Well, and beyond that, the fact is that it doesn't work.
What started up IE development again? Was it 3 years of whining and whining on Slashdot about how Microsoft had a browser monopoly? Or was it another browser stepping up to the plate and actually *competing* for the first time since IE6 came out?
Microsoft doesn't care about products with no real competition-- Powerpoint has no real competition on Windows, look how shitty it is. It's by far the worst of the Office apps, and Microsoft simply does not care. Now if someone came and blew Powerpoint away, sold the software for less-- you bet your ass Microsoft would start moving again.
On top of those statistics they build the best search, the best targeted advertising
Google doesn't have the best targeted advertising. Theirs isn't bad, but it's not the best by a long shot. The only reason it's even in the running is because they bought DoubleClick-- before that acquisition, they had basically jack for targeting. (Outside of Gmail.)
Without DirectX propping up the monopoly we'd have other technologies and far more companies that would provide innovative competition, thus providing more, and often better, products.
Then instead of ranting about DirectX, why don't you put your money where your mouth is and make a competitor for DirectX?
I'm sick of open source buck-passing. Sure, it's terrible that Microsoft has such a commanding monopoly in so many areas, but on the other hand, why are you complaining about it instead of actually working to make it go away?
For every one of those bulletpoints the parent mentioned, there's nothing, nothing stopping you from providing a similar level of support for OpenGL.
DirectX has networking/input/graphics drivers? Then write those and attach them to OpenGL. DirectX has better documentation/examples? Then create them for your OpenGL solution! DirectX can be ported to Xbox? Fine; then get off your bony butt and go talk to Sony and Nintendo about enabling trivial porting of OpenGL apps.
Sorry, I just get sick of the whining by anti-Microsoft goons who don't have the cojones to actually compete with Microsoft-- stop passing the buck and do it already.
First, to the best of my knowledge, the Halo 3 engine (i.e. the one for the XBox 360) is internally developed and, unlike Unreal Engine, not licensed out to third parties.
Why is that relevant to this conversation?
BTW, there's just one Halo engine, under continuous development. Halo 2 actually runs in the "Halo 3 engine" if you run it in an Xbox 360. Thus, 4 games have been made with it.
Now, maybe, you can see my reasoning, attitude and point for the post, though I get the feeling I should expect another slap across the face for apologising on slashdot.
Additionally, I have only seen this artifact on UT3 based games. There are only 2 game running on the Halo engine (both internal) and I haven't seen this on Halo 3.
First of all, there are 4 games using the Halo engine, and one in development. Secondly, what does "internal" mean in this context? It sounds like you're suggesting that Halo 3 was never released outside Microsoft. But, see, instead of assuming that and calling you wrong, I post a question to clarify. Amazing.
Re:never can get enough of the theme song.
on
M.U.L.E. Is Back
·
· Score: 1
Just noticed the YouTube movie cut out about a minute and a half of the song. Not a huge deal, really, but I put the full version in MP3 format on my website: http://blakeyrat.com/commodore-64-sound-rips/
Actually the whole original Star Wars trilogy holds up very well. That's the benefit of having a very strong design-- since your design isn't tied to the contemporary styles, it'll still be current long after the bell bottoms have been relegated to the junkheap.
For a counter-example, see Star Trek: The Movie. You can tell what decade it was made in 10 seconds.
Re:never can get enough of the theme song.
on
M.U.L.E. Is Back
·
· Score: 1
You could easily replace 'native americans' with 'europeans' and it would be very true of the state of europe over 1000 years ago.
Except we call that the "dark ages" and people who glorify it are generally aware that they're full of shit, and that conditions then really, really sucked.
There are communities that are good about this. For example, MST3K "distributors" generally pull the episode out of circulation as soon as it's available on DVD. Ditto with the anime/manga communities. ROMs? Nope.
Presumably their Y2K problem was deferred (not fixed) by adding code that assumed that "01" - "09" should be considered "2001"-"2009", but they didn't include "10", so it is still treated as "1910".
Considering medical software is likely to encounter people in their 90s pretty regularly, it's amazing to me that this hasn't been permanently fixed yet for birthdates if nothing else.
Not to defend the new networking layout in Control Panel (which I also think is overly complex and confusing), but the prescribed course of action is to open Control Panel, then type what you want to do in the search box.
If all of the features are in the Control Panel, why do the developers need shortcuts?
In other words, what's wrong with the Control Panel interface that hinders developers to the point where they have to hack in these types of kludges?
Are you implying that an interface that's good for developers is by definition also good for average users?
Or, as another poster in an above thread pointed out, do you really want your great aunt to have one-click access to the "Format Harddrives" control panel applet?
I didn't say it was "an Xbox 360 thing," I said it was visible in a good amount Xbox 360 games. Which is true, as a good amount of them use either the Halo or the Unreal3 engine, and those engines both exhibit this behavior.
But thanks for "correcting" me, Mr. Can't Read Fucking English.
Sorry, I was talking from a university point of view.
Considering how bad the average application is UI-wise, universities *should* be teaching this.
You don't need a brain to learn it though, the theory is still vague and there few difficult facts or abstractions like in other parts of CS.
Bullshit. There's over 30 years of work out there on the field. Shit, even the Mythical Man-Month has some UI learnings in it, that's 40 years.
If by "difficult facts" you mean "counter-intuitive", then HCI has gobs of those. As far as abstractions, well, HCI has gobs of those too... of course you obviously know precisely dick about the field, so I don't even know why you bothered to type that.
Look, it's great that you can pigeonhole computer science into this tiny little itty bitty box, but maybe you should open your eyes and get out into the world. What's your goal in studying computers? Is it to come up with a MPEG compression algorithm that's 0.05% more efficient? Fine, then do what you're doing... but still don't be an asshole to people with different opinions.
But wouldn't it be a much nobler goal to open up the power of computers to the average person? For your sister or grandpa to be able to automate tasks on their computer as easily as Slashdottes do? To make computer UIs invisible, so easy to use that people don't even realize they're using one?
Now THAT, that is worthwhile. That's HCI.
And yes I was exaggerating because making fun of HCI is part of my CS culture.
Then your CS culture sucks. fucking. ass.
HCI is the single most important factor in creating a useful computer application. The most important part. Nobody, and I mean nobody, in real life gives half a shit if your application is written in C or in super-experimental-college-language. Nobody in real life gives a third of a shit what algorithm you're using (as long as the application has good response time, but that's under HCI!). Nobody gives a shit if you've written proofs that your application is correct.
What people do care about is whether your application auto-selects a value if there's only one reasonable choice. If your program doesn't draw UI elements off-screen. If your program lets you use the scroll wheel in every window/pane that has a scrollbar. Whether your program pisses them off, or if they use it happily with no interruptions.
Goddamn, man. Your university's priorities could not be more backwards.
If you want to do human computer interface, you don't need math (or a brain).
At the very least, math-wise you need Statistics, for the user surveys and interviews you'll conduct. (Assuming you're good at your job.) You also need a good dose of Psychology to set up testing, and learn all the established knowledge you'll save time not re-testing.
On another note, I hope to God you never write an application with any sort of UI, if that is your attitude. Christ.
I still have an analog CRT monitor that supports much higher frame rates at HD resolutions which gives a very noticeable edge when playing twitch-games like Unreal Tournament.
Yeah right.
You have to prove statements like that, you can't just spit them out and expect us all to believe it. Let's see a double-blind test, you playing 10 games limited to 60 FPS and then playing 10 games at your usual FPS and average the scores.
Doom? No it didn't. It was extremely basic, super simple texture-mapping with absolutely no dynamic effects like that. (I'd say Marathon-like, but I guess more people have played Doom than Marathon.;)
I do know what you're talking about-- some original Xbox games have done that in recent years, although I can't think of a specific one off the top of my head. (Maybe Chronicles of Riddick?)
A decent amount of Xbox 360 games also have some form of delayed-texture-loading which might be what you're seeing-- the level will initially load relatively crude textures, then replace them with the detailed textures once they load. (See Borderlands for an example. Or the Halo games.) But once the detailed texture is in the scene, it stays there until the level changes... not the same as the effect you're describing.
I'm not even reading your junk because it is unqualified blather from an opinionated layman.
As opposed to your posts which are...?
Look, the grandparent brings up a very good point. If people don't understand the urgency of global warming, that's because scientists haven't done a very good job of explaining it to us. Some of us require more convincing than "I'm qualified, trust me." (Which is apparently enough for you.)
Slashdot Mirror
Well, and beyond that, the fact is that it doesn't work.
What started up IE development again? Was it 3 years of whining and whining on Slashdot about how Microsoft had a browser monopoly? Or was it another browser stepping up to the plate and actually *competing* for the first time since IE6 came out?
Microsoft doesn't care about products with no real competition-- Powerpoint has no real competition on Windows, look how shitty it is. It's by far the worst of the Office apps, and Microsoft simply does not care. Now if someone came and blew Powerpoint away, sold the software for less-- you bet your ass Microsoft would start moving again.
Never forget Google's main money maker is not search, it is not ads and it is not applications.
Actually it's ads. Sorry, you're plain wrong here.
On top of those statistics they build the best search, the best targeted advertising
Google doesn't have the best targeted advertising. Theirs isn't bad, but it's not the best by a long shot. The only reason it's even in the running is because they bought DoubleClick-- before that acquisition, they had basically jack for targeting. (Outside of Gmail.)
Without DirectX propping up the monopoly we'd have other technologies and far more companies that would provide innovative competition, thus providing more, and often better, products.
Then instead of ranting about DirectX, why don't you put your money where your mouth is and make a competitor for DirectX?
I'm sick of open source buck-passing. Sure, it's terrible that Microsoft has such a commanding monopoly in so many areas, but on the other hand, why are you complaining about it instead of actually working to make it go away?
For every one of those bulletpoints the parent mentioned, there's nothing, nothing stopping you from providing a similar level of support for OpenGL.
DirectX has networking/input/graphics drivers? Then write those and attach them to OpenGL. DirectX has better documentation/examples? Then create them for your OpenGL solution! DirectX can be ported to Xbox? Fine; then get off your bony butt and go talk to Sony and Nintendo about enabling trivial porting of OpenGL apps.
Sorry, I just get sick of the whining by anti-Microsoft goons who don't have the cojones to actually compete with Microsoft-- stop passing the buck and do it already.
But "28 Days Later" wasn't that good.
Just FYI, the sequel "28 Weeks Later" was much better. Strangely.
Well...
Point taken. But the ART DESIGN holds up well.
First, to the best of my knowledge, the Halo 3 engine (i.e. the one for the XBox 360) is internally developed and, unlike Unreal Engine, not licensed out to third parties.
Why is that relevant to this conversation?
BTW, there's just one Halo engine, under continuous development. Halo 2 actually runs in the "Halo 3 engine" if you run it in an Xbox 360. Thus, 4 games have been made with it.
Now, maybe, you can see my reasoning, attitude and point for the post, though I get the feeling I should expect another slap across the face for apologising on slashdot.
Yup!
Additionally, I have only seen this artifact on UT3 based games. There are only 2 game running on the Halo engine (both internal) and I haven't seen this on Halo 3.
First of all, there are 4 games using the Halo engine, and one in development. Secondly, what does "internal" mean in this context? It sounds like you're suggesting that Halo 3 was never released outside Microsoft. But, see, instead of assuming that and calling you wrong, I post a question to clarify. Amazing.
Just noticed the YouTube movie cut out about a minute and a half of the song. Not a huge deal, really, but I put the full version in MP3 format on my website: http://blakeyrat.com/commodore-64-sound-rips/
Like watching the original Star Wars,
Actually the whole original Star Wars trilogy holds up very well. That's the benefit of having a very strong design-- since your design isn't tied to the contemporary styles, it'll still be current long after the bell bottoms have been relegated to the junkheap.
For a counter-example, see Star Trek: The Movie. You can tell what decade it was made in 10 seconds.
Dude, Parallax. Parallax, Dude. Martin Galway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igVxjCecmEg
M.U.L.E. sucks.
That was incredibly random, and also incredibly awesome. Rock on.
Sorry, I really don't know. I was just addressing the claim that all of these titles were unavailable for purchase, which is clearly false.
You could easily replace 'native americans' with 'europeans' and it would be very true of the state of europe over 1000 years ago.
Except we call that the "dark ages" and people who glorify it are generally aware that they're full of shit, and that conditions then really, really sucked.
You're just illustrating the hypocrisy here.
Yes, it's probably "illegal" in the strictest definition
It's illegal in any definition.
"immoral" you can argue. "illegal" is quite settled already.
but they are also preserving old stuff that just isn't sold any more
Except once this is released, it *will* be sold again. So there goes that argument out the window. Not to mention a ton of those ROMs are already sold in packages like this: http://www.amazon.com/Capcom-Classics-Collection-Xbox/dp/B0009UUQG4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1262896587&sr=8-1
There are communities that are good about this. For example, MST3K "distributors" generally pull the episode out of circulation as soon as it's available on DVD. Ditto with the anime/manga communities. ROMs? Nope.
Presumably their Y2K problem was deferred (not fixed) by adding code that assumed that "01" - "09" should be considered "2001"-"2009", but they didn't include "10", so it is still treated as "1910".
Considering medical software is likely to encounter people in their 90s pretty regularly, it's amazing to me that this hasn't been permanently fixed yet for birthdates if nothing else.
Not to defend the new networking layout in Control Panel (which I also think is overly complex and confusing), but the prescribed course of action is to open Control Panel, then type what you want to do in the search box.
"TCP/IP"... bam, there it is, top result.
If you're include non-US companies, Arianespace has used their Ariane 5 rocket to launch an ATV to the ISS.
What do they need a 4x4 for on the ISS?
If all of the features are in the Control Panel, why do the developers need shortcuts?
In other words, what's wrong with the Control Panel interface that hinders developers to the point where they have to hack in these types of kludges?
Are you implying that an interface that's good for developers is by definition also good for average users?
Or, as another poster in an above thread pointed out, do you really want your great aunt to have one-click access to the "Format Harddrives" control panel applet?
This isn't an XBox 360 thing.
I didn't say it was "an Xbox 360 thing," I said it was visible in a good amount Xbox 360 games. Which is true, as a good amount of them use either the Halo or the Unreal3 engine, and those engines both exhibit this behavior.
But thanks for "correcting" me, Mr. Can't Read Fucking English.
Sorry, I was talking from a university point of view.
Considering how bad the average application is UI-wise, universities *should* be teaching this.
You don't need a brain to learn it though, the theory is still vague and there few difficult facts or abstractions like in other parts of CS.
Bullshit. There's over 30 years of work out there on the field. Shit, even the Mythical Man-Month has some UI learnings in it, that's 40 years.
If by "difficult facts" you mean "counter-intuitive", then HCI has gobs of those. As far as abstractions, well, HCI has gobs of those too... of course you obviously know precisely dick about the field, so I don't even know why you bothered to type that.
Look, it's great that you can pigeonhole computer science into this tiny little itty bitty box, but maybe you should open your eyes and get out into the world. What's your goal in studying computers? Is it to come up with a MPEG compression algorithm that's 0.05% more efficient? Fine, then do what you're doing... but still don't be an asshole to people with different opinions.
But wouldn't it be a much nobler goal to open up the power of computers to the average person? For your sister or grandpa to be able to automate tasks on their computer as easily as Slashdottes do? To make computer UIs invisible, so easy to use that people don't even realize they're using one?
Now THAT, that is worthwhile. That's HCI.
And yes I was exaggerating because making fun of HCI is part of my CS culture.
Then your CS culture sucks. fucking. ass.
HCI is the single most important factor in creating a useful computer application. The most important part. Nobody, and I mean nobody, in real life gives half a shit if your application is written in C or in super-experimental-college-language. Nobody in real life gives a third of a shit what algorithm you're using (as long as the application has good response time, but that's under HCI!). Nobody gives a shit if you've written proofs that your application is correct.
What people do care about is whether your application auto-selects a value if there's only one reasonable choice. If your program doesn't draw UI elements off-screen. If your program lets you use the scroll wheel in every window/pane that has a scrollbar. Whether your program pisses them off, or if they use it happily with no interruptions.
Goddamn, man. Your university's priorities could not be more backwards.
If you want to do human computer interface, you don't need math (or a brain).
At the very least, math-wise you need Statistics, for the user surveys and interviews you'll conduct. (Assuming you're good at your job.) You also need a good dose of Psychology to set up testing, and learn all the established knowledge you'll save time not re-testing.
On another note, I hope to God you never write an application with any sort of UI, if that is your attitude. Christ.
I'm pretty sure I make Slashdot significantly worse.
Penis penis penis penis penis.
I still have an analog CRT monitor that supports much higher frame rates at HD resolutions which gives a very noticeable edge when playing twitch-games like Unreal Tournament.
Yeah right.
You have to prove statements like that, you can't just spit them out and expect us all to believe it. Let's see a double-blind test, you playing 10 games limited to 60 FPS and then playing 10 games at your usual FPS and average the scores.
Doom? No it didn't. It was extremely basic, super simple texture-mapping with absolutely no dynamic effects like that. (I'd say Marathon-like, but I guess more people have played Doom than Marathon. ;)
I do know what you're talking about-- some original Xbox games have done that in recent years, although I can't think of a specific one off the top of my head. (Maybe Chronicles of Riddick?)
A decent amount of Xbox 360 games also have some form of delayed-texture-loading which might be what you're seeing-- the level will initially load relatively crude textures, then replace them with the detailed textures once they load. (See Borderlands for an example. Or the Halo games.) But once the detailed texture is in the scene, it stays there until the level changes... not the same as the effect you're describing.
I'm not even reading your junk because it is unqualified blather from an opinionated layman.
As opposed to your posts which are...?
Look, the grandparent brings up a very good point. If people don't understand the urgency of global warming, that's because scientists haven't done a very good job of explaining it to us. Some of us require more convincing than "I'm qualified, trust me." (Which is apparently enough for you.)