The only reason why I want the tablet functionality is for eBooks and eComics...otherwise, I would most likely use it in normal laptop mode. This is one of those "if I somehow find $500 that I didn't know I had, this is what I would spend it on" kind of things:-)
Not in the traditional sense, no. A mod chip is usually used to describe something that is attatched (either permanently or temporarily) to the physical board of a device. The R4 is known as a "flash cart"...it looks exactly like a regular Nintendo DS game cartridge, except there is a port on it to put a MicroSD card loaded with roms on it. There is no internal modification to the DS needed for the R4 to be used.
Read more about it here. The picture of the cart you see at the top of that article isn't an R4, but the R4 functions the same way.
...Google, please please please don't even think about offering to buy Wikimedia. I (and others that use their services) appreciate your donation, but it does make me a bit nervous...
Oh, and to answer your actual question: It's mainly because of the tablet features and indexed search:)
That's pretty much what I figured...what tablet are you running? I've considered picking up an Asus EEE T91MT for use as an internet browser/ebook and ecomic reader.
not just you, but another 13 buddies out of every 100 people
And if you go back and read my post, you will see that I mentioned 30+ people in my own circle as never having this problem. Last time I checked, 30+ is more than 13.
Learn basic stats before you go around calling BS - otherwise you look like an idiot
Learn basic reading comprehension before you go around reprimanding people - otherwise you look like an idiot.
Out of curiosity, why are you running Windows 7 on a system that doesn't handle it well? Why not put XP or some flavor of Linux on there? I know Windows 7 has a much more "tablet friendly" GUI, but there are mods you can make to XP to do the same thing...
I know a LOT of technically competent people who use Windows 7 on their gaming system (with some of them using Windows 7 on their main system, although most of us run either Hackintoshes or some flavor of Linux for our primary setup) and none of them have encountered this issue.
I'm aware that the standard "people I know" subsection isn't the same as "everyone", but we're talking 30+ people here. If this problem is big enough to affect as many people as the article claims, most of the "people I know" would have encountered this problem at one time or another...and none of them have.
For what it's worth, almost every non-tech person in my family currently uses Windows 7 as well...and again, none of them have encountered the problems mentioned in this article.
Quoted from a post I made earlier in this article:
People are either being unbelievably stupid, have only 1 gig of RAM installed, or this is FUD. Example: I'm currently running Windows 7 64 bit. On my secondary monitor, I have a bunch of system monitoring widgets... hard drive space, CPU load and temp, video card load and temp, memory usage, etc. Just last night I was playing Bioshock 2, all settings at max. Even with those widgets running, with Aqua Teen Hunger Force playing in MPC on the secondary monitor in a window, and Bioshock 2 running full bore, I was still using only 52-58% of my available 4 gigs of ram. I call BS on this article.
Here are my system specs, to back up my claims. As you can see, nothing special (copy and pasted from my [H]ard|Forum sig):
For the record, I do mail merge programming for a living and have a collection of old systems ranging from a (fully functional) TRS-80 all the way up to my current system.
If you are running a PC at 4 GHz, you are either running a Pentium 4 (in which case your technical knowledge is questionable at best) or are running a very overclocked system (in which case you would be smart enough to use something other than Windows 7 if it was causing you that much grief).
Considering your "4 GHz" claim combined with "many thousands of dollar" for your PC, I'm going to go ahead and call BS on you.
People are either being unbelievably stupid, have only 1 gig of RAM installed, or this is FUD. Example: I'm currently running Windows 7 64 bit. On my secondary monitor, I have a bunch of system monitoring widgets... hard drive space, CPU load and temp, video card load and temp, memory usage, etc. Just last night I was playing Bioshock 2, all settings at max. Even with those widgets running, with Aqua Teen Hunger Force playing in MPC on the secondary monitor in a window, and Bioshock 2 running full bore, I was still using only 52-58% of my available 4 gigs of ram. I call BS on this article.
Here are my system specs, to back up my claims. As you can see, nothing special (copy and pasted from my [H]ard|Forum sig):
If lil' ol' me can spend a few hundred dollars on enough hard drives stuffed into external enclosures the have two complete backups of all ~1.5TB of data in my system, surely a municipal government can spend a few thousand dollars to do it too.
What the hell, who runs systems that important without backups? Management teams named Shirley?
I don't really have anything in particular that I want to create, I've just always wanted to know more programming languages than HTML and the BASIC-like language on a TI-83. Thanks for the suggestion!
When you pay an expert $100 an hour, you're not paying them for the hour. You're paying them for the years of experience they have plus an hour of their time. This also dovetailed well with what a mechanic told me when I was trying to lowball him: "When you pay peanuts, all you get is monkey business."
This is very true. We used to tell the new guys at the shop that anyone can be a part swapper...but diagnosing an issue and determining the best solution (and implementing it) is a whole other ball game. I was young when I worked as an auto tech (18-22, had to quit due to injury) but I had been working on cars since I was 10. I wasn't paid to do the work, I was paid for my knowledge about how to do the work properly (being promoted to shop foreman at the age of 20 with nine techs working under me, some of them in the profession longer than I'd been alive, is proof of that.)
As you said in your post, this applies to just about every skill-based job out there.
I know a decent amount of HTML, but that's about it as far as my programming knowledge is concerned. I'm looking to get into a programming language as a hobby, with no plans to pursue it as a profession. What would you all recommend I look at? I've gotten conflicting opinions on Ruby, PHP, C#...what would you suggest (again, just as a hobby) and why? Thanks for the time.
Agreed. Government loves investing in worthless crap, how about something worth investing in for a change? Look at the billions of dollars they waste on a yearly basis. It would be interesting to see how much it would cost to set up a fiber-optic network throughout the country.
Yes yes, concerns about the government setting up that kind of network...that's why the money would just be given to the ISPs on the (very) strict condition that it is used to build the necessary infrastructure. But of course that would be "socialism", so...
...I'm going to have to side with the ISPs on this one. I think requiring them to offer high-speed internet to that many people is realistic by 2020, but at that speed? That's pushing it...
The only way to really get ISPs off their collectively slow asses is to increase competition. Too many areas of the country are stuck with only one or two choices...which isn't a choice at all.
Your whole post is awesome, but I mainly want to focus on this portion:
I think the really long-term solution is to expand off-planet, using resources elsewhere so that earth can be preserved (explicitly not a "trash the earth and go somewhere else" proposal). Getting to that point, though, will require better and more careful usage of what we do have.
I have long told people that we either leave this planet and survive or remain on this planet and kill each other...frankly, I know which one I would prefer.
True, but here in 2010 we are at a crossroads. Either we start making changes to our overall structure now and put serious effort in actively reducing the amount of pollution we generate, or we say fuck it and run the planet into the ground. If we decide to say fuck it, we will be fine for a while. Things won't get real bad for decades, possibly centuries...but it will eventually happen.
As usual, politics gets in the way...I agree that the amount of focus put on CO2 is mostly political in nature. That being said, it should still be a part of our overall strategy, though.
Because you're saying single core CPUs have now been almost phased out - and that's not quite right. They have been almost phased out of new PCs, but in terms of the overall install base of PCs, there are still a lot of single core machines out there.
Sorry, should have been more specific...I meant they have been mostly phased out of new PCs. The reason I went with 2011 as a timeline is because of how inexpensive dual cores are becomming. Hell, AMD's top-of-the-line dual core CPU can be had for just over $100, with their quad core CPU's starting at under $100. I think it's a fairly safe assumption that by the end of 2011, just about anyone who plays modern games on their PC would have at least a dual core system. But who knows, with how powerful video cards are getting nowadays (and being able to handle physics processing in hardware), CPUs are becomming less important.
Slashdot Mirror
The only reason why I want the tablet functionality is for eBooks and eComics...otherwise, I would most likely use it in normal laptop mode. This is one of those "if I somehow find $500 that I didn't know I had, this is what I would spend it on" kind of things :-)
Not in the traditional sense, no. A mod chip is usually used to describe something that is attatched (either permanently or temporarily) to the physical board of a device. The R4 is known as a "flash cart"...it looks exactly like a regular Nintendo DS game cartridge, except there is a port on it to put a MicroSD card loaded with roms on it. There is no internal modification to the DS needed for the R4 to be used.
Read more about it here. The picture of the cart you see at the top of that article isn't an R4, but the R4 functions the same way.
...Google, please please please don't even think about offering to buy Wikimedia. I (and others that use their services) appreciate your donation, but it does make me a bit nervous...
Oh, and to answer your actual question: It's mainly because of the tablet features and indexed search :)
That's pretty much what I figured...what tablet are you running? I've considered picking up an Asus EEE T91MT for use as an internet browser/ebook and ecomic reader.
Sorry about that, not my OP...I meant this post, which is in the same thread.
not just you, but another 13 buddies out of every 100 people
And if you go back and read my post, you will see that I mentioned 30+ people in my own circle as never having this problem. Last time I checked, 30+ is more than 13.
Learn basic stats before you go around calling BS - otherwise you look like an idiot
Learn basic reading comprehension before you go around reprimanding people - otherwise you look like an idiot.
I (and most of the nerds I know) are PC gamers...and none of them would use an OS that ran unstable on their hardware.
Out of curiosity, why are you running Windows 7 on a system that doesn't handle it well? Why not put XP or some flavor of Linux on there? I know Windows 7 has a much more "tablet friendly" GUI, but there are mods you can make to XP to do the same thing...
I know a LOT of technically competent people who use Windows 7 on their gaming system (with some of them using Windows 7 on their main system, although most of us run either Hackintoshes or some flavor of Linux for our primary setup) and none of them have encountered this issue.
I'm aware that the standard "people I know" subsection isn't the same as "everyone", but we're talking 30+ people here. If this problem is big enough to affect as many people as the article claims, most of the "people I know" would have encountered this problem at one time or another...and none of them have.
For what it's worth, almost every non-tech person in my family currently uses Windows 7 as well...and again, none of them have encountered the problems mentioned in this article.
I never said my system was 4 GHz...you are confusing me with the AC OP on this thread.
Quoted from a post I made earlier in this article:
People are either being unbelievably stupid, have only 1 gig of RAM installed, or this is FUD. Example: I'm currently running Windows 7 64 bit. On my secondary monitor, I have a bunch of system monitoring widgets... hard drive space, CPU load and temp, video card load and temp, memory usage, etc. Just last night I was playing Bioshock 2, all settings at max. Even with those widgets running, with Aqua Teen Hunger Force playing in MPC on the secondary monitor in a window, and Bioshock 2 running full bore, I was still using only 52-58% of my available 4 gigs of ram. I call BS on this article.
Here are my system specs, to back up my claims. As you can see, nothing special (copy and pasted from my [H]ard|Forum sig):
Display: Asus VH236H | Dell 2005FPW
Foundation: Cooler Master Storm Scout | OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w
System: Gigabyte GA-MA785GM | AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ | Corsair XMS2 4GB DDR2 800 | ATI 4850
Internal Storage: Diamondmax 21 system | WD15EADS archives
External Storage: 1.25TB in a KINGWIN DK-32U-S | WDMER1600TN
Input: Kensington 64325 Expert Mouse | Saitek Eclipse II | M-Audio Axiom 25
Audio: Logitech Z4 2.1 | Audio Technica ATH-AD700
For the record, I do mail merge programming for a living and have a collection of old systems ranging from a (fully functional) TRS-80 all the way up to my current system.
If you are running a PC at 4 GHz, you are either running a Pentium 4 (in which case your technical knowledge is questionable at best) or are running a very overclocked system (in which case you would be smart enough to use something other than Windows 7 if it was causing you that much grief).
Considering your "4 GHz" claim combined with "many thousands of dollar" for your PC, I'm going to go ahead and call BS on you.
People are either being unbelievably stupid, have only 1 gig of RAM installed, or this is FUD. Example: I'm currently running Windows 7 64 bit. On my secondary monitor, I have a bunch of system monitoring widgets... hard drive space, CPU load and temp, video card load and temp, memory usage, etc. Just last night I was playing Bioshock 2, all settings at max. Even with those widgets running, with Aqua Teen Hunger Force playing in MPC on the secondary monitor in a window, and Bioshock 2 running full bore, I was still using only 52-58% of my available 4 gigs of ram. I call BS on this article.
Here are my system specs, to back up my claims. As you can see, nothing special (copy and pasted from my [H]ard|Forum sig):
Display: Asus VH236H | Dell 2005FPW
Foundation: Cooler Master Storm Scout | OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w
System: Gigabyte GA-MA785GM | AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ | Corsair XMS2 4GB DDR2 800 | ATI 4850
Internal Storage: Diamondmax 21 system | WD15EADS archives
External Storage: 1.25TB in a KINGWIN DK-32U-S | WDMER1600TN
Input: Kensington 64325 Expert Mouse | Saitek Eclipse II | M-Audio Axiom 25
Audio: Logitech Z4 2.1 | Audio Technica ATH-AD700
...likely because someone was waiting to explicitly do it. -1 for not hitting preview before posting -_-;;
Considering this is Slashdot, how has no one explicitely pointed out that the R4 isn't a modchip?
simulated updates and broadcasts by 'GNN,' an imaginary television network 'covering' the crisis.
Gotham News Network?
If lil' ol' me can spend a few hundred dollars on enough hard drives stuffed into external enclosures the have two complete backups of all ~1.5TB of data in my system, surely a municipal government can spend a few thousand dollars to do it too.
What the hell, who runs systems that important without backups? Management teams named Shirley?
I don't really have anything in particular that I want to create, I've just always wanted to know more programming languages than HTML and the BASIC-like language on a TI-83. Thanks for the suggestion!
When you pay an expert $100 an hour, you're not paying them for the hour. You're paying them for the years of experience they have plus an hour of their time. This also dovetailed well with what a mechanic told me when I was trying to lowball him: "When you pay peanuts, all you get is monkey business."
This is very true. We used to tell the new guys at the shop that anyone can be a part swapper...but diagnosing an issue and determining the best solution (and implementing it) is a whole other ball game. I was young when I worked as an auto tech (18-22, had to quit due to injury) but I had been working on cars since I was 10. I wasn't paid to do the work, I was paid for my knowledge about how to do the work properly (being promoted to shop foreman at the age of 20 with nine techs working under me, some of them in the profession longer than I'd been alive, is proof of that.)
As you said in your post, this applies to just about every skill-based job out there.
I know a decent amount of HTML, but that's about it as far as my programming knowledge is concerned. I'm looking to get into a programming language as a hobby, with no plans to pursue it as a profession. What would you all recommend I look at? I've gotten conflicting opinions on Ruby, PHP, C#...what would you suggest (again, just as a hobby) and why? Thanks for the time.
Agreed. Government loves investing in worthless crap, how about something worth investing in for a change? Look at the billions of dollars they waste on a yearly basis. It would be interesting to see how much it would cost to set up a fiber-optic network throughout the country.
Yes yes, concerns about the government setting up that kind of network...that's why the money would just be given to the ISPs on the (very) strict condition that it is used to build the necessary infrastructure. But of course that would be "socialism", so...
...I'm going to have to side with the ISPs on this one. I think requiring them to offer high-speed internet to that many people is realistic by 2020, but at that speed? That's pushing it...
The only way to really get ISPs off their collectively slow asses is to increase competition. Too many areas of the country are stuck with only one or two choices...which isn't a choice at all.
Your whole post is awesome, but I mainly want to focus on this portion:
I think the really long-term solution is to expand off-planet, using resources elsewhere so that earth can be preserved (explicitly not a "trash the earth and go somewhere else" proposal). Getting to that point, though, will require better and more careful usage of what we do have.
I have long told people that we either leave this planet and survive or remain on this planet and kill each other...frankly, I know which one I would prefer.
True, but here in 2010 we are at a crossroads. Either we start making changes to our overall structure now and put serious effort in actively reducing the amount of pollution we generate, or we say fuck it and run the planet into the ground. If we decide to say fuck it, we will be fine for a while. Things won't get real bad for decades, possibly centuries...but it will eventually happen.
As usual, politics gets in the way...I agree that the amount of focus put on CO2 is mostly political in nature. That being said, it should still be a part of our overall strategy, though.
Because you're saying single core CPUs have now been almost phased out - and that's not quite right. They have been almost phased out of new PCs, but in terms of the overall install base of PCs, there are still a lot of single core machines out there.
Sorry, should have been more specific...I meant they have been mostly phased out of new PCs. The reason I went with 2011 as a timeline is because of how inexpensive dual cores are becomming. Hell, AMD's top-of-the-line dual core CPU can be had for just over $100, with their quad core CPU's starting at under $100. I think it's a fairly safe assumption that by the end of 2011, just about anyone who plays modern games on their PC would have at least a dual core system. But who knows, with how powerful video cards are getting nowadays (and being able to handle physics processing in hardware), CPUs are becomming less important.