And Vista has been in development for what FIVE years? Hmmmmm...
So five years in private development somehow equals three years in public testing and development? Did they only teach marketing logic in the school you went to? Vista has not been exposed to the public in any form for very long, and they have made changes to the driver model that will require manufacturers to release updated drivers. For the record I still think Vista will be a pile of shit, but dumping on a beta of it for legitimate problems with known and acceptable causes is assinine.
So where in the "beta barely means even testing anymore to some" meme does it imply that Microsoft is treating it that way? Don't get me wrong, I do not like Microsoft all that much, but they do enough on their own to lose face without attacking them using someone else's redefined terms.
If a bunch of dirty hippies can make it this easy for free, why can't a corporation with the resources of MS do it for their proprietary OS?
How long has etch been around again? Including the introduction as unstable it has been what, three years? That is all time during which it is publicly available. I would hope that three years of ongoing, in-public development could produce a smooth installation. Maybe comparing apples and bicycles is not quite as good of an idea as it seems.
Any specific reason why those are the only two reasons instead of "it was a philanthropic act that could also turn into a smart business move"? What, specifically, is wrong with being helpful and helping your business at the same time?
Should the teacher/professor take points away because of spelling mistakes, even though your ideas and essay deserves an A+ (sans spelling errors)?
Hell yes they should. Correct spelling and grammar, at least in essays in technical papers, are critical to conveying ideas. In their absense your ideas are not likely to be conveyed. I do not think it should be a major deduction, but I do agree that students should lose some points for messing up the basics.
Borrowing ideas from a culture is not intended as a means of social commentary. That the tauren borrow from native american culture and are allied with the orcs reflects on changes in the orcs' culture as they freed themselves from demonic possesion. It says something about the orcs not native americans. That the trolls sound like jamaicans is a unique cultural attribute, not some vague allusion that jamaicans are evil.
Look, if we went out of our way to avoid offending anyone when borrowing cultural attributes then every even remotely evil race in the game would be portrayed by wooden actors with no discernable accent. Attempting to find social commentary in the cultural makeup of fictional races in a video game is giving the game way too much credit. Log off for a little bit and spend some time away from the damn computer, or just quit trying to turn your MC runs into a sociology paper.
I like that analogy. Then as a follow up ask them if they think their software requirements are anywhere near as complicated as handling a traffic light.
I know exactly what you mean. My customers come to me and say, "I'm hungry and I want a healthy meal! I like ice cream, cookies and liverwurst. To eat it, I've brought my favorite chopsticks and a slotted spoon. Oh, and can I get that to go?" And after I make it, they point out how they're allergic to milk products.
So that's where my boss goes for lunch all the time.
Software isn't complex. Software is actually really simple once you understand the language(s) involved. To state the Software Engineering is complex means you don't understand the concept. There might be a lot of steps to it, but it's never hard.
I think you are confusing software with code. Writing code is not very hard. Software is a purpose manifest in code, which is difficult. In the face of choosing which algorithm to write actually writing the algorithm itself is not that difficult. As computers become faster and storage (in all forms) becomes more available we can afford simpler algorithms for most situations. Look at all the tricks people went through trying to cram functionality into 640k of ram, or 2mhz of processor speed. In most applications that kind of stuff is no longer necessary.
My point is that while the actual process of writing code seems to be getting easier all the time, I think the design problems are getting harder. Both are a requirement for writing software, so I would say that it isn't really all that easy.
A slightly better explaination is that it's more like building a car, "hot-rod" style.
...or like building a bike on American Choppers. At that point I worry that my boss would take things too seriously, grow a giant moustache, and start yelling at all of us to go get some work done.
Seriously though, the analogy is pretty good. It gets better when you look at things like body work where parts have to be designed before they can even be fabricated.
This game could in fact be terrible for Wii. Imagine whipping the controller and not seeing any on screen action until a few seconds later. Or the whip whps the wrong way. Or with not enough force. Etc.
So you argument boils down to "they could screw up the programming"? Substitute any other system for "Wii" and "pressing a button on" for "whipping" and you get exactly the same argument against another console. Nintendo is not responsible for any idiot programmers other than their own. The Wii remote would be a good fit for certain aspects of this game, so why is bringing it up so bad?
They're betting their entire company's future on a controller and a great price point.
Actually I think it is a well hedged bet though. They're planning on a normal controller, at launch buying the console + normal controller is still going to be significantly less than the other systems. I think what will really make or break the wii gamble is the success of the remote in third party development. A price point difference between consoles becomes less significant as time goes on, so something has to make up for the (relative) lack of power features in the system. Given what we have already heard from some developers about this I think nintendo has a brilliant strategy.
I don't want recycled lego's being shoved up my arm thank you very much.
So you'd rather die of a pandemic bird flu? Look I understand the sentiment here, and for most things less important than "stop something that will kill me" I agree with it, but in this case I would choose "relatively safe injection of petrochemical compounds" over "horrible flu-induced death".
About the "browser based database": most of the people who work with this kind of software full time hate switching to a browser implementation. Many of the programs fail to implement decent shortcut keys, and even those that do never seem to make it enough.
That said the browser based interface is good for everyone who needs to look at this but does not work on it all day. I would say the best solution is a browser interface with an additional traditional front-end. Personally I would put the front end together in emacs and just have it issue browser requests.
The link doesn't work, but I assume you are talking about this. And no, it is not an abomination of nature, I am convinced that they contracted cthulu to handle that bit of programming.
ever have one of those days where you wish you could just rate the article 'troll'.
I can't remember a day where I haven't wished I could rate the article troll. Had a few close calls, but the Dvorak piped up and saved(screwed?) the day.
And what happens when Joe Machead tries out Windows for the first time and realizes "Hey, you mean you can play GAMES on this thing?!?" OS X might suddenly not look so attractive and his next purchase be a lower-priced PC.
Have you ever met a mac user that you could imagine doing this? Most of the ones I met think that sitting them in front of windows is pretty close to asking them to do differential calculus in their head while juggling. For 99% of mac users booting into windows will be a distateful task that is required to play games, and nothing more.
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So five years in private development somehow equals three years in public testing and development? Did they only teach marketing logic in the school you went to? Vista has not been exposed to the public in any form for very long, and they have made changes to the driver model that will require manufacturers to release updated drivers. For the record I still think Vista will be a pile of shit, but dumping on a beta of it for legitimate problems with known and acceptable causes is assinine.
So where in the "beta barely means even testing anymore to some" meme does it imply that Microsoft is treating it that way? Don't get me wrong, I do not like Microsoft all that much, but they do enough on their own to lose face without attacking them using someone else's redefined terms.
How long has etch been around again? Including the introduction as unstable it has been what, three years? That is all time during which it is publicly available. I would hope that three years of ongoing, in-public development could produce a smooth installation. Maybe comparing apples and bicycles is not quite as good of an idea as it seems.
Any specific reason why those are the only two reasons instead of "it was a philanthropic act that could also turn into a smart business move"? What, specifically, is wrong with being helpful and helping your business at the same time?
I think that is because they know the root password. It used to be "child porn" but I think it was just changed to "terrorism".
Hell yes they should. Correct spelling and grammar, at least in essays in technical papers, are critical to conveying ideas. In their absense your ideas are not likely to be conveyed. I do not think it should be a major deduction, but I do agree that students should lose some points for messing up the basics.
Look, if we went out of our way to avoid offending anyone when borrowing cultural attributes then every even remotely evil race in the game would be portrayed by wooden actors with no discernable accent. Attempting to find social commentary in the cultural makeup of fictional races in a video game is giving the game way too much credit. Log off for a little bit and spend some time away from the damn computer, or just quit trying to turn your MC runs into a sociology paper.
I would be more concerned that someone will use your intellectual property without license.
Slashdot: Torturing english departments through misused metaphors since 1997.
Yeah, except for most IT people it is a "more magic" switch, not a crystal.
I like that analogy. Then as a follow up ask them if they think their software requirements are anywhere near as complicated as handling a traffic light.
So that's where my boss goes for lunch all the time.
Ah, now I know you obviously must be a programmer.
I think you are confusing software with code. Writing code is not very hard. Software is a purpose manifest in code, which is difficult. In the face of choosing which algorithm to write actually writing the algorithm itself is not that difficult. As computers become faster and storage (in all forms) becomes more available we can afford simpler algorithms for most situations. Look at all the tricks people went through trying to cram functionality into 640k of ram, or 2mhz of processor speed. In most applications that kind of stuff is no longer necessary.
My point is that while the actual process of writing code seems to be getting easier all the time, I think the design problems are getting harder. Both are a requirement for writing software, so I would say that it isn't really all that easy.
Seriously though, the analogy is pretty good. It gets better when you look at things like body work where parts have to be designed before they can even be fabricated.
You fail to understand that fantastic results can be achieved by redefining your concept of "girlfriend".
So you argument boils down to "they could screw up the programming"? Substitute any other system for "Wii" and "pressing a button on" for "whipping" and you get exactly the same argument against another console. Nintendo is not responsible for any idiot programmers other than their own. The Wii remote would be a good fit for certain aspects of this game, so why is bringing it up so bad?
Actually I think it is a well hedged bet though. They're planning on a normal controller, at launch buying the console + normal controller is still going to be significantly less than the other systems. I think what will really make or break the wii gamble is the success of the remote in third party development. A price point difference between consoles becomes less significant as time goes on, so something has to make up for the (relative) lack of power features in the system. Given what we have already heard from some developers about this I think nintendo has a brilliant strategy.
Come on, this is Steve Jobs we're talking about here... He has matching cats for whatever he decides to wear.
So you'd rather die of a pandemic bird flu? Look I understand the sentiment here, and for most things less important than "stop something that will kill me" I agree with it, but in this case I would choose "relatively safe injection of petrochemical compounds" over "horrible flu-induced death".
Phrases != words, duh. What are you, a java programmer?
That said the browser based interface is good for everyone who needs to look at this but does not work on it all day. I would say the best solution is a browser interface with an additional traditional front-end. Personally I would put the front end together in emacs and just have it issue browser requests.
The link doesn't work, but I assume you are talking about this. And no, it is not an abomination of nature, I am convinced that they contracted cthulu to handle that bit of programming.
I can't remember a day where I haven't wished I could rate the article troll. Had a few close calls, but the Dvorak piped up and saved(screwed?) the day.
Have you ever met a mac user that you could imagine doing this? Most of the ones I met think that sitting them in front of windows is pretty close to asking them to do differential calculus in their head while juggling. For 99% of mac users booting into windows will be a distateful task that is required to play games, and nothing more.