Nice troll attempt, but try again. You dropped out before the good stuff and are comparing computer repair jobs to software engineering jobs. Sorry bub, but that's a no-go I assume you're upset about something, but slamming 'the system' doesn't really get you anywhere.
The CS major taught at most colleges don't prepare you for jack nor shit.
Umm, I have a CS degree and did just fine. Learned a hell of alot about the theory and problem solving techniques. Wasn't the same stuff I learned in the real world, which means without the degree, I'd have a huge gap in my skillset.
With no real training in hardware
I only had some hardware training, because my interest was more on the math side, however they offered many hardware options at my school. They even had a class where the students built a machine from scratch. Ballbuster, but the kids loved it.
I do architecture and development work for multi-million dollar projects, but I also did some hardware repairs on a co-workers box last week, so I'm getting by fine with this degree dragging me down.
What is it with these MMORPG's and their thirst for cash?
Wow, you need to get a clue. Blizzard is a company. Blizzard is owned by a publicly traded company. Making money is good. Making more money is even better. Go but a book on Capitalism, you might get some answers.
Worse, the Battlegrounds/PVP changes have made crafting virtually useless - even at higher levels - because player-crafted items are inferior to drops in instances, which are ALSO inferior to hardcode PVP-earned items.
So with the exception of long-term players, who play hardcore PvP virtually every day, there is little new to enjoy.
You're exaggerating a bit. As a casual player, if they stop development , it will still take me years to get through all the content. For a hardcore player, most everything that they're adding is for high levels. What about those crazy high end items, like the sword where you take the component and have Onyxia breathe on it, then kill her withing 20 minutes. That's a crazy quest, that very few will ever experience.
Also, crafting isn't useless. There are some recipes which are very rare, only a few per server. Most crafting is though trumped by instances and AV items, so I think it's mostly still useful for casuals. As a casual player, it is my goal to one day get an arcanite reaper. That's nothing to anyone hardcore, but to someone like me, it's a realistic long term goal.
For low level content, I don't think that's as important as high level content. However, they still toss some bones. Orphan week, the faire are good examples. You're kind of taking an extreme case. Someone who plays the same parts over and over again, then complains they're the same. If you want new content, take your level 40s to level 60.
I would bet anything that balance is the driving force behind all final feature decisions. Patches in most games are bug fixes, while in Blizzard games, they consist of some bug fixes and mostly balance tweaks. If Bliz answers this question, it could give great insight into their development process.
Do you want your highly paid devs writing code or digging through 900 daily NERF SHAMAN!!! posts?
Blizzard pays the developers to build the game, not scan the forums. In WoW, new and balanced content give it life. Devs need to maintain their focus to keep driving the features. If the devs spent any significant potion of the day reading forumns, it would have a huge impact on the development schedule. It makes perfect sense to have people dedicated to managing the forums. These people can dig through the crap, and there is tons of it, and compile the real issues for the dev team.
Now that doesn't mean that the devs don't scan the forumns at lunch or at home, but from a process standpoint, it makes sense to keep them separated on an effort this big.
You do realise that there's other desktop environments and window managers than KDE/Gnome, right?
Only if Linux is your hobby. Something it will never be, and shouldn't be, for the vast majority of people.
"What? Grandma? You're having problems with the Linux box I conned you into buying? It doesn't work as well as your Windows one did? Well, you ignorant slut, don't you realize that the KDE and Gnome that came preinstalled are crap? Those are crashing, not your computer. You don't know the difference? And you do realize there other window managers out there. Jeez, quit whining about email and learn how to use your computer, you stupid whore."
that is only obvious to people who can actually think.
Oooh, I'm stupid. Woohoo! Well, you've got me nailed, but I'm still trying to figure you out. You proudly buy products you don't like from people who are filthy rich?
Said another way, Carmack builds a new engine, makes millions from it, slaps a game around it, makes millions more. When he's squeezed an engine dry (keep in mind Q3 source was delayed because there was more money to be made) he releases it to the community under the GPL. No loss to him, great PR move. Because of his grand self sacrifice you give him your money even though you think his games stink. While I respect your freedom to do this, I still don't get it. If I find an old pair of pants which doesn't fit me anymore and give it to a hobo, will you send me a check?
I guess the main drawback of this is that most good programmers are often terrible teachers, but that might reflect the lack of a tradition in the field.
The mentor relation ship is critical to producing great engineers. You don't have to be a good teacher to be a good mentor though. I've been both mentored and a mentor. If you have a good 'teacher' (who is not a total ass) and a good 'student' who is bright and has a work ethic, the rest will take care of itself. The teacher will give the student just enough to run with and the student will figure out the details.
My view is that software engineering courses are all very well (not exactly a waste of time), but they might perhaps be the wrong way to turn out good programmers.
You still need the courses. The student needs the foundation if they are going to learn anything from a mentor. The mentor needs to solidify the stuff that the student learned in the classes. If it's working, the student should be saying "Oh, I understand why that is important now" very often. The mentor shouldn't be teaching someone what a 'for' loop is. The mentor relationship is usually somewhere, like the workplace, where stuff needs to get done. If the student doesn't have a good grasp of the basic skills, they'll be useless and just a drain on the mentor's time.
Case in point of why developers rarely end up in management.
Middle Manager: "Umm, Mr Developer, upper management and the customer are having a hard time following the progress of the project. They also aren't sure of what kind of quality control we have. We don't doubt your ability, but it's just really hard for us to see the direction. Do you mind if we follow this simple process, so I have a realistic progress report to present at the next meeting?"
Developer: "Begone, you ignorant slut! It is finished when I deem it so. And not one second sooner! Leave my sight."
You realize that Slashdot is an unknowing part of the citizen terror campaign run by the powerful. Fear leads to weakness and control, even if it is fear of control.
Slashdot posts these articles, and the fearful such as yourself fuel the fire with these types of FUD posts. Fearmongering under the guise of intelligent discussion. Brilliant idea which catches the 'smart people'. Instead of actively participating in the 'game', they withdraw into their own groups, leaving those in control to have their way. Who has more influence? A geek backed Senator or the EFF? Well, those in control know the answer to that question.
So, I say to you, keep spreading the fear. Keep the brightest of the world pessimistic and disengaged. It's what 'they' want you to do.
So the obvious question is asked and modded as Flamebait. Lovely.
No wonder the people on Slashdot fear the hive mind, conform or be outcast, "don't ask that question citizen" mentality, because it happens here everyday.
No situation is perfect. There are always issues, usually personnell, that cause waves. However, you want people who will work through all the crap and get the job done. The people who jump around are usually the kind with some skill (or none at all), but, as he said, have no ability or willingness to do the complete job. When they hit their limits, they throw a hissy about something and bail.
There are times when you need to leave, but when I see a resume where someone has changed jobs once or twice a year for at least a few years, it goes in the trash.
You mean the extra parity block on the 3rd disk?. I'm really dissapointed that the author didn't explain the parity block. It's a great brain opener for someone never deeply exposed to boolean logic.
Ummm, get a real argument. And people, please stop modding these factless emotional arguments up. It really hurts the credibility of the Slashdot.
The US has one of the largest military budgets in the world. People like you seem to critcize that all the time, except now, when you complain they don't spend enough?
OK, US also gives billions in aid to other countries, and has countless programs and scientists working to solve all these world hunger problems. Look at all the world disasters, who is always right there helping to save the day? Could the US government do more, of course, but they always seem to be doing more than anyone else.
So, what else? Oh you're complaining that the US is enforcing its own laws? OK, again, you're the type to complain when it doesn't. And I don't see anyone launching lawsuits against myself? Maybe it's because I don't violate copyright laws. The country has an obligation to enforce all of its laws. And being that capitalism is vital to the survival of the country, it has an interest in protecting the profits of companies.
I know you want to steal music and movies, and don't think you should be held accountable for it, but seriously, stop crafting these age old "Big business, evil government, corruption" crap defensive arguments. They're old, busted, and cliche. Is there corruption? Of course, but there always will be when money and power are involved. But individuals need to act rational and make an attempt to understand the system, not just sit back and scream foul at all the people who are in power.
You're the type of person used as a pawn by the powerful to get their way. Get a clue, it may serve you well some day.
Yeah, I'm sure the higher-ups at Rockstar are really impressed with this one.
As a developer, the code is your responsibility. You speak of time constraints, but yet how do you have time to write stuff that isn't supposed to be in there in the first place.
Slashdot Mirror
Nice troll attempt, but try again. You dropped out before the good stuff and are comparing computer repair jobs to software engineering jobs. Sorry bub, but that's a no-go
I assume you're upset about something, but slamming 'the system' doesn't really get you anywhere.
The CS major taught at most colleges don't prepare you for jack nor shit.
Umm, I have a CS degree and did just fine. Learned a hell of alot about the theory and problem solving techniques. Wasn't the same stuff I learned in the real world, which means without the degree, I'd have a huge gap in my skillset.
With no real training in hardware
I only had some hardware training, because my interest was more on the math side, however they offered many hardware options at my school. They even had a class where the students built a machine from scratch. Ballbuster, but the kids loved it.
I do architecture and development work for multi-million dollar projects, but I also did some hardware repairs on a co-workers box last week, so I'm getting by fine with this degree dragging me down.
The quality of a product dropped after it became a monopoly?
It did? Hmmmm, lets actually look at the Gamespot scores over the years.
Madden NFL 97 6.4
Madden NFL 98 8.1
Madden NFL 99 8.8
Madden NFL 2000 7.4
Madden NFL 2001 7.0
Madden NFL 2002 6.7
Madden NFL 2003 9.2
Madden NFL 2004 8.8
Madden NFL 2005 8.8
Madden NFL 06 7.8
Hmmm, seems pretty inline doesn't it? It's amazing what facts can do to FUD.
Funny, I heard it was a nude Madden performing unnatural acts with a six-legged turkey.
What is it with these MMORPG's and their thirst for cash?
Wow, you need to get a clue. Blizzard is a company. Blizzard is owned by a publicly traded company. Making money is good. Making more money is even better. Go but a book on Capitalism, you might get some answers.
On that link you can find all opinions by professional game physics programmers, and their opinions.
Yeah, whatever. What I'm really interested in is their opinions.
Evil Scientist man. Why else do you think he's building rocket ships? To destroy the moon of course.
Worse, the Battlegrounds/PVP changes have made crafting virtually useless - even at higher levels - because player-crafted items are inferior to drops in instances, which are ALSO inferior to hardcode PVP-earned items. So with the exception of long-term players, who play hardcore PvP virtually every day, there is little new to enjoy.
You're exaggerating a bit. As a casual player, if they stop development , it will still take me years to get through all the content. For a hardcore player, most everything that they're adding is for high levels. What about those crazy high end items, like the sword where you take the component and have Onyxia breathe on it, then kill her withing 20 minutes. That's a crazy quest, that very few will ever experience.
Also, crafting isn't useless. There are some recipes which are very rare, only a few per server. Most crafting is though trumped by instances and AV items, so I think it's mostly still useful for casuals. As a casual player, it is my goal to one day get an arcanite reaper. That's nothing to anyone hardcore, but to someone like me, it's a realistic long term goal.
For low level content, I don't think that's as important as high level content. However, they still toss some bones. Orphan week, the faire are good examples. You're kind of taking an extreme case. Someone who plays the same parts over and over again, then complains they're the same. If you want new content, take your level 40s to level 60.
I would bet anything that balance is the driving force behind all final feature decisions. Patches in most games are bug fixes, while in Blizzard games, they consist of some bug fixes and mostly balance tweaks. If Bliz answers this question, it could give great insight into their development process.
Do you want your highly paid devs writing code or digging through 900 daily NERF SHAMAN!!! posts?
Blizzard pays the developers to build the game, not scan the forums. In WoW, new and balanced content give it life. Devs need to maintain their focus to keep driving the features. If the devs spent any significant potion of the day reading forumns, it would have a huge impact on the development schedule. It makes perfect sense to have people dedicated to managing the forums. These people can dig through the crap, and there is tons of it, and compile the real issues for the dev team.
Now that doesn't mean that the devs don't scan the forumns at lunch or at home, but from a process standpoint, it makes sense to keep them separated on an effort this big.
I really wish that video wasn't staged. Kinda taints the legacy.
You do realise that there's other desktop environments and window managers than KDE/Gnome, right?
Only if Linux is your hobby. Something it will never be, and shouldn't be, for the vast majority of people.
"What? Grandma? You're having problems with the Linux box I conned you into buying? It doesn't work as well as your Windows one did? Well, you ignorant slut, don't you realize that the KDE and Gnome that came preinstalled are crap? Those are crashing, not your computer. You don't know the difference? And you do realize there other window managers out there. Jeez, quit whining about email and learn how to use your computer, you stupid whore."
that is only obvious to people who can actually think.
Oooh, I'm stupid. Woohoo!
Well, you've got me nailed, but I'm still trying to figure you out. You proudly buy products you don't like from people who are filthy rich?
Said another way, Carmack builds a new engine, makes millions from it, slaps a game around it, makes millions more. When he's squeezed an engine dry (keep in mind Q3 source was delayed because there was more money to be made) he releases it to the community under the GPL. No loss to him, great PR move. Because of his grand self sacrifice you give him your money even though you think his games stink.
While I respect your freedom to do this, I still don't get it. If I find an old pair of pants which doesn't fit me anymore and give it to a hobo, will you send me a check?
This is the reason I actually buy every title from iD Software, even if I don't like the actual game (Quake 3, Doom 3).
Ugh, why not give the money to charity, or support a struggling project? You know, people who actually need it?
Think of the usefulness of this thing in monitoring political speeches....
From reading TFA, politicians would rate very well on this, while quiet types would be flagged as jerks.
I guess the main drawback of this is that most good programmers are often terrible teachers, but that might reflect the lack of a tradition in the field.
The mentor relation ship is critical to producing great engineers. You don't have to be a good teacher to be a good mentor though. I've been both mentored and a mentor. If you have a good 'teacher' (who is not a total ass) and a good 'student' who is bright and has a work ethic, the rest will take care of itself. The teacher will give the student just enough to run with and the student will figure out the details.
My view is that software engineering courses are all very well (not exactly a waste of time), but they might perhaps be the wrong way to turn out good programmers.
You still need the courses. The student needs the foundation if they are going to learn anything from a mentor. The mentor needs to solidify the stuff that the student learned in the classes. If it's working, the student should be saying "Oh, I understand why that is important now" very often. The mentor shouldn't be teaching someone what a 'for' loop is. The mentor relationship is usually somewhere, like the workplace, where stuff needs to get done. If the student doesn't have a good grasp of the basic skills, they'll be useless and just a drain on the mentor's time.
Case in point of why developers rarely end up in management.
Middle Manager: "Umm, Mr Developer, upper management and the customer are having a hard time following the progress of the project. They also aren't sure of what kind of quality control we have. We don't doubt your ability, but it's just really hard for us to see the direction. Do you mind if we follow this simple process, so I have a realistic progress report to present at the next meeting?"
Developer: "Begone, you ignorant slut! It is finished when I deem it so. And not one second sooner! Leave my sight."
Ahh, but he used the term 'prior art'. Saying that adds instant credibility to any Slashdot patent post.
You realize that Slashdot is an unknowing part of the citizen terror campaign run by the powerful. Fear leads to weakness and control, even if it is fear of control.
Slashdot posts these articles, and the fearful such as yourself fuel the fire with these types of FUD posts. Fearmongering under the guise of intelligent discussion. Brilliant idea which catches the 'smart people'. Instead of actively participating in the 'game', they withdraw into their own groups, leaving those in control to have their way. Who has more influence? A geek backed Senator or the EFF? Well, those in control know the answer to that question.
So, I say to you, keep spreading the fear. Keep the brightest of the world pessimistic and disengaged. It's what 'they' want you to do.
So the obvious question is asked and modded as Flamebait.
Lovely.
No wonder the people on Slashdot fear the hive mind, conform or be outcast, "don't ask that question citizen" mentality, because it happens here everyday.
Yeah right. Not with the endless screams of "Turn me onnnnn....Tuurrnnnn meee onnnnnn.....".
Or you could use Thunderbird! You could move or remove the 'Reply To All' button so that you can't accidentally click it when just replying
Outlook allows you to do this also.
Well, I agree with the guy.
No situation is perfect. There are always issues, usually personnell, that cause waves. However, you want people who will work through all the crap and get the job done. The people who jump around are usually the kind with some skill (or none at all), but, as he said, have no ability or willingness to do the complete job. When they hit their limits, they throw a hissy about something and bail.
There are times when you need to leave, but when I see a resume where someone has changed jobs once or twice a year for at least a few years, it goes in the trash.
You mean the extra parity block on the 3rd disk?.
I'm really dissapointed that the author didn't explain the parity block. It's a great brain opener for someone never deeply exposed to boolean logic.
Ummm, get a real argument. And people, please stop modding these factless emotional arguments up. It really hurts the credibility of the Slashdot.
The US has one of the largest military budgets in the world. People like you seem to critcize that all the time, except now, when you complain they don't spend enough?
OK, US also gives billions in aid to other countries, and has countless programs and scientists working to solve all these world hunger problems. Look at all the world disasters, who is always right there helping to save the day? Could the US government do more, of course, but they always seem to be doing more than anyone else.
So, what else? Oh you're complaining that the US is enforcing its own laws? OK, again, you're the type to complain when it doesn't. And I don't see anyone launching lawsuits against myself? Maybe it's because I don't violate copyright laws.
The country has an obligation to enforce all of its laws. And being that capitalism is vital to the survival of the country, it has an interest in protecting the profits of companies.
I know you want to steal music and movies, and don't think you should be held accountable for it, but seriously, stop crafting these age old "Big business, evil government, corruption" crap defensive arguments. They're old, busted, and cliche. Is there corruption? Of course, but there always will be when money and power are involved. But individuals need to act rational and make an attempt to understand the system, not just sit back and scream foul at all the people who are in power. You're the type of person used as a pawn by the powerful to get their way. Get a clue, it may serve you well some day.
thirty-second fix impresses the higher-ups
Yeah, I'm sure the higher-ups at Rockstar are really impressed with this one.
As a developer, the code is your responsibility. You speak of time constraints, but yet how do you have time to write stuff that isn't supposed to be in there in the first place.