Ouch... and here I was thinking my hand-harvested, shade-grown, organic Himalayan pink salt was the final solution to password security. That's the last time I trust the Himalayans.
The iphone port would have been a recompile/tweak and gameplay mod.
I think the article was posted here before, where John Carmack talked about RAGE development on iPhone. Sounded like a bit of actual work involved due to platform limitations, particularly with the texture management. Perhaps quick for Carmack it doesn't look entirely trivial either.
I don't simply dislike MS on principle, there's a few good reasons. Shifty market practices, bloated and unnecessary software, security issues everywhere, slow to innovate...I could go on. But believe it or not I'd rather like MS. If getting a few engineers a bit higher up in the system improves things in even the tiniest way then good. Cynically, I don't think it will, but here's hoping.
Perhaps speaking in broad generalities, yes -- perhaps not always the best. In the end, it's really all about having developers for the platform, and having good tools to draw in developers. In my not so humble opinion, Visual Studio 2010 (VC++) is the best IDE I've ever used, full stop. Supports several great new features from the emerging C++0x standard (so at least one standard MS cares to follow), has very functional IntelliSense (auto-complete actually works like 99% of the time finally) coupled with real time error highlighting . The interface is the best I've seen in years, and very customizable. Floating code windows are great in two monitor setups. Compiler optimizations are even better than before (thanks rvalue references?). The debugger is full featured like always, with good support for STL containers as well. And in general it might look like MS fails at security but there has been a focus on improving security through better development tools and more error protection in libraries.
Of course I absolutely hate most of the new Office products, they are horrible interfaces -- the "ribbon" or whatever is completely useless to anyone who already knew their way around. Windows Phone 7, I don't even know enough to have a fair opinion but I'm fairly certain it's garbage. And to anyone who actually purchased Vista (guilty as charged, needed 64bit) -- Windows 7 was just a slap in the face, getting charged for what basically amounts to a Vista SP3 was just plain insulting.
So yes, I do have problems with MS as a whole, but I have to admit I like the direction VS is going. I'd guess that it is probably one of the few things really driven by engineers already.
Probably to prevent deserters. These suicide bombers very likely have some lingering doubts about what they are doing, and by having the switch in their hand, they might actually make the correct decision and walk away. Someone who is not so directly invested in the operation personally is probably more likely to actually detonate the device.
The post is a lie... At least that's how I read it. That's the whole point isn't it? Online evidence is questionable at best and downright wrong at worst. The fact that you responded like you believed what he wrote only proves the point.
Given that filenames have taken a relatively standard form in torrent circles, the material can be found without specifying any more than the general name form.
Simply using: "[name of show] s##e##" will typically lead to torrent results without any other keywords. Usually occupying at least the top few listed results.
So by this logic, using a longer cable to transmit the signal is also a copyright violation! They better regulate the maximum allowable cable lengths as well!
The second was a weak copy (seriously, the alleged original script was better). The third was... let's not talk about it, ok?
I think I would have actually been totally OK with the second movie if the third had actually gone anywhere meaningful with the story. The wild speculation after the end of the 2nd movie of layered virtual worlds as seen in "The Thirteenth Floor" had me somewhat hopeful. Still felt like the series could go somewhere exciting before the 3rd movie sunk it completely.
They put an incredible focus on performance, and people ignore it.
I for one, am not in the "people ignoring" performance camp. The sluggishness from 3.x is a very large part of why I am now using Chrome & Opera, despite the much smaller selection of customization options compared to FF. I think at least some people do care a lot about performance.
The first thing they need to do is convince potential customers that they are actually releasing a game and not a movie this time. Going to be a hard sell trying to get anyone to believe it. Probably a waste of money for localizing it to English. We already have somewhat higher expectations due to high quality CRPG experiences.
I suppose in some vague way that it's better than the terrible 20/100 from IE8 with assorted visual artifacts. All I see here is IE9 has still managed to be non-compliant with even the prior standard, so a fail score is still meaningful.
I also tried to use Razer mice for a while, but have too decided to be done with them. Had a diamondback that had random pointer spasms, mouse twitching around when not being moved. Have heard stories of other users having ridiculous problems with more recent Razer's as well, such as the mouse getting occasionally stuck into horizontal movement only. Tried the Lachesis for a brief time but that mouse was a lot of wrist pain to use in long sessions. Supposedly some of the Razer issues are firmware related, but most other companies manage to get it right the first time without resorting to firmware updates. And at the price those mice retail for, the problems are really inexcusable.
Due to problems being so common, I even know people who actually purchased the Best Buy extra coverage on them. And for once it might be a good idea since the mice seem to be plagued with so many issues. Of course if that catches on Best Buy might start losing money on that deal.
Went back to Logitech with the G500 and have never looked back. A great follow-up to anyone who was a fan of the MX518. Plus it's basically got all the features that Razer boasts about anyway, and it also works right out of the box.
I like the idea of launching a real, non-crippled media player that can natively understand the MKV format from within the XMB.
Only supporting the MKV format just isn't good enough. MKV does not have any type of standard codecs defined, it's simply a general purpose container. You can put plenty of things inside there that a PS3 just plain won't play. Sony needs to bring along versatile codec support into the PS3 so you can play a large variety of videos currently being placed into MKV. Until I don't need any trans-coding to support playback the PS3 remains a less than ideal solution for a media player. I'm considering either getting a Popcorn Hour unit or building a HTPC, because it's way too much of a hassle to get the PS3 into the loop, especially in the viewing of HD content.
Same thing for MP4 actually, it works if you have everything lined up perfectly and use the lowest common denominator of some encoding, but other than that MP4 is basically just as much of a disaster on the PS3.
If you are a competent coder you can hide things right in front of someone and they will not spot it. It's scary as hell what some of these guys can do.
Which is why I think the best solution would be to rewrite the module from scratch and then do the audit on that version of it. Preferably developed by people who have never touched that part prior and written to spec without referencing the original code. After all, this is probably the most paranoid group in all of open source. Although speculation of a potential exploit might not be enough to drive all that.
And no consideration of how many of those devices are new users compared to existing users just upgrading to the next version. Maybe the typical lifetime of these devices is shorter than a PC. PC's are typically upgradeable where these devices are usually just the package deal, so not every PC user looking to expand their capabilities need buy a new PC.
Besides, there's not even netcraft confirmation! Clear proof the PC is not dying.
How long until an application targeting both GCC and Microsoft Visual C++ can use C++0x features?
I suppose until the standard is truely finalized nothing can really be said to have "full" support. As far as the subset of what is existing now, a simple search finds the existing GCC and VC10 supported features.
And C++ is still getting more optimizations and continues to lengthen the performance gap. With the new C++0x and rvalue references, the resource management is getting even better. If the compiled code is already optimized with such detail, I'm not aware of what a runtime environment would be able to offer that a good compiler didn't already consider. And all the talk about garbage collection ends up being less than impressive when using the STL already handles it for you. Runtime can offer a little more protection in the event of poorly written code, but that's just another performance hit.
Join the club. I played Angband and variants for about 10 years and have not been much deeper than 60% completion in any of them.
The real problem I suppose is the hardcore game-play mode. Completion without dying once is entirely non-trivial when a bad move and a dozen gravity hounds can instantly kill you.
I suppose if I was desperate to get a winner I could backup saves or something. It just feels wrong to keep playing dead characters though, since the game is (supposedly) balanced around playing on a single life.
Impulse still falls short of Steam in my use. There are some serious problems with their backup system. A backup can only be restored to an matching OS install for some reason, which makes no sense. I tried to backup all my games in Impulse when going from XP to Win 7, only to find out the backups were entirely useless. Of course I could still get my games back through downloads, but 50 GB of downloads is nothing to sniff at even on broadband.
Steam on the other hand was about as transparent and easy as it could get. Simply copy/steamapps folder somewhere safe, reinstall steam on the new OS, and copy/steamapps back in. Everything basically just works, and I'm saved the re-download hassle, fortunate considering I'm probably around 100 GB in steam at this point.
I thought this was why software like 3DMark Vantage have simulations which are basically equivalent to the rendering performed in actual games. There's 2 full runs of very detailed 3D scenes which actually must be done by the card, there's no way to sneak around actually rendering them. User is presented with the rendering on screen in real-time while doing the benchmark.
Also, the large gauntlet of actual game benchmarks helps give weight to any synthetics actually meaning something. I haven't seen a video card review any time recently that didn't include at least 4 or so actual game tests with it. Nobody is really going to believe a review that doesn't include at least an assortment of those.
The entire Fallout series has been plagued by serious game breaking bugs. Even back in the days of Interplay and the first Fallout games, there was everything from constant crashes, to quest destroying glitches. To complete the mutant base in Fallout 1 took me something like 50 game loads, and probably only 5 or so of those were from actual gameplay related choices. The thing would crash if you dared to even move your character. And then there is the buggy as hell final boss encounter from Fallout 2, where the computer console would either randomly forget to show the turret option, or if it even showed it the other half the time it didn't work right.
Fallout 3, once again constant game crashes seemed to be back again at least in the PC version. A friend of mine had a completely broken series of saves where anytime the water facility building was entered the game would instantly crash. Any machine that loaded the save would experience the crash. This essentially requires a complete game restart, as his furthest back save still had the glitch present.
I like the whole world / scenario idea behind Fallout, but the execution in the games has always been a bug filled disaster. This is exactly why I didn't run out and pick up New Vegas. I've enjoyed playing the Fallout games when they work, but the bugs are so annoying it can seem like a chore to even finish a game.
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Ouch... and here I was thinking my hand-harvested, shade-grown, organic Himalayan pink salt was the final solution to password security. That's the last time I trust the Himalayans.
The iphone port would have been a recompile/tweak and gameplay mod.
I think the article was posted here before, where John Carmack talked about RAGE development on iPhone. Sounded like a bit of actual work involved due to platform limitations, particularly with the texture management. Perhaps quick for Carmack it doesn't look entirely trivial either.
I don't simply dislike MS on principle, there's a few good reasons. Shifty market practices, bloated and unnecessary software, security issues everywhere, slow to innovate...I could go on. But believe it or not I'd rather like MS. If getting a few engineers a bit higher up in the system improves things in even the tiniest way then good. Cynically, I don't think it will, but here's hoping.
Perhaps speaking in broad generalities, yes -- perhaps not always the best. In the end, it's really all about having developers for the platform, and having good tools to draw in developers. In my not so humble opinion, Visual Studio 2010 (VC++) is the best IDE I've ever used, full stop. Supports several great new features from the emerging C++0x standard (so at least one standard MS cares to follow), has very functional IntelliSense (auto-complete actually works like 99% of the time finally) coupled with real time error highlighting . The interface is the best I've seen in years, and very customizable. Floating code windows are great in two monitor setups. Compiler optimizations are even better than before (thanks rvalue references?). The debugger is full featured like always, with good support for STL containers as well. And in general it might look like MS fails at security but there has been a focus on improving security through better development tools and more error protection in libraries.
Of course I absolutely hate most of the new Office products, they are horrible interfaces -- the "ribbon" or whatever is completely useless to anyone who already knew their way around. Windows Phone 7, I don't even know enough to have a fair opinion but I'm fairly certain it's garbage. And to anyone who actually purchased Vista (guilty as charged, needed 64bit) -- Windows 7 was just a slap in the face, getting charged for what basically amounts to a Vista SP3 was just plain insulting.
So yes, I do have problems with MS as a whole, but I have to admit I like the direction VS is going. I'd guess that it is probably one of the few things really driven by engineers already.
If browsers rely on OS codecs, then distributions of Linux would need to license H.264 and other proprietary codecs.
Would they? FFmpeg seems to work fine. Maybe it's not entirely distro safe but it's not hard to get either.
highly functional plugin-like apps/games
Wow, sounds like Facebook has really changed a lot since I last checked.
Probably to prevent deserters. These suicide bombers very likely have some lingering doubts about what they are doing, and by having the switch in their hand, they might actually make the correct decision and walk away. Someone who is not so directly invested in the operation personally is probably more likely to actually detonate the device.
The post is a lie... At least that's how I read it. That's the whole point isn't it? Online evidence is questionable at best and downright wrong at worst. The fact that you responded like you believed what he wrote only proves the point.
Given that filenames have taken a relatively standard form in torrent circles, the material can be found without specifying any more than the general name form.
Simply using: "[name of show] s##e##" will typically lead to torrent results without any other keywords. Usually occupying at least the top few listed results.
So by this logic, using a longer cable to transmit the signal is also a copyright violation! They better regulate the maximum allowable cable lengths as well!
The second was a weak copy (seriously, the alleged original script was better). The third was ... let's not talk about it, ok?
I think I would have actually been totally OK with the second movie if the third had actually gone anywhere meaningful with the story. The wild speculation after the end of the 2nd movie of layered virtual worlds as seen in "The Thirteenth Floor" had me somewhat hopeful. Still felt like the series could go somewhere exciting before the 3rd movie sunk it completely.
They put an incredible focus on performance, and people ignore it.
I for one, am not in the "people ignoring" performance camp. The sluggishness from 3.x is a very large part of why I am now using Chrome & Opera, despite the much smaller selection of customization options compared to FF. I think at least some people do care a lot about performance.
The first thing they need to do is convince potential customers that they are actually releasing a game and not a movie this time. Going to be a hard sell trying to get anyone to believe it. Probably a waste of money for localizing it to English. We already have somewhat higher expectations due to high quality CRPG experiences.
I suppose in some vague way that it's better than the terrible 20/100 from IE8 with assorted visual artifacts. All I see here is IE9 has still managed to be non-compliant with even the prior standard, so a fail score is still meaningful.
Hmm, so that means H.264 is made by... the Ferangi?
I also tried to use Razer mice for a while, but have too decided to be done with them. Had a diamondback that had random pointer spasms, mouse twitching around when not being moved. Have heard stories of other users having ridiculous problems with more recent Razer's as well, such as the mouse getting occasionally stuck into horizontal movement only. Tried the Lachesis for a brief time but that mouse was a lot of wrist pain to use in long sessions. Supposedly some of the Razer issues are firmware related, but most other companies manage to get it right the first time without resorting to firmware updates. And at the price those mice retail for, the problems are really inexcusable.
Due to problems being so common, I even know people who actually purchased the Best Buy extra coverage on them. And for once it might be a good idea since the mice seem to be plagued with so many issues. Of course if that catches on Best Buy might start losing money on that deal.
Went back to Logitech with the G500 and have never looked back. A great follow-up to anyone who was a fan of the MX518. Plus it's basically got all the features that Razer boasts about anyway, and it also works right out of the box.
I like the idea of launching a real, non-crippled media player that can natively understand the MKV format from within the XMB.
Only supporting the MKV format just isn't good enough. MKV does not have any type of standard codecs defined, it's simply a general purpose container. You can put plenty of things inside there that a PS3 just plain won't play. Sony needs to bring along versatile codec support into the PS3 so you can play a large variety of videos currently being placed into MKV. Until I don't need any trans-coding to support playback the PS3 remains a less than ideal solution for a media player. I'm considering either getting a Popcorn Hour unit or building a HTPC, because it's way too much of a hassle to get the PS3 into the loop, especially in the viewing of HD content.
Same thing for MP4 actually, it works if you have everything lined up perfectly and use the lowest common denominator of some encoding, but other than that MP4 is basically just as much of a disaster on the PS3.
If you are a competent coder you can hide things right in front of someone and they will not spot it. It's scary as hell what some of these guys can do.
Which is why I think the best solution would be to rewrite the module from scratch and then do the audit on that version of it. Preferably developed by people who have never touched that part prior and written to spec without referencing the original code. After all, this is probably the most paranoid group in all of open source. Although speculation of a potential exploit might not be enough to drive all that.
The whole thing does smell very fishy though.
Well, if they are providing a DIY tool it damn well better be as readable, straightforward source code.
If it's a binary tool then the one "opt-in" might turn into a more serious problem.
Haven't found a link anywhere to see what exactly it is.
And no consideration of how many of those devices are new users compared to existing users just upgrading to the next version. Maybe the typical lifetime of these devices is shorter than a PC. PC's are typically upgradeable where these devices are usually just the package deal, so not every PC user looking to expand their capabilities need buy a new PC.
Besides, there's not even netcraft confirmation! Clear proof the PC is not dying.
I suppose until the standard is truely finalized nothing can really be said to have "full" support. As far as the subset of what is existing now, a simple search finds the existing GCC and VC10 supported features.
And C++ is still getting more optimizations and continues to lengthen the performance gap. With the new C++0x and rvalue references, the resource management is getting even better. If the compiled code is already optimized with such detail, I'm not aware of what a runtime environment would be able to offer that a good compiler didn't already consider. And all the talk about garbage collection ends up being less than impressive when using the STL already handles it for you. Runtime can offer a little more protection in the event of poorly written code, but that's just another performance hit.
Join the club. I played Angband and variants for about 10 years and have not been much deeper than 60% completion in any of them.
The real problem I suppose is the hardcore game-play mode. Completion without dying once is entirely non-trivial when a bad move and a dozen gravity hounds can instantly kill you.
I suppose if I was desperate to get a winner I could backup saves or something. It just feels wrong to keep playing dead characters though, since the game is (supposedly) balanced around playing on a single life.
Impulse still falls short of Steam in my use. There are some serious problems with their backup system. A backup can only be restored to an matching OS install for some reason, which makes no sense. I tried to backup all my games in Impulse when going from XP to Win 7, only to find out the backups were entirely useless. Of course I could still get my games back through downloads, but 50 GB of downloads is nothing to sniff at even on broadband.
Steam on the other hand was about as transparent and easy as it could get. Simply copy /steamapps folder somewhere safe, reinstall steam on the new OS, and copy /steamapps back in. Everything basically just works, and I'm saved the re-download hassle, fortunate considering I'm probably around 100 GB in steam at this point.
I thought this was why software like 3DMark Vantage have simulations which are basically equivalent to the rendering performed in actual games. There's 2 full runs of very detailed 3D scenes which actually must be done by the card, there's no way to sneak around actually rendering them. User is presented with the rendering on screen in real-time while doing the benchmark.
Also, the large gauntlet of actual game benchmarks helps give weight to any synthetics actually meaning something. I haven't seen a video card review any time recently that didn't include at least 4 or so actual game tests with it. Nobody is really going to believe a review that doesn't include at least an assortment of those.
The entire Fallout series has been plagued by serious game breaking bugs. Even back in the days of Interplay and the first Fallout games, there was everything from constant crashes, to quest destroying glitches. To complete the mutant base in Fallout 1 took me something like 50 game loads, and probably only 5 or so of those were from actual gameplay related choices. The thing would crash if you dared to even move your character. And then there is the buggy as hell final boss encounter from Fallout 2, where the computer console would either randomly forget to show the turret option, or if it even showed it the other half the time it didn't work right.
Fallout 3, once again constant game crashes seemed to be back again at least in the PC version. A friend of mine had a completely broken series of saves where anytime the water facility building was entered the game would instantly crash. Any machine that loaded the save would experience the crash. This essentially requires a complete game restart, as his furthest back save still had the glitch present.
I like the whole world / scenario idea behind Fallout, but the execution in the games has always been a bug filled disaster. This is exactly why I didn't run out and pick up New Vegas. I've enjoyed playing the Fallout games when they work, but the bugs are so annoying it can seem like a chore to even finish a game.