As far as I can see the ethical argument comes down to 'playing god'.
Now, if you believe in an entity which you worship and fear, you can't do these 'body mods' because you would upset your God. (in most cases of 'Entity known as God'; please advise)
With a leap of thinking for the those who don't have a god; can *we* be 'God'?
Its probably not ethical or even remotely possible *yet*. But perhaps we go along the path of genetically engineering humans to be ultra low-burn systems with skin as thick as lead so they can walk around on the Martian surface with nothing more than an oxygen tank to sip from?
Its improbable, but you can grow a human in 20 or so years, terraforming a planet takes generations......
For playback of files this size, XVID cuts the mustard on the quality/compression tradeoff just as well; only everyone gets to watch it. (even with lower spec hardware)
I'll just cower in the corner know while I get flamed for even suggesting a FOSS codec 'cuts the mustard':/
All the money in the world won't be of any use if we don't create another generation of engineers and scientists. I've personally seen the look in a kid's eyes when they get up close to something enormous and meaningful. You just can't buy that.
I agree that we need projects and items which inspire the current generation to believe that will still have the ability to get out and explore. I also believe that it is the likes of daring private projects such as Scaled Composites who best serve this need.
I know that 'Space Ship One' is by no means an orbital system but what about its succesors?
Lighting bloody-great big fireworks and pointing them in the general direction of orbit is probably not the most efficient means of getting anywhere.
We need to be exploring new ideas and concepts rather that always referring to the 'good old days' of the point and pray rockets.
I agree, that as a homage to the histroy of the early space-age a Saturn V should be preserved in near-perfect viewable condition. However, if the money for preservation could alternatively be channeled back into r&d, then preserving more than one example of a complete Saturn V would be wasteful.
Demonstrators at a protest in the United Kingdom were seen running around with lengths of copper wire trailing across the ground from their trouser-legs.
If you take online multiplayer games as an example the GPU is probably only 50% of the equation.
All the prettiness is handled by the GPU but the CPU is still responsible for generating the OpenGL/DX stream and handling player (and other player) location, physics etc. A good example of this is UT2004 Onslaught which requires as much CPU as GPU power.
In case the parent post is a little confusing, Fedora Core 2 uses Xorg as the X-server and XFCE is one of the available WMs (along with the usual Gnome, KDE etc).
I'd have to agree that XFCE is a very compact, tidy and high-performance WM. Great for low-end boxes and even power-users who don't want to loose potential gaming resources to a WM:)
Its a bit hard to tell from the page whether this makes full use of the GPUs per box in the cluster like Chromium
They do also mention that it can render entirely in software over the network at 20FPS - not bad considering that each fram portion of the data has to pass across presumable 2 machines before it is passed to the display!
The main reason they don't employ this technique is that their own 'render-farms' are a known quantity; they can, with reasonable accuracy, calculate how long a given scene will take to render, whereas with public distributed computing this calculation is not possible.
There are many variables in distributed public computing such as:
*Different CPU capabilities.
*Different OS capabilities
*High/Low use Systems
*People's 'uptime'
*Users leaving the project before its completion etc.
Another risk is that another movie-house could start a production which everyone sees as 'cooler' and your entire userbase decides to up-sticks and render for them instead.
You know, it seems very true this year that the sun is never seen over the UK.
I've got several solar mini-projects on the go this year and unfortunately it is dense-overcast too often to get any good charging hours in the day.
I've already got a large 7ftx7ft panel which 'in theory' should have been able to charge my deep-cycle bank enough to keep a low-current webserver running overnight. This summer makes it look like I'm going to need a panel twice the size.
I don't really know what to suggest as its always worked 'out of the box' for me. The lag is imperceptible to us, sometimes when someone comes on channel with a bit of feedback, we sometimes hear ourselves 3/4 second later but this is due to the 'double round trip' (codec>xfer>server>xfer>codec>codec>xfer>server>xf er>codec) which can give a false impression of lag; normal trip is (codec>xfer>server>xfer>codec).
Incidentals:
Our box runs Linux 2.4.x
Our box is pretty unloaded
Our box only has a 10Mbit NIC
Our box is on the end of a 128kbs/800kbps link.
We use v2.0.20.1 of the TS server
We use the Speex 7.2 Codec
My friend was previously on Skype too but we noticed that they had ominously removed a graphic which said '100% spyware free' from their web-page and that the Skype software made a lengthy transaction with an unknown central server on a couple of occasions. We (tin-foil hats at the ready) suspected skype of sending more than just the audio in its encrypted packet stream.
When it comes to all-round (telephone-like) comms tho, you could take a look at Gnomemeeting (cross platform) - I'm quite partial to it:)
There must be *something* wrong with your setup as my server pings 2ms locally and my friend connects from Germany (to UK) at around 25-30ms.
Try using the 7.2 speex codec (good quality) as it requires less CPU and consider using a dedicated box if you typically run high priority processes on your existing one - don't forget, by the nature of TS, it can be having to encode dozens of different ways to cater for multiple clients.
All of my experience with TS is on Linux so I can't comment on whether the Windows TS server would be better or worse.
A group of my friends have a Teamspeak server set up (on my cable line) and we leave it going 24/7 so anyone can join when they like and see if anyone else is around; typically if we are not on TS, we don't wont to be bothered or can be 'knocked' by IM.
Teamspeak is more like IRC in that you can have lots of people on channel at the same time. Its really reliable too, our uptime record on a dodgey old 350Mhz SuSE box is 64days - only interrupted by a blown PSU.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd love to suggest Theora myself but with all the time in the world I still haven't got round to checking it out ;)
Bad Karma
:)
Sorry, I couldn't resist
As far as I can see the ethical argument comes down to 'playing god'.
Now, if you believe in an entity which you worship and fear, you can't do these 'body mods' because you would upset your God. (in most cases of 'Entity known as God'; please advise)
With a leap of thinking for the those who don't have a god; can *we* be 'God'?
Its probably not ethical or even remotely possible *yet*. But perhaps we go along the path of genetically engineering humans to be ultra low-burn systems with skin as thick as lead so they can walk around on the Martian surface with nothing more than an oxygen tank to sip from?
Its improbable, but you can grow a human in 20 or so years, terraforming a planet takes generations......
For playback of files this size, XVID cuts the mustard on the quality/compression tradeoff just as well; only everyone gets to watch it. (even with lower spec hardware)
:/
I'll just cower in the corner know while I get flamed for even suggesting a FOSS codec 'cuts the mustard'
Well he's right and gets it on a technicality ;)
I agree that we need projects and items which inspire the current generation to believe that will still have the ability to get out and explore. I also believe that it is the likes of daring private projects such as Scaled Composites who best serve this need.
I know that 'Space Ship One' is by no means an orbital system but what about its succesors?
Lighting bloody-great big fireworks and pointing them in the general direction of orbit is probably not the most efficient means of getting anywhere.
We need to be exploring new ideas and concepts rather that always referring to the 'good old days' of the point and pray rockets.
I agree, that as a homage to the histroy of the early space-age a Saturn V should be preserved in near-perfect viewable condition. However, if the money for preservation could alternatively be channeled back into r&d, then preserving more than one example of a complete Saturn V would be wasteful.
Well, the idea was to have a big copper plate under your shirt connecting to the earthing wire. ;)
Demonstrators at a protest in the United Kingdom were seen running around with lengths of copper wire trailing across the ground from their trouser-legs.
Conversely, the Challenger 2 MBT is one of the most heavily-armoured tanks in the world, sporting both heavy solid armour and reactive plating.
;)
However, you can apparently stop one with a bucket of sand down the air-intake
I think that we (the UK) could do with, is getting our MBTs to work properly in all conditions as well as providing fancy-pants defence systems.
If you take online multiplayer games as an example the GPU is probably only 50% of the equation.
All the prettiness is handled by the GPU but the CPU is still responsible for generating the OpenGL/DX stream and handling player (and other player) location, physics etc. A good example of this is UT2004 Onslaught which requires as much CPU as GPU power.
What they're getting at is that its designed for basic functionality like your word-process and your basic video decoding.
What this processor is probably not aimed at is high end video encoding/transcoding - 3D (openGL or DirectX) gaming or high-load server processing.
Depends how *Power* a user you are I suppose ;)
In case the parent post is a little confusing, Fedora Core 2 uses Xorg as the X-server and XFCE is one of the available WMs (along with the usual Gnome, KDE etc).
:)
I'd have to agree that XFCE is a very compact, tidy and high-performance WM. Great for low-end boxes and even power-users who don't want to loose potential gaming resources to a WM
If you read the article on slashdot properly; it tells you that ;)
Its a bit hard to tell from the page whether this makes full use of the GPUs per box in the cluster like Chromium
They do also mention that it can render entirely in software over the network at 20FPS - not bad considering that each fram portion of the data has to pass across presumable 2 machines before it is passed to the display!
Being as I DJ for pleasure I buy 100% of my music on 12" Vinyls.
;)
Greasy fingerprints can really ruin a good record
The main reason they don't employ this technique is that their own 'render-farms' are a known quantity; they can, with reasonable accuracy, calculate how long a given scene will take to render, whereas with public distributed computing this calculation is not possible.
There are many variables in distributed public computing such as:
*Different CPU capabilities.
*Different OS capabilities
*High/Low use Systems
*People's 'uptime'
*Users leaving the project before its completion etc.
Another risk is that another movie-house could start a production which everyone sees as 'cooler' and your entire userbase decides to up-sticks and render for them instead.
For added excitement:
*Armed patrols
I don't think there is any natural water-course anywhere near me :)
Luckily my little vertical wind generator works reasonably well so I might scale it up at some point. (problem being that you can hear it at night)
You know, it seems very true this year that the sun is never seen over the UK.
I've got several solar mini-projects on the go this year and unfortunately it is dense-overcast too often to get any good charging hours in the day.
I've already got a large 7ftx7ft panel which 'in theory' should have been able to charge my deep-cycle bank enough to keep a low-current webserver running overnight. This summer makes it look like I'm going to need a panel twice the size.
I don't really know what to suggest as its always worked 'out of the box' for me. The lag is imperceptible to us, sometimes when someone comes on channel with a bit of feedback, we sometimes hear ourselves 3/4 second later but this is due to the 'double round trip' (codec>xfer>server>xfer>codec>codec>xfer>server>xf er>codec) which can give a false impression of lag; normal trip is (codec>xfer>server>xfer>codec).
:)
Incidentals:
Our box runs Linux 2.4.x
Our box is pretty unloaded
Our box only has a 10Mbit NIC
Our box is on the end of a 128kbs/800kbps link.
We use v2.0.20.1 of the TS server
We use the Speex 7.2 Codec
My friend was previously on Skype too but we noticed that they had ominously removed a graphic which said '100% spyware free' from their web-page and that the Skype software made a lengthy transaction with an unknown central server on a couple of occasions. We (tin-foil hats at the ready) suspected skype of sending more than just the audio in its encrypted packet stream.
When it comes to all-round (telephone-like) comms tho, you could take a look at Gnomemeeting (cross platform) - I'm quite partial to it
There must be *something* wrong with your setup as my server pings 2ms locally and my friend connects from Germany (to UK) at around 25-30ms.
Try using the 7.2 speex codec (good quality) as it requires less CPU and consider using a dedicated box if you typically run high priority processes on your existing one - don't forget, by the nature of TS, it can be having to encode dozens of different ways to cater for multiple clients.
All of my experience with TS is on Linux so I can't comment on whether the Windows TS server would be better or worse.
Teamspeak is great!
A group of my friends have a Teamspeak server set up (on my cable line) and we leave it going 24/7 so anyone can join when they like and see if anyone else is around; typically if we are not on TS, we don't wont to be bothered or can be 'knocked' by IM.
Teamspeak is more like IRC in that you can have lots of people on channel at the same time. Its really reliable too, our uptime record on a dodgey old 350Mhz SuSE box is 64days - only interrupted by a blown PSU.
Here, here!