While your saying seems to make sense, those that used some old 286 would have thought the same thing. I mean, how fast can you use Word Perfect 5.1?:-) There are lots of things that are missing from current 3D standards that keeps things from being photo realistic, and those things take *tons* of power.
1. First, in one of John Carmacks.plans (IIRC finger johnc@idsoftware.com), he mentioned 64bit color. Since most people can't see more than 32 bit color, it seems like a waste to use so many colors, but it helps things blend from one pixel to another and look cleaner (so I've heard)
2. Lighting. Lighting is very CPU intensive, and currently, the OpenGL spec. supports only 8 lights (IIRC, the spec says "at least 8 lights", but I don't know anyone who supports more than that. Also, those lights are all "point" lights, which eminate from one pixel, as opposed to true light, which actually lights the room from more than just a single point (especially those florscent lights that you find at work)
3. Neon Colors. Currently, it's impossible to display Neon Colors onto an RGB Screen. I don't know if it's mathematically impossible or what, but I know if you scan in a picture of your friend in his "hot-pink" pants, (besides knowning he's gay:-) ), it won't show up properly on the screen.
4. More Polygons. Remeber how impressed you were the first time you played Doom? There were all of those creepy dead soldgers impailed by some spear onto the beams in each room? When Quake 1 was released, it didn't have anything like that. Since Quake 1 was designed for a software render (IIRC), Id didn't have the CPU horsepower to put anything like that in. Hopefully, with Doom 3, we will see those impaled Marines once again:-)
5. Shading. Currently, OpenGL supports a mode called smooth shading (I'm certain direct X does, too, but I haven't used it much). It is known a "Gourad Shading", and it operates between polygons by using Anti-Alaising for it to look cleaner. There is another model called "Phong Shading", which blends colors between pixels. I've read lots of things why that can't be done, but if we have the CPU power, maybe it can look smoother
6. Textures, Bump Maps, etc. In real life, everything has unique textures feeling to it. The more textures you can use to describe an object, the more realistic it will feel.
7. Stereo. This has to be one of the coolest things that will happen someday. For those that can see stereo images (only about 10% of the population can't), when a game/demo/whatever is designed with stereo in mind, then it will draw two identical (well, really cool 3D would offset them a bit and make them look even better) scenes, which makes the scenes truely look 3D. Some video card companies have released glasses that mimic this effect, but from what I've heard it's too slow to be useful.
I think that we will always find more cool things to do with 3D hardware in the future!
Provide special additional punishments for people who use encryptionProvide special additional punishments for people who use encryption
So what this is saying, if I ssh from my Sun box at work to my Linux box at home, then I fire up my Napster/Gnutella Client and download some music I don't own, I'm (for a lack of a better way of putting it) fucked?
Since you have a score of greater than zero, I'll respond:-)
The cheat code is a pretty famous one for several Nintendo games including Contra. It goes, up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start. In Contra is gave you 30 lives, which made it easy to win that game.
Who wants to learn about the fundamentals of programming in an AP class?
That stands for advanced placement.
That's one of the funniest things between high-school and college. In high-school, AP is Advanced Placement, but in college it's Academic Probation! "Hey, Mom, I'm an AP student" usually still works, though =-)
While I don't disagree with your logic, I think that Apple may be afraid of losing sales on the PowerPC side of things. With LinuxPPC available, Apple may fear that they will lose future OS sales to one of these Unix variants. Currently, LinuxPPC runs faster than OS-X, and if LinuxPPC looks and acts like OS-X, then they could lose *lots* of OS upgrade sales
hmmmm...one point that you (or anyone else so far in this thread) haven't mentioned is the noise factor. To generate that much electricity You'll be creating lots of noise. For those of you who live in the Los Angeles Area, I encourage you to go to Griffth Park Observatory. They have a minaturized version of the Tesla Coil, and they do demonstrations on it every hour or so. It's pretty neat to watch people holding florscent lights and have them magically turn on. The reason they don't leave the display on all the time is that it is *really* loud. I wouldn't want to live anywhere near something so loud!
the proof being that there isnt a 'good' microkernel based OS around.
While this is a very subjective topic, many people would argue that the Mach Microkernel found in Next/Open Step is pretty good, and IIRC, the BeOS is pretty good Microkernel, too.
Heh, I bet even l33t j03 would say Windows 2000 is a great Microkernel!:-)
I hope I'm not responding too late to provide valueable feedback. I too have purchased 2 copies of Q3Arena (one for my Mac and one for my Linux machine). When I read John Carmack's comment above and Todd Hollenshed's comments on the Voodoo Extreme forum, it sounded to me that the biggest problem with the Linux version was the support costs.
One option that Mr. Carmack didn't use is some sort of community based support option (and I don't blame him for not bringing something like this up, it might be too hard (or too time consuming) for Id to put together or it might portray too large of an ego).
Linux users have really supported thier platform in the past, and having a game like Doom 3 on Linux would help the Linux cause (and Thank You Mr. Carmack for releasing Q3Test on the Macs & Linux *before* Win32, as it forced people that wanted to play Q3Test to experience another OS).
There are two ways they could pull something like this off. Have a special Linux section on the doom 3 website (linux.doom3.com?) and have a bulletin board system where Linux users could ask their support questions. (I'd offer to help run that board)
If Id did not like the idea of a public bulletin board system, maybe they could pick like 30-50 Linux people, give them a copy of Doom 3, and give them an email account. All linux support questions would be emailed to the whole group, and that group would be responsible for solving problems? (There are lots of problems with recruiting these people and forcing them to answer tech-support questions instead of just taking their free copy of the game)
I don't know about the rest of the Slashdot community, but I think that we should work with the companies that are working to help improve our mindshare. To Mr. Carmack (and the whole Id Software crew): I'm willing to help make Doom 3 available on alternative OS's (namely, MacOS X, Linux & *BSD)
Since you do work for Sprint - does Sprint have any plans to make these 'wireless towers' connections available to other companies that want to compete with Sprint?
I don't work for Sprint, but it's *very* unlikely that Sprint will allow other to use their "wireless towers" (or Radio Base Stations as they are more commonly known) Sprint (along with several other companies) paid lots of money a few years ago to purchase the rights to 5 or 15MHz of bandwidth in the PCS range.
They could rent out/loan the bandwidth that they purchased to others to use. It's not very likely, though, because current 2G CDMA standards for data transfer can use up to 8 CDMA "Channels" (very different from GSM channel...and I don't think 8 channel useage has ever been implemented for data connections), and in a Wireless Local Loop setup, Radio Base Stations can handle about 35-40 "channels" (IIRC) per sector depending on enviromental conditions, so in populated areas, Sprint will need all of the bandwith they can get!
The Sprint ION services run over DSL, and are starting wide rollouts in all major metropolitan cities
While this looks cool, have you contacted them about installing this on a Linux/*BSD/unixen system? They claim to have a propreitary billing program that does not on anything but Windows or Macs, and you can't get service without it. This is what they told me when I inquired about it about a month ago.
Then consider the fact that about 10,000 Mwh is unavailable due to previously scheduled maintenance of one of So. Cal. Edison's plants.
IIRC, the article mentioned that the Los Angeles area isn't being affected by the threats of the rolling blackouts (So. Cal Edison (recently renamed "Edison International"... and they got rid of that cool "power-plug" logo), is one of the primary suppliers for the LA area) I don't know if Edison International sells their excess electricity to other areas, but it doesn't sound like they are having a problem supplying their customers.
Don't ask, just do it. Buy up all the wind turbines you can and put them online - modern turbines run about 4.5 to 6.5 cents, only gas turbines are cheaper
Have you ever been to California? There aren't as many areas that get winds consistantly strong enough to power wind generators. There are areas that have wind turbines (such as Techapie (sp?--it's at the southern tip of the Sierra Nevada Mountains by Mojave)), but the wind we get off the ocean isn't as strong or consistant as the wind the Pacific Northwest gets (note, I'm saying this as a San Diegan who lived in Tacoma for a few years)
The other thing is - get rid of those WinNT and Win2K boxen! Switch to some decent boxen with good cycle usage like *nix.
Also, I read something I vaguely remember on/. before about the ability to make an exact replica of a disk image of a Macintosh over a network, very very easily. Anyone have any pointers?
A good way to do this would be to use the chooser to mount the remote hard drive you want to save the disk image to, then use the program Disk Copy that ships on all MacOS's since like 7.5 or something like that. Just follow the simple instructions, and make sure to save it to the network drive, and you're all set!
While I realize I'm feeding a troll here, I just wanted to mention to him that he could go out, pay $500 for a good reflecting telescope and point it at Jupiter. If you are able to focus it correctly, you will get an amazing (but small compared to Cassini's) images of that planet that doesn't exist! Try it, it works!:-)
From what I understand, the P4 is currently aimed at workstations and servers and not consumer PC's. Intel
won't be advertising the P4 because it isn't targeted for the average consumer.
I totally disagree. The Pentium IV does not have a SMP capable design, so the server and high-end workstation market is still being fed the P3. Also, clock cycle for clock cycle, it's slower than the P3, so it really isn't aimed at the lower-end workstation market. Right now, all it has going for it is some fancy MHz rating, which appeals to gamers and consumers that want the latest-greatest thing.
Who is providing 3G equipment? AFAIK, no one is producing 3G equipment, and at the most, they are just at the stage where they can provide 1x RTT support in controlled conditions.
Yea, 3G will be really cool, but will the Cell-Phone operators have enough money to afford it? I've heard that Cell Phone operators (like Verizon, Sprint, etc) operate on very little margins, so when people don't pay their bills, they don't make any money, and so they won't be able to afford 3G equipment...
On another note, it doesn't make sense why this article doesn't go into greater detail about the test that wasn't consistent with the possibility
of life on Mars.
While I agree with you that I want more information, it was a Washington Post article that's aimed at the masses. They may have had the info to put in there, but most of the uninformed masses don't really care why, they just want to know the results.
If Sony was smary, they would FLOOD the market with cheap PSX2s to get a HUGE installed console base. They then would be able to sell loads of games for years and years
That was Sony's plan, but IIRC, they switched the chip manufacturing process from a.18 to a.13, and there were some problems during the transition. They didn't want to pass up the Christmas season, so they released it (in limited quantities)
. Instead they're wasting the Xmas season and ensuring that game developpers will favor making PSX1 games (that both PSX and PSX2 can play) because there's not enough PSX2s out there to justify risking releasing a PSX2-only game
Most developers will tell you that it's best to get in on the ground floor when a console is released. IIRC, Sony shipped 500,000 PS2's to the USA on launch date, and several thousand each week after that. Right now there is a small selection of PS2 games, so there is little competition between developers, plus releasing a game early means sales throughout the life of the console, not just a few months. Releasing a game early in a popular console's life is very beneficial to the developer
I know IBM was working on the POP boards, and I don't know when they'll be done. Their website says that there has been a few parts-related delays. Hopefully they'll figure it out.
It seems to me that when the Russian astronauts go to Mir on their final trip, they can unhook the oxygen creating tanks, which will kill all of the fungus, because fungus can't live without air (but maybe their spores can?)
the inherent superiority of 3dfx's alpha blending and lightsourcing makes for a more visually pleasing gaming experience
I don't know if they fixed it between the Voodoo 3 and the Voodoo 5, but the V3 was horrible at Alpha shading, as it relied on the CPU to handle the alpha calculations for it. (at least in OpenGL)
ummmm...correct me if I'm wrong, but don't the republicans & democrats each have an official at *all* polling places across the country to make sure that voter fraud doesn't occur? I agree that it does occur sometimes, but I don't think it was as easy as George calling Jeb and saying "I need some more votes"
Wow! If this turns into the law, that would be a major victory for workers rights. The politicians almost have no reason to try and overturn these laws, because they are purchased by the corporations, and the people who are treated like this are not citizens, so they cannot vote them out! Way to go US Government...maybe this will start a workers rights/consumers rights movement soon!
Point 3: Can this traffic really compare to the traffic when Unreal was released???
While Unreal caused quite a stir, I don't think it did as much damage as Quake 1 did. I was a student at San Diego State University (living in the dorms), and when Quake 1 was released, it slowed down the campus network to a crawl. Quake 1 totally clogged the bandwidth (both the internal network & external T1/T3 (don't remeber which they had at the time)) and the school was forced to block all of the Quake 1 ports!
They later upgraded the networks, and everyone was happy again...
Both you & George Will brought up some good points. Do you think it would be better to try a system like this:
Elect Electorates from each congressional district (Most congressional districts are roughly the same size, though not exactly) , and then give the remaining two votes to the highest vote count in the state. I think that this would force the canidates to care about all states, while making it extremely unlikely that the popular & electoral votes are different. Also, it would break up the votes inside states, so that it wouldn't mean as much to win California (heh, since I live in CA, it would be great to see the politicians here less!:-)
Slashdot Mirror
While your saying seems to make sense, those that used some old 286 would have thought the same thing. I mean, how fast can you use Word Perfect 5.1? :-) There are lots of things that are missing from current 3D standards that keeps things from being photo realistic, and those things take *tons* of power.
.plans (IIRC finger johnc@idsoftware.com), he mentioned 64bit color. Since most people can't see more than 32 bit color, it seems like a waste to use so many colors, but it helps things blend from one pixel to another and look cleaner (so I've heard)
:-) ), it won't show up properly on the screen.
:-)
1. First, in one of John Carmacks
2. Lighting. Lighting is very CPU intensive, and currently, the OpenGL spec. supports only 8 lights (IIRC, the spec says "at least 8 lights", but I don't know anyone who supports more than that. Also, those lights are all "point" lights, which eminate from one pixel, as opposed to true light, which actually lights the room from more than just a single point (especially those florscent lights that you find at work)
3. Neon Colors. Currently, it's impossible to display Neon Colors onto an RGB Screen. I don't know if it's mathematically impossible or what, but I know if you scan in a picture of your friend in his "hot-pink" pants, (besides knowning he's gay
4. More Polygons. Remeber how impressed you were the first time you played Doom? There were all of those creepy dead soldgers impailed by some spear onto the beams in each room? When Quake 1 was released, it didn't have anything like that. Since Quake 1 was designed for a software render (IIRC), Id didn't have the CPU horsepower to put anything like that in. Hopefully, with Doom 3, we will see those impaled Marines once again
5. Shading. Currently, OpenGL supports a mode called smooth shading (I'm certain direct X does, too, but I haven't used it much). It is known a "Gourad Shading", and it operates between polygons by using Anti-Alaising for it to look cleaner. There is another model called "Phong Shading", which blends colors between pixels. I've read lots of things why that can't be done, but if we have the CPU power, maybe it can look smoother
6. Textures, Bump Maps, etc. In real life, everything has unique textures feeling to it. The more textures you can use to describe an object, the more realistic it will feel.
7. Stereo. This has to be one of the coolest things that will happen someday. For those that can see stereo images (only about 10% of the population can't), when a game/demo/whatever is designed with stereo in mind, then it will draw two identical (well, really cool 3D would offset them a bit and make them look even better) scenes, which makes the scenes truely look 3D. Some video card companies have released glasses that mimic this effect, but from what I've heard it's too slow to be useful.
I think that we will always find more cool things to do with 3D hardware in the future!
Provide special additional punishments for people who use encryptionProvide special additional punishments for people who use encryption
So what this is saying, if I ssh from my Sun box at work to my Linux box at home, then I fire up my Napster/Gnutella Client and download some music I don't own, I'm (for a lack of a better way of putting it) fucked?
Since you have a score of greater than zero, I'll respond :-)
The cheat code is a pretty famous one for several Nintendo games including Contra. It goes, up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start. In Contra is gave you 30 lives, which made it easy to win that game.
Who wants to learn about the fundamentals of programming in an AP class? That stands for advanced placement.
That's one of the funniest things between high-school and college. In high-school, AP is Advanced Placement, but in college it's Academic Probation! "Hey, Mom, I'm an AP student" usually still works, though =-)
While I don't disagree with your logic, I think that Apple may be afraid of losing sales on the PowerPC side of things. With LinuxPPC available, Apple may fear that they will lose future OS sales to one of these Unix variants. Currently, LinuxPPC runs faster than OS-X, and if LinuxPPC looks and acts like OS-X, then they could lose *lots* of OS upgrade sales
hmmmm...one point that you (or anyone else so far in this thread) haven't mentioned is the noise factor. To generate that much electricity You'll be creating lots of noise. For those of you who live in the Los Angeles Area, I encourage you to go to Griffth Park Observatory. They have a minaturized version of the Tesla Coil, and they do demonstrations on it every hour or so. It's pretty neat to watch people holding florscent lights and have them magically turn on. The reason they don't leave the display on all the time is that it is *really* loud. I wouldn't want to live anywhere near something so loud!
the proof being that there isnt a 'good' microkernel based OS around.
:-)
While this is a very subjective topic, many people would argue that the Mach Microkernel found in Next/Open Step is pretty good, and IIRC, the BeOS is pretty good Microkernel, too.
Heh, I bet even l33t j03 would say Windows 2000 is a great Microkernel!
I hope I'm not responding too late to provide valueable feedback. I too have purchased 2 copies of Q3Arena (one for my Mac and one for my Linux machine). When I read John Carmack's comment above and Todd Hollenshed's comments on the Voodoo Extreme forum, it sounded to me that the biggest problem with the Linux version was the support costs.
One option that Mr. Carmack didn't use is some sort of community based support option (and I don't blame him for not bringing something like this up, it might be too hard (or too time consuming) for Id to put together or it might portray too large of an ego).
Linux users have really supported thier platform in the past, and having a game like Doom 3 on Linux would help the Linux cause (and Thank You Mr. Carmack for releasing Q3Test on the Macs & Linux *before* Win32, as it forced people that wanted to play Q3Test to experience another OS).
There are two ways they could pull something like this off. Have a special Linux section on the doom 3 website (linux.doom3.com?) and have a bulletin board system where Linux users could ask their support questions. (I'd offer to help run that board)
If Id did not like the idea of a public bulletin board system, maybe they could pick like 30-50 Linux people, give them a copy of Doom 3, and give them an email account. All linux support questions would be emailed to the whole group, and that group would be responsible for solving problems? (There are lots of problems with recruiting these people and forcing them to answer tech-support questions instead of just taking their free copy of the game)
I don't know about the rest of the Slashdot community, but I think that we should work with the companies that are working to help improve our mindshare. To Mr. Carmack (and the whole Id Software crew): I'm willing to help make Doom 3 available on alternative OS's (namely, MacOS X, Linux & *BSD)
Since you do work for Sprint - does Sprint have any plans to make these 'wireless towers' connections available to other companies that want to compete with Sprint?
I don't work for Sprint, but it's *very* unlikely that Sprint will allow other to use their "wireless towers" (or Radio Base Stations as they are more commonly known) Sprint (along with several other companies) paid lots of money a few years ago to purchase the rights to 5 or 15MHz of bandwidth in the PCS range.
They could rent out/loan the bandwidth that they purchased to others to use. It's not very likely, though, because current 2G CDMA standards for data transfer can use up to 8 CDMA "Channels" (very different from GSM channel...and I don't think 8 channel useage has ever been implemented for data connections), and in a Wireless Local Loop setup, Radio Base Stations can handle about 35-40 "channels" (IIRC) per sector depending on enviromental conditions, so in populated areas, Sprint will need all of the bandwith they can get!
The Sprint ION services run over DSL, and are starting wide rollouts in all major metropolitan cities
While this looks cool, have you contacted them about installing this on a Linux/*BSD/unixen system? They claim to have a propreitary billing program that does not on anything but Windows or Macs, and you can't get service without it. This is what they told me when I inquired about it about a month ago.
Then consider the fact that about 10,000 Mwh is unavailable due to previously scheduled maintenance of one of So. Cal. Edison's plants.
... and they got rid of that cool "power-plug" logo), is one of the primary suppliers for the LA area) I don't know if Edison International sells their excess electricity to other areas, but it doesn't sound like they are having a problem supplying their customers.
IIRC, the article mentioned that the Los Angeles area isn't being affected by the threats of the rolling blackouts (So. Cal Edison (recently renamed "Edison International"
Don't ask, just do it. Buy up all the wind turbines you can and put them online - modern turbines run about 4.5 to 6.5 cents, only gas turbines are cheaper
Have you ever been to California? There aren't as many areas that get winds consistantly strong enough to power wind generators. There are areas that have wind turbines (such as Techapie (sp?--it's at the southern tip of the Sierra Nevada Mountains by Mojave)), but the wind we get off the ocean isn't as strong or consistant as the wind the Pacific Northwest gets (note, I'm saying this as a San Diegan who lived in Tacoma for a few years)
The other thing is - get rid of those WinNT and Win2K boxen! Switch to some decent boxen with good cycle usage like *nix.
Good point
Also, I read something I vaguely remember on /. before about the ability to make an exact replica of a disk image of a Macintosh over a network, very very easily. Anyone have any pointers?
A good way to do this would be to use the chooser to mount the remote hard drive you want to save the disk image to, then use the program Disk Copy that ships on all MacOS's since like 7.5 or something like that. Just follow the simple instructions, and make sure to save it to the network drive, and you're all set!
While I realize I'm feeding a troll here, I just wanted to mention to him that he could go out, pay $500 for a good reflecting telescope and point it at Jupiter. If you are able to focus it correctly, you will get an amazing (but small compared to Cassini's) images of that planet that doesn't exist! Try it, it works! :-)
From what I understand, the P4 is currently aimed at workstations and servers and not consumer PC's. Intel won't be advertising the P4 because it isn't targeted for the average consumer.
I totally disagree. The Pentium IV does not have a SMP capable design, so the server and high-end workstation market is still being fed the P3. Also, clock cycle for clock cycle, it's slower than the P3, so it really isn't aimed at the lower-end workstation market. Right now, all it has going for it is some fancy MHz rating, which appeals to gamers and consumers that want the latest-greatest thing.
Who is providing 3G equipment? AFAIK, no one is producing 3G equipment, and at the most, they are just at the stage where they can provide 1x RTT support in controlled conditions.
Yea, 3G will be really cool, but will the Cell-Phone operators have enough money to afford it? I've heard that Cell Phone operators (like Verizon, Sprint, etc) operate on very little margins, so when people don't pay their bills, they don't make any money, and so they won't be able to afford 3G equipment...
On another note, it doesn't make sense why this article doesn't go into greater detail about the test that wasn't consistent with the possibility of life on Mars.
While I agree with you that I want more information, it was a Washington Post article that's aimed at the masses. They may have had the info to put in there, but most of the uninformed masses don't really care why, they just want to know the results.
If Sony was smary, they would FLOOD the market with cheap PSX2s to get a HUGE installed console base. They then would be able to sell loads of games for years and years
.18 to a .13, and there were some problems during the transition. They didn't want to pass up the Christmas season, so they released it (in limited quantities)
That was Sony's plan, but IIRC, they switched the chip manufacturing process from a
. Instead they're wasting the Xmas season and ensuring that game developpers will favor making PSX1 games (that both PSX and PSX2 can play) because there's not enough PSX2s out there to justify risking releasing a PSX2-only game
Most developers will tell you that it's best to get in on the ground floor when a console is released. IIRC, Sony shipped 500,000 PS2's to the USA on launch date, and several thousand each week after that. Right now there is a small selection of PS2 games, so there is little competition between developers, plus releasing a game early means sales throughout the life of the console, not just a few months. Releasing a game early in a popular console's life is very beneficial to the developer
I know IBM was working on the POP boards, and I don't know when they'll be done. Their website says that there has been a few parts-related delays. Hopefully they'll figure it out.
p rint=1#POP
http://www.chips.ibm.com/products/powerpc/linux/?
On a side note, has anyone been able to get a journaling filesystem to work on a PowerPC linux?
It seems to me that when the Russian astronauts go to Mir on their final trip, they can unhook the oxygen creating tanks, which will kill all of the fungus, because fungus can't live without air (but maybe their spores can?)
the inherent superiority of 3dfx's alpha blending and lightsourcing makes for a more visually pleasing gaming experience
I don't know if they fixed it between the Voodoo 3 and the Voodoo 5, but the V3 was horrible at Alpha shading, as it relied on the CPU to handle the alpha calculations for it. (at least in OpenGL)
ummmm...correct me if I'm wrong, but don't the republicans & democrats each have an official at *all* polling places across the country to make sure that voter fraud doesn't occur? I agree that it does occur sometimes, but I don't think it was as easy as George calling Jeb and saying "I need some more votes"
Wow! If this turns into the law, that would be a major victory for workers rights. The politicians almost have no reason to try and overturn these laws, because they are purchased by the corporations, and the people who are treated like this are not citizens, so they cannot vote them out! Way to go US Government...maybe this will start a workers rights/consumers rights movement soon!
Point 3: Can this traffic really compare to the traffic when Unreal was released???
While Unreal caused quite a stir, I don't think it did as much damage as Quake 1 did. I was a student at San Diego State University (living in the dorms), and when Quake 1 was released, it slowed down the campus network to a crawl. Quake 1 totally clogged the bandwidth (both the internal network & external T1/T3 (don't remeber which they had at the time)) and the school was forced to block all of the Quake 1 ports!
They later upgraded the networks, and everyone was happy again...
Both you & George Will brought up some good points. Do you think it would be better to try a system like this: Elect Electorates from each congressional district (Most congressional districts are roughly the same size, though not exactly) , and then give the remaining two votes to the highest vote count in the state. I think that this would force the canidates to care about all states, while making it extremely unlikely that the popular & electoral votes are different. Also, it would break up the votes inside states, so that it wouldn't mean as much to win California (heh, since I live in CA, it would be great to see the politicians here less! :-)