No; I'm trying to determine the relevance of your reply. As far as I can tell, it has nothing to do with what I said. At least I didn't descend into personal attacks, like you did just now.
You could argue that the OS community is in need of more designers and usability "experts", but in practice these people tend to be less clueful than engineers. Please try installing Ubuntu, then install Windows, and tell me which is a "better" experience.
Ubuntu is on par with Windows 2000 or Windows XP. I don't think it's a better GUI experience than Windows Vista, judged on the usability and technical merits alone.
I think the problem is that Linux developers focus on high-level stuff before the basic building blocks are in place. For instance, an application should *never* steal focus from a user. Copy and paste should work 100% of the time regardless of which applications are involved. There should be context-sensitive help on virtually everything in the OS. Error dialogs should always contain a message relevant to the user (NOT a message only relevant to the developer.*) If a program crashes, the OS should say so and maybe do something about it instead of the program just disappearing. Sleep/Wake/Hibernate should all be perfectly seamless. Console text should never be shown to the user unless something goes really wrong.** These are all areas in which Windows and OS X excel and Linux still has a lot of problems. And those are all things that need to be fixed, universally among all Linux apps, before you start bothering with things like 3D desktop rendering.
I think the reason Apple is ahead in the GUI is that they did a better job back in the infancy of the OS in getting their developers to follow their established programming guidelines-- both usability and API-related, and did a better job of setting their expectations early on. (i.e. Macintosh will not always be backwards-compatible with old code.) Considering the cruft Microsoft has to deal with from being compatible with apps written for Windows 3.1 that are still critical for some business somewhere, I think Vista is an amazing product.
The good news is that since most Linux applications are open source, you can do something about the program that steals focus from you. In Windows or OS X, you can't do anything but complain or choose to use another program. The problem is that most developers either don't perceive these usability errors, or they perceive them but choose to work on something "more interesting", so that fixing them is difficult.
* My favorite was an error message I got frequently in Lotus Notes which read, in its entirety, "Variant does not contain an Object. [Ok]". It's wrong in nearly every way. Think about this from the user's point of view... what's a "Variant?" What's an "Object?" What am I supposed to do about it? (And if I'm not supposed to do anything, why tell me about it?) Even if you're a programmer the error message stinks; it doesn't say which variant was the problematic one or which line of code the object was expected on.
** Showing technical gibberish during boot or (especially!) while waking from sleep is pointless. The people who don't know what it means can't possibly do anything about it; it's likely to just make them scared or uncertain. The people who do know what it means are perfectly capable of finding "console.log" (or equivalent) and reading it there. Apple did the right thing on this one, and Microsoft has followed suit: there's no point in showing this. It can't possibly help the user experience, but it can harm it. (The exception is obviously if there's a catastrophic error which means the video card isn't functioning well enough to show it. But Linux doesn't crash... right? Right?)
But would it have been equally improved using Con's CFS? You aren't telling both sides of the story. (Which is fine, if you've only tried the one scheduler. But this topic is about the decision to use Ingo's rather than Con's.)
Great, now instead of geeks pretending (or "self-diagnosing") Asperger's Syndrome to gain "geek cred", they'll learn Finnish. Just what we need, a bunch of Finnish-speaking introverts.
Google News has articles about everything. Hell, by definition they have articles about everything in Slashdot since it carries Slashdot. This is +5 Informative now!?
If you use MSCD from behind a corporate firewall, you may be unable to download content, and may adversely affect other clients' ability to download content.
This from the article, is a whole bunch more realistic. My bad.
Congratulations. And that has... what to do with Microsoft using it to deliver updates, exactly?
I was getting at the fact that using P2P in this manner communicates configuration information; whether it's patches or beta software doesn't matter.
Doesn't BitTorrent do the same thing? I don't see how this is any different.
No, you're simply too clueless to understand. And you're a Microsoft apologist as well.
I don't like Microsoft. But I hate wild speculation and bullshit a lot more. I might be too "clueless to understand" why you made up bullshit, but the fact is that you did make up bullshit. So I'll call you on the wild speculation and bullshit now, and reserve my comments on Microsoft for when, you know, they actually do something bad. Instead of just releases a harmless minor utility tool.
ext2 is supported everywhere and it's far better than fat32 or ntfs.
ext2 is better than NTFS? Seriously? Have you been eating the yellow snow or something? (I'll give you that ext2 is better than Fat32, but then again nearly everything is.)
You have an interesting definition of the word "supported." From the FAQ:
Access rights are not maintained. All users can access all the directories and files of an Ext2 volume. If a new file or directory is created, it inherits all the permissions, the GID and the UID from the directory where it has been created. With version 1.10a of the software there is one exception to this rule: a file (but not a directory) the driver has created always has cleared "x" permissions, it inherits the "r" and the "w" permissions only. See also section "What limitations arise from not maintaining access rights?". The driver treats files which have got a file name beginning with a dot "." character like other files, but not as hidden files. The driver does not allow accessing special files at Ext2 volumes, the access will be always denied. (Special files are sockets, soft links, block devices, character devices and pipes.) Neither different code pages nor UTF-8 encoded file names are supported. The driver always uses the current code page of Windows. Alternate 8.3-DOS names are not supported (just because there is no place to store them in an Ext2 file system). This can prevent legacy DOS applications, executed by the NTVDM of Windows, from accessing some files or directories. Currently the driver does not implement defragging support. So defragmentation applications will neither show fragmentation information nor defragment any Ext2 volume. This software does not achieve booting a Windows operating system from an Ext2 volume. LVM volumes are not supported, so it is not possible to access them.
Yes, but this article has nothing to do with any of that. All they've done is made a new download system for big files. Big whooping deal. Adobe did that a few years back, and you didn't see any Slashdot article about how evil it was. So did Valve and Blizzard and tons of other companies.
Microsoft bashing is fine-- when Microsoft actually does something bad. When they release a minor support utility, it's just stupid. And it makes everyone involved look like this: http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2002/20020722h. gif
Microsoft does bad things: 5% of Slashdot articles Microsoft does perfectly innocent things, but Slashdot declares them bad: 95% of Slashdot articles.
Of course Microsoft does "bad things." The problem here is that, on Slashdot, the term "bad things" is basically defined as "Microsoft does it." It's self-fulfilling. Hell, when Microsoft gave a free 3-year warranty on Xbox 360s, somehow that was construed as a "bad thing" on Slashdot...
The bashing here is entirely out of control. It makes the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field look tiny in comparison. All you need to do is type "embrace and extend" or "FUD" and you get an instant +5 insightful.
You realize that the Blizzard Downloader has a checkbox on it that says "do not use P2P" right? (At least, the Macintosh version of it does.) If you don't like it, just turn it off. I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard a complaint that took 10 times longer to type than it would take to just turn off the feature they're complaining about.
In what way is Microsoft "embracing" BitTorrent? Isn't this article specifically about a *different* protocol Microsoft developed for their own use?
How did your post get marked "insightful?" Is mentioning "embrace and extend" alone worth an "insightful", even if it makes absolutely no sense in context?
Ok, this is a long thread, considering that nobody at Microsoft has stated that they plan to use this program for software updates. Nobody. At all.
Right now, it's being used to download a large beta. That's it. The page doesn't say "oh BTW this will be used for software updates tomorrow." If you can find where it says that, then maybe we're looking at a different link. Do you really think Microsoft would just shove this into Windows Update without even stopping to think of what impact that would have on their clients? Do you think, maybe, just maybe, it's possible for Microsoft to create one method to download large, optional files (like betas) and use a different method to download small security updates? Do you think that might be in the realm of possibility?
Cripes. How about we keep the discussions within the realm of fact instead of this hypothetical "well what if Microsoft did X..." thing that continues on for pages.
It is a troll. Tons of companies already do updates in this fashion, and Slashdot's never done an article with the flamebait question "How do you feel about subsidizing Blizzard's bandwidth costs?"
Not to mention it's not as if BitTorrent invented P2P, or even P2P involving files split up into little chunks. That technology was all around before. Microsoft isn't "re-inventing P2P" any more than BitTorrent was in the first place.
and (2) that it's not up to date with its patches.
That's pure conjecture. Right now the tool is slated to help download beta software releases. What makes you think they'll use it for Windows Update? You don't know that, you're just making it up so you can present a "problem" with this software.
This article is nothing but flamebait, and your comment only adds to the flamebait with the "what about patches?" junk you pulled out of thin air.
Re:Obligatory Title Misinterpretation
on
Reboot To Get A Reboot
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Just you. And I'm guessing probably not you either. You probably just looked at the title of the post, then spent a few moments thinking, "what hilarious thing can I mis-interpret this as to get a +5 funny? I know! Windows Vista sucks, let's use that!" Then posted this.
For the record, while writing this rant, I was contemplating genuine female leads. Many were from LucasArts adventure games (The Dig, Fate of Atlantis) and other adventure games as well. I also thought of the original Alone in the Dark... I was around 10/11 when it was released and I started thinking about what a unique character Emily Hartwood was... just the niece of a suicidal lunatic trying to find out what happened, she's obviously feminine but not sexualized.
The two best examples IMO are the The Longest Journey series, and Beyond Good and Evil. The Fallout series also does an excellent job if you choose a female character.
Nethack is more a dungeon digger than a proper RPG, IMO at least. I personally was very fond of Mission: Thunderbolt back in the day, which is basically Nethack with a sci-fi theme.
That said, Nethack has nothing to do with the topic at hand, which is about RPG MUDs, not single-player dungeon diggers.
Nearly everybody on Slashdot thinks Nintendo is the greatest gaming company ever and can do no wrong. Haven't you ever seen the moderation around here? Haven't you noticed the off-topic Nintendo posts that show up in nearly every gaming topic modded to +5?
While it's great that you predicted the success, going by the predictions of the most hard-core fans of the technology isn't really the best way to do business. By that logic, every software company should invest in Amiga-- because I hear from the hard-core fans that Amiga's really awesome and due for a comeback!!
Just proves how far detached big game companies are from their userbase and how little do they understand entertainment.
Uh, huh?
Isn't the problem more along the lines of EA was focusing on their core userbase, and then Nintendo introduced a lot of new gamers who weren't part of their core userbase before? I think you have this exactly backwards... the Wii isn't successful because hard-core gamers are buying it (although they are), it's successful because it's selling to people who don't typically buy game consoles. And that's the market EA had nothing planned for.
Please. As far as software quality goes, Microsoft is already way ahead of most companies. Have you ever used any Sony software? It's like sticking hot pins in your eyes. Or how about a HP printer driver utility? I'd rather jump into a swimming pool of broken glass. Hell, I just installed an EA game (recommended by a friend) that not only requires Admin access, but doesn't support 1680x1050 monitors... at all! I have to run my LCD panel at non-native resolution to even play it. (WTF, I'll name names. It's Battlefield: 2142.)
If it's a Microsoft application, you can at least be 90% sure it'll work with Fast User Switching, with limited-access user accounts, cope when you change color/theme settings, etc. The majority of the Windows software world will not.
Is it a problem that Microsoft software has bugs? Of course. Is Microsoft a "bad" software company? Not by a long shot. Most software is shit.
- the VCR, radio or TV: some waste 15-20W or more for doing nothing than blinking 12:00 - get a e-meter and a power strip with a simple on/off switch.
If I unplug my TV, it forgets what channel it's on (and resets to a channel with no programming), it forgets its volume setting (and the default is LOUD). I'm also guessing that, for people who use it, it would also forget all your V-Chip settings, or named channels if you went through the effort of naming them. No thanks! I'll pay the extra $3 a year to save the annoyance.
1) Unless I really misunderstand the entire system, it's not the ESRB telling retailers they can't stock the game, it's retailers deciding not to stock AO games. The ESRB system is (at the moment) voluntary; there's no legal requirements connected with it. (And no, it doesn't need to be legislated; the MPAA rating system is also voluntary and it's worked fine for decades.)
2) It's a lot harder to license the game for the console if it receives an AO rating. I doubt Nintendo would allow it. I don't know about Sony (I don't know if it's ever come up.) Microsoft licensed BMX XXX for the first Xbox, so they're the most likely to allow the game on their system. (Then again, BMX XXX was a utter commercial failure.)
Slashdot Mirror
Now you're just being pretentious,
No; I'm trying to determine the relevance of your reply. As far as I can tell, it has nothing to do with what I said. At least I didn't descend into personal attacks, like you did just now.
You could argue that the OS community is in need of more designers and usability "experts", but in practice these people tend to be less clueful than engineers. Please try installing Ubuntu, then install Windows, and tell me which is a "better" experience.
Ubuntu is on par with Windows 2000 or Windows XP. I don't think it's a better GUI experience than Windows Vista, judged on the usability and technical merits alone.
I think the problem is that Linux developers focus on high-level stuff before the basic building blocks are in place. For instance, an application should *never* steal focus from a user. Copy and paste should work 100% of the time regardless of which applications are involved. There should be context-sensitive help on virtually everything in the OS. Error dialogs should always contain a message relevant to the user (NOT a message only relevant to the developer.*) If a program crashes, the OS should say so and maybe do something about it instead of the program just disappearing. Sleep/Wake/Hibernate should all be perfectly seamless. Console text should never be shown to the user unless something goes really wrong.** These are all areas in which Windows and OS X excel and Linux still has a lot of problems. And those are all things that need to be fixed, universally among all Linux apps, before you start bothering with things like 3D desktop rendering.
I think the reason Apple is ahead in the GUI is that they did a better job back in the infancy of the OS in getting their developers to follow their established programming guidelines-- both usability and API-related, and did a better job of setting their expectations early on. (i.e. Macintosh will not always be backwards-compatible with old code.) Considering the cruft Microsoft has to deal with from being compatible with apps written for Windows 3.1 that are still critical for some business somewhere, I think Vista is an amazing product.
The good news is that since most Linux applications are open source, you can do something about the program that steals focus from you. In Windows or OS X, you can't do anything but complain or choose to use another program. The problem is that most developers either don't perceive these usability errors, or they perceive them but choose to work on something "more interesting", so that fixing them is difficult.
* My favorite was an error message I got frequently in Lotus Notes which read, in its entirety, "Variant does not contain an Object. [Ok]". It's wrong in nearly every way. Think about this from the user's point of view... what's a "Variant?" What's an "Object?" What am I supposed to do about it? (And if I'm not supposed to do anything, why tell me about it?) Even if you're a programmer the error message stinks; it doesn't say which variant was the problematic one or which line of code the object was expected on.
** Showing technical gibberish during boot or (especially!) while waking from sleep is pointless. The people who don't know what it means can't possibly do anything about it; it's likely to just make them scared or uncertain. The people who do know what it means are perfectly capable of finding "console.log" (or equivalent) and reading it there. Apple did the right thing on this one, and Microsoft has followed suit: there's no point in showing this. It can't possibly help the user experience, but it can harm it. (The exception is obviously if there's a catastrophic error which means the video card isn't functioning well enough to show it. But Linux doesn't crash... right? Right?)
But would it have been equally improved using Con's CFS? You aren't telling both sides of the story. (Which is fine, if you've only tried the one scheduler. But this topic is about the decision to use Ingo's rather than Con's.)
Great, now instead of geeks pretending (or "self-diagnosing") Asperger's Syndrome to gain "geek cred", they'll learn Finnish. Just what we need, a bunch of Finnish-speaking introverts.
Buuuuuuuurn!!!!
Google News has articles about everything. Hell, by definition they have articles about everything in Slashdot since it carries Slashdot. This is +5 Informative now!?
If you use MSCD from behind a corporate firewall, you may be unable to download content, and may adversely affect other clients' ability to download content.
This from the article, is a whole bunch more realistic. My bad.
Congratulations. And that has... what to do with Microsoft using it to deliver updates, exactly?
If you're that opposed to BitTorrent, you'll either just have to cope with it, or stop playing WOW.
I was getting at the fact that using P2P in this manner communicates configuration information; whether it's patches or beta software doesn't matter.
Doesn't BitTorrent do the same thing? I don't see how this is any different.
No, you're simply too clueless to understand. And you're a Microsoft apologist as well.
I don't like Microsoft. But I hate wild speculation and bullshit a lot more. I might be too "clueless to understand" why you made up bullshit, but the fact is that you did make up bullshit. So I'll call you on the wild speculation and bullshit now, and reserve my comments on Microsoft for when, you know, they actually do something bad. Instead of just releases a harmless minor utility tool.
ext2 is better than NTFS? Seriously? Have you been eating the yellow snow or something? (I'll give you that ext2 is better than Fat32, but then again nearly everything is.)
for windows, http://www.fs-driver.org/
You have an interesting definition of the word "supported." From the FAQ:
and for osx http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsx/
I've tried that before. It kernel panics my G5, so I uninstalled it post-haste. Maybe it's better now, but it used to suck ass.
Yes, but this article has nothing to do with any of that. All they've done is made a new download system for big files. Big whooping deal. Adobe did that a few years back, and you didn't see any Slashdot article about how evil it was. So did Valve and Blizzard and tons of other companies.
. gif
Microsoft bashing is fine-- when Microsoft actually does something bad. When they release a minor support utility, it's just stupid. And it makes everyone involved look like this: http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2002/20020722h
It's pathetic.
Let's take a look:
Microsoft does bad things: 5% of Slashdot articles
Microsoft does perfectly innocent things, but Slashdot declares them bad: 95% of Slashdot articles.
Of course Microsoft does "bad things." The problem here is that, on Slashdot, the term "bad things" is basically defined as "Microsoft does it." It's self-fulfilling. Hell, when Microsoft gave a free 3-year warranty on Xbox 360s, somehow that was construed as a "bad thing" on Slashdot...
The bashing here is entirely out of control. It makes the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field look tiny in comparison. All you need to do is type "embrace and extend" or "FUD" and you get an instant +5 insightful.
You realize that the Blizzard Downloader has a checkbox on it that says "do not use P2P" right? (At least, the Macintosh version of it does.) If you don't like it, just turn it off. I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard a complaint that took 10 times longer to type than it would take to just turn off the feature they're complaining about.
In what way is Microsoft "embracing" BitTorrent? Isn't this article specifically about a *different* protocol Microsoft developed for their own use?
How did your post get marked "insightful?" Is mentioning "embrace and extend" alone worth an "insightful", even if it makes absolutely no sense in context?
Ok, this is a long thread, considering that nobody at Microsoft has stated that they plan to use this program for software updates. Nobody. At all.
Right now, it's being used to download a large beta. That's it. The page doesn't say "oh BTW this will be used for software updates tomorrow." If you can find where it says that, then maybe we're looking at a different link. Do you really think Microsoft would just shove this into Windows Update without even stopping to think of what impact that would have on their clients? Do you think, maybe, just maybe, it's possible for Microsoft to create one method to download large, optional files (like betas) and use a different method to download small security updates? Do you think that might be in the realm of possibility?
Cripes. How about we keep the discussions within the realm of fact instead of this hypothetical "well what if Microsoft did X..." thing that continues on for pages.
It is a troll. Tons of companies already do updates in this fashion, and Slashdot's never done an article with the flamebait question "How do you feel about subsidizing Blizzard's bandwidth costs?"
Not to mention it's not as if BitTorrent invented P2P, or even P2P involving files split up into little chunks. That technology was all around before. Microsoft isn't "re-inventing P2P" any more than BitTorrent was in the first place.
and (2) that it's not up to date with its patches.
That's pure conjecture. Right now the tool is slated to help download beta software releases. What makes you think they'll use it for Windows Update? You don't know that, you're just making it up so you can present a "problem" with this software.
This article is nothing but flamebait, and your comment only adds to the flamebait with the "what about patches?" junk you pulled out of thin air.
Just you. And I'm guessing probably not you either. You probably just looked at the title of the post, then spent a few moments thinking, "what hilarious thing can I mis-interpret this as to get a +5 funny? I know! Windows Vista sucks, let's use that!" Then posted this.
The joke is old. Get over it.
For the record, while writing this rant, I was contemplating genuine female leads. Many were from LucasArts adventure games (The Dig, Fate of Atlantis) and other adventure games as well. I also thought of the original Alone in the Dark... I was around 10/11 when it was released and I started thinking about what a unique character Emily Hartwood was... just the niece of a suicidal lunatic trying to find out what happened, she's obviously feminine but not sexualized .
The two best examples IMO are the The Longest Journey series, and Beyond Good and Evil. The Fallout series also does an excellent job if you choose a female character.
Nethack is more a dungeon digger than a proper RPG, IMO at least. I personally was very fond of Mission: Thunderbolt back in the day, which is basically Nethack with a sci-fi theme.
That said, Nethack has nothing to do with the topic at hand, which is about RPG MUDs, not single-player dungeon diggers.
But to be fair, you're on Slashdot.
Nearly everybody on Slashdot thinks Nintendo is the greatest gaming company ever and can do no wrong. Haven't you ever seen the moderation around here? Haven't you noticed the off-topic Nintendo posts that show up in nearly every gaming topic modded to +5?
While it's great that you predicted the success, going by the predictions of the most hard-core fans of the technology isn't really the best way to do business. By that logic, every software company should invest in Amiga-- because I hear from the hard-core fans that Amiga's really awesome and due for a comeback!!
Just proves how far detached big game companies are from their userbase and how little do they understand entertainment.
Uh, huh?
Isn't the problem more along the lines of EA was focusing on their core userbase, and then Nintendo introduced a lot of new gamers who weren't part of their core userbase before? I think you have this exactly backwards... the Wii isn't successful because hard-core gamers are buying it (although they are), it's successful because it's selling to people who don't typically buy game consoles. And that's the market EA had nothing planned for.
Please. As far as software quality goes, Microsoft is already way ahead of most companies. Have you ever used any Sony software? It's like sticking hot pins in your eyes. Or how about a HP printer driver utility? I'd rather jump into a swimming pool of broken glass. Hell, I just installed an EA game (recommended by a friend) that not only requires Admin access, but doesn't support 1680x1050 monitors... at all! I have to run my LCD panel at non-native resolution to even play it. (WTF, I'll name names. It's Battlefield: 2142.)
If it's a Microsoft application, you can at least be 90% sure it'll work with Fast User Switching, with limited-access user accounts, cope when you change color/theme settings, etc. The majority of the Windows software world will not.
Is it a problem that Microsoft software has bugs? Of course. Is Microsoft a "bad" software company? Not by a long shot. Most software is shit.
- the VCR, radio or TV: some waste 15-20W or more for doing nothing than blinking 12:00 - get a e-meter and a power strip with a simple on/off switch.
If I unplug my TV, it forgets what channel it's on (and resets to a channel with no programming), it forgets its volume setting (and the default is LOUD). I'm also guessing that, for people who use it, it would also forget all your V-Chip settings, or named channels if you went through the effort of naming them. No thanks! I'll pay the extra $3 a year to save the annoyance.
- the VCR, radio or TV: some waste 15-20W or more for doing nothing than blinking 12:00 - get a e-meter and a power strip with a simple on/off switch.
Ok, so if you get rid of your Thetans you can make your TV use less power? Wow, that Xenu is one evil bastard.
Two problems here:
1) Unless I really misunderstand the entire system, it's not the ESRB telling retailers they can't stock the game, it's retailers deciding not to stock AO games. The ESRB system is (at the moment) voluntary; there's no legal requirements connected with it. (And no, it doesn't need to be legislated; the MPAA rating system is also voluntary and it's worked fine for decades.)
2) It's a lot harder to license the game for the console if it receives an AO rating. I doubt Nintendo would allow it. I don't know about Sony (I don't know if it's ever come up.) Microsoft licensed BMX XXX for the first Xbox, so they're the most likely to allow the game on their system. (Then again, BMX XXX was a utter commercial failure.)