I've fantasized about living here for a year or so. Watched a documentary on it. Rent for a NICE place is 30$ a month.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aogashima

Of course food is probably a little expensive since they boat in a shipment to its only store once every fortnight.

Back on topic : Isn't there software out there that will lock down your computer for a certain amount of time and only allow you to use development tools?

I gotta agree about the integrated graphics. It's really annoying running into shader bugs that you later realize area actually due to issues with the integrated graphics.

Maybe if you are using GM7 (software hindered right?) a slower book would be ok but if you are doing something like graphics programming and are being impeded by the hardware then that's worth getting something with a discrete option.

also what greatest games ever made are you talking about? If you are talking about a game from a previous generation then that's not a fair comparison.

tram project?

If you are planning to join a company who is working on big software then be warned. If they see you are reinventing a linked list instead of using the library you will get fired quickly. It is all about reusing tools as much as possible. This ability is considered more important than coding skills. In this scale they don't search for stubborn genious coders because they are a cause of trouble, they search people who can follow a systematic approach to structure the software.

No, not really.
Most big companies do stuff from scratch exactly to prevent using external libs/assets/whatever so they can achieve independence and control of their product and build solutions around their own creations.

They can't just allow themselves to use a lib, for instance, to then see it being discontinued and having to re-implement another solution.

Much easier is to cook up your solution and re-utilize it and adapt it in future products.

Most is a little much, because many large companies also have entire teams who are in charge to making sure the licenses of the third party libraries thy use are valid.  


Once again with something like pnglib. It's both zlib and the source code is available. You are not relinquishing control of the project by using it.


Of course like all threads the underlying theme is that neither of these answers is always correct. There's a level of judgement involved when bringing in a third party library.

That said, if I'm going to build a house. I'm not going to waste time whittling a hammer unless it's on my own time and there's a benefit to the process.

I started learning Japanese watching Ma-Chan and Gaki-No-Tsukai. Now THAT'S a bad way to learn how to speak Japanese 

Here some Japanese beaches







Love that clear water

It's a shame that Okinawa is nowhere near the rest of Japan. Most Japanese beaches are awful - it's almost false advertising to label those ones as Japanese.
I wanna go to the beach

40$ on peach airlines!






I'd like to go to St.Helena and see that crazy staircase.

What are you developing with? There's a chance anything offscreen isnt being rendered anyways. Update is a different story though.

What type of go board are you playing? Computer go or did you join a club?

Yeah there's certainly things you need to watch out for but they are mostly common sense and easy to identify off the bat. It's similar to how you would (hopefully) not talk or act like some american cartoon characters.

One interesting thing I've noticed about Anime and Japanese videogames is they use ancient words that Japanese people who don't partake don't initially understand. The main example I can think of is the word Hayate. Everyone I asked who was into anime/games etc knew if meant gentle gust of wind but everyone I asked who wasn't into that didn't initially know the meaning. After showing them on wikipedia etc they would say "oh that's an old word typically only people who play games/watch anime would know".

looking gorgeous 

Sounds like you might have been lucky for the lapse on him getting any shares in your company. That should hopefully make it easier to deal with.

late happybday 

As in, you probably don't need 50 external libraries in a 2d platformer, but there's no reason to write a JPEG loader from scratch.

This is kind of what I'm talking about.  Image loaders are firmly in the "write it yourself" category.  My image loader is only 150 lines of code, and that's including comments, full error handling, and compressed image support.  Image loaders are actually really simple, and not worth adding some additional dependency for.

while I generally agree with you about keeping external libraries limited in your project this not a specific instance I would agree with. 2 days on something that already exists like libpng I would consider a waste of time. I'd be pretty pissed if I hired a programmer and I found out that I paid them to write that for me.

Now if you were writing an obj loader that might be ok because there isn't as much of a standard for that and the all encompassing libraries are huge (assimp)

Awww Yisss   

Yeah definitely, speaking would be more useful. I do like the kana SRS sites that integrate vocab as well so that you can at least expand your range of words (even if you cant structure them).

There is the interesting issue of some parts of Japan actually speaking different words for some vocab. Even Japanese people have trouble so it's a little much to expect anything. Of what I remember there were things like Okinawa pronounces north "Cha" and the rest of Japan pronounces it "Hoku" or "Kita".

[get to the point where you're able to THINK in the language you're learning and don't have to translate.]

Yeah I think the general rule is you need a wide variety of exposure to a language to learn it. Both casual and focused consumption of the language have benefits.

yeah you need both to actually become fluent a language, i.e. get to the point where you're able to THINK in the language you're learning and don't have to translate.

This is proving t be quite hard with Japanese. When I learned french things like jokes and manerisms translated faily easily. In Japanese the cultural differences with how you speak and conduct yourself make it difficult.

So many times when I first lived there I would try telling a joke in that would work in English (I swear  ) but just explodes in Japanese.

Remembering the Kanji sucks if you want to learn Japanese. They don't tell you how to pronouce or speak the words in Japanese. Anything is better pretty much. Wanikani is miles better than RTK.

that's what the other things are for. i wasn't saying to *only* do anything on that list. everything on that list (aside from the F's) should be done at the same time

Oh I realize that's what you were saying (and that's generally good advice). I just think RTK can be removed from the equation entirely and replaced with a superior option.

Any business partner, that isn't reachable for weeks (assuming no upfront notice and emergency contacts,etc) would get dropped so quick in my world.

Definitely. If I'm paying someone and they are doing any work and taking weeks to get back to me that's enough to end the business relationship.

a good site to find practice partners is here: http://lang-8.com/ -- this lets you meet up with people in japan who want to learn english. or you can just use twitter too, as someone suggested above

but yeah i'd recommend a mix of different things. nothing is mandatory, but all help. here are my rankings for what i've found to be most useful

- flashcards / SRS / anki - A
- remembering the kanji / kanji.koohii.com / slime forest adventure / other kanji-learning - A
- interacting with japanese speakers via twitter or facebook etc. - A
- grammar guides - B
- reading simple japanese texts, or playing japanese videogames, looking up words occasionally - B
- watching anime or japanese movies actively (e.g. taking notes, rewatching the same scene 100 times with japanese (not english) subtitles, looking up words you don't know) - B
- classroom / university textbooks - C
- reading vocabulary lists, memorizing vocabulary by theme (e.g. colors, animals, plants) - C
- watching anime or japanese movies passively, but without english subtitles - C
- videogames other than slime forest adventure that attempt to teach you japanese, such as my japanese coach for the nintendoDS - D
- subscription websites like japanesepod101 and similar sites - D
- watching anime or japanese movies passively, with english subtitles on - F
- rosetta stone / learn japanese in 21 days / pimsleur / other gimmick systems - F

Remembering the Kanji sucks if you want to learn Japanese. They don't tell you how to pronouce or speak the words in Japanese. Anything is better pretty much. Wanikani is miles better than RTK.

Also watching anime/tv with the subtitles on especially when you are starting is better than an F. As long as you are doing it on top of what you are studying and not in lieu of it.


Also many cities have free service for meeting someone from Japan (or wherever) and trading lessons with one another. That's probably one of the best things you can do. I spent once or twice a week with the seniors in my town doing this in Japan and it helped IMMENSELY. Much better than doing it over the internet.

Yeah I think the general rule is you need a wide variety of exposure to a language to learn it. Both casual and focused consumption of the language have benefits.