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Creative Labs PC
leiz writes "The Tech Zone has a preview of the Creative Labs PC. Due out in September, this PC (made with many Creative components) features front side USB, audio I/O, joystick, MIDI, SPDIF, optical, and Firewire ports. Other unique features include a FM tuner, and a volume knob built into the case. Could this be the future of multimedia/gaming/pc integration?"
Good question. Microsoft's stance is that Win98 Second Edition will support firewire, but I'm not sure if that means just cameras, or if that includes hard drives. Firewire is supposed to be very fault-tolerant. I remember a demo where Steve Jobs was playing a music video off an external firewire drive, and when he unplugged it, it paused at the last frame it got. He plugged it back in and it picked up where it left off. The only thing wrong with firewire... is the damn price.
{shrug} Why would MS build MS-specific hardware, when they get the same thing done (with less DoJ scrutiny... doing something so blatant might bring down some heat, I'd think} by promoting software-driven modems, software-driven printers, and so forth?
There's *already* hardware that'll only run on, say Win9X (not even on NT...), and so forth -- and that trend does not seem to be ending.
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
Well, just to piss you off, I'm glad to report that Alan Cox himself is working on the USB speaker/sound system driver; if there's one thing you can count on, it's that Alan will get it working. So sorry to disappoint you, but Linux will be able to drive those speakers in not too long a time.
Good, now each hardware and software company will make a PC with it's own stuff... each with little quirks that only they will have... like the Linux Distros... Does this mean that Microsoft will make it's own hardware that will only run Windows 2000 and nothing else?? Or the other way around, Windows 2000 will only run on a WinComp(tm)...
Pardon my ignorance, but what is so damn special about that?
I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
I'm sorry, but I just don't get it, why do I want ports on the front? I mean, I can see why I might want USB's there if I was going to swap them alot, but why anything else? I don't want a bunch of cords coming out of the front and back of the damned thing.
Dionysus vs, Socrates! The greatest battle of all time!
I agree with Vhairos that this is a bit much on the front, but though he might not want "a bunch of cords coming out of the front and back of the damned thing," if you're connecting external devices, those are at present your only choices. (Any side ports?) Many peripherals could plausably be wireless right now, actually, (though I don't know whether there are driver issues with the available cordless keyboards and pointing devices) but let's say at the very least, you will be physically connecting a monitor to your PC.
What I would like to see instead is a slanted panel on the top / back of the pc with a ribbon cable to the motherboard to carry connections. Now to make some bad ascii art that won't survive posting, let me see:
__________
a / |
/ |
/ | b
| |
| |
| |
| |
|_____________|
(side view)
(a) is the panel I'd like to see.
Space being what it is (and I live in a 22' Airstream trailer), computers get shoved into corners, under desks, beside carefully-squeezed-on monitors, etc. Reaching the ports on the rear can be a pain in the rear can be
Also, the cables that are on the rear require a certain amount of clearance, and generously sized PC cases, while nicer to install things into, can take up *all* of some desks front--> rear space.
If such a case design exists, someone please tell me about it! Thanks.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
With FireWire, you won't need to worry about it. The main system has your memory, CPU, and glue logic. Everything else (hard drive, CD-ROM, etc.) all comes off your firewire. I guess this could include video as well.
An FM tuner knob? It's just too hokey - like Compaq's "internet buttons" on their machines.
Cool logo. Yes, this is is important to me. Creative - get a more creative logo.
Free bumper sticker. I want to take pride in owning a quad-xeon 500 box with more megabytes of ram than most people gross in dollars each year. >:) Since not only does this box NOT give me a free bumper sticker.. it doesn't even have a decent processor in it to brag about!
Has to run linux. Well - duh!
Okay, enough with the slams on their product - what I want to know is: Why are computer manufacturers bent on trying to make computers something they're not? An fm radio?! What were you guys smoking when you decided to add *that*? If you wanted to be "multimedia", add a DVD player in there, with a hardware mp3 decoder so we could download and listen to our favorite tunes. Throw in a Rio if you want to really impress people! Yeeesh...
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