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Crusoe Architecture Seminar
bineronbrain wrote to us with class notes from Stanford Online's
ee380 class. The guest speaker was David Ditzel, Transmeta's CEO, who goes into quite a bit of detail about the basic architecture, and teaches about how the code-morpher works and the implication it has for compiler-writers. Pretty cool stuff and you can grab the audio recording, as well as the class notes. For some reason, it's only availible in Media Player format - which means I'll never hear/see it again, of course. *sigh*
All of Stanford's online courses are broadcast only in ASF, Windows Media Player format. This is because testing was done to compare Real Media and Windows Media and Windows Media was found to deliver higher quality video. Real Media's playback was choppy and the image quality was not as good for high bandwidth video such as these. As the purpose of these online video streams is to provide lectures, not just some 2 minute movie preview or new TV ad, it was decided to go with the best quality, even if that meant sacrificing some platform independence. It's very awkward to take a class and have to deal with watching lectures than are so poor in quality, you'd just as rather nto watch the lectures.
So ASF was not chosen because of allegiance to one company over another or any other conspiracy theory. It was a pure quality of service issue. If Real Media had provided better quality, I'm sure that would have been used. But it didn't and Windows Media did.
Stanford online students can view VIDEO (WMF) of the course, but it requires a user name / password... And seminars don't usually have class notes, per se, as they are led by a different person each week.
Fixed. Reload the page
Hetz (Heunique)
Well, I'm a slashdot author, but I'm also a reader. Do you think I like this shit that some anonymoud cowards putting here? I don't!
Hemos & Rob are thinking about some solutions for this issue. So please - HOLD your horses!
Hetz (Heunique)
In my day, we were lucky to get some suit in to give a lame half-recruiting half-technical talk on technology we knew better than him...
In particular, the fact that they've been working with IBM is pretty crucial. If they sell to IBM, and sell to Diamond, and sell to a few other OEMs, it is no problem to Transmeta that they aren't pushing product at your engineering buddies.
Transmeta will succeed or fail based on whatever product deployments come out over the next six months, and with product lead times being what they are, the engineers that will be working on those products probably are already working hard on them.
As much as I'd like to buy a Transmeta PC mobo/CPU combination, that's really not what they're trying to sell. They're aiming at things like laptops and portable devices, and there are likely a bunch of those in the design/implementation pipeline.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
I suppose this means I also *CHOOSE* not to drive a Porshe. Sure, I could buy one, but I don't find them economical. The same applies to a Win32 environment IMHO. It's a resource hog, it costs money, and while you get the Microsoft flash, I'm not sure I'd drive it every day..
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
Ooh, where can I get one? On Pricewatch the lowest price for one is $400.
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"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
Quine "quine?
Well, as I assembled my current PCs from base components and never had to purchase a license for the OS software, I am not about to pay $199 or whatever it is for a full version of Window$ just to view these dopey files...
Anyone care to mpeg-ify them?
Your Working Boy,
What is being developed with the Crusoe chips? I haven't been able to find announcments for things like laptops or pdas that use them.
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
I feel sympathy with the poster of the comment, because if it were something that was really vitally important to know, you would pretty much have to run Windows, and listen to it. Since this particular soundfile isn't at that level of importance, you choose not to.
I'm not saying that I think your choice is a wrong one. Obviously not, since it is a personal choice. But the point is that it is a choice. They aren't holding a gun to your head to keep you from listening to the soundfile. It's just not in a format that is convenient for you. Sure, the "convenience" may involve $200 for a license for Windows, repartitioning, and whatnot. But it's not impossible for you to do.
Jordan
Yes, but were you aware that right across the street from the Gates building is the Paul Allen Center for Integrated Systems? They've usually got some wonderful art on display in the halls, but stay away from that damn snack machine. It will eat your money every time.
No class notes, no real content on that page, and it's overloaded. Oh yeah, and isn't this the same university that made class notes by you THEIR property? Atleast we can count on their support for the DMCA.
And no sign of course notes, as mentioned.
seems there was a flap on here recently about course notes being property of the prof. or U. and they couldn't be posted online...
Zorro
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Actually, consumers don't need to "know" about Crusoe. They just go to the local computer retailer, there's the webtop, notebook, pda, whatever, and they buy it. It's the OEM's that need to know about Crusoe, and they know about it.
-BrentBut we're all mighty curious on them. The programmers wanna know about the code morphing. The hardware freaks wanna know about the chip architecture. The suits wanna know what it can do for their overrated IT company. The hackers wanna know what it's got in store for them. And I, I wanna know whether it'll start competing with Palm, which I hope they won't. That's why we wanna see stories on them.
I seem to remember talking to a friend about Real would charge you per the number of simultaneous streams you could broadcast with their server. Can anyone give info on what Real & MS charge for their servers?
This may just be a case of MS giving a server away to a University, whereas the University would have to pay for Real. Which would you use in this case?
Heh, the first thing I started wondering about, when I read about the crusoe chip was .. will it be software-upgradeable? In that case - it should be vulnerable to computer viruses. That - is definatly not a good thing.
Anybody know if this thing is going to be software upgradeable (Something that would be both good and bad).
Anyone?
--
"Rune Kristian Viken" - arcade@kvine-nospam.sdal.com - arcade@efnet
"Rune Kristian Viken" - http://www.nwo.no - arca
First, I didn't see the "not" .. then I started wondering wtf you were posting with Score 1 .. and then I noticed the "not".
Please, stop abusing someones name. Register as yourself, damn it.
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"Rune Kristian Viken" - arcade@kvine-nospam.sdal.com - arcade@efnet
"Rune Kristian Viken" - http://www.nwo.no - arca
Well, then, you seem to have gotten the point! Because this post was not a troll, it was a protest. This I read and understood. Copies of VisualBasic's EULA are meaningless trash to me. Discussion, on the other hand, is meaningful. As it happens, I don't agree with your points (mostly). Point: /. is going downhill. You also have to realize that some people are interested in things that don't interest you. For example:
1.) I agree with. This does seem to be a problem, though I doubt there's any malicious intent on the part of the staff.
2.) What's wrong with this article? It's informative and interesting. Learning about a new processor architecture MOST CERTAINLY is News for Nerds, whether or not it be Stuff that Matters. I agree that beta releases shouldn't necessarily be mentioned here, but they always used to be... I don't know where you get the idea
3.) I do. I care. It matters to the people who make the site, so sure it isn't news, but it is Stuff that Matters.
4.) I covered this already. Obviously other people's definition of Nerd is different than yours.
Now, wasn't that much better than ranting incoherent nonsense? Now you can present your counter-counter arguments in a logical and intelligent fashion, and I will listen and consider them. Thank you.
It's all choices. Even if you don't have x86, practicly everyone is capable of saving up money/robbing a bank/whatever to get one. However, for instanace the robbing a bank scenario is to risky for most of us, and goes against our moral judgement. Idem with using windows.
Thanks for the defence, I think. No, I know perfectly well that Linux runs on the same computers as windows does (and a bunch of others), I even have a nice Linux/Windows box sitting at home right now.
My point was just that it is a little disingenuous to complain about the file format. CmdrTaco is prefectly capable of watching the clip if he wants to badly enough (what, worst case he's out some cash for the windows license... I think he can afford it).
I mean, wouldn't you feel the same way if someone went "What iz zis? It iz not eeen French?"
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
For some reason, it's only availible in Media Player format - which means I'll never hear/see it again, of course.
Why not? If you have an x86 compatable chip you are prefectly capable of watching it. You just are choosing not to for whatever reason. Your loss.
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
Taco can almost certainly already watch this - IIRC he's got a Sony VAIO and I don't recall seeing them sold with anything other than Windows.
:) Who could pester Rob to bring his VAIO in to slashdot towers to get at the clip...
The poster, however, was Hemos
Greg
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
It may well come off, but the objection seemed to be that people had to pay for Windows to read this data. Well, Rob appears to have a Windows license going spare so that's a non-issue.
Greg
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
I think that like many things, geeks are the ones who will drool over Crusoe's technology, and general consumers will tune into compelling products using the technology. Your mom does not need to marvel at MPEG2 compression to enjoy here DVDs.
(because Mr. Taco runs Linux on it.)
For all I know, it may *be* just that (set up for dual-boot), but not necessarily. VAIOs may not be sold without windows, but it does come off them;)
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Sorry to burst your bubble, and take this as flame bait if you wish, but Media Player just sounds a WHOLE lot better. Real Audio sucks.
I use both, I know what I am talking about.
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Za's Vid
E/.
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What, me worry?
Anyone that was able to grab this before Streambox (www.streambox.com pulled it from the site - supposedly new version coming soon - can capture these and convert them to other video formats.
Can't someone who downloaded the previous version demo send it over to Hemos?
The site seems to be down rather quickly for the /. effect. Or is Stanford like some other Universities I've encountered, and very edgy about providing too much of its high-quality material to the unpaying masses of cyberspace? ;)
Fixing copyright
If somedomain.com is a trollhouse, ban somedomain.com accounts from posting. Permanently. No excuses.
If you are a legitimate poster and happen to have a hotmail account, tough luck. Get a real address, or get lost.
--
Industrial space for lease in Flatlandia.
My personal opinion is dump ACs like you proposed, and then start giving moderators two types of points - negative and positive points. They should be expected to use all positive points, and use of negative points should be /. should be 0, so that -1'ers don't get displayed at all.
optional (IE - they don't HAVE to use all of them.) Then, allow moderation down into the -3 range. -3 would be completely undisplayable after it's moderated to that point - and from that point on, someone who has been moderated
to -3 automatically has -1 to any posts they make for the next (x) days the first time they get -3, the next time it's (x) + 3, and then after that, it's permenant. They can still post, but, anything they post will be -1 BEFORE
moderation. Then, the default threshold for display on
Ok but there at least should be some ability to actually look at posts that are at -3. I really think that dissenters should be seen even if they are stupid. Yeah I am rather suprised about this however I think that the borland/inprise spamming and most of the heavy stuff could be effectively stopped by a little banning of the ips involved.
Just my thought on the subject. When I checked out this article, only 10 posts were at +1 or better, out of 30 something! You are right in the fact that SOMETHING has to be done!
Censoring stuff dosn't really promote discussion. Just a thought but perhaps just branding some posts with a spam flag and having them filtered out by defeault. Add that to the preferences or the formatting of the comments and you have a workable solution.
Slashdot social engineering at it's finest
Bah don't be such a troll. Torvalds Computer Science Building. Oooooh Torvalds rocks man, he's the (self proclaimed) best programmer in the world, stanford ROCKS, i'm going to stanford, I'd love to see a beowulf cluster of linus torvalds computer science buildings! The point is, SO WHAT?
I agree with you Rombuu. But additionally, I think CmdrTaco probably has enough cash to get a development team working on a Linux player which could handle those files ;)
I mean really - there are only a couple of solutions to the "problem" here:
- use your own astounding skill to write a Linux player.
- pay someone else to write one.
- pay / bribe / beg someone for a conversion.
- install Windows.
- forget about the movie and move on to something else.
- bitch to the masses.
Guess which one you see most often around here...
Best regards,
SEAL
WIRWTKI Where can I get that shirt?
threadeds blog
I think big things are going to happen for Transmeta.
threadeds blog
NEC Auditorium, Gates Computer Science Building B03
:-)
Gates Computer Science Building?! NEC auditorium?! Wow, talk about sellouts...
thats what i was trying to say!
Computers save man alot of guesswork, but so does the bikini
I've read all the other replies to this and I'm kinda getting the impression that Rombuu isn't aware that Linux runs on the same computers that Windows does. Maybe he assumes that all un*xes need custon/mainframe type hardware.
I sincerely apologize to Rombuu if I am wrong!
Anyway, I bought my computer without Windows so why should I have to pay MS loads of cash to watch a simple video clip? (this paragraph is redundant)
BTW, Sorry Rombuu - Sometimes I can be a bit patronising!
Interesting point you have regarding French.
The problem I see is that if someone was to go to the effort of writing a Linux player then the protocols would need to be reengineered and we'd be in the same stupid position as this DeCSS farce.
A French person can get a page translated in many ways but until MS use *open* protocols I still believe we have every right to tell them to stick the Windows Media Files where the sun don't shine
If I am reading the signs correctly, wearable computers (modular, replacing cell-phone AND PDA AND laptop) will be big very soon... and the Transmeta processor will be VERY big in wearables (-8.
Personally, I don't think that banning AC posts is going to do the job. Quite a few of them have started using accounts, and now thier negative karma scores are badges of honor.
Deleting the accounts for those who are posting crap doesn't do the job either - they will just get more accounts. Banning them by email address won't work, cause it's way too easy to go grab a new hotmail address.
Starting new accounts at 0 doesn't work well either - then they will never be heard, and they will never get the Karma nessisary to become +1
My personal opinion is dump ACs like you proposed, and then start giving moderators two types of points - negative and positive points. They should be expected to use all positive points, and use of negative points should be optional (IE - they don't HAVE to use all of them.) Then, allow moderation down into the -3 range. -3 would be completely undisplayable after it's moderated to that point - and from that point on, someone who has been moderated to -3 automatically has -1 to any posts they make for the next (x) days the first time they get -3, the next time it's (x) + 3, and then after that, it's permenant. They can still post, but, anything they post will be -1 BEFORE moderation. Then, the default threshold for display on /. should be 0, so that -1'ers don't get displayed at all.
Just my thought on the subject. When I checked out this article, only 10 posts were at +1 or better, out of 30 something! You are right in the fact that SOMETHING has to be done!
Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr - looking for something to read? Check out my three free novels at MidnightRyder.org
1. Stupid and moderated down so you don't have to see it.
or
2. Funny, marked as such and you get to enjoy the work.
So please stop whining about it. Slashdot is a free site for geeks and the like to hang out at. Remebmer the follys of government (the same holds true for /.). If they make hardcore rules to abolish troll posts, I would say that they would lose a large part of the community simply because we don't like them telling us what we can and cannot post.
Munky_v2
"Warning: you are logged into reality as root..."
Jay
About Transmetas popularity: My Girlfriend is working at a high level management office (one level beyond the CEO's office) in a^Hthe major semiconductor company in germany (read: Europe). And they _know_ transmeta and are somewhat excited about the idea, the chip, and the company. Alex.
Answer: U.S. senator from California, and one of the builders of the first U.S. transcontinental railroad. Became stinking rich as a railroad robber-baron and built Stanford University in his farm in Palo Alto, in 1885, as a memorial to his only child who died at the age of 15.
Whoever is or was this Gates who donated the money to build the GCSB is as completely irrelevant as the identity of this Stanford guy. The important thing is, no matter who are Stanford and Gates, their money is now being used for education, in this one particular case for a course on this "crusoe" chip.
From the /. moderator guidelines: If you can't be deep, be funny
To deliver video to the real world and get paid for it (in some general sense), you have to deliver the video dependably to a random audiance connected via random methods. ASF just doesn't hack it.
It's kind of smart for them to be working with large schools like Stanford. If you can't get your name into the current market, market the future...
kwsNI
Rumour has it that they're negotiating with AOL for some high-tech proprietary access client software... ;)
- - - -
Slashdot headline tomorrow:
Australian Airline manufactures Crusoe portables
;)
Here is some possibly interesting (though somewhat old) info on a port to Linux of Microsoft's Media Player...
Transmeta is going to launch (I mean real soon now) a parallel processor that'll make Itanium bite the dust. Itanium isn't x86 compatible, while the TransProc is.
They did what they claim : Rethought the microprocessor. And come up with a solution that's not only cheaper but also extremely flexible.
The only other example that comes to my mind is the HUGE raw power of the G4 PPC. Simpler design than Intel Pentium II. Less transistors. Yet they didn't think it as a backwards compatible one.
And about that BIOS erasing viruses and stuff : well I suppose there's gonna be some freaking jumper (and you don't need to update your webpad's c-m software anyway)
It's easier shooting someone than beating him to death? Hell, it's easier shooting someone than buying the Times. Su
Gates Computer Science Building B03
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fat lenny's gonna lick your brain today.
Just great. So the CEO gives a cool speech, and instead of talking to clueful undergrads, he stops at the first *Junior* College down the street.
:)
Come on, Transmeta, I think you can afford plane fare