Why don't you play on Second Life then? Not that I've played it or WoW, but from what I've heard it sounds more to your liking.
I do understand what you're saying. I recently started playing Oblivion, but stopped after about two weeks in. It's interesting to explore initially, but it gets old.
This has nothing to do with trenches and much more likely to have everything to do with poor management.
I've been in those trenches too, though not game development trenches. It definitely takes longer to write portable code. Consider databases and SQL. A lot of it you can write portably, but then a lot of it is not so portable. It's much faster to look up how to accomplish what you are doing with your chosen database than to maintain two separate databases to remain portable.
I've even taken the side that we should remain portable, but other developers disagreed. The basic argument was that it is too expensive and we weren't likely to switch vendors. I can't say they were wrong.
And to say that there's no tradeoff between optimization and portability for game development is insane. There's no way a game like Gears of War doesn't make use of optimization techniques for the 360.
For example, from Unreal Engine: "A specialized version of [Unreal Engine 2] called UE2X, which was used for Unreal Championship 2, features optimizations specific to the first-generation Xbox." And further on with regards to Unreal Engine 3: "The third generation Unreal Engine was designed specifically for DirectX 9 PCs and next-generation consoles."
Porting to Linux isn't free. There are always tradeoffs.
Wow, I hadn't realized how pro-GPL Slashdot had become. Three-straight +5 Anonmyous Cowards showering love on RMS, and a Troll for the kind of remark that would be Insightful or Funny if it was about Bill Gates.
And from the very same Wikipedia article under History:
In 2004 Toshiba and Canon announced a joint development agreement originally targeting commercial production of SEDs by the end of 2005. The 2005 target was not met, and several new targets since then have also slipped by. This failure to meet mass-production deadlines goes as far back as 1999, when Canon first told investors of its intentions to immediately begin mass-producing the technology.
So the answer to the original poster's question is: "read the damn page you link to" and "don't hold your breath".
I never said it was a 'dirty science'. I said it was less certain than other areas of science. Predicting against the past is not the same as predicting the future or scenarios that we haven't seen before with success.
I didn't see anything on that page you linked to about radio buttons not being allowed or dropdown lists being required. I also don't see what the "major PITA" is.
I am glad you mentioned cars. The methods used by climate modellers are indeed used by those who make cars. They are also used by those who make planes.
But eventually they get into wind tunnels, are driven on roads, and flown in the air, before the consumer is asked to buy them.
The methods of climate modelling use the same statistical methods and are judged by the same statistical criteria as those in all other areas of science.
There's a huge difference between trying to divine the rules of physics vs. trying to model a complex and constantly changing system. Gravity, electricty, and chemical reactions haven't changed since we've been studying them. We've built cities and all our technology using the same basic principles over and over again.
I still can't believe you are arguing that climate models are as certain as most areas of science. I'm willing to bet your statements would be ridiculed in a respectable climatology forum. Care to find out?
"Should landlords be allowed to decide their own rent?"
That's straightforward, but is biased. It's from the perspective of the landlord. It sounds very much like "Should you be in charge of what you own?". You could ask the same question from a different perspective: "Should rent-control be allowed for poor families?" and get a different answer.
"Should people under 27 continue to receive social security?"
My gut reaction is of some young person leeching off of society, but then what's missing is the context. Is this person physically disabled in some way?
"Should animal rights be included in the constitution?"
This one didn't ring any bells with me, for whatever reason.
"Should tackling the terrorism problem take priority over individual freedoms and liberties?"
Of course the gut reaction from most people will be no, but then you could ask the same person "Are you willing to give up some freedoms to prevent a terrorist attack?" and get a different answer.
Really, these questions are too simple and biased. There needs to be a lot more context and a discussion of the issues from both sides of the fence.
You were asking why the layman questions climate modelers. Climate modelers do not use their technology to make cars or GPS systems. They have no track record of predicting what will happen in 100 years time.
Repeatable experiments and success at prediction are the standard scientific measure. To say that climate modeling should be given the same certainty as all of science is ridiculous.
There isn't more room for doubt, as I explain above.
Umm, if all science was exactly the same, then that would be true. However, fields like quantum mechanics have been experimentally verified to very precise levels, yielding far more certainties than stuff like climate models. That you are arguing this point makes me doubt your claimed credentials as a scientist. And if you are indeed a respected member of the climatology community (link to paper?), well let's just say that I hope you're style of reasoning is in the minority.
One could say that they delivered a small # of units b/c "sh** happened", but they walked into sh** knowing the risks and they failed to deliver. So why coddle them?
I'm not. There's just been this repeated perception that the undersupply was a scumbag marketing decision. It wasn't, and shit does happen. I'm not saying people should wait for a PS3 if they'd rather get an available 360 or Wii. I'm just saying it's not as simple as people make it out to be, and the comic strip that the grandparent linked to is the main target of my post.
Ideally, Sony would love to have a next-gen console with the best specs, win a format war for the high definition generation, have ample supply, and an affordable price. Obviously what comes out of this decision making process Sony has to live with, and consumers will buy based on the end result. I'm not buying a PS3, but I'm not going to vilify Sony over it.
These are two of the largest companies in the world competing in one of the biggest industries in the world and they can't deliver product?
The law of diminishing returns applies here. It would start costing exponentially more money to guarantee a greater supply at launch.
Even Nintendo can't meet all it's demand at launch. Sure, they're doing much better than Sony (or Microsoft at their launch), but I expect they'll be sold out in stores through Christmas.
Sounds to me like they don't [think] that having available consoles at launch is a big deal. Unless you hear of some big-scale firings in the next year, the Sony execs are just pretending to be unhappy.
What goes on inside a company is completely different than the face shown to the public. And my comment about unhappy execs wasn't from any public remarks from Sony; instead it was just a guess based on common sense.
Re:So... it realy sucks, but its the best 360 game
on
Gears of War Review
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· Score: 1
I think the reason some people say that GoW is similar to a FPS has less to do with the actual game-play, and more to due with the controller layout.
I think it's more that shooters in general have become synonymous with the FPS acronym. People don't even think twice about what the acronym means.
Hmm, I used Audacity recently on a GTK Debian box and thought the UI was awful. Not the design of it, but just the widgets. Reminded me of old school Motif. I thought wxWidgets was supposed to use native widgets?
People permit commercial usage of Linux and many FOSS libraries in the hope that others create useful commercial applications and thereby actually help open source platforms and APIs succeed.
If that's the case then those people should choose the LGPL instead of GPL. Instead, the vast majority of GNU software and the Linux kernel are under the GPL, the same as Trolltech's Qt.
You're seriously wrong if you think GNU wants to help commercial applications succeed. Linus is probably ok with it, but then the license he chose isn't very friendly to commercial applications. I don't know if that was just convenience on his part so that he could work with the GNU toolset or what.
What I would ask is why are people so suspect about climate modelling in particular, yet so (justifiably) trusting of other scientific areas?
Because other areas often involve repeatable experiments. You can't put the earth in a controlled environment and run the experiment over and over, and see what the outcome is with more or less greenhouse gasses. Sure, you can do this is in a model, but then you can only predict what the model will do.
Your earlier example is a good one. If a working GPS systems makes use of General Relativity and not a Newtonian model of gravity, that's good evidence. Engineers use physics to make cars that I can drive, well that's good enough evidence for the common man too.
Why do people assume that climate modellers are somehow stupid, and have not taken into account solar radiation changes or tested against historical data?
I don't think they're stupid, but I as a layman have a heavy skepticism when it comes to modelling complicated stuff like climate models. They're great at predicting the past, no doubt. And of course, we've heard the story of the early "global cooling" fears.
By now you think I'm on the anti-global warming fringe, but I'm not. From what I can gather, there is general concensus among experts, and not knowing better myself, it seems logical to take their advice. However, I'm just trying to explain why there's more room for doubt than with other fields of science.
Pardon me for reading Slashdot a week behind and replying, but, anyways:
There's no way that Microsoft and Sony deliberately and grossly undersupplied the market during the Christmas season. They both had supply problems. Launching a game console isn't like making a cake.
Even if it's possible that they limited demand for the first week as a dubious marketing ploy, why would they do it for the whole Christmas shoppping season? People were having trouble getting a 360 well into March. Looks like Sony is going to have the same trouble, and I'm sure Sony execs aren't happy about it.
Well, you ignored my main argument, which was that technocracy != meritocracy, which was how this argument got started in the first place. You haven't addressed that issue at all, which is different from saying that technologist are the most important class.
As to your "precise" argument, you stated a fantasy scenario whereby a whole class of people is eliminated, and the effects it would have. I found it a bit ridiculous, nor do I want to branch off into a historical discussion of the Dark Ages. The point is nobody needs to be singled out and put on a pedastal, people shouldn't act arrogant, and that meritocracy is a bigger concept than technocracy.
At least, as someone pointed out to me earlier, you can simply return it anyway and take $0 loss (completely risk free investment), except for your time standing in line, which at least was an experience.
I loved how it seemed to be cold and raining almost everywhere for this launch. Some "experience":)
Computer has no problem keeping up with that though.
If you're taking the time to register with your brain that the key has appeared on the screen before typing the next key, you're moving really slow. I look at the screen too, but it in no way effects how hard I press the keys. By the time I notice an error on screen, I'm already several characters past it.
But having said that, I prefer the "new", mushy keyboards. They feel much nicer to me.
Slashdot Mirror
You're telling the founder and CEO to "blame management"? Is this a bad joke or what?
Why don't you play on Second Life then? Not that I've played it or WoW, but from what I've heard it sounds more to your liking.
I do understand what you're saying. I recently started playing Oblivion, but stopped after about two weeks in. It's interesting to explore initially, but it gets old.
I've been in those trenches too, though not game development trenches. It definitely takes longer to write portable code. Consider databases and SQL. A lot of it you can write portably, but then a lot of it is not so portable. It's much faster to look up how to accomplish what you are doing with your chosen database than to maintain two separate databases to remain portable.
I've even taken the side that we should remain portable, but other developers disagreed. The basic argument was that it is too expensive and we weren't likely to switch vendors. I can't say they were wrong.
And to say that there's no tradeoff between optimization and portability for game development is insane. There's no way a game like Gears of War doesn't make use of optimization techniques for the 360.
For example, from Unreal Engine: "A specialized version of [Unreal Engine 2] called UE2X, which was used for Unreal Championship 2, features optimizations specific to the first-generation Xbox." And further on with regards to Unreal Engine 3: "The third generation Unreal Engine was designed specifically for DirectX 9 PCs and next-generation consoles."
Porting to Linux isn't free. There are always tradeoffs.
Wow, I hadn't realized how pro-GPL Slashdot had become. Three-straight +5 Anonmyous Cowards showering love on RMS, and a Troll for the kind of remark that would be Insightful or Funny if it was about Bill Gates.
And from the very same Wikipedia article under History:
So the answer to the original poster's question is: "read the damn page you link to" and "don't hold your breath".
I see you're one of THOSE people that NEED to emphasize LOTS of words.
Then again why would you want a 50" TV in a tiny space? They're good for large rooms and not sitting too close.
I never said it was a 'dirty science'. I said it was less certain than other areas of science. Predicting against the past is not the same as predicting the future or scenarios that we haven't seen before with success.
You may have the last word.
I didn't see anything on that page you linked to about radio buttons not being allowed or dropdown lists being required. I also don't see what the "major PITA" is.
But eventually they get into wind tunnels, are driven on roads, and flown in the air, before the consumer is asked to buy them.
There's a huge difference between trying to divine the rules of physics vs. trying to model a complex and constantly changing system. Gravity, electricty, and chemical reactions haven't changed since we've been studying them. We've built cities and all our technology using the same basic principles over and over again.
I still can't believe you are arguing that climate models are as certain as most areas of science. I'm willing to bet your statements would be ridiculed in a respectable climatology forum. Care to find out?
That's straightforward, but is biased. It's from the perspective of the landlord. It sounds very much like "Should you be in charge of what you own?". You could ask the same question from a different perspective: "Should rent-control be allowed for poor families?" and get a different answer.
My gut reaction is of some young person leeching off of society, but then what's missing is the context. Is this person physically disabled in some way?
This one didn't ring any bells with me, for whatever reason.
Of course the gut reaction from most people will be no, but then you could ask the same person "Are you willing to give up some freedoms to prevent a terrorist attack?" and get a different answer.
Really, these questions are too simple and biased. There needs to be a lot more context and a discussion of the issues from both sides of the fence.
You were asking why the layman questions climate modelers. Climate modelers do not use their technology to make cars or GPS systems. They have no track record of predicting what will happen in 100 years time.
Repeatable experiments and success at prediction are the standard scientific measure. To say that climate modeling should be given the same certainty as all of science is ridiculous.
Umm, if all science was exactly the same, then that would be true. However, fields like quantum mechanics have been experimentally verified to very precise levels, yielding far more certainties than stuff like climate models. That you are arguing this point makes me doubt your claimed credentials as a scientist. And if you are indeed a respected member of the climatology community (link to paper?), well let's just say that I hope you're style of reasoning is in the minority.
I'm not. There's just been this repeated perception that the undersupply was a scumbag marketing decision. It wasn't, and shit does happen. I'm not saying people should wait for a PS3 if they'd rather get an available 360 or Wii. I'm just saying it's not as simple as people make it out to be, and the comic strip that the grandparent linked to is the main target of my post.
Ideally, Sony would love to have a next-gen console with the best specs, win a format war for the high definition generation, have ample supply, and an affordable price. Obviously what comes out of this decision making process Sony has to live with, and consumers will buy based on the end result. I'm not buying a PS3, but I'm not going to vilify Sony over it.
The law of diminishing returns applies here. It would start costing exponentially more money to guarantee a greater supply at launch. Even Nintendo can't meet all it's demand at launch. Sure, they're doing much better than Sony (or Microsoft at their launch), but I expect they'll be sold out in stores through Christmas.
What goes on inside a company is completely different than the face shown to the public. And my comment about unhappy execs wasn't from any public remarks from Sony; instead it was just a guess based on common sense.
I think it's more that shooters in general have become synonymous with the FPS acronym. People don't even think twice about what the acronym means.
The Mozilla team is pushing their own technology, XUL. Everybody and their brother has a pet application framework.
Hmm, I used Audacity recently on a GTK Debian box and thought the UI was awful. Not the design of it, but just the widgets. Reminded me of old school Motif. I thought wxWidgets was supposed to use native widgets?
If that's the case then those people should choose the LGPL instead of GPL. Instead, the vast majority of GNU software and the Linux kernel are under the GPL, the same as Trolltech's Qt.
You're seriously wrong if you think GNU wants to help commercial applications succeed. Linus is probably ok with it, but then the license he chose isn't very friendly to commercial applications. I don't know if that was just convenience on his part so that he could work with the GNU toolset or what.
"You are educated stupid and unable to know Nature's 4-Day Time Cube"
Because other areas often involve repeatable experiments. You can't put the earth in a controlled environment and run the experiment over and over, and see what the outcome is with more or less greenhouse gasses. Sure, you can do this is in a model, but then you can only predict what the model will do.
Your earlier example is a good one. If a working GPS systems makes use of General Relativity and not a Newtonian model of gravity, that's good evidence. Engineers use physics to make cars that I can drive, well that's good enough evidence for the common man too.
I don't think they're stupid, but I as a layman have a heavy skepticism when it comes to modelling complicated stuff like climate models. They're great at predicting the past, no doubt. And of course, we've heard the story of the early "global cooling" fears.
By now you think I'm on the anti-global warming fringe, but I'm not. From what I can gather, there is general concensus among experts, and not knowing better myself, it seems logical to take their advice. However, I'm just trying to explain why there's more room for doubt than with other fields of science.
Pardon me for reading Slashdot a week behind and replying, but, anyways:
There's no way that Microsoft and Sony deliberately and grossly undersupplied the market during the Christmas season. They both had supply problems. Launching a game console isn't like making a cake.
Even if it's possible that they limited demand for the first week as a dubious marketing ploy, why would they do it for the whole Christmas shoppping season? People were having trouble getting a 360 well into March. Looks like Sony is going to have the same trouble, and I'm sure Sony execs aren't happy about it.
Well, you ignored my main argument, which was that technocracy != meritocracy, which was how this argument got started in the first place. You haven't addressed that issue at all, which is different from saying that technologist are the most important class.
As to your "precise" argument, you stated a fantasy scenario whereby a whole class of people is eliminated, and the effects it would have. I found it a bit ridiculous, nor do I want to branch off into a historical discussion of the Dark Ages. The point is nobody needs to be singled out and put on a pedastal, people shouldn't act arrogant, and that meritocracy is a bigger concept than technocracy.
I loved how it seemed to be cold and raining almost everywhere for this launch. Some "experience" :)
I noticed that your auction was removed. What happened?
If you're taking the time to register with your brain that the key has appeared on the screen before typing the next key, you're moving really slow. I look at the screen too, but it in no way effects how hard I press the keys. By the time I notice an error on screen, I'm already several characters past it.
But having said that, I prefer the "new", mushy keyboards. They feel much nicer to me.