I disagree that'd be a safe blanket statement. Certainly for some if they can't get a Wii they'd take a 360 instead, but there are Wiis being played by people outside the hardcore gaming circles who wouldn't.
Plus, while both can be fun, they take different avenues towards fun. Wii right now is all about how unique its' input is and 360 is fun like conventional video games are fun.
N certainly earned its share of negative karma. You're dead on about the SNES CD with Sony, but they also broke the cardinal rule of Japanese business and partnered with Phillips (a non-Japanese company) as a 2nd try to not be caught with their pants down on the transition to CD games.
Also in the day, Nintendo didn't let 3rd party companies release too many games per year to avoid them from overshadowing 1st party title release volume so you find things like Konami releasing games until the Ultra label and other oddities.
Then you have stock-fixing at stores where they'd be denied the newest most-in-demand SNES games unless they also stocked a bunch of tepid Game Boy items that simply weren't selling.
Right now there are no saint video game company players. But, I think Nintendo took it on the chin enough with the sales of N64 and Gamecube that they know they gotta be on their best behavior.
On that note, does anyone remember the old Quake Shareware CD that was in retail stores for like $10 back in the day? It had shareware versions of id Software games that had shareware editions available PLUS unlockable full versions of games. You would 1-800-ID-GAMES with your special number (and pay) and they'd give you an unlock code you type in and you magically had full versions of whatever titles you purchased decrypted off the disk.
Until maybe a day or two after when crackers decoded the system and published a keygen that let you instantly have every full version game of practically every id Software game from Wolfenstein on for the measely $10 the disc costed.
Considering all the motivation in the DDR community to rip arcade art, stepcharts, songs, dancer models, scan for secrets, it's surprising they didn't crack those unlock codes and spawn a whole series of XBox Live hacks for other games with "for-fee unlockable" content.
"... and frankly, the federal government cannot force any province to implement a sales tax to solve the problem."
You mean like fines, paycheck garnishing, jail time?
Federal governments hold power over local governments by making it worth their while.
"Gee, local-government-A, you sure like that education grant, don't ya?" "Yes, it's great for getting the citizens to be well educated and productive in life." "That's great. By the way, we want you to teach creationism alongside evolution in your classrooms." "You can't make us." "I guess you're right. I guess we'd better leave. Oh, and, let's pick up those grants on the way out..." "No, wait, I think we could find a compromise..."
If Apple wants to be at the forefront of digital video distribution, throwaway 1.0's aren't going to cut it. Since it could output 720p, I'm more worried that the licensing people couldn't negotiate that quality from the video owners for sale over the iTunes store.
If you look at other past "gimmicks", it depends on developers to use them.
Some DS games use the touchscreen extensively, some a little, some absolutely none. (Before you ask me to source, there are three happy examples off the top of my head, in given order: Clubhouse Games, Tetris DS, Izuna).
Before that, remember PS2's pressure-sensitive buttons? I can't recall any games beyond MGS 2 & 3 that really took advantage of them. Personally I thought THAT was going to revolutionize gaming.
What's neat about the Wii is that this new input style is _standard_. N64 rumble wasn't standard and didn't really work well with the memory cards also plugged into the controller. PSX games couldn't always use the analog sticks since the default controller didn't have them (until the 550x models, IIRC).
What's Wii's got going for it is that the unique control scheme means there is a whole slew of games and game ideas that won't translate to 360 or PS3. Motion sensing on SIXAXIS is nice, but it doesn't rumble. It doesn't make sounds. You can't really use it like a remote. No nunchuck attachment. PS3 motion sensing is a bolt on that can't really ever be as flexible as the ground-up engineering from Nintendo.
Having a bunch of games not translating means that gamers won't have an option to get the same Wii game on a competing platform without just taking out all the unique stuff and pidgeonhole-ing all controls into the same old button schemes. That's where the 360 can lose. Microsoft can always throw money at PS3 developers to get them to defect, but if they do that to Wii developers it'd have to be a whole lot more money because of the extra work of changing a fundamental control scheme and potential outcry over "dumbing down the controls."
Any 360 motion sensing scheme has to meet or exceed the Wii's.
That's the trouble with putting value judgements on people's motivations. Whether or not YOU believe the best things in life are free is quite different from suggesting that people that do believe it do so because of sour grapes.
Money is big but certainly not everything. There's lots of value in bettering oneself. It's too bad a prevailing consumerist culture has convinced so many that being wealthy is the only way to live.
Or have I just been watching too much Star Trek lately?:)
I've got a Toshiba Tecra notebook computer that proudly exclaims "Vista Capable". I'm not planning to put Vista on it but I ran the update advisor anyway. It warned me not to install Vista on it because it would be incompatible with my BIOS and I should get an update from the manufacturer.
All well and good, but who was making those stickers in the first place? As I recall, it was Microsoft offering them to manufacturers last year as compromise for Vista being late. As of today Toshiba still doesn't have an update for my machine (as far as I'm concerned, no Vista for me means it ain't broke).
Now whether Microsoft should be to blame instead of manufacturers slapping those stickers on everything leaving the factory is perhaps a better discussion.
Guitar Hero's ability to bring the rhythm game to the mainstream in Western countries made the big corps take notice. A dumptruck of money arrived to the doorstep which is a huge payday for a "mom & pop" publisher like Red Octane (while not strictly "mom & pop", in comparison to a behemoth like Activision, they are.) There's always a price to be paid and this fallout just highlights one of those prices. That's why it's called "selling out."
Considering how "hot" the property is, I'd call it reasonable to say that any corporation that bought this IP would guard it as strongly.
That said, TFA: "... Guitar Hero II executive producer John Tam and brand manager Corey Fong..."
Hmmm... how much success-deriding decision-making did these two actually make on GH2, anyway?
"FF7 was 3 discs, and each one was = 750MB. Last I checked, that's = 2.25GB for the whole game."
And you don't even need to have all of them available at the same time. Is the battery life so good that there's a need to keep more than 2 discs, at most, in there?:D
Like it or not, DMCA is US law. While the EFF touches on the fringes of the literal interpretations of the law and thus raises questions (and provides reasonable answers to those questions, in my opinion), should the EFF openly support breaking the law?
As the EFF gains power and finances from increasing numbers of donations, would it be wise to trade that lots of "street cred"? How did the political party behind The Pirate Bay fare on that one?
I know it's too late in development for it, but, please, Rockstar, let me enter properties in the game world -- any property -- and commit various acts of terror or distruction or just make dynamic missions.
Yeah, it looks good, but I want it to actually PLAY like a next gene title.
Unfortunately, the CPU biz has a massive cost barrier to entry... especially if you want to tackle top-of-the-line stuff. Other industries in the same scale of that are probably the Automotive, Aerospace, likely some others I can't think of right now. I mean, engineers, fabs, distribution channels, and the performance to rival the big boys. Massive costs = massive risks, but with enough money and will, any other company can join the race. It's all about leveraging the risk.
(Disclaimer: these company names are off the top of my head without any additional research.) I think IBM could retake the desktop CPU market if they felt it was worth the trouble. Via could do a better job of marketing and extending their ultra low power x86 CPUs which I think could be a big threat to those 100+W monsters coming out on the top end. Transmeta... what ever happened to them anyway? If I were a gambling man, I'd probably bet on NVidia to attempt a break into that market in a few years. A couple of companies and a few defectors from Intel or AMD might even hasten things.
"So basically all the early adopters should have to pay for functionalities they should have had since day 1?"
Should have had? I have a 1 year old TV that can't support more than one HDMI device. Does that mean if I have two HDMI devices then I can be upset that I can't hook both up at the same time when the manufacturer currently makes TVs with more than one port? My first PC was a Packard Bell from 1993, can I be upset that it doesn't run Vista?
You DO realize that technology gets better as time goes on, right? If they could have the yields in 65nm at the time of release and not caused the system to be over a grand, they would have.
Thing is, if Elite wasn't going to come out and there wasn't ever going to be a 360 with HDMI, would you still be foaming at the mouth about how unfair and defective your current console is?
"Each time they're creating something new and eventually people will have to upgrade just to stay current, just like with current PC's."
Upgrades are optional. If you like the same PC games, no need to upgrade your hardware. If you can handle lower resolutions and detail, many new PC games are perfectly playable on non-cutting-edge hardware. If you want it all, though, you want it all. And that costs. No different from anything else in the world.
In the interest of calling a spade a spade: The NES had "optional" upgrades. These Elite features are optional: nothing more. If there was a "penultimate NES", it would include a Zapper, R.O.B., Action Pad, NES Satellite, and maybe other things I'm forgetting. Remember, that system also sold in different level "trims". Hell, the overwhelming majority of NES titles had additional memory banking hardware in each cartridge to enable the game to access more than 64K of memory.
Genesis: Penultimate would have: Genesis, Master System adapter, Sega CD, 32X.
The N64 came the closest to a "required" upgrade, that 8M memory upgrade that sat right there in front of the cartridge port. Even then, most games didn't need it, let alone used it, and those that did were clearly marked.
In the end, upgrades will have value based on applications. If you want downloadable content and want your games to run better by caching content on the HD, then get a 360 with a HD. If you've got more time than money and can live without demos, forget it. If there ever ARE games that require optional equipment, Microsoft would do well to make sure it's VERY obvious they need it.
Here's what consumers need to learn: * Products get updated all the time. The benefits of "buy now" versus "buy later" is the time between now and later in which you will own and enjoy your product. I remember buying Final Fantasy X for $55 and then seeing it in the Greatest Hits bin for $15 a year or two later. If you cry about it and the companies want to make you feel better, they won't do it by releasing something at a medium price like $35 forever, they'll do it by releasing it at the full $55 and never dropping MSRP. (At least those who got the 'tard pack can upgrade to a hard drive for the next difference in the price difference of Core versus Elite. It's not GREAT, but it's not a slap in the face, either.)
* What's top dog now won't be top dog later. PC gamers have already figured this out. The fact that there are even "generations" of gaming consoles should have taught you this applies in the console world as well.
Here's what console companies need to learn: * Newer, more premium products need to push existing prices down. While it makes better sense for your bottom line, your base gets green with envy instead of less green by giving you money. Nintendo figured this one out already.
* Think about upgrade capacity. Wouldn't it have been neat, instead, if you could take your existing 360 hard drive and piggy-back it to the new hard drive (like a daughterboard) and the drives would automatically move your contents and digital signatures to the new one and restore your old one to factory fresh? When I bought a new cell phone I set my old one to send all my contacts via infra red and set my new one to receive and it was quite nice to get it all done without a whole lot of pain. Nintendo tripped up on this with the WiFi being matched from the DS game to your DS's MAC / serial number, but they got it together on the Wii by using a standard and portable SD card for data transfer.
That said, with the said problems, if the Elite 360 is targeted for holdouts who don't already have a 360, it fails. I don't have a 360 but I've been waiting for lower noise/power consumption 65nm, HD-DVD, bigger HD, and HDMI and Elite represents only 1/2 of that. Oh, plus BLACK. Wee. Here's hoping for a Super Elite come Christmas for $399.;)
Your analysis on the "American Dream" is spot on. And it's so obviously misplaced here: The summary and TFA both have no mention of any "Dreams", American or otherwise.
Not that crappy old Circuit City doesn't deserve some bias the way they treat some of their customers, but bias none the less.
". . . a ridiculously large amount of security flaws in web applications come down to failing to do very basic things . . . [I]f we can educate more programmers on basic techniques for handling these very common sorts of errors then things will undoubtedly improve significantly on the security front."
The problem I see with these types of certification is that, much like other certifications, they don't really teach you the underlying purposes of a lot of things. I mean, how different is securing a system built on C/C++ versus one on ASP/.NET? It always boils down to the fundamentals of being aware of your bounds, verify input, trust nothing, etc etc etc. In addition to, say, a 8.5"x11" paper containing some functions which are bugged and should never be used.
The breaking up of subject matter seems to me like a trick to quintuple-dip in this market. If you take security for Java and you apply for a job in C++, it will no longer enough to just know the differences. You'll need to run out and hack out your certs for SECURE C++, which will be pretty much the same test with the same issues handled in some syntactically different ways.
Then again, far be it for any responsible person to be against any move to improve security.
I think "AMD fan" or "Intel fan" is a bad attitude. When technology does its thing (progress), it's a good thing, regardless of who spearheaded it.
That said, if AMD becomes so obviously a bad choice, Intel who is in the lead will continue to push the envelope just not as fast since they don't have anything to catch up to. That will give AMD the opportunity to blow ahead as it did time and time again in the past.
The pendulum swings both ways. The only constant is that competition brings out the best and it's definitely good for us, the consumer.
Slashdot Mirror
I disagree that'd be a safe blanket statement. Certainly for some if they can't get a Wii they'd take a 360 instead, but there are Wiis being played by people outside the hardcore gaming circles who wouldn't.
Plus, while both can be fun, they take different avenues towards fun. Wii right now is all about how unique its' input is and 360 is fun like conventional video games are fun.
N certainly earned its share of negative karma. You're dead on about the SNES CD with Sony, but they also broke the cardinal rule of Japanese business and partnered with Phillips (a non-Japanese company) as a 2nd try to not be caught with their pants down on the transition to CD games.
Also in the day, Nintendo didn't let 3rd party companies release too many games per year to avoid them from overshadowing 1st party title release volume so you find things like Konami releasing games until the Ultra label and other oddities.
Then you have stock-fixing at stores where they'd be denied the newest most-in-demand SNES games unless they also stocked a bunch of tepid Game Boy items that simply weren't selling.
Right now there are no saint video game company players. But, I think Nintendo took it on the chin enough with the sales of N64 and Gamecube that they know they gotta be on their best behavior.
On that note, does anyone remember the old Quake Shareware CD that was in retail stores for like $10 back in the day? It had shareware versions of id Software games that had shareware editions available PLUS unlockable full versions of games. You would 1-800-ID-GAMES with your special number (and pay) and they'd give you an unlock code you type in and you magically had full versions of whatever titles you purchased decrypted off the disk.
Until maybe a day or two after when crackers decoded the system and published a keygen that let you instantly have every full version game of practically every id Software game from Wolfenstein on for the measely $10 the disc costed.
Considering all the motivation in the DDR community to rip arcade art, stepcharts, songs, dancer models, scan for secrets, it's surprising they didn't crack those unlock codes and spawn a whole series of XBox Live hacks for other games with "for-fee unlockable" content.
Wow, how... civilized.
:)
How does one emigrate to Canada, anyway?
" ... and frankly, the federal government cannot force any province to implement a sales tax to solve the problem."
You mean like fines, paycheck garnishing, jail time?
Federal governments hold power over local governments by making it worth their while.
"Gee, local-government-A, you sure like that education grant, don't ya?"
"Yes, it's great for getting the citizens to be well educated and productive in life."
"That's great. By the way, we want you to teach creationism alongside evolution in your classrooms."
"You can't make us."
"I guess you're right. I guess we'd better leave. Oh, and, let's pick up those grants on the way out..."
"No, wait, I think we could find a compromise..."
If Apple wants to be at the forefront of digital video distribution, throwaway 1.0's aren't going to cut it. Since it could output 720p, I'm more worried that the licensing people couldn't negotiate that quality from the video owners for sale over the iTunes store.
But on the up-side, at least by 2035 my mortgage will be paid off. From the tune of TFA, a lot of good THAT will do me.
Time to blow it all on hookers and blackjack, I guess.
The joy for them in this is that there will ALWAYS be a top N % of bandwidth users.
If you look at other past "gimmicks", it depends on developers to use them.
Some DS games use the touchscreen extensively, some a little, some absolutely none.
(Before you ask me to source, there are three happy examples off the top of my head, in given order: Clubhouse Games, Tetris DS, Izuna).
Before that, remember PS2's pressure-sensitive buttons? I can't recall any games beyond MGS 2 & 3 that really took advantage of them. Personally I thought THAT was going to revolutionize gaming.
What's neat about the Wii is that this new input style is _standard_. N64 rumble wasn't standard and didn't really work well with the memory cards also plugged into the controller. PSX games couldn't always use the analog sticks since the default controller didn't have them (until the 550x models, IIRC).
What's Wii's got going for it is that the unique control scheme means there is a whole slew of games and game ideas that won't translate to 360 or PS3. Motion sensing on SIXAXIS is nice, but it doesn't rumble. It doesn't make sounds. You can't really use it like a remote. No nunchuck attachment. PS3 motion sensing is a bolt on that can't really ever be as flexible as the ground-up engineering from Nintendo.
Having a bunch of games not translating means that gamers won't have an option to get the same Wii game on a competing platform without just taking out all the unique stuff and pidgeonhole-ing all controls into the same old button schemes. That's where the 360 can lose. Microsoft can always throw money at PS3 developers to get them to defect, but if they do that to Wii developers it'd have to be a whole lot more money because of the extra work of changing a fundamental control scheme and potential outcry over "dumbing down the controls."
Any 360 motion sensing scheme has to meet or exceed the Wii's.
That's the trouble with putting value judgements on people's motivations. Whether or not YOU believe the best things in life are free is quite different from suggesting that people that do believe it do so because of sour grapes.
:)
Money is big but certainly not everything. There's lots of value in bettering oneself. It's too bad a prevailing consumerist culture has convinced so many that being wealthy is the only way to live.
Or have I just been watching too much Star Trek lately?
Oh, now it all makes sense.
"People" are NPCs. Of course!
I've got a Toshiba Tecra notebook computer that proudly exclaims "Vista Capable". I'm not planning to put Vista on it but I ran the update advisor anyway. It warned me not to install Vista on it because it would be incompatible with my BIOS and I should get an update from the manufacturer.
All well and good, but who was making those stickers in the first place? As I recall, it was Microsoft offering them to manufacturers last year as compromise for Vista being late. As of today Toshiba still doesn't have an update for my machine (as far as I'm concerned, no Vista for me means it ain't broke).
Now whether Microsoft should be to blame instead of manufacturers slapping those stickers on everything leaving the factory is perhaps a better discussion.
"Get out, meet people, and talk to people."
What are these "people" he speaks of? Is that some kind of new interactive game demo that's outdoors?
Guitar Hero's ability to bring the rhythm game to the mainstream in Western countries made the big corps take notice. A dumptruck of money arrived to the doorstep which is a huge payday for a "mom & pop" publisher like Red Octane (while not strictly "mom & pop", in comparison to a behemoth like Activision, they are.) There's always a price to be paid and this fallout just highlights one of those prices. That's why it's called "selling out."
..."
Considering how "hot" the property is, I'd call it reasonable to say that any corporation that bought this IP would guard it as strongly.
That said, TFA:
"... Guitar Hero II executive producer John Tam and brand manager Corey Fong
Hmmm... how much success-deriding decision-making did these two actually make on GH2, anyway?
"FF7 was 3 discs, and each one was = 750MB. Last I checked, that's = 2.25GB for the whole game."
:D
And you don't even need to have all of them available at the same time. Is the battery life so good that there's a need to keep more than 2 discs, at most, in there?
Like it or not, DMCA is US law. While the EFF touches on the fringes of the literal interpretations of the law and thus raises questions (and provides reasonable answers to those questions, in my opinion), should the EFF openly support breaking the law?
As the EFF gains power and finances from increasing numbers of donations, would it be wise to trade that lots of "street cred"? How did the political party behind The Pirate Bay fare on that one?
I know it's too late in development for it, but, please, Rockstar, let me enter properties in the game world -- any property -- and commit various acts of terror or distruction or just make dynamic missions.
Yeah, it looks good, but I want it to actually PLAY like a next gene title.
Unfortunately, the CPU biz has a massive cost barrier to entry... especially if you want to tackle top-of-the-line stuff. Other industries in the same scale of that are probably the Automotive, Aerospace, likely some others I can't think of right now. I mean, engineers, fabs, distribution channels, and the performance to rival the big boys. Massive costs = massive risks, but with enough money and will, any other company can join the race. It's all about leveraging the risk.
(Disclaimer: these company names are off the top of my head without any additional research.)
I think IBM could retake the desktop CPU market if they felt it was worth the trouble. Via could do a better job of marketing and extending their ultra low power x86 CPUs which I think could be a big threat to those 100+W monsters coming out on the top end. Transmeta... what ever happened to them anyway? If I were a gambling man, I'd probably bet on NVidia to attempt a break into that market in a few years. A couple of companies and a few defectors from Intel or AMD might even hasten things.
"So basically all the early adopters should have to pay for functionalities they should have had since day 1?"
Should have had? I have a 1 year old TV that can't support more than one HDMI device. Does that mean if I have two HDMI devices then I can be upset that I can't hook both up at the same time when the manufacturer currently makes TVs with more than one port? My first PC was a Packard Bell from 1993, can I be upset that it doesn't run Vista?
You DO realize that technology gets better as time goes on, right? If they could have the yields in 65nm at the time of release and not caused the system to be over a grand, they would have.
Thing is, if Elite wasn't going to come out and there wasn't ever going to be a 360 with HDMI, would you still be foaming at the mouth about how unfair and defective your current console is?
"Each time they're creating something new and eventually people will have to upgrade just to stay current, just like with current PC's."
Upgrades are optional. If you like the same PC games, no need to upgrade your hardware. If you can handle lower resolutions and detail, many new PC games are perfectly playable on non-cutting-edge hardware. If you want it all, though, you want it all. And that costs. No different from anything else in the world.
In the interest of calling a spade a spade:
The NES had "optional" upgrades. These Elite features are optional: nothing more. If there was a "penultimate NES", it would include a Zapper, R.O.B., Action Pad, NES Satellite, and maybe other things I'm forgetting. Remember, that system also sold in different level "trims". Hell, the overwhelming majority of NES titles had additional memory banking hardware in each cartridge to enable the game to access more than 64K of memory.
Genesis: Penultimate would have: Genesis, Master System adapter, Sega CD, 32X.
The N64 came the closest to a "required" upgrade, that 8M memory upgrade that sat right there in front of the cartridge port. Even then, most games didn't need it, let alone used it, and those that did were clearly marked.
In the end, upgrades will have value based on applications. If you want downloadable content and want your games to run better by caching content on the HD, then get a 360 with a HD. If you've got more time than money and can live without demos, forget it. If there ever ARE games that require optional equipment, Microsoft would do well to make sure it's VERY obvious they need it.
Here's what consumers need to learn:
;)
* Products get updated all the time.
The benefits of "buy now" versus "buy later" is the time between now and later in which you will own and enjoy your product. I remember buying Final Fantasy X for $55 and then seeing it in the Greatest Hits bin for $15 a year or two later. If you cry about it and the companies want to make you feel better, they won't do it by releasing something at a medium price like $35 forever, they'll do it by releasing it at the full $55 and never dropping MSRP. (At least those who got the 'tard pack can upgrade to a hard drive for the next difference in the price difference of Core versus Elite. It's not GREAT, but it's not a slap in the face, either.)
* What's top dog now won't be top dog later.
PC gamers have already figured this out. The fact that there are even "generations" of gaming consoles should have taught you this applies in the console world as well.
Here's what console companies need to learn:
* Newer, more premium products need to push existing prices down.
While it makes better sense for your bottom line, your base gets green with envy instead of less green by giving you money. Nintendo figured this one out already.
* Think about upgrade capacity.
Wouldn't it have been neat, instead, if you could take your existing 360 hard drive and piggy-back it to the new hard drive (like a daughterboard) and the drives would automatically move your contents and digital signatures to the new one and restore your old one to factory fresh? When I bought a new cell phone I set my old one to send all my contacts via infra red and set my new one to receive and it was quite nice to get it all done without a whole lot of pain. Nintendo tripped up on this with the WiFi being matched from the DS game to your DS's MAC / serial number, but they got it together on the Wii by using a standard and portable SD card for data transfer.
That said, with the said problems, if the Elite 360 is targeted for holdouts who don't already have a 360, it fails. I don't have a 360 but I've been waiting for lower noise/power consumption 65nm, HD-DVD, bigger HD, and HDMI and Elite represents only 1/2 of that. Oh, plus BLACK. Wee. Here's hoping for a Super Elite come Christmas for $399.
Your analysis on the "American Dream" is spot on. And it's so obviously misplaced here:
The summary and TFA both have no mention of any "Dreams", American or otherwise.
Not that crappy old Circuit City doesn't deserve some bias the way they treat some of their customers, but bias none the less.
". . . a ridiculously large amount of security flaws in web applications come down to failing to do very basic things . . . [I]f we can educate more programmers on basic techniques for handling these very common sorts of errors then things will undoubtedly improve significantly on the security front."
The problem I see with these types of certification is that, much like other certifications, they don't really teach you the underlying purposes of a lot of things. I mean, how different is securing a system built on C/C++ versus one on ASP/.NET? It always boils down to the fundamentals of being aware of your bounds, verify input, trust nothing, etc etc etc. In addition to, say, a 8.5"x11" paper containing some functions which are bugged and should never be used.
The breaking up of subject matter seems to me like a trick to quintuple-dip in this market. If you take security for Java and you apply for a job in C++, it will no longer enough to just know the differences. You'll need to run out and hack out your certs for SECURE C++, which will be pretty much the same test with the same issues handled in some syntactically different ways.
Then again, far be it for any responsible person to be against any move to improve security.
When a statement doesn't have parentheses you evaluate from left to right. :)
"Anybody have an opposing viewpoint?"
I think "AMD fan" or "Intel fan" is a bad attitude. When technology does its thing (progress), it's a good thing, regardless of who spearheaded it.
That said, if AMD becomes so obviously a bad choice, Intel who is in the lead will continue to push the envelope just not as fast since they don't have anything to catch up to. That will give AMD the opportunity to blow ahead as it did time and time again in the past.
The pendulum swings both ways. The only constant is that competition brings out the best and it's definitely good for us, the consumer.
I'm a "Competition fan."