Well, Taco, you're asleep at the wheel again, I see.
You know, it's not as if the tech demos, the in game footage (Rogue Squadron 2?), and the fully functional hardware sitting in the hands of developers actually *means* anything... Noooooo...
XBox might be considered vaporous. Maybe. I've heard lots of reports of games being developed, but I haven't seen any running games on it yet, while I have for the GameCube. See, vaporware usually implies that nothing exists outside of closed doors. In this case, info is out in the open, demos have been run, the bare metal is being used already. Granted, it hasn't shipped, but that's a totally different story, and one that I'd rather not deal with at the moment.
Seriously, though... you've really got to stop adding your own personal bias so forcefully to your content. Take a hint from real journalists. If you're partial, be subtle about it.
Well... not quite. Doom is one thing, Wolfenstein is another, even though both really require individual pixel access, or at least some really nice hacks.
I *know* I've seen this before on ign.com, but I can't find the link at the moment. The GBC *can* do Wolfenstein (which is considerably easier, when you think about it), so I'll go so far as to at least *hope* that the GBA can run a Doomlike, given enough work, even though it lacks a SuperFX equivalent (SNES Doom used it, IIRC).
Quake, however, is out of the question. There's a massive difference between a pseudo-3D hack and a full blown polygon rendering engine, and the GBA's 30-40 MHz CPU (again, IIRC) will not be up to snuff for that level of detail. Something like Elite, maybe. Texture mapping? High polygon counts? err... no. The only way I see it working is with vastly different level design, such as using a non-polygonal system for maps, and very low poly count models to fight against. I'll never go so far as to say it can't be done, but I'll have to say it won't be easy, and it won't be done the same way as its PDA/PC counterparts.
The Atari 2600 had GameLink which was a service that let you download games via a modem, also custom GameLink hardware. Of course, it didn't catch on as well as some hoped, but it was enough for GameLink to evolve into AOL.
Hey, as long as we're being anal retentive about video game history, let's at least add some oneupmanship!:-)
Actually, the DX was first. That was Intel's chip capable of going to protected mode (and back!) without a hitch, which was the 286's main issue problem. It also was the first to have a full 32-bit address bus.
The 386SX came out when Intel realized that the DX was too pricy. By trimming the address bus to 24 bits (16M of RAM), they would be able to release a more economical CPU, and the "cripple" of 16M wasn't that big of an issue back then.
The 486DX added in pipelining, one of Intel's first attempts at RISC-like behavior in a CISC chip. This was also the first point where Intel made an onchip FPU. The 487 was merely a DX chip that took over the functions of the pitiful 486SX chip, a crippled CPU that probably had no right to exist.
P5/P6 architecture took on multiple pipes, and that's about it.
I'd have to pretty much agree that the IA64 architecture is the first big step in a long time, but that's also because most of the other advancements were hidden. The P6 architecture pretty much contains a 64-bit RISC chip with a CISC wrapper around it, so it's much faster than the older chips internally, but forced (in hardware, no less!) to act like its older siblings.
::Sigh::
Intel... did we actually expect them to make *sense???*
It makes a lot of sense, actually... Have you looked at any piece of software recently? The linux kernel supports so much more than it used to, and don't begin to think that it didn't require testing to get there.
Same goes for most things, be it X, Mozilla, MS Windows, etc. While I refuse to make a statement regarding the quality of any of these pieces of software, they all have a lot of features that we'll rarely, if ever, use.
Same for a few obscure vi commands, random crap in MS Word, half of emacs:-), and so on.
It's just the way things work. Remember, most packages did start small. Then they got hit by the "wouldn't it be cool if?" syndrome.
They go inside the air conditioners and refrigerators, of course! You just answered it for him!
Oh... you meant AFTER they've outlived their usefulness. Well, they clearly get cleaned up and disposed of properly. Nothing to see here, continue living in your dreamland...
War on Drugs:
We haven't been putting enough money into it. Being a Democrat, expect higher taxes to fund this.
Minority Religions:
I invented Wicca. Shinto, too. Santaria was Tipper's, though.
Tax cut:
Tax cuts? Democrats? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Electoral reform:
Like hell. Do you think I want to be in for just one term?
Intellectual Property:
Well, it's all on the Internet nowadays, isn't it? I invented that, so by extension, it's all mine. Same with your question. I own it now, too.
Encryption:
...
Sure, but not on Saturdays. At least that's what Joe says.
Rising Political Protests:
You will *all* be crushed under my boot.
Asteroid Defenses:
I plan on sending GW on a collision with the first asteroid to even *look* at me the wrong way. Oh, and the ISS has a giant butterfly net for catching them. You know, just in case. I invented that, too.
The Future:
Our mission? To take over everything else. Once we all live in the United Continents of Goreland (TM), you will see the light.
Of course, I suppose you want to know where this money's *really* coming from. The lockbox, of course. And while you may think you know where the lockbox is, you really don't.
Keep in mind, an individual is very responsible with his new fragile CD-RW, or a floppy with his thesis on it.
People as a whole are idiots with this sort of thing. They'll toss the disk in with that pen that leaked just ten minutes ago, place their keys in the same place as an unprotected CD, or worse, place it in their back pocket (more for floppies than CDs of course).
The best way to do it? I don't know, but if you've already got a smart card/mag stripe card access system on campus, broaden the scope. No one messes up their access cards when it's -20 degrees and they need to get to their damned dorm room. Give them all card readers for their computers (at added cost, but hey, it's a one shot.) For off-campus access, use an X-Drive style frontend. There's got to be plenty of them by now.
Network storage bails you out in a lot of ways. One, you should already have a network in a school that large. Two, You're already backing it up if you do, possibly with a tape robot. Three, it's going to ultimately be a hell of a lot cheaper than Zip disks, CD-RWs, and to be damned sure, flash memory. Four, no more "My disk is corrupted!" errors.
Admittedly, this does present the hurdle of setting it all up, and of people thinking that they suddenly have a few gigs to keep their mp3's. But user quotas are your friend.:)
Now, if you don't mind, I'm going back to writing all of my critical data on a series of stone tablets, and then sealing them in lexan cases. Only 5 billion tablets to go...
"dditionally there would be some people who would wander aimlessly around a huge map in Half Life."
LOL!!
As if we don't wander around campus aimlessly in real life? The way I see it, if someone ended up doing that on the simulated campus, that's quite an accomplishment. That is, unless they fire a rocket into the Dean's Office...:)
It's a great game, aside from the crashing and all. I'll go out on a limb and assume that the PSX and DC versions don't have that same problem, though.
More importantly, though, do you *want* to log on to patch a console game? For me, if I'm playing a console game, I plug in the cart (or pop in the CD), hit power, and begin playing. My reflexes for it go almost as far as it being just an arcade machine without a quarter slot. I don't want to *need* to log on to play a game, unless it's designed for network gaming only, and even then, it should be transparent. What's the Indrema going to do? Check for a core dump when a game crashes? Pop up a "Please wait. Fixing game now..." screen? While it would be nice in terms of being able to fix the game, the point is that QA for console games needs to be a hell of a lot better than for PC games, and if the Indrema (and the X-Box) neglect to address this, I probably won't be buying either one. It's just pointless for me to have something that pretends to be a console by sitting near my TV, but acts like a PC by telling me to go download the latest patch.
Would have been nice to get an upgrade of Gauntlet Legends for the N64 so it wouldn't crash and freeze playing 4 players;)
So I'm *not* alone! I got that problem at one Gauntlet-fest a while back. I was ready to blame it on the RAM expansion pack, actually.
To make matters worse, I tried to play it recently, and it refused to come up at all. I don't know what happened, but it's not leaving me feeling all that happy about the game.
If Indrema has these kinds of problems, it may be even worse. At least Nintendo (and Midway, in this one case) have enough money to weather the bad PR of a game crashing like that. One little bug, and Indrema might be in more trouble than they can handle. Raptor
Had the submitter bothered to read the article, he wouldn't have mentioned the FlexBoard as an "It's been done" item. The article specifically referred to musical keyboards. In the case of a piano, or even a decent keyboard/synthesizer (yes, we used to call them that), the more force you apply to the keys, the louder the sound. This material enables that technology much more readily than anything else currently. I doubt you'll see it in many concerts anytime soon, if only due to the tactile feedback issues.
Just a word to the wise: Read the article before you *submit*, let alone post.
It's not even close to a Mac with a twist. PowerPC is IBM/Motorola architecture, based in part on IBM's POWER Architecture. IBM's the backer of Nintendo on this venture. However, it's expected that the development should be Mac friendly, as the Gecko chip should be able to handle PowerPC opcodes, although I don't know if it supports AltiVec.
Apple doesn't have any influence at all in this. It's like saying that Compaq has been working on the X-Box just because it uses an x86.
Well, if it's illegal to take the data from a database without permission from those who control it, then why don't we start placing all our work in our own databases first?
Granted, this doesn't help anyone already screwed by Contentville, but it can prevent any further damage. Then when they start placing our data in their databases and selling/distributing it, we slam *them* with a lawsuit. Since by the time this becomes an issue, there may be legal precedent (which would normally help them), they have two choices:
1) Remove the material from their database and pay damages as per the lawsuit.
2) Remove the material from their database and settle financially out of court.
Either way, they lose money, and your work is safe.
I was there on Tuesday, from the moment they let corporate passes in, and I'll have to ask at least one important question:
Did Roblimo just look at the entryway and go home?
Followed by: What brand of crack was he smoking?
As I walked in, of course I saw more wireless tech. Last year, it was Microsoft, Compaq and Bell Atlantic Mobile close to the front. This year, it was Microsoft, Gateway, and GoAmerica (at Verizon's booth, according to the handouts)
Once you bothered to look around, though, there was the oft-proclaimed Transmeta booth, with Mobile Linux-powered WebPads everywhere, and Linus (yes, *that* Linus) was even around, if only for the one day.
Redhat had a small booth again, which leads me to believe that they just don't want to shell out the bucks for the extra space. But the Linux presence was at least double to triple its level from last year.
Of course, why would Windows have to much space? Hrm... maybe it's just a result of them having more money to throw at buying floor space. Remember, you can say all you want against Microsoft products, but you cannot deny their status as a marketing juggernaut. All you had to do to escape MicrosoftLand was walk about 50 to 100 feet out. ISPs were there in force, and yes, there were a lot of hardware demonstrations, totally isolated from Windows, PalmOS, or any UNIX variant.
Maybe to someone who seems to attend Open Source/Linux trade shows, it might seem that it's all Windows, but that just proves the narrowmindedness that has pervaded the minds of the Open Source Community. Sorry to tell you guys, but we're not there yet. Windows still sells, and while the Windows GUI might be unintuitive, and the OS might be unstable (or so/. has taught me), it still is the most recognizable series of images that you'll find on a CRT/LCD. It all goes back to what one of the Toshiba droids said yesterday at the Expo: "We're not going to support this 'Crusoe' chip you're asking about, because it's not Intel, and people buy the name."
I may have slightly misquoted that, mind you, but it's the same deal. If your product doesn't rely on an Intel chip and run a Microsoft OS, Marketing will lead you to believe that it won't sell. If that fails, then you're not going to represent the product, they'll just send marketing. Mind you, that one Toshiba man (and many IBM people) had no idea what Transmeta was!
As for the wireless, you can't be surprised by that. The recent release of Bluetooth, and the prevalence of 802.11 is fueling that, and can you honestly say that you don't like the idea that you can disconnect that one extra cable when you want to? Do you really want that laptop that you were assigned to need a dongle, another network cable, and so on, when you can just plug it in once the batteries are low, and that's it? The idea is that we're trying to make portable technology more convenient. That is the future of computing, just like shrinking computers, boosting throughput, and the internet were all the proposed future at some point. Now that those goals have been realized, of course the industry is going to change their (admittedly narrow) focus onto something else.
The problem is that the bounding volumes are currently done as boxes to simplify computation. There's simply no need to speed up the current bounding box implementation. However, such "physics acceleration" might eliminate the need for bounding boxes altogether. Then we'd have more realistic games, in which a rocket that whizzes by your head really does whiz by your head, instead of detonating about 3 inches above your shoulder, and so on. Passageways may also be smaller as a result, and other aspects of VR modeling can also be handled, such as friction of the non-boxed models against their terrain. The problem is, 3d graphics engines lend themselves to hardware optimization by virtue of the OpenGL implementation (as of 1.2, at least) focusing more on the use of "popular" hardware acceleration. Unless we see a widely accepted physics modeling API for games, (OpenPL?), most of this will be somewhat pointless.
Having worked there, I'm fully aware of what they had going on when they moved gear into that building. While a decent amount of customer gear was in cabinets, a lot of the network gear, air conditioners, and line conditioners could be seen from across Center Street. Months on end, and there were no screens up, and having passed by that building on occasion since I left the company, they still didn't have the screens that you mention.
Having seen my fair share of datacenters, I can't give you any reassuring advice. 1) Exodus (NJ location) looks obscure, but lacks any decent security persence to the extent that I'd like. You just sign in to gain access, and all that they check that on is a contact list. 2) GlobalCenter (NY) uses the same system, but there, you can sign in as "Samuel L. Jackson," "Tommy Lee Jones," etc., and they let you in anyway. They don't even check.
These two also share another aspect that I dislike: Communal rack space. You can have your servers right next to those of another company, and there's no barriers at all. Makes it incredibly easy for gear to get inexplicably damaged, although it's rare that it happens.
GlobalCenter's got a decent amount of private cages available, though, and those are pretty good.
3) Level 3 (NY) has lockdown cabinets in the datacenter, decent security, and biometric identification for datacenter access. If you don't belong, or aren't escorted by someone who *does* belong, you're not getting in very easily. However, they take forever to actually get your line installed sometimes, which certainly puts a damper on your critical business setups.
4) Globix (NY) has much of the same setup as Level 3. Lockdown cabinets, biometric identification, etc., but they also have beefier physical security, and even if you *do* belong there, you still have to sign a key out if you want access. For some systems, you'd need to authenticate across no less than 4 keycard locks, 3 of which are biometric, two security guards, and a room full of NOC techs. The drawback? Their turnaround time can be dog slow as well, and they have been known to oversell well beyond their frazzled tech staff's capabilities. To make matters worse, the datacenter has windows, and you can see their gear from across the street. That's extremely discomforting.
As for key questions, I'll bypass most of the redundancy, and just recommend a tour, possibly inviting your own network engineer or a consultant to help out if you don't know all the BS from the actual details. Key things to ask about are: - Raised floors / Drop ceilings? (Key for them wiring you quickly and flood avoidance) - Conditioned power/Backup batteries/TESTED generators? - Glycol or Halon fire suppression? (Glycol is less likely to kill you if you're in the room.) To that end, ask if there's a way to halt the fire suppression if you're still in the room. I can't stress the importance of being able to get your people out before the FM-200 kicks in. - Security and surveillance? You need ID checks, sign-ins, the whole nine yards, since nothing is more critical then your information and the gear it runs on. - Network redundancy and quality. I'd focus on the redundancy more than the quality myself, since most providers do have pretty much equal bandwidth. However, if they only have one way out of the datacenter, that's going to hurt you at some point.
Those are the key points that I'd worry about. NOC competence isn't something you can always rely on with any company (I should know, I *was* one:-), so just be sure that you know your stuff well enough to get things done quickly and clearly.
Of course, Jabber clients require an extraordinary amount of support packages from GNOME just to get running. Now, far be it from me to stop anyone from using GNOME/KDE, but I've got an old machine. It handles X fine, and I can use it just perfectly for what I need it for. That doesn't include a desktop "environment," but it does include both AIM (via TiK) and ICQ.
Is it really so hard for people to write up clients that don't require a few hundred megs worth of support packages nowadays? You can open all the protocols you want, but it's not going to do any good if the guy on the other end has to upgrade *again* just to make it work, especially when he's already low on disk space.
That depends on the person. Some people will just listen to music for the sake of pumping some form of rhythm into their brain. Others do so in order to learn from it. You can't hope to really become a decent musician if you don't listen to anything other than yourself. It's pretty much accepted that most musically inclined people have been listening to almost *anything* since the day they were born. Does music have any practical value aside from producing more musicians? Maybe not. It all depends on how deeply you want to look at it.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, Taco, you're asleep at the wheel again, I see.
You know, it's not as if the tech demos, the in game footage (Rogue Squadron 2?), and the fully functional hardware sitting in the hands of developers actually *means* anything... Noooooo...
XBox might be considered vaporous. Maybe. I've heard lots of reports of games being developed, but I haven't seen any running games on it yet, while I have for the GameCube. See, vaporware usually implies that nothing exists outside of closed doors. In this case, info is out in the open, demos have been run, the bare metal is being used already. Granted, it hasn't shipped, but that's a totally different story, and one that I'd rather not deal with at the moment.
Seriously, though... you've really got to stop adding your own personal bias so forcefully to your content. Take a hint from real journalists. If you're partial, be subtle about it.
Raptor
Well... not quite. Doom is one thing, Wolfenstein is another, even though both really require individual pixel access, or at least some really nice hacks.
I *know* I've seen this before on ign.com, but I can't find the link at the moment. The GBC *can* do Wolfenstein (which is considerably easier, when you think about it), so I'll go so far as to at least *hope* that the GBA can run a Doomlike, given enough work, even though it lacks a SuperFX equivalent (SNES Doom used it, IIRC).
Quake, however, is out of the question. There's a massive difference between a pseudo-3D hack and a full blown polygon rendering engine, and the GBA's 30-40 MHz CPU (again, IIRC) will not be up to snuff for that level of detail. Something like Elite, maybe. Texture mapping? High polygon counts? err... no. The only way I see it working is with vastly different level design, such as using a non-polygonal system for maps, and very low poly count models to fight against. I'll never go so far as to say it can't be done, but I'll have to say it won't be easy, and it won't be done the same way as its PDA/PC counterparts.
Raptor
Laser-gun jubblies? How'd I miss those? :)
Raptor
Actually untrue.
:-)
The Atari 2600 had GameLink which was a service that let you download games via a modem, also custom GameLink hardware. Of course, it didn't catch on as well as some hoped, but it was enough for GameLink to evolve into AOL.
Hey, as long as we're being anal retentive about video game history, let's at least add some oneupmanship!
Raptor
Actually, the DX was first. That was Intel's chip capable of going to protected mode (and back!) without a hitch, which was the 286's main issue problem. It also was the first to have a full 32-bit address bus.
The 386SX came out when Intel realized that the DX was too pricy. By trimming the address bus to 24 bits (16M of RAM), they would be able to release a more economical CPU, and the "cripple" of 16M wasn't that big of an issue back then.
The 486DX added in pipelining, one of Intel's first attempts at RISC-like behavior in a CISC chip. This was also the first point where Intel made an onchip FPU. The 487 was merely a DX chip that took over the functions of the pitiful 486SX chip, a crippled CPU that probably had no right to exist.
P5/P6 architecture took on multiple pipes, and that's about it.
I'd have to pretty much agree that the IA64 architecture is the first big step in a long time, but that's also because most of the other advancements were hidden. The P6 architecture pretty much contains a 64-bit RISC chip with a CISC wrapper around it, so it's much faster than the older chips internally, but forced (in hardware, no less!) to act like its older siblings.
::Sigh::
Intel... did we actually expect them to make *sense???*
Raptor
It makes a lot of sense, actually... Have you looked at any piece of software recently? The linux kernel supports so much more than it used to, and don't begin to think that it didn't require testing to get there. :-), and so on.
Same goes for most things, be it X, Mozilla, MS Windows, etc. While I refuse to make a statement regarding the quality of any of these pieces of software, they all have a lot of features that we'll rarely, if ever, use.
Same for a few obscure vi commands, random crap in MS Word, half of emacs
It's just the way things work. Remember, most packages did start small. Then they got hit by the "wouldn't it be cool if?" syndrome.
Raptor
I shudder to think about what would happen when those crash...
Blue Balls of Death, anyone?
Nah, I think I'll avoid Whistler.
Raptor
Thread over :-)
(Can we have this as a slashdot option? Detect references to Nazism and immediately make the thread read-only or something.)
Raptor
They go inside the air conditioners and refrigerators, of course! You just answered it for him!
Oh... you meant AFTER they've outlived their usefulness. Well, they clearly get cleaned up and disposed of properly. Nothing to see here, continue living in your dreamland...
Smart-assed remarks property of:
Raptor
War on Drugs:
We haven't been putting enough money into it. Being a Democrat, expect higher taxes to fund this.
Minority Religions:
I invented Wicca. Shinto, too. Santaria was Tipper's, though.
Tax cut:
Tax cuts? Democrats? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Electoral reform:
Like hell. Do you think I want to be in for just one term?
Intellectual Property:
Well, it's all on the Internet nowadays, isn't it? I invented that, so by extension, it's all mine. Same with your question. I own it now, too.
Encryption:
...
Sure, but not on Saturdays. At least that's what Joe says.
Rising Political Protests:
You will *all* be crushed under my boot.
Asteroid Defenses:
I plan on sending GW on a collision with the first asteroid to even *look* at me the wrong way. Oh, and the ISS has a giant butterfly net for catching them. You know, just in case. I invented that, too.
The Future:
Our mission? To take over everything else. Once we all live in the United Continents of Goreland (TM), you will see the light.
Of course, I suppose you want to know where this money's *really* coming from. The lockbox, of course. And while you may think you know where the lockbox is, you really don't.
Raptor
Keep in mind, an individual is very responsible with his new fragile CD-RW, or a floppy with his thesis on it.
:)
People as a whole are idiots with this sort of thing. They'll toss the disk in with that pen that leaked just ten minutes ago, place their keys in the same place as an unprotected CD, or worse, place it in their back pocket (more for floppies than CDs of course).
The best way to do it? I don't know, but if you've already got a smart card/mag stripe card access system on campus, broaden the scope. No one messes up their access cards when it's -20 degrees and they need to get to their damned dorm room. Give them all card readers for their computers (at added cost, but hey, it's a one shot.) For off-campus access, use an X-Drive style frontend. There's got to be plenty of them by now.
Network storage bails you out in a lot of ways. One, you should already have a network in a school that large. Two, You're already backing it up if you do, possibly with a tape robot. Three, it's going to ultimately be a hell of a lot cheaper than Zip disks, CD-RWs, and to be damned sure, flash memory. Four, no more "My disk is corrupted!" errors.
Admittedly, this does present the hurdle of setting it all up, and of people thinking that they suddenly have a few gigs to keep their mp3's. But user quotas are your friend.
Now, if you don't mind, I'm going back to writing all of my critical data on a series of stone tablets, and then sealing them in lexan cases. Only 5 billion tablets to go...
Raptor
"dditionally there would be some people who would wander aimlessly around a huge map in Half Life."
:)
LOL!!
As if we don't wander around campus aimlessly in real life? The way I see it, if someone ended up doing that on the simulated campus, that's quite an accomplishment. That is, unless they fire a rocket into the Dean's Office...
Raptor
It's a great game, aside from the crashing and all. I'll go out on a limb and assume that the PSX and DC versions don't have that same problem, though.
More importantly, though, do you *want* to log on to patch a console game? For me, if I'm playing a console game, I plug in the cart (or pop in the CD), hit power, and begin playing. My reflexes for it go almost as far as it being just an arcade machine without a quarter slot. I don't want to *need* to log on to play a game, unless it's designed for network gaming only, and even then, it should be transparent. What's the Indrema going to do? Check for a core dump when a game crashes? Pop up a "Please wait. Fixing game now..." screen? While it would be nice in terms of being able to fix the game, the point is that QA for console games needs to be a hell of a lot better than for PC games, and if the Indrema (and the X-Box) neglect to address this, I probably won't be buying either one. It's just pointless for me to have something that pretends to be a console by sitting near my TV, but acts like a PC by telling me to go download the latest patch.
Raptor
Would have been nice to get an upgrade of Gauntlet Legends for the N64 so it wouldn't crash and freeze playing 4 players ;)
So I'm *not* alone! I got that problem at one Gauntlet-fest a while back. I was ready to blame it on the RAM expansion pack, actually.
To make matters worse, I tried to play it recently, and it refused to come up at all. I don't know what happened, but it's not leaving me feeling all that happy about the game.
If Indrema has these kinds of problems, it may be even worse. At least Nintendo (and Midway, in this one case) have enough money to weather the bad PR of a game crashing like that. One little bug, and Indrema might be in more trouble than they can handle.
Raptor
Had the submitter bothered to read the article, he wouldn't have mentioned the FlexBoard as an "It's been done" item. The article specifically referred to musical keyboards. In the case of a piano, or even a decent keyboard/synthesizer (yes, we used to call them that), the more force you apply to the keys, the louder the sound. This material enables that technology much more readily than anything else currently. I doubt you'll see it in many concerts anytime soon, if only due to the tactile feedback issues.
Just a word to the wise: Read the article before you *submit*, let alone post.
Raptor
It's not even close to a Mac with a twist. PowerPC is IBM/Motorola architecture, based in part on IBM's POWER Architecture. IBM's the backer of Nintendo on this venture. However, it's expected that the development should be Mac friendly, as the Gecko chip should be able to handle PowerPC opcodes, although I don't know if it supports AltiVec.
Apple doesn't have any influence at all in this. It's like saying that Compaq has been working on the X-Box just because it uses an x86.
Raptor
Well, if it's illegal to take the data from a database without permission from those who control it, then why don't we start placing all our work in our own databases first?
Granted, this doesn't help anyone already screwed by Contentville, but it can prevent any further damage. Then when they start placing our data in their databases and selling/distributing it, we slam *them* with a lawsuit. Since by the time this becomes an issue, there may be legal precedent (which would normally help them), they have two choices:
1) Remove the material from their database and pay damages as per the lawsuit.
2) Remove the material from their database and settle financially out of court.
Either way, they lose money, and your work is safe.
Raptor
Whoa... never knew that the little birdies could pull *that* off. I mean, how do they hold the tools to even build the case?
Raptor
He's Signal 10 now as well.
i gnal+10
http://slashdot.org/users.pl?op=userinfo&nick=S
Same Karma, new Siggy?
Raptor
I was there on Tuesday, from the moment they let corporate passes in, and I'll have to ask at least one important question:
/. has taught me), it still is the most recognizable series of images that you'll find on a CRT/LCD.
Did Roblimo just look at the entryway and go home?
Followed by:
What brand of crack was he smoking?
As I walked in, of course I saw more wireless tech. Last year, it was Microsoft, Compaq and Bell Atlantic Mobile close to the front. This year, it was Microsoft, Gateway, and GoAmerica (at Verizon's booth, according to the handouts)
Once you bothered to look around, though, there was the oft-proclaimed Transmeta booth, with Mobile Linux-powered WebPads everywhere, and Linus (yes, *that* Linus) was even around, if only for the one day.
Redhat had a small booth again, which leads me to believe that they just don't want to shell out the bucks for the extra space. But the Linux presence was at least double to triple its level from last year.
Of course, why would Windows have to much space? Hrm... maybe it's just a result of them having more money to throw at buying floor space. Remember, you can say all you want against Microsoft products, but you cannot deny their status as a marketing juggernaut. All you had to do to escape MicrosoftLand was walk about 50 to 100 feet out. ISPs were there in force, and yes, there were a lot of hardware demonstrations, totally isolated from Windows, PalmOS, or any UNIX variant.
Maybe to someone who seems to attend Open Source/Linux trade shows, it might seem that it's all Windows, but that just proves the narrowmindedness that has pervaded the minds of the Open Source Community. Sorry to tell you guys, but we're not there yet. Windows still sells, and while the Windows GUI might be unintuitive, and the OS might be unstable (or so
It all goes back to what one of the Toshiba droids said yesterday at the Expo:
"We're not going to support this 'Crusoe' chip you're asking about, because it's not Intel, and people buy the name."
I may have slightly misquoted that, mind you, but it's the same deal. If your product doesn't rely on an Intel chip and run a Microsoft OS, Marketing will lead you to believe that it won't sell. If that fails, then you're not going to represent the product, they'll just send marketing. Mind you, that one Toshiba man (and many IBM people) had no idea what Transmeta was!
As for the wireless, you can't be surprised by that. The recent release of Bluetooth, and the prevalence of 802.11 is fueling that, and can you honestly say that you don't like the idea that you can disconnect that one extra cable when you want to? Do you really want that laptop that you were assigned to need a dongle, another network cable, and so on, when you can just plug it in once the batteries are low, and that's it? The idea is that we're trying to make portable technology more convenient. That is the future of computing, just like shrinking computers, boosting throughput, and the internet were all the proposed future at some point. Now that those goals have been realized, of course the industry is going to change their (admittedly narrow) focus onto something else.
Raptor
The problem is that the bounding volumes are currently done as boxes to simplify computation. There's simply no need to speed up the current bounding box implementation. However, such "physics acceleration" might eliminate the need for bounding boxes altogether. Then we'd have more realistic games, in which a rocket that whizzes by your head really does whiz by your head, instead of detonating about 3 inches above your shoulder, and so on. Passageways may also be smaller as a result, and other aspects of VR modeling can also be handled, such as friction of the non-boxed models against their terrain.
The problem is, 3d graphics engines lend themselves to hardware optimization by virtue of the OpenGL implementation (as of 1.2, at least) focusing more on the use of "popular" hardware acceleration. Unless we see a widely accepted physics modeling API for games, (OpenPL?), most of this will be somewhat pointless.
Raptor
Having worked there, I'm fully aware of what they had going on when they moved gear into that building. While a decent amount of customer gear was in cabinets, a lot of the network gear, air conditioners, and line conditioners could be seen from across Center Street. Months on end, and there were no screens up, and having passed by that building on occasion since I left the company, they still didn't have the screens that you mention.
Raptor
Having seen my fair share of datacenters, I can't give you any reassuring advice.
:-), so just be sure that you know your stuff well enough to get things done quickly and clearly.
1) Exodus (NJ location) looks obscure, but lacks any decent security persence to the extent that I'd like. You just sign in to gain access, and all that they check that on is a contact list.
2) GlobalCenter (NY) uses the same system, but there, you can sign in as "Samuel L. Jackson," "Tommy Lee Jones," etc., and they let you in anyway. They don't even check.
These two also share another aspect that I dislike: Communal rack space. You can have your servers right next to those of another company, and there's no barriers at all. Makes it incredibly easy for gear to get inexplicably damaged, although it's rare that it happens.
GlobalCenter's got a decent amount of private cages available, though, and those are pretty good.
3) Level 3 (NY) has lockdown cabinets in the datacenter, decent security, and biometric identification for datacenter access. If you don't belong, or aren't escorted by someone who *does* belong, you're not getting in very easily.
However, they take forever to actually get your line installed sometimes, which certainly puts a damper on your critical business setups.
4) Globix (NY) has much of the same setup as Level 3. Lockdown cabinets, biometric identification, etc., but they also have beefier physical security, and even if you *do* belong there, you still have to sign a key out if you want access. For some systems, you'd need to authenticate across no less than 4 keycard locks, 3 of which are biometric, two security guards, and a room full of NOC techs. The drawback? Their turnaround time can be dog slow as well, and they have been known to oversell well beyond their frazzled tech staff's capabilities. To make matters worse, the datacenter has windows, and you can see their gear from across the street. That's extremely discomforting.
As for key questions, I'll bypass most of the redundancy, and just recommend a tour, possibly inviting your own network engineer or a consultant to help out if you don't know all the BS from the actual details. Key things to ask about are:
- Raised floors / Drop ceilings? (Key for them wiring you quickly and flood avoidance)
- Conditioned power/Backup batteries/TESTED generators?
- Glycol or Halon fire suppression? (Glycol is less likely to kill you if you're in the room.) To that end, ask if there's a way to halt the fire suppression if you're still in the room. I can't stress the importance of being able to get your people out before the FM-200 kicks in.
- Security and surveillance? You need ID checks, sign-ins, the whole nine yards, since nothing is more critical then your information and the gear it runs on.
- Network redundancy and quality. I'd focus on the redundancy more than the quality myself, since most providers do have pretty much equal bandwidth. However, if they only have one way out of the datacenter, that's going to hurt you at some point.
Those are the key points that I'd worry about. NOC competence isn't something you can always rely on with any company (I should know, I *was* one
Raptor
Of course, Jabber clients require an extraordinary amount of support packages from GNOME just to get running. Now, far be it from me to stop anyone from using GNOME/KDE, but I've got an old machine. It handles X fine, and I can use it just perfectly for what I need it for. That doesn't include a desktop "environment," but it does include both AIM (via TiK) and ICQ.
Is it really so hard for people to write up clients that don't require a few hundred megs worth of support packages nowadays? You can open all the protocols you want, but it's not going to do any good if the guy on the other end has to upgrade *again* just to make it work, especially when he's already low on disk space.
Just another disgruntled old linux user...
Raptor
That depends on the person. Some people will just listen to music for the sake of pumping some form of rhythm into their brain. Others do so in order to learn from it.
You can't hope to really become a decent musician if you don't listen to anything other than yourself. It's pretty much accepted that most musically inclined people have been listening to almost *anything* since the day they were born.
Does music have any practical value aside from producing more musicians? Maybe not. It all depends on how deeply you want to look at it.
Raptor