I use my previous projects as benchmarks. If, say a certain old function/project's difficulty was x, and it took me n days, and the new function/project needed was twice as hard, I'd quote 2n days. That's an oversimplification but it worked for me. Steve McConnell's books helped me a lot. Like this one: http://www.edv-buchversand.de/mspress/product.asp? cnt=product&id=mp-0535
And I always gave 100% padding. If I know it will take me a week to do it, I usually say I can do it in two. (Duke 4ever comes to mind but that's another story.)
Despite the Ubuntus, Suses and Fedoras out there, Slackware is still going strong. Still #11 in http://distrowatch.com/ Will release 11 make it go up a notch or two?
I guess giving away scholarships for GNOME or any other software project would be the wrong way to go about it.
There is this high-end ballet school close to where I live. It costs an arm and a leg if you're a woman, to get in. Yet, lots of girls flock to this prestigious school with Russian-trained instructors.
For guys? Tuition is totally free. That's right, no strings attached. Why? That's to encourage more guys to enroll. Even the principal herself was trying to talk me to enrolling, since it was free anyway, but nah, couldn't bring myself to do it. (Despite the scholarship, I only saw about 1-2 guys in each room.)
In OSS or any software development for that matter, (or probably anything computer-related) we have to recognize gender differences for what they are without discriminating. Its not about being superior. They're just different. In general, women aren't terribly interested in coding the way we aren't terribly interested in stuff they do. (There are always exceptions, but ONLY exceptions.)
I mean, yes, there guys who take ballet-dancing, are into sewing, baking or cross-stitch as well, (or other mainly-female oriented activity) but they're in the vast minority. Women in those fields shouldn't be wondering why there aren't more of us there. Attempting to reach out to us, like that ballet school I mentioned is fine, but they should expect us to come in droves.
Finding the right balance while keeping it interesting is hard. Starcraft is a very balanced game. And its probably why it ranks as one of the best all-time games out there despite its age. Of course, Warcraft and the original C&C also had balance in the sense that they had practically identical units, but Starcraft really makes this interesting. Its almost like playing a 3-way chess with the races. Heck, this could be the chess of the future. And yeah, the best games I ever played were always about gameplay, not graphics, though that helps.
I agree. While I surf primarily with Firefox on Ubuntu Linux, I still have a Win98 partition around for some games. I personally wouldn't mind if they dropped support for 9x. They should still keep it up for download though. Some security fixes could always be back-ported for that branch, the same way the Linux kernel 2.4.x still gets some back-ported features from 2.6.x. Or GTK+2 2.8, 2.6, 2.4 or Gnumeric 1.6, 1.4, etc.)
Its true that a sizable number have moved on to Linux but quite a number like me, still keep a Win98 as a secondary OS. (For testing, playing, or maybe just nostalgia.) I'm hard-pressed to find someone who still uses it as a _primary_ OS though.
I'd mod the parent up if I had any points. I couldn't agree more. The most compelling reason to gradually (if not immediately) move away is that VB6 has reached end-of-life. Your boss would do well to listen to you that you ought to at least _begin_ to move away.
Just ignore most of the ad hominem remarks against VB6 here. I hate Microsoft as much as the next/.er but I made a living off VB6 for several years. Sure, VB6 won't make Doom 4 or Linux kernel 2.8, but it did and still has its merits. Its just that its on its way to being another Visual Foxpro.
This fact actually makes me want to pay them since I know for a fact that they are not just compensated for but compensated well.
The article is right in saying that their only weakness is that they don't have much in the way of major labels but that is quickly changing. And the more successful Emusic gets, the more major labels sign in. Ball just keeps getting bigger. No place to go but up.
And there's another way of looking at things. After a trying them for a while, your tastes 'shift' from 'major' to 'indie', and you come across that rare gem once in a while. Gives you that "where-the-heck-have-you-been-all-my-life" feeling.
Unless they somehow make a new battery that's dramatically better than the ones we have, people aren't really going to take these all-in-wonders seriously. I wanted to get a new phone last Christmas, that had an mp3 player and could play good games. Didn't want to have to carry so many gadgets in my pockets everytime I went out. So I got myself an SE Walkman phone. I won't do a review on that here, but to sum things up, the sound was ok, I could play games, make calls, etc. (Also had a camera and and FM radio btw.)
In the end, I had to make up my mind each day what I was going to use it for since I had to recharge every so often. (Much more often than what I would have liked.) A phone? A camera? Or a player? Maybe a little of each?
I ended up buying a small Creative flash player. A single battery lasted about 18 hours, could hold much more songs, etc. In practice, since I use it about 2 hours a day, I could go on a single charge for a week. (And no more calls or text messages interrupting my music or games.)
Instead of shelling out more than half a grand for an ultra-phone, I think money's better spent buying a regular phone, plus a dedicated gadget. (Player, camera, etc.)
(And on a slightly unrelated note, a lot of people still prefer regular calculators over the ones in their PCs.)
Of course, if your partner is way below your level, every session would end up being a tutorial, very counter-productive. In which case, he should either step-up by practicing in his spare time, or worse comes to worst, get a new partner.
Take a game like StarCraft, create a scenario where she's got unlimited minerals and vespene, plus a fully-functional base. You start out with nothing, well maybe just a few hydralisks and your goal is to take over her base. Her goal is to defend it.
Or Quake for instance. You only have a machine gun with 80% life, while she has a BFG, railgun, rocket launcher, etc, with quad damage.
Those are just examples. You can choose any (modifiable) game you want. Make it as lop-sided as possible, then adjust it as she progresses.
I'd prefer Ubuntu too if I were Mr. Dell. I've used Redhat and Mandrake. But the risk of sounding like a troll, Ubuntu's probably the closest distro to matching Windows' "just-works" usability. Scalable in features so that it can work for a total Linux newbie to a moderately hardened nux veteran. Well, Dell can make its own distro, but why reinvent the wheel? They can just customize Ubuntu. (They'll also be leveraging each other, but that's another story.)
Don't you just want to meet that teh l337 h4x0r who keeps trolling you here, in real life so you can show him just what you think of all those l337 h4x0rz? I sometimes have that overwhelming urge.
...on your budgetary constraints, whether you're willing to invest in expensive frameworks that you have to pay for over and over again, or go FOSS. It will also depend on your company's systems. Some frameworks have relatively steep requirements.
As much as its easy to suggest "use-this-or-that-framework-because-its-the-best", a quick inventory of what you have and where you're willing to go in the long run brings everything back to earth. Sorry if I didn't answer your question directly, but there are a lot of things to consider.
And also this RTS: Krush, Kill n Destroy. http://kknd2.com/ It was great for its time. The cut scenes were great and there were three different endings for the three factions you play: The Survivors (Humans), The Evolved and the Series 9 Robots.
Too bad it was released right about the time StarCraft came out. Poor multi-player support killed it too.
I still play this game from time to time. Really gives you that post-apocalyptic feeling.
Slashdot Mirror
I use my previous projects as benchmarks. If, say a certain old function/project's difficulty was x, and it took me n days, and the new function/project needed was twice as hard, I'd quote 2n days. That's an oversimplification but it worked for me. Steve McConnell's books helped me a lot. Like this one: http://www.edv-buchversand.de/mspress/product.asp? cnt=product&id=mp-0535
And I always gave 100% padding. If I know it will take me a week to do it, I usually say I can do it in two. (Duke 4ever comes to mind but that's another story.)
Despite the Ubuntus, Suses and Fedoras out there, Slackware is still going strong. Still #11 in http://distrowatch.com/ Will release 11 make it go up a notch or two?
I guess giving away scholarships for GNOME or any other software project would be the wrong way to go about it.
There is this high-end ballet school close to where I live. It costs an arm and a leg if you're a woman, to get in. Yet, lots of girls flock to this prestigious school with Russian-trained instructors.
For guys? Tuition is totally free. That's right, no strings attached. Why? That's to encourage more guys to enroll. Even the principal herself was trying to talk me to enrolling, since it was free anyway, but nah, couldn't bring myself to do it. (Despite the scholarship, I only saw about 1-2 guys in each room.)
In OSS or any software development for that matter, (or probably anything computer-related) we have to recognize gender differences for what they are without discriminating. Its not about being superior. They're just different. In general, women aren't terribly interested in coding the way we aren't terribly interested in stuff they do. (There are always exceptions, but ONLY exceptions.)
I mean, yes, there guys who take ballet-dancing, are into sewing, baking or cross-stitch as well, (or other mainly-female oriented activity) but they're in the vast minority. Women in those fields shouldn't be wondering why there aren't more of us there. Attempting to reach out to us, like that ballet school I mentioned is fine, but they should expect us to come in droves.
Same way with TFA.
Finding the right balance while keeping it interesting is hard. Starcraft is a very balanced game. And its probably why it ranks as one of the best all-time games out there despite its age. Of course, Warcraft and the original C&C also had balance in the sense that they had practically identical units, but Starcraft really makes this interesting. Its almost like playing a 3-way chess with the races. Heck, this could be the chess of the future. And yeah, the best games I ever played were always about gameplay, not graphics, though that helps.
How about a guide to pwning the first one? That would be useful.
They got /.'s formula:
1. Open detox clinic.
2. ???
3. Profit!!!
They know what's good for them.
I agree. While I surf primarily with Firefox on Ubuntu Linux, I still have a Win98 partition around for some games. I personally wouldn't mind if they dropped support for 9x. They should still keep it up for download though. Some security fixes could always be back-ported for that branch, the same way the Linux kernel 2.4.x still gets some back-ported features from 2.6.x. Or GTK+2 2.8, 2.6, 2.4 or Gnumeric 1.6, 1.4, etc.)
Its true that a sizable number have moved on to Linux but quite a number like me, still keep a Win98 as a secondary OS. (For testing, playing, or maybe just nostalgia.) I'm hard-pressed to find someone who still uses it as a _primary_ OS though.
I'd mod the parent up if I had any points. I couldn't agree more. The most compelling reason to gradually (if not immediately) move away is that VB6 has reached end-of-life. Your boss would do well to listen to you that you ought to at least _begin_ to move away.
/.er but I made a living off VB6 for several years. Sure, VB6 won't make Doom 4 or Linux kernel 2.8, but it did and still has its merits. Its just that its on its way to being another Visual Foxpro.
Just ignore most of the ad hominem remarks against VB6 here. I hate Microsoft as much as the next
I like the sound of that: NVidia + Intel (Both start with 'IN'), ATI + AMD (Both three letters starting with 'A').
This is good if the enemy doesn't have a Comsat or a Science Vessel.
This fact actually makes me want to pay them since I know for a fact that they are not just compensated for but compensated well.
The article is right in saying that their only weakness is that they don't have much in the way of major labels but that is quickly changing. And the more successful Emusic gets, the more major labels sign in. Ball just keeps getting bigger. No place to go but up.
And there's another way of looking at things. After a trying them for a while, your tastes 'shift' from 'major' to 'indie', and you come across that rare gem once in a while. Gives you that "where-the-heck-have-you-been-all-my-life" feeling.
Kudos to Emusic!
Will Wright's Spore (tm) He probably knew this all along.
You're absolutely right. This should be put in a poll, and let readers decide. After all, we're the ones spending the most time reading Slashdot.
Unless they somehow make a new battery that's dramatically better than the ones we have, people aren't really going to take these all-in-wonders seriously. I wanted to get a new phone last Christmas, that had an mp3 player and could play good games. Didn't want to have to carry so many gadgets in my pockets everytime I went out. So I got myself an SE Walkman phone. I won't do a review on that here, but to sum things up, the sound was ok, I could play games, make calls, etc. (Also had a camera and and FM radio btw.)
In the end, I had to make up my mind each day what I was going to use it for since I had to recharge every so often. (Much more often than what I would have liked.) A phone? A camera? Or a player? Maybe a little of each?
I ended up buying a small Creative flash player. A single battery lasted about 18 hours, could hold much more songs, etc. In practice, since I use it about 2 hours a day, I could go on a single charge for a week. (And no more calls or text messages interrupting my music or games.)
Instead of shelling out more than half a grand for an ultra-phone, I think money's better spent buying a regular phone, plus a dedicated gadget. (Player, camera, etc.)
(And on a slightly unrelated note, a lot of people still prefer regular calculators over the ones in their PCs.)
We now have the MSORPG, Massively Singleplayer Offline Role Playing Game. Probably like Oblivion. Oh wait...
For the average home user, or the weekend coder even, who won't need to recompile glibc, or other shared libraries, the gcc4 branch is ok.
Extreme Programming. http://www.extremeprogramming.org/
One of its basic tenets is pair-programming: http://www.extremeprogramming.org/rules/pair.html
Of course, if your partner is way below your level, every session would end up being a tutorial, very counter-productive. In which case, he should either step-up by practicing in his spare time, or worse comes to worst, get a new partner.
Take a game like StarCraft, create a scenario where she's got unlimited minerals and vespene, plus a fully-functional base. You start out with nothing, well maybe just a few hydralisks and your goal is to take over her base. Her goal is to defend it.
Or Quake for instance. You only have a machine gun with 80% life, while she has a BFG, railgun, rocket launcher, etc, with quad damage.
Those are just examples. You can choose any (modifiable) game you want. Make it as lop-sided as possible, then adjust it as she progresses.
I'd prefer Ubuntu too if I were Mr. Dell. I've used Redhat and Mandrake. But the risk of sounding like a troll, Ubuntu's probably the closest distro to matching Windows' "just-works" usability. Scalable in features so that it can work for a total Linux newbie to a moderately hardened nux veteran. Well, Dell can make its own distro, but why reinvent the wheel? They can just customize Ubuntu. (They'll also be leveraging each other, but that's another story.)
Dubuntu anyone?
Don't you just want to meet that teh l337 h4x0r who keeps trolling you here, in real life so you can show him just what you think of all those l337 h4x0rz? I sometimes have that overwhelming urge.
...on your budgetary constraints, whether you're willing to invest in expensive frameworks that you have to pay for over and over again, or go FOSS. It will also depend on your company's systems. Some frameworks have relatively steep requirements.
, a quick inventory of what you have and where you're willing to go in the long run brings everything back to earth. Sorry if I didn't answer your question directly, but there are a lot of things to consider.
As much as its easy to suggest "use-this-or-that-framework-because-its-the-best"
Well my notebook's touchpad is terrible in quake and RTS games, unless I'm playing against a newbie. Even Minesweeper takes a huge performance hit.
And also this RTS: Krush, Kill n Destroy. http://kknd2.com/
It was great for its time. The cut scenes were great and there were three different endings for the three factions you play: The Survivors (Humans), The Evolved and the Series 9 Robots.
Too bad it was released right about the time StarCraft came out. Poor multi-player support killed it too.
I still play this game from time to time. Really gives you that post-apocalyptic feeling.
It still has a huge (albeit dwindling) fanbase. http://planet.kknd2.com/
Exactly. Seriously though, today's much maligned l337 speaking h4x0r would be tommorow's grammar nazi.