This pretty much sums it up:
http://www.xbox.com/en-us/live/projectnatal/
Basically body mapping with face recognition. Quite sweet, but the devil is going to be in the software written for it and unlike the Wii, it isn't part of the 'base' system, so software that is written for Natal will have a smaller user base and will probably cost more.
Security is always an issue, however from an application experience, I can guarantee my application works as intended on whatever Flash enabled device you are using.
The hardware manufacturer is a straw man argument. If you develop hardware that is not capable of running a mainstream OS or one of the other Mobile OS (even Jaguar are using Flash in their cars) then you are unlikely to stay in business for very long.
Flash is an open standard and you are welcome to write your own engine.
How good Flash or Silverlight are as dev platforms for deployment to multiple platforms is all this is about.
Apple don't like what Adobe are doing as it obsoletes their "mobile" business model.
In the coming years, mobiles is where it is at, and you better have a way to develop for that environment and , in particular, have a way to push your applications through their various app stores.
Flash 10.1 with the AIR packager offers me a platform agnostic solution.
Please, somebody point me in the direction of another technology (open or closed) that offers me a similar solution.
In all this I am not talking about what Flash does now, but what will happen with the release of Android 2.2.
In 2 years time when HTML5 finally has a decent tool set and is mature, I will again re-evaluate the situation, but right here, right now, Flash offers the best platform agnostic solution. Nobody here has given me reason to doubt that. "I hate Flash" is not good enough.
Any company developing flash apps will naturally be very concerned about the few people running FreeBSD.
Not sure you get what this is about. This isn't about desktop environments.
This is about portable devices. It's about providing a viable way to deploy functionally rich applications across as many platforms as possible without me having to fork my code/use a nother language.
Once HTML5 has been ratified, the development tools are mature and complex applications have been successfully and easily implemented (and run smoothly), I will re-visit HTML5.
However Adobe are giving me the facility to easily create a flash application (either in Flash or in Flex), deploy it inside the browser, or as a standalone application that can be uploaded to any app store or on the desktop using AIR.
Show me one other company that is offering me such a complete solution to the current shift in the way people are using the internet and I will happily spend time researching it and putting together a business case.
As it stands, Flash wins hands down.
You may not like it, but there is some serious money to be saved by having one development platform deployed to 7 different mobile OS the various app stores, as well as knowing that it will run happily on 'most' desktops and 'most' browsers.
The irony is, I don't even write Flash and I can see the value in investing time into this.
I'm assuming you will be screaming for an addon that disables all canvas elements on the page, y'know to kill all those adverts....
There are performance demo's around demonstrating Flash 10.1 vs HTML5 canvas implementations with Flash around 30fps and canvas around 6fps (SVG around 2fps).
HTML5 has got a lot of work to make it a viable alternative, but I suppose they actually need to finish defining what HTML5 actually is first.
Personally, as a development platform, with Android 2.2 around the corner, and Adobe releasing the iPhone packager for other mobile OS, I'm willing to give them breathing space to get on with what they are trying to achieve.
The problem I find with
Currently there is no other company out there trying to deliver such a comprehensive write once, run anywhere solution. If they pull this off, my life as a developer becomes a lot simpler.
The merge itself is good imho, however there is a major problem with Parental Controls. The old login server used to terminate your connection when you hit a 'no play' time. Now it leaves you logged in. If you try and login in during 'no play' time then it stops you which is fine.
This is a major issue for somebody that enjoys the game, wants their child to enjoy the game, but doesn't want that child ruining their education. I know how addictive WoW can be.
Have raised it with Blizzard, but they haven't responded as yet. This needs fixing. Yes I want to instil a sense of responsibility in my child, but sometimes a machine just saying no, is very difficult to argue with.
Adobe have basically announced a way to compile Flash to native iPhone apps. This should mean that all their future product releases that author Flash should hopefully have similar functionality. (I'm being selfish and thinking Flex here.)
The next logical step is for Adobe to allow you to deploy natively to other Phone OS. So as a Flex(read Flash, well AS3 ) developer I should be able to write an application, and then deploy to Air, browser, iPhone, Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile. Do you realise the impact on development time? Bug fixing each target environment suddenly becomes a non-issue. Time to market is massively shortened. This is huge.
I don't know if Adobe realise the potential for this. I know they were trying to get around Apple's intransigence, but I think they may have something exceptionally useful here.
Simply put, you arrived into a company and have determined they are using software illegally. The buck stops with the director of the company.
1) Inform director/upper management of the situation in writing explaining the seriousness of the issue (i.e. Fines, Prison etc.).
2) Perform a software audit.
3) Present findings to the upper management.
4) Buy required software licences.
If budget is an issue, then suggest ways to mitigate costs (e.g. Move everyone to Open Office)
As long as you legally cover yourself, it is not your responsibility. The responsibility is with the company director/board.
As a WoW and War player this here are a number of facts you need to know:
1) WoW is about to have patch 3.02 go live (estimated to hit on the 15th).
2) On the 13th of November you get a whole new expansion to play with. Unless you were in the end game raiding Black Temple+, most of your gear will be replaced by the time you hit level 75.
3) WoW is a game about getting better equipment so with a month to go before you can get better equipment, why bother.
4) Summer happened and huge numbers of raiding guilds fell apart as apathy set in and waiting for the new expansion.
5) Blizzard didn't help themselves by allowing sites to 'mine' their Beta data and allow people to show you what you can get in a months time.
6) Warhammer hit at the right time and has given people 'something to do' while waiting, maybe even swap the game that they were going to play 247.
7) Warhammer free month ends on or around the 18th of this month.
Now on to my opinion. I held off from playing War for a bit. WoW is boring atm and it's difficult to get a raid going when people know that the gear is being replaced soon. So I started playing War two weeks after the initial release. I even joined the server that my WoW guild in WoW used.
The problem is, that I've come late to the party and War is all about your interaction with other players. (You can level without once doing a quest). Areas are empty. Public quests are unachievable (well the later phases) and up until recently, you could only join your racial RvR event.
Then there's the queues. If you login at 8pm, you can't get to your server for at least an hour. However the irony is that because the game needs a fully populated server to 'function' you don't want to be able to get on a server immediately at 8pm. This server will have a low population at other times and the Player vs Player elements will degrade badly.
Ironically I queue for War, then go play WoW for an hour.
So my current feeling is that I'm dropping Warhammer the moment WoW patch 3.02 comes out and I think there are a lot of people who are in the same boat.
What I do hope is that Blizzard look at Warhammer and take some of the ideas on board:
1) Public Quests
2) Queue for a BG from anywhere (which a Blizzard employee has already hinted at).
3) Siege weaponry that can kill players.
4) The ability not to be able to walk through mobs. (This would enable position strategies where tanks could create shield walls etc).
There are probably a lot more ideas.
I program, therefore I am.
