As a paying customer I expect customer support, helpdesk, guaranteed from Microsoft that documents created in the beta will work in the final version so not all my work is useless, and probably also a stable version to work with without bugs.
For a change I need to pay Microsoft and for that they expect me to work for them as a tester?
I'd say the whole idea about being a paying customer makes it feel more important can fire back on them. This sounds far more like a method to get people accustomed to online paying for software, possibly testing out Microsoft's Paypal killer or an online marketplace to buy Microsoft software. That would surely help them prevent piracy and remove profit margins for resellers and shops.
Simple idea
1: IE's the most popular browser out there so people design sites for IE
2: IE is not standard complient hence sites designed for IE don't work very well in other browers
3: People stick with IE because other browsers "don't work" and can't even display a site
4: ???
5: Profit
I happen to be a physics student knowing a fair deal about fluid dynamics and related subjects. There is actually a speed profit to be gained from specific suit designs. The effects are definitely noticeable. It won't make a terrible swimmer win but in today's world where everything is decided in a tenth of a second these things do make the difference.
That doesn't mean the media doesn't hype these things up though.
I've been looking into the options for this being an indie developer myself. Nintendo mentions on the Wii website:
It also will be home to new games conceived by indie developers whose creativity is larger than their budgets.
However I've found no information anywhere other then stating all game developers require to negotiate with Nintendo to get a licence and pay a sum per game assuming you even get Nintendo's approval to appear on the system.
According to rumours dev-kits for the Wii are expected at a mere $2000 while PS3 dev-kits should be in the range of $50000+. Ofcourse these are all rumours and any developer has to sign an NDA. A little bit more info
Holding shift while plugggin in a specially crafted USB device will overrule autorun. Normal USB sticks have autorun already disabled. So if you don't run any.exe,.scr files or simular after that you are pretty safe.
That is, unless they find out how to combine Sony Rootkits and USB devices.
Google has said they are looking into syncing this with Google Bookmarks and hence they need this data unencrypted. It also means that if they are working on this they currently already have that access.
I've also once heard from Google that they are not currently using Google bookmarks for PageRank but that they are thinking about doing so in the future. While the Google Bookmarks are now still pretty empty with such a solution it will be very easy to fill it making this a useful option to calculate PR.
I recently looked into the Hot Coffee mod and in september last year the ESRB started looking into modding. I'm not sure what resulted into this but the ESRB wanted that games need to be rated based upon how the game could be after modding. For more info try for instance this podcast around 50:45 minutes.
Not that I doubt that if they have any sense they will do this as this means any open source app or any changable game needs to be rated under the same type:
Online games that include user-generated content (e.g., chat, maps, skins) carry the notice "Game Experience May Change During Online Play" to warn consumers that content created by players of the game has not been rated by the ESRB.
Microsoft seems to be able to handle making games with a DVD player. While more space is useful for designers I expect that most big games will come out for both the 360 and the PS3. This means that you have a game which needs to be optimized for DVD format for the 360. So they either remake the game for Blu ray as well essentially redoing all video, gfx, sfx with far higher quality or just leave most of the disk empty.
I very much doubt that most cross console games will fully use all the space. True, Xbox 360 will probably get games which need 2 or even 3 disks but I don't mind switching DVD every once in a while if that means the PS3 goes from $600 to $400.
I'd like to do a social experiment and write a virus that pops up a window asking the question: "Install Virus?". The options are "No Thanks" and "yeah sure, pwn me". Now, I'm usually an optimist, but I think the results of this study would be depressing.
You mean, welcome to MSN plus install, would you like us to bundle adware with this program to really annoy you?
[yes] [no]
I'd say the company should get some big websites to talk about there company and cracks/keygens and link to them. That way they can easely get the first place for those keywords.:-)
On another note, I do agree with them. When I go to Google and type in there company name Google tells me that I don't really want them but that I instead want to get cracks for them. As a programmer I also see that Google has little option to stop this apart from blocking words like cracks, keygen,... but I doubt that's going to stop a judge from forcing Google to do so never the less.
My parents recently received an email to fill out an survey. This email, not listing anything like name of receiver nor having the receiver name in it's to field asked to click a link and fill in a survey. The link was an IP adres followed by a large amount of digits. The message had no information on why the email was send, what it was about, it was signed with a person's name and a company name I didn't recognise.
While I directly marked the email as spam before my parents saw this my mother asked later if she received an email for a survey she agreed to take. This survey asked a very large amount of questions going as far as asking what kind of salery you earn, how you live, etc. etc.
Some companies are just asking to get there email deleted.
Gamasutra had an interestng article about support desks for computergames a little while ago. You can read it here.
It gives an interesting list of what to do with which emails, when to press delete and when to press reply, what to do if somebody threatens to commit suicide and so on.
I gave a class last sunday to a group of 11 year old kids on how to make games with GameMaker. While at the begin all kids wanted to recreate GTA:SA or at least any 3D game after a quick lesson explaining that GTA is just a maze game where you walk around, collect stuff and do some shooting they started building maze games.
After working an hour on maze games each has already layed the basics of there game and really love the ability to have created something and be in control off everything that happens. Ofcourse this ends as soon as these kids show there games to somebody else who notices it's a boring maze game but with a little bit of class these kids got inspired to make there own games.
Children can get really motivated to work on games and as a Game Maker user I see that the avarage age off the kids is perhaps 13-14 years old and these games are nowhere near commercial quality but still, I've seen a few people (myself included) to grow out of this environment and earn money on programming computer games.
These kids are still there, you just have to know where to look.
I'm using the programming language Game Maker (4th generation, Object Oriented with 3th generation programming language) and I notice the avarage age within the Game Maker Community is about 14 years old. Lots of children are still interested in programming and creating programs and are willing to spend large amounts of time in this. This program is to used more and more on schools around the world and children really are motivated to create computergames.
Last sunday I gave a class on how to make computer games at a group of 11 year old kids and they really loved the idea of being in control and making there own games. The only disadvantage is that all these kids want to create the next 3D GTA game. But kids really do still spend lots of time in programming.
http://list.eurid.eu/registrars/ListRegistrars.htm ?lang=en
Have a look in the list for a company from Valkenswaard. 15 registers counted.
They've been sending emails around for a while that they offer the best chance because of there large amount of registars.
I very often visit international sites. I'm programming in a very specific language and I'm talking to a a select group of talented people in that language a lot. Also for research projects for school I almost always look abroad for content as, being a Dutchman, there's far more content available internationally.
There's a difference within this case of course for large countries like the US where there are lots of content is generated already but this will defenitely harm the many smaller countries. The great thing about the World Wide Web is that I can just as easely speak about something with somebody from Finland, the US, Russia or my neighboor next door.
I make freeware computer games and several months ago I was featured on a Dutch site, last month front page news of a US gaming site, last week at a Czech news site and next month on a German PC magazine. Without the internet a lot of freeware projects would end such as open source development programs and a lot more.
Why can't the US government use the list of keywords given by MSN/Yahoo/... and search for those on Google. This should give the same results except for a few special operators (link:, info:, etc.) which might get handled differently.
That way the US DoJ get's exactly what they want, Google gets it's way and the only issue is that MSN/Yahoo/... will next also ignore the requests of DoJ and they face a public defeat.
Slashdot Mirror
As a paying customer I expect customer support, helpdesk, guaranteed from Microsoft that documents created in the beta will work in the final version so not all my work is useless, and probably also a stable version to work with without bugs.
For a change I need to pay Microsoft and for that they expect me to work for them as a tester?
I'd say the whole idea about being a paying customer makes it feel more important can fire back on them. This sounds far more like a method to get people accustomed to online paying for software, possibly testing out Microsoft's Paypal killer or an online marketplace to buy Microsoft software. That would surely help them prevent piracy and remove profit margins for resellers and shops.
Simple idea
1: IE's the most popular browser out there so people design sites for IE
2: IE is not standard complient hence sites designed for IE don't work very well in other browers
3: People stick with IE because other browsers "don't work" and can't even display a site
4: ???
5: Profit
I happen to be a physics student knowing a fair deal about fluid dynamics and related subjects. There is actually a speed profit to be gained from specific suit designs. The effects are definitely noticeable. It won't make a terrible swimmer win but in today's world where everything is decided in a tenth of a second these things do make the difference.
That doesn't mean the media doesn't hype these things up though.
According to rumours dev-kits for the Wii are expected at a mere $2000 while PS3 dev-kits should be in the range of $50000+. Ofcourse these are all rumours and any developer has to sign an NDA. A little bit more info
Holding shift while plugggin in a specially crafted USB device will overrule autorun. Normal USB sticks have autorun already disabled. So if you don't run any .exe, .scr files or simular after that you are pretty safe.
That is, unless they find out how to combine Sony Rootkits and USB devices.
Google has said they are looking into syncing this with Google Bookmarks and hence they need this data unencrypted. It also means that if they are working on this they currently already have that access.
I've also once heard from Google that they are not currently using Google bookmarks for PageRank but that they are thinking about doing so in the future. While the Google Bookmarks are now still pretty empty with such a solution it will be very easy to fill it making this a useful option to calculate PR.
Not that I doubt that if they have any sense they will do this as this means any open source app or any changable game needs to be rated under the same type: That kinda ruins the entire idea of ratings.
Microsoft seems to be able to handle making games with a DVD player. While more space is useful for designers I expect that most big games will come out for both the 360 and the PS3. This means that you have a game which needs to be optimized for DVD format for the 360. So they either remake the game for Blu ray as well essentially redoing all video, gfx, sfx with far higher quality or just leave most of the disk empty.
I very much doubt that most cross console games will fully use all the space. True, Xbox 360 will probably get games which need 2 or even 3 disks but I don't mind switching DVD every once in a while if that means the PS3 goes from $600 to $400.
Didn't Bill Gates use a Dell PC. And if Dell comes pre installed with Google what will Steve Ballmer say about this?
You mean, welcome to MSN plus install, would you like us to bundle adware with this program to really annoy you?
[yes] [no]
I'd say the company should get some big websites to talk about there company and cracks/keygens and link to them. That way they can easely get the first place for those keywords. :-)
... but I doubt that's going to stop a judge from forcing Google to do so never the less.
On another note, I do agree with them. When I go to Google and type in there company name Google tells me that I don't really want them but that I instead want to get cracks for them. As a programmer I also see that Google has little option to stop this apart from blocking words like cracks, keygen,
My parents recently received an email to fill out an survey. This email, not listing anything like name of receiver nor having the receiver name in it's to field asked to click a link and fill in a survey. The link was an IP adres followed by a large amount of digits. The message had no information on why the email was send, what it was about, it was signed with a person's name and a company name I didn't recognise.
While I directly marked the email as spam before my parents saw this my mother asked later if she received an email for a survey she agreed to take. This survey asked a very large amount of questions going as far as asking what kind of salery you earn, how you live, etc. etc.
Some companies are just asking to get there email deleted.
Gamasutra had an interestng article about support desks for computergames a little while ago. You can read it here.
It gives an interesting list of what to do with which emails, when to press delete and when to press reply, what to do if somebody threatens to commit suicide and so on.
I gave a class last sunday to a group of 11 year old kids on how to make games with GameMaker. While at the begin all kids wanted to recreate GTA:SA or at least any 3D game after a quick lesson explaining that GTA is just a maze game where you walk around, collect stuff and do some shooting they started building maze games.
After working an hour on maze games each has already layed the basics of there game and really love the ability to have created something and be in control off everything that happens. Ofcourse this ends as soon as these kids show there games to somebody else who notices it's a boring maze game but with a little bit of class these kids got inspired to make there own games.
Children can get really motivated to work on games and as a Game Maker user I see that the avarage age off the kids is perhaps 13-14 years old and these games are nowhere near commercial quality but still, I've seen a few people (myself included) to grow out of this environment and earn money on programming computer games.
These kids are still there, you just have to know where to look.
I'm using the programming language Game Maker (4th generation, Object Oriented with 3th generation programming language) and I notice the avarage age within the Game Maker Community is about 14 years old. Lots of children are still interested in programming and creating programs and are willing to spend large amounts of time in this. This program is to used more and more on schools around the world and children really are motivated to create computergames.
Last sunday I gave a class on how to make computer games at a group of 11 year old kids and they really loved the idea of being in control and making there own games. The only disadvantage is that all these kids want to create the next 3D GTA game. But kids really do still spend lots of time in programming.
The top 15 in Google.com for site:eu all work for me. Although 12 of those are parked domains but still, this seems to be your DNS giving trouble.
http://list.eurid.eu/registrars/ListRegistrars.htm ?lang=en
Have a look in the list for a company from Valkenswaard. 15 registers counted.
They've been sending emails around for a while that they offer the best chance because of there large amount of registars.
Apple has made some info available on this for Quicktime movies: http://developer.apple.com/internet/ieembedprep.ht ml
I very often visit international sites. I'm programming in a very specific language and I'm talking to a a select group of talented people in that language a lot. Also for research projects for school I almost always look abroad for content as, being a Dutchman, there's far more content available internationally.
There's a difference within this case of course for large countries like the US where there are lots of content is generated already but this will defenitely harm the many smaller countries. The great thing about the World Wide Web is that I can just as easely speak about something with somebody from Finland, the US, Russia or my neighboor next door.
I make freeware computer games and several months ago I was featured on a Dutch site, last month front page news of a US gaming site, last week at a Czech news site and next month on a German PC magazine. Without the internet a lot of freeware projects would end such as open source development programs and a lot more.
Why can't the US government use the list of keywords given by MSN/Yahoo/... and search for those on Google. This should give the same results except for a few special operators (link:, info:, etc.) which might get handled differently. That way the US DoJ get's exactly what they want, Google gets it's way and the only issue is that MSN/Yahoo/... will next also ignore the requests of DoJ and they face a public defeat.
Then why not simply customise your from field? http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?ctx=g mail&hl=en&answer=20616