Isn't a poor port evidence of a poorly engineered original software product? There ought to be a separation of the game logic layers from the actual hardware implementation of the details.
I'm not in that industry, but, I've come across hearsay that game development these days is pretty shoddy for the average title since all the money is poured into asset development (sound and visuals) and the software part of it is an afterthought.
This is the first time I've seen Valve act like a greedy corporate whore, and it's troubling because they're one of the few remaining PC developers who are worth a damn.
It's the first time they crawled into bed with EA outright since they split away from Sierra and into their own publishing and distribution system. What did you expect would happen when you cozy up to the same company that publishes Madden Year++ and The Sims: Another Shovelware Expansion?
Unless you're planning to write your social security number with bullet holes in the wall, I think you might be overreacting.
Using my play data to serve ads? No, thanks, I'll pass. Using my play data to realize I hate having to kill things in Tomb Raider? Sounds like a win to me.
Wine is the definition of using hacks to get an app to run on an OS. If it is ok for Wine, why is it not ok for Win7?
Because this whole article is FUD.
I don't even know why shims are a problem. It's not like the API consumer needs to know they exist. Even more so, just use the API correctly and you'll never have compatibility issues in your app. The Microsoft philosophy is to let people to the wrong thing and let it work out right. I don't agree with that, but, hey, it doesn't really matter WHAT Microsoft does with Windows, really.
Shim for XP compatibility = LOL, Microsoft sux! No-shims and screw XP = LOL, Microsoft sux!
my msdn license keys for Vista say up to 10 activations and you can give it out to other people for "marketing purposes"
Does it actually say that? Last time I checked out getting an MSDN subscription for free OS and goodies I saw the part about "non-production evaluation purposes only" and figured it's not worth the potential risk opening myself to surprise audits, especially after signing up for a subscription with my real name and address.
Given how hard it is to compete with Dell and HP, I can see smaller system builders wanting to give in to the temptation of not paying the microsoft tax and using the savings to put a pirate version of Windows to make a more attractive price point. Of course, they could put a free OS on it but that would only further enforce that they sell machines that "aren't like the big boy's".
Even falsely assuming DNF is The Perfect Game Everyone Must Own, how could it ever really live up to the decade plus of hype? How many millions upon millions of copies would they have had to sell to make up the development investment? Are there even that many people in the video game market to recoup that kind of development cost?
Not to mention they had some properties that would have been trivial to make money with, if they had only bothered to do it.
Not quite, 3D Realms whored out the IP over and over and over again and let it get whored out all during the so-called DNF development time. For Duke alone there were rehashes of the game or horrible variants or Plain-Jane-out-and-out ports for Saturn, Playstation, Game Boy Color, N64, Dreamcast, Game Boy Advance, Dreamcast, 360... porting over to iPhones and even more devices wouldn't really have made much more of a difference financially.
Simply put, they simply put too many development eggs in the DNF basket, didn't crack the whip and demand progress and instead took the arrogant "when it's done" approach and got called out on the bluff. If the economy didn't take a downturn they'd probably still keep developing for the next dozen years.
If you use the device outside its intended purpose and that purpose is clearly discernible then it has to be your cost. If I take my regular car rallying and the suspension breaks it is hardly reasonable for me to attempt to claim repair under warranty. The car was built for the road not 140mph down a bumpy unmetaled track. If I fit a nitrous kit to the car and it pops a cylinder good luck proving it was a build flaw and therefore a warranty claim.
Your example suggests the warranty claim should be denied because the car was forced to exceed it's normal tolerances. Hhomebrew software doesn't make the Wii "run" any harder than commercial software.
Right, a college campus police officer shoots a student who is in your custody, being investigated for some completely nonviolent civil question.
You wouldn't simply "move on."
That's when you plant the drugs, bribe the appropriate people to "find" PCP or whatever in the bloodstream, and threaten to expose widespread corruption in the force if they came down on you.
TV police shows have taught me everything I need to know.
How much do you think a huge, high-power battery in your garage is going to cost you? Oddly, I don't need a huge gasoline tank in the garage to drive my car.
I would think getting a huge, high-power battery in my garage is going to cost similar to what it costs having a huge propane tank outside that I occasionally have filled up for general heating and cooking, upfront and over time.
You don't need on-site gasoline storage because you have gas stations that pool the collective hassle at a profit. They maintain gasoline storage and dispensing so private people don't have to. Farmers, businesses that maintain fleets of vehicles, etc sure do like the overall savings and convenience, but for the rest of us there are gas stations.
What makes you think private stations won't maintain analogous high-power batteries in centralized locations, and how the mark-up will be any worse than the similar gasoline mark-up? Is it because it would be "new"?
If it were all about money, Apple products would suck. Exhibit A: Microsoft Windows--makes a lot of money AND they don't care about users. Exhibit B: Mac OSX--makes a lot of money but has to care about users, otherwise they render themselves obsolete.
You don't have to outrun the wolf, just the slowest member of your party.
There is a need for something but this goes way too far and is way too vague. Someone needs to be able to shut down something like, say, a DDOS attack against the NYSE trading network - that's a national security issue. Likewise, if someone's hacking the newtworks that link our satellites to the Pentagon, someone needs to have the power to make that stop immediately.
And so the wording on the bill should reflect these few and constrained cases where it would be warranted, instead of leaving it open to anyone's interpretation.
Couldn't an enterprising screen-scraper also just run it through the same Javascript code? Hulu is forgetting what I like to call the Fundamental Law of DRM: if you make data possible for users to see/hear, it will be possible for a reasonably enterprising user to copy it.
Sure. Except, crappy as the Javascript "encryption" is, now you're in violation of the DMCA by reverse engineering a copy protection mechanism.
Researcher Felix "FX" Lindner's research earlier this year demonstrated that multiple versions of routers can be attacked -- specifically, Cisco's PowerPC routers -- shooting down the assumption that hacking routers requires separate exploits for each type of router.
Oh, wow, so, it doesn't matter that your infrastructure has a mish-mash of routers because they can easily attack them all in the same way? FFFFFFUUUUUUU---
The idea that the variability of router platforms would defend you from an attacker is false. All versions have something in common [in this research], and this is not just in theory, but FX demonstrated it and used it to exploit all [PowerPC IOS] versions."
Er, wait, so, you "demonstrated" by testing it all on one specific line of routers? How is that any kind of proof?
I smell Cisco astroturfing to make having to patch routers sound like it's important for everyone's routers and not just theirs.
This, correct me if I'm wrong, is completely legal; so I would rather them pursue this vein of inquiry than through legal action.
Well, sure. The RIAA abuses the courts, fabricates data, intimidates victims and shakes them down for settlement money. Recently the justice system has been fighting back, demanding proper behavior from those pitbulls.
They found a way to punish people on suspicion of wrongdoing and avoid embarrassing court documents and judgments from leaking to the public and circumventing niggling little problems like "preponderance of evidence" (civil) and "reasonable doubt" (criminal).
Typical American attitude at the moment. "Woe me, my country is going to implode and it's the most corrupt and worst place on the planet!" Fucking Americans, try living in some of these other places before whining about how bad your own place is.
Leaders raise the bar. Followers run only fast enough to not be last. If that "fucking typical American attitude" is what it takes to demand better from the government that represents them, so be it. Should the only defence for corruption be that it's acceptable elsewhere?
You haven't lived until a user emails you a Word document with an embedded screen capture of a pdf viewer viewing a document that once existed as a Word document.
Slashdot Mirror
There are components that are still produced outside of China/Malaysia/Taiwan?
Isn't a poor port evidence of a poorly engineered original software product? There ought to be a separation of the game logic layers from the actual hardware implementation of the details.
I'm not in that industry, but, I've come across hearsay that game development these days is pretty shoddy for the average title since all the money is poured into asset development (sound and visuals) and the software part of it is an afterthought.
This is the first time I've seen Valve act like a greedy corporate whore, and it's troubling because they're one of the few remaining PC developers who are worth a damn.
It's the first time they crawled into bed with EA outright since they split away from Sierra and into their own publishing and distribution system. What did you expect would happen when you cozy up to the same company that publishes Madden Year++ and The Sims: Another Shovelware Expansion?
Unless you're planning to write your social security number with bullet holes in the wall, I think you might be overreacting.
Using my play data to serve ads? No, thanks, I'll pass. Using my play data to realize I hate having to kill things in Tomb Raider? Sounds like a win to me.
Using myself as an example: I have a (Tested) IQ of 151, and just this morning, I found myself pulling on a door clearly marked Push.
I think getting that right would have netted you an extra point. :)
Note to self: purchase some quantity of Push and Pull stickers and apply the inverse sticker over each I see in everyday life.
If old and traditional have any merits beyond simply being old and traditional then it won't get displaced. Time (and sales) will tell.
Well, we have no idea how to use them except for blinding other drivers and warning about police speed traps.
Wine is the definition of using hacks to get an app to run on an OS. If it is ok for Wine, why is it not ok for Win7?
Because this whole article is FUD.
I don't even know why shims are a problem. It's not like the API consumer needs to know they exist. Even more so, just use the API correctly and you'll never have compatibility issues in your app. The Microsoft philosophy is to let people to the wrong thing and let it work out right. I don't agree with that, but, hey, it doesn't really matter WHAT Microsoft does with Windows, really.
Shim for XP compatibility = LOL, Microsoft sux!
No-shims and screw XP = LOL, Microsoft sux!
my msdn license keys for Vista say up to 10 activations and you can give it out to other people for "marketing purposes"
Does it actually say that? Last time I checked out getting an MSDN subscription for free OS and goodies I saw the part about "non-production evaluation purposes only" and figured it's not worth the potential risk opening myself to surprise audits, especially after signing up for a subscription with my real name and address.
Given how hard it is to compete with Dell and HP, I can see smaller system builders wanting to give in to the temptation of not paying the microsoft tax and using the savings to put a pirate version of Windows to make a more attractive price point. Of course, they could put a free OS on it but that would only further enforce that they sell machines that "aren't like the big boy's".
Even falsely assuming DNF is The Perfect Game Everyone Must Own, how could it ever really live up to the decade plus of hype? How many millions upon millions of copies would they have had to sell to make up the development investment? Are there even that many people in the video game market to recoup that kind of development cost?
Not to mention they had some properties that would have been trivial to make money with, if they had only bothered to do it.
Not quite, 3D Realms whored out the IP over and over and over again and let it get whored out all during the so-called DNF development time. For Duke alone there were rehashes of the game or horrible variants or Plain-Jane-out-and-out ports for Saturn, Playstation, Game Boy Color, N64, Dreamcast, Game Boy Advance, Dreamcast, 360... porting over to iPhones and even more devices wouldn't really have made much more of a difference financially.
Simply put, they simply put too many development eggs in the DNF basket, didn't crack the whip and demand progress and instead took the arrogant "when it's done" approach and got called out on the bluff. If the economy didn't take a downturn they'd probably still keep developing for the next dozen years.
I would like to think they are making this decision because someone finally realized that money doesn't actually grow on trees.
And that's what the research is for: Money Trees.
If you use the device outside its intended purpose and that purpose is clearly discernible then it has to be your cost. If I take my regular car rallying and the suspension breaks it is hardly reasonable for me to attempt to claim repair under warranty. The car was built for the road not 140mph down a bumpy unmetaled track. If I fit a nitrous kit to the car and it pops a cylinder good luck proving it was a build flaw and therefore a warranty claim.
Your example suggests the warranty claim should be denied because the car was forced to exceed it's normal tolerances. Hhomebrew software doesn't make the Wii "run" any harder than commercial software.
Right, a college campus police officer shoots a student who is in your custody, being investigated for some completely nonviolent civil question.
You wouldn't simply "move on."
That's when you plant the drugs, bribe the appropriate people to "find" PCP or whatever in the bloodstream, and threaten to expose widespread corruption in the force if they came down on you.
TV police shows have taught me everything I need to know.
How much do you think a huge, high-power battery in your garage is going to cost you? Oddly, I don't need a huge gasoline tank in the garage to drive my car.
I would think getting a huge, high-power battery in my garage is going to cost similar to what it costs having a huge propane tank outside that I occasionally have filled up for general heating and cooking, upfront and over time.
You don't need on-site gasoline storage because you have gas stations that pool the collective hassle at a profit. They maintain gasoline storage and dispensing so private people don't have to. Farmers, businesses that maintain fleets of vehicles, etc sure do like the overall savings and convenience, but for the rest of us there are gas stations.
What makes you think private stations won't maintain analogous high-power batteries in centralized locations, and how the mark-up will be any worse than the similar gasoline mark-up? Is it because it would be "new"?
So once you add that to the cost, this '$50,000 car' will be an even worse deal than it currently appears.
Er, so, you get gasoline for free?
If it were all about money, Apple products would suck. Exhibit A: Microsoft Windows--makes a lot of money AND they don't care about users. Exhibit B: Mac OSX--makes a lot of money but has to care about users, otherwise they render themselves obsolete.
You don't have to outrun the wolf, just the slowest member of your party.
I think whoever wrote the first computer worm should sue apple
How apt that a worm would ruin an apple. :)
There is a need for something but this goes way too far and is way too vague. Someone needs to be able to shut down something like, say, a DDOS attack against the NYSE trading network - that's a national security issue. Likewise, if someone's hacking the newtworks that link our satellites to the Pentagon, someone needs to have the power to make that stop immediately.
And so the wording on the bill should reflect these few and constrained cases where it would be warranted, instead of leaving it open to anyone's interpretation.
Couldn't an enterprising screen-scraper also just run it through the same Javascript code? Hulu is forgetting what I like to call the Fundamental Law of DRM: if you make data possible for users to see /hear, it will be possible for a reasonably enterprising user to copy it.
Sure. Except, crappy as the Javascript "encryption" is, now you're in violation of the DMCA by reverse engineering a copy protection mechanism.
TFA:
Researcher Felix "FX" Lindner's research earlier this year demonstrated that multiple versions of routers can be attacked -- specifically, Cisco's PowerPC routers -- shooting down the assumption that hacking routers requires separate exploits for each type of router.
Oh, wow, so, it doesn't matter that your infrastructure has a mish-mash of routers because they can easily attack them all in the same way? FFFFFFUUUUUUU---
The idea that the variability of router platforms would defend you from an attacker is false. All versions have something in common [in this research], and this is not just in theory, but FX demonstrated it and used it to exploit all [PowerPC IOS] versions."
Er, wait, so, you "demonstrated" by testing it all on one specific line of routers? How is that any kind of proof?
I smell Cisco astroturfing to make having to patch routers sound like it's important for everyone's routers and not just theirs.
This, correct me if I'm wrong, is completely legal; so I would rather them pursue this vein of inquiry than through legal action.
Well, sure. The RIAA abuses the courts, fabricates data, intimidates victims and shakes them down for settlement money. Recently the justice system has been fighting back, demanding proper behavior from those pitbulls.
They found a way to punish people on suspicion of wrongdoing and avoid embarrassing court documents and judgments from leaking to the public and circumventing niggling little problems like "preponderance of evidence" (civil) and "reasonable doubt" (criminal).
Typical American attitude at the moment. "Woe me, my country is going to implode and it's the most corrupt and worst place on the planet!" Fucking Americans, try living in some of these other places before whining about how bad your own place is.
Leaders raise the bar. Followers run only fast enough to not be last. If that "fucking typical American attitude" is what it takes to demand better from the government that represents them, so be it. Should the only defence for corruption be that it's acceptable elsewhere?
So they could not store documents in plain text?
You haven't lived until a user emails you a Word document with an embedded screen capture of a pdf viewer viewing a document that once existed as a Word document.