"you can't just bundle more and more with the OS and hope nobody notices in the name of the almighty dollar."
I think that is absolutely true. Consumers WILL notice bundles. And they are demading them. When a consumer buys a PC they want to be able to use it. What good is a PC that comes with an OS, but no internet browser, media player, networking services, or other commonly bundled software packages? To a hard core enthusiest with the time, knowledge and ability to select their own software, sure it's great to have a stripped down OS. But for the majority of consumers who want their $2,000 purchase to work immediately and perfectly (or atleast as perfectly as is expected in the current environment).
Debian and Ubuntu probrably have the best currently available blend of striped down OS's with a GUI based package retreival/installation process. It still requires someone with significantly more knowledge then most consumers to opperate, but significantly less then it would take to manually track down bins and compile/install them from the command line. Improving on this system to make it easier for consumers to select the packages they want (ie: better searching, links to home pages, community reviews and ratings, non-free as in beer software distrobution) will imporve their position.
But when it comes down to it, a consumer doesn't want to spend $2,000 on a machine that can't even play back a CD or check their email.
It's worth it if you are into the MMO scene. Some of it get's a little preachy like it is from a burnt out player, but he makes some very valid points.
I had a room mate who had a wikkid dream once. Could have been made into an awesome Shadow Run campaign, or atleast a decent movie.
"Listening to someone describe their workout routine"
I've compared my workout routine with other's numerous times. It can introduce you to new exercises and work out styles. It can also help you find someone with a routine similar to your own that you can work out with.
"Watching someone else play video games."
When I was a kid I used to goto friends houses and watch them play Final Fantasy for hours. When I got older and my friends and I would set up LANs to play Doom and eventually Quake I still sat back everyonce and a while and watched our top ranked player hack it up. Now that I am older and wrapping up my bachelors, my school's LAN parties are getting more and more serious.
Eventually with round based games (CS for example), you could wind up with a broadcast NFL Football like program, where a pair of announcers comment and commend on the players, their styles, the levels, random stats, etc, while a production team keeps the feeds to the highest paced action, allowing replay, and even those Madden style finger drawn play maps.
I realise reading TFA is a quite an ordeal for todays ridlin fed ADD youth, but it even says in the SUMMARY, "At the time, I wasn't a huge MMORPG player, so I didn't envision the role it would play."
He didn't start gaming until AFTER the divorce. Most likely either he, or his wife moved and the wife maintained custody. He could have been the best father ever, and the divorce could have been amicable, but if he or his x-wife moved across the country you can't honestly expect him to commute 2500 miles for 4 hours 3 nights a week. Sitting in front of a web cam for 4 hours a night talking to your father could get rather boring for a child. Why not spend an hour talking about life, then playing a game together? Seems like a perfectly good way to hang out with a child from across the country.
I rather enjoyed that movie! It came out shortly after my room mate subjected me to showing after showing of Final Fantasy. I was so sick of the blatently and illogically "Evil" bad guy in that movie that while watching Driven I was giddie to find out that there were no 1 dimensional bad guys. Sure, some people where assholes, but they had there reasons.
The article time line was a bit to read through, but it sounds like the writer was fired and the section of the newspaper was closed in January... It looks like the points system was initialy introduced in August.
As the price of "content" approaches zero... it's quality suffers. Honestly, what publishing house would sink $25 mil into developing/marketing a video game that they would give away for free? If you want a free game, go find one on SourceForge.Net. If you want a professionally developed game, Pay for it!
One editor from a small time newspaper half the world away from the center of the Muslim world published a handful of political/religious satire comics and as a result there have been riots, deaths, injuries, murders, threats, violence, and property damage.
Can you imagine what might happen if Yahoo allowed email addresses like "AllahSucks@yahoo.com" or "GodKicksAllahsButt" or some other drivel...
-Rick
PS: For the record, I'm agnostic and I think the lot of you (religious fanatics) are wackjobs. Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or other whys.
Places like Monster only allow you to pick metropolitan areas. I want to be able to stick in MY location and see all jobs that fit my criteria within a 45 minute commute.
My entire datalayer is designed arround some of this theory. It takes me about 2 minutes to create a data object for a predefined table, or about 15-30 for custom views. But that is a fraction of the total time spent developing. Because pretty much ever thing I do depends on the data layer, and much of my higher level code can use multiple data object, the ratio of functional code to generated code in use is tiny, while that relationship is inverted for development time. Which means I can spend a lot of time going over business req and fine tuning applications, with out having to bother with data interaction.
I earned my degree through a business/technology college. The CS/BSIT/BSMT degrees are all geared for consultants and entrepreneurs. A class on copyright law, application for, and general information about would be extremely useful. And a significantly better legal requirement then the manditory Constitution Day class.
Uh, I've typed -Rick in every email, post, and correspondence for the last 5 years. I'm sorry my typing habits require you to download an extra 12 bytes of data.
I have a 48" projection TV and a 21" CRT monitor, running both at the same time sucks massive amounts of power. Replacing them both with a laser projection system that takes less then a watt and a half to run would be fine by me!
I'm going to go with the Cable issue theory. I have seen similar issues come from a crimped cable and they're not that expensive to replace. And on that note, mark up on cables is freaking insane. I put in a few years of retail sales (CompUSA) and I assure you, cost on that $60 belkin cable is under $15. Do yourself a favor and buy a cheap-o cable or a rebranded store version.
"(studies show that 39% of all page navigations are renavigations to pages visited less than 10 pages ago, usually using the back button)"
So why is it that when I open a new tab I have to manually cut/paste the same address in it. For example, replying to an article on/., If I want to quote the summary, I need to hit the back button to copy the text I want, then forward again to paste and type. Why can't I hit ctrl-T and get a new tab with the same page I'm currently on, then hit reply and anything I want to quote I can just switch tabs instead of screwing around with back/forward and scrolling.
Nethack is another great classic. DAoC was the first MMO I got into and really enjoyed. Original Quake is still my all time favorite FPS. The Need For Speed series has always been a source of joy for me. And now I'm keeping my eyes on The Chronicle http://www.mmocenter.com/v2/ from Rapid Reality.
Thanks for the review. My kyocera slider is desent, except the battery life sucks on it. No bluetooth, no camera, nothing fancy. Just a small cell phone that is easy to use and works with my coverage areas. What I need is something rugged and thin. I drive a rather small sporty vehicle with deep seat side bolsters, so anything to clunky winds up catching when I get into the car.
The difference is whether or not I have a dead phone when I leave the office. On the rare occurrence that a call does come through during the day my cell phone belts out toccata at max volume and there is no option to change it.
Slashdot Mirror
"you can't just bundle more and more with the OS and hope nobody notices in the name of the almighty dollar."
I think that is absolutely true. Consumers WILL notice bundles. And they are demading them. When a consumer buys a PC they want to be able to use it. What good is a PC that comes with an OS, but no internet browser, media player, networking services, or other commonly bundled software packages? To a hard core enthusiest with the time, knowledge and ability to select their own software, sure it's great to have a stripped down OS. But for the majority of consumers who want their $2,000 purchase to work immediately and perfectly (or atleast as perfectly as is expected in the current environment).
Debian and Ubuntu probrably have the best currently available blend of striped down OS's with a GUI based package retreival/installation process. It still requires someone with significantly more knowledge then most consumers to opperate, but significantly less then it would take to manually track down bins and compile/install them from the command line. Improving on this system to make it easier for consumers to select the packages they want (ie: better searching, links to home pages, community reviews and ratings, non-free as in beer software distrobution) will imporve their position.
But when it comes down to it, a consumer doesn't want to spend $2,000 on a machine that can't even play back a CD or check their email.
-Rick
It's worth it if you are into the MMO scene. Some of it get's a little preachy like it is from a burnt out player, but he makes some very valid points.
-Rick
"Listening to someone describing their dreams"
I had a room mate who had a wikkid dream once. Could have been made into an awesome Shadow Run campaign, or atleast a decent movie.
"Listening to someone describe their workout routine"
I've compared my workout routine with other's numerous times. It can introduce you to new exercises and work out styles. It can also help you find someone with a routine similar to your own that you can work out with.
"Watching someone else play video games."
When I was a kid I used to goto friends houses and watch them play Final Fantasy for hours. When I got older and my friends and I would set up LANs to play Doom and eventually Quake I still sat back everyonce and a while and watched our top ranked player hack it up. Now that I am older and wrapping up my bachelors, my school's LAN parties are getting more and more serious.
Eventually with round based games (CS for example), you could wind up with a broadcast NFL Football like program, where a pair of announcers comment and commend on the players, their styles, the levels, random stats, etc, while a production team keeps the feeds to the highest paced action, allowing replay, and even those Madden style finger drawn play maps.
-Rick
re-read that summary: "Brian Reynolds, CEO of Big Huge Games, is cited as an example..."
then later: "Thompson agrees, 'I never foresaw how important the games online would become... I wasn't a huge MMORPG player..."
The quote in questions is from Thompson, the divorce', not Reynolds.
-Rick
I realise reading TFA is a quite an ordeal for todays ridlin fed ADD youth, but it even says in the SUMMARY, "At the time, I wasn't a huge MMORPG player, so I didn't envision the role it would play."
He didn't start gaming until AFTER the divorce. Most likely either he, or his wife moved and the wife maintained custody. He could have been the best father ever, and the divorce could have been amicable, but if he or his x-wife moved across the country you can't honestly expect him to commute 2500 miles for 4 hours 3 nights a week. Sitting in front of a web cam for 4 hours a night talking to your father could get rather boring for a child. Why not spend an hour talking about life, then playing a game together? Seems like a perfectly good way to hang out with a child from across the country.
-Rick
I rather enjoyed that movie! It came out shortly after my room mate subjected me to showing after showing of Final Fantasy. I was so sick of the blatently and illogically "Evil" bad guy in that movie that while watching Driven I was giddie to find out that there were no 1 dimensional bad guys. Sure, some people where assholes, but they had there reasons.
-Rick
But then my neighbor will have a Ferrari too. And what's the point of owning a Ferrari if everyone has one?
-Rick
A better humanity wont put food on my table or a Ferrari in my drive way.
-Rick
The article time line was a bit to read through, but it sounds like the writer was fired and the section of the newspaper was closed in January... It looks like the points system was initialy introduced in August.
-Rick
As the price of "content" approaches zero... it's quality suffers. Honestly, what publishing house would sink $25 mil into developing/marketing a video game that they would give away for free? If you want a free game, go find one on SourceForge.Net. If you want a professionally developed game, Pay for it!
-Rick
One editor from a small time newspaper half the world away from the center of the Muslim world published a handful of political/religious satire comics and as a result there have been riots, deaths, injuries, murders, threats, violence, and property damage.
Can you imagine what might happen if Yahoo allowed email addresses like "AllahSucks@yahoo.com" or "GodKicksAllahsButt" or some other drivel...
-Rick
PS: For the record, I'm agnostic and I think the lot of you (religious fanatics) are wackjobs. Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or other whys.
Places like Monster only allow you to pick metropolitan areas. I want to be able to stick in MY location and see all jobs that fit my criteria within a 45 minute commute.
-Rick
My entire datalayer is designed arround some of this theory. It takes me about 2 minutes to create a data object for a predefined table, or about 15-30 for custom views. But that is a fraction of the total time spent developing. Because pretty much ever thing I do depends on the data layer, and much of my higher level code can use multiple data object, the ratio of functional code to generated code in use is tiny, while that relationship is inverted for development time. Which means I can spend a lot of time going over business req and fine tuning applications, with out having to bother with data interaction.
-Rick
I earned my degree through a business/technology college. The CS/BSIT/BSMT degrees are all geared for consultants and entrepreneurs. A class on copyright law, application for, and general information about would be extremely useful. And a significantly better legal requirement then the manditory Constitution Day class.
-Rick
Uh, I've typed -Rick in every email, post, and correspondence for the last 5 years. I'm sorry my typing habits require you to download an extra 12 bytes of data.
-Rick
I have a 48" projection TV and a 21" CRT monitor, running both at the same time sucks massive amounts of power. Replacing them both with a laser projection system that takes less then a watt and a half to run would be fine by me!
-Rick
Lots of great replies to me pet peeve, I hope some mods dish some points out to these posters!
-Rick
I'm going to go with the Cable issue theory. I have seen similar issues come from a crimped cable and they're not that expensive to replace. And on that note, mark up on cables is freaking insane. I put in a few years of retail sales (CompUSA) and I assure you, cost on that $60 belkin cable is under $15. Do yourself a favor and buy a cheap-o cable or a rebranded store version.
-Rick
"(studies show that 39% of all page navigations are renavigations to pages visited less than 10 pages ago, usually using the back button)"
/., If I want to quote the summary, I need to hit the back button to copy the text I want, then forward again to paste and type. Why can't I hit ctrl-T and get a new tab with the same page I'm currently on, then hit reply and anything I want to quote I can just switch tabs instead of screwing around with back/forward and scrolling.
So why is it that when I open a new tab I have to manually cut/paste the same address in it. For example, replying to an article on
-Rick
My wife is also a net hack fiend. To the extent that she wants to name our next dog "d"
-Rick
Nethack is another great classic. DAoC was the first MMO I got into and really enjoyed. Original Quake is still my all time favorite FPS. The Need For Speed series has always been a source of joy for me. And now I'm keeping my eyes on The Chronicle http://www.mmocenter.com/v2/ from Rapid Reality.
-Rick
is on the crapper.
-Rick
Thanks for the review. My kyocera slider is desent, except the battery life sucks on it. No bluetooth, no camera, nothing fancy. Just a small cell phone that is easy to use and works with my coverage areas. What I need is something rugged and thin. I drive a rather small sporty vehicle with deep seat side bolsters, so anything to clunky winds up catching when I get into the car.
-Rick
My Kyocera just says "Feature Disabled". I've been thinking about picking up one of those Motorola Razors though.
-Rick
The difference is whether or not I have a dead phone when I leave the office. On the rare occurrence that a call does come through during the day my cell phone belts out toccata at max volume and there is no option to change it.
-Rick