You talk about throwing work away as though it's a bad thing. My experience tells me that the first version of any complex piece of software or software component you try to create is going to be garbage anyhow. Maybe it would be better to count on calling your first try a prototype, learn the hard lessons about what doesn't work and why, and then scrap as much of it as you need and write version two with the lessons you gleaned from the prototype.
In my experience, this never goes down well with management. The expensive development team has spent the last four weeks doing something that now will be thrown out and redone. All in the name of "quality" that the client will never appreciate (or indeed know about) in the short term. Not to mention the deadlines on which the upper management signed off on to the client. Really, the management will rather ship mostly working "garbage" now and meet the deadline, rather than spend the time to throw out the prototype and write it properly.
I hope like hell that my experience is the exception and not the rule.
What if rapists post a modelling job ad in the local newspaper asking for young females. Would the newspaper be liable to be sued?
I don't believe I ever seen any warnings in the classified sections. Surely this scenario has happened in the past. What is the precedent on those kind of cases?
Alas, ARMA 2 was once available on GoG, but it appears that Bohemia Interactive has forced them to remove it. Single player works in WINE, but not multiplayer, so DayZ won't work:-(.
Bohemia Interactive has outsourced porting of ARMA 3 for Linux and have released an experimental build. But there is no guarantee that it will ever become non-experimental. It is available to install on Linux-Steam:
We do not dispute that Linux is and most probably always will be inferior OS for a gaming (DirectX is much more popular for game development rather than OpenGL/OpenAL stack). We are trying to point out that Linux is viable or good enough to use for gaming if that is the only thing that keeps you on Windows (There are a lot of other software that are Windows only: Office suite, Photoshop, internal company apps, etc).
By all means, if Windows 10 does not bother you so much, then you have nothing to be concerned about: There is no point in switching OS. However if Windows 10 on your gaming machine is irritating you to no end and you feel trapped because "Windows is my only possible choice", then we are trying to show that alternatives are viable.
Mac is also viable: Steam and GoG provide native binaries, Bootcamp and WINE.
This really is the golden age of non-Windows gaming.
Well that depends, what exactly are these questions? If it's a clean install then you would be asked about where to install it but that isn't the case with an upgrade. What are these confusing questions you're talking about?
I must confess that I do not know. I never went through the process of upgrading to Windows 10. But even I would be uncomfortable with going through any OS upgrade process without being prepared for it. At the very least backups of my data!
There are, of course, lots of older games that do not run on Linux
Indeed. Very good point.
For the older titles, please give GOG a look. They are wonderful publisher of older and some newer titles without DRM. They have released many old titles with Linux support. Perhaps your favourite titles have Linux port there.
Of course that means purchasing the game you already bought before again...
Finally there is WINE. That is the absolute last resort as using it is not user-friendly at all! I recommend you try Play On Linux. If there is an install script for your game, it will just set everything up for you quite smoothly.
Barring all those options, sorry: Looks like you will either need to find a way to block those mandatory Windows updates or embrace Windows 10.
I absolutely agree with you. For an average user it does not matter what is the OS they run, just that it does not get in the way. And that is perfectly fine!
But here is my point: Why be hostile? What is the benefit of the forced upgrade? Why not just allow the user to press "Cancel"? Let them update when they are ready! if they don't: That is fine, just don't support them. If they come to complain: Just tell them the steps to upgrade.
From my past experience supporting such users, they get absolutely horrified of situations they can't back out of or can't abort. Anything unfamiliar on the screen sends them into a state of panic. And here you have the very worst example.
This is a perfect showcase of an OS getting in the way of the user. He/she could be in the middle of their daily email reading when all of a sudden a system dialogue comes up demanding they right there and NOW make a decision about their underlying system. No, you can't close it and come back to it later. At most you can do is schedule a time, but schedule something you don't even understand or indeed want! Your Windows 7 IE is showing your emails fine! Why (As you eloquently put it) do I need to care about the OS?!
Can you imagine what panic this user will go through if they say OK to the update?! All of the sudden your system is rebooting and installation screens are asking you questions and that only thing you know is that it deals with something you know nothing about!
If it is only gaming that keeps you on Windows, you might be in luck. Valve have been pushing Linux as supported platform quite heavily. There are over a thousand titles as we speak.
Alllllll these workarounds. Man, wouldn't it be great if your OS wasn't overtly hostile?
Exactly! You hit the nail on the head. Spot on. Right on the money. Right on the point. Thank you.
It is disgusting how the IT industry treats their non-corporate clients with such hostility. Probably because majority of simple folks don't have any choice in the matter: They are locked in. Windows is all they know.
Too bad it is not him that will be making that decision. Only thing your friend can do is make a recommendation, but he will need to come up with a VERY persuasive non-technical argument.
I disagree with you that music composition needs strong AI.
Music composition is a narrow area with relatively well-defined inputs and outputs. Weak AI thrives under such small subsets of real world. Also in terms of music, there are so many varied opinions on what level of quality is acceptable or indeed sublime. While the track in the article obviously does not meet your standard, I am sure there is at least someone out there that enjoyed listening to that tune. I can think of several examples of "music" that I would consider much more irritating than the one presented in the article.
Also even in completely original works there are patterns. As Stravinsky put it "Antonio Vivaldi did not write 400 concertos; he wrote one concerto 400 times." And if there are patterns, then that is something that AI can learn from.
A great composer is not just born. And if a human can be taught, why not an algorithm be made that focuses only on that particular narrow area? Why is a skill of music composition so much more magical than looking for patterns on the Go board?
I have a female friend that resigned from a company purely because there were no men on the team and she was tired of backstabbing and gossiping. In the interview for her new job, she specifically asked if there were men on the team before accepting the role.
Although I did not mean for my comment to be anything beyond quick jab at humour, re-reading it does comes out very cynical (Something I am trying to self improve).
Disclaimer: I am a trauma surgeon, and do crash reconstruction work on the side.
So in other words, you benefit twice when some pedestrian get hit. With everyone so engrossed in their smart phones these days, you must be rolling in money!
Exactly. I am quite surprised that this news piece was published. I thought that journalists have an unofficial standard to not report on suicide stories in order to prevent copycat suicides.
$42 AU for a book is a bargain in Australia (Doubly so if it is a recent edition of an IT reference variety). There is a huge markup on books over here despite our dollar being relatively close to the US (1 US -> 72 cents AU).
Alas, there is always a catch with these stories. It is no wonder that everyone here is a cynic. Hard to get excited about anything when there is always fine print saying "Not for another decade".
Slashdot Mirror
You talk about throwing work away as though it's a bad thing. My experience tells me that the first version of any complex piece of software or software component you try to create is going to be garbage anyhow. Maybe it would be better to count on calling your first try a prototype, learn the hard lessons about what doesn't work and why, and then scrap as much of it as you need and write version two with the lessons you gleaned from the prototype.
In my experience, this never goes down well with management. The expensive development team has spent the last four weeks doing something that now will be thrown out and redone. All in the name of "quality" that the client will never appreciate (or indeed know about) in the short term. Not to mention the deadlines on which the upper management signed off on to the client. Really, the management will rather ship mostly working "garbage" now and meet the deadline, rather than spend the time to throw out the prototype and write it properly.
I hope like hell that my experience is the exception and not the rule.
What if rapists post a modelling job ad in the local newspaper asking for young females. Would the newspaper be liable to be sued?
I don't believe I ever seen any warnings in the classified sections. Surely this scenario has happened in the past. What is the precedent on those kind of cases?
Alas, ARMA 2 was once available on GoG, but it appears that Bohemia Interactive has forced them to remove it. Single player works in WINE, but not multiplayer, so DayZ won't work :-(.
Bohemia Interactive has outsourced porting of ARMA 3 for Linux and have released an experimental build. But there is no guarantee that it will ever become non-experimental. It is available to install on Linux-Steam:
https://dev.arma3.com/ports
Unfortunately, looks like you are stuck on Windows for those two titles :-(.
We do not dispute that Linux is and most probably always will be inferior OS for a gaming (DirectX is much more popular for game development rather than OpenGL/OpenAL stack). We are trying to point out that Linux is viable or good enough to use for gaming if that is the only thing that keeps you on Windows (There are a lot of other software that are Windows only: Office suite, Photoshop, internal company apps, etc).
By all means, if Windows 10 does not bother you so much, then you have nothing to be concerned about: There is no point in switching OS. However if Windows 10 on your gaming machine is irritating you to no end and you feel trapped because "Windows is my only possible choice", then we are trying to show that alternatives are viable.
Mac is also viable: Steam and GoG provide native binaries, Bootcamp and WINE.
This really is the golden age of non-Windows gaming.
Well that depends, what exactly are these questions? If it's a clean install then you would be asked about where to install it but that isn't the case with an upgrade. What are these confusing questions you're talking about?
I must confess that I do not know. I never went through the process of upgrading to Windows 10. But even I would be uncomfortable with going through any OS upgrade process without being prepared for it. At the very least backups of my data!
There are, of course, lots of older games that do not run on Linux
Indeed. Very good point.
For the older titles, please give GOG a look. They are wonderful publisher of older and some newer titles without DRM. They have released many old titles with Linux support. Perhaps your favourite titles have Linux port there.
https://www.gog.com/
Of course that means purchasing the game you already bought before again...
Finally there is WINE. That is the absolute last resort as using it is not user-friendly at all! I recommend you try Play On Linux. If there is an install script for your game, it will just set everything up for you quite smoothly.
Barring all those options, sorry: Looks like you will either need to find a way to block those mandatory Windows updates or embrace Windows 10.
Fair enough. Which particular game titles are keeping you using Windows?
I absolutely agree with you. For an average user it does not matter what is the OS they run, just that it does not get in the way. And that is perfectly fine!
But here is my point: Why be hostile? What is the benefit of the forced upgrade? Why not just allow the user to press "Cancel"? Let them update when they are ready! if they don't: That is fine, just don't support them. If they come to complain: Just tell them the steps to upgrade.
From my past experience supporting such users, they get absolutely horrified of situations they can't back out of or can't abort. Anything unfamiliar on the screen sends them into a state of panic. And here you have the very worst example.
This is a perfect showcase of an OS getting in the way of the user. He/she could be in the middle of their daily email reading when all of a sudden a system dialogue comes up demanding they right there and NOW make a decision about their underlying system. No, you can't close it and come back to it later. At most you can do is schedule a time, but schedule something you don't even understand or indeed want! Your Windows 7 IE is showing your emails fine! Why (As you eloquently put it) do I need to care about the OS?!
Can you imagine what panic this user will go through if they say OK to the update?! All of the sudden your system is rebooting and installation screens are asking you questions and that only thing you know is that it deals with something you know nothing about!
If it is only gaming that keeps you on Windows, you might be in luck. Valve have been pushing Linux as supported platform quite heavily. There are over a thousand titles as we speak.
http://store.steampowered.com/browse/linux/
Alllllll these workarounds. Man, wouldn't it be great if your OS wasn't overtly hostile?
Exactly! You hit the nail on the head. Spot on. Right on the money. Right on the point. Thank you.
It is disgusting how the IT industry treats their non-corporate clients with such hostility. Probably because majority of simple folks don't have any choice in the matter: They are locked in. Windows is all they know.
Too bad it is not him that will be making that decision. Only thing your friend can do is make a recommendation, but he will need to come up with a VERY persuasive non-technical argument.
Not that easy. Out of 275 citizens how many can afford a political campaign?
If you are not rich or have backing of the rich, you don't count.
I disagree with you that music composition needs strong AI.
Music composition is a narrow area with relatively well-defined inputs and outputs. Weak AI thrives under such small subsets of real world. Also in terms of music, there are so many varied opinions on what level of quality is acceptable or indeed sublime. While the track in the article obviously does not meet your standard, I am sure there is at least someone out there that enjoyed listening to that tune. I can think of several examples of "music" that I would consider much more irritating than the one presented in the article.
Also even in completely original works there are patterns. As Stravinsky put it "Antonio Vivaldi did not write 400 concertos; he wrote one concerto 400 times." And if there are patterns, then that is something that AI can learn from.
A great composer is not just born. And if a human can be taught, why not an algorithm be made that focuses only on that particular narrow area? Why is a skill of music composition so much more magical than looking for patterns on the Go board?
I have a female friend that resigned from a company purely because there were no men on the team and she was tired of backstabbing and gossiping. In the interview for her new job, she specifically asked if there were men on the team before accepting the role.
You are right.
Although I did not mean for my comment to be anything beyond quick jab at humour, re-reading it does comes out very cynical (Something I am trying to self improve).
Thank you so much for pointing it out.
Disclaimer: I am a trauma surgeon, and do crash reconstruction work on the side.
So in other words, you benefit twice when some pedestrian get hit. With everyone so engrossed in their smart phones these days, you must be rolling in money!
- Web gl FOSS distributed Eve Online ripp, cheat-proof cryptocurrency integrated
- FOSS Tribes 2 ripp
- FOSS MechWarrior ripp
What is "ripp" you are referring to?
Exactly. I am quite surprised that this news piece was published. I thought that journalists have an unofficial standard to not report on suicide stories in order to prevent copycat suicides.
And what would be your solution to online bullying? Blaming the victim?
Very sad that she did not get required level of support.
$42 AU for a book is a bargain in Australia (Doubly so if it is a recent edition of an IT reference variety). There is a huge markup on books over here despite our dollar being relatively close to the US (1 US -> 72 cents AU).
what are they gonna do -- vote for Hillary instead?!
They will just stay home and don't vote at all.
You must be new here. Beware: Dangers lurk beneath the surface and certain words should not be uttered lightly.
Alas, there is always a catch with these stories. It is no wonder that everyone here is a cynic. Hard to get excited about anything when there is always fine print saying "Not for another decade".
50% of Americans believe we have been visited by extraterrestrials
My bullshit detector is going off. There is no way that could be true. Do you have any citations?
Thank you for posting it. It is very insightful. Myself and a lot of my close friends I spoke about this have similar experiences.