When they have anything other than cool, unoriginal ideas to show, perhaps I'll wonder less why people are sending them money. Didn't we have enough gullible fools on the 'net already? Since when have a few determined college students needed up-front payments of that order of magnitude to even start coding? I recommend people to donate to the EFF or other organizations with a proven track record instead and I wish I didn't have to point it out.
Moreover, an automatic requires far more regular maintenance that, if not properly performed, can lead to much faster breakdown.
I've not had any maintenance done on my cars with automatic transmission since 2000, so the problem is a bit exaggerated here. I'd estimate that you'd need a comparable amount of maintenance on your arm when you use manual transmission...
You mean downloadable content that you can't borrow, lend, trade, sell? I'd rather have my games on physical media.
On physical media but with mandatory internet connection for restrictive DRM? Because that seems to be the way major distributors are heading... Even without DRM it seems that an active internet connection is becoming mandatory, for example I bought a new PS3 slim and Assassins Creed 2 and the game refused to work without a firmware update on the console and after that a patch for the game. I assume that this kind of thing would break borrwing/lending/trading also because it enables strict ownership/usage control by the vendor (assuming that the media have a unique serial number somewhere).
"But for viewing stuff, its actually decidedly second-class."
How so? In what ways is the iPad "first-class" in comparison?
The iPad has a bigger screen than many netbooks and the fact that it is a touchscreen that allows very "natural" manipulation of the stuff you view, makes it far superior in usability, much more pleasant to use.
I don't know, some people just ought to try one for a bit and try to be neutral about it.;-)
The most recent example of a very short but good/immersive game was Metro 2033. Steam tells me I played a total of 10 hours to finish it, it was good but I'll probably never touch it again (not even to unlock the pointless achievements). Now, how many people will regularly pay 40-50 Euros for 10 hours of gameplay and how relevant are those people for the market? I suspect that games such as Mount & Blade and Torchlight, which are obviously low budget, will be more profitable for developers in the long run and appeal to a larger audience (due to the lower price) and it's only the (expensive) marketing that helps sell the 40-50 Euro games. Steam has been flooded with low budget games recently, perhaps you should ask them what they think...
it's the same with all Bethesda games unfortunately, as well as all the other "huge open world" type games I know. It begins with the environment being indestructible even for the strongest of weapons (in Fallout 3 you cannot even blow up a simple door or even a window with all your firepower/explosives). The more "visual" realism they add, the more disappointing it is when the characters and environment do not react in a realistic way. These games aren't RPGs or Adventure games, they are effectively very constrained "jump and run" type games.
Girlfriends don't cost money, doing fun stuff together costs money. Mortgages costs money. Kids cost money.
It's not that simple. It costs more money to do what you would want to do, or live in a flat you'd like to live in, make the holiday you'd get yourself, for 2 people instead of 1.
Girlfriends should, on average, have about just as much income as you do.
So what am I gonna do if she doesn't? Dump her for someone who does? Funny idea, that.
And she gets that income from you, then she's not your girlfriend. There's another word for that.
They also use and support free software. Google has made a ton of money *from* free software. They have shown it is possible to grow from a garage operation to one of the most influential company on the planet using Linux.
The same is true for most, if not all big websites, e.g. Facebook. So? How does that make Google akin to Red Hat, which lives and breathes Linux and Free Software and has been instrumental in furthering Free Software goals, rather than simply profiting from Free Software and giving back a small fraction of the benefits? I simply don't see how you can name these 2 companies in a sentence that implies their contribution and significance for Free Software is comparable. It certainly isn't. Linux wouldn't be the same without Red Hat, SuSE etc. but it could do without Google easily.
And as companies like Red Hat and Google have grown in size and profitability, so have the credibility and clout of free software....
Erm, Red Hat and SuSE, or Red Hat and Canonical Inc, or even Red Hat and Geeknet Inc., yes. But Red Hat and Google of all things? Google does not provide or support or grow from providing Open Source software any more than e.g. Microsoft does. They run a close-source search engine, a closed-source mail hosting service and sell ads for a living.
You can hack the kernel on an android phone (need a developer one, or a rooted one).
Same as on the iPhone...
And you can buy them without the google experience (geek phone), and it works, but personally, I have an android because of the google experience, so that is less appealing.
Interesting, which part of the "Google Experience" appeals to you so much specifically on Android? I'd have thought that you could use most of Google's web apps with all current smartphones...
Since all girlfriends cost you money one way or another, the question is in which case you have to feel like being tricked.;-) Let's say there are offers for free sex that we would both gladly turn down, no matter how honest they might be. Personally, I would feel tricked by Google into a supposedly "open" world where most code was written by other people than those charging me for the phone and where the currency I actually pay in is worth more to me than money: it's my personal data. If Android phones contained no proprietary code and I could download/modify anything and put it on my phone without sending any data to Google, then it'd be truly open.
The reason people want alternatives (inferior as they may be) is Apple's tyrannical control over the platform.
Out of principle or because they feel adversely affected by it? Personally, I can find no limitations that hamper the experience for me - OK, I cannot write an Objective-C app to run on it without going through the usual process, which is a non-issue for stuff I will only be using myself (not that I can think of anything to do with it that isn't covered yet by plenty of apps to the point where I'd feel like wasting my time), but nowdays it's easy to disguise web apps as iphone apps (iWebKit etc.) so what exactly is the problem? Not being able to download random stuff from the web, which is the #1 cause for malware/virus/adware infection and thus loss of time/work/money on PCs? We should be glad that we don't have 10 million zombie iphones in yet another botnet ready to knock out your company's website... Now, out of principle, that would be more understandable, but then why even bother with Android's dependency on Google? Get a Linux phone that allows you to hack the kernel...
From a developer viewpoint I'd say "best" would be beach chairs in a line facing the beach with umbrellas providing some shadow and cool drinks.;-)
If productivity is the primary concern, make sure that each developer has his own private area (meaning separate desk with plenty of space (including drawers etc.) and noone staring at his back, or if you must, cubicle) but also that it is not too difficult to communicate face-to-face with other developers on the same project (getting up and walking 5-6m is fine, having to open 2 doors to get to someone working with you usually isn't). Connected tables/star- or U-shaped arrangements are bad in my opinion, they encourage chatter, "thinking aloud" and mindless "hey look at that funny pic" kind of discussions. The worst ever place I've worked in was a tiny room with nearly a dozen people working on a continuous table space lining the walls, the software development equivalent of a call center....
For 4 developers (probably in 1 room?), I'd recommend just buying 4 spacious, rectangular or L-shaped tables that are placed at some distance of each other and a few plants to put around/in between. A small round table for discussions/meetings/quick food isn't a bad idea.
seriously, why do cops always circle the wagons to protect dishonest cops?
Because they know that when they commit a crime, the others will protect them too. Typical for all those organizations whose members feel more comfortable if they know they can break the law at their leisure, unharmed.
... you're doing it wrong. The hardest problems can be solved while waiting for the coffee machine to fill your cup. If your programming work requires too much typing, you're using the wrong language/tools or you can probably be replaced by a Perl script.
It's how we motivate adults at work so why not kids in school?
Because school isn't work. School is supposed to prepare children for more than just work. It is supposed to teach them not to fail at life, which is pretty much what they will do if they learn not to do anything unless they're paid for it. Will they read a book after school when they're not paid for it, when in fact they have to pay for the book? Hell, no. How will they handle difficult situations later on in life or be helpful members of society? "Sorry lad, I'm not paid for providing first aid, but give me $10 and I'll call a doctor...". How will they become entrepreneurs when they will take any paid job over the unpaid first steps of someone building their own company?
The whole idea basically reeks of defeatism. What's next? "hey, relationships are hard, why don't we all just prostitute ourselves?"
For most kids, education is pain, and toil, frustration, anger, boredom, and tears.
What exactly qualifies you to make such a broad statement? Most people I know enjoyed their years at school, especially at a hindsight i.e. compared to the adult years that followed.
... if someone bribes the children and there is no team of researchers around to analyze the effects, the children will just bribe teachers for better grades.
We always like to think that we're above devolving into brutality, oppression, and totalitarianism; but things can fall apart amazingly fast once you start heading down a certain road. I wouldn't just dismiss it so casually.
Indeed, we have progressed very far down that road already. All we need now is some enemy as an excuse for martial law and a totalitarian rule. In fact, we already have one. I'm suspecting that Muslims already feel in the US/UK like Jews did in the 30's around here and there is no strong outside enemy to be seen yet that would make curfews, i.e. physical oppression seem necessary so people don't revolt or try to run away...
Unless you attract enough attention to require scaling past 10M pages a day, you're wasting your time reinventing the wheel with NoSQL, just stick with a standard ORM, launch your site and start convincing customers and generate sales.
Most of the buzz about these things comes from and is aimed at people who actually believe they'll build the next Facebook or Twitter. The fallacy is in their belief that it's the size/traffic of those sites that supposedly mandates NoSQL and not the simple data models. Some of the biggest, less spectacular projects out there run on PostgreSQL for example (Skype, Affilias =.info and.org).
With 500 people in a small area, why not offer Ethernet as an alternative, together with access points for e.g. 300 users, if the room allows for it (e.g. if you have tables, not just rows of chairs)? It will be faster for many users (if not all, considering the limited spectrum you have available), easier to set up, more secure and it's also possibly healthier (some of your users might be worried about emissions?). Of course, it is also much, much cheaper. For the first 2 reasons I'd always prefer Ethernet myself if both were available (could be just me though).
Slashdot Mirror
When they have anything other than cool, unoriginal ideas to show, perhaps I'll wonder less why people are sending them money. Didn't we have enough gullible fools on the 'net already? Since when have a few determined college students needed up-front payments of that order of magnitude to even start coding? I recommend people to donate to the EFF or other organizations with a proven track record instead and I wish I didn't have to point it out.
Moreover, an automatic requires far more regular maintenance that, if not properly performed, can lead to much faster breakdown.
I've not had any maintenance done on my cars with automatic transmission since 2000, so the problem is a bit exaggerated here. I'd estimate that you'd need a comparable amount of maintenance on your arm when you use manual transmission ...
You mean downloadable content that you can't borrow, lend, trade, sell? I'd rather have my games on physical media.
On physical media but with mandatory internet connection for restrictive DRM? Because that seems to be the way major distributors are heading... Even without DRM it seems that an active internet connection is becoming mandatory, for example I bought a new PS3 slim and Assassins Creed 2 and the game refused to work without a firmware update on the console and after that a patch for the game. I assume that this kind of thing would break borrwing/lending/trading also because it enables strict ownership/usage control by the vendor (assuming that the media have a unique serial number somewhere).
"But for viewing stuff, its actually decidedly second-class." How so? In what ways is the iPad "first-class" in comparison?
The iPad has a bigger screen than many netbooks and the fact that it is a touchscreen that allows very "natural" manipulation of the stuff you view, makes it far superior in usability, much more pleasant to use. ;-)
I don't know, some people just ought to try one for a bit and try to be neutral about it.
The most recent example of a very short but good/immersive game was Metro 2033. Steam tells me I played a total of 10 hours to finish it, it was good but I'll probably never touch it again (not even to unlock the pointless achievements). Now, how many people will regularly pay 40-50 Euros for 10 hours of gameplay and how relevant are those people for the market? I suspect that games such as Mount & Blade and Torchlight, which are obviously low budget, will be more profitable for developers in the long run and appeal to a larger audience (due to the lower price) and it's only the (expensive) marketing that helps sell the 40-50 Euro games. Steam has been flooded with low budget games recently, perhaps you should ask them what they think...
it's the same with all Bethesda games unfortunately, as well as all the other "huge open world" type games I know. It begins with the environment being indestructible even for the strongest of weapons (in Fallout 3 you cannot even blow up a simple door or even a window with all your firepower/explosives). The more "visual" realism they add, the more disappointing it is when the characters and environment do not react in a realistic way. These games aren't RPGs or Adventure games, they are effectively very constrained "jump and run" type games.
Girlfriends don't cost money, doing fun stuff together costs money. Mortgages costs money. Kids cost money.
It's not that simple. It costs more money to do what you would want to do, or live in a flat you'd like to live in, make the holiday you'd get yourself, for 2 people instead of 1.
Girlfriends should, on average, have about just as much income as you do.
So what am I gonna do if she doesn't? Dump her for someone who does? Funny idea, that.
And she gets that income from you, then she's not your girlfriend. There's another word for that.
Ex-wife?
They also use and support free software. Google has made a ton of money *from* free software. They have shown it is possible to grow from a garage operation to one of the most influential company on the planet using Linux.
The same is true for most, if not all big websites, e.g. Facebook. So? How does that make Google akin to Red Hat, which lives and breathes Linux and Free Software and has been instrumental in furthering Free Software goals, rather than simply profiting from Free Software and giving back a small fraction of the benefits? I simply don't see how you can name these 2 companies in a sentence that implies their contribution and significance for Free Software is comparable. It certainly isn't. Linux wouldn't be the same without Red Hat, SuSE etc. but it could do without Google easily.
And as companies like Red Hat and Google have grown in size and profitability, so have the credibility and clout of free software. ...
Erm, Red Hat and SuSE, or Red Hat and Canonical Inc, or even Red Hat and Geeknet Inc., yes. But Red Hat and Google of all things? Google does not provide or support or grow from providing Open Source software any more than e.g. Microsoft does. They run a close-source search engine, a closed-source mail hosting service and sell ads for a living.
You can hack the kernel on an android phone (need a developer one, or a rooted one).
Same as on the iPhone ...
And you can buy them without the google experience (geek phone), and it works, but personally, I have an android because of the google experience, so that is less appealing.
Interesting, which part of the "Google Experience" appeals to you so much specifically on Android? I'd have thought that you could use most of Google's web apps with all current smartphones...
I hope this clarifies things.
Since all girlfriends cost you money one way or another, the question is in which case you have to feel like being tricked. ;-) Let's say there are offers for free sex that we would both gladly turn down, no matter how honest they might be.
Personally, I would feel tricked by Google into a supposedly "open" world where most code was written by other people than those charging me for the phone and where the currency I actually pay in is worth more to me than money: it's my personal data. If Android phones contained no proprietary code and I could download/modify anything and put it on my phone without sending any data to Google, then it'd be truly open.
The reason people want alternatives (inferior as they may be) is Apple's tyrannical control over the platform.
Out of principle or because they feel adversely affected by it? Personally, I can find no limitations that hamper the experience for me - OK, I cannot write an Objective-C app to run on it without going through the usual process, which is a non-issue for stuff I will only be using myself (not that I can think of anything to do with it that isn't covered yet by plenty of apps to the point where I'd feel like wasting my time), but nowdays it's easy to disguise web apps as iphone apps (iWebKit etc.) so what exactly is the problem? Not being able to download random stuff from the web, which is the #1 cause for malware/virus/adware infection and thus loss of time/work/money on PCs? We should be glad that we don't have 10 million zombie iphones in yet another botnet ready to knock out your company's website... ...
Now, out of principle, that would be more understandable, but then why even bother with Android's dependency on Google? Get a Linux phone that allows you to hack the kernel
From a developer viewpoint I'd say "best" would be beach chairs in a line facing the beach with umbrellas providing some shadow and cool drinks. ;-)
If productivity is the primary concern, make sure that each developer has his own private area (meaning separate desk with plenty of space (including drawers etc.) and noone staring at his back, or if you must, cubicle) but also that it is not too difficult to communicate face-to-face with other developers on the same project (getting up and walking 5-6m is fine, having to open 2 doors to get to someone working with you usually isn't). Connected tables/star- or U-shaped arrangements are bad in my opinion, they encourage chatter, "thinking aloud" and mindless "hey look at that funny pic" kind of discussions. The worst ever place I've worked in was a tiny room with nearly a dozen people working on a continuous table space lining the walls, the software development equivalent of a call center....
For 4 developers (probably in 1 room?), I'd recommend just buying 4 spacious, rectangular or L-shaped tables that are placed at some distance of each other and a few plants to put around/in between. A small round table for discussions/meetings/quick food isn't a bad idea.
seriously, why do cops always circle the wagons to protect dishonest cops?
Because they know that when they commit a crime, the others will protect them too. Typical for all those organizations whose members feel more comfortable if they know they can break the law at their leisure, unharmed.
... and routes around it (with apologies to John Gilmore).
... you're doing it wrong. The hardest problems can be solved while waiting for the coffee machine to fill your cup. If your programming work requires too much typing, you're using the wrong language/tools or you can probably be replaced by a Perl script.
... host your stuff at Google and get the PageRank boost. But that would be evil, no?
It's how we motivate adults at work so why not kids in school?
Because school isn't work. School is supposed to prepare children for more than just work. It is supposed to teach them not to fail at life, which is pretty much what they will do if they learn not to do anything unless they're paid for it. Will they read a book after school when they're not paid for it, when in fact they have to pay for the book? Hell, no. How will they handle difficult situations later on in life or be helpful members of society? "Sorry lad, I'm not paid for providing first aid, but give me $10 and I'll call a doctor...". How will they become entrepreneurs when they will take any paid job over the unpaid first steps of someone building their own company?
The whole idea basically reeks of defeatism. What's next? "hey, relationships are hard, why don't we all just prostitute ourselves?"
For most kids, education is pain, and toil, frustration, anger, boredom, and tears.
What exactly qualifies you to make such a broad statement? Most people I know enjoyed their years at school, especially at a hindsight i.e. compared to the adult years that followed.
... if someone bribes the children and there is no team of researchers around to analyze the effects, the children will just bribe teachers for better grades.
We always like to think that we're above devolving into brutality, oppression, and totalitarianism; but things can fall apart amazingly fast once you start heading down a certain road. I wouldn't just dismiss it so casually.
Indeed, we have progressed very far down that road already. All we need now is some enemy as an excuse for martial law and a totalitarian rule. In fact, we already have one. I'm suspecting that Muslims already feel in the US/UK like Jews did in the 30's around here and there is no strong outside enemy to be seen yet that would make curfews, i.e. physical oppression seem necessary so people don't revolt or try to run away...
Unless you attract enough attention to require scaling past 10M pages a day, you're wasting your time reinventing the wheel with NoSQL, just stick with a standard ORM, launch your site and start convincing customers and generate sales.
Most of the buzz about these things comes from and is aimed at people who actually believe they'll build the next Facebook or Twitter. The fallacy is in their belief that it's the size/traffic of those sites that supposedly mandates NoSQL and not the simple data models. Some of the biggest, less spectacular projects out there run on PostgreSQL for example (Skype, Affilias = .info and .org).
... with their 0-day exploitable Windows installations.
Has your Windows box ever prevented you from paying for software that contained pictures of titties?
Does that sum up the current Anti-Apple nerdrage on slashdot sufficiently? I'd say so ...
With 500 people in a small area, why not offer Ethernet as an alternative, together with access points for e.g. 300 users, if the room allows for it (e.g. if you have tables, not just rows of chairs)? It will be faster for many users (if not all, considering the limited spectrum you have available), easier to set up, more secure and it's also possibly healthier (some of your users might be worried about emissions?). Of course, it is also much, much cheaper. For the first 2 reasons I'd always prefer Ethernet myself if both were available (could be just me though).