If Microsoft wants to squeeze money out of Xbox Live, they'd be better off charging advertisers for the eyes on it. (Which they already do to some extent, but there's a lot of missed potential.) That'll make them money on Silver accounts as well as Gold ones, and frankly it's a more reliable revenue stream with less overhead.
My impression has always been that the Xbox Live charge has mostly been for server costs and reducing the number of griefers. (People are going to be nicer if they know that they're out $50 if they get kicked from the service.)
When I bought mine about 8-9 months ago, it came with a memory card. Not sure how big-- I've never actually used it for anything. (I just snapped on the HD from my Pro.)
I know you meant it as humor, but I'm going to be a pedantic humorless asshole so I can demonstrate my superior knowledge (even though it's something everybody who's watched "Mr. Holland's Orchestra" already knows.) And ruin the joke in the process.
I hate to break this to you, but Federal law outweighs State law in the US. This is necessary for the protection of interstate trade (one of the original purposes of the Federal Government), but the founders could hardly have anticipated the pure mass of laws the Feds would pass at that time. The intent was always that laws should be passed "as local as possible" (i.e. City, County, State in that order), and the Federal laws would only be used as necessary.
In short, you were in violation of Federal law. That said, the Sheriff isn't a Fed-- whether he brings you in for the pot or not is completely up to him. He can't be punished in any way if he refuses. (My understanding is that if he were FBI, he'd be compelled to bring you in.)
Of course none of that helps your particular situation, since even broaching the subject with the Sheriff to ask him his opinion on the matter might result in charges.
They just keep on telling themselves they have "the best healthcare system in the world"
Who says that? Are you sure you're actually in the US?
I think it's safe to say that most Americans agree that our healthcare system sucks in many fundamental ways, thus the big national debate over how to fix (or at least improve) it. If the majority of us believed it was "the best system in the world" we'd probably not be trying to tear it out and start over, eh?
That said, it's not the worst in the world by a long shot.
Above all, more than anything else, there needs to be a return to implementation, rather than interface, simplicity. As priorities, faddishness, popularity, and most of all, the end user, need to die.
If you're trolling, that's brilliant.
If not, then... WTF! Even ESR, the craziest of the crazy, has written articles about how much open source usability sucks shit. Like this article: http://catb.org/esr/writings/cups-horror.html
See here the man who is unaware of the existence of laptops! Yes, this sad specimen of a Slashdot poster actually believes that all computers have external speakers and amplifiers plugged into them at all times. The thought of using a laptop to play a funny YouTube clip during a break in a meeting has never occurred to this being! Fear him, and pity him!
There were some ideas in the later Amiga OS designs which are only just now showing up in Vista. And, if I'm correct, they pulled it off without the same, disgusting overhead of Vista.
Yeah, it's a huge fucking pain. One of those functions you have to look up for every environment-- even though you know exactly what it's "supposed" to do, you have no idea if it's right in any given environment.
I haven't gone as far as just writing my own all the time, but if the library version is prone to changing from one implementation to another, I really should... that's a bug waiting to happen.
Personally I don't see much value in your recommendation of one of the many different versions of directx plus some bastard child of visual basic and java, but with effort you can get things to work on any platform.
If you're the type of person who dismisses.net as "the bastard child of visual basic and java" it's clear that you're already so anti-Microsoft this discussion is probably pointless.
But, despite that, there's not a games market on every platform. There's a large one on Windows, Xbox, Wii and PS3. The problem is you can't distribute to Wii or PS3 without being an established game developer. And, while possible, it's hard to do so on Xbox as well. And Windows and Xbox both run XNA, so that makes it the clear choice as far as I see it.
For game number 2, if you want to try a hand at PS3 or Wii, then by all means use something more general. But you're not going to get that chance unless game number 1 is killer to begin with.
Consider this: Bungie's Marathon is one of the greatest FPS games ever made, and most actual gamers have never heard of it. Instead, there's a huge following for Half-Life, an inferior game that came out later. Why? Because Marathon was released on Macintosh, and never ported to Windows... even if you have a great game, if it's on an unpopular platform, you're never going to make it into the history books.
If the earlier poster has invested a lot of time and effort into a platform I'm sure they would like some help with that platform instead of hearing some fanboy of another platform telling them to scrap it all and start again.
That's a point.
By the way, isn't OpenGL used on such platforms as the Nintendo DS? It's not just restricted to CAD and stuff from ID software.
Yah. But the problem is that, while it's possible to use OpenGL for games, it's developed and standardized by academics with no interest whatsoever in games. (Increasingly so, actually.) Nintendo and Sony use it because they got nothing else... their only options are that, or DirectX. There's no other 3D APIs that video hardware supports.
Depending on what language/program/whatever you're using, it'll either round towards -inf (as apparently they've patched this one to do), or towards 0. The mathematical definition of the term "floor" is -inf, so I guess this change makes it "more correct." But God help you if you have a program that relied on the previous behavior.
Taken together, all the small (and of course, not all independent bookstores are small...) bookstores likely end up having a larger selection than the apparently-large-but-actually-kind-of-monotonous-and-generic selection of big chain bookstores. Moreover, because there's a lot more individual taste used in choosing books, there's better support for non-mainstream material; I imagine that's what the GP was referring to.
Where I live, the big chains have already killed-off all the mom-and-pop places. (Except used books.)
Germany's wrong, anyway, price isn't the reason... although it is a factor. The big chains have coffeeshops, live music on weekends and evenings, a children's area with dedicated staff, a vast database and knowledgeable staff. (And they're actually polite, unless many mom-and-pop staff.) They don't mind if you just sit down and read for an hour or two. Or if you connect to their wifi and just surf the web. You don't have to drive all over town to get your books, since the selection is huge.
Hell, where I live, the big chain bookstores are more social spaces than the libraries are.
I have trouble feeling any nostalgia for the mom-and-pop bookstores. The big chain ones are simply better.
On the other hand, there's a lot of socially-awkward people who like to pretend they're autistic, as it gives them an excuse to stop trying. You may actually be autistic, but you also have to realize that there are thousands of "self-diagnosed" autistic people in the field, the vast majority of whom are liars.
The one that bothers me is the person who clips their fingernails at work. I dunno why it bugs me, but it bugs me... ugh. (Not specific to engineers, of course, in my case it's a support guy who does it.)
It depends on the person. If you picked, to take an example from Futurama, a banking industry regulator, they'd probably be thrilled that you actually cared enough to ask, and give you as much help as you needed.
I think it's more likely that some boards/chatrooms turn into "asshole-ville", since only a couple assholes can drive away dozens of well-meaning people. Then the assholes just take over, the good people refuse to come back, and new visitors are just fucked.
I think you're in the wrong community. Find some DirectX boards/chatrooms, those are the guys making video games. OpenGL engineers are either writing boring CAD programs, or going after PhDs.
Also, your life in general would be easier if you picked a language that did garbage collection. There are many of those fast-enough for video games now. (Of course, shaders are still a royal PITA-- nothing you can do about that, sadly.)
If I didn't have full reign over my computer, I'd quit and go to a company that allows it. Even Microsoft (the largest corporation I've worked for) didn't do jack to your computer except ensure it was up-to-date patch-wise. (And they begged you to dogfood new product releases, but that was optional.)
When the waitress says "If you need anything else, my name is Betty" Joe Random grunts and takes a bite of his meal. Programmer dude wonders what her name is if he doesn't need any thing else.
Only if the programmer dude is: 1) So introverted he never goes to restaurants 2) Has never taken a linguistics course
You're not describing programmers, you're describing shut-ins. If your shop only hires shut-ins as programmers, that's a big problem... just based on that, I can guess that your software is an unusable mess that doesn't meet the client's needs. (Yes, I'm stereotyping.)
Half-Life doesn't even have a story, it has a "setting" maybe.
Here's the so-called story in Half-Life: an experimental teleporter malfunctions, making aliens randomly appear in a science lab. In the course of escaping the lab, you repair approximately 26 generators. Then some guy we know nothing about takes you into a magical space subway car and the game ends.
THAT'S better than Halo 2? It's the same fucking story as DOOM.
Deux Ex, I'll give you. But Half-Life is nothing but over-rated stacked atop over-rated.
And you (assuming you're the same anonymous coward I was talking to before) never even bothered to answer the question. Examples aside, do you agree with the *point* of the post?
Slashdot Mirror
If Microsoft wants to squeeze money out of Xbox Live, they'd be better off charging advertisers for the eyes on it. (Which they already do to some extent, but there's a lot of missed potential.) That'll make them money on Silver accounts as well as Gold ones, and frankly it's a more reliable revenue stream with less overhead.
My impression has always been that the Xbox Live charge has mostly been for server costs and reducing the number of griefers. (People are going to be nicer if they know that they're out $50 if they get kicked from the service.)
When I bought mine about 8-9 months ago, it came with a memory card. Not sure how big-- I've never actually used it for anything. (I just snapped on the HD from my Pro.)
I know you meant it as humor, but I'm going to be a pedantic humorless asshole so I can demonstrate my superior knowledge (even though it's something everybody who's watched "Mr. Holland's Orchestra" already knows.) And ruin the joke in the process.
I hate to break this to you, but Federal law outweighs State law in the US. This is necessary for the protection of interstate trade (one of the original purposes of the Federal Government), but the founders could hardly have anticipated the pure mass of laws the Feds would pass at that time. The intent was always that laws should be passed "as local as possible" (i.e. City, County, State in that order), and the Federal laws would only be used as necessary.
In short, you were in violation of Federal law. That said, the Sheriff isn't a Fed-- whether he brings you in for the pot or not is completely up to him. He can't be punished in any way if he refuses. (My understanding is that if he were FBI, he'd be compelled to bring you in.)
Of course none of that helps your particular situation, since even broaching the subject with the Sheriff to ask him his opinion on the matter might result in charges.
Canada has one of the main pieces of hardware? You mean this engine runs on moosehide!?
I thought the point of Warhammer was painting dozens of little statues. How would a Surface table help that?
Oh... there's an actual GAME?!
They just keep on telling themselves they have "the best healthcare system in the world"
Who says that? Are you sure you're actually in the US?
I think it's safe to say that most Americans agree that our healthcare system sucks in many fundamental ways, thus the big national debate over how to fix (or at least improve) it. If the majority of us believed it was "the best system in the world" we'd probably not be trying to tear it out and start over, eh?
That said, it's not the worst in the world by a long shot.
Above all, more than anything else, there needs to be a return to implementation, rather than interface, simplicity. As priorities, faddishness, popularity, and most of all, the end user, need to die.
If you're trolling, that's brilliant.
If not, then... WTF! Even ESR, the craziest of the crazy, has written articles about how much open source usability sucks shit. Like this article: http://catb.org/esr/writings/cups-horror.html
Ladies and Gentlemen!
See here the man who is unaware of the existence of laptops! Yes, this sad specimen of a Slashdot poster actually believes that all computers have external speakers and amplifiers plugged into them at all times. The thought of using a laptop to play a funny YouTube clip during a break in a meeting has never occurred to this being! Fear him, and pity him!
There were some ideas in the later Amiga OS designs which are only just now showing up in Vista. And, if I'm correct, they pulled it off without the same, disgusting overhead of Vista.
Like what?
That was fixed ages ago. How did this get modded up?
God-fucking-damnit, respond to the POINT OF THE FUCKING POST not the examples. ANSWER THE FUCKING QUESTION YOU FUCKER!
I give up, this conversation is pointless.
Not in Germany, I'm in the US.
And while Germany might have more bookstores per-capita, I'd still prefer the big ones we have for all the *other* reasons I mentioned.
Yeah, it's a huge fucking pain. One of those functions you have to look up for every environment-- even though you know exactly what it's "supposed" to do, you have no idea if it's right in any given environment.
I haven't gone as far as just writing my own all the time, but if the library version is prone to changing from one implementation to another, I really should... that's a bug waiting to happen.
Once you notice the bug... after possibly years of extremely subtle incorrect accounting errors.
I'm not saying it's hard to fix. It's hard to find.
Personally I don't see much value in your recommendation of one of the many different versions of directx plus some bastard child of visual basic and java, but with effort you can get things to work on any platform.
If you're the type of person who dismisses .net as "the bastard child of visual basic and java" it's clear that you're already so anti-Microsoft this discussion is probably pointless.
But, despite that, there's not a games market on every platform. There's a large one on Windows, Xbox, Wii and PS3. The problem is you can't distribute to Wii or PS3 without being an established game developer. And, while possible, it's hard to do so on Xbox as well. And Windows and Xbox both run XNA, so that makes it the clear choice as far as I see it.
For game number 2, if you want to try a hand at PS3 or Wii, then by all means use something more general. But you're not going to get that chance unless game number 1 is killer to begin with.
Consider this: Bungie's Marathon is one of the greatest FPS games ever made, and most actual gamers have never heard of it. Instead, there's a huge following for Half-Life, an inferior game that came out later. Why? Because Marathon was released on Macintosh, and never ported to Windows... even if you have a great game, if it's on an unpopular platform, you're never going to make it into the history books.
If the earlier poster has invested a lot of time and effort into a platform I'm sure they would like some help with that platform instead of hearing some fanboy of another platform telling them to scrap it all and start again.
That's a point.
By the way, isn't OpenGL used on such platforms as the Nintendo DS? It's not just restricted to CAD and stuff from ID software.
Yah. But the problem is that, while it's possible to use OpenGL for games, it's developed and standardized by academics with no interest whatsoever in games. (Increasingly so, actually.) Nintendo and Sony use it because they got nothing else... their only options are that, or DirectX. There's no other 3D APIs that video hardware supports.
"floor" is one of those functions... ugh.
Depending on what language/program/whatever you're using, it'll either round towards -inf (as apparently they've patched this one to do), or towards 0. The mathematical definition of the term "floor" is -inf, so I guess this change makes it "more correct." But God help you if you have a program that relied on the previous behavior.
Taken together, all the small (and of course, not all independent bookstores are small...) bookstores likely end up having a larger selection than the apparently-large-but-actually-kind-of-monotonous-and-generic selection of big chain bookstores. Moreover, because there's a lot more individual taste used in choosing books, there's better support for non-mainstream material; I imagine that's what the GP was referring to.
Where I live, the big chains have already killed-off all the mom-and-pop places. (Except used books.)
Germany's wrong, anyway, price isn't the reason... although it is a factor. The big chains have coffeeshops, live music on weekends and evenings, a children's area with dedicated staff, a vast database and knowledgeable staff. (And they're actually polite, unless many mom-and-pop staff.) They don't mind if you just sit down and read for an hour or two. Or if you connect to their wifi and just surf the web. You don't have to drive all over town to get your books, since the selection is huge.
Hell, where I live, the big chain bookstores are more social spaces than the libraries are.
I have trouble feeling any nostalgia for the mom-and-pop bookstores. The big chain ones are simply better.
On the other hand, there's a lot of socially-awkward people who like to pretend they're autistic, as it gives them an excuse to stop trying. You may actually be autistic, but you also have to realize that there are thousands of "self-diagnosed" autistic people in the field, the vast majority of whom are liars.
Now when I hear "autistic" I think "liar." Sorry.
The one that bothers me is the person who clips their fingernails at work. I dunno why it bugs me, but it bugs me... ugh. (Not specific to engineers, of course, in my case it's a support guy who does it.)
It depends on the person. If you picked, to take an example from Futurama, a banking industry regulator, they'd probably be thrilled that you actually cared enough to ask, and give you as much help as you needed.
I think it's more likely that some boards/chatrooms turn into "asshole-ville", since only a couple assholes can drive away dozens of well-meaning people. Then the assholes just take over, the good people refuse to come back, and new visitors are just fucked.
I think you're in the wrong community. Find some DirectX boards/chatrooms, those are the guys making video games. OpenGL engineers are either writing boring CAD programs, or going after PhDs.
Also, your life in general would be easier if you picked a language that did garbage collection. There are many of those fast-enough for video games now. (Of course, shaders are still a royal PITA-- nothing you can do about that, sadly.)
Where do you work?
If I didn't have full reign over my computer, I'd quit and go to a company that allows it. Even Microsoft (the largest corporation I've worked for) didn't do jack to your computer except ensure it was up-to-date patch-wise. (And they begged you to dogfood new product releases, but that was optional.)
When the waitress says "If you need anything else, my name is Betty" Joe Random grunts and takes a bite of his meal. Programmer dude wonders what her name is if he doesn't need any thing else.
Only if the programmer dude is:
1) So introverted he never goes to restaurants
2) Has never taken a linguistics course
You're not describing programmers, you're describing shut-ins. If your shop only hires shut-ins as programmers, that's a big problem... just based on that, I can guess that your software is an unusable mess that doesn't meet the client's needs. (Yes, I'm stereotyping.)
Half-Life doesn't even have a story, it has a "setting" maybe.
Here's the so-called story in Half-Life: an experimental teleporter malfunctions, making aliens randomly appear in a science lab. In the course of escaping the lab, you repair approximately 26 generators. Then some guy we know nothing about takes you into a magical space subway car and the game ends.
THAT'S better than Halo 2? It's the same fucking story as DOOM.
Deux Ex, I'll give you. But Half-Life is nothing but over-rated stacked atop over-rated.
And you (assuming you're the same anonymous coward I was talking to before) never even bothered to answer the question. Examples aside, do you agree with the *point* of the post?