>> ^spoco2:

It's that whole 'getting into the zone' thing with coding (yes, I'm a coder by trade).Same. I also try to get my procrastinating done in the first hour of the day; then it's on with the headphones. Unfortunately I'm a nicotine and caffeine addict which gets me when I'm between tasks.



Do you have a KARLSTAD two-seater leather sofa as well?

I know full well my procrastination habits, and my main method of getting rid of them? Don't... sort of... I write off the first hour or so of a working day to checking email, checking facebook, checking videosift, checking engadget etc. etc. And once that's done the new things to see and read etc. are pretty much all gone (and being on Austalian time, and most of the stuff coming out while I'm asleep, it doesn't drip feed that fast during the day) then I can really get stuck into work... plus I have sufficiently slacked that my mind is into a really good 'right, I'm relaxed and feel I need to be productive' mode.

It's that whole 'getting into the zone' thing with coding (yes, I'm a coder by trade).

So... yeah.

But I completely agree with his tips as once you're IN the zone you don't want to be out of it... and I find that headphones and music help a lot there. I have some albums that I have listened to literally THOUSANDS of times now (The first Enigma album is one)... because I can put them on, they get me into the right mindset and I stay there.

And I found his style charming, he's got a talent there

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>> ^Ryjkyj:

I don't get it.


If you haven't been exposed to the demo scene and just see a video then I can understand why people wouldn't get it. You have to bear in mind that what's in the video can also be rendered in real time on existing (usually consumer) hardware.

The demo scene consists of coders, artists and composers who try their best to get computers to do as much as possible with as little as possible. In this example they have free reign over pc hardware; but you'll also find demos for older, self contained machines (Amigas, Ataris, Gameboys, iPhones; even calculators). You'll also find demos for self imposed limitations, such as writing the demo as a program that fits into a limited space such as 256kb, 64kb, 1kb and all the way down to an insane 32 bytes.

The techniques used, such as data compression; procedural content generation; and streaming can be influential on other real time software such as video games.

The programs that they produce (often known as Products or prods) also have to be visually interesting. Parties are often held where the coders and artists come together and demonstrate their work to each other. This leads to some competition; and/or sharing of ideas and techniques. The teams also often create these things at the parties themselves; creating prods in only a couple of days; and often with alcohol involved.

An aspect of this whole scene that I find interesting is that in order for the participants to actually achieve this stuff they inevitably have to produce content; which means they need an art direction. This has lead to a subculture of visual and audio styles that you perhaps wouldn't otherwise have found elsewhere; especially with the unique limitations.

Nowadays the styles that have come about in the demo scene have very much influenced mainstream culture; from music and music videos; to advertising; to movie and tv titles; and print.

Edit: If you're interested and want to see more; try out pouet.net.

Yeah, I think it's mostly that there are about that many women programmers, nothing to do with the 'community being hostile'.

I too have been in the industry for over 10 years now and have had ONE female coder who I've worked alongside, and they were HTML, not 'real' programming

In fact, the company I'm currently at which makes various apps and systems for data management and display etc. has ONE woman employee out of about 15 of us.

It's just the facts of the industry I'm afraid, like it or lump it. Whether it's born out of an actual bias of interest, or more cultural I don't know. I now think there are innate difference between the sexes. I have three boys and a girl, who is the youngest (almost 2), and so she is exposed hugely to boy things, we also do our best to not do anything that's sex biased with her (like assuming she wants dolls or to look in the 'girl' isle in the toy shop). But with all of this, she still gravitates towards the pink area in the toy shop, and the jewellery and the like. It's quite odd to see.

I dunno about the brain development caused from doing 2 plus 2 all day. Expanding your mind isn't XP grinding. I do think that they both miss a good point on the road less travled that Karl was talking about. But living a life style of always fretting the little things is backwards, not progressive.

It reminds me of a talk I had with my roomie on what makes a good coder. A good coder is lazy. Meaning he doesn't want to waste his time doing trivial interactions with his machine to accomplish his goal. Trivial interactions do not expand the mind. But taking an alternate path not recommended to you by some program isn't so trivial as to be mocked.

>> ^blankfist:

Let me try my top 21 predictions for the next decade! A lot of this will be US centric.
1. HDTV dimensions will increased from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160.
2. Screens will be increased to print pixel depths. 300dpi is only the beginning.
3. An affordable, flexible LCD material will change the tech and advertising world. Maybe the material can be cut to fit any size?
4. The war in Iraq will be over. But the occupation will last for decades. Other wars in the Middle East will continue.
5. Sarah Palin will never be President.
6. The US Deficit will grow to a historical high. As the Dollar and the Renminbi compete for world currency a new Cold War will be declared.
7. Top 40 music will suck.
8. The browser will be integrated as part of the OS and no longer treated as just software. Your work software (IDEs, Microsoft Word, Excel, etc.) will be treated as online plug-ins, savable (with versioning) in the cloud.
9. Electricity will be wireless.
10. Reality Shows will be the new sitcom. Again.
11. China's working class will stage small worker union revolts, but the scale and number will be dramatically inflated by the media.
12. Tommy Lee Jones, Adam Ant, Joel Coen, Matt Groening, Bill Clinton, Lorne Michaels, Sam Elliot, Rudolph W. Giuliani, Steve Jobs and Roy Scheider. One of them will probably pass away.
13. Google will acquire Facebook.
14. Apple's stock will drop if Jobs passes away. They'll try to embody the innovate spirit of Jobs, but they'll miss the mark and stick to just updating the current products like iPod, iPhone, Macbooks, etc.
15. There will be an assassination attempt on a Congressman. Congress will pass into law the Vigilant Act that declares DC to "be at war". As a result no civilians except current residents are permitted to enter. Under the Act any type of search and seizure in DC is legal. To counteract the bad press, the America Museum is opened in Virginia.
16. GM will file for bankruptcy.
17. Like the huge increase in gas prices as become part of day for the US, the people will grow accustomed to the high rate of unemployment. Politicians will no longer talk about gas prices or unemployment.
18. Marijuana is legalized in three states. It's legalized for medicinal use in seventeen states.
19. Autism is linked to the artificial sweetener, Aspartame.
20. Most internet enabled TVs and projectors become equipped with a'la carte system of channel ordering. So you only buy what channels you want streamed to your tv.
21. A new phone technology is developed that works a lot like bit torrent. The phone's signal piggy backs off other phones in the area, and the more phones in an area the better the signal. Most people, however, turn this feature off because it's rumored to be a security weakness.


To answer a select few points:

1. I thought 4k displays would be up next? (4096×3072; as a coder I hate widescreens. I need horizontal screen real estate).
3. This will happen sooner than we'd like
7. When did it not?
9. See 3.
Addendum to 21: We will see a surge of private networks, linked by VPNs and shared by friends; mostly done by people trying to run away from all the crass advertisements and data gathering schemes in the net today.

>> ^Hybrid:

I am a PS3 and 360 video game coder.


Which games did you code in the past and which ones currently (if you can tell us)?


For me, I am a software quality assurance (SQA) tester/analyst with a well known security company. I pick on developers', coders, managers, etc. for their booboos.

I am a PS3 and 360 video game coder.

>> ^Zonbie:

are you trolling? Not very good? Really? Seriously? Ok what didn't you like?>> ^teebeenz:
That wasn't very good. Demos have really gone down hill, especially now they're allowed to cheat and use hardware acceleration.



Demos are not supposed to be an art students portfolio, they should be pixel art precalcing insanity... a collection of a coders best shit to say "See what we can do".

thx gwiz!

In reply to this comment by gwiz665:
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>> ^FlowersInHisHair:

"This is a private video". Eff off.


Same for me.

I'll let the next person who sees this call it dead.