For the people replying who may not understand: The townspeople saying the boy is helping the town's economy are like those who say outsourcing is hurting the country's economy.
Ok, so you've got a CD and a Key, but Steam is down. Now what are you going do?
The same thing as the guy who downloaded it; not play.
It doesn't matter anyway. I'm sure after you register your CD key with your Steam account it would save the key and you could download the game if you ever need it again.
But I guess you do end up having one more shiny thing than the guy who chooses the download. And you even get to leave the house to pick it up!
Damn... I thought I was safe from the RIAA, but I always seem to remember the words to music playing on the radio. And sometimes I'll even hum it later in the day!
Surprisingly, it looks great at 640x480 on "Medium". As long as you aren't the type to freak out if you see an aliased line. I actually can run the game fine at 1024x768-Medium but prefered the look of my girlfriend's computer running at 640x480-Medium. So now I'm running at 640x480-High. You really don't need the high resolution because you're never shooting at anything more than a few yards away. It also helps take the edge off some of the characters, at 1024x768 you could chop down a tree with some of the corners on the models. With 640x480 the edges aren't as so prominent so I actually prefer it.:P
The lighting, bump-mapping, shadows, and effects are really what make the game great, those are what you want cranked up more than the resolution and texture detail.
Now, that said, with only 32MB of video RAM you'll probably be playing at 640x480-Low, and with the 9000 you'll probably need to disable Specular lighting and Shadows. After that you should be able to average 30fps and get a pretty good experience out of it.
"As for getting burned by the mobo manufacturer, the last Via I had was from Soyo and ran me $200."
There's your problem, you found the exception. Soyo boards are crap, *and* expensive. I've had 3 Soyo boards personally, and known 2 friends who got Soyos. On two of mine the AGP slot went out and on the other the PS/2 ports went out. On one friend's the AGP went out, on the other's the board just stopped booting. I've put together more systems than I can count, and every one that's used a Soyo had problems.
Now that I sit and think about it, the only motherboard I've thrown away besides a Soyo was an Abit. But I'd say that was a fluke, I know of at least 7 systems I've used Abits in that are still going strong.
I generally recommend and prefer to use Asus, Abit, or Epox. Although I did put a system together last year that I used a Soyo on, simply because it was an extra system for myself. I had enough spare parts for another system and only needed a motherboard. I found the Soyo DRAGON Platinum on clearance at compgeeks for $40 and figured that it'd be worth the risk for all the features it had, especially considering this wasn't going to be my main desktop. Well, that's the one that the PS/2 ports went out on. It's still working, I just had to get a USB keyboard and mouse for it.
Bottom line, every computer I know of that has used a Soyo motherboard has had motherboard problems. To contrast, I've never had a problem with an Asus (I've used ~10) or Epox (used ~5), and only an occasional problem with Abit (used ~10).
Also to touch on the issue of VIA chipsets, the grandparent is right. I've only ever had one or two minor problems with the VIA chipset itself, no different than Intel chipsets. The problems are with cheap (as in quality--regardless of price) motherboards. The VIA chipsets are less expensive than Intel chipsets, so the problems low-end motherboards have usually get blamed on VIA.
And to comment on VIA's quality, I personally love the VIA EPIA systems. They're great for business desktops. Low power consumption, quiet, and I've never had any problems with them.
I think they only meant that a proprietary driver is less than ideal, not that the driver was worse than the available GPL'd drivers; otherwise, why would they be using nVidia's?
Everyone knows nVidia's drivers are technically superior to any GPL driver out there. However, the main complaint--as I understand it--is that you (obviously) can't debug the kernel when you're running proprietary drivers. This means you won't be able to troubleshoot any kernel-level problems when using the nVidia drivers.
For most people this isn't an issue at all. For others, it's just an annoyance. And for a few, it means they can't use nVidia's drivers.
Any way you look at it, it'd be better if they could release open source drivers. However, for many reasons, they couldn't even if they wanted to.
Some people bitch because it's inconvenient (or too difficult) to download the drivers and install them manually, some complain because they don't understand the issues and want everything to be open source, and then there's the (far less vocal) majority--the rest of us who are just happy to have great 3D hardware with great drivers under Linux.
This is much more likely than the possibility that some wealthy country would offer some mid - high level MS exec a bundle of money to dump something into the Windows source which is basically unaudited.
But still much less likely than a wealthy country offering some cracker a bundle of money to find a hole in whatever proprietary software you're using and create an exploit that includes a keylogger.
Not to mention that in this situation you're reliant on the developer of the proprietary software to provide a fix in a timely manner. Assuming they're still in business and still supporting the software you're using.
Okay, but why? In '98, I had an inexpensive 4X CD Burner ($200, IIRC)
Well, that 'inexpensive' CD Burner probably cost you at least $400 if you got it even near the end of '98. CDW Dec. 1998 It wasn't until close to 2000 that they got under $200 I remember I spent over $250 on my first burner, (4x Plextor) in late '99.
and 56K modems were old news already. Believe it or not--for those of us who weren't living in a large city--in '98, 56K was still the fastest we could connect.
I remember staying after school my senior year (98) in high school to use the "fast" connection to download Linux isos at ~50KBps and burn them on the "fast" 2x burner they just got in the computer lab.
in the 486 days ISA was practically gone As long as by "practically gone" you mean "the standard". Hell, even my Pentium systems had more ISA ports than PCI, most didn't even have a PCI device installed. It wasn't until the P2 that PCI cards started becoming the standard.
I'm sure you know a PCMCIA card sticks out of the side of the unit; so you're stuck taking it out and putting it back in all the time or you end up breaking them. If you use it anywhere near as much as I do--taking it everywhere I go as well as carrying it all over the house--you know how important an internal wifi card is.
A tank? Calling the Dell P4 laptops tanks I could understand, but a laptop just over an inch tall is hardly a "tank". Also consider that the 14" ibook is about twice the volume of the Compaq, so it is less dense than the Compaq and "feels lighter" on your lap.
The iBook is much nicer in appearance, runs OS X, has a much longer battery life, twice the memory and four times the hard drive space of most M300's, and has a built-in CDRW/DVD (have fun taking the Compaq's docking station on a trip with you to watch DVDs, or running home when you need to use your CD-RW).
So to answer your final question: Because for many people, the iBook is a better laptop.
However, if you're one of the many who don't need a CDRW/DVD in the computer, don't move around enough to be bothered by the annoyance of a PCMCIA wifi card, don't want a larger screen, don't need much ram or hard drive space, and don't care about battery life--then, sure, the Compaq is a much better choice and the extra $250 would be wasted on an iBook.
So MS is going to push the Xbox2 as a platform for gaming and computing. However, it's going to be running on PowerPC chip. Most software would require some work to be ported to WindowsPPC, which would severely limit the amount of applications available for the Xbox2.
How about you show me someone who likes getting flamed or anyone who likes reading it?
I was trying to help the OP and you "overheard". You then proceeded to "walk over and curse me out".
Anyway, I know you're still trolling, or maybe you're just an extremely arrogant and disdainful person. I'm assuming it's the former because you seem like an intelligent individual. In either case, it's not worth my time to reply further.
Slashdot Mirror
M$
:D
Ahahahahahahahahaha!
Thanks, I was the last person on slashdot who hadn't seen that link!
Everyone can finally stop posting it whenever some random idiot says M$ or Micro$oft!
Nice link.
For the people replying who may not understand:
The townspeople saying the boy is helping the town's economy are like those who say outsourcing is hurting the country's economy.
Ok, so you've got a CD and a Key, but Steam is down. Now what are you going do?
The same thing as the guy who downloaded it; not play.
It doesn't matter anyway. I'm sure after you register your CD key with your Steam account it would save the key and you could download the game if you ever need it again.
But I guess you do end up having one more shiny thing than the guy who chooses the download. And you even get to leave the house to pick it up!
How do you know your CD and Key will be around next year? If Steam is still running you're covered for as long as Steam is running.
And frankly, I trust Steam to be running much longer than I could keep a CD in good shape and not lose the key.
Not to mention last I heard everyone has to authenticate through Steam no matter how you acquire the game.
That's amazing...
I just wasted about 3 hours on that site.
Thanks, I think you just found me a replacement for slashdot on slow news days.
Damn... I thought I was safe from the RIAA, but I always seem to remember the words to music playing on the radio. And sometimes I'll even hum it later in the day!
Guess I better go turn myself in.
What's to prevent someone from redistributing an unlocked (and then patched if necessary) copy of the software?
"...a keyboard that re-aranges the keys into a layout that is physically quicker to type with and makes more sense."
Here you go:
The Dvorak Keyboard
And the best part? All current OS's support it, even if the physical keyboard is still QWERTY.
Surprisingly, it looks great at 640x480 on "Medium". As long as you aren't the type to freak out if you see an aliased line. I actually can run the game fine at 1024x768-Medium but prefered the look of my girlfriend's computer running at 640x480-Medium. So now I'm running at 640x480-High. You really don't need the high resolution because you're never shooting at anything more than a few yards away. It also helps take the edge off some of the characters, at 1024x768 you could chop down a tree with some of the corners on the models. With 640x480 the edges aren't as so prominent so I actually prefer it. :P
The lighting, bump-mapping, shadows, and effects are really what make the game great, those are what you want cranked up more than the resolution and texture detail.
Now, that said, with only 32MB of video RAM you'll probably be playing at 640x480-Low, and with the 9000 you'll probably need to disable Specular lighting and Shadows. After that you should be able to average 30fps and get a pretty good experience out of it.
"Gnome seems to want to be MacOS ten years ago, as opposed to KDE who are trying to be Windows five years ago."
So in the end, they're both really going for the same objective?
If they insist on calling it IP, why not change the acronym to mean something that portrays the situation more accurately?
Maybe it'd be better to refer to IP as "Intellectual Patterns" rather than Property?
whitemail?
"As for getting burned by the mobo manufacturer, the last Via I had was from Soyo and ran me $200."
There's your problem, you found the exception.
Soyo boards are crap, *and* expensive. I've had 3 Soyo boards personally, and known 2 friends who got Soyos. On two of mine the AGP slot went out and on the other the PS/2 ports went out. On one friend's the AGP went out, on the other's the board just stopped booting.
I've put together more systems than I can count, and every one that's used a Soyo had problems.
Now that I sit and think about it, the only motherboard I've thrown away besides a Soyo was an Abit. But I'd say that was a fluke, I know of at least 7 systems I've used Abits in that are still going strong.
I generally recommend and prefer to use Asus, Abit, or Epox. Although I did put a system together last year that I used a Soyo on, simply because it was an extra system for myself. I had enough spare parts for another system and only needed a motherboard. I found the Soyo DRAGON Platinum on clearance at compgeeks for $40 and figured that it'd be worth the risk for all the features it had, especially considering this wasn't going to be my main desktop.
Well, that's the one that the PS/2 ports went out on. It's still working, I just had to get a USB keyboard and mouse for it.
Bottom line, every computer I know of that has used a Soyo motherboard has had motherboard problems. To contrast, I've never had a problem with an Asus (I've used ~10) or Epox (used ~5), and only an occasional problem with Abit (used ~10).
Also to touch on the issue of VIA chipsets, the grandparent is right. I've only ever had one or two minor problems with the VIA chipset itself, no different than Intel chipsets. The problems are with cheap (as in quality--regardless of price) motherboards. The VIA chipsets are less expensive than Intel chipsets, so the problems low-end motherboards have usually get blamed on VIA.
And to comment on VIA's quality, I personally love the VIA EPIA systems. They're great for business desktops. Low power consumption, quiet, and I've never had any problems with them.
I think they only meant that a proprietary driver is less than ideal, not that the driver was worse than the available GPL'd drivers; otherwise, why would they be using nVidia's?
Everyone knows nVidia's drivers are technically superior to any GPL driver out there. However, the main complaint--as I understand it--is that you (obviously) can't debug the kernel when you're running proprietary drivers. This means you won't be able to troubleshoot any kernel-level problems when using the nVidia drivers.
For most people this isn't an issue at all. For others, it's just an annoyance. And for a few, it means they can't use nVidia's drivers.
Any way you look at it, it'd be better if they could release open source drivers. However, for many reasons, they couldn't even if they wanted to.
Some people bitch because it's inconvenient (or too difficult) to download the drivers and install them manually, some complain because they don't understand the issues and want everything to be open source, and then there's the (far less vocal) majority--the rest of us who are just happy to have great 3D hardware with great drivers under Linux.
It's also right there in front of you in the Nautilus preferences.
He probably gave you the gconf command so you couldn't screw it up.
And instead you'll recommend?
This is much more likely than the possibility that some wealthy country would offer some mid - high level MS exec a bundle of money to dump something into the Windows source which is basically unaudited.
But still much less likely than a wealthy country offering some cracker a bundle of money to find a hole in whatever proprietary software you're using and create an exploit that includes a keylogger.
Not to mention that in this situation you're reliant on the developer of the proprietary software to provide a fix in a timely manner. Assuming they're still in business and still supporting the software you're using.
Bit complicated. I'll stick with Java, least that way I know it'll run. Thanks anyway.
I know some people who use that same excuse as a reason to deploy Windows.
I still stand by my original comment.
Okay, but why? In '98, I had an inexpensive 4X CD Burner ($200, IIRC)
Well, that 'inexpensive' CD Burner probably cost you at least $400 if you got it even near the end of '98. CDW Dec. 1998 It wasn't until close to 2000 that they got under $200
I remember I spent over $250 on my first burner, (4x Plextor) in late '99.
and 56K modems were old news already.
Believe it or not--for those of us who weren't living in a large city--in '98, 56K was still the fastest we could connect.
I remember staying after school my senior year (98) in high school to use the "fast" connection to download Linux isos at ~50KBps and burn them on the "fast" 2x burner they just got in the computer lab.
in the 486 days ISA was practically gone
As long as by "practically gone" you mean "the standard". Hell, even my Pentium systems had more ISA ports than PCI, most didn't even have a PCI device installed. It wasn't until the P2 that PCI cards started becoming the standard.
I'm sure you know a PCMCIA card sticks out of the side of the unit; so you're stuck taking it out and putting it back in all the time or you end up breaking them. If you use it anywhere near as much as I do--taking it everywhere I go as well as carrying it all over the house--you know how important an internal wifi card is.
A tank? Calling the Dell P4 laptops tanks I could understand, but a laptop just over an inch tall is hardly a "tank". Also consider that the 14" ibook is about twice the volume of the Compaq, so it is less dense than the Compaq and "feels lighter" on your lap.
The iBook is much nicer in appearance, runs OS X, has a much longer battery life, twice the memory and four times the hard drive space of most M300's, and has a built-in CDRW/DVD (have fun taking the Compaq's docking station on a trip with you to watch DVDs, or running home when you need to use your CD-RW).
So to answer your final question: Because for many people, the iBook is a better laptop.
However, if you're one of the many who don't need a CDRW/DVD in the computer, don't move around enough to be bothered by the annoyance of a PCMCIA wifi card, don't want a larger screen, don't need much ram or hard drive space, and don't care about battery life--then, sure, the Compaq is a much better choice and the extra $250 would be wasted on an iBook.
It sounds like you might want a Zaurus.
So MS is going to push the Xbox2 as a platform for gaming and computing. However, it's going to be running on PowerPC chip. Most software would require some work to be ported to WindowsPPC, which would severely limit the amount of applications available for the Xbox2.
I guess this explains why they bought Virtual PC.
I already showed you someone who would appreciate it, me.
As for a correction that doesn't get modded into oblivion?
Compare this to this.
How about you show me someone who likes getting flamed or anyone who likes reading it?
I was trying to help the OP and you "overheard". You then proceeded to "walk over and curse me out".
Anyway, I know you're still trolling, or maybe you're just an extremely arrogant and disdainful person. I'm assuming it's the former because you seem like an intelligent individual. In either case, it's not worth my time to reply further.