I don't know how other people feel, but for me, there's no way I'll be buying the next full size game via a digital download (think Fallout 4), unless it is MUCH, MUCH cheaper. There are too many risks to me:
- What if my HD dies? - What if the game was not so great and I want to resell it when I'm done. - I can't swap and share with friends. - what if it won't transfer to the Xbox720 (or whatever). - What if my account is banned for legit or non-legit reasons?
Since I now take on these risks by buying a digital-only game... the price better make it worth it, or I'm not interested.
Of course, I may not have a choice in a few years. *sigh*
The complaints about the big guys continue to roll in, and yet no one seems able to give me a good, trustworthy alternative that doesn't rip you off. I don't need hosting, only domain registration and SSL certs. Even the ones that some people like seem to have something shady going on- like no phone number provided (like Gandi). So, I'm still waiting... yes the big guys are bad, but that's all we have it seems. Which is why they can get away with it.
Is it the code to the Launchpad site itself? Like I could use a copy of it to manage and track bugs and development on my own projects? Or are they talking about some kind of framework / os that Launchpad runs on?
As far as I can tell from my limited browse of Launchpad, it seems like an alternative to Sourceforge no?
The problem is the lack of sharing and re-use that goes hand in hand with competition. My friends and I all think how awesome Left4Dead would have been if it had been built on the open city of GTA4 (or is it 5 now?). How much work went into building those huge worlds or the engines that generate those worlds say, in GTA or Fallout3 or Oblivion. Then they are used for maybe one game and a few addons and that's it. What a waste.
While many comments here are along the lines of... well then just don't use any apps. Or... just let the people who don't know any better, suffer the consequences of their ignorance. Etc. This is a faulty argument. If we always take the stance that no one should be protected from exploitation because of their ignorance then we will all end up in that boat.
Maybe you're so smart, you know better than to use Facebook at all or maybe just keep your personal info off it. But many people don't know this and Facebook actively encourages you to fill in and post as much info as possible.
Ok, you're too smart for Facebook. But are you overweight? Do you read the ingredients and nutrition info of everything you eat? Maybe we should allow restaurants and food companies to fill their products with trans-fats and all kinds of harmful but tasty chemical garbage, or exorbitant calories because well, if you're too stupid to read the ingredients or research the process to make the food- you deserve what you get.
Ok, maybe you are a conscientious eater and are careful of what you put in your body. You're too smart here. But do you use a cell phone? Maybe we should let cell phone makers create devices that emit tons of radiation and make all the cellphone users who are too stupid to research how much radiation their particular model of phone emits suffer the consequences of their stupidity.
Do you know the safety rating of your car? Do you know the actual interest rates that payday lenders and/or your credit cards are charging you?
Etc, etc etc.
None of us are totally free of ignorance in every single area of our lives. User beware will bite all of us in the ass eventually. It needs to be a two way street. Buyers need to be aware and sellers need to be responsible for what they produce and how they treat their customers.
It's less important for you to read books on how to use specific programming languages, and more important for you to know how to code well. A book like Code Complete is a good start. Make sure you can write clean, efficient, well organized and sufficiently (but not overly) commented code. Once you are confident you won't be doing shoddy work, hop onto a site like Sourceforge and start browsing the open source projects on there. Pick an application that interests you or maybe one that you already use and enjoy.
Start by writing small enhancements for it like bug fixes, plugins, addons or new features. Submit your code to the project's community for review and critique and feedback. See about having it added to the core application or to the list of plugins. Log your bug fixes on to the bug reports.
For example, I really enjoy using the open source Wiki engine Dokuwiki. If I was going to try starting to learn PHP (I already know it) I might start by contributing some plugins for Dokuwiki for example.
While this is a cute kind of a story, I at least would have given him the more 'modern' walkman which is about double the size of a cassette - not that lunchbox size thing he's got.
And to be fair, though this looks bad on me, I had walkmen for half my life and just today learned what that metal/normal switch was for.
From my perspective, I use Google for search, free email and maps. Now if I ever got unhappy with Google, changing my bookmarks and creating another free email account somewhere and forwarding my gmail address there is really trivial. It doesn't inconvenience my life much at all.
Whereas, if I am running a given operating system, switching it is a colossal headache, even for someone moderately technically inclined. My own quest to move to Ubuntu has been a lengthy process.
I can't speak for those using their ad services, but I don't see that they are particularly deep into people's lives. Unless I'm mistaken.
Heck- Facebook is more of a concern to me- most of my friends have utterly abandoned email and chat and use FB exclusively.
I liked Surf the Channel back when it was small and relatively unknown. If I missed a show it was usually the only way I could find it- because sites like Hulu and the official Network sites are blocked to Canadians. So, I could watch the episode and get back to watching the series each week on TV.
Surf The Channel always made it abundantly clear all over their site that 1) they do not host any videos and 2) you are leaving their site and going to another site and STC was not liable for any 3rd party site's content.
Sadly, the 'big wigs' apparently learned about STC because slowly but surely all the content that STC linked to was being pulled down from those 3rd party sites. So obviously STC was being used by the industry to find copies of illegal videos then contacting the 3rd party site to make them take it down. For example off sites like MegaVideo.
Here's the thing. I don't have pay-tv. So, I used to be a fan of Dexter. But now that STC is gone, I will have no way of continuing to watch it. And will I buy the DVD set? Hell no.
I realize the/. crowd totally gets this and I'm preachng to the choir... but arg! This stupidity can't last forever. I already find my self reluctant to pick up any new series b/c I know that if I miss an episode or two, I'm screwed. I want to watch shows on my own schedule. W/o paying an arm and a leg for cable or satellite and DVR.
While I'm very glad their are reporters willing to go to places like this and report on what's going on, whenever I hear stories like this I can't help wondering: "You know this country isn't particularly safe for it's own citizens, what did you think would happen to you if you work/vacation/report from there?"
Granted this doesn't make it ok. It's just not... shocking. At all.
Ok, not that I'm in favour of censorship, but the implication that violent and sexual themes are the only roads to maturing artistically is nonsense. Games are not stifled because they are being prevented from going down those roads- you as an artist are limited if you can't dream up any other avenues for growth or originality than only those two. I for one truly hope that video games have more directions in which to grow rather than just becoming more violent or sexually explicit.
there are still estimated to be millions of unprepared viewers
Give me a break. If you are still unprepared by now, you deserve to have your TV cut off. Maybe that will get you off the couch to buy a converter. Heck, I live in Canada and finding the converters is a challenge in itself, not to mention the $90 price with no rebate. Yet my whole family managed to get them. Something like 6 households of us.
First, decide on a price you are willing to pay and then vow not to go any higher. Don't look at the asking price, just decide what it's worth to you. Offer the squatter half that and if he haggles with you, be tough and then walk away if he wants higher than your top price. In fact, stop at about 3/4 of your top price then walk away for a few weeks. See if he calls you.
If you can't get it for the price you want, start looking into other variations on the domain. A domain is only as 'valuable' as the marketing you put behind it. So the domain itself won't make or break your business. You'd be better off investing that money into a good marketing campaign or branding/logo designer etc.
As for the actual transaction- don't buy it unless he is listing it through a legit registrar's after-market domain auctioning/selling system. Don't take the "send me the cash and I'll unlock it for transfer" line.
Protect yourself and get a lawyer to do the actual transaction.
I'm sure he appreciates all the spam he's going to get b/c you just posted his email address on the web. He won't be reading mail to that account for long.
Get rid of the boxed in path through the levels, give me a wide open city to explore and try to survive in (Grand Theft Auto meets Resident Evil) then call me.
The 4th time following the same path, and it gets boring.
I use a ton of free and open source software. I try to 'give back' by creating themes, plugins, and submitting bug reports and suggestions. I recently decided that I would give a donation to my favourites at the end of each year. This is just my decision though- each person needs to make their own choice. If it was mandatory, I wouldn't feel as good about it.
Sadly, I think much of that sci-fi future hasn't happened because even though a lot of awesome inventions exist, our society is based on profit. If you can't figure out how to profit financially from something, it doesn't get produced. Things are also kept scarce so that there will be a demand for them, or so they will seem like 'prestigious' items. How many people are dying in 3rd world countries b/c sending vaccines and drugs to them isn't profitable in a monetary sense?
I think Open Source Software is one step away from that problem. Many people, myself included will create and release software simply b/c there is a need/want for it, and profit desires are either secondary, or non-existent (granted not in all OSS, but many). If we can figure out how to apply that model to other areas of society- that would be a fantastic step.
I'm not anti-profit, but there's more to life that just that.
I understand the attachment to Polaroid. I have hundreds of digital pictures still in folders called develop_these on my desktop. The real thing we are lacking is a cheap, efficient, quality photo printer who's paper/ink refills don't cost you your soul.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know how other people feel, but for me, there's no way I'll be buying the next full size game via a digital download (think Fallout 4), unless it is MUCH, MUCH cheaper. There are too many risks to me:
- What if my HD dies?
- What if the game was not so great and I want to resell it when I'm done.
- I can't swap and share with friends.
- what if it won't transfer to the Xbox720 (or whatever).
- What if my account is banned for legit or non-legit reasons?
Since I now take on these risks by buying a digital-only game... the price better make it worth it, or I'm not interested.
Of course, I may not have a choice in a few years. *sigh*
The complaints about the big guys continue to roll in, and yet no one seems able to give me a good, trustworthy alternative that doesn't rip you off. I don't need hosting, only domain registration and SSL certs. Even the ones that some people like seem to have something shady going on- like no phone number provided (like Gandi). So, I'm still waiting... yes the big guys are bad, but that's all we have it seems. Which is why they can get away with it.
Is it the code to the Launchpad site itself? Like I could use a copy of it to manage and track bugs and development on my own projects? Or are they talking about some kind of framework / os that Launchpad runs on?
As far as I can tell from my limited browse of Launchpad, it seems like an alternative to Sourceforge no?
The problem is the lack of sharing and re-use that goes hand in hand with competition. My friends and I all think how awesome Left4Dead would have been if it had been built on the open city of GTA4 (or is it 5 now?). How much work went into building those huge worlds or the engines that generate those worlds say, in GTA or Fallout3 or Oblivion. Then they are used for maybe one game and a few addons and that's it. What a waste.
Wish I still had mod points. Well said. That's my view exactly.
While many comments here are along the lines of... well then just don't use any apps. Or... just let the people who don't know any better, suffer the consequences of their ignorance. Etc. This is a faulty argument. If we always take the stance that no one should be protected from exploitation because of their ignorance then we will all end up in that boat.
Maybe you're so smart, you know better than to use Facebook at all or maybe just keep your personal info off it. But many people don't know this and Facebook actively encourages you to fill in and post as much info as possible.
Ok, you're too smart for Facebook. But are you overweight? Do you read the ingredients and nutrition info of everything you eat? Maybe we should allow restaurants and food companies to fill their products with trans-fats and all kinds of harmful but tasty chemical garbage, or exorbitant calories because well, if you're too stupid to read the ingredients or research the process to make the food- you deserve what you get.
Ok, maybe you are a conscientious eater and are careful of what you put in your body. You're too smart here. But do you use a cell phone? Maybe we should let cell phone makers create devices that emit tons of radiation and make all the cellphone users who are too stupid to research how much radiation their particular model of phone emits suffer the consequences of their stupidity.
Do you know the safety rating of your car?
Do you know the actual interest rates that payday lenders and/or your credit cards are charging you?
Etc, etc etc.
None of us are totally free of ignorance in every single area of our lives. User beware will bite all of us in the ass eventually. It needs to be a two way street. Buyers need to be aware and sellers need to be responsible for what they produce and how they treat their customers.
It's less important for you to read books on how to use specific programming languages, and more important for you to know how to code well. A book like Code Complete is a good start. Make sure you can write clean, efficient, well organized and sufficiently (but not overly) commented code. Once you are confident you won't be doing shoddy work, hop onto a site like Sourceforge and start browsing the open source projects on there. Pick an application that interests you or maybe one that you already use and enjoy.
Start by writing small enhancements for it like bug fixes, plugins, addons or new features. Submit your code to the project's community for review and critique and feedback. See about having it added to the core application or to the list of plugins. Log your bug fixes on to the bug reports.
For example, I really enjoy using the open source Wiki engine Dokuwiki. If I was going to try starting to learn PHP (I already know it) I might start by contributing some plugins for Dokuwiki for example.
While this is a cute kind of a story, I at least would have given him the more 'modern' walkman which is about double the size of a cassette - not that lunchbox size thing he's got.
And to be fair, though this looks bad on me, I had walkmen for half my life and just today learned what that metal/normal switch was for.
From my perspective, I use Google for search, free email and maps. Now if I ever got unhappy with Google, changing my bookmarks and creating another free email account somewhere and forwarding my gmail address there is really trivial. It doesn't inconvenience my life much at all.
Whereas, if I am running a given operating system, switching it is a colossal headache, even for someone moderately technically inclined. My own quest to move to Ubuntu has been a lengthy process.
I can't speak for those using their ad services, but I don't see that they are particularly deep into people's lives. Unless I'm mistaken.
Heck- Facebook is more of a concern to me- most of my friends have utterly abandoned email and chat and use FB exclusively.
I liked Surf the Channel back when it was small and relatively unknown. If I missed a show it was usually the only way I could find it- because sites like Hulu and the official Network sites are blocked to Canadians. So, I could watch the episode and get back to watching the series each week on TV.
Surf The Channel always made it abundantly clear all over their site that 1) they do not host any videos and 2) you are leaving their site and going to another site and STC was not liable for any 3rd party site's content.
Sadly, the 'big wigs' apparently learned about STC because slowly but surely all the content that STC linked to was being pulled down from those 3rd party sites. So obviously STC was being used by the industry to find copies of illegal videos then contacting the 3rd party site to make them take it down. For example off sites like MegaVideo.
Here's the thing. I don't have pay-tv. So, I used to be a fan of Dexter. But now that STC is gone, I will have no way of continuing to watch it. And will I buy the DVD set? Hell no.
I realize the /. crowd totally gets this and I'm preachng to the choir... but arg! This stupidity can't last forever. I already find my self reluctant to pick up any new series b/c I know that if I miss an episode or two, I'm screwed. I want to watch shows on my own schedule. W/o paying an arm and a leg for cable or satellite and DVR.
Excellent post. I don't understand where all the negative comments are coming from. Oh wait, this is /.
While I'm very glad their are reporters willing to go to places like this and report on what's going on, whenever I hear stories like this I can't help wondering: "You know this country isn't particularly safe for it's own citizens, what did you think would happen to you if you work/vacation/report from there?"
Granted this doesn't make it ok. It's just not... shocking. At all.
Well said! You posted just I submitted my own similar comment below.
Ok, not that I'm in favour of censorship, but the implication that violent and sexual themes are the only roads to maturing artistically is nonsense. Games are not stifled because they are being prevented from going down those roads- you as an artist are limited if you can't dream up any other avenues for growth or originality than only those two. I for one truly hope that video games have more directions in which to grow rather than just becoming more violent or sexually explicit.
Do we really need buzzwords for everything. "Crowd sourcing" isn't really new- it's called team work.
*sigh*
there are still estimated to be millions of unprepared viewers
Give me a break. If you are still unprepared by now, you deserve to have your TV cut off. Maybe that will get you off the couch to buy a converter. Heck, I live in Canada and finding the converters is a challenge in itself, not to mention the $90 price with no rebate. Yet my whole family managed to get them. Something like 6 households of us.
Combine that headline with a nice cover graphic of planets smashing up into bits, and it sells magazines. Welcome to the publishing world.
First, decide on a price you are willing to pay and then vow not to go any higher. Don't look at the asking price, just decide what it's worth to you. Offer the squatter half that and if he haggles with you, be tough and then walk away if he wants higher than your top price. In fact, stop at about 3/4 of your top price then walk away for a few weeks. See if he calls you.
If you can't get it for the price you want, start looking into other variations on the domain. A domain is only as 'valuable' as the marketing you put behind it. So the domain itself won't make or break your business. You'd be better off investing that money into a good marketing campaign or branding/logo designer etc.
As for the actual transaction- don't buy it unless he is listing it through a legit registrar's after-market domain auctioning/selling system. Don't take the "send me the cash and I'll unlock it for transfer" line.
Protect yourself and get a lawyer to do the actual transaction.
I'm sure he appreciates all the spam he's going to get b/c you just posted his email address on the web. He won't be reading mail to that account for long.
Get rid of the boxed in path through the levels, give me a wide open city to explore and try to survive in (Grand Theft Auto meets Resident Evil) then call me.
The 4th time following the same path, and it gets boring.
I use a ton of free and open source software. I try to 'give back' by creating themes, plugins, and submitting bug reports and suggestions. I recently decided that I would give a donation to my favourites at the end of each year. This is just my decision though- each person needs to make their own choice. If it was mandatory, I wouldn't feel as good about it.
Sadly, I think much of that sci-fi future hasn't happened because even though a lot of awesome inventions exist, our society is based on profit. If you can't figure out how to profit financially from something, it doesn't get produced. Things are also kept scarce so that there will be a demand for them, or so they will seem like 'prestigious' items. How many people are dying in 3rd world countries b/c sending vaccines and drugs to them isn't profitable in a monetary sense?
I think Open Source Software is one step away from that problem. Many people, myself included will create and release software simply b/c there is a need/want for it, and profit desires are either secondary, or non-existent (granted not in all OSS, but many). If we can figure out how to apply that model to other areas of society- that would be a fantastic step.
I'm not anti-profit, but there's more to life that just that.
Not if you want to make scrapbooks or put them in frames.
I understand the attachment to Polaroid. I have hundreds of digital pictures still in folders called develop_these on my desktop. The real thing we are lacking is a cheap, efficient, quality photo printer who's paper/ink refills don't cost you your soul.
Ok, lots of debates on what do do with passwords which doesn't address the OP's question.
Create an internal wiki and begin documenting. Add some high level flow charts for overall clarity.
Indicate that sensitive details like passwords are stored in such-and-such safe or whatever.
Provide links to the websites for any software being used or techniques / best practices.
This way the predecessor can easily add to this wiki/edit it when he/she takes over.