"Nextel (now Sprint) was the best IMHO WRT J2ME with their iDen program"
Plus you could actually simple buy a cable from the manufacturer to deploy your app onto your own phone and not have to jump through the nine hojillion hoops the other vendors made you jump through.
It was mentioned above, but just to reiterate: dealing with any of the non-nextel cell companies was, from a developer perspective, a -titanic- pain in the ass.
data point: I developed a large GUI application in Java (sob) and write-once, run everywhere worked. It was pretty neat seeing the same jars run on windows, osx, and linux. It even ran under solaris, if you can believe that.;)
If there's an area that really needs compile-once, run-anywhere it's cell phones. Last time I looked at MIDP it was really hobbled by catering to the lowest common denominator - IIRC, all you had for user interaction was up, down, select and keypad entry. Hopefully there's some progress on that front.
"Software design and development is a Hard Problem. Designing and developing anything well (including software) requires smart people to work very hard."
I never said otherwise. What I did say was that it was not necessarily any more complex than building any other large structure. Further, I believe a lot of the complexity is an artifact of our poor understanding of good ways of doing software development, and that at some point, someone will figure out A Right Way to do things.
Sigh. That's not what I'm talking about. As a programmer for the past 10 years, I am familiar with compilers, linkers and even assemblers.
What I'm saying is that the idea that software is the most complex structure built by man is just a programmers vanity, compounded by the fact that we haven't figured out how to build large applications in the same systematic, stuctured way we build real-world objects. At some point, someone will figure out what the software analogue to an assembly line is, and programs will become far more inexpensive and reliable.
"Software of the first type already is mass-produced (copied onto millions of disks)"
The idea that you're 'mass producing' software because you press a lot of CDs is preposterous. By 'mass production' I mean some production methodology like an assembly line or similar industrial process.
"Software of the second type is not mass-produceable like cars are because each piece of software is made to solve a problem so specific that it is not likely to appear again."
No, but eventually someone will figure out how to do software engineering that produces software components people will put together in the same way people put together hardware today.
"Software entities are more complex for their size than perhaps any other human construct because no two parts are alike"
I don't believe this. I think developers think that's true because they haven't been exposed to other large constructs.
I tend to think it's complex because we haven't figured out a really good way to do software engineering yet. Just like every car was handmade and fragile when horseless carriages were first concieved of, software today is handmade and fragile. Someone, somewhere will eventually figure out how to grow it or make it on assembly line or whatever.
the fact that you think two years of a moderately slow market comprises a 'crash' of the job market says quite a bit. It/has/ essentially all been roses for the last 10 years. Some years better than others, sure, but we haven't seen a real recession since the 70s. IMHO, we're coming up on one soon, but that's another discussion.
you're drawing a false dichotomy where there really isn't one.
Unions provide higher job security overall. Yes, sometimes unions go nuts and kill the host and that's a bad thing. But overall, unions have much higher job security.
"The reasons the unions came to being have pretty much been eliminated."
I agree, but I'm not so sure they couldn't come back. Protect unions - we might need them later.
Kind of an interesting coincidence how those 10 years have seen an explosion in demand for skilled workers that is likely unparalled in American history.
When things start getting bad, unions make sense. Right now, they don't.
The complaint is that there aren't any good, open drivers for Linux for these things, and a lot of that is simply because there are only two companies out there and they don't have to cater to anyone but the Windows gamers.
The actual problem of course is that linux is something like 1% of the videocard market, not that there's not enough competition. No company is going to chase after a market that tiny.
Now, why they don't open their APIs so volunteers can write drivers, that's another question entirely. But "more competition" isn't really the answer here, IMHO.
that you gain their anticancer properties by eating them so I start seeing nutty stuff like Mousicles and Xtra-Kreemy Mac-n-Mice in the health food aisle.
The fact that Katamari Damacy has the simplest control setup ever doesn't really have anything to do with anything. Some games you just can't reduce to simply moving around, which is all you did in Katamari.
This post is the/opposite/ of insightful. Potential benefits of good 3D are easy to think of, weazelman has just chosen not to engage his brain. Viewing product models in 3D on Amazon springs readily to mind. 3D Social networking sites are the other obvious answer, since so many people already use them (Sims, ).
"What advantage is there to browsing [site x] in 3D?"
The 3D environment is visually richer. Relative positioning of objects can convey meaning, and there's more options in 3D than 2D, obviously. You could simply look at all the files on your disk at once.
In practice, of course, no one has figured out a decent way to do this. As I mentioned above, it's my opinion that until better hardware interfaces show up, 3D cannot succeed as a standard interface. But just because the technology isn't here yet doesn't mean we shoud act like 3D is so obviously useless.
Immersive VR is doomed to failure until the interface to it improves and gets cheaper. HMDs are nice and all, but without a more efficient way to move through the scene, 2D will continue to be a more productive way to interact with data and 3D will continue to be eye candy.
My biggest gripe with the GC controller is that the face buttons are NOT arranged in the typical diamond shaped 2x2 matrix. If you can't find your placement on that style button layout then I'm sorry but you fail at console gaming.
100% agreement. But there's no reason that this must be true, and it's what Nintendo is trying to fix. Why does my wife have to get used to a wonky key layout for a month before she can play the PS2? Just because something was hard yesterday isn't a valid reason for it to be hard tomorrow. I just hope it's successful.
I don't know how you can chastise the PS and Xbox gamepads but rave for the GC
I'm not the one raving over the GC. I think it's pretty awkward too. I was agreeing with his statement that "the way controllers have gone recently, cramming more and more buttons into the controller is the wrong way to go about things"
There are some things that are the way they are because thats the way they are.
Sure, and that's fine if the alternatives are functionally equivalent. But when there is something functionally superior, we shouldn't let the inertia of age get the better of us.
I'm not saying the GC controller is significantly better than the dualshock or the xbox controller, I'm saying I think the wiivolition controller is going to be significantly better than them all. Time will tell, of course.
Slashdot Mirror
"Nextel (now Sprint) was the best IMHO WRT J2ME with their iDen program"
Plus you could actually simple buy a cable from the manufacturer to deploy your app onto your own phone and not have to jump through the nine hojillion hoops the other vendors made you jump through.
It was mentioned above, but just to reiterate: dealing with any of the non-nextel cell companies was, from a developer perspective, a -titanic- pain in the ass.
data point: I developed a large GUI application in Java (sob) and write-once, run everywhere worked. It was pretty neat seeing the same jars run on windows, osx, and linux. It even ran under solaris, if you can believe that. ;)
You're exactly right. The cell phone industry in the US is what's supressing all kinds of interesting new technology.
If there's an area that really needs compile-once, run-anywhere it's cell phones. Last time I looked at MIDP it was really hobbled by catering to the lowest common denominator - IIRC, all you had for user interaction was up, down, select and keypad entry. Hopefully there's some progress on that front.
for you anarcho-capitalists and lolbertarians and assorted other weirdos out there to start bitching about how evil class action lawsuits are.
"What's that watermelon doing there?"
"I'll tell you later"
Buckaroo Banzai totally wins.
"Software design and development is a Hard Problem. Designing and developing anything well (including software) requires smart people to work very hard."
I never said otherwise. What I did say was that it was not necessarily any more complex than building any other large structure. Further, I believe a lot of the complexity is an artifact of our poor understanding of good ways of doing software development, and that at some point, someone will figure out A Right Way to do things.
Sigh. That's not what I'm talking about. As a programmer for the past 10 years, I am familiar with compilers, linkers and even assemblers.
What I'm saying is that the idea that software is the most complex structure built by man is just a programmers vanity, compounded by the fact that we haven't figured out how to build large applications in the same systematic, stuctured way we build real-world objects. At some point, someone will figure out what the software analogue to an assembly line is, and programs will become far more inexpensive and reliable.
"Software of the first type already is mass-produced (copied onto millions of disks)"
The idea that you're 'mass producing' software because you press a lot of CDs is preposterous. By 'mass production' I mean some production methodology like an assembly line or similar industrial process.
"Software of the second type is not mass-produceable like cars are because each piece of software is made to solve a problem so specific that it is not likely to appear again."
No, but eventually someone will figure out how to do software engineering that produces software components people will put together in the same way people put together hardware today.
"Software entities are more complex for their size than perhaps any other human construct because no two parts are alike"
I don't believe this. I think developers think that's true because they haven't been exposed to other large constructs.
I tend to think it's complex because we haven't figured out a really good way to do software engineering yet. Just like every car was handmade and fragile when horseless carriages were first concieved of, software today is handmade and fragile. Someone, somewhere will eventually figure out how to grow it or make it on assembly line or whatever.
the fact that you think two years of a moderately slow market comprises a 'crash' of the job market says quite a bit. It /has/ essentially all been roses for the last 10 years. Some years better than others, sure, but we haven't seen a real recession since the 70s. IMHO, we're coming up on one soon, but that's another discussion.
you're drawing a false dichotomy where there really isn't one.
Unions provide higher job security overall. Yes, sometimes unions go nuts and kill the host and that's a bad thing. But overall, unions have much higher job security.
"The reasons the unions came to being have pretty much been eliminated."
I agree, but I'm not so sure they couldn't come back. Protect unions - we might need them later.
"Life is hard, then you die.
It sucks, but that is just the way it is. There is no such thing as job security."
Uh, if you work for a union, yeah, there is. A lot more than without one, anyway. Which is one reason unions exist.
"I've been a programmer for over ten years now. "
Kind of an interesting coincidence how those 10 years have seen an explosion in demand for skilled workers that is likely unparalled in American history.
When things start getting bad, unions make sense. Right now, they don't.
Anything that could affect end-users assets, privacy or health.
And I think it's a good idea.
Everyone hates them until they need them. Everyone should be glad it hasn't gotten bad enough to make a programmers union a necessity.
The actual problem of course is that linux is something like 1% of the videocard market, not that there's not enough competition. No company is going to chase after a market that tiny.
Now, why they don't open their APIs so volunteers can write drivers, that's another question entirely. But "more competition" isn't really the answer here, IMHO.
that you gain their anticancer properties by eating them so I start seeing nutty stuff like Mousicles and Xtra-Kreemy Mac-n-Mice in the health food aisle.
The fact that Katamari Damacy has the simplest control setup ever doesn't really have anything to do with anything. Some games you just can't reduce to simply moving around, which is all you did in Katamari.
This post is the /opposite/ of insightful. Potential benefits of good 3D are easy to think of, weazelman has just chosen not to engage his brain. Viewing product models in 3D on Amazon springs readily to mind. 3D Social networking sites are the other obvious answer, since so many people already use them (Sims, ).
"What advantage is there to browsing [site x] in 3D?"
The 3D environment is visually richer. Relative positioning of objects can convey meaning, and there's more options in 3D than 2D, obviously. You could simply look at all the files on your disk at once.
In practice, of course, no one has figured out a decent way to do this. As I mentioned above, it's my opinion that until better hardware interfaces show up, 3D cannot succeed as a standard interface. But just because the technology isn't here yet doesn't mean we shoud act like 3D is so obviously useless.
and controllers.
Immersive VR is doomed to failure until the interface to it improves and gets cheaper. HMDs are nice and all, but without a more efficient way to move through the scene, 2D will continue to be a more productive way to interact with data and 3D will continue to be eye candy.
thanks for the corrections
I'm not the one raving over the GC. I think it's pretty awkward too. I was agreeing with his statement that "the way controllers have gone recently, cramming more and more buttons into the controller is the wrong way to go about things" Sure, and that's fine if the alternatives are functionally equivalent. But when there is something functionally superior, we shouldn't let the inertia of age get the better of us.I'm not saying the GC controller is significantly better than the dualshock or the xbox controller, I'm saying I think the wiivolition controller is going to be significantly better than them all. Time will tell, of course.
"I'm not an expert, but the awkwardness you speak of might be due to the individual trying to plug a dualshock into their X-Box."
:(
Oh goddammit.
you know what I mean, ok?