Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Software Developers Need More Respect
In light of some of the articles I've read recently on how many employees at EA are disgruntled because they're getting worked super overtime hours without getting any kind of compensation...
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/04/11/12/0537234.shtml?tid=123
It's pretty much common sense to me that software developers work crazy overtime hours and don't get paid for it, and I've been wondering how the management and companies can get away with this all the time. At my last co-op work place (before EA), I've worked a lot of overtime hours. I've had this discussion with coworkers at that company, and they simply said, that's just the way it is, and if you quit, the company will just get a new hire because there are so many people looking for jobs. They work about 10-11 hours a day, often requiring them to come in on a Saturday and even on a Sunday (they really should be working about 40), and if you calculate their salary by their actual work hour, it only comes out to something like less than $15/hour, which is piss little for a fulltime job.
I'm grateful now that I don't need to work overtime at my current coop job (ironically at EA, don't get me wrong, my manager is cool and understands that family comes first, and my whole team hardly ever works overtime) and that I've sort of accepted the fact that working overtime is normal. But after reading this, I think I actually had a good point before and I've been misleaded into thinking that working overtime without pay is "legit".
So people are finally speaking out about how they are getting exploited in the workplace, and I think this is a great thing. Software developers in my opinion are one of the most abused employees in our society in that managers can just force them to work overtime.
I'm really starting to think that something needs to be done about this. Software developers can't just sit there in their cubes, work till they burn out, and then quit the jobs and let the company hire some more fresh grads until they burn them out. I don't know what exactly can be done, but I hope that by the time I graduate, the status of software developers would be more respected in general.
- Backstab @ 8:07 PM
Rotten Tomatoes? |
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
WOW
rant
Apparently, I am visiter number 50,000. I know this because I had this huge pop up on my screen saying
WOW!
You are Visitor Number 50,000,000
Congratulations!
CLICK HERE TO CLOSE THIS WINDOW and contact our prize department immediately
All I want to know is where's the prize department I want my prize, damn you.
end rant
- Knobody @ 5:48 PM
Rotten Tomatoes? |
Monday, November 15, 2004
WoW Meeting this weekend?
Hey, I was thinking we should all get together on Friday and plan this out a bit. It'll be dumb if we're all the same character or something, so maybe we can go for a "1 on each" approach. Who's going to play, right now I know it's me, George, Tom, Randy, Mike and Ephraim, anyone else? I think we should play horde because there are going to be sooooo many alliance members, it'll be dumb. I made an undead character today and really liked it so I might go UD when we start.
- Ethereal_Monk @ 10:00 PM
Rotten Tomatoes? |
My WoW Experience
Since everyone is putting in their two cents, I think I should add to the chorus. So far I'd say I put in a lot of play time, partially due to the fact when the lag was really bad and it took 5 minutes to loot a corpse. One time it took 15 minutes for me to click accept and jump back into my body. Theres a lot of good posts by mod's on the forum explaining this problem and that they will fix it, and knowing blizzard they will, it also deals with how many people are on the server, and supposedly there are too many people on each server. Come on they say 500,000 beta testers thats insane!!
Anyways, as I said I'm on test 18 and I'm now a level 15 Tauren Druid, I'm think I'm ready to jump to the alliance side and check things out. Since there are a lot of us who want to play, we should definetly start our own guild, and I'm thinking we should have one guild on the alliance side and one guild on the horde side. These teams should probably be on the same or different servers (I'm not sure which). Also in each division the trade skills should be spread out. For instance I'm an expert skinner (huzzah mike), and an 2nd level leatherworker (I think its apprentice). I also fooled around with cooking/first aid/fishing, but they are mostly useless =). In our group we should probably have a miner/blacksmith, herbalist/enchanter, and any other useful combinations so that we have every job covered among the group.
I'd have to agree with Mike in that questing helps drive the game forward, in addition to going towards new talents and abilities and skill levels. When I got my bear form it was pretty sweet, just to turn into a bear and start tearing things apart. Also the talent system is the area where the characters really differentiate yourself. Mike, you're a hunter correct? Ok well thats my druid experience, time for Alliance, I'm thinking Human Paladin. =) Also riding Wyverns is freaking cool.
Cheers
- Tommyboy @ 10:00 AM
Rotten Tomatoes? |
Old school MMO style
I played alot this weekend, I can actually get a pet now and i'm almost a journeyman skinner. (I SKIN EVERY CARCASS IN SITE, ocassionally i would click on a player corpse to skin, only to be disappointed that the game won't let me)
It's quite laggy, but i expected that when i signed up. I mean it's blizzard and open beta, so there is much to be expected, game play and demand-wise. I like the quest system in WoW. It feels like i'm doing something at all times, even when my character is gimpy. I've heard Ever quest isn't fun until lvl 45, and AC didn't have enough solo questing. Even the gimpy noob quests were good.
Actually my game only crashed once, but that's because i stupidly pressed the windows key.
If the lag wasn't so bad, i think i'd like this game even more. As for Old school play style. I found this giant level 11 creature called Old beard. I tried to fight him, but he just kicked my ass. So i come back with for my body and think of ways to lure him out without him obliterating me again. There was a chest inside with tasty meats i needed for a quest. So i waited and was thinking, until this noob came along. Immediately he rushes into the cave to fight ole Oldbeard and i think, "Man, he's going to get powned so badly, let's not waste his courageous albeit dumb, sacrifice." So instead of helping him and maybe take some of the damage. I waited until Oldbeard was nicely settled in with putting his fist in the noob's face and i rushed into the cave, opened the treasure chest, grabbed the tasty meats and bolted my way out. On my way out, I was just in time to see Oldbeard run through the guy. Easiest 900xp I've ever had to earn. I crossed the cave again some time later only to see some other noob trying to fight Oldbeard. This other higher level mage whispers to me, "Hey watch this moron get owned." Good ole Oldbeard, still putting people in their place.
Don't fight the addled gnomes in Gnomeregan, they can't be hit, i learned that the hard way.
The One and Only,
- ?!?!@? @ 8:58 AM
Rotten Tomatoes? |
Sunday, November 14, 2004
WoW that's a long wait...
I tried logging into WOW today and it said "The realm is full, Position in Queue: 4209" which roughly translates into a 3 year wait to log in.
I was playing with Mike yesterday and he saw 3 of me, I was standing alone in the middle of a field doing nothing, getting hit by something, apparently opening a treasure chest, and then I was dead. By the way, if you try to attack, it takes around 6 minutes for your action to register at which point everything will happen at light speed and then you can see if you survived or not. Forget about healing spells or buffs unless you use them 6 minutes in advance and NPC's will sometimes be missing. For example, I went to find the paladin trainer only to find that he wasn't there (and everyone else was complaining about not being able to find NPC's as well. On top of that, I've sent around 28 error reports to Blizzard (a little screen pops up giving you the chance to do so whenever the game crashes to windows). The only time I didn't submit was when the game crashed and I had to reset.
Oh boy, this thoroughly tested error free game is coming out in two weeks, I can't wait!
- Ethereal_Monk @ 4:05 PM
Rotten Tomatoes? |
Fall Clothing Warehouse Sale
Men's, Women's, and Boy's fashions including Nautica, Bugatti, Ravelli, Frank&Daniel, Nautica Boys, and Nautica Jeans. Clearance prices on Nautica Ladies Jeanswear line, up to 80% off.
590 King St. West, 2nd floor, Toronto (between bathurst & spadina)
Thursday Nov 25 10am-6pm
Friday 26 10am-6pm
Saturday 27 11am-5pm
Sunday 28 11am-5pm
Cash, Visa, or M/C - no cheques or interac. All sales final. No refunds or exchange.
I got this e-mail from my aunt, she's always got heads up on really good clothing deals. I'm going on Saturday 10am, since I'm in the kitchen all day thurs, and have class till 5pm on friday. Contact if you want to come. You know how to reach me.
- Liston @ 1:53 PM
Rotten Tomatoes? |
|
|
|
PP Awards 2002!!!
PP
Awards 2001
Backstab Recommends..
City of Heroes (PC)
Backstab's Music Picks
1. Break & Hydro - Breathless
2. SKC & Bratwa - Solitude
3. C4C - Turn The Lights Down
Top 10
Becoming A Chef
Liston's
Music of the Minute
"Love Like This Before (Remix)"
- Faith Evans
GURU MIKE'S ANSWER
What the questions is, is still a mystery.
It is time to get drunk
and get
fleur-de-lis tattoos
Etheral's
Quotes
Of the an undetermined amount of time.
Do you think the townspeople will ever find Hamster Hueys head?.
-Calvin-
Yes. I will personally purchase you Hitlers car.
-Alyssa-
I will shit well tonight!
-Slave from Just Visiting-
|
