26 Re: CUSA: - HAVE YOUR SAY ON THIS SUBJECT... 13/4/2012, 16:04
Bunders
A Wee Bit Chatty
I think that the popularity of the Raspberry Pi suggests that the death
of the Amiga has left a void in the PC world. Granted you can get a PC
that'll be good for anything except compiling Android source code and
playing the latest games for less than a weeks wages now but that's kind
of the problem. Linux is pretty much the be all and end all of open
source community driven development these days but it's a behemoth and
who can be arsed installing and maintaining linux on the family PC in
the hopes that the kids might turn out to be computer scientists?
Wouldn't you rather buy them a games console that you know they will
use, even if only for playing games and let them explore development on
that? But wait, how much is a PS3 SDK? £10,000?!?!?!? No thanks.
We'll maybe they'll learn computer science on the family Wintel PC where
every component is a black box with closed source drivers, everything
is done through arcane abstraction layers and the aspiring young
programmer learns nothing about the hardware that she/he is programming
for? Yeah, like Jeremy Clarkson was able to match his Laguna Seca Gran
Turismo game time in real life. (he wasn't) That's fine if you want your kids to grow up developing web apps.
I read somewhere that development costs for console games are such nowadays that the next gen consoles will be hobbled regarding the playing of second hand games even, let alone backups or homebrew. It's as if these companies are operating on the assumption that there is an infinite amount of money to be wrung from their customers and if so then they may well be sinking enough into the development of their next gen consoles that they are setting their feet in a concrete block of a console and dangling it / them off the pier of common sense.
If I had kids I'd consider it irresponsible and bad parenting to bring them up believing that it's reasonable to consider paying £300 for somthing that can only possibly depreciate like a prestige motor and be an expense in the future. If you buy a car for £300 you can maybe recover the cost of the tools you need to buy to restore it when you sell it on even if you only break even you've earned valuable tools and gained valuable experience. It is potentially an investment. The Amiga was potentially an investment because it could enable you to learn valuable skills. I think that's what the Rasp Pi crowd are getting at but they don't go far enough. I think software patents and EULA's e.t.c. do the world about as much good as VAT on food and that anyone who thinks differently is a either a prize mug or a narcissistic, greedy S.O.B or a patsy for such a person.
Anyway, I've got stuff to do and I doubt anyone cares what I think so I'll be off now.
Cheers dudes.
B.
of the Amiga has left a void in the PC world. Granted you can get a PC
that'll be good for anything except compiling Android source code and
playing the latest games for less than a weeks wages now but that's kind
of the problem. Linux is pretty much the be all and end all of open
source community driven development these days but it's a behemoth and
who can be arsed installing and maintaining linux on the family PC in
the hopes that the kids might turn out to be computer scientists?
Wouldn't you rather buy them a games console that you know they will
use, even if only for playing games and let them explore development on
that? But wait, how much is a PS3 SDK? £10,000?!?!?!? No thanks.
We'll maybe they'll learn computer science on the family Wintel PC where
every component is a black box with closed source drivers, everything
is done through arcane abstraction layers and the aspiring young
programmer learns nothing about the hardware that she/he is programming
for? Yeah, like Jeremy Clarkson was able to match his Laguna Seca Gran
Turismo game time in real life. (he wasn't) That's fine if you want your kids to grow up developing web apps.
I read somewhere that development costs for console games are such nowadays that the next gen consoles will be hobbled regarding the playing of second hand games even, let alone backups or homebrew. It's as if these companies are operating on the assumption that there is an infinite amount of money to be wrung from their customers and if so then they may well be sinking enough into the development of their next gen consoles that they are setting their feet in a concrete block of a console and dangling it / them off the pier of common sense.
If I had kids I'd consider it irresponsible and bad parenting to bring them up believing that it's reasonable to consider paying £300 for somthing that can only possibly depreciate like a prestige motor and be an expense in the future. If you buy a car for £300 you can maybe recover the cost of the tools you need to buy to restore it when you sell it on even if you only break even you've earned valuable tools and gained valuable experience. It is potentially an investment. The Amiga was potentially an investment because it could enable you to learn valuable skills. I think that's what the Rasp Pi crowd are getting at but they don't go far enough. I think software patents and EULA's e.t.c. do the world about as much good as VAT on food and that anyone who thinks differently is a either a prize mug or a narcissistic, greedy S.O.B or a patsy for such a person.
Anyway, I've got stuff to do and I doubt anyone cares what I think so I'll be off now.
Cheers dudes.
B.