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Abortion that was Half-life 2 and Abomination that was Steam?

I guess fanboys don't have to explain themselves these days, what with all the great reviews given to HL2.

I'd hate to see you go off if they actually did make a bad game, we'd probably see drooling and mad CAPS!

According to http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Preview s/G70preview/11.html, an Nvidia 7800GTX draws 244 watts under full load. If you wanna go with SLI, you'll need at least 490 watts to power the video cards alone. And if you can afford that, you'll probably have plenty of other power-sapping toys and fans too.

However I don't remember of any hard disk MP3 players before the iPod.

Are you talking about Base Wars?

Good luck with that, considering motions are already being put in place to protect our night skys.

http://www.neoseeker.com/news/story/4647/

Already been done.

I was refering to where they shove 5 old arcade games on a dvd sized disk(such a waste) and sell it as {Namco|Williams|Nintendo|Sega|Atari}'s greatest hits.

Example: http://www.neoseeker.com/Games/Products/PSX/willia ms_greatest/

They're just emulators and the same roms you'd download online, as proven by some kgen guys that hacked up one of the dreamcast greatest hits packages by swapping out the rom with another one and getting it to work fine

http://www.neoseeker.com/news/story/4658/

I agree with him. Firefox is quite slow. A multi-threaded IE on a HyperThreaded/dual-core processor will surely perform like a beast ...

the relationship between frequency and power is not linear. scaling the frequency back a couple steps results in a 40% reduction in voltage. check out this page for a graph of this from WinHEC. most of the articles show that this plays out in practice but few have tackled why.

Apparently you can disable paging, to do so

Edit the Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive to 1.
Exit the Registry and reboot.

There are many ways to optimize your swap file and lots of tweaks out there to reduce harddrive activity.

Here is one useful looking tweak set

"I might sound crazy, but a decade ago, a game that would take up more than a single 600mb CD seemed absurd."

Sony won't be replacing systems with dead pixels, they do not feel they are a manufacturing defect, no matter how many there are, while the manual doesn't actually come out and say this it is implied (I checked), here's the relevant link: http://www.us.playstation.com/hardwaremanuals.aspx It's in the manual on page 13 under the section for LCD screens. And the text:
Red, blue or green spots (bright spots) or black spots (dark spots) may appear in certain locations on the LCD screen. The appearance of such spots is a normal occurrence associated with LCD screens and is not a sign of a malfunction.

and there is also this e-mail:
"DEAD PIXEL WARRANTY AND TESTING...

We have just been infomned by Sony that they will not be warranting any dead
pixel units. They are only warranting hardware defects ie broken buttons,
malfuction with drive and so on. Dead Pixels are not considered a defect by Sony
of America and will not be warrantied."
Here's the link for that one:
http://www.neoseeker.com/news/story/4461/

I didn't actually call Sony to check on this, but until I hear otherwise, I won't be buying a PSP if I cannot get a system with dead pixels replaced. Though it is nice to see that the warranty has been increased to one year out of box from the usual 90 days.

"DEAD PIXEL WARRANTY AND TESTING...

We have just been infomned by Sony that they will not be warranting any dead
pixel units. They are only warranting hardware defects ie broken buttons,
malfuction with drive and so on. Dead Pixels are not considered a defect by Sony
of America and will not be warrantied."

No, they reversed that faux pas. Heres a randomly googled report which confirms they're fixing any retail models with the problem and the US (and newer Japanese) PSP-1000K models don't ship with it.

A writer at Neoseeker.com went on a little rant about IE after seeing this particular story: http://neoseeker.com/news/story/4246/

Back at WinHEC in May (and before I believe) Microsoft gave out some more specific details about what the graphical requirements for Longhorn would be. Here's a summary of the what they were expecting hardware requirements to look like. There is a more detailed version buried on their site somewhere but I'm too lazy to dig it up

Neoseeker.com did a review of this as well: http://neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/gig abyte3d1/index.html

I can only wish that PC hardware was designed so well.

Well designed PC hardware is available. You get what you pay for. PC hardware ranges from about $200 to $10,000 and beyond depending on the configuration. Frankly, I don't see too much of a need for too much extra engineering for one box. If something is that important your going to ensure reliability through redundancy. The best computer in the world can't do too much when some careless bozo spills coffee on it or if there is a, lord forbid, user error while the system is running

With computer components being as cheap as they are, this could change. All that's needed is a decent replacement to the PC BIOS infrastructure. Something like OpenFirmware would significantly improve the ability for the software to interface with the hardware.

This too is underway. Take a look here or here. However, I wouldn't hold your breath. People seem to like the 70s technology in most PCs, including Linus.

Clickable version of parent's link

Given the national embarrassment, never mind the hypocrisy demonstrated in killing thousands & spending billions exporting your laughable democratic process...

Can anybody seriously believe that the fact that these problems still haven't been fixed after 4 years isn't deliberate???

When you look at the extensive funding involved in electing a candidate, it's obvious that some people really have a vested interest.

Are the OSCE being asked to ensure the fairness of (and will they have access to) the whole process? Us Brits are becoming quite used to fake authorities apparently sanctioning Blair's deceptions.

Of course, we didn't even start on why the Democrats put forward John Kerry - an unelectable candidate.

There's a nice computer game based on this year's presidential election. Buy it, play it and then make sure someone else plays it.

check out this FREE PS2 repair guide. I dont know of any other cohesive free resource but there are some useful hints in getting a broken PS2 working again cheaply.

Aopen released a hybrid tube audio-based motherboard back in... 2002? Perhaps it was 2001 even... My analog brain seems to have problems with old, non-important dates.

Also, it's worth pointing out that for most musicians, particularly guitarists, tube technology has never gone away. It may have gotten a little more scarce in the consumer world, but musicians have long known that tubes offer an element that while perceptive, often enhances any sound, digital, or analog-based.

It's also worth pointing out that many companies are now emulating tube sounds. For example, I sold my old Marshall stack a long time ago, and moved to an Line6 AX2 tube-modelling amp. It's very impressive, and allows me to achieve many natural sounding tones, without requiring multiple amps, or annual tube replacements.

T-Racks is a notable piece of software which can do wonders to your music tracks. Many of its functions are designed to emulate tube-based equipment.

So while it's nice to see that more people are re-discovering the magic of analog equipment, it's not like it's ever gone away.

I bought a bunch of Dualshock clones called the AxisPad for $3 apiece at a clearence. They run over USB and are shipped with a simple cd full of drivers for Windows9x, NT/2000 and XP. These things seem to work well in most games, though I have run into problems with some games that wouldn't let me change the button mappings; that's not a fault of the controller however. It seems pretty durable also. I've already dropped and run over them pretty well in the two months I've owned them and they still work fine.

The AxisPad is actually a bit larger than a *real* Sony DualShock, but I already have a 3rd-party controller for my Playstation 2 (made by Performance, called the Dual Impact and made with bright green plastic) that's exactly the same size as this AxisPad. Though the AxisPad actually performs better than it, especially with the directional pad.

Anyway, if you can't find a PSX -> USB convertor or simply need another controller, this AxisPad isn't a bad choice. Then again, I'm almost certainly biased because I got them at such an outstanding price.

Edit: I just found out why they were on clearence. Interact Accessories (who also make the Gameshark) seem to been bought up by another company. Probably spells financial difficulties

there's a chart on this page. the NV43 is a discrete chip with a different manufacturing process and a vastly different transistor count. the entire 6800 series is based on the NV40 core so the ability to mod it may be feasible.

I would imagine that in order to successfully do this you need be a hardware company. If you can provide commodity hardware with commodity software that presents a viable consumer alternative (read marketable to average joes as the best thing since a toaster for this new sliced bread stuff) then you might be able to make it. This is really a marketing problem rather than anything else. Generate a kick ass device by intergrating open source solutions with commodity hardware and your product development is much cheaper.

For example the L600.

In the end, to be successful with this strategy you have to be a kick ass marketer to deal with the big guns at the top of the food chain.

stolen from Anandtech

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Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 10.9). Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 12.3). Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 14.9). Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 17.4).

I might also add that it doesn't sound like your mother is an average computer user or even a newbie as I've seen six year old kids from China that have never used a computer look at a mouse, move it to see what happens on the screen and within a few minutes they are off getting into word processors, spreadsheets, generally applications that makes sense to them on paper.

Speaking of possible boycotts, here's something that Slashdot's not covering relevant to the topic at hand:
Antec has received a patent for case fan LEDs." They received the patent January 20, and have started sending out C&D style letters not only to manufacturers, but to retailers that are selling LED fans from other manufacturers. These fans have been around for years now, with their roots in the modding community itself. The fact that Antec's gone out and claimed this as their IP is more than a bit ridiculous. The fact that they received a patent on it is worse - what exactly is non-obvious about sticking a few lights on something?

Sorry for going slightly OT, but it's slightly annoying to see some random rant about blue LEDs on the front page after the editors rejected a submission of blatant patent abuse in the same field not even a day ago.

You mean this thing? Yep, the "Microsoft Strategic Commander."

**bite** No, actually it's not. Your Xbox was made in either Mexico, Hungary, or China.
Aren't you missing a NRA meeting or something?

For those looking for a link, the rebate is mentioned here

Karaoke Revolution, you mean :)

The "adaptive AI" in Max Payne was simply a dynamic difficulty slider. I wouldn't be surprised if it was simply a matter of monitoring your kill rate, perhaps adjusted by your injury rate, and increasing enemy effectiveness (fire rate, accuracy, maybe damage multiplier if they really wanted to be devious) accordingly. I imagine the AI topped out fairly low, though, so the overall effect was negligible. I don't believe it was adaptive in the sense that it dynamically adjusted its battle tactics according to your battle tactics, as opposed to simple numerical effectiveness.

Say I tend to shootjump to the right when I head into battle. The AI couldn't care less. Now if it _did_ notice that enemies tended to die more often when I did so, and cause them to proactively fire where I would, statistically speaking, very likely end up, that'd be an AI to write home about.

The most remarkable AI in modern gaming that I've encountered of late is that of Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution (a bargain at $20 new, btw), in which battle profiles of players in the Japanese arcade circuits was distilled into what prove to be fairly different AIs. Dynamically speaking, the game tracks the areas that you tend to attack successfully (high, middle, or low), whether those attacks are strikes or throws, and whether you won or lost with those percentages...and, judging from its effectiveness at smushing me in the long run, adjusts its behavior accordingly. So while a given AI profile might tend to, say, try to counter middle throws often, that tendency might be further exaggerated as the bulk of my throws tend to come from that area.

Quite impressive not only for its dynamism but also for the wide and finely graded range of difficulty among the AIs. As you gain ranks in the Quest mode (from 1st kyu to 10th, 10th dan to 1st, and beyond), your opponents very slowly become more difficult such that you can actually observe effective tactics emerging and adjust your _own_ behavior accordingly. Quite a far cry from Street Fighter II, mm?

Good size, very comfortable, no need to clean it very often. Not one glitch in four years.

jonathan

I just checked out the planned release date for Duke Nukem Forever for xbox in Neoseeker: dec 2003
(The date when half life 2 PC was going to be released)

OH crap, I guess now they will have to delay that one too.

Here's my theory on the HL2 delay. Since VU is operating at a substantial lost, they are prime to be saved by Bill Gate's wallet. Since Half Life2 and Xbox2 are both optimized to run on ATI's hardware, I can see the Richmond's Borg needing their killer app for XBOX2. Gates says "Hmmmm, Half Life2 sounds good. Buy them out boys!"

Recording studios offer an interesting emphasis in the three-tier model: light demands on the GUI layer, heavy demands on the (DSP) application layer, and moderate demands on the data (storage and signal I/O) layer. A <$400 notebook PC is adequate, with a souped-up PCMCIA card handling the DSP and DA/AD conversion+I/O. Which card do you know that is well supported by Linux? I think the WAMI-BOX looks great, but under Linux? And does it actually sound good?

The first one is for registry and group policy changes to remove the bloat and make more things memory resident:
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Guides/ winxptweak/1.html

The next is a guide to services, to aid you in knowing which ones that you wish to prevent from running automatically:
http://www.blkviper.com/WinXP/service411.htm

Wait for DirectX 9 to come out if you want to see floating-point color. Even if the drivers do support it, you'll never see software using it until there's another HAL there. Remember selecting your video card in every game? No way developers are going to go back to that.

Oh, and as for Linux supporting FP color before Windows... don't bet on it. I'm not doubting the Open Source community's ability to implement it, but MS has the specs shipped to them in lead-lined boxes with motion-detecting turrets mounted 360 degrees.

If your hard drive is bothering you, I suggest a Fujitsu MPG-AT drive. Fujitsu uses liquid ball bearings which eliminate that annoying whine.

Reviews: 1, 2, 3.

I don't trust USB completely. I've had problems with hubs deciding not to supply power, and the bandwidth is too narrow. From what I've heard about USB CD recorders, I'm not alone.

When I burned my first couple of cd's I was careful not to use the machine (laptop, PIII 750) for fear of swamping the USB's bandwidth... I've got a USB keyboard, USB mouse, USB compact flash reader and a USB cable for my PDA.

However, I'm happy to report, everything seems to work just fine and dandy when using other USB devices. Granted, I haven't tried using everything at the exact same time... but, I'm pleasantly surprised by the performance.

Maybe tonight I'll try my hardest at making a coaster... </evilgrin>

Anyway, I've also been thinking about getting a USB sound device... either the Stereo-Link or Extigy. I like the Extigy because it's got a lot of "stuff" (sparing the details). But, I also like the Stereo-Link because it's not Creative's product. I haven't quite decided, yet... here are some reviews:

• Extigy: 1, 2, 3;
• Stereo-Link: 1, 2, 3.

I've found that Neoseeker's Audio forum (low-traffic) tends to have interesting discussions on similar topics, and GoodSound is an interesting place to read about low-end hifi gear (as is Cheap Home Theater).

Link

If the details are accurate, this could beat out the GeForce4 and bring Matrox back into the gaming market. Unlike the 550. Decent card, but 0 gaming potential.

The_Shadows, out.

Hopefully ... because of the ease in which anybody can record a very clear conversation with considerable ease...

Here is that link the original commenter made to a bunch of regular user reviews. Note particularly how keen these regular users were to try it out with their cordless phones. If these regular users were concerned with eavesdropping, they wouldn't be using cordless phones, would they?

It's all about the mouse...

Hyperbole? Maybe, but a good mouse will go a long way. One thing that can ruin a good gaming experience is a dirty mouse ball. So eliminate the ball and go with an optical mouse. Otherwise, you will find yourself hunkered down in a corner hiding, while you desperately take apart your mouse to clean it. Alternately cursing and praying the whole time that nobody finds your crippled ass and frags it.

Given the choice of an optical mouse, cordless is definitely not the way to go. I have a Logitech cordless optical. I like it a lot for desktop use, but it has its quirks. Most notably, when you leave it idle for some time, it seems to go to sleep (at apparently random intervals). You have to give it a wiggle or sometimes even a click to wake it up. This is not so bad when browsing the internet, but I would not in any way recommend it for gaming use. Those unusual starts and stops that give you only a slight pause in the desktop environment will quickly drive you nuts.
I can't speak to the Cordless Mouseman Wheel specifically but I should point out that this site gives it very poor ratings for gaming uses.

My advice: Go with a corded optical mouse. Logitech makes a nice one.

Here's Intervideo's WinDVD compatibility list (shows a lot of cards support 5.1 and S/PDIF). I would assume that other cards would work fine with WinDVD if they support it, but I skipped over all the ones in the list that don't have those checked.

Here's Neoseeker's audio card reviews. Links to other review sites as well. PC AV Tech seems good as well.

And the list of ones I'm still looking at:

• Midiman's Delta Series. These are professional cards, but the bottom ones might be affordable (the Audiophile 2496 in particular). Good Linux support. I'm considering going all the way and getting the Delta 66 (quite expensive...one place has it at $350) to be sure I have something that works. The audio quality would be much, much better than I need for sure. One thing I'll certainly check out more before spending all that money: I don't know if the Windows drivers support consumer game APIs like EAX and such. None of the professional cards mention this and I'm not sure if it's a "of course, even the consumer cards do that, why bother to mention it" or a "these are for recording, not games" sort of deal.
• Philips Acoustic Edge 705 and 706. These looked pretty good in a review site. I haven't checked Linux support.
• Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. One review site said they had crappy drivers as well (stability problems under 95/98), so I'm not too likely to get this one. It was an old review, though. I hadn't realized Turtle Beach was in danger of going out of business.
• Hercules Game Theater XP. This wasn't on my list before; thanks for the tip.

In particular, I mention Crazy Taxi, because its non-violence is almost amusing. There are times when you accidentally drive the car off the road and you drop into oblivion, and your passenger's only comment is "turn right!", minus the expected screaming or flailing of hands.

Get a motherboard with 4 IDE channels (most "raid versions" have this) and plug 12 drives into the Hotrods, 4 into the motherboard's raid channels, and 2 into the secondary ide channel. The boot hard drive goes on the primary ide channel.

Ouch! Spend a few hundred more, and get an Escalade Storage Switch. They perform very well and aren't wildly expensive (you should be able to have an 8-channel 32-bit, 33Mhz version for under $500.00). You also have your motherboard IDE channels free for things like DVD-ROM drives... heh heh... Lots of DVD-ROM drives... Heh heh...

Ahh, yes-- and there are Linux drivers available for the Escalade controllers. If you're looking for wild amounts of performance, they do have a 66Mhz, 64-bit PCI version available, too. Wowza.

Promise has their SuperTrak controller, which looks very interesting, but based on some messages I saw flying around on the Kernel List, apparently it's not as straightforward as just compiling in I2O support to use it under Linux. Grrr...

Check out this review and this review if you want to see how the Escalade stacked up to other "high end" IDE RAID controllers.

It would be very hard to stay with those dimensions since you'd also have to fit at least a power supply, hard drive, dvd drive, and a couple PCI cards in there as well (audio, network). For a reasonably fast processor (such as would be requisite for good DivX/MP4 encoding/decoding) and the AIW card, a 300W power supply will be necessary. Again, ATX format PS is the most flexible so you've got another big chunk (roughly 5 1/2 x 3 3/4 x 6 inches - see ATX Specs). Also realize that you'll need a good heatsink for your CPU (I'd recommend a Duron or Thunderbird whose included heatsinks are 2 inches high). Using an NLX/Micro-ATX/FlexATX form factor (specs) buys some size, but limits peripheral/mobo choices. Also check out this quick form factor guide and comparison chart.

I haven't settled on a choice yet, but you might look at the following (these cases are typically about 17 x 17 x 6 inches, which is smaller than the Qbex you mention above). Key components are Abit KT7A, Athlon ~1GHz, ATI Radeon AIW, Pioneer DV-105S, IBM 75GXP HD, NetGear FA312, and Soundblaster Platinum.

• Lian-Li miniPC 31 - very spiffy aluminum case (black with silver) ... very pricey as well.
• SuperPower Landmark KS-699 - Small and decent looking, but will need to upgrade power supply and heat could be an issue.
• Palo Alto ATCX Convertible - Supports custom faceplates, buy without PSU (only 235W).
• CoolerMaster ATC 100 is similar to the Lian-Li, but slightly larger.
• Neoseeker has an interesting case listing, with collated reviews and rankings, but not a lot of independent data.
• If you get inspired to do a custom job, see HardOCP's article on case modding, which may be helpful.
• Slashdot has run many past articles on cool cases and quiet PCs (search for them, too many to link).
• Another tip: consider the Pioneer DV-105S or similar slot loading DVD drive, so you can orient horizontally.

Personally, I think the thing to concentrate on is the loudness of the unit, rather than its physical size (and, to a lesser extent its stylishness). I have a Tivo (Phillips HDR312 with 1 30G Quantum) and find it unacceptably loud when watching movies unless placed in an enclosed cabinet (its considerably more quiet than a PC). My focus on cases is just for something that can fit inside my audio cabinet and which can flow enough air (preferably out the back) to keep the system reasonably cool. If I get something really good together, I'll probably just build myself a custom case once its all settled out (but there is lots more important things to do for integration software, remote contol, DivX support, mp3 management, etc. first IMO). Remember you are also going to have a tangle of cables to deal with if you want good integration to an A/V receiver or multiple components.

Some other options to think about:

• Mac Cube, which is already compact, stylish, and quiet. Unfortunately, it lacks S-Video, tuner, and S/PDIF (digital audio) connections, costs quite a bit of money, and has limited software choices
• Laptop PC - compact and sometimes stylish, but may not have the horsepower for DivX and would probably require a lot more software to integrate functions, pricey (maybe buy used with dead LCD).
• Sony VAIO Slimtop or similar - small with many multimedia features, but you have to pay for LCD and don't have component flexibility.

Good luck, and please email me if you find anything else good or build software around the AIW and/or remote controls.

Regards, RJS

It would be very hard to stay with those dimensions since you'd also have to fit at least a power supply, hard drive, dvd drive, and a couple PCI cards in there as well (audio, network). For a reasonably fast processor (such as would be requisite for good DivX/MP4 encoding/decoding) and the AIW card, a 300W power supply will be necessary. Again, ATX format PS is the most flexible so you've got another big chunk (roughly 5 1/2 x 3 3/4 x 6 inches - see ATX Specs). Also realize that you'll need a good heatsink for your CPU (I'd recommend a Duron or Thunderbird whose included heatsinks are 2 inches high). Using an NLX/Micro-ATX/FlexATX form factor (specs) buys some size, but limits peripheral/mobo choices. Also check out this quick form factor guide and comparison chart.

I haven't settled on a choice yet, but you might look at the following (these cases are typically about 17 x 17 x 6 inches, which is smaller than the Qbex you mention above). Key components are Abit KT7A, Athlon ~1GHz, ATI Radeon AIW, Pioneer DV-105S, IBM 75GXP HD, NetGear FA312, and Soundblaster Platinum.

• Lian-Li miniPC 31 - very spiffy aluminum case (black with silver) ... very pricey as well.
• SuperPower Landmark KS-699 - Small and decent looking, but will need to upgrade power supply and heat could be an issue.
• Palo Alto ATCX Convertible - Supports custom faceplates, buy without PSU (only 235W).
• CoolerMaster ATC 100 is similar to the Lian-Li, but slightly larger.
• Neoseeker has an interesting case listing, with collated reviews and rankings, but not a lot of independent data.
• If you get inspired to do a custom job, see HardOCP's article on case modding, which may be helpful.
• Slashdot has run many past articles on cool cases and quiet PCs (search for them, too many to link).
• Another tip: consider the Pioneer DV-105S or similar slot loading DVD drive, so you can orient horizontally.

Personally, I think the thing to concentrate on is the loudness of the unit, rather than its physical size (and, to a lesser extent its stylishness). I have a Tivo (Phillips HDR312 with 1 30G Quantum) and find it unacceptably loud when watching movies unless placed in an enclosed cabinet (its considerably more quiet than a PC). My focus on cases is just for something that can fit inside my audio cabinet and which can flow enough air (preferably out the back) to keep the system reasonably cool. If I get something really good together, I'll probably just build myself a custom case once its all settled out (but there is lots more important things to do for integration software, remote contol, DivX support, mp3 management, etc. first IMO). Remember you are also going to have a tangle of cables to deal with if you want good integration to an A/V receiver or multiple components.

Some other options to think about:

• Mac Cube, which is already compact, stylish, and quiet. Unfortunately, it lacks S-Video, tuner, and S/PDIF (digital audio) connections, costs quite a bit of money, and has limited software choices
• Laptop PC - compact and sometimes stylish, but may not have the horsepower for DivX and would probably require a lot more software to integrate functions, pricey (maybe buy used with dead LCD).
• Sony VAIO Slimtop or similar - small with many multimedia features, but you have to pay for LCD and don't have component flexibility.

Good luck, and please email me if you find anything else good or build software around the AIW and/or remote controls.

Regards, RJS