Slashdot Mirror
Adding Pizazz to Your RAM
EliteTEK noted that Extreme Tech is running a review of some fancy new
illuminated DDR RAM. This one actually has a 10 char alphanumeric display that normally displays stats on your system, but with their software can display anything you like. It's about time that people can read RSS feeds on their RAM.
I have never had a case where I could actually see the RAM very well. It's useually hidden in behind cables (which a case modder would have fixed) and behind drives. Not to mention that it stands up in the RAM slots, so that the face of the RAM isn't even viewable.
It would be cool if there were a case with RAM mounted in the front (like in a drive bay) and had a window that showed through into the "RAM bay", I could see a lot of modders liking that, but the latency from the bay to the MoBo seems like it would hurt the performance of the RAM.
Which company will be the first to put ads on that thing?
Like we don't have enough power consumption problems already... For a decent gaming system we need a 450watt+ power supply, now with nVidia's requirements of a couple free power dongles and the massive storage capacity of the new hard drives, we need more power then ever... it won't be long until 1000 watt power supplies are standard in your e-machines POS paperweight boxes... I don't get it, what's the point in wasting precious power to have your RAM say somethign like "I R teh 1337 h4xx0r" But maybe that's just me...
...don't give a shit about case mods and flourescent lights and blinky RAM, just like how real car enthusiasts don't adorn piece-of-shit imports with stickers and tacky wings. It's all about what's under the hood, not how pretty it looks on the outside.
People who waste money on this nonsense should be ridiculed by us proud, genuine nerds.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
I agree with you to a point, the functionality of my PC is what comes first. But looking at the aesthetic of Apple computers and the growing amount of pretty cases out there, people want their appliances to look nice, or at least not look completely out of place in their homes.
Now there are some pretty ugly cases out there, giant flashing LED monstrocities with bad car paintjobs and racing stripes, but some people are making interactive sculptures that have computers inside them and I don't think that's negative at all.
I remember a boss I had once who was so proud that he built his own pc. He had soldered all the sockets on the board and pressed the chips into the sockets.
I also remember thinking "That's not building a pc", that's building a kit, so what. I built my second computer (first computer was a kim 1) with wirewrap and and handful of parts on clearance from radio shack (8080 et al).
PCs are just not truly "hackable" by the average hobbiest anymore. I'm not lamenting the loss, it isn't important. What I'm saying is that calling people who stuff crap into their computer case a "hacker" is about the same as calling someone who puts rim covers on their car a "mechanic".
PCs are appliances and talking about how people are "modding" them is about as interesting as talking about how people are "modding" their toasters.
This is all show, no go.
A real mod would be adding a bigger heatsink so you could actually run the machine faster or more quietly.
These things are so stinking huge that a regular stick will probably fit under the overhang.
But I do agree. A lot of this modding stuff seems like a waste of time and money to me. Unless you're just going completely all out and creating a real piece of art, like the Hypercube^2 guy at bit-tech.net. Obviously a lot of the hardware in that thing he's going to be stuck with because of all the custom-built fittings. But it's still a piece of art with an aesthetic value completely separate from it's functional value.
by shitting all over a person's sense of pride in doing something on their own
so what some are calling "hacking" may not really be hacking as you define it, sure
but maybe those people are the same people who go on to delve even deeper under the hood and wind up being hackers in the sense you mean it many years later: by following their sense of wonder and curiosity
and if they ever do arrive there, they won't have your ivory tower holier-than-thou snobbery to thank for that now will they?
what you should be doing is encouraging other people's curiosity, but instead you stand there and shit on it
so while you debate what really is the right definition of the word "hacker", i think i've found a new definition in my book of the word "asshole"
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it