Posts by Thrik

The energy efficiency and heat points are valid, but plasmas haven't suffered from significant burn-in or shortened lifespans for years now. I've had a VIERA going for five years and there's no permanent burn-in or any other signs of longevity issues.

The OLED TVs which are appearing right now are definitely the future but they currently suffer from bigger issues with lifespan than plasma ever had, mainly due to the blue parts of the image ageing more quickly than the others — although I believe that LG has very recently figured out a fix to this that hasn't made it into any models yet. Current OLEDs also suffer from burn-in.

That only really leaves plasmas, LCDs, and LED-backlit LCDs (completely different to OLED, basically just LCD); all of which are now obsolete technologies in the face of the move to OLED/AMOLED. (AM(O))LED is without a doubt the direction all screens are going in, but they're prohibitively expensive and teeming with issues right now.

It'd actually probably be cheaper to get a good plasma — or if you really want, LCD — and then replace it in a few years when OLED matures rather than be an early adopter now.

My experience is that Panasonic's VIERA plasmas have trumped the quality of every single LCD I've ever seen including LED-backlit screens, literally no exceptions. They have a native contrast ratio that LCD is simply incapable of achieving, and even though numerous tricks are used on LCD screens to simulate the same ratio (i.e. dynamically changing the backlight brightness) it just doesn't compare. It's as close to cinematic quality as you can get right now IMO, with the only thing that could really match it being an actual projector in a light-proof room.

Another huge plus of plasmas that's often overlooked is that despite their high quality, the prices are usually lower than LCD equivalents. If you sacrifice built-in speakers because you have your own, you can get an exceptional screen for a highly reasonable price. Even a plasma from a few years ago pisses over the LED-backlit LCDs I'm seeing in shops right now.

That said, Panasonic has actually exited the plasma market now and this year's models are their final ones. I believe that LG and Samsung are held in similarly high regard, though.

The first episode of 24 summed up Bauer's character brilliantly with the scene where he almost instantly goes from being the well-presented and respected leader of CTU to whipping out a gun and knocking out his superior. The façade peels away within moments to reveal the hardened 'I don't give a shit' mother fucker within, and from that scene on I was hooked.

The UK's garbage set-up seems to work pretty well from what I've seen, although I'd be interested to hear if those who've lived here and elsewhere think otherwise. Generally, garbage trucks go house to house, and each house has two or three wheelie bins: one for general waste (green), one for recyclable waste (blue), and one for garden/organic waste (brown). Apartments are a bit different as there's usually a communal bin area or chutes, but those are just bigger versions of the house-to-house ones.

Anyway, having read more posts I do agree that sharing salaries between direct colleagues could easily lead to uncomfortable conversations. But then, if somebody does join and earn like £5k–£10k more than someone who's been there for years and is just as good, shouldn't that poor sucker get to know he's being paid so much less? If nobody talks about it, how would they?

Of course you can always look at other jobs and averages, but they can vary so much between regions that it's rarely particularly useful. Plus, you might not want to leave your current employer or rock the boat too much, especially in games where there isn't exactly a plethora of jobs in every area.

It seems like employees are the only ones who can empower themselves in this area by sharing knowledge. Glassdoor is a solid idea; it'd be great if everyone at every company anonymously put their role/team and salary on there so you can almost always get an idea of what your cohorts are getting paid without knowing exactly who. Probably a good compromise, and if it became as standard as maintaining a LinkedIn profile it could be extremely powerful.

Seems high, I guess it goes towards useful things though. Then again, ours goes towards the same things and it's like half of that. Do you have to pay separate tax to your local council/area (approx. £100–£200 a month here) too? That goes towards city costs basically: cleaning, garbage, maintenance, police, etc.

Wtf lol? I can't anything about that, any sources or more info? I'll certainly stop buying from there if that's the case.

It's interesting how companies have successfully drilled it into everyone that discussing salary is somehow a bad thing. If someone on your team is on more or less than you, isn't everyone being aware of that a good thing?

The only downside I can see is that if someone finds out they're on significantly less than you (or vice versa) despite both being at more or less the same level in terms of skills then they might feel that the company is doing them a disservice and get hurt feelings. But once armed with that knowledge, they can then discuss it with the company or move elsewhere if need be — if they do nothing, they have nobody to blame.

As it is, people can just end up sat there for years not really knowing whether or not they could or should be earning more. I'm not saying everyone should be posting their salaries on Facebook or something, because obviously it's irrelevant to people outside your profession (or even team) and is likely to just cause jealousy in some cases. But there should be no shame in a team discussing each others' salaries so that everyone in the team knows how their employer is valuing them.

It suits companies very well if nobody knows that dude A is paid like twice as much as dudes B and C, because those dudes won't go chasing the company for more money and will remain blissfully ignorant that they could be earning twice as much if they pushed for it. That's definitely the biggest issue with this weird stigma about discussing salaries.

jesus

The Wii's DKC game was like that, very annoying to play actually. The Wii U's DKC: Tropical Freeze apparently doesn't require any shaking at all though, assuming you use the Wii U controller — which is a relief because playing DKC properly is extremely reliant on rolling.

I quite liked Returns but it missed the mark IMO because of control issues, low resolution, and too much re-used music. The sequel looks far better and in many ways what its predecessor should have been.

The new Donkey Kong Country game (with the original games' music composer back on board) looks stellar too:

The Wii U is very rapidly reaching a point for me where I can justify buying it just to enjoy the first-party games. Mario Kart 8 is out in less than a couple of months and holy shit, there's been so much stuff added since the last one I was into (Double Dash) and even though it's far from what its current-gen siblings can do, Nintendo's art as always reigns supreme:

Practically jizzed myself when the Rainbow Road music started.

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I think you just have to approach it on a case-by-case basis, there isn't really a standard in any development sector. Some companies simply pay more than others, and that isn't necessarily a reflection of their size.

To put it into perspective, I've worked at a place where the Ubisoft salary above is considered a high senior developer salary, and one where it's considered a low regular developer salary. It's worth bearing in mind that there's rarely just one salary for any given role, but a range that can span $15k or more depending upon experience, longevity within the company, and your asking price (i.e. what you were paid before).

Just never forget that the exact salary is only really relevant within the context of where you earn it. Going country-to-country or even city-to-city can make the numbers completely different due to different costs of living. If you're in the UK, you can expect to earn (and spend) £10k–£20k more simply for working in London rather than another town or city.

It depends really, don't forget that lots of independent small vendors sell their items through Amazon. So in a way, you're searching through many of those small shops when you do an Amazon search — you can sometimes get a great deal.

I always check, even though I usually get the best prices and range from the other three sites.

Quote from seir

It can get pretty unhealthy. As I already wrote, some guys are getting, lets say $7000, they are awesome so they earn a lot. Other guy with the same work time (work time is not experience!) can get even $2000 less because he's silent and with no giant success or just bad luck... You know what would happen if the second guy knows that he could get more $ just because showing his work a bit more (or stuff like this)? Madness. If industry would get a better classification for pay there would be no problem. Intern will get $A, Junior $B, Regular $C, Senior/Mentor $D, Team Lead $E and so on. The problem is that a lot of guys would be hurt by such classifications. Anyway, smart guys could get more classes like Senior Environment Artist, Team Leader and Mentor = $A+$B+$C.

I dunno, just thinking loud...

Yes, this definitely seems like a problem. Where I work there's clear banding of salaries, which is the only way it can really work fairly IMO. It's fine to pay people more if they're really good, but there should be bands that exist to cover such cases. This also aids career progression because if people are only getting incremental raises every year (i.e. barely covering inflation), sooner or later they'll hit a higher band and the company can take that opportunity to formally promote them and give them a few more responsibilities.

Without such a system, you can easily end up with the situation a lot of people in development (not just in gaming) end up in: working for years on end without being considered for any kind of new title, role, etc. This often isn't even a conscious decision on the company's part, they just have no systems to properly monitor people and help them succeed. Obviously some people are ambitious and won't settle for that, but many aren't yet are still invaluably productive — these guys usually end up disappearing one day after they've had enough of it, usually really jaded.

I've always tended to use Ebuyer, Dabs, and Overclockers. The last is probably my favourite and has been around years and years.

No matter where you order from, always check the Amazon price.

My god, that art. Shame it's iOS-only, as I'm not playing something that beautiful on my iPhone. Hope it makes an appearance on the consoles.

How is it control-wise? I've always found Battlefield a pretty challenging game to be good at even on PC, with the luxury of a keyboard and mouse. Is its PS4 incarnation a classic 'look around with the stick' style, or have any of the PS4's features such as the camera or touch pad been used to make it easier to play effectively? Just wondering how big an obstacle the controls are with what is historically a tough game to enjoy until you're really good.

I was quite surprised when I did some basic crunching to see how interest can build up. Definitely more than you might assume. Even more so if you use one of these fancy funds that invests it, unless they lose it all I guess.

One of MapCore's most active regulars Kacper 'KNJ' Niepokólczycki has recently been featured on numerous websites after beautifully recreating a piece of Deus Ex: Human Revolution concept art in Unreal Engine using UDK. Luckily for us, even following his new-found stardom he was still available for questions! In this interview, he gives an insight into the making of the scene.

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LMAO. Nice one man! Think that might have to be my Facebook picture. (Do I have you on there so I can credit you, lol?)