Rebuttal to “10 people who don’t matter”

I was perusing osnews this morning and apparently the staff over at Business 2.0 is giving us a list of 50 most important people at this point. This of course is based on their *cough* expert opinion. To be honest I didn’t read the article but I did go through the slide show of 10 who don’t matter anymore. I am amazed that Steve Jobs didn’t make the list but made the other. Ok I like to offer a rebuttal that particular list (the ones who don’t matter anymore. The list consist of, Steve Balmer, Jeffrey Citron, Reed Hastings, Ken Kutaragi, Warren Lieberfarb, Rob Malda, Arun Sarin, Jonathan Schwartz, Linus Torvald and Mark Zuckerberg. For the sake of…… well because I could care less about these people anyway I will submit they were right about: Jeffrey Citron, Reed Hastings, Rob Malda, Arun Sarin and Mark Zuckerberg. I had to be explained who they were and I still didn’t care. So let the rebuttal begin:

1. Steve Balmer:
As long as he is CEO of Microsoft he is very important. I agree that it might be best for him to at least step back and let the new blood try to sort it out or just take his pile of money and run. How many billions do you need to live comfortably? Steve is known for mostly his temper and tantrums. Anybody remember the chair throwing incident? I’m pretty sure he is going to be the escape goat instead of Gates for the whole Vista fiasco. Gates has been mostly out of picture for quite some time. Of course is it me or is anyone surprised by Vistas delay. If you look at all major releases they have been progressively later and later. Yes Win 2000 came out 2 years after NT4 but 2000 was what NT4 should have been. Anyway, like it or not his company produces the OS that most of world runs on right now. At least for now. So until he leaves he is very important, especially in the next year.

2. Ken Kutaragi:
Ok I had to be told who he was but I did care. Mr Kutaragi is the president of Sony right now. Why is he important? Because if he isn’t able to back up all the talk then he is going to hand the gaming market over to Microsoft, well at least in the US and Europe. MS is still near the bottom of sales in the week to week sales counts. Most weeks the GBA sp outsells it. Think about that, the GBA sp was released back in 2003. Regardless, Sony has yet to put up and refuses to shut up. Especially consider that the console is priced $200 higher than the comparable competition. Why the extra cost? Because of the drive for Sony’s newest DVD format, Blueray. Instead of Sony releasing the best most cost efficient drive for the system (probably the current DVD technology), they decided to force the gaming division to tow the company line in the current round of format wars. Which brings us to:

3. Warren Lieberfarb:
The creator of DVD technology and advocate of the competing format to Blueray, HD-DVD. I hope this is very clear to everyone, but let me say this, competing standards on things like movies and music is a bad thing for the consumer in general. Ask anyone who plopped down way too much money on a Betamax VCR. Warren and Ken are more than likely going to be at the negotiating table if there is going to be a truce between these formats. That is the best case scenario, worst is that it will drag out, (like VHS and BetaMax did) hence it will cost us a crap load of money if we take the risk and adopt one. So it will be quite some time before we see reasonably priced new format DVD players. More than likely we will be downloading movies over the Internet by then.

4. Jonathan Schwartz:
He is now the fairly new head cheese of Sun Microsystems taking the helm for Scott (Foot in the Mouth) McNealy. Jonathon is implementing the cleanup that should have happened several years ago. Opening up Sun to a leaner more agile future and hopefully profitable one. As far Sun’s importance goes they are still up there. They are the stewards of Java, Openoffice and Solaris. The sparc and the sunray thin client is also in their arsenal. I believe that Jonathan will turn around the company and give some stability that has been lacking under Mcnealy as of late. Realistically a strong Sun is good for technology in general. In that respect hes is very important.

5. Linus Torvald:
Where do I start? If he was only known for releasing the initial source code of the Linux Kernel, I would disagree with his placemnet on the list. Look it was under his care that Linux has matured to full on enterpise grade OS. In my opinion it has done what all the free software advocates ask for, choice in a OS. I am not locked into Windows environment. Regardless what you think about Linux compared to the other Unixes or Unix clones, it is on its back of Linux that most of the modern Unix desktop innovations came about. If his continued leadership in that area alone then I would at least rate him off this list if not some place on the list of 50 important people.

Well at least thats my $0.02.

Matt

Beta Software

I admit I am becoming very conservative when it comes to my computers, both work and home. At home I find my time becoming very scarce and the concept of redo my system is desirable but I have no clue when I can do it. Even if I had the money, I would not be able to build a new computer if I wanted to. I wouldn't be surprised that I won't be able to install OpenSuse 10.1 before 10.2 comes out. Well considering it is probably not scheduled until at least the end of the year that might be exaggerating things but I still might wait and skip 10.1 because the proximity of 10.2. I might be using it in a server here at work though. Regardless, I tend to avoid using beta software for what I use as core software. What I consider Core software is software I use almost everyday (or at least fairly often) to get the tasks I need or want to do done. Sure I have a copy of the beta of Scribus for windows on my work computer but I don't use it in production. To truly use it in production I would need the word stable. There was a time I used the beta version of Mozilla (now called SeaMonkey), but now the thought of using the Firefox 2.0 Beta makes me cringe. I find myself whenever I see the words beta or Release Candidate, I tend to wait until it's officially out. Not to say I don't go for the lastest officially "stable release but I tend to wait until I really have time or when it is reviewed as a masterpiece. I'm even worse when it comes to my home computer. With the exception of software I must acquire outside of my Linux's package manager (YAST in this case) then I don't mess with it. There was a time I was trying to get the latest KDE or openoffice. Going as far to try to compile the software myself. Now I want to come home and check my email, maybe read some news. I would find my quake 3 cd and install it but its too much trouble and I either don't have time or the energy to do it. I even have talked myself out of buying UT 2004 because I wouldn't have time. Heck the last game I installed was Puzzle Pirates. Yes really. I haven't decided if it is worth what their asking in monthly fees. So have I lost my cred as a bleeding edge computer nerd? Maybe, I love the edge but I don't have the time, equipment or energy to use that bleeding edge that I love. I guess I am coming to the point that I just want a stable computer to use. Crap I sound like my older brother (no offense Paul). Oh well maybe I do something make myself feel edgy. Who knows.

Matt

Bye Bye Blogger

I have decided to switch to Wordpress from Blogger so all new postings will be at tailofalostnerd.wordpress.com . So change your bookmarks to the new address.

Matt

How much time do they need?

The above linked article was 3D Realm's response to Take2's SEC filing say that 3D Realms would get an extra $500k if they release DukeNukem4Ever by the end of this year. Their reply is that they feel that DN4E should not be released before it is ready. If the game in question started development a year or two ago then I could stand behind that statement. If it was pushing 3 years then I would say that they better deliver a unbelievable game but I could stand behind that statement. Ok I would even give them 3 or 4 years if they were building their own game engine. DN4E has been in development since 1997. 9 years is a bit excessive by anybodies standard. Lets look at ID software, in that time they released quake 3 and doom3. Making a new game engine each time. Thats not counting Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Quake 4 that they outsourced. Lets take a look at Ravensoft. They have made in that time several very good games that I actually own. Jedi Knight II, Jedi Knight Academy, and Elite Force. They are one of ID's favorite dev houses. I think they did Return to Castle Wolfenstein and I know they did Quake 4 for them. Even Valve has put out both Half Life and Half Life 2 since then. That is not counting the various expansion packs. Heck if they happen to release by the end of the year, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo will have released 2 consoles each in that time period. So let me ask the burning question. What have you guys been doing for 9 years? I think 9 years is enough time to get it done and perfected. If I was Take2, I would ask them for what they have and if it isn't a sign of gleaming perfection, then I would ask for my money back. Sure guys, Duke3d was great, but that was what 95? At this point put up or shutup, but thats my $.02.

Matt

Why Wii?

Yes folks the big N has chosen the name for its forthcoming console release. The important questions is why is it called Wii. I will go on record and say this is a stupid name. Maybe its because I'm not Japanese. Oh well. I'm still kinda hoping this is a last minute April Fools joke. Not likely but there is hope.

Matt

Game Console Update

Nintendo Revolution:

If rumors are to be believed, and thats the bulk of what we have for it, the processor will clock in the range of original xbox, but considering that its a powerpc instead of xbox's PIII, it probably will be much more powerful. That said unless they really want to really reduce the amount of heat produced then I think that spec is a little low. That might be what they meant when they said it would be quiet. The problem with that this 2006, its common place to buy a consumer grade computer with a ppc in it that clocks at least 1.8 Ghz. If I were to speculate it, there is no reason for it not to be in 1.5 Ghz range, well except the whole heat / noise issue. This info supposedly came from developers of the games for the system. I'm pretty sure they don't have the final release dev kits so I bet they got an overclocked Gamecube to let them get started. That said thats just my opinion, the big N is known to never sell a console for a loss. A common practice of their competitors, which is probably why they are the only dedicated console maker.

The thing that does worry me though is supposedly that it will only have 88mb total of ram. Ok I know it is a dedicated machine so it has a whole lot less overhead than a standard PC but seriously they should be able to squeeze in at least 256 meg without breaking the bank. This is the part I honestly believe will make or brake the system. Either way this is only unconfirmed speculation. We probably won't know anything official until E3 next month.

Ok I was wrong about the game library being free but will be available and from what they are saying its going be pretty affordable. Oh I have to play with the controller before I make judgment on it.

So where does that put the Big N, well guaranteed to be the least powerful system but also the cheapest. If they can do what they did for DS (minus the lull of games right after release)then they might be a contender for maybe #2 if one maker tanks. Considering Nintendo's pension for profitability of their product they can sit pretty well in third and still be one of the most profitable of the group. A good example is the fact that in most markets(except Japan) the xbox was second best selling system by a fair margin, but the xbox division only turned a profit in 2004, hardly offsetting the several billion it has lost its last generation system. Lord knows how much they will go into the hole on this one. Oh anybody see how the xbox 360 is being outsold by the gameboy sp in Japan.

Oh supposedly it will be out in November

Sony Playstation 3:

I hope that it truly lives up to the hype for their sake. The specs are pretty impressive and should be a little bit above the xbox 360. Of course it looking like they are going to be the most expensive. Metal Gear Solid 4 More info at E3.

Microsoft Xbox 360

Ok this is the only of the next gen consoles that has been out. Depending on who you ask it was either a failure or overwhelming success. Impressive graphics, presuming you can find something programmed to take advantage of all the horsepower. I don't have one and probably won't have one until it drops significantly in price, should be around the time they release the replacement of that console. Given the rate the original xbox is priced, that probably won't be a couple after that anyway. That of course is presuming that all of them don't implode before then. From most reports it has serious heat and stability issues. A slew of returns (especially from the early adopters), and reports of constant crashes have plagued the system. There is supposed to be a new processor to coming to the newly manufactured units that supposed to fix these issues (at least the heat issues). So if you bought one already then your out of luck. As far as the heat issue goes its not too surprising considering you are cramming into the small as possible a 3Ghz+ processor and other components running their respective high frequency. The stability issue has been mostly blamed on the game maker's software. Am I the only one who finds the irony in that? I'm sure it has nothing to do with the heat issues.

I'm back.... Again

Ok if anyone is actually happen to grace this blog again I have to apologize about the lack of posting as of late. My life has been in a little upheaval as of late. Ok to update you on something most of you could care less about and if you do care you probably already know. I'm getting married. Yes even the most hardcore nerds can find love. Well I'm not that hardcore of a nerd. Anyway I have missing doing this. Not that I believe anyone really reads this but it lets me expound upon my love for technology. Ok now that we have made up, lets get to things nerdy.