I left the ridiculous upgrade cycle behind a long time ago. When I got into college (still into PC gaming at the time) I made the mistake of buying a clunker of a "gaming laptop". Never again. My laptop is for work and for mobility, I have an Xbox 360 at home for a good reason.
But you're right, gaming isn't great on the Mac. But if you're talking about productivity tools - office suites, IM/chat, etc etc, the Mac is in every way comparable to the PC, and in many cases superior.
The point I think he's trying to make is that, as of yet anyhow, OS X viruses and malware have to be explicitly let in through the front door via user stupidity (or just plain ignorance/don't know better). On the other hand, MS's track record has shown numerous ways for software to sneak onto your machine without user intervention whatsoever.
I personally think that OSX's sudo password prompt needs to be beefed up to show exactly what the app is attempting to access. If I'm installing some app that wants to add a file to/usr/bin, sure. If it wants to REMOVE a file I'd be a lot of more suspicious. As of right now both cases will simply show a nondescript "enter admin password" prompt, which is insufficient.
Correction: You use Windows because it's what most programs *you know* run on. I've converted from Windows a long time ago and I can do everything I did on my old machine on the Mac. Ripping CDs? No problem, UI is better too. Web design? Photo manipulation? Video editing? Yes, yes, and yes. Coding, watching movies, playing music... need I go on?
Doesn't matter - SciFi is crap now. They had a great show: Eureka, that has been completely ruined. They literally dedicated an entire episode where the heroes save the day by, get this: using ultra-strength Degree deodorant. Seriously. The product placements *all over* SciFi's shows have gotten to the point of absolute annoyance.
You don't *need* a virus scan or malware checker if the VM has no access to the internet, and the only software you feed it are the type downloading directly from the official website (via OS X of course) or installed from a disc. It's entirely true that Windows running in a highly contained environment likely won't need any sort of spyware/malware/virus protection at all.
I'm not quite as extreme with my VM. I open up network access when I need to do Windows updates, but otherwise that network tunnel stays closed. I download all of the content I need (e.g. MSDN docs) to use offline, and any dev-related Googling is done strictly on the Mac side. It works VERY well. File sharing is not a problem, since I can email, attach, etc etc via my normal Mac mail client, grabbing the files straight from the shared disk.
This isn't really about running fast. Yes, the matter of running in a VM does waste cycles, but that's hardly the main cause for concern. The problem is that as a dev, I need to be able to run code on multiple platforms, dev using multiple tools, all at the same time. A dual-boot or triple-boot solution doesn't work for me, and a VM is the only way to go.
I wouldn't. Insurance by the postal service is worth almost as much as no insurance at all. It takes literally years of fighting past insane bureaucracy to get reimbursed, and even then they will try to weasel out of every single penny they can.
Dell would probably treat you better than the USPS.
The question then would be: were any specific loan terms set down to make sure that Tesla *does* in fact use this money for development on a consumer vehicle instead of yet more absurdly priced gadgets?
Yes they can. You surely signed a NDA before you joined, and almost certainly a NCA also. The NCA would basically, completely prohibit you from doing something like this (i.e. competing directly with your former employer), and even without the NCA, the NDA may stick also. NDAs apply not only to code, or specific architecture designs, but also business models, plans, etc etc. Your current employer can easily make the case that you "stole" your business plan, clients, user interface, etc etc from them as the result of your employment.
There's plenty of good money to be made from other ideas... why throw yourself into happy lawsuit-land when you can just as easily code something else?
I beg to differ. Gaming is as much about the gameplay as it is about the graphics - and good graphics certainly expand the possibilities of what can believably be presented.
In the same way that Star Wars simply wouldn't have been as good if it were made in the 40s, Gears wouldn't have been as good if it ran, say, the Quake engine. There are certain ideas and games that are simply waiting for the technology to exist.
Let's be specific about GOW2, though. The game features incredible cityscapes from a distance - not pre-rendered mind you, real-time (sort of like how Halo 3 did it). This is absolutely essential to the game's setting and art style - you're not just fighting in claustrophobic tunnels, some of the environments are truly massive, and you truly feel like you're part of a bigger world when you can see skyscrapers way off in the distance collapse from enemy fire.
To address soft shadows and dynamic lighting - these actually *change* gameplay, so no, I don't believe your argument is valid. Quake with dynamic lighting and shadows suddenly opens up a whole slew of gameplay mechanics that were not possible before. Think of a game like Splinter Cell - you can manipulate the lights in your area (shoot them out, aim them somewhere else, etc) and stay hidden.
No offense to you personally, but I feel like the people who are all "gameplay, rah rah" and "graphics, booooo" simply aren't creative enough to realize that gaming goes hand in hand with its graphical, audio, and networking technology, and advances in all of them open up more possibilities for gameplay, not just eye candy.
Especially if the company you ripped off invited you there. Seriously.
Re:The sequal is the same thing again
on
Review: Gears of War 2
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· Score: 3, Informative
I felt the opposite. The graphics was much improved from the last game. The lighting is much softer and much better - the shadows not as artificially dark as the previous game. Overall the graphics have been improved massively.
Not all games need to be incredibly deep or innovative. Just like how not all movies need to be the Godfather, a well-made, mindless action movie can be plenty entertaining, and just as worthy of the price of admission.
To go with the movie analogy... Gears of War is to Fallout 3 as Jurassic Park is to Fallout 3. One is a popcorn movie with incredible special effects, the other is not about all that, but both are great movies.
I do believe we will still talk about Gears years from now, just like we still talk about Jurassic Park. The game is fun, has solid mechanics, and the graphical horsepower is used for more than "more bump maps", the game is truly beautiful. Looking out over a burned out city, with battles raging in the distance, few games have done graphics this well.
You're right; instead, you have to hope your 360 turns on and doesn't Red Ring. And when it inevitably dies (because, let's face it, you'll go through two+ every three years), you have to call the manufacturer and beg to have it fixed. On the bright side, the entire repair process only takes a month!
You're right, the RROD was a problem until recently. But you know what, mine broke about 2.5y into its lifetime, so your estimate is a bit off. Not to mention when I called MS I hardly had to "beg", all I did was tell them I red-ringed, and they were extremely quick and helpful in getting it replaced. Oh, and it took a week, not a month.
But of course, you don't seem to care much about facts now, do you?
Games such as Dark Messiah and Deus Ex ( and sequels ) is a help-people type of game (if you want to)
I think the OP's point is that even games like Deus Ex cannot be played in a completely peaceful way. While DX did give you ways to end many situations peacefully, you would be quite hard-pressed to not commit any acts of violence through the entire game. I've gone through without a single kill (except those required by the story), but I don't think it's possible not to *attack* at all.
Splicers are all virtually identical. Big Daddies are all identical. The game is utterly linear, and plays like a glorified version of Wolf3D in the sense that it's all about "go here to get this key to open this door to get this key to open that door" and so on. As amazing as the art design is, the level design and gameplay are uninspired.
Goldeneye and HL1 - two of your favorite games - are *precisely* like this. Both games are utterly linear, devoid of any way for the player to affect the plot (both are worse than Bioshock in this manner), and both games feature hordes of identical enemies.
for god's sake go and play a patched up version of STALKER to see the kind of thing you're missing.
Ugh, STALKER was tripe. It's a glorified MMOG without the online, and without the social fun-ness. Beyond the myriad of technical failings, the game was pointless meandering just like Oblivion, except that at least in Oblivion enemy mobs don't respawn 5 seconds after you turn your back. The mechanics are stale, the setting was cool, but ultimately its unashamedly RPG-esque elements really do a lot to pull you out of the immersiveness of the world. Not a horrible game, but certainly nothing too noteworthy, not even close to GOTY material. STALKER is best served as a guide for future open-world FPS developers as a case study of the whole being more than the sum of a game's parts.
but he should shut down his unprofitable ego-trip ventures like the Zune and the Xbox
The Xbox division is profitable, and it's been a long time coming. Unlike other parts of Microsoft, the Xbox division truly has an innovative product that is continually being improved in creative ways that benefit the user. The same can't really be said for Windows...
The Zune is also a very impressive piece of technology. Having played with one (and speaking as a loyal Mac user) I have to say it rips the hell out of the iPod classic's UI.
You've listed the two products that MS should not shut down under any circumstances - they're the only mass market items that have demonstrated any sort of creativity or innovation in the last while.
For a change though, I'd like to see MS be first in the game with their OS features - Windows (and to a lesser extent Windows Mobile) has been "me too-ing" their competitors forever now.
That's ridiculously easy, and is seen in a lot of FPS games. Guards will start pissed, then run away in fear when you clearly outclass them. Even Halo's AI had weaker units run away when confronted by you, and return in greater numbers.
It's popular to assume that if someone believes in creationism or ID, they're morons who think that thunder means that God is angry with them. This is reinforced because we all stand around telling each other it must be so.
Maybe for you. For me it's reinforced by the people that surround me. Just like Slashdot is often a big circle-jerk of libertarian ideals, Christian communities are often a huge circle-jerk of "oh man, we're so right, don't you agree?"
I grew up in a town that is predominantly east Asian immigrant - and a lot of Asian Christians to boot. Most of the people I knew were Asian, and Christian. I hated hanging around them - adults and kids alike. Science *was* distrusted, people kept repeating the same old tired (and false) talking points about Darwin, and how the fossil record is a lie planted by Satan to challenge the faith of believers... I could go on. This is a predominantly *highly-educated* and *upper-middle class* city that was spewing this bullshit. I'd hate to see what you get out in the boonies.
I'm *scared* of those people. In twenty years or so they will be the ones calling the shots in big business, in politics, in society. You talk about "quiet faithfuls" being the majority of religious people - that may be true now, but take a look at the younger crowd coming out of churches today. They are far more zealous than their parents, having been brought up in an environment where church leaders went to any means to rescue their religion from increasing irrelevance. These are the people that scare me, not their "quiet faithful" parents.
As an interesting sidenote: through my travels I have found that first-generation converts (e.g. Asian immigrants) are FAR more zealous than their born-into-Christianity (and predominantly white) counterparts. I've met many, many perfectly reasonable Christians in my lifetime, only 2 of whom have been Asian. What's with that?
which is really wealth redistribution from the working middle class to the lazy bums
Read this and then tell me that this is about wealth redistribution from the "working middle" to the lazy bums. You think people earning $600K+ are the "working middle class"? This is about redistribution of wealth from the robber barons that run the country today TO the working middle class. The people that are suffering today aren't the lazy bums who refuse to work - they're the ones who are constantly under threat of losing their jobs because they're being shipped overseas, the ones who are making some $40K to $60K a year. Look at who is going to give the REAL middle class a bigger tax break.
Hint: Obama will be the one giving tax breaks for the middle class - anyone earning less than $110K a year will be getting a bigger tax break than McCain is planning. Redistribution from the middle class to the poor and lazy my ass.
So true. The game never gives you a break, which makes be both love and hate it. I treadmilled for a while up to level 13 before even venturing downtown, and I got my ass handed to me through and through. I went in with 500+ rounds on the Chinese AR and came out nearly out of ammo, and down some 10 stims.
No other game has made me dread and anticipate progress as much. I don't even want to know what's in the Capitol (probably more ass kicking... my ass that is) but I just gotta find out.
I also love how scarce ammo is in this game. There are no merchants with unlimited ammo for sale - each one has a limited stock that replenishes slowly over time. Even if you had all the caps in the world you can't afford to just waste bullets - you'd have a hard time finding more. I took the ammo scrounger perk, but things still come up short sometimes.
But all that says is that OS X gains stability (i.e. QA on fewer possible driver configurations and combinations) where Windows suffers. It does not explain away the performance difference - it's not as if Windows needs to keep 10 different graphics drivers in memory or some such.
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I left the ridiculous upgrade cycle behind a long time ago. When I got into college (still into PC gaming at the time) I made the mistake of buying a clunker of a "gaming laptop". Never again. My laptop is for work and for mobility, I have an Xbox 360 at home for a good reason.
But you're right, gaming isn't great on the Mac. But if you're talking about productivity tools - office suites, IM/chat, etc etc, the Mac is in every way comparable to the PC, and in many cases superior.
The point I think he's trying to make is that, as of yet anyhow, OS X viruses and malware have to be explicitly let in through the front door via user stupidity (or just plain ignorance/don't know better). On the other hand, MS's track record has shown numerous ways for software to sneak onto your machine without user intervention whatsoever.
I personally think that OSX's sudo password prompt needs to be beefed up to show exactly what the app is attempting to access. If I'm installing some app that wants to add a file to /usr/bin, sure. If it wants to REMOVE a file I'd be a lot of more suspicious. As of right now both cases will simply show a nondescript "enter admin password" prompt, which is insufficient.
Still beats 2 Mb/sec standing next to the tower and a tenth of that everywhere else.
Correction: You use Windows because it's what most programs *you know* run on. I've converted from Windows a long time ago and I can do everything I did on my old machine on the Mac. Ripping CDs? No problem, UI is better too. Web design? Photo manipulation? Video editing? Yes, yes, and yes. Coding, watching movies, playing music... need I go on?
Doesn't matter - SciFi is crap now. They had a great show: Eureka, that has been completely ruined. They literally dedicated an entire episode where the heroes save the day by, get this: using ultra-strength Degree deodorant. Seriously. The product placements *all over* SciFi's shows have gotten to the point of absolute annoyance.
You don't *need* a virus scan or malware checker if the VM has no access to the internet, and the only software you feed it are the type downloading directly from the official website (via OS X of course) or installed from a disc. It's entirely true that Windows running in a highly contained environment likely won't need any sort of spyware/malware/virus protection at all.
I'm not quite as extreme with my VM. I open up network access when I need to do Windows updates, but otherwise that network tunnel stays closed. I download all of the content I need (e.g. MSDN docs) to use offline, and any dev-related Googling is done strictly on the Mac side. It works VERY well. File sharing is not a problem, since I can email, attach, etc etc via my normal Mac mail client, grabbing the files straight from the shared disk.
This isn't really about running fast. Yes, the matter of running in a VM does waste cycles, but that's hardly the main cause for concern. The problem is that as a dev, I need to be able to run code on multiple platforms, dev using multiple tools, all at the same time. A dual-boot or triple-boot solution doesn't work for me, and a VM is the only way to go.
I wouldn't. Insurance by the postal service is worth almost as much as no insurance at all. It takes literally years of fighting past insane bureaucracy to get reimbursed, and even then they will try to weasel out of every single penny they can.
Dell would probably treat you better than the USPS.
The question then would be: were any specific loan terms set down to make sure that Tesla *does* in fact use this money for development on a consumer vehicle instead of yet more absurdly priced gadgets?
Yes they can. You surely signed a NDA before you joined, and almost certainly a NCA also. The NCA would basically, completely prohibit you from doing something like this (i.e. competing directly with your former employer), and even without the NCA, the NDA may stick also. NDAs apply not only to code, or specific architecture designs, but also business models, plans, etc etc. Your current employer can easily make the case that you "stole" your business plan, clients, user interface, etc etc from them as the result of your employment.
There's plenty of good money to be made from other ideas... why throw yourself into happy lawsuit-land when you can just as easily code something else?
I beg to differ. Gaming is as much about the gameplay as it is about the graphics - and good graphics certainly expand the possibilities of what can believably be presented.
In the same way that Star Wars simply wouldn't have been as good if it were made in the 40s, Gears wouldn't have been as good if it ran, say, the Quake engine. There are certain ideas and games that are simply waiting for the technology to exist.
Let's be specific about GOW2, though. The game features incredible cityscapes from a distance - not pre-rendered mind you, real-time (sort of like how Halo 3 did it). This is absolutely essential to the game's setting and art style - you're not just fighting in claustrophobic tunnels, some of the environments are truly massive, and you truly feel like you're part of a bigger world when you can see skyscrapers way off in the distance collapse from enemy fire.
To address soft shadows and dynamic lighting - these actually *change* gameplay, so no, I don't believe your argument is valid. Quake with dynamic lighting and shadows suddenly opens up a whole slew of gameplay mechanics that were not possible before. Think of a game like Splinter Cell - you can manipulate the lights in your area (shoot them out, aim them somewhere else, etc) and stay hidden.
No offense to you personally, but I feel like the people who are all "gameplay, rah rah" and "graphics, booooo" simply aren't creative enough to realize that gaming goes hand in hand with its graphical, audio, and networking technology, and advances in all of them open up more possibilities for gameplay, not just eye candy.
Probation wasn't enough. This guy needs to be behind bars for a decade at least.
Especially if the company you ripped off invited you there. Seriously.
I felt the opposite. The graphics was much improved from the last game. The lighting is much softer and much better - the shadows not as artificially dark as the previous game. Overall the graphics have been improved massively.
Not all games need to be incredibly deep or innovative. Just like how not all movies need to be the Godfather, a well-made, mindless action movie can be plenty entertaining, and just as worthy of the price of admission.
To go with the movie analogy... Gears of War is to Fallout 3 as Jurassic Park is to Fallout 3. One is a popcorn movie with incredible special effects, the other is not about all that, but both are great movies.
I do believe we will still talk about Gears years from now, just like we still talk about Jurassic Park. The game is fun, has solid mechanics, and the graphical horsepower is used for more than "more bump maps", the game is truly beautiful. Looking out over a burned out city, with battles raging in the distance, few games have done graphics this well.
You're right; instead, you have to hope your 360 turns on and doesn't Red Ring. And when it inevitably dies (because, let's face it, you'll go through two+ every three years), you have to call the manufacturer and beg to have it fixed. On the bright side, the entire repair process only takes a month!
You're right, the RROD was a problem until recently. But you know what, mine broke about 2.5y into its lifetime, so your estimate is a bit off. Not to mention when I called MS I hardly had to "beg", all I did was tell them I red-ringed, and they were extremely quick and helpful in getting it replaced. Oh, and it took a week, not a month.
But of course, you don't seem to care much about facts now, do you?
Games such as Dark Messiah and Deus Ex ( and sequels ) is a help-people type of game (if you want to)
I think the OP's point is that even games like Deus Ex cannot be played in a completely peaceful way. While DX did give you ways to end many situations peacefully, you would be quite hard-pressed to not commit any acts of violence through the entire game. I've gone through without a single kill (except those required by the story), but I don't think it's possible not to *attack* at all.
Splicers are all virtually identical. Big Daddies are all identical. The game is utterly linear, and plays like a glorified version of Wolf3D in the sense that it's all about "go here to get this key to open this door to get this key to open that door" and so on. As amazing as the art design is, the level design and gameplay are uninspired.
Goldeneye and HL1 - two of your favorite games - are *precisely* like this. Both games are utterly linear, devoid of any way for the player to affect the plot (both are worse than Bioshock in this manner), and both games feature hordes of identical enemies.
for god's sake go and play a patched up version of STALKER to see the kind of thing you're missing.
Ugh, STALKER was tripe. It's a glorified MMOG without the online, and without the social fun-ness. Beyond the myriad of technical failings, the game was pointless meandering just like Oblivion, except that at least in Oblivion enemy mobs don't respawn 5 seconds after you turn your back. The mechanics are stale, the setting was cool, but ultimately its unashamedly RPG-esque elements really do a lot to pull you out of the immersiveness of the world. Not a horrible game, but certainly nothing too noteworthy, not even close to GOTY material. STALKER is best served as a guide for future open-world FPS developers as a case study of the whole being more than the sum of a game's parts.
but he should shut down his unprofitable ego-trip ventures like the Zune and the Xbox
The Xbox division is profitable, and it's been a long time coming. Unlike other parts of Microsoft, the Xbox division truly has an innovative product that is continually being improved in creative ways that benefit the user. The same can't really be said for Windows...
The Zune is also a very impressive piece of technology. Having played with one (and speaking as a loyal Mac user) I have to say it rips the hell out of the iPod classic's UI.
You've listed the two products that MS should not shut down under any circumstances - they're the only mass market items that have demonstrated any sort of creativity or innovation in the last while.
For a change though, I'd like to see MS be first in the game with their OS features - Windows (and to a lesser extent Windows Mobile) has been "me too-ing" their competitors forever now.
That's ridiculously easy, and is seen in a lot of FPS games. Guards will start pissed, then run away in fear when you clearly outclass them. Even Halo's AI had weaker units run away when confronted by you, and return in greater numbers.
It's popular to assume that if someone believes in creationism or ID, they're morons who think that thunder means that God is angry with them. This is reinforced because we all stand around telling each other it must be so.
Maybe for you. For me it's reinforced by the people that surround me. Just like Slashdot is often a big circle-jerk of libertarian ideals, Christian communities are often a huge circle-jerk of "oh man, we're so right, don't you agree?"
I grew up in a town that is predominantly east Asian immigrant - and a lot of Asian Christians to boot. Most of the people I knew were Asian, and Christian. I hated hanging around them - adults and kids alike. Science *was* distrusted, people kept repeating the same old tired (and false) talking points about Darwin, and how the fossil record is a lie planted by Satan to challenge the faith of believers... I could go on. This is a predominantly *highly-educated* and *upper-middle class* city that was spewing this bullshit. I'd hate to see what you get out in the boonies.
I'm *scared* of those people. In twenty years or so they will be the ones calling the shots in big business, in politics, in society. You talk about "quiet faithfuls" being the majority of religious people - that may be true now, but take a look at the younger crowd coming out of churches today. They are far more zealous than their parents, having been brought up in an environment where church leaders went to any means to rescue their religion from increasing irrelevance. These are the people that scare me, not their "quiet faithful" parents.
As an interesting sidenote: through my travels I have found that first-generation converts (e.g. Asian immigrants) are FAR more zealous than their born-into-Christianity (and predominantly white) counterparts. I've met many, many perfectly reasonable Christians in my lifetime, only 2 of whom have been Asian. What's with that?
which is really wealth redistribution from the working middle class to the lazy bums
Read this and then tell me that this is about wealth redistribution from the "working middle" to the lazy bums. You think people earning $600K+ are the "working middle class"? This is about redistribution of wealth from the robber barons that run the country today TO the working middle class. The people that are suffering today aren't the lazy bums who refuse to work - they're the ones who are constantly under threat of losing their jobs because they're being shipped overseas, the ones who are making some $40K to $60K a year. Look at who is going to give the REAL middle class a bigger tax break.
Hint: Obama will be the one giving tax breaks for the middle class - anyone earning less than $110K a year will be getting a bigger tax break than McCain is planning. Redistribution from the middle class to the poor and lazy my ass.
I just hit level 16... current stats off the top of my head:
7 STR
6 END
8 INT
6 CHA
8 AGI
6 LCK
With the Commando perk and 90 in small guns, my CAR and hunting rifle owns all :) just got myself the power armor too, hells yeah.
So true. The game never gives you a break, which makes be both love and hate it. I treadmilled for a while up to level 13 before even venturing downtown, and I got my ass handed to me through and through. I went in with 500+ rounds on the Chinese AR and came out nearly out of ammo, and down some 10 stims.
No other game has made me dread and anticipate progress as much. I don't even want to know what's in the Capitol (probably more ass kicking... my ass that is) but I just gotta find out.
I also love how scarce ammo is in this game. There are no merchants with unlimited ammo for sale - each one has a limited stock that replenishes slowly over time. Even if you had all the caps in the world you can't afford to just waste bullets - you'd have a hard time finding more. I took the ammo scrounger perk, but things still come up short sometimes.
And they even made the min/max/close buttons EVEN SMALLER than before, a direct violation of good usability as defined by Fitt's Law
But all that says is that OS X gains stability (i.e. QA on fewer possible driver configurations and combinations) where Windows suffers. It does not explain away the performance difference - it's not as if Windows needs to keep 10 different graphics drivers in memory or some such.