Maximum PC has addressed this; they are better than some about the wall between advertising and reviews. I remember once they called some iomega product the worst tragedy ever for data storage, and two pages earlier was a full page iomega spread. Someone wrote in and asked about it, and they said the advertisers don't get to know the content of the reviews, and everyone who sends a product to them for review basically signs something that says they understand this product might get a bad review.
Anyway, as far as the "out of bounds" stuff, basically, Maximum PC says if it's a "bad product", they'll give it a 5. To get below 5, the product actually has to cause grief outside of just the frustration at how bad it is, i.e. software that corrupts your registry, or deletes your mp3s via changing them to a proprietary media format and adding DRM. Once a "home networking over powerline" product got like a 2, because not only was it's speed slower than literally 56k modem speed, but it didn't work as advertised (only on same electrical circuit, no crossing circuit breakers), AND it interrupted the flow of electricity (lights would flicker when data was being transfered.
So, basically, to get a 1-4 rating, your product has to damage existing setups, corrupt files, or include the possibility for human harm.
From what I can tell, playing an international MMO, most of my friends from UK and I guess most of the rest of western Europe seem to use MSN; but most of the Mericans seem to use AIM.
Wha'eva, I've been using aim for... about 13 years on the same screen name, now. I even remember my first, older screen name that was actually on AOL before there was a buddy list - if you wanted to check and see if someone was online, you brought up the dialog, typed in their name (spelling counts), and then typed in an "are you there?" message and sent it. Then, it would tell you whether or not they were online. We've come a long way. Although I seem to be noticing an IRC resurgence, anyone else notice this?
I think Radiohead went overboard. There is not a valid business model when you say, "Pay whatever you want". If you disagree with this conclusion than consider how you will respond when your employer or customers decide they will start paying you whatever they want to and if that's not enough for rent, too bad for you. It's no way to make a living.
You're absolutely wrong. Could not be more wronger.
Radiohead did not say "Pay whatever you want". They said "Pay whatever it's worth to you, in addition we will charge you a small service fee".
Ever seen an infomercial? IT'S ALL FREE, YOU JUST PAY SHIPPING AND HANDLING. Bullshit, the cost of the item is in the S&H. Same thing with the Radiohead album. So, in effect, what Radiohead is saying is "Our album is worth this much to us, and we're going to charge you that much, and if you feel that you want to pay more, go for it".
It's not the same thing as rent, or employment, for which both parties are under contract, not to mention, they are both SERVICES, not GOODS. It's the same thing as buying any other disposable good: If I sold T-Shirts at $4.36 each, which is my actual cost for them, and then offered you the opportunity to "pay whatever you think it's worth", that would be ok. Same thing if I sold automobiles, or pickles, or toenail clippings. All they are doing is putting the power in the hands of the consumer, not the corporation. It's the difference between "This is what you have to pay to get it" versus "How much is it worth to you?".
Agreed. I love America, but I recognize our many flaws, and am quick to point them out, in order to facilitate the making of a better America. But, come on. For starters, this is one of the few international projects that we've gotten almost completely right! Secondly, as a sys-admin, I (and many others on slashdot) will be first to tell you: "If it ain't broke, and the new model doesn't add any needed functionality, don't fix it".
I'm pretty sure this is just bitching about America because it's cool to kick the guy when he's down. If you're going to bitch about America, take a look at our foreign policy, our unilateral support for Israel on the UN security council, our plummeting currency valuation, our mixed-bag relations with China, our disappearing middle-class and rapidly-growing-richer upper class, or the state of our healthcare and education services. Leave ICANN alone.
I'd like to point everyone to this article, entitled "The World of Eve-Craft.
Disclaimer: If you check my post history, it's obvious that I am an avid EvE Online player, and even maybe fanboi.
Having said that, to be honest there are some things that EvE really, really does wrong. The 4 year paid beta test is one of them, ISK farmers are another (though that's not specific to any one MMO). Another common complaint is that many EvE players have said they tried out the game and found it wholly unapproachable in the short term, only to have an EvE old-timer correct them and say "a character 2 months old can be very effective". But the reality is that the immediate immersion and new player experience of EvE can be tedious - us old timers think nothing of training a skill for 10 days, but for a player who's been in the game for 2 weeks, that's an eternity. And there are other reasons.
This article seems to take "the idea of EvE", and apply it to "what WoW does right". What the guy says makes for an incredibly powerful game idea, and he's got a lot of really good points. What I'm hoping is that "Darkfall" IS the game that I want. I'm hoping it's the WoW world, minus the grinding and plus the risk/reward and heart-pounding PVP of EvE. "Item requires level X" completely breaks the immersive nature of a role-playing game - you should never be prevented from eating a level 50 cake because you're level 38: What, do you magically learn how to eat better cake? It's stupid. Eve does some of this, but come on - WoW does a shitload of it. Not to mention, death means that your equipment is magically transported to a graveyard with you and takes some damage? What is that about? That's not immersive! Neither is anything where something is left at A and can magically be picked up at B (EvE is pretty good about this: buy stuff in a region with low prices, spend the time to transport it, and sell it in the suburbs or the boonies for profit).
There are a lot of us in the "serious PVP MMO community" that are hoping against hope that Darkfall isn't vaporware, and that it's going to be even 50% of what we dream about.
Um, you store LN in big thermos bottles (imagine the 5 gallon inverted watercooler jugs, but make them bigger so as to accommodate a vacuum layer, and made of metal). It keeps for a while.
Plus, to industrial applications, LN is about as expensive as milk.
Actually, the more I look at the other responses to your thread that have been modded up, they really seem to be more abstract power-to-heat conversion physics-type things. That link from dell above is really what you want; it converts from "servers" into "Amps needed" and "Tonne rating on Air Conditioning unit". You can approximate based on the server models; just look them up on Dell's website to see what the configuration that comes with each server is, find one that approximates your setup, and roll with it.
--------- | iPhone | Nokia E70 Resolution: | 320x480 | 352x416 Storage: | 4 or 8 gigs (fixed). | Unlimited. The E70 can use hot-swappable 2 GB mini SD cards, so you can have as much storage as you want. Can customize ringtones with your own mp3s: | NO | YES Can record video: | NO | YES Screen turns into a smudgy piece of shit after a few minutes of use: | YES | NO Can send MMS messages: | NO | YES You have to send your phone to Apple when the battery dies and risk getting your phone lost, stolen, or damaged in transit: Yes. No. Plays MP3s: | YES | YES Holds your phone hostage to Apple for new software updates because Apple won't allow everyone to develop applications for it: | YES | NO Voice dialing: | NO | YES Can record voice: | NO | YES Instant messaging: No. Yes. Can't do fundamental tasks like copy & paste text: Yes. No. Double negative, bitches!
Yep, it's almost as if the grandparent had never heard of Dixiecrats. Southern Democrats. They all turned republican after the Civil rights movement happened, and blacks got to share water fountains with whites. LBJ said after signing the act "Well, we've lost the south for a generation". He was right.
Another thing you have to remember is that they didn't include any aftermarket cooling in their price, either. This is something I forgot to post in my other post about my upgrade I did: I also bought an $80 zalman HSF. Every review I've read in the past year of any retail box proc says that the fan is shit. It's either loud, unreliable, poor performing, or something like that.
Additional newsflash: if you can recycle some of your current hardware, it's cheaper than buying a whole new rig.
Case in point:
My old system was an aging P4 2.8 Ghz (the old, really hot model) with 1GB of DDR1 and a $500 top of the line GeForce 6800GT from 3-4 years ago.
But, it contains also a perfectly serviceable Antec Sonata case, Antec Tru-power 500W power supply, Plextor DVD burner, 120GB SATA hard drive, 1600x1200 Dell monitor, Logitec G-11 keyboard and G-5 mouse, and a decent speaker system by Boston Acoustics that's 5 years old.
So, what do I do? Ditch the P4 and it's mobo, ram, and the old video card. Spend $700 from newegg to get a Core 2 duo E6750 2.66ghz 1333fsb proc, 2GB of DDR-800, a new motherboard, and a GeForce 8800GTS. Kept the same case/power/hdd/dvd/externals. So, for $700 I now have my gaming rig for the *next* 3 years. I may have to eventually upgrade the whole kit, but not having to buy it all saves money. Shocker.
And it's giving me 120~200 FPS in CS:S, allows me to run two windowed EvE-Online clients as well as webpages, PDF files, etc simultaneously, looks great with everything on in the UT3 demo, and plays the crysis demo with settings at medium and 1600x1200/4xAA perfectly. When I turn up textures in Crysis, it goes to less than 1fps, so I suspect it's a problem in the pre-release demo, maybe something that I can't do with DX9 / WinXP.
For starters, the 21st Century Science and Technology is NOT a reputable, peer-reviewed scientific journal. It is a group of quacks. Literally, the magazine (which is not even printed anymore, copies are available now as pdf only) is a thinktank of scientists who challenge "the assumptions of modern scientific dogma, including quantum mechanics, relativity theory, biological reductionism, and the formalization and separation of mathematics from physics." (from their statement of purpose).
Furthermore, the "21st century" publication follows the line of groupthink known as the LaRouche Movement, a wacky pseudo-political group of conspiracy theorists and nutcases. Their group spews fascist, anti-semetic ideology like it's going out of style.
That alone makes your bullshit transparent, but you state that you want something other than attacks on credentials (I happen to believe that scientists stand or fall on their credentials, including past bodies of work, but whatever). So, in a nutshell, Radiometric Dating, including Carbon-14 dating and other methods such as Rubidium-strontium dating and Uranium-lead dating, is EXTREMELY accurate and accepted by all reputable scientists and peer-reviewed scientific journals.
So, if your russian scientist is the only one shouting that it's inaccurate, we must be left asking "Why does every other scientist accept it, and what is his axe to grind?".
One of the slogans for the Illinois lottery used to be "you can't win if you don't play", but I figured every time I didn't play, I won $1. Its both stupid and ironic that many of the same people bitching about taxes pay this voluntary tax!
At the astronomical odds against winning, I figure my chances of finding a winning ticket on the ground are only marginally worse than my chances of buying a winning ticket. So rather than give extra money to the government so it will be funnelled to politically connected rich people, I just watch the ground.
I play the Mega Millions every time the numbers are drawn. We have a standing office pool with 4 of us, and we play 4 numbers every time the balls are dropped, the same 4 sets of numbers each time.
What have we won? Well, one time we won $150. But aside from that, we know that the lotto money goes into the public school system. So, in effect, I'm donating $8 - $9 minus administrative fees to the school system every month.
I'm ok with that.
And on the off chance that I ever win the lotto, none of you will ever hear from my fat ass again.
1: Areas where these limitations are in effect typically have low competition anyway, due to the stranglehold the dominant company has in the area.
I lived in an apartment in Virginia once that used some ass backwards cable company based in Georgia, who didn't provide any internet access, when I was literally 400 yards from Adelphia's main regional office. There's competition almost everywhere.
Where I live now, my cable is serviced by NTC. NTC treats every customer as if they were a college student, offering student packages, absolutely craptastic cable (40 channels, but channels below 7 and above 33 are unwatchable because of snow), and they also do the (pisspoor analog) phone service and the (passable) internet service. I am not a college kid, I just live here, and I'm sick of your bullshit and your exclusivity. Suck it, NTC.
2: Getting landlords and property managers to figure out how to work out the details between different cable/satellite/phone companies will be a comedy of errors at best.
What's to work out? The end user will be the one signing up.
3: Landlords/property managers will come up with (or be told by the existing contracted company) bull such as "You're not allowed to do that because they have to run more wires through the wall" or "You can't do that because you'd have to mount an ugly satellite dish on the exterior of the building" (even if not true).
My satellite dish is on a pole in a 5 gallon bucket of concrete in the backyard of my townhouse. My apartment complex can SUCK IT. So can yours. Your apartment complex CAN NOT BY FEDERAL LAW restrict you from using a satellite dish, and the law is VERY SPECIFICALLY written in favor of the consumer (for once). See the FCC guide. Specifically:
Under the OTARD rules, an owner or a tenant has the right to install an antenna (that meets size limitations) on property that he owns or over which he has exclusive use or control. This includes single family homes, condominiums, cooperatives, townhomes, and manufactured homes. In the case of condominiums, cooperatives, and rental properties, the rules apply to "exclusive use" areas, like terraces, balconies, or patios. "Exclusive use" means an area of the property that only you and people you permit may enter and use. If the area is shared with others or accessible without your permission, it is not considered. [...] Restrictions necessary to prevent damage to leased property are permissible, as long as the restrictions are reasonable. For example, a lease restriction that forbids tenants from drilling holes through exterior walls or through the roof is likely to be permissible. An association, landlord, or local government may impose certain restrictions when safety is a concern or where a historic site is involved. An example of a safety restriction would be installing an antenna on a fire escape. Safety restrictions must be narrowly written so that they are no more burdensome than necessary to address a legitimate safety purpose.
As long as we're on the subject of laptops and linux, it'd also be nice to have good driver support for more wireless chipsets. I had to install a brand-new dell laptop with linux for a faculty member where I work, and I ran into all sorts of problems, but none as blocking as the wireless chipset. It works great in Windows (obviously), but the best I could get in Linux was to use ndiswrapper, and even then, it hard locked the kernel some of the time. There supposedly is a native linux driver for that chipset, but it came with almost no documentation. I mean, Intel, I appreciate the effort, but the README file probably should have more in it than: INSTALLATION. TO DO:Write installation instructions. USAGE: TO DO:Write usage guide.
I've just spent an hour looking on the web for information on this thing.
It would seem that it will NOT play any commercial DS roms, with very few exceptions. This is due to some weird limitation with the GnM where in order to play a rom, it needs to be able to be copied into the DS's RAM, which after loading the GnM stuff is around a measly 3.6 ~ 3.7 MB. Most DS roms are far bigger than this, even after being trimmed and compressed. The sole exception is supposedly Elf Bowling.
However, the GnM will appearantly work with a lot of SNES / NES roms, if you have the right software.
Under the Audio Home Recording Act, a levy (tax) is paid for every "digital audio recording device", and "digital audio recording media". This tax was lobbied for by the RIAA and the like, and the funds are paid into the Musical Works Fund and the Sound Recordings Fund, which are partially distributed by ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, as well as the Aliance of Artists and Recording Companies.
Few people were affected by this after the first time someone burned an Audio CD with a data CD-R as the medium and discovered it worked.
I worked at best buy on and off 1999-2001, during the rise of the consumer CD Burner. We, and I'd imagine all the other box retail electronics stores, sold 2 types of CD-R's - CD-R Data, and CD-R Music. The CD-R Data came usually in 50 packs, the Music ones in roughly 30 packs. Sometimes the Music ones were in the same packaging as the Data ones, with a spacer on the spindle. Anyway, a 30 pack of music CD-R's was slightly more expensive (per 30) than a spindle of 50 CD-R Data discs (per 50), which made them WAY more per unit (40% ish).
But, of course, people would ask "What's the difference?" or "I'm trying to burn CD's for my car", or "Will the data CD's not work in my discman?" or other questions. And the truthful answer was that the data and music CD's were identical in manufacture and function - neither was "more compatible" or "better" for any particular use. The music ones cost more because fuck you, that's why. You're a pirate, and you're stealing money from the record labels.
That went over like a ton of bricks. You can't find Music CD-R's anymore, and you haven't been able to for a while. This is a battle that the "information wants to be free" crowd has won, and it doesn't get much press time anymore.
Well, there are some fighting games that are 2d and are kinda new. Capcom vs. SNK 2 is a PS2 game that I enjoy, and it's 2d. In fact, the only time I've seen a street fighter game in 3d, it was awful.
But otherwise, I agree. To be honest, Disgaia is not really 2d, especially since you can rotate the grid for another view when positioning your people. And there are some cut sequences that are rendered in 3d.
The nintendo DS is where the 2d games are these days for sure. And Nintendo has realized what people reading this discussion will eventually agree upon: 2d games are *mostly* dead. There exists a small, but powerful and willing-to-spend-money niche, for 2d games. Nintendo knows this and is giving these niche users what they want, while at the same time liberating cash from their wallets. The system is at equilibrium.
The demo will barely run on my roommates very quick 3200+ Athlon system, here are the "official" system reqs:
[...]
Recommended System Requirements
- 2.4+ GHZ Dual Core Processor - 1 GBytes of System RAM - NVIDIA 7800GTX+ or ATI x1300+ Video Card - 8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space,
That's a low-end gaming machine these days. I just bought a new Motherboard (1066 FSB), a 2.66Ghz dual core 6750 with a 1333 FSB, 2GB of DDR2-800, and a GeForce 8800GTS for $700 off of newegg. With an aftermarket zalman quiet fan. I reused my 550 watt power supply, dvd burner, case, and SATA hard drive.
It's really not at all extreme for a modern 3d game. You gotta remember, an Athlon 3200+ is WAY old now. Wikipedia lists it's release date as
Athlon XP 3200+3 2333 MHz 512 KiB 333 MT/s 14x 1.65 V 79.2 W October 2003 AXDA3200DKV4D
The fact that a 4 year old microprocessor can barely play a not-yet-released game is not a slight against the game. It's a sign that your friend's gaming rig needs to be upgraded. Those minimum requirements fit an ancient computer, and the recommended requirements, which judging from Epic's past mean the game will run butter-smooth, are entirely reasonable. Just because the average spreadsheet reader hasn't seen fit to upgrade his computer in the past 4 years doesn't mean the rest of us have been sitting on our rears.
Slashdot Mirror
Maximum PC has addressed this; they are better than some about the wall between advertising and reviews. I remember once they called some iomega product the worst tragedy ever for data storage, and two pages earlier was a full page iomega spread. Someone wrote in and asked about it, and they said the advertisers don't get to know the content of the reviews, and everyone who sends a product to them for review basically signs something that says they understand this product might get a bad review.
Anyway, as far as the "out of bounds" stuff, basically, Maximum PC says if it's a "bad product", they'll give it a 5. To get below 5, the product actually has to cause grief outside of just the frustration at how bad it is, i.e. software that corrupts your registry, or deletes your mp3s via changing them to a proprietary media format and adding DRM. Once a "home networking over powerline" product got like a 2, because not only was it's speed slower than literally 56k modem speed, but it didn't work as advertised (only on same electrical circuit, no crossing circuit breakers), AND it interrupted the flow of electricity (lights would flicker when data was being transfered.
So, basically, to get a 1-4 rating, your product has to damage existing setups, corrupt files, or include the possibility for human harm.
~Wx
From what I can tell, playing an international MMO, most of my friends from UK and I guess most of the rest of western Europe seem to use MSN; but most of the Mericans seem to use AIM.
Wha'eva, I've been using aim for
I think Radiohead went overboard. There is not a valid business model when you say, "Pay whatever you want". If you disagree with this conclusion than consider how you will respond when your employer or customers decide they will start paying you whatever they want to and if that's not enough for rent, too bad for you. It's no way to make a living.
You're absolutely wrong. Could not be more wronger.
Radiohead did not say "Pay whatever you want". They said "Pay whatever it's worth to you, in addition we will charge you a small service fee".
Ever seen an infomercial? IT'S ALL FREE, YOU JUST PAY SHIPPING AND HANDLING. Bullshit, the cost of the item is in the S&H. Same thing with the Radiohead album. So, in effect, what Radiohead is saying is "Our album is worth this much to us, and we're going to charge you that much, and if you feel that you want to pay more, go for it".
It's not the same thing as rent, or employment, for which both parties are under contract, not to mention, they are both SERVICES, not GOODS. It's the same thing as buying any other disposable good: If I sold T-Shirts at $4.36 each, which is my actual cost for them, and then offered you the opportunity to "pay whatever you think it's worth", that would be ok. Same thing if I sold automobiles, or pickles, or toenail clippings. All they are doing is putting the power in the hands of the consumer, not the corporation. It's the difference between "This is what you have to pay to get it" versus "How much is it worth to you?".
Consumer power, folks. Not stupid. Revolutionary.
~Wx
Agreed. I love America, but I recognize our many flaws, and am quick to point them out, in order to facilitate the making of a better America. But, come on. For starters, this is one of the few international projects that we've gotten almost completely right! Secondly, as a sys-admin, I (and many others on slashdot) will be first to tell you: "If it ain't broke, and the new model doesn't add any needed functionality, don't fix it".
I'm pretty sure this is just bitching about America because it's cool to kick the guy when he's down. If you're going to bitch about America, take a look at our foreign policy, our unilateral support for Israel on the UN security council, our plummeting currency valuation, our mixed-bag relations with China, our disappearing middle-class and rapidly-growing-richer upper class, or the state of our healthcare and education services. Leave ICANN alone.
~Wx
I'd like to point everyone to this article, entitled "The World of Eve-Craft.
Disclaimer: If you check my post history, it's obvious that I am an avid EvE Online player, and even maybe fanboi.
Having said that, to be honest there are some things that EvE really, really does wrong. The 4 year paid beta test is one of them, ISK farmers are another (though that's not specific to any one MMO). Another common complaint is that many EvE players have said they tried out the game and found it wholly unapproachable in the short term, only to have an EvE old-timer correct them and say "a character 2 months old can be very effective". But the reality is that the immediate immersion and new player experience of EvE can be tedious - us old timers think nothing of training a skill for 10 days, but for a player who's been in the game for 2 weeks, that's an eternity. And there are other reasons.
This article seems to take "the idea of EvE", and apply it to "what WoW does right". What the guy says makes for an incredibly powerful game idea, and he's got a lot of really good points. What I'm hoping is that "Darkfall" IS the game that I want. I'm hoping it's the WoW world, minus the grinding and plus the risk/reward and heart-pounding PVP of EvE. "Item requires level X" completely breaks the immersive nature of a role-playing game - you should never be prevented from eating a level 50 cake because you're level 38: What, do you magically learn how to eat better cake? It's stupid. Eve does some of this, but come on - WoW does a shitload of it. Not to mention, death means that your equipment is magically transported to a graveyard with you and takes some damage? What is that about? That's not immersive! Neither is anything where something is left at A and can magically be picked up at B (EvE is pretty good about this: buy stuff in a region with low prices, spend the time to transport it, and sell it in the suburbs or the boonies for profit).
If you want to read more about darkfall, check out:
http://www.lordsofdeath.com/www/?p=12
or the wikipedia entry.
There are a lot of us in the "serious PVP MMO community" that are hoping against hope that Darkfall isn't vaporware, and that it's going to be even 50% of what we dream about.
~Wx
Technically Interstellar Kredit, but whatever. It's a play on the Icelandic Kronar, for which the international designation is also "isk".
~Wx
Um, you store LN in big thermos bottles (imagine the 5 gallon inverted watercooler jugs, but make them bigger so as to accommodate a vacuum layer, and made of metal). It keeps for a while.
Plus, to industrial applications, LN is about as expensive as milk.
Actually, the more I look at the other responses to your thread that have been modded up, they really seem to be more abstract power-to-heat conversion physics-type things. That link from dell above is really what you want; it converts from "servers" into "Amps needed" and "Tonne rating on Air Conditioning unit". You can approximate based on the server models; just look them up on Dell's website to see what the configuration that comes with each server is, find one that approximates your setup, and roll with it.
~Wx.
Chiming in with this: http://www.dell.com/html/us/products/rack_advisor/index.html.
Dell-centric, but Dell is what we use here.
It'll tell you how much power / cooling / rackspace / etc you need.
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone
An objective comparison:
I don't think it has GCC 4.2 yet. this shows gcc 4.1. I've had a few people I support asking for it; it'd be nice if a major distro came out with it.
~Wx
Yep, it's almost as if the grandparent had never heard of Dixiecrats. Southern Democrats. They all turned republican after the Civil rights movement happened, and blacks got to share water fountains with whites. LBJ said after signing the act "Well, we've lost the south for a generation". He was right.
GP can GTFO.
Is this the place to point out that as of today, Eve-Online is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux?
Not many games have officially supported all three. That's a big step.
~wx
Another thing you have to remember is that they didn't include any aftermarket cooling in their price, either. This is something I forgot to post in my other post about my upgrade I did: I also bought an $80 zalman HSF. Every review I've read in the past year of any retail box proc says that the fan is shit. It's either loud, unreliable, poor performing, or something like that.
It adds up.
Additional newsflash: if you can recycle some of your current hardware, it's cheaper than buying a whole new rig.
Case in point:
My old system was an aging P4 2.8 Ghz (the old, really hot model) with 1GB of DDR1 and a $500 top of the line GeForce 6800GT from 3-4 years ago.
But, it contains also a perfectly serviceable Antec Sonata case, Antec Tru-power 500W power supply, Plextor DVD burner, 120GB SATA hard drive, 1600x1200 Dell monitor, Logitec G-11 keyboard and G-5 mouse, and a decent speaker system by Boston Acoustics that's 5 years old.
So, what do I do? Ditch the P4 and it's mobo, ram, and the old video card. Spend $700 from newegg to get a Core 2 duo E6750 2.66ghz 1333fsb proc, 2GB of DDR-800, a new motherboard, and a GeForce 8800GTS. Kept the same case/power/hdd/dvd/externals. So, for $700 I now have my gaming rig for the *next* 3 years. I may have to eventually upgrade the whole kit, but not having to buy it all saves money. Shocker.
And it's giving me 120~200 FPS in CS:S, allows me to run two windowed EvE-Online clients as well as webpages, PDF files, etc simultaneously, looks great with everything on in the UT3 demo, and plays the crysis demo with settings at medium and 1600x1200/4xAA perfectly. When I turn up textures in Crysis, it goes to less than 1fps, so I suspect it's a problem in the pre-release demo, maybe something that I can't do with DX9 / WinXP.
~Wx
For starters, the 21st Century Science and Technology is NOT a reputable, peer-reviewed scientific journal. It is a group of quacks. Literally, the magazine (which is not even printed anymore, copies are available now as pdf only) is a thinktank of scientists who challenge "the assumptions of modern scientific dogma, including quantum mechanics, relativity theory, biological reductionism, and the formalization and separation of mathematics from physics." (from their statement of purpose).
Furthermore, the "21st century" publication follows the line of groupthink known as the LaRouche Movement, a wacky pseudo-political group of conspiracy theorists and nutcases. Their group spews fascist, anti-semetic ideology like it's going out of style.
That alone makes your bullshit transparent, but you state that you want something other than attacks on credentials (I happen to believe that scientists stand or fall on their credentials, including past bodies of work, but whatever). So, in a nutshell, Radiometric Dating, including Carbon-14 dating and other methods such as Rubidium-strontium dating and Uranium-lead dating, is EXTREMELY accurate and accepted by all reputable scientists and peer-reviewed scientific journals.
So, if your russian scientist is the only one shouting that it's inaccurate, we must be left asking "Why does every other scientist accept it, and what is his axe to grind?".
~Wx
One of the slogans for the Illinois lottery used to be "you can't win if you don't play", but I figured every time I didn't play, I won $1. Its both stupid and ironic that many of the same people bitching about taxes pay this voluntary tax!
At the astronomical odds against winning, I figure my chances of finding a winning ticket on the ground are only marginally worse than my chances of buying a winning ticket. So rather than give extra money to the government so it will be funnelled to politically connected rich people, I just watch the ground.
I play the Mega Millions every time the numbers are drawn. We have a standing office pool with 4 of us, and we play 4 numbers every time the balls are dropped, the same 4 sets of numbers each time.
What have we won? Well, one time we won $150. But aside from that, we know that the lotto money goes into the public school system. So, in effect, I'm donating $8 - $9 minus administrative fees to the school system every month.
I'm ok with that.
And on the off chance that I ever win the lotto, none of you will ever hear from my fat ass again.
~Wx
1: Areas where these limitations are in effect typically have low competition anyway, due to the stranglehold the dominant company has in the area.
I lived in an apartment in Virginia once that used some ass backwards cable company based in Georgia, who didn't provide any internet access, when I was literally 400 yards from Adelphia's main regional office. There's competition almost everywhere.
Where I live now, my cable is serviced by NTC. NTC treats every customer as if they were a college student, offering student packages, absolutely craptastic cable (40 channels, but channels below 7 and above 33 are unwatchable because of snow), and they also do the (pisspoor analog) phone service and the (passable) internet service. I am not a college kid, I just live here, and I'm sick of your bullshit and your exclusivity. Suck it, NTC.
2: Getting landlords and property managers to figure out how to work out the details between different cable/satellite/phone companies will be a comedy of errors at best.
What's to work out? The end user will be the one signing up.
3: Landlords/property managers will come up with (or be told by the existing contracted company) bull such as "You're not allowed to do that because they have to run more wires through the wall" or "You can't do that because you'd have to mount an ugly satellite dish on the exterior of the building" (even if not true).
My satellite dish is on a pole in a 5 gallon bucket of concrete in the backyard of my townhouse. My apartment complex can SUCK IT. So can yours. Your apartment complex CAN NOT BY FEDERAL LAW restrict you from using a satellite dish, and the law is VERY SPECIFICALLY written in favor of the consumer (for once). See the FCC guide. Specifically:
~Wx
As long as we're on the subject of laptops and linux, it'd also be nice to have good driver support for more wireless chipsets. I had to install a brand-new dell laptop with linux for a faculty member where I work, and I ran into all sorts of problems, but none as blocking as the wireless chipset. It works great in Windows (obviously), but the best I could get in Linux was to use ndiswrapper, and even then, it hard locked the kernel some of the time. There supposedly is a native linux driver for that chipset, but it came with almost no documentation. I mean, Intel, I appreciate the effort, but the README file probably should have more in it than: INSTALLATION. TO DO:Write installation instructions. USAGE: TO DO:Write usage guide.
So, yeah, wireless. GO.
100mbit internet for $20/month.
I've just spent an hour looking on the web for information on this thing.
It would seem that it will NOT play any commercial DS roms, with very few exceptions. This is due to some weird limitation with the GnM where in order to play a rom, it needs to be able to be copied into the DS's RAM, which after loading the GnM stuff is around a measly 3.6 ~ 3.7 MB. Most DS roms are far bigger than this, even after being trimmed and compressed. The sole exception is supposedly Elf Bowling.
However, the GnM will appearantly work with a lot of SNES / NES roms, if you have the right software.
~Wx
I sold stereo-rack CD recorders (before I moved to the computer department, I worked in audio). We used CD-R Data's in them, and it worked fine.
Under the Audio Home Recording Act, a levy (tax) is paid for every "digital audio recording device", and "digital audio recording media". This tax was lobbied for by the RIAA and the like, and the funds are paid into the Musical Works Fund and the Sound Recordings Fund, which are partially distributed by ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, as well as the Aliance of Artists and Recording Companies.
Few people were affected by this after the first time someone burned an Audio CD with a data CD-R as the medium and discovered it worked.
I worked at best buy on and off 1999-2001, during the rise of the consumer CD Burner. We, and I'd imagine all the other box retail electronics stores, sold 2 types of CD-R's - CD-R Data, and CD-R Music. The CD-R Data came usually in 50 packs, the Music ones in roughly 30 packs. Sometimes the Music ones were in the same packaging as the Data ones, with a spacer on the spindle. Anyway, a 30 pack of music CD-R's was slightly more expensive (per 30) than a spindle of 50 CD-R Data discs (per 50), which made them WAY more per unit (40% ish).
But, of course, people would ask "What's the difference?" or "I'm trying to burn CD's for my car", or "Will the data CD's not work in my discman?" or other questions. And the truthful answer was that the data and music CD's were identical in manufacture and function - neither was "more compatible" or "better" for any particular use. The music ones cost more because fuck you, that's why. You're a pirate, and you're stealing money from the record labels.
That went over like a ton of bricks. You can't find Music CD-R's anymore, and you haven't been able to for a while. This is a battle that the "information wants to be free" crowd has won, and it doesn't get much press time anymore.
~Wx
Well, there are some fighting games that are 2d and are kinda new. Capcom vs. SNK 2 is a PS2 game that I enjoy, and it's 2d. In fact, the only time I've seen a street fighter game in 3d, it was awful.
But otherwise, I agree. To be honest, Disgaia is not really 2d, especially since you can rotate the grid for another view when positioning your people. And there are some cut sequences that are rendered in 3d.
The nintendo DS is where the 2d games are these days for sure. And Nintendo has realized what people reading this discussion will eventually agree upon: 2d games are *mostly* dead. There exists a small, but powerful and willing-to-spend-money niche, for 2d games. Nintendo knows this and is giving these niche users what they want, while at the same time liberating cash from their wallets. The system is at equilibrium.
[...]
Recommended System Requirements
- 2.4+ GHZ Dual Core Processor
- 1 GBytes of System RAM
- NVIDIA 7800GTX+ or ATI x1300+ Video Card
- 8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space,
That's a low-end gaming machine these days. I just bought a new Motherboard (1066 FSB), a 2.66Ghz dual core 6750 with a 1333 FSB, 2GB of DDR2-800, and a GeForce 8800GTS for $700 off of newegg. With an aftermarket zalman quiet fan. I reused my 550 watt power supply, dvd burner, case, and SATA hard drive.
It's really not at all extreme for a modern 3d game. You gotta remember, an Athlon 3200+ is WAY old now. Wikipedia lists it's release date as The fact that a 4 year old microprocessor can barely play a not-yet-released game is not a slight against the game. It's a sign that your friend's gaming rig needs to be upgraded. Those minimum requirements fit an ancient computer, and the recommended requirements, which judging from Epic's past mean the game will run butter-smooth, are entirely reasonable. Just because the average spreadsheet reader hasn't seen fit to upgrade his computer in the past 4 years doesn't mean the rest of us have been sitting on our rears.
~wx
~Wx