isn't a Microsoft thing where any software engineer that has done porting knows that even if all features port cleanly there is still details buried in platform errata that make behavior different and need to be addressed manually.
How is Amazon's inability to secure The Beatles proof that iTunes has a monopoly? Hell a year ago iTunes didn't have The Beatles either where I find it hard to believe Apple Records suddenly went "Now that iTunes is a monopoly on the download music market, we will jump in!"
On the other hand, Apple Records has a history of shrewdly protect their rights on The Beatles and has rejected many deals as along the way where it appears that Apple Computer Inc kept negotiating till they got a deal Apple Records agreed too. Added to this nothing is stopping Amazon from making similar concessions where it is only up to Amazon leaders to decide if The Beatles library is worth suspected cost.
A better analogy would be like saying "iTunes is like a toothpick to the right eye while Zune is like a toothpick to the left eye. Since I favor my right eye more, I think Zune is great!"
To be clear, I am not critizing what he did tinkering with any of his consoles. What I am criticizing is martyring himself on the internet. He is not a fool or foolish to believe that Sony wouldn't be forced to act.
Its not a popular stance on/. but I don't care for the action of either here. Sony and other console vendors have draconian DRM. Hotz can do what ever he wants to his consoles in his house but the moment he went to the internet with this another issue because it forces Sony's hand. Just like the guy who tinkered with his care enough to not make it street legal and the cops want to arrest and the state wants to take away his license complaining he needs money to fight THE MAN is a giant whatever from me. And again I have to reiterate this isn't a free speech issue either but a dispute between two parties in contract. Both can rot in court for all I care and I don't want nor should I even bother to care to get involved.
If you want to see a people fight the good fight for free speech, look no further than recent events in the new where people are protesting on the streets of middle eastern countries. Hotz vs Sony isn't even on the same scale.
I'm not a fan of any of the console vendors but I'm really not a fan of Hotz. Trying to cloth his activities as free speech rights is always dubious but then asking for help is even more so. Its like modifying my car to the point it no longer street legal the going "Waaaa! they are after me! Donate money to me so I can stick it to them!" No thanks, you did this to yourself for fame so enjoy it. This isn't a free speech issue but a civil dispute where if I look into the motives of both I find them both repugnant.
In the end, I've determined both parties suck in this case and choose to side with neither.
You can frame almost anything in "...is it to expensive?" Are smart phones too expensive? Smart phones probably are too fancy and expensive for most people's usage but they sell to a certain segment anyway.
Its fine if a hardware platform is "expensive" if they can find a market that has users that are satisfied and producers that can make a profit. This question of expensive is navel gazing that serves little purpose beyond click rates.
Beck's trick is he is giving facts but either lacking context or the wrong one. It is a fact that Cohen has worked with the US State Department but in the context of Google's corporate structure, how much influence does he really have outside of his Ideas Group? Never mind that because Beck just needs to say that and merely suggest there is a connection and "let the people decide".
The thing Nintendo and crew (Microsoft and Sony) do not like about this is that they've invested millions (billions?) in creating an entirely vertically integrated system that is carefully installed to maximize profits to Nintendo (and Microsoft and Sony) which leaves devs Rio going around it or ignoring it or leaving the system awash in junk games for cheap.
Or another way to look at it: Nintendo makes money on license and manufacturing carts. From Rio's and our perspective, it doesn't make any sense to buy "Angry Birds" on a cart. It would be too expensive and not convenient on a cart. Nintendo is complaining that companies like Rio are building games that are wildly popular but don't make sense in their precious expensive distribution system.
It seems to me Nintendo has the problem instead of Rio or us.
If these guys really believe in capitalism as purported, then it isn't my or any other person's or even Apple's problem for News Corp to make money on anything let alone an iPad app. If these guys really believe in capitalism as purported, News Corp or Murdoch may recognize a demand but have no way to capitalize on it today then it isn't our problem to solve either where both we or Apple should be free to walk away from what News Corp wants to do if they think it is a bad idea or bad deal. Failing to make money is a normal part how capitalism works were laying the blame at the feet of others is not interesting if one really believes in the virtues of capitalism.
But this is something that has always bothered me about Murdoch. Those conservative values are near and dear and paramount and we will beat that drum and sing those praises about them...until those values work against us then it is entirely utterly unfair and not our fault. If it turns out this time the market is working against News Corp, it is a good time for News Corp should rethink their strategy instead of News Corp crying we and Apple rethink ours. It is not our or Apple's problem that News Corps sunk $30M US plus $500k US a week into something where telling us and Apple how wrong we are flies in the face of capitalism.
If my saved games end up "in the cloud", I can 100% guarantee that at some point, they will be lost, or I will be denied access to them, and will not be allowed to back them up locally.
Wait what? Web based email (think gmail, hotmail, yahoo) seem pretty reliable and stable. The amount of "lost" content seems pretty low. The amount of deniles seem kind of low as well. We take for granted a lot of online services and never question their availability and stability, so why not use that high availability and stability for console games as well?
Saving stuff "to the cloud" seems to work well in on PC. Its as reliable and error free as your internet connection. MMOs base their business exactly on this feature where you can access accounts from any client. Other software tech like backups and doc archieves work every well. Save games lend themselves to this feature as well and it seems a lot of "complaints" sound similar to the whole "digital download" movement having somewhat irrational fears. Suggesting that Microsoft or Sony can't handle your precious online saves and outlining nightmare scenarios while one casually gives them credit card and personal data seems a bit weird.
It doesn't matter if one person or everyone in the world knows the underlying architecture. If the underlying architecture is junk then the problem is the underlying architecture instead of if it is closed or open source.
In fact there doesn't appear to be a correlation at all between them. There are places like Pakistan that have a high amount of gun ownership that are also very dangerous. There are places in Europe that also have a high amount of gun ownership but very low gun violence crimes. There are places like Japan which have very low gun ownership and tough restrictions and yet have very low gun violence crimes. There are places like Mexico that also have very tough gun ownership laws but gun crime is very high. Mexico is an interesting case where a lot of the crime and guns are probably due a neighbor....
In any event, what makes a place safe or dangerous appears to be the culture where neither ownership of guns or laws over guns seems to effect. If we want people to stop shooting each other in the US then I recommend we stop the aggressive attitude and hyper, reflexive response instead of arming or disarming people. Basically it doesn't matter if you give everyone a gun or take everyone's guns away if they are rude, cure and hate each other which kind of describes part of the political climate doesn't it?
The "upgrade path" isn't clear with multiple versions of upgrade. As mentioned, you can't upgrade from XP to Win7 directly where you need to do a Vista then do a Win7 upgrade. And it is not clear from the packaging or other marketing that you can't upgrade Vista Home to Win7 Professional. And you can't do a upgrade with the "full versions" if the previous was "upgrade" where you are forced to wipe.
Basically upgrading any machine to Win7 is often a "craps shot" where you won't find out what worked and what didn't till after you attempt it due to combination of factors. It is much easier to retire/rebuild a new machine from scratch than it is to try to take an XP machine to Win7.
Surprisingly, "The Social Network" was actually a good movie because of the human drama that it is intertwined into the story. Its not about how a wealthy kid makes even more money but how and possibly why he did it. Whether or not the events actually took place as depicted in this movie is up for debate but it is a hell of a drama that is well made and very entertaining. I won't be surprised if some it gets Oscars for at least the screenplay if not more.
What about the guy who follows every football game is doing nothing but hitting refresh on ESPN? The same guy who is in multiple fantasy football leagues? What about if they start doing it for money?? The same guy who goes to work thinks about how soon he can get out of work to go home and play Madden or setup more simulations for the season to better his predictions in the fantasy league. And while at work yammers at the water cooler about football constantly to the point no one cares.
I hate how games are being made out to be the "bad influence" when I look out at the office and see people just as obsessive with "harmless activities". Being obsessed with anything can throw your life out of balance where just saying "They should do something productive" or "Why not do the real thing?" while ignoring the guy trying to tweak their spreadsheets for the nth time planning out their fantasy football drafts for hours on end.
The problem is obsession not the game or activity. If your kids are begging for your attention and ignore them it doesn't seem to matter if the excuse is because they are watching a football game or running around a virtual world.
The issue I see is that Google isn't "business" isn't exactly catering to high level enterprise anyway. There is no way either Google or Microsoft is going to convince someone as large as say EDS or Oracle to abandon whatever system they have today for Google Docs or whatever Microsoft is offering with "cloud computing". However Google Services do make a lot of sense for smaller businesses and individuals that don't have the IT or resource budgets to handle this themselves. This is where Microsoft is pricing themselves out of the market.
In the end, we are still bit off of having the big guys go "all cloud" so they are right that Google is failing but Microsoft isn't exactly winning either.
- "World of Warcraft" just had The Shattering which revamped the graphics and game flow of the world adopting tech and design they learned from 6 years of successful gaming. - Steam just told me that "Poker Night at the Inventory" is available for cheap. Although it is basically a poker game, the fun part is the conversations and jokes in the game. - "Farmville" is still going strong - "Minecraft" would be a hard sell if not impossible on consoles
So yeah, if you say so. I don't think flashy and poorly coded are a PC feature but something that comes from the developer regardless of their target platform.
*Shrug* It seems like you are mistaking the consistent layout of Word as "sensible". There
Except for the recent changes to iTunes (which I wonder if a revamp of the MacOS UI is coming) the interfaces to a lot of Mac apps, especially Apple written ones are highly consistent. Looking at Word 2003, why are the things in the Tool menu there? Is "Options" really a tool? Looking at the Insert menu, are some of the things really necessary or should be broken into their own tool? Why do you need a Hyperlink under Insert? The way Word handles hyperlinks seems kind of clumsy if not dangerous. I guess the point is that a lot more thought needs to be put into some of the functions than is currently given. I won't be surprised if in the latest version of Office, in the latest version of Word that Hyperlink is still under Insert and it is still handled the same way but am not sure I'd call that "sensible".
Beyond this, I think Word and Excel let alone Office in general have gotten to much complexity (ie. bloat) from "feature creep". If you are just a student or guy who needs to write a quick document they don't touch or even need a majority of the features offered. That isn't to say that these features aren't useful to someone but as just a document creation tool it has gotten way to bloated and complex because someone may want to add some other feature. The danger for Microsoft is that things like Google Docs is more than sufficient and less cluttered than Word. Out of all of their products, Microsoft should offering tiered versions where an inexpensive, stripping down Word and Excel will work for a lot of people while the power users can go for the more expensive version.
"Poor Documentation" is an interesting complaint because the documentation for Windows including Win7 is still just as arcane as Gnome (I haven't looked at KDE in system docs but I suspect its the same state). Finding some of the Explorer keyboard shortcuts is a chore instead of being naturally pointed out to you so the onus is completely on the user to dig it out "secrets" which are conveniently in a book for $25.
"Software, Software, Software" is also an interesting complaint where something like "Ubuntu Software Center" is light years ahead of what Microsoft offers let alone any other third party software vendor. Installing Blender of Gimp is just as easy as installing Firefox. And Microsoft isn't providing that special sewing software to your mom but ostensibly the sewing machine manufacturer. Would you have this same problem on Mac? Mac and Linux users seem to go "They won't support us" but somehow its Apple or Linux community fault but I'm not sure how it is or how to correct it. It doesn't seem to be a problem with the platform but the ISV.
"Little Support" is again an interesting complaint because most issue a user will have Microsoft will tell them "Contact the vendor you bought the machine from". Turning around and calling HP or Dell the solutions range from shipping or hauling the box somewhere to long waits over the phone. I'm not going to say Linux is "stellar five star support" but I am confused how Microsoft offers "good support". Apple, Dell, HP offer good support but Microsoft is a giant "bleh".
"Ways of doing things that are confusing to a Windows user" doesn't mean "Doing things the Windows way" was any good to begin with. The Start "button" is not a button, a menu, or an explorer so explain that behavior to a new user is sometimes a challenge. It is at the bottom left of the screen instead of the top left. Again saying "its easy to install in Windows" is really odd because knowing how the installer works in Windows compared to both deb or rpm let alone the more advanced versions of both run rings around native and third party installers. You don't have to say "Install this for myself" or "Pick a directory to install" under Linux packagers. Why is "Doing things the Windows way" valuable beyond not wanting to learn another way? Apple through Mac does these things very differently as well and they don't complain. A lot of things on the modern Linux desktop "just work" but it is different where part of Apple's genius is they take a lot of time and effort to assuage the user from panicking.
It seems like "Why are these not problems on Windows?" is that Microsoft some how drilled it into people's head that it is use's fault not Microsoft. If you didn't know Window-E opened a new Explorer that is the user not knowing not Windows presenting it to the user.
The quirk is that like many other pieces of Microsoft technology, while truthfully claiming it is "cross platform" it is really only implemented and running smoothly in one central platform. Live is in Messenger but is only a thin/lightweight client. There is a web interface at xbox.com but again the functionality seems limited. Even on PC the support is highly variable and dependent on the vendor. It truly shines on the 360 though but even the version we see to day on the dash is only after years of aggressive revision. I expect Win7 Phones to have some neat features but nothing to make me change how I use Live, XBox or other flavor.
But beyond that, Microsoft's fixation on Apple seems wrong. Microsoft's competition is really RIM/Blackberry for the business crowd and Google for replacing them in the Phone OS market. While Microsoft was failing to deliver on Windows Mobile 6, RIM came in and swept up the tech business customers with a lot of enterprise connectivity features while Google came in a replaced Microsoft as "the guys who make phone OS". Apple is worth some attention but RIM and Google cost them their base so why focus on Apple?? Microsoft's current obsession on beating Apple is derailing what they should be concentrating on so I'm not really surprised Microsoft thinks it is important to have Live integration to win against Apple.
Is Microsoft the new Palm? I guess we'll find out but it isn't a good sign when Microsoft seems equally interested in rattling sabers with phone fabricators to make Win7 Phones for patent protection...or else!
Why does Kinect seem familiar? Microsoft saying "It will change the industry" and "Big players are developing it" and "You'll wonder how you ever did anything without it!" and "Everything will change after this". Oh yeah, this is what they said with Windows Mobile 6.
The more reports I get back the more it seems like just with Windows Mobile 6 that marketing is over promising features. That isn't to say Kinect is "snake oil" because of a lot of it does seem to work but that it is rough...."rougher" than they want to let on. So we'll get a big advertising blitz, Microsoft will declare it was a huge success, and then summary die because it is expensive and never quite work as smooth as they advertised while the competition runs wild. All of this is like WinMo6.
Anyhow, there is some merit to the tech but it feels like it is going in the wrong direction. Its like the belief one can effectively replace a keyboard with voice recognition. VR is useful in itself but not as a keyboard replacement! As an HMI issue, gesture controls found on Wii "work" because the interface is simplified not because of waggle. Replacing waggle sticks with Kinect without doing the requisite "simplification" is going to be a disaster. I wish they would abandon schemes like "replacing the controller for games" that are more smoke and mirrors than practical execution. Go with practical stuff like if my console notices I put the controller down to answer the phone, door, kids jump in my lap, or whatever, pause the game. If the console notice I'm no long in front of my TV for an extended period of time, go into hibernate mode. Stuff like this is more useful than trying to figure out how build a fighting game by waving my arms and kicking with my legs.
But in any event, $150us is too much for all of it. If it was built in at the start that would be one thing but it is too late now.
Why does a very destructive sneak attack from the ocean on major coastal cities around December sound so familiar?
To be serious for a moment, I still play since launch. The thing that kept my attention is their drive is partially beating the content and continuing drive to change the content. Seeing a new boss, dissecting its behavior, and attacking in a cooperative team manner is always fun. There is just enough complexity that it triggers my analytical side so when they revamp or change out mechanics I'm always interested.
Granted "WoW" isn't a perfect game and it does hinge on personal experiences (if you have no friends to play with, "WoW" is easily the dumbest thing to try to play) but I'm always stumped when people say "WoW" is a horrible experience.
Never mind that because that isn't the problem. The real problem is blindly running anything from any application simply because it can read the bytes and map them into memory for execution. This would be the same thing as a web browser automatically assuming if you click on a url 'http://blackhatbadstuff.com/csrss.exe' the web browser should tell the OS load it into memory and run it.
Simply put email clients, web browsers, and any number of applications should be allowed to do that. More fundamentally, the operating system shouldn't provide facilities for user apps to do this under normal circumstances. Why do we put up with this? The proper fix seems to be removing this stuff from the OS so it doesn't happen but the world instead seems to believe that is better and just as cost effective buy more AV software and just tell people to reinstall when they break it.
It seems to me that people like to play lots and lots and lots of games through web browsers. It would seem to me that promoting building web games in an open way goes along with "making a browser that people want to use".
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There are concerns have already stopped thinking for themselves but this "complaint" seem a bit overboard. One of the most monotonous, most error prone, and rarely deadly common activities people in the US do is drive to and from work. Its boring but requires our focused attention. This means the 30 to hour minute drive is often a lost time activity that we do twice a day. A repetitious activity that can easily bore a human and has to be done to time and safety tolerances? These are all of the hallmarks of something that a machine should be able to handle better than humans.
I'm not sure I'd want all cars to be self driving but as a "work car" then why not? Complaining how people abducted their choice to a nanny state because cars drive them to work belies the fact that most people don't seriously or rigorously plan their drive to work anyway.
It should be noted that things like "resources" and "netcode" are dramatically different between the three platforms in question. File handling semantics maybe similar across platforms but the details are a bit different with the side effects that are dramatically different where in particular permission is wildly different. What kind of network resources you have are dramatically different between all three platforms where on WP7 it may cost the user money to access it.
I don't think anyone doubts that Microsoft does an excellent job with the tools making their systems portable between hardware and software platforms but they are still different hardware and software platforms. This isn't a Microsoft thing where any software engineer that has done porting knows that even if all features port cleanly there is still details buried in platform errata that make behavior different and need to be addressed manually.
How is Amazon's inability to secure The Beatles proof that iTunes has a monopoly? Hell a year ago iTunes didn't have The Beatles either where I find it hard to believe Apple Records suddenly went "Now that iTunes is a monopoly on the download music market, we will jump in!"
On the other hand, Apple Records has a history of shrewdly protect their rights on The Beatles and has rejected many deals as along the way where it appears that Apple Computer Inc kept negotiating till they got a deal Apple Records agreed too. Added to this nothing is stopping Amazon from making similar concessions where it is only up to Amazon leaders to decide if The Beatles library is worth suspected cost.
A better analogy would be like saying "iTunes is like a toothpick to the right eye while Zune is like a toothpick to the left eye. Since I favor my right eye more, I think Zune is great!"
To be clear, I am not critizing what he did tinkering with any of his consoles. What I am criticizing is martyring himself on the internet. He is not a fool or foolish to believe that Sony wouldn't be forced to act.
Its not a popular stance on /. but I don't care for the action of either here. Sony and other console vendors have draconian DRM. Hotz can do what ever he wants to his consoles in his house but the moment he went to the internet with this another issue because it forces Sony's hand. Just like the guy who tinkered with his care enough to not make it street legal and the cops want to arrest and the state wants to take away his license complaining he needs money to fight THE MAN is a giant whatever from me. And again I have to reiterate this isn't a free speech issue either but a dispute between two parties in contract. Both can rot in court for all I care and I don't want nor should I even bother to care to get involved.
If you want to see a people fight the good fight for free speech, look no further than recent events in the new where people are protesting on the streets of middle eastern countries. Hotz vs Sony isn't even on the same scale.
I'm not a fan of any of the console vendors but I'm really not a fan of Hotz. Trying to cloth his activities as free speech rights is always dubious but then asking for help is even more so. Its like modifying my car to the point it no longer street legal the going "Waaaa! they are after me! Donate money to me so I can stick it to them!" No thanks, you did this to yourself for fame so enjoy it. This isn't a free speech issue but a civil dispute where if I look into the motives of both I find them both repugnant.
In the end, I've determined both parties suck in this case and choose to side with neither.
You can frame almost anything in "...is it to expensive?" Are smart phones too expensive? Smart phones probably are too fancy and expensive for most people's usage but they sell to a certain segment anyway.
Its fine if a hardware platform is "expensive" if they can find a market that has users that are satisfied and producers that can make a profit. This question of expensive is navel gazing that serves little purpose beyond click rates.
Beck's trick is he is giving facts but either lacking context or the wrong one. It is a fact that Cohen has worked with the US State Department but in the context of Google's corporate structure, how much influence does he really have outside of his Ideas Group? Never mind that because Beck just needs to say that and merely suggest there is a connection and "let the people decide".
The thing Nintendo and crew (Microsoft and Sony) do not like about this is that they've invested millions (billions?) in creating an entirely vertically integrated system that is carefully installed to maximize profits to Nintendo (and Microsoft and Sony) which leaves devs Rio going around it or ignoring it or leaving the system awash in junk games for cheap.
Or another way to look at it: Nintendo makes money on license and manufacturing carts. From Rio's and our perspective, it doesn't make any sense to buy "Angry Birds" on a cart. It would be too expensive and not convenient on a cart. Nintendo is complaining that companies like Rio are building games that are wildly popular but don't make sense in their precious expensive distribution system.
It seems to me Nintendo has the problem instead of Rio or us.
If these guys really believe in capitalism as purported, then it isn't my or any other person's or even Apple's problem for News Corp to make money on anything let alone an iPad app. If these guys really believe in capitalism as purported, News Corp or Murdoch may recognize a demand but have no way to capitalize on it today then it isn't our problem to solve either where both we or Apple should be free to walk away from what News Corp wants to do if they think it is a bad idea or bad deal. Failing to make money is a normal part how capitalism works were laying the blame at the feet of others is not interesting if one really believes in the virtues of capitalism.
But this is something that has always bothered me about Murdoch. Those conservative values are near and dear and paramount and we will beat that drum and sing those praises about them...until those values work against us then it is entirely utterly unfair and not our fault. If it turns out this time the market is working against News Corp, it is a good time for News Corp should rethink their strategy instead of News Corp crying we and Apple rethink ours. It is not our or Apple's problem that News Corps sunk $30M US plus $500k US a week into something where telling us and Apple how wrong we are flies in the face of capitalism.
If my saved games end up "in the cloud", I can 100% guarantee that at some point, they will be lost, or I will be denied access to them, and will not be allowed to back them up locally.
Wait what? Web based email (think gmail, hotmail, yahoo) seem pretty reliable and stable. The amount of "lost" content seems pretty low. The amount of deniles seem kind of low as well. We take for granted a lot of online services and never question their availability and stability, so why not use that high availability and stability for console games as well?
Saving stuff "to the cloud" seems to work well in on PC. Its as reliable and error free as your internet connection. MMOs base their business exactly on this feature where you can access accounts from any client. Other software tech like backups and doc archieves work every well. Save games lend themselves to this feature as well and it seems a lot of "complaints" sound similar to the whole "digital download" movement having somewhat irrational fears. Suggesting that Microsoft or Sony can't handle your precious online saves and outlining nightmare scenarios while one casually gives them credit card and personal data seems a bit weird.
It doesn't matter if one person or everyone in the world knows the underlying architecture. If the underlying architecture is junk then the problem is the underlying architecture instead of if it is closed or open source.
In fact there doesn't appear to be a correlation at all between them. There are places like Pakistan that have a high amount of gun ownership that are also very dangerous. There are places in Europe that also have a high amount of gun ownership but very low gun violence crimes. There are places like Japan which have very low gun ownership and tough restrictions and yet have very low gun violence crimes. There are places like Mexico that also have very tough gun ownership laws but gun crime is very high. Mexico is an interesting case where a lot of the crime and guns are probably due a neighbor....
In any event, what makes a place safe or dangerous appears to be the culture where neither ownership of guns or laws over guns seems to effect. If we want people to stop shooting each other in the US then I recommend we stop the aggressive attitude and hyper, reflexive response instead of arming or disarming people. Basically it doesn't matter if you give everyone a gun or take everyone's guns away if they are rude, cure and hate each other which kind of describes part of the political climate doesn't it?
The "upgrade path" isn't clear with multiple versions of upgrade. As mentioned, you can't upgrade from XP to Win7 directly where you need to do a Vista then do a Win7 upgrade. And it is not clear from the packaging or other marketing that you can't upgrade Vista Home to Win7 Professional. And you can't do a upgrade with the "full versions" if the previous was "upgrade" where you are forced to wipe.
Basically upgrading any machine to Win7 is often a "craps shot" where you won't find out what worked and what didn't till after you attempt it due to combination of factors. It is much easier to retire/rebuild a new machine from scratch than it is to try to take an XP machine to Win7.
Surprisingly, "The Social Network" was actually a good movie because of the human drama that it is intertwined into the story. Its not about how a wealthy kid makes even more money but how and possibly why he did it. Whether or not the events actually took place as depicted in this movie is up for debate but it is a hell of a drama that is well made and very entertaining. I won't be surprised if some it gets Oscars for at least the screenplay if not more.
What about the guy who follows every football game is doing nothing but hitting refresh on ESPN? The same guy who is in multiple fantasy football leagues? What about if they start doing it for money?? The same guy who goes to work thinks about how soon he can get out of work to go home and play Madden or setup more simulations for the season to better his predictions in the fantasy league. And while at work yammers at the water cooler about football constantly to the point no one cares.
I hate how games are being made out to be the "bad influence" when I look out at the office and see people just as obsessive with "harmless activities". Being obsessed with anything can throw your life out of balance where just saying "They should do something productive" or "Why not do the real thing?" while ignoring the guy trying to tweak their spreadsheets for the nth time planning out their fantasy football drafts for hours on end.
The problem is obsession not the game or activity. If your kids are begging for your attention and ignore them it doesn't seem to matter if the excuse is because they are watching a football game or running around a virtual world.
The issue I see is that Google isn't "business" isn't exactly catering to high level enterprise anyway. There is no way either Google or Microsoft is going to convince someone as large as say EDS or Oracle to abandon whatever system they have today for Google Docs or whatever Microsoft is offering with "cloud computing". However Google Services do make a lot of sense for smaller businesses and individuals that don't have the IT or resource budgets to handle this themselves. This is where Microsoft is pricing themselves out of the market.
In the end, we are still bit off of having the big guys go "all cloud" so they are right that Google is failing but Microsoft isn't exactly winning either.
So lets look at some games:
- "World of Warcraft" just had The Shattering which revamped the graphics and game flow of the world adopting tech and design they learned from 6 years of successful gaming.
- Steam just told me that "Poker Night at the Inventory" is available for cheap. Although it is basically a poker game, the fun part is the conversations and jokes in the game.
- "Farmville" is still going strong
- "Minecraft" would be a hard sell if not impossible on consoles
So yeah, if you say so. I don't think flashy and poorly coded are a PC feature but something that comes from the developer regardless of their target platform.
*Shrug* It seems like you are mistaking the consistent layout of Word as "sensible". There
Except for the recent changes to iTunes (which I wonder if a revamp of the MacOS UI is coming) the interfaces to a lot of Mac apps, especially Apple written ones are highly consistent. Looking at Word 2003, why are the things in the Tool menu there? Is "Options" really a tool? Looking at the Insert menu, are some of the things really necessary or should be broken into their own tool? Why do you need a Hyperlink under Insert? The way Word handles hyperlinks seems kind of clumsy if not dangerous. I guess the point is that a lot more thought needs to be put into some of the functions than is currently given. I won't be surprised if in the latest version of Office, in the latest version of Word that Hyperlink is still under Insert and it is still handled the same way but am not sure I'd call that "sensible".
Beyond this, I think Word and Excel let alone Office in general have gotten to much complexity (ie. bloat) from "feature creep". If you are just a student or guy who needs to write a quick document they don't touch or even need a majority of the features offered. That isn't to say that these features aren't useful to someone but as just a document creation tool it has gotten way to bloated and complex because someone may want to add some other feature. The danger for Microsoft is that things like Google Docs is more than sufficient and less cluttered than Word. Out of all of their products, Microsoft should offering tiered versions where an inexpensive, stripping down Word and Excel will work for a lot of people while the power users can go for the more expensive version.
"Poor Documentation" is an interesting complaint because the documentation for Windows including Win7 is still just as arcane as Gnome (I haven't looked at KDE in system docs but I suspect its the same state). Finding some of the Explorer keyboard shortcuts is a chore instead of being naturally pointed out to you so the onus is completely on the user to dig it out "secrets" which are conveniently in a book for $25.
"Software, Software, Software" is also an interesting complaint where something like "Ubuntu Software Center" is light years ahead of what Microsoft offers let alone any other third party software vendor. Installing Blender of Gimp is just as easy as installing Firefox. And Microsoft isn't providing that special sewing software to your mom but ostensibly the sewing machine manufacturer. Would you have this same problem on Mac? Mac and Linux users seem to go "They won't support us" but somehow its Apple or Linux community fault but I'm not sure how it is or how to correct it. It doesn't seem to be a problem with the platform but the ISV.
"Little Support" is again an interesting complaint because most issue a user will have Microsoft will tell them "Contact the vendor you bought the machine from". Turning around and calling HP or Dell the solutions range from shipping or hauling the box somewhere to long waits over the phone. I'm not going to say Linux is "stellar five star support" but I am confused how Microsoft offers "good support". Apple, Dell, HP offer good support but Microsoft is a giant "bleh".
"Ways of doing things that are confusing to a Windows user" doesn't mean "Doing things the Windows way" was any good to begin with. The Start "button" is not a button, a menu, or an explorer so explain that behavior to a new user is sometimes a challenge. It is at the bottom left of the screen instead of the top left. Again saying "its easy to install in Windows" is really odd because knowing how the installer works in Windows compared to both deb or rpm let alone the more advanced versions of both run rings around native and third party installers. You don't have to say "Install this for myself" or "Pick a directory to install" under Linux packagers. Why is "Doing things the Windows way" valuable beyond not wanting to learn another way? Apple through Mac does these things very differently as well and they don't complain. A lot of things on the modern Linux desktop "just work" but it is different where part of Apple's genius is they take a lot of time and effort to assuage the user from panicking.
It seems like "Why are these not problems on Windows?" is that Microsoft some how drilled it into people's head that it is use's fault not Microsoft. If you didn't know Window-E opened a new Explorer that is the user not knowing not Windows presenting it to the user.
The quirk is that like many other pieces of Microsoft technology, while truthfully claiming it is "cross platform" it is really only implemented and running smoothly in one central platform. Live is in Messenger but is only a thin/lightweight client. There is a web interface at xbox.com but again the functionality seems limited. Even on PC the support is highly variable and dependent on the vendor. It truly shines on the 360 though but even the version we see to day on the dash is only after years of aggressive revision. I expect Win7 Phones to have some neat features but nothing to make me change how I use Live, XBox or other flavor.
But beyond that, Microsoft's fixation on Apple seems wrong. Microsoft's competition is really RIM/Blackberry for the business crowd and Google for replacing them in the Phone OS market. While Microsoft was failing to deliver on Windows Mobile 6, RIM came in and swept up the tech business customers with a lot of enterprise connectivity features while Google came in a replaced Microsoft as "the guys who make phone OS". Apple is worth some attention but RIM and Google cost them their base so why focus on Apple?? Microsoft's current obsession on beating Apple is derailing what they should be concentrating on so I'm not really surprised Microsoft thinks it is important to have Live integration to win against Apple.
Is Microsoft the new Palm? I guess we'll find out but it isn't a good sign when Microsoft seems equally interested in rattling sabers with phone fabricators to make Win7 Phones for patent protection...or else!
Why does Kinect seem familiar? Microsoft saying "It will change the industry" and "Big players are developing it" and "You'll wonder how you ever did anything without it!" and "Everything will change after this". Oh yeah, this is what they said with Windows Mobile 6.
The more reports I get back the more it seems like just with Windows Mobile 6 that marketing is over promising features. That isn't to say Kinect is "snake oil" because of a lot of it does seem to work but that it is rough...."rougher" than they want to let on. So we'll get a big advertising blitz, Microsoft will declare it was a huge success, and then summary die because it is expensive and never quite work as smooth as they advertised while the competition runs wild. All of this is like WinMo6.
Anyhow, there is some merit to the tech but it feels like it is going in the wrong direction. Its like the belief one can effectively replace a keyboard with voice recognition. VR is useful in itself but not as a keyboard replacement! As an HMI issue, gesture controls found on Wii "work" because the interface is simplified not because of waggle. Replacing waggle sticks with Kinect without doing the requisite "simplification" is going to be a disaster. I wish they would abandon schemes like "replacing the controller for games" that are more smoke and mirrors than practical execution. Go with practical stuff like if my console notices I put the controller down to answer the phone, door, kids jump in my lap, or whatever, pause the game. If the console notice I'm no long in front of my TV for an extended period of time, go into hibernate mode. Stuff like this is more useful than trying to figure out how build a fighting game by waving my arms and kicking with my legs.
But in any event, $150us is too much for all of it. If it was built in at the start that would be one thing but it is too late now.
Why does a very destructive sneak attack from the ocean on major coastal cities around December sound so familiar?
To be serious for a moment, I still play since launch. The thing that kept my attention is their drive is partially beating the content and continuing drive to change the content. Seeing a new boss, dissecting its behavior, and attacking in a cooperative team manner is always fun. There is just enough complexity that it triggers my analytical side so when they revamp or change out mechanics I'm always interested.
Granted "WoW" isn't a perfect game and it does hinge on personal experiences (if you have no friends to play with, "WoW" is easily the dumbest thing to try to play) but I'm always stumped when people say "WoW" is a horrible experience.
Never mind that because that isn't the problem. The real problem is blindly running anything from any application simply because it can read the bytes and map them into memory for execution. This would be the same thing as a web browser automatically assuming if you click on a url 'http://blackhatbadstuff.com/csrss.exe' the web browser should tell the OS load it into memory and run it.
Simply put email clients, web browsers, and any number of applications should be allowed to do that. More fundamentally, the operating system shouldn't provide facilities for user apps to do this under normal circumstances. Why do we put up with this? The proper fix seems to be removing this stuff from the OS so it doesn't happen but the world instead seems to believe that is better and just as cost effective buy more AV software and just tell people to reinstall when they break it.
It seems to me that people like to play lots and lots and lots of games through web browsers. It would seem to me that promoting building web games in an open way goes along with "making a browser that people want to use".