Valve Job Posting Indicates Hardware Plans
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Valve, Maker of Steam and Source Software, Turns To Hardware
Bellevue, Wash.-based Valve, the software developer behind the critically-acclaimed Half-Life series, the Steam network for distributing games and the Source engine, is reportedly interested in building hardware. Valve, which was founded by two former Microsoft employees in Gabe Newell and Mike
[quote user=""]Valve, the software developer behind the Half-Life series, the Steam network for distributing games and the Source engine, is reportedly interested in building hardware. Valve, which was founded by two former Microsoft employees, added a job posting to its site on Tuesday morning for an industrial designer.[/quote]Valve job? Is that better or worse than a RIM job? Although TRWTF may be the giant valve in their office. I mean, come on guys, be a little less literal. Unless your hardware plans actually include making valves.
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@El_Heffe said:
Valve job? Is that better or worse than a RIM job?
Considering that Valve is worth billions, and is per-employee more profitable than Google and Apple, that's a fairly spectacularly stupid question.
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Time to take a trip to urbandictionary.com ...
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@El_Heffe said:
Although TRWTF may be the giant valve in their office. I mean, come on guys, be a little less literal.
This offend your bourgeois sensibilities, comrade?
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@El_Heffe said:
TRWTF may be the giant valve in their office. I mean, come on guys, be a little less literal. Unless your hardware plans actually include making valves.
I wonder if they know that "valve" is what the Brits call a "vacuum tube".
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@Zylon said:
Considering that Valve is worth billions, and is per-employee more profitable than Google and Apple,
I have nothing against Valve, and maybe they are really great. Good for them. But those claims would be more impressive if they were based on actual facts, rather than speculation or claims by the CEO with no supporting evidence.@Valve is worth billions said:"I heard from various sources that the Bellevue, Wash.-based company could be worth around $2 billion to $4 billion. Valve does not disclose its financial data IHS Screen Digest’s games analyst Ed Barton thinks Valve’s 2010 revenues were in the “high hundreds of millions of dollars.”
@per-employee more profitable than Google and Apple said:"on a per-employee basis, Valve is more profitable than tech giants like Google and Apple."
Based on . . . . what? The founder of the company says so?Oh, and TRWTF si that you have no sense of humor.
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@da Doctah said:
Exactly. They should have a giant vacuum tube in their office. That would be funny.@El_Heffe said:
TRWTF may be the giant valve in their office. I mean, come on guys, be a little less literal. Unless your hardware plans actually include making valves.
I wonder if they know that "valve" is what the Brits call a "vacuum tube".
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@El_Heffe said:
Exactly. They should have a giant vacuum tube in their office. That would be funny.
And it should be operational. With a big Stratocaster plugged in. Then employees can rock out during breaks.
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@da Doctah said:
I wonder if they know that "valve" is what the Brits call a "vacuum tube".
"Valve" is what the Brits call a "valve". They also apply the term to vacuum tubes in a metaphorical sense, since they act as an electronic valve.
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@da Doctah said:
@El_Heffe said:
TRWTF may be the giant valve in their office. I mean, come on guys, be a little less literal. Unless your hardware plans actually include making valves.
I wonder if they know that "valve" is what the Brits call a "vacuum tube".So TRWTF is that the Brits are backwards enough to bother to talk about vacuum tubes?
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@mott555 said:
@El_Heffe said:
Exactly. They should have a giant vacuum tube in their office. That would be funny.
And it should be operational. With a big Stratocaster plugged in. Then employees can rock out during breaks.
Those things weight a ton, are expensive and fragile to boot, for most people solid state is the way to go specially if it is rock you are playing, blues on the other hand are a bit different.
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@Xyro said:
Time to take a trip to urbandictionary.com ...
I dunno, I think [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nro-xZ7GgA]South Park[/url] explains it pretty well.
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@El_Heffe said:
That would immensely increase my respect for them.@da Doctah said:
I wonder if they know that "valve" is what the Brits call a "vacuum tube".
Exactly. They should have a giant vacuum tube in their office. That would be funny.
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@boomzilla said:
@da Doctah said:
There's nothing "backward" about vacuum tubes. Sure, they aren't as widely used as they once were, but they are still produced by the millions, particularly for guitar amplifiers and power amps for high-end stereo systems.@El_Heffe said:
TRWTF may be the giant valve in their office. I mean, come on guys, be a little less literal. Unless your hardware plans actually include making valves.
I wonder if they know that "valve" is what the Brits call a "vacuum tube".So TRWTF is that the Brits are backwards enough to bother to talk about vacuum tubes?
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@boomzilla said:
So TRWTF is that the Brits are backwards enough to bother to talk about vacuum tubes?
Huh? Korg (Japanese synthesiser manufacturer) and others produce musical instruments with built-in valves/vacuum tubes; in Korg's case, the Electribe series of groove boxes.Once, I saw some article about a woman who (a) was not bad looking, (b) was a developer, (c) played a bass guitar/keytar that she built herself out of a Commodore 64 and (d) worked at Valve. OMG! Valve!
http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2012/05/20/jeri-ellsworth-her-commodore-64-bass-guitar-thing/
In case anybody is wondering, I worship Valve.
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@boomzilla said:
So TRWTF is that the Brits are backwards enough to bother to talk about vacuum tubes?
Yes, because completely removing any conversations regarding vacuum tubes is an indication of race advancement.
Shit...I've been trolled again.. haven't I?
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@Severity One said:
Once, I saw some article about a woman who (a) was not bad looking, (b) was a developer, (c) played a bass guitar/keytar that she built herself out of a Commodore 64 and (d) worked at Valve. OMG! Valve!
In case anybody is wondering, I wanked myself into a vacuum at such nerdporn.
I understand. Others wouldn't. It's a geek thing.
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@El_Heffe said:
@da Doctah said:
Exactly. They should have a giant vacuum tube in their office. That would be funny.@El_Heffe said:
TRWTF may be the giant valve in their office. I mean, come on guys, be a little less literal. Unless your hardware plans actually include making valves.
I wonder if they know that "valve" is what the Brits call a "vacuum tube".Like this one?
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@Cassidy said:
@Severity One said:
Um, no, sorry, I'm actually married to a woman that is considerably better looking, and an avid fan of Star Wars and Star Trek. Having said that, there aren't enough women doing geeky/nerdy things.Once, I saw some article about a woman who (a) was not bad looking, (b) was a developer, (c) played a bass guitar/keytar that she built herself out of a Commodore 64 and (d) worked at Valve. OMG! Valve!
I understand. Others wouldn't. It's a geek thing.In case anybody is wondering, I wanked myself into a vacuum at such nerdporn.
But hey, good luck with your fantasies about Jeri Ellsworth and Ceren Ercen. To each his own.
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@Severity One said:
Um, no, sorry,
It's okay. No apology necessary. Honest.
*wink*
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Valve is the first major company I'm aware of to do the whole "the next version of Windows sucks, I'm switching to Linux!" freakout.
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@mott555 said:
@El_Heffe said:
Exactly. They should have a giant vacuum tube in their office. That would be funny.
And it should be operational. With a big Stratocaster plugged in. Then employees can rock out during breaks.
Considering Valve employees can get professional massages during breaks, this is not entirely unrealistic.
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@MiffTheFox said:
Valve is the first major company I'm aware of to do the whole "the next version of Windows sucks, I'm switching to Linux!" freakout.
To be fair, once Microsoft comes to your business and say somethin akin to: "Hey, great business you ave here. I'm going to extend my monopoly into it on the next version of Windows", why would you do anything different?
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What is this thread about.
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@blakeyrat said:
What is this thread about.
RIM jobs and massages.... Can't you reed?
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@C-Octothorpe said:
@blakeyrat said:
What is this thread about.
RIM jobs and massages... Can't you reed?Ok well Valve isn't RIM in either the joke sense ("valve job" doesn't mean anything) or in the financial sense (Valve's products are successful, even if you can't change the font size in Steam's IM windows) so that joke doesn't work.
As for the actual topic, Valve hired hardware people like a year ago, and there's literally no other reason for them to port Steam to Linux other than to have a platform for a Valve set-top box (seriously, like they gave a shit about Ubuntu users? Hah!) plus the whole "Steam TV-mode" beta/whatever so it's not news either unless you've been blind and deaf for like 2 years.
I think we should talk about Skyrim.
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@El_Heffe said:
They should have a giant vacuum tube in their office. That would be funny.
During my BBC training in 1974, we visited the transmitter site at Daventry that transmits (amongst other things) the 1500 m (200 kHz) signal for BBC Radio 4. The final exciter valve (or vacuum tube if you prefer) was around two metres high and lived in its own glass-fronted wooden case. I don't know what kit they use nowadays to transmit that signal, though it's entirely possible they may still use it.
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IIRC the Windows 8 app store doesn't allow mature content and only allows app in the style formerly known as Metro...
It's not like Valve threw their hands up in the air on OSX when Apple released the App Store, did they?
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@MiffTheFox said:
IIRC the Windows 8 app store doesn't allow mature content and only allows app in the style formerly known as Metro...
I think by "mature content" they mean "porn" and not "rated M video games".
As for the Metro-style thing, I've never heard that... it may be true, but even so I wager full-screen video games won't be rejected on that basis.
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@blakeyrat said:
As for the actual topic, Valve hired hardware people like a year ago, and there's literally no other reason for them to port Steam to Linux other than to have a platform for a Valve set-top box (seriously, like they gave a shit about Ubuntu users? Hah!) plus the whole "Steam TV-mode" beta/whatever so it's not news either unless you've been blind and deaf for like 2 years.
Valve have been complaining about Windows 8's closed app shop, or whatever it is that Microsoft is concocting, so what you say makes perfect sense, but I just don't see it taking off. It's a bit like Microsoft buying SoftPC, which let you emulate an x86 CPU on PowerPC hardware. This happened around the time that Apple moved to the x86 architecture (which would have killed SoftPC anyway).The idea was obvious: so they can run x86 code on the XBox 360. But that hasn't taken off either.Even though I worship Valve, as I mentioned, I'd never buy one of their consoles. I don't like consoles.
@blakeyrat said:
I think we should talk about Skyrim.
I've noticed something really strange about Skyrim, which is that it magically makes hours disappear. You travel from Whiterun to Windhelm, clear out some barrows on the way and next thing you know, four hours have just gone.
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@Cad Delworth said:
@El_Heffe said:
They should have a giant vacuum tube in their office. That would be funny.
During my BBC training in 1974, we visited the transmitter site at Daventry that transmits (amongst other things) the 1500 m (200 kHz) signal for BBC Radio 4. The final exciter valve (or vacuum tube if you prefer) was around two metres high and lived in its own glass-fronted wooden case. I don't know what kit they use nowadays to transmit that signal, though it's entirely possible they may still use it.From Wikipedia:
In 2011 as part of the BBC cuts it was announced that there would be no re-investment in longwave which will mean an eventual end to BBC Radio 4 on longwave. It was later announced that the transmitter relies on a pair of metre-high glass valves that last between one and ten years. There were less than ten remaining in the world, and it is not feasible to manufacture new ones.
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@Severity One said:
I've noticed something really strange about Skyrim, which is that it magically makes hours disappear. You travel from Whiterun to Windhelm, clear out some barrows on the way and next thing you know, four hours have just gone.
That's because time in Tamriel moves faster.
There's actually a console command to set Skyrim to real-time. ("set timescale to 1") It's just not very fun that way.
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@keithmiller said:
the transmitter relies on a pair of metre-high glass valves that last between one and ten years. There were less than ten remaining in the world, and it is not feasible to manufacture new ones.
But the existing supply of tubes (valves) should last between 9 and 90 years.
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@El_Heffe said:
@keithmiller said:
the transmitter relies on a pair of metre-high glass valves that last between one and ten years. There were less than ten remaining in the world, and it is not feasible to manufacture new ones.
But the existing supply of tubes (valves) should last between 9 and 90 years.There's a PAIR of tubes.
RARE BLAKEYRAT PEDANTIC DICKWEED POST!!!
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@blakeyrat said:
@El_Heffe said:
@keithmiller said:
the transmitter relies on a pair of metre-high glass valves that last between one and ten years. There were less than ten remaining in the world, and it is not feasible to manufacture new ones.
But the existing supply of tubes (valves) should last between 9 and 90 years.There's a PAIR of tubes.
RARE BLAKEYRAT PEDANTIC DICKWEED POST!!!
Also, the BBC may not have any (OBPedanticDickweed: aside from those in active use) in their possession.
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@boomzilla said:
@blakeyrat said:
@El_Heffe said:
@keithmiller said:
the transmitter relies on a pair of metre-high glass valves that last between one and ten years. There were less than ten remaining in the world, and it is not feasible to manufacture new ones.
But the existing supply of tubes (valves) should last between 9 and 90 years.There's a PAIR of tubes.
RARE BLAKEYRAT PEDANTIC DICKWEED POST!!!
Also, the BBC may not have any (OBPedanticDickweed: aside from those in active use) in their possession.
Also, those they don't possess may be in use elsewhere, and thus have a shorter useful life remaining than a new one would.
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@Someone You Know said:
@boomzilla said:
@blakeyrat said:
@El_Heffe said:
@keithmiller said:
the transmitter relies on a pair of metre-high glass valves that last between one and ten years. There were less than ten remaining in the world, and it is not feasible to manufacture new ones.
But the existing supply of tubes (valves) should last between 9 and 90 years.There's a PAIR of tubes.
RARE BLAKEYRAT PEDANTIC DICKWEED POST!!!
Also, the BBC may not have any (OBPedanticDickweed: aside from those in active use) in their possession.
Also, those they don't possess may be in use elsewhere, and thus have a shorter useful life remaining than a new one would.
They could break during shipping!
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@boomzilla said:
@Someone You Know said:
@boomzilla said:
@blakeyrat said:
@El_Heffe said:
@keithmiller said:
the transmitter relies on a pair of metre-high glass valves that last between one and ten years. There were less than ten remaining in the world, and it is not feasible to manufacture new ones.
But the existing supply of tubes (valves) should last between 9 and 90 years.There's a PAIR of tubes.
RARE BLAKEYRAT PEDANTIC DICKWEED POST!!!
Also, the BBC may not have any (OBPedanticDickweed: aside from those in active use) in their possession.
Also, those they don't possess may be in use elsewhere, and thus have a shorter useful life remaining than a new one would.
They could break during shipping!
It's probable that at least one of the spares has been made a home by rabid squirrels and is no longer functional.
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@blakeyrat said:
@boomzilla said:
@Someone You Know said:
@boomzilla said:
@blakeyrat said:
@El_Heffe said:
@keithmiller said:
the transmitter relies on a pair of metre-high glass valves that last between one and ten years. There were less than ten remaining in the world, and it is not feasible to manufacture new ones.
But the existing supply of tubes (valves) should last between 9 and 90 years.There's a PAIR of tubes.
RARE BLAKEYRAT PEDANTIC DICKWEED POST!!!
Also, the BBC may not have any (OBPedanticDickweed: aside from those in active use) in their possession.
Also, those they don't possess may be in use elsewhere, and thus have a shorter useful life remaining than a new one would.
They could break during shipping!
It's probable that at least one of the spares has been made a home by rabid squirrels and is no longer functional.
There's also at least a 20% chance that one of them is an object of reverence for some minor religion, and therefore taking it is a hate crime.
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