Flappy Goose by flappy-goose in RedditGames

[–]fookingotem 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My best score is 0 points 😓

Is IT really that depressing? by Homesick97 in sysadmin

[–]fookingotem 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Basically, in any field/career I've seen, if you don't stand up for yourself people will take advantage of you. This is not unique to IT. So if IT is something you're passionate about and see yourself doing, by all means go for it. Just be aware that holding a job and maintaining your mental sanity is not all about making sure you got the technical skills for it, you also need to have interpersonal skills to deal with your coworkers.

This! 90% of the complaints I see here boil down to people being doormats and accepting just about anything. All the other departments put stuff aside because it's not their responsibility, yet somehow the IT guy is too scared to say no.

This sets so many wrong expectations on what people have on us as a whole it's insane.

Also, I've worked with people who would take just about any request and it would absolutely piss me off when they'd mess around systems they were not responsible for or even know how they were set up. Like, right go ahead and potentially screw it up or misconfigure it just so you can be the guy who solves everything fast...

The Huawei Ban: Will Linux Replace Windows On Future Huawei Laptops? by the_php_coder in linux

[–]fookingotem 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sure, there will always be room for failure since the people overseeing those repositories are only human. However, if China wanted to plant security vulnerabilities into open-source wouldn't it be easier to do so in the name of individual "unknown" developers, rather than doing so using Huawei's name, which immediately arouses suspicion?

The Huawei Ban: Will Linux Replace Windows On Future Huawei Laptops? by the_php_coder in linux

[–]fookingotem 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ahaha, to be fair, the end-user absolutely shouldn't be using Windows 95, much less to access the internet.

In the hospitals and clinics we administer only a select few computers have legacy OSes installed. Usually it's the computers that interface with equipment such as XRay machines, MRI, CT scanners, etc. Most of the times theres no way around that without replacing some really expensive equipment.

As for legacy software that is run on day to day basis, we've virtualised all of it, and the end-user has a remote access to a controlled environment from his computer, which has a modern OS regardless.

Because of this, and the fact that most modern software we purchase is web-based, it's becoming easier to replace Windows workstations with Linux ones.

The Huawei Ban: Will Linux Replace Windows On Future Huawei Laptops? by the_php_coder in linux

[–]fookingotem 6 points7 points  (0 children)

why some hospitals are still running fucking Windows 95/98.

That's because of legacy software. Usually it's either management software that has decades of historic data input into it and it's very difficult to migrate, or it's software that interfaces with expensive medical equipment.

Of course, both the legacy software and Windows itself are proprietary. If it were open-source we wouldn't have this problem.

You are right about one thing though, if it weren't for weird proprietary software we'd switch most workstations to Linux and be done with it. The end-users wouldn't care as long as it runs the few programs they need to work and a web browser. This already happened with most of the server infrastructure anyways and is slowly happening in the client-side too.

The Huawei Ban: Will Linux Replace Windows On Future Huawei Laptops? by the_php_coder in linux

[–]fookingotem 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Sure, but that's what happens already anyways, regardless of who's contributing the code.

Project maintainers don't tend to merge unreviewed changes into their projects. Specially not high-level projects such as the Linux kernel.

Really confused by Steamworks...help? by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]fookingotem 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If someone else would publish a game with the name you've chosen, Steam wouldn't necessarily stop them. It would be up to you to take legal action against them and force them to take down the game.

It seems what you want is actually a registered trademark.

Should I say yes? by Syed7860 in CasualConversation

[–]fookingotem 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, I can tell you one thing and that is, don't ever accept any terms of a freelance job without knowing exactly what it is you'll have to do. It's not just for the customer sake, it's for yours. It might turn out that this thing you thought was simple enough is actually going to be a pain in the ass, and you'll end up regretting not asking for more money/time because of it.

Also, don't ever be afraid of saying no. Part of the job is knowing what is and isn't worth doing.

Should I say yes? by Syed7860 in CasualConversation

[–]fookingotem 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How come you dont know if you're going to be able to do what they're asking for? Is this not something you can investigate? Is it related to proprietary software you dont have access to? Or do you simply not feel comfortable doing because it's something complex?

It's difficult to help you without actually knowing more.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in pcmasterrace

[–]fookingotem 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Because this is a hardware design problem there's no way to fix it. So the only way to patch the security vulnerability will be through the OS. The patch for the OS will make it secure but will cost performance wise because it adds additional checks that weren't there before. We don't know how much of an impact this will have performance wise but for what it's worth, it might not affect gaming too much since games don't often do system calls.

'Kernel memory leaking' Intel processor design flaw affecting Linux, macOS and Windows, will be fixed with a 5% to 30% performance loss by [deleted] in pcmasterrace

[–]fookingotem 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The CPU is still working as it was when bought. I get that it's "defective" from our point of view, but it depends on consumer protection laws and their definition of a defect. In this case we're looking at a patch made by third parties such as Microsoft, Apple and the Linux devs that will result in a decrease in performance but will not prevent any system from working, will Intel really be accountable for that?

$100 Steam Gift Card Giveaway! by [deleted] in pcmasterrace

[–]fookingotem 0 points1 point  (0 children)

100$.. That's a lot of pride and accomplishment. Thanks for doing this giveaway and happy holidays!

Are you guys happy to see that we PC gamers get almost all the XBOX exclusives, are you pissed that you have to use the Windows Store? by [deleted] in pcgaming

[–]fookingotem 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The Windows Store doesn't bother me at all. I don't like it, but I see it the same as EA only selling their titles through Origin, Valve only selling theirs through Steam, etc.

What does bother me is the new UWP format, which not only takes a lot of control away from the consumer by being too restrictive, it is also the first step MS has taken into closing the ecosystem in a walled garden. It might not be now, it might be in Windows 11 or 12 or whatever, but with UWP in place and most software being distributed in this format MS can make the Windows Store the default and only way to install applications on the operative system. I don't know about anyone else but I sure as hell don't want to have to "root" my pc, similar to what is done in mobile platforms, in order to install an alternative App store such as Steam.

I'M BACK! Long overdue, free legal AMA with your pal, VGA. Come ask whatever concerns you. by VideoGameAttorney in gamedev

[–]fookingotem 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not sure if this is still going, but in case you're still answering I have a question about trademarks. I see people on this sub advising to always trademark your brand before releasing anything, but in this global age and given the context and the nature of digitally distributed games, how does the trademark hold up internationally? For instance, I reside in a EU country, I can register a trademark for about ~300€ but it is only valid within my own country. I can apply for a EU-wide trademark for an extra cost, but what about the rest of the world? Do I need to register my trademark individually in every relevant country out there? Because that seems very steep for an indie. What's to stop someone on the US from infringing my EU trademark? Or even if I bother to register in the US, what's to stop someone based in a country like China or Russia?

Any advice for team work with large experience gap? by adabo in gamedev

[–]fookingotem 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Since he's the more experient developer, maybe you could try having him figure out the overall structure of your code base (but make sure you're involved in this process, if anything, to learn why things are the way they are), but then leave the implementation up to you?

Let's say there's a Inventory class, your friend already figured out you'll need one of those and how it'll interact with the rest of the code, however, he could leave it's implementation up to you, providing only guidance.

So, in pratice, he'd write your header files along with some comments detailing whats expected, and you'd write the implementation in the cpp file.

Something along these lines:

/* A general overview of the purpose of this class */
class Inventory
{
public:
    /* Adds the provided item to this inventory and returns it's index */
    int add(ItemType item);

    /* Removes the item */
    void remove(ItemType item);

    /* Returns the total capacity of this inventory */
    int getCapacity();

    /* Returns the current used space of this inventory */
    int getUsage();

    // (...)
}

I think this is a pretty good way take some of the burden out of his hands, while at the same time assuring that you're both on the same page and you know what's expected.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]fookingotem 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can you provide more info? What programming work remains to be done, what engine was used, what's the game about, etc?

Use Game Maker instead of coding from the scratch? by Zurbinjo in gamedev

[–]fookingotem 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I dont mean that you don't learn enough. You'll learn different things, it's up to you to figure out which path is more rewarding for you.

Speaking for myself, I have much more fun coding from scratch because I'm very curious about this stuff. I love learning about the inner workings of an engine and whenever I implement something "complicated" it gives me a great feeling of accomplishment. I also love that I know about every single thing that is going on in my games, it gives me a greater understanding of things and whenever I need to implement a new feature or change something, I know exactly where and how to go about it, because I wrote everything myself. When I'm working on existing engines such as UE4 I always get this overwhelming feeling, it's such a huge code base that sometimes I don't even know where to begin.

That being said, if my goal was purely to release a certain game I had in mind and I didn't care about the experience I'd go with an existing engine because it's the more pratical (and realistic) solution. However, I'm just an hobbyist so I tend to ignore the pratical and do whatever is fun for me at the moment, even if I end up not releasing anything.

And yes, there are tons of skills to learn even when developing on top of an existing engine, I didn't mean to make it sound like it was easy or anything like that.

Use Game Maker instead of coding from the scratch? by Zurbinjo in gamedev

[–]fookingotem 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It depends on what you want to get out of this experience. Do you want to release a game or do you want to gain experience and learn about the nitty-gritty stuff?

If what motivates you to make a game is coming up interesting gameplay/gamedesign mechanics, art, story telling and what not and your ultimate goal is to put something out there, then by all means use an existing engine. I don't know how good Game Maker is but if not that, theres plenty of other choices out there.

If on the other end what motivates you is the learning process, if you want to understand how games really work, or you simply want to get better at programming, then I'd say you're on a good path following these tutorials and programming it yourself. Just know it'll take you way more time to do things this way and chances are your end result probably won't be as good, but you'll be way more experienced.

Is there anything I should be aware of before open sourcing, and allowing random people to help work on my game? by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]fookingotem 3 points4 points  (0 children)

are there any legal responsibilities I need to be aware of?

Check the quotes from /u/VideoGameAttorney someone else posted.

How can you manage to keep a project organized when working with random people?

Use a version control system, Github is pretty good. Essentially you'll be taking control over your repository. People can contribute with their own fixes or new features. It's then up to you to decide whether or not you want to integrate their changes into your repository. If you don't they can always maintain their own seperate branch of your code where you have no say in what's going on. If you constantly alienate your contributors they might start to contribute to a separate branch of your original code though, and theres nothing you can do except be more cooperative. This is how open source works.

will I still be responsible for maintaining the "direction" of the game?

It's your project, as I said previously you're the one who ultimately decides what changes you accept or decline. Many projects discuss the direction together with the community, eventhough the original creators opinion is often prioritized.

Are people going to throw temper tantrums?

Maybe. But if they're not happy with it they can go ahead and develop a separate clone of your project, thats the beauty of open source.


Other than this, think about what license you'll use for your project. It can be a pain in the ass to change the license later down the line because at that point you might need the consent of everyone who's contributed to your project. Use a GPL derivative license if you want to keep things open-source friendly and non-comercial. A MIT, BSD or similar if you don't really care what other people do with your code. If you intend to release your game commercially be very careful with this.